In December, 1633, Nicholas Vavasour entered the _Noble Spanish
Souldier_ on the Stationers' Registers as a work of Dekker's; and in the
following year the same publisher brought out the _Noble Soldier_ with
the initials _S.R_. on the title-page. The running-title of the piece is
_The Noble Spanish Souldier_. There is nothing to hinder us from
supposing that Dekker, unwilling to take the credit due to his dead
friend, informed the publisher of the mistake. Possibly the play had
undergone some revision at Dekker's hands.
Samuel Rowley was at once an actor and a playwright. The first mention
of him is in a list of the Lord Admiral's players, March 8, 1597-8
(Henslowe's _Diary_, ed. Collier, p. 120). On the sixteenth of November,
1599, Rowley bound himself to play solely for Henslowe 'for a year and
as much as to Shraftide' (_Diary_, p. 260). In 1603 we find him among
Prince Henry's players (Collier's _Annals of the Stage_, i. 351): he is
still belonging to the same company in 1607 (Shakespeare Society's
Papers, iv. 44). Six years later, 1613, he is among the Palsgrave's
players (_Annals of the Stage_, i. 381).[180]
Francis Meres in _Palladis Tamia_ (1598), enumerating 'the best for
comedy,' mentions a certain Maister _Rowley_ once a rare scholar of
learned Pembrooke Hall in Cambridge. It has been conjectured that the
allusion is to Samuel Rowley; but a more likely candidate for the honour
is Ralph Rowley, who is known to have been a Fellow of Pembroke Hall. We
do not learn from any other source that Ralph Rowley wrote plays; but,
like another Academic worthy in whose company he is mentioned, 'Dr.
Gager of Oxforde', he may have composed some Latin pieces that the world
was content to let die. Of Samuel Rowley as a playwright we hear nothing
before December, 1601, when he was writing for Henslowe a scriptural
play on the subject of _Judas_ in company with his fellow-actor William
Borne--or Birde, for the name is variously written (Henslowe's _Diary_,
p. 205). In July of the following year an entry occurs in the
_Diary_--'Lent unto Samwell Rowley and Edward Jewbe to paye for the
Booke of Samson, vi 1.' Samuel Rowley and Edward Jewby often acted as
paymasters for Henslowe; but I suspect that in the present instance the
money went into their own pockets. Two months later we certainly find
our author receiving the sum of seven pounds in full payment 'for his
playe of Jhoshua' (Henslowe's _Diary_, p. 226). In November of the same
year he was employed with William Birde to make additions to Marlowe's
_Faustus_ (ibid. p. 228). On July 27, 1623, Sir Henry Herbert licensed
'for the Palsgrave's players a tragedy of Richard the Third, or the
English Profit with the Reformation, by Samuel Rowley'; and, again, on
October 29 of the same year 'for the Palsgrave players a new comedy
called Hard Shifte for Husbands, or Bilboes the Best Blade, written by
Samuel Rowley.' Another of our author's pieces, 'Hymen's Holiday, or
Cupid's Fagaries,' is mentioned in a list of plays which belonged to the
Cock-pit in 1639. None of these plays has come down; but in 1605 there
was published 'When You See Me You Know Me; or the famous Chronicle
Historic of King Henry VIII. with the Birth and virtuous Life of Edward
Prince of Wales. By Samuel Rowley.' This play was again printed in 1632;
and a few years ago it was elaborately edited by Prof. Karl Eltze,
who--whatever may be his merits as a critic--is acknowledged on every
hand to be a most accomplished scholar.
The piece now reprinted will need some indulgence at the reader's hands.
Its blemishes are not a few; and no great exercise of critical ability
is required to discover that the language is often strained and the
drawing extravagant. The atmosphere in which the action of the piece
moves is hot and heavy. Sebastian's presence in the third act brings
with it a ray of sunlight; but he is quickly gone, and the gloom settles
down more hopelessly than before. Onaelia, the forsaken lady, is so
vixenish that she moves our sympathies only in a moderate degree. In
both choices the King seems to have been equally unfortunate; and it may
be doubted whether he could be 'happy with either were t'other fair
charmer away.' Baltazar, the Noble Soldier, is something of a bore. At
first we are a little suspicious of him, for he seems to 'protest too
much'; and even when these suspicions are set at rest his strut and
swagger continue to be offensive.
But though the _Noble Souldier_ is not a play over which one would
linger long or to which one would care often to return, yet it is
impossible not to be struck by the power that marks so much of the
writing. Here is an example of our author at his best:--
'You should, my Lord, be like these robes you weare,
Pure as the Dye and like that reverend shape;
Nurse thoughts as full of honour, zeale and purity.
You should be the Court-Diall and direct
The king with constant motion; be ever beating
(Like to Clocke-Hammers) on his Iron heart
To make it sound cleere and to feel remorse:
You should unlocke his soule, wake his dead conscience
Which, like a drowsie Centinell, gives leave
For sinnes vast army to beleaguer him:
His ruines will be ask'd for at your hands.'--(i. 2.)
There is the true dramatic ring in those lines; the words come straight
from the heart and strike home. The swift sudden menace in the last line
is more effective than pages of rhetoric.
The _Noble Souldier_ affords a good illustration of the sanctity
attached by our ancestors to marriage-contracts. On this subject the
reader will find some interesting remarks in Mr. Spalding's _Elizabethan
Demonology_ (pp. 3-7).