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There was a magnificence about the Court of James at this period which probably had some influence even upon the productions which Shakspere presented to the Court and the people. The romantic incidents of The Winter's Tale and The Tempest, the opportunities afforded by the construction of their plots for gorgeous scenery, the masque so beautifully interwoven with the loves of Ferdinand and Miranda, all was in harmony with the poetical character of the royal revels. Prince Henry in his premature manhood was distinguished for his skill in all noble exercises. The tournaments of this period were attempts on the part of the Prince to revive the spirit of chivalry. The young man was himself of a high and generous nature; and if he was surrounded by some favourites whose embroidered suits and glittering armour were the coverings of heartless profligacy and low ambition, there were others amongst the courtiers who honestly shared the enthusiasm of Henry, and invoked the genius of chivalry, "Possess'd with sleep, dead as a lethargy,"

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to awake at the name Meliadus.* The Prince's Masque' was one of those elegant productions of Ben Jonson which have given an immortality to the fleeting pleasures of the nights of Whitehall. Jonson's own descriptions of the scenery of these masques show how much that was beautiful as well as surprising was attempted with imperfect materials. The effects were perhaps very inferior to the scenic displays of the modern stage, though Inigo Jones was the machinist. But the descriptions of these wonders rocks, and moons, and transparent palaces, and moving chariots- are as vivid as if the genius of Stanfield had realized the poet's conceptions. It was probably on some one of these occasions that Jonson became known to Drummond, who had succeeded to his

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The naine adopted by the Prince. Drummond called him Maliades, an anagram of Miles à Deo. + See Mr. Peter Cunningham's 'Life of Inigo Jones;'--one of those performances in which is shown how accuracy and dulness are not essential compauions; how taste and antiquarianism may co-exist.

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inheritance, and was seeking in the excitement of travel some relief to that melancholy which was produced by the sudden bereavement of his betrothed mistress-a loss which embittered his life, but gave to his genius much of its delicacy and tenderness. The mind of Drummond was too refined for the rough work which belongs to a court, even amongst its glittering.

"O how more sweet is bird's harmonious moan,

Or the hoarse sobbings of the widow'd dove,

Than those smooth whisp'rings near a prince's throne,
Which good make doubtful, do the evil approve."

There was another maker of verses-a Scot-in the Court of James, who, though not without talent, would in his inmost heart despise the "love of peace and lonely musing" which were characteristic of the poet of Hawthornden. William

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Alexander had essentially a prosaic mind; though he did accomplish four monarchic tragedies, which some wise critics have put in the same class with the Roman plays of Shakspere. Whether he was engaged in the manufacture of plays or copper money, he had essentially an eye to his own advancement; and if James called him his philosophical poet, we may still believe that the King thought there was more true philosophy in Alexander's money-making scheme for a new order of baronets than in the many thousand lines of laborious writing and reading which by courtesy were called Recreations with the Muses.' We may without much want of charity suspect that Jonson's Prince's Masque' and Shakspere's Winter's

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Tale might be regarded by the Earl of Stirling as Pepys regarded the Midsummer Night's Dream-"It is the most insipid, ridiculous play that ever I saw in my life."

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The refinements of the Court extended to the people. The Bear-Garden was adapted to theatrical performances; and rendered "convenient in all things. both for players to play in, and for the game of bears and bulls to be baited in the same. The gorgeousness of the scenic displays of Whitehall became at this period a subject of imitation at the public theatres. Sir Henry Wotton thus writes to his nephew on the 6th of July, 1613:-" Now to let matters of state sleep, I will entertain you at the present with what happened this week at the Bankside. The King's players had a new play, called 'All is True,' representing some principal pieces of the reign of Henry the Eighth, which was set forth with many extraordinary circumstances of pomp and majesty, even to the matting of the stage; the knights of the order, with their Georges and Garter, the guards with their embroidered coats and the like; sufficient, in truth, within a while to make greatness very familiar, if not ridiculous." This description, as we believe, applies to the original representation of Shakspere's play of Henry VIII. We believe also that Shakspere on this occasion introduced such a compliment to the government of the King as was' consistent with the independence of his character and that genuine patriotism that was a part of his nature.

"Wherever the bright sun of heaven shall shine,

His honour, and the greatness of his name,

Shall be, and make new nations."

This is somewhat different from Jonson's compliment to the man :

"His meditations, to his height, are even

All, all their issue is akin to heaven-
He is a god o'er kings." +

And yet it has been said, either that Shakspere condescended to be a flatterer, or that he did not write the compliment to James implied in Cranmer's prophecy. We believe that he did write the lines; that they are not an interpolation; and that, although they may have been written in the spirit of gratitude for personal favours, it is gratitude of the loftiest kind, honourable alike to the giver and to the receiver, because wholly free from adulation.

There was a catastrophe at this representation of the new play of Henry VIII. which may possibly have had some influence upon the future life of Shakspere. Sir Henry Wotton thus describes the burning of the Globe theatre:-"Now King Henry, making a mask at the Cardinal Wolsey's house, and certain cannons being shot off at his entry, some of the paper, or other stuff wherewith one of them was stopped, did light on the thatch, where, being thought at first but an idle smoke, and their eyes being more attentive to the show, it kindled inwardly, and ran round like a train, consuming, within less than an hour, the whole house to the very ground." The Globe was re-built in the ensuing

Collier's Annals of the Stage,' vol. iii., p. 285.

+ See Introductory Notice to Henry VIII.

Masque of Oberon.

spring. The conflagration was so rapid that Prynne wished to show it was a judgment of Providence upon players-"The sudden fearful burning even the ground." Jonson, in his Execration upon Vulcan,' says the Globe was

“Raz'd, ere thought could urge, this might have been."

It appears likely that this calamity terminated the direct and personal connexion of Shakspere with the London stage. We do not find him associated with the rebuilding of the Globe, nor with any of the schemes for new theatres with which Alleyn and Henslow were so busy. We have no record whatever of any new play of Shakspere's being produced after this performance of Henry VIII. at the Globe. Was he wholly idle as a writer? We apprehend not. Of the three Roman plays we have yet to speak. In the meanwhile let us take a rapid survey of the state of dramatic poetry, and of the later disciples of the school of Shakspere. We have already given a sketch of the more remarkable of the contemporaries with whom he would necessarily be associated in the last years of the previous century.

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In the Address to the Reader prefixed to the first edition, published in 1612, of The White Devil, or Vittoria Corombona,' of John Webster, is the following passage:Detraction is the sworn friend to ignorance: for mine own part, I have ever truly cherished my good opinion of other men's worthy labours, especially of that full and heightened style of Maste: Chapman; the laboured and understanding works of Master Jonson; the no less worthy composures of the both worthily excellent Master Beaumont and Master Fletcher; and lastly (with out wrong last to be named), the right happy and copious industry of Master Shakespeare, Master Dekker, and Master Heywood, wishing what I write may be read by their light; protesting that, in the strength of mine own judgment, I know them so worthy, that though I rest silent in my own work, yet to most of theirs I dare (without flattery) fix that of Martial:

'Non norunt hæc monumenta mori.""

Webster was formed upon Shakspere. He had no pretensions to the inexhaustible wit, the all-penetrating humour of his master; but he had the power of approaching the terrible energy of his passion, and the profoundness of his pathos, in characters which he took out of the great muster-roll of humanity, and placed in fearful situations, and sometimes with revolting imaginings almost beyond humanity. Those who talk of the carelessness of Shakspere may be surprised to find that his praise is that of a "right happy and copious industry." It is clear what dramatic writers were the objects of Webster's love. He did not aspire to the "full and heightened style of Master Chapman," nor would his genius be shackled by the examples of "the laboured and understanding works of Master Jonson." He belonged to the school of the romantic dramatists. Master Beaumont and Master Fletcher are "worthily excellent;" but his aspiration was to imitate "the right happy and copious industry of Master Shakespeare, Master Dekker, and Master Heywood, wishing what I write may be read by their light." There were critics, then, who

regarded the romantic drama as a diversion for the multitude only; and Web. ster thinks it necessary to apologize for his deliberate choice-" Willingly and not ignorantly in this kind have I faulted." He says" If it be objected this is no true dramatic poem, I shall easily confess it, non potes in nugas dicere plura meas, ipse ego quam dixi; willingly, and not ignorantly, in this kind have I faulted: for should a man present, to such an auditory, the most sententious tragedy that ever was written, observing all the critical laws, as height of style, and gravity of person, enrich it with the sententious Chorus, and, as it were, 'liven death, in the passionate and weighty Nuntias; yet, after all this divine rapture, O dura messorum ilia, the breath that comes from the uncapable multitude is able to poison it; and, ere it be acted, let the author resolve to fix to every scene this of Horace

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'Hæc porcis hodie comedenda relinques.""

As early as 1602, Webster was a writer for Henslow's theatre, in conjunction with Dekker, Drayton, Middleton, Chettle, Heywood, and Wentworth Smith. His At a later period he was more directly associated with Dekker alone great tragedies of The White Devil' and The Duchess of Malfi' were produced at the period when Shakspere had almost ceased to write; and it is probably to this circumstance we owe these original and unaided efforts of Webste's genius. There was a void to be filled up, and it was worthily filled up.

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As he advanced in

Webster has placed his coadjutor Dekker next to Shakspere. We have before pointed attention to this remarkable man's early career. years he was wielding greater powers, and dealing with higher things than belonged to the satirist. In his higher walk he is of the

school of nature and

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