Part 1

Transcriber's Note.

A list of the changes made can be found at the end of the book.

Mark up: _italic_ =bold=

Representative English Comedies FROM THE BEGINNINGS TO SHAKESPEARE

REPRESENTATIVE ENGLISH COMEDIES

WITH INTRODUCTORY ESSAYS AND NOTES AN HISTORICAL VIEW OF OUR EARLIER COMEDY _AND OTHER MONOGRAPHS_ BY VARIOUS WRITERS

UNDER THE GENERAL EDITORSHIP OF

CHARLES MILLS GAYLEY, LITT.D., LL.D. _Professor of the English Language and Literature in the University of California_

FROM THE BEGINNINGS TO SHAKESPEARE

New York: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD. 1926

_All rights reserved._

COPYRIGHT, 1903, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

Set up, electrotyped, and published March, 1903.

Norwood Press _J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A._

PREFACE

"'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 and Mistress Grundy, imagineth a new luck, there shall be new comedy? Why, then, reprint these old?"

In part, because the comedies of a nation are for literature as well as for the footlights, and literature, in most cases, begins after the footlights are out. In part, because old comedies make good reading, not only for lovers of fiction and the stage, but for the student of society and the historian. Until rival forms of literary art began to usurp their function, comedies were--in England, not to speak of other and older lands--the recognized and cherished exponent of the successive phases of contemporary life. For us they still are living sketches of the social manners, morals, vanities, and ideals of generations of our ancestors; history "unbeknownst" as written by contemporaries. Unfortunately, many of these old comedies are inaccessible to the public; and, therefore, we venture to hope that the general reader may find such a collection as the present acceptable, whether he care to enter upon a historical and technical study of the subject or not.

To the student of literary history, however, this series will, we trust, justify its existence for quite another reason. For the aim of this volume and those which will follow is to indicate the development of a literary type by a selection of its representative specimens, arranged in the order of their production and accompanied by critical and historical studies. So little has been scientifically determined concerning evolution or permutation in literature that the more specific the field of inquiry, the more trustworthy are the results attained,--hence the limitation of this research not merely to a genus like the drama, but to one of its species. What is here presented to the public differs from histories of the drama in that it is more restricted in scope and that it substantiates the narrative of a literary growth by reproducing the data necessary to an induction; it differs from editions of individual plays and dramatists, on the other hand, because it attempts to concatenate its texts by a running commentary upon the characteristics of the species under consideration as they successively appear. It is an illustrated, if not certified, history of English comedy.

The plays, in this series called representative, have been chosen primarily for their importance in the history of comedy, generally also for their literary quality, and, when possible, for their practical, dramatic, or histrionic value. Of the studies accompanying them, some are special, such as those dealing with the several authors and plays; some general, the monographs upon groups or movements, and the sketch introductory to the volume. The essay prefatory to a play includes, when possible, an outline of the dramatist's life, a concise history of his contribution to comedy, with reference, when appropriate, to his productions in other fields, an estimate of his output in its relation to the national, social, literary, and technical development of the type in question, and to such foreign movements and influences as may be cognate, and, finally, an exposition and criticism of the play presented. By the insertion in proper chronological position of occasional monographs, it is intended to represent minor dramatists or groups of the same school, period, or movement,--sometimes, indeed, an author of exceptional importance,--in such a way that the historical continuity of the species may be as evident in its minor manifestations as in the better known. The general introductions to these volumes will usually attempt to discuss matters of historical interest not covered by the editors of special portions of the work. It has been necessary, therefore, to open the series, in this book, with an historical view of the beginnings of comedy in England. While the various contributors to the enterprise have exercised their individual preferences in matters of literary treatment, judgment, and style, the general editor has attempted to secure the requisite degree of uniformity by requesting each to conform so far as his taste and historical conscience might permit to a common but elastic outline of method previously prepared. If the attempt has succeeded, there has been gained something of continuity and scientific value for the series. The presence, at the same time, of an occasional personal element in the several articles of the history will enhance its value for our dear friend, the good old-fashioned reader, who sets no store by literary science, but judges books by his liking, and likes to read such judgments of them.

The texts of the comedies presented are, to the best ability of their respective editors, faithful reprints of the best originals; where possible, those published during the authors' lives. Spelling and language have been preserved as they were; but for the convenience of readers, the punctuation and the style of capitals and letters, such as _i_, _j_, _u_, _v_, _s_, have been, unless otherwise specified, conformed to the modern custom.

The general editor regrets that it has not been feasible to preface the series with some of the still earlier experiments in comedy, but he indulges the hope that such a volume may later be added, and, also, that it may soon be possible to publish in its proper proportions the materials which have been condensed into the _Historical View_ here submitted. He takes this opportunity to express his appreciation of the courtesy of the scholars who have engaged with him in this undertaking, and especially to thank Mr. Pollard of the British Museum, and Mr. E. W. B. Nicholson of the Bodleian Library, Professor Gummere, Professor Dowden, and the Master of Peterhouse for assistance, encouragement, and counsel which have contributed to make this labour a delight. Other volumes of this series are well under way, and will follow with all reasonable celerity.

CHARLES MILLS GAYLEY.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, February 3, 1903.

CONTENTS

Page

I. AN HISTORICAL VIEW OF THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH COMEDY By Charles Mills Gayley _Of the University of California_ xi

II. JOHN HEYWOOD: Critical Essay. Alfred W. Pollard _Of St. John's College, Oxford, and the British Museum_ 1 Edition of the _Play of the Wether_. The Same 19 Edition of a _Mery Play betweene Johan Johan, Tyb_, etc. The Same 61

III. NICHOLAS UDALL: Critical Essay. Ewald Flügel _Of Stanford University_ 87 Edition of _Roister Doister_. The Same 105 Appendix on Various Matters. The Same 189

IV. WILLIAM STEVENSON: Critical Essay. Henry Bradley _Of the University of Oxford_ 195 Edition of _Gammer Gurtons Nedle_. The Same 205 Appendix. The Same 259

V. JOHN LYLY: Critical Essay. George P. Baker _Of Harvard University_ 263 Edition of _Alexander and Campaspe_. The Same 277

VI. GEORGE PEELE: Critical Essay. F. B. Gummere _Of Haverford College_ 333 Edition of _The Old Wives' Tale_. The Same 349 Appendix. The Same 383

VII. GREENE'S PLACE IN COMEDY: A Monograph. G. E. Woodberry _Of Columbia University_ 385

VIII. ROBERT GREENE: His Life, and the Order of his Plays. Charles Mills Gayley 395 Edition of the _Honourable Historie of Frier Bacon_. The Same 433 Appendix on Greene's Versification. The Same 503

IX. HENRY PORTER: Critical Essay. Charles Mills Gayley 513 Edition of _The Two Angry Women of Abington_. The Same 537

X. SHAKESPEARE AS A COMIC DRAMATIST. Edward Dowden _Of Trinity College, Dublin_ 635

INDEX. 663

_An Historical View_

OF THE

BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH COMEDY

_By Charles Mills Gayley_

AN HISTORICAL VIEW OF THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH COMEDY

=I. Liturgical Fragments, Early Saints' Plays and Parodies=

The earliest evidence of dramatic effort in England is to be found in Latin tropes of the Easter service, composed for use in churches at different periods between 967 and the middle of the eleventh century. While these are, of course, serious in nature and function, they interest the historian of comedy because they show that the dramatic spirit was at work among our ancestors before the Anglo-Saxons had passed under the yoke of the Normans. Likewise naturally devoid of comic interest, but of vital importance in the development of a dramatic technique, are certain fragments of liturgical plays, belonging to the library of Shrewsbury School, which were published in 1890 by Professor Skeat.[1] Each of these deals, as an integer, with a crisis in the career of our Lord; and, except for occasional choruses and passages from the liturgy in Latin, the plays are English--the English, in fact, translating and enlarging upon the Latin of the service. Though the manuscript is probably not older than 1400, it is a fragment, as Professor Manly has said, of a series of plays of much earlier date, which were "performed in a church on the days and in the service celebrating events of which the plays treat."[2] These fragments are of great importance as constituting a link between the dramatic tropes of the tenth and eleventh centuries and the scriptural pageants presented at a later period outside the church: first by the clergy, with the assistance, perhaps, of townspeople (as may have been the case when a Resurrection play was given in the churchyard of St. John's, Beverley, about 1220); afterward by the civic authorities and the several gilds when church plays had come to be acted commonly in the streets, that is, after the reinstitution of the feast of Corpus Christi in 1311.

The existence of tropes at a period earlier than that in which mention is made of plays based upon the miracles of the saints appears to me to negative Professor Ten Brink's conjecture that in the development of our sacred drama legendary subjects preceded the biblical. Indeed, the fact that dramas on subjects both biblical and legendary, and of a technique even more highly developed than that of the Shrewsbury, were, as early as 1160, produced for liturgical functions in France, not only by Frenchmen, but by one Hilarius, who was presumably an Englishman, favours the opinion that the earliest saints' plays in England, also, were as frequently derived from scriptural as from legendary sources. It is, moreover, likely that the first saints' plays on legendary subjects in England of which we have record were neither the first of their kind in the period attributed to their presentation, nor a notable advance in dramatic art when they were presented. There is nothing in the earliest record of a legendary saint's play, the miracle of St. Katharine, presented by Geoffrey, afterwards Abbot of St. Albans, at Dunstable about 1100, to warrant the inference that it was a novelty, even at that date. Since Geoffrey was at the time awaiting a position as schoolmaster, he was probably within his function, _de consuetudine magistrorum et scholarum_,[3] when he produced the play; and it is to be noticed that when Matthew of Paris writes concerning the matter, about 1240, he appears to be much more interested in an accident which attended the performance than in the mere composition and presentation of what he calls "some play or other of St. Katharine, of the kind that we _commonly_ call Miracles."[4] Indeed, William Fitzstephen, writing some seventy years before Matthew, speaks of such plays of the saints as in his time quite customary. The probabilities are, then, that this first legendary saint's play recorded as acted in England had been preceded by others of its kind, and they in turn by miracles of biblical heroes and by liturgical plays and dramatic tropes of the services of the church.

It is not unreasonable to surmise that this legendary kind of miracle, although sometimes used as part of the church service on the saint's day, and originally possessed of serious features, speedily developed characteristics helpful in the progress of the comic drama. All we know of the St. Katharine play is that it was written for secular presentation at a date when no mention is yet made of the public acting of scriptural plays. The dramatist would, however, be more likely to adorn the useful with the amusing in the preparation of a play not necessarily to be performed within the sacred precincts; and while the technique of the legendary miracle was presumably akin from the first to that of the biblical, it is natural to suppose that the plot was handled with larger imaginative freedom.

But our knowledge of these early saints' plays need not be entirely a matter of surmise. We may form a fair idea of their character from contemporary testimony, from the style of the Latin or French saints' plays of the time that have survived, from the nature of the legends dramatized, and from the analogy of contemporary biblical plays. To the _locus classicus_ of contemporary testimony in William Fitzstephen's _Life of Thomas à Becket_ (1170-82) I have already made reference. Speaking of the theatrical shows and spectacular plays of Rome, the biographer says that "London has plays of a more sacred character--representations of the miracles which saintly confessors have wrought, or of the sufferings whereby the fortitude of martyrs has been displayed." According to this, the _ludi sanctiores_, or marvels, as they seem later to be called,[5] are of two classes: the marvel of the faith that removes mountains, the marvel of the fortitude that endures martyrdom. In either case the saint's play is of the stuff that produces comedy; for, whether the miracles are active or passive, the Christian saint and soldier always proceeds victorious, and with increasing merit abides as ensample and intercessor in the church invisible.

This relation of the saint's play to comedy appears the more evident when we read in the _Golden Legend_ and elsewhere the histories of the saints who became favourites in English or foreign drama or pageant,--St. Katharine, St. George, St. Susanna, St. Botulf, and the like. In most cases the triumph of the marvel naturally outweighed the terror; and in the one of the few English plays of the purely legendary kind that survives, the _St. George_--degenerate in form and now merely a folk drama--the self-glorification of the saint and the amusing discomfiture and recovery of himself and his foes are the only elements that have outlived the stress of centuries. _The Miracle of St. Nicholas_, written in the middle of the twelfth century, affords still better opportunity of studying the dramatic quality of the kind in question. For the author, Hilarius, wrote also in a like mixture--Latin with French refrains--a scriptural play of Lazarus; and in collaboration with others, but entirely in Latin, a magnificent dramatic history called _Daniel_. These, like the _St. Nicholas_, were adapted to performance in church at the appropriate season in the holy year, and no better illustration can be found of the essential difference between the scriptural or so-called 'mystery' play, on the one hand, and the saint's play, on the other, than is offered by them. The two scriptural plays, stately, reverent, adapted to the solemn and regular ritual of which they are an illustration in the concrete betray not a gleam of humour; the play of the other kind, written as it is for the festival of a jovial saint, leaps _in medias res_ with bustle and surprise; and from the speech with which Barbarus entrusts his treasure to the saint even to the last French refrain, after Nicholas has forced the robbers to restitution, we are well over the brink of the comic. By the concluding scene, serious and in Latin of the church, setting forth the conversion of the pagan, the feelings of the congregation are restored to the level of the divine service, momentarily interrupted by the comedy but now resumed.

These, and all saints' plays not, like the St. Anne's play, of a cyclic character, were, from the first, dramatic units; they represented a single general plot, generally of a single hero; the action was focussed on the critical period of his life; and a considerable incitement was consequently offered to invention of incident and development of character. A comparative study of the plays concerning St. Nicholas will justify the statement that the dramatist was by way of taking liberties with, or varying, his selection from legend. The Einsiedeln Nicholas play of the twelfth century deals with a different miracle from that dramatized by Hilarius; and of the four Fleury plays of St. Nicholas, probably composed in the same century, the two that deal with these miracles vary the treatment; the other two are on different themes, but all would appear, from the editions which we have of them, to be promising little comedies. The possibilities of this kind of drama are best displayed in still another play of St. Nicholas, written in the vernacular by a Frenchman of Arras, Jean Bodel, about the year 1205. Throwing the traditional legends entirely overboard, he gives his imagination free course with favouring winds of knightly adventure, but over the waters of everyday life. He produces a play at once comic, fanciful, and realistic, the first of its kind--of so excellent a quality that Creizenach says that it would appear as if dramatic poetry were even then well on the way of development from the ecclesiastical model to a romantic kind of art in the style of the later English and Spanish drama: chivalric, fantastic, and realistic.[6]

Unfortunately, other plays of this kind, like the _Theophilus_ of Rutebeuf, do not always avail themselves of their chances; but we may in general surmise that such plays in English--and we have evidence of many--contributed as much as the biblical miracle to the cultivation of a popular taste for comedy and the encouragement of inventive power in the handling of dramatic fable. I believe that they contributed more than the pre-Reformation morals, and from an earlier period.

I have said that in all probability there was nothing unusual in the presentation of saints' plays by Hilarius and Geoffrey. Latin plays were not a novelty in the twelfth century, at any rate to men of culture and the church. When we consider the history of the Terentian and Plautine manuscripts, how carefully the former were cherished, and with what appreciation a portion at least of the latter, during the Middle Ages, we cannot but apprehend the extent of their influence, even when unapparent, upon taste, style, and thought. Plautus (in whose comedies, with those of Terence, St. Jerome was wont to seek consolation after seasons of strenuous fasting and prayer) was imitated in a _Querolus_ and probably a _Geta_, as early as the fourth century; and Terence was adapted by Hrosvitha in the tenth. We are, therefore, not at all surprised when we find Latin comedy during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries clothing itself through France and Italy in the verdure of another spring. To be sure the new style of production--a declamation by way of dialogue or conversational narrative, in elegiac verse--was not intended for histrionic presentation; but it was nevertheless of the dramatic _genus_; little by little the narrative outline dwindled and the mimetic opportunities of the speaker were emphasized. His success was measured by his skill in representing diverse characters merely by changes of voice, countenance, and gesture. He is the impersonator in transition to the actor. These elegiac comedies indicate the continuing influence of Latin comedy upon the literary creativity of the day; they furnish, besides, both the material for the regular drama that was coming, and the taste by which it should be controlled. I am, indeed, of the opinion that from this source the farce interludes of England, France, and Italy drew much of their content during the next three centuries, and that the saint's plays of that period, at least those in Latin, derived therefrom their dramatic technique. The revival of Latin comedy during the twelfth century was partly by way of adaptations, as in the dramatic poems of Vitalis of Blois; partly of independent productions, fashioned upon classical models but dealing with _contes_, _fabliaux_ or _novelle_ of contemporary quality. Of the latter kind the more interesting examples upon the continent were the _Alda_ of William of Blois, and two elegiac poems, perhaps Italian, of lovers and go-betweens,--a graceful and passionate comedy of _Pamphilus_ and a dramatic version by one Jacobus of the intrigue, so dear to mediæval satirists, between priest and labourer's wife. The subject and treatment of the last of these suggest, at once, a kinship with an _Interludium de Clerico et Puella_ in English of the end of the thirteenth century, and with an earlier English story from which that is derived; also with Heywood's much later play of _Johan_. That there was a Latin elegiac comedy in England during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries,--comedy of domestic romance with all or some of the characters common to the kind--youth and maid, wife and paramour, enamoured cleric, faithless husband, cuckold, enraged father, parasite, slave, go-between, and double,--is rendered probable by the survival of two such poems, one of which bears internal evidence of its origin in England, while the only manuscripts extant of the other were found in that country. The first lacks a title, but has been called the _Baucis_ after the manipulator of the intrigue, a procuress; the second is named _Babio_ for the unhappy hero who is at one and the same time fooled by his wife whom he doesn't love, and his step-daughter whom he does. Both comedies display the influence of classical Latin, but the latter sparkles with the humour and spontaneity of the comedy of contemporary life.[7]