iv. 1, after he has scrambled ashore at Wapping on the night of the

drunken shipwreck, is again in Chapman's manner; but his elaborate devices for blanching copper and sweating angels (later in the same scene) must, without the shadow of a doubt, be ascribed to the invention of the author of _The Alchemist_. It would be of doubtful advantage to pursue the inquiry at length.

_Eastward Ho_ was revived at Drury Lane on Lord Mayor's day 1751, under the title of _The Prentices_ (n. d. 12mo), and again in 1775 under the title of _Old City Manners_. Hogarth is said to have drawn from _Eastward Ho_ the plan of his prints _The Industrious and Idle Prentices_. Nahum Tate's farce _Cuckold's Haven_, published in 1685, is drawn partly from _Eastward Ho_ and partly from _The Devil is an Ass_.

_Parasitaster, or the Fawn_, published in 1606, takes us again to Italy, and once more we have to listen to a satirical exposure of the courtiers' vices and follies. In spite of occasional tediousness the play is interesting. Dulcimel, Gonzago's witty daughter, who gulls her self-conceited old father by a pretended discovery of Tiberio's love for her, and succeeds by her blandishments in converting the young misogynist into a perfervid wooer, is a delightfully attractive heroine. The stratagem employed by Dulcimel is of ancient date: it is found in Terence's _Adelphi_, Boccaccio's _Decameron_ (third tale of the third day), and Molière's _L'École des Maris_. I am half inclined to suspect that Marston was slily glancing at the "wise fool" King James in the person of the silly and pedantic Gonzago; and it is probable that some social scandals of the time afforded material for the description of the intrigues of Gonzago's courtiers. Granuffo, who gains a reputation for wisdom by never opening his mouth, might possibly be made an amusing character by an actor skilled in facial contortions; but the humour of the thing is not very apparent in print. Signior No in the _Noble Spanish Soldier_ (attributed to Samuel Rowley, though the play may properly belong to Dekker), and Littleword in Nabbes' _Covent Garden_, are somewhat similar characters. The address _To the Equal Reader_, prefixed to _Parasitaster_, is excellently written, and exhibits Marston in a very pleasant light. "For mine own interest for once," he writes, with a frankness which is not without a touch of pathos, "let this be printed,--that of men of my own addiction I love most, pity some, hate none; for let me truly say it, I once only loved myself, for loving them, and surely I shall ever rest so constant to my first affection, that let their ungentle combinings, discourteous whisperings, never so treacherously labour to undermine my unfenced reputation, I shall (as long as I have being) love the least of their graces and only pity the greatest of their vices." A candid and creditable avowal, but, alas, "words is wind and wind is mutable." In the second edition there follows a briefer address, in which the writer promises to "present a tragedy which shall boldly abide the most curious perusal;" and from a marginal note we learn that the tragedy of _Sophonisba_, published in 1606, was the work which was so boldly to challenge criticism. It is to be feared that this cherished offspring of Marston's imagination will not be regarded with affection by many readers. For hideous blood-curdling realism the description of the witch Erictho and her cave is, I venture to think, without a parallel in literature. Tough as whipcord must have been the nerves of an audience which could listen patiently to the recital of Erictho's atrocities. If there were any women of delicate health among the audience, a repetition of the mishaps connected with the performance of the _Eumenides_ must surely have been unavoidable. Regarded, however, as a whole, the play is not impressive. Sophonisba is a fearless and magnanimous heroine, but her temper is too masculine; she talks too much and too bluntly, and is too fond of striking an attitude. Syphax, the villain of the play, is so prodigiously brutal as to appear perfectly grotesque; and the hero Massinissa bores us by his trite moral reflections. Marston strove to produce a stately tragedy, and was under the impression that his efforts had been crowned with success; but candid readers will judge the performance to be stiff and crude, wanting in energy and dramatic movement, too rhetorical, "climbing to the height of Seneca his style." In the prefatory address he has a hit at _Sejanus_ (to which in the previous year he had contributed a copy of eulogistic verses), informing us that "to transcribe authors, quote authorities, and translate Latin prose orations into English blank verse, hath, in this subject, been the least aim of my studies." But _Sejanus_ has certainly not less of dramatic interest than _Sophonisba_, and in other respects it is far superior.

In 1607 was published the comedy of _What You Will_ (written, I suspect, shortly after the appearance of _Cynthia's Revels_), which is largely indebted for its plot to Plautus's _Amphitruo_. In the Induction, Marston again has his fling at Ben Jonson. Philomusus' heated denunciation of censorious critics,

"Believe it, Doricus, his spirit Is higher blooded than to quake and pant At the report of Scoff's artillery," &c.,

was evidently written in derisive mimicry of Jonson's scornful addresses to the audience; and Doricus' remonstrance,

"Now out upon't, I wonder what tight brain Wrung in this custom to maintain contempt 'Gainst common censure," &c.,

was unquestionably intended as a stiff rebuke to Jonson's towering arrogance. But these strokes of personal satire are not confined to the Induction. Quadratus' scathing ridicule of Lampatho Doria, in the first scene of the second act, was certainly aimed at some adversary of Marston's; and there can be little doubt that this adversary was Ben Jonson. Lampatho is described in the following terms by his admirer Simplicius Faber:--

"Monsieur Laverdure, do you see that gentleman? He goes but in black satin, as you see, but, by Helicon! he hath a cloth of tissue wit. He breaks a jest;[22] ha, he'll rail against the court till the gallants--O God! he is very nectar: if you but sip of his love, you were immortal." At first Lampatho speaks the language of an affected gallant; it is nothing but "protest" with him. Quadratus is disgusted with him:--

"A fusty cask Devote to mouldy customs of hoary eld."

After listening to much abuse, Lampatho turns on his assailant:--

"So Phoebus warm my brain, I'll rhyme thee dead. Look for the satire: if all the sour juice Of a tart brain can souse thy estimate, I'll pickle thee."

The threat only irritates Quadratus the more:--

"Why, you Don Kinsayder! Thou canker-eaten rusty cur, thou snaffle To freer spirits! Think'st thou a libertine, an ungyved breast, Scorns not the shackles of thy envious clogs? You will traduce us unto public scorn?"

Curious that Marston should apply his own _nom de plume_ "Kinsayder" to the adversary whom he is bullying! In the _Scourge of Villainy_ he sneered at his own poem _Pygmalion_, and here he is referring contemptuously to his own achievements in satire. A man who openly ridicules himself blunts the edge of an enemy's sarcasm.

We have seen (p. xxxiii.) that Crites' bitter abuse of Anaides and Hedon (_i.e._, Marston and Dekker), in _Cynthia's Revels_, was flung back in Jonson's face by Dekker. Marston puts into the mouth of Quadratus a speech, modelled closely on those lines of Crites:--

"_Lam._ O sir, you are so square, you scorn reproof." "_Qua._ No, sir; should discreet Mastigophorus, Or the dear spirit acute Canaidus (That Aretine, that most of me beloved, Who in the rich esteem I prize his soul, I term myself); should these once menace me, Or curb my humour with well-govern'd check, I should with most industrious regard, Observe, abstain, and curb my skipping lightness; But when an arrogant, odd, impudent, A blushless forehead, only out of sense Of his own wants, bawls in malignant questing At others' means of waving gallantry,-- Pight foutra!"

Who "discreet Mastigophorus" and "acute Canaidus" were it would be useless to conjecture. But it is not to be doubted that Quadratus' abuse of Lampatho was levelled at Ben Jonson; and that Marston was avenging himself in this way for the insults showered upon him by Jonson. In iv. 1, Quadratus sneers at Lampatho's verse. Lampatho threatens to be revenged. "How, prithee?" says Quadratus; "in a play? Come, come, be sociable."

The tragedy of _The Insatiate Countess_ was published in 1613, with Marston's name on the title-page. In the Duke of Devonshire's library there is a copy,[23] dated 1616, with no name on the title-page. The play was reprinted in 1631, and Marston's name is found on the title-page of most copies of that edition; but the Duke of Devonshire possesses a copy,[24] in which the author's name is given as William Barksteed. In the collected edition of Marston's plays, 1633, _The Insatiate Countess_ is not included. It is therefore clear that Marston's authorship is not established by external evidence. When we come to examine the play itself, which has unfortunately descended in a most corrupt state, the difficulty is not removed. Two picturesque lines at the close of the last scene,

"Night, like a masque, is enter'd heaven's great hall, With thousand torches ushering the way,"

are found verbatim in Barksteed's poem _Myrrha_. We know little of Barksteed, but it is probable that he is to be identified with the William Barksted, or Backsted, who was one of Prince Henry's players in August 1611 (Collier's _Memoirs of Edward Alleyn_, p. 98), and belonged to the company of the Prince Palatine's players in March 1615-6 (_ibid._, p. 126). He is the author of two poems,[25] which display some graceful fancy (though the subject of the first is ill-chosen),--_Myrrha the Mother of Adonis_, 1607, and _Hiren and the Fair Greek_, 1611. As we read _The Insatiate Countess_ we cannot fail to notice passages containing a richness of fancy, and a musical fluency of expression, to which Marston's undoubted plays afford no parallel. The italicised lines are certainly not in Marston's vein:--

"Like to the lion when he hears the sound _Of Dian's bowstring in some shady wood_, I should have couched my lowly limb on earth _And held my silence a proud sacrifice_." "Others, compared to her, show like faint stars _To the full moon of wonder in her face_."

Again: the play contains an unusually large number of imitations of Shakespearean passages. In fact I know no play of this early date in which Shakespeare is so persistently imitated or plagiarised. Again and again we find images and expressions borrowed more or less closely from _Hamlet_. Shakespeare's historical plays, too, were laid under contribution. In the very first scene we have these lines:--

"Slave, I will fight with thee at any odds; Or name an instrument fit for destruction, That e'er was made to make away a man, I'll meet thee on the ridges of the Alps, Or some inhospitable wilderness."

A very cool piece of plagiarism from _Richard II_. (i. 1):--

"Which to maintain I would allow him odds And meet him, were I tied to run a-foot Even to the frozen ridges of the Alps Or any other ground inhabitable."

In the lines,

"The ghosts of misers that imprison'd gold Within _the harmless bowels of the earth_,"

the italicised words were unquestionably suggested by a passage of Hotspur's famous speech in _Henry IV._, i. 2,--

"That villainous salt-petre should be digg'd Out of _the bowels of the harmless earth_."

When Don Sago in iv. 3 exclaims--

"A hundred times in life a coward dies,"

we are immediately reminded of Shakespeare's _Julius Cæsar_ (ii. 2),

"Cowards die many times before their death;"

and Sago's lament in v. 1,

"Although ... the waves of all the Northern sea Should flow for ever through these guilty hands, Yet the sanguinolent stain would extant be,"

decidedly smacks of _Macbeth_. Occasionally, it is true, Marston does not scruple to borrow from Shakespeare, but in none of his plays are the Shakespearean echoes so clear and frequent as in _The Insatiate Countess_. The text, as I have said, is extremely corrupt, and the confusion among the _dramatis personæ_ is perplexing to the last degree (see note, vol. iii. p. 154). I suspect that Marston, on entering the church, left this tragedy in a fragmentary state, and that it was completed by the actor Barksteed. The whole interest centres in the beautiful and sinful Isabella, whose wayward glances, as she moves in splendour, fascinate all beholders; who is indeed a "glorious devil" without shame or pity, boundless and insatiable as the sea in the enormity of her caprices.

In addition to his plays, his poem of _Pygmalion_, and his satires, Marston wrote a Latin pageant on the occasion of the visit paid by the King of Denmark to James I. in 1606, and an entertainment, which is not without elegance, in honour of a visit paid by the Dowager Countess of Derby to her son-in-law and daughter, Lord and Lady Huntingdon, at Ashby. I strongly doubt whether _The Mountebank's Masque_, performed at Court in February 1616-17 (when Marston was attending to his clerical duties in Hampshire), has been correctly assigned to Marston.

There are two anonymous plays[26] in which Marston's hand is plainly discernible,--_Histriomastix_, published in 1610, and _Jack Drum's Entertainment_, published in 1616. It has been mentioned (see note, p. xxxii.) that Jonson in _Every Man out of his Humour_ puts into Clove's mouth, with the object of ridiculing Marston, words and expressions found in _Histriomastix_ (coupling them with flowers of speech culled from _The Scourge of Villainy_), and even mentions the play by name--"as you may read in Plato's _Histriomastix_." Only in a few scenes of _Histriomastix_ can Marston's hand be detected. It is a poor semi-allegorical play, a clumsy piece of patchwork. Marston's additions must have been made before Christmas 1599 (when _Every Man out of his Humour_ was produced), on the occasion of some revival. The following lines, which occur early in the second act, seem to refer to Ben Jonson:--

"How, you translating scholar? You can make A stabbing satire or an epigram, And think you carry just Rhamnusia's whip To lash the patient! go, get you clothes: Our free-born blood such apprehension loathes."

_Jack Drum's Entertainment_, an indifferent comedy, which appears to have been written about the year 1600,[27] bears the clearest traces of Marston's early style. All the monstrous phraseology of _The Scourge of Villainy_ and _Antonio and Mellida_ is seen here in perfection. When Jonson in _The Poetaster_ (v. 1) ridiculed Marston's absurd vocabulary, he selected, _inter alia_, for castigation, some expressions which occur only in _Jack Drum_, and are not found (in so closely parallel a form) in the works published under Marston's name: clear proof that the authorship of this play is to be ascribed, at least in part if not entirely, to Marston. In act iii. of _Jack Drum_ we have--

"Crack not the sinews of my patience,"

which is ridiculed in _The Poetaster_--

"As if his organons of sense would crack The sinews of my patience."

In act ii. are these ridiculous lines--

"Let clumsy chilblain'd gouty wits Bung up their chief contents within the hoops Of a stuff'd dry-fat;"

so in _The Poetaster_--

"Upon that puft-up lump of barmy froth, Or clumsy chilblain'd judgment."

In act iv. Planet's reflections on the arrogant Old Brabant are clearly directed against Jonson.

Collier in his _Memoirs of Edward Alleyn_ (p. 154) printed a letter of Marston to Henslowe; but, as "the whole letter is manifestly a forgery, having been first traced in pencil, the marks of which are in places still visible" (Warner's _Catalogue of Dulwich Manuscripts and Muniments_, p. 49), this relic is of no interest. Another letter, addressed to Lord Kimbolton by a "John Marston,"[28] is printed in Collier's _Shakespeare_[29] (i. 179, ed. 1858); but as it was written in 1641, the writer could not have been the dramatist, who died in 1634. Among the additional MSS. (14,824-6) in the British Museum is a poem entitled _The New Metamorphosis, or a Feast of Fancy or Poetical Legends ... Written by J. M., Gent._, 1600, which has been, not very wisely, ascribed to Marston. I must confess that I have only a superficial acquaintance with this poem; but, as the work fills nearly nine hundred closely-packed pages, I trust that my confession will not be severely criticised. After the title-page is a leaf containing the arguments of books i.-vi.; then comes a new title-page _An Iliad of Metamorphosis or the Arraignment of Vice_, followed by a dialogue between Cupid and Momus. Six lines headed "The Author to his Book" follow the dialogue, and then comes "The Epistle Dedicatory," consisting of a couple of lines--

"To Momus, that same ever-carping mate, And unto Cupid I this dedicate."

After the commendably brief epistle come two lines which inform us that--

"My name is French, to tell you in a word; Yet came not in with conquering William's sword."

(Marston's name was certainly not French; it was a good old Shropshire name.) The prologue begins thus:--

"Upon the public stage to Albion's eye I here present my new-born poesy, Not with vain-glory puft to make it known, Nor Indian-like with feathers not mine own To deck myself, as many use to do; To filching lines I am a deadly foe," &c.

Presently the poet indulges in his invocation:--

"Matilda fair, guide you my wand'ring quill!"

Having turned some thirty thousand verses off the reel, "J. M., Gent." abruptly concludes, with the remark,--

"My leave I here of poetry do take, For I have writ until my hand doth ache."

There is a fine field for an editor in _The New Metamorphosis_; virgin soil, I warrant.

Manningham in his _Diary_, under date 21st November 1602, has been at the pains to record a _bon mot_ of Marston:--"Jo. Marstone, the last Christmas, when he daunct with Alderman Mores wives daughter, a Spaniard borne, fell into a strange commendation of hir witt and beauty. When he had done she thought to pay him home, and told him, she _thought_ he was a poet. 'Tis true, said he, for poets feigne and lye, and soe did I, when I commended your beauty, for you are exceeding foule." Not a very witty saying, and not very polite.

In 1633, William Sheares the publisher issued, in 1 vol. sm. 8vo, _The Workes_[30] _of Mr. John Marston, being Tragedies and Comedies collected into one volume_ containing the two parts of _Antonio and Mellida_, _Sophonisba_, _What You Will_, _The Fawn_, and _The Dutch Courtezan_. The following dedicatory epistle to Viscountess Falkland, in which the publisher insists on the modesty (save the mark!) of Marston's Muse, is found in some copies:--

"TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE, THE LADY ELIZABETH CAREY, VISCOUNTESS FALKLAND.

"Many opprobies and aspersions have not long since been cast upon Plays in general, and it were requisite and expedient that they were vindicated from them; but, I refer that task to those whose leisure is greater, and learning more transcendent. Yet, for my part, I cannot perceive wherein they should appear so vile and abominable, that they should be so vehemently inveighed against. Is it because they are PLAYS? The name, it seems, somewhat offends them; whereas, if they were styled WORKS, they might have their approbation also. I hope that I have now somewhat pacified that precise sect, by reducing all our Author's several Plays into one volume, and so styled them THE WORKS OF MR. JOHN MARSTON, who was not inferior unto any in this kind of writing, in those days when these were penned; and, I am persuaded, equal unto the best poets of our times. If the lines be not answerable to my encomium of him, yet herein bear with him, because they were his JUVENILIA and youthful recreations. Howsoever, he is free from all obscene speeches, which is the chief cause that makes Plays to be so odious unto most men. He abhors such writers, and their works; and hath professed himself an enemy to all such as stuff their scenes with ribaldry, and lard their lines with scurrilous taunts and jests; so that, whatsoever, even in the spring of his years, he hath presented upon the private and public theatre, now, in his autumn and declining age, he need not be ashamed of. And, were it not that he is so far distant from this place, he would have been more careful in revising the former impressions, and more circumspect about this, than I can. In his absence, Noble Lady, I have been emboldened to present these WORKS unto your Honour's view; and the rather, because your Honour is well acquainted with the Muses. In brief, Fame hath given out that your Honour is the mirror of your sex, the admiration, not only of this island, but of all adjacent countries and dominions, which are acquainted with your rare virtues and endowments. If your Honour shall vouchsafe to accept this work, I, with my book, am ready pressed and bound to be

"Your truly devoted,

"WILLIAM SHEARES."

Ben Jonson's copy of the 1633 edition of Marston's plays is preserved in the Dyce Library at South Kensington.

Marston's literary career barely covers a space of ten years: his satires were published in 1598, and he seems to have entered the Church, and to have abandoned the writing of plays, about the year 1607. It is hard to picture Marston as a preacher of the Gospel of Glad Tidings. Were we to judge him by his writings we should say that he was a scornful spirit, at strife with himself and with the world; a man convinced of the hollowness of present life, and yet not looking forward hopefully to any future sphere of activity; only anxious to drop into the jaws of that oblivion which he invoked in his verse and courted even on his gravestone. There was another, a greater than Marston, who began by writing satires and ended by writing sermons. Marston's sermons have perished, but the sermons of John Donne,[31] Dean of St. Paul's, are imperishable. At the thought of that oblivion for which Marston hungered the soul of Donne turned sick. "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Fearful indeed; but "_to fall out of the hands of the living God_," said Donne in a sermon preached before the Earl of Carlisle, "is a horror beyond our expression, beyond our imagination." In a strain of marvellous eloquence he proceeds; and surely no utterance of poet or divine is more pitiful and passionate than this cry wrung from the heart of the great Dean Donne:--

"That God should let my soul fall out of His hand into a bottomless pit and roll an unremovable stone upon it, ... and never think more of that soul, never have more to do with it; that of that providence of God, that studies the life of every weed, and worm, and ant, and spider, and toad, and viper, there should never, never any beam flow out upon me; that that God, who looked upon me, when I was nothing, and called me when I was not, as though I had been, out of the womb and depth of darkness, will not look upon me now, when, though a miserable, and a banished, and a damned creature, yet I am His creature still, and contribute something to His glory, even in my damnation; that that God, who hath often looked upon me in my foullest uncleanness, and when I had shut out the eye of the day, the sun, and the eye of the night, the taper, and the eyes of all the world, with curtains and windows and doors, did yet see me, and see me in mercy, by making me see that He saw me, and sometimes brought me to a present remorse and (for that time) to a forbearing of that sin, should so turn Himself from me to His glorious Saints and Angels, as that no Saint nor Angel nor Christ Jesus Himself should ever pray Him to look towards me, never remember Him that such a soul there is; that that God,--who hath so often said to my soul _Quare morieris_? Why wilt thou die? and so often sworn to my soul _Vivit Dominus_, As the Lord liveth I would not have thee die but live,--will neither let me die nor let me live, but die an everlasting life and live an everlasting death; that that God, who when He could not get into me by standing and knocking, by His ordinary means of entering, by His word, His mercies, hath applied His judgments and hath shaked the house, this body, with agues and palsies, and set this house on fire with fevers and calentures, and frighted the master of the house, my soul, with horrors and heavy apprehensions, and so made an entrance into me; that that God should frustrate all His own purposes and practises upon me, and leave me and cast me away, as though I had cost Him nothing; that this God at last should let this soul go away, as a smoke, as a vapour, as a bubble, and that then this soul cannot be a smoke, a vapour, nor a bubble, but must lie in darkness, as long as the Lord of light is light itself, and never spark of that light reach to my soul: what Tophet is not Paradise, what brimstone is not amber, what gnashing is not a comfort, what gnawing of the worm is not a tickling, what torment is not a marriage-bed to this damnation, to be secluded eternally, eternally, eternally from the sight of God!"

[1] Add. MS. 24,487 ("Chorus Vatum").

[2] Grosart's _Introduction_ to Marston's _Poems_, 1879 (privately printed).

[3] Elizabeth Guarsi, the poet's grandmother, on the death of her husband, Andrew Guarsi, had married John Butler of Wardington, co. Oxon.

[4] I have to thank the Dean of Winchester for supplying me, from the books of the Dean and Chapter of Winchester, with the date of Marston's presentation. The date of his resignation had been previously communicated to me by Dr. Brinsley Nicholson, who procured it from the Diocesan Registry, Winchester.

[5] The will was printed in Halliwell's preface to his edition of Marston. Dr. Grosart gives a literatim copy (which I have followed) collated by Col. Chester with the original.

[6] An abstract of her will, communicated by Col. Chester, is printed in Dr. Grosart's _Introduction_ (p. xxiv.). To her "reverend Pastor Master Edward Calamy"--the famous puritan minister, _Edmund_ Calamy--she leaves "6 angels as a token of my respect."

[7] _Pygmalion's Image_ was republished, without the satires, in 1613 and 1628, in a volume containing the anonymous poem _Alcilia_ and S. P.'s [Samuel Page's?] _Amos and Laura_.

[8] In the epigram he refers to the _nom de plume_ "Kinsayder" which Marston had adopted, and we learn that it was derived from the "kinsing" (cutting the tails?) of dogs. It is to be noticed that the name "Kinsayder" does not occur in the _Pygmalion_ volume. The dedicatory verses to "The World's Mighty Monarch, Good Opinion," are merely subscribed with the initials "W. K." We first find the full name "W. Kinsayder" in the address "To those that seem judicial perusers," prefixed to _The Scourge of Villainy_.

[9] The title shows Hall was the original aggressor (at least in Marston's opinion). Guilpin in the sixth satire of _Skialetheia_ alludes to Marston's "Reactio" in a somewhat enigmatic manner. See note, vol. iii. p. 287.

[10] Both _The Whipping_ and _The Whipper_ are exceedingly rare. Sir Charles Isham, Bart., of Lamport Hall, possesses a little volume (the loan of which I gratefully acknowledge) which contains these two tracts and Nicholas Breton's _No Whipping No Tripping_.

[11] Dr. Nicholson suggests that the character of Furor Poeticus in this play was intended as a satirical portrait of Marston. The suggestion is very plausible.

[12] "This should be _town_. To _bring to town_ = to bring home."--P. A. Daniel. (I prefer the old reading.)

[13] There were really two separate editions of the unrevised play published in 1604. I too hastily assumed that the copy in the Dyce Library was identical with the copy in the British Museum, apart from such textual variations as are frequently found in copies of the same impression of an old play; but I have since discovered that the two copies belong to separate editions. The title of the enlarged edition is curious: _The Malcontent. Augmented by Marston. With the Additions played by the Kings Maiesties Servants. Written by Ihon Webster._ Slovenly wording and vicious punctuation.

John Davies of Hereford, in the _Scourge of Folly_ (1611?), has the following epigram on _The Malcontent_:--

"_To acute Mr. John Marston._

"Thy _Malcontent_ or Malcontentedness Hath made thee change thy muse, as some do guess; If time misspent make her a malcontent Thou need'st not then her timely change repent. The end will show it; meanwhile do but please With virtuous pains as erst thou didst with ease, Thou shalt be praised and kept from want and woe; So blest are crosses that do bless us so."

[14] Perhaps some sage commentator of the future will tell us that Syphax in _Sophonisba_ was intended as a satirical portrait of Ben.

[15] It is hard to see why Jonson should be ridiculed for using these epithets. Marston uses two of them ("real" and "Delphic") himself.

[16] We have "Port Esquiline" twice in the _Scourge of Villainy_; but the very phrase _Paunch of Esquiline_ occurs in _Histriomastix_ (Simpson's _School of Shakspere_, ii. 51), an anonymous play which undoubtedly contains some of Marston's work. "Zodiac," "ecliptic line," "demonstrate," and "tropics" are also found in _Histriomastix_ (_ibid._ ii. 25-6); they are not in Marston's satires. The other words will be found in the _Scourge of Villainy_.

[17] Of _Histriomastix_ I shall have to speak later.

[18] Dekker's _Works_ (Pearson's Reprint), i. 195.

[19] "Some booksellers this year," says Nixon, "shall not have cause to boast of their winnings, for that many write that flow with phrases and yet are barren in substance, and such are neither wise nor witty; others are so concise that you need a commentary to understand them, others have good wits but so critical that they arraign other men's works at the tribunal seat of every censurious Aristarch's understanding, when their own are sacrificed in Paul's Churchyard for bringing in the _Dutch Courtezan_ to corrupt English conditions and sent away westward for carping both at court, city, and country. For they are so sudden-witted that a flea can no sooner frisk forth but they must needs comment on her."

[20] Among the Hatfield MSS. is a letter (communicated to Gifford by the elder Disraeli), dated "1605," of Ben Jonson to Lord Salisbury, in which Jonson writes that he had been committed to prison unexamined and unheard, "and with me a gentleman (whose name may perhaps have come to your lordship), one Mr. George Chapman, a learned and honest man," for introducing into a play some matter which had given offence. With much warmth he declares that, since his "first error," he had been scrupulously careful not to write anything against which objection could be taken. Gifford assumed that "first error" referred to _Eastward Ho_, and that Jonson was suffering for another offence when the letter was written. What the "first error" was cannot be determined with certainty, for it is not improbable that Jonson was frequently in trouble. It is quite possible that the letter was written when Jonson and Chapman were in prison on the _Eastward Ho_ charge. Jonson may have written on Chapman's behalf and his own, leaving Marston to shift for himself. But such conduct would have been ungenerous; and I prefer to adopt Gifford's view that the imprisonment of which the letter complains was not connected with _Eastward Ho_. Besides, the satirical reflections on the Scots, and any particular allusions to Sir James Graham, would have been more pertinent in 1603 than in 1605.

[21] In _Every Man out of his Humour_, iii. 3, we have:-- "Whereas let him be poor and meanly clad, Though ne'er so richly _parted_," &c.

[22] The words "He [_i.e._, Lampatho] breaks a jest" have the look of a stage-direction.

[23] _The Insatiate Countesse. London, Printed by N. O. for Thomas Archer_, &c., 1616, 4to.

[24] The full title is [_The_] _Insatiate Covntesse. A Tragedy: Acted, at White-Friers. Written, By William Barksteed. London, Printed for Hvgh Perrie, and are to be sold at his shop at the signe of the Harrow in Brittaines-Burse_. 1631. 4to.

[25] Reprinted in Dr. Grosart's valuable _Occasional Issues_.

[26] These plays are printed in the second volume of Simpson's _School of Shakspere_. I have not included them in this edition of Marston; they are of little value and are easily accessible. Marston's share in _Histriomastix_ was slight.

[27] See Simpson's _School of Shakespere_, ii. 127.

[28] Probably the Rev. John Marston, of St. Mary Magdalene, Canterbury, who published in 1642 _A Sermon preached ... before many ... Members of the House of Commons_.

[29] In his _Shakespeare_ Collier states that the letter was written in 1605, and that it refers to the Gunpowder Plot; but in his _Bibliographical Account_, 1. xxiv*, correcting his former statement, he says that the letter was written in 1641, and that it concerns the arrest of the Five Members.

[30] In some copies the author's name is not given, and the title-page runs, _Tragedies and Comedies collected into one volume, viz._ 1. _Antonio and Mellida._ 2. _Antonio's Revenge._ 3. _The Tragedie of Sophonisba._ 4. _What You Will._ 5. _The Fawne._ 6. _The Dutch Courtezan._

[31] Some verses, signed "Jo. Mar.," prefixed to Donne's _Poems_, 1633, have been ascribed to Marston; but, as the heading of the verses is "Hexasticon _Bibliopolæ_," and as the publisher or _bibliopola_ was Jo[hn] Mar[riott], Marston's claim can hardly be sustained.

ADDENDA.

Vol. i. page 13. "Blind Gew."--I have come upon a mention of this actor in the fifth satire of Edward Guilpin's _Skialetheia_, 1598:--

"But who's in yonder coach? my lord and fool, One that for ape-tricks can put _Gue_ to school."

Guilpin's eleventh epigram is addressed "_To Gue_":--

"_Gue_, hang thyself for woe, since gentlemen Are now grown cunning in thy apishness," &c.

Page 15, line 17. "_Heavy_ dryness."--I was wrong in accepting the reading of ed. 1633 in preference to the "_heathy_ dryness" of ed. 1602. _Heathy_ is a Marstonian word; and we find it in act iv. of _Jack Drum's Entertainment_:--

"Good faith, troth is they are all apes and gulls, Vile imitating spirits, dry _heathy_ turfs."

Page 60, line 256. Dr. Nicholson proposes "Her _own_ heels, God knows, _are not_ half so light"--a good emendation.

Page 239, line 21. "Distilled oxpith," &c.--We have a similar list of provocatives in John Mason's _Turk_, first published in 1610, but written some years previously:--

"Here is a compound of Cantharides, diositerion, _marrow of an ox_, _hairs of a lion_, stones of a goat, _cock-sparrows' brains_, and such like." (_Sig. F. 3, verso._)

Page 311, lines 88, 89. "Life is a frost ... vanity."--I have discovered that these lines are from an epigram in Thomas Bastard's _Chrestoleros_, 1598, sig. H. I quote the epigram in full, as it is of striking solemnity:--

"When I behold with deep astonishment To famous Westminster how there resort, Living in brass or stony monument, The princes and the worthies of all sort, Do not I see reform'd nobility Without contempt or pride or ostentation? And look upon offenceless majesty Naked of pomp or earthly domination? And how a play-game of a painted stone Contents the quiet now and silent sprites Whom all the world, which late they stood upon, Could not content nor squench [_sic_] their appetites? _Life is a frost of cold felicity And death the thaw of all our vanity._"

Vol. ii. page 355, line 274. Mr. P. A. Daniel suggests that for "others' fate" we should read "adverse fate."

Vol. iii. page 51, lines 41-2. "_But a little higher, but a little higher_," &c.--These lines are from a song of Campion, beginning--

"Mistress, since you so much desire To know the place of Cupid's fire," &c.

No. xvi. in Campion and Rosseter's _Book of Airs_, 1601. They occur again in Campion's _Fourth Book of Airs_, No. xxii.

Page 243, line 247. "Like Mycerinus," &c.--I notice that a similar emendation is made, in a seventeenth century hand, in the margin of one of Dyce's copies at South Kensington. My emendation was printed before I discovered that it had been anticipated.

ERRATA.

VOL. I.

Page 64, line 48, for _Tyrrian_ read _Tyrian_.

Page 120, note 2, for _Grumean_ read _Grumeau_.

Page 159, note 1, for "The star-led wisards _hasten_" read "The star-led wisards _haste_."

Page 191, after "_Antonii Vindictæ_" the word "_Finis_" should be added (_i.e._, "End of Antonio's Revenge").

VOL. II.

Page 125, note 2, after "_The Famous History of Fryer_" add "_Bacon_."

Page 322, line 15, for "Sir Signior" read "Sir, Signior" (comma after "Sir").

Page 363, for "Still _went_ on went I" read "Still on went I" (an annoying blunder).

Page 394, lines 158-9, in "delicious, sweet" the comma should be struck out, as "sweet" is doubtless to be taken as a substantive.

VOL. III.

Page 3, five lines from the bottom, read "insists _on_ starting."

Page 342, note 2, in "Huc usque _of_ Xylinum" del. "of."

ADDITIONAL CORRECTIONS AND EMENDATIONS.

For the following corrections and emendations I am indebted to Mr. P. A. Daniel. I am sorry that I did not have them earlier.

First I will correct the actual mistakes for which I must bear the responsibility (in whole or part).

Vol. i., page xxxviii., line 11, for "Sir James Graham" read "Sir James Murray."

Vol. i., page 26, line 205, for "The first thing he spake" read "The first _word that_ he spake."

Vol. i., page 60, line 263, for "_in_ time to come" the old eds. read "time to come." (I prefer "_in_ time," but should not have added "_in_" silently.)

Vol. i., page 89, line 296, "His father's" [fathers] is the reading of ed. 1602; but ed. 1633 gives "His father"--a better reading.

Vol. i., page 121, line 318, for "aspish" read "apish."

Vol. i., page 175, line 78, for "scorn'_d_" read "scorn'_t_."

Vol. ii., page 17, the stage-direction "_Enter_ COCLEDEMOY" is superfluous.

Vol. ii., page 28, line 160, for "_feast_ o' grace" (where old eds. give _fiest_) read "_fist_ o' grace," and compare page 42, line 58, &c.

Vol. ii., page 32, line 33, for "not swaggering" read "not _of_ swaggering."

Vol. ii., page 109. The address should be headed "To _my_ Equal Reader."

Vol. ii., page 197, line 417, for "show" read "sue" (the reading of ed. 1633).

Vol. ii., page 213, line 92, delete "not."

Vol. ii., page 222, line 308, in "thy vice _from_ apparent here" delete "from." (But query "thy vice from apparent heir"?)

Vol. ii., page 277, line 117, "All but Zanthia and Vangue depart." Unquestionably these words are a stage-direction. They are printed as part of the text in ed. 1633; but in ed. 1606 they are italicised, and (though printed in the same line as "Withdraw, withdraw") evidently form part of the previous stage-direction.

Vol. ii., page 328, for "For many debts" read "For many many debts."

Vol. ii., page 341, line 227, for "For" read "Fore."

Vol. ii., page 346, line 51, for "_hoary_ eld" ed. 1607 reads "hoard," and ed. 1633 "hoar'd." Probably the true reading is "hoar."

Vol. ii., page 369, lines 37-38. These lines have been transposed by my printers; line 38 ("And those that rank," &c.) should stand before line 37 ("Study a faint salute," &c.).

In the foregoing instances it is I who am chiefly to blame, and not the old copies. I now come to Mr. Daniel's valuable emendations.

Vol. i., page 8, line 35, for "great" read "create" (an excellent emendation).

Vol. i., page 32, line 56. Does not this speech belong to Feliche?

Vol. i., page 53, line 107. The prefix should be "_Cat_."

Vol. i., page 60, line 247. Add the stage-direction "_Exit_ ANTONIO."

Vol. i., page 70, line 182. Mr. Daniel suggests that for "_Spavento_" (an awkward word here) we should read "_Speranza_."

Vol. i., page 110. "_Enter_ ANTONIO," &c.--Strike out the names of Feliche and Forobosco.

Vol. i., page 128, line 107, for "How could he come on?" Mr. Daniel proposes "How coldly he comes on!"

[Vol. i., page 142, line 2. In old eds. the line stands thus:--"Bout heauens brow. (12) Tis now starke dead night." The bracketed "(12)" I expanded into a stage-direction; but Mr. Swinburne suggests to me that "the word 'twelve'--ejaculated by Antonio on hearing the clock strike--is wanted for the metre." If we are to insert the word "twelve" I should place it at the end of the line.]

Vol. i., page 145, line 54, for "The neat gay _mists_ of the light's not up" Mr. Daniel suggests "The neat gay mistress," &c. (_i.e._, Aurora)--an admirable emendation.

[Vol. i., page 150, line 190, for "swell thy _hour_ out" Mr. Swinburne proposes "honour." If any change is needed I should prefer to read "horror;" but "hour" frequently has a dissyllabic value.]

Vol. i., page 151, line 211, for "night-ghosts and graves" Mr. Daniel would read "Night (_i.e._, good-night), ghosts and graves."

Vol. i., page 156, line 99, for "Why lags delay" Mr. Daniel would read "Why, lags, delay?" taking lags as a substantive ("the sooty coursers of the night").

Vol. i., page 158, line 41. I should have mentioned in a footnote that "stirs" is an old form of "steers."

[Vol. i., page 172, line 22. Mr. Swinburne doubts whether my correction "see" for "sir" is necessary, as the apostrophe "sir" or "sirs" is occasionally found in a monologue.]

Vol. ii., page 9, line 54. Here, and in line 58, the prefix should be "_Tys._"; and at line 62 Tysefew's _exit_ should be marked.

Vol. ii., page 16. At the bottom of the page should be marked "_Exit_ MARY," and at line 180 "_Exit_ COCLEDEMOY."

Vol. ii., page 86. "_Enter_ FRANCESCHINA," &c. Among those who enter should be included "FREEVILLE _disguised_."

Vol. ii., page 93, line 46. "Ha, get you gone." It is a question whether these words apply to Freeville's disguise or are addressed to musicians. (In spite of line 32, "I bring some music," it is doubtful whether there are any musicians on the stage.)

Vol. ii., page 139, line 111. "Nymphadoro, in direct phrase." Mr. Daniel proposes (rightly) to read:-- "_Nym._ In direct phrase," &c.

Vol. ii., page 145, line 252. This speech should probably be given to Herod.

Vol. ii., page 153, line 460. The prefix should doubtless be "_Zuc_."

Vol. ii., page 154, lines 477, 478. "And nose" should doubtless be given to Hercules, and "And brain" to Zuccone.

Vol. ii., page 157, line 569. The old. eds give "Venice duke," but we should read "Urbin's duke" (cf. page 226, line 444).

Vol. ii., page 171, line 299. Mr. Daniel suggests that we should place a full stop after the word "speaks" and read "His signs to me and _mien_ of profound reach."

Vol. ii., page 248, line 134. The words "No more: I bleed" appear to belong to the wounded Carthalon.

Vol. ii., page 261, lines 21, 22. Query "bemoan'_t_" and "revenge'_t_"?

Vol. ii., page 414, line 244, for "prolonged" Mr. Daniel ingeniously suggests "prologued."

Vol. iii., page 214, line 78, for "faint" Mr. Daniel proposes "feigned" (a certain emendation). In line 91, for "I resisted" he proposes "if resisted."

Vol. iii., page 240, line 166, for "stung" Mr. Daniel proposes "stone."

Mr. Daniel sends me the following note on the plot of _What You Will_:--

"A somewhat similar plot is found in _I Morti Vivi_, Comedia, del molto excellente signore Sforza D'Oddi, nell'Academia degli Insensati detto Forsennato, 1576. Oranta, a lady of Naples, whose husband, Tersandro, is supposed drowned at sea, is about to re-marry with Ottavio. Luigi, another suitor for her hand, to hinder the marriage conspires with others to induce one Iancola to personate Tersandro. Tersandro, however, has escaped the sea, and arrives to find himself denied by his own family (who have discovered Luigi's plot), and to be mistaken by the conspirators themselves for Iancola. Tersandro's adventures till his identity is established are somewhat similar to those of Albano in _What You Will_.

"D'Oddi apparently derived many incidents of his plot from the Greek romance of _Clitophon and Leucippe_, by Achilles Tatius; as also did Anibal Caro for his comedy of _Gli Straccioni_, 1582."

FIRST PART

OF

ANTONIO AND MELLIDA.

_The History of Antonio and Mellida. The first part. As it hath beene sundry times acted, by the children of Paules. Written by I. M. London Printed for Mathewe Lownes, and Thomas Fisher, and are to be soulde in Saint Dunstans Church-yarde._ 1602. 4to.

STORY OF THE PLAY.

Andrugio, Duke of Genoa, being utterly defeated in a sea-fight by Piero Sforza, Duke of Venice, and banished by the Genoways, conceals himself, with Lucio (an old courtier) and a page, among the marshes round Venice. Piero proclaims throughout Italy that whoever brings the head of Andrugio or of Andrugio's son, Antonio (who is in love with Piero's daughter, Mellida), shall receive a reward of twenty thousand pistolets. Antonio disguises himself as an Amazon, and, obtaining an interview with Mellida, announces that her lover has been drowned at sea. The pretended Amazon is received as a guest in Piero's palace, and there quickly discovers himself to Mellida. Arrangements are made by the lovers to escape to England; but Piero gaining intelligence (through a letter that Mellida has dropped) of the intended flight, the plot is frustrated and Mellida escapes to the marshes in the disguise of a page. While Piero is giving orders for Antonio's arrest, a sailor rushes forward, pretending to be in hot pursuit of Antonio towards the marshes. The pursuer is Antonio himself, who had assumed the disguise of a sailor at the instance of Feliche, a high-minded gentleman of the Venetian court. Piero gives the pretended sailor his signet-ring that he may pass the watch and not be hindered in the pursuit. Arrived at the marshes, Antonio, distracted with grief for the fall of his father and for the loss of Mellida, flings himself prostrate on the ground. Presently Andrugio approaches with Lucio and the page, and a joyful meeting ensues between father and son. Andrugio and Lucio retire to a cave which they had fitted up as a dwelling, and Antonio, promising to quickly rejoin them, stays to hear a song from Andrugio's page. Meanwhile Mellida, disguised as a page, approaches unobserved, and hearing her name passionately pronounced, recognises the sailor as Antonio. She discovers herself to her lover, and after a brief colloquy despatches him across the marsh to observe whether any pursuers are in sight. Hardly has Antonio departed when Piero and his followers come up, and Mellida is drawn from a thicket where she had concealed herself. Piero hastens back to the court with his daughter, whom he resolves to marry out of hand to Galeatzo, son of the Duke of Florence. Antonio, returning in company with Andrugio and Lucio to the spot where he had left Mellida, learns from Andrugio's page that she has been carried away. Andrugio now separates himself from Antonio and Lucio; proceeds, clad in a complete suit of armour, to the court of Piero, and announces that he has come to claim the reward offered for Andrugio's head. Piero declares his willingness to pay the reward; and then Andrugio, raising his beaver, discovers himself to Piero and the assembled courtiers. Piero affects to be struck with admiration for his adversary's magnanimity, and professes friendship for the future. A funeral procession now enters, followed by Lucio, who announces that he has brought the body of Antonio. Andrugio mourns for the death of his son and Piero affects to share his grief, protesting that he would give his own life or his daughter's hand to purchase breath for the dead man. Thereupon Antonio, who had died only in conceit, rises from the bier and claims the hand of Mellida. Piero assents, and the _First Part of Antonio and Mellida_ closes joyfully.

_To the only rewarder and most just poiser of virtuous merits, the most honourably renowned_ NOBODY,[32] _bounteous Mecænas of poetry and Lord Protector of oppressed innocence_, do dedicoque.

Since it hath flowed with the current of my humorous blood to affect (a little too much) to be seriously fantastical, here take (most respected Patron) the worthless present of my slighter idleness. If you vouchsafe not his protection, then, O thou sweetest perfection (Female Beauty), shield me from the stopping of vinegar bottles. Which most wished favour if it fail me, then _Si nequeo flectere superos, Acheronta movebo_. But yet, honour's redeemer, virtue's advancer, religion's shelter, and piety's fosterer, yet, yet, I faint not in despair of thy gracious affection and protection; to which I only shall ever rest most servingman-like, obsequiously making legs and standing (after our free-born English garb) bareheaded. Thy only affied slave and admirer,

J. M.

[32] So Day dedicates his _Humour out of Breath_ to "Signior Nobody."

_DRAMATIS PERSONÆ._[33]

PIERO SFORZA, _Duke of Venice_. ANDRUGIO, _Duke of Genoa_. ANTONIO, _son to_ ANDRUGIO, _in love with_ MELLIDA. FELICHE, _a high-minded courtier_. ALBERTO, _a Venetian gentleman, in love with_ ROSSALINE. BALURDO, _a rich gull_. MATZAGENTE, _a modern braggadoch, son to the Duke of Milan_. GALEATZO, _son to the Duke of Florence, a suitor to_ MELLIDA. FOROBOSCO, _a Parasite_. CASTILIO BALTHAZAR, _a spruce courtier_. LUCIO,[34] _an old nobleman, friend to_ ANDRUGIO. CATZO, _page to_ CASTILIO. DILDO, _page to_ BALURDO. _Painter_, ANDRUGIO'S _page, &c._

MELLIDA, _daughter to_ PIERO, _in love with_ ANTONIO. ROSSALINE, _niece to_ PIERO. FLAVIA, _a waiting-woman_.

SCENE--VENICE AND THE NEIGHBOURHOOD.

[33] There is no list of characters in old eds.

[34] Dilke (_Old English Plays_, 1814, vol. ii.) wrongly describes Lucio as Andrugio's page.

INDUCTION.[35]

_Enter_ GALEATZO, PIERO, ALBERTO, ANTONIO, FOROBOSCO, BALURDO, MATZAGENTE, _and_ FELICHE, _with parts in their hands; having cloaks cast over their apparel_.

_Gal._ Come, sirs, come! the music will sound straight for entrance. Are ye ready, are ye perfect?

_Pier._ Faith! we can say our parts; but we are ignorant in what mould we must cast our actors.

_Alb._ Whom do you personate?

_Pier._ Piero, Duke of Venice.

_Alb._ O! ho! then thus frame your exterior shape To haughty form of elate majesty, As if you held the palsy-shaking head Of reeling chance under your fortune's belt 10 In strictest vassalage: grow big in thought, As swoln with glory of successful arms.

_Pier._ If that be all, fear not; I'll suit it right. Who cannot be proud, stroke up the hair, and strut?

_Alb._ Truth; such rank custom is grown popular; And now the vulgar fashion strides as wide, And stalks as proud upon the weakest stilts Of the slight'st fortunes, as if Hercules Or burly Atlas shoulder'd up their state.

_Pier._ Good: but whom act you? 20

_Alb._ The necessity[36] of the play forceth me to act two parts: Andrugio, the distressed Duke of Genoa, and Alberto, a Venetian gentleman, enamoured on the Lady Rossaline; whose fortunes being too weak to sustain the port of her, he proved always disastrous in love; his worth being much underpoised by the uneven scale, that currents all things by the outward stamp of opinion.

_Gal._ Well, and what dost thou play?

_Bal._ The part of all the world.

_Alb._ The part of all the world? What's that? 30

_Bal._ The fool. Ay, in good deed law now, I play Balurdo, a wealthy mountbanking burgomasco's heir of Venice.

_Alb._ Ha! ha! one whose foppish nature might seem great, only for wise men's recreation; and, like a juiceless bark, to preserve the sap of more strenuous spirits. A servile hound, that loves the scent of forerunning fashion, like an empty hollow vault, still giving an echo to wit: greedily champing what any other well valued judgment had beforehand chew'd.[37] 40

_Foro._ Ha! ha! ha! tolerably good, good faith, sweet wag.

_Alb._ Umph; why tolerably good, good faith, sweet wag? Go, go; you flatter me.

_Foro._ Right; I but dispose my speech to the habit of my part.

_Alb._ Why, what plays he? [_To_ FELICHE.

_Feli._ The wolf that eats into the breasts of princes; that breeds the lethargy and falling sickness in honour; makes justice look asquint; and blinds[38] the eye of merited reward from viewing desertful virtue. 51

_Alb._ What's all this periphrasis, ha?

_Feli._ The substance of a supple-chapt flatterer.

_Alb._ O! doth he play Forobosco the Parasite? Good, i'faith. Sirrah, you must seem now as glib and straight in outward semblance as a lady's busk,[39] though inwardly as cross as a pair of tailors' legs; having a tongue as nimble as his needle, with servile patches of glavering flattery to stitch up the bracks[40] of unworthily honour'd-- 60

_Foro._ I warrant you, I warrant you, you shall see me prove the very periwig to cover the bald pate of brainless gentility. Ho! I will so tickle the sense of _bella gratiosa madonna_ with the titillation of hyperbolical praise, that I'll strike it in the nick, in the very nick, chuck.

_Feli._ Thou promisest more than I hope any spectator gives faith of performance; but why look you so dusky, ha? [_To_ ANTONIO.

_Ant._ I was never worse fitted since the nativity of my actorship; I shall be hiss'd at, on my life now. 70

_Feli._ Why, what must you play?

_Ant._ Faith, I know not what; an hermaphrodite, two parts in one; my true person being Antonio, son to the Duke of Genoa; though for the love of Mellida, Piero's daughter, I take this feigned presence of an Amazon, calling myself Florizell, and I know not what. I a voice to play a lady! I shall ne'er do it.

_Alb._ O! an Amazon should have such a voice, virago-like. Not play two parts in one? away, away, 'tis common fashion. Nay, if you cannot bear two subtle fronts under one hood, idiot, go by, go by, off this world's stage! O time's impurity! 82

_Ant._ Ay, but when use hath taught me action To hit the right point of a lady's part, I shall grow ignorant, when I must turn Young prince again, how but to truss[41] my hose.

_Feli._ Tush, never put them off; for women wear the breeches still.

_Mat._ By the bright honour of a Milanoise, And the resplendent fulgor of this steel, 90 I will defend the feminine to death, And ding[42] his spirit to the verge of hell, That dares divulge a lady's prejudice!

[_Exeunt_ MATZAGENTE, FOROBOSCO, _and_ BALURDO.[43]

_Feli._ Rampum scrampum, mount tufty Tamburlaine! What rattling thunderclap breaks from his lips?

_Alb._ O! 'tis native to his part. For acting a modern[44] braggadoch under the person of Matzagente, the Duke of Milan's son, it may seem to suit with good fashion of coherence. 99

_Pier._ But methinks he speaks with a spruce Attic accent of adulterate Spanish.

_Alb._ So 'tis resolv'd. For Milan being half Spanish, half high Dutch, and half Italians, the blood of chiefest houses is corrupt and mongrel'd; so that you shall see a fellow vain-glorious for a Spaniard, gluttonous for a Dutchman, proud for an Italian, and a fantastic idiot for all. Such a one conceit this Matzagente.

_Feli._ But I have a part allotted me, which I have neither able apprehension to conceit, nor what I conceit gracious ability to utter. 110

_Gal._ Whoop, in the old cut![45] Good, show us a draught of thy spirit.

_Feli._ 'Tis steady and must seem so impregnably fortressed with his own content that no envious thought could ever invade his spirit; never surveying any man so unmeasuredly happy, whom I thought not justly hateful for some true impoverishment; never beholding any favour of Madam Felicity gracing another, which his well-bounded content persuaded not to hang in the front of his own fortune; and therefore as far from envying any man, as he valued all men infinitely distant from accomplished beatitude. These native adjuncts appropriate to me the name of Feliche. But last, good, thy humour. 124

[_Exeunt_ PIERO, ALBERTO, _and_ GALEATZO.[46]

_Ant._ 'Tis to be described by signs and tokens. For unless I were possessed with a legion of spirits, 'tis impossible to be made perspicuous by any utterance: for sometimes he must take austere state, as for the person of Galeatzo, the son of the Duke of Florence, and possess his exterior presence with a formal majesty: keep popularity in distance, and on the sudden fling his honour so prodigally into a common arm, that he may seem to give up his indiscretion to the mercy of vulgar censure. Now as solemn as a traveller,[47] and as grave as a Puritan's ruff;[48] with the same breath as slight and scattered in his fashion as a--a--anything; now as sweet and neat as a barber's casting-bottle;[49] straight as slovenly as the yeasty breast of an ale-knight: now lamenting, then chafing, straight laughing, then----. 140

_Feli._ What then?

_Ant._ Faith, I know not what; 't had been a right part for Proteus or Gew. Ho! blind Gew[50] would ha' done 't rarely, rarely.

_Feli._ I fear it is not possible to limn so many persons in so small a tablet as the compass of our plays afford.

_Ant._ Right! therefore I have heard that those persons, as he and you, Feliche, that are but slightly drawn in this comedy, should receive more exact accomplishment in a second part; which, if this obtain gracious acceptance, means to try his fortune. 151

_Feli._ Peace, here comes the Prologue: clear the stage.

[_Exeunt._

[35] We have an Induction before _What you Will_ and _The Malcontent_. Ben Jonson was particularly fond of introducing preliminary dialogues, which are usually so tedious that we are fain to exclaim with Cordatus (in the Induction to _Every Man out of his Humour_), "I would they would begin once; this protraction is able to sour the best settled patience in the theatre."

[36] _I.e._, the poverty of the theatrical company. It was common for an actor to represent two characters (or more) in the same play. For example, William Shurlock personated Maharbal and Prusias in Nabbes' _Hannibal and Scipio_, 1635; and in the same play, Hugh Clerke, besides taking the part of Syphax, personated the Nuntius.

[37] Old eds. "shew'd."

[38] So ed. 1633.--The 4to gives "blinks."

[39] A piece of whalebone, steel, or wood worn down the front of the stays to keep them straight.

[40] Rents, cracks.

[41] "Truss my hose" = tie the tagged laces of my breeches.

[42] Hurl violently.

[43] Old eds. "_Exeunt_ ANT. _and_ ALB."

[44] Common, worthless.--The use of "modern" in this sense is frequently found, and was sanctioned by Shakespeare; but it did not escape Ben Jonson's censure in _The Poetaster_, v. i.:-- "Alas! that were no _modern_ consequence To have cothurnal buskins frightened hence."

[45] "The old cut" = the old fashion. So Nashe in the epistle dedicatory prefixed to _Strange News of the Intercepting Certain Letters_, 1593:--"You are amongst grave Doctors and men of judgment in both laws every day. I pray ask them the question in my absence whether such a man as I have described this epistler to be ... that hath made many proper rhymes of the _old cut_ in his days," &c.

[46] Old eds. "_Exit_ ALB."

[47] "Jaques in _As You Like It_, describing his own melancholy, says it is extracted from many objects, and that the contemplation of his travels often wraps him in a most humorous sadness: on which Rosalind observes--'A traveller! by my faith you have great reason to be sad!'"--_Dilke._

[48] The Puritans' short starched ruffs were constantly ridiculed. See Middleton's _Works_, viii. 69.

[49] A bottle for sprinkling perfumes.

[50] Probably an actor who had gone blind; but I can find no information about him.

THE PROLOGUE.

The wreath of pleasure and delicious sweets, Begirt the gentle front of this fair troop! Select and most respected auditors, For wit's sake do not dream of miracles. Alas! we shall but falter, if you lay The least sad weight of an unusèd hope Upon our weakness; only we give up The worthless present of slight idleness To your authentic censure. O! that our Muse Had those abstruse and sinewy faculties, 10 That, with a strain of fresh invention, She might press out the rarity of Art; The pur'st elixèd juice of rich conceit In your attentive ears; that with the lip Of gracious elocution we might drink A sound carouse into your health of wit. But O! the heavy[51] dryness of her brain, Foil to your fertile spirits, is asham'd To breathe her blushing numbers to such ears. Yet (most ingenious) deign to veil our wants; 20 With sleek acceptance polish these rude scenes; And if our slightness your large hope beguiles, Check not with bended brow, but dimpled smiles.

[_Exit_ Prologue.

[51] So ed. 1633.--Ed. 1602 "heathy."

THE FIRST PART

OF

ANTONIO AND MELLIDA.