Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Linda Cantoni, and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
ROSALYNDE OR, EUPHUES' GOLDEN LEGACY
BY
THOMAS LODGE
EDITED
WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES
BY
EDWARD CHAUNCEY BALDWIN, Ph.D.
PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
STANDARD
ENGLISH
CLASSICS
GINN AND COMPANY
BOSTON * NEW YORK * CHICAGO * LONDON
ATLANTA * DALLAS * COLUMBUS * SAN FRANCISCO
COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY
EDWARD CHAUNCEY BALDWIN
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
The Athenæum Press
GINN AND COMPANY * PROPRIETORS * BOSTON * U.S.A.
PREFACE
This edition of Lodge's "Rosalynde" has grown out of a need felt by
the editor for an example of Elizabethan prose suitable for use in a
general survey course in English, designed for college freshmen.
"Rosalynde," of all the books that were considered, seemed on the
whole best to fulfill the desired conditions. As a pastoral romance it
belongs to a class of books which, if not peculiar to the Elizabethan
age, is at least thoroughly representative of it. Moreover, the story
is entirely unobjectionable, nothing being found in it that could
offend any reader. The "Rosalynde," being one of the shortest of the
prose romances, is not open to the objections that might be urged
against the more famous, but also more discursive, "Arcadia" of
Sidney. Its close relations with Shakespeare's "As You Like It," which
is also read in the course, and its added interest as one of the
precursors of the modern novel, additionally recommend it. Finally,
its coherent plot, its freedom from digressions, and its happy ending,
make it seem likely to interest students, in spite of the
conventionality of the pastoral form.
The annotation has been confined to giving the meanings of obsolete or
unusual words. There are many mythological allusions that call for
explanation; but this, it is thought, any good dictionary of mythology
will supply. The list of questions is not of course exhaustive, and is
intended to be merely suggestive of the kind of study the college
student in an introductory course in English might well be fitted to
undertake. The text is that of the Hunterian Club edition of Lodge's
"Works." This reprint is of the first edition, that of 1590, except
that (since the only known copy of the first edition of "Rosalynde" is
imperfect) a few pages (121-127 of this edition) were reprinted from
the second edition of 1592. The spelling and punctuation have to some
extent been modernized--the latter having been altered only where
changes serve to make the author's meaning more obvious.
The editor acknowledges his indebtedness to the scholarly edition of
Lodge's "Rosalynde" by W.W. Greg (London and New York, 1907),
particularly to the glossarial index, which has supplied the meanings
of some words about which the editor was in considerable doubt. Thanks
are due, also, to my colleague Mr. Arthur Tietje for his helpful
suggestions in preparing the list of questions.
E.C.B.
URBANA, ILLINOIS
CONTENTS
Page
INTRODUCTION vii
Birth and Education; Early Work; Later Work and Death;
Source of "Rosalynde": "The Tale of Gamelyn"; Form: A
Pastoral Romance; Spanish Influence; Style: Euphuistic; One
of the Last Examples of Euphuism; The Charm of the Book;
Lodge's Skill as a Story-teller; The Lyrical Interludes;
Historical Significance; Shakespeare's Dramatization of
"Rosalynde."
BIBLIOGRAPHY xxi
THE PUBLISHED WORKS OF THOMAS LODGE xxii
AUTHOR'S PREFACE xxv
AUTHOR'S DEDICATION xxvii
TEXT 1
QUESTIONS 131
[Transcriber's Note: The Questions section has been omitted
from this e-book.]
INTRODUCTION
_Birth and Education._ Of the life of Thomas Lodge comparatively
little is definitely known. Yet, though even the year of his birth is
uncertain, we are able from the meager facts that have come down to us
to see that his life was typically Elizabethan. Like Sidney and like
Raleigh, Lodge lived a varied and active life. He was born in either
1557 or 1558 of a rather prominent middle-class London family, both
his father and his mother's father having been lord mayors of the
city. He was sent to Merchant Taylors' School and afterwards to
Trinity College, Oxford, where he graduated in 1577. Of his career at
the university we know almost nothing except that among his fellow
students were John Lyly, destined to exert a powerful influence upon
his style, and George Peele, later to become a dramatist of note, to
whom Lodge may to some extent have owed his subsequent interest in the
drama.
_Early Work._ After leaving Oxford, Lodge returned to London and
entered the Society of Lincoln's Inn, in other words took up the study
of the law. Legal studies seem not to have absorbed his attention to
the total exclusion of literary work. The occasion of his first
publication was the death of his mother in 1579. In that year appeared
the "Epitaph of the Lady Anne Lodge." This is not extant, but his
reply to Stephen Gosson's "School of Abuse" has survived. Gosson's
book had been a furious attack upon the contemporary drama. Lodge's
reply was a fair sample of the literary billingsgate of that
controversial age and deserves the oblivion into which it promptly
sank. His next publication was his "Alarum against Usurers" (1584), a
book belonging to a class of tracts popular in that day in which the
characters and customs of the underworld of London were exposed to
popular execration. The impulse to engage in this journalistic kind of
work Lodge may have owed to Robert Greene, the dramatist, with whom he
at this time became intimate, and whose popular books on cony-catching
the "Alarum," in its spirit and purpose, closely resembles. Greene
certainly furnished some of the inspiration for the dramatic attempts
that followed. Lodge's play, "The Wounds of Civil War," though not
printed till 1594, may have been acted in 1587. We know that he
collaborated with Greene in "A Looking Glass for London and England,"
produced in 1592.
_Later Work and Death._ It is not, however, as a dramatist that Lodge
is remembered, but as a writer of pastoral romance. Here the
discursive and idyllic quality of his genius, both in verse and prose,
was to find complete and unhampered expression. Of the pastoral
romances that Lodge produced during the next decade "Rosalynde" is by
far the most important. The author wrote it, he tells us, while he was
on a freebooting expedition to the Azores and the Canaries, "when
every line was wet with a surge, and every humorous passion
counterchecked with a storm." The immediate success of "Rosalynde"
encouraged Lodge to continue the writing of romances. The best known
of those that followed, and one of the prettiest of his stories, is "A
Margarite [i.e. pearl] of America." This was written while Lodge was
engaged in another patriotic raid under Captain Cavendish against the
Spanish colonies of South America. The romance is in no sense
American, and owes its title solely to the fact that it was written,
or, as Lodge claims, translated from the Spanish, while Lodge's ship
was cruising off the coast of Patagonia. Lodge certainly knew Spanish;
and during the month that the expedition lingered at Santos in Brazil,
he spent much of his time in the library of the Jesuit College.
Possibly this was the beginning of his leaning toward Catholicism. At
all events, he later became a Roman Catholic and wrote in support of
that faith at a time when to be other than a Protestant in England was
extremely dangerous. Sometime previous to 1600 he took a degree of
doctor of medicine at Avignon and wrote among other medical treatises
one on the plague. Of this disease, it is said, he died in 1625.
_Source of "Rosalynde": "The Tale of Gamelyn."_ Lodge did not invent
the plot of "Rosalynde." The story is based upon "The Tale of
Gamelyn." This is a narrative in rough ballad form, written in the
fourteenth century and formerly attributed to Chaucer. Indeed all the
copies of it that have been preserved occur in the manuscripts of the
"Canterbury Tales" under the title "The Coke's Tale of Gamelyn." From
the "Tale" Lodge borrowed and adapted the account of the death of old
Sir John of Bordeaux, the subsequent quarrel of his sons, the plot of
the elder against the younger by which the latter was to be killed in
a wrestling bout, the wrestling itself, the flight of the younger
accompanied by the faithful Adam to the Forest of Arden, and their
falling in with a band of outlaws feasting. Yet from the "Tale" Lodge
took hardly more than a suggestion. All the love story was his own.
Original also, so far as we know,[1] was the story of the two kings,
and the pastoral element--for "Rosalynde" is a pastoral romance.
[Footnote 1: It has been conjectured that Lodge drew upon some Italian
novel for the material that he did not find in "The Tale of Gamelyn."
There seems, however, no ground for denying to Lodge credit for some
originality; for the novel, if it ever existed, has been lost.]
_Form: A Pastoral Romance._ As a pastoral romance it belongs to the
class of books of which Sidney's' "Arcadia" is the most famous
representative in English. The "Arcadia" was published in 1590--the
same year as "Rosalynde"--though it had been written some ten years
earlier. The literary genus to which they belong is a very old one.
The prose pastoral romance, that kind of prose romance which
professes to delineate the scenery, sentiments, and incidents of
shepherd life,[1] is, like most other literary forms, Greek in origin.
It goes back at least to the "Daphnis and Chloe" of Longus, the
Byzantine romancer of the fifth century A.D. Longus represents the
romantic spirit in expiring classicism, the longing of a highly
artificial society for primitive simplicity, and the endeavor to
create a corresponding ideal. Indeed the pastoral has always been a
product of a highly artificial age. Naturally, therefore, it has
always been written by men of the city rather than by men of the
country. It is distinctly an urban product. That it was so accounts in
part for the idealized view of life that it presents. Speaking of the
pastoral, Doctor Johnson says in his ponderous way:[2]
Our inclination to stillness and tranquillity is seldom much
lessened by long knowledge of the busy and tumultuary part
of the world. In childhood we turn our thoughts to the
country, as to the region of pleasure; we recur to it in old
age as a port of rest, and perhaps with that secondary and
adventitious gladness, which every man feels on reviewing
those places, or recollecting those occurrences, that
contributed to his youthful enjoyments, and bring him back
to the prime of life, when the world was gay with the bloom
of novelty, when mirth wantoned at his side, and hope
sparkled before him.
[Footnote 1: Dr. Johnson defines a pastoral as "the representation of
an action or passion by its effects upon a country life." See _The
Rambler_, Nos. 36 and 37.]
[Footnote 2: _The Rambler_, No. 36. See also Steele's essays on the
pastoral in _The Guardian_, Nos. 22, 23, 28, 30, 32. No. 22 is
particularly interesting, because in it Steele assigns three causes
for the popularity of the pastoral form,--man's love of ease, his love
of simplicity, and his love of the country. Pope's remarks on the
pastoral, which may be found in _The Guardian_, No. 40, are also worth
referring to in this connection.]
Probably Doctor Johnson was entirely right about the perennial charm
of the pastoral and in his theory that its charm is potent in the
direct ratio to the square of the distance that separates the writer
and reader from rural life itself. It is not strange, therefore, that
in the newly awakened interest in the classics that characterized the
Renaissance, when literature was so largely a product of city
culture, the revival of the pastoral should have been one of the first
manifestations of the earlier Renaissance humanism.
_Spanish Influence._ Even when all due credit has been given to the
charm of the pastoral romance, it still remains doubtful whether the
influence of the Greek and Latin classics alone is sufficient to
explain its vogue in the Elizabethan age. Their influence, though
undoubtedly great, was scarcely sufficient to account for the
naturalization in England of so exotic a form as the pastoral. Indeed
the pastoral never was thoroughly naturalized, remaining to the end
somewhat alien to its English surroundings. Shepherds with their oaten
pipes were never quite at home in the English climate, which is ill
suited to life in the open, to loose tunics, and bare limbs.[1] It is
doubtful whether the pastoral would have become popular in England
without the stimulus furnished by contemporary European literature.
Most influential of these contemporary influences was the "Diana
Enamorada," published about 1558, a Spanish pastoral romance written
by Jorge de Montemayor, a Portuguese by birth, a Spaniard by adoption.
Although the English translation of the "Diana" did not appear until
1598[2] it was well known to Sidney, who translated parts of it, and
imitated it in his "Arcadia" (1590), and to Greene, whose "Menaphon,"
also an imitation of the "Diana," had appeared in 1589, the year
before "Rosalynde." Though it is entirely possible that Lodge may have
imitated Greene, it is probable that he, like Greene, had read the
"Diana," for it is certain that he knew Spanish,[3] as well as French
and Italian, and the "Diana" was already, it is said,[4] the most
popular book in Europe.
[Footnote 1: Steele, speaking of the pastoral (_The Guardian_, No.
30), says, "The difference of the climate is also to be considered,
for what is proper in Arcadia, or even in Italy, might be quite absurd
in a colder country."]
[Footnote 2: Though not published till 1598, Bartholomew Young's
translation of the "Diana" was made in 1583.]
[Footnote 3: In the epistle To the Gentlemen Readers, prefixed to "A
Margarite of America," he tells us that he read the original of that
story "in the Library of the Jesuits in Sanctum ... in the Spanish
tongue."]
[Footnote 4: Jusserand, "The English Novel in the Time of
Shakespeare," p. 236.]
_Style: Euphuistic._ Nor was Lodge more original in his manner than in
his matter. His style is that of the euphuists. John Lyly's "Euphues,
or the Anatomy of Wit" (1579), and its sequel "Euphues and His
England" (1580), had set a fashion that was destined for the next two
decades to enjoy a tremendous vogue. Lyly's was the first conspicuous
example in English of the attempt to achieve an ornate and rather
fantastic style. The result became known as euphuism, and those who
employed it as euphuists. In its essential features it consists of
three distinct mannerisms: a balance of phrases, an elaborate system
of alliteration, and a profusion of similes taken from fabulous
natural history. Regarding the euphuistic use of balance, Dr. Landmann
says of Lyly's prose:[1] "We have here the most elaborate antithesis
not only of well balanced clauses, but also of words, often even of
sentences.... Even when he uses a single sentence he opposes the words
within the clause to each other."
[Footnote 1: In "Shakspere and Euphuism," _Transactions of the New
Shakspere Society_, 1880-1882.]
Of this balance Lodge's "Rosalynde" affords abundant illustration.
Such a succession of sentences as that on page 7, where each sentence
is composed of balanced clauses, is a striking but by no means unique
example. Usually the contrasted words begin with the same letter or
sound, as in the sentences just cited, where the alliteration appears
to be employed to emphasize the contrast. Often the alliteration
serves merely for ornament, as in the sentence: "It is she, O gentle
swain, it is she, that saint it is whom I serve, that goddess at whose
shrine I do bend all my devotions; the most fairest of all fairs, the
phoenix of all that sex, and the purity of all earthly perfection."
The euphuistic similes were of three kinds. First, there were those
drawn from familiar natural objects, such as, "Happily she resembleth
the rose, that is sweet but full of prickles." Secondly, there are
those taken from classical history and mythology, like these: "Is she
some nymph that waits upon Diana's train, ... or is she some
shepherdess ... whose name thou shadowest in covert under the figure
of Rosalynde, as Ovid did Julia under the name of Corinna?" Thirdly,
there are those similes most characteristic of euphuism, though less
commonly found than the two kinds just mentioned, namely, those drawn
from "unnatural natural history." Such are the comparisons to "the
serpent Regius that hath scales as glorious as the sun and a breath as
infectious as aconitum is deadly," to "the hyena, most guileful when
she mourns," to "the colors of a polype which changes at the sight of
every object," and to "the Sethin leaf that never wags but with a
southeast wind."
_One of the Last Examples of Euphuism._ When Lodge wrote "Rosalynde,"
euphuism was already on the wane. Even among Lodge's contemporaries
the fashion was becoming an object of frequent ridicule. Thus Warner,
in his "Albion's England" (1589), complains in the preface, which, by
the way, is written wholly in the euphuistic manner: "Onely this error
may be thought hatching in our English, that to runne on the letter we
often runne from the matter: and being over prodigall in similes we
become less profitable in sentences and more prolixious to sense."
By 1627 euphuism had become an obsolete fashion. In that year Drayton
wrote of Sidney that he
did first reduce
Our tongue from Lillies writing then in use:
Talking of Stones, Stars, Plants, of Fishes, Flyes,
Playing with words and idle Similies
As th' English Apes and very Zanies be
Of everything that they doe heare and see,
So imitating his ridiculous tricks,
They spake and writ like meere lunatiques.
"Rosalynde" marks the end of the unquestioned supremacy of euphuism as
a literary mode. It was the last book of any importance to employ the
style that Lyly had made so popular.
_The Charm of the Book._ In spite of the conventionality inseparable
from the pastoral form, and the obvious artificiality of the style in
which it is written, "Rosalynde" is really charming. Its charm is much
like that of Watteau's landscapes. Like them, it is an idyll in court
dress, a _fête élégante_, a kind of elegant picnic. Yet, like
Watteau's pictures it is of more than merely historic interest, for it
is far more than simply a reminder of the fopperies of a vanished
time. There is in it, as in the paintings, a lightness and daintiness
of coloring, and an indescribable air of freshness that have made the
romance appeal to poets as the work of Watteau has appealed to
painters. Shakespeare felt its charm so much that he made it the basis
of the plot of "As You Like It." That it became one of his "sources"
has injured it incalculably in the popular estimation. It has become a
commonplace of criticism to declare that "Rosalynde's" chief title to
be remembered is its having furnished a hint to Shakespeare. As a
matter of fact, however, it had, to use Johnson's phrase, "enough wit
to keep it sweet," even without Shakespeare's play "to preserve it
from putrefaction." Lodge really had a pretty story to tell, and he
tells it, if not with gusto, at least with grace and with some degree
of skill. Exquisitely graceful are some of the narrative passages,
where the very words seem to possess a clear and pellucid quality like
the water of the spring that Rosalynde and Aliena found in Arden, "so
crystalline and clear, that it seemed Diana and her Dryades and
Hamadryades had that spring, as the secret of all their bathings."[1]
Such, for instance, is the account of the night and morning succeeding
the first meeting of Rosalynde and Rosader in the Forest of Arden.[2]
Graceful, too, are the descriptions of the landscapes in Arden, such
as that of the "fair valley" where Rosalynde and Aliena found Montanus
and Corydon "seeing their sheep feed, playing on their pipes many
pleasant tunes, and from music and melody falling into much amorous
chat." So charmingly graceful are these descriptions that, together
with Shakespeare, Lodge has made the Forest of Arden almost as much
the accepted home of the pastoral as Sicily and Arcadia[3] had been
hitherto.
[Footnote 1: P. 31.]
[Footnote 2: Pp. 58 and 60.]
[Footnote 3: Theocritus (283-263 B.C.) localized his "Idyls" in
Sicily; Vergil (70-19 B.C.), his "Eclogues" in Arcadia.]
_Lodge's Skill as a Story-teller._ To say that Lodge is a skillful as
well as a graceful story-teller is, of course, to make an indefensible
assertion. In the sixteenth century English fiction was still in its
infancy, and English prose was still undeveloped. Yet we do find in
Lodge certain qualities of style that show clearly an advance over the
formlessness of some of the stories that had preceded. Though the
sentence and paragraph structure is loose and amorphous, the
transitions from one subject to another are almost invariably well
made, or at least are clearly marked. Phrases such as, "But leaving
him so desirous of the journey, to Torismond"[1]; "Leaving her to her
new entertained fancies, again to Rosader"[2]; "where we leave them,
and return again to Torismond"[3]; show clearly a growing regard for
the value of clear arrangement, to which the earlier romancers had
been indifferent. In the avoidance of digressions, too, Lodge's style
is an improvement upon that of his predecessors, and even upon that of
most of his contemporaries.[4] The story moves along, if not rapidly,
at least continuously from start to finish. There is a gratifying lack
of such preposterous complications and tortuous windings as we meet
with in the plot of Greene's "Menaphon," for example, where it
sometimes seems doubtful whether the characters ever will emerge from
so mazy a labyrinth of plot, and where the reader is bewildered by the
almost complete lack of unity in the story.
[Footnote 1: P. 12.]
[Footnote 2: P. 17.]
[Footnote 3: P. 50. See, also, pp. 19, 41, 51, 59, 73, 97, 104.]
[Footnote 4: On page 72 Lodge accuses himself of digressing; but the
four lines in which he here anticipates the conclusion of the story
seem not to warrant the charge.]
_The Lyrical Interludes._ Lodge's spirit is essentially poetical. One
feels that his way of looking at things is that of a true poet; of
one, that is, who sees beneath the shows of things. Lodge saw as
clearly as Shakespeare did that only love can untie the knot that
selfishness has tied. And not only is Lodge a poet in his outlook on
life, but also in the narrower sense of the word, for he is one of the
sweetest singers of all that band of choristers that filled the
spacious times of great Elizabeth with sounds that echo still. The
voices of some were more resonant or more impassioned; few, if any,
were sweeter. Such a song as _Rosalynde's Madrigal_, beginning,
Love in my bosom, like a bee
Doth suck his sweet:
is as fluent, as graceful, and as mellifluous as anything that
appeared in that marvelously productive time. Lodge's poetic
interludes impress one not only by their easy grace and sweetness, but
by their melody as well. They possess that truly lyric quality that
Burns's songs exhibit to such a marked degree. They seem to sing
themselves. It is almost impossible to read aloud the best of them,
such as,
Like to the clear in highest sphere
Where all imperial glory shines,
Of selfsame color is her hair,
Whether unfolded or in twines:
Heigh ho, fair Rosalynde!
without setting them unconsciously to a kind of tune, so essentially
musical are the lines. In their wonderful harmony these lyrics remind
one of Burns, but in the radiant and ethereal quality of their
phrasing they inevitably recall Shelley. Furthermore, these songs
illustrate the fact that the Elizabethan lyric had its origin in
culture, not among the people, and that the chief sources of its
inspiration were Italian and French. In a series of lyrics inserted
into the text of "A Margarite of America,"[1] Lodge avowedly imitates
the Italian poets Dolce, Pascale, and Mantelli, while in another
passage in the same book[2] he expresses his unbounded admiration for
the French poet Desportes, and his belief "that few men are able to
second the sweet conceits of Philippe Desportes." His "sweet conceits"
are imitated, we are told, in Montanus's song on page 29, and again in
_Rosader's Sonnet_, on page 62. In his borrowings Lodge merely
followed a prevalent fashion. The early English Elizabethan lyric was
wholly experimental and imitative--the product of foreign influences,
predominantly Italian and French; and in this respect Lodge's are
entirely typical.
[Footnote 1: Hunterian Club reprint, pp. 76 ff.]
[Footnote 2: Hunterian Club reprint, p. 79.]
_Historical Significance._ Historically the book is interesting as one
of the predecessors of the modern novel. But we need to keep in mind
that it is really a precursor of the novel and not the thing itself.
We have no right, therefore, to demand a well-constructed plot or
skill in characterization, because these did not appear in English
fiction till a much later time. It was two centuries before the novel,
in the time of Richardson, came into being; and it would be manifestly
absurd to expect to find in "Rosalynde" an anticipation either of
Scott's dramatic skill in plot construction or of George Eliot's
clairvoyance that divines the interior play of passion. All that we
can reasonably ask is that there be a coherent story told with
imaginative skill. In this we are not disappointed. The narrative
moves rapidly, at least in the earlier part of the story; and, though
in the latter part the setting seems from a modern point of view
over-emphasized, it is so charmingly idyllic as almost, if not quite,
to justify the over-emphasis. But Lodge really gives us more than we
have a right to expect, for, as Mr. Gosse has pointed out,[1] we may
trace in the book "certain qualities which have always been
characteristic of English fiction, a vigorous ideal of conduct, a love
of strength and adventure, an almost quixotic reverence for
womanhood."
[Footnote 1: "Seventeenth-Century Studies," p. 18.]
_Shakespeare's Dramatization of "Rosalynde."_ When Shakespeare wrote
"As You Like It" he did precisely what so many dramatists of to-day
are blamed for doing, that is, he dramatized a well-known novel.
Lodge's "Rosalynde" was at this time (about 1598) in its third
edition, and the fact that the story was so familiar to the reading
public imposed upon Shakespeare certain restrictions which he
evidently did not feel in dealing with material that he took from
sources less well known. In the case of material drawn from foreign
sources he freely altered, omitted, or combined different stories as
suited the immediate purpose of his art. In the dramatization of
Lodge's "Rosalynde" he changed the plot comparatively little, altering
it only so far as was absolutely necessary to fit it for stage
presentation, contenting himself with shortening the time of the
action, omitting such incidents as were essentially nondramatic, and
adding only such characters as would, while making the play more
interesting, not materially change the already familiar story.
By condensation and omission Shakespeare shortened the time of the
action, which is several months in the romance, to about ten days in
the play. This he accomplished by omitting all the preliminary
narrative of the death of Sir John of Bordeaux, and the old knight's
will; and by shortening the time that elapses in the romance between
the brother's quarrel and the wrestling, which he makes occur on
successive days. A similar shortening occurs in the matter of
Rosader's flight from home. In the play the hero, being warned by
Adam, leaves immediately after the wrestling, instead of staying to
play his part in the rowdyism at Oliver's (Saladyne's) castle. The
effect of this compression is to make the love plot more prominent.
The meeting of the two brothers in Arden is also managed somewhat
differently. Orlando is hurt in rescuing his brother from wild beasts,
instead of being wounded, as in the romance, by rescuing Aliena from a
band of robbers. The play ends differently from the romance, as befits
a comedy, the usurping duke being converted instead of being killed in
battle.
It was, however, in the characterization that Shakespeare departed
most widely from the romance. The most obvious change was in the names
of the characters. Rosader appears as Orlando, Saladyne as Oliver,
Torismond as Duke Frederick, Gerismond as the banished Duke, Alinda as
Celia, Montanus as Silvius, and Corydon is shortened to Corin. Of much
greater significance than the changes in the names of the characters
are the additions and changes in the list of _dramatis personae_. Nine
characters are added outright--Dennis, Le Beau, Amiens, the First
Lord, Sir Oliver Martext, William, Audrey, Touchstone, and Jaques. The
latter is most noteworthy. Hazlitt calls him the only purely
contemplative character Shakespeare ever drew. From the beginning to
the end of the play he does absolutely nothing except to think and
moralize. Another critic has said, "Shakespeare designed Jaques to be
a maker of fine sentiments, a dresser forth in sweet language of the
ordinary commonplaces...." It has been suggested,[1] not without some
show of reason, that Shakespeare in adapting Lodge's romance for the
stage purposely included in the list of _dramatis personae_ a
character bearing a strong resemblance to Euphues, the pretended
author of the romance. "Like Euphues, Jaques has made false steps in
youth, which have somewhat darkened his views of life; like Euphues,
he conceals under a veil of sententious satire a real goodness of
heart, shown in his action toward Audrey and Touchstone. A traveler,
like Euphues, he has a melancholy of his own, compounded of many
simples, extracted from many objects, and is prepared, like his
prototype, to lecture his contemporaries on every theme."
[Footnote 1: Seccombe and Allen, "The Age of Shakespeare," Vol. I, p.
119.]
Scarcely less significant are the changes that Shakespeare made in the
characteristics of the _dramatis personae_. The motive of the elder
brother in mistreating the younger he makes envy, not avarice as in
the romance, a substitution due to his desire to unify the action by
drawing a parallel between the brothers and the dukes. The superiority
of Shakespeare's Rosalind to Lodge's delineation of the character has,
perhaps, been slightly overestimated. To describe Lodge's Rosalynde as
"a colorless being, incapable of entering into the spirit of her
part"[1] is really too severe a condemnation. Of course Lodge's
heroine does lack the exquisite charm of saucy playfulness coupled
with gentle womanliness that makes Shakespeare's Rosalind perhaps the
most popular heroine of English comedy. Yet Lodge furnished to
Shakespeare far more than a name for his heroine. In the dialogue
between Ganymede (Rosalynde) and Aliena there is a good deal of lively
banter that must have furnished more than a suggestion for the teasing
playfulness of Rosalind in the play. Such, for example, is the
conversation between the two girls upon finding a love poem "carved on
a pine tree."[2] As in the drama, Rosalynde's wit is always sharpened
by the presence of her lover. Often her tone of raillery is noticeably
similar to that of Shakespeare's heroine.[3]
[Footnote 1: W.G. Stone, _Transactions of the New Shakspere Society_,
1880-1886, pp. 277-293.]
[Footnote 2: P. 29. Compare the speech of Ganymede (Rosalynde) with
Rosalind's speech in "As You Like It," III, ii, 367-381.]
[Footnote 3: Compare "Rosalynde," pp. 63-64, with "As You Like It,"
IV, i, 80-93.]
Upon a careful study of "Rosalynde" one cannot avoid the conviction
that in selecting it as the basis for "As You Like It" Shakespeare
displayed a sound judgment. Not only is it a good story of its kind,
but it lends itself readily to dramatic adaptation. In adapting it
Shakespeare made of it something quite different and incalculably more
valuable than the romance. Yet "Rosalynde" is still in its way
charming, and an appreciation of its charm may, instead of lessening
our reverence for Shakespeare's genius, really increase it by leading
us to see as he did the freshness and beauty as well as the dramatic
possibilities of the story.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ANGLIA. Vol. X, pp. 235-289.
BULLEN. Lyrics from the Dramatists of the Elizabethan Age, London,
1901.
CHAMBERS. English Pastorals, London, 1906.
DUNLOP. History of Prose Fiction (revised edition), London and New
York, 1888.
GOSSE. "Seventeenth-Century Studies" (new edition), London, 1895.
GREG. Lodge's "Rosalynde," being the Original of Shakespeare's "As You
Like It," London, 1907.
JUSSERAND. The English Novel in the Time of Shakespeare, London and
New York, 1890.
LANG. Idylls of Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus (Golden Treasury
Series), London, 1901.
LODGE. Reprint of Complete Works (excepting the translations of
Seneca, Josephus, and Du Bartas), Glasgow, 1875-1882.
MARKS. English Pastoral Drama, London, 1908.
SAINTSBURY. Elizabethan Literature, London and New York, 1902.
WARREN. A History of the Novel, previous to the Seventeenth Century,
New York, 1895.
THE PUBLISHED WORKS OF THOMAS LODGE ARRANGED IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER[1]
[Footnote 1: The titles are given in abbreviated form.]
1580 (?) Defence of Plays
1584 An Alarum against Usurers
1589 Scillaes Metamorphysis (reprinted with a new title-page in 1610
as A most pleasant Historie of Glaucus and Scilla)
1590 Rosalynde
1591 Robert, Second Duke of Normandy
1591 Catharos
1592 Euphues Shadow
1593 Phillis
1593 William Longbeard
1594 The Wounds of Civill War
1594 A Looking Glass for London (in collaboration with Greene)
1595 A Fig for Momus
1596 The Divel coniured
1596 A Margarite of America
1596 Wits miserie
1596 Prosopopeia
1602 Paradoxes
1602 Works of Josephus
1603 A Treatise of the Plague
1614 The Workes of Seneca
1625 A Learned Summary of Du Bartas
Rosalynde.
Euphues golden legacie:
found after his death _in his Cell at Si_lexedra.
_Bequeathed to Philautus sonnes_
noursed vp with their
_father in_ England.
Fetcht from the Canaries.
_By T.L. Gent._
LONDON,
Imprinted by _Thomas Orwin_ for T.G. and _John Busbie_.
1590.
To the Right Honorable and his most esteemed Lord the Lord
of Hunsdon, Lord Chamberlain to her Majesty's Household, and
Governor of her Town of Berwick: T.L.G. wisheth increase of
all honorable virtues.
Such Romans, right honorable, as delighted in martial exploits,
attempted their actions in the honor of Augustus, because he was a
patron of soldiers: and Vergil dignified him with his poems, as a
Maecenas of scholars; both jointly advancing his royalty, as a prince
warlike and learned. Such as sacrifice to Pallas, present her with
bays as she is wise, and with armor as she is valiant; observing
herein that excellent [Greek: to prepon], which dedicateth honors
according to the perfection of the person. When I entered, right
honorable, with a deep insight into the consideration of these
premises, seeing your Lordship to be a patron of all martial men, and
a Maecenas of such as apply themselves to study, wearing with Pallas
both the lance and the bay, and aiming with Augustus at the favor of
all, by the honorable virtues of your mind, being myself first a
student, and after falling from books to arms, even vowed in all my
thoughts dutifully to affect your Lordship. Having with Captain Clarke
made a voyage to the island of Terceras and the Canaries, to beguile
the time with labor I writ this book; rough, as hatched in the storms
of the ocean, and feathered in the surges of many perilous seas. But
as it is the work of a soldier and a scholar, I presumed to shroud it
under your Honor's patronage, as one that is the fautor and favorer of
all virtuous actions; and whose honorable loves, grown from the
general applause of the whole commonwealth for your higher deserts,
may keep it from the malice of every bitter tongue. Other reasons more
particular, right honorable, challenge in me a special affection to
your Lordship, as being a scholar with your two noble sons, Master
Edmund Carew, and Master Robert Carew, two scions worthy of so
honorable a tree, and a tree glorious in such honorable fruit, as also
being scholar in the university under that learned and virtuous
knight Sir Edward Hoby, when he was Bachelor in Arts, a man as well
lettered as well born, and, after the etymology of his name, soaring
as high as the wings of knowledge can mount him, happy every way, and
the more fortunate, as blessed in the honor of so virtuous a lady.
Thus, right honorable, the duty that I owe to the sons, chargeth me
that all my affection be placed on the father; for where the branches
are so precious, the tree of force must be most excellent. Commanded
and emboldened thus with the consideration of these forepassed
reasons, to present my book to your Lordship, I humbly entreat your
Honor will vouch of my labors, and favor a soldier's and a scholar's
pen with your gracious acceptance, who answers in affection what he
wants in eloquence; so devoted to your honor, as his only desire is,
to end his life under the favor of so martial and learned a patron.
Resting thus in hope of your Lordship's courtesy in deigning the
patronage of my work, I cease, wishing you as many honorable fortunes
as your Lordship can desire or I imagine.
Your Honor's soldier
humbly affectionate:
Thomas Lodge
TO THE GENTLEMEN READERS
Gentlemen, look not here to find any sprigs of Pallas' bay tree, nor
to hear the humor of any amorous laureate, nor the pleasing vein of
any eloquent orator: _Nolo altum sapere_, they be matters above my
capacity: the cobbler's check shall never light on my head, _Ne sutor
ultra crepidam_; I will go no further than the latchet, and then all
is well. Here you may perhaps find some leaves of Venus' myrtle, but
hewn down by a soldier with his curtal-axe, not bought with the
allurement of a filed tongue. To be brief, gentlemen, room for a
soldier and a sailor, that gives you the fruits of his labors that he
wrote in the ocean, when every line was wet with a surge, and every
humorous passion counterchecked with a storm. If you like it, so; and
yet I will be yours in duty, if you be mine in favor. But if Momus or
any squint-eyed ass, that hath mighty ears to conceive with Midas, and
yet little reason to judge; if he come aboard our bark to find fault
with the tackling, when he knows not the shrouds, I'll down into the
hold, and fetch out a rusty pole-axe, that saw no sun this seven year,
and either well baste him, or heave the coxcomb overboard to feed
cods. But courteous gentlemen, that favor most, backbite none, and
pardon what is overslipped, let such come and welcome; I'll into the
steward's room, and fetch them a can of our best beverage. Well,
gentlemen, you have Euphues' Legacy. I fetched it as far as the island
of Terceras, and therefore read it; censure with favor, and farewell
Yours, T.L.
ROSALYNDE
There dwelled adjoining to the city of Bordeaux a knight of most
honorable parentage, whom fortune had graced with many favors, and
nature honored with sundry exquisite qualities, so beautified with the
excellence of both, as it was a question whether fortune or nature
were more prodigal in deciphering the riches of their bounties. Wise
he was, as holding in his head a supreme conceit of policy, reaching
with Nestor into the depth of all civil government; and to make his
wisdom more gracious, he had that _salem ingenii_ and pleasant
eloquence that was so highly commended in Ulysses: his valor was no
less than his wit, nor the stroke of his lance no less forcible than
the sweetness of his tongue was persuasive; for he was for his courage
chosen the principal of all the Knights of Malta. This hardy knight,
thus enriched with virtue and honor, surnamed Sir John of Bordeaux,
having passed the prime of his youth in sundry battles against the
Turks, at last (as the date of time hath his course) grew aged. His
hairs were silver-hued, and the map of age was figured on his
forehead: honor sat in the furrows of his face, and many years were
portrayed in his wrinkled lineaments, that all men might perceive his
glass was run, and that nature of necessity challenged her due. Sir
John, that with the Phoenix knew the term of his life was now expired,
and could, with the swan, discover his end by her songs, having three
sons by his wife Lynida, the very pride of all his forepassed years,
thought now, seeing death by constraint would compel him to leave
them, to bestow upon them such a legacy as might bewray his love, and
increase their ensuing amity. Calling, therefore, these young
gentlemen before him, in the presence of all his fellow Knights of
Malta, he resolved to leave them a memorial of all his fatherly care
in setting down a method of their brotherly duties. Having, therefore,
death in his looks to move them to pity, and tears in his eyes to
paint out the depth of his passions, taking his eldest son by the
hand, he began thus:
SIR JOHN OF BORDEAUX' LEGACY HE GAVE TO HIS SONS
"O my sons, you see that fate hath set a period of my years, and
destinies have determined the final end of my days: the palm tree
waxeth away-ward, for he stoopeth in his height, and my plumes are
full of sick feathers touched with age. I must to my grave that
dischargeth all cares, and leave you to the world that increaseth many
sorrows: my silver hairs containeth great experience, and in the
number of my years are penned down the subtleties of fortune.
Therefore, as I leave you some fading pelf to countercheck poverty, so
I will bequeath you infallible precepts that shall lead you unto
virtue. First, therefore, unto thee Saladyne, the eldest, and
therefore the chiefest pillar of my house, wherein should be engraven
as well the excellence of thy father's qualities, as the essential
form of his proportion, to thee I give fourteen ploughlands, with all
my manor houses and richest plate. Next, unto Fernandyne I bequeath
twelve ploughlands. But, unto Rosader, the youngest, I give my horse,
my armor, and my lance, with sixteen ploughlands; for if the inward
thoughts be discovered by outward shadows, Rosader will exceed you all
in bounty and honor. Thus, my sons, have I parted in your portions the
substance of my wealth, wherein if you be as prodigal to spend as I
have been careful to get, your friends will grieve to see you more
wasteful than I was bountiful, and your foes smile that my fall did
begin in your excess. Let mine honor be the glass of your actions, and
the fame of my virtues the lodestar to direct the course of your
pilgrimage. Aim your deeds by my honorable endeavors, and show
yourselves scions worthy of so flourishing a tree, lest, as the birds
Halcyones, which exceed in whiteness, I hatch young ones that surpass
in blackness. Climb not, my sons: aspiring pride is a vapor that
ascendeth high, but soon turneth to smoke; they which stare at the
stars stumble upon stones, and such as gaze at the sun (unless they be
eagle-eyed) fall blind. Soar not with the hobby,[1] lest you fall with
the lark, nor attempt not with Phaeton, lest you drown with Icarus.
Fortune, when she wills you to fly, tempers your plumes with wax; and
therefore either sit still and make no wing, or else beware the sun,
and hold Daedalus' axiom authentical, _medium tenere tutissimum_. Low
shrubs have deep roots, and poor cottages great patience. Fortune
looks ever upward, and envy aspireth to nestle with dignity. Take
heed, my sons, the mean is sweetest melody; where strings high
stretched, either soon crack, or quickly grow out of tune. Let your
country's care be your heart's content, and think that you are not
born for yourselves, but to level your thoughts to be loyal to your
prince, careful for the common weal, and faithful to your friends; so
shall France say, 'These men are as excellent in virtues as they be
exquisite in features.' O my sons, a friend is a precious jewel,
within whose bosom you may unload your sorrows and unfold your
secrets, and he either will relieve with counsel, or persuade with
reason: but take heed in the choice: the outward show makes not the
inward man, nor are the dimples in the face the calendars of truth.
When the liquorice leaf looketh most dry, then it is most wet: when
the shores of Lepanthus are most quiet, then they forepoint a storm.
The Baaran leaf the more fair it looks, the more infectious it is, and
in the sweetest words is oft hid the most treachery. Therefore, my
sons, choose a friend as the Hyperborei do the metals, sever them from
the ore with fire, and let them not bide the stamp before they be
current: so try and then trust, let time be touchstone of friendship,
and then friends faithful lay them up for jewels. Be valiant, my sons,
for cowardice is the enemy to honor; but not too rash, for that is an
extreme. Fortitude is the mean, and that is limited within bonds, and
prescribed with circumstance. But above all," and with that he fetched
a deep sigh, "beware of love, for it is far more perilous than
pleasant, and yet, I tell you, it allureth as ill as the Sirens. O my
sons, fancy is a fickle thing, and beauty's paintings are tricked up
with time's colors, which, being set to dry in the sun, perish with
the same. Venus is a wanton, and though her laws pretend liberty, yet
there is nothing but loss and glistering misery. Cupid's wings are
plumed with the feathers of vanity, and his arrows, where they pierce,
enforce nothing but deadly desires: a woman's eye, as it is precious
to behold, so is it prejudicial to gaze upon; for as it affordeth
delight, so it snareth unto death. Trust not their fawning favors, for
their loves are like the breath of a man upon steel, which no sooner
lighteth on but it leapeth off, and their passions are as momentary as
the colors of a polype, which changeth at the sight of every object.
My breath waxeth short, and mine eyes dim: the hour is come, and I
must away: therefore let this suffice, women are wantons, and yet men
cannot want one: and therefore, if you love, choose her that hath eyes
of adamant, that will turn only to one point; her heart of a diamond,
that will receive but one form; her tongue of a Sethin leaf, that
never wags but with a south-east wind: and yet, my sons, if she have
all these qualities, to be chaste, obedient, and silent, yet for that
she is a woman, shalt thou find in her sufficient vanities to
countervail her virtues. Oh now, my sons, even now take these my last
words as my latest legacy, for my thread is spun, and my foot is in
the grave. Keep my precepts as memorials of your father's counsels,
and let them be lodged in the secret of your hearts; for wisdom is
better than wealth, and a golden sentence worth a world of treasure.
In my fall see and mark, my sons, the folly of man, that being dust
climbeth with Biares to reach at the heavens, and ready every minute
to die, yet hopeth for an age of pleasures. Oh, man's life is like
lightning that is but a flash, and the longest date of his years but
as a bavin's[2] blaze. Seeing then man is so mortal, be careful that
thy life be virtuous, that thy death may be full of admirable honors:
so shalt thou challenge fame to be thy fautor,[3] and put oblivion to
exile with thine honorable actions. But, my sons, lest you should
forget your father's axioms, take this scroll, wherein read what your
father dying wills you to execute living." At this he shrunk down in
his bed, and gave up the ghost.
[Footnote 1: falcon.]
[Footnote 2: faggot's.]
[Footnote 3: patron.]
John of Bordeaux being thus dead was greatly lamented of his sons, and
bewailed of his friends, especially of his fellow Knights of Malta,
who attended on his funerals, which were performed with great
solemnity. His obsequies done, Saladyne caused, next his epitaph, the
contents of the scroll to be portrayed out, which were to this effect:
_The Contents of the Schedule which Sir John of Bordeaux gave to his
Sons_