ANTHONY MUNDAY. 1553-1633. [ANTHONY MUNDAY, son of Christopher Munday, draper of London, was born in 1533, and losing his father at an early age, attempted the stage as an actor. It may be presumed that the experiment failed, as he afterwards apprenticed himself, in 1576, to one Allde, a stationer. Wearying of this occupation, or abandoning it for some other reason, he travelled into France and Italy, returning to England in or about 1579, and again trying the stage, in a species of extemporaneous entertainment, which Mr. Collier conjectures to have been similar to the Commedie al improviso of the Italians. According to a contemporary authority, the attempt was unsuccessful. He appears at this time to have entered the service of the Earl of Oxford, as one of his players, and to have been concerned as an evidence against the Roman Catholic priests who were executed at Tyburn in 1581. Not long afterwards he was appointed one of the messengers of her majesty's chamber, an office which he probably held till his death in 1633. Munday was a prolific writer, and embraced in the wide circuit of his literary labours a remarkable variety of subjects. Mr. Collier has collected the titles of forty-seven works in which he was concerned as author, translator, or editor, including poems, tracts, histories, dramas, and pageants. Independently of plays of which he was the sole author, he wrote several in conjunction with Chettle, Wilson, Drayton, Dekker, Middleton, and others; was amongst the cluster of writers in Henslowe's pay, and one of the earliest contributors to the stage, in the period immediately preceding the era of Shakespeare. The play from which the following songs are taken was discovered in MS. by Sir Frederic Madden, amongst the papers of the Mostyn family, and printed in 1851 by the Shakespeare Society, with an elaborate introduction by Mr. Collier, rendered still more valuable by the addition of three of Munday's tracts against the Jesuits. The title of the MS. is The Book of John a Kent and John a Cumber. The structure of the piece fully bears out the character given by Meres of Munday as being the best plotter.' The action is ingeniously contrived; and, without having recourse to artificial expedients, the interest of the story is skilfully sustained.] JOHN A KENT AND JOHN A CUMBER. WANTON LOVE. WHEN wanton love had walked astray, Then good regard began to chide, And meeting her upon the way, Says, wanton lass, thou must abide; For I have seen in many years That sudden love breeds sullen fears. Shall I never, while I live, keep my girl at school! Further than a maid should go: Shall she never, while she lives, make me more a fool. LOVE IN PERPLEXITY. N a silent shade, as I sat a sunning, IN There I heard a maid grievously complain; Many moans she said, amongst her sighs still coming; Then her aged father counselled her the rather The passage is thus given in the original. Then like a father will I come to check my filly OU SUNDERED LOVE. You that seek to sunder love, Learn a lesson ere you go THE THEFT. You stole my love; fy upon you, fy! LEWIS WAGER. 15 [THE Life and Repentance of Mary Magdalen is one of the numerous plays of this period founded on scriptural subjects. It appears from a passage in the prologue, noticed by Mr. Collier, to have been acted by itinerant players at country fairs, the spectators bestowing' half-pence or pence' as they thought fit, upon the performers. Another passage alludes to its having been represented at the University. The play was printed in 1567, and the author is described on the title-page as 'the learned clarke Lewis Wager.'] THE LIFE AND REPENTANCE OF MARY MAGDALEN. MISTRESS MARY. EY dery dery, with a lusty dery, HEY Hoigh Mistress Mary, I pray you be merry. Your pretty person we may compare to Lais, A morsel for princes and nobler kings; In beauty you excel the fair lady Thais; You exceed the beautiful Helen in all things.* To behold your face who can be weary? Hoigh my Mistress Mary, I pray you be merry. The hair of your head shineth as the pure gold, Your eyes as glass, and right amiable; Your smiling countenance, so lovely to behold, To us all is most pleasant and delectable; Of your commendations who can be weary? Hussa, my Mistress Mary, I pray you be merry. Your lips are ruddy as the reddy rose, *The love songs of the period are crowded with similar compli mentary comparisons. In an interlude called The Trial of Treasure, bearing the same date of 1567, there is a song in praise of the Lady Treasure, containing a verse identical in substance with the above: Helene may not compared be, Nor Cressida that was so bright; These cannot stain the shine of thee, Love thee I will both night and day, My dear Lady! THE DRAMATISTS. So clear, so sweet, so fair, so good, so fresh, so gay, Hussa, Mistress Mary, I pray you be merry. WILLIAM WAGER. 15 [THE date of the only piece that bears the name of this writer, probably a relation of the preceding, is omitted from the title-page of the original edition. But it evidently belongs to the early part of the reign of Elizabeth. The snatches that follow are sung by Moros, the fool, and are 'foots' of songs, or burthens of well-known ballads, some of which are of a much earlier date than the play itself.] THE LONGER THOU LIVEST THE MORE FOOL THOU ART. FOOTS OF SONGS. BROOM, Broom on hill, The gentle Broom on hill, hill; Broom, Broom on Hive hill, The gentle Broom on Hive hill, * Robin, lend me thy bow, thy bow, There was a maid came out of Kent, There was a maid came out of Kent, Dangerous be [she]. Mr. Collier observes that this is one of the ballads in Cox's collection, and that it is also mentioned by Laneham. |