later years by Malone, Broughton, and the compiler of the first 1 collected edition of the poet's works. The question has now settled itself beyond the imaginable possibility of change, and the two parts of Tamburlaine will continue to head the list of Marlowe's writings, until we are able to establish the chronological priority of some other work of the same poet-Dido, for instance, or the Ovid translations. For the Marlovian authorship of Tamburlaine an almost overwhelming case could be made out, if need were, from circumstantial evidence alone, but there is no reason for resorting to such proof. The personality of the writer is everywhere apparent in these plays. We are not merely assured that no poet except Marlowe was desirous or capable, about 1587, of starting the dramatic and stylistic. revolution which Tamburlaine inaugurated. We perceive also that the individual artistic development which we can trace backwards from Edward II to Dr. Faustus must inevitably have had its rise in Tamburlaine. The dominant trait of Marlowe's genius is its youthfulness; and we approach nowhere else so near to the essential character of the poet as in these two early plays, which, if they did not actually begin his career of authorship, certainly introduced him first to public notice. To a higher degree perhaps than is usually apprehended our conception of Marlowe as a personal influence in poetry is derived from the enthusiastic lyrism of Tamburlaine, and it remains a very open question whether the gain in form and objectivity in the later dramas brings with it an altogether sufficient compensation for the decrease in boyish ideality. Source. The question of the sources whence Marlowe derived his material for Tamburlaine has been much discussed, and is still not entirely solved. For the first part it seems clear that the poet was indebted primarily to the fourteenth chapter of the second part of Fortescue's Foreste, published in 1571, and again in 1576. Fortescue's book is a translation of Pedro Mexia's Silva de varia lecion (1543), which in its turn is based largely, as regards the chapter in question, but by no means entirely, on the chronicle of Andreas Cambinus. A direct translation from the Italian of Cambinus by John Shute 2 appears to have been entirely ignored by Marlowe, and there is no reason for 1 1826. 2 Two very notable Commentaries the one of the Originall of the Turcks and Empire of the house of Ottomanno ... 1562. assuming the poet's acquaintance with George Whetstone's condensed version of Fortescue in The English Myrror, 1586 (pp. 78-83). It would seem probable, however, that Thomas Newton's Notable History of the Saracens, 1575, furnished Marlowe with a number of proper names and suggested the story of Sigismund in Part II, while Messrs. Herford and Wagner have shown that individual passages of Part I are taken in all probability from the Latin of Petrus Perondinus (1553). The second part of Tamburlaine is confessedly an afterthought, not contemplated when the first part was written. It is mostly Marlowe's invention. The story of Olympia, however, was taken, as Collier first pointed out, from Ariosto (Orlando Furioso, Bk. XXIX). It would be of interest to determine the precise channel through which this tale reached the dramatist; he may, of course, have known it in the Italian, but it is more likely that he read it in MS. in Sir John Harington's translation, which after years of preparation was published in 1591. A similar instance of borrowing from a MS. source occurs at the end of the fourth act of Part II (ll. 4098-4103), where six lines are copied from the as yet unpublished Fairy Queen, and copied so carelessly as to leave a tell-tale Alexandrine in the midst of the usual pentameters of dramatic verse. 1 Academy, xxiv, pp. 265, 266, Tamburlaine the Great. Who, from a Scythian Shephearde, And (for his tyranny, and terrour in The Scourge of God. Deuided into two Tragicall Dif courfes, as they were fundrie times By the right honorable the Lozd Now first, and newlie published. LONDO N. Painted by Richard I hones: at the figne of the Rofe and Crowne neere Holborne Bridge, 159 0. Bull. = B.L. B.L. B.L. (Robinson's) edition of Marlowe, 1826. revised Cunningham's Bullen's 1858, etc. 1870, etc. 1885. Wag. A. Wagner's edition of Tamburlaine, 1885. Ellis = 'Mermaid' edition of Marlowe's best plays, 1887, etc. T. B. = The present editor. = C. B.'s conjectures in 'Anglia', Beiblatt, 1905, p. 207. = J. Le Gay Brereton, (a) Notes on the Text of Marlowe, Anglia', Beiblatt, 1905, pp. 203 ff. (b) Passages from the Works of Marlowe, Sydney, 1902. J. B.'s MS. notes in copy of Rob. (Brit. Mus. J. P. Collier's MS. notes in copy of Dyce' (Brit. J. P. C.'s Introduction to Coleridge, Seven Lectures A. S. C. in Modern Language Notes, xxi. 112, 113. K. E., Notes on Elizabethan Dramatists, 1889. J. M. in Gentleman's Magazine, Jan. 1841. To the Gentlemen Readers: and others that take pleasure in reading Histories. Gentlemen, and curteous Readers whosoeuer: I haue here published in print for your sakes, the two tragical Discourses of the Scythian Shepheard, Tamburlaine, that became so great a Conquerour, and so mightie a Monarque: My hope is, that they wil be now no lesse acceptable vnto you to read 5 after your serious affaires and studies, then they haue bene (lately) delightfull for many of you to see, when the same were shewed in London vpon stages: I haue (purposely) omitted and left out some fond and friuolous Iestures, digressing (and in my poore opinion) far vnmeet for the matter, which 10 I thought, might seeme more tedious vnto the wise, than any way els to be regarded, though (happly) they haue bene of some vaine conceited fondlings greatly gaped at, what times they were shewed vpon the stage in their graced deformities: neuertheles now, to be mixtured in print with such matter 15 of worth, it wuld prooue a great disgrace to so honorable & stately a historie: Great folly were it in me, to commend vnto your wisedomes, either the eloquence of the Authour that writ them, or the worthinesse of the matter it selfe; I therefore leaue vnto your learned censures, both the one and 20 the other, and my selfe the poore printer of them vnto your most curteous and fauourable protection; which if you vouchsafe to accept, you shall euermore binde mee to imploy what trauell and seruice I can, to the aduauncing and pleasuring of your excellent degree. Yours, most humble at commandement, 25 |