[1] This Patent, corrected from a former copy in Rymer, has been
recovered by Mr. Collier.--_Annals of the Stage_, i. 211.
[2] This singular document, incorrectly given by Strype, Mr. Collier
has completed. "It throws much new light on the state of the drama at
this period;" and still more on the strange arguments which the
Puritans of the day alleged against players and plays.--Mr. Collier
has preserved an old satirical epigram which had been perilous to
print at that day; it was left for posterity on the fly-leaf of a
book. It is addressed to--
"'The Fooles of the Cittee,'--
They establish as a rule,
Not one shall play the fool,
But they--a worthy school!"
[3] At the inferior playhouses the admission was as low as a penny
for "the groundlings" who stood in the roofless pit, which still
retained the name of "the yard"--evidently from the old custom of
playing in the yards of inns. In the higher theatres "a room," or
box, varied from sixpence to two shillings and sixpence. They played
in daylight, and rose from their dinner to the playhouse. It was one
of the City regulations, that "no playing be in the dark, so that the
auditory may return home before sunset." Society was then in its
nursery-times; and the solemnity of "the orders in common council"
admirably contrasts with their simplicity; but they acted under the
terror that, when they entered a playhouse, they were joining in "the
devil's service!"
[4] Two such poor scholars are introduced in "The Return from
Parnassus" alternately "banning and cursing Granta's muddy bank;" and
Cambridge, where "our oil was spent."
[5] The popular taste at all times has been prone to view in
representation the most harrowing crimes--probably influenced by the
vulgar notion that, because the circumstances are literally true,
they are therefore the more interesting. One of these writers was
ROBERT YARRINGTON, who seems to have been so strongly attracted to
this taste for scenical murder, that he wrote "Two Lamentable
Tragedies," which he contrived to throw into one play. By a strange
alternation, the scene veers backwards and forwards from England to
Italy, both progressing together;--the English murder is of a
merchant in Thames-street, and the Italian of a child in a wood by
ruffians hired by the uncle; the ballad deepens the pathetic by two
babes--but which was the original of a domestic incident which first
conveyed to our childhood the idea of an unnatural parent? It appears
that we had a number of what they called "Lamentable Tragedies,"
whose very titles preserve the names of the hapless victims. Taylor,
the Water-poet, alludes to these "as murders fresh in memory;" and
has himself described "the unnatural father who murdered his wife and
children" as parallel to one of ancient date. Acts of lunacy were not
then distinguishable from ordinary murders.--_Collier_, iii. 49.
[6] Not many years ago Isaac Reed printed _The Witch_ of MIDDLETON.
Recently another manuscript play appeared, _The Second Maiden's
Tragedy_. To the personal distresses of the actors in the days of the
Commonwealth we owe several dramas, which they published, drawn out
of the wrecks of some theatrical treasury; such was _The Wild-Goose
Chase_ of FLETCHER, which they assured us was the poet's favourite.
It is said that more than sixty of these plays, in manuscript, were
collected by Warburton, the herald, and from the utter neglect of the
collector had all gone to singe his fowls. When THEOBALD solemnly
declared that his play, _The Double Falsehood_, was written by
Shakespeare, it was probably one of these old manuscript plays. This
drama was not unsuccessful; nor had Theobald shot far wide of the
mark, since Farmer ascribed it to Shirley, and Malone to Massinger.
[7] See the last and enlarged edition of Charles Lamb's "Specimens of
the English Dramatic Poets." In the second volume, in "Extracts from
the Garrick Plays," under the odd names of _"Doctor Dodypol, a
comedy_, 1600," we have scenes exquisitely fanciful--and _Jack Drum's
Entertainment_, 1601, where "the free humour of a noble housekeeper"
may be placed by the side of the most finished passages even in
Shakespeare. Yet _Doctor Dodypol_ has wholly escaped the notice even
of catalogue-scribes--and _Jack Drum_ is not noticed by the
collectors of these old plays. I only know these two dramas by the
excerpts of Lamb; but if the originals are tolerably equal with "The
Specimens," I should place these unknown dramas among the most
interesting ones.
[8] By the discovery of the Diary of Henslow, the illiterate manager
of the theatre, connected with Edward Alleyn. Henslow was the
pawnbroker of the company, and the chancellor of its exchequer. He
could not spell the titles of the plays; yet, in about five years,
160 were his property. He had not less than thirty different authors
in his pay.--_Collier_, iii. 105. [His Diary has been published by
the Shakespeare Society under the editorship of Mr. Payne
Collier.--ED.]
[9] Marlow--Nash--Greene--Peele.
[10] When Pope translated Homer, Chapman's version lay open before
him. The same circumstance, as I have witnessed, occurred with the
last translator--Mr. Sotheby. Charles Lamb justly appreciated
Chapman, when he observed, that "He would have made a great epic
poet, if indeed he has not abundantly shown himself to be one; for
his Homer is not so properly a translation, as the stories of
Achilles and Ulysses rewritten. The earnestness and passion which he
has put into every part of these poems would be incredible to a
reader of more modern translations."
The striking portrait of Chapman is prefixed to Mr. Singer's elegant
edition of this poet's version of Homer's "Battle of the Frogs and
the Mice"--and the Hymns. His _Iliad_, collated with his last
corrections and alterations, well deserves to fill a stationary niche
in our poetical library. Chapman has, above all our poets, most
boldly, or most gracefully, struck out those "words that
burn"--compound epithets.
[11] An original leaf of the manuscript of one of Marlow's plays, in
the possession of Mr. J. P. Collier, is a singular literary
curiosity. On a collation with the printed copy, the mutilations are
not only excessive, but betray a defective judgment. An elaborate
speech, designed by the poet to develope the character of the famous
Guise, was cut down to four meagre lines.--_Annals of the Stage_,
iii. 134.
[12] Charles Lamb has alluded to this fact; and, in one of his
moments of enthusiasm, exclaims--"This was the noble practice of
these times." Would not the usual practice of a man of genius,
working his own drama, be "nobler?" We presume the unity of feeling
can only emanate from a single mind. In the instance here alluded to
we should often deceive ourselves if we supposed, from the
combination of names which appear on the old titlepages, that those
who are specified were always _simultaneously employed_ in the new
direction of the same play. Poets were often called in to alter the
old or to supply the new, which has occasioned incongruities which
probably were not to be found in the original state.
[13] Green, Nash, Lyly, Peele, and Marston were from the
university--Marlow and Chapman were exquisite translators from the
Greek.
[14] The term, the Romantic School, is derived from the _langue
Romans_ or _Romane_, under which comprehensive title all the modern
languages may be included; formed, as they are, out of the wrecks of
the Latin or _Roman_ language. However this may apply to the origin
of the _languages_, the term is not expressive of the _genius_ of the
people. In the common sense of the term "Romantic," the Aeneid of
Virgil is as much a Romance as that of Arthur and his knights. The
term "Romantic School" is therefore not definite. By adopting the
term _Gothic_, in opposition to the _Classical_, we fix the origin,
and indicate the species.
[15] Bouterwek's Hist. of Spanish Lit. i. 128.
[16] Two of these collections are to be valued.
"COTGRAVE'S English Treasury of Wit and Language," 1655. He neglected
to furnish the names of the dramatic writers from whom he drew the
passages. Oldys, with singular diligence, succeeded in recovering
these numerous sources, which I transcribed from his manuscript
notes. Oldys' copy should now repose in the library of Mr. Douce,
given to the Bodleian.
A collection incomparably preferable to all preceding ones is "The
British Muse, or a Collection of Thoughts--Moral, Natural, or
Sublime--of our English poets who flourished in the Sixteenth and
Seventeenth Centuries," by THOMAS HAYWARD, gent. 1732, in three
volumes. It took a new title, not a new edition, as "The Quintessence
of English Poetry." Such a title could not recommend itself. The
prefatory matter was designed for a critical history of all these
Anthologies, and was the work of Oldys; but it was miserably mangled
by Dr. Campbell, then the Aristarchus of the booksellers, to save
print and paper! Our literary antiquary has vented, in a manuscript
note, his agony and his indignation. He had also greatly assisted the
collector; the circuit is wide and copious, and there is not a name
of note which does not appear in these volumes. The ethical and
poetic powers of our old dramatic poets, as here displayed, I doubt
could be paralleled by our literary neighbours. We were a thoughtful
people at the time that our humour was luxuriant--as lighter gaiety
was from the first the national inheritance of France.
Of this collection, says Oldys, "Wherever you open it, you are in the
heart of your subject. Every leaf includes many lessons, and is a
system of knowledge in a few lines. The merely speculative may here
find experience; the flattered, truth; the diffident, resolution,
&c." For my part, I think of these volumes as highly as Oldys
himself.
But what has occasioned the little success of these collections of
single passages and detached beauties, like collections of proverbs,
is the confusion of their variety. We are pleased at every glance;
till the eye, in weariness, closes over the volume which we neglect
to re-open.
CHARLES LAMB'S "Specimens of English Dramatic Poets" is of deeper
interest. He was a nobler workman, and he carries us on through whole
scenes by a true unerring emotion. His was a poetical mind labouring
in poetry.