Thankful for such a bounty! yet he dreams not Mart. Force of passion Do, Levidolche, Perform thy resolutions; those perform'd, I have been only steward for your welfare, You shall have all between ye. Lev. Join with me, sir; Our plot requires much speed; we must be earnest. I'll tell you what conditions threaten danger, Mart. As thou intendest A virtuous honesty, I am thy second My niece, my witty niece. Lev. Let's slack no time, sir. ACT V.-SCENE II. Mount higher than can apprehension reach 'em! Of your deserts, achievements, or prosperity, Aur. 'Cry ye mercy, gentlemen! Spin. Those words raise A lively soul in her, who almost yielded [Exeunt. To faintness and stupidity; I thank ye: Though prove what judge you will, till I can Aur. Malfato! Mal. Auria! Aur. Cousin, would mine arms, Mal. "Tis your charity. Mal. Provident Aurelio! Aur. Castanna, virtuous maid! Aur. But who's that other? such a face mine purge Objections which require belief and conscience, Mal. Call ye this welcome? 'No kindred, sister, husband, friend?' With this addition-I disclaim all benefit Aur. High and peremptory! Mel. Why not? An honourable cause gives life to truth, Spin. I can proceed; that tongue, Against a mean defendant. Mal. He's put to't; It seems the challenge gravels him. Was issue of my doubts, not of my knowledge. 1 borrow'd bravery-feigned bravado or brusqueness of manner. carriage-conduct, bearing. Of casualty unloos'd, where lastly error Hath run into the toil. Spin. Woful satisfaction For a divorce of hearts! Aur. So resolute ? I shall touch nearer home: behold these hairs, In that respect are as resolute as yours. Than doth charge of disloyalty objected Aurel. Are you so nimble? Mal. A soul sublimed from dross by com- Such as is mighty Auria's famed, descends Enter ADURNI. Adur. That I make good, And must without exception find admittance, To a misguided thought; and who in presence, Of only you; that granted, he amongst you, Aur. Baited by confederacy! I must have right. Spin. And I, my lord, my lord What stir and coil is here! you can suspect? Conclude the difference by revenge, or part, Sister, Lend me thine arm; I have assumed a courage 1 not. This word is accidentally omitted in the quarto. The context is so obscure, that I strongly suspect the mission of a line in this speech.-WEBER. Spin. The courtship's somewhat quick, The match it seems agreed on; do not, sister, Cast. I dare not question The will of Heaven. Mal. Unthought of and unlook'd for! Each circumstance of jealousy. Castanna, of the choice; 'tis firm and real: Yet common form of matrimonial compliments, Aurel. You will pardon A rash and over-busy curiosity. Spin. It was to blame; but the success remits it. The temple or the chamber of the duke, Lev. Yes, me you know. Heaven has a gentle mercy For penitent offenders: blessed ladies, I knew you at first sight, and tender constantly Mart. Nay, 'tis true, sir. Ben. I joy in the discovery, am thankful Unto the change. Aur. Let wonder henceforth cease, For I am partner with Benatzi's counsels, And in them was director: I have seen The man do service in the wars late past, Worthy an ample mention; but of that At large hereafter, repetitions now Of good or bad would straiten time, presented For other use. Mart. Welcome, and welcome ever. Lev. Mine eyes, sir, never shall without blush Receive a look from yours; please to forget All passages of rashness; such attempt Was mine, and only mine. Mal. You have found a way To happiness; I honour the conversion. Mal. May style your friend your servant. Adur. But let me add An offering to the altar of this peace. a Gives her money. Aur. How likes Spinella this? our holiday Deserves the kalendar. Spin. This gentlewoman Reform'd, must in my thoughts live fair and worthy. Indeed you shall. [Offering her money. Cast. And mine; the novelty Requires a friendly love. Lev. You are kind and bountiful. Enter TRELCATIO, FUTELLI, AMORETTA, PIERO, driving in FULGOSO and GUZMAN. Trel. By your leaves, lords and ladies! to your jollities, I bring increase with mine too; here's a youngster Trel. Futelli Hath wean'd her from this pair. Piero. Stand forth, stout lovers. Trel. Top and top-gallant pair-and for his pains, She will have him or none. He's not the richest Amor. Tith no matter. Aur. We'll remedy the penury of fortune; Fut. You are in all unfellow'd. But what of these two pretty ones? The ladies, play at cards, make sport, and whistle, Is scurvy and debosh'd; fight you abroad, But for my martial brother Don, pray ye make him Guz. He shall deserve it. Vouchsafe employment, honourableFul. Marry, The Don's a generous Don. Aur. Unfit to lose him. Command doth limit us short time for revels; We must be thrifty in them. None, I trust, Repines at these delights, they are free and harmless: After distress at sea, the dangers o'er, Safety and welcomes better taste ashore. EPILOGUE. The court's on rising; 'tis too late A verdict in the jury's breast, Will be giv'n up anon at least ; Till then 'tis fit we hope the best. Else, if there can be any stay, Next sitting without more delay, We will expect a gentle day. Amor. Yeth, in sooth thee will. debosh'd-debauched. THOMAS HEYWOOD. [Or this, the most voluminous dramatic writer in the English, and probably in any language, almost nothing is known for certain, but that he had, as he himself informs us, 'an entire hand, or at least a main finger,' in two hundred and twenty plays. He wrote, besides, several prose works, all the while attending to his duties as an actor. From two of his works we learn that he was a native of Lincolnshire; and Cartwright, in his dedication to The Actor's Vindication-a posthumous edition of Heywood's Apology for Actors-states that the author was a Fellow of Peter House, Cambridge. From Henslowe's papers it is ascertained that Heywood wrote for the stage as early as 1596; and Heywood himself, writing in 1615, and speaking of his first published drama, The Death of Robert Earl of Huntingdon, which appeared in 1601, says that it was written 'many years since in my infancy of judgment, in this kind of poetry, and my first practice.' He continued writing for the stage down to, at least, 1640. In the notice of Heywood in the last edition of Dodsley's Old Plays, the following testimony to his industry is quoted from Kirkman, the author of a catalogue of plays: he says that Heywood 'was very laborious; for he not only acted almost every day, but also obliged himself to write a sheet every day for several years together; but many of his plays being composed loosely in taverns, occasions them to be mean. I could say somewhat more of him, and of all the old poets, having taken pleasure to converse with those that were acquainted with them.' As the editor of Dodsley well remarks, 'It is much to be lamented that Kirkman did not communicate to the world that information which he boasts of being able to give concerning the old poets, whose memory, for want of such intelligence, is now almost wholly lost to the world.' Of the multitude of plays written by this dramatist, only twenty-three are extant; of these the principal are, The Fair Maid of the Exchange (published 1607); A Woman Killed with Kindness (1607, acted previous to 1604); The Rape of Lucrece (1630); The Fair Maid of the West (1631); The English Traveller (1633); The Lancashire Witches (1634); Love's Mistress (1636); The Royal King and the Loyal Subject (1637). The quantity of Heywood's writings was too great to allow of their quality being preeminent; there is nothing very marked or vigorous in his style, the chief characteristics of his dramas being softness, smoothness, repose, combined with a pleasant poetical fancy; his characters generally are not drawn with any great distinctness. Although some of the scenes in his plays are sufficiently immoral, and some of his characters of the lowest type, still he never descends to the use of the disgustingly filthy language which characterizes the works of many of his contemporaries. The following is Hazlitt's estimate of Heywood :— 'As Marlowe's imagination glows like a furnace, Heywood's is a gentle, lambent flame, that purifies without consuming. His manner is simplicity itself. There is nothing supernatural, nothing startling, or terrific. He makes use of the commonest circumstances of every-day life, and of the easiest tempers, to show the workings, or rather the inefficacy of the passions, the vis inertia of tragedy. His incidents strike from their very familiarity, and the distresses he paints invite our sympathy from the calmness and resignation with which they are borne. The pathos might be deemed purer, from its having no mixture of turbulence or vindictiveness in it; and in proportion as the sufferers are made to deserve a better fate. In the midst of the most untoward reverses and cutting injuries, good-nature and good sense keep their accustomed sway. He describes men's errors with tenderness, and their duties only with zeal, and the heightenings of a poetic fancy. His style is equally natural, simple, and unconstrained. The dialogue (bating the verse) is such as might be uttered in ordinary conversation. It is beautiful prose put into heroic measure. It is not so much that he uses the common English idiom for everything (for that I think the mi poetical and impassioned of our elder dramatists do equally), but the simplicity of the ! characters and the equable flow of the sentiments do not require or suffer it to be warped from the tone of level speaking, by figurative expressions, or hyperbolical allusions.' We have selected as a specimen of this writer, A Woman Killed with Kindness, of some passages in which Hazlitt speaks with admiration.] |