This clever, though somewhat tedious, comedy was published anonymously
in 1606. There is no known dramatic writer of that date to whom it could
be assigned with any great degree of probability. The comic portion
shows clearly the influence of Ben Jonson, and there is much to remind
one of Lyly's court-comedies. In the serious scenes the philosophising
and moralising, at one time expressed in language of inarticulate
obscurity and at another attaining clear and dignified utterance,
suggest a study of Chapman. The unknown writer might have taken as his
motto a passage in the dedication of Ovid's _Banquet of Sense_:--
"Obscurity in affection of words and indigested conceits is pedantical
and childish; but where it shroudeth itself in the heart of his subject,
uttered with fitness of figure and expressive epithets, with that
darkness will I still labour to be shrouded." Chapman's _Gentleman
Usher_ was published in the same year as _Sir Gyles Goosecappe_; and I
venture to think that in a passage of Act III., Scene II., our author
had in his mind the exquisite scene between the wounded Strozza and his
wife Cynanche. In Strozza's discourse on the joys of marriage occur
these lines:--
"If he lament she melts herselfe in teares;
If he be glad she triumphs; if he stirre
She moon's his way: in all things his _sweete Ape_."
The charming fitness of the expression "sweet ape" would impress any
capable reader. I cannot think that by mere accident the anonymous
writer lighted on the same words:--
"Doe women bring no helpe of soule to men?
Why, friend, they either are mens soules themselves
Or the most witty imitatrixes of them,
Or prettiest _sweet apes_ of humane soules."
From a reference to Queen Elizabeth in Act I., Scene I., it is clear
that _Sir Gyles Goosecappe_ was written not later than 1603. The lines I
have quoted may have been added later; or our author may have seen the
_Gentleman Usher_ in manuscript.
Chapman's influence is again (_me judice_) apparent in the eloquent but
somewhat strained language of such a passage as the following:--
"Alas, my noble Lord, he is not rich,
Nor titles hath, nor in his tender cheekes
The standing lake of _Impudence_ corrupts;
Hath nought in all the world, nor nought wood have
To grace him in the prostituted light.
But if a man wood consort with a soule
Where all mans sea of gall and bitternes
Is quite evaporate with her holy flames,
And in whose powers a Dove-like innocence
Fosters her own deserts, and life and death
Runnes hand in hand before them, all the skies
Cleare and transparent to her piercing eyes.
Then wood my friend be something, but till then
A _cipher_, nothing, or the worst of men."
_Sir Gyles Goosecappe_ is the work of one who had chosen the "fallentis
semita vitae"; who was more at home in Academic cloisters than in the
crowded highways of the world. None of the characters bears any
impression of having been drawn from actual life. The plot is of the
thinnest possible texture; but the fire of verbal quibbles is kept up
with lively ingenuity, and plenty of merriment may be drawn from the
humours of the affectate traveller and the foolish knight by all who are
not
"of such vinegar aspect
That they'll not show their teeth in way of smile,
Though Nestor swear the jest be laughable."
The romantic friendship between the noble Lord Monford and the
thoughtful Clarence is a pleasing study, planned and executed with a
grave, sweet sincerity. It is not improbable that Clarence was the
prototype of Charles in Fletcher's _Elder Brother_. The finest passage
in the present play, where Clarence's modesty and Monford's nobility are
portrayed in language of touching charm, was selected by Charles Lamb
(whose judgment was never at fault) for quotation in the "Extracts from
the Garrick Plays."
A second edition of _Sir Gyles Goosecappe_ was issued, after the
author's death, in 1636; and the following dedication was appended by
Hugh Perry, the publisher:--
To the Worshipfull RICHARD YOUNG of Woolleyfarme in the County of Berks,
Esquire.