Part 2

What is finally remarkable about Langbaine's work, especially in the Preface to _Momus_ and throughout the _Account_, is his abiding determination to insert himself into virtually every one of Dryden's quarrels, no matter how passe. The quality which binds together Langbaine's heros is not their talent, their common beliefs or their rectitude in admitting sources, but their mutual fortunes in being Dryden's adversaries. The list of support he marshals is a long one and includes Sir Robert Howard and the debate over the rhymed heroic drama; the group led by Clifford and known as the Rota;[32] _The Empress of Morocco_ controversy with Settle;[33] Shadwell, Flecknoe and _Mac Flecknoe_; the Ancients versus the Moderns; Rymer; and Dryden's attitudes toward the classics, the French, and the English dramatists of the earlier part of the century. The reiterations of these attacks come from Langbaine at a time when Dryden was vulnerable to political and religious charges, and Langbaine does not fail to include those.[34] Langbaine's wholesale attacks seem, however, to have two centers. The principal one concerns the charge of plagiarism, which, as Osborn has shown, was an old one with Dryden, although Langbaine's strictures against borrowing do not represent the most characteristic attitude of his time.[35] More precisely, Langbaine focuses on Dryden's (seeming) _arrogance_ toward the use of source material, and he would "_desire our Laureat_ ... to shun this, Confidence and Self-love, as the worst of Plagues" ([a2v]).[36] The second focus, again one which is seemingly characterized by arrogance, is Dryden's criticism of the three major pre-interregnum dramatists, "these three Great Men" (_Account_, p. 136), Shakespeare,[37] Fletcher and Jonson. Of these the attacks on Jonson and the "thefts" from him are seen as the most disturbing. Well over a tenth of the Preface and of the _Account_ are devoted to Dryden, but the next mentioned playwright, at least in the _Account_, is Jonson. His "Excellencies ... are very Great, Noble, and Various" (_Account_, p. 281). Everywhere his modesty and his exemplary uses of the classics and of the English language are vaunted as a rebuke to Dryden. His opinions on other dramatists are quoted extensively and approvingly. Behind this admiration lie Langbaine's love of ancient learning and the continuing affinity of University men for Jonson. But there is a personal side, too (as there may be with Dryden). Langbaine's father was a friend of Jonson, who presented him with an inscribed copy of Vossius,[38] and Langbaine concludes his article on Jonson with an encomium by his father's friend Anthony Wood.

If Langbaine delights in exposing the antagonisms and contradictions of Dryden's thirty years at the controversial center of London life, he also inadvertently reveals to us a man on a hobby-horse riding at full tilt with a motley pack. His obsession with Dryden, like most obsessions, was, no doubt, a fault. It seems, however, to have generated much of the energy required to accomplish so assiduously such large tasks. Langbaine's attacks angered some contemporary readers;[39] they seem, ineffectually, to have made no adverse impression on at least one of Dryden's patrons: in the same year that Langbaine dedicated the _Account_ to James, Earl of Abington, the Earl commissioned Dryden to write a commemorative ode to his wife Eleanora. For the modern reader, Langbaine's point of view happily supplies the interest which raises his catalogues from any dullness inherent in their genre. Langbaine is a writer one now appreciates not simply for the extensive accuracy of his theatrical recording, but as a man whose attitudes (and many of his inaccuracies) arise passionately out of his interests and prejudices. To paraphrase Mirabell, _quite_ out of context, we admire him "with all his faults, nay like him for his faults."

University of California, Los Angeles

NOTES TO THE INTRODUCTION

FOOTNOTES:

[1] John Loftis, "Introduction," Gerard Langbaine, _An Account of the English Dramatick Poets_, The Augustan Reprint Society Special Publication (Los Angeles, 1971), p. i.

[2] For a bibliographical study of play catalogues, see Carl J. Stratman, _Dramatic Play Lists, 1591-1963_ (New York, 1966).

[3] William Riley Parker, "Winstanley's _Lives_: An Appraisal," _MLQ_, VI (1945), 313.

[4] Parker, pp. 317, 315.

[5] Parker, pp. 317-318.

[6] "Just as Phillips copied all of the source citations from Vossius for the ancients, so he took most of the scholarly references to the moderns from Edward Leigh's _Treatise_" (Sanford Golding, "The Sources of the _Theatrum Poetarum_," _PMLA_, LXXVI [1961], 51).

[7] Parker believed that only Winstanley used Kirkman directly, but Golding shows that Phillips used both Kirkman's 1661 and 1671 lists (Golding, p. 51).

[8] The 1671 _Catalogue_ is bound, bibliographically independent, with John Dancer's _Nicomede_, which was published by Kirkman. Kirkman's earlier list, _A True, Perfect, and Exact Catalogue_ (London, 1661) contains 685 plays and is bound with _Tom Tyler and His Wife_.

[9] Specifically, the catalogues of Richard Rogers and William Ley and of Archer, both published in 1656. See Stratman, pp. 7-8.

[10] See, for example, Kirkman, The Stationer to the Reader, in _The Thracian Wonder_ (1661); this and similar advertisements are reprinted in Strickland Gibson, _A Bibliography of Francis Kirkman_, Oxford Bibliographical Society Publications, N. S., I (1949), 73.

[11] Gibson, pp. 93-94.

[12] Principally by W. W. Greg, "Additional Notes on Dramatic Bibliographers," The Malone Society, _Collections_, II. 3 (1931), 235-236. Based on evidence in the _Account_ Greg later corrected his attribution from Kirkman to Langbaine: "Gerard Langbaine the Younger and Nicholas Cox," _The Library_, N. S., XXV. 1 & 2 (1944), 67-69.

[13] It is, however, impossible that Phillips, published in 1675, was "led into [error] by my Catalogue printed 1680."

[14] _John Dryden: Some Biographical Facts and Problems_, revised Edition (Gainesville, Fla., 1965), p. 235.

[15] About 30 plays which appear in _An Exact Catalogue_, usually wrongly attributed, are not brought into _Momus_. These include such plays as "Cruelty of the Spanish in Peru," "Hieronomo in two parts" and "Gyles Goose-cap." There are several changes in assignment from _An Exact Catalogue_ to _Momus_, including "Appius and Virginia" from B. R. to John Webster. _An Exact Catalogue_ seems to attribute "Virtuoso" to D'Urfey, but _Momus_ gives it correctly to Shadwell.

[16] This is Osborn's suggestion, p. 235.

[17] Fewer than 25 plays in _Momus_ are missing from the index. Of these Shakespeare's _Henry VIII_ and Sir Robert Howard's _Committee_ are the most significant. The Index lists several plays which are omitted from the main list, most interestingly "Revenger's Tragedy, By C. T."

[18] Osborn, p. 240.

[19] Henry Burnel, _Esq._; James Carlile; _Sir_ John Denham; Joseph Harris; Will. Mountford; George Powel; John Stephens; _Dr._ Robert Wild; R. D.; J. W.

[20] "--_Peaps_" and "_J. Swallow_."

[21] Decker, _Wonder of the Kingdom_; Unknown, _Robin Conscience_; and Unknown, _Woman Will Have Her Will_.

[22] Although Langbaine claims to use "_the best Edition of each Book_" (Preface, [A3v]), one of his eighteenth-century annotators, Bishop Percy, is right in saying that "Langbaine's Work would have been more valuable if he had everywhere set down the First Editions," but "the editions referred to" are "such as he happened to have in his possession." Oldys had earlier expressed the same bibliographical regret more succinctly: "A woeful Chronologist art thou, Gerard Langbaine." These opinions are quoted by Alun Watkin-Jones in his survey of annotated copies of the _Account_: "Langbaine's _Account of the English Dramatick Poets_ (1691)," _Essays and Studies by Members of the English Association_, XXI (1936), 77.

[23] For his biography and that of his father, Gerard Langbaine the Elder, see Anthony Wood, _Athenae Oxonienses_, ed. Philip Bliss (London, 1813-1820), III, 446-468. There is a note recording an illicit romance for the son in Andrew Clark, _The Life and Times of Anthony Wood_ (Oxford, 1891), I, 237-238.

[24] Wood, III, 446.

[25] Wood, III, 366.

[26] The Advertisement is on the recto of a leaf added after [a4]; "The ERRATA for the Preface" appears on the verso. For an account of Oldham's "A Satyr Against Vertue," published without his consent in 1679, see Wood, IV, 120.

[27] Hugh Macdonald, "The Attacks on Dryden," _Essays and Studies by Members of the English Association_, XXI (1936), 67.

[28] The Translators Epistle to the Reader, _Amadis de Gaule_ (1652).

[29] Wood, III, 364.

[30] His father's coat of arms is described in Clark, I, 237. But for a conservative attitude toward use of the address, see Edward Chamberlayne, _Angliae Notitia: or the Present State of England_, the First Part, the Fifteenth Edition (London, 1684), p. 344.

[31] Wood, III, 367.

[32] Clifford makes the same charge of plagiarism in equally virulent language: "And next I will detect your Thefts, letting the World know how great a Plagery you are ..." (_Notes upon Mr. Dryden's Poems_ [London, 1687], P. 3).

[33] Maximillian E. Novak, "Introduction," Settle, Dryden, Shadwell, Crowne, Duffet, _The Empress of Morocco and Its Critics_, The Augustan Reprint Society Special Series (Los Angeles, 1968), pp. i-xix. Novak also discusses Dryden's quarrels with Howard and the Rota.

[34] _Account_, p. 140, gives new information, or gossip, about Dryden's pre-Restoration activities.

[35] Loftis, pp. ix-xiii.

[36] This is a focus of Clifford's charges as well: "There is one of your Virtues which I cannot forbear to animadvert upon, which is your excess of Modesty; When you tell us in your Postscript to _Granada_, That _Shakespeare is below the Dullest Writer of Ours, or any precedent Age_" (p. 10).

[37] Although Shakespeare's "Learning was not extraordinary," Langbaine "esteem[s] his Plays beyond any that have ever been published in our Language" (_Account_, pp. 453-454). In both _Momus_ and the _Account_ Langbaine employed the 1685 folio edition of Shakespeare's works which was printed for Herringman and others and dedicated to the Earls of Pembroke and Montgomery (Wing 2915, 2916, 2917). He catalogues the seven plays added in this edition to those of the earlier collected editions, but contrary to its genre designation in the First Folio and in this edition, Langbaine refers to _Merchant of Venice_ as a tragi-comedy and, in _Momus_, lists two parts of "John King of England." In the _Account_ he changes the designation of _Winter's Tale_ from comedy to tragi-comedy, and in both catalogues appends "Birth of Merlin," altering his description of its genre from pastoral to tragi-comedy.

[38] Wood, III, 449.

[39] See, for example, a review in the _Moderator_, no. 3 (23 June 1692); quoted in Wood, III, 367.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

This facsimile of _Momus Triumphans_ (1688 [1687]) is reproduced from a copy (*ZPR/640/L271m) in the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library.

Momus Triumphans:

OR, THE

PLAGIARIES

OF THE

English Stage;

Expos'd in a

CATALOGUE

OF ALL THE

_Comedies_, _Tragi-Comedies_, _Masques_, _Tragedies_, _Opera's_, _Pastorals_, _Interludes_, &c.

Both Ancient and Modern, that were ever yet Printed in _English_. The Names of their Known and Supposed Authors. Their several Volumes and Editions: With an Account of the various Originals, as well _English_, _French_, and _Italian_, as _Greek_ and _Latine_; from whence most of them have Stole their Plots.

By _GERARD LANGBAINE_ Esq;

_Indice non opus est nostris, nec vindice Libris: Stat contra dicitq; tibi tua Pagina, Fures._ Mart.

_LONDON_: Printed for _Nicholas Cox_, and are to be Sold by him in _Oxford_. MDCLXXXVIII.

The Preface.

If it be true, what =Aristotle=[40] that great Philosopher, and Father of Criticism, has own'd, =that the= Stage =might instruct Mankind better than= Philosophy it self. If =Homer= was thought by =Horace=[41] to exceed =Crantor= and =Chrystippus= in the Precepts of Morality; and if =Sophocles= and =Euripides=, obtained the title of Wise, for their =Dramatich= Writing, certainly it can be no discredit for any man to own himself a lover of that sort of Poetry, which has been stiled, =The School of Vertue and good Manners=? I know there have been many severe =Cato's= who have endeavoured all they could, to decry the use of the Stage; but those who please to consult the Writings of the Learned Dr. =Gager=, =Albericus Gentiles=, Sir =Philip Sidney=, Sir =Richard Baker=, =Heywood=, the Poet and Actor both in one; not to mention several others, as the famous =Scaliger=, Monsieur =Hedelin=, =Rapin=, &c. will find their Objections fully answered, and the Diversion of the Theatre sufficiently vindicated. I shall therefore without any Apology, publickly own, that my inclination to this kind of Poetry in particular, has lead me not onely to the view of most of our Modern Representations on the Stage, but also to the purchase of all the Plays I could meet with, in the =English= Tongue; and indeed I have been Master of above =Nine Hundred= and =Fourscore= English =Plays= and =Masques=, besides =Drolls= and =Interludes=; and having read most of them, I think am able to give some tollerable account of the greatest part of our Dramatick Writers, and their Productions.

The general Use of =Catalogues=, and the esteem they are in at present, is so well known, that it were to waste Paper to expatiate on it: I shall therefore onely acquaint my =Reader=, that I designed =this Catalogue= for their use, who may have the same relish of the =Dramma= with my self; and may possibly be desirous, either to make a Collection, or at least have the curiosity to know in =general=, what has been Publish't in our Language, as likewise to receive some Remarks on the Writings of =particular= Men.

The =Reasons= that induc'd me to the publishing this =Catalogue=, were these: =First=, That the former =Catalogues= were out of Print. =Secondly=, That they were all of them full of groß Errours. =Thirdly=, That they were not, as I thought, so Methodical as this which I have now made; wherein the Reader will find the Imperfections I observed in the former Catalogues, amended; all the Plays which have been Printed since 1680, to this present time, added; with several Remarks, which whether or no observed, I cannot tell, but never published by any Author till now.

To begin then =first= with the Errours of =former= Catalogues, they are chiefly =Five=:

=First=, There were Plays inserted in all of them, which were never in Print; as for Brevity's sake, to give =one= instance for many, =The Amorous Widow, and Wanton Wife=, a Comedy. This is a =Stock-Play=, and was written (if not Translated from =Mollieres George Dandin=) by Mr. =Batterton=.

=Secondly=, Some Plays were omitted, which had been Printed very long ago; as, =Cola's Fury, and Lirenda's Misery=. Written by =Henry Burkhead=. =The Religious Rebel=; and several others.

=Thirdly=, =Two= Titles which belong'd to one and the same Play, were frequently printed, as if they had been two =distinct= Plays; as =The Constant Maid=, or =Love will find out the Way=. Written by =Shirley=. =Ferex and Porex=, or the Tragedy of =Gorboduc=. Written by =Sackvile= and =Norton=; with many others.

=Fourthly=, The same Title was often times printed twice, and that seperately, as if writ by =two several= persons; and sometimes ascrib'd to =different= Authors likewise; when it was onely a new Edition of the same Play; as for Example, =Patient Grissel= was again repeated under the Title of =Patient Grißel Old=. And =Appius= and =Virginia=, written by =Webster=, is afterwards ascrib'd to =T. B.= though as the deceased Comedian Mr. =Carthwright=, a Bookseller by Profession, told me, 'twas onely the old Play Reprinted, and Corrected by the above-mentioned =Mr. Batterton=; with several others.

=Fifthly=, Some plays are ascribed to =one= Author which were writ by another; as =Celum Britanicum=, a Masque, is to Sir =William Davenant=, though it was written by =Carew= and =Jones=. Which fault is rather to be imputed to the Publishers of Sir =William Davenant='s Workes, 1673, in Folio, than to the Compilers of the former =Catalogue=; who are more excusable than, Mr. =Phillips= in his =Catalogue= of Poets, called, =Theatrum Poetarum=; and his Transcriber =Winstanley=, who has follow'd him at a venture in his Characters of the =Drammatick= Writers, even to a word, in his =Lives of the English Poets=. Both these Authors through a mistake of the Method of former Catalogues, and their Ignorance in what Pieces each =Drammatick= Author had published, have fallen into very great Errours, as I am going to shew.

The =first= Catalogue that was printed of any worth, was that Collected by =Kirkman=, a =London= Bookseller, whose chief dealing was in Plays; which was published 1671, at the end of =Nicomede=, a Tragi-comedy, Translated from the =French= of Monsieur =Corneille=. This Catalogue was printed =Alphabetically=, as to the Names of the =Plays=, but =promiscuously= as to those of the =Authors=, (=Shakspeare=, =Fletcher=, =Johnson=, and some others of the most voluminous Authors excepted) each Authors Name being placed over against each Play that he writ, and still repeated with every several Play, till a new Author came on. About =Nine= Years after, the Publisher of this Catalogue, reprinted =Kirkman='s with emendations, but in the same Form. Notwithstanding the =Anonimous= Plays, one would think easily distinguishable by the want of an Authors Name before them; yet have both these charitable kind Gentlemen found Fathers for them, by ranking each under the Authors Name that preceded them in the former Catalogues. Thus =Charles= the First is placed by them both to =Nabbs=; because in both the former Catalogues it followed his =Covent-Garden=: and for the same reason =Cupid's Whirligig= is ascribed by both of them to =Goff=; because it follow'd his =Careless Shepherdess=; and so of many others, too tedious to repeat.

To prevent the like mistake for the future, and to make the Catalogue more useful, I wholly altered the form: And yet that I might please those who delight in old Paths, I have Transcribed the same as a Second Part, after the former way of =Alphabet=, though more Methodically than formerly, as I shall shew presently.

In this =New= Catalogue the Reader will find the whole to be divided into =Three= distinct =Classes=. In the first I have placed the =Declared= Authours, Alphabetically, according to their =Sirnames=, in =Italick= Characters: and placed the Plays each Authour has written, underneath in =Roman= Letters, which are rank'd Alphabetically likewise; so that the Reader may at one glance view each Authours Labours. Over against each Play, is plac'd as formerly a Letter to indicate the =nature= of the Dramma: as C. for =Comedy=. T. for =Tragedy=. T. C. for =Tragi-comedy=. P. for =Pastoral=. O. for =Opera=. I. for =Interlude=. F. for =Farce=.

And, for the better use of those who may design a Collection, I have added to the =Letter= the Volume also, (according to the best Edition) as =Fol. 40o. 8o.= against each Play that I have seen. And for their further help; where a Play is not printed single, the Reader will be directed by a Letter or Figure to the bottom of the Colume, where he will meet with Instructions how it is to be found; I mean, with what Poems or other Plays it is printed, the Year =when=, the Place =where=, and the best Edition of each Book so mentioned.

This may seem superfluous at first sight, but may possibly be no longer thought so, when I shall have acquainted my Reader, that when I was making my Collection, I found several Plays and Masks, bound up with other Poems, which by the name were scarce known to the generality of Booksellers: as for instance, Sir =Robert Howard='s =Blind Lady=; =Daniel's Philotas=; =Carew='s =Coelum Britanicum=; =Shirley='s =Triumph of Beauty;= with infinite others. But two Plays I might particularly mention, both taken notice of in former Catalogues, to wit, =Gripus and Hegio=, a Pastoral; and =Deorum Dona=, a Masque; both which were written by =Baron=, and were wholly unknown to all the Booksellers of whom I happened to enquire, and which I could never have found but by chance; they being printed in a Romance called, =The Cyprian Academy=, in 8o. The same I might add of =The Clouds=, (a Play which was never in any Catalogue before, and was translated from =Aristophanes='s =Nubes= by =Stanley=, and printed with his =History of Philosophy=, Fol. =Lond. 1655=, and now newly reprinted; and of several others) but that I must hasten back to give an Account of the two other Divisions of my Catalogue. The =one= of which contains those Plays whose Authors discover themselves but by halves, and =that= to their intimate Friends, by two Letters only in the =Title-Page=, or the bottom of their =Epistle=; and in the last Degree are plac'd all =Anonemous= Plays; and thus compleats the =Fifth= Part.

The =Second= Part contains the Catalogue =Reprinted= in an exact =Alphabetical= manner, according to the forms of =Dictionaries=, the Authors Names being here left out as superfluous; and against each Play is a Figure to direct you to the Page where you may find it in the First Part.

Thus much as to the Method and Alterations of this Catalogue: Now as to the Remarks, which are of =three= sorts; the =first= of use, and the other =two= conducing to Pleasure at least, if not to Profit likewise.

The =First= is to prevent my Readers being impos'd on by crafty Booksellers, whose custom it is as frequently to vent =old= Plays with =new= Titles, as it has been the use of the Theatres to dupe the Town, by acting old Plays under new Names, as if newly writ, and never acted before; as, =The Counterfeit Bridegroom=, an old Play of =Middleton='s; =The Debauchee=, another of =Brome='s; =The Match in Newgate=, another of =Marston='s; with many more, too tedious to repeat. By these Remarks the Reader will find =The Fond Lady=, to be only the =Amorous Old Woman=, with a new Title, =The Eunuch=, to be =The Fatal Contract=, a Play printed above thirty years ago; with many the like.

The =Second= is an Essay towards a more large Account of the =Basis= on which each Play is built, whether it be founded on any Story or Passage either in =History=, =Chronicle=, =Romance=, or =Novel=. By this means the curious Reader may be able to form a Judgment of the Poets ability in working up a =Dramma=, by comparing his =Play= with the =Original= Story. I have not been so large and full in this as I intend hereafter, not having by me several =Chronicles= and =Novels=, which might have been subservient to my Design, as the =Chronicles= of =particular= Countries, and the =Novels= of =Cynthio Geraldi=, =Loredano=, =Bandello=, =Sansorino Belleforreste=, &c. For this reason, in the Notes on several Plays which I have taken notice of, I have been forc'd to refer to the Chronicles of a Country in =general=, not have had time or opportunity to make an exact search what Historian the Author has =chiefly= follow'd, or what Author has most largely treated on that particular Action which is the subject of the Dramma. So in Novels I have been forc'd through Necessity to quote some which have been printed since the Plays were written to which they are referred: because I knew that they were extracted and collected from the Originals, whence the Plot was taken, though I had them not by me: of which I could produce many instances, were it material.