from the Phænissæ of Euripides. The first of these is remarkable, as it is the only existing specimen of a play in English prose, acted either in public or private, up to that date.1 Gascoigne rendered it principally from the Italian prose original, printed at Venice in 1525, but not without adopting some of the changes made by Ariosto, when he subsequently turned the comedy into verse. On the whole, the translation may be called faithful, for Gascoigne has added very little of his own, contenting himself chiefly with a few unimportant omissions: the termination, however, differs slightly from both the original copies. The prologue or argument' is all that really belongs to the translator, and it merely consists of a repetition of the word 'suppose' in the same and somewhat different senses, which does him little credit as a punster, and none as a poet. More attention has been drawn to this production, on account of the fancied connection between a part of the plot of The Supposes and of The Taming of the Shrew, which Dr. Farmer pointed out in 1766 in his Essay on the learning of Shakespeare.2 Focasta, as has been stated, was acted in the same year as 1 Hawkins included it in his Origin of the English Drama, vol. iii, but he does not seem to have been aware of this peculiarity. 2 Gascoigne wrote another piece in a dramatic form, the body of which is in prose, although it has four choruses and an epilogue in rhyme, besides two didactic poems in the third act. It is called The Glasse off Government, a tragicall comedie, and the author states that he so terms it 'because therein are handled as well the reward for vertues as also the punishment for vices'. It is, in fact, a most tedious puritanical treatise upon education, illustrated by the different talents and propensities of four young men placed under the same master: the two cleverest are seduced to vice, while the two dullest persevere in a course of virtue, and one of them becomes secretary to the Landgrave, and the other 'a famous preacher'. Nothing can be more uninteresting than the whole performance, although the author has laboured to enliven it by the introduction of a Parasite, a Bawd, a Prostitute, a Roister, and a knavish servant. The Supposes, and at the same place: it is very possible that a play was required for some sudden emergency, and that, on this account, Gascoigne obtained the assistance of his friends, Kinwelmarsh and Yelverton. It deserves attention, as the second dramatic performance in our language in blank verse, and the first known attempt to introduce a Greek play upon the English stage. It cannot be called so properly a translation as an adaptation; for, as Warton has observed, there are in it 'many omissions, retrenchments, and transpositions'.1 The authors, in fact, used no more of the Phænissæ than suited their purpose, and that which they did use they have sometimes treated with little ceremony. The substance of the story, however, has not been changed, and the characters are the same as in the original. Gascoigne was employed upon the second, third, and fifth, and Kinwelmarsh upon the first and fourth acts; and each act (as in Ferrex and Porrex) is preceded by a dumb show, accompanied by appropriate music of 'viols, cythren, bandurion', flutes, cornets, trumpets, drums, fifes, and stillpipes.2 In the fourth dumb show 'a greate peale of ordinance was shot off', after which a representation took place of the conflict between the Horatii and Curiatii, as typical of what was to follow. The third dumb show was a similar exhibition of the story of Curtius. The following quotation from the first speech of Bailo to Antigone, in Act i, will prove that Kinwelmarsh, though much less notorious, wrote quite as good blank verse as his predecessors, Sackville and Norton. The schoolmaster preaches a regular sermòn, quoting chapter and verse, and reads a long lecture on the duties of honour, obedience, and love. It was not printed until 1575, and as the author died two years afterwards, it was most likely, if not his latest, one of his latest works. 1 Hist. Engl. Poet., iv, 197, edit. 8vo. * In the Household Accounts of Henry VII and Henry VIII, we meet with constant payments 'to the Stillminstrells'. 'O gentle daughter of king Edipus, O sister deare to that unhappy wight, Whom brothers rage hath reaved of his right, To whom thou knowest, in young and tender yeres, Come foorth, sith that her grace hath granted leave, So chaste a mayde to set her daynty foote As it was woont to doe at dawne of day : Beseeching Jove by way of humble playnt, With tender ruth to pity their distresse.' As far as a judgment can be formed from the works left behind them, Gascoigne must have been a much more practised poet than his principal coadjutor on this occasion:1 but, nevertheless, it cannot be said that there is any material disparity in the versification of the two: Gascoigne, perhaps, has the advantage, and there is spirit and force in the subsequent lines, which form part of his description, in Act v, of the fight between Eteocles and Polinices. 'So sayd Eteocles; and trumpets blowne To sounde the summons of their bloudy fighte, 1 All that remains of Francis Kinwelmarsh beyond what is contained in this tragedy, is some poems with the initials F. K. in The Paradise of Dainty Devices. That one the other fiercely did encounter, Like lyons two, yfraught with boyling wrath, Both coucht their launces ful against the face. But heaven it nolde1 that there they should them teint : Here they of Thebes, there stoode the Greekes in dout, Lest any of the twaine should lose his life, Their angry lookes, their deadly daunting blowes, The Epilogue to this tragedy is the only poem remaining by Sir Christopher Yelverton (father of Sir Henry Yelverton), who was afterwards knighted and appointed a judge: the following lines, which conclude it, are by no means deficient in harmony, and we insert them the more willingly, as this poem has hitherto been passed over almost without notice. 'O blinde unbridled search of sovereintie, O tickle traine of evill2 attayned state! Who clymes too soone he oft repents too late. 1 Nolde is ne wold, or 'would not'; which explanatory words are inserted in the margin of the edition of 1587, shewing that even then 'nolde' might not be generally understood. 2 Whether, according to our lexicographers, 'ill' be an abridgement of evil or idle, it was often, if not commonly, considered and pronounced of old as a monosyllable. The golden meane the happy doth suffice; When better state in baser towers restes !' Baron Yelverton must have been a poet of some considerable note before 1560, for in that year he is mentioned, in company with Sackville and Norton, by Jasper Heywood, in the introduction to his translation of Seneca's Thyestes: Heywood says of them, 'Such yong men three, Twenty years afterwards, the name of Christopher Yelverton again occurs, in connexion with a play got up and performed by the members of Gray's Inn, before the Queen at Greenwich. Another production, of about this period, requires observation, both on account of the early date at which it was originally written, and some peculiar circumstances attending it. It was presented before Elizabeth, at the Inner Temple, in 1568, and it was the work of five persons, probably all members of that Inn, each of whom contributed an act.1 It 1 Their names are thus subscribed: Rod Staff at the close of act i,— |
