A snowy feather spangled white he bears; As red as scarlet is his furniture; Then must his kindled wrath be quenched with blood, But if these threats move not submission, Black are his colours, black pavilion, His spear, his shield, his horse, his armour, plumes, Without respect of sex, degree or age, He razeth all his foes with fire and sword. Detached lines and passages in 'Edward II.' possess much poetical beauty. Thus, in answer to Leicester, the king says: Leicester, if gentle words might comfort me, Or Mortimer's device for the royal pageant: On whose top branches kingly eagles perch, The following is exactly like a scene from Shakspeare: YOUNG MORTIMER. Nay, stay my lord': I come to bring you news EDWARD. Then ransom him. LANCASTER. 'Twas in your wars; you should ransom him. Y. MOR. And you shall ransom him, or else KENT. What! Mortimer, you will not threaten him? EDW. Quiet yourself; you shall have the broad seal To gather for him through the realm. LANC. Your minion, Gaveston, hath taught you this. Y. MORT. My lord, the family of the Mortimers Are not so poor, but would they sell their land, Could levy inen enough to anger you. We never beg, but use such prayers as these. Y. MOR. Nay, now you 're here alone, I'll speak my mind. Y. MOR. The idle triumphs, masques, lascivious shows, And prodigal gifts bestowed on Gaveston, Have drawn thy treasury dry, and made thee weak: LANC. Look for rebellion, look to be deposed: Thy garrisons are beaten out of France, And, lame and poor, lie groaning at the gates. Y. MOR. The haughty Dane commands the narrow seas, LANC. What foreign prince sends thee ambassadors ? Y. MOR. Thy court is naked, being bereft of those I mean the Peers, whom thou shouldst dearly love: Ballads and rhymes made of thy overthrow. LANC. The northern borderers secing their houses burned, Cursing the name of thee and Gaveston. Y. MOR. When wert thou in the field with banners spread? LANC. And therefore came it that the fleering Scots For your lemans you have lost at Bannocksbourn, What weened the king of England So soon to have won Scotland With a rombelow?' Y. MOR. Wigmore shall fly to set my uncle free. LANC. And when 'tis gone, our swords shall purchase more. [Exeunt nobles. The works of Marlowe have been edited by the Rev. Alex. Dyce (1859), and by Lieutenant-colonel Francis Cunningham (1869). The latter has added some excellent illustrative and explanatory notes. The taste of the public for the romantic drama, in preference to the classical, seems now to have been confirmed. An attempt was made, towards the close of Elizabeth's reign, to revive the forms of the classic stage, by DANIEL, who wrote two plays, ' Cleopatra and Philotas,' which are smoothly versified, but undramatic in their character. LADY PEMBROKE CO operated in a tragedy called 'Antony,' written in 1590; and SAMUEL BRANDON produced, in 1598, a tame and feeble Roman play, ' Virtuous Octavia.' ANTHONY MUNDAY-HENRY CHETTLE. In the throng of dramatic authors, the names of ANTHONY MUNDAY (1554-1633) and HENRY CHETTLE (known as author between 1592 and 1602) frequently occur. Munday was an author as early as 1579, and he was concerned in fourteen plays. Francis Meres, in 1598, calls him the best plotter' among the writers for the stage. One of his dramas, ‘Sir John Oldcastle,' was written in conjunction with Michael Drayton and others, and was printed in 1600, with the name of Shakspeare on the title-page. 'The Death of Robert, Earl of Huntington,' printed in 1601, was a popular play by Munday, assisted by Chettle, though sometimes ascribed to Thomas Heywood. The pranks of Robin Hood and Maid Marian in merry Sherwood are thus gaily set forth: Sport in Sherwood. Wind once more, jolly huntsmen, all your horns, Before our feathered shafts, death's winged darts, Give me thy hand; now God's curse on me light, ... Now make a cry, and yoemen, stand ye round: Sent from their quaint recording pretty throats, For thy steel glass, wherein thou wont'st to look, At court, a flower or two did deck thy head, Now, with whole garlands it is circled; For what in wealth we want, we have in flowers, Chettle was engaged in no less than thirty-eight plays between the years 1597 and 1603, four of which have been printed. Mr. Collier thinks he had written for the stage before 1592, when he published Greene's posthumous work, A Groat's Worth of Wit.' Among his plays the names of which have descended to us, is one on the subject of Cardinal Wolsey, which probably was the original of Shakspeare's 'Henry VIII.' The best drama of this prolific author which we now possess is a comedy called 'Patient Grissell,' taken from Boccaccio. The humble charms of the heroine are thus finely described: See where my Grissell and her father is Methinks her beauty, shining through those weeds, How lovely poverty dwells on her back! Did but the proud world note her as I do, She would cast off rich robes, forswear rich state, To clothe her in such poor habiliments. 1 The names of Haughton, Antony Brewer, Porter, Smith, Hathaway-probably some relation of Shakspeare's wife-Wilson, &c. also occur as dramatic writers. From the diary of Henslowe, it appears that, between 1591 and 1597, upwards of a hundred different plays were performed by four of the ten or eleven theatrical companies which then existed. Henslowe was originally a pawnbroker, who advanced money and dresses to the players, and he ultimately possessed a large share of the wardrobe and properties of the playhouses with which he was concerned. The name of Shakspeare does not once occur in his diary. Several good dramas of this golden age have descended to us, the authors of which are unknown. A few of these possess merit enough to have been considered first sketches of Shakspeare, but this opinion has been gradually abandoned by all but one or two German critics. Most of them have been published in Dodsley's 'Collection_of Old Plays. The best are the Merry Devil of Edmonton,' the London Prodigal,' the Yorkshire Tragedy, Lord Cromwell, the Birth of Merlin,' the Collier of Croydon,' Mucedorus,' 'Locrine,' 'Arden of Feversham.' the Misfortunes of Arthur,' 'Edward III.,' &c. The most correct and regular of these anonymous dramas is "Arden of Feversham,' a domestic tragedy, founded on a murder which took place in 1551. Alice, the wife of Arden, proves unfaithful, and joins with her paramour Mosbie, and some assassins, in murdering her husband. Tieck has translated this play into German, as a genuine production of Shakspeare, but the style is different. In the earliest acknowledged works of the Warwickshire bard, there is a play of wit, and of what Hallam calls analogical imagery,' which is not seen in 'Arden of Feversham,' though it exhibits a strong picture of the pas sions, and indicates freedom of versification and dramatic art. We subjoin one touching scene between Alice and her paramour—a scene of mutual recrimination, guilt and tenderness: Scene from Arden of Feversham. ALICE ARDEN.-MOSBIE. MOSBIE. How now, Alice! What! sad and passionate? Fire divided burns with lesser force, ALICE. But I will dam that fire in my breast, Till by the force thereof my part consume. Ah, Mosbie! AL. And then-conceal the rest, for 'tis too bad, AL. Ay, to my former happy life again; I was bewitched; woe-worth the hapless hour And all the causes that enchanted me. Mos. Nay, if thou ban, let me breathe curses forth; And if you stand so nicely at your fame, Let me repent the credit I have lost. I have neglected matters of import, That would have 'stated me above thy state; For-slowed advantages, and spurned-at time; Ay, fortune's right hand Mosbie hath forsook, To take a wanton giglot by the left. I left the marriage of an honest maid, Whose dowry would have weighed down all thy wealth; Whose beauty and demeanor far exceeded thee. This certain good I lost for changing bad, And wrapt my credit in thy company. I was bewitched; that is no theme of thine; AL. Ay, now I see, and too soon find it true,' I will do penance for offending thee; |