CHAPTER 3. THE ENGLISH NON-DRAMATIC POLITE LITERATURE. SECTION 1.—PRE-ELIZABETHAN AUTHORS. GEOFFREY CHAUCER. THE list of pre-Elizabethan poets is worthily opened by that 'morning 'star of song', 'Dan Chaucer, the first warbler, whose sweet breath 'Preluded those melodious bursts, that fill "The spacious times of great Elizabeth 'With sounds that echo still." I know of three articles dealing with Shakespeare's relation to Chaucer, but all of them incomplete. My own notes as well as these articles supply the groundwork of the following remarks. To THE CANTERBURY TALES, in general, there is an apparent allusion in 'Lucrece', 790: And fellowship in woe doth woe assuage, As palmers' chat makes short their pilgrimage. THE KNIGHT'S TALE, we may take for granted, Shakespeare had read. A Midsummer Night's Dream certainly shows some points of agreement with the TheseusHippolyta part of the story. North's Plutarch, which Shakespeare 1 Ballmann, Anglia XXV, 1902; Sarrazin, Anglia Beibl. VII, 265, who gives some more or less doubtful parallelisms. This parallelism work of Sarrazin is very dangerous. Poole, in his Index to Period. Literat., mentions an article on Shakesp. and Chaucer in the Quart. Rev. vol. 134 (1873), p. 225. But this does not help us much. demonstrably did use for his Mids. N. Dr., would have supplied a good many hints for the Thesean framework. But not all. Philostrate does not occur in Plutarch, nor does Plutarch make mention of doing observance to May. Theseus is not called duke of Athens by him. These traits. at least, as well as the Athenian wood, and the romantic costume generally, in which the classical characters appear, are derived from Chaucer. But another problem presents itself. Had Shakespeare seen the Knight's Tale acted on the stage? There is some reason to suppose he had. And, what is more to our purpose, the play has apparently left its traces on our Mids. N. Dream. Richard Edwardes had dramatized the story in 1566. This play of his, 'Palamon and Arcite', was acted before the Queen in Oxford in the same year. Detailed accounts of the play (now lost) and its performance are preserved to us in contemporary MS. reports of Queen Elizabeth's visit to Oxford, published partly by Nichols (Progresses of Q. Eliz., 2nd ed.) and partly by Plummer (Elizabethan Oxford, 1887). The name Philostrate, I may remark, which has been claimed as a striking proof for Shakespeare's use of Chaucer, was in that play. Theseus was the 'dux Athenarum', according to a Latin account.' But what is more important, in the said play was acted a cry of hounds in the Qua'drant, upon the train of a fox in the hunting of Theseus.'' This part, we are distinctly told, proved extremely popular and successful. The same scene was repeated in Oxford on another occasion in 1583 (Nich., II, 409) and again acted or imitated before the Queen in 1572 (cp. Malone, III, 369, 'Hunters'). Thus, I conclude, it came about, owing to theatrical tradition, that Shakespeare introduced into his play (Act IV, sc. 1) the hunting of Theseus and the music of the hounds, which was probably really mimicked behind the scenes. No doubt Edwardes's play was performed on the London stage. What relation The Two Noble Kinsmen bears to it and to the 'Palamon and Arsett', mentioned as a play by Henslowe in 1594, it is impossible to say with certainty. From THE MERCHANT'S TALE. Shakespeare is said to have borrowed the motif of the quarrel among supernatural beings (Pluto vers. Proserpine-Oberon vers. Titania). 1 Plummer, p. 128. 2 Nichols, I, 212. 3 "A cry of hounds, and horns winded in peal" is a stage-direction in Titus Andron., II, 1; Cp, too, I, 1, 494. But Pluto and Proserpine do not quarrel. They debate in perfect friendship. As You Like It, IV, 1, ll. 159—179 have been appositely compared with Merch. Tale (E. 2264-2275). THE HOUSE OF FAME. The emperor's court is like the house of Fame, (Tit. Andron. II, 1, 126.) We have here a reference to Chaucer's famous poem. We do, indeed, find a description of Fama's abode in Ovid (Metam. XII, 39—64); But the expression 'house of Fame' is not in Golding's Translation. Moreover, the idea of the many tongues, eyes, and ears, not in Ovid, must be due to Chaucer, whose Fame had 'as fele iyen As fethers. 'upon foules be ..... also she Had also fele up standyng eares And 'tonges, as on beast been heares' (II. of F. III, 291f.). Though Virgil describes Fame in a similar manner in Aen., IV, 173 ff., (see esp. 181-183), he says nothing of her dwelling. TROILUS AND CRISEYDE. 1 Shakespeare used this poem as the main source of his Troilus story [Troil. I, 1 & 11; III, 1 & 11; IV, I—IV & v (12—63); V, 11 & 111 (95-end)].' For particulars see the late Dr. Small's scholarly work: The Stage Quarrel, p. 154ff. Shakespeare alludes to the story in Ado, V, II, 31; All's Well, II, 1, 100; As Y. Like It, IV, 1, 97; Lucr., 1486; Merch., V,1, 4—6; Tw. Night, III, 1, 57–62; Shrew, IV, 1, 153. In Tw. Night, III, 1, 62 we read: "Cressida was a beggar"; and in Henry V., Act II, 1, 78-80: to the spital go, And from the powdering-tub of infamy Fetch forth the lazar kite of Cressid's kind. 3 Nothing to parallel these two passages will be found in our modern editions of Chaucer. But Shakespeare found something in his. In Stowe's edition 1561 (and in editions before and after) Troilus and I am quoting from Stowe's edition, 1561, which Shakespeare most likely used. In and after 1598 he may have used the next edition after Stowe's, by Speght, 1598 and again 1602. Cp. Skeat's ed., Introd., vol. I (Rom. of the Rose, etc.) p. 27 f. 2 The story had been dramatised in 1599 by Dekker and Chettle, as we know from Henslowe's Diary. 3 Of course, I do not forget that Skeat's edition includes a volume of doubtful and spurious pieces. Criseyde' is immediately followed by The 'testament of Creseide' (composed by Robert Henryson, as we know), as though it were Chaucer's continuation of the former poem. In this pseudo-Chaucerian piece Creseyd meets with her due reward for her unfaithfulness, is delivered to the spital-house, and dies a leprous beggar. "Kit(e) of "Cressid's kind" seems to have been an almost proverbial expression in Shakespeare's days. The verses in Chaucer's Troilus, III, 1422 f., compared with the morning scene of the parting of Romeo and Juliet, deserve the special attention of the Shakespearean student.' THE LEGEND OF GOOD WOMEN. 1. PYRAMUS AND THISBE. This story, popular in Shakespeare's days, was probably known to him in more than one version, no doubt also in the Chaucerian. Ballmann' says it had been dramatized before the date of Mids. N. Dream. But there is not the slightest foundation for this allegation. (Cp. above, Ovid.) 2. On THE LEGEND OF LUCRETIA, see under Ovid. A PSEUDO-CHAUCERIAN 'PROPHECY', to be found in some earlier editions of Chaucer (among them, Stowe's ed., 1561, which I have seen), and quoted by Puttenham in his 'Arte of English Poesie' 1589 (ed. Arber, p. 232), is apparently imitated by the Fool in King Lear (III, 11, 80-end). The concluding couplet: is quoted by the Fool, with the substitution of 'come' for 'be brought'. To moral GOWER'S Tale of Florent there is a clear reference in The Taming of the Shrew, I, 11, 69: Be she as foul as was Florentius' love, 1 Do not believe what Fränkel says in his laboured treatise, Shakespeare und das Tagelied. 1893. 2 ut sup., p. 8. 3 I am quoting from Puttenham, who may have had a version before him differing from that in Stowe's ed. or that reproduced by Skeat (Chauc. ed., I, pp. 45-46). For he agrees with Shakespeare in reading 'realm', instead of 'lond' of the latter versions. But Puttenham may be Shakespeare's source. The story is in the CONFESSIO AMANTIS, Bk. I, 1407 ff. The name of the hero, Florent, is 'probably due to Gower, who is apt to attach to 'his stories names of his own choosing'. In the first marginal note to this tale we find 'Florencius', as the Latin equivalent for this name. We find no further certain traces of Gower except in 'Pericles' which is only in part Shakespeare's. The sources of the play are twofold: GOWER'S Confessio Amantis, Bk. VIII, II. 271-2008, and LAURENCE TWINE'S Patterne of painefull Adventures (entered on the Stat. Reg. 1576, see Arber, Transcr. II, 301-; printed without date, and again in 1607). For acts 1-3 Gower is the main source and Twine rarely made use of. For Acts 4 and 5 the case is the reverse, Twine being here the chief source. For a full discussion see E. Klebs, 'Apollonius aus Tyrus', Berlin, 1899, pp. 474ff. George Wilkins's novel, The Painfull Adventures of Pericles Prince of Tyre', 1608, is posterior to the drama, to which it refers on the title-page as well as in the Argument." WILLIAM CAXTON'S Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye, the first book printed in the English language, 1474?, frequently republished in the 16th and 17th centuries-Hazlitt mentions an edition of 1596', which Shakespeare may have used-supplied most of the incidents of the Trojan war for 'Troilus and Cressida'. Lydgate's Troyebook was not made use of (see Small, The Stage-quarrel, pp. 156 ff.; Cp., too, Malone, VIII, 455). There is also some connexion (direct or indirect) between Shakespeare and the second English book printed, that is: Caxton's Game and Playe of the Chesse (first issued in 1475?), where we find the following quaint etymology (Bk. 3. ch. 5): For the women ben likened unto softe waxe or softe ayer and therfor she is callid mulier whyche Is as moche to saye in latyn as mollys aer. And in english soyfte ayer. And it happeth ofte tymes that the nature of them 1 Gower, ed. Macaulay, 1901, note ad loc. 2 Smyth, in 'Shakespeare's Pericles and Apollonius of Tyre', Philadelphia, 1898 (p 63), repeats the old legend of an earlier play 'alluded' to in the Alleyn papers. The entry was forged by Collier (see 2. Quarto Facsimile by Praetorius with an Introd. by Round, p. 1). Smyth (p. 60) also gives an unauthenticated date, 1596, for 'Pimlyco', where the play is mentioned. This date is chimerical. (Cp., too, Malone XXI, p. 4). 3 Entitled: The Auncient Historie, of the destruction of Troy'. Hazlitt, Handb. s. v. Fevre. Anders, Shakespeare's books. 6 |