of the play, which shew that it was still in some repute, might be cited from writers of a more recent period.* But before the close of the seventeenth century it had sunk into oblivion: a precocious young gentleman, a Mr. Charles Saunders, whose Tamerlane (after having been acted, with a Prologue by Dryden) was printed in 1681, writes thus in his Preface; "It hath been told me, there is a Cock-pit play going under the name of The Scythian Shepherd or Tamberlain the Great, which how good it is, any one may judge by its obscurity, being a thing, not a bookseller+ in *E. G. " Tut, leave your raging, sir; for though you should roar like Tamerlin at the Bull," &c. Cowley's Guardian, act iii, sc. 6, ed. 1650. + Since those days, the old editions of Marlowe's pieces have, of course, become more and more difficult to procure. The following fragment of Memoranda, in the handwriting of (I believe) Dr. Ducarel, was obligingly forwarded to me by Mr. Bolton Corney, and may prove not uninteresting to some readers. "One fine summer's day, in the year one thousand seven hundred and sixty four, going into an old book-shop kept by an old woman and her daughter, on the north side of MiddleRow, Holbourn, to look for any ancient books; not being there long, looking round the shop, before Dodd the comedian came in, to search, as he told me, for any one of Kit Marlow's plays. I asked the old woman if she had any more books besides those in the shop. She said she had; but they were in an inner room without any window-light; and that the last person that had been there was the noted book-worm Dr. Rawlinson,' who then had been sleeping with his fathers some few years. "Mr. Dodd ask'd if it was agreeable for him to accompany me. We had two candles lighted, and going into this dark recess, saw a great number of books laying on the ground, which took us some hours looking over. He brought out a book or two; but was not lucky enough to find Kit Marlow there. And, after turning over, for three or four hours, many dirty books, I only found worth buying," &c. Though Dodd failed in Middle-Row, he must have found "dark recesses " in other localities where a search after early dramas was not made in vain; for his collection of plays (sold by auction after his decease) was very curious and valuable. 電 London, or scarce the players themselves who acted it formerly, cow'd call to remembrance." With very little discrimination of character, with much extravagance of incident, with no pathos where pathos was to be expected, and with a profusion of inflated language, Tamburlaine is nevertheless a very impressive drama, and undoubtedly superior to all the English tragedies which preceded it; superior to them in the effectiveness with which the events are brought out, in the poetic feeling which animates the whole, and in the nerve and variety of the versification. Marlowe was yet to shew that he could impart truthfulness to his scenes; but not a few passages might be gleaned from Tamburlaine, as grand in thought, as splendid in imagery, and as happy in expression, as any which his later works contain. "A memorandum that Marlowe "translated Coluthus's Rape of Helen into English rhyme in the year 1587," is cited from Coxeter's MSS. by Warton; who observes that "Coluthus's poem was probably brought into vogue, and suggested to Marlowe's notice, by being paraphrased in Latin verse the preceding year by Thomas Watson."*-The poet of Lycopolis so seldom rises above mediocrity, that the loss of Marlowe's version may be borne with perfect resignation. It is to be presumed that Tamburlaine had not been long before the public, when Marlowe produced his Faustus. † * Hist. of Engl. Poet. iii. 433, ed. 4to; where Warton also remarks, "I have never seen it [ Marlowe's translation of Coluthus]... But there is entered to Jones, in 1595, A booke entituled Raptus Helena, Helen's Rape, by the Athenian duke Theseus'."Surely, Warton could not mean, that the book entered to Jones in 1595 was perhaps Marlowe's version of Coluthus; for Coluthus relates the rape of Helen by Paris, not by Theseus. Mr. Collier observes that "Marlowe's Faustus, in all pro bability, was written very soon after his Tamburlaine the Great, We know not the date of the first edition of the proseromance which supplied the materials for this play; but "A ballad of the life and death of Doctor Faustus the great cungerer" was licensed to be printed 28th February, 1588-9; and, as ballads were frequently founded on favourite dramas, it is most likely that the ditty just mentioned was derived from our author's play. A stanza in Rowlands's Knave of Clubs, not only informs us that Alleyn acted the chief part in this tragedy, but also describes his costume; "The gull gets on a surplis, With a crosse upon his brest, In that manner was he drest." * The success of Faustus was complete. Henslowe has sundry entries + concerning it; none, however, earlier than 30th Sept. 1594, at which date Marlowe was dead, and the play, there is every reason to believe, had been several years on the prompter's list. Henslowe has also two important memoranda regarding the " additions" which were made to it, when, in consequence of having been repeatedly performed, it had somewhat palled upon the audience; as in 1588 a ballad of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus' (which in the language of that time might mean either the play or a metrical composition founded upon its chief incidents) was licensed to be printed." Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poet. iii. 126. As we find that the play was entered in the Stationers' Books in 1601, the "ballad of Faustus" must mean the story of Faustus in verse, perhaps, that ballad which I have inserted in vol. ii. 157. When Mr. Collier stated that the old romance of Faustus was entered in the Stationers' Books in 1588 (note on Henslowe's Diary, p. 42), he meant, I apprehend, the old ballad. * P. 22. ed. Percy Soc. (reprint of ed. 1611). An inventory of Alleyn's theatrical apparel includes "Faustus Jerkin, his cloke." Collier's Mem, of Alleyn, p. 20. + Diary, pp. 42-91, ed. Shake. Soc. "Pd unto Thomas Dickers [Dekker], the 20 of Desembr 1597, for adycyons to Fostus twentie shellinges." "Lent unto the companye, the 22 of novmbr 1602, to paye unto Wm Birde and Samwell Rowley for ther adicyones in Docter Fostes, the some of . . . . iiiji".* Faustus was entered in the Stationers' Books 7th January 1600-1.* **The earliest edition yet discovered is the quarto of 1604; which never having been examined either by Marlowe's editors or (what is more remarkable) by the excellent historian of the stage, Mr. Collier, they all remained ignorant how very materially it differs from the later editions. The next quarto, that of 1616 (reprinted in 1624 and in 1631), besides a text altered more or less from the commencement to the end, contains some characters and scenes which are entirely new: but, as the present work includes both the edition of 1604 and that of 1616, a more particular account of their variations is unnecessary here.-We have seen that "additions" were made to Faustus in 1597, and again in 1602, at the first of which dates Marlowe had been several years deceased; and a question arises, is the quarto of 1604 wholly from our author's pen, or is it, as the quarto of 1616 indisputably is, -an alteration of the tragedy by other hands? Malone believed that the quarto of 1604 was "Marlowe's original play;"† but a passage in a speech of * Id. pp. 71, 228.-Among the stage-properties of the Lord Admiral's men (Id. p. 273) we find "j dragon in fostes." ** I make this statement on the authority of the MS. notes by Malone in his copies of 4tos 1604 and 1631 (now in the Bodleian Library). + MS. Note in his copy of 4to 1604.-In his copy of 4to 1631 he has written; "The reason why Rowley and Bird's additions did not appear in the edition of 1604, was, that they were retained for the use of the theatre." (Malone, it would seem, was not then aware that Dekker had made additions to Faustus in 1597.)-Mr. Collier says, "We may conclude that the additions last made [to Faustus by Bird and Rowley] were very considerable; and with them probably the piece was c the Horse-courser proves him to have been mistaken. The words are these; "Mass, Doctor Lopus was never such a doctor :"* now, Marlowe died in 1593; and the said Doctor Lopez did not start into notoriety till the following year, during which he suffered death at Tyburn for his treasonable practices. † I at first entertained no doubt that the (somewhat mutilated and corrupted) quarto of 1604 presented Faustus with those comparatively unimportant "additions" for which Dekker was paid twenty shillings in 1597; and that the quarto of 1616 exhibited that alteration of the play which was made by the combined ingenuity of Bird and Rowley in 1602. But I have recently felt less confident on this subject, having found that the anonymous comedy The Taming of a Shrew, which was entered in the Stationers' Books and printed in 1594, contains a seeming imitation of a line in Faustus,‚—a line which occurs only in the quarto of 1616 (reprinted in 1624 and 1631), and which belongs to a scene that, as the merest novice in criticism will at once perceive, was not the composition of Marlowe. If the line in question was really imitated by the author of The Taming of a Shrew, we must conclude that, earlier than 1597, Faustus had received "additions" concerning which the an printed in 1604." Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poet. III. 126: but when Mr. Collier made this remark, he was unacquainted with the quarto of 1604, as is proved by his quoting, throughout his valuable work, the text of the later Faustus. * Vol. ii. 64. He was executed in June 1594: see Stowe's Annales, p. 768, ed. 1615. + It is, "Or hew'd this flesh and bones as small as sand." The probable imitation of it is, "And hew'd thee smaller than the Libian sandes." The resemblance between these two lines might have been considered as purely accidental, did not the Taming of a Shrew contain several passages almost transcribed from Tamburlaine and Faustus: see much more on this subject towards the conclusion of the present essay. |