that clean and unsophisticated wit, which is natural to that incomparable poet*."

Marlow, though fully appreciated in his own day, suffered considerably during the reign of French taste, when the rules were the only standard of excellence, and when Dr. Johnson wrote and printed with applause in his edition of Shakspeare, a series of cold, antithetical critiques, whose contemptuous brevity seems to intimate that, in his own conceit, the great moralist was a god to punish the fancied lapses of the sweet Swan, not a mortal to adore. The attention to black letter (as it was termed) which was then beginning to prevail, called the name, if not the works, of Marlow into notice; and Malone properly observed, "that he was the most famous and admired poet of that age, previous to the appearance of Shakspeare." In 1808 his plays came under the judgment of Charles Lamb, in his pithy, and deeply-weighed characters of the Elizabethan Dramatists :

Phillips's Theatrum Poetarum. By Sir E. Brydges. Lond. 1800, p. 113.

"Faustus" and "Lust's Dominion" were reprinted, with prefatory sketches, in 1814.-Analyses of "Edward II." and the "Jew of Malta," were inserted in Blackwood's interesting magazine; and, still later, his "mighty line" has drawn high praise from the glittering pen of Mr. Hazlitt. Mr. Lamb is rather hard on the fame of Marlow, and indeed shows less attention to his merits, than to those of any other author included in his specimens.- Barrabbas serves merely as a peg on which to fasten, under the cloak of moral observation, an illiberal sneer at a noted wealthy Jewish family; and "Tamburlaine" is said to be "in a very different style from the tragedy of Edward II." Did not this discrepancy suggest to Mr. Lamb some doubts as to the identity of the author? The genuineness of the Scythian Shepherd has often been suspected; Phillips attributes it to Thomas Newton-and till this point is settled, surely so ardent an admirer of the very reverend ancients might have spared poor Kit's manes the mortification of "the lunes of Tamburlaine." "Lust's Dominion" is dismis

sed in four lines, which savour rather of the Rambler's dogmatism than the Reflector's ingenuous, good humoured quaintness. "Rape, murder, and superlatives,” are indeed there, yet many, many redeeming passages may be found, containing descriptions full of a certain amorous splendour without gaudiness, and scathing threats thundered from furnace hearts without rant. Many of Eleazar's very ravings are written with prodigious gusto and relish; and it may be said of Marlow, as it has been said of Kean the actor, that “he has a devil.”—“ There is a good deal of the same intense passion as in Faustus, the same recklessness of purpose, and the same smouldering fire within." In support of these remarks, it is hoped, the reader will not object to a few quotations; in which he can hardly fail to observe the variety and melody of Marlow's versification, with one or two exceptions, where the text is probably corrupt. The queen endeavouring to sooth Eleazar with her sugared blandishments, says,

"Smile upon me! and these two wanton boys, These pretty lads that do attend on me,

Shall call thee Jove, shall wait upon thy cup
Aud fill thee nectar: their enticing eyes
Shall serve as crystal, wherein thou may'st see
To dress thyself, if thou wilt smile on me.-
Smile on me, and with coronets of pearl,
And bells of gold, circling their pretty arms
In a round ivory fount these two shall swim,
And dive to make thee sport: bestow one smile,
And in a net of twisted silk and gold

In my all-naked arms thyself shall lie."

The old king expiring, and blind with the mists of death, desires an attendant to call his daughter, who is lying drowned in tears at the bed's foot.

"King Philip. Come hither, Isabella! reach a hand,— Yet now it shall not need; instead of thine

Death, shoving thee back, clasps his hands in mine,
And bids me come away

His younger son, Prince Philip, upbraids his mother and the courtiers with her lusts.

"Call not me your son!

My father, while he liv'd, tir'd his strong arms
In bearing Christian armour 'gainst the Turks,
And spent his brains in warlike stratagems,
To bring confusion on damn'd infidels :
Whilst you, that snorted here at home, betrayed
His name to everlasting infamy;—

Whilst you at home suffered his bed-chamber
To be a brothelry,—whilst you at home,
Suffer'd his queen to be a concubine,

And wanton red-cheek'd boys to be her bawds;
Whilst she, reeking in that letcher's arms—
Eleazar. Me!

Phil. Villain, 'tis thee! thou hell-begotten fiend! At thee I stare!

Act the third opens with the following address to Night.

"Queen. Fair eldest child of Love! thou spotless Night,

Empress of Silence, and the queen of Sleep,

Who with thy black cheeks' pure complexion,
Mak'st lovers' eyes enamoured of thy beauty!—
Thou'rt like my Moor!-

Eleazar, raging for the death of his wife Maria, fancies king Fernando to be the murderer.

"Eleaz. Now, by the proud complexion of my
cheeks,

Ta'en from the kisses of the amorous Sun,
Were he ten thousand kings that slew my love,
Thus should my hand, plum'd with Revenge's wings,
Requite mine own dishonour and her death.

[Stabs the king.

The king being slain, the Moorish prince thus solicits the crown of Castile.—