. supposed that in 1583 she selected one company of twelve | Revels and the actors exerted themselves to furnish variety performers, to be called "the Queen's players;" but it seems for the entertainment of the Queen and her nobility; but that she had two separate associations in her pay, each dis- we still see no trace ("Gorboduc" excepted) of any play at tinguished as "the Queen's players." Tylney, the master court, the materials for which were obtained from the Engof the revels at the time, records, in one of his accounts, lish Chronicles. It is very certain, however, that anterior that in March, 1583, he had been sent for by her Majesty to 1588 such pieces had been written, and acted before pub"to chuse out a company of players:" Richard Tarlton and lic audiences; but those who catered for the court in these Robert Wilson were placed at the head of that association, matters might not consider it expedient to exhibit, in the which was probably soon afterwards divided into two dis- presence of the Queen, any play which involved the actions tinct bodies of performers. In 1590, John Lanham was the or conduct of her predecessors. The companies of players leader of one body', and Lawrence Dutton of the other. engaged in these representations were those of the Queen, We have thus brought our sketch of dramatic perform- the Earls of Leicester, Derby, Sussex, Oxford, the Lords ances and performers down to about the same period, the Hunsdon and Strange, and the children of the Chapel Royal year 1583. We propose to continue it to 1590, and to as- and of St. Paul's. sume that as the period not, of course, when Shakespeare first joined a theatrical company, but when he began writing original pieces for the stage. This is a matter which is more distinctly considered in the biography of the poet; but it is necessary here to fix upon some date to which we are to extend our introductory account of the progress and condition of theatrical affairs. What we have still to offer will apply to the seven years from 1583 to 1590. The accounts of the revels at court about this period afford us little information, and indeed for several years, when such entertainments were certainly required by the Queen, we are without any details either of the pieces performed, or of the cost of preparation. We have such particulars for the years 1581, 1582, 1584, and 1587, but for the intermediate years they are wanting.2 The accounts of 1581, 1582, and 1584, give us the following names of dramatic performances of various kinds exhibited before the Queen: This list of dramas (the accounts mention that others were acted without supplying their titles) establishes that moral plays had not yet been excluded. The "Game of the Cards" is expressly called "a comedy or moral," in the accounts of 1582; and we may not unreasonably suppose that "Delight," and "Beauty and Housewifry," were of the same class. "The Story of Pompey," and " Agamemnon and Ulysses," were evidently performances founded upon ancient history, and such may have been the case with "The History of Telomo." "Love and Fortune" has been called the play of Fortune" in the account of 1573; and we may feel assured that "Ariodante and Genevora" was the story told by Ariosto, which also forms part of the plot of "Much Ado about Nothing." "The History of Ferrar" was doubtless "The History of Error" of the account of 1577, the clerk having written the title by his ear; and we may reasonably suspect that "Felix and Philiomena" was the tale of Felix and Felismena, narrated in the "Diana" of Montemayor. It is thus evident, that the Master of the 186. The editor's "Introduction " is full of new and valuable information. 1 Tarlton died on 3 Sept. 1588, and we apprehend that it was not until after this date that Lanham became leader of one company. of the Queen's Players. Mr. Halliwell discovered Tarlton's will in the Prerogative Office, bearing date on the day of his decease: he there calls himself one of the grooms of the Queen's chamber, and leaves all his "goods, cattels, chattels, plate, ready money, jewels, bonds obligatory, specialties, and debts," to his son Philip Tarlton, a minor. He appoints his mother, Katherine Tarlton, his friend Robert Adams, and "his fellow William Johnson, one also of the grooms of her Majesty's chamber," trustees for his son, and executors of his will, which was proved by Adams three days after the death of the testator. As Tarlton says nothing about his wife in his will, we may presume that he was a widower; and of his son, Philip Tarlton, we never hear afterwards. 2 From 1587 to 1604, the most important period as regards Shakespeare, it does not appear that any official statements by the master of the revels have been preserved. In the same way there is an unfortunate interval between 1604 and 1611. 9 One of the last pieces represented before Queen Elizabeth was a About this date the number of companies of actors performing publicly in and near London seems to have been very considerable. A person, who calls himself "a soldier," writing to Secretary Walsingham, in January, 1586,5 tells him, that "every day in the week the players' bills are set up in sundry places of the city," and after mentioning the actors of the Queen, the Earl of Leicester, the Earl of Oxford, and the Lord Admiral, he goes on to state that not fewer than two hundred persons, thus retained and employed, strutted in their silks about the streets. It may be doubted whether this statement is much exaggerated, recollecting the many noblemen who had players acting under their names at this date, and that each company consisted probably of eight or ten performers. On the same authority we learn that theatrical representations upon the Sabbath had been forbidden; but this restriction does not seem to have been imposed without a considerable struggle: Before 1581 the Privy Council had issued an order upon the subject, but it was disregarded in some of the suburbs of London; and it was not until after a fatal exhibition of bearbaiting at Paris Garden, upon Sunday, 13 June, 1583, when many persons were killed and wounded by the falling of a scaffold, that the practice of playing, as well as bear-baiting, on the Sabbath was at all generally checked. In 1586, as far as we can judge from the information that has come down to our day, the order which had been issued in this respect was pretty strictly enforced. At this period, and afterwards, plays were not unfrequently played at court on Sunday, and the chief difficulty therefore seems to have been to induce the Privy Council to act with energy against similar performances in public theatres. The annual official statement of the Master of the Revels merely tells us, in general terms, that between Christmas 1586, and Shrovetide 1587, "seven plays, besides feats of activity, and other shows by the children of Paul's, her Majesty's servants, and the gentlemen of Gray's Inn," were prepared and represented before the Queen at Greenwich. No names of plays are furnished, but in 1587 was printed a tragedy, under the title of "The Misfortunes of Arthur," which purports to have been acted by some of the members of Gray's Inn before the Queen, on 28 Feb., 1587: this, in fact, must be the very production stated in the revels' accounts to have been got up and performed by these parties; and it requires notice, not merely for its own intrinsic excellence as a drama, but because, in point of date, it is moral play, under the title of "The Contention between Liberality and Prodigality," printed in 1602, and acted, as appears by the strongest internal evidence, in 1600. 4 Tarlton, who died, as we have already stated, in Sept. 1.588, obtained great celebrity by his performance of the two parts of Derrick and the Judge, in the old historical play of "The Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth." 5 See the original letter in Harleian MSS. No. 286. 6 The manner in which, about this time, the players were bribed away from Oxford is curious, and one of the items in the accounts expressly applies to the Earl of Leicester's servants. We are obliged to the Rev. Dr. Bliss for the following extracts, relating to this period and a little afterwards: 1587 Solut. Histrionibus Comitis Lecestriæ, ut cum suis ludis XXS XX8 (no sum) 1588 Solut. Histrionibus, ne ludos inhonestos exercerent infra Universitatem 1590 Solut. per D. Eedes, vice-cancellarii locum tenentem, quibusdam Histrionibus, ut sine perturbatione et strepitu ab Academiâ discederent the second play founded upon English history represented stage is noticed, is an epistle by Thomas Nash introducing at court, as well as the second original theatrical production to the world his friend Robert Greene's "Menaphon," in in blank-verse that has been preserved'. The example, in 15875: there, in reference to "vain-glorious tragedians," he this particular, had been set, as we have already shown, in says, that they are "mounted on the stage of arrogance," Gorboduc," fifteen years before; and it is probable, that in and that they "think to out-brave better pens with the that interval not a few of the serious compositions exhibited swelling bombast of bragging blank-verse." He afterwards at court were in blank-verse, but it had not yet been used talks of the "drumming decasyllibon" they employed, and on any of our public stages. ridicules them for "reposing eternity in the mouth of a player." This question is farther illustrated by a production by Greene, published in the next year, “Perimedes, the Blacksmith," from which it is evident that Nash had an individual allusion in what he had said in 1587. Greene fixes on the author of the tragedy of "Tamburlaine," whom he accuses of "setting the end of scholarism in an English blank-verse," and who, it should seem, had somewhere accused Greene of not being able to write it. The main body of "The Misfortunes of Arthur" was the authorship of Thomas Hughes, a member of Gray's Inn; but some speeches and two choruses (which are in rhyme) were added by William Fulbecke and Francis Flower, while no less a man than Lord Bacon assisted Christopher Yelverton and John Lancaster in the preparation of the dumb-shows. Hughes evidently took "Gorboduc" as his model, both in subject and style, and, like Sackville and Norton, he adopted the form of the Greek and Roman drama, and adhered more strictly than his predecessors to the unities of time and place. The plot relates to the rebellion of Mordred against his father, King Arthur, and part of the plot is very revolting, on account of the incest between Mordred and his stepmother Guenevora, Mordred himself being the son of Arthur's sister: there is also a vast deal of blood and slaughter throughout, and the catastrophe is the killing of the son by the father, and of the father by the son; so that a more painfully disagreeable story could hardly have been selected. The author, however, possessed a very bold and vigorous genius; his characters are strongly drawn, and the language they employ is consistent with their situations and habits: his blank-verse, both in force and variety, is superior to that of either Sackville or Norton2. It is very clear, that up to the year 1580, about which date Gosson published his "Plays confuted in Five Actions," dramatic performances on the public stages of London were sometimes in prose, but more constantly in rhyme. In his "School of Abuse," 1579, Gosson speaks of "two prose books played at the Bell Savage," but in his "Plays confuted" he tells us, that "poets send their verses to the stage upon such feet as continually are rolled up in rhyme." With one or two exceptions, all the plays publicly acted, of a date anterior to 1590, that have come down to us, are either in prose or in rhyme1. The case seems to have been different, as already remarked, with some of the courtshows and private entertainments; but we are now adverting to the pieces represented at such places as the Theatre, the Curtain, Blackfriars, and in inn-yards adapted temporarily to dramatic amusements, to which the public was indiscriminately admitted. The earliest work, in which the employment of blank-verse for the purpose of the common 1 Gascoyne's "Jocasta," printed in 1577, and represented by the author and other members of the society at Gray's Inn in 1566 as a private show, was a translation from Euripides. It is, as far as has yet been ascertained, the second play in our language written in blank-verse, but it was not an original work. The same author's Supposes,' "taken from Ariosto, is in prose. 2 The Misfortunes of Arthur," with four other dramas, has been reprinted in a supplementary volume to the last edition of Dodsley's Old Plays. It is not, therefore, necessary here to enter into an examination of its structure or versification. It is a work of extraordinary power. 3 See the Shakespeare Society's reprint, p. 30. Gosson gives them the highest praise, asserting that they contained "never a word without wit, never a line without pith, never a letter placed in vain." 4 Sometimes plays written in prose were, at a subsequent date, when blank-verse had become the popular form of composition, published as if they had been composed in measured lines. The old historical play, "The Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth," which preceded that of Shakespeare, is an instance directly in point: it was written in prose, but the old printer chopped it up into lines of unequal length, so as to make it appear to the eye something like blank verse. We We learn from various authorities, that Christopher Marlowe was the author of "Tamburlaine the Great," a dramatic work of the highest celebrity and popularity, printed as early as 1590, and affording the first known instance of the use of blank-verse in a public theatre: the title-page of the edition 1590 states, that it had been "sundry times shown upon stages in the city of London." In the prologue the author claims to have introduced a new form of composition :— "From jigging veins of rhyming mother-wits, And such conceits as clownage keeps in pay, We'll lead you to the stately tent of war," &c. Accordingly, nearly the whole drama, consisting of a first and second part, is in blank-verse. Hence we see the value of Dryden's loose assertion, in the dedication to Lord Orrery of his "Rival Ladies," in 1664, that “Shakespeare was the first who, to shun the pains of continual rhyming, invented that kind of writing which we call blank-verse." The distinction belongs to Marlowe, the greatest of Shakespeare's predecessors, and a poet who, if he had lived, might, perhaps, have been a formidable rival of his genius. We have too much reverence for the exhaustless originality of our great dramatist, to think that he cannot afford this, or any other tribute to a poet, who, as far as the public stage is concerned, deserves to be regarded as the inventor of a new style of composition. That the attempt was viewed with jealousy, there can be no doubt, after what we have quoted from Nash and Greene. It is most likely that Greene, who was older than Nash, had previously written various dramas in rhyme; and the bold experiment of Marlowe having been instantly successful, Greene was obliged to abandon his old course, and his extant plays are all in blank-verse. Nash, who had at of Greene's pamphlets, dated in 1587-we mean "Euphues his Censure to Philautus." 66 6 If Marlowe were born, as has been supposed, about 1562, (Oldys places the event earlier,) he was twenty-four when he wrote Tamburlaine," as we believe, in 1586, and only thirty-one when he was killed by a person of the name of Archer, in an affray arising out of an amorous intrigue, in 1593. In a manuscript note of the time, in a copy of his version of "Hero and Leander," edit. 1629, in our possession, it is said, among other things, that "Marlowe's father was a shoemaker at Canterbury," and that he had an acquaintance at Dover whom he infected with the extreme liberality of his opinions on matters of religion. At the back of the title-page of the same volume is inserted the following epitaph, subscribed with Marlowe's name, and no doubt of his composition, although never before noticed :"In obitum honoratissimi viri ROGERI MANWOOD, Militis, Quæstorii Reginalis Capitalis Baronis. Noctivagi terror, ganeonis triste flagellum, Et Jovis Alcides, rigido vulturque latroni, Urnâ subtegitur: scelerum gaudete nepotes. Insons, luctifica sparsis cervice capillis, Plange, fori lumen, venerandæ gloria legis Occidit: heu! secum effæetas Acherontis ad oras Multa abiit virtus. Pro tot virtutibus uni, Livor, parce viro: non audacissimus esto Illius in cineres, cujus tot millia vultus Mortalium attonuit: sic cum te nuncia Ditis Vulneret exanguis, feliciter ossa quiescant, Famæque marmorei superet monumenta sepulchri." 5 Greene began writing in 1583, his "Mamillia" having been then printed: his "Mirror of Modesty" and "Monardo," bear the date of 1584. His "Menaphon" (afterwards called "Greene's Arcadia") first appeared in 1587, and it was reprinted in 1589. have never seen the earliest edition of it, but it is mentioned by various bibliographers; and those who have thrown doubt upon the point, (stated in the History of English Dramatic Poetry and the Stage, vol. iii., p. 150), for the sake of founding an argument upon It is added, that "Marlowe was a rare scholar, and died aged about it, have not adverted to the conclusive fact, that Menaphon" is thirty." The above is the only extant specimen of his Latin commentioned as already in print in the introductory matter to another position, and we insert it exactly as it stands in manuscript. tacked Marlowe in 1587, before 1593 (when Marlowe was killed) had joined him in the production of a blank-verse tragedy on the story of Dido, which was printed in 1594. It has been objected to "Tamburlaine," that it is written in a turgid and ambitious style, such indeed as Nash and in a turgid and ambitious style, such indeed as Nash and Greene ridicule; but we are to recollect that Marlowe was at this time endeavouring to wean audiences from the "jigging veins of rhyming mother-wits," and that, in order to satisfy the ear for the loss of the jingle, he was obliged to give what Nash calls "the swelling bombast of bragging blank-verse." This consideration will of itself account for breaches of a more correct taste to be found in "Tamburlaine." In the Prologue, besides what we have already quoted, Marlowe tells the audience to expect "high astounding terms," and he did not disappoint expectation. Perhaps the better to reconcile the ordinary frequenters of public theatres to the change, he inserted various scenes of low comedy, which the printer of the edition in 1590 thought fit to exclude, as digressing, and far unmeet for the matter." Marlowe likewise sprinkled couplets here and there, although it is to be remembered, that having accomplished his object of substituting blank-verse by the first part of "Tamburlaine," he did not, even in the second part, think it necessary by any means so frequently to introduce occasional rhymes. In those plays which there is ground for believing to be the first works of Shakespeare, couplets, and even stanzas, are more frequent than in any of the surviving productions of Marlowe. This circumstance is, perhaps, in part to be accounted for by the fact (as far as we may so call it) that our great poet retained in some of his performances portions of old rhyming dramas, which he altered and adapted to the stage; but in early plays, which are to be looked upon as entirely his own, Shakespeare appears to have deemed rhyme more necessary to satisfy the ear of his auditory than Marlowe held it when he wrote his "Tamburlaine the Great." As the first employment of blank-verse upon the public stage by Marlowe is a matter of much importance, in relation to the history of our more ancient drama, and to the subsequent adoption of that form of composition by Shakessubsequent adoption of that form of composition by Shakespeare, we ought not to dismiss it without affording a single specimen from "Tamburlaine the Great." The following is a portion of a speech by the hero to Zenocrate, when first he meets and sues to her: "Disdains Zenocrate to live with me, 1 Our quotation is from a copy of the edition of 1590, 4to, in the library of Lord Francis Egerton, which we believe to be the earliest on the title-page it is stated that it is "now first and newly published." It was several times reprinted. No modern edition is to be trusted they are full of the grossest errors, and never could have been collated. 2 Another play, not published until 1657, under the title of "Lust's Dominion," has also been constantly, but falsely, assigned to Marlowe some of the historical events contained in it did not happen until five years after the death of that poet. This fact was distinctly pointed out nearly twenty years ago, in the last edition of Dodsley's Old Plays (vol. ii., p. 311); but nevertheless "Lust's Dominion" has since been spoken of and treated as Marlowe's undoubted production, and even included in editions of his works. It is in all probability the same drama as that which, in Henslowe's Diary, is called "The Spanish Moor's Tragedy," which was written by Dekker, Haughton, and Day, in the beginning of the year 1600. 3 In the History of English Dramatic Poetry and the Stage, vol. iii., p. 139, it is incautiously stated, that "the character of Shakespeare's Richard II. seems modelled in no slight degree upon that of And scale the icy mountains' lofty tops, Which with thy beauty will be soon dissolv'd.”1 dent that it could hardly have been written later than 1585 Nash having alluded to "Tamburlaine" in 1587, it is evior 1586, which is about the period when it has been generally, and with much appearance of probability, supposed that Shakespeare arrived in London. In considering the state of the stage just before our great dramatist became a writer for it, it is clearly, therefore, necessary to advert briefly to the other works of Marlowe, observing in addition, with reference to "Tamburlaine," that it is a historical and action, are equally set at defiance, and the scene shifts drama, in which not a single unity is regarded; time, place, at once to or from Persia, Scythia, Georgia, and Morocco, as best suited the purpose of the poet. Marlowe was also, most likely, the author of a play in which the Priest of the Sun was prominent, as Greene mentions it with "Tamburlaine" in 1588, but no such piece is now known: he, however, wrote "The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus," "The Massacre at Paris," ""The rich Jew of Malta," and an English historical play, called "The troublesome Reign and lamentable Death of Edward the Second," besides aiding Nash in "Dido Queen of Carthage," as already mentioned. If they were not all of them of a date anterior to any of Shakespeare's original works, they were written by a man who had set the example of the employment of blank-verse upon the public stage, and perhaps of the historical and romantic drama in all its leading features and characteristics. His points: the versification displays, though not perhaps in the "Edward the Second" affords sufficient proof of both these same abundance, nearly all the excellences of Shakespeare; and in point of construction, as well as in interest, it bears a strong resemblance to the "Richard the Second" of our great dramatist. It is impossible to read the one without being reminded of the other, and we can have no difficulty in assigning "Edward the Second" to an anterior period.3 3 The same remark as to date may be made upon the plays which came from the pen of Robert Greene, who died in September, 1592, when Shakespeare was rising into notice, and exciting the jealousy of dramatists who had previously furnished the public stages. This jealousy broke out on the part of Greene in, if not before, 1592, (in which year his "Groatsworth of Wit," a posthumous work, was published by his contemporary, Henry Chettle,) when he complained that Shakespeare had "beautified himself” with the feathers of others: he alluded, as we apprehend, to the manner in which Shakespeare had availed himself of the two parts of the "Contention between the Houses, York and Lancaster," in the authorship of which there is much reason to suppose Greene had been concerned.5 Such evidence as remains upon this point has been adduced in our "Introduction" to "The Third Part of Henry VI. ;" and a perusal of the two parts of the "Contention," in their original state, will serve to show the condition of our dramatic literature at that great epoch of our stage-history, "The True when Shakespeare began to acquire celebrity." Tragedy of Richard III." is a drama of about the same period, which has come down to us in a much more imperfect state, the original manuscript having been obviously Edward II." We willingly adopt the qualification of Mr. Hallam upon this point, where he says, "Introduction to the Literature of Europe," vol. ii., p. 171, edit. 1843,) “I am reluctant to admit that Shakespeare modelled his characters by those of others; and it is natural to ask whether there were not an extraordinary likeness in the dispositions, as well as in the fortunes of the two kings?" " 4 In our biographical account of Shakespeare, under the date of 1592, we have necessarily entered more at large into this question. 5 Mr. Hallam ("Introduction to the Literature of Europe," vol. ii., p. 171) supposes that the words of Greene, referring to Shakespeare, There is an upstart crow beautified with our feathers," are addressed to Marlowe, who may have had a principal share in the production of the two parts of the "Contention." This conjecture is certainly more than plausible; but we may easily imagine Greene to have alluded to himself also, and that he had been Marlowe's partner in the composition of the two dramas, which Shakespeare remodelled, perhaps, not very long before the death of Greene. 6 They have been accurately reprinted by the Shakespeare Society, under the care of Mr. Halliwell, from the earliest impressions in 1594 and 1595. upon t very corrupt. It was printed in 1594, and Shakespeare, years older than Shakespeare, that he was a writer before finding it in the possession of the company to which he any of them: it does not seem, however, that his dramas was attached, probably had no scruple in constructing his were intended for the public stage, but for court-shows or "Richard the Third" of some of its rude materials. It private entertainments. His "Alexander and Campaspe," seems not unlikely that Robert Greene, and perhaps some the best of his productions, was represented at Court, and other popular dramatists of his day, had been engaged it was twice printed, in 1584, and again in 1591: it is, like "The True Tragedy of Richard III.” 1 most of this author's productions, in prose; but his “ WoThe dramatic works published under the name or initials man in the Moon" (printed in 1597) is in blank-verse, and of Robert Greene, or by extraneous testimony ascertained the "Maid's Metamorphosis," 1600, (if indeed it be by him,) to be his, were "Orlando Furioso," (founded upon the is in rhyme. As none of these dramas, generally compoems of Boiardo and Ariosto,) first printed in 1594; posed in a refined, affected, and artificial style, can be said "Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay," also first printed in 1594, to have had any material influence upon stage-entertainand taken from a popular story-book of the time; "Al-ments before miscellaneous audiences in London, it is unphonsus King of Arragon," 1599, for which we know of no necessary for our present purpose to say more regarding original; and "James the Fourth" of Scotland, 1598, them. partly borrowed from history, and partly mere invention. George Peele was about the same age as Lyly; but his Greene also joined with Thomas Lodge in writing a species theatrical productions (with the exception of "The Arof moral-miracle-play, (partaking of the nature of both,) raignment of Paris," printed in 1584, and written for the under the title of "A Looking-Glass for London and Eng-court) are of a different description, having been intended land," 1594, derived from sacred history; and to him has for exhibition at the ordinary theatres. His "Edward the also been imputed "George a Greene, the Pinner of Wake- First” he calls a "famous chronicle," and most of the incifield," and "The Contention between Liberality and Prodi- dents are derived from history: it is, in fact, one of our gality," the one printed in 1599, and the other in 1602. It earliest plays founded upon English annals. It was printed may be seriously doubted whether he had any hand in the in 1593 and in 1599, but with so many imperfections, that two last, but the productions above-named deserve atten- we cannot accept it as any fair representation of the state tion, as works written at an early date for the gratification in which it came from the author's pen. The most reof popular audiences. markable feature belonging to it is the unworthy manner In the passage already referred to from the "Groats- in which Peele sacrificed the character of the Queen to his worth of Wit," 1592, Greene also objects to Shakespeare desire to gratify the popular antipathy to the Spaniards: on the ground that he thought himself "as well able to the opening of it is spirited, and affords evidence of the bombast out a blank-verse" as the best of his contempora- author's skill as a writer of blank-verse. His "Battle of ries. The fact is, that in this respect, as in all others, Greene was much inferior to Marlowe, and still less can his lines bear comparison with those of Shakespeare. He doubtless began to write for the stage in rhyme, and his blank-verse preserves nearly all the defects of that early form: it reads heavily and monotonously, without variety of pause and inflection, and almost the only difference between it and rhyme is the absence of corresponding sounds at the ends of the lines. Alcazar" may also be termed a historical drama, in which he allowed himself the most extravagant licence as to time, incidents, and characters. It perhaps preceded his "Edward the First" in point of date, (though not printed until 1594,) and the principal event it refers to occurred in 1578. "Sir Clyomon and Clamydes" is merely a romance, in the old form of a rhyming play; and “David and Bethsabe," a scriptural drama, and a great improvement upon older pieces of the same description: Peele here confined The same defects, and in quite as striking a degree, be- himself strictly to the incidents in Holy Writ, and it cerlong to another of the dramatists who is entitled to be con-tainly contains the best specimens of his blank-verse comsidered a predecessor of Shakespeare, and whose name has position. His "Old Wives' Tale," in the shape in which it been before introduced-Thomas Lodge. Only one play in has reached us, seems hardly deserving of criticism, and it which he was unassisted has descended to us, and it bears would have received little notice but for some remote, and the title of "The Wounds of Civil War, lively set forth in perhaps accidental, resemblance between its story and that the True Tragedies of Marius and Sylla." It was not of Milton's "Comus."" printed until 1594, but the author began to write as early The "Jeronimo" of Thomas Kyd is to be looked upon as as 1580, and we may safely consider his tragedy anterior a species of transition play: the date of its composition, to the original works of Shakespeare: it was probably on the testimony of Ben Jonson, may be stated to be prior written about 1587 or 1588, as a not very successful experi- to 15887, just after Marlowe had produced his "Tamburment_in_blank-verse, in imitation of that style which Mar- laine," and when Kyd hesitated to follow his bold step to lowe had at once rendered popular. the full extent of his progress. "Jeronimo" is therefore partly in blank-verse, and partly in rhyme: the same observation will apply, though not in the same degree, to Kyd's "Spanish Tragedy:"it is in truth a second part of alty of Sir W. Draper, in 1566-7, of which an account is given by Mr. Fairholt, in his work upon "Lord Mayors' Pageants," printed for the Percy Society: he erroneously supposed it to have been the work of George Peele, who could not then have been more than fourteen years old, even if we carry back the date of his birth to 1553. George Peele was dead in 1598. As regards the dates when his pieces came from the press, John Lyly is entitled to earlier notice than Greene, Lodge, or even Marlowe; and it is possible, as he was ten 1 This drama has also been reprinted by the Shakespeare Society, with perfect fidelity to the original edition of 1594, in the library of the Duke of Devonshire. The reprint was superintended by Mr. B. Field. 2 In "The History of English Dramatic Poetry and the Stage," vol. iii., p. 155, it is observed of "Orlando Furioso:""How far this play was printed according to the author's copy, we have no means of deciding; but it has evidently come down to us in a very imperfect state." Means of determining the 'point beyond dispute have since been discovered in a manuscript of the part of Orlando (as written out for Edward Alleyn by the copyist of the theatre) preserved at Dulwich College. Hence it is clear that much was omitted and corrupted in the two printed editions of 1594 and 1599. See the "Memoirs of Edward Alleyn," p. 198. 3 They were acted by the children of the chapel, or by the children of St. Paul's, and a few of them bear evidence on the title-pages that they were presented at a private theatre-none of them that they had been played upon public stages before popular audiences. 5 It may be doubted whether Peele wrote any part of this production: it was printed anonymously in 1599, and all the evidence of authorship is the existence of a copy with the name of Peele, in an old hand, upon the title-page. If he wrote it at all, it was doubtless a very early composition, and it belongs precisely to the class of romantic plays ridiculed by Stephen Gosson about 1580. 6 See Milton's Minor Poems, by T. Warton, p. 135, edit. 1791. Of this resemblance, Warton, who first pointed it out, remarks, "That Milton had an eye on this ancient drama, which might have been a favourite in his early youth, perhaps it may be affirmed with at least as much credibility, as that he conceived the Paradise Lost from seeing a mystery at Florence, written by Adreini, a Florentine, in 1617, 4 He is supposed to have been born about the year 1553. He was entitled Adamo." The fact may have been, that Peele and Milton probably son to Stephen Peele, who was a bookseller and a writer of resorted to the same original, now lost: "The Old Wives' Tale" ballads. Stephen Peele was the publisher of Bishop Bale's miracle-reads exactly as if it were founded upon some popular storyplay of "God's Promises," in 1577, and his name is subscribed, as book. author, to two Ballads printed by the Percy Society in the earliest 7 In the Induction to his "Cynthia's Revels," acted in 1600, production from their press. The connexion between Stephen and where he is speaking of the revival of plays, and among others of George Peele has never struck any of the biographers of the latter." the old Jeronimo," which, he adds, had "departed a dozen years Stephen Peele was most likely the author of a pageant on the mayor- since." "Jeronimo," the story being continued from one play to the was unfurnished with moveable scenery; and tables, chairs, other, and managed with considerable dexterity. The in- a few boards for a battlemented wall, or a rude structure terest in the latter is great, and generally well sustained, for a tomb or an altar, seem to have been nearly all the and some of the characters are drawn with no little art and properties it possessed. It was usually hung round with force. The success of "Jeronimo," doubtless, induced Kyd decayed tapestry; and as there was no other mode of conto write the second part of it immediately; and we need veying the necessary information, the author often provided not hesitate in concluding that "The Spanish Tragedy" had that the player, on his entrance, should take occasion to mention the place of action. When the business of a piece required that the stage should represent two apartments, the effect was accomplished by a curtain, called a traverse, drawn across it; and a sort of balcony in the rear enabled the writer to represent his characters at a window, on the platform of a castle, or on an elevated terrace. been acted before 1590. Besides Marlowe, Greene, Lodge, Lyly, Peele, and Kyd, there were other dramatists, who may be looked upon as the immediate predecessors of Shakespeare, but few of whose printed works are of an earlier date, as regards composition, than some of those which came from the pen of our great poet. Among these, Thomas Nash was the most distinguished, whose contribution to "Dido," in conjunction with Marlowe, has been before noticed: the portions which came from the pen of Marlowe are, we think, easily to be distinguished from those written by Nash, whose genius does not seem to have been of an imaginative or dramatic, but of a satirical and objurgatory character. He produced alone a piece called "Summer's Last Will and Testament," which was written in the autumn of 1592, but not printed until 1600: it bears internal evidence that it was exhibited as a private show, and it could never have been meant for public performance.' Henry Chettle, who was also senior to Shakespeare, has left behind him a tragedy called "Hoffman," which was not printed until 1630; and he was engaged with Anthony Munday in producing "The Death of Robert Earl of Huntington," printed in 1601. From Henslowe's Diary we learn that both these pieces were written subsequent to the date when Shakespeare had acquired a high reputation. Munday had been a dramatist as early as 1584, when a rhyming translation by him, under the title of "The Two Italian Gentlemen," came from the press; and in the interval between that year and 1602, he wrote the whole or parts of various plays which have been lost. Robert Wilson ought not to be omitted: he seems to have been a prolific dramatist, but only one comedy by him has survived, under the title of "The Cobbler's Prophecy," and it was printed in 1594. According to the evidence of Henslowe, he aided Drayton and Munday in writing "The First Part of the Life of Sir John Oldcastle," printed in 1600; but he must at that date have been old, if he were the same Robert Wilson who was one of Lord Leicester's theatrical servants in 1574, and who became one of the leaders of the company called the Queen's Players in 1583. He seems to have been a low comedian, and his "Cobbler's Prophecy" is a piece, the drollery of which must have depended in a great degree upon the performers. With regard to mechanical facilities for the representation of plays before, and indeed long after, the time of Shakespeare, it may be sufficient to state, that our old public theatres were merely round wooden buildings, open to the sky in the audience part of the house, although the stage was covered by a hanging roof: the spectators stood on the ground in front or at the sides, or were accommodated in boxes round the inner circumference of the edifice, or in galleries at a greater elevation. Our ancient stage It can be shown to have been represented at Croydon, no doubt at Beddington, the residence of the Carews, under whose patronage Nash acknowledges himself to have been living. See the dedication to hisTerrors of the Night," 4to, 1594. The date of the death of Nash, who probably took a part in the representation of his "Summer's Last Will and Testament," has been disputed-whether it was before or after 1001; but the production of a cenotaph upon him, from Fitz-geoffrey's Affanice, printed in 1601, must put an end to all doubt. See the Introduction to Nash's "Pierce Pennyless," 1592, as reprinted for the Shakespeare Society. 2 The only known copy of this comedy is without a title-page, but it was entered at Stationers' Hall for publication in 1584, and we may presume that it was printed about that date. 3 He had some share in writing the first part of the "Life of Sir John Oldcastle," which was printed as Shakespeare's work in 1600, although some copies of the play exist without his name on the titlepage. To this simplicity, and to these deficiencies, we doubtless owe some of the finest passages in our early plays; for it was part of the business of the dramatist to supply the absence of coloured canvas by grandeur and luxuriance of description. The ear was thus made the substitute for the eye, and the poet's pen, aided by the auditor's imagination, more than supplied the place of the painter's brush. Moveable scenery was unknown in our public theatres until after the Restoration; and, as has been observed elsewhere, "the introduction of it gives the date to the commencement of the decline of our dramatic poetry." How far propriety of costume was regarded, we have no sufficient means of deciding; but we apprehend that more attention was paid to it than has been generally supposed, or than was accomplished at a much later and more refined period. It is indisputable, that often in this department no outlay was spared: the most costly dresses were purchased, that characters might be consistently habited; and, as a single proof, we may mention, that sometimes more than 20%. were given for a cloak," an enormous price, when it is recollected that money was then five or six times as valuable as at present. We have thus briefly stated all that seems absolutely required to give the reader a correct notion of the state of the English drama and stage at the period when, according to the best judgment we can form from such evidence as remains to us, Shakespeare advanced to a forward place among the dramatists of the day. As long ago as 1679, Dryden gave currency to the notion, which we have shown to be mistaken, that Shakespeare "created first the stage," and he repeated it in 1692: it is not necessary to the just admiration of our noble dramatist, that we should do injustice to his predecessors or earlier contemporaries: on the contrary, his miraculous powers are best to be estimated by a comparison with his ablest rivals; and if he appear not greatest when his works are placed beside those of Marlowe, Greene, Peele, or Lodge, however distinguished their rank as dramatists, and however deserved their popularity, we shall be content to think, that for more than two centuries the world has been under a delusion as to his claims. He rose to eminence, and he maintained it, amid struggles for equality by men of high genius and varied talents; and with his example ever since before us, no poet of our own, or of any other country, has even approached his excellence. Shakespeare is greatest by a comparison with greatness, or he is nothing. 4 "History of Engl. Dram. Poetry and the Stage," vol. iii., p. 366. 5 See "The Alleyn Papers," printed by the Shakespeare Society, p. 12. 6 In his Prologue to the alteration of "Troilus and Cressida," 1679, he puts these lines into the mouth of the Ghost of Shakespeare:"Untaught, unpractis'd, in a barbarous age, I found not, but created first the stage." In the dedication of the translation of Juvenal, thirteen years afterwards, Dryden repeats the same assertion in nearly the same words; "he created the stage among us." Shakespeare did not create the stage, and least of all did he create it such as it existed in the time of Dryden: "it was, in truth, created by no one man, and in no one age; and whatever improvements Shakespeare introduced, when he began to write for the theatre our romantic drama was completely formed, and firmly established,"-Pref. to "The Hist. of Engl. Dram Poetry and the Stage," vol. i., p. xi. |