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\    STUDIA 


THE  LIBRARY 

of 
VICTORIA  UNIVERSITY 

Toronto 


THE  SHAKESPEARE  LIBRARY. 
GENERAL  EDITOR  PROFESSOR 
I.  GOLLANCZ,  LITT.D. 


THE  SHAKSPERE  ALLUSION- 
BOOK:  A  COLLECTION  OF 
ALLUSIONS  TO  SHAKSPERE 
FROM  1591  TO  1700.  VOL.  I. 

ORIGINALLY  COMPILED  BY  C.  M.  INGLEBY, 
MISS  L.  TOULMIN  SMITH,  AND  BY  DR.  F.  J. 
FURNIVALL,  WITH  THE  ASSISTANCE  OF  THE 
NEW  SHAKSPERE  SOCIETY:  AND  NOW  RE- 
EDITED,  REVISED,  AND  RE-ARRANGED,  WITH 
AN  INTRODUCTION,  BY  JOHN  MUNRO 


LONDON  :  CHATTO   Gf   WINDUS 

DUFFIELD   &?   COMPANY  :  NEW 

YORK  :  PUBLISHERS  :  MCMIX 


PR 


1  51 


ngkts  restrved. 


To 
FREDERICK  JAMES  FURNIVALL,  M.A.,  PH.D.,  D.LiTT., 

WHO    HAS   GIVEN    HIS    LIFE   TO   THE 

FURTHERANCE  OF  ENGLISH  SCHOLARSHIP, 

THESE  VOLUMES, 

WHICH    OWE    SO    MUCH    TO    HIM, 

ARE   GRATEFULLY   DEDICATED. 


Vli 


PREFACE 

THESE  volumes  were  not  made  in  a  day.  Thirty  years  have 
passed  in  their  compilation,  and  the  thousands  of  books  from 
which  their  contents  have  been  drawn  stretch  over  three  hundred 
years.  Many  willing  hands,  too,  have  lerit  assistance.  Antiquaries, 
scholars,  and  friendly  readers,  have  all  most  kindly  helped. 

Clement  Mansfield  Ingleby,  Miss  Lucy  Toulmin  Smith,  and 
Dr.  Furnivall,  who  have  been  the  great  workers  in  this  matter, 
were  assisted  by  the  members  of  the  New  Shakspere  Society. 
Many  of  the  allusions  were  discovered  by  Halliwell-Phillips,  as  the 
initials  printed  in  the  text  will  show.  Mr.  P.  A.  Lyons,  Dr. 
Brinsley  Nicholson,  Professor  Dowden,  and  Mr.  P.  A.  Daniel  also 
helped  a  great  deal.  To  the  two  latter  gentlemen,  I,  too,  have  to 
acknowledge  indebtedness.  To  Mrs.  Stopes,  Miss  Spurgeon, 
Professor  Manly  of  Chicago,  Dr.  Bradley,  Mr.  R.  B.  McKerrow, 
and  Professor  Ker,  I  am  grateful  for  references  and  advice. 
Thanks  are  no  less  given  to  all  those  who  have  been  good  enough 
to  forward  references. 

Through  all,  from  the  commencement  of  these  volumes  to  now, 
the  advice  and  practical  help  of  Dr.  Furnivall  have  been  freely 
given,  and  the  frequency  of  his  initials  throughout  our  text  testify 
to  the  splendid  way  in  which  he  has  so  ungrudgingly  laboured  in 
this,  as  in  so  many  other  departments  of  literary  work. 

In  this  edition,  the  initials  of  those  responsible  for  allusions  are 
printed  beneath  them. 

J.M. 


CONTENTS   OF  VOL.   I. 

INTRODUCTION  ...  ...  ... 

CHRONOLOGICAL  LIST  OF  SHAKSPERE  ALLUSIONS, 

1649       ...  ...  ...          •  ...  ...       ixxiii 

ALLUSIONS,    1591-1649  ...  ...  ...  i 


INTRODUCTION 

History  of  the  Allusion  Book,  p.  xi. 
a  Allusions  to  Shakspere 's  Works  giving  Dates,  p.  xvii. 
£  Allusions  to  Contemporary  Events,  p.  xix. 
7  Allusions  of  Shakspere' s  Contemporaries,  p.  xix. 

a  References  to  Works  and  Characters,  p.  xxii. 

b  Shakspere,  the  Man  and  his  Contemporaries,  p.  xxv. 

c  Borrowings  from  his  Works :  ShaksperJs  Influence  over  his 

Contemporaries,  p.  xxxiii. 
5  Allusions  of  Shakspere' s  Successors,  p.  xlvi. 

a  Allusions  to  Shakspere  himself  as  Poet  and  Playwright,  p.  xlviii. 

b  Borrowings  from  his  Works,  p.  Ixiii. 

c  References  to  Works  and  Characters,  p.  Ixiii. 

d  Alterations  of  his  Plays,  p.  Ixiv. 
€  Legends  of  Shakspere  and  his  Works,  p.  Ixvii. 

History  of  the  Allusion  Book. — Many  and  interesting  are  the 
parallels  which  might  be  drawn  in  political,  religious  and  literary 
history  between  the  Elizabethan  and  Victorian  times  ;  yet 
intellectually,  the  two  eras  are  widely  different.  In  the  latter, 
together  with  other  causes,  the  manipulation  of  natural  forces  in 
industrial  development  and  the  perfection  of  locomotion,  turned 
intellectual  activity  into  pathways  of  Science.  The  necessity  for 
absolute  accuracy  began  to  be  felt  on  all  sides.  The  Victorian  era 
is  distinguished  by  long  and  patient  research,  by  the  methodical 
classification  of  data,  and  by  the  subsequent  deduction  of  laws 
which  might  assist  in  the  pursuit  of  knowledge. 

The  influence  of  the  exact  methods  of  science  is  to  be  traced  in 
many  departments  of  intellectual  labour,  and  particularly  in  what 
one  may  call  the  higher  criticism,  whether  it  be  of  literature,  art,  or 


xii  INTRODUCTION. 

religion.  The  application  of  scientific  critical  principles  and 
research  to  Piers  Plowman,  and  the  works  of  Chaucer,  Gower, 
Lydgate,  Shakspere,  and  other  masters  in  our  literature,  has  led, 
through  revolutions  of  different  magnitudes,  to  a  wider  and  deeper 
knowledge,  and  a  truer  and  worthier  appreciation  of  the  labours  of 
our  great  literary  men.  The  advance  made  by  the  Victorian 
Shakspereans  on  all  that  had  gone  before  was  magnificent,  and  the 
advance  was  made  through  the  adoption  of  correct  principles,  and 
the  subsequent  discovery  of  laws,  whose  application  elucidated 
difficult  and  complex  problems.  Properly  speaking,  we  may 
distinguish  two  Victorian  schools,  an  earlier  and  a  later,1  the  former 
distinguished  for  its  antiquarian  illustration,  textual  emendation  and 
verbal  criticism  (and,  unhappily,  for  deviations  in  the  shape  of 
forgeries),  and  the  latter  for  its  exposition  of  the  growth  and 
development  of  Shakspere's  art,  for  illustration  of  his  times,  and  the 
relation  of  his  work  to  that  of  his  contemporaries,  besides  the 
continuation  of  the  labours  begun  by  the  earlier  school.  Adequate 
attention  was  first  given  by  the  later  Victorians  to  the  Apocryphal 
Plays  which  less  critical  generations  had  ascribed  to  Shakspere,  and 
to  the  sources  used  by  the  dramatist ;  by  the  establishment  of  line- 
ending  tests,  a  study  of  style,  and  the  collection  of  external  evidence 
such  as  contemporary  allusions  and  entries  in  the  Stationers'  Books, 
the  chronological  sequence  of  the  poems  and  plays  was  worked  out 
with  an  approach  to  accuracy.  All  manner  of  records  and 
documents  were  brought  together  and  printed,  and  a  vast  literature 
of  Shaksperean  biography,  bibliography  and  elucidation  arose. 

Among  all  these  critical  and  historical  books  the  publications  of 
the  New  Shakspere  Society  have  a  high  place.  In  the  words  of  the 
Society's  founder,  that  indefatigable  scholar,  Dr.  Furnivall,  "  to  do 
honour  to  Shakspere,  to  make  out  the  succession  of  his  plays,  and 
thereby  the  growth  of  his  mind  and  art ;  to  promote  the  intelligent 
study  of  him,  and  to  print  texts  illustrating  his  work  and  times,  this 
New  Shakspere  Society was  founded  in  the  autumn  of  1873."  One 
of  the  most  valuable  books  published  to  effect  some  of  these 
purposes,  was  the  Centurie  of  Prayse^  a  collection  of  Shaksperean 

1  Shakespeare:  Life  and  Work,  by  F.  J.  Furnivall  and  John  Munro,  1908, 
PP-  72,  73- 


INTRODUCTION.  Xlll 

allusions,  edited  by  Dr.  C.  M.  Ingleby  and  generously  presented  by 
him  to  the  members  of  the  Society  in  1874.  A  second  edition  of 
this  book  was  presented  by  Dr.  Ingleby  in  1879,  when  Miss  L.  T. 
Smith  undertook  to  edit  it,  and  when  the  number  of  allusions  to 
Shakspere  and  his  works  grew  from  228  to  356.  Even  this,  how- 
ever, did  not  half  exhaust  the  available  allusions,  for  Dr.  Furnivall 
in  1886  came  out  with  his  Some  300  Fresh  Allusions  to  Shakspere 
from  1594  to  1694  &.T>.,  gathered  by  Members  of  the  New  Shakspere 
Society.  And  now  in  1908,  in  this  combined  edition  of  the  Centurie 
and  Fresh  Allusions,  I  have  added  some  130  new  allusions  to  the 
old  stock,  and  there  are  still  more  not  in  this  collection. 

Dr.  Ingleby's  original  idea  was  to  have  printed  only  those 
references  to  the  poet  which  occurred  within  his  lifetime,  a  scheme 
practically  identical  with  an  unaccomplished  design  of  Dr.  Grosart's, 
announced  in  1870,  for  preparing  a  Contemporary  Judgment  of 
Poets.  Ingleby's  work,  however,  gradually  grew  into  a  Centurie,  and 
was  brought  to  an  end  with  the  allusions  of  the  first  great  English 
critic,  John  Dryden,  in  1693,  it  being  resolved  that  formal  criticism 
should  be  excluded.  The  "  pre-critical  century,"  as  Ingleby  called 
the  period  his  collection  represented,  was  held  by  him  to  divide 
itself  naturally  into  four  periods  :  the  first  extending  from  the 
earliest  allusion  (1592)  to  the  poet's  death  in  1616  ;  the  second  horn. 
then  to  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  in  1642  ;  the  third  from  the 
closing  of  the  theatres  to  the  Restoration  ;  and  fat  fourth  from  the 
return  of  the  monarchy  to  the  rise  of  criticism.  Miss  L.  T.  Smith 
and  Dr.  Furnivall  abided  by  these  divisions,  but  the  latter  included 
also  Dry  den's  Prologue  to  Love  Triumphant,  1694,  thus  exceeding 
the  limit  of  1693. 

Dryden's  Essay  Of  Dramatick  Poesy  was  published  in  1668,  his 
Conquest  of  Granada,  containing  critical  remarks  on  Shakspere,  in 
1672,  his  great  Preface  to  Troilus  and  Cressida  in  1679.  Before 
then,  the  remarks  on  Shakspere  by  Margaret  Cavendish  in  1664 
show  a  good  critical  appreciation  ;  Edward  Phillips's  .Theatrum 
Poetarum,  in  1675,  much  as  it  eulogises  Shakspere,  attempts  an 
elementary  criticism  on  correct  grounds  ;  Rymer's  book  was 
published  in  1678  ;  and  even  before  any  of  these  dates,  in  1650 
English  criticism  had  taken  a  decided  step  forward  in  the  Gondibert 


XIV  INTRODUCTION. 

of  Davenant.  In  fact,  by  1693,  criticism  was  well  on  its  way,  and 
had  paid  its  tribute  to  Shakspere  :  and  even  were  it  possible  to 
exclude  the  results  of  this  critical  awakening  from  these  volumes, 
it  were  not  desirable  ;  for  in  these  days  a  history  of  Shakspere 
criticism  is  just  what  one  would  consider  valuable.  To  stop  short 
at  1693,  moreover,  is  to  suppress  valuable  evidence,— that  of  Jeremy 
Collier  and  his  supporters,  of  Congreve,  Dennis,  Gildon,  etc., — 
showing  the  effects  of  Dryden's  critical  appreciations,  the  tendencies 
of  criticism,  and  the  development  of  opinion  concerning  the  drama 
and  Shakspere.  In  order,  therefore,  to  include  this  evidence,  our 
allusions  are  extended  to  1700. 

The  divisions  which  Ingleby  made  in  his  Centurie  do  not  seem 
to  me  either  "natural"  or  necessary.  The  death  of  Shakspere, 
which  is  held  to  close  the  first  period,  made  no  immediate  difference 
to  the  poet's  position  in  literature.  When  the  "  myriad-minded  " 
Shakspere,  that  sweet  swan  of  Avon,  died,  no  contemporary  poet 
assailed  the  dull  cold  ear  of  death  with  metrical  lamentations,  and 
not  then  did  Shakspere's  posthumous  greatness  begin.  The  still 
silence  in  which  this  greatest  of  Englishmen  came  into  the  world 
is  equalled  only  by  the  silence  in  which  he  left  it  again.  We  do 
not  consider  here  the  magnificent  inscriptions  at  Stratford,  which, 
probably,  rather  indicate  local  appreciation  and  sorrow  than  the 
sorrow  of  literary  men.  In  1616  Robert  Anton  was  reproving 
immodest  women  for  going  to  see  such  base  plays  as  Antony  and 
Cleopatra;  Drummond  was  assisting  his  muse  with  borrowings 
from  A  Lover's  Complaint;  Beaumont  and  Fletcher  were  having 
a  jest  at  Hamlet  and  plagiarising  from  Hotspur  ;  and  Jonson,  in 
the  newly-acquired  greatness  of  his  laureateship,  was  censuring 
Shakspere's  faults  in  the  Prologue  of  Every  Man  in  his  Humour. 
In  the  following  year,  1617,  only  two  allusions,  and  those  by  Taylor 
the  water  poet  and  Geffray  Mynshul,  and  of  little  importance,  have 
been  discovered.  Thus,  at  the  passing  of  the  greatest  Elizabethan, 
the  muse  shed  not  one  tear.  It  is  particularly  important  to 
remember  that,  of  all  the  poets  who  had  sung  the  praises  of 
Shakspere,  and  of  all  those  who  had  plagiarised  his  works,  not 
one  was  moved  by  his  death,  which  must  have  been  known 
before  long  in  London,  to  make  any  immediate  expression  of  loss 


INTRODUCTION.  XV 

or  sorrow.1  It  seems  that  Shakspere,  in  leaving  the  London  of  his 
success  for  the  Stratford  of  his  boyhood,  passed  out  of  immediate 
notice.  A  younger  generation  of  playwrights  with  a  new  mode 
came  forward  to  take  his  place. 

But  Shakspere's  death  did  ultimately  make  a  difference,  in  so 
far  as  it  caused  the  publication  of  the  Folio  in  1623.  The  debt 
that  we  owe  to  Heminge  and  Condell,  the  port's  friends  and 
fellow-players,  is  incalculable,  for  on  the  Folio  of  1623,  as  found- 
ation, is  built  the  fair  fabric  of  Shakspere's  fame.  It  was  the 
publication  of  the  Folios  in  1623,  1632,  1664,  and  1685,  and  of  the 
poems  in  1640,  which  familiarised  men  with  Shakspere's  plays  as 
literature  and  made  Shakspere  a  great  tradition  in  poetry  and 
drama.  The  splendid  panegyrics  of  Jonson,  Holland  and  Digges 
and  the  forewords  of  Heminge  and  Condell,  must  have  intimated 
to  many  for  the  first  time  the  greatness  of  the  man  who  had  died 
seven  years  before.  If,  therefore,  we  needed  to  have  a  first  period 
at  all,  it  should  end  in  1623,  when  the  allusions  of  Shakspere's  con- 
temporaries to  his  personality  had  ended  also,  with  the  exception 
of  a  few  by  such  men  as  Jonson.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  however, 
the  allusions  group  themselves  conveniently  into  two  series,  dis- 
tinguished by  different  characteristics,  and  practically  coincident 
with  the  division  in  our  volumes,  the  first  series  ending  about  the 
middle  of  the  century  and  the  second  continuing  to  its  end. 

The  other  divisions  made  by  Ingleby  in  the  Centurie  are  roughly 
correct,  but  only  roughly.  After  the  publication  of  the  Folio  in 
1623,  the  event  of  prime  importance  in  its  effect  upon  dramatic 
taste,  and  hence  upon  the  position  of  Shakspere,  was  the  formation 
of  the  Commonwealth  in  1649.  Subsequently,  the  Restoration  in 
1660  is  the  most  considerable  event  in  its  consequences  for  the 
drama.  Yet,  in  a  subject  such  as  ours,  divisions  of  this  nature  are 
all  but  useless,  though  we  may  refer  developments,  for  their  origin, 
to  the  movements  these  dates  indicate.  It  is  easy  to  see,  more- 
over, that  some  considerable  time  would  have  to  elapse  after  such 
changes  as  the  foundation  of  the  Commonwealth  and  the  Restor- 
ation before  their  influence  on  poetic  and  dramatic  taste  would  be 

1  Taylor  in  1620  mentioned  Shakspere  as  one  of  the  great  dead,  but  there 
is  no  lament. 


XVI  INTRODUCTION. 

clearly  manifest  as  a  general  tendency ;  that  before  their  arrival 
some  indication  would  be  discernible  of  the  tendencies  their 
influence  was  to  encourage  ;  and  that,  in  a  time  so  full  of  conflict- 
ing ideas  and  opinions  as  the  greater  part  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  we  should  expect  to  find  throughout  conflict  of  judgments 
concerning  Shakspere,  though  at  different  times  different  judgments 
might  predominate.  The  first  Puritan  attack  on  the  drama  was 
not  delivered  when  Charles  the  Stuart  laid  his  head  on  the  block 
on  January  30,  1649,  nor  when  Prynne  published  his  Hislriomastix 
in  1632  and  subsequently  had  his  nose  slit ;  nor  had  the  last  gone 
by  when  Charles  II  returned  to  continue  the  mismanagement  of 
his  fathers.  Useful,  therefore,  as  divisions  are  for  marking  the 
main  causes  of  change,  they  cannot  be  held  to  group  the  effects, 
and  in  these  volumes  they  are  abolished. 

It  was  decided  in  the  old  books  of  allusions  to  exclude  the  title- 
pages  of  the  quartos  of  apocryphal  plays,  whereon  fraudulent  printers 
had,  for  the  deception  of  their  public  and  the  diversion  of  modern 
critics,  put  the  embellishment  "By  W.  S.,"  or  "W.  Sh.,"  or 
"W.  Shakespeare."  But  as  this  rascally  use  of  Shakspere's 
initials  or  name  in  recommending  a  book  not  by  him  is  as  cer- 
tainly an  allusion  to  him  as  any  passage  printed  in  these  volumes, 
and  as  it  points  most  unmistakably  to  the  high  appreciation  of 
Shakspere's  work  by  his  contemporary  readers,  I  see  no  reason  for 
the  omission,  and  therefore  include  all  the  quarto  title-pages 
concerned. 

Though  nothing  on  the  same  scale  as  Ingleby's  Centurie  had 
been  attempted  before,  yet  Garrick,  Drake  and  Malone  had  made 
smaller  collections  of  tributes  to  Shakspere.  Knight,  in  his  Shak- 
pere  Studies,  also  printed  a  selection  ;  and  Mr.  Bolton  Corney, 
Mr.  George  Dawson,  and  Dr.  Grosart,  each  had  once  a  similar 
scheme.  Latterly,  in  1904,  Mr.  C.  E.  Hughes  printed  a  volume  on 
The  Praise  of  Shakespeare,  a  collection  of  passages  on  the  great 
poet,  extending  up  to  modern  times,  with  an  able  Introduction  by 
himself  and  a  Preface  by  Mr.  Sidney  Lee.  Mr.  Hughes's  book 
owes  its  existence  to  a  controversy  conducted  by  Mr.  Sidney  Lee 
and  others  in  the  Times,  concerning  that  curious  aberration  which 
we  may  call  the  Baconian  heresy,  and  which,  like  many  other 


INTRODUCTION.  XV11 

heresies,  ancient  and  modern,  owes  much  to  the  temptation  of 
notoriety.  Mrs.  C.  C.  Stopes  in  her  Bacon-Shakspere  Question, 
1888,  printed  in  its  Chapter  IV  a  goodly  number  of  allusions  to 
Shakspere.  A  second  and  revised  edition  of  this  book  has  appeared. 
Uses  of  the  "Allusion  Book."— The  Allusion  Book  is  a  store 
of  information  on  many  subjects  connected  with  Shakspere.  Apart 
from  its  mere  interest  as  a  chronologically  arranged  series  of  refer- 
ences to  our  greatest  poet,  the  material  it  contains  may  be  divided 
into  the  following  sections,  under  which  we  shall  discuss  it : — 

a  Allusions  to  plays  which  help  us  to  fix  their  dates  of 
composition. 

6  Allusions  to  contemporary  events. 

7  The  expressions   of   Shakspere's   contemporaries   con- 

cerning him  and  his  works. 

8  The  expressions  of  Shakspere's  successors  concerning 

him  and  his  works, 
e  Legends  of  Shakspere  and  his  works. 

a.  Allusions  to  Plays  giving  Dates. — The  external  evidence 
used  by  Shakspereans  indeterminingthedatesof  the  poems  and  plays 
consists  of  the  entries  in  the  Stationers'  Registers,  the  publication 
of  the  quartos,  and  early  allusions  by  contemporaries.  The  entries 
of  Shakspere's  works  in  the  Stationers'  Registers  are  printed  from 
Arbefs  edition  in  quarto,  in  our  second  volume.  These  entries, 
which  are  to  be  considered  allusions  just  as  much  as  the  text  of  our 
volumes,  help  us  to  date  two  poems  and  eight  plays  : 

1593  before  April  1 8  Venus  and  Adonis }• 

1594  before  May  9  Lucrece? 
1598  before  February  2 5  \HenryIV? 
1600  before  August  4  As  you  Like  It.* 
1600  before  August  4  Much  Ado.6 

1602  before  July  26  Hamlet? 

1603  before  February  7      Troilus  and  Cressida.7 

1607  before  November  26  King  Lear? 

1608  before  May  20  Pericles  and  Antony  and  Cleopatra? 

1  ii.  525.  2  ii.  525.  3  ii.  526.  4  ii.  526. 

6  ii.  526.  •  ii.  527.  f  ii.  527.  3  ii.  528.  9  ii.  529. 

SH.  ALLN.  BK. — I.  b 


XV111  INTRODUCTION. 

The  entry  of  King  Lear  in  1607  mentions  the  performance  of 
the  play  on  December  26,  1606,  at  Whitehall.  Other  dates  in  the 
Stationer?  Registers  are  subsequent  to  the  generally  accepted 
dates  of  composition.  Much  Ado  is  generally  dated  1598,  or 
1599-1600.  Troilus  is  given  an  earlier  date,  1603,  as  above,  and  a 
later  one,  when  it  is  thought  to  have  been  revised,  1607. 

Contemporary  allusions  printed  in  these  volumes  help  us  to  fix 
the  dates  of  five  other  plays  : 

Romeo  and  Juliet. — Qi  of  Romeo  was  published  by  Banter  in 
1597,  but  the  early  date  of  1591  is  generally  accepted,  from  internal 
evidence,  for  the  first  draft  or  version.  Weever's  Sonnet  of  1595  1 
proves  conclusively  that,  by  that  year,  the  character  of  Romeo  was 
already  famous  and  associated  with  Shakspere. 

Julius  Ccesar. — This  play  was  first  printed  in  the  Folio,  but 
Weever  in  his  Mirror  of  Martyr s,  i6oi,2  says  : 

The  many-headed  multitude  were  drawne 
By  Brutus  speech,  that  Ccesar  was  ambitious, 
When  eloquent  Mark  Antonie  had  showne 
His  vertues,  who  but  Brutus  then  was  vicious  ? 

As  there  is  no  intimation  in  Amyot  or  North  of  Brutus's  speech 
on  Caesar's  ambition,  these  lines  must  refer  to  Shakspere's  play. 

Twelfth- Night. — This  comedy  was  first  printed  in  the  Folio.  Its 
date  is  fixed  as  1601-2  from  the  entry  of  John  Manningham  in  his 
Diary  that  the  play  was  acted  at  the  feast  of  the  barristers  of  the 
Middle  Temple  on  February  2,  i6o2.3  The  play  contains  a  part 
of  a  song  from  Robert  Jones's  Book  ofAyres,  1601. 

Winter's  Tale. — Here  again  we  have  a  play  unprinted  till  its 
appearance  in  the  Folio.  Its  date  is  fixed  at  1611,  from  Dr. 
Simon  Forman's  note  that  he  saw  it  performed  at  the  Globe  o^ 
May  1 5  of  that  year.4 

Henry  VIII. — Again  a  play  not  printed  till  the  Folio  text  of 
1623,  and  one  in  which  Shakspere's  participation  as  author  may  be 
doubted.  Its  date  is  settled  by  records  of  the  accidental  burning 
of  the  "Globe"  on  June  29,  1613,  when  Henry  VIII  was  being 
played.  See  the  Sonnet  on  the  conflagration,6  Sir  Thomas  Lorkins' 

i  i.  24.  2  i.  04.  8  i.  98.  4  i.  228.  *  i.  240. 


INTRODUCTION.  XIX 

letter  of  June  30,  I6I3,1  Sir  Henry  Wotton's  of  July  6,2and  Howes' 
continuation  of  Stovve.3 

Apart  from  these  allusions  Meres  in  his  Palladis  Tamia  of  1598 
mentions  Shakspere's  "  sugred  Sonnets,"  his  Venus  and  Lucrece, 
six  comedies  and  six  tragedies,  including  Love  Labour's  Wonne, 
— thought  to  be  the  play  re-written  as  Alts  Well  that  Ends  Well. 
Meres's  passage  proves  that,  though  the  Sonnets  were  not  published 
till  1609,  some  of  them,  at  least,  were  in  existence  in  1598. 

0.  Allusions  to  Contemporary  Events. — Besides  the  burning 
of  the  "  Globe,"  noticed  above,  other  contemporary  events,  more  or 
less  connected  with  Shakspere,  are  alluded  to  in  these  volumes. 
We  have,  first  of  all,  a  number  of  passages  concerning  the 
examinations  of  Sir  Gelly  Merrick  and  Augustine  Phillips  in 
connexion  with  the  Essex  Conspiracy,  and  a  valuable  passage  on 
the  same  subject  which  I  found  in  Bacon's  Declaration,  i6oi.4  The 
death  of  Elizabeth  in  1603  is  mourned  by  Chettle  and  an  anony- 
mous author.5  Prince  Lewis  of  Wirtemberg  visited  the  "  Globe  " 
and  saw  Othello  on  April  30,  i6io.6  On  March  24,  1613,  occurred 
the  tilting-match  in  which  Pembroke,  Montgomery  and  Rutland 
took  part,  and  with  which  Shakspere  may  have  been  associated.7 
Richard  Burbage  died  on  March  13,  1618,  and  we  have  an  elegy  on 
him,  recording  his  principal  parts.8  Ben  Jonson  visited  William 
Drummond  of  Hawthornden  in  January  1619,  and  Drummond 
has  recorded  bits  of  the  conversation.9  Pericles  was  played  before 
the  Marquis  Tremouille,  Buckingham,  Oxford,  etc.,  at  Court,  in 
May  i6i9.10  For  record  of  other  Court  performances  see  the 
accounts  of  Lord  Treasurer  Stanhope,  i6i3,n  and  of  Sir  Henry 
Herbert,  1623-1636. 12 

7.  The  Allusions  of  Shakspere's  Contemporaries. — Much  of 
the  laudatory  verse  and  prose  of  the  Elizabethans  ran,  through 
excess  of  feeling  over  judgment,  into  hyperbole,  just  as  their  satire 
and  criticism,  for  the  same  reason,  were  apt  to  be  too  severe. 
In  an  age  when  the  encomiastic  address  of  patrons  was  all  but 
compulsory,  the  tendency  towards  hyperbole  was  inevitable.  Yet, 

i  i.  238.  2  i.  239.  3  i.  243.  4  i.  81,  82,  92. 

6  i.  123,  124.  6  i.  215.  7  i.  234.  8  i.  272. 

8  i.  274.  10  i.  276.  "  i.  241.  12  i.  321,  323. 


XX  INTRODUCTION. 

hyperbolic  as  praise  of  authors  and  patrons  may  have  been  in 
general,  it  was  usually  healthy,  for  it  had  judgment  and  belief 
behind  it,  and,  at  least,  the  Elizabethan  eulogies  of  Shakspere 
were  greatly  superior  to  the  hollow  laudations  of  a  future  genera- 
tion, with  whom  praise  had  become  a  mere  habit,  an  affectation. 
Any  one  who  cares  to  examine  the  verses  written  concerning 
authors  of  the  past,  or  addressed  by  Elizabethans,  to  their  contem- 
porary brothers  in  literature,  must  be  struck  by  this  exuberance  in 
the  expression  of  admiration  and  esteem.  The  weary  student  of 
Lydgate  may  be  glad  to  know  that,  in  1614,  Thomas  Freeman,  the 
epigrammist,  declared  him  equal  to  the  great  men  of  that  and  all 
former  ages.1  George  Turbervile  in  1570  praised  Arthur  Brooke, 
the  author  of  that  long  rambling  poem  Romeus  and  Juliet,  in  the 
highest  terms.2  Not  to  multiply  instances,  which  are  common,  the 
verses  addressed  by  Spenser  to  various  noblemen  and  printed 
with  the  Faerie  Queene,  are  tinctured  with  this  same  character- 
istic.3 In  considering,  therefore,  the  praises  of  Shakspere  by  the 
Elizabethans  and  Jacobeans,  we  have  to  remember  this  tendency 
towards  exuberance,  born  of  a  splendid  enthusiasm  for  literature, 
but  we  have  also  to  bear  in  mind  that  beneath  all  their  eulogies, 
conventional  as  these  may  be  in  terms  and  epithets,  were  great 
admiration  of  the  poet's  works  and  strong  appreciation  of  his  great- 
ness among  his  fellows.  To  the  Elizabethans  Shakspere  was  an 
Elizabethan,  not  the  great  heir  of  universal  fame.  It  was  yet  too 
early  in  that  busy  world  with  its  strong  social  distinctions,  for  men 
to  realise  that  one  who  followed  the  more  or  less  despised  vocation  of 
a  player  and  wrote  for  the  stage  of  those  days,  could  rise  to  be  a 
world-figure  in  literature,  or  that  his  art  could  challenge  comparison 
with  that  of  the  cherished  tragedians  of  antiquity.  Those  who 
ventured  to  liken  him  in  their  eulogies  to  the  classical  tragedians 
and  writers,  likened  also  lesser  men,  like  Drayton,  Daniel  and 
Warner ;  and  it  is  evident  that  none  of  them  had  any  conception 
that  his  genius  was  phenomenal  or  that  he  stood  without  compeer 
in  English  literature.  The  highest  criticism  of  the  time,  with  the 

1  Rubbe  and  A  great  Cast,  1614,  Epigram  14,  sig.  g  2. 

2  Epitaphs,  Epigrams,  Songs  and  Sonnets,  pp.  1435-1445. 

8  See  particularly  the  verse  to  Lord  Buckhurst,  Globe  edn.  p.  9. 


INTRODUCTION.  XXI 

exception  of  Ben  Jonson's,  would  have  found  much  in  him  to  dispraise. 
To  those,  who,  like  Stephen  Gosson,  attacked  the  drama  from  the 
moral  standpoint,  Shakspere  and  his  fellows  had  little  to  recom- 
mend them,  simply  because  the  functions  of  tragedy  and  homily 
are  widely  different.  Others  who,  like  Philip  Sidney,  regarded  the 
unities  as  inviolate  and  the  works  of  the  ancients  as  unquestionable 
models  for  all  time,  could  only  have  condemned  the  tragi-comedies 
which  so  delight  us.  I  feel  safe  in  asserting  that,  to  the  Elizabethan, 
Spenser  was  a  greater  poet  than  Shakspere  ;  though  he,  too,  came 
under  the  censure  of  criticism  for  his  use  of  "rustic  language." 
Camden  in  1606  described  Spenser  as  first  of  English  poets  of  that 
time  (Anglorum  Poetarum  nostri  seculi  facile princeps] ;  William 
Webbe  thought  Spenser  greatest ;  and  some  even  consider  him  so  to 
this  day.1  The  allusions  to  Spenser,  whose  fame  seems  never  to 
have  greatly  fluctuated,  up  to  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century 
might  even  outnumber  the  allusions  to  Shakspere.2  Be  that 
as  it  may,  those  of  Shakspere's  contemporaries  who  praised 
him  (except  Jonson),  praised  him  for  his  sweetness  and  those  lesser 
qualities  which  were  apparent  to  them,  and  in  which  he  excelled 
his  fellows ;  the  great  men,  like  Bacon,  Lord  Brooke,  and  subse- 
quently, Lord  Clarendon,  were  silent.  A  creative  age,  like  the 
Elizabethan,  cannot  be  justly  critical ;  in  particular  it  cannot  be 
critical  of  one  whose  work  is  in  progress  in  its  midst  :  only  when 
a  man's  work  is  done,  or  nearly  so,  can  men  review  it,  and  notice 
its  development ;  and  only  when  an  age  is  past,  do  its  men  and 
things  fall  into  proper  perspective  and  reveal  their  proper  relations. 
Then  too  we  have  to  notice  that  the  distinguishing  qualities  which 
constitute  Shakspere's  universal  eminence,  like  the  great  qualities 
of  Aeschylus  and  Sophocles,  are  those  which  a  studious  perusal  of 
the  text  alone  can  demonstrate.  It  was  only  after  the  publication 
of  the  Folio  that  adequate  material  was  provided  for  such  a  study, 
and  even  then,  except  in  a  few  great  minds,  like  Milton's,  recogni- 
tion did  not  come  till  systematic  criticism  had  begun  to  do  its  work. 

1  As,  for  instance,   Mr.  Morton  Luce.     See  his  Handbook  to  the  Works  of 
Shakspere,  1907,  p.  xiii. 

2  1  printed  a  number  of  references  to  Spenser  allusions  in  Notes  and  Queries, 
Series  X,  vol.  x,  p.  121. 


XX11  INTRODUCTION. 

Taking  these  things  into  consideration,  we  have  not  to  be  dis- 
appointed if  the  Shakspere  we  know  and  revere,  was  not  so  known 
and  revered  by  the  men  of  his  own  day.  That  he  was  honoured  by 
them,  admired  by  them,  and  loved  by  them,  we  shall  see  :  more,  if 
more  were  needed,  were  impossible. 

I  divide  the  allusions  of  Shakspere's  contemporaries  into  three 
main  classes  :  the  first  (a)  is  composed  of  the  references  to  his 
works,  showing  those  on  which  his  reputation  was  founded  ;  the 
second  (<£)  consists  of  references  to  the  poet  himself;  and  those  from 
the  men  who  knew  him  are  particularly  valuable.  These  two 
classes  of  allusions  have  often  been  dwelt  on  before,  but  a  third 
class,  (c)  consisting  of  the  cases  in  which  the  poet's  contemporaries 
borrowed  from,  or  plagiarised,  his  works,  has  had  little  attention 
given  to  it,  and  is  the  greatest  testimony  of  all  to  Shakspere's 
superiority  over  his  fellow  poets  and  playwrights. 

(a)  The  first  reference  in  these  volumes  to  a  play  is  Nash's 
record  of  the  success  of  Henry  K/,1  with  which  Shakspere  is 
generally  held  to  have  had  some  small  connexion.  The  second  is 
Helmes's  account  in  the  Gesta  Grayorum  of  the  performance  of  the 
Comedy  of  Errors  in  Gray's  Inn  Hall  on  December  28,  I594,2  at 
which  performance  Bacon  and  Shakspere  may  have  met.  At  first, 
however,  it  was  for  his  poems  that  Shakspere  was  known.  To  be 
a  poet  was  then  a  greater  thing  than  to  be  a  dramatist,  and  in 
publishing  his  poems  so  early  in  his  career,  Shakspere  took  the 
best  means  of  establishing  a  good  reputation  and  gaining  attention. 
The  verses  prefixed  to  Willobie  his  Aviso,  in  1594  mention  Lucrece 
and  Shake-spectre :  in  the  same  year  Harbert  and  Drayton  praise 
the  poem,  and  Southwell  gives  the  first  intimation  of  Venus  and 
Adonis?  Most  of  the  epithets  used  by  contemporaries  of  Shak- 
spere, "  Honie-tong'd  Shakespeare"  etc.,  seem  to  be  due  to  their 
conception  of  his  poems,  whose  theme  is  passion,  and  accordingly 
in  Willobie  his  Avisa,  Shakspere  is  the  authority  on  love.  Sir 
William  Drummond  so  mentions  him  again  in  i6i4.4  The  refer- 
ences to  the  poems  continue  to  occur  with  constancy  till  about 
the  middle  of  the  century,  when  they  decrease  in  number.  In 
1595  comes  from  Weever  the  recognition  of  Shakspere  as  both 
1  i.  5.  2  i.  7.  3  i.  8>  I4>  I5>  X6.  4  j.  2SIi 


INTRODUCTION.  XX111 

playwright  and  poet.  Of  his  early  plays,  those  which  most  struck 
his  contemporaries  were  Romeo  and  Richard  III.  After  1600  these 
gave  place  to  Hamlet  and  the  Falstaff  plays,  which,  having  taken  the 
chief  place  in  popular  favour,  have  held  it  ever  since,  except  that 
Hamlet  temporarily  declined  a  little  in  popularity  during  the  latter 
half  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Meres's  references  to  Shakspere 
and  his  works,  in  I598,1  are  the  most  valuable  of  the  early  allusions. 
Shakspere  is  here  declared  to  be  the  most  excellent  among  the 
English  for  comedy  and  tragedy  and  his  principal  works  are 
cited.  This  declaration  of  Meres  that  Shakspere  was  chief 
dramatic  author  of  his  age,  and  that  at  a  time  when  a  great  part 
of  his  work  had  not  been  written,  is  a  testimony  to  Shakspere's 
success.  Meres  himself  was  no  great  critic,  and  I  regard  his  utter- 
ances as  reflecting  the  popular  estimate  as  observed  by  a  frequenter 
of  the  theatre,  rather  than  the  tribute  of  criticism.  Meres's  state- 
ments were  seconded  by  The  Returne  from  Pernassus?  where 
Kempe,  speaking  of  the  university  playwrights,  says,  "Shakespeare 
puts  them  all  downe,  I  and  Ben  Jonson  too."  Ben  Jonson,  in  any 
case,  was  one  of  the  first,  in  I599,3  to  record  the  popularity  of 
Falstaff ;  the  authors  of  Sir  John  Oldcastle  refer  to  the  fat  knight 
in  1600,  Roger  Sharpe  in  1610,  etc.4;  he  is  mentioned  in  private 
correspondence,5  and  subsequently  references  to  him  turn  up  un- 
expectedly on  many  occasions,  even  in  state  trials  and  books  of 
controversy.  The  allusions  go  to  show  that  this  character,  which 
sprang  into  immediate  fame  in  the  days  of  Elizabeth,  attained 
still  greater  notoriety  in  the  days  of  the  Commonwealth  and 
the  Stuarts  after  James  I. 

Among  the  first  to  note  the  greatness  of  HamJet  was  Gabriel 
Harvey  about  i6oo.6  Anthony  Scholoker  praises  it  in  i6o4,7  and 
notes  particulars  of  its  acting.  Ratseis  Ghost  makes  a  reference 
in  1605,  and  in  the  same  year  the  authors  of  Eastward  Hoe,  by 
using  the  name  "  Hamlet"  and  making  evident  borrowings,  record 
the  play's  popularity.  After  this  for  some  years  there  is  a  curious 
dearth  of  references  to  the  play  itself;  and  yet  no  play  of  Shak- 
spere's (except,  perhaps,  that  Hamlet  gives  place  to  Falstaff)  gained 

i  i.  46-49.  2  i.  102.  3  i.  61.  *  i.  77,  212, 

6  i.88,  *  i.  56.  M.  133.  r  -•  i 


XXIV  INTRODUCTION. 

more  attention.  The  evidences  of  the  play's  profound  influence 
are  to  be  seen,  not  in  the  ordinary  verbal  allusions,  but  in  the  many 
imitations  and  plagiarisings  to  which  it  was  subjected.  From  no 
other  play  of  Shakspere's,  probably  from  no  other  similar  com- 
position in  the  world,  have  so  many  phrases  been  borrowed,  and  of  no 
other,  probably,  have  so  many  passages  and  scenes  been  imitated. 

It  is  difficult  to  determine  which  plays  after  Romeo,  Richard  III, 
Hamlet,  and  the  Falstafif  pieces,  were  most  favoured  by  Shakspere's 
contemporaries.-  The  number  of  allusions  to  such  a  play  as  Love's 
Labour's  Lost  is  doubtless  due  to  its  early  date  and  its  publication 
in  quarto.  Probably  The  Midsummer  Nighfs  Dream  with  Bully 
Bottom  and  his  mates  held  a  high  place.  Julius  Ccesar,  Othello, 
Macbeth  and  Lear  all  ranked  high. 

Magnificent  as  we  think  Shakspere's  art  in  Antony  and 
Cleopatra,  containing,  as  the  play  does,  the  poet's  most  wonderful 
woman-study,  done  at  the  zenith  of  his  powers,  and  fine  as  its  verse 
is,  it  seems  to  have  been  no  great  favourite  with  Elizabethans.  No 
reference  to  it  occurs  before  1616,  and  after  that  date  allusions  are 
extremely  rare.  The  fact  that  Plutarch's  account  of  Antony's  fall 
was  so  well  known  to  Shakspere's  contemporaries  may  explain  in 
part  the  absence  of  allusion  to  the  play,  but  we  have  to  note  also, 
that,  in  the  case  of  this,  one  of  Shakspere's  best  written  plays, 
and  on  a  subject  which  was  so  often  dramatised,  there  is  almost 
complete  absence  of  borrowing  of  phrases  by  other  authors.  It  is 
not  enough  to  say  that  Antony  is  not  a  good  acting  play.  The 
truth  appears  to  be  that  the  cause  of  this  neglect  of  Antony 
is  the  secret  of  the  Elizabethan  attitude  towards  Shakspere 
the  dramatist.  It  was  not  necessarily  the  finest  poetry,  nor  the 
highest  delineation  of  character,  nor  evidence  of  the  most  perfect 
dramaturgical  skill,  which  made  a  play  successful  to  the  Elizabethans, 
though  all  these  might  contribute.  The  first  part  of  Henry  VI 
could  be  a  success  without  them  ;  Antony  and  Cleopatra  gained 
little  notice  in  literature  with  all  their  aid.  The  characters  which 
held  the  attention  of  Shakspere's  audiences  were  strong,  command- 
ing men  like  Tamberlaine  and  Richard  III,  and  beautiful,  gentle 
women,  injured  and  suffering,  like  Juliet  and  Desdemona.  The 
people  who  went  to  the  Globe  liked  plays  full  of  strange  vicissitudes 


INTRODUCTION.  XXV 

such  as  I  Henry  VI,  and  Titus  Andronicus  and  Pericles,  pieces  in 
which  life  and  death  were  mingled  in  glaring  contrasts,  in  which 
battles,  sieges,  duels,  murders  and  revenges  found  place.  They  liked 
to  have  pity  and  terror  awakened  within  them ;  the  sweet  love  of 
Romeo  with  its  tragic  end  appealed  to  their  hearts  ;  the  gloom  and 
mystery,  the  sorrow  and  tragedy  of  Hamlet  moved  them  all ;  the 
drollery  and  rascality  of  Falstaff  were  things  of  their  own  time, 
immediate  to  them,  familiar.  But  Antony  was  another  matter  ;  the 
great  conflict  in  the  play  is  one  between  duty  and  licence  ;  the 
tragedy  is  the  fall  of  a  great  soldier  ;  and  this  conflict  and  this 
tragedy  were  not  those  which  interested  Elizabethans.  No  heart 
is  broken  in  the  action  by  the  ruin  of  a  tender  and  passionate  love  ; 
the  fall  of  Antony  excites  no  deep  feelings  of  pity  or  terror ;  the 
beauty  of  Cleopatra  wins  no  compassion  for  her  end  ;  and  the 
character  of  neither  the  queen  nor  Antony  is  purged  of  its  stains  by 
self-inflicted  death.  Though  soldiers  pass  over  the  stage  and  we 
hear  the  tumult  afar  off,  the  battles  are  given  in  descriptions.  The 
play  is  sad  ;  it  is  distressing  ;  but  it  is  not  a  story  of  woe,  or  of 
innocent  suffering ;  and  being  such  as  it  is,  it  could  not  appeal  to 
the  people  of  the  early  part  of  the  seventeenth  century  as  could 
others  mentioned  above. 

The  consideration  of  Antony  bears  out  our  previous  statement 
that  dramaturgical  skill,  fine  verse,  and  good  character  drawing, 
though  so  many  Elizabethan  plays  possess  these  things,  could  not 
alone  assure  a  play's  success  ;  and  it  is  probable  that  almost  all  of 
Shakspere's  contemporaries  failed  to  appreciate  the  high  character 
of  his  art,  and  to  value  him  for  it. 

(b}  Shakspere,  the  Man  and  his  Contemporaries. — The  figures  of 
few  men  could  have  been  more  familiar  to  the  citizens  of  Eliza- 
bethan London  than  those  of  the  chief  actors  in  the  Queen's 
Company,  William  Kempe,  Richard  Burbage  and  William  Shak- 
spere.  Yet,  as  men  chronicle  the  rare  and  extraordinary  rather  than 
familiar  and  well-known  things,  no  record  has  come  down  to  us  of 
how  Shakspere  lived  in  London ;  and  we  know  little  of  what  he  did. 
His  life  seems  to  have  been  quiet,  almost  uneventful,  and  calm ; 
only  rarely  do  we  find  records  of  little  incidents  in  his  busy 
career.  "To  Shakspeare's  .friends  and  daily  companions,"  says 


XXVI  INTRODUCTION. 

Furness,1 "  there  was  nothing  mysterious  in  his  life ;  on  the  contrary, 
it  possibly  appeared  to  them  as  unusually  dull  and  commonplace. 
It  certainly  had  no  incidents  so  far  out  of  the  common  that  they 
thought  it  worth  while  to  record  them.  Shakspeare  never  killed  a 
man  as  Jonson  did  ;  his  voice  was  never  heard,  like  Marlowe's,  in 
tavern  brawls  ;  nor  was  he  ever,  like  Marston  and  Chapman,  threat- 
ened with  the  penalty  of  having  his  ears  lopped  and  his  nose  slit." 
Apart  from  the  legal  actions  with  which  Shakspere  was  connected, 
however,  some  notices,  rare  and  valuable,  have  been  bequeathed  us, 
and  from  them  we  learn  something  of  the  man  and  what  his  fellows 
thought  of  him. 

And  first,  as  to  his  personal  appearance.  John  Davies  of  Hereford, 
in  1603,  said  that  Shakspere  and  Burbage  had  wit,  courage,  good 
shape,  and  good  parts,  and  that  they  were  generous  in  mind  and 
mood.  These  two  he  praised  again  in  1609 ;  and  in  1611  he  said 
of  "  our  English  Terence,  Mr.  Will.  Shake-speare  "— 

Had'st  thou  not  plaid  some  Kingly  parts  in  sport, 
Thou  hadst  bin  a  companion  for  a  King. 

As  for  the  imputation  made  by  some  that  Shakspere  was  lame, 
based  on  Sonnet  Ixxxix,  1.  3  : 

Speak  of  my  lameness,  and  I  straight  will  halt, — 

we  can  only  say  that  the  absence  of  contemporary  reference  to 
such  an  affliction  is  almost  certain  proof  that  it  did  not  exist,  and 
that  it  is  little  borne  out  by  Jonson's  lines  in  the  Folio : 

.  .  .  heare  thy  Buskin  tread, 
And  shake  a  Stage.  2 

From  Fuller,  who  was  collecting  matter  for  his  Worthies  in  1643, 
we  learn  of  the  merry  meetings  at  the  "  Mermaid,"  of  the  wit- 
combats  between  solid  Ben  and  the  nimble-minded  Shakspere.3 
Of  these  meetings  Beaumont  writes  in  his  letter  to  Ben  Jonson  : 

What  things  have  we  seen 
Done  at  the  Mermaid  !  heard  words  that  have  been 


1  Variorum  Much  Adoe  about  Nothing,  1899,  p.  vii. 

2  This,  of  course,  may  only  be  figurative  language,  but  still,  is  significant, 
*  i.  484. 


INTRODUCTION.  XXV11 

So  nimble,  and  so  full  of  subtle  flame, 

As  if  that  every  one  (from  whence  they  came) 

Had  meant  to  put  his  whole  wit  in  a  jest  ; 

And  had  resolved  to  live  a  fool,  the  rest 

Of  his  dull  life  !    Then,  when  there  hath  been  thrown 

Wit  able  enough  to  justify  the  Town 

For  three  days  past !    Wit  that  might  warrant  be 

For  the  whole  City  to  talk  foolishly 

Till  that  were  cancelled  !    And,  when  we  were  gone, 

We  left  an  air  behind  us  ;  which  alone 

Was  able  to  make  the  two  next  companies 

Right  witty  !  though  but  downright  fools,  more  wise  ! 

A  piece  of  Shakspere's  conversational  impromptu  maybe  preserved 
in  The  N ewe  Metamorphosis,  1600-12. 

And  next  we  come  to  notices  of  the  poet's  industry.  The  attack 
of  Greene  on  Shakspere,  the  upstart  Crow,  the  reviser  of  other 
men's  plays,  gives  place  to  Chettle's  subsequent  apology  and 
praise  :  "  Divers  of  worship  have  reported  his  uprightness  of 
dealing,  which  argues  his  honesty,  and  his  facetious  grace  in 
writting,  that  aprooves  his  Art." l  John  Webster,  in  i6i2,2  refers  to 
"the  right  happy  and  copious  industry  of  M.  Shake-spectre^  M. 
Decker  and  M.  Heywood"  (The  last  two  names  are  usually  omitted 
by  biographers,  and  should  not  be.)  In  1599,  William  Jaggard 
published  his  piratical  first  edition  of  The  Passionate  Pilgrime, 
described  as  "  By  W.  Shakespeare."  In  1612  was  issued  another 
edition,  where,  under  Shakspere's  name,  appeared  two  verses  from 
Hey  wood's  Troia  Britanica,  1609.  This,  Hey  wood  resented  in  his 
Apology  for  Actors,  1612:  "I  must  acknowledge  my  lines  not 
worthy  his  patronage,"  says  Heywood  of  Shakspere,  and  continues 
that  the  great  poet  was  "much  offended"  with  the  rascally 
publisher.3  Heminge  and  Condell  in  the  Folio  refer  to  Shakspere's 
ease  in  composition  :  "  Wee  have  scarse  received  from  him  a  blot 
in  his  papers,"  they  declare.  To  this  Jonson  refers  in  his  Timber, 
1630-37  :  the  Players  had  often  mentioned  that  Shakspere  never 
blotted  out  a  line  ;  "  would  he  had  blotted  a  thousand,"  says  Ben.4 

A  good  deal  of  the  contemporary  praise  of  Shakspere  is  couched, 
as  we  noted  before,  in  the  ordinary  poetic  epithets  of  the  time,  and 
is  not  to  be  understood  to  imply  a  realisation  of  the  poet's  true 

1  i.  2,  4.  2  i.  233.  8  i.  62,  231.  4  i.  316,  348. 


XXV111  INTRODUCTION. 

greatness.  M  Sweet "  Shakspere,  says  the  author  of  Polimanteia 
in  1595  j1  Scoloker  speaks  of  the  "Friendly"  Shakspere  in  1604; 
Thomas  Heywood  writes,  in  1635,  of  the  "inchanting  Quill"  of 
"mellifluous  Shake-speare " ;  Weever  calls  the  poet  "honie-tong'd"; 
William  Barkstead,  in  1607,  gives  Shakspere  the  laurel,  and  in  self- 
depreciation,  takes  for  himself  the  cypress  ;  Thomas  Freeman,  in 
1614,  writes  of  "that  nimble  Mercury,"  the  poet's  brain;  "  Ingenious 
Shakespeare?  says  an  early  eulogiser  in  lines  afterwards  quoted  by 
Langbaine. 

More  important  than  these  are  a  number  of  references  by  other 
men.  Meres's  Palladis  Tamia  of  1 598  puts  Shakspere  chief  of 
English  dramatists,  and  Parts  I  and  1 1  of  the  Returne  from  Per- 
nassus,  1600-2,  do  likewise.  Richard  Barnfeild,  as  Mr.  Charles 
Crawford  has  observed,  was  the  first  of  Shakspere's  contemporaries 
to  write  the  poet's  praise  by  imitating  him,  and  as  it  is  evident  he 
knew  the  poems  well,  and  greatly  admired  them,  his  praise  of  1598 
is  particularly  noteworthy.  In  his  Excellence  of  the  English 
Tongue,  1595-6,  Carew  cited  Shakspere  and  compared  him  with 
Catullus  ;  and  Edmund  Bolton,  in  his  Hypercritica,  names  the  poet 
as  one  of  the  chief  writers  of  good  English. 

Ben  Jonson  stands  alone.  He  is  the  founder  of  Shaksperean 
criticism.  As  the  friend  of  Shakspere,  one  who  talked  and 
laughed  with  him,  as  the  most  solid,  most  learned,  and  the 
•strongest  of  Elizabethan  playwrights,  his  utterances  concerning 
his  superior  in  drama  deserve  our  profoundest  respect.  Ben  was 
too  honest, — perhaps  I  may  be  forgiven  if  I  say  he  was  too  arrogant 
also, — to  give  unstinted  praise  to  the  man  he  says  he  loved ;  but 
when  we  consider  what  he  dispraised  we  shall  see  it  does  not  sub- 
tract from  the  honour  of  Shakspere  ;  and  when  we  consider  what  he 
praised  we  shall  see  it  adds  to  the  honour  of  Jonson.  He  was  a 
man  of  a  different  calibre  from  Shakspere  ;  he  loved  learning  in  a 
way  that  Shakspere  did  not ;  but  as  he  loved  learning  more,  he  knew 
men  less.  More  learned  as  he  certainly  was,  he  respected  classical 
precedent  and  symmetry  in  a  way  that  Shakspere  could  not:  and 
there  where  he  thought  his  strength  lay,  to  us  lies  his  inferiority ; 
for  the  free  and  happy  genius  of  Shakspere,  which  to  him  "  wanted 
1  Echoed  in  Part  I  of  the  Returne  from  Pernassus,  1600,  i.  67. 


INTRODUCTION.  XXIX 

art,"  carried   drama  to   a  height,   where    all    his  art   could  not 
reach  it. 

We  can  dismiss  with  little  comment  the  mere  allusions  by 
Jonson  to  Shakspere's  characters.  In  1599,  in  Every  Man  out  of 
his  Humour,  he  alluded  to  Silence  and  Falstaff;  in  1605  he,  with 
others,  referred  to  Hamlet in  Eastward  Hoe  ;  in  1609  he  mentioned 
Doll  Tearsheet  in  Epicene ;  and  in  1614  he  referred  to  Titus. 
Andronicus  and  the  Tempest  in  Bartholomew  Fayre.  These 
allusions  are  only  such  as  we  find  in  other  contemporaries  ;  some 
of  them  are  useful  (as  the  Titus  note)  in  other  ways  ;  but  none  of 
them  is  particularly  valuable,  except  as  showing  Jonson's  interest 
in  Shakspere's  works. 

Other  references,  or  apparent  references,  are  more  important. 
These  commence  with  the  very  dubious  description  of  Sogliardo 
and  his  arms  in  Every  Man  out  of  his  Humour,  in  1 599,  when 
Shakspere's  arms  were  granted.  It  has  been  supposed  that  Jon- 
son  may  have  been  girding  at  Shakspere  in  this  play,  but  the 
circumstance  of  an  upstart  buying  arms  was  too  common  to 
warrant  our  lending  importance  to  Jonson's  satire  of  a  contemporary 
failing  which  Harrison  had  commented  on  ten  years  before.  In 
1 60 1 -2  The  Returne  from  Pernassus  has  a  fling  at  Jonson's  Poet- 
aster, and  represents  Shakspere  as  "  having  given  him  a  purge  that 
made  him  beray  his  credit."  The  Poetaster  is  thought  by  some  to 
refer  to  Shakspere,  but  the  matter  is  so  obscure  that  speculation  is 
idle.  I  will  only  venture  the  remark  that,  if  The  Returne  from  Per- 
nassus simply  refers  to  the  two  chief  dramatists  as  rivals  for  excel- 
lence, the  "  purge  "  may  be  Julius  Ccesar,  a  Roman  play. 

Leaving  these  misty  matters  we  come  to  the  main  body  of  Jon- 
sonian  criticism.  The  sources  from  which  we  draw  are  the  Prologue 
of  Every  Man  in  his  Humour,  1616;  the  conversations  with 
Drummond,  1619  ;  the  poems  in  the  Folio,  1623  ;  the  note  De 
Shakespeare  nostrat  in  Timber,  1630-37  (?) ;  and  Rowe's  Preface  to 
his  edition  of  1709,  for  the  anecdote  of  the  debate  between  Hales 
and  Jonson,  about  I633.1  The  censure  of  Pericles,  in  1629-30,  I  do 
not  consider  important ;  poor  Ben  was  very  sore  then  over  the 
failure  of  The  New  Inn,  and  his  verses,  as  Ingleby  remarks,  were 
i  i.  263,  274,  305,  307,  348,  373. 


XXX  INTRODUCTION. 

a  vent  for  his  indignation,  and  show  a  certain  amount  of  jealousy. 
Nor  do  I  regard  it  as  possible  that  the  "happy  genius"  Jonson 
refers  to  in  Sejanus  can  be  Shakspere.  The  whole  of  Jonson's 
adverse  criticism  comes  under  ftie  contention  which  he  advanced  to 
Suckling,  Hales,  and  others,  that  Shakspere  was  in  "want  of  learn- 
ing," and  that  he  was  ignorant  "of  the  Antients."  Jonson  thus 
insisted  on  the  observance  of  dramatic  proprieties,  which  he  him- 
self could  not  always  observe  ;  and  when  he  observed  them  less 
rigorously,  he  worked  most  happily  :  Shakspere,  with  a  freedom 
which  Jonson  could  not  imitate,  unconsciously  asserted  the  right  of 
his  genius  in  making  his  art  a  law  unto  itself.  The  indifferent  eye 
with  which  Shakspere  looked  on  the  many  minor  errors,  the 
anachronisms  and  the  historical  inaccuracies  which  are  scattered 
broadcast  through  his  plays  could  not  win  Jonson's  approval. 
The  spontaneity  and  profusion  of  Shakspere's  genius,  with 
its  "  right  happy  and  copious  industry,"  bursting  into  creation 
with  such  facility  that  his  "pious  fellows"  Heminge  and  Condell 
received  scarcely  a  blot  on  his  papers,  were  not  such  as  Jonson 
associated  with  the  art  of  the  dramatist.  If  Shakspere  never 
blotted  a  line,  Jonson  thought  he  should  have  done,  as  he  himself 
doubtless  did  freely.  That  Shakspere  broke  the  dramatic  unities  was 
due  to  the  fact  that  he  knew  no  better  ;  a  man  of  "  little  Latin  and 
less  Greek,"  the  mighty  stores  of  ancient  drama,  the  models  for  the 
emulation  of  all  time,  were  practically  closed  to  him.  Bohemia,  of 
course  (not  to  mention  other  Shaksperean  sea-bound  countries), 
had  no  sea-shore,  and  Caesar  should  not  say  foolish  and  undig- 
nified things.1  All  this  is  explained  when  we  consider  Jonson's  writ- 
ings. The  dramatic  works  of  Jonson  are  often  possessed  with  a  cold 
solidity,  and  are  constructed  in  the  most  elaborate  style  ;  the  art 
they  display  is  conscious  and  deliberate  art ;  the  figures  they  contain, 
particularly  in  the  case  of  the  Roman  plays,  are  often  cold  and 
unnatural;  and  few  of  his  plays,  with  all  their  learning,  are  elevated 
by  tenderness  or  sympathy.  In  accordance  with  the  foremost 

1  Jonson  rebukes  Shakspere  for  this  in  his  passage  De  Shakespeare  nostrati, 
and  he  pokes  fun  by  repeating  Caesar's  words  in  The  Staple  of  News,  1625. 
Taylor  in  his  Travels  to  Prague  in  Bohemia,  1630,  seems,  also,  to  jest  good- 
naturedly  over  the  '  Bohemian '  coast. 


INTRODUCTION.  XXXI 

theories  of  his  age,  he  avoided  the  mixture  of  tragedy  and  comedy, 
and  incoherence  of  plot ;  and  he  attempted,  at  least,  to  adhere  to 
the  dramatic  unities.  In  all  these  points  Shakspere  offers  a 
decided  contrast.  None  of  his  plots  are  elaborated  to  any  degree, 
and  some  of  them  are  loose  in  structure.  Henry  V  can  hardly  be 
said  to  have  a  plot  at  all,  and  Henry  F7,  against  which  Jonson 
declaimed,1  is,  for  the  most  part,  a  succession  of  fights  and  intrigues. 
Tragedy  and  comedy  are  found  side  by  side  in  his  plays  ;  and  the 
unities  are  frequ^iitly  broken.  The  art  of  Shakspere,  like  the  art 
of  all  great  geniuses,  seldom  shows  evidences  of  effort  or  difficulty  : 
it  is  direct  and  spontaneous.  His  characters  win  us  always  with 
their  human  appeal,  and  pulse  with  the  warm  blood  of  life.  And 
the  whole  of  his  work  is  imbued  with  the  happiness  and  the  pathos 
which  come  of  keen  sympathy  with  the  joys  and  woes  of  others, 
is  full  of  pity  and  tenderness.  Considering  the  work  and  ideals 
of  Jonscm,  therefore,  and  the  work  and  position  of  Shakspere, 
we  sec  that  the  criticism  we  have  is  only  such  as  we  should 
expect  ;  and  this,  at  all  events,  is  certain,  that  Shakspere's  works 
are  not  so  remarkable  for  the  absence  of  that  quality  which 
Jonson  called  "art,"  as  Jonson's  are  conspicuous  for  the  excess 
of  it. 

In  the  personal  element  in  his  criticism,  Jonson,  of  course,  stands 
alone  ;  but  in  the  critical  principles  which  underlie  his  remarks,  he 
was  in  no  way  original :  other  men  had  advocated  those  principles 
before  him,  had  condemned  other  poets  because  of  them,  and  would 
certainly  have  discovered  the  same  faults  in  Shakspere  as  Jonson 
did ;  and  other  men  were  destined  to  hold  those  same  principles 
after  him,  and  continue  his  criticism. 

Where  Jonson  was  original — and  be  it  said  to  his  everlasting 
honour, — was  in  his  praise  of  the  great  dead  poet.  And  his  praise 
of  Shakspere,  the  man,  is  all  the  more  valuable  when  we  remember 
how  difficult  Jonson  was  to  get  on  with,  how  arrogant  and  quarrel- 
some he  was  ;  how  he  was  received  graciously  by  the  king  ;  after- 
wards thrown  into  prison  ;  and  afterwards  made  poet  laureate  ;  how 
he  was  masque-maker  with  Inigo  Jones,  with  whom  he  quarrelled  so; 
was  finally  expelled  from  court ;  and  subjected  to  many  misfortunes ; 

i  i.  263. 


XXXli  INTRODUCTION. 

but  to  the  last  was  invested  by  the  younger  men  with  an  authority 
which  must  have  greatly  gratified  him.  Ben  Jonson's  lines  in  the 
Folio  are  the  first  adequate  recognition  of  Shakspere's  greatness, 
and  though,  like  all  his  praise,  they  are  rather  magisterial,  they 
seem  to  be  based  on  a  proper  comprehension  of  those  particular 
powers  which  made  Shakspere's  immortality.  The  poet  is  anxious 
to  dissociate  his  encomiums  from  the  sort  of  thing  which  "  seeliest 
Ignorance"  would  have  said.  He  thinks  that  Shakspere  could  (as 
he  has  done)  stand  proof  against  the  shafts  of  crafty  malice.  He 
identifies  him  with  his  age  ;  calls  him  its  very  soul ;  and  declares 
him  immortal  in  his  works.  He  proclaims  him  superior  not  only 
to  the  men  of  his  own  time,  but  to  the  ancients.  He  calls  on  Britain 
to  regard  her  immortal  son.  He  praises  that  very  art  which  at 
other  times  he  found  wanting.  He  declares  that  by  Shakspere's 
works  you  may  know  Shakspere  the  man.  And  he  records  the 
delight  that  Elizabeth  and  James  derived  from  his  plays.  In  the 
Timber  he  tells  us  of  the  character  of  the  man  ;  "  he  was  honest  and 
of  a  free  and  open  nature,"  he  says,  "  and  I  lov'd  the  man,  and  doe 
honour  his  memory,  (on  this  side  Idolatry)  as  much  as  any."  Is 
there  not  something  touching  in  the  tenderness  of  this  "  I  lov'd  the 
man,"  an  eloquent  testimony  to  the  personal  charm  of  him  so  often 
called  "  gentle,"  and  so  honoured  among  his  fellows  ? 

We  come  next  to  the  evidences  of  the  spread  of  Shakspere's 
personal  fame.  At  some  time  after  1597,  and  probably  before  1603, 
Shakspere's  name,  together  with  other  scraps  connected  with  him, 
was  scribbled  on  folio  I  of  the  Duke  of  Northumberland's  MS.  of 
Lord  Bacon's  Of  Tribute!  In  1603  Henry  Chettle  rebuked  the 
"  silver-tonged  Melicert?  Shakspere,  for  not  lamenting  the  death  of 
Elizabeth  ;  again,  A  Mourneful  Dittie  of  the  same  year  uttered 
a  similar  rebuke, — and  this  circumstance  is  referred  to  in  1604  by 
I.  C.  in  his  Rpigrammes.  Ratseis  Ghost,  of  about  1605,  seems 
to  refer  to  Shakspere's  increasing  fortune  in  London,  and  to 
Richard  Burbage.  Thorpe,  in  1609,  could  call  Shakspere  "our 
ever-living  poet,"  and  in  the  address  prefixed  to  the  quarto  of 
Troilus  of  that  year,  the  writer  declares  that  Shakspere's  works 
please  even  those  who  are  displeased  with  plays  in  general.  The 

i  i.  40. 


INTRODUCTION.  XXX111 

inclusion  of  quotations  from  Shakspere  in  such  books  as  Boden- 
ham's  Belvedere  in  1600,  is  an  early  instance  of  what  became 
common  later  on  in  the  century — the  inclusion  of  many  quotations 
in  such  books  as  the  Academie  of  Complements,  etc.1  Meantime 
minor  quotations  are  found  in  books  such  as  Burton's  Anatomy, 
Walkington's  Optick  Glasse^  1607,  and  in  MSS.  In  1620  we 
have  a  Mr.  Richardson,  of  Magdalen  College,  Oxford,  quoting 
Romeo  from  the  pulpit.2  More  important  is  the  fraudulent  use  of 
Shakspere's  name  on  the  title-pages  of  piratical  quartos  of  plays 
not  by  him.  The  earliest  of  these  was  Locrine*  "  Newly  set  foorth, 
ouerseene  and  corrected  By  W.S."  in  1595,  when  all  Shakspere's 
first-period  plays  were  done.  The  "W.S."  was  repeated  on  the 
title-pages  of  Cromwell  in  1602,  and  the  Puritaine  in  1607.*  There 
can- be  little  doubt  that  these  initials  were  used  by  the  publishers  to 
deceive  their  public.  In  1605  The  London  Prodigall  has  Shak- 
spere's name  in  full,  as  has  A  Yorkshire  Tragedy  in  i6o8.5  The 
second  edition  of  The  Troublesome  Raigne  of  King  lohn,  in  1611, 
is  declared  on  its  title-page  to  be  by  "  W.  Sh.,"  and  the  third  edition 
has  the  full  name  "William  Shakespeare."6  The  1619  edition,  for 
Pavier,  of  The  Contention  is  also  declared  in  the  same  way  to  be 
Shakspere's.  To  complete  the  list,  the  1634  quarto  of  The  Two 
Noble  Kinsmen  is  described  as  by  Fletcher  and  Shakspere,  and 
the  1662  edition  of  Merlin  is  described  as  by  Shakspere  and 
Rowley.7 

Some  of  these  plays  are  most  wretched  productions  ;  others  have 
greater  merit,  but  that  any  of  them  can  have  anything  at  all  to  do 
with  Shakspere  is  extremely  doubtful.  The  use  of  the  poet's  name 
in  the  early  quartos  is  unquestionable  evidence  of  the  esteem  in 
which  he  was  held,  and  of  the  selling  powers  of  his  works.  We 
have  referred  to  the  piratical  Passionate  Pilgrime  above. 

(c)  Shakspertfs  Influence  over  his  Contemporaries. — More 
important  even  than  the  references  to  Shakspere's  characters  and 
plays  by  his  contemporaries  and  immediate  successors  are  the 
silent  borrowings  from  his  works  which  commence  with  the 
appearance  of  Venus  and  Adonis,  and  continue  in  plenty  till  the 

1  i.  452 ;  ii.  38,  165.  2  i.  279.  3  i.  21.  4  i.  104,  166. 

5  i.  147,  186.  6  i.  226,  284.  7  i.  388  ;  ii.  124. 

SH.  ALLN.  BK. — I.  C 


XXXIV  INTRODUCTION. 

middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  when  Puritan  supremacy  re- 
tarded dramatic  activity.  The  borrowings  are  either  imitations  of 
scenes  and  passages,  or  they  are  verbal  imitations  of  lines  and 
phrases  due  to  close  knowledge  of  the  plays  and  poems. 

The  imitations  of  scenes,  so  far  discovered,  are  not  many. 
Shakspere,  like  all  the  great  poets  of  the  world,  left  no  school 
behind  him.  He  was  not  an  initiator  ;  he  invented  no  new  style  ; 
he  introduced  no  new  vogue.  Rather  he  accepted  freely  the  forms 
and  practices  laid  down  by  his  predecessors  and  fellows  :  but  he 
transcended  them  in  all  things  ;  he  perfected  their  methods,  and 
their  forms  ;  he  surpassed  them  in  his  style  ;  in  his  whole  art 
he  was  inimitable.  Both  Marlowe  and  Kyd  left  behind  them 
types  which  long  served  for  models  ;  the  romantic  plays  of 
Beaumont  and  Fletcher  continued  to  exercise  a  wide  influence 
over  the  stage  ;  but  it  was  long  before  the  works  of  Shakspere 
were  considered  as  models  which  playwrights  might  profitably 
study.  We  shall  not  expect  to  find,  therefore,  in  Jacobean  and 
post-Jacobean  drama  up  to  the  Restoration,  any  evidence  of  plays 
on  a  Shaksperean  model.  What  we  shall  find  will  be  inferior 
imitations  of  certain  incidents,  passages,  or  scenes,  often,  I  believe, 
made  unconsciously.  And  we  may  notice  in  passing,  that  the 
dearth  of  plays  of  a  Shaksperean  type  is  by  no  means  indicative  of 
the  superiority  in  any  way  of  such  a  man  as  Marston,  who  seems 
to  have  exercised  an  influence  over  the  later  Revenge  tragedy,1  but 
is  tributive  to  the  subtlety  of  that  art  of  which  no  man  could  win 
the  secret. 

The  verbal  borrowings  are  of  two  kinds  :  they  are  lines  lifted 
more  or  less  intact  from  the  Shaksperean  text,  or  they  are  imita- 
tions of  Shaksperean  lines.  All  of  these  are  due  either  to  the 
retention  in  the  memory  of  remarkable  passages  heard  in  the 
theatre,  or  to  perusal  of  the  printed  text.  Borrowings  which  are 
due  to  reading  only,  need  not  greatly  detain  us  :  they  are  interest- 
ing and  they  are  valuable  ;  but  they  are  common  to  all  times,  and 
more  or  less  with  the  works  of  all  poets.  But  the  borrowings, 
conscious  or  unconscious,  which  are  due  to  knowledge  of  the 
plays  in  the  theatre  itself,  have  a  particular  importance. 
1  Tragedy,  by  A.  H.  Thorndike,  1908,  p.  199. 


INTRODUCTION.  XXXV 

In  1607  John  Marston,  in  What  You  Will,  quoted  that  famous 
line,  "  A  Horse,  a  Horse,  my  Kingdome  for  a  Horse," 1  and 
continued,  "  Looke  the  I  speake  play  scrappes."  2  This,  of  course, 
is  conscious  borrowing,  and  is  a  fairly  common  feature.  Marston 
himself  had  parodied  the  same  line  in  his  Scourge  of  Villanie  in 
I598;3  Richard  Brathwaite  cited  it  in  his  Strappado  for  the 
Dwell,  i6i5-4  Richard  Corbet  quoted  the  line  in  connexion  with 
Burbage,  who  acted  Richard  III,  in  Iter  Boreale,  before  i62i;5 
and  the  "  play-scrap"  is  again  parodied  in  Beaumont  and  Fletcher's 
Little  French  Lawyer?  Other  play-scraps  were  well  known  on  the 
Elizabethan  stage  and  were  even  quoted  by  Shakspere  himself. 
First,  there  is  Pistol's  scrap  :  "  haue  wee  not  Hiren  here  ? "  7 — 
probably  from  Peele's  lost  Turkish  Mahomet  and  the  Fair  Greek 
Hiren.  The  phrase  is  repeated  in  John  Day's  Law  Tricks,  1608  ;8 
and  again  in  Eastward  Hoe,  1605.  And  next  there  is  that  speech 
of  "  stalking  "  Tamburlaine  : 

"  Holla,  ye  pampered  jades  of  Asia ! 
What !  can  ye  draw  but  twenty  miles  a  day  .  .  .  ?  " 

once  more  made  part  of  "the  swaggering  vaine  of  Auncient  Pistoll?™ 
and  quoted,  likewise,  in  Eastward  Hoe.  As  the  Peele  and  Marlowe 
phrases  occur  in  the  same  page,  the  authors  of  that  play  may  be 
borrowing  from  Shakspere.  Lodovick  Barrey  in  the  same  way 
quotes  Pistol's  "die  men  like  dogs,"  in  his  Ram-Alley  of  i6u.u 

So  much  for  play-scraps.  We  pass  next  to  unacknowledged  and 
more  or  less  accurate  citations  from  the  text,  and  imitations  of 
passages.  These  commence  in  1594,  when  Richard  Barnfeild,  in 
his  Affectionate  Shepheard,  helped  his  muse  with  Shakspere's  Venus 
and  Adonis  and  probably  Lucrece^  It  is  difficult  to  determine 
whether  Barnfeild  borrowed  intentionally,  or  reproduced  phrases 
which  lingered  in  his  memory  :  probably  the  latter  is  the  truth. 
In  any  case,  in  the  following  year  Barnfeild  made  another  series  of 
borrowings,  as  we  may  term  them,  even  more  definite  than  those 

i  Richard  II I,  V.  iv  :  Fol.,  p.  204.  2  i.  I76.  a  j.  ^ 

4  i.  256.  5  i.  271.  6  i.  197. 

7  2  Henry  IV,  II.  iv  ;  Fol.,  p.  83.  8  i.  190. 

9  2  Tamburlaine,  IV.  iv.  1-2.  w  2  Henry  IVt  II.  iv.  ;  Fol.,  p.  83. 

11  i.  221.  12  i  17. 


XXXVI  INTRODUCTION. 

previous1:  nevertheless,  it  is  just  as  difficult  to  say  how  far  Barnfeild 
consciously  followed  Shakspere.  Exactly  similar  borrowings  to 
these  were  made  by  Nicholson  in  his  Acolastus  in  i6oo.2  The 
lines  he  parallels  or  imitates  come  from  Venus,  Lucrece  and  3 
Henry  VI,  the  one  from  the  latter  being  "  Oh  Tygres  Hart,  wrapt 
in  a  Womans  Hide,"3  which  Greene  had  previously  parodied  in 
I592.4  In  1600  was  published  Bodenham's  Belvedere*  the  first  of 
those  collections  of  citations  from  various  poets,  which  afterwards 
became  fairly  common.  An  enormous  number  of  quotations  from 
Shakspere  have  lately  been  identified  in  Belvedere  by  Mr.  Crawford 
(Vol.  II.,  Appendix  D.).  Subsequently  this  type  of  book  was  repre- 
sented by  The  Academy  of  Complements •,  1640,  Wifs  Labyrinth, 
1648,  and  John  Cotgrave's  English  Treasury,  1655. 

The  quotations  and  imitations  of  the  poems  continue  till  the 
middle  of  the  century,  when,  probably  in  consequence  of  wide- 
spread Puritan  feeling,  they  decrease.  Dekker  closely  imitated  a 
passage  from  Venus  in  Old  Fortunatus,  1600.°  Hey  wood  quoted 
part  of  two  stanzas  of  Venus  in  The  Fay  re  Mayde  of  the  Exchange, 
1607,  and  in  the  following  year  Markham  and  Machin  quoted 
almost  the  same  passage  from  that  book  of  "  maides  philosophic  " 
in  their  Dumbe  Knight?  The  apostrophe  of  Lucrece,  "  O  Oppor- 
tunity .  .  .  thou  notorious  bawd  ! "  has  its  imitations  in  Marston's 
Malcontent,  "  Entic'd  by  that  great  bawd,  opportunity  "  ;  in  Hey- 
wood's  Fair  Maid  of  the  West, — "  win  Opportunity,  Shees  the 
best  bawd "  ;  and  once  more  in  Ford's  Lady's  Trial — "  the 
bawd  .  .  .  Opportunity."  Alexander  Niccholes  quoted  a  passage 
from  Venus  in  his  Discourse  of  Marriage,  i6i5,8  apparently  from 
memory.  G.  Rivers  lifted  many  pieces  from  Lucrece  for  his 
Heroine?,  in  1639.°  And  while  Robert  Burton  introduced  bits  of 
the  poems  in  the  Anatomy  of  Melancholy™  Robert  Baron 
made  use  of  Venus  in  writing  his  Fortune's  Tennis-Sail,  1650, 
much  in  the  same  way  as  Nicholson  had  used  the  poem  for  his 
Acolastus  of  1600. 

The  Sonnets  and  the  other  poems  had  not  this  vogue.     Not 

1  i.  19.  2  i.  74.  3  3  Henry  VI,  I.  iv  ;  Fol. ,  p.  151. 

4  i.  2.  6  i.  72.  °  i.  64.  7  i.  177,  188. 

8  i.  254.  °  i.  436.  1°  i.  324. 


INTRODUCTION.  XXXV11 

dealing  so  much  with  incidents,  and  not  so  full  of  picturesque 
description  and  allusion,  they  were  less  quotable  and  imitable. 
The  commencement  of  the  twelfth  piece  in  The  Passionate 

Pilgrim, 

Crabbed  age  and  youth  cannot  live  together, 
Youth  is  full  of  pleasance,  age  is  full  of  care, 

finds  several  imitations  and  echoes.  The  first  line  is  quoted  in 
Rowley's  A  Match  at  Midnight,  1633  5  Ford  parodied  the  first  two 
lines  in  Fancies,  Chaste  and  Noble,  1638  ;  the  opening  line  seems  to 
be  parodied  in  Lady  Alimony,  1659,— "  Frosty  age  and  youth  suit 
not  well  together  "  ;  and  the  ballad  itself  is  referred  to  in  Fletcher's 
Womaris  Prize.  A  line  in  a  madrigal  of  Sir  W.  Drummond's 
may  be  an  echo  of  Sonnet  27  x ;  bits  of  Sonnet  47  are  introduced 
by  Sir  John  Suckling  into  his  Tragedy  of  Brennoralt,  1646,  and 
that  same  author  made  a  continuation  of  some  lines  from  Lucrece, 
printed  in  Fragmenta  Aurea,  1646.2 

There  is  sufficient  evidence  here  to  lead  us  to  believe  that  most  of 
these  quotations  and  imitations  were  not  made  directly  from  consult- 
ing the  printed  text.  The  verbal  differences  between  the  original 
and  the  imitator's  or  copier's  version  seem  to  be  due  to  small  failures 
of  memory,  and  not  to  deliberate  alteration.  For  this  reproduction 
of  phrases  and  parallelism  to  exist,  the  poems  must  have  been 
widely  read  and  well  known. 

We  must  next  consider  the  plays.  In  our  section  discussing  the 
mere  allusions  of  Shakspere's  contemporaries  to  his  dramatic 
pieces,  we  found  that  the  plays  which  most  interested  his  fellows 
were  Romeo  and  Richard  III,  and,  subsequently,  the  Falstaff  pieces 
and  Hamlet.  It  is  precisely  these  four  productions  which  most  of 
all  provided  material  for  minor  imitations  and  borrowings  up  to 
the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Of  the  borrowings  made 
from  these  plays  alone,  Richard  III  and  FalstafT  provide  about 
16  and  18  per  cent,  respectively;  Romeo  provides  about  23  per 
cent.;  and  Hamlet  about  43  per  cent.  The  total  number  of  refer- 
ences to  FalstafT  outnumber  those  to  Romeo,  but  the  latter  is  more 
imitated  and  quoted  from.  It  may  be  opportune,  too,  at  this 
point,  to  utter  a  word  of  warning  in  connexion  with  the  allusions 
*  i,  260.  2  i.  386,  404. 


XXXV111  INTRODUCTION. 

to  Hamlet.  Apart  from  the  fact  that  a  few  of  the  early  allusions 
may  be  to  the  earlier  Hamlet?  we  have  to  remember  that,  even 
before  the  appearance  of  Shakspere's  play,  there  existed  several 
Revenge  tragedies  of  a  Kydian  type  already  characterised  by  inci- 
dents and  parts  which  figure  prominently  in  the  Shaksperean 
tragedy.  Almost  all  the  Revenge  plays  have  points  of  contact  in 
their  adoption  of  the  minor  conventionalities  which  accompanied 
their  theme.  The  incitement  of  a  son  by  his  father's  ghost  to 
revenge  his  father's  murder,  the  son's  irresolution/his  scholarliness 
and  madness,  the  wooing  of  the  heroine,  and  her  insanity,  the  scene 
in  the  churchyard,  etc.,  are  by  no  means  the  peculiar  property  of 
Hamlet ;  and  whenever  allusions  to  some  older  play  are  concerned 
with  these  conventional  incidents,  it  is  not  always  safe  to  assume 
that  Shakspere's  tragedy  is  implied.  This  notwithstanding,  there 
are  few  passages  in  our  text  which  offer  difficulty  in  that  way. 

In  considering  the  plays,  we  will  deal  first  with  the  imitation  of 
phrases,  and  proceed  to  the  imitation  of  scenes.  Capulet's  words 
in  Romeo? 

At  my  poor  house,  looke  to  behold  this  night, 
Earth-treading  starres,  that  make  darke  heaven  light ;  .  .  .  . 
And  like  her  most,  whose  merit  most  shall  be  : 
Which  one  more  veiw,  of  many,  mine  being  one, 
May  stand  in  number,  though  in  reckning  none, 

are  borrowed  by  Sharpham  in  Ciipitfs  Whirligig,  1607,  "  where 
so  many  earth-treading  starres  adorhes  the  sky  of  state";  they 
appear  again  in  Armin's  Historic  of  the  two  Maids  of  More-Clacke, 
!6o8 — "  courtly  dames  or  earth's  bright  treading  starres";  and 
in  Fletcher's  Noble  Gentleman? 

' '  Beauties,  that  lights  the  Court,  and  makes  it  shew 
Like  a  faire  heaven,  in  a  frosty  night : 
And  mongst  these  mine,  not  poorest." 

Romeo's  words, 

"  It  seemes  she  hangs  vpon  the  cheeke  of  night, 
As  a  rich  lewel  in  an  /Ethiops  eare,"4 

appear  in  Acherley's  Massacre  of  Money,  1602 — "  Like  to  a 
Jewell  in  an  ^Ethiop's  eare " ;  and  in  Scoloker's  Daiphantus, 

1  See,  for  examples,  vol.  i.  p.  182.  2  Romeo,  I.  ii ;  Fol. ,  p.  55. 

8  i.  202.  4  Romeo,  I.  v ;  Fol. ,  p.  57. 


INTRODUCTION.  XXXIX 

1604 — "a  faire  lewell  by  an  Ethiope  worne,"  Other  similar 
borrowings  may  be  found  in  Henry  Porter's  Historic  of  the  two 
angrie  women  of  Abington,  I5991 ;  in  the  Returne  from  Pernassus, 
Part  I.,  i6oo2;  in  Middleton's  Blurt,  Master  Constable,  1602?; 
in  Marston's  Malcontent,  i6o44;  in  Tourneur's  Atheist's  Tragedie, 
1611  (?)  ;  in  Fletcher's  Wild  Goose  Chace  ;  and  in  Burton's 
Anatomy?  Finally,  we  will  draw  special  attention  to  Lodovick 
Barrey's  borrowings  from  Romeo  in  his  Ram-Alley,  i6n.6  Here 
we  have  a  number  of  Shaksperean  phrases  in  a  play  which  Fleay 
once  described  as  "  one  continuous  parody  of  Shakespere."  But 
once  more  we  seem  to  have  a  case  of  repetition  from  memory, 
perhaps  of  unconscious  repetition  ;  the  parallelisms  which  arise 
are  not  such  as  one  finds  in  the  case  of  imitation  of  a  printed  text. 

With  Richard  III  we  dealt  in  considering  the  "play-scraps."  A 
few  quotations  and  imitations  yet  remain  to  be  noticed.  The 
Returne  from  Pernassus  quoted  the  opening  lines  of  the  play  in 
1601-2  ;  Christopher  Brooke,  while  paying  a  magnificent  tribute  to 
Shakspere,  catches  a  few  phrases  from  his  play  on  the  Ghost  of 
Richard  III,  1614;  and  lines  appear  in  Webster's  White  Devil 
and  Suckling's  Goblins? 

Of  the  words  of  Falstaff  and  his  kinsmen  rascals  there  are  many 
echoes.  We  have  previously  noticed  Ancient  Pistol  as  a  purveyor 
of  play-scraps.  The  earliest  reproduction  of  any  of  Falstaff's  utter- 
ances is  in  the  Palladis  Tamia  of  Meres,  15988  :  "  there  is  nothing 
but  rogery  in  villanous  man "  ;  and  the  phrase  was  repeated  by 
Shirley  in  The  Example,  1634  : 

"  Falstaffe,  I  will  beleeve  thee, 
There  is  noe  faith  in  vilanous  man. " 

Shirley,  in  The  Sisters,  1642,  reproduced  another  Falstafifian  ex- 
pression :  "  Hum  !  send  for  a  lion  and  turn  him  loose ;  he  will  not 
hurt  the  true  prince,"  and  though  this  idea  was  common  in  the 
middle  ages,  and  is  recorded  in  Munday's  translation  of  Palmerin 
d?  Olivet,  1588,  yet  Shirley  most  probably  got  it  from  Shakspere, 
and  his  phrasing  is  practically  the  same.  After  Meres,  the  next 
example — a  somewhat  dubious  one,  perhaps — occurs  in  Middleton's 

i  i.  57.  2  i.  67.  3  i.  no.  4  i.  129. 

5  i.  324.  6  i.  si*.  7  i.  116,  384.  8  i.  49. 


xl  INTRODUCTION. 

Family  of  Love,  1607-8,  and  the  same  author  certainly  reproduces 
a  speech  of  Falstaff's  in  A  Mad  World,  my  Masters!  "  We  haue 
heard  the  Chymes  at  mid-night,  Master  Shallow,"2  says  the  fat 
knight :  "  I  haue  scene  the  stars  at  midnight  in  your  societies," 
writes  Robert  Armin,  one  of  Shakspere's  fellow  actors,  in  his  Nest 
of  Ninnies,  1608.  In  1614  John  Cooke  reproduced  Prince  Hal's 
phrase  :  "  There  is  a  devil  has  haunted  me  these  three  years  in 
likeness  of  an  usurer."  Massinger  reproduced  another  phrase  in 
the  Parliament  of  Love,  1624,  and  gave  an  echo  of  the  "honour" 
speech3  in  The  Picture,  of  I62Q.4  "Rare  rogue  in  Buckram," 
evidently  a  Falstaffian  reminiscence,  occurs  in  Suckling's  Goblins? 
and  Falstaff's  words  on  instinct  are  paralleled  in  Fletcher's  and 
Massinger's  Love's  Pilgrimage?  The  character  of  Hal  as  a  com- 
panion  of  FalstafFs,  erroneous  as  it  may  be  historically,  influenced 
John  Trussell's  account  of  the  prince  in  his  Continuation  of  the 
Collection  of  the  History  of  England,  i6^6.7 

Hamlet,  as  was  noticed  above,  presents  more  difficulties  than  the 
other  plays,  but  the  certain  borrowings  from  it  are  very  numerous. 
These  consist  of  instances  connected  with  the  ghost-scene,  with  the 
soliloquies,  with  the  churchyard  scene,  or  they  are  miscellaneous 
borrowings  from  any  part.  John  Marston's  works  are  frequently 
cited  in  these  volumes.  He  it  was,  apparently,  who  commenced 
the  Hamletian  borrowings  in  his  Malcontent,  in  1604,  with  the 
ghost-scene  phrase,  "  arte  there,  old  true  peny  ? " — which,  as  Marston 
certainly  copied  Hamlet  in  other  passages,  he  most  probably  took 
from  Shakspere.  The  dialogue  between  the  ghost  and  Hamlet  is 
again  evident  in  Fletcher's  Woman-Hater,  in  The  Merry  Divel  of 
Edmonton,  and  in  Middleton's  Mad  World?  while  in  Beaumont 
and  Fletcher's  Womaris  Prigefwe  have  a  repetition  of  the  swearing 
and  moving  of  places,  again  probably  from  Hamlet,  though  the 
incident  is  not  peculiar  to  that  play.  The  agility  of  the  ghost  is 
referred  to  in  Anthropophagus,  1624  :  "  they  are  like  Hamlets  ghost, 
hie  &>  ubique,  here  and  there,  and  everywhere."  A  line  or  two  from 
the  ghost-scene  is  caught  in  Suckling's  Goblins,  and  again  in  The 

i  i.  142.  2  2  Henry  IV,  III.  ii ;  Fol.,  p.  88. 

3  i  Henry  IV,  V.  i.  4  i.  299.  5  i.  384. 

6  i.  203.  7  i.  401.  8  \.  180,  169,  142.  9  i.  200^ 


INTRODUCTION.  xli 

Lady  Mother,  1635.  The  mention  of  "  meditations  spotless  wings," 
in  The  Honest  Whore,1  though  a  similar  phrase  occurs  previous  to 
Hamlet  in  Wily  Beguilde?  is  also  probably  from  Shakspere's  play. 
The  first  echo  of  the  soliloquies  is  in  Beaumont  and  Fletcher's 
Scornful  Ladie?  "  to  sleepe  to  die,  to  die  to  sleepe  :  a  very  Figure 
Sir."  Massinger  follows  in  The  Roman  Actor,  1626.*  "Tremble 
to  think  how  terrible  the  dream  is  After  this  sleep  of  death."  The 
same  author  in  The  Maid  of  Honour,  1632,  once  more  echoes  the 
same  soliloquy.  Dekker's  Wonder  of  a  Kingdome,  1636,  repeats 
"  In  such  a  sea  of  troubles,"  and  Suckling's  Aglaura 5  catches 
another  phrase  of  the  same  speech,  "  Hope  .  .  .  has  so  sicklied  o're 
Their  resolutions."  And  finally  The  London  Post,  of  January  1644, 
describing  the  execution  of  Laud,  says,  from  still  the  same  soliloquy : 
"  the  sense  of  something  after  death,  and  the  undiscovered  country 
unto  which  his  soul  was  wandering  startling  his  resolution."  The 
scene  in  the  graveyard  and  the  moralising  over  the  skull  of  Yorick 
seem  to  have  inspired  a  passage  in  The  Honest  Whore,  1604,  and 
certainly  inspired  a  scene  in  Randolph's  Jealous  Lovers,  1632.  In 
Ancient  Funerall  Monuments,  1631,  there  are  likewise  borrowings 
from  Hamlet's  moralising  : 

"  Bid  her  paint  till  day  of  doome, 
To  this  fauour  she  must  come." 

Hamlet's  ironical  speech  to  Guildenstern,  "  what  a  piece  of  worke 
is  a  man  ! "  etc.,  is  paralleled  in  The  Malcontent,  and  Polonius's 
warning  to  Ophelia  to  reject  Hamlet  seems  there  to  be  echoed. 
The  authors  of  Eastward  Hoe,  in  1605,  made  several  allusions  to 
Shakspere's  tragedy,  and  gave  another  version  of  Ophelia's  song, 
"  And  will  he  not  come  againe." 6  Part  of  Hamlet's  speech  with 
Rosencrantz  and  Guildenstern,  in  Act  II,  sc.  ii,  is  rewritten  into 
The  Flea,  by  Peter  Woodhouse,  1605.  The  first  two  of  the  following 
lines  spoken  by  the  play  queen,7 

"In  second  Husband,  let  me  be  accurst, 
None  wed  the  second,  but  who  kill'd  the  first  .  .  . 
A  second  time,  I  kill  my  Husband  dead, 
When  second  Husband  kisses  me  in  Bed," 

1  i.  141.  2  i.  29.  3  i.  229.  4  i.  302.  5  i.  385. 

•  Act  IV,  sc.  v;  Fol.,  p.  274.  7  Act  III,  sc.  ii;  Fol.,  p.  268, 


Xlii  INTRODUCTION. 

were,  with  minor  changes,  quoted  in  A  Discourse  of  Marriage,  by 
Alex.  Niccholes,  1615,  and  all  four  were  given  as  "what  the  Tragic 
Queen  but  fainedly  spake,"  in  The  Philosophers  Banquet,  1614.  The 
player's  speech  to  Hamlet  is  alluded  to  in  Marston's  Insatiate  Count- 
esse,  I6I3.1  Phrases  are  also  imitated  and  echoed  in  Beaumont 
and  Fletcher's  Philaster  and  Maids  Tragedy"* ;  in  Massinger's 
Unnatural  Combat*  ;  in  Ford's  'Tis  Pity  shJs  a  Whore*;  in 
Clarke's  Paramiologia,  1639,  and  a  passage  is  quoted  in  A  Helpe 
to  Discourse,  1640.  The  title-page  of  Pendragon,  1698,  contains 
a  quotation  from  Hamlet,  probably  the  earliest  citation  from 
Shakspere  so  used. 

Among  other  Shaksperean  characters  Hotspur  attracted   some 
notice.     His  words  in  I  Henry  IV,  I.  iii,6 

"  By  heauen,  me  thinkes  it  were  an  easie  leap, 
To  plucke  bright  Honor  from  the  pale-fac'd  Moone,"  etc., 

were  quoted  in  Beaumont  and  Fletcher's  Knight  of  the  Burning 
Pestle,  i6i3,6  and  were  imitated  in  "EIK^J/  ^  Hum?,"  1649,  while 
another  of  his  lines  may  be  echoed  in  Fletcher's  Captain,  i6i3.7 
Part  of  Prince  Hal's  speech  over  the  body  of  Hotspur,  his  slain 

rival,8 

"  Thy  ignomy  sleepe  with  thee  in  the  graue, 
But  not  remembred  in  thy  Epitaph," 

is  imitated  in  Dekker's  and  Webster's  Famous  History  of  Sir 
Thomas  Wyat?  Hotspur's  words  in  i  Henry  IV,  I.  iii,10 

"  Three  times  they  breath'd,  and  three  times  did  they  drink 
Vpon  agreement,  of  swift  Seuernes  flood  ; 
Who  then  affrighted  with  their  bloody  lookes, 
Ran  fearfully  among  the  trembling  Reeds, 
And  hid  his  crispe-head  in  the  hollow  banke," 

are  paralleled  in  Fletcher's  Loyal  Subject ',u  and  in  Abraham  Cowley's 
Damdeis,  1656.  Other  lines  from  the  same  play  are  reproduced 
in  Sharpham's  Fleire,  i6o7,12  in  Massinger's  Virgin  Martyr,  i622,13 
and  in  the  Great  Duke  of  Flore?ice,  i627,14  and  some  lines  from 
Part  2  of  Henry  IV  are  quoted  in  Suckling's  Brennoraltl* 

i  i.  236.  2  i.  196.  3  i.  296.  *  i.  379.  s  Fol.,  p.  52. 

6  i.  229.  7  i.  197.  8  Act  V.  sc.  iv;  Fol.,  p.  72. 

9  i.  183.  10  Fol.,  p.  51.  11  i.  198.  12  i.  I73. 

I3  i.  296.  i*  i.  298.  is  i.  386. 


INTRODUCTION.  xliii 

Othello's  words  in  Act  III.  sc.  iii,1  "I  found  not  Cassia's  kisses 
on  her  Lippes,'}  were  copied  in  The  Honest  Whore,  1604,  and  in 
Massinger's  Emperor  of  the  East,  1631  ;  and  Suckling  quoted 
some  lines  from  the  play  in  his  Goblins.  Sam  Picke  imitated  one 
of  lago's  speeches  in  his  Fes  turn  Voluptatis,  1639,  and  lago's 
Rabelaisian  phrase  in  Act  I.  sc.  i  2  is  repeated  in  Sheppard's  Loves 
of  Amandus  and  Sophronia,  1650,  and  in  Blount's  Academie  of 
Eloqtience,  1654. 

A  Midsummer-Night 's  Dream  was  even  more  drawn  upon  than 
Othello.  Titania's  words  to  Bottom,  "  Come,  sit  thee  downe  vpon 
this  flowry  bed,"  etc.,3  are  imitated  in  Dekker's  Shomakers  Holiday, 
1600  ;  and  different  speeches  by  Bottom  were  quoted  or  imitated 
by  Ford  in  'Tis pity  she's  a  Whore,  1633,  and  Taylor  in  the  Epistle 
to  Sir  Gregory  Nonsense,  1630.  Puck's  lines,  "  He  put  a  girdle 
round  about  the  earth,  In  forty  minutes,"4  are  echoed  in  Chapman's 
Bussy  D'Ambois,  1607,  and  in  Massinger's  Maid  of  Hono^tr, 
1631-2  ;  while  other  lines  and  passages  are  imitated  in  Marston's 
Malcontent,  1604  ;  in  Fletcher's  Lover's  Progress 5 ;  and  in 
Massinger's  Duke  of  Milan,  i623.6 

The  speech  of  Coriolanus, 

"  Now  by  the  iealous  Queene  of  Heauen,  that  kisse 
I  carried  from  thee  deare  ;  and  my  true  Lippe 
Hath  Virgin'd  it  ere  since,"  7 

is  imitated  in  Beaumont  and  Fletcher's  Queen  of  Corinth?  in  Mas- 
singer's  Bondman?  and  in  Shirley's  Coronation™ 
Longaville's  lines  in  Love's  Labours  Lost,11 

"  Fat  paunches  haue  leane  pates  ;  and  daynty  bits 
Make  rich  the  ribbes  but  bankerout  quite  the  wits," 

are  quoted  in  Walkington's  Optick  glass  of  Humors^  1607,  and  in 
John  Clarke's  Par<zmiologia>  1639 ;  Berowne's  "  Pompey  the  huge  " 12 

1  Fol.,  p.  325. 

2  Fol.,  p.  311 :  "  your  Daughter  and  the  Moore,  are  making  the  Beast  with 
two  backs." 

3  Act  IV.  sc.  i ;  Fol.,  p.  157.  *  Act  II.  sc.  ii ;  Fol.,  p.  149. 

5  i.  203.  6  i.  297.  7  Act  V.  sc.  iii  ;  Fol.,  p.  27. 

8  i.  198.  9  i.  297.  10  i.  479. 

U  Act  I.  sc.  i ;  Fol.,  p.  122.  l2  Act  V.  sc,  ii ;  Fol.,  p.  142. 


Xliv  INTRODUCTION. 

is  caught  in  Marston's  Malcontent,  and  Moth's  words  about 
Samson  and  the  town-gates  *  are  echoed  in  Middleton's  Family 
of  Love?  Various  speeches  from  Much  Ado  were  imitated  in 
Hey  wood's  Fayre  Mayde  of  the  Exchange  3  ;  and  borrowings  from 
Dogberry's  utterances  by  Armin  in  his  Italian  Taylor*'  first  led 
Collier  to  believe  that  Armin  had  acted  that  character.  Benedick's 
acceptance  of  Beatrice  "for  pity,"  is  paralleled  in  The  Wild  Goose 
Chace,  1621. 

Of  the  few  verbal  parallels  which  remain  beyond  those  just 
detailed,  we  need  not  take  individual  notice.  Some  of  them 
concern  Lear,  some  The  Tempest,  some  Henry  VI,  some  Julius 
CcBsar,  and  some  Henry  V.  Richard  II,  Pericles,  John,  Troilus, 
The  Merchant  and  As  You  Like  It  are  also  drawn  from.  A  few 
cases  in  which  incidents  and  scenes  were  imitated  remain  to  be 
considered.  The  imitation  of  scenes  is  a  field  which  has  not  yet 
been  sufficiently  explored,  and  further  research  would  probably 
produce  many  more  cases  than  those  hitherto  discovered.  Wily 
Beguilde,  probably  written  before  I596,5  imitates  the  scene  between 
Capulet  and  Juliet,6  where  the  old  man  chides  his  daughter  for 
refusing  Paris,  and  besides  echoing  a  phrase  of  Shylock's,  imitates 
the  moonlight  scene  towards  the  end  of  The  Merchant  of  Venice. 
The  parting  of  Romeo  and  Juliet  is  likewise  imitated  in  A  Pastorall 
Dialogue,  by  Thomas  Carew,  before  1638,  and  the  speech  of 
Laurence,  instructing  Juliet  to  take  the  potion,  is  copied  by  Fletcher 
in  The  Knight  of  Malta.1  Richard  1 1  Ps  forgetfulness  in  his  instruc- 
tions to  Catesby  in  Act  IV.  sc.  iii,8  may  be  imitated  in  Lingua,. 
i6o2-7.9  Beaumont  and  Fletcher  in  A  King  and  no  King™  in  the 
scene  between  Arane  and  Arbaces  (III.  i),  had  in  mind  the  scene 
between  Volumnia  and  Coriolanus  (V.  iii).  Ford  in  his  Love's 
Sacrifice™-  imitated  the  great  scene  between  Othello  and  lago  in 
Act  III.  sc.  iii.  Glapthorne  in  Wit  in  a  Constable,  1639-40,  imitated 
the  scene  between  Dogberry  and  his  watch  in  Much  Ado^  and  the 
same  scene  was  imitated  in  Lady  Alimony,  1659. 

1  Act  I.  sc.  ii  ;  Fol.,  p.  125.  2  i.  141.  3  i.  177. 

*  i.  194.  6  i.  28.  6  Act  III.  sc.  v. 

7  i.  198.  8  Fol.,  p.  199.  a  i.  112. 

10  I  197.  "  i.  379.  !2  Act  III.  sc.  iii. 


INTRODUCTION.  xlv 

We  have  noticed  in  referring  to  these  examples  of  borrowing  that 
many  of  them  do  not  appear  to  be  due  to  book  knowledge,  but  are 
simply  the  repetition  of  phrases  and  passages  caught  by  the  ear, 
with  such  misplacement  of  words  and  minor  errors  as  such  a 
process  would  entail.  In  an  age  when  many  playwrights  were 
actors,  and  performed  in  others'  plays,  many  of  them  would  know 
by  heart  long  passages,  at  least,  from  plays  by  their  colleagues. 
Playwrights  who  frequented  the  theatres  must  have  retained  in  the 
memory  play-scraps  and  strong  lines  spoken  by  the  actors.  Thus 
a  great  deal  of  the  borrowing  we  have  noticed  came  from  the 
theatre  itself;  it  was  sometimes  conscious  borrowing,  and  some- 
times unconscious.  "  If,"  says  Anthony  Scoloker  in  his  Diaphantus^ 
the  author  "  haue  caught  vp  half  a  Line  of  any  others,  It  was  out  of 
his  Memorie,  not  of  any  ignorance."  Robert  Armin,  who  repro- 
duced several  Shaksperean  phrases,  was  a  member  of  Shakspere's 
company.  Important  as  the  Quartos  and  Folios  were  in  establishing 
Shakspere's  lasting  reputation,  this  constant  repetition  of  phrases 
from  memory  shows  clearly  that,  apart  from  them,  Shakespere's 
success  in  the  theatre  itself  was  sufficient  to  have  won  him  fame 
among  his  fellows.  What  the  publication  of  his  works  did,  was  to 
make  them  accepted  as  literature,  to  carry  on  his  reputation  through 
the  turmoil  of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  to  preserve  his  labours  till 
their  full  worth  could  be  appreciated.  But  apart  from  Quarto  and 
Folio,  Shakspere  the  man,  Shakspere  the  poet,  and  Shakspere 
the  playwright,  would  not  have  been  unrecorded  in  Elizabethan 
literature.  The  allusions  to  him  and  his  works  show  that  he  was 
loved  and  that  he  was  honoured,  and  that,  though  men  did  not 
recognise  in  him  the  greatest  literary  genius  of  England,  yet  in  their 
praises,  and  particularly  in  their  borrowings,  they  paid  a  tribute  to 
the  way  in  which  he  excelled  them,  and  corroborated  Browning's 
declaration  of  his  most  striking  characteristic  :  "  The  royal  ease 
with  which  he  walks  up  the  steps  and  takes  his  seat  on  his  throne, 
while  we  poor  fellows  have  to  struggle  hard  to  get  up  a  step  or 
two."2 

In  a  number  of  instances  the  very  form  of  the  Shaksperean  phrase 
and  line  is  caught  and  repeated  by  the  imitator.  The  parallelism 
1  i.  133.  2  sh.  Life  and  Work,  1908,  p.  169. 


xlvi  INTRODUCTION. 

between  the  original  and  the  imitation  seems  to  be  exactly  similar 
to  the  likeness  which  exists  between  the  parallel  passages  often 
cited  as  proofs  of  authorship  in  dubious  cases.  How  much  the 
fact  that  similar  parallelism  is  here  proved  to  be  borrowing,  would 
invalidate  the  use  of  the  parallel-passage  test,  each  editor  must 
decide  for  himself  in  accordance  with  the  nature  of  the  case  with 
which  he  deals  ;  to  us  it  is  sufficient  to  show  that  where  parallelisms 
are  not  accompanied  by  general  sameness  of  treatment  and  similarity 
of  conception,  and  are  not  supported  by  metrical  tests,  it  is 
extremely  dangerous  to  attach  importance  to  them. 

d.  Allusions  of  Shakspere's  Successors  to  the  Poet  and  his 
Works. — Some  index  of  the  changes  which  came  over  poetry  and 
drama  during  the  seventeenth  century  is  to  be  seen  in  the  allusions 
to  Shakspere.  The  latter  part  of  the  century,  more  or  less  conse- 
quent upon  the  Commonwealth  and  identical  with  the  Restoration, 
was  a  period  of  decline  in  the  intellectual  condition  of  the  nation, — 
of  decline  which  ceased  at  the  advent  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
when  started  the  rise  to  the  Victorian  era.  By  1650  all  the  great 
Elizabethans  were  dead.  Even  in  Jacobean  times,  however,  the 
Elizabethan  spirit  was  passing  away.  The  old  freshness,  delicacy, 
richness  and  wanton  joyousness  of  English  verse  had  all  but  gone  ; 
poetry  became,  on  the  whole,  more  measured,  more  learned  and 
more  sententious,  and,  at  the  same  time,  more  satirical  and  vicious. 
Imagination  was  less  powerful  and  less  rich  :  in  a  more  learned, 
but  less  wise  age,  geographical  and  classical  errors  in  drama  were 
well-nigh  impossible,  and  anachronism  practically  disappeared  ;  but 
Ariel  was  dead.  No  longer  the  delightful  children  of  myth  tripped  in 
the  green  ways  of  wonderful  forests  ;  no  longer  the  bright  spirit  of 
the  imagination  hovered  over  enchanted  islands  in  the  great  ocean 
of  life,  and  worked  for  human  weal. 

While  these  changes  were  developing,  the  social  status  of  the 
theatre  was  raised  :  it  became  the  favourite  amusement  of  the 
court  and  of  men  of  leisure.  Gradually  it  grew  less  in  touch  with 
national  life,  and  gradually  it  grew  more  coarse.  The  theatre  was 
bound  to  pander  to  the  tastes  of  its  patrons,  and  to  reflect  their 
life.  And  then,  while  these  developments  were  proceeding,  the 
knife-edge  of  the  revolution  severed  the  past  from  the  future. 


INTRODUCTION.  xlvii 

A  few  men  remained  to  carry  on  theatrical  tradition  to  the 
Restoration  stage  ;  but  the  men  of  Dryden's  age  were  effectually 
cut  off  from  the  life  and  thought  of  their  fathers ;  and,  though 
Restoration  plays  followed  to  some  extent  Elizabethan  models,  the 
old  spirit  had  gone,  the  old  language  had  changed,  the  old  society 
had  disappeared.  Foreign  influence  and  music  were  brought  to 
the  stage  :  the  scenery  of  masques  and  operas  led  to  the  adoption 
of  scenery  for  tragedy  and  comedy ;  the  shameless  wantonness  of 
the  court  and  leisured  people  tainted  the  whole  of  theatrical  life  and 
became  characteristic  of  plays  and  players.  Courtiers  became  play- 
wrights, and  playwrights  became  hangers-on  of  courts.  The  works 
of  Shakspere,  in  consequence  of  these  changes,  were  no  longer  appre- 
ciated or  understood  by  most,  and  many  of  them  were  altered  and 
rearranged  for  the  new  theatre.  In  spite  of  the  genius  of  Betterton, 
who  made  the  tragic  characters  of  Shakspere  great  stage  successes, 
the  poet  was  best  known,  in  a  dissolute  age  that  delighted  in  satire 
and  comedy,  by  his  own  dissolute  Falstaff.  He  was  often  declared 
to  be  inferior  to  the  writers  of  that  time.  Since  the  "refinement" 
of  the  language,  many  of  his  common  words,  common  also  in  our 
day,  were  obsolete  and  incomprehensible  ;  and  such  was  the  state 
of  affairs  that  one  writer  speaks  of  "his  unfiled  expressions,  his 
rambling  and  indigested  Fancys,  the  laughter  of  the  Critical "  (Ed. 
Phillips,  1675). 

But  amid  all  this  ignorance  and  corruption  one  or  two  men  saw 
clearly  and  held  true.  If  the  Puritan  thought  the  poet  fit  author 
for  a  renegade  king  worthy  of  death,  the  greatest  of  Puritans,  John 
Milton,  paid  his  whole-hearted  tribute  to  his  predecessor.  In 
the  vitiated  atmosphere  of  the  theatre  itself,  one  man,  and  he, 
"glorious  John,"  the  greatest  critic  so  far  in  English,  and  the 
greatest  literary  man  of  his  day,  insisted  on  the  pre-eminence  of 
Shakspere,  and  gave  good  reasons  for  the  faith  that  was  in  him. 
If  theatrical  genius  ran  riot  in  elaborately  gorgeous  displays,  and 
taste  accordingly  degenerated,  one  man,  at  least,  and  he  one  of 
the  few  true  gentlemen  of  this  unfortunate  stage,  Thomas  Betterton, 
strove  after  higher  ideals,  and  was  greatly  instrumental  through  his 
acting  in  bringing  about  the  first  systematic  studies  in  Shakspere. 

In    discussing    this    latter    part    of    the    century,    it    will    be 


xlviil  INTRODUCTION. 

convenient  to   adopt   our    previous    arrangement    into    sections. 
These  will  be  : 

a.  Allusions  to  Shakspere  himself  as  poet  and  playwright. 

b.  Borrowings  from  his  works. 

c.  Mere  references  to  his  works  and  characters. 

d.  Alterations  of  his  plays. 

(a)  Allusions  to  Shakspere  as  Poet  and  Playwright. — Throughout 
the  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth  century  the  names  of  Jonson  and 
Shakspere  are  generally  bracketed  together,  and  this  for  two 
reasons.  The  first  is  that  these  two  men  represented  in  a  way 
that  no  other  authors  could,  the  drama  of  the  age  that  was  gone ; 
and  the  second  is  to  be  seen  in  the  close  way  in  which  Shakspere's 
reputation  in  that  age  was  connected  with  Jonson's  verses  con- 
cerning him  in  the  Folio  of  1623,  and  his  criticism  in  Timber,  and 
his  talks  with  Drummond.  In  these  verses  and  this  criticism 
Jonson  had  represented  Shakspere  as  having  had  little  Latin  and 
less  Greek,  as  having  been  ignorant  of  the  Ancients,  and  as  wanting 
art  :  he,  on  the  other  hand,  had  attempted  to  regulate  English 
drama  according  to  the  principles  established  by  classical  pre- 
cedent as  then  understood,  and  his  own  art  was  always  conscious 
and  deliberate.  The  men  of  the  Commonwealth  and  Restoration, 
impressed  by  the  pseudo-classical  principles  advocated  in  France, 
found  Jonson's  criticism  confirmed  by  reading  the  Shaksperean 
text.  They  took  up  that  ever-recurring  battle  between  romantic 
freedom  and  classical  propriety ;  and  when  they  associated  rare 
old  Ben  and  Shakspere,  the  former  represented  to  them  learning 
and  art,  and  was  identified  with  the  classical  side ;  and  the  latter 
represented  natural  gen 'us,  and  was  identified  with  romantic 
freedom.  To  these  two,  Fletcher  was  sometimes  added  ;  and  then 
we  have  the  glorious  triumvirate  in  whom  the  old  drama  was 
thought  to  be  summed  up.  A  distinction  was  often  drawn  between 
Fletcher  and  Shakspere  :  the  muse  of  the  former  was  said  to  be 
more  feminine  ;  the  muse  of  the  latter  more  masculine  and  strong. 
Flecknoe  identifies  Jonson  with  "Judgment"  and  also  "Gravity 
and  ponderousness  of  style,"  and  Fletcher  with  "  Wit "  (ii.  85). 

The  main  points  of  Jonson's  criticism,  confirmed  by  the  theory 


INTRODUCTION.  xlix 

imported  from  France,  were  accepted  on  all  sides,  and  were  con- 
stantly being  stated.  The  first  reference  to  Shakspere,  the  natural, 
untrained  genius,  is  in  U Allegro  of  Milton,  where,  after  referring 
to  the  learned  Jonson,  the  poet  proceeds  in  that  often-quoted 

couplet ; 

"Or sweetest  Shakespeare,  Fancy's  child, 
Warble  his  native  wood-notes  wild.    (i.  372.) 

Fuller  comes  next,  saying  of  the  poet :  "  He  was  an  eminent  in- 
stance of  the  truth  of  that  Rule,  Poet  a  nonfit*  sed  nascitur  (i.  483) 
— a  passage  afterwards  stolen  by  Winstanley  in  his  Worthies >  1684. 
Denham  in  his  verses  on  Fletcher  in  1647,  says  that  he  combines 
the  natural  genius  of  Shakspere  and  the  art  of  Jonson — "mixt  like 
th'  Elements,  and  borne  like  twins"  (i.  504)— a  compliment  which 
Jasper  Mayne  afterwards  paid  to  Cartwright  (ii.  17),  and  Nahum 
Tate  to  Sir  Francis  Fane,  who,  he  says,  "  can  temper  Shakespear's 
Flame  with  Johnson's  Art  "  (ii.  317).  The  Prologue  to  Julius  Casar 
in  Covent  Garden  Drollery  (ii.  172),  sometimes  ascribed  to  Dryden, 
represents  Shakspere  as  writing  with  a  happy  genius,  excelling 
Jonson  by  far,  and  yet  committing  faults,  designing  like  a  master, 
while  Jonson  dissected  humankind,  and  creating  with  such  facility 
that  "  'Twas  well  in  spight  of  him  whate're  he  writ."  "  Shakespear," 
says  Flecknoe,  in  1660  (ii.  85),  "excelled  in  a  natural  vein";  and 
he  then  proceeds  to  remark  that  a  comparison  of  Shakspere  with 
Jonson  shows  the  difference  "  betwixt  Nature  and  Art." 

This  criticism  is  repeated  by  Phillips  in  his  Theatrum  Poetarum 
(ii.  221),  where  he  says  of  our  poet  and  his  work  :  "where  the  polish- 
ments  of  Art  are  most  wanting,  as  probably  his  Learning  was  not 
extraordinary,  he  pleaseth  with  a  certain  wild  and  native  Elegance." 
Sir  Francis  Fane,  junior,  repeats  this  estimate  in  complimenting 
Major  Mohun  of  the  King's  Company  in  the  Epilogue  to  Love  in 
the  Dark  (ii.  216).  The  distinction  between  the  two  poets  is  again 
drawn  in  Margaret  Cavendish's  Prologue  to  all  her  plays  (ii.  134) ;  it 
is  once  more  uttered  by  Denham  in  the  well-known  lines  : 

"  Old  Mother  Wit,  and  Nature'gave 
Shakespear and  Fletcher  all  they  have  ; 
In  Spencer,  and  in  Johnson,  Art 
Of  slower  Nature  got  the  start."    (ii.  159.) 
SH.  ALLN.  UK. — I.  d 


1  INTRODUCTION. 

Knightly  Chetwood  says  ever  the  same  thing  : 

"  Shakspeare  say'd  all  that  Nature  cou'd  impart, 
And  Johnson  added  Industry  and  Art."     (ii.  304.) 

And  Sedley  aptly  sums  up  the  popular  verdict,  but  transcends  it 
in  his  bold  conclusion,  in  the  prologue  to  Higden's  Wary  Widdow 

(ii.  392)  : 

"  Shackspearvihose  frtiitfull  Genius,  happy  Wit, 
Was  framed  and  finisht  at  a  lucky  hit ; 
The  Pride  of  Nature,  and  the  shame  of  Schools, 
Born  to  Create,  and  not  to  Learn  from  Rules." 

In   the   Preface  to  Mountfort's  Successful  Strangers,  a  writer 
flatters  the  author  in  the  usual  strain : 

"  Hail  thou  the  Shaksphear  of  our  present  age,  .  .  . 
Thou  art  not  now,  more  learn'd  then  Shakspear  then, 
Who  to  th'  amaze  of  the  more  Letter'd  men, 
Minted  such  thoughts  from  his  own  Natural  Brain  ; 
As  the  great  Readers,  since  could  ne're  attain, 
Though  daily  they  the  stock  of  Learning  drain."    (ii.  341.) 

Milton's  epithet  of  "  sweetest "  is  referred  to  in  the  Athenian 
Mercury,  1691  (ii.  378)  ;  while  the  statement  that  Shakspere  was 
probably  more  learned  than  the  popular  estimate  allowed,  is  to  be 
found  in  the  Address  to  Tate's  Loyal  General  (ii.  266). 
1  All  of  these  references,  generally  drawing  a  comparison  between 
Shakspere  and  Jonson,  identifying  the  former  with  natural  genius, 
and  the  latter  with  "  art,"  show  the  influence  of  the  latter's  criti- 
cism. Other  passages  in  Shakspere's  praise  likewise  show  Jonson's 
influence.  His  "  Sweet  Swan  of  Avon ''  is  repeated  in  the  epistle 
of  ten  players  in  the  first  edition  of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher 
(i.  503).  George  Daniel,  of  Beswick,  designates  Samuel  Daniel 
as  "  Sweetest  Swan  of  Avon,"  in  1647 — and  George  Daniel,  as 
Grosart  puts  it,  "  idolized  Ben  Jonson,  and  set  himself  resolutely 
against  the  supremacy  of  Shakespere  "  (i.  506).  Samuel  Sheppard, 
who  wrote  of  making  a  pilgrimage  to  Shakspere's  tomb  every  year 
(ii.  12),  repeated  Jonson's  remarks  concerning  the  poet's  excel- 
lence over  classical  tragedies  in  the  lines  : 

"  This  Muse  doth  merit  more  rewards 
Then  all  the  Greek  or  Laline  Bards."    (ii.  13.) 

And  Otway  in  1680  (ii.  263),  in  the  Prologue  to  his  degenerate 


INTRODUCTION. 


ll 


version  of  Romeo,  refers  to  the  favour  of  "  Eliza,"  or  "  Our  James" 
which  Jonson  mentioned  : 

"A  gracious  Prince's  favour  chear'd  his  Muse, 
A  constant  Favour  he  ne'er  fear'd  to  lose." 

That  a  good  many  of  these  critical  allusions  are  due  to  the 
acceptance  of  a  tradition,  rather  than  to  adequate  personal  ac- 
quaintance with  the  poet's  works,  is  shown  in  the  way  in  which  the 
borrowings  from  his  text,  once  so  common  a  feature,  decrease 
in  number,  while  the  mere  references  to  Falstaff,  etc.,  are 
much  more  common.  The  same  thing  is  shown  in  the  way  in 
which  the  writers  follow  the  Jonsonian  judgment,  and  the  similarity 
in  phrasing  of  their  remarks  on  the  subject.  Very  rarely  does  one 
find  in  all  this  matter  the  individual  judgment  of  a  man  who  has 
read  the  poet  for  himself,  and  gives  his  own  verdict.  That,  and 
that  alone,  constantly  sustained  by  one  man,  was  wanted  to  raise 
English  criticism  from  its  lethargy,  and  eventually  that  came. 

A  reflection  of  the  great  attention  given  in  these  times  to  Falstaff 
and  comedy,  is  to  be  seen  in  the  frequent  references  to  Shakspere 
as  a  portrayer  of  humorous  characters.  George  Daniel  refers  to 
"  Comicke  Shakespeare"  in  1647  (i.  506);  Cokaine  writes  of 
"  Shakespeare,  most  rich  in  Humours"  in  1653  (ii.  29).  Scrope 
says  of  the  "glorious  triumvirate"  in  1677-8  : 

"They  took  so  bold  a  Freedom  with  the  Age, 
That  there  was  scarse  a  Knave,  or  Fool,  in  Town 
Of  any  Note,  but  had  his  Picture  shown." 

Wilmot,  in  1678,  says  that  Shakspeare  hits  home  with  "a  jeast 
in  scorn."  Temple  declares  Shakspere  was  the  first  to  open  the 
vein  of  humour  on  our  stage  (ii.  265). 

It  is  a  dangerous  thing  for  an  age  to  be  satisfied  with  itself ;  but 
the  age  of  Dryden  was  quite  certain  that  it  was  more  refined  and 
polished  than  the  age  of  Shakspere.  It  looked  on  its  literary  pro- 
ductions as  more  "  correct."  It  was  satisfied,  too,  that  since  those 
old,  rough  times,  the  language  had  been  refined  and  perfected — 
indeed,  the  subject  was  so  far  advanced  that  the  day  was  nigh 
when  men  would  propound  the  delightful  scheme  of  "  fixing  "  the 
language.  The  literati  of  the  Drydenian  age  often  professed  to 


In  INTRODUCTION. 

strive  after  the  virtues  of  their  predecessors,  and  to  avoid  their 
faults.  For  the  faults  to  be  avoided  in  Shakspere,  they  took  a  hint 
from  Ben.  He  had  already  laid  down  that  the  wit  of  Shakspere 
sometimes  defied  control,  and  that  far  from  not  blotting  a  line,  he 
ought  to  have  blotted  a  thousand.  Once  more  in  accord  with  his 
criticism,  Dryden  and  his  contemporaries  found  that  Shakspere  was 
guilty  of  "  waste  of  wit,"  and  that  in  consequence  of  the  early  time 
at  which  he  wrote,  the  uncultured  people  for  whom  he  wrote,  and 
the  state  of  the  language  he  wrote  in,  Shakspere's  plays  had 
many  rough  and  unpolished  passages,  and  contained  many 
improprieties  of  language. 

J.  Berkenhead,  with  all  the  adulation  of  a  first-edition  com- 
mendator,  eulogises  Beaumont  and  Fletcher  in  their  first  folio  of 
1647,  and  remarks  of  Shakspere  : 

"  Shakespeare  was  early  up,  and  went  so  drest, 
As  for  those  dawning  houres  he  knew  was  best ;  .  .  . 
Brave  Shakespear  flow'd,  yet  had  his  Ebbings  too, 
Often  above  Himselfe,  sometimes  below."     (i.  512.) 

This  is  the  often-repeated  verdict.  In  1660  Flecknoe  in  his 
Short  Discourse  (ii.  85)  says  :  "  For  Playes,  Shakespear  was  one 
of  the  first,  who  invented  the  Dramatick  Stile,  from  dull  History  to 
quick  Comedy,  upon  whom  Johnson  refin'd  "  ;  and  he  quotes  what 
one  said  of  the  poet's  writings,  "  that  'twas  a  fine  Garden,  but  it 
wanted  weeding."  Edward  Phillips  in  his  Theatrum  Poetarum 
refers  to  Spenser's  "  Rustic  obsolete  words,"  and  his  "rough-hewn 
clowterly  Verses  "  ;  and  proceeds  to  Shakspere's  "  unfiled  expres- 
sions, his  rambling  and  undigested  Fancys,  the  laughter  of  the 
Critical"  (ii.  221).  John  Sheffield,  Earl  of  Mulgrave,  says  of 
Shakspere  and  Fletcher,  "  in  many  things  they  grosly  fail "  (ii.  290). 
The  "Athenian  Society''  thinks,  in  1692,  that  the  reputation  of 
Shakspere  would  not  suffer  if  many  things  which  were  printed  for 
his  were  omitted  (ii.  384) ;  and  it  then  refers,  apparently,  to  an 
expression  of  opinion  by  Cowley  in  the  Preface  to  his  Poems,  1656, 
where  he  remarks  on  the  avarice  of  some  stationers  who  spoil 
books  in  giving  "mangled  and  imperfect"  versions,  or  with  false 
additions,  and  then  proceeds :  "  This  has  been  the  case  with 
Shakespear^  Fletcher,  Johnson^  and  many  others  ;  part  of  whose 


INTRODUCTION.  HH 

Poems  I  should  take  the  boldness  to  prune  and  lop  away,  if  the 
care  of  replanting  them  in  print  did  belong  to  me"  (ii.  56). 
Apparently,  then,  Cowley,  like  his  contemporaries,  found  un- 
worthy matter  in  Shakspere,  but  ascribed  it  to  his  publishers, 
or  some  other  persons. 

The  widespread  acceptance  of  the  Jonsonian  critical  tradition  is 
not  surprising  when  we  consider  the  position  of  Jonson  himself. 
Not  only  were  his  plays  more  congenial  to  public  taste  than 
Shakspere's,  but  he  himself  was  what  Shakspere  never  was  to  the 
Restoration  theatre-goers, — a  personality.  His  principal  plays  were 
the  successes  of  the  King's  Company,  and  he  had  such  a  reputation 
for  "  correctness,"  that  it  is  little  wonder  that  he  was  sometimes 
considered  superior  to  Shakspere.  Thomas  Shad  well,  on  several 
occasions,  most  emphatically  expressed  the  opinion  that  Jonson 
was  peer  of  playwrights  ;  he  accepts  him  as  his  model  and  directs 
others  to  imitate  him,  remarking,  "he  being  the  onely  person,  that 
appears  to  me  to  have  made  perfect  Representations  of  Humane 
Life  :  most  other  Authors,  that  I  ever  read,  either  have  wilde 
Romantick  Tales,  wherein  they  strein  Love  and  Honour  to  that 
Ridiculous  height,  that  it  become  Burlesque."  Still,  in  his  way,  he 
pays  the  usual  tribute  to  the  excellence  of  Falstaff  :  "  I  never  saw  one 
except  that  of  Falstaffe,  that  was  in  my  judgment  comparable  to  any 
of  Jonson's  considerable  Humours''3  (ii.  157).  In  the  Epistle  to  his 
Virttioso  he  further  remarks  :  "  Mr.Jo/mson  was  incomparably  the 
best  Dramatick  Poet  that  ever  was,  or,  I  believe,  ever  will  be  "  (ibid.\ 
And  elsewhere,  in  a  dedication  to  Sedley,  he  declares  that  two  of 
Jonson's  plays  and  one  of  Shakspere's  alone,  except  Sedley's 
Antony,  make  Romans  speak  like  Romans.  John  Oldham,  in  a 
long  Ode  to  Jonson,  whom  he  addresses  as  "  Great  Thou,"  calls  him 
the  "mighty  Founder  of  our  Stage,"  and  gives  him  chief  place 
(ii.  235).  So  also  Cavendish  called  Jonson  "  Poet  of  Poets"  in  The 
Triumphant  Widow  (ii.  239). 

There  are  numerous  instances,  moreover,  where  the  name  of 
Shakspere  is  disparaged  in  order  to  enhance  different  authors,  in 
the  commendatory  verses  before  their  volumes.  This  is  not  only 
to  be  found  in  editions  of  such  favourite  authors  as  Beaumont  and 
Fletcher,  but  also  in  the  verses  before  volumes  by  indifferent 


Hv  INTRODUCTION. 

poetasters,  whose  names  might  otherwise  be  forgotten.  But  the 
age  was  full  of  this  sort  of  thing.  Dryden's  State  of  Innocence, 
according  to  Lee,  was  an  improvement  on  Milton's  Paradise  Lost, 
and  of  "lofty"  Lee,  himself,  one  of  his  admirers  said  that  his 
"  loud  thundering  flights  "  should  "  strike  the  ears  of  all  posterity." 
In  other  cases  praise  was  conventional ;  some  men  praised 
Shakspere  as  Earle's  "  vulgar  spirited  Man  "  praised  Chaucer, — 
because  others  did  so  (Micro-Cosmographie,  ed.  Arber,  1895,  p.  70). 

Having  thus  noticed  the  general  condition,  we  come  to  the 
greatest  writer  and  critic  of  the  time,  John  Dryden.  The  very 
nature  of  the  age  made  Dryden  a  critic.  Criticism  had  been 
fostered  by  interminable  controversies  and  wrangles,  which,  what- 
ever they  did  for  the  questions  at  hand,  at  least  led  men  to  seek 
after  first  principles,  and  distinguish  what  was  vital  from  what  was 
immaterial.  No  great  literary  man  of  the  time  could  have  escaped 
attack  and  censure  ;  and  no  great  literary  man  could  suffer  censure 
and  fail  to  consider  the  principles  which  underlay  his  art. 

But  Dryden  was  not  the  man  to  rise  superior  to  the  errors  and 
vices  of  his  age.  His  faults  are  due,  partly,  to  his  ever-recurring 
difficulties  in  money  affairs.  He  outstripped  his  contemporaries  in 
the  base  adulation  of  his  dedications.  He  excelled  them  in  severe 
invective  against  those  whom  he  assailed.  He  stooped  to 
indulge  the  degraded  taste  of  the  coarsest  of  his  audience  and 
pandered  to  indecency  in  his  dramatic  work.  His  private  life  was 
not  clean.  Time  after  time  he  veered  round,  and  deserted  the 
fallen  cause,  for  the  cause  then  in  the  ascendant.  The  ardent 
eulogiser  of  Oliver  Cromwell  speedily  welcomed  "his  sacred 
majesty,"  Charles  II,  to  a  land  rejuvenated  by  his  presence. 
Amboyna  was  written  in  1673  to  inflame  the  people  against  the 
cruel  Dutch  with  whom  England  was  at  war,  and  it  was  dedicated 
to  Shaftesbury's  colleague  in  office,  Clifford  ;  but  in  1681,  without 
any  apparent  personal  cause,  and  merely  to  please  the  Court  and 
the  Tories,  the  poet  fiercely  attacked  Shaftesbury  in  the  Achitopel 
of  Absolom  and  Achitopel,  and  reviled  him  for  his  share  in 
promoting  the  war  that  he  himself  had  so  conspicuously  supported. 
In  1 68 1  Dryden  inflamed  public  opinion,  already  excited  by  the 
Popish  Plot,  against  the  Papacy,  in  his  mordantly  satirical  play. 


INTRODUCTION.  lv 

The  Spanish  Friar;  in  1682  he  identified  himself  with  Protestant- 
ism in  Religio  Laid;  but  on  the  accession  of  James  II  the  ardent 
Protestant  turned  Roman  Catholic,  and  dedicated  his  pen  to  his 
new  religion,  though,  perhaps,  not  against  his  conscience. 

But  the  individualism  of  the  man  comes  out  here  and  there, — 
and  it  was  his  individualism  and  his  learning  which  made  him  a 
great  critic.  He  was  one  of  the  very  few  men  who  appreciated 
the  greatness  of  Milton.  He  attempted  to  judge  between  French 
theory  and  English  practice.  The  poor  "  Sisyphus  of  the  stage," 
he  wrote  plays  to  suit  the  tastes  and  pleasures  of  others  rather  than 
his  own  ;  but  he  would  rather  have  tried  epic,  and  attempted  to 
prevail  upon  the  court  to  provide  him  with  means  to  do  so.  In 
accordance  with  the  taste  of  Charles  and  literary  practice  he  used 
rhyme  in  his  plays,  but  finally  followed  his  own  judgment  and 
Shakspere,  and  adopted  blank  verse.  He  candidly  avowed  that  his 
works  contained  bombast,  and  regretted  that  he  could  not  destroy 
it.  Of  all  those  who  came  under  the  stinging  lash  of  Jeremy 
Collier,  he  made  the  most  honest  and  the  most  manly  avowal  of 
regret. 

Thus  it  is  with  his  criticism  of  Shakspere.  He  was  not  always 
consistent.  He  was  not  always  original.  The  Jonsonian  tradi- 
tional criticism  as  expanded  by  his  contemporaries,  he  accepted, 
repeated,  and  excelled  in  harshness  :  but  as  his  literary  gift,  his 
learning  and  his  critical  acumen  were  greater  than  those  of  his 
fellows,  he  learnt  to  overlook  the  little  things  which  they  thought 
so  important,  and  he  seized  on  the  qualities  which  made 
Shakspere  pre-eminent. 

Dryden's  early  prologues  and  epilogues  contain  no  reference  to 
Shakspere,  though  Jonson  and  Fletcher  are  mentioned.  He  tells 
us  that  he  was  taught  to  admire  the  great  dramatist  by  Sir 
William  Davenant.  His  criticism  up  to  All  for  Love  in  1678 
follows  more  or  less  on  conventional  lines,  though  it  contains  some 
of  his  finest  utterances  on  Shaksperean  drama ;  and  even  to  the 
very  end  he  never  quite  relinquished  the  conventional  position,  or 
rejected  French  theory.  But  about  the  time  of  All  for  Love,  he 
seems  to  have  relinquished  formalism,  and  taken  a  new  and 
independent  leacj. 


Ivi  INTRODUCTION. 

Shakspere,he  tells  us  in  the  Essay,  1668  (ii.  146),  "  was  the  Homer, 
or  Father  of  our  Dramatick  Poets  ;  Johnson  was  the  Virgil,  the 
pattern  of  elaborate  writing  ;  I  admire  him,  but  I  love  Shakespeare." 
Elsewhere,  in  the  prologue  to  The  Tempest,  he  expresses  the  same 
idea: 

"  Shakespear,  who  (taught  by  none)  did  first  impart 
To  Fletcher  wit,  to  labouring  Johnson  Art. 
He,  Monarch-like,  gave  those  his  Subjects  Law, 
And  is  that  Nature  which  they  paint  and  draw."    (ii.  139.) 

Here,  of  course,  we  have  the  "  glorious  triumvirate  "  associated 
with  the  different  powers  which  convention  had  previously  ascribed 
to  them, — a  point  which  Dryden  elaborated  on  several  other  occa- 
sions. Jonson,  we  learn  in  the  Essay,  was  more  "  correct "  and 
observed  all  the  laws,  while  Shakspere  did  not.  Beaumont  and 
Fletcher's  plays  had  more  regular  plots  than  Shakspere's,  and  were 
far  more  popular  :  but  in  the  Preface  to  Troilus  in  1679,  Dryden 
declared,  in  reference  to  the  unities,  etc.,  that  the  plots  of  both 
Fletcher  and  Shakspere  were  defective  (ii.  246). 

But  most  of  Shakspere's  faults,  Dryden  ascribed  to  the  early 
time  at  which  he  wrote.  Of  Shakspere's  predecessors  and  the  steps 
which  led  up  to  him,  Dryden  takes  no  cognisance  :  to  him  as  to 
most  men  of  his  day,  it  was  enough  to  say  that  Shakspere  was  the 
father  of  the  stage,  and  invented  the  styles  which  others  copied. 
Since  his  day,  however,  the  language  had  been  "refined,''  and 
so  it  follows  "that  many  of  his  words,  and  more  of  his  Phrases, 
are  scarce  intelligible.  And  of  those  which  we  understand  some 
are  ungrammatical,  others  coarse  ;  and  his  whole  stile  is  so  pester'd 
with  Figurative  expressions,  that  it  is  as  affected  as  it  is  obscure  " 
(Preface  to  Troilus,  ii.  244).  This  was  in  1679,  after  AH  for  Love; 
but  1674  can  tell  the  same  story.  We  are  once  more  referred  to 
the  "  improvement  "  of  the  language,  and  proceed  :  "  But,  malice 
and  partiality  set  apart,  let  any  man  who  understands  English,  read 
diligently  the  works  of  SJiakespear  and  Fletcher ;  and  I  dare  under- 
take that  he  will  find,  in  every  page,  either  some  solecism  of  speech, 
or  some  notorious  flaw  in  sence."  But  this  was  due  to  the  ignorance 
of  times  in  which  they  lived.  "  Poetry  was  then,  if  not  in  its  infancy 
among  us,  at  least  not  arriv'd  to  its  vigor  and  maturity  :  witness 


INTRODUCTION. 

the  lameness  of  their  plots  :  many  of  which,  especially  those  which 
they  writ  first,  (for  even  that  age  refin'd  itself  in  some  measure,) 
were  made  up  of  some  ridiculous,  incoherent  story,  which,  in  one 
play  many  times  took  up  the  business  of  an  age.  I  suppose  I  need 
not  name  Pericles,  Prince  of  Tyre,  nor  the  Historical  Plays  of 
Shakespear"  (Conquest  of  Granada,  ii.  174).  But  not  only  have 
we  refined  the  language  of  those  rough  old  times  ;  we  have  refined 
their  wit  also.  Truth  to  tell,  Dryden  goes  on,  "  the  wit  of  the  last 
age  was  yet  more  incorrect  than  their  language."  Shakspere 
himself,  "  who  many  times  has  written  better  than  any  poet,  in  any 
language,  is  yet  so  far  from  writing  wit  always,  or  expressing  that 
wit  according  to  the  Dignity  of  the  Subject,  that  he  writes,  in  many 
places,  below — the  dullest  Writer  of  ours,  or  of  any  precedent 
age.  Never  did  any  author  precipitate  himself  from  such  heights 
of  thought  to  so  low  expressions,  as  he  often  does."  And  even 
before  the  Conquest  of  Granada,  in  the  Essay  of  1668,  Dryden 
assures  us  that  ''''Shakespeare's  language  is  a  little  obsolete." 

Not  only  was  the  incorrectness  of  Shakspere's  wit  and  language 
due  to  the  age  in  which  he  had  the  misfortune  to  live,  but  to  the 
same  cause  must  we  ascribe  the  superiority  of  Beaumont  and 
Fletcher,  who,  coming  after  Shakspere,  better  understood  how 
to  imitate  "the  conversation  of  gentlemen": — "whose  wilde 
debaucheries,  and  quickness  of  wit  in  repartees,  no  Poet  can  ever 
paint  as  they  have  done.7' 

The  bulk  of  the  criticism  noted  above  is  due  to  a  false  conception 
of  the  Elizabethan  age,  to  inaccurate  knowledge  of  Shakspere's 
relation  to  his  stage,  to  the  classical  theories  then  held,  and  to 
Restoration  taste  in  drama.  Some  of  it  is  due  to  the  Jonsonian 
tradition,  and  the  old  identification  of  Jonson  with  art,  and  Shak- 
spere with  natural  genius.  To  this  Dryden  refers  again  in  Granada 
(ii.  175).  "And  what  correctness,  after  this,"  he  asks,  "can  be 
expected  from  Shakespear  or  from  Fletcher,  who  wanted  that 
learning  and  care  which  Johnson  had?"  In  the  Essay  he  tells  us 
that  Shakspere  is  "naturally  learn'd.  .  .  .  He  is  many  times  flat, 
insipid;  his  Comick  wit  degenerating  into  clenches,  his  serious 
swelling  into  Bombast."  And  as  this  "  natural  genius  "  of  Shak- 
spere's sometimes  soared  so  high,  and  sometimes  grovelled  so  low. 


Iviii  INTRODUCTION. 

the  poet  sometimes  fell  into  "a  lethargy  of  thought,  for  whole 
scenes  together  "  (Granada,  ii.  176)  ;  while  in  Troilus  and  Cressida, 
probably  "  one  of  his  first  endeavours  on  the  Stage,"  there  is  a  great 
falling  off  as  the  play  proceeds,  so  that  "  the  later  part  of  the 
Tragedy  is  nothing  but  a  confusion  of  Drums  and  Trumpets, 
Excursions  and  Alarms,"  and  parts  of  the  piece  are  "  a  heap  of 
Rubbish"  (Troilus,  ii.  244-5).  To  tne  extension  of  the  Jonsonian 
tradition  likewise  may  we  ascribe  the  statement  in  the  Preface  to 
An  Evening  s  Love  that  Shakspere  was  guilty  of  superfluity  and 
waste  of  wit  (ii.  170). 

We  have  already  seen  above  how  Dryden  censured  the  com- 
pression of  an  age  into  the  compass  of  a  play,  and  instanced 
Pericles  and  the  historical  plays  as  offenders  in  that  respect.  His 
general  estimate  of  the  plots  of  the  last  age— except  Jonson's — is 
that  they  were  weak,  and  his  general  criticism  is  an  enlargement  of 
Jonson's  in  Every  Man  out  of  his  Humour,  in  accordance  with  the 
theories  of  his  time.  In  the  Essay  he  instances  the  superiority 
of  French  plays  in  that  they  are  not  complicated  by  under-plots ; 
and  in  the  belief  that  absolute  truth  can  only  be  obtained  through 
the  unities,  he  condemns  Shaksperean  histories,  where  thirty  or 
forty  years  are  "  crampt  into  a  representation  of  two  hours  and  a 
half."  Part  of  his  criticism  of  Troilus  may  be  traced  to  the 
influence  of  the  Heroic  play  :  "  The  chief  persons,  who  give  name 
to  the  Tragedy,  are  left  alive  :  Cressida  is  false,  and  is  not 
punish'd"  (ii.  245). 

But  though,  like  his  contemporaries,  Dryden  thought  Jonson 
more  correct  than  Shakspere,  he  constantly  asserts  the  superiority 
of  the  latter : 

"  Has  not  great  Johnson's  learning  often  fail'd  ? 
But  Shakspears  greater  Genius  still  prevail'd  "  : 

and  in  his  Satires  of  Juvenal  he  refers  to  Jonson's  Folio  verses  as 
"An  Insolent,  Sparing,  and  Invidious,  Panegyrick." 

In  and  after  All  for  Love  he  goes  back  on  several  of  his  former 
criticisms.  In  the  Essay  he  advocated  rhyme  in  tragedies,  in 
accordance  with  the  popular  taste,  and  the  influence  of  Charles  II  ; 
in  The  Rival  Ladies  he  identified  blank  verse  with  prose 


INTRODUCTION.  lix 

and  declared  that  the  English  tongue  so  naturally  glides  into  it, 
'that  in  writing  Prose  'tis  hardly  to  be  avoyded.'  And  in  his 
Essay  Of  Heroick  Playes  he  remarked  :  "  It  was  onely  custome 
which  cozen'd  us  so  long  :  we  thought,  because  Shakespear  and 
Fletcher  went  no  further,  that  there  the  Pillars  of  Poetry  were  to  be 
erected.  That,  because  they  excellently  describ'd  Passion  without 
Rhyme,  therefore  Rhyme  was  not  capable  of  describing  it.  But 
time  has  now  convinced  most  men  of  that  Error"  (ii.  171).  Time 
however,  was  soon  to  convince  the  poet  that  rhyme  was  wrong. 
Like  Milton,  who  found  rhyme  "the  Invention  of  a  barbarous  Age, 
to  set  off  wretched  matter  and  lame  Meeter,"  he  departed  from  his 
old  practices  and  criticism,  and  professing  "to  imitate  the  Divine 
Shakespeare?  disencumbered  himself  of  rhyme  in  All  for  Love 
(ii.  243).  And  a  few  years  later,  in  1683,  he  practically  rejected  in 
principle  his  previous  insistence  on  the  unities.  In  The  Vindi- 
cation he  remarks  :  "  Am  I  tied  in  Poetry  to  the  strict  rules  of 
History  ?  I  have  follow'd  it  in  this  Play  more  closely,  than  suited 
with  the  Laws  of  the  Drama,  and  a  great  Victory  they  will  haue, 
who  shall  discover  to  the  World  this  wonderful  Secret,  that  I  have 
not  observ'd  the  Unities  of  place  and  time  .  .  .  'Twas  our  common 
business  here  to  draw  the  Parallel  of  the  Times,  and  not  to  make 
an  Exact  Tragedy :  For  this  once  we  were  resolved  to  erre  with 
honest  Shakespear"  (ii.  177-8).  From  the  very  first  he  seems,  more- 
over, to  have  resisted  the  French  influence,  and  to  have  constantly 
kept  Elizabethan  drama  in  view  for  comparison  or  example.  In  his 
praise  of  Shakspere  he  refers,  like  Margaret  Cavendish,  to  the  poet's 
universality ;  to  his  splendid  characterisation  ;  to  his  comprehension 
of  the  workings  of  passion  ;  to  the  beauty  and  depth  of  his  thought ; 
to  his  superiority  over  all  his  contemporaries  and  over  all  his 
successors. 

In  his  alterations  of  Shakspere's  plays  he  stooped  to  supply 
current  needs.  He  did  what  others  had  done  before  him,  and  by 
his  example  led  others  to  do  the  same  thing  far  worse  after  him. 
But  "  all  things  work  together  for  good  "  :  alterations  were  then  all 
that  was  possible,  in  most  of  the  plays,  and  they  prepared  the  way 
for  a  better  time  coming. 

For  the  rest,  his  knowledge  was  not,  and  could  not  be,  always 


Ix  INTRODUCTION. 

exact.  Troilus  he  described  as  an  early  play  ;  Pericles  was  the 
first  product  of  Shakspere's  muse,  he  elsewhere  says  (ii.  303)  ;  and 
most  of  his  plots,  he  remarks  in  the  Preface  to  An  Evenings 
Love,  come  from  the  Hecatommithi  of  Cinthio  (ii.  170). 

Dryden's  adverse  criticism,  supported  by  Rymer,  as  it  was  in 
part,   could  not   escape    attack.      An   anonymous   writer   in    The 
Censure  of  the  Rota  records  that  a  critic  was  sorry  Mr.  Dryden, 
when  he  charged  Shakspere  and  Fletcher  with  solecisms,  did  not 
read  his  own  writings  with  the  same  spectacles  (ii.  197).    Once  more 
Dryden  is  trounced  in  Clifford's  Notes  upon  Mr.  Dryderis  Poems 
(ii.  325)  :  "  There  is  one  of  your  Virtues  which  I  cannot  forbear  to 
animadvert  upon,  which  is  your  excess  of  Modesty  ;  When  you  tell 
us  in  your  Postscript  to   Granada,  that  Shakespear  is  below  the 
Diillest  Writer  of  Ours,  or  any  precedent  Age"  etc.     And  once 
more  Mr.  Bays  is  twitted  about  his  criticism  in  The  Reasons  of  Mr. 
Bays  changing  his  Religio7i   (ii.  336).     But  the  most  formidable 
critic  who  rose  against  Dryden  was  Gerard  Langbaine,  who,  though 
not  gifted  with  Dryden's  critical  gifts,  certainly  had  more  exact 
knowledge  of  Shakspere's   sources,   etc.     He   repeats   the   usual 
statements   about  art  and  nature,  and  little  learning,  though  he 
thinks  Shakspere  knew  French  and  Italian  well  (ii.  359) ;  but  he  rises 
against  this  "  Poetick  Almanzor,  to  put  a  stop  to  his  Spoils  upon 
his  own  Country-men  "  (ii.  347).     After  reviewing  Dryden's  various 
statements  against  the  old  poets,  he  likens  him,  with  some  little 
truth,   to    Dr.    Charleton's   picture   of  a    Malignant  Wit,   "who, 
conscious    of   his    own   Vices,   and    studious    to    conceal    them, 
endeavours  by  Detraction  to  make  it  appear  that  others  also  of 
greater  Estimation  in   the  world,  are  tainted  with  the   same  or 
greater."     He  then  accuses   the   poet   of  ingratitude  to   the  old 
dramatists,rto  whom  he  owes  so  much,  and  proceeds  to  declare  that 
Dryden's  improprieties  and  solecisms   are  equal   to  those  com- 
mitted by  the  men  he  criticises.     But  he  afterwards  acknowledges 
that  Dryden,  in  a  soberer  moment,  admitted  the  superiority  of 
Shakspere.    Langbaine  then  proceeds  to  detail  the  plays  of  Shak- 
spere, admitting  into  the  canon  all  those  apocryphal   plays  now 
generally  rejected. 

Jsor  did  Rymer  himself  go  unscathed.     Dryden  condemned  him 


INTRODUCTION.  Ixi 

in  1694.  In  a  letter  of  that  year  to  Dennis  he  says,  "  For  my  own 
part  I  reverence  Mr.  Ry liter's  Learning,  but  I  detest  his  111  Nature 
and  his  Arrogance.  I  indeed,  and  such  as  I,  have  reason  to  be 
afraid  of  him,  but  Shakespear  has  not"  (ii.  402)  ;  and  Dennis,  to 
whom  the  letter  was  written,  in  the  previous  year  had  published 
his  Impartial  Critick ;  or  some  Observations  Upon  .  .  .  A  short 
view  of  English  Tragedy  (ii.  396).  John  Oldmixon,  in  1665,  in  a 
letter  likewise  censured  "Mr.  Rimer"  (ii.  404). 

The  great  controversy  of  the  end  of  the  century  was  started  by 
Jeremy  Collier  in  1698.  His  Short  View  was  a  terrific,  well- 
deserved  and  invincible  onslaught  on  the  licentiousness  of  the 
stage.  All  concerned,  from  the  least  considerable  offender  to 
"glorious  John,"  came  under  his  vigorous  lash.  And  Shakspere, 
too,  had  to  suffer  attack. 

Necessary  as  Collier's  book  was,  and  successful  as  it  proved  to 
be,  it  led  in  some  matters  to  false  conclusions,  and  it  was  partly 
based  on  false  critical  canons.  Of  its  success  there  can  be  no  ques- 
tion :  it  helped  to  purge  the  drama  of  its-uncleanness.  But  it  also 
proceeded  in  parts  on  the  old  principle,  common  to  Puritan  critics, 
that  the  office  of  drama  was  not,  "  to  hold,  as  'twere,  the  mirror  up 
to  nature,"  but  to  inculcate  moral  lessons,  as  a  homily  would  do. 

In  the  Shaksperean  parts  of  his  book,  Collier  was  not  fortunate  : 
he  first  of  all  instituted  a  parallel  between  Phsedra  and  Ophelia, 
saying  of  Shakspere's  heroine,  after  one  of  his  rare  lapses  into  bad 
taste,  "To  keep  her  alive  only  to  sully  her  reputation,  and  Discover 
the  Rankness  of  her  Breath,  was  very  Cruel."  Collier  objects  to 
the  mad  songs  Ophelia  sang.  His  next  Shaksperean  passage  deals 
with  the  poet's  immodesty,  which  he  considers  so  great  that  it  is 
not  necessary  to  tender  evidence  ;  and  he  then  proceeds  to  praise 
the  modesty  of  Jonson.  In  regard  to  the  profane  language  of  the 
stage  he  thinks  Shakspere  is  "comparatively  sober."  In  regard  to 
the  dramatist's  clerical  characters  he  remarks  that  Shakspere,  for 
the  most  part,  "holds  up  the  Function"  ;  and  continues  that  even 
his  Sir  John,  the  Parson  of  Wrotham,  in  Sir  John  Oldcastle,  has 
his  redeeming  virtues.  And  next  he  instances  Falstaff,  and 
Flowerdale  in  The  London  Prodigall^  as  cases  in  which  the 
poet  does  not  encourage  vice  by  rewarding  it  with  success  : 


Ixii  INTRODUCTION. 

Falstaff  "  dies  like  a  Rat  behind  the  Hangings  "  ;  and  Flowerdale 
is  reformed  entirely  and  repents  before  he  gets  good  fortune 
(ii.  409). 

Of  the  truth  to  life  of  Ophelia's  songs  we  need  not  remark.  J. 
Drake,  in  1699,  professed  to  "set  in  a  true  light "  Collier's  book,  in 
his  Ancient  and  Modern  Stages  Surveyed,  and  devoted  some  space 
to  the  cause  of  Ophelia,  the  supposed  rankness  of  whose  breath  he 
none  too  amiably  ascribes  to  "  a  bad  nose,  or  a  rotten  Tooth  "  of 
Mr.  Collier's  own.  His  apology  for  Hamlet,  of  which  he  garbles 
the  story  and  which  he  does  not  understand,  is  once  more  based 
on  the  same  old  ground  of  "  moral"  lessons.  "  The  Criminals,"  he 
notes,  "  are  not  only  brought  to  execution,  but  they  are  taken  in 
their  own  Toyls."  He  then  proceeds  to  draw  a  general  "  Moral " 
from  the  play,  and  continues  :  "  The  Tragedies  of  this  Author  in 
general  are  Moral  and  Instructive,  and  many  of  'em  such  as  the 
best  of  Antiquity  can't  equal  in  that  respect.  His  King  Lear, 
Timon  of  Athens,  Macbeth,  and  some  others  are  so  remarkable 
upon  that  score,"  etc.  (ii.  425). 

Collier's  mention  of  Sir  John  Oldcastle  and  the  Parson  therein 
and  of  Flowerdale  in  the  Prodigall  is  unfortunate,  since  those 
plays  are  not  Shakspere's ;  but  such  a  consideration  was  not, 
and  could  not  have  been,  urged  by  *  Congreve  in  his  reply  to 
Collier  (ii.  410).  That  writer  in  his  Amendments,  1698,  sheltered 
himself  behind  Shakspere  and  Jonson,  and  criticised  Collier's 
conclusions  concerning  Sir  John  the  cleric.  To  Congreve's 
book  an  anonymous  writer  replied  in  Animadversions,  etc., 
1698,  and  Collier  in  his  Defence,  1699  (ii.  415,  423).  One  of  the 
most  sensible  books  which  this  controversy  produced  is  the 
anonymous  Defence  of  Dramatick  Poetry,  1698,  where  the 
author's  remarks  on  the  unities  are  worthy  of  special  attention 
(ii.  412). 

The  attitude  of  the  Restoration  playgoer  towards  the  old  drama 
is  best  shown  in  the  diary  of  Pepys  (ii.  89-97).  His  slashing  con- 
demnation of  some  of  our  most  treasured  Elizabethan  plays — "  the 
most  insipid  ridiculous  play  that  ever  I  saw  in  my  life  " — is  only 
parallel  to  the  statements  of  which  even  Dryden  was  sometimes 
capable.  "Now  the  old  plays  began  to  disgust  this  refined 


INTRODUCTION.  Ixiil 

age,"  says  Evelyn  (ii.  108).  This  refined  age  loved  shows  and 
spectacles,  and  the  old  plays  had  to  compete  with  newer  and 
racier  pieces  in  which  machines  and  modern  contrivances  were 
used,  and  in  which  the  female  parts  gave  more  scope  to  Mrs.  Ellen 
Gwyn  and  her  sister-actresses. 

(b]  Borrowings  from  Shakspertfs   Works. — After  the  year  1650 
there  is  a  very  great  falling-off  in  the  number  of  borrowings.     Of 
the  plays  so  quoted  in  the  earlier  half  of  the  century, — Romeo, 
Richard  III,  the  FalstafF  pieces,  and  Hamlet, — the  Falstaff  plays 
lead  with  seven  instances  ;  Romeo  and  Hamlet  follow,  each  with 
three  ;  and  Richard  III  has  none.     The  poems  had  gone  out  of 
fashion ;  only  two  borrowings  from  the   Venus  are  recorded,  and 
none  from  Lucrece  and  the  Sonnets,     i  Henry  IV  and  Miich  Ado 
each  provide  two  cases  ;  Richard  77,  the  Dream,  the  Merchant, 
Othello,  The   Winter's  Tale,  and  Cymbeline,  only  one  each.     All 
this  shows  declining  interest  in  Shaksperean  plays. 

(c)  References  to  Skakspere's   Works. — The  mere  references  to 
characters    and    plays     indicate     what    most    gained    attention. 
Falstaff  greatly  predominates.     It  is  not  desirable  or  necessary  to 
enumerate  the  instances  in  detail.     Falstaff  is  referred  to,  by  way 
of  satire,  humour,  or  illustration,  some  forty  times,  far  surpassing 
in  number  the   first   play,   which   is   Hamlet.      The    Tempest   is 
alluded  to  often  ;  this  was  partly  due  to  Dryden's  alteration  ;  but 
it  was  most  of  all  due  to  the  political  aspirations  of  master  Trinculo 
and  his  colleague  Stephano, — characters  which  had  a  particular 
interest  for  the  writers   of  those  times.      The   majority  of  the 
Tempest  allusions  concern  Trinculo.     Othello  equals  Hamlet  in 
references,  due  greatly  to  the  play's  revival,  by  Killigrew's  com- 
pany, when  Betterton  probably  took  the  leading  part.     The  other 
plays  come  below  these.     Many  of  the  allusions  were  due  to  the 
Restoration  alterations  of  the  plays  :  this  was  particularly  so  in 
the   case  of  Macbeth,  Romeo,  Lear,   Troilus,  and    Timon,  while 
Henry   VIII  was   made   popular  by  Davenant,  and  the  Dream 
and  Shrew  contained  two  favourite   comedy  characters,   Bottom 
and  Sly.     Richard  III,  at  one  time  so  popular,  is  only  referred  to 
once  other  than  in  lists  ;   only  one  allusion  is  made  to  the  old 
favourite  Hotspur  ;  and  the  Errors,  Venus,  Henry  V,  Pericles,  and 


IxiV  INTRODUCTION. 

Lear,  are  likewise  seldom  referred  to,  except  for  notices  in  lists  of 
the  plays  ;  and  a  great  many  of  the  allusions  in  our  second  volume 
are  merely  mentions  in  play-lists.  It  is  interesting  and  important 
to  notice  that,  in  this  age,  when  most  of  the  legends  about 
Shakspere  had  their  origin,  his  best-known  character  was  Falstaff. 

(d}  Alterations  of  Shakspere's  Plays. — We  have  already  noticed 
the  critical  objections  which  Restoration  writers  urged  against  Shak- 
spere :  how  his  language  was  obsolete,  because  of  the  refinement 
which  had  taken  place  since  the  barbaric  times  in  which  he  wrote  ; 
how  many  of  his  scenes  were  weak,  and  he  was  guilty  of  lethargy  of 
thought  ;  how  his  plots  lacked  coherence  and  neglected  the  unities. 
The  age  was  attached  to  the  heroic  play,  and  loved  scene  and 
spectacle,  and,  owing  to  the  short  run  of  plays,  dramatists  had  diffi- 
culty in  supplying  the  demand.  All  this  helped  playwrights  to 
indulge  in  the  alteration  of  Shakspere's  plays.  They  went  to 
Spanish  and  to  French  for  their  plots  :  and  why  not  to  Elizabethan 
drama  ?  If  they  wanted  a  precedent  for  the  alteration  of  the  plays 
of  their  predecessors,  they  could  cite  the  age  whose  plays  they  pro- 
ceeded to  adapt,  and  name  among  others,  Shakspere. 

With  genius,  the  ends  always  justify  the  means  :  but  woe  to  the 
ordinary  mortal  who  dares  walk  in  the  charmed  circle  where  genius 
treads.  And  when  we  come  to  consider  the  desecration  of  supreme 
romantic  drama  by  men  more  or  less  blind  to  its  beauties,  the  case 
is  worse  than  their  renovation  of  mere  indifferent  plays. 

All  the  Restoration  alterations  are  not  born  of  critical  blindness, 
and  are  not  base  by  nature.  Some  of  them,  and  some  of  the  best 
of  them,  perhaps,  were  made  in  deference  to  a  public  who  liked 
spectacles  and  heroic  plays  ;  and  some  of  them  were  made  by  the 
very  persons  who  fought  the  cause  of  Shakspere,  and  who  alone 
were  competent  to  realise  his  greatness.  On  their  worth  individu- 
ally, we  have  not  here  the  space  to  make  lengthy  remarks  ;  it 
should  be  sufficient  to  enumerate  them  in  chronological  order.  We 
should  notice  that  other  Elizabethan  plays  than  Shakspere's  were 
altered,  though  Shakspere  suffered  most ;  and  that  though  Lear 
was  tampered  with,  Hamlet  and  Othello  were  untouched.  Before 
the  commencement  of  the  recognised  dramatic  alterations,  several 
alterations  and  adaptations  of  various  plays  had  been  made. 


INTRODUCTION.  IxV 

Thomas  Jordan  in  the  Royal  Arbor  (1660-4  ?)  printed  ballads  on  the 
plots  of  the  Winter's  Tale,  the  Merchant,  and  Much  Ado  (ii.  87) ; 
and  about  the  time  of  the  Restoration  The  Merry  conceited  Humors 
of  Bottom  the  Weaver  appeared  as  a  drollery,  detached  from  the 
Dream  and  somewhat  altered. 

If  The  Tameing  of  a  Shrew  which  Pepys  saw  on  April  9,  1667, 
and  in  which,  he  mentions,  Lacy  played  "  Sawney,5'  is  Lacy's 
Sawney  the  Scot,  an  adaptation  of  Shakspere's  Shrew  not  published 
till  1698,  then  Lacy  commenced  the  Restoration  adaptations  of 
Shaksperean  drama  (ii.  97). 

Dryden  and  Davenant,  in  1667,  produced  their  joint  adaptation 
of  The  Tempest,  with  its  famous  prologue  (ii.  139).  Their  play  was 
described  by  Richard  Head  in  1675  as  "tne  *ate  rectified  inimitable 
Tempest"  (ii.  220) ;  but  the  "rectification"  is  by  no  means  an  in- 
disputable advantage.  Uryden  wrote  a  preface  to  the  edition  of 
the  play  in  1669,  by  which  time  Davenant  was  dead. 

Before  his  death  Davenant,  "  Cousen,"  as  one  called  him,  to 
Shakspere,  blended  together  Measure  for  Measure  and  Much 
Ado  as  his  Law  against  Lovers  (ii.  150).  In  1668  was  published 
The  Rivals,  by  the  same  author,  founded  to  some  extent  on  The 
Two  Noble  Kinsmen,  the  parts  of  the  play  most  used  being  the 
Fletcherian  parts  (ii.  151).  It  is  doubtful  whether  the  Henry  VIII, 
known  as  Davenant's,  is  an  alteration  in  the  ordinary  sense,  or 
merely  means  his  staging  of  the  play  (ii.  97). 

In  1674  Thomas  Duffett— "hog"  Duffett,  as  Dr.  Furnivall  called 
him,  and  once  a  milliner, — mutilated  and  burlesqued  parts  of 
Macbeth  in  his  Empress  of  Morocco  j  and  in  1675  he  degraded 
The  Tempest,  through  its  Dryden  and  Davenant  version,  into  a 
"bawdy  burlesque,"  The,  Mock-Tempest  (ii.  207,  209).  Oldys  notes 
that  on  one  occasion  ladies  and  persons  of  quality  left  the  play- 
house because  of  the  scurrilous  ribaldry  in  the  latter  play  (ii.  212). 

Thomas  Shad  well,  in  1678,  produced  his  History  of  Timon  of 
Athens,  founded  on  Shakspere's  Timon,  in  which  play  Betterton 
acted  the  leading  part  (ii.  239). 

In  1679  was  produced  Dryden's  version  of  Troilus  and  Cressida, 
the  prologue  of  which  Betterton  spoke,  representing  the  ghost  of 
Shakspere.  We  have  already  referred  to  the  remarkable  preface 

SH.  ALLN.  BK. — I.  6 


Ixvi  INTRODUCTION. 

which  introduced  the  printed  text.  In  the  preceding  year,  1678, 
in  All  for  Love  Dryden  had  abandoned  rhyme,  and  professed  to 
follow  Shakspere. 

Dryden's  example  and  influence  in  1678  and  1679  seem  to  have 
been  responsible  for  the  number  of  adaptations  of  Shaksperean  plays 
which  speedily  followed.  In  1680  Thomas  Otway  produced  his 
History  and  fall  of  Caius  Marius,  altered  from  Romeo,  of  which 
it  is  a  sad  debasement,  wherein  Betterton  and  Mrs.  Barry  took 
the  leading  roles  (ii.  263).  For  many  years  this  play  continued  to 
be  a  favourite.  In  the  same  year  and  the  following  year  were 
published  the  three  civil-war  plays  of  John  Crowne,  founded  on 
Henry  VI  (ii.  259,  277).  The  first  part  was  suppressed  through 
the  Popish  faction,  who  opposed  its  representation  (ii.  346). 

In  1 68 1,  likewise,  Nahum  Tate  made  his  alteration  of  King 
Lear,  and  wrote  for  it  an  apologetic  prologue.  Until  Macready 
"ventured  upon  a  modern  heresy  in  favour  of  Shakspere,"  Tate's 
Lear  was  the  accepted  play  at  the  theatre  (ii.  268).  The  result  of 
Lear  encouraged  Tate  to  alter  Richard II 'in  1681  into  The  Sicilian 
Usurper;  and  in  the  following  year  he  altered  Coriolanus  into  the 
Ingratitude  of  a  Commonwealth,  where  he  once  more  pays  his 
tribute,  in  the  dedication,  to  the  greatness  of  Shakspere. 

In  1682  Durfey's  Injured  Princess,  founded  on  Cymbeline,  was 
published.  Durfey's  version  is  shorter  than  Shakspere's  play,  and 
nowhere  does  Durfey  acknowledge  his  indebtedness  to  the  great 
dramatist. 

Four  years  later,  in  1686,  Ravenscroft  published  his  alteration  of 
Titus  Andronicus,  a  play  which  he  thinks  "  seems  rather  a  heap 
of  Rubbish  then  a  Structure"  (ii.  319). 

John  Sheffield,  earl  of  Mulgrave,  in  1692  made  his  alteration  of 
Julius  CcEsar  (ii.  382) ;  and  in  that  year  The  Midsummer  Night's 
Dream  was  made  into  an  opera  "  with  additions,  Songs  and  Dances, 
twenty-four  Chinese,  and  Juno  'in  a  Machine  drawn  by  Peacocks/" 

(ii.  385). 

In  1700  Measure  for  Measure  was  played  at  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields 
Theatre,  "  now  very  much  alter'd :  With  Additions  of  several 
Entertainments  of  Musick"  (ii.  432). 

Killigrew's  suggestions  for  the  alteration  of  Julius  Ccesar  we 


INTRODUCTION. 


Ixvii 


have  reserved  to  the  last,  because  of  uncertainty  in  regard  to  the 
date.  The  MS.  preserved  in  the  British  Museum,  and  which  we 
print  (ii.  98),  appears  to  be  the  draft  of  a  letter.  His  suggested 
alterations  are  exceedingly  poor,  and  are  the  result  of  an  absolute 
misunderstanding  of  the  character  of  Brutus,  of  whom  he  says  : 
"  Brutus  certainly  is  a  directive  charrecter  at  best,  and  therefore  I 
thought  wanted  all  the  Assistence  poetical  liberty  woud  allow 
him"  (ii.  101). 

e.  Legends  of  Shakspere  and  his  Works. — The  death  of 
Shakspere  so  early  in  the  seventeenth  century,  the  scarcity  of 
biographical  details  concerning  him,  the  interest  which  his  works 
aroused  and  the  almost  complete  severance  from  the  past  caused 
by  the  civil  wars,  all  contributed  to  the  formation  of  a  consider- 
able body  of  legends  concerning  the  poet.  Before  considering 
how  we  may  attempt  to  determine  the  value  of  the  various  stories 
bequeathed  us,  it  would  be  well  to  give  their  import. 

The  highest  honour  that  Stratford  can  boast  of,  as  Phillips  said 
(ii.  222),  is  the  birth  there  in  April,  1564,  of  William  Shakspere. 
Reliable  evidence  tells  us  that  John  Shakspere,  the  poet's  father, 
was  a  glover  and  a  farmer.  He  is  described  again  as  a  glover  in 
the  Plume  MSS.  (ii.  68),  by  Aubrey  as  a  butcher  (ii.  260),  and  by 
Rowe  as  a  dealer  in  wool J  (Gray,  75-79).  Only  one  notice  has  come 
down  to  us  of  his  appearance,  and  his  opinion  of  his  son.  "Sir 
John  Mennes,"  says  the  Plume  MSS.,  "saw  once  his  [Shakspere's] 
old  father  in  his  shop — a  merry-cheekt  old  man,  that  said,  *  Will 
was  a  good  honest  fellow,  but  he  darest  have  crakt  a  jesst  with  him  att 
any  time.' "  From  Rowe  we  learn  that  Shakspere  went  to  the  free- 
school  in  Stratford :  this  would  be  in  1571,  when  the  boy  was  seven 
years  old. 

On  leaving  school,  says  Rowe,  he  followed  the  occupation  his 
father  proposed  to  him  ;  Aubrey's  account  is  that  he  followed  his 
father's  trade,  as  butcher  : — and  tc  when  he  kill'd  a  Calfe  he  would 

1  Rowe  wrote  in  1709,  and  is,  therefore,  without  the  scope  of  our  volumes  ; 
but  as  his  traditions  come  from  Davenant  and  Betterton,  it  seems  proper  to 
consider  his  remarks.  An  excellent  book  on  these  and  other  questions,  is  J.  W. 
Gray's  Shakespeare's  Marriage,  1905.  Mr.  Gray  quotes  Rowe,  Gibber,  and  all 
the  writers  of  traditional  matter  quoted  in  our  volumes.  For  Rowe  and  Gibber, 
I  give  references  in  Mr.  Gray's  volume. 


IxVlii  INTRODUCTION. 

doe  it  in  a  high  style,  and  make  a  Speech  "  ; — and  also  that  he  was  a 
schoolmaster  in  the  country.  Dowdall  says  (ii.  391)  that  he  was  bound 
apprentice  to  a  butcher  before  he  ran  away  to  London.  Another 
butcher's  son  in  the  town,  we  learn  from  Aubrey,  equalled  him  in 
wit,  but  died  young.  From  Richard  Davies,  about  1688  (ii.  335), 
we  first  learn  that  Shakspere  got  into  trouble  through  stealing 
venison  and  rabbits  from  Sir  Thomas  Lucy,  who  had  him  often 
whipped,  and  whom  he  satirised  in  Justice  Clodpate  (Shallow). 
Rowe  repeated  the  story  in  1709,  remarking  that  Shakspere 
had  fallen  into  ill  company,  and  adding  that  he  wrote  a 
ballad  on  Lucy,  and  was  then  so  prosecuted  that  he  was  obliged 
to  leave  his  affairs  and  family  in  Warwickshire,  and  depart  for 
London. 

Aubrey  dates  his  departure  1 582,  when  the  poet  was  eighteen  years 
of  age.  Dowdall  says  Shakspere  was  received  into  the  London 
playhouse  as  a  servitor  ;  Rowe  describes  his  position  as  "mean"  ; 
Ward  says  merely  that  he  frequented  plays  in  his  youth  ;  but  the 
most  elaborate  version  is  recorded  by  Colley  Gibber,  who  derived 
his  information  from  a  certain  gentleman,  who  was  informed  by 
Dr.  Newton  (Milton's  editor),  who  was  told  by  Pope,  and  he  by 
Rowe,  and  Rowe  by  Betterton,  and  Betterton  by  Davenant  (Gray, 
79-80).  According  to  this  story  Shakspere  held  horses'  heads  at 
the  theatre  door,  and  even  became  eminent  in  that  profession,  for 
he  gained  notice,  and  hired  boys  under  him  to  do  the  work,  who 
were  known  as  "  Shakspere's  boys "  :  and  so  he  afterwards  was 
introduced  into  the  theatre  itself.  Malone  records  a  stage-tradition 
that  he  was  call-boy. 

Aubrey  says  that  he  became  an  actor,  and  did  very  well,  and  that 
he  wrote  plays  which  were  successful.  Rowe  records  that  the  "  top 
of  his  performance"  was  the  ghost  in  Hamlet.  Ward  writes  (ii.  in) 
that  Shakspere  supplied  the  stage  with  two  plays  every  year,  and 
derived  such  an  income  from  it  that  he  spent  at  the  rate  of  ^1000 
per  year.  According  to  a  line  by  Randolph,  in  1651  (ii.  19),  it  was 
through  his  comedies  that  Shakspere  became  rich.  Aubrey  states 
that  he  returned  to  Warwickshire  once  a  year,  and  that  on  the  way 
he  stopped  at  the  Crowne  Taverne  kept  by  John  Davenant,  the 
father  of  William ; — and  according  to  Aubrey,  also,  William 


INTRODUCTION.  IxiX 

Davenant  would  sometimes,  over  a  glass  of  wine,  countenance  the 
current  gossip  that  he  was  Shakspere's  natural  son.  John  Manning- 
ham,  a  barrister  of  the  Middle  Temple,  records  an  intrigue  that  the 
poet  was  supposed  to  have  had  with  a  citizen's  wife  in  London, 
which,  again,  may  only  be  gossip  of  the  day  (i.  98).  A  tradition 
handed  down  by  Davenant,  and  recorded  by  Rowe,  is  that 
Southampton  at  one  time  gave  Shakspere  a  thousand  pounds  where- 
with to  make  a  purchase  he  had  a  mind  to. 

The  legends  which  seem  to  have  been  most  prevalent  were  those 
which  associated  Jonson  and  Shakspere — almost  invariably 
associated  by  the  writers  of  the  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth 
century  in  their  reference  to  the  men  and  the  drama  of  "  the  last 
age."  Rowe  relates  that,  out  of  his  gentleness  and  sincerity, 
Shakspere  helped  Ben  Jonson  when  his  work  had  been  refused,  and 
recommended  him.  Various  stories  are  told  of  the  two  poets  in 
taverns.  According  to  an  Ashmolean  manuscript  (ii.  3),  it  was  in 
a  tavern  that  Ben  and  Shakspere  jointly  composed  the  former's 
humorous  epitaph.  Aubrey  tells  us  that  Jonson  and  Shakspere 
"  did  gather  Humours  of  men  dayly  wherever  they  came,"  and  says 
that,  in  a  tavern  at  Stratford-on-Avon,  the  latter  made  the 
extempore  epitaph  on  Combes  the  usurer.  The  anecdote  of  the 
encounter  between  Jonson  and  the  poetic  highwayman  who  alluded 
to  Shakspere,  seems  to  have  been  greatly  liked,  and  is  printed  in 
Witts  Recreations •,  1640  (i.  441),  and  in  a  miscellaneous  MS.  volume 
in  the  Diocesan  Registry  at  Worcester  (ii.  224).  Another  anecdote 
represents  Shakspere  as  the  godfather  of  one  of  Jonson's  children, 
when  the  poet  said,  "  I  have  beene  considering  a  great  while  what 
should  be  the  fittest  gift  for  me  to  bestow  upon  my  God-child,  and  I 
have  resolved  at  last ;  .  .  .  Pie  e'en  give  him  a  douzen  good  Lattin 
Spoones,  and  thou  shalt  translate  them."  Versions  of  this  are  given 
in  Merry  Passages  and  Jeasts^  by  Sir  Nicholas  L'Estrange  (ii.  8), 
and  in  the  Plume  MSS.  (ii.  68).  Ward  states  that  Shakspere  died 
through  a  fever  contracted  at  a  merry  meeting  between  Dray  ton, 
Jonson,  and  himself,  where  "itt  seems  [they]  drank  too  hard." 
Davies  says  that  he  died  a  papist.  He  was  buried  at  Stratford  on 
April  25, 1616  (and  April  23,  the  day  of  his  death,  has  been  assigned 
by  tradition  as  the  day  of  his  birth  also),  and,  according  to  Dowdall, 


IxX  INTRODUCTION. 

his  wife  and  daughters  earnestly  desired  to  be  buried  by  him. 
Dugdale  notes  that  his  monument  was  made  by  Gerard  Johnson, 
and  Aubrey  writes  that  he  was  told  that  the  poet  left  two  or 
three  hundred  pounds  per  annum  to  a  sister. 

Ward  repeats  the  usual  statement  of  late  seventeenth  century 
authors,  that  Shakspere  was  a  natural  wit,  without  any  art ;  Aubrey, 
incorrectly  repeating  Jonson's  statement  concerning  Shakspere's 
never  having  blotted  a  line,  gives  a  remark  from  Shadwell  and 
Davenant  that  he  was  a  prodigious  wit,  and  says  that  he  was  very 
good  company,  and  a  handsome,  well-shaped  man. 

The  legend  of  the  Bidford  drinking,  which  represents  the  poet  as 
having  a  convivial  time  with  the  Bidford  "  sippers,"  is  even  less 
authentic  than  any  of  the  legends  mentioned  above,  as  no  trace  of 
it  occurs  before  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  (Gray,  252). 

A  few  legends  have  come  down  to  us  concerning  the  plays. 
Aubrey's  note  that  Shakspere  got  the  humour  of  the  Constable  in 
A  Midsummer-Night's  Dream  from  an  original  at  Grenden,  Bucks, 
must  refer  to  Much  Ado.  Dryden  remarks  that  Shakspere  him- 
self said  he  was  forced  to  kill  Mercutio  in  the  third  act  of  Romeo 
to  prevent  being  killed  by  him  (ii.  176).  Rowe  records  that 
Elizabeth  was  so  pleased  with  Falstaff  that  she  ordered  the  poet 
to  show  him  in  love,  and  he  then  wrote  The  Merry  Wives.  Dryden 
also  says  that  Ben  Jonson,  "  in  reading  some  bombast  speeches  of 
Macbeth,  which  are  not  to  be  understood,  .  .  .  used  to  say  that  it  was 
horrour"  (ii.  175).  And  lastly  Gildon  writes  (ii.  417)  that  he  was 
told  that  Shakspere  "  writ  the  Scene  of  the  Ghost  in  Hamlet,  at  his 
House  which  bordered  on  the  Charnel-House  and  Church- Yard." 

Some  of  these  legends  have  no  great  claim  to  acceptance.  In 
examining  them  we  should  consider  the  idea  of  Shakspere  which  the 
late  seventeenth  century  writers  held,  the  sources  from  which  they 
were  said  to  be  derived,  and  the  character  of  the  men  who  recorded 
them.  The  survival  of  traditions  is  in  no  way  connected  with  the 
authenticity  of  their  sources  ;  traditions  survive  and  grow  according 
to  their  acceptability  to  the  people  who  transmit  them.  The 
Bidford  story  may  be  at  once  rejected  :  it  is  not  recorded  till  a 
century  and  a  half  after  the  poet  died,  and  is  not  authenticated. 

Aubrey  derives  some,  at  least,  of  his  information  from  William 


INTRODUCTION.  Ixxi 

Beeston,  son  of  Christopher  Beeston,  who,  according  to  Malone,  was 
one  of  Burbage's  company  (Historical  Account,  1821,  iii.  221). 
Aubrey  notes  that  Beeston  knew  most  of  Shakspere  from  Mr.  Lacy. 
But  Aubrey  himself  journeyed  to  Stratford  to  get  material,  and 
various  statements  by  him  have  the  appearance  of  local  traditions. 
The  value  of  Aubrey's  remarks  depends  greatly  on  the  character  of 
the  man  himself,  and  a  list  of  the  subjects  on  which  he  wrote — Day- 
Fatality,  Ostenta,  Blows  Invisible,  Visions  in  a  Beril,  Converse 
with  Angels  and  Spirits,  etc.— is  in  no  way  calculated  to  reassure 
us.  Mrs.  Stopes  says  of  him,  "  He  was  credulous  and  inexact  to  an 
extraordinary  degree."  (See  her  lists  of  his  writings,  Bacon- 
Shakspere  Question,  1888,  no.) 

Ward  was  vicar  of  Stratford-on-Avon,  and  appears  to  have  known 
Shakspere's  daughter,  Judith.  The  earliest  of  his  notes  was  not 
made  until  at  least  forty-five  years  after  Shakspere  died. 

Richard  Davies,  who  is  thought  to  have  annotated  Fulmans's 
MS.,  was  rector  of  Sapperton  in  Gloucester.  He  gives  no 
authority  for  his  statements  and  is  apparently  recording  local 
traditions. 

Dowdall  remarks  in  his  letter  to  Southwell,  that  he  derived  his 
information  from  the  clerk  at  Stratford,  then  above  eighty  years 
old.  The  letter  is  said  by  its  first  editor  to  have  come  from  the 
papers  of  Lord  de  Clifford,  sold  in  1834.  This  editor  is  said  by 
Lowndes  to  be  J.  P.  Collier.  The  MS.  has  not  since  been  found 
(Gray,  250).  Rowe  derived  most  of  his  information  from  Betterton 
the  actor,  to  whom  the  Elizabethan  stage-tradition  was  handed  from 
the  old  actors  by  Davena/it,  and  who,  out  of  his  regard  for 
Shakspere,  made  a  journey  to  Warwickshire  to  gather  up  "remains." 
Thus  Rowe's  information  was  gained  at  some  considerable  time 
after  Shakspere's  death.  The  story  that  Southampton  gave  the 
poet  ;£  1,000,  some  third  person  assured  Rowe,  came  from 
Davenant. 

Gibber's  account  is  less  trustworthy .  H  e  does  not  write  until  nearly 
a  century  and  a  half  after  the  poet  died,  and  his  story  is  transmitted 
to  him  through  six  successive  persons,  the  last  of  whom  is  unknown. 

The  late  part  of  the  seventeenth  century  prized  Shakspere  as  a 
writer  of  comedy  ;  he  was  famous,  above  all  other  things,  for  that 


INTRODUCTION. 

merry  roysterer  Falstaff.  Very  little  of  his  biography  was  known, 
even  to  the  best  informed  of  men.  He  was  associated  principally 
with  Jonson,  who  was  known  to  be  no  puritan  ;  and,  outside  of  his 
works,  he  was  known  mostly  from  Jonson's  remarks  concerning  him, 
and  thought  to  be  a  man  of  great  natural  wit,  but  no  learning. 

This  was  a  chance  for  tradition.  The  gods  never  lack  biography. 
The  few  stories  which  the  later-day  actors  could  collect  concerning 
a  departed  and  almost  forgotten  hero,  would  be  accepted,  with 
interest  and  gratitude.  It  would  be  natural  to  believe,  in  the 
absence  of  other  information  and  in  a  day  when  less  attention  was 
given  to  other  plays  of  his,  that  the  creator  of  Falstaff  would 
himself  delight  in  the  "  misrule  of  tavernings."  And  it  would  be 
natural  in  a  little  place  like  Stratford  that  every  tradition  should 
be  cherished  concerning  the  town's  one  great  man. 

The  majority  of  these  traditions  may  have  had  their  remote 
origins  in  facts  :  what  these  facts  might  have  been,  it  is  now  quite 
impossible  to  say ;  and  the  only  safe  method  is  to  keep  these 
traditions  entirely  apart  from  the  ascertained  biography  of 
Shakspere. 


Ixxiii 
CHRONOLOGICAL  LIST   OF 

SHAKSPERE   ALLUSIONS 


VOL.   I.      1591-1649. 

The  asterisks  denote  allusions  which  are  more  or  less  doubtful. 


1591-94.  *Edmund  Spenser    .  I 

1592.  Robert  Greene        .  2 
„         Henry  Chettle         .  _4 
,,         Thos.  Nash    .         .  5 

1593.  Ancient  MS.  Diary  6 

1594.  Henry  Helmes        .  7 
Willobie  his  Aviso,  8 

*Henry  Willobie  .  9 

Sir  Wm.  Harbert  .  14 

*  Michael  Dray  ton  .  15 

Robt.  Southwell  .  16 

Richard  Barnfeild  .  17 

1595-           »            ,i          •  '9 
Locrine .         .         .21 

William  Clarke       .  23 

John  Weever .         .  24 

Thos.  Edwardes     .  25 

1595-6.     Richard  Carew        .  27 

1596.  Wily  Beguilde        .  28 

1597.  *Joseph  Hall    .         .  32 
1597-1603.     In  a  Bacon  MS.      .  40 

1598.  *John  Marston          .  32 

I.  M.     .         .         .  42 

,,         Francis  Meres         .  46 

,,         Robert  Tofte .         .  50 

,,         Richard  Barnfeild  .  51 

,,         John  Marston          .  52 

„      *R.  S.     ...  55 

1598  or  after.  Gabriel  Harvey      .  56 

1599.  Henry  Porter          .  57 
,,       *Ben  Jonson    .         .  58 
„         Ben  Jonson    .         .  61 
,,         Passionate  Pilgrim  62 

1599-1636.     Thos.  Dekker          .  64 

1600.  Returne  from  Per- 

nassus,  Part  I.    .  67 
*Nicholas  Breton     .  70 
*John  Lane      .         .  71 
John  Bodenham      .  72 
Sam.  Nicholson      .  74 
A  Munday,  etc.      .  77 
MS.  (Essex  Rebel- 
lion)                  .  81 


1600.     MS.  (Essex  Rebellion)       82 

1600.  *Chr.  Middleton.         .       84 
,,         Sir  Wm.  Cornwallis    .       85 
„         Charles  Percy    .         .       86 
„         Thos.  Dekker    .         .       64 

1 600- 10.  Two  Letters  .  .  88 
1600-12.  *J.  M  ,  .  .  .89 
1 600- 1 6.  Nicholas  Breton  .  90 

1 60 1.  Lord  Bacon       .         .       92 
,,       *Ben  Johnson     .         .       93 
„         John  Weever      .         .       94 
„         Robert  Chester .         .       95 
„       *  Robert  Chester .         .       96 
,,        W.  J.         .         .         .97 
,,         John  Manningham     .       98 
,,         Wm.  Lambard  .         .      100 

1601-2.     Returne  from  Pernas- 

sus         .         .         .     IO2 

1602.  Thomas  Lord  Crom- 

well     .         .         .     104 

„        Thomas  Dekker         .     106 

,,       *John  Marston    .         .108 

„       *Thomas  Middleton    .     no 

„         Thomas  Acherley      .     in 

1602-7.   *  Lingua      .         .         .112 

1602-7  etc-  John  Webster  .         .     115 

1603.  Father  Parsons  .         .120 
,,       *Michael  Dray  ton        .     121 
„       *Henry  Chettle  .         .123 
,,         A  Mourneful  Dittie  .     124 
„      *L  C.          .        .        .125 
,,        John  Davies  of  Here- 
ford       .         .         .126 

„         William  Camden        .     127 

1604.  Thomas  Dekker         .     128 
,,         John  Marston    .         .129 
,,         Anthony  Scoloker      .     133 
,,         Meeting  of  Gallants   .     136 
„       *T.  M.        ...     I37 
„         Sir  W.  Cope      .        .139 

I.  C.  ...  140 
„  Thos.  Middleton  .  141 
„  Thos.  Dekker  .  .  65 


Ixxiv 


CHRONOLOGICAL   LIST   OF    SHAKSPERE   ALLUSIONS. 


1605.  Peter  Woodhouse 
,,      *Thos.  Heywood 
,,        London  Prodigall 

,,         Chapman,  Jonson  and 

Marston 

John  Marston    . 
Ratseis  Ghost    . 
*Sir  Thos.  Smith 

1606.  *Wm.  Warner     . 

John  Raynolds  . 
Barnabe  Barnes 

1606,  etc.    Wm.     Drummond    of 
Hawthornden 

1606.  Thos.  Heywood 

1607.  Puritaine . 

„  Merry  Divel  of  Ed- 
monton . 

Geo.  Chapman  .         . 
Geo.  Peele  (?)   . 
T.  Walkington . 
Ed.  Sharpham  . 
Wm.  Barkstead 
John  Marston    . 
Thos.  Heywood         . 
John  Fletcher    . 
Thos.  Dekker  . 
*Dekker  and  Webster 
*Beaumont  and   Flet- 
cher 
1607-8.     T.  Middleton     . 

1608.  Thos.  Dekker    . 

,,          Yorkshire  Tragedy    . 
, ,         Markham  and  Machin 
„        Thos.  Middleton 
, ,       *John  Day . 

1608.  *Robert  Armin    . 
1608-9.     Robert  Armin    . 

1 608-10.     Beaumont    and    Flet- 
cher 

1609.  John  Davies  of  Hereford  204 

Samuel  Rowlands 
Thomas  Thorpe 
Troilus  and  Cressida, 

Address . 
Pimlyco     . 
Ben  Jonson        . 
MS.  copy  of  Sonnet  . 
Roger  Sharpe    .         . 
Thomas  Dekker 

1610.  Edmund  Bolton 

,,  Wurmsser  von  Ven- 
denheym  . 

„         MS.  reference   . 

„  Beaumont  and  Flet- 
cher .  . 


•AGE 

1611. 

PAGE 

Cyril  Tourneur  .         .217 

146 

11 

John  Davies  of  Here- 

147 

ford        .         .         .     219 

ii 

„            »           „         ,,              220 

149 

*Lod.  Barrey       .         .221 

153 

tt 

John  Speed        .         .     224 

154 

it 

Troublesome  Raigne  of 

156 

John,  Q.  2.     .         .     226 

I58 

)} 

Simon  Forman  .          .     228 

160 

ii 

Beaumont   and    Flet- 

162 

cher                       197,  229 

1612. 

*Sir  John  Hayward      .     230 

164 

11 

Thomas  Heywood      .     231 

165 

M 

John  Webster    .         .     233 

166 

1613. 

*Belvoir  MSS.     .         .     234 

John  Marston    .         .     236 

169 
170 

>  j 
n 

Joseph  Fletcher          .     237 
Thos.  Lorkins   .         .     238 

171 

Sir  Henry  Wotton     .     239 

172 

V 

Sonnet       .         .         .     246 

173 

Lord  Treasurer  Stan- 

175 

hope      .         .         .     241 

176 

II 

Beaumont  and    Flet- 

177 

cher          .         .197,  229 

180 

1614. 

Edmund  Howes          .     243 

181 

II 

Thomas  Freeman  32,  156,245 

182 

M 

*John  Cooke       .         .     246 

If 

Ben  Jonson        .         .     247 

182 

II 

Robert  Tailor    .         .     248 

141 

Christopher  Brooke   .     249 

185 

j> 

Wm.    Drummond    of 

1  86 

Hawthornden         .     252 

1  88 

ti 

Thomas  Porter  .         .     252 

189 

II 

W.B.         .         .         .     253 

190 

1615. 

Alex.  Niccholes          .     254 

192 

11 

Richard  Braithwaite  .     256 

194 

II 

John  Boys          .         .     258 

II 

New  and  Choise  Cha- 

196 

racters   .         .         .259 

204 

1616. 

*Wm.    Drummond    of 

205 

Hawthornden         .     260 

206 

ii 

Robert  Anton    .         .     262 

Ben  Jonson        .         .     263 

207 
209 

1616-48. 

Inscription  over  Grave     266 
Beaumont    and    Flet- 

2IO 

cher       .         .         .     198 

211 

1617-22. 

Inscription  under  Bust    267 

212 

1617. 

John  Taylor       .         .     268 

I56 
213 

i6"8. 

Geffray  Mynshul        .     269 
Nathaniel  Field          .     270 

99 

Beaumont    and  Flet- 

215 

cher       .        .         .198 

216 

1618-21. 

Richard  Corbet  .         .271 

1618-19. 

Elegy  on  Burbage       .     272 

196 

1619. 

Ben  Jonson        .        .     274 

CHRONOLOGICAL   LIST   OF   SHAKSPERE   ALLUSIONS. 


Ixxv 


PAGE 

PAGE 

1619. 

Sir  Gerrard  Herbert  . 

276 

1629-31. 

Sir  Hy.  Herbert   ' 

323 

»» 

Beaumont    and   Flet- 

1630. 

John  Milton       .  . 

342 

cher 

198 

» 

*John  Taylor      ,  r 

344 

II 

T.  Middleton     . 

142 

ii 

John  Taylor 

345 

1620. 

John  Taylor 

278 

» 

Owen  Feltham  . 

346 

}> 

Hose  Vir   . 

281 

» 

Banquet  of  feasts 

347 

j  5 

*Sam.  Rowlands          »'• 

157 

1630-37. 

Ben  Jonson        . 

348 

1620-21. 

Mr.  Richardson 

279 

1631. 

*R.  Henderson    . 

35° 

I62O-36. 

Choyce  Drollery 

280 

» 

Wye  Saltonstall 

351 

1621. 

John  Fletcher     . 

283 

*John  Spencer     . 

T»2 

5) 

Philip  Massinger 

296 

9) 

Richard  Braithwaite 

•JJ 

354 

1621-28. 

Robert  Burton         .  281-82 

II 

Peter  Heylyn     . 

355 

1622. 

Troublesome     Raigne, 

If 

And.  Funerall  Monu 

Q.  3       .        •        • 

284 

ments     . 

356 

M 

Wm.  Basse 

286 

II 

*James  Shirley    . 

357 

M 

Thos.  Robinson 

290 

» 

Thomas  Heywood 

358 

» 

John  Taylor 

291 

M 

Philip  Massinger     299 

,  302 

>  » 

Thos.  Walkley  . 

292 

1632. 

»             >,           3°3 

•  359 

M 

John  Fletcher          200, 

294 

II 

Chapman  and  Shirley 

*    *'•'«' 

360 

295 

Thos.  Randolph 

361 

j» 

Philip  Massinger     296, 

~-7  J 

301 

1 

Verses  before  Fol.  2. 

jw* 

363 

1623. 

Ben  Jonson 

305 

> 

I.  M.  S.    . 

364 

307 

William  Prynne          . 

•360 

»» 

Heminge  and  Condell 

313 

1 

Sir  Aston  Cokaine     . 

0^:7 

37° 

>> 

»>           »         »      • 

315 

> 

Thomas  Heywood 

37i 

j> 
II 
>» 

Hugh  Holland  . 
Leonard  Digges         . 
I.  M. 

317 
318 
319 

1632-38. 

bef.  1633. 
16^3. 

John  Milton 
John  Hales 
*William  Rowley 

372 
373 
375 

» 

Philip  Massinger 

297 

» 

James  Shirley    . 

376 

1623-36. 

Sir  Henry  Herbert     . 

32I 

ii 

Thomas  Nabbes 

377 

1624. 

Robert  Burton  . 

324 

» 

Thomas  Bancroft 

378 

M 

E.  S. 

326 

» 

John  Ford 

379 

» 

John  Gee  . 

327 

ii 

Philip  Massinger 

304 

» 

Philip  Massinger 

297 

1633-41. 

Sir  John  Suckling  (a 

1624-34. 

>  »             j>               • 

300 

number  of  allusions) 

383 

bef.  1625 

John  Fletcher  . 

328 

1634. 

Two  Noble  Kinsmen  . 

388 

H 

*John  Fletcher   . 

329 

i 

William  Habington   . 

39° 

ii 

Beaumont   and    Flet- 

i 

James  Shirley    . 

39i 

cher  .   199,  200,  202, 

203 

Thomas  Randolph 

392 

1625. 

Richard  James  . 

'330 

1635- 

Lady  Mother 

392 

» 

Ben  Jonson 

332 

i 

Thomas  Heywood     . 

393 

1626. 

*Ben  Jonson 

333 

i 

?>                 • 

395 

ii 

Beaumont  and    Flet- 

» 

Sir  H.  Mildmay 

397 

cher 

202 

ii 

Thomas  Cranley 

398 

»  ? 

Philip  Massinger 

302 

» 

John  Swan 

399 

1627. 

Michael  Drayton 

334 

» 

James  Shirley    . 

479 

M 

*John  Milton 

335 

1636. 

William  Sampson 

400 

»J 

Philip  Massinger 

298 

» 

John  Trussell     . 

401 

1628. 

MS  

336 

ii 

Booke  of  Bulls  baited  . 

4°3 

)J 

Robert  Cell 

337 

» 

Philip  Massinger 

300 

J  9 

Newsletter 

338 

j  j 

Thomas  Dekker 

66 

1628-31. 

Abraham  Cowley 

339 

1636-41. 

Sir  John  Suckling      . 

404 

1629. 

*Philip  Massinger 

340 

II 

55                                     • 

407 

»> 

Philip  Massinger 

299 

II 

»»                                     • 

408 

1629-30. 

Ben  Jonson 

34i 

II 

»>                                    • 

409 

> 


Ixxiv 

CHRONOLOGICAL    LIST    OF    SHAKSPERE   ALLUSIONS. 

PAGE 

PAGE 

1605. 

Peter  Woodhouse 

145 

1611. 

Cyril  Tourneur  . 

217 

}» 

*Thos.  Heywood 

146 

ii 

John  Davies  of  Here- 

> t 

London  Prodigall 

147 

ford 

219 

» 

Chapman,  Jonson  and 

» 

>»                »              M            >» 

2  2O 

i 

Marston 
John  Marston    . 

149 
153 

>j 
ii 

*Lod.  Barrey 
John  Speed 

221 
224 

9 

Ratseis  Ghost    . 

154 

ii 

Troublesome  Raigne  of 

9 

*Sir  Thos.  Smith 

156 

John,  Q.  2.     . 

226 

1606. 

*Wm.  Warner     . 

IS8 

>» 

Simon  Forman  . 

228 

9 

John  Raynolds  .         . 

1  60 

ii 

Beaumont   and    Flet- 

9 

Barnabe  Barnes 

162 

cher                       197, 

229 

1606,  etc. 

Wm.    Drummond    of 

1612. 

*Sir  John  Hayward 

230 

Hawthornden 

164 

ii 

Thomas  Heywood 

231 

1606. 

Thos.  Heywood 

165 

J  J 

John  Webster    . 

233 

1607. 

Puritaine  . 

1  66 

1613. 

*Belvoir  MSS.     . 

234 

99 

Merry  Divel  of  Ed- 

|| 

John  Marston    .         . 

236 

monton  . 

169 

>  J 

Joseph  Fletcher 

237 

99 

Geo.  Chapman  . 

170 

)  > 

Thos.  Lorkins   .         . 

238 

Geo.  Peele  (?)   . 

171 

II 

Sir  Henry  Wotton     . 

239 

T.  Walkington  . 

172 

» 

Sonnet 

240 

Ed.  Sharpham  . 

173 

|l 

Lord  Treasurer  Stan- 

Wm. Barkstead 

175 

hope 

241 

John  Marston    . 

176 

II 

Beaumont   and    Flet- 

Thos. Heywood         . 

177 

cher          .         .   197, 

229 

John  Fletcher    . 

180 

l6l4. 

Edmund  Howes 

243 

Thos.  Dekker   . 

181 

|| 

Thomas  Freeman  32,  1  56 

,245 

*Dekker  and  Webster 

182 

|| 

*John  Cooke       . 

246 

*Beaumont  and   Flet- 

|| 

Ben  Jonson 

247 

cher 

182 

|) 

Robert  Tailor    . 

248 

1607-8. 

T.  Middleton     . 

141 

|I 

Christopher  Brooke   . 

249 

1608. 

Thos.  Dekker    . 

185 

|| 

Wm.    Drummond    of 

i« 

Yorkshire  Tragedy    . 

1  86 

Hawthornden 

252 

j  ) 

Markham  and  Machin 

188 

J> 

Thomas  Porter  . 

252 

if 

Thos.  Middleton 

189 

>J 

W.B. 

253 

ii 

*John  Day  . 

190 

I6l5. 

Alex.  Niccholes 

254 

1608. 

*Robert  Armin    . 

192 

JJ 

Richard  Braithwaite  . 

256 

1608-9. 

Robert  Armin    . 

194 

» 

John  Boys 

258 

1  608-  10. 

Beaumont    and    Flet- 

J j 

New  and  Choise  Cha- 

cher 

196 

racters   . 

259 

1609. 

John  Davies  of  Hereford 

204 

1616. 

*Wm.    Drummond    of 

Samuel  Rowlands 

205 

Hawthornden 

260 

Thomas  Thorpe 

206 

3  ) 

Robert  Anton    . 

262 

Troilus  and  Cressida, 

II 

Ben  Jonson 

263 

Address  . 

207 

5  J 

Inscription  over  Grave 

266 

Pimlyco     . 

209 

1616-18. 

Beaumont    and    Flet- 

Ben Jonson 

210 

cher 

I98 

MS.  copy  of  Sonnet  . 

211 

1617-22. 

Inscription  under  Bust 

267 

Roger  Sharpe    . 

212 

1617. 

John  Taylor 

268 

Thomas  Dekker 

156 

ii 

Geffray  Mynshul 

269 

i6'io. 

Edmund  Bolton 

213 

1618. 

Nathaniel  Field 

27O 

ii 

Wurmsser    von  Ven- 

» 

Beaumont    and  Flet- 

denheym 

215 

cher       .        .         . 

198 

» 

MS.  reference   . 

216 

1618-21. 

Richard  Corbet  . 

271 

ii 

Beaumont  and  Flet- 
cher     . 

196 

1618-19. 
1619. 

Elegy  on  Burbage 
Ben  Jonson 

272 
274 

CHRONOLOGICAL   LIST   OF   SHAKSPERE   ALLUSIONS. 


Ixxv 


PAGE 

1619.      Sir  Gerrard  Herbert  .     276 

1629-31.     Sir  Hy.  Herbert 

PAGE 
323 

,,         Beaumont    and   Flet- 

1630.    John  Milton 

342 

cher       .         .         .     198 

„       *John  Taylor      . 

344 

,,         T.  Middleton     .         .     142 

,,         John  Taylor      , 

345 

1620.     John  Taylor       .         .     278 

,,         Owen  Feltham  . 

346 

„         Hac  Vir   .         .         .281 

,,         Banquet  ofjeasts 

347 

,,       *Sam.  Rowlands          .     157 

1630-37.     Ben  Jonson 

348 

1620-21.     Mr.  Richardson           .     279 

1631.   *R.  Henderson    . 

35° 

1620-36.      Choyce  Drollery          .     280 

„         Wye  Saltonstall 

351 

1621.     John  Fletcher     .         .     283 
,,         Philip  Massinger        .     296 

„       *John  Spencer     . 
,,         Richard  Braithwaite 

352 
354 

1621-28.     Robert  Burton         .  281-82 

,,         Peter  Heylyn     . 

355 

1622.      Troublesome     Raigne, 

,  ,         A  net.  Funerall  Monu 

Q.  3       .         .         .284 

ments     . 

35^ 

„         Wm.  Basse        .         .     286 

„       *James  Shirley    . 

357 

,,         Thos.  Robinson         .     290 

„         Thomas  Heywood 

358 

„         John  Taylor       .         .291 

„         Philip  Massinger     299 

,  302 

,,         Thos.  Walkley  .         .     292 

1632.          „              „            303 

,  359 

„        John  Fletcher          200,  294 

,,         Chapman  and  Shirley 

360 

,,           ,,          ,,           .              295 

},         Thos.  Randolph 

361 

,,         Philip  Massinger     296,  301 

,,         Verses  before  Fol.  2. 

o 

363 

1623.     Benjonson        .         .     305 

I.  M.  S.    . 

364 

»          »»>•••     3°7 

,,         William  Prynne 

^6Q 

,,         Heminge  and  Condell     313 

„         Sir  Aston  Cokaine     . 

o^y 
370 

,,               „           „         „      •     315 

,,         Thomas  Heywood 

371 

„         Hugh  Holland  .         .317 

1632-38.     John  Milton 

372 

,,         Leonard  Digges         .     318 

bef.  1633.   John  Hales 

373 

„         I.  M.                                 319 

163*5-   *William  Rowley 

375 

,,         Philip  Massinger        .     297 

,,         James  Shirley    . 

376 

1623-36.     Sir  Henry  Herbert     .     321 

,,         Thomas  Nabbes 

377 

1624.     Robert  Burton  .         .     324 

„         Thomas  Bancroft 

378 

E.  S.                                326 

„         John  Ford 

379 

,,         John  Gee  .         .         .     327 

,,         Philip  Massinger 

304 

,,         Philip  Massinger        .     297 

1633-41.      Sir  John  Suckling  (a 

1624-34.         ,,              ,,                .300 

number  of  allusions) 

383 

bef.  1625.    John  Fletcher  .         .     328 

1634.      Two  Noble  Kinsmen  . 

388 

„       *John  Fletcher   .         .     329 

,,         William  Habington   . 

390 

,,         Beaumont   and    Flet- 

,,        James  Shirley    . 

39i 

cher  .   199,  200,  202,  203 

„         Thomas  Randolph 

392 

1625.     Richard  James  .         .    -330 

1635.     Lady  Mother 

392 

,,         Ben  Jonson        .         .     332 

,,         Thomas  Heywood 

393 

1626.  *Ben  Jonson        .         .     333 

>                         »>                 • 

395 

,,         Beaumont  and    Flet- 

,        Sir  H.  Mildmay 

397 

cher       .         .         .     202 

,         Thomas  Cranley 

398 

,,         Philip  Massinger        .     302 

,         John  Swan 

399 

1627.     Michael  Drayton         .     334 

,         James  Shirley    . 

479 

„       *John  Milton       .         .     335 

1636.     William  Sampson 

400 

,,         Philip  Massinger        .     298 
1628.     MS  336 

„         John  Trussell     . 
,,         Booke  of  Bulls  baited  . 

401 
403 

„         Robert  Cell       .         .     337 

„         Philip  Massinger 

300 

,,         Newsletter         .         .     338 

,,         Thomas  Dekker         . 

66 

1628-31.     Abraham  Cowley        .     339 

1636-41.      Sir  John  Suckling      . 

404 

1629.   *Philip  Massinger         .     340 

»                         >»                 • 

407 

,,        Philip  Massinger       .     299 

>»                         >»                 • 

408 

1629-30.     Benjonson         .         .     341 

»»                         •>•»                 • 

409 

Ixxvi 


CHRONOLOGICAL   LIST   OF   SHAKSPERE   ALLUSIONS. 


1637- 

Abraham  Wright 

PAGE 

411 

1641. 

Martine  Parker 

PAGE 
472 

|| 

*Thomas  Heywood 

412 

1642. 

Charles  Butler 

473 

j  5 

Jasper  Mayne    . 

414 

J} 

John  Milton 

474 

Owen  Feltham  . 

415 

}J 

Sir  Thos.  Browne 

476 

99 

Richard  West    . 

416 

M 

*John  Taylor 

477 

99 

H.  Ramsay 

417 

_j 

James  Shirley    . 

479 

*Shakerley  Marmion   . 

418 

1643. 

Northern  Nuntio 

480 

99 

Sir  W.  Davenant 

419 

tt 

*Rump 

481 

9  9 

T.  Terrent 

421 

M 

Sir  Richard  Baker     . 

487 

99 

Verses  in  Poems  (  1  640) 

422 

1643-62. 

Thomas  Fuller        483 

,486 

bef.  1638. 

Thomas  Carew 

424 

1644. 

London  Post 

488 

1638. 

Egerton  MS.  2421     . 

425 

Mercurius  Britanicus 

489 

99 

Henry  Adamson 

427 

,, 

John  Cleveland  . 

491 

99 

James  Mervyn   . 

428 

yy 

j>                  . 

492 

99 

William  Chillingworth 

429 

|| 

Thomas  Prujean 

493 

99 

Thomas  Randolph     . 

430 

Vindex  Anglicus 

494 

99 

Richard  Brome 

431 

1645. 

Paul  Ay  1  ward    . 

495 

99 

J.  Ford      . 

382 

Daniel  Breedy  . 

495 

1639. 

John  Clarke 

432 

|| 

George  Withers  (?)     . 

496 

9  9 

G.  Rivers  . 

436 

Sir  Richard  Baker     . 

499 

9  9 

Robert  Chamberlain  . 

438 

1646. 

Samuel  Drake 

500 

99 

Thomas  Bancroft 

439 

p> 

Samuel  Sheppard 

99 

Witts  Recreations  440, 

441 

M 

Robert  Wild      . 

502 

99 

Sam  Picke 

442 

1647. 

Ten  Players 

5°3 

99 

Mrs.  Ann  Merricke   . 

443 

Sir  John  Denham 

5°4 

1639-40. 

Henry  Glapthorne     . 

444 

M 

James  Howell   . 

505 

1640. 

Wandering-Jew 

446 

>f 

George  Daniel  . 

506 

yy 

Lewis  Sharpe 

448 

yy 

99                                 • 

507 

Richard  Goodridge    . 

450 

J> 

William  Cartwright   . 

II 

George  Lynn    . 

451 

J.  Berkenhead  . 

512 

Academy   of  Compli- 

II 

George  Buck 

ments     .        . 

452 

T.  Palmer 

5*3 

„ 

Nich.  Downey 

453 

M 

*Samuel  Sheppard 

5H 

II 

John  Benson 

454 

1648. 

J.  s.            .      514-5 

II 

Leonard  Digges 

455 

II 

Perfect     Occurrences, 

John  Warren     . 

459 

etc. 

rjg 

,, 

Verse  in  Poems  .         . 

460 

1648-54. 

Henry  Tubbe    . 

5X7 

„ 

James  Shirley    . 

462 

1649. 

Tpwapx<*>tiia 

5T9 

|| 

»»                  • 

464 

yy 

Famous  Tragedie  of  . 

Helpe  to  Discourse     . 

464 

Charles  7       . 

•521 

I640-I. 

Nicholas  Dixon 

465 

yy 

J 

522 

1640-2. 

Captain  Underwit 

466 

yy 

John  Milton       . 

523 

l64I. 

Richard  Braithwaite  . 

468 

yy 

J.  Cook     . 

525 

)} 

*Shakerley  Marmion  . 

469 

Wm.  Cavendish,  Duke 

M 

Abraham  Cowley 

470 

of  Newcastle  . 

526 

|| 

John  Johnson 

471 

M 

Humphrey  Moseley  . 

527 

*  EDMUND  SPENSER,  1591—1594. 

And  there,  though  laft  not  leaft  is  Aetion, 
A  gentler  fhepheard  may  no  where  be  found : 
Whole  Mufe,  full  of  high  thoughts  invention. 
Doth  like  himfelfe  Heroically  found. 

Colin  Clouts  come  home  againe.     1595-  sign.  C  2.     [4/0.] 
(See  New  Shakspere  Society,  Allusion- Books,  I- pp.  xxiv,  168.) 


That  Spenser's  stanza  on  Aetion  really  refers  to  Shakespeare  is  established 
by  the  fact  that  no  other  heroic  poet  (/.  e.  historical  dramatist,  or  chronicler 
in  heroic  verse)  had  a  surname  of  heroic  sound.  Jonson,  Fuller,  and 
Bancroft  have  similar  allusions  to  our  bard's  warlike  name.  Mr.  J.  O. 
Halliwell-Phillipps  remarks  that  "  the  lines  seem  to  apply  with  equal  pro- 
priety to  Warner":  (Life  of  Shakespeare  :  1848  :  p.  142.)  But  Warner 
is  not  an  heroic  but  a  premonitory  name. 

Malone's  two  attempts  (Ed.  1821,  vol.  ii,  p.  274)  to  explain  the  meaning 
of  Aetion  are  equally  unfortunate.  He  seems  not  to  have  known  that 
'Aeriwv  was  a  Greek  proper  name,  borne,  in  fact,  by  the  father  of  Cypselus 
of  Corinth,  and  by  two  famous  artists.  It  should  be  written  Aetion,  and 
pronounced  (like  Tiresias  in  Milton)  with  accents  on  the  first  and  last 
syllables.  Its  root  is  surely  deros,  an  eagle  ;  and  it  is,  therefore,  appropriate 
to  one  of  "high  thoughts''  and  heroic  invention. 

Three  verses  in  Colin  Clout 's  come  home  againe,  viz.  those  on  Amyntas 
(who  is  Ferdinando  Earl  of  Derby),  must  have  been  written  after  April  16, 
1594,  when  Lord  Derby  (formerly  Lord  Strange)  died.  Todd  and  others 
have  inferred  from  this  that  the  poem,  which  was  first  printed  in  1595,  was 
really  written  in  the  preceding  year  :  and  that  in  the  date,  27  December, 
1591,  appended  to  the  dedication,  1591  is  a  press-error  for  1594.  We 
adopted  this  view  ;  but  we  are  now  convinced  that  Spenser  had  finished 
the  first  draft  of  his  poem  in  December,  1591,  and  subsequently  amplified 
it.  Some  have  seen  a  discrepancy  between  the  date  appended  to  that 
dedication,  and  that  appended  to  the  dedication  of  Daphnaida,  January 
I,  1591  :  but  if,  as  Mr.  Hales  believes,  the  latter  work  be  alluded  to  in 
the  former,  January  and  December,  1591,  must  be  the  Gregorian  or  historical 
dates,  the  year  beginning  with  the  former  and  ending  with  the  latter  month. 
This  supposition  of  the  use  of  dates,  unusual  at  that  time,  is  supported  by 
Spenser's  division  of  the  year  in  his  Shepherd's  Calender. 

[I  have  placed  the  date  above  doubtfully,  because  the  stanza  quoted  may 
have  been  one  of  the  amplifications. — L.  T.  S.] 

SH.  ALLN.  BK. 1.  B 


ROBERT  GREENE,   1592. 

Base  minded  men  a\  three  of  you,  if  by  my  miferie  ye  be 
not  warned  :  for  unto  none  of  you  (like  me)  fought  thofe 
burres  to  cleave :  thofe  Puppits  (I  meane)  that  fpeake  from  our 
mouths,  thofe  Anticks  garnimt  in  our  colours.  Is  it  not  ftrange 
that  I,  to  whom  they  al  have  beene  beholding  :  is  it  not  like  that 
you,  to  whome  they  all  have  beene  beholding,  mall  (were  ye  in 
that  cafe  that  I  am  now)  be  both  at  once  of  them  forfaken  ?  Yes, 
truft  them  not :  for  there  is  an  upftart  Crow,  beautified  with  our 
feathers,  that  with  his  Tygers  heart  wrapt  in  a  Players  hide, 
fuppofes  he  is  as  well  able  to  bumbaft  out  a  blanke  verfe  as  the 
beft  of  you:  and  being  an  abfolute  Johannes  fac  totum,  is  in  his 
owne  conceit  the  onely  Shake-fcene  in  a  countrie.  O  that  I 
might  intreate  your  rare  wits  to  be  imployed  in  more  profitable 
courfes  :  &  let  thefe  Apes  imitate  your  paft  excellence,  and  never 
more  acquaint  them  with  your  admired  inventions.  I  know  the 
beft  hulband  of  you  all  will  never  prove  an  ufurer  and  the 
kindeft  of  them  all  wil  never  proove  a  kinde  nurfe  :  yet,  whilft 
you  may,  feeke  you  better  Maifters  j  for  it  is  pittie  men  of  fuch 
rare  wits,  ihould  be  fubiect  to  the  pleafures  of  fuch  rude 
groomes. 

In  this  I  might  infert  two  more,  that  both  have  writ  againft 
thefe  buckram  Gentlemen  j  but  let  their  owne  works  ferve  to 
witneffe  againft  their  owne  wickedneffe,  if  they  perfever  to  main- 
taine  any  more  fuch  peafants.  For  other  new  commers,  I  leave 
them  to  the  mercie  of  thefe  painted  monfters,  who  (I  doubt 
not)  will  drive  the  beft  minded  to  defpife  them  -,  for  the  reft  it 
fkils  not  though  they  make  a  jeaft  at  them. 

Green's  Groats-worth  of  Wit ;  bought  with  a  Million  of  Repentaunce.  1596. 
Reprinted  from  Mr.  HutWs  copy  by  New  Shakspere  Society,  Allusion- 
Books,  1.  p.  30.  (See  also  Introduction  to  that  vol.,  p.  ii.) 


ROBERT  GREENE,   1592.  3 

The  three  ' '  base-minded  men "  whom  Greene  thus  addresses  on  his 
death-bed  have  been  identified  as  Marlowe,  Nash,  and  Peele.  That  Shake- 
speare was  the  "  upstart  crow,"  and  one  of  the  purloiners  of  Greene's  plumes, 
is  put  beyond  a  doubt  by  the  following  considerations :  (i)  That  there  was 
no  such  a  word  as  Shake-scene  (i.  e.  a  tragedian  :  cf.  Ben  Jonson's  lines, 

"to  heare  thy  Buskin  tread, 
And  shake  a  Stage  "  , 

and  also  a  passage  in  The  Puritaine  (1607,  sign.  Fi)  where  Pye-boord 
says,  "  Have  you  never  scene  a  stalking-stamping  Player,  that  will  raise 
a  tempest  with  his  toung,  and  thunder  with  his  heeles  ").  (2)  That  the  line 
in  italics  is  a  parody  on  one  which  is  found  in  The  True  Tragedie  of  Richard 
DukeofYorke,  1595,  and  also  in  Shakespeare's  Henry  VI,  Part  III,  Act  I, 
sc.  4,  viz.  : 

"  Oh  Tygers  hart  wrapt  in  a  womans  hide." 

(3)  That  Marlowe  and  Robert  Greene  were  (probably)  the  joint  authors  of 
The  two  Parts  of  the  Contention  and  of  The  True  Tragedie,  which  furnish 
Parts  II  &  III  of  Henry  VI  with  their  prima  stamina,  and  a  considerable 
number  of  their  lines. 

Shakespeare,  as  the  "upstart  crow,"  seems  to  be  one  of  those  alluded  to 
by  "R.  B.  Gent."  in  Greene's  Funeralh,  1594  (Sonnet  ix,  sign.  C),  where 
he  writes  : 

"Greene,  is  the  pleasing  Object  of  an  eie  : 
Greene,  pleasde  the  eies  of  all  that  lookt  uppon  him. 
Greene,  is  the  ground  of  everie  Painters  die  : 
Greene,  gave  the  ground,  to  all  that  wrote  upon  him. 
Nay  more  the  men,  that  so  Eclipst  his  fame  : 
Purloynde  his  Plumes,  can  they  deny  the  same  ?  " 

The  strange  terms  huddled  upon  the  players  by  poor  Greene  are  paralleled 
by  what  we  find  in  other  works  of  the  time  :  e.  g., 

"Out  on  these  puppets,  painted  images,"  &c. 

The  Scourge  of  Villanie,  by  J.  Marston,  Sat.  VII. 

"  'Good  manners,'  as  Seneca  complaines,  'are  extinct  with  wantonnesse, 
in  tricking  up  themselves  men  goe  beyond  women,  men  weare  harlots 
colours  and  doe  not  walke,  but  jet  and  daunce,'  hie  mulier,  hoec  vir,  more 
like  Players,  Butterflies,  Baboones,  Apes,  Antickes,  then  men." — Burton's 
Anatomy  of  Melancholy,  1621.  [4to.]  Part  3,  sec.  2,  memb.  2,  subs.  3, 
page  571.  (Ed.  1676,  p,  295.) 

As  to  the  extract  from  The  Groaf  s--worth  of  Wit,  knowing  no  edition  earlier 
than  that  of  1596,  \ve  have  followed  the  text  of  that.  A  copy  is  in  the 
library  of  Mr.  Henry  Huth.  Greene  died  in  Sept.  1592,  and  as  Chettle's 
Kind  Harts  Dreame,  which  alludes  to  this  book,  was  registered  in  December 
1592,  The  Groatsworth  of  Wit  must  have  been  printed  before  that  date. 
(See  next  extract.)  The  British  Museum  Library  has  copies  of  the  editions 
of  1617,  1621,  and  1637.  The  two  copies  in  the  Bodleian  Library  are  of 
the  editions  of  1621  and  1629,  the  former  of  which,  by  a  very  common  error 
of  the  press,  reads  "Tygres  head,"  instead  of  "Tygers  \heart."  C.  M.  I. 

or  Tygres/ 


HENRY  CHETTLE,  DEC.,  1592. 

He  {hew  reafon  for  my  prelent  writing.  *  *  About  three 
moneths  lince  died  M.  Robert  Greene,  leaving  many  papers  in 
fundry  Booke  fellers  hands,  among  other  his  Groatfworth  of  wit. 
in  which  a  letter  written  to  divers  play-makers,  is  offennvely  by 
one  or  two  of  them,  taken  ;  and  becaufe  on  the  dead  they  cannot 
be  avenged,  they  wilfully  forge  in  their  conceites  a  living  Author, 
and  after  tolling  it  to  and  fro,  no  remedy,  but  it  mull  light  on 
me  *  *  *  With  neither  of  them  that  take  offence  was  I 
acquainted,  and  with  one  of  them  I  care  not  if  I  never  be :  The 
other,  whome  at  that  time  I  did  not  fo  much  fpare,  as  fince  I 
wifh  I  had,  for  that  as  I  have  moderated  the  heate  of  living 
writers,  and  might  have  ufde  my  owne  difcretion  (efpecially  in 
fuch  a  cafe)  the  Author  beeing  dead,  that  I  did  not,  I  am  as  fory, 
as  if  the  originall  fault  had  beene  my  fault,  becaufe  my  felfe 
have  feene  his  demeanor  no  lefTe  civill  than  he  exelent  in  the 
qualitie  he  profefles  :  Befides,  divers  of  worlhip  have  reported, 
his  uprightnes  of  dealing,  which  argues  his  honefty,  and  his 
facetious  grace  in  writting,  that  aprooves  his  Art. 

Kind-Harts  Dreame.    [n.  d.   4/0.]    7b  the  Gentlemen  Readers,  p.  2. 
Reprinted  in  Allusion- Books,  New  Sh.  Soc.,  I.  pp.  viii,  38. 

[The  manuscript  of  the  Groatsworth  of  Wit  must  have  been  put  into 
Chettle's  hands  for  publication,  for  he  goes  on  to  say  after  the  above  extract, 
that  he  copied  it  out,  ' '  Greene's  hand  was  none  of  the  best, "  and  it  could 
not  be  read  by  the  licenser;  "but  in  the  whole  booke  "  he  (Chettle)  put 
"not  a  worde  in."  The  "  one  of  them  "  referred  to  by  Chettle  is  Marlowe, 
"  the  other  "  appears  to  be  Shakespere.  L.  T.  S.] 

Kind- Harts  Dreame  is  undated:  but  the  address  "To  the  Gentlemen 
Readers  "  and  the  entry  in  the  Stationers'  Books,  8th  December,  1592,  prove 
that  the  tract  was  written  between  the  date  of  Robert  Greene's  death  and 
December  in  the  same  year,  i.  e.  1592.  It  was,  probably,  published  in 
the  following  year.  We  were  under  the  impression  that  the  British  Museum 
copy  which  we  used  was  not  the  first  edition.  We  are  now  disposed  to 
believe  that  it  is.  C.  M.  I. 


THOMAS    NASH,   1592. 

How  would  it  have  joyed  brave  Tallot  (the  terror  of  the 
French)  to  thinke  that  after  he  had  lyne  two  hundred  yeares 
in  his  Tombe,  hee  mould  triumphe  againe  on  the  Stage,  and 
have  his  bones  newe  embalmed  with  the  teares  of  ten 
thoufand  fpe6tators  at  leaft,  (at  feverall  times)  who,  in  the 
Tragedian  that  reprefents  his  perfon,  imagine  they  behold  him 
frefh  bleeding  ! 

Pitrce  Penilesse  his  supplication  to  the  Diuell.     1592.  Sign.  F  3.  [4/0.] 


We  have  here  doubtless  an  allusion  to  the  play  of  Henery  the  vi  mentioned 
in  Hemlowds  Diary  (March  3,  1591-2  :  Shakespeare  Society's  print,  1845, 
p.  22)  :  and  this  may  or  may  not  be  identical  with  the  First  Part  of  Henry 
the  Sixth  in  the  Folio  Edition  of  Shakespeare,  1623.  Whether  Shakespeare 
had  any  share  in  this  latter  play  is,  to  say  the  least,  problematical.  Nash's 
work  was  reprinted,  from  theory/  edition  of  1592,  for  the  Shakespeare 
Society  in  1842  under  Mr.  J.  P.  Collier's  superintendence.  That  gentleman 
reprinted  it  again  from  the  second  edition  of  1592,  for  his  series  of 
"Miscellaneous  Tracts,"  generally  known  as  his  Yellow  Series,  in  1870. 
Many  variations  occur  in  the  second  edition.  The  extract  above  given  from 
the  first,  is  the  same  in  both  editions.  C.  M.  I. 


Anonymous,  1593. 

1 2th  of  June,  1593-     For  the  Survay  of  Fraunce,  with  the 
Venus  and  Athonay  pr  Shakfpere,  xii.d. 

[An  Ancient  MS,  Diary. ] 


[This  note  about  Venus  and  Adonis  is  given  by  Malone  in  his  Inquiry 
into  the  Authenticity  of  Certain  Miscellaneous  Papers,  etc.,  1796)  p.  67, 
where  he  says  in  a  foot-note  : 

'  Venus  and  Adonis,  i6mo.  1596. — This  poem  was  entered  in  the 
Stationers'  Books,  by  Richard  Field,  April  18,  1593  ;  and  I  long  since 
conjectur'd  that  it  was  printed  in  that  year,  though  I  have  never  seen  an 
earlier  edition  than  that  above  quoted,  which  is  in  my  possession.  Since  I 
published  that  poem  my  conjecture  has  been  confirmed,  beyond  a  doubt ; 
the  following  entry  having  been  found  in  an  ancient  MS.  Diary,  which 
some  time  since  was  in  the  hands  of  an  acquaintance  of  Mr.  Steevens,  by 
whom  it  was  communicated  to  me.'  He  then  quotes  as  above. 

Mr.  H.  A.  Evans,  in  Notes  and  Queries,  x.  vol.  I,  p.  310,  remarks  : 
'Afterwards,  as  he  states  in  a  note  to  the  second  edition  of  his  Shakespeare 
(vol.  xx,  p.  9),  Malone  acquired  a  copy  of  the  1593  edition,  the  existence 
of  which  he  had  conjectured,  but  he  now  says  nothing  of  the  "  ancient  MS. 
Diary."  Under  the  circumstances  it  was  not  necessary  that  he  should  ;  it 
is,  however,  possible  that  he  had  come  to  have  doubts  of  its  existence.  I 
have  not  been  able  to  find  any  allusion  to  it  by  any  subsequent  writer.' 

The  Diary  may  be  a  myth,  but  there  is  nothing  so  far  to  prove  its  non- 
existence,  and  under  the  circumstances  it  seems  better  to  reproduce  the 
note,  with  a  warning  as  to  its  acceptance,  than  to  omit  it  entirely.  M.] 


HENRY   HELMES,   1594. 

In  regard  whereof.  .  it  was  thought  good  not  to  offer  any 
thing  of  Account,  faving  Dancing  and  Revelling  with  Gentle- 
women -j  and  after  fuch  Sports,  a  Comedy  of  Errors  (like  to 
Plautus  his  Menechmiis]  was  played  by  the  Players.  So  that 
Night  was  begun,  and  continued  to  the  end,  in  nothing  but 
Confufion  and  Errors  j  whereupon,  it  was  ever  afterwards  called 
The  Night  of  Errors. 

Gesta  Grayorum,1  p.  22,  ed.  1688.     (Nichols's  Progresses 
of  Queen  Elizabeth,  iii.  279  (2nd  ed.  1823). 

This  Comedy  of  Errors  was,  without  doubt,  Shakspere's.  It  was  playd 
in  Gray's  Inn  Hall  on  the  night  of  Innocents'  Day,  Dec.  28,  1594,  and 
most  probably  Shakspere  and  Bacon  were  both  at  the  performance. 
See  Spedding's  Letters  and  Life  of  Bacon,  i.  326.  There  was  such  a  row 
and  such  crowding  by  Gentlewomen  and  others  on  the  Stage,  that  the 
Temple  visitors  to  Gray's  Inn  went  away  disgusted,  and  so  the  Gray's-men 
had  only  dancing  and  Shakspere's  play. — F.  J.  F. 

1  The  full  title  of  the  book — printing  its  red  letters  in  italics — is  : — Gesta 
Grayorum  :  \  Or,  the  /  History  /  Of  the  High  and  mighty  Prince,  /  Henry  \ 
Prince  of  Purpoole,  Arch-Duke  of  Stapulia  and  /  Bernardia,  Duke  of  High 
and  Nether  Holborn,  /  Marquis  of  St.  Giles  and  Tottenham,  Count  /  Palatine 
of  Bloomsbury  and  Clerkenwell,  Great  /  Lord  of  the  Cantons  of  Islington, 
Kentish-]  Town,  Paddington  and  Knights-bridge,  /  Knight  of  the  most 
Heroical  Order  of  the  /  Helmet,  and  Sovereign  of  the  Same  ;  j  Who  Reigned 
and  Died,  A.D.  1594.  /  Together  with  /  A  Masque,  as  it  was  presented  (by 
His  Highnesses  Command)  for  the  Entertainment  of  Q.  Elizabeth ;  /  who, 
with  the  Nobles  of  both  Courts,  was  present  /  thereat.  /  London,  Printed 
for  W.  Canning,  at  his  Shop  in /the  Temple-  Cloy 'sters,  /  MDCLXXXVIII.  / 
Price,  one  Shilling.  /  It's  a  jocose  account  of  the  Gray's-Inn  men's  enter- 
tainment to  their  brethren  of  the  Temple,  the  Queen,  &c.  Slapulia  and 
Bernardia  are  Staples  Inn  and  Barnards  Inn.  It  includes  only  the  first 
Part  of  Helmes's  MS.  Nichols  first  printed  the  second  Part  in  the  ist  e.4. 
of  his  Progresses  of  Q.  Eliz, 


Anonymous,  1594. 

In  Lavine  Land  though  Livie  loft 
There  hath  beene  feene  a  Conjlant  dame  r 
Though  Rome  lament  that  me  have  loft 
The  Gareland  of  her  rarer!  fame, 

Yet  now  we  lee,  that  here  is  found. 

As  great  a  Faith  in  Engli/li  ground. 

Though  Collatine  have  deerely  bought, 

To  high  renowne,  a  lafting  life, 

And  found,  that  moft  in  vaine  have  fought, 

To  have  a  Fairs  and  Conjlant  wife, 

Yet  Tarquyne  pluckt  his  glittering  grape, 
And  Shake-fpeare,  paints  poore  Lucrece  rape. 

Commendatory  verses  prefixed  to  Willobie  his  Aviso,.     1594.  Sign.  A  iiij. 
Reprinted  in  Alhtsion- Books,  New  Sh.  Soc.,  /,  pp.  xxxi,  170. 


*  HENRY   WILLOBIE,   1594. 

CANT.  XLIIII. 

Henrico  fPillobego.     Italo-Hifpalenfis. 

H.  W.  being  fodenly  infe&ed  with  the  contagion  of  a  fantafticall 
fit,  at  the  firll  light  of  A,  pyneth  a  while  in  fecret  griefe,  at 
length  not  able  any  longer  to  indure  the  burning  heate  of  fo 
fervent  a  humour,  bewrayeth  the  fecrefy  of  his  difeafe  unto 
his  familiar  frend  W.  S.  who  not  long  before  had  tryed  the 
curtesy  of  the  like  paffion,  and  was  now  newly  recovered  of 
the  like  infection  -,  yet  finding  his  frend  let  bloud  in  the  fame 
vaine,  he  took  pleafure  for  a  tyme  to  fee  him  bleed,  &  in  fteed 
of  (lopping  the  iffue,  he  inlargeth  the  wound,  with  the  lharpe 
rafor  of  a  willing  conceit,  perfwading  him  that  he  thought  it 
a  matter  very  eafy  to  be  compafled,  &  no  doubt  with  payne, 
diligence  &  fome  coft  in  time  to  be  obtayned.  Thus  this 
miferable  comforter  comforting  his  frend  with  an  impoffibilitie, 
eyther  for  that  he  now  would  fecretly  laugh  at  his  frends  folly, 
that  had  given  ocean* on  not  long  before  unto  others  to  laugh  at 
his  owne,  or  becaufe  he  would  fee  whether  an  other  could  play 
his  part  better  then  himfelfe,  &  in  vewing  a  far  off  the  courfe  of 
this  loving  Comedy,  he  determined  to  fee  whether  it  would  fort 
to  a  happier  end  for  this  new  a6tor,  then  it  did  for  the  old  player. 
But  at  length  this  Comedy  was  like  to  have  growen  to  a  Tragedy, 
by  the  weake  &  feeble  eftate  that  H.  W.  was  brought  unto,  by  a 
defperate  vewe  of  an  impoflibility  of  obtaining  his  purpofe,  til 


10  HENRY   WILLOBIE,     1594. 

Time  &  Necefiity,  being  his  beft  Phifitions  brought  him  a  plafter, 
if  not  to  heale,  yet  in  part  to  eafe  his  maladye.  In  all  which 
difcourfe  is  lively  reprefented  the  unrewly  rage  of  unbrydeled 
fancy,  having  the  raines  to  rove  at  liberty,  with  the  dyvers  & 
fundry  changes  of  affections  &  temptations,  which  Will,  fet  loose 
from  Reafon,  can  devise  &c. 

H.  W 

H.  W. 

What  fodaine  chance  or  change  is  this, 

That  doth  bereave  my  quyet  reft  ? 
**•*•*•* 

But  yonder  comes  my  faythfull  frend, 

That  like  aflaultes  hath  often  tryde, 

On  his  advife  I  will  depend, 

Where  I  mail  winne,  or  be  denyde/wheth*rj 
And  looke  what  counfell  he  mall  give, 
That  will  I  do,  where  dye  or  liVe.[whethefJ 

CANT.  XLV. 
W.  S. 

Well  met,  frend  Harry,  what's  the  caufe 
You  looke  fo  pale  with  Lented  cheeks  ? 
Your  wanny  face  &  lharpened  nofe 
Shew  plaine,  your  mind  fome  thing  millikes, 

If  you  will  tell  me  what  it  is, 

He  helpe  to  mend  what  is  amiife. 

What  is  me,  man,  that  workes  thy  woe, 
And  thus  thy  tickling  fancy  move  ? 
Thy  droulie  eyes,  &  lighes  do  moe, 
This  new  difeafe  proceedes  of  love, 

Tell  what  me  is  that  witch't  thee  fo, 

I  fweare  it  lhall  no  farder  go. 


HENRY    WILLOBIE,    1594.  IT 

A  heavy  burden  wearieth  one, 

Which  being  parted  then  in  twaine, 

Seemes  very  light,  or  rather  none, 

And  boren  well  with  little  paine  : 

The  fmothered  flame,  too  clofely  pent, 
Burnes  more  extreame  for  want  of  vent. 

So  forrowes  fhrynde  in  fecret  breft, 
Attainte  the  hart  with  hotter  rage, 
Then  griefes  that  are  to  frendes  expreft, 
Whofe  comfort  may  fome  part  aflwage  : 

If  I  a  frend,  whofe  faith  is  tryde, 

Let  this  requeft  not  be  denyde. 

Exceffive  griefes  good  counfells  want, 

And  cloud  the  fence  from  fharpe  conceits ; 

No  reafon  rules,  where  forrowes  plant, 

And  folly  feedes,  where  fury  fretes, 
Tell  what  {he  is,  and  you  lhall  fee, 
What  hope  and  help  fhall  come  from  mee. 

CANT.  XLVI. 

H.  W. 

Seeft  yonder  howfe,  where  hanges  the  badge 

Of  Englands  Saint,  when  captaines  cry 

Victorious  land,  to  conquering  rage, 

Loe,  there  my  hopeleife  helpe  doth  ly  : 
And  there  that  frendly  foe  doth  dwell, 
That  makes  my  hart  thus  rage  and  fwell. 

CANT.  XLVII. 

W.  S. 

Well,  fay  no  more  :   T  know  thy  griefe, 
And  face  from  whence  thefe  flames  aryte, 


12  HENRY   W1LLOBIE,     1594. 

It  is  not  hard  to  fynd  reliefe, 

Jf  thou  wilt  follow  good  advyfe  : 
She  is  no  Saynt,  She  is  no  Nonne, 
I  thinke  in  tyme  me  may  be  wonne. 

veteratoria  At  firft  repulfe  you  muft  not  faint, 
Nor  flye  the  field  though  Ihe  deny 
You  twife  or  thrife,  yet  manly  bent, 
Againe  you  muft,  and  ftill  reply  : 

When  tyme  permits  you  not  to  talke, 
Then  let  your  pen  and  fingers  walke. 

(cJSKu)  Apply  her  ftill  with  dyvers  thinges,  [plyl 
honiinesq;  (For  giftes  the  wyfeft  will  deceave) 
Sometymes  with  gold,  fometymes  with  ringes, 
No  tyme  nor  fit  occafion  leave, 

Though  coy  at  firft  (he  feeme  and  wielde, 
Theie  toyes  in  tyme  will  make  her  yielde. 

Looke  what  me  likes  5  that  you  muft  love, 
And  what  me  hates,  you  muft  deteft, 
Where  good  or  bad,  you  muft  approve,  [whether' 
The  wordes  and  workes  that  pleafe  her  belt  : 
If  ihe  be  godly,  you  muft  fweare, 
That  to  offend  you  ftand  in  feare. 


You  muft  commend  her  loving  face, 
women.      For  women  joy  in  beauties  praise, 
You  muft  admire  her  fober  grace, 
Her  wifdome  and  her  vertuous  wayes, 
Say,  t'was  her  wit  and  modeft  {hoe,  [show; 
That  made  you  like  and  love  her  fo. 

You  muft  be  fecret,  conftant,  free, 
Your  fiient  fighes  &  trickling  teares, 


HENRY   WILLOBIE,     1594.  1$ 

Let  her  in  fecret  often  fee, 

Then  wring  her  hand,  as  one  that  feares 

To  fpeake,  then  wifh  fhe  were  your  wife, 

And  laft  delire  her  lave  your  life. 

When  flie  doth  laugh,  you  muft  be  glad, 
And  watch  occafions,  tyme  and  place, 
When  fhe  doth  frowne,  you  muft  be  fad, 
Let  fighes  &  fobbes  requeft  her  grace  : 

Sweare  that  your  love  is  truly  ment, 

So  fhe  in  tyme  muft  needes  relent. 

Willobie  his  Avisa,  or  the  true  picture  of  a  Modest  Maid  and  of  a  chast 
and  constant  wife.  In  hexamiter  verse.  The  like  argument  wheroj 
was  nevtr  heretofore  published.  1594-  [4^-]  Sig.  Li,  back. 

Reprinted  in  Allusion-Books,  /,  New  Sh.  Soc.,  p.  169. 


Henry  Willobie's  W.  S.  is  referred  to  Shakespeare  on  two  distinct 
grounds:  (i)  Because  W.  S.  appears  in  this  "imaginary  conversation"  as 
a  standard  authority  on  Love ;  and  assuredly  Shakespeare  was  the  amatory 
poet  of  the  day,  and,  to  judge  by  his  Sonnets,  "had  tried  the  curtesy  of  the 
like  passion,"  and  had  come  unscathed  out  of  the  ordeal.  [Compare  also  his 
counsel  to  the  wooer  in  the  poem  No.  XIX,  beginning,  "When  as  thine 
eye  hath  chose  the  dame,"  of  the  Passionate  Pilgrim,  to  which  Willobie's 
verses  bear  a  strong  and  curious  resemblance  in  metre,  subject,  and  treat- 
ment, L.  T.  S.]  (2)  Because  it  is  said  that  this  W.  S.  "in  vewing  the 
course  of  this  loving  Comedy  determined  to  see  whether  it  would  sort  to  a 
happier  end  for  this  new  actor,  then  it  did  for  the  old  player"  v/ith  other 
theatrical  imagery  specially  applicable  to  a  player  and  dramatist.  Assuredly, 
no  other  contemporary  poet  of  the  same  initials,  whether  lyrist  or  dramatist 
(and  five  or  six  might  be  named),  had  any  claim  to  this  distinction. 
C.  M.  I. 


[SIR]  WflLLIAM]  HAR[BERT],  1594, 

You  that  to  fhew  your  wits,  have  taken  toyle 

In  regift'ring  the  deeds  of  noble  men  j 

And  fought  for  matter  in  a  forraine  foyle, 

As  worthie  fubje&s  of  your  filver  pen, 

Whom  you  have  rais'd  from  darke  oblivion's  den. 

You  that  have  writ  of  chafte  Lucretia, 

Whofe  death  was  witnerTe  of  her  fpotlefle  life  : 

Or  pen'd  the  praife  of  fad  Cornelia, 

Whofe  blameleife  name  hath  aiade  her  fame  fo  rife, 

As  noble  Pompey's  moft  renoumed  wife  : 
Hither  unto  your  home  direft  your  eies, 
Whereas,  unthought  on,  much  more  matter  lies. 

Epicedium.     A  funerall  Song,  upon  the  vertuous  life  and  godly  death  of 

the  right  ivorshipfiill  the  Lady  Helen  Branch. 
Signed,  W.  Har. 
Reprinted  in  Sir  Egerton  Brydges1  Rcstituta  (1815),  -vol.  in.  pp.  297— 

299,  also  in  Allusion- Books,  /,  New  SA.  Soc.,  p.  177. 


This  Epicedium  is  of  uncertain  authorship.     Sir  Egerton  Brydges  assigns 
it  to  Sir  William  Harbert  (Restituta,  vol.  iii.  p.  298).      The  lines— 

"  You  that  have  writ  of  chaste  Lucretia, 
Whose  death  was  witness  of  her  spotlesse  life  : " 

seem  to  refer  to  Shakespeare's  poem.     The  line — 

"  Hither  unto  your  home  direct  your  eies" 

recals  two  lines  (163,  164)  in  Lycidas ;  where,  by  the  way,  Milton  im- 
plicitly compares  Lycidas  with  Melicert  (Paloemon),  invoking  the  dolphins 
to  waft  his  body  into  port.  C.  M.  I. 


*  MICHAEL  DRAYTON,  1594. 

Lucrece,  of  whom  proude  Rome  hath  boafted  long 
Lately  reviv'd  to  live  another  age, 
And  here  ariv'd  to  tell  of  Tarqums  wrong, 
Her  chaft  deniall,  and  the  Tyrants  rage, 
A6ting  her  paffions  on  our  ftately  ftage. 
She  is  remembred,  all  forgetting  me, 
Yet  I,  as  fayre  and  chaft  as  ere  was  She. 

The  Legend  of  Mathilda  the  chast,  daughter  to  the 

Lord  Robert  Fitz'water.    1594-     Sixth  Stanza, 
(See  Allusion-Books,  7,  New  Sh.  Soc.,  pp.  xxxi,  178.) 


Shakespeare's  Rape  of  Lucrece  was  published  in  the  same  year  as  Drayton's 
Matilda  (the  above  passage  is  found  in  the  editions  of  both  1594  and  1596). 
Hey  wood's  drama  of  the  same  name  did  not  appear  till  1608.  The  fifth 
line  seems  to  imply  a  dramatic  representation  :  and,  in  confirmation  of  this 
view,  we  find  almost  the  same  words  in  Drayton's  Mistress  Shore  to  Edward 
IV.  (England's  Heroical  Epistles,  1598,  p.  73)  : 

"  Or  passionate  Tragedian,  in  his  rage 
Acting  a  love-sicke  passion  on  the  stage. " 

[Eut  this  very  line,  taken  literally,  appears  to  offer  strong  proof  that 
Drayton  did  not  here  refer  to  Shakespeare's  Poem  of  Lucrece.  L.  T.  S.] 


i6 


ROBERT  SOUTHWELL, 


This  makes  my  mourning  Mufe  refolve  in  teares, 
This  theames  my  heavie  penne  to  plaine  in  profe  j 
Chrift's  thorne  is  fharpe,  no  head  His  garland  weares  ; 
Sdl  fineft  wits  are  'frilling  Venus'  rofe, 
In  Paynim  toyes  the  fweeteft  vaines  are  fpent  j 
To  Chriftian  workes  few  have  their  talents  lent. 
*  *  *  *  * 

O  facred  eyes  !  the  fprings  of  living  light, 

The  earthly  heavens  where  angels  ioy  to  dwell, 

*•**.*,* 

Sweet  volumes,  ftoard  with  learning  fit  for  faints, 
Where  blifffull  quires  imparadize  their  minds  } 

Wherein  eternall  ftudie  never  faints 

Still  finding  all,  yet  feeking  all  it  finds  : 

How  endlefle  is  your  labyrinth  of  blifTe, 

Where  to  he  loft  the  fweeteft  finding  is  ! 

Saint  Peters  Complaint,  with  other  Poemes.  The  Authoui 
to  the  Reader,  1595.  [4/0.]  (Grosarfs  Ed.,  1872,  pp.  xii, 
xc,  9,  25.) 


1  Southwell  was  executed  Feb.  20,  1594/5. 

[The  allusion  in  the  first  of  these  stanzas  is  to  Venus  and  Adonis  ;  the  two 
next  contain,  as  pointed  out  by  Dr.  Grosart,  the  application  to  the  spiritual 
eyes  of  Christ  of  the  idea  contained  in  the  humorous  thesis  on  women's 
eyes  maintained  by  Biron  in  Love's  Labours  Lost,  Act  IV.  sc.  iii.  L.  T.  S.] 


RICHARD   BARNFEILD,  1594. 

[i]        Wilt  thou  deceaue  the  deep-earth-deluing  Coney? 

[The  Affectionate  Shepheard,  stanza  xi.] 

[2]        Oh  foule  Eclipfer  of  that  fayre  fun-mine, 
Which  is  intitled  Beauty  in  the  befl  ; 

[Ibid,  stanza  xxix.] 

[3]        Humillity  in  mifery  is  relieu'd, 

But  Pride  in  neede  of  no  man  is  regarded  j 

[Ibid,  stanza  xxxiv.] 

[4]        The  wealthie  Merchant  that  doth  crofle  the  Seas, 
To  Denmarke,  Poland,  Spaine,  and  Barlarie, 
For  all  his  ritches,  Hues  not  Hill  at  eafe  ; 
Sometimes  he  feares  fhip-fpoyling  Pyracie, 
Another  while  deceipt  and  treacherie 
Of  his  owne  Factors  in  a  forren  Land  -, 
Thus  doth  he  ftill  in  dread  and  danger  Hand. 

[The  Shepherds  Content  ',  stanza  xii.] 

[5]        Monfter  of  Art,  Baftard  of  bad  Defier, 
Il-worihipt  Idollj  falle  Imagerie. 

*  *  #  *  * 

Sly  Bawd  to  Luft,  Pandor  to  Infamie. 

[  The  Complaint  of  Chastitie>  stanza  iii.  ] 

[6]        Thou  fetft  dilfention  twixt  the  man  and  wife 

[Ibid,  stanza  v.] 

[7]        Thole  times  were  pure  from  all  impure  completion  j 

stanza  vi.] 


The  Affectionate  /  Shepheard.  /  Containing  the  Complainie 
of  Daphnis  for  /  the  loue  of  Ganymede.  /  .  .  .  London,  I 

•  •  •   1594- 
SH.  ALLN.  BK.  -  1.  C 


1 8  RICHARD  BARNFEILD,   1594. 

[These  borrowings  by  Barnfeild  from  Shakspere  were  pointed  out  by 
Charles  Crawford  in  Notes  and  Queries,  Qth  Series,  vol.  viii,  pp.  277-279. 
In  the  Complaint  of  Chastitie  the  borrowings  are  from  Venus  and  Adonis, 
though  the  theme  is  that  of  Lucrece.  In  The  Affectionate  Shepheard,  and 
its  continuation,  The  Shepheards  Content,  while  Barnfeiid  uses  principally 
the  Venus  there  are  yet  evident  verbal  traces  of  the  influence  of  Liicrecc. 

No.  I  echoes  I.  687  of  Venus : 

And  sometime  where  earth-delving  conies  keep. 

No.  2  seems  to  be  suggested  by  Lucrece,  57  : 

But  beauty,  in  that  white  intituled,  etc. 

No.  3  calls  to  mind  the  famous  couplet  in  Vemis,  707-8 : 

For  misery  is  trodden  on  by  many, 
And  being  low  never  relieved  by  any. 

No.  4  may  have  been  inspired  by  Lucrece,  334-6  : 

Pain  pays  the  income  of  each  precious  thing  ; 

Huge  rocks,  high  winds,  strong  pirates,  shelves  and  sands, 

The  merchant  fears,  ere  rich  at  home  he  lands. 

No.  5  refers  to  Venus,  211,  212,  and  792  : 

Fie,  lifeless  picture,  cold  and  senseless  stone, 
Well  painted  idol,  image  cold  and  dead,  .  .  . 

*  *  *  * 

When  reason  is  the  bawd  to  lust's  abuse. 

No.  6  is  from  Venus,  1160  : 

And  set  dissension  'twixt  the  son  and  sire. 

No.  7,  with  its  play  of  "pure"  and  "impure,"  etc.,  seems  to  owe 
something  to  Venus,  735-6 : 

To  mingle  beauty  with  infirmities 

And  pure  perfection  with  impure  defeature. 

This  is  the  earliest  certain  "allusion"  to  Shakspere's  Venus,  for 
Southwell's  reference  to  Venus  in  1594  (see  p.  16)  may  be  considered 
somewhat  doubtful,  though  it  is  highly  probable  that  Shakspere  was 
intended.  The  earliest  allusions  we  previously  had  to  Lticrece  were  a 
'probable  one  by  Sir  William  Harbert,  and  another  one  by  Michael 
Drayton  (pp.  14,  15),  both  in  1594.  The  Complaint  of  Chastitie  was 
published  in  November,  1594.  See  also  Crawford's  Collectanea,  First 
Series,  1906,  pp.  10-16.  M.] 


RICHARD    BARNFEILD,  1595. 

[i]        This  laid  :  he  iweetly  doth  imbrace  his  lone, 
Yoaking  his  armes  about  her  luory  necke : 

[stanza  18.] 

[2]        Looke  how  a  brightfome  Planet  in  the  fkie, 
(Spangling  the  Welkin  with  a  golden  fpot) 
Shootes  fuddenly  from  the  beholders  eie, 
And  leaues  him  looking  there  where  me  is  not : 
Euen  fo  amazed  Phcelus  (to  difcrie  her) 
Lookes  all  about,  but  no  where  can  efpie  her. 

[st.  25.] 

[3]        Then  angry  Phoebus  mounts  into  the  fkie  : 

Threatning  the  world  with  his  hot-burning  eie. 

[st.  26.] 

[4]        Whofe  deadly  damp  the  worlds  poore  people  kils. 

[st  27.] 

[5]        Heerewith  awaking  from  her  llumbring  lleepe, 
(For'feare,  and  care,  are  enemies  to  reft :) 

[st  32.] 

[6]        Now  filent  night  drew  on ;  when  all  things  fleepe, 

Saue  theeves,  and  cares ;  and  now  ftil  mid-night  came : 

[st.  69.] 

[7  ]        Here  ended  fhee  j  and  then  her  teares  began, 

That  (Chorus  like)  at  euery  word  downe-rained. 

[st.  74.] 

Cynthia;  /  and  the  /  Legend  of  Cassandra  /   .    .    .    At 

London :  /  .   .   .    1595. 


20  RICHARD    BARNFEILD,     1595. 

[These  borrowings  by  Barnfeild  from  Shakspere  were  pointed  out  by 
Charles  Crawford  in  Notes  and  Queries,  Qth  Series,  vol.  viii,  pp.  277-279. 
"In  Cassandra"  he  says,  "the  leading  ideas  of  Lucrece  are  manifest  at  a 
glance  ;  and  the  description  of  Cassandra  in  her  bed,  and  the  poetical 
conceit  of  Phoebus  gazing  at  her  whilst  she  sleeps,  and  noting  her  beauties, 
recall  at  once  the  visit  of  Tarquin  to  Lucrece's  chamber  and  Shakespeare's 
description  of  the  bed  and  its  tenant." 

No.  i  is  from  Venus,  592  : 

And  on  his  neck  her  yoking  arms  she  throws. 

No.  2  is  from  Venus,  815-6: 

Look,  how  a  bright  star  shooteth  from  the  s'ky, 
So  glides  he  in  the  night  from  Venus'  eye. 

No.  3  suggests  Venus,  1778  : 

And  Titan,  tired  in  the  mid-day  heat, 
With  burning  eye  did  hotly  overlook  them. 

No.  4  borrows  a  phrase  from  Venus,  925  : 

Look,  how  the  world's  poor  people  are  amazed. 

No.  5  imitates  Lucrece,  673-4  : 

This  said,  he  sets  his  foot  upon  the  light, 
For  light  and  lust  are  deadly  enemies. 

No.  6  shows  borrowing  from  Lucrece,  124-6  : 

Now  leaden  slumber  with  life's  strength  doth  fight ; 

And  every  one  to  rest  themselves  betake, 

Save  thieves  and  cares  and  troubled  minds  that  wake. 

No.  7  repeats  Venus,  360  : 

With  tears,  which  chorus-like  her  eyes  did  rain. 

That  Barnfeild  ardently  admired  Shakspere  we  knew  from  his  Poems  in 
Divers  humors,  1 598 ;  these  passages  of  a  date  three  or  four  years 
earlier  show  that  he  knew  thoroughly  the  poems  of  the  man  he  praised  so 
highly.  See  also  Crawford's  Collectanea,  First  Series,  1906,  pp.  10-16.  M.] 


THE 


Lamentable  Tragedie  of 

Locrine,  the  eldeft  fonne  of  King  Brutus,  difcour- 

ling  the  warres  of  the  Britaines,  and  Hunnes, 

with  their  ditcomfiture ; 


The  Britaines  victorie  with  their  Accidents,  and  the 

death  of  Albanaft.         No  lefje  pleafant  then 

profitable. 

Newly  fet  foorth,  ouerfeene  and  correded, 
By   W.  S. 

[Device] 


LONDON 

Printed  by  Thomas  Creede, 


22  LOCRINE,     159$. 

[Locrine  was  entered  in  the  Stationers'  Registers  on  July  20,  1594  : 
"xx°  die  lulij.     Thomas  Creede   Entred  for  his  Copie  vnder  thandes 
of  the  Wardens  The  lamentable  Tragedie  of  Locrine,  the  eldest  Sonne  of 
Kinge  Brutus.  .  .   .  yjd." 

Mr.  C.  F.  Tucker  Brooke  in  his  admirable  Shakespeare  Apocrypha,  1908, 
says,  p.  xvi :  "  We  may  conclude  with  tolerable  assurance  .  .  .  that  the 
initials  '  W.  S.'  on  the  title-pages  of  Locrine,  Cromwell,  and  The  Puritan 
may  well  stand  for  '  William  Shakespeare,' " — having  been  put  there  by  a 
none  too  scrupulous  bookseller  to  recommend  his  wares.  Locrine  was 
subsequently  included  in  the  third  Folio.  M.] 


A.II  praise  Let  divine  Bartajft,  eternally  praife-worthie  for  his 

'weetshak     wee^s  worke,  fay  the  beft  thinges  were  made  firft  : 


W.  C[OVELL],  1595. 
t  divine  Bartajft,  eternally  p 
s  worke,  fay  the  beft  thin 
Let  other  countries  (fweet  Camlrid.se)  envie.  (yet 

Gaveston. 

Adon?sn         admire)  my  Virgil,  thy  petrarch,  divine  Spenfer. 
heyrse?ns        And  unleffe  I  erre,  (a  thing  ealie  in  fuch  fimpli- 

So  well  gra- 

nfeddeser.°'     citie)    deluded    by    dearlie    beloved    Delia,    and 
tail  praise       fortunatelic    fortunate    Cleopatra  :     Oxford    thou 

from  the  hawd 

vfne  Lady  who  maifl  extoll  thy  courte-deare-verfe  happie  Daniell, 


fweete  refined  mufe,  in  contra6ted  ihape, 
were  fufEcient  amongft  men,  to  gaine  pardon  of 

ctorious. 

the  finne  to  Rofemond,  pittie  to  diftrefled  Cleopatra, 
and  everliving  praife  to  her  loving  Delia: 

Polimanteia,  or  the  meanes  lawfull  and  unlawfull  to  judge  of  tJu 
fall  of  a  commonwealth,  against  the  frivolous  and  foolish  con- 
jectures of  this  age,  etc.     1595.  sign.  R  2,  bk.  [4/0.] 
(See  Allusion-  Books,  /",  New  Sh.  Soc.,  pp.  xxodi,  180.) 

On  the  title-page  of  the  Grenville  copy  of  Polimanteia,  1595,  is  a  pencil 
note,  in  the  well-known  handwriting  of  Mr.  J.  P.  Collier,  which  runs  thus  : 
"Q  if  the  notice  of  Shakespeare  in  this  book  be  not  the  oldest  known." 
This  query  must  have  been  long  ago  answered  in  the  negative  by  the  querist 
himself.  Mr.  C.  Elliot  Browne,  in  a  note  on  the  side-note  (Notes  and 
Queries,  4th  S.  xi.  378),  falls  into  the  same  error.  Shakespeare's  name 
occurs  in  a  work  printed  in  1594.  (See  before,  p.  8.)  The  construction 
of  the  side-note  is  not  (as  Mr.  Halliwell  read  it  in  his  Life  of  Shakespeare  : 
1848:  p.  159)  that  "all  praise  worthy  Lucretia  [of]  sweet  Shakespeare," 
but  that  "  All-praiseworthy  [is  the]  Lucretia  [of]  sweet  Shakespeare."  In 
fact  the  epithet  is  used  just  above  of  Du  Bartas  ;  and  Spenser  applies  it  to 
nine  of  his  heroines  in  Colin  Clout's  come  home  again.  Mr.  C.  E.  Browne 
would  also  identify  "Watson's  heyre;>  with  "Sweet  Shakespeare,"  and 
give  him  "Wanton  Adonis,"  as  well  as  "Lucretia."  Others  contend  that 
the  "heyre"  was  Henry  Constable.  Probably,  it  was  on  the  strength  of 
this  side-note  that  the  late  Rev.  N.  J.  Halpin  arrived  at  the  rather  hazardous 
conclusion  that  Shakespeare  was  a  member  of  "  one  (or  perhaps  more)  of 
the  English  Universities."  See  his  Dramatic  Unities  of  Shakespeare,  1849, 
p.  12,  note.  C.  M.  I. 

[The  "Cleopatra"  here  mentioned  is  Daniel's,  published  in  1594;  he 
addressed  his  prefatory  verses  to  the  Couutess  of  Pembroke,  to  whom  W.  C, 
refers  in  the  margin.  L.  T.  S.] 


24 


JOHN  WEEVER,  1595. 

Ad  Gulielmum  Shakespeare. 

Honie-tong'd  Shakefpeare,  when  I  faw  thine  ilme, 

I  fwore  Apollo  got  them  and  none  other, 

Their  rolie-tainted  features  cloth'd  in  tilTiie, 

Some  heaven  born  goddefle  faid  to  be  their  mother  : 

Rofe-checkt  Adonis  with  his  amber  trefles,  tcheeked1 

Faire  fire-hot  Venus  charming  him  to  love  her, 

Chafle  Lucretla  virgine-like  her  dreffes, 

Prowd  lull-flung  Tarquine  feeking  ftill  to  prove  her  : 

Romea- Richard;  more,  whofe  names  I  know  not,  ^Romeo^ 

Their  fugred  tongues,  and  power  attra6tive  beuty 

Say  they  are  Saints,  althogh  that  Sts  they  mew  not 

For  thoufands  vowes  to  them  fubje&ive  dutie  : 

They  burn  in  love  thy  childre  Shakefpear  het  the,[heatedl 

Go,  wo  thy  Mufe  more  Nymphifh  brood  beget  them. 

Epigrammes  in  the  oldest  cut,  and  newest  fashion.  A  twite  seven 
houres  (in  so  many  iveekes]  studie.  No  longer  (like  the  fashion}  not 
unlike  to  continue.  The  first  seven.  John  Weever.  1599. 
\i2nto.~\  The  ^th  week:  Epig.  22,  sign.  £6. 

(See  Allusion-Books,  I,  New  Sh.  Soc.,  p.  182.) 

[From  Malone's  copy  in  the  Bodleian.] 


The  children  of  Shakespere's  muse  het  or  heated  themselves  with  love  ; 
so  Chapman  says  of  Hero,  that 

"  Her  blushing  het  her  chamber." 

Hero  and  Leander,  Third  Sestyad  -(Chapman's 
Works,  1875,  volume  of  Poems,  p.  73, 
col.  2).  C.  M.  I, 


25 


THOMAS  EDWARDES,  1595. 

Poets  that  divinely  dreampt 
*  *  * 

Collyn  was  a  mighty  fwaine, 
In  his  power  all  do  flourish, 
We  are  fhepheards  but  in  vaine 

There  is  but  one  tooke  the  charge, 
By  his  toile  we  do  nourim, 

And  by  him  are  inlarg'd. 

He  unlockt  Allions  glorie, 

He  twas  tolde  of  Sidneys  honor, 

Onely  he  of  our  ftories, 

Must  be  fung  in  greateft  pride 
In  an  Eglogue  he  hath  wonne  her, 

Fame  and  honor  on  his  fide. 

Deale  we  not  with  Rofcnnond, 
For  the  world  our  fawe  will  coate, 
Amintas  and  Lednders  gone, 

Oh  deere  fonnes  of  ftately  kings, 
BleiTed  be  your  nimble  throats 

That  fo  amorouny  could  fing. 

Adon  deafly  mafldng  thro, 
Stately  troupes  rich  conceited, 
Shew'd  he  well  deferved  to 

Loves  delight  on  him  to  gaze 
And  had  not  love  her  felfe  intreated, 

Other  nymphs  had  fent  him  baies. 


26  THOMAS    EDW\RBES,     1595- 

Eke  in  purple  roabes  diftaind, 
Amid'ft  the  Center  of  this  clime, 
I  have  heard  faie  doth  remaine, 

One  whofe  power  floweth  far, 
That  mould  have  bene  of  our  rime 

The  onely  object  and  the  ftar. 

Well  could  his  bewitching  pen, 
Done  the  Mufes  objects  to  us 
Although  he  differs  much  from  men 

Tilting  under  Frieries, 
Yet  his  golden  art  might  woo  us 

To  have  honored  him  with  baies. 

1} Envoy  to  Narcissus.  1595.  Unique  copy  in  Peterborough 
Cathedral  Library.  Reprinted  for  the  Roxburghe  Club  by 
Rev.  W.  E.  Buckley,  1878,  pp.  61,  62. 


[Edwardes  here  speaks  of  the  poets  under  the  names  of  their  best  known 
works  at  that  day.  The  mighty  swaine  Collyn  is  Spenser,  he  who  sang  of 
Colin  Clout,  and  glorified  Albion  in  the  Faerie  Queen,  and  gave  an  Elegy 
to  Sidney.  Samuel  Daniel  wrote  the  poem  of  Rosamond ;  Thomas  Watson 
published  his  Latin  poem  of  Amintas  in  1585  ;  and  the  Hero  &•»  Leander  of 
Kit  Marlowe  was  entered  on  the  Stationers'  register,  28  Sept.  1593,  a  few 
months  after  he  died.  (It  came  out,  completed  by  Chapman,  in  1598. 
See  Works  of  George  Chapman  :  Poems,  6-v.,  with  Introduction  by  A.  C. 
Swinburne,  1875,  p.  58.) 

The  verse  devoted  to  Adon  is  another  of  the  early  tributes  that  are  found 
to  the  great  popularity  Shakespere's  Venus  and  Adonis  attained  at  once.  It 
reached  seven  editions  between  1593  (the  date  of  first  publication)  and  1602, 
two  of  which  belong  to  the  latter  year.  (See  Mr.  C.  Edmonds'  reprint  from 
the  Isham  copy  of  1599,  Editor's  Preface.) 

The  two  stanzas  referring  to  "one  whose  power  floweth  far "  I  insert, 
but  he  has  not  been  identified.  L.  T.  S.] 


27 


RICHARD  CAREW,  1595-6. 

Adde  hereunto,  that  whatfoever  grace  any  other  language 
carrieth  in  verfe  or  Profe,  in  Tropes  or  Metaphors,  in  Ecchoes 
and  Agnominations,  they  may  all  bee  lively  and  exactly  repre- 
fented  in  ours  :  will  you  have  Platoes  veine  ?  reade  Sir  Tho?nas 
Smith,  the  lonicke  ?  Sir  Thomas  Moore.  Ciceroes  ?  Afcham, 
Varro  ?  Chaucer,  Demofthenes  ?  Sir  John  Cheeke  (who  in  his 
treatife  to  the  Rebels,  hath  comprifed  all  the  figures  of  Rhetorick. 
Will  you  reade  Virgill  ?  take  the  Earle  of  Surrey.  Catullus  ? 
Shakefpheare  and  Marlows  l  fragment,  Ovid  ?  Darnell.  Lucan  ? 
Spencer,  Martial  ?  Sir  John  Davies  and  others  :  will  you  have 
all  in  all  for  Profe  and  verfe  ?  take  the  miracle  of  our  age,  Sir 
Philip  Sidney. 

The  Excellencie  of  the  English  tongue,  by  R.  C.  of  Anthony  Esquire 
to  W.C.  Inserted  by  W.  Camden  in  the  second  edition  of  his  Remaines 
concerning  Britaine,  1614,  p.  43. 


(See  Allusion-Books,  7,  New  Sh.  Soc.  p.  183.)    C.  M.  I. 


printed  Barlows  in  original,  but  unquestionably  a  mistake  for  Marlows. 


28 


Anonymous,  1596. 

Sophos.  See  how  the  twinkling  Starres  do  hide  their  borrowed 

fhine 

As  halfe  aiham'd  their  lufter  fo  is  ftain'd. 
By  Leilas  beauteous  eyes  that  (hine  more  bright, 
Than  twinkling  ftarres  do  in  a  winters  night : 
In  fuch  a  night  did  Paris  win  his  love. 

Lelia.     In  fuch  a  night,  jfEnceas  prov'd  unkind. 

Sophos.     In  fuch  a  night  did  Troilus  court  his  deare. 

Lelia.     In  fuch  a  night,  faire  Phyllis  was  betraid. 

Sophos.     He  prove  as  true  as  ever  Troylus  was. 

Lelia.      And  I  as  conftant  as  Penelope. 

Wily  Beguilde,  1606,  sign.  I,  back. 

(In  the  Bodleian,  Malone,  226.     Part  of  the  leaf  torn  off.) 


[The  unknown  author  of  this  play  seems  to  imitate  Shakespere's  Romeo 
and  Juliet  and  Merchant  of  Venice  in  several  places.  This  dialogue  would 
surely  never  have  been  written  but  for  the  moonlight  rhapsodizing  of 
Lorenzo  and  Jessica,  Merch.  of  Venice,  Act  V.  sc.  i.  The  Merchant  of 
Venice  vf as  probably  written  in  1596  (see  Dowden's  Shakspere  Primer,  p.  96). 
The  first  edition  of  Wily  Begvilde  came  out  in  1606,  but  Dr.  Furnivall  states 
that  there  is  no  doubt,  on  account  of  the  allusions  in  it  to  the  taking  of 
Cadiz,  that  it  was  on  the  stage  in  or  soon  after  1596 ;  though  he  has 
shown  that  there  is  no  real  ground  for  the  old  theory  that  Nash  referred  to 
it  in  his  Have  -with  you  to  Saffron  Walden  (printed  1596  ;  sign.  24,  back), 
where  he  makes  Respondent  say  of  Anthonie  Chute — "  But  this  was  our 
Graphiel  Hagiels  tricke  of  Wily  Beguily  herein  "  (see  Notes  6°  Queries,  vol. 
iv.  1875,  p.  144;  vol.  v.  p.  74).  Wily  beguily  was  a  current  phrase, 
meaning  the  wily  man  beguiled,  or,  as  we  should  say,  the  biter  bit.  L.  T.  S.] 


29 


'WILY  BEGUILDE;  before  1596. 

[J]  THE    PROLOGVE. 

*  * 

Juggler.  .  .  He  make  him  flie  fwifter  then  meditation. 

\_sig.  A  2,  b.} 
[2]      Lelia.  Father,  did  you  fend  for  mee  ? 

Gripe.  I  Wench  I  did  :    come   hither  Lelia,  giue  mee  thy 

hand. 

Maifter  Churms,  I  pray  you  beare  witnefle, 
I  here  giue  Lelia  to  Pe.  Ploddall.  she  piucks  a-way  her  h«nd. 

How  now  ? 

Nurfe.  Sheele  none,  ihe  thankes  you  fir. 
Gripe.  Will  me  none  ?     Why  how  now,  I  fay  ? 
What?  you  pewling  peeuifh  thing,  you  vnto ward  baggage 
Will  you  not  be  rul'd  by  your  Father  ? 
Haue  I  tane  care  to  bring  you  vp  to  this  ? 
And  will  you  doe  as  you  lift  ? 

Away  I  fay,  hang,  ftarue,  begge  -,  be  gone,  packe  I  fay : 
Out  of  my  fight, 

Thou  nere  gets  Penny-worth  of  my  goods,  for  this : 
Thinke  out,  I  do  not  vfe  to  ieft : 
Be  gon  I  fay  $  I  will  not  heare  thee  fpeake. 

\sig.  £4.] 

[3]      Fortu[natus]  .  .  . 
He  can  conuey  her  forth  her  fathers  gate, 
Vnto  a  fecret  friend  of  hers  j 
The  way  to  whom  lyes  by  this  forreft  fide, 

That  none  but  he  mall  haue  her  to  his  bride. 

[sig.  F  4,  £.] 


30  'WILY  BEGUILDE,'  BEFORE  1596. 

*  *  * 

Le/ia.  But  to  be  Ihort  : 

I  haue  a  fecret  Friend  that  dwels  from  hence, 
Some  two  dayes  iourney,  thats  the  moft, 
And  if  you  can,  as  (well  I  know)  you  may,  conuey  me  thither 

fecretly  : 

For  company  I  delire  no  other  then  your  owne  : 
Here  take  my  hand  : 
That  once  perform'd  my  heart  is  next. 

[nil.  G^,b,H.-\ 

[4]    Gripe.  I  am  vndon,  I  am   robd  :   my  daughter,  my  mony  ! 
Which  way  are  they  gone  ? 


A  /  Pleasant  Comedie,  /  Called,  /  Wily  Begvilde.  /  .  .  . 
Imprinted  at  London  by  W.  W.  for  Clement  Knight.  .  .  . 
[1606  ?] 


[Prof.  Moore  Smith  was  kind  enough  to  send  us  these  references  in 
Hazlitt's  Dodsley.  They  are  supplementary  to  the  allusion  printed  on  the 
previous  page. 

Extract  No.  I  is  referred  by  Prof.  Moore  Smith  to  Hamlet,  I,  iii : 

with  wings  as  swift 
as  meditation,  or  the  thoughts  of  Loue, 

though  there  is  difficulty  in  the  date.     The  Wily  Beguilde  passage  may  be 
coincidence  ;  it  may  be  a  borrowing  from  Hamlet  in  its  earlier  form. 

No.  2  is  exactly  parallel  to  Romeo  and  Julie f^  III,  v,  where  Capulet 
chides  Juliet.  Here  the  phrases  are  the  same  : 

Lady  [Capulet]:  I  sir  ; 
But  she  will  none,  she  giues  you  thankes. 

Cap.  Soft,  take  me  with  you,  take  me  with  you,  wife. 

How,  will  she  none  ? 

Out  you  greene  sicknesse  carrion,  out  you  baggage, 

You  tallow  face  .  .  . 

And  you  be  mine,  He  giue  you  to  my  Friend  : 

And  you  be  not,  hang,  beg,  startle,  die  in  the  streets, 

For  by  my  soule,  He  nere  acknowledge  thee, 

Nor  what  is  mine  shall  neuer  do  thee  good. 


'WILY    BEGUILDE,'    BEFORE    1596.  3! 

No.  3  Prof.  Moore  Smith  refers  to  Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  I,  i : 
I  haue  a  Widdow  Aunt,  .  .   . 

From  Athens  is  her  house  remou'd  seuen  leagues,  .  .   . 
There  gentle  Hermia,  may  I  uiarrie  thee  .    .  . 
If  thou  lou'st-me,  then 

Steale  forth  thy  fathers  house  to  morrow  night : 
And  in  the  wood,  a  league  without  the  towne,   .   .  . 
There  I  will  stay  for  thee. 

No.  4  seems  to  be  from  The  Merchant  of  Venice,  II,  viii : 
My  daughter,  O  my  ducats,  O  my  daughter !  .  .  . 
I  quote  from  the  Folio.     M.] 


*JOSEPH    HALL,    1597 

*JOHN    MARSTON,    1598 

*THOMAS   FREEMAN,    1614 

[i]  SAT[IRE]    in. 

[p.  6]    \  T  T  Ith  ibme  Pot-fury,  rauifht  from  their  wit, 

V  V      They  fit  and  mule  on  fome  no-vulgar  writ : 
As  frozen  Dung-hils  in  a  winters  morne, 
That  voyd  of  Vapours  feemed  all  beforne, 

Soone  as  the  Sun  fends  out  his  piercing  beames,  [5] 

Exhale  out  rilthie  fmoke  and  ftinking  fteames : 
So  doth  the  bafe,  and  the  fore-barren  braine, 
Soone  as  the  raging  wine  begins  to  raigne. 
One  higher-pitch'd  doth  fet  his  foaring  thought 
On  crowned  kings  that  Fortune  hath  low  brought :  [10] 

Or  fome  vpreard,  high-afpiring  fwaine, 
As  it  might  be  the  Turkifli  Tamberlaine. 
*  -x-  •* 

[p.  7]  Now,  leaft  fuch  frightfull  Ihowes  of  Fortunes  fall, 
And  bloudy  Tyrants  rage,  iliould  chance  appall 
fp.  8]  The  dead  ftroke  audience,  mids  the  filent  rout, 
Comes  leaping  in  a  felfe-mif formed  lout, 

And  laughes,  and  grins,  and  frames  his  Mimick  face,  [35] 

And  iuftles  ftraight  into  the  princes  place. 
Then  doth  the  Theatre  Eccho  all  aloud, 
With  gladfome  noyfe  of  that  applauding  croud. 
A  goodly  hoch-poch ;  when  vile  Ruffe t tings, 
Are  match't  with  monarchs  and  with  mighty  kings.  [40] 

A  goodly  grace  to  fober  Tragick  Mufe, 
When  each  bafe  clown,  his  clumbfie  fifl  doth  bruife, 


JOSEPH  HALL,  1597.  33 

And  mow  his  teeth  in  double  rotten-row, 

For  laughter  at  his  felfe-refembled  fhow. 

[Liber  I] 

[2]  LIB.  ii.     SAT.  i. 

[?•  25l   T~?Qr  fhame  write  better  Laleo,  or  write  none, 

JL       Or  better  write,  or  Laleo  write  alone. 
Nay,  call  the  Cynlck  but  a  wittie  foole, 
Thence  to  abiure  his  handfome  drinking  bole  : 
Becaufe  the  thirftie  fwaine  with  hollow  hand,  [5] 

Conueyed  the  ftreame  to  weet  his  drie  weafand. 
Write  they  that  can.,  tho  they  that  cannot  do  : 
But  who  knowes  that,  but  they  that  doe  not  know. 
Lo  what  it  is  that  makes  white  rags  fo  deare, 
That  men  muft  giue  a  teflon  for  a  queare.  [10] 

Lo  what  it  is  that  makes  goofe -wings  fo  leant, 
That  the  diflreffed  Semfter  did  them  want, 
So,  lauifh  ope-tyde  cau-feth  fafting-lents, 
And  ftaruling  Famine  comes  of  a  large  expence. 
[p.  26]  Might  not  (fo  they  were  pleafd  that  beene  aboue)     [15] 
Long  Paper-aljlinence  our  death  remoue  ? 
Then  many  a  Loller  would  in  forfaitment, 
Beare  Paper-fagots  ore  the  Pauement. 
But  now  men  wager  who  mall  blot  the  moft, 
And  each  man  writes.      Thersfo  much  labour  lojl.  [20] 

That's  good)  that's  great :  Nay  much  is  feldome  well, 
Of  what  is  lad,  a  littVs  a  greate  deale. 
Better  is  more  :  but  left  is  nought  at  ail. 
Leffe  is  the  next,  and  lejfer  criminaU. 

Little  and  good,  is  greatejl  goodfaue  one,  [25] 

Then  Labeo,  or  write  little,  or  write  none. 
Tufh  but  fmall  paynes  can  be  but  little  art, 
Or  lode  full  drie-fats  fro  the  forren  mart : 
With  Folio  volumes,  two  to  an  Oxe  hide, 
Or  etfe,  ye  Pawpheter  go  fland  alide,  [3°] 

SH.  ALLN.  BK. 1.  D 


34  JOSEPH  HALL,   1597. 

Reade  in  each  Schoole,  in  euery  margent  coted, 

In  euery  Catalogue  for  an  authour  noted. 

There's  happinefle  well  giuen,  and  well  got, 

Lefle  gifts,  and  leffer  gaines  I  weigh  them  not. 

[p.  27]  So  may  the  Giant  rome  and  write  on  high,  [35] 

Be  he  a  Dwarfe  that  writes  not  there  as  I — 

But  well  fare  Strabo,  which  as  ftories  tell, 

Contriu'd  all  Troy  within  one  Walnut  fhell. 

His  curious  ghoft  now  lately  hither  came. 

Arriuing  neere  the  mouth  of  luckie  Tame,  [4°] 

I  faw  a  Pifmire  ftrugling  with  the  lode, 

Dragging  all  Troy  home  towards  her  abode. 

Now  dare  we  hither,  if  he  durft  appeare, 

The  fubtile  Stithy-man  that  liu'd  while  eare : 

Such  one  was  once,  or  once  I  was  miftaught  [45] 

A  Smith  at  Vulcans  owne  forge  vp  brought, 

That  made  an  Iron-chariot  fo  light. 

The  coach-horfe  was  a  Flea  in  trappings  dight. 

The  tame-lefTe  Heed  could  well  his  wagon  wield, 

Through  downes  and  dales  of  the  vneuen  field.  [50] 

Striue  they,  laugh  we  :  meane  while  the  black  ftorte 

PafTes  new  Strabo,  and  new  Straboes  Troy. 

Little  for  great :  and  great  for  good :  all  one  : 

For  fhame  or  better  write,  or  Labeo  write  none. 

[p.  28]  But  who  coniur'd  this  bawdie  Poggies  ghoft,  [55] 

From  out  thejlewes  of  his  lewde  home-bred  coaft : 

Or  wicked  Rablais  dronken  reuellings, 

To  grace  the  mif-rule  of  our  Tauernings  ? 

Or  who  put  Bayes  into  blind  Cupids  fift, 

That  he  mould  crowne  what  Laureats  him  lift  ?  [60] 

Whofe  words  are  thofe,  to  remedie  the  deed, 

That  caufe  men  flop  their  nofes  when  they  read  ? 

Both  good  things  ill,  and  ill  things  well  :  all  one  ? 

For  fhame  write  cleanly  Labeo,  or  write  none. 


JOHN    MARSTON,    1598.  35 

Virgidemiarvm  /  Sixe  Bookes.  /  First  three  Bookes,  of  7^ooth- 
lesse  Satyrs. 

(      i    Poeticall. 
\      2.  Academicall, 
I     3.  Mora  II. 

[Device]  London  f  Printed  by  7^homas  Creede,for  Robert  / 
Dexter,   1597. 


*JOHN   MARSTON,    1598. 

[i]  So  Laleo  did  complaine  his  loue  was  ftone, 
Obdurate,  flinty,  fo  relentleffe  none : 

\5igC  2\ 

[2]  SAT  i. 

Quedam  videntur,  et  nonfunt. 
But  oh  !  the  abfolute  Cajlilio, 
He  that  can  all  the  poynts  of  courtfhip  (how. 
He  that  can  trot  a  Courfer,  breake  a  rufh, 
And  arm'd  in  proofe,  dare  dure  a  ftrawes  llrong  pu{h. 
He,  who  on  his  glorious  fcutchion 
Can  quaintly  ihewe  his  newe  inuention, 
Aduancing  forth  fome  thirftie  Tantalus, 
Or  els  the  Vulture  on  Prometheus, 
With  fome  fhort  motto  of  a  dozen  lines. 
He  that  can  purpofe  it  in  dainty  rimes, 
Can  fet  his  face,  and  with  his  eye  can  fpeake, 
Can  dally  with  his  Miftres  dangling  feake, 
And  wiili  that  he  were  it,  to  kifle  her  eye 
And  flare  about  her  beauties  deitie. 
Tut,  he  is  famous  for  his  reueling, 
For  fine  fet  fpeeches,  and  for  fonetting ; 
He  fcornes  the  violl  and  the  fcraping  fticke, 
And  yet's  but  Broker  of  anothers  wit. 


36  THOMAS    FREEMAN,    1614. 

Certes  if  all  things  were  well  knowne  and  view'd, 
He  doth  but  champe  that  which  another  chew'd. 
Come  come  Caftilion,  fkim  thy  poflet  curd, 
Show  thy  queere  fubftance,  worthleffe,  mofl  abfurd. 
Take  ceremonious  complement  from  thee, 

Alas,  I  fee  Caftilios  beggary. 

[rigs  C  4, 

The  I  Metamorphosis   of  Pigtnalions  /  Image  /  And  Co-- 
taine  Satyres  /  \by  John  Marstori\  London  /  .   .  .   I598/. 


*THOMAS    FREEMAN,  1614. 

EPIGRAM    84 

For  tins  eft  quife  &c. 
Ad  Labeonem. 

BEleeue  me  Laleo,  this  were  fortitude, 
Ouer  thy  felfe  to  get  a  victory ; 
To  fee  thy  foule  affedions  fubdude, 
This  were  a  triumph  worthy  memory  j 
Though  fome  will  hold,  true  valour  doth  confift 
In  refolution  and  an  actiue  bodie, 
of  iniuries  not  fuffering  the  leaft, 
But  who  fo  thinkes,  I  thinke  him  but  a  noddie. 
Achilles  was  commended,  wot  you  why  ? 
Not  for  the  valiant  deeds  he  did  performej 
But  then  he  fhewd  his  magnanimity, 
When  gainfl  great  Agamemnon  he  did  ftorme: 
Others  perhaps  with  hafty  infurrecltons 
Would  take  reuenge  of  an  iniurious  offer, 
Well  could  he  temper  our  affections, 
And  (what  the  valiant  feldome  can)  could  fuffer. 
[sig  E.  3]  True  valour,  Laleo,  if  I  reade  aright, 
Muft  not  be  onely  A8tiue  to  attempt : 


THOMAS    FREEMAN,    1614.  37 

For  why  the  Lyon  and  the  Bull  can  fight 

And  mew  great  mindes  too,  and  much  hardimentj 

But  the  Irrationall  can  onely  grieue  : 

Ours  muft  not  be  fo  Beaft-like  furious, 

But  readier  fometime,  wrong  to  take  then  giue, 

Elfe  manhood  might  prooue  too  iniurious, 

Where  it  muft  be  confederate  and  carefull, 

Betwixt  extreames  to  keepe  the  merry  meane, 

Not  to  be  rafhly  bold,  not  bally  fearefull, 

Not  too  too  milde,  not  too  too  full  of  ipleane, 

Who  thought  one  world  too  little  to  fubdue, 

Found  'twas  too  much  t'orecome  a  furious  mindej 

Then,  as  at  firft,  fo  here  conclude  we  now : 

Labeo,  this  were  true  fortitude  I  finde, 

This  were  a  triumph  worthy  memory, 

Ouer  thy  felfe  to  get  a  victory. 

Rvbbe,  I  and  /  A  great  Cast  /  Epigrams  /  By  /    Thomas 
Freeman,  Gent.  /  .   .  .  London,  1614.     sigs.  £26.  ET>. 


I  print  all  these  passages  together  as  all  of  them,  except  the  second  from 
John  Marston,  are  concerned  with  a  person  or  with  persons,  called 
'  Labeo '  (which  means  *  thick-lipped '). 

The  first  extract  from  Marston  was  printed  by  Chas.  A.  Herpich  in 
Notes  and  Queries,  9th  Series,  vol.  x,  p.  63,  as  a  seeming  allusion  to 
Venus  and  Adonis,  199-200  : 

Art  thou  obdurate,  flinty,  hard  as  steel  ? 

Nay,  more  than  flint,  for  stone  at  rain  relenteth. 

Mr.  Herpich  remarks :  '  Although  numerous  phrases  of  the  same  idea  are 
to  be  met  with  in  Elizabethan  poetry,  in  no  other  lines  is  there  so  pro- 
nounced a  similarity  of  language.  The  chief  interest  of  the  passage, 
however,  is  in  the  fact  that  if  he  is  girding  at  Shakspere,  Marslon 
has  sketched  for  us  one  of  the  dramatist's  features.  According  to  Smith's 
Latin-English  Dictionary,  Labeo  =  "  the  one  who  has  large  lips.'" 

Mr.  Herpich  then  proceeds  to  link  up,  accommodatingly  with  this,  part 
of  Marston's  Scourge  of  Villany  : 

Nay,  shall  a  trencher-slave  extenuate 

Some  Lucrece  rape,  and  straight  magnificats 

Lewd  Jovian  lust,  etc., 


38  HALL,    MARSTON   AND    FREEMAN. 

which  he  describes  as  a  reply  to  some  attack  of  Shakspere's,  who  '  must 
have  taken  offence '  at  the  above  supposed  allusion  to  him,  '  or  a  quarrel 
may  have  arisen  from  some  other  cause,  not  now  to  be  discovered.' 

Mr.  Herpich  further  remarks  that  Joseph  Hall  devotes  some  space  to 
'  Labeo,'  whom  he  considers  again  to  be  Shakspere.  The  passages  from 
Hall,  which  are  earlier  than  those  of  Marston,  I  have  printed  first.  And 
finally  I  print  Epigram  84,  by  Thos.  Freeman,  being  lines  to  Labeo, 
which  nobody  seems  to  have  noticed  before.  Freeman  matriculated  at 
Magdalen  Coll.,  Oxford,  June  22,  1610,  at  the  age  of  19,  and  took 
his  B.A.  on  June  10,  1611.  After  this  he  came  to  London,  and  turned 
poet,  publishing  his  double  volume  in  1614. 

The  lines  of  Hall  must  have  preceded  those  of  Freeman  by  14  or 
17  years.  And  although  it  does  not  seem  impossible,  from  their  words, 
that  the  same  individual  may  be  referred  to  by  each  of  them,  it  must 
yet  appear  highly  incredible.  '  Labeo '  I  take  to  be  a  descriptive 
appellation  which  might  have  been  applied  to  any  one  possessing  the 
characteristics  it  implies.  A  very  similar  form  of  the  word  was  so 
used.  John  Bulwer  in  his  Anthropometamorphosis,  1650,  p.  175, 
remarks :  '  The  same  or  worse  must  befall  these  artificial  Labions, 
for  their  Lips  must  need  hang  in  their  light,  and  their  words  stick 
in  the  birth,'  p.  175  ;  and  the  word  is  similarly  used  elsewhere  (see 
N.  E.  Z>.).  It  follows  that  the  mere  term  'Labeo'  itself  need  not 
necessarily  connect  up  the  persons  intended  by  Marston,  Hall  and 
Freeman.  The  identification  of  Hall's  Labeo  is  a  very  difficult  matter, 
but  it  is  certain  that  Shakspere  was  not  meant. 

Grosart  determines  that  lines  u,  12  of  Satire  III  point  'unmistakably  to 
Marlowe'  (The  Complete  Works  of  Joseph  Hall,  D.D.,  ed.  Rev.  Alex. 
Grosart,  privately  printed  for  subscribers,  1879,  p.-xx).  Lines  31-44  he 
takes  to  be  a  hit  at  Shakspere's  '  introduction  of  his  Fools  and  Clowns 
and  "russet-clad"  personages  into  his  "  high  tragedies."  '  This  seems  to 
be  clear.  Discussing  the  question  whether  Hall  intended  Marston  in  his 
'  Labeo '  (and  Hall  and  Marston  certainly  quarrelled),  Grosart  decides  that 
Marston  cannot  have  been  the  writer  implied,  and  the  fact  that  Marston 
himself  subsequently  used  the  term  '  Labeo '  bears  out  this  decision.  I 
have  not  printed  all  Hall's  references  to  Labeo.  A  significant  passage 
occurs  in  Book  VI,  Satire  I : 


Tho  Labeo  reaches  right :  (who  can  deny?) 
The  true  straynes  of  Heroicke  Poesie  : 
For  he  can  tell  how  fury  reft  his  sense 
And  Ph^is  fild  him  with  intelligence, 
He  can  implore  the  heathen  deities 
To  guide  his  bold  and  busie  enterprise  ; 
Or  filch  whole  Pages  at  a  clap  for  need, 
From  honest  Petrarch,  clad  in  English  weed  j 


HALL,    MARSTON    AND    FREEMAN.  39 

While  bigge  But  ohs  ech  stanzae  can  begin, 
Whose  trunke  and  tayle  sluttish  and  hartlesse  bin  ; 

It  is  patent  that  these  lines  can  in  no  way  be  held  to  apply  either  to 
Marston  or  to  Shakspere,  and  Grosart  adds  in  a  note  '  I  hasard  a 
conjecture  that  if  the  lost  works  of  Thomas  Watson  ever  be  recovered, 
he  may  prove  to  be  the  thief  from  Petrarch  and  the  utterer  of  ' c  big  But 
ohs,"  etc.,  etc.'  (p.  xxv). 

Neither  can  the  first  '  Labeo '  passage  of  Hall  apply  to  our  poet. 
Hall  there  refers  to  one  who  has  written  copiously,  poorly  and  uncleanly, 
whose  works  are  widely  circulated,  and  who  graces  the  misrule  of 
'tavernings.'  Two  folio  volumes,  moreover,  cannot  be  associated  with 
Shakspere.  Under  these  circumstances  we  seem  quite  safe  in  dismissing 
the  suggestion  that  Hall's  Labeo  and  Shakspere  are  one. 

Marston's  '  Labeo  '  is  one  who  complained  his  love  was  stone  :  the  words 
in  Shakspere  which  Marston  is  thought  to  echo  are  spoken  by  Venus  to 
Adonis.  This  hardly  seems  Labeo's  complaint  about  his  love.  Either 
therefore  Marston  was  using  a  phrase  similar  to  Shakspere's  about  some 
other  writer,  or  there  is  a  case  of  borrowing  between  Shakspere  and  the 
writer  Marston  referred  to,  in  the  words  which  are  quoted. 

Mr.  C.  S.  Harris  in  printing  the  Castillo  passage  in  Notes  and  Queries,  Qth 
Series,  II,  p.  183,  seeks  to  identify  Castilio  with  Shakspere,  remarking 
that  '  He  that  can  trot  a  Courser '  appears  to  refer  to  Shakspere's  horse- 
holding  days,  and  '  his  glorious  scutchion '  to  his  grant  of  arms.  The 
horse-holding  is  a  tradition  that  comes  through  Pope,  Rowe,  Betterton  and 
Davenant  ;  it  may  or  may  not  be  true  ;  in  any  case,  one  cannot  feel  safe 
in  taking  the  line  mentioned  above  as  referring  to  it.  As  for  the  '  glorious 
scutchion,'  Shakspere's  arms  were  not  granted  by  Dethick  and  Camden 
till  1599, — one  year  after  Marston  wrote.  What,  too,  are  we  to  under- 
stand by  the  '  thirstie  Tantalus,'  the  'short  motto  of  a  dozen  lines,'  and  the 
dallying  with  'his  Mistres  dangling  feake '  (curl)?  Did  Shakspere  scorn 
the  viol,  when  Thaisa  is  charmed  back  to  consciousness  partly  by  help  of 
it,  and  when  we  know  of  his  love  of  music?  And  while  the  emphatic 
statements  that  Labeo  stole  others'  labours,  might  be  taken  by  some  to 
refer  to  Shakspere's  work  in  Henry  VI,  yet  few  will  urge  that,  stripped  of 
'  ceremonious  complement,'  he  had  nothing  but  beggary  of  wit. 

In  conclusion,  I  believe  there  is  a  possible  reference  to  Venus  and 
Adonis  in  Marston's  Pigmaliotts  Image  [i],  that  in  no  case  does  'Labeo' 
mean  Shakspere,  and  that  Castilio  refers  to  another  man  ;  but  that  Hall, 
in  Liber  I,  Satire  III,  lines  31-44,  alludes  to  Shakspere's  introduction  of 
fools  into  his  tragedies.  M.] 


40 

1597—1603. 
William  Shakefpeare 
Rychard  the  fecond         Shakefpeare 

Rychard  the  third 
hakfpeare    reuealing 

day  through 

euery  Crany       by  Thomas  Name  &  inferior  places  l 
peepes  and     <£• 
lee  ^° 

William  Shakefpeare 

Sh 
Shak         h         Sh         Shake      hakefpeare 

Sh       h  Shak    ^ 

williara  Shakefpeare 
vvilliam  Shakefpeare 


Shakfpeare 


Shakefpe 
will  Shak 

Title-page  of  the  Duke  of  Northumberland  's  MS.  of  Lord 
Bacon's  "  Of  Tribute,  or  giving  what  is  dew,"  facsimiled  in 
the  late  James  Spedding's  edition  of  "A  Conference  of 
Pleasure,  composed  for  some  Festive  Occasion  about  the 
year  1592  by  Francis  Bacon,"  p.  xxxiii.  (Longmans,  1870). 

The  MS.,  now  incomplete,  containd  several  Essays,  Speeches  and  Tracts 
by  Bacon.  After  the  list  of  these  on  the  title,  follows,  among  other 
words  and  scribbles,  the  names  of  Shakspere's  two  plays  and  himself,  and 
(as  Dr.  Ingleby  notes)  line  1086  and  part  of  1087  of  the  Rape  of  Lncrece, 
with  one  word  wrong,  peepes  (?  caught  by  error  of  memory  from  'peeping,' 

1  ?  for  '  plaiers/ 


1.  1089)  for  spies.  If  the  scribbler  meant  to  put  Shakspere's  name  to  his 
Lucrece  bit,  this  is  the  earliest  quotation  from  S .  with  his  name  to  it.  Mr. 
Spedding  says,  Introdtiction,  p.  xxii  : — 

"  That  '  Richard  the  second  '  and  '  Richard  the  third  '  are  meant  for  the 
titles  of  Shakespeare's  plays  so  named,  I  infer  from  the  fact — of  which  the 
evidence  may  be  seen  in  the  facsimile — that,  the  list  of  contents  being  now 
complete,  the  writer  (or  more  probably  another  into  whose  possession  the 
volume  passed)  has  amused  himself  with  writing  down  promiscuously  the 
names  and  phrases  that  most  ran  in  his  head  ;  and  that  among  these  the 
name  of  William  Shakespeare  was  the  most  prominent,  being  written  eight 
or  nine  times  over  for  no  other  reason  than  can  be  discerned1  .  .  (p.  xxiii)  .  . 
the  date  of  the  writing  .  .  I  fear  cannot  be  determined  with  any  approach  to 
exactness.  All  I  can  say  is,  that  I  find  nothing  in  these  later  scribblings, 
or  in  what  remains  of  the  book  itself,  to  indicate  a  date  later  than  the  reign 
of  Elizabeth 2 ;  and  if  so,  it  is  probably  one  of  the  earliest  evidences  of  the 
growth  of  Shakespeare's  personal  fame  as  a  dramatic  author  ;  the  beginning 
of  which  cannot  be  dated  much  earlier  than  1598.  It  was  not  until  1597 
that  any  of  his  plays  appeared  in  print ;  and  though  the  earliest  editions  of 
Richard  II,  Richard  III,  and  Romeo  and  Juliet,  all  bear  that  date,  his 
name  is  not  on  the  title-page  of  any  of  them.  They  were  set  forth  as  plays 
which  had  been  '  lately,'  or  'publicly,'  or  'often  with  great  applause  '  acted 
by  the  Lord  Chamberlain's  servants.  Their  title  to  favour  was  their 
popularity  as  acting  plays  at  the  Globe  3 ;  and  it  was  not  till  they  came  to 
be  read  as  books  that  it  occurred  to  people  unconnected  with  the  theatre  to 
ask  who  wrote  them.  It  seems,  however,  that  curiosity  was  speedily  and 
effectually  excited  by  the  publication  ;  for  in  the  very  next  year  a  second 
edition  of  both  the  Richards  appeared  with  the  name  of  William  Shake- 
speare on  the  title-page  ;  and  the  practice  was  almost  invariably  followed  by 
all  publishers  on  like  occasions  afterwards.  We  may  conclude,  therefore, 
that  it  was  about  1597  that  play-goers  and  readers  of  plays  began  to  talk 
about  him,  and  that  his  name  would  naturally  present  itself  to  an  idle 
penman  in  want  of  something  to  use  his  pen  upon."— F.  J.  F. 

1  It  does  not  seem  to  have  been  written  at  the  same  time  with  the  titles, 
or  by  the  same  hand. 

2  I  agree.— F. 

3  That  is,  the  "  Theatre"  :  the  Globe  or  transferrd  and  rebuilt  "Theatre" 
was  not  built  till  1598-9. 


I.  M.    1598. 

I  verily  beleeue  his  preferment  mould  be  rather  a  Remunera- 
tion then  a  Guerdon,  if  he  get  any  in  this  Leaden  and  laft  age. 
But  what  is  the  difference  betwixt  the  Remuneration  and  the 
Guerdon,  may  fome  fay,  we  would  faine  know  :  otherwife  we 
can  not  tell  how  you  meane  this  well  qualited  Seruingmans 
defartes  mould  be  rewarded.  Your  queftion  is  reafonable,  and 
therefore  I  will  diftinguifh  them  as  their  difference  was  tolde 
me  not  long  fince  by  a  friende  of  mine. 

There  was,  fayth  he,  a  man  (but  of  what  eftate,  degree,  or 
calling,  I  will  not  name,  leaft  thereby  I  might  incurre  difpleafure 
of  any)  that  comming  to  his  friendes  houfe,  who  was  a  Gentleman 
of  good  reckoning,  and  being  there  kindly  entertayned,  and  well 
vfed,  as  well  of  his  friende  the  Gentleman,  as  of  his  Seruantes:  one 
of  the  fayd  Seruantes  doing  him  fome  extraordinarie  pleafure 
during  his  abode  there  j  at  his  departure  he  comes  vnto  the  fayd 
Seruant,  and  faith  vnto  him,  Holde  thee,  heere  is  a  remuneration 
for  thy  paynes,  which  the  Seruant  receyuing,  gave  him  vtterly  for 
it  (betides  his  paynes)  thankes,  for  it  was  but  a  Three-farthinges 
peece :  and  I  holde  thankes  for  the  fame  a  fmall  price,  howfoeuer 
the  market  goes.  Now  an  other  comming  to  the  faid  Gentle- 
mans  houfe,  it  was  the  forefayd  Seruants  good  hap  to  be  neare 
him  at  his  going  away,  who  calling  the  Seruant  vnto  him,  fayd, 
Holde  thee,  heere  is  a  Guerdon  for  thy  defartes:  Now  the  Seruant 


I.  M.     1598.  43 

payde  no  deerer  for  the  Guerdon  then  he  did  for  the  Remuner- 
ation, though  the  Guerdon  was  xi.  d.  farthing  better,  for  it  was 
a  Shilling,  and  the  other  but  a  Three-farthinges. 

A  I  Health  to  the  /  Gentlemanly  pro-  \  fession  of  Seruing 
men:  or,  The  Seruingmans  /  Comfort:  /  With  other 
ihinges  not  impertinent  /  to  the  Premisses,  as  well  pleasant  \ 
as  profitable  to  the  cour-  /  teous  Reader.  \  Felix  qui  socij 
nauim  perijsse  procellis  /  cum  vidit,  in  tutum  flectit  sua 
carbasaportum.\  Imprinted  at  London  by  W.W.\  1598. 
Sig.  I.  (Roxburghe  Library  Reprint,  p.  159.) 

Steevens  quoted  this  passage  as  the  original  of  Costard's  remarks 
(Z.  Z.  Lost,  III.  i.),  giving  the  date  1578.  Farmer  afterwards  stated  that 
this  date  was  incorrect.  The  true  date  is  1598  ;  and  perhaps  some  of  the 
wording  and  the  rather  elaborate  introduction  of  the  story,  in  the  first  para- 
graph, seem  to  point  to  I.  M.'s  "  friend "  having  been  Costard  himself, 
who  was  introduced  to  the  reading  public  by  the  first  Quarto  of  L.  L.  L.  in 
1598,  and  no  doubt  played  long  before  he  "  was  presented  before  her  High- 
ness this  last  Christmas,"  at  Whitehall,1  1597. — B.  Nicholson. 


In  his  Mem.  on  L.  L.  Z.,  &c.,  1879,  Mr.  Hall.-Phillipps  says  on  p.  65 — 
"  In  MS.  Addit.  14,047  in  the  British  Museum  is  preserved  a  copy  of 
a  play  called  Love's  Hospital  dated  in  1636.     On  the  flyleaf  of  this  manu- 
script is  written, — 

Loues  Hospitall. 
Loues  Labores  Lost. 

a  circumstance  which  would  appear  to  show  that  about  that  period  there 
was  in  existence  a  manuscript  transcript  of  Shakespeare's  comedy  originally 
bound  up  with  the  other  play." 

This  is  a  mere  maresnest.  I  have  examind  the  Addit.  MS.  It  is  one  origin- 
ally of  3  plays  by  George  Wilde,  LL.B.,  Fellow  of  St.  John's,  Oxford  ;  and 
contains  these  3  plays  by  him,  written  in  this  order  in  the  MS.:  "Loves 
Hospitall  as  it  was  acted  before  the  Kinge  &  Queens  Majestyes  by  the 
students  of  Sl  Jo.  Baptists  Coll.  in  Oxon  :  Augustij  29°.  1636,"  "  The 
converted  Robber  A  Pastorall  Acted  by  sl  Johns  College.  1637"  (If  44  bk), 
and  a  Latin  comedy  "  Eumorphus  sive  Cupido  Adultus.  Comcedia  Acta 

1  to  Richard  Brakenburie,  for  altering  and  making  readie  of  soundrie 
chambers  at  Whitehall  against  Christmas,  and  for  the  plaies,  and  for  making 
ready  in  the  hall  for  her  Majestic,  and  for  altering  and  hanging  of  the 
chambers  after  Christmas  daie,  by  the  space  of  three  daies,  mense  Decem- 
bris,  i$97,  viij./z.  xiij.j.  \\\}d. — Hll.-P.'s  Memoranda,  p.  59. — F. 


44  MARESNESTS    ABOUT    LOVES   LABOURS   LOST. 

A  Joanwensibwj.  Oxon.  Feb.  5°.  1634."  On  the  blank  leaves  are  written 
poems  by  later  hands  ;  and  on  the  first  flyleaf  are  some  lines,  names,  and 
scribblings,  in  three  or  four  hands.  Among  the  names,  in  one  of  the  later 
hands,  is,  under  an  older  "Loves  Hospitall," 

"  Loues  Hospitall, 
Loues  Labores  Lost " 

The  entry  therefore  no  more  implies  the  existence  then  of  a  MS.  of  Shak- 
spere's  play,  than  it  does  that  all  later  readers  of  the  entry  should  be  reason- 
able beings.  Wilde's  '  Loves  Hospitall '  is  followd  by  his  *  Converted 
Robber,'  and  there  is  no  possibility  of  'Loues  Labores  Lost'  having 
followd  the  former  play,  or  the  Eumorphus,  in  the  MS. 

Another  suggestion  by  Mr.  Hall. -P.  with  regard  to  Z.  Z.  Z.  must  also 
be  set  down  as  worthless.  He  says  (Mem.  on  Z.  Z.  Z.,  &c.,  p.  70) l — 

"  I  have  a  memorandum  that  the  name  of  the  comedy  was  perhaps  sug- 
gested bylines  in  the  Handful  of  Pleasant  Delights,  1584,  "ye  loving 
wormes,"  &c.,  sig.  C  6,  but  I  have  no  convenient  means  just  now  of  refer- 
ring to  that  work." 

The  little  Handful,  by  Clement  Robinson  and  others,  is  known  to  Shak- 
spere  students  from  Ophelia's  supposd  allusion  to  a  line  of  its  first  poem — 
"A  Nosegaie  alwaies  /  sweet,  for  Louers  to  send  for  Tokens,  /  of  loue,  at 
Newyeres  tide,  or  for  fairings,  /  as  they  in  their  minds  shall  be  disposed  to 
write," — namely 

"U  Rosemarie  is  for  remembrance, 

betweene  vs  daie  and  night  : 
Wishing  that  I  might  alwaies  haue, 
you  present  in  my  sight." 

The  "  labour  lost  "  passage  on  C  6  comes  thus  : — 

"IF  A  warning  for  Wooers,  that  they  be  not  ouer  hastie,  nor  deceincd  with 
ijuomens  beautie.     To,  Salisburie  Plaine. 


Y 


E  louing  wormes  come  learne  of  me 
The  plagues  to  leaue  [for  loue]  that  linked  be  : 
The  grudge,  the  grief,  the  gret  anoy, 
The  fickle  faith,  the  fading  ioy  : 
in  time,  take  heed, 

1  Before  accepting  the  copy  of  a  possibly  correct  copy  of  the  possibly 
genuine  audit  accounts  of  1605  as  "authentic"  (ib.  p.  62)  evidence  of  the 
playing  of  Z.  Z.  Lost  on  New  Years  Day  and  Twelfth  Day  1605  before 
James  T,  T  must  see  the  original  accounts. 


MARESNESTS    ABOUT   LOVES   LABOUR'S   LOST.  45 

In  fruitlesse  soile  sow  not  thy  seed  : 
buie  not,  with  cost, 
the  thing  that  yeelds  but  labour  lost. 
#  *  # 

Flie  baits,  shun  hookes, 
Be  thou  not  snarde  with  louely  lookes 
*  *  #  *  * 

But  hie  or  lowe, 
Ye  may  be  sure  she  is  a  shrow. 
IT  But  sirs,  I  vse  to  tell  no  tales, 
Ech  fish  that  swims  doth  not  beare  scales, 
In  euerie  hedge  I  finde  not  thornes : 
Nor  euerie  beast  doth  carie  homes  : 

I  saie  not  so, 
That  euerie  woman  causeth  wo  : 

That  were  too  broad, 
Who  loueth  not  venom  must  shun  the  toade.  .  .  /' 

The  object  of  the  poem  has  nothing  to  do  with  that  of  Shakspere's  play. 
He  sets  up  women  as  the  teachers  of  men,  wiser  and  truer  far  than  they, 
and  shows  the  treasure  of  their  love,  only  to  be  bought  at  the  cost  of  self- 
control  and  humanizing  work.— F.  J.  F. 


46 


FRANCIS  MERES,  1598. 

As  the  Greeke  tongue  is  made  famous  and  eloquent  by 
Homer,  He/iod,  Euripedes,  Aefchilus,  Sophocles,  Pindarus,  Pho- 
cylides  and  Ariftophanes ;  and  the  Latine  tongue  by  Virgill, 
Ovid,  Horace,  Silius  Italicus,  Lucanus,  Lucretius,  Aufonius  and 
Claudianus :  fo  the  Englifh  tongue  is  mightily  enriched,  and 
gorgeouilie  inverted  in  rare  ornaments  and  refplendent  abili- 
ments  by  fir  Philip  Sidney,  Spencer,  Daniel,  Drayton,  Warner, 

Shakefpeare,  Marlow  and  Chapman. 

***** 

As  the  foule  of  Euphorbus  was  thought  to  live  in  Pythagoras  : 
fo  the  fweete  wittie  foule  of  Ovid  lives  in  mellifluous  &  hony- 
tongued  Shakefpeare,  witnes  his  Venus  and  Adonis,  his  Lucrece,  his 
fugred  Sonnets  among  his  private  friends,  &c. 

As  Plautus  and  Seneca  are  accounted  the  belt  for  Comedy  and 
Tragedy  among  the  Latines  ?  fo  Shakefpeare  among  ye  Englifh 
is  the  moft  excellent  in  both  kinds  for  the  ftage  5  for  Comedy, 
witnes  his  Getleme  of  Verona,  his  Errors,  his  Love  labors  loft,  his 
Love  labours  wonne,  his  Midfummers  night  dreame,  &  his  Merchant 
of  Venice  :  for  Tragedy  his  Richard  the  2.  Richard  the  3.  Henry 
the  4.  King  lohn,  Titus  Andronicus  and  his  Romeo  and  luliet. 

As  Epius  Stolo  faid,  that  the  Mufes  would  fpeake  with  Plautus 
tongue,  if  they  would  fpeak  Latin  :  fo  I  fay  that  the  Mufes  would 
fpeak  with  Shakefpeares  fine  filed  phrafe,  if  they  would  fpeake 

Englifh. 

*  »  #  »  *  • 

As  Ovid  faith  of  his  worke ; 

\aniq\io.  opus  exegi,  quod  nee  \ovis  ira,  nee  ignist 
Nee  poterit  fcrrum,  nee  edax  abolere  vetustas. 


FRANCIS    MERES,    1598.  47 

And  as  Horace  faith  of  his  j  Exegi  monumentum  cere  perennius ; 
Regalique  ;  Jitu  pyramidum  altius  ;  Quod  non  imler  edax ;  Non 
Aquilo  impotens  pojjit  diruere  ;  aut  innumerabilis  annorum  feries 
&c  fuga  temporum :  fo  fay  I  feverally  of  fir  Philip  Sidneys, 

Spencers,  Daniels,  Dray  tons,  Shakefpeares,  and  Warners  workes  ; 
***** 

As  Pindarus,  Anacreon  and  Callimachus  among  the  Greekesj 
and  Horace  and  Catullus  among  the  Latines  are  the  belt  Lyrick 
Poets  :  fo  in  this  faculty  the  bell  amowg  our  Poets  are  Spencer 
(who  excelleth  in  all  kinds)  Daniel,  Dray  ton,  Shakefpeare,  Bretton. 

As fo  thefe  are  our  beft  for  Tragedie,  the  Lorde 

Buckhurft,  Do6tor  Leg  of  Cambridge,  Do6tor  Edes  of  Oxforde, 
maifter  Edward  Ferris,1  the  Authour  of  the  Mirrour  for 
Magiftrates,  Marlow,  Peele,  Watfon,  Kid,  Shakefpeare,  Draytonf 

Chapman,  Decker,  and  Benjamin  Johnfon. 

*  *•  *  •#  -x-  * 

.  .  .  fo  the  beft  for  Comedy  amongft  us  bee,  Edward  Earle  of 
Oxforde,  Doctor  Gager  of  Oxforde,  Maifter  Rowley  once  a  rare 


1  [It  was  George  Ferrers  who  wrote  six  of  the  historical  poems  in  the 
Mirrour  for  Magistrates,  four  of  which  appeared  in  the  first  edition  of  1559  ; 
two  more  came  out  in  the  edition  of  1587  ;  three  of  these  bore  the  title  of 
Tragedy,  though  none  of  them  were  plays.  It  is  singular  (see  Wood's 
Athen.  Oxon.,  i,  340,  445)  that  Puttenham,  writing  in  1589,  and  Meres  in 
1598,  both  appear  to  have  made  the  same  mistake,  of  naming  Edward 
Ferris  (or  Ferrers)  for  George  Ferrers.  Puttenham  says  (Arte  of  English 
Poesie,  1589  (4to.),  p.  49  ;  Arber's  Reprint,  p.  74)  that  "  Maister  Edward 
Ferry s"  "  wrate  for  the  most  part  to  the  stage,  in  Tragedie  and  some-times 
in  Comedie  or  Enterlude,  wherein  he  gave  the  king  [Edward  VI]  so  much 
good  recreation,  as  he  had  thereby  many  good  rewardes."  None  of  the 
plays  of  either  George  Ferrers  or  Edward  Ferrers  appear,  however,  to  be 
now  in  existence.  Edward  Ferrers  died  in  1564,  George  in  1579.  Meres 
may  have  intended  to  mention  them  both  in  the  sentence  given  above. 
G.  Ferrer's  name  was  not  on  the  title  of  the  Mirrour  in  the  edition  of  1587, 
and  his  initials  only  were  attached  to  his  portions  of  the  work.  But  that 
Puttenham  really  meant  George,  and  not  Edward,  seems  to  be  shown  by  the 
words  of  Stowe,  who  says,  "  George  Ferrers  gentleman  of  Lincolns  Inne, 
being  lord  of  the  merry  disportes  all  the  12  dayes  [of  Christmas,  I553>  at 
Greenwich]  :  who  so  pleasantly  and  wisely  behaved  himselfe,  yt  the  K.  had 
great  delight  in  his  pastymes."  Chronicle,  ed.  1615,  p.  608.  L.  T.  S.] 


48  FRANCIS    MERES,    1598. 

Scholler  of  learned  Pembrooke  Hall  in  Cambridge,  Maifter 
Edwardes  one  of  her  Maieflies  Chappell,  eloquent  and  wittie 
John  Lilly,  Lodge,  Gafcoyne,  Greene,  Shakefpeare,  Thomas  Nqfti> 
Thomas  Heywood,  Anthony  Mundye  our  befl  plotter,  Chapman, 

Porter,  Wilfon,  Hathway,  and  Henry  Chettle. 

****** 

.  .  .  fo  thefe  are  the  moft  paflionate  among  us  to  bewaile  ana 
bemoane  the  perplexities  of  Love,  Henrie  Howard  Eaiie  of  Surrey, 
firThomas  Wyat  the  elder,  lir  Francis  Brian,  fir  Philip  Sidney,  fir 
Walter  Rawley,  fir  Edward  Dyer,  Spencer,  Daniel,  Dray  ton, 
Shakefpeare,  Whetjlone,  Gafcoyne,  Samuell  Page  fometimes 
fellowe  of  Corpus  Chrifti  Colledge  in  Oxford,  Churchyard, 
Bretton. 

Palladis  Tamia.  Wits  Treasury,  Being  the  Second  part  of  Wits 
Common  wealth.  1598.  \_I2M0.]  Fols.  280,  281-2,  282,  283,  284. 

{Reprinted  in  Allusion- Books,  /,  New  Sh.  Soc.  pp.  xxiii,  151.) 


Of  these  extracts  from  Meres'  Palladis  Tamia,  the  second  has  been 
repeated  ad  nauseam,  while  the  other  five  have  been  usually  ignored.  One 
matter  of  interest  in  the  second  extract  is  the  mention  of  a  play  by 
Shakespeare  under  the  name  of  Love  Labours  Wonne.  If  this  be  a  superseded 
or  an  alternative  name  for  one  of  those  included  in  our  "canon,"  it  is 
important  to  identify  it,  as  affording  some  addition  to  the  scanty  evidences 
on  which  we  have  to  determine  the  chronological  order  of  the  plays.  Farmer 
identified  Love  Labours  Wonne  with  All's  -well  that  ends  well ;  and  his  dictum 
has  been  acquiesced  in  by  many  critics.  The  Rev.  Joseph  Hunter  gave 
the  preference  to  The  Tempest,  which,  for  his  purpose,  had  to  be  antedated 
some  ten  or  a  dozen  years  ;  and  Mr.  A.  E.  Brae,  in  his  Collier,  Coleridge 
and  Shakespeare,  advocates  the  claims  of  Much  ado  about  Nothing.  But  as 
that  play  was  entered  on  the  Stationers'  Books  on  August  23,  1600,  Meres 
could  hardly  have  referred  to  it.  Professor  Craik  argued  in  favour  of  The 
Taming  of  the  Shrew  (English  of  Shakespere,  1865,  Proleg.  II.  p.  8,  note). 
The  German  critics  Emil  Palleski,  E.  W.  Sievers,  and  W.  Hertzberg,  also 
take  this  view.  (See  Tieck  and  Schlegel's  translation  of  Shakespere, 
published  by  the  Deutsche  Shakespere  Gesellschaft,  1871,  vol.  ii.  p.  355.) 

The  language  of  the  first  extract  from  Meres,  which  was  quoted  by  Singer 
(Pref.  to  Hero  and  Leander,  1821,  pp.  xiii,  xiv),  recalls  two  lines  in  Ben 
Jonson's  magnificent  eulogy  of  Poetry  in  the  first  edition  of  Every  Man  in 
his  Humour : 

"  But  view  her  in  her  glorious  ornaments, 
Attired  in  the  majestie  of  arte,"  &c.    C.  M.  I. 


49 


FRANCIS  MERES,  1598. 

Michael  Drayton  (quern  toties  honoris  &  amoris  caufa  nomino) 
among  fchollers,  fouldiours,  Poets,  and  all  forts  of  people,  is  helde 
for  a  man  of  vertuous  difpofition,  honefl  converfation,  and  wel 
governed  cariage,  which  is  almoft  miraculous  among  good  wits 
in  thefe  declining  and  corrupt  times,  when  there  is  nothing  but 
rogery  in  villanous  man,  &  whe/z  cheating  and  craftines  is  counted 
the  cleaneft  wit,  and  foundeft  wifedome. 

Palladis   Tamia.      Wits   Treasury,  Being  the  Second  part  of  Wits 
Commonwealth,     1598,  fol.  281.     [i2mo.] 


We  have  here  an  expression  quoted  from  the  First  Part  of  Henry  IV,  Act 
II.  sc.  iv,  where  Falstaff  says  : 

"You  Rogue,  heere's  Lime  in  this  Sacke  too:  there  is  nothing  but 
Roguery  to  be  found  in  Villanous  man," 

The  First  Part  of  Henry  IV  was  entered  on  the  Stationers'  Register, 
Feb.  25,  1597-98.  C.  M.  I. 


SH.  ALLN.  BK. 1. 


5° 


R[OBERT]  T[OFTE],  1598. 

Loves  Labour  Loft,  I  once  did  fee  a  Play 

Y-cleped  fo,  fo  called  to  my  paine. 

Which  I  to  heare  to  my  fmall  loy  did  ft  ay, 

Giving  attendance  on  my  froward  Dame  : 
My  mifgiving  minde  prefaging  to  me  ill, 
Yet  was  I  drawne  to  fee  it  'gainft  my  will. 
*  *  *  * 

Each  Actor  plaid  in  cunning  wife  his  part, 
But  chiefly  Thofe  entrapt  in  Cupid's  fnare } 
Yet  All  was  fained,  'twas  not  from  the  hart, 
They  feemde  to  grieve,  but  yet  they  felt  no  care : 
'Twas  I  that  Griefe  (indeed)  did  beare  in  breft, 
The  others  did  but  make  a  mow  in  left. 

The  Months  Minde  of  a  Melancholy  Lover,  divided  into  three  parts. 
By  R.  T.  gentleman.  1598.  [8°.]  sign.  G  5.  In  the  library  of 
Mr.  Henry  Huth. 

(See  Allusion-Books,  /,  New  Sh.  Soc.  p.  184.) 


As  to  the  date  of  Love's  Labour  s  Lost,  see  after,  p.  139  ;  it  was  first 
printed  in  1598.     C.  M.  I. 


RICHARD  BARNFEILD,  1598. 

A  Remembrance  of  fome  Englifli  Poets. 

Live  Spenfer  ever,  in  thy  Fairy  Queene  : 
Whofe  like  (for  deepe  Conceit)  was  never  feene. 
Crownd  mayft  thou  bee,  unto  thy  more  renowne, 
(As  King  of  Poets)  with  a  Lawrell  Crowne. 

And  Daniell,  praifed  for  thy  fweet-chaft  Verfe : 
Whofe  Fame  is  grav'd  on  Rofamonds  blacke  Herfe. 
Still  mayft  thou  live :  and  ftill  be  honored, 
For  that  rare  Worke,  The  White  Rofe  and  the  Red. 

And  Drayton,  whofe  wel-written  Tragedies, 
And  fweete  Epiftles,  foare  thy  fame  to  fkies. 
Thy  learned  Name,  is  aequall  with  the  reft  j 
Whofe  ftately  Numbers  are  fo  well  addreft. 

And  Shakefpeare  thou,  whofe  hony-flowing  Vaine, 
(Pleafmg  the  World)  thy  Praifes  doth  obtaine, 
Whofe  Venus,  and  whofe  Lucrece  (fweete,  and  chafte) 
Thy  Name  in  fames  immortall  Booke  have  plac't. 
Live  ever  you,  at  leaft  in  Fame  live  ever  : 
Well  may  the  Bodye  dye,  but  Fame  dies  never. 

Poems  in  Divers  humor s±     1598.     [4^.]  Sign.  E  2,  back. 


1  [This  tract  is  fourth  in  a  volume  of  which  the  first  tract  only  bears  Barn- 
feild's  name :  signatures  begin  afresh  with  the  second  tract,  they  do  not  run 
on  throughout  (my  error  in  Sh.  Allusion-Books,  I,  New  Sh.  Soc.  p.  186), 
L.  T.  S.] 


JOHN  MARSTON,  1598. 

A  hall,  a  hall, 

Roome  for  the  Spheres,  the  Orbes  celeftiall 
Will  daunce  Kemps  ligge.     They'le  revel  with  neate  iumps 
A  worthy  Poet  hath  put  on  their  Pumps. 
*  *  *  * 

Lufcus,  what's  playd  to  day?     faith  now  I  know 

I  fet  thy  lips  abroach,  from  whence  doth  flow 

Naught  but  pure  luliat  and  Romio. 

Say,  who  acts  beft  ?     Drufus  or  Rofcio  ? 

Now  I  have  him,  that  nere  of  ought  did  fpeake 

But  when  of  playes  or  Plaiers  he  did  treate. 

H'ath  made  a  common-place  booke  out  of  plaies, 

And  fpeakes  in  print :  at  leaft  what  ere  he  fayes 

Is  warranted  by  Curtaine  plaudeties. 

If  ere  you  heard  him  courting  Lefbias  eyes  j 

Say  (Curteous  fir),  fpeakes  he  not  movingly, 

From  out  fome  new  pathetique  Tragedy  ? 

He  writes,  he  railes,  he  iefts,  he  courts  what  not, 

And  all  from  out  his  huge  long  fcraped  ftock 

Of  well-penn'd  playes. 

The  Scourge  of  Villanie.     159^-     Satyre  10. 

Sign.  HT»  back.  i6mo- 
[Malone's  copy  in  the  Bodleian.] 

(See  Allusion-Books,  7,  New  Sh.  Soc.  pp.  xxxiv,  187. 


[Romeo  and  Juliet  was  first  printed  in  1597,  but  was  probably  performed 
a  year  sooner.     (See  Dowden's  Shakespere  Primer,  p.  83.) 

The  first  lines  above  contain  a  common  phrase  of  the  day,  "A  hall !  a  hall ! 


JOHN    MARSTON,     1598.  53 

give  room  !  "  See  Rom.  and  Juliet,  Act  I.  sc.  v  :  "  A  hall !  a  hall !  give  room 
and  foot  it,  girls."  So  also  Davies  of  Hereford  has,  "A  hall,  my 
masters,  give  Rotundus  roome"  {Scourge  of  Folly,  Epig.  10,  ed.  Grosart, 
Chertsey  Worthies  Library,  pp.  9,  66).  L.  T.  S.] 

"Kemp's  jigge"  was  one  of  those  diversions,  of  combined  singing  and 
dancing,  of  which  several  were  written  and  performed  by  him  and  Tarlton. 
(See  Dyce's  Introduction  to  Kemp's  Nine  days  wonder,  p.  xx,  and  Collier's 
Memoirs  of  Actors,  Shakespeare  Society,  1846,  pp.  100 — 102.)  The 
"  worthy  poet"  was  Sir  John  Davies,  the  author  of  Orchestra  or  a  Poeme  of 
Daunting,  1596. 

"  Roscio"  w&ssiso&rttjuefof  Burbage,  which  convinces  Mr.  Gerald  Massey 
that  John  Davies'  epigram,  entitled  Of  Drusus  his  deere  Deere-hunting  (No. 
50  in  The  Scourge  of  Folly),  was  meant  to  allude  to  Shakespeare's  escapade  at 
Charlecote  or  Fulbroke.  To  help  his  case,  however,  Mr.  Massey  has  to 
omit  the  epigram  and  to  alter  its  title.  ( The  Secret  Drama  of  Shakespeare's 
Sonnets  unfolded,  1872:  Supplemental  Chapter,  p.  40.)  Besides,  Davies 
does  not  apply  Roscius  solely  to  Burbage  ;  he  has  "  To  the  Roscius  of  these 
times,  Mr.  W.  Ostler,"  in  The  Scourge  of  Folly,  Epigram  205.  C.  M.  I. 


54 


JOHN  MARSTON,  1598. 

A  man,  a  man,  a  kingdomefor  a  man, ! 
Why,  how  now,  currifli,  mad  Athenian  V 
Thou  Cynick  dogge,  fee' ft  not  ftreets  do  fwarme 
With  troupes  of  men  ? 

The  Scourge  of  Villanie.     1598.     Satyre'].     (A  Cynicke  Satyre.) 

Reprinted  by  Mr.  J.  0.  Halliwell  in  Marston's  Works,  Library  of 
Old  Authors,  1856,  vol.  Hi,  p.  278. 

(See  Allusion-Books,  I,  New  Sh.  Soc.  p.  188.) 


The  first  line  is  a  parody  on  the  well-known  line  in  Shakespeare's  King 
Richard  III,  literally  quoted  by  Marston  in  his  What  you  Will,  1607, 
Act  II,  sc.  i.  (See  after,  p.  176.)  The  speech  had  probably  attracted  popular 
attention,  and  seems  to  have  already  become  a  fashionable  cant  phrase. 
(See  also  Brathwaite,  1615,  after.)  Marston  also  parodies  the  same  line  in 
his  Parasitaster,  or  the  Fawne,  1606  : 

"A  foole,  a  foole,  a  foole,  my  Coxcombe  for  a  foole !"  (Sign.  H  •$,  bk], 

where,  too,  we  find  another  line  taken  almost  literally  from  Richard  III,  Act 
I,  sc.  i : 

"  Plots  ha'  you  laid?  inductions,  daungerous."  (Sign.  6*3,  bk.) 

[In  this  same  Cynicke  Satyre  Marston  repeats  the  part  phrase  "a  man, 
a  man !  "  three  times,  but  it  is  as  a  forcible  sneer,  to  open  a  new  phase  of 
his  subject,  it  is  not  used  in  the  sense  of  Shakespere's  call. 

Richard  ///was  first  published  in  quarto  in  1597,  but  was  probably  written 
as  early  as  1593.  (See  Dowden's  Shakespere  Primer^  p.  78.)  L.  T.  S.] 


55 


*  R.  S.  1598. 

[Flora]  .  .  Who  on  a  welthy  Palfrey  vaunted  .... 
Young  and  in  dainty  fhape  dygefted, 

His  Lookes  with  Pride,  not  Rage  inuefted  : 
His  Mayne  thin  haird,  his  Neck  high  crefted, 

Small  Eare,  Ihort  Head,  and  burly  Brefted. 
His  brode  Backe  ftoopt  to  this  Clerks-loued, 

which  with  hir  preffure  nought  was  moued  • 
Strait  Legd,  large  Thighd,  &  hollow  Houed, 

All  Natures  Ikill  in  him  was  proued. 

Phillis  and  Flora.  J  The  sweete  and  f  ciuill  contention  of  / 
two  amorotts  Ladyes.  /  Translated  out  of  Latine  :  by  / 
R.  S.  Esquire.  Aut  Marti  vel  Mercuric./  Imprinted 
at  London  by  W.  W./  for  Richarde  lohnes./  1598.; 
sign.  C.  2,  back,  3. 


It  has  been  suggested  (Appendix  B.,  from  elsewhere?)  that  this  is  more 
or  less  imitated  from  Shakspere's  description  of  the  horse  in  Venus  and 
Adonis  (1593),  st.  50,  1.  295-300  : 

Round- hoofd,  short-jointed,  fetlocks  shag  and  long, 
Broad  breast,  full  eye,  small  head,  and  nostril  wide, 

High  crest,  short  ears,  straight  legs,  and  passing  strong, 
Thin  mane,  thick  tail,  broad  buttock,  tender  hide  : 

Look  what  a  horse  should  have,  he  did  not  lack, 
Save  a  proud  rider  on  so  proud  a  back. 

But  as  no  one  could  describe  a  horse  without  noting  most  of  the  points  in 
him  that  Shakspere  does,  one  need  not  suppose  that  R.  S.  referrd  in  any 
way  to  his  predecessor. — F.  J.  F, 


GABRIEL  HARVEY   1598  or  after  1600  P1 

The  younger  ibrt  take  much  delight  in  Shakefpeare's  Venus 
and  Adonis  j  but  his  Lucrece,  and  his  tragedy  of  Hamlet,  Prince 
of  Denmarke,  have  it  in  them  to  pleafe  the  wiier  fort.  1598. 

Manuscript  Note  in  Speghfs  Chaucer  [now  lost ;  see  Allusion-Books,  /, 
New  Sh.  Soc.  pp.  xxii,  xxiii].  First  printed  in  Johnson  and  Steevens* 
Shakspeare,  1773.  (Reed,  xviii,  2;  BoswelFs  Malone,  vii,  168; 
Drake,  ii,  391,  &c.} 


1  We-  are  unable  to  verify  Steevens'  note,  or  collate  his  copy  :  for  the  book 
which  contained  Harvey's  note  (a  copy  of  Speght's  Chaucer,  1598)  passed 
into  the  collection  of  Bishop  Percy ;  and  his  library  was  burnt  in  the  fire  at 
Northumberland  House.  [Malone,  who  saw  the  volume,  doubted  whether 
the  note  was  written  by  Harvey  before  1600  (Boswell's  Malone,  ii.  369). 
He  does  not,  however,  say  whether  the  date,  1598,  is  really  written  at  the 
end  of  the  note  and  in  Harvey's  hand.  L.  T.  S.]  The  editors  of  the 
Clarendon  Press  edition  of  Hamlet  (Preface,  p.  ix)  remark  :  "  Steevens 
attributed  to  the  note  the  date  of  the  book,  but  Malone  has  shown  that, 
although  Harvey  may  have  purchased  the  volume  in  1598,  there  is  nothing 
to  prove  that  he  wrote  the  note  till  after  1600,  in  which  year  Fairfax's 
translation  of  Tasso,  mentioned  in  another  note,  was  published." 

The  First  Quarto  of  Hamlet  was  printed  in  1603.    C.  M.  I. 


57 


HENRY   PORTER,  1599. 

Mif.  Bar\nes~\.  How  fir  your  wife  ?  wouldft  thou  my  daughter 

haue  ? 
He  rather  haue  her  married  to  her  graue. 

The  I  Pleasant  /  Historic  of  /  the  two  angrie  women  /  of 
Abington.  /  With  the  humourous  mirthe  of  Dick  Coomes  / 
and  Nicholas  Prouerbes,  two  /  Seruingmen  /  ...  By 
Henry  Porter  Gent.  .  .  London  ...  1599,  sign.  G  2,  back. 


'A  recollection  perhaps  of  Shakespeare's  "  Romeo  and  Juliet,"  act  iii. 
sc.  5- 

"  I  would  the  fool  were  married  to  her  grave."  ' 

A.  Dyce,  in  Hazlitt's  Dodsley,  vii.  329. 

FalstafFs  "good  manhood1  "  is  used  by  Coomes  in  this  play,  ib.  vii.  318  : 
"I  am  sorry  for  it ;  I  shall  never  see  good  manhood  again,  if  it  [sword  - 
and-buckler  fight]  be  once  gone  ;  this  poking  fight  of  rapier  and  dagger  will 
come  up  then." 

F.  J.  F. 

1  Go  thy  ways,  old  Jack  ;  die  when  thou  wilt ;  if  manhood,  good  man 
hood,  be  not  forgot  upon  the  face  of  the  earth,  then  am  I  a  shotten  herring. 
I  Henry  IV.  II.  iv.  139-142. 

The  reference  in  the  Variorum  Shakspere,  1821,  xxi.  393,  and  Collier  s 
Memoirs  of  E.  Alleyn  (1841),  p.  122,  to  a  play  of  1599  in  which  Rich.  III. 
appears — see  sc.  2,  and  sc.  5  :  "  K.  Rich.  Catesb.  Lovell,  Norf.  Northumb. 
Percye,"isno  doubt,  as  Mr.  P.  A.  Daniel  says,  to  'The  Second  Part  of 
Henry  Richmond,  by  Robert  Wilson/  Nov.  1599,  named  in  the  Variorum^ 
iii.  323,  and  in  Henslowe's  Diary,  p.  159. 

"  The  playe  of  John  agante,"  by  "Mr.  hathwaye,"  also  in  Var.  xxi.  393, 
Mr.  Daniel  identifies  with  "  the  conqueste  of  spayne  by  John  a  Gant,"  on 
which  Henslowe  made  three  advances  of  money  to  "Mr.  Hathwaye  and 
Mr.  Rankens  "  in  the  spring  of  1600-1.  The  date  1601  is  on  Var.  xxi,  391. 


*BEN   JONSON,  1599. 

ACTVS  TERTIVS.     SCENA  PRIMA. 

*  *  * 

Car\J,o\.  I  came  from  him  but  now,  hee  is  at  the  Heraulds 
Office  yonder :  he  requefted  me  to  goe  afore,  and  take  vp  a 
man  or  two  for  him  in  Paules,  againft  his  Cognifance  was 
readie. 

Punt\aruolo\.  What?  has  he  purchaft  armes  then  ? 
Car.  I,  and  rare  ones  too :  of  as  many  colours,  as  e're  you 
fa  we  any  fooles  coat  in  your  life.     He  go  looke  among  yond 
Billes,  and  I  can  fit  him  with  Legs  to  his  Armes. 

Pun.  With  Legs  to  his  Armes !  Good  :  I  will  go  with 
you  fir. 

\sig.Hb.-} 
fr  .  <*  * 

Sogliardo,  Punt.   Car.  walke. 

Sog.  Nay  I  wil  haue  him,  I  am  refolute  for  that,  by  this 
parchment  gentlemen,  I  haue  bene  fo  toylde  among  the  Harrots 
yonder,  you  wil  not  beleeue,  they  do  fpeak  in  the  flrangeft 
language,  and  giue  a  man  the  hardeft  termes  for  his  money, 
that  euer  you  knew. 

Car.  But  ha'  you  armes  ?  ha'  you  armes  ? 

Sog.  Yfaith,  I  thanke  God  I  can  write  my  felfe  Gentleman  * 
now,  heeres  my  Pattent,  it  coft  me  thirtie  pound  by  this  breath. 

Punt.  A  very  faire  Coat,  well  chargde,  and  full  of  Armorie. 

Sog.  Nay,  it  has  as  much  varietie  of  colours  in  it,  as  you  haue 
feene  a  Coat  haue,  how  like  you  the  Creft  fir  ? 

Punt.  I  vnderftand  it  not  well,  what  is't  ? 


1  O.   Gentlemen. 


BEN   JONSON,    1599.  59 

Sog,  Marry  fir,  it  is  your  Bore  without  a  head  Rampant. 

Punt.  A  Bore  without  a  head,  that's  very  rare. 

Car.  I,  and  Rampant  too  :  troth  I  commend  the  Heralds  wit, 
he  has  deciphered  him  well  :  a  Swine  without  a  head,  without 
braine,  wit,  any  thing  indeed,  Ramping  to  Gentilitie.  You  can 
blazon  the  reft  Signior  ?  can  you  not  ? 

Sog.  O  I,  I  haue  it  in  writing  here  of  purpofe,  it  coft  me  two 
millings  the  tricking. 

Car.  Let's  heare,  let's  heare. 

Punt.  It  is  the  moft  vile,  fooliih,  abfurd,  palpable,,  and 
ridiculous  Efcutcheon  that  euer  this  eye  furuifde.  .  .  . 

Sog.  GYRONY  of  eight  pieces,  AZVRE  and  GVLES,  between 
three  plates  a  CHEV'RON  engrailed  checkey,  OR.  VERT  and 
ERMINES  ;  on  a  chiefe  ARGENT  betweene  two  ANN'LETS,  fables 
a  Bores  head  PROPER. 

Car.  How's  that  ?  on  a  chiefe  ARGENT  ? 

Sog.  On  a  chiefe  ARGENT,  a  Bores  head  PROPER  betweene 
two  ANN'LETS  fables. 

Carl.  Slud,  it's  a  Hogs  Cheeke  and  Puddings  in  a  Pewter 
field  this. 

Sog.  How  like  you  them  fignior  r 

Pu.  Let  the  word1  be,  Not  without  mujlard,  your  Creft  is 
very  rare  fir. 

Car.  A  frying  pan  to  the  Crelt,  had  no  fellow. 


The  comicall  Satyre  of  I  Every  Man  /  Ovt  Of  His  /  Hvmor.  / 
As  it  was  first  composed  by  the  Atithor  B,\eri\  I.[pnsori\  / 
Containing  more  then  hath  been  piiblikely  spoken  or  acted  / 
.  .  .  London^  /  Printed  for  Nicholas  Linge.  /  1600. 


[Mr.  E.  F.  Bates  kindly  refers  me  to  this  passage,  and  considers  that 
Jonson's  "Not  without  mustard  "  may  be  a  jocular  reference  to  the  motto 


1  Original  world, 


60  BEN    JONSON,     1599. 

of  Shakspere's  crest,  "  Non  sanz  droict."  One  may  consider  the  reference 
dubious,  though  Shakspere  obtained  his  grant  of  arms  in  1599,  when  the 
play  was  produced.  Certainly  the  arms  of  Sogliardo  cannot  be  associated 
with  those  of  Shakspere,  (Or,  on  a  band  sable,  a  spear  of  the  first, 
steeled  argent,  with  crest,  a  falcon,  wings  displayed,  argent,  supporting  a 
spear  or,  steeled  as  in  the  arms.)  The  "  mustard,"  of  course,  is  intended 
to  be  associated  with  the  "swine."  Mr.  R.  B.  M°Kerrow  very  kindly 
points  out  that  "Not  without  mustard"  may  well  have  been  derived  from 
a  story  in  Nashe's  Pierce  Pennilesse.  (See  his  edition  of  Nashe,  i.  171-21. ) 
The  allusion  is  possible,  but  doubtful.  M.] 


6i 


BEN   JONSON,  1599. 

Saviolina.  What's  he,  gentle  Mounlieur  Briske  ?  not  that 
Gentleman  ? 

Fastidius.     No  Ladie,  this  is  a  Kinsman  of  Justice  Silence. 

(Act  V.  sc.  ii.] 
*  *  *  * 

Marie,  I  will  not  do  as  Plautus  in  his  Amphitryo  for  all  this, 
(Summi  lovis  caufa  Plaudite ;)  begge  a  Plaudit e  for  Gods  fake ; 
but  if  you  (out  of  the  bountie  of  your  good-liking)  will  beftow  it, 
why,  you  may  (in  time)  make  leane  Madlente  as  fat  as  Sir  John 
Fall-Jlaffe. 

(Second  "  Catastrophe  or  Conclusion  "  to  the  play,  sign.  Q  4,  back.'] 
Every  Man  out  of  his  Humor.     1600.     [4/0] 


["This  Comicall  Satyre  was  first  acted  in  the  yeere  1599." — Jomon's 
Works,  1616,  vol.  i.  p.  176. 

The  speech  of  Mitis  in  the  same  play,  Act  III,  sc.  ii,  suggesting  that  the 
argument  of  the  comedy  might  have  been  based  on  cross -wooings,  has  been 
supposed  to  be  a  hit  at  Twelfth  Night.  But  that  play  is  not  placed  earlier 
than  1600,  as  its  probable  date. 

The  First  and  Second  Parts  of  Henry  IV,  in  which  Justices  Silence  and 
Shallow  appear,  were  probably  both  written  before  Feb.  25,  i597-98>  when 
the  First  Part  was  entered  on  the  Stationers'  Register.  L.  T.  S.] 


62 

THE 
PASSIONATE 

PILGRIME 

By   W-  Shakefpeare. 
[Device] 


AT   LONDON 

Printed  for  W.  laggard,  and  are 
to  be  fold  by  W.  Leake,  at  the  Grey- 
hound in  Paules  Churchyard. 

1599- 


THE    PASSIONATE    PILGRIME,     1599.  63 

[This  is  the  title-page  which  the  notorious  Jaggard  issued  in  1599  to  his 
filched  collection  of  poems  from  various  authors,  including  Barmfeild, 
Marlowe,  Weekes,  etc.  It  is  a  testimony  to  the  market- value  of  Shak- 
spere's  name.  Five  of  the  twenty  pieces  in  the  book  were  by  Shakspere 
himself.  The  third  edition  in  1612  still  retained  the  poet's  name,  but 
included  two  other  pieces,  from  Heywood's  Troia  Britannica.  The 
remonstrance  of  Heywood,  recording  Shakspere's  displeasure  at  this  new 
villainy,  is  printed  below,  p.  231.  M.] 


THOS.    DEKKER,  1599-1636. 

Enter  Rofe  alone  making  a  garland. 
"  Roje.  Here  lit  thou  downe  vpon  this  flowry  bank 
And  make  a  garland  for  thy  Lades  head. 
Thefe  pinkes,  thefe  rofes,  and  thefe  violets, 
Thefe  blufhing  gilliflowers,  thefe  marigoldes, 
The  faire  embrodery  of  his  coronet, 
Carry  not  halfe  fuch  beauty  in  their  cheekes, 
As  the  fweete  countnaunce  of  my  Lacy  doth." 

The  I  Shomakers  \  Holiday.  /  or  \  the  Gentle  Craft. \  .  .  . 
1600.      Works,  1873,  i-  J6,  17. 

["  Come,  sit  thee  down  upon  this  flowery  bed, 

While  I  thy  amiable  cheeks  do  coy, 

And  stick  musk  roses  in  thy  sleek  smooth  head." 

Mid: s  Nights  Dream,  IV.  i.— H.  C.  HART.] 


"  Cypr[us\.  The  Ruby-coloured  portals  of  her  fpeech 
Were  clofde  by  mercy." 

The  I  Pleasant  Comedie  of  \  Old  Fortunatus.  .  .  1600. 
Works,  1873,  i.  132. 

["  Once  more  the  ruby  coloured  portal  opened, 
Which  to  his  speech  did  honey  passage  yield." 

1593.      Venus  and  Adonis,  1.  451,  2.  — H.  C.  HART.] 


"  Genius. 
(   T  am  the  places  Genius,  whence  nowjprings 

A  Vine,  whofe  yongeft  Braunchjhall  produce  Kings  : 
This  little  world  of  men  ;  this  precious  Stone t 
Thatfets  out  Europe : 


THOS.  DEKKER,  T599 — 1636.  65 

This  lewell  of  the  Land  :  Englands  right  Eye  : 
Altar  o/"Loue  and  Spheare  of  Male/lie" 

1604.      The  Kings  Entertainment  through  the  City  of 
London,  15.  of  March  1603.     Works,  1873,  i.  274. 

[Evidently  borrowed  from  Gaunt's  speech  in  Richard  II.  Act  II.  sc.  i. — H.] 


"  Hip\olito\.  Oh,  you  ha  kild  her  by  your  cruelty. 
Du[ke~\.  Admit  I  had,  thou  kill'fl  her  now  againe ; 
And  art  more  favage  then  a  barbarous  Moor." 

1604.      The  Honest  Whore.      Works,  1873,  ii.  4. 

[Conjecturally  an  allusion  to  Aaron  in  Titus  Andronicus,  who  is  twice 
called  the  "barbarous  Moor"  in  that  play;  II.  iii.  78,  "Accompanied  but 
with  a  barbarous  Moor  "  ;  V.  iii.  4,  ' '  Good  uncle,  take  you  in  this  barbar- 
ous Moor." — H.  C.  HART.] 


What's  here  ? 

Perhaps  this  flirewd  pate  was  mine  enemies  : 
Las  !  fay  it  were  :  I  need  not  feare  him  now  : 
For  all  his  braves,  his  contumelious  breath, 
His  frownes  (tho*  dagger-pointed)  all  his  plot, 
(Tho  ne're  ib  mifchievous)  his  Italian  pilles, 
His  quarrels,  and  (that  common  fence)  his  law. 

****** 
And  muft  all  come  to  this ;  fooles,  wife,  all  hither, 
Muft  all  heads  thus  at  laft  be  laid  together : 

****** 
But  here's  a  fellow ;  that  which  he  layes  on, 
Till  domes  day  alters  not  complexion  : 
Death's  the  bell  Painter  then  : 

1604.     The  Honest  Whore.     Part  I.     Works,  1873,  ii.  56. 

[Though  no  passages  are  exactly  similar,  yet  the  whole  idea  of  moralizing 
thus  upon  a  skull  (especially  as  it  would  show  upon  a  stage)  seems  to  me 
unmistakably  taken  from  Hamlet 's  gravedigger's  scene,  and  therefore  worthy 
of  insertion  as  Shakespeare's  Prayse.— H.  C.  HART.] 

SH.  ALLN.   BK. 1.  F 


66  THOS.  DEKKER,  1599 — 1636. 

Wife.  Sure,  I  mould  thinke  twere  the  leaft  of  fin. 

To  miftake  the  Mafter,  and  to  let  him  in. 

Geo[rge].  Twere  a  good  Comedy  of  Errors  that  ifaith. 

The  Honest  Whore,  ib.  ii.  62. 

["An  allusion  probably  to  Shakespeare's  play  of  that  name." — Note  in 
Dekker's  Works,  1873,  ii.  372.  See  the  same  phrase,  p.  141,  below.] 

(Has  the  jealous  husband  Candido's  saying  in  this  play,  ii.  40-1,  about 
his  wife's  brother  Fustigo's  kissing  her— "  when  I  touch  her  lip,  I  shall  not 
feele  his  kisses  "—anything  to  do  with  Othello's  "I  found  not  Cassio's 
kisses  on  her  lips  "  ?  III.  iii.  341-  Othello  dates  in  1604?— F.) 

May\Jbury\.  Of  what  ranck  was  (he  I  befeech  you. 
Leth[erjlone\.     Vpon  your  promife  of  fecrefie. 
Bel\_lamont\.  You  mall  clofe  it  vp  like  treafure  of  your  owne, 
and  your  felfe  mall  keepe  the  key  of  it. 

North-  Ward]  Hoe.\  Sundry  times  Acted  by  the  children  / 
of  Paules./  By  Thomas  Decker,  and  \  John  Webster. / 
.  .  1607.  Works,  1873,  iii.  5. 

["  From  Shakespeare  : — 

'  'Tis  in  my  memory  lock'd 

And  you  yourself  shall  keep  the  key  of  it.' — Hamlet,  act.  i.  sc.  3." — Note 
in  Dekker's  Works,  iii.  361.] 


lasp [ero\.     I  never  heard  'mongft  all  your  Romane  fpirits, 

That  any  held  fo  bravely  up  his  head, 

In  fuch  a  fea  of  troubles  (that  come  rouling 

One  on  anothers  necke)  as  Lotti  doth. 

The    Wonder  I  of  I  A  Kingdome.}  .  .    .  1636.      Works, 

1873,  iv.  230. 

["/»  such  a  sea  of  troubles.     In  all  probability  borrowed  from  Hamlef* 
famous  soliloquy."     Note  in  Dekker's  Works,  1873,  iv.  438.] 

Flo\rence] nay,  nay,  pray  rife, 

I  know  your  heart  is  up,  tho*  your  knees  down,     Ib.  iv.  28 «J. 
["So  Shakespeare  in  Richard  II.  : — 

'  Up,  cousin,  up  ;  your  heart  is  up,  I  know, 
Thus  high  at  least,  although  your  knee  be  low.'  " 

Note,  ib.  p.  440].— F.  J .  F. 


RETURNE   FROM   PERNASSUS,  PART  I.  1600. 

Gull.     Pardon,   faire   lady,    thoughe   ficke-thoughted    Gallic 

maks  amaine  unto  thee,  and  like  a  bould-faced  futore  'gins  to 

woo  thee1.  1008 

Ingen.     (We  {hall   have  nothinge  but  pure  Shakfpeare  and 

fhreds  of  poetrie  that  he  hath  gathered  at  the  theators !) 

Gull.  Pardon  mee,  moy  mittrefTa,  aft2  am  a  gentleman,  the 
moone,  in  comparifon  of  thy  bright  hue  3  a  meere  flutt,  Anthonio's 
Cleopatra  a  blacke  browde  milkmaide,  Hellen  a  dowdie.  1013 
Ingen.  (Marke,  Romeo  and  Juliet !  O  monftrous  theft 4 ! 
1  thinke  he  will  runn  throughe  a  whole  booke  of  Samuell 
Daniell's !) 

Gull.     Thrife  fairer  than  myfelfe  ( — thus  I  began — ) 
The  gods  faire  riches,  fweete  above  compare, 
Staine  to  all  nimphes,  [m]ore  lovely  the[n]  a  man. 
More  white  and  red  than  doves  and  rofes  are  !  1020 

Nature  that  made  thee  with  herfelfe  had  5  ftrife, 
Saith  that  the  worlde  hath  ending  with  thy  life6. 
Ingen.     Sweete  Mr.  Shakfpeare  ! 

Act  III.  sc.  i.  pp.  56,  7. 


1  '  Sick-thoughted  Venus  makes  amain  unto  him, 
*And  like  a  bold-faced  suitor  'gins  to  woo  him.' 

Venus  and  Adonis,  st.  I. 

2  for  as  I.  3  for  hue's.  4  Cf.  Romeo  and  Juliet,  ii.  4. 

6  sic  :  for  at.  6  Venus  and  Adonis,  st.  2. 


68  THE    RETURNE    FROM    PERNASSUS. 

In  gen.  My  pen  is  youre  bounden  vafTall  to  comma  nde.  But 
what  vayne  woulde  it  pleafe  you  to  have  them  in  ?  1049 

Gull  Not  in  a  vaine  veine  (prettie,  i'faith !)  :  make  mee 
them  in  two  or  three  divers  vayns,  in  Chaucer's,  Gower's  and 
Spencer's  and  Mr.  Shakfpeare's.  Marry,  I  thinke  I  ihall  enter- 
taine  those  verfes  which  run  like  thefe  : 

Even  as  the  funn  with  purple  coloured  face 

Had  tane  his  lafle  leave  on1  the  weeping  morne,  &c.    1055 

O  fweet  Mr.  Shakfpeare !  I'le  have  his  picture  in  my  ftudy  at 
the  courte. 

Act  III.  sc.  i.  p.  58. 


Gull. — Let  mee  heare  Mr.  Shakfpear's  veyne.  1212 

Ingen.     Faire  Venus,  queene  of  beutie  and  of  love, 
Thy  red  doth  ftayne  the  blufhinge  of  the  morne, 
Thy  fnowie  necke  fhameth  the  milkwhite  dove, 
Thy  prefence  doth  this  naked  worlde  adorne; 
Gazinge  on  thee  all  other  nymphes  I  fcorne. 
When  ere  thou  dyefl  Howe  fhine  that  Satterday, 
Beutie  and  grace  mufle  fleepe  with  thee  for  aye  !  1219 

Gull.  Noe  more !  I  am  one  that  can  judge  accordinge  to 
the  proverbe,  lovem  ex  unguibus.  Ey  marry,  Sir,  thefe  have 
fome  life  in  them  !  Let  this  duncified  worlde  efteeme  of 
Spencer  and  Chaucer,  I'le  worfhipp  fweet  Mr.  Shakfpeare,  and  to 
honoure  him  will  lay  his  Venus  and  Adonis  under  my  pillowe,  as 
wee  reade  of  one  (I  doe  not  well  remember  his  name,  but  I  am 
fure  he  was  a  kinge)  ilept  with  Homer  under  his  bed's  heade. 

Act  III.  sc.  i.  p.  63. 


1  '  of  :   Venus  and  Adonis,  1.  2. 


THE    RETURNE    FROM    PERNASSUS. 


69 


Ing.  Our  Theater  hath  loft,  Pluto  hath  got, 

A.  Tragick  penman  for  a  driery  plot  295 

Beniamin  lohnfon  1. 

/M^.  The  wittieft  fellow  of  a  Bricklayer  in  England. 

Ing.  A  meere  Empyrick,  one  that  getts  what  he  hath  by 
obferuation,  and  makes  onely  nature  priuy  to  what  he  indites, 
ib  flow  an  Inuentor  that  he  were  better  betake  himfelfe  to  his 
old  trade  of  Bricklaying,  a  bould  whorfon,  as  confident  now  in 
making  a  2  booke,  as  he  was  in  times  paft  in  laying  of  a  brick. 
William  Shakefpeare'6. 

lud.     Who  loues  [not  Adons  loue,  or  Lucrece  rape  ? 4]         304 
His  fweeter  verfe  contaynes  hart  [throbbing  line  5], 
Could  but  a  grauer  fubiect  him  content, 
Without  loues  foolifh  lazy6  languiftiment. 

Act  IV.  sc.  ii.  p.  87. 


The  Pilgrimage  to  Parnassus,  with  the  Two  Parts  of  the  Returnc 
from  Parnassus.  Three  Comedies  performed  in  St,  John's 
College,  Cambridge,  A.D.  MDX  VII—MDCL  Edited  from 
MSS.  by  the  Rev.  W.  D.  Macray,  F.S.A.  Oxford,  Clarendon 
Press.  1886.  F.  J.  F. 


The  Rev.  W.  D.  Macray  of  the  Bodleian  c.  1885  found  among  Thomas 
Hearne's  volumes  of  miscellaneous  collections  in  the  Bodleian,  the  long 
missing  couple  of  Plays  which  preceded  The  Returne  from  Pernassus  [Part 
II.]  so  long  known  to  us.  The  first  play  is  '  The  Pilgrimage  to  Pernassus ', 
and  the  second  is  the  first  part  of  *  The  Returne '  from  it.  It  is  the  most 
interesting  dramatic  find  for  very  many  years,  as  it  sets  Shakspere  at  the 
head  of  English  Poets — above  Chaucer  and  Spenser — so  early  as  A.D.  1600. 

I'B.I.,'B.  2<ofa,'MS.  3  Mis-spelt  '  Shatespeare  '  in  A. 

4  *  Who  loves  Adonis  love  or  Lucres'  rape,'  edits. 


6  'robbing  life, 'edits. 


6  '  lazy  '  omitted  in  B. 


70 
*NICHOLAS   BRETON,  1600. 

AN    ODDE    CONCEIPT 

LOVELY  kinde,  and  kindly  louing 
Such  a  minde  were  worth  the  mouing : 
Truly  faire,  and  fairely  true, 
Where  are  all  thefe  but  in  you  ? 

Wifely  kinde,  and  kindely  wife, 
Bleffed  life,  where  fuch  loue  lies  : 
Wife,  and  kinde,  and  faire,  and  true, 
Louely  Hue  all  thefe  in  you. 

Sweetely  deare,  and  dearely  fweete, 
Bleffed,  where  thefe  bleffings  meete  : 
Sweete,  faire,  wife,  kinde,  bleffed,  true, 
Bleffed  be  all  thefe  in  you. 

Melancholike  /  Htimours,  /  In  Verses  of  Di-  /  verse  Natures,  j 

Set  down  by  /  Nich:  Breton,  gent,  j  London  /  .  .   .  1600. 
Reprinted  Chertsey   Worthies^  Library,  ed.    Grosart,   1879, 


[Mr.  C.  Haines  in  Notes  and  Queries,   loth  Series,  vol.  vii,  p.  247,  says 
these  lines  appear  to  be  inspired  by  Shakspere's  Sonnet,  cv  : — 

Kind  is  my  love  today,  tomorrow  kind, 

Still  constant  in  a  wondrous  excellence  ; 

Therefore  my  verse,  to  constancy  confined, 

One  thing  expressing,  leaves  out  difference. 

"  Fair,  kind,  and  true  "  is  all  my  argument, 

"  Fair,  kind,  and  true,"  varying  to  other  words  ; 

And  in  this  change  is  my  invention  spent, 

Three  themes  in  one,  which  wondrous  scope  affords. 
"  Fair,  kind,  and  true,"  have  often  lived  alone, 
Which  three  till  now  never  kept  seat  in  one. 

Nothing  could  better  describe  Breton's  theme  than  Shakspere's  lines 
"  *  Fair,  kind,  and  true,'  varying  to  other  words  "  :  if  Shakspere's  Sonnet 
was  not  written  before  1600,  he  must  have  been  the  borrower,  and  not 
Breton.  M.] 


*JOHN  LANE,  1600. 


When  chaft  Adonis  came  to  mans  eftate, 
Venus  ftraight  courted  him  with  many  a  wile  ; 
Lucrece  once  feene,  ftraight  Tarquine  laid  a  baite, 
With  foule  inceft  her  bodie  to  defile  : 

Thus  men  by  women,  women  wrongde  by  men, 

Give  matter  ftill  vnto  my  plaintife  pen. 

To m   Tel- Troths  Message,  and  his  pens  Complaint.     1600, /.  4 
(Reprinted  by  the  New  Shakspere  Society,  1876,  /.  132.)    C.  M.  I. 


JOHN   BODENHAM,  1600. 

To  the  Reader  : 

\T  ihall  be  needlefle  (gentle  Reader)  to  make  any 
Apologie  for  the  defence  of  this  labour,  becaufe  the 
fame  being  collected  from  fo  many  fingular  mens 
workes  j  and  the  worth  of  them  all  hauing  been  fo  efpecially 
approued,  and  paft  with  no  meane  applaufe  the  cenfure  of  all  in 
generall,  doth  both  difburden  me  of  that  paines,  and  fets  the 
better  approbation  on  this  excellent  booke.  ...  A  3. 

[A  4]  Now  that  euery  one  may  be  fully  fatiffied  concerning 
this  Garden,  that  no  one  man  doth  aflume  to  him-felfe  the 
praife  thereof,  or  can  arrogate  to  his  owne  deferuing  thofe  things 
which  haue  been  deriued  from  fo  many  rare  and  ingenious 
fpirits ;  I  haue  fet  down  both  how,  whence,  and  where  thefe 
flowres  had  their  firft  fpringing,  till  thus  they  were  drawne 
togither  into  the  Mufes  Garden,  that  euery  ground  may  chal- 
lenge his  owne,  each  plant  his  particular,  and  no  one  be  iniuried 
in  the  iuftice  of  his  merit 
.  .  .  out  of.  .  . 

[A  5]  Edmund  Spencer. 

Henry  Conftalle  Efquier.  .  .  . 
[A  5,  bk]  lohn  Mar/lone. 

Chriftopher  Marlow. 
Eeniamin  lohnfon. 
William  Shakfpeare.  .  .  . 
Thefe   being   Moderne   and   extant   Poets,   that   haue    liu'd 


JOHN   BODENHAM,    l6oo.  73 

togither  ;  from  many  of  their  extant  workes,  and  fome  kept  in 

priuat. 

il.  p.  30. 

Loue  goes  toward  loue  like  fchoole-boyes  from  their  bookes : 
But  loue  from  loue,  to  fchoole  with  heauie  lookes. 

Bel-vedere  /  or  \  The  Garden  of  f  The  Mvses.f  .  .  . 
Imprinted  at  London  by  F.  K.  for  Hugh  Astley, 
dwelling  at  \  Saint  Magnus  corner.  l6oo./ 


The  two  'Loue 'lines  are  from  the  first  Quarto,  1597,  of  Romeo  and 
Juliet,  II.  ii.  160-1,  p.  58,  Daniel's  Parallel-Text.  N.  Sh.  Soc.  1874:— 

Ro.  Loue  goes  toward  loue  like  schoole  boyes  from  their  bookes, 
But  loue  from  loue,  to  schoole  with  heauie  lookes. 

Quarto  2,  1599,  has  as  for  like  in  1.  160,  and  toward  for  to  in  1.  161. 

The  author's  name,  'M.  lohn  Bodenham,'  is  given  by  A.  M.1  in  the  title 
of  his  verses  on  sign.  A  7.  The  mere  fact  of  there  being  a  Rom.  &  Jul. 
quotation  in  Bodenham,  was  stated  by  Mr.  Hll.-P.  in  his  Outlines,  p. 
115-  F.  J.  F. 

Belvedere  consists  entirely  of  quotations  from  the  poets  and  dramatists. 
Mr.  Charles  Crawford,  who  has  recently  been  working  upon  the  book,  has 
identified  more  than  200  from  Shakspere.  Of  these  92  are  from  Lucrece 
and  35  from  Venus  and  Adonis.  Richard  II  seems  to  have  been 
Bodenham's  favourite  play;  he  quotes  from  it  47  times.  Richard  III 
comes  next  with  13  quotations.  Mr.  Crawford  prints  the  results  of  his 
investigations  in  an  appendix  in  vol.  ii.  M. 


Anthony  Munday? 


74 


SAMUEL  NICHOLSON,  1600. 


PARALLEL  PASSAGES. 


Acolasttts. 

Or  wher's  the  soules  Atturney,  when 
the  hart. 


Being    once    corrupted,    takes    the 
worser  part  ?  (p.  12,  1.  185.) 

O  woolvish  heart  wrapt  in  a  womans 
hyde  (p.  16,  1.  265). 

Thus  all  askaunce  thou  holdst  me  in 
thine  eye  (1.  300). 

Hence  idle  words,  servants  to  shallow 

brain  es, 
Unfruitfull     sounds,     wind-wasting 

arbitrators, 


Your  endles  prattle  lessens  not  my 

paines 
His  suite  is  cold,   that  makes  you 

mediators  (1.  559). 

Witnes  faire  heauens  she,  she,  'tis 

onely  she, 
That  guides  this  hand  to  give  this 

wound  to  me  (1.  647). 

A  prettie  while  this  prettie  creature 

stoode 
Before    the  engin  of   her  thoughts 

began  (1.  853). 


Shakcspere. 

the  heart's  attorney* 
(Ven.  and  Ad.  1.  335.) 

But  with  a  pure  appeal  seeks  to  the 

heart 
Which    once    corrupted    takes   the 

worser  part  (Lucrece,\.  293). 

O  tigers  heart  wrapt  in  a  woman's 
hide  (3  Henry  VI,  I.  iv). 

For  all  askaunce  he  holds  her  in  his 
eye  ( Ven.  and  Ad.  1.  342). 

Out  idle  words,  servants  to  shallow 
fools, 

Unprofitable  sounds,  weak  arbi- 
trators ! 

Busy  yourselves  in  skill-contending 
schools  : 

Debate  where  leisure  serves  with  dull 
debaters  : 

To  trembling  clients  be  you  medi- 
ators (Lucrece,  1.  1016). 

She  utters  this  :   '  He,  he,  fair  lords, 

'tis  he, 
That  guides  this  hand  to  give  this 

wound  to  me  (Lucrece,  I.  1721). 

A  pretty  while  these  pretty  creatures 
stand  (Lucrece,  1.  1233). 

Once  more  the  engine  of  her  thoughts 
began  (Ven.  and  Ad.  1.  367). 


SAMUEL   NICHOLSON,    1600.  75 

Acolastus.  Shakespere. 

Heart-slaine  with  lookes,  I  fell  upon  Or  like  the  deadly  bullet  of  a  gun, 

the  ground, 

Her  meening    strooke  me  ere  her  His  meaning  struck  her  ere  his  words 

words  were  done,  begun, 

As  weapons  meet  before  they  make  And  at  his  look  she  flatly  falleth 

a  sound,  down, 

Or  as  the  deadly  bullet  of  a  gunne  For  looks  kill  love  and  love  by  looks 

(p.  62,  1.  1369).  reviveth  ( Ven.  and  Ad.  1.  461). 

And  pining  griefe  still    thinkes  it  For  lovers  say,  the  heart  hath  treble 

treble  wrong  wrong 

When  heart  is  barr'd  the  aydance  of  When  it  is  barr'd  the  aidance  of  the 

the  tongue  (1.  1433).  tongue  (Ven.  and  Ad.  1.  329). 

Acolastus  his  afler-witte.     By  S.  N.     1600.     Reprinted  by  Rev. 
A.  B.  Grosart,  1876.     Introduction,  pp.  xiv — xxi. 


[The  quotations  here  given  are  but  a  few  out  of  many  passages  in  Nicholson's 
Acolastus,  in  which  the  author  has,  like  Robert  Baron  fifty  years  later, 
woven  into  his  own  verse  quotations  and  recollections  from  Shakespere's 
Poems.  Dr.  Grosart  and  Dr.  B.  Nicholson,  setting  aside  the  accusation  of 
literary  theft  and  impudence  in  this  striking  use  by  the  lesser  poets  of  the 
ringing  words  of  the  greater,  explain  that  "precedents  of  high  excellence 
were  much  more  looked  to  in  those  days,  and  copyings  and  imitations  were 
not  merely  more  common  but  allowed,  especially  when  the  sources  were  in 
all  hands,  and  so  '  plagiarism '  out  of  the  question.  .  .  .  Those  familiar  with 
Nicholas  Breton  and  Samuel  Daniel  find  frequently  and  silently  introduced 
into  their  own  poems  [i.  e.  the  poems  of  those  authors]  well-known  sonnets 
and  lines  of  others."  Introd.  p.  xxi.  L.  T.  S.] 


76 


*  SAM.    NICHOLSON.     1600. 

Dr.  Grosart  has  given  in  his  Memorial  Introduction  to  his  reprint  of 
Sam.  Nicholson's  Acolasttis,  his  After-witte,  many  instances  of  that  writer's 
borrowings  from  Shakspere's  Venus  and  Adonis,  Lucrece,  &c.  Of  these 
the  most  certain  are  quoted  in  pp.  74,  75. 

We  of  all  people  once  that  were  the  pelfe 

Thruft  in  a  frozen  corner  of  the  North. 

Sign.  B.  1.  44,  p.  7,  reprint. 

This  he  compares  with  "  the  frozen  bosome  of  the  North,"  in  Romeo  and 

Juliet: 

Which  is  as  thin  of  substance  as  the  ayre, 

And  more  inconstant  then  the  wind,  who  wooes 

Euen  now  the  frozen  bosome  of  the  North. 

1599.     Rom.  &Jul.  Qo.  2,  I.  v.  93. 
1597.     Qo.  i. 

Which  is  as  thinne  a  substance  as  the  aire, 
And  more  inconstant  than  the  winde 
Which  wooes  euen  now  the  frosew  bowels  of  the  north. 

F.J.F. 


77 


A.    MUNDAY,  &c,    1600. 

Pri[efi\.  Sirra,  no  more  ado ;  come,  come,  giue  me  the  money 
you  haue.  Difpatch,  I  cannot  ftand  all  day. 

Kin[g  Hen.  Vl\  Well,  if  thou  wilt  needs  haue  it,  there  it  is  J : 
iuft  the  Prouerbe,  one  theefe  robs  another.  Where  the  diuelare 
all  my  old  theeues2  ?  Falftaffe  that3  villaine  is  fo  fat,  hee  can- 
not get  oil's  horfe,  but  me  thinkes  Poines  and  Peto  mould  bee 
ftirring  hereabouts.4 

******* 

6  Pr'i.  Me  thinkes  the  King  mould  be  good  to  theeues  becaufe 
he  has  bin  a  theefe  himfelfe,  though  I  thinke  now  hee  be  turned 
true  man. 

Kin.  Faith  I  haue  heard  indeede  h'as  6  had  an  ill  name  that 
way  in's7  youth  ;  but  how  canfl  thou  tell  that  he8  has  beene  a 
Theefe  ? 

Prie/i.   How  ?  becaufe  he  once  robb'd  me  before  I  fell  to  the 

1  there  tis— V.  S.  ed.t 

2  theeues  that  were  wont  to  keepe  this  walke? — V.  S.| 

3  the— V.  S.  4  here  abouts. 

6  For  Pri.  read  Sir  John  throughout,  z.  e.  Sir  John  Butler,  parson  of 
Wrotham  (Sig.  B). 

6  he  has— V.  S.  7  in  his— V.  S. 

8  till  he — V.  S.  (Smaller  differences  of  spelling  and  punctuation  are  not 
noted.— F.) 

t  The  first  part  /  Of  the  true  and  honor/able  historic,  of  the  life  of  Sir  / 
John  Old-castle,  the  good  I  Lord  Cobham./  As  it  hath  been  lately  acted 
by  the  right  /  honorable  the  Earle  of  Notingham  /  Lord  high  Admirall  of 
England  his  /  seruants./  LONDON  /  Printed  by  V.  S.  for  Thomas  Pauier, 
and  are  to  be  solde  at  /  his  Shop  at  the  Signe  of  the  Catte  and  Parrots  / 
neere  the  Exchange./  1600.  4to.  sign.  ¥2. 


yg  A.    MUNDAY,    &C..    l6oO. 

trade  my  felfe,  when  that  foule  villanous  guts,  that  led  him  to 
all  that  Roguery,  was  in's  company  there,  that  Falftaife. 

King  qfide.  Well,  if  he  did  rob  thee  then,  thou  art  but  euen 
with  him  now,  He  be  fworne :  Thou  knoweft  not  the  King 
nowe  I  thinke,  if  thou  faweft  him  ! 

The  first  part  /  of  the  true  and  honourable  history  of  the 
Life  of  I  Sir  John  Old-castle,  the  good  /  Lord-Cobham.\ 
As  it  hath  bene  lately  acted  by  the  Right  /  honorable 
the  Earle  ofNotingham  /  Lord  High  Admiral  I  of  Eng- 
land,/ his  Servants. I  Written  by  William  Shakespeare./ 
London  printed  for  T.  P.  1600.  4to.  sign.  F  2. 


The  edition  "  Printed  by  V.  S.  for  Thomas  Pauier,  and  are  to  be  solde  at 
his  shop  at  the  signe  of  the  Catte  and  Parrots  neere  the  .Exchange,  1600," 
differs  somewhat  from  this  edition,  and  seems  the  better  one,  tho  I 
have  only  collated  it.  A  'longer  extract  from  this  scene  is  given  by  Mr. 
Halliwell  in  his  'Character  of  Sir  John  Falstaff,'  1841,  p.  31-4.  The 
earlier  scene  at  the  Inn  with  Doll,  (the  Priest's  or  Wrotham  Parson's  wench,) 
old  Harpoole,  'a  most  sweet  old  man,'  the  kissing,  &c.  (sign.  C.  4) 

"harp.  Imbracing  her.  Doll  canst  thou  loueme?  a  mad  merie  Lasse, 
would  to  God  I  had  neuer  scene  thee. 

Doll.  I  warrant  you  you  will  not  out  of  my  thoughts  this  tweluemonth, 
truely  you  are  as  full  of  favour,  as  a  man  may  be.  -Ah  these  sweet  gray 
lockes,  by  my  troth,  they  are  most  louely." — 

and  the  quarrel  following,  are  evidently  from  Falstaff  s  tavern-scene  with  his 
Doll,  2  Henry  IV,  II.  ir. 

In  Henslowe's  Diary,  p.  158,  are  the  following  entries  : 

"  This  16  of  October  [i5]99 

Receved  by  me,  Thomas  Downton,  of  phillip  Henslow,  to  pay  Mr. 
Monday,  Mr.  Drayton,  and  Mr.  Wilson  and  Hathway,  for  the  first  p^rte 
of  the  lyfe  of  Sr  Jhon  Ouldcasstell,  and  in  earnest  of  the  second  parte,  for 
the  use  of  the  compayny,  ten  pownd,  I  say  receved 10". 

[On  or  after  Nov.  I,  and  before  Nov.  8]  Receved  of  Mr.  Hinchloe,  for 
Mr.  Mundaye  and  the  Reste  of  the  poets,  at  the  playnge  of  Sr  John  Old- 
castell,  the  ferste  time.  As  a  gefte xs. 

[p.  162.  Between  Dec.  19  and  26,  1599]  Receved  of  Mr.  Henchlow, 
for  the  use  of  the  company,  to  pay  Mr.  Drayton  for  the  second  parte  of  S 
Jhon  Ouldcasell,  foure  pownd  :  I  say  receved ,»....  iiij11- 


A.    MUNDAY,    &C,    l6oO.  79 

[p.  166]  Dd  unto  the  litell  tayller,  at  the  apoyntment  of  Robart  Shawe? 
the  12  of  marche  !599[-i6oo]  to  macke  thinges  for  the  2  parte  of  owld 
castell,  some  of  xxxs." 

Before  this  last  date  I  thought  that  Shakspere  might  probably  have  acted 
in  the  play,  which  might  have  been  lent,  before  its  publication,  to  the  Lord 
Chamberlain's  Company,  by  the  Lord  Admiral's  Company : 1  see  the 
following : — 

"Baynards  Castell,  this  Saturday,  8  of  March,  1599  "  [-1600].  "Row- 
land Whyte,  Esq.;  to  Sir  Robert  Sydney  "  .  .  .  "All  this  Weeke  the 
Lords  haue  bene  in  London,  and  past  away  the  Tyme  in  Feasting  and 
Plaies  ;  for  Vereiken  dined  vpon  Wednesday,  with  my  Lord  Treasurer,  who 
made  hym  a  Roiall  Dinner  j  vpon  Thursday  my  Lord  Chamberlain  feasted 
hym,  and  made  hym  very  great,  and  a  delicate  Dinner,  and  there  in  the 
After  Noone  his  Plaiers  acted,  before  Vereiken,  Sir  John  Old  Castell,  to  his 
great  Contentment."  ^Letters  and  Memorials  of  State,  ed.  Arthur  Collins, 
1746,  ii.  175,  176,  4,  17  (noted  in  the  Variorum). 

But  Mr.  P.  A.  Daniel  suggests  "  that  the  Admiral  lent  his  Company  to 
the  Chamberlain  on  this  occasion.  It  seems  altogether  improbable  that 
Shakspere  and  his  company  should  have  taken  the  places  of  the  Admiral's 
Company  for  one  single  performance  only." 

Both  Parts  of  the  play  were  enterd  to  Thos.  Pavier  in  the  Stationers' 
Register  on  Aug.  n,  1600.— Arber's  Transcript,  iii.  63 — 

"  The  firste parte  of  the  history  of  the  life  of  Sir  JOHN  OLCASTELL  lord 

COBHAM. 

Item  the  second  and  last  parte  of  the  history  of  Sir  JOHN  OLDCASTELL  lord 
COBHAM  with  his  martyrdom  " 

The  second  Part  of  the  Play  is  not  now  known. 

By  Aug.  17,  1602,  "my  Lorde  of  Worsters  players  "  (afterwards  Queen 
Anne's — James  I.'s  wife)  had  evidently  become  entitled  to  Sir  John  Old- 

1  They  had  both  acted  together  or  alternately  at  Henslowe's  Newington 
Theatre  for  2  years  and  6  days  in  1594-6.  Collier's  Pref.  to  Henslowe's 
Diary,  p.  xviii.  The  names  of  the  Admiral's  Company  in  1600  (eleven 
sharers  in  profits)  are  given  in  Henslowe,  p.  172 — 

J.  Singger.  Robt.  Shaa. 

Thomas  Downton.  Thomas  Towne. 

Humfry  Jeffes.  W.  Birde. 

Anthony  Jeffes.  Richard  Jones. 

Charles  Massye.  Edward  Jubye. 
Samuell  Rowlye. 


go  A.    MUNDAY,    &C.,     l6oO. 

castle,  and  Henslowe  lent  them  40^.  "  to  paye  unto  Thomas  Deckers,  for 
new  adicyons  in  Owldcaselle  "  (Diary,  p.  236),  and  los.  more  on   Sept.  7, 
1602  (p.  239). 
On  the  attributing  of  spurious  plays  to  Shakspere,  note  this  by  Baker  : 

"  THE  THREE  BROTHERS.  Trag.  by  Wentworth  Smith.  Acted  by  the 
Lord  Admiral's  servants,  1602.  Not  printed. — This  author  wrote,  or 
assisted  in,  several  other  plays  ;  and  by  only  using  the  initials  of  his  name, 
it  is  supposed  that  many  of  them  were  obtruded  on  the  public  as  the  pro- 
ducts of  Shakspeare's  pen."  1812. — Baker's  Biogr.  Dram.  Hi.  333. 

F.  J.    F. 


If  the  following  passage  had  been  written  after  Macbeth  instead  of  4  years 
before  it,  should  we  not  all  have  said  that  the  writers  had  recollected  Shak- 
spere's 

"Come,  seeling  night, 
Scarf  up  the  tender  eye  of  pitiful  day"  (III.  ii.  46-7)? 

And  if  so,  ought  we  not  in  like  wise  to  hold  that  in  Macbeth  Shakspere 
recollected  his  predecessors'  work? — E.  PHIPSON. 

War\nian~\.  The  man  is  blinde.     Muffle  the  eye  of  day, 
Ye  gloomie  clouds  (and  darker  than  my  deedes, 
That  darker  be  than  pitchie  sable  night) 
Muster  together  on  these  high  topt  trees, 
That  not  a  sparke  of  light  thorough  their  sprayes, 
May  hinder  what  I  meane  to  execute. 

[A.  Munday  &  H.  Chettle]  The  I  Downfal  f  of  Robert,! 
Earle  of  Huntington,  /  afterward  Called  /  Robin 
Hood  of  merrie  Shetwodde:  /  with  his  loue  to  chaste 
Matilda,  the  /  Lord  Fitzwaters  daughter,  afterwardes  / 
his  faire  Maide  Marian./  .  .  .  Imprinted  at  London, 
for  William  Leake,  1601,  sign.  14,  back. 


THE  ESSEX  REBELLION,  1600: 
EXAMINATIONS. 

Sir  Gelly  Meyricke  ijth  Feb.  1600. 

The  Examination  of  Sr  Gelly  merick  Knyght  taken  the  xvijth 
of  Februarij,  1600.  He  fayeth  that  vpon  Saterday  laft  was 
fennyght  he  dyned  at  Gunter's  in  the  Company  of  the  L. 
monteegle,  Sr  Chriftoffer  Blont,  Sr  Charles  percye,  Ellys  Jones, 
and  Edward  Buffhell,  and  who  elfe  he  remembreth  not  and  after 
dy nner  that  day  &  at  the  mocyon  of  Sr  Charles  percy  and  the 
reft  they  went  all  together  to  the  Globe  over  the  water  wher  the 
L.  Chamberlens  men  vfe  to  play  and  were  ther  fomwhat  before 
the  play  began,  Sr  Charles  tellyng  them  that  the  play  wold  be  of 
harry  the  iiijth.  Whether  Sr  John  davyes x  were  ther  or  not 
thys  exanimate  can  not  tell,  but  he  fayd  he  wold  be  ther  yf  he 
cold,  he  can  not  tell  who  procured  that  play  to  be  played  at 
that  tyme  except  yt  were  Sr  Charles  percye,  but  as  he  thyncketh 
yt  was  Sr  Charles  percye.  Thenne  he  was  at  the  fame  play  and 
Cam  in  fomwhat  after  yt  was  begon,  and  the  play  was  of  Kyng 
Harry  the  iiijth,  and  of  the  kyllyng  of  Kyng  Richard  the  fecond 
played  by  the  L.  Chamberlen's  players 

Ex.  per  Gelly  Meyricke 

J.  Popham 
Edward  Fenner 

MS  in  the  Public  Record  Office.  Domestic 
State  Papers,  Elizabeth,  Vol.  278,  No.  78. 
(Mrs.  Green's  Calendar,  1 598-1 60 1,/.  575.) 


1  Misread  Danvers  in  the  Calendar. 
SH.  ALLN.  BK. — I. 


82 


Augujtine  PhilLipps   18  Pel.,  1600. 

The  Examination  of  auguftyne  phillypps  fervant  vnto  the  L 
Chamberlyne  and  one  of  hys  players  taken  the  xviijth  of  February 
1600  vpon  hysoth 

He  fayeth  that  on  Fryday  laft  was  fennyght  or  Thurfday  Sr 
Charles  percy  Sr  Jofclyne  percy  and  the  L.  montegle  with  fome 
thre  more  fpak  to  fome  of  the  players  in  the  prefans  of  thys 
exammate  to  have  the  play  of  the  depofyng  and  kyllyng  of  Kyng 
Rychard  the  fecond  to  be  played  the  Saterday  next  promyfyng 
to  gete  them  xly.  more  then  their  ordynary  to  play  yt.  Wher 
thys  Examinate  and  hys  fellowes  were  determyned  to  have  played 
fome  other  play,  holdyng  that  play  of  Kyng  Richard  to  be  fo  old 
&  fo  long  out  of  vfe  as  that  they  mold  have  fmall  or  no  Company 
at  yt.  But  at  their  requeft  this  E\aminate  and  his  fellowes  were 
Content  to  play  yt  the  Saterday  and  had  their  xls.  more  then  their 
ordynary  for  yt  and  fo  played  yt  accordyngly 

Ex.  per  Augulline  Phillipps 

J.  Popham 
Edward  Fenner 

MS.  in  the  Public  Record  Office.  Domestic  State 
Papers,  Elizabeth,  Vol.  278,  No.  85.  (See  Mrs. 
Green's  Calendar,  i598-i6oi,/.  578.) 


[The  above  examinations  were  thus  summed  up  in  the  Report  of  The  Trial 
printed  from  Le  Neve's  MS.  :— 

"  And  the  story  of  Henry  IV  being  set  forth  in  a  play,  and  in  that  play 
there  being  set  forth  the  killing  of  the  King  upon  a  stage ;  the  Friday  before 
Sir  Gilly  Merrick  and  some  others  of  the  Earl's  train  having  an  humour  to 
see  a  play,  they  must  needs  have  the  play  of  Henry  IV. 

"  The  players  told  them  that  was  stale,  they  should  get  nothing  by  playing 
of  that,  but  no  play  else  would  serve  ;  and  Sir  Gilly  Merrick  gives  forty 
shillings  to  Philips  the  player  to  play  this,  besides  what  soever  he  could  get. " 
(The  Trial  of  Sir  Christopher  Blunt,  Sir  Gilly  Merrick  and  others,  for  High 
Treason,  5  March,  1600.  F.  Hargrave's  State  Trials,  1778,  vol.  vii. 
column  60.)  I  have  not  succeeded  in  tracing  Le  Neve's  MS.,  it  does  not 


THE   ESSEX    REBELLION,  l6oo  :    EXAMINATIONS.  83 

appear  to  be  in  the  British  Museum,  and  Mr.  J.  Nicholson,  the  courteous 
Librarian  of  Lincoln's  Inn,  informs  me  that  it  is  not  in  the  Library 
under  his  charge  (to  which  Margrave's  MSS.  and  books  were  originally 
assigned).  But  the  examinations  of  Merrick  and  Phillipps  show  that  what 
seemed  to  be  the  error  of  Henry  IV  instead  of  Richard  77,  as  the  name  of 
the  play,  is  so  in  the  original.  The  account  given  of  this  trial  in  Camden's 
Annals  (ed.  Hearne,  1717,  p.  867)  has  it  as  follows, — "  exoletam  Traggediam 
de  tragica  abdicatione  Regis  Ricardi  secundi  in  publico  theatro  coram 
conjurationis  participibus  data  pecunia  agi  curasset." 

Richard  II  was  published  in  Quarto  in  1597  and  1598,  the  Deposition 
scene  (11.  154—318  of. Act  IV.  sc.  i)  was  not  printed  till  1608,  though,  from 
the  allusions  in  the  lines  before  and  after  the  omission,  which  are  in  the 
Quarto  of  1597,  it  is  clear  that  this  scene  must  have  been  in  the  original 
play  ;  it  was  probably  struck  out  on  account  of  its  political  significance. 
That  there  is  room  for  doubt  whether  the  play  ordered  by  Sir  Charles 
Percy  was  Shakespere's  Richard  77,  or  another  on  the  same  subject,  is 
seen  by  Professor  Dowden's  comment,  "  that  this  was  Shakespere's  play  is 
very  unlikely  "  (Sh.  Primer,  1877,  p.  87). l  But  Mr.  Hales  (Academy,  Nov. 
20,  1875),  endorsed  by  Dr.  Furnivall  (Leopold  Shakspere,  Introd.  p.  xxxvi), 
asks  that  "  considering  the  facts  that  the  company  employed  by  the  Essexians 
was  that  to  which  Shakespere  belonged,  and  that  the  play  asked  for  answers 
in  description  to  Shakespere's  Richard  77,  can  we  hesitate  to  believe  that 
the  play  was  indeed  Shakespere's?"  See  later,  pp.  100— 101.  L.  T.  S.] 


1  See  also   Clark   and  Wright's  Richard  77,  Clarendon  Press  Series, 
1869,  p.  v, — "it  is  certain  that  this  was  not  Shakespeare's  play." 


*  CHR.  MIDDLETON,  1600. 

[The  following  uses  of  "famine,  sword  and  fire,"  and  "Soul-killing 
witches,"  should  perhaps  be  quoted  rather  as  illustrations  than  recollections 
of  Shakspere's  like  words  in  the  Prologue  to  Henry  V,  line  7,1  and  Comedy 
of  Errors,  I.  ii.  loo.2— H.  C.  HART.] 

(5) 

What  time  this  land  difquieted  with  broyles, 

Wearied  with  wars  and  fpent  for  want  of  reft, 

Sawe  her  adioyning  neighbours  free  from  th'  fpoyles, 

Wherewith  her  felfe  had  difpofeft 

Of  peace  and  plenty,  which  men  moft  defire, 

And  in  their  fteeds  brought  famine,  fword  and  fire. 

(89) 

They  charge  her  that  (he  did  maintaine  and  feede, 
Soul-killing  witches,  and  conuers'd  with  deuils, 
Had  conference  with  fprits,  who  mould  fucceede 
The  King. 

The  /  Legend  /  Of  Hvmphrey  /  Dvke  of  C70-/cester./  By 
Chr:  Middleton.\  London  /  Printed  by  E.  A.  for 
Nicholas  Ling,  and  are  /  to  be  solde  at  his  shop  at  the 
west  doore  of/  S.  Paules  Church.  i6oo./ 


1  and  at  his  heels 

Leasht  in  like  hounds,  should  famine,  sword  and  fire 
Crouch  for  employment.     [A.D.  1599.] 
*  Soul-killing  witches  that  deform  the  body.     [?  A.D.  1591.] 


SIR  WILLIAM    CORNWALLIS,    1600. 

"  Malicious  credulitie  rather  embraceth  the  partiall  writings  of 
indifcreet  chroniclers,  and  witty  Play-Makers,  then  his  [Richard 
Ill's]  lawes  and  actions,  the  moft  innocent  and  impartiall 

witneffes. 

***** 

Yet  neither  can  his  blood  redeem  him  [Richard  III]  from 
injurious  tongues,  nor  the  reproch  offered  his  body  be  thought 
cruell  enough,  but  that  we  muft  ftil  make  him  more  cruelly 
infamous  in  Pamphlets  and  Plays. 

Essay es  of  Certaine  Paradoxes.  1617.  Second  edition.  The  Pray se 
of  King  Richard  the  Third.  Sign.  C  3  and  D  3.  \In  the 
Bodleian.]  Reprinted  in  a  Collection  of  Scarce  and  Valuable 
Tracts,  by  Lord  Somers,  2nd  ed.  1810.  Vol.  3,//.  321,  328. 


[Mr.  Elliot  Browne  pointed  out  the  first  extract  given  above,  in  the 
Atliencetim,  13  Nov.  1875.  The  title  of  this  second  impression  of  Essayes 
of  Cei'taine  Paradoxes  does  not  contain  the  addition  "in  prose  and  verse" 
said  to  belong  to  the  edition  of  1600.  It  is  quite  a  different  work  from 
Cornwallis'  Essayes,  which  passed  through  several  editions.  I  have  not 
been  able  to  find  a  copy  of  the  edition  of  1600,  but  give  the  date  on  the 
authority  of  Leumdes*  Bibliog.  Manual,  Bohn's  edition,  vol.  iv.  p.  2312. 
L.  T.  S.] 


86 


CHARLES  PERCY,  1600? 


Mr.  Carlington  : 

I  am  heere  fo  peftred  with  contne  bufineffe  that  I  fhall 
not  bee  able  as  yet  to  come  to  London  :  If  I  flay  heere  long  in  this 
fafhion,  at  my  return  I  think  you  will  find  mee  fo  dull  that  I  fliall 
bee  taken  for  Juftice  Silence  or  Juftice  Shallow,  wherefore  I  am 
to  entreat  you  that  you  will  take  pittie  of  mee,  and  as  occurrences 
(hall  fearue,  to  fend  mee  fuch  news  from  time  to  time  as  fhall 
happen,  the  knowledge  of  the  which,  thoutgh  perhaps  thee  will 
not  exempt  mee  from  the  opinion  of  a  iuftice  Shallow  at  London, 
yet  I  will  aflure  you,  thee  will  make  mee  paffe  for  a  very  fufficient 
gentleman  in  Gloceftrfhire.  If  I  doe  not  alwaies  make  you 
anfwere,  I  pray  you  doe  not  therefore  defift  from  your  charitable 
office,  the  place  being  fo  fruitfull  from  whence  you  write,  and 
heere  fo  barren,  that  it  will  make  my  head  ake  for  invention,  but 
if  anything  happen  heere  that  may  bee  unknown  unto  you  in  thofe 
parts,  you  fhall  not  faile  but  to  heare  of  it.  I  pray  you  direct 
your  letters  to  thee  three  cups  in  breed-street,  where  I  haven 
taken  order  for  the  fending  of  them  down :  And  fo  in  the  mean 
while  I  will  ever  remain 

your  affured  friend 

Charles  Percy 
Dumbleton  in  Gloceftthire 
this  27  of  December 

You  need  not  to  forbeare  fending  of  news  hither  in  refpect  of 
their  ftalenes,  for  I  will  afTure  you,  heere  they  will  be  very  new. 

MS.  Letter  in  Public  Record  Office,  Domestic  State  Papers, 
Elizabeth,  Vol.  275,  No.  146, 


CHARLES    PERCY,    1600?  87 

[The  late  Mr.  Richard  Simpson  left  an  unprinted  note  on  this  letter  which 
I  here  give  as  it  stands  : 

"As  this  letter  was  part  of  the  papers  seized  upon  the  companions  of 
Essex  in  his  attempt  upon  London,  the  date  of  it  may  be  any  year  before 
1602. 

"  Sir  Charles  Percy,  3rd  son  of  Henry  2Oth  Earl  of  Northumberland, 
married  one  of  the  family  of  Cocks,  and  through  her  was  lord  of  Dumbleton 
in  Gloucestershire,  near  Campden,  and  not  far  from  Stratford- on- A  von. 
He  was  with  Essex  in  Ireland,  and  accompanied  him  in  his  fatal  ride 
into  the  City  in  Feb.  1601.  He  was  the  man  who  bespoke  the  play  of 
Richard  II.  at  the  Globe  on  Saturday,  Feb.  7,  1601.  He  was  evidently  one 
of  Shakespere's  admirers,  perhaps  one  of  his  friends.  Through  him  the 
dramatist  may  have  got  some  of  the  vivid  stories  about  the  Percies  in  I 
Henry  IV.  Possibly  he  may  be  '  chaffed '  in  the  passage  where  Falstaff 
asks  what  Master  Dumbleton  says  to  his  satin,  and  is  told  that  he  wants 
better  assurance  than  Bardolph."  L.  T.  S.] 


88 


"ONE  FRIEND  TO  ANOTHER,"  1600—1610. 

For  I  muft  tell  you  I  never  dealt  so  freelie  with  you,  in  anie  j 
and,  (as  that  excellent  author,  Sr.  John  Falftaff  fayes,)  what 
for  your  bufinefle,  news,  device,  foolerie,  and  libertie,  I  never 
dealt  better,  fince  I  was  a  man. 

A  Collection  of  Letters  made  by  Sr.  Tobie  Matthews,  Kt.  1660, 
/.  loo.  "  One  friend  to  another ;  who  showes  much  trouble  for  the 
miscarriage  of  a  letter" 


Countess  of  Southampton  to  Earl  of  Southampton. 

Al  the  nues  I  can  fend  you  that  I  thinke  wil  make  you  mery 
is  that  I  reade  in  a  letter  from  London  that  Sir  John  Falftaf  is  by 
his  Mrs.  Dame  Pintpot  made  father  of  a  godly  milers  thum,  a 
boye  thats  all  heade  and  veri  litel  body  5  but  this  is  a  fecrit. 

Postscript  to  a  letter,  without  other  date  than  "  Charily  %th  July," 
printed  in  the  Appendix  to  %rd  Report  of  the  Historical  MSS. 
Commission,  p.  148. 


[I  put  these  two  extracts  together,  as  they  both  show  the  wide-spread 
popularity  of  Falstaff,  even  to  the  familiar  personation  of  him  :  the  late  Mr. 
Simpson  believed  that  they  refer  to  Shakespere  himself  under  the  name  of 
Falstaff  {Academy,  Feb.  6,  1875).  The  names  and  circumstances  of  many 
of  the  writers  of  the  letters  in  Matthews'  collection  point  to  the  approximate 
date  of  the  first  extract.  L.  T.  S.] 


89 


*J.  M.,  1600—1612. 

who  hath  a  lovinge  wife  &  loves  her  not, 

he  is  no  better  then  a  witlefle  fotte  j 

Let  fuch  have  wives  to  recompenfe  their  meritc, 

even  Menelaus  forked  face  inherite. 

Is  love  in  wives  good,  not  in  hufbands  too  ? 

why  doe  men  fweare  they  love  then,  when  they  wooe? 

it  feemes  't  is  true  that  W.  S.  faid, 

when  once  he  heard  one  courting  of  a  Mayde, — 

Beleve  not  thou  Mens  fayned  flatteryes, 

Lovers  will  tell  a  bufhell-full  of  Lyes  ! 

The  News  Metamorphosis,  or  A  Feaste  of  Fancie,  or 
Poeticall  Legendes.  Brit.  Mtts.  Add.  MSS.  14,824, 
14,825.  -$vols.  4fo.  Vol.  I.  Pt.  II.  p.  96  (old  No.}. 


[The  first  volume  of  this  MS.  bears  the  date  1600  on  the  title-page.  The 
work,  however,  was  added  to,  emended,  and  probably  continued  from  time 
to  time  ;  in  the  second  volume  (in  which  the  above  extract  occurs)  is  a 
passage  which  puts  the  date  of  part  of  it  at  least  as  late  as  the  end  of  1612, 
the  date  of  Prince  Henry's  death  and  Princess  Elizabeth's  marriage. 

"  But  H.  vntymely  in  his  prime  of  yeares 
must  hence  departe,  &  passe  through  funerall  fyres 
iust  at  that  tyme  when  gieatest  ioye's  intended 
at  bright  E's  nuptials,  wfth  all  mirth  portended."  (p.  215,  old  nos.) 

The  author's  name  is  quite  conjectural ;  he  says  (I.  leaf  4,  b)  : 

"  My  name  is  Frenche,  to  tell  you  in  a  worde 

yet  came  not  in  wzth  Conqueringe  williams  sworde." 
See  further  on  this  manuscript,  Appendix  C.    L.  T.  S.] 
The  W.  S.  above  must  stand  for  a  name  which  gives  two  trochees  (like 
William   Shakespeare),   and    is,  probably,    identical  with  the   W.   S.  in 
Willobie  his  Avisa,  before,  pp.  9 — 13.    It  is  not  wonderful  that  the  concluding 
couplet  is  not  found  in  Shakespeare's  works,  seeing  that  it  is  quoted  as  a 
conversational    impromptu.      [Polonius'    advice   to   Ophelia   contains   an 
expansion  of  the  idea  found  in  them.     See  Hamlet,  Act  I,  sc,  iii.  11.  115— 
120,  127.     L.  T.  S.] 


9o 


NICHOLAS   BRETON,  1600—1616. 

The  chattering  Pie,  the  Jay,  and  eke  the  Quaile, 
The  Thruftle-Cock  that  was  fo  blacke  of  hewe. 

The  Arbor  of  Amorous  Devises,  1597,  /.  4,  col.  2. 

the  gewtlemaws  brains  were  much  troubled,  as  you  may  fee  by 
his  perplexities  j  but  with  ftudying  how  to  make  one  line  levell 
with  another,  in  more  rime  then  perhaps  fome  will  thinke 
reafon,  with  much  adoe  about  nothing,  hee  hath  made  a  piece  of 
worke  as  little  worth 

Melancholike  Humours  :  1600.     To  the  Reader,  p.  5. 

Matter  Wyldgoofe,  it  is  not  your  huftie  tuftie  can  make  mee 
afraid  of  your  bigge  lookes :  for  I  faw  the  Play  of  Ancient 
Piftoll,  where  a  Cracking  Coward  was  well  cudgeld  for  his 
knavery :  your  railing  is  fo  neare  the  Rafcall,  that  I  am  almoft 
aihamed  to  beftow  fo  good  a  name  as  the  Rogue  on  you. 

A  Paste  with  a  Packet  of  Mad  Letters  (Part  1. 1603).    [No.  22,  A 
"coy  Dame's"  answer  to  a  "Letter  of  scorne"~\  p.  u,  coL  2. 

Grimello.  Why  fir,  I  fet  no  fprings  for  Woodcocks,  and 
though  I  be  no  great  wife  man,  yet  I  can  doe  fomething  elfe, 
then  fhooe  the  Goofe  for  my  liuing :  and  therefore,  I  pray  you 
neither  feare  your  Purfe,  nor  play  too  much  with  my  folly. 

GrimtttJs  Fortttnes,  1604,  p.  5,  col.  i. 

An  vnlearned  and  vnworthily  called  a  Lawyer,  is  the  figure  of 
a  foot-poft,  who  carries  letters  but  knowes  not  what  is  in  them, 
only  can  read  the  fuperfcriptions  to  direct  them  to  their  right 
owners,  *  *  But  what  a  taking  are  poore  clients  in  when  this 


NICHOLAS   BRETON,    1600 — l6l6.  91 

too  much  trufted  cunning  companion,  better  redde  in  Pierce 
Plowman  then  in  Ploydon  and  in  the  Play  of  Richard  the  Third 
then  in  the  Pleas  of  Edward  the  Fourth  j  perfwades  them  all  is 
fure  when  hee  is  fure  of  all ! 

The  Good  and  the  Badde,  1616,  No.  19,  An  Vnworthy  Lawyer. 

The  Complete  Works  in  Prose  and  Verse  of  Nicholas  Breton. 

Rev.  A.  B.  Grosarfs  Chertsey  Worthies'  Library,  1876-1878. 


[In  the  third  of  the  above  extracts,  Breton  turns  to  good  account  the 
"swaggering  rascal"  of  Second  Part  of  Henry  IV;  in  the  fourth  we  have 
Polonius'  contemptuous  exclamation  (Hamlet,  Act  I.  Sc.  iii.  1.  115) ;  in  the 
first  a  line  of  Bottom's  song  in  the  Midsummer  Nights  Dream,  Act  III. 
Sc.  i.  1.  128.  The  others  seem  to  name  two  of  Shakespere's  plays.  The 
Rev.  Dr.  Grosart,  who  kindly  points  out  these  allusions,  believes  that 
Breton's  works  contain  many  words  and  phrases  which  bear  the  mark  of 
Shakespere's  influence.  L.  T.  S.] 


LORD  BACON,  1601. 

And  further  to  prooue  him  [Sir  Gilly  Merrick]  priuie  to  the 
plot,1  it  was  giuen  in  Euidence,  that  fome  few  dayes  before  the 
Rebellion,  with  great  heat  and  violence  hee  had  difplaced 
certaine  Gentlemen  lodged  in  an  houfe  fall  by  EJJex  houfe,  and 
there  planted  diuers  of  my  Lords  followers  and  Complices,  all 
fuch  as  went  foorth  with  him  in  the  Action  of  Rebellion. 

That  the  afternoone  before  the  Rebellion,  Merricke,  with  a 
great  company  of  others,  that  afterwards  were  all  in  the  Action, 
had  procured  to  bee  played  before  them,  the  Play  of  depofing 
King  Richard  the  fecond. 

Neither  was  it  cafuall,  but  a  Play  befpoken  by  Merrick. 

And  not  fo  onely,  but  when  it  was  told  him  by  one  of  the 
Players,  that  the  Play  was  olde,  and  they  fhould  haue  lofle  in 
playing  it,  becaufe  few  would  come  to  it :  there  was  fourty 
{hillings  extraordinarie  giuen  to  play  it,  and  fo  thereupon  playd 
it  was. 

So  earned  hee  was  to  fatiffie  his  eyes  with  the  fight  of  that 
Tragedie,  which  hee  thought  foone  after  his  Lord  iliould  bring 
from  the  Stage  to  the  State,  but  that  GOD  turned  it  vpon  their 
own  heads. 

A  I  Declaration  /  of  the  Practises  6°  Treasons  /  attempted 
and  commit ed  by  Robert  late  Earle  of  Essex.  .  .  .  /  IT  Im- 
printed at  London  by  Robert  /  Barker^  Printer  to  the 
Queenes  /  most  excellent  Maiestie  /  Anno  1601. 


A  valuable  find.  The  above  was  disclosed  at  the  trial  of  "Sir  Christopher 
Blunt>  Sir  Charles  Dauers,  Sir  lohn  Danies,  Sir  Gillie  Mericke  &  Henry 
Cuffe"  in  the  Court  of  the  Queen's  Bench,  March  5,  1600.  M. 


Essex's  plot,  for  which  he  was  executed. 


93 


*  i6oi.     BEN   JONSON. 

MINO.  Sir,  your  oathes  cannot  ferue  you,  you  know  I  haue 
forborne  you  long. 

CRTS.  I  am  confcious  of  it,  fir.  Nay,  I  befeech  you,  gentle- 
men, doe  not  exhale  me  thus ; 

Poetaster,  /  Or  /  His  Arraignement./  A  Comicall  Satyre.f 
Acted,  in  the  yeere  1601.  By  the  then  /  Children  of 
Queene  Elizabeths  /  Chappel./  The  Author  B.  I./  Mart.  / 
Et  mihi  de  nullo  fania  rubore placet.]  London,/  Printed 
by  William  Stansby,  /  for  Matthew  Lownes.  \  M.DC.XVI./ 
Act.  III.  Scene  III.  B.  J.'s  Workes,  1616,  p.  301. 

On  the  word  exhale,  Gifford  says  "i.e.  drag  me  out."  This  is  the 
language  of  ancient  Pistol,  and  corroborates  the  conjecture  of  Malone 
on  the  meaning  of  the  expression  in  Henry  V,  act  ii.  sc.  I. — Jonson's 
Works,  2-col.  ed.  Cunningham,  i.  228,  note  2. 

Fist.  O  Braggard  vile,  and  damned  furious  wight, 

The  Graue  doth  gape,  and  doting  death  is  neere, 
Therefore  exhale.—  Henry  V.  II.  i.  58. 

F.  J.  F. 


94 


JOHN   WEEVER,  1601. 

The  many-headed  multitude  were  drawne 
By  Brutus  fpeech,  that  Cafar  was  ambitious, 
When  eloquent  Mark  Antonie  had  fhowne 
His  vertues,  who  but  Brutus  then  was  vicious  ? 
Mans  memorie,  with  new,  forgets  the  old, 
One  tale  is  good,  untill  another  s  told. 

The  Mirror  of  Martyrs,  or  The  life  and  death  of  Sir 
lohn  Oldcastle  Knight,  Lord  Cobham,  1 60 1.  Stanza 
4,  sign.  A  3,  back. 


[In  Plutarch? s  Lives,  on  which  Shakespere  founded  his  Julius  Ccesar,  there 
is  no  speech  by  Brutus  on  Caesar's  ambition ;  and  though  in  Appian's 
Chronicle  of  the  Roman  Wars  (englished  in  1578)  speeches  on  the  killing 
of  Caesar  are  put  into  Antony's  mouth1  (see  extracts  in  Transactions  of  the 
Neiu  Shakspere  Society,  1875-6,  pp.  427 — 439),  yet  none  fit  the  words  above, 
which  must  allude  to  those  in  Shakespere's  play.  F.  J.  F.] 


1  [Anthony's  oration  in  Appian's  Chronicle  was  quoted  at  length  by 
Charles  Gildon  in  his  Remarks  on  the  Plays  of  Shakespere,  appended  to  his 
edition  of  Shakespere's  Works,  1714,  vol.  ix,  p.  336.  L.  T.  S.] 


95 


ROBERT  CHESTER,  1601. 

LOVES   MARTYR  :  /   OR,/  ROSALINS  COMPLAINT./       AllegOTlCaUy 

fhadowing  the  truth  of  Loue,/  in  the  conftant  Fate  of  the  Phoenix/ 
and  Turtle./  A  Poeme  enterlaced  with  much  varietie  and 
raritie ;/  nowfirft  tranjlated  out  of  the  venerable  Italian  Torquato/ 
Caeliano,  by  ROBERT  CHESTER./  With  the  true  legend  of 
famous  King  Arthur,  the  laft  of  the  nine/  Worthies,  being  the 
firft  EJfay  of  a  new  Brytijh  Poet :  collected/  out  of  diuerfe 
Authenticall  Records./  To  thefe  are  added  fome  new  compactions, 
of  feuerall  moderne  Writers/  whofe  names  are  fulfcriled  to  their 
feuerall  workes,  vpon  the/  Jirft  fulie6l :  vi%.  the  Phoenix  a?id/ 
Turtle./  Mar: — Mutare  dominum  non  potejl  liber  ?iotus./ 
LONDON/  Imprinted  for  E.  B./  i6oi./ 


HEREAFTER/  FOLLOW  DIVERSE/  Poeticall  Eflaies  on  the  former 
Sub-/ie& ;  viz  :  the  Turtle  and  Phoenix./  Done  ly  the  left  and 
chief ejl  of  our/  moderne  writers,  with  their  names  fub-/fcribed  to 
their  particular  workes  :/  neuer  lefore  extant./  And  (now  nrft) 
confecrated  by  them  all  generally,/  to  the  loue  and  merits  of  the 
true-noble  Knight, /  Sir  lohn  Salisburie./  Dignum  laude  virum 
Mufa  vetat  mori./  MDCI 

[The  first  of  these  is  the  entire  title  to  Chester's  poem  of  1601,  mentioning 
"some  new  compositions  of  seuerall  moderne  Writers  "  upon  the  first  subject 
treated  of  by  Chester.  The  next  is  the  secondary  title  to  those  "new 
compositions"  (at  p.  165,  so  mis-paged  for  169),  a  collection  of  short  poems 
in  which  Shakespere's  Pkcenix  and  Turtle  and  Threnos  (lament  over  the 
dead)  first  appeared.  The  names  or  quasi-names  subscribed  to  the  poems 
are,  Vatum  chorus,  Ignoto,  William  Shake-speare,  John  Marston,  George 
Chapman,  and  Ben  :  Johnson. 

The  unsold  copies  of  Love's  Martyr  were  issued  in  1611,  with  a  different 
principal-title,  which  omitted  all  mention  of  the  supplementary  poems. 
The  book  has  lately  been  reprinted  by  Dr.  Grosart  from  the  late  Rev.  Thos. 
Corser's  copy  of  the  edition  of  1601,  for  his  fifty  subscribers  and  for  the 
New  Sh.  Society,  1878  ;  with  an  Introduction  arguing  that  the  Phoenix  was 
Queen  Elizabeth,  and  the  Turtle  dove  the  Earl  of  Essex.  This  theory  has 
been  strongly  protested  against.  L.  T.  S.] 


*  ROBERT  CHESTER,  1601. 

To  the  kind  Reader. 

Of  bloudy  warres,  nor  of  the  facke  of  Troy, 
Of  Pryams  murdred  fonnes,  nor  Didoes  fall, 
Of  Hellens  rape,  by  Paris  Troian  boy, 
Of  Ccesars  victories,  nor  Pompeys  thrall, 
Of  Lucrece  rape,  being  rauiiht  by  a  King, 
Of  none  of  thefe,  of  fweete  Conceit  I  fing. 

R[obert]  Ch[ester]. 

Loves  Martyr :  or,  Rosalins  Complaint,  sign.  A  4,  bark. 
1 60 1.  Reprinted  by  Rev.  Dr.  Grosart,  1878,  and  by 
the  New  Sh.  Society,  1878-9. 


This  is  the  first  of  the  two  stanzas  by  which  Chester  introduces  his  poem 
to  the  reader.  (See  I.  C.'s  lines,  after,  p.  125.) 

[We  here  find  the  author  of  Lucrece  associated  with  Homer  and  Virgil, 
or  more  probably  with  those  English  writers  who  sang  of  all  these  classical 
subjects.  (It  is  sufficient  to  recall  Barbour's  arid  Lydgate's  Poems  on 
Troy  ;  Lydgate's  Falls  of  Princes,  followed  by  the  popular  collection  of 
histories  in  verse  in  The  Mirour  for  Magistrates,  both  of  which  went 
through  several  editions  in  the  sixteenth  century.  The  story  of  Pompey 
was  also  set  forth  by  Thomas  Kyd  in  his  tragedy  of  Cornelia,  1594.)  It  is 
true  that  Chaucer  and  Lydgate  in  fragments  of  larger  works  both  sang  of 
Lucrece,  as  did  Ovid ;  but  that  Chester  more  probably  referred  to  Shakespere 
seems  shown,  (i)  By  the  fact  that  his  was  the  only  separate  poem  on  the 
subject.  (2)  By  the  recent  publication  of  the  Rape  of  Lucrece  (1594), 
which,  following  on  the  previous  excellence  of  Venus  and  Adonis  (1593), 
had  at  once  made  its  mark.  (3)  Because  Chester  calls  Shakespere  one  of 
"  the  best  and  chiefest  of  our  moderne  writers,"  evidently  from  these  two 
poems  as  I  think,  for  in  those  days  "  a  mere  playwright"  was  hardly  con- 
sidered a  true  poet.  (4)  Because  Chester  was  under  an  obligation  to  this 
chief  poet,  having  obtained  from  him  and  adjoined  to  his  LovJs  Martyr  a 
Phoenix  and  Turtle  poem  "  never  before  printed"  and  probably  written  at 
Chester's  entreaty.  (5)  By  the  reminiscences  in  Chester's  otherwise  poor 
poem  of  Shakespere's  wordings,  and  especially  of  his  rhythm.  B.  N.  ] 


W.  J.,  1601. 

I  dare  here  fpeake  it,  and  my  fpeach  mayntayne, 
That  Sir  lohn  Falftaffe  was  not  any  way 
More  grofle  in  body,  then  you  are  in  brayne. 
But  whether  fhould  I  (helpe  me  nowe,  I  pray) 
For  your  grofle  brayne,  you  like  I.  Falftafte  grau»t> 
Or  for  fmall  wit,  fuppofe  you  lohn  of  Gaunt  ? 

The    Whipping  of  the   Satyre.     1601,    sign.    D   3.     \2rno. 
Bridge-water  House,  and  dynes  865  (Bodl.  Libr.}.~\ 


Mr.  J.  P.  Collier  (New  Particulars,  &c.,  1836,  p.  68)  remarks  on  this 
allusion,  ' '  '  Small  wit '  means  here  weak  understanding^  which  certainly  is 
not  a  characteristic  of  Shakespeare's  John  of  Gaunt."  But  W.  J.  does  not 
make  "small  wit"  a  characteristic  of  John  of  Gaunt,  any  more  than  he 
makes  "gross  brain"  a  characteristic  of  Sir  John  Falstaffe.  All  he  does 
is,  with  a  humorous  pun  on  gross,  and  with  another  on  gaunt  (i.  e.  John  of 
Gaunt,  John  the  thin),  to  suppose  a  fanciful  proportion  between  the  body  and 
the  mind.  C.  M.  I. 


SH.  ALLN.  BK. 1. 


JOHN    MANNINGHAM,  2  Febr.  and  13  March, 
1601. 

At  our  feaft  wee  had  a  play  called  Twelve  Night,  or  what 
you  will,  much  like  the  co?«medy  of  errors,  or  Menechmi  in 
Plants,  but  moft  like  and  neere  to  that  in  Italian  called  Inganni. 
A  good  practife  in  it  to  make  the  fteward  beleeve  his  lady 
widdowe  was  in  love  with  him,  by  counter  fay  ting  a  letter  as  from 
his  lady,  in  generall  termes,  telling  him  what  mee  liked  beft  in 
him,  and  prefcribing  his  gefture  in  fmiling,  his  apparaile,  &c.,  and 
then  when  he  came  to  pra&ife  making  him  beleeve  they  tooke 
him  to  be  mad. 

****** 

Vpon  a  tyme  when  Burbidge  played  Rich.  3.  there  was  a 
Citizen  greue  foe  farr  in  liking  wzth  him,  that  before  mee  went 
from  the  play  fhee  appointed  him  to  come  that  night  unto  hir 
by  the  name  of  Ri :  the  3.  Shakefpeare  overhearing  their 
conclunon  went  before,  was  intertained,  and  at  his  game  ere 
Burbidge  came.  Then  merTage  being  brought  that  Rich,  the  3? 
was  at  the  dore,  Shakefpeare  <:aufed  returne  to  be  made  that 
William  the  Conquerour  was  before  Rich,  the  3.  Shakefpeare's 
name  William.  (Mr.  Curie  ?) 

Diary  of  John,  Manningham,  of  the  Middle  Temple,  and  of  Brad- 
bourne,  Kent,  Barrister- at- Law,  1602-1603.  Harl.  MS.  5353, 
fos.  12  bk,  29  bk.  Edited  by  John  Bruce,  for  the  Camden  Society, 
1868,  //.  1 8  and  39. 


[Rev.  J.  Hunter  in  his  New  Illustrations  of  Shakespeare,  1845,  vol.  i.  pp. 
39  *»  393>  tells  us  that  there  were  two  Italian  plays  bearing  the  title 
GF  Inganni  (The  Cheats),  one  by  Nicholas  Secchi,  printed  in  1562,  the 
other  by  C.  Gonzaga,  1592.  A  third,  a  comedy  entitled  GF  Tngannati, 
1585,  is  the  nearest  of  all  to  Shakespere's  Twelfth  Night.  L.  T.  S.] 


JOHN    MANNINGHAM,    l6oi.  99 

As  to  the  second  extract,  we  will  add  to  it  one  from  John  Earle's  Micro- 
cosmographie  ;  or,  a  Peece  of  the  ivorld  discovered  in  Essays*  and  characters, 
1628,  22.  A  Player,  (sign.  E  4)  : 

"The  waiting  women  Spectators  are  over-eares  in  love  with  him,  and 
Ladies  send  for  him  to  act  in  their  Chambers," 

only  remarking  that  the  difference  of  rank  between  ladies  and  citizen's 
wives  was  strongly  marked  in  those  days. 

The  story  is  given  on  the  authority  of  "  Mr.  Curie,"  i.  e.  the  Mr.  E.  Curie 
whom  Manningham  so  often  cites.  But  the  name  has  been  tampered  with 
in  the  MS.  (fo.  29  b],  to  make  it  appear  Toole  (or  Tooly,  the  actor).  A 
dark  line  has  been  drawn  over  the  top  of  the  C,  to  suggest  a  T  ;  and  similar 
touches  are  seen  in  the  two  succeeding  letters.  Accordingly  Mr.  J.  P. 
Collier  (History  of  Eng.  Dramatic  Poetry,  I,  332)  gives  the  name  as  Tooly. 
Mr.  John  Bruce,  reading  the  name  so  touched  up,  gives  it  as  Touse,  a  name 
which  does  occasionally  occur  in  the  Diary.  He  again  mistakes  the  name 
on  the  next  page. 

The  same  story,  in  a  somewhat  different  shape,  is  quoted  by  Mr.  Halliwell 
from  the  Saunders  Manuscript.  (Life  of  Shakespeare,  1848,  p.  196-7,  note.) 
C.  M.  I. 


100 


WILLIAM    LAMBARD,  1601. 

That  which  pajfed  from  the  Excellent  Majeftie  of  Queen 
Elizabeth,  in  her  Privie  Chamber  at  Eajl  Greenwich,  4°  Augufti 
1 60 1,  43°  Reg.fui,  towards  WILLIAM  LAMBARDE. 

He  prefented  her  Majeftie  with  his  Pandefta  of  all  her  rolls, 
bimdells,  membranes,  and  parcells  that  be  repofed  in  her  Majeftie's 
Tower  at  London  $  whereof  me  had  given  to  him  the  charge  2ist 
January  laft  part. 

*  *  *  * 

She  proceeded  to  further  pages,  and  afked  where  (he  found 
caufe  of  ftay  *  *  he  expounded  thefe  all  according  to  their 
original  diverfities  *  *  fo  her  Majeftie  fell  upon  the  reign  of 
King  Richard  II  faying,  "  I  am  Richard  II,  know  ye  not  that  ? ' 

W.  L.  "  Such  a  wicked  imagination  was  determined  and 
attempted  by  a  moft  unkind  Gent,  the  mofl  adorned  creature 
that  ever  your  Majeftie  made." 

Her  Majeftie.  "  He  that  will  forget  God,  will  alfo  forget  his 
benefactors ;  this  tragedy  was  played  4otie  times  in  open  ftreets 
and  houfes." 

Printed  in  John  Nichols*  Progresses  and  Processions  of  Queen 
Elizabeth,  1823,  Vol.  III.  p.  552. 


[A  copy  of  the  document  from  which  this  is  an  extract  was  sent  to  Mr. 
Nichols  "from  the  original,  by  Thomas  Lambard,  of  Sevenoaks,  Esq." 
After  the  burning  of  the  Birmingham  Shakespeare  Library  in  Jan.  1879, 
another  copy  of  the  same,  from  a  manuscript,  was  anonymously  sent  to  the 
Library  Committee  from  Rugeley  ;  there  are  probably  therefore  two  MSS. 


WILLIAM    LAMBARD,    l6oi.  IOI 

of  it  in  existence.  William  Lambard,  a  well-known  antiquary  and  lawyer, 
at  one  time  Keeper  of  the  Records  in  the  Tower,  was  a  Kentish  man,  and 
died  Aug.  19,  1601,  a  few  days  after  his  conversation  with  the  Queen. 
His  "Pandecta  Rotulorum,"  probably  the  book  presented  to  the  Queen, 
was  published  in  1600. 

The  extract  is  important  in  its  bearing  upon  the  story  of  the  Essex 
rebellion,  and  the  use  made  by  the  conspirators  of  the  tragedy  of 
Richard  1 7.  See  pp.  81,  82,  92.  I  am  indebted  to  my  friend  Mr.  Sam. 
Timmins  of  Birmingham  for  pointing  it  out.  L.  T.  S.] 


102 


Anonymous,  1601-2. 

Ingeniofo.  What's  thy  judgment  of  *  *  William 
Shakefpeare. 

Judicio.  Who  loves  Adonis  love,  or  Lucre's  rape, 
His  fweeter  verfe  containes  hart  robbing  life, 
Could  but  a  graver  fubje6t  him  content, 
Without  loves  foolilh  lazy  languiihment. 

Act  I.  sc.  i. 

*  *  *  * 

Kempe.  Few  of  the  univerfity  pen  plaies  well,  they  fmell  too 
much  of  that  writer  Ovid,  and  that  writer  Metamorphqfis,  and 
talke  too  much  of  Projerpina  &  luppiter.  Why  heres  our 
fellow  Shakefpeare  puts  them  all  downe,  I  and  Ben  Jonfon  too. 
O  that  Ben  Jonfon  is  a  peftilent  fellow,  he  brought  up  Horace 
giving  the  Poets  a  pill,  but  our  fellow  Shakefpeare  hath  given 
him  a  purge  that  made  him  beray  his  credit : 

Burlage.  Its  a  mrewd  fellow  indeed  :  I  wonder  thefe  fchollers 
flay  fo  long,  they  appointed  to  be  here  prefewtly  that  we  might 
try  them  :  oh,  here  they  come. 

*  *  *  * 

Bur.  I  like  your  face,  and  the  proportion  of  your  body  for 
Richard  the  3.     I  pray,  M.  Phil,  let  me  fee  you  act  a  little  of  it. 
Philomufus.     "  Now  is  the  winter  of  our  difcontent, 

Made  glorious  fummer  by  the  fonne  of  Yorke." 

Act  IV.  sc.  v. 

The  Returne  from  Pernassus  ;  or  the  Scourge  of  Simony.      1606,  sign. 

B  2,  back;  G  2,  bk ;  G  3,  bk.    [4/0.] 
(Reprinted  in  Mr.  Arber's  English  Scholar's  Library,  1879.) 


ANONYMOUS,    T6oi-2.  103 

Judicio's  censure  on  Shakespeare's  Poems  is  reiterated  by  John  Davies  of 
Hereford  :  see  after,  p.  220 ;  and  justified  by  Peele,  Machin,  Heywood, 
and  Freeman  :  see  pp.  171,  177,  188,  and  245.  . 

If  we  except  such  anthologies  as  Allot's  England's  Pernassus,  Bodenham's 
England? 's  Helicon,  and  his  Belvedere,  all  issued  in  1600,  we  may  venture  on 
the  assertion  that  these  two  lines  from  Richard  III  constitute  the  earliest 
acknowledged  quotation  from  Shakespeare.1 

The  passage,  "O  that  Ben  Jonson  is  a  pestilent  fellow  ;  he  brought  up 
Horace,  giving  the  poets  a  pill ;  "  alludes  to  Jonson' s  Poetaster,  Act  V,  sc.  iii 
(1602).  The  subsequent  remark,  "  but  our  fellow  Shakespeare  hath  given 
him  a  purge,  that  made  him  beray  his  credit,"  is  mysterious.  Where  did 
our  bard  put  Jonson  to  his  purgation  ?  Assuredly  neither  Stephano  nor 
Malvolio  could  have  been  a  caricature  of  Jonson,  who  was  neither  a  sot  nor 
a  gull.  [On  the  other  hand  Dr.  Nicholson  points  out  that  Malvolio  is 
gulled  solely  through  his  overweening  vanity,  the  very  characteristic  of 
Jonson,  and  thinks  that  there  is  no  character  in  Shakespere  which,  in  various 
ways,  so  well  stands  for  Jonson.  L.  T.  S.] 

Two  imprints  of  The  Retnrne  from  Pesnassus  were  published  in  1606. 
We  have  followed  the  text  of  the  second  :  the  first  omits  the  word  "  lazy  " 
in  the  sixth  line.  [Though  the  date  of  publication  is  1606,  it  was  probably 
written  and  acted  at  Christmas,  or  New  Year,  1601-2.  Mr.  Arber  has  gone 
carefully  into  this  point,  and  shows  (in  his  reprint,  1879)  that  several  con- 
temporary references  point  to  this.  In  the  scene  of  the  examination  on  the 
almanac  [sign.  E,  back]  C  and  D  are  taken  as  the  dominical  letters  ;  now 
D  and  C  are  the  letters  for  the  year  between  25  March,  1601,  and  24  March, 
1602  ( 1 60 1 -2,  old  style).  In  other  scenes  (sign.  F  3  and  E  4,  back)  we 
have  references  to  Ostend  and  to  the  Irish  troubles  ;  the  siege  of  Ostend  by 
the  Spaniards  began  5  July,  1601 ;  the  English  succours  arrived  there  under 
General  Vere,  23  July,  1601 ;  General  Vere  departed  on  7  March,  1602  (new 
style).  (See  A  True  Historic  of  the  Memorable  Siege  of  Ostend.  Translated 
from  the  French  by  Ed.  Grimeston.  London,  1604.  pp.  6,  7,  139.)  The 
fighting  in  Ireland  extended  over  several  years,  but  the  references  to  the 
queen  scattered  through  the  play  fix  it  to  a  date  before  her  death,  which 
occurred  in  March,  1603.  The  date  of  this  play  is  important,  in  its  bearings 
upon  the  relations  between  Shakespere  and  Ben  Jonson.  See  APPENDIX 
A,  Mistaken  Allusions,  Jonson's  Poetaster.  L.  T.  S.] 


1  But  parodies  on  well-known  lines  and  unacknowledged  quotations 
occur  several  times  before  this  date,  as  in  Greene,  1592 ;  Meres,  1598  ; 
Marston,  1598;  Nicholson,  1600.  (See  before,  pp.  2,  49,  54,  74-.) 
L.  T.  S. 


104 


THE 

True   Chronicle   Hi 

ftorie  of  the  whole  life  and  death 
of  'Thomas  Lord  Cromwell. 


As  it  hath  beene  fundrie  times  pub- 
likely  Acted  by  the  Right  Hono- 
rable the  Lord  Chamberlaine 
his  Seruants. 


Written  by  W.  S. 
[Device] 


Imprinted  at  London  for  William  lones,  and  are 

to  be  folde  at  his  houle  neere  Holbourne  coii- 
clui6t,  at  the  figne  of  the  Gunne, 


THOMAS    LORD    CROMWELL,    1602.  10$ 

[Thomas  Lord  Cromwell  was  entered  in  the  Stationers*  Registers  on 
August  n,  1602  : 

"William  Cotton  Entred  for  his  Copie  vnder  thandes  of  master  lackson 
and  master  waterson  warden  A  booke  called  the  lyfe  and  Deathe  of  the 
Lord  Cromwell,  as  yt  was  lately  Acted  by  the  Lord  Chamberleyn  his 
servantes  vjd." 

Q2  appeared  in  1613  when  "  W.  S."  again  appeared  on  the  title-page, 
— by  which  initials  the  public  were,  doubtless,  intended  to  understand 
"William  Shakspere."  (See  Tucker  Brooke's  Shakespeare  Apocrypha* 
1908,  pp.  xvi,  xxviii.)  The  play  was  printed  in  the  third  Folio,  1664. 
M.] 


io6 


THOMAS    DEKKER.     1602. 

All  the  men.  Faire  Caeleftine  ! 
Ladies.  The  Bride  ! 

Ter.  She  that  was  faire, 

Whom  I  cal'd  faire  and  Caeleftine. 

Ornnes.  Dead  ! 

Sic  qitia.     Dead,  fh's  deathes  Bride,  he  hath  her  maidenhead. 


Satiro-mastix.  /  Or  /   The  vntrussing  of  the 

Poet.  /  As  it  hath  bin  presentfd  publiquely,  /  by  the  Right 
Honorable,  the  Lord  Cham-/berlaine  his  Seruants  ;  and 
priuately,  by  the  /  Children  of  Poules./  By  Thomas 
Dekker  ./....  London,  /  Printed  for  Edward  White, 
and  are  to  bee  /  solde  at  his  shop,  neere  the  little  North 
doore  of  Paules  /  Church,  at  the  signe  of  the  Gun.  i6o2./ 
sign.  K.  3,  back. 

(Sent  to  Dr.  Ingleby  from  a  later  edition,  by  J.  O.  Hll.-P.) 
In  this  Play,  and  another  of  I6O2,1  a  'somniferous  potion  '  is  given  to  a 
woman  who  seemingly  dies  from  its  effects,  and  is  buried,  but  i-evives  again. 
Mr.  Daniel  hesitates  with  me  to  consider  this  as  necessarily  borrowd  from 
Shakspere's  Romeo  and  Juliet.  Sh.  didn't  invent  the  incident  ;  and  his  con- 
temporaries may  have  taken  it  from  the  same  source  as  he  did.  In  the 
second  play  named  below,  the  fool-husband  thinks  he  has  poizond  his  true 
wife  with  the  potion.  He  at  once  marries  the  strumpet  he  is  in  love  with. 
She  turns-out  a  shrew  and  adulteress.  And  when  he  mourns  for  the  loss 
of  his  first  loving  wife,  she  has  revived,  to  release  him  from  his  suppozed 
second  marriage.  F.  ].  F. 

1  A  Pleasant  conceited  Comedie,  Wherein  is  showed  how  a  man  may 
chuse  a  good  Wife  from  a  bad.  As  it  hath  been  Sundry  times  Acted  by 
the  Earle  of  Worcesters  Seruants.  London.  Printed  for  Matthew  Lawe, 
and  are  to  be  solde  at  his  shop  in  Paules  Churchyard,  neare  vnto  S. 
Augustines  gate,  at  the  signe  of  the  Foxe.  1602.  (By  Joshua  Cooke.) 


107 


THOMAS  DEKKER,  1602. 

Ad  Lectorem. 

Inftead  of  the  Trumpets  founding  thrice,  before  the  Play 
begin  :  it  mall  not  be  amiffe  (for  him  that  will  read)  rirft  to 
beholde  this  mort  Comedy  of  Errors,  and  where  the  greateft 
enter,  to  give  them  inftead  of  a  hiffe,  a  gentle  corre6tion. 

(Sign.  A  4,  back.} 
******* 

Horace.  I  have  a  let  of  letters  readie  ftarcht  to  my  hands,  which 
to  any  frem  fuited  gallant  that  but  newlie  enters  his  name  into 
my  rowle,  I  fend  the  next  morning,  ere  his  ten  a  clocke  dreame 
has  rize  from  him,  *  *  *  we  muft  have  falfe  fiers  to  amaze 
thefe  fpangle  babies,  thefe  true  heires  of  Ma.  Juftice  Shallow. 

As'mius.     I  wod  alwaies  have  thee  fawce  a  foole  thus. 

Satiro-Mastixy  or  the  untrussing  of  the  Humorous  Poet.     1602, 
sign.  E  3.     [4/0.] 


[Decker  places  three  things  at  the  beginning  of  this  play,  a  few  Latin  lines 
Ad  Detractorem,  an  address  "  To  the  World,"  and  a  list  of  errata  headed  by 
the  above  witty  lines  Ad  Lectorem. 

A  slight  allusion  to  Henry  IV.     (See  before,  p.  61,  note. ) 
The  Comedy  of  Errors  (written  ?  1589,  Furnivall;  or  1591,  Dowden)  was 
first  published  in  the  First  Folio  of  1623.    L.  T.  S.] 


io8 


*JOHN   MARSTON,  1602. 

And[rugio].  Andrugio  lives,  and  a  faire  caufe  of  arnies, — 

Why  that's  an  armie  all  invincible  ! 

He  who  hath  that,  hath  a  battalion 

Royal,  armour  of  proofe,  huge  troups  of  barbed  fteeds, 

Maine  fquares  of  pikes,  millions  of  harguebufh. 

O,  a  faire  caufe  ilands  firme,  and  will  abide. 

Legions  of  Angels  fight  upon  her  fide. 

1602.  JOHN  MARSTON.  Antonio  and  Mellida.  Mars- 
ton's  Works,  1856,1.  33.  (Works,  1633,  vol.  i.  sign.  C  6, 
back.) 

Seeing  how  often  the  author  of  What  you  will  copied  Shakspere,  we  can 
hardly  be  wrong  in  saying  that  the  passage  above  is  an  expansion  of  Henry 
VI.  's 

"  What  stronger  breastplate  than  a  heart  untainted? 
Thrice  is  he  armed  that  hath  his  quarrel  just. " 

2  Hen.  VI,  III.  ii.  233-4. 

The  following  are  illustrations  of  Coriolanus's  "  beast  with  many  heads  " 
(IV.  i.  1-2)  in  1607  (?),  and  Brutus's  'tide  in  the  affairs  of  men'  (Jul.  Ctzs. 
IV.  iii.  218)  :— 

'  I'  faith,  my  lord,  that  beast  with  many  heads, 
The  staggering  multitude  recoiles  apace, 
Though  thorow  great  men's  envy,  most  men's  malice, 
Their  much  intemperate  heat  hath  banisht  you  ; 
Yet  now  they  find  envie  and  mallice  neere 
Produce  fainte  reformation.' 
1604.     Marston.     The  Malcontent,  III.  iii.     Works,  1856,  ii.  248. 

'  There  is  an  hour  in  each  man  s  life  appointed 
To  make  his  happiness,  if  then  he  seize  it. ' 

Beaumont  &  Fletcher.      The  Ciistom  of  the  Country- 

'  There  is  a  nick  in  Fortune's  restless  wheel 
For  each  man's  good.' 

Chapman.     Bits-sy  (TAmbois.     See  I  Notes  6°  Queries, 
vol.  i.  p.  330. 

E.  PHIPSON. 


109 


The  following  bits  from  Joshua  Cooke,  1602,  may  serve  as  illustrations  of 
the  description  of  Pinch  in  The  Comedy  of  Errors,  V.  i.  237-241,  and  Rosa- 
lind's account  of  a  Lover  with  *  hose  ungartered  .  .  bonnet  unbanded, '  &c. 
in  As  you  like  it,  III.  iii.  377-8.  Cooke's  making  his  good  wife  take  a  sleep- 
ing potion,  be  buried,  and  then  wake  up  when  her  strumpet-successor  turn'd 
out  '  a  Bad  Wife  '  is  a  parallel  rather  than  an  imitation  of  Romeo  andftiliet. 

"  When  didst  thou  see  the  starueling  Schoole-maister  ?  That  Rat,  that 
shrimp,  that  spindleshanck,  that  Wren,  that  sheep-biter,  that  leane  chitti- 
face,  that  famine,  that  leane  Enuy,  that  all  bones,  that  bare  Anatomy,  that 
lack  a  Lent,  that  ghost,  that  shadow,  that  Moone  in  the  waine." 

A  /  Pleasant  /  conceited  Comedie,"/  Wherein  is  shewed  / 
how  a  man  may  chuse  a  good  /  Wife  from  a  bad./ 
[Written  By  loshua  Cooke  in  later  MS.}  As  it  hath  bene 
sundry  times  acted  by  the  Earle  of  j  Worcesters  Seruants.] 
London  /  Printed  for  MatKew  La  we,  and  are  to  be  solde 
at  his  /  shop  in  Panics  Church-yard,  neare  vnto  S. 
Au-/gustines  gate,  at  the  signe  of  the  Foxe.  /  i6o2./ 
sign.  E.  back. 

B  3  back. 

I  was  once  like  thee, 

A  sigher,  melancholy,  humorist, 

Grosser  of  armes,  a  goer  without  garters, 

A  hatband-hater,  and  a  busk-point  wearer, 

One  that  did  vse  much  bracelets  made  of  haire, 

Rings  on  my  fingers,  Jewels  in  mine  eares, 

And  now  and  then  a  wenches  Carkanet, 

That  had  two  letters  for  her  name  in  Pearle  : 

Skarfes,  garters,  bands,  wrought  wastcoats,  gold,  stitcht  caps, 

A  thousand  of  those  female  fooleries. 

But  when  I  lookt  into  the  glasse  of  Reason,  strait  I  beganne 

To  loath  that  femall  brauery,  and  henceforth 

Studie  to  cry  peccaui  to  the  world. 

F.  J.  F. 


no 

*  THOMAS  MIDDLETON,  1602. 

Fontinelle.   Lady,  bid  him  whofe  heart  no  forrow  feels 
Tickle  the  ruflies  with  his  wanton  heels  : 

I've  too  much  lead  at  mine. 

(Act  I.  sc.  i;  sign.  A  4,  back.} 

Camilla.  And  when  the  lamb  bleating  doth  bid  good  night 
Unto  the  doling  day,  then  tears  begin 
To  keep  quick  time  unto  the  owl,  whofe  voice 
Shrieks  like  the  belman  in  the  lover's  ears. 

(Act  II 7.  sc.  i;  sign.  E.) 
Blurt,  Master  Constable,  or  the  Spaniard?*  Night-walke,  1602. 

[Middleton's  sorrowful  Frenchman,  bidden  to  dance,  closely  follows  the 
expression  in  Romeo  and  Juliet,  Act  I.  sc.  iv, 

"  Let  wantons,  light  of  heart 

Tickle  the  senseless  rushes  with  their  heels." 

The  second  extract  might,  as*  Dyce  says,  recall  the  line  in  Macbeth,  Act  II, 
sc.ii, 

"  It  was  the  owl  that  shriek' d,  the  fatal  belman 

Which  gives  the  stern' st  good  night." 

But  Macbeth  was  probably  written  later,  in  1606.  Another  play  by  Decker 
and  Middleton  jointly,  bears  traces  of  Shakespere's  influence.  The  Honest 
Whore,  1604,  has  a  passionate  passage  which  seems  moulded  on  that  speech 
of  Constance  in  King  John,  Act  III,  sc.  i,  which  begins,  "  A  wicked  day, 
and  not  a  holyday."  It  runs  : — 

"  Curst  be  that  day  for  ever  that  robb'd  her 

Of  breath  and  me  of  bliss  !  henceforth  let  it  stand 

Within  the  wizard's  book,  the  calendar, 

Mark'd  with  a  marginal  finger,  to  be  chosen 

By  thieves,  by  villains,  and  black  murderers, 

As  the  best  day  for  them  to  labour  in. 

If  henceforth  this  adulterous,  bawdy  world 

Be  got  with  child  with  treason  sacrilege, 

Atheism,  rapes,  treacherous  friendship,  perjury, 

Slander,  the  beggar's  sin,  lies,  sin  of  fools, 

Or  any  other  damn'd  impieties, 

On  Monday  let  'em  be  delivered. " 

(Middleton's  Works,  ed  Dyce,  1840,  vol.  Hi,  p.  9.) 

Two  or  three  other  lines  in  the  same  play  contain  phrases  made  use  of  by 
Shakespere  ;  Reed  believed  that  Shakespere  imitated  Middleton  in  Othello, 
Act  III,  sc.  iii,  1.  341.     See  Dyce,  vol.  iii,  p.  56,  also  pp.  79,  213.     See 
also  after,  Appendix  B,  as  to  Middleton's  Witch.     L.  T.  S.] 


T[HOMAS]  A[CHERLEV],  1602. 


Whilft  that  my  glory  midfl  the  clouds  was  hid, 
Like  to  a  Jewell  in  an  ^Ethiop's  eare. 

7'he  Massacre  of  Money.     1602.     Sign.  B  2. 


[In  his  poem  Acherley  here  borrowed  an  idea  and  a  line  from  Romeo  and 
Juliet  ' 

"  O,  she  doth  teach  the  torches  to  burn  bright ! 
It  seems  she  hangs  upon  the  cheek  of  night 
Like  a  rich  jewel  in  an  Ethiope's  ear."     Act  I.  sc.  v. 

L.  T.  S.J 


ttt 


*LINGVA,  1602— 1607  [?]. 

ACTVS  .1. SCENA  .2. 

MENDACIO,  attired  in  a  Taffatafute  of  a  light  colour  changeable, 
like  an  ordinary  page,  Clones,  Hamper. 

LINGVA.     MENDACIO. 

LING.  Witnefle  this  lye,1  Mendacious  with  me  now, 
But  firra  out  of  iefting  will  they  come  ? 

MEND.  Yes  and  it  like  your  Ladyfhip  prefently  : 
Here  may  you  haue  me  preft  to  flatter  them. 

LING.  He  flatter  no  fuch  proud  Companions, 
'Twill  doe  no  good,  therefore  I  am  determined 
To  leaue  fuch  bafenefle. 

MEN.  Then  (hall  I  turne  and  bid  them  flay  at  home. 

LING.  No,  for  their  comming  hither  to  this  groue, 
Shall  be  a  meanes  to  further  my  deuife, 
Therefore  I  pray  thee  Mendacio  go  prefently, 
Run  you  vile  Ape. 

MEN.  Whether? 

LING.  What  dooft  thou  Hand  ? 

MEN.  Till  I  know  what  to  doe. 

LING.  S'pretious  'tis  true, 
So  might  thou  finely  ore-run  thine  errand. 
Haft  to  my  cheft. 

MEN.  I,  I,          [Ay,  ay] 

LING.  There  (halt  thou  find, 
A  gorgeous  Robe,  and  golden  Coronet, 
Conuey  them  hither  nimbly,  let  none  fee  them. 

(Sig.  B,  and  back. ) 

1  His  previous  speech. 


LINGVA,    1602  — 1607  [?].  113 

ACT  I.     SCEN.  5. 

TACTVS,  in  a  darke  coloured  Sattin  mantle  ouer  a  paire  ofjilke 
Safes,  a  Garland  of  Bayes  mixt  with  white  and  red  Rofes, 
vpon  a  blacke  Grogarum,  a  Faulchion,  wrought  Jleeues, 
Bujkins,  6°c. 

MENDACIO.     TACTVS. 

MEN.  Now  chaft  Diana  grant  my  netts  to  hold. 
TACT.  The  blafting  Child-hood  of  the  cheerfull  morne 
Is  almoft  growne  a  youf;h.  and  ouer-climbes 
Yonder  gilt  Eaflerne  hills, — • 

(Sig.  £2,  back.) 

Lingvo, :  /  Or  /  The  Combat  of  the  /  Tongue,  /  And  the  fate 
Senses  /  For  Superiority.  /  A  Pleasant  Comcedie.  /  At 
London  /  Printed  by  G.  Eld,  for  /  Simon  Water  son.  /  1607. 


We  are  indebted  to  Prof.  Moore  Smith  for  these  references.  The  play 
is  ascribed  to  A.  Brewer  in  the  British  Museum  Catalogue,  but  is  now 
thought  to  be  the  work  of  Thomas  Tomkis.  The  first  of  the  above  passages 
Prof.  Moore  Smith  considers  a  doubtful  allusion  to  Julius  Cczsar,  II,  iv,  I  : 

Portia.   I  prithee  boy  run  to  the  senate-house  : 
Stay  not  to  answer  me  but  get  thee  gone  : 
Why  dost  thou  stay  ? 

The  passage  is  also  reminiscent  of  Richard  III,  IV,  iii : 

Rich.  Catesby,  come  hither,  post  to  Salisbury. 
When  thou  com'st  thither  :  Dull  unmindful  villain, 
Why  stay'st  thou  here,  and  go'st  not  to  the  duke  ? 

Cat\esby\.  First,  mighty  liege,  tell  me  our  highness'  pleasure, 
What  from  your  Grace  I  shall  deliver  to  him. 

Rich.  O  true,  good  Catesby,  bid  him  levy  straight,  etc. 

The  second  quotation  from  Lingua  seems  to  refer  to  Hamlet,  I,  i,  167-8  : 

But  look  the  morn  in  russet  mantle  clad 
Walks  o'er  the  dew  of  yon  high  eastward  hill. 

Both  of  these  passages  are  dubious  allusions,  but  the  play  contains  other 
strange  similarities  to  Shakspere.  The  eloquent  Lingua  pleading  reminds 
us  of  Portia  in  the  Merchant,  but  her  language  is  greatly  different : 

Ling.  My  Lord,  though  the  Imbecillitas  of  my  feeble  sexe,  might  drawe 
SH.  ALLN.  BK. 1.  I 


114  LINGVA,    1602  — 1607  [?]. 

mee  backe,  from  this  Tribunall,  with  the  habenis  to  wit  Timoris  and  the 
Catenis  Pudoris,  notwithstanding  beeing  so  fairely  led  on  with  gratious 
eVte/fem  of  your  iustissima  5i/cato<ruj/7js,  etc. 

After  which  fustian  she  proceeds  to  Italian,  more  Latin  and  Greek,  and 
French.  Comnmnis  Sensus  then  demands:  "  Whats  this?  here's  a 
Gallemaufry  of  speech  indeed." 

MEM[ORIA].  I  remember  about  the  yeare  1602.  many  vsed  this  skew 
kind  of  language,  etc. 

The  humors  of  Auditus  in  Act  3.  Seen,  vltima.,  and  his  words  on  music 
remind  one  of  the  Duke  in  Twelfth  Night  and  Jacques  in  As  You  Like  It. 
All  these,  however,  are  very  dubious  in  their  connexion  with  Shakspere. 

The  author  oX.  Lingua  described  the  actor's  apparel,  etc.,  at  the  beginning 
of  each  scene,  and  the  play  is  valuable  as  showing  the  properties  used  on 
the  Elizabethan  stage.  The  play  is  reprinted  in  Dodsley's  Old  English 
Plays.  M. 


JOHN    WEBSTER,   1602-7,  1612,  1616,  1623. 

Guildford.     Peace  rest  his  soul ! 
His  sins  be  buried  in  his  grave, 
And  not  remember'd  in  his  epitaph. 

The  Famous  History  of  Sir  Thomas  Wyatt.     Works,  ed. 
Dyce,  1871,  p.  195,  col.  2. 


From  Shakespeare,  says  Dyce, 

"  Thy  ignomy  sleep  with  thee  in  the  grave, 
But  not  remember'd  in  thy  epitaph. 

First  Part  of  Henry  IV,  act  V.  sc.  iv." 

This  play  was  first  printed,  as  "  Written  by  Thomas  Dickers  and  John 
Webster,"  in  1607,  but,  says  Dyce,  Webster's  Works,  1871,  p.  182,  "  There 
can  be  no  doubt  that  The  Famous  History  of  Sir  Thomas  Wyatt  consists 
merely  of  fragments  of  two  plays, — or  rather,  a  play  in  Two  Parts, — called 
Lady  Jane,  concerning  which  we  find  the  following  entries l  in  The  Diary 
of  Henslowe  ...  Pp.  242-3,  ed.  Shakespeare  Soc.  (old)  : 

"  Whether  the  present  abridgment  of  Lady  Jane  was  made  by  Dekker 
and  Webster  (see  its  title  page  [Written  by  D.  and  W.]),  or  by  some  other 
playwright,  cannot  be  determined  ;  that  it  has  suffered  cruelly  from  the 
hands  of  the  transcriber  or  printer,  is  certain." 

1  "Lent  unto  John  Thare,  the  15  of  October  1602,  to  geve  unto  harey 
chettell,  Thomas  Deckers,  Thomas  Hewode,  and  Mr  Smyth, 
and  Mr  Webster,  in  earneste  of  a  playe  called  Ladey  Jane,  the 
some  of  ..........  1s 

"Lent  unto  Thomas  Hewode,  the  21  of  octobr  1602,  to  paye  unto 
Mr.  Dickers,  chettell,  Smythe,  Webester,  and  Hewode,  in  fulle 
payment  of  ther  playe  of  ladye  Jane,  the  some  of  .  v1'  xs 

"  Lent  unto  John  Ducke,  the  27  of  octobr  1602,  to  geve  unto  Thomas 

Deckers,  in  earneste  of  the  2  part  of  Ladye  Jane,  the  some  of  .      vs 


tt6       JOHN  WEBSTER,  l6o2-J,  l6l2,  l6l6,  1623. 

(i)    Pit.  Cor.   .   .   .  You  did  name  your  duchess. 
Brack.  Whose  death  God  pardon  ! 
Vit.  Cor.  Whose  death  God  revenge ! 

The  White  Devil;  or,  Vittoria  Corombona,  p.  31,  col. 
ed.  Dyce,  1857. 


"  A  recollection  of  Shakespeare  ; 
'  Glo.  Poor  Clarence  did  forsake  his  father,  Warwick  ; 
Ay,  and  forswore  himself, — which  Jesu  pardon  ! 

Q.  Mar.  Which  God  revenge  !  '—RICHARD  III.,  act  i.  sc.  3  "  [1.  I35-7].1 

A.  Dyce. 

tn  this  Vittoria  Corombona,  p.  45,  ed.  Dyce,  the  madness  of  Cornelia,  her 
singing— with  prose  remarks  intersperst— and  her  flowers,  seem  suggested 
by  Ophelia's— according  to  Steevens's  reference  to  Hamlet,  IV.  v,  in  Dyce — 

"  Cor.  O  reach  mee  the  flowers. 

Moo.   Her  Ladiships  foolish.          Worn.  Alas  !  her  griet 
Hath  turn'd  her  child  againe.      .     Cor.  You're  very  wellcome. 
There's  rosemarie  for  you  and  rue  for  you, 
Hearts-ease  for  you.     (Quarto,  sign.  L.)  "  'z 

Dyce  also  says  that  Reed  calls  Cornelia's 

"here's  a  white  hand  : 
Can  blood  so  soon  be  wash'd  out  ?"  p.  45,  col.  2, 

1  Reed,  as  cited  by  Dyce,  compares  the  following  lines  in   The  White 
Devil,  p.  39,  col.  i  — 

Cor.  Fetch  a  looking-glass ;  see  if  his  breath  will  not  stain  it :  or  pull 
some  feathers  from  my  pillow,  and  lay  them  to  his  lips.  Will  you  lose 
him  for  a  little  pains-taking  ? 

with  "Shakespeare  in  King  Lear,  A.  5.  sc.  3 — 
*  Lend  me  a  looking-glass , 
If  that  her  breath  will  mist  or  stain  the  stone, 

Why,  then  she  lives 

This  feather  stirs  ;  she  lives  ! '  .  .    " 

2  "  He  [a  Gardener]  cannot  endure  a  great  frost,  for  that  kils  his  Rose- 
mary, and  makes  him  rue  for  it the  chiefe  flower  in  his  Garden  is 

heartease,  because  tis  very  scarce  in  the  world.  '     1635.     Wye  Sal'onstall. 
Pictitrcc  Loquentes  (2nd  ed.),  sigr.  F  II,  back. 


JOHN  WEBSTER,  1  602-7,  l6l2,  l6l6,  1623.       n'; 

"an  imitation  of  Lady  Macbeth's  sleeping  soliloquy;"  and  that  Reed 
charges  Webster  with  imitating  part  of  the  following  dirge  from  the  well- 
known  passage  in  Shakspere's  Cymbeline,  IV. ii.  224,  "The  ruddock  would 
With  charitable  bill,"  &c.  :— 

"  Call  for  the  robin  red-breast  and  the  wren, 
Since  o'er  shady  groves  they  hover, 
And  with  leaves  and  flowers  do  cover 
The  friendless  bodies  of  unburied  men,"  &c. 


The  Duchess  of  Malfi,  ab.  1616. 


The  Duchess  of  Malfi,  " first  produced  about  l6i6,"and  printed  1623, 
has  many  echoes  of  Shakspere.     Dyce  compares  Puck's  "I'll  put  a  girdle 
round  about  the  earth,"  M.  N.  Dr.,  II.  ii,  with  Webster's 
"  He  that  can  compass  me,  and  know  my  drifts, 
May  say  he  hath  put  a  girdle  'bout  the  world, 

And  sounded  all  her  quick-sands."  (III.  i.) — Works,  p.  75,  col.  I. 
Webster's  "He  could  not  abide  to  see  a  pig's  head  gaping"  (III.  ii.  p. 
78,  col.  2)  with  Shylock's  "  Why  he  cannot  abide  a  gaping  pig  "  (Merchant, 
IV.  i.);  Webster's 

*'  O,  the  secret  of  my  prince, 
Which  I  will  wear  on  the  inside  of  my  heart "  (IV.  ii.  p.  80,  col.  i), 

with  Hamlet's   "I  will  wear  him  In  my  heart's  core,"  III.  ii.     On  the 
following  lines,  IV.  ii.  p.  89,  col.  2 — 

"  Yet  stay  ;  heaven-gates  are  not  so  highly  arch'd 
As  princes'  palaces  ;  they  that  enter  there 
Must  go  upon  their  knees — " 

Dyce  remarks,  "  When  Webster  wrote  this  passage,  the  following  charming 
lines  of  Shakespeare  were  in  his  mind  : — 

'  Stoop,  boys  :  this  gate 

Instructs  you  how  to  adore  the  heavens,  and  bows  you 
To  a  morning's  holy  office  :  the  gates  of  monarchs 
Are  arch'd  so  high,  that  giants  may  jet  through 
And  keep  their  impious  turbans  on,  without 
Good  morrow  to  the  sun.'     Cymbeline,  Act  III.  sc.  3." 

On  the  end  of  Act  IV.  sc.  ii., — when  Bosola  has,  at  her  brother  Ferdi- 
nand's bidding,  had  the  Duchess  and  her  children  strangled,  and  Ferdinand 
has  refused  his  reward  and  bidden  him 


)  l8     JOHN  WEBSTER,  l6o2-J,  l6l2,  l6l6,  1623. 

"  Get  thee  into  some  unknown  part  o'  the  world, 
That  I  may  never  see,"  p.  91,  col.  I, 

like  King  John  to  Hubert,  after  Arthur's  supposed  murder,  "Out  of  my 
sight,  and  never  see  me  more,"  IV.  ii.  242, — Dyce  says :  "  In  composing  this 
scene,  Webster  seems  to  have  had  an  eye  to  that  between  King  John  and 
Hubert  in  Shakespeare's  King  John,  Act  IV.  sc.  2."  And  just  after,  when 
the  strangled  Duchess  revives,  to  utter  "Antonio"  and  "Mercy!"  (p.  91, 
col.  2),  Dyce  remarks,  "The  idea  of  making  the  Duchess  speak  after  she 
had  been  strangled,  was  doubtless  taken  from  the  death  of  Desdemona  in 
Shakespeare's  Othello,  Act  V.  last  scene."  The  latter  is  due  to  Desdemona's 
having  been  beaten  nearly  to  death  with  a  stocking  full  of  sand,  in  the 
foundation  story  of  the  play,  and  not  smotherd  (once  and  for  all,  as  it  ought 
to  be,)  as  Shakspere  makes  her. 

In  Act  V.  sc.  ii.  of  the  Duchess  of  Malfi,  p.  93,  col.  2,  Ferdinand  says, 
"  What  I  have  done,  I  have  done  :  I'll  confess  nothing"  ;  and  Dyce  notes 
"Likelago's 

'  Demand  me  nothing  :  what  you  know,  you  know  ; 
From  this  time  forth  I  never  will  speak  word.' 

Othello,  Act  V.  last  scene." ] 

Again,  on  the  Cardinal's  speech  to  Julia,  in  the  Duchess,  V.  ii.  p.  96, 

col.  I — 

"  Satisfy  thy  longing,— 

The  only  way  to  make  thee  keep  my  counsel 
Is,  not  to  tell  thee." 

Dyce  comments  :  "So  Shakespeare,  whom  our  author  so  frequently  imi- 
tates : 

'  and  for  secrecy, 

No  lady  closer  ;  for  I  well  believe 
Thou  wilt  not  utter  what  thou  dost  not  know.' 

First  Part  of  Henry  IV.,  Act  II.  sc.  3." 

Lastly,  Malatesti's  "  Thou  wretched  thing  of  blood,"  V.  v.  p.  101,  col.  I, 
is  compard  by  Dyce  with  Shakspere's  "  from  face  to  face  He  was  a  thing  of 
blood."  Coriolanus,  Act  II.  sc.  2. 

1  On  the  Cardinal's  speech  to  the  Doctor,  a  little  lower  down,  "  How 
now  !  put  off  your  gown  !"  Dyce  remarks,  "A  piece  of  buffoonery  simi- 
lar to  that  with  which  the  Grave-digger  in  Hamlet  still  amuses  the  galleries, 
used  to  be  practised  here  ;  for  in  the  4to.  of  1708,  the  Doctor,  according  to 
the  stage -direction,  *  puts  off  his  four  cloaks,  one  after  another'  What 
precedes  was  written  in  1830  :  since  that  time,  the  managers  have  properly 
restricted  the  Grave-digger  to  a  single  waistcoat."  A  later  note  of  this  kind 
is  in  Mr.  Hall.-Phillipps's  Mem.  on  Hamlet,  p.  68-9, 


JOHN  WEBSTER,   1602-7,   1612,  1616,  1623.  ng 

In  the  Devil's  Law-Case,  1623,  Dyce  says,  on  Webster's  "  O  young  quat," 

II.  i,  p.  115,  col.  2,  "Quat  means  originally  a  pimple.     Compare  Shake- 
speare, '  I  have  rubb'd  this  young  quat  almost  to  the  sense,'  Othello,  Act 
V.  sc.  i." 

In  Webster's  Appius  and  Virginia,  date  unknown,  but  printed  in  1654, 
occurs  the  passage, 

"  The  apparel  and  the  jewels  that  she  were, 
More  worth  than  all  her  tribe,"  IV.  i.  ;  Works,  p.  171,  col.  2; 

and  Dyce  notes  that  this  "Reads  like  a  recollection  of  Shakespeare  ; 

'  Whose  hand, 

Like  the  base  Indian,  threw  a  pearl  away, 
Richer  than  all  his  tribe.'     Othello,  Act  V.  sc.  ii." 

Again,  in  Ap.  and  Vir.,  V.  iii.  p.  179,  col.  i,  Virginius's  line  "This 
sight  hath  stiffen' d  all  my  operant  powers"  is  compard  by  Dyce  with 
Hamlet's  father's  "  My  operant  powers  their  functions  leave  to  do,"  Hamlet, 

III.  ii.     In  Westivard Ho,  V.  iv.,  Tenterhook's  "Let  these  husbands  play 
mad  Hamlet,  and  cry  Revenge,"  p.  241,  col.  2,  has  been  separately  noted, 
p.    182.     Several   other   uses   in   common   of    phrases   by    Webster   and 
Shakspere  occur. 

In  Northward  Ho,  1607,  IV.  i.  p.  268,  col.  i  — by  Dekker  and  Webster 
— Dyce  compares  the  Servingman's  "  Here's  a  swaggering  fellow,  sir,  that 
speaks  not  like  a  man  of  God's  making,"  with  the  Princess's  "  He  speaks 
not  like  a  man  of  God's  making  "  in  Love's  Labour's  Lost,  Act  V.  sc.  ii. ; 
and  Bellamont's  words  to  Doll  (p.  269,  col.  2),  "  Would  I  were  a  young 
man  for  thy  sake,"  with  Shallow's  "  Would  I  were  young  for  your  sake, 
Mistress  Anne  !  "  Merry  Wives,  I.  i. 

Mr.  Hall.-Phillipps  (Mem.  on  Hamlet,  p.  62-3)  thinks  that  "  there  is 
another  allusion  to  Shakespeare's  tragedy  [of  Hamlet}  in  the  following  lines 
in  Fletcher's  Scornful  Ladie,^  1616," — 

"  Safyill,  the  Steivard}.  Now  must  I  hang  my  selfe,  my  friends  will  looke 

for  't. 

Eating  and  sleeping,  I  doe  despise  you  both  now  : 
I  will  runne  mad  first,  and  if  that  get  not  pitty, 
lie  drowne  my  selfe  to  a  most  dismall  ditty  "  (Finis  Actus  tertij.  sign.  G). 

But,  tho'  he  quotes  from  Qi  the  Stage-direction  '  Enter  Ofelia  playing  on 
a  lute,  and  her  haire  downe  singing,'  ed.  1603,  I  doubt  the  allusion  to  her. 
-F.  J.  F. ^^^ 

1  A  Comedie./  As  it  was  Acted  /  with  great  applause  /  by  /  the  Children 
of  Her  Maiesties  /  Reuals  in  the  Blacke  /  Fryers./ 


120 
[From  The  Academy,  Aug.  23,  1879,  p.  142.] 

1603. 
FATHER   PARSONS,   FALSTAFF,    AND   SHAKSPERE. 

Ilkley:  Aug.  18,  1879. 

Since  my  letter  upon  this  subject  (ACADEMY,  March  8,  1879),  I  have 
ascertained  that  some  copies  of  the  third  volume  of  Parsons'  Three  Conver- 
sions have  a  division  headed  "  Of  th'  Examen  of  the  First  Six  Monthes," 
in  which  occurs  the  following  passage  : — 

"  The  fecond  moneth  of  February  is  more  fertile  of  rubricate 
Martyrs,  then  January,  for  that  yt  hath  eight  in  number,  two 
Wickliffians,  Syr  John  Oldcastle,  a  Ruffian-Knight  as  all  England 
knoweth,  and  commonly  brought  in  by  comediants  on  their 
ftages  :  he  was  put  to  death  for  robberyes  and  rebellion  under 
the  forefaid  K.  Henry  the  Fifth,  and  Sir  Roger  Onely,  Prieft- 
martyr,"  &rc. 

The  dedication  of  the  third  volume  is  dated  1603.  I  doubt  whether  this 
is  the  passage  to  which  allusion  is  made  by  Speed  in  his  History  of  Great 
Britaine.  Except  in  the  number  of  the  page  it  does  not  correspond  with 
his  reference,  and  the  language  appears  too  indefinite  to  account  for  Speed's 
scornful  invective  against  "his  [Parsons']  poet." 

It  is  suggestive  to  note  the  gradual  development  of  Oldcastle's  turpitude 
in  Parsons'  book.  He  is  introduced  in  the  first  volume  as  a  sectary  who 
made  his  peace  with  the  Church  by  recanting  his  errors.  In  the  second 
volume  he  is  a  traitor,  and  his  life  is  "  dissolute;  "  while  in  the  third  he  has 
blossomed  into  the  notoriety  whom  "all  England  knoweth." 

We  can  readily  understand  the  indignation  of  Speed  and  the  Puritans 
at  this  quoting  of  the  authority  of  "comediants,"  and  their  desire  to  pay 
him  back  in  his  own  coin.  It  was  a  favourite  contention  of  Parsons  (as  in 
the  Warn-  Word  to  Sir  F.  Hastings]  that  among  the  Protestants  all  sorts  of 
books  were  allowed  to  be  "read  promiscuously  of  all  men  and  women,  even 
the  Turks'  Alcaron  itself,  Machemle  and  Boden  tending  to  atheisme,  and 
bawdy  JBoccace,  with  the  most  pestilent  English  Pallace  of  Pleasure  *  (all  for- 
bidden among  us  Catholyks)." 

Another  point  about  Oldcastle  wants  clearing  up.  What  were  his  personal 
relations  to  Henry  V.  ?  Speed  says  of  him  that  "he  was  a  man  strong  and 
valorous,  and  in  especiall  favour  with  his  Prince"  (History  of  Great  Britaine, 
1627,  p.  637),  and  again  calls  him  par  excellence  "  his  [the  King's]  knight." 

C.  ELLIOT  BROWNE. 


1  Is  there  any  evidence  that  Painter's  Palace  of  Pleasure  was  officially  for- 
bidden to  English  Catholics  ?  It  was  of  course  mainly  a  compilation  from 
authors  who  were  upon  the  Index. 


121 


*MICHAEL  DRAYTON,  1603. 

Such  one  he  was,,  of  him  we  boldly  fay, 

In  whole  rich  foule  all  foveraigne  powers  did  fute, 

In  whom  in  peace  th'  elements  all  lay 

So  mix'd  as  none  could  foveraignty  impute, 

As  all  did  governe,  yet  all  did  obey, 

His  lively  temper  was  fo  abfolute, 

That  t'  feemd  when  heaven  his  modell  firft  began, 

In  him  it  ihowd  perfection  in  a  man. 

The  Barrons  Wars  in  the  raigne  of  Edward  the 
second,  1603.     Stanza  40,  /.  61. 


[The  Barons  Wars  was  an  enlargement  of  Mortimeriados,  an  historical 
poem  published  by  Dray  ton  in  1596,  and  the  above  passage  is  one  among 
the  fresh  additions.  In  four  following  editions  the  stanza  remained 
unchanged,  but  in  that  of  1619,  canto  3,  stanza  40,  he  altered  it  thus  : 

"  He  was  a  Man  (then  boldly  dare  to  say) 

In  whose  rich  Soule  the  Vertues  well  did  sute, 
In  whom,  so  mix'd,  the  Elements  all  lay, 

That  none  to  one  could  Sou'raigntie  impute, 
As  all  did  gouerne,  yet  did  all  obay  ; 

He  of  a  temper  was  so  absolute, 
As  that  it  seem'd,  when  Nature  him  began, 

She  meant  to  shew  all,  that  might  be  in  Man." 

(I  am  unable  to  see  a  copy  of  the  edition  of  1619,  but  give  this  on  the 
Authority  of  Mr.  Aldis  Wright.) 

Julius  Caesar  was  produced  by  1601  (as  fixed  by  Weever's  Mirror  of 
Martyrs,  before,  p.  94),  and  these  lines  nearly  resemble  the  description  of 
Brutus,  — 

"  His  life  was  gentle,  and  the  elements 
So  mix'd  in  him  that  Nature  might  stand  up 
And  say  to  all  the  world  '  This  was  a  man.' " — Act  V.  sc.  v. 


122  MICHAEL   DRAYTON,     1603. 

But  though  some  have  supposed  that  Drayton  here  borrowed  from  Shake- 
spere,  Mr.  Aldis  Wright,  supported  by  Mr.  Grant  White,  has  pointed  out 
that  "the  old  physiological  notion  of  the  four  humours  which  entered  into 
the  composition  of  man,  their  correspondence  to  the  four  elements,  and  the 
necessity  of  an  equable  mixture  of  them  to  produce  a  properly-balanced 
temperament,  was  so  familiar  to  writers  of  Shakespeare's  day  that  in  giving 
expression  to  it  they  could  hardly  avoid  using  similar  if  not  identical  lan- 
guage." (Clarendon  Press  edition  of  Julius  Casar,  1878,  pp.  vii,  203.) 
This  is  well  illustrated  by  Mercury's  description  of  Crites  in  a  play  of  Ben 
Jonson's,  acted  in  1600—"  A  creature  of  a  most  perfect  and  divine  temper. 
One,  in  whom  the  humours  and  elements  are  peaceably  met,  without  emula- 
tion of  precedencie  :  *  *  in  all,  so  compos'd  and  order'd,  as  it  is  cleare, 
Nature  went  about  some  full  work,  she  did  more  than  make  a  man,  when 
she  made  him."  (Cynthia's  Revells,  Act  II,  sc.  iii.)  Many  examples  con- 
firming the  same  thing  are  given  in  Skeat's  Notes  to  Piers  Plowman,  Part 
IV,  pp.  216,  217,  Early  English  Text  Society,  1877  ;  and  in  the  Note  to 
Tale  XXXV.  (Add.  MS.  9066)  of  Gesta  Romanorum,  ed.  Herrtage,  E.  E. 
T.  S.,  1879. 

See  other  instances  of  similar  concurrence  of  Shakesperian  phraseology, 
after,  I.  M.,  1623,  note.    L.  T.  S.] 


I23 


*  HENRY  CHETTLE,  1603. 

Nor  doth  the  filver  tonged  Melicert, 
Drop  from  his  honied  mufe  one  fable  teare 
To  mourne  her  death  that  graced  his  defert} 
And  to  his  Jaies  opend  her  Royall  eare. 
Shepheard,  remember  our  Elizabeth, 
And  fing  her  Rape,  done  by  that  Tarquin,  Death. 

Englandes  Mourning  Garment.  [Anon.  n.d.  (1603.) 

4/0.]  sign.  D  3. 

Reprinted  in  Allusion- Books,  /,  New  Sh.  Soc.,  1874, 
pp.  xm,  98. 


Strictly  speaking,  Englandes  Mourning  Garment  is  undated  and  anonymous. 
But  The  order  and  proceeding  at  the  Funerall,  &>c.  (which  follows  the  main 
work),  has  the  date  of  Queen  Elizabeth's  burial,  "28  of  April,  1603;" 
and  the  postscript  thereto,  "  To  the  Reader,"  is  signed  "  Hen  :  Chetle." 

It  is  probable  that  Chettle  had  more  rhyme  than  reason  in  calling 
Shakespeare  Melicert.  No  allusion  could  have  been  intended  to  the  story 
of  Palsemon.  C.  M.  I. 


124 


Anonymous,   1603. 

You  Poets  all  brave  Shakfpeare,  Johnfon,  Greene, 
Beftow  your  time  to  write  for  Englands  Queene. 
Lament,    lament,  lament  you  Englifh  Peeres, 
Lament  your  lofle  poffeft  fo  many  yeeres. 
Returne  your  fongs  and  Sonnets  and  your  fayes : 
To  fet  foorth  fweete  Elizabeth\a\ s  praife. 
Lament,  lament,  &c. 

A  mourneful  Dittie,  entitttled  Elizabeths  losse,  together  ivith  .? 
welcome  for  King  James.  [Anon.  n.d.  Heber  Collection  oj 
Ballads  and  Broadsides  in  possession  of  S.  Christie  Miller  :  see 
Shakespere  Allusion- Books,  p.  117  (JVew  Shakspere  Society,  1876).] 


The  Green  mentioned  here  is  Thomas  Green,  not  the  more  famous 
Robert.  The  author  of  this  ballad  is  unknown.  It  was  first  noticed  by 
Mr.  J.  P.  Collier  in  his  Edition  of  Shakespeare,  1844,  vol.  i,  p.  cxciv,  note. 
C.  M.  I. 


*1.  C,  1603. 

Of  Helens  rape  and  Troyes  befeiged  Towne, 

Of  Troylus  faith,  and  Creffids  falfitie, 

Of  Rychards  ftratagems  for  the  englifh  crownc, 

Of  Tarqmns  luft,  and  lucrece  chaftitie, 

Of  thefe,  of  none  of  thefe  my  mule  nowe  treates, 

Of  greater  conquefls,  warres,  and  loves  (he  fpeakes. 

Saint  Marie  Magdalens  Conversion.     1603,  sign.  A  3.     [4/0*  ] 


[These  lines,  cast  in  the  same  mould  as  Chester's,  hefore,  p.  123,  contain 
a  more  certain  allusion  to  Shakspere  than  these,  inasmuch  as  they  may  refer 
to  three  of  his  works.  Troilus  and  Cressida  is  believed  to  have  been  out 
in  1603,  though  not  printed  till  1609  (Dowden's  Sh.  Primer,  127,  128). 
Richard  111  w&  first  printed  in  1597,  Lucrece  in  1594.  L.  T.  S.] 


126 


JOHN   DAVIES  OF   HEREFORD,  1603. 

Players,  I  love  yee,  and  your  Qua/itie, 
As  ye  are  Men,  that  pafs  time  not  abufd: 


And  Tome  I  love  for  d  painting,  poejie, 

d  Simonides 


And  %  fel1  Fortune  cannot  be  excuf  d, 
sy°aesspeak£ge~   That  hath  for  better  ufes  you  refuf  d  : 

painting. 

Wit,  Courage,  goodJJiape,  good  par  tes,  and  all  good, 
As  long  as  al  thefe  goods  are  no  worfe  uf  'd, 
ceTie«fcr  inshis  "  And  tnough  the^age  doth  ftaine  pure  gentle  lloud, 
Yet  '  generous  yee  are  in  minde  and  moode. 


to  come  on 
the  stage,  and 

Sy  tosbhe°mo"re  Microcosmos.     The  Discovery  of  the  Little    World, 

Wc°omheytheronto  with  the  Government  thereof  .    1603,  /.  215.    [4/0.] 

Reprinted  by  Rev.  A.  B.    Grosart,   in  the  Chertsey 
Worthies  Library,  1878. 


Just  as  Drusus  and  Roscio  are  associated  by  Marston  (see  before,  p.  52), 
so  here  we  find  W.  S.  and  R.  B.  [Shakespere  and  Richard  Burbage]  in 
company;  and  the  text  of  both  passages  is  sufficiently  explicit  to  show 
whom  Davies  had  in  mind.  Possibly,  too,  in  the  former  he  had  been 
thinking  of  Hamlet's  description  of  the  player's  vocation.  C.  M.  I. 


127 


WILLIAM  CAMDEN,  1603. 

Thefe  may  fuffice  for  fome  Poeticall  defcriptions  of  our  ancient 
Poets  j  if  I  would  come  to  our  time,  what  a  world  could  I 
prefent  to  you  out  of  Sir  Philipp  Sidney,  Ed.  Spencer,  Samuel 
Daniel,  Hugh  Holland,  Ben.  Johnfon,  Th.  Campion,  Mich. 
Drayton,  George  Chapman,  lohn  Marfton,  William  Shakefpeare, 
and  other  moft  pregnant  witts  of  thefe  our  times,  whom  fucceed' 
ing  ages  may  jultly  admire. 

Remaines  concerning  Britaine  (ist  edition).   1605.     [4/0.] 
Poems,  p.  8. 


[The  Epistle  Dedicatorie  is  dated  "From  my  Lodging  xii  lunii,  1603. 
Your  worships  assured  M.  N."  Though  Camden  did  not  publish  his 
Remaines  till  1605,  he  must  have  had  it  in  manuscript  before  he  could  get 
his  friend  "  M.  N."  in  1603  to  write  an  Epistle  dedicatory  for  it.  L.  T.  S.] 


128 


THOMAS   DEKKER,  1604. 

Oh  lamentable !  neuer  did  the  olde  buikind  tragedy  beginne 
till  now  :  for  the  wiues  of  thofe  hulbands,  with  whom  me  had 
playd  at  faft  and  loole,  came  with  nayles  fharpened  for  the 
nonce,  like  cattes,  and  tongues  forkedly  cut  like  the  flings  of 
adders,  firft  to  fcratch  out  falfe  Creflidaes  eyes,  and  then  (which 
was  worfe)  to  worry  her  to  dath  with  fcolding. 

The  I  Wonderful  year e  I  1603.  /  -wherein  is  shewed  the  picture 
of  London,  ly-fing  sicke  of  the  Plagtte  .  .  .  [1604?] 
sig.  E  4. 


"False  Cressida"  seems  to  be  an  allusion  to  Shakspere,  whose  Troilus 
was  composed  1603-4.  The  pamphlet  is  very  interesting.  Here  we  read 
of  a  cobbler  in  his  leathern  apron,  who  stroked  his  beard  like  "some 
graue  headborough,"  who  lived  "altogether  amongest  wicked  scales," 
whose  provident  care  always  was  "that  euery  man  and  woman  should  goe 
vpright,"  and  who  put  his  finger  on  his  lip  and  cried  paucos  palabros, — all 
of  which  reminds  us  of  passages  in  Shakspere.  Jeronimo  is  referred  to, 
sig.  E  4,  and  "stalking  Tamberlaine,"  sig.  D.  The  Wonderful  Year  is 
now  acknowledged  to  be  Dekker's  from  his  claim  in  the  Seven  Deadly  Sins 
(Grosart's  edition,  ii,  12).  M. 


12C) 


JOHN  MARSTON,  1604. 

[Enter  Mendoza] 
Celfo     Hee's  heere. 
Malevole     Give  place. 

lllo,  ho,  ho,  ho  !  arte  there,  old  true  peny  ?   [Exit  Celfo. 
Where  haft  thou  fpent  thy  felfe  this  morning  ?     I  lee  flattery  in 
thine  eyes,,  and  damnation  i'  thy  foule.     Ha  ye  huge  Rascal ! 

The  Malcontent,  Act  III.  Sc.  iii. 


Cf.  Hamlet,  I.  v.  11.  118,  150.  [This  and  similar  quotations  show  the 
fame  and  reputation  of  Shakespere,  being  popularly  known  lines  quoted 
or  imitated  for  the  purpose  of  causing  a  good-humoured  laugh  at  their  mis- 
appropriation. Malone  (vol.  ii.  p.  356)  long  ago  said  that  Marston  has  in 
many  places  imitated  Shakespere,  and  that  this  is  the  case,  any  one,  with  a 
previous  moderate  knowledge  of  Shakespere,  who  reads  his  plays,  will  at 
once  acknowledge.  B.  N.]  (See  note  after,  p.  176.  See  other  extracts 
from  Marston,  pp.  32,  52,  108 :  also  Appendix  B.) 

[Two  editions  of  The  Malcontent  appeared  in  1604,  the  second  augmented 
by  Marston,  with  an  Induction  by  Webster.  The  above  quotation  is  from 
the  first  edition. 

In  Webster's  Induction  Sly  begins  a  speech,  much  like  Osric  in  Hamlet 
(Act  V.  sc.  ii),  with  the  phrase,  "  No,  in  good  faith,  for  mine  ease." 

Hamlet  was  entered  on  the  Stationers'  Register  in  July,  1602,  but  was 
not  printed  (quarto)  till  1603.  See,  however,  Gabriel  Harvey's  note,  before, 
p.  56.  L.  T.  S.] 


SH.  ALLN.  BK. — I. 


1 3o 


JN.  MARSTON,  1604. 

Men[doza  (fpeaking  of  the  Duchefs,  and  after  much  other  praife, 
.  .  .  in  body  how  delicate,  in  foule  how  wittie,  in  dif- 
courfe  how  pregnant,  in  life  how  warie,  in  favours  how  iuditious, 
in  day  how  foci  able,  and  in  night  how  ?  O  pleafure  unutterable  ! 

The  I  Malcontent./  Augmented  by  Marston.j  With  the 
Additions  played  by  the  Kings  /  Maiesties  servants./ 
Written  by  Ihon  Webster.]  i6o4./  At  London  /  Printed 
by  V.  S.  for  WTilliam  Aspley,  and  /  are  to  be  sold 
at  his  shop  in  Paules  /  Church-yard./  Actus  Primus. 
Scena  Quinta.  sign.  C,  back.  (Act  I.  sc.  i.,  end.  Web- 
ster's Works,  ed.  Dyce,  1871,  p.  333,  col.  2.) 


Dyce  notes,  "  The  author  had  here  an  eye  to  the  well-known  passage  ot 
Shakespeare  ; — '  What  a  piece  of  work  is  man  !  How  noble  in  reason,  how 
infinite  in  faculties  !  in  form,  and  moving,  how  express  and  admirable  !  in 
action,  how  like  an  angel  !  in  apprehension,  how  like  a  god  !  the  beauty  of 
the  world  !  the  paragon  of  animals  ! '  Hamlet,  Act  II.  sc.  ii." 

And  in  an  earlier  part  of  this  scene,  p.  330,  col.  2,  Malevole  uses  the 
phrase  "Pompey  the  Huge,"  which  Dyce  notes  is  Shakspere's  in  Love's 
Labour's  Lost,  Act  V.  sc.  ii.,  'Greater  than  Great,  great,  great,  great 
Pompey  1  Pompey  the  Huge  I '  In  Act  III.  sc.  ii.  p.  345,  on  Malevole's 
"  Entic'd  by  that  great  bawd,  opportunity,"  Dyce  quotes  from  Shakspere's 
Lucrece, — as  he  does  for  Ford's  like  lines,  p.  118,  below, — 

"O  Opportunity,  thy  guilt  is  great ! 

Thou  foul  abettor  !  thou  notorious  bawd  I " 

Steevens's  identification  of  Oseric's  "  No,  in  good  faith,  for  mine  ease," 
in  Webster's  (?)  Induction  to  The  Malcontent,  and  of  Mendoza's  "  Illo,  ho, 
ho  ho  !  art  there  old  truepenny?"  III.  ii,  p.  346,  col.  I,  are  given  before, 
p.  129,  and  should  have  Steevens's  name  to  them.  Malone  too  had  (I  find, 
Variorum  Shaksp.,  1821,  xvi.  412)  spotted  the  Oldcastle  allusion  (see  p.  136 
below)  before  I  saw  it  in  the  Percy  Soc.  reprint  and  sent  it  to  Dr.  Ingleby. 

I  think  that  we  may  likewise  fairly  see  echoes  of  Shakspere  in  at  least  the 
following  '  Damnation '  and  '  traps  to  catch  polecats '  bits  from  this  Mal- 
content of  Marston's: 


JN.    MARSTON,    1604. 


Aur.  . .  .  looke  where  the  base  wretch 
comes. 

ib.  Scena  Sexta.     sign.  C.  back. 
Men.  God  night :  to-morrow  morne. 

[Exit  Mendozo. 

Mai.  I,  I  wil  come,  friendly  Damn- 
ation,1 I  will  come. 

Actus  Secundus,  Scena  Quinta. 

sign.  D.  4  back. 

Maq.  On  his  troth  la  beleeue  him 
not  .  .  .  promise  of  matrimony  by 
a  .yong  gallant,  to  bring  a  virgin 
Lady  into  a  fooles  paradise  ...  of 
his  troth  la,  beleeue  him  not,  traps  to 
catch  polecats. 

Actus    Quintus,     Scena     Quarta. 
sign,  H.  4  back. 


Quee.  But    looke  where  sadly  the 
poore  wretch  comes  reading. 
Hamlet,  Q  2.  II.  ii.  168. 


Ju.  Auncient   damnation,  6    most 
wicked  fiend. 

Rom.  &Jul.  III.  v.  245. 

Pol.  Doe  you  believe  his  tenders, 

as  you  call  them  ?  .  .  .  103 

Marry  I  will  teach  you,  thinke  your 

selfe  a  babie 
That  you  have  tane  these  tenders 

for  true  pay 

Which  are  not  sterling  .  .  .        107 
Doe  not  believe  his  vowes,  for  they 

are  brokers  127 

I,     spring[e]s     to     catch     Wood- 

cockes  115 

Hamlet,  I.  iii.  Quarto  2. 


1  "make  her  a  great  woman  and  then  cast  her  off:  tis  as  common,  as 
naturall  to  a  Courtier,  as  jelosie  to  a  Citizen  .  .  pride  to  a  Tayler,  or  an 


empty  handbasket  to  one  of  these  sixpenny  damnations." 

ib.  sign.  H  4  back. 


F.  J.  F. 


JOHN   MARSTON,  1604. 

Fer[neze].  Your  fmiles  haue  bin  my  heaue,  your  frowns  my 

hel, 

O  pitty  then ;  Grace  mould  with  beautie  dwell. 
Maq[uereUe].  Reafonable  perfe6t,  bir-lady. 

The  I  Malcontent  /  By  lohn  Marston  /  1604  /  sig.  C. 


From  Midsummer  Nighfs  Dream,  I.  i,  207-8  : 

O,  then,  what  graces  in  my  love  do  dwell, 
That  he  hath  turn'd  a  heaven  into  a  hell ! 

Noted  by  Chas.  A.  Herpich  in  Notes  and  Queries,  loth  Series,  I.  p.  6. 
Maquerelle's    "Reasonable  perfect"   may  refer   to    the    imitation    of 
Shakspere.     M.] 


133 


ANTHONY  SCOLOKER,  1604. 

It 1  fhould  be  like  the  Never-too-well  read  Arcadia,  where  the 
Profe  and  Ferce  (Matter  and  Words)  are  like  his  MiftreJJes  eyes, 
one  ftill  excelling  another  and  without  Corivall :  or  to  come 
home  to  the  vulgars  Element,  like  Friendly  Shakefpeare's  Trage- 
dies, where  the  Commedian  rides,  when  the  Tragedian  Hands  on 
Tip-toe :  Faith  it  fhould  pleafe  all,  like  Prince  Hamlet.  But  in 
fadneffe,  then  it  were  to  be  feared  he  would  runne  mad  :  Infooth 
I  will  not  be  moone-ficke,  to  pleafe  :  nor  out  of  my  wits  though 
I  difpleafed  all. 

(Epistle  to  the  Reader. 

*  *  *  * 
[Daiphantus  in  love]     To  quench  his  third  : 

Runs  to  his  Inke-pot,  drinkes,  then  flops  the  hole, 

And  thus  growes  madder,  then  he  was  at  firft. 
Tajfo,  he  finds,  by  that  of  Hamlet,  thinkes 
Tearmes  him  a  mad-man  than  of  his  Inkhorne  drinks. 

Calls  Players  fooles,  the  foole  he  judgeth  wifeft, 

*  *  *  * 
Puts  off  his  cloathes  -,  his  fhirt  he  onely  weares, 

Much  like  mad- Hamlet ;  thus  as  Paffion  teares. 

(sign.  E  4,  lack) 

Daiphantus,  or  the  Passions  of  Love.     1604.    [4/0.  ]    Reprinted  for 
the  Roxburghe  Club  in  1818. 


1  "It,"  that  is,  an  "Epistle  to  the  Reader,"  should  be  like,  &c. 

[The  last  two  lines  give  a  curious  glimpse  of  how  Hamlet  appeared  on  the 
stage  in  Shakespere's  day  ;  the  writer  probably  means  that  he  wore  nothing 
over  his  shirt,  or,  as  we  should  say,  appeared  "in  his  shirt-sleeves,  ' 
t.  T.  S/j 


134 


ANTHONY   SCOLOKER,    1604, 

(1)  Fortune,  Oh  be  fo  good  to  let  me  finde 
A  Ladie  liuing,  of  this  conftant  minde. 

Oh,  I  would  weare  her  in  my  hearts  heart-gore, 

And  place  her  on  the  continent  of  ftarres : 

Sig.  E,  st.  3,  4. 
********* 

(2)  As  a  black  vaile  vpon  the  wings  of  morne, 
Brings  forth  a  day  as  cleere  as  Venus  face, 
Or,  a  faire  lewell  by  an  Ethiope  worne, 
Inricheth  much  the  eye,  which  it  doth  grace, 

Such  is  her  beautie,  if  it  well  be  told, 

Plac'ft  in  a  lettie  Chariot  fet  with  gold. 

Sig.  64,  st.  4. 

Daiphantus>  or  The  Passions  of  Loue,  by  An\thony\  Sc[o- 
loker]  Gentleman.     1604.  4to.  Sigs.  E  and  B  4. 


1.  F 'or  gore  read  of  course  core.     Mr.  Hl.-Phillipps  in  his  Memoranda  on 
Hamlet,  p.  54, 1  says—"  the  corresponding  passage  in  Shakespeare  [III.  ii.  79 
— 9]  being  found  in  the  edition  of  1604,  not  in  that  of  1603."     The  charac- 
ter of  the  lady  he  desires,  should  be,  it  may  be  remarked,  as  constant  in  love 
as  Hamlet  says  that  Horatio  is  in  his  whole  character. 

2.  As  also  line  3  resembles  that  in  Rom.  and  Jul.  (I.  5),  so  also  the  gene- 
ral thought  and  wording  are  similar,  and  Scoloker  in  his  Dedication  says — 
"  Also  if  he  [Scoloker]  haue  caught  vphalf  a  Line  of  any  others,  It  was  out 
of  his  Memorie,  not  of  any  ignorance. " 

1  He  (Mem.  on  Hamlet,   p.  54)  quotes  both  stanzas  in  full,  and  prints 
Will  learne  them  action,  in  italics.— P.  A.  LYONS. 


ANTHONY   SCOLOKER,    1604.  135 

I  am  inclined  also  to  increase  the  quotation,  No.  2  on  p.  133,  above, 
by  one  line — 

"  Calls  Players  fooles,  the  foole  he  iudgeth  wisest, 
Will  learne  them  Action  out  of  Chaucer's  Pander. " 

I  would  do  this  because  there  appears  to  me  to  be  here  a  remembrance  of 
Hamlet's  speech  to  the  players.  I  the  more  think  so,  because  there  are 
other  bits,  besides  the  run  of  tlie  story,  which  show  remembrances  of  the 
play  of  Hamlet.  See,  for  instance,  st.  4,  11.  I — 4,  Sig.  F  ;  and  st.  4,  Sig. 
E  4,  back. 

Dr.  A.  B.  Grosart  would  print  a  much  longer  extract  from  Daiphantus 
than  that  already  given  (above,  p.  133),  but  though  interesting  to  the  Shak- 
spere  student  in  other  ways — as  is  indeed  the  piece  generally — the  two  stanzas 
and  these  two  bits  give  all  that  the  object  of  these  volumes  requires. 

When  also  Dr.  Grosart  quotes  the  "  in  his  shirt  "  as  proof  determinative 
that  Hamlet  was  then  considered  mad,  I  would  note  that  it  does  not  do  so  ; 
for  whether  Hamlet's  madness  were  real  or  assumed,  he  would  dress  in 
character,  indeed  the  more  so  if  the  madness  were  assumed. — B.  N. 

[There  are  two  Revenge  passages  in  Scoloker's  book,  but  they  can  hardly 
allude  to  Hamlet: — 

"  Then  like  a  spirit  of  pure  Innocence, 
He  be  all  white  and  yet  behold  He  cry 
Reuenge,  Oh  Louers  this  my  sufferance, 
Or  else  for  Loue,  for  Loue,  a  soule  must  die." 

Sig.  F,  st.  4, 11.  i  -4. 

"  Who  calls  me  forth  from  my  distracted  thought  ? 
Oh  Serberus,  If  thou*  I  prethy  speke  ? 
Reuenge  if  thou  ?    I  was  thy  Riuall  ought, 
In  purple  gores  He  make  the  ghosts  to  reake  : 
Vitullia,  oh  Vitullia,  be  thou  still, 
He  haue  reuenge,  or  harrow  vp  my  will.' 

Sig.  £4,  back,  st.  4.— P.  A.  L.] 


Anonymous,   1604. 

Sig.  Shuttlecock. 

Now  Signiors  how  like  you  mine  Hoft?  did  I  not  tell  you  he 
was  a  madde  round  knave,  and  a  merrie  one  too  :  and  if  you 
chaunce  to  talke  of  fatte  Sir  John  Old-cqflle,  he  wil  tell  you,  he 
was  his  great  Grandfather,  and  not  much  unlike  him  in  Paunch 
if  you  marke  him  well  by  all  descriptions. 

The  Meeting  of  Gallants  at  an  Ordinarie :  or,  The  Walkes  in 
P0wles.  1604,  sign .  B  4,  back.  [  Unique  copy  in  Bodleian  Library. 
Edited  for  the  Percy  Society  by  J.  0.  Hattiwell,  in  Early  English 
Poetry -,  vol.  v.  1841,  p.  1 6.] 


See  as  to  Oldcastle  and  Falstaff,  note,  p.  509.     C.  M.  I. 


137 


*  T.  M.,  1604. 

Whereupon  entered  mafter  Burfebell,  the  royal  fcrivener, 
with  deeds  and  writings  hanged,  drawn,  and  quartered  for  the 
purpofe  *  *  *  (p.  569.)  Well,  this  ended,  mafter  Burfebell, 
the  calves' -fkin  fcrivenei,  was  royally  handled,  that  is,  he  had  a 
royal  put  in  his  hand  by  the  merchant.  And  now  I  talk  of 
calves' -fkin,  'tis  great  pity,  lady  Nightingale,  that  the  {kins  of 
harmlefs  and  innocent  beafts  fhould  be  as  inftruments  to  work 
villany  upon,  entangling  young  novices  and  foolifh  elder 
brothers,  which  are  caught  like  woodcocks  in  the  net  of  the 
law  ....  (p.  572.) 

******* 

I  appeared  to  my  captain  and  other  commanders,  kiffing  my 
left  hand,  which  then  flood  for  both  (like  one  a6tor  that  plays 
two  parts)  *  *  Neverthelefs,  for  all  my  lamentable  aclion 
of  one  arm,  like  old  Titus  Andronicus,  I  could  purchafe  no  more 
than  one  month's  pay  for  a  ten  month's  pain  and  peril  (p.  590.) 

Father  Hubburd"s  Tales :  or  the  Ant,  and  the  Nightingale. 

1604.     [Second  edition,  4/0.] 
Reprinted  among  the  Works  of  Thomas  Middleton  by  Revt 

A.  Dyce,  1840,   Vol.  V,  pp.  547— 603, /m«  which  these 

extracts  are  taken. 


[The  second  edition  of  this  tract  (copies  of  which  are  in  Bridgewater 
House,  and  in  Malone's  collection  in  the  Bodleian)  was  "  Printed  by  T.  C. 
for  William  Cotton,  and  are  to  be  solde  at  his  Shop  neare  adjoyning  to  Ludgate" 
"  The  first  edition,"  says  Mr.  Dyce,  "in  which  several  verses  and  the  whole 
of  '  The  Ants  Tale  when  he  was  a  scholar '  are  omitted,  made  its  appear- 
ance during  the  same  year  in  4to,  entitled  The  Ant  and  the  Nightingale  :  or 
Father  Hubburds  Tales.  London  Printed  by  T.  C.for  Bro :  Eushell,  and 
are  to  be  solde  by  Jeffrey  Chalton,  at  his  Shop  at  the  North  doore  of  Paules.  *  * 

"  Mr.  J.  P.  Collier  (Bridgewater  House  Catalogue,  p.  199  [see2?#/.  Cat.  i, 
537])  mentions  it  as  the  second  edition  ;  but  a  careful  examination  of  both 
the  impressions  has  convinced  me  that  it  is  the  first "  (vol.  v.  p.  549) . 
Dyce  assigns  the  tract  to  Thomas  Middleton  on  account  of  "  expressions 
which  remind  us  strongly  of  his  dramatic  dialogue  "  (Preface,  vol.  i.  p.  xviii), 
as  well  as  the  signature  T.  M.  Mr.  W.  C.  Hazlitt  thinks  the  author  wa? 


138  T.  M.,  1604 

Thomas  Moflfat.  But  if  Mr.  J.  P.  Collier  is  right  in  identifying  T.  Moffat  oi 
the  poem  on  Silkworms  in  1599  with  Dr.  Mouffet,  and  this  Dr.  Mouffet  is  the 
man  that  wrote  the  ;  Theater  of  Tracts  in  Topsell's  Fourfooted  Beasts  and 
dedicated  it  to  Q.  Elizabeth  (see  Rowland's  preface),  then  the  style  of  these 
books  shows  he  is  not  our  T.  M. 

The  first  passage,  referring  to  a  scene  at  the  lawyer  Prospero's,  where  a 
young  man  had  signed  away  his  estate,  may  perhaps  be  taken  as  a  recollec- 
tion of  Cade's  speech  in  2  Henry  VI,  Act  IV,  sc.  ii.  — 

"  Dick.  The  first  thing  we  do,  let's  kill  all  the  lawyers. 

Cade.  Nay,  that  I  mean  to  do.  Is  not  this  a  lamentable  thing,  that  of  the 
skin  of  an  innocent  lamb  should  be  made  parchment!  that  parchment, 
being  scribbled  o'er,  should  undo  a  man  ?  Some  say  the  bee  stings  ;  but 
I  say  'tis  the  bee's  wax,  for  I  did  but  seal  once  to  a  thing,  and  I  was  never 
mine  own  man  since." 

On  the  second  passage,  that  on  Titus  Andronicus,  Dyce  says  :  "See  the 
tragedy  so  called,  which,  though  now  printed  among  the  works  of  Shake- 
speare, was  assuredly  written  by  some  other  dramatist— probably,  by  Marlowe. 
In  Act  III,  sc.  i,  Aaron  cuts  off  the  hand  of  Titus  ;  and  in  Act  V,  sc.  ii,  the 
latter  says, 

"  How  can  I  grace  my  talk, 
Wanting  a  hand  to  give  it  action  ?  " 

The  Tales  have  other  passages  which  may  possibly  be  echoes  of  Shak- 
spere,  but  most  likely  are  not :  the  poet's  "carnation  silk  riband  "  and  the 
"  remuneration  "  he  did  not  get,  p.  602,  have  these  terms  in  common  with 
Costard's  "How  much  carnation  ribbon  may  a  man  buy  for  a  remuneration  ?  " 
L.  L.  Lost,  III,  i. 

"kings in  that  time 
Hung  jewels  at  the  ear  of  every  rhyme,"  p.  599, 

may  refer  to  Romeo's  rhapsody  ;  the  battle  and  "points  .  .  once  let  down  "  to 
Poins's  joke  on  Falstaffin  I  Henry  IV,  II.  iv.  238-9 :  "  the  submissive  flexure 
of  the  knee,"  p.  566,  to  Henry  V's  "  flexure  &  low  bendi&g  "  (IV.  i.  272),  and 
Hamlet's  "  crook  the  pregnant  hinges  of  the  knee,"  &c.,  but  all  these  were 
no  doubt  common  to  the  Elizabethan  world.  And  we  surely  cannot  adopt 
the  suggestion  (Athencsum,  Sept.  14,  1878)  that  the  passage  on  p.  374, 
praising  the  nest  of  boy-actors  at  the  Blackfriars,  *  was  a  recollection  of  the 
"  aery  of  children  "  sneered  at  by  Shakspere  (in  a  passage  of  Hamlet  not  in 
the  Quartoes,  but  first  printed  in  1623),  when  we  find  that  T.  M.  applies  the 
term  nest  also  to  "  a  nest  of  ants,"  who  typify  man  (p.  562),  "  a  whole  nest 
of  pinching  bachelors, "  p.  577,  and  "my  honest  nest  of  ploughmen,"  p. 
580.  F.J.  F.] 


1  "if  his  humour  so  serve  him,  to  call  in  at  the  Blackfriars,  where  he 
should  see  a  nest  of  boys  able  to  ravish  a  man,"  p.  574.  [Compare,  too, 
Jonson's  "  nest  of  antiques,"  Bartholomew  Fair,  Induction,  leaf  3.  L.  T.  S.] 


139 


SIR  WALTER  COPE,  1604. 

Sir, 

I  have  fent  and  bene  all  thys  morning  huntyng  for  players 
Juglers  &  Such  kinde  of  Creaturs,  but  fynde  them  harde  to  finde, 
wherfore  Leavinge  notes  for  them  to  feeke  me,  burbage  ys  come, 
&  Sayes  ther  ys  no  new  playe  that  the  quene  hath  not  feene,  but 
they  have  Revy  ved  an  olde  one,  Cawled  Loves  Lalore  loft,  which 
for  wytt  &  mirthe  he  fayes  will  pleafe  her  excedingly.  And 
Thys  ys  apointed  to  be  playd  to  Morowe  night  at  my  Lord  of 
Sowthamptons,  unlefs  yow  fend  a  wrytt  to  Remove  the  Corpus 
Cum  Caula  to  your  howfe  in  ftrande.  Burbage  ys  my  meflenger 
Ready  attendyng  your  pleafure. 

Yours  moft  humbly, 

WALTER  COPE. 

Letter  dated  "From  your  Library,"  written  by  Sir  Walter  Cope, 
addressed  "  To  the  right  honorable  the  Lorde  Vy count  Cranborne 
at  the  Courte."  Endorsed :  1604,  Sir  Walter  Cope  to  my  Lord. 
Hatfield  House  MSS.  See  Third  Report  of  the  Royal  Commission 
of  Historical  Manuscripts.  1872.  p.  148. 


["  The  quene  "  here  mentioned  is  Anne  of  Denmark,  the  Queen  of  James  I. 
Loves  Labours  Lost  was  first  published  in  1598  (4to.),  "newly  corrected  and 
augmented."  It  is  supposed  by  many  critics  to  be  Shakespere's  first  play, 
written  about  1588-90.  L.  T.  S.] 


140 


I.  C.,  1604  circa. 

Who'e're  will  go  unto  the  preffe  may  fee, 
The  hated  Fathers  of  vilde  balladrie : 
One  lings  in  his  bafe  note  the  River  Thames 
4     Shal  found  the  famous  memory  of  noble  king  lames ; 
Another  fayes  that  he  will,  to  his  death, 
Sing  the  renowned  worthineffe  of  fweet  Elixaleth, 
So  runnes  their  verfe  in  fuch  difordered  ftraine, 
8     And  with  them  dare  great  majefty  prophane, 
Some  dare  do  this  j  fome  other  humbly  craves 
For  helpe  of  Spirits  in  their  fleeping  graves, 
As  he  that  calde  to  Shake/peare,  lohnfon,  Greene, 
12     To  write  of  their  dead  noble  Queene ; 
But  he  that  made  the  Ballads  of  oh  hone. 
Did  wondrous  well  to  whet  the  buyer  on : 
Thefe  fellowes  are  the  flaunderers  of  the  time, 
1 6     Make  ryming  hatefull  through  their  baftard  rime. 
But  were  I  made  a  judge  in  poetry, 
They  all  mould  burne  for  their  vilde  herefie. 

Epigrames.  Served  out  in  52  severall  Dishes  for  every  man  to  fast 
without  surfeting.  (From  Malones  Copy  in  the  Bodleian  Library. ) 
Epig.  12,  sign.  B.  [n.  d.  \2moJ\ 


The  compiler  is  indebted  to  Mr.  J.  O.  Halliwell-Phillipps  for  this  curious 
epigram,  which  was  overlooked  by  Malone's  continuator.  Malone  saw  in 
this  epigram  an  allusion  to  Englandes  Mourning  Garment.  (See  p.  123.) 

[It  is  difficult  to  fix  the  date  of  the  epigram.  Line  4,  speaking  of  the 
"  famous  memory  "  of  James,  seems  to  point  to  the  time  of  his  death,  March 
1625  ;  but  the  printer  of  the  volume,  G.  Elde,  died  before  I3th  November, 
1624.  Line  n  refers  to  the  Mournful  Dittie,  before,  p.  124,  and  this, 
coupled  with  the  possible  reference  to  England 's  Mourning  Garment,  and 
with  the  appearance  of  ballads  on  the  death  of  Essex  (1601-2),  containing 
the  burden  of  O  hone  !,  make  it  probable  that  1604  is  the  approximate  date. 
See  Allusion-Books,  I,  New  Sh.  Soc.  pp.  xxi,  122,  note.  L.  T.  S-] 


141 


THOMAS  MIDDLETON,  1604—1619. 

1604  :   The  Honest  Whore,  Part  I.  (Works,  ed.  Dyce,  iii.  i — 122). 

Candida.  No  matter,  let  'em  :  when  I  touch  her  lip 
I  shall  not  feel  his  kisses,1  no,  nor  miss 
Any  of  her  lip. 

Hippolito.  ...  I  was,  on  meditation's  spotless  wings, 
Upon  my  journey  hither.2 — ib.  IV.  i.  p.  79. 

George.  'Twere  a  good  Comedy  of  Errors,3  that,  i'  faith. 

ib.  Act  IV.  sc.  iii.  p.  85, 


1607-8.   The  Family  of  Love. 

Believe  it,  we  saw  Sampson  bear  the  town-gates  on  his  neck 
from  the  lower  to  the  upper  stage,  with  that  life  and  admirable 
accord,  that  it  shall  never  be  equalled,  unless  the  whole  new 
livery  of  porters  set  [to]  their  shoulders.4 

The  Family  of  Love  (licenst  12  Oct.  1607,  publisht  1608),  Act  I. 
sc.  iii.     Middleton's  Works,  ed.  Dyce,  1840,  ii.  125. 

1  "  Imitated  by  Shakspeare  in  Othello,  Act  III.  sc.  iii. 

'  I  slept  the  next  night  well,  was  free  and  merry  ; 
I  found  not  Cassia's  kisses  on  her  lips?  " — REED. 

If  there  be  any  imitation  in  the  case,  I  believe  it  to  be  on  the  part  of 
Dekker  or  Middleton  [to  whom  Henslowe  assigns  this  play,  p.  3]. — Dyce  : 
ed.  Middleton's  Works,  iii.  56. 

2  So  in  Hamlet^  Act  I.  sc.  i. — 

' '  Haste,  let  me  know  it ;  that  I,  with  wings  as  swift 
As  meditation"  &c. — Reed  :  Dyce's  Middleton,  iii.  79. 

3  An  allusion,  probably,  to  Shakespeare's  play  of  that  name. — Dyce. 
See  too  p.  314-15,  note,  ib. ;  and  p.^66  above. 

4  Middleton  seems  to  have  had  in  his  recollection  a  passage  of  Shake- 
speare's Loves  Labour's  Lost,    .  .  "  Sampson,  master,  he  was  a  man  of  good 
carriage,  great  carriage  ;  for  he  carried  the  town-gates  on  his  back,  like  a 
porter."     Act  I.  sc.  ii.  [1.  73-5].— Dyce. 


142  THOMAS   MIDDLETON,    1604 — 1619. 

(ib.  Act  V.  sc.  iii.  p.  203.)  .  .  Mistriss  Purge.  Husband,  I  see 
you  are  hoodwinked  in  the  right  use  of  feeling  and  knowledge — 
as  if  I  knew  you  not J  then  as  well  as  the  child  knows  his  own 
father. 

A  Mad   World,  my  Masters. 

(Act  I.  sc.  i.)  Follywil.  Hang  you,  you  have  bewitched  me 
among  you  !  I  was  as  well  given  2  till  I  fell  to  be  wicked  !  my 
grandsire  had  hope  of  me  :  I  went  all  in  black ;  swore  but  a' 
Sundays ;  never  came  home  drunk  but  upon  fasting-nights  to 
cleanse  my  stomach.  'Slid,  now  I'm  quite  altered  !  blown  into 
light  colours  ;  let  out  oaths  by  th'  minute  ;  sit  up  late  till  it  be 
early ;  drink  drunk  till  I  am  sober ;  sink  down  dead  in  a  tavern, 
and  rise  in  a  tobacco-shop  :  here's  a  transformation  !  (&c.,  &c.) 

(Act  IV.  sc.  i.  p.  386.)  Shield  me  3  you  ministers  of  faith  and 
grace ! 

ab.  1619  (pr.  1662).     Any  thing  for  a  quiet  Life. 

Lord  Beaufort.  And  whither  is  your  way,  sir  ? 
Water- Camlet.  E'en  to  seek  out  a  quiet  life,  my  lord  : 

1  Imitated  from  Falstaff  s  "  I  knew  ye,  as  well  as  he  that  made  ye." — 
Shakespeare's  Henry  TV,  Part  I,  Act  II.  sc.  iv. — Dyce. 

With  Goldstone's  "Yes,  at  your  book  so  hard?"  Middleton's  Your 
Five  Gallants,  Works,  iii.  274,  Dyce  compares  in  3  Henry  VI,  Act  V.  sc. 
vi,  Gloster's  "what,  at  your  book  so  hard;"  and  with  Pursenet's  "he'd 
away  like  a  chrisom,"  ib.  276,  Mrs.  Quickly's  "  'a  made  a  finer  end,  and 
went  away  an  it  had  been  any  christom  child,"  Henry  V,  Act  II.  sc.  iii. 

2  Imitated  from  Shakespeare's  First  Part  of  K.  Henry  IV,  Act  III.  sc.  iii, 
where  Falstaff  says,  "I  was  as  virtuously  given  as  a  gentleman  need  to  be  ; 
virtuous  enough  :  swore  little,  diced  not  above  seven  times  a- week  ;  went 
to  a  bawdy-house  not  above  once  in  a  quarter  of  an  hour  ;  paid  money  that 
I  borrowed,  three  or  four  times ;  lived  well,  and  in  good  compass  :  and  now 
I  live  out  of  all  order,  out  of  all  compass."     Reed. — Dyce's  Middleton,  ii. 
331,  n. 

5  See  Hamlet  ["  Angels  and  ministers  of  grace  defend  us!"  Act  I. 
sc.  iv].— Steevens,  ib. 


THOMAS    MIDDLETON,    1604 1619.  143 

To  hear  of  a  fine  peaceable  island. 

L.  Beau.  Why  'tis  the  same  you  live  in. 

W.  Cam.  No ;  'tis  so  fam'd, 
But  we  th'  inhabitants  find  it  not  so  : 
The  place  I  speak  of1  has  been  kept  with  thunder. 


I  do  not  look  on  the  words  "Alas,  poor  ghost  !  "  in  The  Old  Law — printed 
in  1656,  and  stated  on  its  title  to  be  "by  Phil.  Massinger.  Tho.  Middleton. 
William  Rowley  " — as  borrowd  from  Hamlet,  I.  v.  4.  The  young  courtier 
Simonides  is  telling  the  old  husband  Lysander,  that  he,  Simonides,  has  come 
to  Lysander's  house  "to  beg  the  reversion  of  his  wife,"  a  loose  young 
woman,  after  his  death  :  "  thou  are  but  a  dead  man,  therefore  what  should 
a  man  do  talking  with  thee  ?  " 

"  Lysander.  Impious  blood-hounds  ! 
Simonides.  Let  the  ghost  talk,  ne'er  mind  him  ! 
Lys.  Shames  of  nature  ! 
Sim.  Alas,  poor  ghost !  consider  what  the  man  is !  " 

Massinger's  Works,  ed.  Cunningham,  p.  571,  col.  2. 

Nor  do  I  think  anything  of  Mr.  Hall.-Phillipps's  suggestion,  that  if  this 
"  play  was  really  written  in  the  year  1599,  as  would  seem  from  an  allusion 
in  it,  those  three  words  may  have  been  taken  from  the  earlier  tragedy  of 
Hamlet"  (Mem.,  p.  55).  The  Clerk  is  telling  Gnotho  that  his  (Gnotho's) 
wife  Agatha,  the  daughter  of  Pollux,  was  "born  in  an.  1540,  and  now 
'tis  99."  III.  i :  Massinger's  Works,  p.  573,  col.  I.  From  this,  the  theory 
was  started,  that  The  Old  Law  was  first  written  in  1 599,  and  then  re-cast  by 
Massinger  before  his  death  in  1640.  The  internal  evidence  of  the  play  seems 
to  me  against  the  1 599  date.  Middleton  died  in  1626.  The  year  of  Rowley's 
death  is  not  known. — F.  J.  F. 

The  following,  considering  Gifford's  authority,  may  be  worth  noting : — 
?THOS.  MIDDLETON,  BEF.  1626. 

"  Cook.  That  Nell  was  Helen  of  Greece  too. 

Gnotho.  As  long  as  she  tarried  with  her  husband,  she  was  Ellen  ;  but 
after  she  came  to  Troy,  she  was  Nell  of  Troy,  or  Bonny  Nell,  whether  you 
will  or  no. 

Tailor.  Why,  did  she  grow  shor[t]er  when  she  came  to  Troy  ? 

Gnotho.  She  grew  longer,*  if  you  mark  the  story.     When  she  grew  to  be 

1  Evidently  'the  Bermothes,'  p.  450. 

*  "  This  miserable  trash,  which  is  quite  silly  enough  to  be  original,  has 


144  THOMAS    MIDDLETON,    1604 — 1619. 

an  ell,  she  was  deeper  than  any  yard  of  Troy  could  reach  by  a  quarter  ; 
there  was  Cupid  was  Troy  weight,  and  Nell  was  avoirdupois  ;  f  she  held 
more,  by  four  ounces,  than  Cressida." 

The  Old  Law,  or  A  New  Way  to  please  you,  1656. 

yet  the  merit  of  being  copied  from  Shakespeare." — Gifford.  This  is  on  the 
supposition  that  the  play,  which  was  not  printed  till  1656,  was  not  acted  in 
1599,  as  has  been  suggested.  Dyce  gives  the  title,  p.  I,  "  The  Excellent 
Comedy,  called  The  Old  Law,  or  A  new  ^vay  to  please  you.  By  Phil.  Mas- 
singer.  Tho.  Middleton.  William  Rowley  ....  1656,"  and  says,  "  Steevens 
(Malone's  Shakespeare,  by  Bos  well  (  Variorum  of  1821),  ii.  425)  remarks,  that 
this  drama  was  acted  in  1599,  founding  the  statement  most  probably  on  a 
passage  in  Act  iii.  Sc.  r,  where  the  Clerk,  having  read  from  the  Church- 
book,  '  Agatha,  the  daughter  of  Pollux— born  in  an.  1540,' adds,  'and  now 
'tis  99 '  ...  Gifford  (Introd.  to  Massinger,  p.  Iv,  2nd  ed.)  inclines  to 
believe  that  The  Old  Law  was  really  first  acted  in  1599,  and  that  Massin- 
ger (who  was  then  only  in  the  fifteenth  year  of  his  age)  was  employed,  at  a 
subsequent  period,  to  alter  or  to  add  a  few  scenes  to  the  play.  What  por- 
tion of  it  was  written  by  Middleton  cannot  be  determined  .  .  .  Gifford  .  . 
published  The  Old  Law  in  the  ivth  vol.  of  his  Massinger. " 
f  Old  ed.  "haberdepoyse." — DYCE. 


PETER  WOODHOUSE,  1605. 

Extoll  that  with  admiration,  which  but  a  little  before  thoti 
didft  rayle  at,  as  moft  carterly.  And  when  thou  -fitteft  to  con- 
fult  about  any  weighty  matter,  let  either  luftice  Shallowe,  or  his 
Coufen,  Mr.  Weathercocks,  be  foreman  of  the  lurie. 

Epiftle  Dedicatorie,  sign.  A  2  back. 
The  /  Flea :  /  Sic  parva  componere  magnis.\     London  \ 
Printed  for  lohn  Smethwick  and  are  to  be  solde  at  his 
Shop  /  in  Saint  Dunstanes  Churchyard  in  Fleet-street, 
vnder  /  the  Diall.     16057 

I  but  true  valour  neuer  danger  fought, 
Rafhnes,  it  felfe  doth  into  perill  thruft  : 
Thats  onely  valour  where  the  quarrel's  iuft.    sign.  D. 
A  Shadowe  of  a  fhadow  thus  you  fee, 
Alas  what  fubftance  in  it  then  can  bee  ? 
If  anything  herein  amilfe  doe  feeme: 
Confider,  'twas  a  dreame,  dreamt  of  a  drearne. 
FINIS 


In  1877  Dr.  Grosart  reprinted  this  Poem  from  the  unique  copy  in  Lord 
Spencer's  library  at  Althorpe,  and  in  his  Introduction,  p.  vii,  cald  attention 
to  the  above  three  bits,  comparing  the  second  with  Shakspere's  2  Henry 
VI,  III.  ii.  : 

"  Thrice  is  he  arm'd  that  hath  his  quarrel  just," 

and  the  third  with  Hamlet,  II.  ii.  : 

"  Guil.  What  dreams  indeed  are  ambition,  for  the  very  substance  of  the 
ambitious  is  merely  the  shadow  of  a  dream. 

Ham.  A  dream  itself  is  but  a  shadow. 

Ros.  Truly,  and  I  hold  ambition  of  so  airy  and  light  a  quality  that  it  is 
but  a  shadow's  shadow." 

Prof.  Dowden  sent  me  the  first  Allusion,  and  later,  Mr.  Hll.-P.  quoted 
the  latter  part  of  it. 

The  phrase  "  bombast  out  a  blank  verse"  of  Greene's  Groatsworth  occurs 
again  in  '  Verlves  Common-wealth:  or  The  Highiuay  to  Honoor,  by  Henry 
Crosse,  1603: 

"Hee  that  can  but  bombast  out  a  blancke  verse,  and  make  both  the 
endes  iumpe  together  in  a  ryme,  is  forthwith  a  poet  laureat,  challenging 
the  garland  of  baies  "  (Grosart's  reprint,  p.  109).— E.  DOWDEN. 
SH.  ALLN.  BK. — I.  L 


146 


*  THOMAS    HEYWOOD,  1605. 

Glo.  Let  me  awake  my  fleeping  wits  awhile  : 
Ha,  the  marke  thou  aimft  at  Richard  is  a  Crowne, 
And  many  ftand  betwixt  thee  and  the  fame, 
What  of  all  that  ?     Doftor  play  thou  thy  part, 
He  climbe  by  degrees  through  many  a  heart. 

The  First  and  Second  Parts  of  King  Ediuard  the  Fovrth  .  .  . 
As  it  hath  diuerse  times  been  publickly  Acted.  The  fourth 
Impression^-  London,  Printed  by  Humfrey  Lownes. 
Anno  1626.  sign.  Q  2.  (Hey wood's  Works,  1874,  i.  135.) 

The  1st  edition  of  1605  is  in  the  Douce  Collection  at  South  Kensington. 


Heywood  may  have  had  in  his  mind  Gloucester's  lines  in  3  Henry  VI, 
III.  ii.  168-181  : 

"  I'll  make  my  heav'n  to  dream  upon  the  crown, 
And,  whiles  I  live,  to  account  this  world  but  hell, 
Until  my  mis-shaped  trunk  that  bears  this  head 
Be  round  impaled  with  a  glorious  crown.  171 

And  yet  I  know  not  how  to  get  the  crown, 
For  many  lives  stand  between  me  and  home. 
And  I  ... 

Torment  myself  to  catch  the  English  crown  : 
And  from  that  torment  I  will  free  myself,  1 80 

Or  hew  my  way  out  with  a  bloody  axe. " 

E.  PHIPSON. 


T  H   E 

LONDON 

Prodigall. 


As  it  was  plaide  by  the  Kings  Maie- 
fties  feruants. 

By  William  Shakefpeare, 


[Device] 


LONDON 

Printed  by  T.  C.  for  Nathaniel  Butter,  and 

are  to  be  fold  neere  S  Aujl'ms  gate, 

at  the  figne  of  the  pyde  Bull. 

1605. 


148  THE  LONDON  PRODIGALL,  1605. 

[Of  all  the  doubtful  plays  The  London  Prodigall  has  greatest  external 
evidence  in  favour  of  Shakspere's  authorship,  and  least  internal.  Modern 
criticism  entirely  denies  that  Shakspere  could  have  been  responsible  for  a 
production  so  utterly  alien  to  the  spirit  and  form  of  his  undoubted  work. 
The  poet's  name  on  the  title-page  is  but  another  testimony  to  his  fame  as  a 
playwright.  The  London  Prodigall  was  printed  in  F.  3,  1664.  M.] 


149 


*  GEO.  CHAPMAN,  BEN  JONSON,  J.  MARSTON, 

1605. 

Enter  Hamlet  afoote-man  in  haste. 

Ham.  What  Coachman  ?  my  Ladyes  Coach  for  mame  ,•  her 
ladifhips  readie  to  come  downe. 

Enter  Potkinn,  a  Tankerd  leare-. 

Pot.  Sfoote  Hamlet ;  are  you  madde  ?  whether  run  you  nowe, 
you  fhould  brume  vp  my  olde  Miftrefle  ? 

Enter  Syndefye. 

Syn.  What  Potkinn?  you  muft  put  off  your  Tankerd  and  put 
on  your  blew  coat  and  waite  upon  miftris  Touchftone  into  the 
countrie.  *  * 

Enter  Mistress  Fond  &  Mistresse  Gazer 

Fond.  Come  fweete  Miftreffe  Gazer,  lets  watch  here,  and  fee 
my  Lady  Flo/he  take  coach.  *  *  * 

Fond.  Shee  comes,  me  comes,  me  comes. 

Gaz.  Fond.  Pray  heaven  bleffe  your  Ladilhip. 

Gyrtrude.  Thanke  you  good  people  j  my  coach  for  the  love  of 
heaven,  my  coach  ?  in  good  truth  I  mall  fwoune  elfe. 

Ham.  Coach  ?  coach,  my  Ladyes  coach. 

*  *  *  * 

Gyr.  I  marie   how   my  modeft   Sifter  occupies   her 

felfe  this  morning,  that  (hee  can  not  waite  on  me  to  my  Coach, 
as  well  as  her  mother ! 


150         GEO.    CHAPMAN,    BEN   JONSON,    J.    MARSTON,    1605. 

Quick Jilver.  Mary  Madam,  fhee's  married  by  this  time  to 
Prentife  Goulding ;  your  father,  and  fome  one  more,  ftole  to 
church  with  'hem,  in  all  the  hafte,  that  the  colde  meate  left  at 
your  wedding,  might  ferve  to  furniih  their  Nuptiall  table. 

Eastward  Hoe,  Act  III,  Sc.  n.     1605,  sign.  D  and  D  i,  back. 


[The  unusual  name  Hamlet,1  the  question  "are  you  madde?",  the  frequent 
references  to  the  coach  (possibly  in  reference  to  the  anachronism  committed 
by  Shakespere  in  making  Ophelia  call  for  her  coach,  Act  IV.  Sc.  v),  and 
the  reference  to  the  cold  meate  for  the  nuptial  table,  all  seem  to  shew  that 
Shakespere's  Hamlet  was  here  pointed  at.  Eastward  Ho£  was  played  by  the 
Children  of  her  Majesty's  Revels,  that  "aeyry  of  children"  of  whom  Rosen- 
crantz  speaks,  and  who,  by  Shakespere's  own  confession,  had  driven  his 
company  to  travel  in  the  country.  Syndefie's  call  upon  Potkinn  to  wait 
upon  Mistris  Touchstone  into  the  country  may  be  the  Children's  out-cry  of 
triumph  at  having  thus  beaten  their  rivals,  a  suggestion  which  gains  its 
point  from  this,  that  Mistris  Touchstone,  the  mother  who  has  successfully 
helped  her  scheming  daughter  to  marry  above  her  station,  is  immediately 
turned  upon  by  that  daughter  and  made  to  defer  to  her.  The  only 
passages  in  which  Marston  might  be  said  to  sneer  at  Shakespere  are 
these  allusions  to 'and  parody  on  Hamlet,  and  a  stage  direction,  also  in 
Eastward  Hoe,  Act  I.  Sc.  i.,  "Enter  .  .  .  Bettrice  leading  a  Monkey  after 
her. "  Bettrice  is  a  dumb  character,  who  never  speaks  nor  does  anything 
else.  Hence  Dr.  B.  Nicholson  believes  she  is  simply  introduced  to  ridicule 
"  Beatrice  leading  apes  to  Hell"  in  Much  Ado  about  Nothing,  and  a  dumb 
"Hero's  Mother"  in  the  same  play.  The  name  of  Bettrice  is  never 
mentioned,  and  therefore  she  would  be  Bettrice  to  the  spectators  only 
because  she  would  be  dressed  like  Shakespere's  Beatrice. 

Eastward  Hoe  was  "made  by"  Chapman,  Jonson  and  Marston.  It  is 
quite  probable  therefore  that  these  allusions  were  not  from  Marston's  pen, 
they  may  be  from  Jonson's.  L.  T.  S.] 


1  It  is  perhaps  worth  noting  that  Hamlet,  as  a  Christian  name,  was  other- 
wise not  unknown  in  the  sixteenth  century.  "  Hamlet  Rider  "  occurs  in  the 
Muster  Roll  of  Calais,  about  1533—1540.  Cotton  AfS.  Fqu.st.  E  VII,  fo^ 
76  (in  the  British  Museum). 


GEO.  CHAPMAN,  &c.,  1605. 

Enter  Quickjiluer  vnlaid,  a  towell  about  his  necke,  in  his  flat  Cap, 

drunke. 

Quick.  Eaftward  Hoe  j  Holla  ye  pampered  lades  of  Afia  .... 
Goul[ding\.  Fie  fellow  Quickjiluer,  what  a  pickle  are  you  in? 
Quick.  Pickle  ?  pickle  in  thy  throat  •  zounes  pickle  .  .  . 
Lend  me  fome  monye 

Gould He  not  lend  thee  three  pence. 

Quick.  Sfoote  lend  me  fome  money,  hajl  thou  not  Hyfen  here  9 

Eastward  /  Hoe.  /  As  /  It  was  playd  in  the  /  Black-friers.  I 
By  I  The  Children  of  her  Maiesties  Reuels./  Made  by  j 
Geo :  Chapman,  Ben  :  lonson,  loh :  Marston./At  London/ 
Printed  for  William  Aspley.\  i6o5./  Actus  secundi. 
Scena  Prima.  sign.  B  3. 


As  we  have  "Hamlet;  are  you  madde?"  in  this  play,  sign.  D. — see 
above,  p.  149 — and  as  Quicksiluer's  language,  says  Gifford,  "like  Pistol's, 
is  made  up  of  scraps  from  old  plays"  (B.  Jonson's  Works,  ed.  Cunningham, 
2-col.,  i.  233,  col.  2  n.\  the  authors  of  Eastward  Hoe  no  doubt  allude,  in 
the  passage  above,  to  Pistol's  speeches  in  2  Henry  IV,  II.  iv.  : 

"downe  Dogges,  downe  Fates:  haue  wee  not  Hiren  here?  .  .  Shall 
Pack-horses,  and  hollow-pamper'd  lades  of  Asia,  which  cannot  goe  but 
thirtie  miles  a  day,  compare  with  C<zsar,  and  with  Caniballs,  and  Troian 
Greek es?  .  .  .  Have  we  not  Hiren  here?"  F.  J.  F. 


G.  CHAPMAN,  &c.,  1605. 

Gyr[tred].  His  head  as  white  as  milke,  All  flaxen  was  his  haire  .- 

But  now  he  is  dead,  And  laid  in  his  Bed, 

And  neuer  will  come  againe.     God  be  at  your  labour. 

Eastward  /  Hoe./  As  /  It  was  playd  in  the  /  Black-friers. I  By 
The  Children  of  her  Maiesties  Reuels./  Made  by  \  Geo : 
Chapman.  Ben  :  lonson.  loh  :  Marston.  /  At  London  / 
Printed  for  William  Aspley.\  1605.7  Actus  tertii.  Scena 
Secunda.  Sign.  D2. 


[This  is  from  Ophelia's        No,  no  he  is  dead, 

Go  to  thy  death-bed ; 
He  never  will  come  again. 
His  beard  as  white  as  snow, 

All  flaxen  was  his  poll: 

.  .  I  pray  God.     God  be  wi'  you. 

Hamlet,  IV.vi.  189—197. 

H.  C.  HART.] 


153 


JOHN   MARSTON,  1605. 

Tis.    Then  thus,  and  thus,  fo  Hymen  fhould  begin  : — 
Sometimes  a  falling  out  proves  falling  in. 


The  Dutch  Courtezan,  as  it  was  playd  in  the  Blacke  Friars 
by  the  Children  of  her  Maiesties  Reuels.  Act  IV.  sc.  i. 
Vol.  ii.  p.  164,  ed.  Halliwell,  1856. 


Probably  from  Shakspere's  Troilus,  III.  i.  112 — 

Pand.  Hee  ?  no  ?  sheele  none  of  him  :  they  two  are  twaine. 
Hel.  Falling  in  after  falling  out  may  make  them  three. 

Teena  Rochfort  Smith. 


154 


Anonymous.    About  1605. 

Get  thee  to  London,  for  if  one  man  were  dead,  they  will  have 
much  neede  of  fuch  a  one  as  thou  art.  There  would  be  none 
in  my  opinion  fitter  then  thyfelfe  to  play  his  parts :  my  conceipt 
is  fuch  of  thee,  that  I  durft  venture  all  the  mony  in  my  purfe  on 
thy  head,  to  play  Hamlet  with  him  for  a  wager.  There  thou 
malt  learne  to  be  frugall  (for  Players  were  never  fo  thriftie  as 
they  are  now  about  London)  &  to  feed  upon  all  men,  to  let 
none  feede  upon  theej  to  make  thy  hand  a  ftranger  to  thy 
pocket,  thy  hart  flow  to  performe  thy  tongues  promife:  and 
when  thou  feeleft  thy  purfe  well  lined,  buy  thee  fome  place  or 
Lordlhip  in  the  Country,  that  growing  weary  of  playing,  thy 
mony  may  there  bring  thee  to  dignitie  and  reputation. 
Sir,  I  thanke  you  (quoth  the  Player)  for  this  good  counfell,  I 
promife  you  I  will  make  ufe  of  it,  for,  I  have  heard  indeede,  of 
fome  that  have  gone  to  London  very  meanly,  and  have  come  in 
time  to  be  exceeding  wealthy. 

Ratseis    Ghost,   or    the   second  Part  of  his  madde  Prankes  and 
Robberies,     [n.d.    qto.     Unique  copy  in  the  Althorp  Library. 
Sign.  B  I.] 


[This  tract  bears  no  date,  but  it  is  found  in  a  volume  of  contemporary 
binding  with  several  other  tracts  of  1603,  1604,  and  1605.  L.  T.  S.] 

Here,  too,  we  find  Burbage  and  Shakespere  associated,  as  they  were  by 
Marston  and  by  Davies  :  "  if  one  man  were  dead"  identifies  the  former  ; 
while,  "  some  that  have  gone  to  London,"  &c.,  unmistakeably  points  to  the 
latter. 


ANONYMOUS,    1605.  155 

We  might  have  quoted  as  a  pendant  to  this  extract  the  following  from 
The  Returnefrom  Pernassus,  1 606  (played  1602,  see  before,  p.  103)  : 

Stiidiofo.  Fayre  fell  good  Orpheus,  that  would  rather  be 
King  of  a  mole  hill,  then  a  Keysars  slave  : 
Better  it  is  mongst  fidlers  to  be  chiefe, 
Then  at  [a]  plaiers  trencher  beg  reliefe. 
But  ist  not  strange  this  mimick  apes  should  prize 
Unhappy  Schollers  at  a  hireling  rate. 
Vile  world,  that  lifts  them  up  to  hye  degree, 
And  treades  us  downe  in  groveling  misery. 
England  affordes  those  glorious  vagabonds, 
That  carried  earst  their  fardels  on  their  backes, 
Coursers  to  ride  on  through  the  gazing  streetes, 
Sooping  it  in  their  glaring  Satten  sutes, 
And  Pages  to  attend  their  maisterships  : 
With  mouthing  words  that  better  wits  have  framed, 
They  purchase  lands,  and  now  Esquiers  are  made. 

Philomusus.  What  ere  they  seeme  being  even  at  the  best, 
They  are  but  sporting  fortunes  scornfull  jests. 

Stud.  So  merry  fortune  is  wont  from  ragges  to  take, 
Some  ragged  grome,  and  him  some  gallant  make. 

(Actus  5,  scena  I  ;  Sign.  G  4,  back.) 

[But  Shakespere  never  was  an  Esquire,  he  was  in  his  Will  plain  William 
Shackspeare gentleman.  (See  for  example  the  extract  from  Edm.  Howes, 
1614.)  In  his  day  the  distinction  was  real.  See  Sir  Thomas  Smith,  quoted 
in  Transactions  of  New  Sh.  Soc.,  1877-9,  Part  I,  pp.  103,  104.  L.  T.  S.J 


'56 


*  SIR   THOMAS   SMITH,  1605. 

This  falling  away  of  them,  *    *  haftied  the  laft  breath  of  the 
once  hoped-for  Prince,  as  from  him  that  muft  notorioufly  know 

*  *  that  his  fathers  Empire  and  Gouernment,  was  but  as  the 
Poeticall  Furie  in  a  Stage-a6iion,  compleat  yet  with  horrid  and 
wofull  Tragedies:  a  firft,  but  no  second  to  any  Hamlet;  and 
that  now  Reuenge,  iuft  Reuenge  was  comming  with  his  Sworde 
drawne  againft  him,  his  royall  Mother,  and  deareft  Sifter,  to  fill 
up  thofe  Murdering  Sceanes. 

Voiageand  Entertainment  in  Rushia.  With  the  tragicatt  ends 
of  two  Emperors,  and  one  Empresse,  within  one  moneth 
during  his  being  there  :  And  the  miraculous  preservation  of 
the  now  raigning  Emperor,  esteemed  dead  for  1 8  yeares. 
1605.  Sign.  K. 

THOMAS    DEKKER,  1609. 

[In  his  account  of  the  Gipsies  and  their  thefts,  and  killing  of 
sheep,  pigs,  and  poultry], — 

The  bloudy  tragedies  of  al  thefe,  are  only  acted  by  ye  Womew 

#  *    The  Stage  is  fome  large  Heath,  or  a  Firre  bum  Common, 
far  from  any  houfes :    Upow  which  cafting   them-felves  into  a 
Ring,  they  inclofe  the  Murdered,  till  the  Maflacre  be  finilhed. 
If  any  paflenger  come  by,  and  wondring  to  fee  fuch  a  corajuring 
circle  kept  by  Hel-hou/zdes,   demaund  what  fpirits  they  raife 
there  >  one  of  the  Murderers  fteps  to  him,  poyfons  him  with 
fweete  wordes  and  mifts  him  off,  with  this  lye,  y*  one  of  the 
wome?z  is  falne  in  labour.     But  if  any  mad  Hamlet  hearing  this, 
fmell  villanie,  &  rum  in  by  violence  to  fee  what  the   tawny 
Pivels  are  dooing,  thera  they  excufe  the  fact,  &c. 

Lanlhome  and  Candle-light.    Or,  The  Bell- 
Mans  second  Nights-Walke.     Sign.  ff2. 


SAMUEL    ROWLANDS,    1620. 


*  SAMUEL  ROWLANDS,  1620. 

I  will  not  cry  Hamlet  Revenge  my  greeves, 
But  I  will  call  Hang-man  Revenge  on  theeves. 

The  Night-Raven.     Sign.  D  2. 


[The  three  previous  bits  were  classed  in  Dr.  Ingleby's  first  edition  as 
"  irrelevant,"  or  mistaken.  But  it  seems  to  me  that  considering  their  dates, 
it  is  open  to  doubt  whether  they  do  not  as  likely  refer  to  Shakespere's  play 
as  to  the  older  Hamlet,  and  that  therefore  they  are  of  sufficient  interest  to 
warrant  my  printing  the  extracts  in  full.  Our  authorities  for  the  existence 
of  the  pre-Shakesperian  play  of  Hamlet  are  Nash's  Epistle  prefixed  to  Green's 
Menaphon  (referred  to  in  Appendix  A,  vol.  ii,  and  Lodge's  Wifs  Miserie 
(see  vol.  ii,  p.  20).  Professor  Dowden,  agreeing  with  me  that  there  is 
no  sufficient  reason  for  setting  down  the  above  three  passages  decidedly 
as  mistaken  references,  or  for  deciding  that  they  refer  to  the  old  Hamlet, 
remarks  upon  the  latter,  —  "I  think,  considering  the  probable  date  of  the 
old  Hamlet,  and  the  remarkable  impression  apparently  made  by  the  ghost 
crying  '  Revenge, '  that  it  is  not  unlikely  to  have  been  a  bloody  drama  in 
which  the  central  motiv  was  revenge,  and  that  the  Hamlet  of  that  old 
play  was  a  close  kinsman  of  the  Hamlet  of  the  Historie  [of  1608,  translated 
from  Belleforest's  Histoires  Tragiques],  capable  of  all  kinds  of  vigorous  action. 
In  the  old  play  he  probably  assumed  his  antic  disposition  manifestly  for  a 
purpose"  (Private  letter].  He  therefore  thinks  it  possible,  though  not 
certain,  that  the  two  "revenge"  passages  above  given  may  be  connected 
with  the  old  play.  L.  T.  S.I 


*WM.  WARNER,  1606. 

ONe  Makebeth,  who  had  traitroufly  his  fometimes  Souerefgne 
flaine, 

And  like  a  Monfler  not  a  Man  vfurpt  in  Scotland  raigne, 
Whofe  guiltie  Confcience  did  it  felfe  fo  feelingly  accufe, 
As  nothing  not  applide  by  him,  againft  himfelfe  he  vewes  -} 
No  whifpring  but  of  him,  gainft  him  all  weapons  feares  he 

borne, 

All  Beings  iointly  to  reuenge  his  Murthres  thinks  he  fworne, 
Wherefore  (for  fuch  are  euer  fuch  in  felfe-tormenting  mind) 
But  to  proceed  in  bloud,  he  thought  no  fafetie  to  find. 
All  Greatnefle  therefore,   faue  his  owne,   his  driftings  did  in- 

feft  *  *  *  * 

One  Banquho,  powrefulft  of  the  Peers,  in  popular  affection 
And  prowefTe  great,  was  murthred  by  his  tyrannous  direction. 
Fleance  therefore  this  Banquhos  fonne  fled  thence  to  Wales  for 

feare, 
Whome  Gruffyth  kindly  did  receiue,  and  cherifht  nobly  there. 

Booke  15.  Chap.  94  of  A  Continuance  of  Albions  England, 
1606.  By  William  Warner,  being  Books  14 — 16  of  his 
Albions  England,  ed.  1612,*  p.  375-6. 


As  the  date  of  Shakspere's  Macbeth  must  be  late  in  1605  or  early  in  1606, 
Warner  may  well  have  been  led  to  deal  with  King  Macbeth  by  the  popular- 
ity of  Shakspere's  play.  And  though  he  in  no  way  follows  Shakspere's 
lines,  but  instead,  the  chronicler's  history  of  Fleance's  amour  with  Griffith's 

*  There  is  no  copy  of  the  1606  edition  in  the  British  Museum,  unless  the 
titleless  Continuance  of  the  1612  copy  is  in  fact  the  1606  book.  (Jan.  n, 
1 88 1.) 


WM.    WARNER,     1606.  159 

daughter  and  his  death  for  it,*  I  yet  believe  that  his  introductory  lines  above, 
and  specially  the  '  bloud'  one,  refer  to  Shakspere's  play,  and  his  lines— 

"  I  am  in  blood 

Stept  in  so  far,  that,  should  I  wade  no  more, 
Returning  were  as  tedious  as  go  o'er." 

Macbeth,  III.  iv.  136-8. 

The  editions  of  Warner's  Albion's  England  run  thus  : — 

1586  Part  I.  4  Books,  22  Chaps,  with  Prose  Addn.  for  Bk.  2. 

1589     Parts  I.  and  II.      6      „       33      „  „ 

1592        „     (enlarged)     91  44      „  „ 

ti596        „  I22    „       77      „ 

1597  (reprint  of '1596)     I22   „        77      „ 

1602         (enlarged)  13     ,,        79      ,,  And  a  prose  Epitome  of 

the  whole  Historic  of 
England, 
t  1606  A  Continuance.  Books  14 — 16,  ch.  80—107. 

1612  (The  Whole  Work)  16  Books,  107  Chaps.  ,, 

The  late  Prof.  G.  L.  Craik  (died  June,  1866)  pointed  out  the  Warner 
passage  to  Mr.  S.  Neil,  who  printed  a  few  lines  of  it  in  his  edition  of  Mac- 
beth (1876),  p.  9,  note  (Collins's  School  and  College  Classics).  Mr.  Joseph 
Knight  noted  the  allusion  independently,  and  I  quoted  the  lines  from  his 
Warner  of  1612  in  the  Academy,  Jan.  I,  1881,  p.  8,  col.  I.  In  the  next 
Academy,  Jan.  8,  Mr.  Neil  claimd  his  priority. — F.  J.  F. 

*  His  son  Walter  afterwards  goes  back  to  Scotland,  and  there  founds  the 
royal  strain  from  which  James  I.  descended. 
f  Not  in  the  British  Museum,  Jan.  n,  1880. 

1  But  Bk.  9,  ch.  44,  has  only  8  lines. 

2  Bk.  9  really  for  the  first  time.     It  incorporates  the  8  lines  of  ed.  1592. 


i66 


JOHN  RAYNOLDS,  1606. 

[The  old  Hermit,  entertaining  his  guest  at  meat,  takes  a  skull 
in  his  hand, — ] 

He  held  it  ftill,  in  his  finifter  hand, 

And  turn'd  it  foft,  and  ftroakt  it  with  the  other, 

He  fmil'd  on  it,  and  oft  demurely  faund, 

As  it  had  beene,  the  head  of  his  owne  brother  : 

Oft  would  h'have  fpoke,  but  fomething  bred  delay  j 
At  length  halfe  weeping,  thefe  words  did  he  fay. 

This  barren  fcull,  that  here  you  do  behold, 
Why  might  it  not,  have  beene  an  Emperours  head  ? 
Whofe  flore-houfe  rich,  was  heap'd  with  mafly  gold, 
If  it  were  fo,  all  that  to  him  is  dead : 

His  Empire  crowne,  his  dignities  and  all, 

When  death  tooke  him,  all  them  from  him  did  fall. 

#  *  *  # 

And  might  it  not,  a  Lady  fometimes  ioye, 
T'haue  deckt,  and  trim'd,  this  now  rainbeaten  face, 
With  many  a  trick,  and  new-found  pleating  toye  ? 
Which  if  that  now,  (he  did  behold  her  cafe. 
Although  on  earth,  ihe  were  for  to  remaine, 
She  would  not  paint,  nor  trimme  it  up  againe. 

Why  might  not  this,  have  beene  fome  lawiers  pate, 
The  which  fometimes,  brib'd,  brawl'd,  and  tooke  a  fee, 


JOHN    RAYNOLDS,     1606.  l6l 

And  lawe  exa&ed,  to  the  higheft  rate  ? 
Why  might  not  this,  be  fuch  a  one  as  he  ? 

Your  quirks,  and  quillets,  now  fir  where  be  they, 

Now  he  is  mute,  and  not  a  word  can  fay. 

Dolarnys  Primerose,  Or  the  first  part  of  the  passionate  Hermit. 

1606.    Sign.  D  4,  back,  E.    In  Mr.  Henry  Huth's  Library. 
Reprinted  for  the  Roxburghe  Club,  1816.     [Dolarnys=Raynolds~\ 


[Compare  with  this  Hamlet,  Act  V.  sc.  i.  Raynold's  verses  are  perhaps  a 
closer  parallel  than  Thomas  Randolph's  reminiscences  of  the  same  scene  in 
his  Jealous  Lovers,  1632,  see  later,  pp.  361,  362. 

If  these  verses  may  be  taken  as  an  undoubted  allusion  to  Hamlet,  not  the 
least  interesting  is  the  first  quoted  above,  which  describes  exactly  the  action 
of  Hamlet  on  taking  up  the  skull  in  use  on  the  stage  at  the  present  day,  and 
may  fairly  be  supposed  to  bear  reference  to  what  Raynolds  and  the  play- 
goers of  his  day  had  before  their  eyes  in  the  grave-digger's  scene.  It  is  to  be 
observed  that  no  authority  for  this  action,  the  turning  soft,  stroking,  smiling, 
&c.,  is  to  be  found  in  the  play  itself. 

The  last  verse  given  above  was  quoted  in  the  Athenaeum,  May  22,  1875,  and 
in  Mr.  H.  H.  Furness'  Variorum  Hamlet,  Vol.  I.  p.  386.  Mr.  Haslewood 
printed  portions  of  the  poem  in  the  British  Bibliographer',  1810,  Vol.  I. 
p.  153.  L.  T.  S.] 


SH.  ALLN.  BK. — I. 


162 


1606.     BARNABE    BARNES. 

I  will  not  omit  that  which  is  yet  frefh  in  our  late  Chronicles ; 
and  hath  been  many  times  reprefented  vnto  the  vulgar  vpon  our 
Englifh  Theaters,  of  Richard  Plantag'met,  third  ibnne  to  Richard 
Duke  of  Yorke,  who  (being  eldeft  brother  next  furuiuing  to 
King  Edivard  the  fourth),  after  hee  had  vnnaturally  made  away 
his  elder  brother,  George  Duke  of  Clarence  (whom  he  thought  a 
grieuous  eye-fore  betwixt  him  and  the  marke  at  which  he 
leuelled),  did  vpon  death  of  the  King  his  brother,  take  vpon  him 
protection  of  this  Realme,  vnder  his  two  Nephewes  left  in  his 
butcherly  tuition :  both  which  he  cauled  at  once  to  be  fmothered 
together,  within  a  keepe  of  his  Maiefties  Tower,  at  London  : 
which  ominous  bad  lodging  in  memoriall  thereof,  is  to  this  day 
knowne,  and  called  by  name  of  the  lloodly  Tower.  Hereupon, 
this  odious  Vncle  vfurped  the  crowne ;  but  within  little  more 
then  two  yeares  was  depofed,  &  confounded  in  the  Battell  at 
Bofworth  in  Ley cejierjliire :  1485.  by  King  Henry  the  feuenth, 
fent  by  God  to  make  reftitution  of  the  peoples  liberties ;  and 
after  fo  long  and  horrible  a  fhowre  of  ciuill  blood,  to  fend  a 
golden  fun-fhine  of  peace,  clofed  vp  in  the  princely  leaues  of 
that  fweet,  &  modeft  Rofe  of  Lancajler ;  which  being  worne 
in  the  beautifull  bofome  of  Lady  Elhaletli  the  daughter  of  King 
Edward,  (late  mentioned  of  the  Family  of  Yorke}  difperfed  thofe 
feditious  cloudes  of  warre  which  had  a  long  time  obfcured  our 
firmament  of  peace,  baniming  that  fulphurous  fmoke  of  the 
newly  deuifed  Cannon,  with  the  diuine  odour  of  that  blelTed 
inoculation  of  Rofes :  yeelding  by  their  facred  vnion  the  Lady 
Margaret,  the  first  flower  of  that  conjunction ;  and  great  Grand- 


1606.   BARNABE  BARNES.  163 

mother  (as  I  declared)  to  our  Soueraignes  Maieftie,  in  thefe 
happy  bodyes  raigning  ouer  vs :  whofe  blefled  raigne,  I  befeech 
God  to  lengthen  as  the  dayes  of  heauen. 

Fovre  Bookes  /  of  Offices :  /  Enabling  Privat  /  persons  for 
the  spedall  sendee  of  /  all  good  Princes  and  Policies.] 
Made  and  deuised  by  Barnabe  Barnes.  /  London  /  Printed 
at  the  charges  of  George  Bishop,  /  T.  Adams,  and  C. 
Burble.  /  i6o6./  p.  113.  F.  J.  F. 


1 64 


WILLIAM  DRUMMOND  OF  HAWTHORNDEN, 
1606  &  1611. 

Bookes  red  be  mey  anno  1 606 

*        *        *        *        * 

Romeo  and  Julieta,  tragedie.   [1^97,  1599.] 
***** 

Loues  Labors  Loft,  comedie.   [1598.] 

***** 

The  Paffionate  Pilgrime  [1599.] 
***** 

The  Rape  of  Lucrece  [1^94,  1598,  1600.] 

***** 

A  Midfommers  Nights  Dreame,  comedie.   [1600.] 
***** 

Table  of  my  Englijh    bookes,  anno  1611. 
***** 

Venus  and  Adon.  by  Schaksp.  [6th  and  7th  ed.  1602.] 

The  Rap  of  Lucrece,  idem,    [two  eds.  in  1607] 

***** 

The  Tragedie  of  Romeo  and  Julieta 

4^.  Ing 

***** 

A  Midfumers  Night  Dreame. 

Extracts  from  the  Hawthornden  Manuscripts,  by  David 
Laing,  Archceologia  Scotica,  vol.  iv.  Edinburgh. 
1831-2.  pp.  20,  note,  21. 


[It  is  curious  that  after  1606,  the  first  year  in  which  Drummond  gives  a  list 
of  his  year's  readings,  up  to  1614  when  they  end,  there  is  no  other  mention 
of  Shakespere  than  those  above.  It  is  also  curious,  especially  when  one 
looks  to  the  dates  of  the  editions,  that  all  should  have  been  read  (except  the 
V.  and  Ad.}  in  the  one  year  of  1606.  B.  N.]  [Young  Drummond  was, 
however,  staying  in  London  in  the  summer  of  1606.  whence  he  went  abroad^ 
not  returning  till  1609,  the  bent  of  his  studies  would  therefore  naturally 
follow  his  place  of  residence  for  the  time.  (See  D.  Masson's  Life,  1873, 
pp.  II,  14,  18.)  He  paid  fourpence  for  Romeo  6°  Juliet,  the  only  one  of 
Shakespere's  books  to  which  he  marks  a  price.  L.  T.  S.] 


THOMAS    HEYWOOD,    1606. 

Leic.  But,  madam,  ere  that  day  come, 
There  will  be  many  a  bloody  nofe,  ay,  and  crack'd  crown : 
We  fliall  make  work  for  furgeons. 

1606.     Hey  wood's  If  You  Know  Not  Me,    You  Know 
Nobody,  2nd  Part,  Old  Sh.  Soc.  eel.,  p.  157. 


This  may  refer  to 

*  We  must  have  bloody  noses  and  crack'd  crowns, 
And  pass  them  current  too.' 

I  Hen.  IV.,  II.  iii.  96. 

Or  it  may  be  a  common  phrase. — W.  G.  Stone. 


i66 


THE 

PVRITAINE 

Or 

THE  VVIDDOVV 

of  Watling-ftreete 
•     Acted  by  the  Children  of  Paules. 


Written  by  W.  S. 


[Device] 


Imprinted  at  London  by  G.  ELD. 
1607. 


THE    PVRITAINE,    1607.  167 

\The  Puritaine  was  entered  in  the  Stationers'  Registers  on  August  6, 
1607. 

"  George  Elde  Entred  for  his  copie  vnder  thandes  of  Sir  George  Bucke 
knight  and  the  wardens  a  book  called  the  comedie  of  the  Puritan  Widowe, 
vjd." 

The  Puritaine  was  next  printed  in  Folio  3.  As  in  the  cases  of  Thomas 
Lord  Cromwell  and  Locrine,  "  W.  S."  was  assuredly  meant  to  be 
interpreted  as  "William  Shakspere."  See  C.  F.  Tucker  Brooke's 
Shakespeare  Apocrypha,  1908,  pp.  xvi,  xxx.  M.I 


i68 


W.  S.   1607. 

in  ftead  of  a  letter,  weele  ha  the  ghoft  ith  white  iheete  fit  at 
upper  end  a'  th  Table. 

The  Puritaine,  or  the  Widdow  of  Watting- Strecte. 
1607,  sign.  H,  back.     [4/0.] 


A  slight  allusion  to  the  ghost  of  Banquo  in  Macbeth. 

Macbeth  was  probably  written  in  1605-6,  though  not  printed  till  the  first 
Folio  of  1623. 

[Mr.  Fleay  (Shakespere  Manual,  1876,  p.  20)  considers  that  The  Puritan 
"  is  filled  with  allusions  to  Shakespere."  He  only  instances,  however,  the 
above  line,  and  a  portion  of  Act  IV.  sc.  iii,  as  being  imitated  from  Pericles, 
Act  III.  sc.  ii,  the  scene  of  the  recovery  of  Thaisa.  But  we  have  no  earlier 
date  for  Pericles  than  1608,  when  it  was  entered  on  the  Stationers'  Register. 

In  Beaumont  and  Fletcher's  Knight  of  the  Burning  Pestle,  1613  (written 
j6ji),  Jasper,  personating  his  own  ghost,  threatens  the  Merchant,— 

"  When  thou  art  at  the  Table  with  thy  friends 
Merry  in  heart,  and  fild  with  swelling  wine, 
Il'e  come  in  midst  of  all  thy  pride  and  mirth, 
Invisible  to  all  men  but  thy  selfe, 
And  whisper  such  a  sad  tale  in  thine  eare, 
Shall  make  thee  let  the  Cuppe  fall  from  thy  hand.' 

(ActV.  sc.  i;  sign.  73.) 

Mr.  Aldis  Wright  points  out  that  this  too  may  be  a  reminiscence  of  the 
ghost  of  Banquo  {Macbeth,  Clarendon  Press  Series,  p.  viii.).  L.  T.  S.] 


169 


Anonymous ',  1607. 


Fabell.     What  meanes  the  toling  of  this  fatall  Chime, 
O  what  a  trembling  horror  ftrikes  my  heart ! 
My  ftifrened  hayre  flands  vpright  on  my  head, 
As  doe  the  briftles  of  a  porcupine. 

The  Merry  Divel  of  Edmonton.     1617,  sign.  A  3,  back. 


[Fabell  makes  this  exclamation  at  the  approach  of  the  evil  spirit  Coreb, 
with  whom  he  has  covenanted  for  his  soul.  So  the  ghost  tells  Hamlet- 

"  I  could  a  tale  unfold  whose  lightest  word 
Would  harrow  up  thy  soul,"  and  make 
"  each  particular  hair  to  stand  on  end 
Like  quills  upon  the  fretful  porcupine."     (Act  I.  sc.  v.) 

Evidently  the  author  of  the  Merry  Divel  of  Edmonton  had  this  in  his 
mind,  though  he  did  not,  like  Marston,  acknowledge  that  he  made  his  puppet 
"  speake  play  scrappes  "  (see  after,  p.  176). 

The  author  of  this  play  is  unknown,  though  Kirkman  (Exact  Catalogue  oj 
Comedies,  &*c.,  1671,  p.  9)  attributed  it  to  Shakespere.  It  was  entered  on 
the  Stationers'  Register,  22  Oct.  1607,  the  first  edition  being  printed  in  1608. 
L.  T.  S.] 


170 


GEO.  CHAPMAN,  1607. 

great  Seamen,  ufing  all  their  wealth 

And  fkills  in  Neptunes  deepe  invifible  pathes, 
In  tall  ihips  richly  built  and  ribd  with  brafle, 
To  put  a  Girdle  round  about  the  world. 

Bussy  D'Ambois.  A  Tragedie  :  As  it  hath  been  often  pre- 
sented at  Paules.  London.  Printed  for  William  Asfley, 
1607  (ed.  1657,  sign.  AS),  I.  i.  20-3.  Works,  ed. 
Shepherd,  1874,  p.  140,  col.  2. 


Pucke.  He  put  a  girdle  about  the  iearth,  in  forty  minutes. — A  Midsomer 
nights  Dreamt*  Folio,  p.  149,  col.  2  ;  II.  i.  175. 

Was  not  Chapman  considering  the  fate  of  Duncan's  horses  in  Macbeth, 
II.  iv,  when  he  wrote  the  following  in  his  Byrons  Tragedie,  1608,  Works, 
1874,  p.  256,  col.  I : — 

' '  And  to  make  this  no  less  than  an  ostent, 
Another  that  hath  fortun'd  since,  confirms  it: 
Your  goodly  horse  Pastrana,  which  the  Archduke, 
Gave  you  at  Brussels,  in  the  very  hour 
You  left  your  strength,  fell  mad,  and  kill'd  himself  ; 
The  like  chanced  to  the  horse  the  great  Duke  sent  you  ; 
And,  with  both  these,  the  horse  the  duke  of  Lorraine, 
Sent  you  at  Vimie  made  a  third  presage  .  .  . 
Who  like  the  other,  pined  away  and  died. 


The  matchless  Earl  of  Essex,  whom  some  make 
A  parallel  with  me  in  life  and  fortune, 
Had  one  horse  likewise,  that  the  very  hour 
He  suffer'd  death,  (being  well  the  night  before,) 
Died  in  his  pasture."— H.  C.  HART. 


GEORGE  PEELE,  ?  1607. 

How  he  ferved  a  Tapfter. 

George  was  making  merry  with  three  or  foure  of  his  friends 
in  Pye-corner,  where  the  Tapfter  of  the  houfe  was  much  given  to 
Poetry  :  for  he  had  ingrofled  the  Knight  of  the  Sunne,  Venus  and 
Adonis,  and  other  Pamphlets  which  the  ftrippling  had  collected 
cogether. 

Merrie  Conceited  Jests  of  George  Peele.  (Earliest  kncnvn  edition,  1607.) 
[Bodleian  Lib.,  Tanner  734,  p.  19.  Date  cut  off.  Works,  by  Rev.  A. 
Dyce,  1828.  Vol.  II.  p.  213.] 


[It  is  believed  that  George  Peele  died  in  1598.  There  is  little  doubt  that 
the  collection  of  "Merrie  conceited  Jests"  was  published  shortly  after,  though 
the  earliest  recorded  edition  is  of  1607.  The  book  is  of  little  authority  ; 
Peele  was  a  scholar,  though  a  needy  scrupulous  man,  and  the  use  of  his  name 
to  father  such  a  book  finds  a  parallel  in  a  worse  book  assigned  to  the  great 
Scottish  scholar  and  statesman,  George  Buchanan.  (See  Dyce's  edition  of 
Peele's  Works,  1828,  vol.  i.  p.  viii.)  L.  T.  S.] 


172. 


T.   WALKINGTON,  1607. 

Fat  paunches  make1  leane  pates,  6°  groffer2  lits 
Enrich  3  the  ribs  but  bankrupt 4  quite  the  wits. 

The  I  Optick  glasse  /  of  Hvmors,  Or  /  The  touchstone  of  a 
golden  I  temperature  /  .  .  .  by  T.  W\alkington\  Master  {  of 
Artes  \\tori\,  p.  42. 


[We  are  indebted  to  Prof.  Dowden  for  the  reference.     The  reference  is 
Loues  labors  lost,  I,  i,  26.     M,] 

1  haue  in  Quarto.  2  daynty  in  Q. 

*  make  rich  in  Q.  *  bankerout  in  F.;  banerout  in  Q. 


EDWARD  SHARPHAM,  1607. 

Old  Lord.  And  hee  is  welcome,  what  fuddaine  guft  (my 
Sonne)  in  haft  hath  blowne  thee  hither.  &  made  thee  leave  the 
Court,  where  fo  many  earth-treading  ftarres  adornes  the  sky  of 

ftate? 

1607.  Edward  Sharpham.  Cupids  Whirligig  /  As 
it  hath  bene  sundry  times  Acted  /  by  the  Children 
of  the  Kings  Majesties  /  Reuels./  Sign.  B  I,  back. 

Compare  Romeo  6°  Juliet,  Act  I.  sc.  ii.  1.  25  : — 

"  At  my  poor  house  look  to  behold  this  night 
Earth-treading  stars  that  make  dark  heaven  light." 


and  y  faith  he  was  a  neate  lad  too,  for  his  beard  was  newly 
cut  bare;  marry  it  fhowed  fomething  like  a  Medow  newly 
mowed  :  ftubble,  ftubble. 

1607.  E.  Sharpham.  The  Fleire.]  As  it  hath  beene  often 
played  in  the  /  Blacke- Fryers  by  the  Children  of  /  the 
Reuells./  Sign.  B  3,  back,  at  foot. 

Compare  I  Hen.  IV,  Act  I.  sc.  iii,  on  the  fop's  beard  : 

"  and  his  chin  new  reap'd 
Show'd  like  a  stubble-land  at  harvest-home." 

(The  following  passage  illustrates  one  of  Shakspere's  words  : 

"I  can  no  longer  hold  my  patience 
Impudent  villaine,  &  lascivious  Girles, 
I  have  ore-heard  your  vild  convertions  ; 
You  scorne  Philosophy  :  You'le  be  no  Nunne, 
You  must  needs  kisse  the  Purse,  because  he  sent  it, 
And  you  forsooth  yo\ijlurgill,  minion 
You'le  have  your  will  forsooth." 

1578.     Wm.  Haughton.     A  Woman  Will  ffane 

Her  Will,  ed.  1631. 

Compare  the  Nurse  in  Romeo  &•»  Juli'et,  II.  iv.  162  :  "  Scurvy  knave  ! 
I  am  none  of  \^5  flirt-gills  ;  I  am  none  of  his  skains-mates.") 

E.  DOWDEN. 


174 


EDWARD  SHARPHAM,  1607. 

Kni[ght].  And  how  Hues  he  with  am. 

F/epre].  Faith  like  Thifbe  in  the  play,  a  has  almoft  kil'd  him- 
felfe  with  the  fcabberd  : 

Thef  Fleire.\  As  it  hath  beene  often  played  in  the  /  Blacke-Fryers  by 
the  Children  of\  the  Reuells.\  Written  by  Edward  Sharpham  of 
the  Middle  Temple,  Gentleman.  At  London.]  Printed  and  are  to 
be  solde  by  F.  B.  in  Paules-  Church\yard,  at  the  signe  of  the  Flower 
de  Luce  and  the  I  Crowne,  1607.  Actus  Secundus.  Sign.  E,  back. 

This  bit  of  business, — to  which  Mr.  Halliwell-Phillipps  calld  attention  in 
his  Memoranda,  M.  N.  Dr. ,  1879,  p.  35,  and  which  must  have  been  due  to  one 
of  Shakspere's  fellows,  if  not  to  Shakspere  himself, — became  a  tradition  on 
the  Stage,  and  was  folio wd  by  the  actor  who  playd  Flute  with  Charles  Kean 
between  1850  and  1860  (?).  But  Mr.  Righton,  the  last  actor  who  playd 
Flute  to  Phelps's  Bottom  at  the  Gaiety  in  I875,1  tells  Mr.  E.  Rose  that 
he  didn't  follow  the  custom  :  he  stabd  himself  with  the  sword  hilt,  his  own 
thumb,  or  anything  that  came  handiest. 

I  doubt  whether  the  following  mention  of  Pyramus  and  Thisbe,  cited  by 
Mr.  H1L-P.,  p.  10,  is  a  reference  to  Shakspere's  M.  N.  Dr.,  tho  the  lines 
occur  in  the  next  poem  to  one  containing  an  allusion  to  the  old  play  of 
Hamlet  :— 

I  note  the  places  of  polluted  sinne 
Where  your  kind  wenches  and  their  bawds  put  in. 
I  know  the  houses  where  base  cheaters  vse, 
And  note  what  Gulls  (to  worke  vpon)  they  chuse  : 
I  take  a  notice  what  your  youth  are  doing, 
When  you  are  fast  a  sleepe,  how  they  are  woing, 
And  steale  together  by  some  secret  call, 
Like  Piramus  and  Thisby  through  the  wall. 
I  see  your  prentises  what  pranks  they  play, 
And  things  you  neuer  dreame  on  can  bewray  : 

(t  1620.  Sam.  Rowlands.)  The  Night-\ Raven.]  By  S.  R.j  London.] 
Printed  by  G  :  Eld  for  lohn  Deane  and  Thomas  Baily.  1620.  4to.  sign. 
D  2,  back  ;  p.  28,  Hunterian  Soc.  reprint,  1872. — F.  J.  F. 

1  It  was  produced  on  Febr.  15,  1875. — E.  Rose. 

f  It  was  popular,  and  having  been  first  published,  as  far  as  we  know,  in 
1618,  it  was  reprinted  in  1620  and  1634,  each  time  with  a  wood-cut  of  a 
raven  on  the  title-page.  (Bibliographical  Index  to  the  Works  of  Samuel 
Rowlands  (Hunt.  Soc.),  p.  37.)—  P.  A.  L. 


175 


WILLIAM  BARKSTEAD,  1607. 

But  flay  my  Mufe  in  thine  owne  confines  keepe, 

&  wage  not  warre  with  fo  deere  lov'd  a  neighbor, 
But  having  Tung  thy  day  fong,  reft  and  fleepe 

preferve  thy  fmall  fame  and  his  greater  favor : 
His  Song  was  worthie  merrit  (Shakfpeare  hee) 
lung  the  faire  bloflbme,  thou  the  withered  tree 

Laurell  is  due  to  him,  his  art  and  wit 

hath  purchaft  it,  Cypres  thy  brow  will  fit. 

Mirrha,  the  Mother  of  Adonis  ;    or  Lustes  Prodegies.    1607. 

Last  stanza.    [4/0.]    In  the  Bodleian  Lib.  (Malone,  393.) 
Reprinted  by  Dr.  Grosar.t  in  Poems  of  William   Barksted, 

1876,  p.  65.      C.  M.  I. 


176 


JOHN  MARSTON,  1607. 

Ha  he  mount[s]  Chirall  on  the  wings  of  fame. 
A  horfe,  a  horfe,  my  kingdom  for  a  horfe, 
Looke  the  I  fpeake  play  fcrappes. 

What  You  Will.     Act  II.  Sc.  i.     1607, 
sign.  C  i.     [4/0.] 


[Richard  III,  Act  V.  sc.  iv,  1.  7.  (See  before,  p.  52.)  It  is  possible  that 
the  first  line  of  this  extract  contains  two  printer's  errors,  "he"  for  "  ile  " 
(the  old  way  of  printing  "  I'll "),  and  Chirall  for  Chevall ;  the  line  would 
thus  run, — 

"  Ha,  Ile  mount  Chevall  on  the  wings  of  fame.1' 

The  s  would  not  then  be  required  to  help  out  "mount ; "  and  Marston, 
mounting  Pegasus  in  writing  his  Satire,  naturally  calls  out  for  "A  horse," 
&c.  It  should  be  noted,  however,  that  the  play  is  unusually  well  printed, 
in  better  type  than  many  of  the  quartos  of  the  time.  L.  T.  S.] 


177 


THOMAS  HEYWOOD,  1607. 

Bawdier.     I  never  read  any  thing  but  Venus  and  Adonis. 

Cripple.  Why  thats  the  very  quinteffence  of  love, 
If  you  remember  but  a  verfe  or  two, 
He  pawne  my  head,  goods,  lands  and  all  'twill  doe. 

Bow.  Why  then,  have  at  her. 
Fondling  I  fay,  fince  I  have  hemd  thee  heere, 
Within  the  circle  ofthis  ivory  pale, 
He  be  a  parke. 

Mall  Berry.  Hands  off  fond  Sir. 

Bow.  — And  thou  malt  be  my  deere ; 
Feede  thou  on  me,  and  I  will  feede  on  thee, 
And  Love  mall  feede  us  both. 

Mall.  Feede  you  on  woodcockes,  I  can  fail  awhile. 

Bow.  Vouchfafe  thou  wonder  to  alight  thy  fteede. 

Crip.  Take  heede,  ihees  not  on  horfebacke. 

Bow.  Why  then  me  is  alighted. 
Come  fit  thee  downe  where  never  ferpent  hifTes, 
And,  being  let,  ile  fmother  thee  with  kiffes. 

The  Fayre  Mayde  of  the  Exchange.     1607,  sign.    G  3.     [&<?• 


Heywood  is  quoting  stanzas  39th  and  3rd  of  Venus  and  Adonis  ;  but  the 
lines — 

"  Feed  thou  on  me,  and  I  will  feed  on  thee, 
And  love  shall  feed  us  both," 

are  not  Shakespeare's,  but  Heywood's  parody  ;  and  "Come,  sit  thee  down, " 
is  an  error  for  "  Here  come  and  sit."  Machin  also  is  quoting  stanzas  39th 
and  3rd  ;  and  he  also  misquotes  from  both  :  "  on  dale  "  should  have  been  "  in 
dale,"  "  when  those  mounts  are"  should  have  been  "  if  those  hills  be,"  and 
"Here  sit  thee  down,"  is  inaccurate.  That  Shakespeare  may  have  dissem- 
inated a  first  draft  of  his  poem,  differing  from  that  known  to  us,  is,  perhaps, 
countenanced  by  the  varies  lectiones  in  the  old  copies  of  Shakespeare's  Poems  : 
especially  considering  that  we  know  one  stanza  of  the  Rape  of  Lucrece 
(quoted  after  with  the  addition  of  Sir  J.  Suckling,  1636)  which  is  not  only 
different,  but  in  a  different  measure  from  ours.  C.  M.  I. 

SH.    ALLN.    BK. — I.  N 


178 


THOMAS    HEYWOOD,    1607. 

•Crip[ple] .  What  Mailer  Bawdier,  have  you  let  her  pafle  un- 
conquer'd? 

Bow[dler~\.  Why  what  could  I  doe  more?  I  look'd  upon  her 
with  judgement,  the  firings  of  my  tongue  were  well  in  tune,  my 
embraces  were  in  good  meafure,  my  palme  of  a  good  conftitu- 
tion,  onely  the  phrafe  was  not  moving  j  as  for  example,  Venus 
her  felfe  with  all  her  fkill  could  not  winne  Adonis,  with  the  fame 
words  ;  O  heavens  ?  was  I  fo  fond  then  to  think  that  I  could 
conquer  Mall  Berry  ?  O  the  naturall  influence  of  my  owne 
wit  had  beene  farre  better. 

The  I  Fayre  Mayde  of  the  /  Exchange  :  With  /  the  pleasaunt 
•  Humours  of  the  /  Cripple  of  Fanchurch.  /  Very  delectable, 

and  full  of  mirth.  /  London  .  .  .  1607.    Thos.  Heywood's 

Dramatic  Works,  1874,  ii.  56. 


This  passage  should  of  course  have  been  printed  with  those  above,  p.  177, 
after  the  Venus  and  Adonis  extract  there. 

The  Fayre  Mayde  is  full  of  echoes  of  Shakspere.  Berry  and  the  forfeit  of 
Barnard's  bond  for  a  loan  for  3  months,  Works,  ii.  23,  28,  are  from  Shylock  ; 
Franke  Golding's  soliloquy  on  himself,  the  scorner,  falling  in  love,  p.  20,  is 
from  Berowne's  in  L.  L.  Lost,  III.  i.  175-207,  and  Benedick's  in  Much  Ado, 
II.  iii.  27-30  ;  Fiddle's  "  'tis  most  tolerable  and  not  to  be  endured,"  p.  57,  is 
Dogberry's;  Fiddle's  leave-taking,  "you,  Cripple,  to  your  shop,"  &c.,  is 
Jaques's  in  As  you  like  it,  V.  iv.  192-8  ;  and  the  plot  of  Flower  and  his  wife 
each  promising  their  daughter  to  a  different  man,  while  a  third  gets  her,  is 
more  or  less  from  the  Merry  Wives.  The  play  or  full  passages  should  be 
read.  I  quote  only  a  few  lines  : 


THOMAS    HEYWOOD,    1607. 


179 


HEYWOOD. 

1  could  not  indure  the  carreir  of  her 
wit  for  a  million  .... 

I  tell  thee  Cripple,  I  had  rather 
encounter  Herctdes  with  blowes,  than 
Mall Berry  with  words  :  And  yet  by 
this  light  I  am  horribly  in  love  with 
her.  Vol.  ii.  p.  54. 

but  the  name  of  Russetting  to  Master 
Fiddle  .  .  .'tis  most  tolerable,  and 
not  to  be  endured.  Works,  ii.  57. 


and  so  gentlemen  I  commit  you  all : 
you  Cripple  to  your  shop  ;  you  sir,  to 
a  turn-up  and  dish  of  capers ;  and 
lastly  you,  M.  Bernard,  to  the  tuition 
of  the  Counter-keeper  :  Works,  ii.  58. 


SHAKSPERE. 


I  cannot  endure  my  Ladie  Tongue. 
M.  Adoe,  II.  i.  284. 

I  will  go  on  the  slightest  arrand  now 
to  the  Antypodes  .  .  .  rather  than 
holde  three  words  conference  with 
this  harpy.  II.  i.  273-9. 
I  will  be  horribly  in  loue  with  her, 
Much.  Adoe,  II.  iii.  245. 

you  shall  also  make  no  noise  in  the 
streetes  :  for,  for  the  watch  to  babble 
and  to  talke,  is  most  tollerable,  and 
not  to  be  indured.  Much  Adoe  (Qo 
i),  III.  iii.  37. 

you   to   your   former   Honor  I   be- 
queath .   .  . 

you   to   a  loue  that  your  true   faith 
doth  merit  .  . 

you  to  your  land,  and  loue,  and  great 
allies  .  .  . 

And  you  to  wrangling  .  . 

As  you  like  it,  V.  iv.  192-5.    Fol. 
p.  207,  col.  2.— F.  J.  F. 


l8o 


JOHN  FLETCHER,  1607. 

Count.     Lazarello,  beftirre  thy  felfe  nimbly  and  fodainly,  and 
here  me  with  patience. 

Laza.     Let  me  not  fall  from  my  felfe  -3  fpeake  I  am  bound 
to  heare. 

Count.     So  art  thou  to  revenge,  when  thou  malt  heare  the 
filh  head  is  gone,  and  we  know  not  whither. 

(Act  II.  sc.  I") 
*  *  *  * 

It  comes  againe ;  new  apparitions, 
And  tempting  fpirits :  Stand  and  reveale  thy  felfe, 
Tell  why  thou  followest  me  ?     I  feare  thee 
As  I  feare  the  place  thou  camft  from  :  Hell. 

(Act  IIJ.  sc.  /.) 

The  Woman-Hater.     1607.     [4/0.]    Sign.  D  2,  D  4. 


[See  the  dialogue  between  the  Ghost  and  Hamlet  (Hamlet,  I.  sc.  v.),  two 
lines  (6,  7)  in  which  Fletcher  has  here  quoted, — 

' '  Ham.  Speak  ;  I  am  bound  to  hear . 

Ghost.     So  art  thou  to  revenge,  when  thou  shalt  hear."     L.  T.  S.] 


THOMAS  DEKKER,  1607. 

Jupiter  feeing  Plutus  difperfing  his  giftes,  amongft  none  but 
his  honefl  brethren,  ftrucke  him  (either  in  anger  or  envie)  ftarke 
blind,  fo  that  ever  fince  hee  hath  play'de  the  good  fellowe,  for 
now  every  gull  may  leade  him  up  and  downe  like  Guy,  to  make 
fports  in  any  drunken  aflemblie,  now  hee  regards  not  who  thrufts 
his  handes  into  his  pockets,  nor  how  it  is  fpent,  a  f  oole  mall  have 
his  heart  nowe,  as  foone  as  a  Phylition  :  And  an  ArTe  that  cannot 
fpell,  goe  laden  away  with  double  Duckets  from  his  Indian  ftore- 
houfe,  when  Ibis  Homere,  that  hath  layne  rick  feventeene  yeeres 
together  of  the  Vniverfitie  plague,  (watching  and  want),  only  in 
hope  at  the  laft  to  finde  fome  cure,  fliall  not  for  an  hundred  waight 
of  good  Latine  receive  a  two  penny  waight  in  filuer,  his  ignorance 
(arifing  from  his  blindenes)  is  the  onely  caufe  of  this  Comedie 
of  errors. 

A  Knights  Coniuring  done  in  earnest :  discouered 
in  iest.  1607.  Chapter  VI.,  sign.  F  4,  back. 

Reprinted  for  the  Percy  Society,  Early  English 
Poetry,  vol.  v.  pp.  52,  53. 


[This  may  be  taken  as  proof  that  the  Cowcdy  of  Errors  was  at  least  still 
in  mind  in  1607.     L.  T.  S.] 


3  82 


*  T.  DEKKER  AND  J.   WEBSTER,    1607. 

Par.  .  .  when  women  are  proclaymed  to  bee  light,  they  ftriue 
to  be  more  light,  for  who  dare  difproue  a  Proclamation.  Tent. 
I  but  when  light  Wiues  make  heauy  hulbands,  let  thefe 
hulbands  play  mad  Hamlet ;  and  crie  reuenge,  come,  and  weele 
do  fo. 

West-ward  /  Hoe. I  As  it  hath  beene  diuers  times  Acted  /  by  the 
Children  of  Patties.  /  Written  by  Tho :  Decker,  and  lohn 
Webster.  I  Printed  at  London,  and  to  be  sold  by  lohn  Hodgets  \ 
dwelling  in  Patties  Churchyard. /  1607  /  4to.,  sign.  H  3. 


Tho  it  is  very  doubtful  whether  the  above  refers  to  Shakspere's  Hamlet, 
yet  as  the  three  Hamlet  allusions  excluded  by  Dr.  Ingleby  from  his  first 
edition  of  the  Centurie  were  let  into  the  second  (pp.  453-4),  this  West- 
ward Hoe  one  may  keep  them  company.  Dr.  Ingleby  tells  me  that  he 
gave  it  to  Miss  Smith  for  the  2nd  edition,  but  it  was  inadvertently  overlookt, 
and  returnd  to  him. — F.  J.  F. 


FR.  BEAUMONT  AND  JN.  FLETCHER,  1607. 

That  pleasing  piece  of  frailty  that  we  call  woman. 

The  Woman-hater,  III.  i. 


Possibly  from  Hamlet's  "  Frailty,  thy  name  is  woman,"  Hamlet,  I.  ii. 
146,  Q.2.—  E.  H.  HICKEY. 


THOS.  DEKKER  &  JN.  WEBSTER,  1607. 

(0  The  Fox  is  futtle,  and  his  head  once  in, 
The  (lender  body  eafily  will  follow. 

sign.  Di,  back. 

(2)  Gwz/[ford].  Peace  reft  his  foule,  his  finnes  be  buried  in  his 

graue, 
And  not  remembred  in  his  Epitaph: 

sign.  03. 

(3)  lane.  Is  greefe  fo  fliort  ?  twas  wont  to  be  full  of  wordes, 

sign.  D3,  back.1 

The  /  Famovs  /  History  of  Sir  Tho-/rnas  Wyat,  /  With  The 
Coronation  of  Queen  Mary,  /  and  the  coming  in  of  King  / 
Philip.  /  As  it  was  plaied  by  the  Queens  Maiesties  / 
Seruants./  Written  by  Thomas  Dickers,  /  and  John 
Webster.]  'London  /  Printed  by'E.A.  for  Thomas 
Archer,  and  are  to  be  /  solde  at  his  shop  in  the  Popes- 
head  Pallace,  nere  the  Roy  all  Exchange./  i6o7./ 


(1)  is  a  recollection  of  Shakspere  in  3  Henry  VI,  IV.  vii. 

"  Gloucester  [Aside]  But  when  the  fox  hath  once  got  in  his  nose, 
He'll  soon  find  means  to  make  the  body  follow." 

(2)  is  from  Prince  Hal's  speech  over  Douglas's  corpse,  I  Henry  IV>  V. 

iv.  99 — 101  : — 

"  Adieu,  and  take  thy  praise  with  thee  to  heaven  ! 
Thy  ignominy  sleep  with  thee  in  the  grave, 
But  not  remembred  in  thy  epitaph  !  " 

1  Perhaps  Guilford's 

"  We  are  led  with  pomp  to  prison, 
O  propheticke  soule,"  (sign.  A4) 
may  be  a  recollection  of  Hamlet.  — F.  J.  F. 


184       THOS.  DEKKER  &  JN.  WEBSTER,  1607. 

(3)  is  perhaps  a  recollection  of  the  Duchess  of  York  and  Queen  Elizabeth's 
talk  in  Richard  III,  IV.  iv.  124—131  : — 

"  Q.  Eliz.  My  words  are  dull ;  O,  quicken  them  with  thine.   .  .  . 

Duch.  Why  should  calamity  be  full  of  words  ? 

Q.  Eliz.  Windy  attorneys  to  their  client  woes, 
Airy  succeeders  of  intestate  joys, 
Poor  breathing  orators  of  miseries  ! 
Let  them  have  scope  !  though  what  they  do  impart, 
Help  not  at  all,  yet  do  they  ease  the  heart."— EMMA  PHIPSCN 


T.  DEKKER,  1608. 

Their  faces  therefore  do  they  turne  vpon  Barn-well  (neere 
Cambridge)  for  ther  was  it 1  to  be  acted  :  thither  comes  this 
counterfet  mad  man  running :  his  fellow  lugler  following 
aloofe,  crying  ftoppe  the  mad-man,  take  heed  of  the  man,  hees 
madde  with  the  plague.  Sometimes  would  he  ouertake  him, 
and  lay  hands  vppon  him  (like  a  Catch-pole)  as  if  he  had 
arreited  him,  but  furious  Hamlet  woulde  prefently  eyther  breake 
loofe  like  a  Beare  from  the  flake,  or  elfe  fo  fet  his  pawes  on  this 
dog  that  thus  bayted  him,  that  with  tugging  and  tearing  one 
anothers  frockes  off,  they  both  looked  like  mad  Tom  of  Bedlam 
...  At  length  he  came  to  the  houfe  where  the  deade  man  had 
bin  lodged  :  from  this  dore  would  not  this  olde  leronimo  be 
driuen,  that  was  his  Inne,  there  he  woulde  lie,  that  was  his 
Bedlam,  and  there  or  no  where  muft  his  mad  tricks  be  plaid. 

The  I  Dead  Tearme./  or,/  Westminsters  Complaint  for  long 
Fa/cations  and  short  Termes./  Written  in  manner  of 
a  Dialogue  betweene  /  the  two  Cityes  London  and 
Westminster./  .  .  .  London./  Printed  and  are  to  be 
sold  by  John  Hodgets  at  his  house  in  Pauls  /  Churchyard. 
i6o8./  Sign. 


Part  quoted  in  Mr.  Hall.-P.'s  Mem.  on  Hamlet,  p.  20.— F.  J.  F. 

1  The  Comedy  or  trick  of  2  London  Porters,  of  whom  one  shammd 
mad,  getting  the  goods  out  of  the  bedroom  of  a  young  London  tradesman, 
who  had  died  suddenly  at  Stourbridge  Fair,  Barnwell,  and  whose  corpse 
the  two  porters  had  carried  to  the  grave. 


i86 


A 

YORKSHIRE 

1  ragedy. 

Not  Jo  New  as  Lamentable 
and  true. 


Acted  by  his  Mate/ties  Players  at 
the  Globe. 


Written  by  VV.  Shakfpeare. 
[Device] 


At  LONDON 

Printed  by  R.  B.  for  Thomas  Pauier  and  are  to  bee  fold  at  his 

{hop  on  Cornhill,  neere  to  the  exchange. 

1608. 


A  YORKSHIRE  TRAGEDY,  1608.  187 

[Thomas  Pavier,  the  piratical  publisher,  entered  A  Yorkshire  Tragedy 
in  the  Stationers'  Registers,  on  May  2,  1608,  as  a  "Tragedy  written  by 
Wylliam  Shakespere." 

The  concensus  of  critical  opinion  denies  the  Shaksperean  authorship. 
The  play,  as  a  whole,  is  poor  in  characterisation,  and  the  verse  cannot  have 
been  Shakspere's  at  the  time  of  the  tragedy's  composition,  possessing  too 
great  a  proportion  of  end-stopped  lines  and  rhyme.  The  ascription  of 
passages  of  prose  to  Shakspere  still  leaves  unexplained  his  connexion 
with  a  play,  which  can  only  be  called  poor.  See  Tucker  Brooke's 
Shakespeare  Apocrypha^  1908,  pp.  xxxiii-xxxvi. 

Thomas  Pavier  was  probably  only  using  Shakspere's  name  to 
recommend  his  book.  The  play  was  printed  in  F.  3,  1664.  M.] 


i88 


JARVIS    MARKHAM    AND     LEWIS    MACHIN, 

1608. 

Feloups.1  This  is  his  chamber,  lets  enter,  heeres  his  clarke. 

President.  Fondling,  faid  he,  fince  I  have  hem'd  thee  heere, 
Within  the  circuit  of  this  Ivory  pale. 

Drap.  I  pray  you  fir  help  us  to  the  fpeech  of  your  matter. 

Pre.  lie  be  a  parke,  and  thou  fhalt  be  my  Deere. 
He  is  very  bufie  in  his  ftudy. 
Feed  where  thou  wilt,  in  mountaine  or  on  dale  j 
Stay  a  while,  he  will  come  out  anon. 
Graze  on  my  lips,  and  when  thofe  mounts  are  drie, 
Stray  lower,  where  the  pleafant  fountaines  lie. 
Go  thy  way  thou  beft  booke  in  the  world. 

Ve.  I  pray  you,  fir,  what  booke  doe  you  read  ? 

Pre.  A  book  that  never  an  Orators  clarke  in  this  kingdomb 
but  is  beholden  unto  ;  it  is  called  maides  philofophie,  or  Ve.nm 
and  Adonis.  Looke  you,  gentlemen,  I  have  divers  other  pretty 
bookes. 

Drap.  You  are  very  well  ftorde,  fir;  but  I  hope  your  mailer 
will  not  ftay  long. 

Pre.   No,  he  will  come  prefently.  Enter  Mefhant. 

Ve.  Who  have  we  heere  ?  another  Client  fure,  crowes  flock  to 
carkafles :  O  tis  the  lord  Mejhant. 

Me.  Save  you,  Gentlemen ;  fir  is  your  matter  at  any  leafure  ? 

Pre.  Heere  fit  thee  downe  where  never  ferpent  hiflfe;, 
And  being  fet  ile  fmother  thee  with  kifles. 
His  bufinefles  yet  are  many,  you  mutt  needes  attend  a  while. 
The  Dumbe  Knight.     1608,  sign.  F.     [4/0.] 


1  We  here  find  Machin  quoting  almost  the  same  passages  from  Venus 
and  Adonis  as  Heywood.     See  the  extract,  p.  177.     C.  M.  I. 


189 


THOS.  MIDDLETON,  1608. 

Harebrain 

"  I  have  conveyed  away  all  her  wanton  pamphlets  j  as  Hero 
and  Lean der,  Venus  and  Adonis;  O,  two  luscious  marrow-bone 
pies  for  a  young  married  wife  !  " 

A  Mad  World,  my  Masters.    Middleton 's  Works,  ed.  Dyce, 
1840,  ii.  340. 


The  jealous  Harebrain  is  speaking  of  his  newly-married  wife. — H.  C. 
HART 


rvlr.  Hll.-Phillipps,  in  his  Discursive  Notes  on  Rom.  andjul.,  p.  115,  says 
that  there  is  a  quotation  from  R.  6°  J.  in  John  Day's  Humour  otit  of 
Breath,  1608.  Not  being  up  in  his  Ovid,  he  no  doubt  alludes  to  this 
passage  : 

"  Oct.  Tut,  louers  othes,  like  toyes  writ  down  in  sands  [F  2. 

Are  soone  blowne  ore,  contracts  are  common  wiles, 
T'  intangle  fooles,  loue  himselfe  sits  and  smiles 
At  louers  periuries, " 

Humour  out  of  breath./  A  Comedie  /  Diuers  times  latelie 
acted,  /  By  the  Children  /  Of  /  The  Kings  Reuells.l 
Written  /  By  /  lohn  Day./  Printed  at  London  for  lohn 
Helmes,  and  are  to  be  sold  /  at  his  shop  in  Saint  Dunstans 
Church-yard  /  in  Fleet-street.  i6o8./  Actvs  Quartos, 
sign.  F  2,  and  back  (p.  55,  ed.  A.  H.  Bullen,  1881). 

But,  as  Mr.  Bullen  notes  in  his  Introduction,  p.  95,  this  is  one  of  the 
many  allusions  to  Ovid's  lines,  Ars  Am.  1.  633-4  : 

"  Juppiter  ex  alto  perjuria  ridet  amantum, 
Et  jubet  Aeolios  irrita  ferre  notos." 

'Shakespeare,  as  everybody  knows,  has  alluded  to  this  passage  of  Ovid  in 
Rom.  and JuL  ii.  2.'  [95.] 

"  At  Louers  periuries  they  say  loue  smiles."  Q  I.     '  laughes,'  Q  2. 

F.  J.  F. 


190 


*  JOHN  DAY,  1608. 

Joculo.  But  Madam,  doe  you  remember  what  a  multitude 
of  rimes  we  faw  at  Sea?  and  I  doe  wonder  how  they  can  all 
live  by  one  another. 

Emilia.  Why  foole,  as  men  do  on  the  Land,  the  great  ones 
eate  up  the  little  ones. 

******* 

Polymetes.  What  ominous  news  '  can  Polimetes  daunt  i 
Have  we  not  Hyren  heere  ? 

Law  Tricks,  a  comedy,  1608,  signs.  B  3  and  F '2. 


[Mr.  A.  H.  Bullen  (Athenaum,  Sept.  21,  1878)  points  out  that  John  Day 
here  copies  a  part  of  the  Fishermen's  talk  in  Pericles^  Act  II.  sc.  i. — 

"  3  Fish.     Master  I  marvel  how  the  fishes  live  in  the  sea. 
I.  Fish.   Why,  as  men  do  a-land,  the  great  ones  eat  up  the  little  ones." 

Pericles  was  entered  on  the  Stationers'  Register  on  20  May,  1608*.  Day's 
Law  Tricks  was  entered  on  the  Register  28  March,  1608. 

George  Wilkins'  novel,  The  Painfull  Adventures  of  Pericles,  which 
appeared  in  the  same  year,  "in  great  measure  founded  upon"  Shakespere's 
play,  says  Dr.  Dowden  (Shakespere  Primer,  1877,  p.  145),  gives  the  same 
passage  in  a  different  form,  "  Againe  comparing  our  rich  men  to  Whales, 
that  make  a  great  shew  in  the  worlde,  rowling  and  tumbling  up  and  downe, 
but  are  good  for  little,  but  to  sincke  others  :  that  the  fishes  live  in  the  sea, 
as  the  powerfull  on  shoare,  the  great  ones  eate  up  the  little  ones."  (Prof. 
Mommsen's  reprint,  Oldenburg,  1857,  p.  27.  Fourth  chapter.) 

Pistol's  exclamation  "Have  we  not  Hiren  here?"  (2  Hen.  IV,  Act  II. 
sc.  iv.)  is  also  used  by  Day  ;  it  seems  to  have  been  a  popular  "  play-scrap," 


*  Pericles,  of  which  Shakespere  probably  wrote  only  the  main  parts  of  the  last 
three  acts,  was  printed  in  quarto  in  1609  (twice),  and  was  reprinted  from  the 
sixth  quarto  of  1635  in  the  second  issue  of  the  Third  Folio  of  Shakespere's 
Plays,  1664.  See  Furnivall's  Introd.  to  the  Leopold  Shakespere.,  1877, 
p.  Ixxxviii  (where  1644  is  a  misprint  for  1664) ;  and  the  Cambridge 
Shakespere,  1866,  Vol.  I,  p.  xxvii ;  vol.  IX,  p.  ix. 


JOHN    DAY,     1608.  I9I 

one  of  the  current  phrases  of  the  day  ;  Dyce  considers  that  it  was  probably 
taken  by  Shakespere  as  well  as  by  other  writers  from  George  Peele's  lost 
drama,  The  Turkish  Mahomet  and  Hiren  the  Fair  Greek  (ed.  of  Shakespere, 
1864,  vol.  iv.  p.  344,  note).  Steevens  gives  the  quotation  as  occurring  in 
Massinger's  Old  Law,  T.  Heywood's  Love's  Mistress,  and  Satiromastix 
(Malone  and  Steevens'  Shakespere,  1821,  vol.  xvii.  p.  83).  It  is  also  found 
in  Chapman,  Jonson,  and  Marston's  Eastward  Hoe,  Act  II.  sc.  i,  spoken 
by  Quicksilver,  who  is  constantly  quoting  scraps  of  plays.  William  Barksted 
published  his  Poem  Hiren,  or  the  faire  Greeke  in  1611.  See  Dr.  Grosart's 
Reprint  of  the  Poems  of  W.  Barksted,  1876.  L.  T.  S.] 


*  ROBERT   ARMIM,  1608. 

Ther  are,  as  Hamlet  faies,  things  cald  whips  in  ftore. 

A  I  Nest  of  Ninnies 1  /  Simply  of  themselves  without  I  Com- 
pound I  Stultorum  plena  sunt  omnia./  By  Robert 
Armin.l  London:/  Printed  by  T.  E.  for  lohn  Deane. 
l6o8./  Repr.  Old  Shakespeare  Soc.  1842,  ed.  J.  P. 
Collier,  p.  55,  /.  8. 


Mr.  Collier's  note,  p.  67,  is  :  "No  such  passage  is  to  be  found  in  Shake- 
speare's Hamlet,  as  it  has  come  down  to  us,  either  in  the  editions  of  1603, 
1604,  or  in  any  later  impression,  Possibly  Armin  may  refer  to  the  old 
Hamlet  which  preceded  Shakespeare's  tragedy  ;  but  this  seems  unlikely, 
as  he  was  an  actor  in  the  same  theatre  as  that  for  which  Shakespeare 
wrote.2  " 

Mr.  Hall. -P.  says  that  the  sentence  above  seems  to  have  been  well-known 
and  popular,  for  it  is  partially  cited  in  the  Spanish  Tragedie,  1592,  and  in 
the  First  Part  of  the  Contention,  1594  (Mem.  on  Hamlet,  1879,  p.  19). 

On  looking  up  the  latter  of  these  vague  references,  the  reader  will  find 
that  the  passage  is  : — 

"  Hum.[phrey\.  My  Maisters  of  saint  Albones, 

Haue  you  not  Beadles  in  your  Towne, 

And  things  called  whippes  ?  "  3 

(ed.  Halliwell,  Old  Shakespeare  Soc.  1843,  p.  23),  with  a  note  on  p.  87, 
quoting  Mr.  Collier's  comment,  and  making  the  following  suggestion, 
doubtless  long  since  repented  of:  "It  is  not  impossible  that  Armin  may 
have  confused  the  two  plays  together,  and  wrote  incorrectly  '  as  Hamlet 
saies,'  instead  of  '  as  Gloster  saies.'  " 

1  The  Nest  of  Ninnies  is  but  "a  reprint  of  Armin's  Foolevpon  Foole,  1605 
(Mr.  Huth,  unique),  with  certain  alterations,"  according  to  Mr.  Hazlitt. 
Handbook,  p.  12. 

*  Armin  belonged  to  Lord  Chandos's  Players  :  see  Collier's  Lives  of 
Actors,  p.  196,  &c.— B.  N. 

3  Collier,  Shakespeare  s  Library,  Vol.  V.  p.  445.  Second  Part  of  K. 
Hen.  VI,  II.  i. 


ROBERT  ARMIN,   1608.  193 

The  first  reference  is  not,  I  assume,  to  Isabella's  speech  in  Span.  Trag. 
Act  IV,  ed.  1594,  Sign.  F4,  back  (Hazlitt's  Dodsley,  v.  94-5) — 

Isa\bell\.    "  Why,  did  I  not  giue  you  gowne  and  goodly  things, 
Bought  you  a  whistle  and  a  whipstalke  too  ; 
To  be  reuenged  on  their  villanies." 

— though  that  is  the  only  one  I  see  in  the  (7)1592  play, — but  to  two  later 
lines  (ib.  p.  105)  of  Hieronimo's  in  Ben  Jonson's  '  Additions '  of  1601  (see 
note  there,  p.  103)  : — 

"Well,  heauen  is  heauen  still, 
And  there  is  Nemesis  and  Furies, 
And  things  called  whippes. 
And  they  do  sometimes  meete  with  murderers, 
They  doe  not  alwayes  scape,  that's  some  comfort. "  1 

So  1623,  4°.  G2,  back,  63,  and  1633  ed.,  ibid.— P.  A.  L. 
May  not  this  phrase,  as  well  as  the  'trout  with  four  legs,'  from  Jn.  Clarke's 
Par&miologia,  1639,  p.  432,  below,  be  part  of  some  actor's  gag — not 
Burbage's,  I  hope. — [K.  J.  F.] 

1  The  Spanish  Tragedy,  1610  (04).     Actus  Tertius.     Hieronimo. 


SH.  ALLN.  BK.  —  I. 


ROBERT  ARMIN,   1608,   1609. 

(1)  Likewife  moft  affable  Lady,  kinde  and  debonere,  the  fecond 
of  the  rirft  which  I  fawcily  lalute,  pardon  I  pray  you  the  bold- 
nes  of  a  Begger,  who  hath  been  writ  downe  for  an  Afle  in  his 
time,  &  pleades  under  forma  pauperis  in  it  ftill,  not-withftanding 
his  Conftablefhip  and  Office  : 

(2)  /  hauefeene  the  Jiars  at  midnight  in  your  focieties,  and  might 
have  Commenjl  like  an  Affe  as  I  was,  but  I  lackt  liberty  in  that, 
yet  I  was  admitted  in  Oxford  to  be  of  Chrifts  Church,  while  they 
of  Al-foules  gaue  ay  me  :  Juch  as  knew  me  remember  my  meaning.^ 

(3)  tho  not  fo  quaint 

As  courtly  dames  or  earths  bright  treading  ftarres, 
They  are  maids  of  More-clacke,  homely  milke-bob  things, 
Such  as  I  loue,  and  faine  would  marry  well. 

(4)  Scarlet  is  fcarlet,  and  her  fin  blood  red, 
Wil  not  be  wafht  hence  with  a  fea  of  water, 

(1)  Dedication  of  The  Italian  Taylor,  and  his  Boy,  1609. 

(2)  Epistle-dedicatory  before  A  Nest  of  Ninnies,  1608. 

(3)  The  Historie  of  the  two  Maids  of  More-clacke  (S\g.  C,  bk.). 

(4)  Ibid.  (Sig.  E  2). 


Mr.  J.  P.  Collier  first  noticed  (i)  as  proof  that  R.  A.  had  played  Dog- 
berry.1  I  would  add  (2)  as  a  second  evidence,  because  like  the  first  it  is 
brought  as  it  were  by  head  and  shoulders  into  the  context.  (3)  is  a  remem- 
brance of  Rom.  &°  jul,  I.  ii.  1.  25,2  and  (4)  of  Macbeth,  II.  ii.  60-3 

t  The  old  Shakespeare  Soc.  reprint,  1842,  p.  3,  reads  'measures,'  not 
'  meaning.' 

1  O  that  I  had  been  writ  down  an  ass  ! — Much  Ado,  V.  ii.  89-90. 
2  At  my  poor  house,  look  to  behold  this  night, 
Earth-treading  stars  that  make  dark  heaven  light. 


ROBERT    ARMIN,    1608,    1609. 


195 


Will  all  great  Neptune's  ocean  wash  this  blood 
Clean  from  my  hand  ?     No,  this  my  hand  will  rather 
The  multitudinous  seas  incarnadine, 
Making  the  green  one  red. 

There  are  other  expressions  in  Armin  which  recal  Shakespeare,  notably 

The  divell  has  scripture  for  his  damned  ill. —  Two  Maids. 
and 

What  is  thy  haste  in  leathe  steept. — Ibid. 

which  maybe  paralleled  by  The  Mer.  of  Ven.,  I.  iii.  89, l  Twelfth  Night, 
IV.  i.  66, 2  and  An.  and  Cleop.,  II.  vii.  II4,3  but  these,  like  others,  may 
have  been  ordinary  phrases  of  the  day. — B.  N. 


1  Mark  you  this,  Bassanio, 
The  devil  can  cite  Scripture  for  his  purpose. 

2  Let  Fancy  still  my  sense  in  Lethe  steep. 

3  Till  that  the  conquering  wine  hath  steep'd  our  sens 
Tn  soft  and  delicate  Lethe. 

NOTE. — The  identification  of  2  above  with  Dogberry's  words  in  Muck 
Ado  is  somewhat  dubious.  It  seems  rather  to  refer  to  Falstaff's  words  on 
Justice  Shallow's  career  in  Grays  Inn.  See  2  Henry  IV,  III,  iii,  229  : 

"  Falstaff.    We  have  heard  the  chimes  at  midnight,  Master  Shallow. 
Shal.  That  we  have,"  &c.     M. 


196 


BEAUMONT    (died  1616)    AND    FLETCHER 
(died  1625),   1608-25. 


[The  quotations  are  from  Dyce's  edition,  in  eleven  volumes,  8vo,  Moxon, 
1843-6.  In  the  left-hand  column  are  B.  and  F.'s  words  ;  in  the  right,  the 
parallel  passages,  from  Dyce's  notes.  I  have  left  out  a  few  which  seem  to 
me  straind  beyond  bearing. — F.  J.  F.] 


— But  how  can  I 

Look  to  be  heard  of  gods  that  must 

be  just, 

Praying  upon  the  ground  I  hold  by 
wrong  ? 

?  1 608-10  (printed  1620).  Phi- 
faster,  II.  iv.  Works,  i. 
242. 


But  there  is 

Divinity  about  you,  that  strikes  dead 
My  rising  passions  :  as  you  are  my 

king, 
I  fall  before  you. 

?  1610  (printed  1619).  The 
Maid's  Tragedy,  Act  III. 
sc.  i.  Works,  i.  369. 


Arane  [the  penitent  Queen-mother 
of  King  Arbaces,  kneels  to  him] 

As  low  as  this  I  bow  to  you  ;  and 
would 

As  low  as  to  my  grave,  to  shew  a 
mind 

Thankful  for  all  your  mercies. 


'  In  this  sentiment  our  authors  seem 
to   be   copying    Shakespeare,    in    a 
noble  passage  of  his  Hamlet : 
—  "  Forgive  me  my  foul  murder  ! 
That  cannot  be;  since  I  am  possess'd 
Of  those  effects  for  which  I  did  the 

murder. 
My  crown,  mine  own  ambition,  and 

my  queen. 
May  one  be  pardon'd,  and  retain  the 

offence?"  &c.— Theobald. 


'  So   Shakespeare  said,  before  our 
poets,  in  his  Hamlet : 
"  Let  him  go,  Gertrude  ;  do  not  fear 

our  person  : 
Therms  such  divinity  doth   hedge  a 

king, 
That  treason  can  but  peep  to  what  it 

would, 
Acts  little  of  his  will." — Theobald. 


"There  is  a  fine  passage,  upon  a 
similar  occasion,  in  Shakespeare's 
Coriolanus,  to  which  our  authors 
might  possibly  have  an  eye  :  — 

'  Volumnia.  Oh,  stand  up  bless'd 
Whilst  with  no  softer  cushion  than 
the  flint 


BEAUMONT  (d.    l6l6)   AND    FLETCHER    (d.    1625),    1608-25.       197 


Arbaces  Oh,  stand  up, 

And  let  me  kneel  !  the  light  will  be 

asham'd 
To  see  observance  done  to  me  by 

you. 

Arane.  You  are  my  king. 
Arbaces.    You    are    my   mother  : 
rise 

1611  (printed  1619).  A  King 
and  no  King,  III.  i.  Works, 
ii.  275. 

Arb.  If  there  were  no  such  instru- 
ments as  thou, 

We  kings  could  never  act  such  wicked 
deeds. 

ib.  III.  iii,  end.  Works,  ii. 
297. 


tell  me  of  a  fellow 
That  can  mend  noses  ?  and  complain, 

so  tall 
A  soldier  should  want  teeth  to  his 

stomach  ? 

And  how  it  was  great  pity,  that  it  was, 
That  he  that  made  my  body  was  so 

busied 

He  could  not  stay  to  make  my  legs 
too.  ... 

1613.  Fletcher's  Captain 
(printed  in  ist  Folio,  1647), 
II.  i.  Works,  iii.  246. 

"Base   is   the  slave  commanded:" 
come  to  me 

The  little  French  Lawyer,  IV. 
vi.  Works,  iii.  541. 

Look  up,  brave  friend.     I  have  no 

means  to  rescue  thee  : 
"  My  kingdom  for  a  sword  ! " 


I  kneel  before  thee ;  and  unproperly 
Show  duty,  as  mistaken  all  the  while 
Between  the  child  and  parent. 

Coriolanus.  What  is  this  ? 
Your  knees  to  me?  to  your  corrected 
son.' 

[act  v.  sc.  3].     Theobald." 


'The  Editors  ot  1778  cite  the 
passage  in  Shakspere's  King  John, 
IV.  ii. : 

It  is  the  curse  of  kings  to  be  attended 
By   slaves  that  take  their  humours 

for  a  warrant 
To  break  within  the  bloody  house  of 

life;  &c.' 


'  Weber  says,  "  Perhaps  the  poet 
had  the  following  line  of  Hotspur's 
speech  in  King  Henry  IV,  Part  I, 
in  his  mind  : 

And  that   it   was   great  pity,   so   it 
was,"  &c.' 


'  A  parody  on  Pistol's  exclamation 
"Base  is  the  slave  that  pays!" 
Shakespeare's  Henry  V,  act  ii,  sc.  I.' 
— Dyce. 

'Another  parody  on  Shakespeare  ; 
"  My  kingdom  for  a  horse  !  "  — 
Richard  III,  act  v.  sc.  4.' 


198       BEAUMONT  (d.   1616)   AND    FLETCHER    (d.   1625),   1608-25. 


Zanthia.  Then  know, 

It  was  not  poison,   but  a   sleeping 

potion, 
Which  she  receiv'd  ;  yet  of  sufficient 

strength 

So  to  bind  up  her  senses,  that  no  sign 
Of  life  appear'd  in  her  ;  and   thus 

thought  dead, 

In  her  best  habit,  as  the  custom  is, 
You  know,  in  Malta,  with  all  cere- 
monies 

She's   buried   in  her  family  monu- 
ment, 
In   the   Temple   of    St.   John  :  I'll 

bring  you  thither, 
Thus,  as  you  are  disguis'd.     Some 

six  hours  hence, 
The  potion  will  leave  working. 

before  March  1 61 8- 1 9  (printed 
1647).  Fletcher.  The  Knight 
of  Malta,  IV.  i,  end.  Works, 
v.  177- 

Beliza by  my  life, 

The   parting  kiss  you   took   before 

your  travel 

Is  yet  a  virgin  on  my  lips,  preserv'd 
With  as  much  care  as  I  would  do 

my  fame, 
To  entertain  your  wish'd  return. 

1616-18  (printed  1647).  The 
Queen  of  Corinth,  I.  ii ; 
Works,  v.  403. 


I  yet  remember  when  the  Volga  curl'd, 
The  aged  Volga,  when  he  heav'd  his 

head  up, 
And  rais'd  his  waters  high,  to  see 

the  ruins, 

The   ruins    our   swords    made,    the 
bloody  ruins : 

1618  (printed  1647).  Fletcher. 
The  Loyal  Subject,  I.  iii. 
Works t  vi.  1 6. 


'  This  speech  bears  an  obvious 
similitude  to  one  of  Friar  Laurence 
in  Shakespeare's  Romeo  and  Jidiet 
[act  iv.  sc.  5.1  D.].  Ed.  1778.' 

1  See  too  IV.  i.  92 — 115. 

[Then  gave  I  her,  so  tutor'd  by  my 

art, 
A   sleeping  potion  ;  which   so  took 

effect 

As  I  intended,  for  it  wrought  on  her 
The  form  of  death.     V.  iii.  242-5] 
[  and,  as  the  custom  is, 

In  all  her  best  array  bear  her  her  to 

church.     IV.  v.  80- 1.] 

[meantime  I  writ  to  Romeo, 
That  he  should  thither  come  as  this 

dire  night, 
To  help  to  take  her  from  her  bor- 

row'd  grave, 
Being  the   time   the   potion's   force 

should  cease.     V.  iii.  245-9] 

4  The  writer  was  thinking  here  of  a 
passage  in  Shakespeare's  Coriolamis  ; 
44  Now  by  the  jealous  queen  of 

heaven,  that  kiss 
I  carried  from  thee,  dear ;  and  my 

true  lip 
Hath  virgin'd  it  e'er  since."    Act  v. 

sc.  3.' 


4  Here,  as  Reed  notices,  Fletcher 
seems  to  have  had  an  eye  to  a  pas- 
sage  in    Shakespeare's   Henry  IV. 
(First  Part)  act  i.  sc.  3  ; 
44  Three    times   they  breath'd,    and 

three  times  did  they  drink, 
Upon   agreement,  of  swift   Severn's 

flood  ; 
Who    then,    affrighted    with     their 

bloody  looks, 


BEAUMONT  (d.   l6l6)    AND    FLETCHER    (d.   1625),   1608-25.       1 99 

Ran  fearfully  among  the  trembling 

reeds, 
And  hid  his  crisp  head  in  the  hollow 

bank, 
Blood-stained  with  these  valianr 

combatants." 


sure,  to  tell 
of  Caesar's  amorous  heats  :  and  how 

he  fell 
In  the  Capitol  *,1  can  never  be  the 

same 
To    the  judicious :    nor   will    such 

blame 
Those  that  penn'd  this  for  barrenness, 

when  they  find 
Young  Cleopatra  here  .  .      . 
We  treat  not  of  what  boldness  she 

did  die,t 

Nor  of  her  fatal  love  to  Antony  .  .  . 

(printed  1647)  The  False  One. 

Prologue.      Works,  vi.  217. 


*  An  allusion  to  Shakespeare's 
"Julius  Ccesar  [wherein  he  is  made  to 
die  in  the  Capitol,  instead  of  in  the 
Curia  Pompeii,  where  the  Senate 
met,  in  the  Campus  Martius.j 


f  An    allusion    to    Shakespeare's 
Antony  and  Cleopatra.    [? — F.] 


1  "  So  in  Fletcher  and  (?)  Shirley's  Noble  Gentleman,  (licenst — after 
Fletcher's  death  in  1625 — on  Feb.  3,  1625-6,  pr.  1647,)  V.  i.  Works, 
1846,  x.  186— 

"  So  Caesar  fell,  when  in  the  Capitol 
They  gave  his  body  two-and-thirty  wounds." 

'  Here  we  have  two  blunders,' says  Sympson  ;  'the  first  with  respect 
to  the  place  where  Caesar  fell,  which  was  not  in  the  Capitol,  but  in  Curia 
Pompeii  ;  the  other  as  to  the  number  of  wounds  he  fell  by  :  as  to  the  first, 
it  was  a  blunder  peculiar  to  the  playwrights  of  that  time ;  Shakespeare  began 
it  in  Hamlet,  act  iii.  sc.  2  .  .  .  . 

'*  Polonius.  I  did  enact  Julius  Caesar  :  I  was  killed  i'  the  Capitol" 

'  Our  authors,  treading  in  their  master's  steps,  took  up  the  same  mistake 
here  ;  and  after  them  Shakerley  Marmion,  in  his  Antiquary,  inadvertently 
continued  the  same  error,  making  Veterano  say, 

"And  this  was  Julius  Caesar's  hat  when  he  was  killed  in  the  Capitol" 

( As  for  the  second  fault,  'twas  made  no  where  but  at  the  press,  for  the 
number  (I  suppose)  in  the  original  MS.  was  wrote  in  figures,  thus,  23, 
which,  by  an  easy  [mistake,]  shifting  place,  was  altered  to  32,  and  thus  we 
have  nine  wounds  more  than  Caesar  ever  received,'  —  SYMPSON.  'The 
notion  that  Julius  Caesar  was  killed  in  the  Capitol  is  as  old  as  Chaucer's 
time  :  see  Malone's  note  on  the  above-cited  passage  of  Hamlet,''  " — Dyce, 


200      BEAUMONT  (d.    1616)   AND    FLETCHER    (d.   1625),   1608-25. 


Celia How  does  he  ? 

Governess.   Oh,  God,  my  head  ! 
Celia.  Prithee  be  well,  and  tell  me, 
Did  he  speak  of  me  since  he  came  ? 
(printed  1647).  Fletcher.   The 
Humorous  Lieutenant,  III. 
ii.    Works,  vi.  467  [see  the 
whole  scene.] 


'  A   recollection  of  Shakespeare's 
Romeo  and  Juliet,  act  ii.  sc.  5 — 
Nurse.   Lord,  how  my  head  aches, 
&c.' 


Petronius.  Thou  fond  man 

Hast  thou  forgot  the  ballad,  Crabbed 

Age? 

Can   May   and  January   match-  to- 
gether, 
And  never  a  storm  between  'em  ? 

(pr.  1647).  Fletcher.  The  Wo- 
man! s  Prize,  or  The  Tamer 
Tamed  ["  avowedly  intend- 
ed to  form  the  Second  Part" 
of  Shakspere's  Shrew\  IV. 
i.  Works,  vii.  172. 

Rowland.  Swear  to  all  these  .   .  . 

Tra.  I  will  .... 

Let's  remove  our  places.* 

Swear  it  again. 

ib.  V.  iii.     Works,  vii.  206. 


Petruchio.  Come :   something   I'll 
do ;  but  what  it  is,  I  know  not. 

Woman" 's  Prize,   II.  iv,  end. 
Works,  vii.  142. 


'  The  well-known  lines  by  Shake- 
speare, contained  in  his  Passionate 
Pilgrim.''  [And  though  this  collec- 
tion was  by  no  means  all  Shakspere's 
(see  Introd.  to  Leopold  Shaksp.,  p. 
xxxv,  and  after,  p.  231),  yet  I  in- 
cline to  think  that  Crabbed  Age  may 
be  his.— F.] 


*  "This  is  plainly  a  sneer  at  the 
scene  in  Hamlet  [i.  5]  where  (on  ac- 
count of  the  Ghost  calling  under  the 
stage)  the  prince  and  his  friends  two 
or  three  times  remove  their  situa- 
tions. Again,  in  this  play,  p.  142,  Pe- 
truchio's  saying  [opposite]  seems  to 
be  meant  as  a  ridicule  on  Lear's  pas- 
sionate exclamation  [act  ii.  sc.  4], 

1  will  do  such  things — 

What  they  are,   yet  I  know   not." 

J.  N.  Ed.  1778. 

'  Nonsense  :  there  is  more  of  com- 
pliment than  "sneer  "in  these  recol- 
lections of  Shakespeare.'  —  Dyce. 
'  And  so  say  all  of  us. ' — F. 


Mirabel.    Well ;  I   do    take   thee  '  Here  our  poet  was  thinking  of 

upon  mere  compassion  ;  what  Benedick1  says  to  Beatrice  at 

And  I  do  think  I  shall  love  thee.  the  conclusion  of  Shakespeare's  Much 

1621    (pr.    1679).     Fletcher.  Ado  about  Nothing; 

The  Wild-Goose  Chase,  V.  "  Come,   I  will  have  thee  ;   but  by 

vi.    Works,  1845,  vin'-  205-  this  light,  I  take  thee  for  pity." 


BEAUMONT  (d.  l6l6)  AND  FLETCHER  (d.  1625),  1608-25.   2OT 

[For  the  "Farewell,  pride  and  pomp !  "  &c.  from  Fletcher's  Prophetess, 
licenst  May  14,  1622,  pr.  1647,  see  p.  295,  set  before  Dyce's  edition  was 
referrd  to.  ] 

t  •  •  .  [on  the  last  line  opposite,] 
says  Steevens,  "  there  seems  to  be  a 
sneer  at  this  character  of  Bottom  [in 
AT.  N.  Dr.]  ;  but  I  do  not  very 
clearly  perceive  its  drift.  .  ." — Note 
on  M.  N.  Dr.  act  v.  sc.  I. 


Higgen.    Then    bear  up   bravely 

with  your  Brute,  t  my  lads  ! 
Higgen  hath  prigg'd  the  prancers  in 

his  days, 
And   sold  good   penny-worths :   we 

will  have  a  course  ; 
The  spirit  of  Bottom  is  grown  bot- 
tomless 

(pr.  1647).  Fletcher.  Beggars' 
Bush,%  V.  ii.  Works,  ix.  103. 


Chatillton.        Sir,  you  shall  know         « This  seems  a  flirt  on  the  English 

My  love's  true  title,  mine  by  marriage,     king's  title  to  France,  in  Henry  the 

[He    then    sets    it    forth,1    more     Fifth.'  —  Theobald.      'Not   a   flirt, 


J  I  put  in  a  note  the  following  lines  from  this  play,  Beggar's  Bush,  II.  i0 
Works,  viii.  29, 

' '  under  him, 

Each  man  shall  eat  his  own  stoln  eggs  and  butter, 
In  his  own  shade  or  sun-shine,  and  enjoy 
His  own  dear  dell,  doxy,  or  mort,  at  night, 
In  his  own  straw,  with  his  own  shirt  or  sheet 
That  he  hath  filch'd  that  clay. " 

as  I'm  certain  that  Fletcher  is  here  only  parodying  his  own  lines  in  that 
Henry  VIII  which  he  completed  from  Shakspere's  unfinisht  leaves.  Dyce 
does  not  give  Shakspere  the  lines,  but  calls  them  "  the  words  of  Cranmer 
concerning  Q.  Elizabeth  in  Shakespeare's  Henry  the  Eighth,  act  v.  sc.  4  ; 

"  In  her  days  every  man  shall  eat  in  safety, 
Under  his  own  vine,  what  he  plants,  and  sing 
The  merry  songs  of  peace  to  all  his  neighbours." 


1  Setting  aside  the  first  race  of  French 

kings, 
Which  will  not  here  concern  us,  as 

Pharamond, 
With  Clodion,  Meroveus,  and  Chil- 

paric, 


And  to  come  down  unto  the  second 

race, 
Which  we  will  likewise  slip  .... 

of  M  artel  Charles 

The  father  of  king  Pepin,  who  was 

sire 


202       BEAUMONT  (d.    l6l6)    AND    FLETCHER   (d.   1625),    1608-25. 


shortly  than,  tho  after  the  manner  of,     certainly,  but  an  innocent  parody.' 

the  Archbishop  in  Shakspere'sJ&tt??     Weber. 

V.  I.  ii.] 

1626  (pr.  1647).  ?  Shirley  & 
Fletcher.  The  Noble  Gen- 
tleman, III.  iv.  B.  &  F.'s 
Works,  x.  1 60. 


Take,  oh,  take  those  lips  away, 
That  so  sweetly  were  forsworn, 

And  those  eyes,  like  break  of  day, 
Lights  that  do  mislead  the  morn  ! 

But  my  kisses  bring  again, 

Seals  of  love,  though  seal'd  in  vain. 

Hide,  oh,  hide  those  hills  of  snow, 
Which   thy    frozen  bosom    bears, 
&c.,  &c. 

(pr.  1639)  Fletcher  &  Row- 
ley (?) .  The  Bloody  Brother, 
or,  RolloDtike  of  Normandy, 
V.  ii.  Works,  x.  459. 


"  The  first  stanza  of  this  song  (with 
two  very  trifling  variations)  occurs  in 
Shakespeare's  Measure  for  Measure, 
act  iv.  sc.  i,  and  both  stanzas  are 
found  in  the  spurious  edition  of  his 
poems,  1640.  In  a  long  note  to 
which  I  refer  the  reader  (Malone's 
Shakespeare,  xx.  417  [Variorum, 
1821]),  Boswell  urges  the  probability 
that  the  song  was  composed  neither 
by  Shakespeare  nor  Fletcher,  but  by  a 
third  unknown  writer :  I  am  inclined, 
however,  to  believe  that  it  was  from 
the  pen  of  the  great  dramatist.'' — • 
Dyce.  It  is  now  generally  given  to 
'Kit  Marlowe,'  on  Isaac  Walton'? 
authority. 


Clarange.  Myself  and  (as  I  then 

deliver'd  to  you) 
A    gentleman   of  noble    hope,    one 

Lydian, 
Both  brought  up  from  our  infancy 

together, 
One  company,  one  friendship,  and 

one  exercise 
Ever  affecting,  one  bed  holding  us, 


'  In  this  description  of  the  friendship 
of  Clarange  and  Lydian,  our  author 
seems  to  have  intended  an  imitation 
of  the  excellent,  account  of  female 
friendship  in  Shakespeare's  M.  N. 
Dream,  Hi.  2.' — REED. 

O  !  is  all  forgot  ? 

All  school-days'  friendship,  childhood 
innocence  ? 


To  Charles,   the  great  and  famous  I  Hugh  Capet  was  the  first  ; 

Charlemagne  ;  I  Next  his  son   Robert,  Henry  then, 

And  to  come  to  the  third  race  of 

French  kings, 
Which  will  not  be  greatly  pertinent 


in  this  cause 

Betwixt  the  king  and  me,  of  which 
you  know 


and  Philip, 

With  Louis,  and  his  son,  a  Louis  too, 
And  of  that  name  the  seventh  :  but 

all  this 
Springs  from  a  female,    as   it  shall 

appear. 


BEAUMONT  (d.  1616)  AND  FLETCHER  (d.  1625),  1608-25.   2O3 


One  grief,  and  one  joy  parted  still 

between  us, 
More  than  companions,  twins  in  all 

our  actions, 
We  grew  up  till  we  were  men,  held 

one  heart  still. 
Time  call'd  us  on  to  arms  ;  we  were 

one  soldier  .  .   . 
When  arms  had  made  us  fit,  we  were 

one  lover, 
We  lov'd  one  woman 

(pr.  1647)  Fletcher  &  (?)  Mas- 
singer.  The  Lovers'  Pro- 
gress^ II.  i.  Works,  xi.  46. 


Diego.  .   .  .  instinct,  signior, 
Is  a  great  matter  in  an  host. 

(pr.  1647)  Fletcher  &  Mas- 
singer;  Lovers  Pilgrimage, 
I.  ii.  Works,  xi.  247. 


We,  Hermia,  like  two  artificial  gods, 
Have  with  our  needles  created  both 

one  dower, 
Both  on  one  sampler,  sitting  on  one 

cushion, 
Both  warbling  of  one  song,  both  in 

one  key, 
As  if  our  hands,  our  sides,  voices, 

and  minds, 
Had  been  incorporate.     So  we  grew 

together, 
Like  to  a  double  cherry,    seeming 

parted, 

But  yet  an  union  in  partition  ; 
Two  lovely  berries  moulded  on  one 

stem  ; 
So,   with   two  seeming  bodies,    but 

one  heart ; 

Two  of  the  first,  like  coats  in  her- 
aldry. 
Due  but  to  one,  and  crowned  with 

one  crest. 

'  Steevens  has  observed,  that  this 
is  the  same  phrase  used  by  Falstaff 
.  .  .  "but  beware  instinct ;  the  lion 
will  not  touch  the  true  prince. ,  In- 
stinct is  a  great  matter"  [i  Hen.  IV. 
II.  iv.  299-300.]  The  passage  in  the 
text  seems  to  have  been  suggested  by 
the  one  quoted  from  Shakespeare.' 
Weber. 


204 


JOHN  DAVIES  OF  HEREFORD,  1609. 

•  stage  piaiers.   Some  followed  her  *  by  *a6ting  all  mens  parts, 
Thefe  on  a  Stage  fhe  raifd  (in  icorne)  to  fall : 
And  made  them  Mirrors,  by  their  a£ting  Arts, 
viC+esSofeKmee.    Wherin  men  law  their  f  faults,  thogh  ne'r  fo  imall : 

:  W.S.R.B.       Yet  fome  ihe  guerdond  not,  to  their  $  defarts ; 
But,  otherfome,  were  but  ill-A6tion  all : 
Who  while  they  afted  ill,  ill  ftaid  behinde, 
(By  cuftome  of  their  maners)  in  their  minde. 

The  Civile  Warres  of  Death  and  Fortune,  [being  the  "Second  Tale  " 
in  the  -volume  of  which  "Humours  Heav'n  on  Earth"  is  the 
first}.  1609,  /.  208,  stanza  76.  [sm.  8vo.] 

Reprinted  by  Rev.  A.  B.  Grosart  in  the  Chert sey  Worthies  Library, 
1876,  /.  37. 

1  The  "her  "  is  Fortune.  For  W.  S.  and  R.  B.,  see  John  Davies,  quoted 
before,  p.  126.    C.  M.  I. 


205 


SAMUEL  ROWLANDS,  1609. 

In  a  new  mould  this  woman  I  will  cast, 

Her  tongue  in  other  order  I  will  keepe, 

Better  she  had  bin  in  her  bed  afleepe, 

Then  in  a  Taverne,  when  those  words  fhe  fpake  j 

A  little  paines  with  her  I  meane  to  take : 

For  fhe  mall  find  me  in  another  tune, 

Between  this  February  and  next  June : 

In  fober  fadnefle  I  do  fpeake  it  now, 

And  to  you  all  I  make  a  solemne  vow, 

The  chiefeft  Art  I  have  I  will  beftow 

About  a  worke  cald  taming  of  the  Shrow. 

Whole  Crew  of  Kind  Gossips.     1609.     p.  33. 
Reprinted  by  the  Hunterian  Club,  1876. 


[This  is  part  of  the  answer  of  the  fifth  of  the  "  Six  honest  Husbands  "  who 
are  all  accused  by  their  wives  or  "  Gossips  "  He  was  "complained  on  by 
his  wife  to  be  a  common  Drunkard." 

The  old  play  of  The  Taming  of  A  Shrew,  on  which  Shakespere's  play  is 
founded,  was  printed  in  1594  ;  his  play  of  the  Taming  of  the  Shrew 'was  not 
printed  till  1623,  but  it  seems  most  likely  to  have  been  written  not  later  than 
1597.  L.  T.  S.j 


206 


THOMAS  THORPE,  1609. 

TO  .  THE  .  ONLIE .  BEGETTER  .  OF. 

THESE  .  INSVING  .   SONNETS. 

Mr.  W.  H.  ALL.  HAPPINESSE. 

AND  .  THAT  .  ETERNITIE. 

PROMISED. 

BY. 
OVR.    EVER-LIVING  .  POET. 

WISHETH. 

THE  .  WELL-WISHING. 

ADVENTVRER .  IN . 

SETTING. 

FORTH. 

T.  T. 

Shakespeards  Sonnets.     1609.      [4/0.]    Dedication. 


The  entry  of  this  edition  of  the  Sonnets  in  the  Stationers'  Registers  runs 
thus: 

20  Maij  Lz6o9] 

Thomas  Thorpe.  Entred  for  his  copie  under  thandes  of  master  Wilson 
and  master  Lownes  Warden  a  Booke  called  SHAKESPEARES  sonnettes. 
C.  M.  I. 


1609. 

A  never  Writer  to  an  ever  Reader.     NEWES. 

Eternall  reader,  you  have  heere  a  new  play,  never  ftal'd  with 
the  Stage,  never  clapper-clawd  with  the  palmes  of  the  vulger, 
and  yet  paffing  full  of  the  palme  comicall ;  for  it  is  a  birth  of 
your  tthat]  braine,  that  never  under-tooke  any  thing  commicall, 
vainely  :  And  were  but  the  vaine  names  of  commedies  changde 
for  the  titles  of  Commodities,  or  of  Playes  for  Pleas  j  you  mould 
fee  all  thofe  grand  cenfors,  that  now  ftile  them  fuch  vanities, 
flock  to  them  for  the  maine  grace  of  their  gravities  ;  efpecially 
this  authors  Commedies,  that  are  fo  fram'd  to  the  life,  that 
they  ferve  for  the  moft  common  Commentaries  of  all  the 
actions  of  our  lives,  mewing  fuch  a  dexteritie  and  power  ot 
witte,  that  the  moft  difpleafed  with  Playes,  are  pleafd  with 
his  Commedies.  And  all  fuch  dull  and  heavy-witted  worldlings, 
as  were  never  capable  of  the  witte  of  a  Commedie,  comming 
by  report  of  them  to  his  reprefentations,  have  found  that  witte 
there,  that  they  never  found  in  themfelves,  and  have  parted 
better-wittied  then  they  came  ;  feeling  an  edge  of  witte  fet  upon 
them,  more  than  ever  they  dreamd  they  had  braine  to  grinde 
tt  oil.  So  much  and  fuch  favoured  fait  of  witte  is  in  his 
Commedies,  that  they  feeme  (for  their  height  of  pleafure)  to  be 
borne  in  that  fea  that  brought  forth  Venus.  Amongft  [Venus  &  Adonis] 
all  there  is  none  more  witty  then  this :  And  had  I  time  I  would 
comment  upon  it,  though  I  know  it  needs  not,  (for  fo  much  as 
will  make  you  thinke  your  teiterne  well  beftowd)  but  for  fo 


2o8  1609. 

much  worth,  as  even  poore  I  know  to  be  ftuft  in  it.  It  deferves 
fuch  a  labour,  as  well  as  the  belt  Commedy  in  Terence  or  Plautus, 
And  beleeve  this,  that  when  hee  is  gone,  and  his  Commedies  out 
of  fale,  you  will  (bramble  for  them,  and  let  up  a  new  Englifh 
Inquifition.  Take  this  for  a  warning,  and  at  the  perrill  of  your 
pleafures  lofle,  and  Judgements,  refuie  not,  nor  like  this  the 
lefle,  for  not  being  fullied,  with  the  fmoaky  breath  of  the 
multitude ;  but  thanke  fortune  for  the  fcape  it  hath  made  amongft 
you.  Since  by  the  grand  poffeflors  wills,  I  beleeve  you  mould 
have  prayd  for  them  rather  then  beene  prayd.  And  fo  I  leave 
all  fuch  to  bee  prayd  for  (for  the  Hates  of  their  wits  healths)  that 
will  not  praife  it. — VALE. 

Address  prefixed  fo  Troilus  and  Cressida.     [Some  copies  only  o) 
the  first  issue  of  1609.     First  4/0.] 


[There  is  here  an  ingenious  and  delicate  allusion,  after  the  far-fetcht  fashion 
of  the  day,  to  one  of  Shakespere's  previous  pieces,  i.  e.  Venus  and  Adonis, 
when  the  writer  speaks  of  Shakespere's  comedies  having  so  much  of  the  salt 
of  wit  that  they  seem  to  be  born  in  the  sea  that  brought  forth  Venus.  L.  T.  S.] 


209 


Anonymous,   1609. 

Amazde  I  flood,  to  fee  a  Crowd 

Of  Civill  Throats  ftretchd  out  fo  lowd ; 

(As  at  a  New-play)  all  the  Roomes 

Did  fwarme  with  Gentiles  mix'd  with  Groomes, 

So  that  I  truly  thought  all  Thefe 

Came  to  fee  Shore  or  Pericles. 

Pimlyco  or  Runne  Red-  Cap.     Tis  a  mad  world 
at  Hogsdon.     1609.     [4^.]    Sign.  C  /,  line  6. 
9  (BodL  Libr.}} 


The  play  referred  to  under  the  name  of  "Shore  "  may  be  one  by  Henry 
Chettle  and  John  Day,  circa  1599,  entitled  Shore's  Wife.  It  is  mentioned 
by  Henslowe  in  his  Diary  (1603),  Shakespeare  Society's  Edition,  p.  251  ; 
Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  in  The  Knight  of  the  Burning  Pestle  (Induction, 
1613,  probably  written  1611),  speak  also  of  a  Play  on  the  same  story  :  the 
Wife  says, — 

"  I  was  nere  at  one  of  these  plays  as  they  say,  before  ;  but  I  should  have 
scene  Jane  Shore  once," 

and  Christopher  Brooke  in  The  Ghost  of  Richard  the  Third  (His  Legend] : 
"But  now  her  fame  by  a vild  play  doth  grow." 

(Fuller  Worthies  Library,  1872,  p.  94.)     The  play  is  not  extant. 

[The  play  referred  to  as  "Shore  "  may  be  one  by  T.  Heywood,  printed 
in  1600,  entitled  The  first  and  second  parts  of  King  Edward  the  Fourth,  &>c. 
It  contains  the  whole  history  of  Jane  Shore.  P.  A.  D.] 

The  first  edition  of  Pericles  came  out  in  1609.  See  before,  p.  190. 
C.  M.  I. 

SH.  ALLN.  BK. — I.  T 


210 


BEN  JONSON,  1609. 

Morofe.  Your  knighthood  *  *  *  (hall  not  have  hope  to 
repaire  it  felfe  by  Conjlant'mople,  Ireland,  or  Virginia ;  but  the 
beft,  &  laft  fortune  to  it  Knight-hood  lhall  bee,  to  make  Dol 
Teare-Jlieet ,  or  Kate-Common  a  Lady:  &  fo,  it  Knight-hood  may 
eate. 

Epicene;  or,  The  Silent  Woman,  Act  IL  sc.  v.  end.    1609.    [4/</.] 


[Doll  Tear-sheet,  of  the  Second  Part  of  Henry  IV,  was  long  in  the  popular 
mind.     See  extract  from  Ligon's  Voyage,  in  1657-     L.  T.  S. ] 


?  About  i6lc.     A  MS.  copy  of  Shakspere's  8th  Sonnet. 

"  IN    LAUDEM    MUSICE   ET   OPPROBRIUM 
CONTEMPTORIJ  EIUSDEM. 

1. 

Muficke  to  heare,  why  heareft  thou  Mulicke  fadly 
Sweete  wl.h  fweetes  warre  not,  Joy  delights  in  Joy 

Why  loueft  y"  that  w^h  thou  receauefl  not  gladly 
or  els  receaueft  w4.h  plealure  thine  annoy 

2. 

If  the  true  Concord  of  well  tuned  Sounds 

By  Vnions  maried  doe  offend  thy  eare 
They  doe  but  Iweetlie  chide  thee,  whoe  confounds 

To  iinglenes  a  parte,  w^1 1  thou  Ihouldfl  beare 

3- 
Marke  howe  one  tiringe,  fweet  huiband  to  another 

Strikes  each  on  2  each,  by  mutuall  orderinge 

Refemblinge  Childe,  &  Syer,3  and  happy  Mother 

w?h  4  all  in  one,  this  Jingle  note  dothe  5  finge 

whole  fpeechles  longe  beeinge  many  ieeming  one 
Sings  this  to  thee,  Thou  lingle,  lhalt6  prouenone. 
VV:    SlIAKSPEARE." 

(Readings  of  the  Quarto,  1609.) 

1  the  parts  that.         2  in.  3  sier,  and  child. 

4  who.  5  one  pleasing  note  do.  6  wilt. 


This  occurs  in  a  little  miscellany  of  Poems,  &c.,  the  Addit.  MS.  15,226 
in  the  British  Museum.  It  is  in  a  hand  of  the  earlier  part  of  James  I's 
reign,  and  has  some  worthless  various  readings.  As  I'd  not  seen  a  print  of 
it  before,  and  it  wasn't  notist  in  the  Cambridge  Shakspere,  I  copied  it  and 
sent  it  to  the  Academy,  and  then  found  it  in  Halliwell's  Folio  Shakspere. — 
F.  J.  F. 


212 


ROGER    SHARPE,    1610. 

In  Fir  of  urn. 

HOw  Fal/lqflike,  doth  fweld  Pirqfus  looke, 
As  though  his  paunch  did  fofter  euery  finne  : 
And  fweares  he  is  iniured  by  this  booke, 
His  worth  is  taxt  he  hath  abufed  byn  : 
Swell  Hill  yj/rdjuSf  burft  with  emulation, 
I  neither  taxe  thy  vice  rior  reputation. 

MORE  FOOLES  yd.  Written  by  R.  S.  [Small 
Plate.  ]  At  LONDON,  Printed  for  Thomas  Castleton, 
and  are  to  be  sold  at  his  shop  without  Cripple-gate.  An. 
1 6 10.  Bodleian  (M alone  299)  4/0.  sign.  E  3.  "To 
the  Reader  "  is  signed  '•'•Roger  Sharped 


Quoted  (and  partly  modernizd)  in  Mr.  Halliwell's  Character  of  Sir  John 
Falstaff,  1841,  p.  41.  The  quotation  there  on  p.  42,  from  the  document 
printed  by  Mr.  Collier,  was  evidently  made  in  that  innocence  of  incapacity 
to  distinguish  between  a  genuine  and  a  forgd  MS.  which  Mr.  Halliwell, 
oddly  enough,  often  showd  in  former  days.  I  quote  the  bit x  only  to  show 
what  sham  old-spelling  is  like  :  A  character  is  to  be  dressed  "  '  Like*.  Sr  Jon 
Falsstaff :  in  a  roabe  of  russet,  quite  low,  with  a  great  belley,  like  a  swolen 
man,  long  moustacheos,  the  sheows  shorte,  and  out  of  them  great  toes  like 
naked  feete  :  buskins  to  sheaw  a  great  swolen  leg.'  " — New  Facts  regarding 
the  Life  of  Shakespeare  in  a  letter  to  Thomas  Amyot,  &c.,  from  J.  Payne 
Collier,  London,  1835,  8vo.  p.  39.2  See  further  extracts  on  Falstaff,  under 
Anon,  1640;  John  Speed,  1611  ;  Anon.  1600. — F.  J.  F. 

1  From  Collier,  and  not  with   Halliwell's  mistakes  in  reprinting  from 
Collier's  New  Facts—?.  A.  L. 

2  Ingleby's  'Complete   View  (of   the   Shakspere   Forgeries),   p.  310-11; 
N.  E.  S.  A.  Hamilton's    Inquiry,    p.    84  ;    Collier,    1860  ;  New  Facts,  p. 

1835. 


213 


EDMUND  BOLTON,  1610. 

The  Choife  of  Englifh.  As  for  example,  language  &  flyle 
(the  apparell  of  matter)  hee  who  would  penn  our  affaires  in 
Englilh,  and  compofe  unto  us  an  entire  body  of  them,  ought  to 
have  a  finguler  care  ther  of.  For  albeit  our  tongue  hath  not 
received  dialects,  or  accentuall  notes  as  the  Greeke,  nor  any 
certaine  or  eftablifhed  rule  either  of  gramer  or  true  writing,  is 
notwithstanding  very  copious,  and  fewe  there  be  who  have  the 
moft  proper  graces  thereof,  In  which  the  rule  cannot  be  variable  : 
For  as  much  as  the  people's  judgments  are  uncertaine,  the  books 
alfo  out  of  which  wee  gather  the  moft  warrantable  Englim  are 
not  many  to  my  remembrance,  of  which,  in  regard  they  require 
a  particuler  and  curious  tract,  I  forbeare  to  fpeake  at  this  prefent. 
But  among  the  cheife,  or  rather  the  cheife,  are  in  my  opinion 
thefe. 

Sr  Thomas  Moore's  works 
***** 

George  Chapmans  firft  feaven  books  of  Iliades. 

Samuell  Danyell. 

Michael  Drayton  his  Heroicall  Epiftles  of  England. 

Marlowe  his  excellent  fragment  of  Hero  and  Leander. 

Shakefpere,    Mr    Francis    Beamont,    &     innumerable    other 

writers  for  the  ftage  j  and  prefle  tenderly  to  be  ufed  in  this 

Argument. 
Southwell,  Parfons,  &  fome  fewe  other  of  that  fort. 

[Hypercritica  ;  or  a  Rule  of  Judgment  for  writing  or  reading  our 

i  histories.  Addresse  the  fourthe.'\l  \  1 1.    Concerning  Historicall 

language  and  Style.     An  Enumeration  of  the  best  Authors  for 

•written  English.   Rawlinson  MSS.  (Oxford}.    #.13.     D  I. 

(formerly  Misc.  I.) 


1  [The  part  of  the  title  between  [   ]  is  taken  from  Haslewood's  reprint,  it 
is  not  found  in  the  MS. 

Edmund  Bolton's  treatise  long  remained  in  manuscript,  and  was  first 


214  EDMUND    BOLTON,    l6lO. 

printed  by  Dr.  Hall,  in  1722,  at  the  end  of  Nic.  Trivetium  Annalium  Continu- 
atio.  Mr.  Joseph  Haslewood  reprinted  it,  together  with  what  he  considers 
the  original  outline  of  "  Addresse  the  fourthe"  from  the  Rawlinson  MS. 
This  outline  differs  considerably  from  the  printed  text,  in  it  Bolton  could 
show  his  high  opinion  of  Shakespere's  language,  and  could  press  him  and 
other  stage  writers  into  his  service  for  "  the  most  warrantable  English ; " 
but  he  thought  differently  when  he  wrote  his  fuller  work,  and  the  mention 
of  Shakespere  and  Beaumont  is  there  left  out.  (See  Haslewood's  Ancient 
Critical  Essays  upon  English  Poets  and  Poesy,  1815,  vol.  ii.  pp.  221,  246.) 

The  date  1610  is  given  to  Hypercritica  on  the  authority  of  a  note  by 
Antony  Wood  ;  it  might  possibly  be  that  of  the  outline,  but  is  probably  too 
early  for  the  final  version,  in  which  he  cites  Bishop  Montagu's  edition  of 
King  James's  works,  which  came  out  in  1616  ;  he  sums  up  the  fourth  address 
as  "  Prime  Gardens  for  gathering  English  :  according  to  the  true  Gage  or 
Standard  of  the  Tongue,  about  15  or  16  years  ago."  L.  T.  S.] 


215 


HANS  JACOB  WURMSSER  VON 
VENDENHEYM,  APRIL  30,  1610. 

Lundi,  30.  S.  E[minence].  alia  au  Globe,  lieu  ordinaire  ou 
Ton  Joue  les  Commedies,  y  fut  reprefente  1'hiftoire  du  More  de 
Venife. 

Journal  of  Prince  Lewis  Frederick  of  Wirtemberg,  Representative  of 
the  United  German  Princes  to  France  and  England,  in  1610. 
Written  by  his  Secretary  Wurmsser.  (British  Museum.  Add. 
MS.  20,001,  fo.(),back.)  Printed  in  W.  Brenchley  Rye's  England 
as  seen  by  Foreigners.  1865.  pp.  xciv — xcix,  cxii,  6°  61. 


It  is  not  improbable  that  "  cosen  garmombles  "  in  the  first  quarto  (1602) 
of  the  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor  (called  "  Cozen -Jermans  "  in  other  editions) 
is  a  direct  reference  to  Count  Mompelgard  (in  French  Montbeliard),  Duke 
of  Wurtemberg,  who  visited  England  in  1592,  and  the  visit  of  whose  second 
son  to  the  Globe  Theatre  is  here  recorded  by  his  secretary.1  In  fact,  Gar- 
momble  is  Mombel-gar  by  metathesis  ;  and  the  designation  of  the  Duke  as 
"  cosen  "  is  an  evident  allusion  to  Queen  Elizabeth's  letters  to  him.  In  the 
play  the  plural  ' '  cosen  garmombles  "  seems  to  be  a  generic  term  for  the 
suite  of  the  Duke.  In  the  compiler's  opinion,  Mr.  W.  B.  Rye  has 
perfectly  identified  the  allusions  in  the  Introduction  of  his  capital  work, 
England  as  Seen  by  Foreigners,  1865,  p.  Iv ;  and  a  more  interesting  bit  of 
Shakespearian  illustration  has  never  been  recovered  than  the  first  visit  of  the 
Duke  to  London,  Windsor,  Maidenhead  and  Reading,  in  1592.  (See,  also, 
Halliwell's  reprint  of  the  First  Sketch  of  the  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor,  for 
the  Shakespeare  Society,  1842,  Introduction,  pp.  xii — xiv.) 


1  [It  seems  rather  strong  to  call  this  a  ''direct  reference"  in  a  play 
published  in  1602  to  a  visit  which  happened  ten  years  before.  Dr.  Dowden, 
however,  considers  that  "  such  an  event  would  be  remembered  "  (Sh. 
Primer,  p.  104).  Some  think  that  Shakespere  was  alluding  to  a  gang  of 
cozeners  or  sharpers  who  may  have  been  personating  the  Duke's  followers. 
L.  T.  S.] 


2l6 


Anonymous,  about  1610  {rather  after  than  before). 

In  a  thick  and  early  small-4to  MS.  of  Latin  Treatises  in  the  British 
Museum,  Royal  MS.  A  XXI,  are  2  lines  of  Venus  and  Adonis  written 
at  the  top  of  the  blank  2nd  column  of  leaf  153,  back: 

Payer  flowers  /  that  are  not  /  gathered  in  their  /  prime 
Rot  and  /  confume  them/felues  in  littill  /  Tyme. 

We  owe  the  reference  to  Mr.  Gilson  of  the  MS.  Department  of  the 
British  Museum.  M. 


217 


CYRIL  TOURNEUR,    1611  (?). 

Soqu(ette).     But  we  want  place  and  opportunity. 

Snu(ft'e).  We  haue  both.  This  is  the  backe  fide  of  the  Houfe 
which  the  fuperftitious  call  Saint  Winifred's  Church,  and  is  verily 
a  conuenient  unfrequented  place.  Where  vnder  the  close  Cur- 
taines  of  the  Night ; 

Soq.     You  purpofe  i'  the  darke  to  make  me  light. 

1The  Atheist's  Tragedie,  IV.  iii.  Sign.  H4.  (Tour- 
neur's  Plays  and  Poems.  Ed.  Churton  Collins, 
1878.  Vol.  I,  p.  109.) 


The  "  close  Curtaines  of  the  Night"  is  an  unmistakeable  allusion  to  Rom. 
and  Jnl.  III.  ii.  5,  or  rather  a  plagiarism  from  it.  Langenhean  Snuffe  is 
the  hypocritical  stage  Puritan  of  the  time — 

The  following  speech  seems  to  have  been  modelled  on  that  of  Portia  in 
the  Merchant  of  Venice : — 

Enter  D'AMVILLE  and  CASTABELLA. 

D'Am.     Daughter,  you  doe  not  well  to  vrge  me.     I 

Ha'  done  no  more  than  lustice.      Charlemont 
Shall  die  and  rot  in  prison  ;  and  'tis  iust. 
Casta.     O  Father  !  Mercie  is  an  attribute 

As  high  as  lustice  ;  an  essentiall  part 

1  The-  I  Atheist's  /  Tragedie:  for,  /  The  Honest  Man's  Reuenge.f  As  in 
diuers  places  it  hath  often  beene  Acted  /  Written  I  By  I  Cyril  Tourneur./ 
At  London,  I  Printed  for  John  Stepneth  and  Richard  Redmer,  /  and  are  to  be 
sold  at  their  Shops  at  /  the  IVest  End  of  Patties.  /  161 1.  4to. 

The  play  is  entered  in  the  Stationers'  Books  on  September  nth  of  the 
same  year,  but  was  probably  written  earlier.  The  dates  of  Tourneur's  plays 
are  very  uncertain,  but  it  seems  probable  that  he  wrote  nothing  before  1600. 
Nothing  of  his  is  quoted  in  "  England's  Parnassus  "  (1602),  and  he  is  not 
named  by  Henslowe. 


2l8  CYRIL    TOURNEUK,    l6ll    (?). 

Of  his  vnbounded  goodnesse,  whose  diuine 

Impression,  forme,  and  image  man  should  beare. 

And  (me  thinks)  Man  should  loue  to  imitate 

His  Mercie  ;  since  the  onely  countenance 

Of  Justice,  were  destruction  ;  if  the  sweet 

And  louing  fauour  of  his  mercie  did 

Not  mediate  betweene  it  and  our  weakenesse. 

The  Atheist's  Tragedie,  III.  iv.  Sign.  64.  (  TourneuSs 
Plays  and  Poems,  ed.  Churton  Collins  ;  vol.  i.  p.  93.) 

What  follows  is  suggestive  of  the  words  of  Proteus  : 

Say  that  upon  the  altar  of  her  beauty 

Yow  sacrifice  your  tears,  your  sighs,  your  heart 

Two  Gentlemen  of  Verona,  III.  ii.  73-4 


.....  be  not  displeas'd,  if  on 
The  altar  of  his  Tombe,  I  sacrifice 
My  teares.    They  are  the  iewels  of  my  loue 
Dissolued  into  griefe  :  and  fall  vpon 
His  blasted  Spring  ;  as  Aprill  dewe,  vpon 
A  sweet  young  blossome  shak'd  before  the  time. 

The  Atheist's  Tragedie,  III.  i.  (1878,  vol.  i.  p.  79). 
Sign.  F4,  back. 

The  whole  of  the  churchyard  scene  in  IV.  iii.  is  suggestive  of  the  church- 
yard scene  in  Hamlet,  and  the  speech  of  Charlemont  (see  p.  5)  seems  an 
echo  of  Hamlet's  meditations  : 

C/for/[emont].  "  This  graue,  —  Perhappes  th'  inhabitant  was  in  his  life  time 
the  possessour  of  his  owne  desires.  Yet  in  the  midd'st  of  all  his  greatnesse 
and  his  wealth  ;  he  was  lesse  rich  and  lesse  contented,  then  in  this  poore  piece 
of  earth,  lower  and  lesser  then  a  Cottage.  For  heere  he  neither  wants,  nor 
cares.  Now  that  his  bodysauours  of  corruption  ;  Hee  enjoyes  a  sweeter  rest 
than  e'er  hee  did  amongst  the  sweetest  pleasures  of  this  life.  For  heere, 
there's  nothing  troubles  him.  —  And  there.  —  In  that  graue  lies  another.  He 
(perhaps)  was  in  his  life  as  full  of  miserie  as  this  of  happinesse.  And  here's 
an  end  of  both.  Now  both  their  states  are  equall."  Sig.  H3,  back,  H^ 
(ed.  1878,  vol.  i.  p.  106-7).—  J.  N.  HETHERINGTON. 


219 


JOHN  DAVIES  OF  HEREFORD,  About  1611. 

To  our  Englifh  Terence,  Mr.  Will. 
Shake-fpeare. 

Some  fay  (good  WiW)  which  I,  in  fport,  do  fing, 
Had'il  thou  not  plaid  fome  Kingly  parts  in  fport, 
Thou  hadft  bin  a  companion  for  a  King  ; 
A.nd,  beene  a  King  among  the  meaner  fort. 
Some  others  raile  j  but,  raile  as  they  thinke  fit, 
Thou  haft  no  rayling,  but,  a  raigning  Wit : 
And  honefty  thoufow'Jl,  which  they  do  reape , 
So,  to  increafe  their  Stocke  which  they  do  keepe. 

The  Scourge  of  Folly,  consisting  of  Satyricall 
Epigramms  and  others,  <5rv.  About  1611. 
[Svo.]  Epig.  159,^.  76. 

Reprinted  by  Rev.  A.  B.  Grosart,  in  the  Chertsey 
Worthies  Library,  Davies1  Works,  /.  26. 


The  commencing  lines  may  refer  to  a  fact  related  in  a  letter  from  John 
Chamberlaine  to  Winwood,  dated  December  18,  1604. 

"  The  Tragedy  of  Goivry,  with  all  the  Action  and  Actors  hath  been  twice 
represented  by  the  King's  Players,  with  exceeding  Concourse  of  all  sorts  of 
People.  But  whether  the  matter  or  manner  be  not  well  handled,  or  that  it 
be  thought  unfit  that  Princes  should  be  played  on  the  Stage  in  their  Life- 
time, I  hear  that  some  great  Councellors  are  much  displeased  with  it,  and  so 
'tis  thought  shall  be  forbidden."  (Winwood's  Memorials,  1725,  ii.  41.) 

[It  seems  likely  that  these  lines  refer  to  the  fact  that  Shakespere  was  a 
player,  a  profession  that  was  then  despised  and  accounted  mean.  For  evi- 
dence of  this  feeling  see  before,  pp.  3,  126,  and  after,  Sir  Richard  Baker's 
Chronicle,  1643.  L.  T.  S.] 


220 


JOHN  DAVIES  OF  HEREFORD,  About  1611. 

Another  (ah,  Lord  helpe)  mee  vilifies 

With  Art  of  Love,  and  how  to  fubtilize, 

Making  lewd  Venus,  with  eternall  Lines, 

To  tye  Adonis  to  her  loves  defignes  : 

Fine  wit  is  fhew'n  therein  :  but  finer  twere 

If  not  attired  in  fuch  bawdy  Geare. 

But  be  it  as  it  will :  the  coyell  Dames, 

In  private  read  it  for  their  ClofTet-games  : 

For,  footh  to  fay,  the  lines  fo  draw  them  on, 

To  the  venerian  fpeculation, 

That  will  they,  nill  they  (if  of  flefh  they  bee) 

They  will  thinke  of  it,  fith  loofe  Thought  is  free. 

Papers  Complaint,  compiled  in  truthfull  Rimes 

Against  the  paper- spoylers  of  these  Times.     [In 

the  Vohtme  containing  The  Scourge  of  Folly, 

and  other  poems.    About  1611.  /.  231.]  [4/0.] 

Reprinted  by  Rev.  A.  B.  Grosart  in  the  Chertsey 

Worthies  Library,  Dairies'  Works,  p.  75. 


The  first  line  here  quoted  is  thus  given  by  Drake  (who  follows  Brydges 
Censura  Literaria,  1808,  vol.  vi.  p.  276)  in  his  Shakespeare  and  his  Times, 
vol.  ii.  p.  30  : 

"Another  (ah,  harde  happe)  me  vilifies 
With  art  of  love,"  £c.  C.  M.  I. 


221 


*LOD.  BARREY,   1611. 

[Sir  Oliuer  Smalefhanke,  to  his  Ion  Thomas  Smalefhanke] 
I  am  right  harty  glad,  to  heare  thy  brother 
Hath  got  fo  great  an  heire:    [=  has  carried  off  an  heirefs],  ,  . 
A,  firra,  has  a  borne  the  wench  away. 
My  fonne  ifaith,  my  very  fonne  ifaith, 
When  I  was  yong  and  had  an  able  back, 
And  wore  the  briflell  on  my  vpper  lippe, 
In  good  Decorum  I  had  as  good  conuayance, 
And  could  haue  ferd,  and  ferkt  y*  away  a  wench, 
As  ioone  as  eare  a  man  aliue  j  tut  boy 
I  had  my  winks,  my  becks,  treads  on  the  toe 
Wrings  by  the  fingers,  fmyles  and  other  quirkes, 
Noe  Courtier  like  me,  your  Courtiers  all  are  fooles 
To  that  which  I  could  doe,  I  could  haue  done  it  boy, 
Euen  to  a  hare,  and  that  iome  Ladies  know. 

Ram- Alley  :  /  Or  \  Merrie-  Trickes.  /  A  Comedy  /  Diners 
times  here-to-fore  acted. /  By  /  the  Children  /  of  /  the 
Kings  Reuels.j  Written  by  Lo  :  Barrey./  At  London  f 
Printed  by  G.  Eld,  for  Robert  Wilson,  /  and  are  to  be 
sold  at  his  shop  in  Holborne,  \  at  the  new  gate  of  Grayes 
Inne.\  i6n./  sign.  C,  back. 


The  "fer'd"  in  line  8  above  is  modernizd  into  "ferk'd"  in  Hazlitt's 
Dodsley,  x.  292,  The  phrase — writes  Dr.  Ingleby,  who  referd  me  to  Barrey 
— is  probably  from  PistoFs  play  on  "  Mounsieur  le  Fer  "  's  name  in  Henry 
V,  IV.  iv.  29.  " M.  Fer:  He  fer  him,  and  firke  him,  and  ferret  him  :" 
firk  occurs,  in  one  sense  or  another,  some  dozen  times  in  the  play  :  thrice 
in  two  pages,  Hazlitt's  Dodsley,  x.  328-9.  See  too  p.  373. 


222  LOD.    BARREY,     l6ll. 

In  '  Actus  3.  Scaena  I.'  line  13,  sign.  D  3,  back,  is  the  phrase  "  will  still 
be  doing  l"  of  Henry  V,  III.  vii.  107  (Hazlitt's  Dodsley,  x.  313) : — 

I  likewise  haue  a  sonne, 
A  villanous  Boy,  his  father  vp  and  downe, 
What  should  I  say,  these  Veluet  bearded  boyes 
will  still  be  doing,  say  what  we  old  men  can  .... 
.  .  .  the  villaine  boy  .  .   .  has  got  the  wench 

And  a  little  further  on,   sign.  E,   occurs   Pistol's    "die  men  like  dogs," 
2  Henry  IV,  II.  iv.  188,  as  is  noted  in  Hazlitt's  Dodsley,  x.  319  : — 2 

"  IV,  S.  Whats  the  matter  Leiftenant.    2.  Gen.  Your  Lieftenants  an  asse. 
Bea\\$\.   How  an  asse  ;  die  men  like  dogs.         W.  S.  hold  gentlemen. 
Bea.   An  asse,  an  asse." 

In  The  Merry  Devil  of  Edmonton,  licenst  Oct.  22,  1607,  printed  1608, 
and  mentiond  in  T.  M.'s  Blacke  Booke,  1604,  there  is  a  speech  by  the 
Host,  with  some  phrases  recalling  Falstaff's,  as  in  2  Henry  IV,  II.  i.  66 — 
"  I'll  tickle  your  catastrophe  :" — "  I'll  tickle  his  catastrophe  for  this  .  . 
The  villanous  world  is  turned  mangy  .  .  .  Have  we  comedies  in  hand, 
you  whoreson  villanous  male  London  lecher?"  Hazlitt's  Dodsley,  x.  259, 
203. 

And,  as  is  noted  on  p.  225,  ib,  the  phrase  is  used  there  too  "  a  plague  of 
this  wind  !  O,  it  tickles  our  catastrophe  !  "  No  doubt  there  were  plenty 
of  Elizabethan  wits  able  to  call  a  man's  hinder  '  end  '  his  catastrophe  ; 
but  I  don't  know  the  phrase  earlier  than  Shakspere.  Banks's  '  Take  me 
with  you '  in  the  Merry  Devil,  p.  224,  is  uzd  by  at  least  Peele,  before 
Shakspere. 

F.  J.  F. 

1  The  use  of  doing  in  this  sense  is  common  of  course  :  see  Throate's 
speech  in  Ram  Alley,  D  4,  back,  Schmidt's  Shaksp.  Lexicon,  &c, 
2  Die  men  like  dogs  ;  give  crowns  like  pins, 
Have  we  not  Hiren  here  ? 


223 


*  LODOVIC  BARREY,  1611 


PARALLEL  PASSAGES. 


Lodovic  Barrey. 

Now  to  the  next  tap-house,  there 
drink  down  this,  and  by  the 
operation  of  the  third  pot, 
quarrel  again  (Act II.  sc.  ii ;  sign. 


Dash,    we    must    bear   some   brain 
(Act  II.  ;  sign.  D  3). 

Is  there  no  trust,  no  honnesty  in  men  ? 
(Act  II. ;  sign.  D  2.) 

He  stirreth  not,  he  moveth  not,  he 
waggeth  not  (Act  IV. ;  sign.  G  2} . 


Ram  Alley,  or  Merrie-  Trickes, 
a  Comedy,  1611. 


Shakespere. 

He  enters  the  confines  of  a  tavern  * 
*  *  and  by  the  operation  of 
the  second  cup  draws  on  him 
the  drawer  (Rom.  and  Jul.  Act 
III.  sc.  i.  1.  6). 

Nay,  I  do  bear  a  brain  (Rom.  and 
Jul.  Act  I.  sc.  iii.  1.  29). 

There's  no  trust,  no  faith,  no  honesty 
in  men  (Rom.  and  Jul.  Act  III. 
sc.  ii.  1.  86). 

He  heareth  not,  he  stirreth  not,  he 
moveth  not  (Rom.  and  Jul.  Act 
II.  sc.  i.  1.  16). 


[Mr.  Fleay  in  his  Shakespeare  Manual,  1876,  p.  19,  says  that  this  "  play 
is  one  continuous  parody  of  Shakespere,"  and  that  it  contains,  besides  the 
above,  allusions  to  Hamlet,  Othello,  Much  Ado  about  Nothing,  Sec.  L.  T.  S.] 


JOHN    SPEED,   1611. 

3?  That  N-  D-1  author  of  the  three  conuerlions  hath  made 
Ouldcaftle  a  Ruffian,  a  Robber,  and  a  Rebell,  and  his  authority 
taken  from  the  Stage-plaiers,  is  more  befitting  the  pen  of  his 
flanderous  report,  then  the  2  Credit  of  the  iudicious,  being  only 
grounded  from  this  Papift  and  his  Poet,  of  like  confcience  for  lies, 
the  one  euer  faining,  and  the  other  euer  fallifying  the  truth  :  .  . 
I  am  not  ignorant : 

The  I  History  j  of  I  Great  Britaine  I  Under  the  Conquests 
of  ye  I  Romans,  Saxons, /  Danes  and  \  Normans.] 
.  .  .  by  John  Speed.  .  London.  .  .  .  1611.  Book 
9,  chap.  15,  p.  637  (p.  788,  ed.  1632),  col.  I,  par.  (47). 


That  Shakspere  was  at  first  one  of  the  dramatists  who  degraded  Old- 
castle  into  Falstaff  is  certain  (see  after,  p.  510),  though  he  afterwards 
declared  that  Oldcastle  was  '  not  the  man.'  And  that  the  actors  of  Shak- 
spere's  Falstaff  were  among  the  $tage-plaiers  alluded  to  by  Speed,  admits  of 
no  reasonable  doubt.  The  extract  above  is  given  by  Ritson  (  Var.  Shaksp. 
1821,  xvi,  411),  and  Mr.  Elliot  Browne,  Academy,  March  8,  1879,  p.  217, 
col.  3. 

Mr.  Browne  (ib,  p.  218)  says  that  "  Henry  Care,  in  the  Pacquet  of  Advice 
from  Rome,  March  31,  1682,  alludes  to  the  aspersions  upon  Oldcastle's  mem- 
ory 'by  Parsons  the  Jesuit  and  others.'  "  He  quotes  part  of  what  follows  : 

'  Having  given  this  Succinct  Relation  of  this  Affair  of  Sir  John  Old- Castle, 

1  Nicholas  Doleman,  that  is,  Robert  Parsons,  the  celebrated  Jesuit,  author 
of  "  A  Treatise  of  three  Conversions  of  England  from  Paganism  to  Christian 
Religion.  .  .  Divided  into  three  partes  .  .  .  (wherunto  is  annexed  .  .  another 
.  .  treatise  called ;  A  review  of  ten  publike  disputations,  or  Conferences, 
held  in  England  about  matters  of  religion,  especially  about  the  Sacrament 
....  of  the  Altar,  etc.}.  By  N.  D.,  author  of  the  Ward- word.  .  .  .  [St. 
Omers?]  1603,  1604,  8°."  B.  Mus.  Catal. 

2  ed.  1632  has  credit  with  c. 


JOHN   SPEED,    l6ll.  225 

I  am  not  Ignorant  what  rubbs  have  been  thrown  in  the  way,  and  Scandals 
rais'd  upon  his  Memory,  by  Parsons  the  Jesuit,  and  others,  which  are  reduc- 
ible unto  Two  sorts,  viz.  1st.  That  he  was  a  Traitor  to  his  Soveraign.  2ly. 
That  he  was  a  Drunken  Companion,  or  Debauchee. 

'  As  to  the  First,  being  a  very  material  and  heinous  Charge,  we  shall  refer 
the  confutation  thereof  to  our  next  Racquet.  But  this  last  being  as  ground- 
less as  Trivial  wee'l  dispatch  it  at  present. 

'  That  Sir  John  Old-Castle  was  a  Man  of  Valour,  all  Authentick  (though 
prejudic'd)  Histories  agree,  That  he  was  a  Gentleman,  both  of  good  Sense, 
sober  Life,  and  sound  Christian  Principles,  is  no  less  apparent  by  his  Con- 
fession of  Faith,  delivered  under  his  own  hand,  (Extant  in  Foxe,}  and  his 
Answers  to  the  Prelates.  But  being  for  his  Opinions  hated  by  the  Clergy, 
and  suffering  such  an  Ignominious  Death ;  Nothing  was  more  obliging  to 
the  then  Domineering  Ecclesiastick  Grandees,  then  to  have  him  [Oldcastle] 
represented  as  a  Lewd  fellow ;  in  compliance  thereof  to  the  Clergy,  the 
Wits  (such  as  they  were)  in  the  succeeding  Ages  brought  him  in,  in  their 
Interludes,  as  a  Royster,  Bully  or  Hector  :  And  the  Painter[s]  borrowing  the 
Fancy  from  their  Cozen  Poets  have  made  his  Head  commonly  an  Ale-house 
Sign  with  a  Brimmer  in  his  hand  ;  and  so  foolishly  it  has  been  Tradition 'd 
to  Posterity.' 

The  Weekly  Pacquet  /  of  /  Jslbbitt  from  $bme.     Vol. 
IV.  p.  117.  n°.  15.     Friday  31.  Mar.  1682. 

"  And  he  goes  on  to  quote  the  remarks  of  Fuller  in  his  Church  History." 
(See  Thomas  Fuller,  1655.)  F.  J.  F. 

[I  cannot  verify  either  Speed's  or  Care's  references  (p.  31,  2nd  part,  p. 
197).  The  Second  Part  begins  at  p.  173,  and  is  paged  continuously  to  p. 
658.  Sir  John  Oldcastle  and  Sir  Roger  Acton  are  spoken  of  in  Part  2. 
chap.  9.  par.  13  to  23,  pages  490  to  498.  Parsons  says  they  were  by  act  of 
parliament  "condemned  of  open  treason  and  confessed  rebellion,"  p.  491. 

P.  A,  LYONS.] 


SH.  ALLN.  BK.~ I. 


226 


THE 

Firft  and   fecond   Part  of 

the  troublefome   Raigne  of 
John   King  of  England. 

With  the  difcouerie  of  King  Richard  Cor- 

delions  Bafe  fonne  (vulgarly  named,  the  Bastard 

Fawconbridge :)  Alfo,  the  death  of  King  lohn 

at  Swinftead  Abbey. 

As  they  were  (fundry  times)  lately  acted  by 
the  Queenes  Maiefties  Players. 


Written  by  W.  Sh. 
[Device] 


Imprinted  at  London  by  Valentine  Simmes  for  lohn  Helrne, 

and  are  to  be  fold  at  his  fhop  in  Saint  Dunftoiis 

Churchyard  in  Fleeteftreet. 

i  6  i  i. 


TROUBLESOME   RAIGNE   OF  JOHN    KING   OF   ENGLAND.       227 

[Title-page  of  the  second  edition  of  The  Troublesome  Raigne,  where 
"W.  Sh."  is  meant  to  convey  "William  Shakespere."  The  first  edition 
of  1591  was  anonymous.  A  reprint  of  the  title-page  of  the  1622  edition, 
where  the  poet's  name  appeared  in  full,  is  given  below,  p.  284.  M.] 


228 


SIMON  FORM  AN,  1611. 
hi  Richard  the  2  at  the  glob  161 1  the  30  of  April!. 

(fo.  201.) 

In  the  Winters  Talle  at  the  glob  161 1  the  15  of  maye 

(fo.  201 1>.) 
Of  Cimbalin  King  of  England 

(fo.  206.) 
In  Mackbeth  at  the  glob  1610  the  20  of  Aprill 

(fo.  207.) 

Forman  MSS.  Ashmolean  208.     In  the  Bodleian  Library. 

[Dr.  Forman  began  this  "  Bocke  of  Plaies  and  Notes  therof  per  Formans 
for  Common  Follicle  "  a  few  months  before  his  death  (he  died  September 
1611) ;  it  consists  of  a  thin  paper  folio,  of  which  only  six  pages  are  filled  with 
notes  on  the  four  plays  indicated  by  the  above  heads  ;  he  got  no  further. 
The  "  notes  "  are  nothing  more  than  a  short  relation  of  the  story  of  what 
he  saw,  and  are  in  no  way  critical.  They  have  been  printed  by  Mr.  J.  P. 
Collier,  "  New  Particulars  regarding  the  Works  of  Shakespere, "  1836,  pp. 
6 — 26  :  by  Mr.  Halliwell,  who  also  gives  facsimiles  of  them,  in  his  Folio 
edition  of  Shakespere's  Works,  1853 — 65,  vols.  viii.  p.  41 ;  ix.  p.  8  ;  xiv. 
p.  61 ;  xv.  p.  417  :  and  in  the  Transactions  of  the  New  Shakspere  Society, 
1875-6,  Part  II,  pp.  415—418. 

The  description  of  Richard  If.  shows  that  the  play  seen  by  Dr.  Forman 
was  not  Shakespere's  play  of  that  name.  See  Halliwell  as  above,  Vol.  ix. 
p.  8,  also  Dr.  E.  Dowden's  Shakespere  Primer,  p.  87.  C.  M.  I.] 


229 


BEAUMONT  AND  FLETCHER,  1611,  1616. 
[B.  died  i6J£.     F.  died  1625.] 

Welford.  -  •.-  /.-  But  fhall  wee  fee  thefe  Gentleweomen 
to-night  ? 

Sir  Roger.  Have  patience  Sir,  untill  our  fellowe  Nicholas  bee 
deceaft,  that  is,  a  fleepe  j  for  fo  the  word  is  taken  $  to  fleepe 
to  die,  to  die  to  fleepe  :  a  very  Figure  Sir. 

Wei.  Cannot  you  caft  another  for  the  Gentleweomen  ? 

Ro.  Not  till  the  man  bee  in  his  bed,  his  grave  j  his  grave, 
his  bed  j  the  very  fame  againe  Sir.  Our  Comick  Poet  gives 
the  reafon  fweetly  5  Plenus  rimarum  eft,  he  is  full  of  loopeholes. 

The  Scornful  Ladie,  Act  II.  Sc.i.     [4/0.]     1616,  sign.  C  4. 

By  heaven  me  thinkes  it  were  an  eafie  leape 

To  plucke  bright  honour  from  the  pale-fac'd  Moone, 

Or  dive  into  the  bottome  of  the  fea, 

Where  never  fathome  line  touch't  any  ground, 

And  plucke  up  drowned  honor  from  the  lake  of  hell. 

Knight  of  the  Burning  Pestle.    Prologue.     1613.    [4/0.]    Sign.  B  2. 


[The  date  when  the  Scornful  Ladie  was  written  is  uncertain,  it  was  first 
printed  in  1616.  Hamlet's  Soliloquy  (Act  III.  i.)  seems  to  have  given  rise 
to  some  merriment  here,  not  dreamt  of  perhaps  by  "our  Comick  Poet." 

The  Knight  of  the  Burning  Pestle  was  probably  written  in  1611,  though 
not  printed  till  1613.  Ralph,  the  'Prentice,  being  called  in  to  "speak  a 
huffing  part  "  to  show  his  powers,  spouts  Hotspur's  lines  (First  Part  Henry 
IV,  Act  I.  sc.  iii.  1.  201).  Steevens  infers  that  this  or  a  similar  passage  was 
"  used  as  a  common  burlesque  phrase  for  attempting  impossibilities,"  and 
quotes  W.  Cartwright's  satirical  poem  on  Mr.  [William]  Stokes'  Book  on 
the  Art  of  Vaulting. 

1 '  Then  go  thy  ways,  Brave  Will,  for  one, 
By  Jove  'tis  thou  must  Leap  or  none, 
To  pull  bright  honour  from  the  Moon"  {Poems,  1651,  p.  212). 

See  another  quotation  from  The  Knight,  before,  p.  168.  L.  T.  S.] 


230 


*SIR  JOHN    HAYWARD,  1612. 

[Harl.  MS.  6021,  leaf  69,  lack]  Excellent  Queene !  what 
doe  my  wordes,  but  wrong  thy  worth  ?  what  doe  I  but  guild 
gold  ?  what,  but  fhew  the  Sunne  with  a  candle  in  attempting  to 
prayfe  thee,  whofe  honor  doth  fly  ouer  the  whole  world  vppon 
the  two  winges  of  magnanimity,  and  juftice,  whofe  perfe&ione 
mall  much  dimme  the  Luftre  of  all  other,  that  {hall  be  of  thy 
Sexe.  

The  late  Director  of  the  Camden  Society,  John  Bruce,  when  editing  the 
copy  of  Hayward's  MS.  for  his  Society,  "Annals  of  the  first  four  Years  of 
the  Reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  By  Sir  John  Hayward,  Knt.  D.C.L."  1840, 
put  the  following  note  to  this  "guild  gold"  passage,  p.  8  : — 

"We  have  here  a  proof  that  Shakspeare's  King  John  was  written  before 
1612,  the  date  of  the  present  composition.  It  does  not  appear  to  have  been 
printed  until  included  in  the  first  folio  edition  of  the  plays  in  1623.  The 
words  referred  to — 

*  To  gild  refined  gold 

or  with  a  taper  light 

To  seek  the  beauteous  eye  of  heaven  to  garnish ' 

(King  John,  Act  IV.  scene  2),  are  not  to  be  found  in  'The  Troublesome 
Raigne  of  King  John,'  the  play  which  Shakspeare  used  in  the  composition 
of  his  noble  drama,  and  which  some  persons  [the  Lord  forgive  them  !]  have 
thought  to  be  Shakspeare's  first  rough  draft,  as  it  were,  of  the  play  which  we 
now  possess." 

Miss  E.  Phipson  sends  the  extract  from  the  printed  book. 

Mr.  Hall.-Phillipps  quotes  Hayward's  words,  evidently  from  Mr.  Bruce's 
edition,  but  without  referring  to  it  or  its  note. — F.  J.  F. 


23I 


THOMAS  HEYWOOD,  1612. 

Here  likewife,  I  muft  necessarily  infert  a  manifeft  injury  done 
me  in  that  worke,1  by  taking  the  two  Epiftles  of  Paris  to  Helen, 
and  Helen  to  Paris,  and  printing  them  in  a  lefle  volume,  under 
the  name  of  another,  which  may  put  the  world  in  opinion  I 
might  fteale  them  from  him;2  and  hee  to  doe  himfelfe  right, 
hath  mice  publifhed  them  in  his  owne  name:  but  as  I  muft 
acknowledge  my  lines  not  worthy  his  patronage,  under  whom  he 
hath  publifht  them,  fo  the  Author  3  I  know  much  offended  with 
M.  Jaggard  that  (altogether  unknowne  to  him)  prefumed  to 
make  fo  bold  with  his  name. 

An  Apology  for  Actors.     1612.     Epistle  "  To  my  approved  good 
Friend,  Mr.  Nicholas  Okes, "  [the  printer}  at  the  end. 


1  That  worke,  "my  booke  of  Britaines  Troy.'" 

2  i.  e.  the  printer  of  Britaines  Troy. 
8  Shakespere. 


["  The  Passionate  Pilgrim,  by  W.  Shakespeare,  was  first  publish!  in  1599. . . 
The  Pilgrim  is  a  collection,  made  by  the  piratical  publisher,  William 
Jaggard,  of  some  genuine  Sonnets,  &c.,  by  Shakspere,  Richard  Barnfield, 
Bartholomew  Griffin,  Christopher  Marlowe,  and  other  writers  unknown, 
got  from  divers  printed  books  and  other  sources.  Thirteen  years  afterwards, 
in  1612,  the  same  pirate  Jaggard  reprinted  The  Pilgrim  as  Shakspere 's, 
and  put  into  it,  under  Shakspere's  name,  and  to  his  disgust,  two  poems  by 
Thomas  Heywood,  for  which  the  latter  publicly  reproacht  Jaggard  "  (as 
above).— Furnivall,  Introd.  to  the  Leopold  Shakspere,  p.  xxxv.  Only  eleven 
out  of  the  twenty-one  songs  in  the  collection  are  certainly  or  possibly 
Shakespere's.  (See  Dowden's  Shakespere  Primer,  p.  in.)  L.  T.  S.] 


232 


*THO.    HEYWOOD,    1612. 

To  come  to  Rhetoricke,  it  not  onely  emboldens  a  fcholler  to 
fpeake,  but  inftructs  him  to  fpeake  well,  and  with  iudgement, 
to  obferue  his  comma's,  colons,  &  full  poynts,  his  parenthefes,  his 
breathing  fpaces,  and  diftinctions,  to  keepe  a  decorum  in  his  coun- 
tenance, neither  to  frowne  when  he  mould  fmile,  nor  to  make 
vnfeemely  and  difguifed  faces  in  the  deliuery  of  his  words,  not  to 
flare  with  his  eies,  draw  awry  his  mouth,  confound  his  voice  in 
the  hollow  of  his  throat,  or  teare  his  words  haftily  betwixt  his 
teeth,  neither  to  buffet  his  defke  like  a  mad-man,  nor  ftand  in 
his  place  like  a  liuelefle  Image,  demurely  plodding,  &  without 
any  fmooth  &  formal  motion.  It  inftru6ts  him  to  fit  his  phrafes 
to  his  action,  and  his  action  to  Jiis  phrafe,  and  his  pronunciation 
to  them  both. 

An  I  Apology  I  for  Actors,!  Containing  three  briefe  /  Trea* 
tises.l  I  Their  Antiquity./  2  Their  ancient  Dignity./ 
3  The  true  vse  of  their  quality./  Written  by  Thomas 
Hey  wood.//  London,/  Printed  by  Nicholas  Okes.\ 
1612,  sign.  6*3,  back,  C  4.1  (ed.  1658,  p.  14,  15.) 


The  last  lines  (noted  in  Mr.  Hall.-P.'s^/^w.  on  Hamlet,  p.  65)  should  have 
been  quoted  on  p.  231,  above.  They  are  perhaps  founded  on  Hamlet's 
"suit  the  action  to  the  word,  the  word  to  the  action,"  III.  ii.  19,  20. 
F.  J.  F.  

1  The  Historical  plays  of  Casar and  Richard III,  alluded  to  on  F  3,  back, 
F  4,  back,  are  not  Shakspere's.  The  '  Countesse  of  Salisbury '  on  G  I, 
back,  is  the  heroine  of  Edw.  Ill, 


233 


JOHN  WEBSTER,  1612. 

Detraction  is  the  fworne  friend  to  ignorance  :  For  mine  owne 
part  I  have  ever  truly  cherifht  my  good  opinion  of  other  mens 
worthy  Labours,  efpecially  of  that  full  and  haightned  ftile  of 
maifter  Chapman :  The  labor'd  and  underftanding  workes  of 
maifter  Johnfon :  The  no  lefle  worthy  compofures  of  the  both 
worthily  excellent  Maifler  Beamont  &  Maifter  Fletcher:  And 
laftly  (without  wrong  laft  to  be  named),  the  right  happy  and 
copious  induftry  of  M.  Shake-fpeare,  M.  Decker,  &  M.  Heywood, 
wifhing  what  I  write  may  be  read  by  their  light :  Protefting, 
that,  in  the  ftrength  of  mine  owne  judgement,  I  know  them  fo 
worthy,  that  though  I  reft  filent  in  my  owne  worke,  yet  to  moft 
of  theirs  I  dare  (without  flattery)  fix  that  of  Martiall. 

— non  norunt,  Haec  monumenta  mori. 

The  White  Divel.     1612.     [4*0.]    Dedication  (last paragraph}. 

C.  M.  I. 


234 


*Belvoir  MSS.     March  31,  1613. 

12  Martii.  Paied  to  Knight  thatdrewe  the  armes  with  helmet, 
creft,  and  mantlinges  in  4  efchocheons  upon  2  banners  for  2 
trumpettes,  and  making  them  up,  being  20  coates,  viii  li.  Ryban, 
xvi  d  .  .  .  .  viii  li  i  s.  iiii  d. 

31  Martii.  To  Mr  Shakfpeare  in  gold,  about  my  Lordes 
imprefo,  xliv  s ;  To  Richard  Burbage  for  paynting  &  making  y t, 
in  gold,  xliv  s  .  .  .  .  iiii  li  viii  s. 

The  Steward's  Account,  Duke  of  Rutland's  Household  Papers, 
Belvoir  MSS. 


[This  allusion  to  "Mr.  Shakspeare"  was  discovered  by  Mr.  W.  H. 
Stevenson  in  the  course  of  his  labours  on  the  Historical  MSS.  Commission, 
and  was  announced  in  that  commission's  I7th  Report,  1907,  p.  23.  The 
entry  immediately  awoke  great  interest,  and  as  it  was  considered  to  refer 
to  the  poet,  and  would  deal  with  work  done  by  him,  it  is  reprinted  here. 
A  description  of  the  tilting  match,  which  took  place  on  March  24th,  1613, 
and  for  which  the  "  impresa  "  was  made,  is  given  by  Sir  Hy.  Wotton  in  a 
letter  to  Sir  Edmund  Bacon,  March  31,  1613,  where  the  names  of  20  of  the 
tilters  are  recorded,  and  among  them  Rutland,  and  where  the  devices  are 
described  of  Wm.  Herbert,  Earl  of  Pembroke,  and  his  brother  Philip 
Herbert,  Earl  of  Montgomery.  Rutland's  device  is  not  described. 
(Reliquia  Wottoniance.,  1685,  405-6 :  see  L.  Pearsall  Smith's  letter  in  the 
Times,  Jan.  3,  1906,  col.  5.) 

"The  impresa,"  says  Mrs.  Stopes  (Athen(zum}  May  16,  1908,  p.  604), 
"was  a  private  and  personal  device,  as  distinguished  from  the  family  coat 
of  arms,  and  was  especially  used  in  tournaments  and  masques  when  there 
was  some  attempt  at  concealing  one's  identity."  In  what  way  could  the 
poet  have  been  associated  with  Burbage  in  making  an  impresa  ?  Did  he 
create  the  design,  or,  as  some  have  suggested,  could  he  have  written  some 
suitable  motto  or  verses  to  be  spoken  ?  We  cannot  say.  .  He  is  not  likely 
to  have  received  44^.  for  either  of  these  latter  services.  The  word  "  about" 
might  mean  that  he  was  consulted  in  connexion  with  the  affair,  or,  as  Mrs. 
Stopes  suggests,  this  Shakspere  might  have  been  an  agent  for  another  man. 

Mrs.   Stopes  was  the  first  to  show  the  possibility  that  the  Shakspere 


BELVOIR    MSS.       MARCH    31,    1613.  235 

referred  to  might  not  have  been  William,  the  poet.  There  was  attached 
to  the  court  at  that  time  a  John  Shakspere,  the  royal  bit-maker,  to  whom 
the  king,  when  he  died,  owed  the  considerable  sum  of  ^1,692  iu. — a 
fortune  in  those  days.  It  would  not  be  surprising  to  find  this  John 
associated  with  an  impresa ;  and  he  must  have  done  a  great  deal  of 
designing  in  one  form  and  another.  The  connexion  with  Burbage  is  a 
difficulty,  but  Mrs.  Stopes  says  that  "  there  is  more  than  a  possibility 
that  this  John  is  the  [poet's]  cousin  who  disappears  from  Snitterfield." 
(Athenaum,  art.  quoted  above,  p.  605).  Under  those  circumstances  the 
connexion  between  John  Shakspeare  and  Burbage  would  come  through 
William  Shakspere.  The  poet,  himself,  at  that  very  time  (March  10,  ii) 
was  buying  from  Henry  Walker,  for  ^140,  a  house  and  ground  in 
Blackfriars,  London,  and  mortgaging  the  property  back  to  its  vendor, 
having  paid  only  £80  of  the  purchase  price,  and  letting  the  house  to  a 
tenant. 

The  occurrence  together  of  the  two  well-known  names  of  Shakspeare  and 
Burbage  is,  moreover,  not  altogether  conclusive  evidence  that  the  poet  was 
implied,  for  coincidences  such  as  this  might  be,  are  not  rare.  Prof.  Manly 
refers  me,  on  this  point,  to  Report  VI,  Historical  MSS.  Commission,  App. 
p.  541  by  where  there  is  record  that  in  1456,  John  Craye  and  Thomasa 
Nasshe,  Wardens  of  the  Play  of  the  Resurrection,  made  plaint  against  John 
Lylye  in  a  plea  of  account ;  and  a  Robert  Grene  was  Queen's  Fool  about 
1569  (Nichol's  Progresses  of  Eliz.  i.  270). 

On  the  other  hand,  Dr.  Jusserand  has  evidence  that  Ronsard  and  another 
French  poet  were  consulted  in  a  matter  similar  to  this  of  the  Duke  of 
Rutland.  This  proves  that  poets  were  consulted  in  such  cases,  and  is 
valuable  evidence. 

Decisions  in  a  case  of  this  character  are  dangerous,  but  it  seems  safe  to 
regard  it  as  possible,  until  more  certain  evidence  is  adduced  to  the 
contrary,  that  the  Belvoir  allusion  does  not  refer  to  William  Shakspere.  M.  ] 


236 


JOHN   MARSTON,  1613. 

Count  Arf[ena\.     Sancta  Maria,  what  thinkft  thou  of 

this  change  ? 

A  Players  paffion  He  beleeue  hereafter, 
And  in  a  Tragicke  Sceane  weepe  for  olde  Priamt 
When  fell  revenging  Pirrhus  with  fuppofde 
And  artificiall  wounds  mangles  his  breafl, 
And  thinke  it  a  more  worthy  act  to  me, 
Then  truft  a  female  mourning  ore  her  loue. 

The  /  Insatiate  /  Countesse  /  A  /  Tragedie :  /  Acted  at 
White-Fryers./  Written  /  By  lohn  Marston.  /  London, I 
Printed  by  /.  N.  for  Hugh  Perrie,  and  are  to  be  /  sould 
at  his  shop,  at  the  signe  of  the  Harrow  in  Brittaines~ 
burse.  1631.  sign.  A.  3  back.  Act  I.  ed.  Halliwell, 
iii.  109.  [First  printed,  1613.] 


Alluding  to  the  Player's  speech  in  Hamlet,  II.  ii.  494,  &c.,  577-8.  Noted 
by  K.  Elze,  Hamlet,  1882,  p.  168.  On  p.  249  is  a  note  that  the  following, 
alluding  probably  to  "  Flights  of  Angels,"  &c.,  Hamlet,  V.  ii.  371,  was  not 
admitted  into  the  Centurie  of  Pray se: 

"  Cardin\all\.     An  host  of  Angels  be  thy  conuey  hence." 

Marston.      The  Insatiate  Countesse,  sign.  I.  2,  Act  V. 
(M.'s  Works,  ed.  Halliwell,  iii.  188.) 

F.  J.  F. 

There  are  heaps  of  echoes  from  Hamlet  in  this  play ;  and  one  passage 
very  closely  modelled  on  some  lines  in  Richard  //,  Act  I.  sc.  i. 

A.  H.  BULLEN. 


337 


JOSEPH  FLETCHER,  1613. 

He  di'd  indeed  not  as  an  actor  dies 

To  die  to  day,  and  live  againe  to  morrow, 

In  fhew  to  pleafe  the  audience,  or  difguife 

The  idle  habit  of  inforced  forrow  : 

The  Crofle  his  ftage  was,  and  he  plaid  the  part 
Of  one  that  for  his  friend  did  pawne  his  heart. 

His  heart  he  pawnd,  and  yet  not  for  his  friend, 
For  who  was  friend  to  him,  or  who  did  love  him ? 
But  to  his  deadly  foe  he  did  extend 
His  deareft  blood  to  them  that  did  reprove  him, 
For  fuch  as  tooke  his  life  from  him,  he  gave 
Such  life,  as  by  his  life  they  could  not  have. 

Christens  Bloodie  Sweat,  or  the  Sonne  of  God  in  His  Agonie. 

1613.     p.  31.     [4/0.] 
Reprinted  by  the  Rev.  A.  B.  Grosart  in  the  Fuller  Worthies' 

Library,  1869.    p.  177. 


This  is  perhaps  the  most  curious  allusion  to  a  work  of  Shakespeare's 
made  during  his  lifetime  : 

"  the  part 
Of  one  that  for  his  friend  did  pawn  his  heart " 

was  assuredly  the  part  of  Antonio,  in  the  Merchant  of  Venice.  That  play 
was  probably  written  in  1596,  it  was  entered  on  the  Stationers'  Register  in 
1598  and  1600,  and  published  in  1600  in  two  editions,  the  first  by  James 
Roberts,  the  second  by  Thomas  Heyes.  C.  M.  I. 

[According  to  Greg  (Library ',  April  1908)  the  1600  quarto  of  Roberts  is 
fraudulently  dated  1600  for  1619.     M.] 


THOMAS  LORKINS,  1613. 


London  this  laft  of  June  1613. 

No  longer  lince  then  yefterday,  while  Bourbege  his  companie 
were  acting  at  ye  Globe  the  play  of  Hen  :  8,  and  there  {hooting 
of  certayne  chambers  in  way  of  triumph  $  the  fire  catch'd  & 
fattened  upon  the  thatch  of  ye  houfe  and  there  burned  fo  furiouily 
as  it  confumed  the  whole  houfe  &  all  in  leffe  then  two  houres 
(the  people  having  enough  to  doe  to  fave  themfelves). 

Letter  from  Thomas  Lorkins  to  Sir  Thos. 
Puckering.    Harl.  MS.  7,002,  fo.  268- 


[Another  contemporary  account  of  the  burning  of  the  Globe  theatre  says 
that  the  play  going  on  at  the  time  was  a  new  play  called  All  is  true.  (See 
Furnivall's  Introduction  to  the  Leopold  Shakspere,  p.  xviii.)  "Chambers" 
were  small  cannon  or  mortars.  L.  T.  S.] 


239 


SIR    HENRY   WOTTON,  July  2,   1613. 

Now,  to  let  matters  of  State  fleep,  I  will  entertain  you  at  the 
prefent  with  what  hath  happened  this  Week  at  the  Banks  fide. 
The  King's  Players  had  a  new  Play,  called  All  is  true,  repre- 
fenting  fome  principal  pieces  of  the  Reign  of  Henry  the  8th, 
which  was  fet  forth  with  many  extraordinary  Circumftances  of 
Pomp  and  Majefty,  even  to  the  matting  of  the  Stage ;  the 
Knights  of  the  Order,  with  their  Georges  and  Garter,  the  Guards 
with  their  embroidered  Coats,  and  the  like :  fufficient  in  truth 
within  a  while  to  make  Greatnefs  very  familiar,  if  not  ridiculous. 
Now,  King  Henry  making  a  Mafque  at  the  Cardinal  Wolfey's 
Houfe,  and  certain  Cannons  being  mot  off  at  his  entry,  fome  of 
the  Paper,  or  other  iiuff,  wherewith  one  of  them  was  flopped, 
did  light  on  the  Thatch,  where  being  thought  at  firft  but  an  idle 
fmoak,  and  their  Eyes  more  attentive  to  the  fhow,  it  kindled 
inwardly,  and  ran  round  like  a  train,  confuming  within  lefs  than 
an  hour  the  whole  Houfe  to  the  very  ground. 

This  was  the  fatal  period  of  that  virtuous  Fabrique  j  wherein 
yet  nothing  did  perilh,  but  Wood  and  Straw,  and  a  few  forfaken 
Cloaks ;  only  one  Man  had  his  Breeches  fet  on  fire,  that  would 
perhaps  have  broyled  him,  if  he  had  not  by  the  benefit  of  a 
provident  wit  put  it  out  with  Bottle- Ale. 

Letter  from  Sir  Henry  Wot  ton  to  his  nephew  Sir  Edmund 
Bacon,  reprinted  in  Reliquiae  Wottonige,  1685,  pp.  425-6. 


[Wotton's  All  is  true  is  Henry  VIII ;  possibly  the  play  had  a  double 
title  and  Wotton  gave  the  second.     See  pp.  238,  240,  244.     M.] 


240 


Anonymous,  about   1613. 

All  yow  that  pleafe  to  understand, 

Come  liften  to  my  ftoryc, 
To  fee  Death  with  his  rakeing  brande 

'Mongft  fuch  an  auditoryc  : 
Regarding  neither  Cardinall's  might, 
Nor  yet  the  rugged  face  of  Henry  the  eight. 

A  Sonnett  upon  the  Pittifull  Burneing  of  the  Globe  Play  House 
in  London.  Second  Stanza.  First  printed  by  Mr.  Haslnvood 
in  the  Gentleman' s  Magazine,  Vol.  86,  /.  114.  Reprinted  in 
IV.  C.  Hazlitfs  Roxburghe  Library,  The  English  Drama 
and  Stage,  1869,  p.  225. 


[See  the  Letter  from  Thomas  Lorkins,  before,  p.  238,  as  to  the  burning  of 
the  Globe  Theatre,  which  took  place  on  29  June,  1613.     L.  T.  S.] 


241 


LORD  TREASURER  STANHOPE,  1613. 

The  Accompte  of  the  right  honourable  the  Lord  Stanhope  of 
Harrington,  TrGafurer  of  his  Maje/h'es  Chamber,  for  all  fuch 
Somes  of  money  as  hath  beine  receaved  and  paied  by  him  within 
his  Office  from  the  feafte  of  St.  Michaell  Tharchangell,  Anno 
Regni  Regis  Jacobi  Decimo  (1612),  untill  the  feafte  of  St. 
Michaell,  Anno  Regni  Regis  Jacobi  undecimo  (1613),  conteyning 
one  whole  yeare. 

Item  paid  to  John  Heminges  uppon  lyke  warranty  dated  att 
Whitehall  ix°  die  Julij  1613  for  himfelf  and?  the  reft  of  his 
fellowes,  his  Maje/lzes  fervauntes  and'  Players  for  prefentinge  a 
playe  before  the  Duke  of  Savoyes  Embafladour  on  the  viijth  daye 
of  June,  1613,  called?  Cardenna,  the  Ibme  of  vjli.  xiijs.  iiijd. 

Item  paid  to  John  Heminges  uppon  the  Cowncells  warrant 
dated  att  Whitehall  xx°  die  Maij  1613,  for  prefentinge  before 
the  Princes  Highnes  the  Lady  Elizabeth  and  the  Prince  Pallatyne 
Elector  fowerteene  feverall  playes,  viz  :  one  playe  called  Filafter, 
One  other  called  the  Knott  of  ffooles,  One  other  Much  adoe 
alowte  nothinge,  The  Mayeds  Tragedy,  The  merye  dyvell  of 
Edmonton,  The  Tempejl,  A  kinge  and  no  kinge/  The  Twins 
Tragedie/  The  Winters  Tale,  Sir  Johnjaljlaffe,  The  Moor  of 
Venice,  The  Nobleman,  Ccefars  Tragedye,/  And  one  other  called 
Love  lyes  a  bleediuge,  All  which  Playes  weare  played  wzth-in 
the  tyme  of  this  Accompte,  viz:  paz'd  the  fome  of  iiij"  xiijli, 
vjs.  viijd  [^93  :  6  :  8]/ 

Item  paid  to  thefaid  John  Heminges  uppon  the  lyke  warrant, 
dated  att  Whitehall  xx°  die  Maij  1613,  for  prefentinge  fixe 

SH.  ALLN.  BK, — I.  R 


242  LORD    TREASURER    STANHOPE,    1613. 

feverall  playes,  viz :  one  playe  called  a  badd  beginininge  (sic) 
makes  a  good  endinge,  One  other  called  the  Capteyne,  One 
other  the  Alcumift./  One  other  Cardenno/  One  other  The 
Jfolfpurj  And  one  other  called  Benedicte  and  Betteris,  All 
played?  within  the  tyme  of  this  Accompte  viz:  paid  Fortie 
powndes,  And'  by  waye  of  his  Majejlies  rewarde  t wen  tie  powndes, 
In  all  Ix  li. 

Rawl.  MS.,  A.  239,  leaf  47  (in  the  Bodleian}.     Printed  in 
New  S/i.  Soc.'s  Transactions,  1875-6,  Part  II,  p.  419. 


[Lord  Stanhope's  accounts  give  six  of  Shakespere's  plays  as  acted  in 
1613  (those  printed  in  italics  above).  It  is  believed  that  Sir  John  Falstaffc 
refers  to  I  Henry  IV,  or  The  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor  ;  Caesars  Tragedye  to 
Julius  Caesar;  The  Hotspur  possibly  to  I  Henry  IV;  while  Benedicte  and 
Betteris  must  be  Much  Ado  About  Nothing.  L.  T.  S.] 

As  for  Cardenna,  above,  can  it  be  identified  with  the  Cardenio  entered 
in  the  Stationers'  Registers,  September  9,  1653,  and  described  as  "by  Mr. 
Fletcher  and  Shakspeare"?  See  Richard  Flecknoe,  1653.  M. 


EDMUND  HOWES,  1614. 

Our  moderne,  and  prefent  excellent  Poets  which  worthely 
florifh  in  their  owne  workes,  and  all  of  them  in  my  owne  know- 
ledge lived  togeather  in  this  Queenes  raigne,  according  to  their 
priorities  as  neere  as  I  could,  I  have  orderly  fet  downe  (viz) 
George  Gafcoigne  Efquire,  Thomas  Churchyard  Efquire,  Sir 
Edward  Dyer  Knight,  Edmond  Spencer  Efquire,  Sir  Philip  Sidney 
Knight,  Sir  John  Harrington  Knight,  Sir  Thomas  Challoner 
Knight,  Sir  Frauncis  Bacon  Knight,  &  Sir  John  Davie  Knight, 
Matter  lohn  Liliie  gentleman,  Maifter  George  Chapman  gentle- 
man, M.  W.  Warner  gentleman,  M.  Willi.  Shakefpeare  gentle- 
man, SamuelL  Daniell  El  quire,  Michaell  Draiton  Efquire,  of  the 
bath,  M.  Chrijlopher  Mario  gen.,  M.  Benjamins  Johnfon  gentle- 
man, lohn  Marfion  Efquier,  M.  Abraham  Frauncis  gen.,  matter 
Frauncis  Meers  gentle,  matter  Jofua  Siluejter  gentle,  matter 
Thomas  Deckers  gentleman,  M.  John  Flecher  gentle.,  M.  John 
IVebfter  gentleman,  M.  Thomas  Hey  wood  gentleman,  M.  Thomas 
Middlcton  gentleman,  M.  George  Withers. 

John  Slaw's  Annales,  or  generall  Chronicle  of  England  ;  continued 
to  the  end  0/1614.  by  Edmond  Howes.  1615.  /.  811.  [Reign 
of  Queen  Elizabeth.] 


Deckers  became  Decker  in  the  1631  edition  of  Stow's  Annals;   no  other 
alteration  was  then  made  in  this  list.    C.  M.  I. 


EDMUND   HOWES,    1614. 

If  I  fhuld  here  fet  down  the  leuerall  terrors  &  damages 
done  this  yeere  by  fire,  in  very  many  and  fundry  places  of  this 
kingdome,  it  would  containe  many  a  fheete  of  paper,  as  is 
euident  by  the  inceflant  collections  throughout  all  churches  of 
this  realme  for  fuch  as  haue  bin  fpoyled  by  fire.  Alfo  vpon 
S.  Peters  day  laft,  the  play-houfe  or  Theater  called  the  Globe, 
vpon  the  Banck-fide  neere  London,  by  negligent  difcharging  of 
a  peale  of  ordinance,  clofe  to  the  fouth  fide  thereof,  the  Thatch 
tooke  fier,  &  the  wind  fodainly  difperfl  ye  flame  round  about,  & 
in  a  very  fhort  fpace  ye  whole  building  was  quite  confumed,  & 
no  man  hurt :  the  houfe  being  filled  with  people,  to  behold  the 
play,  viz.  of  Henry  the  8.  And  the  next  fpring  it  was  new 
builded  in  far  fairer  manner  then  before. 

The  Annales,  /  or  /  Generall  Chro-]nicle  of  England,  begun 
first  by  I  maister  lohn  Stow,  and  /  after  him  continued  and 
augmented  /  with  matters  forreyne,  and  do-  /  mestique, 
auncient  and  moderns,  /  vnto  the  end  of  this  /  present 
yeere  1614  by  Edmond  /  Howes,  gen-pieman  /  Londini  f 
.  .  .  1615, /.  926,  col.  2,  //.  50-66.  M. 


245 


THOMAS  FREEMAN,  1614. 


To  Matter  W.  Shakefpeare. 

Shakefpeare,  that  nimble  Mercury  thy  braine, 

Lulls  many  hundred  Argus-eyes  afleepe, 

So  fit,  for  all  thou  famioneft  thy  vaine, 

At  th'  horfe-foote  fountaine  thou  haft  drunk  full  deepe, 

Vertues  or  vices  theame  to  thee  all  one  is  : 

Who  loves  chafte  life,  there's  Lucrece  for  a  Teacher : 

Who  lift  read  luft  there's  Venus  and  Adonis, 

True  modell  of  a  moft  lafcivious  leatcher. 

Befides  in  plaies  thy  wit  windes  like  Meander : 

When  needy  new-compofers  borrow  more 

Thence  Terence  doth  from  Plant  us  or  Menander. 

But  to  praife  thee  aright  I  want  thy  ftore : 

Then  let  thine  owne  works  thine  owne  worth  upraife, 
And  help  t'  adorne  thee  with  deferved  Baies. 

Runne,  and  a  Great  Cast.  The  Second  Bowie.  (Being  the 
second  part  of  Rubbe,  and  a  Great  Cast,  1614.)  Epigram 
92,  sign.  K  2,  back.  [4/0.]  C.  M.  I. 


*JOHN  COOKE,  1614. 

"  Staines.  There  is  a  devil  has  haunted  me  thefe  three  years 
in  likenefs  of  an  ufurer  -,  a  fellow  that  in  all  his  life  neuer  eat 
three  groat  loaves  out  of  his  own  purfe,  nor  ever  warmed  him 
but  at  other  mens  fires  j  "  &c. 

Greene's  Tu  Quoque,  Or,    The  Cittie  Gallant:  in  Anc. 
Brit.  Drama,  II.  541. 

"there  is  a  devil  haunts  thee  in  the  likeneis  of  an  old  fat  man." 
I  Henry  lVt  Act  II.  Sc.  iv.  1.  492-3. 

HY.  C.  HART. 


Mr.  Hll.-P.  (Cursory  Memoranda  on  Macbeth,  1880,  p.  10)  says  that 
Barnabe  Rich's  Hag  of  Hell  in  the  following  lines  probably  alludes  to  the 
Witches  of  Macbeth.  But  this  is  very  doubtful. — F. 

"  My  lady  holdeth  on  her  way,  perhaps  to  the  tire-makers  shop,  where 
she  shaketh  out  her  crownes  to  bestowe  upon  some  new-fashioned  attire, 
upon  such  artificial  deformed  periwigs,  that  they  were  fitter  to  furnish  a 
theatre,  or  for  her  that  in  a  stage-play  should  represent  some  hag  of  hell, 
than  to  be  used  by  a  Christian  woman. "  Honestie  of  this  Age,  4to.  I  ,ond. 
1615  [the  ist  ed.  is  1614]. 


247 


BEN  JONSON,  1614. 

It  is  alfo  agreed,  that  every  man  heere,  exercife  his  owne 
Judgement,  and  not  cenfure  by  Contagion,  or  upon  trufl,  from 
anothers  voice,  or  face.  *  *  *  Hee  that  will  fweare 
leronimo  or  Andronicus  are  the  beft  playes,  yet  {hall  pafle  unex- 
cepted  at,  heere,  as  a  man  whofe  Judgement  fliewes  it  is  conftant, 
and  hath  flood  ftill,  thefe  five  and  twentie,  or  thirtie  yeeres. 

(fourth  page.} 
*  *  #  # 

If  there  bee  never  a  Servant-monjler  i'  the  Fayre,  who  can 
helpe  it?  he1  fayesj  nor  a  neft  of  Antiques?  Hee  is  loth  to 
make  Nature  afraid  in  his  Playes,  like  thofe  that  beget  Tales, 
Tempejls,  and  fuch  like  Drolleries,  to  mixe  his  head  with  other 

mens  heeles. 

(fifth  page) 

Bartholomew  Fayre.    Induction.     Worses,  1640  (the publication 
of  this  play  being  dated  1631). 

1  "  He  "  is  the  Author,  Ben  Jonson. 

In  the  first  extract  from  the  Induction  to  Bartholomew  Fair  we  have 
Titus  Andronicus  ;  in  the  second  the  mention  of  "a  servant  monster"  recals 
Caliban  in  Shakespeare's  Tempest :  and  the  expression  "  to  mix  his  head 
with  other  men's  heels  "  recals  a  scene  in  that  play  where  Trinculo  takes 
refuge  from  the  storm  under  Caliban's  gabardine.  Antiques  means  antics, 
cf.  the  cavalier  Cleveland,  30  years  later, 

"  A  jig,  a  jig,  and  in  this  antick  dance  " 

(Mixt  Assembly.    Poems.     1687.     p.  34.) 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Jonson  was  alluding  to  the  Tempest. 

[Whalley  supposes  that  some  words  on  the  second  page  of  this  Induction, 
"  and  then  a  substantial  watch  to  have  stolen  in  upon  them,  &  taken 
them  away,  with  mistaking  words,  as  the  fashion  is  in  the  stage-practice," 
are  a  sneer  upon  Shakespere  alluding  to  the  Watch  and  their  blunders  in 
Much  Ado  about  Nothing.  But,  as  Lieut. -Col.  Cunningham  points  out 
(Jonson's  Works,  1871,  vol.  ii.  p.  144,  note),  "the  guardians  of  the  night  had 
been  proverbial  for  their  blundering  simplicity  before  Shakespere  was  born," 
and  he  does  not  think  this  comedy  was  referred  to.  Dr.  B.  Nicholson,  how- 
ever, does,  and  thinks  that  the  conjunction  of  the  three  bits  in  this  Induction 
prove  that  a  sneer  aeainst  Shakespere  was  intended  by  Tonson.  L.  T.  S.I 


248 


ROBERT  TAILOR,  1614. 


And  if  it  prove  fo  happy  as  to  pleafe, 
Weele  fay  'tis  fortunate  like  Pericles. 

The  Hogge  hath  lost  his  Pearle.     1614.     [4/0.]     Last  two 
lines  of  Prologue.     [Bodleian  Lib.  Malone  169.] 


As  to  date,  &c.,  of  Pericles^  see  before,  p.  190,  note.     C.  M.  I. 


249 


C[HRISTOPHER]  B[ROOKE],  1614. 

My  tongue  in  firie  dragons'  fpleene  I  fteepe, 

That  acts,  with  accents,  cruelty  may  found  ; 

(Part  i.  St.  viii.) 

To  him  that  impt  my  fame  with  Clio's  quill, 

Whofe  magick  raif  'd  me  from  oblivion's  den  j 

That  writ  my  ftorie  on  the  Mufes  hill, 

And  with  my  actions  dignifi'd  his  pen : 

He  that  from  Helicon  fends  many  a  rill, 

Whofe  nectared  veines,  are  drunke  by  thirftie  men  j 

Crown'd  be  his  ftile  with  fame,  his  head  with  bayesj 
And  none  detract,  but  gratulate  his  praife. 

Yet  if  his  fcaenes  have  not  engroft  all  grace, 
The  much-fam'd  action  could  extend  on  ftage  • 

(Part  2.  Stanzas  i,  ii.) 

My  working  head  (my  counfell's  confittory) 
Debates  how  I  might  raigne,  the  princes  living  : 

(Ibid.     St.  xxvi.) 

The  devlifh  fury  in  my  breft  entends, 
In  fpite  of  danget  and  all  oppolite  barrs  j 

To  cut  this  knot  the  miftick  fates  conteyne, 
And  fet  my  life  and  kingdome  on  this  mayne.         Lcast] 

(Part  T).  St.  xxxviii.) 

The  Ghost  of  Richard  the  Third.  Expressing  himselfe  in  these  three 
Parts,  i.  His  Character  2.  His  Legend  3.  His  Tragedie 
Containing  more  of  him  than  hath  been  heretofore  shewed :  either 
in  Chronicles,  Playes,  or  Poems.  1614.  [Unique copy  in  Bodleian.] 

Reprinted  by  Rev.  A.  B.  Grosart  in  the  Fuller  Worthies'  Library, 
Complete  Poems  of  Christopher  Brooke,  1872,  in  -which  see  pp.  62, 
79,  88,  134.  —  Also  for  the  Shakspere  Society,  by  Mr.  J.  P, 
Collier,  1844. 


250  C[HRISTOPHER]  B[ROOKE],   1614. 

Besides  the  direct  allusion  to  the  play  of  Richard  III,  in  Christopher 
Brooke's  poem,  there  are  several  lines  caught  from  Shakespeare's  work. 
The  three  most  striking  are  here  given.  The  first  refers  to  these  lines  in 
Act  V.  Sc.  iii : 

"  Our  ancient  word  of  courage,  fair  St.  George 
Inspire  us  with  the  spleen  of  fiery  dragons  !  " 

The  third  refers  to  a  line  in  Act  II.  Sc.  ii : 

"  My  other  self,  my  counsel's  consistory." 
The  fourth  refers  to  these  lines  in  Act  V.  Sc.  iv  : 

' '  Slave,  I  have  set  my  life  upon  a  cast, 
And  I  will  stand  the  hazard  of  the  die." 

[The  second  quotation  is  pointed  out  by  Mr.  Collier  and  Dr.  Grosart  as 
a  "  clear  allusion  to  Shakespere  and  to  his  play  on  the  history  of  Richard 
III."  (Grosart's  reprint,  p.  I eo.)  It  is  Richard's  "  Ghost  "  himself  who 
speaks.  L.  T.  S.] 


251 


SIR  WILLIAM  DRUMMOND,  16-14. 

The  authors  I  have  feen  on  the  Subjed  of  Love,  are  the  Earl 
of  Surrey,  Sir  Thomas  tVyat  (whom,  becaufe  of  their  Antiquity, 
I  will  not  match  with  our  better  Times)  Sidney,  Daniel, 
Dray  ton,  and  Spenfer,  *  *  The  laft  we  have  are  Sir  William 
Alexander  and  Shakefpear,  who  have  lately  publilhed  their 
Works. 

Works:  Fo:  1711.    p.  226. 


This  note  of  Drummond's  must  belong  to  the  period  of  1614-1616  ;  for 
Alexander  was  not  knighted  till  1614,  and  Shakespeare,  who  died  in  1616, 
is  here  spoken  of  as  a  living  author.  The  word  "  lately  "  induces  us  to  give 
the  earliest  date  possible  to  the  note.  See  Drummond  of  Hawthornden  ; 
the  Story  of  His  Life  and  Writings.  By  David  Masson,  1873,  P-  81,  n°tt' 
C.  M.  I. 


252 


THOMAS   PORTER,  1614. 

Quot  lepores  in  Atho  tot  habet  tua  mufa  lepores 
Ingenii  vena  divite  metra  tua. 


[Epigram  on  Shakspere  in  Epigrams  to  Sir  John  Heveningham  in  the 
Earl  of  Leicester's  MSS.,  at  Holkham  Hall,  Norfolk,  MS.  436.  See  the 
Ninth  Report  of  the  Royal  Historical  MSS.  Commission,  p.  362,  col.  i. 
The  collection  also  contains  epigrams  on  Ben  Jonson,  Spenser,  Sydney, 
Harrington,  the  Earl  of  Essex,  etc.  M.] 


W.B.,  1614 

The  daughter  of  Marcus  Cato,  when  fhee  had  bewayled  the 
death  of  her  Hufband  a  month  together,  the  longeft  date  of  our 
times  :  Ihee  was  afked  of  fome  of  her  Friendes  which  day  Ihould 
haue  her  laft  teare,  Ihee  anfwered,  the  day  of  her  death. 

Truely  intending  what  the  Trag.  Q.  but  fainedly  fpake, 

In  fecond  Hufband,  let  me  be  accurft : 
None  weds  the  fecond,  but  who  kills  the  firft. 
A  fecond  time,  I  kill  my  Hufband  dead, 
When  fecond  Hufband  kiifes  me  in  bed. 

The  I  Philosophers  /  Bctnqvet  /  .  .  .  The  second  Edition,  f 
newly  corrected  and  inlarged,  to  almost  as  /  much  more. 
By  W.  B.  Esquire ',  /  London,  /  .  .  .  1614,  p.  150. 


This  is  a  quotation  from  the  play  in  Hamlet  where  the  *  Tragic  Queen ' 
says  : 

In  fecond  Hulband  let  me  be  accurft, 

None  wed  the  fecond,  but  who  kill'd  the  firft. 

*  *  *  % 

The  inltances  that  fecond  Marriage  move 
Are  bafe  refpe6ts  of  Thrift,  but  none  of  Love; 
A  fecond  time  I  kill  my  Hufband  dead. 
When  fecond  Hufband  kiffes  me  in  Bed, 

III,  ii,  169-175. 

The  reference  is  given  by  G.  Thorn  Drury  in  Notes  and  Queries,  loth 
Series,  i,  p.  44.  The  Philosophers  Banquet  is  evidently  founded  on  the 
Mensa  Philosophica,  sen  Enchiridion.  .  .  .  Auctore  Michaele  Scoto.  [really 
by  Anguilbertus,  and  edited  by  N.  Steinius]  Lipsicet  1603,  where  the 
Shakspere  quotation  does  not  occur.  M.] 


254 


ALEX.   NICCHOLES,  1615. 

(i)       one  thus  writeth/. 

Loue  comforteth  like  funne-lhine  after  raine, 
But  Lufts  effect  is  tempeft  after  funne. 
Loue's  golden  fpring  doth  ever  frefh  remaine, 
Lufts  winter  comes  ere  fummer  halfe  be  done. 

(p.  31-2,  ed.  1620  :  Harl.  Misc.  ii.) 

(2,)   For  me  I  vow,  if  death  depriue  my  bed, 
I  neuer  after  will  to  Church  be  led 
A  fecond  Bride,  nor  neuer  that  thought  haue, 
To  adde  more  weight  vnto  my  hulbands  graue, 
In  fecond  hufband  let  me  le  acurjt, 
None  weds  the  fecond,  but  who  kits  thejirft. 

(p.  40,  ed.  1620  :  Harl.  Misc.  ii.) 

A  /  Discovrse,  /  of  Marriage  /  And  Wiving  :  /  and  /  Of 
the  greatest  Mystery  therein  /  contained  :  •  how  to  chuse  a 
good  /  Wife  from  a  bad./  ...     By  Alex.    Niccholes, 
Batchelour  in  the  Art  he  /  neuer  yet  put  in  practise./ 
He  that  stands  by,  and  doth  the  game  suruey, 
Sees  more  oft-times  then  those  that  at  it  play. 
Si  voles  disce,  si  vales  doce  : 
Si  voles  cape,  si  velles  carpe. 

London,  /  Printed  by  G.  Eld,  for  Leonard  Becket,  and  are 
to  be  sold  /  at  his  Shop  in  the  Temple.     1620. 


The  first  lines  are  taken  from  Venus  and  Adonis,  11.  799  —  802,  with  the 
words  'gentle'  altered  to  'golden,'  and  'always'  to  'ever.'  (Venus  and 
Adonis  seems  to  have  been  known  by  heart  to  every  poet  and  poetaster  of 
the  time.) 

The  second  lines  (in  italic)  are  quoted  from  Hamlet,  III.  ii.  189-90,  with 
the  words  'weds'  and  'kills'  altered  from  'wed'  and  '  kill'd.'— H.  C. 
HART. 


ALEX.  NICCHOLES,   1615.     (Illustr.  for  Rom.  &ful.)    255 

[In  the  same  work  of  Niccholes  is  a  good  illustration  of  the  following 
passage  in  Romeo  and  Juliet,  I.  iii.  B. 

"La.  Cap.  (to  J.)    Well,  think  on  marriage  now  j  younger  than 

you 

Here  in  Verona,  ladies  of  efteem, 
Are  made  already  mothers :  by  my  count 
I  was  your  mother  much  upon  these  years 
That  you  are  now  a  maid 


So  shall  you  share  all  that  he  [Paris]  doth  possess 
By  having  him,  making  yourself  no  less 
Nurse.     No  less !  nay  bigger;  women  grow  by  men." 
Juliet's  age  is  fourteen. 

Compare  with  this,  "  A  Discourse  of  Marriage  and  Wiving,  &c.,  by  Alex. 
Niccholes,  1615  (Harleian  Miscellany,  1809,  vol.  ii.  p.  164),  quoted  here 
(with  my  italics)  from  the  edition  of  1620*,  that  of  1615  not  being  in  the 
Brit.  Mus.  Catalogue  : — 

CHAP.  V. 
"  What*yeares  are  mofl  conuenient  for  marriage./ 

"  r  I  AHe  forward  Virgins  of  our  age  are  of  opinion,,  that  this 
commodity  can  neuer  be  taken  vp  too  foone,  and 
therefore  howfoeuer  they  neglect  in  other  things,  they  are  fure  to 
catch  time  by  the  forelock  in  this,  if  you  afke  them  this  queftion, 
they  will  refolue  you  fourteene  is  the  left  time  of  their  age,  if 
thirteene  bee  not  better  then  that,  and  they  haue  for  the  moft 
[part]  the  example  of  their  mothers  before  them,  to  confirme  and 
approue  their  ability,  and  this  withall  they  hold  for  a  certaiiie 
ground,  that  be  they  neuer  so  little  they  are  fure  thereby  to  become 
no  lefle ; " 

E.  DOWDEN.] 


A  Discovrse,  /  of  Marriage  /  and  Wiving  :  /  London  1620. 


256 


RICHARD  BRATHWAITE,  1615. 

He  be  thy  Venus,  pretty  Ducke  I  will, 

And  though  leffe  faire,  yet  I  have  farre  more  (kill, 

In  Loves  affaires  :  for  if  I  Adon  had, 

As  Venus  had  :  I  could  have  taught  the  lad 

To  have  beene  farre  more  forward  then  he  was, 

And  not  have  dallied  with  to  apt  a  laffe. 

(The  Civill  Devill,  pp.  44,  45.") 

If  I  had  liv'd  but  in  King  Richards  dayes, 

Who  in  his  heat  of  paflion,  midft  the  force 

Of  his  Affailants  troubled  many  waies 

Crying  A  horfe,  a  Kmgdomefor  a  horfe. 

O  then  my  horfe  which  now  at  Livery  ftayes, 

"  Had  beene  fet  free,  where  now  hee's  forc't  to  ftand 

"  And  like  to  fall  into  the  Oftler's  hand. 

(Upon  a  Poets  Palfrey,  p.  154.) 

No  cure  he  finds  to  heale  this  maladie, 
But  makes  a  vertue  of  neceflity. 

(The  Wooer,  p.  95.) 

A  Strappado  for  the  DivelL   Epigrams  and  Satyres  alluding 
to  the  time,  with  divers  measures  of  no  lesse  Delight.     1615. 


Reprinted  by  R.  Roberts,  Boston,  1878. 


[Brathwaite's  Strappado  thus  gives  us  recollections  of  four  of  Shakespere's 
works,  Venus  and  Adonis,  Richard  III  (Act  V,  sc.  iv,  1.  8),  Two  Gentlemen 
of  Verona  (Act  IV,  sc.  i,  1.  62),  and  in  the  extract  next  following,  to  a  part 
of  Pericles,  although  that  part  is  not  Shakespere's.  A  verse  on  p.  82  of 
the  reprint  may  refer  to  the  "park"  of  1.  231  of  Venus  and  Adonis. 
L.  T.  S.] 


257 


RICHARD  BRATHWAITE,  1615. 

A  cage  of  uncleane  birds,  which  is  poflefft, 
Of  none  fave  fuch  as  will  defile  their  neft. 
Where  fires  of  Hell  hounds  never  come  abroade, 
But  in  that  earthly  Tophet  make  aboade. 
Where  bankrupt  Factors  to  maintaine  a  ftate, 
Forlorne  (heaven  knows)  and  wholy  defperate, 
Turne  valiant  Boults,  Pimps,  Haxtars,  roaring  boyes, 
Till  flefht  in  bloud,  counting  but  murders  toyes, 
Are  forc't  in  th'  end  a  dolefull  Pfalme  to  ling, 
Going  to  Heaven  by  Derick  in  a  firing. 

Strappado  for  the  Diuell  (The  Conyburrow],  1615,  p.  151, 


[Rev.  J.  W.  Ebsworth  on  p.  xxv  of  his  Introduction  to  a  Reprint  of  the 
above  by  R.  Roberts,  Boston,  1878,  says,  "  In  a  Satyre,  called  '  The  Coni- 
borrowe,'  we  find  a  palpable  allusion  to  one  of  the  characters  in  Shakespeare's 
Pericles,  [but  not  in  Shakespere's  part  of  the  play]  the  damned  door- 
keeper "  Boult.  The  public  hangman  is  mentioned  in  the  proverbial  saying 
of  "going  to  Heaven  by  Derick  in  a  string:  "  there  was  a  tune  known 
about  that  time,  with  a  burden  "  Take  'im,  Derrick  !  "  Bagford  Ballads, 
printed  for  the  Ballad  Society  (p.  778).  F.  J.  F.] 


SH.  ALLN.  BK. — I. 


*JOHN  BOYS,  1615. 

Of  all  herbes  in  the  garden  (as  one  wittily)  Revv  is  the  herbe 
of  grace. 

An  I  Exposition  /  of  the  Dominic  all  /  Epistles  and  Gospels  I 
.  .  By  lohn  Boys,  Doctor  in  Diuinitiet  [and  Deane  of 
Canterburie  /.]...  London  /  .  .  .  1615,  p.  163. 


This  supposed  allusion  is  pointed  out  in  Wm.  Dunn  Macray's  Register 
of  St.  Magdalen  College,  Oxford,  New  Series,  vol.  iii,  1901,  pp.  144-5. 
The  words  in  brackets  in  the  title  above  are  from  the  folio  edition  of  Boys' 
Works,  1629-30,  where  the  quotation  will  be  found  at  p.  152.  The 
reference  in  Shakspere  is  to  Hamlet,  IV,  v,  '  there's  rue  for  you  ;  and  here's 
some  for  me ;  we  may  call  it  herb  of  grace  o'  Sundays,'  but  as  '  herb  of 
grace'  was  a  fairly  common  term  for  rue,  the  Shakspere  reference  is 
dubious.  Mr.  Macray  also  points  out  that  Boys  at  p.  921  of  the  folio 
edition  says :  '  The  writing  of  the  learned  are  called  their  works,  opera 
Hieronymi,  the  workes  of  Hierome,  Augustine,  Gregorie :  yea  the 
of  a  moderne  Poet,  are  called  in  print  his  workes.'  M.] 


259 


Anonymous,  1615. 

A  Purveiour  of  Tobacco. 

Call  him  a  Broker  of  Tobacco,  he  fcornes  the  title,  hee  had 
rather  be  tearmed  a  cogging  Merchant.  Sir  John  Faljlqffe 
robb'd  with  a  bottle  of  Sackej  fo  doth  hee  take  mens  purfes, 
with  a  wicked  roule  of  Tobacco  at  his  girdle. 

New  and  choise  Characters :  of  sever  all  Attthors,  with  the  Wife, 
written  by  Syr  Thomas  Overburie.  1615.  Sign.  M  8.  [Bodleian 
Lib.  Bliss  2.  2140.] 


This  curious  passage  is  taken  from  the  Edition  of  1615,  a  copy  of  which 
is  now  to  be  found  in  the  British  Museum.  The  "Characters"  were 
added  to  Sir  Thomas  Overbury's  Wife,  in  the  second  edition  of  1614  (in 
which  year  there  were  five  editions) :  by  1664  The  Wife  &>  Characters 
appear  to  have  run  to  seventeen  editions,  of  which  thirteen  are  in  the 
British  Museum  ;  but  the  "  Purveiour  of  Tobacco"  does  not  occur  in  any, 
except  in  that  of  1615.  C.  M.  I. 


260 


D 


*W.  DRUMMOND,   1616. 
MADRIGAL. 


EAR  night,  the  ease  of  care, 

Untroubled  seat  of  peace, 

Time's  eldest  child,  which  oft  the  blind  do  see, 

On  this  our  hemisphere 

What  makes  thee  now  so  sadly  dare  to  be  ? 

Poems  :  by  William  Drummond  of  Hawthorne- Dennc. 
The  Second  Impression.  Edinburgh  :  Printed  by 
Andro  Hart.  1616.  Modernizd,  in  his  Poetical 
Works,  ed.  W.  B.  Turnbull  (J.  R.  Smith,  1856), 
p.  58. 


The  third  line  may  allude  to  Shakspere's  Sonnet  27,  1.  8, 
And  keep  my  drooping  eyelids  wide, 
Looking  on  darkness,  which  the  blind  do  see. — E.  PHIPSON. 


26l 


SIR  WILLIAM  DRUMMOND,  1616. 


Ah  Napkin,  ominous  Prefent  of  my  Deare, 
Gift  miferable,  which  doth  now  remaine 
The  only  Guerdon  of  my  helplefle  Paine, 
*  *  * 

deare  Napkin  doe  not  grieve 
That  I  this  Tribute  pay  thee  from  mine  Eine 
And  that  (thele  porting  Houres  I  am  to  live) 
I  laundre  thy  faire  Figures  in  this  Brine. 

Poems  by  William  Drummond  of  Hawthorne-dennt. 
Second  Impression.  Edinburgh,  1616,  sign.  H  3, 
back  (eleventh  Sonnet  in  the  Second  Part}. 


[Drummond  in  this  sonnet  made  use  of  an  idea  which  appears  in  the 
second  and  third  lines  of  the  3rd  Stanza  of  Shakespere's  Lover's  Complaint, 
first  printed  in  1609. 

"  Oft  did  she  heave  her  Napkin  to  her  eyne, 
Which  on  it  had  conceited  characters  : 
Laundring  the  silken  figures  in  the  brine, 
That  seasoned  woe  had  pelleted  in  teares." 

(Shakespere's  Sonnets,  1609,  sign.  K,  back.)     L.  T.  S.] 


262 


ROBERT  ANTON,  1616. 

Or  why  are  women  rather  growne  fo  mad, 
That  their  immodeft  feete  like  planets  gad 
With  fuch  irregular  motion  to  bafe  Playes, 
Where  all  the  deadly  Jinnes  keepe  hollidaies 
There  fhall  they  lee  the  vices  of  the  times, 

Orejles  inceft,  Cleopatres  crimes. 

•*  -*  •*  * 

Sooner  may  mamelefle  wives  hate  Brai?idfordfeqfts, 
Albert  us  Magnus,  or  the  pilfred  Jejis 
Of  fome  fpruce  Skipjack  Citizen  from  Playes, 
A  Coach,  the  iecret  Baudihouje  for  waie.\, 
And  riotous  wajle  of  fome  new  Freeman  made, 
That  in  one  yeere  to  peices  breakes  his  trade, 
Then  warn  the  toad-like  fpeckles  of  defame, 
That  fwell  the  world  with  poyfon  of  their  Jhame  : 
What  Comedies  of  errors  fwell  the  Jlage 
With  your  moft  publike  vices,  when  the  age 
Dares  perfonate  in  action,  for,  your  eies 
Ranke  Sceanes  of  your  /z(/?-fweating  qualities. 

The  Philosopher's  Satyrs.      1616.      [4/0.]     Pp.  46  &  51 
Fifth  Satyr.     Of  Venus.     C.  M.  I. 


263 


BEN  JONSON,  1616. 

[The  author  will  not] 

purchafe  your  delight  at  fuch  a  rate 
As,  for  it,  he  himfelf  muft  juftly  hate  : 
To  make  a  child,  now  fwadled,  to  proceede 
Man,  and  then  fhoote  up,  in  one  beard,  and  weede, 
Paft  threefcore  years  :  or,  with  three  ruftie  fwords, 
And  helpe  of  fome  few  foot-and-halfe-foote  words, 
Fight  over  Yorke,  and  Lancafters  long  jarres  : 
And  in  the  tyring-houfe  bring  wounds,  to  fcarres. 
He  rather  prayes,  you  will  be  pleaf'd  to  fee 
One  fuch,  to-day  as  other  playes  Ihould  be  j 
Where  neither  Chorus  wafts  you  ore  the  feasj 
Nor  creaking  throne  comes  downe,  the  boys  to  pleafe 
Every  Man  in  his  Humour.     Prologue.     1616.    /.  3. 


In  this  Prologue,  according  to  Hunter,  Jonson  censured  Shakespere 
pointing  especially  at  several  of  his  plays  :  (i)  Infancy  and  maturity  in  the 
same  character,  —  Winters  Tale;  (2)  the  Wars  of  York  and  Lancaster 
with  their  duels  and  battles, — Henry  VI ;  (3)  the  shifting  the  scene  from 
one  country  to  another, — Henry  V ;  (4)  the  descent  of  a  creaking  throne, — 
the  masques  in  the  Tempest  and  in  Cymbeline.  The  final  line  of  the  prologue 
in  which  Jonson  assures  his  audience  that,  if  they  laugh  at  popular  errors, 

"  You  that  have  so  graced  monsters,  may  like  men," 

is  supposed  to  refer  to  Caliban. 

(Hunter's  New  Illustrations  of  Shakespere,  1845,  I.  136.  Stokes'  Chrono- 
logical order  of  'Shakespere 's  Plays,  1878,  p  177.)  L.  T.  S.] 

[The  first  or  Italian  version  of  Every  Man  in  his  Humour  was  published 
in  1 60 1  without  a  prologue.  The  second  or  English  version  in  1616  with 
the  prologue.  This  states  that  the  play  (not  this  second  version)  was  acted 
by  the  Lord  Chamberlain's  servants  in  1598. 

Gifford  would  make  out  that  the  1601  edition  was  edited,  not  by  B. 
Jonson,  but  from  the  copy  used  at  Henslowe's  theatre  in  1596,  and  hence 
that  the  prologue  was  really  existent  in  that  year.  To  his  assertions  may  be 


264  BEN    JONSON,    l6l6. 

opposed  these  facts.  I.  There  may  be  a  possibility,  but  not  a  shadow  of  proof, 
that  "The  Humours  "  or  "  The  Comedy  of  Humours  "  had  anything  to  do 
with  Jonson  or  with  his  play.  The  word  "  Humours  "  was  then  fashionable 
cant.  2.  The  1601  410.  bears  on  its  title-page,  — "  as  it  hath  been  .  .  acted 
by  .  .  the  Lord  Chamberlaine  his  servants."  Are  we  to  believe  without 
proof  that  there  was  here  printed  a  direct  lie  ?  3.  And  can  we  believe  that 
Jonson,  an  irascible  man,  would  in  the  same  year,  1601,  give  his  Fountaint 
of  Self  Love  to  the  publisher  who  had  just  brought  out  Every  Man  in  his  If., 
against  his  interests,  and  with  a  lying  title-page,  for  Henslowe  who  had 
quarrelled  with  him  ?  4.  The  1601  edition  also  bears  on  its  title-page 
"  Written  by  Ben  Johnson,"  asserted  by  GifTord  to  be  a  mis-spelling.  It  is  so 
spelt  in  three  plays,  and  he  never  spelt  it  Jonson  till  1604,  when  he  printed 
with  a  Latin  title-page  his  part  of  the  celebration  of  James'  entry  into 
London.  5.  The  1601  4to.  has  none  of  the  blunders  of  a  spurious  edition, 
but  like  all  by  Jonson,  is  very  carefully  punctuated.  6.  That  "  this  play  "  on 
the  title-page  of  the  1616  folio  does  not  mean  "  this  new  version  "  is  shown 
by  the  parallel  case  of  Sejanus.  Before  it  Jonson  says  "  this  play  was  first  acted 
in  1603,"  while  shortly  after  he  tells  us  it  was  a  different  version.  7.  Laslly, 
this  second  or  now  known  version  cannot,  by  internal  evidence,  have  been 
written  before  1605  or  1606.  For,  I.  Bobadil  in  the  1601  4to.  speaks  of 
the  taking  of  Ghibelletto  some  ten  years  back,  and  of  that  of  Tortosa  ;  but 
in  the  later  version  he  alters  the  names  to  "  Strigonium"  and  "what  do 
you  call  it.-"  Now  Strigonium  (Graan)  was  taken  from  the  Turks  in  1596, 
which  makes  the  date  of  speaking  1606  ;  while,  unable  to  find  a  parallel  for 
Tortosa,  he  makes  Bobadil  pretend  to  forget  the  name  he  would  say.  2.  In 
the  1616  version  Act  I.  sc.  ii.  is  introduced  for  the  first  time — "  Our  Turkey 
Company  never  sent  the  like  [present]  to  the  Grand  Seignor," — clearly  an 
allusion  to  a  recent  event.  But  the  only  occasions  when  they  sent  such  a 
present  were,  one  too  early  in  Elizabeth's  reign  to  be  alluded  to  in  a  familiar 
letter,  and  one  of  the  value  of  ^£5,322  given  them  by  James  for  a  present 
to  the  Porte,  in  December,  1605,  soon  after  the  re-constitution  of  the 
Company. 

If  these  facts  be  correct  there  can  be  no  reason  for  assigning  the  prologue 
to  a  date  earlier  than  1606,  as  shown  by  internal  evidence  to  be  that  of  the 
version  with  which  it  first  appears.  B.  N.] 

[Another  passage  was  quoted  from  Jonson  (Sejanus]  in  the  first  edition  of 
the  Centurie  (p.  330),  which,  though  believed  by  some  critics  upon  merely 
supposititious  grounds  to  refer  to  Shakespere,  is  now  omitted  in  the  text, 
Dr.  Brinsley  Nicholson  having  pointed  out  in  the  Academy,  Nov.  14,  1874, 
that  the  "second  Pen"  was  in  all  probability  that  of  Samuel  Sheppard. 
Jonson  says  in  the  Preface  to  Sejanus  (1605), — 

"  Lastly  I  would  informe  you,  that  this  Booke,  in  all  nuwbers,  is  not  the 
same  with  that  which  was  acted  on  the  publike  Stage,  wherein  a  second 
Pen  had  good  share  :  in  place  of  which  I  have  rather  chosen,  to  put  weaker 
(and  no  doubt  lesse  pleasing)  of  mine  own,  then  to  defraud  so  happy  a 
Genius  of  his  right,  by  my  lothed  usurpation." 


BEN   JONSON,     1616.  265 

In  1646  Samuel  Sheppard  published  The  Times  Displayed  in  Six  Sestyads 
(see  after,  under  date).  The  sixth  sestyad  is  a  series  of  verses  in  praise  of 
the  greater  poets,  Daniel,  Draytou,  Shakespere,  Jonson,  and  others.  The 
eleventh  encomium  runs  thus  : — 

"  So  His  that  Divine  PLAUTUS  equalled,  Ben  Johnston 

Whose  Commick  vain  MENANDER  nere  could  hit, 
Whose  tragick  sceans  shal  be  with  wonder  Read 
By  after  ages  for  unto  his  wit 
My  selfe  gave  personal  ayd  /  dictated 
To  him  when  as  Sejamts  fall  he  writ, 
And  yet  on  earth  some  foolish  sots  there  bee 
That  dare  make  Randolf  his  Rival  in  degree." 

On  these  Dr.  Nicholson  remarks,  "As  Sheppard  is  not  a  master  of 
English  verse  or  style,  so  his  '  dictate  *  is  not  happily  chosen,  but  the 
meaning  and  intent  of  it  and  its  context  are  clear.  Read  by  the  light  of 
Jonson' s  words,  they  are  not  only  clear,  but  distinct,  and  we  see  Sheppard's 
disappointment,  and  the  strugglings  of  his  self-conceit  to  record  the  fact 
that  he  had  been  a  part-author  in  Sejanus — strugglings  which  are  shown  in 
his  'And  yet,' and  'for,'  and  which  destroy  his  encomium  by  making  it 
ridiculous."  Dr.  Ingleby,  however,  asks  me  to  add  that  he  regards 
Sheppard's  authorship  in  Sejanus  as  impossible,  and  that,  with  Mr.  Fleay, 
he  is  now  disposed  to  assign  the  "  second  pen  "  to  Chapman.  L.  T.  S.] 


266 


APRIL  25,  1616. 


GOOD    FREND    FOR    IfiSVS    SAKE    FORBEARE, 

To    DIGG    THE    DVST    ENCLOASED    HEARE  : 
E  T 

BLESTE  BE  Y  MAN  Y  SPARES  THES   STONES, 

T 
AND    CVRST    BE    HE    Y     MOVES    MY    BONES. 


Inscription  on  the  J^ablet  over  Shakespeare  s  Grave,  given 
in  HalliwelFs  Life  of  Shakespere,  1848,  /.  286. 


The  inscription  on  Shakespeare's  grave-stone  is  feebly  parodied  in  the 
Apology  prefixed  to  Graves'  Spiritual  Quixote.  (Ed.  1773.  Vol.  i,  p.  vii.) 
C.  M.  I. 


267 


1617 — 1622. 

Tvmcio  PYLIVM,  GENIO  SOCRATEM,  ARTE  MARONEM, 
TERRA  TEGIT,  POPVLVS  M^ERET,  OLYMPVS  HABET. 

STAY  PASSENGER,  WHY  GOEST  THOV  BY  so  FAST  ? 

READ    IF    THOV    CANST,    WHOM    ENVIOVS     DEATH    HATH    PLAST, 

WITH    IN    THIS     MONVMENT    SHAKSPEARE    WITH    WHOME 

s 
GIVICK    NATVRE    DIDE  :      WHOSE    NAME    DOTH     DECK     Y    ToMBE 

T 

FAR    MORE    THEN    COST  :    SIEH    ALL,  Y    Hfi     HATH    WRITT,    lSITHl 

LEAVES  LIVING  ART,  BVT  PAGE,  TO  SERVE  HIS  WITT. 

OBIIT  ANO   DO1    l6l6 

^ETATIS,  53.  DIE  23  AP. 

Inscriptions  upon  the  Tablet  under  ShakesperJs  Bust,  in  the 
Chancel-north-wall  of  Stratford  Church ;  heliotyped  in  Shake- 
spere'1 s  Home  and  Rural  Life,  by  Major  James  Walter,  1 874,  /. 
17.  See  also  Hallvwell 's  Life  of  Shakespere,  p.  289. 


Steevens  conjectured  that  the  scribe  wrote  Sophoclem,  not  Socratem. 
Assuredly  one  who  had  scholarship  enough  to  compose  the  verses  could 
hardly  have  believed  that  the  o  in  the  latter  word  had  a  common  quantity. 
Besides,  the  comparison  of  Shakespere  to  Sophocles  is  significant  :  to 
Socrates  trifling  :  Ben  Jonson  and  Samuel  Sheppard  compare  Shakespere 
to  Sophocles.  (See  i.  308,  501;  ii.  II.)  If  Sheppard  wrote  Sophocles 
in  an  English  verse,  that  would  be  irrelevant ;  for  he  would  not  have 
written  it  in  a  Latin  one. 

The  converse  misprint  occurs  in  The  Playhouse  Pocket  Companion,  1779, 
p.  47,  in  the  first  line  of  the  Catalogue  of  which  "  Sophocles  "  is  an  error  for 
Socrates.  (See  Biog.  Dram.  1812.  Int.  Ixxiii.) 

[Admitting  Dr.  Ingleby's  criticism  to  be  correct,  I  can  but  endorse  the 
remark  of  a  friend  that  the  likening  of  Shakespere  to  Socrates,  one  of  the 
wisest  of  men,  seems  the  right  reading  in  the  first  line.  The  comparison 
to  Virgil,  the  representative  poet,  next  following,  renders  the  allusion  to 
Sophocles  unnecessary,  whereas  Nestor,  Socrates,  and  Virgil,  make  a  grand 
trio  of  ideal  men.  The  bust  (by  G.  Johnson,  see  after,  Dugdale,  1653) 
was  set  up  before  1623,  as  we  know  from  the  mention  of  it  by  Leonard 
Digges.  (See  after,  p.  318.)  L.  T.  S.] 


268 


JOHN  TAYLOR,  THE  WATER  POET,  1617. 

[Defcription  of  the  hang-man  at  Hamburgh]  His  poft-like 
legges  were  anfwerable  to  the  reft  of  the  great  frame  which  they 
iupported,  and  to  conclude,  fir  Bevis,  Afcapart,  Gog-magog,  or 
our  Englilh  fir  John  Faljlaff,  were  but  fhrimpes  to  this  bezzeling 
Bombards  longitude,  latitude,  altitude,  and  craffitude,  for  hee 
pafles,  and  mrpaffes  the  whole  Germane  multitude. 


Three  Weekes,  three  dales,  and  three  houres  observations  and  travel* 
from  Lonaon  to  Hamburg.  London,  1617.  [4/0.]  Sign.  C. 
C.  M.  I. 


269 


GEFFRAY  MYNSHUL,  1617. 

[Addressing  a  creditor]. — 

If  nothing  will  make  thy  ftony  heart  relent,  thou  in  being 
cruell  to  thy  debtor  art  worfe  then  the  hang-man  j  *  *  But  it 
may  be  thy  eftate  is  ficke,  thy  credit  much  ingaged,  and  to  fave 
thy  felfe  thou  art  forced  to  doe  this.  In  fo  doing  thou  doeft 
well;  if  another  weare  thy  coate,  and  thou  goeft  cold,  thou 
maift  plucke  it  from  his  moulders.  *  *  but  if  he  which  hath 
borrowed  thy  coate  hath  worne  it  out,  and  hath  not  a  ragge  to 
cover  him  with,  wilt  thou  trample  vpon  his  naked  body  ?  If 
with  the  Jew  of  Malta,  inftead  of  coyne,  thou  requireft  a  pound 
of  flefh  next  to  thy  debtor's  heart,  wilt  thou  cut  him  in  pieces  ? 

Essayes  and  Characters  of  a  Prison  and  Prisoners.    Of  Creditors. 
1618.     Reprint,  Edinburgh,  1821, //.  30,  31. 


[Mynshul  wrote  his  Essayes  while  confined  in  the  King's  Bench  Prison  for 
debt,  where  he  filled  up  his  idle  time  by  acute  observations  on  the  characters 
of  those  around  him :  he  gives  a  melancholy  picture  of  the  miseries  of 
unfortunate  debtors  in  the  seventeenth  century.  He  seems  to  have  con- 
founded Marlowe's  Jew  of  Malta  with  Shakespere  in  his  memory,  but  the 
mention  of  the  pound  of  flesh  shows  that  it  was  Shylock  to  whom  he 
referred. 

The  "  Epistle  Dedicatory"  is  dated  27  January,  1617.     L.  T.  S.] 


270 


NATHANIEL  FIELD,  1618. 

I  doe  heare 

Your  Lordfhip  this  faire  morning  is  to  right, 

And  for  your  honor  :  Did  you  never  fee 

The  Play  where  the  fat  Knight,  hight  Old-caftle, 

Did  tell  you  truly  what  this  honor  was  ? 

Amends  for  Ladies.    1618.    [4/0.]    Sign.  G. 


Nathaniel  Field  (like  Alexander  Brome,  in  his  Epistle  to  the  Five'  new 
Plays  of  Richard  Brome,  1653,  in  a  passage  quoted  in  a  subsequent  page) 
here  refers  to  the  speech  of  Falstaff,  which  concludes  the  first  scene  of 
I  Henry  IV,  Act  V.  See  as  to  Oldcastle  and  Falstaff,  after,  note  on 
George  Daniel,  1647.  C.  M.  I. 


271 


RICHARD  CORBET,  1618—1621. 

Mine  hoft  was  full  of  ale  and  hiftoryj 
****** 
Why,  he  could  tell 

The  inch  where  Richmond  flood,  where  Richard  fell : 

Befides  what  of  his  knowledge  he  could  fay, 

He  had  authenticke  notice  from  the  Play  ; 

Which  I  might  guefle,  by's  muftring  up  the  ghofts, 

And  policy es,  not  incident  to  hofts  -, 

But  cheifly  by  that  one  perfpicuous  thing, 

Where  he  miftooke  a  player  for  a  King. 

For  when  he  would  have  fayd,  King  Richard  dyed, 

And  call'd — A  horfe  !  a  horfe  ! — he,  Burbidge  cry'de. 

Iter  Boreale.  pp.  193,  194  (see  also  p.  170).  Poems  of 
Richard  Corbet,  Bishop  of  Oxford  6°  of  Noruich, 
Edited  by  Octavius  Gilchrist.  1807. 


[Gilchrist  remarks  that  "  from  this  passage  we  learn  that  Richard  Burbage 
was  the  original  representative  of  Shakespeare's  Richard  the  Third" 
L.  T.  S.] 


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H.       ABOUT    1618-19.  273 

[A  controversy  in  the  Academy,  in  January,  1879,  as  to  the  meaning  of  lines 
17  to  24  of  this  elegy  led  to  the  discovery  of  two  original  MSS.  of  it  in  the 
library  of  the  late  Mr.  Henry  Huth,  which  was  pointed  out  by  Mr.  Alfred 
H.  Huth  in  the  Academy  of  April  3,  1879.  As  in  the  first  edition  of  the 
Centurie  Dr.  Ingleby  declared  his  belief  that  lines  13-16,  printed  by  Mr. 
Collier,  were  spurious,  an  opinion  at  first  shared  by  D  r.  Furnivall,  it  is 
satisfactory  now  to  find  that  both  MSS.  of  the  poem  are  undoubtedly 
genuine,  and  acknowledged  to'be  so  by  those  critics  (see  Dr.  Furnivall  in 
Academy  of  19  April,  1879).  By  the  kindness  of  Mr.  Alfred  H.  Huth,  and 
of  Mr.  F.  S.  Ellis,  who  is  preparing  the  Catalogue  of  the  library,  I  have 
carefully  collated  both  versions  with  the  MSS.,  and  give  the  dozen  lines 
which  relate  to  Shakespere,  the  rest  of  the  poem — consisting  in  all  of  82 
lines  in  the  octavo  and  86  lines  in  the  folio — being  a  eulogy  upon  the  excel- 
lence of  the  acting  of  Burbage  in  general.  The  only  sign  of  authorship  is 
the  letter  H  affixed  to  the  title  in  the  Octavo  copy.  Both  MSS.  belonged  to 
Mr.  Haslewood,  and  the  discrepancies  between  Mr.  Collier's  print  and  1. 
15  ("King  Lear,"  "creuel  Moore")  may  be  owing  to  the  copy  which  an 
autograph  note  in  one  of  them  says  that  he  sent  Mr.  Collier. 

In  his  New  Particulars,  1836,  and  Memoirs  of  Actors,  1846,  Mr.  Collier 
quotes  other  MSS.  by  which  the  poem  is  extended  to  124  lines.  These  have 
not  yet  come  to  light. 

It  was  pointed  out  by  Mr.  Moy  Thomas  {Academy,  Jan.  4,  1879)  that  the 
imperfect  quarto  Hamlet  of  1603  is  the  only  authority  for  making  Hamlet 
leap  into  Ophelia's  grave  to  out-face  Laertes  (Act  V.  sc.  i.  1.  281);  the  above 
lines,  however,  show  that  Burbage  was  in  the  habit  of  doing  so.  Kemble  in 
his  acting  edition  of  Shakespere,  and  Mr.  Irving  in  his  present  representation 
of  Hamlet,  omit  the  leap  into  the  grave.  The  rest  of  the  lines  seem  to  allude 
to  the  close  of  the  last  scene  in  the  play. 

While  treating  on  the  acting  of  Burbage,  I  may  recall  a  reminiscence 
(though  a  late  one)  of  the  comparative  merits  of  Shakespere  as  Actor  and 
Poet.  James  Wright,  in  his  interesting  little  tract  Historia  Histrionica, 
1699,  which  is  a  "  Dialogue  of  Plays  and  Players,"  thus  speaks  through  his 
personages  : — 

"  Lovewit.  Pray  Sir,  what  Master  Parts  can  you  remember  the  Old 
Black-friers  men  to  Act,  in  Johnson,  Shakespear,  and  Fletcher's  Plays. 

Truman.  What  I  can  at  present  recollect  I'll  tell  you ;  Shakespear  (who 
as  I  have  heard,  was  a  much  better  Poet,  than  Player)  Burbadge,  Hemmings, 
and  others  of  the  Older  sort,  were  Dead  before  I  knew  the  Town."  (p.  4. 
Reprinted  in  Hazlitt's  edition  of  Dodsleyt  1876,  vol.  15,  p.  400.)  L.  T.  S.] 


SH.  ALLN.  BK. — I. 


274 


BEN  JONSON,  1619. 

His  cenfure  of  the  Englilh  Poets  was  tbis  j 

****** 
That  Shakfpeer  wanted  arte. 

****** 
Sheakfpear,  in  a  play,  brought  in  a  number  of  men  faying  they 
had  Buffered  (hip-wrack  in  Bohemia,  wher  yr  is  no  lea  neer  by 
fome  100  miles. 

Notes  by  William  Drunimond  of  Conversations  with  Den 
Jonson,  at  Haivthornden,  January ;  1619.  Extracts 
from  the  Hawthornden  MSS.  by  David  Laing,  Archa- 
ologia  Scotica,  vol.  iv.  Edinburgh,  1831-32,  //.  81,  89. 

Also  edited  by  the  same  for  the  Shakespeare  Society,  1842, 
pp.  3,  16. 

f  First  published,  incorrectly,  in  Drummond's  Works,  1711.} 


Sir  William  Drummond  was  evidently  a  weak-minded  man,  whose  memory 
had  the  knack  of  retaining  only  what  was  trivial  or  worthless.  We  may  be 
quite  sure  that  Jonson's  assertions  were  not  given  in  this  naked  form.  No 
one  understood  Shakespeare's  art  better  than  Jonson  ;  and  he  could  hardly 
have  basec.  the  charge  of  wanting  art  on  geographical  or  on  chronological 
errors,  which  Shakespeare  took,  not  ignorantly,  but  as  he  found  them  in 
the  current  stories.  [Ben  probably  meant  that  Shakespeare  did  not 
observe  those  Rules  of  Art  in  dramatic  writing  to  which  he  himself  rigidly 
adhered.  The  word  -wanted  here  means  lacked,  rather  than  the  modern 
sense,  which  would  imply  "that  Shakespere  ought  to  have  had  art"  (see- 
the extract  from  Dryden,  1672,  for  his  use  of  the  word).  The  word 
censure  too  should  not  be  taken  as  necessarily  meaning  condemnation,  it 
meant  opinion  or  judgment,  cf. — 

"  Madam,  and  you,  my  mother,  will  you  go 
To  give  your  censures  in  this  weighty  business?" 

Richard  III,  Act  II  sc.  iii. 


BEN   JONSON,    1619.  275 

The  remark  was  made  of  Shakespere's  work  by  others.  L.  T.  S.]  Fuller 
asserts  that  "Nature  itself  was  all  the  Art  which  was  used  upon  him" 
(see  under  date  1643):  which  Cartwright  echoes  in  1647:  "Nature  was 
all  his  art. "  Milton  has — 

"  Sweetest  Shakespere,  Fancy's  child, 
Warble  his  native  wood-notes  wild  "  (after,  p.  372) ; 

and  forty-two  years  after  its  utterance  we  meet  it  once  more  in  the  Diary  of 
the  Rev.  John  Ward,  who  had  "heard  that  Shakspeare  was  a  natural  wit 
without  any  art  at  all "  (date  1661).  But  Ben  Jonson  and  L.  Digges  allow 
Shakespeare  a  sort  of  art.  The  former  writes  : 

"  Yet  must  I  not  give  Nature  all :  Thy  Art, 
My  gentle  Shakespeare,  must  enjoy  a  part  "  (p.  309). 

And  Digges  assigns  him  : 

"  Art  without  Art  unparaleld  as  yet  "  (date  1640). 

[So  also  the  Epitaph  before,  p.  267,  and  John  Taylor,  after,  p.  278,  credit 
him  with  art.  The  report  of  Jonson's  sayings  relating  to  Shakespere,  as 
found  in  Drummond's  Works  of  171 1,  is  shown  in  its  true  form  in  Mr.  Laing's 
print  of  the  MS.  As  regards  the  accusation  against  Shakespere's  geography, 
it  may  be  worth  noting  that  in  1262  Ottocar  II  was  king  of  Bohemia  and 
Austria,  "  and  soon  obtains  possession  of  Styria,  Carinthia,  and  Istria,  when 
his  dominions  extend  from  the  Baltic  to  the  Adriatic  "  {Manual  of  Dates}. 
Bohemia  then  at  one  time  had  a  sea-board,  and  no  date  being  necessary  to 
the  play,  it  may  be  said  that  "  the  shipwreck  in  the  Winter's  Tale  is  no  breach 
of  geography  "  (see  the  Monthly  Magazine,  Jan.  I,  1811,  vol.  xxx.  p.  538). 
But  that  it  was  understood  as  an  error  in  Shakespere's  time,  and  that  others 
besides  Jonson  laughed  at  him  for  it,  seem  to  be  shown  by  the  quotation  from 
Taylor  the  Water  Poet,  after,  p.  344.  L.  T.  S.] 


276 


SIR   GERRARD    HERBERT,   24   May,  1619. 

—"The  Marquife  Trenell  [Tremouille],  on  thurfday  laft 
tooke  leaue  of  the  Kinge  :  that  night  was  feafled  at  white  hall, 
by  the  duke  of  Lenox  in  the  Queenes  greate  chamber  :  where 
many  great  Lordes  weare  to  keep  them  Company  but  no  ladyes. 
the  Sauoy  Imbaffadour  was  alfo  there  :  The  englifh  Lordes, 
was  the  Marquife  Buckingham  my  lord  Pryuy  feale,  my  lord  of 
lenox,  my  lord  of  Oxford,  my  lord  Chamberlayne,  my  1 : 
Hamelton,  my  lord  Arundell,  my  Lord  of  Leycefter  :  my  lord 
Cary,  my  lord  Diggby,  mr.  Treafurer,  mr.  Secretary  Callvart : 
my  lord  Beaucham,  and  my  Lord  Generall,  the  reft  Englifh 
Gallantes,  and  all  mixed  wth  the  french  alonge  the  table  :  the 
Marquife  Trenell  fittinge  alone  at  the  tables  ende :  at  the  right 
hande,  the  Sauoy  Imbaffador,  by  him  the  Marquife  Bucking- 
ham, then  a  french  Counte,  &c.  mixt :  on  his  left  hand  my  lord 
Priuy  feale,  the  earle  of  Oxford,  a  french  Marquife,  my  lord 
Chamberlayne,  &  fo  forth  mixed  wth  french  &  Englifh.  The 
fupper  was  greate  &  the  banquett  curious,  ferued  in  24 
greate  Chynay  worcke  platters  or  voyders,  full  of  glafTe  fcales 
or  bowles  of  fweete  meates :  in  the  middft  of  each  voyder  a 
greene  tree  of  eyther,  lemon,  orenge,  Cypers,  or  other  refem- 
blinge.  After  fupper  they  weare  carried  to  the  queenes  pryuy 
chamber,  where  french  finginge  was  by  by  the  Queenes  Mulitians : 
after  in  the  Queenes  bedd  Chamber,  they  hearde  the  Irifh  harpp, 
a  viol),  k  mr  Lanyer,  excellently  finginge  &  playinge  on  the 


.  SIR  GERRARD  HERBERT,  24  MAY,  1619.         377 

lute.  In  the  kinges  greate  Chamber  they  went  to  fee  the  play  of 
Pirrocles,1  Prince  of  Tyre,  which  lafled  till  2  aclocke.  after  two 
a&es,  the  players  ceafed  till  the  french  all  refreshed  them  wth 
fweetmeates  brought  on  Chinay  voiders,  &  wyne  &  ale  in 
bottells,  after  the  players,  begann  anewe.  The  Imbaffadour 
parted  next  morninge  for  Fraunce  at  8  aclocke,  full  well  pleafed 
beynge  feafted  alfo  at  Tiballes  &  exceedinge  gracioufly  vfed  of 
the  kinge,  who  at  taking  leaue  gaue  him  a  very  rich  chayne  of 
Diamondes,  wth  a  wach  donne  aboute  wth  Diamondes  &  wherein 
the  kinges  effigie  was  very  excellently  donne." 

"  with  the  remembraunce  of  my  fervice  to  my  Lady 

Carlton  &  yor  Lo  :  I  take  leaue  allwayes  refting  : 

Yor  Lo :  afluredly  to  Comande : 

Gerr  :  Herbert. 

London,  Munday  24  May.  veteri. 

From  a  Letter  "  To  the  right  honorable  Sir  Dudley  Carlton,  knight  : 
Lord  Imbassadour  for  his  Matie  at  ye  Hage."  State  Papers. 
Domestic.  James  I.  Vol.  109,  No.  ^o-  (p.  2  of  MS.) 

[W.  D.  SELBY.     Part  printed  in 
Halliwell's  Folio  Shaksfi.] 

1  Mr.  Hall,  wrongly  prints  *  Pirracles.' 


1620. 

Baker  says,  Biogr.  Dram.  ii.  289,  of  "134.  THE  HEIR.  Com.  by 
Thomas  May.  Acted  by  the  company  of  Revels,  1620.  4to.  1622  ; 
second  impression,  4to.  1633.  .  .  . 

"The  demand  of  the  king  that  Leucothoe  shall  yield  to  his  desires,  as 
the  sole  condition  upon  which  he  would  spare  the  life  of  her  lover,  appears 
to  be  borrowed  from  Shakspeare's  Measure  for  Measure ;  as  the  constable 
and  watch  who  seize  Eugenio  seem  to  have  had  their  language  and  manners 
from  those  in  the  same  author's  Mitch  Ado  about  Nothing ;  and  the  enmity 
of  the  two  houses  reminds  us  of  Romeo  and  Juliet" 


278 


JOHN  TAYLOR,  THE  WATER  POET,  1620. 

In  paper,  many  a  Poet  now  Jurvives 

Or  elfe  their  lines  had  perilh'd  with  their  lives. 

Old  Chaucer,  Gower,  and  Sir  Thomas  More, 

Sir  Philip  Sidney,  who  the  Lawrell  wore, 

Spencer,  and  Shakejpeare  did  in  Art  excell, 

Sir  Edward  Dyer,  Greene,  Najh,  Daniell. 

Silvejler,  Beumont,  Sir  John  Harrington, 

Forgetful nefle  their  workes  would  over  rui\ 

But  that  in  paper  they  immortally 

Doe  live  in  fpight  of  death,  and  cannot  die. 

The  Praise  of  Hemp-seed.   1620.     [4/0.  ]   /.   26 
Works,  1630,  Hi.  p.  72.  [Fa.] 


Farmer  says  it  is  "  impossible  to  give  the  original  dates  "  of  many  of  John 
Taylor's  pieces.  ' '  He  may  be  traced  as  an  author  for  more  than  half  a 
century"  (Essay  on  the  Learning  of  Shakspeare,  1821,  p.  IOT,  note], 
C.  M.  I. 


279 


MR.    RICHARDSON,    1620,  1621. 

'Tis  almoft  morning  I  would  haue  thee  gone 
And  yet  no  further  then  a  wantons  bird, 
That  lets  it  hop  a  little  from  his  hand, 
Like  a  poore  prifoner,  in  his  twilled  gyues, 
Then  with  a  filken  thread  plucks  it  back  againe 
So  iealous  louing  of  his  liberty. 

Tragedy  of  Romeo  and  lulwt.  4°:  pag:  84.  This  M' 
Richard*014  Coll.  Magd.  inserted  hence  into  his  Sermon,  preached 
it  twice  at  S*  Maries  1620,  1621,  applying  it  too  to  gods  loue 
to  his  Saints  either  hurt  with  iinne,  or  aduerlity  neuer  forfaking 
the. 

Commonplace  Book,    Bodleian    Library,    MS.    Eng.    Misc. 
d.  28,  p.  359,  col.  705. 


[This  allusion  is  noted  in  Wm.  Dunn  Macray's  Register  of  the  Members 
of  St.  Mary  Magdalen  Coll.,  Oxford,  1901,  and  was  announced  in  the 
Clarendon  Press  Periodical  for  December  1901.  I  am  indebted  to  Mr. 
C.  F.  Tucker  Brooke  for  kindly  copying  the  extract  from  the  Bodleian  MS. 
The  MS.  citation  from  Shakspere  is  inaccurate.  M.] 


280 

Anonymous,   1620 — 36. 

On  the  Time-Poets. 

One  night,  the  great  Apollo,  pleafd  with  Ben, 
Made  the  odde  number  of  the  Mules  ten ; 
The  fluent  Fletcher,  Beaumont  rich  in  fenfe. 
In  complement  and  courtfhips  quinteflence  ; 
Ingenious  Shakefpeare ;  MaJJinger,  that  knowes 
The  ftrength  of  plot  to  write  in  verfe  and  profe, 
Whofe  eafie  PegafTus  will  arnble  ore 
Some  threefcore  miles  of  fancy  in  an  houre  : 
Cloud-grapling  Chapman,  whofe  Aerial  minde 
Soares  at  Philosophy,  and  ilrikes  it  blinde ;  &c. 

Choyce  Drollery,  .Songs,  and  Sonnets,  being  a  collection  of  divers 
excellent  pieces  of  poetry  of  several  eminent  authors,  never  befon 
printed.  Anon.  1656.  The  piece  is  reprinted  in  the  Shakespeare 
Society's  Papers,  Vol.  III.,  1847,  p.  172. 


The  lines  5 — 8  are  quoted  by  Gerard  Langbaine  in  his  Account  of  the 
English  Dramatick  Poets,  1691  (vol.  ii),  where  they  are  merely  assigned 
to  "an  old  poet";  and  Rev.  J.  W.  Ebsworth,  in  his  reprint  of  Choyce 
Drollery,  1876,  says,  "we  must  confess  that  nothing  is  yet  learnt  as  to 
the  authorship,"  though  as  to  the  date  he  believes  "it  was  certainly  written 
between  1620  and  1636"  (pp.  270,  271).  Langbaine's  version  has  "ram- 
ble" for  amble ;  an  error  which  we  conjecturally  set  right,  before  we  had 
collated  it  with  the  text  reprinted  in  the  Shakespeare  Society  s  Papers.  It 
is  in  this  piece  that  we  meet  with  a  couplet  on  Ben  Jonson's  servant  and 
amanuensis,  Richard  Brome,  or  Broom,  which  in  another  form  did  duty 
for  W.  Broome,  Pope's  assistant.  Here  we  have, 

' '  Sent  by  Ben  Johnson,  as  some  authors  say, 
Broom  went  before,  and  kindly  swept  the  way  ; " 

which  a  century  later  assumed  this  form  : 

' '  Pope  came  off  clean  with  Homer ;  but  they  say, 
Broome  went  before,  and  kindly  swept  the  way." 

(See  Johnson's  Lives  of  the  Poets,  William  Broome,  in  wh'ch  the  couplet  is 
attributed  to  Henley.)  Isaac  D'Israeli  supposed  that  epigram  to  be  borrowed 
from  a  line  in  Randolph's  Ode,  "Ben,  do  not  leave  the  stage,"  &c.,  st.  4, 
1.  4.  Curiosities  of  Literature,  1839,  p.  139.  C.  M,  I, 


28l 


ANON.  1620. 

GoodnerTe  leave  mee,  if  I  have  not  heard  a  man  court  his 
miftris  with  the  fame  words  that  Venus  did  Adonis,  or  as  neere 
as  the  booke  could  inftruft  him. 

Hac  Vir,  or  the  Womanish- Man,  1620. 

J.  O.  H.-P. 


ROBERT   BURTON,  1621  (?). 

Young  Men  will  do  it  when  they  come  to  it." 

Robert  Burton's  Anatomy,  ed.  1651,  p.  563. 


This  is  a  quotation  from  Ophelia's  Valentine  Song,  Hamlet,  IV.  v. 

R.  ROBERTS. 


282 


ROBERT   BURTON,  1621,  1628. 


For  now,  asz  Saliflurienfis  faid  in  his  time, 
totus  mundus  hiftrionem  agit,  the  whole  world  plaies  the  foole, 
we  haue  a  new  Theater,  a  new  Sceane,  a  new  comedie  of  errors. 
a  new  companye  of  perfonat  A6tors. 

[p.  26,  ed.  1621,  1628.    p.  22,  ed.  1624.] 

For  Princes  are  the  glaffe,  thefchoole,  the  booke, 
Where  JHbie8is  eyes  doe  learne,  doe  read,  do  looke. 

-  Velotius  &c  citius  nos 
Corrumpunt  vitiorum  exempla  domejlica,  magnis 
Cum  Jubeant  animos  authoribus  - 

[/•  39>  ed-  1624.     p.  48,  ed.  1628.] 

Like  an  Affe,  he  weares  out  his  time  for  prouender,  and  can 
ihew  a  ftumpe  rod. 

[sig.  Q  2  b.     Part  1.  Sect.  2.,  Memb.  3,  Suds.  15,  ed.  1624, 
1628.] 

The  Anatomy  of  Melancholy. 


[We  are  indebted  to  Miss  Margaret  A.  M.  Macalister  for  these  references 
in  Shilleto's  edition,  1904,  i.,  54,  91,  355,  where  the  Salisburiensis  of  the 
first  extract  is  corrected  to  Sarisbtirtensis.  There  is  no  difference  between 
the  1621  and  1628  editions  in  this  passage,  except  in  minor  spellings  and  in 
the  fact  that  capitals  are  used  in  the  latter  in  the  initials  of  the  title,  Comedie 
of  Errors,  and  small  type  in  the  former.  The  second  edition,  1624,  has 
Comedy  of  errors. 

The  second  extract  is  from  Lucrece,  615,  616,  and  is  not  in  the  1621 
edition. 

The  third  Miss  Macalister  compares  with  Othello,  I.  i.  46 : 

Weares  out  his  time,  much  like  his  Masters  Asse, 
For  naught  but  Prouender. 

This  also  is  not  in  the  1621  edition.     M.] 


JOHN  FLETCHER,  1621. 

Oriana.  Are  all  my  hopes  come  to  this  ?     Is  there  no  faith 
No  troth,  nor  modefty,  in  men  ? 

Wild  Goose  Chace,  1652  [>/.],  /.  16. 


[This  passage  recals  the  words  of  the  Nurse  in  Romeo  and  Juliet  (Act 
III.  ii.) — imitated  earlier  by  Barrey,  see  before,  p.  223: 

"There's  no  trust 
No  faith,  no  honesty  in  men." 

Fletcher's  Wild  Goose  Chace  is  placed  under  date  1621,  on  the  authority 
of  Malone,  who  says  "  it  appears  from  Sir  Henry  Herbert's  manuscript  " 
(see  after,  p.  321)  that  this  play  is  "found  among  the  court  exhibitions  of 
the  year  1621  "  ( Variorum,  vol.  iii.  p.  225).  But  the  play  was  lost  in  1647, 
and  was  first  printed  in  folio,  separately,  in  1652.  L.  T.  S.] 

[In  another  play  Fletcher  has  evidently  imitated  Hamlet  (I.  v) : 

"  Hie  et  ubique?  then  we'll  shift  our  ground  *     * 
Once  more  remove  good  friends  ;  " — 

viz.  in  The  Woman's  Prize,  or  the  Tamer  tam'd  (Act  V.  iii).  Rowland, 
having  received  a  statement  on  oath  from  his  friend  Tranio,  makes  him 
swear  to  it  again  : 

"Let's  remove  our  places.     Sweare  it  again." 

This  play  was  first  printed  in  the  Works  of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  folio, 
1647,  its  date  is  uncertain.  It  is  said  to  have  been  written  in  ridicule  of  The 
Taming  of  the  Shrew,  but  there  is  not  in  it  a  single  line  or  word  that  can  by 
any  kind  of  ingenuity  be  so  interpreted.  It  is,  as  Steevens  remarks,  a  sequel 
to  it,  in  which  the  plot  is  reversed,  and  Petruchio  tamed  by  a  second  wife ; 
but  the  notion  of  ridictfle  is  quite  unfounded-  P.  A.  Daniel.  ] 


284 


THE 

Firft  and  fecond   Part  of 

the  troublefome  Raigne  of 
JOHN  King  of  England 

With  the  difcouerie  of  King  Richard  Cor- 

delions  Bafe  forme  (vulgarly  named,  the  Baftard 

Fauconbridge :)  Alfo  the  death  of  King 

lohn  at  Swinftead  Abbey. 

As  they  were  (fundry  times)  lately  acted. 

Written  by  W.  SHAKESPEARE. 
[Device] 


LONDON, 

Printed  by  Aug:  Mathewes  for  Thomas  Dewe,  and  are  to 
be  Ibid  at  his  {hop  in  St.  Dunftones  Church- 
yard in  Fleet-ftreet,  1622, 


tROUBLESOME    RATGNE   OF   JOHN    KING  OF   ENGLAND.       2&5 

[Title-page  of  the  third  edition  of  The  Troublesome  Raigne.  It  is  copied 
from  that  of  the  1611  edition,  and  here  the  "  W.  Sh."  is  expanded  into 
"W.Shakespeare."  M.] 


286 


• 


4 

g 

1 


. 


•3          &4( 


W 

CO 

CO 


PQ      ,2 


LL 


i   IS 


«        a 


II 


H  <1  fa  h  >  PQ 


00 


*    a  ,<u 
n     0?     S  Q 

<U      DH 

"S      |^| 

<  >  Eo  H  & 

O  «s  -r»- 


67  b. 


WILLIAM    BASSE,     1622.  287 

These  lines,  which  are  usually  attributed  to  the  elder  W.  Basse,  have 
come  down  to  us  in  so  many  discrepant  versions,  manuscript  as  well  as 
printed,  that  it  is  difficult  to  determine  their  original  or  their  finished  form. 
The  version  [no.  2]  selected  for  this  work  is  derived,  at  second-hand,  from  a 
manuscript  which,  unfortunately,  the  compiler  has  not  had  an  opportunity  of 
inspecting.  But  the  choice  was  made  for  cogent  reasons.  The  original 
was  certainly  a  sonnet,  of  the  usual  number  of  lines  ;  to  which  two  lines 
(now  standing  as  the  I3th  and  I4th)  were  subsequently  added.  The  addition, 
probably,  occasioned  changes  in  other  lines  ;  and  some  of  the  manuscript 
and  printed  versions  we  possess  are  merely  experimental  ways  of  making 
the  augmented  elegy  hold  together.  The  couplet 


Thy        unmolested  rest,  I 


n 

Possess  as  lord,  not  tenant,  to  (      thy  \ 

grave' 


introduced  an  absurdity,  which  the  lines  in  Donne's  Poems  do  not  contain  : 
for,  first,  Shakespeare's  peace  would  not  be  unmolested  simply  because  his 
grave  was  unshared  ;  and  secondly,  it  would  not  be  unmolested  at  all,  if 
others  were  in  after  time  to  be  laid  by  him.  Why  not,  then,  adopt  the 
version  in  Donne's  Poems  ?  Because  it  is  evident  that  at  least  one  line  in 
it  was  altered  from  one  in  a  version  which  had  the  additional  couplet  :  viz. 
line  1  1.  The  Ashmole  copyist  had  written  curved  for  carved,  as  the  word 
stands  in  the  Brander  copy,  and  in  both  the  Rawlinson  copies  :  and  it  was 
evidently  from  a  version  like  that  or  the  Ashmole  copy,  which  read  curved, 
that  the  Donne  copyist  obtained  his  singular  blunder  of  curled.  We  believe 
that  the  Fennell  version  (adopted  as  our  text),  "In  this  uncarved  marble," 
is  an  earlier,  as  it  is  unquestionably  a  much  finer,  reading  than  either  "  Under 
this  cawed  marble,  "  or  "  Under  this  sable  marble,"  which  last  occurs  in  the 
Sloane  copy.  As  much  might  be  said  in  defence  of  the  other  portions  of 
the  Fennell  version.  Yet  it  is  quite  certain  that  it  is  not  the  original,  but 
\hzfinished  form  of  the  elegy. 

None  of  the  versions  comport  with  the  status  quo  in  Westminster  Abbey, 
where  Chaucer's  tomb  is  pretty  central  between  Spencer's  and  Beaumont's  : 
whereas,  in  the  Fennell  copy,  Donne's  version,  and  the  Harleian  and 
Phillipps  MSS.  Beaumont  is  the  central  figure  ;  in  all  the  rest  Spencer  lies 
between  Beaumont  and  Chaucer. 

In  the  original  draft  it  is  most  likely  that  lines  9-12  ran  (as  in  the  Sloane 
copy,  with  one  exception)  thus  : 

"  If  your  precedencie  in  death  doeth  b'arre 
A  fourth  to  have  place  in  your  sepulchre, 
Under  this  sacred  marble  of  thy  owne  [sable,  Sloaiie\ 

Sleep,  rare  Tragedian,  Shakespeare,  sleepe  alone, 
That  unto  others,"  &c. 


2&&  WILLIAM    BASSE,    l622. 

Perhaps  Donne  or  Basse  improved  upon  them,  thus  : 

"But  if  precedencie  in  death  doe  )  , 

or  doth  \ 

A  fourth  place  in  your  sacred  sepulchre, 
Under  this  [  ]  marble  of  thy  owne 

Sleep,  rare  Tragedian,  Shakespeare,  sleep  alone,"  &c. 

and  further  it  seems  not  improbable  that  the  third  of  these  lines  became, 

"fn  this  unshartd  marble  of  thy  owne," 

before  the  additional  couplet  was  added,  when  unshared  was  supplanted 
by  uncarved. 

[Not  quite  agreeing  with  Dr.  Ingleby  in  his  view  of  this  Epitaph,  I  have 
left  his  remarks,  as  they  stood,  and  append  a  few  of  my  own  ;  I  print  the 
version  from  Lansdowne  777,  because  it  is  an  early  MS.,  probably  of  the 
end  of  James  I,  and  because  it  closely  agrees  with  the  two  other  earliest 
copies,  viz.  that  given  by  Malone,  and  Mr.  Halliwell's  fac-simile.  We 
therefore  are  likely  here,  as  I  think,  to  get  the  nearest  approach  to  the 
original.  An  argument  in  favour  of  this  is,  that  the  names  of  the  poets  in 
the  first  three  lines  of  these,  as  in  nearly  all  the  versions  (Nos.  3,  4,  5,  6,  7, 
9,  II,  III,  IV),  are  placed  in  chronological  order, — Spencer  is  to  go  nearer 
Chaucer,  and  is  to  be  followed  by  Beaumont ;  thus,  besides  avoiding  the 
repetition  of  Beaumont  in  line  2,  giving  more  force  to  the  allusion  in  line  9. 
This  is  confirmed  by  the  quotation  from  the  epitaph  given  by  Jonson  (after, 
p.  315).  The  variations  in  the  different  versions  are  considerable,  but  are 
generally  such  as  would  arise  from  the  lines  having  been  written  down 
from  memory,  rather  than  errors  of  a  copyist ;  the  verses  evidently  were 
popular,  on  a  popular  subject,  and  hence  are  found  in  common-place-books 
and  miscellaneous  collections.  Two  only  of  our  fifteen  copies  omit  lines 
13,  14  (those  in  Donne's  Poems,  and  Harl.  1749),  they  therefore  probably 
were  in  the  poem  as  first  written,  with  the  rest  of  which  they  seem  to 
me  quite  consistent.  Perhaps  the  most  curious  variation  falls  upon  line  1 1 ; 
besides  the  two  texts  above  we  find  "In  an  uncarued",  "curved"  (badly 
written  for  carved  in  the  Ashmole  copy),  "curled"  (Donne),  "cabled" 
(which  I  think  badly  written  for  "  curled,"  Harl.  1749),  this  copy  closely 
follows  Donne's  ;  "sacred,"  and  "  sable,"  instead  of  "carved."  It  seems 
to  me  that  "  Under  this  carved  marble  "  has  more  sense,  either  figuratively, 
or  positively,  with  a  possible  reference  to  Shakespere's  tomb  at  Stratford, 
than  to  suppose  him  buried  in  marble,  carved  or  uncarved.  L.  T.  S .] 

The  following  is  a  list  of  all  the  manuscript  copies  that  are  known  to  us. 

*  (i.)  Brit.  Mus.  MS.  Lansdowne  777,  fo.  67  b. 

•f*  (2. )  A  collection  of  Miscellaneous  Poems  in  a  handwriting  of  the  early 
part  of  the  reign  of  Charles  I ;  from  which  these  verses  are  printed  in 
Fennell's  Shakespeare  Repository,  p.  10. 

*  (3.)  A  MS.  copy  inserted  in  the  Halliwell  Collection  of  printed  Pro- 
clamations and  Broad-sides,  in  the  Chetham  Library,  Manchester.     See 


WILLIAM    BASSE,     1 62 2.  289 

fac-simile    of    it    in    the    catalogue    (London,    1851,    privately  printed), 
No.  2757. 

*  (4.)  A  collection  of  manuscript  poems,  formerly  in  the  possession  of 
Gustavus  Brander,  Esq.,  containing  these  verses.     Cited  by  Malone,  who 
says  "the  MS.  appears  to  have  been  written  soon  after  the  year  1621." 
Shakesperfs  Works,  1821,  vol.  i.  pp.  470 — 472. 

*  (5.)  A  volume  of  manuscript  poems  composed  by  W.  Herrick  and  others, 
and  inter  alia  Basse's  lines  ;  in  the  Rawlinson  Collection,  Bodleian  Library, 
Oxford.     (Cited  by  Malone,  but  a  diligent  search  has  failed  to  discover  it.) 

*  (6.)  A  volume  of  manuscripts,  containing  poems  by  Bishop  Corbet,  and 
inter  alia  Basse's  lines  ;  also  in  the  Rawlinson  Collection.     MS.  Poet.  Vol. 
117,  p.  40  (resembles  Lans.  777). 

*  (7.)  British  Museum  MS.  Sloane  1792  (not  1702  as  Malone  quotes  it), 
fo.  114. 

f  (8.)  Phillipps  MSS;  at  Cheltenham  (formerly  Middlehill),  No.  9569  : 
printed  at  the  end  of  The  Marriage  of  Wit'  and  Wisdom,  edited  by  J.  O. 
Halliwell  for  the  Shakespere  Society,  1846  ;  p.  92  (written  about  1638). 

*  (9.)  A  volume  of  manuscripts,  containing  six  poems  by  W.  Herrick, 
and  also  Basse's  lines.      Vol.  38,  No.  421,  in  the  Ashmole  Collection* 
Bodleian  Library,  Oxford. 

f  (10.)  Harl.  MS.  1749,  fo.  289  b  (a  corrupt  version:  it  wants  lines  13,  14). 
To  these  may  be  added  the  following  five  early  printed  versions. 

f  I.  Donne's  Poems.  1633.  [4to.]  p.  149.  (Sign.  Y  3  ;  the  paging  is 
wrong,  it  should  be  165.) 

*  II.  Verses  appended  to  Shakespeare's  Poems.     1640.     [i2mo.]     Sign. 
K  8,  back. 

*  III.  Witt's  Recreations  :  selected,  &c.     1640  [i2mo.],  wheVe  Basse's 
lines  are  numbered  Epitaph  5,  sign.  A  A  2. 

*  IV.  Witt's  Recreations  Augmented,  &c.     1641  [i2mo.],  where  Basse's 
lines  are  numbered  144  of  the  Epitaphs. 

*  V.  Poems  :  by  Francis  Beaumont  [with  additions  by  various  writers], 
1652.     [sm.  8vo.]     Sign.  M.     The  Epitaph  is  not  in  the  edition  of  these 
Poems  of  1640,  it  is  among  the  additions  of  1652. 

Of  these,  II,  III,  and  IV  are  substantially  the  same,  and  follow  in  the 
main,  No.  (i).  The  *  and  f  show  the  type  to  which  each  copy  belongs 

As  to  the  evidence  of  authorship  :  In  (i)  the  lines  are  subscribed, 
"Wm.  Basse,"  (2)  headed  "Mr.  Basse,"  and  (3)  "Mr.  Willm.  Basse": 

(4)  "Basse  his  elegie  one  Poett  Shakespeare,  who  died  in  April,  1616": 

(5)  "Shakespeare's  Epitaph,"  without   author's   name.      (6)   "Basse   his 
elegye  on  Shakespeare"  :  (7)  Headed  "vponshackpeare";  no  author'sname. 
(8)  Headed  "On Shakespeare,  Basse."    (9)  Subscribed "  finis,  Dr.  Doone." 
(10)  Nothing.    In  I.  they  are  assigned  to  Dr.  Donne  ;  but  they  are  omitted 
from  the  next  edition  of  his  Poems.     In  II.  they  are  subscribed  W.  B.  :  in 
III,  IV,  and  V,  they  are  anonymous.     They  are  not  included  in  "The  Pas- 
torals and  other  Workes  of  William  Basse,"  printed  in  1653.     C.  M.  I. 

SH.  ALLN.  BK. 1.  U 


290 


THOMAS  ROBINSON,  1622. 

And  when  he  is  merrily  difpofed  (as  that  is  not  feldom)  then 
muft  his  dearling  Kate  Knightley  play  him  a  merry  fit,  and 
fitter  Mary  Brooke,  or  fome  other  of  his  laft-come  Wags,  muft 
fing  him  one  bawdy  fong  or  other  to  digeft  his  meat.  Then 
after  flipper  it  is  ufuall  for  him  to  reade  a  little  of  Venus  and 
Adonis,  the  iefts  of  George  Peele,  or  fome  fuch  fcurrilous 
booke:  for  there  are  few  idle  Pamphlets  printed  in  England 
which  he  hath  not  in  the  houfe. 

The  Anatomy  of  the  English  Nunnery  at  Lisbon  in  Portugal! : 
Dissected  and  laid  open  by  one  that  was  sometime  a  yonger 
Brother  of  'the  Covent.  1622.  p.  17.  [4/0.] 


By  the  use  of  the  expression  "idle  pamphlets"  Brother  Robinson  did 
not  necessarily  intend  (as  Mr.  Collier  supposes,  Bibliog.  and  Crit.  Account, 
ii.  274)  to  depreciate  Shakespeare's  poem.  An  "idle  pamphlet,"  at  that 
time  of  day,  meant  one  which  afforded  diversion  rather  than  edification. 
Surely  "scurrilous  booke "  (to  which  Mr.  Collier  takes  no  exception)  implies 
a  much  graver  charge.  C.  M.  I. 


291 


JOHN  TAYLOR,  1622. 

And  laft  he  laughed  in  the  Cambrian  tongue,  and  beganne  to 
declare  in  the  Ftopian  fpeech,  what  I  haue  heere  with  jnojl  diligent 
negligence  tranjlated  into  the  Engli/h  Language,  in  which  if  the 
Printer  hath  placed  any  line,  letter  orjillable,  whereby  this  large 
volume  may  be  made  guilty  to  bee  vnderftood  by  any  man,  I  would 
haue  the  Reader  not  to  impute  the  fault  to  the  Author,  for  it  was 
farrefrom  his  purpofe  to  write  to  any  purpofe,  fo  ending  at  the 
beginning,  I  fay  as  it  is  applawsfully  written  and  commended  to 
pojlerity  in  the  Midfommer  nights  dreame.  If  we  offend,  it  is  with 
our  good  will,  we  came  with  no  intent,  but  to  offend,  andjhow  our 

JimplejkilL 

Rolihayton. 

Sir  Gregory  Nonsence.  His  Newes  from  no  place.  .  .  .  for  the 
vndestanding  of  Nobody.  By  lohn  Taylor.  Printed  in 
London,  and  are  to  bee  sold  betweene  Charing-Crosse,  and 
Algate.  1700.  \The  real  date  is  in  the  colophon:  Finis. 
Printed  at  London  by  N.  0.  1622.]'  A  4,  back. 


In  Mr.  Hall.-P.'s.  Mem.  on  M.  N.  Dr.,  p.  35.  The  words  meant  to  be 
quoted  are  those  of  Manager  Quince,  the  Prologue,  in  M.  N.  £>r.t  ist  Folio, 
p.  1 60,  col.  I : 

"Pro.  If  we  offend,  it  is  with  oure  good  will. 
That  you  should  thinke,  we  care  not  to  offend, 
But  with  good  will.     To  show  our  simple  skill." 

The  word  '  intent '  was  recollected  from  the  later  lines — 

"We  do  not  come,  as  minding  to  content  you, 
Our  true  intent  is.     All  for  your  delight. 
We  are  not  heere."— F.  J.  F. 


292 


THOMAS   WALKLEY,    1622. 

The  Stationer  to  the  Reader 


0  Jet  forth  a  booke  without  an  Epijlle, 
were  like  to  the  old  Englifh  prouerle, 
A  blew  coat  without  a  badge,  & 
the  Author  being  dead,  I  thought  good 
to  take  that  piece  ofworke  vpon  mee  : 
To  commend  it,  I  will  not,  for  that 
which  is  good,  I  hope  euery  man  will 
and  I  am  the  lolder,  lecaufe  the 
Thus  leaning  euery 


commend,  without   in  treaty 

Authors  name  isfufficient  to  vent  his  worke. 

one  to  the  liberty  ofiudgement :  I  haue  venter -ed  to  print  this  Play, 

and  leaue  it  to  the  generall  cenfure. 

Yours, 

Thomas  Walkley. 

The  /  Tragcedy  of  Othello,  /  The  Moore  of  Venice.  /  As  it 
hath  beene  diuerse  times  acted  at  the  /  Globe,  and  at  the 
Black-Friers,  by  /  his  Maiesties  Seruants.j  Written  by 
William  Shakespeare./  London,  /  Printed  by  N.  O.  / 
for  Thomas  Walkley,  and  are  to  be  sold  at  his  /  shop,  at 
the  Eagle  and  Child,  in  Britans  Bursse./  i622./  sign. 
A  2.  

Mr.  Herbert  A.  Evans  calld  my  attention  to  Walkley's  Foreword  not 
being  in  the  Centurie. 

At  the  end  of  'The  Fourth  Edition'  of  Othello,  1655,  in  its  publisher's 
List  of  Books,  "Printed  or  sold  by  William  Leake,  at  the  signe  of  the 


THOMAS   WALKLEY,    1622.  293 

Crown  in  Fleetstreet  between  the  two  Temple  Gates  :   These  Bookes  follow- 
ing," are 

"Playes. 

"  Hen  the  Fourth 

"The  Merchant  of  Venice." 

In  the  alterd  version  of  Othello  printed  in  1687  '  for  Richard  Bentley  and 
S.  Magnes  in  Russel-Street  near  Covent-Garden,'  a  Catalogue  of  some  of 
their  Plays  is  on  the  2nd  leaf,  A2 ;  and  in  it  are 

"Henry  the  6th.  with  the  Murder  of  the  Duke  of  Glocester,  in  2  parts  .  . 

King  Lear  .  .  . 

Othello,  the  Moor  of  Venice." 

F.  J.  F. 


294 


JOHN   FLETCHER,   1622. 

Hig.  Then  beare  up  bravely  with  your  Brute  my  lads 
Higgen  hath  prig'd  the  prancers  in  his  dayes, 
And  fold  good  peny-worthes  ;  we  will  have  a  courfe, 
The  ipirit  of  Bottom,  is  growne  bottomlefle. 

1647.  Beggars  Bush,  Actus  Quintus,  Scsena  Secunda. 
p.  95,  col.  2  of  '  Comedies  /  and  /  Tragedies  /  Written 
by  Francis  Beaumont  And  lohn  Fletcher  Gentlemen. 
Never  printed  before,  /  And  now  published  by  the 
Authours/  Originall  Copies.  /  Si  quid  habcnt  veri  Vatum 
prasagia,  vivam.  /  London,  /  Printed  for  Humphrey 
Robinson,  at  the  three  Pidgeons,  and  for  /  Humphrey 
Moseley  at  the  Princes  Armes  in  Se.  Pauls  /  Church-yard. 


J.  O.  H11.-P. 


The  date  of  the  play  is  1622,  tho  it  was  not  printed  till  long  after 
Fletcher's  death  in  1625.     Beaumont  died  in  1616. — A.  H.  Bullen. 


295 


JOHN   FLETCHER,  1622. 

Let  it  fuffice, 

I  have  touch'd  the  height  of  humane  happinefle, 
and  here  I  fix  Nil  ultra.1     Hitherto 
I  have  liv'd  a  fervant  to  ambitious  thoughts, 
and  fading  glories  :  what  J  remains  of  life, 
I  dedicate  to  Vertue ;  and  to  keep 
my  faith  untainted,  farewell  Pride  and  Pomp, 
and1  circumftance  of  glorious  Majeftie, 
farewell  for  ever. 

The  Propheteffe,   Actus  Quartus,  Scena  Sexta,  No.  18,  in 
B.  &  F.'s  Comedies  and  Tragedies,  Folio,  1647,  p.  42,  col.  I. 


Mr.  Leslie  Stephen  sends  the  last  two  lines,  saying  that  they  are  "  obvious 
recollections  of  Othello"  ("Farewell.  .  .  Pride,  Pomp,  and  Circumstance 
of  glorious  War."  III.  iii.  354). 

The  first  seem  also  recollections  of  Fletcher's  own  Wolsey  lines  in  Henry 
VIII,  III.  ii.  221,  &c. 

"  Nay  then,  farewell ! 

I  have  touch'd  the  highest  point  of  all  my  greatness  ; 
And,  from  that  full  meridian  of  my  glory, 
I  haste  now  to  my  setting." 

— F.  J.  F. 

1  A  later  edition,  "  The  Prophetess  .  .  .  London,  1690,"  reads 
p.  55,  "  And  fix  here  my  Non  ultra?  and 

p.  56,  "  ;  my  Remains  of  Life,"  and 

p.  56,  "  farewell  Pride  and  Pomp, 

''All  Circumstance  of  glorious  Majesty, 
Farewel  for  ever." — P.  A.  LYONS. 


296 


PHILIP  MASSINGER,  1622-36^ 


(Gifford's  Notes] 

Massinger  was  a  great  reader  and 
admirer  of  Shakspeare  ;  he  has  here 
not  only  adopted  his  sentiment  but 
his  words  : 
'  Come,   brother  John,  full  bravely 

hast  thoujfey&W 

Thy  maiden  sword* — [i  Hen.  IV,* 
V.  iv.  133.] 

*  Gifford  adds  :  "  But  Shakspeare  is  in  every  one's  head,  or,  at  least,  in 
every  one's  hand ;  and  I  should  therefore  be  constantly  anticipated  in  such 
remarks  as  these.  I  will  take  this  opportunity  to  say,  that  it  is  not  my 
intention  to  encumber  the  page  with  tracing  every  expression  of  Massinger 
to  its  imaginary  source  ..." 


(Tfcrf) 

for  know,  your  son, 
The  ne'er-enough  commended  An- 
toninus, 

So  well  hath  fleshd  his  maiden  sword. 

1622.      The   Virgin   Martyr, 

I.   i.     Massinger's  Works, 

Gifford's  2nd  edn,  1813,  i.  9. 


In  a  word, 

Thy  plurisy  of  goodness  is  thy  ill. 
?i62i,  pr.  1639.      The    Unnatural 

Combat,    IV.    i.      Works, 

1813,  i.  197. 


the  thought  is  from  Shakspeare  : 
'  For  goodness,  growing  to  a  plurisy, 
Dies  in  his  own  too  much.' 

\Hamlet,  IV.  vii.  118.] 


Let  his  passion  work,  and,  like  a     This  is  from  Shakspeare: 


hot-rein'd  horse, 
'Twill  quickly  tire  itself 

ib.  IV.  ii.     Works,  i.  204. 


Marcella.  For  you,  puppet — 
Mariana.  What  of  me,  pine-tree  ? 
.  .  .  .   O  that  I  could  reach  you  ! 
The  little  one  you  scorn  so,  with  her 
nails 


' — Anger  is  like 
'  A  full  hot  horse,  who  being  allow' d 

his  way, 
Self-mettle  tires  him.'  [Henry  VIII, 

I.  i.  133.]     Coxeter. 

Puppet  and  maypole,  and  many 
other  terms  of  equal  elegance,  are 
bandied  about  in  the  quarrel  between 
Hermia  and  Helena,  in  Midsummer 
Nights  Dream  [III.  ii.  289—298], 


•^  There  are  many  more  Sh.  imitations  in  Massinger.     The  list  of  some 
made  by  Mr.  D.  B.  Bright  well  follows  on  pp.  301-4. 


PHILIP    MASSINGER,    1622-36. 


297 


Would  tear  your  painted  face,  and 
scratch  those  eyes  out. 

1623  (pr.  1638).  The  Duke 
of  Milan,  II.  i.  Works, 
1813,  i.  268-9. 


Let  me  wear 
Your    colours,    lady ;    and    though 

youthful  heats, 

That  look  no  further  than  your  out- 
ward form 
Are  long  since  buried  in  me  ;  while 

Hive 

I  am  a  constant  lover  of  your  mind, 
That  does  transcend  all  precedents. 
1624  (pr.  1638).     The  Bond- 
man, I.  iii.     Works,  ii.  30. 


Cleora*  I  restore 
This    kiss,   so  help  me  goodness ! 

which  I  borrow'd 
When  I  last  saw  you. 

The  Bondman,  IV.  iii.  Works, 
ii.  86. 


Then,  with  a  kind  of  state,  I  take  my 

chair, 
Command  a  sudden  muster  of  my 

servants, 

And,  after  two  or  three  majestic  hums, 
It  being  known  all  is  mine,  peruse 

my  writings, 

Let  out  this  manor,  at  an  easy  rate, 
To  such  a  friend,  lend  this  ten  thou- 
sand crowns, 


which  is  here  too  closely  imitated. 
I  forbear  to  quote  the  passages, 
which  are  familiar  to  every  reader  of 
Shakspeare. 


This  is  evidently  copied  from  that 

much  contested  speech  of  Othello, 

act  I.  sc.  iii.  : 

" — I  therefore  beg  it  not 

[To  please  the  palate  of  my  appetite  ; 

Nor  to  comply  with  heat,  the  young 
affects 

In  me  defunct,  and  proper  satisfac- 
tion,] &c." 

as  is  the  following  passage,  in  the 

Eair  Maid  of  the  Inn  [Fletcher's]  : 

'  Shall  we  take  our  fortune  ?  and 
while  our  cold  fathers, 

In  whom  long  since  their  youthful 
heats  were  dead, 

Talk  much  of  Mars,  serve  under 
Venus'  ensigns, 

And  seek  a  mistress.' 

This  is  a  modest  imitation  of  Shak- 
speare : 
'  Now  by  the  jealous  queen  of  heaven, 

that  kiss 
I  carried  from  thee,  dear  j  and  my 

true  lip 
Hath  virgin'd  it  e'er  since.' 

Coriolanus  [V.  iii.  48]. 

This  is  imitated  from  the  soliloquy 
of  Malvolio,  in  Twelfth  Night;  which 
is  itself  an  imitation  [?]  of  the  reverie 
of  Alnaschar,  in  the  Arabian  Nights 
Entertainment. 


298 


PHILIP    MASSINGER,    1622-36. 


For  the  redemption  of  his  mortgaged 

land, 

Give  to  each  by-blow  I  know  of  mine, 
a  farm. 

1624.        The    Parliament    of 
Love,  II.  i.     Works,  ii.  253. 


Lidia.  O  the  difference  of  natures ! 

Giovanni, 
A   prince  in  expectation,  when  he 

lived  here. 
Stole    courtesy    from    heaven,    and 

would  not,  to 
The  meanest  servant  in  my  father's 

house, 
Have  kept  such  distance. 

1627  (pr.  1636).  The  Great 
Duke  of  Florence,  II.  iii. 
Works,  1813,  ii.  468. 


Sanazarro.  I  have  seen  a  maid, 

sir; 
But,  if  that  I  have  judgment,  no  such 

wonder 
As  she  was  deliver'd  to  you. 

ib.  III.  i.     Works,  ii.  478. 

Cozimo.  So  :  come  nearer ; 

This  exercise  hath  put  you  into  a 

sweat ; 
Take  this  and  dry  it. 

ib.  III.  i.      Works,  ii.  480. 


Ruardo.  .  .  This  military  art, 
I  grant  to  be  the  noblest  of  profes- 

sions  ; 
And  yet,  I  thank  my  stars  for  't,  I 

was  never 


This  is  from  Shakspeare,  and  the 
plain  meaning  of  the  phrase  is,  that 
the  affability  and  sweetness  of  Gio- 
vanni were  of  a  heavenly  kind,  i.  e. 
more  perfect  than  was  usually  found 
among  men  ...  the  commentators  on 
our  great  poet  have  altogether  mis- 
taken him  ; 
"And  then  I  stole  all  courtesy  from 

heaven, 

And  dress'd  myself  in  such  humility, 
That  I   did   pluck   allegiance  from 
men's  hearts." 

Hen.  IV.  Part   I.   Act    III. 
sc.  ii. 

. .  an  expression  of  Shakspeare  might 
not  improbably  have  hung  on  Mas- 
singer's  mind  : 

Mir.         —No  -wonder,  sir  j 
But  certainly  a  maid.      Tempest. 


This  is  from  Shakspeare;  if  he 
had  been  suffered  to  remain  in  quiet 
possession  of  it,  the  reader  would 
have  little  to  regret  on  the  score  of 
delicacy : 

— "  He's  fat,  and  scant  of  breath  : 
Here.  Hamlet,  take  my  napkin,  rub 
thy  brow?' 

In  this  passage  ....  Massinger, 
as  Coxeter  observes,  had  Shakspeare 
in  his  thoughts,  and  principally  Fal- 
staff  s  humorous  catechism. 


PHILIP    MASSINGER,    1622-36. 


299 


Inclined   to    learn    it ;    since    this 

bubble  honour 
(Which  is  indeed  the  nothing  soldiers 

fight  for,) 
With  the  loss  of  limbs  or  life,  is,  in 

my  judgment, 
Too  dear  a  purchase. 

1629  (pr.  1630).  The  Picture, 
I.  ii.  Works,  1813,  iii.  126. 

Theodosius.  .  .  Can  you  think 
This  masterpiece  of  heaven,  this  pre- 
cious vellum, 

Of  such  a  purity  and  virgin  white- 
ness, 
Could  be  design'd  to   have  perjury 

and  whoredom, 
In  capital  letters,  writ  upon  't  ? 

1 63 1  (pr.  1632).  The  Emperor 
of  the  East,  TV.  v.  Works, 
1813,  iii.  328. 


Was  this  fair  paper,  this  most  goodly 

book, 
Made  to  write  whore  upon  ? 

Othello. 

There  are  several  other  short  pas- 
sages in  this  scene  copied  or  imitated 
from  the  same  play  ;  which,  as  suffi- 
ciently obvious,  I  have  forborn  to 
notice. l 


Theodosius.  Wherefore  pay  you 

This  adoration  to  a  sinful  creature  ? 
I  am  flesh  and  blood,  as  you  are,  sensible 
Of  heat  and  cold,  as  much  a  slave  unto 
The  tyranny  of  my  passions,  as  the  meanest 


1  The  scene  between  Theodosius  and  Eudocia  about  the  apple  he  sent 
her,  is  modelld  on  that  of  Othello  and  Desdemona  about  his  mother's  hand- 
kerchief that  he  gave  her  : 

Theo.— Did  not  Philanax 
From  me  deliver  you  an  apple  ? 

Eud.  Yes,  sir; 

Heaven !    how    you    frown !     pray 

you,  talk  of  something  else. 
Think  not  of  such  a  trifle. 

Theo.  How,  a  trifle  ! — 

....  I  prized  it,  lady, 
At  a  higher  rate  than  you  believe ; 

and  would  not 
Have  parted  with  it,  but  to  one  I 


did 
Prefer  before  myself. 


Eud.  It  was  indeed, 

The  fairest  that  I  ever  saw. 

Theo.  It  was ; 

And  it  had  virtues  in  it,   my  Eu- 
docia, 

Not  visible  to  the  eye  .  .  . 
What  did  you  with  it?  — tell  me 

punctually  ; 

I  look  for  a  strict  accompt. 
Eud.  What  shall  I  answer  ? 
Theo.  Do  you  stagger  ?    Ha ! 
Eud.  No,   sir.     I  have  eaten  it : 
[a  lie.} 

Works,  iii.  326-7. 


300  PHILIP    MASSINGER,    1622-36. 

Of  my  poor  subjects.     The  proud  attributes, 

By  oil-tongued  flattery  imposed  upon  us, 

As  sacred,  glorious,  high,  invincible, 

The  deputy  of  heaven,  and  in  that 

Omnipotent,  with  all  false  titles  else, 

Coin'd  to  abuse  our  frailty,  though  compounded, 

And  by  the  breath  of  sycophants  applied, 

Cure  not  the  least  fit  of  an  ague  in  us. 

We  may  give  poor  men  riches,  confer  honours 

On  undeservers,  raise,  or  ruin  such 

As  are  beneath  us,  and,  with  this  puff  d  up, 

Ambition  would  persuade  us  to  forget 

That  we  are  men  :  but  He  that  sits  above  us, 

And  to  whom,  at  our  utmost  rate,  we  are 

But  pageant  properties,  derides  our  weakness  : 

In  me,  to  whom  you  kneel,  'tis  most  apparent. 

Can  I  call  back  yesterday,  with  all  their  aids 

That  bow  unto  my  sceptre  ?  or  restore 

My  mind  to  that  tranquillity  and  peace 

It  then  enjoy'd  ? — Can  I  make  Eudocia  chaste, 

Or  vile  Paulinus  honest  ? 

1631.  The  Emperor  of  the  East>  V.  ii.  Works,  1813,  iii.  339. 
"  In  this  fine  speech  Massinger  has  ventured  to  measure  weapons  with 
Shakspeare  [in  Henry  V,  IV.  i.  250—301,  Macbeth,  and  Lear\  and  if  I 
may  trust  my  judgment,  not  ungracefully.  The  feelings,  indeed,  are  more 
interested  by  the  latter,  but  that  arises  from  the  situation  of  his  chief 
character." 

Slave.  I'll  make  them  real,  "There   be  land-rats  and  water- 

And  you  the  Neptunes  of  the  sea  ;    rats  (says  Shylock,)  I  mean  pirates." 

you  shall  Hence,  I  suppose,  the  allusion. 

No  more  be  sea-rats. 

?  1624-1634.   A  very  Woman, 
V.  i.,  Works,  iv.  329. 

Grave,  sir,  o'er-rule  your  passion,  and  There  are  several  incidental  resem- 

defer  blances  to  Shakspeare  in  this  scene, 

The  story  of  her  fortune.  of  which  the  reader  must  be  well 

1636  (pr.  1655).     The  Bashful  aware.1 

Lover,  III.  i.  Works,  iv.  401.  — F.  J.  F. 

1  Compare  the  following  with  Capulet's  speech  in  Rom.  6°  Jul.>  III.  v. 
165-9,  and  Leonato's  in  Much  Ado,  IV.  i.  129 — 131  : 

Octavio.  My  only  child  ;  I  murmur'd  against  heaven 
Because  I  had  no  more,  but  now  I  find 
This  one  too  many.     p.  401. 


PHILIP   MASSINGER,  1622-36. 


MASSINGER. 


SHAKSPERE. 


Queen  of  fate,         O  love 
Imperious  Fortune  !  mix  some  light     Be  moderate  ;  allay  thy  ecstasy  ; 


disaster 


In  measure  rein  thy  joy ;  scant  this 


With  my  so  many  joys,  to  season         excess 


them,  &c. 


I  feel  too  much  thy  blessing :  make 


1622.      Virgin  Martyr,  Act  I.  sc.  i.          it  less, 
p.  4,  col.  2,  ed.  Cunningham.  For  fear  I  surfeit. 


M.ofVen.  III.  ii.  in. 


As  the  sun 
Thou  didst  rise  gloriously,  keptst  a 

constant  course 
In  all  thy  journey  :  and  now,  in  the 

evening 
When  thou  shouldst  pass  with  honour         evening 


from  that  full  meridian  of  my 

glory 
I  haste  now  to  my  setting:  I  shall 

fail 
Like    a    bright    exhalation    in    the 


to  thy  rest, 

Wilt  thou  fall  like  a  meteor. 
1622.      Virgin  Martyr,  V.  ii.  p.  33, 

COl.   2. 


And  no  man  see  me  more. 

[Fletcher  in]  Henry  VIII. 


'tis  said,  At  lovers'  perjuries 

And  truly,  Jupiter  and  Venus  smile       They  say  Jove  laughs. 
At  lovers'  perjuries.  [Ovid  :  see  p.  56  above].     Romeo 

and  Juliet,  II.  ii.     (Var.  Sh., 
Vol.  VI.  p.  83.) 


1624.      Parliament  of  Love,    V.   i. 
p.  192,  col.  I. 


I  will  have  thee  And  I  have  not  ballads  made  on 

Pictured  as  thou  art  now,  and  thy     you  all,  and  sung  to  filthy  tunes,  &c. 

whole  story  I  Henry  IV. 

Sung   to  some  villainous  tune  in  a 

lewd  ballad. 
1624.    Parliament  of  Love,  IV.  v.  p. 

1 86,  col.  i.    So  also  the  Bondman^ 

V.iii.,&c.&c. 


302 


PHILIP    MASSINGER,   1622-36. 


MASSINGER. 

Look  not  on  me 

As  I  am  Cleremond  :  I  have  parted 
with 

The  essence  that  was  his,  and  enter- 
tained 

The  soul  of  some  fierce  tigress,  or  a 
wolf 

New-hanged  for  human  slaughter. 
1624.   Parliament  of  'Love,  p.  182, 
col.  2. 


SHAKSPERE. 
thy  currish  spirit 
Governed   a  wolf,  who  hanged   for 

human  slaughter 
Even  from  the  gallows  did  his  fell 

soul  fleet 

And  while  thou  layest  in  thy  unhal- 
lowed dam 
Infused  itself  in  thee. 

Merchant  of  Venice,  IV.  i. 


Tremble  to  think  how  terrible  the 

dream  is 
After  this  sleep  of  death. 

1626.     The  Roman  Actor,  III.  ii. 
p.  208,  col.  i. 


in  that  sleep  of  death  what  dreams 
may  come. 

Hamlet. 


Are  you  on  the  stage, 
You  talk  so  boldly? 

Par.    The  whole  world  being  one 
This  place  is  not  exempted. 

1626.  Roman  Actor,  I.  iii.  p.  198, 
col.  I. 


All  the  world 's  a  stage. 

As  You  Like  It,  II.  vii. 
(Var.  Sh.,  Vol.  VI.  p.  408.) 
(See  also  p.  340.) 


Pray  you,  believe,  sir 
What  you   deliver  to  me  shall  be 

lock'd  up 
In  a  strong  cabinet   of  which   you 

yourself 
Shall  keep  the  key  :  for  here  I  pawn 

my  honour 

*      *     It  shall  not  be  discovered. 
1627.     The  Great  Duke  of  Florence, 

III.  i.  p.  235,  col.  2. 


'Tis  in  my  memory  lock'd 
And  you  yourself  shall  keep  the  key 
of  it. 

Hamlet,  I.  iii. 

( Var  Sh .,  Vol.  VII.  p.  221.    Decker, 
Webster.) 


What  is  he? 

At  his  best  but  a  patrician  of  Rome 
His    name    Titus    Flaminius ;    and 

speak  mine 

Berecinthios,  arch-flamen  to  Cybele 
It  makes  as  great  a  sound. 
1631.     Believe  as  You  List,  I.  ii.  (p. 

598,  col.  I,  Cunningham's  Ed.) 


What  should  be  in  that  "  Caesar  "  ? 
Why  should  that  name  be  sounded 

more  than  yours  ? 
Write  them   together,    yours  is    as 

fair  a  name  : 
Sound  them ;  it  doth    become  the 

mouth  as  well :  &c. 

Julius  Cczsar,  I.  ii.  142. 
(See  Var.  Sh.,  1821,  Vol.  XII.  p.  17. 

Hey  wood. ) 


PHILIP     MASSINGER,   1622-36.  3°3 

MASSINGER.  SHAKSPERE. 

pomp  and  circumstance  Pride,    pomp   and    circumstance   of 

Of  glory.  glorious  war. 

1631.     Believe  as  You  List,  I.  i.  p.  Othello,  III.  iii.  354. 

596,  col.  i.  (Var.  Sh.,   1821,  Vol.  IX.  p.  382. 

D'Avenant,  Fletcher.) 


Take  heed,  lord  Philanax,  that  for  Take  good  heed 

your  private  spleen,  You  charge  not  in  your  spleen  a 

Or  any  false  conceived  grudge  against         noble  person 

me  .    .  And  spire  your  nobler  soul. 

you  do  not  that  Henry  VIII.,  I.  ii.  173. 

My   royal    master    must    in  justice 

punish. 
1 63 1 .   The  Emperor  of  the  East,  V.  i. 

p.  347,  col.  2.  

Methinks  I  find  Paulinus  on  her  lips.      I  found  not  Cassio's  kisses  on  her 
1 63 1 .    The  Emperor  of  the  East,  IV.          lips, 
iv.  p.  345,  col.  i.  Othello,  III.  iii.  341. 


Putting  a  girdle  round  about  the     I'll  put  a  girdle   round   about   the 

world.  earth 

1631-2.   Maid  of  Honour,  I.  i.  p.  256,      In  forty  minutes. 
col.  i.  Mids.  Nights  Dream,  II.  i. 

( Var.,  1821,  Vol.  V.  p.  228.    Shirley, 
Chapman.) 


Will  it  ever  be,  Take  note,  take  note,  O  world, 

That  to  deserve  too  much  is  dangerous,      To  be  direct  and  honest  is  not  safe. 
And  virtue,   when    too   eminent,   a  Othello,  III.  iii. 


^  for  learn  this,  Silius, 

1631-2.    Maid  of  Honour,  III.  m.     Better  to  kave  und         than  b    our 

P-  270,  col.  2.  deed 

Acquire  too  high  a  fame  when  him 
we  serve's  away  .  .  . 

ambition, 

The  soldier's   virtue,    rather  makes 
choice  of  loss, 

Than  gain  which  darkens  him. 
Ant.  and  Cleop,,  III.  i.  13-24. 


304 


PHILIP    MASSINGER,   1622-36. 


MASSINGER. 


SHAKSPERE. 

I  will  help  I  will  tread  this  unbolted  villain 

Your  memory,  and  tread  you  into  into  mortar. 

mortar ;  King  Lear,  II.  ii.  70. 

?  1632.      New     Way   to    Pay    Old  (Noted  by  Stevens,  in  Var.Sh.,  1821, 

Debts,  I.  i.  p.  389,  col.  2.  Vol.  X.  p.  91). 


Heaven  be  pleased          O  Helicanus,  strike  me,  honoured 
To  qualify  this  excess  of  happiness  sir ; 

With  some  disaster,  or  I  shall  expire      Give  me  a  gash,  put  me  to  present 
With  a  surfeit  of  felicity.  pain  ; 

1633.    The  Guardian,  II.  iii.  p.  468,      Lest  this  great  sea  of  joys  rushing 
col.  I.  upon  me 

O'erbear  the  shores  of  my  mortality 
And  drown  me  with  their  sweetness. 

Pericles,  V.  i.  192. 
(Far.  Sh,,  1821,  Vol.  XXI.  p.  205.) 


My  only  child  ;  I  murmured  against          Wife,  we  scarce  thought  us  blest 

heaven  That  God  had  lent  us  but  this  only 

Because  I  had  no  more,  but  now  I         child ; 

find  But  now  I  see  this  one  is  one  too 

This  one  too  many.  much. 

1636.     The  Bashful  Lover,  III.   i.  Rom.  and  Juliet,  III.  v.  165. 


p.  542,  col.  i. 


Much  Ado,  IV.  i.  129-132. 
D.  B.  BRIGHTWELL. 


B[ENJ  J[ONSON],  1623. 

To  the  Reader. 

This  Figure,  that  thou  here  feeft  put, 

It  was  for  gentle  Shakefpeare  cut ; 
Wherein  the  Graver  had  a  ftrife 

With  Nature,  to  out-doo  the  life : 
O,  could  he  but  have  drawne  his  Wit 

As  well  in  Brafle,  as  he  hath  hit 
His  Face;  the  Print  would  then  furpafle 

All,  that  was  ever  writ  in  Brafle. 
But,  fince  he  cannot,  Reader,  looke 

Not  on  his  Picture,  but  his  Booke. 

B.  I. 

Facing  Droeshoufs  portrait  of  Shakespeare  prefixed 
to  the  First  Folio  Edition  of  his  Works. 


[Jonson  here  contrives  to  pay  both  Engraver  and  Poet  the  highest  compli- 
ment ;  if  the  former  could  have  drawn  the  \vit  of  the  latter  as  well  as  he  has 
drawn  his  face,  the  print  from  his  drawing  would  be  the  finest  thing  ever 
done.  It  seems  to  be  the  engraver's  brass  to  which  Digges  refers  on  p.  318. 
L.  T.  S.]  Dr.  Grosart  (Ed.  of  Sir  John  Beaumont's  Poems,  pp.  194  &  xxv) 
hears  in  Ben's  lines  "an  echo  "  of  some  in  Beaumont's  Elegiac  Memorials 
of  Worthies : 

"  Or  had  it  err'd,  or  made  some  strokes  amisse, 

For  who  can  pourtray  Vertue  as  it  is  ? 

Art  might  with  Nature  have  maintain'd  her  strife, 
By  curious  lines  to  imitate  true  life. 
But  now  those  pictures  want  their  lively  grace; 
As  after  death  none  can  well  draw  the  face  :  " 

Mr.  Hain  Friswell  notices  the  resemblance  "  with  a  certain  back  twdst  " 
(as  he  writes  it)  of  Ben's  lines  to  the  elegiac  couplet  under  an  old  portrait 
(1588)  of  Sir  Thomas  More,  in  the  Tres  Thomce  of  Stapleton  : 

SH.  ALLN.  BK. — I.  X 


306  B[EN]  J[ONSON],  1623. 

"  Corporis  effigiem  dedit  senea  lamina.  At  6  si 
Effigiem  mentis  sic  daret  iste  liber. " 

And  in  Venus  and  Adonis,  we  read, 

' '  Look  when  a  painter  would  surpass  the  life, 
His  art  with  nature's  workmanship  at  strife"  (ll.  289,  291) ; 

which  Dryden  echoes  in  his  Epistle  to  Sir  Godfrey  Kneller : 

"  Such  are  thy  pieces,  imitating  life 

So  near,  they  almost  conquered  in  the  strife." 

We  need  not,  however,  go  out  of  Shakespeare's  "  Booke  "  to  find  an 
instance  of  this  common  conceit : 

"  the  cutter 

Was  as  another  Nature,  dumb,  outwent  her, 
Motion  and  breath  left  out." 

Cymbeline,  ii.  4. 

Mat.  Smalwood,  in  his  commendatory  verses  prefixed  to  some  copies  of 
Wm.  Cartwright's  Works,  1651,  thus  comments  on  the  wretched  print  of 
Cartwright's  face,  which  serves  as  frontispiece  to  the  volume  : — , 

"  Then,  do  not  blame  his  serious  Brow  and  Look, 
'Twill  be  thy  Picture  if  them  read  his  Book."    C.  M.  I. 

[Jonson  not  improbably  took  the  conceit  in  his  last  lines  from  the  verses 
appended  to  the  portrait  of  Du  Bartas  in  Sylvester's  eds.  of  1621,  &c.,  a  work 
to  which  Jonson  himself  had  contributed  a  commendatory  poem.  They 
run  thus  : — 

"  Ces  traits  au  front,  marquez  de  Scavoir  &  ft  Esprit 
Ne  sont  que  du  BARTAS  un  ombre  exterieur. 
Le  Pin9eau  n'en  peut  plus  :  Mais,  de  sa  propre  Plume 
II  s'est  peint  le  Dedans,  dans  son  divin  Volume" 

Englished  thus  : — 

"This  Map  of  Verities  in  a  Muse-Mi  Face  ; 
Are  but  a  blush  of  BARTAS  outward  part. 
The  Pencil  could  no  more  :  but  his  owne  Pen 
Limns  him,  with-in,  the  Miracle  of  Men." 

(Du  Bartas  his  Diuine  Weekes  and  Workes  :  translated  by 
Josuah  Sylvester.  \_fo.~\  1633.  Verses  placed  under 
the  portrait  of  Du  Bartas,  A  5,  back.} 

L.  T.  S.] 


BEN  JONSON,  1623. 

To  the  memory  of  my  beloved,  the  AUTHOR 

MR.  WILLIAM  SHAKESPEARE  : 

and  what  he  hath  left  us. 

To  draw  no  envy  (Shakefpeare)  on  thy  name, 

Am  I  thus  ample  to  thy  Booke,  and  Fame : 
While  I  confefle  thy  writings  to  be  fuch, 

As  neither  Man,  nor  Mufe,  can  praife  too  much. 
'Tis  true,  and  all  mens  fuffrage.     But  thefe  wayes 

Were  not  the  paths  I  meant  unto  thy  praife : 
For  feelieft  Ignorance  on  thefe  may  light, 

Which,  when  it  founds  at  befl,  but  eccho's  right ; 
Or  blinde  Affection,  which  doth  ne're  advance 

The  truth,  but  gropes,  and  urgeth  all  by  chance  j 
Or  crafty  Malice,  might  pretend  this  praife, 

And  thinke  to  ruine,  where  it  feem'd  to  raife. 
Thefe  are,  as  fome  infamous  Baud,  or  Whore, 

Should  praife  a  Matron.     What  could  hurt  her  more  ? 
But  thou  art  proofe  againft  them,  and  indeed 

Above  th'  ill  fortune  of  them,  or  the  need. 


308 


I,  therefore  will  begin.     Soule  of  the  Age  ! 

The  applaufe  !   delight !  the  wonder  of  our  Stage  ! 
My  Shakefpeare,  rife  j  I  will  not  lodge  thee  by 

Chaucer,  or  Spenfer,  or  bid  Beaumont  lye 
A  little  further,  to  make  thee  a  roome : 

Thou  art  a  Moniment,  without  a  tombe, 
And  art  alive  Hill,  while  thy  Booke  doth  live, 

And  we  have  wits  to  read,  and  praife  to  give. 
That  I  not  mixe  thee  fo,  my  braine  excufes  j 

I  meane  with  great,  but  difproportion'd  Mufes  : 
For,  if  I  thought  my  judgement  were  of  yeeres, 

I  mould  commit  thee  furely  with  thy  peeres, 
And  tell,  how  farre  thou  didftft1  our  Lily  out-mine. 

Or  fporting  Kid,  or  Marlowes  mighty  line. 
And  though  thou  hadft  fmall  Latine,  and  leffe  Greeke, 

From  thence  to  honour  thee,  I  would  not  feeke 
For  names  -,  but  call  forth  thund'ring  JEfchilus, 

Euripides,  and  Sophocles  to  us, 
Paccuvius,  Accius,  him  of  Cordova  dead, 

To  life  againe,  to  heare  thy  Bufkin  tread, 
And  (hake  a  Stage :  Or,  when  thy  Sockes  were  on, 

Leave  thee  alone,  for  the  comparifon 
Of  all,  that  infolent  Greece,  or  haughtie  Rome 

fent  forth,  or  lince  did  from  their  afhes  come. 


1  Sic  in  original. 


3°9 


Tritimph,  my  Britaine,  thou  haft  one  to  fhowe, 

To  whom  all  Scenes  of  Europe  homage  owe. 
He  was  not  of  an  age,  but  for  all  time  ! 

And  all  the  Mufes  Hill  were  in  their  prime, 
When  like  Apollo  he  came  forth  to  warme 

Our  eares,  or  like  a  Mercury  to  charme ! 
Nature  her  felfe  was  proud  of  his  defignes, 

And  joy'd  to  weare  the  dreffing  of  his  lines ! 
Which  were  fo  richly  fpun,  and  woven  fo  fit, 

As,  lince,  me  will  vouchfafe  no  other  Wit. 
The  merry  Greeke,  tart  Ariftophanes, 

Neat  Terence,  witty  Plautus,  now  not  pleafe  j 
But  antiquated  and  deferted  lye 

As  they  were  not  of  Natures  family. 
Yet  muft  I  not  give  Nature  all :  Thy  Art, 

My  gentle  Shakefpeare,  muft  enjoy  a  part. 
For  though  the  Poets  matter,  Nature  be, 

His  Art  doth  give  the  fafhion.     And,  that  he, 
Who  cafts  to  write  a  living  line,  muft  fweat, 

(fuch  as  thine  are)  and  ftrike  the  fecond  heat 
Upon  the  Mufes  anvile  :  turne  the  fame, 

(And  himfelfe  with  it)  that  he  thinkes  to  frame  ; 
Or  for  the  lawrell,  he  may  gaine  a  fcorne, 

For  a  good  Poet's  made,  as  well  as  borne. 


310 


And  fuch  wert  thou.     Looke  how  the  fathers  face 

Lives  in  his  iflue,  even  fo,  the  race 
Of  Shakefpeares  minde  and  manners  brightly  mines 

In  his  well  torned,  and  true-filed  lines  : 
In  each  of  which,  he  feemes  to  {hake  a  Lance, 

As  brandifh't  at  the  eyes  of  Ignorance. 
Sweet  Swan  of  Avon  !  what  a  fight  it  were 

To  fee  thee  in  our  waters  yet  appeare, 
And  make  thofe  flights  upon  the  bankes  of  Thames, 

That  fo  did  take  Eliza,  and  our  James  ! 
But  flay,  I  fee  thee  in  the  Hemifphere 

Advanc'd,  and  made  a  Conftellation  there ! 
Shine  forth,  thou  Starre  of  Poets,  and  with  rage, 

Or  influence,  chide,  or  cheere  the  drooping  Stage ; 
Which,  fince  thy  flight  fro  hence,  hath  mourn'd  like  night, 

And  defpaires  day,  but  for  thy  Volumes  light. 

Ben  :  Jonfon. 

Prefaced  to  the  First  Folio  Edition  of  Shakespeare* s  Works. 


It  has  not,  hitherto,  been  observed,  that  Ben  Jonson's  forty  couplets  have 
a  regular  structure.  The  compiler  has  ventured  upon  an  innovation  to 
indicate  this.  S8SOSH3  Fortunately  the  three  marks  of  division,  to  which 
he  has  had  recourse,  fall  on  the  top  of  each  page,  so  that  they  serve 
indifferently  as  paginal  decorations,  or  as  the  headings  of  the  second,  third, 
and  fourth  divisions.  By  virtue  of  the  latter  function,  they  indicate  the 
following  constituent  parts  of  the  poem. 

(I.)  An  Introduction  )        .      .   .  . 

(4.)  A  Peroration        j  each  of  eight  couplets. 

(2.)  An  Address  to  Shakespeare  )        .     ri 

,    \    *      .,,        ^T,--  \  eacn  of  twelve  couplets. 

(3.)  An  Address  to  Britain 


311 

In  the  third,  however,  is  a  passing  deviation,  viz.  "  Thy  Art,  my  Shake- 
speare," &c.  A  few  obscurities  in  the  course  of  this  piece  may  be  noted. 
"  To  draw  no  envy"  &c.,  certainly  does  not  mean  what  the  editor  of 
Brome's  Five  New  Plays,  1659  (To  the  Reader,  p.  4),  imputes  to  it ;  as  if 
Ben  thought  to  lower  Shakespeare  by  extravagantly  praising  him.  He 
meant  to  say,  that  while  Ignorance,  Affection,  or  Malice,  by  excessive, 
indiscriminate  or  unjust  praise,  would  be  sure  to  provoke  the  detraction  of 
Envy, 

"these  ways 
Were  not  the  paths  I  meant  unto  thy  praise  j  " 

for  he  could  with  full  knowledge  and  strict  impartiality  award  him  the 
highest  praise  that  could  be  expressed.  One  is  reminded  (especially  by  the 
seventh  couplet)  of  what  Ben  wrote  in  Cynthia's  Revels,  where  Crites  is 
made  to  say, 

"  So  they  be  ill  men, 

If  they  spake  worse,  'twere  better  :  for  of  such 
To  be  dispraised,  is  the  most  perfect  praise."    (Act  III.  sc.  iii.) 

"  I  will  not  lodge  tkee,"  &c.,  refers  to  Basse's  lines,  and  means  that  he  will 
not  class  Shakespeare  with  Chaucer,  Spenser,  and  Beaumont,  because  he  is 
out  of  all  proportion  greater  than  they — men  "of  yeeres"  or  "for  an  age." 
Nor  will  he  praise  him  by  declaring  how  far  he  excelled  Lily,  Kid,  and 
Marlow.  Shakespeare,  indeed,  like  them  (yet  beyond  them)  was,  for  the 
age  in  which  he  flourished  ;  but  he  was  also  for  all  time,  and  not  0/~an  age. 
It  is  worth  remarking,  that  on  the  occasion  of  the  Tercentenary  Celebration, 
in  London,  when  "  blinde  Affection"  worshipped  the  gigantic  bust  of 
Shakespeare,  at  the  Agricultural  Hall,  "  seeliest  Ignorance  "  had  surmounted 
the  proscenium  with  the  abominable  travestie,  HE  WAS  NOT  FOR  AN  AGE, 
BUT  FOR  ALL  TIME ;  and  the  same  evil  genius  presided  over  Mr.  John 
Leighton's  "  Official  Seal  for  the  National  Shakespeare  Committee,"  when 
he  engraved  on  the  scroll  at  the  base  of  the  device  the  same  discreditable 
perversion,  NOT  FOR  AN  AGE,  BUT  FOR  ALL  TIME.  Mr.  Frederick  Brett 
Russell  is  to  be  congratulated  on  his  fidelity  and  sense  in  surrounding  his 
memorial  salver  with  the  actual  line  of  Jonson. 

"Leave  thee  alone  for  the  comparison"  &c.,  is  almost  repeated  verbatim  in 
Jonson's  Timber,  where  he  points  to  Bacon  as 

"  he  who  hath  fill'd  up  all  numbers,  and  perform'd  that  in  our  tongue, 
which  may  be  compar'd,  or  preferr'd,  either  to  insolent  Greets,  or  haughty 
Rome"  (Jonson's  Works,  fol.  1640,  p.  102.) 

It  is  indeed  as  applicable  to  Bacon's  prose  as  to  Shakespeare's  verse. 
Mr.  W.  H.  Smith  endeavours  to  make  capital  out  of  the  coincidence,  in 
his  Bacon  and  Shakespeare.  1857.  pp.  35-36. 

"For  though  thou  had'st"  &c.  Here  hadst  is  the  subjunctive.  The 
passage  may  be  thus  paraphrased  : 


3I2 

"  Even  if  thou  liadst  little  scholarship,  I  would  not  seek  to  honour  thee 
by  calling  thee,  as  others  have  done,  Ovid,  Plautus,  Terence,  &c.,  *.*.,  by 
the  names  of  the  classical  poets,  but  would  rather  invite  them  to  witness 
how  far  thou  dost  outshine  them." 

Ben  does  not  assert  that  Shakspeare  had  "little  Latine  and  less  Greek," 
as  several  understand  him,  though  doubtless,  compared  with  Ben's  finished 
scholarship,  Shakespeare's  was  small  :  but,  that  the  lack  of  that  accom- 
plishment could  only  redound  to  Shakespeare's  honour,  who  could  be 
Greek  or  Roman,  according  to  the  requirements  of  the  play  and  the 
situation. 

One  could  wish  that  Ben  had  said  all  this  in  Shakespeare's  lifetime  ;  and 
one  is  reminded  of  what  Horace  says  of  the  great  Poet  (Epist.  II,  i.  13-14). 

"  Urit  enim  fulgore  suo,  qui  praegravat  artes 
Infra  se  positas  :  extinctus  amabitur  idem. " 

In  the  verses  prefixed  to  Cartwright's  Works,  1651,  signed  W.  Towers, 
it  is  said, 

"  Thy  skill  in  Wit  was  not  so  poorely  meek 
As  theirs  whose  little  Latin  and  no  Greek 
Confin'd  their  whole  Discourse  to  a  Street  phrase, 
Such  Dialect  as  their  next  Neighbour's  was."     C.  M.  I. 

This  was  in  allusion  to  Jonson's  critique  on  Shakespeare. 


3*3 


JOHN  HEMINGE,      \ 
HENRY  CONDELL,  I  l 

Right  Honourable, 

Whillt  we  ftudie  to  be  thankful  in  our  particular,  for  the  many 
favors  we  have  received  from  your  L.  L.  we  are  falne  upon  the 
ill  fortune,  to  mingle  two  the  moft  diverfe  things  that  can  bee, 
feare,  and  ramneffe ;  ramnefle  in  the  enterprize,  and  feare  of  the 
fuccefle.  For,  when  we  valew  the  places  your  H.  H.  fuftaine, 
we  cannot  but  know  their  dignity  greater,  then  to  defcend  to  the 
reading  of  thefe  trifles :  and,  while  we  name  them  trifles,  we 
have  depriv'd  our  felves  of  the  defence  of  our  Dedication.  But 
fince  your  L.  L.  have  beene  pleaf'd  to  thinke  thefe  trifles  fome- 
thing,  heeretofore ;  and  have  profequuted  both  them,  and  their 
Authour  living,  with  fo  much  favour  :  we  hope,  that  (they  out- 
living him,  and  he  not  having  the  fate,  common  with  fome,  to 
be  exequutor  to  his  owne  writings)  you  will  ufe  the  like 
indulgence  toward  them,  you  have  done  unto  their  parent. 
There  is  a  great  difference,  whether  any  Booke  choofe  his 
Patrones,  or  finde  them  :  This  hath  done  both.  For,  fo  much 
were  your  L  L.  likings  of  the  feverall  parts,  when  they  were 
afted,  as  before  they  were  publifhed,  the  Volume  afk'd  to  be  yours. 
We  have  but  collected  them,  and  done  an  office  to  the  dead, 
to  procure  his  Orphanes,  Guardians ;  without  ambition  either  of 
felfe-profit,  or  fame  :  onely  to  keepe  the  memory  of  fo  worthy  a 
Friend,  &  Fellow  alive,  as  was  our  SHAKESPEARE,  by  humble 
offer  of  his  playes,  to  your  moft  noble  patronage.  Wherein,  as 
we  have  juftly  obferved,  no  man  to  come  neere  your  L.  L.  but  with 
a  kind  of  religious  addreffe ;  it  hath  bin  the  height  of  our  care, 
who  are  the  Prefenters,  to  make  the  prefent  worthy  of  your 
H.  H.  by  the  perfection.  But,  there  we  muft  alfo  crave  our 
abilities  to  be  confiderd,  my  Lords.  We  cannot  go  beyond  our 


314  JOHN    HEMINGE,    HENRY   CONDELL,    1623. 

owne  powers.  Country  hands  reach  foorth  milke,  creame,  fruites, 
or  what  they  have :  and  many  Nations  (we  have  heard)  that  had 
not  gummes  &  incenfe,  obtained  their  requefts  with  a  leavened 
Cake.  It  was  no  fault  to  approch  their  Gods,  by  what  meanes 
they  could :  And  the  moft,  though  meaneft,  of  things  are  made 
more  precious,  when  they  are  dedicated  to  Temples.  In  that 
name  therefore,  we  moft  humbly  confecrate  to  your  H.  H.  thefe 
remaines  of  your  fervant  Shakefpeare ;  that  what  delight  is  in 
them,  may  be  ever  your  L.  L.  the  reputation  his,  &  the  faults 
ours,  if  any  be  committed,  by  a  payre  fo  carefull  to  fhew  their 
gratitude  both  to  the  living,  and  the  dead,  as  is 

Your  Lord/nappes  moft  lounden, 
John  Heminge. 
Henry  Condell. 

Dedication  to  William,  Earl  of  Pembroke,  and  Philip,  Earl  of 
Montgomery.  (Prefixed  to  the  First  Folio  Edition  of  Shakespeare"  s 
Works,  1623.) 


The  first  part  of  the  peroration  of  this  address  is  so  good  as  to  evoke  the 
suspicion  that  it  is  not  original.  Malone  quotes  from  Morley's  Dedication 
of  a  Book  of  Songs  *  to  Sir  Robert  Cecil,  1595,  a  very  similar  passage. 
But  in  truth  the  beginning  of  the  peroration  is  literally  translated  from 
Pliny's  dedicatory  epistle  to  Vespasian,  prefixed  to  his  Natural  History  (\  1 1, 
ed.  Sillig),  which  runs  thus  : — 

"dis  lacte  rustici  multseque  gentes  supplicant,  et  mola  tan  turn  salsa  litant 
qui  non  habent  tura  ;  nee  ulli  fuit  vitio  deos  colere  quoquo  modo  posset." 

That  is, 

"country  people  and  many  nations  offer  milk  to  their  gods  ;  and  they  who 
have  not  incense  obtain  their  requests  with  only  meal  and  salt ;  nor  was  it 
imputed  to  any  as  a  fault  to  worship  the  gods  in  whatever  way  they  could." 

The  writer  of  the  address  of  1623  added  "  cream  and  fruits  "  in  one  place, 
and  "  gummes "  in  another  :  and  for  mola  salsa  appears  to  have,  not 
unskilfully,  caught  up  Horace's  "farre  pio  "  (Odes  III,  23,  11.  17-20).  He 
adds,  too,  very  gracefully,  that  "the  meanest  things  are  made  more  precious 
when  they  are  dedicated  to  temples."  If  he  employed  Philemon  Holland's 
translation  of  Pliny  (1635)  he  did  not  reproduce  its  words.  C.  M.  I. 

1  "  Cantvs.  Of  Thomas  Morley  the  first  booke  of  ballets  to  five  voyces  " 
is  the  real  title.  [L.T.S.] 


JOHN  HEMINGE,        \ 
HENRIE  CONDELL, )  l623< 


To  the  great  Variety  of  Readers. 

From  the  moft  able,  to  him  that  can  but  fpell :  There  you  are 
number'd.  We  had  rather  you  were  weighd.  Efpecially,  when 
the  fate  of  all  Bookes  depends  upon  your  capacities :  and  not  of 
your  heads  alone,  but  of  your  purfes.  Well !  It  is  now 
publique,  &  you  wil  ftand  for  your  priviledges  wee  know  :  to 
read,  and  cenfure.  Do  fo,  but  buy  it  firft.  That  doth  beft 
commend  a  Booke,  the  Stationer  faies.  Then,  how  odde  foever 
your  braines  be,  or  your  wifedomes,  make  your  licence  the  fame, 
and  fpare  not.  Judge  your  fixe-pen'orth,  your  (hillings  worth, 
your  five  Shillings  worth  at  a  time,  or  higher,  fo  you  rife  to  the 
juft  rates,  and  welcome.  But,  what  ever  you  do,  Buy.  Cenfure 
will  not  drive  a  Trade,  or  make  the  Jacke  go.  And  though  you 
be  a  Magiftrate  of  wit,  and  lit  on  the  Stage  at  Black-Friers,  or 
the  Cock-pit,  to  arraigne  Playes  dailie,  know,  thefe  Playes  have 
had  their  triall  alreadie,  and  flood  out  all  Appeales  ;  and  do  now 
come  forth  quitted  rather  by  a  Decree  of  Court,  then  any 
purchaf'd  Letters  of  commendation. 

It  had  bene  a  thing,  we  confefle,  worthie  to  have  bene  wifhed, 
that  the  Author  himfelfe  had  liv'd  to  have  fet  forth,  and  overfeen 
his  owne  writings  3  But  mice  it  hath  bin  ordain'd  otherwife, 
and  he  by  death  departed  from  that  right,  we  pray  you  do  not 
envie  his  Friends,  the  office  of  their  care,  and  paine,  to  have 
collected  &  publifh'd  them  5  and  fo  to  have  publim'd  them,  as 
where  (before)  you  were  abuf  d  with  diverfe  ftolne,  and  furrep- 
titious  copies,  maimed,  and  deformed  by  the  frauds  and  ftealthes 


316  JOHN   HEMINGE,    HENRIE   CONDELL,    1623. 

of  injurious  impoftors,  that  expofd  them :  even  thofe,  are  now 
offer'd  to  your  view  cur'd,  and  perfect  of  their  limbes  j  and  all 
the  reft,  abfolute  in  their  numbers,  as  he  conceived  the.  Who, 
as  he  was  a  happie  imitator  of  Nature,  was  a  moft  gentle 
exprefler  of  it.  His  mind  and  hand  went  together  :  And  what 
he  thought,  he  uttered  with  that  eafinefle,  that  wee  have  fcarfe 
received  from  him  a  blot  in  his  papers.  But  it  is  not  our  province, 
who  onely  gather  his  works,  and  give  them  you,  to  praiie  him. 
It  is  yours  that  reade  him.  And  there  we  hope,  to  your  divers 
capacities,  you  will  finde  enough,  both  to  draw,  and  hold  you : 
for  his  wit  can  no  more  lie  hid,  then  it  could  be  loft.  Reade 
him,  therefore  -,  and  againe,  and  againe :  And  if  then  you  doe 
not  like  him,  furely  you  are  in  fome  manifeft  danger,  not  to 
underftand  him.  And  fo  we  leave  you  to  other  of  his  Friends, 
whom  if  you  need,  can  bee  your  guides :  if  you  neede  them  not, 
you  can  leade  your  felves,  and  others.  And  fuch  Readers  we 

wifh  him. 

John  Heminge. 

Henrie  Condell. 
Address  prefixed  to  the  First  Folio  Edition  of  Shakespeare" s  Works. 


The  statement  of  these  editors  "that  what  he  [Shakespeare]  thought,  he 
uttered  with  that  easiness,  that  wee  have  scarce  received  from  him  a  blot 
\liturd\  in  his  papers,"  is  seemingly  confirmed  by  Ben  Jonson  (p.  348). 
[But  if  by  this  they  intended  to  convey  to  the  reader  the  notion  that  the  text 
of  the  folio  1623  was  printed  from  the  author's  own  manuscript,  they  must 
stand  convicted  of  a  suggestio  falsi  ;  for  five  at  least  of  the  plays  included  in 
that  volume  are  little  more  than  reprints  of  the  previous  quarto  editions, 
characterised  by  them  as  "surreptitious  copies,  "&c.;  others  of  these  quartos 
must  also  have  been  used  in  preparing  the  folio  for  press,  and  for  the 
remainder,  with  perhaps  a  few  exceptions,  the  corrupted  stage-copies  were 
probably  used.  See  Prefaces  and  Notes  of  Cambridge  Editors,  of  Dyce, 
Staunton,  and  others.  P.  A.  D.] 

[In  all  probability,  say  the  Cambridge  editors,  not  one  of  Shakespere's 
Works  was  corrected  by  himself,  "  nor,  with  few  exceptions,  vrere  they 
printed  from  the  author's  manuscript "( Works,  vol.  ix,  preface,  p.  xxi). 
L.  T.  S.] 


3'7 


HUGH  HOLLAND,  1623. 

Upon  the  Lines  and  Life  of  the  Famous  Scenicke  Poet, 
Master  WILLIAM  SHAKESPEARE. 

Thofe  hands,  which  you  fo  clapt,  go  now,  and  wring 
You  Britaines  brave  ;  for  done  are  Shakefpeares  dayes : 
His  dayes  are  done,  that  made  the  dainty  Playes, 
Which  make  the  Globe  of  heav'n  and  earth  to  ring. 
Dry'de  is  that  veine,  dry'd  is  the  Thefpian  Spring, 
Turn'd  all  to  teares,  and  Phoelus  clouds  his  rayes : 
That  corp's,  that  coffin  now  befticke  thole  bayes, 
Which  crown'd  him  Poet  firfl,  then  Poets  King. 
If  Tragedies  might  any  Prologue  have, 
All  thofe  he  made,  would  fcarfe  make  one  to  this  : 
Where  Fame,  now  that  he  gone  is  to  the  grave 
(Deaths  publique  tyring-houfe)  the  Nuncius  is. 

For  though  his  line  of  life  went  foone  about, 

The  life  yet  of  his  lines  fhall  never  out. 

Hugh  Holland. 

Prefixed  to  the  First  Folio  Edition  of  Shakespeare' s  Works. 


LEONARD  DIGGES,  1623. 

To  THE  MEMORIE 
of  the  deceafed  Authour  Maifler 

W.  SHAKESPEARE. 

Shake-fpeare,  at  length  thy  pious  fellowes  give 
The  world  thy  Workes  :  thy  Workes,  by  which,  out-live 
Thy  Tombe,  thy  name  muft  :  when  that  ftone  is  rent. 
And  Time  diflblves  thy  Stratford  Moniment, 
Here  we  alive  mail  view  thee  ftill.     This  Booke, 
When  Brafie  and  Marble  fade,  fhall  make  thee  looke 
Frefh  to  all  Ages  :  when  Pofteritie 
Shall  loath  what's  new,  thinke  all  is  prodegie 
That  is  not  Shake-fpeares ;  ev'ry  Line,  each  Verfe, 
Here  fhall  revive,  redeeme  thee  from  thy  Herfe. 
Nor  Fire,  nor  cankring  Age,  as  Nafo  faid, 
Of  his,  thy  wit-fraught  Booke  mall  once  invade. 
Nor  fhall  I  e're  beleeve,  or  thinke  thee  dead 
(Though  mift)  untill  our  bankrout  Stage  be  fped 
(Impoflible)  with  fome  new  ftrain  t'  out-do 
Paflions  of  Juliet,  and  her  Romeo  ; 
Or  till  I  heare  a  Scene  more  nobly  take, 
Then  when  thy  half-Sword  parlying  Romans  fpake, 
Till  thefe,  till  any  of  thy  Volumes  reft 
Shall  with  more  fire,  more  feeling  be  expreft, 
Be  fure,  our  Shake-fpeare,  thou  canft  never  dye, 
But  crown'd  with  Lawrell,  live  eternally. 

L.  Digges. 

Prefixed  to  the  First  Folio  Edition  of  'Shakespeare }s  Works. 


I.  M,   1623. 

To  the  memorie  of  M.  W.  Shake-fpeare. 

Wee  wondred  (Shake-fpeare)  that  thou  went'ft  fo  foone 
From  the  Worlds-Stage,  to  the  Graves-Tyring-roome. 
Wee  thought  thee  dead,  but  this  thy  printed  worth, 
Tels  thy  Spedators,  that  thou  went'ft  but  forth 
To  enter  with  applaufe.     An  A6tors  Art, 
Can  dye,  arid  live,  to  a&e  a  fecond  part. 
That's  but  an  Exit  of  Mortalitie  j 
This,  a  Re-entrance  to  a  Plaudite. 

Prefixed  to  the  First  Folio  Edition  of  'Shakespeare 's  Works. 


These  lines  have  been  attributed  to  John  Marston,  Jasper  Mayne,  and 
James  Mabbe.  Those  who  know  Marston  feel  assured  they  are  not  his. 
Mr.  Bolton  Corney,  who  first  preferred  a  claim  on  behalf  of  Mabbe,  sup- 
ported it  by  the  following  extract  from  Mabbe's  translation  of  Guzman  de 
Alfarache,  Part  I,  p.  175  ;  a  work  published  by  Edward  Blount,  1623,  and 
attributed  to  Mateo  Aleman.  (See  Notes  and  Queries :  2nd  S.,  XI,  4.) 

"  It  is  a  miserable  thing,  and  much  to  be  pittied,  that  such  an  Idoll  as  one 
of  these  [a  proud  courtier],  should  affect  particular  adoration ;  not  considering, 
that  he  is  but  a  man,  a  representant,  a  poore  kinde  of  Comedian  that  acts  his 
part  upon  the  Stage  of  this  World,  and  comes  forth  with  this  or  that  Office, 
thus  and  thus  attended,  or  at  least  resembling  such  a  person,  and  that  when 
the  play  is  done  (which  can  not  be  long)  he  must  presently  enter  into  the 
Tyring-house  of  the  grave,  and  be  turned  to  dust  and  ashes  as  one  of  the 
sonnes  of  the  Earth,  which  is  the  common  Mother  of  us  all."  C.  M.  I. 

[The  simile  of  the  "tyring  house  "  was  not  uncommon;  Holland  uses  it, 
before,  p.  317,  and  Davies  of  Hereford  (Scourge  of  Folly,  p.  229)  says  to 
Robert  Armin,  "When  th'  art  in  the  tyring  house  of  earth,"  and  repeats 
it  elsewhere. 

It  is  a  question  whether  such  ideas  and  phrases  as  those  printed  in  italics 
in  this  extract  from  Mabbe  were  not  the  common  property  of  the  age 
(they  differ  from  the  "play-scraps"  which  caught  the  popular  ear  and 
tongue).  Here  is  another  from  the  same  writer,  p.  13,  lecturing  women  for 


320  I.  M.,    1623, 

painting  their  faces  he  says,  ' '  O  affront,  above  all  other  affronts !  that 
God  having  given  thee  one  face,  thou  shouldst  abuse  his  image,  and  make 
thy  selfe  another,"  which  resembles  Hamlet's  objurgation  of  Ophelia  (Act 
III,  sc.  i),  "I  have  heard  of  your  paintings  too,  well  enough ;  God  has 
given  you  one  face,  and  you  make  yourselves  another  "  ;  both  evidently 
follow  the  biblical  arguments  of  the  "stricter  sort"  against  this  vice,  the 
strongest  expression  of  which  was  given  by  Philip  Stubbes  in  his  Anatomie 
of  Abuses,  1583.  Citing  St.  Ambrose  he  has,  "  For  what  a  dotage  is  it 
(saith  hee)  to  chaunge  thy  naturall  face  which  God  hath  made  thee  for  a 
painted  face,  which  thou  hast  made  thyself"  (see  Reprint  for  the  New  Sh. 
Soc.,  1877,  pp.  64—66). 

Compare  also  the  extracts  from  Law's  Day  Tricks,  before,  p.  190,  and 
pp.  121,  122. 

The  last  line  alludes  to  the  ancient  practice  of  approbation  given  at  the 
close  of  a  performance  or  new  play.  See  Ben  Jonson,  before,  p.  31,  and 
in  the  Histrio-mastix,  a  play  of  1610,  we  have  "wher's  the  Epilogue  must 
beg  the  plaudite  ?  "  (sigr;.  C  I,  back).  When  Jonson's  play  The  Silent 
Woman  was  first  acted,  verses  were  afterwards  found  on  the  stage  concluding 
that  it  was  well  named  the  Silent  woman,  because  there  was  "never  one 
man  to  say  plaudite  to  it."  Drummond's  Works,  1711,  p.  226.  L.  T.  S.] 


32* 


SIR  HENRY  HERBERT,   1623—1636. 

To  the  Duchefs  of  Richmond,  in  the  kings  abfence,  was  given 
The  Winter  s  Tale,  by  the  K.  company,  the  18  Janu.  1623.  Att. 
Whitehall. 

Upon  New-years  night,  the  prince  only  being  there,  The  Fir  (I 
Part  of  Sir  John  Falftaff,  by  the  king's  company.  Att  Whitehall, 
1624  [Page  228] 

For  the  king's  players.  An  olde  playe  called  Winter  s  Tale, 
formerly  allowed  of  by  Sir  George  Bucke,  and  likewyfe  by  mee 
on  Mr.  Hemmings  his  worde  that  there  was  nothing  profane 
added  or  reformed,  thogh  the  allowed  booke  was  miffingej  and 
therefore  I  returned  it  without  a  fee,  this  19  of  Auguft,  1623. 

[Received]  from  Mr.  Hemmings,  in  their  company's  name, 
to  forbid  the  playing  of  Shakefpeare's  plays,  to  the  Red  Bull 
Company,  this  u  of  April  1627,  ^5.  o.  o.  [Page  229] 

On  Saterday  the  ifh  of  Novemb.  [miftake  for  i6th]  being  the 
Queen's  birthday,  Richards  the  Thirde  was  acted  by  the  K. 
players  at  St.  James,  wher  the  king  and  queene  were  prefent,  it 
being  the  firft  play  the  queene  fawe  fince  her  M.tys  delivery  of 
the  Duke  of  York.  1633. 

On  tufday  night  at  Saint  James,  the  26  of  Novemb.  1633, 
was  acted  before  the  King  and  Queene,  The  Taminge  of  the 
Shrew.  Likt. 

On  Wenfday  night  the  firft  of  January,  1633,  Cymleline  was 
acted  at  Court  by  the  Kings  players.  Well  likte  by  the  Kinge. 

[pages  233,  234] 

The  Winter  s  Tale  was  acted  on  thurfday  night  at  Court,  the 
1 6  Janua.  1633,  by  the  K.  players,  and  likt  [page  236] 

Julius  Caesar,  at  St.  James,  the  31  Janu.  1636     [page  239] 

Sir  Henry  Herbert  s  Office  Book,  manuscript  quoted  in  Ma/one's 
Historical  Account  of  the  English  Stage,    Variorum    vol.  Hi, 
pages  as  given  above. 
SH.  ALLN.  BK.  —I.  y 


322  SIR    HENRY    HERBERT,     1623 1636. 

["  The  office-book  of  Sir  Henry  Herbert  contains  an  account  of  almost 
every  piece  exhibited  at  any  of  the  theatres  from  August  1623,  to  the  com- 
mencement of  the  rebellion  in  1641  "  (Malone,  III,  p.  59),  but  it  "  does  not 
furnish  us  with  a  regular  account  of  the  plays  exhibited  at  court  every  year  " 
(p.  228).  The  above  are  all  the  entries  which  relate  to  Shakespere's  plays 
from  this  manuscript  as  quoted  by  Malone  (see  note,  after,  p.  323)  ;  but  Sir 
Henry  Herbert  left  several  other  papers,  from  which  Malone  gives  us  the 
following  notices  of  Shakespere's  plays.  Out  of  twenty  "stock-plays"  of 
the  Red  Bull  actors  (afterwards  called  the  King's  servants),  from  1660  to 
1663,  three  were  Shakespere's,  viz.  Henry  the  Fourthe,  Merry  Wives  oj 
Windsor,  and  Othello.  Out  of  a  list  of  sixty-seven  plays  entered  by  Sir  H. 
Herbert  from  5  Nov.  1660  to  July  23,  1662,  only  three  were  Shakespere's, 
viz.  8  Nov.  1660,  Jfenry  the  Fourth  ;  g  Nov.,  The  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor  ; 
8  Dec.,  77ie  Moore  of  Venise.  In  another  of  his  lists  dated  Nov.  3,  1663, 
we  have  Henry  the  $th,  Taming  the  Shreiv,  Macbeth,  and  K.  Henry  8,  the 
last  three  marked  as  "revived"  plays.  Downes  the  prompter's  list  of  the 
stock-plays  of  the  king's  servants,  from  the  Restoration  to  1682,  gives  only 
Henry  IV,  Part  I,  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor,  Othello,  and  Julius  Ccesar,  of 
Shakespere's.  All  these  particulars  seem  to  belong  to  the  company  of  Red 
Bull  actors,  afterwards  called  the  king's  servants  (Malone,  III,  pp.  272 — 
276).  Sir  Wm.  Davenant's  company  acted  between  about  1660  and  1671, 
Pericles,  King  Lear,  Hamlet,  King  Henry  VIII,  Romeo  and  Juliet,  Twelfth 
Night,  and  as  altered  by  Davenant,  Macbeth  and  The  Tempest  (ib.  p.  277)  : 
after  1671,  they  acted  King  Lear,  as  altered  by  Davenant  and  Shad  well, 
Timon  of  Athens,  Macbeth,  and  The  Tempest.  The  "  United  companies  " 
acted  between  1682  and  1695,  in  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields,  Othello,  Midsummer 
Night's  Dream,  and  The  Taming  of  the  Shrew — the  two  last  being  altered. 
"  Dryden's  Troilus  and  Cressida,  however,  the  two  parts  of  King  Henry  IV, 
Twelfth  Night,  Macbeth,  King  Henry  VIII,  Julius  Casar,  and  Hamlet,  were 
without  doubt  sometimes  represented  in  the  same  period  :  and  Tate  and 
Durfey  furnished  the  scene  with  miserable  alterations  of  Coriolanus,  King 
Richard  II,  King  Lear,  and  Cymbeline.  Otway's  Caius  Marius,  which  was 
produced  in  1680,  usurped  the  place  of  our  poet's  Romeo  and  Juliet  for 
near  seventy  years.  *  *  *  Dryden's  All  for  Love,  from  1678  to  1759, 
was  performed  instead  of  our  author's  Antony  and  Cleopatra;  and  Davenant's 
alteration  of  Macbeth  in  like  manner  was  preferred  to  our  author's  tragedy, 
from  its  first  exhibition  in  1663,  for  near  eighty  years"  (ib.  pp.  287-291). 

We  thus  get  official  notices  of  fifteen  of  Shakespere's  plays,  that  were 
acted  or  accustomed  to  be  acted  between  1623  and  1663,  by  the  king's 
players  and  the  Red  Bull  actors.  The  notes  for  the  next  thirty  years  show 
us  ten  of  Shakespere's  own  (of  which  five  were  other  than  the  previous 
fifteen),  and  ten  of  Shakespere's  plays  altered  by  various  writers,  which  were 
performed  before  the  end  of  our  century  1692).  L.  T.  S.] 


323 


SIR  HENRY  HERBERT,   1629-31. 

1629.  The  benefit*  of  the  winters  day  from  the  kinges  company 
being  brought  mee  by  Blagrave,  upon  the  play  of  The 
Moor  of  Venife,  comes,  this  22  of  Nov.  1629,  unto — gt. 
i6s.  od. 

1631.  Received  of  Mr.  Benfielde,  in  the  name  of  the  kings 
company,  for  a  gratuity  for  ther  liberty  gaind  unto  them 
of  playinge,  upon  the  ceflation  of  the  plague,  this  10  of 
June,  1631 — 3/.  Jos.  od. — This  was  taken  upon  Pericles 
at  the  Globe. 

1631.  Received  of  Mr.  Shanke,  in'  the  name  of  the  kings 
company,  for  the  benefitt  of  their  fummer  day,  upon  ye 
fecond  daye  of  Richard  ye  Seconde,  at  the  Globe,  this  1 2 
of  June,  1631 — <J/.  6s.  6d. 

MS.  of  Sir  Henry  Herbert,  printed  by  Malone  is  his  Historical 
Account  of  the  English  Stage,  1821.      Variorum,  Hi.  177. 


[Sir  Henry  Herbert  was  Master  of  the  Revels  to  James  I,  Charles  I,  and 
Charles  II.  From  his  Office  Book,  now  lost,  Malone  printed  many 
interesting  details,  from  which  I  gather  those  which  refer  to  the  acting  of 
Shakespere's  plays  during  the  period  over  which  its  entries  extend,  from 
1623  to  1642.  Under  date  1628,  Herbert  notes  that  the  king's  company 
"  have  given  mee  the  benefitt  of  too  dayes  in  the  yeare,  the  one  in  summer, 
thother  in  winter,  to  bee  taken  out  of  the  second  daye  of  a  revived  playe, 
att  my  owne  choyse."  (Malone,  iii.  p.  176.)  Three  of  these  benefits,  as  seen 
above,  were  taken  on  plays  of  Shakespere.  See  before,  pp.  321,  322. 
L.  T.  S.] 


324 


ROBERT  BURTON,  1624. 

When  Venus  ranne  to  meet  her  rofe-cheeked  Adonis,  as    an 
elegant  *  Poet  of  ours  fets  her  out,  "  shakesPeare- 

the  lushes  in  the  way 

Some  catch  her  necke,fome  kifle  her  face, 
Some  twine  about  her  legs  to  make  her  flay, 
And  all  did  covet  her  for  to  embrace. 

Part  3.     Sec.  2.     Memb.  2.     Subs.  2. 

****** 
And  many  times  thofe  which  at  the  firft  light  cannot  fancy  or 
affe6t  each  other,  but  are  harm  and  ready  to  difagree,  offended 
with  each  others  carriage,  [like  Benedict  and  Better  is  in  the 
*  Comedy]  &  in  whom  they  finde  many  faults,  by  *  shakesPeare- 
this  living  together  in  a  houfe,  conference,  kiffing,  colling,  & 
fuch  like  allurements,  begin  at  laft  to  dote  infenfibJy  one  upon 
another. 

Part  3.     Sec.  2.     Memb.  2.     Subs.  4.     The  words  in  [  ] 
appear  for  the  first  time  in  the  ^rd  Edition,  1628.  \Fo.  ] 


Who  ever  heard  a  ftory  of  more  woe, 
Then  that  of  Juliet  and  her  Romeo  ? 

Part  3.    Sec.  2.    Memb.  4. 

The  Anatomy  of  Melancholy.  2nd  Edition.  1624.  [Fo.] 
pp.  371  (misprinted  372),  380,  427.  Edition  1676.  [Fo.~\ 
pp.  284,  298,  dr>  332,  the  "Members"  differ  in  this 
edition. 


ROBERT  BURTON,  1624.  325 

For  the  lines  quoted  in  the  first  extract  Burton  trusted  to  his  memory,  for 
in  his  own  copy  in  the  Bodleian  Library,  [8°.  M.  9.  Art.  BS.,~\  they  run  thus  : 

"the  bushes  in  the  way, 
Some  catch  her  neck,  some  kisse  her  face, 
Some  twine  about  her  thigh  to  make  her  stay  : 
She  wildly  breaketh  from  their  strict  embrace." 

Venus  and  Adonis,  1602.    8vo.    st.  146.     (Sign.  C  v.) 

The  second  line,  which  is  exactly  as  Burton  quotes  it,  has  lost  the  words 
"  by  the."  In  the  British  Museum  copy  of  the  same  edition,  that  line  runs 
thus  : 

"  Some  catch  her  by  the  neck,  some  kisse  her  face."    (Sign.  C  v.) 

The  omission  was  probably  detected  after  a  few  copies  had  been  pulled, 
and  corrected  before  the  edition  was  worked  off.  The  Edinburgh  edition 
1627  was  evidently  printed  from  one  of  the  uncorrected  copies  of  the  edition 
of  1602,  for  it  reads 

"  Some  catch  her  neck,  and  some  doe  kisse  her  face  "  (p.  36), 

eking  out  the  line  by  the  addition  of  "and"  and  "doe." 

In  the  second  extract,  the  parenthesis,  "like  Benedict  and  Betteris  in  the 
comedie,"  was  added  in  the  third  edition  of  Burton's  book,  issued  in  1628. 
We  get  Benedicte  and  Betteris  for  Much  ado  about  nothing,  ante,  p.  242. 
"  Betteris  "  is  phonetic  spelling :  Beatrice  was  doubtless  vulgarly  so  pro- 
nounced. The  Duchess  of  Newcastle,  in  one  of  her  Sociable  Letters,  printed 
in  our  second  volume,  spells  the  name  Bettrice ;  so  also  in  Eastward  Hoe, 
before,  p.  150.  D'avenant,  too,  in  The  Man's  the  Master,  has  the  name 
Bettris.  Leonard  Digges,  however  (under  date  1640),  gives  her  three 
syllables. 

The  third  extract  quotes  the  concluding  couplet  of  Romeo  and  Juliet. 
They  run  thus  in  the  old  folio  : 

"  For  never  was  a  story  of  more  woe 
Than  this  of  Juliet  and  her  Romeo." 

The  old  editions  of  The  Anatomy  of  Melancholy  bear  the  dates,  1621, 
1624,  1628,  1632,  1638,  1651-2,  1660  and  1676.  The  British  Museum  has 
copies  of  all  of  them.  That  of  1651-2  was  the  first  published  after  Burton's 
death  (January,  1639).  The  first  edition  (1621)  only  contains  the  second 
of  the  passages  quoted,  without  the  words  in  [  ].  C.  M.  I. 


326 


E.  S.  (B.  of  D.)  1624 

Thefe  ambi-dexter  Gibionites,  are  like  the  Sea-calfes,  Croco- 
diles, Otters  &  Sea-colt,  Aristotle  &  Plinie  fpeake  of,  which  are 
one  while  in  the  water,  other-while  a  land  for  their  greater 
booties  :  juftly  tearmed  Dulia  by  Ifodore,  in  that  being  Natatilia- 
&  Grassalilia,  men  know  not  where  to  find  them  :  for  they 
are  like  Hamlets  ghost,  hie  &  ulique,  here  and  there,  and  every 
where,  for  their  owne  occafion. 

Anthropophagus  :  the  Man- Eater.    London.     1624.    /.  14. 


[The  author  is  here  speaking  of  time-servers  and  flatterers ;  the  probability 
that  he  had  himself  seen  the  play  gives  the  allusion  additional  interest.  Mr. 
Elliot  Browne  conjectures  from  this  that  the  stage  business  of  the  ghost 
' '  was  as  prominent  a  feature  of  the  early  representation  as  it  has  been  in 
later  times"  (Athenaeum,  Nov.  13,  1875).  L-  T-  S-J 


327 


JOHN  GEE,  1624. 

The  Jefuites  being  or  having  A6lors  of  luch  dexteritte,  I  fee 
no  reafon  but  that  they  fhould  fet  up  a  company  for  themfelves, 
which  surely  will  put  down  The  Fortune,  Red-lull,  Cock-pity 
.&  Globe.  Onely  three  exceptions  fome  make  againft  them 
*  *  *  *  The  tnjrci  abatement  of  the  honor  and  continuance 
of  this  Scenicall  company  is,  that  they  make  their  fpeftators  pay 
to  dear e  for  their  Income.  Reprefentations  and  Apparitions  from 
the  dead  might  be  feene  farre  cheaper  at  other  Play-houfes.  As 
for  example,  the  Ghoft  in  Hamllet,  Don  Andreas  Ghojl  in 
Hieronimo.  As  for  flames  of  light,  we  might  fee  very  cheape  in 
the  Comedie  of  Piramus  and  Thifbe,  where  one  comes  in  with 
a  Lanthorne  and  Ads  MooneJJiine. 

New  Shreds  of  the  old  Snare.     Containing  The  Apparitions  offri'o 
new  female  Ghosts,  &>c.    1624.    pp.  17,  20. 


As  to  the  ghost  in  Jeronymo,  see  after,  Randolph,  1651.     C.  M.  I. 


323 


JOHN  FLETCHER  (died  1625). 

It  was  not  poyfon,  but  a  fleeping  potion 

Which  she  received,  yet  of  fufficient  ftrength 

So  to  bind  up  her  fences,  that  no  figne 

Of  life  appeard  in  her,  and  thus  thought  dead 

In  her  beft  habit,  as  the  cuftome  is 

You  know  in  Malta,  with  all  ceremonies 

She's  buried  in  her  families  monument, 

In  the  Temple  of  St.  John ;  i'le  bring  you  thither, 

Thus,  as  you  are  difguifd  ;  fome  fix  howers  hence 

The  potion  will  leave  working. 

The  Knight  of  Malta,  Act  IV.  sc.  i  ;     Beaumont 
and  Fletcher's  Works,  1647. 


[The  Knight  of  Malta  is  by  Fletcher  only,  according  to  Dyce  ;  by  Fletcher 
and  Middleton,  according  to  Fleay,  who  says  it  was  written  before  1619. 
The   above  passage  is  certainly  in  imitation  of  Friar  Lawrence'  speech, 
Act  IV.  sc.  i.  of  Romeo  and  Juliet.     P.  A.  Paniel.~J 
[See  ante,  p.  198.} 


329 


*JOHN  FLETCHER  (and  another)   (died  1625). 

"  the  f aire  dames, 

Beauties,  that  lights  the  Court,  and  makes  it  Ihew 
Like  a  faire  heaven,  in  a  frofty  night : 
And  mongft  thefe  mine,  not  pooreft, ' 

The  Noble  Gentleman.     Act  I.  sc.  i.     Beaumont 
and  Fletcher's  Works.     Fol.      1647. 


[The  date  of  this  play  is  uncertain,  as  well  as  the  name  of  the  second  writer 
who  had  a  hand  in  it.  The  lines  given  above  seem  to  be  in  imitation  of  the 
following  from  Romeo  and  Juliet,  Act  I.  sc.  ii. — 

"  At  my  poor  house,  look  to  behold  this  night 
Earth  treading  stars,  that  make  dark  heaven  light : 


Such  amongst  view  of  many,  mine  being  one,"  etc. 

P.  A.  Daniel.'] 

[See  also  ante,  p.  202.] 


33° 


RICHARD  JAMES,  1625.     circa. 

To  my  nolle  friend  S*  Henry  Bourchier. 

Sir  Harrie  Bourchier,  you  are  defcended  of  Noble  Aunceftrie, 
and  in  ye  dutie  of  a  good  man  loue  to  heare  and  lee  fair  repu- 
tation prelerved  from  ilander  and  oblivion.  Wherefore  to  you 
I  dedicate  this  edition  of  Ocleve,  where  Sr  lohn  Oldcaftel 
apeeres  to  have  binne  a  man  of  valour  and  vertue,  and  only  loft 
in  his  own  times  becaufe  he  would  not  bowe  under  the  foule 
fuperftition  of  Papiftrie  *  * 

A  young  Gentle  Lady  of  your  acquaintance,  having  read  ye 
works  of  Shakefpeare,  made  me  this  queftion.  How  Sr  John 
Falftaffe,  or  Faftolf,  as  he  is  written  inye  Statute  book  of  Maudlin 
Colledge  in  Oxford,  where  everye  day  that  fociety  were  bound 
to  make  memorie  of  his  foul,  could  be  dead  in  ye  time  of  Harrie 
ye  Fift  and  again  live  in  ye  time  of  Harrie  ye  Sixt  to  be  baniQied 
for  cowardice  :  Whereto  I  made  anfwear  that  it  was  one  of 
thofe  humours  and  miftakes  for  which  Plato  banifht  all  poets  out 
of  his  commonwealth.  That  Sr  John  Falftaffe  was  in  thofe  times 
a  noble  valiant  fouldier,  as  apeeres  by  a  book  in  ye  Heralds 
Office  dedicated  unto  him  by  a  Herald  who  had  binne  with  him, 
if  I  well  remember,  for  the  fpace  of  25  yeeres  in  ye  French 
wars  -3  that  he  feems  alfo  to  have  binne  a  man  of  learning, 
becaufe,  in  a  Library  of  Oxford,  I  find  a  book  of  dedicating 
Churches  fent  from  him  for  a  prefent  unto  Bifhop  Wainflete,  and 
infcribed  with  his  own  hand.  That  in  Shakefpeares  rirft  mew 
of  Harrie  the  fift,1  the  perfon  with  which  he  undertook  to  playe 


1  [The  ist  Part  of  Henry  IV  is  here  meant.     The  words  "  Harrie  the 
fift  "  are  the  same  in  both  MSS.     L.  T.  S.] 


RICHARD    JAMES,     1625.      circa.  33! 

a  buffone  was  not  Falftaffe,  but  Sir  Jhon  Oldcaftle,  and  that 
offence  beinge  worthily  taken  by  Perfonages  defcended  from  his 
title  (as  peradventure  by  many  others  allfo  whoe  ought 1  to  have 
him  in  honourable  memorie,  the  poet  was  l  putt  to  make  an 
ignorant  fhifte  of  abufing  Sir  Jhon  Falftophe,  a  man  not  inferior 
of  Vertue,  though  not  fo  famous  in  pietie  as  the  other,  who 
gave  witnefle  unto  the  truth  of  our  reformation  with  a  conftant 
and  refolute  Martyrdom,  unto  which  he  was  purfued  by  the 
Priefts,  Biihops,  Moncks,  and  Friers  of  thofe  days. 

Dedication  to  Sir  Henrye  Botirchier,  prefixed  to  The  Legend  and 
Defence  of  the  Noble  Knight  and  Martyr  Sir  Jhon  Oldcastle 
James  MS.  34,  Bodleian  Library,  Oxford.  Printed  by  Mr. 
J.  O.  Halliwell  Phillipps  in  his  work,  entitled,  On  the  Character 
of  Sir  John  Falstaff,  as  originally  exhibited  by  Shakespeare  in 
the  two  parts  of  King  Henry  IV.  1841.  [izmo.]  pp.  19,  20. 


A  line  omitted  in  Grenville  MS.,  to  have— was. 


Compare  this  extract  with  the  following  : 

"  One  wortf  more,  I  beseech  you  ;  if  you  be  not  too  much  cloid  with  Fat 
Meate,  our  humble  Author  will  continue  the  Story  (with  Sir  John  in  it)  and 
make  you  merry,  with  faire  Katherine  of  France:  where  (for  any  thing  I 
know)  Falstaffe  shall  dye  of  a  sweat,  unlesse  already  he  be  kill'd  with  your 
hard  Opinions :  For  Old-Castle  dyed  a  Martyr,  and  this  is  not  the  man." 

Epilogue  to  2  Henry  IV. 

[John  Weever,  in  the  dedication  of  his  Mirror  of  Martyrs,  1601,  speaking 
of  his  poem,  says  that  it  "  some  two  yeares  agoe  was  made  fit  for  the  Print ; 
that  so  long  keeping  the  corner  of  my  studie,  wherein  I  vse  to  put  waste 
paper :  This  first  trew  Oldcastle  thought  himselfe  iniurde,  because  he  might 
not  bee  suffered  to  sustaine  the  second  Martyrdome  of  the  Presse."  Mr. 
Collier  sees  in  this  an  allusion  to  "the  second  false  Oldcastle,"  of 
Shakespeare's  creation.  Bibliographical  Account,  vol  ii.  p.  498.  (See 
note  as  to  Oldcastle  and  Falstaff,  after,  George  Daniel,  1647.) 

Occleve's  Legend  <Sr»  Defence  of  Sir  John  Oldcastle  appears  never  to  have 
been  printed,  a  fate  which  Richard  James'  edition  of  the  poem  also  shared, 
though  he  added  many  notes  to  its  73  stanzas.  The  British  Museum 
Grenville  MS.  XXXV,  is  another  copy,  the  dedication  in  it  differing 
slightly  in  spelling  from  the  Bodleian  MS.  L.  T.  S.] 


332 


BEN  JONSON,  1625. 

Prologue.  Wee  afke  no  favour  from  you  j  onely  wee  would 
entreate  of  Madame  Expe6tation 

Expett.     What,  Mr  Prologue  ? 

Pro.  That  your  Ladi-fhip  would  expe6t  no  more  then  you 
underftand. 

Expe£i.     Sir,  I  can  expe6t  enough. 

Pro.     I  feare,  too  much,  Lady,  and  teach  others  to  do  the  like 

Evpefil.     I  can  doe  that  too,  if  I  have  caufe. 

Pro.  Cry  you  mercy,  you  never  did  wrong,  but  with  jujl 
caufe. 

The  Staple  of  News.     Printed  1631.     Induction.     [In  folio  edition 
of  Jonson's  Works,  Vol.  77,  with  title-page,  dated  1640.] 


["This  is  meant  as  a  satire  on  a  line  in  Shakespeare's  Julius  Casar, 
though  it  nowhere  occurs  as  it  is  here  represented."  Whalley's  edition  of 
Ben  Jonson's  Works,  1756,  vol.  iv.  p.  128.  See  also  Gifford's  edition  of 
Jonson's  Works,  1816,  vol.  v.  p.  162,  note ;  see  also  note,  after,  p.  349. 
L.  T.  S.] 


333 


*BEN   JONSON.  1626. 

Enter  SKOGAN,  and  SKELTON  in  like  habits,  as  they  livd. 

1626.       Ben   Jonson.       The    Fortunate    hies.      Masques 
Works,  Vol.  ii.  p.  136,  ed.  1640. 


From  '  in  his  habit  as  he  liv'd.' — Hamlet,  III.  iv.  135. 

F,  J.  F. 


334 


MICHAEL  DRAYTON,  1627. 

Shakefpeare  thou  hadft  as  fmooth  a  Comicke  vaine, 
Fitting  the  focke,  and  in  thy  natural  braine, 
As  ftrong  conception,  and  as  Cleere  a  rage, 
As  any  one  that  trafiqu'd  with  the  ftage. 

"  To  my  most  deardy -loved  friend  HENERY  REVNOLDS,  Esquire, 
of  Poets. and  Poesie."  Elegies,  at  the  end  of  the  Battaile  of 
Agincourt  [and  other  poems~\.  1627.  p.  206. 


Professor  David  Masson  in  his  admirable  Life  of  Sir  William  Drummond, 
1873  (P-  r  Z3)»  appears  to  refer  this  epistle  to  the  date  1619-1620.  Langbaine 
and  others  refer  to  it  as  "a  Censure  of  the  Poets,"  but  the  above  is  the 
correct  title.  There  is  a  copy  of  the  Edition  of  Dray  ton's  "  Poems  collected 
into  one  volume,"  with  title  bearing  date  1620,  in  the  Grenville  Library, 
and  a  copy  of  the  same  Edition,  with  titles  bearing  date  1619,  in  the  British 
Museum  Library  :  but  the  Epistle  "  on  Poets  and  Poesie  "  is  not  in  either. 
We  believe  it  was  first  printed  in  this  collection  of  1627,  which  contains  an 
entirely  different  set  of  poems  to  that  of  1620.  C.  M.  I. 


335 


*JOHN  MILTON,  1627. 

Seu  puer  infelix  indelibata  reliquit 

Gaudia,  &  abrupto  flendus  amore  cadit, 
Seu  ferus  e  tenebris  iterat  Styga  criminis  ultor, 

Confcia  funereo  pe&ora  torre  movens. 

Elegia  prima  ad  Carolum  Diodatum. 
Elegiarum  Liber  primus.  Poems  of 
Mr.  John  Milton,  both  English  and 
Latin,  compos  d  at  several  times. 
1645.  p.  13  of  second  paging. 


[Warton,  in  his  edition  of  Milton's  Poems,  1791,  p.  425,  points  out  that 
Milton,  describing  tragedy  on  the  stage,  perhaps  intends  Romeo  in  the  first 
couplet  here  given ;  and  either  Hamlet  or  Richard  the  Third  in  the  second. 
Warton,  however,  confesses  that  the  allusions  are  loose  and  do  not  exactly 
correspond.  Dr.  Ingleby  sends  the  passage  for  insertion.  Cowper  thus 
renders  these  lines  : — 

"  As  when  from  bliss  untasted  torn  away, 
Some  youth  dies,  hapless,  on  his  bridal  day, 
Or  when  the  ghost,  sent  back  from  shades  below, 
Fills  the  assassin's  heart  with  vengeful  woe." 

Latin  and  Italian  Poems  of  Milton,  translated 
into  English  Verse,  4*0.    1808.   p.  n. 

L.  T.  S.] 


336 


The  Pr 
ince  of 
Walks 
his  spec 

ch. 

165 
[I.  ii.  199 

—221.] 

[i  Hen.  7F.] 


Aprill 
14 


Anno 
Domin 
1628 


162$. 

I  Know  you  all,  and  will l  a  while 
vphold,  the  vnyokt  humor  of  youre 
idlenefle  yet  herein  will  I  immitate  the 
funne  who  doth  permit  the  bafe  contagio- 
us clouds,  to  fm other  vp  his  beauty  from 
the  world  that  when  hee  pleafe  againe  to 
be  him  felfe,  being  wanted  -,  he  may  be 
more  wondered  at ;  2  of  vapours  that  did 
feeme  to  jftrangle  him,  If  all  the  yeare 
were  playing  holy  dayes,  to  fport  would 
be  as  tedious  as  to  worke,  But  when  thay 
feldum  cum,  that  wifht  fro  3  cum  and  no- 
thing pleafeth  but  rare  accidents,  fo  when 
this  loofe  be  hauiour  I  throw  off,  and 
pay  the  debt  I  neuer  promifed  by  how 
much  better  than  my  word  I  am,  by  fo 
much  mail  I  fal[f]ifie  mens  hopes,  and  like 
bright  mettell  one  a  fullen  ground,  My  re- 
fromation4  glittering  ouer  my  fault,  mall 
mow  more  goodly,  and  attract  more  eyes, 
than5  that  wich  hath  no  6foile  to  fet  it  forth 
lie  fo  offend  to  make  offence  a  {kill,  redemi- 
ng  time,  when  men  think  leaft  I  will, 


Egerton  MS.  2446,  British  Museum,  leaf  13.     [This  leaf  only  from  Shak- 
spere.     Catalog  of  Addit.  MSS.,  1882,  p.  295.]— F.  J.  F. 

1  *  I '  here,  crost  out. 

2  The  copier  has  left  a  line  out  here  : 

'  By  breaking  through  the  foule  and  vgly  mists.' 

3  they  wisht  for.  4  reformation.  6  ?  MS.  when. 

6  Qi  reads  '  soile ',  Fi  '  soyle  '.     I  think  the  MS.  writer  meant  '  foile  '. 


337 


ROBERT  GELL,  9  August,  1628. 

On  teufday  his  Grace  was  prefent  at  yc  a6ting  of1  K.  Hen.  8 
at  ye  Globe,  a  play  befpoken  of  purpofe  by  himfelf ;  whereat  he 
ftayd  till  ye  Duke  of  Buckingham  was  beheaded,  &  then  departed. 
Some  fay,  he  fliould  rather  have  feen  ye  fall  of  Cardinall  Woolfey, 
who  was  a  more  lively  type  of  himfelf,  having  governed  this 
kingdom  18  yeares,  as  he  hath  done  14. 

Letter  from  Robert  Cell  to  Sir  Martyn  Stutevillc,  Harl. 
MS.  383,  fo.  65.  Printed  in  the  Shakespere  Society's 
Papers,  1845,  v^-  «'•/•  I5I- 

1  "of"  repeated  twice  in  MS. 


["His  Grace"  who  bespoke  the  performance  of  Henry  VIII.  was  the 
Duke  of  Buckingham,  "  Baby  Charles' "  "  Steenie."  The  "  fall  of  Cardinall 
Woolsey  "  is  perhaps  Chettle's  play  of  Cardinal  Wolsey  mentioned  in 
Henslowe's  Diary  (Shakespere  Society,  ed.  1845,  pp.  189,  194).  Dr. 
Furnivall,  however,  thinks  that  Gell  did  not  mean  that  Buckingham  might 
have  appropriately  seen  another  play,  but  that  he  might  have  staid  to  see 
the  end  of  Henry  VIII,  and  the  fall  of  Wolsey  in  it.  L.  T.  S.] 


SH.  ALLN.  BK. — I. 


338 


A  Newsletter t  1628. 

Part  of  the  passage  quoted  on  the  previous  page,  from  Robert  Cell's 
letter  of  Aug.  9,  1628,  occurs,  says  Mr.  George  Bullen,  Keeper  of  Printed 
Books  in  the  British  Museum,  in  an  earlier  newsletter  from  "  Lond.  August 
I,  1628,"  among  the  MSS.  of  Sir  Charles  Isham,  Bart.,  at  Lamport  Hall. 
It  is  followd  by  a  second  notice  of  the  Duke  of  Buckingham  having  seen 
Henry  VIII:— 

"  On  Teufday  his  Grace  was  p'fent  at  ye  acting  of  King  Henry 
8  at  ye  Globe,  a  play  befpoken  of  purpofe  by  himfelfe,  wrat  he 
ftayed  till  ye  Duke  of  Buckingham  was  beheaded  &  then  departed. 

"  On  Wenefday  his  Grace  was  alfo  fpectator  of  ye  Rape  of 
Lucrece  at  yc  Cocke-pitt.  .  .  . 

"  Another  Dicto.  .  .  . 

"  This  day  fevennight  his  Grace  was  at  Cheefwick  to  vifit  ye 
Earles  of  Somerfett  &  Banbury,  and  on  ye  Lds  day  affnoon  againe 
there  wth  ye  Earle  of  Somerfett  at  bowles.  At  his  going  thithr 
he  fent  for  ye  Earle  of  Holland  being  at  the  fermon  to  have  come 
forth  &  rid  wth  him,  but  he  came  not  forth.  On  munday  they 
dined  at  Cheefwick  wth  ye  Earle  of  Somerfett  &  aftr  bowled 
againe. 

"  On  teufday  was  a  play  at  ye  Globe  of  ye  downfall  of  ye  great 
Duke  of  Buckingham,  w'unto  ye  Savoian  Ambaffadour,  ye  Duke, 
Earle  of  Hollande  &  oth™  came,  yet  ftayed  only  ye  difgracing 
not  ve  beheading  of  ye  great  Duke  of  Buck." 

Athenaeum,  Oct.  18,  1879,  p.  497,  col.  2.  See  also  Mr. 
Bullen' s  letter  in  The  Athenaeum  of  Oct.  25,  p.  529.  The 
Rape  of  Lucrece  was  by  Tho.  Heywood. — F.  J.  F. 


339 


ABRAHAM  COWLEY.    BETWEEN  1628  AND  1631. 

Away  got  1 J ;  but  e'er  I  farre  did  goe 

I  flung  (the  Darts  of  wounding  Poetrie) 

Thefe  two  or  three  fharpe  curfes  backe  :   may  hee 

Bee  by  his  Father  in  his  itudy  tooke, 

At  Shakefpeares  playes,  inftead  of  my  L.  Cooke. 

A  Poeticall  Revenge.  Minor  poem,  in  Silva,  or  Divers  copies  oj 
Verses  made  ttpon  sundry  Occasions.  Added  to  Poeticall 
Blossomes.  2nd  edition,  1636,  sign.  E  6,  back. 


1  [The  point  of  this  is,  the  pert  school-boy  Cowley  in  Westminster  Hall 
flinging  his  "  darts  "  against  the  foppish  young  lawyer  who  has  thrust  him 
from  his  seat.  The  poems  in  "  Silva  "  are  among  those  which  Cowley  himself 
says,  "I  wrote  at  school  from  the  age  of  ten  years,  till  after  fifteen" 
(Preface  to  Poems,  leaf  a.  3,  back,  ed.  1656),  and  which  he  first  printed  in 
1633  and  1636.  They  are  afterwards  found  in  the  "  Second  Parte  "  of  his 
"  Works."  L.  T.  S.] 


340 


*  PHILIP  MASSINGER,  1629. 

Paris.  Sir,  with  your  pardon, 

I'll  offer  my  advice  !  I  once  oblerv'd 
In  a  Tragedie  of  ours,  in  which  a  murther 
Was  a6ted  to  the  life,  a  guillie  hearer 
Forc'd  by  the  terror  of  a  wounded  confcience 
To  make  difcoverie  of  that,  which  torture 
Could  not  wring  from  him.     Nor  can  it  appeare 
Like  an  impoflibilitie,  but  that 
Your  Father  looking  on  a  covetous  man 
Preiented  on  the  Stage  as  in  a  mirror 
May  lee  his  owne  deformity,  and  loath  it. 

The  Roman  Actor.     A  Tragedie.     1629,  sign.  D  2. 


See  Hamlet,  Act  II.  scene  ii.  : 

"  The  play's  the  thing 
Wherein  I'll  catch  the  conscience  of  the  king." 

[This  may  or  may  not  be  an  allusion  to  Hamlet :  Massinger  may  have 
had  in  his  mind  some  of  the  incidents  in  real  life  which  probably  suggested 
the  scene  to  Shakespere  himself,  or  have  remembered  the  same  ideas  in  the 
old  play,  A  Warning  to  Fair  Women,  1599.  See  R.  Simpson's  School  of 
Shakspere,  1878,  Vol.  II,  pp.  212 — 216,  311,  where  some  tales  of  the 
kind  are  narrated.  L.  T.  S.] 


BEN  JONSON,  1629—1630. 

No  doubt  fome  mouldy  tale, 

Like  Pericles ;  and  ftale 
As  the  Shrieve's  cruffts,  and  nafty  as  his  fifh- 

fcraps,  out  [of]  every  diih 

Throwne  forth,  and  rak't  into  the  common  tub, 
May  keepe  up  the  Play-club : 

There,  fweepings  do  as  well 

As  the  beft  order'd  meale. 
For,  who  the  relifh  of  thefe  ghefts  will  fit, 
Needs  fet  them,  but,  the  almes-bafket  of  wit. 

Ode  [first  line,  Come  leave  the  lothed  stage\  appended  to  The 
New  Inn,  or  The  Light  Heart.   1631.  [i2mo.]    Sign.  H 2. 


Ben  Jonson's  verses  were  written  as  a  vent  for  his  indignation,  after  the 
failure  of  The  New  Inn  in  1629  had  left  him  straitened  and  discomfited. 

Owen  Feltham's  verses,  p.  346,  are  a  clever  parody  on  Jonson's :  Jug, 
Pierce,  Peck,  and  Fly,  are  characters  in  Jonson's  play.  "Discourse  so 
weighed  "  refers  to  the  third  and  fourth  Acts  of  The  New  Inn. 

T.  Randolph,  T.  Carew,  and  J.  Cleveland  all  wrote  odes  to  console  Ben 
for  his  disappointment,  and  to  win  him  back  to  his  work.  What  an 
irritable,  self-seeking,  praise-loving  old  genius  he  was  ! 

[The  word  ending  the  third  line  is  usually  printed  with  a  dash  after  it, 
scraps  in  the  next  line  beginning  with  a  large  S.  The  above  is  the  form  of 
the  print  of  1631.  L.  T.  S.] 


342 


JOHN  MILTON,  1630. 

An  Epitaph  on  the  admirable  Dramaticke  Poet, 
W.  SHAKESPEARE. 

What  neede l  my  Shakefpeare  for  his  honour' d  bones, 
The  labour  of  an  Age,  in  piled  ftones 
Or  that  his  hallow'd  Reliques  fhould  be  hid 
4  Under  a  flarre-ypointing  Pyramid  ? 

Dear  Sonne  of  Memory,  great  Heire  of  Fame, 
What  needft  thou  fuch  dull2  witnefle  of  thy  Name? 
Thou  in  our  wonder  and  aftonilhment 
8  Haft  built  thy  felfe  a  lafting  3  Monument : 
For  whil' ft  to  th'  lhame  of  llow-endevouring  Art 
Thy  eafie  numbers  flow,  and  that  each  part,4 
Hath  from  the  leaves  of  thy  unvalued  Booke, 

12  Thofe  Delphicke  Lines  with  deepe  Impreffion  tooke 
Then  thou  our  fancy  of  her  5  felfe  bereaving, 
Doft  make  us  Marble  with  too  much  conceiving, 
And  fo  Sepulcher'd  in  fuch  pompe  doft  lie 

[6  That  Kings  for  fuch  a  Tombe  would  wiih  to  die. 

Prefixed  to  the  Second  Folio  Edition  of  Shakespeare's  Works,  1632  : 
appended  to  Shakespeare  s  Poems,  1640,  sign.  K  8,  and  republished 
in  Miltoris  Poems,  1645,  p.  27. 


[In  the  edition  of  Milton's  Poems,  1645,  these  lines  are  headed,  "  On 
Shakespear,  1630,"  this  is  our  only  authority  for  giving  them  that  date. 

The  following  variations  are  found  in  the  three  editions  :  Shakespere's 
Poems,  1640,  is  referred  to  as  A  ;  Milton's  Poems,  1645,  as  B. 

1  needs  for  need,  B.  2  -weake  for  dull,  A,  B. 

3  live-long  for  lasting,  A,  B.  4  heart  to*  part,  A,  B. 

5  our  selfe  A,  it  self&,  for  her  selfe.  L.  T.  S.] 


JOHN   MILTON,    1630.  343 

We  have  the  choice  of  three  early  printed  versions  of  Milton's  lines  : 
I.  The  commendatory  verses  prefixed  to  the  Folio  Edition  of  Shakespeare, 
1632.  2.  Those  appended  to  the  unauthorised  edition  of  Shakespeare's 
Poems,  published  in  1640.  3.  The  edition  of  Milton's  poems  published  in 
1645.  We  have  preferred  the  first  and  least  pleasing  of  the  three,  as  being, 
unquestionably,  Milton's  first  draft  of  the  lines  :  allowing,  of  course,  that 
part  is  a  press-error  for  "hart"  (i.  e.  heart). 

The  expression  "  star-ypointing  pyramid  "was  doubtless  intended  to 
signify,  pointing  to  the  stars  :  and  the  prefix  y  is  similarly  used  by  Sackville, 
in  his  legend,  entitled,  The  Complaint  of  Henry  Duke  of  Buckingham 
{Sackville- West's  Ed.,  1859,  p.  140). 

"  Sans  earthly  guilt  ycausing  both  be  slain." 

(See  Notes  and  Queries,  4th  S.,  iv,  p.  331.)     Had  the  line  in  Milton  run 
"  Under  a  star-y pointed  pyramid," 

the  sense  would  have  been,  under  a  pyramid  surmounted  with  a  star.  (See 
Marsh's  Lectures,  edited  by; Dr.  Wm.  Smith,  1862,  Lecture  xv,  p.  232,  note.) 
One  is  reminded  of  some  lines  attributed  to  Shakespeare,  quoted  by  many 
editors  and  biographers  of  Shakespeare. 

"Not  monumentall  stone  preserves  our  fame, 
Nor  skye-aspiring  piramids  our  name," 

and  the  assertion,  that  each  heart  hath 

"  Those  delphic  lines  with  deep  impression  took," 
recals  a  passage  in  Shakespeare's  Lucrece,  where  he  speaks  of 

"The  face,  that  map  which  deep  impression  bears, 
Of  hard  misfortune  carved  in  it  with  tears." 

Coleridge  wrote  lines  7,  8,  15,  16,  on  the  margin  of  one  of  Donne's  letters 
to  the  Lady  G. ,  opposite  the  following  passage  : 

"  No  prince  would  be  loath  to  die  that  were  assured  of  so  fair  a  tomb  to 
preserve  his  memory."  (Notes  Theological,  Political,  and  Misc.,  1853, 
p.  258.) 

Milton's  meaning,  however,  is  this.  Every  heart,  by  the  plastic  power 
of  fancy,  takes  deep  impression  of  Shakespeare's  lines.  Then,  by  depriv- 
ation of  fancy,  we  are  turned  to  marble  ;  and  we  thus  become  an  inscribed 
monument  to  Shakespeare.  But  the  conceit  is  affected,  and  the  conjugate 
use  of  "whilst"  and  "then"  in  these  verses  is,  to  say  the  least,  very 
unusual.  C.  M.  J. 


344 


*JOHN  TAYLOR,  THE  WATER  POET,  1630. 

I  am  no  fooner  eafed  of  him,  but  Gregory  Gandergoofe,  an 
Alderman  of  Gotham,  catches  me  by  the  goll,  demanding  if 
Bohemia  be  a  great  Towne,  and  whether  there  bee  any  meate  in 
it,  and  whether  the  laft  fleet  of  mips  be  arrived  there. 

Taylor's  Travels  to  Prague  in  Bohemia.      Works,  1630,  Hi.  p.  90. 


[This  seems  to  be  a  good-humoured  laugh  at  Shakespere's  blunder  in  the 
Winters  Tate,  in  placing  Bohemia  near  the  sea,  in  which  he  followed 
Greene's  Pandosto,  the  story  on  which  he  founded  his  play.  See  before, 
p.  275-  L.T.S.] 


345 


JOHN  TAYLOR,  THE  WATER  POET,  1630. 

And  laft  he  laughed  in  the  Cambrian  tongue,  &  began  to 
declare  in  the  Utopian  fpeech,  what  I  have  here  with  moft 
diligent  negligence  Tranflated  into  the  Englifh  Language,  in 
which  if  the  Printer  hath  placed  any  line,  letter  or  tillable, 
whereby  this  large  volume  may  be  made  guilty  to  be  underftood 
by  any  man,  I  would  have  the  Reader  not  to  impute  the  fault 
to  the  Author,  for  it  was  farre  from  his  purpofe  to  write  to  any 
purpofe,  fo  ending  at  the  beginning,  I  fay  as  it  is  applawfefully 
written  and  commended  to  pofterity  in  the  Midfummer  nights 
dreame.  If  we  offend,  it  is  with  our  good  will,  we  came  with  no 
intent,  but  to  offend,  and  mew  our  fimple  {kill. 

To  Nobody.  Epistle  prefixed  to  Sir  Gregory  Nonsense ;  his  news 
from  no  place.  Works  (collected  by  himself  \  1630.  [Fol.~\  [Firsi 
piece  in  the  Second  Part.}  C.  M.  I. 


346 


OWEN  FELTHAM,  1630? 

Jug,  Pierce,  Peck,  Fly,  and  all 

Your  Jefts  fo  nominal, 
Are  things  fo  far  beneath  an  able  Brain, 

As  they  do  throw  a  ftain 

Through  all  th*  unlikely  plot,  and  do  difpleafe 
As  deep  as  Pericles, 

Where  yet  there  is  not  laid 

Before  a  Chamber-maid 

Difcourfe  fo  weigh'd,  as  might  have  ferv'd  of  old 
For  Schools,  when  they  of  Love  &  Valour  told. 

Lusoria  or,  Occasional  Pieces,  first  printed  as  an  addition  to  the 
eighth  edition  of  Feltham's  Resolves,  1661,  folio.  No.  xx.  An 
answer  to  the  Ode,  Come  leave  the  loathed  Stage,  &>c.  (See 
extract  and  note  on  p.  341.) 


[This  verse  was  subsequently  printed,  with  minor  alterations,  in  Parnassus 
Biceps,  1656.     See  vol.  ii,  p.  64.     M.] 


347 


"  Anonimos"  1630. 

One  travelling  through  Stratford  upon  Avon,  a  Towne  moft 
remarkeable  for  the  birth  of  famous  William  Shakefpeare,  and 
walking  in  the  Church  to  doe  his  devotion,  efpyed  a  thing  there 
worthy  observation,  which  was  a  tombeftone  laid  more  then  three 
hundred  years  agoe,  on  which  was  ingraven  an  Epitaph  to  this 
purpofe,  I  Thomas  fuch  a  one,  and  Elizabeth  my  wife  here  under 
lye  buried,  and  know  Reader  /.  R.  C.  and  /.  Chryftoph.  Q.  are 
alive  at  this  houre  to  witnefle  it. 

A  Banquet  of  Jeasts  or  Change  of  Cheare.    1630.    No.  259. 
Bodleian  Lib.,  8°  L.  78,  Art.,  and  8°  M.  27.  Med.     Se 
Collier's    Bibliog.    and    Crit.    Ac -count ',    «.  //.    335-6 
C.  M.  I, 


348 


BEN  JONSON,  1630-37. 

De  SnoS!eare  1  remember,  the  Players  have  often  mentioned  it 
as  an  honour  to  Shakefpeare,  that  in  his  writing,  (whatfoever  he 
penn'd)  hee  never  blotted  out  line.  My  anfwer  hath  beene, 
would  he  had  blotted  a  thoufand.  Which  they  thought  a 
malevolent  fpeech.  I  had  not  told  pofterity  this,  but  for  their 
ignorance,  who  choofe  that  circumftance  to  commend  their 
friend  by,  wherein  he  moil  faulted.  And  to  juftifie  mine  owne 
candor,  (for  I  lov'd  the  man,  and  doe  honour  his  memory  (on 
this  fide  Idolatry)  as  much  as  any.)  Hee  was  (indeed)  honeft, 
and  of  an  open,  and  free  nature :  had  an  excellent  Phant/ie ; 
brave  notions,  and  gentle  expreffions  :  wherein  hee  flow'd  with 
ihat  facility,  that  fometime  it  was  neceflary  he  mould  be  ftop'd : 
Sufflaminandus  erat ;  as  Augujlus  faid  of  Haterius.  His  wit  was 
in  his  owne  power  $  would  the  rule  of  it  had  beene  fo  too.  Many 
times  hee  fell  into  thofe  things,  could  not  efcape  laughter :  As 
when  hee  faid  in  the  perfon  of  Ctsfar,  one  fpeaking  to  him  5 
C&far  thou  dqfl  me  wrong.  Hee  replyed :  Ctzfar  did  never 
wrong,  but  with  juftcaufe  :  and  fuch  like ;  which  were  ridiculous. 
But  hee  redeemed  his  vices,  with  his  vertues.  There  was  ever 
more  in  him  to  be  prayfed,  then  to  be  pardoned. 

Timber  :  or,  Discoveries  made  upon  men  and  matter  :  as  they  have 
flowed  out  of  his  daily  Readings  ;  or  had  their  refluxe  to  his  peculiar 
Notion  of  the  Times.  Works  :  1641.  [Fo.~\  vol.  ii.  pp  97-98. 


In  the  remarks  de  Shakespeare  nostrati  we  have,  doubtless,  Ben's  clos-et- 
opinion  of  his  friend,  opposed  as  it  seems  to  be  to  that  in  his  address  to 
Britain  (p.  309),  where  Ben  appears  to  praise  him  for  that  very  quality 


BEN    JONSON,     1630-37.  349 

"wherein  he  most  faulted  :  "  for  evidently  Shakespeare  did  not  dream  of 
conforming  to  the  Horatian  precept  (Sat.  I,  x.  72-73)  : 

' '  Saepe  stylum  vertas,  iterum  quse  digna  legi  sint 
Scripturus." 

Though  Ben  regretted  and  condemned  his  friend's  rapidity  of  execution, 
it  does  not  appear  that  he  assumed  (like  Cowley,  in  a  passage  quoted  in  the 
second  volume)  the  right  "  to  prune  and  lop  away  "  what  did  not  square 
with  his  canons  of  criticism. 

In  his  Timber,  under  the  head,  De  Stylo,  et  optima  scribendi  genere,  Ben 
expatiates  on  the  duty  of  self-restraint  in  composition.  He  says  (inter  alia 
dicta),  "No  matter  how  slow  the  style  he  at  first,  so  it  be  labour'd  and 
accurate  ; "  and  again,  "  So  that  the  summe  of  all  is,  ready  writing  makes 
not  good  writing ;  but  good  writing  brings  on  ready  writing  :  yet,  when 
wee  thinke  wee  have  got  the  faculty,  it  is  even  then  good  to  resist  it ; "  &c. 

Ben's  critique  on  the  passage  (as  it  must  have  originally  stood)  in  Julius 
Casar  is  captious.  The  justice  of  the  cause  is  not  inconsistent  with  wrong 
inflicted  on  others  beside  the  expiator.  Mr.  J.  O.  Halliwell-Phillips- 
rightly  observes,  "If  wrong  is  taken  in  the  sense  of  injury  or  harm,  as 
Shakespeare  sometimes  uses  it,  there  is  no  absurdity  in  this  line.  [Cf.]  '  He 
s'lall  have  wrong.'  2  Henry  VI,  v.  I."  (Life  of  Shakespeare,  1848,  p. 
185.)  Again,  in  A  Winter  s  Tale,  v.  I,  Paulina,  speaking  of  the  hapless 
Queen,  says, 

"  Had  she  such  power, 
She  had  just  cause. 

Leontes.  She  had,  and  would  incense  me 

To  murther  her  I  marryed." 

That  is,  she  had  just  cause  to  incite  him  to  do  another  a  grievous  wrong. 
This  is  even  more  amenable  to  Jonson's  censure  than  the  passage  which  fell 
under  it. 

[The  line  as  it  stands  at  present,  with  the  punctuation  of  the  Globe 
edition,  is  as  follows, — 

"  Know,  Caesar  doth  not  wrong,  nor  without  cause 
Will  he  be  satisfied."     Act  III,  Sc.  i,  1.  47. 

There  arc  no  words  of  Metellus  answering  to  those  cited  by  Jonson, 
"  Caesar  thou  dost  me  wrong."  If  he  quoted  correctly  (he  has  the  words 
twice  over,  see  before,  p.  332),  the  folio  contains  an  alteration  (the  folio  of 
1623  being  the  first  authority  we  have  for  Julius  Casar).  Whatever  the 
exact  words,  it  seems  to  me  highly  probable  that  Shakespere  in  putting  this 
sentiment  on  Caesar's  lips,  had  in  his  mind  the  well  known  maxim,  "  the 
King  can  do  no  wrong,"  a  phrase  which  means  that  the  king  is  but  the 
mouthpiece  of  the  law  ;  and  it  is  consistent  with  this  that  Cassar  founds  his 
refusal  to  pardon  Cimber  upon  the  law,^-"  Thy  brother  by  decree  is 
banished."  L.  T.  S.] 


350 


*R.   HENDERSON,  1631. 

Many  Engli/h  and  Romijh  lezabels,  Italian  Curte^ans,  frying, 
boyling,  and  broiling  in  their  luxurious  defires,  as  did  that 
flrumpet  mentioned  by  Saint  AMBROSE,  (after  her  converted 
companion)  after  fuch  as  they  are  enamoured  on,  yet  prevailing 
no  more  than  that  entiling  PHRINE  with  cold  ANAXAGORAS,  or 
then  wanton  Venus  with  Adonis  in  the  Fable ; 

The  I  Arraignment  /  of  the  whole  /  Creatvre  /  Att  the  Bar-re 
of  Religion  Reason  /  and  Experience  /  .  .  .  By  R. 
Henderson  /  ...  1631.  p.  44. 


[A  remarkable  book,  full  of  varied  allusions  to  classical,  scriptural  and 
contemporary  literature.  At  p.  84  we  read:  "Yea  as  carnall  men,  like 
that  politique  Prince  in  the  Poet,  are  most  sad  in  heart,  when  they  seeme 
most  glad  in  face."  Chaucer  is  mentioned  pp.  199,  256  ;  the  Ship  of 
Fooles,  p.  253  ;  Fatistus,  p.  51,  etc.  ;  "  King  Leir  "  and  his  two  unnaturall 
Daughters,  p.  53;  "an  Eutopian  man,"  p.  62;  and  the  ways  of  con- 
temporary lovers,  p.  263.  Our  extract  is  a  possible  allusion  to  Shakspere's 
Venus.  It  was  noted  by  G.  Thorn  Drury  in  Notes  and  Queries,  9th  Series, 
vol.  x,  p.  465.  M.] 


351 


WYE   SALTONSTALL,    1631. 

1 8.  A  Chamlerlaine. 

IS  the  firft  Squire  that  gives  entertainement  to  errant  ft  rangers. 
At  your  firft  alighting  hee  ftraight  offers  you  to  fee  a 
Chamber,  but  has  got  the  tricke  of  tradefmen  to  {how  you 
the  worft  firft.  Hee's  as  nimble  as  Hamlets  ghoft  heere  and 
everywhere,  and  when  he  has  many  guefts,  ftands  moft  upon  his 
pantofles,  for  hee's  then  a  man  of  fome  calling. 

PidurfB  Loquentes.  /  Or  /  Pictvres  /  Drawne  forth  in  ' 
Characters.  \  With  a  Poeme  of  a  /  Maid.  \  By  Wye 
Saltonstall.  /  Ne  Sutor  ultra  crepidam./  London,  \ 
Printed  by  Tho.  Cotes,  and  are  to  be  sold  /  by  Tho. 
Slater,  at  his  shop  in  the  /  Blacke  Fryars.  i63i./  sign. 
E  3,  back,  E  4. 


Quoted  ( with  is  for  Hee's)  from  the  2nd  ed.  of  1635  in  Mr.  Hall.-P.'s  Mem. 
on  Hamlet,  p.  22.  The  first  words  of  the  text,  B  5,  "  I .  The  World  is  a  Stage, 
men  the  Actors,"  are  too  common  to  be  taken  as  a  reference  to  Shakspere's 
like  saying. 

In  no.  '  21.  A  Petty  Countrey  Faire,'  is  a  bit  for  Autolycus  :  "  A  Ballet- 
singer  may  be  sooner  heard  heere  than  scene,  for  instead  of  the  violl  hee 
sings  to  the  croud.  If  his  Ballet  bee  of  love,  the  countrey  wenches  buy  it, 
to  get  by  heart  at  home,  and  after  sing  it  over  their  milkepayles.  Gipsies 
flocke  thither,  who  tell  men  of  losses,  and  the  next  time  they  looke  for  their 
purses,  they  find  their  words  true."  F.  J.  F. 


352 


*JOHN  SPENCER,   1631. 

Likewife  wee  doe  order  that  Mr.  Wilfbn  becaufe  hee  was  a 
fpeciall  plotter  and  Contriver  of  this  bufines  and  did  in  luch  a 
brutiihe  Manner  a6l  the  fame  wzth  an  AfTes  head,  therefore  hee 
fliall  vppon  Tuifday  next  from  6  of  the  Clocke  in  the  Morning 
till  fixe  of  the  Clocke  at  night  fitt  in  the  Porters  Lodge  at  my 
Lord  Biihopps  houfe  with  his  feete  in  the  ftockes  and  Attyred 
wzth  his  Aife  head  and  a  bottle  of  haye  fett  before  him  and  this 
fuperlcripczon  on  his  breaft  j 

Good  people  I  have  played  the  beafl 

And  brought  ill  things  to  paife 
I  was  a  man,  but  thus  have  made 

Myfelfe  a  Silly  Affe. 

Lambeth  MS.  1030,  art.  5,  p.  3. 


[Among  the  MSS.  at  Lambeth  Palace  is  an  Order  made  by  the  Commis- 
sary-General, John  Spencer,  against  John  Williams,  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  for 
having  had  "  a  playe  or  Tragidie  "  acted  in  his  house  on  Sunday,  27 
September,  1631.  The  Order  includes  censure  of  several  other  persons 
who  appear  to  have  been  present,  the  last  one  being  as  above.  A  letter 
from  Spencer,  censuring  one  of  the  ladies  present,  occupies  the  other  leaf 
of  the  same  sheet,  in  which  he  notices  that  she  went  "  to  heare  such  excel- 
lent Musicke,  such  rare  Conceits,  and  to  see  such  Curious  Actours."  I 
give  this  doubtful  "allusion"  because  several,  following  Collier's  A  nnals  of 
the  Stage,  Vol.  II,  p.  27,  have  taken  for  granted  that  it  refers  to  the 
Midsummer  Nighfs  Dream.  Beyond  these  notices,  however,  there  is  nothing 
to  tell  with  certainty  what  the  play  was.  Near  the  bottom  of  page  3,  in  the 
margin  have  been  written  the  words  "  the  play  M  Night  Dr,"  but  these  are 


JOHN    SPENCER,     163!.  353 

evidently  the  work  of  a  later  hand  and  have  been  written  over  an  erasure  : 
they  are  not  in  the  hand  of  either  Laud,  Lincoln,  or  Spencer,  or  of  the 
endorser  of  the  paper,  but  look  like  a  bad  imitation  of  old  writing.  No 
reliance  can  therefore  be  placed  upon  them. 

Elsewhere  Spencer  speaks  of  the  play  as  a  comedy  ;  if  Wilson  were  not 
the  author,  at  least  he  had  a  large  share  in  the  arrangement  of  it.  In  a 
Discourse  of  Divers  Petitions,  1641,  p.  19,  speaking  of  Bp.  Lincoln  and 
this  presentment,  Spencer  says,  "one  Mr.  Wilson  a  cunning  Musition 
having  contrived  a  curious  Comodie,  and  plotted  it  so,  that  he  must  needs 
have  it  acted  upon  the  Sunday  night,  for  he  was  to  go  the  next  day  toward 
the  Court ;  the  Bishop  put  it  off  till  nine  of  the  clock  at  night."  L.  T.  S.] 


SH.  ALLN.  BK. — I.  A  A 


354 


RICHARD   BRATHWAIT,  1631. 

Thirdly,  Books  treating  of  light  fubiects,  are  Nurferies  of 
wantonneffe  :  they  inftru6t  the  loofe  Header  to  become  naught  j 
whereas  before,  touching  naughtinelfe,  he  knew  naught.  A 
ftory  of  the  rape  of  Ganimedes,  or  of  light  Lais  in  Eurypedes, 
are  their  daily  Lectures.  Plato's  Diuine  Philofophy,  or  Dice- 
archus  pious  Precepts  of  Morality,  mud  vaile  to  Alcceus,  or 
Anacreons  wanton  Poelie.  Venus  and  Adonis  are  vnfitting  Con- 
torts for  a  Ladies  bofome.  Remoue  them  timely  from  you,  if 
they  euer  had  entertainment  by  you,  left,  like  the  Snake  in  the 
fable,  they  annoy  you. 

The  English  Gentlewoman  [Engraved  Title,  in  10  com- 
partments] .  .  .  by  Richard  Brathwait  .  .  .  London./ 
Printed  for  /  Michaell  Sparke  /  and  are  to  be  /  Sould,  at 
the  /  Blew  Bible  /  in  /  Greene  Arbor./  1631.  /  p.  139. 

J.  O.  H11.-P.  (revized). 


Loves  enteruiew  betwixt  Cleopatra  and  Marke  Anthony,  pro- 
mifed  to  it  felfe  as  much  fecure  freedome  as  fading  fancy  could 
tender;  yet  the  lalt  Scene  clozed  all  thofe  Comicke  paflages 

with  a  Tragicke  conclufion. — il.  p.  197. 

F.  J.  F. 


355 


PETER   HEYLYN,  1631. 

Sir  lohn  Faftolfe  ...  (as  certainly  he  was  a  wife  and  valiant 
Captaine,  however1  on  the  ftage,  they  haue  beene  plea  fed  to 
make  merry  with  him). 

The]  Historic]  Of]  That  most  famous  Saint  and  Souldier\  of  Christ 
lesus ;  I  Si.  George  /  of  Cappadoda  ;  /  .  .  .  .  The  Institution 
of  the  most  Noble  Order  of  \  St.  George,  named  the  Garter.  /  A 
Catalogue  of  all  the  Knights  thereof  until!  this  present.  \  By  Pet. 
Heylyn.  /  .  .  .  .  London.  /  Printed  for  Henry  Seyle,  and  are  to 
be  sold  at  his  ]  Shop,  the  signe  of  the  Tygei's-foead  in  St.  Pauls  / 
Church-yard.  1631.  (qto.) p.  308. 

Noted  in  B.  Quaritch's  General  Catalogue,  p.  2,235,  no.  22,827. — F.  J.  F. 


1  The  third  edition  of  1633,  P-  344>  reads  'though'  for  'however',  and 
begins  the  parenthesis  with  '  though '. 


356 


ANON.    1631. 

One  lately  hauing  taken  view  of  the  Sepulchres  of  fo  many 
Kings,  Nobles,  and  other  eminent  perfons  interred  in  this 
Abbey  of  Weftminfter,  made  thefe  rimes  following,  which  he 
called 

A  Memento  for  Mortalitie. 

******* 
Then  bid  the  wanton  Lady  treac^ 
Amid  thefe  mazes  of  the  dead. 
And  thefe  truly  vnderftood, 
More  mail  coole  and  quench  the  blood. 
Then  her  many  fports  a  day, 
And  her  nightly  wanton  play. 
Bid  her  paint  till  day  of  doome. 
To  this  fauour  me  muft  come. 

Ancient  Fvnerall  Monuments  ....  composed  by  the 
Studie  and  Travels  of  John  Weever.  London,  1631,  p. 
492-3  (partly  quoted  in  Mr.  Hall. -P. 's  Memoranda  on 
Hamlet,  1879,  p.  64). 


The  last  two  lines  are  from  Hamlet's  prose  (V.  i.  181-3,  Camb.) :  "  Now 
get  you  to  my  lady's  chamber,  and  tell  her,  let  her  paint  an  inch  thick,  to 
this  favour  she  must  come." 


Is  it  likely  that  the  following  stanza  in  an  "  Ode  ad  B:  J: "  (Ben  Jonson), 
by  "Jo  :  Earles,"  ab.  1630  A.D.,  MS.  Addit.  Brit.  Mus.  15,227,  If.  44,  bk, 
alludes  to  the  Pericles  of  which  Shakspere  wrote  part  ? 
"  Sat  est,  si  anili  tradita  de  colo 
Fabella  lusit  murcida  Periclem. 
Jocosq#<?  semesos,  et  ipso 
Dicta  magis  repetita  mimo." 

Mr.  HalL-Phillipps  calld  attention  to  it  in  N.  &  Q.,  Oct.  30,  1880,  p. 
343,  col.  2.  -F.  J.  F. 


357 


*  JAMES   SHIRLEY,  1631. 
The  Schoole  of  Complement. 

A6tus  quartus,  Scena  prima. 
***** 
Bul\ulcus\.     O  that  I  were  a  flea  vpon  his  lip, 
There  would  I  fucke  for  euer,  and  not  fkip. 

The  /  Schoole  /  of  /  Complement./  As  It  Was  Acted  /  by 
her  Maiesties  Seruants  at  the  /  Priuate  house  in  Drury 
Lane.  /  —  Hcec  placuit  semel.\  By  J.  S.  /  London,  / 
Printed  by  E.  A.  for  Francis  Constable^  and  are  to  be 
sold  at  /  his  shop  in  Pauls  Church-yard,  at  the  signe  of 
the  Crane.  1631.  /  (The  play  was  afterwards  cald 
Love- Tricks.} 


Probably  parodying  Romeo  and  Juliet,  II.  ii,  23 : 

O  that  I  were  a  gloue  vpon  that  hand, 
That  I  might  touch  that  cheeke. 

J.  O.  H11.-P. 


THOMAS  HEYWOOD,  1631. 

Goodl[ack~\ .     You  are  not  mad  lir  ?     You  fay  you  love  her. 
Spenc\_er~] .     Never  queftion  that. 

GoodL      Then  put  her  to't,  win  Opportunity,  Shees  the  beft 
bawd. 

The  I  Fair  Maid  /  of  the  West,  Or  \  A  Girle  worth  Gold.  / 
The  first  part  /  .  .  .  Written  by  T\_homas'}  H\eywood\  / 
London  /  .  .  .  1631,  p.  4. 


[This  last  bit  is  borrowed  from  Lucrece,  876,  886,  '  O  Opportunity, 
.  .  .  thou  notorious  bawd  ! ' 

We  are  indebted  to  Mr.  D.  L.  Thomas,  of  the  University  of  Kansas, 
for  this  reference.  M.] 


359 


*  PHILIP  MASSINGER,  1632. 

Livio.  To  dye  the  beggers  death  with  hunger,  made 
Anatomies  while  we  live,  cannot  but  cracke 
Our  heart-firings  with  vexation. 

Ferdinand.     Would  they  would  breake, 
Breake  altogether,  how  willingly  like  Cato 
Could  I  teare  out  my  bowells,  rather  then 
Looke  on  the  conquerors  infulting  face, 
But  that  religion,  and  the  horrid  dreame 
To  be  fufter'd  in  the  other  world  denyes  it. 

The  Maid  of  Honour.     1632.     [4/0.]    Sign.  E  3. 


[See  Hamlet,  Act  III.  scene  i.  11.  78—80. 

Part  of  the  two  last  lines  seem  to  be  a  reminiscence  of  Hamlet's  famous 
words, — 

"But  that  the  dread  of  something  after  death, 
The  undiscover'd  country  from  whose  bourn 
No  traveller  returns,  puzzles  the  will 
And  makes  us  rather  bear  those  ills  we  have 
Than  fly  to  others  that  we  know  not  of." 

L.  T.  S.] 

[Noted  by  Dr.  Elze,  in  his  edition  of  Hamlet,  1882,  p.  256,  as  alluding 
to  Hamlet's  Soliloquy  in  Act  III.  sc.  i.  65-7,  78-80.     F.  J.  F.] 


3<5° 


GEORGE   CHAPMAN   AND   JAMES 
SHIRLEY,    1632. 

Lady  Lucina.     I  did  propound  a  bufineffe  to  you  fir. 

CoronelL     And  I  came  prepar'd  to  anfwer  you, 

Luc.     Tis  very  well,  He  call  one  to  be  a  witnefle. 

Co.     That  was  not  I  remember  in  our  Covenant, 
You  fhannot  neede.    Luc.    He  fetch  you  a  booke  to  fware  by. 

Co.     Let  it  be  Venus  and  Adonis  then, 
Or  Ovids  wanton  Elegies,  Ariftotles 
Problemes,  Guy  of  Warwicke,  or  Sr.  Beavis, 
Or  if  there  be  a  Play  Booke  you  love  better, 
He  take  my  oath  upon  your  Epilogue. 

The  Ball,  a  Comedy.     1639,  sign.  //. 


[This  play,  according  to  Gifford,  was  licensed  in  1632,  and  first  printed  in 
1639  (Works  of  James  Shirley,  with  notes  by  Gifford  and  Dyce,  1833,  vol. 
Hi.  p.  3).  L.  T.  S.] 


THOMAS  RANDOLPH  1632. 

Afotus  [addreffing  the  Poets  fkull] 

I  fcorn  thy  Lyrick  and  Heroick  ftrain, 

Thy  tart  lambick,  and  Satyrick  vein. 

Where  be  thy  querks  and  tricks  ?  {how  me  again 

The  ftrange  conundrums  of  thy  frifking  brain, 

Thou  Poets  fkull,  and  fay,  What's  rime  to  chimney? 

(p.  60.) 


Sexton.     It  had  been  a  mighty  favour  once,  to  have  kifTd  thefe 
lips  that  grin  fo.  *     *  Oh !  if  that  Lady  now  could  but  behold 
this  phyfnomie  of  hers  in  a  looking-glafle,  what  a  monfter  would 
me  imagine  herfelf  ?     Will  all  her  perrukes,  tyres  and  dreffes, 
with  her  chargeable  teeth,  with  her  cerufle  and  pomatum,  and 
the  benefit  of  her  painter  &  doctor,  make  this  idol  up  again  ? 
Paint  Ladies  while  you  live,  and  plaifter  fair, 
But  when  the  houfe  is  fallne  'tis  paft  repair. 

(p.  61.) 
****** 

Afotus.  Phoebus  whip 
Thy  lazy  team,  run  headlong  to  the  Weft, 
I  long  to  tafte  the  banquet  of  the  night. 

(p.  19.) 

Simo.     That  I  mould  have  fo  ravifhing  a  face, 
And  never  know  it ! — 'Mifer  that  I  was ! 


362  THOMAS    RANDOLPH,    1632. 

I  will  go  home  &  buy  a  looking  glaffe 
To  be  acquainted  with  my  parts  hereafter. 

(p.  46.) 

Tyndarus.     Pamphilus,  welcome  :  Shake  thy  forrows  off, 
Why  in  this  age  of  freedome  doft  thou  lit 
A  captiv'd  wretch  ?     I  do  not  feel  the  weight 
Of  clay  about  me.     Am  I  not  all  aire  ? 
Or  of  fome  quicker  element  ?     I  have  purg'd  out 
All  that  was  earth  about  me,  and  walk  now 

As  free  a  foul  as  in  the  feparation. 

(p.  24.) 

The  Jealous  Lovers.    A  Comedie.    1632. 


[The  whole  scene  (sc.  iii.  Act  IV.)  from  which  the  two  first  of  these 
extracts  are  taken  recalls  strongly  the  grave-digger's  scene  in  Hamlet,  and 
is  worth  reading  with  it ;  though  the  expressions  are  not  absolutely  repeated, 
the  author  must  have  had  Shakespere  in  his  mind  when  he  wrote.  The 
third  extract  is  another  use  of  the  idea  expressed  in  the  first  three  lines  of 
Juliet's  speech,  Rom.  6°  JuL,  Act  III,  sc.  ii.  The  fourth  may  recall  the 
last  part  of  Gloucester's  soliloquy,  Rich.  Ill,  Act  I.  sc.  ii. 

The  fifth  resembles  the  sentiment  in  Cleopatra's  ecstatic  words  at  her 
death  (Ant.  and  Cleop.^  Act  V.  sc.  ii.  1.  292),  but  need  not  necessarily  have 
been  borrowed  from  Shakespere.  See  notes  before,  pp.  121,  319.  There 
is  some  interest,  as  Prof.  Dowden  remarks,  in  noting  the  involuntary  tribute 
to  Shakespere  from  Randolph,  a  professed  pupil  of  Jonson,  who  would 
probably  look  on  him  as  the  dramatist  by  art,  and  who  talked  of  Shakespere 
as  having  written  for  money.  See  extracts  from  his  Hey  for  Honesty,  1651. 
L.  T.  S.] 


Anonymous,  1632. 

Upon  the  Effigies  of  my  worthy  Friend, 

the  Author 

Majier  William  Shakefpeare, 
and  his  Wor&es. 

Spectator,  this  Life's  Shaddow  is ;  To  fee 
The  truer  image  and  a  livelier  he 
Turne  Reader.     But,  obferve  his  Comicke  vaine, 
Laugh,  and  proceed  next  to  a  Tragicke  ftraine, 
Then  weepe  j   So  when  thou  find' ft  two  contraries, 
Two  different  paffions  from  thy  rapt  foule  rife, 
Say,  (who  alone  effect  fuch  wonders  could) 
Rare  Shake-fpeare  to  the  life  thou  doft  behold. 

Prefixed  to  the  Second  Folio  Edition  of  Shakespeare's 
Works;  1632.    C  M.  T. 


364 


I.  M.  S.,  1632. 

On  Worthy  Majler  Shakefpeare 
and  his  Poems, 

A  Mind  reflecting  ages  paft,  whofe  cleere 
And  equall  furface  can  make  things  appeare 
Diftant  a  Thoufand  yeares,  and  repreient 
Them  in  their  lively  colours  juft  extent. 

5     To  outrun  hafty  time,  retrive  the  fates, 

Howie  backe  the  heavens,  blow  ope  the  iron  gates 
Of  death  and  Lethe,  where  (confufed)  lye 
Great  heapes  of  ruinous  mortalitie. 
In  that  deepe  duikie  dungeon  to  difcerne 

i  o     A  royall  Ghoft  from  Churles ;  By  art  to  learne 
The  Phyfiognomie  of  mades,  and  give 
Them  fuddaine  birth,  wondring  how  oft  they  live. 
What  ftory  coldly  tells,  what  Poets  faine 
At  fecond  hand,  and  picture  without  braine 

15     Senfelefle  and  foulleffe  ihowes.     To  give  a  Stage 
(Ample  and  true  with  life)  voyce,  action,  age, 
As  Plato's  yeare  and  new  Scene  of  the  world 
Them  unto  us,  or  us  to  them  had  hurld. 
To  raife  our  auncient  Soveraignes  from  their  herfe 

20     Make  Kings  his  fubjects,  by  exchanging  verfe 
Enlive  their  pale  trunkes,  that  the  prefent  age 
Joyes  in  their  joy,  and  trembles  at  their  rage  : 
Yet  fo  to  temper  paflion,  that  our  eares 
Take  pleafure  in  their  paine  j  And  eyes  in  teares 

2$     Both  weepe  and  fmile  j  fearefull  at  plots  fo  fad, 
Then,  laughing  at  our  feare ;  abufd,  and  glad 


I.  M.  S.,  1632.  365 

To  be  abuf'd,  affe&ed  with  that  truth 

Which  we  perceive  is  falfe ;  pleaf 'd  in  that  ruth 

At  which  we  flart ;  and  by  elaborate  play 

30     Tortur'd  and  tickled  j  by  a  crablike  way 
Time  paft  made  paftime,  and  in  ugly  fort 

Difgorging  up  his  ravaine  for  our  fport 

While  the  Plebeian  Impe,  from  lofty  throne, 

Creates  and  rules  a  world,  and  workes  upon 

35     Mankind  by  fecret  engines ;  Now  to  move 
A  chilling  pitty,  then  a  rigorous  love  : 
To  ftrike  up  and  ftroake  down,  both  joy  and  ire  j 
To  fteere  th'  affections ;  and  by  heavenly  fire 
Mould  us  anew.     Stolne  from  ourfelves 

40  This,  and  much  more  which  cannot  be  expreft, 

But  by  himfelfe,  his  tongue  and  his  owne  breft, 
Was  Shakefpeares  freehold,  which  his  cunning  braine 
Improv'd  by  favour  of  the  ninefold  traine. 
The  bufkind  Mufe,  the  Commicke  Queene,  the  graund 

45     And  lowder  tone  of  Clio ;  nimble  hand, 
And  nimbler  foote  of  the  melodious  paire, 
The  Silver  voyced  Lady  5  the  moft  faire 
Calliope,  whofe  fpeaking  filence  daunts. 
And  me  whofe  prayfe  the  heavenly  body  chants. 

50         Thefe  joyntly  woo'd  him,  envying  one  another 
(Obey'd  by  all  as  Spoufe,  but  lov'd  as  brother) 
And  wrought  a  curious  robe  of  fable  grave 
Freih  greene,  and  pleafant  yellow,  red  molt  brave, 
And  conftant  blew,  rich  purple,  guiltleffe  white 

55     The  lowly  Buffet,  and  the  Scarlet  bright ; 

Branch' d  and  embroydred  like  the  painted  Spring 
Each  leafe  match' d  with  a  flower,  and  each  firing 
Of  golden  wire,  each  line  of  lilke  j  there  run 
Italian  workes  whofe  thred  the  Sifters  fpun  j 


366  I.  M.  S.,    1632. 

60     And  there  did  fing,  or  feeme  to  ling,  the  choyce 
Birdes  of  a  forraiue  note  and  various  voyce. 
Here  hangs  a  mofley  rocke  j  there  playes  a  faire 
But  chiding  fountaine  purled  :  Not  the  ayre, 
Nor  cloudes  nor  thunder,  but  were  living  drawne, 
65     Not  out  of  common  Tiffany  or  Lawne. 
But  fine  materialls,  which  the  Mufes  know 
And  onely  know  the  countries  where  they  grow. 

Now,  when  they  could  no  longer  him  enjoy 
In  mortall  garments  pent ;  death  may  deftroy 
70     They  fay  his  body,  but  his  verfe  mail  live 

And  more  then  nature  takes,  our  hands  lhail  give. 
In  a  leffe  volumne,  but  more  ftrongly  bound 
Shakefpeare  mall  breath  and  fpeake,  with  Laurell  crown'd 
Which  never  fades.     Fed  with  Ambrofian  meate 
75     In  a  well-lyned  vefture  rich  and  neate. 

So  with  this  robe  they  cloath  him,  bid  him  weare  it 
For  time  (hall  never  ftaine,  nor  envy  teare  it. 
The  friendly  admirer  of  his 
Endowments. 

I.  M.  S. 

Prefixed  to  the  Second  Folio  Edition  of  Shakespeare1  s  Works. 


The  compiler  has  followed  the  example  of  all  his  predecessors  in  treating 
the  letters  I.  M.  S.  as  the  initials  of  the  author's  name :  so  he  has  placed  them 
at  the  head  of  this  noble  composition.  But  it  has  not  been  without  com- 
punction that  he  has  made  this  concession  :  for  he  is  inclined  to  believe  that 
those  letters  signify  the  words  In  Memoriam  Scriptoris,  The  fact  is — what 
has  been  often  recognised — that  this  magnificent  tribute  to  Shakespeare's 
worth  is  a  sort  of  rival  to  that  of  Ben  Jonson,  thus  ennobling  the  second 
folio,  as  Jonson's  had  graced  the  first.  Now  Jonson  declared  his  poem  to 
be  In  Memory  of  the  (deceased")  Author,  &c. ;  so  it  is  natural  to  look  for  some 
echo  of  this  description  in  the  rival  poem  :  and  these  words  might  be  precisely 
rendered  by  In  Memoriam  Scriptoris  (decessi),  the  last  word  being  quite 
unimportant.  This  reading  leaves  the  field  clear  for  conjecture  on  the 
identity  of  the  Friendly  Admirer.  Aoart  from  all  attempt  to  fit  the  initials 
on  a  poet's  name,  only  one  conjecture  has  been  made  ;  viz.  that  of  Boaden, 


I.  M.  S.,   1632.  367 

in  his  Inquiry,  1824,  pp.  1 06,  119.  After  dismissing  the  view  that  I.  M.S. 
meant  Jasper  Mayne  (Student),  John  Marston  (Student,  or  Satirist),  or  John 
Milton  (Senior),  he  advocates  the  claims  of  George  Chapman,  and  makes 
out  a  plausible  case  for  that  admirable  poet.  A  correspondent  in  Notes  and 
Queries  (2nd  S.,  VII.  123)  suggests  J.  M.  (Scotus),  identifying  I.  M.  S.  with 
the  person  who  presented  Chapman  with  the  plate  prefixed  to  his  Iliad,  and 
the  probable  author  of  the  subscribed  couplet,  signed  "  Scotise  Nobilis." 
Some  time  back  the  editor  privately  proposed  to  father  this  poem  on  Dr. 
John  Donne.  There  are  similarities  of  diction  which  countenance  this 
view,  and  surely  Donne  was  equal  to  the  effort.1  On  the  other 
hand,  it  is  impossible  to  extract  from  Donne's  poems  a  piece  of  equal 
length  which  is  not  disfigured  by  some  lines  of  amazing  harshness  ;  while 
in  the  poem  of  the  Friendly  Admirer  there  is  little  or  no  interruption  to 
the  majestic  flow  and  delicious  smoothness  of  the  verse.  Its  reigning  fault  is 
a  certain  looseness  of  metaphor.  It  might  serve  to  lament  and  praise  any 
great  dramatic  poet ;  nothing  is  accurately  significant  of  Shakespeare's 
peculiar  genius  :  in  this  view  the  "curious  robe"  woven  by  the  muses  is 
an  eye-sore :  but  the  description  of  it  is  so  exquisitely  beautiful,  that  it  provides 
the  compensating  eye-salve.  William  Godwin  (Life  of  E.  6°  J.  Phillips, 
1815,  p.  171,  note}  suggested  that  I.  M.  S.  meant  John  Milton  Senior : 
Mr.  Collier  (S hakes  per e*  s  Works,  1858,  i.  p.  257,  note}  attributed  the  poem 
to  John  Milton,  Student.  The  latter  view  has  found  an  able  advocate 
in  Professor  Henry  Morley.  But  it  is  easily  shown  that  the  structure  of  the 
verse  belongs  to  an  earlier  period  than  that  of  Milton. 

The  late  Mr.  Dyce  (Ed.  of  Shakespeare,  1864,  vol.  i.  p.  169)  appears 
to  favour  the  claim  preferred  for  Jasper  Mayne  :  but  such  an  opinion  only 
serves  to  show  how  little  reliance  can  be  placed  upon  Mr.  Dyce's  critical 
deliverances.  The  best  of  Mayne's  verses,  such  as  those  pointed  out  by 
Mr.  Dyce,  and  those  praised  by  the  late  Mr.  Bolton  Corney  (Notes  and 
Queries,  4th  S.,  II.  147)  are  merely  respectable.  His  worst  verses  make 
us  wonder  what  could  have  been  the  vanity  that  prompted  them,  and  the 
flattery  that  praised  them  !  Mayne  might  just  as  well  have  composed  a 
poem  comparable  to  Paradise  Lost,  as  have  written  the  elegy  of  the 
Friendly  Admirer.  But  Mr.  Dyce  had  as  little  sensibility  to  the  higher 
graces  of  poetry  as  Samuel  Johnson.  Mr.  Hunter's  idea,  adopted  by  Singer, 
and  arrived  at  independently  by  Watkiss  Lloyd,  was  that  I.  M.  S.  were 
the  consonants  of  the  surname  of  Richard  James.  If  such  a  poet  were  to 
be  discovered,  the  conjecture  would  still  be  out  of  court,  for  it  is  not  a  poet 


1  [Dr.  B.  Nicholson  has  read  Donne  carefully  and  often,  and  can  affirm 
that  these  lines  cannot  be  by  him.  This  poem  seems  in  some  degree  to 
have  followed  Donne's  style,  he  had  various  imitators ;  there  is  a  slight 
imitation  of  his  pauses  and  cadence,  and  in  the  first  part  of  the  poem  of 
his  roughness  of  wording.  L.  T.  S.] 


368  I.  M.  S.,  1632. 

that  we  require,  but  a  very  great  poet.  Besides,  in  the  editor's  judgment, 
"  The  Friendly  Admirer"  implies  that  the  author  was  an  eminent  rival  of 
Shakespere's  who  bore  him  no  envy. 

A  few  notes  on  the  text  of  this  poem  may  be  helpful.  (It  should  be 
remarked  that  the  punctuation  of  the  original  print,  though  somewhat 
defective,  is  followed.)  The  first  nineteen  couplets  consist  of  six  substantive 
clauses  (neither  governed  by  nor  governing  any  verb),  terminated  by  full 
points,  or  signs  of  aposiopesis.  These  serve  to  convey  the  finest  possible 
description  of  the  dramatic  function. 

Line  20.     Read  : 

"  Make  Kings  his  subjects  by  exchanging  verse  :  " 

i.  c.,  by  verse  which  effects  the  exchange.  Lines  40,  41,  are  echoed  by 
Digges  : 

"  Some  second  Shakespeare  must  of  Shakespeare  write." 

Line  43.  Though  "  the  ninefold  train  "  is  mentioned,  only  eight  Muses 
seem  to  be  specified  :  unless,  indeed,  "the  melodious  pair"  be  intended 
to  designate  Euterpe,  Erato  and  Terpsichore.  A  pack  of  cards  used  to  be 
called  "  a.  pair  of  cards  "  ;  and  we  still  say  "  a.  pair  of  stairs  "  :  pair  being 
a  set  of  matched  things. 

Line  63.  "  Purled  "  :  not  purfled  (i.  e.,  embroidered,  as  Boaden  understood 
by  it),  but  rippled ;  the  poet  could  not  say  of  a  picture  purling.  But  purled 
seems  to  have  had  also  the  sense  of  embroidered. 

Line  64.  ' '  Living  drawne  " — i.  e. ,  drawn  as  if  they  were  substantial 
things. 

It  may  be  safely  asserted  that  no  English  encomiastic  poem  has  ever  come 
near  this  for  graceful  melodious  verse  and  mastery  of  language.  It  is,  besides, 
so  free  and  unstudied,  that  one  might  well  believe  it  was  written  ' '  without 
blot."  C.  M.  I. 


WILLIAM  PRYNNE,  1632. 


•  Ben  Johnsons, 

Shackspeers,  and 

others. 


•f-  Shackspeers 

Plaies  are 

printed  in 

the  best 

Crowne 

paper,  far 

better  than 

most  Bibles. 


}  Above  forty 

thousand 

Play-bookes 

have  been 

printed  and 

vented  within 

these  two  yeares. 


*  Some  Play-books  lince  I  firft  undertooke  this 
fubject,  are  growne  from  Quarto  into  Folio ;  which 
yet  beare  fo  good  a  price  and  fale,  that  I  cannot 
but  with  griefe  relate  it,  they  are  nowf  new- 
printed  in  farre  better  paper  than  moft  O6tavo  or 
Quarto  Bibles,  which  hardly  finde  fuch  vent  as 
they :  And  can  then  one  Quarto  Tractate  againft 
Stage-playes  be  thought  too  large,  when  as  it  muft 
affault  fuch  ample  Play-houfe  Volumes  ?  Befides, 
our  Qz/arfo-Play-bookes  lince  the  firft  fheetes  of 
this  my  Treatife  came  unto  the  Preffe,  have  come 
forth  in  fuch  J  abundance,  and  found  fo  many 
cuftomers,  that  they  almoft  exceede  all  number, 
one  iludie  being  fcarce  able  to  holde  them,  and  two 
yeares  time  too  little  to  perufe  them  all. 

Histrio-Mastix.  The  Players  Scourge  or  Actors 
Tragcedie.  1633.  [4/0.]  (Address  "  To  the 
Christian  Reader."  fo.  I,  back,} 


[In  1648-9  was  printed  Mr.  William  Prynn,  his  defence  of  Stage  plays,  or 
a  Retractation  of  a  former  Book  of  his  called  Histrio-Mastix,  which  he  indig- 
nantly declared  to  be  "a  meere  forgery  and  imposture,"  and,  notwithstanding 
the  sufferings  he  had  undergone  for  the  book,  declared  his  adhesion  to 
Histrio-Mastix,  in  a  broad-side  sheet,  dated  lojan.  1648,  headed :  The  Vindi- 
cation of  William  Prynne  Esquire,  From  some  Scandalous  Papers  and  Im- 
putations newly  Printed  and  Published,  &c.  (Brit.  Museum,  Press-mark  669 
f.  13/67.).  The  "  forgery  "  bears  testimony  to  the  custom  in  acting  women's 
parts,  —  "men  or  boyes  do  wear  the  apparel  of  women,  being  expressly 
forbidden  in  the  Text.  To  this  I  answer,  first,  that  if  this  be  all,  it  is 
a  fault  may  be  easily  amended  ;  and  we  may  do  in  England,  as  they  do  in 
France,  Italy,  Spain,  and  other  places,  where  those  which  play  womens 
parts,  are  women  indeed."  (p.  7.)  L.  T.  S.] 

SH.  ALLN.  BK. — I.  B  B 


SIR  ASTON  COKAINE,  1632. 


Thou  more  then  Poet,  our  Mercurie  (that  art 

Apollo's  Meflenger,  and  do* ft  impart 

His  beft  expreffions  to  our  eares)  live  long 

To  purifie  the  flighted  Englifh  tongue, 

That  both  the  Nymphes  of  Tagus,  and  of  Poe, 

May  not  henceforth  defpife  our  language  fo. 

Nor  could  they  doe  it,  if  they  ere  had  feene 

The  matchlefle  features  of  the  faerie  Queene ; 

Read  Johnfon,  Shakefpeare,  Beaumont,  Fletcher,  or 

Thy  neat-limnd  peeces,  ikilfull  MaJJinger. 

Commendatory  Verses  prefixed  to  MassingeSs  Emperour  of 
tfie  East.     1632.     [4/0,]    C.M.I. 


THOMAS  HEYWOOD,  1632. 

[i]     Guy.     Brother,  if  I  knew  where  to  go  to  warre, 
I  would  not  flay  in  London  one  houre  longer. 
Char[les] .     An  houre !     By  heauen  I  would  not  ftay    a 

minute 
Eust[ace~\.     A  minute,  not  a  moment.      Would  you  put 

a  moment 

Into  a  thoufand  parts,  the  thoufandth  part, 
Would  not  I  linger,  might  I  go  to  warre. 

[>£•  B  3,  b] 
*  *  * 

[2]  Clow\ne\.  Captaine,  a  prize !  wee  two  were  affailed  by 
two  hundred,  and  of  them  two  hundred,  we  kild  all 
but  thefe  two :  thefe  are  the  remainder  of  them  that 
are  left  aliue. 

\sig.  D  2,  6} 

The  Foure  Prentises  of  /  London  /  With  the  Conquest 
of  Jerusalem.  /  ...  Written  and  neivly  revised  by 
Thomas  Hey  wood,  /  .  .  .  1632. 


The  first  passage  refers  to 

As  You  Like  it,  IV,  i.  *  He  that  will  divide  a  minute  into  a 
thousand  parts,  and  break  but  a  part  of  the  thousandth  part  of  a  minute 
in  the  affairs  of  love,'  etc. 

The  second  refers  to  FalstafFs  exaggerations  to  Prince  Hal  in  I  ffenry 
IV,  iii. 

We  are  indebted  to  Mr.  D.  L.  Thomas,  of  Kansas  University,  for  these 
references.  M.] 


37* 


JOHN  MILTON,  1632—1638. 

Then  to  the  well -trod  ftage  anon, 
Iffonsons  learned  fock  be  on, 
Or  fweeteft  Shakejpeare,  Fancy's  child, 
Warble  his  native  wood-notes  wild. 

V  Allegro,  II.  131—134.  Poetical  Works  of  John 
Milton,  by  David  Masson.  Vol.  77,  pp.  205,  422, 
Milton's  Poems.  1645  [12  mo.~\,  p.  36. 

C.  M.  I. 


373 


JOHN  HALES,  OF  ETON.     Before  1633. 

In  a  Converfation  between  Sir  John  Suckling,  Sir  William 
D'Avenant,  Endymion  Porter,  Mr.  Hales  of  Eaton,  and  Ben 
Johnfon,  Sir  John  Suckling,  who  was  a  profefTd  admirer  of 
Shakefpear,  had  undertaken  his  Defence  againft  Ben.  Johnfon 
with  fome  warmth  $  Mr.  Hales,  who  had  fat  ftill  for  fome 
time,  hearing  Ben  frequently  reproaching  him  with  the  want 
of  Learning,  and  Ignorance  of  the  Antients,  told  him  at  laft, 
"That  if  Mr.  Shakefpear  had  not  read  the  Antients,  he  had 
like  wife  not  ftollen  any  thing  from  'em ;  [a  fault  the  other 
made  no  Confcience  of]  and  that  if  he  would  produce  any  one 
Topick  finely  treated  by  any  of  them,  he  would  undertake  to 
Ihew  fomething  upon  the  fame  Subject  at  leaft  as  well  written 
by  Shakefpear." 

Some  Account  of  the  Life  of  Mr.  William  Shakespear,  prefixed  to  the 
edition  of  his  Works  by  Nicholas  Rowe.     1709.      Vol.  I,  p.  xiv. 


[Rowe  gives  no  authority  for  this  anecdote,  but  we  find  another  version  of 
it  given  as  from  the  mouth  of  Dryden  by  Charles  Gildon  in  an  essay 
addressed  to  Dryden  in  1694. 

"To  give  the  World  some  Satisfaction,  that  Shakespear  has  had  as  great 
a  Veneration  paid  his  Excellence  by  men  of  unquestion'd  parts,  as  this  I  now 
express  for  him,  I  shall  give  some  Account  of  what  I  have  heard  from  your 
Mouth,  Sir,  about  the  noble  Triumph  he  gain'd  over  all  the  Ancients  by  the 
Judgment  of  the  ablest  Critics  of  that  time. 

"  The  Matter  of  Fact  (if  my  Memory  fail  me  not)  was  this,  Mr.  Hales,  of 
Eaton,  affirm'd  that  he  wou'd  shew  all  the  Poets  of  Antiquity,  outdone  by 
Shakespear,  in  all  the  Topics,  and  common  places  made  use  of  in  Poetry. 


374  JOHN  HALES,  OF  ETON.     Before,  1633. 

The  Enemies  of  Shakespcar  wou'd  by  no  means  yield  him  so  much  Excellence : 
so  that  it  came  to  a  Resolution  of  a  trial  of  skill  upon  that  Subject ;  the  place 
agreed  on  for  the  Dispute,  was  Mr.  Hales' 's  Chamber  at  Eaton  ;  a  great  many 
Books  were  sent  down  by  the  Enemies  of  this  Poet,  and  on  the  appointed 
day,  my  Lord  Falkland,  Sir  John  Suckling,  and  all  the  Persons  of  Quality 
that  had  Wit  and  Learning,  and  interested  themselves  in  the  Quarrel,  met 
there,  and  upon  a  thorough  Disquisition  of  the  point,  the  Judges  chose  by 
agreement  out  of  this  Learned  and  Ingenious  Assembly,  unanimously  guve 
the  Preference  to  Shakespear.  And  the  Greek  &  Roman  Poets  were 
adjudg'd  to  Vail  at  least  their  Glory  in  that  to  the  English  Hero.  I  cou'd 
wish,  Sir,  you  wou'd  give  the  Public  a  juster  Account  of  this  Affair,  in 
Vindication  of  that  Poet  I  know  you  extreamly  esteem,  and  whom  none  but 
you  excels."  (Some  Reflections  on  Mr.  Rymer's  '  Short  View  of  Tragedy  ' 
and  an  Attempt  at  a  Vindication  of  Shakespear.  Miscellaneous  Letters  and 
Essays,  1694,  pp.  85,  86.) 

The  anecdote  seems  to  have  had  some  foundation  in  truth,  for  Dryden 
himself  reports  Hales's  saying,  "  That  there  was  no  subject  of  which  any 
poet  ever  writ  but  he  would  produce  it  much  better  done  in  Shakespeare." 
{Essay  of  Dramatic  Poesie,  1668,  Scott's  ed.  of  Dryden,  1821,  Vol.  15,  p. 
351.)  And  Nahum  Tate,  in  the  Dedication  to  his  Loyal  General,  1680, 
addressed  to  Edw.  Tayler,  says,  ' '  I  cannot  forget  the  strong  desire  I  have 
heard  you  express  to  see  the  Common  Places  of  our  Shakespear  compar'd  with 
the  most  famous  of  the  Ancients.  *  *  Our  Learned  Hales  was  wont  to 
assert  '  That  since  the  time  of  Orpheus  and  the  Oldest  Poets,  no  Common 
Place  has  been  touch'd  upon,  where  our  Authour  has  not  perform'd  as  well. '  " 
P.  Des  Maizeaux,  who  collects  three  of  these  versions  together,  in  his  Life  of 
the  Ever-memorable  Mr.  John  Hales,  1719  (p.  6l,  note),  adds:  "But  neither 
of  them  [Dryden  nor  Tate]  take  notice  of  the  conversation  above  mention'd, 
nor  do  they  tell  us  how  that  saying  came  to  their  knowledge."  If  the 
conversation  or  "disquisition"  did  take  place,  as  seems  highly  probable, 
it  must  have  been  before  1633,  the  year  in  which  Falkland  died  ;  all  the 
other  partakers  in  it  survived  him.  Hales  was  born  in  1584,  he  died  in 
1656.  L.  T.  S.] 


375 


*  WILLIAM  ROWLEY,  1633. 

Alexander.  Good  fir,  be  fatisfied,  the  Widdow  and  my  lifter 
fung  both  one  fong,  and  what  was't,  but  Crabbed  age  and  youth 
cannot  live  together. 

A  Match  at  Midnight.     Act  v.  sc.  I.     1633. 
Sign.  /2,  back. 


[This  is  the  first  line  of  the  twelfth  song  in  the  Passionate  Pilgrim 
{Globe  edition  of  Works),  which  is  one  of  those  in  that  collection  perhaps 
written  by  Shakespere.  The  song  is  included  in  Percy's  Reliques,  Gilfillan's 
edition,  1858,  vol.  i.,  Book  ii.  16. 

The  star  *  is  appended  to  this  extract,  not  because  there  is  any  doubt 
about  the  allusion  by  Rowley,  but  because  it  is  not  only  now  doubtful 
whether  Shakespere  wrote  the  song,  but  after  Hey  wood's  printed  protest 
(see  before,  p.  231)  it  may  not  have  been  generally  attributed  to  Shakespere 
in  1633,  though  published  under  his  name.  L.  T.  S.] 


376 


JAS.  SHIRLEY,  1633. 

There  Gold  and  tram  was  impudently  inferred, 
i\nd.  Courtier].  And  'twas  a  tafke  too  infolent,  in  that  point 

You'd  willingly  give  a  pound  of  your  proud  fleih 

To  be  releaft. 
Roll[iardo.]  I  heard  a  pound  of  flefh,  a  lewes  demand  once, 

Twas  gravely  now  remembred  of  your  Lordihip — releaft  ? 

Fortune,  and  courtefie  of  opinion 

Gives  many  men  Nobility  of  Birth, 

That  never  durft  doe  nobly,  nor  attempt 

Any  deligne,  but  fell  below  their  Honors. 

The  /  Bird  in  a  cage./    [II.  i.]  A  Comedie.     As  it  hath 
beene  Presented  at  the  Phoenix  in  Drury  Lane.      The 

Author  lames  Shirley,  /  Servan  to  Her  Majesty 

London  /  Printed  by  B.  Alsop,  and  T.  Fawcet :  for 
William  Cooke,  and  are  to  be  sold  at  his  Shop  neere 
Furnivals-InneGz.te,'mHolbonie.  1633.  4to.  sign,  E,  3. 


A  reference  to  Shylock,  no  doubt.— Miss  E.  PHIPSON. 


377 


THOMAS   NABBES,   1633. 

fam[es\.  How  {hall  we  fpend  the  day  Sam? 

Sam.  Let's  home  to  our  ftudies  and  put  cafes. 

lam.  Hang  cafes  and  bookes  that  are  fpoyl'd  with  them.  Give 
me  lohnfon  and  Shakefpeare ;  there's  learning  for  a  gentleman. 
I  tell  thee  Sam,  were  it  not  for  the  dancing-fchoole  and  Play- 
houfes,  I  would  not  ftay  at  the  Innes  of  Court  for  the  hopes  of 
a  chiefe  luftice-fhip. 

Tottenham  /  Covrt./  A  Pleasant  /  Comedie  :  /  Acted  in  the 
Yeare  MDCXXXIIL/  At  the  private  House  in  Salisbury- 
Court. I  The  Author  /  Thomas  Nabbes./  At  London,! 
Printed  by  Richard  Ovlton,  for  /  Charles  Greene  ;  and  are 
to  be  sold  /  at  the  Signe  of  the  White  Lyon,  in  /  Pavls 
Church-yard. I  i638./  Act.  3  Sccen.  I.  p.  27. 


In  the  list  of  "The  Persons,"  James  and  Sam  are  thus  described  : 
"  I  AMES.  A  wild  young  gentleman  of  the  Innes  of  Court, 

SAM.  A  fine  Gentleman  of  the  Innes  of  Court,  and  Brother  to  BELLAMIE." 

PONSONBY  A,  LYONS. 


378 


TH.   BANCROFT,  1633. 

But  the  chqfl  lay  not  euery  fongjler  wearesy 
Nor  of  Appollo 's  fonnes  prooue  all  his  heires  ; 
'Tis  not  for  all  to  reach  at  Shakefpeares  height, 
Or  think  to  grow  to  f olid  lohnfons  weight, 
To  lid  fo  fair e  as  Chapman  for  a  fame, 
Or  match  (your  family}  the  Beaumonts  name, 

Th.  Bancroft,  before  his  Glutton's  Feaver,  1633, 
To  the  Nobly  accomplisht  Gentleman,  Wolstan 
Dixie,  Esquire.  (Roxb.  Club  reprint,  1817, 
sign.  A2.) 

B.  N. 


379 


JOHN   FORD,  1633,  1638. 

I  am  wise  enough  to  tell  you  I  can  board  where  I  see  occa- 
sion ;17 

'Tis  pity  she's  a  Whore  (1633).     Act  II,  sc.  iv.     Ford's 

Works,  ed.  Dyce,  1869,  i.  144. 

17  /.  e.  jest  .  .     The  words  in  the  text  are  borrowed  from  Nic.  Bottom, 
confessedly  a  very  facetious  personage. — Gifford. 


z£.  Act  V.  sc.  iv.  p.  195-6,  let  my  hot  hare  have  law  ere  he  be 
hunted  to  his  death,  that,  if  it  be  possible,  he  may  post  to  hell  in 
the  very  act  of  his  damnation.9 

9  "  This  infernal  sentiment  has  been  copied  from  Shakespeare  [Hamlet, 
act  iii.  sc.  3]  by  several  writers  who  were  nearly  his  contemporaries.  Reed" 
— ib. 


Love's  Sacrifice,  printed  1633. 

On  p.  65  of  Ford's  Works,  ed.  Dyce,  vol.  ii,  Gifford  says  in  a  note, 
"  Ford  has  contrived,  by  several  direct  quotations  from  Shakespeare,  to  put 
the  reader  in  mind  of  lago,  to  whom,  for  his  misfortune,  D'Avolos  bears 
about  the  same  degree  of  resemblance  that  the  poor  Duke  does  to  Othello." 
Parts  of  Act  III,  scenes  ii.  and  iii.  are  evidently  modeld  on  Oth.  III.  iii, 
and  the  Rev.  W.  Harrison  has  kindly  noted  the  following  touches  in  proof 
of  Gifford' s  remark  : — 

Ford,  Love's  Sacrifice,  Act  III,  Shakspere,  Othello,  III.  iii. 

Works,  vol.  ii. 

D'Avolos.     A     shrewd    ominous  lago.  Ha !     I  like  not  that. 

token  ;  Othello.  What  dost  thou  say  ?    35 

I  like  not  that  neither.  lago.  Nothing,  my  lord  :  or  if— I 
Duke.  Again  !    What  is't  you  like  know  not  what. 

not? 

III.  ii.  Works,  ii.  63. 

Duke.  I  hear  you,  Sir ;  what  is't  ? 
Nothing,  I  protest  to  your  highness. 
ib.  p.  65. 


JOHN  FORD,  1633,  1638. 


D'Av.    Beshrew  my    heart,    but 

that's  not  so  good. 
Duke.  Ha,  what's  that  thou  mis- 

likest  ? 
D'Av.  Nothing,  my  lord  : — but  I 

was    hammering   a   conceit    of 

mine  own.—  ib.  p.  62. 

I'll  know  't,  I  vow  I  will. 
Did  not  I  note  your  dark  abrupted 

ends 
Of  words  half  spoke  ?  your  "  wells, 

if  all  were  known  "  ? 
Your  short  "  I  like  not  that  "  ?  your 

girds  and  "buts"? 
Yes,  sir,  I  did ;  such  broken  language 

argues 
More  matter  than  your  subtlety  shall 

hide: 

Tell  me,  what  is't  ?  by  honour's  self, 
I'll  know. 

ib.  III.  iii.      Works,  ii.  67. 
D?Av.  What  would  you  know,  my 

lord! 

...  I  know  nothing. 
Duke.  Thou  liest,  dissembler  !  on 

thy  brow  I  read 
Distracted   horrors    figur'd    in    thy 

looks 

Speak,  on  thy  duty ;  we  thy  prince 
command. 

D'Av.  I  trust  your  highness  will 

pardon  me  ... 

Should  I  devise  matter  to  feed  your 
distrust,  or  suggest  likelihoods 
without  appearance.  p.  67 

Duke.    The    icy    current  of  my 

frozen  blood 

Is  kindled  up  in  agonies  as  hot 
As  flames  of  burning  sulphur. 


Oth.  Why  dost  thou  ask  ? 

lago.  But  for  a  satisfaction  of  my 

thought 
No  farther  harm. 


By  heaven,  he  echoes  me, 

As  if  there  were  some  monster  in  his 

thought 
Too   hideous  to  be  shown.     Thou 

dost  mean  something. 
I   heard   thee  say  but  now, — Thou 

likedst  not  that, 
When  Cassio  left  my  wife;   What 

didst  not  like  ? 
And,  when  I  told  thee — he  was  of 

my  counsel 
In  my  whole  course  of  wooing,  thou 

criedst,  Indeed  I 
And  didst  contract  and  purse  thy 

brow  together, 
As  if  thou  then  hadst  shut  up  in  thy 

brain 
Some  horrible  conceit  :  If  thou  dost 

love  me, 

Shew  me  thy  thought. 
Therefore  these  stops  of  thine  fright 

me  the  more. 


lago.  Good  my  lord,  pardon 

me.  133 

I  am  to  pray  you,  not  to  strain  my 

speech 

To  grosser  issues,  nor  to  larger  reach 
Than  to  suspicion.  220 

Oth.    Never,  lago.     Like  to  the 

Pontic  sea, 
Whose  icy  current  and  compulsive 

course 
Ne'er  feels  retiring  ebb,  but  keeps 

due  on 


JOHN  FORD,  1633,  1638.  381 

To  the  Propontic,  and  the  Helles- 
pont ; 
Even  so  my  bloody  thoughts,  with 

violent  pace, 
Shall  ne'er  look  back,  ne'er   ebb  to 

humble  love, 

Till  that  a  capable  and  wide  revenge 
Swallow  them  up. 

Take  heed  you  prove  this  true.  Villain,  be  sure  thou  prove  my  love 

D'Av.  My  lord.         (p.  69)  a  whore.  359 

Dtike.  If  not,        Be  sure  of  it  j   give  me  the  ocular 

I'll  tear  thee  joint  by  joint. — Phew  !  proof.  .  .  .  360 

methinks  Make  me  to  see 't.  364 

It  should  not  be  : — Bianca  ! or  woe  upon  thy  life  !       366 

hell  of  hells  ! 
See  that  you  make  it  good. 

Secco  .  .  .  Keep  your  bow  close,  vixen.*     \Pinches  Morosa.] 

The  Fancies,  Chast  and  Noble.     1638.     III.  iii. 

Ford's  Works  ;  ed.  Dyce,  1869,  ii.  277. 

*  "  This  is  taken  from  Ancient  Pistol's  injunction  to  his  disconsolate 
spouse  at  parting  ['keep  close'  in  Shakespeare's  Henry  V,  act  ii.  sc.  3, 
where  the  4to  (not  the  folio)  has  "  buggle  boe." — Dyce],  and  with  her  it 
might  have  been  safely  left."— Gifford,  ib. 


Crabbed  age  and  youth  t 
Cannot  jump  together  / 
One  is  like  good  luck, 

'  Tother  like  foul  weather. 

Fancies,  Act  IV.  sc.  i.     Ford's  Works,  1869,  ii.  291. 
•f*  This  is  patched-up  from  a  despicable  ditty  in  the  Passionate  Pilgrim, 
foolishly  attributed  to  Shakespeare. — GifFord,  ib.   ii.   291.     I  don't  agree 
with  Gifford's  '  despicable. '— F. 


Neither  the  lord  nor  lady,  nor  the  bawd, 
Which  shuffled  them  together,  Opportunity,  § 
Have  fasten'd  stain  on  my  unquestion'd  name. 

The  Lady's  Ttial  (licenst  May  3,  1638,  publisht 
1639),  Act  III.  sc.  iii.  Ford's  Works,  ed. 
Dyce,  1869,  iii.  57. 

Here  Ford  had  in  his  thoughts  some  lines  of  Shakespeare's  Lucrece, 
"O  Opportunity,  thy  guilt  is  great  !   .... 
Thou  foul  abettor  !  thou  notorious  bawd  !  " — Dyce. 


3&2  JOHN  FORD,  1633,  1638. 

With  frightful  lightnings,  amazing  noises  ; 

But  now,  th'  enchantment  broke,  J  'tis  the  land  of  peace, 

Where  hogs  and  tobacco  yield  fair  increase. 

T.  Middleton.     Anything  for  a  Quiet  Life,  V.  iii.  Works,  iv.  499. 

%  Treated  by  Malone  (Variorum  Shakspere,  1821,  xv.  424-5)33  an  allu- 
sion to  Prospero's  island,  in  The  Tempest.     The  reference  is  Dyce's. 


For  the  Middleton-  Witch  and  Shakspere-Macdeth  references,  &c.,  see 
Appendix  B.  F.  J.  F. 

In  Middleton's  Mayor  of  Queenborough,  (Works,  i.  197,)  which  Dyce 
thinks  'was  among  the  author's  first  attempts  at  dramatic  composition,'  but 
which  mentions  in  Act  V.  sc.  i.  '  a  play  called  the  Wild  Goose  Chase,  that 
may  be  Fletcher's,'  produced  about  1621,  Reed  says  on  the  following  pas- 
sage, p.  197, 

Methinks  the  murder  of  Constantino 

Speaks  to  me  in  the  voice  of 't,  and  the  wrongs 

Of  our  late  queen,  slipt  both  into  one  organ. 

"  Shakespeare  seems  to  have  imitated  this  in  the  Tempest,  A.  3.  S.  3. 

.  .   .  Methought  the  billows,  spoke,  and  told  me  of  it ; 

The  winds  did  sing  it  to  me  ;  and  the  thunder, 

That  deep  and  dreadful  organ-pipe,  pronounc'd 

The  name  of  Prosper." 

But,  says  Dyce,  '  The  date  of  The  Tempest  must  be  settled  before  we  can 
determine  whether  Shakespeare  or  Middleton  was  the  imitator.' 

F.  J.  F. 


SIR  JOHN  SUCKLING,  (?)  1633—41. 

The  Prince  of  darknejffe  is  a  Gentleman, 
Mahu,  Mohu  is  his  name, 

The  Goblins,  III.  i.  ed.  1646,  p.  25. 

The  1643  ed.   has   "  Maha,    mahu,"  p.  26 ;  but  the  words  are  rightly 
"  Mahu,  Mohu  "  in  Fragtnenta  Aurea,  ed.  1658,  p.  112  : 

("  The  Prince  of  darkness  is  a  gentleman, 
Modo  he's  called  and  Mahu." 

Lear,  III.  148-9.) 

"  Pel\legrln\.  /'ft  ee'n  fo  ?     Why  then, 
Farewell  the  plumed  Troops,  and  the  big  Wars, 
Which  made  ambition  vertue." 

The  Goblins,  IV,  i.  p.  43,  ed.  1646. 

(Othello,  III.  iii.  349-50,  altering  '  That  make*  to  'which 
made/) 

"  i  Th[ief.]  You  mall  Sir. 

Let  me  fee — the  Author  of  bold  Beauchams,  and  Englarids 
Joy." 

"  Po[et.]  The  laft  was  a  well  writ  peice,  I  aflure  you, 
A  Brittane  /  take  it  -,  and  Shakefpeares  very  way  : 

/  defire  to  fee  the  man," 

The  Goblins,  IV.  i.  p.  45,  ed.  1646. 

[Other  likenesses  occur  in  the  play,  as,] 
"  Orsa.  The  Have  of  Chaunce 
One  of  Fortune's  fooles  ; 


SIR   JOHN    SUCKLING,    (?)    1633 — 41- 

A  thing  me  kept  alive  on  earth 
To  make  her  fport." 

The  Goblins,  III.  i.  p.  33,  ed.  1648. 

("so  we  profess 
Ourselves  to  be  the  slaves  of  chance." 

Winters  Tale,  IV.  iv.  551. 
"  Rom.  O,  I  am  fortune's  fool." 

R.  <^y.  III.  i.  141.) 


"  And  give  out  that  Anne  my  wife  is  dead." 


"  Na\_JJuras\.  Rare  Rogue  in  Buckram, 
let  me  bite  thee," 

The  Goblins,  III.  i.  p.  26,  ed.  1646 ;  p.  27,  ed.  1648. 

(The  '  Anne '  quotation  of  Suckling's  is  meant  for 

"  give  out 
That  Anne  my  wife  is  rick  and  like  to  die." 

Rich.  Ill,  IV.  ii.  57-8. 

The  second  phrase  is  from  Falstaff's  "  two  rogues  in  buckram  suits. "- 
I  Hen.  IV,  II.  iv.  213.) 


"No,  no,  it  muft  be  that 
His  anger,  and  the  fearch  declare  it ; 
The  secret  of  the  prison-house  mall  out  I  fweare." 

The  Goblins,  V.  i.  p.  49,  ed.  1646. 

(Cp.  Hamlet,  I.  v.  14  : 

"  But  that  I  am  forbid 
To  tell  the  secrets  of  my  prison-house.") 

H.  C.  HART. 


SIR  JOHN  SUCKLING,  (?)  1633—41 

(Died  Way  7,  1641.) 

[King].  .  The  qtieftion  is,  whether  we  {hall  rely 

Upon  our  Guards  agen  ? 

"  Zir[iff].  By  no  meanes  Sir  ? 

Hoffe  on  his  future  fortunes,  or  their  Love 

Unto  his  perfon,  has  fo  ficklied  o're 

Their  refolutions,  that  we  muft  not  truft  them, 

Befides,  it  were  but  needlefTe  here  ;  " 

Aglaura,  Act  IV.  sc.  i.     Fragmenta  Aurea,  1648,  p.  33. 
(A  reminiscence  of  Hamlet's  (III.  i.  84-5) 

"  And  thus  the  native  hue  of  resolution 
Is  sicklied  o'er  with  the  pale  cast  of  thought." 

—LESLIE  STEPHEN;  later,  HY.  C.  HART.) 


(I  also  think  that  in  the  Epilogue  to  Aglaura, 

"  Plays  are  like  Feafts,  and  every  A61  mould  bee 
Another  Courfe,  and  ftill  varietie  : 
But  in  good  faith,  provifion  of  wit 
Is  growne  of  late  fo  difficult  to  get, 
That  do  we  what  we  can,  we  are  not  able, 
Without  cold  meats  to  furnifh  out  the  Table." 

Fragntenta  Aurea,  1646,  p.  82. 

Suckling,  as  such  a  perpetual  plagiarist  from  Shakspere,  may  have  had  an 
eye,  in  the  last  line  above,  to — 

"  The  funeral  baked  meats 
Did  coldly  furnish  out  the  marriage  Tables." 

Hamlet,  I.  ii.  180-1.) 

Aglaura  was  published  in  1638  (Poems,  play,  etc.,  of  Sir  John  Suckling, 
ed.  Hazlitt,  1874,  I,  p.  xxxvi.). 

H.  C.  HAPT. 

SH.  ALLN.  BK. — I.  C  C 


386 


SIR  JOHN  SUCKLING,  (?)  1633—41. 

"  G\raineverf].  So  pale  and  fpiritlefle  a  wretch, 
Drew  Priam's  curtaine  in  the  dead  of  night, 
And  told  him  halfe  his  Troy  was  burnt " 

Brennoralt,  A  Tragedy,  II.  i.  p.  16  (in  Fragmenta 
Aurea),  ed.  1646. 

(A  plagiarism  from  2  Henry  IV,  I.  i.  70-3  :  ^ 

"  Even  such  a  man,  so  faint,  so  spiritless, 
So  dull,  so  dead  in  look,  so  woe-begone, 
Drew  Priam's  curtain  in  the  dead  of  night, 
And  would  have  told  him  half  his  Troy  was  burnt.") 


"  Iph\igeni\.  Will  you  not  fend  me  neither, 

Your  picture  when  y'  are  gone  ? 

That  when  my  eye  is  famimt  for  a  looke, 

It  may  have  where  to  feed, 

And  to  the  painted  Feaft  invite  my  heart." 

The  Tragedy  of  Brennoralt,  V.  i.     ib.  1646,  p.  44. 

Betwixt  mine  eye  and  heart  a  league  is  took 
And  each  doth  now  good  turn  unto  the  other 
When  that  mine  eye  is  famished  for  a  look, 
Or  heart  in  Jove  with  sighs  himself  doth  smother, 
With  my  loves  picture  then  mine  eye  doth  feast 
And  to  the  painted  banquet  bids  my  heart." 

Shakspere,  Sonnet  47.) 


Sir  John  Suckling,  baptized  Feb.  10,  1608-9,  died  7  May,  1641  (Lysons, 
Environs  of  London,  iii.  588-9). 

Brennoralt  is  supposed  to  have  been  published  in  1639  (Poems,  &c.  I.  xi.), 
and  appears  to  have  been  written  about  the  time  of  the  Scotch  rebellion  in 
1639.  It  was  first  printed  among  Suckling's  works  in  8VO  1646  (Halliwell, 
Diet,  of  Old  Plays). 


SIR   JOHN    SUCKLING,    (?)    1633 — 41. 


387 


"  Iph Shee's  gone  : 

Shee's  gone.     Life  like  a  Dials  hand  hath  ftolne 
From  me  the  faire  figure,  e're  it  was  perceiv'd." 
The  Tragedy  of  Brennoralt,  V.  i.  {in  Fragmenta  Aurea],  ed.  1646,  p.  48. 

(  "  Ah  !  yet  doth  beauty  like  a  dial-hand 

Steal  from  his  figure  and  no  pace  perceived." 

bhakspere.  Sonnet  104.) 
H.  C.  HART. 


388 


THE 

TWO 

NOBLE 

KINSMEN: 

Prefented   at  the   Black  friers 

by  the  Kings  Maiefties  fervants, 
with  great  applaufe  : 


Written  by  the  memorable  Worthies 
of  their  time  •- 

•  Mr.  John  Fletcher,  and    1  G     . 
William  Shakfpeare.j 


JMr. 
\Mr. 


[Device] 


Printed  at  London  by  Tho.  Cotes,  for  lohn  Waterfon  : 

and  are  to  be  fold  at  the  figne  of  the  Crowne 

in  Pauls  Church-yard.     1634. 


THE   TWO   NOBLE    KINSMEN,    1634.  389 

\_The  Two  Noble  Kinsmen  was  entered  in  the  Stationers'  Registers  on 
April  8,  1634  :  "  Master  lohn  Waterson  Entred  for  his  Copy  vnder  the 
hands  of  Sir  Henry  Herbert  and  master  Aspley  warden  a  Tragi  Comedy 
called  the  two  noble  kinsmen  by  lohn  ffletcher  and  William  Shakespeare 
vjd." 

Shaksperean  critics  are  divided  into  two  main  camps  concerning  Shak- 
spere's  part-authorship  of  the  play.  The  Fletcherian  parts  are  well  defined, 
and  generally  accepted.  The  un-Fletcherian  parts  have  been  of  late 
ascribed  to  Massinger,  and  the  tendency  nowadays  is  more  and  more  to 
discredit  the  ascription  to  Shakspere  of  a  share  in  the  play's  creation. 
Mr.  Tucker  Brooke  in  his  Shakespeare  Apocrypha,  1908,  p.  xliii,  says  : 
"  That  portion  of  The  Two  Noble  Kinsmen  which  is  obviously  not 
Fletcher's  contains  some  of  the  most  brilliant  of  Jacobean  poetry.  It  is 
not  less  certain,  I  think,  that  it  contains  no  spark  of  psychological  insight 
or  philosophy  of  life  which  can  in  sober  moments  be  thought  either  worthy 
of  Shakespeare  or  even  suggestive  of  him."  The  play  is  rich  in  language 
and  poor  in  structure.  M.] 


390 


WILLIAM  HABINGTON,   1634. 

To  a  Friend, 
Inviting  him  to  a  meeting  upon  promife. 

May  you  drinke  beare,  or  that  adult'rate  wine 
Which  makes  the  zeale  of  Amjlerdam  divine  j 
If  you  make  breach  of  promife.     I  have  now 
So  rich  a  facke,  that  even  your  felfe  will  bow 
T'  adore  my  Genius.     Of  this  wine  mould  Prynne 
Drinke  but  a  plenteous  glafle,  he  would  beginne 
A  health  to  Shakefpeares  ghoft. 

Castara.     1634.     The  Second  Part.     [4/0.]     8///  Poem,  />.  52. 


Habington  refers  to  William  Prynne,  the  author  of  the  Histrio-Masti.\ 
of  1633,  from  which  we  have  given  an  extract.  He  supposes  Prynne,  under 
the  genial  stimulus  of  his  rich  sack,  to  put  off  the  Puritan,  and  to  toast 
the  prince  of  playwrights.  This  Prynne  is  probably  the  second  saint 
described  in  Hudibras,  Part  III.  C.  ii.  11.  421-4  &  11.  1065-6. 

There  was  a  former  Histrio-Mastix,  published  in  1610,  which  is  said  to 
contain  an  allusion  to  Shakespeare's  Troilus  and  Cressida,  1.  iii.  1.  73  :  but 
there  is  evidence  to  prove  that  it  had,  by  some  years,  precedence  of  Shake- 
speare's play.  Some  critics  have  seen  in  the  expression  "  mastick  jaws"  an 
allusion  by  Shakespeare  to  the  Histrio-Mastix  of  1610  :  others  an  allusion 
to  Decker's  Satyro-Mastix.  Such  fancies  are  wholly  without  foundation. 
The  word  "mastick"  in  Troilus  and  Cressida  means  either  slimy,  or 
gnashing,  in  either  case  conveying  a  singularly  forcible  and  offensive  image 
of  Thersites'  jaws.  "  Mastick  "  is  either  from  the  Greek  /iaerr/XJ?,  the  gum 
of  the  lentisk  tree,  or  from  the  Latin  mastico,  the  equivalent  of  the  Greek 
HcuTTixaa),  from  naarat,,  the  jaws  :  certainly  not  from  mastix,  which  means 
a  whip  or  scourge.  C.  M.  I. 

[See  on  this  subject  Mr.  R.  Simpson's  arguments  in  his  School  of 
Shakspere,  1878.  Vol.  I.  p.  Q.I 


JAMES  SHIRLEY,  1634. 

[Jacintha,  after  listening  to  her  several  suitors  who  mutually 
dispraise  each  other  to  her,  exclaims], — 

Falftaffe,  I  will  beleeve  thee, 
There  is  noe  faith  in  vilanous  man. 

The  Example,  1637,  Act  II,  Sc.  i,  sign.  C  4,  back. 


Shirley's  play,  The  Example,  was  licensed  in  1634,  though  not  printed  till 
later.  Jacintha  here  refers  to  Falstaffs  answer  to  Prince  Hal,  I  Part  Henry 
IV,  Act  II.  sc.  iv. 

"You  rogue,  here's  lime  in  this  sack  too  :  there  is  nothing  but  roguery  to 
be  found  in  villanous  man."  Compare  the  same  sentiment  in  Romeo  and 
Juliet,  III.  ii,  where  the  nurse  says, 

"There  is  no  trust 
No  faith,  no  honesty  in  men." 

(See  before,  p.  283.) 


392 

THO.  RANDOLPH,    1634  (?). 

Pen.  Who  would  carry  you  up  to  London,  if  the  Waggon- 
driver  ihould  think  himfelf  as  good  a  man  as  his  mafterr 

Die.  Why  we   would    ride    thither   on  our  own  Hackney- 
Con  fci  en  ces. 

Pen.  Nay  if  this  were  fo,  the  very  Tailers  though  they  damn'd 
you  all  to  hell  under  their  Ihop-boards,  would  fcorn  to  come  to 
the  making  up  of  as  good  a  man  as  Pericles  Prince  of  Tyre. 
Tho.  Randolph.     Hey  for  Honesty,  ed.  1651. 

(R.  died  1634.     See  Thomas  Randolph,  1651.^—;.  O.  H.-P. 


ANONYMOUS,  1635. 

Hulh,  where  is  this  fidle?  in  the  ayre  ?  I  can  perceave  nothing. 

The  Lady  Mother.     1635.     Act  II.    sc.  i.     Bullen's    Old 
Plays,  vol.  ii.  p.  132. 

Warme  charity,  no  more  inflames  my  breft 
Than  does  the  glowewormes  ineffectual  fire 
The  ha[n]d  that  touches  it. 

Ibid.     Act  IV.  sc.  i.  p.  178. 

The  allusions  are  to  Tempest,  I.  ii.  387,  and  Hamlet,  I.  v.  89-90.  The 
1  file  '  =  defile,  Macbeth  (III.  i.  65),  occurs  later  : 

Send  him  (Death)  to  file  thy  house, 
Strike  with  his  dart  thy  Children  and  thyselfe. 
Ibid.     Act  V.  sc.  ii.  p.  193. 

H.  A.  EVANS. 

Till  doomfday  alters  not  complexion : 
Death's  the  belt  painter  then:  &c.  &c. 

Besides  the  other  passages  referred  to  in  the  above,  pages  no  and  137, 
these  may  be  added  :  A  Mad  World,  III.  i.,  with  Rom.  andjul.,  I.  iv.  35  ; 
The  Honest  Whore,  IV.  i.,  with  Hamlet,  I.  v.  29;  Ibid.  IV.  iii.,  with 
Falstaffs  exclamation,  I  Henry  IV.,  V.  iii.  51. 

One  or  two  of  these  may  be  coincidences  of  expressions  used  at  that  time. 
But  none  can  doubt  that  Middleton  was  influenced  by  Shakspere,  and  I  add 
these  references,  because  they  bear  on  the  question — Which  was  the  more 
(likely  to  borrow  "Black  spirits  and  white,"  &c..?  though  for  my  own  part, 
,1  believe  it  can  be  shown  that  these  lines  were  ooDularlv  known. — B.  N. 


393 


THOMAS  HEYWOOD,  1635. 

Our  moderne  Poets  to  that  paffe  are  driven, 
Thofe  names  are  curtal'd  which  they  firfl  had  given  j 
And,  as  we  wifht  to  have  their  memories  drown'd, 
We  fcarcely  can  afford  them  halfe  their  found. 
Rob.  Greene.      Greene,  who  had  in  both  Academies  ta'ne 
Degree  of  Mailer,  yet  could  never  gaine 
To  be  call'd  more  than  Robin :  who  had  he 
Profeft  ought  fave  the  Mufe,  Serv'd,  and  been 

Free 

After  a  feven  yeares  Prentifelhip ;  might  have 
(With  credit  too)  gone  Robert  to  his  grave 

Christ.  Mario.  Mario,  renown'd  for  his  rare  art  and  wit, 

Could  ne're  attaine  beyond  the  name  of  Kit ; 
Although  his  Hero  and  Leander  did 

Thomas  Kid.  Merit  addition  rather.     Famous  Kid 

nom.  watson.  Was  call'd  but  Tom .     Tom  Watfon,  though  he  wrote 
Able  to  make  Apollo's  felfe  to  dote 
Upon  his  Mufe  -,  for  all  that  he  could  ftrive, 
Yet  never  could  to  his  full  name  arrive. 

Thomas  Nash.  Tom  Nofti  (in  his  time  of  no  fmall  efteeme) 
Could  not  a  fecond  fyllable  redeeme. 

Franmont™'  Excellent  Bewmont,  in  the  formoft  ranke 

Of  the  rar'ft  Wits,  was  never  more  than  Franck. 
*.  Mellifluous  Shake-fpeare,  whofe  inchanting  Quill 
Commanded  Mirth  or  Paffion,  was  but  Will. 


394  THOMAS    HEYWOOD,    1635. 

ByKon.    And  famous  Johnfon,  though  his  learned  Pen 

Be  dipt  in  Ca/ialy,  is  ftill  but  Ben. 
r  'Fletcher  and  Welfter,  of  that  learned  packe 


± 


None  of  the  mean'  ft,  yet  neither  was  but  Jacke. 

Deckers  but  Tom  ;  nor  May,  nor  Middle  ton. 

And  hee's  now  but  Jacke  Foord,  that  once  were  l  John. 

The  Hierarchic  of  the  Blessed  Angells.     Lib.  4.     1635. 
p.  206.     [/&.] 


[In  the  affectionate  familiarity  of  his  friends  Shakespere  "was  but  Will" 
or  *'  good  Will "  (see  John  Davies  of  Hereford,  before,  p.  219),  though  they 
did  not  often  express  his  "curtal'd"  name  in  print.  He  himself  made 
delicate  and  skilful  use  of  this  common  abbreviation  in  his  Sonnets  135  and 
136.  L.  T.  S.] 


395 


THOMAS  HEYWOOD,  1635. 
CHAP.     II. 

A  Catalogue  offundry  Helluoes,  and  great  quaffers  amongst 
the  Grecians  :  Infamous  for  their  vinojity. 

Come  now  to  fpeake  of  the  ancient  Carowfers :  1  will 
firft  begin  with  the  merry  Gree&es.  From  whom  the 
Good-fellowes  of  this  age  would  borrow  that  name,  and 
fee  what  frollike  healthers  I  can  find  amongfl  them  .... 
He  that  dranke  immoderately,  and  above  his  ftrength,  had  the 
denomination  of  Philocothomfta  :  Among  whom  Nestor  a  great 
*  Old  JVeftor,  even  in  his  third  age,  was  numberd;  drinker. 
He  was  obferved  to  take  his  rowfe  freely,  and  more  at  the  liege 
of  Troy,  then  the  Generall  Agamemnon,  whom  Achilles  up- 
braided for  his  immoderate  drinking :  Neither,  in  the  hotteft 
of  the  battell,  was  hee  ever  knowne  to  venter  further  then  within 
fight  of  his  Bottle  :  To  whom  Sir  lohn  Falflqffe  may  not  unfitly 
be  compared,  who  never  durft  ride  [p.  n]  without  a  Piftoll, 
charg'd  with  Sacke,  by  his  fide. 

Philocothonista,  /  Or,  The  /  Drvnkard,  /  Opened,  Dis- 
sected, and  Anatomized.  /  [woodcut:  see  next  page\ 
London,/  Printed  by  Robert  Rawor -^/and  are  to  be  sold 
at  his  house  /  neere  the  White-Hart  Taverne  in 
Smithfield.  1635.; 


396 


THOMAS    HEYWOOD,    1635. 


"Curious  if  an  allusion  to  old  play  of  Tr.  6°  £>." — J.  O.  Hll.-P. 
Part  sent  by  Dr.  Ingleby.  The  Title  to  this  little  book  has  the  well-known 
foreign  cut  of  some  old  drunkards1  at  table.  I  got  it  from  the  Ballad 
Society  some  time  ago  to  use  elsewhere  for  certain  swinish  Shakspereans  of 
our  own  day,  whose  performances  it  represents  ;  but  as  the  occasion  has 
past  by,  I  may  as  well  add  the  cut  here.  Falstaff's  pistol,  or  bottle  of 
sack,  is  in  I  Henry  IV,  V.  iii.  51-4. — F.  J.  F. 

1  There  is  an  odd  list  of  25  euphemistic  names  of  a  Drunkard,  on  p.  44,  45. 


397 


SIR    H.   MILDMAY,    1635. 

1635.  .  Maij.    .    6 :    not  farre  from   home  all    day   att   the 
bla  :  ffryers  &  a  play  this  day  Called  the  More  of  Venice. 

Sir  H.  Mildmay's  Diary,  1633-1651.     MS.  Harl. 

454,  leaf  10,  back,  5  lines  from  foot. 


Given  mainly  in  Halliwell's  Folio  Shakespeare  .  .  .  where  the  editor  says  » 
of  Othello: 

' '  It  was  acted  before  the  King  and  Queen  at  Hampton  Court  on 
December  8th,  1636.  ...  A  year  or  two  previously,  an  actress  had 
appeared  on  the  English  stage  in  the  character  of  Desdemona." 

Unluckily  there  is  no  entry  in  Sir  H.  Mildmay's  accounts  at  the  other  end 
of  the  MS.,  of  what  he  paid  to  hear  Othello,  but  I  suppose  it  was  3^.,  or 
that  some  friend  paid  for  him.  In  the  account  for  April,  1635,  MS.  leaf 
173,  back,  lines  n,  12,  are  the  entries — 

£          s  d 

Expended  att  the  bla  :  fryers — 28  oo  —  03  =.  oo  =. 

for  wine  to  Supper  &  before  oo  —  01  =  oo  = 

And  on  turning  back  to  the  Diary,  leaf  10,  back,  I  find  under  April  28, 
"  this  after  Noone,  I  spente  att  a  playe  wth  good  Company  " — and  so  forgot 
to  say  what  the  play  was  :  probably  not  one  of  Shakspere's,  or  it  would 
have  overpowerd  the  recollection  of  the  'good  company.' 

Two  or  three  other  items  from  the  account  (If.  273,  back),  including  is. 
for  Fletcher's  Elder  Brother,  may  interest  the  reader. 

£       ^        d 

To  Hughe  Ap  :  Jones  for  the  hire  of  :  2  :  Coache 

horses  to  the  Justice  seate  oo  —  10  r=  oo  = 

To  him  for  the  haye  of  my  horses  oo  zr:  04  •=.  06  = 


To  Ann  Mannfeilde  for  Cowe  heeles  oo  =  01  =  06  = 

To  Henry  Pinsor  In  full  for  his  pickture  01  =  oo  =  oo  =r 

To  a  playe  eodem  Called  the  Elder  Brother  00  =  011=00:= 

To  the  poore  of  bridewell  with  Mr.  Caldewell  oo  =  oo  =  06  = 

To  Besse  Preston  In  parte  for  a  bottle  of  stronge 

waters  :  2  :  Maij  oo  =  05  =  oo  = 

To  El :  Preston  In  full  for  stronge  waters  oo  =  06  =  oo  = 


To  Mr.  Lea  :  his  Man  for  a  shagge  hatt  and  bands         oo  =   14  =  oo 
Expences  In  boates  etc.  this  :  ioth  [of  May]  oo  =  02  ==  06 

[F.  J.  F.] 


398 


THOMAS  CRANLEY,  1635. 

[The  defcription  of  Amanda's  room] 

And  then  a  heape  of  bookes  of  thy  devotion 

Lying  upon  a  fhelfe  clofe  underneath, 

Which  thou  more  think'ft  upon  then  on  thy  death. 
They  are  not  prayers  of  a  grieved  foule, 
That  with  repentance  doth  his  finnes  condole. 

But  amorous  Pamphlets,  that  beft  likes  thine  eyes, 

And  Songs  of  love,  and  Sonets  exquifit. 

Among  thefe  Venus,  and  Adonis  lies, 

With  Salmacis,  and  her  Hermaphrodite  : 

Pigmalions  there,  with  his  transform'd  delight. 
And  many  merry  Comedies,  with  this, 
Where  the  Athenian  Phryne  acted  is. 

7he  Converted  Courtezan.  .    .    .    shadowed  under  the  name  of 
Amanda.     1639.    /.  32.     [4^.] 


[The  reference  to  Venus  and  Adonis  in  the  description  of  Amanda's  room 
and  its  contents  is  a  proof  of  the  popularity  of  that  poem  among  ladies  of 
the  day.  See  also  other  examples,  after,  pp.  430,  471.  Cranley's  book  was 
licensed  by  Dr.  William  Hayward,  chaplain  to  Archbishop  Laud,  in  1635. 
L.  T.  S.] 


399 


JOHN   SWAN,  1635. 

I   conclude  j    and  with  him  who  writeth  thus,  cannot  but 
fay, 

Oh  mickle  is  the  pow'rfull  good  that  lies 

In  herbs,  trees,  ftones,  and  their  true  qualities ; 

For  nought  fo  vile  that  on  the  earth  doth  live, 

But  to  the  earth  fome  fecret  good  doth  give. 

And  nought  fo  rich  on  either  rock  or  fhelf, 

But,  if  unknown,  lies  ufelefle  to  it  felf. 

Therefore  who  thus  doth  make  their  fecrets  known, 

Doth  profit  others,  and  not  hurt  his  own. 

Speculum  Mundi.     Or  A  glasse  representing  the  face  of  the 
•world.     Cambridge,  1635,  p.  299. 


[Swan's  work,  a  prose  one,  is  somewhat  on  the  plan  of  the  first  week  of 
Du  Bartas'  Divine  Weeks,  and  is  a  kind  of  epitome  of  the  natural  science  of 
the  day.  He  concludes  that  part  of  the  "third  day's  work"  which  relates 
to  precious  stones,  with  these  four  lines  quoted  from  Friar  Laurence'  speech, 
Romeo  and  Juliet,  Act  II.  Sc.  iii.  1.  15.  The  last  four  lines  appear  to  have 
been  added  by  himself.  Swan  has  ' '  good  "  instead  of  Shakespere's ' '  grace ' ' 
in  the  first  line,  "trees"  for  "plants"  in  the  second,  and  "secret"  for 
"special "  in  the  fourth. 

The  quotation  was  pointed  out  by  Mr.  C.  E.  Browne  in  the  Athen&um, 
22  May,  1875.  L.  T.  S.] 


4oo 


WILLIAM   SAMPSON,  1636. 

Croflfe].  Will  he  bedrunke  ? 

Bal[t\.  Molt  fwine-like,  and  then  by  the  vertue  of  his  good 
liquor  hee's  able  to  convert  any  Brownifticall  lifter* 

Crof.  An  excellent  quality  ! 

Bal.  Nay,  in  that  moode,  you  lhall  have  him,  inftead  of 
prefenting  Pyramus,  and  Thifle,  perfonate  Cato  Cenforious,  and 
his  three  fons,  onely  in  one  thing  he's  out,  one  of  Cato's  fons 
hang'd  himfelfe,  and  that  he  refer's  to  a  dumbe  {how  j 

The  I  Vow  I  Breaker.  /  or,  /  The  Faire  Maide  \  of  Clifton.  I 
In  Notinghamshire  as  it  hath  beene  diuers  times  Acted 
by  /  severall  Companies  with  great  applause.  I  By 
William  Sampson.]  .  .  .  London./  Printed  by  lohn 
Norton  and  are  to  be  sold  by  /  Roger  Ball  at  the  sign* 
of  the  Golden  /  Anchor  in  the  Strand,  neere  Temple- 1 
Barre,  1636. /  Sign.  /,  back. 


Perhaps  this  alludes  to  the  sub-play  in  M.  N.  Dr. — F.  J.  F. 


4oi 


JOHN   TRUSSELL,  1636. 

After  the  folemnitie  [Henry  V.'s  Coronation]  part,  the  next 
day  hee  caufed   all  his  wonted  Companions  to  come  into  his 

prefence,  to  whom  hee  ufed  thefe  words  j  It  is 

Kin?  Henry  [  V\     .,  ~   .  .         _ 

taketh  leave  fufficient,  that  for  many  yeares  together,  I  have 

of  his  antient  f  aihioned  my  felfe  to  your  unruly  difpoiitions.  and 
companions. 

have  (not  without  fome  reluctation,  in  the  very 

action)  followed  you  in  your  debofht  and  fwaggering  courfes,  I 
have  to  my  forrow  and  fhame,  I  may  fay  to  thinke  of  it,  irregu- 
larly wandered,  in  all  rude  and  unfeemely  manner  in  the  vaft 
wildernefle  of  ryot  and  unthriftinefle,  whereby  I  was  almoft 
made  an  alian,  to  the  hearts  of  my  Father  and  Allyes,  and  in 
their  opinions  violently  carried  away  by  your  meanes  from  grace, 
by  keeping  you  company,  therein  I  have  fo  vilified  my  felfe  that 
in  the  eyes  of  men,  my  prefence  was  vulgar  and  Hale,  and  like 
the  Cuckow  in  lune,  heard  but  not  regarded.  One  of  you  being 
con  vented  before  the  Lord  chiefe  luftice  for  mifufing  a  fober- 
minded  Citizen,  I  went  to  the  publique  Seffions  houfe,  and 
ftroke  him  on  the  face,  and  being  by  him  defervedly  committed 
to  the  Fleet,  (for  which  aft  of  juftice  I  mail  ever  hold  him 
worthy  the  place,  and  my  favour,  and  wifh  all  my  Judges  to 
have  the  like  undaunted  courage,  to  puniih  offenders  of  what 
ranke  foever)  it  occafioned  my  Father  to  put  mee  from  my  place 
in  Councell,  appointing  it  to  bee  fupplyed  by  my  younger 
Brother,  how  often  have  I  by  your  animation  committed  thefts, 
even  on  my  Fathers  and  my  owne  Receivers,  and  robd  them  of 
the  mony  provided  for  publicke  appointments,  to  maiiitaine  your 
midnight  revellings  and  noone  befelings ;  But  it  is  time  now  to 

SH.  ALLN.  BK. 1.  D  D 


{OJ  JOHN    TRUSSELL,     1636. 

.1  period  to  thefe  exorbitant,  and  unbefitting  courfes,  and  to 
lalve  the  wounds  my  intemperance  hath  made  in  my  [p.  93] 
reputation,  and  to  turne  over  a  new  leate,  and  not  only  to  decline 
the  company  of  fuch  miileaders  of  yours,  but  defert  their  con- 
ditions, of  all  therefore  I  ftraightly  charge  and  command  you, 
and  every  one  of  you,  that  from  henceforth  untill  you  haue 
fettled  your  felves  in  a  more  orderly  courfe  of  life,  and  redeeme[d] 
your  pawnd  credits,  with  faire  and  regarded  behauiour,  here- 
after upon  paine  of  forfeiture  of  your  heads,  not  to  appeare  in 
mv  prefence,  nor  to  come  within  the  verge  of  my  Court  j  For 
what  is  paft  I  will  grant  you  my  pardon,  and  vvithall,  becaufe  I 
know  fometimes  neceflitie  will  cripple  honefty,  I  will  allow  each 
of  you  a  competency  of  maintenance,  as  a  flocke  to  begin  a 
courfe  whereby  to  live  orderly  hereafter  j  But  take  heed  of 
relapfing,  for  the  leaft  complaint  of  ill-behauiour  of  any  of  you 
hereafter,  if  proved,  mall  forfeit  your  pardons,  and  exclude  my 
favour  for  ever :  which  refolution  of  mine  I  will  never  breake, 
and  fo  without  attending  any  reply  hee  departed. 

A  /  Continuation  /  Of  The  Collection  /  Of  The  History  of/ 
England,  Beginning  Where  /  Samvel  Daniell  /  Esquire 
ended,  /.—  By  I.  T.  London,  /  Printed  by  M.  D.  for 
Ephraim  Dawson,  /  and  are  to  bee  sold  in  Fleet-street 
at  the  signe  of  the  Rainebowe  /  neere  the  inner  Temple-/ 
gate.  1636.;  p.  92-3. 


The  passages  alluded  to  are  (i)  in  the  Prince's  speech,  as  King,  to 
Falstaff,  i  Henry  IV,  II.  iv.  491,  "hence  forth  nere  looke  on  me,  thou  art 
violently  carried  awaie  from  grace,  there  is  a  diuell  haunts  thee  in  the  like- 
nesse  of  an  olde  fat  man  ; "  and  (2)  in  Henry  IV's  speech  to  Prince  Hal  in 
r  Henry  IV,  III.  ii.  41  and  75-6  : 

Had  I  so  lauish  beene, 

So  common  hackneid  in  the  eyes  of  men, 

So  stale  and  cheape  to  vulgar  companie,  4' 

Opinion  that  did  helpe  me  to  the  crowne, 


JOHN     TRUSSELL,   AND   ANON.,    1636.  403 

Had  still  kept  loyall  to  possession, 

And  left  me  in  reputelesse  banishment,  44 

A  fellow  of  no  marke  nor  likelihoode. 
*  *  *  *          * 

So  when  he  had  occasion  to  be  scene, 
He  was  but  as  the  Cuckoe  is  in  lane, 
Heard,  not  regarded  ....  76 

That  some,  if  not  much  of  the  speech  put  by  Trussell  into  Henry  V's 
mouth  is  due  to  the  perversion  of  History  in  Shakspere's  plays,  few  readers 
will  doubt.  How  unjustly  Prince  Hal's  character  was  represented  in  these 
plays,  Mr.  Alex.  Ewald  has  shown,  from  contemporary  documents,  in  his 
late  book,  Stories  from  the  Record  Ojfice,  a  collection  of  articles  that  have 
appeard  in  divers  journals.  Mr.  Hll.-P.  noted  the  fact  of  there  being  a 
I  Hen.  /Fallusion  in  the  1685  edition  of  TrnsselL— F.  J.  F. 


ANON.,  1636. 

One  alkt  another  whether  or  no  hee  had  ever  read  Venus  & 
Diogenes. 

Tht  Booke  of  Bulls  baited  with  two  Centuries  of  bold  Jests,  1636. 

J.  O.  H1L-P. 


404 


SIR  JOHN  SUCKLING,  about  1636—1641 

A  Supplement  of  an  imperfe£l  Copy  of  Verjes 
of  Mr.    IVil.   Shakef pears. 


One  of  her  hands,  one  of  her  cheeks  lay  under, 

Cozening  the  pillow  of  a  lawful  kifTe, 
Which  therefore  fwel'd  and  feem'd  to  part  afunder, 
As  angry  to  be  rob'd  of  fuch  a  blifle : 

The  one  lookt  pale,  and  for  revenge  did  long, 
Whilft  t'other  bluih't,  caufe  it  had  done  the  wrong. 

2 

Out  of  the  bed  the  other  fair  hand  was 

On  a  green  fattin  quilt,  whofe  perfect  white 

Lookt  like  a  Dazie  in  a  field  of  grafle, 

1  And  shew'd  like  unmelt  fnow  unto  the  fight,  staKjSt 
There  lay  this  pretty  perdue,  fafe  to  keep 
The  reft  o  th'  body  that  lay  f  aft  afleep. 

3 
Her  eyes  (and  therefore  it  was  night)  clofe  laid, 

Strove  to  imprifon  beauty  till  the  morn, 
But  yet  the  doors  were  of  fuch  fine  ftufFe  made, 
That  it  broke  through,  and  fhew'd  itfelf  in  fcorn. 
Throwing  a  kind  of  light  about  the  place, 
which  turnd  to  fmiles  ftil  as  't  came  near  her  face. 


SIR   JOHN    SUCKLING,    1636 1641  405 

4 

Her  beams  (which  fome  dul  men  call'd  hair)  divided 

Part  with  her  cheeks,  part  with  her  lips  did  fport, 
But  thefe,  as  rude,  her  breath  put  by  ftill  j  fome 
Wifelyer  downwards  fought,  but  falling  fhort, 
Curl'd  back  in  rings,  and  feem'd  to  turn  agen 
To  bite  the  part  fo  unkindly  held  them  in. 

Fragmenta  Aurea.  A  Collection  of  all  the  Incomparable 
Peeces,  written  by  Sir  John  Suckling.  And  published 
by  a  Friend  to  perpetuate  his  memory.  Printed  by  his 
iwne  Copies.  1646.  p.  29-30.  [Sz><?.] 


The  first  nine  lines  are  from  the  Rape  of  Lucrece,  11.  386 — 396. 

Suckling  would  appear  to  have  employed  a  version  of  Shakespeare's 
poem  which  materially  differs  from  that  known  to  us.  Each  stanza  of  The 
Rape  of  Lucrecc,  in  all  the  old  copies,  has  seven  lines  :  the  complete  one 
given  by  Suckling  has  but  six.  But  it  is  more  likely  that  he  curtailed  and 
otherwise  altered  Shakespeare's  lines.  The  relative  stanzas  run  thus  in 
England's  Parnassus,  1600,  p.  396  :  as  they  do  in  the  Quarto  of  Lucrece, 
1594, — except  that  the  latter  has  "cheeke  lies  "  in  the  first  line,  and  slight 
differences  of  spelling  and  punctuation. 

"  Her  Lilly  hand  her  rosie  cheekes  lie  under, 
Coosning  the  pillow  of  a  lawful  kisse, 
Who  therefore  angry,  seemes  to  part  in  sunder, 
Swelling  on  eyther  side  to  want  his  blisse, 
Betweene  whose  hills  her  head  entombed  is  ; 
Where,  like  a  vertuous  monument  she  lyes, 
To  be  admirde  of  lewd  unhallowed  eyes. 

Without  the  bed  her  other  fayre  hand  was 
On  the  greene  Coverlet,  whose  perfect  white 
Shewd  like  an  Aprill  daisie  on  the  grasse, 
with  pearlie  sweat,  resembling  dew  of  night." 

It  is  almost  impossible  to  date  many  of  Suckling's  pieces.  He  died  on 
7  May,  1641,  having  lived  but  thirty-two  years.  C.  M.  I. 

[It  may  be  doubted  whether  Suckling  "curtailed  and  otherwise  altered 
Shakespeare's  lines."  The  verses  are  entituled,  "A  Supplement  of  an 
Imperfect  Copy  of  Verses  of  Mr.  Wil  Shakespeares"  and  at  the  commencement 


406  SIR   JOHN    SUCKLING,    1636 — 1641. 

of  the  tenth  line  is  an  asterisk  with  the  note,  "Thus  far  Shake-spear." 
Not  only  too  are  the  stanzas  in  a  different  form  from  those  of  our  present 
Lucrece— six.  lines  instead  of  seven — but  lines  5  and  6  of  the  first  stanza 
differ  from  lines  5-7  of  the  present  version,  not  merely  in  wording  but 
wholly  in  thought.  Neither  if  the  verses  were  originally  in  seven-line 
stanzas  would  they  be  imperfect,  being  merely  a  different  version  of  lines 
long  before  completed  in  Lucrece  (Lucrece  published  1594,  Suckling  1636- 
41).  It  is  more  probable,  as  appears  tome,  that  Shakespere  at  first  thought 
of  composing  his  Lucrece  in  the  stanza  of  Venus  and  Adonis,  and  for  a  trial 
commenced  not  at  the  beginning  but  at  the  central  point  of  importance 
and  interest,  namely,  at  Tarquin's  view  of  Lucrece  after  forcing  her  door,  but 
that  he,  for  some  unknown  reason,  after  writing  about  a  stanza  and  a  half, 
threw  it  aside  and  took  to  the  seven-line  stanza.  B.  N.I 


407 


SIR  JOHN  SUCKLING,  about  1636—1641. 

The  fweat  of  learned  Johnforis  brain, 
And  gentle  Shakefpear  s  eaf 'er  ftrain, 
A  hackney-coach  conveys  you  to, 
In  fpite  of  all  that  rain  can  do  : 
And  for  your  eighteen  pence  you  fit 
The  Lord  and  Judge  of  all  frelh  wit. 

Fragmenta  Aurea  :  &c.     1646.    /.  35.     [8vo.] 


[This  is  part  of  a  letter  in  verse  addressed  to  Mr.  John  Hales  of  Eton, 
"  Sir  John  invites  him  to  come  to  Town,  and  enjoy  the  company  of  his 
friends."  (Life  of  Mr.  John  Hales,  by  P.  Des  Maizeaux,  1719,  p.  58.) 
U  T.  S.] 


408 


SIR  JOHN  SUCKLING,  about  1636—1641. 

I  muft  confeffe  it  is  a  juft  fubjeft  for  our  forrow,  to  hear  of 
any  that  does  quit  his  ftation  without  his  leave  that  placed  him 
there;  and  yet  as  ill  a  Mine  as  this  A6t  has,  'twas  a-la-Romanfd, 
as  you  may  fee  by  a  Line  of  Mr.  Shakefpears,  who  bringing  in 
Titinius  after  a  loft  battel,  fpeaking  to  his  fword,  and  bidding  it 
find  out  his  heart,  adds 

By  your  leave,  Gods,  this  [is]  a  Romanes  Part. 

Fragmenta  Aurea:  Letters,  1646.     /.  61. 
***** 

We  are  at  length  arriv'd  at  that  River,  about  the  uneven 
running  of  which,  my  Friend  Mr.  William  Shakefpear  makes 
Henry  Hotfpur  quarrel  fo  highly  with  his  fellow  Rebels  j  and 
for  his  Sake  I  have  been  fomething  curious  to  confider  the 
Scantlet  of  Ground  that  angry  Monfieur  wou'd  have  had  in,  but 
can  not  find  it  cou'd  deferve  his  Choler,  nor  any  of  the  other 
Side  ours,  did  not  the  King  think  it  did. 

Letters ;  printed  in  Works.     Dublin,  1766.    p.  142. 


[Both  the  above  passages  occur  in  Suckling's  Letters,  a  part  only  of 
which  were  printed  in  the  Fragmenta  Aurea  of  1646  ;  the  letter  containing 
the  second  extract  is  among  the  additions  made  to  them  in  1766. 

The  line  quoted  by  Suckling  occurs  in  Julius  Ccesar,  Act  V,  Sc.  iii,  1. 
89.  Hotspur's  objection  to  the  winding  of  the  Trent  comes  in  I  Henry  IV, 
Act  III,  Sc.  i  :— 

"  See  how  this  river  comes  me  cranking  in 
And  cuts  me  from  the  best  of  all  my  land 
A  huge  half-moon,  a  monstrous  cantle  out,"  &c.,  &c. 

L.  T.  S.  j 


409 


SIR  JOHN  SUCKLING,  about  1636—1641. 

Wit  in  a  Prologue,  Poets  juftly  may 

Stile  a  new  imposition  on  a  Play. 

When  Shakefpeare,  Beamont,  Fletcher,  rul'd  the  Stage, 

There  fcarce  were  ten  good  pallats  in  the  age, 

More  curious  Cooks  then  guefts  j  for  men  would  eat 

Moft  hartily  of  any  kind  of  meat  ; 

And  then  what  ftrange  variety  each  Play, 

A  Feaft  for  Epicures,  and  that  each  day. 

But  marke  how  odly  it  is  come  about, 

And  how  unluckily  it  now  fals  out : 

The  pallats  are  growne  higher,1  number  increaf  d, 

And  there  wants  that  which  mould  make  up  the  Feaft  j 

And  yet  y'are  fo  unconfcionable.     You'd  have 

Forfooth  of  late,  that  which  they  never  gave, 

Banquets  before  j  and  after. 

(Prologue  to  The  Goblins.) 
Th\ief\  I.     We  have  had  fuch  fportj 
Yonder's  the  rareft  Poet  without, 
Has  made  all  his  confeflion  in  blanke  verfe  j 
Nor  left  a  God,  nor  a  GoddefTe  in  Heaven, 
But  fetch 't  them  all  downe  for  witnefles  j 
Has  made  fuch  a  defcription  of  Stix, 
And  the  Ferry, 

And  verily  thinks  has  paft  them. 
Enquires  for  the  bleft  {hades 


growne,  higher  in  original 


4TO  SIR   JOHN  SUCKLING,     1636 — 1641. 

And  afkes  much  after  certaine  Brittifh  blades, 

One  Shakefpeare  and  Fletcher  : 

And  grew  fo  peremptory  at  laft, 

He  would  be  carried,  where  they  were.     (p.  35.) 

The  Goblins.    A  Comedy.    Printed  ivith 
Fragmenta  Aurea.     1646. 


[  The  Goblins  contains  one  or  two  other  allusions  (see  Fragmenta,  pp.  26, 
45),  but  enough  is  given  from  Suckling's  works  to  show  the  close  acquaint- 
ance he  had  with  "  my  friend  Mr.  William  Shakespear."  Dryden  considers 
(Preface  to  The  Tempest ',  or  the  Enchanted  Island,  1676)  that  Sir  John 
Suckling,  "a  profess'd  admirer  of  our  author"  (Shakespere),  has  follow'd 
his  footsteps  in  the  Goblins;  that  his  Reginella  is  an  open  imitation  of 
Shakespear's  Miranda  ;  and  that  his  spirits,  though  counterfeit,  are  copied 
from  Ariel.  But,  though  Warburton  echoes  this  idea,  the  student  must 
judge  for  himself  how  feeble  an  imitator  Suckling  was.  L.  T.  S.] 

[See  ante,  pp.  383-4-] 


4TI 


ABRAHAM  WRIGHT,  about  1637  (or  earlier). 

Othello  by  Shakfpeare. 

A  very  good  play,  both  for  lines  and  plot,  but  efpecially  the 
plot.  Jago  for  a  rogue,  and  Othello  for  a  jealous  hufband,  two 
parts  well  penned.  Act  3,  the  fcene  between  Jago  and  Othello, 
and  the  firft  fcene  of  the  fourth  act,  between  the  fame,  {hew 
admirably  the  villanous  humour  of  Jago  when  he  perfuades 
Othello  to  his  jealoufy. 

Manuscript  Common-place  book  of  Abraham  Wright,  Vicar  of 
Okeham,  in  Rutlandshire.  Quoted  in  Historical  Papers, 
Part  /,  edited  for  the  Roxburghe  Club  by  Bliss  and  Bandinel. 
1846.  Introduction,  p.  in.  C.  M.  I. 


412 


*  THO.    HEYWOOD,  1637  (?).i 

A  young  witty  Lad  playing  the  part  of  Richard  the  third  :  at  the 

Red  Bull:  the  Author  lecaufe  hee  was  intereffed  in  the  Play 

to  incourage  him,  wrot  him  this  Prologue  and 

Epilogue. 

The  Boy  the  Speaker. 
If  any  wonder  by  what  magick  charme, 
Richard  the  third  is  fhrunke  up  like  his  arme  : 
And  where  in  fulnefTe  you  expected  him, 
You  fee  me  only  crawling,  like  a  limme 
Or  piece  of  that  knowne  fabrick,  and  no  more  .... 
Let  all  fuch  know :  .  .  .  . 
Hee's  tearmed  a  man  that  fhowes  a  dwarfilh  thing, 

have  you  never  read 

Large  folio  Sheets  which  Printers  over-looke, 
And  caft  in  fmall,  to  make  a  pocket  booke  ? 
So  Richard  is  transform 'd  :  .   .  .   . 


1  Pleasant  /  Dialogves/  and  /  Dramma's,  /  selected  ovt  of  /  Lucian,  Erasmus* 
Textor,  /  Ovid,  &c./  With  sundry  Emblems  extracted  from  /  the  most 
elegant  lacobus  Catsius.]  As  also  certaine  Elegies,  Epitaphs,  and  /  Epi- 
thalamions  or  Nuptiall  Songs  ;  Anagrams  and  /  Acrosticks ;  With  divers 
Speeches  (upon  severall  /  occasions)  spoken  to  their  most  Excellent  / 
Majesties,  King  Charles,  and  /  Queene  Mary./  With  other  Fancies  trans- 
lated from  Beza,  /  Bucanan,  and  sundry  Italian  Poets./  By  Tho.  Hey  wood./ 
Aut  prodesse  solent,  aut  delectare.\  London,  /  Printed  by  K.  0.  for  R.  ff. 
and  are  to  be  sold  by  Thomas  /  Slater  at  the  Swan  in  Duck-lane.  16377 
p.  247. 


THO.    HEYWOOD,     1637    (?).  413 

The  Epilogue 

Great  I  confefie  your  patience  hath  now  beene, 
To  fee  a  little  Richard :  who  can  win, 
Or  praile,  or  credit  ?  eye,  or  thinke  to  excell, 
By  doing  after  what  was  done  fo  well? 

The  Dramatic  Works  of  Thomas  Heywood,  London,  1874, 
vol.  vi.  pp.  352~3-     Prologues  and  Epilogues. 

P.  248. 

This  is  partly  quoted,  with  the  extract  in  oar  vol.  i,  p.  9,  in  Halliwell's 
Folio  Shakespeare,  xi.  333,  where  the  editor  says:  "It  may,  however,  be 
too  much  to  assume  that  the  two  notices  last  mentioned  refer  to  Shake- 
speare's play,"  inasmuch  as  there  were  other  plays  on  the  same  king — The 
True  Tragedie  of  Richard  the  Third,  1594,  and  that  of  Henslowe's  Company 
about  1599,  with  Banister  in  it,  and  perhaps  alluded  to  in  "  A  New  Booke 
of  Mistakes,  or  Bulls  with  Tales,  and  Buls  without  Tales,  but  no  lyes  by 
any  meanes*,"  1637.  "As  late  as  the  year  1654,  Gayton  speaks  of  a  play 
of  Richard  the  Third  in  which  the  ghost  of  Jane  Shore  is  introduced."— 
ib.  p.  330.—  F.  J.  F. 


4i4 


JASPER  MAYNE,  1637. 

Elfe,  (though  wee  all  confpir'd  to  make  thy  Herje 
Our  Wor~k.es)  fo  that 't  had  beene  but  one  great  Verfe, 
Though  the  Priefl  had  tranflated  for  that  time 
The  Liturgy,  and  buried  thee  in  Rime, 
So  that  in  Meeter  wee  had  heard  it  faid, 
Poetique  daft  is  to  Poetique  laid  : 

And  though  that  duft  being  Shakf pears,  thou  might 'It  have 
Not  his  roome,  but  the  Poet  for  thy  grave  ; 
So  that,  as  thou  didft  Prince  of  Numbers  dye 
And  live,  fo  now  thou  mightft  in  Numbers  lie, 
Twere  frailejblemnitie;  Verfes  on  Thee 

And  not  like  thine,  would  but  kind  Libels  be  5 

****** 

Who  without  Latine  helps  had' ft  beene  as  rare 
As  Beaumont,  Fletcher,  or  as  Shakefpeare  were  : 

And  like  them,  from  thy  native  Stock  could'ft  fay, 

Poets  and  Kings  are  not  borne  every  day. 

Jonsonus  Virbius :  or,    The  Memorie  of  Ben.  Johnson  revived  by 
the  Friends  of  the  Muses.     1638.     pp.  29,  33.     [4/0.] 


[There  are  two  copies  of  this  little  book  in  the  British  Museum,  professing 
to  be  of  the  same  impression  and  apparently  agreeing  in  all  particulars,  save 
that  in  only  one  of  them  is  the  signature  I.  Mayne  found  to  the  verses  whence 
the  above  extract  is  taken.  The  book  was  entered  on  the  Stationers' 
Register,  3  Feb.  1637.  L.  T.  S.] 

It  is  the  author  of  this  finger-counting  doggrel  who  is  credited  by  some 
with  the  splendid  elegy  on  Shakespeare,  which  we  have  given  on  page 
319.  We  had  some  compunction  in  reproducing  Mayne's  trashy  verses  at 
all  :  and  the  italics  in  these  extracts  from  Jonsonus  Virbius  could  have 
had  no  possible  meaning  :  it  was  a  fantastical  trick  of  the  time.  See,  for 
instances,  Sir  Roger  L'Estrange's  lines  prefixed  to  Beaumont  and  Fletcher's 
Works,  1647  :  those  of  Alexander  Brome  on  Richard  Brome,  in  the 
Five  Neiv  Plays,  1653  :  and  the  first  edition,  1682,  of  Dryden's  Religio 
Laid. 


OWEN  FELTHAM,  1637 

So  in  our  Halcyon  dayes,  we  have  had  now 
Wits,  to  which,  all  that  after  come,  muft  low. 
And  fhould  the  Stage  compofe  her  felfe  a  Crowne 
Of  all  thofe  wits,  which  hitherto  Ih'as  knowne: 
Though  there  be  many  that  about  her  brow 
Like  fparkling  ftones,  might  a  quick  luftre  throw : 
Yet  Shakefpeare,  Beainnont,  Johnfon,  thefe  three  (hall 
Make  up  the  Jem  in  the  point  Vertical  I. 
And  now  lince  JOHNSONS  gone,  we  well  may  fay, 
The  Stage  hath  feene  her  glory  and  decay. 

Jonsonus  Virbius-     1638.    pp.  42,  43.     [4/0.] 

C.  M.  I. 


416 


RICHARD  WEST,  1637. 

Shakefpeare  may  make  griefs  merry,  Beaumont*  ftile 

Ravifh  and  melt  anger  into  a  fmile  -, 

In  winter  wights,  or  after  meales  they  be, 

I  muft  confefle  very  good  companie  : 

But  thou  exad'ft  our  befl  houres  induftrie  j  U°nson] 

Wee  may  read  them ;  we  ought  to  ftudie  thee. 

Jonsonus  Virbius.     1638.    /.  56.     [4*0.] 


West  was  probably  thinking  of  A  Winter's  Tale:  "  A  sad  tale's  best  for 
winter,"  ii.  I,  and  "  Upon  a  barren  mountain,  and  still  winter,"  iii.  2. 
C.  M.  I. 


417 


H.  RAMSAY,  1637. 

What  are  his  fauls  (O  Envy  !)  that  you  fpeake  [jonsons  faults] 
EngliQi  at  Court,  the  learned  Stage  afts  Greeke . 
That  Latine  Hee  reduc'd,  and  could  command 
That  which  your  Shakefpeare  fcarce  could  underftand  ? 

Jonsonus  Virbius.     1638.    p.  60.     [4/ 


"Faul,"  for  fault,  occurs  in  The  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor,  \.  I,— "the 
faul  is  in  the  'ort  dissolutely."  [Dyce's  Shakspere,  1866,  Vol.  I,  p.  351. 
The  Cambridge  edition  and  the  folio  of  1623  have  "fall."]  In  the  mention 
of  Jonson's  command  of  Latin,  Ramsay  is  probably  thinking  of  his  reflection 
on  Shakespeare's  "small  Latin  and  less  Greek."  C.  M.  I. 


SH.  ALLN.  BK. 1.  E  E 


*  SHAKERLEY   MARMION,    1637. 

You  much  diiTemble,  or  you  have  forgot 

His  forme,  and  fun&ion,  or  you  know  them  not. 

A  Morall  Poem,  /  Intituled  the  Legend  of  /  Cvpid  /  and 
Psyche./  Or  Cvpid  and  his  /  Mistris.]  .  .  .  Written  by 
Shackerley  Marmion,  Gent. I  .  .  .  London;  /  Printed 
by  N.  and  /.  Okes,  and  are  to  be  sold  by  /  H. 
Sheppard,  at  his  shop  in  Chancery  lane  neere  /  Serjants 
Inne,  at  the  Bible.  i637./  sign.  E  4. 

Now  if  this  uncouth  life,  and  folitude 
Pleafe  you,  then  follow  it,  and  be  ftill  flew  d 
In  the  ranke  luft  of  a  lafcivious  worme  : 

sign.  E  4,  back. 

["imitates  a  passage  in  Hamlet,  Act  III.  sc.  iv,  and  bears  the  trace  of 
another  (?)  in  Act  II.  sc.  ii.  11.  582,  583."     See  Appendix  B.] 

Tears  in  his  eyes,  distraction  in's  aspect 

A  broken  voice,  and  his  whole  function  suiting 

With  forms  to  his  conceit. 

Hamlet,  II.  ii.  528-530. 

Nay,  but  to  live 

In  the  rank  sweat  of  an  enseamed  bed, 
Stew'd  in  corruption,  honeying  and  making  love 
Over  the  nasty  sty. 

Hamlet,  III.  iv.  91-4  Camb. 

C.  M.  I. 


419 


SIR  WILLIAM  D'AVENANT,  1637. 

In    Remembrance   of 

Matter   William  Shakefpeare. 

ODE. 

I. 

Beware  (delighted  Poets  !)  when  you  ling 
To  welcome  Nature  in  the  early  Spring  j 

Your  num'rous  Feet  not  tread 
The  Banks  of  Avon  -,  for  each  Flowre 
(As  it  nere  knew  a  Sunne  or  Showre) 

Hangs  there,  the  penfive  head. 

2. 

Each  Tree,  whofe  thick,  and  fpreading  growth  hath  made, 
Rather  a  Night  beneath  the  Boughs,  than  Shade, 

(Unwilling  now  to  grow) 
Lookes  like  the  Plume  a  Captive  weares, 
Whofe  rifled  Falls  are  lleept  i'  th  teares 

Which  from  his  laft  rage  flow. 

3- 

The  piteous  River  wept  it  felfe  away 
Long  fince  (Alas  !)  to  fuch  a  fwift  decay  j 

That  reach  the  Map  j  and  looke 
If  you  a  River  there  can  fpie  j 
And  for  a  River  your  mock'd  Eie, 

Will  finde  a  mallow  Brooke. 

Madagascar,  with  other  Poems.     1638.    p.  37.     [i2mo.] 
(Imprimatur  Feb.  26,  1637.) 


420  SIR  WILLIAM  D'AVENANT,   1637. 

In  the  last  line  of  the  first  verse,  D'Avenant  seems  to  be  recalling  a  line 
in  Milton's  Lycidas  : 

"  And  cowslips  wan  that  hang  the  pensive  head." 

The  third  verse  is  sufficient  to  prove  that  D'Avenant  had  an  ear. 

The  late  Mr.  George  Jabet  (Eden  Warwick)  believed  that  here 
'delighted'  meant  'deprived  of  light,'  and  employed  this  instance  to 
enforce  his  interpretation  of  '  the  delighted  Spirit,'  in  Measure  for  Measure. 
Dr.  Brinsley  Nicholson  takes  the  same  view  of  the  latter  (see  N.  dr3  Q.t 
3rd  S.,  L,  Ap.  5,  1862,  &  5th  S.,  X.,  1878,  pp.  83,  182,  303).  But 
though,  doubtless,  'delighted'  means  the  same  in  these  two  passages,  it  is, 
in  Davenant,  very  plainly  opposed  to  '  pensive.'  He  is  checking  the  poets 
in  their  delight,  and  bidding  them  shun  the  banks  of  Avon  as  being  a  region 
of  sorrow  which  even  dimmed 

"  The  radiant  looks  of  unbewailing  flowers." 

In  connection  with  Davenant  we  must  not  omit  to  notice  the  tradition  of 
a  letter  written  oy  the  King  to  Shakespeare. 

In  the  Advertisement  to  Lintott's  edition  of  Shakespeare's  Poems,  1709 
[8vo.],  we  read  : 

"  That  most  learn'd  Prince,  and  great  Patron  of  Learning,  King  James 
the  First,  was  pleas'd  with  his  own  Hand  to  write  an  amicable  letter  to 
Mr.  Shakespeare ;  which  Letter,  tho  now  lost,  remain'd  long  in  the  Hands 
of  Sir  William  D'Avenant,  as  a  credible  Person  now  living  can  testify." 
C.  M.  I. 


421 


T.  TERRENT,  1637. 

Haud  aliter  noftri  praemiffa  in  principis  ortum 
Ludicra  Chauceri,  claffifq  j  incompta  fequentum  ; 
Nafcenti  apta  parum  divina  haec  machina  regno, 
In  noftrum  fervanda  fuit  tantaeq  •  decebat 
Prselufiire  Deos  aevi  certamina  famae ; 
Nee  geminos  vates,  nee  Te  Shakfpeare  filebo, 
Aut  quicquid  facri  noftros  conjecit  in  annos 

Confilium  Fati. 

Jonsonus  Virbius,     1638.     /.  64.     [4/0.] 


[Terrent  was  educated  at  Christ  Church  Oxford,  where  he  took  the  degree 
of  Master  of  Arts,  and  was  tutor  of  the  College,  according  to  Gilchrist 
(see  Cunningham's  edition  of  Gi/orcfs  Works  of  Jonson.  1872.  Vol. 
iii.  p.  521).  L.  T.  S.J 

This  obscure  but  excellent  poet  writes  that 

"  the  tales  of  Chaucer  heralded  the  rise  of  our  Chief  (Jonson),  as  did  also  the 
unpolished  band  (of  poets)  who  succeeded  him.  This  god-like  device  (the 
Jonsonian  comedy),  but  little  suited  to  (the  taste  of)  an  early  age,  was  to  be 
reserved  for  ours  ;  and  it  was  fitting  that  the  gods  should  rehearse  the 
contests  of  that  age,  as  a  preparation  for  so  great  a  genius  ;  nor  will  I  pass 
over  in  silence  the  twin-bards  (Beaumont  and  Fletcher)  nor  Thee  Shakespeare, 
or  whatever  (other)  sacred  (name)  the  plan  of  Fate  has  cast  upon  our 
times." 

It  was  in  Comedy  that  Jonson  professed  to  have  introduced  new  laws, 
that  is,  he  brought  back  the  rigid  use  of  the  old  classic  laws  of  unity  in  time 
and  place.  He  compliments  Richard  Brome,  in  verses  prefixed  to  The 
Northern  Lasse,  1632,  on  the  applause  he  had  gained 

"By  observation  of  those  Comick  Lawes 

Which  I,  your  Master,  first  did  teach  the  Age." 

Some  years  later  Sir  John  Suckling  (Sessions  of  the  Poets,  Fragmeiita 
At4rea,  1646,  p.  7)  represents  Ben  asserting  that 

"  he  had  purg'd  the  stage 
Of  errors  that  had  lasted  many  an  age."     C.  M.  J. 


422 


Anonymous.     About  1637. 

An  Elegie  on  the  death  of  that  famous   Writer 
and  Attor,  M.  William  Shakfpeare. 

I  dare  not  doe  thy  Memory  that  wrong, 
Unto  our  larger  griefes  to  give  a  tongue  j 
He  onely  figh  in  earneft,  and  let  fall 
My  folemne  teares  at  thy  great  Funerall ; 
For  every  eye  that  raines  a  fhowre  for  thee, 
Laments  thy  lofie  in  a  fad  Elegie. 
Nor  is  it  fit  each  humble  Mule  mould  have, 
Thy  worth  his  fubje£t,  now  th'  art  laid  in  grave ; 
No  its  a  flight  beyond  the  pitch  of  thofe, 
Whofe  worthies  Pamphlets  are  not  fence  in  Profe, 
Let  learned  Johnfon  fing  a  Dirge  for  thee, 
And  fill  our  Orbe  with  mournefull  harmony : 
But  we  neede  no  Remembrancer,  thy  Fame 
Shall  flill  accompany  thy  honoured  Name, 
To  all  pofterity ;  and  make  us  be, 
Senfible  of  what  we  loft  in  lofing  thee  : 
Being  the  Ages  wonder  whofe  fmooth  Rhimes 
Did  more  reforme  than  lafh  the  loofer  Times. 
Nature  her  felfe  did  her  owne  felfe  admire, 
As  oft  as  thou  wert  pleafed  to  attire 
Her  in  her  native  lufture,  and  confefle, 
Thy  drefling  was  her  chiefeft  comlinefle. 
How  can  we  then  forget  thee,  when  the  age 
Her  chiefeft  Tutor,  and  the  widdowed  Stage 


423 

Her  onely  favorite  in  thee  hath  loft, 

And  Natures  felfe  what  fhe  did  bragge  of  moft. 

Sleepe  then  rich  foule  of  numbers,  whilft  poore  we, 

Enjoy  the  profits  of  thy  Legacie ; 

And  thinke  it  happinefle  enough  we  have, 

So  much  of  thee  redeemed  from  the  grave, 

As  may  fuffice  to  enlighten  future  times, 

With  the  bright  luftre  of  thy  matchleflb  Rhimes. 

Appended  to  Shakespeare's  Poems.     1640. 
Sign.  L.     [i2mo.] 


a  creditable  copy  of  verses,  reminding  one  of  Ben  Jonson.     The 

"  Let  learned  Johnson  sing  a  Dirge  for  thee," 

proved  that  they  were  written  in  Jonson's  lifetime  :  and  he  died  1637 
The  best  lines  m  it,  "Nature  herself,"  &c,  closely  resemble  a  couplet  in 
oen  s  elegy : 

"  Nature  herself  was  proud  of  his  designs, 
And'joy'd  to  weare  the  dressing  of  his  lines."    C.  M.  I. 


- 


424 


THOMAS   CAREW,  BEF.  1638. 


See  Love  the  blufhes  of  the  morne  appeare  .  .  . 
Sweet,  I  muft  ftay  no  longer  here. 

Nymph. 

Thofe  ftreakes  of  doubtfull  light  ufher  not  day, 
But  fhewe  my  funne  muft  fet  ;  .  .  . 
The  yellow  planet  and  the  gray 
Dawne  mall  attend  thee  on  thy  way  .... 

.............  Shepherd,  arife, 

The  fun  betrayes  us  elfe  to  fpies  ...... 

Shep. 

Harke  !    Ny.  Aye  me  !  ftay.    Shep.  For  ever  ?    Ny.  No,  arife, 
Wee  muft  be  gone. 

Poems./  By  /  Thomas  Carew  /  Esquire./  .  .  . 
London  .  .  .  1640.  A  Pastorall  Dialogue. 
p.  77  (ed.  W.  C.  Hazlitt,  Roxb.  Libr.  1870, 
p.  58). 


"This  Pastoral  Dialogue  seems  to  be  entirely  an  Imitation  of  the  Scene 
between  Romeo  and  Juliet,  Act  iii.  Sc.  7.  The  time,  the  persons,  the  sen- 
timents, the  expressions,  are  the  same." — T.  Davies.  Carevfs  Poems,  Songs, 
and  Sonnets,  1772,  p.  67-8,  n.  (with  3  of  the  following  lines) : — 

Rom look,  love,  what  envious  streaks 

Do  lace  the  severing  clouds  in  yonder  east 

I  must  be  gone  and  live,  or  stay  and  die.  1 1 

Jul.  Yon  light  is  not  day-light,  I  know  it,  I : 
It  is  some  meteor  that  the  sun  exhales, 
To  be  to  thee  this  night  a  torch-bearer, 
And  light  thee  on  thy  way  to  Mantua  .  .  . 
Rom.  ...  I  am  content  .  .  .  let's  talk  ;  it  is  not  day. 
Jul.  It  is,  it  is  :  hie  hence,  be  gone,  away  !  .  .  .    . 
O,  now  be  gone  ;  more  light  and  light  it  grows. 

Noted  in  Appendix  B.     F.  J.  F. 


425 


1638. 

[Five  Songs  from  the  Tempest  are  in  a  little  (?  I2mo)  paper  MS.,  Egerton 
2421  (dated  1638),  in  the  British  Museum,  bought  of  "  J.  Harvey,  8  Dec. 
1877."  The  46  leaves  of  the  volume  contain  epigrams  and  poems  from  Dr. 
Donne  and  other  writers,  some  printed,  others  seemingly  unprinted.  On 
the  first  page  are  the  following  lines — 

"To  the  reader  of  this  booke. 
Kind  curteous  reader  looke  not  to  behold 
Here  Indian  iewells  set  in  [r]inges  of  gold, 
Or  swanlike  Musicke  in  assorted  straines, 
or  the  rare  issue  of  inspiring  braines ; l 
No  Orphan  2  aeries  or  Amphions  laies 
Neither  Orion  nor  yet  Lucius  swaies 
These  rurall  sonnets  made  for  mirth  &  sport 
Fitting  the  Vulgar,  not  the  wiser  sort ; 
But  yet  Kind  Reader,  if  yu  please  to  looke  [yu  =  thou] 
Within  the  couert  of  this  idle  booke, 
Then  turne  not  critique,  least  thy  iudgment  be 
By  nicer  wits  brought  into  obloquie. 
This  booke  is  like  a  garden  in  wch  growes 
Herbes  good  and  bad  :  he  that  the  goodnesse  knows 
May  freely  gather,  and  the  bad  he  may 
Vse  at  his  leasure,  or  else  cast  away. 
Be  not  too  cruell,  then,  in  thine  election, 
But  please  thou  thine,  thou  pleasest  mine  affection. :'] 


[leaf  6,  Songes  [out  of]  Shakefpeare. 

lack]  &c. 


The 

Tempeft  Ariel. 

[beg.]  Full  fadome  5  thy  father  lies 

1  The  writer's  opinion  of  Shakspere  was  evidently  not  a  high  one. 

2  Orphean,  of  Orpheus. 


426 


i638. 


[ends]  Seanimphes  hourely  ring  his  knell 

Burthen ding  dong  &c. 

Hearke  now  I  heare  them  ding,  dong,  bell 


Ibid. 

[leg.']  The  matter  ye  Swabber  ye  Botefwaine  &  I 
[ends]  Then  to  fea  boyes  &  let  her  go  hange 
Then  to  fea  £c. 


Stephano. 


Ib. 

[beg]  No  more  dams  He  make  for  fiili 
[ends]  Ban  Ban  Cacalyban 

Has  a  new  m  after  get  a  new  man. 

[leaf  7,  headed  "  Songes  "]          4 

Ibid. 

[beg.]   Honor,  riches,  marriage,  blefiing, 

[ends]  Ceres  bleffings  fo  bie  on  you. 


Caliban. 


Juno. 


Ibid. 

[beg.]  Where  ye  bee  fucks  there  fuck  I 

[ends]  Vnder  ye  bloflbme  y*  hanges  on  ye  bowe. 


Ariel. 


[No  more  given.     The  reference  to  Shakspere's  songs  in  this  MS,  is  in 
the  Additional  MSS'  Catalogue,  Brit.  Mus.— F.  J.  Furnivall.] 


427 

HENRY   ADAMSON,  1638. 

Forteviot.      Right  over  to  Forteviot  did  we  hy, 

And  there  the  ruin'd  caftle  did  we  fpy 

K.  Malcoime  Of  Malcolme  Ken-more,  whom  Mackduff,  then  Thane, 
Of  Fife,  (fo  cald)  from  England  brought  againe, 
And  fiercelie  did  perfue  tyrant  Makleth, 
Ufurper  of  the  Crowne,  even  to  the  death. 
Thefe  catties  ruines  when  we  did  confider, 
We  faw  that  wafting  time  makes  all  things  wither. 

The  Muses  Threnodie,  /  or,  /  Mirthfitll  Mournings,  on  the 
death  /  of  Master  Gall  /  Containing  varietie  of  pleasant 
Poeticall  descriptions,  historicall  narra-//<?«j  and  divine 
observations,  ^vith  the  /  most  remarkable  antiquities  of 
Scot  /  land,  especially  at  Perth.  /  By  Mr.  H.  Adamson  \ 
Horat.  in  Arte.  /  Omne  tulit  punctum,  qui  miscuit  utile 
dulci.  /  Printed  at  Edinburgh  in  King  James  College,  / 
by  George  Anderson,  1638.  The  eight  Muse,  p.  82. 

Neere  this  we  did  perceave  where  proud  Makleth, 
Makbeths      Who  to  the  furies  did  his  foul  bequeath, 

castle  on 

Du«sinnen     His  caftle  mounted  on  Dunjinnen  hill, 

Caufing  the  mightieft  peeres  obey  his  will, 
And  bow  their  necks  to  build  his  Babylon  .... 
Who   had   this    ftrange   refponfe,    that    none    Ihould 

catch  him 

That  borne  was  of  a  woman,  or  mould  match  him : 
Nor  any  horfe  mould  overtake  him  there,  [p.  85] 
But  yet  his  fprite  deceav'd  him  by  a  mare, 
And  by  a  man  was  not  of  woman  borne 

Makduf.        For  brave  Makdujfwas  from  his  mother  ihorne  .... 
Up  to  Dunjinnen  s  top  then  did  we  clim, 
With  panting  heart,  weak  loynes  and  wearied  limme. 
Ibid.  p.  84. 

Quoted,— (2)  before  (i),  and  with  no  dots  ...  at  the  omissions,  in 
J.  O.  Hll.-P.'s  Cursory  Memoranda  on  Makbeth,  pp.  7-8.     F.  J.  F. 


428 


JAMES  MERVYN,  1638. 


There  are  fome  men  doe  hold,  there  is  a  place 
Cal'd  Limlus  Patrum,  if  fuch  have  the  grace 
To  wave  that  Schifme,  and  Poetarum  faid  [\\cQpatntm] 
They  of  that  faith  had  me  a  member  made, 
That  Limlus  I  could  have  beleev'd  thy  braine 
Where  Beamont,  Fletcher,  Shakefpeare,  &  a  traine 
Of  glorious  Poets  in  their  active  heate 
Move  in  that  Orbe,  as  in  their  former  feate. 
When  thou  began'ft  to  give  thy  Matter  life, 
Me  thought  I  faw  them  all,  with  friendly  ttrife 
Each  catting  in  his  dofe,  Beamont  his  weight, 
Shakejpeare  his  mirth,  and  Fletcher  his  conceit, 
With  many  more  ingredients,  with  thy  fkill 
So  fweetely  tempered,  that  the  envious  quill 
And  tongue  of  Criticks  mutt  both  write  and  fay, 
They  never  yet  beheld  a  fmoother  Play. 

Lines  prefixed  to  The  Roy  all  Master ',  a  play  by 
James  Shirley.     1638.     Sign.  B  2.     [4/0.] 

C.  M.  I. 


429 


WILLIAM  CHILLINGWORTH,  1638. 

So  that  as  a  foolifh  fellow  who  gave  a  Knight  the  Lye,  defiring 
withall  leave  of  him  to  fet  his  Knighthood  alide,  was  anfwered 
by  him,  that  he  would  not  fuffer  any  thing  to  be  fet  alide  that 
belonged  unto  him :  So  might  we  juftly  take  it  amifle,  that 
conceiving  as  you  doe  ignorance  and  repentance  fuch  neceflary 
things  for  us,  you  are  not  more  willing  to  confider  us  with  them, 
then  without  them. 

The  Religion '  of  Protestants  a  Safe  Way  to  Salvation,  &c. 
Chap.  i.     Part  I.     §  5.    p.  33.      1638.     [Fo.] 


Chillingworth  refers  to  2  Henry  IV,  i,  2,  where  the  Chief  Justice's 
attendant  says, 

"  I  pray  you  Sir,  then  set  your  knighthood  and  your  soldiership  aside  ; 
and  give  me  leave  to  tell  you,  you  lie  in  your  throat,"  &c.,  to  which 
Falstaff  replies,  "  I  give  thee  leave  to  tell  me  so  !  I  lay  aside  that  which 
grows  to  me !  "  &c.  C.  M.  I. 


43° 


T[HOMAS]  R[ANDOLPH?]   1638. 

Corn.     Venerem  etiam  &  Adonidem,  petulantem  fatis  Librum 
In  finu  portat,  eoque  multb  peritior  evafit 
Quam  probae  neceffe  eft  :  fed  ifta  parum  movent, 
Eduxi,  nee  vana  lactavi  fpe,  ut  fpero. 
Eludere  difcat,  aut  pereat. 

Corndianum  Dolium,  1638.     [i2mo.]     Act  I,  sc.  v,  p.  22. 


[Douce  has  ingeniously  conjectured  that  T.  R.  is  Thomas  Randolph,  and 
the  initials  and  the  words  on  the  title-page  "  Auctore,  T.  R.  ingeniosissimo 
hujus  sevi  HELICONIO."  support  his  conjecture.  But  there  are  some 
things  against  it.  Cornelius  is  here  speaking  of  one  of  his  illegitimate 
daughters,  of  whose  tendencies  and  tastes  he  does  not  give  a  very  favourable 
account.  B.  N.] 
[Cornelius  here  says, 

"  She  carries  in  her  bosom  too  a  rather  wanton  book  (called)  Venus  and 
Adonis,  and  through  it  has  become  much  more  knowing  than  is  meet  for 
an  honest  girl !  But  these  things  move  me  little ;  I  have  brought  her  up, 
and  not  deluded  her,  I  hope,  with  vain  expectations.  Let  her  learn  to 
behave  better,  or  perish." 

This  is  a  particular  instance  of  what  John  Johnson,  Academy  of  Love,  1641 
(see  after,  p.  471),  says  was  the  general  practice.  C.  M.  I.] 

[Mr.  Roberts  points  out  another  reference  to  the  habit  in  The  English 
Gentleman,  by  Richard  Brathwait,  1630  (410,  p.  28)  : — 

"  But  alas  ;  to  what  height  of  licentious  libertie  are  these  corrupte  time.' 
growne  ?  When  that  Sex,  where  Modesty  should  claime  a  native  preroga- 
tive, gives  way  to  foments  of  exposed  loosenesse  ;  by  not  only  attending 
to  the  wanton  discourse  of  immodest  Lovers,  but  carrying  about  them  (even 
in  their  naked  Bosomes,  where  chastest  desires  should  only  lodge)  the 
amorous  toyes  of  Venus  and  Adonis:  which  Poem,  with  others  of  like 
nature,  they  heare  with  such  attention,  peruse  with  such  devotion,  and 
retaine  with  such  delectation,  as  no  subject  can  equally  relish  their  unsea- 
soned palate,  like  those  lighter  discourses."  L.  T.  S.] 


RICHARD  BROME,  1638. 

Thefe  lads  can  a6l  the  Emperors  lives  all  over, 
And  Shakefpeares  Chronicled  hiftories,  to  boot, 
And  were  that  Ccefar,  or  that  Englifh  Earle 
That  lov'd  a  Play  and  Player  fo  well  now  living, 
I  would  not  be  out-vyed  in  my  delights. 

Antipodes.     1640.     Sign.  C  2.     [4/6'.] 
("  Acted  in  the yeare  1638.") 

C.  M.  I. 


432 


JOHN   CLARKE,   1639. 


Thought  is  free.     ( p .  63 .) 

A  trout  hamlet  with  four e  legs. 

An   honejl    man    and    a    good 


lowle 


r. 


Fat  paunches  make  leane  pates 
andgrqffer  bits  enrich  the  ribs, 
but  bankerupt  quite  the  wits. 


Soterichi  lecti.      (p.  71.) 

Non  licet  afle  mihi  qui  me  non 

afle  licetnr.     (p.  72.) 
Pinguis  venter  non  gignit  fen- 

fura  tenuem.     (p.  135.) 


Parcemiologia  f  Anglo-latinaJ  in  usum  Scholarum  concin  nata,  I  or  I 
Proverbs  /  English,  and  Latins,  methodically  disposed  according  to  the 
Common-place  /  heads,  in  ERASMUS  his  /  Adages./  Very  use-full  and 
delightfull  for  all  sorts  /  of  men,  on  all  occasions./  More  especially 
profitable  for  Scholars  I  for  the  attaining  Elegancie,  sublimitie,  and  / 
varietie  of  the  best  expressions.!  .  .  .  London,!  Imprinted  by  Felix 
Kyngston  for  Robert  /  Mylbourne,  and  are  to  be  sold  at  the  signe 
of  /  the  Vnicorne  neere  Fleet  bridge.  1639. 


*  The  Epistle  to  the  Reader '  is  signd  '  John  Clarke?  He  was  Master  of 
the  Grammar- School  at  Hull,  and  wrote  several  school-books.  The  present 
one  is  not  in  the  British  Museum.  Mr.  Reynell  of  Forde  House,  Putney,  the 
owner  of  the  old  staind  glass  from  Charlecote  House,  has  kindly  lent  me 
his  copy.  Clarke  says  :  "  I  have  gleaned  and  gathered  these  Proverbs  out  of 
all  writers,  I  could  read  or  meet  withall,  and  have  used  herein  the  help  of 
sundry  scholars,  and  worthy  friends  :  over  and  beside  my  owne  observation 
of  many  golden  proverbs,  dropping  now  and  then  out  of  vulgar  mouthes 
inid  deplebe"  His  book,  he  says,  "  hath  lien  by  me  now  these  eight  yeares, 
and  been  so  long  vn. fieri :  now  'tis  thine  (if  thou  please  va.  facto  ;.for  to  the 
Presse  I  manu-mise  it,  nonum  ut  prematur  in  annum}." 

That  Shakspere  was  one  of  the  writers  from  whom  Clarke  or  his  helpers 
had  gleand  and  gatherd,  seems  clear.  "  Thought  is  free"  may  well  be 
Stephano's,  in  The  Tempest,  III.  ii.  I32,1  while  the  'honest  man  and  good 
bowler  '  may  be  Costard's  "  an  honest  man  .  .  .  and  a  very  good  bowler  "  in 
Love 's Labours  Lost,  V.  ii.  585-8,  which  play,  in  its  lines  26-7  of  Act  I.  sc.  i. 
also  gave  Clarke  its  couplet. 

"Fat  paunches  have  lean  pates,  and  dainty  bits 
Make  rich  the  ribs,  but  bankrupt  quite  the  wits." 

1  '  A  moone-calfe,  or  wind-egge.l     Menia  columna.' — Clarke,  p.  70. 


JOHN    CLARKE,    1639.  433 

Mr.  J.  P.  Collier  was  the  first  to  print  the  2nd  and  4th  of  the  quotations 
above,  in  his  Farther  Particulars  regarding  Shakespeare  and  his  Works, 
London,  T.  Rodd,  1839,  p.  68,  and  on  the  hamlet  one  he  remarks— 'But 
there  is  one  saying,  where  Hamlet  is  named,  which  I  cannot  understand  ; 
it  is  this  : 

"A  trout,  Hamlet,  with  four  legs."— p.  71. 

Can  it  have  any  reference  to  the  scene  between  Hamlet  and  Polonius 
(Act  III.  Sc.  ii.  [1.  394-9]),  where  the  latter  humours  the  prince  by  saying 
that  a  cloud  is  like  a  camel,  a  weasel,  or  a  whale  ?  Has  it  been  some 
absurd  interpolation  of  the  players,  substituting  "trout"  for  "whale?"  is 
it  from  the  older  Hamlet,  or  has  it  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  either  play?'1 

Before  trying  to  give  an  answer  to  these  questions,  one  has  first  to  ask, 
What  does  '  Soterichi  ledi '  mean  ? 

Our  member,  the  Rev.  W.  A.  Harrison,  of  St.  Ann's  Vicarage,  answers, 
by  Forcellini's  help  z  : — 

"  The  phrase  '  Soterici  lecti*  is  found  in  Aulus  Gellius  (xii.  2,  §  5?  Del  ph. 
Ed.).  He  is  quoting  as  '  a  joke '  of  Seneca's  an  opinion  that  he  expresses 
on  some  verses  of  the  poet  Ennius.  '  Qui  hujuscemodi,  inquit  [Seneca] 
versus  amant,  liqueat  tibi  eosdem  admirari  et  "  Soterici  lectos"  Dignus  sane 
Seneca  videatur  lectione  se  studio  adolescentium  :  qui  honorem  coloremque 
veteris  orationis  Soterici  lectis  compararit,  quasi  minimae  scilicet  gratise,  et 
relictis  jam  contemptisque.' 

"  He  who  can  admire  the  verses  of  Ennius,  is  capable  even  of  admiring  the 
couches  of  Sotericus." 

The  Scholiast  says  that  Sotericus  was  a  coarse,  clumsy  workman,  who 
made  and  carved  couches  in  such  a  rude,  unfinished  style,  that  the  phrase 
"like  Sotericus's  couches"  came  to  be  applied  to  anything  clumsy  and 
rough,  or  to  bad  art  generally.  "Hsec  locutio  (i.e.  Soterici  lecti)  in  vul- 
garem  jocum  abiit  de  re  vili." 

As  then  the  Latin  was  applied  to  res  vilis,  and  Clarke  puts  his  proverb  into 
his  section  "  Contemptus  6°  vilitatis"  (p.  68),3  so  was  the  English  trout 
employd,  says  Mr.  Hessels.  Maria  uses  the  word  for  Malvolio  ( Twelfth 

1  Mr.  H.-P.  quotes  this  passage  from  Collier,  in  his  Mem.  on  Hamlet,  p. 
21,  and  agrees  with  Dr.  Ingleby  that  'it  is  in  all  probability  taken  from  the 
older  play  of  Hamlet.' 

2  "  Sotericus,  gen. — ci.   m.,  artifex  lignarius  valde  rudis,  unde  Soterici 
lectus  ponitur  pro  impolito,  et  nulla  arte  facto."     And  he  quotes  Seneca 
[as  above].     Erasmus  conjectures  that  Sotericus  was  some  workman  whose 
productions  were  very  primitive  and  rude.     Afterwards,  of  course,  it  became 
a  proverb.— J.  H.  HESSELS. 

3  The  2  sentences  before,  are,  "  Goe  shake  your  eares.     fie  not  foule  my 
fingers  with  him;"  the  2  after,  "  Vie  not  medle  with  him  hot  or  cold.     A 
rogues  -ward-robe  is  harbour  for  a  louse'* 

SH.  ALLN.  BK. — I.  F  F 


434  JOHN    CLARKE,     1639. 

Night,  II.  v.  25-6)  coming  to  be  foold,  "  here  comes  the  trout  that  must  be 
caught  with  tickling  ;  "  and  Latham's  Johnson  follows  up  this  quotation  by 
two  others  :  "  This  \thetrouf\  is  in  some  kinde  a  foolish  fish,  and  an  embleme 
of  one  who  loves  to  be  flattered  :  for  when  he  is  once  in  his  hold,  you  may 
take  him  with  your  hands  by  tickling,  rubbing,  or  clawing  him  under  the 
bellie. — Swan,  Speculum  Mundi,  1635,  ch.  viii.  §  I,  p.  389.  Leave  off 
your  tickling  of  young  heirs  like  trouts. — Beaumont  and  Fletcher."  * 

Granting  then  that  there  is  a  sneer  in  the  words,  and  that  they  are  spoken 
to  Hamlet  of  some  third  person,  I  would  make  them,  if  they  were  used 
in  Shakspere's  play,2  a  bit  of  gag  in  the  mouth  of  the  man  who  playd 
Horatio  shortly  before  1639,  and  I  would  apply  them  to  Hamlet's  "  water- 
fly  .  .  beast  .  .  and  chough  .  .  spacious  in  the  possession  of  dirt  "  (V. 
ii.  84-90),  even  Osric,  and  either  put  them  in  after  the  words  last  cited,  or 
add  them  to  one  of  Horatio's  like  remarks  on  the  'beast  : ' — "  His  purse  is 
empty  already  ;  all's  golden  words  are  spent "  (1.  136-7)  ;  "  This  lapwing 
runs  away  with  the  shell  on  his  head.''  Or  they  might  follow  Osric's  "  The 
carriages,  sir,  are  the  hangers,"  1.  164.  (Possibly  they  might  have  been  used 
of  the  Grave-digger,  in  answer  to  Hamlet's  "  Has  this  fellow  no  feeling  of 
his  business,  that  he  sings  at  grave -making  ?  ") 

Of  Clarke's  other  saws,  "  All  shall  be  well,  and  Jack  shall  have  Jill,"  p. 
63,  is  hardly  Puck's  "Jack  shall  have  Jill  :/  Nought  shall  go  ill."  Mids.  N~. 
Dr.  III.  ii.  461-2  ;  and  under  "  Magnified  Promissa,"  p.  193,  "  Court  holy 
•water  I  Incantatione  quavis  efncacius  "  is  probably  not  from  Lear,  III.  ii.  10  ; 
as  "  He  must  have  a  long  spoon  that  willeate  with  the  Devill,"  p.  127,  dates 
from  before  Dromio  of  Syracuse,  Errors*,  IV.  iii.  64  ;  and  "  It's  merry  i'  th' 
hall  when  beards  wag  all,"  from  before  2  Hen.  IV.,  &c.,  &c.3 

Mr.  Collier  says  of  Clarke's  book  :  '  Farther  on  (p.  192)  we  have  "  Fat 
paunches  and  leane  pates."  4  In  the  same  volume  we  have  "  Much  ado  about 

1  Compare  too,  in  Fletcher's  Rule  a  Wife  and  have  a  Wife  (licenst  Oct.  19, 
1624,  pr.  1640),  Act  II.  sc.  iv.  (B.  &  F.'s  Works,  ed.  Dyce,  1845,  vo1-  ix» 
p.  419),  Estefania's 

What,  dost  thou  think  I  fish  without  a  bait,  wench  ? 
/  bob  for  fools :  he  is  mine  own  ;  I  have  him : 
I  told  thee  what  would  tickle  him  like  a  trout ; 
And  as  I  cast  it,  so  I^caught  him  daintily  ; 
And  all  he  has,  I  have  stow'd  at  my  devotion. 

2  I  don't  take  to  the  notion  of  their  being  part  of  the  old  play,  because 
of  the  late  date  at  which  they  were  used.     Surely  all  trace  of  the  old  Hamlet 
had  disappeared  from  the  currency  by  1639. 

3  "Much  water  goes  by  th'  milne,  that  the  milner  knowes  not  off,"  is  before 
Tit.  Andron.  II.  i.  85. 

4  "  Pinguis  venter,  macer  intellectus." 


JOHN     CLARKE,    1639.  435 

nothing,"  l  "  All's  well  that  ends  well2,"  and  "  To  take  your  ease  in  your 
inn,"  3  which  were  proverbial  long  before  the  time  of  Shakespere.' 

On  p.  34  of  the  Parcemiologia  is  an  illustration  of  Buckingham's  '  Trem- 
ble and  start  at  wagging  of  a  straw?  Rich.  Ill,  III.  v.  7  :— 

Angry  at  the  wagging  of  a  straw     I  Ne  move  festucam, 

I  A  lasso  rixu  quaeritur. 

1  p.  51,  "  You  make  much  adoe  about  nothing.]     Quid  de  pusillis  magna 
procemia  ?  " 

2  p.  117,  "  Finis  non  pugna  coronat." 

3  The   earliest  use  I   know  is  ab.  1536,  and  is  given   in  my  Thynne's 
Animadversions,  p.  77.  F.   J.  F. 


436 


G.   RIVERS,    1639. 

"They,  as  frolick  as  youth,  and  wine  that  made  them  fo  j  unlock 
the  treafures  of  their  hearts,  their  Wives,  and  their  beauties  to 
the  admiration  of  unfound  eares." 

Heroina,  pp.  45-46.     [Shakspere's  Lucrece,  1.  16.] 

"  Tarquin  divided  between  aftonifhment  &  rage,  that  Collatine 
his  fervant,  mould  be  his  Soveraigne  in  happinefle  :  mounted 
upon  the  wings  of  luft  and  fury,  flies  to  Rome" 

p.  46.     [Sh.,  1.  2,  and  11.  41-42.] 

"  shee  affrighted  at  the  fword  and  blafted  by  the  light  that  luft 
gave  life  to,  trembling  like  a  prey  with  more  horrour  then  a'ien- 

tion,  hears  him  thus  befpeak  her." 

p.  47.    [cf.  Sh.,  11.  442—460.] 

This  night  I  muft  enjoy  thee  Lucrecia, 

P.  48.    [Sh.,  1.  512.] 

The  lin  unknown  is  unacted, 

p.  49.     [Sh.,  1.  527.] 

In  Tarquines  (hape  I  entertain'd  you ;  wrong  not  the  Prince 
fo  farre,  as  to  proftrate  his  fame  to  fo  inglorious  an  a6tion. 

p.  50.     [Sh.,  1.  596.] 

Firft  they  faw  her  face  ftand  in  that  amazed  filence,  that  they 
could  read,  not  heare  the  full  contents  of  forrow. 

p.  52-3.     [Sh.,  11.590-596.] 

her  foule  too  pure  for  her  bodie,  difclogg'd  it  felfe  of  clay,  and 

broke  the  vault  of  mortalitie. 

p.  56.    [?] 


G.    RIVERS,    1639.  437 

now  when  the  brother  of  death  had  fummon'd  to  ftill  mufick 
all  but  foule  ravifhers,  theeves,  and  cares  j 

p.  61.    [Sh.,  1.  126.] 

The  /  Heroinse  :  /  Or  /  The  lives  /  of  /  Arria,  /  Paulina,  / 
Lucrecia,  /  Dido,  /  Theutilla,  /  Cypriana,  /  Areta- 
phila./  London^  /  Printed  by  R.  Bishop  for  John 
Colby,  I  and  are  to  be  sold  at  his  Shop  under  the  / 
Kings  head  Tavern,  at  Chancery-/  lane  end  in  Fleet- 
street.  1 6397 


There  may  be  other  bits  from  Shakspere  in  the  Heroina.  This  interest- 
ing little  book  is  dedicated  to  the  Lady  Dorothy  Sydney,  Waller's  '  Sachar- 
issa,'  and  is  written  by  G.  Rivers,  almost  certainly  one  of  the  brothers 
Rivers  of  whom  one  is  addressed  by  Milton  in  his  line,  long  a  crux  in  the 
Vacation  Exercise, 

"Rivers  arise!" 

E.  DOWDEN. 


43$ 


R[OBERT]  C[HAMBERLAIN],  1639. 


One  afked  another  what  Shakefpeares  works  were  worth,  all 
being  bound  together.  He  anfwered,  not  a  farthing.  Not 
worth  a  farthing  !  faid  he  5  why  fo  ?  He  anfwered  that  his  plays 
were  worth  a  great  deale  of  mony,  but  he  never  heard,  that  his 
works  were  worth  any  thing  at  all. 

Conceits,  Clinches,  Flashes,  and  Whimzies.  Newly  studied,  ivith 
some  Collections,  but  those  never  published  before  in  this  kinde. 
1639.  [Reprinted  by  J.  O.  Halliwell,  1860,  /.  30;  also  m 
Hazlitfs  Shakespeare  Jest-Books ;  Third  vohime,  last  article 
1864.  /.  49.] 


[Since  Mr.  Hazlitt  reprinted  the  "  Conceits, "he  has  found  that  there  was 
a  second  edition  printed  under  the  title  of  "Jocabella,  or  a  Cabinet  ot 
Conceits,  whereunto  are  added  Epigrams  and  other  Poems  "  in  1640,  and 
has  accordingly  placed  the  two  books  together  under  the  name  of  Robert 
Chamberlaine  in  his  "Hand-book,"  1867. 

The  "conceit"  recalls  that  which  Sir  John  Suckling  puts  into  the  mouth 
of  "good  old  Ben"  Jonson  (see  note,  after,  p.  457).  L.  T.  S.J 


439 


THOMAS  BANCROFT,  1639. 

To  Shakefpeare. 

Thy  Mules  fugred  dainties  feeme  to  us 
Like  the  fam'd  Apples  of  old  Tantalus  : 
For  we  (admiring)  fee  and  heare  thy  {frames, 
But  none  I  fee  or  heare,  thofe  fweets  attaines. 

To  the  fame. 

Thou  haft  lo  ufd  thy  Pen,  (o?  Jhocke  thy  Spear e) 
That  Poets  ftartle,  nor  thy  wit  come  neare. 

Two  Bookes  of  Epigrammesy  and  Epitaphs* 
1639.     [4/0.]     Nos.  llSand  119. 

C.  M.  I. 


440 


Anonymous ',  1639. 

To  Mr.  William  Shake-fpear. 

Shake-fpeare,  we  muft  be  filent  in  thy  praife, 
'Caufe  our  encom ion's  will  but  blaft  thy  Bayes, 
Which  envy  could  not,  that  thou  didft  fo  well  j 
Let  thine  own  hiflories  prove  thy  Chronicle. 

Witts  Recreations  Selected  from  the  finest  Fancies 
of  Moderne  Muses.  With  A  Thousand  out- 
Landish  Proverbs.  Epigram  25.  1640. 
(Imprimatur,  1639.)  £.  M.  I. 


441 


<  WITS   RECREATIONS/  1639. 

121.  B.  J.  anfwer  to  a  thief e  lidding  himjland. 
Fly  villaine  hence  or  be  thy  coate  of  fteele, 
He  make  thy  heart,  my  brazen  bullet  feele, 
And  fend  that  thrice  as  thievifh  foul  of  thine, 
To  hell,  to  weare  the  Devils  Valentine. 

122.  The  Theefes  replie. 

Art  thou  great  Ben  ?  or  the  revived  ghoft 

Of  famous  Shake-fpear  ?  or  fom  drunken  hoft  ? 

Who  being  tipfie  with  thy  muddy  beer, 

Doft  think  thy  rimes  mall  daunt  my  foul  with  fear  [?] 

Nay  know  bafe  Have,  that  I  am  one  of  thofe, 

Can  take  a  purfe  afwell  [so]  in  verfe  as  profe, 

And  when  th'art  dead,  write  this  upon  thy  herfe  j 

Here  lies  a  Poet  that  was  robb'd  in  verfe. 

Witts  I  Recreations  /  Selected  from  /  the  finest  Fancies  I  of 
Moderne  Muses  /  .  .  .  London.  Printed  for  Humph: 
Blunden  at  y*  Castle  in  Corn-hill.  1640. 

\Sigs.  D2b,D  3.] 


[This  is  a  good  version  of  a  fairly  common  piece.  It  occurs  also  in  the 
MS.  Commonplace  Book  in  the  Diocesan  Registry  of  Worcester.  See 
John  Pryce,  1676.  The  allusion  was  noted  by  Brinsley  Nicholson  in  Notes 
and  Queries,  7th  Series,  XII,  Nov.  28,  1891,  p.  426.  M.] 


442 


SAM.  PICKE,  1639. 

Of  womens  Metamorphofis,  according  to  the  time  and  place. 

SOme  women  are  in  Churches  Saints  or  more, 
Angels  abroad,  at  home  too  like  the  Devill, 
At  windowes  Syrens,  Parrots  at  the  dore ; 
And  in  their  gardens  Goates,  or  more  uncivill : 
And  Tradefmen  that  nere  match  till  they  have  much, 
In  deadly  danger  are  to  meet  with  luch. 

Festum  Voluptatis,  /  Or  the  /  Banquet  I  of  I  Pleasure  /  .  . 
By  S[am.]  P[icke}  Gent.  /  London:  .  .  .  p.  40. 


[This  I  take  to  be  an  imitation  of  lago's  speech,  Othello,  II.  i.  109-12 : 

Come  on,  come  on  ;  you  are  pictures  out  of  doors, 
Bells  in  your  parlours,  wild-cats  in  your  kitchens, 
Saints  in  your  injuries,  devils  being  offended, 
Players  in  your  housewifery,  and  housewives  in  your  beds. 

M.] 


443 


MRS.  ANN   MERRICKE,  January  21,  1639. 

Faire  Mrs.  Lydall, 

.  .  .  for  truelie  I  endeavor  as  much,  to  looke  well  by 
night,  as  by  daye,  in  the  houfe  or  a-broad  and  (for  I  dare  tell 
you  any  thing)  I  conftantly  drefse  my  felfe  by  my  glafse,  when  I 
goe  to  bed,  leafl  fhu'd  a  gentleman  prefle  in  my  Chamber  in  the 
morneing  (and  gentlemen  you  knowe  fometymes  will  bee  un- 
civill)  I  fhu'd  appeare  to  him,  though  not  ill  favoured,  yet  lefle 
pleafeing.  I  cu'd  wifh  my  felfe  with  you,  to  eafe  you  of  this 
trouble,  and  with-all  to  fee  the  Alchymift,  which  I  heare  this 
tearme  is  revis'd,  and  the  newe  playe  a  freind  of  mine  fent  to 
Mr.  John  Sucklyn,  and  Tom  :  Carew  (the  beft  witts  of  the 
time)  to  correct,  but  for  want  of  thefe  gentile  recreationes,  I  muft 
content  my  felfe  here,  with  the  ftudie  of  Shackfpeare,  and  the 
hiflorie  of  woemen,  All  my  countrie  librarie  .  .  . 


[From  the  MS.  in  the  Record  Office.  Mrs.  Slopes  and  Mr.  E.  F.  Bates 
kindly  gave  me  the  reference  to  the  above  letter,  printed  in  the  Calendar  of 
State  Papers,  Domestic  Series,  1638-9.  An  extract  of  the  letter  is  printed 
in  Mrs.  Alec  Tweedie's  Hyde  Park,  its  History  and  Romance^  1908.  M.] 


444 

HENRY  GLAPTHORNE,  1639—40. 

A6tus  Quintus,  Scena  prima. 
*  *  * 

Buf[ie~].  Well  faid  neighbours, 
Y'are  chatting  wifely  o're  your  Bils  and  Lanthorns, 
As  becomes  Watch-men  of  difcretion  :  pray  you 
Let's  have  no  wit  amongft  you  :  no  difcourfe 
O'  the  Common- wealth ;  1  need  not  neighbours  give  you 
Your  charge  to  night :  onely  for  fafhion  fake. 
Draw  neare  and  be  attentive. 

3  Men.  I  have  edified 

More  by  your  charge  I  promife  you,  than  by 
Many  a  mornings  exercife. 

Buf.  Firft  then, 

You  fhall  be  fure  to  keep  the  peace  j  that  is, 
If  any  quarrell,  be  ith'  ftreets,  fit  ftill,  and  keepe 
Your  rufty  Bills  from  blood-fhed  j  and  as't  began 
So  let  it  end :  onely  your  zeales  may  wifh 
The  Devill  part  them. 

i  Wat[cK\.  Forward  Mr.  Conftable, 

Buf.  Next,  if  a  thiefe  chance  to  pafie  through  your  watch, 
Let  him  depart  in  peace  j  for  fliould  you  ftay  him, 
To  purchafe  his  redemption  he'le  impart 
Some  of  his  ftolne  goods,  and  you're  apt  to  take  them, 
Which  makes  you  acceflary  to  his  theft, 
[sig.  H]  And  fo  fit  food  for  Tiburne. 

Men.  Good  advife, 
I  promife  you,  if  we  have  grace  to  follow  it. 

Buf.  Next  if  a  drunkard  or  a  man  difguifd, 


tlENRY    GLAPTHORNE,    1639 40.  445 

Defire  to  pafle  the  gate,  by  all  means  open't, 
You'l  run  your  felves  into  th'  premunire, 
For  your  authority  ftetches  but  to  men, 
And  they  are  beads  by  ftatute. 

i  Wat.  Such  as  we  are, 
Horn'd  beafts  he  means. 

Buf.  How's  that  j  you  carry  lanthornes, 
Thou  haft  wit,  and  He  reward't,  there's  foure  tokens 
To  buy  the  cheefe :  next  for  the  female  creatures, 
Which  the  feverer  officers  ith'  fuburbs 
Terme  girles,  or  wenches,  let  them  pafle  without 
Examining  where  they  been :  or  taking  from  them 
A  fingle  taken  :  lafle  good  foules,  they  get 
Their  mony  hard,  with  labours  of  their  bodies, 
And  to  exact  on  thofe  were  even  extortion 
Beyond  a  brokers. 

Men.  Yet  they  doe't 

Without  the  City,  I  have  heard  a  brewer, 
Being  one  yeare  in  office,  got  as  much  from  thefe 
Good  foules  as  bought  him  a  new  mam-fat, 
And  mended  all  his  coolers. 

Buf.  How's  that  ?  we  are  bidden 
Not  to  take  ill  examples,  for  your  felves  you  have 
Free  leave  for  th'  good  oth'  common  wealth  to 
Sbepe  after  eleven  :  meane  time  you  may  play  at 
Tray  trip,  or  cockall  for  blacke  puddings, 
So  now  your  charge  is  fmifh'd. 

Wit  in  a  Constable  by  Henry  Glapthorne,  1640,  sigs.  G  4  b,  H. 


[Reprinted  in  Pearson's  edition  of  Glapthorne,  1874,  vol.  i,  226-7.    The 
scene  is  in  imitation  of  Dogberry's  Watch  scene  in  Much  Ado.     M.] 


44* 


ANON.    1640   (?i628). 

The  Gluttons  Speech. 

A  Chaire,  a  Chaire,  fweet  Mafter  Jew,  a  Chaire  :  All  that 
I  fay,  is  this,  I'me  a  fat  man  it  has  been  a  Weft-Indian  voyage 
for  me  to  come  reeking  hither ;  A  Kitchin-ftufFe-wench  might 
pick  up  a  living,  by  following  me,  for  the  fat  which  I  loofe 
in  ftradling  :  I  doe  not  live  by  the  fweat  of  my  brows,  but  am 
almoft  dead  with  fweating,  I  eate  much,  but  can  talke  little ; 
Sir  lohn  Old-castle  was  my  greatgrandfathers  fathers  Uncle,  I 
come  of  a  huge  kindred,  And  of  you  defire  to  learne,  whether 
my  Fortune  be  to  die  a  yeere,  or  two,  hence,  or  to  grow  bigger, 
if  I  continue  as  I  doe  in  feeding,  (for,  my  victuals  I  cannot  leave :) 
Say,  fay,  merciful!  Jew,  what  mall  become  of  me. 

The  Wandering-Jew,  /  Telling  /  Fortones  /  to  I  English- 
men, \\Woodcut\  London ;  /  Printed  by  lohn  Raworth, 
for  Nathaniel  Butter.  1640.  4/0.  (4°,  A.  14.  Art.), 
p.  38.  Reprinted  in  Halliwell's  Books  of  Characters, 
1857,  p.  42. 


Sir  John  Old-castle  was  Shakspere's  first  name  for  Falstaff  (below, 
p.  510,  &c.),  and  this  passage  evidently  alludes  to  him  by  it.  The  passage 
(now  re-read  with  the  original  by  Mr.  Parker)  is  quoted  by  Reed  ( Variorum 
Shakspere,  xvi.  418)  and  in  Mr.  Halliwell's  Character  of  Sir  John  Falstaff, 
1841,  p.  26-7,  without  reference  to  Reed. — F.  J.  F. 

The  Preface  is  signed  ' '  Thy  wandring  friend  Gad  Ben-arod,  Ben  Baalam 
Ben-Ahimuth,  Ben-Baal,  Ben-Gog,  Ben-Magog." 

The  British  Museum  copy  has  a  MS.  note  by  E.  Malone.     "This  tract 


ANON.    1640    (?  1628).  447 

must  have  been  written  before  1630,  for  in  p.  52  Spinola  and  Tilly  are 
spoken  of  as  living.     Spinola  died  in  1630,  and  Tilly  in  1632. l 

"In  p.  39  '  this  plentiful  year'  is  mentioned.3  I  believe  therefore  it  was 
written  in  1628,  the  most  plentiful  year  between  1620  and  1640.  Wheat 
was  in  that  year  sold  in  Windsor  Market  for  285.  a  qr.,  and  elsewhere  in 
England  probably  for  22s." 

Passages  referred  to  by  Malone  above. 

1  p.  52.  [The  Banckrupts  speech]  "  to  be  call'd  a  weathy  Citizen,  is  my 
minde,  as  great  an  honour  as  to  bee  call'd  Bethlem-Gabor,  or  Spinola,  or 
Tilley,  they  fight  for  glory,  (and  we  Citizens  striue  for  Riches) 

Bethlen  Gabor,  i.  e.  Gabriel  Bethlen,   Prince  of  Transylvania,  died  15 

Nov.  1629, 

John  Tzerclaes,  Count  of  Tilly,  died  30  Apr.  1632, 
Marquis  Ambrosio  de  Spinola  died  25  Sep.  1630." 

2  P-  39-  [The  Glutton's  Fortune]  "  Pray  for  a  Famine,  for  if  that  Surgeon 
cannot  worke  upon  your  body,  and  eate  away  the  proud  flesh,  such  a  plen- 
tifull  yeere  as  this,  must  put  you  to  the  charge  of  a  longer- girdle." 

P.  A.  LYONS. 


448 


LEWIS    SHARPE,  1640. 

Pup[illus].  Tis  wonderfull  provocative,  believe  me:  fure 
it  came  out  of  Quids  Ars  Amandi:  oh  for  the  book  of  Venus 
and  Adonis,  to  court  my  Mistris  by  :  I  cou'd  dye,  I  cou'd  dye  in 
the  Eli-zi-um  of  her  Armes  :  no  fweets  to  thole  of  Love  : 

The  I  Noble  /  Stranger. I  As  it  was  acted  at  the  Private 
Hotifse  in  /  Salisbury  Court,  by  her  Maiefties  /  Servants.  / 
The  Attthor,  L\ewis\  S[/iarpe]./  Imprinted  at  London  by 
I.  O.  for  James  Becket  .  .  .  i 640,  sig.  G  3. 


M  he  following  song  in  the  same  play  (sig.   H  3  b.  )   is   said   to   be   a 
metrical  imitation  of  "Take,  O  !  take  those  lips  away,"  — 


,  oh  charme,  thou  god  ofjleep, 
Her  fair  e  eyes,  that  waking  mourne  ; 
Frighlfull  vi/ionsfrom  her  keep, 
Such  as  are  ly  forrowes  borne  : 
But  let  all  thefweets  that  may 
Wait  on  rejl,  her  thoughts  obey. 
Flye  :  ohJLye,  thou  god  of  love  , 
To  that  breajl  thy  dart  did  wound, 
Draw  thyjhaft,  the  f  mart  remove, 
Let  her  wonted  joy  es  be  found: 
Raife  up  pleafure  to  a  flood, 
Never  ebbing  ;  new  joyes  bud. 

At  sig.  G  3  b.  is  the  following  interesting  dialogue  on  the  theatre  : 
Mer[cutio,  A  Poet,'].    How  doe  you   find  yourfelfe  affe&ed 
now? 


LEWIS  SHARPE,  1640.  449 

Pup\illus\.  Oh  that  I  were  in  a  Play-houfe — I  wou'd  tell 
the  whole  Audience  of  their  pittifull,  Hereticall,  Criticall 
humours — Let  a  man,  ftriving  to  enrich  his  labours,,  make 
himfelfe  as  poore  as  a  broken  Citizen,  that  dares  not  fo  much  as 
mew  the  tips  on's  Homes  -,  yet  will  thefe  people  crye  it  downe, 
they  know  not  why:  One  loves  high  language,  though  he 
underflands  it  notj  another  whats  obfcaene,  to  move  the  blood, 
not  fpleene :  a  third,  whofe  wit  lyes  all  in  his  gall,  muft  have  a 
Satyre :  a  fourth  man  all  ridiculous :  and  the  fift  man  not 
knowing  what  to  have,  grounds  his  opinion  on  the  next  man  ith' 
formall  Ruffe ;  and  fo  many  heads  fo  many  feverall  humours  -, 
and  yet  the  poor  Poet  muft  find  waies  to  pleafe  'hem  all. 

Mer.  It  workes  ftrangely. 

Pup.  But  when  they  fhal  come  to  feed  on  the  OrFalls  of  wit, 
have  nothing  for  their  money  but  a  Drumme,  a  Fooles  Coat,  and 
Gunpowder;  fee  Comedies,  more  ridiculous  than  a  Morrice 
dance  j  and  for  their  Tragedies,  a  bout  at  Cudgells  were  a  brave 
Battalia  to  'hem :  Oh  Phoebus,  Phoebus,  what  will  this  world 
come  to  ? 

The  first  reference  above  to  Venus  and  Adonis  was  printed  in  the  second 
edition  of  the  Centurie  of  Prayse,  p.  230.  Miss  Toulmin  Smith  there 
remarked:  "  Pupillus  makes  this  exclamation  after  having  swallowed  one 
of  Mercutio's  paper  pills,  containing  a  'wanton  lovers  rapture.'  In  this 
amusing  scene  Mercutio  undertakes  to  furnish  Pupillus  *  with  as  much  wit 
as  shall  serve  for  a  Country  Justice,  or  an  Alderman's  heire,'  by  means  of 
*  certaine  Collections  out  of  learned  and  witty  Authors,  for  all  humours  in  an 
accomplished  wit.  Now  sir,  you  must  eate  every  one  of  hem  one  by  one.' 
Surely  Lewis  Sharpe  fore-saw  the  '  cramming  '  of  modern  days  ! "  M. 


SH.  ALLN.  BK. — I.  G  G 


45° 


RICH.  GOODRIDGE,  CHR.  CH.,  1640. 

Were  thy  Jlory  of  as  much  direfull  woe, 
As  that,  of  luliet  and  Hieronymo  : 
Here's  that  would  cure  you  .•  .  .  . 

('To  the  Authour  upon  his  Love-Melancholy.')     Commendatory  Verses, 
sign,  a  3,  back,  in 

EPQTOMANIA  /  or  /  A  Treatise  /  Discoursing  of  the 
Essence,  /  Causes,  Symptomes,  Prog-  /  nosticks,  and  Cure 
of  /  Loue,  /  or  /  Erotiqve  \  Melancholy.  /  Written  by  [ 
lames  Ferrand  *  /  Dr  of  Physick  /  [Englisht  by  E.  Chil- 
mead]  Oxford.  \  Printed  by  L.  Lichfield  and  are  to  be  / 
sold  by  Edward  Forrest.  164.0.! 


[Two  of  the  other  Christ  Church  commendators  mention  'Lucrece'  (b.  kk  ; 
b.  5  bk),  but  evidently  without  reference  to  Shakspere.  (Richard  West  of 
Christ  Church,  on  sig.  b  7,  treats  Ben  Jonson  as  the  great  poet  of  the  day : 

"As  twere  the  only  office  of  a  Friend 
To  Rhyme,  and  'gainst  his  Conscience  to  commend  ; 
And  swear e  like  Foets  of  the  Post,  This  Play 
Exceeds  all  Johnson's  Works  :  " 

Noted  by  Mr.  Hll.-P.) 

The  extract  above  is  printed  in  Hunter's  Illustrations,  i.]     F.  J.  F. 


Jacques  Ferrand. 


GEO.  LYNN,  1640. 

To  his  Friend  the  Author,  on  his  Fancies  Theatre. 

****** 

For,  when  th'  inticing  pleafure  of  thy  Line, 
And  teeming  Fancies  unexhaufted  Tk/yne 
I  view,  me  thinks  the  Genius  of  thofe  Three 
Admired  Laureats  are  enfphear'd  in  Thee, 
Smooth  Shakefpeare,  neat  Randolph,  and  wittie  Ben. 
Flow  in  a  mutuall  fweetnefTe  from  Thy  Pen  : 

The  I  Fancies  /  Theater.  /  by  /  lohn  Tatham  \  Gent.)  .  . . 
London,/  Printed  by  lohn  Norton,  for  /  Richard  Best, 
and  are  to  be  /  sold  at  his  Shop  neere  Grayes-Innc-\  gate 
in  Holborne./  i64O./  Sign.  (*)  8. 


W.  Ling,  who  writes  the  last  fore-praise  poem  to  this  play,  doesn't  deign 
(like  so  many  other  poetasters)  to  mention  Shakspere  : — 

"  Had  I  Chapmans  Line  or  Learning,  lohnsons  Art, 
Fletchers  more  accurate  Fancie,  or  that  part 
Of  Beaumont  that's  divine,  Dun's  profound  skill, 
Making  good  Verses  live,  and  damning  ill : 
I  then  would  prayse  thy  Verses,  which  sho'd  last 
Whilst  Time  ha's  sands  to  run,  or  Fame  a  blast." 

F.J.  F. 


452 


The  Academy  of  Compliments ',   1640. 

On  her  Ireajls. 

[i]      T  T  Er  brefts  thofe  Ivory  Globes  circled  with  blew, 
A  A  Save  of  their  Lord  no  bearing  yoake  they  knew. 

[/•  I35-] 

The  quality  of  Love. 
[2-]      T     Ove  is  a  fpirit  all  compact  of  fire, 

1 — rfNot  groffe  to  linke  but  light,  and  will  afpire. 

[/.  138.] 

The  Conftancy  of  Lovers. 

[3]      T     Ove  goes  to  love  as  fchoole  boyes  from  their  books, 
J — *But  love  from  love  towards  Schoole  with  heavy  looks. 
O  141-] 


The  parting  of  Lovers. 
ie  to  love,  the  leffon  is  I 
And  being  learnt  is  never  loft  againe. 


[4]      S~\Nce  learne  to  love,  the  leffon  is  but  plaine, 

[/. 


I  ^Aire  flowers  that  are  not  gathered  in  their  prime, 
A     Rot  and  confume  themfelves  in  little  time. 

[p.  148.] 

The  I  Academy  I  of  I  Complements  /  .  .  .  .  London.  .  .  . 
1640. 


The  Preface  to  the  Reader  is  signed  Philomusus.  No.  I  is  a  quotation 
from  Lucrece,  407-8;  No.  2  from  Venus  and  Adonis,  149-150;  No.  3 
from  Romeo  and  Juliet ',  II.  ii.  ;  No.  4  from  Venus,  407-8,  where  "Once 
learne  "  is  "  O,  learne  "  ;  and  No.  5  from  Venus,  131-2. 

There  are  quotations  from  many  other  poets  in  the  book,  which  is 
designed  to  assist  Ladies,  Gentlewomen,  Scholars,  and  Strangers  to 
"accomodate  their  Courtly  Practice  with  most  Curious  Ceremonies, 
Complementall,  Amorous,  High  expressions,  and  formes  of  speaking,  or 
writing."  M. 


453 


NICH.   DOWNEY,  1640. 

But  fad  Melpomene,  (who  knowes  her  right 
And  title  to  the  matter  that  you  write,) 
Cafts  off  the  heavy  buskins,  which  fhee  wore, 
Quickens  her  leaden  pace,  and  runnes  before  j 
Hyes  to  pale  Shakespeares  urne,  and  from  his  tombe 
Takes  up  the  bayes,  and  hither  ihe  is  come ; 

*  *  * 

BEN  is  deceas'd,  and  yet  I  dare  avow, 
(Without  that  looke)  BEN'S  redivivus  now, 

Sicily  I  and  I  Naples,  /  or,  the  I  Fat  all  Vnion.  /  A  Tragady.  } 
By  S.  H\arding\  A.  B.  e  C.  Ex:  .  .  .  Oxford  .  .  . 
1640.  Dedicatory  Verses  sig.  2  b. 


Ben  Jonson  is  referred  to  again,  sigs.  A,  A  b.     M. 


454 


JOHN  BENSON,  1640. 

To  the  Reader. 

I  here  prefume  (under  favour)  to  prefent  to  your  view,  fome 
excellent  and  fweetely  compofed  Poems,  of  Matter  William 
Shakefpeare,  Which  in  themfelves  appeare  of  the  fame  purity, 
the  Authour  himfelfe  then  living  avouched  j  they  had  not  the 
fortune  by  reafon  of  their  Infancie  in  his  death,  to  have  the  due 
accommodatio  of  proportionable  glory,  with  the  reft  of  his  ever- 
living  Workes,  yet  the  lines  of  tbemfelves  will  afford  you  a  more 
authentick  approbation  than  my  aflurance  any  way  can,  to  invite 
your  allowance,  in  your  perufall  you  mail  finde  them  Seren,  cleere 
and  eligantly  plaine,  fuch  gentle  ftraines  as  mall  recreate  and  not 
perplexe  your  braine,  no  intricate  or  cloudy  ftuffe  to  puzzell 
intellect,  but  perfect  eloquence  j  fuch  as  will  raife  your  admira- 
tion to  his  praife :  this  affurance  I  know  will  not  differ  from 
your  acknowledgement.  And  certaine  I  am,  my  opinion  will 
be  feconded  by  the  fufficiency  of  thefe  enfuing  Lines  $  I  have 
beene  fome  what  folicirus  to  bring  this  forth  to  the  perfect  view  of 
all  men  j  and  in  fo  doing,  glad  to  be  ferviceable  for  the  continu- 
ance of  glory  to  the  deferved  Author  in  thefe  his  Poems. 

Tfu  Publishers  address,  prefixed  to  Shakespeare"  i 
Poems.      1640.     [i2mo.}     C.  M.  L 


455 


LEONARD  DIGGES,  1640. 

Upon  Mqfler  WILLIAM  SHAKESPEARE,  the 
Deceafed  Authour,  and  his  POEMS. 

Poets  are  borne  not  made,  when  I  would  prove 
This  truth,  the  glad  rememberance  I  muft  love 
Of  never  dying  Shakefpeare,  who  alone, 
Is  argument  enough  to  make  that  one. 
Firft,  that  he  was  a  Poet  none  would  doubt, 
That  heard  th'  applaufe  of  what  he  fees  fet  out 
Imprinted  j  where  thou  haft  (I  will  not  fay 1 
Reader  his  Workes  for  to  contrive  a  Play 
To  him  twas  none)  the  patterne  of  all  wit, 
Art  without  Art  unparaleld  as  yet. 
Next  Nature  onely  helpt  him,  for  looke  thorow 
This  whole  Booke,  thou  malt  find  he  doth  not  borrow, 
One  phrafe  from  Greekes,  nor  Latiues  imitate, 
Nor  once  from  vulgar  Languages  Tranilate, 
Nor  Plagiari-like  from  others  gleane, 
Nor  begges  he  from  each  witty  friend  a  Scene 
To  peece  his  A&s  with,  all  that  he  doth  write, 
Is  pure  his  owne,  plot,  language  exquifite, 
But  oh  !  what  praife  more  powerfull  can  we  give 
The  dead,  then  that  by  him  the  Kings  men  live, 
His  Players,  which  mould  they  but  have  fhar'd  the  Fate, 
All  elfe  expir'd  within  the  fhort  Termes  date  j 
1  say)  in  the  original,  but  it  is  a  misprint 


456  LEONARD    DIGGES,    1640. 

How  could  the  Globe  have  profpered,  mice  through  want 

Of  change,  the  Plaies  and  Poems  had  growne  fcant. 

But  happy  Verfe  thou  malt  be  fung  and  heard, 

When  hungry  quills  {hall  be  fuch  honour  bard.     l>arr>dl 

Then  vanifh  upftart  Writers  to  each  Stage, 

You  needy  Poetafters  of  this  Age, 

Where  Shakefpeare  liv'd  or  fpake,  Vermine  forbeare, 

Leaft  with  your  froth  you  fpot  them,  come  not  neere  5 

But  if  you  needs  mufl  write,  if  poverty 

So  pinch,  that  otherwife  you  ftarve  and  die 

On  Gods  name  may  the  Bull  or  Cockpit  have 

Your  lame  blancke  Verfe,  to  keepe  you  from  the  grave : 

Or  let  new  Fortunes  younger  brethren  fee, 

What  they  can  picke  from  your  leane  induflry. 

I  doe  not  wonder  when  you  offer  at 

Blacke-Friers,  that  you  fuffer  :  tis  the  fate 

Of  richer  veines,  prime  judgements  that  have  far'd 

The  worfe,  with  this  deceafed  man  compar'd. 

So  have  I  feene,  when  Cefar  would  appeare, 

And  on  the  Stage  at  halfe-fword  parley  were, 

Brutus  and  Coffins :  oh  how  the  Audience 

Were  ravifh'd,  with  what  wonder  they  went  thence, 

When  fome  new  day  they  would  not  brooke  a  line, 

Of  tedious  (though  well  laboured)  Catiline l ; 

Sejanus  too  was  irkefome,  they  priz'de  more 

Honeft  lago,  or  the  jealous  Moore. 

And  though  the  Fox  and  fubtill  Alchimift, 

Long  intermitted  could  not  quite  be  mift, 

Though  thefe  have  fham'd  all  the  Ancients,  and    might 

raife, 

Their  Authours  merit  with  a  crowne  of  Bayes. 
Yet  thefe  fometimes,  even  at  a  friends  defire 
Acted,  have  fcarce  defrai'd  the  Seacoale  fire 
1  Catalines  in  the  original. 


LEONARD   DIGGES,    1640.  457 

And  doore-keepers  :  when  let  but  Faljlaffe  come, 

Hall,  Pomes,  the  reft  you  fcarce  mall  have  a  roome 

All  is  fo  pefter'd  :  let  but  Beatrice 

And  Benedicke  be  feene,  loe  in  a  trice 

The  Cockpit  Galleries,  Boxes,  all  are  full 

To  hear  Malvoglio,  that  crofle  garter 'd  Gull. 

Briefe,  there  is  nothing  in  his  wit  fraught  Booke, 

Whofe  found  we  would  not  heare,  on  whofe  worth  looke 

Like  old  coynd  gold,  whofe  lines  in  every  page, 

Shall  paffe  true  currant  to  fucceeding  age. 

But  why  doe  I  dead  Sheakfpeares  praife  recite, 

Some  fecond  Shakefpeare  muft  of  Shakefpeare  write  j 

For  me  tis  needleife,  fince  an  hoft  of  men, 

Will  pay  to  clap  his  praife,  to  free  my  Pen. 

Prefixed  to  Shakespeare's  Poem s.     1640.     [i2mo.] 


In  his  verses  of  1623  (before,  p.  318)  Leonard  Digges  speaks  twice  of  Shake- 
speare's Works.  In  the  above  lines  he  refuses  that  term  to  the  plays,  because 
it  was  to  Shakespeare  no  work  "to  contrive  a  play."  H.  Fitzgeoffrey  thus 
writes  in  his  Certaine  Elegies,  1618  (Book  i,  Sat.  i.  sign.  A  8)  : 

"  Bookes,  made  of  Ballades  :  Workes,  of  Playes," 

and  Sir  John  Suckling,  in  his  Sessions  of  the  Poets  {Fragmenta  Aurea,  1646, 
p.  7),  writes, 

"  The  first  that  broke  silence  was  good  old  Ben, 

Prepar'd  before  with  Canary  wine, 
,       And  he  told  them  plainly  he  deserv'd  the  Bays, 

For  his  were  call'd  Works,  where  others  were  but  Plaies." 

The  fact  is  that  Jonson  had  in  1616  issued  his  Plays  under  the  title  of 
Workes.  Perhaps  the  joke  at  page  438,  in  the  extract  from  Conceits^ 
Clinches,  &c.,  had  no  reference  to' this  ;  the  works  there  referred  to  seem  to 
be  Shakespeare's  good  works;  still  there  is  the  same  opposition  to  plays  and 
books.  In  1633  Wm.  Sheares  published  John  Marston's  plays ;  and 
prefixed  an  "Epistle  Dedicatory,"  in  which  he  asks,  Why  are  "Playes 
in  generall  "  "so  vehemently  inveighed  against  "  ?  "  Is  it  because  they  are 
Playes?  The  name  it  seemes  somewhat  offends  them,  whereas  if  they 
were  styled  Workes,  they  might  have  their  Approbation  also."  Whalley, 
in  his  Life  prefixed  to  his  edition  of  Jonson's  Works,  1756  (p.  xlv),  records 
that  some  one  addressed  to  him  this  Epigram,  — 


45$  LEONARD    DIGGES,    1640. 

"  Pray  tell  me,  Ben,  where  does  the  myst'ry  lurk? 

What  others  call  a  Play,  you  call  a  work  "  ? 
to  which  the  following  answer  was  returned, — 

"  The  author's  friend  thus  for  the  author  says  ; 

Ben's  plays  are  works,  when  others  works  are  plays." 
When  Digges  writes 

"  Vermine  forbeare, 

Least  with  your  froth  you  spot  them,  come  not  neere  ; 
But  if  you  needs  must  write,  if  poverty 
So  pinch,  that  otherwise  you  starve  and  die,"  &c. 

he  is  specially  referring  to  Ben  Jonson's  "  apologeticall  dialogue  "  at  the  end 
of  the  Poetaster,  where  Ben  says  of  the  Marston  faction, 

"  If  it  gave  'em  Meat, 
Or  got  'em  Clothes,  'tis  well "  (Works,  1616,  p.  351). 

And  there  is  also  a  remembrance  of  A  Midsummer  Nights  Dream,  and  in 
particular  of  the  words 

"  Newts  and  blindworms  do  no  wrong, 
Come  not  near  our  fairy  queen." 

Digges'  verses  are  curious  and  valuable,  as  a  testimony  to  the  supreme 
popularity  of  Julius  C&sar,  Othello,  Henry  IV,  Much  Ado  About  Nothing, 
and  Twelfth  Night.  They  also  show  that  Ben  Jonson  had  reason  for  viewing 
Shakespeare's  success  with  jealousy.  We  know  that  his  New  Inn  was  a 
complete  failure,  as  it  deserved  to  be.  We  learn  from  Digges,  that  even 
Catiline  and  Sejanus  were  found  tedious  and  irksome.  C.  M.  I. 


459 


JOHN  WARREN,  1640. 

Of  Mr.  William  Shakejpeare. 

What,  lofty  Shakefpeare,  art  againe  reviv'd  ? 
And  Firlius  like  nowfhow'ft  thy  felfe  twife  liv'd, 
Tis  [Benfon's]  love  that  thus  to  thee  is  ihowne, 
The  labours  his,  the  glory  flill  thine  owne. 
Thefe  learned  Poems  amongft  thine  after-birth, 
That  makes  thy  name  immortall  on  the  earth, 
Will  make  the  learned  ftill  admire  to  fee, 
The  Mufes  gifts  fo  fully  infus'd  on  thee. 
Let  Carping  Momus  barke  and  bite  his  fill, 
And  ignorant  Davus  flight  thy  learned  {kill : 
Yet  thofe  who  know  the  worth  of  thy  defert, 
And  with  true  judgement  can  difcerne  thy  Art, 
Will  be  admirers  of  thy  high  tun'd  ftraine, 
Amongft  whofe  number  let  me  ftill  remaine. 

Prefixed  to  Shakespeare's  Poems.     1640.     [i2mo.] 


And  VIRBIUS  like  :  Virbiiis  is  the  name  borne  by  Hippolytus,  after  his 
revival.  See  Virgil's  JEneid,  lib.  vii.  Conington  (1867,  p.  251)  thus 
renders  the  relative  passage  : 

"  But  Trivia  kind  her  favourite  hides, 
And  to  Egeria's  care  confides, 
To  live  in  woods  obscure  and  lone, 
And  lose  in  Virbius'  name  his  own." 

There  may  be  an  allusion  to  the  little  volume  called  Jonsonus  Virbius 
(Jonson  Revived),  a  collection  of  verses  in  praise  of  Ben  Jonson,  published 
m  the  next  year  after  his  death,  and  two  years  before  the  publication  of 
Warren's  verses  (see  before,  p.  414).  The  title,  Jonsonus  Virbius,  was, 
according  to  Aubrey,  given  to  this  little  work  by  Lord  Falkland.  Cf.  the 

couplet, 

"  Whose  Pious  Ccemetery  shall  still  keep 
Thy  Virbius  waking,  though  thy  Ashes  sleep." 

which  occurs  in  a  copy  of  verses  by  Robert  Gardiner  prefixed  to  Cartwright's 
works,  ed.  1651. 

'Tis  [Benson's}  love,  &c.  The  publisher's  name  has  been  conjecturally 
added,  to  eke  out  the  verse,  and  complete  the  sense.  C,  M.  I. 


46o 


Anonymous •,  before  1640. 

An  Addition  of  fome  Excellent 

Poems,  to  thofe  precedent,  of 

Renowned  Shakefpeare, 

By  other  Gentlemen. 

*  *  * 
His  Mi/Iris  Shade. 

*  *  * 
Then  ftately  J^rgi/,  witty  CM  by, 

Whom  faire  Cormna  Hands,  and  doth  comply 

With  Ivory  wrifts,  his  Laureat  head,  and  fteepes, 

His  eyes  in  dew  of  kifles  while  he  fleepes. 

Then  foft  Catullus,  fharpe  fang'd  Martiall, 

And  towring  Lucan,  Horace,  luvinall ; 

And  fnakie  Perfeus  -,  thefe  and  thofe  whom  rage, 

(Dropt  from  the  larre  of  heaven)  fill'd  to  enrage 

All  times  unto  their  frenfies,  thou  malt  there 

Behold  them  in  an  Amphitheater. 

Amongfl  which  Synod  crown'd  with  facred  bayes, 

And  flattering  joy  weele  have  to  recite  their  playes. 

Shakespeare  and  Beamond,  Swannes  to  whom  the  Spheares 

Liften,  while  they  call  backe  the  former  yeares  * 

To  teach  the  truth  of  Scenes,  and  more  for  thee, 

There  yet  remaines  brave  foule  than  thou  canft  fee 

By  glimmering  of  a  fancie :  doe  but  come, 

And  there  He  fhevv  thee  that  illuftrous  roome, 

1  Original  yeare. 


ANONYMOUS,    BEFORE    1640.  461 

In  which  thy  father  Johnfon  mall  be  plac'd, 
As  in  a  Globe  of  radiant  fire,  and  grac'd, 
To  be  of  that  high  Hyrarchy,  where  none 
But  brave  foules  take  illumination  : 
Immediately  from  heaven,  but  harke  the  Cocke, 
(The  Bell-man  of  the  night)  proclaimes  the  Clocke, 
Of  late  ilrucke  one,  and  now  I  feele  the  prime 
Of  day  breake  through  the  pregnant  Eafl,  tis  time 
I  vanim :  more  I  had  to  fay, 
But  night  determines  here,  away. 

Printed  at  the  end  of— 

Poems:  /  Written  /  By  /  Wil.  Shake- spear e.  /  Gent,  j 
[Device']  /  Printed  at  London  by  Tho.  Cotes,  and  are  /  to  be 
sold  by  lohn  Benson,  dwelling  in  /  Se.  Dunstans  Church- 
yard. 1640. 

\Sigs.  L  2,  L  5,  L  6.] 


[See  Maurice  Jonas's  extracts  in  Notes  and  Queries,  7th  Series,  XI, 

June  13,  1891,  and  7th  Series,  XII,  July  n,  1891,  where  he  points  out 

that    the    above    lines  were    omitted    from    the    Centurie   and    Fresh 
Allusions.     M.] 


462 


JAMES  SHIRLEY,  SEPTEMBER,  OCTOBER,  16,40 

Does  this  look  like  a  Term  ?  I  cannot  tell, 

Our  Poet  thinks  the  whole  Town  is  not  well, 

Has  took  fome  Phyfick  lately,  arid  for  fear 

Of  catching  cold  dares  not  falute  this  Ayr. 

But  ther's  another  reafon,  I  hear  fay 

London  is  gone  to  York,  'tis  a  great  way  5 

Pox  o'  the  Proverb,  and  of  him  fay  I, 

That  look'd  ore  Lincoln,  caufe  that  was,  muft  we 

Be  now  tranflated  North  ?     I  could  rail  to  ttot>:i 

On  Gammar  Shiptons  Ghoft,  but  't  wo'  not  doe, 

The  Town  will  ftill  be  flecking,  and  a  Play 

Though  ne'r  fo  new,  will  flarve  the  fecond  day : 

Upon  thefe  very  hard  conditions, 

Our  Poet  will  not  purchafe  many  Towns ; 

And  if  you  leave  us  too,  we  cannot  thrive, 

I'l  promife  neither  Play  nor  Poet  live 

Till  ye  come  back,  think  what  you  do,  you  fee 

What  audience  we  have,  what  Company 

"  To  Shakefpear  comes,  whofe  mirth  did  once  beguile 

"Dull  hours,  and  lujkind,  made  even  forrow  fmile, 

"  So  lovely  were  the  wounds,  that  men  would  fay 

"  They  could  endure  the  bleeding  a  whole  day  : 

He  has  but  few  friends  lately,  think  o'  that, 

Hee'l  come  no  more,  and  others  have  his  fate. 

"  Fletcher  the  Mufes  darling,  and  choice  love 

"  Of  Phoebus,  the  delight  of  every  Grove  ; 


JAMES  SHIRLEY,  APRIL,  1640.  463 

(t  Upon  whofe  head  the  Laurel  grew,  whofe  wit 

"  Was  the  Times  wonder,  and  example  yet, 

'Tis  within  memory,  Trees  did  not  throng, 

As  once  the  Story  faid  to  Orpheus  fong. 

"  Johnfon,  ?  whofe  name,  wife  Art  did  low,  and  Wit 

"  Is  only  jaftified  by  honouring  it : 

"  To  hear  whofe  touch,  how  would  the  learned  Quire 

"  With  Jilence  Jloop  ?  and  when  he  took  his  Lyre, 

''Apollo  dropt  his  Lute,  ajhamd  to  fee 

"  A  Rival  to  the  God  of  Harmonic. 

You  do  forfake  him  too,  we  muft  deplore 

This  fate,  for  we  do  know  it  by  our  door. 

How  muft  this  Author  fear  then,  with  his  guilt 

Of  weaknefs  to  thrive  here,  where  late  was  fpilt 

The  Mufes  own  blood,  if  being  but  a  few, 

You  not  confpire,  and  meet  more  frequent  too  i 

There  are  not  now  nine  Mufes,  and  you  may 

Be  kind  to  ours,  if  not,  he  bad  me  fay, 

Though  while  you  carelefs  kill  the  reft,  and  laugh, 
Yet  he  may  live  to  write  your  Epitaph. 

The  Sisters.     1652.     [8w.]     Prologue  at  the  Black- Fryers 


[It  is  suggested  by  Genest  (Account  of  English  Stage,  iii,  p.  143)  that  the 
words  "  London  is  gone  to  York  "  indicate  a  date  when  the  King  and 
Court  were  at  York,  in  1640,  and  that  The  Sisters  was  probably  acted  then, 
at  Blackfriars.  L.  T.  S.] 


464 


JAMES   SHIRLEY,  1640. 

The  Arcadia. 

Dame\tas\.     Ime  out  of  breath,  let  me  walke  my  felfe  a  little. 
Paw[ela\     What  hafte  does  tire  you  ? 

Dam.     Tire  me,  I  am  no  woman,  keepe  your  tires  to  your  felfe 
Nor  am  I  Pericles  prince  of  Tyre. 

A  /  Pastoral  /  Called  /  The  /  Arcadia.  /  Acted  by  her 
Majesties  Servants  /  at  the  Phoenix  in  Drury  /  Lane./ 
Written  by  lames  Zhirly  Gent.  /  London,  f  Printed  by 
/.  D.  for  lohn  Williams,  and  E.  Eglesfield  /  and  are  to  be 
sould  at  the  signe  of  the  Crane  /  in  Pauls  Church-yard. 
1640.  /  sign.  B  4  back. 

J.  O.  H.-P. 


ANON.,  1640. 

Q.   JFhat  Birds  are  thofe,  that  are  called  Prophets  twice  lorne  ? 

A.  The  Cocke :  firft  an  egge  from  the  Henne,  after  a  Cocke 
from  the  Egge :  they  foretell  feafons  and  changes  of  weather, 
according  to  the  Verfe  : 

Some  fay  for  ever  'gainft  that  feafon  comes, 
Wherein  our  Saviours  birth  is  celebrated, 
The  Bird  of  dawning  lingeth  all  Night  long, 
And  then  they  fay  no  Spirit  dares  walk  abroad, 
So  facred  and  fo  hallo w'd  is  that  tune,  [sic] 
W.  Shakefp. 

A  Helpe  to  Discourse.     1640. 

C.  M.  I. 


465 


NICHOLAS    DIXON,  March  4,  1640-1. 

Noble  kinfemen  1634  .  .  . 
Ben  Jonfons  Poems   4°     oo — oo — 06 
Beaumont's  poems     4°     oo — oo — 06  .  .   . 
Shakefpeare's  poems  8°     oo —  i — oo  .  .   . 
Received  upon  this  Bill  ye  4th  of  march  1640,  for  ye  vfe  of 

mr  mofely  my  maifter  ...  I  fay  Received 

Per  me  Nicholas  Dixon. 


[Noted  in  the  Catalogue  of  State  Papers,  Domestic  Series,  1640-1.  From 
the  MS.  in  the  Record  Office,  a  bookseller's  account  of  books  supplied  to 
a  customer  (probably  Lord  Conway).  M.] 


SH.  ALLN.  BK. — I.  H  H 


466 


ANONYMOUS,  ab.   1640  or  1642. 

Act  the  first. 
Enter  Captaine  Vnderwit  and  his  man  Thomas. 

***** 

Tho  :  and  fo  the  Land  has  parted  you,  [leaf  i,  back} 

Vn.  thou  faift  right,  Thomas,  it  lies  betweene  both  our  houses 
[leaf  2}  indeed,  but  now  I  am  thus  dignified,  (I  thinke  that's  a 
good  word)  or  intituled  is  better,  but  tis  all  one,  since  I  am  made 
a  Captaine — 

Tho  :  by  your  owne  defert,  and  vertue. 

Vn.  thou  art  deceaud,  it  is  by  vertue  of  the  Commiffion,  the 
Commifion  is  enough  to  make  any  man  an  Officer  without  defert 
Thomas,  I  muft  thinke  how  to  prouide  mee  of  warlike  accoutre- 
ments, to  accomodate,  which  comes  of  Accomodo.  Shakefpeare 
the  firft,  and  the  firfl 

Tho  :  No  Sir  it  comes  of  fo  much  money  dilburf 'd 

***** 

Vn : let  me  fee  now,  the  bookes  of  Martiall  dif- 

cipline.  \leaf  iS\ 

[//  18,  6k.}     Tho :  I  bought  vp  all,  that  I  found  haue  relation  to 
warr,  and  fighting  .  .  . 

Vn:  .  .  .  Item,  the  fword  falue,  ...  the  Buckler  of 
faith  ...  A  booke  of  mortification  .  .  .  Item  the  gunpowder 
treafon,  and  the  Booke  of  Cannons  ....  Shakefpeares 
workes — why  Shakefpeares  workes  ? 

Tho  :  I  had  nothing  for  the  pikemen  before, 

Vn  :  they  are  playes, 


ANONYMOUS,    1640    OR    1642.  467 

Tho  :  Are  not  all  your  muflerings  in  the  Countrey,  fo,  fir? 
pray  read  on. 

Harleian  MS.  7650  (in  MS.  at  the  end  of  the  printed  Catalog, 
vol.  iii),  formerly  Sloane  or  Additional  MS.  5,001 :  A 
Comedy  without  name  or  date,  but  probably  soon  after 
1640,  as  it  says,  on  leaf  2  back,  "  considering  the  league  at 
Barvvick1,  and  the  late  expeditions  wee  may  find  some  of 
these  things  [books  on  Tacticks]  in  the  North,  or  else 
speake  with  some  reform'd  Captaine,  though  he  be  a 
Catholicke,  and  it  may  bee  wee  may  haue  them  at 
cheaper  rates." 


The  "  accomoclate,  accomodo"  is  Shallow's  comment  on  Bardolph's  "a 
Souldier  is  better  accommodated,  then  with  a  wife  : "  2  Henry  IV,  III, 
ii,  72  :  "  Better  accommodated,  it  is  good,  yea  indeede  is  it :  good  phrases 
are  surely,  and  euery  where  commendable.  'Accommodated',  it  comes  of 
Accommodo  :  very  good,  a  good  Phrase." 

The  only  treaty — called  the  Pacification — of  Berwick  known  to  me  is  dated 
June  18,  1639.  When  the  Scotch,  aided  by  the  French,  were  in  insurrec- 
tion and  had  taken  the  Covenant,  Charles  advanced  to  the  North  with 
23,000  men.  The  camp  came  to  Berwick,  and  Charles  himself  negotiated  a 
peace,  and  soon  after  disbanded  his  army. 

The  Scotch  Parliament  advanced,  a  few  months  later,  other  claims,  and 
Charles  had  to  renew  the  war,  and  in  May  1640  an  English  army  went 
North  again  to  resist  the  Scotch  advance  into  England. 

The  mention  in  the  play  of  Tarleton,  'No  Jokes  since  Tarleton  died,'  or 
something  of  the  sort,  would  not  be  likely  after  1660.  —SIDNEY  L.  LEE. 

The  play  was  attributed  by  Bullen  to  James  Shirley.  The  play  is  called 
Captain  Underwit,  a  Comedy,  in  Bullen's  Collection  of  Old  Plays,  London, 
1882-3,  ii.  320.  M. 

1  Supposed  to  refer  to  the  Pacification  of  Berwick :  Charles  Fs  agreement 
with  the  Scotch  in  arms  against  him. 


468 


RICH.  BRATHWAITE,  1641. 

wee  will  now  defcend  to  fuch  particulars,  wherein  thefe  cen- 
ibrious  Timonifts  (whofe  poore  degenerate  fpirits  are  ever 
delighted  moft  in  detracting  from  women,  or  afperfing  fome 
unworthy  difgrace  upon  their  fexej)  ufurpe  this  liberty,  to  lay 
upon  their  pureft  reputes  a  lafting  infamy.  Wee  mail  in  every 
place  heare  calumnious  tongues  .  .  .  inveighing  againft  them  in 
this  manner :  What  vice  is  there  extant,  which  is  not  in  the 
pra&ife  of  women  frequent  ?  .  .  If  young,  they  are  lafcivious : 
if  old  they  are  covetous.  Their  whole  life  a  Comedy  of  errors  : 
their  formall  feature  a  fardell  of  famions.  Alas  poore  Girles ! 
Have  you  no  Defence  againft  fuch  viperous  tongues? 

A  /  Ladies  /  Love- Lecture  :  /  Composed,  /  and  From  The 
Choi-  /  cest  Flowers  of/  Divinitie  and  Humanitie  /  Cttlled, 
and  Compiled :  /  As  it  hath  beene  by  sundry  Personages 
of  emi-  /  nent  qualitie,  upon  sight  of  some  Copies  di-  / 
spersed,  modestly  importuned :  /  To  the  memory  of  that 
Sexes  honour  ;  for  whose  sweet  /  sakes  he  originally 
addressed  this  Labour.  /  By  Ri.  Brathwait  Esquire  .  .  . 
London,  /  Printed  by  lohn  Dawson,  1641.  /  Section  VII. 
p.  419  of  "  The  English  Gentleman  .  .  .  The  third 
Edition  revised,  corrected,  and  enlarged.  1641." 


Reference  to  the  book  sent  by  Dr.  Ingleby. — F.  J.  F. 


469 


*SHAKERLY  MARMION,  1641. 

Oh  that  I  were  a  vail  upon  that  face, 

To  hide  it  from  the  world ;  methinks  I  could 

Envie  the  very  Sun,  for  gazing  on  you! 

The  /  Antiquary.  /  A  Comedy,  /  Acted  by  Her  Maiestie's 
Servants  /  at  /  The  Cock-Pit.  /  Written  /  By  Shackerly 
Mermion,  Gent.  /  London,  /  .  .  .  1641.  Actus  Secundus, 
sign.  C  4  back 


Probably  referring  to  Romeo's 

O  that  I  were  a  gloue  upon  that  hand, 
That  I  might  touch  that  cheeke  ! 

Romeo  and  Juliet^  II.  ii.  24. 

J.  O.  1111, -P. 


ABRAHAM    COWLEY,  1641. 

1.  Bla[de],    Fare   ye    well    Gentlemen.       I    fhall    fee    thee 
Cutter  a  brave  Tapfter  fhortly;    it  muft  be  fo  i'  faith,  Cutter; 
thou  muft  like  Eardolph  i'  the  play,  the  fpiggot  weild.  (D  3,  col.  2) 

2.  Aur[elia~]  *  *  *  I  mall  never  hear  my  Virginals  when  I 
play  upon  'um,  for  her  daughter  Talythas  finging  of  Pfalms. 
The  nrft   pious    deed    will    be,  to  banifh  Shakefpear  and  Ben 
Johnfon  out  of  the  parlour,  and  to  bring  in  their  rooms  Mar- 
prelate,   and   Pryns  works.     You'll  ne'er  endure  't,  Sir.     You 
were  wont  to  have  a  Sermon  once  a  quarter  at  a  good  tirne;  you 
(hall  have  ten  a  day  now. 

The  Guardian.  /  A  Corned ie  /  Acted  before  /  Prince  Charles 
His  Highness  /  at  TVrB&x-Colledge  in  Cambridge,  /  upon 
the  twelfth  of  March,  /  1641.  Written  by  /  Abraham 
Cowley  :  /  London,  Printed  {Q\  John  Holden,  at  the  Anchor 
in  /  the  New  Exchange.  i65o./ 


But  it  is  worth  noting  that  in  his  revision  of  the  Guardian,  "printed  in 
1663,  the  scene  London  in  the  year  1658"  and  called  "Cutter  of  Coleman 
Street",  (i)  was  wholly  omitted,  and  the  Shakespear  of  (2)  altered  to 
Fletcher. 

In  i  (Act  IV.  sc.  iii.)  the  reminiscence  is  to  the  M.  Wives  of  W.,  I.  iii., 
and  the  last  words  to  Pistol's 

"  O  base  Hungarian  wight !  wilt  thou  the  spigot  wield  ?  " 

In  2  (Act  IV.  sc.  vii.)  we  have  some  evidence  that  Shakespeare  and  Ben 
Jonson  were  then  the  most  popular  dramatists,  more  popular  than  Beau- 
mont and  Fletcher,  so  often  classed  with  them  as  the  excelling  tri-  or 
quadr-  umvirate. — B.  N. 


471 


JOHN  JOHNSON,  1641. 

In  fpeaking  of  this  we  entred  Loves  Library,  which  was  very 
fpacious,  and  compleatly  filled  with  great  variety  of  Bookes  of 
all  faculties,  and  in  all  kindes  of  Volumes. 

***** 

There  was  alfo  Shakefpeere,  who  (as  Cupid  informed  me) 
creepes  into  the  womens  clofets  about  bed  time,  and  if  it  were 
not  for  fome  of  the  old  out-of-date  Grandames  (who  are  fet  over 
the  reft  as  their  tutorefles)  the  young  fparkifh  Girles  would  read 
in  Shakefpeere  day  and  night,  fo  that  they  would  open  the  Booke 
or  Tome,  and  the  men  with  a  Fefcue  in  their  hands  mould  point 
to  the  Verfe. 

The  Academy  of  Love,  describing  ye  folly  ofyounge  men  6° 
ye  fallacy  of  women.  1641,  pp.  96,  99  (mis-paged,  pages 
97,  98  are  left  out}.  [4*0.]  c.  M.  I. 


472 


MARTINE  PARKER,  1641. 

All  Poets  (as  adition  to  their  fames) 

Have  by  their  Works  eternized  their  names, 

As  Chaucer,  Spencer,  and  that  noble  earle, 

Of  Surrie  thought  it  the  moft  precious  pearie, 

That  dick'd  his  honour,  to  Subfcribe  to  what 

His  high  engenue  ever  amed  at  [,] 

Sydney  and  Shakfpire,  Dray  ton,  Withers  and 

Renowned  Jonfon  glory  of  our  Land  : 

Deker,  Learn' d  Chapman,  Hay  wood  al  thought  good, 

To  have  their  names  in  publike  underftood, 

And  that  fvveet  Seraph  of  our  Nation,  Quarles 

(In  fpight  of  each  planatick  cur  that  fnarles) 

Subfcribes  to  his  Celeftiall  harmony, 

While  Angels  chant  his  Dulcid  melodic. 

And  honeft  John  from  the  water  to  the  land 

Makes  us  all  know  and  honour  him  by's  hand  • 

The  Poets  blind  mans  Bough,  or,  Have  among  you 
my  blind  Harpers.      1641,  sign.  A  4.     [4^?.] 

C.  M.  I. 


473 


CHARLES  BUTLER,  VICAR  OF  WOTTON,  1642. 

Rhythmi  genera  partim  fyllabarum  luarum  numero,  partim 
varia  fonorum  refonantium  difpofitione  diftingui  poffunt :  fed  ea 
(4)  optimorum  poetarum  obfervatio  optime  docebit. 

***** 

(4)  Quales  sunt  apud  nos  Romero,         (4)  Quales  sunt  apud  nos  Homero, 

Maroni,  Ovidio,  cceterisque  melioris     Maroni,  Ovidio,  cceterisque  melioris 

notse  priscis  sequiparandi,  D.  PHIL-     notae  priscis  sequiparandi,  D.  Phi- 

iPPUsSiDNEY,EDMUNDUS  SPENCER,     lippus   Sidney,  Edmundus  Spencer, 

SAMUEL  DANIEL,  MICHAEL  DRAY-     Samuel   Daniel,   Michael  Drayton, 

TON,  JOSUAH  SYLVESTER,  &,  quern     Josuah    Sylvester,     ingeniose     plus 

cum   honore   memoro,   Divinus   ille     Franciscus    Quarles,    &    quern   cum 

Vates   GEORGIUS  WITHER,   aliique     honore  memoro,   Divinus  ille  vates 

ingenio  &  arte  florentes,  quorum  hsec     Georgius  Wither,  aliique  ingenio  & 

setas  uberrima  est  :    atque   inprimis     arte    florentes,     quorum    hsec    astas 

horum    omnium    magister,    unicum     uberrima   est.      Quibus   accedat  ex 

caligantis  sui  seculi  lumen,  D.  GAL-     Poetis  scenicis,  Senecse,  Plauto,  Ter- 

FRIDUS  CHAUCER.  entio    neutiquam    inferior,   tragicus 

{Edition,  London,  1629,  sign,     comicus  historicus  Guilielmus  Shake- 

E  3. )  speare:  aliique  singularis  illius  artificii 

oemulatores  non  pauci. 

{Editions,  London,  1642,  p.  41  ; 
and Leyden,  1642,  //.  38,  39.) 

Rhetorics  Libri  Duo.  Quorum  Prior  de  Tropis  6°  Figuris, 
Posterior  de  Voce  6°  Gestu  prcscipit :  in  usum  scholarum 
postremo  recogtiiti.  Quibus  recens  accesserunt  de  oratoria 
Libri  duo.  Lib.  I.  cap.  13. 

[Edmund  Bolton  (before,  pp.  213-4)  cites  Shakespere  for  a  model  of 
English,  as  does  Charles  Butler  for  a  model  of  rhythm.  Butler  snys, — 

"  The  kinds  of  rhythm  may  be  distinguished,  partly  by  the  number  of  their 
syllables,  partly  by  the  different  arrangement  of  the  echoing  sounds ;  but 
observation  of  the  best  poets  *  teaches  these  things  best. 

*  Such  among  us,  fit  to  be  compared  to  Homer,  Virgil,  Ovid  and  others 
of  the  better  ancient  fame,  are  Sir  Philip  Sidney,  Edmund  Spencer,  Samuel 
Daniel,  Michael  Drayton,  Josuah  Sylvester,  the  naturally  serious  Francis 
Quarles,  and  he  whom  I  name  with  honour,  that  Divine  poet  George  Wither, 
and  others  now  eminent  in  genius  and  in  skill  of  whom  this  age  is  most 
fruitful.  To  whom  is  added  of  the  dramatic  poets,  in  no  whit  inferior  to 
Seneca,  Plautus,  Terence,  the  tragi-comic-historic  William  Shakespeare :  and 
not  a  few  others  professing  that  special  art."  L.  T.  S.] 


474 


JOHN    MILTON,   1642. 

(i).  But  fince  there  is  fuch  neceflity  to  the  hear-fay  of  a  Tire, 
a  Periwig,  or  a  Vizard,  that  Playes  muft  have  bin  feene,  what 
difficulty  was  there  in  that  ?  when  in  the  Colleges  fo  many  of 
the  young  Divines,  and  thofe  in  the  next  aptitude  to  Divinity, 
have  bin  feene  fo  oft  upon  the  Stage,  writhing  and  unboning 
their  Clergie  limmes  to  all  the  antick  and  difhonefl  geflures  of 
Trinculo's,  BufFons,  and  Bawds  j  proftituting  the  mame  of  that 
miniftery,  which  either  they  had,  or  were  nigh  having,  to  the 
eyes  of  Courtiers  and  Court  Ladies,  with  their  Groomes  and 
Mademoifelles. 

p.  14,  ed.  1642.    [Miltotfs  Prose  Works,  ed.  Symonds. 
1806,  ii.  221.) 


(2).  I  had  faid,  that  becaufe  the  Remonflrant  was  fo  much 
offended  with  thofe  who  were  tart  againft  the  Prelats,  fure  he 
lov'd  toothlefTe  Satirs,  which  I  look  were  as  improper  as  a 
toothed  Sleekftone.  This  Champion  from  behind  the  Arras 
cries  out  that  thofe  toothlefle  Satyrs  were  of  the  Remonftrants 
making  -,  and  armes  himfelfe  here  tooth  and  naile,  and  home  to 
boot,  to  fupply  the  want  of  teeth,  or  rather  of  gumms  in  the 
Satirs.  And  for  an  onfet  tels  me  that  the  fimily  of  a  Sleekftone 


JOHN    MILTON,    1642.  475 

Jhewes    I  can    be   as    bold   with  a    Prelat    as  familiar    with    a 
Laundrefle. 

An  /  Apology  /  Against  a  Pamphlet  /  call'd  /  A  Modest  Con- 
futation /  of  the  Animadversions  upon  /  the  Remonstrant 
against  /  Smectymnuus./  (Y/z  MS.  by  mr  Milton  /  ex  dono 
Authoris  /]  London,  /  Printed  by  E.  G.  for  lohn  Rothwell, 
and  are  /  to  be  sold  at  the  signe  of  the  Sunne  /  in  Pauls 
Church-yard.  1642.!  Sect.  6,  p.  32.  (M.'s  Prose  Works, 
Bonn's  Stand.  Libr.  iii.  140.) 


In  (i) — sent  by  H.  E.  S. — Milton's  Trinculo  is  from  Shakspere's  Tem- 
pest ;  in  (2)  his  Champion  crying  out  from  behind  the  Arras,  is  from  Shak- 
spere's Polonius,  Hamlet,  III.  iv.  22. 

"Smectymnuus  was  a  pamphlet  written  by  5  Presbyterian  divines — Stephen 
Marshall,  .Edmund  Calamy,  TTiomas  Koung,  71/atthew  ^Vewcomen, 
William  .Spurstow  (of  whose  initials  the  name  is  a  compound)— against 
episcopacy."  Bp.  Hall  answerd  it.  Milton  answerd  him.  Then  Hall  (?) 
rejoind,  declaring  that  Milton's  phrazes  showd  he  had  pikt  em  up  in 
Brothels  and  Playhouses.  This  malignant  libel  fired  Milton,  and  he  lasht 
his  traducer  in  the  way  that  such  scoundrelly  insinuations  deservd. 
Milton's  indignant  vindication  of  the  purity  of  his  early  manhood  is  very 
fine.— F.  J.  F. 


476 


SIR  THOS.  BROWNE,  1642. 

If  their1  be  any  truth  in  Aftrology,  I  may  outlive  a  Jubile, 
as  yet  I  have  not  feene  one  revolution  of  Saturne,  nor  have  my 
pulfe  beate  thirty  yeares,  and  [yet 2  ]  excepting  one,  have  feene 
the  aflies,  and  left  under  ground,  all  the  Kings  of  Europe,  have 
been  contemporary  to  three  Emperours,  foure  Grand  Signiours, 
and  as  many  Popes;  me  thinkes  I  have  out-lived  my  felfe,  and 
begin  to  be  weary  of  the  Sunne.3 

Religio  Medici.     Printed  for  Andrew  Crooke.     1642.     p. 
78-9.     (§  40,  p.  93,  ed.  1643.) 


Macbeth,  V.  v.  49  :  I  gin  to  be  a  weary  of  the  sun. 

E.  PHIPSON  and  F.  J.  F. 

1  there,    ed.  1643.  2  and  yet.     1643. 

3  same,  1st.  ed.  1642  (spurious].    The  first  authorized  edition  of  1645, 
reads  '  Sunne,'  p.  87,  §  40. 


477 


*JOHN   TAYLOR,  1642. 

[Morris  Jonas  in  Notes  and  Queries,  7th  Series,  ix,  January  18,  1890, 
p.  48,  considers  that  one  of  the  heads  in  the  woodcut  on  the  title-page  of 
Taylor's  Heads  of  all  Fashions,  is  copied  from  the  Stratford  bust.  The 
lines  'To  the  Gentle  Reader 'are  signed  'J.  M.'  They  conclude] : 

By  this  meanes  fame  hath  got  a  monfters  head, 
Yea  many  heads,  whereof  I  found  a  few, 
And  here  have  laid  them  open  to  thy  view, 
Perufe  them  all,  in  earneft  or  in  jeft, 
And  tell  me  which  amongft  them  is  the  beft. 
If  Round-head  mould  be  found  the  beft  to  be, 
Farewell  all  other  heads,  Round-head  for  me. 
But  gentle  Reader,  give  me  thy  good  word, 
And  then  I  care  not  what  Round-heads  afford. 

Thine  without  hypocrifie.     I.  M. 

[The  verse  which  Morris  Jonas  associates  with  the  head  considered  as 
Shakspere's  is  No.  10,  described  on  page  2  as  'a  long-head.'  The 
verse  reads  :] 

10  A  Long-head  cannot  weare  a  little  cap, 
The  forehead  is  fo  diftant  from  the  nap, 
This  head  hath  many  whimfies  in  the  Braine, 
Yet  wonders  much  at  Rome,  at  France,  and  Spaine : 
Thefe  many  plots  have  wrought  againft  our  Land, 
But  this  Long-head  hopes  they  mall  nere  long  ftand. 

[P- 51 

[The  head  which  appears  to  me  most  to  resemble  the  Stratford  bust 
(and  the  resemblance  is  very  poor),  is  the  third  from  the  left  on  the  top 
line.  The  verse  No.  3  reads :] 


478  JOHN    TAYLOR,     1642. 

3  A  Solid-head  is  one  whofe  every  part. 
Is  furnifhed  with  nature  and  with  Art, 
Hath  all  the  faire  endowments  can  be  given 
By  the  aufpicious  Stars  or  powers  of  Heaven  : 
If  this  head  be  well  guarded  with  Gods  Grace, 

Tis  l  fit  for  Church  or  State,  or  any  place. 

[P- 4l 


[One  may  be  forgiven,  perhaps,  for  doubting  whether  Shakspere  is 
alluded  to  at  all,  and,  certainly,  for  disbelieving  that  the  woodcut  of  a 
common  type  of  face  can  be  copied  from  the  Stratford  bust.  Dr.  Furnivall 
and  Dr.  Wylie  consider  that  the  long  head  on  the  left  of  the  cut  is  perhaps 
intended  for  Shakspere.  M.] 


Original  Tit. 


479 


JAMES    SHIRLEY,   1642,  1635. 

"  Stand  off,  gentlemen, — let  me  see — which  ?  Hum !  this  ? — 
no  j  th'  other  !  Hum  !  send  for  a  lion  and  turn  him  loose  j  he 
will  not  hurt  the  true  prince." 

The  Sisters  (licenst  in  April,  1642,  printed  in  1652), 
Act  V.  sc.  ii.  Works,  ed.  Gifford,  by  Dyce, 
1833,  v.  421. 

These  are  Piperollo's  words  when  he's  in  doubt  whether  Farnese  (the 
Prince  of  Parma)  or  the  disguised  Frapolo,  the  chief  bandit,  is  the  true 
prince.  Gifford  says  ironically,  "  A  sneer  at  Shakspeare  !  unnoticed  by  the 
commentators."  A  good-humour'd  allusion,  there  no  doubt  is, — to  Fal- 
stafFs  "but  beware  instinct:  the  lion  will  not  touch  the  true  prince" 
(i  Henry  IV,  II.  iv.  300), — but  no  sneer. 


Arcadius.  Thou  art  jealous  now  j 

Come,  let  me  take  the  kiss  I  gave  thee  last ; 
I  am  so  confident  of  thee,  no  lip 
Has  ravish'd  it  from  thine. 

1635.     The  Coronation,  Act  II.  sc.  I.     Works,  ed. 
Gifford,  &  Dyce.     1833,  vol.  iii.  p.  474. 


'  This  pretty  thought,'  says  Gifford, — without  any  need  for  the  remark, — 
is  from  Shakespeare  : 

"  this  kiss 

I  carried  from  thee,  dear,  and  my  true  heart 
Hath  virgin'd  it  e'er  since." — Coriolanus? 

The  Coronation  "was  licensed  in  February  1634-5,  as  the  production  of 
Shirley  ;  but  from  some  cause  or  other  it  is  attributed  to  '  John  Fletcher,' 
in  the  title-page  of  the  first  edition,  ("  Written  by  John  Fletcher,  Gent") 
printed  in  410  in  1640,  though  Fletcher  had  been  dead  ten  years  prior  to 
its  first  appearance  on  the  stage." — ib.  p.  457. 

See  too  iv.  36,  437,  462  (Varges).— F.  J.  F. 


480 


'NORTHERN    NUNTIO,'  August  8,  1643. 

I  prefume  I  deferve  a  fee  for  my  counfel  as  well  as  their 
Doctor  of  the  Committee  at  Nottingham  deferved  to  be  kicked 
out  of  the  town  (as  he  was  the  other  day),  the  caufe  I  have 
almofl  forgot,  except  the  king's  late  victories  have  awaked  the 
Atheifl,  and  made  him  now  think  there  was  a  God,  whom 
he  not  feared  nor  ferved  before,  but  gloried  in  the  contrary, 
fetting  Shakefpear's  plays  at  a  better  pitch  of  authority  than  the 
Gofpel  of  Chrift. 

The  Northern  Nuntio,  published  at  York,  Angiist  8,  1643. 


[The  Northern  Nuntio  was  a  royalist  newspaper  published  at  York,  and 
it  here  alludes  to  Dr.  Plumptre  (the  author  of  two  books  of  epigrams, 
published  in  1629),  about  whom  the  reader  may  be  referred  to  C.  H. 
Firth's  edition  of  the  Memoirs  and  the  Life  of  Colonel  Hutchinson,  1906, 
where  the  above  passage  is  quoted,  p.  128.  See  also  Prof.  Firth's  print  of 
the  passage  in  Notes  and  Queries  t  7th  Series,  v,  p.  386.  M.] 


481 


*  A  nonymous,  1  643  . 

[addrefiing  the  Parliament] 

We  will  not  dare  at  your  ftrange  Votes  to  Jear, 
Nor  perlbnate  King  Pym  with  his  State-flear  , 
Afpiring  Cataline  (hall  be  forgot, 
Bloody  Sejanus,  or  who  e're  would  Plot 
Confufion  to  a  State  ;  the  Warrs  betwixt 
The  Parliament,  and  just  Henry  the  fixt, 
Shall  have  no  thought  or  mention,  caufe  their  power, 
Not  only  plac'd,  but  left  him  in  the  Tower  ; 
Nor  yet  the  Grave  advice  of  learned  Pym 
Make  a  Malignant,  and  then  Plunder  him. 
*  *  *  * 

Methinks  there  mould  not  fuch  a  difference  be 

'Twixt  our  profeflion  and  your  quality, 

You  meet,  plot,  talk,  confult,  with  minds  immenfe, 

The  like  with  us,  but  only  we  fpeak  fenfe 

Inferiour  unto  you  5  we  can  tell  how 

To  depofe  Kings,  there  we  are  more  than  you, 

Although  not  more  then  what  you  would. 


An  Exact  Collection  of  the  choycest  Poems  and 
Songs  relating  to  the  late  Times,  from  Anno  1639  to 
Anno  1  66  1.  The  Players  Petition  to  the  Parliament. 
1662.  Part  I.  p.  33.  [8vo.~\ 


[The  Players  Petition  was  not  included  in  the  first  edition  of  this  collection, 
which  came  out  in  1660,  nor  is  it  contained  in  the  reprint  of  the  work 
published  in  1731.  It,  however,  appears  to  have  been  written  in  1643,  from 
the  following  lines  near  the  beginning  : — 

SH.  ALLN.  BK. — I.  I  I 


4^2  ANONYMOUS,    1643. 

"  O  wise  mysterious  Synod,  what  shall  we 
Do  for  such  men  as  you  e're  forty  three 
Be  half  expir'd,  and  an  unlucky  season 
Shall  set  a  period  to  Triennial  Treason  ; — " 

and  the  numerous  allusions  in  it  to  "  King  Pym,"  who  died  8  Dec.,  1643. 
The  Long  Parliament  made  an  Order  for  closing  the  theatres,  2  Sept.  1642 
(see  after,  p.  490,  and  this  poem  seems  to  have  been  a  protest  against  such 
severity.  The  writer  may  have  alluded  to  Shakespere's  Henry  VI.  and 
Richard  II.  in  the  lines  quoted  above. 

Mr.  Hazlitt  (Roxburghe  Library,  English  Drama  and  Stage,  1869,  p. 
273)  prints  the  last  word  in  the  second  line  State-Bear,  which  conveys  no 
sense ;  the  fl  is  slightly  blurred,  but  it  is  plainly  flear  •=.  fleer,  a  scornful  look. 
L.  T.  S.J  ' 


THOMAS  FULLER,  1643—1662. 

WILLIAM  SHAKESPEARE  was  born  at  Stratford  on  Avon  in  this 
County,  in  whom  three  eminent  Poets  may  feem  in  fome  fort 
to  be  compounded. 

1.  Martial,  in  the  Warlike  found  of  his  Sur-name  (whence 
fome  may  conjecture  him  of  a  Military  extraction)  Hajli-vilrans, 
or  Shake-fpeare. 

2.  Ovid,  the  mofl  naturall  and  witty  of  all  Poets  -}  and  hence 
it  was  that  Queen   Elizabeth,  coming  into  a  Grammar-School, 
made  this  extemporary  verfe, 

'  Perfius  a  Crab-ftaffe,  Bawdy  Martial, 
Ovid  a  fine  Wag.' 

3.  Plautus,  who  was   an   exact   Comoedian,  yet  never  any 
Scholar,  as  our  Shake-fpeare  (if  alive)  would  confeffe  himfelf. 
Adde  to  all  thefe,  that  though  his  Genius  generally  was  jocular 
and  inclining  him  tofejtivity,  yet  he  could  (when  fo  difpofed) 
be  folemn  and  ferious,   as  appears  by  his  Tragedies  3    fo   that 
Heraclitus  himfelf  (I  mean  if  fecret  and  unieen)  might  afford  to 
fmile  at  his  Comedies,   they  were  fo  merry ;   and   Democritus 
fcarce  forbear  to  ligh  at  his  Tragedies,  they  were  fo  mournfulL 

He  was  an  eminent  inftance  of  the  truth  of  that  Rule,  Poeta 
not  Jit,  fed  nafcitur  ;  one  is  not  made,  but  born  a  Poet.  Indeed 
his  Learning  was  very  little,  fo  that,  as  Cornish  diamonds  are  not 
polifhed  by  any  Lapidary,  but  are  pointed  and  fmoothed  even  as 
they  are  taken  out  of  the  Earth,  fo  nature  it  felf  was  all  the  art 
which  was  ufed  upon  him. 


THOMAS    FULLER,    1643 1662. 

Many  were  the  wit-comlates  betwixt  him  and  Ben  John/on ; 
which  two  I  behold  like  a  Spamjh  great  Gallion  and  an  Engli/h 
man  of  War:  Matter  Johnfon  (like  the  former)  was  built  far 
higher  in  Learning;  Solid,  but  Slow  in  his  performances. 
Shake-fpear,  with  the  Engli/h  man  of  War,  lefler  in  bulk,  but 
lighter  in  failing,  could  turn  with  all  tides,  tack  about,  and  take 
advantage  of  all  winds,  by  the  quicknefs  of  his  Wit  and  Invention. 
He  died  Anno  Domini  16  .  .  ,  and  was  buried  at  Stratford  upon 
Avon,  the  Town  of  his  Nativity. 

The  History  of  the  Worthies  of  England :   Warwickshire. 
1662.     [Fo.]   p.  126. 


[Fuller  was  collecting  the  materials  for  his  "  Worthies  "  in  1643,  hut  the 
work  was  not  published  till  after  his  death,  by  his  son  in  1662.  See  Biog. 
Brit.  ed.  1750,  p.  2055,  and  Memorials  of  Thos.  Fuller,  by  Rev.  A.  T, 
Russell,  1844,  p.  152.  L.  T.  S.] 

We  find  Shakespeare  treated  as  a  name  of  "high  qualitie"  (/.  <?.  a  heroic 
name)  in  a  work  called  Polydoron,  mentioned  by  C.  B.  Carew  in  Notes  and 
Queries,  3rd  Ser.,  vol.  i.  p.  266.  [Polydoron  is  perhaps  the  secondary  title, 
no  work  appears  to  be  known  under  that  name.  L.  T.  S.] 

"Names  were  first  questionlesse  given  for  distinction,  facultie,  consan- 
guinitie,  desert,  qualitie :  for  Smith,  Taylor,  Joyner,  Sadler,  &c.,  were 
doubtlesse  of  the  trades ;  Johnson,  Robinson,  Williamson,  of  the  blood ; 
Sackville,  Saville,  names  of  honorable  desert ;  Armestrong,  Shakespeare 
of  high  qualitie  :  " 

And  R.  Verstegan,  in  the  chapter  "Of  the  Sirnames  of  our  ancient 
Families"  in  his  Restitution  of  Decayed  Intelligence,  1634,  p.  294,  says: — 

"  Breakspear,  Shakspear,  and  the  like,  have  beene  sirnames  imposed  upon 
the  first  bearers  of  them  for  valour,  and  feates  of  armes" 

Shakespeare,  as  Fuller  says,  is  Hastivibrans  in  Latin.  In  Greek  it  is 
AoptVaXroe  and  'Eyx£ff7ra'^0C-  Cf.  Spenser's  Faery  Queen,  b.  iv,  c.  iii, 
st.  10 : 

"He,  all  enrag'd,  his  shivering  speare  did  shake, 
And  charging  him  afresh  thus  felly  him  bespake." 

[Mr.  Ruskin's  remark  (Fors  Clavigera :  Letter  15,  p.  12)  of  the  coin- 
cidence, "that  the  name  of  the  chief  poet  of  passionate  Italy  [was]  'the 
bearer  of  the  wing,'  and  that  of  the  chief  poet  of  practical  England,  the 
bearer  or  shaker  of  the  spear,"  fails  as  regards  Dante,  whose  family  name 
Alighieri,  with  its  softened  form  Aldighi&?,  is  Germanic,  reappearing  in 


THOMAS    FULLER,    1643 — 1662.  485 

the  French  form  Audigier.1     Two  other  instances  of  our  phrase  are  as 
follow, — 

"  They  laught  to  scorne  the  shaking  of  the  Speare." 

(Davies  of  Hereford,  Triumph  of  Death,  p.  47,  ot 
Humours  Heaven  on  Earth,  Grosart's  Chertsey 
Worthies  Library,  1876.) 

"And  he  laugheth'at  the  shaking  of  the  speare." 
(Job  xli.  21,  Genevan  Version,  1560 :  v.  29  Authorized  Version.) 

See  also  before,  p.  439,  Thomas  Bancroft's  Epigrams.     L.  T.  S.] 
As  we  have  given  an  example  of  the  heroic  employment  of  the  phrase  to 
shake  a  spear,  we  add  one  of  the  mock-heroic,  from  Histrio-mastix,  or  the 
Player  Whipt,  4to,  1610,  the  work  mentioned  before,  page  390. 

"  Enter  Troylus  and  Cressida. 

Troy.  Come  Cressida  my  Cresset  light, 
Thy  face  doth  shine  both  day  and  night, 
Behold,  behold,  thy  garter  blue, 
Thy  knight  his  valiant  elboe  weares, 
That  When  he  shakes  his  furious  Speare, 
The  foe  in  shivering  fearfull  sort, 
May  lay  him  downe  in  death  to  snort. 

Ores.  O  knight  with  vallour  in  thy  face, 
Here  take  my  skreene  weare  it  for  grace, 
Within  thy  Helmet  put  the  same, 
Therewith  to  make  thine  enemies  lame. 

Landulpho.  Lame  stuffe  indeed  the  like  was  never  heard." 

(Sign.  C.  4.) 

In  Post-haste,  the  Poet,  who  accompanies  the  Players  of  the  mock-play 
"Troylus  and  Cressida,"  Mr.  Richard  Simpson  sees  a  caricature  of 
Shakespeare.  (School  of  Shakspere,  vol.  ii.  pp.  11—14.)  Tne  first  four 
lines  here  spoken  by  Troylus  contain  the  supposed  allusion  to  an  incident  in 
Shakespeare's  Troilus  and  Cressida,  Act  IV.  Sc.  iv.  11.  72,  73,  which  we 
believe  to  be  rebutted  by  the  dates. 

See  also,  Edmund  Gay  ton  on  Sancho  Panza,  under  date  1654.    C.  M.  I. 


1  Mr.  Ruskin  probably  had  in  view  the  fact  that  the  Alighieri  family,  on 
their  removal  to  Verona,  changed  their  arms  to  azure,  a  wing  or.  See  H. 
Clark  Barlow's  Contributions  to  the  Study  of  the  Divina  Commedia.  1864, 
p.  9;  and  K.  Witte,  Dante  Forschungen  (1879),  p.  25. 


486 


THOMAS  FULLER,  1643—1662. 

John  Fajlolfe,  Knight  *  *  the  Stage  hath  been  overbold 
with  his  memory,  making  him  a  Thrafonical  Puff,  &  emblem  of 
Mock-valour. 

True  it  is,  Sir  John  Oldcaftle  did  firft  bear  the  brunt  of  the 
one,  being  made  the  make-fport  in  all  plays  for  a  coward.  It  is 
eafily  known  out  of  what  purfe  this  black  peny  came.  The 
Papifts  railing  on  him  for  a  fferetick,  and  therefore  he  muft  allb 
be  a  coward,  though  indeed  he  was  a  man  of  arms,  every  inch  of 
him,  and  as  valiant  as  any  in  his  age 

Now  as  I  am  glad  that  Sir  John  0  Ideas  tie  is  put  out,  fo  I  am 
forry  that  Sir  John  Fasto/fe  is  put  in,  to  relieve  his  memory  in 
this  bafe  fervice,  to  be  the  anvil  for  every  dull  wit  to  ftrike  upon. 
Nor  is  our  Comedian  excufable,  by  fome  alteration  of  his  name, 
writing  him  Sir  John  Falftafe  (and  making  him  the  property  oj 
pleafure  for  King  Henry  the  fifth  to  abufe)  feeing  the  vicinity 
of  founds  intrench  on  the  memory  of  that  worthy  Knight,  and 

few  do  heed    the  inconfideraule  difference  in  fpelling   of  their 
name. 

The  Worthies  of  England.     1662.     Norfolk,  p.  253. 


See  further  on  this  subject,  after,  p.  509.     L.  T.  S. 


487 


SIR  RICHARD  BAKER,  1643. 

Men  of  Note  in  her  time  [Elizabeth]. 

After  fuch  men1,  it  might  be  thought  ridiculous  to  fpeak  of 
Stage-players  j  but  feeing  excellency  in  the  meaner!  things  deferve 
remembring,  and  Rofdus2  the  Comedian  is  recorded  in  Hiftory 
with  fuch  commendation,  it  may  be  allowed  us  to  do  the  like  with 
fome  of  our  Nation.  Richard  Bourbidge  and  Edward  Allen,  two 
fuch  A6tors,  as  no  age  muft  ever  look  to  fee  the  like :  and,  to 
make  their  Comedies  compleat,  Richard  Tarleton,  who  for  the 
Part  called  the  Clowns  Part,  never  had  his  match,  never  will 
have.  For  Writers  of  Playes,  and  fuch  as  had  been  Players 
themfelves,  William  Shakefpeare,  and  Benjamin  Johnfon,  have 
fpecially  left  their  Names  recommended  to  pofterity.  (p.  120.) 

William  Shakefpeare  an  excellent  writer  of  Comedies. 

(Index,  referring  to  the  above  passage.) 

Sir  Richard  Bakers  Chronicle.     1643.     [fo.]     The  Raigne 
of  Queen  Elizabeth.      C.  M.  1. 


1  Statesmen,  Writers  and  Divines. 
3  Misprinted  Boscius. 


488 


Anonymous,  1644. 


Although  he  came  with  confidence  to  the  fcarTbld,  and  the 
blood  wrought  lively  in  his  cheeks,  yet  when  he  did  lye  down 
upon  the  block  he  trembled  every  joint  of  him  j  the  fenfe  of 
fomething  after  death,  and  the  undifcovered  country  unto  which 
his  foul  was  wandering  flartling  his  refolution,  and  pofTeffing 
every  joint  of  him  with  an  univerfal  palfey  of  fear. 


London  Post,  January,  1644. 
of  Archbishop  Laud.) 


the  Execution 


[This  forcible  passage  contains  an  evident  reference  to  Hamlet,  ii.  2  : — 

"But  that  the  dread  of  something  after  death, 
The  undiscovered  Country,  from  whose  Borne 
No  Traveller  returnes,  Puzels  the  will,"  &c. 

(Fo.  1623.) 
It  is  quoted  in  the  Academy,  January  31,  1874,  p.  121.     L.  T,  S.] 


489 


Anonymous,  1644. 

Aulicus  keeps  to  the  old  way  of  devotion,  and  that  is  the 
offering  up  the  incenfe  of  fo  many  lies  and  intelligence  every 
Sonday  morning :  one  would  thinke  that  the  Judgements  which 
have  been  writ  from  heaven  againft  the  prophanation  of  that 
day,  recorded  by  our  protomartyr,  Matter  Burton,  mould  be  able 
to  deterre  a  Diurnall  maker,  a  paper-intelligencer,  a  penny  worth 
of  newes,  but  the  Creature  hath  writ  himfelfe  into  a  reprobate 
fenfe,  and  you  may  fee  how  it  thrives  with  him,  for  his  braines 
have  been  wonderfully  blafted  of  late,  and  plannet-ftrucke, 
and  he  is  not  now  able  to  provoke  the  meaneft  Chriftian  to 
laughter,  but  lies  in  a  paire  oifoulejheets,  a  wofull  fpectacle  and 
object  of  dullnefle,  and  tribulation,  not  to  be  recovered  by  the 
Proteftant  or  CathoLique  liquour,  either  Ale  or  ftrong  beer,  or 
Sack,  or  Claret,  or  Hippocras,  or  Mufcadine,  or  Rofafolis,  which 
hath  been  reputed  formerly  by  his  Grandfather  Ben  Johnfon  and 
his  Uncle  Shakefpeare,  and  his  Couzen  Germains  Fletcher,  and 
Beaumont,  and  nofe-leffe  Davenant,  and  Frier  Sherley  the  Poets, 
the  onely  bloflbms  for  the  brain,  the  reftoratives  for  the  wit,  the 
(i  sic)  Dathing  for  the  wine1  mufes,  but  none  of  thefe  are  now  able 
either  to  warme  him  into  a  quibble,  or  to  inflame  him  into  a  fparkle 
of  invention,  and  all  this  becaufe  he  hath  prophaned  the  Sallath 
by  his  pen. 

Mercurius  Britanicus :  Numb.  20  (January  4-11,  1644). 
Communicating  the  affaires  of  Great  Britaine:  For  the 
better  Information  of  the* People. 


490  ANONYMOUS,     1644. 

This  curious  extract  from  one  of  the  Mercuries,  or  Newspapers,  of  the 
Rebellion  is  a  Puritanical  attack  on  "the  old  way  of  devotion,"  viz.,  the 
publication  of  a  Sunday  Newspaper.  It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the 
Theatres  were  now  closed  by  order  of  the  Parliament,  though  in  point  of 
fact  the  prohibition  had  not  succeeded  in  wholly  putting  down  theatrical 
performances.  The  Theatres  had  been  partially  closed  in  June,  1600,  and 
again,  on  account  of  the  plague,  in  May  J-2-,  1636.  Civil  war  broke  out  in 
August,  1642  ;  the  first  battle  being  fought  on  September  22  in  that  year. 
The  first  order  of  Parliament  for  closing  the  Theatres  was  dated  September 
2,  1642 ;  and  this  being  found  ineffectual  to  suppress  stage-plays,  a  more 
stringent  order  was  promulgated  in  1647,  bearing  date  Oct.  22.  The  theatre 
was  thus  practically  in  abeyance  till  the  performance  of  Davenant's  Siege  of 
Rhodes in  1656.  Our  Third  Period,  however,  is  continued  till  the  Restora- 
tion, 1660  :  when  the  floodgates  of  pleasure  were  once  more  opened,  and 
the  stage  was  deluged  with  theatrical  licentiousness. 

The  "Master  Burton"  here  referred  to  was  the  Rev.  Henry  Burton,  the 
Puritan  author,  who  suffered  (with  Prynne  and  Dr  Bastwicke)  in  1637,  for 
publishing  a  tract  entitled  "  For  God  and  the  King."  See  A  New  Discovery 
of  the  Prelates  Tyranny.  1641.  [4to.]  Restored  to  liberty  in  1640,  he 
wrote  his  life,  published  in  1643.  He  died  m  1648. 

The  extract  was  quoted  by  Mr.  G.  Bullen  in  the  Athentzum  of  Aug.  13, 
1870.  C.  M.  I. 


491 

JOHN  CLEVELAND,  about  1644.     (DIED  1658.) 
Strange  Scarlet  Doctors  thefe  -,  they'll  pafs  in  Story 
For  Sinners  half  refin'd  in  Purgatory  -, 
Or  parboyl'd  Lobfters,  where  there  joyntly  rales 
The  fading  Sables,  and  the  coming  Gules. 
The  Flea  that  Falftqff  damn' d  thus  lewdly  fhows 
Tormented  in  the  Flames  of  Bardolptis  Nofe  j 

The  Mixt  Assembly  (p.  33). 

The  terror  of  whofe  [Rupert's]  Name  can  out  of  feven 
Like  Faljlqfs  Buckram-men,  make  fly  eleven. 

Rupertismus  (p.  53)  ;   To  Prince  Rupert  (p.  275). 
The  Works  of  Mr,  John  Cleveland,  1687.     Edition  1677, //.  43,  67,  101. 

[Cleveland  warmly  espoused  the  king's  side,  and  was  evidently  well 
acquainted  with  Shakespere's  works.  The  first  extract  is  from  The  Mixt 
Assembly,  a  sharp  satire  upon  the  Westminster  Assembly  of  Divines,  one 
of  the  great  objections  to  which  by  the  episcopal  party  was  that  "there 
was  a  mixture  of  laity  with  the  clergy."  The  Assembly  first  met  on 
i  July  1643,  and  continued  till  Feb.  22,  1648-9 ;  we  may  presume  that 
Cleveland  wrote  his  satire  in  the  early  days  of  their  meeting,  and  assign 
1644  as  a  probable  date  for  it.  "  The  character  of  a  Diurnal  maker,"  in 
which  he  says  that  "a  Diurnal-maker  is  the  sub-almoner  of  History,  Queen 
Maffs  Register"  (  Works,  1687,  p.  78),  belongs  to  the  same  time  (see  Nichols' 
History  and  Antiquities  of  Leicester,  Vol.  Ill,  Part  II,  pp.  913—916). 
Cleveland  may  have  had  Mercutio's  famous  speech  in  mind  when  he  spoke 
of  Queen  Mab,  or  he  may  have  thought  of  Hotspur's  speech  in  I  Henry  IV 
when  he  wrote — 

"  He  that  the  noble  Piercie's  Blood  inherits 
Will  he  strike  up  a  Hot- Spur  of  the  Spirits  ?  " 

(Mixt  Assembly,  p.  34.) 

But  there  is  nothing  to  show  that  he  alluded  to  Shakespere  in  naming  these 
well-known  mythological  and  historic  personages. 

The  Elegies  upon  Ben  Jonson  at  pp.  310 — 314,  and  p.  330,  of  the  1687 
edition  of  Cleveland's  Works,  falsely  attributed  to  him,  are  by  Jaspar  Mayne 
and  Richard  West.  Extracts  from  both  are  given  before,  pp.  414,  416. 

Sir  John  Fastolf  (died  1459)  bequeathed  estates  to  Magdalene  College, 
Oxford,  part  of  which  were  appropriated  to  buy  liveries  for  some  of  the 
senior  scholars.  But  this,  in  time,  yielding  but  a  penny  a  week,  the  scholars 
"  were  called,  by  way  of  contempt,  Falstaff's  Buckram-men."  (See  I  Henry 
IV,  Act  II.  sc.  iv.)  Warton,  Hist,  of  English  Poetry,  ed.  1840,  vol.  ii. 
p.  17.  L.  T.  S.] 


492 


JOHN   CLEVELAND,  ?  about  1644  (died  1658). 

But  once  more  to  tingle  out  my  embofs'd  Committee-man; 
his  Fate  (for  I  know  you  would  fain  fee  an  end  of  him)  is  either 
a  whipping  Audit,  when  he  is  wrung  in  the  Withers  by  a  Com- 
mittee of  Examinations,  and  fo  the  Spunge  weeps  out  the 
Moifture  which  he  had  foaked  before ;  or  elfe  he  meets  his 
Paffing-peal  in  the  clamorous  Mutiny  of  a  Gut-foundred 
Garrifon  :  for  the  Hedge-fparrow  will  be  feeding  the  Cuckow, 
till  he  miftake  his  Commons  and  bites  off  her  head. 

The  Character  of  a  Country -Committee-man,  with  the  Ear- 
mark of  a  Sequestrator.  Clievelandi  Vindiciag  ;  or  Clieve- 
lancCs  Genuine  Poems,  Orations,  Epistles,  &c.  .  .  . 
London  .  .  .  1677,  p.  100. 


The  allusion  is,  I  suppose,  to  Lear,  I.  iv.  235 — 

"  Foole.  For  you  know  Nunckle,  the  Hedge-Sparrow  fed  the  Cuckoo  so 
long,  that  it's  had  it  head  bit  off  by  it  young,  so  out  went  the  Candle,  and 
we  were  left  darkling."  I  Folio,  p.  288,  col.  2. 

For  the  probable  date,  see  the  previous  page. — F,  J,  F. 


493 


THOMAS  PRUJEAN,  1644. 

The  Argument  of  Romeos  and  Juliets  : 

Romeo  and  Juliet,  iflues  of  two  enimies,  Mountegue  and 
Capulel,  Citizens  of  Verona,  fell  in  love  one  with  the  other :  hee 
going  to  give  her  a  vifit  meetes  Tybalt  her  kinfman,  who  urging 
a  fight  was  flaine  by  him :  for  this  Romeo  was  banifhed  and 
relided  at  Mantua,  where  he  received  an  Epiftle  from  Juliet. 

Aurorata,  \having  as  a  second  par{\  Loves  Looking  Glasse  Divine 
and  Humane.  The  Divine  one  in  Christs  Birth  and  Passion 
faithfully  showne:  The  Humane  one.  in  foure  Epistles  of  Juliets, 
Romeos,  Lisanders,  Calistas.  (Argument  to  Epistles  from  Juliet 
to  Romeo,  and  from  Romeo  to  Juliet.}  Sign.  E.  1644.  \i2mo.~\ 


[The  above  extract  is  the  Argument  to  two  poems  entitled  Juliet  to  Romeo 
and  Romeo  to  Juliet,  of  too  lines  each.  There  is  nothing  in  them  specially 
referring  to  or  drawn  from  Shakespere,  but  the  recent  popularity  of  his 
great  love -play  makes  it  more  likely  that  Prujean  referred  to  the  remem- 
brance of  Shakespere  in  the  minds  of  his  readers,  than  of  Arthur  Brooke's 
earlier  version  of  the  story.  Neither,  however,  made  epistles  pass  between 
the  lovers.  Mr.  P.  A.  Daniel,  editor  of  Brooke's  poem  and  Shakespere's 
play  for  the  New  Sh.  Society,  who  has  kindly  examined  Prujean's  work  for 
me,  concurs  in  these  remarks.  L.  T.  S.] 


494 


'VINDEX   ANGLICUS;  1644. 

There  is  no  fort  of  verfe  either  ancient,  or  modern,  which  we 
are  not  able  to  equal  by  imitation  j  we  have  our  Englifti  Virgil, 
Ovid,  Seneca,  Lucan,  Juvenal,  Martial,  and  Catullus  :  in  the  Earl 
of  Surry,  Daniel,  Johnfon,  Spencer,  Don,  Shakefpear,  and  the 
glory  of  the  reft,  Sandys  and  Sydney. 

Vindex  Anglicus;  or  the  Perfections  of  the  English  language 

defended  and  asserted.      Oxford,  1644. 
Reprinted  in  the  Harleian  Miscellany,  8vo,  edition,   VoL  v. 

P-  431- 


[No  author's  name  is  given  for  this  tract  in  the  reprint, x  nor  in  Hazlitt  or 
Lowndes.  None  of  these  seem  to  be  aware  that  it  is  an  ingenious  re-cast 
of  Richard  Carew's  essay  on  "  The  Excellencie  of  the  English  Tongue," 
printed  in  the  1614  and  subsequent  editions  of  Camden's  Remaines  concerning 
Britain,  into  which  the  writer  has  also  worked  passages  from  Camden's 
chapter  on  "Languages"  which  precedes  Carew's  essay.  He  even  has 
stolen  thoughts  if  not  expressions  from  Sidney's  Apologie  for  Poetrie.  We 
have  here  a  clear  case  of  literary  theft,  for  Carew  died  in  1620,  and  Camden 
in  1623,  and  1644  must  be  about  the  true  date  when  Vindex  Anglicus  was 
written,  from  the  author's  exclamation  "What  matchless  and  incomparable 
pieces  of  eloquence  hath  this  time  of  civil  war  afforded  ?  Came  there  ever 
from  a  prince's  pen  such  exact  pieces  as  are  his  majesty's  declarations  ?  " 
and  his  reference  to  Digby's  speeches  (p.  431).  The  passage  above  is  copied 
and  altered  from  the  passage  quoted  from  Carew,  before,  p.  27.  L.  T.  S.] 


1  I  owe  the  reference  to  Dr.  F.  J.  Furnivall. 


495 


PAUL  AYLWARD,  1645. 

To  his  deere  friend  Mr.  Henry  Burkhead,  upon  his 
Tragedy  of  Cola's  fury. 

You  I  preferre.     Johnfon  for  all  his  wit 
Could  never  paint  out  times  as  you  have  hit 
The  manners  of  our  age  :  The  fame  declines 
Of  ne're  enough  prayf'd  Shakefpeare  if  thy  lines 
Come  to  be  publifht :   Beaumont  and  Fletcher  s  fkill 
Submitts  to  yours,  and  your  more  learned  quill. 


DANIELL  BREEDY,  1645. 

[To  the  fame] 

Deere  friend  iince  then  this  peece  fo  well  limn'd 
As  moft  would  thinke  'twas  by  Ben.  Johnfon  trirnm'd, 
That  Shakefpeare,  Fletcher,  and  all  did  combine 
To  make  Lirenda  through  the  Clouds  to  mine. 

Commendatory  lines  prefixed  to  A  Tragedy  of  Cold  s  Furie 
or  Lirendas  Miserie.     Kilkenny,  1645.    C.  M.  I. 


GEORGE  WITHERS?,    1645 

John  Taylour,  then  the  Courts  fhrill  Chanticleer e 

Did  fummon  all  the  Jurours  to  appeare : 

Hee  had  the  Cryers  place  :  an  office  fit, 

For  him  that  hath  a  better  voyce,  then  wit. 

Hee,  who  was  called  firft  in  all  the  Lift, 

George  Withers  hight,  entitled  Satyriftj 

Then  Cory,  May,  and  Davenant  were  call'd  forth 

Renowned  Poets  all,  and  men  of  worth, 

If  wit  may  pafle  for  worth.     Then  Sylvefter, 

Sands,  Dray  ton,  Beaumont,  Fletcher,  MqJJinger, 

Shakefpeare,  and  Heywood,  Poets  good  and  free ; 

Dramatick  writers  all,  but  the  firft  three : 

Thefe  were  empanell'd  all. 

(/•  9-) 

*  ***** 

Thefe  were  the  crimes,  whereof  he1  was  accuf  d 
To  which  he  pleads  not  guilty,  but  refuf  d 
[fie]      By  Hiftriomicke  Poets  to  be  try'd, 

'Gainft  whom,  he  thus  malicioufly  enveigh'd 
Juftice  (fayd  he)  and  no  finifter  fury, 
Difwades  me  from  a  tryall  by  a  jury, 
That  of  worfe  mifdemeanours  guilty  bee, 
Then  thofe  which  are  objected  againft  mee  : 
Thefe  mercinary  pen-men  of  the  Stage, 
That  fofter  the  grand  vices  of  this  age, 

1  The  Intelligencer. 


GEORGE   WITHERS?,    164^.  437 

Should  in  this  Common-wealth  no  office  beare, 
But  rather  ftand  with  vs  Delinquents  here : 
Shakefpears  a  Mimicke,  Maffinger  a  Sot, 
Heywood  for  Aganippe  takes  a  plot : 
Beaumount  and  Fletcher  make  one  poet,  they 
Single,  dare  not  adventure  on  a  Play. 
Thefe  things  are  all  but  th'  errour  of  the  Mules, 
Abortive  witts,  foul  fountains  of  abufes  : 
Reptiles,  which  are  equivocally  bred, 
Under  fome  hedge,  not  in  that  geniall  bed 
Where  lovely  art  with  a  brave  wit  conjoyn'd, 
Engenders  Poets  of  the  nobleft  kind. 
Plato  refuf 'd  fuch  creatures  to  admit 
Into  his  Common-wealth,  and  is  it  fit 
ParnaJJus  mould  the  exiles  entertaine 
Of  Plato  ? ' 
***** 

Thus  fpake  the  Prif 'ner. 

\Plautus,  Terence,  Menander,  Aristophanes  mutter  among  the 

crowd.] 

And  while  'mongft  thefe  the  murmure  did  encreafe, 
The  Cryer  warn'd  them  all  to  hold  their  peace. 

The  Court  was  filent,  then  Apollo  fpake : 
If  thou  (faid  He)  chiefly  for  vertues  fake, 
Or  true  affection  to  the  Common-weale, 
Didft  our  Dramatick  Poets  thus  appeale, 
We  fhould  to  thy  exception  give  content, 
But  fince  we  are  aflur'd,  'tis  thy  intent, 
By  this  refufall,  onely  to  deferre 
That  cenfure,  which  our  juftice  muft  conferre 
Upon  thy  merits ;  we  mufl  needs  decline 
From  approbation  of  thefe  pleas  of  thine, 
And  are  refolv'd  that  at  this  time,  and  place, 

SH.  ALLN.  BK. — I.  K  K. 


498  GEORGE   WITHERS?,    1645. 

They  fliall  as  Jurours,  on  thy  try  all  pafle, 

But  if  our  Cenfour  mall  hereafter  find, 

They  have  deferved  ill,  we  have  defign'd 

That  they  likewife  fhall  be  to  judgement  brought, 

To  fuffer  for  thofe  crimes,  which  they  have  wrought, 

Thus  fpake  the  Soveraign  of  the  two-topp'd  Mount. 

The  Great  Assises  Holden  in  Parnassus.  London.  1645. 
//•  9,  31—33- 


[The  title  of  this  curious  Satire  on  the  newsletters  and  newspapers  of  the 
day  runs  as  follows  ;— "The  Great  Assises  holden  in  Parnassvs  by  Apollo 
and  his  Assessovrs  :  At  which  Sessions  are  Arraigned  Mercurius  Britanicus, 
Mercurius  Aulicus,  Mercurius  Civicus,  The  Scout,  The  writer  of  Diurnalls, 
The  Intelligencer  "  and  six  others.  The  constitution  of  the  court  is  set  out 
on  the  second  page,  Apollo  is  president,  the  judges,  Lord  Verulam,  Sidney, 
Erasmus,  &c.,  follow,  then  two  lists,  one  of  "The  Malefactours  "  (the  same 
as  those  given  on  the  title-page),  the  other  of  "The  Jurours,"  whose  names 
are  George  Wither,  Thomas  Gary,  Thomas  May,  William  Davenant,  Josuah 
Sylvester,  Georges  Sandes,  Michael  Drayton,  Francis  Beaumont,  John 
Fletcher,  Thomas  Haywood,  William  Shakespeere,  Philip  Massinger.  The 
other  officers  of  the  court  are,  "Joseph  Scaliger,  the  Censour  of  manners  in 
Parnassus,  Ben.  Johnson,  Keeper  of  the  Trophonian  Denne,  John  Taylour, 
Cryer  of  the  Court,  Edmund  Spencer,  Clerk  of  the  Assises." 

The  jurors  are  successively  hit  at  by  the  challenging  of  the  prisoners.  In 
Apollo's  defence  of  the  "  Dramatick  Poets"  given  above,  Withers  gives  a 
cautious  opinion. 

This  book  does  not  bear  Withers'  name,  but  it  was  ascribed  to  him  on 
the  authority  of  Dalrymple  and  Hearne  by  Bliss  in  his  edition  of  Wood's 
Athena  Oxnnienses,  vol.  iii.  p.  773.  But  the  Rev.  Mr.  Ebsworth  is  of 
a  contrary  opinion,  not  believing  that  any  man  would  describe  himself  so 
insultingly  as  some  lines  in  this  poem  do  Withers.  See  "  Choyce  Drollery," 
Boston,  1876,  pp.  405,  406.  L.  T.  S.] 


499 


SIR   RICHARD  BAKER,  1645. 

and  therefore  where  he  [Prynne,  author  of  '  Hiftriomastix '] 
hath  entituled  his  Book,  A  Tragedie  of  Aftours;  he  fhould,  if  he 
had  done  right,  have  entituled  it,  A  Comedie  of  Errours. 

Theatrum  Redivivum,  (a  posthumously  published  work  : 
Sir  R.  B.  died  in  Feb.  1645).     1662.     p.  96. 


This  book,  an  answer  to  Prynne,  is  singularly  wanting  in  contemporary 
references  or  allusions  of  any  kind,  English  or  European. — B.  N. 

It  was  reprinted  in  1670  under  the  title  of  "  Theatrum  Triumphans  j  or 
a  /  Discourse  /  of  /  Plays  /  .  .  .  Wherein  all  Scruples  are  removed,  and  the 
vain  /  objections  of  Histro-mastix  and  others  fully  /  Answered  and  confuted, 
.  .  .  Written  by  the  Learned  /  Sir  Richard  Baker,  Kt.  /  London  /  .  .  . 
1670."  Allen  and  Bourbidge  are  mentioned  by  the  author,  whose  allusions 
are  mostly  classical.  M. 


500 


SAMUEL  DRAKE,  1646. 

Troth  1  tooke  him  for  the  Schoole  Matter  of  the  place  y* 
made  mee  grow  fo  bould  with  him,  but  no  more  of  y*  good 
Hall,  &  thou  loue  mee,  for  this  veniall  fin  when  I  come  to  bee 

thy  ConfefTor  I  'le  pardon  thee  a  mortall  one./ 

[p.  68*.] 

And  for  the  boeke  hee  mail  receaue  it  when  you  do  Arnoldus. 
For  the  Apothecarys  bill  'tis  a  fniueling  in  considerable  furame  j 
what  fd  Falftaffe  in  yl  cafe  to  Lieft:  Peto,  lay  out  Lay  out  Hall 
I  'le  bee  refponfable  to  all  when — 

*  *  * 

Normanton.  S.  Drake. 

Monday  morning.  [p.  69.] 

Letter  from  Rev.  S.  Drake  at  Wakefield  to  Dr.  Power  in 
Papers  of  William  Conrten  and  Dr.  Power.  Sloane  MS. 
3515,  Brit.  Mus.  Noticed  by  Edward  J.  L.  Scott, 
Athenaum,  5  March,  1898,  /.  32,  col.  2. 


The  first  extract  refers  to  Falstafif s  words,  I  Henry  IV,  II,  iv ;  fol. 
p.  57  :  '  A,  no  more  of  that  Hall,  and  thou  louest  me.' 

The  second  appears  to  refer  to  I  Henry  1 V,  IV,  ii : 

Bard.  Will  you  give  me  money,  captain? 

Fal.  Lay  out,  lay  out.  .  .  .  Bid  my  lieutenant  Peto  meet  me  at  the 
town's  end.  M. 


SAMUEL  SHEPPARD,  1646. 

See  him  whofe  Tragic  Sceans  EURIPIDES 
Doth  equal,  and  with  SOPHOCLES  we  may 
Compare  great  SHAKESPEAR     ARISTOPHANES 
Never  like  him,  his  Fancy  could  difplay, 
Witnefs  the  Prince  of  Tyre,  his  Pericles, 
His  fweet  and  his  to  be  admired  lay 
He  wrote  of  luftful  Tarquins  rape  mews  he 
Did  underftand  the  depth  of  Poefie. 

The  Times  Displayed  in  Six  Sestyads,   1646.   The  sixth 
Sestyad:  St.  9,  /.  22.  [4/0.!    C.  M.  I. 


502 


ROBERT  WILD,   1646  (?). 

Shakefpear. 

Invent[ion\.  His  Quill  as  quick  as  Feather  from  the  Bow! 
O  who  can  such  another  Faljlqff  mow  ? 
And  if  thy  learning  had  been  like  thy  Wit, 
Ben  would  have  blufht,  and  Johnfon  never  writ. 
Fur[or  Poeticus].  Pifh. — I    never   read    any   of  him   but   in 
Tobacco  papers  and  the  bottom  of  Pigeon-Pies. — But  he  had 
been  a  Curate  to  the  Stage  fo  long,  that  he  could  not  choofe  but 
get  fome  ends  and  bottoms  -} — I,  and  they  were  his  Fees  too  j — 
But  for  the  fine  and  true  Dramatick  Law, 
He  was  a  Dunce  and  fcribled  with  a  Straw. 

The  Benefice.  A  Comedy.  By  R\pber(\  W\_ild\  D.D. 
Author  of  Iter  Boreale.  Written  in  his  Younger  Days : 
Now  made  Publick  for  Promoting  Innocent  Mirth  .... 
London.  MDCLXXXIX.  p.  10. 


Internal  political  allusions  prove  this  play  to  have  been  written  about 
1646.  It  is  obviously  imitated  from  the  anonymous  '  Returne  from  Per- 
nassus '  first  published  in  1606.  Besides  the  Shaksperean  criticism,  are 
passages  dealing  with  Ben  Jonson,  Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  and  '  Tom 
Randolph's  Poems.'  For  an  account  of  the  author  see  Poems  by  Robert 
Wilde,  D.D.,  one  of  the  ejected  ministers  of  1662,  with  a  historical  and 
biographical  preface  and  notes  by  the  Rev.  John  Hunt.  London,  1870. — • 
S.  L.  LEE. 


Anonymous,  1647. 

But  directed  by  the  example  of  fome,  who  once  fleered  in  our 
qualitie,  and  fo  fortunately  afpired  to  choofe  your  Honour,  joyned 
with  your  (now  glorified)  Brother,  Patrons  to  the  flowing  com- 
pofltions  of  the  then  expired  fweet  Swan  of  Avon  SHAKESPEARE  j 
*  *  we  have  prefumed  to  offer  to  your  Selfe,  what  before 
was  never  printed  of  thefe  Aulhours. 

The  dedicatory  epistle  of  ten  Players  "to  Philip  Earle  of  Pembroke 
and  Mountgomery."  Prefixed  to  the  first  edition  of  Beaumont 
and  Fletcher's  Works:  1647.  [Fo.}. 


The  writer  here  adopts  Ben  Jonson's  graceful  sobriquet  for  Shakespeare  : 
"  Sweet  Swan  of  Avon"  (p.  310). 

[Prefixed  to  the  first  folio  of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher  there  is,  besides  this 
Epistle  of  the  ten  players,  whose  names  are  subscribed  to  it,  an  address 
"  To  the  Reader  "  signed  Ja.  Shirley,  and  one  by  "  The  Stationer  to  the 
Reader,"  signed  Humphrey  Moseley.  There  is  nothing  to  show  who  wrote 
the  ten  Players'  epistle.  L.  T.  S.] 


S°4 


SIR  JOHN  DENHAM,  1647. 

Then  was  wits  Empire  at  the  fatall  height, 

When  labouring  and  finking  with  its  weight, 

From  thence  a  thoufand  lelfer  Poets  fprong, 

Like  petty  Princes  from  the  Fall  of  Rome, 

When  JOHNSON,  SHAKESPEARE,  and  thy  felfe  did  lit, 

And  fway'd  in  the  Triumvirate  of  wit — - 

Yet  what  from  JOHNSONS  oyle  and  fweat  did  flow, 

Or  what  more  eafie  nature  did  beftow 

On  SHAKESPEARES  gentler  Mufe,  in  thee  full  growne 

Their  Graces  both  appeare,  yet  fo,  that  none 

Can  fay  here  Nature  ends,  and  Art  begins 

But  mixt  like  th'  Elements,  and  borne  like  twins, 

So  interweav'd,  fo  like,  fo  much  the  fame, 

None  this  meere  Nature,  that  meere  Art  can  name : 

'Twas  this  the  Ancients  meant,  Nature  &  Skill 

Are  the  two  topps  of  their  Pernaffus  Hill. 

Commendatory  Verses  on  John  Fletcher,  prefixed  to  the  first 
edition  of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher's  Works. 


[On  the  contrast  between  the  nature  and  art  of  Shakespere  and  of  Jonson 
see  before,  p.  275,  and  after,  Winstanley,  1684.  On  "  the  elements  so 
mix'd"  see  before,  p.  121.  L.  T.  S.] 


JAMES  HOWELL,  1647. 

Had  now  grim  Ben  bin  breathing,  with  what  rage 
And  high-fwolne  fury  had  Hee  lafh'd  this  age, 
SHAKESPEARE  with  CHAPMAN  had  grown  madd,  and  torn 
Their  gentle  Sock,  and  lofty  Eujkins  worne, 
To  make  their  Mufe  welter  up  to  the  chin 
In  blood ; 

Commendatory  Verses  "  upon  Master  Fletcher's  Dramaticall 
Workes."  Prefixed  to  the  first  edition  of  Beaumont  and 
Fletcher's  Works.  C.  M.  I. 


GEORGE  DANIEL  OF  BESWICK,  1647. 

The  Sweeteft  Swan  of  Avon,  to  ye  faire 
And  Cruel  Delia,  paffionatelie  Sings  j 
Other  mens  weakeneffes  and  follies  are 
Honour  and  witt  in  him  ;  each  Accent  brings 
A  Sprig  to  Crowne  him  Poet ;  and  Contrive 
A  Monument,  in  his  owne  worke,  to  live. 
Draiton  is  fweet  and  Smooth  5  though  not  exact 
Perhaps,  to  ftricter  Eyes;  yet  he  lhall  live 
Beyond  their  Malice.     To  the  Sceane,  and  Act, 
Read  Comicke  Shakefpeare ;  or  if  you  would  give 
Praife  to  a  Juft  Defert,  crowning  the  Stage 
See  Beaumont,  once  the  honour  of  his  Age. 

Poems.  Vindication  of  Poesie.  Add.  MS.  19,255,  p.  17  {British 
Museum],  Privately  printed  by  Dr.  Grosart,  1878,  4  vols.  [4^-] 
Vol.  7,  pp.  28,  29. 


[By  the  "  sweetest  Swan  of  Avon  "  is  intended  Samuel  Daniel  (no  relation 
to  George,  the  Royalist  poet).  Upon  the  "  Swan  of  Avon"  see  Jonson  and 
the  ten  Players,  before,  pp.  310,  503;  and  Appendix  A).  George  Daniel  rated 
Jonson  above  all,  saying  of  him, 

"Hee  was  of  English  Drammatickes,  the  Prince." 

Dr.  Grosart  says  that  "he  idolized  Ben  Jonson,  and  set  himself  resolutely 
against  the  supremacy  of  Shakespere,"  and  he  finds  a  consciousness  of  this 
in  the  lines, 

"  I  am  not  tyed  to  any  general  ffame, 
Nor  fixed  by  the  Approbation 
Of  great  ones."    (Vindication  of  Poesie,  p.  30.) 

L.  T.  S.] 


GEORGE  DANIEL  OF  BESWICK,  1647. 

47- 

The  worthy  Sr  whom  Falftaffe's  ill-vs'd  name 
Perfonates,  on  the  Stage,  left  fcandall  might 
Creep  backward,  &  blott  Martyr,  were  a  shame, 
Though  Shakefpeare,  Story,  &  Fox,  legend  write ; 
That  Manual,  where  dearth  of  Story  brought 
Such  S*s  worthy  this  Age,  to  make  it  out. 

50. 

Another  Knight  but  of  noe  great  Account 
(Soe  fay  his  freinds)  was  one  of  thefe  new  Saints 
A  Prieft  !  but  the  fatt  Mault-Man  !    (if  you  don't 
Remember  him,  Sr  lohn  has  let  his  rants 1 

Flye  backward),  the  firft  Knight  to  be  made 
And  golden  Spurres,  hee,  in  his  Bofome  had. 

(MS.,  pp.  464,  465  ;  reprint,  pp.  1 1 2,  113. 

136. 

Here,  to  Evince  the  Scandall,  has  bene  throwne 
Vpon  a  Name  of  Honour,  (Charactred 
From  f  wrong  Person,  Coward,  and  Buffoonej) 
Call  in  your  eafie  faiths,  from,  what  y  'ave  read 
To  laugh  at  FalftarTe,  as  an  humor  fram'd 
To  grace  the  Stage,  to  pleafe  the  Age,  misnam'd. 

'37- 

But  thirike,  how  farre  viifit  ?  how  much  below 
Our  Harrie's  Choice,  had  fuch  a  Perfon  bene  ? 


lrThe  MS.   has  the  )  after   "rants,"  but  the  sense  requires  it  aftei 
"  backward." 


508  GEORGE    DANIEL   OF    BESWICK,    1647. 

To  fuch  a  Truft  ?  the  Town's  a  Taverne  now 
And  plumpe  Sr  lohn,  is  but  the  Bum  f ar-feene  j 
As  all  the  Toyle  of  Princes  had  beene  Spent 
To  force  a  Lattice,  or  Subdue  a  Pinte.1          [x  pent— root! 

138. 

Such  Stage-mirth,  have  they  made  Him;  Harry  law 
Meritt  -,  and  Scandall  but  purfues  the  Steps 
Of  Honour,  with  ranke  Mouth,  if  Truth  may  draw 
Opinion,  wee  are  paid;  how  ere  the  heapes 
Who  crowd  to  See,  in  Expectation  fall 
To  the  Sweet  Nugilogues,  of  Jacke,  and  Hall. 

*39- 

Noe  longer  pleafe  your  felves  to  iniure  Names 
Who  liv'd  to  Honour ;  if  (as  who  dare  breath 
A  Syllable  from  Harrie's  Choice)  the  fames 
Conferr'd  by  Princes,  may  redeeme  from  Death  r 

Live  Falflaffe  then  ;  whofe  Truft,  and  Courage  once 
Merited  the  firft  Government  in  France  5 

140. 

This  may  Suffice,  to  right  him ;  let  the  Guilt 
Fall  where  it  may ;  unqueftion'd  Harrie  Stands 
From  the  foure  Points  of  vertue,  equall  built, 
Judgment  Secur'd,  the  Glorie,  of  his  Hands ; 

And  from  his  bountie,  blot  out  what  may  rife 
Of  Comicke  Mirth,  to  FalftafF's  prejudice. 

(MS.,  pp.  477,  478  ;  reprint,  pp.  135-6.) 

Poems,  1616—1657.  Privately  printed  from  the  MS.  (Add. 
19,255)  in  the  British  Museum  by  Dr.  Grosart,  1878. 
Trinachordia,  The  Raigne  of  Henrie  the  Fifth,  vol.  iv. 


[Doubtless  the  popularity  of  the  Plays  [7.  and  II.  King  Henry  IV.  and 
Merry  Wives  of  Windsor},  and  so  the  universal  acceptance  of  Falstaff,  stung 
the  Royalist  Poet  thus  to  reprimand  Shakespere.  See  end  of  note,  p.  510. 

In  stanza  138,  Nugilogues-=. triflings  or  banter,  i.e.  nugce,  trifles.  Jacke 
and  Hall  are  of  course  Falstaff  and  Prince  Hal.  A.  B.  Grosart.] 


GEORGE    DANIEL   OF    BESWICK,    1647.  509 

[In  stanza  50,  the  Priest  probably  refers  to  Sir  John  of  Wrotham,  and  the 
fatt  Mault-Man  to  William  Murley  the  Malt-man  of  Dunstable,  the  would- 
be  knight,  both  in  the  play  called  The  First  Part  of  Sir  John  Oldcastle, 
1600,  sign.  F  4,  D  I,  bk,  G  2. 

From  stanza  47  it  is  evident  that  George  Daniel  was  aware  that  Falstaffe 
was  formerly  called  Oldcastle  on  the  stage,  and  that  this  ' '  ill-used  name  " 
had  been  suppressed  and  changed  "lest  scandall  might"  "blott  Martyr." 
He,  however,  like  Thomas  Fuller  (see  before,  p.  486),  speaks  out  in  vindi- 
cation of  the  fair  fame  of  Fastolf,  the  Norfolk  knight  to  whose  "trust  and 
;ourage,"  as  distinguished  captain  and  governor  in  France  in  the  1 5th 
century,  he  alludes  in  stanza  139. 

The  prologue  of  the  First  Part  of  the  Life  of  Sir  John  Oldcastle,  two 
editions  of  which  came  out  in  1600,  contained  the  following  lines  : — 

"It  is  no  pamper'd  Glutton  we  present, 
Nor  aged  Councellour  to  youthfull  sinne, 
But  one,  whose  vertue  shone  above  the  rest, 
A  valiant  Martyr,  and  a  vertuous  Peere  ; 
In  whose  true  faith  and  loyalty  exprest 
Unto  his  soveraigne  and  his  Countries  weale : 
We  strive  to  pay  that  tribute  of  our  love 
Your  favours  merit.     Let  faire  Truth  be  grac'd, 
Since  forg'd  invention  former  time  defac'd." 

which  seem  clearly  to  point  to  the  popular  misapprehension  of  Oldcastle 
under  the  character  of  Falstaff,  and  the  desire  of  the  author  of  this  play  to 
clear  Oldcastle's  memory.  (The  name  of  Shakespere  was  affixed  by  the 
bookseller  to  one  of  the  two  1600  editions  of  the  play.  See  Chas.  Knight's 
Studies  of  Shakespere,  1849,  p.  270—272.)  L.  T.  S.] 

[In  justice  to  Shakespere  I  would  add  a  word  on  an  error  begun  ignorantly 
in  his  own  day,  and  continued— spite  of  Theobald  and  others— by  literate 
names  in  this  nineteenth  century,  namely,  that  Shakespere's  plump  Jack  and 
the  historical  Sir  John  Fastolf  were  one. 

When  Shakespere  substituted  Falstaff  for  Oldcastle  he  perhaps  chose  the 
name  because  it  was  existent  at  the  time  of  his  plays,  but  in  Elizabeth's  day 
extinct,  and  because  he  thought  he  could  not  further  vilify  the  name  of  one 
who  had,  as  he  believed  (see  I  Henry  VI.},  proved  himself  a  coward.  But 
fat  Sir  Apple- John  was  an  old  man  in  the  latter  days  of  Henry  IV,  and  died 
just  before  Henry  V.  embarked  for  France.  The  Falstaff  [Fastolf]  of  history 
had  a  government  in  France  under  Henry  V,  and  was  accused  of  cowardice 
in  the  next  reign,  as  shown  in  I  Henry  VI.  It  matters  not  to  this  question 
whether  I  Henrj  VI.  be  Shakespere's  or  not.  The  play  was  at  least  known 
to  him,  and  was  acted  before  the  change  was  made  from  Oldcastle  to  Falstaff 
in  Henry  IV.  Shakespere  therefore  not  only  knew  the  difference  between 
the  two  Talstaffs,  but  intended  it  to  be  known.  Hence  perhaps  the  reason 
^vby  he  in  his  Henry  V.  never  even  alludes  to  the  historical  Sir  John,  thus 


5 Id  GEORGE    DANIEL    OF    BESWICK,    1647. 

allowing  a  long  break  between  the  death  of  one  and  the  appearance  of  the 
other.     B.  N.] 

[The  case  seems  to  be  this  :  in  I  Henry  IV,  as  acted  at  first,  the  jovial 
boon  companion  and  coward  (a  lollard)  bore  the  name  of  Sir  John 
Oldcastle,  who  had  suffered  martyrdom  as  a  Lollard  in  the  days  of  Henry 
V ;  this  giving  offence  to  the  family  of  Oldcastle  (see  Dr.  James,  before, 
p.  33O),  Shakespere  changed  the  name  before  the  play  was  printed  to  Falstaff 
(Stationers'  Registers,  Feb.  25,  1 597-8). l  Falstaff  was  but  a  modification  of 
the  name  of  Sir  John  Fastolf,  who  was  a  noted  warrior  and  brave  commander 
under  Henry  V.  and  Henry  VI. ;  he  was  also  a  lollard,  and  having  passed 
under  the  imputation  of  cowardice  (though  afterwards  triumphantly  cleared, 
see  Mr.  Jas.  Gairdner's  article  in  Fortnightly  Review,  March  1873,  Vol.  13, 
p.  343),  and  being  a  somewhat  unpopular  man  in  his  own  day,  Shakespere 
found  that  he  fitted  the  character  for  whom  he  wanted  a  name.  He  disguised 
the  name  slightly  by  the  common  change  of  letters  (see  what  Fuller  says, 
before,  p.  486),  yet  the  confusion  crept  into  the  common  mind,  so  that  the  fat 
jovial  coward  was  remembered  by  the  name  of  Oldcastle  as  late  as  1618 
(see  Field's  Amends  to  fair  Ladies,  before,  p.  270),  perhaps  even  down  to 
1651.  (See  after,  T.  Randolph's  Hey  for  Honesty,  Vol.  ii.)  The  testimony  of 
Dr.  Richard  James,  George  Daniel,  and  Fuller,  taken  together,  show  clearly 
that  the  distinction  between  Sir  John  Oldcastle,  Sir  John  Fastolf,  and 
Falstaff  in  their  historical  and  poetical  characters  was  well  understood  cer- 
tainly by  some.  (See  authorities  cited  in  Dyce's  Shakespere,  1 866,  Vol.  iv.  p. 
204,  and  Mr.  Gairdner's  article  as  above.)  L.  T.  S.] 


1  The  Epilogue  to  2  Henry  IV,  in  which  Falstaff  is  to  die  of  a  sweat, 
"  for  Oldcastle  died  a  martyr,  and  this  is  not  the  man,"  shows  that  Shake- 
spere was  disclaiming  the  identity  in  the  Second  play  (1597-8)  about  the 
same  time  that  the  First  was  being  printed. 

"That  Falstaff  was  first  calld  Oldcastle  in  the  play,  we  know  also 
from  Old  having  been  printed  at  the  head  of  the  speech,  '  Very  well,  my 
lord,  very  well,'  in  the  quarto  1600,  of  2  Henry  IV,  Act  I,  sc.  ii,  and  fronv 
Prince  Hal  calling  Falstaff  in  I  Henry  IV,  Act  I,  sc.  ii,  '  My  old  lord  of 
the  castle,'  "  &c. — Furnivall's  Introduction  to  Leopold  Shakspere,  p.  1, 
note.  Dyce  and  Prof.  Dowden  point  out  that  Shakespere  borrowed  the 
name  of  Oldcastle  in  the  first  instance  from  The  Famous  Victories  of  Henry 
V,  a  popular  play  acted  before  1588,  in  which  one  of  the  Prince's  wild 
companions  is  a  Sir  John  Oldcastle. 

As  this  sheet  goes  to  press,  Dr.  Grosart  sends  me  the  following  from  John 
Trapp,  M.  A.,  to  the  same  effect  as  Fuller  and  Daniel :— "  If  dirt  will  stick 
to  a  mudwal,  yet  to  marble  it  will  not  *  *  N.  D. ,  Author  of  the  three 
conversions,  hath  made  Sr.  John  Oldcastle  the  Martyr,  a  Ruffian,  a  Robber, 
and  a  Rebel.  His  authority  is  taken  from  the  Stage-players,  of  like  con- 
science for  lyes  as  all  men  know."  Commentary  upon  Nehemiah,  1657. 
Chap.  VI.,  v.  6. 


WILLIAM  CARTWRIGHT,  1647. 

Twixt  Johnfons  grave,  and  Shakefpeares  lighter  found 
His  mufe  fo  fleer' d  that  fomething  ftill  was  found, 
Nor  this,  nor  that,  nor  both,  but  fo  his  owne, 
That  'twas  his  marke,  and  he  was  by  it  knowne. 
*  #  *  *  * 

Shakefpeare  to  thee  was  dull,  whofe  beft  jeft  lyes 
I*  th  Ladies  queftions,  and  the  Fooles  replyes ; 
Old  fafhion'd  wit,  which  walkt  from  town  to  town 
In  turn'd  Hofe,  which  our  fathers  call'd  the  Clown  j 
Whofe  wit  our  nice  times  would  obfceannefs  call, 
And  which  made  Bawdry  pals  for  Comicall : 
Nature  was  all  his  Art,  thy  veine  was  free 
As  his,  but  without  his  fcurility  j 

Upon  the  Dramatick  Poems  of  Mr.  John  Fletcher;  prefixed  to  the 
first  edition  of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher's  Works,  and  included 
(under  that  title]  in  Cartwrighfs  Comedies,  Tragicomedies,  and 
Poems,  1651  \sm.  8zw.],  pp.  2700^273. 


Canon  Kingsley  calls  Cartwright  a  "wondrous  youth."  (Essays,  1873, 
p.  58. )  The  fact  is,  he  was  not  a  good  poet ;  but  for  his  manifold  and 
precocious  accomplishments  he  might  have  been  nicknamed  Drusus.  Like 
Jasper  Mayne,  he  was  a  dramatist  in  Holy  Orders  ;  but  he  wrote  twice  as 
many  plays  as  Mayne  :  viz.,  four.  C.  M.  I. 


Brave  Shakefpeare  flow'd,  yet  had  his  Ebbings  too, 
Often  above  Himfelfe,  fometimes  below  j 
Thou  Al waves  Beft  j  if  ought  feem'd  to  decline, 
'Twas  the  unjudging  Rout's  miftake,  not  Thine.  [mob'sl 

Prefixed  to  the  First  Folio  Edition  of  Beaumont  and 
Fletcher's  Works t  1647.     C.  M.  I. 


J.  BERKENHEAD,  1647. 

Shakefpear  was  early  up,  and  went  fo  drefl 
As  for  thofe  dawning  houres  he  knew  was  beft ; 
But  when  the  Sun  fhone  forth,  You  Two  thought  fit 
To  weare  juft  Robes,  and  leave  off  Trunk-hofe-Wit. 


GEORGE  BUCK,  1647. 

Let  Shakefpeare,  Chapman,  and  applauded  Ben, 
Weare  the  Eternall  merit  of  their  Pen, 
Here  I  am  loye-ficke :  and  were  I  to  chufe, 
A  Miftris  corrivall  'tis  Fletcher  s  Mufe. 

Prefixed  to  the  first  edition  of  Beaumont 
and  Fletcher's  Works.     1647. 


T.  PALMER,  1647. 

I  could  prayfe  Hey  wood  now :  or  tell  how  long, 
Faljlaffe  from  cracking  Nuts  hath  kept  the  throng : 
But  for  a  Fletcher,  I  muft  take  an  Age 
And  fcarce  invent  the  Title  for  one  Page. 

Prefixed  to  the  first  edition  of  Beaumont 
and  Fletcher' s  Works.     1647. 

C.  M.  I. 


SH.  ALLN.  BK. — I.  L  L 


5'4 


*  SAM.   SHEITARD,    1647. 

Suck[-dry'].  We  are  in  an  excellent  humour — lets  have  the 
tother  quart. 

<7o7«[mon-curfe].  Rare  rogue  in  Buckram — thou  malt  goe  out 
a  wit,  and  vie  with  Martin  Parker,1  or  John  Tailor.2 

The  I  Committee~\Man  Curried.  A  Comedy  presented 
to  the  view  of  all  Men.  Written  by  S.  Sheppard, 
....  Printed  Anno  Dom.  1647.  4to.  Act.  3,  p.  7. 

F.  J.  F. 


Having  regard  to  the  great  popularity  of  Hen.  IV,  this  may  be  an  allusion 
to  Falstaff's  *  rogues  in  buckram '  :  though  a  buckram  lord,  rogue,  man,  &c. 
was  a  common  phrase.  C.  M.  I . 

1  The  Ballad- Writer.  2  The  Water-Poet. 


J.  S.,  1648. 

With  reference  to  Mr.  Bullen's  letter  printed  on  the  next  page,  and  issued 
in  my  Stubbes,  Part  I,  1879,  a  note  of  mine  appeard  in  the  Atheiuzum  of 
April  3,  1880,  saying  that  I  had  chanced  to  take  up  Wits  labyrinth  "in 
the  British  Museum,  and  opening  it  at  p.  19,  my  eye  caught  at  once  a  line 
of  Petruchio's  remonstrance  with  Kate  before  she  touches  his  meat : — 
The  poorest  service  is  repaid  with  thanks. 

Taming  of  the  Shrew,  IV.  iii.  45. 

As  this  line  is  not  in  the  '  Taming  of  a  Shrew,'  1594,  it  negatives  Mr. 
Bullen's  supposition  that  J.  S.,  the  compiler  of  '  Wit's  Labyrinth,'  had 
access  only  to  Shakspere's  historical  plays  and  'Titus.'  That  J.  S.  was 
Shirley  the  dramatist  I  don't  for  a  moment  believe.  There  are  other  J.  S. 
initial  books  in  1639,  1643,  1660,  1664,  &c."— F.  J.  F. 


1648.     J.  S. 

"  *  Wit's  labyrinth.  Or  a  briefe  and  compendious  Abstract  of  most  witty, 
ingenious,  wise  and  learned  Sentences  and  Phrases.  Together  with  some  hundreds 
of  most  pithy,  facetious  and  patheticall,  complementall  expressions.  Collected, 
compiled,  and  set  forth  for  the  benefit,  pleasure,  or  delight  of  all,  but  principally 
the  English  Nobility  and  Gentry.  Aut  prodesse  aut  delectare  potest.  By  J.  S. 
Gent.  London,  printed  for  M.  Simmons,  1648,'  410,  53  pages. 

"The  quotations  which  [this  volume]  contains  are  strung  together  apparently 
without  any  order  or  arrangement,  and  without  any  indication  of  the  sources  from 
which  they  are  derived.  No  name,  in  fact,  of  any  author  whatever  is  mentioned. 
The  following,  however,  I  have  identified  as  being  from  Shakspeare,  and,  with  the 
aid  of  Mrs.  Cowden  Clarke's  valuable  Concordance,  I  have  appended  to  them 
the  exact  positions  which  they  occupy  in  the  Shakspearean  dramas  : — 

'  Suspicion  always  haunts  the  guilty  mind.' — 3  Henry  VI.,  Act  v.  sc.  3. 

'  Discretion  is  the  better  part  of  valour.' — i  Henry  IV.,  Act  v.  sc.  4. 

'  Uneasie  lyes  the  head,  that  wears  a  Crowne.' — 2  Henry  IV.,  Act  iii.  sc.  i. 

Thieves  are  '  Diana's  Foresters  or  Gentlemen  of  the  Shade.' — i  Henry  IV.,  Act  L  sc.  2. 

'  No  beast  so  fierce  but  knows  some  touch  of  pity.' — Richard  III.,  Act  i.  sc.  2. 

'  That  wrens  may  prey  where  eagles  dare  not  perch.' — Richard  III.,  Act  i.  sc.  3. 

'  O  Tiger's  heart  wrapped  in  a  woman's  hide.' — 3  Henry  VI.,  Act  L  sc.  4. 

'  Better  than  he  have  yet  worn  Vulcan's  badge.' — Titus  Andronicus,  Act  ii.  sc.  T. 

'  Even  such  kin  as  the  parish  heifers  are  to  the  town-bulL' — 2  Henry  IV.,  Act  ii.  sc.  2. 

'The  Fox  barks  not  when  he  would  steal  the  lamb.' — 2  Henry  VI.,  Act  iii.  sc.  i. 

'Did  ever  Raven  sing  so  like  a  Lark?' — Titus  Andronicus,  Act  iii.  sc.  i. 

'  The  Raven  doth  not  hatch  a  Lark.' — Titus  Andronicus,  Act  ii.  sc.  3. 

'  Thanks,  the  exchequer  of  the  Poor.'— Richard  II.,  Act  ii.  sc.  3. 

"  I  have  thus  verified  thirteen  distinct  quotations  from  Shakspeare  in  this  little 
work,  and  I  believe  that  there  are  still  more.  Of  those  which  I  have  traced,  it  is 
singular  that  all  except  three  are  from  the  English  historical  plays,  and  that  the 
three  exceptions  are  from  '  Titus  Andronicus.  This  would  almost  show  that  the 
compiler,  whoever  he  was,  had  access  only  to  those  particular  dramas,  and  not  to 
any  complete  edition  of  Shakspeare's  plays,  either  the  1623  edition  or  the  1632 
edition.  Otherwise  we  might  have  expected  passages  from  the  greater  dramas, 
'  Hamlet,'  '  Macbeth,' '  Lear,'  'Romeo  and  Juliet,' '  Othello,'  « The  Tempest,'  &c. 

"And  now  the  question  arises,  Who  was  the  compiler?  Who  was  'J.  S. 
Gent.'?  The  first  name  one  thinks  of  is  that  of  James  Shirley,  a  dramatist 
himself,  and  the  last  of  the  glorious  band  in  whom  there  survived  somewhat  of 
the  genius  of  Shakspeare, — Marlowe,  Webster,  and  Beaumont  and  Fletcher. 

"  Shirley,  besides  being  a  dramatist,  was  a  clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England 
who  turned  Catholic.  He  was  also  a  schoolmaster,  and  the  Latin  quotation  of 
the  title-page,  together  with  another  Latin  quotation  in  the  preface,  might  lead 
one  to  suppose  that  the  compilation  was  his.  But  the  style  and  manner  of  the 
preface  are  altogether  unworthy  of  him.  Here  is  a  passage  from  it : — 

"  '  And  lastly  although  this  Poem  [work  ?]  is  but  a  collection  of  divers  sentences, 
phrases,  &c.,  as  appeareth  in  the  Title  (not  methodically  composed  or  digested), 
it  being  unpossible  in  a  subject  of  this  nature  so  to  doe,  but  promiscuously 
intermixt  with  variety  and  delight,  which  many  yeares  since,  in  times  of  my  better 
prosperity,  I  gathered  out  of  some  hundreds  of  Authors,  never  having  the  least 
thought  of  putting  it  to  Presse  :  yet  now,'  &c.  Then  he  goes  on,  in  the  style 
usual  then  as  at  present,  to  say  that  he  was  prevailed  on  by  the  importunities  of 
friends  '  to  put  it  into  print,'  &c. 

"  Perhaps  some  one  else  may  be  more  fortunate  in  discovering  the  name  of  the 
compiler." 

lAthenaum,  Sept.  6,  18790  G.  BUT  LEN. 


A  nonymoiiSy   1 64  8 . 

IVednefday  the  27  of  December* 

From  Windfor  came  to  White-Hall  this  day  thus.  That  the 
King  is  pretty  merry,  and  fpends  much  time  in  reading  of 
Sermon  Books,  and  fometirnes  Shakfpeare  and  Ben :  Johnfons 
Playes. 

Perfect  Occur ences  of  Every  Dates  iournall  in  Parliament,  Proceed- 
ings with  His  Majesty,  and  other  moderate  intelligence.  No.  104. 
Fry  day  Dec.  22  to  Fry  day  Dec.  30  1648. 


[It  is  well  known  that  the  cultivated  taste  of  Charles  I.  delighted  in 
Shakespere ;  we  here  see  how  he  could  thus  find  distraction  from  his 
troubles  within  a  month  of  his  death.  See  also  after,  J.  Cook,  p.  525. 
L.  T.  S.] 


HENRY  TUBBE,  1648-54. 

Th'  Example  of  his  Converfation 
With  fuch  an  high,  illuftrious  vigour  Ihone, 
The  blackeft  Fangs  of  bafe  Detraaion 
Had  nothing  to  traduce  or  faften  on. 
His  very  Lookes  did  fairely  edifie ; 
Not  mafk'd  with  forms  of  falfe  Hypocrifie : 
A  gracefull  Afpe6t,  a  Brow  fmooth'd  wth  Love, 
The  Curls  of  VemiS,  with  the  Front  of  Jove  ; 

An  Eye  like  Mars,  to  threaten  &  command 
More  than  the  Burnifh'd  Scepter  in  his  Hand : 

A  Standing  like  the  Herald  Mercuric  ; 

A  Gefture  humbly  proud,  &  lowly  high  j 

A  Mountaine  rooted  deepe,  that  kifTd  the  Skie, 

A  Combination  and  Formalitie 

Of  reall  Features  twifted  in  a  String 

Of  rich  Ingredients,  fit  to  make  a  King. 

Harleian  MS.  4126,  leaf  50  (or  51  by  the  2nd  numbering], 
back.  Epistles,  Poems,  Characters,  <SrV.,  1648-1654,  by  Hy. 
Tubbe  of  St.  John's  College,  Cambridge  :  from  Eleg.  VI  on 
"  The  Roiatt  Martyr,"  Charles  I. 


[The  Passage  was  first  pointed  out  by  Mr.  Halliwell,  and  was  sent  by  me 
to  the  first  number  of  the  new  monthly,  the  Antiquary.     It  is  somewhat 
odd,  that  though  Tubbe  uses  Shakspere's  lines  on  Hamlet's  Father- 
See  what  a  grace  was  seated  on  his  Brow, 
Hyperions  curies,  the  front  of  loue  himselfe, 
An  eye  like  Mars,  to  threaten  or  command 
A  Station,  like  the  Herald  Mercuric 


518  HKNRY    TUBBB,    1648-54. 

New  lighted  on  a  heauen-kissing  hill : 
A  Combination  and  a  forme  indeed, 
Where  euery  God  did  seeme  to  set  his  Scale, 
To  giue  the  world  assurance  of  a  man. 

1st  Folio,  Trag.)  p.  271,  col.  i, 

yet  he  doesn't  name  Shakspere  as  one  of  the  Learned  Ghosts  who  are  to  greet 
him  and  his  friend  in  Elysium,  If.  37  (or  39),  back  :  "the  great  Shadow  of 
Renowned  BEN,"  and  "Ingenious  Randolph" »  are  the  only  two  specified 
for  that  honour.— F.  J.  F.] 

•  Epistles  I.    137,39. 

Our  Spirits  shall  intermix,  &  weaue  their  knots ; 

Free  from  the  trouble  of  these  earthly  Grotts  ; 

Thence  winged  flic  to  the  Elyaian  groves,  [pack} 

Where,  whilst  wee  still  renew  our  constant  Loves, 

A  Thousand  Troops  of  Learned  Ghosts  shall  meet 

Us,  and  our  Comming  thither  gladly  greet. 

First  the  Great  Shadow  of  Renowned  BEN 
Shall  giue  us  hearty,  joyfull  Wellcome  :  then 
Ingenious  Randolph  from  his  lovely  Arms 
Shall  entertaine  us  with  such  mighty  charma 
Of  Strict  Embraces,  that  wee  cannot  wish 
For  any  comforts  greater  than  this  Blisse. 


ANON.    1649. 

Here  to  evince  thatfcandal  has  been  thrown 
Upon  a  name  of  honour ;  charactred 
From  a  wrong  perfon,  coward  and  buffoon  ; 
Call  in  your  cafy  faiths,  from  what  youve  read 
To  laugh  at  Falftaffej  as  a  humour  f rani  d 
To  grace  thejlage,  to  pleafe  the  age,  mifnanCd. 

No  longer  pleafe  y out f elves  to  injure  names 
fVho  lived  to  honour  :  if,  as  who  dare  breathe 
A  fy liable  from  Harry's  choice,  the  Fames, 
Conferred  by  Princes,  may  redeem  from  death  ? 
Live  Faltolffe  then;  whofe  Truft  and  Courage  once 
Merited  thejirjl  Government  in  France. 

S/ansa  136.  139 

Tptvapx<i>$ta  :   The  several  Reigns  of  Richard  //,  Henry 
/r,  and  Henry  Vt  MS.  8vo.,  1649,  in  Hen.  V. 

howe'er  the  heaps 

May  crowd,  in  hungry  expectation  all, 
To  thefweet  Nugilogues  of  Jack  and  Hal. 
ib.  Stanza  138. 

Then,  from  his  bounty,  blot  out  what  may  rift 
Of  comic  mirth,  to  Faljloffs  prejudice. 

Stanza  140. 


The  first  two  stanzas  above  are  from  William  Oklys's  Life  of  Sir  John 
Fastolf  in  "A  General  /  Dictionary,  /  Historical  and  Critical  :  /  in  which  / 
A  New  and  Accurate  Translation  /  of  that  of  the  Celebrated  /  Mr.  Boyle,  / 


520  ANON.    1649. 

with  the  Corrections  and  Observations  printed  /  in  the  late  Edition  at  Paris, 
is  included,  and  interspersed  /  with  several  thousand  Lives  never  before 
published.  /  .  .  .  London.  M  D  CC  XXXVII.  vol.  5,  p.  195,  note. 
Oldys  says  that  as  Shakspere's  trespass  was  poetical,  we  shall  end  with  a 
poetical  animadversion  taken  from  an  original  Historical  Poem  on  Three  of 
our  Kings  ;  in  the  possession  of  the  writer  of  this  article.  Herein  the  Poet 
has  five  stanzas  of  reproof  for  this  liberty  taken  on  the  Stage  in  derogation  of 
our  Knight ;  but,  for  brevity,  shall  at  present  repeat  only  these  two,"  those 
above. 

In  his  article  on  Fastolff1  in  the  Biographia  Britannica,  1793,  Oldys 
quotes  the  few  more  lines,  given  above,  from  two  more  of  the  5  stanzas 
he  names  in  his  first  article.  Yowell,  in  .his  account  of  Oldys  in  3  N.  <Sr»  Q. 
i.  85  (Feb.  I,  1862),  has  a  note  by  Bolton  Corney,  saying  that  the  MS.  of 
the  Trinarchodia  passt  into  the  hands  of  "J.  P.  Andrews:  Park  describes 
it,  Restituta,  iv.  166." 

The  first  2  stanzas  above  were  quoted  by  Mr.  Halliwell  in  his  Character 
ofFalstaff,  1841,  p.  44,  as  from  "  An  anonymous  and  inedited  poet  of  the 
early  part  of  the  seventeenth  century,  whose  MS.  works  were  formerly  in 
the  possession  of  Oldys,"  with  no  other  reference.  This  designedly  vague 
way  of  referring  to  other  men's  quotations — when  he  refers  to  em  at  all — is 
Mr.  Halliwell's  normal  one,  and  cannot  be  too  strongly  condemnd.  It  is 
unfair  to  the  original  quoter,  and  unfair  to  the  reader,  on  whom  is  thrown 
the  nuisance  of  a  long  search  when  he  wants  to  find  the  original  quotation, 
and  remove  Mr.  H.'s  later  needless  alterations  of  italics,  &c.  in  it. — F.  J.  F. 


Said  in  the  B.  Mus.  Cat.  to  be  revised  and  enlarged  by  Nicols. 


521 


Anonymous,  1649. 

THE 

PROLOGUE 
TO  THE 
GENTRY. 

T Hough  Joknfon,  Shakefpeare,  Gqffe,  and  Devenant, 
Brave  Sucklin,  Beaumont,  Fletcher,  Shurly  want 
The  life  of  a6tion,  and  their  learned  lines 
Are  loathed,  by  the  Monfters  of  the  times  3 
Yet  your  refined  Soules,  can  penetrate 
Their  depth  of  merit,  and  excufe  their  Fate : 

[Sig.  A  2,  /.  3.] 

The  Famous  /  Tragedie  j  of  j  King  Charles  I.  /  ...  In 
•which    is    Included,   /    The    several    Combinations    and 
machinations  /  that  brought  that  incomparable  Prince  to 
the  Block,  /  .  .  .  Printed  in  the  year,  1649.    P-  4- 
[Dated  in  ink  May  26.] 


The  play  is  full  of  classical  allusions  of  all  kinds,  but  particularly  with 
allusions  to  the  Trojan  War.  The  references  to  Venus  and  her  son  (pp.  4, 
34),  to  Thersites  (p.  25),  to  Cleopatra,  said  to  "dissolve  inestimable 
precious  Stones  in  every  glasse  of  luscious  Wine "  (p.  33),  and  to  Paris 
(P-  38)>  cannot  be  considered  allusions  to  Shakspere.  The  fourth  line  of 
the  passage  printed  above  is  a  reference  to  the  Puritan  hatred  of  the  stage. 

This  Allusion  was  pointed  out  by  Morris  Jonas  in  Notes  and  Queries, 
7th  Series,  vol.  x,  p.  4,  col,  2.  M. 


El/c(&i>  f)  nYorrj,  1649. 

What  do'ft  thou  mean  to  ftand  behind  the  noon 
And  pluck  bright  honour  from  the  pale  fac'd  moon  ? 

Et/cc6j/  ^    Uiffrrj,  or  The  Faithfull  Pourtraicture  of  a  Loyall 
Subject,  1649,  sig.  A  4  b. 


[Noted  by  Mr.  G.  Thorn  Drury  in  Notes  and  Queries,  gth  Series,  x,  p. 
465.     The  passage  quotes  Hotspur's  words,  7  Henry  IV,  I,  ii,  222  : 

To  pluck  bright  honour  from  the  pale-faced  moon.     M.j 


523 


JOHN  MILTON,  1649. 

From  Stories  of  this  nature  both  Ancient  and  Modern  which 
abound,  the  Poets  alfo,  and  fome  Engliih,  have  been  in  this 
Point  fo  mindful  of  Decorum,  as  to  put  never  more  pious  Words 
in  the  Mouth  of  any  Perfon,  then  of  a  Tyrant.  I  (hall  not 
inftance  an  abftrufe  Author,  wherein  the  King  might  be  lefs 
converfant,  but  one  whom  we  well  know  was  the  Clofet 
Companion  of  thefe  his  Solitudes,  William  Shakefpeare :  who 
introduces  the  Perfon  of  Richard  the  Third,  fpeaking  in  as  high 
a  ftrain  of  Piety,  and  mortification,  as  is  uttered  in  any  paflage  of 
this  Book  [Etfcwv  Ba<nXm)] ;  and  fometimes  to  the  fame  fenfe  and 
purpofe  with  fome  words  in  this  Place,  /  intended,  faith  he,  not 
only  to  oblige  my  Friends,  but  mine  Enemies.  The  like  faith 
Richard,  Aft  2,  Seen.  i. 

"  I  do  not  know  that  Englijh  Man  alive, 
With  whom  my  Soul  is  any  jot  at  odds, 
More  then  the  Infant  that  is  lorn  to  night ; 
I  thank  my  God  for  my  Humility" 

Other  ftuff  of  this  fort  may  be  read  throughout  the  whole 
Tragedy,  wherein  the  Poet  uf  d  not  much  Licence  in  departing 
from  the  Truth  of  Hiftory,  which  delivers  him  a  deep  DifTembler, 
not  of  his  affections  only,  but  of  Religion. 

'Eneovo»cXa<yrjj£,  in  Answer  to  a  Book  intituVd  EIKWV  fiafftXiKi) 
1690  [8w],  §i,//.  9-10. 


524 


JOHN    MILTON,    1649. 


In  the  compiler's  judgment  Malone  was  in  error  in  taking  these  remarks  to 
imply  a  rebuke  to  Charles  I  for  making  Shakespeare  his  closet-companion. 
Milton  merely  takes  a  book  which  he  knew  was  a  favourite  with  the  king, 
and  out  of  it  reads  him  a  lesson.  Apart  from  the  single  word  "  stuff,"  there 
is  nothing  like  disparagement  of  Shakespeare  in  his  remarks  ;  and  the  con- 
temptuous use  of  that  word  is  the  growth  of  a  later  age.  Milton  uses  it  also 
in  the  Introduction  to  Samson  Agonistes,  1671.  Having  alluded  to  a  tragedy 
named  Christ  Suffering,  attributed  to  St.  Gregory  Nazianzen,  Milton  writes, 

' '  This  is  mention 'd  to  vindicate  Tragedy  from  the  small  esteem,  or  rather 
infamy,  which  in  the  account  of  many  it  undergoes  at  this  day  with  other 
common  Interludes  ;  hap'ning  through  the  Poets  error  of  intermixing  Comic 
stuff  with  Tragic  sadness  and  gravity ;  or  introducing  trivial  and  vulgar 
persons,  which  by  all  judicious  hath  bin  counted  absurd ;  and  brought  in 
without  discretion,  corruptly  to  gratifie  the  people." — Of  that  sort  of 
Dramatic  Poem  which  is  calfd  Tragedy.  Q  M.  I. 


525 


J.  COOK,  1649. 

Had  he  [King  Charles]  but  fludied  Scripture  half  fo  much  as 
Ben  :  Johnfon  or  Shakefpear,  he  might  have  learnt,  That  when 
Amaxiah  [&c.] 


King  Charls  his  Case  :  or,  an  Appeal  to  all  Rational  Men, 
concerning  his  Tryal.     1649.     p.  13.     [4/0.] 


[Sam.  Butler,  the  author  of  Hudibras,  wrote  an  answer  to  Cook's 
pamphlet,  entitled  The  Plagiary  exposed :  or  an  Old  answer  to  a  Newly 
revived  Calumny  against  the  memory  of  King  Charles  I  (published  1691, 
but  written  " above  forty  years  since"),  in  which  he  retorts  upon  Cook  for 
the  affectation  of  his  language,  "therefore  you  do  ill  to  accuse  him  of 
reading  Johnsons  and  Shakespears  Plays,  which  should  seem  you  have  been 
more  in  yourself  to  much  worse  purpose,  else  you  had  never  hit  so  right 
upon  the  very  Dialect  of  their  railing  Advocates,  in  which  (believe  me)  to 
have  really  outacted  all  that  they  could  fansie  of  passionate  and  ridiculous 
Outrage  "  (p.  2).  L.  T.  S.] 


526 


WILLIAM  CAVENDISH,  DUKE  OF  NEWCASTLE, 

1649. 

Fhd[erwit\  Thefe  things  are  very  right  Thomas,  let  me  fee 
now  the  bookes  of  Martiall  difcipline. 

Tho[mas~\  I  bought  up  all  that  feeme  to  have  relation  to  warr 
and  fighting. 

Fnd.  That  was  well  done ;  well  done;  Item,  the  Sword- 
falve. 

Tho.  Sir  if  you  bee  hurt  you  neede  goe  no  further  then  the 
blade  for  A  furgeon. 

Fnd.  The  Buckler  of  faith. 

Tho.  You  had  thefworde  before,  Sir. 

Vhd.  A  booke  of  Mortification. 

Tho.  I  Sir,  that  is  a  kinde  of  killing,  which  I  thought  very 
neceflary  for  A  Captaine. 

Vhd.  Item  the  Booke  of  Cannons ;  Shakfpeares  workes.  Why 
Shake/pears  works  ? 

Tho.  I  had  nothing  for  the  Pike  men  before. 

Vnd.  They  are  playes. 

Tho.  Are  not  all  your  mufteringes  in  the  Country  so,  Sir ; 
Pray  read  on. 

The  I  Country  Captaine,  /  A  Comoedye  /  Lately  Presented  I  By 
his  Majesties  Servants  /  at  the  Blackfryers  /  ...  In  's 
Grave  van  Haghe.  /  .  .  .  1649,  p.  25. 


[Bound  with  Newcastle's  "  Varietie"  of  the  same  date,  a  common  title- 
page  being  printed  for  the  two  plays,  1649.     M.] 


527 


HUMPHREY   MOSELEY,  1649. 

Courteous  Reader,  these  Books  fol- 
lowing are  printed  for  Humphrey  Mofeley, 
and  are  to  be  fold  at  his  Shop  at  the  Prince  s 
Armes  in  St.  Paul's  Churchyard. 
*  *  *  * 

95.  Poems  written  by  Mr.  William  Shakfpeare  gent.  8°. 
*  *  * 

1 08.  Comedies  and  Tragedies  written  by  Francis  Beaumont 
and  lohn  Fletcher,  never  printed  before,  and  now  publifhed  by 
the    Authors    Originall    Copies,    containing    34   plays,    and    a 
Mafque,  Fol. 

109.  The  Elder  Brother, 
no.  The  Scornful  Lady. 


in.  The  Woman  Hater. 

112.  Thierry  &  Theordoret  40 

113.  Cupids  Pevenge. 

114.  Mounfieur  Thomas. 
11.  The  two  Noble  kinfmen. 


Francis  Beaumont 
by  & 

lohn  Fletcher. 
gent. 


Printed  at  the  end  of  The  Country  /  Captaine,  /  And  the  / 
Varietie,  Two  f  Comedies,  /  [By  William  Cavendish,  Duke 
of  Newcastle^  1649.  M. 


END    OF    VOL.    I. 


RICHARD  CLAY  &  SONS,  LIMITED, 
BREAD  STREET  HILL,  E.G.,  AND 

BUNGAY,    SUFFOLK. 


o: 

LU 

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I  c, 

o  <x