Part 46

The necromantic theme with its instruments, the characters primarily concerned (Bacon, Bungay, Vandermast, Miles), and the catastrophes connected with the 'wonderfull glasse,' _i.e._ the materials for Scenes ix., xi., xiii., are derived from _The Famous Historie of Frier Bacon_, already mentioned--"a popular story-book probably written toward the end of the sixteenth century, and founded upon accretions of the legendary history of Roger Bacon."[1259] The same source afforded also the suggestion of Scenes ii. and vi.--the exposure of Burden's intrigue and the interrupted wedding. The romantic theme, its characters and incidents, and the enveloping action are of Greene's devising. What slight resemblance the last bears to history need not here be recapitulated. For that, and for the literary career of the magical devices, the readers may consult the admirable summaries of Ward[1260] and Ritter, to which I have nothing to add save that there exists a prior suggestion of the 'head of brass,' in English drama, in the _Conflict of Conscience_, III. iii. 5, and, in the same play, an instance of the 'crystal clear' or 'gladsome glass.' The latter might seem, indeed, to be anticipated by the 'Glass of Reson' in Redford's _Wyt and Science_, but that is a different thing. The 'glass prospective' is adapted in _Friar Bacon_ to a species of stage business which is unique: the _scene beside a scene_,--a device essentially distinct from the play within the play. While the persons to whom we owe the disclosure of this parallel scene are no less surprised thereby than are we, the persons of the scene disclosed not only vitally affect the main action by the unaffected pursuit of their own interests, but incidentally present the fact that is stranger than fiction. To the double illusion of the play concocted within a play, this impromptu enlistment of nature in the ranks of art adds the illusion of unconscious drama. Moreover, in the glass prospective scenes, the piquancy of the preternatural is surpassed by that of the natural; the artless eclipses the artificial, and the result is an artistic irony. And, after all, these scenes beside the scene are but the dear device of eavesdropping purged of the keyhole and the sneak. They are not the strategic contrivance of the inner play of the _Spanish Tragedy_ or _Hamlet_, nor a mere mechanism for diversion as in _James IV._ and _Midsummer Night_, nor an episode as in _Love's Labor_, nor a substitute for the initial movement like the play within the _Old Wives' Tale_, but a something that combines qualities from each. The parallel scene is at the same time its own _raison d'être_, and a reflex of its principal which it multiplies and raises to a higher power.

The _motif_--the wooing by proxy--is, of course, as ancient as the Arthuriad, and as modern as Miles Standish; indeed, older and younger yet. This appearance precedes, however, several other dramatic instances, such as those of _Faire Em_, the _Knack_, and, I believe, _1 Henry VI._ There are likewise to be found precursors of Edward's renunciation, as in the _Campaspe_, and later instances, as in the _Knack_ and other plays. The apparently motiveless abandonment of Peggy is, however, a novelty, and uniquely handled; a capital instance of 'comic' irony, invested with solemnity, and introduced with a wink.

=Dramatic Construction.=--The pedant might find it easy to break this plot upon a wheel; but the plot is none the less a dramatic success. It may be that the climax is reached too soon; but the scene is none the less effective for its suddenness and in its consequence. The sham desertion exists merely because Greene was put to it, after his climax, to string out the romantic interest. In itself it is an absurdity, but a delicious absurdity; and, unsympathetic as we may be with the mediæval test of constancy, the event somehow suffices,--perhaps because it unfolds phases of Margaret's character which owe their witchery to their unlikelihood. It may be said that the title thread is, for us, of secondary interest; but such a judgment would by no means hold true of an Elizabethan audience. That, indeed, would delight in the necromantic 'business,' with its elements of sensation and amaze, its contribution to 'humours,' and its intermittent influence upon plot. It may be said that the intersection of the threads is not of necessity, but of external agency; that the tragic minor motive is imported, and the enveloping action thin. But why measure the beautiful by rule of thumb? The quality here is _sui generis_, residing in scenes rather than fable--scenes idyllic, spectacular, amusing, so ordered that movement shall be continuous and interest unflagging. The interest is not primarily of character or solution; it proceeds from the pageant: and the continuity from the manager. Greene, the story-teller, has suborned Greene, the _impresario_; there results this panel-romance, a drama of the picturesque. On no previous occasion had sentimental, comic, sensational, mysterious, sublime, and tragic been so blended upon an English background for a comedy of English life. This was something novel for the pit; a spectacle kaleidoscopic, rapid, innocuous; a heart-in-the-mouth ecstasy, a circus of many rings. How artistically it was contrived appears when one considers the sequence and grouping of the scenes. These fall into series, which happen to be five in number; but to indicate them as acts in the text might impair the charade-like simplicity of the show. The series are: _First_, Scenes i.-iv., four groups and four environments, the material of all future combinations of scene and sensation: the courtiers on the country side--chivalric and idyllic; the doctors and the colleges--scholastic, necromantic; the country folk and their fair--pastoral, romantic; the royal residence and the court--spectacular; time, about two days. _Second_, Scenes v.--vii., Oxford: street, cell, and regent-house--the riotous, magical, romantic, and spectacular; apparently the day after Scene i., but actually some two days. _Third_, Scenes viii.-x., the next day: country, college, and country again--romance, black art, peril, and pathos. _Fourth_, Scenes xi.-xiii., sixty days later; college, court, and college--magic, majesty, and collapse of the supernatural. _Fifth_, Scenes xiv.-xvi., the next day: country, college, and court--mock heroics and the pastoral, burlesque of the supernatural, the smile of royalty, and _couleur de rose_. Throughout, the action is sustained, the crises are frequent, the reversals of fortune unexpected and absorbing, the suspense sufficient.

In spite of the author's efforts to make a prig of Margaret, and in spite of all disparity between her station and her style, the "lovely star of Fressingfield" shines first and fairest of her daughters in English comedy,--of country wenches born to conquer. Innocent, coy, standing upon her "honest points," she is neither unsophisticated nor crude--but a perilous coquette. In wit, yielding not to the Lincoln earl, and in diplomacy one too many for the prince, she hardly needs to warn them or us that she has had lords for lovers before. "Stately in her stammell red," she toys with Edward, for whom she doesn't care; but his deputy-lover she corners at first chance, and it is then "marriage or no market" with this maid. She outplays the irate Prince of Wales by sheer loyalty to his rival: "'Twas I, not Lacy, stept awry;" and if her lover be to fall, she will join him "in one tomb." When it comes to Lacy's desertion of her, the dramatist fills her mouth with piety, but the girl bubbles through. As between the convent and the court she vastly prefers the latter, and her farewell to the world is eloquent of gowns. In spite of the pother with which she welcomes "base attire," her "flesh is frayle"; and when her lover, with "enchanting face," comes riding back, and the "wedding-robes are in the tailor's hands," it doesn't take Peggy long to decide between "God or Lord Lacy." In simple dignity she is most like her Greenian sisters, Ida and Angelica. But she is also the predecessor of many a heroine not so simple as men have thought: of Alfrida in the _Knack_, Bridget in _Every Man in his Humour_, Harriet in the _Man of Mode_, Dorinda in the _Beaux' Stratagem_, Lucinda in the _Conscious Lovers_. As for her lover, his type is that of Alfrida's Ethenwald, more manly to be sure than he, but lacking leagues of what a Lacy should have been. Even the _Post_ is at pains to apologize for him. Still, Lacy excels his master--an ordinary Lothario of the purple, noised abroad as generous, admired of his associates and his dramatic creator, but of unregal stuff. In reality, Edward is less magnanimous than his counterpart in Lyly's play. If he appears more ready than Alexander was to yield his victim, it is only because a keeper's daughter and a princess are "sisters under the skin." The Castile Elinor awaits him: Edward is as moral as a jelly-fish; and a swap of mistresses is no hardship. The characterization of Warren and Ermsbie, though but a score of lines, is clear-cut. Blunt Anglo-Saxons they are, prompt with the sword, with women dubious--a complementary pair. Also complementary are the fools--one of the court, the other of the home: Rafe the jester, Miles the blunderer; the latter halfway between vice and clown. Like the clown, he stimulates progress by the spur of his stupidity; like the vice, he jogs without concern to his predestined place. With Longtongue and Ragan he is of the kin of disputatious servants, a brother to Greene's Jenkin, Adam, and Slipper, and, like the last two, a "philosopher of toast and ale." Lentulo of the _Rare Triumphs_ was an ancient relative of his, and, like him, educated in that school whence later proceeded the Dogberrys and their cousins german--Poppev, Curtall, and Mouse. This is the stock and discipline that Kemp's Gothamites bewray when their tongues blossom into counsel.

=Previous Editions and the Present Text.=--The first quarto is White's, of 1594. The copy in the British Museum (C. 34, c. 37) lacks all after 44 from the words, "for to pleasure" (xv. 49); that in the Duke of Devonshire's library "lacks a leaf between A 3 and B, and one at end" (Grosart). Dyce, Ward, and Grosart mention a reprint of 1599; but I do not find it in B.M. or the Bodleian. The quarto which Dr. Ward supposes to be of 1599 (viz. Malone, 226 in the Bodleian) is exactly like the 1630 quarto, except that it lacks the title-page and is badly clipped. The attribution to 1599 seems to rest upon (1) Malone's Ms. note on the fly-leaf of 1630 quarto (Bodl. Malone, 227): "See the edit. of 1599 in Vol. 69," and (2) the hand-written date, 1599 (probably, also, by Malone) on the upper right-hand corner of the first page of the quarto contained in the volume 69, which is the Malone 226 mentioned above. But that Malone 226 and 227 should be respectively of 1599 and 1630, and, nevertheless, identical, would be odd: especially when we remember that the copyright had been transferred from Mrs. White to Mrs. Aldee in 1624, and that Mrs. Aldee's publication of 1630 was a fresh edition "as it was lately plaid by the Prince Palatine his servants." I think that the supposed 1599 copy is of 1630. The 1630 edition (another copy of which is in B. M.) varies considerably from the original of 1594. The copyright passed into Oulton's hands in 1640, and in 1655 a new edition appeared. Modern issues are those of Dodsley, Dyce, Ward, and Grosart (Do., Dy., W., G.), the last of which, alone, retains the original forms, those of the Chatsworth, 1594. The present edition follows the B.M. quarto of 1594, and, when that ends, Grosart's (Huth Library) reprint of the Chatsworth. Variations in the 1630 quartos (Malone) have been indicated in the footnotes. Q 1 stands for ed. 1594, Q 3 for 1630, Q 4 for 1655.

Since most of the emendations made by preceding editors plead as their excuse the metrical irregularity of the quartos, I have found it necessary to justify my retention of the original text, by an explanation of Greene's metrical practice in this play. This _apologia_, which, in some degree, applies to all of his plays, will be found in the Appendix. We should, perhaps, be troubled with fewer emendations of the Elizabethan drama if we could bring ourselves to believe that playwrights regulated their rhythms more frequently than is supposed, by dramatic and rhetorical conditions of utterance; and that the plays of the sixteenth century were not written in the eighteenth.

CHARLES MILLS GAYLEY.

FOOTNOTES:

[1137] Greene's _Groatsworth_ and _Short Discourse of My Life_ (appended to the _Repentance_). Grosart's _Introduction_ and Storojenko's _Life_ in Grosart's _Greene_, 12 vols., Huth Library; Dyce's _Account of R. Greene and his Writings_; Bernhardi's R. Greene's _Leben u. Schriften_; Ward's _Hist. Engl. Dram. Lit._ Also Grosart's _Nashe_ and _Harvey_.

[1138] _Youthe Recalleth his Former Follies with an Inward Repentance._ Not extant.

[1139] Clare Hall, July 1.

[1140] First pub. 1584.

[1141] If the Isabel in _Never Too Late_ represents Greene's wife Doll, I may be pardoned for conjecturing that the Caerbranck and Dunecastrum of that story stand for Corby and Donington, twelve miles apart, in Lincolnshire, near the Norfolk line.

[1142] See Prefaces to _Perimedes_ (_S. R._ March 29, 1588); _Pandosto_, pub. 1588; _Menaphon_, pub. August 1589 (perhaps before July, 1588); and _Ciceronis Amor_, pub. 1589. The dates are of historical importance.

[1143] _Philomela_, 1592, is of earlier style and composition.

[1144] As "chiefe agent of the companie" of poets and writers (Lyly, Nashe, Greene, and probably Lodge and Peele) whom Richard Harvey in his _Lamb of God_ had "mistermed piperly makeplaies and make-bates." Nashe, _Strange Newes_, etc.

[1145] Sister to Cutting Ball, "trust under a tree" at Tyburn.

[1146] _Foure Letters and Certain Sonnets_, London, 1592.

[1147] "Physique is ... to techen ... of everichon" (herbs, stones, etc.),

"That ben of bodely substaunce The nature and the substance." --GOWER, _Conf. Am._, VII.

[1148] Chaucer, _Prol. C. T._, 414-420.

[1149] As Dr. Grosart thinks he was.

[1150] In Grosart: XII. 174-179, _Short Discourse of the Life_, etc., which has every mark of authenticity.

[1151] _Life of Sh._, 92, 105; _Hist. Stage_, 82; but cf. Cohn, _Shakesp. in Germany_, xxi-xxxi (1865), and Creizenach, _Schauspiele d. engl. Komōdianten_, ii-iv (Kürschner, Nat. Litt. Bd. XXIII).

[1152] Bp. Grindal's _Register_, fol. 225, as in Grosart, I. Prefatory Note.

[1153] See respectively _Have with You_, and _Strange Newes; To the Gent. readers of The Repentance_, 1592; _A Knight's Conjuring_, Ch. IX. 1607; _Hierarchie of the Blessed Angels_, 1635; _Kind-Hart's Dreame_, 1592.

[1154] Dyce, _Account of Greene_, pp. 35, 36; and Harvey's _Foure Letters_, pp. 9, 25.

[1155] Brown (Grosart's _Greene_, Vol. I., Introduction, xi. _et seq._) arranges: _A._, _O. F._, and _F. B._ (1584-87); _Jas. IV._, and _Pinner_ (1590-91); _L.-G._ (1591-92). Storojenko (Grosart, I., 167-226) arranges: _A._ (after _Tamburl._, 1587-88), _O._, and _L.-G._ (1588-89); _Jas. IV._, F. B., _Pinner_ (1589-92).

[1156] No mention of the _M. A._, which is given when his name is attached to other plays. _Alphonsus_ is neither mentioned by Henslowe, nor recorded _S. R._

[1157] Acted by the Admiral's men, 1587, according to Fleay. _Ep._ to _Menaphon_, which refers to it, _may_ have been written as early as 1587 (Storojenko).

[1158] Act. IV.; the lines 1578, 1579 do not look like additions.

[1159] _Prologue_ to _Alph._, l. 28.

[1160] Ward, _E. D. L._ l. 324 n.

[1161] _To the Famous and Fortunate Generals_: "_Mahomet's pow_ and mighty Tamberlaine" (see Fleay, _Life of Shakesp._, pp. 96-97).

[1162] See _Perymedes_, _Menaphon_, _Anatomie of Absurditie_, and the opening of _Greene's Vision_ (written before 1590).

[1163] "The mad preest of the sonne."

[1164] Venus's lines, 40-45, which would place this play after a series of love pamphlets, and before the treatment of graver themes. See Simpson, 2: 352. Mr. Fleay unhesitatingly assigns its production to 1587 (_Life of Shakesp._, pp. 96, 97).

[1165] See for this, Grosart, _Introd._ xxv. xli.; Simpson, 2: 382; and Ward.

[1166] Cf. _The Knack_, etc., which as a "new" play was acted thrice in the fortnight (_Henslowe_).

[1167] Fleay assigns "most and best" of the play to Lodge. Grosart disagrees, but does not specify. A comparative investigation satisfies me that only the following passages can be assigned to Lodge: Sc. iii. (Dy., pp. 120-122; Gros., ll. 319-480) Usurer, Thrasyb., Alcon, as far as _Enter Remilia_; Sc. v. (Dy., pp. 124-126; Gros., ll. 654-868) Alcon, Thr., Lawy., Judge, Usur., as far as _Enter Adam_; Sc. vii. (Dy., pp. 129, 130; Gros., ll. 1070-1169) Jonas, Angel, Merchants, etc.; Sc. x. (Dy., pp. 134, 135; Gros., ll. 1512-1604), Merchants, etc.; Sc. xiii. (Dy., pp. 138-139; Gros., ll. 1900-2020) Thr., Alcon, etc.--Sc. viii. (Dy., p. 130; Gros., ll. 1180-1363) Alcon, etc., to _Exit Samia_, shows signs of Lodge principally, but some of the lines are Greene's. In general, each of the prophetic interludes is by the author of the scene preceding. _E.g._ ll. 1591-1653, Jonas, Angel, Oseas, by Lodge. From l. 2020 all is by Greene; therefore most of Jonas.

[1168] He vows:--

"To write no more of that whence shame doth grow Or tie my pen to penny-knaves delight, But live with fame and so for fame to write."

[1169] _Nat. Dict. Biog._, art. _Lodge_.

[1170] Fleay, _Life of Shakesp._, p. 98. Mr. Fleay, conjecturing that Lodge was associated with Marlowe in the attack upon Greene's unsuccessful heroic play, and that Lodge is satirized under the (_Perymedes_) mention of the "mad preest," assigns the _L.-G._ to a later date. But we find no evidence of coolness between Lodge and Greene during 1588 and 1589. On the contrary, Lodge prefixes to the _Span. Masquer._ (_S. R._ February 1, 1589), verses calling Greene his _doux ami_ and _compagnon de Dieux_, and rejoices to be associated with his fame. The friendship was still fresh when Greene died. Lodge was not the "mad preest." Nor can I adopt Mr. Fleay's other conjecture (_Biog. Chron._ II. 31) that the "preest" was Hieronimo.

[1171] The direction _A band_, etc., might well follow close upon "tempt you me?" of line 1764. The passage, ll. 1764-1782, interrupts a scene otherwise sufficient to itself, with a pageant of supernumeraries whose utterance is a veritable "fa-burden." The bit looks almost like an afterthought, aping Marlowan style; but it is manifest Greene, not Lodge.

[1172] For the distribution of authorship, see note 3, p. 405.

[1173] Lines 80-116, 481-508.

[1174] Grosart, XIII. vii., and Arber's S. R. there quoted.

[1175] By the author of _The Defence of Connycatching_.

[1176] Fleay, _Hist. Stage_, pp. 76-82.

[1177] Lee, _Life of Shakespeare_, p. 37.

[1178] Probably the _Rose_; Henslowe's _Diary_. For Alleyn's copy of the title role see Dyce, ed. _O. F._

[1179] Fleay, _Life of Shakespeare_, p. 108.

[1180] So Ulrici and Storojenko.

[1181] _E.g._, Orlando's espousal of Angelica's cause and his challenge to Oliver (ll. 1485-1486):

"Yet for I see my Princesse is abusde, By new-come straglers from a forren coast."

[1182] 1588, Dec. 26; 1589, Feb. 9 (?), Dec. 26; 1590, Mar. 1, Dec. 26; 1591, Jan. 1, 3, 6; Feb. 14, Dec. 26. Fleay, _Hist. Stage_, pp. 76-80.

[1183] The date is assigned also to the Admiral's men.

[1184] Lodge's prefatory Sonnet.

[1185] The 'Sacrapant' of both; cf. also _O. F._ ll. 73-76 with _O. W. T._ ll. 808-811.

[1186] So Collier, _Memoirs of Alleyn_; Fleay, _Shakespeare_, p. 96.

[1187] Dr. Ward has mentioned the 'Sacrapant'; but even more striking is the appearance in _Perymedes' Tale of the Third Night's Exercise_ not only of 'Melissa' and her cousin 'Angelica,' but of 'Brandamant' and 'Rosilius,' who at once suggest the Brandimart and Rosillion of _Orlando_.

[1188] _Life of Shakespeare_, p. 96.

[1189] Grosart, I. xxvi.

[1190] See above, p. 404.

[1191] Between 1584 and 1588 (see _Induction_ to _Barth. Fayre_). Maybe as early as 1583-1587 (Schick, _Span. Trag._).

[1192] Note the frequent calls for "revenge"; and cf. the "Hamlet, revenge!" a cant phrase in 1588-89. Grosart gives reason for believing that the _Menaphon_ first appeared before July, 1588 (_Greene_, I. 104). In the _Epistle_ prefixed to it, Nashe ridiculed the _Hamlet_.

[1193] Cf. _O. F._ ll. 83, 84, with _Tullie's Love_ (1589), "one orient margarite richer than those which Cæsar brought," etc.; and _O. F._ ll. 461, 462, with _N. T. L._ (published 1590); "If the Cobler hath taught thee to say _Ave Cæsar_."

[1194] _E.g._, Helen's "scape"--_O. F._ l. 176, _F. B._ VI. 32; "Gihon," etc.--_O. F._ l. 47, _F. B._ XVI. 66; "Demogorgon," etc.--_O. F._ ll. 1287, 1411, and _F. B._ XI. 108; "Mars's paramour"--_O. F._ l. 1545, _F. B._ XIII. 47.

[1195] Arber's _Transcript_, II. 649.

[1196] Bernhardi, Greene's _Leben u. Schriften_, p. 40; Storojenko in Grosart, I. 253. Cf. Greene's _Fair M., the Keeper's Daughter of Fresingfield_, "the proxy-wooing," etc.

[1197] "O, tis a jollie matter when a man hath a familiar stile and can endite a whole yeare and never be beholding to art? but to bring Scripture to prove anything he says ... is no small piece of cunning." (Grosart, IX. 233.)

[1198] _Spanish Tragedy_, Preface, xxvi.

[1199] Arber, and Storojenko in Grosart, I. 119.

[1200] Storojenko, as above, I. 235.

[1201] Ward, _O. E. D._ cxix.

[1202] For Mr. Fleay's arguments, see Ward's _O. E. D._ cxliii-cxliv.

[1203] Dropping the _qui miscuit_, etc.

[1204] I. 86. See Ward, _O. E. D_., and O. Ritter, _F. B. and F. B._ (_Diss._. Thorn, 1886).

[1205] _F. Q._. III. 3. 10 (pub. 1590, but privately circulated as early as 1587).

[1206] W. must be mistaken when he refers Scene xv. of _Bacon_ to Chaps. XII., XIV., of the story-book. For the Miles of the play does no conjuring; and the devil who carries him off is the instrument of Bacon's vengeance.

[1207] Cf. the summoning of Burden and his hostess with that of Alexander and his paramour.

[1208] Grosart, I. 184.

[1209] But Grosart (I xxxvii.-xl.) appropriately recalls the preëxistence of the _Taming of a Shrew_. He queries the sequence,--_James IV._, _M.N.D._,--but without upsetting it.

[1210] See Storojenko and Grosart as above; and in the _S.R._, Creede, May 14, 1594.

[1211] In Ward, _O.E.D._ cxliii.

[1212] _Life of Shakesp._, p. 309.

[1213] _Continuing_:--

"That like a Bee, _Love hath a little sting_. He _lurkes_ in flowres, he pearcheth on the trees, He on king's pillowes, bends his _prettie_ knees...."

[1214] _Continuing:_--

"It is a _pricke_, it is a _sting_, It is a _prettie_, _prettie_ thing. It is a fire, it is a cole Whose flame _creeps_ in at everie hole...."

This is the version of the Drummond Ms. fragment, which differs from the Rawlinson Ms. See Dyce, _Greene and Peele_, p. 603. Fainter resemblances might be cited.

[1215] July 1 or November 2:--

"Ah, what is love? It is a prettie thing As sweete unto a shepheard as a king."

--_The Shepheard's Wife's Song_, as in Dyce, p. 305.

Grosart's transcript of _Q._ 1616 (IX. 144) accidentally omits all but the last two lines of this song.

[1216] Besides the frequent identity of tone, note such coincidences as _James IV._ l. 2669, 'aldertruest,' _M. G._ (Descript. of Sheph. and Wife), 'alderliefest,' an archaism found nowhere else in Greene,--but in the Folio of 2 _Henry VI._ l. 28 (prob. by Greene, Fleay, _Shakespeare_, p. 269). The sentiment of Philador's _Scrowle and Ode_ in _M. G._ is a variant of the Ovidian precept of _James IV._ l. 1108.

[1217] Lines 1575-1580, 2655-2699.

[1218] Lines 1901-1902.

[1219] _To the Gentlemen Readers_ of _Perymedes_.

[1220] _S. R._ 1594.