Representative English Comedies, v. 1. From the beginnings to Shakespeare

=Life.=--Nicholas Udall was born in 1506, of a good family residing in Hampshire. As a lad of fourteen he entered Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and took his bachelor's degree...

_Chat._ Comst behynd me, thou withered witch? and I get once on foote Thouse pay for all, thou old tarlether! ile teach the what longs to it! Take the this to make up thy mouth,...

_Phi._ I have not been much private with that voice: Me thinke Franke Goursey talke and his doth tell me I am mistaken; especially by his bow; Franke had no bow. Well, I will le...

_Fran._ I, you know; You found the way to sorrow long agoe. Father, God boye ye:[1737] you have sent your sonne To seeke on earth an earthly day of doome, 75 Where I shall be ad...

It is observable, too, in the earlier period of his work, that in his treatment of his material so derived, he displays the qualities of the weaker, the less robust literary hab...

I agree, therefore, with Dr. Ward that the burden of proof is with those who assert that the Latin comedy of the Middle Ages made no impression upon the earlier drama of England...

=Relation to Predecessors and Contemporaries.=--From his predecessors and early contemporaries Shakespeare doubtless learnt whatever it was in their power to teach; at the same...

Now, the contiguity of what is undoubtedly borrowed from the York with what is imitated from it and what is elaborated upon it, is strong proof of a conscious relation between t...

In "_The playe called the foure PP._: a newe and a very mery enterlude of a palmer, a pardoner, a potycary, a pedler," the advance in dramatic form as compared with _The Play of...

_Chat._ Yea, by my faith, master Bayly, there was a knave not farre Who caught one good philup on the brow with a dore barre, 35 And well was he worthy, as it semed to mee; But...

The following is the outline of the Derbyshire play: Enter Prologue, who is apparently the same as "noble soldier," "Slasher," or "Jack," to clear a way for St. Gay.--Enter St....

Professor ten Brink is by no means alone in his estimate of the technical quality of the English scriptural miracle, but I must say that the estimate seems to me to be hardly up...

_M. Gour._ [_with show of continued impatience._] By that I sweare, Ile credit none of you, until I heere 205 Friendship concluded straight betweene them two: If I see that they...

The concrete element so noteworthy in Mankynd is further developed in the "_Goodly Interlude of Nature_, compylyde by" Archbishop Morton's chaplain, Henry Medwall, between 1486...

Most of the playwrights in Henslowe's pay lived in hand-to-mouth style; but in art of cozening groats from the manager who in turn squeezed angels from the dramatist, none excel...

_Apel._ I will cudgell your bodie for it, and then will I say it was no bodie, because it was no honest bodie. Away, in! _Exit Psyllus._ Unfortunate Apelles, and therefore unfor...

If it were not for the fact that _The Supposes_ (acted 1566) is a translation of Ariosto's play of the same title, I should be inclined to say that it was the first English come...

P. 205 represents the title-page, but without the border to which I refer on p. 199. Mr. W. J. Lewis points out to me that this woodcut title page had been used previously by Wi...

_Mi. Ba._ How, sir? your wife! wouldst thou my daughter have? Ile rather have her married to her grave.[1788] 180 Go to, be gone, and quickly, or I sweare Ile have my men beate...

A second element of humour in this realistic treatment of romance is the use of an induction, or rather of a combination of the induction and the play within the play, as a mean...

_Water Myller._ What the devyll shold skyl,[146] though all the world were dum, Syns in all our spekynge we never be harde? We crye out for rayne, the devyll sped drop wyll cum....

_Mi. Bar._ Thou setst thy sonne to scoffe and mocke at me: Ist not sufficient I am wrongd of thee, But he must be an agent to abuse me? 270 Must I be subject to my cradle too? O...

_Johan._ Mary, Syr, to tell you shortly, My wyfe and I pray you hartely, And eke desyre you wyth all our myght, 320 That ye wolde come and sup with us to nyght.

_Boy._ Why, sir, the horse that I do meane Hath a leg both straight and cleane, That hath nor spaven, splint, nor flawe, But is the best that ever ye saw; A pretie rising knee,...

In respect of his relations with Shakespeare, I cannot but feel that he has been harshly judged. We shall be justified in calling the _Shakescene_ remarks unduly rancorous when...

[946] These lines illustrate well how the memory of Shakespeare caught and held the best in the lines of others. Here, scattered through several lines, is the first line of the...

_Old wom._ Once uppon a time there was a King or a Lord, or a Duke, that had a faire daughter, the fairest that ever was; as 100 white as snowe, and as redd as bloud: and once u...

=The Facts of Porter's Life.=--_The Two Angry Women of Abington_ is the only extant production of Henry Porter. In 1841 Mr. Collier, who was then editing Henslowe's _Diary_, sup...

[637] Cf. _ib._, _cerei qui cum cruce et thuribulo de more ... portabantur accensi_; unto the holy candle commit we our souls at our last departing, Tindale, _Works_, 1, 225; _i...

[718] In Colwell's edition this scene extends to the end of the act. There should probably be a division after line 63, and again after line 105 (as in Professor Manly's edition...

_Diog._ I remember there was a thing that I repented mee of, and now thou hast tolde it. Indeed, it was too deare of nothing,[962] and thou deare to no bodie.

_Rap._ Sownes, now I heere foure hollo at the least! One had a little voice; then thats the wench 40 My man hath lost: well, I will answer all. [_Aside._] So ho!

In spite of Professor Schelling's[73] recent rejection of _King Johan_ from the list of chronicle plays, I cannot but agree with Dr. Ward that this moral is of considerable impo...

Merygreeke has been characterized[320] as "the Artotrogos of Plautus, the standing figure of the parasite of the Greek new comedy and its Latin reproductions." But, though Meryg...

_Tib. Talk._ Ah that I might but once in my life have a sight Of him that made us all so yll shent by this light, He should never escape if I had him by the eare, But even from...

_Mery-reporte._ Oft tyme yt is sene, both in court and towne, Longe be women a bryngyng up & sone brought downe. 860 So fet[189] yt is, so nete yt is, so nyse yt is, So trycke[1...

=The Essentials of Shakespearian Comedy.=--The Comedies of Shakespeare, which form more than a third part of his dramatic work, belong to every period of his career as a writer,...

=Previous Editions and the Present Text.=--Two editions of this play were published in 1599: one for Joseph Hunt and William Ferbrand; the other for Ferbrand alone (in same plac...

This consideration confirms the assignment of _Friar Bacon_ to some time within a year after the production of _Dr. Faustus_ (1588 _end_ or 1589 _beginning_). So, also, the rese...

[175] The earliest reference to a dearth of corn in the reign of Henry VIII. which I can find in Holinshed is _sub anno_ 1523, when he states that the price in London was 20 _s....

=Lyly's Development as a Dramatist.=--That Lyly worked, however, steadily toward more genuine drama becomes clear if one reads his plays in order. In all he shows classical infl...

_M. Mery._ I wyll not heare him, but make as I had haste, Farewell all my good friendes, the tyme away dothe waste, 10 And the tide they say, tarieth for no man.

_Mar._ Tis I, my lords, who humbly on my knee Must yeeld her horisons to mighty Jove For lifting up his handmaide to this state; Brought from her homely cottage to the court, 20...

[15] V. XXVI., XXVIII., XXIX., XXX., XXXI., XXXIII.; probably XXXII. Perhaps this playwright (if we may use the singular) rewrote XXXIV. I think he remodelled XXXV. and XXXVI.,...

_M. Mery._ He is ashamed the numbre of them to shewe. Een rounde about him, as many thousande sheepe goes, 55 As he and thou and I too, have fingers and toes.

_M. Mery._ Yea and perchaunce that way ye shall much sooner speede, For one madde propretie these women have in fey, When ye will, they will not: Will not ye, then will they. Ah...

_C. Custance._ So sirra, if I should not with hym take this way, I should not be ridde of him I thinke till doomes day, I will call forth my folkes, that without any mockes If h...

[1521] So G. and W.--Qtos, Do., Dy. give the line to Bungay.--After 'hap,' Dy., and W. [_Knocking within_]; and after 'come in' [_Enter two Scholars_]. But I think with G. that...

_Hodge._ Chyll runne, chyll ryde, chyll dygge, chyl delve, chill toyle, chill trudge, shalt see; 55 Chill hold, chil drawe, chil pull, chill pynche, chill kneele on my bare knee...

The necromantic theme with its instruments, the characters primarily concerned (Bacon, Bungay, Vandermast, Miles), and the catastrophes connected with the 'wonderfull glasse,' _...

[434] Here follows a farcical scene, doubtlessly inserted for the applause of the galleries. The musicians are supposed to kneel in mock reverence (v. 90), while M. indulges in...

A general view of his history shows, then, that the Vice is neither an ethical nor dramatic derivative of the Devil; nor is he a pendant to that personage, as foil or ironical d...

_Old w._ So with that, they kist, and spoiled the edge of as good a two hand sword, as ever God put life in; now goes Corebus in, spight of the conjurer.

_Vander._ Cease, Hercules, untill I give thee charge.-- Mightie commander of this English Ile, Henrie, come from the stout Plantagenets, 105 Bungay is learned enough to be a fri...

"'Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale ... nor ginger hot i' the mouth?' Or knowest not that while man, casting the dice with Fate an...

_Bacon._ 'Tis past indeed. A[h], villaine, time is past: 90 My life, my fame, my glorie, all[1502] are past!-- Bacon, the turrets of thy hope are ruind downe, Thy seven yeares s...

_Sim Sure._ Sir, though I to you be a servant true and just. Yet doe not ye therfore your faithfull spouse mystrust. But examine the matter, and if ye shall it finde, H ii _b_ T...

_Bacon._ Well, mistres, for I wil not have you mist, You shall to Henly to cheere up your guests Fore supper ginne.--Burden, bid her adew; Say farewell to your hostesse fore she...

Of much greater value, however, in the history of the acted drama, and of closer bearing upon the English comedy, were the representations of Plautus and Terence, first in the L...

_Gran._ Manes, it is pitie so proper a man should be cast away upon a philosopher; but that Diogenes, that dogge,[788] should have Manes, that dog-bolt,[789] it grieveth nature...

[1023] Chappell gives the song in _Popular Music of the Olden Time_, p. 216. _Three Merry Men_ is quoted in _Westward Hoe_, and in Barry's _Ram Alley_ (sung by Smallshanks: see...

_Edward._ Bacon, I see the lovers hand in hand, The frier readie with his portace there To wed them both: then am I quite undone. Bacon, helpe now, if e'er thy magicke servde!--...

Phebus to this made no maner answerynge, 50 Whereuppon they both then Phebe defyed, Eche for his parte leyd in her reprovynge That by her showres superfluous they have tryed[103...

[1250] "What publishing of frivolous and scurrilous prognostications, as if Will Summers were again revived," etc. "And yet _they_ shame not to subscribe 'By a graduate in Cambr...

After the play of _Twelfth Night_ we become aware of the first ebb of summer. It has been suggested that the events shadowed forth in the _Sonnets_ took some of the joy out of S...

_Comedy in England, Beginnings of_, by C. M. Gayley, xiii–xcii; liturgical fragments, early saints' plays and parodies, xiii; comedy of ridicule, xx; the miracle cycles in their...

_Alex._ My case were light, Hephestion, and not worthy to be called love, if reason were a remedie, or sentences could salve that 80 sense cannot conceive. Little do you know an...

Manners, of contemporary life as an element in drama, xvi, xvii, xx, xxi, xxviii, xxix, xxxv, xxxvi, xxxix, xli, xlvi, xlix–liv, lviii–lxii, lxiii, lxv, lxvii–lxix, lxxii, lxxvi...

Stevenson, William, the author, according to Mr. Henry Bradley, of _Gammer Gurtons Nedle_; Critical Essay on his life and the play assigned to him, with an edition of _G.G.N._,...