mentioned. It is to be lamented that this valuable relic is in a very mutilated state, and that the whole of the last act (for it is regularly divided and subdivided) is wanting.

The scene is laid in Italy; but as a picture of manners and peculiarities in England at the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth it is excellent, and the allusions to circumstances well known at the time it was written are frequent. The characters are twelve in number, and many of the names given to them are of Greek or Latin composition, indicative of the habits and dispositions of the persons: they are so arranged that the comedy could be performed by ten players. One peculiarity presents itself in the very commencement— the prologue was spoken by an actor in the character of Homer, with a wreath of bays round his head-1

'Yow that are here moste excellente, and yow moste honeste auditoures,

Thinke not I have the lorrell bowes or ivy berryes gotte,

That I shoulde vaunte my selfe to be like to Apollo's oratoures :
To speake in breif I thinke it best, of truth I ment it not.
Yf any ask, then, why I decke my temples thus with bayse,
Or why this garlande here I ware, not being Laureate?
Forsooth, I come in Homers hewe our historye forth to blase,
As custome is and ever was: well marke therof the state.'

He then proceeds in the following terms to give the outline of the plot—

'Whilum there in Laurentum dwelt, a towne of antike fame

In Italye, a countrey earst renounde with Trojane knightes,

A gentleman, whome lott assinde Philogonus to name :

Of this man's destinies this tyme our author onely writes.

1 It was not unusual for the speaker of the prologue to wear bays or laurel, and in the accounts of the Revels before Queen Elizabeth, we read entries of a charge for 'bays for the prologue'.

VOL. II.

BB

'In lusty youth a wife he tooke, a dame of florishinge grene,

Who sone after conceavde and brought him forth at once two twinnes :

Theldest she sente away, wherof hir husbande did not wene. Forthwith she died: at thother sonne our comody begins. 'Through wanton educationę he gann to be contempteous,

And sticked not with tauntinge tearmes his father to miscall; And straightway in lacivious luste he waxed so licentious,

That father he did often vex, and brought him to great thrall. 'By luckkye lot yet at the lengthe his eldest sonne he knewe,

And that he might his comforte be, sent for him in great hast : Then after this the yonger sonne his life doth leade anewe, Withat together all the[y] joy, and bankett at the last.'

It will be evident, therefore, that the structure of the piece is simple, and the prologue duly apologises for 'the rude and homely grace' of the language, as well as for want of practice in the actors.

The comedy opens with a long scene between Philogonus and his friend and neighbour Eupelas, in which the former relates to the latter his marriage, the birth of a son, and the subsequent death of the mother: he also states the manner in which he had spoiled the boy, and neglected his education, until he grew up past correction and instruction, adding

'A company of knaves he hath also on his hande,
Which leades him to all manner leaudnes apace,
With harlotts and varlotts and baudes he is mande:
To the gallouse, I feare, he is treadinge the trace.'

The whole play is in stanzas of this form and measure. Eupelas, in his turn, comforts his friend, and tells him to pluck up his heart', and not to despair, as his son, named Misogonus, would be sure to reform in time. He undertakes to reason with the young man on the subject of his mis

nt

conduct, but Philogonus warns him to be careful how he proceeds in so hopeless an undertaking:

'An endlesse laboure you then go aboute.

Can you bende a bigge tree which is sappy and sound? He is to[o] olde, I tell yow, to stubberne and to stoute : Take hede what you say, lest he lay you on the ground.' Eupelas nevertheless determines to persevere in his attempt to reclaim Misogonus; and while they are yet conversing, Cacurgus (who is described as Morio in the list of characters) enters to call his 'founder' to supper. Cacurgus is the domestic fool of the family, and this drama contains a more distinct representation of the nature and qualities of this sort of personage than is to be found, perhaps, in any of our old plays. Before his master, he usually pretends to be a mere simpleton, and to talk a broad country dialect, but at other times he is full of all kinds of shrewdness, mischief, and waggery. There is another circumstance in his character that deserves remark: although his name is Cacurgus, he is constantly called, and he calls himself, Will Summer, as if the celebrity of the Courtfool of Henry VIII had led to the assignment of his name to domestic fools in private families. The two old gentlemen leave him on the stage; and after a not very decent song, in which he laughs at them both, Cacurgus (the Vice) thus addresses himself to the audience.

'Yow may perceive what I am, so much I doe laughe:

A foole, you knowe, can kepe no measure;

My master is Waltum, and I Waltum's calfe :

A foole in laughture puttethe all his pleasure.

'A foole (quoth yow), nay he is no foole.

Did yow not see what pittye he did take?
He is able to sett your doctoures to schole;

No smale poynt of wisdome for me such gere to make.'

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He enlarges upon the extravagance and vices of his young master, and ends by giving away the points, or fastenings, of his dress among the audience.

'But before I goe hence, Ile bestowe some of my poynts; Come of with a vengeaunce! here is prety toyes.

What Will, what Dick, be hanged, stirr your joynts!

What, will yow none? take them, then, boyes.

'As for my pinnes, Ile bestowe them of Jone,
When wee sitt by the fier and rost a crabb.

She and I have good sporte when we are all alone :
By the mas! I may say to yow, she is an honest drabb.
'Nothinge greves me but my yeares [ears] be so longe,
My master will take me for Balames asse.

Yf I can, Ile tye them downe with a thonge,

Yf not, I will tell him I have [am] good kinge Midas.' Misogonus then enters blusteringly, and at first threatens to kill Cacurgus, but they soon get into familiar conversation, and Misogonus tells the fool that he is 'as full of knaverie, as an egg is full of meate'. Cacurgus informs Misogonus how much he is in his master's favour, and that he had heard Philogonus tell Eupelas that his son was 'a parlousse unthriftye ladde'. When Misogonus learns from Cacurgus, that Eupelas is about to take him in hand, he falls into a furious rage, and exclaims-

'By his soule and syds, by his death and his life,

Ile make the oldę churle repente this talke.'

Cacurgus proposes that Misogonus should collect his servants while he sent out Eupelas to them, and that they should then fall upon him. Misogonus calls his man Orgalus, who is busied in brushing his master's 'velvet gaskins': they stand. aside, and when Eupelas enters, they rush out upon him, and the first act ends with the escape of Eupelas.

The second act commences with the abuse by Misogonus of his servant Orgalus, for allowing Eupelas to escape. Oenophilus, another servant, explains, that he could not come in time to assist, because he had been obliged to leave his 'livery coat' of good 'spanish cloth' in pawn for some 'ginger bowles' he had been drinking with a fellow, who had afterwards picked his pocket, and run away. Misogonus calls him 'a disardly dronkerd and besillinge beast'; and while beating him Cacurgus arrives, and entreats Misogonus to desist in the Queen's name', but receives a blow in reply. Oenophilus acknowledges that he deserved what had been inflicted upon him, and declares that his master exceeds 'the nine worthies'. Misogonus forgives him, and the more readily, as Oenophilus promises to take him hunting, what he humorously calls, 'two legged venison'.

'Oen.-Ile bringe ye to a morsell that is tender and dentye :

She is not so much as my spann in hir wast.

Cac.-By the mas! I know hir, she is a good smogly lace;
She, a hundred tymes better than any French rigg.
Mis.-Give me thy hand: thoust have a house, and bringe this to

passe.

I woulde aske no more of hir but on [one] Scottish jigge.'

Misogonus is in a hurry to be at the sport, but the rest insist upon having a song first, and they sing the following, 'to the tune of heart's ease'; which, recollecting that it was written about the year 1560, may be pronounced quite as good, in its kind, as the spirited drinking song in Gammer Gurton's Needle.

'Singe care away with sport and playe,

Pastime is all our pleasure :

Yf well we fare, for nought we care,

In mearth consists our treasure.