Representative English Comedies - with introductory essays and notes

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Title: Representative English Comedies - with introductory essays and notes
Author: Various
Language: English
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Representative English Comedies
FROM THE BEGINNINGS TO SHAKESPEARE

[Illustration]

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._

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]

I agree, therefore, with Dr. Ward that the burden of proof is with
those who assert that the Latin comedy of the Middle Ages made no
impression upon the earlier drama of England. That the former was one
of the tributaries of the farce interlude and the principal source
of the romantic play of domestic intrigue I have no doubt whatever.
And, considering the influx of French clerics and culture during
the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries, and the French
affiliations of Geoffrey of St. Albans and Hilarius, our earliest
recorded writers of saints' plays, not to speak of the latinity of our
Maps, Wirekers, and other scholars of Henry II.'s reign, and their
familiarity with the literature of the Continent, which was Latin,--it
would be unreasonable to assume that the authors of our saints' plays,
whether in Latin or not, did not derive something of their technique
from the elegiac comedies of their contemporary latinists in France
and England, or indeed from the adaptations of Plautus and Terence in
previous centuries, or from the originals themselves.

When the religious drama passed into the hands of the crafts, it
carried with it such individual plays, of both scriptural and legendary
kinds, as were suitable to the collective character which it was
assuming. The Corpus Christi, Whitsuntide, Easter, or Christmas cycle,
though it aimed to illustrate sacred history and so justify God's
ways to man, drew its materials, not only from the scriptures of
the canon, but from the Apocrypha, the pseudo-Gospels, and mediæval
legends of scriptural and sometimes non-scriptural saints. There was
no real ground for distinction, and there is none now, dramatic or
didactic, between the non-scriptural stories of scriptural characters,
St. Joseph, and St. Thomas, stories of the Death, Assumption, and
Coronation of the Virgin, stories of St. Paul and St. Mary Magdalene,
which happened to be absorbed into this or the other miracle cycle,
and the non-scriptural stories of extra-biblical saints in plays which
have retained their independence: that of Nicholas, for instance, or
of Katharine or Laurence or Christina, except that these and their
heroes are concerned with events later than those which conclude the
earthly career of our Lord and of the Virgin Mary. All religious
historical plays, biblical or legendary, cyclic or independent, of
events contemporaneous with, or subsequent to, the scriptural, were
miracles, properly so called by our forefathers; and as the didactic
intent of the species waned, one was as likely as another to develop
material for amusement. Indeed, the authors of the _Manuel des Pechiez_
and _The Handlynge Synne_,--the preacher of that fourteenth-century
attack upon miracle plays which has been preserved in the _Reliquiæ
Antiquæ_,--these, and Chaucer, Langland, and Wyclif make no distinction
between miracles of the central mystery from the Old and New Testaments
and miracles worked and suffered by saints, whether legendary or
biblical. The distinction, if any, made by them, is between miracles
acted to further belief by priests and clerks in orders in the church,
and those acted for amusement by these or by laymen in the streets and
on the greens. And it is safe to say that as soon as a play became more
amusing than edifying, it fell under the censure of the church. This
happened as early as 1210, when a decretal of Innocent III. forbade
the acting of _ludi theatrales_ in churches. Indeed much earlier,
for Tertullian and St. Augustine and the Councils had consistently
condemned the performances of _histriones_, _mimi_, _lusores_, and
others who perpetuated the traditions of the pagan Roman stage. In 1227
the Council of Treves took such action. Gregory IX. attempted to put
a stop to the growing participation of the clergy, "lest the honour
of the church should be defiled by these shameful practices."[8] And
during the succeeding decades more than one Synod issued orders of
the same tenor. Now, even though it is practically certain that these
fulminations were directed against perversions of divine worship,
mock festivals and profane plays with the monstrous disguisings or
mummings involved,[9] there is also no doubt that the prohibition came
speedily to apply to the use of masks and other disguises in sacred
plays, and then to the presentation of plays in church for any other
than devotional purposes. Such for instance was the _animus_ with
which William of Wadington, in the _Manuel des Pechiez_, about 1235,
called attention to the scandal of the foolish clergy who, in disguise,
acted miracles '_ky est defendu en decré_.' To play the Resurrection
in church, _pur plus aver devociun_, was permissible; but to gather
assemblies in the streets of the cities after dinner, when fools more
readily congregate, that was a sacrilege. At this early date, we may
be sure that the kind of drama which was extruded from the church had
already invested such of its subjects as were biblical or legendary
with the realistic and comic qualities which made for popularity, and
so was fitting itself for adoption by the crafts. Indeed, we are told
by a thirteenth-century historian of the Church of York,[10] that, at a
date which must be set near 1220, there was a representation _as usual_
of the Lord's Ascension by masked performers, in words and acting; and
that a large crowd of both sexes was assembled, led there by different
impulses, _some by mere pleasure and wonder_, others for a religious
purpose. This was the play in the churchyard of St. John's, Beverley,
to which I have referred before. The _miracula_ of the story cited by
Wright[11] and conjecturally assigned to the thirteenth century, had
also passed beyond the sheer didactic stage, for the auditors, who
resorted to the spectacle in the "meadow above the stream," expressed
their appreciation _nunc silentes nunc cachinnantes_. When, after
the reinstitution of the festival of Corpus Christi, in 1311, these
plays began to be a function of the gilds, their secularization, even
though the clerks still participated in the acting, was but a question
of time; and the occasional injection of crude comedy was a natural
response to the civic demand. It would be erroneous, however, to
imagine that the church abandoned the drama when the town took it up:
the church maintained a liturgical drama, in some places, until well
into the sixteenth century; and as late as 1572 individual clergymen
are condemned for playing interludes in churches.[12]

If the writers of saints' plays, with their attempt to satisfy the
yearning for ideal freedom which is natural in all times and places,
took, in their fictions of the religious-marvellous, a step towards
what may be called romantic comedy,--a step no less important, though
nowadays often unnoticed, was taken toward the comedy of ridicule,
satire, and burlesque, at a date quite as remote, by the contrivers of
religious parodies. It is curious, though not at all unnatural, that
some of the earliest efforts at comic entertainment should proceed
from the revolt against ecclesiastical formality and constraint. I
cannot in this place do more than remind the reader of the antiquity
of three of the most notable of these dramatic travesties: the Feast
of Fools, the election of the Boy Bishop, and the Feast of the Ass.
The first of these was celebrated on the Continent as early as 1182,
one may say with reasonable certainty, 990. It is indeed more than
a conjecture that the Feasts of Fools and the Ass inherited the
license of the Roman Saturnalia, the season and spirit of which were
assimilated by the Christian Feast of the Nativity. Whether adopted
by the church in its effort to conciliate paganism, or tolerated for
reasons of secular policy, these mock-religious festivals were soon the
Frankenstein of Christianity; and it was doubtless against them rather
than the seductions of the sacred drama that most of the ecclesiastical
prohibitions of the Middle Ages were aimed. With its necessary comic
accessories, the Feast of Fools was well established in England before
1226, and it was still flourishing in 1390 when Courtney forbade its
performance in London. "The vicars," he said, "and clerks dressed
like laymen, laughed, shouted, and acted plays which they commonly
and fitly called the Feast of Fools." They travestied the dignitaries
of the church, they turned the service inside out, put obscenity for
sanctity and blasphemy for prayer. While it does not appear that in
England, as on the Continent,[13] the procession of the Boy Bishop
was attended with frivolity or profanity, it was certainly celebrated
with mummings and plays of suitable kind, not altogether serious.
This ceremony dates as far back as St. Nicholas day, 1229, and was
still to the fore in 1556. The Feast of the Ass appears to have been
recognized by the church as early as the Feast of Fools. I do not
know when it was introduced into England, but it was played upon Palm
Sunday as late as the middle of the sixteenth century. In France it had
been notoriously wanton since the beginning of the thirteenth; and it
could not exist anywhere without promoting the spirit of burlesque and
farce. Although the initial purpose of these festivals was to satirize
the hierarchy and ecclesiastical convention, they applied themselves
after they had been repudiated by the church to the ridicule of social
folly in general; and, according to the descriptions of Warton, Douce,
Hone, Klein, Petit de Julleville, and others, they came to be a vivid
interpreter of the popular consciousness, a most potent educator of
critical insight and dramatic instinct, an incitement to artistic even
though naïve productivity. In France, indeed, the Fraternities of Fools
produced national satirists and dramatic professionals in one. In
England, if they did nothing else, they helped to stimulate a taste for
realistic and satiric drama.

=2. The Miracle Cycles in their Relation to Comedy=

Miracle plays and 'marvels,' morals too as we soon shall see, were
a propædeutic to comedy rather than tragedy. For the theme of these
dramas is, in a word, Christian: the career of the individual as an
integral part of the social organism, of the religious whole. So also,
their aim: the welfare of the social individual. They do not exist for
the purpose of portraying immoderate self-assertion and the vengeance
that rides after, but rather the beauty of holiness or the comfort of
contrition. Herod, Judas, and Antichrist are foils, not heroes. The
hero of the miracle seals his salvation by accepting the spiritual
ideal of the community. These plays contribute in a positive manner
to the maintenance of the social organism. The tragedies of life
and literature, on the other hand, proceed from secular histories,
histories of personages liable to disaster because of excessive
peculiarity,--of person or position. Whether the rank of the tragic
hero be elevated or mean, he is unique: his desire is overweening,
his frailty irremediable, or his passion unrestrained,--his peril
unavoidable; and in his ruin not the principal only, but seconds and
bystanders, are involved. Tragedy, then, is the drama of Cain, of the
individual in opposition to the social, political, divine; its occasion
is an upheaval of the social organism.

While the dramatic tone of the miracle cycle is determined by the
conservative character of Christianity in general, the nature of the
several plays is modified by the relation of each to one or other of
the supreme crises in the career of our Lord. The plays leading up
to, and revolving about, the Nativity, are of happy ending, and were
doubtless regarded, by authors and spectators, as we regard comedy.
The murder of Abel, at first sombre, gradually passes into the comedy
of the grotesque. The massacre of the innocents emphasizes, not the
weeping of a Rachel, but the joyous escape of the Virgin and the Child.
In all such stories the horrible is kept in the background or used by
way of suspense before the happy outcome, or frequently as material
for mirth. Upon the sweet and joyous character of the pageants of
Joseph and Mary and the Child it is unnecessary to dwell. They are of
the very essence of comedy. The plays surrounding the Crucifixion and
Resurrection are, on the other hand, specimens of the serious drama,
the tragedy averted. It would hardly be correct to say tragedy; for
the drama of the cross is a triumph. In no cycle does the _consummatum
est_ close the pageant of the Crucifixion; the actors announce, and
the spectators believe, that this is "goddis Sone," whom within three
days they shall again behold, though he has been "nayled on a tree
unworthilye to die." By this consideration, without doubt, the horror
of the buffeting and the scourging, the solemnity of the passion, the
inhuman cruelty--but not the awe--of the Crucifixion, were mitigated
for the spectators. Otherwise, mediæval as they were, they could have
taken but little pleasure in the realism with which their fellows
presented the history of the Sacrifice.

To indulge in a comprehensive discussion of the beginnings of comedy
in England would be pleasant, but I find that I cannot compel the
materials into the limits at my command. Accordingly, since the miracle
cycles (to which Dodsley, following the French, gave the convenient,
but un-English and somewhat misleading, name of 'mysteries') have been
more frequently and generously treated by historians than those other
miracles, non-scriptural, which I would call 'marvels,' and the no less
important popular festival plays and early farces, and 'morals' or
moral and 'mery' interludes, it seems that, in favour of the latter,
I should defer much that might be said about the cycles until a more
spacious occasion.

The manuscript of the York plays appears to have been made about
1430-40; that of the Wakefield, or so-called Towneley, toward the
end of the same century; the larger part of the N-town, or so-called
Coventry, in 1468; and the manuscripts of the Chester between 1591
and 1607. The last are, however, based upon a text of the beginning
of the fifteenth or the end of the fourteenth century; and there is
good reason to believe that some of the plays were in existence during
the first half of the fourteenth. A tradition, suspicious but not yet
wholly discredited, assigns their composition to the period 1267-76.
The York cycle, according to Miss Lucy Toulmin Smith, was composed
between 1340 and 1350. As to the Towneley plays, Mr. Pollard decides
that they were built in at least three distinct stages, covering a
period of which the limits were perhaps 1360 and 1410. While the
composition of the so-called Coventry (apparently acted by strolling
players) may in general be assigned to the first half of the fifteenth
century, some parts give evidence of earlier date. The authenticated
dates of the representation of miracles in Coventry, 1392-1591, I
prefer to attribute not to this N-town cycle, but to the Coventry Gild
plays, two of which still exist.[14] They possess no special importance
for our present purpose. The Newcastle Shipwrights' Play is the much
battered survivor of a cycle that was in existence in 1426. The Ms. of
the three Digby plays of interest to us is assigned by Dr. Furnivall to
the latter half of the fifteenth century. The subject of the first of
them, the _Killing of the Children_, is of early dramatic use, and the
treatment of the poltroon knight corresponds suggestively with Warton's
account of the Christmas play given by the English bishops at the
Council of Constance in 1417. The two Norwich pageants which survive
are by no means naïve: they were touched up, if not written, during the
second third of the sixteenth century.

Other cycle plays which might be enumerated must be omitted, with the
exception of the Cornish. These were written in Cymric, apparently
somewhat before 1300. They are suggestive to the historian of comedy
particularly because they yield no faintest glimmer of a smile, save at
their exquisite credulity and unconsciousness of art. They are a noble
instance of the sustained seriousness of the scriptural cycle in its
early, if not its original, popular stage, and, also, of that familiar
handling of the sacred that prepares the way for the liberty of the
comic.

In approaching the English miracle plays we notice that, as in the
Cornish, the earliest secular form of the older cycles was principally,
if not entirely, serious. Reasons which I cannot stay to enumerate
prove that comic plays in the older cycles are not of the original
series, and that humorous passages in plays of the older series are of
later interpolation. Now, so far as the direct effect upon the comedy
of Heywood, Greene, and Shakespeare is concerned, it may appear to
some of no particular importance in what order the cycles in general
were composed or the plays within the cycles. But the Tudor dramatists
did not make their art, they worked with what they found, and they
found a dramatic medium of expression to which centuries and countless
influences had contributed. An extended study of the beginnings of
English comedy should determine, so far as possible, the relative
priority, not only of cycles, but of the comic passages within the
cycles: what each composition has contributed to the enfranchisement
of the comic spirit and the development of the technical factors of
the art; to what extent each has expressed or modified the realistic,
satirical, romantic, or humorous view of life, and in what ways each
has reflected the temper of its time, the manners and the mind of
the people that wrote, acted, and witnessed. If I arrange the plays
that bear upon the development of comedy according to my conclusions
regarding priority of composition, the order, broadly stated for our
present rapid survey, is as follows: first, the Cornish and the Old
Testament portions of the Chester and Coventry; then the productions of
the second and third periods of the York, and, closely following these,
the crowning efforts of the Towneley; then the New Testament plays of
the Chester and Coventry; and, finally, the surviving portions of the
cycles of Digby and Newcastle. This order, which is roughly historical,
has the advantage, as I perceive after testing it, of presenting a
not unnatural sequence of the æsthetic values or interests essential
to comedy: first, as a full discussion would reveal, the humour of
the incidental; then of the essential or real, and, gradually, of
the satirical in something like their order of appearance within the
cycles; afterwards, the accession of the romantic, the wonderful,
the allegorical, the mock-ideal; and, finally, of the scenic and
sensational.

Of the significant lack of humour in the Cornish plays I have already
spoken. I find, though I may not stay to illustrate, a livelier
observation and a superior faculty of characterization and construction
in the early comic art of Chester than in that of Coventry, but in
both a cruder sense of the humour of incident than in the other
English cycles. In the York cycle there are fewer situations that may
be called purely comic than in the Chester, and none of these occurs
in the oldest plays of the series; but for its other contributions to
dramatic art and its relation to the remarkable productions of the
Wakefield or Towneley school of comedy it deserves special attention.
A comparative study of its versification, phraseology and dramatic
technique, leads me to the conclusion that the original didactic kernel
of the York cycle was enlarged and enriched during two well-defined
periods, which may be termed the middle and the later, and that there
was at least one playwright in each of these periods or schools who
distinctly made for the development of English comedy. Of the middle
period, to which belong _Cain_, _Noah_, and the _Shepherds' Plays_,
the playwright or playwrights are characterized by an unsophisticated
humour; the distinctive playwright of the later or realistic period is
marked by his observation of life, his reproduction of manners, his
dialogue, and the plasticity of his technique. That the later school or
period, to which belongs a group of half a dozen plays[15] gathering
about _The Dream of Pilate's Wife_, and _The Trial before Herod_, was,
moreover, influenced by the manner of its predecessor is indicated by
the fact that of its two most efficient stanzaic forms one, namely that
used in _The Conspiracy_, is anticipated (though in simpler iambic
beat) by that of _Noah_, the typical play of the middle, that is the
first comic, school,[16] while the other, of which the variants are
found in _The Mortificacio_ and _The Second Trial_, has its germ more
probably in _The Cayme_ of that same school than in any other of the
middle or of the earlier plays.[17] With these two stanzaic forms the
later group, so far as we may conclude from the mutilated condition of
the surviving plays, seems to experiment; and the second of them, that
of the _Mortificacio_, may be regarded as the final and distinctive
outcome of York versification. To the leading playwrights of each of
these schools,--the former the best humorist, the latter the best
realist, of the York drama,--to these anonymous composers of the most
facile and vivid portions of the York cycle our comedy owes a still
further debt; for from them it would appear that a poet of undoubted
genius derived something of his inspiration and much of his method and
technique--our first great comic dramatist, the Playwright of Wakefield.

We know that Wakefield actors sometimes played in the Corpus Christi
plays of York, and it was only natural that the smaller town should
borrow from the dramatic riches of its metropolitan neighbour. We
are, therefore, not surprised to find in the Wakefield cycle a number
of plays which have been taken bodily from the York cycle.[18] None
of these is in the distinctive stanzaic form of which we have just
spoken; but imbedded in certain other Wakefield plays[19] that in
other respects show marks of derivation from earlier and discarded
portions of the York cycle, we find occasional affiliated forms of the
distinctive later York strophe evidently in a transitional period of
its development. We find, furthermore, passages in this transitional
York strophe side by side with Wakefield stanzas which display the
strophe in a more highly artistic technique than anything found in
the York.[20] The writer of the perfected York-Wakefield stanza,
such as appears in the Towneley plays, must have, consciously or
unconsciously, been influenced by the middle and later York schools of
dramatic composition. This fully developed outcome of the distinctive
York stanza of the later school is found in the guise of a nine-line
stanza in certain Towneley plays which we see reason for attributing
to a Wakefield genius, and which we shall presently consider. Suffice
it in this place to say that of the Wakefield stanza the first four
lines, when resolved, according to their internal rhymes, into separate
verses, run thus: abababab². If to this we add the _cauda_, our stanza
runs abababab²c¹ddd²c². Sometimes, indeed, a three-accented line occurs
among the first eight, showing the more plainly that this thirteen-line
stanza of Wakefield (though set down in nine lines) is a variant or
derivative of the thirteen-line York XXXVI.,--ababbcbc³d¹eee²d³. And
that in itself is, as I have already said, a refinement upon the
fourteen-line stanza of the earlier comic school of York, as used in
the _Noah_. Whether the rapid beat and frequently recurring rhyme
of the Wakefield are a conscious elaboration of the York or a happy
find or accident, the stanzaic result is an accurate index to the
superiority in spirit and style achieved over their congeners of York
by these comedies of Wakefield.

Now, the contiguity of what is undoubtedly borrowed from the York with
what is imitated from it and what is elaborated upon it, is strong
proof of a conscious relation between these Wakefield productions
and those of York; and since the work of the poet, especially the
provincial poet, was in those days (though verse forms, like air,
are free to all) likely to be cast in a fixed mould--his favourite
metrical and strophaic medium, there is at any rate a possibility that
the plays and portions of plays in the Wakefield cycle, written in
this fully developed and distinctive stanza, were the work of one man.
When we examine the contents of the plays and their style, we find
that the possibility becomes more than a probability, practically a
certainty; and that being so, I can hardly deem it an accident that
the most dramatic portions of the Wakefield cycle show so close an
external resemblance to the best comic and realistic portions of the
York. It is, then, with something of the interest in an individual, not
a theory, that one may segregate the plays and bits of plays bearing
this metrical stamp, look for the personality behind them, and attempt
to discover the relation of the Wakefield group of comedies to its
forerunners of York.

The Wakefield cycle is still in flux when its distinctive poet-humorist
takes it in hand. Insertions in his nine-line stanza are found in
one[21] of the five plays derived from the York cycle. Of the two plays
which show a general resemblance to a corresponding York, one[22] is in
this stanza, and to the other[23] a dozen of the stanzas are prefixed.
The _Fflagellacio_ (XXII.), the second half of which is an imitation,
sometimes loose, sometimes literal, of York XXXIV. (_Christ Led up to
Calvary_), opens with twenty-three of these stanzas,--nearly the whole
of the original part. One of them, No. 25, is, by the way, based upon
stanza 2 of that part of York XXXIV. which is _not_ taken over by the
Wakefield play. In the Wakefield _Ascension_ (XXIX.), which adapts, but
in no slavish manner, a few passages from the York (XLIII.), we find
two of this playwright's nine-line stanzas;[24] and in the Wakefield
_Crucifixion_ (XXIII.), which has some slight reminiscence of York
XXXV. and XXXVI., we find one. In that part of the Wakefield less
directly, or not at all, connected with the York cycle, four whole
plays,[25] the _Processus Noe_, the two _Shepherds' Plays_, and the
_Buffeting_, and occasional portions of other plays[26] are written
in this stanza. This contribution in the nine-line stanza amounts to
approximately one-fourth of the cycle; and, allowing for modifications
due to oral and scribal transmission, is of one language and
phraseology. Not merely the identity of stanza and diction, however,
leads one to suspect an identity of authorship; but the prevalence in
all these passages, and not in others, of spiritual characteristics in
approximately the same combination,--realistic and humorous qualities
singularly suitable to the development of a vigorous national comedy.
"If any one," says Mr. Pollard, "will read these plays together, I
think he cannot fail to feel that they are all the work of the same
writer, and that this writer deserves to be ranked--if only we knew his
name!--at least as high as Langland, and as an exponent of a rather
boisterous kind of humour had no equal in his own day." And, speaking
of the _Mactacio Abel_, where we lack the evidence of identity of
metre, this authority continues, "The extraordinary youthfulness of the
play and the character of its humour make it difficult to dissociate
it from the work of the author of the _Shepherds' Plays_, and I
cannot doubt that this, also, at least in part, must be added to his
credit."[27]

To this conclusion I had come before reading Mr. Pollard's significant
introduction to the _Towneley Plays_; and I may say that I had
suspected the Wakefield master in the _Processus Talentorum_ as well;
for though, with the exception of some insertions, the stanzaic form
of that pageant is not his favourite, the humour, dramatic method,
and phraseology of the whole are distinctly reminiscent of him. In
the revising and editing of the Wakefield cycle as he found it this
playwright was brought into touch with the York schools of comic and
realistic composition. What he derived from them and what he added may
be gathered from a comparative view of the related portions of these
cycles. That, however, I must defer until another time. The best of his
plays are of course the _Noe_ and the _Secunda Pastorum_; the latter
a product of dramatic genius. It stands out English and alone, with
its homespun philosophy and indigenous figures,--Mak and Gyll and the
Shepherds,--its comic business, its glow, its sometimes subtle irony,
its ludicrous colloquies, its rural life and manners, its naïve and
wholesome reverence: with these qualities it stands apart from other
plays of cycles foreign or native, and in its dramatic anticipations,
postponements, and surprises is our earliest masterpiece of comic
drama. A similar dramatic excellence characterizes all this poet's
plays, as well as the insertions made by him in other plays. But he
is no more remarkable for his dramatic power than for his sensitive
observation and his satire.

Of the realism of his art much might be said. To be sure, we cannot
accredit to him the grim photography of certain plays--the preparations
for the crucifixion, for instance, which are the counterpart of scenes
in the York. But the _Buffeting_ proves his power in this direction,
and parts of the _Scourging_--each a _genre_ picture on a background
of horrors. Of conversations caught from the lip those in the second
and fourth scenes of the _Processus Noe_ are his, and those between the
shepherds in _Prima_ and _Secunda Pastorum_,--all of them unique. So
also the description of the dinners in these _Shepherds' Plays_: the
boar's brawn, cow's foot, sow's shank, blood puddings, ox-tail, swine's
jaw, the good pie, "all a hare but the loins," goose's leg, pork,
partridge, tart for a lord, calf's liver "scored with the verjuice,"
and good ale of Ely to wash things down. What more seasonable than
the afterthought of collecting the broken meats for the poor? what
more naïve than the night-spell in the name of the Crucified just
preceding the angelic announcement of his birth? what more typical of
unquestioning faith than the reverence of these "Sely Shepherds" before
the Saviour Child, the simplicity and acceptability of their rustic
gifts? This is the fresh and sympathetic handling of a well-worn theme.
But the Wakefield poet is no sentimentalist: his anger burns as sudden
as his pity. Otherwhere genially ironical, it is in his revision of
the _Judicium_ that he displays his full power as a satirist. Here his
hatred of oppression, his scorn of vice and self-love, his contempt of
sharp and shady practice in kirk or court, upon the bench, behind the
counter, or by the hearth are welded into one and brought to edge and
point. He strikes hard when he will, but he has the comic sense and
spares to slay. We may hear him chuckling, this Chaucerian "professor
of holy pageantry," as he pricks the bubble of fashion, lampoons
Lollard and "kyrkchaterar" alike, and parodies the latinity of his age.
When his demons speak the syllables leap in rhythmic haste, the rhymes
beat a tattoo, and the stanzas hurtle by. Manners, morals, folly, and
loose living are writ large and pinned to the caitiff. But the poet
behind the satire is ever the same, sound in his domestic, social,
political philosophy, constant in his sympathy with the poor and in
godly fear.

Though there are comic scenes of some excellence in the later
Chester and so-called Coventry plays, they add little to the variety
of the Wakefield. I would, however, call attention to a few other
comparatively modern, but, generally speaking, contemporaneous,
characteristics of these and the remaining cycles: the foreshadowing
of the chivalrous-romantic in the Joseph and Mary plays of York,
Wakefield, and especially Coventry; of the melodramatic in the
wonder and mediæval magic of the York and Chester cycles, and again
especially in the Coventry; of the allegorical in the Coventry, and of
the burlesque in all cycles when Pride rides for a fall or Cunning is
caught in his own snare.

In respect of the sensational, the older cycles are surpassed by the
surviving plays of Newcastle and Digby; so also in the increasing
complexity of motive and interest. These Digby plays were acted,
probably one by one in some midland village from year to year during
the latter half of the fifteenth century, and maybe somewhat earlier.
They are of interest, not only because they emphasize the sensational
element, but because they stand half-way, if not in time, at any
rate in spirit and method, between the miracles that we have so far
discussed and the moral plays of which we shall presently treat. The
Digby _Killing of the Children of Israel_ lends a decided impetus to
the progress of the comic and secular tendencies of the drama. The
Herod brags as usual, but he is artistically surpassed in his _metier_
by a certain _miles gloriosus_, the descendant of Bumbommachides
and Sir Launscler Depe, and himself the forerunner of Thersites and
Roister Doister, and countless aspirants for knighthood, whose valour
"begynnes to fayle and waxeth feynt" under the distaff of an angry
wife. Such is the Watkyn of this Digby play. Both here and in the
_Conversion of St. Paul_, the joyous element has been enhanced, as Dr.
Furnivall points out, by the introduction of dancing and music. In the
_Conversion_ the charm supplied by the ammoniac Billingsgate of Saul's
servant and the ostler adds thrills galore. Saul, "goodly besene in
the best wyse, like an aunterous knyth," the thunder and lightning,
the persecutor felled to earth, "godhed speking from hevyn," the Holy
Ghost, the "dyvel with thunder and fyre" sitting cool upon a "chayre in
hell, another devyll with a fyeryng, cryeng and roryng,"--the warning
angel, Saul's escape,--there is sign enough of invention here. To be
sure, these seductions are counterbalanced by a didactic on the Seven
Deadly Sins, worthy of a preceding or contemporary moral drama; but
that was part of the bargain. The spectacular plays of this group,
especially the _Mary Magdalene_, comic and didactic by turns, denote a
further advance in a still different direction. They portray character
in process of formation: the rejection of former habits and motives,
and the adoption of new, the resulting change of conduct, and the
growth of personality. From this point of view Mary Magdalene is a
figure of as rare distinction in the history of romantic comedy as
the Virgin Mary,--perhaps even of greater importance. Interesting as
the sensational elements of the play may have been, and novel--the
vital novelty here is that of character growing from within. Wonderful
as the career of the virgin mother was,--an essential propædeutic to
that woman worship which characterizes a broad realm of Christian
romance,--her career could never have awakened the peculiar interest,
dramatic and humane, that was stirred by the legend so often dramatized
of the wayward, tempted, falling, but finally redeemed and sainted Mary
of Magdala.

With regard to the transitional character of the Digby plays, it has
been maintained that this particular play, combining materials of the
biblical miracle and the saint's play or marvel, approaches more nearly
than any other of the group to the morals and moral interludes, because
of the prominence of the Sensual Sins in the dramatic career of the
Magdalene. Professor Cushman, in his excellent thesis on _The Devil and
the Vice_, even asserts that the downfall of the heroine, as the result
of sensual temptation which is the office of seven personified deadly
sins "arayyd lyke vij dylf," is a special 'development' of this play. I
can hardly go so far: the church of the Middle Ages, Caxton's _Golden
Legend_ of 1483, and Voragine's of 1270-90 had already amalgamated the
biblical narratives of the Mary of seven devils, Mary of Bethany, and
the woman who was a sinner. In fact, the suggestion of the 'device,' if
such was necessary, is contained in seven consecutive lines of Caxton's
_Life of the Magdalene_. This biblical and legendary play is, however,
undoubtedly well on the way toward the drama of the conflict of good
and evil for possession of the human soul. And this appears, as the
author just cited has pointed out, when we consider a later work on
the same subject, called a Moral Interlude, by Lewis Wager. Although
the Seven Deadly Sins no longer figure as such, their place is here
supplied by four characters,--Infidelitie the Vice, and his associates,
Pride of Life, Cupiditie, and Carnal Concupiscence,--who, arrayed like
gallants, instruct the Magdalene in their several follies, and are
themselves all "children of Sathan." These later Vices are nothing
other than selected Deadly Sins,--the Pride, the Covetyse, and the
Lechery of the earlier miracle play.

=3. The Dramatic Value of the English Miracle Plays=

Taken as a whole, the craft cycle possesses the significance,
continuity, and finality requisite to dramatic art; taken in its parts
or pageants, however, it presents to the modern reader the appearance
of a mosaic, an historical panel picture, or stereopticon show. I set
down these words, "the modern reader," because I do not believe that
the audience of contemporaries was aware of any break in the sequence
of the collective spectacle. This histrionic presentment of the
biblical narrative lacked neither motive nor method to the generations
of the ages of belief. For them the history of the world was thus
unrolled in episodes the opposite of disconnected,--each a hint or sign
or sample, a type or antitype of the scheme of salvation, which was
itself import and impulse of all history. No serious scene, but was
confirmation or prophecy. Characters, institutions, and events of the
Old-Testament drama had their _raison d'être_ not only in themselves
but in the New Testament antitype which each in turn prefigured. No
profound theological training was needed to comprehend each symbol and
its significance, to esteem all as centring in the Person of history,
in the sacrifice and atonement. And still it is largely because
historians have failed to appreciate the scriptural training of our
ancestors that they have unfairly emphasized the episodic nature of the
miracle cycles, at any rate of the English.

The integral quality of the English cycle is infinitely superior to
that of the French; and the separate plays are more frequently artistic
units. This is due, among other things, to facts long ago pointed out
by Ebert.[28] The smaller stage in England, which in turn restricted
the scope of the play, made it impossible to split up the action into
two or more parallel movements, such as frequently occupied the stage
in France. The scene, moreover, was in England limited to earth, save
when the plot expressly required the presentation of heaven or hell. It
very rarely required all three at once. The conduct of the English play
is therefore less dependent upon the supernatural, and the persons bear
a closer resemblance to actual human beings. Neither plot nor character
is distracted by the irresponsible intrusion of devils, whereas these,
idling about the French stage, frequently turned the action into
horse-play,--if the fool (likewise absent from the English miracle) had
not already turned it into a farce out of all relation to the fable.
The comic element in the English play had to exist by virtue of its
relation to the main action or not at all. It was therefore compelled
to conquer its position within the artistic bounds of the drama. The
comic scenes of the English miracle should accordingly be regarded,
not as interruptions, nor independent episodes, but as harmonious
counterpoint or dramatic relief. Those who have witnessed in recent
times the reproduction of the _Secunda Pastorum_ at one of the American
universities bear testimony to the propriety and charm, as well as the
dramatic effect, with which the foreground of the sheep-stealing fades
into the radiant picture of the nativity. The pastoral atmosphere is
already shot with a prophetic gleam, the fulfilment is, therefore,
no shock or contrast, but a transfiguration--an epiphany. I do not
forget that a less humorous analogue of the _Shepherds' Play_ exists
in such French mysteries as that of the _Conception_, but I call
attention to the fact that by devices, technical sometimes, sometimes
naïve, elaborated through the centuries in response to the demands
of a popular æsthetic consciousness, the cycles, preëminently in
England, acquired a delicacy and variety of colour, an horizon, and an
atmosphere, not only as wholes, but in the parts contributing to the
whole.

It is, therefore, only with reservation that I can concur with what one
of our most scientific and suggestive historians has said concerning
the dramatic qualities of the English miracle play:[29] "In the
mystery, not only were the subject and the idea unalterable, but the
way in which the subject and idea affected each other was equally
unchangeable. The power of expression was exceedingly defective. The
idea in the finished work still seemed to be something strange and
external--conception and execution did not correspond. It is only by
a whole cycle that the subject could be exhausted, and this cycle was
composed of the most heterogeneous elements, and is, in fact, a work
of accident. The cycle play very seldom formed a unit or whole; it
seldom contained anything that could be called a dramatic action. The
spectators were therefore interested only in the matter. Only a few
details made any æsthetic effect--such as character, situation, scenes;
the whole was rarely or never dramatic." I will grant that, since the
subject of the individual pageant was prescribed by tradition, and the
solution of the dramatic problem already fixed, the author did not
always penetrate the shell of his story and assimilate the conception.
Consequently the execution has frequently the faults of the ready-made
suit of clothes: it creases where it should fall free and breaks
where it should embrace. As the writer is not expected to exercise
his invention, the onlooker estimates the conduct of the fable as a
spectacle, not as a revelation. Many of the miracles, therefore, lack
the element of dramatic surprise, and almost none attempts anything in
the way of character development. This is, in part, because, severally,
the plays are squares of an historical chessboard, upon which the
individual--king or pawn--is merely a piece; and even if the board be
not historic, the squares are over strait for the gradual deploy of
motive; many of these plays are scenes, consequently, and limited to
single crises of an individual life. In other words, the character,
if familiar, is regarded as an instrument toward a well-known end; if
unfamiliar, as an apparition momentarily vivid. Slight opportunity
exists for interplay of incident and character, for the production of
conduct, in short, which is the resultant of character and a crisis.
It must also be conceded that, since each play was the dear delight of
its proprietary gild--and each rare performance thereof the chance that
should grace these craftsmen ever or disgrace them quite--the effort of
actor, if not always of playwright, was towards a speedy and startling
effect, such as might be procured by the extraneous quality of the
show, rather than by the story in itself or in its relation to the
cycle.

But still we must be careful not to generalize from a play here and
there to the quality of a cycle as a whole or to the common qualities
of various cycles. When we say that the mysteries, that is, the
scriptural miracles, possessed this, that, or the other merit or
defect, to what area and what object does the remark apply? Do we refer
to all the extant plays, or only to the one hundred and fifty plays in
the five cycles that may be called complete? Do we draw the inference
from a majority of all plays that might fall within the purview,
or from the plays of one cycle, or from a majority of the plays in
that cycle, or from a single striking example here or there in one
or another cycle or fragmentary collection? Do we draw the inference
from, or apply the conclusion indiscriminately to, later as well as
earlier cycles and plays? A generalization from the Chester does not
_prima facie_ fit the Towneley, nor does a dramatic estimate of the
Coventry characterize the isolated miracle morals of the Digby. Between
the composition of the earliest and the latest of the Chester plays
alone, centuries elapsed; centuries between the earliest Coventry and
the earliest Digby; generations between Chester and Coventry plays
upon the same subject, and generations more between the York and
Newcastle. York includes some of the youngest pageants of the species
and many of the oldest. Towneley is generally later than York; but it
sometimes retains an original which York had long ago discarded for
something more modern. Returning, therefore, to Professor ten Brink's
generalization, we must submit that most of the defects which he lays
at the door of the cyclic miracle were not inherent in the species,
but incidental to the period. Some attach to the crudeness of the
playwright, some to the simplicity of the audience; they no doubt
attached to the collective "morals" of the fourteenth century, such as
the _Paternoster Play_, and they would have characterized plays of any
other species attempted under like conditions. The best miracle plays
are as mature products of dramatic art as the best of the allegorical
kind, except in one point only--the development of character. That "the
subject and its idea should be unalterable" and their interrelation
fixed, is by no means a peculiarity of the scriptural play, but a
characteristic of period or place. If the reader will cast even a rapid
glance by way of comparison over the French _Corpus_ of mysteries
and the English, he will observe that the scope of subjects possible
to a religious cycle was amenable to widely different conditions of
restriction, selection, and enlargement, and that the treatment of
the same and similar subjects was infinitely varied. To illustrate at
length would be a work of supererogation. Everybody knows that the
French cycles have plays upon subjects, the Job, for instance, and
Tobias and Esther,[30] not touched by the English,--at any rate when in
their prime; and that the same subject or episode is frequently treated
in a way dissimilar to the English. When we turn to details we note
likewise the independence of the playwright: none of the English plays
avails itself, for instance, of Adam's difficulty in swallowing the
apple, though the incident figures both in _Le Mistere de la Nativite_
and that of the _Viel Testament_; nor of the attractive possibilities
of Reuben and Rachel's maid, Joseph and Potiphar's wife, Solomon and
the Queen of Sheba, and many another conjunction known to all readers
of the French religious play. And these discrepancies between national
cycles hold true even where, as in the case of the Chester plays, the
influence of the French mysteries of the thirteenth century and of the
later collections is in other respects evident. Of the four English
cycles, moreover, each does not select exactly the same subjects for
its pageants as the others,--Balaam and his Ass, for instance, appear
only in the Chester,--nor do all introduce the same incidents in the
handling of a common subject.

Professor ten Brink is by no means alone in his estimate of the
technical quality of the English scriptural miracle, but I must say
that the estimate seems to me to be hardly up to the deserts of the
species. The frequent absence of such refinements as the unities of
time and place was of the essence both of play and period; but it was
not of the essence of the miracle cycle that the expression should be
defective, or that conception and execution should fail to correspond,
or of the miracle play that it should be unable economically and
adequately to develop a dramatic action and produce an artistic
whole. It may be an insufficient argument to say that the plays of
the Wakefield dramatist are anything but defective in expression.
Let us, therefore, be somewhat more comprehensive in the scope of
inquiry. I have gone carefully through the four English cycles with
Professor ten Brink's censures in mind, and I conclude that at least
twenty of the individual plays have central motive, consistent action,
and well-rounded dramatic plot. Indeed I think a good case might be
made for thirty. That would be to say that one-fifth of the miracles
of the great cycles were artistic units in themselves, and must have
interested their spectators, not alone by the materials displayed, but
by a subject that meant something, and situations, scenes, and acting
characters by which it was sometimes not at all unworthily presented.
The inheritors of English literature will indeed carry away a false
impression of the artistic achievements of their ancestors, if they
believe that in spite of a development of five hundred years the
miracle play was "rarely or never dramatic."

Even though the sacred and traditional character of the biblical
narrative must have exercised a restraint upon the comic tendencies of
the cyclic poet not likely to have existed in the case of the writers
of saints' plays and single morals, still it is when he attempts
the comic that the cyclic poet is most independent. For as soon as
plays have passed into the hands of the gilds, the playwright puts
himself most readily into sympathy with the literary consciousness as
well as the untutored æsthetic taste of his public when he colours
the spectacle, old or new, with what is preëminently popular and
distinctively national. In the minster and out of it, all through
the Christian year, the townsfolk of York and Chester had as much of
ritual, of scriptural narrative, and tragic mystery as they wanted,
and probably more; when the pageants were acted, they listened with
simple credulity, no doubt, to the sacred history, and with a reverence
that our age of illumination can neither emulate nor understand;--but
with keenest expectation they awaited the invented episodes where
tradition conformed itself to familiar life,--the impromptu sallies,
the cloth-yard shafts of civic and domestic satire sped by well-known
wags of town or gild. Of the appropriateness of these insertions,
spectators made no question, and the dramatists themselves do not
seem to have thought it necessary to apologize for æsthetic creed or
practice. The objections thereto proceeded from the authorities of
the church, but the very tenor and tone of them are a testimony to
the importance attained by the comic element in the religious plays.
It is principally the "bourdynge and japynge" which attended the
"pleyinge of Goddis myraclys and werkes," that called forth the wrath
of the sermon that I have already cited from the end of the fourteenth
century.[31] And it was for similar reasons that Bishop Wedego ordered,
in 1471, the suppression of both passion play and saints' plays within
his continental diocese. In France, indeed, not only horse-play
characterized the performance of the mysteries, but absolutely
irrelevant farces invaded them, merely _afin que le jeu soit moins fade
et plus plaisans_.

I have alluded to the distinctively national note that characterizes
the comic contributions to the sacred plays, and I find that my opinion
is confirmed by the examples cited by Klein and Creizenach. The French
mystery poets, while they develop, like the English, the comic quality
of the shepherd scenes, introduce the drinking and dicing element _ad
lib._,--and sometimes the drabbing; they make, moreover, a specialty of
the humour of deformity, a characteristic which appears nowhere in the
English plays. The Germans, in their turn, elaborate a humour peculiar
to themselves,--elephantine, primitive, and personal. They seem to
get most run out of reviling the idiosyncrasies of Jews, whose dress,
appearance, manners, and speech they caricature,--even introducing
Jewish _dramatis personæ_ to sing gibberish, exploit cunning, and
perform obscenities under the names of contemporary citizens of the
hated race. In general a freer rein seems to have been given to the
sacrilegious, grotesque, and obscene on the Continent than in England.
In the _Passion_ of A. Greban (before 1452), Herod orders Jesus into
the garb of a fool; and in some of the German plays the judges dance
about the cross upon which the Saviour hangs. Much of the ribaldry
was of course impromptu, and on that account the more grotesque; as
in the story related by Bebel of how a baker playing the part of
Christ in the _Processus Crucis_ bore the gibes of his tormentors with
admirable composure, until one actor Jew insisted upon calling him a
corn thief,--"Shut up," retorted the Christ, "or I'll come down and
break your head with the cross." There is, of course, an occasional
license in the English plays, such as the dance about the cross in the
Coventry; but the excess of ribaldry, _grotesquerie_, and _diablerie_
does not assault the imagination as in the continental mysteries.

=4. The Contribution of Later "Marvels" and Early Secular Plays=

The advance which remained to be made upon the quality of play
presented in the miracle cycle before England could have an artistic
comedy were threefold: _first_, from the collective to the single play;
_second_, from the reproduction of traditional or accidental events to
the selection of such as possessed significance and continuity; and
_third_, from the employment of the remote in material and interest to
the employment of the immediate and familiar.

To attribute to the allegorical play all improvements that were made in
this transition is a mistake. Some steps in the right direction were
already necessitated by the popular demand, and had been taken by the
later miracle plays before the allegorical drama had itself passed out
of the experimental stages,--by the Digby _Magdalene_, for instance.
In that play, the dramatic management of a plot, invented and romantic
rather than scriptural in its nature and interest, and the portrayal
of commonplace events and characters side by side with the occasional
allegory, are evidence not only of contemporary taste, but, as Mr.
Courthope has said, of an artistic approach to the representation of
fables of simple secular interest. The play, in fact, bears a close
resemblance to and was apparently influenced by the popular life of
St. Mary Magdalene which appeared in Caxton's translation of 1483 of
the _Golden Legend_,--or perhaps by the French edition which Caxton
follows, or the original of Voragine. In the _St. Paul_ of the Digby
collection we note a similar fusion of secular and legendary material,
and an imaginative handling of the plot. Although the dramatist has
buried his opportunities of psychological invention in the apostle's
homily upon the deadly sins, he has at the same time crossed the border
of the "moral play" rich with psychological opportunity. In the same
direction of advance various steps had also been taken by other saints'
plays, purely legendary, like the _Sancta Katharina_ already mentioned,
and by such a 'marvel' as the Sacrament Play, or Miracle of the Host,
which we shall presently describe. A movement in advance had, moreover,
been made by our early secular drama, which comprised, besides the
farce interlude prepared by scholars for profane consumption, like the
_Interludium de Clerico et Puella_, certain popular festival plays,
for instance, the _Hox Tuesday_ and _Robin Hood_, and plays of saints
turned national heroes like St. George and St. Edward.

Concerning the plays of the miracles of saints I have already expressed
the belief that, whether these workers of marvels got off with their
lives or not, the representations in which they figured were, generally
speaking, of the essence of comedy: the persistent optimism which in
the end routs the spectres of temptation, persecution, and unbelief.
This would hold, with even greater probability, of the purely legendary
miracles, the nature of which is, of course, that of popular religious
thought and faith in the Middle Ages, and is embalmed for us in the
_Golden Legend_, in Eusebius and St. Jerome, and other writers from
whom the legend was derived. In spite of their exceeding interest,
these legendary saints' plays and pageants can be considered in this
place only with brevity; but in order that the reader may better
appreciate the variety of their subjects and the extent of the period
over which they were acted, I subjoin a list of some that we know to
have been presented.[32]

I have little doubt that the romantic combination of tragic,
marvellous, and comic later noticeable upon the Elizabethan stage was
in some degree due to the ancient and continuous dramatization of the
irrational adventures, blood-curdling tortures, and dissonant emotions
afforded by the legends of the saints. These 'marvels,' moreover, must,
because of their early emancipation from ecclesiastical restraints and
their adoption by the folk, have contributed to the development of the
freely invented, surprising, and amusing fable which is congenial to
comedy. That we have not more notices of them is owing, not to their
insignificance nor to any disappearance before the advancing popularity
of the craft cycles, for even the pageants of the saints still flourish
in Aberdeen as late as 1531, and the plays elsewhere much later,
but, as Ebert has already noted, to the fact that they were seldom
presented with the magnificence and publicity of the cyclic miracles;
but whenever a saint's play is taken up by a city or gild, it enjoys
frequent official notice and maintains its dignity for years.

Passing to the marvel or miracle of the Host, we notice that only one
in our language has survived. This _Play of the Blyssyd Sacrament_
bears the name of one of the East Midland Croxtons, and it was composed
between 1461 and 1500. Although some critics have a low opinion of
the play, I venture to say that it is one of the most important in
the early history of English comedy. The subject, the desecration
by Jews of a wonder-working Wafer and the discomfiture and ultimate
conversion of the offenders, is popular in the legend of the later
Middle Ages.[33] With ours a Dutch Sacrament Play, written about the
year 1500 by Smeken and acted in Breda, naturally calls for comparison;
but, though the latter exhibits the miraculous power of the Host and
has a certain diabolic humour, it lacks altogether the realism, the
popular reproduction of Jewish malignity, and the effective close of
the Croxton. The Croxton avails itself of the possibilities of the
subject. The idea has a significance; the plot possesses legitimate
motive, due proportions, unity ethical and æsthetic; and the conclusion
is happy. The mood, by turns serious and comic, and the _dramatis
personæ_, various and well-characterized, combine to furnish a most
diverting drama of the wonderful, horrible, elevated, and commonplace.
Colle's announcement of his master the leech, "a man off alle syence,"
who "syttyth with sum tapstere in the spence," is excellently ironical;
and Master Brundych himself, like the doctor in the St. George plays,
must have furnished a figure exactly suited to the popular taste. Nor
is the realism confined to the intentionally comic scenes; but it is
as vividly successful in the corruption of Aristorius by Jonathas
and in the futile and richly avenged efforts of the Jews to torture
the Host. Here certainly was a play adapted to meet the demands of
its time,--exhibiting closer affiliation with the folk than with
church or patron or school, acted perhaps by strolling players, an
unforced product of the artistic consciousness; a play which, though
it dealt with a sacred subject, still focussed itself in a single
plot, discarded all material, sacred or historical, not available for
its purpose, completed an alliance with the natural and the familiar,
and emphasized the comic realities of life. No miracle, cyclic or
individual, no allegorical drama, and no secular play of the same or
previous date excels the Croxton in dramatic concept and constructive
skill. Without the mediation offered by such Croxton plays, the English
drama would have had "old" bridging the space between miracles,
marvels, and morals of the earlier time and the comedy of Shakespeare.

The consideration of our early farce interludes may be conveniently
postponed for the present in favour of the more popular plays, or
shows, with which our forefathers celebrated festival occasions. Of the
pageants in honour of royal entries, to which reference has already
been made, it is impossible to say more here than that, developing
gradually into dramatic spectacles, and at the same time retaining
their symbolic character, they must have contributed to the taste for
allegorical plays, the moral, and the moral interlude. If we turn to
the secular shows presented on regular festivals, such as May-day, Hox
Tuesday, and the Eve of St. John and St. Peter, while we may at once
conclude that they were less efficient as dramas than some of which we
have spoken, such as the Sacrament play, they have the advantage, from
our present point of view, of indicating more directly the nature of
popular demand and the primitive conditions of popular art. Indeed,
Dodsley regards the mummers who commonly acted them as the earliest
genuine comedians of England. Of such disguisings, masks, and mummeries
there is evidence in the Wardrobe Accounts of 1389, according to
which a company of twenty-one men was disguised as the Ancient Order
of the Coif for a play before the king at Christmas; and of other
mummings--not satiric nor in mockery of church ritual, but genial--we
have mention in Stow and citations in Warton and Collier that take us
to the first half of the fourteenth century. They doubtless existed
much earlier, though I do not think that they anticipated the parodies
of sacred rites or the ecclesiastical saints' plays.

Naturally a much-loved figure in festival games was Robin Hood, and
that some kind of drama was made out of the ballads surrounding him
is proved by a Ms. fragment of 1475 or earlier of _Robin Hood and
the Knight_, and a play of _Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar_ with a
portion of _Robin Hood and the Potter_, printed by Copland, in 1550, as
"very proper to be played in May-games."[34] These May-games occurred
not only in May, but June, and gave employment to St. George and the
Dragon, the Nine Worthies (at whom Shakespeare poked run in _Love's
Labour's Lost_), the morris-dance, with its Lords and Ladies of the
May, giant, hobby-horse, and sometimes devils, as well as to Robin
and Little John, Maid Marian, and Friar Tuck; and they were popular
through the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, perhaps even earlier.
If we may trust old Fenn's editing, Sir John Paston wrote in 1473 of
a man whom he had kept for three years to play "Seynt Jorge and Robyn
Hod and the Shryff off Nottingham." There may be even earlier mention
of such plays. For, with all deference to the best of authorities,
Professor Child, I cannot but think that when Bower wrote, between 1441
and 1447, of the popular "comedies and tragedies" of _Robertus Hode et
Litill Johanne_, he had reference to acted plays, since he took pains
to specify in his account of them the _mimi_, as well as the _bardani_
who chanted them. These entertainments, he says, were then more popular
than any other, and it is only natural to suppose that they had existed
long before his time. The earliest mention of Robin in England is in
_Piers Plowman_, 1377, and then as the subject of a ballad; but, as
Warton long ago pointed out, pastoral plays of _Robin et Marion_ had
been given in France upon festival occasions before the end of the
thirteenth century. Although there appears to be no similarity between
the incidents of Adam de la Halle's comic opera of 1283 upon Robin and
his Marion and the English stories, and although we are ignorant of
the nature of the spring game, or play, of the same title, which was
already an annual function in Anjou, in 1392, the principal characters
and conditions of life in the two series are sufficiently similar to
suggest a connection by derivation or common source. If such connection
exist, it is not impossible that some kind of Robin pageant or play was
known in England earlier than we ordinarily think. The ballad plays,
at any rate, had attained popularity long before an artistic level
was reached by the allegorical drama, and while yet the craft cycles
were in their prime. Stow, in respect of Mayings, which he leads us to
believe were common in the reign of Henry VI., says that the citizens
of London "did fetch in May-poles with divers warlike shows, with good
archers, morris-dancers, and other devices for pastime all the day
long; and towards the evening they had stage-plays and bonfires in the
streets." Robin Hood and his archers are the heart of a Maying devised
under Henry VII. in 1505 and for Henry VIII. in 1516; and the archers
of the Maying in the time of Henry VI. are suggestive of the Robin Hood
as an accepted figure for some kind of pageant in the middle of the
fifteenth century, when Bower was writing of "comedies and tragedies,"
mentioned above. The pageants and probably the plays of Robin Hood
are still alive in the seventeenth century and later. Their dramatic
quality was of a very primitive sort, but the plot, wherever existent,
displayed sequence of motive and effect. The popular dramatist had, as
in the Sacrament play and saints' plays, learned how to magnify a hero
by making him the pivot of the action, how to interest the spectators
in the affairs and manners of their own class, how to produce a comic
effect by means of dialogue, as well as by the humour of the situation.
But he knew nothing of the development of character, and in that
respect, without doubt, was inferior to the contemporary author of the
moral play.

Passing the Hox Tuesday play, of which we cannot be sure that it was
anything more than a crude and entirely serious representation of the
historic massacre which it commemorated, and of which no adequate
account survives, we may turn with profit to the most popular and
long-lived of English festival dramas, the St. George play. Of this
Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps says that numerous versions are used in the
north of England, and that they are doubtless a degraded form of an old
"mystery."[35] Of course, he means legendary miracle or saint's play.
Ward more accurately describes this rural drama as a combination of
miracle and processional pageant. As the latter, it appears frequently
to have formed part of a mumming or disguising, and was early
associated with the morris-dance of May-day or Christmas. [Collier,
_Hist._, vol. I., p. 29.] The first indubitable mention of a St. George
pageant is in 1416, and would appear to refer to a "splendid dumb show"
rather than a play, which, as Caxton tells us, was presented for the
entertainment of Emperor Sigismund of Almayne when he "brought and
gave the heart of St. George for a great and precious relique to King
Harry the fifth." It is, however, more than probable that the soldier
saint had figured in saints' plays, and in popular play and pageant,
long before this time. He had been honoured in the eastern church
even in the fourth century, and in England there had been churches
and monasteries devoted to him before the Norman invasion. On account
of his fabled services in the crusade he was already the patron of
individual knights, and orders of chivalry and even of kingdoms, when
Edward III., in the years 1348-50, built the chapel in his honour
at Windsor, confirmed him as the saint and champion of England and
instituted the order that still bears his name. It is likely, indeed,
that the _ludi_ exhibited before the same monarch at Christmas, 1348,
were to some extent of St. George, for we read that the dragon figured
extensively in them.[36] And it would appear that when, in 1415, the
23d April, St. George's Day, was "made a major double feast and ordered
to be observed the same as Christmas day, all labour ceasing," his
play was no new thing. From that time on, at any rate, the procession
of St. George was one of the "pastimes yearly used," of which Stow
tells us that they were celebrated "with disguisings, masks, and
mummeries." Gilds were organized in his name, and the ceremony of
'Riding the George' spread over England. When Henry V. visited Paris,
in 1420, he was appropriately welcomed with a St. George show, and
the saint appears again in a pageant of 1474 performed at Coventry
in honour of young Prince Edward. We have already mentioned Sir John
Paston's reference to the play in 1473. A long-winded and serious
German dramatization of the legend exists in an Augsburg manuscript of
the end of the same century. In all probability the expensive miracle
play of the saint that was acted in the croft or field at Bassingbourne
in Cambridgeshire, in 1511, was of the same didactic kind, but
enlivened by _impromptus_ of the villagers who took part. St. George
and the dragon were features of the May-games at London, evidently in
procession, as late as 1559. There appears in Warburton's list a play
of _St. George for England_, by Wentworth Smith, of the first quarter
of the seventeenth century, and in the latter part of that century,
a droll called _St. George and the Dragon_ was by way of being acted
at Bartholomew Fair. The play seems from an early date to have been
performed on the occasion of other festivals besides that of the Saint
himself.

The versions of the play best known of recent years are the
Oxfordshire, acted during the eighteenth century and taken down from an
old performer in 1853, and the Lutterworth (Leicestershire) Christmas
play, acted as late as 1863.[37] Professor Child, in his _Ballads_,
mentions another, which was regularly acted on All Souls' Day at a
village a few miles from Chester. I would call attention, in addition,
to four others of interest; the Derbyshire Christmas play,[38] acted by
mummers as late as 1849, which is fuller than any other and appears to
me to retain traces of a fifteenth-century original; the two Bassingham
(Lincoln) Christmas plays,[39] 1823, and the Shetland play from a 1788
Ms., recounted in Scott's novel of _The Pirate_. The last three make
the connection between the St. George play proper and the sword play,
which was undoubtedly common in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries,
and of which the Revesby version of 1779 is still extant.[40]

The following is the outline of the Derbyshire play: Enter Prologue,
who is apparently the same as "noble soldier," "Slasher," or "Jack,"
to clear a way for St. Gay.--Enter St. Gay, announcing himself with
proper bombast, pretending that "from England's ground he sprung and
came," and stating his purpose, which is to find King George.--Enter
King George, "in search of his enemy," St. Gay, who as "a stranger,
exposed and in danger," calls upon Slasher for help.--With loud words
Slasher threatens King George, who in his turn boasts of "close
escapes," giants and dragons subdued, and the King of Egypt's daughter
won.--They fight, and Slasher "tumbles down and dies."--Enter Doctor,
who has "travelled" imaginatively and can "fetch any dead man to
life again." He begins with Slasher, who signalizes his recovery by
summoning the "Black Prince of Paradise, black Morocco king," to renew
the fray.--"Here am I," cries that hero; it was I who "slew those seven
Turks," and it is I who now will "jam King George's giblets full of
holes, And in those holes put pebble stones!" George doubts the Black
Prince's ability, even though he be a "champion's squire,"--they are
about to fight, when Prologue intervenes with "Peace and Quietness is
the best," and "Enter in, owld Beelzebub!" That personage on entering
turns out to be, in dress, a kind of Devil and Vice combined, in
spirit a kind of Father Christmas summoning all to drink.--This queer
jumble is worth more space than I can afford it. Just a word or two in
passing. St. Gay is given up by Halliwell-Phillipps as an "addition to
the calendar not noticed elsewhere." But one observes that his squire
is a foreigner, as his name and garb both proclaim,[41] and that he is
the squire of a champion. This limits us to the three foreign champions
of Christendom, and from St. Gay's second speech we discover, not only
that he is San Diego of Spain, but (unless I am gravely mistaken) that
some author of the various generations of authors of this play had
acquaintance with Caxton's _Golden Legend_ of 1483, where, in the _Life
of St. James the More_, we find the original, in oddly similar terms,
of one altogether unintelligible phrase used by this English makeshift
for a Spanish champion.[42] Further not very definite but suggestive
similarities with the _Life of St. George_ add to the presumption that
the Caxton translation of the _Legenda Aurea_ underlies portions of
this folk play. Of course a play of the martyrdom of St. George may
have existed earlier still, but if, as would seem to be the case,
Voragine invented the dragon, that monster cannot have played a part
before 1270-90; it does not play a part even in the _South English
Legendary_ of 1285, but is prominent in Caxton's narrative.

With the play just described the Lutterworth is identical in some
seven or eight passages, and save that there is no Black Prince, and
that a Turkish Champion takes the place of St. Gay, the principal
characters are the same. The introduction of Beelzebub and a clown,
with remarks appropriate to each, would, however, indicate that this
part of the play is earlier than the amalgamated Beelzebub-clown of
the Derbyshire. Both plays preserve reminiscences of the crusades.
As to the Oxfordshire, I can say only that it is a rigmarole from
history, legend, and nursery tale, culminating in the destruction
of the dragon (or Old Nick) and the appearance of Father Christmas.
The Bassingham plays present the stock characters, but little of the
original story. They add elements of scandal and love, however,--the
former in connection with Dame Jane, who tries to fasten the paternity
of her child on a "Father's Eldest Son, And heir of all his land";
and the latter in connection with a Fair Lady, who is wooed by
Eldest Son, Farming Man, Lawyer, Old Man, and refuses them all, in
the end apparently to accept the Fool. This part of the story is a
link between the St. George plays and the sword-dance plays, as is
also the Shetland, where St. George himself sustains the part of
principal dancer. In the Revesby sword-dance play, acted in 1779 by
morris-dancers, the Fair Lady of the Bassingham reappears as Cicely to
refuse Pepper-breeches, "My father's eldest son, And heir of all his
land," Ginger-breeches, Blue-breeches, the Knight of Lee, and Pickle
Herring, the Lord of Pool, in favour of Rafe the Fool. Though the
phraseology of the Bassingham and Revesby is occasionally the same,
the latter is utterly removed from the St. George original save in the
mention of dragon and worm which accompany the morris-dancers. How far
back the Revesby sword-dance play may date I do not know. The dance was
common on the continent in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and
a similar performance with a fool in the middle is recorded as taking
place in Ulm in 1551. The name of the merry-andrew, Pickle Herring, may
possibly take us back to the first quarter of the sixteenth century.
For, as is well known, it is the usual designation for the clown in
the 1620 collection of plays acted by the so-called English comedians
in Germany. According to Creizenach,[43] the character was introduced
by Robert Reynolds, who was perhaps himself the Robert Pickelhäring
mentioned in connection with an entertainment given at Torgau in
1627. Floegel and Ebeling speak of "der alte Pickelhering aus der
Moralititäten des fünfzehnten Jahrhunderts," as if he were the "old
Vice"; but surely without justification. I know of no mention of Pickle
Herring before 1620, and since he still held the stage in Löwen's
_Prinz Pickelhering_, about the middle of the eighteenth century, it
is not impossible that the character was borrowed by the English sword
play at a comparatively recent date. The continuance of the Devil and
his relation to the clown in these plays are a subject of historical
interest, but it would be a mistake to say, as Halliwell-Phillipps has
said of the Beelzebub, that either of them is "a genuine descendant of
the Vice."

Perhaps I should not have stayed to make these remarks, but they will,
I hope, direct attention to a phenomenon unique in the history of
English drama. The St. George play is an example of how a legendary
miracle, sacred in its origin, may pass into a folk drama of a national
hero, and that again degenerate into a mumming or dance; and how this,
oblivious of the original plot and finally of all fable, may first
transform the saintly hero into a performer in a sword dance, as in
the Shetland play, and then, as in the Revesby, eliminate even him and
substitute a fool. Both literary career and literary indignity of this
kind have been escaped by the other national saint of England, Edward
the Confessor. In earlier days he figured in frequent pageants, records
of which are preserved, for instance, in the Old Leet Book of Coventry,
of the years 1456 and 1471, but he readily gave way to St. George and
disappeared from the dramatic horizon.

=5. The Devil and the Vice=

The nexus between the comic qualities of the miracle plays and those
of the morals cannot well be made without some discussion of the rôles
of the Devil and the Vice. The treatise which I have before cited,[44]
and which appears to me fairly conclusive, shows that the Devil of the
English stage is originally a creation, not of folk mythology, but of
theology. He is concrete, to be sure, in accordance with scriptural
and legendary tradition, but in the 'mysteries' his character is
almost entirely serious, not ludicrous, as appears to be vulgarly
reported. The association of the genuinely comic or satirical with the
conception of the Devil is first evident in later representations of
that character, and then only in the case of lesser denizens of the
lower world. The humorous scene in the Chester _Harrowing_ between
the demons and the alewife abandoned in hell is, for instance, as Dr.
Deimling has said, a late interpolation. The Wakefield dramatist's
contribution to the _Judicium_, of _Tutivillus_ and his ilk, is about
the only diabolic humour in the miracles; and that the satirical speech
of the Coventry demon in the _Conspiracy_ was a still later borrowing
from _Tutivillus_, I have but little doubt. To credit the Devils of
the earliest miracles with a tendency and an ability to criticise
manners and morals would be just as wrong as to attribute to them a
buffoonery which accrues only at a later date. Of the Mephistophelian
style, more serious than Chaucer's and more satirical than Langland's,
we have no historical trace before the witty Devil of Wakefield--or
his maker. The humour of the miracle Devils shows itself in bombastic,
grotesque, or abusive language, rather than in anything of comic
utterance or incident. The uproarious laughter caused, according to
tradition, by this character cannot, therefore, have depended upon
the lines of the dramatist, except in so far as those consist of
threats, objurgation, profanity, and the like. There is little in the
asides of the printed page, or in the rare addresses of the Devil to
his audience, or the deportation of souls to hell[45] to account for
amusement. Rewfyn,[46] Rybald, and Tutivillus are the only humorous
devil-names in the five cycles of which we have been speaking; and of
the shouting and fireworks in which we are told the infernal spirits
were wont to indulge, we find scarcely any mention except in the plays
concerning the fall of the angels and the harrowing of hell. That the
merriment of the crowd was provoked by the appearance and antics of
the Devil--that is to say, by the improvisation of the actor--and
his raids upon the spectators is natural to infer. The dramatists
themselves did not provide for close association between the spirits
of hell and living men. The Devil addresses the audience but seldom,
and then, perhaps, to threaten with his club. In fact, the Devil of the
old miracles, as we usually conceive him, is an anachronism created
by certain historians of the drama; the buffoon roaring, pyrotechnic,
and familiar, springs into prominence only with the Digby plays, and
is but slowly developed in the moral plays and interludes. Though the
aspiring angels of the York and Chester plays "go down" in actual fact,
and the Lucifer of the former cycle complains of heat and smoke, there
is no mention of hell-mouth in the account-books before 1557, nor in
the stage directions of the Digby[47] before we reach the Digby _Paul_
and _Magdalene_ Mss. of about 1480-90; and even then the entries appear
to be the insertions of some later hand. In these plays the flames of
hell-mouth, the fireworks, and thunder are distinctive accessories of
the Devil's presence. Still, it is not in a miracle play after all,
but in a moral--the _Castell of Perseverance_ (about 1400)--that the
first stage direction of this nature is found. In the transitional
miracle morals, _Paul_, _Wisdom_, _Magdalene_, the Devil by his own
account as well as by stage direction "rores and cries." He was abusive
in the _Castell of Perseverance_; but in the later morals or moral
interludes he "rores and cries" for mere fun--in the _Lusty Juventus_,
for instance, the _Disobedient Child_, and _All for Money_.

Concerning the Devil even of this later birth, many false conceptions,
due to insufficient research, have obtained currency. It is commonly
imagined that he was the mainspring of the play, that he came into
close contact with human beings, that he represented phases of human
character, that he was a comical figure,--jester, or "roister," or
butt,--and that he held some fixed relation to the Vice, who was "his
constant attendant," says Malone. But the Devil was the principal
personage only in the earliest of the morals that survive, he rarely
associated with mankind, and he assumed the human rôle, such as that of
judge or sailor, only once or twice.[48] In the moral plays not more
than four or five comic Devils are extant--the Titivillus of _Mankynd_,
the Beelzebub of the _Nigromansir_, the Lucifer of _Like wil to Like_,
and the Devil of _All for Money_; and the last of these is the only
roysterer of the lot, one of the very few to serve as butt for the
Vice. Such jokes as that of the Devil taking "a shrewd boy with him"
from the audience in _Wisdom_ are interpolations, and it is only after
the moral has passed its zenith that, as in _Like wil to Like_ and the
early comedy _Friar Bacon_, the Devil carries off the Vice-clown. As
early as 1486-1500 the moral play, _Nature_,--called, when printed in
1538, a goodly interlude,--dispenses with the Devil altogether, and
from that time on the character appears only in some half-dozen extant
plays of the kind and its derivatives, and is subordinate. Towards
the end of the sixteenth century, however, the Devil is revived, and
in comedies of concrete life and character he frequently swaggers as
a blusterer or comic personage: in _Grim the Collier_, for instance,
in the _Knack to know a Knave_, and _Histrio-Mastix_, as well as
seventeenth-century plays like _The Devil is in It_ and _The Devil
is an Ass_. I have said that his office in the genuine moral was not
comic, neither was it satirical. It consisted largely in directing or
commissioning his agents, the Vices. Professor Cushman, who makes this
statement, further points out that this conception of the Devil did
not develop in any popular sense, nor gain in variety in the English
moral plays; but that the case is altogether dissimilar in the German
and French drama of the same period, where the devils are not only
numerous, but carefully differenced as representatives of the various
foibles of mankind,--a rôle which was assumed in England, as we shall
presently see, by the Vice.

Between the detached, and sometimes serious, Devil of the cycles and
the Vice of the moral plays, ever present, dominant and comical,
concrete in manifold person and guise, a middle or transitional
position is occupied by the fiend of the later miracle and the demon
of the earlier moral. Examples of the former are Tutivillus and his
humorous associates in the Wakefield _Judicium_, Lord Lucifer of the
Coventry _Council_ (who, like the Vice, euphemizes his attendant
Deadly Sins), the Prynse of Dylles of the _Magdalene_, and the sailor
devil of the Newcastle play; examples of the latter are the gunpowder
Belial of _Perseverance_, the intriguing Lucifer of _Wisdom_, now in
"devely aray," anon as a "prowde galaunt," the farcical and efficient
Titivillus of _Mankynd_, and Beelzebub, the judge and buffoon of the
_Nigromansir_. But though the demon of the morals bears some relation
to his predecessor of the miracles, he is not borrowed from the
miracles. He grows out of a common tradition.

Just as the Devil persists in spite of lapse and change through miracle
play, moral, and interlude into Elizabethan comedy, so the Vice,
though he did not obtain so early a footing upon the stage. There
are previsions of him in the later miracles and earlier morals; he
flourished in the morals of the middle period and the moral interludes,
and there are traces of him in the regular comedy. He disappeared only
in deference to the differentiated humours, follies, or vices of social
life, of which no controlling Folly or Vice may be regarded as the
sole incarnation,--for in the culture of them each of us indulges a
genius of his own.

The term Vice is not used as the designation of a stock dramatic
character till the appearance of Heywood's _Play of the Wether_
and _Play of Love_, before or about 1532. It is next employed in
_Respublica_, 1553, and _Jacke Jugeler_, 1553-61. These and similar
notices of that period, however, occur only on title-pages of plays or
in lists or stage directions. The earliest mention of the Vice in the
text of a play is found in _King Darius_, 1565. It is not until 1567,
with the _Horestes_, that we find the designation "used consistently
throughout, in the title, the list of players and the rubric."[49]
But whether the generic name of Vice was introduced by the authors of
these plays, or, as is more likely, by the actors, it was a well-known
designation of a stock figure, especially in the moral drama from
1530 onward; and from that time was used by publishers to advance
the interest of certain plays. Since, however, the idea of the Vice
seems to be inseparable from that of the moral play, the character
had achieved a prominence long before it was listed as a generic
designation. Collier defines the moral, or moral interlude, as "A drama
the characters of which are allegorical, abstract, or symbolical,
and the style of which is intended to convey a lesson for the better
conduct of human life." And the differencing quality of the moral is,
as Mr. Pollard has said, "the contest between the personified powers of
good and evil for the possession of a human soul. As the allegorical
representatives of the good were the Seven Cardinal Virtues, so the
representatives of the evil were the Seven Deadly Sins and their master
the Devil." From these Seven Deadly Sins or Vices, the Vice _par
excellence_ of the morals and interludes is without doubt descended.
With the opinion of Ward and Douce, however, that he is proved to be
of native English origin, I cannot unreservedly concur; nor with a
statement in the thesis to which I have already referred, that the
Germans and French had no Vice, but used instead the "differentiated"
devil. Idleness, a Vice, though not so called, appears in the French
_Bien-Avisé et Mal-Avisé_ (_c._ 1439), about as early as any Vice
appears in English drama; and the four confederates of the Devil in
_L'Homme Pêcheur_, Desperation, etc., perform the office, though they
have not the designation, of Vice. The Hypocrisie and Simonie of
Gringoire's attack upon _L'Homme Obstiné_ (Julius II.), about 1512, are
as true representatives of the Vice as are the corresponding figures
in _The Nigromansir_, _Thrie Estatis_, _Kyng Johan_, _Respublica_ and
_Conflict of Conscience_.

To understand the relations between the Vice and the moral play one
should turn, if there were opportunity, to the manifold representations
of the World, the Flesh, the Devil, the Seven Deadly Sins and similar
allegorical figures in mediæval literature of other kinds than the
dramatic. It must suffice here, however, to consider the relation of
these characters to each other in the later miracles and the earlier
moral plays. In the pageants of the _Play of Paternoster_ the Seven
Deadly Sins are represented. About the same time, in the Wakefield
cycle, they are already written on the rolls of the Doomsday Demon, and
discussed "in especiall" by Tutivillus. In the Coventry _Council of
the Jews_ they are new-named by their Lord Lucifer (after the manner
of the later Vice), Pride as Honesty, Wrath as Manhood, Covetousness
as Wisdom, and so on. It is through the Seven Deadly Sins that the
Belial of St. Paul (Digby) "raynes"; and the Saint himself[50]
preaches against them in general and in several, calling them not only
mortal sins, but, as if the terms were synonymous, Vices and Folly.
In the _Mary Magdalene_ they are not only personified, but, further,
classified as attendants upon their respective kings--Pride and
Covetyse, ministers of the World; Lechery, Gluttony, and Sloth, of the
Flesh; Wrath and Envy, of the Devil,--and as such they are sent into
action. This distinction by classes is interesting because it shows
that from a very early date the Vice was regarded as the servant, not
of the Devil alone, but of the World and the Flesh as well. And it will
be noticed later that, while the minor Vices of the moral interludes
frequently bear the names of specific sins, the leading Vice is still
likely to be called by a name which sums up all the specific sins
of just one of these three satrapies of the Flesh, the World, the
Devil,--Sensuality for the first, Hypocrisy or Avarice for the second,
and Sedition or Riot for the third,--when he is not indicated by some
synonym of Evil in general, such as Folly, Sin, Iniquity, Inclination,
or Infidelity. Gradually the minor Vices pass into dramatic
insignificance as compared with their principal representative, who
becomes the Vice in chief. The morals before 1500 or thereabouts had
one or more of the following figures: Devil, the World, the Flesh; and
their representatives, the Vice and minor Vices or Deadly Sins. Of
these plays--_Perseverance_, _Mankynd_, _Mary Magdalene_, _Wisdom_,
_Nature_, and _Everyman_,--all but the last three display the complete
aggregation: _Wisdom_ stars with only a Devil, _Nature_ lacks a Devil,
and _Everyman_ lacks both Devil and principal Vice. The morals of
the middle period, 1500 to 1560, generally eliminate the Devil and
concentrate the sins, temptations, and mischiefs in the Vice, sometimes
with, sometimes without, his foils, the minor Vices. In the _Castell of
Perseverance_, about 1400, the Deadly Sins are "children of the Devil";
in _The World and Child_, about 1506, they are expressly summed up in
one Vice,--Folly; in _Lusty Juventus_, _Like wil to Like_, and several
other moral interludes after 1550, the Vice parades as son or grandson
to the Devil; and finally, about 1578, while each of the minor Vices
represents "one sin particularly," the Vice himself embodies "all sins
generally."

It must be sufficiently evident by this time that the derivation of
this name, in spite of a half-dozen misleading conjectures, is no
other than that which is obvious. I notice, however, that Mr. Pollard
regards the etymology from _vitium_ as still doubtful, "because in one
of the earliest instances in which the Vice is specifically mentioned
by name, he plays the part of Mery Report, who is a jester pure and
simple, without any connection with any of the Deadly Sins." But the
Vice or Folly had been known for two or three centuries in allegorical
and satirical literature, and for a century and a half in the religious
drama before 1530, and the designation had acquired a supplementary
and degraded connotation when used in the _Wether_, _Jacke Jugeler_,
etc., as a player's term or means of advertisement. About his function
and habits, also, various misconceptions have gathered. I have, for
instance, referred to Malone's statement that he was a constant
attendant upon the Devil. Nothing could be more misleading. The Devil
appears in at least two morals unattended by a Vice of any kind,[51]
and the Vice appears in twenty-five or thirty without a Devil. They
appear together in but eight[52] that I know of; and in only four[53]
can the Vice be said to "attend." That he eggs the demons on to twit
or torment the Devil, I cannot discover in more than two plays,--_Like
wil to Like_, and _All for Money_. Since the days of Harsnet and
Ben Jonson it has been reported that the Vice of the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries made a practice of riding to hell on the Devil's
back. But I have already pointed out that he does this in only one play
before 1580. The same _Like wil to Like_ is the only play in which he
specifically "belabours the fiend." I know of no other in which that
merriment was even likely to occur. In fact most of these attributions
belong, not to the Vice of the morals and interludes, but to one of
the later substitutes for him, the Vice-clown, such as Miles in _Friar
Bacon_, or Iniquity in _The Devil is an Ass_.

A general view of his history shows, then, that the Vice is neither
an ethical nor dramatic derivative of the Devil; nor is he a pendant
to that personage, as foil or ironical decoy, or even antagonist. The
Devil of the early drama is a mythical character, a fallen archangel,
the anthropomorphic Adversary. The Vice, on the other hand, is
allegorical,--typical of the moral frailty of mankind. Proceeding
from the concept of the Deadly Sins, ultimately focussing them, he
dramatizes the evil that springs from within. Though at first directed
by God's Adversary, who assails man with temptations from without, the
Vice is the younger contemporary of the Devil rather than his agent.
As he acquires personality, he assumes characteristics and functions
unknown to the Adversary, scriptural or dramatic. The functions were
gradually assimilated with those of mischief-maker, jester, and
counterfeit-crank; the characteristics, more and more affected by the
Fool-literature of Wireker, Lydgate, Brandt and Barclay, Skelton,
and the rest (which included vice in Folly, and by the Fool connoted
vicious characters in all variety), were insensibly identified with
social rather than abstract ethical qualities, and so came to be
distributed as tendencies or "humours" among the persons of the
drama,--who themselves are no longer allegorical, but representative
of the concrete individuals of everyday life. Though the conduct
of the interlude Vice may be anything but dignified, his function
was, accordingly, at first serious. It was only gradually, and as
the conflict between good and evil was supplanted by less didactic
materials,--in other words, as the moral became more of a play,--that
the Vice grew to be farcical, a mischief-maker, and ultimately
jester. So long as he acts the seducer in disguise, and the marplot,
he remains dramatically supreme. When he, however, assumes the rôle
of parasite, counterfeit-crank, or simple, he enhances the variety
of his fascination at the expense of his distinctive quality; and
when he once has identified himself with the Will Summer, the actor,
wag, or buffoon by profession, he plays below the function and level
of his pristine quality. The Vice proper should, therefore, not be
confounded with the Shakespearean fool, nor with the country clown.
The country clown or booby he in reality never is; indeed, in some
earlier manifestations[54] the clown exists contemporaneously with the
Vice, and is his natural though not always complaisant quarry. Though
the Vice, however, did not turn clown, the clown imperceptibly usurped
qualities of the vanishing Vice.

In connection with the misconception concerning the derivation of the
Vice from the domestic fool, of course incompatible with his descent
from the Deadly Sins, there lingers a report that he was ordinarily
dressed in a fool's habit. Such is the opinion of Klein[55] and Douce;
and Morley[56] writes, "The Vice, when not in disguise, wore--as
Brandt or Barclay would have thought most fitting--the dress of a
fool." The dress of some typical fool of everyday life, some social
"crank,"--yes; but not until the latter third of the sixteenth century,
when the Vice was in his dotage, did he lose himself in the habit of
the domestic fool. The Vice "shaking his wooden dagger," of whom Ben
Jonson gives us a glimpse in _The Devil is an Ass_ and _The Staple
of News_, is without doubt the domestic fool in the characteristic
long coat, or in the juggler's jerkin with false skirts. But we must
remember that Ben Jonson was writing some sixty or seventy years after
the Vice properly so called was in his prime. From 1450 to 1570 and
later, the distinctive Vice of the moralities was accoutred in the
costume of his rôle, first of a Deadly Sin or little "dylfe"; then
of some social class, trade, or type: messenger, herald, beggar,
rat-catcher, priest, pharisee, gallant, dandy, or 'cit.' Occasionally
he assumed a succession of costumes according to this dramatic
necessity. He was indeed frequently equipped, in addition, with horn
spectacles and wooden dagger, and sometimes with a burlesque of
ceremonious attire,[57] or he was furnished with squibs and other
fireworks,[58] or with hangman's rope or bridle. Professor Cushman
surmises that he was, even, sometimes made up like Punch, for instance,
in _Horestes_ and _Cambyses_. I don't know about that, but of this we
may be sure, that as a Vice he was not distinguished by the traditional
costume of the domestic fool. That character, soon to play an important
part in comedy, appropriated certain tricks and aspects of the Vice,
but the distinctive figure of the moral drama did not proceed from or
ape the domestic fool of contemporary life.

Oddly enough it has lately been asserted that this character had no
part in the 'morality' proper. An implication to the same effect is
to be found in Halliwell-Phillipps's notes to _Witt and Wisdome_ as
early as 1846, where he says that "the Vice is the buffoon of the old
moral plays which _succeeded_ the Reformation." The fact is that the
Vice takes part in all the plays under consideration, whether called
morals proper or moral interludes, from 1400 to 1578, except only
_Wisdom_ of the pre-Reformation series and the _Disobedient Child_ of
the post-Reformation. Two other of the thirty-odd morals and moral
interludes, namely, the _Pride of Life_ and _Everyman_, resort to a
substitute. They distribute the rôle among minor representatives of
the World, Flesh, and Devil, but they do not dispense with the idea of
the Vice.[59] From him proceeds most of the human interest of these
earlier comedies. Like the inclinations that he personifies, he is
first sinful, then venial, then amusing; and to his tradition the
comedy of a later age owes more than we are wont to suspect. It owes
to him the development of certain spiritual characteristics, a cynical
but rollicking superiority to sham, a freedom from the thrall of social
and religious externality, a reckless joy of living, but an aloofness,
withal, and a humour requisite to the exercise of satire. It is,
indeed, as satirist sometimes virulent, but usually jocose, that the
Vice is most to be esteemed. In so far as the genial character of the
domestic fool of Green, Lodge, or Shakespeare reflected his irony and
shrewd wit, some memory of him survived; and the clown-Vice of _Friar
Bacon_ renews a passage or two of his later career, but not every
usurper of his comic appanage, his mimicry, puns, irrelevance, and
horse-play can lay claim to be descended from the Vice.

The dramatic importance of this figure can therefore not be overrated.
He forms the _callida junctura_ between religious and secular, didactic
and artistic, ideal and tangible, in our early comedy. He found a house
of correction and he left a stage. Garcios, Pilates, Doomsday demons,
and Maks precede, or flit beside him; but he, with his ancestral Sins,
dependent Follies, and succeeding Ironies and Humours, occupies the
central and the foremost place. Even while representing the superfluity
of naughtiness with an eye to its reprobation, he is the life of the
'moral,'--its apology for artistic existence, its appeal to human
interest. But when he steals a further march and rounds up for ridicule
the very components of the allegorical drama that are most removed from
laughter, and most liable thereto,--the long-faced abstractions that
regard the comic spirit as sinful and are impervious to a joke,--he
fulfils his destiny. He is the dramatic salt and solvent of the moral
play. At first it couldn't thrive without him; at last it couldn't
thrive with him. For, what _raison d'être_ could a moral have that no
longer regarded the comic as immoral, knew a joke at sight, perhaps
adventured one on its own account? Step by step with the development of
a popular æsthetic interest in the affairs of common men the playwright
asserted his superiority to social and allegorical make-believes, and
the Vice proved his utility as a dramatic reagent. Once the Vice had
gathered all sins in himself, his career was from 'inclination' to
'humour,' from abstract to concrete, from the moral to the typical,
the one to the many, and so from the service of allegory to that of
interlude, moral and pithy, but merry, all in preparation for farce,
and social and romantic comedy.

=6. The Relation between Miracle, Moral, and Interlude=

An unfortunate misapprehension has obtained currency to the effect that
there was a deliberate transition, chronological and logical, from the
miracle cycle to the "morality," and thence to a something entirely
different, called the interlude; and it is supposed that definite
advances in the development of comedy were made _pari passu_ with this
transition. It is even said, by one of the most genial and learned of
English scholars, who of course was not intending anything by way of
scientific accuracy, at the time, that "in the progress of the drama,
Moralities followed Mysteries, and were succeeded by Interludes. When
folk tired of Religion on the Stage they took to the inculcation of
morality and prudence; and when this bored them they set up Fun."[60]
But the moral play[61] was rather a younger contemporary and complement
of the miracle than a follower, or a substitute for it. Moreover,
allegory in the acted drama commanded the attention of the public
contemporaneously with the scriptural plays of the later fourteenth
century; in literature it had occupied attention long before. People,
therefore, did not wait until they were tired of religion upon the
stage, before taking to the inculcation of morality; nor could they
have hoped to escape religion by any such substitute. Moral plays, like
plays which were originally liturgical, aimed at religious instruction.
But as the scriptural-liturgical illustrated the forms of the church
service and its narrative content, the moral illustrated the sermon and
the creed. The former dealt with history and ritual, the latter with
doctrine; the former made the religious truth concrete in scriptural
figures and events, the latter brought it home to the individual by
allegorical means. The historical course of the drama was not from the
scriptural play to the allegorical, but from the collective miracle and
collective moral, practically contemporary, to the individual miracle
and individual moral. The dramatic quality of the moral was, as we
shall presently remark, not the same as that of the miracle, but it
neither supplanted nor fully supplemented that of the miracle.

The distinction between 'morality' and 'interlude' has likewise been
unduly and illogically emphasized. The former term may properly be said
to indicate the content and aim of a drama; the latter, its garb and
occasion; but the essential characters of the moral play, the human
hero and the representatives of good and evil contending for his soul,
may be common to interlude and 'morality' alike, and both terms may
with justice refer to the same drama. After 1500 the rôle of hero is,
to be sure, sometimes filled by an historical character, or by one or
mere concrete personages representative of a type; but it must not
be supposed that the play possessing such a hero is therefore to be
called an interlude, for similar heroes are to be found in the morals
before 1500. Nor should the statement be accepted that morals are
distinguished from interludes by the presence in the former of both
Devil and Vice; for several interludes of a later date have both Devil
and Vice, while some of the earlier morals, written before 1500, have
but one or the other of these characters, or neither.[62] The attempt
to characterize the moral by its professed didactic intent, and the
interlude by the lack thereof or the profession of mirth, is equally
unavailing; for that manifest moral, the _Pride of Life_, one of the
earliest extant, makes explicit promise in its prologue "of mirth
and eke of kare" from "this our game"; while _Mankynd_, a moral of
1461 to 1485, which advertises no amusement, is as full of it as any
late interlude. On the other hand, several plays written after 1568,
calling themselves "comedies or enterludes," and promising brevity
and mirth, are tedious. But, for the advertisement, sub-title, or
specification of the play we must of course hold the publisher, and not
the author, generally responsible. The common belief that 'moralities'
were succeeded by 'interludes' is probably due in large part to the
fact that 'interlude' has been used in England at different periods
for entirely different kinds of entertainment, some of which, notably
that to which Collier in 1831 restricted the term,--the play after
the style of Heywood,--were of later production than the moral. But
other kinds of 'interlude' date back to 1300, and precede the first
mention of the moral play; while later kinds include the moral, and
finally are synonymous with any humorous and popular performance.
Collier's restriction of the term was, therefore, unfortunate. It
interpreted a _genus_ as a species; for, although the interlude was
originally any short entertainment, occupying the pauses between graver
negotiations of the palate or intellect, it had, in the course of its
history, acquired a significance almost as broad as 'drama' itself. The
interlude was of various form and content and covered many species. As
farce, the interlude anticipated moral plays; as allegorical drama,
it absorbed them; and as comedy, it is their younger contemporary.
It is not merely the play after the style of John Heywood. It is
long or short; religious, moral, pedagogic, political, or doctrinal;
scriptural, allegorical, or profane; classical or native; imaginative
or reproductive of the commonplace; stupid or humorous; satirical
or purely comic. It seems to me, therefore, unwise to perpetuate a
distinction between moral plays and interludes which was not recognized
by those who wrote and heard the plays in question.

The reduction of the number of actors, the abbreviation of the play,
the concentration of the plot, wherever these exist in the later
morals or moral interludes, are not evidence of a change of kind, but
merely of a natural evolution through a period of some two hundred
years. When ten Brink says that the interlude was the species best
adapted to further the development of dramatic art, we must understand
by interlude the individual, as opposed to the collective drama,--or
the occasional performance by professionals for the delectation, and
sometimes at the order, of private persons or parties, as opposed
to expository or perfunctory plays, plays manipulated by crafts,
or associated with times, places, and ends external to art. The
improvement in scope and elasticity which marks the individual play
is due to various causes: to patronage, which prefers amusement to
instruction, and the work of artists to that of journeymen; to the
development accordingly of a bread-and-butter profession of acting,
with its accompanying _stimuli_ of necessity and opportunity. Poetic
invention, dramatic constructiveness and style, are sometimes spurred
by hunger; they are always responsive to the appreciation of the
cultivated, and maybe to the reward.

=7. The Older Morals in their Relation to Comedy=

The remaining dramas within the compass of this survey may be
considered in the following order: first, the older morals and
moral interludes, between the years 1400 and 1520; second, various
experiments of native and foreign, classical and romantic, origin which
distinguish a period of transition extending approximately from 1520
to 1553; and, third, some nine or ten plays of prime importance which
succeed these and unite, in one way or another, qualities of structure
and aim hitherto distinctive of separate dramatic kinds. The period
during which these plays, which I shall venture to call polytypic,
were produced, roughly coincides with the years 1545 to 1566, and
among these plays are the first English comedies really worthy of the
name. We must then notice a group of rudimentary survivals, some of
which, falling between 1550 and 1570, illustrate simply an artificial
adaptation of the 'moral' species, while other few, appearing between
1553 and 1580, are a persistent flowering of the decadent stock,
fruitless in kind but genuine in comic quality. We shall finally pass
in brief review the crude romantic plays of morals or intrigue or
popular tradition written between 1570 and 1590. And if it were not for
lack of space, we should also glance at the satirical comedies which
appeared when Shakespeare was beginning and Greene was ceasing; but, so
far as possible, I must omit all subjects to which any consideration
has elsewhere been accorded in this volume.

A sympathetic examination of the older morals--those that were produced
before 1520--will reveal, even though the period is comparatively
early, a twofold character of composition. We find, on the one hand,
plays interpretative of ideals of life, constructive in character,
relying upon the fundamentally allegorical, and making principally for
a didactic end. We find, on the other hand, plays that deal with the
actual have a critical aim, reproduce appearances and manners, and tend
toward the amusing and satirical.

Of the half-dozen morals that made for the development of constructive
or interpretative comedy, one of the earliest (about 1400) and
most important was the _Castell of Perseverance_. In the quality
of its dramatic devices it sustains a close relation to the Digby
_Magdalene_,--the siege of the Castell by the Seven Deadly Sins, and
their repulse under the roses which the Virtues have discharged. It
also makes use of characters already prominent in the eleventh Coventry
play, the _Pax_ and _Misericordia_, who there, as here, intercede
for mankind. Collier calls this a well-constructed and much varied
allegory, and says with good reason that its completeness indicates
predecessors in the same kind. It is itself an early treatment of
a fruitful theme, variously handled in later plays like Marlowe's
_Doctor Faustus_, and in narratives like _The Holy War_. Though the
abstractions are not of a highly dramatic character, still one or two
of them,--for instance _Detractio_, the Vice, who is a cousin of the
Coventry Backbiter, and of _Invidia_, "who dwellyth in Abbeys ofte,"
foreshadow the comedy of manners and satire, that is to say, the comedy
of criticism. Other morals or moral interludes of the constructive
kind, which I must forbear to describe, even though they contributed
in one way or another to the improvement of dramatic consciousness
or skill, are the _Pride of Life_, of antiquity perhaps as high as
the preceding; the _Wisdom that is Christ_, 1480-1490, a comedy in
the mediæval sense, insomuch as it portrays the ultimate triumph of
a hero in his contest with temptation; _Mundus et Infans_, printed
1522, but written perhaps by the beginning of the century, which,
beside giving us a vivid satirical picture of low life, makes a twofold
contribution to the technique of comedy,--an iteration of crises in
plot, and a sequence of changes in the character of the hero; Skelton's
_Magnyfycence_, 1515-1523, significant for "vigour and vivacity of
diction," and his _Nigromansir_, written somewhat earlier, which,
though now lost, appears by Warton's account to have contributed, by
its attack upon ecclesiastical abuses, to the beginnings of satirical
comedy; the _Moralle Play of the Somonynge of Everyman_, printed before
1531, but of uncertain date of composition,--a tragedy to be sure,
but "one of the most perfect allegories ever formed." All these, even
when not purposively comic or even entertaining, assist the dramatic
presentation of an imaginative ideal; occasionally also, though less
directly, they contribute to dramatic satire and the portrayal of
manners.

Of moral plays written before 1520 that contributed to the comedy
of real life and critical intent we still have three or four.
_Mankynd_--somewhere between 1461 and 1485--is of prime importance
to the comedy of the actual, for practically its only claim to
consideration as an allegorical or didactic production is that it
maintains the plan and purpose of the moral play. Its dramatic
tendency is altogether away from the abstract. In spite of its
stereotyped Mercie and Myscheff, its minor Vices, and its Devil, it is
a somewhat coarse but amusing portrayal of the manners of contemporary
ne'er-do-weels. Attach no more meaning to the names Newgyse, Nowadays,
and Nowte than the chuckling audience did, or change them to Huntyngton
of Sanston, Thuolay of Hanston, and Pycharde of Trumpyngton, and you
perceive at once that the individuality, conversation, and behaviour
of these characters, and even of the hero, when he is not "holyer
than ever was ony of his kyn," are hardly less natural and concrete
than those of Englishmen immortalized by Heywood, Udall, and William
Stevenson. The plot, to be sure, is dramatically futile, the incidents
farcical, the merriment anything but refined; but there are few merrier
successors of the Wakefield Tutivillus than his namesake here, who,
coming "invysybull," cometh for all that "with his legges under him"
and "no lede on his helys" to inform the sanctimonious hero that "a
schorte preyere thyrlyth hewyn" and the audience that "the Devil is
dead." Like the devil-judge of the _Nigromansir_ and the devil-sailor
of the _Shipwrights' Play_, he has shaken off his biblical conventions
(if he ever had any), he associates familiarly with characters of all
kinds, and is marked by his grotesque devices as a wilful worker of
confusion, the marplot of the play. The dog-Latin of the Vice Myscheff
stands half-way between that of the Wakefield plays and that of
_Roister Doister_ and _Thersytes_; and the Sam Wellerisms of Newgyse
are a fine advance in the reproduction of the vulgar. His "Beware! quod
the goode-wyff, when sche smot of here husbondes hede," and his "Quod
the Devill to the frerys," and other gayeties perilous to quote--there
is something Rabelaisian in all this. So Nowte and Nowadays, with their
racy idioms, their variegated oaths, and "allectuose ways," are to the
manner born, neither new nor old; they are of the picaresque drama that
finds a welcome in every age and land. It is worth while to notice also
the parallelism of crudity and progress in the technical devices of the
action: on the one hand, the exchange of garments by which a change
of motive is symbolized, a ruse that only gradually yields to the
manifestation of character by means of action; and on the other hand,
the legitimate and dramatic parody of a scene in court.

The concrete element so noteworthy in Mankynd is further developed in
the "_Goodly Interlude of Nature_, compylyde by" Archbishop Morton's
chaplain, Henry Medwall, between 1486 and 1500. This author must
have possessed a remarkably vivid imagination, or have enjoyed a
closer acquaintance than might be expected of one of his cloth with
the seamy side of London; for there are few racier or more realistic
bits of description in our early literature than the account given by
Sensuality of Fleyng Kat and Margery, of the perversion of the hero
by the latter, and of her retirement when deserted to that house of
"Strayt Religyon at the Grene Freres hereby," where "all is open as
a gose eye." Though the plot is not remarkable, nor the mechanism of
it, for almost the only device availed of is that of feigned names,
still the author's insight into the conditions of low life, his common
sense, his proverbial philosophy, his humorous exhibition of the morals
of the day, and his stray and sudden shafts at the foibles of his own
religious class, would alone suffice to attract attention to this
work. And even more remarkable than this in the history of comedy is
Medwall's literary style: his versification excellent and varied, his
conversations witty, idiomatic, and facile. Indeed, he is so far beyond
the ordinary convention that he writes the first bit of prose to be
found in our drama.

Several of the characteristics of _Mankynd_ are carried forward also
in the moral "interlude," named, not for its hero Free Will, but for
its Vice, _Hyckescorner_. It appears to have been written between 1497
and 1512. The upper limit of production is fixed by the reference to
Newfoundland, and perhaps by the fact that in the same year Locher's
translation of the _Narrenschiff_ appeared; the lower limit by the
mention of the ship _Regent_, which would not probably have been
referred to as existing after 1512.[63] Indeed, the mention of the ship
_James_ may associate the lower limit with 1503, the date of the Scotch
marriage. The tendency of this moral is distinctively didactic,--to
denounce the folly that scoffs at religion,--but in quality it smacks
more of comedy than any preceding play. Its value was long ago
acknowledged by Dr. Percy. "Abating the moral and religious reflections
and the like," says he, "the piece is of a comic cast, and contains a
humorous display of some of the vices of the age. Indeed, the author
has generally shown so little attention to the allegorical that we need
only to substitute other names to his personages, and we have real
characters and living manners." The plot is insignificant, but the
situations are refreshingly humorous, and one of them, the setting of
Pity in the stocks, is new. The local references are frequent, and the
dialogue is more sprightly than even that of _Nature_. _Hyckescorner_
is in many ways the model of another important play of which we shall
soon have reason to speak, the _Interlude of Youth_.

While the plot of the _New Interlude and Mery of the Nature of the
Four Elements_, calls for no special notice, it interests us because
in purpose it is not moral, but scientific, and in conduct makes use
of comic and commonplace means not previously availed of. The humour
proceeds not simply from the jumble of oaths, nicknames, proverbs,
gibes, bad puns, transparent jokes, mimicry, Sam Wellerisms, and
_nugae canorae_ of which the talk of most Vices consists, but from
the cleverly managed verbal misunderstanding between the Vice and the
Taverner, the irrelevant question, and the humorous employment of
snatches and tags from popular songs. The introduction of a character
representing a trade, such as that of the Taverner, who enumerates
sixteen kinds of wine, and "by his face seems to love best drinking,"
is, of course, novel, but is not without precedent in the miracle
plays. This interlude was printed in 1519 by its author, John Rastell,
evidently soon after it was written.

When we consider that the _Four Elements_ was written by a friend of
Sir Thomas More, and that, like the plays of John Heywood, another of
More's friends, it depends for much of its effect upon its gibes at
womankind, we are, perhaps, assisted in realizing the extent to which
the literary taste of the day still indulged in this primitive form of
amusement, and the distance which was yet to be covered before comedy
could safely avail itself of the feminine element as it is,--witty and
practical, as well as tender,--and so prepare to fulfil its peculiar
function as the conserver of society. For, until it recognizes that
women constitute the social other-half, the comic spirit has not come
into full possession of its possibilities; it has not produced comedy,
for it has not given us a full and undistorted reflex of life. This
is a fact so rarely considered that I cannot refrain from quoting Mr.
George Meredith. "Comedy," he says, in his excellent essay on its
_Idea_--"comedy lifts women to a station offering them free play for
their wit, as they usually show it, when they have it, on the side of
sound sense. The higher the comedy, the more prominent the part they
enjoy in it.... The heroines of comedy are like women of the world,
not necessarily heartless for being clear-witted: they seem so to the
sentimentally reared only for the reason that they use their wits,
and are not wandering vessels crying for a captain or a pilot. Comedy
is an exhibition of their battle with men, and of men with them: and
as the two, however divergent, both look on one object, namely, life,
the gradual similarity of their impressions must bring them to some
resemblance. The comic poet dares to show us men and women coming to
this mutual likeness; he is for saying that, when they draw together in
social life, their minds grow liker; just as the philosopher discerns
the similarity of boy and girl, until the girl is marched away to the
nursery." Of course, if the ways of man and maid in society ever grew
to be exactly alike, comedy would die of inanition. Consequently,
though I say that comedy requires for the sexes equality of social
privilege, I do not mean identity. The _synalœpha_ of the sexes--such
as some extremists, political and pedagogical, project--would just as
surely destroy comedy as in former days the inequality of the sexes
dwarfed it. The sentimental and romantic give-and-take is as essential
to society as the intellectual, and as essential to comedy as to
society.

=8. The Dramatic Contribution of the Older Morals=

Before discussing the period of transition upon which comedy now
enters, it will be advantageous to determine, if possible, what
contributions to the methods of comedy should be credited distinctively
to this moral or moral interlude during the years that preceded the
change, that is, from 1380 to 1520. Certainly not the introduction of
the separate play, as is frequently supposed, nor the substitution of
immediate and familiar interests for those that were remote, nor of
the invented plot for the traditional, and the significant for the
spectacular. Though some of these features distinguish the evolution of
the allegorical play, one and another of them is also to be recognized
at as early a period, or earlier, in those forms of the drama, kindred
and unrelated, that I have already described,--the miracle, the saint's
play, the farce, and the secular festival play. I should say that, so
far as the materials of drama are concerned, the advances peculiar to
the allegorical play were, from the use of the scriptural _dramatis
persona_, frequently instrumental and therefore wooden, to the use
of the dynamic; and from the historical or traditional individual to
the representative of a type. These are substitutions important to
our subject, for, that the individual should come to the front is,
as ten Brink has well said, a characteristic of tragedy, whereas in
comedy it is the typical that is emphasized, to the end that in an
example which is typical the follies of the age may be liberally,
and at the same time impersonally, embodied and chastised. By virtue
of its didactic purpose and its allegorical form, moreover, the
moral play must ascribe to its _dramatis personæ_ adequate motives
of action. It therefore must and does make an attempt, even though
rude, at the preservation of psychological probability in the analysis
and development of these motives. Once the dramatic person has been
labelled with the name of a quality, not as appraised from without
and denoted by a patronymic common to dozens beside himself, but from
within and specified by his ethonymic (if I may coin the word), he is
no longer a chance acquaintance of the dramatist or the public, but the
representative of an ethical family. In the moral play the characters
stand for or against some convention,--educational, ethical, political,
religious,--that is to say, social in the broadest sense. With the
advent of such characters, therefore, the social drama receives an
impulse. Its hero serves to justify or to satirize an institution; for
that end he exists. And therefore in the handling of motives the moral
makes a genuine advance in the direction of comedy, both critical and
ideal.

We notice next that the author of this kind of drama finds it necessary
to devise situations for exploiting the idiosyncrasies of his principal
characters; and that, even though the characters be disguised as
abstractions, the friction of what is dynamic with what is real
results in something vivid and concrete. I do not mean to say that the
dramatist has learned how to develop character, but how to display or
manifest it. Skill in the portrayal of character in process of growth
came but slowly, and with the passage of the allegorical play into
the drama of real life. As to the portrayal of motives and emotions
in their complexity, that is an art much more refined, to which the
writers of the moral never attained, even though they enriched their
abstractions with borrowings from theologians, philosophers, and
poets, for in dealing with abstractions at all they were dealing with
life at second hand. Indeed, complex characters can hardly be found
in English drama before the various tentative dramatic species had
merged themselves in the polytypic plays with which comedy, properly
so called, made its appearance. The allegorical dramatists found
also, like the writers of the later miracle and farce, that critical
situations demanded plain language and unsophisticated manners; and if,
in these respects, the realism of the moral excels that of the earlier
miracle, it is perhaps because of the superior dynamic quality of the
moral _dramatis persona_.

Mr. Courthope and other writers on the drama have conjectured that
the improvement characteristic of the allegorical playwright was
one to which he was driven of necessity, namely, the introduction,
and consequently the invention, of a continuous plot. But there was
nothing new in the invention of plot. The novelty, if any, was in
the distinctively comic nature of the plot-movement most suitable to
the purpose of this kind of drama. In tragedy, the movement must be
economic of its ups and downs: once headed downward, it must plunge,
with but one or two vain recovers, to the abyss. In comedy, on the
other hand, though the movement is ultimately upward, the crises are
more numerous; the oftener the individual stumbles without breaking
his neck, and the more varied his discomfitures, so long as they are
temporary, the better does he enjoy his ease in the cool of the day.
Tragic effects may be intense and longer drawn out, but they must be
few; in comedy, the effects are many, sudden, fleeting, kaleidoscopic.
You can enjoy a long, delicious shudder, but not a long-spun joke, or
a joke frequently repeated, or many jokes of the same kind. Hence
the peculiar movement of the plot in comedy. Now, the novelty of
the plot in the moral play, lay in the fact that the movement was
of this oscillating, upward kind,--a kind unknown as a rule to the
miracle, whose conditions were less fluid, and to the farce, which
was too shallow and superficial. The heart of the 'moral' hero was a
battleground; as in comedy, the interest was in the vicissitudes of
the conflict and the certainty of peace. Though the purpose of the
moral play was didactic and reformatory, its doctrine was optimistic
and its end to encourage; and one of the distinctive contributions
of the moral play to the English comedy was the movement suitable to
these conditions, not the introduction of a continuous or connected
plot. When Mr. Courthope further speaks of the moral plays as if they
were the sole link of connection between the later miracle plays and
the regular drama, and implies that the "morality" was unique in its
introduction of a leading personage, who may be called the hero of the
play, he is attributing to it qualities that existed in contemporary
species of the dramatic kind. As to the statement that the moral play
arose, as if a new kind of play, from some modification of the miracle
play, on the one hand by secular and comic interests, and on the other
by allegorical motives and materials, I think that sufficient has been
elsewhere said in this article to show that secular and comic interests
existed in the miracle play without altering its essence, both before
and after the moral had come into prominence, and that allegorical
motives and materials had developed themselves into the moral pageant
and play before the miracle was visibly affected by them.

=9. The Period of Transition: Farce and Romantic Interlude=

The period of experimentation or transition, which may be said to
extend from 1520 to 1553, is characterized especially by the gradual
abandonment of allegorical machinery and abstract material. The
forward movement is, of course, primarily due to the change from the
mediæval attitude of mind to that of the renaissance, from artificial
thought whose medium, the symbol, succeeded in concealing more than
it expressed, to experience. Of the social and political conditions
which prepared the way for the transition so far as English comedy is
concerned or that shaped comedy once on its way, I cannot here speak,
but the following would appear among purely literary antecedents:
First, the French _sotties_ and _farces_, the technical and satirical
qualities of which were a stimulus to invention, not only in England,
but in Italy and Germany; second, the _disputations_ and _debats_,
veritable whetstones of wit and a polish of words _ad unguem;_ third,
the collateral development of a farce interlude in England, composed
in Latin and English, probably also in Norman French, but generally
spontaneous, and wholly unforced; fourth, the adaptation to dramatic
and satirical purposes of _contes_, _fabliaux_, _novelle_, and their
English translations and congeners,--more especially the Chaucerian
episode with its concrete characters and contemporary manners; fifth,
the movement of native romance urged during the fifteenth and earlier
sixteenth centuries by contact with Spanish and Italian ideals and
their fictions of character, adventure, and intrigue; sixth, the
discipline of Plautine and Terentian models, and of the Latin and
vernacular comedies which imitated them, as well as of the Latin school
plays which flourished in Holland and Germany during the latter half
of the fifteenth century; and seventh, the examples set by Kirchmayer
and other German controversialists in the attempted adaptation of the
moral play to historical or quasi-historical conditions with a view to
satirical ends.

The plays that call for consideration in this section and the next
may be classified roughly as farces, romantic interludes, school
interludes, and controversial morals. Each of these kinds reaches a
culmination conformable to its nature, within the limits that I have
chosen for the period; and each has its own place in the history
of comedy. For it must not be supposed that, because a pastoral
farce like the _Mak_ did not develop into independent existence, or
because moral interludes gradually exhausted their career towards
the end of the sixteenth century, such species had no influence
in maturing English comedy. The peculiar quality and charm of our
comedy is that, deriving from sources not only distinct, but remote
in literary habitat,--scriptural, allegorical, farcical, pastoral,
romantic, classical, historical, or purely native and social,--it has
not dissipated itself in a thousand streamlets, but has carried down
deposits from each tributary at its best. In _Love's Labor's Lost_,
_Two Angry Women_, _As You Like It_, _Old Wives' Tale_, _Every Man
in His Humour_, we find, as in a miner's pan, 'colours' from vastly
different soils.

Of the indebtedness of comedy to the parody of religious festivals I
have already spoken, and I have little doubt that at later periods
English comedy continued to draw devices, if not inspiration, from
performances whose occasion was a revolt against the straitness of
religion. One, at least, of the interludes of John Heywood is closely
similar to the French _Farce de Pernet_, and that such farces were, in
motive, first a gloss upon the lessons of the divine service, then a
diversion, and finally a factor in the extra-ecclesiastical Feast of
Fools, any reader of Petit de Julleville will readily concede. It is
impossible that the comic features and comic characters of the farces
acted by the _clercs de la Basoche_, such as that of the immortal
_Maître Pathelin_, should not have affected the dramatic invention
of contemporary and succeeding Englishmen, conversant as many of them
were with the literature and society of France. And a like effect
might naturally be expected to have been exercised by the _sotties_
of the contemporary _enfants sans souci_; for, through the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries, drama of that kind convulsed the sides of
merrymakers south of the Channel. Such were the occasion and motive
of farces and _sotties_. So far as they employed the plot of domestic
intrigue for their purposes of satire, I have little doubt that they
drew freely upon the Latin elegiac comedies of which I have already
spoken as the favourite dramatic species of the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries. The _Farce de Pernet_ has connection with more than one of
those imitations of Terentian intrigue. It has, also, like many of its
kind and of elegiac comedies as well, a kinship with one and another
popular tale. The church, then, seems to have furnished the opportunity
for these farces, and for some as an object of satire the motive; the
_contes_ and _fabliaux_ of the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth
centuries furnished much of the material; Latin comedy, its mediæval
and renaissance successors, cannot have failed to influence the form.

It will be, of course, recalled that as early as the _Mak_ of the
Towneley plays, a farce which is not unworthy of comparison with
_Maître Pathelin_, the English _Interludium de Clerico et Puella_,
probably of the thirteenth century, also indicated an acquaintance with
the technique of the farce species. Undoubtedly such interludes were
a common feature at entertainments of various kinds, and had matured
in the ordinary course into fixed form. But they were frequently
extemporaneous, were written for fleeting occasions, and might readily
be lost. I am inclined therefore, to look upon the dramatized anecdotes
assigned to Heywood as lucky survivals of a form which, since it had
been long cultivated both in England and France, may have attained to
a degree of excellence before he took it up. The resemblance of these
farces to the French is often such that, as M. Jusserand says, one
cannot but question whether Heywood had not some of the old French
dramas of the type in his hands. Since Mr. Pollard has discussed
the question in this volume, it is unnecessary for me to pursue it
farther. In any case, it is to the honour of Heywood that he brought
to focus the characteristic qualities of the Chaucerian episode, the
farce and the dramatic debate. "This I write," says he, "not to teach,
but to touch." In his work, accordingly, we find narratives of single
and independent interest, if not exactly plot, and an adaptation of
that which is abstract to purposes of amusement. We find characters
with motive, and sometimes personality, contemporary manners, witty
dialogue, satire; and in at least the _Play of Love_, an adumbration
of the sentimental, dare we say romantic, possibilities of comedy, to
be realized when it should have thrown allegory and scholasticism
to the winds. The Laundress in the _Wether_ envisages fleetingly the
straits of life and the recompense; and in the _Play of Love_, the
personification of various phases of that passion is a kind of glass
through which we darkly divine the motives of many later comedies.
There is, however, with the single exception of the Vice's trick in
_Love_, no action which can be called dramatic in Heywood's undoubted
plays; for, as Mr. Pollard reminds us, the _Pardoner_ and _Johan_,
although they avail themselves of "business" in order to develop a
plot, have not the significance of comedy proper.

To understand the nature of the movements that follow we must recur,
though with the utmost brevity, to the history of later Latin comedy.
The comic recitals of the twelfth century and thereabout were succeeded
by the comedy of the Italian humanists, still in Latin, but dramatic
in form and apparently in intent, which, though it availed itself,
like the elegiac school, of the outworn situations and devices of
scabrous amours, contributed considerably to the enrichment of the
romantic strain by the passion with which it invested its material,
sometimes, also, to the cause of realism by its unconscious, though
often repulsive, accuracy of detail. Although Plautus is to some extent
cultivated, the Terentian model was still the favourite with youthful
imitators until study of the older poet was revived by the recovery
of the twelve lost plays and their introduction to Roman circles in
1427. The _Philologia_ of Petrarch's earlier years is accordingly
fashioned in the style of Terence, and is even reported, for it is
unfortunately lost, to have surpassed its classical forbears. Written
about 1331, it was the first product of the new dramatic school, and
was succeeded by a numerous train of ambitious effusions,--university
plays we might call most of them,--a few witty, some sentimental, many
libidinous, all very young, and still all, or nearly all, cleverly and
regularly constructed. It concerns us here but to mention the _Paulus_
of Vergerio, which Creizenach dates 1370, Aretino's _Poliscene_, about
1390, Alberti's _Philodoxeos_, 1418, Ugolino's _Philogena_, some time
before 1437, and Piccolomini's _Crisis_, 1444.[64] Of these erotic
comedies,--pornographic were perhaps a more fitting term,--the most
popular seems to have been the _Philogena_; the most eminent, according
to Creizenach (but I don't see why), the _Crisis_. The _Paulus_
pretends to aim at the improvement of youth; one might for a moment
imagine that it was intended to be a prodigal son play. But in none
of these plays is there either punishment or repentance. In fact the
unaffected verve with which they display the wantonness of life is not
the least of their contributions to comedy. The _Poliscene_ is notable
for its modernity of manners and of morals. The sole instance among
these plays, so far as I can ascertain, of noble sentiment and harmless
plot is the _Philodoxeos_. The use of abstract names for the characters
lends it, indeed, somewhat the appearance of a moral interlude.

Of much greater value, however, in the history of the acted drama, and
of closer bearing upon the English comedy, were the representations
of Plautus and Terence, first in the Latin and ultimately in the
vernacular, which marked the last quarter of the fifteenth century in
the courts of northern Italy. These in turn were but stepping-stones
towards such dramatic dialogues as the _Timone_ of Bojardo, 1494, and
the still more significant experiments of Ariosto and Bibbiena--the
first romantic comedies in prose and in the native tongue. The authors
of the _Suppositi_ (acted in 1509) and the _Calandria_ (written in
1508, but not presented till six years later) derive much from Roman
sources, but in general these comedies and their like were original.
Their influence upon our own plays of romantic intrigue will presently
appear. So, likewise, will that of a Spanish work, of even earlier
date, the dramatic novel of _Calisto and Melibœa_; for this tragic
production of Cota and De Rojas is the source of our first English
romantic drama. The connection between other forms of Italian drama,
the _Commedia dell'arte_, the pastoral drama, etc., and the later stage
in western Europe has been ably discussed by Klein, Moland, Symonds,
and Ward; and to them I must refer the reader of this more summary
account.

The decade that saw the first of Heywood's virile plays was probably
that which welcomed to England the ebullient, un-English passions
of a dramatic species destined to develop the native stock in a
far different manner. "A new commodye in englyshe, in maner of an
enterlude," ordinarily called _Calisto and Melibœa_, is the earliest
romantic play of intrigue in our language. It was "caused to be
printed" by that excellent promoter of the dramatic art, John Rastell,
about 1530, and was written--perhaps by him--not long before. The
appellation "commodye" had been used during the same decade with
reference to the English translation of the _Andria_ (about 1520-29);
it is here used for the first time on the title-page of an English
play. And this interesting interlude may, indeed, well be called both
English and comedy; for though it derives from romance sources (the
Spanish dramatic composition by Fernando de Rojas, before 1500),
and is affected by the Italian, it does not follow exactly the plot
of its original; and though it is "reduced to the proportions of an
interlude," it treats of an idea not farcical, but significant, and it
develops the motives of real characters, by way of action, passion,
and intrigue, to a happy conclusion within the realm of convention and
common sense. It is, indeed, a comedy, perhaps our first well-rounded
comedy, though in miniature. The _Secunda Pastorum_ it excels in
singleness of aim; the _Pardoner and Frere_ and the _Johan_, in meaning
for life. It excels all preceding interludes in the fulfilment of
the purpose, now for the first time announced in English drama, "to
shew and to describe as well the bewte and good propertes of women
as theyr vyces and evyll condicions." For the first time since plays
became secular, women are introduced, not as the objects of scurrility
and ridicule, but as dramatic material of an æsthetic, moral, and
intellectual value equal to that of men. What the author of _Johan_
did for the amusing and real action desirable in a comedy, the author
of this play did for vital characterization and passion. Melibœa is
the first heroine of our romantic comedy; she is so fair that for
her lover there is "no such sovereign in heaven, though she be in
earth." She is, if the play was written before the _Play of Love_, our
earliest heroine "loved, not loving." She is a woman and pitiful and
to be wooed; frail and repentant; but then indignant and not to be
won. Calisto is, likewise, our first lover in despair. This element
of woman worship--not worship of the Blessed Virgin or traditional
interest in the Magdalene or any other saint--is no slight contribution
to the material of comedy. The intrigue of the play,--the foils of
character and action, the go-betweens, the plot within plot introduced
by Celestina, her realistic account of Sempronio's character, her
device of the "girdle," the mysterious agency of the dream,--no
better indication of romantic tendency can be detected until we reach
Redford's play of _Wit and Science_, of which presently. But first, and
that we may keep in mind the parallelism of dramatic tendencies in this
momentous first half of the sixteenth century, let us turn to another
stream, that of the school interludes and the classical influence.

=10. The Period of Transition: School Interlude and Controversial Moral=

During the fifteenth century, and the early sixteenth, influences of
importance to English comedy proceed not from the literature of Italy
and Spain alone. In northern Europe additions most significant to the
history of the type were making. To the crop of French _sotties_,
_moralités_, and _farces_ I have already referred. The German Reuchlin
in 1498 put forth a roaring Latin comedy called the _Henno_, which, in
modern Terentian style, embodied the chicaneries of Pathelin. About
the same time the Germans began to make the acquaintance, through
translations in their own tongue, of highly flavoured Italian Latin
plays like the _Poliscene_ and the _Philogenia;_ while those of them
who cared not for such things were favoured with a recrudescence of the
Christian Terence school. In 1507 the young humanist, Kilian Reuter,
in imitation of the nun of Gandersheim, produced in Latin his pious
comedy depicting the passion of St. Dorothea. In Holland, meanwhile,
were springing into existence the Latin prototypes of more than one of
our own didactic interludes; for in the _comedia sacra_ the attempt was
made to combine the intrigue of the Italian university play with the
moral of the prodigal son and the technique of the Terentian drama.
The more important of these plays of the prodigal son, in respect of
influence upon English comedy, are the _Asotus_ of Macropedius, written
before 1529, and his _Rebelles_, 1535, the _Acolastus_ of Gnapheus,
1529, and the _Studentes_ of Stymmelius, 1549. The most dramatic of
them are the second and third as mentioned. The _Acolastus_, indeed,
translated into English by Palsgrave in 1540, exerted a long-enduring
influence upon our drama. To the same period belong also a species of
biblical comedies dealing with heroes, like the _Joseph_ of the Dutch
Jesuit, Crocus, 1535, and the _Susanna_, _Judith_, _Eli_, _Ruth_,
_Job_, _Solomon_, _Goliath_, etc., of Macropedius, the Swiss Sixt
Birck, and others; and another kind of play that occupied itself with
prototypes of the Roman Antichrist,--Haman, Judas, and the like. The
former may be called the idyllic or heroic miracle, the latter the
polemic. And of the latter the most influential development was the
controversial interlude, _Pammachius_, written by the German Protestant
Naogeorgos (Kirchmayer) and dedicated to the Archbishop of Canterbury.
By 1545 this play, in which the Pope figures as the Antichrist, had
not only been acted at Cambridge in the original, but translated into
English by our own John Bale; and, as we shall presently see, it was,
somewhere between 1540 and 1548, imitated by him in one of the most
vigorous of our controversial dramas.[65]

Of the cultivation of the drama in Latin in England I have already
made mention in treating of the saints' plays and the Terentian
drama of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Other indications of
a Latin drama occur, although infrequently. William Fitzstephen,
who speaks of the _ludus_ given by Geoffrey's boys at Dunstable,
tells us, also, that it was customary on feast days for masters of
schools to hold festival meetings in the churches, when the pupils
contested, not only in disputations, but also with Fescennine license
in satirical verses touching "the faults of school-fellows or perhaps
of greater people"; a practice which could only with difficulty escape
development into a rude Aristophanic comedy. We have mention also
of perquisites for a _comœdia_ in one of the Cambridge colleges as
early as 1386, evidently of the Latin type, and of the presentation
of a goodly comedy of Plautus at court in 1520. Between 1522 and 1532
the Master of St. Paul's produced a Latin school drama of _Dido_
before Wolsey, and according to Collier's supposition,[66] the same
John Ritwyse was the author of the satiric interlude, in Latin and
French, of Luther and his wife, which was acted for the delectation
of the not yet reformed Henry and his foreign guests in 1527. Of
the nature of this play, unfortunately lost, some conception may be
gathered from the still surviving list of its characters (allegorical,
religious, and contemporary), from the analogous _Ludus ludentem
Luderum ludens_, 1530, and the somewhat more recent and most scurrilous
_Monachopornomachia_, both by Germans. Before 1530 and apparently with
a view to acting, the _Andria_ had been turned into English,[67] and
by 1535 at least two Latin comedies of moral-mythological character
had been written by Artour of Cambridge, and one, the _Piscator_, by
Hoker of Oxford.[68] We have word of a dramatic pageant in English and
Latin to which Udall contributed in 1532; in 1534 he issued a book
of selections entitled _Flowers of Terence_. In 1540 Palsgrave had
introduced the prodigal son drama from Germany; and by 1545 Bale had
followed suit with a Latin play of Antichrist. During the same period
Udall was producing his _plures comœdiæ_, now lost, and that other
schoolmaster-dramatist, Radcliffe of Hitchin, was writing _spectacula
simul jucunda et honesta_ for his boys to present,--heroic miracles of
the type affected by Macropedius, and a romantic comedy of _Griselda_,
probably all in Latin, but unfortunately all vanished.

The importance of the English school drama has been well presented by
Professor Herford and Dr. Ward, but there is something in the name
that leads the ordinary reader to underrate the _genus_. A word or so
by way of classification may be of assistance. These interludes fall
naturally into four kinds. Those that ridicule folly, vain pretension,
and conceit, or Mirth plays,--plays after the model of Plautus,
mock-heroic, or purely diverting, like the _Thersytes_. Those that
are pedagogical in tendency, directed against idleness and ignorance,
or Wit plays. They began with Rastell's _Four Elements_, and reached
their highest mark in the _Contract between Witt and Wisdome_. Those
that portray the conflict with the excesses and lusts of the flesh, or
Youth plays. They consist of such productions as _Mankynd_, _Nature_,
_Hyckescorner_, and reach their climax, about 1554, in the _Interlude
of Youth_. The school drama includes, in the last place, a series
corrective of parental indulgence and filial disobedience, aptly called
Prodigal Son plays. These are patterned upon Terence, but follow the
manner of Dutch school plays like the _Acolastus_ or of the still
earlier French _moralités_, _Bien-Avisé et Mal-Avisé_, _L'Homme
pêcheur_, and _Les Enfants de Maintenant_. They make more or less use
of the scriptural motif and are sometimes tragical. In the period under
consideration their best representatives are the _Nice Wanton_ and the
_Disobedient Child_. From the point of view of comedy the first of
these kinds, the Mirth play, occupies a place by itself; for, though
it may sometimes intend to teach, it always aims at, and achieves,
laughter. To the three remaining kinds, we must for convenience, join,
however, another which, though not of the school species, is primarily
didactic,--I mean the controversial interlude. This includes Bale's
_King Johan_, Wever's _Lusty Juventus_, and the _Respublica_.

In the Mirth play, _Thersytes_, the influence of Plautus is evident,--a
school play, to be sure, but written with a view to amusement or
rollicking satire rather than instruction. Acted in 1537, this
"enterlude" has for its hero a "ruffler forth of the Greke lande" whose
"crakying" stands half-way between the classical Pyrgopolinices and
Thraso and the modern Roister Doister. For all its academic flavour,
the burlesque is coarse and crude, but still genuinely humorous.
It deserves notice, in especial, for the variety of its contents,
chivalric, romantic, popular, scriptural as well as Greek and Latin;
also for its artistic exhibition of the braggart,--the leisurely
proceeding of his discomfiture, the subordination of other characters
to that end; and for its mastery of technical devices,--concealment,
magic, the play upon the word, and that hunting of the word and
letter which was so soon to drive conversation out of its wits. As
an interlude of foreign origin, the _Thersytes_ has a place in the
development of the comic element somewhat analogous to that of the
_Calisto_ in the development of the romantic. As far as the quality
of mirth is concerned it might be classed with _Roister Doister_ and
_Jacke Jugeler_; but those plays are much more highly developed in form
and spirit, and must be reserved for consideration with the polytypic,
and early regular, comedy.

The remaining classes of interlude are manifestly didactic; those of
Wit and Youth derive, however, more directly from native sources, while
those of the Prodigal Son have close affiliation with the Christian
Terence of the continental humanists.

Redford's _Wyt and Science_, composed probably between 1541 and 1547,
is, in form and intent, like _Lusty Juventus_ and other survivals of
the moral interlude. It differs, however, in company with the _Four
Elements_ and other Wit plays, in substituting a scientific for a
religious purpose; and it adds a feature not to be found in earlier
kinds of moral, a chivalrous ideal of love and adventure, academic, to
be sure, but unmistakable. This appears in the wooing of Lady Science
by Wyt, and his encounter with the tyrant or fiend Tediousness "for
my dere hartes sake to wynne my spurres;" in the hero's inconstancy,
defeat, and subsequent success, and in the dramatic employment of
romantic instruments and tokens, such as the magic glass and the
sword of comfort; also in the love songs. All of these and similar
features of which the sources are not entirely continental make for
the development of a romantic and humanistic drama. It may be worth
noticing, moreover, that the fiend of the play is neither Vice nor
Devil. He seems to be a cross between the Devil of the miracles and
a monster of native as well as scriptural ancestry (an early draft
of Giant Despair), who figures in a modernization of this play, _The
Marriage of Witte and Science_. In chronological sequence the next of
the Wit plays is the _Contract of a Marrige betweene Wit and Wisdome_
(not _Wit and Science_, as Professor Brandl has it). This was probably
written about the same time as the _Lusty Juventus_. The mention of the
King's most "royal majestie" and the appearance of the Vice Idleness as
a priest would point to a date earlier than 1553, while the resemblance
to Redford's play, though by no means close, indicates posteriority to
that much cruder production. The division into acts and scenes is, on
the other hand, less elaborate than that obtaining in the latest play
of this series, _The Marriage of Witte and Science_. The _Contract_ is
altogether the most meritorious of those academic predecessors of the
drama of the Prodigal Son which introduce the indulgent mother as a
motive force. While the conception is formal and didactic, the action
avails itself, like Redford's play, of the romantic element involved
in the perilous adventure for love. The _Contract_, moreover, startles
the sober atmosphere of the moral interlude by a rapidity of movement,
a combination of plots major and minor, a diversity of subordinate
characters and incidents altogether unprecedented. The racy and natural
wit, the equivoque, the actual, even if vulgar, humanity of the scenes
from low life, and the skill with which the Mother Bees, the Dols and
Lobs, Snatches and Catches, the Constable, and the thoroughly rustic
Vice with his actual resemblance to Diccon the Bedlem, are dovetailed
into the action,--these properties make this a very commendable
predecessor, not only of _Gammer Gurton_, but of certain plays of
Dekker and Jonson where similar features obtain. With the _Contract_,
the interlude of this kind attains its climax. _The Marriage of Witte
and Science_, which is a revision of Redford's play of similar name,
must also be mentioned here, although it is a postliminious specimen of
the type. Not licensed until 1569-70, and, according to Fleay, acted
as _Wit and Will_, 1567-78,[69] it adds nothing vital to the plot or
characters of its model. Still, in literary and dramatic handling, it
is an example of the perfection to which the moral play could come.
Collier, indeed, has said that it was the first play of its kind
regularly divided into acts and scenes with indication of the same:
but that is not true, for the _Respublica_ of 1553 has five acts and
the proper arrangement in scenes; and so have other plays of 1553 or
earlier, though of different kind, like the _Jacob and Esau_.

If now we pass to the Youth plays, we shall find in the _Interlude of
Youth_ (about 1554) the culmination of dramatic efforts to portray the
sowing of wild oats,--efforts avowedly moral in purpose, but with a
reminiscent smack of the lips and a fellow-feeling for the scapegrace.
The _Interlude of Youth_ is characterized neither by the unbridled
merriment of the _Miles Gloriosus_ type nor by the depth or pathos of
dramas portraying solicitous parents and prodigal sons; but it paves
the way for 'tragical' comedies of this latter class, and is infinitely
more dramatic, because more human, than the pedagogical onslaughts
upon idleness, irksomeness, ignorance, and the like of which we have
just treated. It has, perhaps, not been noticed that the _Interlude of
Youth_ holds about the same relation to _Hyckescorner_ in matter of
motive and treatment that _Hyckescorner_ holds to the _Four Elements_
and _Mankynd_,--indeed, a closer relation, for in many details of
character, device, situation, as well as by literal transference of
language, it borrows from _Hyckescorner_. This as indicating the
descent of the species is in itself interesting. But the present play
generally improves upon all that it derives. In addition, the vivid
conversation, shrewd and waggish wit, local colouring, atmosphere of
taverns, dicing, cards, and worse iniquities, justify, I think, the
statement that it is at once the most realistic, amusing, and graceful
specimen of its kind. It is, at any rate, as artistic as a didactic
interlude could permit itself to be.

One cannot consider the so-called Prodigal Son interludes, without
observing that the theme itself supplies an opportunity for the
enlargement of dramatic endeavour. For these productions are directed
as much against parental indulgence as against filial disobedience.
The "Preaty Interlude called _Nice Wanton_," printed in 1560, was
written before the death of Edward VI. Though it may have derived
suggestions from the _Rebelles_[70] of Macropedius, 1535, it is of its
own originality and dramatic merit, in my opinion, the best of its
class in English at the time of writing. While it presents a mixture of
scriptural, classical, and moral elements, it is essentially a modern
production. The allegorical lingers only in the character of Worldly
Shame. If this be eliminated, there remains a play with realistic,
romantic, and ideal qualities, an air of probability, and a plot well
conceived and excellently completed. Iniquity, or Baily errand, is a
concrete Vice, working by actual and possible methods. The unfortunate
heroine and the well-contrasted pairs of mothers and sons are manifest
not only by their deeds but by the opinions of those who know them.
The plot, in other words, grows out of the characters; it is full of
incident, and it falls naturally into acts, which have been elaborated
in various and dramatically interesting scenes. The movements, on the
one hand toward a catastrophe, on the other toward the triumph of right
living, are conducted with skilful suspense, surprise, discovery, and
revolution, and are well interwoven. The conversations and songs are
racy or sober according to the conditions; the combination of æsthetic
qualities, comic, tragic, and pathetic, is an agreeable advance upon
the inartistic extremes afforded by most of the contemporary interludes
of moral intent. The next of these plays, the "pretie and mery new
interlude called _The Disobedient Child_, by Thomas Ingeland, late
Student at Cambridge," was acted, Mr. Fleay thinks, before Elizabeth
in March, 1560-61. Though it was not published till 1564, it was
certainly, like the _Nice Wanton_, written before 1553. The purpose
is serious and the conclusion almost tragic, but the play contributes
to the comedy of domestic satire. If the main characters were but
indicated by name, like those below stairs, Blanche and Long-Tongue,
this picturesque and wholly dramatic interlude would have attracted
more notice than has been vouchsafed it. Its literary merits, verse,
poetic feeling and expression, and its natural dialogue entitle it to
high consideration; its decidedly novel dramatic qualities, even though
they bear a general resemblance to the _Studentes_[71] of Stymmelius,
rank it with the _Nice Wanton_ as one of the most vigorous of our early
representatives of the dramatic actualities of family life.

For reasons which I have already indicated, the controversial plays
of the period between 1520 and 1553 may be considered here. The
first of these in chronological order is Bale's _King Johan_, about
1540-47, with later insertions in the author's hand. Its relation to
Lyndsay's satire of the _Thrie Estatis_ is well known; and Professor
Herford[72] has indicated its indebtedness also to the _Pammachius_
and the Protestant version of the antichrist legend. It is a dramatic
satire on the abuses of the church, its riches, orders, brotherhoods,
confessionals, simony, free thought, mummery (judaistic and pagan),
Latin ritual, hagiolatry, and papal supremacy. Few more excellent
embodiments of the Vice have been preserved than the Sedycyon of this
play, who in every estate of the clergy plays a part, sometimes monk,
sometimes nun, or canon, or chapter-house monk, or Sir John, or the
parson, or the bishop, or the friar, or the purgatory priest and every
man's wife's desire:--

"Yea, to go farder, sumtyme I am a cardynall;
Yea, sumtyme a pope and than am I lord over all,
Both in hevyn and erthe and also in purgatory,
And do weare iij crownes whan I am in my glorye."

In spite of Professor Schelling's[73] recent rejection of _King
Johan_ from the list of chronicle plays, I cannot but agree with Dr.
Ward that this moral is of considerable importance in the history
of that species. That it uses history merely as the cloak for a
religio-policical allegory, and that it does not quite succeed in
drawing together the points of fact and fiction in the development of
action and character,--these defects do not alter its significance as
the first English play to incarnate the political spirit of its age in
a form imaginatively attributed to an earlier period of native history.
Although it is not a comedy, it concerns us here as a drama of critical
and satirical intent. It is succeeded by plays like _Lusty Juventus_
and _Respublica_, which deal more or less with political affairs, and
interest us because they enliven the controversial by the introduction
of the realistic and comic, and, accordingly, in an age when polemics
was politics, contribute to the improvement of comedy by shaping it
more or less to a medium for the dissemination of practical ideas.
Moreover, though Bale had no disciples in the attempt to construct an
historical protestant drama, he may be said to have prepared the way
for a protestant series of another kind. This is what Professor Herford
has well called the biblical _genre_ drama; it is pedagogical and
controversial, and, like the _King Johan_, its representatives, also,
such as the _Darius_ and _Queen Hester_, had their precursors, and
probably their models, more or less distant, in the idyllic or heroic
miracle of the Dutch and German humanists.

R. Wever's _Lusty Juventus_, written about 1550,[74] is of the dramatic
kindred of _Mankynd_ and _Nature_. Its characters are allegorical in
name but concrete in person; and one of them, Abhominable Living,
passes, also, under the appellation of "litle Besse." The conversations
are sprightly, and the songs show considerable lyric power. But the
play is a protestant polemic, and its success must have depended to a
large extent upon the bitterness of the satire against

"Holy cardinals, holy popes,
Holy vestments, holy copes,"

and various alleged hypocrisies and excesses of the Church of Rome.
That this play had a long life is shown by its insertion, though
under the designation of an interlude with which it had nothing in
common,[75] as a play within a play in the tragedy of _Sir Thomas
More_ (about 1590). The "merye Enterlude" _Respublica_, 1553, a
children's Christmas play, sustains somewhat the same relation to
political Catholicism as _King Johan_ to Protestantism--without the
polemics of dogma. Here, as in the preceding political moral of _King
Johan_, the Vice is used for a satirical purpose, and is not only the
chief mischief-maker, but, also, the principal representative of the
comic rôle. In this play, the Vice is so highly considered that the
author, probably a priest, multiplies him by four, and, by way of
foil, offsets the group with that of the four Virtues, daughters of
God, whose presence in the eleventh Coventry play and in _Mankynd_ has
already been noticed. I don't see how Collier can call the construction
of _Respublica_ ingenious; it is childish, clumsy, and trite. The
humour consists in old-fashioned disguises and _aliases_, equivoque,
misunderstanding, and abuse. But the character of Avarice, who, with
his money bags, anticipates the Suckdrys and Lucres of later comedy,
is well conceived, the conduct natural, the language simple and
colloquial. Of historical interest is the introduction of Queen Mary
as Nemesis; of linguistic, the attempt to reproduce the dialect of the
common people; of dramatic, the division into acts and scenes, which is
to be found in but few other plays of the mid-century, such as _Roister
Doister_, _King Johan_, _Jacob and Esau_, and the _Marriage of Witte
and Science_.

=11. Polytypic, or Fusion, Plays=

With the plays just mentioned each of the dramatic kinds so far
considered reaches its artistic limit. These kinds, however, during
the decades roughly coincident with the years between 1545 and 1566,
enter into combinations, by virtue of which English comedy is assisted
to a still further advance. The plays that represent this stage of
literary history may be called polytypic. _Roister Doister_ and _Jacke
Jugeler_ subordinate the materials of academic interlude and classical
farce to classical regulations. Into the _Historie of Jacob and Esau_
enter characteristics of miracle play, moral, realistic interlude, and
classical comedy. _Gammer Gurton_ and _Tom Tyler_ (of about the same
date) subsume, under the domestic play of low life, native elements
of both farce and moral. _Misogonus_ combines elements of moral
interlude and farce with qualities native and foreign, classical and
romantic. These are followed by the biblical _genre_ drama of _Godly
Queen Hester_, partly political and partly pedagogical in intent. In
the first five of these plays the tendency to teach is reduced almost
to a minimum. In the _Misogonus_ and _Hester_ it is present, but is
counterbalanced by romantic or satirical considerations. When, however,
we reach the _Damon and Pythias_ and _The Supposes_, the didactic has
disappeared altogether in favour of the truly artistic motive. These
plays at last combine the comic and serious, the real, the romantic,
and the ideal. They are constructive, not primarily critical; in fact,
they must be regarded as our first real comedies.

No play of this division better illustrates the impress of the
classical model upon native material than _Roister Doister_. This
"comedie" or "interlude" was certainly in existence by 1552; indeed,
it has not yet been conclusively shown that it was not acted as early
as 1534 to 1541. In the last contingency it may have anticipated the
_Thersytes;_ but, according to Professor Flügel's argument,[76] it was
probably not composed till after 1545. With the _Thersytes_ it has in
common several points of detail, but the essential resemblance is,
of course, in the Plautine personage of the braggart. Like Heywood
before him, Udall aims to produce that which "is comendable for a
man's recreation," but the masterpiece of Udall has the advantage
of Heywood's "mery plays," in that its mirth "refuses scurilitie."
In _Roister Doister_, also, more decidedly than in previous plays,
the amusement proceeds not from the situation alone, but from the
organism,--a plot essentially and substantially dramatic, because its
characters are concrete, purposive, and interacting. But decided as
was Udall's contribution to the art of comic drama, we must not credit
him with producing comedy proper. The merit of _Roister Doister_ is in
its comic intent, its skilful characterization and contrivance. It is
a presentation of humours,--corrective indeed, but farcical. It is not
significant, constructive, poetic, grounded in the heart as well as in
the head. A contribution to the classical type contemporary with the
preceding, but of a much more farcical and juvenile appearance, is the
"new interlued" named _Jacke Jugeler_, written not later than 1562 and
perhaps as early as 1553-54 (after the reëstablishment of the Mass and
before the terrifying revival of the sanguinary laws against heretics).
It announces itself as a school drama, and in the prologue purports
to have been derived from the _Amphitruo_ of Plautus. I am inclined
to think that the professed modesty of the author has led critics to
undervalue the skill and fidelity of that which was not only the best
"droll," but also the best dramatic satire produced in England up to
date. Within a narrow compass he has developed a humorous action quite
novel in English comedy, and has introduced us, not only to the first
English double and one of the first English practical jokers, but,
I believe, to our first victim of confused identity. The author is,
of course, following his Plautus, but what could be more ludicrous
than the scene in which Jenkin, uncertain and undesirous of his own
acquaintance, covers himself with ignominy in the effort to discard
it. We are led from interest to interest by means of anticipation,
surprise, and the clever repetition of comic crises. Characters well
drawn like Dame Coy and Alison, distinct like Jacke and Jenkin,
suggestive of complexity like Bongrace, were not of everyday occurrence
in the drama of 1553. The language, too, is idiomatic, and the wit,
though vulgar, unforced. But perhaps more significant for our purpose
than any other feature of the play is this, that in spite of its avowed
æsthetic intent (even more outspoken than that of _Roister Doister_),
it is a subtle attack upon the Roman Catholic Church. This interlude,
says the maker, citing the authority of the classics, is written for
the express purpose of provoking mirth, and for no other purpose: it is
"not worth an oyster shell Except percase it shall fortune to make men
laugh well"; but under the artifice we find a parable of the doctrinal
Jacke Jugeler of the day, whose mission it was to prove that "One man
may have two bodies and two faces, And that one man at one time may be
in two places." I do not think that the satirical character of the play
has heretofore been remarked, though the controversial allusions of the
epilogue are, of course, well known. The innocence of the prologue and
the profession of trifles fit for "little boys" are as shrewd an irony
as the dramatic attack upon transubstantiation is a huge burlesque.

The third of these fusion dramas is _The Historie of Jacob and Esau_.
Although its title may suggest the dignity of a miracle or the
didacticism of a moral play, it is the reduction of the miracle to
modern conditions and of the moral to concrete and actual characters.
This "newe, mery, and wittie comedie, or enterlude" was licensed in
1557, but its decidedly protestant character may indicate composition
before Mary's accession to the throne. Collier is quite right in
calling it one of the freshest and most effective productions of the
kind to which it belongs. But in classifying it with early religious
plays, because the subject happens to be scriptural, he is as far
astray as Professor Brandl who classes it with plays of the Prodigal
Son, because the nature of the subject suggests a faint resemblance
to that species. It is an attempt at comedy by way of fusion. The
plot is in general scriptural, but it introduces some half-dozen
invented characters. The production aims, like a moral interlude,
at inculcating the doctrine of predestination; but, like a classical
comedy, it is regularly divided, dramatically constructed, and equipped
with tried and telling comic devices. Proceeding with extreme care
for probability, with elaboration of motive, with due preparation of
interest, enhancement, and suspense, it attains a climax of unusual
excellence, considering the date of its composition. The discovery
and _denouement_ are naturally contrived; and where the author avails
himself of the staples of his trade, the asides, disguises, intrigues,
eavesdropping, and the rest, he does so with the ease of the accustomed
dramatist. The play, in fact, deserves as high esteem as _Roister
Doister_ and _Gammer Gurton_; in originality and regularity it is
their equal, in development of a vital conception their superior. The
language is idiomatic--of the age and soil; or dignified, when the mood
demands. It is also free from obscenity; but it lacks nothing in wit on
that account, nor the situations in humour. Viewed as a whole, it is a
simple and unaffected picture of English rural life--the scene with its
setting as well as its figures. And these are coloured from experience,
forerunners, indeed, of many in our better-known comedy: the young
squire given over to the chase, horses and dogs and the horn at break
of day (much to the discomfort of the slumbering environment),--the
careless elder born,--victim and butt of his unnatural mother and her
wily younger son; the doting father, duped; the clown; the pert and
pretty maid; the aged nurse. Consider, in addition, the more subtle
characteristics of the _Jacob and Esau_,--the family resemblances,
the racial policy with its ripe and ruddy upper layer of morals, the
romantic touch, the sometimes genuine pathos, the naïve domestic
revelations, the loves in low life, the unaffected charms of dialogue
and verse,--and one must acknowledge that this play, no matter what its
origin and name, is at least as indicative of the maturing of English
drama as either of the plays with which I have placed it in comparison.

Of these _Gammer Gurtons Nedle_ was the first to gather the threads of
farce, moral interlude, and classical school play into a well-sustained
comedy of rustic life. Mr. Henry Bradley has ingeniously shown that
in all probability it was a Christ's College play, written by William
Stevenson during his fellowship of 1559 to 1560. There may, indeed,
be reason for believing that it was composed as early as the author's
first fellowship, 1551-54.[77] In this play the unregulated seductions
of earlier days are brought under the curb of the classical manner
and form: the native element already evident in _Noah's Flood_ and
the _Shepherds' Plays_, the _Judicium_, the _Conversion of St. Paul_,
the _Johan_, and the _Pardoner_, and about this same time in the
_Contract betweene Wit and Wisdome_ (parts of which suggest forcibly
the manner of this same Stevenson); the rollicking humour of the Vice
turned Bedlem, the pithy and saline interchange of feminine amenities;
the Atellan, sometimes even Chaucerian, laughter,--not sensual but
animal; the delight in physical incongruity; the mediæval fondness
for the grotesque. If the situations are farcical, they at any rate
hold together; each scene tends towards the climax of the act, and
each act towards the _denouement_. The characters are both typical and
individual; and though the conception is of less significance than that
of _Roister Doister_, the execution is an advance because it smacks
less of the academic. _Gammer Gurton_ carries forward the comedy of
mirth, but hardly yet into the rounded comedy of life.

Another "excellent old play," called _Tom Tyler and His Wife_,[78]
deserves to be mentioned in this sequence because it combines
characteristics of the farce in a peculiar fashion with reminiscences
of the moral interlude. _Tom Tyler_ was written probably between 1550
and 1560, and is an admirable portrayal of matrimonial infelicities
in low life, the forerunner of a series of "shrew" plays, not of
the nature of the _Taming_, but of the _Tamer Tamed_. The temporary
revolt of the husband, "whose cake was dough," his fleeting triumph by
the ruse of the doughty Tom Taylor, and his lapse into irremediable
servitude, "for wedding and hanging is destinie," these alone would
make the farce worthy of honourable mention. But the dialogue and
songs are themselves of snap, verve, and wit not inferior to the best
of that day; and the coöperation of solemn allegorical figures, such
as Destinie and Patience, in the humorous programme of Desire the
Vice, side by side with the three lusty "shrowes," Typple, Sturdy, and
Strife, lends to the farce a mock-moral appearance which entitles it to
a place among these polytypic dramas historically unique. For it should
not be regarded as an example of the moral in transition from abstract
to concrete, but as a conscious and cleverly ironical presentation of
a comic episode from utterly unideal life, under the form, and by the
modes and machinery, of the pious allegorical drama.

For the printing of the next play in this series, the _Misogonus_,
heretofore accessible only in manuscript at Chatsworth, we are indebted
to Professor Brandl.[79] This interesting moral comedy was written
in 1560, probably by Thomas Richardes,[80] whose name followes the
prologue. Brandl points out certain resemblances to the _Acolastus_
of Gnapheus, printed 1534. The contrast of the good and wayward sons
might likewise be traced to the _Studentes_ of Stymmelius[81] (1549),
but the more evident sources are Terence, the biblical parable,
common experience, and dramatic imagination, Professor Brandl thinks
that the play is connected with _The Supposes_ or its source, but I
must confess that I cannot see the remotest relation. In Mr. Fleay's
opinion this is the earliest English comedy. I suppose because it not
only applies a classical treatment to certain elements of romantic
form,--the Italian scene and baronial life,--and of romantic content
and method such as the ideal friendship, the discovery and recognition,
but combines therewith a realistic portrayal of native character, and
various technical qualities vital to both the serious and comic kinds
of composition. If, however, the names of the principal characters
had been English, the relation to the moral interlude would at once
be evident. This is a Prodigal Son play of the humanist school, save
that it has supplemented the general characteristics of the Christian
Terence and of Plautus by episodes and minor characters from the native
farce. Although it is not superior in technique to _Roister_ or _Gammer
Gurton_, it is more distinctively polytypic than either. It is, also,
of broader ethical significance. But this dominant didactic intent
renders it less of a comedy than they, and much less than the _Jacob
and Esau_--which is as good a representative of the fusion of dramatic
kinds and qualities as the _Misogonus_, and a better specimen of
workmanship. The simpler characters of the _Misogonus_, Codrus, poore,
but "trwe and trusty"; the stammering Madge Mumbelcrust, who "coude
once a said our lordyes saw--saw--sawter by rote"; and her gossip "Tib,
who has tongue inough for both"; Alison, who knows "what a great thinge
an oth is"; and Sir John, the priest, who knows how to use one,--these,
their ways and colloquies, are of a piece with Stevenson's work and
Heywood's and the world that their work represents. The conditions and
conduct of the leading _dramatis personæ_ are, on the other hand, more
closely akin to the Plautine and Terentian, to the school of Udall
and the humanists. Cacurgus, the domestic parasite and fool, remotely
connected with the Vice, but actually a counterfeit-simple and wag,
is as good a Will Summer as the early comedy can boast. When Greene
made his Nano, Adam, and Slipper, he had in mind a generation of such
creatures. If one could eliminate the sermonizing, there would remain
a plot as satisfactory in unity, in situations, recognitions, crises,
and _denouement_ as any produced during the next twenty years. But, as
I have said above, the moral urgency of the play injures the art. Since
the Prodigal Son is reclaimed, we are, however, justified in ranking
the production among early attempts at English comedy.

_Godly Queen Hester_, published 1561,[82] is exactly described as a
"newe enterlude drawen out of the Holy Scripture." According to
Fleay, it is the latest "scriptural morality" extant to be acted on the
English stage.[83] But it is much more than a scriptural morality. Not
only by its fusion of biblical characters, like Assuerus and Hester,
with allegorical types, like Pride and the half-moral, half-native
Vice, does the play give evidence of its polytypic nature, but by its
atmosphere, which is charged with local and personal allusions and
ironical references to the economic abuses of the day. In nervous
energy of style and in forthright dramatic movement, the play is
an improvement upon its predecessors; and as a satirical drama of
political purpose, it should have had a numerous progeny. Strange to
say, however, this kind of scriptural satire has had no great success
in the field of English drama. Its bloom, as in Dryden's _Absalom
and Achitophel_, has been in the by-paths of poetry. Of a peculiar
historical importance is the character of Hardy-dardy. Mr. Fleay
regards him as a domestic fool, and remarks that this interlude and the
_Misogonus_ are the only two early plays in which the Vice is replaced
by such a personage. But neither of these statements is correct, for
Hardy-dardy and Cacurgus do not totally abandon the quality of Vice,
and various other plays yet to be mentioned have characters closely
resembling them. Hardy-dardy is, indeed, a professed jester dressed
in a fool's coat; in his assumption of stupidity and his proffer of
service to Aman, he resembles Slipper in Greene's _James the Fourth_;
and in his shrewd simplicity, repartee, and indirection he anticipates
some of Shakespeare's fools. But he still retains characteristics of
his ancestry. He stands, in conception, half-way between the minor
Vices of the play, Ambition, Adulation, and Pride, to whose jocosities
and deviltries he succeeds,--for he appears only when they have
departed,--and the waggish weathercocks of later interludes, Haphazard
and Conditions.

I wish I could have included among the reprints of the present volume
both of the plays next to be mentioned, but limitations of space and
other reasons have forbidden. When Puttenham said that for comedy and
interlude such doings as he had "sene of Maister Edwardes deserved
the hyest price," and Turberville, that "for poet's pen and passing
witte," that poet "could have no English Peere," I think that they
were not greatly exaggerating. Richard Edwardes' _Damon and Pithias_,
written before 1566, maybe as early as 1563-65, takes steps significant
in literary history. It is not only entirely free from allegorical
elements, and almost from didactic, but it is rich in qualities of
the fusion drama. The subject of a classical story is handled in a
genuinely romantic fashion, although no previous drama of romantic
friendship had existed in England. Comic and serious strains flow side
by side, occasionally mingling. A quick satire, dramatic and personal,
pervades the play. The names and scenes may be Syracusan, and types
from Latin comedy may walk the streets, but the life is of the higher
and lower classes of England; and the creatures of literary tradition
are elbowed and jostled by children of the soil. The farcical episodes
may be indelicate, but they have the virility of fact. The plot as a
whole is skilfully conducted; while it proceeds directly to the goal,
it encompasses a wider variety of ethical interests, dramatic motives,
and attractions, than that of any previous play. The relation to an
interlude of which we shall presently speak, _Like wil to Like_, is
beyond doubt. In both a crude psychological pairing and contrasting of
characters may be observed; but in the development of the characters,
_Damon and Pithias_ is decidedly superior. The author calls this "a
matter mixt with myrth and care ... a tragical comedie"; but while he
thus aims at a fusion of the ideal with the commonplace, he makes a
close approximation, always, to probability of incident and character,
and so observes the criterion which he himself enunciates:--

"In commedies the greatest skyll is this, lightly to touch
All thynges to the quicke; and eke to frame each person so
That by his common talke, you may his nature rightly know."

In its defects, such as the disregard of time and place, as in its
merits, the _Damon and Pithias_ is a commendable experiment in romantic
comedy--a contribution worthy of more attention than historians have
ordinarily accorded it. Undoubtedly Edwardes' "much admired play" of
_Palamon and Arcite_, which the queen witnessed in hall at Christ
Church, Oxford, 1566 (and laughed heartily thereat, and thanked "the
author for his pains"), was of the fashion and vogue of the drama which
we have discussed, though it had not the abiding influence.

If it were not for the fact that _The Supposes_ (acted 1566) is a
translation of Ariosto's play of the same title, I should be inclined
to say that it was the first English comedy in every way worthy of the
name. It certainly is, for many reasons, entitled to be called the
first comedy in the English tongue. It is written, not for children,
nor to educate, but for grown-ups and solely to delight. It is done
into English, not for the vulgar, but for the more advanced taste of
the translator's own Inn of Court; it has, therefore, qualities to
captivate those who are capable of appreciating high comedy. It is
composed, like its original, in straightforward, sparkling prose.
It has, also, the rarest features of the fusion drama: it combines
character and situation, each depending upon the other; it combines
wit of intellect with humour of heart and fact, intricate and
varied plot with motive and steady movement, comic but not farcical
incident and language with complications surprising, serious, and
only not hopelessly embarrassing. It conducts a romantic intrigue in
a realistic fashion through a world of actualities. With the blood
of the New Comedy, the Latin Comedy, the Renaissance in its veins,
it is far ahead of its English contemporaries, if not of its time.
Without historical apology or artistic concessions it would act well
to-day. Both whimsical and grave, its ironies are _pro bono publico_;
it is constructive as well as critical, imaginative as well as
actual. Indeed, when one compares Gascoigne's work with the original
and observes the just liberties that he has taken, the Englishing
of sentiment as well as of phrase, one is tempted to say, with Tom
Nashe, that in comedy, as in other fields, this writer first "beat a
path to that perfection which our best poets have aspired to since
his departure." He did not contrive the plot; but no dramatist before
him had selected for his audience, translated, and adapted a play so
amusing and varied in interest, so graceful, simple, and idiomatic
in its style. It was said by R. T., in 1615, that Gascoigne was one
of those who first "brake the ice for our quainter poets who now
write, that they may more safely swim through the main ocean of sweet
poesy"--a remark which would lose much of its force if restricted to
the poet's achievements in satire alone; in the drama of the humanists
he excelled his contemporaries, and in the romantic comedy of intrigue
he anticipated those who, like Greene and Shakespeare,[84] adapted the
Italian plot to English manners and the English taste. Nor are these
the only claims of Gascoigne to consideration: _The Supposes_, as
Professor Herford has justly remarked, is the most Jonsonian of English
comedies before Jonson.

=12. Survivals of the Moral Interlude=

Though we must refrain from description, we cannot forbear mention
of a few survivals of the moral interlude, which, though themselves
rudimentary, were not without esteem even in an age when the drama, by
combination and adaptation of its possibilities, was producing other
results infinitely superior to the older strain. These functionless
survivals of the moral were the following, all controversial: _Newe
Custome_, an anti-papist play, perhaps written as early as 1550-53;
_Albyon Knight_, a political fragment acted between 1560 and 1565;
_Kyng Daryus_, a peculiarly insipid disputation, evidently anti-papist,
printed in 1565; and _The Conflict of Conscience_, a doctrinal drama
by Nathaniel Woodes, Minister in Norwich, which presents a mixture of
individual and even historical characters with abstractions, stands
midway between the allegorical interlude and the drama of concrete
experience, displays a commendable realism in spots, and is a more
virile production than the others of this group. It was not published
till 1581, but was probably written soon after 1563.

Of the decadent stock of morals and interludes, there were, however,
some specimens between the years 1553 and 1578 that exhibited an
advance in quality, if not in kind. Three of these, _The Longer thou
Livest_, _All for Money_, and _Tide Taryeth no Man_, Mr. Fleay[85]
lumps together as simple instances of the survival of the older
'morality' after the introduction of tragedy and comedy on the models
of Seneca and Plautus, and makes the further statement that none of
them teaches us anything as to the historical development of the drama
in England. With the utmost respect for the knowledge of this most
helpful historian, I must say that, as a matter of judgment, none of
these dramas, least of all, _Longer thou Livest_, should be classed
with the moral plays of mere survival. While the authors of these and
similar specimens did not produce a new kind, they did more than repeat
the old. They revived and enriched the moral interlude by infusion of
new strains, and so produced, by culture, a most interesting group of
what may be called variations of the moral. To this class of morals
belong also the _Triall of Treasure_, _Like wil to Like_, and the
_Life and Repentaunce of Marie Magdalene_. It must be said also that a
few moral tragedies of the period, like R. B.'s _Apius and Virginia_
(about 1563, pr. 1575), and Preston's _King Cambises_ (S. R. 1569-70),
have some claim to belong to this group, and that if there were space
they should receive attention for their vital dramatic quality and
their development of the character of the Vice. The Hap-hazard of
the former, far from being, as Dr. Ward has said, "redundant to the
action," suggests the "conspiracies" which Apius adopts, and is the
heart of rascality and fun; he is consequently a Vice of the old type;
but he is also the representative (in accordance with his name and
express profession) of the caprice of the individual and the irony
of fortune. He is the Vice, efficient for evil, but in process of
evolution into the inclination or humour of a somewhat later period of
dramatic history: the inclination not immoral but unmoral, the artistic
impersonation of comic extravagance, in accordance with which Every
Man is in his Vice, and every Vice is but a Humour. The Ambidexter
of the latter tragedy plays "with both hands finely" in the main
action, and at the same time serves to provoke the jocosity of those
admirably concrete ruffians, Huf, Ruf, and Snuf, and of the clown of
the play. The _Horestes_, written by John Pikerynge in 1567, must,
although a tragedy, also be mentioned here.[86] The Vice under his
dual designation of Corage and Revenge is of the weathervane variety;
and in realistic and humorous qualities the play closely resembles the
preceding two. They were a noble but futile effort to bottle the juices
of tragedy, classical-historical at that, in the leathers of moral
interlude.

=13. The Movement towards Romantic Comedy=

We may now proceed with the main current of comedy. Between 1570 and
1590 the best plays are coloured by a distinctively romantic element;
and this is noticeable, not only in the productions of the greater
authors, Lyly, Peele, Greene, and the like, elsewhere discussed in
this volume, but in those of minor writers too frequently ignored.
As I have already said, the romantic in life appears to spring from
a desire to assert one's independence and realize the possibilities
of the resulting freedom. "Our pent wills fret And would the world
subdue." But since the conditions of life are largely opposed to the
complete fulfilment of our desires, it is the privilege and function of
romance, and of romantic comedy according to its kind, to idealize the
stubborn facts--the "limits we did not set" in favour of our ecstatic
but still human urgency. This privilege the comedy of romance exercises
sometimes with an eye to nature and probability, and sometimes with
some respect for imaginative possibility, but quite frequently with
no other guide than mere caprice. The subjects of such comedy may
be briefly summarized as passion, heroism, and wonder. Of these the
first is manifest in examples of ideal friendship, its devotion and
self-sacrifice; and a play of such nature we have already considered in
the _Damon and Pithias_. It also yields the furnishings of love, the
resulting obstacles, and the issue; and a play of this kind we have
considered in _The Supposes_, which is a domestic comedy of intrigue.
Of heroism the possibilities are suggested by the words travel,
adventure, chivalry, war, conquest; those of wonder are as various
as the chances of birth, wealth and fortune, pomp and power, myth
and fable: they are fostered by that which is remote, preternatural,
supernatural.

To the romance of wonder, saints' plays, legends, and biblical stories
had purveyed from early times. From 1570 on the narrative of chivalry
and adventure, of which shadowy lineaments had already appeared in one
or two miracle plays and in the interludes of Wit and Science, began to
gather to itself kindred elements of romantic interest, and to occupy
the stage with such plays as _Common Conditions_, written perhaps
between 1572 and 1576, and _Sir Clyomon and Sir Clamydes_, written
perhaps as early,--dramas of love, fable, and adventure, absolutely
free from didactic purpose. At the same time still another variety of
romantic comedy, unhampered by the trammels of instructive intent, but
dealing essentially in domestic intrigue, kept alive the method of _The
Supposes_. This variety was represented by _The Bugbears_, between 1561
and 1584, and _The Two Italian Gentlemen_ (S. R. 1584), which, based
upon Italian models, availed themselves on the one hand of a burlesque
parody of the magical, and on the other of genuine English mirth. The
latter indeed added something of the 'humours' element soon to be
exploited by Porter, Chapman, and Jonson. Beside these dramas, there
sprang into notice a certain half-moral, half-romantic kind of play
which, availing itself of the mould of the interlude, fused therein
the materials of the chivalrous, the magical, and the passionate, and
produced certain anomalous comedies of great popularity between the
year 1580 and the end of the century. The best of these "pleasant and
stately morals" are: _The Rare Triumphs of Love and Fortune_, _The
Three Ladies of London_, _The Three Lordes and Three Ladies of London_.

While Collier thinks that, in point of positive dramatic interest, the
_Rare Triumphs of Love and Fortune_ requires but brief notice, Dr.
Ward holds that the beginnings of romantic comedy were foreshadowed
by the play.[87] It is, in fact, both dramatically and historically,
one of the most important productions of its date. It was printed in
1589, but played, perhaps, as early as 1582. Mr. Fleay has assigned it
to Kyd, but I do not see sufficient reason for the attribution; if we
must find an author for it, Robert Wilson's claims might be urged. The
_Rare Triumphs_ affords an excellent instance of the fusion of moral
and romance. In the Induction, Love and Fortune dispute concerning
their respective influence in the affairs of mankind. By mutual
agreement the _debat_ seeks its solution in a practical demonstration
of the issues involved. And so we find our intellectual as well as
emotional interest enlisted in the chances of an Italian story of
love, adventure, and magic. Within a moral interlude of classical
and mythological origin we discover a romantic comedy. The influence
of the supernatural not merely envelops, but permeates the whole;
the Acts present the destinies of the mortals of the inner play, the
inter-acts the continued intervention of the immortals of the outer.
The spectacular effect is, moreover, heightened by the introduction
of dumb shows, after the fashion of the masque. In dramatic interest
proper few romantic fables of 1582 can compare with the inner story:
the love of Hermione for Fidelia, the duel between Hermione and
Fidelia's brother, the exile of the lover and his retirement to the
cave of his unknown father, the hermit Bomelio; Bomelio's attempt to
right matters by magic, the destruction of his necromantic books, his
madness, his recovery, and the resolution of difficulties through the
instrumentality of the heroine. Such a fable is anything but silly
and meagre, as Collier would have it, especially when we consider its
conjunction with the humorous and vivid. In the outer play the clown
is Vulcan, at whose call Jupiter mediates, "like an honest man in the
parish," between the disputatious goddesses. In the inner play Penulo
the parasite and Lentulo the clown, though neither of them a Vice,
supply the comic delectations of the rôle. The disguise of Bomelio as
physician, his dialect, his misfortune and raving, are excellently
contrived and conducted. In at least half a dozen particulars one may
detect æsthetic possibilities later to be matured in more than one
Shakespearian play: foreshadowings of plot and principal actors, as in
_The Tempest_; foreshadowings of minor characters like Dr. Caius, or
like the Francis of _1 Henry IV_. The play is, in brief, refreshing;
the humour, substantial and English; the language, conversational,
dramatic, sometimes in prose and then excellent. The versification,
however, is of that stiffer quality which warrants Mr. Fleay's
conjecture of 1582, or thereabout, as the date of composition.

The attempt to enliven the "old moral" by an infusion of passion
and intrigue, and to parade it in the trappings of romance, across
the background of contemporary English life and manners, is what
distinguishes Robert Wilson's "right excellent and famous Comœdy called
the _Three Ladies of London_," printed 1584, and its sequel, _The
Pleasant and Stately Morall of the Three Lordes and Three Ladies of
London_, registered in 1588. Of these plays, the latter trades in pomp
and chivalry; the earlier in something like the motives of romantic
interest. "The acuteness and political subtlety evinced in several
of the scenes of the _Three Ladies_" have been justly commended by
Collier, who points with careful attention also to "the severity of
the author's satirical touch, his amusing illustrations of manners,
his exposure of the tricks of foreign merchants, and the humour and
drollery which he has thrown into his principal comic personage." This
is Simplicity, the fool or clown, droll, indifferent, honest, and by
no means so simple as he appears: a descendant of the historical Will
Summer, a forerunner of the Dogberrys and Malaprops, and the elder
brother of an Honesty of another play, _A Knack to Know a Knave_,
in which the same author probably had a hand. Standing over against
three belated specimens of the Vice, Simplicity unites the shrewdness,
manners, and humour of that personage--but in superior quality--with
the prudence, the penetration, and the conception of honour peculiar to
the professional jester. He also plays a vital part in the main action,
and is worthy to be regarded as one of the best clowns, if not the
best, in the history of the moral interlude. His forthright utterances
in the _Three Ladies_ and his easy and witty prose in the sequel mark
him for a model likely to have influenced the younger dramatists of
the day. The minor plot-interest of the honest Jew, Gerontus, the
rascally Christian, Mercatore, and the Judge, is significant, not only
as the reverse of the conception dramatized in the _Jew of Malta_ and
the _Merchant of Venice_, but as, with one exception, the earliest
elaboration of the motif that was to become prominent in the drama
of the next few years. Qualities romantic and real invest the career
of the three Ladies; and the characterization of the numerous minor
personages is both subtle and suitable to their different classes and
interests.

Although the _Three Lordes and Ladies_, one of the earliest sequels in
the history of English drama, is "more of a moral" than its predecessor
and makes no improvement in plot-structure, it is of importance
fully equal. For what it lacks in passion and romance is more than
counterbalanced by technical qualities--the blank verse, the fluent
prose, the wit of Simplicity and the pages, the scenic display, the
variety of incidents, and the portrayal of manners. If we consider
the definite transition from abstractions to social and individual
traits of character in this play and the preceding,--the multi-fold
impersonation of worldly wisdom, fraud, and shoddy, one might say the
resolution of the rôle of Vice into its component specialties; the
corresponding offset of all these by ensamples of virtuous living, but
still human; and the attendant _troupe_ of more obvious 'humours,'
Simplicity and the pages, Painful Penury, Diligence, and the rest,--it
will be evident that these plays of Robert Wilson are the merging
of moral interlude in romantic and social comedy. On this account I
cannot agree with Dr. Ward,[88] who says that in construction and
conception they mark no advance whatever upon the older moralities. I
think they mark a significant advance. In them the moral has arrived at
a consciousness of the demands of art; and, attempting to fulfil its
possibilities, it acquires body, spirit, and _bouquet_, even though,
in the moment of fermentation, it bursts the bottle. Still we must
remember that we have now reached a date, 1588-90, by which much of
the best work of Lyly, Marlowe, Peele, and Greene had already been
produced, and we must, therefore, not attribute to Wilson an importance
greater than that of an industrious and inventive contemporary,
hospitable to ideas, but essentially conservative in practice. He is at
once "father of interludes," as interludes then were regarded, and an
intermediary between the interlude of moral abstractions and the comedy
of humours. He appears, also, to have played so lively a part in the
dramatic history of his day that Mr. Fleay is justified in calling this
period by his name; and, therefore, a few further words concerning him
and other plays which he seems to have written might well be said here,
but we must reserve them for another occasion.

=14. Conclusion=

With but one or two exceptions the plays which we have so far passed
in review fail in some respect or other of the plot that makes a
comedy. A plot that is argumentative, that is a ratiocination or
_exemplum_ conducted by abstractions, is not sufficient to constitute
comedy, though it may contribute to its development a unity of
interest, a spiritual sequence; nor are sporadic situations and
incidents sufficient, though humorously conceived and executed; nor
glimpses of types, characters or manners, nor hints of passion, nor
satiric speeches and dialogues, though artistically dramatized, true,
appropriate, and witty. None of these constitutes comedy. Comedy
demands action vitalized by a plot that is capable of revealing the
social significance of the individual: an action of sufficient scope
and reality to display the spirit of society in individual types and
manners, or in character and sentiment; a plot sufficiently urgent to
interest us, not only in the phenomena, in the concomitants, of every
deed, but in its motive and inherent passion. The comedy of external
life may present, by means of typical individuals and conventional
manners, a reflex of that which is actual, or a criticism of it;
and such a play will be realistic or satirical. The comedy of the
inner life, on the other hand, since it reveals the characteristics
of humanity in the heat and moment of passion, may present a vision
of the ideal made concrete; it is therefore at once interpretative,
constructive, and romantic. These two kinds of comedy are alike in that
they display the triumph of freedom when regulated by common sense, the
adjustment of the individual to society. But as they vary in function
and result, so these kinds of comedy differ in the quality of action
which each may present. The play of convention and manners can use
only the externals of action, actions that neither strike deep nor
spring from the depths, for such a play aims to reproduce appearances
or merely to re-create them--to criticise and correct rather than
construct. The play of character and passion, not the so-called
realistic, but idealistic, selects for presentation actions whose
springs are in the inner life; and that is because it would present men
and women as they should be,--individuals widening the social, pressing
toward the ideal, not by overstepping that which is conventional, but
by informing it with new meaning and pushing back its limits. Comedy,
therefore, is in the plot, and the plot must proceed from the wisdom
essential to a comic view of life: acceptance of the social environment
as it appears to be, because one believes in society as it should be.
The dramatist, his plot and his characters, are the exponents of common
sense and freedom, of the light of life as it is with the sweetness
of life as it may be. Common sense, however, may become prosaic, or
liberty licentious; and it is in preventing such extremes that wit
and humour perform their function. Neither of these can alone make a
comedy, but one of them may sometimes save it. Both should certainly
characterize it. But for the former, the drama of appearances might be
caricature, abuse, horse-play, or homily; but for the latter, romantic
comedy would be bathos. No amount of wit, however, could save a play
that did not possess a significant sequence of material and event.
Though the booths of Bartholomew Fair agitate the diaphragm, they do
not constitute comedy. Without plot the lunges of wit lack point; and
as for the plotless play of passion, it ends in Bedlam, whence all the
humour in the world cannot redeem it.

It was a step forward when allegory made way for concrete characters
and manners, and the motives born of social intercourse; a further step
when the dramatist ceased instructing and sought to amuse. But the
final step implied the still rarer ability to create something integral
and critical in one, something that should act what life means, and
so unconsciously demonstrate that it is purposive, and more hopeful
and amusing than we thought. Naturally enough, our earlier comic
plots, when they were escaping from the symbolic, lacked sometimes
in significance, and sometimes in sequence. The fables of _Roister
Doister_ and _Gammer Gurton_ mark an advance in technical construction;
but they do not escape the farcical, for their subjects are trivial.
There were likewise many experiments to be made in the materials of
intrigue and passion before _Damon and Pithias_ and _The Supposes_
could fulfil, even in part, the requirements of significant romance.
And when, at last, the play with a plot had come to its own, it was
long before it attained wisdom to suffuse the appearances of life with
their illuminating characteristic, and imagination to colour the course
of characteristic events.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] In _The Academy_, January 11, 1890.

[2] Manly, _Specimens of the Pre-Shakespearean Drama_, vol. I., p.
xxvii; for examples of dramatic tropes from the _Regularis Concordia
Monachorum_ and the Winchester troper, see pp. xix-xxvi.

[3] _Non novo quidem instituto, sed de consuetudine_, etc., says
_Bulæus, Hist. Univ., Par._ II., 226 (edit. 1665); Collier, _English
Dramatic Poetry, and Annals of the Stage_, I. 14.

[4] In his _Lives of the Abbots of St. Albans_.

[5] In the _Household Book_, Henry VII.; Collier, _Hist._, vol. I, p.
53 n.

[6] _Gesch. des neueren Dramas_, I. 141.

[7] See Wright's _Early Mysteries_, etc., Klein's _Geschichte des
Dramas_, III. 638 _et seq._, Creizenach, _Gesch. d. n. Dramas_, I. 37
_et seq._ Quadrio speaks in his _Storia_, III. ii. 52, of a Pietro
Babyone, an Englishman, who, according to Bale, wrote a Latin comedy in
verse, _c._ 1366.

[8] Ward, I. 52.

[9] Creizenach, I. 101.

[10] Historians of the Church of York, Rolls Series, No. 71, i. 328.
Quoted by A. F. Leach in _Some English Plays and Players_, Furnivall
Miscellany, p. 206.

[11] In Supp. Dods. _Old Plays_, Introd. to _Chester Plays_, ix.;
_Latin Stories_, p. 100.

[12] _An Answer to a Certain Libel, &c._, in Collier, II. 73.

[13] As early as 1304 in Hamburg: Meyer, _Gesch. d. hamburg. Schul- und
Unterrichtswesens im Mittelalter_, S. 197: cited in Creizenach, I. 391.

[14] The Shearmen and Taylors' Pageant, from the _Annunciation_ to
the _Flight into Egypt_ (Ms., 1533), and the Weavers' Pageant of the
_Presentation in the Temple_.

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

[16] XXVI., _The Conspiracy_, and IX., _Noah_,--abababab⁴cdcccd³.

[17] XXXVI., _The Mortificacio_,--ababbcbc³d¹eee²d³. VII., _The
Cayme_,--ababbc⁴d¹bcc⁴d².

[18] Y. XI., W. VIII.; Y. XXII., W. XVIII.; Y. XXXVII., W. XXV.;
Y. XXXVIII., W. XXVI.; Y. XLVIII., W. XXX. For particulars see
Miss Lucy Toulmin Smith, Pollard, Hohlfeld's _Die Altenglischen
Kollektivmisterien_, Anglia XI.

[19] Such as stanza 57 in Wakefield XXIX. _Ascension_, and 97-100 in
Wakefield XX. _Conspiracy_.

[20] Cf. stanzas 1 to 4 with those that follow in Wakefield XXII.,
_Fflagellacio_; and stanza 6 of Wakefield XXIV. with those that precede
it; and stanza 58 of Wakefield XXIX. with stanza 57.

[21] XXX. _Judicium_, stanzas 16 to 48, 68 to 76.

[22] XVI. _Herod_.

[23] XX. _a, Conspiracy_.

[24] Stanza 57 might just as well be arranged like stanza 58.

[25] III., XII., XIII., XXI.

[26] Minor passages in the nine-line stanza are II., 35, 36; XXIV.,
1-5, 56-59; XXVII., 4 Passages in a closely similar stanza are XXII.,
1-4; XXIII., 2; XXVII., 30.

[27] _The Towneley Plays_, Introd., p. xxii.

[28] _Die englischen Mysterien, Jahrb. rom. u. eng. Lit._, I. 153.

[29] Ten Brink, _Eng. Lit._ II: i. 306.

[30] I do not forget that belated _Tobias_ at Lincoln, 1564-66, nor the
_Godly Queen Hester_ of 1561; but they have nothing to do with the case.

[31] Rel. _Antiq._ II. 43.

[32] _St. Katharine_ (Dunstable _c._ 1100, Coventry, 1490); _St.
George_ (1415 and later); _St. Laurence_ (Lincoln, 1441); _St. Susanna_
(Lincoln, 1447); _St. Clara_ (Lincoln, 1455); _St. Edward_ (Coventry,
1456 and later); _St. Christian_ (Coventry, 1504); _St. Christina_
(Bethersden in Kent, 1522); _Sts. Crispin and Crispinian_ (Dublin,
1528); _St. Olave_ (London, 1557). Some of these were church plays,
like the _St. Olave_; some, like the _St. Katharine_, were school
plays; some, craft plays, like the _St. Crispin_. It is hard sometimes
to distinguish between the play and the mumming or the mute pageant;
to the dumb show may be assigned some of the _St. Georges_ and the
pageants of Fabyan, Sebastian, and Botulf, displayed, in 1564, by the
religious gild of Holy Trinity (St. Botolph without Aldersgate). For
some conception of the frequency and vitality of such shows one need
only turn to Hone, Stow's _Survey_, the _Records of Aberdeen_, Toulmin
Smith's _English Gilds_, the _History of Dublin_, Davidson's _English
Mystery Plays_, and other books of this kind.

[33] German ballads on the subject in 1337 and 1478. A case similar to
the material of this drama is assigned to 1478 in Train's _Gesch. d.
Juden in Regensburg_, pp. 116-117.

[34] Child, _English and Scotch Popular Ballads_, vol. III., pp. 44,
90, 127, 114.

[35] In his introduction, _Contributions to Early English Popular
Literature_, London, 1849, privately printed.

[36] Warton, _H. E. P._, vol. II., p. 72.

[37] Repr. in Manly's _Specimens_; the former from _Notes and Queries_,
Fifth Series, II. 503-505; the latter from Kelly's _Notices of
Leicester_.

[38] Halliwell's _Contribution to E. Engl. Lit._

[39] British Museum, Add. Mss. 33,418.

[40] Repr. Manly, _Specimens_ from _Folk Lore Journal_, VII. 338-353.

[41] Stow speaks of mummers, "with black visors, not amiable, as if
legates from some foreign prince."

[42] Cf. "Two balls (i.e. _bulls_) from _yonder mountain_ have _laid
me_ quite _low_," with _Golden Legend_, vol. IV., p. 103, Temple
Classics ed. There is no such close similarity in the language of the
Early South English Legendary, Laud Ms., Seint Ieme, and Seint George
(Horstmann, Ed. E.E.T.S., 1887).

[43] _Schauspiele d. engl. Komödianten_, Einl. XCIV.

[44] L. W. Cushman, _The Devil and the Vice_, Halle a. S., 1900.

[45] I remember only Herod and Antichrist outside of the Digby plays
and of the Cornwall cycle (where the devils act as chorus and carry off
everything in sight), and the souls of those already damned who are
claimed by the devils of the Towneley.

[46] Whether the Rewfyn and Leyon of the Co. were Devils, I have my
doubts.

[47] Furnivall, _Digby Plays_, p. 43; ten Brink, _Gesch. engl. Lit._,
II. 320, and Sharp's _Dissertation on the Co. Mysteries_, 1825.

[48] In the _Nigromansir_, and the _Shipwrights' Play_ of Newcastle.

[49] Cushman, p. 66.

[50] Furnivall's ed., Pt. II. 510, 517, 531, 536, 541.

[51] _Wisdom_, _Disobedient Child_.

[52] _Perseverance_, _Mankynd_, _Mary Magdalene_, _Nigromansir_,
_Juventus_, _Like_, _Conflict of Conscience_, _Money_.

[53] _Mankynd_, _Mary Magdalene_, _Juventus_, and _Like_.

[54] _The Witt and Wisdome_, _King Cambyses_, _Like_, and _Horestes_.

[55] _Gesch. d. engl. Dramas_, II., p. 4.

[56] _English Writers_, VII., p. 182.

[57] _Cambyses_; cf. Roister Doister's array.

[58] _Play of Love_; cf. the braggart Crackstone in _Two Ital. Gent._,
much later.

[59] In _Wisdom_ he may be regarded as Vice and Devil (Lucifer) rolled
into one; in _Everyman_ he is probably represented by the friends who
desert the hero in time of need; in the _Disobedient Child_ he is
concrete as the prodigal son.

[60] Furnivall, _Digby Plays_, Forewords, xiii.

[61] Never 'Morality' to our ancestors; that is a futile borrowing from
the French.

[62] _Wisdom_ has only Lucifer; _Nature_ has only Sensuality and minor
Vices; _Pride of Life_ had Devils in all probability, but no Vice, for
Mirth is not one; _Everyman_ has neither.

[63] I see no reason for assuming with Professor Brandl (_Quellen u.
Forschungen_, XXVIII.) that the loss of the navy bound for Ireland,
II. 336-363, has reference to the destruction of the _Regent_ by the
French, 1512.

[64] For some of these see Quadrio, _Della Storia e della Ragione
d'ogni Poesia_, Vol. III., Lib. II., 53 _et seq._

[65] For the substance of this paragraph see the histories of Klein,
Herford, and Creizenach.

[66] _E. Dr. Po._, I. 107, from Gibson's Accounts.

[67] Warton, _H. Eng. Po._ (1871), IV. 323.

[68] Herford, _Lit. Rel._, pp. 107-108.

[69] _History of the Stage_, p. 64.

[70] Brandl, _Quellen_, LXII.; cf. Herford, _Lit. Rel._, p. 156. To
trace the suggestion of the model of Barnabas to the _Studentes_ of
Stymmelius, 1549, is, I think, absurd. It is strange that Creizenach,
_Gesch. d. neu. Dr._, I. 470, should assert, in face of the _Nice
Wanton_ and _The Glasse of Government_, that no English 'moral' avails
itself of _two_ representatives of the human race--a good and an evil.

[71] Brandl, _Quellen_, LXXIII.; and Herford, _Lit. Rel._

[72] _Lit. Rel._, p. 135.

[73] _The English Chronicle Play._

[74] Hawkins, _Engl. Drama_, I. 145, quotes a passage from one of
Latimer's sermons in the presence of Edward VI., which uses the story
of "drave me aboute the toune with a puddynge," referred to in _Lusty
Juventus_.

[75] _The Marriage of Wit and Wisdome._

[76] See below, p. 96.

[77] See below, p. 198. 'Trueman' in the _Historia Histrionica_ (pr.
1699) thinks it was "writ in the reign of K. Edw. VI."

[78] Bodl. Libr., _Malone_ 172, "second impression," London, 1661;
reprinted by F. E. Schelling, Publ. Mod. Lang. Asso., 1900.

[79] _Quellen u. Forschungen._

[80] Not J. Rychardes, as Mr. Fleay has it, _Hist. Stage_, p. 58.

[81] Herford, _Lit. Rel._, p. 156.

[82] Unique original, pub. by Pickerynge and Hacket, 1561, in Duke of
Devonshire's Libr., Chatsworth; repr. by Grosart, _Fuller Worthies
Libr._, vol. IV., _Miscellanies_, 1873.

[83] As _Hester and Abasuerus_, 1594. I see no reason for attributing
the authorship, with Mr. Fleay, to R. Edwardes.

[84] The relation of _The Taming of the Shrew_ to this play is well
known.

[85] _Hist. St._, p. 66.

[86] Brit. Mus. c. 34, g; Collier's _Illustr. O. Engl. Lit._, II. 2;
Brandl's _Quellen_.

[87] Collier, _E. Dram Po._, II. 432; and Ward, _Hist. E. Dr. Lit._, I.
264.

[88] _Hist. E. Dr. Lit._, I. 141.

_John Heywood_

THE PLAY OF THE WETHER

_and_

A MERY PLAY BETWENE
JOHAN JOHAN, THE HUSBANDE
TYB, HIS WIFE, &c.

_Edited with Critical Essay and Notes
by Alfred W. Pollard, M.A.,
St. John's College, Oxford_

CRITICAL ESSAY

=Life.=--The first authentic record of John Heywood is one of 6
January, 1515, in Henry VIII.'s Book of Payments, which shows him to
have then been one of the King's singing men, in receipt of a daily
wage of eightpence. According to Bale, who must have known him, he
was "civis Londinensis," the story that he was born at North Mimms,
Hertfordshire, having apparently arisen from his possession of land
in that neighbourhood. Tradition has sent him to Broadgates Hall, now
Pembroke College, Oxford, and there is nothing improbable in this.
In February, 1521, Heywood was granted by the King an annuity of ten
marks, and in 1526, a quarterly payment of the same sum was made him as
a "player of the virginals." He appears to have been specially attached
to the retinue of the Princess Mary, a payment being made in January,
1537, to his servant for bringing her "regalles" (or hand-organ) from
London to Greenwich, and Heywood himself in March, 1538, receiving
forty shillings for "pleying an interlude with his children" before
her. At Mary's coronation Heywood made her a Latin speech in St.
Paul's Churchyard, and in November, 1558, the Queen granted him some
leases in Yorkshire. On the accession of Elizabeth, Heywood, though
he had steered through the reign of Edward VI. with safety, fled to
Malines, and Professor Ward (in the _Dictionary of National Biography_)
identifies him with the John Heywood who in 1575 wrote from Malines,
"where I have been despoiled by Spanish and German soldier," thanking
Burghley for ordering the payment to him of some arrears on lands
at Romney, and speaking of himself as an old man of seventy-eight,
which would give 1497 as his birth-year. He is mentioned in a list
of refugees in 1577, but by 1587 is spoken of as "dead and gone."
Earlier biographers, it should be noted, following Anthony à Wood, have
placed his death in 1565. Besides his plays Heywood wrote a _Dialogue
Conteyning the Number of the Effectuall Prouerbes in the Englishe
Tonge_, _Six Hundred Epigrams_, and a tedious allegory _The Spider and
the Flie_, printed, with a woodcut of the author, in 1556.

=Heywood's Place in English Comedy.=--The early history of English
comedy is a record of successive efforts and experiments apparently
leading to no result. The comic scenes in the miracle plays culminate
in the really masterly sheep-stealing plot of the _Secunda Pastorum_
in the Towneley Cycle; but the step which seems to us so obvious, the
separation of the Pastoral Comedy from its religious surroundings, was
never taken, and the _Secunda Pastorum_ stands by itself, a solitary
masterpiece. In the earlier moralities there are flashes of humour
as in the miracle plays; in the later moralities we find scenes in
which the effort to paint the riotous course of Youth, though not very
amusing to modern readers, is sufficiently faithful to bring us within
sight of a possible comedy of manners. But the morality-writer was
far from entertaining any conception of comedy as an end in itself.
His aim remained to the last purely didactic. It did not, indeed,
occur to him, as it occurred to didactic writers of a later period,
to represent dissipation as so unattractive as to make it miraculous
that it should attract. He would show it as bitter of digestion, but
neither playwright nor audience were concerned to deny that it was
pleasant in the mouth, and it is improbable that readiness to acquiesce
in the sober moral of a play diminished in the least the applause with
which, we may be sure, any approach to gayety in the tavern scenes
would be attended. After all, though we may sometimes be inclined to
doubt it, audiences both at miracle plays and moralities were human.
To the very real strain imposed on their emotions in the miracle plays
they needed what seem to us these incongruous interludes of humour
by way of dramatic relief, and in the moralities it is difficult not
to believe that the humour supplied the gilding without which the
didactic pill, at a much earlier date, must have been found nauseating.
It remains, however, certain that alike in the miracle plays, the
moralities, and the moral interludes such humour as can be found is
merely incidental, and this is the justification for assigning to John
Heywood the honourable position which he occupies in this collection of
English comedies. As far as we know, he was the first English dramatist
to understand that a play might be constructed with no other objects
than satire and amusement, and if such epithets were not fortunately
a little discredited, we might dub him on this score the "Father" of
English comedy. Paternity, however, cannot be predicated without some
evidence of offspring, and it would be extremely difficult, I think,
to show that Heywood exercised sufficient influence on any subsequent
dramatist to be reckoned as his literary father. The anonymous author
of that amusing children's play, _Thersites_, was indeed a kindred
spirit, but there is at least a possibility that this play should be
credited to Heywood himself, and on the subsequent development of
comedy his influence was certainly of the smallest. But to have shown
that comedy was entitled to a separate existence, apart from didactics,
was no small achievement, and to the credit of this demonstration
Heywood is entitled.

In guessing how Heywood came to make this discovery it seems not
unreasonable to lay some stress on the fact that, according to a
tradition which there is no reason to doubt, he was a friend of Sir
Thomas More, while we know that four of his plays were printed by
William Rastell, the son of More's brother-in-law, John Rastell. More's
interest in the drama is attested by the story of his stepping, on more
than one occasion, among the players, when they were performing before
Cardinal Morton, and taking an improvised share in the dialogue. In the
play of _Sir Thomas More_, written towards the close of the century,
this improvisation is transferred to an interlude performed during
an entertainment at More's own house, and the introduction of this
interlude into the piece, and the ready welcome which the Chancellor
is represented as giving the players, certainly argue a tradition of a
keen interest in the drama on his part. John Rastell, again, has been
credited with the authorship of at least one of the interludes which
he printed, and quite recently some interesting documents have been
discovered, which show him organizing a performance for which a wooden
stage was erected in his own garden at Finsbury, setting Mrs. Rastell
to help a tailor to make some very gorgeous dresses, and apparently
engaging as players the craftsmen (a certain George Birch, currier, and
his friends), who up to this date were still the customary performers,
as distinct from a separate class of trained actors. Rastell, at
this time, and More, throughout his life, held those views as to
church-policy to which we know that Heywood himself consistently clung.
The attitude of firm belief, with an absolute readiness to satirize
abuses, which we find in Heywood's plays, was exactly characteristic
of More, and it does not seem fanciful to believe that it was partly
to the author of the _Utopia_, and to the circle of which he was the
centre, that Heywood owed his dramatic development.

=Plays assigned to him: Authorship, Dramatic Development, Literary
Estimate.=--There is the more reason for insisting on Heywood's place
as one of a little circle, interested in playwriting and play-acting,
in that the evidence for his authorship of two of the best of the
six interludes commonly assigned to him is extremely vague. It is,
indeed, very unfortunate that the six plays divide themselves into a
group of four and a group of two, and that whereas the four plays of
the first group are all positively assigned to him in one case in a
contemporary manuscript, said to be in his own writing, in the others
in contemporary printed editions, the two plays of the second group
were both published anonymously, although, like _The Play of Love_
and _The Play of the Wether_, they were issued by William Rastell,
and appeared within a few months of these plays to which Heywood's
name is duly attached. In the case of publications of our own day we
should certainly be justified in thinking that the assertion of his
authorship in two cases and the failure to assert it in two others were
intentional and significant. But in the first half of the sixteenth
century there was still much carelessness in these matters, while
the difference is fairly well accounted for by the fact that in _The
Play of Love_ and _Play of the Wether_ Rastell printed the title and
_dramatis personæ_ on a separate leaf, whereas in _The Pardoner and the
Frere_ and _Johan Johan_ there is only a head title. However this may
be, we are bound in the first instance to consider by themselves the
four plays of which Heywood's authorship is beyond dispute.

In approaching these four plays we must prepare ourselves to judge
them relatively to the other work of the very dull period of English
literature at which they were written. To make this claim for them is
to admit that they are imperfect, important historically rather than
absolutely for their own worth; but the admission is one which no sane
critic can avoid, and it is here made with alacrity. What it gains for
Heywood is the recognition that two strongly marked features of these
plays, one of which is now likely to repel, and the other to weary,
most modern readers, in his own day helped to make them amusing. The
repellent feature is, of course, that humour of filth which, quite
as much as his sexual indecencies, makes some passages both in the
_Four PP._ and _The Play of the Wether_ disgusting even to readers not
consciously squeamish. The epithet 'beastly' which Pope applied to
Skelton is certainly on this score no less appropriate to Heywood, but
it needs no wide acquaintance with the popular literature of his day to
learn that this wretched stuff was found amusing for its own sake. To
suppress this fact, either by expurgating or by deliberately choosing
a less typical play for the sake of its accidental decency, would
be to falsify evidence, and any such falsification would be grossly
unjust to Heywood's successors. It is only by realizing how low was the
conception of humour in the sixteenth century that we can explain the
existence in the plays of Shakespeare himself of passages which would
otherwise be wholly amazing.

For the other feature in Heywood's plays which now excites more
weariness than interest there is no need to apologize; we may even
confess that our failure to relish it is due to our own weakness.
In Heywood's days one of the chief aims of education was skill in
argument. Men disputed their way to academical degrees, and the
quickest path to reputation was the successful maintenance against
all comers of some hazardous proposition. Instead of introducing
this siege-train of argument into their plays, modern dramatists
have preferred the lighter weapons of verbal pleasantry and repartee
which make what is called "pointed dialogue." A request from one
of the _dramatis personæ_ to another "in this cause to shewe cause
reasonable.... Hearyng and aunswerynge me pacyently" would assuredly
empty any theatre of our own day. But the audience who listened to it
in Heywood's _Play of Love_ no doubt settled themselves in their places
with an anticipation of enjoyment. And we may fairly grant that our
author is not wholly unsuccessful in vivacious argument. For a lady to
compare the suit of an unwelcome lover to an invitation "to graunte
hym my good wyll to stryke of[f] my hed," pleasingly illustrates the
unreasonableness of too great pertinacity on the part of the rejected.
The objection "Howe many have ye known hang willingly" shatters at a
blow the seemingly sound plea that as the convict suffers more than
his hangman, so the rejected lover is more to be pitied than the most
tender-hearted lady who finds herself obliged to refuse him. The ups
and downs of the argument are often conducted with ingenuity, and
an audience to whom argument was amusing for its own sake no doubt
applauded every point. Two of Heywood's plays depend almost entirely
on their logical attractions,--the interlude, left unprinted till its
issue by the Percy Society in 1846, to which has been given as title
_The Dialogue of Wit and Folly_, and _The Play of Love_ twice printed
by Rastell (1533 and 1534) and once by Waley. The former is purely
argumentative, discussing the question as to whether the fool or the
sage has the pleasanter life. The _Play of Love_, on the other hand,
may be said to have two episodes, the first a monologue of some three
hundred lines in which the Vice, "Neither Loving nor Loved," narrates
his ill-success in an endeavour to conquer the heart of a lady without
losing his own, the second his appearance with a bucketful of squibs
and a false story of a fire at the house of the happy lover's mistress.
The argument in this play is double, "Loving not Loved" and "Loved not
Loving" contending as to which is the more miserable, and "Both Loved
and Loving" and "Neither Loving nor Loved" as to which is the happier.
As each pair appoints the other as joint arbitrators, it is perhaps
more surprising that any conclusion was reached, than that it should be
the rather tame one that the pains of the first pair and the happiness
of the second were in each case exactly equal.

In connection with these two plays we ought perhaps to allude to
another, very similar in its form, the dialogue of _Gentylnes and
Nobylyte_,[89] of which the authorship has often been attributed to
Heywood. This play is certainly printed in John Rastell's types, but in
place of a colophon it has the words "Johannes Rastell fieri fecit,"
and as Rastell would probably have written "imprimi fecit" if he had
been alluding merely to its printing, we can hardly doubt that the word
"fieri" refers to performance, if not to composition. With the evidence
we now have that John Rastell had plays acted in his own garden,
"fieri fecit" seems exactly translatable by "caused to be produced,"
and as Mrs. Rastell helped the tailor to make the dresses, so probably
the lawyer-printer helped to write the play. Its two parts are each
diversified by the Plowman beating Knight and Merchant (_verberat
eos_ is the stage-direction), but otherwise it is all sheer argument,
which in the end a philosopher is introduced to sum up. The tone of
the interlude is singularly democratic, the Plowman throughout having
the best of it, and, despite a natural similarity between some of the
speeches with those of the "Gentylman" and the "Marchaunt" in the _Play
of the Wether_, there seems no reason for connecting with it the name
of Heywood, who, for the better part of his life, was in the service of
the Court.

In "_The playe called the foure PP._: a newe and a very mery enterlude
of a palmer, a pardoner, a potycary, a pedler," the advance in dramatic
form as compared with _The Play of Love_ is very slight, though the
play is much more vivid and amusing. The Palmer begins it with an
account of his wanderings, and then the other three characters come
on the stage, each catching up the words of the last speaker, and
vaunting his own profession. The argument between Palmer, Pardoner,
and Pothecary waxes hot, and at last the Pedler suggests that as lying
is the one matter in which they are all skilled, their order of merit
can best be determined by a contest in this art, and offers himself as
the judge. At first the competitors lie vaguely. Then it is resolved
that the lie must take the form of a tale, and the Pothecary tells a
long story of the effect of one of his medicines; then the Pardoner a
much longer one of a visit to Hell and the rescue thence of a shrew
of whom Lucifer was very glad to be rid; finally the Palmer in a few
words expresses his surprise that there should be such shrews in Hell,
as in all his travels he never yet knew one woman out of patience--a
remark which straightway wins him the preëminence, though there is
more tedious wrangling, before a serious little speech from the Pedler
brings the play to a close. The _Four PP._ is, to our thinking,
insufferably spun out; but, except in the epilogue, as we may call it,
it is plain that its intention was solely to amuse--

To passe the tyme in thys without offence
Was the cause why the maker dyd make it,
And so we humbly beseche you take it,

says the Pedler:--and in substituting stories and a lighter form of
argument for the more formal disputation of the _Dyaloge of Wit and
Folly_ and the _Play of Love_ it comes a little nearer to the modern
conception of comedy, and may be thought to have deserved the success
which it is said to have achieved.

The possession by the _Play of the Wether_ of an obvious moral--the
mess which men would make of rain, wind, and sunshine if they had the
ruling of them--is undoubtedly a link with the interludes of a didactic
character, and so may seem at first sight to place it in a lower grade
of dramatic development. There can be little doubt that it was acted
by Heywood's company of "children," whom we hear of as performing
under his direction before the Princess Mary, and a children's play
would perhaps naturally be cast in this form. But the form is here
less important than the intention, and it does not need Mery-report's
comment ("now shall ye have the wether--even as yt was") to tell us
that Heywood's didactics were purely humorous. The point to be noted
is that this is really a play--a play, moreover, which if it could
be shortened and the unforgivable passages omitted, might be acted
by children of the present day with some enjoyment. The part of "the
Boy, the least that can play" is charming. There is stage furniture in
Jupiter's "trone," and in the coming and going of the characters at
least a semblance of action. We must note, however, the set disputation
between the two millers, as still linking it with Heywood's other
argumentative plays, though with all its faults it is the brightest and
most pleasing of its class.

We come now to the two plays, _The Pardoner and the Frere_ and _Johan
Johan_, which modern writers have uniformly assigned to Heywood,
although William Rastell printed them[90] without any author's name,
and no one has yet adduced contemporary evidence for assigning them
to Heywood. In neither of these plays is there any trace of the
disputation which in those we have been looking at is so conspicuous.
They are both true comedies, comedies in miniature if you like, but
true comedies, with a definite scene and dramatic action. _The Pardoner
and the Frere_ is little more than an expansion of hints given by
Chaucer, from whom the author does not hesitate to borrow two whole
passages, but the development of the little plot is well managed and
the climax when the Parson and Neighbour Prat are badly worsted and
the two rogues go off in triumph is thoroughly artistic. It has been
said that this play must have been written during the life of Leo X.,
who died in 1521, because the Pardoner's speech contains the passage
(omitting the Friar's interruptions):--

Worshypfull maysters ye shall understand
That Pope Leo the X hath graunted with his hand,
And by his bulls confyrmed under lede,
To all maner people, bothe quycke and dede,
Ten thousand yeres & as many lentes of pardon, etc.

But as Heywood was probably born in 1497, it is extremely unlikely that
his undoubted plays were written before 1520, and if the evidence of
this passage is to be pressed, I should regard it as absolutely fatal
to his authorship, it being inconceivable that any one who had written
the _Pardoner and the Frere_ could subsequently write the _Dyaloge of
Wyt and Folly_ or the _Play of Love_. But there would be an obvious
convenience in making a dead pope rather than a living one answerable
for the Pardoner's ribaldries, and the weight of this argument is not
lessened when we remember that the Pardoner proceeds to quote also the
authority of the King.[91] Although no alteration of date would bring
the play out of the reign of Henry VIII., we may well believe that that
peremptory monarch might forgive such reflections on his management of
church affairs at an earlier date much more readily than satire of a
system he was then supporting.

We shall have to speak again of the _Pardoner and the Frere_ and its
probable date, but we must pass on now to Heywood's masterpiece, if
we may call it his, the _mery play betwene Johan Johan, the husbande,
Tyb his wyfe and Syr Jhan, the preest_. In approaching this play, as
in approaching Chaucer's tales of the Miller and Reeve and some of
their fellows, we must, of course, leave our morality behind and
accept the playwright's and tale-teller's convention that cuckoldry and
cuckoldmaking are natural subjects for humour. This granted, it will be
difficult to find a flaw in the play. Like the _Pardoner and the Frere_
it is short, only about one half the length of the plays of _Love_,
the _Wether_, and the _Four PP._, and it gains greatly from being less
weighted with superfluities. Johan Johan himself, with his boasting
and cowardice, his eagerness to be deceived, and futile attempts to
put a good face on the matter, his burning desire to partake of the
pie, his one moment of self-assertion, to which disappointed hunger
spurs him, and then his fresh collapse to ludicrous uneasiness,--who
can deny that he is a triumph of dramatic art, just human enough and
natural enough to seem very human and natural on the stage, but with
the ludicrous side of him so sedulously presented to the spectator that
there is never any risk of compassion for him becoming uncomfortably
acute? The handling of Tyb and Syr Jhan is equally clever. Each in turn
is prepared to act on the defensive, to be evasive and explanatory, but
before Johan Johan's acquiesciveness such devices seem superfluous,
and little by little the pair reach a height of effrontery not easily
surpassed. One of the incidents of the play, the melting of the wax
by the fire, occurs also in a contemporary French _Farce nouuelle
tresbonne et fort ioyeuse de Pernet qui va au vin_, and it is certainly
in the French farces that we find the nearest approach in tone and
treatment, as well as in form, to this anonymous Johan Johan.

=Dates. The Authorship of "Thersites."=--It may have been noticed
that in passing these six plays in review the order followed has been
purely that of their dramatic development. We know that four of them
were printed in 1533, when Heywood was thirty-six or thereabouts,
but with the exception of the reference to Leo X. in the _Pardoner
and the Frere_, the significance of which I have given reasons for
considering doubtful, no one has yet detected any time-reference which
enables us to fix their approximate dates.[92] In his little treatise
_John Heywood als Dramatiker_ (1888) Dr. Swoboda maintains that the
_Pardoner_ must be placed earlier than the _Four PP._, and that the
_Four PP._ can be shown to be earlier than the anonymous play of
_Thersites_, which we know from its epilogue was acted at Court between
October 12 and 24, 1537, the dates respectively of the birth of Edward
VI. and the death of his mother, Jane Seymour.[93] In support of his
first point he cites the fact that some of the relics ("the grete toe
of the Trinite" and "of all Hallows the blessed jawbone") vaunted by
the Pardoner in his sermon in the church appear again in the longer
list of relics in the _Four PP._ In support of the second he quotes
from _Thersites_ the lines[94] in which that hero proposes to visit
Purgatory and Hell, and traces in them an allusion to the Pardoner's
story in the _Four PP._ I cannot accept either of these arguments as
decisive chronologically, it being quite as reasonable for a dramatist
to abridge a list of relics as to expand it, while the boast of
Thersites might be represented as the hint out of which the rescue of
Mistress Margery Coorson was developed no less plausibly than as a
reference to that notorious lie. The _Pardoner and the Frere_ seems to
me dramatically more advanced than the _Four PP._, and I am therefore
slow to accept any argument which would place it earlier; but even
when we allow for the fact that Chaucer had fixed for all time the
humorous treatment of Pardoners, the fact that the Pardoners in these
two plays are so closely alike is an argument of some weight for their
common authorship.[95] But if this be so, the reference to sweeping
Hell clean in _Thersites_ may set us wondering whether it was not the
author of the _Four PP._ who was most likely to have written it; and we
may note also the repetition in _Thersites_ of the absurd boasting with
which Johan Johan preludes his disclosure of his cowardice, while the
incident of Telemachus belongs to that "humour of filth" which I have
already noted as characteristic of Heywood. For the probability of the
latter's authorship of _Thersites_ we may claim also a little external
support. We have already noticed that in March, 1538, Heywood received
forty shillings for the performance by his "children" of an interlude
before the Princess Mary. Now _Thersites_ is obviously intended for
performance by children; it was acted a few months previously to the
payment of March, 1538,[96] in honour of Jane Seymour, to whom Mary,
in return for her abundant kindness, was greatly attached; and again
Mary's fondness for the classics would explain the selection of a
classical burlesque if, as is probable, she was present when it was
acted. Given the facts that Heywood had already in the _Play of the
Wether_ brought Jupiter on the stage, that _Thersites_ bears at least
some slight resemblances to other plays attributed to him, that he
was in the service of the Princess Mary, and was manager, whether
permanently or temporarily, about this time, of a company of children,
and I think we have a fairly strong case for attributing _Thersites_ to
his pen. If this theory be accepted, the probability of his authorship
of both the _Pardoner and the Frere_ and _Johan Johan_ is considerably
increased; for if _Thersites_ is by Heywood, it is good enough to form
an important link between these plays and his argumentative interludes,
while if _Thersites_ be not by Heywood, there was then some other
playwright of the day for whom a strong claim might be put forward to
the authorship of these other anonymous plays.

=Sources.=--The fact that an opportunity for writing about Heywood
is not likely to recur very often must be offered as an excuse for
interpolating questions of detail into this preface. For the broader
view of the subject which we ought here to take it is obvious that
the authorship of this or that play is not very important. What
concerns us here is that we can see even in the less developed group
of plays English comedy emancipating itself from the miracle-play
and morality, and in the _Pardoner and the Frere_ and _Johan Johan_
becoming identical in form with the French fifteenth-century farce.
Whether we ought to go beyond this and assert absolute borrowing from
French originals is rather a difficult question. The _Farce nouuelle
d'un Pardonneur, d'un triacleur et d'une tauerniere_ may certainly
have supplied the idea both of the preaching-match between Pardoner
and Friar and also of the comparison of the wares of Pardoner and
Pothecary. The _Farce nouuelle tresbonne et fort ioyeuse de Pernet
qui va au vin_ contains two passages[97] which must have some direct
connection with _Johan Johan_. The only extant edition of Pernet qui
va au vin was "nouvellement imprimé" in 1548, and the date of its
prototype is unknown. The _Farce d'un Pardonneur_, in the edition
which has come down to us, is certainly later than 1540, but this also
was probably a reprint. Thus despite the fact that the handling of
the incidents in the English plays is far more skilful than in the
French, it would seem too daring to suggest that the French farces
can be borrowed from the English, and in any case we may imagine that
the English dramatist did not make his new departure unaided, but was
consciously working on the lines which had long been popular in France.
By doing so he did not lay the foundation of English comedy, for it was
not on these lines that our comedy subsequently developed. But it was
at least a hopeful omen for the future that an English playwright so
easily attained a real mastery in the only school of comedy with which
he could have been acquainted. It was something also that the right of
comedy to exist as a source of amusement apart from instruction had
been successfully vindicated. These were two real achievements, and
they must always be connected with the name of John Heywood.

="Play of the Wether": Early Editions and the Present Text.=--At the
time I write, the _Play of the Wether_ has not been reprinted since
the sixteenth century. Its bibliography has been rather confused by
the existence of two texts of it, one at St. John's College, Oxford,
the other at the University Library, Cambridge, each wanting the last
leaf, containing in the one case twenty, and in the other sixteen,
lines of the text and the colophon with the printer's name. The
only perfect copy hitherto generally known is that preserved at the
Bodleian Library, which belongs to an edition "Imprinted at London in
Paules Churchyearde, at the Sygne of the Sunne, by Anthonie Kytson"
whose career as a publisher seems to have been comprised within the
years 1549 and 1579. Of this as the only complete edition I then knew
I made my first transcript, though subsequent collation showed that
the imperfect edition at St. John's College contained many better
readings and an earlier spelling, while the copy at the University
Library, Cambridge (sometimes, though I think erroneously, attributed
to the press of Robert Wyer), belonged to an intermediate edition.
The registration by the Bibliographical Society in its _Hand-lists
of English Printers_, 1501-1556, of the copy of an edition of 1533,
printed by William Rastell, in the Pepys Collection at Magdalene
College, Cambridge, sent me to Cambridge for a new transcript. On
examination, the Magdalene edition proved to be identical with that
at St. John's College, Oxford, which had previously been conjecturally
assigned to Rastell, perhaps by some one who had seen it before the
last leaf disappeared. In reproducing Rastell's text I have not
thought it necessary to print my collation of the later editions, as
it is clear that the unidentified edition at the University Library,
Cambridge (U. L. C.), was printed from Rastell's, and Kitson's from
this. The printer of the U. L. C. edition introduced some errors into
his text, most of which Kitson copied: e.g. _hote_ for _hore_ in l.
38, omission of second _so_ in l. 68, and of second _as_ in l. 72,
_name_ for _maner_ in l. 115, _or_ for _of_ in l. 357, _we_ for _I_
in l. 427, _plumyng_ for _plumpyng_ in l. 657, _thynges_ for _thynge_
in l. 660, _showryng_ for _skowryng_ in l. 661, _ye_ for _yt_ in l.
699, _and_ for _all_ in l. 705, _belyke_ for _be leak[e]y_ in l. 800;
though he corrected a few: e.g. _pale_ for _dale_ in l. 277. On the
other hand, Kitson introduced some sixty or seventy errors of his
own, such as _creatour_ for _creature_ in l. 5, _well_ for _we_ in l.
21, _myngled_ for _mynglynge_ in l. 144, _mery_ for _mary_ in l. 366,
_beseched_ for _besecheth_ in l. 347, _pycked_ for _prycked_ in l. 467,
_bodily_ for _boldely_ in l. 470, _solyter_ for _solycyter_ in l. 496,
etc. As these variations are obviously misprints and nothing more, it
would have been pedantic to record them in full, and these samples
will doubtless suffice. The following title-page is a representation,
not a reproduction, of the original. There is no running head-line in
Rastell's text.

ALFRED W. POLLARD.

FOOTNOTES:

[89] The full title of this play is rather instructive:--"Of Gentylnes
& Nobylyte: a dyaloge betwen the marchaunt, the knyght & the plowman
dysputyng who is a verey gentylman & who is a noble man and how men
shuld come to auctoryte, compiled in maner of an enterlude with divers
toys & gestis addyd therto to make mery pastyme and disport."

[90] _The Pardoner and the Frere_ is dated 5 April, 1533; _Johan
Johan_, 12 February, 153¾.

[91]

And eke, yf thou dysturbe me anythynge,
Thou art also a traytour to the Kynge,
For here hath he graunted me vnder his brode seale
That no man, yf he love hys hele,
Sholde me dysturbe or let in any wyse

[92] If the reference in l. 636 of the _Play of the Wether_ (see note)
is to be pressed, this would be an exception, giving us between 1523
and 1533 as the date of composition.

[93] Dr. Swoboda erroneously places Edward VI.'s birth in August, a
slip of some importance as to some extent spoiling his argument that
_Thersites_ must have been written for a performance at an earlier
date. But perhaps even in October it would not be quite correct to say
"All herbs are dead," while the reference to a New Year's gift, though
not quite decisive, makes it probable that the play was written for a
Christmas entertainment. In any case it is intrinsically probable that
a play acted at an improvised festivity on the birth of an heir to
the throne would be an old one, rather than specially written for the
occasion.

[94]

If no man will with me battle take,
A voyage to hell quickly I will make,
And there I will beat the devil and his dame,
And bring the souls away: I fully intend the same.
After that in Hell I have ruffled so,
Straight to old Purgatory will I go,
I will clean that so purge round about
That we shall need no pardons to help them out.

[95] Dr. Swoboda, who speaks of the plays from the press of William
Rastell as printed by his father (John), was apparently unaware that
neither _The Pardoner and the Frere_ nor _Johan Johan_ bears Heywood's
name, and takes his authorship of them for granted.

[96] It is not contended that the payment was for the performance of
_Thersites_, only that it shows that Heywood was a likely man to be
called on to produce a play about this period.

[97] See notes to ll. 263 and 482. I quote here the end of the French
farce in order to give the "wax" episode in full.

_Le Cousin._ Or ca cousin iay pense
Dung subtil affaire,
Dont vous serez riche a iamas.

_Pernet._ Riche, cousin?

_Le Cousin._ Certes, sire, vous fault chauffer
Et faire ung subtil ouuraige,
Qui vous gardera de dommaige,
Cousin, beau sire.

_Pernet._ Me fault il donc chauffer la cire,
Tandis que vous banqueterez?
Corbieu, ien suis marry,
Je croy que ce paste est bon.

_Le Cousin._ Chauffez & mettez du charbon
Lymaige sera proffittable.

_Pernet._ Vous irayge signer la table?
Je scay bien le benedicite.

_Le Cousin._ Faictes ce que iay recite.
Dea! cousin! ne perdez point de temps.

_Pernet._ Cest vng trespouure passetemps
De chauffer la cire quant on digne!
Regardez elle est plus molle que laine,
En la chauffant rien naqueste.

_Le Cousin._ Conclus & conqueste!
Auec la femme ie banqueste,
Combien que ie ne soye le sire
Et son mary chauffe la cire.

The play of the wether

[Decoration]

A new and a very
mery enterlude of
all maner wethers
made
by John Heywood,

[Decoration]

The players names.

Jupiter a god.
Mery reporte the vyce.
The gentylman.
The marchaunt.
The ranger.
The water myller.
The wynde myller.
The gentylwoman.
The launder.
A boy the lest that can play.

[Decoration]

The Play of the Wether

_Jupyter_ A ii

RYght farre to longe, as now, were to recyte
The auncyent estate wherein our selfe hath reyned,
What honour, what laude, gyven us of very ryght,
What glory we have had, dewly unfayned,
Of eche creature, which dewty hath constrayned; 5
For above all goddes, syns our father's fale,
We, Jupiter, were ever pryncypale.

If we so have beene, as treuth yt is in dede,
Beyond the compas of all comparyson,
Who coulde presume to shew, for any mede, 10
So that yt myght appere to humayne reason,
The hye renowne we stande in at this season?
For, syns that heven and earth were fyrste create,
Stode we never in suche tryumphaunt estate

As we now do, whereof we woll reporte 15
Suche parte as we se mete for tyme present,
Chyefely concernynge your[98] perpetuall comforte,
As the thynge selfe shall prove in experyment,
Whyche hyely shall bynde you, on knees lowly bent,
Sooly to honour oure hyenes, day by day. 20
And now to the mater gyve eare, and we shall say.

Before our presens, in our hye parlyament,
Both goddes and goddeses of all degrees
Hath[99] late assembled, by comen assent,
For the redres of certayne enormytees, 25
Bred amonge them, thorow extremytees
Abusyd in eche to other of them all,
Namely, to purpose, in these moste specyall:

Our forsayde father Saturne, and Phebus,
Eolus and Phebe, these foure[100] by name, 30
Whose natures, not onely, so farre contraryous,
But also of malyce eche other to defame,
Have longe tyme abused, ryght farre out of frame,
The dew course of all theyr constellacyons,
To the great damage of all yerthly nacyons: 35

Whyche was debated in place sayde before; A ii _b_
And fyrste, as became, our father moste auncyent,
With berde whyte as snow, his lockes both colde & hore,
Hath entred[101] such mater as served his entent,
Laudynge his frosty mansyon in the fyrmament, 40
To ayre & yerth as thynge moste precyous,
Pourgynge all humours that are contagyous.

How be yt, he alledgeth that, of longe tyme past,
Lyttell hath prevayled his great dylygens,
Full oft uppon yerth his fayre frost he hath cast, 45
All thynges hurtfull to banysh out of presens.
But Phebus, entendynge to kepe him in sylens,
When he hath labored all nyght in his powres,[102]
His glarynge beamys maryth all in two howres.

Phebus to this made no maner answerynge, 50
Whereuppon they both then Phebe defyed,
Eche for his parte leyd in her reprovynge
That by her showres superfluous they have tryed[103];
In all that she may theyr powres be denyed;
Wherunto Phebe made answere no more 55
Then Phebus to Saturne hadde made before.

Anone uppon Eolus all these dyd fle,
Complaynynge theyr causes, eche one arow,
And sayd, to compare, none was so evyll as he;
For, when he is dysposed his blastes to blow, 60
He suffereth neyther sone-shyne, rayne nor snowe.
They eche agaynste other, and he agaynste al three,--
Thus can these iiii in no maner agree!

Whyche sene in themselfe, and further consyderynge,
The same to redres was cause of theyr assemble; 65
And, also, that we, evermore beynge,
Besyde our puysaunt power of deite,
Of wysedome and nature so noble and so fre,
From all extremytees the meane devydynge,
To pease and plente eche thynge attemperynge, 70

They have, in conclusyon, holly surrendryd A iii
Into our handes, at mych as concernynge
All maner wethers by them engendryd,
The full of theyr powrs, for terme everlastynge,
To set suche order as standyth wyth our pleasynge, 75
Whyche thynge, as of our parte, no parte requyred,
But of all theyr partys ryght humbly desyred,

To take uppon us. Wherto we dyd assente.
And so in all thynges, with one voyce agreable,
We have clerely fynyshed our foresayd parleament, 80
To your great welth, whyche shall be fyrme and stable,
And to our honour farre inestymable;
For syns theyr powers, as ours, addyd to our owne,
Who can, we say, know us as we shulde be knowne?

But now, for fyne,[104] the rest of our entent, 85
Wherfore, as now, we hyther are dyscendyd,
Is onely to satysfye and content
All maner people whyche have been offendyd
By any wether mete to be amendyd,
Uppon whose complayntes, declarynge theyr grefe, 90
We shall shape remedye for theyr relefe.

And to gyve knowledge for theyr hyther resorte
We wolde thys afore proclaymed to be,
To all our people, by some one of thys sorte,[105]
Whome we lyste to choyse here amongest all ye. 95
Wherfore eche man avaunce, and we shal se
Whyche of you is moste mete to be our cryer.

_Here entreth_ MERY-REPORTE.

_Mery-reporte._ Brother,[106] holde up your torche a lytell hyer!
Now, I beseche you, my lorde, loke on me furste.
I truste your lordshyp shall not fynde me the wurste. 100

_Jupyter._ Why! what arte thou that approchyst so ny?

_Mery-reporte._ Forsothe, and please your lordshyppe, it is I.

_Jupyter._ All that we knowe very well, But what I?

_Mery-reporte._ What I? Some saye I am I perse I.[107]
But, what maner I so ever be I, 105
I assure your good lordshyp, I am I.

_Jupyter._ What maner man arte thou, shewe quickely. A iii _b_

_Mery-reporte._ By god, a poore gentylman, dwellyth hereby.

_Jupyter._ A gentylman! Thyselfe bryngeth wytnes naye,
Both in thy lyght behavour and araye. 110
But what arte thou called where thou dost resorte?

_Mery-reporte._ Forsoth, my lorde, mayster Mery-reporte.

_Jupyter._ Thou arte no mete man in our bysynes,
For thyne apparence is of to mych lyghtnes.

_Mery-reporte._ Why, can not your lordshyp lyke my maner 115
Myne apparell, nor my name nother?

_Jupyter._ To nother of all we have devocyon.

_Mery-reporte._ A proper lycklyhod of promocyon!
Well, than, as wyse as ye seme to be,
Yet can ye se no wysdome in me. 120
But syns ye dysprayse me for so lyghte an elfe,
I praye you gyve me leve to prayse my-selfe:
And, for the fyrste parte, I wyll begyn
In my behavour at my commynge in,
Wherin I thynke I have lytell offendyd, 125
For, sewer, my curtesy coulde not be amendyd;
And, as for my sewt your servaunt to be,
Myghte yll have bene myst for your honeste;
For, as I be saved, yf I shall not lye,
I saw no man sew for the offyce but I! 130
Wherfore yf ye take me not or I go,
Ye must anone, whether ye wyll or no.
And syns your entent is but for the wethers,
What skyls[108] our apparell to be fryse[109] or fethers?
I thynke it wisdome, syns no man forbad it, 135
With thys to spare a better--yf I had it!
And, for my name, reportyng alwaye trewly,
What hurte to reporte a sad mater merely?
As, by occasyon, for the same entent,
To a serteyne wedow thys daye was I sent, 140
Whose husbande departyd wythout her wyttynge,
A specyall good lover and she hys owne swettynge![110]
To whome, at my commyng, I caste suche a fygure,
Mynglynge the mater accordynge to my nature,
That when we departyd,[111] above al other thynges, 145
She thanked me hartely for my mery tydynges!
And yf I had not handled yt merely, A iv
Perchaunce she myght have taken yt hevely;
But in suche facyon I conjured and bounde her,
That I left her meryer then I founde her! 150
What man may compare to showe the lyke comforte
That dayly is shewed by me, Mery-reporte?
And, for your purpose, at this tyme ment,
For all wethers I am so indyfferent,[112]
Without affeccyon, standynge so up-ryght, 155
Son-lyght, mone-lyght, ster-lyght, twy-light, torch-light,
Cold, hete, moyst, drye, hayle, rayne, frost, snow, lightnyng,
thunder,
Cloudy, mysty, wyndy, fayre, fowle, above hed or under,
Temperate or dystemperate, whatever yt be,
I promyse your lordshyp, all is one to me. 160

_Jupyter._ Well, sonne, consydrynge thyne indyfferency,
And partely the rest of thy declaracyon,
We make the our servaunte and immediately
Well woll thou departe and cause proclamacyon,
Publyshynge our pleasure to every nacyon, 165
Whyche thynge ons done, wyth all dylygens,
Make thy returne agayne to this presens,

Here to receyve all sewters of eche degre;
And suche as to the may seme moste metely,
We wyll thou brynge them before our majeste, 170
And for the rest, that be not so worthy,
Make thou reporte to us effectually,
So that we may heare eche maner sewte at large.
Thus se thow departe and loke uppon thy charge!

_Mery-reporte._ Now, good my lorde god, our lady be wyth ye! 175
Frendes, a fellyshyppe,[113] let me go by ye!
Thynke ye I may stande thrustyng amonge you there?
Nay, by god, I muste thruste aboute other gere!

MERY-REPORTE _goeth out_.

_At thende[114] of this staf[115] the god hath a song played in his
trone or_ MERY-REPORTE _come in_.

_Jupiter._ Now, syns we have thus farre set forth our purpose,
A whyle we woll wythdraw our godly presens, 180
To embold all such more playnely to dysclose,
As here wyll attende, in our foresayd pretens.
And now, accordynge to your obedyens, A iv _b_
Rejoyce ye in us with joy most joyfully,
And we our-selfe shall joy in our owne glory! 185
[JUPITER _here closes the curtains of his throne_.]

MERY-REPORTE _cometh in_.

_Mery-reporte._ Now, syrs, take hede! for here cometh goddes servaunt!
Avaunt! carte[r]ly keytyfs,[116] avaunt!
Why, ye dronken horesons, wyll yt not be?
By your fayth, have ye nother cap nor kne?
Not one of you that wyll make curtsy 190
To me, that am squyre for goddes precyous body?
Regarde ye nothynge myne authoryte?
No welcome home! nor where have ye be?
How be yt, yf ye axyd, I coulde not well tell,
But suer I thynke a thousande myle from hell, 195
And on my fayth, I thinke, in my consciens,
I have been from hevyn as farre as heven is hens,
At Lovyn,[117] at London and in Lombardy,
At Baldock,[118] at Barfolde,[119] and in Barbary,
At Canturbery, at Coventre, at Colchester, 200
At Wansworth and Welbecke,[120] at Westchester,
At Fullam, at Faleborne, and at Fenlow,
At Wallyngford, at Wakefeld, and at Waltamstow,
At Tawnton, at Typtre[121] and at Totnam,[122]
At Glouceter, at Gylford and at Gotham, 205
At Hartforde, at Harwyche, at Harowe on the hyll,
At Sudbery,[123] Suth hampton, at Shoters Hyll,[124]
At Walsingham, at Wyttam[125] and at Werwycke,
At Boston, at Brystow[126] and at Berwycke,
At Gravelyn,[127] at Gravesend, and at Glastynbery, 210
Ynge Gyngiang Jayberd the paryshe of Butsbery.[128]
The devyll hym-selfe, wythout more leasure,
Could not have gone halfe thus myche, I am sure!
But, now I have warned[129] them, let them even chose;
For, in fayth, I care not who wynne or lose. 215

_Here the gentylman before he cometh in bloweth his horne._

_Mery-reporte._ Now, by my trouth, this was a goodly hearyng.
I went yt had ben the gentylwomans blowynge!
But yt is not so, as I now suppose,
For womens hornes sounde more in a mannys nose. 220

_Gentylman._ Stande ye mery, my frendes, everychone. B i

_Mery-reporte._ Say that to me and let the rest alone!
Syr, ye be welcome, and all your meyny.

_Gentylman._ Now, in good sooth, my frende, god a mercy!
And syns that I mete the here thus by chaunce, 225
I shall requyre the of further acqueyntaunce,
And brevely to shew the, this is the mater.
I come to sew to the great god Jupyter
For helpe of thynges concernynge my recreacyon,
Accordynge to his late proclamacyon. 230

_Mery-reporte._ Mary, and I am he that this must spede.
But fyrste tell me what be ye in dede.

_Gentylman._ Forsoth, good frende, I am a gentylman.

_Mery-reporte._ A goodly occupacyon, by seynt Anne!
On my fayth, your maship[130] hath a mery life. 235
But who maketh all these hornes, your self or your wife?
Nay, even in earnest, I aske you this questyon.

_Gentylman._ Now, by my trouth, thou art a mery one.

_Mery-reporte._ In fayth, of us both I thynke never one sad,
For I am not so mery but ye seme as mad! 240
But stande ye styll and take a lyttell payne,
I wyll come to you, by and by, agayne.
Now, gracyous god, yf your wyll so be,
I pray ye, let me speke a worde wyth ye.

_Jupyter._ My sonne, say on! Let us here thy mynde. 245

_Mery-reporte._ My lord, there standeth a sewter even here behynde,
A Gentylman, in yonder corner,
And, as I thynke, his name is Mayster Horner
A hunter he is, and cometh to make you sporte.
He woide hunte a sow or twayne out of thys sorte.[131] 250

_Here he poynteth to the women._

_Jupyter._ What so ever his mynde be, let hym appere.

_Mery-reporte._ Now, good mayster Horner, I pray you come nere.

_Gentylman._ I am no horner, knave! I wyll thou know yt.

_Mery-reporte._ I thought ye had [been], for when ye dyd blow yt,
Harde I never horeson make horne so goo. 255
As lefe ye kyste myne ars as blow my hole soo!
Come on your way, before the God Jupyter,
And there for your selfe ye shall be sewter.

_Gentylman._ Most myghty prynce and god of every nacyon,
Pleaseth your hyghnes to vouchsave the herynge 260
Of me, whyche, accordynge to [y]our proclamacyon, B i _b_
Doth make apparaunce, in way of besechynge,
Not sole for myself, but generally
For all come of noble and auncyent stock,
Whych sorte above all doth most thankfully 265
Dayly take payne for welth of the comen flocke,
With dylygent study alway devysynge
To kepe them in order and unyte,
In peace to labour the encrees of theyr lyvynge,
Wherby eche man may prosper in plente. 270
Wherfore, good god, this is our hole desyrynge,
That for ease of our paynes, at tymes vacaunt,
In our recreacyon, whyche chyefely is huntynge,
It may please you to sende us wether pleasaunt,
Drye and not mysty, the wynde calme and styll. 275
That after our houndes yournynge[132] so meryly,
Chasynge the dere over dale and hyll,
In herynge we may folow and to-comfort the cry.

_Jupyter._ Ryght well we do perceyve your hole request,
Whyche shall not fayle to reste in memory, 280
Wherfore we wyll ye set your-selfe at rest,
Tyll we have herde eche man indyfferently,
And we shall take suche order, unyversally,
As best may stande to our honour infynyte,
For welth in commune and ech mannys synguler profyte. 285

_Gentylman._ In heven and yerth honoured be the name
Of Jupyter, who of his godly goodnes
Hath set this mater in so goodly frame,
That every wyght shall have his desyre, doutles.
And fyrst for us nobles and gentylmen, 290
I doute not, in his wysedome, to provyde
Suche wether as in our huntynge, now and then,
We may both teyse[133] and receyve[134] on every syde.
Whyche thynge, ones had, for our seyd recreacyon,
Shall greatly prevayle[135] you in preferrynge our helth 295
For what thynge more nedefull then our preservacyon,
Beynge the weale and heddes of all comen welth?

_Mery-reporte._ Now I besech your mashyp, whose hed be you?

_Gentylman._ Whose hed am I? Thy hed. What seyst thou now?

_Mery-reporte._ Nay, I thynke yt very trew, so god me helpe! 300
For I have ever bene, of a lyttell whelpe, B ii
So full of fansyes, and in so many fyttes,
So many smale reasons, and in so many wyttes,
That, even as I stande, I pray God I be dede,
If ever I thought them all mete for one hede. 305
But syns I have one hed more then I knew,
Blame not my rejoycynge,--I love all thinges new.
And suer it is a treasour of heddes to have store:
One feate can I now that I never coude before.

_Gentylman._ What is that?

_Mery-reporte._ By god, syns ye came hyther, 310
I can set my hedde and my tayle togyther.
This hed shall save mony, by Saynt Mary,
From hensforth I wyll no potycary;
For at al tymys, when suche thynges shall myster
My new hed shall geve myne olde tayle a glyster.[136] 315
And, after all this, then shall my hedde wayte
Uppon my tayle, and there stande at receyte.
Syr, for the reste I wyll not now move you,
But, yf we lyve, ye shall smell how I love yow.
And, sir, touchyng your sewt here, depart, when it please you
For be ye suer, as I can I wyll ease you. 321

_Gentylman._ Then gyve me thy hande. That promyse I take.
And yf for my sake any sewt thou do make,
I promyse thy payne to be requyted
More largely than now shall be recyted. 325

_Mery-reporte._ Alas, my necke! Goddes pyty, where is my hed?
By Saynt Yve, I feare me I shall be deade.
And yf I were, me-thynke yt were no wonder,
Syns my hed and my body is so farre asonder,

_Entreth the_ MARCHAUNT.

Mayster person,[137] now welcome by my life! 330
I pray you, how doth my maistres, your wyfe?[138]

_Marchaunt._ Syr, for the presthod and wyfe that ye alledge
I se ye speke more of dotage then knowledge.
But let pas, syr, I wolde to you be sewter
To brynge me, yf ye can, before Jupiter. 335

[_Mery-reporte._] Yes, Mary, can I, and wyll do yt in dede.
Tary, and I shall make wey for your spede. [_Goes to_ JUPYTER.]
In fayth, good lorde, yf it please your gracyous godshyp,
I muste have a worde or twayne wyth your lordship. B ii _b_
Syr, yonder is a nother man in place, 340
Who maketh great sewt to speke wyth your grace.
Your pleasure ones knowen, he commeth by and by.[139]

_Jupyter._ Bryng hym before our presens, sone, hardely.

_Mery-reporte._ Why! where be you? shall I not fynde ye?
Come a-way, I pray god, the devyll blynde ye! 345

_Marchaunt._ Moste myghty prynce and lorde of lordes all,
Right humbly besecheth your majeste
Your marchaunt-men thorow the worlde all,
That yt may please you, of your benygnyte,
In the dayly daunger of our goodes and lyfe, 350
Fyrste to consyder the desert of our request,
What welth we bryng the rest, to our great care & stryfe,
And then to rewarde us as ye shall thynke best.
What were the surplysage of eche commodyte,
Whyche groweth and encreaseth in every lande, 355
Excepte exchaunge by suche men as we be?
By wey of entercours, that lyeth on our hande[140]
We fraught from home, thynges wherof there is plente;
And home we brynge such thynges as there be scant.
Who sholde afore us marchauntes accompted be? 360
For were not we, the worlde shuld wyshe and want
In many thynges, whych now shall lack rehersall.
And, brevely to conclude, we beseche your hyghnes
That of the benefyte proclaymed in generall
We may be parte-takers, for comen encres, 365
Stablyshynge wether thus, pleasynge your grace,
Stormy, nor mysty, the wynde mesurable.
That savely we may passe from place to place,
Berynge our seylys for spede moste vayleable;[141]
And also the wynde to chaunge and to turne, 370
Eest, West, North and South, as best may be set,
In any one place not to longe to sojourne,
For the length of our vyage may lese our market.

_Jupyter._ Right well have ye sayde, and we accept yt so,
And so shall we rewarde you ere we go hens. 375
But ye muste take pacyens tyll we have harde mo,[142]
That we may indyfferently gyve sentens.
There may passe by us no spot of neglygence,
But justely to judge eche thynge, so upryghte B iii
That ech mans parte maye shyne in the selfe ryghte.[143] 380

_Mery-reporte._ Now, syr, by your fayth, yf ye shulde be sworne,
Harde ye ever god speke so, syns ye were borne?
So wysely, so gentylly hys wordes be showd!

_Marchaunt._ I thanke hys grace. My sewte is well bestowd.

_Mery-reporte._ Syr, what vyage entende ye nexte to go? 385

_Marchaunt._ I truste or myd-lente to be to Syo.[144]

_Mery-reporte._ Ha, ha! Is it your mynde to sayle at Syo?
Nay, then, when ye wyll, byr lady, ye maye go,
And let me alone with thys. Be of good chere!
Ye maye truste me at Syo as well as here. 390
For though ye were fro me a thousande myle space,
I wolde do as myche as ye were here in place,
For, syns that from hens it is so farre thyther,
I care not though ye never come agayne hyther.

_Marchaunt._ Syr, yf ye remember me, when tyme shall come, 395
Though I requyte not all, I shall deserve some.
_Exeat_ MARCHAUNT.

_Mery-reporte._ Now, farre ye well, & god thanke you, by saynt Anne,
I pray you, marke the fasshyon of thys honeste manne;
He putteth me in more truste, at thys metynge here,
Then he shall fynde cause why, thys twenty yere. 400

_Here entreth the_ RANGER.

_Ranger._ God be here, now Cryst kepe thys company!

_Mery-reporte._ In fayth, ye be welcome, evyn very skantely!
Syr, for your comynge what is the mater?

_Ranger._ I wolde fayne speke with the god Jupyter.

_Mery-reporte._ That wyll not be, but ye may do thys-- 405
Tell me your mynde. I am an offycer of hys.

_Ranger._ Be ye so? Mary, I crye you marcy.
Your maystership may say I am homely.
But syns your mynde is to have reportyd
The cause wherfore I am now resortyd, 410
Pleasyth your maystership it is so.
I come for my-selfe and suche other mo,
Rangers and kepers of certayne places,
As forestes, parkes, purlews and chasys[145]
Where we be chargyd with all maner game. 415
Smale in our profyte and great is our blame.
Alas! For our wages, what be we the nere?
What is forty shyllynges, or fyve marke, a yere? B iii _b_
Many tymes and oft, where we be flyttynge,
We spende forty pens a pece at a syttinge. 420
Now for our vauntage, whyche chefely is wyndefale.
That is ryght nought, there bloweth no wynde at all,
Whyche is the thynge wherin we fynde most grefe,
And cause for my commynge to sew for relefe,
That the god, of pyty, al thys thynge knowynge, 425
May sende us good rage of blustryng and blowynge,
And, yf I can not get god to do some good,
I wolde hyer the devyll to runne thorow the wood,
The rootes to turne up, the toppys to brynge under.
A mischyefe upon them, and a wylde thunder! 430

_Mery-reporte._ Very well sayd, I set by your charyte
As mych, in a maner, as by your honeste.
I shall set you somwhat in ease anone.
Ye shall putte on your cappe, when I am gone.
For, I se, ye care not who wyn or lese, 435
So ye maye fynde meanys to wyn your fees.

_Ranger._ Syr, as in that, ye speke as it please ye.
But let me speke with the god, yf it maye be.
I pray you, lette me passe ye.

_Mery-reporte._ Why, nay, syr! By the masse, ye-- 440

_Ranger._ Then wyll I leve you evyn as I founde ye.

_Mery-reporte._ Go when ye wyll. No man here hath bounde ye.

_Here entreth the_ WATER MYLLER _and the_ RANGER _goth out_.

_Water Myller._ What the devyll shold skyl,[146] though all the world
were dum,
Syns in all our spekynge we never be harde?
We crye out for rayne, the devyll sped drop wyll cum. 445
We water myllers be nothynge in regarde.
No water have we to grynde at any stynt,
The wynde is so stronge the rayne cannot fall,
Whyche kepeth our myldams as drye as a flynt.
We are undone, we grynde nothynge at all, 450
The greter is the pyte, as thynketh me.
For what avayleth to eche man his corne,
Tyll it be grounde by such men as we be?
There is the loss, yf we be forborne.[147]
For, touchynge our-selfes, we are but drudgys, 455
And very beggers save onely our tole, B iv
Whiche is ryght smale and yet many grudges
For gryste of a busshell to gyve a quarte bole.[148]
Yet, were not reparacyons, we myght do wele.
Our mylstons, our whele with her kogges, & our trindill[149] 460
Our floodgate, our mylpooll, our water whele,
Our hopper,[150] our extre,[151] our yren spyndyll,
In this and mych more so great is our charge,
That we wolde not recke though no water ware,
Save onely it toucheth eche man so large, 465
And ech for our neyghbour Cryste byddeth us care.
Wherfore my conscience hath prycked me hyther,
In thys to sewe, accordynge to the cry,[152]
For plente of raine to the god Jupiter
To whose presence I wyll go evyn boldely. 470

_Mery-reporte._ Sir, I dowt nothynge your audacyte,
But I feare me ye lacke capacyte,
For, yf ye were wyse, ye myghte well espye,
How rudely ye erre from rewls of courtesye.
What! ye come in revelynge and reheytynge,[153] 475
Evyn as a knave might go to a beare-beytynge!

_Water Myller._ All you bere recorde what favour I have!
Herke, howe famylyerly he calleth me knave!
Dowtles the gentylman is universall!
But marke thys lesson, syr. You shulde never call 480
Your felow knave, nor your brother horeson;
For nought can ye get by it, when ye have done.

_Mery-reporte._ Thou arte nother brother nor felowe to me,
For I am goddes servaunt, mayst thou not se?
Wolde ye presume to speke with the great god? 485
Nay, dyscrecyon and you be to farre od![154]
Byr lady, these knaves must be tyed shorter.[155]
Syr, who let you in? Spake ye with the porter?

_Water Myller._ Nay, by my trouth, nor wyth no nother man.
Yet I saw you well, when I fyrst began. 490
How be it, so helpe me god and holydam,[156]
I toke you but for a knave, as I am.
But, mary, now, syns I knowe what ye be,
I muste and wyll obey your authoryte.
And yf I maye not speke wyth Jupiter 495
I beseche you be my solycyter. B iv _b_

_Mery-reporte._ As in that, I wyl be your well-wyller.
I perceyve you be a water myller.
And your hole desyre, as I take the mater,
Is plente of rayne for encres of water. 500
The let wherof, ye affyrme determynately,
Is onely the wynde, your mortall enemy.

_Water Myller._ Trouth it is, for it blowyth so alofte,
We never have rayne, or, at the most, not ofte.
Wherfore, I praye you, put the god in mynde 505
Clerely for ever to banysh the wynde.

_Here entreth the_ WYNDE MYLLER.

_Wynde Myller._ How! Is all the wether gone or I come?
For the passyon of god, helpe me to some.
I am a wynd-miller, as many mo be.
No wretch in wretchydnes so wrechyd as we! 510
The hole sorte[157] of my crafte be all mard at onys,
The wynde is so weyke it sturryth not our stonys,
Nor skantely can shatter[158] the shyttyn sayle
That hangeth shatterynge[159] at a womans tayle.
The rayne never resteth, so longe be the showres, 515
From tyme of begynnyng tyl foure & twenty howres;
And, ende whan it shall, at nyght or at none,
An-other begynneth as soone as that is done.
Such revell of rayne ye knowe well inough,
Destroyeth the wynde, be it never so rough, 520
Wherby, syns our myllys be come to styll standynge,
Now maye we wynd-myllers go evyn to hangynge.
A myller! with a moryn[160] and a myschyefe!
Who wolde be a myller? As good be a thefe!
Yet in tyme past, when gryndynge was plente, 525
Who were so lyke goddys felows as we?
As faste as god made corne, we myllers made meale.
Whyche myght be best forborne[161] for comyn weale?
But let that gere passe, for I feare our pryde
Is cause of the care whyche god doth us provyde. 530
Wherfore I submyt me, entendynge to se
What comforte may come by humylyte.
And, now, at thys tyme, they sayd in the crye,
The god is come downe to shape remedye.

_Mery-reporte._ No doute, he is here, even in yonder trone. C 535
But in your mater he trusteth me alone,
Wherein, I do perceyve by your complaynte,
Oppressyon of rayne doth make the wynde so faynte,
That ye wynde-myllers be clene caste away.

_Wynde Myller._ If Jupyter helpe not, yt is as ye say. 540
But, in few wordes to tell you my mynde rounde,[162]
Uppon this condycyon I wolde be bounde,
Day by day to say our ladyes' sauter,[163]
That in this world were no drope of water,
Nor never rayne, but wynde contynuall, 545
Then shold we wynde myllers be lordes over all.

_Mery-reporte._ Come on and assay how you twayne can agre--
A brother of yours, a myller as ye be!

_Water Myller._ By meane of our craft we may be brothers,
But whyles we lyve shal we never be lovers. 550
We be of one crafte, but not of one kynde,
I lyve by water and he by the wynde.

_Here_ MERY-REPORT _goth out_.

And, syr, as ye desyre wynde continuall,
So wolde I have rayne ever-more to fall,
Whyche two in experyence, ryght well ye se, 555
Ryght selde, or never, to-gether can be.
For as longe as the wynde rewleth, yt is playne,
Twenty to one ye get no drop of rayne;
And when the element is to farre opprest,
Downe commeth the rayne and setteth the wynde at reste. 560
By this, ye se, we can-not both obtayne.
For ye must lacke wynde, or I must lacke rayne.
Whertore I thynke good, before this audiens,
Eche for our selfe to say, or we go hens;
And whom is thought weykest, when we have fynysht, 565
Leve of his sewt and content to be banysht.

_Wynde Myller._ In fayth, agreed! but then, by your lycens,
Our mylles for a tyrne shall hange in suspens.
Syns water and wynde is chyefely our sewt,
Whyche best may be spared we woll fyrst dyspute. 570
Wherfore to the see my reason shall resorte,
Where shyppes by meane of wynd try from port to porte,
From lande to lande, in dystaunce many a myle,--
Great is the passage and smale is the whyle.
So great is the profile, as to me doth seme, C i _b_ 575
That no man's wysdome the welth can exteme.[164]
And syns the wynde is conveyer of all
Who but the wynde shulde have thanke above all?

_Water Myller._ Amytte[165] in this place a tree here to growe,
And therat the wynde in great rage to blowe; 580
When it hath all blowen, thys is a clere case,
The tre removeth no here-bred[166] from hys place.
No more wolde the shyppys, blow the best it cowde.
All though it wolde blow downe both mast & shrowde,
Except the shyppe flete[167] uppon the water 585
The wynde can ryght nought do,--a playne matter.
Yet maye ye on water, wythout any wynde,
Row forth your vessell where men wyll have her synde.[168]
Nothynge more rejoyceth the maryner,
Then meane cooles[169] of wynde and plente of water. 590
For, commenly, the cause of every wracke
Is excesse of wynde, where water doth lacke.
In rage of these stormys the perell is suche
That better were no wynde then so farre to muche.

_Wynde Myller._ Well, yf my reason in thys may not stande, 595
I wyll forsake the see and lepe to lande.
In every chyrche where goddys servyce is,
The organs beare brunt of halfe the quere,[170] i-wys.
Whyche causeth the sounde, of water or wynde?
More-over for wynde thys thynge I fynde 600
For the most parte all maner mynstrelsy,
By wynde they delyver theyr sound chefly,
Fyll me a bagpype of your water full,
As swetely shall it sounde as it were stuffyd with wull.

_Water Myller._ On my fayth I thynke the moone be at the full, 605
For frantyke fansyes be then most plentefull.
Which are at the pryde of theyr sprynge in your[171] hed,
So farre from our matter he[171] is now fled.
As for the wynde in any instrument,
It is no percell of our argument, 610
We spake of wynde that comyth naturally
And that is wynde forcyd artyfycyally,
Whyche is not to purpose. But, yf it were,
And water, in dede, ryght nought coulde do there,
Yet I thynke organs no suche commodyte,[172] C ii 615
Wherby the water shulde banyshed be.
And for your bagpypes, I take them as nyfuls,[173]
Your mater is all in fansyes and tryfuls.

_Wynde Myller._ By god, but ye shall not tryfull me of[174] so!
Yf these thynges serve not, I wyll reherse mo. 620
And now to mynde there is one olde proverbe come,
One bushell of marche dust is worth a kynges raunsome,
What is a hundreth thousande bushels worth than?

_Water Myller._ Not one myte, for the thynge selfe, to no man.

_Wynde Myller._ Why shall wynde every-where thus be objecte? 625
Nay, in the hye wayes he shall take effecte,
Where as the rayne doth never good but hurt,
For wynde maketh but dust and water maketh durt.
Powder or syrop, syrs, whyche lycke ye best?
Who lycketh not the tone maye lycke up the rest. 630
But, sure, who-so-ever hath assayed such syppes,
Had lever have dusty eyes then durty lyppes.
And it is sayd, syns afore we were borne,
That drought doth never make derth of corne.
And well it is knowen, to the most foole here, 635
How rayne hath pryced corne within this vii. yeare.[175]

_Water Myller._ Syr, I pray the, spare me a lytyll season.
And I shall brevely conclude the wyth reason.
Put case on[176] somers daye wythout wynde to be,
And ragyous wynde in wynter dayes two or thre, 640
Mych more shall dry that one calme daye in somer,
Then shall those thre wyndy dayes in wynter.
Whom shall we thanke for thys, when all is done?
The thanke to wynde? Nay! Thanke chyefely the sone.
And so for drought, yf corne therby encres, 645
The sone doth comfort and rype all dowtles,
And oft the wynde so leyth the corne, god wot,
That never after can it rype, but rot.
Yf drought toke place, as ye say, yet maye ye se,
Lytell helpeth the wynde in thys commodyte. 650
But, now, syr, I deny your pryncypyll.
Yf drought ever were, it were impossybyll
To have ony grayne, for, or it can grow,
Ye must plow your lande, harrow and sow,
Whyche wyll not be, except ye maye have rayne C ii _b_ 655
To temper the grounde, and after agayne
For spryngynge and plumpyng all maner corne
Yet muste ye have water, or all is forlorne.
Yf ye take water for no commodyte
Yet must ye take it for thynge of necessyte, 660
For washynge, for skowrynge, all fylth clensynge,
Where water lacketh what bestely beynge!
In brewyng, in bakynge, in dressynge of meate,
Yf ye lacke water, what coulde ye drynke or eate?
Wythout water coulde lyve neyther man nor best, 665
For water preservyth both moste and lest.
For water coulde I say a thousande thynges mo,
Savynge as now the tyme wyll not serve so;
And as for that wynde that you do sew fore,
Is good for your wynde-myll and for no more. 670
Syr, syth all thys in experyence is tryde,
I say thys mater standeth clere on my syde.

_Wynde Myller._ Well, syns thys wyll not serve, I wyll alledge the
reste.
Syr, for our myllys I saye myne is the beste.
My wynd-myll shall grynd more corne in one our 675
Then thy water-myll shall in thre or foure,
Ye more then thyne shulde in a hole yere,
Yf thou myghtest have as thou hast wyshyd here.
For thou desyrest to have excesse of rayne,
Whych thyng to the were the worst thou couldyst obtayne. 680
For, yf thou dydyst, it were a playne induccyon[177]
To make thyne owne desyer thyne owne destruccyon.
For in excesse of rayne at any flood
Your myllys must stande styll; they can do no good.
And whan the wynde doth blow the uttermost 685
Our wyndmylles walke a-mayne in every cost.
For, as we se the wynde in hys estate,
We moder[178] our-saylys after the same rate.
Syns our myllys grynde so farre faster then yours,
And also they may grynde all tymes and howrs, 690
I say we nede no water-mylles at all,
For wyndmylles be suffycyent to serve all.

_Water Myller._ Thou spekest of all and consyderest not halfe!
In boste of thy gryste thou art wyse as a calfe!
For, though above us your mylles grynde farre faster, C iii 695
What helpe to those from whome ye be myche farther?
And, of two sortes, yf the tone shold be conserved,
I thynke yt mete the moste nomber be served.
In vales and weldes, where moste commodyte is,
There is most people: ye must graunte me this. 700
On hylles & downes, whyche partes are moste barayne,
There muste be few; yt can no mo sustayne.
I darre well say, yf yt were tryed even now,
That there is ten of us to one of you.
And where shuld chyefely all necessaryes be, 705
But there as people are moste in plente?
More reason that you come vii. myle to myll
Then all we of the vale sholde clyme the hyll.
If rayne came reasonable, as I requyre yt,
We sholde of your wynde mylles have nede no whyt. 710

_Entreth_ MERY-REPORTE.

_Mery-reporte._ Stop, folysh knaves, for your reasonynge is suche,
That ye have resoned even ynough and to much.
I hard all the wordes that ye both have hadde,
So helpe me god, the knaves be more then madde!
Nother of them both that hath wyt nor grace, 715
To perceyve that both myllys may serve in place.
Betwene water and wynde there is no suche let,
But eche myll may have tyme to use his fet.
Whyche thynge I can tell by experyens;
For I have, of myne owne, not farre from hens, 720
In a corner to-gether a couple of myllys,
Standynge in a marres[179] betweene two hyllys,
Not of inherytaunce, but by my wyfe;
She is feofed in the tayle for terme of her lyfe,
The one for wynde, the other for water. 725
And of them both, I thanke god, there standeth[180] nother;
For, in a good hour be yt spoken,
The water gate is no soner open,
But clap, sayth the wyndmyll, even strayght behynde!
There is good spedde, the devyll and all they grynde! 730
But whether that the hopper be dusty,
Or that the mylstonys be sumwhat rusty,
By the mas, the meale is myschevous musty!
And yf ye thynke my tale be not trusty, C iii _b_
I make ye trew promyse: come, when ye lyste, 735
We shall fynde meane ye shall taste of the gryst.

_Water Myller._ The corne at receyte happely is not good.

_Mery-reporte._ There can be no sweeter, by the sweet roode!
Another thynge yet, whyche shall not be cloked,
My watermyll many tymes is choked. 740

_Water Myller._ So wyll she be, though ye shuld burste your bones,
Except ye be perfyt in settynge your stones.
Fere not the lydger,[181] beware your ronner.
Yet this for the lydger, or ye have wonne her,
Parchaunce your lydger doth lacke good peckyng. 745

_Mery-reporte._ So sayth my wyfe, & that maketh all our checkyng.[182]
She wolde have the myll peckt, peckt, peckt, every day!
But, by god, myllers muste pecke when they may!
So oft have we peckt that our stones wax right thynne,
And all our other gere not worth a pyn, 750
For with peckynge and peckyng I have so wrought,
That I have peckt a good peckynge-yron to nought.
How be yt, yf I stycke no better tyll her,
My wyfe sayth she wyll have a new myller.
But let yt passe! and now to our mater! 755
I say my myllys lacke nother wynde nor water;
No more do yours, as farre as nede doth requyre.
But, syns ye can not agree, I wyll desyre
Jupyter to set you both in suche rest
As to your welth and his honour may stande best. 760

_Water Myller._ I praye you hertely remember me.

_Wynde Myller._ Let not me be forgoten, I beseche ye.

_Both_ MYLLERS _goth forth_.

_Mery-reporte._ If I remember you not both alyke
I wolde ye were over the eares in the dyke.
Now be we ryd of two knaves at one chaunce. 765
By saynte Thomas, yt is a knavyshe ryddaunce.

_The_ GENTYLWOMAN _entreth_.

_Gentylwoman._ Now, good god, what a foly is this?
What sholde I do where so mych people is?
I know not how to passe in to the god now.

_Mery-reporte._ No, but ye know how he may passe into you. 770

_Gentylwoman._ I pray you let me in at the backe syde.

_Mery-reporte._ Ye, shall I so, and your fore syde so wyde? C iv
Nay not yet; but syns ye love to be alone,
We twayne will into a corner anone.
But fyrste, I pray you, come your way hyther, 775
And let us twayne chat a whyle to-gyther.

_Gentylwoman._ Syr, as to you I have lyttell mater.
My commynge is to speke wyth Jupiter.

_Mery-reporte._ Stande ye styll a whyle, and I wyll go prove
Whether that the god wyll be brought in love. 780
My lorde, how nowe! loke uppe lustely!
Here is a derlynge come, by saynt Antony.
And yf yt be your pleasure to mary,
Speke quyckly; for she may not tary.
In fayth, I thynke ye may wynne her anone; 785
For she wolde speke with your lordshyp alone.

_Jupyter._ Sonne, that is not the thynge at this tyme ment.
If her sewt concerne no cause of our hyther resorte,
Sende her out of place; but yf she be bent
To that purpose, heare her and make us reporte. 790

_Mery-reporte._ I count women lost, yf we love them not well,
For ye se god loveth them never a dele.
Maystres ye can not speake wyth the god.

_Gentylwoman._ No! why?

_Mery-reporte._ By my fayth, for his lordship is ryght besy.
Wyth a pece of worke that nedes must be doone; 795
Even now is he makyng of a new moone.
He sayth your olde moones be so farre tasted,[183]
That all the goodnes of them is wasted,
Whyche of the great wete hath ben moste mater
For olde moones be leake;[184] they can holde no water. 800
But for this new mone, I durst lay my gowne,
Except a few droppes at her goyng downe,
Ye get no rayne tyll her arysynge,
Wythout yt nede, and then no mans devysynge
Coulde wyshe the fashyon of rayne to be so good; 805
Not gushynge out lyke gutters of Noyes flood,
But small droppes sprynklyng softly on the grounde;
Though they fell on a sponge they wold gyve no sounde.
This new moone shall make a thing spryng more in this while
Then a olde moone shal while a man may go a mile. 810
By that tyme the god hath all made an ende, C iv _b_
Ye shall se how the wether wyll amende.
By saynt Anne, he goeth to worke even boldely.
I thynke hym wyse ynough; for he loketh oldely!
Wherfore, maystres, be ye now of good chere; 815
For though in his presens ye can not appere,
Tell me your mater and let me alone.
Mayhappe I will thynke on you when you be gone.

_Gentylwoman._ Forsoth, the cause of my commynge is this:
I am a woman right fayre, as ye se; 820
In no creature more beauty then in me is;
And, syns I am fayre, fayre wolde I kepe me,
But the sonne in somer so sore doth burne me,
In wynter the wynde on every side me.
No parte of the yere wote I where to turne me, 825
But even in my house am I fayne to hyde me.
And so do all other that beuty have;
In whose name at this tyme, this sewt I make,
Besechynge Jupyter to graunt that I crave;
Whyche is this, that yt may please hym, for our sake, 830
To sende us wether close and temperate,
No sonne-shyne, no frost, nor no wynde to blow.
Then wolde we get[185] the stretes trym as a parate.[186]
Ye shold se how we wolde set our-selfe to show.

_Mery-reporte._ Jet where ye wyll, I swere by saynt Quintyne, 835
Ye passe them all, both in your owne conceyt and myne.

_Gentylwoman._ If we had wether to walke at our pleasure,
Our lyves wolde be mery out of measure.
One part of the day for our apparellynge
Another parte for eatynge and drynkynge, 840
And all the reste in stretes to be walkynge,
Or in the house to passe tyme with talkynge.

_Mery-reporte._ When serve ye God?

_Gentylwoman._ Who bosteth in vertue are but dawes[187]

_Mery-reporte._ Ye do the better, namely syns there is no cause.
How spende ye the nyght?

_Gentylwoman._ In daunsynge and syngynge 845
Tyll mydnyght, and then fall to slepynge.

_Mery-reporte._ Why, swete herte, by your false fayth, can ye syng?

_Gentylwoman._ Nay, nay, but I love yt above all thynge.

_Mery-reporte._ Now, by my trouth, for the love that I owe you, D i
You shall here what pleasure I can shew you. 850
One songe have I for you, suche as yt is,
And yf yt were better ye should have yt, by gys.[188]

_Gentylwoman._ Mary, syr, I thanke you even hartely.

_Mery-reporte._ Come on, syrs; but now let us synge lust[e]ly.

_Here they singe._

_Gentylwoman._ Syr, this is well done; I hertely thanke you. 855
Ye have done me pleasure, I make God avowe.
Ones in a nyght I long for suche a fyt;
For longe tyme have I bene brought up in yt.

_Mery-reporte._ Oft tyme yt is sene, both in court and towne,
Longe be women a bryngyng up & sone brought downe. 860
So fet[189] yt is, so nete yt is, so nyse yt is,
So trycke[190] yt is, so quycke yt is, so wyse yt is.
I fere my self, excepte I may entreat her,
I am so farre in love I shall forget her.
Now, good maystres, I pray you, let me kys ye-- 865

_Gentylwoman._ Kys me, quoth a! Why, nay, syr, I wys ye.

_Mery-reporte._ What! yes, hardely! Kys me ons and no more.
I never desyred to kys you before.

_Here the_ LAUNDER _cometh in_.

_Launder._ Why! have ye alway kyst her behynde?
In fayth, good inough, yf yt be your mynde. 870
And yf your appetyte serve you so to do,
Byr lady, I wolde ye had kyst myne ars to!

_Mery-reporte._ To whom dost thou speake, foule hore? canst thou tell?

_Launder._ Nay, by my trouth! I, syr, not very well!
But by conjecture this ges[191] I have, 875
That I do speke to an olde baudy knave.
I saw you dally with your symper de cokket[192]
I rede you beware she pyck not your pokket.
Such ydyll huswyfes do now and than
Thynke all well wonne that they pyck from a man. 880
Yet such of some men shall have more favour,
Then we, that for them dayly toyle and labour.
But I trust the god wyll be so indyfferent
That she shall fayle some parte of her entent.

_Mery-reporte._ No dout he wyll deale so gracyously 885
That all folke shall be served indyfferently.
How be yt, I tell the trewth, my offyce is suche D i _b_
That I muste reporte eche sewt, lyttell or muche.
Wherfore, wyth the god syns thou canst not speke,
Trust me wyth thy sewt, I wyll not fayle yt to breke.[193] 890

_Launder._ Then leave not to muche to yonder gyglet.[194]
For her desyre contrary to myne is set.
I herde by her tale she wolde banyshe the sonne,
And then were we pore launders all undonne.
Excepte the sonne shyne that our clothes may dry, 895
We can do ryght nought in our laundrye.
An other maner losse, yf we sholde mys,
Then of suche nycebyceters[195] as she is.

_Gentylwoman._ I thynke yt better that thou envy me,
Then I sholde stande at rewarde[196] of thy pytte. 900
It is the guyse of such grose quenes as thou art
With such as I am evermore to thwart.
By cause that no beauty ye can obtayne
Therfore ye have us that be fayre in dysdayne.

_Launder._ When I was as yonge as thou art now, 905
I was wythin lyttel as fayre as thou,
And so myght have kept me, yf I hadde wolde,
And as derely my youth I myght have solde
As the tryckest and fayrest of you all.
But I feared parels[197] that after myght fall, 910
Wherfore some busynes I dyd me provyde,
Lest vyce myght enter on every syde,
Whyche hath fre entre where ydelnesse doth reyne.
It is not thy beauty that I dysdeyne,
But thyne ydyll lyfe that thou hast rehersed, 915
Whych any good womans hert wolde have perced.
For I perceyve in daunsynge and syngynge,
In eatyng and drynkynge and thyne apparellynge,
Is all the joye, wherin thy herte is set.
But nought of all this doth thyne owne labour get; 920
For, haddest thou nothyng but of thyne owne travayle,
Thou myghtest go as naked as my nayle.
Me thynke thou shuldest abhorre suche ydylnes
And passe thy tyme in some honest besynes;
Better to lese some parte of thy beaute, 925
Then so ofte to jeoberd all thyne honeste.
But I thynke, rather then thou woldest so do, D ii
Thou haddest lever have us lyve ydylly to.
And so, no doute, we shulde, yf thou myghtest have
The clere sone banysht, as thou dost crave: 930
Then were we launders marde and unto the
Thyne owne request were smale commodyte.
For of these twayne I thynke yt farre better
Thy face were sone-burned, and thy clothis the swetter,[198]
Then that the sonne from shynynge sholde be smytten, 935
To kepe thy face fayre and thy smocke beshytten.
Syr, howe lycke ye my reason in her case?

_Mery-reporte._ Such a raylynge hore, by the holy mas,
I never herde, in all my lyfe, tyll now.
In dede I love ryght well the ton of you, 940
But, or I wolde kepe you both, by goddes mother,
The devyll shall have the tone to fet[199] the tother.

_Launder._ Promyse me to speke that the sone may shyne bryght,
And I wyll be gone quyckly for all nyght.

_Mery-reporte._ Get you both hens, I pray you hartely; 945
Your sewtes I perceyve and wyll reporte them trewly
Unto Jupyter, at the next leysure,
And in the same desyre, to know his pleasure;
Whyche knowledge hadde, even as he doth show yt,
Feare ye not, tyme enough, ye shall know it. 950

_Gentylwoman._ Syr, yf ye medyll, remember me fyrste.

_Launder._ Then in this medlynge my parte shal be the wurst.

_Mery-reporte._ Now, I beseche our lorde, the devyll the[200] burst.
Who medlyth wyth many I hold hym accurst,
Thou hore, can I medyl wyth you both at ones. 955

_Here the_ GENTYLWOMAN _goth forth_.

_Launder._ By the mas, knave, I wold I had both thy stones
In my purs, yf thou medyl not indyfferently,
That both our maters in yssew may be lyckly.

_Mery-reporte._ Many wordes, lyttell mater, and to no purpose,
Suche is the effect that thou dost dysclose, 960
The more ye byb[201] the more ye babyll,
The more ye babyll the more ye fabyll,
The more ye fabyll the more unstabyll,
The more unstabyll the more unabyll,
In any maner thynge to do any good. 965
No hurt though ye were hanged, by the holy rood! D ii _b_

_Launder._ The les your sylence, the lesse your credence,
The les your credens the les your honeste,
The les your honeste the les your assystens,
The les your assystens the les abylyte 970
In you to do ought. Wherfore, so god me save,
No hurte in hangynge such a raylynge knave.

_Mery-reporte._ What monster is this? I never harde none suche.
For loke how myche more I have made her to myche,
And so farre, at lest, she hath made me to lyttell. 975
Wher be ye Launder? I thynke in some spytell.[202]
Ye shall washe me no gere, for feare of fretynge[203]
I love no launders that shrynke my gere in wettynge,
I praye the go hens, and let me be in rest.
I wyll do thyne erand as I thynke best. 980

_Launder._ Now wolde I take my leve, yf I wyste how.
The lenger I lyve the more knave you.

_Mery-reporte._ The lenger thou lyvest the pyte the gretter,
The soner thou be ryd the tydynges the better!
Is not this a swete offyce that I have, 985
When every drab shall prove me a knave?
Every man knoweth not what goddes servyce is,
Nor I my selfe knewe yt not before this.
I thynke goddes servauntes may lyve holyly,
But the devyls servauntes lyve more meryly. 990
I know not what god geveth in standynge fees,
But the devyls servaunts have casweltees[204]
A hundred tymes mo then goddes servauntes have.
For, though ye be never so starke a knave,
If ye lacke money the devyll wyll do no wurse 995
But brynge you strayght to a-nother mans purse.
Then wyll the devyll promote you here in this world,
As unto suche ryche yt doth moste accord.
Fyrste _pater noster qui es in celis_,
And then ye shall sens[205] the shryfe wyth your helys. 1000
The greatest frende ye have in felde or towne,
Standynge a-typ-to, shall not reche your crowne.

_The_ BOY _cometh in, the lest that can play_.

_Boy._ This same is even he, by al lycklyhod.
Syr, I pray you, be not you master god?

_Mery-reporte._ No, in good fayth, sonne. But I may say to the
I am suche a man that god may not mysse me. D iii 1006
Wherfore with the god yf thou wouldest have ought done
Tell me thy mynde, and I shall shew yt sone.

_Boy._ Forsothe, syr, my mynde is thys, at few wordes,
All my pleasure is in catchynge of byrdes, 1010
And makynge of snow-ballys and throwyng the same;
For the whyche purpose to have set in frame,[206]
Wyth my godfather god I wolde fayne have spoken,
Desyrynge hym to have sent me by some token
Where I myghte have had great frost for my pytfallys, 1015
And plente of snow to make my snow-ballys.
This onys[207] had, boyes lyvis be such as no man leddys.
O, to se my snow ballys lyght on my felowes heddys,
And to here the byrdes how they flycker theyr wynges
In the pytfale! I say yt passeth all thynges. 1020
Syr, yf ye be goddes servaunt, or his kynsman,
I pray you helpe me in this yf ye can.

_Mery-reporte._ Alas, pore boy, who sent the hether?

_Boy._ A hundred boys that stode to-gether,
Where they herde one say in a cry 1025
That my godfather, god almighty,
Was come from heven, by his owne accorde,
This nyght to suppe here wyth my lorde,[208]
And farther he sayde, come whos[o][209] wull,
They shall sure have theyr bellyes full 1030
Of all wethers who lyste to crave,
Eche sorte suche wether as they lyste to have.
And when my felowes thought this wolde be had,
And saw me so prety a pratelynge lad,
Uppon agrement, wyth a great noys, 1035
"Sende lyttell Dycke," cryed al the boys.
By whose assent I am purveyd[210]
To sew for the wether afore seyd.
Wherin I pray you to be good, as thus,
To helpe that god may geve yt us. 1040

_Mery-reporte._ Gyve boyes wether, quoth a! nonny,[211] nonny!

_Boy._ Yf god of his wether wyll gyve nonny,
I pray you, wyll he sell ony?
Or lend us a bushell of snow, or twayne,
And poynt us a day to pay hym agayne? 1045

_Mery-reporte._ I can not tell, for, by thys light, D iii _b_
I chept[212] not, nor borowed, none of hym this night.
But by suche shyfte as I wyll make
Thou shalte se soone what waye he wyll take.

_Boy._ Syr, I thanke you. Then I may departe. 1050

_The_ BOY _goth forth_.

_Mery-reporte._ Ye, fare well, good sonne, wyth all my harte,
Now suche an other sorte[213] as here hath bene
In all the dayes of my lyfe I have not sene.
No sewters now but women, knavys, and boys,
And all theyr sewtys are in fansyes and toys. 1055
Yf that there come no wyser after thys cry
I wyll to the god and make an ende quyckely.
Oyes,[214] yf that any knave here
Be wyllynge to appere,
For wether fowle or clere, 1060
Come in before thys flocke
And be he hole or syckly,
Come, shew hys mynde quyckly,
And yf hys tale be not lyckly[215]
Ye shall lycke my tayle in the nocke. 1065
All thys tyme I perceyve is spent in wast,
To wayte for mo sewters I se none make hast.
Wherfore I wyll shew the god all thys procys
And be delyvered of my symple[216] offys.
Now, lorde, accordynge to your commaundement, 1070
Attendynge sewters I have ben dylygent,
And, at begynnyng as your wyll was I sholde,
I come now at ende to shewe what eche man wolde.
The fyrst sewter before your selfe dyd appere,
A gentylman desyrynge wether clere, 1075
Clowdy nor mysty, nor no wynde to blowe,
For hurte in hys huntynge; and then, as ye know,
The marchaunt sewde, for all of that kynde,
For wether clere and mesurable wynde
As they maye best bere theyr saylys to make spede. 1080
And streyght after thys there came to me, in dede,
An other man who namyd hym-selfe a ranger,
And sayd all of hys crafte be farre brought in daunger,
For lacke of lyvynge, whyche chefely ys wynde-fall.
But he playnely sayth there bloweth no wynde at al, D iv 1085
Wherfore he desyreth, for encrease of theyr fleesys,[217]
Extreme rage of wynde, trees to tere in peces.
Then came a water-myller and he cryed out
For water and sayde the wynde was so stout
The rayne could not fale, wherfore he made request 1090
For plenty of rayne, to set the wynde at rest.
And then, syr, there came a wynde myller in,
Who sayde for the rayne he could no wynde wyn,
The water he wysht to be banysht all,
Besechynge your grace of wynde contynuall. 1095
Then came there an other that wolde banysh all this
A goodly dame, an ydyll thynge iwys.
Wynde, rayne, nor froste, nor sonshyne, wold she have,
But fayre close wether, her beautye to save.
Then came there a-nother that lyveth by laundry, 1100
Who muste have wether hote & clere here clothys to dry.
Then came there a boy for froste and snow contynuall,
Snow to make snow ballys and frost for his pytfale,
For whyche, god wote, he seweth full gredely.
Your fyrst man wold have wether clere and not wyndy; 1105
The seconde the same, save cooles[218] to blow meanly;
The thyrd desyred stormes and wynde moste extremely;
The fourth all in water and wolde have no wynde;
The fyft no water, but al wynde to grynde;
The syxt wold have none of all these, nor no bright son; 1110
The seventh extremely the hote son wold have wonne;
The eyght, and the last, for frost & snow he prayd.
Byr lady, we shall take shame, I am a-frayd!
Who marketh in what maner this sort is led
May thynke yt impossyble all to be sped. 1115
This nomber is smale, there lacketh twayne of ten,
And yet, by the masse, amonge ten thousand men
No one thynge could stande more wyde from the tother;
Not one of theyr sewtes agreeth wyth an other.
I promyse you, here is a shrewed pece of warke. 1120
This gere wyll trye wether ye be a clarke.
Yf ye trust to me, yt is a great foly;
For yt passeth my braynes, by goddes body!

_Jupyter._ Son, thou haste ben dylygent and done so well,
That thy labour is ryght myche thanke-worthy. D iv _b_ 1125
But be thou suer we nede no whyt thy counsell,
For in ourselfe we have foresene remedy,
Whyche thou shalt se. But, fyrste, departe hence quyckly
To the gentylman and all other sewters here
And commaunde them all before us to appere. 1130

_Mery-reporte._ That shall be no longer in doynge
Then I am in commynge and goynge.

MERY-REPORTE _goth out_.

_Jupyter._ Suche debate as from above ye have herde,
Suche debate beneth amonge your selfes ye se;
As longe as heddes from temperaunce be deferd, 1135
So longe the bodyes in dystemperaunce be,
This perceyve ye all, but none can helpe save we.
But as we there have made peace concordantly,
So woll we here now gyve you remedy.

MERY-REPORTE _and al the sewters entreth_.

_Mery-reporte._ If I hadde caught them 1140
Or ever I raught[219] them,
I wolde have taught them
To be nere me;
Full dere have I bought them,
Lorde, so I sought them, 1145
Yet have I brought them,
Suche as they be.

_Gentylman._ Pleaseth yt your majeste, lorde, so yt is,
We, as your subjectes and humble sewters all,
Accordynge as we here your pleasure is, 1150
Are presyd[220] to your presens, beynge principall
Hed and governour of all in every place,
Who joyeth not in your syght, no joy can have.
Wherfore we all commyt us to your grace
As lorde of lordes us to peryshe or save. 1155

_Jupyter._ As longe as dyscrecyon so well doth you gyde
Obedyently to use your dewte,
Dout ye not we shall your savete provyde,
Your grevys we have harde, wherfore we sent for ye
To receyve answere, eche man in his degre, 1160
And fyrst to content most reason yt is,
The fyrste man that sewde, wherfore marke ye this,

Oft shall ye have the wether clere and styll
To hunt in for recompens of your payne. D v
Also you marchauntes shall have myche your wyll. 1165
For oft-tymes, when no wynde on lande doth remayne,
Yet on the see pleasaunt cooles you shall obtayne.
And syns your huntynge maye rest in the nyght,
Oft shall the wynde then ryse, and before daylyght

It shall ratyll downe the wood, in suche case 1170
That all ye rangers the better lyve may;
And ye water-myllers shall obtayne this grace
Many tymes the rayne to fall in the valey,
When at the selfe tymes on hyllys we shall purvey
Fayre wether for your wyndmilles, with such coolys of wynde
As in one instant both kyndes of mylles may grynde. 1176

And for ye fayre women, that close wether wold have,
We shall provyde that ye may suffycyently
Have tyme to walke in, and your beauty save;
And yet shall ye have, that lyveth by laundry, 1180
The hote sonne oft ynough your clothes to dry.
Also ye, praty chylde, shall have both frost and snow,
Now marke this conclusyon, we charge you arow.[221]

Myche better have we now devysed for ye all
Then ye all can perceve, or coude desyre. 1185
Eche of you sewd to have contynuall
Suche wether as his crafte onely doth requyre,
All wethers in all places yf men all tymes myght hyer,
Who could lyve by other? what is this neglygens
Us to atempt in suche inconvenyens. 1190

Now, on the tother syde, yf we had graunted
The full of some one sewt and no mo,
And from all the rest the wether had forbyd,
Yet who so hadde obtayned had wonne his owne wo.
There is no one craft can preserve man so, 1195
But by other craftes, of necessyte,
He muste have myche parte of his commodyte.

All to serve at ones and one destroy a nother, D v _b_
Or ellys to serve one and destroy all the rest,
Nother wyll we do the tone nor the tother 1200
But serve as many, or as few, as we thynke best;
And where, or what tyme, to serve moste or leste,
The dyreccyon of that doutles shall stande
Perpetually in the power of our hande.

Wherfore we wyll the hole worlde to attende 1205
Eche sorte on suche wether as for them doth fall,
Now one, now other, as lyketh us to sende.
Who that hath yt, ply[222] it, and suer we shall
So gyde the wether in course to you all,
That eche wyth other ye shall hole[223] remayne 1210
In pleasure and plentyfull welth, certayne.

_Gentylman._ Blessed was the tyme wherin we were borne,
Fyrst for the blysfull chaunce of your godly presens.
Next for our sewt was there never man beforne
That ever harde so excellent a sentens 1215
As your grace hath gevyn to us all arow,
Wherin your hyghnes hath so bountyfully
Dystrybuted my parte that your grace shall know,
Your selfe sooll[224] possessed of hertes of all chyvalry.

_Marchaunt._ Lyke-wyse we marchauntes shall yeld us holy,[225] 1220
Onely to laude the name of Jupyter
As god of all goddes, you to serve soolly;
For of every thynge, I se, you are norysher.

_Ranger._ No dout yt is so, for so we now fynde;
Wherin your grace us rangers so doth bynde, 1225
That we shall gyve you our hertes with one accorde,
For knowledge to know you as our onely lorde.

_Water Myller._ Well, I can no more, but "for our water
We shall geve your lordshyp our ladyes sauter."

_Wynde Myller._ Myche have ye bounde us; for, as I be saved,
We have all obteyned better then we craved. 1231

_Gentylwoman._ That is trew, wherfore your grace shal trewly
The hertes of such as I am have surely.

_Launder._ And suche as I am, who be as good as you,
His hyghness shall be suer on, I make a vow.[226] 1235

_Boy._ Godfather god, I wyll do somewhat for you agayne. D vi
By Cryste, ye maye happe to have a byrd or twayne,
And I promyse you, yf any snow come,
When I make my snow ballys ye shall have some.

_Mery-reporte._ God thanke your lordshyp. Lo, how this is brought
to pas! 1240
Syr, now shall ye have the wether even as yt was.

_Jupyter._ We nede no whyte our selfe any farther to bost,
For our dedes declare us apparauntly.
Not onely here on yerth, in every cost,
But also above in the hevynly company, 1245
Our prudens hath made peace unyversally,
Whyche thynge we sey, recordeth us as pryncypall
God and governour of heven, yerth, and all.
Now unto that heven we woll make retourne,
When we be gloryfyed most tryumphantly, 1250
Also we woll all ye that on yerth sojourne,
Syns cause gyveth cause to knowe us your lord onely,
And nowe here to synge moste joyfully,
Rejoycynge in us, and in meane tyme we shall
Ascende into our trone celestyall. 1255

FINIS.

Printed by W. Rastell.

1533.

_Cum privilegio._

FOOTNOTES:

[98] _I.e._ of the audience as representing mankind.

[99] For use as a plural cf. l. 347 'besecheth,' 844 'ye doth.'

[100] The dispensers respectively of frost, sunshine, wind, and rain.

[101] placed on record.

[102] powers, not 'pores.'

[103] that which they have experienced.

[104] conclusion.

[105] _I.e._ some one in the audience.

[106] Said to one of the attendants.

[107] The phrase in alphabet-learning for a letter sounded by itself;
cf. _Wily Beguiled_: "A _per se_ A" (Hawkins' Origin of English Drama,
3: 357. Oxford: 1772).

[108] matters.

[109] frieze.

[110] sweeting, sweetheart.

[111] separated.

[112] impartial.

[113] out of good fellowship.

[114] the end.

[115] equivalent to stanza.

[116] clownish rascals.

[117] Louvain.

[118] In Herts.

[119] Perhaps one of the numerous Barfords.

[120] In Notts.

[121] In Essex.

[122] Tottenham.

[123] In Suffolk.

[124] Near Woolwich.

[125] Witham, in Essex.

[126] Bristol.

[127] Possibly Gravelye near Baldock.

[128] There is a parish of Buttsbury in Essex: 'ynge Gyngiang Jayberd'
defies explanation.

[129] Have given notice to the petitioners to appear. The 'cry' is
supposed to have been made outside.

[130] mastership.

[131] the audience.

[132] journeying.

[133] rouse the game.

[134] call off after a kill.

[135] avail.

[136] clyster, purge.

[137] parson.

[138] As the play was written before 1533, the clergy were still
celibates, and this is only Mery-reporte's 'humour.'

[139] immediately.

[140] Explained by 'thynges wherof there is plente.'

[141] available.

[142] heard more, or others.

[143] in the same rightness.

[144] Scio (Chios).

[145] Purlieus are technically the woods adjacent to a royal forest; a
chase is an unenclosed part.

[146] What on earth would it matter?

[147] dispensed with, missed.

[148] To give two pounds of wheat for grinding sixty-four.

[149] wheel.

[150] feeder of the mill.

[151] axletree.

[152] Jupiter's proclamation.

[153] making rejoice.

[154] too far at variance.

[155] given less freedom.

[156] the kingdom of saints.

[157] assembly.

[158] scatter, blow about.

[159] flying apart.

[160] murrain, plague.

[161] dispensed with.

[162] roundly, completely.

[163] the psalms appointed for the Hours of the Blessed Virgin.

[164] esteem.

[165] admit.

[166] hair-breadth.

[167] float.

[168] sent.

[169] moderate cool breezes.

[170] choir.

[171] _Sic_ in all editions.

[172] of not sufficient advantage.

[173] Indistinguishable from trifles.

[174] off.

[175] The earliest reference to a dearth of corn in the reign of Henry
VIII. which I can find in Holinshed is _sub anno_ 1523, when he states
that the price in London was 20 _s._ a quarter, but without assigning
any cause. The reference here is, I think, clearly to the great rains
of the autumn of 1527 and April and May, 1528, of which Holinshed
writes that they "caused great floods and did much harme namelie in
corne, so that the next yeare [1528?] it failed within the realme and
great dearth ensued."

[176] one.

[177] preliminary.

[178] moderate, adjust.

[179] morass.

[180] stands still.

[181] the flat fixed stone (or bed stone) over which the turning stone,
or _runner_, moved.

[182] reviling.

[183] decayed.

[184] be leaky; misprinted _belyke_ by Kitson.

[185] or _jet_ (l. 835), strut.

[186] parrot.

[187] simpletons.

[188] Jesus.

[189] trim.

[190] smart.

[191] guess.

[192] Mlle. Simper de Coquette.

[193] communicate.

[194] wanton.

[195] Cf. note on _Roister Doister_, I. iv. 12. _Merygreeke_: "But with
whome is he nowe so sadly roundyng yonder?" _Dougerie_: "With _Nobs
nicebecetur miserere_ fonde." Explained by Flügel as a contraction of
_Nescio quid dicitur_ = Mistress 'What's-her-name.' _Gen. Ed._

[196] At regard, _i.e._ as the object of.

[197] perils.

[198] sweeter.

[199] fetch.

[200] thee.

[201] In _The Play of Love_, Heywood writes of "bybbyll babbyll,
clytter clatter."

[202] hospital, lazar-house.

[203] rubbing.

[204] casualties, chance perquisites.

[205] swing to and fro with your heels before the sheriff, as a censer
is swung by a thurifer.

[206] made arrangements.

[207] once.

[208] Cardinal Wolsey suggests himself as the person most likely to be
thus referred to, but if the reference of l. 636 is to the excessive
rain of 1527-28, Wolsey's disgrace followed it rather too closely for
the phrase "within this seven yere."

[209] Rastell ed., 'whose.'

[210] provided.

[211] Usually a mere exclamation, but here apparently as if from _non_,
not.

[212] bargained for.

[213] assemblage.

[214] oyez, hearken.

[215] likely.

[216] foolish.

[217] plunder.

[218] Cf. l. 590, "meane cooles."

[219] reached.

[220] pressed, have hastened.

[221] in order.

[222] use.

[223] whole.

[224] solely.

[225] wholly.

[226] St. John's copy ends.

JOHAN JOHAN

=Previous Editions and the Present Text.=--An edition of "A Mery Play
between Johan Johan, the Husbande, Tyb, his Wyfe and Syr Jhan, the
Preest, attributed to John Heywood 1533,"[227] was printed at the
Chiswick Press by C[harles] Whittingham "from an unique copy in the
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford," some time in the first half of the present
century.[228] The anonymous editor prefaces it with the following brief
"advertisement":--

"This is one of the six Plays attributed by our dramatic
biographers to John Heywood, author of _The Four P's_ (contained
in Dodsley's collection), of 'the Spider and Flie,' and of some
other poems, an account of which may be found in the Third Volume
of Warton's History of English Poetry. No copy of this Mery Play
appears to exist except that in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford,
from which this is a faithful reprint. Exclusive of its antiquity
and rarity, it is valuable as affording a specimen of the earliest
and rudest form of our Comedy (for the Poem is shorter, & the
number of the Dramatis Personæ yet fewer than those of the _Four
P's_) & of the liberty with which even the Roman Catholic authors
of that age felt themselves authorized to treat the established
priesthood."

The Ashmolean copy (now in the Bodleian Library) can no longer be
reckoned unique, another copy having been discovered in the Pepys
collection at Magdalene College, Cambridge. This copy has been used in
correcting the Chiswick Press text, and it may be as well to mention
that the following changes, besides a good many minor ones, have been
made on its authority, and are not surreptitious emendations of the
present editor.

l. 4, _myche_ for _muche_; l. 27, _Whan_ for _Whyn_; l. 31, _thwak_
for _twak_; l. 89, _enrage_ for _engage_; l. 94, _But_ for _Thou_; l.
121, _thou_ for _you_; l. 129, _lyk_ for _syk_; l. 132, _to go_ for
_go_; l. 137, _fare_ for _face_; l. 305, _waxe_ for _ware_; l. 335,
_for I_ for _I_; l. 471, _Ye_ for _le_; l. 497, _mych_ for _much_;
l. 540, _beyond_ for _beand_; l. 542, _a bevy_ for _bevy_; l. 552,
_beyond_ for _beyand_; l. 581, _v_ for _ix_; l. 604, _I am_ for _am I_.

In the apportionment of ll. 240-266 between the two speakers, my
predecessor, like myself, though not in the same manner, has departed
from Rastell's (clearly erroneous) arrangement of the speeches, but his
dislike of footnotes has caused him to omit any mention of the fact.
The title-page is a representation, not a _facsimile_. There is no
running head-line in the original.

ALFRED W. POLLARD.

FOOTNOTES:

[227] See Critical Essay, pp. 10, 14.

[228] My own copy has beneath the initials of a former owner the date
"March 22, 1833"; that in the British Museum is assigned to 1830. I
have seen it stated, but I know not on what authority, that the book
appeared in 1819.

[Decoration]

A mery play

Betwene Johan Johan the
husbande / Tyb his
wyfe / & syr Jhān
the preest

[Decoration]

A Mery Play,
betwene
JOHAN JOHAN, _the husbande_. TYB, _his wyfe_,
&
SYR JHAN, _the preest_

JOHAN JOHAN, _the Husbande_.

God spede you, maysters, everychone,
Wote ye not whyther my wyfe is gone?
I pray God the dyvell take her,
For all that I do I can not make her,
But she wyll go a gaddynge very myche 5
Lyke an Antony pyg[229] with an olde wyche,
Whiche ledeth her about hyther and thyther;
But, by our lady, I wote not whyther.
But, by goggis[230] blod, were she come home
Unto this my house, by our lady of Crome,[231] 10
I wolde bete her or that I drynke.
Bete her, quotha? yea, that she shall stynke!
And at every stroke lay her on the grounde,
And trayne[232] her by the here[233] about the house rounde.
I am evyn mad that I bete her not nowe, 15
But I shall rewarde her, hard[e]ly,[234] well ynowe;
There is never a wyfe betwene heven and hell
Whiche was ever beten halfe so well.
Beten, quotha? yea, but what and she therof dye?
Then I may chaunce to be hanged shortly. 20
And whan I have beten her tyll she smoke,
And gyven her many a c.[235] stroke,
Thynke ye that she wyll amende yet?
Nay, by our lady, the devyll spede whyt![236]
Therfore I wyll not bete her at all. 25
And shall I not bete her? no shall?[237]
Whan she offendeth and doth a-mys, A i _b_
And kepeth not her house, as her duetie is?
Shall I not bete her, if she do so?
Yes, by cokkis[238] blood, that shall I do; 30
I shall bete her and thwak her, I trow,
That she shall beshyte the house for very wo.
But yet I thynk what my neybour wyll say than,
He wyll say thus: "Whom chydest thou, Johan Johan?"
"Mary," will I say! "I chyde my curst wyfe, 35
The veryest drab that ever bare lyfe,
Whiche doth nothying but go and come,
And I can not make her kepe her at home."
Than I thynke he wyll say by and by,[239]
"Walke her cote,[240] Johan Johan, and bete her hardely." 40
But than unto hym myn answere shal be,
"The more I bete her the worse is she:
And wors and wors make her I shall."
He wyll say than, "bete her not at all."
"And why?" shall I say, "this wolde be wyst,[241] 45
Is she not myne to chastice as I lyst?"
But this is another poynt worst of all,
The folkis wyll mocke me whan they here me brall;[242]
But for all that, shall I let[243] therfore
To chastyce my wyfe ever the more, 50
And to make her at home for to tary?
Is not that well done? yes, by Saynt Mary,
That is a poynt[244] of an honest man
For to bete his wyfe well nowe and than.
Therfore I shall bete her, have ye no drede! 55
And I ought to bete her, tyll she be starke dede.
And why? by God, bicause it is my pleasure,
And if I shulde suffre her, I make you sure,
Nought shulde prevayle[245] me, nother staffe nor waster,[246]
Within a whyle she wolde be my mayster. 60
Therfore I shall bete her by cokkes mother,
Both on the tone syde and on the tother,
Before and behynde; nought shall be her bote,[247]
From the top of the heed to the sole of the fote.
But, masters, for Goddis sake, do not entrete 65
For her, whan that she shal be bete;
But, for Goddis passion, let me alone,
And I shall thwak her that she shall grone:
Wherfore I beseche you, and hartely you pray,
And I beseche you say me not nay, 70
But that I may beate her for this ones; A ii
And I shall beate her, by cokkes bones,
That she shall stynke lyke a pole-kat;
But yet, by goggis body, that nede nat,
For she wyll stynke without any betyng, 75
For every nyght ones she gyveth me an hetyng;
From her issueth suche a stynkyng smoke,
That the savour therof almost doth me choke.
But I shall bete her nowe, without fayle;
I shall bete her toppe and tayle, 80
Heed, shulders, armes, legges, and all,
I shall bete her, I trowe that I shall;
And, by goggis boddy, I tell you trewe,
I shall bete her tyll she be blacke and blewe.
But where the dyvell trowe ye she is gon? 85
I holde a noble[248] she is with Syr Jhān;
I fere I am begyled alway,
But yet in faith I hope well nay;
Yet I almost enrage that I ne can
Se the behavour of our gentylwoman. 90
And yet, I thynke, thyther as she doth go
Many an honest wyfe goth thyther also,
For to make some pastyme and sporte.
But than my wyfe so ofte doth thyther resorte
That I fere she wyll make me weare a fether. 95
But yet I nede not for to fere nether,
For he is her gossyp, that is he.
But abyde a whyle, yet let me se,
Where the dyvell hath our gyssypry[249] begon?
My wyfe had never chylde, daughter nor son. 100
Nowe if I forbede her that she go no more,
Yet wyll she go as she dyd before,
Or els wyll she chuse some other place;
And then the matter is in as yll case.
But in fayth all these wordes be in wast, 105
For I thynke the matter is done and past;
And whan she cometh home she wyll begyn to chyde,
But she shall have her payment styk by her syde;
For I shall order her, for all her brawlyng,
That she shall repent to go a catter-wawlyng.[250] 110

[_Enter_ TYB.]

_Tyb._ Why, whom wylt thou beate, I say, thou knave?

_Johan._ Who, I, Tyb? none, so God me save.

_Tyb._ Yes, I harde the say thou woldest one bete.

_Johan._ Mary, wyfe, it was stokfysshe[251] in Temmes Strete,
Whiche wyll be good meate agaynst Lent. A ii _b_ 115
Why, Tyb, what haddest thou thought that I had ment?

_Tyb._ Mary, me thought I harde the bawlyng.
Wilt thou never leve this wawlyng?[252]
Howe the dyvell dost thou thy selfe behave?
Shall we ever have this worke, thou knave? 120

_Johan._ What! wyfe, how sayst thou? was it well gest of me
That thou woldest be come home in safete,
As sone as I had kendled a fyre?
Come warme the, swete Tyb, I the requyre.

_Tyb._ O, Johan Johan, I am afrayd, by this lyght, 125
That I shalbe sore syk this nyght.

_Johan_ [_aside_]. By cokkis soule, nowe, I dare lay a swan
That she comes nowe streyght fro Syr Johan;
For ever whan she hath fatched of hym a lyk,
Than she comes home, and sayth she is syk. 130

_Tyb._ What sayst thou?

_Johan._ Mary, I say,
It is mete for a woman to go play
Abrode in the towne for an houre or two.

_Tyb._ Well, gentylman, go to, go to.

_Johan._ Well, let us have no more debate. 135

_Tyb_ [_aside_]. If he do not fyght, chyde, and rate,
Braule and fare as one that were frantyke,
There is nothyng that may hym lyke.[253]

_Johan_ [_aside_]. If that the parysshe preest, Syr Jhān,
Dyd not se her nowe and than,
And gyve her absolution upon a bed,
For wo and payne she wolde sone be deed.

_Tyb._ For goddis sake, Johan Johan, do the not displease,
Many a tyme I am yll at ease.
What thynkest nowe, am not I somwhat syk? 145

_Johan_ [_aside_]. Nowe wolde to God, and swete Saynt Dyryk,[254]
That thou warte in the water up to the throte,
Or in a burnyng oven red hote,
To se an I wolde pull the out.

_Tyb._ Nowe, Johan Johan, to put the out of dout, 150
Imagyn thou where that I was
Before I came home.

_Johan._ My percase,[255]
Thou wast prayenge in the Churche of Poules
Upon thy knees for all Chrysten soules.

_Tyb._ Nay.

_Johan._ Than if thou wast not so holy, 155
Shewe me where thou wast, and make no lye?

_Tyb._ Truely, Johan Johan, we made a pye,
I and my gossyp Margery,
And our gossyp the preest, Syr Jhān, A iii
And my neybours yongest doughter An; 160
The preest payde for the stuffe and the makyng,
And Margery she payde for the bakyng.

_Johan._ By cokkis lylly woundis,[256] that same is she,
That is the most bawde hens to Coventre.

_Tyb._ What say you?

_Johan._ Mary, answere me to this: 165
Is not Syr Johan a good man?

_Tyb._ Yes, that he is.

_Johan._ Ha, Tyb, if I shulde not greve the,
I have somewhat wherof I wolde meve the.[257]

_Tyb._ Well, husbande, nowe I do conject
That thou hast me somewhat in suspect; 170
But, by my soule, I never go to Syr Johan
But I fynde hym lyke an holy man,
For eyther he is sayenge his devotion,
Or els he is goynge in processyon.

_Johan_ [_aside_]. Yea, rounde about the bed doth he go, 175
You two together, and no mo;
And for to fynysshe the procession,
He lepeth up and thou lyest downe.

_Tyb._ What sayst thou?

_Johan._ Mary, I say he doth well,
For so ought a shepherde to do, as I harde tell, 180
For the salvation of all his folde.

_Tyb._ Johan Johan!

[_Johan._] What is it that thou wolde?

_Tyb._ By my soule I love thee too too,[258]
And I shall tell the, or I further go,
The pye that was made, I have it nowe here, 185
And therwith I trust we shall make good chere.

_Johan._ By kokkis body that is very happy.

_Tyb._ But wotest who gave it?

_Johan._ What the dyvel rek I?

_Tyb._ By my fayth, and I shall say trewe, than
The Dyvell take me, and it were not Syr Johan. 190

_Johan._ O holde the peas, wyfe, and swere no more,
But I beshrewe both your hartes therfore.

_Tyb._ Yet peradventure, thou hast suspection
Of that was never thought nor done.

_Johan._ Tusshe, wife, let all suche matters be, 195
I love thee well, though thou love not me:
But this pye doth nowe catche harme,
Let us set it upon the harth to warme.

_Tyb._ Than let us eate it as fast as we can.
But bycause Syr Jhān is so honest a man, 200
I wolde that he shulde therof eate his part.

_Johan._ That were reason, I thee ensure.

_Tyb._ Than, syns that it is thy pleasure,
I pray the than go to hym ryght, A iii _b_
And pray hym come sup with us to nyght. 205

_Jhan_ [_aside_]. Shall he cum hyther? by kokkis soule I was a-curst
Whan that I graunted to that worde furst!
But syns I have sayd it, I dare not say nay,
For than my wyfe and I shulde make a fray;
But whan he is come, I swere by goddis mother, 210
I wold gyve the dyvell the tone[259] to cary away the tother.

_Tyb._ What sayst?

_Johan._ Mary, he is my curate, I say,
My confessour and my frende alway,
Therfore go thou and seke hym by and by,
And tyll thou come agayne, I wyll kepe the pye. 215

_Tyb._ Shall I go for him? nay, I shrewe me than!
Go thou, and seke, as fast as thou can,
And tell hym it.

_Johan._ Shall I do so?
In fayth, it is not mete for me to go.

_Tyb._ But thou shalte go tell hym, for all that. 220

_Johan._ Than shall I tell hym, wotest [thou] what?
That thou desyrest hym to come make some chere.

_Tyb._ Nay, that thou desyrest hym to come sup here.

_Johan._ Nay, by the rode, wyfe, thou shalt have the worshyp
And the thankes of thy gest, that is thy gossyp. 225

_Tyb_ [_aside_]. Full ofte I se my husbande wyll me rate,
For this hether commyng of our gentyll curate.

_Johan._ What sayst, Tyb? let me here that agayne.

_Tyb._ Mary, I perceyve very playne
That thou hast Syr Johan somwhat in suspect; 230
But by my soule, as far as I conject,
He is vertuouse and full of charyte.

_Johan_ [_aside_]. In fayth, all the towne knoweth better, that he
Is a hore-monger, a haunter of the stewes,
An ypocrite, a knave, that all men refuse; 235
A lyer, a wretche, a maker of stryfe,
Better than they knowe that thou art my good wyfe.

_Tyb._ What is that, that thou hast sayde?

_Johan._ Mary, I wolde have the table set and layde,
In this place or that, I care not whether. 240

_Tyb._ Than go to, brynge the trestels[260] hyther.
Abyde[261] a whyle, let me put of my gown!
But yet I am afrayde to lay it down,
For I fere it shal be sone stolen.

[_Johan._] And yet it may lye safe ynough unstolen. 245

[_Tyb._] It may lye well here, and I lyst,--
But, by cokkis soule, here hath a dogge pyst;
And if I shulde lay it on the harth bare, A iv
It myght hap to be burned, or I were ware,
Therfore I pray you,[262] take ye the payne 250
To kepe my gowne tyll I come agayne.
But yet he shall not have it, by my fay,
He is so nere the dore, he myght ron away;
But bycause that ye be trusty and sure
Ye shall kepe it, and it be your pleasure; 255
And bycause it is arrayde[263] at the skyrt,
Whyle ye do nothyng, skrape of the dyrt.

[_Johan._] Lo, nowe am I redy to go to Syr Jhan,
And byd hym come as fast as he can.

[_Tyb._] Ye, do so without ony taryeng. 260
But I say, harke! thou hast forgot one thyng;
Set up the table, and that by and by.[264]
Nowe go thy ways.

[_Johan._] I go shortly;[265]
But se your candelstykkis be not out of the way.

_Tyb._ Come agayn, and lay the table I say; 265
What! me thynkkis, ye have sone don!

_Johan._ Nowe I pray God that his malediction
Lyght on my wyfe, and on the baulde[266] preest.

_Tyb._ Nowe go thy ways and hye the! seest?

_Johan._ I pray to Christ, if my wyshe be no synne, 270
That the preest may breke his neck, whan he comes in.

_Tyb._ Now cūm again.

_Johan._ What a myschefe wylt thou, fole!

_Tyb._ Mary, I say, brynge hether yender stole.

_Johan._ Nowe go to, a lyttell wolde make me
For to say thus, a vengaunce take the! 275

_Tyb._ Nowe go to hym, and tell hym playn,
That tyll thou brynge hym, thou wylt not come agayn.

_Johan._ This pye doth borne here as it doth stande.

_Tyb._ Go, washe me these two cuppes in my hande.

_Johan._ I go, with a myschyefe lyght on thy face! 280

_Tyb._ Go, and byd hym hye hym a pace,
And the whyle I shall all thynges amende.

_Johan._ This pye burneth here at this ende.
Understandest thou?

_Tyb._ Go thy ways, I say.

_Johan._ I wyll go nowe, as fast as I may. 285

_Tyb._ How, come ones agayne: I had forgot;
Loke, and there be ony ale in the pot.

_Johan._ Nowe a vengaunce and a very myschyefe
Lyght on the pylde[267] preest, and on my wyfe,
On the pot, the ale, and on the table, 290
The candyll, the pye, and all the rable,
On the trystels, and on the stole; A iv _b_
It is moche ado to please a curst fole.

_Tyb._ Go thy ways nowe, and tary no more,
For I am a hungred very sore. 295

_Johan._ Mary, I go.

_Tyb._ But come ones agayne yet;
Brynge hyther that breade, lest I forget it.

_Johan._ I-wys it were tyme for to torne
The pye, for y-wys it doth borne.

_Tyb._ Lorde! how my husbande nowe doth patter, 300
And of the pye styl doth clatter.
Go nowe, and byd hym come away;
I have byd the an hundred tymes to day.

_Johan._ I wyll not gyve a strawe, I tell you playne,
If that the pye waxe cold agayne. 305

_Tyb._ What! art thou not gone yet out of this place?
I had went,[268] thou haddest ben come agayn in the space:
But, by cokkis soule, and I shulde do the ryght,
I shulde breke thy knaves heed to nyght.

_Johan._ Nay, than if my wyfe be set a chydyng, 310
It is tyme for me to go at her byddyng.
There is a proverbe, whiche trewe nowe preveth,
He must nedes go that the dyvell dryveth.
[_He goes to the Priest's house._]
How mayster curate, may I come in
At your chamber dore, without ony syn. 315

SYR JHAN _the Preest_.

Who is there nowe that wolde have me?
What! Johan Johan! what newes with the?

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

_Syr J._ Ye must pardon me, in fayth I ne can.

_Johan._ Yes, I desyre you, good Syr Johan,
Take payne this ones; and, yet at the lest,
If ye wyll do nought at my request, 325
Yet do somewhat for the love of my wyfe.

_Syr J._ I wyll not go, for makyng of stryfe.
But I shall tell the what thou shalte do,
Thou shall tary and sup with me, or thou go.

_Johan._ Wyll ye not go than? why so? 330
I pray you tell me, is there any dysdayne,
Or ony enmyte, betwene you twayne?

_Syr J._ In fayth to tell the, betwene the and me,
She is as wyse a woman as any may be;
I know it well; for I have had the charge B i 335
Of her soule, and serchyd her conscyens at large.
I never knew her but honest and wyse,
Without any yvyll, or any vyce,
Save one faut, I know in her no more,
And because I rebuke her, now and then, therfore, 340
She is angre with me, and hath me in hate;
And yet that that I do, I do it for your welth.

_Johan._ Now God yeld it yow, god master curate,
And as ye do, so send you your helth,
Ywys I am bound to you a plesure. 345

_Syr J._ Yet thou thynkyst amys, peradventure,
That of her body she shuld not be a good woman,
But I shall tell the what I have done, Johan,
For that matter; she and I be somtyme aloft,
And I do lye uppon her, many a tyme and oft, 350
To prove her, yet could I never espy
That ever any dyd worse with her than I.

_Johan._ Syr, that is the lest care I have of nyne,
Thankyd be God, and your good doctryne;
But yf it please you, tell me the matter, 355
And the debate[269] betwene you and her.

_Syr J._ I shall tell the, but thou must kepe secret.

_Johan._ As for that, Syr, I shall not let.

_Syr J._ I shall tell the now the matter playn,--
She is angry with me and hath me in dysdayn 360
Because that I do her oft intyce
To do some penaunce, after myne advyse,
Because she wyll never leve her wrawlyng,[270]
But alway with the she is chydyng and brawlyng;
And therfore I knowe, she hatyth [my] presens. 365

_Johan._ Nay, in good feyth, savyng your reverens.

_Syr J._ I know very well, she hath me in hate.

_Johan._ Nay, I dare swere for her, master curate:
[_Aside_] But, was I not a very knave?
I thought surely, so god me save, 370
That he had lovyd my wyfe, for to deseyve me,
And now he quytyth hym-self; and here I se
He doth as much as he may, for his lyfe,
To styn[te][271] the debate betwene me and my wyfe.

_Syr J._ If ever she dyd, or though[t][272] me any yll, 375
Now I forgyve her with m[y][273] fre wyll;
Therfore, Johan Johan, now get the home
And thank thy wyfe, and say I wyll not come.

_Johan._ Yet, let me know, now, good Syr Johan, B i _b_
Where ye wyll go to supper than. 380

_Syr J._ I care nat greatly and I tell the.
On saterday last, I and ii or thre
Of my frendes made an appoyntement,
And agaynst this nyght we dyd assent
That in a place we wolde sup together; 385
And one of them sayd, he[274] wolde brynge thether
Ale and bread; and for my parte, I
Sayd, that I wolde gyve them a pye,
And there I gave them money for the makynge;
And an-other sayd, she wolde pay for the bakyng; 390
And so we purpose to make good chere
For to dryve away care and thought.

_Johan._ Than I pray you, Syr, tell me here,
Whyther shulde all this geare be brought?

_Syr J._ By my fayth, and I shulde not lye, 395
It shulde be delyvered to thy wyfe, the pye.

_Johan._ By God! it is at my house, standyng by the fyre.

_Syr J._ Who bespake that pye? I the requyre.

_Johan._ By my feyth, and I shall not lye,
It was my wyfe, and her gossyp Margerye, 400
And your good masshyp,[275] callyd Syr Johan,
And my neybours yongest doughter An;
Your masshyp payde for the stuffe and makyng,
And Margery she payde for the bakyng.[276]

_Syr J._ If thou wylte have me nowe, in faithe I wyll go. 405

_Johan._ Ye, mary, I beseche your masshyp do so,
My wyfe taryeth for none but us twayne;
She thynketh longe or I come agayne.

_Syr J._ Well nowe, if she chyde me in thy presens,
I wylbe content, and take [it] in pacyens. 410

_Johan._ By cokkis soule, and she ones chyde,
Or frowne, or loure, or loke asyde,
I shall brynge you a staffe as myche as I may heve,
Than bete her and spare not; I gyve you good leve
To chastyce her for her shreude varyeng. 415
[_They return to_ JOHAN'S _house_.]

_Tyb._ The devyll take the for thy long taryeng!
Here is not a whyt of water, by my gowne,
To washe our handes that we myght syt downe;
Go and hye the, as fast as a snayle,
And with fayre water fyll me this payle. 420

_Johan._ I thanke our Lorde of his good grace
That I cannot rest longe in a place.

_Tyb._ Go, fetche water, I say, at a worde, B ii
For it is tyme the pye were on the borde;
And go with a vengeance, & say thou art prayde. 425

_Syr. J._ A! good gossyp! is that well sayde?

_Tyb._ Welcome, myn owne swete harte,
We shall make some chere or we departe.

_Johan._ Cokkis soule, loke howe he approcheth nere
Unto my wyfe: this abateth my chere. [_Exit._] 430

_Syr J._ By God, I wolde ye had harde the tryfyls,
The toys, the mokkes, the fables, and the nyfyls,[277]
That I made thy husbande to beleve and thynke!
Thou myghtest as well into the erthe synke,
As thou coudest forbeare laughyng any whyle. 435

_Tyb._ I pray the let me here part of that wyle.

_Syr J._ Mary, I shall tell the as fast as I can.
But peas, no more--yonder cometh thy good man.

[_Re-enter_ JOHAN.]

_Johan._ Cokkis soule, what have we here?
As far as I sawe, he drewe very nere 440
Unto my wyfe.

_Tyb._ What, art come so sone?
Gyve us water to wasshe nowe--have done.

_Than he bryngeth the payle empty._

_Johan._ By kockes soule, it was, even nowe, full to the brynk,
But it was out agayne or I coude thynke;
Wherof I marveled, by God Almyght, 445
And than I loked betwene me and the lyght
And I spyed a clyfte, bothe large and wyde.
Lo, wyfe! here it is on the tone[278] syde.

_Tyb._ Why dost not stop it?

_Johan._ Why, howe shall I do it?

_Tyb._ Take a lytle wax.

_Johan._ Howe shal I come to it? 450

_Syr J._ Mary, here be ii wax candyls, I say,
Whiche my gossyp Margery gave me yesterday.

_Tyb._ Tusshe, let hym alone, for, by the rode,
It is pyte to helpe hym, or do hym good.

_Syr J._ What! Jhan Jhan, canst thou make no shyfte? 455
Take this waxe, and stop therwith the clyfte.

_Johan._ This waxe is as harde as any wyre.

_Tyb._ Thou must chafe it a lytle at the fyre.

_Johan._ She that boughte the these waxe candylles twayne,
She is a good companyon certayn. 460

_Tyb._ What, was it not my gossyp Margery?

_Syr J._ Yes, she is a blessed woman surely.

_Tyb._ Nowe wolde God I were as good as she,
For she is vertuous, and full of charyte.

_Johan_ [_aside_]. Nowe, so God helpe me; and by my holydome,[279] 465
She is the erranst baud betwene this and Rome.

_Tyb._ What sayst? B ii _b_

_Johan._ Mary, I chafe the wax,
And I chafe it so hard that my fingers krakks.
But take up this py that I here torne;
And it stand long, y-wys it wyll borne. 470

_Tyb._ Ye, but thou must chafe the wax, I say.

_Johan._ Byd hym syt down, I the pray--
Syt down, good Syr Johan, I you requyre.

_Tyb._ Go, I say, and chafe the wax by the fyre,
Whyle that we sup, Syr Jhan and I. 475

_Johan._ And how now, what wyll ye do with the py?
Shall I not ete therof a morsell?

_Tyb._ Go and chafe the wax whyle thou art well,
And let us have no more pratyng thus.

_Syr. J._ _Benedicite._

_Johan._ _Dominus._ 480

_Tyb._ Now go chafe the wax, with a myschyfe.

_Johan._ What! I come to blysse the bord,[280] swete wyfe!
It is my custome now and than.
Mych good do it you, Master Syr Jhan.

_Tyb._ Go chafe the wax, and here no lenger tary. 485

_Johan_ [_aside_]. And is not this a very purgatory
To se folkis ete, and may not ete a byt?
By kokkis soule, I am a very wodcok.
This payle here, now a vengaunce take it!
Now my wyfe gyveth me a proud mok! 490

_Tyb._ What dost?

_Johan._ Mary, I chafe the wax here,
And I ymagyn to make you good chere,
[_Aside._] That a vengaunce take you both as ye syt,
For I know well I shall not ete a byt.
But yet, in feyth, yf I myght ete one morsell, 495
I wold thynk the matter went very well.

_Syr J._ Gossyp, Jhan Jhan, now mych good do it you.
What chere make you, there by the fyre?

_Johan._ Master parson, I thank yow now;
I fare well enow after myne own desyre. 500

_Syr J._ What dost, Jhan Jhan, I the requyre?

_Johan._ I chafe the wax here by the fyre.

_Tyb._ Here is good drynk, and here is a good py.

_Syr J._ We fare very well, thankyd be our lady.

_Tyb._ Loke how the kokold chafyth the wax that is hard, 505
And for his lyfe, daryth not loke hetherward.

_Syr J._ What doth my gossyp?

_Johan._ I chafe the wax--
[_Aside._] And I chafe it so hard that my fyngers krakks;
And eke the smoke puttyth out my eyes two:
I burne my face, and ray my clothys also, B iii 510
And yet I dare not say one word,
And they syt laughyng yender at the bord.

_Tyb._ Now, by my trouth, it is a prety jape,
For a wyfe to make her husband her ape.
Loke of Jhan Jhan, which maketh hard shyft 515
To chafe the wax, to stop therwith the clyft.

_Johan_ [_aside_]. Ye, that a vengeance take ye both two,
Both hym and the, and the and hym also;
And that ye may choke with the same mete
At the furst mursell that ye do ete. 520

_Tyb._ Of what thyng now dost thou clatter,
Jhan Jhan? or whereof dost thou patter?

_Johan._ I chafe the wax, and make hard shyft
To stopt her-with of the payll the ryft.

_Syr J._ So must he do, Jhan Jhan, by my father kyn, 525
That is bound of wedlok in the yoke.

_Johan_ [_aside_]. Loke how the pyld preest crammyth in;
That wold to God he myght therwith choke.

_Tyb._ Now, Master Parson, pleasyth your goodnes
To tell us some tale of myrth or sadnes, 530
For our pastyme, in way of communycacyon.

_Syr J._ I am content to do it for our recreacyon,
And of iii myracles I shall to you say.

_Johan._ What, must I chafe the wax all day,
And stond here, rostyng by the fyre? 535

_Syr J._ Thou must do somwhat at thy wyves desyre!
I know a man whych weddyd had a wyfe,
As fayre a woman as ever bare lyfe,
And within a senyght after, ryght sone
He went beyond se, and left her alone, 540
And taryed there about a vii yere;
And as he cam homeward he had a hevy chere,
For it was told hym that she was in heven.
But, when that he comen home agayn was,
He found his wyfe, and with her chyldren seven, 545
Whiche she had had in the mene space;
Yet had she not had so many by thre
Yf she had not had the help of me.
Is not this a myracle, yf ever were any,
That this good wyfe shuld have chyldren so many 550
Here in this town, whyle her husband shuld be
Beyond the se, in a farre contre.

_Johan._ Now, in good soth, this is a wonderous myracle,
But for your labour, I wolde that your tacle B iii _b_
Were in a skaldyng water well sod. 555

_Tyb._ Peace, I say, thou lettest the worde of God.

_Sir J._ An other myracle eke I shall you say,
Of a woman, whiche that many a day
Had been wedded, and in all that season
She had no chylde, nother doughter nor son; 560
Wherfore to Saynt Modwin[281] she went on pilgrimage,
And offered there a lyve pyg, as is the usage
Of the wyves that in London dwell;
And through the vertue therof, truly to tell,
Within a moneth after, ryght shortly, 565
She was delyvered of a chylde as moche as I.
How say you, is not this myracle wonderous?

_Johan._ Yes, in good soth, syr, it is marvelous;
But surely, after myn opynyon,
That chylde was nother doughter nor son. 570
For certaynly, and I be not begylde,
She was delyvered of a knave chylde.

_Tyb._ Peas, I say, for Goddis passyon,
Thou lettest Syr Johan's communication.

_Sir J._ The thyrde myracle also is this: 575
I knewe another woman eke y-wys,
Whiche was wedded, & within v. monthis after
She was delyvered of a fayre doughter,
As well formed in every membre & joynt,
And as perfyte in every poynt 580
As though she had gone v monthis full to th' ende.
Lo! here is v monthis of advantage.

_Johan._ A wonderous myracle! so God me mende;
I wolde eche wyfe that is bounde in maryage,
And that is wedded here within this place, 585
Myght have as quicke spede in every suche case.

_Tyb._ Forsoth, Syr Johan, yet for all that
I have sene the day that pus, my cat,
Hath had in a yere kytlyns eyghtene.

_Johan._ Ye, Tyb, my wyfe, and that have I sene. 590
But howe say you, Syr Jhan, was it good, your pye?
The dyvell the morsell that therof eate I.
By the good lorde this is a pyteous warke--
But nowe I se well the olde proverbe is treu:
The parysshe preest forgetteth that ever he was clarke! 595
But, Syr Jhan, doth not remembre you
How I was your clerke, & holpe you masse to syng,
And hylde the basyn alway at the offryng? B iv
He never had halfe so good a clarke as I!
But, notwithstandyng all this, nowe our pye 600
Is eaten up, there is not lefte a byt,
And you two together there do syt,
Eatynge and drynkynge at your owne desyre,
And I am Johan Johan, whiche must stande by the fyre
Chafyng the wax, and dare none other wyse do. 605

_Syr J._ And shall we alway syt here styll, we two?
That were to mych.

_Tyb._ Then ryse we out of this place.

_Syr J._ And kys me than in the stede of grace;
And farewell leman and my love so dere.

_Johan._ Cokkis body, this waxe it waxte colde agayn here;-- 610
But what! shall I anone go to bed,
And eate nothyng, nother meate nor brede?
I have not be wont to have suche fare.

_Tyb._ Why! were ye not served there as ye are,
Chafyng the waxe, standying by the fyre? 615

_Johan._ Why, what mete gave ye me, I you requyre?

_Sir J._ Wast thou not served, I pray the hartely,
Both with the brede, the ale, and the pye?

_Johan._ No, syr, I had none of that fare.

_Tyb._ Why! were ye not served there as ye are, 620
Standyng by the fyre chafyng the waxe?

_Johan._ Lo, here be many tryfyls and knakks--
By kokkis soule, they wene I am other dronke or mad.

_Tyb._ And had ye no meate, Johan Johan? no had?

_Johan._ No, Tyb my wyfe, I had not a whyt. 625

_Tyb._ What, not a morsel?

_Johan._ No, not one byt;
For honger, I trowe, I shall fall in a sowne.

_Sir J._ O, that were pyte, I swere by my crowne.

_Tyb._ But is it trewe?

_Johan._ Ye, for a surete.

_Tyb._ Dost thou ly?

_Johan._ No, so mote I the![282] 630

_Tyb._ Hast thou had nothyng?

_Johan._ No, not a byt.

_Tyb._ Hast thou not dronke?

_Johan._ No, not a whyt.

_Tyb._ Where wast thou?

_Johan._ By the fyre I dyd stande.

_Tyb._ What dydyst?

_Johan._ I chafed this waxe in my hande,
Where-as I knewe of wedded men the payne 635
That they have, and yet dare not complayne;
For the smoke put out my eyes two,
I burned my face, and rayde my clothes also,
Mendyng the payle, whiche is so rotten and olde,
That it will not skant together holde; 640
And syth it is so, and syns that ye twayn
Wold gyve me no meate for my suffysance, B iv _b_
By ko[k]kis soule I wyll take no lenger payn,
Ye shall do all yourself, with a very vengaunce,
For me, and take thou there thy payle now, 645
And yf thou canst mend it, let me se how.

_Tyb._ A! horson's knave! hast thou brok my payll?
Thou shall repent, by kokkis lylly nayll.
Rech me my dystaf, or my clyppyng sherys:
I shall make the blood ronne about his erys. 650

_Johan._ Nay, stand styll, drab, I say, and come no nere,
For by kokkis blood, yf thou come here,
Or yf thou onys styr toward this place,
I shall throw this shovyll full of colys in thy face.

_Tyb._ Ye! horson dryvyll! get the out of my dore. 655

_Johan._ Nay! get thou out of my house, thou prestis hore.

_Sir J._ Thou lyest, horson kokold, evyn to thy face.

_Johan._ And thou lyest, pyld preest, with an evyll grace.

_Tyb._ And thou lyest.

_Johan._ And thou lyest, Syr.

_Syr J._ And thou lyest agayn.

_Johan._ By kokkis soule, horson preest, thou shalt be slayn; 660
Thou hast eate our pye, and gyve me nought,
By kokkes blod, it shal be full derely bought.

_Tyb._ At hym, Syr Johan, or els God gyve the sorow.

_Johan._ And have at your hore and thefe, Saynt George to borrow.[283]

_Here they fyght by the erys a whyle, and than the preest and the wyfe
go out of the place._

_Johan._ A! syrs! I have payd some of them even as I lyst, 665
They have borne many a blow wilh my fyst,
I thank God, I have walkyd them well,
And dryven them hens. But yet, can ye tell
Whether they be go? for by God, I fere me,
That they be gon together, he and she, 670
Unto his chamber, and perhappys she wyll,
Spyte of my hart, tary there styll,
And, peradventure, there, he and she
Wyll make me cokold, evyn to anger me;
And then had I a pyg in the woyrs[284] panyer, 675
Therfor, by God, I wyll hye me thyder
To se yf they do me any vylany:
And thus fare well this noble company.

FINIS

Imprinted by Wyllyam Rastell
the xii day of February
the yere of our Lord
MCCCC and XXXIII
_Cum privilegio_

FOOTNOTES:

[229] The _New Eng. Dict._ quotes from Fuller's _Worthies_: "St.
Anthonie is notoriously known for the patron of hogs, having a pig for
his page in all pictures."

[230] God's.

[231] There are three Croomes in the manor of Ripple, Worcestershire,
and the church of Ripple is dedicated to the B. Virgin, but Nash's
_History of Worcestershire_, says nothing of "Our Lady of Crome."

[232] drag.

[233] hair.

[234] assuredly; text 'hardly.'

[235] hundred.

[236] the devil a bit.

[237] shall I not? For this curious elliptical construction cf. l. 624,
"And had ye no meate, Johan Johan? no had?" See also Udall's _R. D._,
I. iv. 32.

[238] God's.

[239] immediately.

[240] dust her jacket, beat her. To walk = to full cloth.

[241] This question must be answered.

[242] scold.

[243] cease.

[244] characteristic.

[245] avail.

[246] cudgel.

[247] remedy.

[248] wager 6_s._ 8_d._ Cf. Udall, _R. D._, I. iii. 27.

[249] the relation of a child's sponsors at baptism to his parents.

[250] go a "love"-making.

[251] fish salted so hard that it had to be softened by beating before
cooking.

[252] literally, cat-calling.

[253] Tyb's 'aside' perhaps only means "if he is not scolding nothing
can please him," i.e. he likes scolding better than anything else. But
Tyb is at present half-afraid, and it is at least possible that she
means "if I haven't set him scolding this time, no occasion for being
angry will content him."

[254] This saint is not mentioned by the Bollandists; the name may be a
contraction for one of the four St. Theodorics.

[255] guess.

[256] God's little wounds; cf. l. 648.

[257] consult, question thee.

[258] excessively.

[259] the one.

[260] The stands on which the 'board' of the table was fixed when
needed.

[261] This line is attributed in Rastell's edition to Johan, the next
attribution being at l. 252, also to Johan. Lines 258, 259 are given to
Tyb, ll. 260-262 to Johan, l. 263 _a_ to Johan, ll. 263 _b_-266 to Tyb.

[262] 'I pray you,' etc., said to one of the spectators, whom she next
pretends to mistrust, turning at l. 254 to another one.

[263] dirtied.

[264] Fix the board on the trestles, and that at once.

[265] 263, etc. In the French _Farse of Pernet qui va au vin_ there
are similar false starts and returnings, but in that case Pernet keeps
coming back to watch his wife and her lover.

[266] bald, shaven, not "bold."

[267] shorn.

[268] thought.

[269] quarrel.

[270] crying out, scolding.

[271] Misprinted _stynk_.

[272] Misprinted _though_.

[273] Misprinted _me_.

[274] Apparently a misprint for _she_; it was clearly to be provided by
Tyb; cf. l. 618.

[275] Cf. _Play of Wether_, l. 235. Udall's _R. D._, I. iv. 33, etc.

[276] No provision seems to have been made for Margery and Anne sharing
in the pie.

[277] Cf. "nyfuls," _Play of the Wether_, l. 617.

[278] Cf. l. 211.

[279] salvation.

[280] Cf. Pernet's:

Vous irayje signer la table?
Je scay bien le benedicite.

[281] S. Modwena, an Irish virgin, who died A.D. 518. She is said
to have been the patroness of Burton-upon-Trent, and Henry VIII.'s
commissioners sent thence to London "the image of seint Moodwyn with
her red kowe and hir staff, which wymen labouryng of child in those
parties were very desirous to have with them to lean upon."

[282] may I thrive.

[283] for my backer. Cf. _R. D._ IV. vii. 75, IV. viii. 45.

[284] worse.

_Nicholas Udall_

ROISTER DOISTER

_Edited with Critical Essay and
Notes by Ewald Flügel, Ph.D.,
Professor in Stanford University_

CRITICAL ESSAY

=Life.=--Nicholas Udall was born in 1506, of a good family residing
in Hampshire. As a lad of fourteen he entered Corpus Christi College,
Oxford, and took his bachelor's degree there in May, 1524.[285] The
years of his University life came at a period of great religious
fermentation, and young Udall was, according to an old tradition,[286]
one of the young enthusiasts in whom the humanistic tilling of Erasmus
had prepared the soil for Lutheran doctrines from Wittenberg. We may,
therefore, imagine young Udall to have been one of those of whose
heretical perversities Warham complains to Wolsey.[287] Apparently
Udall, as he grew older, grew if not calmer at least more cautious,
and succeeded later in gaining the favour of Mary the Princess, and
in retaining that of Mary the Queen. While at college, he formed a
lasting friendship with John Leland, a friendship of which some poems
of the latter give us a pleasing testimony.[288] Leland, of almost the
same age as Udall, had taken his first degree at Cambridge in 1522,
and according to an old custom, he continued his studies at Oxford,
where Udall's generosity won his heart.[289] In May, 1533, a number
of verses were composed by them in joint authorship, for a pageant at
the coronation of Anne Boleyn.[290] In the same year Udall seems to
have settled at London as a teacher. He may even have contemplated
becoming a monk--like Thomas More thirty years earlier; he certainly
dates his preface to the _Flowers from Terence_ from the Augustinian
Monastery at London, on the last of February, 1534. In the following
June he received the degree of Master of Arts from Oxford, and appears
in the latter part of the same year as "Magister Informator" at Eton,
succeeding Master Richard Coxe.[291] In this capacity he received
payments between the last terms, 1534 and 1541.[292]

We can scarcely judge at this late day of the character of Udall's
educational services, but the fact that he was generally on good terms
with his pupils may reasonably be inferred from the preface to the
edition of the _Flowers_, printed in 1545.

We may further infer with regard to his mastership at Eton, that
he was himself influenced by the Eton custom of performing a
play at Christmas. It appears even possible that the clause in a
"consuetudinary" of Eton (about 1560), allowing the Latin school comedy
to give place to an English one, if it were "witty and graceful,"[293]
may have been a result of Udall's mastership. And it is probable that
_Roister Doister_ was originally one of such plays unpretentiously
offered by Udall to his boys,[294] modestly put aside after the
performance and printed long afterwards. If all this be true, Udall's
mastership deserves immortal fame in the annals of English literature.
But the immortality is unfortunately of a different nature. Udall is
stigmatized by one ungrateful pupil as a second _Orbilius plagosus_,
the realization of Erasmus's executioner. Tusser's often quoted
doggerel runs:

"From Paules I went to Eaton sent
To learn streight waies, the latin phraies,
When fiftie three stripes giuen to mee
At once I had:
For fault but small, or none at all,
It came to pas, thus beat I was,
See Udall see, the mercie of thee,
To me poore lad."[295]

We cannot now decide upon the merits of the case, but we are inclined
to think that Tom Tusser the boy was as shiftless as Thomas Tusser the
man later proved to be, and that, although he may have been a fine
"querister," his "latin phraies" would frequently offend the ear of
the conscientious humanist. Let us suppose that Thomas deserved his
fifty-three stripes twice over, but did not realize that ὁ μὴ δαρεὶς
ἄνθρωπος οὐκ παιδεύεται.[296]

In March, 1541,[297] some abuses were exposed that had lately disgraced
the school. A robbery of plate and silver images was detected, to which
two late Eton scholars and a servant of Udall's confessed; and Udall
himself became "suspect to be counsel of the robbery." The judicial
report states that Udall "having certain interrogatoryes ministred unto
hym toching the sayd fact and other felonious trespasses whereof he was
suspected, did confess that he did comitt a heinous offence with the
sayd cheney [a "scoler" of Eton] sundry tymes hertofore and of late
the vjᵗʰ day of this present monethe in this present yere at London:
whereupon he was committed to the Marshalsey."

Udall was discharged from his office, but did not remain long in
prison (as would have been the case if he had been proved guilty of a
"felonious" crime); and an influential personage unknown to us made
efforts to bring about his "restitucion to the roume of Scholemaister
in Eton." Udall thanked this patron in an interesting letter, which
seems to corroborate the words of the indictment, but states that the
"heinous offence" was committed in London (_not_ in Eton), and that it
resulted in heavy debts. The most careful consideration of the letter
leads me to believe that Udall had nothing to do with the _theft_,
but had neglected his duties as teacher, and had not given the right
example of "frugall livyng."[298] Most likely he had only followed the
royal example; had enjoyed too much "Pastyme with good companye!"

In the same letter Udall petitions for a place where he could show his
"amendment," and which would enable him also "by litle and litle ... to
paye euery man his own."[299]

We do not know of the result of this letter, but it seems that Udall
went "north" in the autumn of the same year. At any rate, in October,
1542, Robert Aldrich, Bishop of Carlisle, received letters "by the
hande of Mr. Vdall";[300] and Leland in a charming little song
addressed to his "snow-white friend," refers to Udall as residing among
the "Brigantes, where Mars now has the rule."[301]

In the same autumn appeared Udall's translation of Erasmus's
_Apophthegms_[302] and--after his return south--he was connected for
the following three years with a great literary undertaking, which was
not only favoured by the Court, but progressing under its auspices and
with its collaboration,--Princess Mary taking the most active part.
This was the English translation of Erasmus's _Paraphrase of the New
Testament_.[303]

Under Edward VI., Udall devoted himself to theological works; he stood
up for the royal prerogative in religious matters in his _Answer to
the articles of the commoners of Devonshire and Cornwall_ (summer
1549[304]); he took his share in a memorial volume published in 1551,
after Bucer's death, and he translated in the same year Peter Martyr's
_Tractatus_ and _Disputatio De Eucharistia_. A royal patent[305] (of
1551) granted him the "privilege and lycense ... to preint the Bible
in Englyshe as well in the large volume for the use of the churches
wᵗʰin this our Realme ... as allso in any other convenient volume."

This privilege was not the only sign of royal favour: we find Udall in
November, 1551, presented by the King to a prebend in Windsor,[306] and
later (in March, 1553) to the Parsonage of Calborne, in the Isle of
Wight.

After such favours received from Edward, and such services in the
Protestant camp, we should expect to find Udall in disgrace under Queen
Mary, and sharing with his fellow-Protestants at least the bitter fate
of exile, but Mary had apparently preserved a grateful memory for her
former fellow-worker in the Erasmian translation. If, indeed, she did
not use him as a theologian, she remembered his dramatic talents, and
so we find that a special warrant was issued, December 3, 1554, which
shows us Udall in the rôle of playwright. The Office of the Queen's
Revels was directed by the warrant referred to, to deliver to Udall
such "apparel" at any time as he might require for the "setting foorth
of Dialogues and Enterludes" before the Queen, for her "regell disporte
and recreacion." In the beginning of the document[307] appears an
allusion to Udall as having shown previously "at soondrie seasons"
his "dilligence" in arranging "Dialogues and Enterludes"--important
documentary evidence of his connection with the "Revels," a connection
apparently begun with the pageant for which he furnished such poor
verses at Anne Boleyn's coronation.

This evidence for the fact that Udall was known as a writer of "plays"
before 1554 is singularly corroborated by the quotation of Roister's
letter to Custance (Act III., Scene iv.) as an example of "ambiguity"
in the 1553 edition of Wilson's _Rule of Reason_.[308]

As to the nature of Udall's "Dialogues," "Enterludes," and "devises,"
we are not entirely without information. The very date of the warrant
would indicate the occasion for Udall's services (December 3, 1554), if
we had not a more definite statement. He was commissioned to get up the
Christmas shows before Mary and Philip.

Udall was in a dangerous position, since any reference to the
Protestant sympathies of the nation might have cost his life, but he
realized the situation, and with good tact presented "divers plaies,"
the "incydents" of which were very innocent:[309] "A mask of patrons
of gallies like Venetian senators, with galley-slaves for their
torche-bearers; a mask of 6 Venuses or amorous ladies with 6 Cupids
and 6 torche-bearers to them," and some "Turkes archers,"[310] "Turkes
magistrates," and "Turkie women," "6 lions' hedds of paste and cement,"
and a few other harmless paraphernalia.

How long Udall served the queen in this capacity we do not know. In
1555, towards the end of his career, we find him at his old calling as
master of Westminster School.[311] When in November of the following
year the old monastery was again opened, naturally Udall's services
became superfluous, and he was doubtless discharged; and so indeed the
darkness enshrouding the last months of his life may cover a period of
great distress. He died in December, 1556, and found his last resting
place in St. Margaret's, Westminster; where almost thirty years before
Skelton had found first a sanctuary and then a grave.

It seems that the queen did not erect a monument over the ashes of her
old friend, at least none is registered by the industrious Weever;[312]
but Udall does not need a monument from Queen Mary, he has erected it
himself--_ære perennius_--in the annals of English literature.

=Date of the Play.=--_Roister Doister_ was formerly assigned to the
time of Udall's mastership at Eton (1534-41).[313] In more recent
years, however, this date has been rejected, and Professor J. W. Hales
has tried to show that "this play was in fact written in 1552, and more
probably written for Westminster school."[314]

The arguments of Professor Hales, as far as I can see, might be
summarized thus:

1. The fact that Wilson--an old Eton boy himself, who left the school
in 1541, and ought to have known of the play if it had ever been
performed there--does _not_ insert the "ambiguous letter" in his first
and second editions of the _Rule of Reason_ (1551, 1552), whereas he
inserts it in the edition of 1553, "_suggests_ that this _comedy was
written between the appearances of the second and the third editions_."

In favour of this theory speak further--according to Professor Hales--

2. The fact that Bale does not mention any of Udall's comedies in the
1548 edition of his _Catalogus_;

3. The fact that "about 1552" Udall was in high esteem as a "comic
dramatist";

4. The fact that Udall quotes a number of proverbial phrases which he
got from Heywood's proverbs, published first in 1546;

5. The fact that the usury statute of 37 Henry VIII. was repealed
in 1552, "of some moment" as far as the "reference [in the play] to
excessive usury" is concerned.

The first argument is doubtless the strongest, but I venture to argue
that the quotation of 1553 does _not_ prove that the play was _written_
in 1552, but only that Wilson was unable _to use a copy of the play_
before 1553; whether this copy was a manuscript copy, or _a printed_
(and now lost) edition of the play, we cannot decide; _most probably
Wilson's quotation was made from an early edition of Roister, printed
in 1552_.

The fact that Wilson left Eton in 1541 seems to make it probable that
he remembered the "ambiguous" passage from his school days.

The second argument is very slight, for Bale does not give a _complete_
list of Udall's works either in edition 1548 or in edition 1557; nor
does he mention Udall's connection with the coronation pageants of
1533; and a modest school comedy would naturally not at once become
public property.

The _third_ argument is based on a serious anachronism. _We do not know
anything_ of Udall's fame as a "comic dramatist _about 1552_." The
warrant of December 3, 1554, is dated, and cannot be used for "about
1552." Besides, the nature of Udall's "dialogues and interludes" for
the "regell disporte and recreacion," as explained on p. 93, above,
excludes any possibility of connecting these "Dialogues" with the
comedy.

The number of proverbial phrases which Udall uses in common with
Heywood's _Proverbs_ (the early date of which, 1546, is rather a myth)
proves no dependence of Udall on Heywood. Their use proves merely that
Udall, as well as Heywood, talked the London English of his time, and
that both were familiar with phrases common in the early sixteenth
century. Any possible number of such phrases could not prove any
"dependence."

With regard to the allusion in _Roister Doister_ to the Usury Statute,
one may readily see that the reference is _not_ to a date later than
the repeal, in 1552, of 37 Henry VIII., c. 9, but to a _period between
1545 and 1552_. In Act V., Scene vi., lines 21 to 30, Custance blames
Roister humorously, _not_ for taking interest at all, but for taking
_too much_ (fifteen to one!), and for taking it _right away_ instead of
waiting until the year was up. The passage, therefore, does not refer
to the law passed 5 and 6 Edward VI., c. 20 (1552), which repeals 37
Henry VIII., c. 9, and orders that "no person shall lend or forbear
any sum of money for any maner of Usury or Increase to be received or
hoped for above the Sum lent, upon pain to forfeit the Sum lent, and
the Increase, [with] Imprisonment, and Fine at the king's pleasure."
The passage refers to 37 Henry VIII., c. 20 (1545), to a law which
allows ten per cent interest: "The sum of ten pound in the hundred, and
so after that rate and _not above_," and which forbids the lender "to
receive, accept or take in Lucre or Gain for the forbearing or giving
Day of Payment _of one whole year_ of and for his or their money," for
any other "Period" but the year, not "for a longer or shorter time."
Cf. the technical term "gain" in line 30.

If, therefore, Custance's joke can be taken as an indication of the
time when the play was written, it would be an indication of the period
between 1545 and 1552, or, at any rate, _before_ 1552.[315]

I should, however, not be inclined on account of this reference to
usury to date the play between 1545 and 1552. I would rather regard
the allusion as a later insertion, which ought not to weaken the force
of the internal evidence in favour of the old theory, according to
which the play belongs to the Eton period of Udall's life, to the years
between 1534 and 1541.

=Date of the Early Edition.=--The Stationers Company's _Registers_ show
(ed. Arber, 1, 331) four pence as

"Recevyd of Thomas hackett for hys lycense for pryntinge of a play
intituled Rauf Ruyster Duster,"

and the unique copy of the play which has come down to us has been
regarded as the solitary relic of this edition. Title-page and colophon
are lacking.

Hackett, however, printed between October (November?), 1560, and July,
1589; and Arber dates the unique copy: "? 1566."

This copy is now in the possession of Eton College. On the first
fly-leaf are written the words: "The Gift of the Revᵈ Thoˢ Briggs to
Eton Coll. Library, Decʳ 1818." As shown above, the quotation of the
"ambiguous" letter in the 1553 edition of Wilson's _Logique_ speaks,
however, in favour of an edition earlier than that of the unique copy;
and this earlier edition might be dated "1552?".[316]

=Place of Roister Doister in English Literature.=--_Roister Doister_
is the only specimen of Udall's dramatic art preserved by Fate, but it
is sufficient to justify us in assigning to the author his place as
father of English Comedy.

The causes that brought a "Latinist," a schoolmaster, a theological
writer to such a position are interesting to consider. Primarily, of
course, it is his genius, his "_Froh-natur_," his way of looking at
the world, and his art of representing this picture of the world, to
which we owe _Roister Doister_, but besides this we may be certain that
Udall's classical training, the condition of the Latin School-comedy
of his time, and, finally, his clear insight into the character of the
national play helped him to the place that he holds.

If Udall had been merely a pedantic schoolmaster, one of whose duties
it was to superintend an annual Christmas play, he would have been
satisfied with an adaptation of--let us say--the _Miles Gloriosus_, or
he would merely have translated the _Miles_ as the _Andria_ had been
translated before; perhaps he would even have been satisfied with a
performance of the play in the Latin. On the other hand, had he never
been obliged to drill boys in Terence, his plays would have remained
"interludes" of the old type, and at best, he would now receive
honourable mention by the side of Heywood. It was his very position as
teacher of the classics, his humanism (apart from the annual necessity
of advising the "enterluders" at Christmas time) which must have
pointed out to him the way in which the "enterlude" might be outgrown,
the way that would lead to a new category of plays: the "comedy."

Udall (if the prologue to _Roister Doister_ is his own, as we have no
reason to doubt)[317] seems to have been somewhat doubtful at first
about the designation of his play; he calls it at the beginning "thys
enterlude"; but he realized the new departure which he had taken,
and calls it later "Our Comedie or Enterlude." By the use of this
word,--the first time applied correctly to an _English_ comedy,--Udall
indicates his aspirations, his sources and classical models: those
plays which were the comedies _par excellence_, the comedies of
Terence, and--especially since the discovery of the twelve "new" plays
in 1429--those of Plautus. Udall shows himself a genuine disciple of
the Renaissance; he "imitates" in that true way in which "imitation"
has always ultimately proved "originality": he shows that he had
absorbed the spirit of the Roman comedy, that he fully understood the
easy movement, the sparkling and refined dialogue, the succinct but
full delineation of character, and the clear development of a plot. But
besides all this he possessed enough patriotic feeling not to overlook
the merits of the modest national "interlude" of England. He did not
too anxiously avoid carrying out here and there even a farcical motive;
but with the higher ideal before him, he succeeded in fusing the
classical and the national elements into a new category, becoming thus
the father of English comedy.

Udall's position appears clearly if one compares his work with _Gammer
Gurtons Nedle_ on the one hand, and--regarding them as a type--with
Heywood's farces on the other.

The good taste and higher art of _Roister Doister_ are at once evident:
the play is free from the undeniable vulgarity of _Gammer Gurton_, and
in delineation of character is distinctly superior. The plot, simple as
it is, is never as meagre as in the clever dialogues of Heywood; and as
much as Udall surpasses Heywood in construction of the plot, I think
he surpasses him in delineation of character. For even if, as Ward
says,[318] in Heywood's witty plays, the "personified abstractions" of
the moralities have been entirely superseded by "personal types," these
personal types have not yet matured into individual persons, into men
of flesh and blood, as they have in Udall's play.

I take, of course, for granted Udall's absolute superiority over that
category of interludes which--bastards of the "Moralities"--seem to
have had no other purpose than to introduce dogmatical moralizations,
seasoned perhaps with a tavern scene or with some other farcical
coarseness, and at best ending with an "unmotived" conversion of the
sinner or sinners.

=Plot and Characters.=--Udall's plot is so simple that its development
becomes clear at a glance; it consists of the unsuccessful wooing of
Ralph Roister Doister for the hand of Dame Christian Custance, evolved
amid various entanglements, and ultimately unsuccessful, not so much
because Custance is at the time of Roister's first advances already
engaged to another man, as because Roister's folly is so enormous that
no success can be possible.

Now the figure of an avowed fool in love would give excellent scenes
for a farce, but would not yield the complications of character
and situation necessary for a comedy; and in order to bring about
this essential complexity, there is introduced a second motive for
action in this fool's own character,--that of vainglory. There is
also introduced a personage who shall season the play by his wit and
produce the necessary entanglements. This is Mathew Merygreeke, who
grows gradually under the poet's hands, until he occupies the most
prominent place in the play, at least as far as our interest in the
different characters is concerned. Despite all that has been said to
the contrary, Merygreeke is Udall's own creation,--a figure in itself
deserving of high praise. Undoubtedly this character was at first
conceived as a mere modern parasite, of a much higher type, however,
than the Sempronio, for instance (in _Calisto and Meliboea_), but as
the play advanced the figure outgrew its original limits, and although
in the first scenes Merygreeke is scarcely out of the eggshell of
the parasite, he proves very soon to be a new character: a character
belonging to the class of Pandarus, a "Friend" playing the part of
kindly Fate, a Vice certainly mischievous and cruel enough, but
directing everything to a good end; as full of humour and fun as of
character, and, at the bottom of his heart, of good-nature.

Merygreeke comes indeed to Roister at first "for his stomach's sake"
and wants a new coat, but he has on the whole only a few traits of the
parasite,[319] and these might be left out without injuring the play
in the least. As soon as he sees Roister in love, his humour gains
the upper hand; he realizes at once what a capital source of fun this
"love" on the part of a vain fool might become, and he determines to
bring about such complications as will yield the greatest quantity
of amusement. His purpose may, indeed, at first have been merely
egotistical, to have the fun himself; but he is forgiven because
all the other persons of the play--as well as the audience--are
liberally invited to the feast. Merygreeke may appear at times as a
false friend and thus as an immoral character, but his flattery is so
exaggerated, his lies are so improbable, so enormous, so amusing to all
sane people,--Roister so fully deserves (indeed provokes) the cruel
treatment,--that any possible wrath of a moralizing censor is entirely
disarmed. Supreme folly stands outside the common moral order of
things. Even if Merygreeke had not disclosed his motives, we could see
from the respect which is shown him by Custance and Trusty, that he is
far from being a treacherous parasite. And after all he does not betray
his friend. He rather helps him to what he really desires. And what
Roister most desires in this world is, after all, not the possession of
the fair widow, but the satisfaction of his vanity. How quickly does he
forget his love in the delusion fostered by Merygreeke, that Goodluck
and Custance desire to live in peace with him because they fear him.
The lie is in harmony with poetic justice.

Merygreeke has been characterized[320] as "the Artotrogos of Plautus,
the standing figure of the parasite of the Greek new comedy and its
Latin reproductions." But, though Merygreeke was doubtless originally
planned as the parasite of the play, and though here and there to the
very end of the play we find allusions which corroborate this, I note,
first, that the classical parasite[321] lacks the element of modern
humour, of witty but, after all, good-natured enjoyment of the mischief
which he stirs up; secondly, that Merygreeke is free from endless
and--to us--tedious allusions to the "stomach"; and, thirdly, from the
vulgar, and almost uninteresting, selfishness, revealed in such words
as these of Gnatho:

Principio ego vos credere ambos hoc mi vehementer volo
_Me huius quicquid faciam id facere maxume causa mea_.

I may be mistaken, but I cannot find that the classical parasite has
any _fine_ touch of the humour that is inseparable from "humanity,"
from good nature. The classical parasite is, on account of this
deficiency, distinctly inferior to this modern creation.

As completely as in Merygreeke's case, Udall disarms the moralist in
the case of Roister himself, whose lying[322] and bragging, whose
cowardice, matched only by his vanity, cannot possibly be regarded as
setting a bad example, because they have reached dimensions which are
grotesque and plainly ridiculous. They result only in the propagation
of his folly, and that is allowed to reap its--poor--external fruit:
Roister is "invited" to the banquet (and Roister has constitutionally
a good "stomach"), and he is made to believe that he is a much
"dreaded lion." Fate has fortunately not pressed the mirror into his
hands. He is saved the sight of the ass's ears visible to every one
else.[323] And as kind as Fate is his "friend" Merygreeke, who never
reveals to him his absolute wretchedness, and who has to the last
the satisfaction of knowing Roister a "glad man." Here was a great
danger for a less skilful writer than Udall--a danger of marring our
enjoyment of Merygreeke's part by inserting traits of a finer or
grosser brutality, a danger of spoiling the whole feast by some drop of
malice. The element of conscious humiliation is absent; the pathetic is
consequently avoided.

The other figures of the play are kept in the background; even
Custance, and Gawin Goodluck, who comes in at the end of the play
to give the _coup de grace_ to Roister's foolish hopes. As a lover
Goodluck is hardly a success. He is so fish-blooded that, in a scene
which savours of a judicial procedure, the evidence of Trusty becomes
necessary before he can be satisfied of the fidelity of his betrothed.
Goodluck is obviously no Romeo. In the widow ready to marry again Udall
presents a good study of character. Custance is a well-to-do London
city-wife of the days of Henry VIII. and Edward VI., ruling like a
queen over servants who themselves are happily introduced and capitally
delineated. We imagine her neither lean, nor pale, but rather like the
wife of Bath--like her, resolute and substantial, but more faithful.
She is, to a certain extent, even shrewd; she enjoys fun,--after
she has been made to see it,--and she is not without a touch of
sentimentality.

Indeed, to Custance Udall has assigned the only serious scene in the
play, Act V., Scene iii. This monologue appears pathetic, and sounds
like a prayer of innocence, extremely well justified in a woman who
finds herself surrounded by difficulties and involved in a complication
which seems to question her honour. The last words of the complaint
indicate, however, that Goodluck would better not doubt _too_ much,
because Custance's patience might reach a limit, and her natural
independence might sharply bring him to his senses.[324] She appears in
that very scene as the match of Goodluck, who will be very happy with
her if he gets her.

Udall shows his complete superiority over his predecessors in these
delineations of character even more than in the creation of the plot.
Though in the development of the latter everything fits together and is
arranged in good order and proportion, it is, after all, the _dramatis
personæ_ that interest us most. Udall's persons are men and women of
flesh and blood, interesting and amusing living beings, not the wax
figures of "Sapience" or "Folly," "Virtuous Living" or "Counterfet
Countenance." Udall's persons are vastly superior to these wooden
"dialoguers," whom one feels to be acting merely for a school-bred
morality, and they leave the coarse-grained but witty figures even of
Heywood's farces far behind.

If anything, his _persons_ show that Udall had studied his Plautus and
Terence as a clear and sharp observer,[325] and that he had learned
from them where the originals for a comedy were to be found--in life,
in the actual world surrounding the poet.

=The Present Text= is based upon Arber's reprint of July 1, 1869,
which has been carefully collated by Professor Gayley with the unique
copy in the library of Eton College. The courtesy of the librarian,
F. Warre Cornish, M.A., and the other authorities of Eton College, is
hereby heartily acknowledged. In the present text all variations from
the original are inclosed in brackets. But, in uniformity with the
regulation adopted for this series, _j_ and _v_ have been substituted
for _i_ and _u_ when used as consonants, and _u_ has been printed for
_v_ when used as a vowel. References in the footnotes to previous
editions are thus indicated: A., Arber's reprint; C., W. D. Cooper's
edition for the Shakespeare Society, 1847; H., Hazlitt's Dodsley
(edition in Vol. III.), Lond. 1874; M., Professor J. M. Manly's edition
in "Specimens of the Pre-Shaksperean Drama," Vol. II., Boston, 1897.
References to the Eton copy are indicated by E.

EWALD FLÜGEL.

FOOTNOTES:

[285] Wood's _Fasti_, quoted by Arber. Arber assigns 1504 as the year
of Udall's birth, but makes him "æt. 18" in 1524. Cf. Cooper's Extracts
from C. C. C. Register.

[286] Cf. Bale, _Catal._ ed. 1557, Cent. 9, 45 (fol. 717; general
statement concerning Udall's Protestantism). _Lutheranis disciplinis
dum in academia studuit addictus fuit_, Tanner after Wood, cf.
Cooper, XII. It is remarkable, however, that we do not find Udall in
correspondence with the reformers "in exile."

[287] In March, 1521, cf. Ellis, _Original Letters_, I. i, 239 _sqq._

[288] Reprinted from Leland's _Collectanea_, V. by Cooper, XII. XIV.
XXVI.

[289] Cf. the epigram "_de liberalitate Nic. Odoualli_," quoted by
Cooper, XII.

[290] Original among the _Royal Mss._, 18 A. L. XIV. Cf. _Calendars_,
etc., VI., No. 564; _Ib._ 565, referring to Latin verses on this
coronation by Richard Coxe, Udall's predecessor at Eton (from _Harl.
Ms._ 6148, f. 117). Udall's verses are reprinted by Arber, _English
Garner_, 2, 52; parts of them published by Collier and Fairholt. Cf.
Cooper (XIII.), who dates the pageant 1532 (as does Ward, _Hist. Dram.
Poetry_, I. 141). This pageant shows Udall's earliest connection with
the revels, and may have given him a name at the side of Heywood.

[291] U. speaks later of the Eton mastership as "that roume which I was
neuer desirous to obtain."

[292] Cf. Arber, p. 3.

[293] Cf. Warton, _Hist. of English Poetry_, 3, 308; _Interdum etiam
exbibet_ [sc. _ludi magister_] _Anglico sermone contextas fabulas,
si quæ babeant acumen et leporem_. Eton was the only place where _we
know_ of _English_ plays; but Radulphus Radclif at Hitchin _may_ have
performed some of his school comedies in English, as the "plebs"
mentioned by Bale would not much have appreciated Latin performances,
_Catalogus_, 8, 98, fol. 700; Herford, _Literary Relations_, p. 110,
citing the occasional admission of English school plays at Eton, says
that to "this concession we owe the _Ralph Roister Doister_." More
likely we owe the concession to _Roister Doister_. Cf. Herford on
Udall's _De Papatu_.

[294] It seems improbable that the _R. D._ was ever performed at Court;
Udall's "interludes and devices" were pageants, as the _Loseley Mss._
prove; see below.

[295] Tusser's _500 Pointes_, ed. Payne & Heritage, p. 205.

[296] Cooper attributes to Udall's severity the running away
from school of "divers" Eton boys alluded to by Roger Ascham
(_Schoolmaster_). But this passage refers to 10 Dec. 1563, twenty-two
years after Udall had ceased to swing the rod over the Eton boys!

[297] Cf. quotation from Nicolas's _Proceedings and Ordinances of
the Privy Council_, 7, 152-53, in Cooper; the date is 14 March 32
Henry VIII. (1541-42) and _not_ 1543, as Arber gives it. Arber dates
Udall's letter also wrongly 1543; it is referred to 1541-42 in Ellis's
_Original Letters of Eminent Literary Men_, Camden Soc., 1843, P. 1.

[298] "Accepte this myn honest chaunge from vice to virtue, from
prodigalitee to frugall livyng, from negligence of teachyng to
assiduitee, from playe to studie, from lightness to gravitee." He
speaks about his "offenses," does not wish to excuse himself, but
says "humana quidem esse, et emendari posse." He begs for a chance
to show his "emendyng and reformac̄on," and quotes instances from
ancient history of great men who had indulged in a "veray riottous
and dissolute sorte of livyng" in their youth, had been "drowned in
voluptuousness" and had lived in "slaundre and infamie," but had
reformed. Not a word is said about thefts, "robberies," and such
"felonious trespasses." Cf. the whole letter from a new collation in
Flügel's _Lesebuch_, I, 351.

[299] U. does not beg in this letter for his "restitution," as Arber
seems to accept.

[300] Cf. Cooper, XXIII.

[301] Mars had "the rule" there October, 1542-July, 1543 (Froude, 3,
525-570), then again August, 1547 (Somerset in Berwick, Froude, 4,
288); the naval expedition of Hertford in May, 1544, being here out of
the question (_Ib._ 4, 32).

[302] This translation (published in September) might also indicate
some connection between Udall and Aldrich during the summer of
1542. Aldrich was a great "Erasmian"; he had been the _juvenis
blandæ eloquentiæ_ whom Erasmus used as interpreter on that immortal
pilgrimage to Walsingham, and he kept up a correspondence with Erasmus.

[303] Udall took as his share _St. Luk_ and the "disposition" of
the rest with exception of _St. John_ and _St. Mark_; perhaps he
assisted also in the translation of _Matthew_ and _Acts_. The Prefaces
are dated 1545, 1548. The whole must have been quite a lucrative
business-undertaking, because every parish in England had, by law, to
buy a copy of this work and "every parson had to have and diligently
study the same conferring the one [_the New Testament both in Latin and
English_] with the other [_the paraphrase_]." Cf. Cranmer's _Remains_,
155, 156 (1548); the Injunctions of Edward, 1547 (_Ib._ 499, 501),
etc.; cf. also Grindal's _Works_, 134, 157; Hooper's _Works_, 2, 139,
143 (_Parker Soc._).

[304] Cranmer too wrote "_Answers to the Fifteen Articles of the
Rebels_, Devon, Anno 1549," reprinted in his _Remains_, 163; and a
number of references to the Rebellion may be found in the writings
of the Reformers, f. i. _Letter of Hooper to Bullinger_, 25 June,
1549, _of John ab Ulmis to Bullinger_, May 28, 1550, of _Burcher to
Bullinger_, 25 August, 1549. But none of these correspondents ever
mention Udall.

[305] Cf. Cooper, XXX.

[306] An interesting letter of Udall's, dated August, 1552, referring
to his place at Windsor, was printed in _Archæologia_, 1869, Vol. XLII.
91, but has not hitherto been utilized for Udall's Biography. The
preface to a translation of T. Geminie's _Anatomy_ by Udall is dated
20 July, 1552; cf. Cooper, XXXI.; Udall's _Epistolæ et Carmina ad Gul.
Hormannum et ad Jo. Lelandum_, are quoted by Bale, etc., and given
under this year by Cooper (who reads: Hermannum). Hormann died 1535, as
vice-provost of Eton.

[307] This warrant was communicated to the Archæological Society,
December 9, 1824, by Mr. Bray (_Archæologia_, 21, 551), but not printed
until 1836 in the _Loseley Mss._, now first edited by A. J. Kempe; No.
31, p. 63.

[308] See below, under Date of the Early Edition of _R. D._ Another
early allusion to Udall as a playwright is that from Nichols's
_Progresses of Queen Elizabeth_, 3, 177, according to which "an English
play called _Ezekias_, made by Mr. Udall and handled by King's College
men only," was performed before Elizabeth August 8, 1564, at Cambridge;
see Cooper's Preface, xxxiii. Bale, who does not mention Udall as a
playwright in the edition 1548 of his _Catalogus_ (he mentions only
[Ochino's?] _Tragoedia de papatu_), says in the edition September,
1557, that Udall wrote "comœdias plures." There is nothing on Udall in
his _Supplement_ of 1559.

[309] It is remarkable that these documents should never have been
utilized for Udall's biography. Cf. the "Miscellaneous Extracts from
Various Accounts relating to the Office of the Revels," printed among
the _Loseley Mss._, p. 90. The Muniment Room of James More Molyneux at
Loseley House, Surrey, would furnish these and perhaps other documents
most valuable for Udall's History and that of the Early Drama.

The "scheme for an interlude, in which the persons of the drama were
to be _a King_, _a Knight_, _a Judge_, _a Preacher_, _a Scholar_, _a
Serving-man_," which Hazlitt (_Handbook_, 622) carelessly attributes to
Udall, is not connected with his name; cf. _Loseley Mss._, p. 64.

[310] These _may_ refer to another pageant, _l.c._

[311] No exact date given by Cooper, XXXIV. Hales gives good reasons
for the probability that Udall's mastership commenced in 1553; cf.
_Englische Studien_, 18, 421; cf. _ib._, a very interesting note on the
Terentian Plays, annually performed at the Westminster School. It seems
almost as if here, as well as at Eton, Udall's headmastership had some
significance for the history of the English school comedy.

[312] _Funerall Monuments_, ed. 1631, fol. 497.

[313] See above, p. 90, and notes.

[314] The Date of the First English Comedy, in _Englische Studien_, 18,
408-421.

[315] Professor Hales, in his essay on the date of _Roister_
(_Englische Studien_, 18, 419) quotes for these usury laws the
incomplete account of them in Craik's _History of British Commerce_, 1,
22, 231.

The law of 1545 (_so_ dated by Ruffhead; and not 1546) is far more
important on account of its clause about the "yearly interest" than of
that about the ten per cent.

[316] To Collier has been given the credit of first ("soon after 1820")
connecting Udall's name with _Roister Doister_, the unique copy of
which had been published by the finder, the Revᵈ. Thoˢ. Briggs, in
1818. But, in the first place, Collier could not have identified the
"ambiguous" letter in "Wilson's _Art of Logic_, printed by Richard
Grafton, 1551," as he says he did, since "The rule of Reason, contei
|| nyng the Arte of || Logique, set forth || in Englishe, || by Thomas
|| Vuilson. || _An._ M. D. LI. _does not contain the quotation from
Roister Doister_ (copy in the Bodleian kindly examined for me by
Professor Gayley), _neither does the edition of 1552_ (cf. Arber). On
folio 66 of the _third_ edition (1553) appears for the first time: "An
example of soche doubtful writing whiche by reason of poincting maie
haue double sense, and contrarie meaning, taken out of an entrelude
made by Nicolas Vdal." And, in the second place, Collier had been
anticipated, in part, for as early as 1748 reference had been made to
the passage from Wilson by Tanner, who writes (_Bibliotheca_, 8. n.):
In Thos. Wilson's _Logica_, p. 69 [it is _leaf_ 67 of edition 1567 in
my possession] _sunt quidem versus ambigui sensus ex Comœdia quadam
huius Nic. Udalli desumpti_.

[317] With this opinion, and that of p. 90, _n._ 4, contrast Fleay's
argument, _Hist. Stage_, pp. 59, 60. _Gen. Ed._

[318] Ward in _Dict. Nat. Biog._ 26, 332. Ward says that in Heywood's
Plays the "bridge had been built" to English Comedy. I think rather
that this bridge was a temporary structure, waiting to be replaced by
the more solidly planned work of a higher architect.

[319] These traits as well as the practical jokes would, of course, be
especially enjoyed by the Eton players and their youthful audience.

[320] Ward, _Hist. Dram. Lit._, 1, 157 (Lond.: 1899).

[321] Cf. the splendid essay on the Roman _Colax_ and Parasite in O.
Ribbeck's _Hist. of Roman Lit._ (_Stuttgart_, 1887), 1, 83 _sqq._

[322] "These lies are like their father--gross as a mountain, open,
palpable."--Shak., _1 Hen. IV._ 2, 4.

[323] Ward, _l.c._, calls Roister "a vain-glorious, cowardly blockhead,
of whom the Pyrgopolinices of Plautus is the precise prototype." That
his character has some fine points, modelled after the Terentian
Thraso, is shown in the notes (cf. especially the last scene).
Roister's character, indeed, is the least original of the play, but he
is not Udall's favourite figure. Udall did not spend as much labour on
him as on Merygreeke.

[324] This possible complication, which would have yielded a fine
scene, seems not to have occurred to Udall.

[325] In this respect even _Jack Juggler_ deserves credit. I find no
trace of Plautus and Terence in Heywood's plays.

ROISTER DOISTER

NICHOLAS UDALL

[The Persons of the Play

RALPH ROYSTER DOYSTER, "_Miles_."[326]
MATHEWE MERYGREEKE, _his friend_.
GAWIN GOODLUCKE, _London Merchant, affianced to Custance_.
TRISTRAM TRUSTY, _his friend_.
DOBINET DOUGHTIE, _servant to Royster_.
TOM TRUPENIE, _servant to Custance_.
SYM SURESBY, _servant to Goodluck_.
HARPAX _and other Musicians in Royster's service_.
SCRIVENER.
DAME CHRISTIAN CUSTANCE, _a wealthy widow_.
MAGE MUMBLE CRUST, _her old nurse_.
TIBET TALK APACE }
ANNOT ALYFACE } _maids of Custance_.

_THE SCENE_

LONDON[327]]

FOOTNOTES:

[326] Cf. stage-direction, III, iii, 83, and Appendix _B_.

[327] St. Paul's is mentioned, II, iv, 40; Sym Suresby seems to
come directly from the landing place; the house of Custance might,
therefore, safely be located in the _City_ proper.

Roister Doister

The Prologue.

What Creature is in health, eyther yong or olde, A ii
But som mirth with modestie wil be glad to use
As we in thys Enterlude shall now unfolde,
Wherin all scurilitie we utterly refuse,
Avoiding such mirth wherin is abuse:
Knowing nothing more comendable for a mans recreation
Than Mirth which is used in an honest fashion: 7

For Myrth prolongeth lyfe, and causeth health.
Mirth recreates our spirites and voydeth pensivenesse,
Mirth increaseth amitie, not hindring our wealth,
Mirth is to be used both of more and lesse,
Being mixed with vertue in decent comlynesse.
As we trust no good nature can gainsay the same:
Which mirth we intende to use, avoidyng all blame. 14

The wyse Poets long time heretofore,
Under merrie Comedies secretes did declare,
Wherein was contained very vertuous lore,
With mysteries and forewarnings very rare.
Suche to write neither _Plautus_[328] nor _Terence_ dyd spare,
Whiche among the learned[329] at this day beares[330] the bell:[331]
These with such other therein dyd excell. 21

Our Comedie or Enterlude which we intende to play.
Is named Royster Doyster in deede.
Which against the vayne glorious doth invey,
Whose humour the roysting sort continually doth feede.
Thus by your pacience we intende to proceede
In this our Enterlude by Gods leave and grace,
And here I take my leave for a certaine space. 28

FINIS.

Actus. i. Scæna. i.

MATHEWE MERYGREEKE. _He entreth singing._ A ii _b_

As long lyveth the mery man (they say)[332]
As doth the sory man, and longer by a day.
Yet the Grassehopper for all his Sommer pipyng,
Sterveth in Winter wyth hungrie gripyng,
Therefore an other sayd sawe doth men advise, 5
That they be together both mery and wise.
Thys Lesson must I practise, or else ere long,
Wyth mee Mathew Merygreeke[333] it will be wrong.
In deede men so call me, for by him that us bought,
What ever chaunce betide, I can take no thought, 10
Yet wisedome woulde that I did my selfe bethinke
Where to be provided this day of meate and drinke:
For knowe[334] ye that for all this merie note of mine,
He might appose[335] me now that should aske where I dine.
My lyving lieth heere and there, of Gods grace, 15
Sometime wyth this good man, sometyme in that place,
Sometime Lewis Loytrer[336] biddeth me come neere,
Somewhyles Watkin Waster maketh us good cheere,
Sometime Davy Diceplayer[337] when he hath well cast
Keepeth revell route as long as it will last. 20
Sometime Tom Titivile[338] maketh us a feast,
Sometime with sir Hugh Pye I am a bidden gueast,
Sometime at Nichol Neverthrives I get a soppe,
Sometime I am feasted with Bryan Blinkinsoppe,[339]
Sometime I hang on Hankyn[340] Hoddydodies sleeve, 25
But thys day on Ralph Royster Doysters by hys leeve.
For truely of all men he is my chiefe banker
Both for meate and money, and my chiefe shootanker.[341]
For, sooth Roister Doister in that he doth say,[342]
And require what ye will ye shall have no nay. 30
But now of Roister Doister somewhat to expresse, A iii
That ye may esteeme him after hys worthinesse,
In these twentie townes and seke them throughout,
Is not the like stocke, whereon to graffe a loute.
All the day long is he facing[343] and craking[344] 35
Of his great actes in fighting and fraymaking:
But when Roister Doister is put to his proofe,
To keepe the Queenes[345] peace is more for his behoofe.
If any woman smyle or cast on hym an eye,
Up is he to the harde eares in love by and by, 40
And in all the hotte haste must she be hys wife,
Else farewell hys good days, and farewell his life,
Maister Raufe Royster Doyster is but dead and gon
Excepte she on hym take some compassion,
Then chiefe of counsell, must be Mathew Merygreeke, 45
What if I for mariage to suche an one seeke?
Then must I sooth it, what ever it is:
For what he sayth or doth can not be amisse,
Holde up his yea and nay, be his nowne[346] white[347] sonne,
Prayse and rouse him well, and ye have his heart wonne, 50
For so well liketh he his owne fonde fashions
That he taketh pride of false commendations.
But such sporte have I with him as I would not leese,
Though I should be bounde to lyve with bread and cheese.
For exalt hym, and have hym as ye lust in deede: 55
Yea to hold his finger in a hole for a neede.
I can with a worde make him fayne or loth,
I can with as much make him pleased or wroth,
I can when I will make him mery and glad,
I can when me lust make him sory and sad, 60
I can set him in hope and eke in dispaire,
I can make him speake rough, and make him speake faire.
But I marvell I see hym not all thys same day,
I wyll seeke him out: But loe he commeth thys way,
I have yond espied hym sadly comming, A iii _b_ 65
And in love for twentie pounde, by hys glommyng.

Actus. i. Scæna. ii.

RAFE ROISTER DOISTER. MATHEW MERYGREEKE.

_R. Royster._ Come death when thou wilt, I am weary of my life.

_M. Mery._ I tolde you I, we should wowe another wife.

_R. Royster._ Why did God make me suche a goodly person?

_M. Mery._ He is in[348] by the weke, we shall have sport anon.

_R. Royster._ And where is my trustie friende Mathew Merygreeke? 5

_M. Mery._ I wyll make as I sawe him not, he doth me seeke.

_R. Roister._ I have hym espyed me thinketh, yond is hee,
Hough Mathew Merygreeke my friend, a worde with thee.[349]

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

_R. Roister._ Thou must with thy good counsell helpe me if thou can.

_M. Mery._ God keepe thee worshypfull Maister Roister Doister,
And fare well the lustie Maister Roister Doister.

_R. Royster._ I muste needes speake with thee a worde or twaine. 15

_M. Mery._ Within a month or two I will be here againe,
Negligence in greate affaires ye knowe may marre all.

_R. Roister._ Attende upon me now, and well rewarde thee I shall.

_M. Mery._ I have take my leave, and the tide is well spent.

_R. Roister._ I die except thou helpe, I pray thee be content, 20
Doe thy parte wel nowe, and aske what thou wilt,
For without thy aide my matter is all spilt.

_M. Mery._ Then to serve your turne I will some paines take,
And let all myne owne affaires alone for your sake.

_R. Royster._ My whole hope and trust resteth onely in thee. 25

_M. Mery._ Then can ye not doe amisse what ever it bee.

_R. Royster._ Gramercies Merygreeke, most bounde to thee I am. A iv

_M. Mery._ But up with that heart, and speake out like a ramme,
Ye speake like a Capon that had the cough now:
Bee of good cheere, anon ye shall doe well ynow. 30

_R. Royster._ Upon thy comforte, I will all things well handle.

_M. Mery._ So loe, that is a breast to blowe out a candle.
But what is this great matter I woulde faine knowe,
We shall fynde remedie therefore I trowe.
Doe ye lacke money? ye knowe myne olde offers, 35
Ye have always a key to my purse and coffers.

_R. Royster._ I thanke thee: had ever man suche a frende?

_M. Mery._ Ye gyve unto me: I must needes to you lende

_R. Royster._ Nay I have money plentie all things to discharge.[350]

_M. Mery_ [_aside_]. That knewe I ryght well when I made offer so
large. 40

_R. Royster._ But it is no suche matter.[351]

_M. Mery._ What is it than?
Are ye in daunger of debte to any man?
If ye be, take no thought nor be not afraide,
Let them hardly[352] take thought how they shall be paide.

_R. Royster._ Tut I owe nought. 45

_M. Mery._ What then? fear ye imprisonment?

_R. Royster._ No.

_M. Mery._ No I wist ye offende not so,[353] to be shent.
But if [y]e[354] had, the Toure coulde not you so holde,
But to breake out at all times ye would be bolde.
What is it? hath any man threatned you to beate?

_R. Royster._ What is he that durst have put me in that heate? 50
He that beateth me, by his armes,[355] shall well fynde,
That I will not be farre from him nor runne behinde.

_M. Mery._ That thing knowe all men ever since ye overthrewe,
The fellow of the Lion which _Hercules_ slewe.[356]
But what is it than? 55

_R. Royster._ Of love I make my mone.

_M. Mery._ Ah this foolishe a[357] love, wilt neare let us alone?
But bicause ye were refused the last day,
Ye said ye woulde nere more be intangled that way:
"I would medle no more, since I fynde all so unkinde,"[358]

_R. Royster._ Yea, but I can not so put love out of my minde. 60

_Math. Mer._ But is your love tell me first, in any wise, A iv _b_
In the way of Mariage, or of Merchandise?
If it may otherwise than lawfull be founde,
Ye get none of my helpe for an hundred pounde.

_R. Royster._ No by my trouth I would have hir to my Wife. 65

_M. Mery._ Then are ye a good man, and God save your life,
And what or who is she, with whome ye are in love?

_R. Royster._ A woman whome I knowe not by what meanes to move.

_M. Mery._ Who is it?

_R. Royster._ A woman yond.

_M. Mery._ What is hir name?

_R. Royster._ Hir yonder. 70

_M. Mery._ Who[359][?]

_R. Royster._ Mistresse ah--

_M. Mery._ Fy fy for shame[!]
Love ye, and know not whome? but hir yonde, a Woman,
We shall then get you a Wyfe, I can not tell whan.

_R. Royster._ The faire Woman, that supped wyth us yesternyght--
And I hearde hir name twice or thrice, and had it ryght.

_M. Mery._ Yea, ye may see ye nere[360] take me to good cheere with
you, 75
If ye had, I coulde have tolde you hir name now.

_R. Royster._ I was to blame in deede, but the nexte tyme perchaunce:
And she dwelleth in this house.

_M. Mery._ What Christian Custance.

_R. Royster._ Except I have hir to my Wife, I shall runne madde.

_M. Mery._ Nay unwise perhaps, but I warrant you for madde. 80

_R. Royster._ I am utterly dead unlesse I have my desire.

_M. Mery._ Where be the bellowes that blewe this sodeine fire?

_R. Royster._ I heare she is worthe a thousande pounde and more.

_M. Mery._ Yea, but learne this one lesson of me afore,
An hundred pounde of Marriage money doubtlesse, 85
Is ever thirtie pounde sterlyng, or somewhat lesse,
So that hir Thousande pounde yf she be thriftie,
Is muche neere[361] about two hundred and fiftie,
Howebeit wowers and Widowes are never poore.

_R. Royster._ Is she a Widowe?[362] I love hir better therefore. 90

_M. Mery._ But I heare she hath made promise to another.

_R. Royster._ He shall goe without hir, and[363] he were my brother.

_M. Mery._ I have hearde say, I am right well advised,
That she hath to Gawyn Goodlucke promised.

_R. Royster._ What is that Gawyn Goodlucke? B i 95

_M. Mery._ a Merchant man.

_R. Royster._ Shall he speede afore me? nay sir by sweete Sainct Anne.
Ah sir, Backare quod Mortimer to his sowe,[364]
I wyll have hir myne owne selfe I make God a vow.
For I tell thee, she is worthe a thousande pounde.

_M. Mery._ Yet a fitter wife for your maship[365] might be founde: 100
Suche a goodly man as you, might get one wyth lande,[366]
Besides poundes of golde a thousande and a thousande,
And a thousande, and a thousande, and a thousande,
And so to the summe of twentie hundred thousande,
Your most goodly personage is worthie of no lesse.[367] 105

_R. Royster._ I am sorie God made me so comely doubtlesse,[368]
For that maketh me eche where so highly favoured,
And all women on me so enamoured.[369]

_M. Mery._ Enamoured quod you? have ye spied out that?
Ah sir, mary nowe I see you know what is what. 110
Enamoured ka?[370] mary sir say that againe,
But I thought not ye had marked it so plaine.

_R. Royster._ Yes, eche where they gaze all upon me and stare.

_M. Mery._ Yea malkyn, I warrant you as muche as they dare.
And ye will not beleve what they say in the streete, 115
When your mashyp passeth by all such as I meete,
That sometimes I can scarce finde what aunswere to make.
Who is this (sayth one) sir _Launcelot du lake_?[371]
Who is this, greate _Guy_[372] of Warwike, sayth an other?
No (say I) it is the thirtenth _Hercules_ brother. 120
Who is this? noble _Hector_ of _Troy_, sayth the thirde?
No, but of the same nest (say I) it is a birde.
Who is this? greate _Goliah_, _Sampson_, or _Colbrande_?[373]
No (say I) but it is a brute[374] of the Alie[375] lande.
Who is this? greate _Alexander_?[376] or _Charle le Maigne_? 125
No, it is the tenth Worthie, say I to them agayne:
I knowe not if I sayd well.

_R. Royster._ Yes for so I am.

_M. Mery._ Yea, for there were but nine worthies before ye
came. B i _b_
To some others, the third _Cato_[377] I doe you call.
And so as well as I can I aunswere them all. 130
Sir I pray you, what lorde or great gentleman is this?
Maister Ralph Roister Doister dame say I, ywis.
O Lorde (sayth she than) what a goodly man it is,
Woulde Christ I had such a husbande as he is.
O Lorde (say some) that the sight of his face we lacke:[378] 135
It is inough for you (say I) to see his backe.
His face is for ladies of high and noble parages.[379]
With whome he hardly scapeth great mariages.
With muche more than this, and much otherwise.

_R. Royster._ I can thee thanke that thou canst suche answeres
devise: 140
But I perceyve thou doste me throughly knowe.

_M. Mery._ I marke your maners for myne owne learnyng I trowe,
But suche is your beautie, and suche are your actes,
Suche is your personage, and suche are your factes,[380]
That all women faire and fowle, more and less, 145
They[381] eye you, they lubbe[382] you, they talke of you
doubtlesse,
Your p[l]easant looke maketh them all merie,
Ye passe not by, but they laugh till they be werie,
Yea and money coulde I have[,] the truthe to tell,
Of many, to bryng you that way where they dwell. 150

_R. Royster._ Merygreeke for this thy reporting well of mee:

_M. Mery._ What shoulde I else sir, it is my duetie pardee:

_R. Royster._ I promise thou shalt not lacke, while I have a grote.

_M. Mery._ Faith sir, and I nere had more nede of a newe cote.

_R. Royster._ Thou shalte have one to morowe, and golde for to
spende. 155

_M. Mery._ Then I trust to bring the day to a good ende.
For as for mine owne parte having money inowe,
I could lyve onely with the remembrance of you.
But nowe to your Widowe whome you love so hotte.

_R. Royster._ By cocke thou sayest truthe, I had almost forgotte. 160

_M. Mery._ What if Christian Custance will not have you what?

_R. Royster._ Have me? yes I warrant you,[383] never doubt of that,
I knowe she loveth me, but she dare not speake. B ii

_M. Mery._ In deede meete it were some body should it breake.

_R. Royster._ She looked on me twentie tymes yesternight, 165
And laughed so.

_M. Mery._ That she coulde not sitte upright,

_R. Royster._ No faith coulde she not.

_M. Mery._ No even such a thing I cast.[384]

_R. Royster._ But for wowyng thou knowest women are shamefast.
But and she knewe my minde, I knowe she would be glad,
And thinke it the best chaunce that ever she had. 170

_M. Mery._ Too[385] hir then like a man, and be bolde forth to starte,
Wowers never speede well, that have a false harte.

_R. Royster._ What may I best doe?

_M. Mery._ Sir remaine ye a while [here[386]]?
Ere long one or other of hir house will appere.
Ye knowe my minde. 175

_R. Royster._ Yea now hardly[387] lette me alone.

_M. Mery._ In the meane time sir, if you please, I wyll home,
And call your Musitians,[388] for in this your case
It would sette you forth, and all your wowyng grace,
Ye may not lacke your instrumentes to play and sing.

_R. Royster._ Thou knowest I can doe that. 180

_M. Mery._ As well as any thing.
Shall I go call your folkes, that ye may shewe a cast?[389]

_R. Royster._ Yea runne I beseeche thee in all possible haste.

_M. Mery._ I goe. _Exeat._

_R. Royster._ Yea for I love singyng out of measure,
It comforteth my spirites and doth me great pleasure. 185
But who commeth forth yond from my swete hearte Custance?
My matter frameth well, thys is a luckie chaunce.

Actus. i. Scæna iii.

MAGE MUMBLE CRUST,[390] _spinning on the distaffe_. TIBET TALK APACE,
_sowyng_. ANNOT ALYFACE, _knittyng_. R. ROISTER.

_M. Mumbl._ If thys distaffe were spoonne[,] Margerie Mumblecrust[--]

_Tib. Talk._[391] Where good stale ale is will drinke no water I
trust.

_M. Mumbl._ Dame Custance hath promised us good ale and white
bread.[392]

_Tib. Talk._ If she kepe not promise, I will beshrewe hir head:
B ii _b_
But it will be starke nyght before I shall have done. 5

_R. Royster_ [_aside_]. I will stande here a while, and talke with
them anon,
I heare them speake of Custance, which doth my heart good,
To heare hir name spoken doth even comfort my blood.

_M. Mumbl._ Sit downe to your worke Tibet like a good girle.

_Tib. Talk._ Nourse medle you with your spyndle and your whirle, 10
No haste but good, Madge Mumblecrust, for whip and whurre[393]
The olde proverbe doth say, never made good furre.

_M. Mumbl._ Well, ye wyll sitte downe to your worke anon, I trust.

_Tib. Talk._ Soft fire maketh sweete malte,[394] good Madge
Mumblecrust.

_M. Mumbl._ And sweete malte maketh joly good ale for the nones. 15

_Tib. Talk._ Whiche will slide downe the lane without any bones.
_Cantet._[395]
Olde browne bread crustes must have much good mumblyng,
But good ale downe your throte hath good easie tumbling.

_R. Royster_ [_aside_]. The jolyest wench that ere I hearde, little
mouse,--
May I not rejoice that she shall dwell in my house? 20

_Tib. Talk._ So sirrha, nowe this geare beginneth for to frame.

_M. Mumbl._ Thanks to God, though your work stand stil, your tong
is not lame

_Tib. Talk._ And though your teeth be gone, both so sharpe and so fine
Yet your tongue can renne on patins[396] as well as mine.

_M. Mumbl._ Ye were not for nought named Tyb Talke apace. 25

_Tib. Talk._ Doth my talke grieve you? Alack, God save your grace.

_M. Mumbl._ I holde[397] a grote ye will drinke anon for this geare.

_Tib. Talk._ And I wyll pray you the stripes for me to beare.

_M. Mumbl._ I holde a penny, ye will drink without a cup.

_Tib. Talk._ Wherein so ere ye drinke, I wote ye drinke all up. 30

_An. Alyface._[398] By Cock and well sowed, my good Tibet Talke apace.

_Tib. Talk._ And een as well knitte my nowne Annot Alyface.

_R. Royster_ [_aside_]. See what a sort she kepeth that must be my
wife[!]
Shall not I when I have hir, leade a merrie life?

_Tib. Talk._ Welcome my good wenche, and sitte here by me just. 35

_An. Alyface._ And howe doth our old beldame here, Mage Mumblecrust?

_Tib. Talk._ Chyde, and finde faultes, and threaten to complaine.

_An. Alyface._ To make us poore girles shent to hir is small gaine.
B iii

_M. Mumbl._ I dyd neyther chyde, nor complaine, nor threaten.

_R. Royster_ [_aside_]. It woulde grieve my heart to see one of them
beaten. 40

_M. Mumbl._ I dyd nothyng but byd hir worke and holde hir peace.

_Tib. Talk._ So would I, if you coulde your clattering ceasse:
But the devill can not make olde trotte[399] holde hir tong.

_An. Alyface._ Let all these matters passe, and we three sing a song,
So shall we pleasantly bothe the tyme beguile now, 45
And eke dispatche all our workes ere we can tell how.

_Tib. Talk._ I shrew them that say nay, and that shall not be I.

_M. Mumbl._ And I am well content.

_Tib. Talk._ Sing on then by and by.

_R. Royster_ [_aside_]. And I will not away, but listen to their song,
Yet Merygreeke and my folkes tary very long. 50

TIB, AN, _and_ MARGERIE, _doe singe here_.

Pipe mery Annot.[400] etc.
Trilla, Trilla. Trillarie.
Worke Tibet, worke Annot, worke Margerie.
Sewe Tibet, knitte Annot, spinne Margerie.
Let us see who shall winne the victorie. 55

_Tib. Talk._ This sleve is not willyng to be sewed I trowe,
A small thing might make me all in the grounde to throwe.

_Then they sing agayne._

Pipe merrie Annot. etc.
Trilla. Trilla. Trillarie.
What Tibet, what Annot, what Margerie. 60
Ye sleepe, but we doe not, that shall we trie.
Your fingers be nombde, our worke will not lie.

_Tib. Talk._ If ye doe so againe, well I would advise you nay.
In good sooth one stoppe[401] more, and I make holy day.

_They singe the thirde tyme._

Pipe Mery Annot. etc. 65
Trilla. Trilla. Trillarie.
Nowe Tibbet, now Annot, nowe Margerie. B iii _b_
Nowe whippet[402] apace for the maystrie,
But it will not be, our mouth is so drie.

_Tib. Talk._ Ah, eche finger is a thombe to day me thinke, 70
I care not to let all alone, choose it swimme or sinke.

_They sing the fourth tyme._

Pipe Mery Annot. etc.
Trilla. Trilla. Trillarie.
When Tibet, when Annot, when Margerie.
I will not, I can not, no more can I. 75
Then give we all over, and there let it lye.
_Lette hir caste downe hir worke._

_Tib. Talk._ There it lieth, the worste is but a curried cote[!][403]
Tut I am used therto, I care not a grote.

_An. Alyface._ Have we done singyng since? then will I in againe,
Here I founde you, and here I leave both twaine. _Exeat._

_M. Mumbl._ And I will not be long after: Tib Talke apace.

_Tib. Talk._ What is yᵉ matter?

_M. Mumbl._ [_looking at R._]. Yond stode a man al this space
And hath hearde all that ever we spake togyther.

_Tib. Talk._ Mary the more loute he for his comming hither.
And the lesse good he can to listen maidens talke. 85
I care not and I go byd him hence for to walke:
It were well done to knowe what he maketh here away.[404]

_R. Royster_ [_aside_]. Nowe myght I speake to them, if I wist what
to say.

_M. Mumbl._ Nay we will go both off, and see what he is.

_R. Royster._ One that hath hearde all your talke and singyng ywis. 90

_Tib. Talk._ The more to blame you, a good thriftie husbande[405]
Woulde elsewhere have had some better matters in hande.

_R. Royster._ I dyd it for no harme, but for good love I beare,
To your dame mistresse Custance, I did your talke heare.
And Mistresse nource I will kisse you for acquaintance. 95

_M. Mumbl._ I come anon sir.

_Tib. Talk._ Faith I would our dame Custance
Sawe this geare.

_M. Mumbl._ I must first wipe al cleane, yea I must.

_Tib. Talk._ Ill chieue[406] it dotyng foole, but it must be cust.

[ROYSTER _kisses_ MUMBLECRUST.]

_M. Mumbl._ God yelde[407] you sir, chad[408] not so much ichotte[408]
not whan,
Nere since chwas bore chwine, of such a gay gentleman. 100

_R. Royster._ I will kisse you too[,] mayden[,] for the good will I
beare you. B iv

_Tib Talk._ No forsoth, by your leave ye shall not kisse me.

_R. Royster._ Yes be not afearde, I doe not disdayne you a whit.

_Tib. Talk._ Why shoulde I feare you? I have not so little wit,
Ye are but a man I knowe very well. 105

_R. Royster._ Why then?

_Tib. Talk._ Forsooth for I wyll not, I use not to kisse men.

_R. Royster._ I would faine kisse you too good maiden, if I myght.

_Tib. Talk._ What shold that neede?

_R. Royster._ But to honor you by this light.
I use to kisse all them that I love[,] to God I vowe.

_Tib. Talk._ Yea sir? I pray you when dyd ye last kisse your
cowe.[409] 110

_R. Royster._ Ye might be proude to kisse me, if ye were wise.

_Tib. Talk._ What promotion were therein?

_R. Royster._ Nourse is not so nice.[410]

_Tib. Talk._ Well I have not bene taught to kissing and licking.

_R. Royster._ Yet I thanke you mistresse Nourse, ye made no sticking.

_M. Mumbl._ I will not sticke for a kosse with such a man as you. 115

_Tib. Talk._ They that lust: I will againe to my sewyng now.

_An. Alyfac_[_e_, _re-entering_]. Tidings hough, tidings, dame
Custance greeteth you well.

_R. Royster._ Whome me?

_An. Alyface._ You sir? no sir? I do no suche tale tell.

_R. Royster._ But and she knewe me here.

_An. Alyface._ Tybet Talke apace,
Your mistresse Custance and mine, must speake with your grace.

_Tib. Talk._ With me?

_An. Alyface._ Ye muste come in to hir out of all doutes.

_Tib. Talk._ And my work not half done? A mischief on all loutes.
_Ex_[_eant_] _am_[_bae_.]

_R. Royster._ Ah good sweet nourse[!]

_M. Mumb._ A good sweete gentleman[!]

_R. Royster._ What?

_M. Mumbl._ Nay I can not tel sir, but what thing would you?

_R. Royster._ Howe dothe sweete Custance, my heart of gold, tell
me[,] how? 125

_M. Mumbl._ She dothe very well sir, and commaunde me to you.

_R. Royster._ To me?

_M. Mumbl._ Yea to you sir.

_R. Royster._ To me? nurse tel me plain
To me?

_M. Mumb._ Ye.

_R. Royster._ That word maketh me alive again.

_M. Mumbl._ She commaunde me to one last day who ere it was.

_R. Royster._ That was een to me and none other by the Masse. 130

_M. Mumbl._ I can not tell you surely, but one it was.

_R. Royster._ It was I and none other: this commeth to good passe.
I promise thee nourse I favour hir.

_M. Mumb._ Een so sir.

_R. Royster._ Bid hir sue to me for mariage.

_M. Mumbl._ Een so sir. B iv _b_

_R. Royster._ And surely for thy sake she shall speede. 135

_M. Mumb._ Een so sir.

_R. Royster._ I shall be contented to take hir.

_M. Mumb._ Een so sir.

_R. Royster._ But at thy request and for thy sake.

_M. Mumb._ Een so sir.

_R. Royster._ And come hearke in thine eare what to say.

_M. Mumb._ Een so sir.

_Here lette him tell hir a great long tale in hir eare._[411]

Actus. i. Scæna. iiii.

MATHEW MERYGREEKE. DOBINET DOUGHTIE. HARPAX [_and Musitians
entering_]. RALPH ROYSTER. MARGERIE MUMBLECRUST [_still on the
scene, whispering_].

_M. Mery._ Come on sirs apace, and quite your selves like men,
Your pains shalbe rewarded.

_D. Dou._ But I wot not when.

_M. Mery._ Do your maister worship as ye have done in time past.

_D. Dough._ Speake to them: of mine office he shall have a cast.

_M. Mery._ _Harpax_,[412] looke that thou doe well too, and thy
fellow. 5

_Harpax._ I warrant, if he will myne example folowe.

_M. Mery._ Curtsie whooresons, douke you and crouche at every
worde,

_D. Dough._ Yes whether our maister speake earnest or borde.

_M. Mery._ For this lieth upon his preferment in deede.

_D. Dough._ Oft is hee a wower, but never doth he speede. 10

_M. Mery._ But with whome is he nowe so sadly roundyng yond?

_D. Dough._ With Nobs nicebecetur miserere[413] fonde.

[_M._] _Mery_ [_approaching R. R._]. God be at your wedding, be ye
spedde alredie?
I did not suppose that your love was so greedie,
I perceive nowe ye have chose[414] of devotion, 15
And joy have ye ladie of your promotion.

_R. Royster._ Tushe foole, thou art deceived, this is not she.

_M. Mery._ Well mocke[415] muche of hir, and keepe hir well I
vise[416] ye.
I will take no charge of such a faire piece keeping.

_M. Mumbl._ What ayleth thys fellowe? he driveth me to weeping. 20

_M. Mery._ What weepe on the weddyng day? be merrie woman,
Though I say it, ye have chose a good gentleman.

_R. Royster._ Kocks nownes[417] what meanest thou man[?] tut a
whistle[418][!]

[_M. Mery._][419] Ah sir, be good to hir, she is but a
gristle,[420] C i
Ah sweete lambe and coney. 25

_R. Royster._ Tut thou art deceived.

_M. Mery._ Weepe no more lady, ye shall be well received.
Up wyth some mery noyse sirs, to bring home the bride.[421]

_R. Royster._ Gogs armes knave, art thou madde? I tel thee thou
art wide.[422]

_M. Mery._ Then ye entende by nyght to have hir home brought.

_R. Royster._ I tel thee no. 30

_M. Mery._ How then?

_R. Royster._ Tis neither ment ne thought.

_M. Mery._ What shall we then doe with hir?

_R. Royster._ Ah foolish harebraine,
This is not she.

_M. Mery._ No is?[423] why then unsayde againe,
And what yong girle is this with your mashyp so bolde?

_R. Royster._ A girle?

_M. Mery._ Yea. I dare say, scarce yet three score yere old. 34

_R. Royster._ This same is the faire widowes nourse of whome ye wotte.

_M. Mery._ Is she but a nourse of a house? hence home olde trotte,
Hence at once.

_R. Royster._ No, no.

_M. Mery._ What an please your maship
A nourse talke so homely[424] with one of your worship?

_R. Royster._ I will have it so: it is my pleasure and will. 39

_M. Mery._ Then I am content. Nourse come againe, tarry still.

_R. Royster._ What, she will helpe forward this my sute for hir part.

_M. Mery._ Then ist mine owne pygs nie,[425] and blessing on my hart.

_R. Royster._ This is our best friend[,] man[!]

_M. Mery._ Then teach hir what to say[!]

_M. Mumbl._ I am taught alreadie.

_M. Mery._ Then go, make no delay.

_R. Royster._ Yet hark one word in thine eare. 45

_M. Mery_ [_Dobinet, etc., press on Royster, who pushes them back_].
Back sirs from his taile.

_R. Royster._ Backe vilaynes, will ye be privie of my counsaile?

_M. Mery._ Backe sirs, so: I tolde you afore ye woulde be shent.

_R. Royster._ She shall have the first day a whole pecke of argent.

_M. Mumbl._ A pecke? _Nomine patris_ [_crossing herself_], have ye
so much spare?[426]

_R. Royster._ Yea and a carte lode therto, or else were it bare, 50
Besides other movables, housholde stuffe and lande.

_M. Mumbl._ Have ye lands too.

_R. Royster._ An hundred marks.

_M. Mery._ Yea a thousand.

_M. Mumbl._ And have ye cattell too? and sheepe too?

_R. Royster._ Yea a fewe.

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

_M. Mumbl._ And how many yeares olde be you?

_R. Royster._ Fortie at lest.

_M. Mery._ Yea and thrice fortie to them. C i _b_

_R. Royster._ Nay now thou dost jest.
I am not so olde, thou misreckonest my yeares. 59

_M. Mery._ I know that: but my minde was on bullockes and steeres.

_M. Mumbl._ And what shall I shewe hir your masterships name is?

_R. Royster._ Nay she shall make sute ere she know that ywis.

_M. Mumbl._ Yet let me somewhat knowe.

_M. Mery._ This is hee[,] understand,
That killed the blewe Spider[427] in Blanchepouder[428] lande.

_M. Mumbl._ Yea _Jesus_[!] William[!] zee law[!] dyd he zo[?]
law[!] 65

_M. Mery._ Yea and the last Elephant[429] that ever he sawe,
As the beast passed by, he start out of a buske,[430]
And een with pure strength of armes pluckt out his great tuske.

_M. Mumbl._ _Jesus, nomine patris_ [_crossing herself_], what a thing
was that?

_R. Roister._ Yea but Merygreke one thing thou hast forgot. 70

_M. Mery._ What?

_R. Royster._ Of thother Elephant.

_M. Mery._ Oh hym that fledde away.

_R. Royster._ Yea.

_M. Mery._ Yea he knew that his match was in place that day
Tut, he bet the king of Crickets[431] on Christmasse day,
That he crept in a hole, and not a worde to say.

_M. Mumbl._ A sore man by zembletee.[432] 75

_M. Mery._ Why, he wrong a club
Once in a fray out of the hande of Belzebub.

_R. Royster._ And how when Mumfision?

_M. Mery._ Oh your coustrelyng[433]
Bore the lanterne a fielde so before the gozelyng.
Nay that is to long a matter now to be tolde:
Never aske his name Nurse, I warrant thee, be bolde, 80
He conquered in one day from _Rome_, to _Naples_,
And woonne Townes[,] nourse[,] as fast as thou canst make Apples.

_M. Mumbl._ O Lorde, my heart quaketh for feare: he is to sore.

_R. Royster._ Thou makest hir to much afearde, Merygreeke no more.
This tale woulde feare my sweete heart Custance right evill.

_M. Mery._ Nay let hir take him Nurse, and feare not the devill. 86
But thus is our song dasht. [_To the musicians_] Sirs ye may
home againe.

_R. Royster._ No shall they not. I charge you all here to remaine:
The villaine slaves[!] a whole day ere they can be founde.

_M. Mery._ Couche on your marybones whooresons, down to the
ground[!][434] 90
Was it meete he should tarie so long in one place
Without harmonie of Musike, or some solace? C ii
Who so hath suche bees as your maister in hys head,
Had neede to have his spirites with Musike to be fed.
By your maisterships licence [_picking something from his coat_].

_R. Royster._ What is that? a moate? 96

_M. Mery._ No it was a fooles feather[435] had light on your coate.

_R. Roister._ I was nigh no feathers since I came from my bed.

_M. Mery._ No sir, it was a haire that was fall from your hed.

_R. Roister._ My men com when it plese them.

_M. Mery._ By your leve.

_R. Roister._ What is that?

_M. Mery._ Your gown was foule spotted with the foot of a gnat. 100

_R. Roister._ Their maister to offende they are nothing afearde.
What now?

_M. Mery._ A lousy haire from your masterships beard.
_Omnes famul_[_i_].[436] And sir for Nurses sake pardon this one
offence.
We shall not after this shew the like negligence. 104

_R. Royster._ I pardon you this once, and come sing nere the wurse.

_M. Mery._ How like you the goodnesse of this gentleman[,] nurse?

_M. Mumbl._ God save his maistership that so can his men forgeve,
And I wyll heare them sing ere I go, by his leave.

_R. Royster._ Mary and thou shalt wenche, come we two will daunce.

_M. Mumbl._ Nay I will by myne owne selfe foote the song perchaunce.

_R. Royster._ Go to it sirs lustily. 111

_M. Mumbl._ Pipe up a mery note,
Let me heare it playde, I will foote it for a grote.

_Cantent._[437]

_R. Royster._ Now nurse take thys same letter here to thy mistresse.
And as my trust is in thee plie my businesse.

_M. Mumbl._ It shalbe done[!][438] 115

_M. Mery._ Who made it?

_R. Royster._ I wrote it ech whit.

_M. Mery._ Then nedes it no mending.

_R. Royster._ No, no.

_M. Mery._ No I know your wit.
I warrant it wel.

_M. Mumb._ It shal be delivered.
But if ye speede, shall I be considered?

_M. Mery._ Whough, dost thou doubt of that?

_Madge._ What shal I have? 119

_M. Mery._ An hundred times more than thou canst devise to crave.

_M. Mumbl._ Shall I have some newe geare? for my olde is all spent.

_M. Mery._ The worst kitchen wench shall goe in ladies rayment.

_M. Mumbl._ Yea?

_M. Mery._ And the worst drudge in the house shal go better
Than your mistresse doth now.

_Mar._ Then I trudge with your letter. [_Exit._]

_R. Royster._ Now may I repose me: Custance is mine owne. C ii _b_
Let us sing and play homeward that it may be knowne. 126

_M. Mery._ But are you sure, that your letter is well enough?

_R. Royster._ I wrote it my selfe.

_M. Mery._ Then sing we to dinner.

_Here they sing, and go out singing._

Actus. i. Scæna. v.

CHRISTIAN CUSTANCE. MARGERIE MUMBLECRUST.

_C. Custance._ Who tooke[439] thee thys letter Margerie Mumblecrust?

_M. Mumbl._ A lustie gay bacheler tooke it me of trust,
And if ye seeke to him he will lowe[440] your doing.

_C. Custance._ Yea, but where learned he that manner of wowing?

_M. Mumbl._ If to sue to hym, you will any paines take, 5
He will have you to his wife (he sayth) for my sake.

_C. Custance._ Some wise gentlemen belike. I am bespoken:[441]
And I thought verily thys had bene some token
From my dere spouse[442] Gawin Goodluck, whom when him please
God luckily sende home to both our heartes ease. 10

_M. Mumbl._ A joyly[443] man it is I wote well by report,
And would have you to him for marriage resort:
Best open the writing, and see what it doth speake.

_C. Custance._ At thys time nourse I will neither reade ne breake.

_M. Mumbl._ He promised to give you a whole pecke of golde. 15

_C. Custance._ Perchaunce lacke of a pynte when it shall be all tolde.

_M. Mumbl._ I would take a gay riche husbande, and I were you.

_C. Custance._ In good sooth Madge, een so would I, if I were
thou.[444]
But no more of this fond talke now, let us go in,
And see thou no more move me folly to begin. 20
Nor bring mee no mo letters for no mans pleasure,
But thou know from whom.

_M. Mumbl._ I warrant ye shall be sure.

Actus. ii. Scæna i.[445] C [iii]

DOBINET DOUGHTIE.

_D. Dough._ Where is the house I goe to, before or behinde?
I know not where nor when nor how I shal it finde.
If I had ten mens bodies and legs and strength,
This trotting that I have must needs lame me at length.
And nowe that my maister is new set on wowyng, 5
I trust there shall none of us finde lacke of doyng:
Two paire of shoes a day will nowe be too litle
To serve me, I must trotte to and fro so mickle.
Go beare me thys token, carrie me this letter,
Nowe this is the best way, nowe that way is better. 10
Up before day sirs, I charge you, an houre or twaine,
Trudge, do me thys message, and bring worde quicke againe,
If one misse but a minute, then [H]is armes and woundes[446]
I woulde not have slacked for ten thousand poundes.
Nay see I beseeche you, if my most trustie page, 15
Goe not nowe aboute to hinder my mariage,
So fervent hotte wowyng, and so farre from wiving,
I trowe never was any creature livyng,
With every woman is he in some loves pang,
Then up to our lute at midnight, twangledome twang,[447] 20
Then twang with our sonets, and twang with our dumps,[448]
And heyhough from our heart, as heavie as lead lumpes:
Then to our recorder[449] with toodleloodle poope
As the howlet out of an yvie bushe should hoope.
Anon to our gitterne, thrumpledum, thrumpledum thrum, 25
Thrumpledum, thrumpledum, thrumpledum, thrumpledum thrum.
Of Songs and Balades also is he a maker,
And that can he as finely doe as Iacke Raker,[450] C iii _b_
Yea and _extempore_ will he dities compose,
Foolishe _Marsias_ nere made the like I suppose, 30
Yet must we sing them, as good stuffe I undertake,
As for such a pen man is well fittyng to make.
Ah for these long nights, heyhow, when will it be day?
I feare ere I come she will be wowed away.
Then when aunswere is made that it may not bee, 35
O death why commest thou not? by and by[452] (sayth he)[;]
But then, from his heart to put away sorowe,
He is as farre in with some newe love next morowe.
But in the meane season we trudge and we trot,
From dayspring to midnyght, I sit not, nor rest not. 40
And now am I sent to dame Christian Custance:
But I feare it will ende with a mocke for pastance.[451]
I bring hir a ring, with a token in a cloute,
And by all gesse, this same is hir house out of doute.
I knowe it nowe perfect, I am in my right way. 45
And loe yond the olde nourse that was wyth us last day.

Actus ii. Scæna ii.

MAGE MUMBLECRUST. DOBINET DOUGHTIE.

_M. Mumbl_. I was nere so shoke[453] up afore since I was borne,
That our mistresse coulde not have chid[453] I wold have sworne:
And I pray God I die if I ment any harme,
But for my life time this shall be to me a charme.

_D. Dough._ God you save and see nurse, and howe is it with you? 5

_M. Mumbl._ Mary a great deale the worse it is for suche as thou.

_D. Dough._ For me? Why so?

_M. Mumb._ Why wer not thou one of them, say,
That song and playde here with the gentleman last day?

_D. Dough._ Yes, and he would know if you have for him spoken.
And prayes you to deliver this ring and token. 10

_M. Mumbl._ Nowe by the token that God tokened[,] brother,
I will deliver no token one nor other.
I have once ben so shent for your maisters pleasure, C iv
As I will not be agayne for all hys treasure.

_D. Dough._ He will thank you woman. 15

_M. Mumbl._ I will none of his thanke. _Ex._

_D. Dough._ I weene I am a prophete, this geare will prove blanke:[454]
But what should I home againe without answere go?
It were better go to _Rome_[455] on my head than so.
I will tary here this moneth, but some of the house 20
Shall take it of me, and then I care not a louse.
But yonder commeth forth a wenche or a ladde,
If he have not one Lumbardes touche,[456] my lucke is bad.

Actus. ii. Scæna. iii.

TRUEPENIE. D. DOUGH. TIBET T. ANOT AL.

_Trupeny._ I am cleane lost for lacke of mery companie,
We gree not halfe well within, our wenches and I,
They will commaunde like mistresses, they will forbyd,
If they be not served, Trupeny must be chyd.
Let them be as mery nowe as ye can desire, 5
With turnyng of a hande, our mirth lieth in the mire,
I can not skill of such chaungeable mettle,
There is nothing with them but in docke out nettle.[457]

_D. Dough._ Whether is it better that I speake to him furst,
Or he first to me, it is good to cast the wurst. 10
If I beginne first, he will smell all my purpose,
Otherwise I shall not neede any thing to disclose.

_Trupeny._ What boy have we yonder? I will see what he is.

_D. Dough._ He commeth to me. It is hereabout ywis.

_Trupeny._ Wouldest thou ought friende, that thou lookest so about?

_D. Dough._ Yea, but whether ye can helpe me or no, I dout. 16
I seeke to one mistresse Custance house here dwellyng.

_Trupenie._ It is my mistresse ye seeke too by your telling.

_D. Dough._ Is there any of that name heere but shee?

_Trupenie._ Not one in all the whole towne that I knowe
pardee. C iv _b_ 20

_D. Dough._ A Widowe she is I trow.

_Trupenie._ And what and she be?

_D. Dough._ But ensured to an husbande.

_Trupenie._ Yea, so thinke we.

_D. Dough._ And I dwell with hir husbande that trusteth to be.

_Trupenie._ In faith then must thou needes be welcome to me,
Let us for acquaintance shake handes togither, 25
And what ere thou be, heartily welcome hither.

_Tib. Talk._ Well Trupenie never but flinging.[458]
[entering with AN.]

_An. Alyface._ And frisking?

_Trupenie._ Well Tibet and Annot, still swingyng and whiskyng?

_Tib. Talk._ But ye roile abroade.

_An. Alyface._ In the streete evere where.

_Trupenie._ Where are ye twaine, in chambers when ye mete me there? 30
But come hither fooles, I have one nowe by the hande,
Servant to hym that must be our mistresse husbande,
Byd him welcome.

_An. Alyface._ To me truly is he welcome.

_Tib. Talk._ Forsooth and as I may say, heartily welcome.

_D. Dough._ I thank you mistresse maides. 35

_An. Alyface._ I hope we shal better know.

_Tib. Talk._ And when wil our new master come.

_D. Dough._ Shortly I trow.

_Tib. Talk._ I would it were to morow: for till he resorte
Our mistresse being a Widow hath small comforte,
And I hearde our nourse speake of an husbande to day
Ready for our mistresse, a riche man and a gay, 40
And we shall go in our frenche hoodes[459] every day,
In our silke cassocks (I warrant you) freshe and gay,
In our tricke[460] ferdegews and billiments of golde,[461]
Brave[462] in our sutes of chaunge seven double folde,
Then shall ye see Tibet sirs, treade the mosse so trimme, 45
Nay, why sayd I treade? ye shall see hir glide and swimme,
Not lumperdee clumperdee like our spaniell Rig.

_Trupeny._ Mary then prickmedaintie[463] come toste me a fig.[464]
Who shall then know our Tib Talke apace trow ye?

_An. Alyface._ And why not Annot Alyface as fyne as she? 50

_Trupeny._ And what had Tom Trupeny, a father or none?

_An. Alyface._ Then our prety newe come man will looke to be one.

_Trupeny._ We foure I trust shall be a joily mery knot.
Shall we sing a fitte to welcome our friende, Annot? D i

_An. Alyface._ Perchaunce he can not sing. 55

_D. Dough._ I am at all assayes.[465]

_Tib. Talk._ By cocke and the better welcome to us alwayes.

_Here they sing._

A thing very fitte
For them that have witte,
And are felowes knitte
Servants in one house to bee, 60
Is fast fast for to sitte,
And not oft to flitte,
Nor varie a whitte,
But lovingly to agree.
No man complainyng, 65
Nor other disdayning,
For losse or for gainyng,
But felowes or friends to bee.
No grudge remainyng,
No worke refrainyng, 70
Nor helpe restrainyng,
But lovingly to agree.

No man for despite,
By worde or by write
His felowe to twite, 75
But further in honestie,
No good turnes entwite,[466]
Nor olde sores recite,
But let all goe quite,
And lovingly to agree. 80
After drudgerie,
When they be werie,
Then to be merie,
To laugh and sing they be free
With chip and cherie 85
Heigh derie derie,
Trill on the berie,[467]
And lovingly to agree.

_Finis._

_Tib. Talk._ Wyll you now in with us unto our mistresse go?

_D. Dough._ I have first for my maister an errand or two. 90
But I have here from him a token and a ring,
They shall have moste thanke of hir that first doth it bring.

_Tib. Talk._ Mary that will I.

_Trupeny._ See and Tibet snatch not now.

_Tib. Talk._ And why may not I sir, get thanks as well as you?
_Exeat._

_An. Alyface._ Yet get ye not all, we will go with you both. 95
And have part of your thanks be ye never so loth.
[_Exeant omnes._]
_D. Dough._ So my handes are ridde of it: I care for no more.
I may now return home: so durst I not afore. _Exeat._

Actus. ii. Scæna. iiii. D i _b_

C. CUSTANCE. TIBET. ANNOT ALYFACE. TRUPENY.

_C. Custance._ Nay come forth all three: and come hither pretie mayde:
Will not so many forewarnings make you afrayde?

_Tib. Talk._ Yes forsoth.

_C. Custance._ But stil be a runner up and downe
Still be a bringer of tidings and tokens to towne.

_Tib. Talk._ No forsoth mistresse. 5

_C. Custance._ Is all your delite and joy
In whiskyng and ramping[468] abroade like a Tom boy.

_Tib. Talk._ Forsoth these were there too, Annot and Trupenie.

_Trupenie._ Yea but ye alone tooke it, ye can not denie.

_Annot Aly._ Yea that ye did.

_Tibet._ But if I had not, ye twaine would.

_C. Custance._ You great calfe ye should have more witte, so ye
should: 10
But why shoulde any of you take such things in hande.

_Tibet._ Because it came from him that must be your husbande.

_C. Custance._ How do ye know that?

_Tibet._ Forsoth the boy did say so.

_C. Custance._ What was his name?

_An. Alyface._ We asked not.

_C. Custance._ No?[469]

_An. Aliface._ He is not farre gone of likelyhod. 15

_Trupeny._ I will see.

_C. Custance._ If thou canst finde him in the streete bring him to me.

_Trupenie._ Yes. _Exeat._

_C. Custance._ Well ye naughty girles, if ever I perceive
That henceforth you do letters or tokens receive,
To bring unto me from any person or place,
Except ye first shewe me the partie face to face, 20
Eyther thou or thou, full truly abye[470] thou shalt.

_Tibet._ Pardon this, and the next tyme pouder me in salt.

_C. Custance._ I shall make all girles by you twaine to beware.

_Tibet._ If ever I offende againe do not me spare.
But if ever I see that false boy any more 25
By your mistreshyps licence I tell you afore
I will rather have my cote twentie times swinged,
Than on the naughtie wag not to be avenged.

_C. Custance._ Good wenches would not so rampe abrode ydelly,
But keepe within doores, and plie their work earnestly, D ii 30
If one would speake with me that is a man likely,
Ye shall have right good thanke to bring me worde quickly.
But otherwyse with messages to come in post
From henceforth I promise you, shall be to your cost.
Get you in to your work. 35

_Tib. An._ Yes forsoth.

_C. Custance._ Hence both twaine.
And let me see you play me such a part againe.
[_Exeant_ TIB. _and_ AN.]

_Trupeny_ [_entering_]. Maistresse, I have runne past the farre ende
of the streete,
Yet can I not yonder craftie boy see nor meete.

_C. Custance._ No?

_Trupeny._ Yet I looked as farre beyonde the people.
As one may see out of the toppe of Paules steeple. 40

_C. Custance._ Hence in at doores, and let me no more be vext.

_Trupeny._ Forgeve me this one fault, and lay on for the next.

_C. Custance._ Now will I in too, for I thinke so God me mende,
This will prove some foolishe matter in the ende. _Exeat._

Actus. [i]ii. Scæna. i.

MATHEWE MERYGREEKE.

_M. Mery._ Nowe say thys againe: he hath somewhat to dooing
Which followeth the trace of one that is wowing,
Specially that hath no more wit in his hedde,
Than my cousin Roister Doister withall is ledde.
I am sent in all haste to espie and to marke 5
How our letters and tokens are likely to warke.
Maister Roister Doister must have aunswere in haste
For he loveth not to spende much labour in waste.
Nowe as for Christian Custance by this light,
Though she had not hir trouth to Gawin Goodluck plight, 10
Yet rather than with such a loutishe dolte to marie,
I dare say woulde lyve a poore lyfe solitarie,
But fayne woulde I speake with Custance if I wist how
To laugh at the matter, yond commeth one forth now.

Actus. iii. Scæna. ii. D ii _b_

TIBET. M. MERYGREEKE. CHRISTIAN CUSTANCE.

_Tib. Talk._ Ah that I might but once in my life have a sight
Of him that made us all so yll shent by this light,
He should never escape if I had him by the eare,
But even from his head, I would it bite or teare.
Yea and if one of them were not inowe, 5
I would bite them both off, I make God avow.

_M. Mery._ What is he, whome this little mouse doth so threaten?

_Tib. Talk._ I woulde teache him I trow, to make girles shent or
beaten.

_M. Mery._ I will call hir: Maide with whome are ye so hastie?

_Tib. Talk._ Not with you sir, but with a little wag-pastie, 10
A deceiver of folkes, by subtill craft and guile.

_M. Mery._ I knowe where she is: Dobinet hath wrought some wile.

_Tib. Talk._ He brought a ring and token which he sayd was sent
From our dames husbande, but I wot well I was shent:
For it liked hir as well to tell you no lies, 15
As water in hir shyppe, or salt cast in hir eies:
And yet whence it came neyther we nor she can tell.

_M. Mery._ We shall have sport anone: I like this very well.
And dwell ye here with mistresse Custance faire maide?

_Tib. Talk._ Yea mary doe I sir: what would ye have sayd? 20

_M. Mery._ A little message unto hir by worde of mouth.

_Tib. Talk._ No messages by your leave, nor tokens forsoth.

_M. Mery._ Then help me to speke with hir.

_Tibet._ With a good wil that.
Here she commeth forth. Now speake ye know best what.

[CUSTANCE _enters_.]

_C. Custance._ None other life with you maide, but abrode to skip? 25

_Tib. Talk._ Forsoth here is one would speake with your
mistresship.[471]

_C. Custance._ Ah, have ye ben learning of mo messages now?

_Tib. Talk._ I would not heare his minde, but bad him shewe it to you.

_C. Custance._ In at dores.

_Tib. Talk._ I am gon. _Ex._

_M. Mery._ Dame Custance god ye save.

_C. Custance._ Welcome friend Merygreeke: and what thing wold
ye have? D iii[472] 30

_M. Mery._ I am come to you a little matter to breake.

_C. Custance._ But see it be honest, else better not to speake.

_M. Mery._ Howe feele ye your selfe affected here of late?

_C. Custance._ I feele no maner chaunge but after the olde rate.
But whereby do ye meane? 35

_M. Mery._ Concerning mariage.
Doth not love lade you?

_C. Custance._ I feele no such cariage.[473]

_M. Mery._ Doe ye feele no pangues of dotage? aunswere me right.

_C. Custance._ I dote so, that I make but one sleepe all the night
But what neede all these wordes?

_M. Mery._ Oh Jesus, will ye see
What dissemblyng creatures these same women be? 40
The gentleman ye wote of, whome ye doe so love,
That ye woulde fayne marrie him, yf ye durst it move,
Emong other riche widowes, which are of him glad,
Lest ye for lesing of him perchaunce might runne mad,
Is nowe contented that upon your sute making, 45
Ye be as one in election of taking.

_C. Custance._ What a tale is this? that I wote of? whome I love?

_M. Mery._ Yea and he is as loving a worme againe as a dove.
Een of very pitie he is willyng you to take,
Bicause ye shall not destroy your selfe for his sake. 50

_C. Custance._ Mary God yelde his mashyp what ever he be,
It is gentmanly spoken.

_M. Mery._ Is it not trowe ye?
If ye have the grace now to offer your self, ye speede.

_C. Custance._ As muche as though I did, this time it shall not neede,
But what gentman is it, I pray you tell me plaine, 55
That woweth so finely?

_M. Mery._ Lo where ye be againe,
As though ye knewe him not.

_C. Custance._ Tush ye speake in jest.

_M. Mery._ Nay sure, the partie is in good knacking[474] earnest,
And have you he will (he sayth) and have you he must.

_C. Custance._ I am promised duryng my life, that is just. 60

_M. Mery._ Mary so thinketh he, unto him alone.

_C. Custance._ No creature hath my faith and trouth but one,
That is Gawin Goodlucke: and if it be not hee,
He hath no title this way what ever he be, D iii _b_
Nor I know none to whome I have such worde spoken. 65

_M. Mery._ Ye knowe him not[,] you[,] by his letter and token[!]

_C. Custance._ In dede true it is, that a letter I have,
But I never reade it yet as God me save.

_M. Mery._ Ye a woman? and your letter so long unredde.

_C. Custance._ Ye may therby know what hast I have to wedde. 70
But now who it is, for my hande I knowe by gesse.

_M. Mery._ Ah well I say.

_C. Custance._ It is Roister Doister doubtlesse.

_M. Mery._ Will ye never leave this dissimulation?
Ye know hym not.

_C. Custance._ But by imagination,
For no man there is but a very dolt and loute 75
That to wowe a Widowe woulde so go about.
He shall never have me hys wife while he doe live.

_M. Mery._ Then will he have you if he may, so mote I thrive,
And he biddeth you sende him worde by me,
That ye humbly beseech him, ye may his wife be, 80
And that there shall be no let in you nor mistrust,
But to be wedded on Sunday next if he lust,
And biddeth you to looke for him.

_C. Custance._ Doth he byd so?

_M. Mery._ When he commeth, aske hym whether he did or no?

_C. Custance._ Goe say, that I bid him keepe him warme at home 85
For if he come abroade, he shall cough me a mome.[475]
My mynde was vexed, I shrew his head sottish dolt.

_M. Mery._ He hath in his head[----][476]

_C. Custance._ As much braine as a burbolt.[477]

_M. Mery._ Well dame Custance, if he heare you thus play choploge.[478]

_C. Custance._ What will he? 90

_M. Mery._ Play the devill in the horologe.[479]

_C. Custance._ I defye him loute.

_M. Mery._ Shall I tell hym what ye say?

_C. Custance._ Yea and adde what so ever thou canst, I thee pray,
And I will avouche it what so ever it bee.

_M. Mery._ Then let me alone we will laugh well ye shall see,
It will not be long ere he will hither resorte. 95

_C. Custance._ Let hym come when hym lust, I wishe no better
sport.
Fare ye well, I will in, and read my great letter.
I shall to my wower make answere the better. _Exeat._ D iv

Actus. iii. Scæna. iii.

MATHEW MERYGREEKE. ROISTER DOISTER.

_M. Mery._ Nowe that the whole answere in my devise doth rest,
I shall paint out our wower in colours of the best.
And all that I say shall be on Custances mouth,
She is author of all that I shall speake forsoth.
But yond commeth Roister Doister nowe in a traunce. 5

_R. Royster._ _Juno_ sende me this day good lucke and good chaunce.
I can not but come see how Merygreeke doth speede.

_M. Mery_ [_aside_]. I will not see him, but give him a jutte in
deede.[480]
I crie your mastershyp mercie[!] [_running hard into him_]

_R. Royster._ And whither now?

_M. Mery._ As fast as I could runne sir in post against you. 10
But why speake ye so faintly, or why are ye so sad?

_R. Royster._ Thou knowest the proverbe, bycause I can not be had.
Hast thou spoken with this woman?

_M. Mery._ Yea that I have.

_R. Royster._ And what will this geare be?

_M. Mery._ No so God me save.

_R. Royster._ Hast thou a flat answer? 15

_M. Mery._ Nay a sharp answer.

_R. Royster._ What

_M. Mery._ Ye shall not (she sayth) by hir will marry hir cat.
Ye are such a calfe, such an asse, such a blocke,
Such a lilburne,[481] such a hoball,[482] such a lobcocke,[483]
And bicause ye shoulde come to hir at no season,
She despised your maship out of all reason. 20
Bawawe[484] what ye say (ko I) of such a jentman,
Nay I feare him not (ko she) doe the best he can.
He vaunteth him selfe for a man of prowesse greate,
Where as a good gander I dare say may him beate.
And where he is louted[485] and laughed to skorne, 25
For the veriest dolte that ever was borne,
And veriest lubber, sloven and beast,
Living in this worlde from the west to the east: D iv _b_
Yet of himselfe hath he suche opinion,
That in all the worlde is not the like minion.[486] 30
He thinketh eche woman to be brought in dotage
With the onely sight of his goodly personage:
Yet none that will have hym: we do hym loute and flocke,[487]
And make him among us, our common sporting stocke,
And so would I now (ko she) save onely bicause, 35
Better nay (ko I) I lust not medle with dawes.
Ye are happy (ko I) that ye are a woman,
This would cost you your life in case ye were a man.

_R. Royster._ Yea an hundred thousand pound should not save hir life.

_M. Mery._ No but that ye wowe hir to have hir to your wife, 40
But I coulde not stoppe hir mouth.

_R. Royster._ Heigh how alas,

_M. Mery._ Be of good cheere man, and let the worlde passe.[488]

_R. Royster._ What shall I doe or say nowe that it will not bee.

_M. Mery._ Ye shall have choice of a thousande as good as shee,
And ye must pardon hir, it is for lacke of witte. 45

_R. Royster._ Yea, for were not I an husbande for hir fitte?
Well what should I now doe?

_M. Mery._ In faith I can not tell.

_R. Royster._ I will go home and die.

_M. Mery._ Then shall I bidde toll the bell?

_R. Royster._ No.

_M. Mery._ God have mercie on your soule, ah good gentleman,
That er ye shuld th[u]s dye for an unkinde woman, 50
Will ye drinke once ere ye goe.

_R. Royster._ No, no, I will none.

_M. Mery._ How feele[489] your soule to God.

_R. Royster._ I am nigh gone.

_M. Mery._ And shall we hence streight?

_R. Royster._ Yea.

_M. Mery._ _Placebo dilexi._
Maister [R]oister Doister will streight go home and die.
_ut infra._[490] 54

_R. Royster._ Heigh how, alas, the pangs of death my hearte do breake.

_M. Mery._ Holde your peace for shame sir, a dead man may not speake.
_Nequando_: What mourners and what torches shall we have?

_R. Royster._ None.

_M. Mery._ _Dirige._ He will go darklyng to his grave,
_Neque, lux, neque crux, neque mourners, neque_ clinke,
He will steale to heaven, unknowing to God I thinke. 60
_A porta inferi_, who shall your goodes possesse?

_R. Royster._ Thou shall be my sectour,[491] and have all more
and lesse. E i

_M. Mery._ _Requiem æternam._ Now God reward your mastershyp.
And I will crie halfepenie doale for your worshyp.
Come forth sirs, heare the dolefull newes I shall you tell.
_Evocat servos militis._ 65
Our good maister here will no longer with us dwell,
But in spite of Custance, which hath hym weried,
Let us see his mashyp solemnely buried.
And while some piece of his soule is yet hym within,
Some part of his funeralls let us here begin. 70
_Audiui vocem_, All men take heede by this one gentleman,
Howe you sette your love upon an unkinde woman.
For these women be all such madde pievishe elves,
They will not be wonne except it please them selves.
But in fayth Custance if ever ye come in hell, 75
Maister Roister Doister shall serve you as well.
And will ye needes go from us thus in very deede?

_R. Royster._ Yea in good sadnesse[!]

_M. Mery._ Now Jesus Christ be your speede.
Good night Roger olde knave, farewell Roger olde knave,
Good night Roger[492] olde knave, knave knap. _ut infra._[493]
Pray for the late maister Roister Doisters soule, 81
And come forth parish Clarke, let the passing bell toll.
Pray for your mayster sirs, and for hym ring a peale.
_Ad servos militis._
He was your right good maister while he was in heale.
_Qui Lazarum_. 85

_R. Royster._ Heigh how.

_M. Mery._ Dead men go not so fast
_In Paradisum_. 87

_R. Royster._ Heihow.

_M. Mery._ Soft, heare what I have cast.[494]

_R. Royster._ I will heare nothing, I am past.

_M. Mery._ Whough, wellaway.
Ye may tarie one houre, and heare what I shall say, 90
Ye were best sir for a while to revive againe,
And quite them er ye go.

_R. Royster._ Trowest thou so?

_M. Mery._ Ye plain.

_R. Royster._ How may I revive being nowe so farre past?

_M. Mery._ I will rubbe your temples, and fette you againe at last.

_R. Royster._ It will not be possible. 95

_M. Mery_ [_rubbing R.'s temples roughly_]. Yes for twentie pounde.

_R. Royster._ Armes[!][495] what dost thou?

_M. Mery._ Fet you again out of your sound[496]
By this crosse ye were nigh gone in deede, I might feele
Your soule departing within an inche of your heele. E i _b_
Now folow my counsell.

_R. Royster._ What is it?

_M. Mery._ If I wer you,
Custance should eft seeke to me, ere I woulde bowe. 100

_R. Royster._ Well, as thou wilt have me, even so will I doe.

_M. Mery._ Then shall ye revive againe for an houre or two.

_R. Royster._ As thou wilt I am content for a little space.

_M. Mery._ Good happe is not hastie:[497] yet in space com[e]th
grace,[498]
To speake with Custance your selfe shoulde be very well, 105
What good therof may come, nor I, nor you can tell.
But now the matter standeth upon your mariage,
Ye must now take unto you a lustie courage.[499]
Ye may not speake with a faint heart to Custance,
But with a lusty breast[500] and countenance, 110
That she may knowe she hath to answere to a man.

_R. Royster._ Yes I can do that as well as any can.

_M. Mery._ Then bicause ye must Custance face to face wowe,
Let us see how to behave your selfe ye can doe.
Ye must have a portely bragge after your estate. 115

_R. Roister._ Tushe, I can handle that after the best rate.

_M. Mery._ Well done, so loe, up man with your head and chin,
Up with that snoute man: so loe, nowe ye begin,
So, that is somewhat like, but[,] prankie[501] cote, nay[,]
whan[!]
That is a lustie brute,[502] handes under your side man: 120
So loe, now is it even as it shoulde[503] bee,
That is somewhat like, for a man of your degree.
Then must ye stately goe, jetting[504] up and downe,
Tut, can ye no better shake the taile of your gowne?
There loe, such a lustie bragge it is ye must make. 125

_R. Royster._ To come behind, and make curtsie, thou must som
pains take.

_M. Mery._ Else were I much to blame, I thanke your mastershyp[,][505]
The lorde one day[--]all to begrime you with worshyp,
[_M. pushes violently against R._]
Backe sir sauce,[506] let gentlefolkes have elbowe roome,
Voyde sirs, see ye not maister Roister Doister come? 130
Make place my maisters. [_Knocks against R._]

_R. Royster._ Thou justlest nowe to nigh.

_M. Mery._ Back al rude loutes. E ii

_R. Royster._ Tush.

_M. Mery._ I crie your maship mercy
Hoighdagh, if faire fine mistresse Custance sawe you now,
Ralph Royster Doister were hir owne I warrant you.

_R. Royster._ Neare[507] an M by your girdle?[508] 135

_M. Mery._ Your good mastershyps
Maistershyp, were hir owne Mistreshyps mistreshyps,
Ye were take[509] up for haukes, ye were gone, ye were gone,
But now one other thing more yet I thinke upon.

_R. Royster._ Shewe what it is.

_M. Mery._ A wower be he never so poore
Must play and sing before his bestbeloves doore, 140
How much more than you?

_R. Royster._ Thou speakest wel out of dout.

_M. Mery._ And perchaunce that woulde make hir the sooner come out.

_R. Royster._ Goe call my Musitians, bydde them high apace.

_M. Mery._ I wyll be here with them ere ye can say trey ace.[510]
_Exeat._

_R. Royster._ This was well sayde of Merrygreeke, I lowe hys wit, 145
Before my sweete hearts dore we will have a fit[,]
That if my love come forth, that I may with hir talke,
I doubt not but this geare shall on my side walke.
But lo, how well Merygreeke is returned sence.

_M. Mery_ [_returning with the musicians_]. There hath grown no
grasse on my heele since I went hence, 150
Lo here have I brought that shall make you pastance.

_R. Royster._ Come sirs let us sing to winne my deare love Custance.

_Cantent._[511]

_M. Mery._ Lo where she commeth, some countenaunce to hir make.
And ye shall heare me be plaine with hir for your sake. 154

Actus. iii. Scæna. iiii.

CUSTANCE. MERYGREEKE. ROISTER DOISTER.

_C. Custance._ What gaudyng[512] and foolyng is this afore my doore?

_M. Mery._ May not folks be honest, pray you, though they be pore?

_C. Custance._ As that thing may be true, so rich folks may be fooles,

_R. Royster._ Hir talke is as fine as she had learned in schooles.

_M. Mery._ Looke partly towarde hir, and drawe a little nere. E ii _b_

_C. Custance._ Get ye home idle folkes. 6

_M. Mery._ Why may not we be here?
Nay and ye will haze,[513] haze: otherwise I tell you plaine,
And ye will not haze, then give us our geare againe.

_C. Custance._ In deede I have of yours much gay things God save all.

_R. Royster._ Speake gently unto hir, and let hir take all. 10

_M. Mery._ Ye are to tender hearted: shall she make us dawes?
Nay dame, I will be plaine with you in my friends cause.

_R. Royster._ Let all this passe sweete heart and accept my
service.[514]

_C. Custance._ I will not be served with a foole in no wise,
When I choose an husbande I hope to take a man. 15

_M. Mery._ And where will ye finde one which can doe that he can?
Now thys man towarde you being so kinde,
You not to make him an answere somewhat to his minde.

_C. Custance._ I sent him a full answere by you dyd I not?

_M. Mery._ And I reported it. 20

_C. Custance._ Nay I must speake it againe.

_R. Royster._ No no, he tolde it all.

_M. Mery._ Was I not metely plaine?

_R. Royster._ Yes.

_M. Mery._ But I would not tell all, for faith if I had
With you dame Custance ere this houre it had been bad,
And not without cause: for this goodly personage,
Ment no lesse than to joyne with you in mariage. 25

_C. Custance._ Let him wast no more labour nor sute about me.

_M. Mery._ Ye know not where your preferment lieth I see,
He sending you such a token, ring and letter.

_C. Custance._ Mary here it is, ye never sawe a better.

_M. Mery._ Let us see your letter. 30

_C. Custance._ Holde, reade it if ye can.
And see what letter it is to winne a woman.

_M. Mery_ [_takes the letter and reads_]. To mine owne deare coney
birde, swete heart, and pigsny
Good Mistresse Custance present these by and by,
Of this superscription do ye blame the stile?

_C. Custance._ With the rest as good stuffe as ye redde a great
while. 35

_M. Mery._ Sweete mistresse where as I love you nothing at all,[515]
Regarding your substance and richesse chiefe of all,
For your personage, beautie, demeanour and wit,
I commende me unto you never a whit. E iii
Sorie to heare report of your good welfare. 40
For (as I heare say) suche your conditions are,
That ye be worthie favour of no living man,
To be abhorred of every honest man.
To be taken for a woman enclined to vice.
Nothing at all to Vertue gyving hir due price. 45
Wherfore concerning mariage, ye are thought
Suche a fine Paragon, as nere honest man bought.
And nowe by these presentes I do you advertise
That I am minded to marrie you in no wise.
For your goodes and substance, I coulde bee content 50
To take you as ye are. If ye mynde to bee my wyfe,
Ye shall be assured for the tyme of my lyfe,
I will keepe ye ryght well, from good rayment and fare,
Ye shall not be kepte but in sorowe and care.
Ye shall in no wyse lyve at your owne libertie, 55
Doe and say what ye lust, ye shall never please me,
But when ye are mery, I will be all sadde,
When ye are sory, I will be very gladde.
When ye seeke your heartes ease, I will be unkinde,
At no tyme, in me shall ye muche gentlenesse finde. 60
But all things contrary to your will and minde,
Shall be done: otherwise I wyll not be behinde
To speake. And as for all them that woulde do you wrong
I will so helpe and mainteyne, ye[516] shall not lyve long.
Nor any foolishe dolte, shall cumbre you but I.[517] 65
I, who ere say nay, wyll sticke by you tyll I die,
Thus good mistresse Custance, the lorde you save and kepe,
From me Roister Doister, whether I wake or slepe.
Who favoureth you no lesse, (ye may be bolde)
Than this letter purporteth, which ye have unfolde. 70

_C. Custance._ Howe by this letter of love? is it not fine?

_R. Royster._ By the armes of Caleys[518] it is none of myne.

_M. Mery._ Fie you are fowle to blame this is your owne hand. E iii _b_

_C. Custance._ Might not a woman be proude of such an husbande?

_M. Mery._ Ah that ye would in a letter shew such despite. 75

_R. Royster._ Oh I would I had hym here, the which did it endite.

_M. Mery._ Why ye made it your selfe ye tolde me by this light.

_R. Royster._ Yea I ment I wrote it myne owne selfe yesternight.

_C. Custance._ Ywis sir, I would not have sent you such a mocke.

_R. Royster._ Ye may so take it, but I ment it not so by cocke. 80

_M. Mery._ Who can blame this woman to fume and frette and
rage?
Tut, tut, your selfe nowe have marde your owne marriage.
Well, yet mistresse Custance, if ye can this remitte,
This gentleman other wise may your love requitte. 84

_C. Custance._ No God be with you both, and seeke[519] no more to me.
_Exeat._

_R. Royster._ Wough, she is gone for ever, I shall hir no more see.

_M. Mery._ What weepe? fye for shame, and blubber? for manhods sake,
Never lette your foe so muche pleasure of you take.
Rather play the mans parte, and doe love refraine.
If she despise you een despise ye hir againe. 90

_R. Royster._ By gosse[520] and for thy sake I defye hir in deede.

_M. Mery._ Yea and perchaunce that way ye shall much sooner speede,
For one madde propretie these women have in fey,
When ye will, they will not: Will not ye, then will they.
Ah foolishe woman, ah moste unluckie Custance, 95
Ah unfortunate woman, ah pievishe Custance,
Art thou to thine harmes so obstinately bent,
That thou canst not see where lieth thine high preferment?
Canst thou not lub[521] dis man, which coulde lub dee so well?
Art thou so much thine own foe[?] 100

_R. Royster._ Thou dost the truth tell.

_M. Mery._ Wel I lament.

_R. Royster._ So do I.

_M. Mery._ Wherfor?

_R. Royster._ For this thing
Bicause she is gone.

_M. Mery._ I mourne for an other thing.

_R. Royster._ What is it Merygreeke, wherfore thou dost griefe take?

_M. Mery._ That I am not a woman myselfe for your sake,
I would have you my selfe, and a strawe for yond Gill, 105
And mocke[522] much of you though it were against my will.
I would not I warrant you, fall in such a rage, E iv
As so to refuse suche a goodly personage.

_R. Royster._ In faith I heartily thanke thee Merygreeke.

_M. Mery._ And I were a woman. 110

_R. Royster._ Thou wouldest to me seeke.

_M. Mery._ For though I say it, a goodly person ye bee.

_R. Royster._ No, no.

_M. Mery._ Yes a goodly man as ere I dyd see.

_R. Royster._ No, I am a poore homely man as God made mee.

_M. Mery._ By the faith that I owe to God sir, but ye bee.
Woulde I might for your sake, spend a thousande pound land. 115

_R. Royster._ I dare say thou wouldest have me to thy husbande.

_M. Mery._ Yea: And I were the fairest lady in the shiere,
And knewe you as I know you, and see you nowe here.
Well I say no more.

_R. Royster._ Grammercies with all my hart.

_M. Mery._ But since that can not be, will ye play a wise parte? 120

_R. Royster._ How should I?

_M. Mery._ Refraine[523] from Custance a while now.
And I warrant hir soone right glad to seeke to you,
Ye shall see hir anon come on hir knees creeping.
And pray you to be good to hir salte teares weeping.

_R. Royster._ But what and she come not? 125

_M. Mery._ In faith then farewel she.
Or else if ye be wroth, ye may avenged be.

_R. Royster._ By cocks precious potsticke, and een so I shall.
I wyll utterly destroy hir, and house and all,
But I woulde be avenged in the meane space,
On that vile scribler, that did my wowyng disgrace. 130

_M. Mery._ Scribler (ko you) in deede he is worthy no lesse.
I will call hym to you, and ye bidde me doubtlesse.

_R. Royster._ Yes, for although he had as many lives,
As a thousande widowes, and a thousande wives,
As a thousande lyons, and a thousand rattes, 135
A thousande wolves, and a thousande cattes,
A thousande bulles, and a thousande calves,
And a thousande legions divided in halves,
He shall never scape death on my swordes point,
Though I shoulde be torne therfore joynt by joynt. 140

_M. Mery._ Nay, if ye will kyll him, I will not fette him, E iv _b_
I will not in so muche extremitie sette him,
He may yet amende sir, and be an honest man,
Therefore pardon him good soule, as muche as ye can.

_R. Royster._ Well, for thy sake, this once with his lyfe he shall
passe, 145
But I wyll hewe hym all to pieces by the Masse.

_M. Mery._ Nay fayth ye shall promise that he shall no harme have,
Else I will not set him.

_R. Royster._ I shall so God me save.
But I may chide him a good.[524]

_M. Mery._ Yea that do hardely.

_R. Royster._ Go then. 150

_M. Mery._ I returne, and bring him to you by and by. _Ex._

Actus iii. Scæna v.

ROISTER DOISTER. MATHEWE MERYGREEKE. SCRIVENER.

_R. Royster._ What is a gentleman but his worde and his promise?
I must nowe save this vilaines lyfe in any wife,
And yet at hym already my handes doe tickle,
I shall uneth holde them, they wyll be so fickle.
But lo and Merygreeke have not brought him sens? 5

_M. Mery_ [_entering with the Scriv._]. Nay I woulde I had of my
purse payde fortie pens.

_Scrivener._ So woulde I too: but it needed not that stounde,

_M. Mery._ But the jentman[525] had rather spent five thousande
pounde,
For it disgraced him at least five tymes so muche.

_Scrivener._ He disgraced hym selfe, his loutishnesse is suche. 10

_R. Royster._ Howe long they stande prating? Why comst thou not away?

_M. Mery._ Come nowe to hymselfe, and hearke what he will say.

_Scrivener._ I am not afrayde in his presence to appeere.

_R. Royster._ Arte thou come felow?

_Scrivener._ How thinke you? am I not here? 14

_R. Royster._ What hindrance hast thou done me, and what villanie?

_Scrivener._ It hath come of thy selfe, if thou hast had any.

_R. Royster._ All the stocke thou comest of later or rather,[526]
From thy fyrst fathers grandfathers fathers father,
Nor all that shall come of thee to the worldes ende, F i
Though to three score generations they descende, 20
Can be able to make me a just recompense,
For this trespasse of thine and this one offense.

_Scrivener._ Wherin?

_R. Royster._ Did not you make me a letter brother?[527]

_Scrivener._ Pay the like hire, I will make you suche an other.

_R. Royster._ Nay see and these whooreson Phariseys and Scribes 25
Doe not get their livyng by polling[528] and bribes.[529]
If it were not for shame
[_advances towards the Scr. to strike him._]

_Scrivener_[530]. Nay holde thy hands still.

_M. Mery._ Why[,] did ye not promise that ye would not him spill?

_Scrivener_ [_prepares to fight_]. Let him not spare me.
[_Strikes R._]

_R. Royster._ Why wilt thou strike me again?

_Scrivener._ Ye shall have as good as ye bring of me that is plaine. 30

_M. Mery._ I can not blame him sir, though your blowes wold him greve.
For he knoweth present death to ensue of all ye geve.

_R. Royster._ Well, this man for once hath purchased thy pardon.

_Scrivener._ And what say ye to me? or else I will be gon.

_R. Royster._ I say the letter thou madest me was not good. 35

_Scrivener._ Then did ye wrong copy it of likelyhood.

_R. Royster._ Yes, out of thy copy worde for worde I wrote.

_Scrivener._ Then was it as ye prayed to have it I wote,
But in reading and pointyng there was made some faulte.

_R. Royster._ I wote not, but it made all my matter to haulte. 40

_Scrivener._ How say you, is this mine originall or no?

_R. Royster._ The selfe same that I wrote out of, so mote I go.

_Scrivener._ Loke you on your owne fist,[531] and I will looke on
this.
And let this man be judge whether I reade amisse.
To myne owne dere coney birde, sweete heart, and pigsny,[532] 45
Good mistresse Custance, present these by and by.
How now? doth not this superscription agree?

_R. Royster._ Reade that is within, and there ye shall the fault see.

_Scrivener._ Sweete mistresse, where as I love you, nothing at all
Regarding your richesse and substance: chiefe of all 50
For your personage, beautie, demeanour and witte
I commende me unto you: Never a whitte
Sory to heare reporte of your good welfare. F i _b_
For (as I heare say) suche your conditions are,
That ye be worthie favour: of no living man 55
To be abhorred: of every honest man
To be taken for a woman enclined to vice
Nothing at all: to vertue giving hir due price.
Wherefore concerning mariage, ye are thought
Suche a fine Paragon, as nere honest man bought. 60
And nowe by these presents I doe you advertise,
That I am minded to marrie you: In no wyse
For your goodes and substance: I can be content
To take you as you are: yf ye will be my wife,
Ye shall be assured for the time of my life, 65
I wyll keepe you right well: from good raiment and fare,
Ye shall not be kept: but in sorowe and care
Ye shall in no wyse lyve: at your owne libertie,
Doe and say what ye lust: ye shall never please me
But when ye are merrie: I will bee all sadde 70
When ye are sorie: I wyll be very gladde
When ye seeke your heartes ease: I will be unkinde
At no time: in me shall ye muche gentlenesse finde.
But all things contrary to your will and minde
Shall be done otherwise: I wyll not be behynde 75
To speake: And as for all they that woulde do you wrong,
(I wyll so helpe and maintayne ye) shall not lyve long.
Nor any foolishe dolte shall cumber you, but I,
I, who ere say nay, wyll sticke by you tyll I die.
Thus good mistresse Custance, the lorde you save and kepe. 80
From me Roister Doister, whether I wake or slepe,
Who favoureth you no lesse, (ye may be bolde)
Than this letter purporteth, which ye have unfolde.
Now sir, what default can ye finde in this letter?

_R. Royster._ Of truth in my mynde there can not be a better. 85

_Scrivener._ Then was the fault in readyng, and not in writyng,
No nor I dare say in the fourme of endityng, F ii
But who read this letter, that it sounded so nought?

_M. Mery._ I redde it in deede.

_Scrivener._ Ye red it not as ye ought.

_R. Royster._ Why thou wretched villaine was all this same fault in
thee? [_Advances angrily against M._] 90

_M. Mery_ [_strikes R._]. I knocke your costarde[533] if ye offer to
strike me.

_R. Royster._ Strikest thou in deede? and I offer but in jest?

_M. Mery._ Yea and rappe you againe except ye can sit in rest.
And I will no longer tarie here me beleve.

_R. Royster._ What wilt thou be angry, and I do thee forgeve? 95
Fare thou well scribler, I crie thee mercie in deede.

_Scrivener._ Fare ye well bibbler, and worthily may ye speede.

_R. Royster._ If it were an other but thou, it were a knave.

_M. Mery._ Ye are an other your selfe sir, the lorde us both save,
Albeit in this matter I must your pardon crave, 100
Alas woulde ye wyshe in me the witte that ye have?
But as for my fault I can quickely amende,
I will shewe Custance it was I that did offende.

_R. Royster._ By so doing hir anger may be reformed.

_M. Mery._ But if by no entreatie she will be turned, 105
Then sette lyght by hir and bee as testie as shee,
And doe your force upon hir with extremitie.

_R. Roister._ Come on therefore lette us go home in sadnesse.

_M. Mery._ That if force shall neede all may be in a readinesse,[534]
And as for thys letter hardely[535] let all go, 110
We wyll know where[536] she refuse you for that or no.
_Exeant am_[_bo._]

Actus iiii. Scæna i.

SYM SURESBY.

_Sim Sure._ Is there any man but I Sym Suresby alone,
That would have taken such an enterprise him upon,
In suche an outragious tempest as this was.
Suche a daungerous gulfe of the sea to passe. F ii _b_
I thinke verily _Neptunes_ mightie godshyp, 5
Was angry with some that was in our shyp,
And but for the honestie which in me he founde,
I thinke for the others sake we had bene drownde.
But fye on that servant which for his maisters wealth[537]
Will sticke for to hazarde both his lyfe and his health. 10
My maister Gawyn Goodlucke after me a day
Bicause of the weather, thought best hys shyppe to stay,
And now that I have the rough sourges so well past,
God graunt I may finde all things safe here at last.
Then will I thinke all my travaile well spent. 15
Nowe the first poynt wherfore my maister hath me sent
Is to salute dame Christian Custance his wife[538]
Espoused: whome he tendreth no lesse than his life,
I must see how it is with hir well or wrong,
And whether for him she doth not now thinke long: 20
Then to other friendes I have a message or tway,
And then so to returne and mete him on the way.
Now wyll I goe knocke that I may dispatche with speede,
But loe forth commeth hir selfe happily in deede.

Actus iiii. Scæna ii.

CHRISTIAN CUSTANCE. SIM. SURESBY.

_C. Custance._ I come to see if any more stirryng be here,
But what straunger is this, which doth to me appere?

_Sym Surs._ I will speake to hir: Dame the lorde you save and see.

_C. Custance._ What friende Sym Suresby? Forsoth right welcome ye be,
Howe doth mine owne Gawyn Goodlucke, I pray the tell? 5

_S. Suresby._ When he knoweth of your health he will be perfect well.

_C. Custance._ If he have perfect helth, I am as I would be. F iii

_Sim. Sure._ Suche newes will please him well, this is as it should
be.

_C. Custance._ I thinke now long for him.

_Sym Sure._ And he as long for you. 10

_C. Custance._ When wil he be at home?

_Sym Sure._ His heart is here een now
His body commeth after.

_C. Custance._ I woulde see that faine.

_Sim Sure._ As fast as wynde and sayle can cary it a maine.
But what two men are yonde comming hitherwarde?

_C. Custance._ Now I shrew their best Christmasse chekes[539] both
togetherward. 14

Actus. iiii. Scæna. iii.

CHRISTIAN CUSTANCE. SYM SURESBY. RALPH ROISTER. MATHEW MERYGREKE.
TRUPENY.

_C. Custance._ What meane these lewde felowes thus to trouble me stil?
Sym Suresby here perchance shal therof deme som yll.
And shall su[s]pect[540] in me some point of naughtinesse,
And they come hitherward.

_Sim Sure._ What is their businesse?

_C. Custance._ I have nought to them, nor they to me in sadnesse 5

_Sim Sure._ Let us hearken them, somewhat there is I feare it.

_R. Royster._ I will speake out aloude best, that she may heare it.

_M. Mery._ Nay alas, ye may so feare hir out of hir wit.

_R. Royster._ By the crosse of my sworde, I will hurt hir no whit.

_M. Mery._ Will ye doe no harme in deede, shall I trust your worde? 10

_R. Royster._ By Roister Doisters fayth I will speake but in borde.

_Sim Sure._ Let us hearken them, somwhat there is I feare it.

_R. Royster._ I will speake out aloude, I care not who heare it:
Sirs, see that my harnesse, my tergat, and my shield,
Be made as bright now, as when I was last in fielde, 15
As white as I shoulde to warre againe to morrowe:
For sicke shall I be, but I worke some folke sorow.
Therfore see that all shine as bright as sainct George,
Or as doth a key newly come from the Smiths forge.
I woulde have my sworde and harnesse to shine so bright,[541]
F iii _b_ 20
That I might therwith dimme mine enimies sight,
I would have it cast beames as fast I tell you playne,
As doth the glittryng grasse after a showre of raine.
And see that in case I shoulde neede to come to arming,
All things may be ready at a minutes warning, 25
For such chaunce may chaunce in an houre, do ye heare?

_M. Mery._ As perchance shall not chaunce againe in seven yeare.

_R. Royster._ Now draw we neare to hir, and here what shall be sayde.
[_Advances towards Cust._]

_M. Mery._ But I woulde not have you make hir too muche afrayde.

_R. Royster._ Well founde sweete wife[542] (I trust) for al this your
soure looke. 30

_C. Custance._ Wife, why cal ye me wife?

_Sim Sure._ [_enters while the last words are spoken_]. Wife? this
gear goth acrook.

_M. Mery._ Nay mistresse Custance, I warrant you, our letter
Is not as we redde een nowe, but much better,
And where ye halfe stomaked this gentleman afore,
For this same letter, ye wyll love hym now therefore, 35
Nor it is not this letter, though ye were a queene,
That shoulde breake marriage betweene you twaine I weene.

_C. Custance._ I did not refuse hym for the letters sake.

_R. Royster._ Then ye are content me for your husbande to take.

_C. Custance._ You for my husbande to take? nothing lesse truely. 40

_R. Royster._ Yea say so, sweete spouse, afore straungers hardly.

_M. Mery._ And though I have here his letter of love with me,
Yet his ryng and tokens he sent, keepe safe with ye.

_C. Custance._ A mischiefe take his tokens, and him and thee too.
But what prate I with fooles? have I nought else to doo? 45
Come in with me Sym Suresby to take some repast.

_Sim Sure._ I must ere I drinke by your leave, goe in all hast,
To a place or two, with earnest letters of his.

_C. Custance._ Then come drink here with me.

_Sim Sure._ I thank you.

_C. Custance._ Do not misse.
You shall have a token to your maister with you. 50

_Sym Sure._ No tokens this time gramercies, God be with you.
_Exeat._

_C. Custance._ Surely this fellowe misdeemeth some yll in me.
Which thing but God helpe, will go neere to spill me.

_R. Royster._ Yea farewell fellow, and tell thy maister Goodlucke
That he cometh to late of thys blossome to plucke. F iv 55
Let him keepe him there still, or at least wise make no hast.
As for his labour hither he shall spende in wast.
His betters be in place nowe.

_M. Mery_ [_aside_]. As long as it will hold.

_C. Custance._ I will be even with thee thou beast, thou mayst be
bolde.

_R. Royster._ Will ye have us then? 60

_C. Custance._ I will never have thee.[543]

_R. Royster._ Then will I have you!

_C. Custance._ No, the devill shall have thee.
I have gotten this houre more shame and harme by thee,
Then all thy life days thou canst do me honestie.

_M. Mery [to Roister_]. Why nowe may ye see what it comth too in the
ende,
To make a deadly foe of your most loving frende: 65
[_To Custance_]. And ywis this letter if ye woulde heare it now--

_C. Custance._ I will heare none of it.

_M. Mery_ [_to Cust._]. In faith would ravishe you.

_C. Custance._ He hath stained my name for ever this is cleare.

_R. Royster._ I can make all as well in an houre--

_M. Mery_ [_aside_]. As ten yeare--
[_To Cust._]. How say ye, will ye have him? 70

_C. Custance._ No.

_M. Mery._ Will ye take him?

_C. Custance._ I defie him.

_M. Mery._ At my word?

_C. Custance._ A shame take him.
Waste no more wynde, for it will never bee.

_M. Mery._ This one faulte with twaine shall be mended, ye shall see.
Gentle mistresse Custance now, good mistresse Custance,
Honey mistresse Custance now, sweete mistresse Custance, 75
Golden mistresse Custance now, white[544] mistresse Custance,
Silken mistresse Custance now, faire mistresse Custance.

_C. Custance._ Faith rather than to mary with suche a doltishe loute,
I woulde matche my selfe with a beggar out of doute.

_M. Mery._ Then I can say no more, to speede we are not like, 80
Except ye rappe out a ragge of your Rhetorike.

_C. Custance._ Speake not of winnyng me: for it shall never be so.

_R. Royster._ Yes dame, I will have you whether ye will or no,
I commaunde you to love me, wherfore shoulde ye not?
Is not my love to you chafing and burning hot? 85

_M. Mery._ Too hir, that is well sayd.

_R. Royster._ Shall I so breake my braine
To dote upon you, and ye not love us againe?

_M. Mery._ Wel sayd yet.

_C. Custance._ Go to[,] you goose.

_R. Royster._ I say Kit Custance,
In case ye will not haze,[545] well, better yes perchaunce.
F iv _b_

_C. Custance._ Avaunt lozell,[546] picke thee hence. 90

_M. Mery._ Well sir, ye perceive,
For all your kinde offer, she will not you receive.

_R. Royster._ Then a strawe for hir, and a strawe for hir againe,
She shall not be my wife, woulde she never so faine,
No and though she would be at ten thousand pounde cost.

_M. Mery._ Lo dame, ye may see what an husbande ye have lost. 95

_C. Custance._ Yea, no force, a jewell muche better lost than founde.

_M. Mery._ Ah, ye will not beleve how this doth my heart wounde.
How shoulde a mariage betwene you be towarde,
If both parties drawe backe, and become so frowarde.

_R. Royster_ [_threatening, advancing upon Cust._]. Nay dame, I will
fire thee out of thy house,[547] 100
And destroy thee and all thine, and that by and by.

_M. Mery._ Nay for the passion of God sir, do not so.

_R. Royster._ Yes, except she will say yea to that she sayd no.

_C. Custance._ And what, be there no officers trow we, in towne
To checke idle loytrers,[548] braggyng up and downe? 105
Where be they, by whome vacabunds shoulde be represt?
That poore sillie[549] Widowes might live in peace and rest.
Shall I never ridde thee out of my companie?
I will call for helpe, what hough, come forth Trupenie.

_Trupenie_ [_entering_]. Anon. What is your will mistresse? dyd ye
call me? 110

_C. Custance._ Yea, go runne apace, and as fast as may be,
Pray Tristram Trusty, my moste assured frende,
To be here by and by, that he may me defende.

_Trupenie._ That message so quickly shall be done by Gods grace,
That at my returne ye shall say, I went apace. _Exeat._ 115

_C. Custance._ Then shall we see I trowe, whether ye shall do me
harme,

_R. Royster._ Yes in faith Kitte, I shall thee[550] and thine so
charme,
That all women incarnate by thee may beware.

_C. Custance._ Nay, as for charming me, come hither if thou dare,
I shall cloute thee tyll thou stinke, both thee and thy
traine, 120
And coyle thee mine owne handes, and sende thee home againe.

_R. Royster._ Yea sayst thou me that dame? dost thou me threaten?
Goe we, I still see whether I shall be beaten. Gi

_M. Mery._ Nay for the paishe[551] of God, let me now treate peace,
For bloudshed will there be in case this strife increace. 125
Ah good dame Custance, take better way with you.

_C. Custance._ Let him do his worst.

_M. Mery._ [_Roister advances upon Cust., attempts to strike_]. Yeld
in time. [_to Cust._]

_R. Royster_ [_is beaten back by Cust.; retiring to Mery._:]. Come
hence thou. _Exeant Roister et Mery._

Actus. iiii. Scæna. iiii.

CHRISTIAN CUSTANCE. ANOT ALYFACE. TIBET T. M. MUMBLECRUST.

_C. Custance._ So sirra, if I should not with hym take this way,
I should not be ridde of him I thinke till doomes day,
I will call forth my folkes, that without any mockes
If he come agayne we may give him rappes and knockes.
Mage Mumblecrust, come forth, and Tibet Talke apace. 5
Yea and come forth too, mistresse Annot Alyface.
[_Enter the maids._]
_Annot Aly._ I come.

_Tibet._ And I am here.

_M. Mumb._ And I am here too at length.

_C. Custance._ Like warriers if nede bee, ye must shew your strength
The man that this day hath thus begiled you,
Is Ralph Roister Doister, whome ye know well inowe,[552] 10
The moste loute and dastarde that ever on grounde trode.

_Tib. Talk._ I see all folke mocke hym when he goth abrode.

_C. Custance._ What pretie maide? will ye talke when I speake?

_Tib. Talk._ No forsooth good mistresse.

_C. Custance._ Will ye my tale breake?
He threatneth to come hither with all his force to fight, 15
I charge you if he come[:] on him with all your might[!]

_M. Mumbl._ I with my distaffe will reache hym one rappe,

_Tib. Talk._ And I with my newe broome will sweepe hym one swappe,
And then with our greate clubbe I will reache hym one rappe[--]

_An. Aliface._ And I with our skimmer will fling him one flappe. 20

_Tib. Talk._ Then Trupenies fireforke will him shrewdly fray,
And you with the spitte may drive him quite away.

_C. Custance._ Go make all ready, that it may be een so. Gi _b_

_Tib. Talk._ For my parte I shrewe them that last about it go.
_Exeant._

Actus. iiii. Scæna. v.

CHRISTIAN CUSTANCE. TRUPENIE. TRISTRAM TRUSTY. C. CUSTANCE.

_C. Custance._ Trupenie dyd promise me to runne a great pace,
My friend Tristram Trusty to set into this place.
Indeede he dwelleth hence a good stert[553] I confesse:
But yet a quicke messanger might twice since[,] as I gesse,
Have gone and come againe. Ah yond I spie him now. 5

_Trupeny_ [_enters with Trusty, whom he leaves behind_]. Ye are a slow
goer sir, I make God avow.
My mistresse Custance will in me put all the blame.
Your leggs be longer than myne: come apace for shame.

_C. Custance._ I can[554] thee thanke Trupenie, thou hast done right
wele.

_Trupeny._ Maistresse since I went no grasse hath growne on my hele, 10
But maister Tristram Trustie here maketh no speede.

_C. Custance._ That he came at all I thanke him in very deede,
For now have I neede of the helpe of some wise man.

_T. Trusty._ Then may I be gone againe, for none such I [a]m.

_Trupenie._ Ye may bee by your going: for no Alderman 15
Can goe I dare say, a sadder pace than ye can.

_C. Custance._ Trupenie get thee in, thou shalt among them knowe,
How to use thy selfe, like a propre man I trowe.

_Trupeny._ I go. [_Ex._]

_C. Custance._ Now Tristram Trusty I thank you right much.
For at my first sending to come ye never grutch. 20

_T. Trusty._ Dame Custance God ye saue, and while my life shall last,
For my friende Goodlucks sake ye shall not sende in wast.

_C. Custance._ He shal give you thanks.

_T. Trusty._ I will do much for his sake[!]

_C. Custance._ But alack, I feare, great displeasure shall be take.

_T. Trusty._ Wherfore? 25

_C. Custance._ For a foolish matter.

_T. Trusty._ What is your cause[?]

_C. Custance._ I am yll accombred with a couple of dawes.

_T. Trusty._ Nay weepe not woman: but tell me what your cause is G ii
As concerning my friende is any thing amisse?

_C. Custance._ No not on my part: but here was Sym Suresby[--]

_T. Trustie._ He was with me and told me so. 30

_C. Custance._ And he stoode by
While Ralph Roister Doister with helpe of Merygreeke,
For promise of mariage dyd unto me seeke.[555]

_T. Trusty._ And had ye made any promise before them twaine[?]

_C. Custance._ No I had rather be torne in pieces and flaine,
No man hath my faith and trouth, but Gawyn Goodlucke, 35
And that before Suresby dyd I say, and there stucke,
But of certaine letters there were suche words spoken.

_T. Trustie._ He tolde me that too.

_C. Custance._ And of a ring and token.
That Suresby I spied, dyd more than halfe suspect,
That I my faith to Gawyn Goodlucke dyd reiect. 40

_T. Trusty._ But there was no such matter dame Custance in deede?

_C. Custance._ If ever my head thought it, God sende me yll speede.
Wherfore I beseech you, with me to be a witnesse,
That in all my lyfe I never intended thing lesse,
And what a brainsicke foole Ralph Roister Doister is, 45
Your selfe know well enough.

_T. Trusty._ Ye say full true ywis.

_C. Custance._ Bicause to bee his wife I ne graunt nor apply,[556]
Hither will he com he sweareth by and by,
To kill both me and myne, and beate downe my house flat.
Therfore I pray your aide. 50

_T. Trustie._ I warrant you that.

_C. Custance._ Have I so many yeres lived a sobre life,
And shewed my selfe honest, mayde, widowe, and wyfe
And nowe to be abused in such a vile sorte,
Ye see howe poore Widowes lyve all voyde of comfort.

_T. Trusty._ I warrant hym do you no harme nor wrong at all. 55

_C. Custance._ No, but Mathew Merygreeke doth me most appall,[557]
That he woulde joyne hym selfe with suche a wretched loute.

_T. Trusty._ He doth it for a jest I knowe hym out of doubte,
And here cometh Merygreke.

_C. Custance._ Then shal we here his mind.

Actus. iiii. Scæna. vi. G ii _b_

MERYGREKE. CHRISTIAN CUSTANCE. TRIST. TRUSTY.

_M. Mery._ Custance and Trustie both, I doe you here well finde.

_C. Custance._ Ah Mathew Merygreeke, ye have used me well.

_M. Mery._ Nowe for altogether[558] ye must your answere tell.
Will ye have this man, woman? or else will ye not?
Else will he come never bore so brymme[559] nor tost so hot. 5

_Tris. and Cu._ But why joyn ye with him.

_T. Trusty._ For mirth?

_C. Custance._ Or else in sadnesse[?]

_M. Mery._ The more fond of you both! hardly yᵉ[560] mater gesse[!]

_Tristram._ Lo how say ye dame?

_M. Mery._ Why do ye thinke dame Custance
That in this wowyng I have ment ought but pastance?

_C. Custance._[561] Much things ye spake, I wote, to maintaine his
dotage. 10

_M. Mery._ But well might ye judge I spake it all in mockage?[562]
For why? Is Roister Doister a fitte husband for you?

_T. Trusty._ I dare say ye never thought it.

_M. Mery._ No to God I vow.
And did not I knowe afore of the insurance[563]
Betweene Gawyn Goodlucke, and Christian Custance? 15
And dyd not I for the nonce, by my conveyance,[564]
Reade his letter in a wrong sense for daliance?
That if you coulde have take it up at the first bounde,
We should therat such a sporte and pastime have founde,
That all the whole towne should have ben the merier. 20

_C. Custance._ Ill ake your heades both, I was never werier,
Nor never more vexte since the first day I was borne.

_T. Trusty._ But very well I wist he here did all in scorne.

_C. Custance._ But I feared thereof to take dishonestie.

_M. Mery._ This should both have made sport, and shewed your
honestie 25
And Goodlucke I dare sweare, your witte therin would low.

_T. Trusty._ Yea, being no worse than we know it to be now.

_M. Mery._ And nothing yet to late, for when I come to him,
Hither will he repaire with a sheepes looke full grim,
By plaine force and violence to drive you to yelde. G iii 30

_C. Custance._ It ye two bidde me, we will with him pitche a fielde,
I and my maides together.

_M. Mery._ Let us see, be bolde.

_C. Custance._ Ye shall see womens warre.

_T. Trusty._ That fight wil I behold.

_M. Mery._ If occasion serve, takyng his parte full brim,
I will strike at you, but the rappe shall light on him. 35
When we first appeare.

_C. Custance._ Then will I runne away
As though I were afeard.

_T. Trusty._ Do you that part wel play
And I will sue for peace.

_M. Mery._ And I wil set him on.
Then will he looke as fierce as a Cotssold lyon.[565]

_T. Trusty._ But when gost thou for him? 40

_M. Mery._ That do I very nowe.

_C. Custance._ Ye shall find us here.

_M. Mery._ Wel god have mercy on you. _Ex._

_T. Trusty._ There is no cause of feare, the least boy in the streete:

_C. Custance._ Nay, the least girle I have, will make him take his
feete.
But hearke, me thinke they make preparation.

_T. Trusty._ No force, it will be a good recreation. 45

_C. Custance._ I will stand within, and steppe forth speedily,
And so make as though I ranne away dreadfully. [_Exeant._]

Actus. iiii. Scæna. vii.

R. ROYSTER. M. MERYGREEKE. C. CUSTANCE. D. DOUGHTIE. HARPAX. TRISTRAM
TRUSTY.

_R. Royster._ Nowe sirs, keepe your ray,[566] and see your heartes be
stoute,
But where be these caitifes, me think they dare not route,[567]
How sayst thou Merygreeke? What doth Kit Custance say?

_M. Mery._ I am loth to tell you.

_R. Royster._ Tushe speake man, yea or nay?

_M. Mery._ Forsooth sir, I have spoken for you all that I can. 5
But if ye winne hir, ye must een play the man,
Een to fight it out, ye must a mans heart take.

_R. Royster._ Yes, they shall know, and[568] thou knowest I have a
stomacke.

[_M. Mery._] A stomacke (quod you) yea, as good as ere man had.
G iii _b_

_R. Royster._ I trowe they shall finde and feele that I am a lad. 10

_M. Mery._ By this crosse I have seene you eate your meate as well,
As any that ere I have seene of or heard tell,
A stomacke quod you? he that will that denie
I know was never at dynner in your companie.

_R. Royster._ Nay, the stomacke of a man it is that I meane. 15

_M. Mery._ Nay the stomacke of a horse or a dogge I weene.

_R. Royster._ Nay a mans stomacke with a weapon meane I.

_M. Mery._ Ten men can scarce match you with a spoone in a pie.

_R. Royster._ Nay the stomake of a man to trie in strife.

_M. Mery._ I never sawe your stomake cloyed yet in my lyfe. 20

_R. Royster._ Tushe I meane in strife or fighting to trie.

_M. Mery._ We shall see how ye will strike nowe being angry.

_R. Royster_ [_strikes M._]. Have at thy pate then, and save thy head
if thou may.

_M. Mery._ [_strikes R. again_]. Nay then have at your pate agyne by
this day,

_R. Royster._ Nay thou mayst not strike at me againe in no wise. 25

_M. Mery._ I can not in fight make to you suche warrantise:
But as for your foes here let them the bargaine bie.[569]

_R. Royster._ Nay as for they, shall every mothers childe die.
And in this my fume a little thing might make me,
To beate downe house and all, and else the devill take me. 30

_M. Mery._ If I were as ye be, by gogs deare mother,
I woulde not leave one stone upon an other.
Though she woulde redeeme it with twentie thousand poundes.

_R. Royster._ It shall be even so, by his lily woundes.

_M. Mery._ Bee not at one with hir upon any amendes. 35

_R. Royster._ No though she make to me never so many frendes.
Nor if all the worlde for hir woulde undertake,[570]
No not God hymselfe neither, shal not hir peace make,
On therfore, marche forwarde,--soft, stay a whyle yet.[!]

_M. Mery._ On. 40

_R. Royster._ Tary.

_M. Mery._ Forth.

_R. Royster._ Back.

_M. Mery._ On.

_R. Royster._ Soft. Now forward set. [_march against the house._]

_C. Custance_ [_entering_:]. What businesse have we here? out[!]
alas, alas! [_retires for fun._]

_R. Royster._ Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
Dydst thou see that Merygreeke? how afrayde she was?
Dydst thou see how she fledde apace out of my sight? [G iv]
Ah good sweete Custance I pitie hir by this light. 45

_M. Mery._ That tender heart of yours wyll marre altogether,
Thus will ye be turned with waggyng of a fether.

_R. Royster._ On sirs, keepe your ray.

_M. Mery._ On forth, while this geare is hot.

_R. Royster._ Soft, the Armes of Caleys, I have one thing forgot.

_M. Mery._ What lacke we now? 50

_R. Royster._ Retire, or else we be all slain.

_M. Mery._ Backe for the pashe of God, backe sirs, backe againe.
What is the great mater?

_R. Royster._ This hastie forth goyng
Had almost brought us all to utter undoing,
It made me forget a thing most necessarie.

_M. Mery._ Well remembered of a captaine by sainct Marie. 55

_R. Royster._ It is a thing must be had.

_M. Mery._ Let us have it then.

_R. Royster._ But I wote not where nor how.

_M. Mery._ Then wote not I when.
But what is it?

_R. Royster._ Of a chiefe thing I am to seeke.

_M. Mery._ Tut so will ye be, when ye have studied a weke.
But tell me what it is? 60

_R. Royster._ I lacke yet an hedpiece.

_M. Mery._ The kitchen collocauit,[571] the best hennes to grece,
Runne, fet it Dobinet, and come at once withall,
And bryng with thee my potgunne, hangyng by the wall,
[_Dobinet goes_]
I have seene your head with it full many a tyme,
Covered as safe as it had bene with a skrine: 65
And I warrant it save your head from any stroke,
Except perchaunce to be amased[572] with the smoke:
I warrant your head therwith, except for the mist,
As safe as if it were fast locked up in a chist: [_Dob. enters_]
And loe here our Dobinet commeth with it nowe. 70

_D. Dough._ I will cover me to the shoulders well inow.

_M. Mery._ Let me see it on.

_R. Royster._ In fayth it doth metely well.

_M. Mery._ There can be no fitter thing. Now ye must us tell
What to do.

_R. Royster._ Now forth in ray sirs, and stoppe no more. 73

_M. Mery._ Now sainct George to borow,[573] Drum dubbe a dubbe afore.

_T. Trusty._ [_entering_]. What meane you to do sir, committe
manslaughter.

_R. Royster._ To kyll fortie such, is a matter of laughter.

_T. Trusty._ And who is it sir, whome ye intende thus to spill?
G iv _b_

_R. Royster._ Foolishe Custance here forceth me against my will.

_T. Trusty._ And is there no meane your extreme wrath to slake. 80
She shall some amendes unto your good mashyp make.

_R. Royster._ I will none amendes.

_T. Trusty._ Is hir offence so sore?

_M. Mery._ And he were a loute she coulde have done no more.
She hath calde him foole, and dressed him like a foole.
Mocked him lyke a foole, used him like a foole. 85

_T. Trusty._ Well yet the Sheriffe, the Justice, or Constable,
Hir misdemeanour to punishe might be able.

_R. Royster._ No sir, I mine owne selfe will in this present cause,
Be Sheriffe, and Justice, and whole Judge of the lawes,
This matter to amende, all officers be I shall, 90
Constable, Bailiffe, Sergeant.

_M. Mery._ And hangman and all.

_T. Trusty._ Yet a noble courage, and the hearte of a man
Should more honour winne by bearyng with a woman.
Therfore take the lawe, and lette hir aunswere thereto.

_R. Royster._ Merygreeke, the best way were even so to do. 95
What honour should it be with a woman to fight?

_M. Mery._ And what then, will ye thus forgo and lese your right?

_R. Royster._ Nay, I will take the lawe on hir withouten grace.

_T. Trusty._ Or yf your mashyp coulde pardon this one trespace.
I pray you forgive hir. 100

_R. Royster._ Hoh?

_M. Mery._ Tushe tushe sir do not.
Be good maister to hir.

_R. Royster._ Hoh?

_M. Mery._ Tush I say do not.
And what shall your people here returne streight home?

_T. Trustie._ Yea, levie the campe sirs, and hence againe eche
one,[574]

_R. Royster._ But be still in readinesse if I happe to call,
I can not tell what sodaine chaunce may befall. 105

_M. Mery._ Do not off your harnesse sirs I you advise,
At the least for this fortnight in no maner wise,
Perchaunce in an houre when all ye thinke least,
Our maisters appetite to fight will be best.
But soft, ere ye go, have once at Custance house. 110

_R. Royster._ Soft, what wilt thou do?

_M. Mery._ Once discharge my harquebouse
And for my heartes ease, have once more with my potgoon. H i

_R. Royster._ Holde thy handes else is all our purpose cleane
fordoone.

_M. Mery._ And it cost me my life.

_R. Royster._ I say thou shalt not.

_M. Mery_ [_making a mock assault_]. By the matte[575] but I will.
Have once more with haile shot. 115
I will have some penyworth, I will not leese all.

Actus. iiii. Scæna. viii.[576]

M. MERYGREEKE. C. CUSTANCE. R. ROISTER. TIB. T. AN. ALYFACE. M.
MUMBLECRUST. TRUPENIE. DOBINET DOUGHTIE. HARPAX. _Two drummes with
their Ensignes._

_C. Custance._ What caitifes are those that so shake my house wall?

_M. Mery_ [_with a sly wink_]. Ah sirrha[!] now Custance if ye had so
muche wit
I woulde see you aske pardon, and your selves submit.

_C. Custance._ Have I still this adoe with a couple of fooles?

_M. Mery._ Here ye what she saith? 5

_C. Custance._ Maidens come forth with your tooles.

_R. Royster._ In a ray.

_M. Mery._ Dubba dub sirrha.

_R. Royster._ In a ray.
They come sodainly on us.

_M. Mery._ Dubbadub.

_R. Royster._ In a ray.
That ever I was borne, we are taken tardie.

_M. Mery._ Now sirs, quite our selves like tall men and hardie.

_C. Custance._ On afore Trupenie, holde thyne owne Annot, 10
On towarde them Tibet, for scape us they can not.
Come forth Madge Mumblecrust, so stande fast togither.

_M. Mery._ God sende us a faire day.

_R. Royster._ See they marche on hither.

_Tib. Talk._ But mistresse.

_C. Custance._ What sayst [th]ou?[577]

_Tib._ Shall I go fet our goose?[578]

_C. Custance._ What to do? 15

_Tib._ To yonder Captain I will turne hir loose
And she gape and hisse at him, as she doth at me,
I durst jeoparde my hande she wyll make him flee.

_C. Custance._ On forward.

_R. Royster._ They com.

_M. Mery._ Stand. [_They fight; M. hitting R._

_R. Royster._ Hold.

_M. Mery._ Kepe.

_R. Royster._ There.

_M. Mery._ Strike.

_R. Royster._ Take heede.

_C. Custance._ Wel sayd Truepeny.

_Trupeny._ Ah whooresons.

_C. Custance._ Wel don in deede.

_M. Mery._ Hold thine owne _Harpax_, downe with them Dobinet.
H i _b_ 20

_C. Custance._ Now Madge, there Annot: now sticke them Tibet.

_Tib. Talk._ [_against Dob._]. All my chiefe quarell is to this same
little knave,
That begyled me last day, nothyng shall him save.

_D. Dough._ Downe with this litle queane, that hath at me such spite,
Save you from hir maister, it is a very sprite. 25

_C. Custance._ I my selfe will mounsire graunde[579] captaine
undertake, [_advances against Roister._]

_R. Royster._ They win grounde.

_M. Mery._ Save your selfe sir, for gods sake.

_R. Royster_ [_retiring, beaten_]. Out, alas, I am slaine, helpe.

_M. Mery._ Save your selfe.

_R. Royster._ Alas.

_M. Mery._ Nay then, have at you mistresse.
[_pretending to strike Cust., he hits Roist._]

_R. Royster._ Thou hittest me, alas.

_M. Mery._ I will strike at Custance here. [_again hitting R._] 30

_R. Royster._ Thou hittest me.

_M. Mery._ [_aside_]. So I wil.
Nay mistresse Custance.

_R. Royster._ Alas, thou hittest me still.
Hold.

_M. Mery._ Save your self sir.

_R. Royster._ Help,[580] out alas I am slain

_M. Mery._ Truce, hold your hands, truce for a pissing while or
twaine:
Nay how say you Custance, for saving of your life,
Will ye yelde and graunt to be this gentmans wife? 35

_C. Custance._ Ye tolde me he loved me, call ye this love?

_M. Mery._ He loved a while even like a turtle dove.

_C. Custance._ Gay love God save it, so soone hotte, so soone
colde,[581]

_M. Mery._ I am sory for you: he could love you yet so he coulde.

_R. Royster._ Nay by cocks precious[582] she shall be none of mine. 40

_M. Mery._ Why so?

_R. Royster. _Come away, by the matte she is mankine.[583]
I durst adventure the losse of my right hande,
If shee dyd not slee hir other husbande:
And see if she prepare not againe to fight.

_M. Mery._ What then? sainct George to borow, our Ladies
knight.[584] 45

_R. Royster._ Slee else whom she will, by gog she shall not slee mee.

_M. Mery._ How then?

_R. Royster._ Rather than to be slaine, I will flee.

_C. Custance._ Too it againe, my knightesses, downe with them all.

_R. Royster._ Away, away, away, she will else kyll us all.

_M. Mery._ Nay sticke to it, like an hardie man and a tall. 50

_R. Royster._ Oh bones,[585] thou hittest me. Away, or else die we
shall.

_M. Mery._ Away for the pashe of our sweete Lord Jesus Christ.

_C. Custance._ Away loute and lubber, or I shall be thy priest.
_Exeant_ [_Royster and his 'army.'_][586]
So this fielde is ours we have driven them all away. H ii

_Tib Talk._ Thankes to God mistresse, ye have had a faire day. 55

_C. Custance._ Well nowe goe ye in, and make your selfe some cheere.

_Omnes pariter._ We goe [!--_Exeant Custance's maidens_].

_T. Trust._ Ah sir, what a field we have had heere.

_C. Custance._ Friend Tristram, I pray you be a witnesse with me.

_T. Trusty._ Dame Custance, I shall depose for your honestie,
And nowe fare ye well, except some thing else ye wolde. 60

_C. Custance._ Not now, but when I nede to sende I will be bolde.
I thanke you for these paines. [_Exeat Trusty._[587]] And now I
wyll get me in,
Now Roister Doister will no more wowyng begin. _Ex._ 63

Actus. v. Scæna. i.

GAWYN GOODLUCKE. SYM SURESBY.

Sym Suresby my trustie man, nowe advise thee well,
And see that no false surmises thou me tell,
Was there such adoe about Custance of a truth?

_Sim. Sure._ To reporte that I hearde and sawe, to me is ruth,
But both my duetie and name and propretie,[588] 5
Warneth me to you to shewe fidelitie,
It may be well enough, and I wyshe it so to be,
She may hir selfe discharge and trie[589] hir honestie,
Yet their clayme to hir me thought was very large,
For with letters rings[590] and tokens, they dyd hir charge. 10
Which when I hearde and sawe I would none to you bring.

_G. Goodl._ No, by sainct Marie, I allowe thee in that thing.
Ah sirra, nowe I see truthe in the proverbe olde,
All things that shineth is not by and by[591] pure golde,
If any doe lyve a woman of honestie,[592] 15
I would have sworne Christian Custance had bene shee.[592]

_Sim Sure._ Sir, though I to you be a servant true and just.
Yet doe not ye therfore your faithfull spouse mystrust.
But examine the matter, and if ye shall it finde, H ii _b_
To be all well, be not ye for my wordes unkinde. 20

_G. Goodl._ I shall do that is right, and as I see cause why.
But here commeth Custance forth, we shal know by and by.

Actus. v. Scæna. ii.

C. CUSTANCE. GAWYN GOODLUCKE. SYM SURESBY.

_C. Custance._ I come forth to see and hearken for newes good,
For about this houre is the tyme of likelyhood,
That Gawyn Goodlucke by the sayings of Suresby,
Would be at home, and lo yond I see hym I.
What Gawyn Goodlucke, the onely hope of my life, 5
Welcome home, and kysse me your true espoused wife.

_Ga. Good._ Nay soft dame Custance, I must first by your licence,
See whether all things be cleere in your conscience,
I heare of your doings to me very straunge.

_C. Custance._ What feare ye? that my faith towardes you should
chaunge? 10

_Ga. Good._ I must needes mistrust ye be elsewhere entangled.
For I heare that certaine men with you have wrangled
About the promise of mariage by you to them made.

_C. Custance._ Coulde any mans reporte your minde therein persuade?

_Ga. Good._ Well, ye must therin declare your selfe to stande
cleere, 15
Else I and you dame Custance may not joyne this yere.

_C. Custance._ Then woulde I were dead, and faire layd in my grave,
Ah Suresby, is this the honestie that ye have?
To hurt me with your report, not knowyng the thing.

_Sim Sure._ If ye be honest my wordes can hurte you nothing. 20
But what I hearde and sawe, I might not but report.

_C. Custance._ Ah Lorde, helpe poore widowes, destitute of comfort.
Truly most deare spouse, nought was done but for pastance.

_G. Good._ But such kynde of sporting is homely[593] daliance.

_C. Custance._ If ye knewe the truthe, ye would take all in good
parte. H iii 25

_Ga. Good._ By your leave I am not halfe well skilled in that arte.

_C. Custance._ It was none but Roister Doister that foolishe mome.[594]

_Ga. Good._ Yea Custance, better (they say) a badde scuse[595] than
none.[594]

_C. Custance._ Why Tristram Trustie sir, your true and faithfull
frende,
Was privie bothe to the beginning and the ende. 30
Let him be the Judge, and for me testifie.

_Ga. Good._ I will the more credite that he shall verifie,
And bicause I will the truthe know een as it is,
I will to him my selfe, and know all without misse.
Come on Sym Suresby, that before my friend thou may 35
Avouch the same wordes, which thou dydst to me say. _Exeant._

Actus. v. Scæna. iii.

CHRISTIAN CUSTANCE.

_C. Custance._ O Lorde, howe necessarie it is nowe of dayes,
That eche bodie live uprightly all maner wayes,
For lette never so little a gappe be open,
And be sure of this, the worst shall be spoken[.]
Howe innocent stande I in this for deede or thought,[596] 5
And yet see what mistrust towardes me it hath wrought[.]
But thou Lorde knowest all folkes thoughts and eke intents
And thou arte the deliverer of all innocentes.
Thou didst helpe the advoutresse[597] that she might be amended,
Much more then helpe Lorde, that never yll intended. 10
Thou didst helpe _Susanna_, wrongfully accused,
And no lesse dost thou see Lorde, how I am now abused,
Thou didst helpe _Hester_, when she should have died,
Helpe also good Lorde, that my truth may be tried.
Yet if Gawin Goodlucke with Tristram Trusty speake. 15
I trust of yll report the force shall be but weake,
And loe yond they come sadly talking togither, H iii _b_
I wyll abyde, and not shrinke for their comming hither.

Actus. v. Scæna. iiii.

GAWYN GOODLUCKE. TRISTRAM TRUSTIE. C. CUSTANCE. SYM SURESBY.

_Ga. Good._ And was it none other than ye to me reporte?

_Tristram._ No, and here were [yªᵗ] wished [ye] to have seene the
sporte.[598]

_Ga. Good._ Woulde I had, rather than halfe of that in my purse.

_Sim Sure._ And I doe muche rejoyce the matter was no wurse,
And like as to open it, I was to you faithfull, 5
So of dame Custance honest truth I am joyfull.
For God forfende that I shoulde hurt hir by false reporte.

_Ga. Good._ Well, I will no longer holde hir in discomforte.

_C. Custance._ Nowe come they hitherwarde, I trust all shall be well.

_Ga. Good_. Sweete Custance neither heart can thinke nor tongue
tell, 10
Howe much I joy in your constant fidelitie,
Come nowe kisse me the[599] pearle of perfect honestie.

_C. Custance._ God lette me no longer to continue in lyfe,
Than I shall towardes you continue a true wyfe.

_Ga. Goodl._ Well now to make you for this some parte of amendes, 15
I shall desire first you, and then suche of our frendes,
As shall to you seeme best, to suppe at home with me,
Where at your fought fielde we shall laugh and mery be.

_Sim Sure._ And mistresse I beseech you, take with me no greefe,
I did a true mans part, not wishyng you repreefe.[600] 20

_C. Custance._ Though hastie reportes through surmises growyng,
May of poore innocentes be utter overthrowyng,
Yet bicause to thy maister thou hast a true hart,
And I know mine owne truth, I forgive thee for my part.

_Ga. Goodl._ Go we all to my house, and of this geare no more. 25
Goe prepare all things Sym Suresby, hence, runne afore. H iv

_Sim Sure._ I goe. _Ex._

_G. Good._ But who commeth yond, M. Merygreeke?

_C. Custance._ Roister Doisters champion, I shrewe his best
cheeke.[601]

_T. Trusty._ Roister Doister selfe[602] your wower is with hym too.
Surely some thing there is with us they have to doe. 30

Actus. v. Scæna. v.[603]

M. MERYGREEKE. RALPH ROISTER. GAWYN GOODLUCKE. TRISTRAM TRUSTIE. C.
CUSTANCE.

_M. Mery._ Yond I see Gawyn Goodlucke, to whome lyeth my message,
I will first salute him after his long voyage,
And then make all thing well concerning your behalfe.

_R. Royster._ Yea for the pashe of God.

_M. Mery._ Hence out of sight ye calfe,
Till I have spoke with them, and then I will you fet[--] 5

_R. Royster._ In Gods name.

_M. Mery._ What Master Gawin Goodluck wel met
And from your long voyage I bid you right welcome home.

_Ga. Good._ I thanke you.

_M. Mery._ I come to you from an honest mome.

_Ga. Good._ Who is that?

_M. Mery._ Roister Doister that doughtie kite.

_C. Custance._ Fye, I can scarce abide ye shoulde his name recite. 10

_M. Mery._ Ye must take him to favour, and pardon all past,
He heareth of your returne, and is full yll agast.

_Ga. Good._ I am ryght well content he have with us some chere.

_C. Custance._ Fye upon hym beast, then wyll not I be there.

_Ga. Good._ Why Custance do ye hate hym more than ye love me? 15

_C. Custance._ But for your mynde[604] sir, where he were would I not
be[.][605]

_T. Trusty._ He woulde make us al laugh.

_M. Mery._ Ye nere had better sport.

_Ga. Good._ I pray you sweete Custance, let him to us resort.

_C. Custance._ To your will I assent.

_M. Mery._ Why, suche a foole it is,[606]
As no man for good pastime would forgoe or misse. 20

_G. Goodl._ Fet him to go wyth us.

_M. Mery._ He will be a glad man. _Ex._

_T. Trusty._ We must to make us mirth,[607] maintaine[608] hym all we
can.
And loe yond he commeth and Merygreeke with him. H iv _b_

_C. Custance._ At his first entrance ye shall see I wyll him trim.
But first let us hearken the gentlemans wise talke. 25

_T. Trusty._ I pray you marke if ever ye sawe crane so stalke.

Actus. v. Scæna. vi.

R. ROISTER. M. MERYGREEKE. C. CUSTANCE. G. GOODLUCKE. T. TRUSTIE. D.
DOUGHTIE. HARPAX.

_R. Royster._ May I then be bolde?

_M. Mery._ I warrant you on my worde,
They say they shall be sicke, but ye be at theyr borde.

_R. Royster._ Thei wer not angry then[?]

_M. Mery._ Yes at first, and made strange
But when I sayd your anger to favour shoulde change,
And therewith had commended you accordingly, 5
They were all in love with your mashyp by and by.
And cried you mercy that they had done you wrong.

_R. Royster._ For why, no man, woman, nor childe can hate me long.[609]

_M. Mery._ We feare (quod they) he will be avenged one day,
Then for a peny give all our lives we may. 10

_R. Royster._ Sayd they so in deede[?]

_M. Mery._ Did they? yea, even with one voice
He will forgive all (quod I) Oh how they did rejoyce.

_R. Royster._ Ha, ha, ha. 13

_M. Mery._ Goe fette hym (say they) while he is in good moode,
For have his anger who lust, we will not by the Roode. 15

_R. Royster._ I pray God that it be all true, that thou hast me tolde,
And that she fight no more.

_M. Mery._ I warrant you, be bolde
Too them, and salute them. [_advance towards Goodl., etc._]

_R. Royster._ Sirs, I greete you all well.

_Omnes._ Your maistership is welcom.

_C. Custance._ Savyng my quarell.
For sure I will put you up into the Eschequer.[610] 20

_M. Mery._ Why so? better nay: Wherfore?

_C. Custance._ For an usurer.[611]

_R. Royster._ I am no usurer good mistresse by his armes.

_M. Mery._ When tooke he gaine of money to any mans harmes?

_C. Custance._ Yes, a fowle usurer he is, ye shall see els[--] I i

_R. Royster_ [_aside to M._] Didst not thou promise she would picke no
mo quarels? 25

_C. Custance._ He will lende no blowes, but he have in recompence
Fiftene for one,[611] whiche is to muche of conscience.

_R. Royster._ Ah dame, by the auncient lawe of armes, a man
Hath no honour to foile his handes on a woman.

_C. Custance._ And where other usurers[612] take their gaines
yerely, 30
This man is angry but he have his by and by.

_Ga. Goodl._ Sir, doe not for hir sake beare me your displeasure.

_M. Mery._ Well, he shall with you talke therof more at leasure.
Upon your good usage, he will now shake your hande.

_R. Royster._ And much heartily welcome from a straunge lande. 35

_M. Mery._ Be not afearde Gawyn to let him shake your fyst.

_Ga. Goodl._ Oh the moste honeste gentleman that ere I wist.
I beseeche your mashyp to take payne to suppe with us.

_M. Mery._ He shall not say you nay and I too, by Jesus.
Bicause ye shall be friends, and let all quarels passe. 40

_R. Royster._ I wyll be as good friends with them as ere I was.

_M. Mery._ Then let me fet your quier that we may have a song.

_R. Royster._ Goe.

_G. Goodluck._ I have hearde no melodie all this yeare long.

_M. Mery_ [_to the musicians whom he has called in_]. Come on sirs
quickly.

_R. Royster._ Sing on sirs, for my frends sake.

_D. Dough._ Cal ye these your frends? 45

_R. Royster._ Sing on, and no mo words make.

_Here they sing._[613]

_Ga. Good._ The Lord preserve our most noble Queene of renowne,
And hir virtues rewarde with the heavenly crowne.

_C. Custance._ The Lorde strengthen hir most excellent Majestie,
Long to reigne over us in all prosperitie.

_T. Trusty._ That hir godly proceedings the faith to defende,[614] 50
He may stablishe and maintaine through to the ende.

_M. Mery._ God graunt hir as she doth, the Gospell to protect,[615]
Learning and vertue to advaunce, and vice to correct.[616]

_R. Royster._ God graunt hir lovyng subjects both the minde and grace,
Hir most godly procedyngs worthily to imbrace. I i _b_ 55

_Harpax._ Hir highnesse most worthy counsellers[617] God prosper,
With honour and love of all men to minister.

_Omnes._ God graunt the nobilitie[618] sir to serve and love,
With all the whole commontie as doth them behove. 59

AMEN.

Certaine Songs to be song by _those which shall use this Comedie or
Enterlude_

THE SECONDE SONG[619]

Who so to marry a minion Wyfe,
Hath hadde good chaunce and happe,
Must love hir and cherishe hir all his life,
And dandle hir in his lappe. 4

If she will fare well, yf she wyll go gay,
A good husbande ever styll,
What ever she lust to doe, or to say,
Must lette hir have hir owne will. 8

About what affaires so ever he goe,
He must shewe hir all his mynde,
None of hys counsell she may be kept fr[o]e,[620]
Else is he a man unkynde. 12

THE FOURTH SONG.[621]

I mun be maried a Sunday
I mun be maried a Sunday,
Who soever shall come that way, [I ii]
I mun be maried a Sunday. 4

Royster Doyster is my name,
Royster Doyster is my name,
A lustie brute[622] I am the same,
I mun be maried a Sunday. 8

Christian Custance have I founde,
Christian Custance have I founde,
A Wydowe worthe a thousande pounde,
I mun be maried a sunday. 12

Custance is as sweete as honey,
Custance is as sweete as honey,
I hir lambe and she my coney,
I mun be maried a Sunday. 16

When we shall make our weddyng feast,
When we shall make our weddyng feast,
There shall bee cheere for man and beast,
I mun be maried a Sunday. 20
I mun be maried a Sunday, etc.

The Psalmodie.[623]

_Placebo dilexi_,
Maister Roister Doister wil streight go home and die,
Our Lorde Jesus Christ his soule have mercie upon.
Thus you see to day a man, to morow[624] John.[625]
Yet saving for a womans extreeme crueltie, 5
He might have lyved yet a moneth or two or three,
But in spite of Custance which hath him weried, I ii. _b_
His mashyp shall be worshipfully buried.
And while some piece of his soule is yet hym within,
Some parte of his funeralls let us here beginne. 10
_Dirige._ He will go darklyng to his grave.
_Neque lux, neque crux, nisi solum_ clinke,[626]
Never gentman so went toward heaven I thinke.[627]
Yet sirs as ye wyll the blisse of heaven win,
When he commeth to the grave lay hym softly in, 15
And all men take heede by this one Gentleman,
How you sette your love upon an unkinde woman:
For these women be all suche madde pievish elves,
They wyll not be woonne except it please them selves.
But in faith Custance if ever ye come in hell, 20
Maister Roister Doister shall serve you as well.
Good night Roger old knave, Farewel Roger olde knave.
Good night Roger olde knave, knave, knap.
_Nequando. Audiui vocem. Requiem æternam._

The Peale[628] of belles rong by the parish Clerk, _and Roister
Doisters foure men_

THE FIRST BELL A TRIPLE.[629]

When dyed he? When dyed he?

THE SECONDE

We have hym, We have hym.

THE THIRDE

Royster Doyster, Royster Doyster.

THE FOURTH BELL

He commeth, He commeth.

THE GREATE BELL

Our owne, Our owne.

FINIS.

FOOTNOTES:

[328] Cf. Prol. to _Jack Juggler_.

[329] Cf. the "lerned men" in the Prol. to the English _Andria_, circa
1520.

[330] The northern plural.

[331] To be the bell-wether, to excel.

[332] Cf. Camden's _Proverbs_, p. 264; Ray's _Proverbs_, p. 132.

[333] _Roger bon temps_: a mad rascal, a merry greek; _Gringalet_: a
merry grig ... rogue, etc. (Cotgrave).

[334] A. has 'know.'

[335] See _Like well to Like_, Dodsley, 3: 337.

[336] Cf. Robert the Ryfelar, etc., in _Pierce Plowman_; Peter
Piebaker, etc., in _Thersytes_; Margery Mylkeducke, etc., in Skelton.

[337] Cf. More's lines to Davy the dycer (_Works_, p. 1433ª.)

[338] See Appendix _C_.

[339] Cf. Ben Jonson's _New Inn_, II. ii.

[340] Cf. Hankin boby in _Thersytes_; Handy-dandy in _P. Plowman_;
Huddy-peke in _Four Elements_, in Skelton, etc.; _ib._ hoddy poule (=
"dunder-head," Dyce).

[341] "This ointment is even shot-anchor," Heywood's _Four PP_. (= last
resort).

[342] Cf. ll. 47, 49; for the whole scene cf. Plautus, _Miles Glor._
v. 31 _sqq._: _Et adsentandumst quicquid bic mentibitur_; also Ter.
_Eunucbus_, II. ii, 252 _et seq._

[343] Cf. Palsgrave, 542: "I face as one dothe that brauleth."

[344] boasting.

[345] Of course 'kinges' if written before July 7, 1553; probably
changed to 'Queen' (= Elizabeth) by the printer. (Fleay conjectures,
_Hist. Stage_, p. 59, that _R. D._ was revived March 8, 1561; the play
having been rewritten from an Edward VI. interlude. _Gen. Ed._)

[346] The 'n' transferred from 'myne' (my nowne). Cf. _nuncle_, etc.

[347] Cf. _Like will to Like_,329; Leland calls Udall _niveum ...
sodalem_; Cooper's ed. XXVII.

[348] Heywood's _Prov._; _Lear_, V. iii, 15.

[349] _R. R. D._ addresses _M._ with 'thou' 'thee,' whereas _M._
uses--on the whole--'you, ye' (to _R. R. D._); cf. Skeat's _William of
Palerne_, XLI. note; Zupitza's _Guy_, v. 356, note.

[350] Cf. _Miles_, v. 1063.

[351] The first half line is not assigned to _R. R. D._ in E. and A.;
but it should be. _Gen. Ed._

[352] certainly; cf. 'hardily,' Chauc. _C. T. Prol._ v. 156.

[353] E. has the comma after 'offende.'

[354] E. misprints _he_ for 'ye'; corrected by C. and H.

[355] An oath = by God's armes; cf. V. vi, 22.

[356] Cf. _Thersytes_, Dodsley, 1, 403.

[357] Cf. _Phil Soc. Dict._ s.v. A _prep._ § 11; C. and H. drop the 'a.'

[358] The quotation marks are the editor's.

[359] E., 'Whom.'

[360] never; C., 'ne're'; H., 'ne'er.'

[361] Middle Engl. comparative; cf. _near_, _ner_, etc.

[362] Cf. Plautus, _Miles_, 965.

[363] 'an.'

[364] Cf. Heywood's _Proverbs_, I. ch. 11 (72); 300 _Epigrams_, 158.

[365] _mastership_; see l. 116, etc.; cf. 'ientman,' III. v, 8;
'gemman,' etc.

[366] Cf. Plaut. _Miles_, 1061.

[367] Cf. _ib._: _Neu ecastor nimis uilist tandem._

[368] Cf. _ib._ 68, _et passim_; and Terent. _Eunuch._ V. viii, 62.

[369] Cf. Plaut. _Miles_, 1264, and the whole of the first scene.

[370] Cf. 'Ko I,' 'Ko she,' III. iii, 21, 35; 'Ko you,' III. iv, 131;
_Pericles_, II. i. 82; "Die Ke-tha?" 'company quotha?' _Four Elements_
[Dodsley, 1, 23].

[371] Cf. _Thersites_, [Dodsley, 1, 399, 400].

[372] E., 'Cuy.'

[373] _diabolicae staturae_; see _Guy of Warwick_, v. 9945, etc.

[374] _Brutus_, of the British, Welsh or Arthurian story, hence
generally a hero [Murray].

[375] 'Alie' = Hali, Haly, Holy? _or_ Alye = _affinis_ = of the
neighbouring country?

[376] Cf. Plaut. _Miles_, 777; Achilles, _ib._ 1054.

[377] _Tertius e caelo cecidit Cato_, Juven. _Sat._ 2, 40.

[378] Cf. Plaut. _Miles_, 65.

[379] Cf. "a prince of highe parage," _Chester Plays_, 1, 157.

[380] Cf. Caxton's "faytes of armes" (_Prol. Eneydos_), the _M. L._
"facta guerrae, armorum."

[381] E., 'They' (not 'That,' as A. reads).

[382] love; cf. III. iv, 99. Baby-talk? or the language of the Dutch
'minions'? Hazlitt says: a colloquialism still in use. But the
dictionaries are silent.

[383] R. uses 'you'; cf. I. ii, 8.

[384] Cf. Palsgrave, 477, "Je revolve."

[385] Cf. I. iv, iii, etc., C. & H. 'To.'

[386] Not in E.; added by C. In E., the comma is after 'while.'

[387] Cf. I. ii, 44; IV. vi, 7.

[388] Cf. Reinhardstoettner, _Plautus_, etc., 671: _Capitano Spavento
viene con li musici per far una mattinata a Isabella_.

[389] specimen.

[390] On Mumblecrust, etc., see Appendix _D_.

[391] Interrupting Mage.

[392] Better fare than usual. See Harrison's _Description of Engl._ in
Holinshed's _Chron._ 1, 168 (ed. 1587).

[393] Note the fondness for proverbs, a trait taken from life and often
to be found in later plays.--Sherwood: To whurre, whurle (or yarre)
as a dog, _Gronder comme un chien_. Cooper: scolding. It is perhaps =
whirr, whirret (slashing, slash)?

[394] Cf. III. iii, 102; Heywood's _Proverbs_, 1, ch. 2 (p. 6);
Camden's _Proverbs_, 276, 277, etc.

[395] Apparently vv. 17, 18.

[396] Heywood's _Proverbs_, 2, ch. 7. Patten: a wooden shoe that made a
great clattering.

[397] Wager; cf. _G. G. N._, I. iii, 20; I. iv, 47.

[398] entering.

[399] Sherwood: _Une vieille charougne_. A tough toothlesse trot, etc.

[400] The same song is alluded to in _A pore Helpe_ (Hazlitt's _Early
Pop. Poetry_, 3, 253).

[401] stitch.

[402] Cf. _whippit_ (in Halliwell): to jump about, etc. In _A Treatise
shewing ... the Pryde and Abuse of Women Now a Dayes_ (c. 1550): "With
whippet a whyle lyttle pretone, Prancke it, and hagge it well," etc.

[403] E. has comma.

[404] Murray's earliest quotation for 'here away,' etc., is from 1564.

[405] Sherwood: _Bon mesnagier_.

[406] bring to an end.

[407] yield it you = reward.

[408] I had; I wot. The dialect (generally southern, but occasionally
also northern) used by rustic characters in the earlier plays; _e.g._
in _G. G. N._, _Trial of Treasure_, _Like will to Like_, etc.

[409] Cf. _G. G. N._ v. 211; Heywood, _Prov._ 2, ch. 7; Camden, _Prov._
268.

[410] mincing, coy.

[411] Cf. the whispering scene in the _Trial of Treasure_.

[412] Cf. the slave of Polymachæroplagides in Plaut. _Pseudolus_.

[413] Hazlitt: intentional nonsense for '_nobis miscebetur_[!]
_miserere_.' Liturgical words muttered indistinctly and used here
jocosely. Heywood: "betweene you and your Ginifinee _Nycebecetur_"
(_Prov._ 1, ch. 11, p. 57 = 'What's her name?' _Nescio quid dicitur?_).

[414] Cf. 'spoke,' V. v, 5; and 'take,' III. iii, 135.

[415] make (Hazlitt).

[416] avise, advise.

[417] R.'s oaths are generally not so strong; I count in _G. G. N._ 48
oaths beginning with, By Gog's, Cocks, etc.

[418] For the rhyme's sake; cf. Wilson's _Rhetorique_, 202:
_Reticencia_, A whisht or warning to speake no more.

[419] These lines are assigned to R. in E.

[420] Cf. Sherwood: _Grison_, gray with age, ... grizle.

[421] This part of the scene is the reverse of Plaut. _Miles_, v. 1000
_seq._, where Pal. has difficulties in keeping Pyrg. from falling in
love with the servant.

[422] Cf. _G. G. N._ p. 252.

[423] 'Is it not she?' cf. v. 88; II. iv, 14. Elliptical construction,
cf. Heywood, _Johan_, ll. 26 and 624.

[424] friendly (Cotgr.).

[425] Cf. Chaucer's _Miller's Tale_, 3268, Skelton, etc.

[426] C., 'to' spare.

[427] Cf. the first scene in Plaut. _Miles_. Instead of the blue
spider, etc., Thersites kills Cotswold Lions, fights against a snail,
as Horribilicribrifax against a cat, and Sir Thopas (in _Endymion_)
against the 'monster' Ovis.

[428] _Pouldre blanche_: a powder compounded of Ginger, Cinnamon, and
Nutmegs (Cotgrave). Cf. _Blaunche laund_ in the _Story of Fulk Fitz
Warine_; the Lady of Blanchland in the poem on _Carle off Carlile_ in
Percy's _Folio Ms._ 3, 279, etc.

[429] Cf. Plaut. _Miles_, I. i, 26.

[430] Northern dialect for 'bush.'

[431] In the series of the 'blue spider' and the 'gozeling.' Cf. "the
King of Cockneys on _Childermas-day_," Brand's _Pop. Ant._ 1, 536, etc.

[432] by the holy blood? (Hazlitt: _quasi_ semblety, semblance.)

[433] Cf. _Custrel_ in _Phil. Soc. Dict., Coustillier_ in Cotgr.

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

[435] A picture of such a 'fool's feather,' added to the 'comb' in
Douce's _Illustrations_, II. Plate 4, 1 (cf. ib. p. 322).

[436] E., _famulae_, but the maids are not on the stage; v. 107 (his
men) shows that the musicians are meant.

[437] _Cantent_ refers apparently to the _Seconde Song_ at the end of
the play.

[438] E. has '?'.

[439] gave. Cf. _The Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode_: "Take him a gray
courser," etc.

[440] Cf. 'allowe,' V. i, 12; 'chieve,' 'gree,' etc. (C. changes:
'loue').

[441] promised.

[442] affianced; cf. IV. i, 17; IV iii, 41; V. ii, 6.

[443] C., 'ioly'; cf. ioily, II. iii, 53.

[444] Custance's quick answer need not be carried back to Parmenio (as
by Cooper).

[445] II. i. A night has passed between the first and the second acts
[note the 'last day' in v. 46]. The following monologue is distinctly
in the spirit of the Roman comedy. The signature at the bottom of this
page in the E. copy is C v.

[446] E., 'his,' and no dashes, but a comma after 'woundes.'

[447] _Twangillos_ in Halliwell, _Twango_ in Flügel's _Dict._

[448] An onomatopoetic melody, song; cf. _Romeo_, IV. v, 108, 129.

[449] flute.

[450] Cf. Skelton against Garnesche: "Ye wolde be callyd a maker And
make mocke lyke Jake Raker" (Dyce: "an imaginary person whose name had
become proverbial" for bad verses).

[451] Note 'pastance,' indicating the original pronunciation in the
rhyme, III. iii, 151; V. ii, 23; where the word is not required for the
rhyme we find 'pastime,' V. v, 20, etc. So in Henry VIII's famous song,
_Pastime with good companye_, we have the word rhyming with 'daliance,'
'daunce.'

[452] From time to time. _Prompt. Parv. Gen. Ed._

[453] 'shoke' in Shakespeare; 'chid' cf. II. iii, 4.

[454] unsuccessful.

[455] Cf. _Hickscorner_ (Dodsley, 1, 168): "If any of us three be mayor
of London I wis I will ride to Rome on my thumb."

[456] touchstone (Cotgr.). The Lombards famous as bankers; ill famed
for their "subtyl crafft ... to deceyue a gentyl man" (Boorde's
_Introd._, p. 186).

[457] Cf. Chaucer, _Troil._ 4, 461; Heywood, _Prov._ 2, ch. 1.
Reference to the cure of nettle-stings by dock-leaves.

[458] running about.

[459] Cf. Boorde's _Introd._, 191, etc.

[460] neat. Cf. Ascham, _Tox._ 28.

[461] E. and A. read: 'ferdegews'; C. and H.: 'ferdegews.' Is it
the same as French: _Verdugalle_ (A vardingale, Cotgr.)? _ib._ s.v.
_Bavolet_: A billiment or head-attire, etc.

[462] gay (the earliest quot. in Murray is from 1568).

[463] Cf. Jamieson's _Scott. Dict._: Prickmedainty, one who is finical
in dress or carriage.

[464] Is this related to "giving a fig"?

[465] ready for every event (_Phil. Soc. Dict._).

[466] to make a thing a subject for reproach (_Phil. Soc. Dict._).

[467] _Four Elem._ (Dodsley, 1, 20).

[468] Cf. Cotgr. _s.v. Trenon_: f. A great raumpe, or tomboy; _s.v.
Trotiere_: f. A raumpe ... raunging damsell, etc.

[469] E., 'No did?'--'did' spoils the rhyme.

[470] Cf. Palsgrave, 415; I abye, I forthynke or am punished for a
thynge, etc.

[471] Cf. II. iv, 26.

[472] Wrong signature in E., D. v.

[473] burden.

[474] Cf. _Appius and Virg._ (Dodsley, 4, 121): "it's time to be
knacking," etc.

[475] he will show what a fool he is; cf. Skelton, 2, 254: "thou wylte
coughe me a dawe" (a fole, etc.).

[476] E. has a period.

[477] Cf. Palsgr.: Byrde bolt matteras; Cotgrave, s.v. 'Matteras' ... a
quarrell [arrow] without feathers, ... a light-brain'd ... fellow.

[478] See Udall's _Apophthegms_ (1542, _apud_ Murray): "chop-loguers
or great pratlers." The word originated in Protestant derision of the
'tropological' and 'anagogical' senses of the scholastics; cf. _Tindale
on the four senses of Scripture_ (_Obedience of a Christian Man_, 304,
307, 308): "we must seek out some chopological sense."

[479] Cf. Heywood, _Prov._ 2, ch. 4 (109); 300 _Epigrams_, p. 149, etc.

[480] To hit, or run against (Baret, 1580, cf. Hall).

[481] heavy, stupid fellow (Halliwell).

[482] Cf. Sherwood: a Hob (or clowne).

[483] lubber.

[484] Cf. Baw! as an exclamation of contempt, repudiation, in
_Pierce Plowm._, C. 13, 74, 22, 398 ("still used in Lancashire as an
interjection of contempt and abhorrence," Whitaker, 1813, cf. Skeat).

[485] humiliated; Shak., _1 Hen. VI._ (IV. iii, 13).

[486] not only the lover, sweetheart, etc., but also the flatterer,
favorite (of a prince), despicable creature (cf. Cotgr.).

[487] a Latinism (_floccifacere_); used also in Udall's _Paraphr. to
Luke_ (1545; see _Phil. Soc. Dict._).

[488] Cf. _Towneley Myst._, 101, and _Trial of Treasure_; 'wynde,'
_Four Elem._; "let the world 'slide,'" _Wit and Science_.

[489] A translation from the Latin _Ordo ad visitandum infirmum_
(_interroget cum episcopus, quomodo credat in deum_, Maskell, _Mon.
Rit._, 1, 89).

[490] On this Mock Requiem see p. 186 and Appendix E.

[491] executor.

[492] Cf. Sherwood: _Roger bon temps_, a mad rascall, a merry greek.

[493] See p. 187.

[494] Cf. I. ii, 181; I. iv, 4; II. iii, 10, etc.

[495] by God's Armes!

[496] swoon.

[497] Cf. I. iii, 11, 14.

[498] Heywood, _Prov._ 1, ch. 4 (17); Camden's _Prov._, 271.

[499] H. makes the rhyme 'carriage.'

[500] voice? or rather courage.

[501] Cf. Palsgr. p. 664: set the plyghtes in order.

[502] gallant; cf. I. ii, 124, and the _Fourth Song_, v. 7.

[503] A. has 'should.'

[504] Cf. Palsgr. 589: I jette with facyon and countenaunce to set
forthe my selfe. _Je braggue_, etc.

[505] E. has no punctuation after 'mastershyp' or 'lord'; A. has a
period after the former.

[506] impudent fellow!

[507] never.

[508] Cf. Halliwell: to keep the term 'master' out of sight, to be
wanting in proper respect [M. makes good his carelessness in the next
verses!]

[509] Cf. 'chose,' I. iv, 15.

[510] In a 'treyce'; the French way of counting in games; cf. _ambs
ace_, _syce ace_, etc.

[511] This seems to refer to the '_Fourth Song_' at the end of the play.

[512] As early as the _Promptorium Parvulorum_: Gawde or jape = _Nuga_.

[513] C., 'have us.'

[514] E., 'sernice.'

[515] The ambiguous letter finds a pre-Shakespearian parallel in the
satirical poem on _Women_ printed from _Add. Ms._ 17492, fol. 18,
in Flügel's _Lesebuch_, p. 39; and in the poem printed in Ebert's
_Jahrbuch_, 14, 214.

[516] Cf. III. v, 77, where R. should have written or inserted 'yᵉˡ,'
thus obviating the necessity of resorting to bad grammar--'they' for
'them.'

[517] See Appendix _H_ under 'Arber.'

[518] Cf. IV. vii, 48; an oath in Skelton's _Magnif._ 685 (and _Bowge_,
398). Calais was lost to the English January 20, 1558.

[519] Cf. v. 110, 122; II. iii, 17, etc.

[520] = Gog's. R.'s oaths, gain force with his misfortune.

[521] Cf. I. ii, 146.

[522] make; cf. I. iv, 18.

[523] Palæstrio (_Miles Glor._ 1244): _Nam tu te vilem feceris_
..._Sine ultro veniat, quæsitet, desideret, exspectet._

[524] Cf. Tindale, 1462 [_Prol. Jonas_]: "the heathen Ninivites though
they were blinded with lusts a good"; _Two G. of V._, IV. iv, 170:
"weep agood."

[525] Cf. III. ii, 52.

[526] sooner.

[527] Cf. 'cousin,' III. i, 4.

[528] swindling.

[529] robbing; Palsgr. 465: I bribe, I pull, I pyll! _Ie bribe
(Romane), je derebbe ..._ He bribeth and he polleth.

[530] So in E.; A., C., and H. give the words "Nay ... still" to _Mery_
unnecessarily.

[531] R. had received his copy back from Custance!

[532] Omitted in A.

[533] head; cf. _G. G. N._, p. 250; _Hickscorner,_ p. 168, etc.

[534] H. gives this line to R.

[535] by all means; cf. I. ii, 175; IV, iii, 41, etc.

[536] whether.

[537] welfare; cf. _Prol._ 10.

[538] Cf. 'spouse,' etc., I. v, 9; IV. iii, 41. E. has comma between
'wife' and 'Espoused'.

[539] Cf. V. iv, 28; 'cheek' here like 'eyes,' 'teeth.'

[540] F., 'supect.'

[541] Taken from Plautus, _Mil. Glor._ I. 1.

[542] Cf. IV. i, 17.

[543] Note the 'thee' and 'you.'

[544] Cf. I. i, 49.

[545] Cf. III. iv, 7, 8.

[546] lubber or lout.

[547] C. adds the rhyme: 'though I die.'

[548] See Appendix _F_.

[549] simple, timid.

[550] R. 'thous' Custance now!

[551] Cf. v. 102 'passion'; 'pashe,' IV. vii, 51; IV. viii, 52.

[552] A. reads 'mowe,' C. 'inowe.'

[553] Cf. Cotgr., _Tressault_: A start ... also, a leap.

[554] Cf. I. ii, 140.

[555] Cf. II, iii. 17; III. iv, 85.

[556] Think of it.

[557] Sherwood, To appall: _Esmayer_, _descourager_.

[558] once for all.

[559] breme, brim, furious; cf. V. 34.

[560] So in E. C. reads correctly 'the'; but A. has 'yat,' and M.
'that.'

[561] The names of the speakers in vv. 10 and 11 are by mistake in
inverse order in E.

[562] 'mockage' is neither English nor French. Palsgr., Cotgr., etc.,
do not have it; Halliwell quotes it from "Collier's _Old Ballads_ 48;
Harrison, 235."

[563] See II. iii, 32.

[564] Cf. the figure of Crafty Conueyaunce in Skelton's _Magnyfycence_.

[565] the 'Cotswold lyon' is the 'sheepe' of v. 29; cf. Heywood,
_Prov._ I. ch. ii (78): 'as fierce as a Lion of Cotsolde'; _Thersites_
(Dodsley 1, 403), etc.

[566] line, array.

[567] Cf. Palsg. 695: assemble in routes, styrre about.

[568] H. changes 'and' into 'as.'

[569] Cf. 'chieve, 'low.

[570] intercede.

[571] Jocose formation; probably a "collock," a (kitchen) pail
(_North-Engl._ acc. to Halliwell). A large pail generally with an erect
handle in Yorks, Lancash., etc. (Wright, _Dial. Dict._). Cf. Heywood,
_Prov._ 2, ch. 7, "give you a _recumbentibus_." If this fine Latin
ending was a school-joke it would be of chronological importance.

[572] Stupefied; cf. Pilsgr. p. 421.

[573] for security; see _Robyn Hode_, st. 63; _Cock Lorels Bote_, etc.

[574] T. in addressing the 'Miles' goes on with his military jargon.
In E. this line is assigned to Royster, and the next two lines from
'_But_' to 'befall' to T. Trustie.

[575] By the mass!

[576] IV. viii, Cf. Plaut. _Miles_, v. 1394 _seq._

[577] E. has 'you.'

[578] the 'goose' would produce the same effect as the 'snail' in
_Thersites_.

[579] Heywood, _Prov._ 1, ch. 5 (21): "thus be I by this once _le
senior de graunde_, | many that commaund me, I shall commaunde."

[580] Cf. _Mil. Glor._ 1406.

[581] Heywood's _Prov._ 2, ch. 8; _ib._ 1, ch. 2; Camden, _Prov._ 270;
Ray, etc.

[582] See the complete oath, III. iv, 127.

[583] masculine, furious.

[584] See Child's _Ballads, Index_; Flügel's _Lesebuch_, 440.

[585] Gog's bones, _G. G. N. passim_.

[586] E. has the stage direction: _Exeant om_

[587] The _Exeat_ in E. stands at the end of 61.

[588] natural disposition.

[589] make proof of; cf. Palsgr. p. 762.

[590] Cf. Plaut. _Miles_, v. 957 (IV. i, 11).

[591] straightway, therefore.

[592] Note the rhyme.

[593] Cf. Sherwood, s.v.: ... 'rude,' 'simple,' 'vil,' etc.

[594] Note the rhyme.

[595] Cf. stablishe, etc.

[596] E. and A. have an interrogation mark.

[597] Adulteress.

[598] E., 'here were ye wished to haue.'

[599] Nom.-vocative; cf. V. vi, 37.

[600] reproach.

[601] See IV. ii, 14.

[602] Cf. Koch's _Hist. Gram._ 2: 324.

[603] Cf. last scene of Ter. _Eunuchus_.

[604] "Unless you desire it."

[605] E. has interrogation mark.

[606] Cf. _Eunuch._ V. viii, 49: _Fatuus est, insulsus, bardus_.

[607] Cf. _ib._ V. viii, 57; _Hunc comedendum et deridendum vobis
propino_.

[608] E., 'maintaiue.'

[609] Cf. _Eunuch._ V. viii, 62: _Numquam etiam fui usquam, quin me
omnes amarint plurimum._

[610] Cf. Pollock-Maitland, _Hist. Engl. Law_, 1, 171: "The Exchequer
is called a curia ... it receives and audits the accounts of the
sheriffs and other collectors; it calls the King's debtors before it,"
etc.

[611] Cf. Wright's Songs, 76.

[612] See Introd., _Date of the Play_.

[613] See Appendix G.

[614] The title, '_Fidei Defensor_,' was given to Henry VIII. in 1521;
the title, _Defender of the Faith_, is found in the statutes of Mary
and Elizabeth; _Defenders of the Faith_ in those of Philip and Mary.

[615] Similarly in the _Prayer_ at the end of _Cambyses_.

[616] Similarly in the _Prayer_ at the end of _Like will to Like_.

[617] Similarly in the plays of _Jacob and Esau_, _Disob. Child_, _New
Custom_, _Cambyses_, _Like will to Like_.

[618] Similarly in the _Prayers_ of _Nice Wanton_, _Disob. Child_,
_Appius_, _Like will to Like_, _Triall of Treas._ [all estates].

[619] See I. iv, 112.

[620] A. (and E.?): 'free.'

[621] To be inserted III. iii, 152.

[622] Cf. III. iii, 120.

[623] Cf. III. iii, 53.

[624] _Sic._ E.

[625] H. changes to 'none.'

[626] Cf. the slight differences III. iii, 59.

[627] Entirely new line.

[628] Cf., on 'Voices' of Bells, Brand, _Pop. Ant._ 2: 214, 216.

[629] Cotgr.: a Triple; also Gaillard-time in Music.

APPENDIX

=A. The Metre of Roister Doister.=--Udall's verse is a long line of
9, 10, 11, 12 (and rarely more) syllables; a verse which represents
the Middle English Long Line (or the Middle English _Septenarius_,
as it has been called for lack of a better name), as we find it, for
instance, in _Robert of Gloucester_, some Legends, and _Robert of
Brunne_.

This Middle English long line, of either six or seven stresses or
accents, is found in Skelton's _Magnyfycence_, and other early Plays.

In Roister Doister, on the whole, the lines of six accents seem to
prevail, lines corresponding to the Middle English Alexandrine,
or in Udall's case perhaps rather to the classical _senarius_, to
the _trimeter_ of the Roman comedy as understood by Udall. But a
great number of _septenarii_ occur at the side of these _senarii_,
distributed all over the play, and in the speeches of different persons.

In many cases it seems even doubtful whether a verse should be regarded
as a _senarius_ or a _septenarius_.

_Specimens of the Senarius_:--

Truepen| ie get | thee in||thou shalt|among |them knowe
I will | speake out| aloude ||I care |not who|heare it.

_Specimens of the Septenarius_ (the syllable before the cæsura or
the end of the line with a slighter, secondary accent, produces this
_septenarius_ in most cases):--

I go' |now Tri'st|ram Tru'st|y`||I tha'nk |you' |right mu'ch|
And see'|that in' |case I' ||should neede'|to come'|to arm'
|ing.`
_Senarii or Septenarii_:--

Yet a fi'tter wi'fe for you'r || ma'ship mi'ght be fou'nde.
or: Ye't a fi'tter wi'fe for you'r || ma'ship mi'ght be fou'nde.

Such a good'ly ma'n as you' || mi'ght get on'e with la'nde.
or: Such' a good'ly ma'n as you' || mi'ght get on'e with la nde.

=B. The Figure of the Miles Gloriosus in English Literature.=--The
limits of this edition forbid any detailed account of the pedigree of
the type of the _Miles Gloriosus_ in English Literature, but for the
benefit of the student, I wish to give the following references:--

On the _Miles Gloriosus_ of the Ancients, cf. the classical account
in Otto Ribbeck's _Alazon, Ein Beitrag zur Antiken Ethologie und zur
Kenntniss der Griechisch-Römischen Tragödie_, Leipzig, 1882. Cf.
further the masterly sketches in the _History of Roman Literature_
(Leipzig, 1887; 1, 66; 83) by the same author; the shorter account,
"_Über die Figuren des Miles Glorioius und seines Parasiten bei älteren
und neueren Dichtern_," by A. O. F. Lorenz (as an appendix to the
same scholar's edition of Plautus, _Mil. Glor._, Berlin, 1886; pp.
230 _seq._). The fullest collection of material for a general history
of this classical type in modern literature is contained in Karl von
Reinhardstoettner, _Plautus, Spätere Bearbeitungen Plautinischer
Lustspiele_, Leipzig, 1886 (pp. 130 _seq._, 595-680).

On the _Mil. Glor._ in English Literature, cf. the excellent
dissertation by Herman Graf, _Der Mil. Glor. im Englischen Drama bis
zur Zeit des Bürgerkrieges Rostock, s. a._ [1891; cf. Koch's note in
_Englische Studien_, 18, 134].

On the Shakespearian "quadrifoil," Falstaff, Parolles, Armado, Pistol,
cf. the charming _causerie_ by Julius Thümmel: _Der Mil. Glor. bei
Shakespeare_ [published first in the _Shakespeare Jahrbuch_ of 1878,
and, later, in the same author's _Shakespeare Charaktere_, Halle, 1887,
Vol. I. pp. 257-276].

=C. Titiville (I. i, 21).=--'Tuteville' was originally the name of
a devil in the French Mystery Plays (cf. Mone, _Schauspiele des
Mittelalters_, 2, 27);[630] from the French Mystery play the name was
introduced into the Mysteries of Germany, England,[631] and Holland.
His diabolical occupation is thus defined in the _Myroure of oure
Ladye_ (1 ch. 20; cf. Blunt's note, 342; as well as Skeat's to _Pierce
Plowm._, C. xiv, 123): "I am a poure dyuel and my name is Tytyuyllus
... I muste eche day ... brynge my master a thousande pokes [bags] full
of faylynges, & of neglygences in syllables and wordes that are done in
youre order in redynge and in syngynge, & else I must be sore beten."

This 'function' of the Devil seems to allow a connection[632] with
the Latin _titivillitium_,[633] "a vile thyng of no value" (Cooper),
something very small and trifling, like the "faylynges and neglygences
in syllables" in praying and reading of the church offices.

In Udall's time the ancient Devil had degenerated, and his name
had become a byword for a low, miserable fellow; cf. the play of
_Thersites_ (Dodsley, 1, 424):--

Tinkers and taborers, tipplers, taverners,
Tittifills, triflers, turners and trumpers,

and Heywood's _Proverbs_, 1 ch. 10 (40):--

There is no moe such titifyls in Englandes ground || To hold with
the hare and run with the hound.

=D. Mumblecrust and the Maids (I. iii.).=--1. _Mumblecrust._ Cooper
quotes the same name from Dekker's _Satiromastix_, and a Madge
Mumblecrust from _Misogonus_ (1577). Jack M. is the name of a beggar
in _Patient Grissel_, IV. iii (cf. Cooper). Different compounds are
Mumble-news (Shakesp. _L.L.L._ V. ii, 464) and Sir John Mumble-matins
(Pilkington, _Exposition upon Aggeus_, 1, 2).

2. _Tibet._ Tib (=Isabella) was the typical servant's name; cf.
_G.G.N._; Tib and Tom in _Ail's Well_, II. ii, 24; "every coistrel
inquiring for his Tib," _Pericles_, IV. vi, 176, etc.

3. In _Aly face_: the first part indicates the colour of her nose and
the desire of her heart.

The whole dialogue of these women takes us back to the times when it
was no dishonour to women to go "to the ale" and enjoy themselves there
with their gossips; cf. _P. Pl._, C. 7, 362; _Chester Pl._, 1, 53, etc.

=E. The Mock Requiem= (III. iii, 53) is one of the latest instances
of parodies of church services such as are found everywhere in the
literature of the Middle Ages. One of the oldest of such parodies is
the _Drunkard's Mass_, _Missa Gulæ_, printed in Halliwell and Wright's
_Reliquiæ Antiquæ_, 2, 208 (cf. the _Paternoster Goliæ_); the _Officium
Lusorum_ (printed in _Carmina Burana_, 248); the _Sequentia falsi
evangelii sec. Marcam_ (_Initium S. Evangelii sec. marcas argenti_) in
Du Meril, _Poés. Pop. Lat. Ant._ XII. s.p. 407, etc.

In English Lit. we find similar parodies in the _Requiem to the
Favourites of Henry VI_. (Ritson's _Songs_, 101; Furnivall's _Polit.
Rel. and Love Songs_, 6: For Jake Napes Sowle, _Placebo_, and
_Dirige_); in _Passages_ of the _Court of Love_ (Chalmers, _Engl.
Poets_, 1, 377), in the _Placebo Dilexi_ in Skelton's _Phyllyp
Sparowe_ (perhaps the source for Udall's happy thought); in Dunbar's
_Will of Maister Andr. Kennedy_, etc.

The parallels to Udall's parody are to be found in Maskell's _Monumenta
Ritualia_,[634] in the _Manuale et Processionale ad usum insignis
Eccles. Eboracensis_,[635] or in the _Rituale Romanum_.[636]

The references are, for--

1. The _Placebo Dilexi_ (Ps. 114), Man. Ebor. 60; Sarum 57*.

2. The Antiphona _Ne quando_ [_rapiat ut leo animam meam_, etc., Ps.
7], Ebor. 67. 68; Sarum 69*; Rit. Rom. 166. 167.

3. The Antiphona _Dirige_ [_Domine Deus meus in conspectu tuo viam
meam_], Ebor. 65; Sarum 62*; Rit. Rom. 166, etc.

4. _A porta inferi_ [_Erue Domine animas eorum_], Sarum 58*; Rit. Rom.
168.

5. _Requiem æternam_ [_dona eis Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis_],
Ebor. 64; Sarum 59*.

6. The 'Epistola' _Audivi vocem_ [_Lectio Libri Apoc. Joh._ 14, 13],
Sarum 76*; Rit. Rom. 158.

7. The _Responsorium: Qui Lazarum_ [_resuscitasti a monumento
fætidum_], Ebor. 69; R. Rom. 169.

8. The _Antiphona: In Paradisum_ [_deducant te Angeli_], Rit. Rom. 150,
etc.

It is needless to say that Merygreeke does not adhere strictly to the
order of the Ritual, but produces a humorous jumble.

The words _neque lux neque crux_ not in the Ritual, but refer to the
'order about the wax taper'[637] and the crucifix in the extreme
unction, etc. See Maskell, I. ccxcviii.; the '_clinke_'[638] refers
to the sounding of the passing bell (supposed to drive away evil
spirits).[639] Larimer remarks about such 'fooleries': "The devil
should have no abiding place in England if ringing of bells would
serve" (_Serm._, 27, 498), and the English reformers were, on the
whole, of Larimer's opinion;[640] but there were more tolerant men who
ultimately prevailed, and so in course of time one short peal before
the funeral was allowed, and one after it,[641] and even a threefold
peal was permitted by Whitgift.[642]

On the history of the Funeral Bell, valuable material is contained in
the _Parker Soc._ '_Index_,' s.v. Bells (cf. _ib._ sub. 'Candles').

=III. iii, 81, 83=: 'Pray for,' etc. If this passage were in a serious
context, interesting deductions could be drawn from it as to Udall's
religious views, and perhaps as to the date of the play. Prayers for
the dead were entirely against the spirit and doctrines of the early
Reformers. But here also less radical views were held, and so we find
the Prayer enjoined by Cranmer, 1534 (_Works_, 2, 460), by Edward VI.
(Injunctions, 1547, _ib._ 504). To mock the prayer would probably
have been unsafe between 1547 and 1556, when Udall died. Edward's
_Common Prayer Book_ of 1549 retains the prayer for the dead (p. 88,
145), but the edition of 1552 is silent about it (_ib._ 272, 319).
In _Elizabeth's Primer_ of 1559 this _Prayer_ is reintroduced (cf.
Priv. Prayers, 59, 67); but later Protestants again condemn it, _e.g._
Whitgift (1574), 3, 364.

=F. Roister as 'vagrant.' IV. iii, 104.=--Of all the statutes against
vagrants, that of 1 Edward VI. (c. 3), 1547, affords the best parallel
to Custance's resolute and humorous words. This law determines that
"whosoever ... being not lame shall either like a seruing-man wanting
a master, or like a beggar or after any such other sort be lurking in
any house or houses, or loitering, or idle wandering by the high wayes
side, or in streets, cities, townes, or villages ... then euery such
person shall bee taken for a vagabond, ... and it shalbe lawfull ...
to any ... person espying the same, to bring or cause to be brought
the said person so liuing idle and _loiteringly_, to two of the next
justices of the peace," etc.

=G. The prayer and 'song' at the end of the play. V. vi, 47.=--I
am inclined to think that the song which 'they sing' according to
the stage direction, is _not_ given,[643] and that verses 47-59 are
_spoken_, and represent the 'prayer' which the actors would all say
kneeling (cf. Nares's _Glossary_, s.v. 'kneel'). That the 'Queene'
referred to is Elizabeth, and not Mary, becomes clear from the words
"God graunt hir as she doth, _the Gospell to protect_." This proves,
too, that these words are not by Udall, but by the unknown hand that
prepared the play for the press under Elizabeth.

=H. Works quoted in the notes.=--

ARBER. The editions of Roister Doister in Arber's _English Reprints_--

1. of July 1, 1869.
2. of July 24, 1869.

N.B. The only difference which I have found between the two reprints is
the _absence_ of one line [III. iv, 66] on p. 51 in the ed. of July 24;
the line is contained in ed. of July 1, 1869.

CAMDEN. Proverbs in 'Remaines concerning Britaine.' London, 1623.

COOPER. Ralph Roister Doister, a comedy, ed. by W. D. Cooper, London.
Printed for the Shakespeare Society, 1847.

COTGRAVE. A French and English Dictionary, ed. 1650 (with the addition
of Dictionaire Anglais & François, by Robert Sherwood). [1st ed. 1611.]

DODSLEY, s. HAZLITT.

FLÜGEL. Neuenglisches Lesebuch von Ewald Flügel, Vol. I. "Die Zeit
Heinrich's VIII." Halle, 1895.

HALLIWELL. A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, by J. O.
Halliwell. London, 1847.

HAZLITT. Edition of Roister Doister in "A Select Collection of Old
English Plays," originally published by Robert Dodsley, 1744. Fourth
ed. by W. Carew Hazlitt. London, 1874 (Vol. 3).

HEYWOOD. The Proverbs of John Heywood [first published in 1546? and
reprinted from ed. 1598 by Julian Sharman]. London, 1874.

Epigrams [reprinted from ed. 1562]. Printed for the Spenser Society,
1867.

PALSGRAVE. Lesclarcissement de la Langue Francoyse compose par Maistre
Jehan Palsgraue, 1530. Pub. par F. Génin. Paris, 1852.

RAY. A Compleat Collection of English Proverbs, by J. Ray. Third ed.
London, 1742.

FOOTNOTES:

[630] Cf. _ib._, the collection of French names of the Devil;
and similar collections in Gosche's _Jahrbuch_, I.; Osborn,
_Teufelslitteratur_, 16. The English Devil is still waiting for his
Historian!

[631] Cf. _Towneley Myst._ (_Juditium_, p. 310, etc.): Tutivillus (to
the Primus Dæmon):--

I was youre chefe tollare
And sitten courte rollar
Now am I master Lollar &c.

Gower, too, knows Titivillus; _Vox Clamantis_, 232:--

_Hic est confessor Domini, sed nec Dominarum,
Qui magis est blandus, quam Titivillus eis._

[632] There could not be a connection with: _Titimallus_--Titan (Joh.
de Janua).

[633] Freund's _Dict._ quotes it from Plautus, _Casin_ 2, 5, 39: _Non
ego istud verbum empsitem titivillitio_. The learned Ben Jonson knew
the word (_Silent Woman_, 4, 1):--

Wife! buz? titivilitium
There's no such thing in nature!

[634] _Inhumatio defuncti_, 1, 142; cf. also his 'dissertation' on the
order of the Burial, _ib._ CCXCIII.

[635] Ed. _Surtees Soc._ 1875, p. 60; cf. _ib._, _Commendatio Animarum_
56*; _De Modo Dicendi Exsequias defunctorum ad usum Sarum_ 80*.

[636] Chapter _De Exequiis_; _Officium Defunctorum_.

[637] Cf. _ib._, _cerei qui cum cruce et thuribulo de more ...
portabantur accensi_; unto the holy candle commit we our souls at our
last departing, Tindale, _Works_, 1, 225; _ib._ 48; 3, 140, etc.; on
the wax candle and driving the Devil away, cf. Latimer, _Sermons_, 27
(499). The reformers were as much against the candles as against the
bells, and other 'popish superstitions'; cf. Grindal's _Visitation
Book_ (1551-52), §§ 40, 46, etc.

[638] Cf. Brand's _Pop. Ant._ 2, 220.

[639] Cf. _Durandus Rationale_, Lib. I. fol. 9 (_De Campanis_): "Uerum
aliquo moriente campanæ debent pulsari ut populus hoc audiens oret pro
illo; pro muliere quidem bis ... pro viro vero ter pulsatur," etc. The
superstitious background was that the bells were believed to drive away
evil spirits. Cf. _ib._, "campanæ pulsantur ut demones timentes fugiant
... hæc etiam est causa quare ecclesia videns concitari tempestates
campanas pulsat ut demones tubas eterni regis _id est_ campanas
audientes territi fugiant et a tempestatis concitatione quiescant et
ut campanæ pulsationes fideles admoneant et prouocent pro instanti
periculo orationi insistere," and Brand's _Pop. Ant._ 2, 202.

[640] bells ... with such other vanities, Tindale, 3, 258; ape's play,
_ib._ 283, etc.

[641] Grindal, _Works_, 136.

[642] 3, 362; Injunctions at York, 1571, 8; Articles at Canterbury,
1576, 9.

[643] Collier, _Hist. Dram. Poetry_, 2, 459, thinks the whole epilogue
is 'sung.'

_William Stevenson_

GAMMER GURTONS NEDLE

_Edited with Critical Essay
and Notes by Henry Bradley,
Hon. M.A., Oxford_

CRITICAL ESSAY

=Date of the Play and its Authorship.=--The title-page of the earliest
known edition of _Gammer Gurtons Nedle_, printed by Thomas Colwell in
1575, states that this "right pithy, pleasaunt, and merie comedie" was
"played on stage, not longe ago, in Christes Colledge in Cambridge,"
and that it was "made by Mr. S., Mr. of Art." There is here no
intimation that any former edition had appeared. But the register
of the Company of Stationers shows that in the year ending 22 July,
1563, Colwell paid 4d. for licence to print a play entitled _Dyccon
of Bedlam, etc._; and as "_Diccon the Bedlam_" is a most important
character in _Gammer Gurtons Nedle_ (his name, by good right, standing
first in the list of _dramatis personæ_), there is a fair presumption
that the piece for which Colwell obtained a licence in 1562-3 was
in substance identical with that which he actually printed in 1575
under another title.[644] Whether _Dyccon_ was really published in
or soon after 1563, or whether Colwell for some reason or other
allowed twelve years to elapse before carrying out his intention of
publishing the play, cannot now be determined with certainty; the
balance of probability seems, however, to be in favour of the latter
supposition.[645]

The identity of "Mr. S., Master of Art," to whom the authorship of the
comedy is ascribed on the title-page, appears to be discoverable by
means of certain evidence contained in the bursar's books of Christ's
College, for the knowledge of which the present editor is indebted to
the kindness of the Master of that college, Dr. Peile. If we are right
in identifying _Gammer Gurtons Nedle_ with the play which was licenced
to the printer in the year ending 22 July, 1563, the performance at
Christ's College must have taken place before that date, for it was not
the custom to send a play to the press before it had been acted. Now,
in the academic year ending Michaelmas, 1563, there is no record of
any dramatic representation having been given in the college. In the
preceding year, 1561-62, the accounts mention certain sums "spent at
Mr. Chatherton's playe." The person referred to is William Chaderton,
then Fellow of Christ's; but, as his name does not begin with S, this
entry does not concern our inquiry. In 1560-61 there is no mention of
any play; but in 1559-60 we find the two following items:--

"To the viales at Mr. Chatherton's plaie, 2_s._ 6_d._"
"Spent at Mr. Stevenson's plaie, 5_s._"

As no evidence to the contrary has been found, it appears highly
probable that the "Mr. S." of _Gammer Gurtons Nedle_ was William
Stevenson, Fellow of Christ's College from 1559 to 1561. It is further
probable that he is identical with the person of the same name who was
Fellow of the college from 1551 to 1554,[646] and who appears in the
bursar's accounts as the author of a play acted in the year 1553-54.
It may be presumed that he was deprived of his fellowship under Queen
Mary, and was reinstated under Elizabeth. Whether Stevenson's play
of 1559-60 was the same which had been given six years before, or
whether it was a new one, there is no evidence to show. The former
supposition, however, derives some plausibility from the fact that,
as several critics have pointed out, the allusions to church matters
in _Gammer Gurtons Nedle_ seem to indicate a pre-Elizabethan date for
its composition.[647] At all events it seems likely that the play
of 1553-54 was in English, for the accounts speak of a Latin play
(managed by another Fellow, named Persevall) as having been performed
in the same year.

Of Stevenson's history nothing is known, beyond the bare facts that he
was born at Hunwick in Durham, matriculated as a sizar in November,
1546, became B.A. in 1549-50, M.A. in 1553, and B.D. in 1560. He was
ordained deacon in London in 1552, appointed prebendary of Durham in
January, 1560-61, and died in 1575, the year in which _Gammer Gurton_
was printed.

It may at first sight appear to be a formidable objection to
Stevenson's authorship of the play, that the title-page of the edition
of 1575 speaks of the representation at Cambridge as having taken
place "not longe ago." But Colwell had had the MS. in his possession
ever since 1563; and there is nothing unlikely in the supposition that
the wording of the original title-page was retained without any other
alteration than the change in the name of the piece. The title-page,
it may be remarked, is undated, the tablet at the foot, which is
apparently intended to receive the date, being left blank. This fact
may possibly indicate that when the printing of the volume was begun it
was anticipated that its publication might have to be delayed for some
time.[648] The appearance of the title-page suggests the possibility
that it may have been altered after being set up: "_Gammer gur_-| _tons
Nedle_" in small italic may have been substituted for =Diccon of= |
=Bedlam= in type as large as that of the other words in the same lines.
In Colwell's edition of Ingelend's _Disobedient Child_ (printed 1560)
the title-page has the same woodcut border, but the name of the piece
is in type of the same size as that of the preceding and following
words. As this woodcut does not occur in any other of Colwell's
publications now extant, it seems reasonable to infer that _Gammer
Gurton_ was printed long before 1575.

=Former Attributions of Authorship=.--It is necessary to say something
about the two persons to whom the authorship of _Gammer Gurtons Nedle_
has hitherto been attributed--Dr. John Bridges, who was in succession
Dean of Salisbury and Bishop of Oxford, and Dr. John Still, who was
made Bishop of Bath and Wells in 1593. It is curious that both the
distinguished churchmen who have been credited with the composition of
this very unclerical play received the degree of D.D. in the same year
in which it was published.

The evidence on which it has been attempted to assign the play to John
Bridges is contained in certain passages of the "Martin Marprelate"
tracts. In the first of these, the _Epistle_, published in 1588, the
author addresses Bridges in the following terms:--

"You have bin a worthy writer, as they say, of a long time; your
first book was a proper enterlude, called _Gammar Gurtons Needle_.
But I think that this trifle, which sheweth the author to have had
some witte and invention in him, was none of your doing, because
your books seeme to proceede from the braynes of a woodcocke, as
having neither wit nor learning."

In his second pamphlet, the _Epitome_, "Martin Marprelate" twice
alludes to the dean's supposed authorship of the play, in a manner
which conveys the impression that he really believed in it. None
of "Martin's" adversaries seem to have contradicted his statement
on this point, though Cooper in particular was at great pains to
refute the pamphleteer's "slanders" on other dignitaries. It must
be admitted that everything that is known of Bridges is decidedly
favourable to the supposition that he might have written comedy in
his youth. His voluminous _Defence of the Government of the Church
of England_ abounds in sprightly quips, often far from dignified in
tone; and his controversial opponents complained, with some justice,
of his "buffoonery." He is recorded by Harrington to have been a
prolific writer of verse; and that his interests were not exclusively
theological appears from the fact that he is said to have translated,
in 1558, three of Machiavelli's _Discourses_, having previously
resided in Italy. The only reason for rejecting "Martin Marprelate's"
attribution of _Gammer Gurtons Nedle_ to him is that he was not "Mr.
S.," and that he belonged not to Christ's College, but to Pembroke.
But as he was resident at Cambridge in 1560 (having taken the degree
of A.M. in that year), it is quite possible that he may have assisted
William Stevenson in the composition or revision of the play.

The name of Bishop Still is so familiar as that of the reputed author
of _Gammer Gurton_, that many readers will be surprised to learn
that this attribution was first proposed in 1782 by Isaac Reed in
his enlarged edition of Baker's _Biographia Dramatica_.[649] Reed
discovered in the accounts of Christ's College an entry referring to
a play acted at Christmas, 1567 (not 1566, as he states); and as this
is the latest entry of the kind occurring before 1575, he plausibly
inferred that it related to the representation of _Gammer Gurtons
Nedle_, which in Colwell's title-page was stated to have taken place
"not long ago." The only Master of Arts of the college then living,
whose surname began with S, that he was able to find, was John Still,
whom he therefore confidently identified with the "Mr. S." who is
said to have written _Gammer Gurton_. If our arguments in favour of
Stevenson's authorship be accepted, Reed's conclusion of course falls
to the ground; and the character of Bishop Still, as it is known from
the testimony of several of his personal friends, renders it incredible
that he can ever have distinguished himself as a comic writer. The
characteristic quality by which he seems chiefly to have impressed his
contemporaries was his extraordinary seriousness. Archbishop Parker, in
1573, speaks of him as "a young man," but "better mortified than some
other forty or fifty years of age"; and another eulogist commends "his
staidness and gravity." If Still's seriousness had been, like that of
many grave and dignified persons, in any eminent degree qualified by
wit, there would surely have been some indication of the fact in the
vivaciously written account of him given by Harrington. But neither
there nor elsewhere is there any evidence that he ever made a joke,
that he ever wrote a line of verse, or that he had any interests other
than those connected with his sacred calling. A fact which has often
been remarked upon as strange by those who have accepted the current
theory of Still's authorship of _Gammer Gurton_ is that in 1592, when
he was vice-chancellor of Cambridge, his signature, followed by those
of other heads of houses, was appended to a memorial praying that the
queen would allow a Latin play to be substituted for the English play
which she had commanded to be represented by the university actors on
the occasion of her approaching visit. The memorialists urged that the
performance of English plays had not been customary in the university,
being thought "nothing beseminge our students." It is not necessary
to attribute much importance to this incident, but, so far as it has
any bearing on the question at all, it goes to support the conclusion,
already certain on other grounds, that the author of _Gammer Gurtons
Nedle_ cannot have been John Still.[650]

=Place in the History of Comedy.=--In attempting to assign the place
of _Gammer Gurtons Nedle_ in the history of the English drama,
we should remember that it is the sole surviving example of the
vernacular college comedies--probably more numerous than is commonly
suspected--produced during the sixteenth century, and that most of
the features which appear to us novel were doubtless the result of a
gradual development. So far as our knowledge goes, however, it is the
second English comedy conforming to the structural type which modern
Europe has learned from the example of the Roman playwrights. The
choice of the old "septenary" measure, in which most of the dialogue
is written, may have been due to recollection of the Terentian iambic
tetrameter catalectic, just as the rugged Alexandrines of _Ralph
Roister Doister_ were probably suggested by the Latin comic senarius.
But while in Udall's play the matter as well as the form is largely of
classical origin, the plot and the characters of _Gammer Gurtons Nedle_
are purely native. Its material is drawn at first hand from observation
of English life; its literary ancestry, so far as it has any, is
mainly to be traced through John Heywood's interludes to the farces
of the fifteenth-century mysteries, of which one brilliant example is
preserved in the _Secunda Pastorum_ of the Towneley cycle.

The artistic merit of the piece has often been unduly depreciated, from
causes which it is not difficult to understand. The very rudimentary
kind of humour which turns on physically disgusting suggestions is
no longer amusing to educated people, and there is so much of this
poor stuff in the play that the real wit of some scenes, and the
clever portraiture of character throughout, have not received their
fair share of acknowledgment. Most people who have lived long in an
English village will recognise Gammer Gurton and Dame Chat as capital
studies from life, though their modern representatives are not quite so
foul-mouthed in their wrath as the gossips of the sixteenth century;
and Hodge, whose name has become the conventional designation of the
English farm labourer, is an equally lifelike figure. The brightly
drawn character of Diccon represents a type which the working of the
poor laws, and many social changes, have banished from our villages.
But old people who were living down to the middle of this century had
many stories to tell of the crazy wanderer, who was recognised as too
feather-brained to be set to any useful work, but who was a welcome
guest in cottage homes, and whose pranks were looked on with kindly
toleration by well-disposed people, even when they led to inconvenient
consequences.[651] The game of cross-purposes brought about by Diccon's
machinations, which forms the plot, is humorously imagined, and worked
out with some skill. It does not, of course, rise above the level of
farce; but there is real comedy, not quite of the lowest order, in
the scene where the fussy self-importance of Dr. Rat, bursting with
impotent rage at his well-merited discomfiture, is confronted with the
calm impartiality of "Master Baily"--the steward of the lord of the
manor, apparently, and the representative of temporal authority in the
village. The common verdict that _Gammer Gurtons Nedle_ is a work of
lower rank than _Ralph Roister Doister_ is perhaps on the whole not
unjust; but the later play has some merits of its own, and, as the
first known attempt to present a picture of contemporary rustic life
in the form of a regular comedy, it may be admitted to represent a
distinct advance in the development of English dramatic art.

=Dialect.=--The treatment of dialect in the play demands a word of
notice. All the characters, except the curate and the baily, who belong
to the educated class, and Diccon, who may be presumed to have come
down from a better social station than that of the village people, use
a kind of speech which is clearly intended to represent the dialect of
the southwestern counties. It is not always very correct; the writer,
for instance, seems to have thought that _cham_ stood for "am" as well
as "I am," so that he makes Hodge say "cham I not." Stevenson, as we
have seen, was of northern birth; and, as a line or two in the same
dialect is found in _Ralph Roister Doister_, there is some reason for
believing that the dialect of the stage rustic was already a matter of
established convention.[652] The word _pes_, a hassock, which occurs in
the play, is peculiar, so far as is known, to the East Anglian dialect,
and may have been picked up by the author in his walks about Cambridge.
Whether derived from _Gammer Gurton_ or from plays of earlier date,
the conventional dialect of the stage rustic kept its place throughout
the Elizabethan period. Shakspere's rustics, as is well known, mostly
use the southwestern forms, not those current in the poet's native
Warwickshire.

=The Present Text.=--The text of the present edition is taken from the
copy of Colwell's edition (1575) in the Bodleian Library. The original
spelling has been preserved, except that _j_ and _v_ are substituted
for _i_ and _u_ when used as consonants, and _u_ for _v_ when used as a
vowel. Obvious misprints have been corrected, but are mentioned in the
footnotes (except in the case of mere errors of word-division, which it
seemed unnecessary to notice). The punctuation, and the use of initial
capitals, have been conformed to modern practice. Another copy of
Colwell's edition is in the British Museum. The play was reprinted in
1661, and, with modernised spelling, in Dodsley's _Old Plays_, and in
the new edition of Dodsley by W. C. Hazlitt. An excellent edition, with
the original spelling, was published in 1897 by Professor J. M. Manly,
in vol. ii. of his _Specimens of the Pre-Shaksperean Drama_. Several of
the readings which are given in Professor Manly's text or footnotes as
those of Colwell's edition do not agree with those either of the London
or the Oxford copy. In the footnotes to the present edition reference
to Colwell's, Hazlitt's, and Manly's editions are indicated by Ed.
1575, H. and M., respectively.

HENRY BRADLEY.

FOOTNOTES:

[644] The alternative possibility is that _Gammer Gurton_ was a sequel
to _Dyccon_. In that case the two plays would most probably be by the
same author, so that the value of the argument in the next paragraph
would hardly be affected.

[645] Partly because the title-page of 1575 contains no indication that
the play had been printed before, and partly because (as will be shown)
there is some evidence that the publication was delayed after the title
had been changed. It would be interesting to know whether a second
licence was obtained for printing the play under its later name; but
there happens to be a gap in the detailed accounts of the Stationers
Company extending from 1571 to 1576.

[646] If the Stevenson of 1559-61 was not identical with his namesake,
some record of his graduations and matriculation ought to exist. But
Dr. Peile, who has taken the trouble to search through the university
registers for several years prior to 1559, informs me that no such
record can be found.

[647] The reference to the king, moreover, in Act V. ii, 236 would
strengthen the probability that the play of 1575 (and 1559-60) was
originally composed during Stevenson's first fellowship; at any rate
before the death of Edward VI. It might therefore be identical with the
play acted in 1553-4.--_Gen. Ed._

[648] Too much importance must not, however, be attached to this, as
the same thing is found in the title-page of _The Disobedient Child_,
above referred to. The date of 1575 for our comedy is given in the
colophon at the end of the book. See also p. 206 _n_.

[649] This title was given by Reed; Baker's original work of 1762 was
called _A Dictionary of the Stage_.

[650] The arguments against Still's authorship of _Gammer Gurton_, and
in favour of that of Bridges, are stated at length in an article by Mr.
C. H. Ross in the nineteenth volume of _Anglia_ (1896), to which we are
indebted for several useful references.

[651] Of course it is not meant that these persons corresponded
exactly to the type represented by Diccon--the ex-patient of Bethlehem
Hospital, discharged as being supposed to be cured or rendered
harmless, and wearing a badge indicating the possession of a licence to
beg.

[652] In Pikeryng's _Horestes_ (1567), which is some years earlier than
the first known publication of _Gammer Gurton_, the country characters
(one of whom is named Hodge) speak a strongly marked southwestern
dialect.

A Ryght
Pithy, Pleasaunt and merie
Comedie: Intytuled
_Gammer gurtons
Nedle_: Played on
Stage, not longe
ago in Christes

_Colledge in Cambridge_

_Made by Mr. S. Mr. of Art._

Imprynted at London in
Fleete street beneth the Conduit
at the ligne of S. John
Evangelist by _Thomas
Colwell_.

The Names of the Speakers in this Comedie

DICCON,[653] _the Bedlem_.
HODGE,[654] _Gammer Gurtons servante_.
TYB, _Gammer Gurtons mayde_.
GAMMER GURTON.
COCKE,[655] _Gammer Gurtons boye_.
DAME CHATTE.
DOCTOR RAT, _the Curate_.
MAYSTER BAYLYE.
DOLL, _Dame Chattes mayde_.
SCAPETHRYFT,[656] _Mayst. Beylies servante_.
_Mutes._

God Save the Queene.

P. 205 represents the title-page, but without the border to which I
refer on p. 199. Mr. W. J. Lewis points out to me that this woodcut
title page had been used previously by William Copland, in 1553, for
his editions of Douglas _Æneis_ and _Palice of Honour_.

FOOTNOTES:

[653] The older form of Dick, nickname for Richard.

[654] Nickname for Roger.

[655] Misprinted _Docke_.

[656] Professor Manly gives _scapetbryk_ as the reading of the edition
of 1575; but in the copies in the Bodleian Library and in the British
Museum the name is printed correctly.

Gammer Gurtons Nedle

The Prologue. A ii

As Gammer Gurton with manye a wyde styche
Sat pesynge and patching of Hodg her mans briche,
By chance or misfortune, as shee her geare tost,
In Hodge lether bryches her needle shee lost.
When Diccon the bedlem had hard by report 5
That good Gammer Gurton was robde in thys sorte,
He quyetly perswaded with her in that stound[657]
Dame Chat, her deare gossyp, this needle had found;
Yet knew shee no more of this matter, alas!
Then knoeth Tom, our clarke, what the priest saith at masse. 10
Hereof there ensued so fearfull a fraye,
Mas[658] Doctor was sent for, these gossyps to staye,
Because he was curate, and estemed full wyse;
Who found that he sought not, by Diccons device.
When all thinges were tombled and cleane out of fassion, 15
Whether it were by fortune, or some other constellacion,
Sodenlye the neele Hodge found by the prickynge,
And drew it out of his bottocke, where he felt it stickynge.
Theyr hartes then at rest with perfect securytie,
With a pot of good nale they stroake up theyr plauditie. 20

The fyrst Acte. The fyrst Sceane.

DICCON.

_Diccon._ Many a myle have I walked, divers and sundry waies,
And many a good mans house have I bin at in my daies;
Many a gossips cup in my tyme have I tasted,
And many a broche[659] and spyt have I both turned and basted;
Many a peece of bacon have I had out of thir balkes, 5
In ronnyng over the countrey, with long and were walkes;
Yet came my foote never within those doore cheekes,
To seeke flesh or fysh, garlyke, onyons, or leeke[s],
That ever I saw a sorte[660] in such a plyght
As here within this house appereth to my syght. 10
There is howlynge and scowlyng, all cast in a dumpe,
With whewling and pewling, as though they had lost a trump. A ii b
Syghing and sobbing, they weepe and they wayle;
I marvell in my mynd what the devill they ayle.
The olde trot syts groning, with alas! and alas! 15
And Tib wringes her hands, and takes on in worse case.
With poore Cocke, theyr boye, they be dryven in such fyts,
I feare mee the folkes be not well in theyr wyts.
Aske them what they ayle, or who brought them in this staye,
They aunswer not at all, but "alacke!" and "welaway!" 20
Whan I saw it booted not, out at doores I hyed mee,
And caught a slyp of bacon, when I saw that none spyed mee,
Which I intend not far hence, unles my purpose fayle,
Shall serve for a shoinghorne to draw on two pots of ale.

The fyrst Acte. The second Sceane.

HODGE. DICCON.

_Hodge._ See! so cham[661] arayed with dablynge in the durt!
She that set me to ditchinge, ich wold she hat the squrt!
Was never poore soule that such a life had.
Gogs bones! thys vylthy glaye hase drest me to bad!
Gods soule! see how this stuffe teares! 5
Iche were better to bee a bearward and set to keepe beares!
By the Masse, here is a gasshe, a shamefull hole in deade!
And one stytch teare furder, a man may thrust in his heade.

_Diccon._ By my fathers soule, Hodge, if I shoulde now be sworne,
I can not chuse but say thy breech is foule betorne, 10
But the next remedye in such a case and hap
Is to plaunche on a piece as brode as thy cap.

_Hodge._ Gogs soule, man, tis not yet two dayes fully ended
Synce my dame Gurton, chem sure, these breches amended;
But cham made suc[h]e a drudge to trudge at euery neede, 15
Chwold rend it though it were stitched with[662] sturdy
pacthreede.

_Diccon._ Ho[d]ge, let thy breeches go, and speake and tell mee soone
What devill ayleth Gammer Gurton & Tib her mayd to frowne.

_Hodge._ Tush, man, thart deceyved: tys theyr dayly looke;
They coure so over the coles, theyre eyes be bleared with
smooke. 20

_Diccon._ Nay, by the masse, I perfectly perceived, as I came hether,
That eyther Tib and her dame hath ben by the eares together,
Or els as great a matter, as thou shalt shortly see.

_Hodge._ Now, iche beseeche our Lord they never better agree!

_Diccon._ By Gogs soule, there they syt as still as stones in the
streite,
As though they had ben taken with fairies, or els with some il
sprite. 26

_Hodge._ Gogs hart! I durst have layd my cap to a crowne
Chwould lerne of some prancome as sone as ich came to town.

_Diccon._ Why, Hodge, art thou inspyred? or dedst thou therof here?

_Hodge._ Nay, but ich saw such a wonder as ich saw nat this seven
yere. 30
Tome Tannkards cow, be Gogs bones! she set me up her saile,
And flynging about his halfe aker[663] fysking with her taile,
As though there had ben in her ars a swarme of bees,
And chad not cryed "tphrowh, hoore," shead lept out of his lees.

_Diccon._ Why, Hodg, lies the connyng in Tom Tankards cowes taile? 35

_Hodge._ Well, ich chave hard some say such tokens do not fayle.
Bot ca[n]st thou not tell,[664] in faith, Diccon, why she frownes,
or wher at?
Hath no man stolne her ducks or hen[n]es, or gelded Gyb, her cat?

_Diccon._ What devyll can I tell, man? I cold not have one word!
They gave no more hede to my talk than thow woldst to a lorde.

_Hodge._ Iche cannot styll but muse, what mervaylous thinge it is.
Chyll in and know my selfe what matters are amys. 42

_Diccon._ Then fare well, Hodge, a while, synce thou doest inward
hast,
For I will into the good wyfe Chats, to feele how the ale doth
taste.

The fyrst Acte. The thyrd Sceane.

HODGE. TYB.

_Hodge._ Cham agast; by the masse, ich wot not what to do.
Chad nede blesse me well before ich go them to.
Perchaunce some felon sprit may haunt our house indeed;
And then chwere but a noddy to venter where cha no neede.

_Tyb._ Cham worse then mad, by the masse, to be at this staye! 5
Cham chyd, cham blamd, and beaton, all thoures on the daye;
Lamed and honger-storved, prycked up all in jagges,
Havyng no patch to hyde my backe, save a few rotten ragges!

_Hodge._ I say, Tyb--if thou be Tyb, as I trow sure thou bee,--
What devyll make a doe is this, betweene our dame and thee? 10

_Tyb._ Gogs breade, Hodg, thou had a good turne thou wart not here
[this while]! A iii b
It had been better for some of us to have ben hence a myle;
My gammer is so out of course and frantyke all at ones,
That Cocke, our boy, and I, poore wench, have felt it on our
bones.

_Hodge._ What is the matter--say on, Tib--wherat she taketh so on? 15

_Tyb._ She is undone, she sayth, alas! her joye and life is gone!
If shee here not of some comfort, she is, fayth![665] but dead;
Shal never come within her lyps one inch of meate ne bread.

_Hodge._ Byr Ladie, cham not very glad to see her in this dumpe.
Cholde[666] a noble her stole hath fallen, & shee hath broke
her rumpe. 20

_Tyb._ Nay, and that were the worst, we wold not greatly care
For bursting of her huckle bone, or breaking of her chaire;
But greatter, greater, is her grief, as, Hodge, we shall all feele!

_Hodge._ Gogs woundes, Tyb! my gammer has never lost her neele?

_Tyb._ Her neele!

_Hodge._ Her neele! 25

_Tyb._ Her neele!
By him that made me, it is true, Hodge, I tell thee.

_Hodge._ Gogs sacrament, I would she had lost tharte out of her
bellie!
The Devill, or els his dame, they ought[667] her, sure, a shame!
How a murryon came this chaunce, say, Tib! unto our dame?

_Tyb._ My gammer sat her downe on her pes,[668] and bad me reach thy
breeches, 30
And by and by (a vengeance in it!) or she had take two stitches
To clap a clout upon thine ars, by chaunce asyde she leares,
And Gyb, our cat, in the milke pan she spied over head and eares.
"Ah, hore! out, thefe!" she cryed aloud, and swapt the breches
downe. 34
Up went her staffe, and out leapt Gyb at doors into the towne,
And synce that tyme was never wyght cold set their eies upon it.
Gogs malison chave (Cocke and I) bid twenty times light on it.

_Hodge._ And is not then my breeches sewid up, to morow that I shuld
were?

_Tyb._ No, in faith, Hodge, thy breeches lie for al this never the
nere.

_Hodge._ Now a vengeance light on al the sort, that better shold have
kept it, 40
The cat, the house, and Tib, our maid, that better shold have
swept it!
Se where she cometh crawling! Come on, in twenty devils way!
Ye have made a fayre daies worke, have you not? pray you, say!

The fyrst Acte. The iiii. Sceane.

GAMMER. HODGE. TYB. COCKE.

_Gammer._ Alas, Hoge, alas! I may well cursse and ban A iv
This daie, that ever I saw it, with Gyb and the mylke pan;
For these and ill lucke togather, as knoweth Cocke, my boye,
Have stacke away my deare neele, and robd me of my joye,
My fayre long strayght neele, that was myne onely treasure; 5
The fyrst day of my sorow is, and last end of my pleasure!

_Hodge._ Might ha kept it when ye had it! but fooles will be fooles
styll.
Lose that is vast in your handes ye neede not but ye will.

_Gammer._ Go hie the, Tib, and run thou, hoore, to thend here of
the towne![669]
Didst cary out dust in thy lap; seeke wher thou porest it
downe, 10
And as thou sawest me roking, in the ashes where I morned,
So see in all the heape of dust thou leave no straw unturned.

_Tyb._ That chal, Gammer, swythe and tyte,[670] and sone be here
agayne!

_Gammer._ Tib, stoope & loke downe to the ground to it, and take some
paine.

_Hodge._ Here is a prety matter, to see this gere how it goes; 15
By Gogs soule, I thenk you wold loes your ars, and it were loose!
Your neele lost, it is pitie you shold lack care and endlesse
sorow.
Gogs deth! how shall my breches be sewid? Shall I go thus to
morow?

_Gammer._ Ah Hodg, Hodg! if that ich cold find my neele, by the reed,
Chould sow thy breches, ich promise the, with full good double
threed, 20
And set a patch on either knee shuld last this monethes twaine.
Now God and good Saint Sithe[671] I praye to send it home againe!

_Hodge._ Wherto served your hands and eies, but this your neele to
kepe?
What devill had you els to do? ye kept, ich wot, no sheepe!
Cham fame abrode to dyg and delve, in water, myre, and claye, 25
Sossing and possing in the durte styll from day to daye.
A hundred thinges that be abrode, cham set to see them weele,
And four of you syt idle at home, and can not keepe a neele!

_Gammer._ My neele! alas! ich lost it, Hodge, what time ich me up
hasted
To save the milke set up for the, which Gib, our cat, hath
wasted. 30

_Hodge._ The Devill he burst both Gib and Tib, with al the rest!
Cham alwayes sure of the worst end, who ever have the best!
Where ha you ben fidging abrode, since you your neele lost?

_Gammer._ Within the house, and at the dore, sitting by this same
post,
Wher I was loking a long howre, before these folks came here; 35
But welaway, all was in vayne, my neele is never the nere!

_Hodge._ Set me a candle, let me seeke, and grope where ever it bee.
Gogs hart, ye be so folish, ich thinke, you knowe it not when you
it see!

_Gammer._ Come hether, Cocke; what, Cocke, I say!

_Cocke._ Howe, Gammer?

_Gammer._ Goe, hye the soone,
And grope behynd the old brasse pan, whych thing when thou hast
done, 40
Ther shall thou fynd an old shooe, wherein if thou look well,
Thou shalt fynd lyeng an inche of a whyte tallow candell.
Lyght it, and bryng it tite away.

_Cocke._ That shalbe done anone.

_Gammer._ Nay, tary, Hodge, till thou hast light, and then weele seke
ech one. 45

_Hodge._ Cum away, ye horson boy, are ye aslepe? ye must have a crier!

_Cocke._ Ich cannot get the candel light: here is almost no fier.

_Hodge._ Chil hold[672] the a peny chil make the come, if that ich may
catch thine eares!
Art deffe, thou horson boy? Cocke, I say; why canst not heares?

_Gammer._ Beate hym not, Hodge, bul help the boy, and come you two
together.

The i Acte. The v Sceane.

GAMMER. TYB. COCKE. HODGE.

_Gammer._ How now, Tib? quycke, lets here what newes thou hast brought
hether!

_Tyb._ Chave tost and tumbled yender heap our and over againe,
And winowed it through my fingers, as men wold winow grain;
Not so much as a hens turd but in pieces I tare it,
Or what so ever clod or clay I found, I did not spare it, 5
Lokyng within and eke without, to fynd your neele, alas!
But all in vaine and without help! your neele is where it was.

_Gammer._ Alas my neele! we shall never meete! adue, adue, for aye!

_Tyb._ Not so, Gammer, we myght it fynd, if we knew where it laye.

_Cocke._ Gogs crosse, Gammer, if ye will laugh, looke in but at the
doore, 10
And see how Hodg lieth tombling and tossing amids the floure,
Rakyng there some fyre to fynd amonge the asshes dead,
Where there is not one sparke so byg as a pyns head;
At last in a darke corner two sparkes he thought he sees,
Which were indede nought els but Gyb our cats two eyes. 15
"Puffe!" quod Hodg, thinking therby to have fyre without doubt;
With that Gyb shut her two eyes, and so the fyre was out;
And by and by them opened, even as they were before;
With that the sparkes appered, even as they had done of yore;
And even as Hodge blew the fire (as he did thinke), 20
Gib, as she felt the blast, strayghtway began to wyncke;
Tyll Hodge fell of swering, as came best to his turne,
The fier was sure bewicht, and therfore wold not burne.
At last Gyb up the stayers, among the old postes and pinnes,
And Hodge he hied him after, till broke were both his shinnes; 25
Cursyng and swering othes were never of his makyng,
That Gyb wold fyre the house if that shee were not taken.

_Gammer._ See, here is all the thought that the foolysh urchyn taketh!
And Tyb, me thinke, at his elbowe almost as mery maketh.
This is all the wyt ye have, when others make their mone. 30
Cum downe, Hodge, where art thou? and let the cat alone!

_Hodge._ Gogs harte, help and come up! Gyb in her tayle hath fyre,
And is like to burne all, if shee get a lytle hier!
Cum downe, quoth you? nay, then you might count me a patch.[673]
The house commeth downe on your heads, if it take ons the
thatch. 35

_Gammer._ It is the cats eyes, foole, that shyneth in the darke.

_Hodge._ Hath the cat, do you thinke, in every eye a sparke?

_Gammer._ No, but they shyne as lyke fyre as ever man see.

_Hodge._ By the masse, and she burne all, yoush beare the blame for
mee!

_Gammer._ Cum downe and helpe to seeke here our neele, that it were
found. 40
Downe, Tyb, on the knees, I say! Downe, Cocke, to the ground!
To God I make avowe, and so to good Saint Anne,
A candell shall they have a pece, get it where I can,
If I may my neele find in one place or in other.

_Hodge._ Now a vengeaunce on Gyb light, on Gyb and Gybs mother, 45
And all the generacyon of cats both far and nere!
Loke on this ground, horson, thinks thou the neele is here?

_Cocke._ By my trouth, Gammer, me thought your neele here I saw,
But when my fyngers toucht it, I felt it was a straw.

_Tyb._ See, Hodge, whats t[h]ys? may it not be within it? 50

_Hodge._ Breake it, foole, with thy hand, and see and thou canst fynde
it.

_Tyb._ Nay, breake it you, Hodge, accordyng to your word.

_Hodge._ Gogs sydes! fye! it styncks; it is a cats tourd!
It were well done to make thee eate it, by the masse!

_Gammer._ This matter amendeth not; my neele is still where it
wasse. 55
Our candle is at an ende, let us all in quight,
And come another tyme, when we have more lyght.

The Second Acte.

_First a Song._[674]

Backe and syde go bare, go bare,
Booth foote and hande go colde;
But bellye, God send thee good ale ynoughe,
Whether it be newe or olde.

I can not eate but lytle meate,
My stomacke is not good;
But sure I thinke that I can drinke
With him that weares a hood.
Thoughe I go bare, take ye no care,
I am nothinge a colde;
I stuffe my skyn so full within
Of joly good ale and olde.
Backe and syde go bare, go bare, etc.

I love no rost but a nut browne toste
And a crab layde in the fyre.[675]
A lytle bread shall do me stead:
Much breade I not desyre.
No froste nor snow, no winde, I trowe,
Can hurte mee if I wolde;
I am so wrapt, and throwly lapt
Of joly good ale and olde.
Backe and syde go bare, etc.

And Tyb my wyfe, that as her lyfe
Loveth well good ale to seeke,
Full ofte drynkes shee tyll ye may see
The teares run downe her cheeke;
Then dooth she trowle to mee the bowle
Even as a mault worme shuld;
And sayth, sweete hart, I tooke my part
Of this joly good ale and olde.
Backe and syde go bare, etc.

Now let them drynke till they nod and winke,
Even as good felowes shoulde doe;
They shall not miss to have the bliss
Good ale doth bringe men to;
And all poore soules that have scowred boules,
Or have them lustly trolde,
God save the lyves of them and theyr wyves,
Whether they be yonge or olde.
Backe and syde go bare, etc.

[The Second Acte.] The Fyrst Sceane.

DICCON. HODGE.

_Diccon._ Well done, by Gogs malt! well songe and well sayde!
Come on, mother Chat, as thou art true mayde,
One fresh pot of ale lets see, to make an ende
Agaynst this colde wether my naked armes to defende!
This gere it warms the soule! Now, wind, blow on the worst! 5
And let us drink and swill till that our bellies burste!
Now were he a wise man by cunnynge could defyne
Which way my journey lyeth, or where Dyccon will dyne!
But one good turne I have: be it by nyght or daye,
South, east, north or west, I am never out of my waye! 10

_Hodge._ Chym goodly rewarded, cham I not, do you thyncke?
Chad a goodly dynner for all my sweate and swyncke!
Neyther butter, cheese, mylke, onyons, fleshe, nor fyshe,
Save this poor pece of barly bread: tis a pleasant costly dishe!

_Diccon._ Haile, fellow Hodge, and well[676] to fare with thy meat, if
thou have any: 15
But by thy words, as I them smelled, thy daintrels be not manye.

_Hodge._ Daintrels, Diccon? Gogs soule, man, save this piece of dry
horsbread,
Cha byt no byt this lyvelonge daie, no crome come in my head:
My gutts they yawle-crawle, and all my belly rumbleth;
The puddynges[677] cannot lye still, each one over other
tumbleth. 20
By Gogs harte, cham so vexte, and in my belly pende,
Chould one peece were at the spittlehouse, another at the castelle
ende!

_Diccon._ Why, Hodge, was there none at home thy dinner for to set?

_Hodge._ Gogs[678] bread, Diccon, ich came to late, was nothing there
to get!
Gib (a fowle feind might on her light!) lickt the milke pan so
clene, 25
See, Diccon, twas not so well washt this seven yere, as ich wene!
A pestilence light on all ill lucke! chad thought, yet for all
thys
Of a morsell of bacon behynde the dore at worst shuld not misse:
But when ich sought a slyp to cut, as ich was wont to do,
Gogs soule, Diccon! Gyb, our cat, had eate the bacon to! 30

(_Which bacon Diccon stole, as is declared before._)

_Diccon._ Ill luck, quod he! mary, swere it, Hodge! this day, the
trueth to tel,
Thou rose not on thy ryght syde, or else blest thee not wel.
Thy milk slopt up! thy bacon filtched! that was to bad luck, Hodg!

_Hodge._ Nay, nay, ther was a fowler fault, my Gammer ga me the
dodge;[679]
Seest not how cham rent and torn, my heels, my knees, and my
breech? 35
Chad thought, as ich sat by the fire, help here and there a
stitch:
But there ich was powpt[680] indeede.

_Diccon._ Why, Hodge?

_Hodge._ Bootes not, man, to tell.
Cham so drest amongst a sorte of fooles, chad better be in hell.
My gammer (cham ashamed to say), by God, served me not weele.

_Diccon._ How so, Hodge?

_Hodge._ Has she not gone, trowest now, and lost her neele?

_Diccon._ Her eele, Hodge? Who fysht of late? That was a dainty
dysh! 41

_Hodge._ Tush, tush, her neele, her neele, her neele, man! tis neither
flesh nor fysh;
A lytle thing with an hole in the end, as bright as any syller,
Small, longe, sharpe at the poynt, and straight as any pyller.

_Diccon._ I know not what a devil thou meenst, thou bringst me more in
doubt. 45

_Hodge._ Knowst not with what Tom Tailers man sits broching throughe a
clout?
A neele, a neele, a neele! my gammer's neele is gone.

_Diccon._ Her neele, Hodge? now I smel thee! that was a chaunce alone!
By the masse, thou hast a shamefull losse, and it wer but for thy
breches.

_Hodge._ Gogs soule, man, chould give a crown chad it but three
stitches. 50

_Diccon._ How sayest thou, Hodge? What shuld he have, again thy nedle
got?

_Hodge._ Bern vathers soule, and chad it, chould give him a new grot.

_Diccon._ Canst thou keep counsaile in this case?

_Hodge._ Else chwold my tonge[681] were out.

_Diccon._ Do than but then by my advise, and I will fetch it without
doubt.

_Hodge._ Chyll runne, chyll ryde, chyll dygge, chyl delve, chill
toyle, chill trudge, shalt see; 55
Chill hold, chil drawe, chil pull, chill pynche, chill kneele on
my bare knee;
Chill scrape, chill scratche, chill syfte, chill seeke, chill
bowe, chill bende, chill sweate,
Chill stoop, chil stur, chil cap, chil knele, chil crepe on hands
and feete;
Chill be thy bondman, Diccon, ich sweare by sunne and moone.
And channot sumwhat to stop this gap, cham utterly undone! 60

(_Pointing behind to his torne breeches._)

_Diccon._ Why, is there any special cause thou takest hereat such
sorow?

_Hodge._ Kirstian Clack, Tom Simpsons maid, by the masse, coms hether
to morow,
Cham not able to say, betweene us what may hap;
She smyled on me the last Sunday, when ich put of my cap.

_Diccon._ Well, Hodge, this is a matter of weight, and must be kept
close, 65
It might els turne to both our costes, as the world now gose.
Shalt sware to be no blab, Hodge!

_Hodge._ Chyll, Diccon.

_Diccon._ Then go to,
Lay thine hand here; say after me as thou shal here me do.
Haste no booke?

_Hodge._ Cha no booke, I!

_Diccon._ Then needes must force us both,
Upon my breech to lay thine hand, and there to take thine othe.

_Hodge._ I, Hodge, breechelesse 71
Sweare to Diccon, rechelesse,
By the crosse that I shall kysse,
To keep his counsaile close,
And alwayes me to dispose 75
To worke that his pleasure is. (_Here he kysseth_ DICCONS
_breech_.)

_Diccon._ Now, Hodge, see thou take heede,
And do as I thee byd;
For so I judge it meete;
This nedle again to win, 80
There is no shift therin
But conjure up a spreete.

_Hodge._ What, the great devill, Diccon, I saye?

_Diccon._ Yea, in good faith, that is the waye.
Fet with some prety charme. 85

_Hodge._ Soft, Diccon, be not to hasty yet,
By the masse, for ich begyn to sweat!
Cham afrayde of some[682] harme.

_Diccon._ Come hether, then, and sturre the nat
One inche out of this cyrcle plat, 90
But stande as I thee teache.

_Hodge._ And shall ich be here safe from theyr clawes?

_Diccon._ The mayster devill with his longe pawes
Here to the can not reache.
Now will I settle me to this geare. 95

_Hodge._ I saye, Diccon, heare me, heare!
Go softely to thys matter!

_Diccon._ What devyll, man? art afraide of nought?

_Hodge._ Canst not tarrye a lytle thought
Tyll ich make a curtesie of water? 100

_Diccon._ Stand still to it; why shuldest thou feare hym?

_Hodge._ Gogs sydes, Diccon, me thinke ich heare him!
And tarrye, chal mare all!

_Diccon._ The matter is no worse than I tolde it.

_Hodge._ By the masse, cham able no longer to holde it! 105
To bad! iche must beray the hall!

_Diccon._ Stand to it, Hodge! sture not, you horson!
What devyll, be thine ars strynges brusten?
Thyselfe a while but staye,
The devill (I smell hym) will be here anone. 110

_Hodge._ Hold him fast, Diccon, cham gone! cham gone!
Chyll not be at that fraye!

The ii Acte. The ii Sceane.

DICCON. CHAT.

_Diccon._ Fy, shytten knave, and out upon thee!
Above all other loutes, fye on thee!
Is not here a clenly prancke?
But thy matter was no better,
Nor thy presence here no sweter, 5
To flye I can the thanke.[683]

Here is a matter worthy glosynge,
Of Gammer Gurton nedle losynge,
And a foule peece of warke!
A man I thyncke myght make a playe, 10
And nede no worde to this they saye,
Being but halfe a clarke.

Softe, let me alone! I will take the charge
This matter further to enlarge
Within a tyme shone. 15
If ye will marke my toyes, and note,
I will geve ye leave to cut my throte
If I make not good sporte.

Dame Chat, I say, where be ye? within?

_Chat._ Who have we there maketh such a din? 20

_Diccon._ Here is a good fellow, maketh no great daunger.

_Chat._ What, Diccon? Come nere, ye be no straunger.
We be fast set at trumpe, man, hard by the fyre;
Thou shall set on the king, if thou come a little nyer.

_Diccon._ Nay, nay, there is no tarying; I must be gone againe. 25
But first for you in councel I have a word or twain.

_Chat._ Come hether, Dol! Dol, sit downe and play this game,
And as thou sawest me do, see thou do even the same.
There is five trumps beside the queene, the hindmost thou shalt
finde her.
Take hede of Sim Glovers wife, she hath an eie behind her! 30
Now, Diccon, say your will.

_Diccon._ Nay, softe a little yet;
I wold not tel it my sister, the matter is so great.
There I wil have you sweare by our dere Lady of Bullaine,
Saint Dunstone, and Saint Donnyke, with the three kings of
Kullaine,
That ye shal keepe it secret.

_Chat._ Gogs bread! that will I doo! 35
As secret as mine owne thought, by God and the devil two!

_Diccon,_ Here is Gammer Gurton, your neighbour, a sad and hevy wight:
Her goodly faire red cock at home was stole this last night.

_Chat,_ Gogs soul! her cock with the yelow legs, that nightly crowed
so just?

_Diccon._ That cock is stollen.

_Chat._ What, was he fet out of the hens ruste? 40

_Diccon._ I can not tel where the devil he was kept, under key or
locke;
But Tib hath tykled in Gammers eare, that you shoulde steale the
cocke.

_Chat._ Have I, stronge hoore? by bread and salte!--

_Diccon._ What, softe, I say, be styl!
Say not one word for all this geare.

_Chat._ By the masse, that I wyl!
I wil have the yong hore by the head, & the old trot by the
throte. 45

_Diccon._ Not one word, Dame Chat, I say; not one word, for my cote!

_Chat._ Shall such a begars brawle[684] as that, thinkest thou, make
me a theefe?
The pocks light on her hores sydes, a pestlence and a mischeefe!
Come out, thou hungry nedy bytche! O that my nails be short!

_Diccon._ Gogs bred, woman, hold your peace! this gere wil els passe
sport! 50
I wold not for an hundred pound this mater shuld be knowen,
That I am auctour of this tale, or have abrode it blowen!
Did ye not sweare ye wold be ruled, before the tale I tolde?
I said ye must all secret keepe, and ye said sure ye wolde.

_Chat._ Wolde you suffer, your selfe, Diccon, such a sort to revile
you, 55
With slaunderous words to blot your name, and so to defile you?

_Diccon._ No, Goodwife Chat, I wold be loth such drabs shulde blot my
name;
But yet ye must so order all that Diccon beare no blame.

_Chat._ Go to, then, what is your rede? say on your minde, ye shall
mee rule herein.

_Diccon._ Godamercye to Dame Chat! In faith thou must the gere
begin. 60
It is twenty pound to a goose turd, my gammer will not tary,
But hether ward she comes as fast as her legs can her cary,
To brawle with you about her cocke; for wel I hard Tib say
The Cocke was rosted in your house to brea[k]fast yesterday;
And when ye had the carcas eaten, the fethers ye out flunge, 65
And Doll, your maid, the legs she hid a foote depe in the dunge.

_Chat._ Oh gracyous God! my harte it[685] burstes!

_Diccon._ Well, rule your selfe a space;
And Gammer Gurton when she commeth anon into thys place,
Then to the queane, lets see, tell her your mynd and spare not.
So shall Diccon blamelesse bee; and then, go to, I care not! 70

_Chat._ Then, hoore, beware her throte! I can abide no longer.
In faith, old witch, it shalbe seene which of us two be stronger!
And, Diccon, but at your request, I wold not stay one howre.

_Diccon._ Well, keepe it till she be here, and then out let it powre!
In the meane while get you in, and make no wordes of this. 75
More of this matter within this howre to here you shall not misse,
Because I knew you are my friend, hide it I cold not, doubtles.
Ye know your harm, see ye be wise about your owne busines!
So fare ye well.[686]

_Chat._ Nay, soft, Diccon, and drynke! What, Doll, I say!
Bringe here a cup of the best ale; lets see, come quicly
a waye! 80

The ii Acte. The iii Sceane. C

HODGE. DICCON.

_Diccon._ Ye see, masters, that one end tapt of this my short devise!
Now must we broche thot[h]er to, before the smoke arise;
And by the time they have a while run, I trust ye need not crave
it.
But loke, what lieth in both their harts, ye ar like, sure, to
have it.

_Hodge._ Yea, Gogs soule, art alive yet? What, Diccon, dare ich
come? 5

_Diccon._ A man is wel hied to trust to thee; I wil say nothing but
mum;
But and ye come any nearer, I pray you see all be sweete!

_Hodge._ Tush, man, is Gammers neele found? that chould gladly weete.

_Diccon._ She may thanke thee it is not found, for if thou had kept
thy standing,
The devil he wold have fet it out, even, Hodge, at thy
commaunding. 10

_Hodge._ Gogs hart, and cold he tel nothing wher the neele might be
found?

_Diccon._ Ye folysh dolt, ye were to seek, ear we had got our ground;
Therefore his tale so doubtfull was that I cold not perceive it.

_Hodge._ Then ich se wel somthing was said, chope[687] one day yet to
have it.
But Diccon, Diccon, did not the devill cry "ho, ho, ho"? 15

_Diccon._ If thou hadst taryed where thou stoodst, thou woldest have
said so!

_Hodge._ Durst swere of a boke, chard him rore, streight after ich was
gon.
But tel me, Diccon, what said the knave? let me here it anon.

_Diccon._ The horson talked to mee, I know not well of what.
One whyle his tonge it ran and paltered of a cat, 20
Another whyle he stamered styll uppon a Rat;
Last of all, there was nothing but every word, Chat, Chat;
But this I well perceyved before I wolde him rid,
Betweene Chat, and the Rat, and the cat, the nedle is hyd.
Now wether Gyb, our cat, have eate it in her mawe, 25
Or Doctor Rat, our curat, have found it in the straw,
Or this Dame Chat, your neighbour, have stollen it, God hee
knoweth!
But by the morow at this time, we shal learn how the matter goeth.

_Hodge._ Canst not learn tonight, man? seest not what is here?

(_Pointyng behind to his torne breeches._)

_Diccon._ Tys not possyble to make it sooner appere. 30

_Hodge._ Alas, Diccon, then chave no shyft, but--least ich tary to
longe--
Hye me to Sym Glovers shop, theare to seeke for a thonge,
Therwith this breech to tatche and tye as ich may.

_Diccon._ To morow, Hodg, if we chaunce to meete, shall see what I
will say.

The ii Acte. The iiii Sceane.

DICCON. GAMMER.

_Diccon._ Now this gere must forward goe, for here my gammer commeth.
Be still a while and say nothing; make here a little romth.[688]

_Gammer._ Good Lord, shall never be my lucke my neele agayne to spye?
Alas, the whyle! tys past my helpe, where tis still it must lye!

_Diccon._ Now, Jesus! Gammer Gurton, what driveth you to this
sadnes? 5
I feare me, by my conscience, you will sure fall to madnes.

_Gammer._ Who is that? What, Diccon? cham lost, man! fye, fye!

_Diccon._ Mary, fy on them that be worthy! but what shuld be your
troble?

_Gammer._ Alas! the more ich thinke on it, my sorow it waxeth doble.
My goodly tossing[689] sporyars[690] neele chave lost ich wot not
where. 10

_Diccon._ Your neele? whan?

_Gammer._ My neele, alas! ich myght full ill it spare,
As God him selfe he knoweth, nere one besyde chave.

_Diccon._ If this be all, good Gammer, I warrant you all is save.

_Gammer._ Why, know you any tydings which way my neele is gone?

_Diccon._ Yea, that I do doubtlesse, as ye shall here anone. 15
A see a thing this matter toucheth, within these twenty howres,
Even at this gate, before my face, by a neyghbour of yours.
She stooped me downe, and up she toke a nedle or a pyn.
I durst be sworne it was even yours, by all my mothers kyn.

_Gammer._ It was my neele, Diccon, ich wot; for here, even by this
poste, 20
Ich sat, what time as ich up starte, and so my neele it loste.
Who was it, leive[691] son? speke, ich pray the, and quickly tell
me that!

_Diccon._ A suttle queane as any in thys towne, your neyghboure here,
Dame Chat.

_Gammer._ Dame Chat, Diccon? Let me be gone, chil thyther in post
haste.

_Diccon._ Take my councell yet or ye go, for feare ye walke in
wast. 25
It is a murrion crafty drab, and froward to be pleased;
And ye take not the better way, our nedle yet ye lose[692] it:
For when she tooke it up, even here before your doores,
"What, soft, Dame Chat" (quoth I), "that same is none of yours."
"Avant," quoth she, "syr knave! what pratest thou of that I
fynd? 30
I wold thou hast kist me I wot whear;" she ment, I know, behind;
And home she went as brag as it had ben a bodelouce,
And I after, as bold as it had ben the goodman of the house.
But there and ye had hard her, how she began to scolde!
The tonge it went on patins, by hym that Judas solde! 35
Ech other worde I was a knave, and you a hore of hores,
Because I spake in your behalfe, and sayde the neele was yours.

_Gammer._ Gogs bread, and thinks that that callet thus to kepe my
neele me fro?

_Diccon._ Let her alone, and she minds non other but even to dresse
you so.

_Gammer._ By the masse, chil rather spend the cote that is on my
backe! 40
Thinks the false quean by such a slygh[t] that chill my neele
lacke?

_Diccon._ Slepe[693] not you[r] gere, I counsell you, but of this take
good hede:
Let not be knowen I told you of it, how well soever ye spede.

_Gammer._ Chil in, Diccon, a cleene aperne to take and set before me;
And ich may my neele once see, chil, sure, remember the! 45

The ii Acte. The v Sceane.

DICCON.

_Diccon._ Here will the sporte begin; if these two once may meete,
Their chere, durst lay money, will prove scarsly sweete.
My gammer, sure, entends to be uppon her bones
With staves, or with clubs, or els with coble stones.
Dame Chat, on the other syde, if she be far behynde 5
I am right far deceived; she is geven to it of kynde.[694]
He that may tarry by it awhyle, and that but shorte,
I warrant hym, trust to it, he shall see all the sporte.
Into the towne will I, my frendes to vysit there,
And hether straight againe to see thend of this gere. 10
In the meane time, felowes, pype upp; your fiddles, I saie, take
them,
And let your freyndes here such mirth as ye can make them.

The iii. Acte. The i Sceane.

HODGE.

_Hodge._ Sym Glover, yet gramercy! cham meetlye well sped now,
Thart even as good a felow as ever kyste a cowe!
Here is a thonge[695] in dede, by the masse, though ich speake it;
Tom Tankards great bald curtal, I thinke, could not breake it!
And when he spyed my neede to be so straight and hard, Cii
Hays lent me here his naull,[696] to set the gyb forward,[697] 6
As for my gammers neele, the flyenge feynd go weete!
Chill not now go to the doore againe with it to meete.
Chould make shyfte good inough and chad a candels ende;
The cheefe hole in my breeche with these two chil amende. 10

The iii. Acte. The ii Sceane.

GAMMER. HODGE.

_Gammer._ Now Hodge, mayst nowe be glade, cha newes to tell thee;
Ich knowe who hais my neele; ich trust soone shalt it see.

_Hodge._ The devyll thou does! hast hard, Gammer, in deede, or doest
but jest?

_Gammer._ Tys as true as steele, Hodge.

_Hodge._ Why, knowest well where dydst leese it?

_Gammer._ Ich know who found it, and tooke it up! shalt see or it be
longe. 5

_Hodge._ Gods mother dere! if that be true, farwel both naule an
thong!
But who hais it, Gammer, say on; chould faine here it disclosed.

_Gammer._ That false fixen, that same Dame Chat, that counts her selfe
so honest.

_Hodge._ Who tolde you so?

_Gammer._ That same did Diccon the bedlam, which saw it done.

_Hodge._ Diccon? it is a vengeable knave, Gammer, tis a bonable[698]
horson, 10
Can do mo things then that, els cham deceyved evill:
By the masse, ich saw him of late cal up a great blacke devill!
O, the knave cryed "ho, ho!" he roared and he thundred,
And yead bene here, cham sure yould murrenly ha wondred.

_Gammer._ Was not thou afraide, Hodge to see him in this place? 15

_Hodge._ No, and chad come to me, chould have laid him on the face,
Chould have, promised him!

_Gammer._ But, Hodge, had he no hornes to pushe?

_Hodge._ As long as your two armes. Saw ye never Fryer Rushe[699]
Painted on a cloth, with a side long cowes tayle,
And crooked cloven feete, and many a hoked nayle? 20
For al the world, if I shuld judg, chould recken him his brother.
Loke, even what face Frier Rush had, the devil had such another.

_Gammer._ Now Jesus mercy, Hodg! did Diccon in him bring?

_Hodge._ Nay Gammer, here me speke, chil tel you a greater thing;
The devil (when Diccon had him, ich hard him wondrous weel) 25
Sayd plainly here before us, that Dame Chat had your neele.

_G_[_am_]_mer._ Then let us go, and aske her wherfore she minds to
kepe it;
Seing we know so much, tware a madnes now to slepe it.

_Hodge._ Go to her, Gammer; see ye not where she stands in her
doores?
Byd her geve you the neele, tys none of hers but yours. 30

The iii. Acte. The iii. Sceane.

GAMMER. CHAT. HODGE.

_Gammer._ Dame Chat, cholde praye the fair, let me have that is mine!
Chil not this twenty yeres take one fart that is thyne;
Therefore give me mine owne, and let me live besyde the.

_Chat._ Why art thou crept from home hether, to mine own doores to
chide me?
Hence, doting drab, avaunt, or I shall set the further! 5
Intends thou and that knave mee in my house to murther?

_Gammer._ Tush, gape not so on[700] me, woman! shalt not yet eate mee!
Nor all the frends thou hast in this shall not intreate mee!
Mine owne goods I will have, and aske the no[701] beleve,[702]
What, woman! pore folks must have right, though the thing you
aggreve. 10

_Chat._ Give thee thy right, and hang the up, with al thy baggers
broode!
What, wilt thou make me a theefe, and say I stole thy good?

_Gammer._ Chil say nothing, ich warrant thee, but that ich can prove
it well.
Thou fet my good even from my doore, cham able this to tel!

_Chat._ Dyd I, olde witche, steale oft[703] was thine? how should that
thing be knowen? 15

_Gammer._ Ich can no tel; but up thou tokest it as though it had ben
thine owne,

_Chat._ Mary, fy on thee, thou old gyb, with al my very hart!

_Gammer._ Nay, fy on thee, thou rampe, thou ryg, with al that take
thy parte!

_Chat._ A vengeance on those lips that laieth such things to my
charge!

_Gammer._ A vengeance on those callats hips, whose conscience is so
large! 20

_Chat._ Come out, hogge!

_Gammer._ Come out, hogge, and let have me right!

_Chat._ Thou arrant witche!

_Gammer._ Thou bawdie bitche, chil make thee cursse this night!

_Chat._ A bag and a wallet!

_Gammer._ A carte for a callet!

_Chat._ Why, wenest thou thus to prevaile?
I hold thee a grote, I shall patche thy coate! C iii

_Gammer._ Thou warte as good kysse my tayle!
Thou slut, thou kut, thou rakes, thou jakes! will not shame make
the hide [the]? 25

_Chat._ Thou skald, thou bald, thou rotten, thou glotton! I will no
longer chyd the,
But I will teache the to kepe home.

_Gammer._ Wylt thou, drunken beaste?

_Hodge._ Sticke to her, Gammer! take her by the head, chil warrant you
thys feast!
Smyte, I saye, Gammer! Byte, I say, Gammer! I trow ye wyll be
keene!
Where be your nayls? claw her by the jawes, pull me out bothe her
eyen. 30
Gogs bones, Gammer, holde up your head!

_Chat._ I trow, drab, I shall dresse thee.
Tary, thou knave, I hold the a grote I shall make these hands
blesse thee!
Take thou this, old hore, for amends, and lerne thy tonge well to
tame,
And say thou met at this bickering, not thy fellow but thy dame!

_Hodge._ Where is the strong stued hore? chil geare a hores marke! 35
Stand out ones way, that ich kyll none in the darke!
Up, Gammer, and ye be alyve! chil feygh[t] now for us bothe.
Come no nere me, thou scalde callet! to kyll the ich wer loth.

_Chat._ Art here agayne, thou hoddy peke? what, Doll! bryng me out my
spitte.

_Hodge._ Chill broche thee wyth this, bim father soule, chyll conjure
that foule sprete! 40
Let dore stand, Cock! why coms, in deede? kepe dore, thou horson
boy!

_Chat._ Stand to it, thou dastard, for thine eares, ise teche the, a
sluttish toye!

_Hodge._ Gogs woundes, hore, chil make the avaunte! take heede, Cocke,
pull in the latche!

_Chat._ Ifaith, sir Loose-breche, had ye taried, ye shold have found
your match!

_Gammer._ Now ware thy throte, losell, thouse paye[704] for al!

_Hodge._ Well said, Gammer, by my soule. 45
Hoyse her, souse her, bounce her, trounce her, pull out her throte
boule!

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

_Hodge._ Up, Gammer, stande on your feete; where is the olde hore? 50
Faith, woulde chad her by the face, choulde cracke her callet
crowne!

_Gammer._ A Hodg, Hodg, where was thy help, when fixen had me downe?

_Hodge._ By the masse, Gammer, but for my staffe Chat had gone nye to
spyl you!
Ich think the harlot had not cared, and chad not com, to kill you.
But shall we loose our neele thus?

_Gammer._ No Hodge chwarde[705] lothe doo soo, 55
Thinkest thou chill take that at her hand? no, Hodg, ich tell
the no!

_Hodge._ Chold yet this fray wer wel take up, and our neele at home.
Twill be my chaunce else some to kil, wher ever it be or whome!

_Gammer._ We have a parson, Hodge, thou knoes, a man estemed wise,
Mast Doctor Rat; chil for hym send, and let me here his advise. 60
He will her shrive for all this gere, and geve her penaunce
strait;
Wese[706] have our neele, els Dame Chat comes nere within heaven
gate.

_Hodge._ Ye, mary, Gammer, that ich think best; wyll you now for him
send?
The sooner Doctor Rat be here, the soner wese ha an ende,
And here, Gammer! Dyccons devill, as iche remember well, 65
Of cat, and Chat, and Doctor Rat, a felloneus tale dyd tell.
Chold you forty pound, that is the way your neele to get againe.

_Gammer._ Chil ha him strait! Call out the boy, wese make him take the
payn.

_Hodge._ What, Co[c]ke, I saye! come out! What devill! canst not here?

_Cocke._ How now, Hodg? how does Gammer, is yet the wether cleare? 70
What wold chave[707] me to do?

_Gammer._ Come hether, Cocke, anon!
Hence swythe[708] to Doctor Rat, hye the that thou were gone,
And pray hym come speke with me, cham not well at ease.
Shalt have him at his chamber, or els at Mother Bees;
Els seeke him at Hob Fylchers shop, for as charde it reported, 75
There is the best ale in al the towne, and now is most resorted.

_Cocke._ And shall ich brynge hym with me, Gammer?

_Gammer._ Yea, by and by, good Cocke.

_Cocke._ Shalt see that shal be here anone, els let me have on the
docke.[709]

_Hodge._ Now, Gammer, shall we two go in, and tary for hys commynge?
What devill, woman! plucke up your hart, and leve of al this
glomming.[710] 80
Though she were stronger at the first, as ich thinke ye did find
her,
Yet there ye drest the dronken sow, what time ye cam behind her.

_Gammer._ Nay, nay, cham sure she lost not all, for, set thend to the
beginning,
And ich doubt not but she will make small bost of her winning.

The iii Acte. The iiii Sceane.

TYB. HODGE. GAMMER. COCKE.

_Tyb._ Se, Gammer, Gammer, Gib, our cat, cham afraid what she ayleth;
She standes me gasping behind the doore, as though her winde her
faileth:
Now let ich doubt what Gib shuld mean, that now she doth so dote.

_Hodge._ Hold hether! I chould twenty pound, your neele is in her
throte.
Grope her, ich say, me thinkes ich feele it; does not pricke your
hand? 5

_Gammer._ Ich can feele nothing.

_Hodge._ No, ich know thars not within this land
A muryner cat then Gyb is, betwixt the Tems and Tyne;
Shase as much wyt in her head almost as chave in mine!

_Tyb._ Faith, shase eaten some thing, that will not easily downe;
Whether she gat it at home, or abrode in the towne 10
Ich can not tell.

_Gammer._ Alas ich feare it be some croked pyn!
And then farewell Gyb! she is undone, and lost al save the skyn!

_Hodge._ Tys[711] your neele, woman, I say! Gogs soule! geve me a
knyfe,
And chil have it out[712] of her mawe, or els chal lose my lyfe!

_Gammer._ What! nay, Hodg, fy! Kil not our cat, tis al the cats we ha
now. 15

_Hodge._ By the masse, Dame Chat hays me so moved,[713] iche care not
what I kyll, ma[714] God a vowe!
Go to, then, Tyb, to this geare! holde up har tayle and take her!
Chil see what devil is in her guts! chil take the paines to rake
her!

_Gammer._ Rake a cat, Hodge! what woldst thou do?

_Hodge._ What, thinckst that cham not able?
Did not Tom Tankard rake his curtal toore[715] day standing in the
stable? 20

_Gammer._ Soft! be content, lets here what newes Cocke bringeth from
Maist Rat.

_Cocke._ Gammer, chave ben ther as you bad, you wot wel about what.
Twill not be long before he come, ich durst sweare of a booke.
He byds you see ye be at home, and there for him to looke.

_Gammer._ Where didst thou find him, boy? was he not wher I told
thee? 25

_Cocke._ Yes, yes, even at Hob Filchers house, by him that bought and
solde me!
A cup of ale had in his hand, and a crab lay in the fyer;
Chad much a do to go and come, al was so ful of myer.
And, Gammer, one thing I can tel, Hob Filchers naule was loste,
And Doctor Rat found it againe, hard beside the doore poste. 30
I chould a penny can say something your neele againe to set.

_Gammer._ Cham glad to heare so much, Cocke, then trust he wil not let
To helpe us herein best he can; therfore tyl time he come
Let us go in; if there be ought to get thou shall have some.

The iiii Acte. The i Sceane.[716] D

DOCTOR RAT. GAMMER GURTON.

_D. Rat._ A man were better twenty times be a bandog and barke,
Then here among such a sort be parish priest or clarke,
Where he shall never be at rest one pissing while a day,
But he must trudge about the towne, this way and that way;
Here to a drab, there to a theefe, his shoes to teare and rent, 5
And that which is worst of al, at every knaves commaundement!
I had not sit the space to drinke two pots of ale,
But Gammer Gurtons sory boy was straite way at my taile,
And she was sicke, and I must come, to do I wot not what!
If once her fingers end but ake, trudge! call for Doctor Rat! 10
And when I come not at their call, I only therby loose;
For I am sure to lacke therfore a tythe pyg or a goose.
I warrant you, when truth is knowen, and told they have their
tale,
The matter where about I come is not worth a halfpeny worth of
ale;
Yet must I talke so sage and smothe, as though I were a glosier 15
Els, or the yere come at an end, I shal be sure the loser.
What worke ye, Gammer Gurton? hoow? here is your frend M[ast] Rat.

_Gammer._ A! good M[ast] Doctor! cha trebled, cha trebled you, chwot
wel that!

_D. Rat._ How do ye, woman? be ye lustie, or be ye not well at ease?

_Gammer._ By gys, Master, cham not sick, but yet chave a
disease.[717] 20
Chad a foule turne now of late, chill tell it you, by gigs!

_D. Rat._ Hath your browne cow cast hir calfe, or your sandy sowe her
pigs?

_Gammer._ No, but chad ben as good they had as this, ich wot weel.

_D. Rat._ What is the matter?

_Gammer._ Alas, alas! cha lost my good neele!
My neele, I say, and wot ye what, a drab came by and spied it, 25
And when I asked hir for the same, the filth flatly denied it.

_D. Rat._ What was she that?

_Gammer._ A dame, ich warrant you! She began to scold and brawle--
Alas, alas! Come hether, Hodge! this wr[e]tche can tell you all.

The iiii. Acte. The ii Sceane.[718]

HODGE. DOCTOR RAT. GAMMER. DICCON. CHAT.

_Hodge._ God morow, Gaffer Vicar.

_D. Rat._ Come on, fellow, let us heare!
Thy dame hath sayd to me, thou knowest of all this geare;
Lets see what thou canst saie.

_Hodge._ Bym fay, sir, that ye shall.
What matter so ever there was done, ich can tell your maship
[all]:
My Gammer Gurton heare, see now, 5
sat her downe at this doore, see now;
And, as she began to stirre her, see now,
her neele fell to the floore, see now;
And while her staffe shee tooke, see now,
at Gyb her cat to flynge, see now, 10
Her neele was lost in the floore, see now.
Is not this a wondrous thing, see now?
Then came the queane Dame Chat, see now,
to aske for hir blacke cup, see now:
And even here at this gate, see now, 15
she tooke that neele up, see now:
My Gammer then she yeede,[719] see now,
her neele againe to bring, see now,
And was caught by the head, see now.
Is not this a wondrous thing, see now? 20
She tare my Gammers cote, see now,
and scratched hir by the face, see now;
Chad thought shad stopt hir throte, see now.
Is not this a wondrous case, see now?
When ich saw this, ich was wrothe,[720] see now, 25
and start betwene them twaine, see now;
Els ich durst take a booke othe, see now,
my gammer had bene slaine, see now.

_Gammer._ This is even the whole matter, as Hodge has plainly tolde;
And chould faine be quiet for my part, that chould. 30
But help us, good Master, beseech ye that ye doo:
Els shall we both be beaten and lose our neele too.

_D. Rat._ What wold ye have me to doo? tel me, that I were gone;
I will do the best that I can, to set you both at one.
But be ye sure Dame Chat hath this your neele founde? 35

_Gammer._ Here comes the man that see hir take it up of the ground.
Aske him your selfe, Master Rat, if ye beleve not me:
And help me to my neele, for Gods sake and Saint Charitie!

_D. Rat._ Come nere, Diccon, and let us heare what thou can expresse.
Wilt thou be sworne thou seest Dame Chat this womans neele have? 40

_Diccon._ Nay, by S. Benit, wil I not, then might ye thinke me rave!

_Gammer._ Why, didst not thou tel me so even here? canst thou for
shame deny it?

_Diccon._ I, mary, Gammer; but I said I would not abide by it.

_D. Rat._ Will you say a thing, and not sticke to it to trie it?

_Diccon._ "Stick to it," quoth you, Master Rat? mary, sir, I defy
it! 45
Nay, there is many an honest man, when he suche blastes hath
blowne
In his freindes eares, he woulde be loth the same by him were
knowne.
If such a toy be used oft among the honestie,
It may beseme a simple man of your and my degree.

_D. Rat._ Then we be never the nearer, for all that you can tell! 50

_Diccon._ Yea, mary, sir, if ye will do by mine advise and counsaile.
If Mother Chat se al us here, she knoweth how the matter goes;
Therfore I red you three go hence, and within keepe close,
And I will into Dame Chats house, and so the matter use,
That or[721] you cold go twise to church I warant you here
news. 55
She shall look wel about hir, but, I durst lay a pledge,
Ye shal of Gammers neele have shortly better knowledge.

_Gammer._ Now, gentle Diccon, do so, and, good sir, let us trudge.

_D. Rat._ By the masse, I may not tarry so long to be your judge.

_Diccon._ Tys but a little while, man; what! take so much paine! 60
If I here no newes of it, I wil come sooner againe.

_Hodge._ Tary so much, good Master Doctor, of your gentlenes!

_D. Rat._ Then let us hie us inward, and, Diccon, speede thy busines.

_Diccon._[722] Now, sirs, do you no more, but kepe my counsaile juste,
And Doctor Rat shall thus catch some good, I trust. 65
But Mother Chat, my gossop, talke first with-all I must:
For she must be chiefe captaine to lay the Rat in the dust.
God deven, dame Chat, in faith, and wel met in this place!

_Chat._ God deven, my friend Diccon; whether walke ye this pace?

_Diccon._ By my truth, even to you, to learne how the world goeth. 70
Hard ye no more of the other matter? say me, now, by your troth!

_Chat._ O yes, Diccon, here the old hoore, and Hodge, that great
knave--
But, in faith, I would thou hadst sene,--O Lord, I drest them
brave!
She bare me two or three souses behind in the nape of the necke,
Till I made hir olde wesen to answere againe, "kecke!" 75
And Hodge, that dirty dastard, that at hir elbow standes,--
If one pair of legs had not bene worth two paire of hands,
He had had his bearde shaven if my nayles wold have served, Dij
And not without a cause, for the knave it well deserved.

_Diccon._ By the masse, I can the thank, wench, thou didst so wel
acquite the! 80

_Chat._ And thadst scene him, Diccon, it wold have made the beshite
the
For laughter. The horsen dolt at last caught up a club,
As though he would have slaine the master devil Belsabub.
But I set him soone inwarde.

_Diccon._ O Lorde, there is the thing
That Hodge is so offended! that makes him start and flyng! 85

_Chat._ Why? makes the knave any moyling, as ye have seen or hard?

_Diccon._ Even now I sawe him last, like a mad man he farde,
And sware by heven and hell he would awreake his sorowe,
And leve you never a hen on live, by eight of the clock to morow;
Therfore marke what I say, and my wordes see that ye trust. 90
Your hens be as good as dead, if ye leave them on the ruste.

_Chat._ The knave dare as well go hang himself, as go upon my ground.

_Diccon._ Wel, yet take hede I say, I must tel you my tale round.
Have you not about your house, behind your furnace or leade[723]
A hole where a crafty knave may crepe in for neade? 95

_Chat._ Yes, by the masse, a hole broke down, even within these two
dayes.

_Diccon._ Hodge he intends this same night to slip in there awayes.

_Chat._ O Christ! that I were sure of it! in faith he shuld have his
mede!

_Diccon._ Watch wel, for the knave wil be there as sure as is your
crede.
I wold spend my selfe a shilling to have him swinged well. 100

_Chat._ I am as glad as a woman can be of this thing to here tell.
By Gogs bones, when he commeth, now that I know the matter,
He shal sure at the first skip to leape in scalding water,
With a worse turne besides; when he will, let him come.

_Diccon._ I tell you as my sister; you know what meaneth "mum"!
[724]Now lacke I but my doctor to play his part againe. 106
And lo where he commeth towards, peradventure to his paine!

_D. Rat._ What good newes, Diccon, fellow? is Mother Chat at home?

_Diccon._ She is, syr, and she is not, but it please her to whome;
Yet did I take her tardy, as subtle as she was. 110

_D. Rat._ The thing that thou wentst for, hast thou brought it to
passe?

_Diccon._ I have done that I have done, be it worse, be it better,
And Dame Chat at her wyts ende I have almost set her.

_D. Rat._ Why, hast thou spied the neele? quickly, I pray thee, tell!

_Diccon._ I have spyed it, in faith, sir, I handled my selfe so
well; 115
And yet the crafty queane had almost take my trumpe.
But or all came to an ende, I set her in a dumpe.

_D. Rat._ How so, I pray thee, Diccon?

_Diccon._ Mary, syr, will ye heare?
She was clapt downe on the backside, by Cocks mother dere,
And there she sat sewing a halter or a bande, 120
With no other thing save Gammers nedle in her hande.
As soone as any knocke, if the filth be in doubte,
She needes but once puffe, and her candle is out:
Now I, sir, knowing of every doore the pin,
Came nycely, and said no worde, till time I was within; 125
And there I sawe the neele, even with these two eyes;
Who ever say the contrary, I will sweare he lyes.

_D. Rat._ O Diccon, that I was not there then in thy steade!

_Diccon._ Well, if ye will be ordred, and do by my reade,
I will bring you to a place, as the house standes, 130
Where ye shall take the drab with the neele in hir handes.

_D. Rat._ For Gods sake do so, Diccon, and I will gage my gowne
To geve thee a full pot of the best ale in the towne.

_Diccon._ Follow me but a litle, and marke what I will say;
Lay downe your gown beside you; go to, come on your way! 135
Se ye not what is here? a hole wherin ye may creepe
Into the house, and sodenly unwares among them leape;
There shal ye finde the bitchfox and the neele together.
Do as I bid you, man, come on your wayes hether!

_D. Rat._ Art thou sure, Diccon, the swil-tub standes not here
aboute? 140

_Diccon._ I was within my selfe, man, even now, there is no doubt.
Go softly, make no noyse; give me your foote, Sir John.
Here will I waite upon you, tyl you come out anone.

_D. Rat._ Helpe, Diccon! out, alas! I shal be slaine among them!

_Diccon._ If they give you not the nedle, tel them that ye will hang
them. 145
Ware that! Hoow, my wenches! have ye caught the Foxe
That used to make revel among your hennes an Cocks?
Save his life yet for his order, though he susteine some paine.
Gogs bread! I am afraide they wil beate out his braine.

_D. Rat._ Wo worth the houre that I came heare! 150
And wo worth him that wrought this geare!
A sort of drabs and queanes have me blest--
Was ever creature halfe so evill drest?
Who ever it wrought, and first did invent it
He shall, I warrant him, erre long repent it! 155
I will spend all I have without my skinne Diii
But he shall be brought to the plight I am in!
Master Bayly, I trow, and he be worth his eares,
Will snaffle these murderers and all that them beares.[725]
I will surely neither byte nor suppe 160
Till I fetch him hether, this matter to take up.

The v. Acte. The i. Sceane.

MASTER BAYLY. DOCTOR RAT.

_Bayly._ I can perceive none other, I speke it from my hart,
But either ye ar in al the fault, or els in the greatest part.

_D. Rat._ If it be counted his fault, besides all his greeves,
When a poore man is spoyled and beaten among theeves,
Then I confess my fault herein, at this season; 5
But I hope you will not judge so much against reason.

_Bayly._ And, me thinkes, by your owne tale, of all that ye name,
If any plaid the theefe, you were the very same.
The women they did nothing, as your words make probation,
But stoutly withstood your forcible invasion. 10
If that a theefe at your window to enter should begin,
Wold you hold forth your hand and helpe to pull him in?
Or you wold kepe him out? I pray you answere me.

_D. Rat._ Mary, kepe him out, and a good cause why!
But I am no theefe, sir, but an honest learned clarke. 15

_Bayly._ Yea, but who knoweth that, when he meets you in the darke?
I am sure your learning shines not out at your nose!
Was it any marvaile though the poore woman arose
And start up, being afraide of that was in hir purse?
Me thinke you may be glad that you[r] lucke was no worse. 20

_D. Rat._ Is not this evill ynough, I pray you, as you thinke?

(_Showing his broken head._)

_Bayly._ Yea, but a man in the darke, if[726] chaunces do wincke,
As soone he smites his father as any other man,
Because for lacke of light discerne him he ne can.
Might it not have ben your lucke with a spit to have
ben slaine? 25

_D. Rat._ I think I am litle better, my scalpe is cloven to the
braine.
If there be all the remedy, I know who beares the k[n]ockes.

_Bayly._ By my troth, and well worthy besides to kisse the stockes!
To come in on the backe side, when ye might go about!
I know non such, unles they long to have their braines knockt
out. 30

_D. Rat._ Well, wil you be so good, sir, as talke with Dame Chat,
And know what she intended? I aske no more but that.

_Bayly._ Let her be called, fellow,[727] because of Master Doctor,
I warrant in this case she wil be hir owne proctor;
She will tel hir owne tale in metter or in prose, 35
And byd you seeke your remedy, and so go wype your nose.

The v. Acte. The ii Sceane.

M. BAYLY. CHAT. D. RAT. GAMMER. HODGE. DICCON.

_Bayly._ Dame Chat, Master Doctor upon you here complained
That you and your maides shuld him much misorder,
And taketh many an oth, that no word he fained,
Laying to your charge, how you thought him to murder;
And on his part againe, that same man saith furder 5
He never offended you in word nor intent.
To heare you answer hereto, we have now for you sent.

_Chat._ That I wold have murdered him? fye on him, wretch,
And evil mought he thee[728] for it, our Lord I beseech.
I will swere on al the bookes that opens and shuttes, 10
He faineth this tale out of his owne guttes;
For this seven weekes with me I am sure he sat not downe.
Nay, ye have other minions, in the other end of the towne,
Where ye were liker to catch such a blow,
Then any where els, as farre as I know! 15

_Bayly._ Belike, then, Master Doctor, yon[729] stripe there ye got
not!

_D. Rat._ Thinke you I am so mad that where I was bet I wot not?
Wil ye beleve this queane, before she hath tryd it?
It is not the first dede she hath done, and afterward denide it.

_Chat._ What, man, will you say I broke you[r] heade? 20

_D. Rat._ How canst thou prove the contrary?

_Chat._ Nay, how provest thou that I did the deade?

_D. Rat._ To plainly, by S. Mary,
This profe I trow may serve, though I no word spoke!

(_Showing his broken head._) DIV

_Chat._ Bicause thy head is broken, was it I that it broke? 25
I saw thee, Rat, I tel thee, not once within this fortnight.

_D. Rat._ No mary, thou sawest me not, for why thou hadst no light;
But I felt thee for al the darke, beshrew thy smothe cheekes!
And thou groped me, this wil declare any day this six weekes.

(_Showing his heade._)

_Bayly._ Answere me to this, M[ast] Rat: when caught you this harme of
yours? 30

_D. Rat._ A while ago, sir, God he knoweth, within les then these two
houres.

_Bayly._ Dame Chat, was there none with you (confesse, i-faith) about
that season?
What, woman? let it be what it wil, tis neither felony nor
treason.

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

_Bayly._ Who was it then? Lets here!

_D. Rat._ Alas sir, aske you that?
Is it not made plain inough by the owne mouth of Dame Chat?
The time agreeth, my head is broken, her tong can not lye, 40
Onely upon a bare nay she saith it was not I.

_Chat._ No, mary, was it not indeede! ye shal here by this one thing:
This after noone a frend of mine for good wil gave me warning,
And bade me wel loke to my ruste,[730] and al my capons pennes,
For if I toke not better heede, a knave wold have my hennes. 45
Then I, to save my goods, toke so much pains as him to watch;
And as good fortune served me, it was my chaunce hym for to catch.
What strokes he bare away, or other what was his gaines,
I wot not, but sure I am he had something for his paines!

_Bayly._ Yet telles thou not who it was.

_Chat._ Who it was? a false theefe, 50
That came like a false foxe my pullaine[731] to kil and mischeefe!

_Bayly._ But knowest thou not his name?

_Chat._ I know it; but what than?
It was that crafty cullyon Hodge, my Gammer Gurtons man.

_Bayly._ Cal me the knave hether, he shal sure kysse the stockes.
I shall teach him a lesson for filching hens or cocks! 55

_D. Rat._ I marvaile, Master Bayly, so bleared be your eyes;
An egge is not so ful of meate, as she is ful of lyes:
When she hath playd this pranke, to excuse al this geare,
She layeth the fault in such a one, as I know was not there.

_Chat._ Was he not thear? loke on his pate, that shal be his witnes! 60

_D. Rat._ I wold my head were half so hole; I wold seeke no redresse!

_Bayly._ God blesse you, Gammer Gurton!

_Gammer._ God dylde you,[732] master mine!

_Bayly._ Thou hast a knave within thy house--Hodge, a servant of
thine;
They tel me that busy knave is such a filching one,
That hen, pig, goose or capon, thy neighbour can have none. 65

_Gammer._ By God, cham much ameved,[733] to heare any such reporte!
Hodge was not wont, ich trow, to have[734] him in that sort.

_Chat._ A theevisher knave is not on live, more filching, nor more
false;
Many a truer man then he hase hanged up by the halse;[735]
And thou, his dame,--of al his theft thou art the sole
receaver;[736] 70
For Hodge to catch, and thou to kepe, I never knew none better!

_Gammer._ Sir reverence[737] of your masterdome, and you were out
adoore,
Chold be so bolde, for al hir brags, to cal her arrant whoore;
And ich knew Hodge as bad as tow,[738] ich wish me endlesse sorow
And chould not take the pains to hang him up before to morow! 75

_Chat._ What have I stolne from the or thine, thou ilfavored olde
trot?

_Gammer._ A great deale more, by Gods blest, then chever by the got!
That thou knowest wel, I neade not say it.

_Bayly._ Stoppe there, I say,
And tel me here, I pray you, this matter by the way,
How chaunce Hodge is not here? him wold I faine have had. 80

_Gammer._ Alas, sir, heel be here anon; ha be handled to bad.

_Chat._ Master Bayly, sir, ye be not such a foole, wel I know,
But ye perceive by this lingring there is a pad[739] in the straw.

(_Thinking that Hodg his head was broke, and that Gammer wold not let
him come before them._)

_Gammer._ Chil shew you his face, ich warrant the; lo now where he is!

_Bayly._ Come on, fellow, it is tolde me thou art a shrew, iwysse: 85
Thy neighbours hens thou takest, and playes the two legged foxe;
Their chickens and their capons to, and now and then their cocks.

_Hodge._ Ich defy them al that dare it say, cham as true as the best!

_Bayly._ Wart not thou take within this houre in Dame Chats hens nest?

_Hodge._ Take there? no, master; chold not dot for a house ful of
gold! 90

_Chat._ Thou or the devil in thy cote--sweare this I dare be bold.

_D. Rat._ Sweare me no swearing, quean, the devill he geve the sorow!
Al is not worth a gnat thou canst sweare till to morow: E
Where is the harme he hath? shew it, by Gods bread!
Ye beat him with a witnes, but the stripes light on my head! 95

_Hodge._ Bet me? Gogs blessed body, chold first, ich trow, have burst
the!
Ich thinke and chad my hands loose, callet, chould have crust the!

_Chat._ Thou shitten knave, I trow thou knowest the ful weight of my
fist;
I am fowly deceved onles thy head and my doore bar kyste.

_Hodge._ Hold thy chat, whore, thou criest so loude, can no man els
be hard. 100

_Chat._ Well, knave, and I had the alone, I wold surely rap thy
costard!

_Bayly._ Sir, answer me to this: is thy head whole or broken?

_Hodge._[740] Yea, Master Bayly, blest be every good token,
Is my head whole! Ich warrant you, tis neither scurvy nor scald!
What, you foule beast, does think tis either pild or bald? 105
Nay, ich thanke God, chil not for al that thou maist spend
That chad one scab on my narse as brode as thy fingers end.

_Bayly._ Come nearer heare!

_Hodge._ Yes, that I dare.

_Bayly._ By our Lady, here is no harme,
Hodges head is whole ynough, for al Dame Chats charme.

_Chat._ By Gogs blest, hou ever the thing he clockes or
smolders,[741] 110
I know the blowes he bare away, either with head or shoulders.
Camest thou not, knave, within this houre, creping into my pens,
And there was caught within my hous groping among my hens?

_Hodge._ A plage both on the hens & the! A carte, whore, a carte!
Chould I were hanged as hie as a tree and chware as false as
thou art! 115
Geve my gammer again her washical[742] thou stole away in thy lap!

_Gammer._ Yea Maister Baily, there is a thing you know not on, mayhap;
This drab she kepes away my good, the devil he might her snare!
Ich pray you that ich might have a right action on her [fare].

_Chat._ Have I thy good, old filth, or any such old sowes? 120
I am as true, I wold thou knew, as skin betwene thy browes!

_Gammer._ Many a truer hath ben hanged, though you escape the daunger!

_Chat._ Thou shalt answer, by Gods pity, for this thy foule slaunder!

_Bayly._ Why, what can ye charge hir withal? To say so ye do not well.

_Gammer._ Mary, a vengeance to hir hart! the whore hase stoln my
neele! 125

_Chat._ Thy nedle, old witch? how so? it were almes thy scul to knock!
So didst thou say the other day that I had stolne thy cock,
And rosted him to my breakfast, which shal not be forgotten;
The devil pul out thy lying tong and teeth that be so rotten!

_Gammer._ Geve me my neele! As for my cock, chould be very loth 130
That chuld here tel he shuld hang on thy false faith and troth.

_Bayly._ Your talke is such, I can scarce learne who shuld be most
in fault.

_Gammer._ Yet shall be find no other wight, save she, by bred and
salt!

_Bayly._ Kepe ye content a while, se that your tonges ye holde.
Me thinkes you shuld remembre this is no place to scolde. 135
How knowest thou, Gammer Gurton, Dame Chat thy nedle had?

_Gammer._ To name you, sir, the party, chould not be very glad.

_Bayly._ Yea, but we must nedes heare it, and therfore say it boldly.

_Gammer._ Such one as told the tale full soberly and coldly,
Even he that loked on--wil sweare on a booke-- 140
What time this drunken gossip my faire long neele up tooke,
Diccon, master, the Bedlam, cham very sure ye know him.

_Bayly._ A false knave, by Gods pitie! ye were but a foole to trow
him.
I durst aventure wel the price of my best cap,
That when the end is knowen, all will turne to a jape. 145
Tolde he not you that besides she stole your cocke that tyde?

_Gammer._ No, master, no indede; for then he shuld have lyed.
My cocke is, I thanke Christ, safe and wel a fine.

_Chat._ Yea, but that ragged colt, that whore, that Tyb of thine,
Said plainly thy cocke was stolne, and in my house was eaten. 150
That lying cut[743] is lost that she is not swinged and beaten,
And yet for al my good name, it were a small amendes!
I picke not this geare, hearst thou, out of my fingers endes;
But he that hard it told me, who thou of late didst name,
Diccon, whom al men knowes, it was the very same. 155

_Bayly._ This is the case: you lost your nedle about the dores,
And she answeres againe, she hase no cocke of yours;
Thus in you[r] talke and action, from that you do intend,
She is whole five mile wide, from that she doth defend.
Will you say she hath your cocke?

_Gammer._ No, mary,[744] sir, that chil not, 160

_Bayly._ Will you confesse hir neele?

_Chat._ Will I? No sir, will I not.

_Bayly._ Then there lieth all the matter,

_Gammer._ Soft, master, by the way!
Ye know she could do litle, and she cold not say nay.

_Bayly._ Yea, but he that made one lie about your cock stealing,
Wil not sticke to make another, what time lies be in dealing. 165
I wene the ende wil prove this brawle did first arise Eii
Upon no other ground but only Diccons lyes.

_Chat._ Though some be lyes, as you belike have espyed them,
Yet other some be true, by proof I have wel tryed them.

_Bayly._ What other thing beside this, Dame Chat?

_Chat._ Mary syr, even this. 170
The tale I tolde before, the selfe same tale it was his;
He gave me, like a frende, warning against my losse,
Els had my hens be stolne eche one, by Gods crosse!
He tolde me Hodge wold come, and in he came indeede,
But as the matter chaunsed, with greater hast than speede. 175
This truth was said, and true was found, as truly I report.

_Bayly._ If Doctor Rat be not deceived, it was of another sort.

_D. Rat._ By Gods mother, thou and he be a cople of suttle foxes!
Betweene you and Hodge, I beare away the boxes.
Did not Diccon apoynt the place, wher thou shuldst stand to mete
him? 180

_Chat._ Yes, by the masse, and if he came, bad me not sticke to
speet[745] hym.

_D. Rat._ Gods sacrament! the villain knave hath drest us round about!
He is the cause of all this brawle, that dyrty shitten loute!
When Gammer Gurton here complained, and made a ruful mone,
I heard him sweare that you had gotten hir nedle that was
gone; 185
And this to try, he furder said, he was ful loth; how be it
He was content with small adoe to bring me where to see it.
And where ye sat, he said ful certain, if I wold folow his read,
Into your house a privy way he wold me guide and leade,
And where ye had it in your hands, sewing about a clowte, 190
And set me in the backe hole, therby to finde you out:
And whiles I sought a quietnes, creping upon my knees,
I found the weight of your dore bar for my reward and fees.
Such is the lucke that some men gets, while they begin to mel
In setting at one such as were out, minding to make al wel. 195

_Hodge._ Was not wel blest, Gammer, to scape that stoure?[746] And
chad ben there,
Then chad been drest,[747] be like, as ill, by the masse, as
Gaffar Vicar.

_Bayly._ Mary, sir, here is a sport alone; I loked for such an end.
If Diccon had not playd the knave, this had ben sone amend.
My gammer here he made a foole, and drest hir as she was; 200
And Goodwife Chat he set to scole, till both partes cried alas;
And D[octor] Rat was not behind, whiles Chat his crown did pare.
I wold the knave had ben starke blind, if Hodg had not his share.

_Hodge._ Cham meetly wel sped alredy amongs, cham drest lik a coult!
And chad not had the better wit, chad bene made a doult. 205

_Bayly._ Sir knave, make hast Diccon were here, fetch him, where ever
he bee!

_Chat._ Fie on the villaine, fie, fie! that makes us thus agree!

_Gammer._ Fie on him, knave, with al my hart! now fie! and fie againe!

_D. Rat._ Now "fie on him!" may I best say, whom he hath almost
slaine.

_Bayly._ Lo where he commeth at hand, belike he was not fare! 210
Diccon, heare be two or three thy company can not spare.

_Diccon._ God blesse you, and you may be blest, so many al at once.

_Chat._ Come knave, it were a good deed to geld the, by Cockes bones!
Seest not thy handiwarke? Sir Rat, can ye forbeare him?

_Diccon._ A vengeance on those hands lite, for my hands cam not nere
hym. 215
The horsen priest hath lift the pot in some of these alewyves
chayres
That his head wolde not serve him, belyke, to come downe the
stayres.

_Bayly._ Nay, soft! thou maist not play the knave, and have this
language to!
If thou thy tong bridle a while, the better maist thou do.
Confesse the truth, as I shall aske, and cease a while to
fable; 220
And for thy fault I promise the thy handling shalbe reasonable.
Hast thou not made a lie or two, to set these two by the eares?

_Diccon._ What if I have? five hundred such have I seene within these
seven yeares:
I am sory for nothing else but that I see not the sport
Which was betwene them when they met, as they them selves
report. 225

_Bayly._ The greatest thing--Master Rat, ye se how he is drest!

_Diccon._ What devil nede he be groping so depe, in Goodwife Chats
hens nest?

_Bayly._ Yea, but it was thy drift to bring him into the briars.

_Diccon._ Gods bread! hath not such an old foole wit to save his
eares?
He showeth himselfe herein, ye see, so very a coxe, 230
The cat was not so madly alured by the foxe
To run into the snares was set for him, doubtlesse;
For he leapt in for myce, and this Sir John for madnes.

_D. Rat._ Well, and ye shift no better, ye losel, lyther, and lasye,
I will go neare for this to make ye leape at a dasye.[748] 235
In the kings name, Master Bayly, I charge you set him fast.

_Diccon._ What, faste at cardes, or fast on slepe? it is the thing
I did last.

_D. Rat._ Nay, fast in fetters, false varlet, according to thy deedes.

_Bayly._ Master Doctor, ther is no remedy, I must intreat you needes
Some other kinde of punishment. Eiii

_D. Rat._ Nay by all halowes 240
His punishment if I may judg, shal be naught els but the gallous.

_Bayly._ That ware to sore, a spiritual man to be so extreame!

_D. Rat._ Is he worthy any better, sir? how do ye judge and deame?

_Bayly._ I graunt him wort[h]ie punishment, but in no wise so great.

_Gammer._ It is a shame, ich tel you plaine, for such false knaves
intreat! 245
He has almost undone us al--that is as true as steele,--
And yet for al this great ado cham never the nere my neele!

_Bayly._ Canst thou not say any thing to that, Diccon, with least or
most?

_Diccon._ Yea, mary, sir, this much I can say wel, the nedle is lost.

_Bayly._ Nay, canst not thou tel which way that nedle may be found? 250

_Diccon._ No, by my fay, sir, though I might have an hundred pound.

_Hodge._ Thou lier, lickdish, didst not say the neele wold be gitten?

_Diccon._ No, Hodge, by the same token, you were[749] that time
beshitten
For feare of Hobgobling--you wot wel what I meane;
As long as it is sence, I feare me yet ye be scarce cleane. 255

_Bayly._ Wel, Master Rat, you must both learne and teach us to
forgeve.
Since Diccon hath confession made, and is so cleane shreve,
If ye to me conscent, to amend this heavie chaunce,
I wil injoyne him here some open kind of penaunce,
Of this condition (where ye know my fee is twenty pence): 260
For the bloodshed, I am agreed with you here to dispence;
Ye shal go quite, so that ye graunt the matter now to run
To end with mirth emong us al, even as it was begun.

_Chat._ Say yea, Master Vicar, and he shall sure confes to be your
detter,
And al we that be heare present, wil love you much the better. 265

_D. Rat._ My part is the worst; but since you al here on agree,
Go even to, Master Bayly! let it be so for mee!

_Bayly._ How saiest thou, Diccon? art content this shal on me depend?

_Diccon._ Go to, M[ast] Bayly, say on your mind, I know ye are my
frend.

_Bayly._ Then marke ye wel: To recompence this thy former action,--270
Because thou hast offended al, to make them satisfaction,--
Before their faces here kneele downe, and, as I shal the teach,--
For thou shalt take an[750] othe of Hodges leather breache:
First, for Master Doctor, upon paine of his cursse,
Where he wil pay for al, thou never draw thy purse; 275
And when ye meete at one pot he shall have the first pull,
And thou shalt never offer him the cup but it be full.
To Goodwife that thou shalt be sworne, even on the same wyse,
If she refuse thy money once, never to offer it twise.
Thou shalt be bound by the same, here as thou dost take it, 280
When thou maist drinke of free cost, thou never forsake it.
For Gammer Gurton's sake, againe sworne shalt thou bee,
To helpe hir to hir nedle againe if it do lie in thee;
And likewise be bound, by the vertue of that,
To be of good abering to Gib her great cat. 285
Last of al, for Hodge the othe to scanne,
Thou shalt never take him for fine gentleman.

_Hodge._ Come, on, fellow Diccon, chal be even with thee now!

_Bayly._ Thou wilt not sticke to do this, Diccon, I trow?

_Diccon._ Now, by my fathers skin! my hand downe I lay it! 290
Loke, as I have promised, I wil not denay it.
But, Hodge, take good heede now, thou do not beshite me!

(_And gave him a good blow on the buttocke._)

_Hodge._ Gogs hart! thou false villaine, dost thou bite me?

_Bayly._ What, Hodge, doth he hurt thee or ever he begin?

_Hodge._ He thrust me into the buttocke with a bodkin or a pin! 295
I saie, Gammer! Gammer!

_Gammer._ How now Hodge, how now?

_Hodge._ Gods malt, Gammer Gurton!

_Gammer._ Thou art mad, ich trow!

_Hodge._ Will you see the devil, Gammer?

_Gammer._ The devil, sonne! God blesse us!

_Hodge._ Chould iche were hanged, Gammer--

_Gammer._ Mary, se, ye might dresse us--

_Hodge._ Chave it, by the masse, Gammer!

_Gammer._ What? not my neele, Hodge? 300

_Hodge._ Your neele, Gammer! your neele!

_Gammer._ No, fie, dost but dodge!

_Hodge._ Cha found your neele, Gammer, here in my hand be it!

_Gammer._ For al the loves on earth, Hodge, let me see it!

_Hodge._ Soft, Gammer!

_Gammer._ Good Hodge!

_Hodge._ Soft, ich say; tarie a while!

_Gammer._ Nay, sweete Hodge, say truth, and do not me begile! 305

_Hodge._ Cham sure on it, ich warrant you; it goes no more a stray.

_Gammer._ Hodge, when I speake so faire; wilt stil say me nay?

_Hodge._ Go neare the light, Gammer, this--wel, in faith, good
lucke!--
Chwas almost undone, twas so far in my buttocke! Eiv

_Gammer._ Tis min owne deare neele, Hodge, sykerly I wot! 310

_Hodge._ Cham I not a good sonne, Gammer, cham I not?

_Gammer._ Christs blessing light on thee, hast made me for ever!

_Hodge._ Ich knew that ich must finde it, els choud a had it never!

_Chat._ By my troth, gossyp Gurton, I am even as glad
As though I mine owne selfe as good a turne had! 315

_Bayly._ And I, by my concience, to see it so come forth,
Rejoyce so much at it as three nedles be worth.

_D. Rat._ I am no whit sory to see you so rejoyce.

_Diccon._ Nor I much the gladder for al this noyce;
Yet say "gramercy, Diccon," for springing of the game. 320

_Gammer._ Gramercy, Diccon, twenty times! O how glad cham!
If that chould do so much, your masterdome to come hether,
Master Rat, Goodwife Chat, and Diccon together,
Cha but one halfpeny, as far as iche know it,
And chil not rest this night till ich bestow it. 325
If ever ye love me, let us go in and drinke.

_Bayly._ I am content, if the rest thinke as I thinke.
Master Rat, it shal be best for you if we so doo;
Then shall you warme you and dresse your self too.

_Diccon._ Soft, syrs, take us with you, the company shal be the more!
As proude coms behinde, they say, as any goes before!
But now, my good masters, since we must be gone,
And leave you behinde us here all alone;
Since at our last ending thus mery we bee,
For Gammer Gurtons nedle sake, let us have a plaudytie!

FINIS. GURTON. PERUSED AND ALOWED, &C.

Imprinted at London
in Fleetestreate beneath the Conduite,
at the signe of S. John Euangelist, by
Thomas Colwell
1575.

FOOTNOTES:

[657] moment, time.

[658] A common contraction for _master_.

[659] 'Broche' and 'spit' are synonymous.

[660] set of people, company; cf. Heywood, _Play of the Wether_, l. 94.

[661] I am. The rustic dialect in the piece is conventional, but its
general peculiarities are those of the southwestern counties; _iche_
= I, reduced to _ch_ in _cham_, _chould_, or _chwold_ (I would),
_chwere_, etc. The southwestern _v_ for _f_ is not generally used, but
occurs below in _vylthy_, in _vast_ (I. iv. 8), and in _vathers_ (II.
i. 52); _glaye_ for clay is probably not genuine dialect.

[662] Misprinted _what_.

[663] H. prints 'halse aker,' with the following absurd note: "I
believe we should read _halse anchor_, or _anker_, as it was anciently
spelt; a naval phrase."

[664] Ed. 1575 _till_.

[665] Printed _sayth_.

[666] I hold, _i.e._ 'I wager.'

[667] owed.

[668] 'Pess,' a hassock (Rye's _East Anglian Glossary_, English Dialect
Society).

[669] the ground attached to the house. (Cf. Sc. toun.)

[670] with vigour and speed, promptly.

[671] Commonly supposed to mean St. Osyth.

[672] wager, bet; compare note 2, page 101. Ed. 1575 _held_.

[673] a fool, jester.

[674] For the older and better form of this song, see Appendix.

[675] A roasted crab-apple was placed in a bowl of ale to give it a
flavour and take off the chill. Compare _Midsummer Night's Dream_, II.
i. 48, and Nashe, _Summer's Last Will and Testament_:--

Sitting in a corner turning crabs,
Or coughing o'er a warmed pot of ale.

[676] Ed. 1575 _will_.

[677] entrails.

[678] Ed. 1575 _Godgs_.

[679] Ed. 1575 _dogde_.

[680] deceived.

[681] Ed. 1575 _thonge_.

[682] Ed. 1575 _syme._

[683] give thee thanks.

[684] offspring, brat.

[685] Ed. 1575 'is'; the reading adopted seems better than _is burste_.

[686] Ed. 1575 _will_.

[687] I hope.

[688] room.

[689] first-rate.

[690] spurrier's, harness-maker's.

[691] dear.

[692] Read 'lese,' for the rime.

[693] slip, neglect. Perhaps we should read 'yon' for 'you[r].'

[694] by nature.

[695] Ed. 1575 has _thynge_.

[696] awl.

[697] Apparently a proverbial phrase, meaning 'to expedite matters.'

[698] abominable.

[699] 'Friar Rush,' the chief personage in a popular story translated
from the German, which relates the adventures of a devil in the
disguise of a friar.

[700] Ed. 1575 _no_.

[701] Ed. 1575 _on_.

[702] leave, permission.

[703] aught.

[704] Ed. 1575 _pray_.

[705] Probably a misprint for 'chware,' I would be.

[706] we shall.

[707] _Chave_ is either a blunder of the author's in the use of
dialect, or a misprint for 'thave' = thou have.

[708] quickly.

[709] tail, backside.

[710] sulking (compare _glum_, and _R. R. D._, I. i. 66).

[711] Ed. 1575 _Tyb._

[712] Ed. 1575 _bauet not i_.

[713] Ed. 1575 _moned_.

[714] (I) make.

[715] t'other, the other.

[716] Ed. 1575 _The ii Acte. The iiii Sceane._

[717] anxiety.

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

[719] went.

[720] Ed. 1575, _worthe_.

[721] ere, before.

[722] M. begins a new scene here; H. says it should begin at line 68.

[723] Brewing trough.

[724] M. begins a new scene here.

[725] H. inserts '_with_' before 'them.' But 'beares' means 'support,
uphold.'

[726] Printed _of_, ed. 1575.

[727] This is said to Scapethryft, who is nowhere mentioned in the
text. 'Fellow' (equivalent to 'comrade') was originally a courteous
mode of addressing a servant, like the French _mon ami_.

[728] Ill may he thrive; the phrase is common in the fourteenth
century. Cf. also "y-the," _Hickscorner_, l .187.

[729] Ed. 1575 _you_.

[730] roost.

[731] poultry.

[732] God yield you, God reward you. Compare _Good den_, _God deven_ =
good e'en.

[733] moved, disturbed.

[734] behave.

[735] neck.

[736] Perhaps we should read 'recetter,' for the sake of the rime.

[737] saving your reverence.

[738] as thou.

[739] Toad; the same phrase occurs in Gosson, _Ephimerides of Phialo_
(Arber) 63, "I have neither replyed to the writer of this libel ...
nor let him go scot free ... but poynted to the strawe where the padd
lurkes."

[740] Ed. 1575 gives this line to Chat.

[741] cloaks or smothers.

[742] what shall I call (it). Compare "_nicebecetur_," _R. D._ I. iv.
12.

[743] 'cut' is often used in the sixteenth century as a term of abuse,
especially for women.

[744] Printed _mery_.

[745] spit.

[746] 'stoure,' uproar. Printed _scoure_.

[747] served out, done for.

[748] to 'leap at a daisy,' to be hanged. The allusion is to a story of
a man who, when the noose was adjusted round his neck, leapt off with
the words, "Have at yon daisy yonder" (_Pasquil's Jests_, 1604).

[749] Ed. 1575 _where_.

[750] Ed. 1575 _on_.

APPENDIX

The song at the beginning of the second act exists in an older and
better version, which was printed by Dyce (from a Ms. in his own
possession) in his edition of Skelton's _Works_, Vol. I, p. vii. It
is not likely that the date of the composition is much older than the
middle of the sixteenth century, and it may possibly be later. The
following copy is taken from Dyce, but the punctuation and the capitals
have been adjusted in accordance with the rules elsewhere adopted in
the present work.

Backe and syde goo bare, goo bare;
Bothe hande and fote goo colde;
But, belly, God sende the good ale inoughe,
Whether hyt be newe or olde.

But yf that I maye have, trwly,
Goode ale my belly full,
I shall looke lyke one (by swete sainte Johnn)
Were shoron agaynste the woole.
Thowthe I goo bare, take ye no care,
I am nothynge colde.
I stuffe my skynne so full within
Of joly good ale and olde.

I cannot eate but lytyll meate;
My stomacke ys not goode;
But sure I thyncke that I cowde dryncke
With hym that werythe an hoode.
Dryncke ys my lyfe; although my wyfe
Some tyme do chyde and scolde,
Yete spare I not to plye the potte
Of joly goode ale and olde.
Backe and syde, etc.

I love no roste but a browne toste,
Or a crabbe in the fyer;
A lytyll breade shall do me steade,
Mooche breade I never desyer.
Nor froste, nor snowe, nor wynde, I trow,
Canne hurte me yf hyt wolde;
I am so wrapped within, and lapped
With joly goode ale and olde.
Backe and syde, etc.

I care ryte noughte, I take no thowte
For clothes to kepe me warme;
Have I goode dryncke, I surely thyncke
Nothyng can do me harme.
For trwly than I feare no man,
Be he never so bolde,
When I am armed, and throwly warmed
With joly good ale and olde.
Backe and syde, etc.

But nowe and than I curse and banne;
They make ther ale so small!
God geve them care, and evill to fare!
They strye the malte and all.
Soche pevisshe pewe, I tell yowe trwe,
Not for a crowne of golde
There commethe one syppe within my lyppe,
Whether hyt be newe or olde.
Backe and syde, etc.

Good ale and stronge makethe me amonge
Full joconde and full lyte,
That ofte I slepe, and take no kepe
From mornynge untyll nyte.
Then starte I uppe, and fle to the cuppe;
The ryte waye on I holde.
My thurste to staunche I fyll my paunche
With joly goode ale and olde.
Backe and syde, etc.

And Kytte, my wyfe, that as her lyfe
Lovethe well good ale to seke,
Full ofte drynkythe she that ye maye se
The teares ronne downe her cheke.
Then dothe she troule to me the bolle
As a goode malte-worme sholde,
And say, "Swete harte, I have take my parte
Of joly goode ale and olde."
Backe and syde, etc.

They that do dryncke tylle they nodde and wyncke,
Even as good fellowes shulde do,
They shall notte mysse to have the blysse
That good ale hathe browghte them to.
And all poore soules that skoure blacke bolles,
And them hath lustely trowlde,
God save the lyves of them and ther wyves,
Wether they be yonge or olde!
Backe and syde, etc.

_John Lyly_

ALEXANDER AND CAMPASPE

_Edited with Critical Essay and Notes
by George P. Baker, A.B., Asst.
Professor in Harvard University_

CRITICAL ESSAY

=Life.=--John Lyly was born in Kent between October 8, 1553, and
January, 1554. He entered Magdalen College, Oxford, 1569, but was
almost immediately rusticated. Returning in October, 1571, he was
graduated B.A. April 27, 1573. In May, 1574, he wrote unsuccessfully
to Lord Burleigh, begging for a fellowship at Magdalen. He proceeded
M.A. June 1, 1575, and lived mainly at the Universities till 1579.
_Euphues, the Anatomie of Wit_, appeared between December, 1578, and
spring, 1579. Another edition was printed in 1579; twelve others before
1637. In _An Address to the Gentlemen Scholars of Oxford_, prefixed to
the second, the 1579, edition, he answered a charge of having unfairly
criticised Oxford in the _Anatomie of Wit_. A sequel, _Euphues and his
England_, was licensed July 24, 1579, but did not appear for months.
Probably Lyly shared in the disfavour which, from late July, 1579, to
July, 1580, the Queen showed the party of Robert Dudley because of his
secret marriage with the Countess of Essex. _Endimion_, probably the
first of Lyly's extant comedies, was presented between late July and
early November, 1579, as an allegorical treatment of this quarrel. In
or near July, 1580, Lyly was "entertained as servant" by the Queen, and
was advised to aim at the Mastership of the Revels. By July, 1582, he
is to be found in the household of Lord Burleigh. A letter of his was
prefixed to Watson's _Passionate Centurie of Love_, published 1582.
By 1589, possibly earlier, he had become vice-master of St. Paul's
choir school. Before 1584 the Chapel Children and the Paul's Boys,
for whom he had written, ceased to act. During 1584 his _Sapho and
Phao_, written not long after February 6, 1582, and his _Alexander and
Campaspe_ were printed. _Tityrus and Gallathea_, licensed in 1584, was
not printed till 1592. Probably the main plot was written before 1584,
and the sub-plot for a revision of the play in or near 1588. From 1585
Lyly wrote for the Paul's Boys till in or near 1591, when the company
was again silent. The Chapel Children were not acting publicly between
November, 1584, and 1597. His _Mydas_ was acted between August, 1588,
and November, 1589, and printed in 1592. In August or September, 1589,
a pamphlet entitled _Pappe-with-an-Hatchet_, written by him for the
High Church party in the Marprelate controversy, made its appearance.
His _Mother Bombie_ was acted in 1589 or 1590, and printed in 1594.
_Alexander and Campaspe_ and _Sapho and Phao_ were reprinted in 1591,
and in the same year _Endimion_ was printed. _Gallathea_ appeared in
1592. Lyly wrote, in 1590 or 1591, an apparently unsuccessful begging
letter to the Queen, and another in 1593 or 1594. He was married by
1589, and he had two sons and one daughter. He was member of Parliament
for Hindon in 1589; for Aylesbury in 1593 and 1601; and for Appleby in
1597. _The Woman in the Moone_ was licensed in 1595, printed in 1597.
The quality of the blank verse in this play and the absence of marked
Euphuism favour a date of composition in or near 1590. _Lillie's Light_
was licensed June 3, 1596. If printed, it is non-extant. He wrote
prefatory Latin lines for Henry Lock's _Ecclesiastes_, otherwise called
_The Preacher_, in 1597. In 1597-1600 the Chapel Children revived his
plays. The _Maid's Metamorphosis_, incorrectly attributed to Lyly,
was printed in 1600. His _Love's Metamorphosis_ was printed in 1601:
it had been written about the time of the _Gallathea_,--before 1584,
or between 1588 and 1591. The Protea-Petulius part is probably from a
different play, or is a survival in a revision. Lyly died November 30,
1606, and was buried at St. Bartholomew's.[751]

=The Place of Euphues in English Literature.=--John Lyly was poet,
pamphleteer, novelist, and dramatist. As a pamphleteer he is
unimportant. As a poet he can best be studied in his plays. It is,
then, as novelist and dramatist that he is important. The material of
the two parts of the _Euphues_ makes it decidedly significant in its
own time. It is not, like most of the stories of Greene and Lodge,
mere romance, nor, like Nash's _Jack Wilton_, a tale of adventure
phrased with reportorial recklessness. It is a love story in which
romance is subordinated to the inculcation of ideas of high living and
thinking, and the demands of an involved style. It dimly foreshadows
two literary products which reach a development only long after
the days of Elizabeth--the novel with a purpose, and the stylistic
novel. The appearance of the book was epochal. Young writers of the
day--Munday, Greene, Nash, and Lodge--copied its style. Courtiers
patterned their speech upon it. Yet Gabriel Harvey was probably right
when he ill-naturedly wrote: "Young Euphues but hatched the egges that
his elder freendes laide." The _Anatomie_, at least, is such a book as
a recent university graduate of the present day, well read in some of
the classics, and especially susceptible to new literary influences
and cults, might compile. In the division _Euphues and His Ephœbus_
Lyly uses, with a few omissions and additions, Plutarch on _Education_;
in the letter to Botonio he translates Plutarch on _Exile_. In the
part _Euphues and Atheos_ he is indebted to chapters 9, 10, 11, and
12 of the _Dial of Princes_ (1529) by Antonio de Guevara, Bishop of
Guadix and Mendoza. Euphues and Lucilla debate "dubii," or artificial
discussions of set questions, such as one finds in Hortensio Lando
or Castiglione. There is, too, almost constant use of the unnatural
natural history of Pliny. All this material is bound together by a
style which, though it may ultimately be traced to the rounded periods
of Cicero, had developed slowly in writers of the Renaissance and the
years just before _Euphues_ appeared. George Pettie, for instance, in
his _Pettie Palace of Pettie His Pleasure_, published in 1576, has all
the stylistic characteristics of the _Euphues_ except the fabulous
natural history. It is, however, to Guevara in the _Dial of Princes_
that Lyly is thought to be particularly indebted for his style. This
man used "lavishly the well-known figures of pointed antithesis and
parisonic balanced clauses, in connection with a general climactic
structure of the sentence or period, the emphatic or antithetic words
being marked by rhyme or assonance." Lyly substitutes for rhyme
alliteration, and adds persistent play on words. The book is genuinely
Renaissance, then, for, looking to classic literature for much of its
substance, it expresses itself in a style that typifies an intellectual
mood of the hour.

=Lyly's Plays: their Subdivision.=--Just before 1580 the acting of
choir boys was in great favour with the Queen and, as a consequence,
with the public. The boys of Westminster, Windsor, the Chapel Royal,
and St. Paul's were often summoned to court. For the last two
companies, with whom acting became a profession, Lyly wrote his plays.
These divide into four classes. The allegorical comedies, in which what
is alluded to is as important as what is said, are _Endimion_, _Sapho
and Phao_, and _Mydas_. _Endimion_, perhaps the most complete example
of Lyly's allegorical comedy, presents the apology of Leicester to the
Queen for his secret marriage with Lettice, Countess of Essex. _Sapho
and Phao_ is full of allusions to the coquetting of the Queen with
the Duc d'Alençon and his wrathful departure from England in February,
1582. _Mydas_ allegorises--though with less detail than the others--as
to the designs of Philip II. on the English throne, and the Spanish
Armada. _Gallathea_, _Love's Metamorphosis_, and _The Woman in the
Moone_ form a second class--pastoral comedies. They are allegorical
only when some figure is given qualities which the Queen was fond of
hearing praised as hers. _Mother Bombie_, standing alone as a comedy
on the model of Plautus, has a much more involved plot than any of the
other plays. Finally, also in a class by itself, is _Alexander and
Campaspe_.

In this, as in all the comedies except _Mother Bombie_ and _Love's
Metamorphosis_, Lyly used classic myth for his chief material. Yet
he but followed a custom of the day, for most of the plays given at
court between 1570 and 1590 by the children's companies were based
on such material: for instance, _Iphigenia_, _Narcissus_, _Alcmæon_,
_Quintus Fabius_, and _Scipio Africanus_. These subjects seem to have
been treated as pastorals, histories, and possibly allegories. Lyly
rejected in _Alexander and Campaspe_ the allegorical and the pastoral
form, and told rather naïvely, except in style, the story of the love
of Alexander and Apelles for Campaspe, repeating in his sub-plot many
historic retorts of Diogenes. In details of method Lyly seems to
have had a precursor. Richard Edwardes (born 1523, died 1566) in his
_Damon and Pythias_, printed in 1582, but usually assigned to 1564,
wrote in a way very suggestive of Lyly in _Alexander and Campaspe_. He
disclaimed in his prologue intention of referring to any court except
that of Dionysius at Syracuse; introduced lyrics; gave Aristippus
the philosopher an important place; inveighed against flattery at
the court; brought in the comic episode of Grim the collier without
connection with the main plot, just as Lyly often introduces his comic
material; and derived the fun of this scene mainly from two impudent
pages. Certainly it would have been natural for Lyly, early in his
career, to look to the plays of a former prominent master of the Chapel
Children.

=Alexander and Campaspe: Date, Sources.=--The exact date of _Alexander
and Campaspe_ it seems impossible to determine. It was written before
April, 1584, for it was licensed for printing in that month. The facts
that similes and references in _Euphues_ are found in it, and that the
work--here of a kind which Lyly never exactly repeats--resembles the
early _Damon and Pythias_ suggest that _Alexander and Campaspe_ belongs
early in his dramatic career. It has been held that it should precede
_Endimion_, but the allegory in that play; the fact that Blount, who
places _Sapho and Phao_, _Gallathea_, _Mydas_, and _Mother Bombie_ in
the order approved by the most recent criticism, puts it second; and
the better characterization, more natural dialogue, and slightly closer
binding together of the main and the sub-plot, argue for the second
place.

The play, like the _Anatomie of Wit_, is a composite. The main
plot--the story of Apelles and Campaspe--Lyly found in Book 35 of
Pliny's _History of the World_. His setting he took from Plutarch's
_Life of Alexander_. That, too, gave him the siege of Thebes, Timoclea,
some of the philosophers' names, most of their speeches, the generals,
and Hephestion, and probably suggested the possibilities of Diogenes as
a comic figure. The material for the scenes of the Cynic, and the name
Manes, he found in the _Lives of the Philosophers_ by Diogenes Laertius.

=Literary Estimate.=--In the extant plays from 1550 to 1580 love has
but a subordinate part. In _Alexander and Campaspe_, however, as in all
the Lyly comedies, the central idea is that of nearly all the great
plays of the Elizabethan drama--the love of man for woman. Doubtless
the subject appealed to Lyly especially because in the self-abnegation
of Alexander the Queen might choose to see a compliment to her final
position toward Leicester and the Countess of Essex. Diogenes he used
in order to get comic relief. That Lyly's comedies are comparatively
free from vulgarity is probably because they were given by children
before the Queen and her ladies. Possibly the youth of the actors is
the reason for the absence of strong emotional expression, but it
is more probable that the temperament of the author is responsible.
It is hard to believe that a dramatist who felt keenly emotional
possibilities in his material could have passed by Timoclea so rapidly,
for in Plutarch she has all the requisites of the heroine in a Beaumont
and Fletcher play. Nor would such a dramatist have made so little of
the struggle of Alexander between infatuation and the desire to regain
his accustomed self-command. Lyly's position toward his work is like
that of the early writers of chronicle-history plays. He does not
depend on selecting the most characteristic situations and speeches, on
supplying missing motives, on unification of material which history has
passed down in somewhat disordered fashion, but on repeating as many as
possible of the situations and speeches associated with the names. Like
those writers, too, he makes no attempt to get behind his material, to
see its interrelations and its dramatic significance as a whole.

Some allowance, however, must be made for faults in this play, for the
Prologue states that it was hastily written. The comedy itself shows
that Lyly planned as he wrote. The opening scene of the play leaves
one to suppose that Timoclea, who, rather than Campaspe, is the chief
female speaker, is to play an important part. She never appears again,
and is mentioned but once. Later parts of the play call for some
manifestation, in this first scene, of Campaspe's intense fascination
for Alexander, but there is nothing of the kind. Nor does the action in
any later scene really prepare for Alexander's self-reproaches for his
mad infatuation. Until late in the play, when Lyly speaks of Campaspe
as Alexander's concubine, a reader is not even entirely clear as to
their relations. Perhaps some of this lack of clearness and sequence
may result because the Timoclea part, at least, of the first scene is a
survival from an older play. In the _Accounts of the Revels at Court_,
under an entry for expenditures between January and February, 1573(4),
"One Playe showen at Hampton Coorte before her Maᵗⁱᵉ by Mr. Munkester's
Children" (Mulcaster's of the Merchant Taylors' School) is mentioned.
Interlined are the words: "Timoclia at the Sege of Thebes by Alexander."

The movement of the comedy is episodic. The clever little pages bind
the scenes together; Alexander connects the incidents of the main
story; but too often, especially in the sub-plot, the action is not
prepared for, and does not lead to anything. Nor does Lyly care much
for climax. The Diogenes sub-plot does not end; it is dropped just
before the main story closes. The great dramatic possibilities of
the final scene are practically thrown away. It is significant that
they could be developed only by a hand which could paint vividly the
contest of a soul, the gradual reascendency of old motives, and manly
renunciation.

Growth in character Lyly does not understand. As a rule his figures
are types rather than many-sided human beings. Nor are the types
always self-consistent. All the nobility of Alexander's renunciation
disappears when he says: "Go, Apelles, take with you your Campaspe;
Alexander is cloyed with looking on that which thou wond'rest at." In
general, Lyly is too ready to depend on the way in which his figures
speak rather than on truth to life in what they speak. In the retorts
of Apelles as he talks with Alexander of his work, there is, of course,
something of the real artist's pride in his art and irritation at royal
omniscience. There is characterization, too, in many of the speeches
of Diogenes, but in both of these instances Lyly is either quoting or
paraphrasing. Campaspe, it is true, is almost a character, and slightly
anticipates the arch heroines of Shakespeare. Hers are coquettishness,
womanly charm. In her scene with Apelles in the studio (Act IV. scene
2), the underlying passion of both almost breaks through the frigid
medium of expression. The pages may doubtless be traced back to the
witty, graceless slaves of Latin comedy, and more immediately to
precursors in the work of Edwardes, but Lyly adds so much individuality
and humour that they are a real accession in the history of the drama.
Moreover, many of his figures often comment incisively on customs and
follies of the time, preparing for the later comedy of manners.

No preceding play is so full of charming and lasting lyrics. In all
his comedies except _The Woman in the Moone_, Lyly writes neither in
the usual jingling rhymes nor the infrequently used blank verse, but
in prose. He shows the men of his day new possibilities in dialogue;
for though his artificial style prevents easy characterisation, it
does not keep him from effective repartee and a closer representation
of the give and take of real conversation than was possible with the
rhyming lines, or with blank verse as it was handled in his day.
Probably, however, the greatest importance of this play for the student
of Elizabethan drama is the way it shows interest in a romantic story
breaking through classic material and Renaissance expression, thus
anticipating the romantic drama of 1587. Clearly, then, the merits of
_Alexander and Campaspe_ are literary and historical, not dramatic.

=Lyly's Development as a Dramatist.=--That Lyly worked, however,
steadily toward more genuine drama becomes clear if one reads his plays
in order. In all he shows classical influence by his choice of subject,
or by constant allusion, but he is not a scholar in the sense of Jonson
or Chapman. He is well read in certain authors--Ovid, particularly
the _Metamorphoses_, Plutarch, Pliny, perhaps Lucian; he has at his
tongue's end many stock Latin quotations, and delights in misquoting
or paraphrasing for the sake of a pun, sure that the quick-witted
courtiers will recognize the originals. Classical in construction
he certainly is not. His interest is to find a pretty love story
which gives opportunities for dramatic surprises and complications,
effective groupings, graceful dances, and dainty lyrics. He is fertile
in finding interesting figures to bring upon the stage--the fairies of
_Endimion_, the fiddlers of _Mother Bombie_, the shepherds of _Love's
Metamorphosis_. If one examines the only two plays of his which lack
the contrasting comic under-plot,--_Love's Metamorphosis_, and _The
Woman in the Moone_,--it becomes clear that they are pastorals or
masques. Even the other plays owe to their sub-plots the right to be
called comedies. By choice of topics and by temperament, then, Lyly is
a writer of masques.

At first he developed his two plots side by side, as in _Endimion_. One
is used simply to relieve the other, or to fill time-spaces necessary
between incidents of the main plot. Later, he joins the two slightly
by letting figures in the sub-plot refer to incidents of the main
story. In _Mother Bombie_ he brings the groups together formally two
or three times, and closes the play with nearly all the characters on
the stage. In his last comedy, _The Woman in the Moone_, he discards
contrasted plots, and tries to get his effects from one large group
of figures. Even if his success in meeting his problem is not great,
the mere recognition of it is significant. Yet it cannot be said that
he ever becomes a good plotter, for he is always willing to bring in
anywhere new people, new interests, or even, as in _Mydas_, to shift to
a new plot midway. In _Mother Bombie_, when the climax of complication
is reached in the meeting of the disguised Accius and Silena and their
fathers, Lyly is unable to master the difficulties of the situation.
He lets the two reveal themselves tamely, confusingly, before he has
had anything like the potential fun out of the scene. Usually the plays
ramble gently on till Lyly thinks the audience must have enough; then
the _deus ex machina_ appears, and all ends. Climax in closing he seems
not to try for, but is content to end with a telling phrase.

In characterization his work varies. In the allegories he wishes merely
to suggest well-known figures; distinct, final characterization would
be out of place, even dangerous. In the pastoral-masques, the land of
fantasy, the lines of characterization need not be sharply drawn. But
even if one looks at _Mother Bombie_ and the sub-plots of the plays,
one sees that though there is perhaps a slight gain in portraying the
figures, the people are too often significant for the way in which
they talk rather than for action or characterizing speech. When Lyly
attempts strong presentation of crucial moments or pathos, he stammers,
or is particularly conventional.

As he develops, he modifies the eccentricities of his style. Nor is
it probable that the passing of the popular enthusiasm for Euphuism
is wholly responsible for this. He had the good sense to see the
superiority of prose to verse as the expression of comedy, and he
must have felt how much his rigidly artificial style cramped him. In
_Mother Bombie_, 1589-91, Euphuism is well-nigh gone. In its place we
have a style in which characterized dialogue is more possible and more
evident. In _The Woman in the Moone_ the exigencies of verse are too
much for Euphuism, and it practically disappears.

Very slowly, then, Lyly was working toward a drama of simple
characterizing dialogue, more unified, and at the same time more
complex. Even as he worked, however, Kyd, Greene, and Marlowe swept by
to accomplishment impossible for him under any conditions.

=His Place in English Comedy.=--John Lyly is not merely, then, as has
been too often suggested, a scholar "picking fancies out of books
(with) little else to marvel at." He was keenly alive to foreign and
domestic influences at work about him. His use of what other men
offer foreshadows the marvellous assimilative power of Shakespeare.
He seems to retain and apply with freedom all the similes and
illustrations that come in his way; many are not to be hunted down
except in out-of-the-way corners of the books best known to him. Only
a man of poetic feeling would have cared to work in these allegories
and pastorals. Humorous he is in the scenes of the pages. Here and
there, as in some of the replies of Apelles to Alexander, and in the
words of Parmenio on the rising sun (Act I, scene 1), there is caustic
irony. Lyly is a thinker, too, and a critic, as his frequent satire of
existing social customs or follies shows. Now and then he is fearless;
for instance, in his portrayal before the Queen of the artist's
contempt for royal assumption of knowledge (Act III, scene 4), and in
his comment on the impossibility of happy love between a subject and a
monarch (Act IV, scene 4). His allegories show best his ingenuity and
inventiveness. His mastery of involved phrasing is indubitable.

Without doubt, however, his attitude toward his work is more that of
the scholar than the poet or dramatist. His work is imitation of others
who seem to him models, with the main attention on style. He has the
inventiveness of the dramatist, but not his instinct for technique or
recognition of the possibilities of a story and care in working them
out. He never says a thing for himself if he can find it anywhere
in a recognized author. In this, however, he shared in the mood of
Spenser and his group. Indeed, a little comparison of Lyly with Spenser
will show that, though in accomplishment he is far below the poet,
he expresses in his comedies the historical influences, the existing
intellectual conditions, and the literary aspirations which Spenser
phrases in his early work. It is in poetic power, in imaginative sweep,
that the two separate widely.

Yet Lyly, drawing on what preceded and what surrounded him, did more
than express the literary mood and desires of his day. Through him
the lyric in the drama came to Dekker, Jonson, and Shakespeare, more
dainty and more varied. He broke the way for later men to use prose
as the means of expression for comedy. He gave them suggestions for
clever dialogue. At a time of loose and hurried dramatic writing he
showed that literary finish might well accompany such composition. His
pages are the prototypes of the boys and servants in Peele, Chapman,
Jonson, and Shakespeare. In a small way he foreshadowed the comedy of
manners. For as close a relationship between the drama and politics as
we find in his allegories, we must look to the declining days of the
Jacobean drama--to Middleton's _Game of Chess_. The romantic spirit
found expression in him, not in a drama of blood, but in pastorals
and masques which look forward to the masques of Jonson, to _Love's
Labour's Lost_, _Midsummer Night's Dream_, and _As You Like It_. His
influence on the highly sensitized mind of Shakespeare may be traced in
many lines and scenes.

His vogue as a dramatist was short. By 1590 the boisterous, romantic
drama, the often inchoate chronicle history, both frequently
accompanied by scenes of would-be comic horse-play, engrossed public
attention. The great period of experimentation with both old and crude
forms was beginning. It is not surprising that when Lyly's plays
were revived by the Chapel Children in 1597-1600, they could not
stand comparison with the work of Jonson, Dekker, Heywood, and other
dramatists of the day, but were called "musty fopperies of antiquity."
Their work, in bridging from the classic to romantic comedy, as
the Drama of Blood bridged from Seneca to real tragedy, was done.
Thereafter their main interest must be historical.

=Previous Editions and the Present Text.=--The title of the first
quarto (1584) is, "A moste excellent Comedie of Alexander, Campaspe,
and Diogenes, played before the Queene's Maiestie on twelfe day
at night, by her Maiestie's Children, and the Children of Paules.
Imprinted at London, for Thomas Cadman, 1584." In the second edition,
issued the same year by the same publisher, the title is changed to
_Campaspe_, and the play is said to have been given "on new yeares
day at night." The title, _Campaspe_, was retained in the third
quarto, 1591, for William Broome, and in Edward Blount's duodecimo
collective edition, 1632. (Manly.) Both, too, state that the play was
given "on twelfe-day at night." The headlines of all the quartos read
_Alexander and Campaspe_; of Blount, _A tragicall Comedie of Alexander
and Campaspe_. Besides the quartos and Blount's _Sixe Court Comedies_
there are these reprints: in Vol. II., Dodsley's _Select Collection of
Old Plays_, 1825; in Vol. I., _John Lilly's Dramatic Works_, F. W.
Fairholt, 1858; in Vol. II., _Specimens of the Pre-Shaksperean Drama_,
J. M. Manly, 1897. In the footnotes of the present edition the quartos
are indicated by A. B. and C., the other editions by Bl. Do. F. and M.
respectively. Blount's text, mainly, is followed. The variant readings
of the quartos are given on the authority of Fairholt.

GEORGE P. BAKER.

FOOTNOTES:

[751] The Introduction to _Endimion_, Holt & Co., carefully considers
the evidence for all these statements.

CAMPASPE

_Played before the Queenes
Maiestie_ on _Twelfe_
day at Night:

_By her_ MAIESTIES
Children, and the Children
of _Paules_.

_Vignette with
motto:

Mollia cum duris_

LONDON,

Printed by _William Stansby_,
for _Edward Blount_.

1632.

The Persons of the Play[752]

ALEXANDER, _King of Macedon_.
HEPHESTION, _his General_.
CLYTUS, }
PARMENIO, }
MILECTUS, } _Warriors_.
PHRYGIUS, }
MELIPPUS, _Chamberlain to Alexander_.
ARISTOTLE, }
DIOGENES, }
CRISIPPUS, }
CRATES, } _Philosophers_.
CLEANTHES, }
ANAXARCHUS, }
CRYSUS, }
APELLES, _a Painter_.
SOLINUS, }
SYLVIUS, } _Citizens of Athens_.
PERIM, }
MILO, } _Sons of Sylvius_.
TRICO, }
GRANICUS, _Servant to Plato_.
MANES, _Servant to Diogenes_.
PSYLLUS, _Servant to Appelles_.
Page _to Alexander_.
Citizens of Athens.
Soldiers.
CAMPASPE, } _Theban Captives_.
TIMOCLEA, }
LAIS, _a Courtezan_.

_SCENE_: ATHENS]

FOOTNOTES:

[752] Do. first gives the list. The two companies were probably united
for the Court performance. Thus the doubling of parts, common in the
days of Elizabeth, was avoided.

THE PROLOGUE AT _the blacke Friers_[753]

THEY that feare the stinging of waspes make fannes of peacocks
tailes, whose spots are like eyes; and Lepidus, which could not
sleepe for the chattering of birds, set up a beast whose head was
like a dragon;[754] and wee, which stand in awe of report, are
compelled to set before our owle Pallas shield,[755] thinking by
her vertue to cover the others deformity. It was a signe of 5
famine to Ægypt when Nylus flowed lesse than twelve cubites or
more than eighteene: and it may threaten despaire unto us if wee
be lesse courteous than you looke for or more cumbersome. But,
as Theseus, being promised to be brought to an eagles nest, and,
travailing all the day, found but a wren in a hedge, yet said, 10
"This is a bird," so, we hope, if the shower[756] of our swelling
mountaine seeme[757] to bring forth some elephant, performe but
a mouse, you will gently say, "This is a beast." Basill softly
touched yieldeth a sweete sent, but chafed in the hand, a ranke
savour: we feare, even so, that our labours slily[758] glanced 15
on will breed some content, but examined to the proofe, small
commendation. The haste in performing shall be our excuse. There
went two nights to the begetting of Hercules; feathers appeare not
on the Phœnix under seven moneths; and the mulberie is twelve in
budding: but our travailes are like the hares, who at one time 20
bringeth forth, nourisheth, and engendreth againe,[759] or like the
brood of Trochilus,[760] whose egges in the same moment that they
are laid become birds. But, howsoever we finish our worke, we crave
pardon if we offend in matter, and patience if wee transgresse in
manners. Wee have mixed mirth with councell, and discipline 25
with delight, thinking it not amisse in the same garden to sow
pot-hearbes that wee set flowers. But wee hope, as harts that cast
their hornes, snakes their skins, eagles their bils, become more
fresh for any other labour, so, our charge being shaken off, we
shall be fit for greater matters. But least, like the Myndians, 30
wee make our gates greater than our towne,[761] and that our play
runs out at the preface, we here conclude,--wishing that although
there be in your precise judgements an universall mislike, yet we
may enjoy by your wonted courtesies a generall silence.

FOOTNOTES:

[753] Before 1584 the Chapel Children acted publicly in a Blackfriars'
inn-yard. See pp. cxi-cxxxv, Lyly's _Endimion_, Holt & Co.

[754] "It hapned during the time of his Triumvirat (Lepidus's), that
in a certain place where he was, the magistrates attended him to his
lodging environed as it were with woods on everie side: the next morrow
Lepidus ... in bitter tearmes and minatorie words chid them for that
they had laid him where he could not sleep a wink all night long, for
the noise and singing that the birds made about him. They being thus
checked and rebuked, devised against the next night to paint in a piece
of parchment of great length a long Dragon or serpent, wherewith they
compassed the place where Lepidus should take his repose; the sight of
which serpent thus painted so terrified the birds, that they ... were
altogether silent."--Pliny, _Hist. of World_, Holland, 1635, xxxv. 11.

[755] The favor of the Queen. Elizabeth, like Minerva, was called
Pallas because of her celibacy. These words, with ll. 12, 13, p. 331,
show that the Court performance came first.

[756] The author, who presents the play.

[757] 'Seeming'?

[758] 'Slightly'? M.

[759] Holland, IX. 55; Topsell, _Hist. of Four-footed Beasts_, 1607, p.
267.

[760] A small, plover-like Nile bird.

[761] "Coming once to Myndos (Dorian colony on Carian coast), and
seeing their Gates very large, and their City but small, [Diogenes]
said, 'You Men of Myndos, I advise you to shut up your Gates for
fear your town should run out.'"--Diogenes Laertius, _Lives of
Philosophers_, 1606, VI. 425.

The Prologue at the Court.

WE are ashamed that our bird, which fluttereth by twilight, seeming
a swan, should[762] bee proved a bat, set against the sun. But,
as Jupiter placed Silenus asse among the starres, and Alcibiades
covered his pictures, being owles and apes, with a curtaine
imbroidered with lions and eagles, so are we enforced upon a rough
discourse to draw on a smooth excuse, resembling lapidaries who 5
thinke to hide the cracke in a stone by setting it deepe in gold.
The gods supped once with poore Baucis;[763] the Persian kings
sometimes shaved stickes; our hope is Your Highnesse wil at this
time lend an eare to an idle pastime. Appion, raising Homer from
hell, demanded only who was his father;[764] and we, calling 10
Alexander from his grave, seeke only who was his love. Whatsoever
wee present, we wish it may be thought the dancing of Agrippa[765]
his shadowes, who, in the moment they were seene, were of any shape
one would conceive; or Lynces,[766] who, having a quicke sight to
discerne, have a short memory to forget. With us it is like to 15
fare as with these torches, which giving light to others consume
themselves; and we shewing delight to others shame ourselves.

FOOTNOTES:

[762] 'Which, fluttering by twilight, seemeth a swan, should'?

[763] Ovid, _Meta._ III. 631.

[764] Holland, XXX. 2.

[765] Henry Cornelius Agrippa (von Nettesheim), knight, doctor, and,
by common reputation, magician. Died 1535. On request he raised
spirits--of the dead, Tully delivering his oration on Roscius; of
the living, Henry VIII. and his lords hunting.--Godwin, _Lives of
Necromancers_, 1834, 324-25.

[766] Lynxes. "It is thought that of all beastes they seeme most
brightly, for the poets faine that their eie-sight pierceth through
every solid body, although it be as thicke as a wall.... Although they
be long afflicted with hunger, yet when they eate their meate, if
they heare any noise, or any other chaunce cause them to turne aboute
from their meate, oute of the sight of it, they forgette their prey,
notwithstanding their hunger, and go to seeke another booty."--Topsell,
489-492.

[Alexander and Campaspe]

Actus primus. Scæna prima[767]

_Enter_ CLITUS _and_ PARMENIO[768]

_CLYTUS._ Parmenio, I cannot tell whether I should more commend
in Alexanders victories courage, or courtesie, in the one being a
resolution without feare, in the other a liberalitie above custome.
Thebes is razed, the people not racked; towers throwne downe,
bodies not thrust aside; a conquest without conflict, and a 5
cruell warre in a milde peace.[769]

_Par._ Clytus, it becommeth the sonne of Philip to bee none
other than Alexander is; therefore, seeing in the father a full
perfection, who could have doubted in the sonne an excellency? For,
as the moone can borrow nothing else of the sunne but light,[770]
so of a sire in whom nothing but vertue was what could the 10
childe receive but singular?[771] It is for turkies to staine each
other, not for diamonds; in the one to bee made a difference in
goodnesse, in the other no comparison.[772]

_Clytus._ You mistake mee, Parmenio, if, whilest I commend
Alexander, you imagine I call Philip into question; unlesse, 15
happily, you conjecture (which none of judgement will conceive)
that because I like the fruit, therefore I heave at the tree, or,
coveting to kisse the childe, I therefore goe about to poyson the
teat.

_Par._ I, but, Clytus, I perceive you are borne in the east, and 20
never laugh but at the sunne rising;[773] which argueth, though a
dutie where you ought, yet no great devotion where you might.

_Clytus._ We will make no controversie of that [of][774] which there
ought to be no question; onely this shall be the opinion of us both,
that none was worthy to be the father of Alexander but Philip, nor 25
any meete to be the sonne of Philip but Alexander.

[_Enter Soldiers with_ TIMOCLEA, CAMPASPE, _other captives, and
spoils_.]

_Par._ Soft, Clytus, behold the spoiles and prisoners! A pleasant
sight to us, because profit is joyned with honour; not much painfull
to them, because their captivitie is eased by mercie.

_Timo._ [_aside_]. Fortune, thou didst never yet deceive vertue, 30
because vertue never yet did trust fortune! Sword and fire will
never get spoyle where wisdome and fortitude beares sway. O Thebes,
thy wals were raised by the sweetnesse of the harpe,[775] but rased
by the shrilnes of the trumpet! Alexander had never come so neer
the wals, had Epaminondas walkt about the wals; and yet might 35
the Thebanes have beene merry in their streets, if hee had beene
to watch their towers. But destinie is seldome forseene, never
prevented. We are here now captives, whose neckes are voaked by
force, but whose hearts cannot yeeld by death.--Come Campaspe and
the rest, let us not be ashamed to cast our eyes on him on whom 40
we feared not to cast our darts.

_Par._ Madame, you need not doubt;[776] it is Alexander that is the
conquerour.

_Timo._ Alexander hath overcome, not conquered.

_Par._ To bring all under his subjection is to conquer. 45

_Timo._ He cannot subdue that which is divine.

_Par._ Thebes was not.

_Timo._ Vertue is.

_Clytus._ Alexander, as hee tendreth[777] vertue, so hee will you.
Hee drinketh not bloud, but thirsteth after honour; hee is greedie
of victorie, but never satisfied with mercie; in fight terrible, 50
as becommeth a captaine; in conquest milde, as beseemeth a king; in
all things[778] than which nothing can be greater, hee is Alexander.

_Camp._ Then, if it be such a thing to be Alexander, I hope it
shall be no miserable thing to be a virgin. For, if hee save our 55
honours, it is more than to restore our goods; and rather doe I wish
he preserve our fame than our lives: which if he doe, we will confesse
there can be no greater thing than to be Alexander.

[_Enter_ ALEXANDER _and_ HEPHESTION.[779]]

_Alex._ Clytus, are these prisoners? Of whence these spoiles?

_Clytus._ Like your Majestie,[780] they are prisoners, and of
Thebes. 60

_Alex._ Of what calling or reputation?

_Clytus._ I know not, but they seeme to be ladies of honour.

_Alex._ I will know. Madam, of whence you are I know, but
who, I cannot tell.

_Timo._ Alexander, I am the sister of Theagines, who fought a 65
battell with thy father, before the citie of Chieronie,[781] where
he died, I say--which none can gainsay--valiantly.[782]

_Alex._ Lady, there seeme in your words sparkes of your brothers
deedes, but worser fortune in your life than his death; but feare
not, for you shall live without violence, enemies, or necessitie.
But what are you, faire ladie, another sister to Theagines? 70

_Camp._ No sister to Theagines, but an humble hand-maid to
Alexander, born of a meane parentage, but to extreme[783] fortune.

_Alex._ Well, ladies, for so your vertues shew you, whatsoever
your births be, you shall be honorably entreated. Athens shall be 75
your Thebes; and you shall not be as abjects of warre, but as
subjects to Alexander. Parmenio, conduct these honourable ladies
into the citie; charge the souldiers not so much as in words to
offer them any offence; and let all wants bee supplied so farre
forth as shall be necessarie for such persons and my prisoners. 80

_Exeunt_ PARME.[NIO] & _captivi._

Hephestion,[784] it resteth now that wee have as great care to governe
in peace as conquer in warre, that, whilest armes cease, arts may
flourish, and, joyning letters with launces, wee endevour to bee as
good philosophers as souldiers, knowing it no lesse prayse to bee wise
than commendable to be valiant. 85

_Hep._ Your Majestie therein sheweth that you have as great desire
to rule as to subdue: and needs must that commonwealth be fortunate
whose captaine is a philosopher, and whose philosopher a captaine.
_Exeunt._

Actus primus. Scæna secunda[785]

[_Enter_] MANES,[786] GRANICHUS, PSYLLUS

_Manes._ I serve in stead of a master a mouse,[787] whose house is a
tub, whose dinner is a crust, and whose bed is a boord.

_Psyllus._ Then art thou in a state of life which philosophers
commend: a crum for thy supper, an hand for thy cup, and thy
clothes for thy sheets; for _Natura paucis contenta._ 5

_Gran._ Manes, it is pitie so proper a man should be cast away
upon a philosopher; but that Diogenes, that dogge,[788] should have
Manes, that dog-bolt,[789] it grieveth nature and spiteth art: the one
having found thee so dissolute--absolute[790] I would say--in bodie,
the other so single--singular--in minde. 10

_Manes._ Are you merry? It is a signe by the trip of your tongue
and the toyes[791] of your head that you have done that to day
which I have not done these three dayes.

_Psyllus._ Whats that?

_Manes._ Dined. 15

_Gran._ I thinke Diogenes keepes but cold cheare.

_Manes._ I would it were so; but hee keepeth neither hot nor
cold.

_Gran._ What then, luke warme? That made Manes runne from
his master the last day.[792] 20

_Psyllus._ Manes had reason, for his name foretold as much.

_Manes._ My name? How so, sir boy?

_Psyllus._ You know that it is called mons a movendo, because it
stands still.

_Manes._ Good. 25

_Psyllus._ And thou art named Manes _a manendo_, because thou
runnest away.

_Manes._ Passing[793] reasons! I did not run away, but retire.

_Psyllus._ To a prison, because thou wouldst have leisure to
contemplate. 30

_Manes._ I will prove that my bodie was immortall because it was
in prison.

_Gran._ As how?

_Manes._ Did your masters never teach you that the soule is
immortall? 35

_Gran._ Yes.

_Manes._ And the bodie is the prison of the soule.

_Gran._ True.

_Manes._ Why then, thus[794] to make my body immortall, I put it
in prison.[795] 40

_Gran._ Oh, bad!

_Psyllus._ Excellent ill!

_Manes._ You may see how dull a fasting wit is: therefore, Psyllus,
let us goe to supper with Granichus. Plato is the best fellow of all
philosophers: give me him that reades[796] in the morning in the 45
schoole, and at noone in the kitchen.

_Psyllus._ And me!

_Gran._ Ah, sirs, my master is a king in his parlour for the
body, and a god in his studie for the soule. Among all his men he
commendeth one that is an excellent musition; then stand I by and
clap another on the shoulder and say, "This is a passing good 50
cooke."

_Manes._ It is well done Granichus; for give mee pleasure that
goes in at the mouth, not the eare,--I had rather fill my guts
than my braines.

_Psyllus._ I serve Apelles, who feedeth mee as Diogenes doth 55
Manes; for at dinner the one preacheth abstinence, the other
commendeth counterfaiting[797]: when I would eate meate, he paints
a[798] spit; and when I thirst, "O," saith he, "is not this a faire
pot?" and pointes to a table[799] which containes the Banquet of
the Gods, where are many dishes to feed the eye, but not to fill
the gut. 60

_Gran._ What doest thou then?

_Psyllus._ This doth hee then: bring in many examples that some
have lived by savours; and proveth that much easier it is to fat
by colours; and telles of birdes that have been fatted by painted
grapes in winter, and how many have so fed their eyes with their
mistresse picture that they never desired to take food, being 65
glutted with the delight in their favours.[800] Then doth he shew
me counterfeites,--such as have surfeited, with their filthy and
lothsome vomites; and the riotous[801] Bacchanalls of the god
Bacchus and his disorderly crew; which are painted all to the life
in his shop. To conclude, I fare hardly, though I goe richly, 70
which maketh me when I should begin to shadow a ladies face, to
draw a lambs head, and sometime to set to the body of a maid a
shoulder of mutton, for _Semper animus meus est in patinis_.[802]

_Manes._ Thou art a god to mee; for, could I see but a cookes 75
shop painted, I would make mine eyes fatte as butter, for I have
nought but sentences to fill my maw: as, _Plures occidit crapula
quam gladius_; _Musa jejunantibus amica_; Repletion killeth
delicatly; and an old saw of abstinence by[803] Socrates,--The
belly is the heads grave. Thus with sayings, not with meate, he
maketh a gallimafray.[804] 80

_Gran._ But how doest thou then live?

_Manes._ With fine jests, sweet ayre, and the dogs[805] almes.

_Gran._ Well, for this time I will stanch thy gut, and among pots
and platters thou shall see what it is to serve Plato.

_Psyllus._ For joy of it, Granichus, lets sing. 85

_Manes._ My voice is as cleare in the evening as in the morning.[806]

_Gran._ An other commoditie of emptines!

SONG[807]

_Gran._ O for a bowle of fatt canary,
Rich Palermo, sparkling sherry,
Some nectar else[808] from Juno's daiery: 90
O these draughts would make us merry!

_Psil._ O for a wench! (I deale in faces,
And in other dayntier things,)
Tickled am I with her embraces,--
Fine dancing in such fairy ringes. 95

_Ma._ O for a plump fat leg of mutton,
Veale, lambe, capon, pigge, and conney![809]
None is happy but a glutton;
None an asse but who wants money.

_Ch._ Wines, indeed, and girls are good, 100
But brave victuals feast the bloud:
For wenches, wine, and lusty cheere,
Jove would leape down to surfet heere. [_Exeunt._]

Actus primus. Scæna tertia[810]

[_Enter_] MELIPPUS[811]

_Melip._ I had never such adoe to warne schollers to come before a
king! First I came to Crisippus, a tall, leane old mad man, willing
him presently to appeare before Alexander. Hee stood staring on my
face, neither moving his eyes nor his body. I urging him to give
some answer, hee tooke up a booke, sate downe, and saide nothing. 5
Melissa, his maide, told mee it was his manner, and that oftentimes
shee was fain to thrust meat into his mouth, for that he would
rather sterve than cease studie. Well, thought I, seeing bookish
men are so blockish and great clearkes such simple courtiers, I
will neither be partaker of their commons nor their commendations.
From thence I came to Plato and to Aristotle[812] and to divers 10
other; none refusing to come, saving an olde, obscure fellow,
who, sitting in a tub turned towardes the sunne, read Greeke to
a young boy. Him when I willed to appeare before Alexander, he
answered, "If Alexander would faine see mee, let him come to mee;
if learne of me, let him come to mee; whatsoever it be, let him 15
come to me." "Why," said I, "he is a king." He answered, "Why,
I am a philosopher." "Why, but he is Alexander." "I, but I am
Diogenes." I was halfe angry to see one so crooked in his shape to
bee so crabbed in his sayings; so, going my way, I said, "Thou 20
shalt repent it, if thou comest not to Alexander." "Nay," smiling
answered hee, "Alexander may repent it if hee come not to Diogenes:
vertue must bee sought, not offered." And so, turning himselfe to
his cell, hee grunted I know not what, like a pig under a tub. But
I must bee gone, the philosophers are comming. _Exit._ 25

[_Enter_ PLATO, ARISTOTLE, CRYSIPPUS, CRATES, CLEANTHES, _and_
ANAXARCHUS[813]]

_Plato._ It is a difficult controversie, Aristotle, and rather
to be wondred at than beleeved, how natural causes should worke
supernaturall effects.

_Aris._ I do not so much stand upon the apparition is seene in the 30
moone,[814] neither the _Demonium_ of Socrates, as that I cannot by
naturall reason give any reason of the ebbing and flowing of the
sea; which makes me in the depth of my studies to crie out, _O ens
entium, miserere mei_.

_Plato._ Cleanthes and you attribute so much to nature by searching
for things which are not to be found, that, whilest you studie a
cause of your owne,[815] you omitt the occasion it selfe. There 35
is no man so savage in whom resteth not this divine particle: that
there is an omnipotent, eternall, and divine mover, which may be
called God.

_Cleant._ I am of this minde: that that first mover, which you 40
terme God, is the instrument of all the movings which we attribute
to nature.[816] The earth, which is masse, swimmeth[817] on the sea,
seasons divided in themselves, fruits growing in themselves, the
majestie of the skie, the whole firmament of the world, and whatsoever
else appeareth miraculous,--what man almost of meane capacitie but 45
can prove it natural?

_Anax._ These causes shall be debated at our philosophers feast,
in which controversie I will take part with Aristotle that there is
_Natura naturans_,[818] and yet not God.

_Cra._ And I with Plato that there is _Deus optimus maximus_, and 50
not nature.

[_Enter_ ALEXANDER, _attended by_ HEPHESTION, PARMENIO, _and_ CLYTUS]

_Aris._ Here commeth Alexander.

_Alex._ I see, Hephestion, that these philosophers are here attending
for us.

_Hep._ They are not philosophers if they know[819] not their duties. 55

_Alex._ But I much mervaile Diogenes should bee so dogged.

_Hep._ I doe not thinke but his excuse will be better than Melippus
message.

_Alex._ I will goe see him, Hephestion, because I long to see him
that would command Alexander to come, to whom all the world is 60
like to come.--Aristotle and the rest, sithence my comming from
Thebes to Athens, from a place of conquest to a pallace of[820]
quiet, I have resolved with my selfe in my court to have as many
philosophers as I had in my camp souldiers. My court shal be a
schoole wherein I wil have used as great doctrine[821] in peace as
I did in warre discipline. 65

_Aris._ We are all here ready to be commanded, and glad we are
that we are commanded, for that nothing better becommeth kings
than literature, which maketh them come as neare to the gods in
wisdome as they doe in dignitie. 70

_Alex._ It is so, Aristotle, but yet there is among you, yea and of
your bringing up, that sought to destroy Alexander,--Calistenes,[822]
Aristotle, whose treasons against his prince shall not be borne out
with the reasons of his philosophie.

_Aris._ If ever mischief entred into the heart of Calistenes, let 75
Calistenes suffer for it; but that Aristotle ever imagined any such
thing of Calistenes, Aristotle doth denie.

_Alex._ Well, Aristotle, kindred may blinde thee, and affection me;
but in kings causes I will not stand to schollers arguments. This
meeting shal be for a commandement that you all frequent my 80
court, instruct the young with rules,[823] confirme the olde with
reasons:
let your lives bee answerable to your learnings, least my proceedings
be contrary to my promises.

_Hep._ You said you would aske every one of them a question
which yesternight none of us could answere.[824] 85

_Alex._ I will. Plato, of all beasts which is the subtilest?

_Plato._ That which man hitherto never knew.

_Alex._ Aristotle, how should a man be thought a god?

_Aris._ In doing a thing unpossible for a man.

_Alex._ Crisippus, which was first, the day or the night? 90

_Aris._ The day, by a day.

_Alex._ Indeede, strange questions must have strange answers.
Cleanthes, what say you, is life or death the stronger?

_Cle._ Life, that suffereth so many troubles.

_Alex._ Crates, how long should a man live? 95

_Crates._ Till hee thinke it better to die than to live.

_Alex._ Anaxarchus, whether doth the sea or the earth bring forth
most creatures?

_Anax._ The earth, for the sea is but a part of the earth.

_Alex._ Hephestion, me thinkes they have answered all well, and 100
in such questions I meane often to trie them.

_Hep._ It is better to have in your court a wise man than in your
ground a golden mine. Therefore would I leave war, to study
wisdom, were I Alexander.

_Alex._ So would I, were I Hephestion.[825] But come, let us goe 105
and give release, as I promised, to our Theban thralls.[826]
_Exeunt_ [_Alexander, Hephestion, Parmenio, and Clytus._]

_Plato._ Thou art fortunate, Aristotle, that Alexander is thy
scholler.

_Aris._ And all you happy that he is your soveraigne.

_Crisip._ I could like the man well, if he could be contented to 110
bee but a man.

_Aris._ He seeketh to draw neere to the gods in knowledge, not to be a
god.
[_Enter_ DIOGENES.[827]]

_Plato._ Let us question a little with Diogenes why he went not
with us to Alexander. Diogenes, thou didst forget thy duety, that 115
thou wentst not with us to the king.

_Diog._ And you your profession that went to the king.

_Plato._ Thou takest as great pride to be peevish as others do glory
to be vertuous.

_Diog._ And thou as great honour, being a philosopher, to be 120
thought court-like, as others shame, that be courtiers, to be
accounted philosophers.

_Aris._ These austere manners set aside, it is well knowne that
thou didst counterfeite money.[828]

_Diog._ And thou thy manners, in that thou didst not counterfeite 125
money.[829]

_Aris._ Thou hast reason to contemne the court, being both in bodie
and minde too crooked for a courtier.

_Diog._ As good be crooked and indevour to make my selfe straight,
from the court, as bee straight and learne to be crooked at the
court. 130

_Cris._ Thou thinkest it a grace to be opposite against Alexander.

_Diog._ And thou to be jump with Alexander.

_Anax._ Let us goe, for in contemning him we shal better please
him than in wondering at him.

_Aris._ Plato, what doest thou thinke of Diogenes? 135

_Plato._ To be Socrates furious.[830] Let us go. _Exeunt Philosophi._

[_Diogenes moves about with a lantern as if seeking something._]

[_Enter_] PSYLLUS, MANES, [_and_] GRANICHUS.[831]

_Psyllus._ Behold, Manes, where thy master is, seeking either for
bones for his dinner or pinnes for his sleeves. I will goe salute
him.

_Manes._ Doe so; but mum, not a word that you saw Manes! 140

_Gran._ Then stay thou behinde, and I will goe with Psyllus.

[_Manes stands apart._]

_Psyllus._ All hayle, Diogenes, to your proper person.

_Diog._ All hate to thy peevish conditions.

_Gran._ O dogge!

_Psyllus._ What doest thou seeke for here? 145

_Diog._ For a man and a beast.

_Gran._ That is easie without thy light to bee found: be not all
these men?[832]

_Diog._ Called men.

_Gran._ What beast is it thou lookest for? 150

_Diog._ The beast my man Manes.

_Psyllus._ Hee is a beast indeed that will serve thee.

_Diog._ So is he that begat thee.

_Gran._ What wouldest thou do, if thou shouldst find Manes?

_Diog._ Give him leave to doe as hee hath done before. 155

_Gran._ What's that?

_Diog._ To run away.

_Psyllus._ Why, hast thou no neede of Manes?

_Diog._ It were a shame for Diogenes to have neede of Manes
and for Manes to have no neede of Diogenes.[833] 160

_Gran._ But put the case he were gone, wouldst thou entertaine
any of us two?

_Diog._ Upon condition.

_Psyllus._ What?

_Diog._ That you should tell me wherefore any of you both were 165
good.

_Gran._ Why, I am a scholler and well seene in philosophy.

_Psyllus._ And I a prentice and well seene in painting.

_Diog._ Well then, Granichus, be thou a painter to amend thine
ill face; and thou, Psyllus, a philosopher to correct thine evill 170
manners. But who is that? Manes?

_Manes_ [_coming forward slowly_]. I care not who I were, so I were
not Manes.

_Gran._ You are taken tardie.

_Psyllus._ Let us slip aside, Granichus, to see the salutation 175
betweene Manes and his master. [_They draw back._]

_Diog._ Manes, thou knowest the last day[834] I threw away my dish,
to drinke in my hand, because it was superfluous;[835] now I am
determined to put away my man and serve my selfe, _quia non egeo
tui vel te_. 180

_Manes._ Master, you know a while agoe I ran away; so doe I
meane to doe againe, _quia scio tibi non esse argentum_.

_Diog._ I know I have no money, neither will I[836] have ever a man,
for I was resolved long sithence to put away both my slaves,--money
and Manes. 185

_Manes._ So was I determined to shake off[837] both my dogges,--hunger
and Diogenes.

_Psyllus._ O sweet consent[838] betweene a crowde[839] and a Jewes
harpe!

_Gran._ Come, let us reconcile them.

_Psyllus._ It shall not neede, for this is their use: now doe they 190
dine one upon another. _Exit Diogenes._

_Gran._ [_coming forward with Psyllus_]. How now, Manes, art thou
gone from thy master?

_Manes._ No, I did but now binde my selfe to him.

_Psyllus._ Why, you were at mortall jarres! 195

_Manes._ In faith, no; we brake a bitter jest one upon another.

_Gran._ Why, thou art as dogged as he.

_Psyllus._ My father knew them both little whelps.

_Manes._ Well, I will hie me after my master.

_Gran._ Why, is it supper time with Diogenes? 200

_Manes._ I, with him at all time when he hath meate.

_Psyllus._ Why then, every man to his home; and let us steale
out againe anone.

_Gran._ Where shall we meete?

_Psyllus._ Why at _Alae[840] vendibili suspensa hædera non est
opus_. 205

_Manes._ O Psyllus, _habeo te loco parentis_; thou blessest me.
_Exeunt._

Actus secundus.[841] Scæna prima.[842]

ALEXANDER, HEPHESTION, [_and_] PAGE.[843]

_Alex._ Stand aside, sir boy, till you be called. [_The Page stands
aside._] Hephestion, how doe you like the sweet face of Campaspe?

_Hep._ I cannot but commende the stout courage of Timoclea.

_Alex._ Without doubt Campaspe had some great man to her
father. 5

_Hep._ You know Timoclea had Theagines to her brother.

_Alex._ Timoclea still in thy mouth! Art thou not in love?

_Hep._ Not I.

_Alex._ Not with Timoclea, you meane. Wherein you resemble
the lapwing, who crieth most where her nest is not.[844] And so 10
you lead me from espying your love with Campaspe,--you crie
Timoclea.

_Hep._ Could I as well subdue kingdomes as I can my thoughts, or
were I as farre from ambition as I am from love, all the world
would account mee as valiant in armes as I know my selfe moderate
in affection. 15

_Alex._ Is love a vice?

_Hep._ It is no vertue.

_Alex._ Well, now shalt thou see what small difference I make
between Alexander and Hephestion. And, sith thou hast been 20
alwaies partaker of my triumphes, thou shalt bee partaker of my
torments. I love, Hephestion, I love! I love Campaspe,--a
thing farre unfit for a Macedonian, for a king, for Alexander.
Why hangest thou downe thy head, Hephestion, blushing to heare
that which I am not ashamed to tell? 25

_Hep._ Might my words crave pardon and my counsell credit, I
would both discharge the duetie of a subject, for so I am, and the
office of a friend, for so I will.

_Alex._ Speake Hephestion; for, whatsoever is spoken, Hephestion
speaketh to Alexander. 30

_Hep_. I cannot tell, Alexander, whether the report be more
shamefull to be heard or the cause sorrowful to be beleeved? What,
is the son of Philip, king of Macedon, become the subject of
Campaspe, the captive of Thebes? Is that minde whose greatnes the
world could not containe drawn within the compasse of an idle, 35
alluring eie? Wil you handle the spindle with Hercules[845] when
you should shake the speare with Achilles? Is the warlike sound
of drum and trump turned to the soft noise of lyre and lute, the
neighing of barbed[846] steeds, whose lowdnes filled the aire with
terrour and whose breathes dimmed the sun with smoake, converted to
delicate tunes and amorous glances?[847] O Alexander, that soft 40
and yeelding minde should not bee in him whose hard and unconquerd
heart hath made so many yeeld. But you love! Ah griefe! But whom?
Campaspe. Ah shame! A maide, forsooth, unknowne, unnoble,--and
who can tell whether immodest?--whose eyes are framed by art 45
to enamour, and whose heart was made by nature to enchant. I, but
shee is beautifull. Yea, but not therefore chaste. I, but she is
comely in all parts of the bodie. But shee may bee crooked in
some part of the minde. I, but shee is wise. Yea, but she is a
woman. Beautie is like the blackberry, which seemeth red when 50
it is not ripe,--resembling precious stones that are polished with
honie,[848] which the smoother they looke, the sooner they breake.
It is thought wonderfull among the sea-men, that mugill,[849] of
all fishes the swiftest, is found in the belly of the bret,[850]
of all the slowest: and shall it not seeme monstrous to wise men
that the heart of the greatest conquerour of the world should 55
be found in the hands of the weakest creature of nature,--of a
woman, of a captive? Hermyns have faire skins, but foule livers;
sepulchres fresh colours, but rotten bones; women faire faces, but
false hearts. Remember, Alexander, thou hast a campe to governe,
not a chamber. Fall not from the armour of Mars to the armes of 60
Venus, from the fierie assaults of warre to the maidenly skirmishes
of love, from displaying the eagle in thine ensigne to set downe
the sparrow. I sigh, Alexander, that, where fortune could not
conquer, folly should overcome. But behold all the perfection
that may bee in Campaspe: a haire curling by nature, not art; 65
sweete alluring eyes; a faire face made in despite of Venus; and a
stately port in disdaine of Juno; a wit apt to conceive and quicke
to answere; a skinne as soft as silke and as smooth as jet; a long
white hand; a fine little foot,--to conclude, all parts answerable
to the best part. What of this? Though she have heavenly gifts, 70
vertue and beautie, is shee not of earthly metall, flesh and bloud?
You, Alexander, that would be a god, shew your selfe in this worse
than a man, so soone to be both overseene and over-taken[851] in a
woman, whose false teares know their true times, whose smooth words
wound deeper than sharpe swords. There is no surfet so dangerous 75
as that of honie, nor any poyson so deadly as that of love: in the
one physicke cannot prevaile, nor in the other counsell.

_Alex._ My case were light, Hephestion, and not worthy to be called
love, if reason were a remedie, or sentences could salve that 80
sense cannot conceive. Little do you know and therefore sleightly
doe you regard the dead embers in a private person or live coales
in a great prince, whose passions and thoughts doe as farre exceed
others in extremitie as their callings doe in majestie. An eclipse
in the sunne is more than the falling of a starre: none can
conceive the torments of a king, unlesse he be a king, whose 85
desires are not inferiour to their dignities. And then judge,
Hephestion, if the agonies of love be dangerous in a subject,
whether they be not more than deadly unto Alexander, whose deepe
and not to bee conceived sighes cleave the heart in shivers, whose
wounded thoughts can neither be expressed nor endured. Cease 90
then, Hephestion, with arguments to seeke to refell[852] that which
with their deitie the gods cannot resist; and let this suffice to
answere thee,--that it is a king that loveth, and Alexander, whose
affections are not to bee measured by reason, being immortall,
nor, I feare me, to be borne, being intolerable. 95

_Hep._ I must needs yeeld, when neither reason nor counsell can
bee heard.

_Alex._ Yeeld, Hephestion, for Alexander doth love, and therefore
must obtaine. 100

_Hep._ Suppose shee loves not you? Affection commeth not by
appointment or birth; and then as good hated as enforced.

_Alex._ I am a king, and will command.

_Hep._ You may, to yeeld to lust by force, but to consent to love
by feare, you cannot. 105

_Alex._ Why? What is that which Alexander may not conquer
as he list?

_Hep._ Why, that which you say the gods cannot resist,--love.

_Alex._ I am a conquerour, shee a captive; I as fortunate as shee 110
faire: my greatnesse may answere her wants, and the gifts of my
minde the modestie of hers. Is it not likely, then, that she should
love? Is it not reasonable?

_Hep._ You say that in love there is no reason; and, therefore,
there can be no likelyhood. 115

_Alex._ No more, Hephestion! In this case I will use mine own
counsell, and in all other thine advice: thou mayst be a good
souldier, but never good lover. Call my page. [_The Page comes
forward._] Sirrah, goe presently to Apelles and will him to come to
me without either delay or excuse. 120

_Page._ I goe. [_Exit._]

_Alex._ In the meane season, to recreate my spirits, being so
neere, wee will goe see Diogenes. And see where his tub is.[853]
[_Crosses stage._] Diogenes!

_Diog._ Who calleth? 125

_Alex._ Alexander. How happened it that you would not come
out of your tub to my palace?[854]

_Diog._ Because it was as farre from my tub to your palace as
from your palace to my tub.

_Alex._ Why then, doest thou owe no reverence to kings? 130

_Diog._ No.

_Alex._ Why so?

_Diog._ Because they be no gods.

_Alex._ They be gods of the earth.

_Diog._ Yea, gods of earth. 135

_Alex._ Plato is not of thy minde.

_Diog._ I am glad of it.

_Alex._ Why?

_Diog._ Because I would have none of Diogenes minde but Diogenes. 140

_Alex._ If Alexander have any thing that may pleasure Diogenes, let me
know, and take it.

_Diog._ Then take not from mee that you cannot give mee,--the light of
the world.

_Alex._ What doest thou want? 145

_Diog._ Nothing that you have.

_Alex._ I have the world at command.

_Diog._ And I in contempt.

_Alex._ Thou shalt live no longer than I will.

_Diog._ But I shall die whether you will or no. 150

_Alex._ How should one learne to bee content?

_Diog._ Unlearne to covet.

_Alex._ Hephestion, were I not Alexander, I would wish to bee
Diogenes!

_Hep._ He is dogged, but discreet; I cannot tell how sharpe, 155
with a kind of sweetnes; full of wit, yet too-too wayward.

_Alex._ Diogenes, when I come this way againe, I will both see thee
and confer with thee.

_Diog._ Doe.[855] [_Enter_ APELLES.]

_Alex._ But here commeth Apelles. How now, Apelles, is Venus 160
face yet finished?

_Apel._ Not yet; beautie is not so soone shadowed whose perfection
commeth not within the compasse either of cunning or of
colour.

_Alex._ Well, let it rest unperfect; and come you with mee where 165
I will shew you that finished by nature that you have beene trifling
about by art.
[_Exeunt Alexander, Hephestion, and Apelles._

Actus tertius. Scæna prima.[856]

[_Enter_] APELLES, CAMPASPE [_and a little behind them_, PSYLLUS.]

_Apel._ Ladie, I doubt whether there bee any colour so fresh that may
shadow a countenance so faire.

_Camp._ Sir, I had thought you had bin commanded to paint with your
hand, not to glose[857] with your tongue; but as I have heard, it
is the hardest thing in painting to set downe a hard favour,[858]
which maketh you to despaire of my face; and then[859] shall you 5
have as great thankes to spare your labour as to discredit your art.

_Apel._ Mistris, you neither differ from your selfe nor your sexe;
for, knowing your owne perfection, you seeme to disprayse that which
men most commend, drawing them by that meane into an admiration 10
where, feeding themselves, they fall into an extasie; your modestie
being the cause of the one, and of the other your affections.

_Camp._ I am too young to understand your speech, though old enough
to withstand your devise. You have bin so long used to colours you
can doe nothing but colour.[860] 15

_Apel_ Indeed the colours I see, I feare will alter the colour I
have.[861] But come, madam, will you draw neere?--for Alexander
will be here anon. Psyllus, stay you here at the window. If any
enquire for mee, answere, _Non lubet esse domi._
_Exeunt_ [_Apelles and Campaspe._[862]]

_Psyllus._ It is alwayes my masters fashion when any faire
gentle-woman is to be drawne within to make me to stay without. 20
But if hee should paint Jupiter like a bull, like a swanne, like an
eagle, then must Psyllus with one hand grind colours and with the
other hold the candle. But let him alone! The better hee shadowes
her face, the more will he burne his owne heart. And now if any 25
man could meet with Manes, who, I dare say, lookes as leane as if
Diogenes dropped out of his nose.[863] [_Enter_ MANES.]

_Manes._ And here comes Manes, who hath as much meate in his
maw as thou hast honestie in thy head.

_Psyllus._ Then I hope thou art very hungry. 30

_Manes._ They that know thee know that.

_Psyllus._ But doest thou not remember that wee have certaine
liquor to conferre withall.

_Manes._ I, but I have businesse; I must goe cry a thing.

_Psyllus._ Why, what hast thou lost? 35

_Manes._ That which I never had,--my dinner!

_Psyllus._ Foule lubber, wilt thou crie for thy dinner?

_Manes._ I meane I must crie,--not as one would say "crie,"
but "crie,"[864] that is, make a noyse.

_Psyllus._ Why foole, that is all one; for, if thou crie, thou must 40
needs make a noyse.

_Manes._ Boy, thou art deceived: crie hath divers significations,
and may be alluded to many things; knave but one,[865] and can be
applyed but to thee.

_Psyllus._ Profound Manes! 45

_Manes._ Wee Cynickes are mad fellowes. Didst thou not finde
I did quip thee?

_Psyllus._ No, verily! Why, what's a quip?

_Manes._ Wee great girders call it a short saying of a sharpe wit,
with a bitter sense in a sweet word. 50

_Psyllus._ How canst thou thus divine, divide, define, dispute, and
all on the sodaine?

_Manes._ Wit will have his swing! I am bewitcht, inspired, inflamed,
infected.

_Psyllus._ Well then will I not tempt thy gybing spirit. 55

_Manes._ Doe not, Psyllus, for thy dull head will bee but
a grind-stone for my quicke wit, which if thou whet with
overthwarts,[866] _periisti, actum est de te_! I have drawne bloud
at ones braines with a bitter bob.

_Psyllus._ Let me crosse my selfe; for I die if I crosse thee. 60

_Manes._ Let me doe my businesse. I my selfe am afraid lest my wit
should waxe warme, and then must it needs consume some hard head
with fine and prettie jests. I am sometimes in such a vaine that,
for want of some dull pate to worke on, I begin to gird my selfe. 65

_Psyllus._ The gods shield me from such a fine fellow, whose
words melt wits like waxe.

_Manes._ Well then, let us to the matter. In faith, my master
meaneth to morrow to flie.

_Psyllus._ It is a jest. 70

_Manes._ Is it a jest to flie? Shouldest thou flie so soone, thou
shouldest repent it in earnest.

_Psyllus._ Well, I will be the cryer.

_Manes and Psyllus_ (_one after another_). O ys! O ys! O ys![867] All
manner of men, women, or children, that will come to morrow into 75
the market place betweene the houres of nine and ten shall see
Diogenes the Cynicke--flie.[868]

_Psyllus._ I doe not thinke he will flie.

_Manes._ Tush, say "flie!"

_Psyllus._ Flie. 80

_Manes._ Now let us goe; for I will not see him againe till
midnight,--I have a backe way into his tub.

_Psyllus._ Which way callest thou the backe way, when every way
is open?

_Manes._ I meane to come in at his backe. 85

_Psyllus._ Well, let us goe away, that we may returne speedily.
_Exeunt._

Actus tertius. Scæna secunda.[869]

[_Enter_] APELLES, CAMPASPE.

_Apel._ I shall never draw your eyes well, because they blinde
mine.[870]

_Camp._ Why then, paint mee without eyes, for I am blind.[871]

_Apel._ Were you ever shadowed before of any?

_Camp._ No; and would you could so now shadow me that I 5
might not be perceived of any.[872]

_Apel._ It were pitie but that so absolute[873] a face should furnish
Venus temple amongst these pictures.

_Camp._ What are these pictures?

_Apel._ This is Læda, whom Jove deceived in likenesse of a swan. 10

_Camp._ A faire woman, but a foule deceit.

_Apel._ This is Alcmena, unto whom Jupiter came in shape of
Amphitrion, her husband, and begate Hercules.

_Camp._ A famous sonne, but an infamous fact.

_Apel._ Hee might doe it, because hee was a god. 15

_Camp._ Nay, therefore it was evill done because he was a god.

_Apel._ This is Danae, into whose prison Jupiter drizled a golden
showre, and obtained his desire.

_Camp._ What gold can make one yeeld to desire?

_Apel._ This is Europa, whom Jupiter ravished; this, Antiopa.[874] 20

_Camp._ Were all the gods like this Jupiter?

_Apel._ There were many gods in this like Jupiter.

_Camp._ I thinke in those dayes love was well ratified among men
on earth when lust was so full authorised by the gods in Heaven.

_Apel._ Nay, you may imagine there were women passing amiable 25
when there were gods exceeding amorous.

_Camp._ Were women never so faire, men would be false.

_Apel._ Were women never so false, men would be fond.

_Camp._ What counterfeit is this, Apelles?

_Apel._ This is Venus, the goddesse of love. 30

_Camp._ What, bee there also loving goddesses?

_Apel._ This is shee that hath power to command the very affections
of the heart.

_Camp._ How is she hired,--by prayer, by sacrifice, or bribes?

_Apel._ By prayer, sacrifice, and bribes. 35

_Camp._ What prayer?

_Apel._ Vowes irrevocable.

_Camp._ What sacrifice?

_Apel._ Hearts ever sighing, never dissembling.

_Camp._ What bribes? 40

_Apel._ Roses and kisses. But were you never in love?

_Camp._ No; nor love in me.

_Apel._ Then have you injuried many.

_Camp._ How so?

_Apel._ Because you have been loved of many. 45

_Camp._ Flattered, perchance, of some.

_Apel._ It is not possible that a face so faire and a wit so sharpe,
both without comparison, should not be apt to love.

_Camp._ If you begin to tip your tongue with cunning, I pray dip
your pensill in colours and fall to that you must doe, not that you 50
would doe.

Actus tertius. Scæna tertia.[875]

[_Enter_] CLYTUS [_and_] PARMENIO.

_Clytus._ Parmenio, I cannot tell how it commeth to passe that in
Alexander now a dayes there groweth an unpatient kind of life:
in the morning he is melancholy, at noone solemne, at all times
either more sowre or severe than hee was accustomed.

_Par._ In kings causes I rather love to doubt[876] than conjecture, 5
and thinke it better to bee ignorant than inquisitive: they have
long eares and stretched armes;[877] in whose heads suspition is a
proofe, and to be accused is to be condemned.

_Clytus._ Yet betweene us there can bee no danger to find out the
cause, for that there is no malice to withstand it. It may be an
unquenchable thirst of conquering maketh him unquiet; it is not 10
unlikely his long ease hath altered his humour; that he should be
in love, it is not[878] impossible.

_Par._ In love, Clytus? No, no; it is as farre from his thought
as treason in ours. He, whose ever-waking eye, whose never-tired 15
heart, whose body patient of labour, whose mind unsatiable of
victorie, hath alwayes beene noted, cannot so soone be melted into
the weake conceits of love. Aristotle told him there were many
worlds; and that he hath not conquered one that gapeth for all
galleth Alexander. But here he cometh. 20

[_Enter_ ALEXANDER _and_ HEPHESTION.]

_Alex._ Parmenio and Clytus, I would have you both readie to
goe into Persia about an ambassage no lesse profitable to me than
to your selves honourable.

_Clytus._ Wee are readie at all commands, wishing nothing else
but continually to be commanded. 25

_Alex._ Well then, withdraw yourselves till I have further considered
of this matter. _Exeunt Clytus and Parmenio._

Now wee will see how Apelles goeth forward. I doubt mee that
nature hath overcome art, and her countenance his cunning.

_Hep._ You love, and therefore think any thing. 30

_Alex._ But not so farre in love with Campaspe as with
Bucephalus,[879] if occasion serve either of conflict or[880]
conquest.

_Hep._ Occasion cannot want if will doe not. Behold all Persia
swelling in the pride of their owne power, the Scythians carelesse
what courage or fortune can do, the Egyptians dreaming in the 35
southsayings of their augures and gaping over the smoake of their
beasts intralls. All these, Alexander, are to be subdued, if that
world be not slipped out of your head which you have sworne to
conquer with that hand.

_Alex._ I confesse the labour's fit for Alexander, and yet
recreation necessarie among so many assaults, bloudie wounds, 40
intolerable troubles. Give me leave a little, if not to sit, yet
to breath. And doubt not but Alexander can, when hee will, throw
affections as farre from him as he can cowardise. But behold
Diogenes talking with one at his tub.[881] 45

_Crysus._ One penny, Diogenes; I am a Cynicke.

_Diog._ Hee made thee a begger that first gave thee any thing.

_Crysus._ Why, if thou wilt give nothing, no bodie will give thee.

_Diog._ I want nothing till the springs drie and the earth perish.

_Crysus._ I gather for the gods. 50

_Diog._ And I care not for those gods which want money.

_Crysus._ Thou art not a right[882] Cynick, that wilt give nothing.

_Diog._ Thou art not, that wilt begge any thing.

_Crysus_ [_crossing to Alexander_]. Alexander! King Alexander!
Give a poore Cynick a groat.[883] 55

_Alex._ It is not for a king to give a groat.

_Crysus._ Then give me a talent.[884]

_Alex._ It is not for a begger to aske a talent. Away! [_Exit
Crysus. Alexander crosses to the part of the stage opposite the tub of
Diogenes where Apelles and Campaspe are._] 60
Apelles![885]

_Apel._ Here.

_Alex._ Now, gentlewoman, doth not your beautie put the painter
to his trumpe?

_Camp._ Yes, my lord, seeing so disordered a countenance, hee
feareth hee shall shadow a deformed counterfeite. 65

_Alex._ Would he could colour the life with the feature! And mee
thinketh, Apelles, were you as cunning as report saith you are,
you may paint flowres as well with sweet smels as fresh colours,
observing in your mixture such things as should draw neere to their
savours. 70

_Apel._ Your Majestie must know, it is no lesse hard to paint
savours than vertues; colours can neither speake nor thinke.

_Alex._ Where doe you first begin when you draw any picture?

_Apel._ The proportion of the face in just compasse as I can.

_Alex._ I would begin with the eye, as a light to all the rest. 75

_Apel._ If you will paint, as you are a king, Your Majestie may
beginne where you please; but as you would bee a painter, you
must begin with the face.

_Alex._ Aurelius[886] would in one houre colour foure faces.

_Apel._ I marvaile in halfe an houre hee did not foure. 80

_Alex._ Why, is it so easie?

_Apel._ No; but he doth it so homely.

_Alex._ When will you finish Campaspe?

_Apel._ Never finish; for alwayes in absolute beauty there is
somewhat above art. 85

_Alex._ Why should not I by labour be as cunning as Apelles?

_Apel._ God shield you should have cause to be so cunning[887] as
Apelles!

_Alex._ Me thinketh foure colours are sufficient to shadow any
countenance; and so it was in the time of Phydias.[888] 90

_Apel._ Then had men fewer fancies and women not so many
favours.[889] For now, if the haire of her eyebrowes be blacke,
yet must the haire of her head be yellow;[890] the attire of her
head must bee different from the habit of her bodie, else would the
picture seeme like the blazon of ancient armory,[891] not like the
sweet delight of new-found amiablenesse.[892] For, as in garden 95
knots[893] diversitie of odours make a more sweete savour, or as
in musique divers strings cause a more delicate consent,[894] so,
in painting, the more colours, the better counterfeit,--observing
black for a ground, and the rest for grace. 100

_Alex._ Lend me thy pensill, Apelles; I will paint, and thou shalt
judge.

_Apel._ Here.

_Alex._ The coale[895] breakes.

_Apel._ You leane too hard. 105

_Alex._ Now it blackes not.

_Apel._ You leane too soft.

_Alex._ This is awrie.

_Apel._ Your eye goeth not with your hand.

_Alex._ Now it is worse. 110

_Apel._ Your hand goeth not with your minde.

_Alex._ Nay, if all be too hard or soft,--so many rules and regards
that ones hand, ones eye, ones minde must all draw together,--I had
rather bee setting of a battell than blotting of a boord.[896] But
how have I done here? 115

_Apel._ Like a king.

_Alex._ I thinke so; but nothing more unlike a painter.[897] Well,
Apelles, Campaspe is finished as I wish. Dismisse her, and bring
presently her counterfeit after me.

_Apel._ I will. 120

_Alex._ [_as he crosses the stage._] Now, Hephestion, doth not this
matter cotton as I would?[898] Campaspe looketh pleasantly; libertie
will encrease her beautie, and my love shall advance her honour.

_Hep._ I will not contrarie your Majestie; for time must weare
out that love hath wrought, and reason weane what appetite nursed. 125
[_Campaspe passes on her way to the farther door._]

_Alex._ How stately shee passeth by, yet how soberly, a sweete
consent in her countenance, with a chaste disdaine, desire mingled
with coynesse, and--I cannot tell how to terme it--a curst, yeelding
modesty![899]

_Hep._ Let her passe. 130

_Alex._ So shee shall for the fairest on the earth!

_Exeunt_ [_Alexander and Hephestion at one side of the stage, Apelles
at the other._]

Actus tertius. Scæna quarta.[900]

[_Enter_] PSYLLUS [_and_] MANES.

_Psyllus._ I shall be hanged for tarrying so long.

_Manes._ I pray God my master be not flowne before I come!
[_Enter Apelles._]

_Psyllus._ Away, Manes, my master doth come. [_Exit Manes._]

_Apel._ Where have you beene all this while?

_Psyllus._ Nowhere but here. 5

_Apel._ Who was here sithens my comming?

_Psyllus._ Nobodie.

_Apel._ Ungracious wag, I perceive you have beene a loytering! Was
Alexander nobodie?

_Psyllus._ He was a king, I meant no mean bodie. 10

_Apel._ I will cudgell your bodie for it, and then will I say it
was no bodie, because it was no honest bodie. Away, in! _Exit
Psyllus._ Unfortunate Apelles, and therefore unfortunate because
Apelles! Hast thou by drawing her beautie brought to passe that
thou canst scarce draw thine owne breath? And by so much the
more hast thou increased thy care by how much the more hast 15
thou[901] shewed thy cunning? Was it not sufficient to behold the
fire and warme thee, but with Satyrus thou must kisse the fire
and burne thee? O Campaspe, Campaspe! Art must yeeld to nature,
reason to appetite, wisdome to affection! Could Pigmalion entreate
by prayer to have his ivory turned into flesh, and cannot 20
Apelles obtaine by plaints to have the picture of his love changed
to life? Is painting so farre inferiour to carving? Or dost thou,
Venus, more delight to bee hewed with chizels then shadowed with
colours? What Pigmalion, or what Pyrgoteles, or what Lysippus is
hee,[902] that ever made thy face so faire or spread thy fame 25
so farre as I? Unlesse, Venus, in this thou enviest mine art, that
in colouring my sweet Campaspe I have left no place by cunning to
make thee so amiable.[903] But, alas, shee is the paramour to a
prince! Alexander, the monarch of the earth, hath both her body and
affection. For what is it that kings cannot obtaine by prayers, 30
threats, and promises? Will not shee thinke it better to sit under
a cloth of estate[904] like a queene than in a poore shop like a
huswife, and esteeme it sweeter to be the concubine of the lord of
the world than spouse to a painter in Athens? Yes, yes, Apelles,
thou maist swimme against the streame with the crab, and feede 35
against the winde with the deere, and peck against the steele with
the cockatrice:[905] starres are to be looked at, not reached at;
princes to be yeelded unto, not contended with; Campaspe to be
honoured, not obtained; to be painted, not possessed of thee. O
faire face! O unhappy hand! And why didst thou drawe it--so 40
faire a face? O beautifull countenance, the expres image of Venus,
but somwhat fresher, the only patterne of that eternitie which
Jupiter dreaming, asleepe, could not conceive againe waking! Blush,
Venus, for I am ashamed to ende thee! Now must I paint things
unpossible for mine art but agreeable with my affections,--deepe 45
and hollow sighes, sad and melancholie thoughtes, woundes and
slaughters of conceits, a life posting to death, a death galloping
from life, a wavering constancie, an unsetled resolution, and
what not, Apelles? And what but Apelles?[906] But as they that
are shaken with a feaver are to be warmed with cloathes, not 50
groanes, and as he that melteth in a consumption is to be recured
by colices,[907] not conceits, so the feeding canker of my care,
the never-dying worme of my heart, is to be killed by counsell,
not cries, by applying of remedies, not by replying of reasons.
And sith in cases desperate there must be used medicines that
are extreame, I will hazard that little life that is left, to 55
restore the greater part that is lost; and this shall be my first
practise,--for wit must worke where authoritie is not,--as soone as
Alexander hath viewed this portraiture, I will by devise give it a
blemish, that by that meanes she may come againe to my shop; and
then as good it were to utter my love and die with deniall as 60
conceale it and live in dispaire.

SONG BY APELLES.

Cupid and my Campaspe playd
At cardes for kisses; Cupid payd.
He stakes his quiver, bow, and arrows, 65
His mothers doves, and teeme of sparows;
Looses them, too. Then, downe he throwes
The corrall of his lippe, the rose
Growing on's cheek,--but none knows how,--
With these, the cristall of his brow, 70
And then the dimple of his chinne;
All these did my Campaspe winne.
At last, hee set her both his eyes;
Shee won, and Cupid blind did rise.
O love! has shee done this to thee? 75
What shall, alas, become of mee? [_Exit Apelles._]

Actus quartus. Scæna prima.[908]

[_Enter_] SOLINUS, PSYLLUS, [_and_] GRANICHUS.[909]

_Sol._ This is the place, the day, the time, that Diogenes hath
appointed to flie.

_Psyllus._ I will not loose the flight of so faire a foule as Diogenes
is though my master cudgell my no body as he threatned.

_Gran._ What, Psyllus, will the beast wag his wings to day? 5
[_Enter Manes._]

_Psyllus._ Wee shall heare; for here commeth Manes. Manes, will it be?

_Manes._ Be? He were best be as cunning as a bee, or else shortly he
will not bee at all.

_Gran._ How is hee furnished to flie? Hath he feathers? 10

_Manes._ Thou art an asse! Capons, geese, and owles, have feathers. He
hath found Dedalus old waxen wings,[910] and hath beene peecing them
this moneth, he is so broad in the shoulders. O, you shall see him cut
the ayre even like a tortoys!

_Sol._ Me thinkes so wise a man should not bee so mad; his body 15
must needs be too heavie.

_Manes._ Why, hee hath eaten nothing this seven night but corke and
feathers.

_Psyllus_ [_aside_]. Touch him,[911] Manes.

_Manes._ Hee is so light that hee can scarce keepe him from flying 20
at midnight. _Populus intrat._

_Manes._ See they begin to flocke, and, behold, my master bustels
himselfe to flie. [_They draw nearer the tub._]

_Diog._[912] You wicked and bewitched Athenians, whose bodies
make the earth to groane, and whose breathes infect the ayre
with stench, come ye to see Diogenes flie? Diogenes commeth 25
to see you sinke. Yea,[913] call me dogge! So I am, for I long
to gnaw the bons in your skins. Yee tearme me an hater of men!
No, I am a hater of your manners. Your lives, dissolute, not
fearing death, will prove your deaths desperat, not hoping for
life. What do you else in Athens but sleepe in the day and 30
surfeit in the night,--backe-gods in the morning with pride, in
the evening belly-gods with gluttony! You flatter kings, and call
them gods. Speak truth of your selves and confesse you are divels!
From the bee you have taken, not the honey, but the wax, to make
your religion, framing it to the time, not to the truth. Your 35
filthy lust you colour under a courtly colour of love, injuries
abroad under the title of policies at home; and secret malice
creepeth under the name of publike justice. You have caused
Alexander to drie up springs and plant vines, to sow rocket and
weed endiff,[914] to sheare sheepe, and shrine[915] foxes. All
conscience is sealed[916] at Athens: swearing commeth of a 40
hot mettle; lying of a quick wit; flattery of a flowing tongue;
undecent talke of a merry disposition. All things are lawfull at
Athens: either you think there are no gods, or I must think ye are
no men. You build as though you should live for ever and surfeit as
though you should die to morrowe. None teacheth true philosophie 45
but Aristotle, because hee was the kings schoole-master! O times!
O men! O corruption in manners! Remember that greene grasse must
turne to drie hay. When you sleepe, you are not sure to wake; and
when you rise, not certaine to lie downe. Looke you never so 50
high, your heads must lie level with your feet. Thus have I flowne
over[917] your disordered lives; and if you will not amend your
manners, I will studie to flie further from you, that I may bee
neerer to honestie.[918]

_Sol._ Thou ravest, Diogenes, for thy life is different from thy 55
words. Did not I see thee come out of a brothell house? Was it
not a shame?

_Diog._ It was no shame to goe out, but a shame to goe in.

_Gran._ It were a good deede, Manes, to beate thy master.

_Manes._ You were as good eate my master. 60

_One of the People._ Hast thou made us all fooles, and wilt thou not
flie?

_Diog._ I tell thee, unlesse thou be honest, I will flie.[919]

_People._ Dog, dog, take a bone!

_Diog._ Thy father need feare no dogs, but dogs thy father.[920] 65

_People._ We will tell Alexander that thou reprovest him behinde
his back.

_Diog._ And I will tell him that you flatter him before his face.

_People._ Wee will cause all the boyes in the streete to hisse at
thee.

_Diog._ Indeede, I thinke the Athenians have their children readie 70
for any vice, because they bee Athenians.
[_Exeunt Populus and Solinus._]

_Manes._ Why, master, meane you not to flie?

_Diog._ No, Manes, not without wings.

_Manes._ Everybody will account you a lyar.

_Diog._ No, I warrant you, for I will alwayes say the Athenians 75
are mischevous.

_Psyllus._ I care not; it was sport enough for mee to see these old
huddles[921] hit home.

_Gran._ Nor I.

_Psyllus._ Come, let us goe; and hereafter when I meane to rayle 80
upon any body openly, it shall bee given out, I will flie. _Exeunt._

Actus quartus. Scæna secunda.[922]

[_Enter_] CAMPASPE.[923]

_Camp. sola._ Campaspe, it is hard to judge whether thy choyce be
more unwise or thy chance unfortunate. Doest thou preferre--but
stay, utter not that in wordes which maketh thine eares to glow
with thoughts. Tush, better thy tongue wagge than thy heart
breake! Hath a painter crept further into thy minde than a 5
prince;--Apelles, than Alexander? Fond wench, the basenes of thy
minde bewraies the meannesse of thy birth. But, alas, affection is
a fire which kindleth as well[924] in the bramble as in the oake,
and catcheth hold where it first lighteth, not where it may best
burne. Larkes, that mount aloft in the ayre, build their neasts 10
below in the earth; and women that cast their eyes upon kings may
place their hearts upon vassals. A needle will become thy fingers
better than a lute, and a distaffe is fitter for thy hand than a
scepter. Antes live safely till they have gotten wings, and juniper
is not blowne up till it hath gotten an high top: the meane estate
is without care as long as it continueth without pride. [_Enter 15
Apelles._] But here commeth Apelles, in whom I would there were the
like affection.

_Apel._ Gentlewoman, the misfortune I had with your picture will
put you to some paines to sit againe to be painted. 20

_Camp._ It is small paines for mee to sit still, but infinite for you
to draw still.

_Apel._ No, madame; to painte Venus was a pleasure, but to
shadow the sweete face of Campaspe, it is a heaven!

_Camp._ If your tongue were made of the same flesh that your 25
heart is, your words would bee as your thoughts are; but, such a
common thing it is amongst you to commend that oftentimes for
fashion sake you call them beautifull whom you know blacke.

_Apel._ What might men doe to be beleeved?

_Camp._ Whet their tongue on their hearts. 30

_Apel._ So they doe, and speake as they thinke.

_Camp._ I would they did!

_Apel._ I would they did not!

_Camp._ Why, would you have them dissemble?

_Apel._ Not in love, but their love.[925] But will you give mee 35
leave to aske you a question without offence?

_Camp._ So that you will answere mee another without excuse.

_Apel._ Whom doe you love best in the world?

_Camp._ He that made me last in the world.

_Apel._ That was a god. 40

_Camp._ I had thought it had beene a man. But whom doe you
honour most, Apelles?

_Apel._ The thing that is likest you, Campaspe.

_Camp._ My picture?

_Apel._ I dare not venture upon your person. But come, let us 45
go in: for Alexander will thinke it long till we returne. _Exeunt._

Actus quartus. Scæna tertia.[926]

[_Enter_] CLYTUS [_and_] PARMENIO.

_Clytus._ We heare nothing of our embassage,--a colour[927]
belike to bleare our eyes or tickle our eares or inflame our
hearts. But what doth Alexander in the meane season but use for
_tantara_,--_sol_, _fa_, _la_;[928] for his hard couch, downe beds;
for his handfull of water, his standing-cup of wine?[929] 5

_Par._ Clytus, I mislike this new delicacie and pleasing peace, for
what else do we see now than a kind of softnes in every mans minde:
bees to make their hives in souldiers helmets;[930] our steeds
furnished with footclothes of gold, insteede of sadles of steele; more
time to be required to scowre the rust of our weapons than there 10
was wont to be in subduing the countries of our enemies. Sithence
Alexander fell from his hard armour to his soft robes, behold the
face of his court: youths that were wont to carry devises of victory
in their shields engrave now posies of love in their ringes; they
that were accustomed on trotting horses to charge the enemie with 15
a launce, now in easie coches ride up and down to court ladies; in
steade of sword and target to hazard their lives, use pen and paper to
paint their loves; yea, such a feare and faintnesse is growne in court
that they wish rather to heare the blowing of a horne to hunt than the
sound of a trumpet to fight. O Philip, wert thou alive to see this 20
alteration,--thy men turned to women, thy souldiers to lovers, gloves
worne in velvet caps,[931] in stead of plumes in graven helmets,--thou
wouldest either dye among them for sorrow or counfound[932] them for
anger.

_Clytus._ Cease, Parmenio, least in speaking what becommeth thee 25
not, thou feele what liketh thee not: truth is never with out a
scracht face; whose tongue although it cannot be cut out, yet
must it be tied up.

_Par._ It grieveth me not a little for Hephestion, who thirsteth
for honour, not ease; but such is his fortune and neernesse in 30
friendship to Alexander that hee must lay a pillow under his head
when hee would put a target in his hand. But let us draw in, to
see how well it becomes them to tread the measures in a daunce[933]
that were wont to set the order for a march. _Exeunt._

Actus quartus. Scæna quarta.[934]

[_Enter_] APELLES [_and_] CAMPASPE.

_Apel._ I have now, Campaspe, almost made an ende.

_Camp._ You told mee, Apelles, you would never end.

_Apel._ Never end my love, for it shal be[935] eternall.

_Camp._ That is, neither to have beginning nor ending.

_Apel._ You are disposed to mistake; I hope you do not mistrust. 5

_Camp._ What will you say, if Alexander perceive your love?

_Apel._ I will say it is no treason to love.

_Camp._ But how if hee will not suffer thee to see my person?

_Apel._ Then will I gaze continually on thy picture.

_Camp._ That will not feede thy heart. 10

_Apel._ Yet shall it fill mine eye. Besides, the sweet thoughts,
the sure hopes, thy protested faith, wil cause me to embrace thy
shadow continually in mine armes, of the which by strong imagination
I will make a substance.

_Camp._ Wel, I must be gone. But this assure your selfe, that I
had rather be in thy shop grinding colours than in Alexander's 15
court following higher fortunes. [_As she crosses the stage_[936]]
Foolish wench, what hast thou done? That, alas, which cannot be
undone; and therefore I feare me undone. But content is such a
life; I care not for aboundance. O Apelles, thy love commeth from
the heart but Alexander's from the mouth! The love of kings is 20
like the blowing of winds, which whistle sometimes gently among
the leaves and straight waies turne the trees up by the rootes;
or fire, which warmeth afarre off, and burneth neere hand; or the
sea, which maketh men hoise their sailes in a flattering calme,
and to cut their mastes in a rough storme. They place affection 25
by times, by policy, by appoyntment. If they frowne, who dares
call them unconstant; if bewray secrets, who will tearme them
untrue; if fall to other loves, who trembles not, if hee call them
unfaithfull? In kings there can bee no love but to queenes; for as
neere must they meete in majestie as they doe in affection. It 30
is requisite to stand aloofe from kings love, Jove, and lightening.
_Exit._

_Apel._[937] Now, Apelles, gather thy wits together. Campaspe is
no lesse wise then faire; thy selfe must be no lesse cunning then
faithfull.[938] It is no small matter to be rivall with Alexander. 35

[_Enter_ PAGE _of_ ALEXANDER.]

_Page._ Apelles, you must come away quickly with the picture
the king thinketh that now you have painted it, you play with it.

_Apel._ If I would play with pictures, I have enough at home.

_Page._ None, perhaps, you like so well.

_Apel._ It may be I have painted none so well. 40

_Page._ I have knowen many fairer faces.

_Apel._ And I many better boyes. _Exeunt._

Actus quintus. Scæna prima.[939]

[_Enter_] SYLVIUS, PERIM, MILO, TRICO, [_and_] MANES. [DIOGENES _in his
tub_.][940]

_Syl._ I have brought my sons, Diogenes, to be taught of thee.

_Diog._ What can thy sonnes do?

_Syl._ You shall see their qualities. Dance, sirha!
_Then Perim danceth._
How like you this? Doth he well?

_Diog._ The better, the worser.[941] 5

_Syl._ The musicke very good.

_Diog._ The musitions very bad, who onely study to have their
strings in tune, never framing their manners to order.

_Syl._ Now shall you see the other. Tumble, sirha!
_Milo tumbleth._
How like you this? Why do you laugh? 10

_Diog._ To see a wagge that was borne to breake his neck by
destinie to practise it by art.

_Milo._ This dogge will bite me; I will not be with him.

_Diog._ Feare not boy; dogges eate no thistles.

_Perim._ I marvell what dogge thou art, if thou be a dogge. 15

_Diog._ When I am hungry, a mastife; and when my belly is full, a
spannell.

_Syl._ Dost thou beleeve[942] that there are any gods, that thou art
so dogged?

_Diog._ I must needs beleeve there are gods, for I thinke thee an 20
enemie to them.

_Syl._ Why so?

_Diog._ Because thou hast taught one of thy sonnes to rule his legges
and not to follow learning, the other to bend his bodie every way and
his minde no way. 25

_Perim._ Thou doest nothing but snarle and barke, like a dogge.

_Diog._ It is the next[943] way to drive away a theefe.

_Syl._ Now shall you heare the third, who sings like a nightingale.

_Diog._ I care not; for I have a nightingale to sing[944] her selfe.

_Syl._ Sing, sirha! 30

TRYCO _singeth_.

SONG.[945]

What[946] bird so sings yet so dos wayle?
O 'tis the ravish'd[947] nightingale.
"Jug, jug, jug, jug, tereu," shee cryes;
And still her woes at midnight rise.
Brave prick song,[948] who is't now we heare? 35
None but the larke so shrill and cleare.
How at heavens gats[949] she claps her wings,
The morne not waking till shee sings!
Heark, heark, with what a pretty throat
Poore Robin Red-breast tunes his note! 40
Heark how the jolly cuckoes sing
"Cuckoe," to welcome in the spring;
"Cuckoe," to welcome in the spring.

_Syl._ Loe, Diogenes! I am sure thou canst not doe so much.

_Diog._ But there is never a thrush but can. 45

_Syl._ What hast thou taught Manes, thy man?

_Diog._ To be as unlike as may be thy sons.

_Manes._ He hath taught me to fast, lie hard, and run away.

_Syl._ How sayest thou, Perim, wilt thou bee with him?

_Perim._ I, so he will teach me first to runne away. 50

_Diog._ Thou needest not be taught, thy legges are so nimble.

_Syl._ How sayest thou, Milo, wilt thou be with him?

_Diog._ Nay, hold your peace; hee shall not.

_Syl._ Why?

_Diog._ There is not roome enough for him and me to tumble both in 55
one tub.

_Syl._ Well, Diogenes, I perceive my sonnes brooke not thy manners.

_Diog._ I thought no lesse, when they knew my vertues.

_Syl._ Farewell, Diogenes; thou neededst not have scraped rootes, 60
if thou wouldst have followed Alexander.

_Diog._ Nor thou have followed Alexander, if thou hadst scraped
rootes.[950] _Exeunt_ [_all except Diogenes._]

Actus quintus. Scæna secunda.[951]

[_Enter_ APELLES.[952]]

_Apel._ I feare mee, Apelles, that thine eyes have blabbed that
which thy tongue durst not! What little regard hadst thou! Whilest
Alexander viewed the counterfeit of Campaspe, thou stoodest gazing
on her countenance. If he espie or but suspect, thou must needs
twice perish,--with his hate and thine owne love. Thy pale lookes 5
when he blushed, thy sad countenance when he smiled, thy sighes
when he questioned, may breed in him a jelousie, perchance a
frenzie. O love! I never before knew what thou wert, and now hast
thou made me that I know not what my selfe am! Onely this I know,
that I must endure intolerable passions for unknowne pleasures. 10
Dispute not the cause, wretch, but yeeld to it; for better it is
to melt with desire than wrastle with love. Cast thy selfe on thy
carefull bed; be content to live unknown, and die unfound.[953] O
Campaspe, I have painted thee in my heart! Painted? Nay, contrary
to mine arte, imprinted; and that in such deepe characters that 15
nothing can rase it out, unlesse it rubbe my[954] heart out. _Exit._

Actus quintus. Scæna tertia.[955]

[_Enter_] MILECTUS, PHRYGIUS, [_and_] LAIS.[956] [DIOGENES _is in his
tub_.]

_Mil._ It shall goe hard but this peace shall bring us some pleasure.

_Phry._ Downe with armes, and up with legges! This is a world for the
nonce![957]

_Lais._ Sweet youths, if you knew[958] what it were to save your
sweet blood, you would not so foolishly go about to spend it. 5
What delight can there be in gashing, to make foule scarres in
faire faces, and crooked maimes in streight legges, as though men,
being borne goodly by nature, would of purpose become deformed
by folly,--and all, forsooth for a new-found tearme, called
_valiant_, a word which breedeth more quarrels than the sense can
commendation? 10

_Mil._ It is true, Lais, a feather-bed hath no fellow. Good drinke
makes good blood, and shall pelting[959] words spill it?

_Phry._ I meane to enjoy the world, and to draw out my life at
the wire-drawers; not to curtall it off at the cutlers. 15

_Lais._ You may talke of warre, speake bigge, conquer worlds
with great words; but stay at home, where in steade of alarums
you shall have dances, for hot battailes with fierce men, gentle
skirmishes with faire women. These pewter coates[960] can never sit
so well as satten doublets. Beleeve me, you cannot conceive the 20
pleasure of peace unlesse you despise the rudenes of warre.

_Mil._ It is so. But see Diogenes prying over his tub! Diogenes
what sayest thou to such a morsell? [_Pointing to Lais._]

_Diog._ I say I would spit it out of my mouth, because it should not
poyson my stomacke. 25

_Phry._ Thou speakest as thou art; it is noe meate for dogges.

_Diog._ I am a dogge, and philosophy rates[961] me from carrion.

_Lais._ Uncivil wretch, whose manners are answerable to thy calling,
the time was thou wouldest have had my company, had it not beene, as
thou saidst, too deare. 30

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

_Lais._ Downe, villaine, or I will have thy head broken!

_Mil._ Will you couch?[963] 35

_Phry._ Avant, curre! Come, sweet Lays, let us goe to some
place and possesse peace. But first let us sing; there is more
pleasure in tuning of a voyce, than in a volly of shot. [_A Song._]

_Mil._ Now let us make hast, least Alexander finde us here!
_Exeunt_ [_all except Diogenes._]

Actus quintus. Scæna quarta.[964]

[_Enter_] ALEXANDER, HEPHESTION, [_and_] PAGE.[965] [DIOGENES _is in
his tub_.]

_Alex._ Methinketh, Hephestion, you are more melancholy than
you were accustomed; but I perceive it is all for Alexander. You
can neither brooke this peace nor my pleasure. Bee of good cheare;
though I winke, I sleepe not.

_Hep._ Melancholy I am not, nor well content; for, I know not how, 5
there is such a rust crept into my bones with this long ease that I
feare I shall not scowre it out with infinite labours.

_Alex._ Yes, yes, if all the travailes of conquering the world
will set either thy bodie or mine in tune, we will undertake them.
But what thinke you of Apelles? Did yee ever see any so perplexed?
He neither answered directly to any question, nor looked 10
stedfastly upon any thing. I hold my life the painter is in love.

_Hep._ It may be; for commonly we see it incident in artificers
to be enamoured of their owne workes, as Archidamus of his wooden
dove, Pygmalion of his ivorie image,[966] Arachne of her woven 15
swanne,[967]--especially painters, who playing with their owne
conceits, now coveting[968] to draw a glancing eie, then a rolling,
now a winking, still mending it, never ending it, till they be
caught with it, and then, poore soules, they kisse the colours
with their lips, with which before they were loth to taint their
fingers. 20

_Alex._ I will find it out. Page, goe speedily for Apelles. Will
him to come hither; and when you see us earnestly in talke,
sodainly crie out, "Apelles shop is on fire!"

_Page._ It shall be done.

_Alex._ Forget not your lesson. [_Exit Page._] 25

_Hep._ I marvell what your devise shal be.

_Alex._ The event shall prove.

_Hep._ I pittie the poore painter if he be in love.

_Alex._ Pitie him not, I pray thee. That severe gravity set aside,
what doe you thinke of love? 30

_Hep._ As the Macedonians doe of their hearbe beet,--which
looking yellow in the ground and blacke in the hand,--thinke it
better seene than toucht.

_Alex._ But what doe you imagine it to be?

_Hep._ A word, by superstition thought a god, by use turned to an 35
humour, by selfe-will made a flattering madnesse.

_Alex._ You are too hard-hearted to thinke so of love. Let us
goe to Diogenes. [_They cross the stage._] Diogenes, thou mayst
thinke it somewhat that Alexander commeth to thee againe so soone.

_Diog._ If you come to learne, you could not come soone enough; if 40
to laugh, you be come too soone.

_Hep._ It would better become thee to be more courteous and frame thy
self to please.

_Diog._ And you better to bee lesse, if you durst displease.

_Alex._ What doest thou thinke of the time we have here? 45

_Diog._ That we have little and lose much.

_Alex._ If one be sicke, what wouldst thou have him doe?

_Diog._ Bee sure that hee make not his physician his heire.

_Alex._ If thou mightest have thy will, how much ground would content
thee? 50

_Diog._ As much as you in the end must be contented withall.

_Alex._ What, a world?

_Diog._ No, the length of my bodie.

_Alex._ [_aside_]. Hephestion, shall I bee a little pleasant with him?

_Hep._ [_aside_]. You may; but hee will be very perverse with you. 55

_Alex._ [_aside_]. It skils not;[969] I cannot be angry with him.
Diogenes, I pray thee what doest thou thinke of love?

_Diog._ A little worser than I can of hate.

_Alex._ And why?

_Diog._ Because it is better to hate the things which make to love 60
than to love the things which give occasion of hate.

_Alex._ Why, bee not women the best creatures in the world?

_Diog._ Next men and bees.

_Alex._ What doest thou dislike chiefly in a woman?

_Diog._ One thing. 65

_Alex._ What?

_Diog._ That she is a woman.

_Alex._ In mine opinion thou wert never borne of a woman, that thou
thinkest so hardly of women. [_Enter Apelles._] But now commeth
Apelles, who I am sure is as farre from thy thoughts as thou 70
art from his cunning. Diogenes, I will have thy cabin[970] removed
neerer to my court, because I will be a philosopher.

_Diog._ And when you have done so, I pray you remove your
court further from my cabin, because I will not be a courtier.

_Alex._ But here commeth Apelles. Apelles, what peece of work 75
have you now in hand?

_Apel._ None in hand, if it like your Majestie; but I am devising
a platforme[971] in my head.

_Alex._ I thinke your hand put it in your head. Is it nothing
about Venus? 80

_Apel._ No, but something above[972] Venus. [_The Page runs in._]

_Page._ Apelles, Apelles, looke aboute[972] you! Your shop is on fire!

_Apel._ [_starting off_]. Aye mee, if the picture of Campaspe be
burnt, I am undone! 85

_Alex._ Stay, Apelles; no haste. It is your heart is on fire, not
your shop; and if Campaspe hang there, I would shee were burnt.
But have you the picture of Campaspe? Belike you love her well,
that you care not though all be lost, so she be safe.

_Apel._ Not love her! But your Majestie knowes that painters in 90
their last workes are said to excell themselves; and in this I have
so much pleased my selfe, that the shadow as much delighteth mee,
being an artificer, as the substance doth others, that are amorous.

_Alex._ You lay your colours grosly.[973] Though I could not paint
in your shop, I can spie into your excuse. Be not ashamed, Apelles;
it is a gentlemans sport to be in love. [_To the Page._] Call 95
hither Campaspe. [_Exit Page._] Methinkes[974] I might have beene
made privie to your affection: though my counsell had not bin
necessary, yet my countenance might have beene thought requisite.
But Apelles, forsooth, loveth under hand; yea, and under Alexanders
nose, and--but I say no more! 100

_Apel._ Apelles loveth not so; but hee liveth to doe as Alexander
will. [_Re-enter Page with Campaspe._]

_Alex._ Campaspe, here is newes. Apelles is in love with you.

_Camp._ It pleaseth your Majestie to say so. 105

_Alex._ [_aside_]. Hephestion, I will trie her too.--Campaspe, for
the good qualities I know in Apelles and the vertue I see in you, I
am determined you shall enjoy one another. How say you, Campaspe,
would you say, "I?"

_Camp._ Your hand-maid must obey if you command. 110

_Alex._ [_aside_]. Thinke you not, Hephestion, that she would faine
be commanded.

_Hep._ [_aside_]. I am no thought-catcher, but I ghesse
unhappily.[975]

_Alex._ I will not enforce marriage where I cannot compell love.

_Camp._ But your Majestie may move a question where you be 115
willing to have a match.

_Alex._ [_aside_]. Beleeve me, Hephestion, these parties are
agreed; they would have mee both priest and witnesse.--Apelles,
take Campaspe! Why move yee not? Campaspe, take Apelles! Will it
not be? If you be ashamed one of the other, by my consent you 120
shall never come together. But dissemble not, Campaspe. Doe you
love Apelles?

_Camp._ Pardon, my lord; I love Apelles.

_Alex._ Apelles, it were a shame for you, being loved so openly
of so faire a virgin, to say the contrairie. Do you love Campaspe? 125

_Apel._ Onely Campaspe!

_Alex._ Two loving wormes, Hephestion! I perceive Alexander
cannot subdue the affections of men, though he[976] conquer their
countries. Love falleth, like a dew, as well upon the low grasse
as upon the high cedar.[977] Sparkes have their heate, ants their
gall, flies their spleene. Well, enjoy one another. I give her 130
thee frankly, Apelles. Thou shalt see that Alexander maketh but a
toy of love and leadeth affection in fetters, using fancie as a
foole to make him sport or a minstrell to make him merry. It is
not the amorous glance of an eye can settle an idle thought in the
heart. No, no, it is childrens game, a life for seamsters and 135
schollers; the one, pricking in clouts,[978] have nothing else to
think on; the other, picking fancies out of books, have little else
to marvaile at. Go, Apelles, take with you your Campaspe; Alexander
is cloyed with looking on that which thou wondrest at.[979] 140

_Apel._ Thankes to your Majestie on bended knee: you have honoured
Apelles.

_Camp._ Thankes with bowed heart: you have blessed Campaspe.
_Exeunt_ [_Apelles and Campaspe_].

_Alex._ Page, goe warne Clytus and Parmenio and the other lords to
be in a readinesse; let the trumpet sound; strike up the drumme;
and I will presently into Persia. How now, Hephestion, is 145
Alexander able to resist love as he list?

_Hep._ The conquering of Thebes was not so honourable as the
subduing of these thoughts.

_Alex._ It were a shame Alexander should desire to command the 150
world, if he could not command himselfe. But come, let us goe. I
will trie whether I can better beare my hand with my heart[980]
than I could with mine eye. And, good Hephestion, when all the
world is wonne and every country is thine and mine, either find me
out another to subdue, or, of[981] my word I will fall in love.
_Exeunt._ 155

FINIS

FOOTNOTES:

[767] Manly, the only editor of preceding texts, who attempts to place
the scenes, prints here: "The audience-chamber of the palace. Clitus
and Parmenio near the door. Timoclea and Campaspe are brought in later
as prisoners. Alexander on the throne, attended by Hephestion." Do not
lines 77-78 suggest that the scene takes place just outside the city
walls, as Alexander returns from conquest; and that the characters
enter one after another?

[768] Plutarch (_Alexander_) says Clitus was of "a churlish nature,
prowde and arrogant." See IV. 315, 357-59. Plutarch mentions Parmenio
(_Alexander_), IV. 354-56.

[769] Lyly softens Plutarch. See IV. 309-10.

[770] "Likewise that shee loseth her light (as the rest of the planets)
by the brightnes of the Sun, when she approcheth neere. For borrowing
wholly of him her light she doth shine." Holland, II. 9.

[771] Old French _singulier_, excellent. F.

[772] 'Staine' for excel. The sense is, "It is for turquoises to excel
one another, not for diamonds, for among the latter there can be no
comparison, since all are perfect."

[773] Lyly refers both to the Persian sun-worshippers and the saying of
Pompey, "More worship the rising than the setting sun."

[774] All preceding texts read 'that which.'

[775] Odyssey, 11.

[776] Fear.

[777] Esteems.

[778] In all things he is that than.

[779] Mentioned in _North's Plutarch_, Nutt, IV. 345, 353, 380.

[780] If it like. See p. 327.

[781] _Sic_ A. and B.; Bl. 'Chyeronte.'

[782] For the dramatic story of Timoclea and the original of this
speech see _North's Plutarch_, Nutt, IV. 310-11.

[783] Worst possible.

[784] Bl. prints this as the name of the speaker.

[785] The market-place. M.

[786] Diogenes brought to Athens an attendant of this name, and
dismissed him for the reasons given p. 296.

[787] Lyly refers blindly to the following: "Seeing a mouse running
over a Room and considering with himself that it neither sought for a
Bed, nor was affraid to be alone in the dark, nor desired any of our
esteemed Dainties, he contrived a way to relieve his own Exigencies;
being the first, as some think, that folded in the Mantle, because his
necessity obliged him to sleep in it." _Lives of Philosophers_, VI.,
402.

[788] The constant application of the epithet "Dog," to Diogenes is
historically correct. When Alexander first went to see the philosopher,
he introduced himself thus: "I am Alexander, surnamed the Great." To
this Diogenes replied: "And I am Diogenes, surnamed the Dog." The
Athenians raised a pillar of Parian marble, surmounted with a dog, to
his memory.

[789] Currish fellow.

[790] Perfect.

[791] Conceits.

[792] Yesterday.

[793] Pun: surpassing, running by.

[794] Bl. prints _Why then, this_; F. _thus_.

[795] This Socratic method foreshadows Shakespeare's clowns and pages.

[796] 'Redes,' teaches.

[797] Pun: painting, substituting false for real.

[798] Bl. omits _a_.

[799] Picture.

[800] Countenances.

[801] Preceding texts read: _And with the riotous_; _with_ printer's
repetition.

[802] Terence, _Eunuchus_, 816.

[803] "All the old editions omit _by_; it appears in Dodsley, and
a sixteenth-century hand inserted it in ink in a copy of the third
edition, now in the Garrick collection." M.

[804] Hash.

[805] Diogenes.

[806] Referring to the bad effect on the voice of eating just before
singing.

[807] Bl. first gave the songs. In Bl. 'Granicus' is below 'Song.'

[808] Besides.

[809] Rabbit.

[810] Alexander's Palace. M. The first part might be there, but the
portion with Diogenes belongs in some public place through which the
philosophers pass, returning from the palace.

[811] Bl. adds here the names of all who enter during the scene.

[812] From Plutarch's account of Aristotle (_Alexander_, IV., 304-306,
363), Lyly borrows only the idea that Alexander, suspecting Aristotle
of treasonable designs, withdrew some of his friendliness.

[813] For his relations with Alexander and Clitus, see North's
_Plutarch_, IV., 359-360.

[814] See Prologue, _Endimion_.

[815] A theoretical cause.

[816] The preceding seven lines roughly sum up the contrasting opinions
of Plato and Aristotle on physical matters.

[817] 'The earth which as a masse swimmeth,' or 'The earth, which is a
masse, swimming'?

[818] Nature that is a creative energy.

[819] C. _knewe_.

[820] Bl. omits _of_.

[821] Instruction.

[822] Alexander "plainly shewed the ill will he bare unto Aristotle,
for that Callisthenes had bene brought up with him, being his kinsman,
and the son of Hero, Aristotle's neece." For the charges against the
philosopher Callisthenes, see North's _Plutarch_, Nutt, IV., 359-363.

[823] Bl. _rulers_, the quartos 'rules.'

[824] The following six questions and answers Lyly selects from nine
in an interview of Alexander with ten wise men of India. North's
_Plutarch_, Nutt, IV., 372-373.

[825] Alexander really spoke thus to Parmenio, but under very different
circumstances. _North's Plutarch_, Nutt, IV., 332-333.

[826] Bl. _thrall_.

[827] Neither the quartos nor Bl. mark this entrance. In the Garrick
copy of C. a contemporary of Lyly, W. Neile, noted it in ink. If
Diogenes enters here, he goes to the farther side of the stage. The
philosophers at once cross to him. Possibly he comes on at any time
during the preceding dialogue, and going quietly to his part of the
stage, waits till the philosophers see him and cross.

[828] See _Lives of Philosophers_, 1696, 401.

[829] "You pretend to be better than you are, for you do not at heart
object to counterfeiting," or, possibly, "Since you do not gain money
by counterfeiting, you live falsely, for you have no adequate means of
support."

[830] Mad.

[831] Editors, following Bl., have made the second act begin here, but
would Diogenes go out only to come on at once? Bl. printed 'Diogenes,
Psyllus,' etc. To the stage direction M. adds 'And Citizens.'

[832] This line is Lyly's rather vague reference to the search of
Diogenes for an honest man.

[833] Almost the words of Diogenes. See _Lives of Philosophers_, VI.,
423.

[834] Yesterday.

[835] "Seeing once a little Boy drinking Water out of the Hollow of
his Hand, he took his little Dish out of his Scrip, and threw it away,
saying: This little boy hath out-done me in frugality."--_Lives of
Philosophers_, VI., 412.

[836] Bl. omits _I_. The quartos give it.

[837] Preceding editions _of_.

[838] "In old musical treatises harmony is frequently termed a consent
of instruments." F.

[839] Fiddle.

[840] Bl. _ala._ M. corrects.

[841] The Market-place. M.

[842] Preceding editions, _Scæna Secunda_.

[843] Bl. added 'Diogenes, Apelles.'

[844] See _Epistle Dedicatorie, Euphues and his England_.

[845] Ovid, _Fasti_, II. 305.

[846] Horses covered with defensive armor.

[847] Did this suggest:--

"Grim-visaged war hath smooth'd his wrinkled front;
And now,--instead of mounting barbed steeds
To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,--
He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber,
To the lascivious pleasing of a lute!"--_Rich. III_. I. 1. Do.

[848] "All precious stones in general are improved in brilliancy by
being boiled in honey, Corsican honey more particularly."--_Hist. of
World_, XXXVII. 74. Bohn.

[849] Mullet.

[850] Cornish for brill and turbot.

[851] "Deceived and intoxicated with unreasoning affection." F.

[852] Refute.

[853] During the preceding dialogue Diogenes has probably come in with
his tub. Going to a remote part of the stage, he has put it down and
crawled into it.

[854] For the original of this scene and for some of the speeches,
see _North's Plutarch_, IV. 311-312, Nutt; see also _Lives of
Philosophers_, VI. 413.

[855] Does Diogenes go out here, or crawl into his tub, to emerge when
Crysus speaks to him, III. iii?

[856] The house of Apelles: first inside, then in front.

[857] Flatter.

[858] Homely face.

[859] If you give up in despair.

[860] Flatter.

[861] Longing, caused by her beauty, will take the color from his face.

[862] Bl. and later editors mark a new scene here. Stage direction in
Bl. 'Psyllus, Manes.'

[863] As lean as Diogenes himself? Query: 'Dropped him'? The phrase
suggests, "As like as if he had been spit out of his mouth" for "exact
image." Kittredge.

[864] Manes mimics each sound.

[865] F. inserts _to_ before _one_.

[866] Impudent replies.

[867] _Oyez._

[868] Psyllus, when he comes to "flie," breaks off incredulous. Manes
gives the word.

[869] Preceding editions, _tertia_. The Studio of Apelles.

[870]

"But her eyes!
How could he see to do them?" _M. of V._ III. ii.

[871] Does Campaspe playfully close her eyes here?

[872] Pun: to paint and to hide. Campaspe is posing nude.

[873] Perfect.

[874] Lyly is thinking of the work of Arachne, who challenged Minerva
to a trial of skill with the needle, and represented the amours of
Jupiter named. Ovid., _Meta._ VI. 1.

[875] Preceding editions _quarta_. As M. notes, Apelles and Campaspe
busy themselves with the picture at one side of the stage. A new scene
is hardly necessary. Bl. 'Clytus, Parmenio, Alexander, Hephestion,
Crysus, Diogenes, Apelles, Campaspe.'

[876] Remain undecided.

[877] The modern "long arm of the Law."

[878] Bl. omits _not_; A. gives it.

[879] _North's Plutarch_, Nutt, IV. 303-304, 351, 369-370.

[880] Bl. _of_; F. _or of_. M. corrects as in text.

[881] Diogenes enters before Crysus; or, more probably, has been on the
stage in his tub since II. 1. See p. 301.

[882] In this and the next line, the speakers refer to the popular idea
that true Cynics despised money.

[883] Fourpence. Often used for a very small sum.

[884] In Attica about $1000.

[885] As Alexander calls, he is supposed to enter the house of Apelles.
See p. 306, note 875.

[886] Arellius? Mentioned, Holland, XXXV. 10. No painter Aurelius is
known.

[887] Pun: technical knowledge and manual skill, and guileful. Apelles
thinks of his need to conceal his passion.

[888] For the original of this see Holland, XXXV. 7.

[889] Looks, with something of the sense of attractions.

[890] At this time it was fashionable to dye the hair yellow in
compliment to the natural color of the Queen's hair. F.

[891] A description simple because ancient armour lacked the varied
markings of Elizabethan coats-of-arms.

[892] Loveliness.

[893] Ornamental arrangements of flower-beds.

[894] Harmony.

[895] The charcoal with which Alexander is drawing.

[896] The old pictures were painted on wooden panels.

[897] For the suggestion for this scene, see Holland, XXXV. 10.

[898] Go as I wish.

[899] "Modesty tempered in yielding by a contrasting emotion." F.

[900] Preceding editions _quinta_. Before the house of Apelles. Is a
division needed? Apelles might remain when Alexander and Hephestion
leave, and just before Psyllus cries "Away, Manes," see his page and
move toward him. Bl. 'Psyllus, Manes, Apelles.'

[901] Bl. _Hast thou hast._ F. and M. strike out the first _hast_. Is
it not more likely that the second is the mistake?

[902] "Alexander streightly forbad by express edict, that no man should
draw his portrait in colours but Apelles the painter: that none should
engrave his personage but Pyrgoteles, the graver: and last of all, that
no workman should cast his image in brasse but Lysippus a founder,"
Holland, VII. 1.

[903] Apelles addresses here and in l. 44 a picture of Venus, which he
really left unfinished. Holland, XXXV. 11.

[904] Canopy

[905] Basilisk, Holland, VIII. 21.

[906] "Do I say paint what not (what is not) Apelles? What are all
these--sighs, wounds, etc., but Apelles himself?"

[907] _Cullises_, strengthening jellies.

[908] The market-place. M.

[909] Bl. adds 'Manes, Diogenes, Populus.'

[910] Ovid, _Meta._ VIII.

[911] Guy him.

[912] Diogenes has probably been in his tub since his dialogue with
Crysus, p. 308.

[913] M. suggests 'Yee.' See next line.

[914] Sow the inedible and weed out the edible.

[915] Shut up as if precious.

[916] "In falconry _sealed_ means blinded." Do.

[917] Railed at.

[918] For conduct of Diogenes similar to this scene see _Lives of
Philosophers_, VI. 405.

[919] Diogenes refers to ll. 50-54, p. 315. Throughout Diogenes is very
like a Cynic as described in Lucian's "Sale of the Philosophers."

[920] Diogenes, thinking of himself as older than most of the crowd and
wiser than any, names himself, apparently, in 'thy father.' "Diogenes
need fear no curs like you, but you need fear a rating from me."

[921] Decrepit persons.

[922] A room in the palace. M. Why not the house of Apelles, into which
the painter and Campaspe go after the last lines of the scene?

[923] Bl. 'Campaspe, Apelles.'

[924] Bl., 'aswell.'

[925] "Apelles would have no dissembling in real love, but only in the
simulated love he despises." F.

[926] The palace. M.

[927] Pretext.

[928] "For the sound of the war trumpet, the voice of the singer." F.

[929] A large and usually ornamental drinking cup, made especially for
the dresser or sideboard. The chief guest at an entertainment or the
presiding dignitary was served from it.

[930] An engraving in Alciati's _Emblems_, representing bees swarming
into the face-guard of a helmet probably provided this simile. F.

[931] Gloves were worn in the hat for three purposes,--as the favor of
a mistress, the memorial of a friend, and as a mark to challenge an
enemy.

[932] Destroy.

[933] To dance in a slow and stately fashion.

[934] Studio of Apelles.

[935] Bl., one word.

[936] Preceding editions, following Bl., read 'Campaspe alone.' It is
much more natural to suppose that while she is crossing the stage,
Apelles lingers on one side, watching her. When she goes out, he speaks.

[937] Preceding editions, _Actus quartus. Scæna quinta_; Bl. 'Apelles,
Page.'

[938] See note 61, p. 309.

[939] The market-place. M.

[940] Bl. puts 'Diogenes' before 'Sylvius.'

[941] For the originals of this and the first, third, fourth,
fifth, and sixth of Diogenes's speeches which follow see _Lives of
Philosophers_, VI. 406, 415, 417, 418, 424, 428, 431.

[942] Dost thou _not_?

[943] Readiest.

[944] Bl. omits _to_. F. and M. insert it. Query, 'sings'?

[945] Of course the Song falls into three stanzas, with divisions at
ll. 35, 39.--_Gen. Ed._

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

3 4
"None but the larke so shrill and cleare.
5 6 7
How at heavens gats she claps her wings,
8
The morne not waking till she sings!
1 2
Heark, heark, with what a pretty throat
Poore Robin Red-breast tunes his note!"

[947] Not only _enraptured_, but with reference to the story of
Philomela, Ovid, _Meta._ VI.

[948] Warbler.

[949]'Gate' as in Shakespeare? The 's' from 'she'?

[950] For the original of this see _Lives of Philosophers_, VI. 426.

[951] Studio of Apelles.

[952] Bl. and later editors, _Apelles alone_.

[953] "Be content to live with thy love unexpressed, and to die with it
undiscovered."

[954] Quartos and Bl. _thy_. Corrected by Do.

[955] The market-place. M.

[956] Bl. adds 'Diogenes.'

[957] For the purpose.

[958] Bl. _know_.

[959] Contemptible.

[960] Steel cuirasses.

[961] In Kent _rate_ is used for call away, off. F.

[962] If nothing were paid.

[963] Milectus threatens to strike Diogenes.

[964] The market-place. M.

[965] Bl. adds 'Diogenes, Apelles, Campaspe.'

[966] Ovid, _Meta._ X. 9.

[967] Earlier editions, _his wooden swanne_, borrowing the first two
words from the line above. See note, p. 305.

[968] M. suggests 'covet.'

[969] A. 'skilleth.'

[970] In Lyly's time 'cabin' seems to have been used vaguely for any
rude dwelling.

[971] A sketch for a picture, or the plan for a building. F.

[972] M., phrasing as in the text, says: "In Bl. these two words (each
standing at the end of a line) are interchanged. F. prints as I do,
but, as he has no note, I do not know whether he followed one of the
older editions, or corrects by conjecture."

[973] Frame your excuses clumsily.

[974] Bl., two words.

[975] "But my surmise is mischievous."

[976] Bl. _though conquer_. F. added the 'he.'

[977] See _Euphues and his England_, Arber, 256.

[978] Patching.

[979] "What good reckoning Alexander made of him, he shewed by one
notable argument; for having among his courtesans one named Campaspe,
whom he fancied especially in regard as well of that affection of his
as her incomparable beauty, he gave commandement to Apelles to draw
her picture all naked; but perceiving Apelles at the same time to be
wounded with the like dart of love as well as himself, he bestowed her
on him most frankly. Some are of opinion that by the patterne of this
Campaspe, Apelles made the picture of Venus Anadyomene." Holland, XXXV.
10. The name really was Pancaste.

[980] Alexander refers to the unfavorable comment of Apelles on his
drawing, p. 310, l. 109.

[981] F. _on_.

THE EPILOGUE AT THE BLACKE FRIERS

WHERE the rain bow toucheth the tree, no caterpillars will hang
on the leaves; where the gloworme creepeth in the night, no adder
will goe in the day: wee hope in the eares where our travailes be
lodged, no carping shall harbour in those tongues. Our exercises
must be as your judgment is, resembling water, which is alwayes of 5
the same colour into what it runneth. In the Troyan horse lay
couched souldiers with children;[982] and in heapes of many words
we feare divers unfit among some allowable. But, as Demosthenes
with often breathing up the hill, amended his stammering, so wee
hope with sundrie labours against the haire[983] to correct our
studies. If the tree be blasted that blossomes, the fault is in 10
the winde and not in the root; and if our pastimes bee misliked
that have beene allowed, you must impute it to the malice of others
and not our endevour. And so we rest in good case, if you rest well
content.

FOOTNOTES:

[982] Knights.

[983] Against the grain. F.

The Epilogue at the Court

WE cannot tell whether wee are fallen among Diomedes[984] birdes
or his horses,--the one received some men with sweet notes,[985]
the other bit all men with sharpe teeth. But, as Homer's gods
conveyed them into cloudes whom they would have kept from curses,
and, as Venus, least Adonis should be pricked with the stings of 5
adders, covered his face with the wings of swans, so wee hope,
being shielded with your Highnesse countenance, wee shall, though
heare[986] the neighing, yet not feele the kicking of those jades,
and receive, though no prayse--which we cannot deserve--yet a
pardon, which in all humilitie we desire. As yet we cannot tell
what we should tearme our labours, iron or bullion; only it 10
belongeth to your Majestie to make them fit either for the forge or
the mynt, currant by the stampe or counterfeit by the anvill. For,
as nothing is to be called white unlesse it had beene named white
by the first creator,[987] so can there be nothing thought good
in the opinion of others unlesse it be christened good by the 15
judgement of your selfe. For our selves, againe, we are like these
torches of waxe, of which, being in your Highnesse hands, you may
make doves or vultures, roses or nettles, laurell for a garland or
ealder for a disgrace.[988]

FOOTNOTES:

[984] A king of Thrace who fed his horses with human flesh.

[985] "Birds called Diomedæ. Toothed they are, and they have eies as
red and bright as the fire: otherwise their feathers be all white.
Found they be in one place, innobled for the tombe and Temple of
Diomedes, on the coast of Apulia. Their manner is to cry with open
mouth uncessantly at any strangers that come aland, save only Grecians,
upon whom they wil seem to fawne and make signs of love ... as
descended from the race of Diomedes." Holland, X. 44.

[986] F. following Do. unnecessarily prints 'wee heare.'

[987] Bl. _creature_. F. first printed 'creator.'

[988] Disgrace attached to the elder because it was the tree on which
Judas hanged himself. F.

_George Peele_

THE OLD WIVES' TALE

_Edited with Critical Essay and Notes
by F. B. Gummere, Ph.D.,
Professor in Haverford College._

CRITICAL ESSAY

=Life.=--George Peele, probably sprung from a Devonshire family, and
the son of James Peele, clerk of Christ's Hospital, is known to have
been in 1565 a free scholar of the grammar school connected with that
foundation. He went to Oxford in 1571; studied at Broadgates Hall, now
Pembroke College, and at Christ Church; took his B.A. in 1577, his M.A.
in 1579, and went up to London about 1580. At Oxford he already had the
name of poet, scholar, and dramatist. He was married, it would seem, as
early as 1583, to a wife who brought him some property; this, however,
soon vanished, and left the poet dependent upon his wits. Although the
stories in the _Jests_ are musty old tales, fastened upon Peele, it
is unlikely that they settled on his name without a sense of fitness
on the part of a public that had known his ways,--his hopeless lack
of pence, his good nature and popularity, his shifts to beg, borrow,
and cozen. With Greene, Nashe, Marlowe, and a few lesser lights, he
belonged to that group of scholars who wrote plays, translations,
occasional poems, pageants, and whatever else would find a market.
Now and then, it is almost certain, he appeared as an actor. Of his
dissolute course of life, its misery and squalour, there can be no
doubt whatever; "driven as myself," says Greene, "to extreme shifts."
As early as 1579 Peele had made trouble for his father; he lived in
poverty; and the curtain falls upon an ignoble end. Dying before 1598,
the poet barely saw his fortieth year.

=Plays assigned to Peele.=--The best plays of Peele are _The
Arraignment of Paris_, published in 1584, and, in Fleay's opinion,
played as early as 1581,--a "first encrease," Nashe calls it, written
in smooth metres which doubtless had influence on Marlowe's own verse;
_The Old Wives' Tale_, published 1595; and the saccharine _David
and Bethsabe_, beloved of German critics. _Edward I._, with wofully
corrupt text, is good only in parts; _The Battle of Alcazar_, published
anonymously in 1594, is almost certainly Peele's, but does not help his
reputation; while _Sir Clyomon and Sir Clamydes_ is quite certainly
not Peele's in any way. Fleay, _Biographical Chronicle of the English
Drama_, II. 296, assigns it, along with _Common Conditions_ and _Appius
and Virginia_, to R. B. (Richard Bower?), whose initials appear on
the title-page of the last-named play. Professor Kittredge, however,
_Journal of Germanic Philology_, II. 8, suggests, as author of _Sir
Clyomon_, Thomas Preston of _Cambyses_ fame. By way of compensation
for this loss, Fleay (work quoted, II. 155) attributes to Peele _The
Wisdome of Doctor Doddipoll_, published in 1600; there is dialect in
the play, but overdone, good blank verse, and an indifferent plot. The
song, _What Thing is Love_, hardly makes foundation enough for the
assumption that Peele wrote the play, even with the aid of an enchanter
among the characters, and a metre like that of _David and Bethsabe_.
Further, Fleay presents our author with _Wily Beguiled_, possibly, he
thinks, a university play; but his proof is not convincing. Kirkman, in
a catalogue of plays added to his edition of _Tom Tiler and his Wife_,
1661, credits George Peele not only with _David and Bethsabe_, but
with _Alphonsus, Emperor of Germany_, while Will Shakespeare has the
_Arraignment of Paris_. _The Old Wives' Tale_ is set down as anonymous.

In regard to Peele's miscellaneous and occasional poetry there need be
noted here only his clever use of blank verse in shorter poems, his
charming lyrics, and those noble lines at the end of the _Polyhymnia_,
beginning--

"His golden locks time hath to silver turn'd."

=Peele's Place in the Development of English Drama.=--Although we had a
text of absolute authority and a minutely accurate life of the author,
we should gain with all this lore no real stay for a study, a critical
understanding of _The Old Wives' Tale_, regarded as an element in the
making of English comedy. Peele and his play, along with any hints of
sources and models that are to be heeded, and with whatever help may
come from study of his other works, must be fused into a single fact
and compared with those "environmental conditions" which influence all
literary production. This will determine the equation between art and
nature, between the centrifugal forces, which are always expressing
themselves in terms of what is called genius or originality, and the
centripetal forces of a great literary and popular development. It
will determine the relation of Peele's comedy to the line of English
comedies.

Such a critical process leaves one with two qualities in mind that seem
to have had an initial force. They belong to Peele on contemporary
testimony confirmed by a study of his works. Tom Nashe, more in eulogy
than in discrimination, yet surely not without a dash of critical
discernment, calls Peele "the chief supporter of pleasance now living,
the atlas of poetry, and _primus verborum artifex_...."[989]

Nashe undoubtedly flatters, but another of the "college," Greene, in
that death-bed appeal to his brother playwrights, was in no mood for
flattery; and it is probably sincere, even if mistaken, praise when he
calls Peele "in some things rarer, in nothing inferior," to Marlowe,
and to that "young juvenall" who may be Nashe or Lodge. In what things
Peele was "rarer," Greene fails to say, but a study of _The Arraignment
of Paris_, of _David and Bethsabe_, even of portions of _Edward I._,
and of the _Battle of Alcazar_, supports the reputation of Peele as
an artist in words, and in prose as "well-languaged"; while in _The
Old Wives' Tale_ there greets the critic, not too openly, it is true,
but unmistakably, the quality of humour. Moreover, there are the
_Jests_ which, apocryphal as they doubtless are, and sorry stuff by
any reckoning, nevertheless show that to people of his day Peele was
counted a merry fellow, a humourist in our sense of the word.[990]
Perhaps Shakespeare's jests would seem as stale and flat if we had the
anecdotes that passed current among his successors at the playhouse.
In any case, George had a sense of humour which found utterance in
this _Old Wives' Tale_; it is not the classical humour of _Roister
Doister_, not the hearty but clumsy mirth of _Gammer Gurton_, but
rather a hint of the extravagant and romantic which turns upon itself
with audible merriment at its own pretences, a hint, not of farce or
of wit merely, but of genuine humour, something not to be found in
Greene's lighter work,[991] or in Lyly's _Mother Bombie_, or in any of
those earlier plays that did fealty to the comic muse. Such, then, is
the contemporary formula for Peele as a power in the making of English
drama: "_primus verborum artifex_," and "chief supporter of pleasance."
He was an artist in words, and he had the gift of humour.

As regards this artistry in words, it is well known that the conditions
of English life, the vigour of speech as quickened by intercourse in
the street, the market-place, the exchange, where a spoken word even in
traffic and commerce still counted better than a written word, dialogue
and conversation better than oratory, and the conditions of the stage
itself, with its slender resources of scenery and its confident appeal
to the imagination, all helped to push this pomp and mastery of phrase
into the forefront of an Elizabethan playwright's qualifications.
Probably the spectator at a play felt something of the interest which
was then so rife in the world of books and learning,--the interest in
words as words, in the course of a sentence as indicating more or less
triumph over a still untrained tongue. Nietzsche is extravagant but
suggestive in certain remarks that bear upon this verbal artistry in
the drama. Speaking of Nature and Art,[992] he insists that the Greeks
taught men to like pompous dramatic verse and an unnatural eloquence
in those tragic situations where mere nature is either stammering or
silent. The Italians went further and taught us to endure, in the
opera, something still more artificial and unnatural--a passion which
not only declaims, but sings. Tragic eloquence, sundered from nature,
feeds that pride which "loves art as the expression of a high heroic
unnaturalness and conventionality." "The Athenian," Nietzsche goes on
to say with cheerful heresy, "went into the theatre not to be roused
by pity and terror, but to listen to fine speeches." One is inclined
to think that this desire for fine speeches had a large share in the
motive which sent an Elizabethan to the play. Certainly the drama
responded to this demand more quickly than to any demand for coherence
of plot and delicacy of characterization. Who led in this movement?
Most critics brush aside all rivals from the path of Marlowe and credit
him alone with the "mighty line," the pomp of diction, the sweep of
word and figure, which brought the drama from those puerilities of
phrase and manner up to its noble estate. This is true in the sense
that Marlowe was infinitely greater as a poet and a tragedian than
either Greene or Peele. But as _verborum artifex_ it is probable that
Marlowe has had considerable credit which belongs to the others,
particularly Peele; and the testimony of Nashe and Greene, who knew
the craft, must not be rejected so utterly. Campbell, it is true,
praised Peele as "the oldest genuine dramatic poet of our language";
but Symonds, and with him are such scholars as Mr. A. W. Ward, asserts
that Peele "discovered no new vein." Symonds is inclined to look on
Greene as herald[993] and Marlowe as founder; Peele is a pleasant but
unimportant maker of plays and verse. Greene, he thinks, began the
school of gentleman and scholars who wrote for the stage at a time when
rhyming plays were in vogue; but none of those which Greene wrote has
come down to our day. Marlowe now comes imperiously upon the scene,
forces his blank verse into favour, and is at last reluctantly admitted
by Greene and the others into their "college." So runs the theory of
Symonds. Quite opposed to this view of the case is Mr. Fleay, who
declares that Marlowe followed George Peele in the article of "flowing
blank verse."[994] There can be no question, moreover, that certain
critics have exalted Greene too high and put Peele too low. Peele had
quite as much as Greene to do with the refining and energizing of
English dramatic diction, a process aptly described by Thomas Heywood
in his _Apology for Actors_:[995] "Our English tongue ... is now _by
this secondary meanes of playing_ continually refined, every writer
striving in himselfe to adde a new florish unto it." Plots remained
clumsy, crude; but what change in the diction of plays! In _Appius and
Virginia_ there is still puerile diction and jog-trot metre,--

"They framèd also after this, out of his tender side,
A piece of much formosity, with him for to abide."

From this to blank verse and compressed or energetic diction, as
(_Jeronimo_),--

"My knee sings thanks unto your Highness bounty,"--

is a progress involving vast reformings, and some deformings,[996]
in diction and in metre, of such sweep that Elizabethans put these
qualities first when they went about to judge a play. "Your nine
comœdies," writes Harvey to Spenser, come nearer to Ariosto's, "eyther
for the finenesse of plausible Elocution, or the rareness of Poetical
Invention," than the _Faery Queene_ to the _Orlando Furioso_. In this
ennobling of diction, Peele may not have led the column of playwrights,
but he was certainly in the van. His achievement must not be dashed by
a comparison with Shakespeare, who covered up absurdities of plot--as
in the _Merchant of Venice_--by brilliant characterization, where this
earlier group depended upon the art of words.[997] For the related art
of brave metres, of a "flowing blank verse" in plays, we have no space
to argue upon the claims of leadership. Enough is done for the matter
if one remembers that Peele, who wrote admirable blank verse before
Marlowe was out of his teens, had nothing to learn from the greater
poet about the management of this metre in and for itself.[998]
Certainly he got more music out of the pentameter than any earlier
dramatist had done; witness such a movement as,--

"What sign is rainy and what star is fair,"

or,--

"And water running from the silver spring."

=The Old Wives' Tale, an Innovation in Comedy.=--It may be conceded
that Peele "discovered no new vein" in diction and in metre, although
his work in each was of a high order, not far removed from leadership.
Different is the case when one considers his claims for innovation in
comedy. He was the first to blend romantic drama with a realism which
turns romance back upon itself, and produces the comedy of subconscious
humour. The tragedies, and even the miracle plays, while extravagant
in form, had not been altogether unnatural in action. The supernatural
in that age was not unnatural. The unnatural was mainly confined to
the diction. Gradually, as every one knows, the romantic element, in
a wide sense, got upper hand and ruled the English drama. In _The Old
Wives' Tale_ this romantic spirit comes in, not as a new element, but
as a new kind of "art" grafted upon the "nature" of the rough and comic
stock; and to the reader's surprise draws away all unnaturalness from
the dialogue, which is now plain, natural, commonplace.[999] Realism
in diction was no new thing; romance in plot was not an innovation;
it was the clash, the interplay, the subjective element, the appeal
to something more than a literal understanding of what is said and
done, a new appeal to a deeper sense of humour--here lay the new
vein discovered by George Peele. The romantic drama, we repeat, was
known; witness that little group of "folk-lore romances," as Mr. Fleay
calls them, _Common Conditions_, _Sir Clyomon and Sir Clamydes_, and
_Appius and Virginia_; the two former are full of adventures, of
amorous knights and wandering ladies, a Forest of Strange Marvels,
an Isle of Strange Marshes, what not. In all of them, however, the
romance is presented in unnatural diction, to suit such unnatural
doings, and justifies those bitter words of the _Second and Third
Blast of Retrait from Plaies and Theaters_,[1000] that "the notablest
lier is become the best Poet ... for the strangest Comedie brings
greatest delectation ... faining countries neuer heard of, monsters
and prodigious creatures that are not...." A milder romantic drama,
but without the humour which we mean, is Greene's _Orlando Furioso_.
The other plays, however, have no humour at all except the traditional
humour of the Vice; and of the three representatives, Conditions, who
finally turns pirate, is certainly a far merrier person than Haphazard
in _Appius_ or Subtle Shift in _Sir Clyomon_. There is realistic
setting in _Common Conditions_, with some lively dialogue, and a
distinctly catching song and chorus[1001] of tinkers, at the opening
of the play. It is "business" here, however, not that dramatic irony,
springing from contrast of romantic plot and realistic diction, which
makes a sufficiently timid beginning in _The Old Wives' Tale_, and
grows so insistent in _The Knight of the Burning Pestle_. Moreover,
Peele's realistic work shows the control and consciousness of a higher
art. There are no peasants like Hodge in _Gammer Gurton_, Corin in _Sir
Clyomon_, and Hob and Lob in _Cambyses_.[1002] There is an outburst or
two of yokel wit in Peele's play; but there is no breaking of heads, no
chance for the clown to sing a song while drunk, as Hance does in the
interlude of _Like Wil to Like_. These signs of a subtler conception
of his art should be placed to Peele's credit; for while an obvious
dialect marks Hodge and Corin and the rest, Clunch and Madge speak a
plain English, reminding one irresistibly of the milk-woman's talk with
Piscator: it smacks of cottage and field and hedge-rows and, as Nashe
would say, has "old King Harrie sinceritie." There is a difference
as between the exaggerated "hayseed" of a comic paper and the finer
drawing in one of Hardy's peasants. Exaggeration would spoil the sense
of contrast between honest Madge and the high pretences of the plot.
In Huanebango there is girding not only at Harvey, but at the romance
hero in general; this big-mouthed, impossible fellow, with Corebus as a
foil, foreshadows, however dimly, the far more clever presentation of
an English Don Quixote in the person of Ralph.

A second element of humour in this realistic treatment of romance is
the use of an induction, or rather of a combination of the induction
and the play within the play, as a means of expressing dramatic irony.
Although the induction springs from the prologue, and although the
opening of _The Old Wives' Tale_ is technically an induction, like many
another of the time, it has to our thinking a distinctly new vein. What
Schwab[1003] calls the first example of the use of an induction--in
_The Rare Triumphs of Love and Fortune_--makes both induction and
play connected parts of a whole. It is a dramatic device, wholly
objective in character, external, with no demand upon the sense of
contrast. Different, but hardly a new idea,[1004] is the induction as
employed by Greene in _Alphonsus_ and _James IV._; here is a return
to the old notion of the prologue, a justifying of the playwright's
way. Will Summer, the pet jester,[1005] who ushers in Nashe's play,
calls himself outright a kind of chorus. In the old _Taming of a
Shrew_, printed in 1594, Sly, while only a casual commentator upon
the play, is entirely outside of the main action, which, as Schwab
points out, thus becomes an actual play within the play. Still, even
in these cases, the contrast is objective and direct. The induction
is a clever device to heighten interest in the play. Before, it had
served the playwright as an expression of his purpose in the main
drama; later, as with Ben Jonson, it voiced his critical opinions.
Whether objective or subjective, however, the contrast between play and
induction is direct. Quite different is that induction, which Schwab
rightly calls remarkable, in _The Knight of the Burning Pestle_; and
different, too, is that earlier attempt, which Schwab unaccountably
fails to mention, in _The Old Wives' Tale_. These both appeal to a
sense of humour awakened by the interplay of theme and treatment,
of character and situation. In Peele's play this involution of epic,
drama, and comment--a seeming confusion which has distressed many
of the critics--really heightens the dramatic power of the piece.
The induction is double. First come a bit of romance, with the lost
wanderers in the wood, and a realistic foil in their own dialogue--by
no means the "heavy prose" of Collier's censure. Secondly comes
outright realism with Clunch, Madge, the bread and cheese, and the
old joke about bedfellows, cleverly followed by Madge's abrupt raid
upon romantic ground. She is well started, but stumbling, when the
other actors break in; and the inner play, not without some confusion
and mystification, runs its course. Perhaps the sense of huddling,
abruptness, confusion, is intentional as part of an old wives' tale
indeed; perhaps, again, this must be laid to the charge of Peele's
carelessness in "plotting plaies." Be that as it may be, the interplay
of these elements makes a new kind of comedy; and the humour of this
play, crude and tentative as it seems when compared with the humour of
Uncle Toby[1006] and of those lesser lights that revolve in the orbit
of the Quixotic contrast, differs from earlier essays of the sort in
that it is not a separate element of fun, but rather something which
exists in solution with the comedy itself. _The Old Wives' Tale_ lies
midway between the utter lack of coherence in Nashe's play and the
subtlety of Beaumont and Fletcher. Will Summer is often irrelevant
and tiresome; the main action, on which he comments, is now pathetic,
now farcical, now merely spectacular; but in our play the thread of
romance runs throughout unbroken and keeps the piece in a sort of
unity, while the comment, whether direct or hinted, has a vastly finer
vein of irony. The romantic side of folk-lore has its due withal, as
in the test of fidelity at the end between Eumenides and Jack, with
the proposed division of Delia--a _casus_ always acceptable to such
an audience, and here of acute though subordinate interest. Moreover,
Peele has a kind of reticence and control in his art; he suggests in
a whisper what Will Summer would have roared into commonplace and
horse-play.

=The Background of Folk-Lore.=--Finally, the very _Old Wives' Tale_
itself, with its background of folk-lore, that tryst of ancient
splendour with modern poverty and ignorance on the territory of a
forgotten faith, is a thing of quietly humorous contrasts. Several
elements are to be considered in the charming little medley which
Peele has made from the folk-lore of his day--"that curious _mélange_
of nursery tales," as Mr. Joseph Jacobs calls it. The enchanter and
his spells, the stolen daughter and her brothers' quest, make a
familiar central group. Perhaps Madge set out to tell the story of
_Childe Rowland_, familiar to Elizabethans,[1007] although _Jack the
Giant Killer_ has his claims. The _fee-fa-fum_, as every one knows,
occurs also in Shakespeare's _Lear_. The help of the White Bear--a
transformation, like the saws and prophecies, sufficiently familiar in
these tales--is similar to that of Merlin in _Childe Rowland_; but the
ghost of Jack reminds one of the other story. Mr. Jacobs quotes Kennedy
that in a parallel Irish tale "Jack the servant is the spirit of the
buried man." One has only to make this substitution, and the vicarious
gratitude of the Giant Killer[1008] is better explained. Perhaps,
too, Peele has borrowed some of his thunder and lightning, as well as
Huanebango's _fee-fa-fum_, from the giants; and the disenchantment
at the hands of an invisible hero may belong, in part, to this tale.
Two other folk-tales may be named--_The Well of the World's End_,
mentioned, if a slight emendation be allowed, in _The Complaynt of
Scotland_, and _The Three Heads of the Well_--as known, in some form,
to Peele, and used directly in the story of the two daughters. The
familiar theme of the so-called "death index"[1009] is touched but
slightly; and perhaps it is unnecessary to go to the _Red Ettin_ for a
parallel to Huanebango and Corebus, who respectively refuse and give a
piece of cake to the helpful old man. The theme is common in folk-lore.
It is interesting to note that Beaumont and Fletcher show a liking for
folk-tales, as well as for traditional songs and ballads, in that play,
which by its induction and general spirit most closely resembles this
_Old Wives' Tale_. More dignified sources were long ago pointed out by
Warton, who remarked that "the names of some of the characters ... are
taken from the _Orlando Furioso_." Meroe, in Apuleius, was invoked. But
it seems clear enough that English folk-lore must be the mainstay of
critics who think all is done for a work of literature when they have
found out every possible and impossible source for plot, sideplot, and
allusion.

=Literary Estimate.=--The marvel, after all, is not that these
materials are huddled and confused in the combination; the confusion is
part of the artistic process, and if the figures move across the stage
without firm connection one with the other, that, too, is done after
the manner of the old tale. We are on romantic ground, and are to see
by glimpses. Here is no comedy of incident, in the usual meaning of
the term, no comedy of intrigue or of manners. It is rather a comedy
of comedies, a saucy challenge of romance, where art turns, however
timidly, upon itself. Perhaps Peele wrote this play, as Dryden wrote
_All for Love_, to please himself. Unquestionably, until Mr. Bullen
made a plea for mercy, _The Old Wives' Tale_ had been shamefully
treated. Collier[1010] calls it "nothing but a beldam's story, with
little to recommend it but heavy prose and not much lighter blank
verse," a most inadequate summary from any point of view. The play, he
thinks, has "a disgusting quantity of trash and absurdity." Dyce, while
regarding Peele's "superiority to Greene" as "unquestionable," is not
enthusiastic about _The Old Wives' Tale_. Mr. Ward speaks[1011] of "the
labyrinthine intricacy of the main scenes," knows not whether to call
it farce or interlude, and would pass it by save for the suggestion
of _Comus_. But Mr. Bullen very properly objects to this unfair
comparison. Symonds, to be sure, uses it even more unfairly. _The
Old Wives' Tale_, he makes bold to say, is the sow's ear to Milton's
silk purse.[1012] With an unusual blindness to literary perspective,
Symonds goes on to judge this flickering little candle of romance,
folk-lore, and half-roguish, half-ironical suggestion, by the sun-blaze
of Milton's high seriousness and full poetic splendours. Peele, it
seems, does not "lift his subject into the heavens of poetry.... The
wizard is a common conjurer. The spirit is a vulgar village ghost."
Why not, pray? What should they be for the purposes of this old wives'
tale? What would be left, say, of Chaucer's charming little story, that
"folye, as of a fox, or of a cok and hen," if one were to pulverize it
with such critical tools? Peele is not trying to raise comedy into the
heavens; he left that for his betters; and the ineffectual Delia is
a long remove from Hermia and Helena in the "wood near Athens." What
Peele, George Peele of the dingy jests, probably tried to do, and what
he surely succeeded in doing, was to bring a new and more subtle strain
of humour into the drama. _Itur in antiquam silvam._ Realism left
shabby and squalid things, alehouse wit, and laid hold of a sweeter
life. Reckless, good-natured scholar, George fairly followed the call
which haunted so many academic outcasts, the call which Marlowe and
Greene and Dekker answered with those sweet songs of country life, and
which led Peele to the making of this play. He wove romance and realism
into a fabric that may well show a coarse pattern and often very clumsy
workmanship, but, on the whole, it is a pleasing pattern and a new.
Moreover, it is all made of sound English stuff. The tales he used
for his main drama were familiar to English ears; the persons of his
framework play were kindly folk of any English village, and the air of
it all is as fresh and wholesome as an English summer morning.

=Sources, Title, Text.=--The sources of the play, so far as one may
speak of sources, are indicated in general above, and in particular
by notes to the following text. The plural form of the title ought
probably to be singular, in spite of common usage, the gloss _ealdra
cwéna spel_ (Wright, _Voc._), and 1 Timothy iv, 7; Mr. Fleay, perhaps
as a concession to Madge, prints _Old Wifes' Tale_ (_Biog. Chron. Eng.
Drama_, II. 154).[1013] He puts the date of composition "clearly 1590,"
on the theory that Harvey--Huanebango--is here satirized by Peele as
a consequence of Harvey's attack upon Lyly in 1589,--circulated then
in manuscript though not printed until 1593. Lämmerhirt[1014] argues,
but not conclusively, that the play was written before 1588,--partly
because of the allusions to Harvey, and partly because style and
form point to an early period in the author's development. Until a
surer date can be established, however, 1590 will serve as the time
of composition for this play. _The Old Wives' Tale_, says Dyce, "had
sunk into complete oblivion, till Steevens ... communicated to Reed
the account of it which appeared in the _Biographia Dramatica_." In
1783 Steevens writes to Warton: "All I have learned in relation to the
original from which the idea of Milton's _Comus_ might be borrowed, I
communicated to Mr. Reed.... Only a single copy of his [_sic_] _Old
Wives' Tale_ has hitherto appeared, and even that is at present out of
my reach...."[1015] As to the rhythmic structure, E. Penner notes[1016]
that of 964 lines of this play 192 are five-stress or ordinary heroic
verse, 7 are hexameters, and 100 short verses. The rest is prose.

The best edition is, of course, that of Bullen, in 3 vols., 1888-[B];
but there were excellent editions by Dyce, one in 1828 ff., and another
in 1861-[Dy.]. The present text of _The Old Wives' Tale_ is from
the 1595 quarto in the British Museum; the title-page is, with the
exception of the vignettes, a fair representation of the original.

F. B. GUMMERE.

FOOTNOTES:

[989] "To the Gentlemen Students of both Universities," prefixed to
Greene's _Menaphon_, a well-known passage. Little, if anything, can
be made of Meres when (Haslewood, II., 153) he couples Peele now with
Ariosto, now, as tragical poet, with Apollodorus Tarsensis. He does
not name Peele among the writers of comedy. Later, in _Have with You
to Saffron Walden_ (Grosart, III. 196), Nashe, with no mention of
Peele, concedes to Greene mastery, above all the craft, in "plotting of
plaies." This dramatic art of words, by the way, must not be confused
with Euphuistic feats. Greene, Nashe, even Harvey, turned with Sidney
against mere "playing with words and idle similies," and Peele is
anything but a follower of Guevara.

[990] _Merrie conceited Jests of George Peele, Gentleman, sometimes
a Student in Oxford Wherein is shewed the course of his life, how he
lived: a man very well knowne in the Citie of London and elsewhere...._
There was an edition in 1607, hardly ten years after Peele's death.

[991] _The Looking Glasse for London and England_ has some boisterous
comedy, but no humour. In _George-a-Greene_, good play that it is, the
ballad material is taken quite seriously. In _Friar Bacon and Friar
Bungay_ there is exquisite idyllic work, a dash of passable, though
quite traditional, comedy, but no trace of the peculiar element,
presently to be described as the dominant note of treatment in _The Old
Wives' Tale_.

[992] _Fröhliche Wissenschaft_, p. 109 f. So in his _Geburt der
Tragödie_, p. 89, speaking of the prologue as used by Euripides,
which told in advance the action of the play, Nietzsche asserts that
the Athenians were less interested in the plot than in the pathos of
situations and the rhetoric of the players.

[993] "The romantic play, the English Farsa, may be called in a great
measure his discovery." _Shakespeare's Predecessors_, p. 580.

[994] "A matter in which he certainly anticipated Marlowe," _Biog.
Chron._ II. 151.

[995] Ed. Shakespeare Society, 1841, p. 52.

[996] Peele is not of the extreme group whose feats in diction remind
one of what Dr. Johnson said about the metaphysical poets, that "their
wish was only to say what they hoped had never been said before."

[997] Gosson, in a well-known passage, puts brave language first among
dramatic attractions: "sweetness of words, fitness of epithets, with
metaphors, allegories...."

[998] Lämmerhirt counts nearly 84 per cent of the verses in the
_Arraignment of Paris_ as rhymed; _David and Bethsabe_ has less than 7
per cent, and _The Battle of Alcazar_ barely 3 per cent.

[999] The diction of _The Old Wives' Tale_ differs from Lyly's comic
prose much as Nashe's style in his pamphlets differs from the periods
of Lyly's _Euphues_.

[1000] Ed. W. C. Hazlitt, Roxburgh Library, 1869, p. 145.

[1001] See the song in _Appius_, "Hope so and hap so."--In _Misogonus_,
the Vice appears as a domestic fool.

[1002] Compare the French and broken English in _Three Lords and Three
Ladies of London_, the dialect of Boban the Scot in Greene's _James
IV._, and the inevitable Welshman.

[1003] _Das Schauspiel im Schauspiel_, Wien and Leipzig, 1896.

[1004] "A new _motiv_," says Schwab. Fleay (work quoted, I. 266) thinks
_The Old Wives' Tale_ fairly parodies the induction in _James IV._

[1005] See a similar bit of horse-play in _Wily Beguiled_.

[1006] The delicate irony of later triflings with romance--as in
Wieland's _Oberon_--is, of course, quite out of the question.

[1007] See _English Fairy Tales_, J. Jacobs, edition of 1898, pp. 243,
245. A monograph could be written on the folk-lore of this play, where,
it is to be conjectured, Peele has followed no single tale, but has
combined parts of separate stories, and flung in bits of rhyme and
fragments of superstition, as fancy bade him.

[1008] _English Fairy Tales_, p. 104. This theme of the _Thankful
Dead_ is extremely common. It is found in an old English romance, _Sir
Amadace_, and has been treated by Max Hippe, in Herrig's _Archiv_, Vol.
LXXXI, p. 141.

[1009] Jacobs, _English Fairy Tales_, Notes, p. 252. See also Frazer's
_Golden Bough_.

[1010] _Annals of Stage_, etc., III. 197.

[1011] _Eng. Dram. Lit._ I. 372.

[1012] _Shakespeare's Predecessors_, p. 563 ff. Mr. Jacobs thinks that
both poets went to folk-lore for their materials. _Childe Rowland_ is
the probable source.

[1013] It is entered on the Stationers' Registers to Raphe Hancock,
April 16, 1595, _the owlde wifes tale_. Cf. "an olde wives tale,"
Greene, _Groatsw._ (Grosart XII. 119).--Gen. Ed.

[1014] _G. P. Untersuchungen_, etc., Rostock, 1862, pp. 62 ff.

[1015] _Biogr. Mem. of the late Jos. Warton, DD._, London, 1806, p. 398.

[1016] _Metrische Untersuchungen zu George Peele_, in the _Archiv fur
das Studium d. neueren Spracben_, etc. (1890), LXXXV. 279.

[Decoration]

THE

Old Wiues Tale.

A pleasant conceited Comedie
played by the Queenes Maiesties
players

Written by _G. P._

VIGNETTE

Printed at London by _Iohn Danter_, and are to
be sold by _Raph Hancocke_, and _Iohn
Hardie_, _1595_.

[The Persons of the Play[1017]

SACRAPANT.
First Brother, named CALYPHA.
Second Brother, named THELEA.
EUMENIDES.
ERESTUS.
LAMPRISCUS.
HUANEBANGO.
COREBUS.
WIGGEN.
Churchwarden.
Sexton.
Ghost of JACK.
Friar, Harvest-men, Furies, Fiddlers, etc.
DELIA, _sister to_ CALYPHA _and_ THELEA.
VENELIA, _betrothed to_ ERESTUS.
ZANTIPPA, } _daughters to_ LAMPRISCUS.
CELANTA, }
Hostess.
ANTIC.
FROLIC.
FANTASTIC.
CLUNCH, _a smith_.
MADGE, _his wife_.]

FOOTNOTES:

[1017] Not in Q.; inserted by Dy. On the history of the characters see
Appendix _A_.

The Old Wives Tale.

_Enter_ ANTICKE, FROLICKE, _and_ FANTASTICKE.

ANTICKE.

HOW nowe fellowe Franticke,[1018] what, all a mort?[1019] Doth this
sadnes become thy madnes? What though wee have lost our way in the
woodes, yet never hang the head, as though thou hadst no hope to
live till to morrow: for Fantasticke and I will warrant thy life to
night for twenty in the hundred. 5

_Frolicke._ Anticke and Fantasticke, as I am frollicke franion,[1020]
never in all my life was I so dead slaine. What? to loose our way in
the woode, without either fire or candle so uncomfortable? _O caelum!
O terra! O maria! O Neptune!_[1021] 10

_Fantas._ Why makes thou it so strange, seeing Cupid hath led our yong
master to the faire Lady and she is the only saint that he hath sworne
to serve?

_Frollicke._ What resteth then but wee commit him to his wench, and
each of us take his stand up in a tree, and sing out our ill 15
fortune to the tune of _O man in desperation_.[1022]

_Ant._ Desperately spoken, fellow Frollicke in the darke: but seeing
it falles out thus, let us rehearse the old proverb.[1023]

_Three merrie men, and three merrie men,
And three merrie men be wee. 20
I in the wood, and thou on the ground.
And Jacke sleepes in the tree._

_Fan._ Hush! a dogge in the wood, or a wooden dogge.[1024] O
comfortable hearing! I had even as live the chamberlaine of the
White Horse had called me up to bed. 25

_Frol._ Eyther hath this trotting cur gone out of his cyrcuit, or els
are we nere some village, which should not be farre off, for I

_Enter a_ SMITH _with a lanthorne & candle_.

perceive the glymring of a gloworme, a candle, or a cats eye, my life
for a halfe pennie. In the name of my own father, be thou oxe or asse
that appearest, tell us what thou art. 30

_Smith._ What am I? Why I am Clunch the Smith; what are you, what make
you in my territories at this time of the night?

_Ant._ What doe we make, dost thou aske? Why we make faces for feare:
such as if thy mortall eyes could behold, would make thee water the
long seames of thy side slops,[1025] Smith. 35

_Frol._ And in faith, sir, unlesse your hospitalitie doe releeve us,
wee are like to wander with a sorrowfull hey ho, among the owlets,
& hobgoblins of the forrest: good Vulcan, for Cupids sake that hath
cousned us all, befriend us as thou maiest, and commaund us howsoever,
wheresoever, whensoever, in whatsoever, for ever and ever.[1026] 40

_Smith._ Well, masters, it seemes to mee you have lost your waie in
the wood: in consideration whereof, if you will goe with Clunch[1027]
to his cottage, you shall have house roome, and a good fire to sit by,
althogh we have no bedding to put you in.

_All._ O blessed Smith, O bountifull Clunch. 45

_Smith._ For your further intertainment, it shall be as it may be, so
and so.

_Heare a dogge barke._

Hearke![1028] this is Ball my dogge that bids you all welcome in his
own language; come, take heed for[1029] stumbling on the threshold.
Open dore, Madge, take in guests. _Enter old woman._ 50

_Cl._ Welcome Clunch & good fellowes al that come with my good man;
for my good mans sake come on, sit downe; here is a peece of cheese &
a pudding of my owne making.

_Anticke._ Thanks, Gammer; a good example for the wives of our
towne. 55

_Frolicke._ Gammer, thou and thy good man sit lovingly together;
we come to chat and not to eate.

_Smith._ Well, masters, if you will eate nothing, take away. Come,
what doo we to passe away the time? Lay a crab[1030] in the fire to
rost for lambes-wooll. What, shall wee have a game at trumpe or 60
ruffe[1031] to drive away the time, how say you?

_Fantasticke._ This Smith leads a life as merrie as a king[1032] with
Madge his wife. Syrrha Frolicke, I am sure thou art not without
some round or other; no doubt but Clunch can beare his part.

_Frolicke._ Els thinke you mee ill brought up;[1033] so set to it 65
when you will. _They sing._

SONG.

When as the Rie reach to the chin,
And chopcherrie,[1034] chopcherrie ripe within,
Strawberries swimming in the creame,
And schoole boyes playing in the streame: 70
Then O, then O, then O my true love said,
Till that time come againe,
Shee could not live a maid.

_Ant._ This sport dooes well: but me thinkes, Gammer, a merry
winters tale would drive away the time trimly. Come, I am sure 75
you are not without a score.

_Fantast._ I faith, Gammer, a tale of an howre long were as good
as an howres sleepe.

_Frol._ Looke you, Gammer, of the Gyant and the Kings Daughter,[1035]
and I know not what. I have seene the day when I was a little one, 80
you might have drawne mee a mile after you with such a discourse.

_Old woman._ Well, since you be so importunate, my good man
shall fill the pot and get him to bed; they that ply their worke must
keepe good howres. One of you goe lye with him; he is a cleane
skind man, I tell you, without either spavin or windgall; so I am 85
content to drive away the time with an old wives winters tale.

_Fantast._ No better hay in Devonshire,[1036] a my word, Gammer, Ile
be one of your audience.

_Frolicke._ And I another: thats flat.

_Anticke._ Then must I to bed with the good man. _Bona nox_ Gammer; 90
God night, Frolicke.

_Smith._ Come on, my lad, thou shalt take thy unnaturall[1037] rest
with me.

_Exeunt_ ANTICKE _and the_ SMITH.

_Frollicke._ Yet this vantage shall we have of them in the morning,
to bee ready at the sight thereof extempore.[1038] 95

_Old wom._ Nowe this bargaine, my masters, must I make with you, that
you will say _hum_ & _ha_ to my tale, so shall I know you are awake.

_Both._ Content, Gammer, that will we doo.

_Old wom._ Once uppon a time there was a King or a Lord, or a
Duke, that had a faire daughter, the fairest that ever was; as 100
white as snowe, and as redd as bloud: and once uppon a time his
daughter was stollen away, and hee sent all his men to seeke out his
daughter, and hee sent so long, that he sent all his men out of his
land.

_Frol._ Who drest his dinner then?

_Old woman._ Nay, either heare my tale, or kisse my taile. 105

_Fan._ Well sed, on with your tale, Gammer.

_Old woman._ O Lord, I quite forgot, there was a Conjurer, and this
Conjurer could doo any thing, and hee turned himselfe into a great
Dragon, and carried the Kinges Daughter away in his mouth to a
Castle that hee made of stone, and there he kept hir I know not how
long, till at last all the Kinges men went out so long, that 110
hir two Brothers went to seeke hir.[1039] O, I forget: she (he I
would say) turned a proper[1040] yong man to a Beare in the night,
and a man in the day, and keeps[1041] by a crosse that parts three
severall waies, & he[1042] made his Lady run mad ... Gods me bones,
who comes here? 115
_Enter the two Brothers._

_Frol._ Soft, Gammer, here some come to tell your tale for you.[1043]

_Fant._ Let them alone, let us heare what they will say.

1 _Brother._ Upon these chalkie cliffs of Albion[1044]
We are arived now with tedious toile, 120
And compassing the wide world round about
To seeke our sister, to[1045] seeke faire Delya forth,
Yet cannot we so much as heare of hir.

_2 Brother._ O fortune cruell, cruell & unkind,
Unkind in that we cannot find our sister; 125
Our sister haples in hir cruell chance!
Soft, who have we here?

_Enter_ SENEX _at the Crosse, stooping to gather_.

_1 Brother._ Now, father, God be your speed,
What doo you gather there?

_Old man._ Hips and hawes, and stickes and straws, and thinges 130
that I gather on the ground, my sonne.[1046]

_1 Brother._ Hips and hawes, and stickes and strawes! Why, is that all
your foode, father?

_Old man._ Yea, sonne.

_2 Brother._ Father, here is an almes pennie for mee, and if I speede
in that I goe for, I will give thee as good a gowne of gray[1047] 135
as ever thou diddest weare.

_1 Brother._ And, father, here is another almes pennie for me, and
if I speede in my journey, I will give thee a palmers staffe of
yvorie, and a scallop shell of beaten gold.[1048] 140

_Old man._ Was shee fayre?[1049]

_2 Brother._ I, the fairest for white, and the purest for redd, as the
blood of the deare, or the driven snow.

_Old m._ Then harke well and marke well, my old spell:
Be not afraid of every stranger, 145
Start not aside at every danger:
Things that seeme are not the same,
Blow a blast at every flame:
For when one flame of fire goes out,
Then comes your wishes well about: 150
If any aske who told you this good,
Say the White Beare of Englands wood.

_1 Brother._ Brother, heard you not what the old man said?
Be not afraid of every stranger,
Start not aside for every danger: 155
Things that seeme are not the same,
Blow a blast at every flame:
If any aske who told you this good,
Say the White Beare of Englands wood.[1050]

_2 Brother._ Well, if this doo us any good, 160
Wel fare the White Bear of Englands wood. _Ex._

_Old man._ Now sit thee here & tel a heavy tale.
Sad in thy moode, and sober in thy cheere,
Here sit thee now and to thy selfe relate,
The hard mishap of thy most wretched state. 165
In Thessalie I liv'd in sweete content,
Untill that Fortune wrought my overthrow;
For there I wedded was unto a dame,
That liv'd in honor, vertue, love, and fame:
But Sacrapant, that cursed sorcerer, 170
Being besotted with my beauteous love,
My deerest love, my true betrothed wife,
Did seeke the meanes to rid me of my life.
But worse than this, he with his chanting[1051] spels,
Did turne me straight unto an ugly Beare; 175
And when the sunne doth settle in the west,
Then I begin to don my ugly hide:
And all the day I sit, as now you see,
And speake in riddles all inspirde with rage,
Seeming an olde and miserable man: 180
And yet I am in Aprill of my age.

_Enter_ VENELIA _his Lady mad; and goes in againe_.

See where Venelya, my betrothed love,
Runs madding all inrag'd about the woods,
All by his curssed and inchanting spels.

_Enter_ LAMPRISCUS _with a pot of honny_.

But here comes Lampriscus, my discontented neighbour. How now, 185
neighbour, you looke towarde the ground as well as I; you muse on
something.

_Lamp._ Neighbour on nothing, but on the matter I so often mooved to
you: if you do any thing for charity, helpe me; if for neighborhood
or brotherhood, helpe me: never was one so combered as is poore 190
Lampryscus: and to begin, I pray receive this potte of honny to
mend[1052] your fare.

_Old man._ Thankes, neighbor, set it downe;
Honny is alwaies welcome to the Beare.
And now, neighbour, let me heere the cause of your comming. 195

_Lampriscus._ I am (as you knowe, neighbour) a man unmaried, and lived
so unquietly with my two wives, that I keepe every yeare holy the day
wherein I buried the_m_ both: the first was on Saint Andrewes day, the
other on Saint Lukes.[1053]

_Old man._ And now, neighbour, you of this country say, your 200
custome is out: but on with your tale, neighbour.

_Lamp._ By my first wife, whose tongue wearied me alive, and
sounded in my eares like the clapper of a great bell, whose talke
was a continuall torment to all that dwelt by her, or lived nigh her,
you have heard me say I had a handsome daughter. 205

_Old man._ True, neighbour.

_Lampr._ Shee it is that afflictes me with her continuall clamoures,
and hangs on me like a burre: poore shee is, and proude shee is; as
poore as a sheepe new shorne, and as proude of her hopes, as a peacock
of her taile well growne. 210

_Old man._ Well said, Lampryscus, you speake it like an Englishman.

_Lampr._ As curst as a waspe, and as frowarde as a childe new
taken from the mothers teate; shee is to my age, as smoake to the
eyes, or as vinegar to the teeth. 215

_Old man._ Holily praised, neighbour, as much for the next.

_Lampr._ By my other wife I had a daughter, so hard favoured, so foule
and ill faced, that I thinke a grove full of golden trees, and the
leaves of rubies and dyamonds, would not bee a dowrie annswerable to
her deformitie. 220

_Old man._ Well, neighbour, nowe you have spoke, heere me speake; send
them to the well for the water of life:[1054] there shall they finde
their fortunes unlooked for. Neighbour, farewell. _Exit._

_Lampr._ Farewell and a thousand;[1055] and now goeth poore Lampryscus
to put in execution this excellent counsell. _Exeunt._ 225

_Frol._ Why this goes rounde without a fidling stick. But doo you
heare, Gammer, was this the man that was a beare in the night, and a
man in the day?

_Old woman._ I, this is hee; and this man that came to him was a
beggar, and dwelt uppon a greene. But soft, who comes here? O 230
these are the harvest men; ten to one they sing a song of mowing.

_Enter the harvest men a singing, with this_ SONG double repeated.[1056]

All yee that lovely lovers be, pray you for me.
Loe here we come a sowing, a sowing,
And sowe sweete fruites of love:
In your sweete hearts well may it proove. _Exeunt._ 235

_Enter_ HUANEBANGO[1057] _with his two hand sword, and_ BOOBY[1058]
_the Clowne_.

_Fant._ Gammer, what is he?

_Old woman._ O this is one that is going to the Conjurer; let him
alone; here what he sayes.

_Huan._ Now by Mars and Mercury, Jupiter and Janus, Sol and
Saturnus, Venus and Vesta, Pallas and Proserpina, and by the honor
of my house Polimackeroeplacydus,[1059] it is a wonder to see 240
what this love will make silly fellowes adventure, even in the wane
of their wits and infansie of their discretion. Alas, my friend,
what fortune calles thee foorth to seeke thy fortune among brasen
gates, inchanted towers, fire and brimstone, thunder and lightning?
Beautie, I tell thee, is peerelesse, and she precious whom thou 245
affectest: do off these desires, good countriman, good friend,
runne away from thy selfe, and so soone as thou canst, forget her;
whom none must inherit but he that can monsters tame, laboures
atchive, riddles absolve, loose inchantments, murther magicke, and
kill conjuring: and that is the great and mighty Huanebango. 250

_Booby._ Harke you sir, harke you. First know I have here the
flurting feather, and have given the parish the start for the long
stocke.[1060] Nowe sir, if it bee no more but running through a
little lightning and thunder, and riddle me, riddle me, what's
this,[1061] Ile have the wench from the Conjurer if he were ten 255
Conjurers.

_Huan._ I have abandoned the court and honourable company, to
doo my devoyre against this sore sorcerer and mighty magitian: if
this Ladie be so faire as she is said to bee, she is mine, she is
mine. _Meus, mea, meum, in contemptum omnium grammaticorum._ 260

_Booby._ _O falsum Latinum!_ the faire maide is _minum, cum
apurtinantibus gibletes_ and all.

_Huan._ If shee bee mine, as I assure my selfe the heavens will
doo somewhat to reward my worthines, shee shall bee allied to
none of the meanest gods, but bee invested in the most famous 265
stocke of Huanebango Polimackeroeplacidus, my grandfather, my
father Pergopolyneo, my mother Dyonora de Sardynya, famouslie
descended.

_Booby._ Doo you heare, sir, had not you a cosen, that was called
Gustecerydis? 270

_Huan._ Indeede I had a cosen, that sometime followed the court
infortunately, and his name Bustegustecerydis.

_Booby._ O Lord I know him well; hee is the[1062] knight of the
neates feete.

_Huan._ O he lov'd no capon better. He hath oftentimes deceived 275
his boy of his dinner; that was his fault, good Bustegustecerydis.

_Booby._ Come, shall we goe along?[1063] Soft, here is an olde man at
the Crosse; let us aske him the way thither. Ho, you Gaffer, I pray
you tell where the wise man the Conjurer dwells.

_Huan._ Where that earthly Goddesse keepeth hir abode, the 280
commander of my thougts, and faire Mistres of my heart.

_Old man._ Faire inough, and farre inough from thy fingering,
sonne.

_Huan._ I will followe my fortune after mine owne fancie, and
doo according to mine owne discretion. 285

_Old man._ Yet give some thing to an old man before you goe.

_Huan._ Father, mee thinkes a peece of this cake might serve
your turne.

_Old man._ Yea, sonne.

_Huan._ Huanebango giveth no cakes for almes; aske of them 290
that give giftes for poore beggars. Faire Lady, if thou wert once
shrined in this bosome, I would buckler thee hara-tantara. _Exit._

_Booby._ Father, doo you see this man? You litle thinke heele run
a mile or two for such a cake, or passe for[1064] a pudding. I tell
you, Father, hee has kept such a begging of mee for a peece of 295
this cake! Whoo, he comes uppon me with a superfantiall substance,
and the foyson[1065] of the earth, that I know not what he meanes.
Iff hee came to me thus, and said, 'my friend Booby,' or so, why I
could spare him a peece with all my heart; but when he tells me how
God hath enriched mee above other fellowes with a cake, why hee 300
makes me blinde and deafe at once. Yet, father, heere is a peece of
cake for you,[1066] as harde as the world goes.[1067]

_Old man._ Thanks, sonne, but list to mee:
He shall be deafe when thou shalt not see.
Farewell, my sonne; things may so hit, 305
Thou maist have wealth to mend thy wit.

_Booby._ Farewell, father, farewell; for I must make hast after my
two-hand sword that is gone before. _Exeunt omnes._

_Enter_ SACRAPANT _in his studie_.

_Sacrapant._ The day is cleare, the welkin bright and gray,
The larke is merrie, and records[1068] hir notes; 310
Each thing rejoyseth underneath the skie,
But onely I whom heaven hath in hate,
Wretched and miserable Sacrapant.
In Thessalie was I borne and brought up.[1069]
My mother Meroe hight, a famous witch, 315
And by hir cunning I of hir did learne,
To change and alter shapes of mortall men.
There did I turne my selfe into a dragon,
And stole away the daughter to the king,
Faire Delya, the mistres of my heart, 320
And brought hir hither to revive the man
That seemeth yong and pleasant to behold,
And yet is aged, crooked, weake and numbe.
Thus by inchaunting spells I doo deceive
Those that behold and looke upon my face; 325
But well may I bid youthfull yeares adue.

_Enter_ DELYA _with a pot in hir hand_.

See where she coms from whence my sorrows grow.
How now, faire Delya, where have you bin?

_Delya._ At the foote of the rocke for running water, and gathering
rootes for your dinner, sir. 330

_Sacr._ Ah, Delya, fairer art thou than the running water, yet harder
farre than steele or adamant.

_Delya._ Will it please you to sit downe, sir?

_Sacr._ I, Delya, sit & aske me what thou wilt; thou shalt have it
brought into thy lappe. 335

_Delya._ Then I pray you, sir, let mee have the best meate from the
king of Englands table, and the best wine in all France, brought in by
the veriest knave in all Spaine.[1070]

_Sacr._ Delya, I am glad to see you so pleasant.
Well, sit thee downe. 340
Spred, table, spred; meat, drinke & bred;
Ever may I have what I ever crave,
When I am spred, for[1071] meate for my black cock,
And meate for my red.

_Enter a_ FRIER _with a chine of beefe and a pot of wine_.

_Sacr._ Heere, Delya, will yee fall to? 345

_Del._ Is this the best meate in England?

_Sacr._ Yea.

_Del._ What is it?

_Sacr._ A chine of English beefe, meate for a king
And a king's followers. 350

_Del._ Is this the best wine in France?

_Sacr._ Yea.

_Del._ What wine is it?

_Sacr._ A cup of neate wine of Orleance,
That never came neer the brewers in England.[1072] 355

_Del._ Is this the veriest knave in all Spaine?

_Sacr._ Yea.

_Del._ What, is he a fryer?

_Sacr._ Yea, a frier indefinit, & a knave infinit.

_Del._ Then I pray ye, sir Frier, tell me before you goe, which is 360
the most greediest Englishman?

_Fryer._ The miserable and most covetous usurer.

_Sacr._ Holde thee there, Friar. _Exit Friar._
But soft, who have we heere? Delia, away, begon.[1073]

_Enter the two Brothers._

Delya, away, for beset are we; 365
But heaven or hell shall rescue her for me.[1074]

_1. Br._ Brother, was not that Delya did appeare?
Or was it but her shadow that was here?

_2. Bro._ Sister, where art thou? Delya, come again;
He calles, that of thy absence doth complaine. 370
Call out, Calypha, that she may heare,
And crie aloud, for Delya is neere.

_Eccho._ Neere.[1075]

_1. Br._ Neere? O where, hast thou any tidings?

_Eccho._ Tidings. 375

_2. Br._ Which way is Delya then,--or that, or this?

_Eccho._ This.

_1. Br._ And may we safely come where Delia is?

_Eccho._ Yes.

_2. Bro._ Brother, remember you the white 380
Beare of Englands wood:
Start not aside for every danger;
Be not afeard of every stranger;
Things that seeme, are not the same.

_1. Br._ Brother, why do we not the_n_ coragiously enter? 385

_2. Br._ Then, brother, draw thy sword & follow me.

_Enter the Conjurer; it lightens & thunders; the 2. Brother falls
downe._

_1. Br._ What, brother, doost thou fall?

_Sacr._ I, and thou to, Calypha.

_Fall 1. Brother. Enter two Furies._

_Adeste Dæmones_: away with them;
Go cary them straight to Sacrapantos cell, 390
There in despaire and torture for to dwell.
These are Thenores sonnes of Thessaly,
That come to seeke Delya their sister forth;
But with a potion, I to her have given,
My arts hath made her to forget her selfe. 395

_He remooves a turfe, and shewes a light in a glasse._[1076]

See heere the thing which doth prolong my life;
With this inchantment I do any thing.
And till this fade, my skill shall still endure,
And never none shall breake this little glasse,
But she that's neither wife, widow, nor maide. 400
Then cheere thy selfe; this is thy destinie,
Never to die, but by a dead mans hand. _Exeunt._

_Enter_ EUMENIDES _the wandering knight, and the Old Man_[1077] _at
the Crosse._

_Eum._ Tell me, Time, tell me, just Time,
When shall I Delia see?
When shall I see the loadstar of my life? 405
When shall my wandring course end with her sight,
Or I but view my hope, my hearts delight!
Father, God speede; if you tell fortunes, I pray, good father, tell me
mine.

_Old man._ Sonne, I do see in thy face, 410
Thy blessed fortune worke apace;
I do perceive that thou hast wit,
Beg of thy fate to governe it;
For wisdome govern'd by advise
Makes many fortunate and wise. 415
Bestowe thy almes, give more than all,
Till dead men's bones come at thy call.
Farewell, my sonne, dreame of no rest,
Til thou repent that thou didst best. _Exit Old M._

_Eum._ This man hath left me in a laborinth: 420
He biddeth me give more than all,
Till dead mens bones come at thy call:
He biddeth me dreame of no rest,
Till I repent that I do best.

_Enter_ WIGGEN, COROBUS,[1078] CHURCHWARDEN _and_ SEXTEN.

_Wiggen._ You may be ashamed, you whorson scald Sexton and 425
Churchwarden, if you had any shame in those shamelesse faces of
yours, to let a poore man lie so long above ground unburied. A
rot on you all, that have no more compassion of a good fellow
when he is gone.

_Simon._ What, would you have us to burie him, and to aunswere 430
it our selves to the parrishe?

_Sexton._ Parish me no parishes; pay me my fees, and let the rest
runne on in the quarters accounts, and put it downe for one of your
good deedes a Gods name; for I am not one that curiously stands
upon merits. 435

_Corobus._ You whoreson, sodden-headed sheepes-face, shall a good
fellow do lesse service and more honestie to the parish, & will you
not, when he is dead, let him have Christmas[1079] buriall?

_Wiggen._ Peace Corebus, as sure[1080] as Jack was Jack, the
frollickst frannion[1081] amongst you, and I Wiggen his sweete
sworne brother,[1082] Jack shall have his funerals, or some of 440
them shall lie on Gods deare earth for it, thats once.[1083]

_Churchwa._ Wiggen, I hope thou wilt do no more then thou
darst aunswer.

_Wig._ Sir, sir, dare or dare not, more or lesse, aunswer or not 445
aunswer, do this, or have this.

_Sex._ Helpe, helpe, helpe![1084] Wiggen sets upon the parish with a
pike staffe.

EUMENIDES _awakes and comes to them_.

_Eum._ Hould thy hands, good fellow.

_Core._ Can you blame him, sir, if he take Jacks part against this 450
shake-rotten parish that will not burie Jack.

_Eum._ Why, what was that Jack?

_Coreb._ Who Jack, sir, who our Jack, sir? as good a fellow as
ever troade uppon neats leather.

_Wiggen._ Looke you, sir, he gave foure score and nineteene 455
mourning gownes to the parish when he died, and because he would
not make them up a full hundred, they would not bury him; was
not this good dealing?

_Churchwar._ Oh Lord, sir, how he lies; he was not worth a
halfe-penny, and drunke out every penny: and nowe his fellowes, his
drunken companions, would have us to burie him at the[1085] 460
charge of the parish. And we make many such matches, we may pull
downe the steeple, sell the belles, and thatche the chauncell.
He shall lie above ground till he daunce a galliard about the
churchyard for Steeven Loache. 465

_Wiggen._ _Sic argumentaris, domine Loache_;--and we make many
such matches, we may pull downe the steeple, sell the belles, and
thatche the chauncell: in good time, sir, and hang your selves in
the bell ropes when you have done. _Domine oponens, præpono tibi
hanc questionem_, whether you will have the ground broken, or your
pates broken first? For one of them shall be done presently, 470
and to begin mine[1086] Ile seale it upon your cockescome.

_Eum._ Hould thy hands, I pray thee, good fellow; be not too hastie.

_Coreb._ You capons face, we shall have you turnd out of the 475
parish one of these dayes, with never a tatter to your arse; then you
are in worse taking then Jack.

_Eumen._ Faith and he is bad enough. This fellow does but the part
of a friend, to seeke to burie his friend; how much will burie him?

_Wiggen._ Faith, about some fifteene or sixteene shillings will 480
bestow him honestly.

_Sexton._ I, even there abouts, sir.

_Eumen._ Heere, hould it then, and I have left me but one poore three
halfe pence; now do I remember the wordes the old man spake at the
crosse: 'bestowe all thou hast,'--and this is all,--'till dead 485
mens bones comes at thy call.' Heare, holde it,[1087] and so farewell.

_Wig._ God, and all good, bee with you sir; naie, you cormorants,
Ile bestowe one peale of[1088] Jack at mine owne proper costs and
charges.

_Coreb._ You may thanke God the long staffe and the bilbowe 490
blade crost not your cockescombe. Well, weele to the church
stile,[1090] and have a pot, and so tryll lyll.

_Both._ Come, lets go. _Exeunt._

_Fant._ But harke you, gammer, me thinkes this Jack bore a great
sway in the parish. 495

_Old woman._ O this Jack was a marvelous fellow; he was but a
poore man, but very well beloved: you shall see anon what this
Jack will come to.

_Enter the harvest men singing, with women in their hands._

_Frol._ Soft, who have wee heere? our amorous harvest starres.[1089]

_Fant._ I, I, let us sit still and let them alone. 500

_Heere they begin to sing, the song doubled._[1090]

Soe heere we come a reaping, a reaping,
To reape our harvest fruite,
And thus we passe the yeare so long,
And never be we mute. _Exit the harvest men._[1091]

_Enter_ HUANEBANGO _and_ COREBUS _the clowne_.[1092]

_Frol._ Soft, who have we here? 505

_Old w._ O this is a cholerick gentleman; all you that love your
lives, keepe out of the smell of his two-hand sworde: nowe goes he
to the conjurer.

_Fant._ Me thinkes the Conjurer should put the foole into a
jugling boxe. 510

_Huan._ Fee, fa, fum,[1093] here is the Englishman,
Conquer him that can, came for his lady bright,
To proove himselfe a knight,
And win her love in fight.

_Cor._ Who-hawe, maister Bango, are you here? heare you, you 515
had best sit downe heere, and beg an almes with me.

_Huan._ Hence, base cullion, heere is he that commaundeth ingresse
and egresse with his weapon, and will enter at his voluntary,
whosover saith no.

_A voice and flame of fire_: HUANEBANGO _falleth downe_.

_Voice._ No. 520

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

_Enter the Conjurer, & strike_ COREBUS _blinde_.[1094]

_Sacr._ Away with him into the open fields,
To be a ravening pray to crowes and kites:[1095] 525
And for this villain, let him wander up & downe
In nought but darkenes and eternall night.[1096]

_Cor._ Heer hast thou slain Huan, a slashing knight,
And robbed poore Corebus of his sight. _Exit._

_Sacr._ Hence, villaine, hence. 530
Now I have unto Delya given a potion of forgetfulnes,
That when shee comes, shee shall not know hir brothers.
Lo where they labour, like to country slaves,
With spade and mattocke on this inchaunted ground!
Now will I call hir by another name, 535
For never shall she know hir selfe againe,
Untill that Sacrapant hath breathd his last.
See where she comes. _Enter Delya._
Come hither, Delya, take this gode.[1097]
Here, hard[1098] at hand, two slaves do worke and dig for gold; 540
Gore them with this & thou shalt have inough.

_He gives hir a gode._

_Del._ Good sir, I know not what you meane.

_Sacra._ She hath forgotten to be Delya,
But not forgot the same[1099] she should forget:
But I will change hir name. 545
Faire Berecynthia, so this country calls you,
Goe ply these strangers, wench, they dig for gold. _Exit Sacrapant._

_Delya._ O heavens! how am I beholding to[1100] this faire yong man.
But I must ply these strangers to their worke.
See where they come. 550

_Enter the two Brothers in their shirts, with spades, digging._

_1. Brother._ O Brother, see where Delya is!

_2. Brother._ O Delya, happy are we to see thee here.

_Delya._ What tell you mee of Delya, prating swaines?
I know no Delya nor know I what you meane;
Ply you your work, or else you are like to smart. 555

_1. Brother._ Why, Delya, knowst thou not thy brothers here?
We come from Thessalie to seeke thee forth,
And thou deceivest thy selfe, for thou art Delya.

_Delya._ Yet more of Delya? then take this and smart:
What, faine you shifts for to defer your labor? 560
Worke, villaines, worke, it is for gold you digg.

_2. Br._ Peace, brother, peace, this vild inchanter
Hath ravisht Delya of hir sences cleane,
And she forgets that she is Delya.

_1. Br._ Leave, cruell thou, to hurt the miserable; 565
Digg, brother, digg, for she is hard as steele.

_Here they dig & descry the light under a little hill._

_2. Br._ Stay, brother, what hast thou descride?

_Del._ Away & touch it not; it is some thing that my lord hath hidden
there. _She covers it agen._

_Enter_ SACRAPANT.

_Sacr._ Well sed,[1101] thou plyest these pyoners well. Goe, get 570
you in, you labouring slaves.
Come, Berecynthia, let us in likewise,
And heare the nightingale record hir notes. _Exeunt omnes._

_Enter_ ZANTYPPA, _the curst daughter, to the Well,[1102] with a pot
in hir hand_.

_Zant._ Now for a husband, house and home; God send a good one or
none, I pray God. My father hath sent me to the well for the water
of life, and tells mee, if I give faire wordes, I shall have a 575
husband.

_Enter the fowle wench to the Well for water, with a pot in hir hand._

But heere comes Celanta, my sweete sister; Ile stand by and heare
what she saies.

_Celant._ My father hath sent mee to the well for water, and he 580
tells me if I speake faire, I shall have a husband, and none of the
worst. Well, though I am blacke,[1103] I am sure all the world will
not forsake mee; and as the olde proverbe is, though I am blacke, I am
not the divell.

_Zant._ Marrie gup with a murren, I knowe wherefore thou speakest 585
that; but goe thy waies home as wise as thou camst, or Ile set thee
home with a wanion.

_Here she strikes hir pitcher against hir sisters, and breakes them
both and goes hir way._

_Celant._ I thinke this be the curstest queane in the world. You see
what she is, a little faire, but as prowd as the divell, and the
veriest vixen that lives upon Gods earth. Well, Ile let hir alone, and
goe home and get another pitcher, and for all this get me to the 590
well for water. _Exit._

_Enter two Furies out of the Conjurers cell and laies_ HUANEBANGO _by
the Well of Life_.

_Enter_ ZANTIPPA _with a pitcher to the Well_.

_Zant._ Once againe for a husband, & in faith, Celanta, I have got the
start of you. Belike husbands growe by the Well side. Now my father
sayes I must rule my tongue: why, alas, what am I then? A woman 595
without a tongue is as a souldier without his weapon; but Ile have my
water and be gon.

_Heere she offers to dip her pitcher in, and a head speakes in the
Well._

_Head._ Gently dip, but not too deepe,[1104]
For feare you make the golden birde[1105] to weepe,
Faire maiden, white and red, 600
Stroke me smoothe, and combe my head,
And thou shalt have some cockell bread.

_Zant._ What is this,--Faire maiden white & red,
Combe me smooth, and stroke my head,
And thou shall have some cockell bread.[1106] 605
Cockell callst thou it, boy?--faith, Ile give you cockell bread.

_Shee breakes hir pitcher uppon his heade, then it thunders and
lightens,[1107] and_ HUANEBANGO _rises up_: HUANEBANGO _is deafe and
cannot heare_.[1108]

_Huan._ Phylyda phylerydos, Pamphylyda floryda flortos,
Dub dub a dub, bounce quoth the guns, with a sulpherous huffe
snuffe.[1109]
Wakte with a wench, pretty peat, pretty love and my sweet prettie 610
pigsnie;
Just by thy side shall sit surnamed great Huanebango
Safe in my armes will I keepe thee, threat Mars or thunder Olympus.

_Zant._ Foe, what greasie groome have wee here? Hee looks as 615
though hee crept out of the backeside of the Well; and speakes like
a drum perisht at the west end.

_Huan._ O that I might, but I may not, woe to my destenie
therefore,[1110]
Kisse that I claspe,--but I cannot; tell mee my destenie 620
where-fore?

_Zant._ Whoope nowe I have my dreame, did you never heare so
great a wonder as this?
Three blue beanes in a blue bladder, rattle, bladder, rattle.[1111]

_Huan._ Ile nowe set my countenance and to hir in prose; it may 625
be this _rim ram ruffe_[1112] is too rude an incounter.

Let me, faire Ladie, if you be at leisure, revell with your sweetnes,
and raile uppon that cowardly Conjurer, that hath cast me or congealed
mee rather into an unkinde sleepe and polluted my carcasse.

_Zantyppa._ Laugh, laugh, Zantyppa, thou hast thy fortune, a foole 630
and a husbande under one.

_Huan._ Truely, sweete heart, as I seeme, about some twenty
yeares, the very Aprill of mine age.

_Zantyppa._ Why, what a prating asse is this?

_Huanebango._ Hir corall lippes, hir crimson chinne, 635
Hir silver teeth so white within:
Hir golden locks, hir rowling eye,
Hir pretty parts, let them goe by:
Hey ho, hath wounded me,
That I must die this day to see. 640

_Za._ By gogs bones, thou art a flouting knave.
"Hir corall lippes, hir crimson chinne," ka, "wilshaw."[1113]

_Huan._ True, my owne, and my owne because mine, & mine because
mine, ha ha! Above a thousand pounds in possibilitie, and
things fitting thy desire in possession. 645

_Zan._ The sott thinkes I aske of his landes. Lobb[1114] be your
comfort, and cuckold bee your destenie. Heare you, sir; and if you
will have us, you had best say so betime.

_Huan._ True, sweete heart, and will royallize thy progeny with
my petigree. _Exeunt omnes._ 650

_Enter_ EUMENIDES _the wandring knight_.

_Eu._ Wretched Eumenides, still unfortunate,
Envied by fortune, and forlorne by fate;
Here pine and die, wretched Eumenides.
Die in the spring, the Aprill of my[1115] age?
Here sit thee down, repent what thou hast don: 655
I would to God that it were nere begon.

_Enter_ JACKE.[1116]

_Jacke._ You are well overtaken, sir.

_Eum._ Who's that?

_Jacke._ You are heartily well met, sir.

_Eum._ Forbeare, I say, who is that which pincheth mee? 660

_Jacke._ Trusting in God, good Master Eumenides, that you are in so
good health as all your friends were at the making hereof, God give
you God morrowe, sir, lacke you not a neate, handsome and cleanly
yong lad, about the age of fifteene or sixteene yeares, that can
runne[1117] by your horse,[1118] and for a neede make your 665
master-shippes shooes as blacke as incke,--howe say you sir?

_Eum._ Alasse, pretty lad, I know not how to keepe my selfe, and much
lesse a servant, my pretty boy, my state is so bad.

_Jacke._ Content your selfe, you shall not bee so ill a master
but ile bee as bad a servant. Tut, sir, I know you, though you
know not me. Are not you the man, sir, denie it if you can, 670
sir,[1119] that came from a strange place in the land of Catita,
where Jacke-a-napes flies with his taile in his mouth, to seeke out
a Ladie as white as snowe, and as redd as blood; ha, ha, have I
toucht you now?

_Eum._ I thinke this boy be a spirit. 675
How knowst thou all this?

_Jacke._ Tut, are not you the man, sir, denie it if you can, sir, that
gave all the money you had to the burying of a poore man, and but
one three-halfe-pence left in your pursse? Content you, sir, Ile serve
you, that is flat. 680

_Eum._ Well, my lad, since thou art so impornate, I am content to
entertaine thee, not as a servant, but a copartner in my journey. But
whither shall we goe? for I have not any money more than one bare
three halfe-pence.

_Jacke._ Well, master content your selfe, for if my divination bee 685
not out, that shall bee spent at the next inne or alehouse we come
too; for maister, I knowe you are passing hungrie; therefore Ile goe
before and provide dinner untill that you come; no doubt but youle
come faire and softly after.

_Eum._ I, go before, Ile follow thee. 690

_Jack._ But doo you heare, maister, doo you know my name?

_Eum._ No, I promise thee, not yet.

_Jack._ Why, I am Jack. _Exeunt_ Jack.

_Eum._ Jack, why be it so, then.

_Enter the Hostes and_ JACK, _setting meate on the table, and Fidlers
came[1120] to playi_, EUMENIDES _walketh up and downe, and will eate no
meate_.

_Host._ How say you, sir, doo you please to sit downe? 695

_Eum._ Hostes, I thanke you, I have no great stomack.

_Host._ Pray, sir, what is the reason your maister is so strange?
Doth not this meate please him?

_Jack._ Yes, hostes, but it is my maisters fashion to pay before
hee eates, therefore a reckoning, good hostesse. 700

_Host._ Marry shall you, sir, presently. _Exit._

_Eum._ Why, Jack, what doost thou meane, thou knowest I have
not any money: therefore, sweete Jack, tell me what shall I doo.

_Jack._ Well, maister, looke in your pursse.[1121]

_Eum._ Why, faith, it is a follie, for I have no money. 705

_Jack._ Why, looke you, maister, doo so much for me.

_Eum._ Alas, Jack, my pursse is full of money.

_Jack._ 'Alas,' maister,--does that worde belong to this accident?
Why, me thinkes I should have seene you cast away your cloake,
and in a bravado daunced a galliard round about the chamber; why, 710
maister, your man can teach you more wit than this; come, hostis
cheere up my maister.

_Hostis._ You are heartily welcome: and if it please you to eate
of a fat capon, a fairer birde, a finer birde, a sweeter birde, a
crisper birde, a neater birde, your worship never eate off. 715

_Eum._ Thankes, my fine eloquent hostesse.

_Jack._ But heare you, maister, one worde by the way; are you
content I shall be halfes in all you get in your journey?

_Eum._ I am, Jack, here is my hand.

_Jack._ Enough, maister, I aske no more. 720

_Eum._ Come, hostesse, receive your money, and I thanke you
for my good entertainment.

_Host._ You are heartily welcome, sir.

_Eum._ Come, Jack, whether go we now?

_Jack._ Mary, maister, to the conjurers presently. 725

_Eu._ Content, Jack: Hostis, farewell. _Exe. om._

_Enter_ COREBUS _and_ ZELANTO[1122] _the foule wench, to the Well for
water_.

_Coreb._ Come, my ducke, come. I have now got a wife; thou art
faire, art thou not?[1123]

_Zelan._ My Corebus, the fairest alive, make no doubt of that.

_Cor._ Come, wench, are we almost at the wel? 730

_Zela._ I, Corebus, we are almost at the Well now; Ile go fetch
some water: sit downe while I dip my pitcher in.

_Voyce._ Gently dip: but not too deepe;
For feare you make the goulde_n_ beard to weepe.

_A head comes up with eares of corne, and she combes them in her lap._

Faire maiden, white and red, 735
Combe me smoothe, and stroke my head,
And thou shall have some cockell bread.
Gently dippe, but not too deepe,
For feare thou make the goulden beard to weep.
Faire maide, white and redde, 740
Combe me smooth, and stroke my head;
And every haire a sheave shall be,
And every sheave a goulden tree.

_A head[1124] comes up full of golde, she combes it into her lap._

_Zelan._ Oh see, Corebus, I have combd a great deale of golde into my
lap, and a great deale of corne. 745

_Coreb._ Well said, wench; now we shall have just[1125] enough. God
send us coiners to coine our golde. But come, shall we go home, sweet
heart?

_Zelan._ Nay, come, Corebus, I will lead you.

_Coreb._ So, Corebus, things have well hit, 750
Thou hast gotten wealth to mend thy wit. _Exit._

_Enter_ JACK _and the wandring knight_.

_Jack._ Come away, maister, come.

_Eum._ Go along, Jack, Ile follow thee.
Jack, they say it is good to go crosse-legged, and say his prayers
backward:[1126] how saiest thou? 755

_Jack._ Tut, never feare, maister; let me alone, heere sit you still,
speake not a word. And because you shall not be intised with his
inchanting speeches, with this same wooll Ile stop your eares: and
so, maister, sit still, for I must to the Conjurer. _Exit_ Jack.

_Enter the Conjurer to the wandring knight._

_Sa._ How now, what man art thou that sits so sad? 760
Why dost thou gaze upon these stately trees,
Without the leave and will of Sacrapant?
What, not a word but mum?
Then, Sacrapant, thou art betraide.

_Enter_ JACK _invisible, and taketh off_ SACRAPANTS _wreath from his
head, and his sword out of his hand_.

_Sac._ What hand invades the head of Sacrapant? 765
What hatefull fury doth envy my happy state?
Then, Sacrapant, these are thy latest dayes.
Alas, my vaines are numd, my sinews shrinke,
My bloud is pearst,[1127] my breath fleeting away,
And now my timelesse date is come to end: 770
He in whose life his actions[1128] hath beene so foule,
Now in his death to hell descends his soule.

_He dyeth._

_Jack._ Oh, sir, are you gon? Now I hope we shall have some
other coile. Now, maister, how like you this? the Conjurer hee is
dead, and vowes never to trouble us more. Now get you to your 775
faire Lady, and see what you can doo with her. Alas, he heareth me
not all this while; but I will helpe that.

_He pulles the wooll out of his eares._

_Eum._ How now, Jack, what news?

_Jack._ Heere, maister, take this sword and dig with it, at the
foote of this hill. 780

_He digs and spies a light._

_Eum._ How now, Jack, what is this?

_Jack._ Maister, without this the Conjurer could do nothing, and
so long as this light lasts, so long doth his arte indure, and this
being out, then doth his arte decay.

_Eum._ Why then, Jack, I will soone put out this light. 785

_Jack._ I, maister, how?

_Eum._ Why with a stone Ile breake the glasse, and then blowe
it out.

_Jack._ No, maister, you may as soone breake the smiths anfill, as
this little vyoll; nor the biggest blast that ever Boreas blew,
cannot blowe out this little light; but she that is neither 790
maide,[1129] wife, nor widowe. Maister, winde this horne; and see
what will happen.

_He windes the horne._

_Heere enters_ VENELIA _and breakes the glasse, and blowes out the
light, and goeth in againe_.

_Jack._ So, maister, how like you this? This is she that ranne madding
in the woods, his betrothed love that keepes the crosse; and nowe, 795
this light being out, all are restored to their former libertie. And
now, maister, to the Lady that you have so long looked for.

_He draweth a curten, and there_ DELIA _sitteth a sleepe_.

_Eum._ God speed, faire maide sitting alone: there is once.
God speed, faire maide; there is twise: 800
God speed, faire maide, that is thrise.

_Delia._ Not so, good sir, for you are by.

_Jack._ Enough, maister, she hath spoke; now I will leave her with
you.

_Eum._ Thou fairest flower of these westerne parts, 805
Whose beautie so reflecteth in my sight,
As doth a christall mirror in the sonne:
For thy sweet sake I have crost the frosen Rhine,[1130]
Leaving faire Po, I saild up Danuby,
As farre as Saba, whose inhansing streames 810
Cuts twixt the Tartars and the Russians,--
These have I crost for thee, faire Delia:
Then grant me that which I have sude for long.

_Del._ Thou gentle knight, whose fortune is so good,
To finde me out, and set my brothers free, 815
My faith, my heart, my hand, I give to thee.

_Eum._ Thankes, gentle madame: but heere comes Jack; thanke
him, for he is the best friend that we have.

_Enter_ JACK _with a head in his hand_.

_Eum._ How now, Jack, what hast thou there?

_Jack._ Mary, maister, the head of the conjurer. 820

_Eum._ Why, Jack, that is impossible; he was a young man.

_Jack._ Ah, maister, so he deceived them that beheld him: but hee
was a miserable, old, and crooked man; though to each mans eye h[e
see]med young and fresh. For, maister, this Conjurer tooke the shape
of the olde man that kept the crosse: and that olde man was in the 825
likenesse of the Conjurer.[1131] But nowe, maister, winde your horne.
_He windes his horne._

_Enter_ VENELIA, _the two Brothers, and he that was at the Crosse_.

_Eu._ Welcome, Erestus, welcome, faire Venelia,[1132]
Welcome, Thelea, and Kalepha[1133] both!
Now have I her that I so long have sought, 830
So saith faire Delia, if we have your consent.

_1. Bro._ Valiant Eumenides, thou well deservest
To have our favours: so let us rejoyce,
That by thy meanes we are at libertie.
Heere may we joy each in others sight, 835
And this faire Lady have her wandring knight.

_Jack._ So, maister, nowe yee thinke you have done: but I must have a
saying to you. You know you and I were partners, I to have halfe in
all you got.

_Eum._ Why, so thou shalt, Jack. 840

_Jack._ Why, then, maister draw your sworde, part your Lady, let mee
have halfe of her presently.

_Eumenid._ Why, I hope, Jack, thou doost but jest; I promist thee
halfe I got, but not halfe my Lady.

_Jack._ But what else, maister? have you not gotten her? Therefore 845
devide her straight, for I will have halfe; there is no remedie.

_Eumen._ Well, ere I will falsifie my worde unto my friend, take her
all; heere Jack, Ile give her thee.

_Jacke._ Nay, neither more nor lesse, maister, but even just halfe.

_Eum._ Before I will falsifie my faith unto my friend, I will 850
divide hir; Jacke, thou shalt have halfe.

_1. Brother._ Bee not so cruell unto our sister, gentle knight.

_2. Brother._ O spare faire Delia; shee deserves no death.

_Eum._ Content your selves; my word is past to him; therefore
prepare thy selfe, Delya, for thou must die. 855

_Delya._ Then, farewell, worlde; adew Eumenides.

_He offers to strike and_ JACKE _staies him_.

_Jacke._ Stay, master; it is sufficient I have tride your constancie.
Do you now remember since you paid for the burying of a poore
fellow?

_Eum._ I, very well, Jacke. 860

_Jacke._ Then, master, thanke that good deed for this good turne, and
so God be with you all.

JACKE _leapes downe in the ground_.

_Eum._ Jacke, what, art thou gone?
Then farewell, Jacke.
Come, brothers and my beauteous Delya, 865
Erestus, and thy deare Venelia:
We will to Thessalie with joyfull hearts.

_All._ Agreed, we follow thee and Delya.

_Exeunt omnes._[1134]

_Fant._ What, Gammer, a sleepe?

_Old wom._ By the Mas, sonne, tis almost day, and my windowes 870
shut[1135] at the cocks crow.

_Frol._ Doo you heare, Gammer, mee thinkes this Jacke bore a great
sway amongst them.

_Old wom._ O, man, this was the ghost of the poore man, that they kept
such a coyle to burie, & that makes him to help the wandring 875
knight so much. But come, let us in: we will have a cup of ale and a
tost this morning and so depart.[1136]

_Fant._ Then you have made an end of your tale, Gammer?

_Old wom._ Yes, faith. When this was done, I tooke a peece of
bread and cheese, and came my way, and so shall you have, too, 880
before you goe, to your breakefast.

FINIS.

Printed at London by _John Danter_, for _Raph
Hancocke_, and _John Hardie_, and are to
be solde at the shop over against
Saint Giles his Church without
Criplegate.
1595.

FOOTNOTES:

[1018] A mistake for Frolic.

[1019] _Alamort_, mortally sick; and then, dispirited.

[1020] "A gay, reckless fellow."

[1021] Below 'Neptune,' Sig. A iii.

[1022] B. refers to Ebbsworth, _Roxburghe Ballads_, IV. 365, 468. See
also Nash, _Four Letters Confuted_ (Grosart, II. 190), who says of
Harvey's "barefoote rimes" that "they would have trowld off bravely to
the tune of _O man in desperation_, and, like _Marenzos_ Madrigals, the
mourneful note naturally have affected the miserable Dittie."

[1023] Chappell gives the song in _Popular Music of the Olden Time_, p.
216. _Three Merry Men_ is quoted in _Westward Hoe_, and in Barry's _Ram
Alley_ (sung by Smallshanks: see note, Hazlitt-Dodsley, X. 298), as
well as in _Twelfth Night_; and it is parodied by the musical cook in
_The Bloody Brother_. Chappell is somewhat daring when he takes these
words from the _Old Wives' Tale_ as the original; lines 3 and 4 look
like a parody.

[1024] Dy. points out the pun in 'wooden' (= mad).

[1025] Long wide breeches or trousers; Dy. See _Looking-Glass for
London and England_, near end: "This right slop is my pantry, behold a
manchet [_Draws it out_]" ...

[1026] A bit of nonsense like the talk of Macbeth's porter. The speech
is a sort of parody on the appeal of wandering knights or travellers
in romances, and Clunch, with his 'territories,' may take the place of
enchanter, giant, or the like.

[1027] This use of the third person is common in dramas of the time.
See Ward, _Old English Drama, Select Plays_, etc., Introd., p. xi.,
notes. So in Greene: "Which Brandamart (_i.e._ I)" ...; "For Sacripant
must have Angelica." It served to identify the actor.

[1028] They are now supposed to be at the cottage.

[1029] For fear of ...

[1030] A crab-apple. The pulp was mixed with ale, 'lamb's wool.'

[1031] Collier gave Dyce the following quotation from _Martin's Month's
Minde_: "leaving the ancient game of England (_Trumpe_), where every
coate and sute are sorted in their degree, are running to _Ruffe_,
where the greatest sorte of the sute carrieth away the game."

[1032] The familiar _motif_ of the contented peasant as entertainer of
royalty or what not.

[1033] According to the _Jests_ (Bullen, II. 314), George Peele had no
skill in music, and must have been a conspicuous exception; witness
the well-known statement of Chappell, _Popular Music_, p. 98. The
barber kept "lute or cittern" in his shop for the amusement of waiting
customers; and England had been a land of song from Cædmon's time down.
The "man in the street" was expected to know how to join in a part
song. The rural song, such as they sing here, was a great favorite with
the dramatists.

[1034] Chopcherry: "a game in which one tries to catch a suspended
cherry with the teeth; bob-cherry." ... New Engl. Dict.

[1035] A version of _Childe Rowland?_

[1036] Peele was probably of a Devonshire family.

[1037] A Dogberrian touch, evidently beloved by the pit, and a fine
makeweight to those pompous experiments with word and phrase which
delighted the serious playgoer.

[1038] Below 'extempore,' Sig. B.

[1039] See _Critical Essay_ for the folk-tales in question.

[1040] handsome.

[1041] 'he' keeps (frequents, lives), _i.e._ the young man. Omission of
subject is common in the ballads.

[1042] The conjurer.

[1043] See the _Critical Essay_ for this "play within the play."

[1044] The princes, of course, talk in metre when the "high style" is
needed, but in familiar prose with Erestus (= "Senex"). The repetitions
in this blank-verse are characteristic.

[1045] B. omits. Dy. proposes to omit 'faire.' Neither omission is
necessary.

[1046] Reminds one of nursery tales with bits of rhyme,--the
_cante-fable_ of folk-lore.

[1047] So Milton's famous "grey hooded Even, Like a sad votarist in
palmer's weed" ...

[1048] Below 'gold,' Sig. B ii.

[1049] Dy. assumes that "something ... has dropt out"; but this is not
necessary. Erestus, who says below that he 'speaks in riddles,' knows
the errand of the brothers, and asks the question abruptly. He plays
the part of Merlin in _Childe Rowland_.

[1050] The spell is important, solemn, and is therefore repeated. No
particular tale of The White Bear of England's Wood is known, but
similar cases of transformation are plentiful.

[1051] Dy. prints ''chanting'; needlessly.

[1052] Below 'mend,' Sig. B iii.

[1053] B. notes that "St. Luke's Day (18th October) was the day of
Horn Fair; and St. Luke was jocularly regarded as the patron saint of
cuckolds. St. Andrew was supposed to bring good luck to lovers." ...

[1054] The reference is to the tale preserved in several versions,
and known as "The Three Heads of the Well," Jacobs, _English Fairy
Tales_, p. 222. "The Well of the World's End," p. 215, however, has the
incident of filling a sieve.

[1055] So "God ye good night, and twenty, sir!" In Middleton's _Trick
to Catch the Old One_--"A thousand farewells." Compare the well-known
forms of greeting, as "Grüss' mir mein Liebchen zehntausend mal!" or
the elaborate message at the opening of the ballad _Childe Maurice_.

[1056] See Appendix _B_ on this Song.

[1057] See Appendix _A_.

[1058] The 'Booby' is later called 'Corebus' or 'Chorebus.' See Harvey,
_The Trimming of Thomas Nashe_, Grosart, III. 29: "Thou mayest be cald
the very Chorœbus of our time, of whom the proverbe was sayde, more
foole than Chorœbus: who was a seely ideot, but yet had the name of a
wise man." ...

[1059] Mr. Fleay thinks this is a pun upon that eternal theme of satire
for Harvey's enemies, the rope-maker's trade of his father. "The
name," Mr. Fleay says, "for the stock of Huanebango are adapted from
Plautus, Polymachæroplacidus (from _Pseudulus_), Pyrgopolinices (from
_Miles Gloriosus_), in shapes which inevitably suggest English puns
indicating Harvey's rope-making extraction, Polly-make-a-rope-lass, and
Perg-up-a-line-O...." Mr. Fleay is bold.

[1060] A difficult passage. Dy. thinks the stock is a sword,--Corebus
"has run away from the Parish, and become a sort of knight-errant." Dr.
Nicholson: "He has started and they may catch" (if they can) and as a
vagabond put him in the stocks. B. makes the clown plume himself on his
finery. He points with pride to his feather; and he is equally proud of
his fashionable "long stock" (_i.e._ the stocking fastened high above
the knee). This gives better sense than the second explanation; Corebus
asserts a sort of equality with Huanebango.

[1061] The successful guessing of riddles wins a bride, fortune,
liberty, what not, in many a folk-tale.

[1062] Below 'the,' Sig. C.

[1063] Enter _Erestus_.

[1064] care for.

[1065] plenty. Corebus quotes the stilted talk of Huanebango.

[1066] This gift of the cake reminds one of a similar _motif_ in the
tale of _The Red Ettin_, Jacobs, p. 135.

[1067] though times are hard.

[1068] sings.

[1069] Below 'up,' Sig. C ii.

[1070] These tricks of magic are the staple of tales and chapbooks
about conjurers, and make a braver showing in plays like _Doctor
Faustus_ and _Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay._ See the latter play in
this volume, and Mr. Ward's introduction to his edition of the two
dramas.

[1071] Later editions omit. The formula is less uncanny than usual; but
the two cocks have grim associations. The dark-red cock of Scandinavian
myth belonged to the underworld. See _The Wife of Usher's Well_, and R.
Köhler in the _Germania_, XI. 85 ff.

[1072] The local hits are to be noted: praise for roast beef of
England, wine of France, and girding at Spain, at brewers,--one thinks
of Falstaff's complaint about the lime in his sack,--friars, and
usurers.

[1073] Below 'begon,' Sig. C iii.

[1074] B. prints: 'heaven [n]or hell shall rescue her from me.'

[1075] Did this Echo suggest the song in _Comus_?

[1076] The "Life-Index," so called, of popular tales, connected with
the equally popular _motif_ of the "Thankful Dead."

[1077] Erestus.

[1078] Misprint for 'Corebus.'

[1079] Dogberry's distortion of words is about as old as English comedy.

[1080] Q. _assure_.

[1081] As above:--a gay, reckless fellow.

[1082] According to Sir Walter Scott "the very latest allusion to the
institution of brotherhood in arms" is in the ballad of _Bewick and
Grahame_, "sworn brethren" as they are, each "faith and troth" to the
other.

[1083] That's settled once for all.--Bullen.

[1084] Recent editions make the Sexton's speech end here, and put the
rest in the stage directions.

[1085] Below 'the,' Sig. D.

[1086] Open the argument from my side (with the aid of the
pike-staff).--Bullen.

[1087] Recent eds. [_Gives money_].

[1088] on.

[1089] harvesters.

[1090] See Appendix _B_.

[1091] Below 'men,' Sig. D ii.

[1092] B. points out that Corebus enters a moment later.

[1093] "The 'fee-fi-fo-fum' formula is common to all English stories of
giants and ogres; it also occurs in Peele's play and in _King Lear_....
Messrs. Jones and Krorf have some remarks on it in their 'Magyar
Tales,' pp. 340-341; so has Mr. Lang in his 'Perrault,' p. lxiii, where
he traces it to the furies in Æschylus' _Eumenides_."--Jacobs, _Eng.
Fairy Tales_, p. 243.

[1094] Recent eds.--_Enter_ Sacrapant _the Conjurer and_ Two Furies.

[1095] Recent eds.--Huanebango _is carried out by the_ Two Furies.

[1096] Recent eds.--_Strikes_ Corebus _blind_.

[1097] goad.

[1098] In this and like cases the editors restore a tolerable metre
by different printing. Thus 'Here hard' may be taken as part of the
preceding line.

[1099] Dr. Nicholson would read 'name' to no advantage. Sacrapant says
she has forgotten her name, but has not forgotten as much as she ought
to forget. The phrase is awkward, but is perhaps more "intelligible"
than Mr. Bullen allows.

[1100] Below 'to,' Sig. D iii.

[1101] Dy. prints 'Well done!'

[1102] To the popular tale, here plainly drawn upon, Peele has added an
amusing feature which seems to be his own invention. He provides the
deaf Huanebango with a scolding wife, while the blind Corebus takes her
ugly sister.

[1103] As much as "uncomely," "ugly," as shown by the countless
passages in Elizabethan literature, and the connotation of the
opposite, "fair." Dyce quotes the same phrase,--"though I am blacke, I
am not the Divell ..." from Greene's, _Quip for an Upstart Courtier_.

[1104] _In The Three Heads of the Well_, "a golden head came up
singing:--

"'Wash me and comb me,
And lay me down softly.
And lay me on a bank to dry,
That I may look pretty
When somebody passes by.'"

[1105] _Sc._ beard.

[1106] The upshot of much investigation seems to be that the phrase to
have cockell-bread means to get a lover or a husband.

[1107] So in Hartmann's _Iwein_, a knight pours water from a certain
well upon a stone near by; a terrible thunderstorm is the immediate
result. A similar act may bring the milder rain for one's crops (Grimm,
_Mythologie_, p. 494).

[1108] Harvey had an indifferent ear for verse, and here,
perhaps,--since the hexameters follow so hard upon,--is a neat way of
stating the fact.

[1109] Both Stanyhurst and Harvey were favorites for this sort of
ridicule. The hexameters of the former are described admirably by
Nash, and, of course, are parodied here. Huff, Ruff, and Snuff were
characters in the play of _King Cambyses_. Cf. too Harvey in "Green's
Memoriall or certain funerall sonnets" (Son. vi):--

"I wott not what these cutting Huffe-snuffes meane,
Of alehouse daggers I have little skill...."

[1110] Dy. points out that this is an actual line in Harvey's _Encomium
Lauri_.

[1111] Below 'rattle,' Sig. E.

[1112] Used by Chaucer to describe the "hunting of the letter," in his
day still a normal rule of verse, particularly in the north of England
(Prologue to the "Persone's Tale"):--

"But trusteth wel, I am a suthern man,
I can not geste rum, ram, ruf, by letter...."

Professor Skeat (_Notes to C.T._, p. 446) thinks Peele has Chaucer in
mind, and shows that the latter probably borrowed the words "from some
French source."

[1113] 'Ka'=quoth he.--'Wilshaw'? [Qy.: Will ich ha(ve)? _Cf._ l. 648.
_Gen. Ed._]

[1114] Lob's pound, is B. notes, was a phrase of the day for "the
thraldom of the hen-pecked married man."

[1115] It is hardly necessary to correct this into 'thy.'

[1116] As a ghost, of course.

[1117] Below 'runne,' Sig. E ii.

[1118] The "foot-page" of the ballads.

[1119] These rhyming scraps remind one constantly of the _cante-fable_,
of the formula-jingles in popular tales.

[1120] Probably a misprint for 'come.'

[1121] Below 'pursse,' Sig. E iii.

[1122] Celanto.

[1123] He is blind.

[1124] In the tale there are three heads.

[1125] Dyce's copy read 'tost.' Mr. P. A. Daniel: "Qy.: 'Toast'?"

[1126] Milton, _Comus_, 817: "backward mutters of dissevering power."

[1127] Mr. P. A. Daniel would read 'iced.'

[1128] Dy., 'Acts.'

[1129] Below 'maide,' Sig. F.

[1130] Dy. notes that this and the three following lines are taken
almost verbatim from Greene's _Orlando Furioso_.

[1131] It is not necessary to adopt Mr. Daniel's emendation.

[1132] Below 'Venelia,' Sig. F ii.

[1133] Calypha.

[1134] That is, all the actors of the play within the play. Below
'_Omnes_,' Sig. F iii.

[1135] Q., _shuts_.

[1136] Part.

APPENDIX

=A. Characters: their Sources.=--T. Warton, in 1785 (_Milton's Poems
on Several Occasions_), pointed out that "the names of some of
the characters as Sacrapant, Chorebus, and others, are taken from
the _Orlando Furioso_." Peele quotes Ariosto freely near the end
of _Edward I_. Storojenko (Grosart's _Greene_, I, 180) thinks the
Sacrapant in Greene's _Orlando Furioso_ "a very transparent parody of
_Tamburlaine_." Mr. Fleay, with some daring, asserts that Huanebango
is travestied from Huon o'Bordeaux, and is "palpably Harvey." Erestus,
says the same authority, is from Kyd's _Soliman and Perseda_; "the
play is evidently full of personal allusions, which time only can
elucidate." Mr. Ward remarks that Jack is "namesake and rival of the
immortal giant-killer." The classics, of course, are represented.
Warton remarked that the story of Meroe could be found in Adlington's
translation of Apuleius, 1566; but it is hardly necessary to go to such
a source for the "White Bear of England's Wood."

=B. The Song of the Harvesters=--When the harvest-men enter again, and
sing the song "doubled,"--as here,--it is evidently the same thing, a
companion piece, only with reaping in place of sowing, and words to
match:--

"Lo, here we come a-reaping, a-reaping,
To reap our harvest-fruit.
And thus we pass the year so long,
And never be we mute."

Is it too much, then, to assume that the present song is to be restored
somewhat as follows?--

Lo here we come a-sowing, a-sowing,
And sow sweet fruits of love.
All that lovers be pray you for me,--
In your sweethearts well may it prove.

They would naturally enter with motions of sowing or of reaping, and
the opening words would fit the action. Moreover, "In your sweethearts
well may it prove" must refer to requital not for the act of sowing,
but for the prayers invoked. These craft-songs were common enough.
In _Summer's Last Will and Testament_ the harvest-men sing an old
folk-song of this kind, if one may judge by the _Hooky, hooky_ of the
refrain, said by one of the Dodsley editors (ed. 1825, IX, 41) to
be heard still "in some parts of the kingdom." The curious in these
matters may find valuable information about songs of labour in general,
with imitative action and suitable refrains, in Bücher's _Arbeit und
Rhythmus_, Abhandlungen d. phil.-hist. Classe d. königl. Sächsischen
Gesell. d. Wissenschaften, Bd. XVII.

_Additional Note_--P. 368, l. 491, for 'church stile,' P. A. Daniel
queries 'church ale'?--but see Overbury' _Characters_ (_Works_, p.
145), "A Sexton": 'for at every church stile commonly ther's an
ale-house.'

_Robert Greene_

HIS PLACE IN COMEDY

_A Monograph by G. E. Woodberry,
Professor in Columbia University,
New York._

GREENE'S PLACE IN COMEDY

OF the group of gifted college-bred men who had some part in the
fashioning of Shakespearian drama and drew into their mortal lungs a
breath of the element whose "air was fame," Greene has long been marked
with unenviable distinction. He had the misfortune to try to darken
with an early and single shaft the rising sun of Shakespeare; and he
has stood out like a shadow against that dawning genius ever since. The
mean circumstances of his Bohemian career, and the terribly brutal,
Zolaesque scene of his death-chamber--the most repulsively gruesome
in English literary annals--have sustained with a lurid light the
unfavourable impression; and, were this really all, no one would have
grudged oblivion the man's memory. The edition of his collected works,
however, which Grosart gave to scholars, has enlarged general knowledge
of Greene, and has permitted the formation of a more various image of
his personality, a juster estimate of his literary temperament, and a
clearer judgment concerning his position in the Elizabethan movement
of dramatic imagination; and some few, even before this, had lifted up
protestation against that ready damnation which seemed provided for him
by his irreverence toward the undiscovered god of our idolatry who,
then fleeting his golden days, seemed to this jaundiced eye "an upstart
crow beautified with our feathers, ... the only Shake-scene in a
country." Never were more unfortunate words for the "blind mouth" that
uttered them. But there is more to know of Greene than this one speech;
and though the occasion is not apt here for so complete a valuation of
his character and temperament, his deeds and works, as is to be desired
for truth's sake, yet it is needful to take some notice of his total
personality as evinced in his novels, plays, poems, and pamphlets, in
order to determine his relative station in the somewhat limited sphere
of English comedy.

Marlowe is commonly regarded as the forerunner of the heroic strain
in Shakespeare, with moulding influence on the imaginative habit of
his younger fellow-workman in respect to that phase of his art; and
Greene, who though he will never shine as a "morning-star" of the
drama was at least a twin luminary with Marlowe, has been credited
with occupying a similar position as the forerunner of Shakespeare
with respect to the portrayal of vulgar life. It is hardly to be
expected that an antithesis so convenient for the critics should be
really matter-of-fact. The narrower distinct claim that the Clown in
his successive reincarnations passed through the world of Greene's
stage on his way from his old fleshly prison in the Vice of the
primitive English play may require less argument; and in several other
particulars it may appear that fore-gleams of the Shakespearian drama
are discernible in Greene's works without drawing the consequence that
Shakespeare was necessarily a pupil in every school that was open to
him. Not to treat the matter too precisely, where precision is apt to
be illusory even if attainable in appearance, was there not a plain
growth of Greene as a man of letters closely attached to his time which
will illustrate the general development of the age and its art, and
naturally bring out those analogies between his work and Shakespeare's
that have been thought of as formative elements in him by which his
successor on the stage profited? The line of descent does not matter,
on the personal side, if the general direction of progress be made out.

Greene was distinctively a man of letters. He was born with the native
gift, and he put it to use in many ways. He tried all kinds of writing,
from prose to verse, from song to sermon, and apparently with equal
interest. He was college-bred and must have been of a scholarly and
receptive temperament; he was variously read in different languages
and subjects; and he began by being what he charged Shakespeare with
being,--an adapter. His tales, like others of the time, must be
regarded as in large measure appropriations from the fields of foreign
fiction. Even as he went on and gained a freer hand for expression,
he remained imitative of others, with occasional flashes of his own
talent; and, dying young, he cannot be thought to have given his
genius its real trial of thorough originality. In the main his work is
derivative and secondary and represents or reflects literary tradition
and example; he was still in the process of disencumbering himself of
this external reliance when he was exhausted, and perished; and it is
in those later parts of his work which show originality that he is
attached to the Shakespearian drama. Slight examination will justify
this general statement in detail. It is agreed that he drew his earlier
novels from the stock-fiction, with its peculiar type of woman and
its moral lesson; and he shows in these sensibility of imagination
and grace of style. He was, more than has been thought, a stylist, a
born writer; and this of itself would interest him in the euphuistic
fashion, then coming to its height in Lyly; and besides he always kept
his finger on the pulse of the time and was ambitious to succeed by
pleasing the popular taste: he adopted euphuism temporarily, employing
it in his own way. In the drama his play, _Orlando Furioso_, harks
back to Ariosto, and it was when the stage rang with _Tamburlaine_
that he brought out _Alphonsus, King of Aragon_, and when _Doctor
Faustus_ was on the boards that he followed with _Friar Bacon and Friar
Bungay_; on Sidney's _Arcadia_ succeeded his own _Menaphon_; and if
_James IV._ with its Oberon preceded _A Midsummer Night's Dream_--which
is undetermined--it was a unique inversion of the order which made
Greene always the second and not the first. In view of this literary
chronology it seems clear that in the start and well on into his career
Greene was the sensitive and ambitious writer following where Italian
tradition, contemporary genius, and popular acclaim blazed the way; and
in so doing his individual excellence lay not in originality on the
great scale, but in treatment, in his modification of the _genre_, in
his individual style and manner and purport--in the virtues, that is to
say, of an able, clever, variously equipped man of letters whose talent
had not yet discovered the core of genius in itself.

It is observable, too, in the earlier period of his work, that in his
treatment of his material so derived, he displays the qualities of the
weaker, the less robust literary habit; he uses refinement, he is
checked by his good taste, he strives for effects less violent, less
sensational, less difficult in the sense that it requires less of the
giant's strength to carry them off well. There is little, too, in this
portion of his work which lets personality burn through the literary
mould; that belongs to his late and stronger time. It is true that
his novels have a moral in them for edification; but, although he had
the preacher's voice, it is not here in the earlier tales that it is
heard; it was the immemorial privilege of the Renaissance tale, however
scandalous, to wear cowl and cassock. In the cardinal point of his
delineation of female character, for which he is highly praised because
of the purity and grace of the womanhood he presented, he follows the
Renaissance convention, as it seems to me, but with refining and often
true English touches--that ideal of Italian origin which is, on the
whole, one of outline, of pale graciousness, of immobile or expressive
beauty, pictorial; these women seem like lovely portraits which have
stepped down out of a frame, and have only so much of life as an
environment of light and air and silence can give them. Are they not,
for example, as truly like Spenser's women--except where Spenser's
are differentiated by doing "manly" parts--as they are prophetic of
Shakespeare's simpler types? Greene, no doubt, incorporated in this
ideal something of his own experience of noble and patient womanhood,
possibly as he had known it in his wife, as Shakespeare embodied
eternal reality in his creations; but it would not occur to me to
believe that Shakespeare found a model for Ophelia or Imogen in the
Lady Ida and Dorothea, any more than in Una and her sisters. All these
before Shakespeare are of one family--they are the conventionalized
Renaissance ideal variously modified and filled with richer artistic
life; but in Shakespeare they pass into that clear luminous air where
art and humanity are one thing. Greene should have our admiration for
his sensibility to the type, for the appreciation with which he drew
it, for the charm he thereby clothed his pages with; but as to there
being a line of descent, that is altogether another thing; and in
respect to Greene himself, his special female characterization imports
the element of refinement in him, the trait of the less robust literary
habit just spoken of. Similarly, he was of too sound taste to be long
content to speak in the cut phrase of euphuism, and he soon laid the
fashion off; and, in his afterplay on the _Tamburlaine_ motive, it
is a matter of debate whether he was parodying or rivalling Marlowe's
large-languaged rhetoric, and, whichever he was doing, he was hampered
by a better taste than his model, either laughing at it, or else
without the giant's strength to succeed in the worser way, and to
_Doctor Faustus_ and _Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay_, so far as they are
compared, like remarks apply. Greene has his own virtues in all these
instances, but they are not those of originating power, of creative
overflow, of genius of the Elizabethan stripe; they live within the
narrower circle of improvement through refined taste, or else of
satirical protest or comparative failure due to the same trait.

The thought of refinement in connection with Greene, the stress laid
upon it here, has not been commonly prominent in writings upon him,
and is out of harmony with our traditional impression of him--the
envious and dying profligate in his misery. Yet it is to be found
not only in his early portraits of womanhood of the pure type (he
afterward presented a baser one), nor in the fact often noted of the
marked purity of his works; but more pervasively in his continuing
taste, in those habits and choices in the literary field, those
revolts and reforms, which show the steady rightness of the man in
his self-criticism and his criticism of current successes. I seem to
feel this innate refinement in the limpidity of single lines; but it
is plain to every one in the lovely lyrics which have sung themselves
into the hearts of all lovers of our poetry, those songs, found in
all anthologies of English verse, which bear Greene's name. He was a
gross man, living grossly, as all know; but it sometimes happens that
in such fleshly natures--as, every one will at once think, in Ben
Jonson--there is found this flower of delicacy, the very fragrance of
the soul; and so it was with Greene, and the lyrics are the mortal sign
of this inward grace. It belongs with this, as has been observed by
several writers, that of all the men who preceded Shakespeare, Greene
most lets the breath of the English country blow through his pages,
and likes to lay his scene in some rural spot. He loved the country;
and yet, here too, protest may well be made when it is said that in
this he led the way for Shakespeare; surely all country paths were open
to the Warwickshire lad in his own right; nor need the difference be
allowed that the forest of Arden is a conventionalized nature, as one
critic maintains, while Greene's is of the soil--that is to mistake art
for convention; but to say even this one word in passing in behalf of
Shakespeare's nature-reality is superfluous, except that it suggests
the different road by which Shakespeare here, as well as in his dealing
with madness, witchcraft, and fairyland (in all of which Greene is
said to have taught him), went his own ways, irrespective of comrades
of the time. In this love of the country which Greene had lies the key
to the better man in him and to his own native distinctions. Beneath
his literary temperament, which seems an educational and professional
veneer that should finally drop away, is his genuine nature--the man
he was; and, life going on to imminent wreck, it became clear in his
later works that he was more and more engaged in contemporary life,
in what he saw and knew, and that he took his material from these; he
had written autobiographical sketches and accounts of low life and its
characters, and he had displayed certain tendencies toward preaching
and sympathies with the unredeemed masses of humanity, all somewhat
miscellaneously, and without any other art than a strong prose style;
but, at the end, is it not manifest that he had grown into realism as
his material, and into an attitude of moral denunciation and popular
sympathy in dealing with it, and is not this the significance of his
collaboration with Lodge in _A Looking-Glasse for London and England_,
and of his own unique _George-a-Greene_? All the earlier work seems to
end, and new beginnings appear both in his renderings of contemporary
realism, and in his most imaginative and various play, _James IV._

The gradual substitution, then, as Greene came to his time of
strength, of frank English realism for cultured Italian tradition and
contemporary vital literary example, seems to be the true line of
his growth. It shows distinctly in his choice of the English subject
of Roger Bacon in place of Doctor Faustus, in his satire of certain
aspects of court life, when he translated an Italian plot of Cinthio
into apocryphal history as _James IV._, in his presentation of the
state of London in collaboration with Lodge, and in the half-rebellious
play of _George-a-Greene_. This is the imaginative and artistic
side of what is practical in his pamphlets of personal repentance
and cony-catching. Personally I seem to detect Puritanism morally in
the one half, and Puritanism politically in the other half, of this
late dramatic work; but it cannot be maintained that the case is
certain. Apart from that, Greene was--what so few ever are, even in
an Elizabethan environment--a humourist; and he used the old English
comedy tradition as an element in his purely English work. The matter
is so plain and comparatively so slight as to require the fewest
words. In comedy specifically he gave examples, which he may be said
to have first given in the sense that he gave them in an original or
a developed form, of the court fool in Ralph, of the country bumpkin
or crass fool in Miles, of the highly developed and wholly humanized
_Vice_ in Adam, of a special humouristic type (aptly characterized
as the ancestor of Andrew Fairservice) in Andrew, otherwise not born
till Sir Walter Scott's day, and of the true Shakespearian clown, the
unmistakable one, in Slipper. Such was his definite service to comedy
in respect to type; and criticism can only point it out, because the
substance can be given only by reading the characters attentively. In
regard to humour at large, it appears to me that in his hands, apart
from linguistic felicity and wit, he presents a humour of situation
tending toward pure farce, and a humour of intention tending toward
pure satire of the social variety, and a humour of manners tending
toward pure pleasantry as in the "Vail Staff" episode. The single
link binding him with Shakespeare, in comedy is through the character
of Slipper; and yet here, as in the other instances of female
type, love of country scenes, and also in madness, witchcraft, and
fairyland, I cannot believe that Shakespeare may not have arrived at
his end--in this case, Launce--without necessarily being obliged to
Greene for assistance. The bent toward contemporary realism, toward a
well-languaged and winning clown, toward Englishry, which is another
name for nature in human life and its setting, is plain in Greene;
this was the running of the stream; but no larger inference follows
from it in my mind than that Greene had worked out his growth, as
Shakespeare in his apprenticeship also did, in similar directions,
but that Greene had done it on national lines, whereas Shakespeare
did it on universal lines, that Greene had done it in a practical,
whereas Shakespeare did it in an ideal way, and that Greene had done
it largely under personal conditions, being at war with his fate as a
mere man, whereas Shakespeare did it as a human spirit above the reach
of material vicissitude. What one owed to the other is an insignificant
detail at best; what is important is to observe in Greene the advancing
movement of the drama in moral intention, in higher characterization,
in original phases of humanity, in humour of more body and intellect,
in comedy and fantasy approaching the goal of the Elizabethan spirit.
Greene, it must be acknowledged, opened some veins that no one followed
up; some of his characters and much of his sympathies were his own in
an unshared way; but his work of all kinds ended with him, and, so far
as he was an explorer of the way, he was most like one who, in our
own time, may be an experimenter in some new force--his name is not
associated with scientific history, with new invention, with discovery,
but such success as he had was because his eye was on the element which
men of his craft were working out more thoroughly than he himself.

It is pleasant to close this brief note on one of the most unfortunate
of men whom our literature remembers, with a kindlier appreciation
of him than has hitherto obtained. The mere volume of his writings
indicates great industry; the criticism of them witnesses our respect
for his endowments, his taste, his fundamental manhood; the analysis of
them shows improvement in himself, and the power of mastery over the
material given him in the direction of the true progress of art in his
day; the very violence of his fate or of his repentances suggests that
the nature so ruined may have been of finer and better metal than those
who died and made no such sign of conscious self-obstruction: there
remain the ideal women, the clear-cut comedians, the lovely lyrics, to
plead for him as an accomplisher of art; and, in view of this, may we
not forget the unhappy incident that has made him like the flitting
bat in the slow dawn of our golden poet, and remember the much that
he, dying so young, at thirty-two, accomplished before the day of his
disappointment, the night of his deserted solitude, and the tragic
ignominy of his death?

G. E. WOODBERRY.

_Robert Greene_

THE HONORABLE HISTORIE OF
FRIER BACON

_Edited with Critical Essay and Notes
by Charles Mills Gayley, LL.D.,
Professor in the University of
California._

CRITICAL ESSAY

=Life.=[1137]--Robert Greene was born in Norwich of estimable parents,
and "in his non-age" sent there to school. He was entered November 15,
1575, at St. John's, Cambridge. According to his _Short Discourse_,
he was even then "in his first yeares." We may, therefore, date his
birth about 1560. At the university he "light amongst wags" as lewd as
himself, and was by them drawn, probably after he had taken his B.A.,
1578, "to travell into Italy and Spaine," where he "practizde such
villainie as is abhominable to declare." After his return (probably
before Part I. of his _Mamillia_ was entered for printing, October 3,
1580,--certainly by March 20, 1581, when his ballad of _Youthe_[1138]
was registered), he "ruffeled out in silks" posing as "malcontent"; but
having in 1583,[1139] "by degrees proceeded M.A.," he betook himself to
London, where as "Author of Playes and penner of Love Pamphlets" none
soon was better known "than Robin Greene." Perhaps he was in Cambridge,
September 6, 1583, when the _Second Part of Mamillia_ was registered,
for it is dated "from my Studie in Clare hall." Till about August 13,
1584, he was writing similar tales; and, despite a dissolute habit, he
maintained favour with some of honourable calling. His _Planetomachia_
appeared in 1585; an edition of his _Morando_[1140] is licensed during
the next year. Between 1584 and 1586 he visited his former home,
made a fleeting effort at reform, married a "proper young woman" of
Lincolnshire,[1141] had a son by her, "cast her off," and returned
to London. Here he gave himself "wholly to the penning of plaies,"
which with "other trifling pamphlets" were henceforth his "chiefest
stay of living." Both kinds brought him popularity and envy.[1142]
In July, 1588, he was incorporated M.A. at Oxford. In February, 1589,
this "arch play-making poet" steps forth in the rôle of patriot with
his _Spanish Masquerado_; soon after with his _Mourning Garment_
(_S. R._ November 2, 1590) in that of moralist. The didactic note
had been already struck in _The Royal Exchange_, early in 1590, and
the penitential in the _Farewell to Follie_ (S. R. 1587; pub. 1591);
but both prevail in _Never Too Late_,[1143] 1590. The disposition to
serve the Commonwealth is further displayed in his series for the
exposure of "coosnage," 1591-92. Whatever else he had written he now
counts for "apples of Sodom." In July, 1592, he[1144] "canvazed" the
brothers Harvey in his _Quip for an Upstart Courtier_, but of this we
have only the eviscerated remains. Soon afterward he indulged in that
memorable surfeit of pickled herring and Rhenish wine. The ensuing
sickness at the shoemaker's in Dowgate,--Greene's friendless lot,
"lousie circumstance," mistresse,[1145] bastard, and corpse,--Gabriel
Harvey[1146] has embalmed with the foul peculiar juices of his spite.
Those last weeks Greene spent writing his _Groatsworth of Wit_ which
is partly, and his _Repentance_ which is wholly, autobiographical, to
dissuade men from a like "carelesse course of life." He sent back their
son to his wife; and the night of his death received "commendations"
from her "whereat he greatly rejoiced," and wrote a pathetic farewell.
That was September 3, 1592. Mrs. Isam, his hostess, garlanded the dead
poet with bays; and he was laid in the New Churchyard, near Bedlam.

=Misapprehensions concerning Greene.=--On the title-page of
_Planetomachia_, 1585, Greene subscribes himself "Student in Phisicke";
and from this it has been inferred by most of his biographers that
he was then studying medicine. But for Greene, as for Chaucer and
Gower, whom he diligently perused, 'phisicke' sometimes meant
natural philosophy,[1147] and always included a grounding in
'astronomie.'[1148] The word is here used with reference to the 'magic
natural' of his subject,--the book being a narrative dispute of
astrological influences.

According to popular assertion, substantiated by the arguments of
Dyce, Fleay, Grosart, and others, Greene was at one period a parson.
Careful investigation convinces me that this assertion is untrue. Our
dramatist cannot have been the Robert Greene who, as _unus Capellanorum
nostrorum Capellæ nostræ Regiæ_, was in 1576 presented by Elizabeth to
the rectory of Walkington in Yorkshire; for at that time he was but a
freshman at Cambridge. Nor can he[1149] have been the Robert Greene
who from June 19, 1584, to February 17, 1586, was Vicar of Tollesbury
in Essex; because according to his own story,[1150] that period was
covered by other events: to wit, the conviction of sin in St. Andrew's
at Norwich (while he was yet "newly come from Italy," end of 1584 or
beginning of 1585), a "motion" which vastly amused his "copesmates,"
but lasted "_no longer than the present time_"; the relapse; the
marriage "soon after to a gentleman's daughter" (sometime in 1585);
the brief sequel of "wickedness" during which he "spent up" his
wife's marriage-money; the "casting off" of the wife; and the return
to play-writing in London. This last, six years before his death;
therefore in 1586. Such manner of life is not that of the Vicar of
Tollesbury; nor is the recital that of Greene if he ever was vicar of
anything.

Mr. Fleay[1151] attempts to identify Greene, as Robert _the parson_,
with one Robert Persj or Rupert Persten of Leicester's troupe acting
between December, 1585, and July, 1587, on the Continent. There
is, however, no proof that Greene was with these "instrumentalists
and acrobats"; nor is the name _Persj_ or _Persten_, as it appears
in the Danish and Saxon records, either the English name _Parson_
or a translation of the calling of parson into Danish or German.
Actor King became _Koning_ and _Konigk_, and actor Pope, _Pape_ and
_Pabst_,--but Persj, Percy, Persten, or Preston was untranslatable.
Indeed, if the argument proves anything, it proves too much. For if
Mr. Fleay's Persten (or as he coerces it, _Priester)_ is Greene, Vicar
of Tollesbury, this Vicar must have been acting abroad three months
of the period during which he was preaching at home;--a dual activity
terminated, moreover, not by the vestry of Tollesbury, which would
appear to have enjoyed this unusual programme, or by the bishop, but
by the Vicar himself, whose resignation is recorded as "free and
spontaneous."[1152]

It is certainly safer to accept Greene's own story and the publishers'
records, which, taken together, show that his marital estate was
a debauch with rare intervals of business activity. During this
period _Arbasto_ and the enlarged _Morando_ were registered and
_Planetomachia_ was printed.

A writer of Greene's self-exhibitive temper would not have hesitated,
and one of his didactic tendency could not have failed, to present the
world with an account of an episode which, if it existed, was the most
sensational of his moral experiences. But in none of his writings,
autobiographical, or quasi-autobiographical, does Greene give even
remote intimation of taking orders. On the contrary he speaks as a
layman, and a very wicked layman, too; as one who from infancy was
bred in sin, and who held aloof from God's ministers. So far was he
from the possibility of orders that when, in his youth, "once and yet
but once" he "sorrowed for his wickedness of life," his comrades could
conceive of no huger joke in the world than to wish that he "might have
a pulpit." _Roberto_ of the _Groatsworth_, "whose life in most part
agreed" with his, was never a minister, nor was either of Greene's
other understudies, _Philador_ and _Francesco_. In _Greene's Vision_,
which, whether authentic or not, is contemporaneous, the advice given
to our dramatist "Be a devine, my sonne," is dismissed as out of the
question, though that consummation were most devoutly to be desired.
None of his associates of later years[1153] betrays acquaintance with
his ministerial career, not Nashe or Burbye or Dekker or Heywood or
Chettle. None of his panegyrists. And of his enemies not even Gabriel
Harvey.

We may therefore conclude that the famous passage in _Martine
Marsixtus_ which (with a context partly relative to Greene) announces
that "every red-nosed minister is an author" does not apply to Greene,
but to any "unauthorized author who serves a drunken man's humor," or
that the insinuation has reference to some sobriquet born of Greene's
paroxysms of pentitence and mourning pamphlets. And, indeed, a nickname
may have attached itself to this wayward child of circumstance, as
early as that critical period in Norwich when his copesmates called
him "Puritane and Presizian ... and other such scoffing tearmes." What
more likely than "Parson," since they had gone so far, Greene tells
us, as to _wish_ him a pulpit? But if he had a pulpit, what becomes of
the joke? and of his own word--"the good lesson went quite out of my
remembrance ... I went forward obstinately in my misse"?

As to the manuscript notes in the 1599 copy of _The Pinner of
Wakefield_, the first of which states that Shakespeare said that the
play was "written by ... a minister who ac[ted] ye piñers pt in it
himself," and the second, in another hand, that Juby said that "ys
play was made by Ro. Gree[ne],"--it must be remembered that both
attributions are hearsay; that both notes are anonymous; that one or
both may be fraudulent; that there is no certain proof that they were
written by contemporaries; and finally that, unless their contents
are shown to be accurate as well as authentic, and to refer to the
same author, they do not connect any Robert Greene with the ministry.
Since our Greene's writings show that he was no minister, there is
but one hypothesis upon which, assuming the accuracy and relevancy of
both these manuscript notes, he can be the person indicated; namely,
that the designation, minister, used by Shakespeare, was a nickname.
And, conversely, Shakespeare's remark can be credited in its literal
significance only if the play was _not_ by our Greene. In the latter
event, the attribution of authorship to a minister, taken in connection
with Ed. Juby's attribution to a certain Ro. Greene, would denote some
parson-playwright to whom no other play has been traced--Robert of
Walkington, or Robert of Tollesbury, or some other of this not unusual
name. And in that case it would be easy to understand how the name of
an obscure author, if mentioned by Shakespeare, should have slipped the
memory of the title-page scribe. Internal evidence, as will later be
seen, is not conclusive of Greene's authorship; but even if it were, it
would not prove that he was a minister.

It may be conceded that, like other Elizabethan dramatists, he assumed
a part upon the stage. But that he adopted the calling, or ever stood
a chance of enjoying "its damnable excessive gains," is only less
improbable than that he was a parson. Dyce's quotation from Harvey
to the effect that Greene was "a player" misapprehends the "puissant
epitapher" who was merely enumerating the "thousand crotchets" that
littered Greene's "wilde head, and hence his stories."[1154] None of
his contemporaries hints that Greene was an actor; none regards him in
that light. He himself despised the profession.

In respect of his relations with Shakespeare, I cannot but feel that
he has been harshly judged. We shall be justified in calling the
_Shakescene_ remarks unduly rancorous when it has been ascertained
that the "admired inventions" of Greene and of those whom he was
addressing in the _Groatsworth_ had not been borrowed by the young
actor-playwright; or that Greene should have let himself be plundered
without protest by this revamper of plays because the revamper was
destined some day to be illustrious, in fact to be the Shakespeare. I
have not observed that dramatists _et id omne genus_, nowadays, offer
the cheek with any more Christian grace than characterized Robert
Greene.

=His Development as a Dramatist: Order of Plays.=[1155]--A painstaking
investigation of the evidence leads me to conclude that none of the
plays assigned to Greene was produced before the end of 1586, or,
probably, the beginning of 1587; that their order is as follows:
_Alphonsus_, _Looking-Glasse_, _Orlando_, _Friar Bacon_, _James IV._;
and that if _Selimus_ and the _Pinner_ are his, they range respectively
with _Alphonsus_ and _James_.

1. The earliest extant exemplar of _The Comicall Historie of
Alphonsus, King of Aragon_, by R. G.,[1156] and without motto, "as it
hath bene sundrie times acted" was "brinted" by Thomas Creede, London,
1599. The play is generally supposed to have been written in emulation
of the _Tamburlaine_, which was on the stage in 1588,--perhaps, indeed,
as early as the end of 1586.[1157] While similarity of diction and
conceit might indicate a contemporaneous production, the lines in
_Alphonsus_,--

"Not mighty Tamburlaine,
Nor soldiers trained up amongst the wars,"[1158]

are proof presumptive of the priority of Marlowe's play. Indeed, Dr.
Grosart is justified in asserting that "to take _Alphonsus_ without a
tacit reference to _Tamburlaine_ is to miss the entire impulse of its
writer"; for the dramatist appears to be attempting a burlesque; and
the vainglorious claim that he makes for his hero[1159] is a manifest
challenge to Marlowe and that bombastic brood. Greene may have been
writing the play as early as 1587; he was, at any rate, interested in
the hero then, for he mentions him in the _Dedication_ to _The Carde of
Fancie_.[1160] That the _Alphonsus_ was well known in the early spring
of 1589 would appear from an allusion in Peele's _Farewell_,[1161]
which couples it with _Tamburlaine_ so closely as further to suggest
that it already clung like a burr to its magniloquent predecessor.
Whether the series of satiric reprisals in which, between 1588 and
1590, Greene and Nashe indulged at Marlowe's expense,[1162] was
stimulated by some counter-burlesque of _Alphonsus_ is uncertain;
but that Marlowe shortly before March 29, 1588, had been privy to
some public burlesque of a production of Greene's, may reasonably be
inferred from Greene's preface to the _Perymedes_ of that date. For
there we learn that two "gentlemen poets" had recently caused two
actors to make a mockery of his motto _Omne tulit punctum_, because
his verse fell short of the bombast and blasphemy with which Marlowe
captivated the vulgar. If it was the verse of the _Alphonsus_ that was
derided by these "madmen of Rome," we have here a date before which
the play had been both acted and burlesqued. Now, it is interesting to
note that our earliest copy of _Alphonsus_ (1599) has neither motto
nor colophon. This is strange, for in all other respects the edition
is uniform with that of _James IV._, which had been brought out by
the same publisher, Creede, only the year before, with Greene's _Omne
tulit punctum_ upon its title-page. In fact, all other plays written by
Greene alone, and bearing his name, have a motto of some kind. One may
naturally query whether it was to Creede's advantage to dissociate this
particular play from some eleven or twelve years' old derision; or,
whether he was following, without definite purpose, the policy of some
previous edition, now lost, which likewise had omitted the motto.

Be this as it may, there is, in the preface of March 29, 1588,
undoubted allusion[1163] to Greene and Lodge's _Looking-Glasse_,
which, as will presently be shown, was written before June, 1587. The
_Alphonsus_ must be assigned to a still earlier date, because, in
its prologue,[1164] it gives evidence of priority to Greene's other
efforts in serious or heroic style. This conclusion is confirmed by an
examination of the play. The copious crude employment of mythological
lore, the creaking mechanism of the plot, the subordination of vital
to spectacular qualities, betray an inexperience not manifest in
Greene's other dramatic output. Moreover, in spite of the fact that our
edition of _Alphonsus_ appears to preserve the details of the author's
holograph, the versification makes a clumsier showing than in the
rest of his plays. The lines are frequently rhymed, sometimes within
the speeches, but more often in a perfunctory fashion at speech-ends.
And, though this practice wanes as the play proceeds, the verses are
throughout more frequently endstopped, and the rhythm more mechanical,
than in the other dramas. Between two-thirds and three-quarters of the
lines have the monotonous cæsura at the end of the second foot; and of
the lyric cæsuræ, which should _par excellence_ lend variety to the
verse, about eleven-twelfths fall in the middle of the third foot.
We may indeed say that in four-fifths of the lines these sources of
sameness prevail. Of prose there is no sign. Both in material and style
the play is inelastic, only too easily open to attack. That Greene
should prefix the _Omne tulit punctum_ of his popular prose romances
was natural, but it was also courting the attack of Marlowe, Kyd, or
any gentleman-poets derisively inclined.

2. _A Looking-Glasse for London and England_ made by Thomas Lodge,
Gentleman, and Robert Greene, _in Artibus Magister_, is called by
Professor Brown the "finest and last" of the plays in which Greene
had a hand, and is assigned to a date "after Lodge's return from
Cavendish's expedition in 1591." This conjecture may at once be
dismissed,[1165] for that expedition did not start till August 26,
1591; none of its ships returned before June 11, 1593; and, by that
time, Greene was dead. The play was registered in May, 1594, and our
earliest exemplar (Creede) was printed in the same year. Henslowe
records the presentation of the play, but not as new, March 8, 1591-92.
We have abundant proof of its popularity. Therefore, since only four
representations are recorded during the remainder of that season,
which lasted till June 22, 1592,[1166] it must have had its run at
an earlier date. Spencer's line in _The Tears of the Muses_, 1591,
about the "pleasing Alcon" has been regarded as an allusion to Lodge's
authorship of that character in the _Looking-Glasse_; and with some
show of reason, for nearly all the speeches of Alcon are distinctively
the work of Lodge.[1167] But an earlier reminiscence of the play may
be found in Greene's mention of Ninevie and Jonas in the dedication
and epilogue of the _Mourning Garment_, 1590. Since it appears,
moreover, from a passage in _Scillaes Metamorphosis_, that Lodge had
renounced play-writing as early as 1589,[1168] Storojenko and Grosart
date the composition of _Looking-Glasse_ between the close of 1588 and
the summer of 1589. I am sure that the date was earlier still; for,
since the _Metamorphosis_ followed immediately upon Lodge's return
from a voyage with Captain Clarke to Tercera and the Canaries, any
such playwriting as that of the _Looking-Glasse_ must have been done
before the departure of this expedition. According to Mr. Lee,[1169]
the Expedition sailed "about 1588." Now the play contains no allusion
to the Armada; it is, therefore, antecedently improbable that it was
written in 1588 _later than the 29th of May_. And since a modernized
morality of God's wrath impending over London, if written in that year,
could not have failed to echo the first mutterings of the Spanish
thunderstorm, I am led to fix the composition before June, 1587, when
Philip and Sixtus concluded their treaty against England.

The date of first presentation must have been appreciably before March
29, 1588, for a character, the 'priest of the sun,' which figured in
the _Looking-Glasse_, but "in no other early play,"[1170] is mentioned
in the introduction to _Perymedes_, already cited. Here, Greene
asserts that even if his verse did not always "jet upon the stage in
tragicall buskins," or his "_everie_ worde" blaspheme, he could, an
he pleased, fill the mouth "like the fa-burden of Bo-Bell, daring God
out of heaven with that Atheist Tamburlan"; and, by way of proof, he
sets side by side with Tamburlan, the impious ranting of his own "mad
preest of the Sonne." The reference is, of course, to the scene in
the _Looking-Glasse_, where the mitred priests of the sun, "carrying
fire in their hands," hail Rasni as a "deitie";[1171] and he assumes
that the mention of one of the characters will indicate the play,--a
justifiable expectation if the play had been before the public for nine
or ten months.

Though affected by its moral configuration, the _Looking-Glasse_ is
well constructed. In plot, characterization, manners (especially those
of low life), in worldly wisdom and fervour, it leaves _Alphonsus_ far
behind. The subtler handling of classical adornment and the bubble of
the humour would, of themselves, justify us in assigning it to the
same period with _Orlando_ and _Friar Bacon_. The advancing maturity
is manifest also in its verse and prose. I do not attribute Greene's
improvement in blank verse entirely to Lodge's coöperation; for Lodge's
verse in the _Civill War_, 1587, was not markedly easier than that
of the _Alphonsus_, and his verse in this play[1172] is but a trifle
more elastic than in the _Civill War_. Taking at random fifty-seven of
Greene's verses,[1173] I find that some fifty-two avoid the monotone,
and, of these, no fewer than twenty-five escape the penthimimeral
cæsura as well. In other words, five-sixths of the rhythms are free,
and one-half of these skilfully varied. In the prophetic verses the
monotone is properly more prevalent. About thirty per cent of Greene's
have it. But even there almost half of the 'free' rhythms display
artistic handling. Speech-end rhythms are fewer than in _Alphonsus_;
rhyme, indeed, is altogether less in evidence--except in the prophetic
rhapsodies. Lodge's lines for Oseas rhyme, however, more than Greene's
for Jonas. Not only is the proportion of prose larger than in any other
of Greene's plays,--a feature which is, perhaps, due to the fact that
each collaborator had his own set of mechanicals to exploit,--but the
style of it is more conversational than in any preceding English play.

3. Our earliest impression of _Orlando Furioso, One of the Twelve
Peeres of France_, "as it was playd before the Queenes Maiestie," is
published by Burbye, 1594. It had been entered for Danter, December 7,
1593, but was transferred to Burbye on the ensuing May 28. He issued
a second edition in 1599.[1174] Greene was accused in 1592[1175] of
having sold the play to the Lord Admiral's men while the Queen's
company, to which he had previously disposed of it, was "in the
country." Now the Queen's men had acted at court for the last time,
December 26, 1591; and they did not reappear in London till April,
1593.[1176] But the Admiral's, meanwhile (February, 1592), had entered
into a temporary alliance with Lord Strange's,[1177] through Henslowe
and Edw. Alleyn; and under the auspices of the latter company almost
immediately (February 21) the _Orlando_ was acted in one of Henslowe's
theatres.[1178] It was already an old play; and Henslowe records no
later performance. During the same period three or four other plays
formerly belonging to the Queen's passed into the hands of Lord
Strange's company.[1179] The date of the second sale of _Orlando_ would
accordingly seem to have been during January or February, 1592. It
appears, then, that up to December 26, 1591, it belonged to the Queen's
men; and it had probably been presented at court by them, for its
classical and Italian features were evidently from the first designed
to suit her Majesty's taste.[1180]

That the play was written later than July 30, 1588, may be deduced from
a mention (ll. 89-95) of the "rebate" of "mightie Fleetes" which "Came
to subdue my Ilands to their king;" for the allusion to the Armada
is historically minute (note the conjunction of 'Portingale' with
'Spaniard' in reference to the start from Lisbon), the sequence does
not savour of afterthought or actor's clap-trap, and the theme receives
attention in other parts of the play.[1181] Now, between the "rebate"
of the Armada and the disappearance of the Queen's men from London that
company acted at court ten times;[1182] and upon at least one of these
occasions I conclude that the _Orlando_ was played. During the year
that followed the Armada there are but two such occasions on record,
December 26, 1588, and February 9, 1589; and of the latter the notice
is open to question.[1183] In any case the former is more likely to be
the date of the presentation of _Orlando_; for the reference to the
Armada, and the championing of Elizabeth under the figure of Angelica,
would be the policy of a court play acted on the St. Stephen's day
following the Spanish defeat. If this was the play, we may be sure
that it won her Majesty's approval; and that the dramatist seized the
opportunity to further his good fortune. And that is precisely what
Greene did. In February, 1589, he brought out his _Spanish Masquerado_,
which was hailed with such enthusiasm that his friend Lodge declared
that the name of Greene was become a terror to the _gens seditieux_,
that his laurel was deathless, and that from a mortal he had become a
companion of the gods.[1184] Now I incline to think that the success of
_Orlando_ contributed to this popularity; there is certainly not enough
of political or literary worth in the _Masquerado_ alone to account
for it. There is further reason for dating the _Orlando_ before 1590
if the resemblances between it and the _Old Wives Tale_[1185] are due,
as I think they are, to Peele's acquaintance with the former. And if,
in his _Farewell_, the same poet is alluding to our play, under the
title of _Charlemagne_,[1186]--which, considering Orlando's frequent
brag of kinship with the emperor, is not unlikely,--the play must have
been acted before the spring of 1589. That Greene was occupied with the
_Orlando_ at a still earlier date would appear from his repeating in it
no less than five of the character-names which he had used in one of
the stories of the _Perymedes_.[1187] Nor does the tracing of certain
resemblances to their common source in the epos lessen the general
probability that Greene's story and play were written at approximately
the same period; the latter following, as the former had preceded,
the summer of 1588. Mr. Fleay would, indeed, push the date back to
1587 "when the Admiral's men re-opened after the plague,"[1188] and
Professor Brown sets it with that of _Alphonsus_ and _Bacon_, between
1584 and 1587;[1189] but I do not think that the contents warrant
either of these conclusions.

Though the _Orlando_ must be of later date than the _Alphonsus_,[1190]
it betrays the influence of the still earlier _Tamburlaine_. But it
is more than a sensational or spectacular play; it is a parody of the
ranting "mad plays" which were then the rage. Numerous characteristics
which appear to some critics to be defects of construction are proof
of this. Orlando's sudden insanity and the ridiculously inadequate
occasion of it, the headlong _dénouement_, the farcical technique,
the mock-heroic atmosphere, the paradoxical absence of pathos, the
absurdly felicitous conclusion,--all seemingly unwitting,--are
purposive and satirical. Of such a burlesque the author of _The
Spanish Tragedy_,[1191] perhaps of the pre-Shakespearian _Hamlet_,
may have been the butt. Greene and Nashe had no affection for Kyd.
The raving and bombast of this play--the stuff, too, that the actor
Alleyn injected--suggest a parody of Kyd; and the dates accord. At any
rate I think it likely that the _Orlando_[1192] was produced while the
pre-Shakespearian _Hamlet_ was fresh; and this consideration also looks
toward 1588.

Many similarities of style may be pointed out between _Orlando_
and other of Greene's productions during 1588 and 1589.[1193] The
resemblances to _Friar Bacon_ not merely in diction, imagery, and
allusion,[1194] but in quality of verse, are numerous. In respect of
this last the plays may be considered together since they are of a
piece. They were apparently written within a year of each other, both
with a view to presentation at Court.

4. The earliest impression of _The Honorable Historie of frier Bacon
and frier Bongay_ (as it was plaid by her Maiesties servants) is of
1594, and was printed for Edward White, in whose name (substituted
for Adam Islip's, erased) it had been entered, S. R. May 14, of the
same year.[1195] The earliest record of its presentation is Henslowe's
of 1591-92: "Rd at fryer bacone, the 19 of febrary, satter-daye ...
xvijˢ iij.ᵈ" The play is first in the list of those performed by
"my Lord Strange's men"; but is not marked "new." It is, however,
a drawing play: Strange's men act it about once every three weeks,
between February 19 and May 6; and once a week, between the ensuing
January 10 and January 30, while Queen's and Sussex act it twice in an
engagement of a week beginning April 1, 1593-94. It must have preceded
the anonymous play _Faire Em, the Miller's Daughter of Manchester_,
which imitates it[1196]--perhaps with ironic intent. Indeed, _Bacon_
would seem to have been acted as much as twelve months before _Faire
Em_ appeared. For in Greene's Epistle (about the middle of 1591)
prefixed to the _Farewell to Follie_, where he reproaches the imitating
dramatist with general lack of invention and with profane borrowing
from the Scriptures, he further twits him with having consumed "a whole
year" in "enditing" his foolish and inartistic play.[1197] That is to
say, a whole year from the production of the play which it so evidently
imitated. Now, what was the date of _Faire Em_? If, as Professor
Schick[1198] points out, its main source was Jacques Yvers's _Printemps
d'Iver_, it would probably follow the fresh editions of that book of
1588 and 1589. And it did. I place its date between that of Greene's
_Address to the Gentlemen Schollers_ prefixed to the _Mourning Garment_
and that of the _Address_ prefixed to his _Farewell_. For in the former
he undertakes to forestall, in general, the "fooles" who may "scoffe"
at his repentance, and in the latter while he makes a show of ignoring
the "asses" that "strike" at him (_i.e._ at his _Mourning Garment_) he
specifies one "ass" who may be expected to flout his _Farewell_, viz.,
the author of _Faire Em_,--that being indicated by quotations. In other
words the _Faire Em_ is to be dated between November 2, 1590 (when the
_Mourning Garment_ was registered),[1199] and the middle of 1591 (when
the _Farewell_ with this prefatory _Address_) appeared.[1200] Since
the "blasphemous rhetoricke" of _Faire Em_ was well known when Greene
criticised it, we may suppose that the play had been in existence since
November or December, 1590. And if its author had been "a whole year
enditing" this imitation of _Friar Bacon, Friar Bacon_ must have been a
notable play in November or December, 1589. But if _Englands Mourninge
Gowne_, which was registered July 1, 1590, be Greene's _Mourning
Garment_ under another name,[1201] then _Faire Em_ may have appeared as
early as July or August of the same year; and _Friar Bacon_, preceding
_Faire Em_ by a twelvemonth, might be dated July or August, 1589.
Even if we do not strictly construe Greene's "whole year," we must
allow some such opportunity for the vogue of _Friar Bacon_, and for
the composition, presentation, and vogue of _Faire Em_, before the
publication of Greene's retort in the 1591 edition of the _Farewell
to Follie_. Hence the period between July and the end of 1589 will
probably cover the production of _Friar Bacon_; but the latter limit
might include the spring of 1590.

Mr. Fleay,[1202] reasoning from the insertion of Greene's longer motto
as colophon to the 1594 exemplar, places _Friar Bacon_ earlier than
the _Menaphon_ (S. R. August 23, 1589), in which he says Greene's
shorter motto[1203] is first used. Of the validity of this test I
am not convinced. Much more convincing is the argument based by the
same indefatigable scholar upon a date suggested within the drama.
St. James's Day, July 25, is mentioned (Sc. i.) as falling on a
Friday. Mr. Fleay insists that in such cases dramatic authors used
the almanac for the current year; and he shows that 1589 is the only
year of such coincidence that will meet the conditions of this play.
Since the attribution of the exact day of the week to a movable
feast is more likely to follow than to precede the observance, I
should regard July 25, 1589, the limit before which the _Bacon_ was
not finished. Now, not only the eulogy of Elizabeth at the end, but
the euphuistic and classical style of the play, shows that it was
intended for presentation at court. The only dates within the limits
above prescribed on which the Queen's men played before her Majesty
were December 26, 1589, and March 1, 1590. I lean to the former, St.
Stephen's Day, as that on which _Friar Bacon_ was performed.

The relation of this play to _Dr. Faustus_ throws additional light upon
the question under discussion. We must first eliminate the assumption
that Marlowe's "wall of brass"[1204] was borrowed from _Friar Bacon_.
The sources of the conception were common to both playwrights:
the _Famous Historie of frier Bacon_, a story-book popular at the
time, and "the tradition already borrowed from Giraldus Cambrensis
by Spenser."[1205] And it is evident that Marlowe drew the scene
where Robin conjures with one of Faustus's books directly from the
story-book, not at all from Greene's play.[1206] I agree with Dr. Ward
that Greene's play was suggested by Marlowe's, and that "it is hardly
too great an assumption to regard Bacon's victory over Vandermast as
a cheery outdoing by genuine English magic of the pretentious German
article in which Faustus was the representative traveller." Greene's
play is a romantic but humorous, sometimes burlesque, treatment of
a theme like Marlowe's, but familiar to the audience, and attractive
because domestic. It may, indeed, be surmised that some scenes
in _Friar Bacon_ are parodies of their pompous analogues in _Dr.
Faustus_.[1207] I think it has not been noticed that in the title of
Greene's play we have a clue to his intention: the 'Honorable Historie'
is in evident contrast with the 'Tragical Historie' of Dr. Faustus. For
the word 'honorable' was not derived from the title of the story-book.
That is a 'Famous Historie.' If he had acted in accordance with custom,
Greene might have replaced 'famous' by 'comical,' to indicate the
fortunate ending of his fable. No other drama that I know of, up to
1589, had been denominated an 'honorable' history. But, in this case,
Greene had every provocation to emphasize the quality 'honorable.' For
his purpose was to vaunt the superiority of the English magician above
the tragically concluding German.

This consideration confirms the assignment of _Friar Bacon_ to some
time within a year after the production of _Dr. Faustus_ (1588
_end_ or 1589 _beginning_). So, also, the resemblances in style to
Greene's other writings of that period. The love theme in _Friar
Bacon_ is similar to that in _Tullie's Love_ (1589); the style is akin
to that of _Orlando_ (December, 1588). These two are also closely
related as dramatic productions. The earlier, to be sure, confines
itself more narrowly to the satirical intent, while the later aims
in æsthetic respects, also, to surpass its Marlowan predecessor. It
is, consequently, an improvement upon _Orlando_ in construction and
characterization. The dramatist is now working with free hand, and,
for the first time in this field, employs the ease and invention for
which, as a story-teller, he was already famous. In versification these
two plays continue the methods of the _Looking-Glasse;_ but the rhymed
lines are sensibly fewer. In _Orlando_ they appear at the end of the
first half-dozen speeches; in _Friar Bacon_ they are to seek. In both
plays, about three-quarters of the verses avoid the singsong pause at
the end of the second foot. In the _Orlando,_ I should say that more
than a third of the verses escape, in addition, the penthimimeral
cæsura; in the _Friar Bacon_, almost a third. The dodecasyllable with
which Greene is experimenting in the interest of freedom, is somewhat
frequent in both plays. For the reason already given, there is not
so much prose as in the _Looking-Glasse_, perhaps only half as much.
Still, of _Orlando_, one-fifth is written in prose, and of _Friar
Bacon_ nearly a fourth.

5. Storojenko[1208] holds that _The Scottish Historie of James the
Fourth_ betrays a novel tendency toward native themes and simple
style, and that, with _Bacon_ and _The Pinner_, it furnished the model
for Shakespeare's romantic comedies. Professor Brown, pointing out
that _James IV._ is "among the first plays to have an acted prologue
and interplay," thinks that Shakespeare followed Greene's example in
the _Taming of the Shrew_ and the _Midsummer Night's Dream_; and he
groups _James IV._ with _The Pinner_ and the _Looking-Glasse_ as later
than the three other plays of Greene, and free from their "alluring
pedantry."[1209] But we have already seen that the _Looking-Glasse_
preceded both _Orlando_ and _Bacon_; and I think it can be proved that
_James IV._ followed them. The unique exemplar, printed by Creede,
"as it hath bene sundrie times publikely plaide," is of 1598, and is
probably a reprint of a lost edition of 1594.[1210] Henslow makes no
mention of the play; nor have we record of its acting. Storojenko
conjectures some date after the summer of 1589 for its composition;
Brown, some date between 1587 and 1592; Ward, about 1590; Fleay,
after August 23, 1589,[1211] because it uses the shorter motto (but
elsewhere,[1212] 1591--probably in collaboration with Lodge).

The following observations will, I think, fix the limits as 1590-1591.
Ida's lines, 270-279 in Act I., beginning "And weele I wot, I heard a
shepheard sing,"[1213] are a reminiscence of the _Heard-groome wᵗ his
strawberrie lasse_ in Peele's _Hunting of Cupid_: "What thing is love?
for (wel I wot) love is a thing," etc.[1214] Notice the recurrence in
Drummond's version of the "weele I wot." The "shepheard" to whom Ida
has reference is, of course, one of the swains of the _Hunting_, or
Peele himself. The _Hunting_ was not registered for printing till July
26, 1591; but then with the proviso "that if it be hurtful to any other
copy before licensed ... this to be void." The proviso was frequently
mere form, but it suggests that Greene may have drawn the verses from a
manuscript copy, or from the public performance before July 26, 1591.
I do not think that the _Hunting_ was written very long before it was
registered, because the atmosphere and phraseology are still fresh in
Peele's mind when he writes his _Descensus Astrææ_, October, 1591.
But it is interesting to note that there occurs a premonition or echo
of these same verses on Love in Greene's _Mourning Garment_,[1215]
which had been registered in 1590, from eight to twelve months before
the registration of the _Hunting_. We may, with reasonable latitude,
assign the composition of the _Hunting_ to the year 1590, and that of
_James IV_. to a later date in proximity to that of Greene's _Mourning
Garment_--say about July, 1590. Confirmation of this conclusion may be
found in other resemblances of sentiment and style between _James IV_.
and the _Mourning Garment_,[1216] as well as in Dorothea's reference
to the Irish wars, which may have been suggested by the contemporary
rising in Fermanagh; for, since the suppression of Desmond, in 1583,
there had been comparative quiet in Ireland. Though the play exhibits
little of the affected style which Elizabeth demanded, it is courtly,
and the graceful compliment to the queen and the (English) rose in
the laudation of Dorothea's attributes, together with that heroine's
forecast of a union between Scotland and England,[1217] might indicate
a view to court presentation, and a date of composition when such union
was favourably contemplated. The further boast of Dorothea:--

"Shall never Frenchman say an English maid
Of threats of forraine force will be afraid,"[1218]

was doubtless intended for the ear of the virgin queen, who, in 1590
and 1591, was busily landing forces in France to thwart the schemes of
her implacable enemies, the Guises. This play may, therefore, have been
presented by Greene's company, at court, on December 26, 1590, or as
one of their five performances during 1591.

The moral atmosphere is that of the penitential pamphlets; while the
pictures of roguery coincide with those of the conycatching series.
The portrayal of character is that of a mature dramatist; the plot is
more skilfully manipulated than in _Friar Bacon_, and covers a larger
canvas; but, though it smacks of the folk, it has hardly the simple
domestic interest of that drama. Still, Ward calls it the happiest,
Brown the most perfect, of Greene's plays; in fact, "the finest
Elizabethan historical play outside of Shakespeare."

The versification of _James IV._ gives proof of a mature quality of
experimentation. Because rhyme prevails, Collier assigned the play to
Greene's earlier period; but the criterion is inconclusive. Though
Greene conformed to the blank verse fashion as early as 1588, he made
it clear, at the time, that he was no convert.[1219] And, while in
1590-91 he recognizes the merits of a richer and more varied rhythm,
he is not yet convinced that rhyme should be abandoned; in tender and
gently romantic passages he counts it _utile_ as well as _dulce_. Some
of the scenes in which Ida and the queen figure are, accordingly,
almost altogether rhymed. The rhythmical movement is, however, no less
liberal than in _Orlando_ and _Bacon_; the proportion of monotone and
penthimimeral is as low; and as many as fifty per cent of the _cæsuræ_
are lyrical. Fully one-quarter of the play is in prose.

Having a regard only to the unquestioned plays of Greene, we notice
that his employment of dramatic prose dates from the association with
Lodge in the _Looking-Glasse_; that his renunciation of rhyme was
short-lived, and that its resumption did not hamper the freedom of
rhythmical movement. In none of the later plays, however, is the verse
so elastic as in his own dramatic portions of the _Looking-Glasse_. And
there the mobility was probably due to a desire for contrast with the
prophetic monologues.

=Attributions.=--Various other plays have, in whole or in part, been
assigned to Greene; _A History of Jobe_,[1220] not extant; part of
_The Troublesome Raigne of King John_,[2] and of the _First and Second
Parts of Henry VI._;[1221] _Fair Emm_[1222] (with no show of reason),
and others mentioned by Dyce; _Titus Andronicus_;[1223] _The Pinner
of Wakefield_, _Selimus_, and _A Knack to Know a Knave_.[1224] We can
consider only the last three.

1. The earliest extant exemplar of _George-a-Greene, the Pinner of
Wakefield_ is in the Duke of Devonshire's library. The author's name
does not appear. But the printer, publisher, year, vignette, and motto
(_Aut nunc aut nunquam_) are the same as on the title-page of the
1599 _Orlando_; and the same printer, Burbye, had, in 1592, published
other works of Greene: the _Third Part of Conny-Catching_ and _The
Repentance_. These items do not, however, prove anything concerning the
identity of the author. The play was entered to Burbye, April 1, 1595.
We learn from the title-page that the Sussex company acted it; and
Henslowe records five of these performances between December 29, 1593,
and January 22, 1594. But, though the Sussex men soon afterwards twice
assisted Greene's former company in the presentation of _Friar Bacon_,
they do not seem at this, or any previous period, to have owned any of
the unquestioned plays of Robert Greene. Henslowe does not mark this
one 'new,' and the dramatic contents give no indication of its date,
save that one of the _dramatis personæ_ refers to Tamberlaine.[1225] No
light is thrown upon the authorship by contemporary publications; and,
as late as Kirkman's _Catalogue_, 1661, the play was still anonymous.
It has been assigned to Greene on the manuscript evidence which has
already been shown to be inconclusive.[1226] In the last resort our
decision must depend upon the detection of Greenian characteristics.
Dr. Ward has observed that the play possesses "one of Greene's most
attractive notes,--a native English freshness of colouring,"--glimpses
of which may also be had in _Friar Bacon_ and _James IV._ This is
true. The representation of the characters, manners, and speech of the
middle and lower classes is such as might have contributed to Chettle's
estimate of the dramatist,--"the only comedian of a vulgar writer in
this country."[1227] In the "plotting," also, of the play, no ordinary
skill is evinced, and that is the "quality," says Nashe, wherein
Greene was master of his craft.[1228] The material is a popular story,
like the material of _Friar Bacon_. One of the incidents, indeed,
existed not only in the popular story, but in the experience of Robert
Greene as well.[1229] The rhetorical style here and there affords an
inkling of this "very supporter" of native comedy: a word that seems
to be his,[1230] a phrase or trick of the tongue,[1231] a figure or
two,[1232] occasionally a bejewelled verse,[1233] and once, at least, a
sentiment,--

"The sweet content of men that live in love
Breeds fretting humours in a restless mind."

But in Greene's undoubted productions the Greenian attributes are
not so far to seek: the curious imagery, the precious visualizing,
the necromantic monstrous toys. With his brocaded rhetoric fancy is
captivated and judgment disarmed. He gluts each appetite in turn with
'semblances,'--rare, remote, and meretricious. His silks are gay with
'sparks' and margarites, redolent of sandalwood and spice, stiff with
oriental gold. They rustle richly on the ear. The atmosphere is sense
idealized; the melody, a bell. I do not find these earmarks in _The
Pinner_; nor the coloured negligence of Greene, the studied, off-hand
blush, the conscious affectation of unconscious art. Of such devices
_James IV._, indeed, is by no means compact; but, in its first fifth,
there are four or five times as many references to the foreign, the
historical, astrological, mythical, as in all _The Pinner_. The three
or four classical allusions in _The Pinner_ are stark. But Greene's
employment of the mythological is never unattractive; it is _sui
generis_. It has always a quiddity of the indirect, the unexpected:
a relish of distinction. These bald "Cæsars" and "Helenas" of _The
Pinner_ are not Greene. On the contrary, we come across many words,
fashions of prose dictions and comic devices, that savour of Lodge as
we know him in the _Civill War_ and the _Looking-Glasse_, and suspect
him in _Mucedorus_. The conversations are sometimes reminiscent of
Greene; but, on the whole, they fail of his humorous indirection and
his craft.

The verse is so vilely divided in the original that even after Dyce's
attempt at reconstruction, no basis for conclusive attribution of
authorship is available. Prose forms a large proportion; indeed, it
looks as if the author were trying to see how near prose he might come
without ceasing to produce unrhymed pentameters. Fragmentary lines,
dodecasyllables, feminine endings, and rhetorical pauses abound. These
last are to me more suggestive of Greene's association with the play
than is any other feature; for more than once or twice they yield the
genuinely Greenian rhythm.[1234] If Greene had a hand in _The Pinner_,
the metrical style would fix its date just before or after _James IV._
It has the ease and variety of _Bacon_, but is as signal an experiment
in conversational blank verse as was _James IV._ in rhymed dramatic;
and it is a fairly successful experiment.

2. _The First Part of the Tragicall Raigne of Selimus_ (Creede, 1594)
has been reclaimed for Greene by Dr. Grosart, principally on the
evidence of _England's Parnassus_ (1600) which assigns to Greene two
passages taken from _Selimus_.[1235] For Dr. Grosart's presentation of
the case the reader may be referred to the Introduction to his edition
of Greene.[1236] It is worthy of the most careful study. Dr. Ward after
examining the interval evidence decides adversely to Dr. Grosart's
results.[1237] The following additional considerations incline me to
the same decision. The weight of the evidence depends, not upon the
number of passages from _Selimus_ assigned by Allott to Greene, but
upon the style of each passage. In the _Parnassus_, Allott has assigned
to Greene passages from other works, which do not belong to him; two,
for instance, which have been traced to Spenser. If the passages from
_Selimus_ on _Delaie_ and _Damocles_ have not Greene's characteristic,
then twenty such assignments do not prove that he wrote _Selimus_.
They would more logically prove that the collector, in this as in
other cases, is an uncertain guide. Now there is no trace, not the
faintest, of Greene's diction, sentiment, poetic quality, or rhythmical
form, in the tintinnabulation of the _Delaie_, or the platitude of the
_Damocles_. And so throughout the play. Neither the defects nor the
merits appear to me to be Greene's. Many of the lines are, indeed,
resonant, scholarly, and strong, but not in Greene's quality. If the
play were written by Greene, it could not have been written later
than the _Alphonsus_: stanzaic form, and the crudities of rhythm,
diction, and technique determine that; nor, on the other hand, could it
have been written earlier than the _Alphonsus_, for with _Alphonsus_
Greene _began_ "to treat of bloody Mars." It is not incumbent upon me
to find an author for _Selimus_, but I think that the probabilities
indicate Lodge (_circa_ 1586-87). It has perhaps not been noted that
Bullithrumble's lines (1955-1958) about godfathers are duplicated by
Lodge's Alcon in the _Looking-Glasse_ (l. 1603); and that the parlance
of Bullithrumble is paralleled by Curtall and Poppey in Lodge's _Civill
War_ (_circa_ 1587). The dogberryisms, clipped words, and inverted
phrases of the same character are of a piece also with those of
Mouse in _Mucedorus_[1238]--a play which has indeed so many of the
idiosyncrasies that mark the _Civill War_ that Mr. Fleay is not without
warrant in conjecturing the authorship of Lodge. It should in addition
be remarked that several of the expressions which Dr. Grosart finds in
_Selimus_, and considers to be peculiarly Greene's, are to be found
in the _Civill War_ and the _Mucedorus_; and that some non-Greenian
characteristics of the _Selimus_ appear in one or the other of these
plays. The "to-fore," for instance, which Dr. Grosart marks as Greenian
in _Selimus_ occurs four times in _Mucedorus_ alone. The blank verse
of the _Selimus_ finds its parallel in that of the _Civill War_; so,
also, the quaint stanzaic form, and the apparently Greenian moralizing
on 'content'[1239] (ll. 2049-2053). And conversely, the profound and
easeful soliloquies and serious imagery of the _Civill War_ are nearer
akin to those of the _Selimus_ than to anything of Greene's.

3. 'Young Juvenall' and the 'Comedie lastly writ.'--"With thee" says
Greene to Marlowe in the _Groatsworth_, "I joyne young Juvenall,
that byting satirist, that lastly with mee together writ a comedie.
Sweete boy, might I advise thee," etc. Simpson and Grosart disprove
the conjecture[1240] that the play was the _Looking-Glasse_ and the
'Juvenal,' Lodge: The _Looking-Glasse_ had not been lately written;
the epithet 'Juvenal' did not at any time apply to Lodge; nor would
Greene, in 1592, have called him a "sweete boy" as he calls this
fellow-dramatist, for Lodge, born 1557, was thirty-five at the time and
older than Greene by three years. It is argued that 'Juvenal' was Nashe
as follows: Nashe was already proficient in satire; he had, between
1589 and 1592, published half a dozen pasquinades which had met with
immediate success; he calls himself and is called by others 'Pasquil'
or 'Aretine' or the 'railing Nashe'; and Meres in 1598 addresses him
as "gallant young Juvenal" and mentions him with Greene among the
"best writers of comedie." It must also be remembered that Nashe was
'young'--not quite twenty-five in 1592--"and that a difference of
seven years made him a 'sweete boy' in Greene's regard."[1241] To
these considerations I add the following: First,--Chettle feigning
a letter[1242] from the dead poet to Nashe (_Robert Greene to Pierce
Pennilesse_), makes Greene use almost the epithet of the _Groatsworth_,
"Awake, _secure boy_, revenge thy wrongs." It may be surmised that the
older poet was in the way of thus affectionately terming the younger,
and that Chettle, who had edited the _Groatsworth_, had the pamphlet
in mind when he conceived this letter. Second,--The pains taken by
Nashe, in his _Strange Newes_, to disclaim anything like continuous
companionship are occasioned by the fact that he and Greene had
"lastly" been "together." He writes, in September, 1592, "Since first
I knewe him [Greene] about towne, I have beene two yeares together and
not seene him."[1243] The "first" refers to 1588-89 when Nashe was
championing Greene's _Menaphon_ and scoring Greene's rivals in _The
Anatomie_. The "two yeares" bring us to 1591, when he was engaged with
Greene in the controversy with the Harveys[1244] which he here recounts
with such detail as to indicate no slight acquaintance with Greene's
motives and movements at the time. In that year appeared Nashe's
_Astrological Prognostication_, and in the next, Greene's _Quip_, both
bearing upon the subject on hand. We may infer that the revival of
their literary association was connected with the 'canvazing' of the
rope-maker's sons.[1245] Greene's concluding counsel is such as we
should expect him to give the 'young Juvenall' with whom he had lately
engaged against a common enemy.[1246] Nashe informs us also that he had
occasionally, of late, caroused with the poet and that he was present
at that "banquet of Rhenish and pickled herrings" from which Greene
took his death.[1247] Third,--When Dekker, some fifteen years later,
tells in his _Knight's Conjuring_ of the habitants of the "Fieldes of
Joye," he introduces Nashe as one of that group which is exclusively
restricted to the poets, and the editor, of Greene's _Groatsworth_.
"Marlow, Greene, and Peele," writes he, "had got under the shades of
a large vyne laughing to see Nash [the favourite of the group, and
even yet the 'sweete boy'] that was but newly come to their colledge,
still haunted with the sharpe and satyricall spirit that followed him
heere upon earth...." And why there? He had "shorten'd his dayes by
keeping company with pickle-herring" [many another night, no doubt,
than that of August, 1592, with Will Monox and Ro. Greene,--but that
night persisted]. And with what do they greet him? "How [do] poets and
players agree _now_?" A precise _Groatsworth_ issue to which Nashe
responds in proper _Groatsworth_ phrase, with echo as well from his
Preface to the _Menaphon_, and with a parting fling at Harvey.[1248]
Then, as if to round out the company, there enters Kind Hart,
a-puffing,--Chettle, himself, the conservator of the 'Colledge.' Thus
Dekker the contemporary of the _Groatsworth_ group fixes the identity
of its 'Juvenall' on earth and under. And the 'comedie' was writ in
1591 or the first half of 1592.

But it is not easy to determine its name. A plea might be made for
_Summer's Last Will and Testament_,[1249] on certain counts of R. W.'s
diatribe in _Martine Marsixtus_,[1250] but I doubt whether it would
convince. Simpson thinks that the 'comedie' was not improbably _A
Knack to Know a Knave_, which had been acted as new, June 10, 1592.
Fleay,[1251] however, asserts that there is not the slightest ground
for this conjecture; and Grosart[1252] is sure that "no one who reads
_A Knack_ can possibly find in it one line from either Greene or
Nashe." I shall not undertake to prove that Mr. Simpson was right:
it must, however, be observed that the subject of _A Knack_ was not
foreign to the genius of Nashe; that two of the characters, the
satirical commentator and the Welshman, have their counterparts in his
_Summer's Last Will_; and that Greene had with godly intent written up
and published the whole truth about knaves and 'coosnage' only within
the past year and a half. As for the plot, it may have no analogue in
Nashe's works, but in one[1253] at least of its threads it parallels
_Friar Bacon_, and in another[1254] the _Looking-Glasse_; and four or
five of its situations[1255] reproduce peculiarities and language of
those plays. As for the speeches, though more than one is reminiscent
of Greene's _rococo_,[1256] the style is more like that of the _Last
Will_. To be sure there are _septenarii_ in the _Knack_, and none in
the _Will_; but the blank verse, such as it is, might readily have been
chipped from Nashe; so also the short irregular rhymed lines, and much
of the prose. The vocabulary is not unlike his. Nashe might have been
capable of the classical excrescences; Greene certainly was not. These
coincidences are, of course, merely suggestive. For me they indicate
possibly that if Greene had no hand in the play, some one who lacked
his touch and most of his cunning has freely plundered him;[1257]
and that, if he had an interest in the play, it was limited to the
suggestion of plot and treatment. Nashe may have thrown the material
into shape. It is a small matter, but perhaps worth recording, that the
_Knack_ calls itself "a most pleasant and merie new _Comedie_," that
Greene calls the play "lastly writ" a 'comedie,' and that no other play
connected with his name save the doubtful _Pinner_ is so described.
Also that the date of the _Knack_ accords with the conditions: it was
played about two months before the _Groatsworth_ was begun, and by a
company that then was acting three dramas known to be Greene's.

=Friar Bacon: Stage History and Materials=.--The position of Greene's
plays in the history of English comedy is indicated in Professor
Woodberry's article. The play here under discussion was acted with some
frequency between 1591 and 1594, sometimes at important seasons, always
with fair attendance, and occasionally with large profits. It was
performed at court as late as 1602, and was occasionally revived under
James I. and Charles I.[1258]

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.

[1221] Fleay, _Hist. Stage_, pp. 399, 400; _Life of Shakesp._, p. 255
_et seq._ He guesses also _True Chron. Hist. of Leir, Valentine and
Orson_, and _Robin Hood_ (_Hist. Stage_, 89, 400).

[1222] Phillips's _Theatrum Poetarum_.

[1223] Grosart in _Englische Stud._ XXII. (1896).

[1224] See under 'Young Juvenall' below.

[1225] Line 48.

[1226] Page 401, above.

[1227] _Kind Harts Dreame_, 1592.

[1228] _Have with You_, etc., 1596.

[1229] Making "the apparriter eate his citation," _Strange Newes_,
etc., 1592.

[1230] Dumps, affects, quaint, fair (for _beauty_), vail, bonnet (but
the last two come from the prose romance).

[1231] "Why, who art thou?" "Why, I am George," etc.

[1232] "Painting my outward passions," ll. 311-312.

[1233] Bonfield to Bettris, ll. 215-226.

[1234] As described in my _Appendix_ to _Friar Bacon_.

[1235] On _Delaie_, ll. 503-509; on _Damocles_, ll. 853-857.

[1236] In Vol. I. of _Greene's Works_, and in the _Temple Dramatists_.

[1237] _Hist. E. D. L._ Vol. I.

[1238] Lines 1980-1983 of _Selimus_ are reproduced in _Mucedorus_ (H.
Dods. VII. 214).

[1239] Cf. _Civ. W._, H. Dods. VII. 137, 147, 187, 192-193.

[1240] Cf. Dyce, Malone, Fleay.

[1241] Grosart, _Greene_, I. pp. lvii-lxv, who quotes Simpson, _Greene
on Nashe_, Academy, 11th April, 1874, and Symonds, _Predecessors of
Shakespeare_, p. 574. Of this opinion are also Farmer, Staunton, and
Ward.

[1242] In _Kind Harts Dreame_, 1592.

[1243] _Strange Newes_, Sig. L. 4.

[1244] _Ibid._, Sig. c. 2, 3.

[1245] See _Saffron Walden_ (1596), Sig. v. 2.

[1246] "Blame not schollers [the Harveys'] vexed with sharpe lines if
they reprove thy too much libertie of reproofe." Grosart, xii. 143,
_Groatsw._

[1247] _Strange Newes_, Sig. H. and E. 4.

[1248] "Ocnus, that makes ropes in hell"--who in truth survived them
all.

[1249] Privately acted between July 27 and August 21, _1592_, at
Croydon. Fleay, _H. S._ p. 78.

[1250] "What publishing of frivolous and scurrilous prognostications,
as if Will Summers were again revived," etc. "And yet _they_ shame not
to subscribe 'By a graduate in Cambridge' '_In Artibus Magister_.'
... _They_ are the Pharisees of our time," etc. Note the plural. But
though Nashe had revived Will Somers in the _L. W. and T._, though he
was entitled to subscribe himself "Graduate in C.," as Greene had done,
and though Greene is the _A. M._ and intended "Pharisee," etc., the
"scurrilous prognostications" and the other earmarks are hard to find
in _L. W. and T._, as we have it. The "lute-string" passage (Dods. IX.
22) recalls Thrasybulus' remarks in _Lk.-Gl._ Sc. v.; but that scene is
probably by Lodge, and Nashe himself parallels the passage more closely
in _Christ's Tears_ (1593).

[1251] _Life of Shakesp._, p. 109.

[1252] _Greene_, I. lxii.

[1253] Cf. _Kn._ (H. Dods. 514) with _F. B._, Sc. i. 155, "the
vicarious wooing."

[1254] Cf. _Kn._, Episode of Philarchus, with _Lk.-Gl._, that of
Radagon.

[1255] Cf. the sequel of the vicarious wooing in _Kn._ with that in
_F. B._; Smith and Cobbler, _Kn._ (p. 566), "God of our occupation ...
cuckold," with same conversation, _Lk.-Gl._, Sc. ii. 254-255; Thankless
son, _Kn._ (p. 523), "Thou hast been fostered," etc., with _Lk.-Gl._,
Sc. viii. 1247; _Kn._ (p. 523), "disdain ... want," with _Lk.-Gl._
1273; _Kn._ (p. 526), "Mother's curse ... hated," etc., with _Lk.-Gl._
l. 1275. Resemblances to Lodge's lines are: Usurer, _Kn._ (pp.
548-549), and _Lk.-Gl._, Scs. iii. v.; _Kn._, "My house ... goods," and
_Lk.-Gl._ iii. 419, "My cow," etc.

[1256] Cf. _Kn._ (H. Dods. VI. 514), Ethenwald's "to show your passions
... fairer than the dolphin's eye," etc., to the end, and (H. Dods. VI.
562) Ethenwald's "purpled main ... wanton love," etc., and (p. 570)
Alfrida's "Beset with orient pearl," etc., with _F. B._, Sc. viii. ll.
26, 50-73.

[1257] On this basis, I see something to be said in favour of Mr.
Fleay's conjecture of Wilson, but not of _Peele_ and Wilson.

[1258] Fleay, _Life of Shakesp._, and in Ward's _O. E. D._, p. cxliv.

[1259] Born 1214; student at Oxford and Paris; Franciscan at Oxford;
because of his mathematical and philosophical lore suspected of
necromancy and forbidden to lecture; imprisoned 1278-1292; died 1294.
See Ward, _O. E. D._, xxi-xxiv.

[1260] _O. E. D._, pp. 207-210; O. Ritter, _De Rob. Greens Fabula 'F.
B. and B.'_ The summoning of shades occurs in the _Odyssey_ and 1 Sam.
28. 7. Magical images were made by Vergil, the Enchanter; the Brazen
H. speaks in Valent. and Orson. The wall of brass is found in Gir.
Cambrensis, and Spenser. The Speculum is assigned to Cæsar, and the
Enchanter, Vergil. See also Chaucer and Spenser.

_SCROLL ORNAMENTATION_

THE

HONORABLE HISTORIE

of frier Bacon, and frier Bongay.

As it was plaid by her Maiesties seruants.

Made by _Robert Greene_ Maister of Arts.

_SCROLL ORNAMENTATION_

_VIGNETTE_

_SCROLL ORNAMENTATION_

LONDON,

Printed for Edward White, and are to be sold at his shop, at
the little North dore of Poules, at the signe of
the Gun. 1594.

The Persons of the Play[1261]

_King_ HENRY _the Third_.
EDWARD, _Prince of Wales, his Sonne_.
EMPEROUR OF GERMANIE.
KING OF CASTILE.
NED LACIE, _Earle of Lincoln_.
JOHN WARREN, _Earle of Sussex_.
WILL ERMSBIE, _a Gentleman_.
RAPHE SIMNELL, _the Kings Foole_.
_Frier_ BACON.
MILES, _Frier Bacons poore Scholer_.
_Frier_ BUNGAY.
JAQUES VANDERMAST, _a Germaine_.
BURDEN, _Doctor of Oxford and Maister of Brazennose_.
MASON } _Doctors of Oxford_.
CLEMENT }
LAMBERT } _Gentlemen_.
SERLSBY }
_Two Schollers, Their Sonnes._
The KEEPER of _Fresingfield_.
_Thomas_ } _Farmers Sonnes_.
_Richard_}
_Constable, Post, Lords, Countrie Clownes, etc._

ELINOR, _Daughter to Castile_.
MARGRET, _the Keepers daughter of Fresingfield_.
JONE, _a Farmers daughter_.
_The_ HOSTESSE _at Henly, Mistresse of the Bell_.

_A_ DEVILL, _and a_ FIEND _like_ HERCULES; _a_ DRAGON _shooting fire;
etc._

FOOTNOTES:

[1261] Not in Qtos.

THE HONOURABLE

Historie of Frier Bacon

[Scene First.[1262] _In, or near, Fremingham_]

_Enter_ PRINCE EDWARD[1263] _malcontented, with_ LACY _earle of
Lincoln_, JOHN WARREN _earle of Sussex, and_ ERMSBIE _gentleman_: RAPH
SIMNELL _the kings foole_.

_Lacie._ Why lookes my lord like to a troubled skie,
When heavens bright shine is shadow'd with a fogge?
Alate[1264] we ran the deere, and through the lawndes
Stript[1265] with our nagges the loftie frolicke bucks
That scudded fore the teisers[1266] like the wind: 5
Nere was the deere of merry Fresingfield
So lustily puld down by jolly mates,
Nor sharde the farmers such fat venison,
So franckly dealt, this hundred yeares before;
Nor have[1267] I seene my lord more frolicke in the chace; 10
And now[1268]--changde to a melancholie dumpe?

_Warren._ After the prince got to the keepers lodge,
And had been jocand in the house awhile,
Tossing of[1269] ale and milke in countrie cannes:
Whether it was the countries sweete content, 15
Or els the bonny damsell fild us drinke
That seemd so stately in her stammell[1270] red,
Or that a qualme did crosse his stomacke then,--
But straight he fell into his passions.

_Ermsbie._ Sirra Raphe, what say you to your maister, 20
Shall he thus all amort[1271] live malecontent?

_Raphe._ Heerest thou, Ned?--Nay, looke if hee will speake to
me!

_Edward._ What sayst thou to me, foole?

_Raphe._ I preethee, tell me, Ned, art thou in love with the keepers
daughter? 26

_Edward._ How if I be, what then?

_Raphe._ Why, then, sirha, Ile teach thee how to deceive Love.

_Edward._ How, Raphe?

_Raphe._ Marrie sirha Ned, thou shalt put on my cap and my
coat and my dagger,[1272] and I will put on thy clothes and thy sword:
and so thou shalt be my foole. 32

_Edward._ And what of this?

_Raphe._ Why, so thou shalt beguile Love; for Love is such a
proud scab, that he will never meddle with fooles nor children. Is
not Raphes counsel good, Ned? 36

_Edward._ Tell me, Ned Lacie, didst thou marke the mayd,
How lively[1273] in her country-weedes she lookt?
A bonier wench all Suffolke cannot yeeld:--
All Suffolke! nay, all England holds none such. 40

_Raphe._ Sirha Will Ermsby, Ned is deceived.

_Ermsbie._ Why, Raphe?

_Raphe._ He saies all England hath no such, and I say, and Ile
stand to it, there is one better in Warwickshire.

[The honourable historie of Frier Bacon[1279]]

_Warren._ How proovest thou that, Raphe? 45

_Raphe._ Why, is not the abbot a learned man, and hath red
many bookes, and thinkest thou he hath not more learning than
thou to choose a bonny wench? yes, I warrant thee, by his whole
grammer.

_Ermsby._ A good reason, Raphe. 50

_Edward._ I tell the[e], Lacie, that her sparkling eyes
Doe lighten forth sweet Loves alluring fire;
And in her tresses she doth fold the lookes
Of such as gaze upon her golden haire;
Her bashfull white, mixt with the mornings red, 55
Luna doth boast upon her lovely cheekes;
Her front is Beauties table,[1274] where she paints
The glories of her gorgious excellence;
Her teeth are shelves of pretious margarites,
Richly enclosed with ruddie curroll cleves.[1275] 60
Tush, Lacie, she is Beauties overmatch,
If thou survaist her curious imagerie.[1276]

_Lacie._ I grant, my lord, the damsell is as faire
As simple Suffolks homely towns can yeeld:
But in the court be quainter[1277] dames than she, 65
Whose faces are enricht with honours taint,[1278]
Whose bewties stand upon the stage of fame,
And vaunt their trophies in the Courts of Love.

_Edw._ Ah, Ned, but hadst thou watcht her as my self,
And seene the secret bewties of the maid, 70
Their courtly coinesse were but foolery.

_Ermsbie._ Why, how watcht you her, my lord?

_Edward._ When as she swept like Venus through the house,--
And in her shape fast foulded up my thoughtes,--
Into the milkhouse went I with the maid, 75
And there amongst the cream-boles she did shine
As Pallace 'mongst her princely huswiferie:
She turnd her smocke over her lilly armes,
And divd them into milke to run her cheese;
But, whiter than the milke, her cristall skin, 80
Checked with lines of azur, made her blush[1280]
That art or nature durst bring for compare.
Ermsbie,[1281] if thou hadst seene, as I did note it well,
How Bewtie plaid the huswife, how this girle,
Like Lucrece, laid her fingers to the worke, 85
Thou wouldst with Tarquine hazard Roome and all
To win the lovely mayd of Fresingfield.

_Raphe._ Sirha Ned, wouldst faine have her?

_Edward._ I,[1282] Raphe.

_Raphe._ Why, Ned, I have laid the plot in my head; thou shall
have her alreadie. 91

_Edward._ Ile give thee a new coat, and[1282] learne me that.

_Raphe._ Why, sirra Ned, weel ride to Oxford to Frier Bacon:
oh, he is a brave scholler, sirra; they say he is a brave nigromancer,
that he can make women of devils, and hee can juggle cats into
costermongers. 96

_Edward._ And how then, Raphe?

_Raphe._ Marry, sirrha, thou shalt go to him: and because[1283] thy
father Harry shall not misse thee, hee shall turne me into thee; and
Ile to the court, and Ile prince it out; and he shall make thee either
a silken purse full of gold, or else a fine wrought smocke. 101

_Edward._ But how shall I have the mayd?

_Raphe._ Marry, sirha, if thou beest a silken purse full of gold,
then on Sundaies sheele hang thee by her side, and you must not
say a word. Now, sir, when she comes into a great prease[1284] of
people, for feare of the cut-purse, on a sodaine sheele swap[1285]
thee into her plackerd,[1286] then, sirrha, being there, you may
plead for your selfe. 108

_Ermsbie._ Excellent pollicie!

_Edward._ But how if I be a wrought smocke? 110

_Raphe._ Then sheele put thee into her chest and lay thee into
lavender, and upon some good day sheele put thee on, and at night
when you go to bed, then being turnt from a smocke to a man, you
may make up the match.

_Lacie._ Wonderfully wisely counselled, Raphe. 115

_Edward._ Raphe shall have a new coate.

_Raphe._ God thanke you when I have it on my backe, Ned.

_Edward._ Lacie, the foole hath laid a perfect plot;
For why our countrie Margret is so coy,
And standes so much upon her honest pointes, 120
That marriage, or no market with the mayd.
Ermsbie, it must be nigroma[n]ticke spels
And charmes of art that must inchaine her love,
Or else shall Edward never win the girle.
Therefore, my wags, weele horse us in the morne, 125
And post to Oxford to this jolly frier:
Bacon shall by his magicke doe this deed.

_Warren._ Content, my lord; and thats a speedy way
To weane these head-strong puppies from the teat.

_Edward._ I am unknowne, not taken for the prince; 130
They onely deeme us frolicke courtiers,
That revell thus among our lieges game,--
Therefore I have devis'd a pollicie:
Lacie, thou knowst next Friday is S. James,[1287]
And then the country flockes to Harlston[1288] faire: 135
Then will the keepers daughter frolicke there,
And over-shine the troupe of all the maids
That come to see and to be seene that day.
Haunt thee disguisd among the countrie-swaines,
Feign thart a farmers sonne, not far from thence, 140
Espie her loves, and who she liketh best:
Coat[1289] him, and court her, to controll the clowne;
Say that the courtier tyred all in greene,
That helpt her handsomly to run her cheese,
And fild her fathers lodge with venison, 145
Commends him, and sends fairings to herselfe.
Buy some thing worthie of her parentage,
Not worth her beautie; for, Lacie, then the faire
Affoords no jewell fitting for the mayd:
And when thou talkest of me, note if she blush: 150
Oh then she loves; but if her cheekes waxe pale,
Disdaine it is. Lacie, send how she fares,
And spare no time nor cost to win her loves.

_Lacie._ I will, my lord, so execute this charge
As if that Lacie were in love with her. 155

_Edward._ Send letters speedily to Oxford of the newes.

_Raphe._ And, sirha Lacie, buy me a thousand thousand million
of fine bels.

_Lacie._ What wilt thou do with them, Raphe? 159

_Raphe._ Mary, every time that Ned sighs for the keepers daughter,
Ile tie a bell about him: and so within three or foure daies I will
send word to his father Harry, that his sonne, and my maister Ned,
is become Loves morris dance.[1290]

_Edward._ Well, Lacie, look with care unto thy charge,
And I will haste to Oxford to the frier, 165
That he by art and thou by secret gifts
Maist make me lord of merrie Fresingfield.

_Lacie._ God send your honour your[1291] harts desire. _Exeunt._

[Scene Second. _Frier Bacons cell at Brazennose_]

_Enter Frier_ BACON, _with_ MILES, _his poore scholer, with bookes
under his arme; with them_ BURDEN, MASON, CLEMENT, _three Doctors_.

_Bacon._ Miles, where are you?

_Miles._ _Hic sum, doctissime et reverendissime doctor._

_Bacon._ _Attulisti nos_[1292] _libros meos de necromantia?_

_Miles._ _Ecce quam bonum et quam jucundum habitare_[1293] _libros in
unum!_

_Bacon._ Now, maisters of our academicke state, 5
That rule in Oxford, Vizroies in your place,
Whose heads containe maps of the liberall arts,
Spending your time in deapth of learned skill,
Why flocke you thus to Bacons secret cell,
A frier newly stalde in Brazennose? 10
Say whats your mind, that I may make replie.

_Burden._ Bacon, we hear that long we have suspect,
That thou art read in magicks mysterie:
In piromancie, to divine by flames;
To tell, by hadromaticke[1294] ebbes and tides; 15
By aeromancie to discover doubts,
To plaine out questions, as Apollo did.

_Bacon._ Well, Maister Burden, what of all[1295] this?

_Miles._ Marie, sir, he doth but fulfill, by rehearsing of these
names, the fable of the Fox and the Grapes: that which is above
us pertains nothing to us. 21

_Burden._ I tell thee, Bacon, Oxford makes report,
Nay, England, and the court of Henrie saies,
Th' art making of a brazen head by art,
Which shall unfold strange doubts and aphorismes, 25
And read a lecture in philosophie;
And, by the helpe of divels and ghastly fiends,
Thou meanst, ere many yeares or daies be past,
To compasse England with a wall of brasse.

_Bacon._ And what of this? 30

_Miles._ What of this, maister! why, he doth speak mystically:
for he knowes, if your skill faile to make a brazen head, yet Mother
Waters strong ale will fit his turne to make him have a copper-nose.

_Clement._ Bacon, we come not greeving at thy skill,
But joieing that our académie yeelds 35
A man supposde the woonder of the world:
For if thy cunning worke these myracles,
England and Europe shall admire thy fame,
And Oxford shall in characters of brasse,
And statues, such as were built up in Rome, 40
Eternize Frier Bacon for his art.

_Mason._ Then, gentle Frier, tell us thy intent.

_Bacon._ Seeing you come as friends unto the frier,
Resolve you, doctors, Bacon can by bookes
Make storming Boreas thunder from his cave, 45
And dimme faire Luna to a darke eclipse.
The great arch-ruler, potentate of hell,
Trembles when Bacon bids him, or his fiends,
Bow to the force of his pentageron.[1296]
What art can worke, the frolicke frier knowes; 50
And therefore will I turne my magicke bookes,
And straine out nigromancie to the deepe.
I have contrivd and framde a head of brasse,
(I made Belcephon[1297] hammer out the stuffe)
And that by art shall read Philosophie: 55
And I will strengthen England by my skill,
That if ten Cæsars livd and raignd in Rome,
With all the legions Europe doth containe,
They should not touch a grasse of English ground;
The worke that Ninus reard at Babylon, 60
The brazen walles framde by Semiramis,
Carvd out like to the portall of the sunne,
Shall not be such as rings the English strond
From Dover to the market-place of Rie.

_Burden._ Is this possible? 65

_Miles._ Ile bring ye t[w]o or three witnesses.

_Burden._ What be those?

_Miles._ Marry, sir, three or foure as honest divels and good
companions as any be in hell.

_Mason._ No doubt but magicke may doe much in this; 70
For he that reades but mathematicke[1298] rules
Shall finde conclusions that availe to work
Wonders that passe the common sense of men.

_Burden._ But Bacon roves[1299] a bow beyond his reach,
And tels of more than magicke can performe, 75
Thinking to get a fame by fooleries.
Have I not past as farre in state of schooles,
And red of many secrets? yet to thinke
That heads of brasse can utter any voice,
Or more, to tell of deepe philosophie, 80
This is a fable Æsop had forgot.

_Bacon._ Burden, thou wrongst me in detracting thus;
Bacon loves not to stuffe himselfe with lies.
But tell me fore these doctors, if thou dare,
Of certaine questions I shall move to thee. 85

_Burden._ I will: aske what thou can.

_Miles._ Marrie, sir, heele straight be on your pickpacke to knowe
whether the feminine or the masculin gender be most worthie.

_Bacon._ Were you not yesterday, Maister Burden, at Henly upon the
Thembs? 90

_Burden._ I was: what then?

_Bacon._ What booke studied you thereon all night?

_Burden._ I! none at all; I red not there a line.

_Bacon._ Then, doctors, Frier Bacons art knowes nought.

_Clement._ What say you to this, Maister Burden? doth hee not
touch you? 96

_Burden._ I passe not of his frivolous speeches.

_Miles._ Nay, Master Burden, my maister, ere hee hath done with
you, will turne you from a doctor to a dunce, and shake you so
small, that he will leave no more learning in you than is in Balaams
asse. 101

_Bacon._ Maisters, for that learned Burdens skill is deepe,
And sore he doubts of Bacons cabalisme,
I'll shew you why he haunts to Henly oft:
Not, doctors, for to tast the fragrant aire, 105
But there to spend the night in alcumie,
To multiplie with secret spels of art;
Thus privat steales he learning from us all.
To proove my sayings true, Ile shew you straight
The booke he keepes at Henly for himselfe. 110

_Miles._ Nay, now my maister goes to conjuration, take heed.

_Bacon._ Maisters,[1300] stand still, feare not, Ile shewe you but his
booke.
_Here he conjures._
_Per omnes deos infernales, Belcephon!_ 114

_Enter a_ Woman _with a shoulder of mutton on a spit, and a_ Devill.

_Miles._ Oh, maister, cease your conjuration, or you spoile all;
for heeres a shee divell come with a shoulder of mutton on a spit:
you have mard the divels supper; but no doubt hee thinkes our
colledge fare is slender, and so hath sent you his cooke with a
shoulder of mutton, to make it exceed.

_Hostesse._ Oh, where am I, or whats become of me? 120

_Bacon._ What art thou?

_Hostesse._ Hostesse at Henly, mistresse of the Bell.

_Bacon._ How camest thou heere?

_Hostesse._ As I was in the kitchen mongst the maydes,
Spitting the meate against[1301] supper for my guesse,[1301] 125
A motion mooved me to looke forth of dore.
No sooner had I pried into the yard,
But straight a whirlewind hoisted me from thence,
And mounted me aloft unto the cloudes.
As in a trance I thought nor feared nought, 130
Nor know I where or whether I was tane,
Nor where I am, nor what these persons be.

_Bacon._ No? know you not Maister Burden?

_Hostesse._ O yes, good sir, he is my daily guest.--
What, Maister Burden! twas but yesternight 135
That you and I at Henly plaid at cardes.

_Burden._ I knowe not what we did.--A poxe of all conjuring
friars!

_Clement._ Now, jolly Frier, tell us, is this the booke
That Burden is so carefull to looke on?[1302] 140

_Bacon._ It is.--But, Burden, tell me now,
Thinkest thou that Bacons nicromanticke skill
Cannot performe his head and wall of brasse,
When he can fetch thine hostesse in such post? 144

_Miles._ Ile warrant you, maister, if Maister Burden could conjure
as well as you, hee would have his booke everie night from Henly
to study on at Oxford.

_Mason._ Burden, what, are you mated by this frolicke frier?--
Looke how he droops; his guiltie conscience
Drives him to bash,[1303] and makes his hostesse blush. 150

_Bacon._ Well, mistres, for I wil not have you mist,
You shall to Henly to cheere up your guests
Fore supper ginne.--Burden, bid her adew;
Say farewell to your hostesse fore she goes.--
Sirha, away, and set her safe at home. 155

_Hostesse._ Maister Burden, when shall we see you at Henly?[1304]

_Exeunt_ HOSTESSE _and the_ Devill.

_Burden._ The devill take thee and Henly too.

_Miles._ Maister, shall I make a good motion?

_Bacon._ Whats that? 159

_Miles._ Marry, sir, nowe that my hostesse is gone to provide supper,
conjure up another spirite, and send Doctor Burden flying after.

_Bacon._ Thus, rulers of our accademicke state,
You have seene the frier frame his art by proofe;
And as the colledge called Brazennose
Is under him, and he the Maister[1305] there, 165
So surely shall this head of brasse be framde,
And yeelde forth strange and uncoth aphorismes;
And Hell and Heccate[1306] shall faile the frier,
But I will circle England round with brasse.

_Miles._ So be it, _et nunc et semper. Amen._ _Exeunt omnes._ 170

[Scene Third. _Harlston Faire._]

_Enter_ MARGRET, _the faire mayd of Fresingfield, with_ THOMAS,
[RICHARD] _and_ JONE, _and other clownes_; LACIE _disguised in
countrie apparell._

_Thomas._ By my troth, Margret, heeres a wether is able to make
a man call his father whorson: if this wether hold, wee shall have hay
good cheape, and butter and cheese at Harlston will beare no price.

_Margret._ Thomas, maides, when they come to see the faire,
Count not to make a cope[1307] for dearth of hay: 5
When we have turnd our butter to the salt,
And set our cheese safely[1308] upon the rackes,
Then let our fathers prise[1309] it as they please.
We countrie sluts of merry Fresingfield
Come to buy needlesse noughts to make us fine, 10
And looke that yong men should be francke[1310] this day,
And court us with such fairings as they can.
Phœbus is blythe, and frolicke lookes from heaven,
As when he courted lovely Semele,[1311]
Swearing the pedlers shall have emptie packs, 15
If that faire wether may make chapmen buy.

_Lacie._ But, lovely Peggie, Semele is dead,
And therefore Phœbus from his pallace pries,
And, seeing such a sweet and seemly saint,
Shewes all his glories for to court your selfe. 20

_Margret._ This is a fairing, gentle sir, indeed,
To sooth me up with such smooth flatterie;
But learne of me, your scoffe's[1312] to[o] broad before.--
Well, Jone, our bewties[1313] must abide their jestes;
We serve the turne in jolly Fresingfield. 25

_Jone._ Margret,[1314] a farmers daughter for a farmers son:
I warrant you, the meanest of us both
Shall have a mate to lead us from the church.
But, Thomas, whats the newes? what, in a dumpe?
Give me your hand, we are neere a pedlers shop,-- 30
Out with your purse, we must have fairings now.

_Thomas._ Faith, Jone, and shall: Ile bestow a fairing on you, and
then we will to the tavern, and snap off a pint of wine or two.

_All this while_ LACIE _whispers_ MARGRET _in the eare._

_Margret._ Whence are you, sir? of Suffolke? for your tearmes
Are finer than the common sort of men.[1315] 35

_Lacie._ Faith, lovely girle, I am of Beckles[1316] by,
Your neighbour, not above six miles from hence,
A farmers sonne, that never was so quaint[1317]
But that he could do courtesie to such dames.
But trust me, Margret, I am sent in charge 40
From him that reveld in your fathers house,
And fild his lodge with cheere and venison,
'Tyred in green; he sent you this rich purse,
His token that he helpt you run your cheese,
And in the milkhouse chatted with your selfe. 45

_Margret._ To me? You forget your selfe.[1318]

_Lacie._ Women are often weake in memorie.

_Margret._ Oh, pardon sir, I call to mind the man:
Twere little manners to refuse his gift,
And yet I hope he sends it not for love; 50
For we have little leisure to debate of that.[1319]

_Jone._ What, Margret! blush not: mayds must have their loves.

_Thomas._ Nay, by the masse, she lookes pale as if she were
angrie. 54

_Richard._ Sirha, are you of Beckls? I pray, how dooth Goodman Cob?
my father bought a horse of him.--Ile tell you Margret, a were good
to be a gentlemans jade, for of all things the foule hilding could
not abide a doongcart.

_Margret_ [_aside_]. How different is this farmer from the rest
That earst as yet hath pleasd my wandring sight! 60
His words are wittie, quickened with a smile,
His courtesie gentle, smelling of the court;
Facill and debonaire in all his deeds;
Proportiond as was Paris, when, in gray,
He courted Ænon in the vale by Troy. 65
Great lords have come and pleaded for my love:
Who but the keepers lasse of Fresingfield?
And yet me thinks this farmers jolly sonne
Passeth the prowdest that hath pleasd mine eye.
But, Peg, disclose not that thou art in love, 70
And shew as yet no sign of love to him,
Although thou well wouldst wish him for thy love;
Keepe that to thee till time doth serve thy turne,
To shew the greefe wherein thy heart doth burne.--
Come, Jone and Thomas, shall we to the faire?-- 75
You, Beckls man, will not forsake us now?

_Lacie._ Not whilst I may have such quaint girls as you.

_Margret._ Well, if you chaunce to come by Fresingfield,
Make but a step into the keepers lodge,[1320]
And such poore fare as woodmen can affoord, 80
Butter and cheese, creame and fat venison,
You shall have store, and welcome therewithall.

_Lacie._ Gramarcies, Peggie; looke for me eare long.
_Exeunt omnes._

[Scene Fourth. _The Court at Hampton House._]

_Enter_ HENRY _the third, the_ EMPEROUR, _the_ KING OF CASTILE,
ELINOR, _his daughter,_ JAQUES VANDERMAST _a Germaine_.

_Henrie._ Great men of Europe, monarks of the West,
Ringd with the walls of old _Oceanus_,
Whose loftie surge is[1321] like the battelments
That compast high built Babell in with towers,--
Welcome, my lords, welcome, brave westerne kings, 5
To Englands shore, whose promontorie cleeves
Shewes Albion is another little world:
Welcome says English Henrie to you all;
Chiefly unto the lovely Eleanour,
Who darde for Edwards sake cut through the seas, 10
And venture as Agenors damsell through the deepe,[1322]
To get the love of Henries wanton sonne.

_Castile._ Englands rich monarch, brave Plantagenet.
The Pyren Mounts swelling above the clouds,
That ward the welthie Castile in with walles, 15
Could not detaine the beautious Eleanour;
But, hearing of the fame of Edwards youth,
She darde to brooke _Neptunus_ haughtie pride,
And bide the brunt of froward Eolus:
Then may faire England welcome her the more. 20

_Elinor._ After that English Henrie by his lords
Had sent Prince Edwards lovely counterfeit,
A present to the Castile Elinor,
The comly pourtrait of so brave a man,
The vertuous fame discoursed of his deeds, 25
Edwards couragious resolution,
Done at the Holy Land fore Damas[1323] walles,
Led both mine eye and thoughts in equall links,
To like so of the English monarchs sonne,
That I attempted perrils for his sake. 30

_Emperour._ Where is the prince, my lord?

_Henrie._ He posted down, not long since, from the court,
To Suffolke side, to merrie Fremingham,[1324]
To sport himselfe amongst my fallow deere;
From thence, by packets sent to Hampton[1324] house, 35
We heare the prince is ridden with his lords
To Oxford, in the academie there
To heare dispute amongst the learned men.
But we will send foorth letters for my sonne,
To will him come from Oxford to the court. 40

_Empe._ Nay, rather, Henrie, let us, as we be,
Ride for to visite Oxford with our traine.
Faine would I see your universities,
And what learned men your academie yields.
From Haspurg[1325] have I brought a learned clarke 45
To hold dispute with English orators:
This doctor, surnamde Jaques Vandermast,
A Germaine borne, past into Padua,
To Florence and to fair Bolonia,
To Paris, Rheims, and stately Orleans, 50
And, talking there with men of art, put downe
The chiefest of them all in aphorismes,[1326]
In magicke, and the mathematicke rules:
Now let us, Henrie, trie him in your schooles.

_Henrie._ He shal, my lord; this motion likes me wel. 55
Weele progresse straight to Oxford with our trains,
And see what men our academie bringes.--
And, woonder Vandermast, welcome to me:
In Oxford shalt thou find a jollie frier,
Cald Frier Bacon, Englands only flower: 60
Set him but non-plus in his magicke spels,
And make him yeeld in mathematicke rules,
And for thy glorie I will bind thy browes,
Not with a poets garland[1327] made of baies,
But with a coronet of choicest gold. 65
Whilst then we set[1328] to Oxford with our troupes,
Lets in and banquet in our English court. _Exit._

[Scene Fifth. _A Street in Oxford._]

_Enter_ RAPHE SIMNELL _in Edwardes apparell_; EDWARD, WARREN, ERMSBY,
_disguised._

_Raphe._ Where be these vacabond knaves, that they attend no
better on their master?

_Edward._ If it please your honour, we are all ready at an inch.[1329]

_Raphe._ Sirrha Ned, Ile have no more post horse to ride on: Ile
have another fetch.[1330] 5

_Ermsbie._ I pray you, how is that, my lord?

_Raphe._ Marrie, sir, Ile send to the Ile of Eely for foure or five
dozen of geese, and Ile have them tide six and six together with
whipcord: now upon their backes will I have a faire field bed with
a canapie; and so, when it is my pleasure, Ile flee into what place I
please. This will be easie. 11

_Warren._ Your honour hath said well: but shall we to Brasennose
Colledge before we pull off our bootes?

_Ermsbie._ Warren, well motion'd; wee will to the frier
Before we revell it within the towne.-- 15
Raphe, see that you keepe your countenance like a prince.

_Raphe._ Wherefore have I such a companie of cutting[1331] knaves
to wait upon me, but to keep and defend my countenance against
all mine enemies? have you not good swords and bucklers?

_Enter_ BACON _and_ MILES.

_Ermsbie._ Stay, who comes heere? 20

_Warren._ Some scholler; and weele aske him where Frier Bacon is.

_Bacon._ Why, thou arrant dunce, shal I never make thee good
scholler? doth not all the towne crie out and say, Frier Bacons
subsiser is the greatest blockhead in all Oxford? why, thou canst
not speake one word of true Latine. 25

_Miles._ No, sir? Yes.[1332] What is this els? _Ego sum tuus homo_, 'I
am your man'; I warrant you, sir, as good Tullies phrase as any is
in Oxford.

_Bacon._ Come on, sirha; what part of speech is _Ego_?

_Miles._ _Ego_, that is 'I'; marrie, _nomen substantivo_. 30

_Bacon._ How proove you that?

_Miles._ Why, sir, let him proove himselfe and a will; 'I' can
be hard, felt, and understood.

_Bacon._ O grosse dunce!

_Here beate him._

_Edw._ Come, let us breake off this dispute between these two.--Sirha,
where is Brazennose Colledge? 36

_Miles._ Not far from Copper-smithes Hall.

_Edward._ What, doest thou mocke me?

_Miles._ Not I, sir: but what would you at Brazennose?

_Ermsbie._ Marrie, we would speak with Frier Bacon. 40

_Miles._ Whose men be you?

_Ermsbie._ Marrie, scholler, heres our maister.

_Raphe._ Sirha, I am the maister of these good fellowes; mayst
thou not know me to be a lord by my reparrell? 44

_Miles._ Then heeres good game for the hawke; for heers the
maister foole and a covie of cocks combs: one wise man, I thinke,
would spring you all.

_Edward._ Gogs wounds! Warren, kill him.

_Warren._ Why, Ned, I think the devill be in my sheath; I cannot
get out my dagger. 50

_Ermsbie._ Nor I mine: swones, Ned, I think I am bewitcht.

_Miles._ A companie of scabbes! the proudest of you all drawe
your weapon if he can.--
See how boldly I speake, now my maister is by. [_Aside._]

_Edward._ I strive in vaine; but if my sword be shut 55
And conjur'd fast by magicke in my sheath,
Villaine, heere is my fist.

_Strikes him a box on the eare._

_Miles._ Oh, I beseech you conjure his hands too, that he may not
lift his armes to his head, for he is light fingered!

_Raphe._ Ned, strike him; Ile warrant thee by mine honour. 60

_Bacon._ What meanes the English prince to wrong my man?

_Edward._ To whom speakest thou?

_Bacon._ To thee.

_Edward._ Who art thou?[1333]

_Bacon._ Could you not judge when all your swords grew fast, 65
That Frier Bacon was not farre from hence?
Edward, King Henries sonne and Prince of Wales,
Thy foole disguisd[1334] cannot conceale thy self:
I know both Ermsbie and the Sussex earle,
Els Frier Bacon had but little skill. 70
Thou comest in post from merrie Fresingfield,
Fast fancied to the keepers bonny lasse,
To crave some succour of the jolly frier:
And Lacie, Ear[l]e of Lincolne, hast thou left
To treat fair Margret to allow thy loves; 75
But friends are men, and love can baffle lords;
The earl both woes and courtes her for himselfe.

_Warren._ Ned, this is strange; the frier knoweth al.

_Ermsbie._ Appollo could not utter more than this.

_Edward._ I stand amazed to heare this jolly frier 80
Tell even the verie secrets of my thoughts.--
But, learned Bacon, since thou knowest the cause
Why I did post so fast from Fresingfield,
Helpe, Frier, at a pinch, that I may have
The love of lovely Margret to my selfe, 85
And, as I am true Prince of Wales, Ile give
Living and lands to strength thy colledge state.

_Warren._ Good Frier, helpe the prince in this.

_Raphe._ Why, servant Ned, will not the frier doe it? Were not
my sword glued to my scabberd by conjuration, I would cut off his
head, and make him do it by force. 91

_Miles._ In faith, my lord, your manhood and your sword is all
alike; they are so fast conjured that we shall never see them.

_Ermsbie._ What, doctor, in a dumpe! tush, helpe the prince,
And thou shalt see how liberall he will proove. 95

_Bacon._ Crave not such actions greater dumps than these?
I will, my lord, straine out my magicke spels;
For this day comes the earle to Fresingfield,
And fore that night shuts in the day with darke,
Theile be betrothed ech to other fast. 100
But come with me; weele to my studie straight,
And in a glasse prospective I will shew
Whats done this day in merry Fresingfield.

_Edward._ Gramercies, Bacon; I will quite thy paine.

_Bacon._ But send your traine, my lord, into the towne: 105
My scholler shall go bring them to their inne:
Meane while weele see the knaverie of the earle.

_Edward._ Warren, leave me:--and, Ermsbie, take the foole;
Let him be maister, and go revell it,
Till I and Frier Bacon talke a while. 110

_Warren._ We will, my lord.

_Raphe._ Faith, Ned, and Ile lord it out till thou comest:
Ile be Prince of Wales over all the blacke pots[1335] in Oxford.
_Exeunt._

[Scene Sixth. _Frier Bacons cell in Brazennose._]

BACON, _and_ EDWARD, _goes into the study_.[1336]

_Bacon._ Now, frolick Edward, welcome to my cell;
Heere tempers Frier Bacon many toies,
And holds this place his consistorie court,
Wherein the divels pleads[1337] homage to his words.
Within this glasse prospective thou shall see 5
This day whats done in merry Fresingfield
Twixt lovely Peggie and the Lincolne earle.

_Edward._ Frier, thou gladst me: now shall Edward trie
How Lacie meaneth to his soveraigne lord.

_Bacon._ Stand there and looke directly in the glasse. 10

_Enter_ MARGARET _and_ FRIER BUNGAY.[1338]

What sees my lord?

_Edward._ I see the keepers lovely lasse appeare,
As bright-sunne[1339] as the parramour of Mars,
Onely attended by a jolly frier.

_Bacon._ Sit still, and keepe the cristall in your eye. 15

_Margret._ But tell me, Frier Bungay, is it true
That this fair[1340] courtious countrie swaine,
Who saies his father is a farmer nie,
Can be Lord Lacie, Earle of Lincolnshire?

_Bun._ Peggie, tis true, tis Lacie for my life, 20
Or else mine art and cunning both doth faile,
Left by Prince Edward to procure his loves;
For he in greene, that holpe you runne your cheese,
Is sonne to Henry, and the Prince of Wales.

_Margret._ Be what he will, his lure is but for lust: 25
But did Lord Lacie like poor Marg[a]ret,
Or would he daine to wed a countrie lasse,[1341]
Frier, I would his humble handmayd be,
And for great wealth quite him with courtesie.

_Bungay._ Why, Margret, doest thou love him? 30

_Margret._ His personage, like the pride of vaunting Troy,
Might well avouch to shadow[1342] Hellen's scape:[1343]
His wit is quicke and readie in conceit,
As Greece affoorded in her chiefest prime.
Courteous, ah Frier, full of pleasing smiles! 35
Trust me, I love too much to tell thee more;
Suffice to me he is Englands parramour.[1344]

_Bun._ Hath not ech eye that viewd thy pleasing face
Surnamed thee Faire Maid of Fresingfield?

_Margret._ Yes, Bungay; and would God the lovely earle 40
Had that in _esse_ that so many sought.

_Bungay._ Feare not, the frier will not be behind
To shew his cunning to entangle love.

_Edward._ I thinke the frier courts the bonny wench:[1345]
Bacon, me thinkes he is a lustie churle. 45

_Bacon._ Now looke, my lord.

_Enter_ LACIE.

_Edward._ Gogs wounds, Bacon, heere comes Lacie![1346]

_Bacon._ Sit still, my lord, and marke the commedie.

_Bungay._ Heeres Lacie, Margret; step aside awhile.

[_They withdraw._]

_Lacie_ [_solus_]. Daphne, the damsell that caught Phæbus fast, 50
And lockt him in the brightnesse of her lookes,
Was not so beautious in Appollos eyes
As is faire Margret to the Lincolne earle;--
Recant thee, Lacie--thou art put in trust.
Edward, thy soveraignes sonne, hath chosen thee, 55
A secret friend, to court her for himself,
And darest thou wrong thy prince with trecherie?--
Lacie, love makes no exception[1347] of a friend,
Nor deemes it of a prince but as a man.
Honour bids thee controll[1348] him in his lust; 60
His wooing is not for to wed the girle,
But to intrap her and beguile the lasse.
Lacie, thou lovest, then brooke not such abuse,
But wed her, and abide thy prince's frowne;[1349]
For better[1350] die than see her live disgracde. 65

_Margret._ Come, Frier, I will shake him from his dumpes.--
[_Advancing._]
How cheere you, sir? a penie for your thought!
Your early up, pray God it be the neere.[1351]
What, come from Beckles in a morne so soone?

_Lacie._ Thus watchfull are such men as live in love, 70
Whose eyes brooke broken slumbers for their sleepe.
I tell thee, Peggie, since last Harlston faire
My minde hath felt a heape of passions.

_Mar._ A trustie man, that court it for your friend:
Woo you still for the courtier all in greene?-- 75
[_Aside._] I marvell that he sues not for himselfe.

_Lacie._ Peggie, I pleaded first to get your grace for him;
But when mine eies survaid your beautious lookes,
Love, like a wagge, straight dived into my heart,
And there did shrine the Idea[1352] of your selfe. 80
Pittie me, though I be a farmers sonne,
And measure not my riches, but my love.

_Margret._ You are verie hastie; for to garden well,
Seeds must have time to sprout before they spring
Love ought to creepe as doth the dials shade, 85
For timely[1353] ripe is rotten too too[1354] soone.

_Bungay_ [_advancing_]. _Deus hic_; roome for a merrie frier!
What, youth of Beckles, with the keepers lasse?
Tis well; but tell me, heere you any newes?

_Margret._[1355] No, Frier: what newes? 90

_Bungay._ Heere you not how the pursevants do post
With proclamations through ech country towne?

_Lacie._ For what, gentle frier? tell the newes.

_Bun._ Dwelst thou in Beckles, & heerst not of these news?
Lacie, the Earle of Lincolne, is late fled 95
From Windsor court, disguised like a swaine,
And lurkes about the countrie heere unknowne.
Henrie suspects him of some trecherie,
And therefore doth proclaime in every way,
That who can take the Lincolne earle shall have, 100
Paid in the Exchequer, twentie thousand crownes.

_Lacie._ The Earle of Lincoln! Frier, thou art mad:
It was some other; thou mistakest the man.
The earle of Lincolne! why, it cannot be.

_Margret._ Yes, verie well, my lord, for you are he: 105
The keepers daughter tooke you prisoner.
Lord Lacie, yeeld, Ile be your gailor once.

_Edward._ How familiar they be, Bacon!

_Bacon._ Sit still, and marke the sequell of their loves.

_Lacie._ Then am I double prisoner to thy selfe: 110
Peggie, I yeeld. But are these newes in jest?[1356]

_Margret._ In jest with you, but earnest unto me;
For why these wrongs do wring me at the heart.
Ah, how these earles and noble men of birth
Flatter and faine to forge poore womens ill! 115

_Lacie._ Beleeve me, lasse, I am the Lincolne earle:
I not denie but, tyred thus in rags,
I lived disguisd to winne faire Peggies love.

_Margret._ What love is there where wedding ends not love?

_Lacie._ I meant,[1357] faire girle, to make thee Lacies wife. 120

_Margret._ I litle thinke that earles wil stoop so low.

_Lacie._ Say shall I make thee countesse ere I sleep?

_Margret._ Handmaid unto the earle, so please him selfe:
A wife in name, but servant in obedience.

_Lacie._ The Lincolne countesse, for it shalbe so: 125
Ile plight the bands, and seale it with a kisse.

_Edward._ Gogs wounds, Bacon, they kisse! Ile stab them.

_Bacon._ Oh, hold your handes, my lord, it is the glasse!

_Edward._ Coller to see the traitors gree so well
Made me[1358] thinke the shadowes substances. 130

_Bacon._ Twere a long poinard, my lord, to reach betweene
Oxford and Fresingfield; but sit still and see more.[1359]

_Bungay._ Well, Lord of Lincolne, if your loves be knit,
And that your tongues and thoughts do both agree,
To avoid insuing jarres, Ile hamper up the match: 135
Ile take my portace[1360] forth and wed you heere.
Then go to bed and scale up your desires.

_Lacie._ Frier, content.--Peggie, how like you this?

_Margret._ What likes my lord is pleasing unto me.

_Bungay._ Then hand-fast hand, and I wil to my booke. 140

_Bacon._ What sees my lord now?

_Edward._ Bacon, I see the lovers hand in hand,
The frier readie with his portace there
To wed them both: then am I quite undone.
Bacon, helpe now, if e'er thy magicke servde!-- 145
Helpe, Bacon; stop the marriage now,
If divels or nigromancie may suffice,
And I will give thee fortie thousand crownes.

_Bacon._ Feare not, my lord, Ile stop the jolly frier
For[1361] mumbling up[1362] his orisons this day. 150

_Lacie._ Why speakst not, Bungay? Frier, to thy booke.

BUNGAY _is mute, crying,_ 'Hud, hud.'

_Margret._ How lookest thou, Frier, as a man distraught?
Reft of thy sences, Bungay? shew by signes,
If thou be dum, what passions[1363] holdeth thee.

_Lacie._ Hees dumbe indeed: Bacon hath with his divels 155
Enchanted him, or else some strange disease
Or appoplexie hath possest his lungs:
But, Peggie, what he cannot with his booke,
Weel twixt us both unite it up in heart.

_Margret._ Els let me die, my lord, a miscreant. 160

_Edward._ Why stands Frier Bungay[1364] so amazd?

_Bacon._ I have strook him dum, my lord; &, if your honor
please,[1365]
Ile fetch this Bungay straightway from Fresingfield,[1365]
And he shall dine with us in Oxford here.

_Edward._ Bacon, doe that, and thou contentest me. 165

_Lacie._ Of courtesie, Margret, let us lead the frier
Unto thy fathers lodge, to comfort him
With brothes, to bring him from this haplesse trance.

_Margret._ Or els, my lord, we were passing unkinde
To leave the frier so in his distresse. 170

_Enter a_ Devill _and carrie_ BUNGAY _on his backe._

_Margret._ O, helpe, my lord! a devill, a devill, my lord!
Looke how he carries Bungay on his backe!
Let's hence, for Bacons spirits be abroad. _Exeunt._

_Edward._ Bacon, I laugh to see the jolly frier
Mounted upon the divell, and how the earle 175
Flees with his bonny lasse for feare.
Assoone as Bungay is at Brazennose,
And I have chatted with the merry frier,
I will in post his me to Fresingfield,
And quite these wrongs on Lacie ere it be long. 180

_Bacon._ So be it, my lord: but let us to our dinner;
For ere we have taken our repast awhile,
We shall have Bungay brought to Brazennose. _Exeunt._

[Scene Seventh. _The Regenthouse at Oxford._]

_Enter three doctors_, BURDEN, MASON, CLEMENT.

_Mason._ Now that we are gathered in the Regenthouse,[1366]
It fits us talke about the kings repaire;
For he, troopt[1367] with all the westerne kings,
That lie alongst the Dansick seas by east,
North by the clime of frostie Germanie, 5
The Almain monarke and the Saxon[1368] duke,
Castile and lovely Ellinor with him,
Have in their jests resolved for Oxford towne.

_Burden._ We must lay plots of stately tragedies,
Strange comick showes, such as proud Rossius[1369] 10
Vaunted before the Romane emperours,
To welcome all the westerne potentates.[1370]

_Clement._ But more; the king by letters hath foretold
That Fredericke, the Almaine emperour,
Hath brought with him a Germane of esteeme, 15
Whose surname is Don Jaquesse Vandermast,
Skilfull in magicke and those secret arts.

_Mason._ Then must we all make sute unto the frier,
To Frier Bacon, that he vouch this taske,
And undertake to countervaile in skill 20
The German; els theres none in Oxford can
Match and dispute with learned Vandermast.

_Burden._ Bacon, if he will hold the German play,
Will[1371] teach him what an English frier can doe;
The divell, I thinke, dare not dispute with him. 25

_Clement._ Indeed, mas doctor, he [dis[1372]]pleasured you,
In that he brought your hostesse with her spit,
From Henly, posting unto Brazennose.

_Burden._ A vengeance on the frier for his paines!
But leaving that, lets hie[1373] to Bacon straight, 30
To see if he will take this taske in hand.

_Clement._ Stay, what rumor is this? The towne is up in a mutinie:
what hurly burlie is this?

_Enter a_ Constable, _with_ RAPHE, WARREN, ERMSBIE, _and_ MILES.

_Constable._ Nay, maisters, if you were nere so good, you shall
before the doctors to aunswer your misdemeanour. 35

_Burden._ Whats the matter, fellow?

_Constable._ Marrie, sir, heres a companie of rufflers,[1374] that,
drinking in the taverne, have made a great braule, and almost kilde
the vintner.

_Miles._ _Salve_, Doctor Burden![1375] This lubberly lurden,[1376] 40
Ill-shapte and ill faced, disdaind and disgraced,
What he tels unto vobis mentitur de nobis.

_Burden._ Who is the maister and cheefe of this crew?

_Miles._ _Ecce asinum mundi fugura_[1377] _rotundi_,
Neat, sheat[1378] and fine, as briske as a cup of wine. 45

_Burden._ What are you?

_Raphe._ I am, father doctor, as a man would say, the belwether
of this company: these are my lords, and I the Prince of Wales.

_Clement._ Are you Edward, the kings sonne? 49

_Raphe._ Sirra Miles, bring hither the tapster that drue the wine,
and, I warrant, when they see how soundly I have broke his head,
theile say twas done by no lesse man than a prince.

_Mason._ I cannot believe that this is the Prince of Wales.

_Warren._ And why so, sir?

_Mason._ For they say the prince is a brave & a wise gentleman.

_War._ Why, and thinkest thou, doctor, that he is not so? 56
Darst thou detract and derogat from him,
Being so lovely and so brave a youth?

_Ermsbie._ Whose face, shining with many a sugred smile,
Bewraies that he is bred of princely race. 60

_Miles._ And yet, maister doctor, to speake like a proctor,
And tell unto you what is veriment and true:
To cease of this quarrell, looke but on his apparell;
Then marke but my talis, he is great Prince of Walis,
The cheef of our _gregis_, and _filius regis_: 65
Then ware what is done, for he is Henries white[1379] son.

_Raphe._ Doctors, whose doting nightcaps[1380] are not capable of
my ingenious dignitie, know that I am Edward Plantagenet, whom if
you displease will[1381] make a shippe that shall hold all your
colleges, and so carrie away the niniversity with a fayre wind to
the Banke-side in Southwarke.--How sayst thou, Ned Warraine, shall
I not do it? 72

_Warren._ Yes, my good lord; and, if it please your lordship, I wil
gather up all your old pantophles, and with the corke[1382] make you a
pinnis of five-hundred tunne, that shall serve the turne marvellous
well, my lord. 76

_Ermsbie._ And I, my lord, will have pioners to undermine the
towne, that the very gardens and orchards be carried away for your
summer-walkes.

_Miles._ And, I, with _scientia_ and great _diligentia_, 80
Will conjure and charme, to keepe you from harme;
That _utrum horum mavis_, your very great _navis_,
Like Bartlets[1383] ship, from Oxford do skip
With colleges and schooles, full loaden with fooles.
_Quid dices ad hoc_, worshipfull _Domine_ Dawcocke?[1384] 85

_Clement._ Why, harebraind courtiers, are you drunke or mad,
To taunt us with such scurilitie?
Deeme you us men of base and light esteeme,
To bring us such a fop for Henries son?--
Call out the beadl[e]s and convay them hence 90
Straight to Bocardo:[1385] let the roisters lie
Close clapt in bolts, untill their wits be tame.

_Ermsbie._ Why, shall we to prison, my lord?

_Raphe._ What saist, Miles, shall I honour the prison with my
presence? 95

_Miles._ No, no: out with your blades, and hamper these jades;
Have a flurt and a crash, now play revell dash,
And teach these sacerdos that the Bocardos,
Like pezzants and elves, are meet for themselves.[1386]

_Mason._ To the prison with them, constable. 100

_Warren._ Well, doctors, seeing I have sported me
With laughing at these mad and merrie wagges,
Know that Prince Edward is at Brazennose,
And this, attired like the Prince of Wales,
Is Raphe, King Henries only loved foole; 105
I, Earle of Sussex,[1387] and this Ermsbie,
One of the privie chamber to the king;
Who, while the prince with Frier Bacon staies,
Have revel'd it in Oxford as you see.

_Mason._ My lord, pardon us, we knew not what you were: 110
But courtiers may make greater skapes than these.
Wilt please your honour dine with me to-day?

_Warren._ I will, maister doctor, and satisfie the vintner for his
hurt; only I must desire you to imagine him[1388] all the forenoon the
Prince of Wales. 115

_Mason._ I will, sir.

_Raphe._ And upon that I will lead the way; onely I will have
Miles go before me, because I have heard Henrie say that wisedome
must go before majestie. _Exeunt omnes._

[Scene Eighth. _The countrie-side; Fresingfield._]

_Enter_ PRINCE EDWARD _with his poiniard in his hand_, LACIE, _and_
MARGRET.[1389]

_Edward._ Lacie, thou canst not shroud thy traitrous thoughts,
Nor cover, as did Cassius, all his[1390] wiles;
For Edward hath an eye that lookes as farre
As Lyncœus from the shores of Grecia.
Did not I sit in Oxford by the frier, 5
And see thee court the mayd of Fresingfield,
Sealing thy flattering fancies with a kisse?
Did not prowd Bungay draw his portasse foorth,
And joyning hand in hand had married you,
If Frier Bacon had not strook him dumbe, 10
And mounted him upon a spirits backe
That we might chat at Oxford with the frier?
Traitor, what answerst? is not all this true?

_Lacy._ Truth all, my lord; and thus I make replie:
At Harlstone faire, there courting for your grace, 15
When as mine eye survaid her curious shape,
And drewe the beautious glory of her looks
To dive into the center of my heart,
Love taught me that your honour did but jest,
That princes were in fancie but as men; 20
How that the lovely maid of Fresingfield
Was fitter to be Lacies wedded wife
Than concubine unto the Prince of Wales.

_Edward._ Injurious Lacie, did I love thee more
Than Alexander his Hephestion? 25
Did I unfould the passion[s][1391] of my love,
And locke them in the closset of thy thoughts?
Wert thou to Edward second to himselfe,
Sole friend, and partner of his secreat loves?
And could a glaunce of fading bewtie breake 30
Th' inchained fetters of such privat freinds?
Base coward, false, and too effeminate
To be corivall with a prince in thoughts!
From Oxford have I posted since I dinde,
To quite a traitor fore that Edward sleepe. 35

_Margret._ Twas I, my lord, not Lacie stept awry:
For oft he sued and courted for your selfe,
And still woode for the courtier all in greene;
But I, whome fancy made but over fond,
Pleaded myselfe with looks as if I lovd; 40
I fed myne eye with gazing on his face,
And still bewitcht lovd Lacie with my looks;
My hart with sighes, myne eyes pleaded with tears,
My face held pittie and content at once,
And more I could not sipher out by signes, 45
But that I lovd Lord Lacie with my heart.
Then, worthy Edward, measure with thy minde
If womens favours will not force men fall,
If bewty, and if darts of persing love,
Are not of force to bury thoughts of friendes. 50

_Edward._ I tell thee, Peggie, I will have thy loves:
Edward or none shall conquer Marg[a]ret.
In frigats bottomd with rich Sethin[1392] planks,
Topt with the loftie firs of Libanon,
Stemd and incast with burnisht Ivorie, 55
And overlaid with plates of Persian wealth,
Like Thetis shall thou wanton on the waves,
And draw the dolphins[1393] to thy lovely eyes,
To daunce lavoltas[1394] in the purple[1393] streames;
Sirens, with harpes and silver psalteries, 60
Shall waight with musicke at thy frigots stem,
And entertaine fair Margret with their laies.[1395]
England and Englands wealth shall wait on thee;
Brittaine shall bend unto her princes love,
And doe due homage to thine excellence, 65
If thou wilt be but Edwards Marg[a]ret.

_Margret._ Pardon, my lord: if Joves great roialtie
Sent me such presents as to Danaë;
If Phœbus [']ti[r]ed[1396] in Latonas webs,
Come[1397] courting from the beautie of his lodge; 70
The dulcet tunes of frolicke Mercurie--
Not[1398] all the wealth heavens treasurie affoords,--
Should make me leave Lord Lacie or his love.

_Edw._ I have learnd at Oxford, then, this point of schooles,--
_Ablata_[1399] _causa, tollitur effectus_: 75
Lacie[1400]--the cause that Margret cannot love
Nor fix her liking on the English prince,--
Take him away, and then the effects will faile.
Villaine, prepare thy selfe; for I will bathe
My poinard in the bosome of an earle. 80

_Lacie._ Rather then[1401] live and misse faire Margret's love!--
Prince Edward, stop not at the fatall doome,
But stabb it home: end both my loves and life.

_Marg._ Brave Prince of Wales, honoured for royall deeds,
Twere sinne to staine fair Venus courts with blood; 85
Loves conquests ends, my lord, in courtesie:
Spare Lacie, gentle Edward; let me die,
For so both you and he doe cease your loves.

_Edward._ Lacie shall die as traitor to his lord.

_Lacie._ I have deserved it, Edward; act it well. 90

_Margret._ What hopes the prince to gaine by Lacies death?

_Edward._ To end the loves twixt him and Margeret.

_Marg._ Why, thinks King Henries sonne that Margret's love
Hangs in the uncertaine ballance of proud time?
That death shall make a discord of our thoughts? 95
No, stab the earle, and fore the morning sun
Shall vaunt him thrice over the loftie east,
Margret will meet her Lacie in the heavens.

_Lacie._ If ought betides to lovely Marg[a]ret
That wrongs or wrings her honour from content, 100
Europes rich wealth nor Englands monarchie
Should not allure Lacie to overlive:
Then, Edward, short my life, and end her[1402] loves.

_Margret._ Rid me, and keepe a friend worth many loves.

_Lacie._ Nay, Edward, keepe a love worth many friends. 105

_Margret._ And if thy mind be such as fame hath blazde,
Then, princely Edward, let us both abide
The fatall resolution of thy rage:
Banish thou fancie, and imbrace revenge,
And in one toombe knit both our carkases, 110
Whose hearts were linked in one perfect love.

_Edward_ [_aside._] Edward, art thou that famous Prince of Wales,
Who at Damasco beat the Sarasens,
And broughtst home triumphe on thy launces point?
And shall thy plumes be puld by Venus downe? 115
Is it princely to dissever lovers leagues,[1403]
To part such friends as glorie in their loves?
Leave, Ned, and make a vertue of this fault,
And further Peg and Lacie in their loves:
So in subduing fancies passion, 120
Conquering thy selfe thou getst the richest spoile.--
Lacie, rise up. Faire Peggie, heeres my hand:
The Prince of Wales hath conquered all his thoughts,
And all his loves he yeelds unto the earle.
Lacie, enjoy the maid of Fresingfield; 125
Make her thy Lincolne countesse at the church,
And Ned, as he is true Plantagenet,
Will give her to thee franckly for thy wife.[1404]

_Lacie._ Humbly I take her of my soveraigne,
As if that Edward gave me Englands right, 130
And richt me with the Albion diadem.

_Margret._ And doth the English prince[1405] mean true?
Will he vouchsafe to cease his former loves,
And yeeld the title of a countrie maid
Unto Lord Lacie? 135

_Edward._ I will, faire Peggie, as I am true lord.

_Marg._ Then, lordly sir, whose conquest is as great,
In conquering love, as Cæsars victories,
Margret, as milde and humble in her thoughts
As was Aspatia[1406] unto Cirus selfe, 140
Yeelds thanks, and, next Lord Lacie, doth inshrine
Edward the second secret in her heart.

_Edw._ Gramercie, Peggie.--now that vowes are past,
And that your loves are not to[1407] be revolt,[1408]
Once, Lacie, friendes againe. Come, we will post 145
To Oxford; for this day the king is there,
And brings for Edward Castile Ellinor.
Peggie, I must go see and view my wife:
I pray God I like her as I loved thee.[1409]
Beside, Lord Lincolne, we shall heare dispute 150
Twixt Frier Bacon and learned Vandermast.
Peggie, weele leave you for a weeke or two.

_Margret._ As it please Lord Lacie: but loves foolish looks
Thinke footsteps miles and minutes to be houres.

_Lacie._ Ile hasten, Peggie, to make short returne.-- 155
But please your honour goe unto the lodge,
We shall have butter, cheese, and venison;
And yesterday I brought for Marg[a]ret
A lustie bottle of neat clarret wine:
Thus can we feast and entertaine your grace. 160

_Edward._ Tis cheere, Lord Lacie, for an emperour,
If he respect the person and the place.
Come, let us in; for I will all this night
Ride post untill I come to Bacons cell. _Exeunt._

[Scene Ninth. _Oxford._]

_Enter_ HENRIE, EMPEROUR, CASTILE, ELLINOR, VANDERMAST, BUNGAY.

_Emperour._ Trust me, Plantagenet, these Oxford schooles
Are richly seated neere the river side:
The mountaines[1410] full of fat and fallow deere,
The batling[1411] pastures laid[1412] with kine and flocks,
The towne gorgeous with high built colledges, 5
And schollers seemely in their grave attire,
Learned in searching principles of art.--
What is thy judgement, Jaquis Vandermast?

_Vandermast._ That lordly are the buildings of the towne,
Spatious the romes, and full of pleasant walkes; 10
But for the doctors, how that they be learned,
It may be meanly, for ought I can heere.

_Bungay._ I tell thee, Germane, Haspurge holds none such,
None red so deepe as Oxenford containes:
There are within our accademicke state 15
Men that may lecture it in Germanie
To all the doctors of your Belgicke schools.

_Henrie._ Stand to him, Bungay, charme this Vandermast,
And I will use thee as a royall king.

_Vandermast._ Wherein darest thou dispute with me? 20

_Bungay._ In what a doctor and a friar can.

_Vandermast._ Before rich Europes worthies put thou forth
The doubtfull question unto Vandermast.

_Bungay._ Let it be this,--Whether the spirites of piromancie or
geomancie be most predominant in magick? 25

_Vander._ I say, of piromancie.

_Bungay._ And I, of geomancie.

_Vander._ The cabbalists that wright of magick spels,
As Hermes,[1413] Melchie,[1414] and Pithagoras,
Affirme that, mongst the quadruplicitie 30
Of elementall essence, _terra_ is but thought
To be a _punctum_ squarèd to[1415] the rest;
And that the compasse of ascending eliments
Exceed in bignesse as they doe in height;
Judging the concave circle of the sonne 35
To hold the rest in his circomference.
If, then, as Hermes saies, the fire be greatst,
Purest, and onely giveth shape to spirites
Then must these demones that haunt that place
Be every way superiour to the rest. 40

_Bungay._ I reason not of elementall shapes,
Nor tell I of the concave lattitudes,
Noting their essence nor their qualitie,
But of the spirites that piromancie calles,
And of the vigour of the geomanticke fiends. 45
I tell thee, Germane, magicke haunts the grounds,[1416]
And those strange necromantick spels
That worke such shewes and wondering in the world
Are acted by those geomanticke spirites
That Hermes calleth _terræ filii_. 50
The fierie spirits are but transparant shades,
That lightly passe as heralts to beare newes;
But earthly fiends, closd in the lowest deepe,
Dissever mountaines, if they be but chargd,
Being more grose and massie in their power. 55

_Vander._ Rather these earthly geomantike spirits
Are dull and like the place where they remaine;
For when proud Lucipher fell from the heavens,
The spirites and angels that did sin with him,
Retaind their locall essence as their faults, 60
All subject under _Lunas_ continent:
They which offended lesse hang[1417] in the fire,
And second faults did rest within the aire;
But Lucifer and his proud hearted fiends
Were throwne into the center of the earth, 65
Having lesse understanding than the rest,
As having greater sinne and lesser grace.
Therfore such grosse and earthly spirits doe serve
For juglers, witches, and vild[1418] sorcerers;
Whereas the piromantike genii[1419] 70
Are mightie, swift, and of farre reaching power.
But graunt that geomancie hath most force;
Bungay, to please these mightie potentates,
Proove by some instance what thy art can doe.

_Bungay._ I will. 75

_Emper._ Now, English Harry, here begins the game;
We shall see sport betweene these learned men.

_Vandermast._ What wilt thou doe?

_Bung._ Shew thee the tree, leavd with refined gold,
Wheron the fearfull dragon held his seate, 80
That watcht the garden cald Hesperides[1420]
Subdued and wonne by conquering Hercules.

_Vandermast._ Well done![1421]

_Here_ BUNGAY _conjures, and the Tree appeares with the Dragon
shooting fire._

_Henrie._ What say you, royall lordings,[1422] to my frier?
Hath he not done a point of cunning skill? 85

_Vander._ Ech scholler in the nicromantike spels
Can doe as much as Bungay hath performd:
But as Alcmenas basterd ras'd[1423] this tree,
So will I raise him up as when he lived,
And cause him pull the dragon from his seate, 90
And teare the branches peecemeale from the roote.--
Hercules! _Prodi,_[1424] _prodi_, Hercules!

HERCULES _appeares in his Lions skin_.

_Hercules._ _Quis me vult?_

_Vandermast._ Joves bastard sonne, thou Libian Hercules,
Pull off the sprigs from off[1425] the Hesperian tree, 95
As once thou didst to win the golden fruit.

_Hercules._ _Fiat._

_Heere he begins to breake the branches._

_Vander._ Now, Bungay, if thou canst by magicke charme
The fiend, appearing like great Hercules,
From pulling downe the branches of the tree, 100
Then art thou worthy[1426] to be counted learned.

_Bungay._ I cannot.

_Vander._ Cease, Hercules, untill I give thee charge.--
Mightie commander of this English Ile,
Henrie, come from the stout Plantagenets, 105
Bungay is learned enough to be a frier;
But to compare with Jaquis Vandermast,
Oxford and Cambridge must go seeke their celles
To find a man to match him in his art.
I have given _non-plus_ to the Paduans, 110
To them of Sien,[1427] Florence, and Bologna,[1428]
Reimes,[1429] Louain, and faire Rotherdam,
Franckford, Lutrech,[1430] and Orleance:
And now must Henrie, if he do me right,
Crowne me with laurell, as they all have done. 115

_Enter_ BACON.

_Bacon._ All haile to this roiall companie,[1431]
That sit to heare and see this strange dispute!--
Bungay, how standst thou as a man amazd?
What, hath the Germane acted more than thou?

_Vandermast._ What art thou that questions thus?[1431] 120

_Bacon._ Men call me Bacon.

_Vander._ Lordly thou lookest, as if that thou wert learnd;
Thy countenance as if science held her seate
Betweene the circled arches of thy browes.

_Henrie._ Now, Monarcks, hath the Germain found his match.

_Emperour._ Bestirre thee, Jaquis, take not now the foile,[1432] 126
Least thou doest loose what foretime thou didst gaine.

_Vandermast._ Bacon, wilt thou dispute?

_Bacon._ Noe,[1431] unlesse he were more learnd than Vandermast:
For yet, tell me, what hast thou done? 130

_Vandermast._ Raisd Hercules to ruinate that tree
That Bongay mounted by his magicke spels.

_Bacon._ Set Hercules to worke.

_Vander._ Now, Hercules, I charge thee to thy taske;
Pull off the golden branches from the roote. 135

_Hercules._ I dare not. Seest thou not great Bacon heere,
Whose frowne doth act more than thy magicke can?

_Vandermast._ By all the thrones, and dominations,
Vertues, powers, and mightie hierarchies,[1433]
I charge thee to obey to Vandermast. 140

_Hercules._ Bacon, that bridles headstrong Belcephon,
And rules Asmenoth, guider of the north,
Bindes me from yeelding unto Vandermast.

_Hen._ How now, Vandermast! have you met with your match?

_Vandermast._ Never before wast knowne to Vandermast 145
That men held devils in such obedient awe.
Bacon doth more than art, or els I faile.

_Emperour._ Why, Vandermast, art thou overcome?--
Bacon, dispute with him, and trie his skill.

_Bacon._ I come[1434] not, Monarckes, for to hold dispute 150
With such a novice as is Vandermast;
I came[1435] to have your royalties to dine
With Frier Bacon heere in Brazennose;
And, for this Germane troubles but the place,
And holds this audience with a long suspence, 155
Ile send him to his accademie hence.--
Thou, Hercules, whom Vandermast did raise,
Transport the Germane unto Haspurge straight,
That he may learne by travaile, gainst the spring,[1436]
More secret doomes and aphorisms of art. 160
Vanish the tree, and thou away with him!

_Exit the Spirit with_ VANDERMAST _and the Tree._

_Emperour._ Why, Bacon, whether doest thou send him?

_Bacon._ To Haspurge: there your highnesse at returne
Shall finde the Germane in his studie safe.

_Henrie._ Bacon, thou hast honoured England with thy skill, 165
And made faire Oxford famous by thine art:
I will be English Henrie to thy selfe;--
But tell me, shall we dine with thee to-day?

_Bacon._ With me, my lord; and while I fit my cheere,
See where Prince Edward comes to welcome you, 170
Gratious as[1437] the morning starre of heaven. [_Exit._

_Enter_ EDWARD, LACIE, WARREN, ERMSBIE.

_Emperour._ Is this Prince Edward, Henries royall sonne?
How martiall is the figure of his face!
Yet lovely and beset with amorets.[1438]

_Henrie._ Ned, where hast thou been? 175

_Edward._ At Framingham, my lord, to trie your buckes
If they could scape the[1439] teisers or the toile.
But hearing of these lordly potentates
Landed, and prograst up to Oxford towne,
I posted to give entertaine to them: 180
Chiefe to the Almaine monarke; next to him,
And joynt with him, Castile and Saxonie
Are welcome as they may be to the English court.
Thus for the men: but see, Venus appeares,
Or one that overmatcheth[1440] Venus in her shape! 185
Sweete Ellinor, beauties highswelling pride,
Rich natures glorie and her wealth at once,
Faire of all faires, welcome to Albion;
Welcome to me, and welcome to thine owne,
If that thou dainst the welcome from my selfe. 190

_Ellinor._ Martiall Plantagenet, Henries high minded sonne,
The marke that Ellinor did count her aime,
I likte thee fore I saw thee: now I love,
And so as in so short a time I may;
Yet so as time shall never breake that so, 195
And therefore so accept of Ellinor.

_Castile._ Feare not, my lord, this couple will agree,
If love may creepe into their wanton eyes:--
And therefore, Edward, I accept thee heere,
Without suspence, as my adopted sonne. 200

_Henrie._ Let me that joy in these consorting greets,
And glorie in these honors done to Ned,
Yeeld thankes for all these favours to my sonne,
And rest a true Plantagenet to all.

_Enter_ MILES _with a cloth and trenchers and salt._

_Miles._ _Salvete, omnes reges_, that govern your _greges_,[1441] 205
In Saxonie and Spaine, in England and in Almaine!
For all this frolicke rable must I cover the[1442] table
With trenchers, salt, and cloth; and then looke for your
broth.

_Emperour._ What pleasant fellow is this?

_Henrie._ Tis, my lord, Doctor Bacons poore scholler. 210

_Miles_ [_aside_]. My maister hath made me sewer[1443] of these
great lords; and, God knowes, I am as serviceable at a table as a
sow is under an apple-tree: tis no matter; their cheere shall not
be great, and therefore what skils where the salt stand, before or
behinde? [_Exit._]

_Castile._ These schollers knowes more skill in actiomes, 215
How to use quips and sleights of sophistrie,
Than for to cover courtly for a king.

[_Re_]_enter_ MILES _with a message of pottage and broth; and, after
him_, BACON.

_Miles._ Spill, sir? why, doe you thinke I never carried twopeny
chop[1444] before in my life?----
By your leave, _nobile decus_, for here comes Doctor Bacons
_pecus_,[1445]
Being in his full age to carrie a messe of pottage. 221

_Bacon._ Lordings, admire not if your cheere be this,
For we must keepe our accademicke fare;
No riot where Philosophie doth raine:
And therefore, Henrie, place these potentates, 225
And bid them fall unto their frugall cates.

_Emp._ Presumptuous Frier! what, scoffst thou at a king?
What, doest thou taunt us with thy pesants fare,
And give us cates fit[1446] for countrey swaines?----
Henrie, proceeds this jest of thy consent, 230
To twit us with such[1447] a pittance of such price?
Tell me, and Fredericke will not greeve the[e] long.

_Henrie._ By Henries honour, and the royall faith
The English monarcke beareth to his friend,
I knew not of the frier's feeble fare, 235
Nor am I pleasd he entertaines you thus.

_Bacon._ Content thee, Fredericke, for I shewd the[1448] cates,
To let thee see how schollers use to feede;
How little meate refines our English wits.----
Miles, take away, and let it be thy dinner. 240

_Miles._ Marry, sir, I wil. This day shall be a festival day with
me;[1449]
For I shall exceed in the highest degree. [_Exit_ MILES.]

_Bacon._ I tell thee, monarch, all the Germane peeres
Could not affoord thy entertainment such,
So roiall and so full of maiestie, 245
As Bacon will present to Fredericke;
The basest waiter that attends thy cups
Shall be in honours greater than thy selfe;
And for thy cates, rich Alexandria drugges[1450]
Fecht by carveils[1451] from Aegypts richest straights, 250
Found in the wealthy strond of Affrica,
Shall royallize the table of my king;
Wines richer than the Gyptian courtisan
Quaft to Augustus kingly countermatch,
Shalbe carrowst in English Henries feasts; 255
Candie shall yeeld the richest of her canes;
Persia, downe her volga[1452] by canows,
Send down the secrets of her spicerie;
The Africke dates, mirabolanes[1453] of Spaine,
Conserves and suckets[1454] from Tiberias, 260
Cates from Judea, choiser than the lampe[1455]
That fiered Rome with sparkes of gluttonie,
Shall bewtifie the board for[1456] Fredericke:
And therfore grudge not at a frier's feast. [_Exeunt._]

[Scene Tenth. _Near the Keepers lodge in Fresingfield._]

_Enter two gentlemen_, LAMBERT _and_ SERLSBY[1457] _with the_ Keeper.

_Lambert._ Come, frolicke keeper of our lieges game,
Whose table spred hath ever venison
And jacks[1458] of wines to welcome passengers,
Know I am in love with jolly Marg[a]ret,
That over-shines our damsels as the moone 5
Darkneth the brightest sparkles of the night.
In Laxfield[1459] heere my land and living lies:
Ile make thy daughter joynter[1460] of it all,
So thou consent to give her to my wife;
And I can spend five hundreth markes a yeare. 10

_Serlbie._ I am the landslord,[1461] Keeper, of thy holds,
By coppie all thy living lies in me;
Laxfield did never see me raise my due:
I will infeofe faire Marg[a]ret in all,
So she will take her to a lustie squire. 15

_Keeper._ Now, courteous gent[i]ls, if the keepers girle
Hath pleasd the liking fancie of you both,
And with her beutie hath subdued your thoughts,
Tis doubtfull to decide the question.
It joyes me that such men of great esteeme 20
Should lay their liking on this base estate,
And that her state should grow so fortunate
To be a wife to meaner men than you:
But sith such squires will stoop to keepers fee,[1462]
I will, to avoid displeasure of you both, 25
Call Margret forth, and she shall make her choise. _Exit._

_Lambert._ Content,[1463]--Keeper; send her unto us.
Why, Serlsby, is thy wife so lately dead,
Are all thy loves so lightly passed over,
As thou canst wed before the yeare be[1464] out? 30

_Serlsby._ I live not, Lambert, to content the dead,
Nor was I wedded but for life to her:
The grave[1465] ends and begins a maried state.

_Enter_ MARGRET.

_Lambert._ Peggie, the lovelie flower of all townes,
Suffolks fair Hellen, and rich Englands star, 35
Whose beautie, tempered with her huswiferie,
Maks England talke of merry Frisingfield!

_Serlsby._ I cannot tricke it up with poesies,
Nor paint my passions with comparisons,
Nor tell a tale[1466] of Phebus and his loves: 40
But this beleve me,--Laxfield here is mine,
Of auncient rent seven hundred pounds a yeare,
And if thou canst but love a countrie squire,
I will infeoffe thee, Marg[a]ret, in all:
I cannot flatter; trie me, if thou please. 45

_Mar._ Brave neighbouring squires, the stay of Suffolks clime,
A keepers daughter is too base in gree[1467]
To match with men accoumpted of such worth:
But might I not displease, I would reply.

_Lambert._ Say, Peggy; nought shall make us discontent. 50

_Mar._ Then, gentils, note that love hath little stay,
Nor can the flames that Venus sets on fire
Be kindled but by fancies motion:
Then pardon, gentils, if a maids reply
Be doubtful, while I have debated with my selfe 55
Who, or of whome, love shall constraine me like.

_Serlsby._ Let it be me; and trust me, Marg[a]ret,
The meads invironed with the silver streames,
Whose batling pastures fatneth[1468] all my flockes,
Yeelding forth fleeces stapled[1469] with such woole 60
As Lempster cannot yeelde more finer stuffe,
And fortie kine with faire and burnisht[1470] heads,
With strouting[1471] duggs, that paggle[1472] to the ground,
Shall serve thy da[i]ry, if thou wed with me.

_Lambert._ Let passe the countrie wealth, as flocks and kine, 65
And lands that wave with _Ceres_ golden sheves,
Filling my barnes with plentie of the fieldes;
But, Peggie, if thou wed thy selfe to me,
Thou shall have garments of imbrodred silke,
Lawnes, and rich networks for thy head attyre: 70
Costlie shalbe thy fa[i]re abiliments,
If thou wilt be but Lamberts loving wife.

_Margret._ Content you, gentles, you have proferd faire,
And more than fits a countrie maids degree:
But give me leave to counsaile me a time, 75
For fancie bloomes not at the first assault;
Give me ...[1473]but ten days' respite, and I will replye,
Which or to whom my selfe affectionats.

_Serlsby._ Lambert, I tell thee, thourt importunate;
Such beautie fits not such a base esquire: 80
It is for Serlsby to have Marg[a]ret.

_Lamb._ Thinkst thou with wealth to over reach me?
Serlsby, I scorne to brooke thy country braves:
I dare thee, coward, to maintaine this wrong,
At dint of rapier, single in the field. 85

_Serlsby._ Ile aunswere, Lambert, what I have avoucht.--
Margret, farewel; another time shall serve. _Exit_ SERLSBY.

_Lambert._ Ile follow.--Peggie, farewell to thy selfe;
Listen how well Ile answer for thy love. _Exit_ LAMBERT.

_Margeret._ How fortune tempers lucky happes with frowns, 90
And wrongs[1474] me with the sweets of my delight!
Love is my blisse, and love is now my bale.
Shall I be Hellen in my forward[1475] fates,
As I am Hellen in my matchles hue,
And set rich Suffolke with my face afire? 95
If lovely Lacie were but with his Peggy?
The cloudie darckenesse of his bitter frowne
Would check the pride of those aspiring squires.
Before the terme of ten dayes be expired,
When as they looke for aunswere of their loves, 100
My lord will come to merry Frisingfield,
And end their fancies and their follies both.--
Til when, Peggie, be blith and of good cheere.

_Enter a_ Post _with a letter and a bag of gold._

_Post._ Fair lovely damsell, which way leads this path?
How might I post me unto Frisingfield? 105
Which footpath leadeth to the keepers lodge?

_Margeret._ Your way is ready, and this path is right:
My selfe doe dwell hereby in Frisingfield;
And if the keeper be the man you seeke,
I am his daughter: may I know the cause?

_Post._ Lovely, and once beloved of my lord,--
No mervaile if his eye was lodgd so low,
When brighter bewtie is not in the heavens:
The Lincolne earle hath sent you letters here,
And, with them, just an hundred pounds in gold. 115
Sweete, bonny wench, read them, and make reply.

_Margret._ The scrowls that Jove sent Danae,
Wrapt in rich closures of fine burnisht gold,
Were not more welcome than these lines to me.
Tell me, whilst that I doe unrip the seales, 120
Lives Lacie well? how fares my lovely lord?

_Post._ Well, if that wealth may make men to live well.

_The letter and_ MARGRET _reads it._

_The bloomes of the Almond tree grow in a night, and vanish in a
morne; the flies hæmere,_[1476] _(faire Peggie), take life with
the Sun, and die with the dew; fancie that slippeth in with a
gase, goeth out with a winke; and too timely loves have ever the
shortest length. I write this as thy grefe, and my folly, who
at Frisingfield lovd that which time hath taught me to be but
meane dainties: eyes are dissemblers, and fancie is but queasie;
therefore know, Margret, I have chosen a Spanish Ladie to be my
wife, chiefe waighting woman to the Princesse Ellinour; a Lady
faire, and no lesse faire than thy selfe, honorable and wealthy. In
that I forsake thee, I leave thee to thine own liking; and for thy
dowrie I have sent thee an hundred pounds; and ever assure thee of
my favour, which shall availe thee and thine much. Farewell._

_Not thine, nor his owne_,
EDWARD LACIE.

Fond Atæ, doomer of bad boading fates, 137
That wrappes[1477] proud Fortune in thy snaky locks,
Didst thou inchaunt my byrth-day with such stars
As lightned mischeefe from their infancie? 140
If heavens had vowd, if stars had made decree,
To shew on me their froward influence,
If Lacie had but lovd, heavens, hell, and all,
Could not have wrongd the patience of my minde.

_Post._ It grieves me, damsell; but the earle is forst 145
To love the lady by the kings command.

_Margret._ The wealth combinde within the English shelves,[1478]
Europes commaunder, nor the English king,
Should not have movde the love of Peggie from her lord.[1479]

_Post._ What answere shall I returne to my lord? 150

_Margret._ First, for thou cam'st from Lacie whom I lovd,--
Ah, give me leave to sigh at every[1480] thought!--
Take thou, my friend, the hundred pound he sent;
For Margrets resolution craves no dower:
The world shalbe to her as vanitie; 155
Wealth, trash; love, hate; pleasure, dispaire:
For I will straight to stately Fremingham,
And in the abby there be shorne a nun,
And yeld my loves and libertie to God.
Fellow, I give thee this, not for the newes, 160
For those be hatefull unto Marg[a]ret,
But for thart Lacies man, once Margrets love.

_Post._ What I have heard, what passions I have seene,
Ile make report of them unto the Earle. [_Exit_ POST.]

_Margret._ Say that she joyes his fancies be at rest, 165
And praies that his misfortune[1481] may be hers. _Exit._

[Scene Eleventh. _Frier Bacons cell._]

_Enter_ FRIER BACON _drawing the courtaines with a white stick, a booke
in his hand, and a lampe lighted by him; and the_ Brasen Head, _and_
MILES _with weapons by him._

_Bacon._ Miles, where are you?

_Miles._ Here, sir.

_Bacon._ How chaunce you tarry so long?

_Miles._ Thinke you that the watching of the Brazen Head craves
no furniture? I warrant you, sir, I have so armed my selfe[1482] that
if all your devills come, I will not feare them an inch. 6

_Bacon._ Miles, thou knowst that I have dived into hell,
And sought the darkest pallaces of fiendes;
That with my magic spels great Belcephon
Hath left his lodge and kneeled at my cell; 10
The rafters of the earth rent from the poles,
And three-formd Luna hid her silver looks,
Trembling upon her concave contenent,[1483]
When Bacon red upon his magick booke.
With seven years tossing nigromanticke charmes, 15
Poring upon darke Hecats principles,
I have framd out a monstrous head of brasse,
That, by the inchaunting forces of the devil,
Shall tell out strange and uncoth Aphorismes,
And girt faire England with a wall of brasse. 20
Bungay and I have watcht these threescore dayes,
And now our vitall spirites crave some rest:
If Argos[1484] livd, and had his hundred eyes,
They could not overwatch Phobeters[1485] night.
Now, Miles, in thee rests Frier Bacons weale; 25
The honour and renowne of all his life
Hangs in the watching of this Brazen-Head;
Therefore I charge thee by the immortall God,
That holds the soules of men within his fist,[1486]
This night thou watch; for ere the morning star 30
Sends out his glorious glister on the north,
The head will speake: then, Miles, upon thy life,
Wake me; for then by magick art Ile worke
To end my seven yeares taske with excellence.
If that a winke[1487] but shut thy watchfull eye, 35
Then farewell Bacons glory and his fame!
Draw closse the courtaines, Miles: now, for thy life,
Be watchfull, and-- _Here he falleth asleepe._

_Miles._ So; I thought you would talke your selfe a sleepe anon;
and 'tis no mervaile, for Bungay on the dayes, and he on the
nights, have watcht just these ten and fifty dayes: now this is
the night, and tis my taske, and no more. Now, Jesus blesse me,
what a goodly head it is! and a nose! you talke of _nos autem
glorificare_;[1488] but heres a nose that I warrant may be cald
_nos autem popelare_[1489] for the people of the parish. Well,
I am furnished with weapons: now, sir, I will set me downe by a
post, and make it as good as a watch-man to wake me, if I chaunce
to slumber. I thought, Goodman Head, I would call you out of your
_memento_[1490] ...[1491] Passion a God, I have almost broke my
pate![1492] Up, Miles, to your taske; take your browne bill[1493]
in your hand; heeres some of your maister's hobgoblins abroad. 51

_With this a great noise. The_ HEAD _speakes._

_Head._ Time is.

_Miles._ Time is! Why, Master Brazenhead, you have such a
capitall nose, and answer you with sillables, 'Time is'? Is this
my all[1494] maister's cunning, to spend seven years studie
about 'Time is'? Well, sir, it may be we shall have some better
orations of it anon: well, Ile watch you as narrowly as ever you
were watcht, and Ile play with you as the nightingale with the
slowworme;[1495] Ile set a pricke against my brest. Now rest
there, Miles.... Lord have mercy upon me, I have almost killd my
selfe.[1496] Up, Miles; list how they rumble. 61

_Head._ Time was.

_Miles._ Well, Frier Bacon, you spent[1497] your seven yeares studie
well, that can make your Head speake but two wordes at once,
'Time was.' Yea, marie, time was when my maister was a wise
man, but that was before he began to make the Brasen-head. You
shall lie while your arce ake, and your Head speake no better.
Well, I will watch, and walke up and downe, and be a perepatetian
and a philosopher of Aristotles stampe. What, a freshe noise?
Take thy pistols in hand, Miles. 70

_Heere the_ HEAD _speakes; and a lightning flasheth forth, and a hand
appears that breaketh down the_ HEAD _with a hammer._

_Head._ Time is past.[1498]

_Miles._ Maister, maister, up! hels broken loose; your Head
speakes; and theres such a thunder and lightning, that I warrant
all Oxford is up in armes. Out of your bed, and take a browne
bill in your hand; the latter day is come. 75

_Bacon._ Miles, I come.[1499] Oh, passing warily watcht!
Bacon will make thee next himselfe in love.
When spake the Head?

_Miles._ When spake the Head! did not you say that hee should
tell strange principles of philosophie? Why, sir, it speaks but two
wordes at a time. 81

_Bacon._ Why, villaine, hath it spoken oft?

_Miles._ Oft! I, marie, hath it, thrice; but in all those three
times it hath uttered but seven wordes.

_Bacon._ As how? 85

_Miles._ Marrie, sir, the first time he said 'Time is,' as if Fabius
Cumentator[1500] should have pronounst a sentence; [the second
time[1501]] he said, 'Time was'; and the third time, with thunder and
lightning, as in great choller, he said, 'Time is past.'

_Bacon._ 'Tis past indeed. A[h], villaine, time is past: 90
My life, my fame, my glorie, all[1502] are past!--
Bacon, the turrets of thy hope are ruind downe,
Thy seven yeares studie lieth in the dust;
Thy Brazen-head lies broken through a slave,
That watcht, and would not when the Head did will.-- 95
What said the Head first?

_Miles._ Even, sir, 'Time is.'

_Bacon._ Villain, if thou had'st cald to Bacon then,
If thou hadst watcht, and wakte the sleepie frier,
The Brazen-head had uttered aphorismes, 100
And England had been circled round with brasse:
But proud Astmeroth,[1503] ruler of the north,
And Demegorgon,[1504] maister of the fates,
Grudge that a mortall man should worke so much.
Hell trembled at my deepe commanding spels, 105
Fiendes frownd to see a man their overmatch;
Bacon might bost more than a man might boast;
But now the braves of Bacon hath an end,
Europes conceit of Bacon hath an end,
His seven yeares practise sorteth to ill end. 110
And, villaine, sith my glorie hath an end,
I will appoint thee fatal[1505] to some end.
Villaine, avoid! get thee from Bacons sight!
Vagrant, go rome and range about the world,
And perish as a vagabond on earth! 115

_Miles._ Why, then, sir, you forbid me your service?

_Bacon._ My service, villaine, with a fatall curse,
That direfull plagues and mischiefe fall on thee. 118

_Miles._ Tis no matter, I am against you with the old proverb,--The
more the fox is curst,[1506] the better he fares. God be with you,
sir: Ile take but a booke in my hand, a wide sleeved gowne on my
backe, and a crowned cap[1507] on my head, and see if I can want
promotion.

_Bacon._ Some fiend or ghost haunt on thy wearie steps,
Untill they doe transport thee quicke to hell: 125
For Bacon shall have never merrie day,
To loose the fame and honour of his Head. _Exit._

[Scene Twelfth. _At Court._]

_Enter_ EMPEROUR, CASTILE, HENRIE, ELLINOR, EDWARD, LACIE, RAPHE.

_Emper._ Now, lovely Prince, the prince[1508] of Albions wealth,
How fares the Lady Ellinor and you?
What, have you courted and found Castile fit
To answer England in equivolence?
Wilt be a match twixt bonny Nell and thee? 5

_Edw._ Should Paris enter in the courts of Greece,
And not lie fetter'd in faire Hellen's lookes?
Or Phœbus scape those piercing amorits
That Daphne glaunsed at his deitie?
Can Edward, then, sit by a flame and freeze, 10
Whose heat puts Hellen and faire Daphne downe?
Now, Monarcks, aske the ladie if we gree.

_Hen._ What, madam, hath my son found grace or no?

_Ellinor._ Seeing, my lord, his lovely counterfeit,
And hearing how his minde and shape agreed, 15
I come[1509] not, troopt with all this warlike traine,
Doubting of love, but so effectionat
As[1510] Edward hath in England what he wonne in Spaine.

_Castile._ A match, my lord; these wantons needes must love:
Men must have wives, and women will be wed: 20
Lets hast the day to honour up the rites.

_Raphe._ Sirha Harry, shall Ned marry Nell?

_Henry._ I, Raphe; how then?

_Raphe._ Marrie, Harrie, follow my counsaile: send for Frier
Bacon to marrie them, for heele so conjure him and her with his
nigromancie, that they shall love togither like pigge and lambe
whilest they live. 27

_Castile._ But hearst thou, Raphe, art thou content to have Ellinor
to thy ladie?

_Raphe._ I, so she will promise me two things. 30

_Castile._ Whats that, Raphe?

_Raphe._ That shee will never scold with Ned, nor fight with
me.--Sirha Harry, I have put her downe with a thing unpossible.

_Henry._ Whats that, Raphe? 34

_Raphe._ Why, Harrie, didst thou ever see that a woman could
both hold her tongue and her handes? No: but when egge-pies
growes on apple-trees, then will thy gray mare proove a bag-piper.

_Emperour._ What saies[1511] the Lord of Castile and the Earle of
Lincolne,
that they are in such earnest and secret talke?

_Castile._ I stand, my lord, amazed at his talke, 40
How he discourseth of the constancie
Of one surnam'd, for beauties excellence,
The Faire Maid of merrie Fresingfield.

_Henrie._ Tis true, my lord, tis wondrous for to heare;
Her beautie passing Marces[1512] parramour, 45
Her virgins right[1513] as rich as Vestas was:
Lacie and Ned hath told me miracles.

_Castile._ What saies Lord Lacie? shall she be his wife?

_Lacie._ Or els Lord Lacie is unfit to live.--
May it please your highnesse give me leave to post 50
To Fresingfield, Ile fetch the bonny girle,
And proove, in true apparance at the court,
What I have vouched often with my tongue.

_Henrie._ Lacie, go to the quirie[1514] of my stable,
And take such coursers as shall fit thy turne: 55
Hie thee to Fresingfield, and bring home the lasse,[1515]
And, for her fame flies through the English coast,
If it may please the Ladie Ellinor,
One day shall match your excellence and her.

_Ellinor._ We Castile ladies are not very coy; 60
Your highnesse may command a greater boone:
And glad were I to grace the Lincolne earl
With being partner of his marriage day.

_Edward._ Gramercie, Nell, for I do love the lord,
As he thats second to my selfe[1516] in love. 65

_Raphe._ You love her?--Madam Nell, never beleeve him you,
though he sweares he loves you.

_Ellinor._ Why, Raphe?

_Raphe._ Why, his love is like unto a tapsters glasse that is broken
with every tuch; for he loved the faire maid of Fresingfield once
out of all hoe.[1517]--Nay, Ned, never wincke upon me: I care not, I.

_Henrie._ Raphe tels all; you shall have a good secretarie of him.--73
But, Lacie, haste thee post to Fresingfield;
For ere thou hast fitted all things for her state, 75
The solemne marriage day will be at hand.

_Lacie._ I go, my Lord. _Exit Lacie._

_Emperour._ How shall we passe this day, my lord?

_Henrie._ To horse, my lord; the day is passing faire,
Weele flie the partridge, or go rouse the deere. 80
Follow, my lords; you shall not want for sport.
_Exeunt._

[Scene Thirteenth. _Frier Bacons cell._]

_Enter_ FRIER BACON _with_ FRIER BUNGAY _to his cell._

_Bungay._ What meanes the frier that frolickt it of late,
To sit as melancholie in his cell[1518]
As if he had neither lost nor wonne to-day?

_Bacon._ Ah, Bungay,[1519] ... my Brazen-head is spo[i]l'd,
My glorie gone, my seven yeares studie lost! 5
The fame of Bacon, bru[i]ted through the world,
Shall end and perish with this deepe disgrace.

_Bun._ Bacon hath built foundation of[1520] his fame
So surely on the wings of true report,
With acting strange and uncoth miracles, 10
As this cannot infringe what he deserves.

_Bacon._ Bungay, sit down, for by prospective skill
I find this day shall fall out ominous:
Some deadly act shall tide me ere I sleep;
But what and wherein little can I gesse, 15
My minde is heavy, what so ere shall hap.[1521]
_Enter two_ Schollers, _sonnes to_ LAMBERT _and_ SERLBY. _Knocke._
Whose that knocks?

_Bungay._ Two schollers that desires to speake with you.

_Bacon._ Bid them come in.--
Now, my youths, what would you have? 20

_1 Scholler._ Sir, we are Suffolkemen and neighbouring friends;
Our fathers in their countries lustie squires;
Their lands adjoyne: in Crackfield[1522] mine doth dwell,
And his in Laxfield. We are colledge-mates,
Sworne brothers, as our fathers live as friendes. 25

_Bacon._ To what end is all this?

_2 Scholler._ Hearing your worship kept within your cell
A glasse prospective, wherin men might see
What so their thoughts or hearts desire could wish,
We come to know how that our fathers fare. 30

_Bacon._ My glasse is free for every honest man.
Sit downe, and you shall see ere long,[1523]
How or in what state your friendly fathers live.[1524]
Meane while, tell me your names.

_Lambert._ Mine Lambert. 35

_2 Scholler._ And mine Serlsbie.

_Bacon._ Bungay, I smell there will be[1525] a tragedie.

_Enter_[1526] LAMBERT _and_ SERLSBIE _with rapiers and daggers._

_Lambert._ Serlsby, thou hast[1525] kept thine houre[1525] like a man;
Th'art worthie of the title of a squire,
That durst, for proofe of thy affection 40
And for thy mistresse favour, prize[1527] thy bloud.
Thou knowst what words did passe at Fresingfield,
Such shamelesse braves as manhood cannot brooke:
I,[1528] for I skorne to beare such piercing taunts,--
Prepare thee, Serlsbie; one of us will die. 45

_Serlsbie._ Thou seest I single [meet] thee [in] the field,[1529]
And what I spake, Ile maintaine with my sword:
Stand on thy guard, I cannot scold it out.
And if thou kill me, thinke I have a sonne,
That lives in Oxford in the Brodgateshall,[1530] 50
Who will revenge his fathers bloud with bloud.

_Lambert._ And, Serlsbie, I have there a lusty boy,
That dares at weapon buckle with thy sonne,
And lives in Broadgates too, as well as thine:
But draw thy rapier, for weele have a bout.[1531] 55

_Bacon._ Now, lustie yonkers, looke within the glasse,[1532]
And tell me if you can discerne your sires.

_1 Scol._ Serlsbie, tis hard; thy father offers wrong
To combat with my father in the field.

_2 Schol._ Lambert, thou liest, my fathers is the abuse,[1533] 60
And thou shalt find it, if my father harme.[1534]

_Bungay._ How goes it, sirs?

_1 Scholler._ Our fathers are in combat hard by Fresingfield.

_Bacon._ Sit still, my friendes, and see the event.

_Lambert._ Why standst thou, Serlsbie? doubtst thou of thy life?
A venie,[1535] man! fair Margret craves so much. 66

_Serlsbie._ Then this for her.

_1 Scholler._ Ah, well thrust!

_2 Scholler._ But marke the ward.

_They[1536] fight and kill ech other._

_Lambert._ Oh, I am slaine! 70

_Serlsbie._ And I,--Lord have mercie on me!

_1 Scholler._ My father slaine!--Serlby, ward that.

_2 Scholler._ And so is mine![1537]--Lambert, Ile quite thee well.

_The two_ Schollers _stab on[e] another._

_Bungay._ O strange strattagem!

_Bacon._ See, Frier, where the fathers[1538] both lie dead!-- 75
Bacon, thy magicke doth effect this massacre:
This glasse prospective worketh manie woes;
And therefore seeing these brave lustie Brutes,[1539]
These friendly youths, did perish by thine art,
End all thy magicke and thine art at once. 80
The poniard that did end the[1540] fatall[1541] lives,
Shall breake the cause efficiat[1542] of their woes.
So fade the glasse, and end with it the showes
That nigromancie did infuse the christall with.
_He breakes the glass._

_Bungay._ What means learned Bacon thus to breake his glasse?

_Bacon._ I tell thee, Bungay, it repents me sore 86
That ever Bacon meddled in this art.
The houres I have spent in piromanticke spels,
The fearefull tossing in the latest night
Of papers full of nigromanticke charmes, 90
Conjuring and adjuring divels and fiends,
With stole and albe and strange pentaganon;[1543]
The wresting of the holy name of God,
As Sother,[1544] Elaim, and Adonaie,[1545]
Alpha, Manoth, and Tetragramiton,[1546] 95
With praying to the five-fould[1547] powers of heaven,
Are instances that Bacon must be damde
For using divels to countervaile his God.--
Yet, Bacon, cheere thee, drowne not in despaire:
Sinnes have their salves, repentance can do much;[1548] 100
Thinke Mercie sits where Justice holds her seate,
And from those wounds those bloudie Jews did pierce,
Which by thy magicke oft did bleed a fresh,
From thence for thee the dew of mercy drops,
To wash the wrath of hie Jehovahs ire, 105
And make thee as a new borne babe from sinne.--
Bungay, Ile spend the remnant of my life
In pure devotion, praying to my God
That he would save what Bacon vainly lost. _Exit._

[Scene Fourteenth. _A Meadow near the Keepers lodge._]

_Enter_ MARGRET _in nuns apparel_, Keeper, _her father, and their_
Friend.

_Keep._ Margret, be not so headstrong in these vows:
O, burie not such beautie in a cell,
That England hath held famous for the hue!
Thy fathers haire like to the silver bloomes
That beautifie the shrubs of Affrica, 5
Shall fall before the dated time of death,
Thus to forgoe his lovely Marg[a]ret.

_Margret._ A[h], father, when the hermonie of heaven
Soundeth the measures of a lively faith,
The vaine illusions of this flattering world 10
Seemes odious to the thoughts of Marg[a]ret.
I loved once,--Lord Lacie was my love;
And now I hate my selfe for that I lovd,
And doated more on him than on my God;
For this I scourge my selfe with sharpe repents. 15
But now the touch of such aspiring sinnes
Tels me all love is lust but love of heavens:
That beautie usde for love is vanitie;
The world containes naught but alluring baites,
Pride,[1549] flatterie, and inconstant thoughts. 20
To shun the pricks of death,[1550] I leave the world,
And vow to meditate on heavenly blisse,
To live in Framingham a holy nunne,
Holy and pure in conscience and in deed;
And for to wish all maides to learne of me 25
To seek heavens joy before earths vanitie.

_Friend._ And will you, then, Margret, be shorn a nunne, and so
leave us all?

_Margret._ Now farewell world, the engin of all woe!
Farewell to friends and father! Welcome Christ! 30
Adiew to daintie robes! this base attire
Better befits an humble minde to God
Than all the show of rich abilliments.
Love[1551] ... oh love!--and, with fond love, farewell
Sweet Lacie, whom I loved once so deare! 35
Ever be well, but never in my thoughts,
Least I offend to think on Lacies love:
But even to that, as to the rest, farewell.

_Enter_ LACIE, WARRAIN, ERMSBIE, _booted and spurd._

_Lacie._ Come on, my wags, weere near the keepers lodge.
Heere have I oft walkt in the watrie meades, 40
And chatted with my lovely Marg[a]ret.

_Warraine._ Sirha Ned, is not this the keeper?

_Lacie._ Tis the same.

_Ermsbie._ The old lecher hath gotten holy mutton to him; a
nunne, my lord. 45

_Lacie._ Keeper, how farest thou? holla, man, what cheere?
How doth Peggie, thy daughter and my love?

_Keeper._ Ah, good my lord! O, wo is me for Pegge!
See where she stands clad in her nunnes attire,
Readie for to be shorne in Framingham: 50
She leaves the world because she left[1552] your love.
Oh, good my lord, perswade her if you can!

_Lacie._ Why, how now, Margret! what, a malecontent?
A nunne? what holy father taught you this,
To taske your selfe to such a tedious life 55
As die a maid? twere injurie to me,
To smother up such bewtie in a cell.

_Margret._ Lord Lacie, thinking of thy[1553] former[1554] misse,
How fond the prime of wanton yeares were spent
In love (Oh, fie upon that fond conceite, 60
Whose hap and essence hangeth in the eye!),
I leave both love and loves content at once,
Betaking me to him that is true love,
And leaving all the world for love of him.

_Lacy._ Whence, Peggie, comes this metamorphosis? 65
What, shorne a nun, and I have from the court
Posted with coursers to convaie thee hence
To Windsore, where our mariage shalbe kept!
Thy wedding robes are in the tailors hands.
Come, Peggy, leave these peremptorie vowes. 70

_Margret._ Did not my lord resigne his interest,
And make divorce 'twixt Marg[a]ret and him?

_Lacie._ Twas but to try sweete Peggies constancie.
But will fair Margret leave her love and lord?

_Margret._ Is not heavens joy before earths fading blisse, 75
And life above sweeter than life in love?

_Lacy._ Why,[1555] then, Margret will be shorne a nun?

_Marg._ Margret hath made a vow which may not be revokt.

_Warraine._ We cannot stay, my lord;[1555] and if she be so strict,
Our leisure graunts us not to woo a fresh. 80

_Ermsby._ Choose you, fair damsell,--yet the choise is yours,--
Either a solemne nunnerie or the court,
God or Lord Lacie: which[1556] contents you best,
To be a nun or els Lord Lacies wife?

_Lacie._ A good motion.--Peggie, your answer must be short.

_Margret._ The flesh is frayle: my lord doth know it well 86
That when he comes with his inchanting face,
What so ere betyde, I cannot say him nay.
Off goes the habite of a maidens heart,
And, seeing fortune will, faire Fremingham, 90
And all the shew of holy nuns, farewell!
Lacie, for me, if he wilbe my lord.

_Lacie._ Peggie, thy lord, thy love, thy husband.[1557]
Trust me, by truth of knighthood, that the king
Staies for to marry matchles Ellinour, 95
Until I bring thee richly to the court,
That one day may both marry her and thee.--
How saist thou, Keeper? art thou glad of this?

_Keeper._ As if[1558] the English king had given
The parke and deere of Frisingfield to me. 100

_Erms._ I pray thee, my Lord of Sussex, why art thou in a broune
study?

_War._ To see the nature of women; that be they never so neare
God, yet they love to die in a mans armes.

_Lacie._ What have you fit for breakefast? We have hied
And posted all this night to Frisingfield.[1559] 106

_Mar._ Butter and cheese, and humbl[e]s[1560] of a deere,
Such as poore keepers have within their lodge.[1559]

_Lacie._ And not a bottle of wine?

_Margret._ Weele find one for my lord. 110

_Lacie._ Come, Sussex, ... lets[1561] in: we shall have more,
For she speaks least, to hold her promise sure.[1559] [_Exeunt._]

[Scene Fifteenth. _Frier Bacons cell._]

_Enter a_ Devill[1562] _to seeke_ MILES.

_Devill._ How restles are the ghosts of hellish spirites,
When everie charmer with his magick spels
Cals us from nine-fold trenched Phlegethon,[1563]
To scud and over-scoure the earth in post
Upon the speedie wings of swiftest winds! 5
Now Bacon hath raisd me from the darkest deepe,
To search about the world for Miles his man,
For Miles, and to torment his lasie bones
For careles watching[1564] of his Brazen-head.
See where he comes: Oh, he is mine. 10

_Enter_ MILES _with a gowne and a corner cap._

_Miles._ A scholler, quoth you! marry, sir, I would I had bene
made a botlemaker when I was made a scholler; for I can get
neither to be a deacon, reader,[1565] nor schoolemaister, no, not the
clarke of a parish. Some call me dunce; another saith, my head is
as full of Latine as an egs full of oatemeale: thus I am tormented,
that the devil and Frier Bacon haunts me.--Good Lord, heers one
of my maisters devils! Ile goe speake to him.--What, Maister
Plutus, how chere you?

_Devill._ Doost thou know me? 19

_Miles._ Know you, sir! why, are not you one of my maisters
devils, that were wont to come to my maister, Doctor Bacon, at
Brazennose?

_Devil._ Yes, marry, am I.

_Miles._ Good Lord, M[aister] Plutus, I have seene you a thousand
times at my maisters, and yet I had never the manners to make you
drinke. But, sir, I am glad to see how conformable you are to the
statute.[1566]--I warrant you, hees as yeomanly a man as you shall
see: marke you, maisters, heers a plaine honest man, without welt or
garde.[1566]--But I pray you, sir, do you come lately from hel?

_Devil._ I, marry: how then? 30

_Miles._ Faith, tis a place I have desired long to see: have you not
good tipling-houses there? may not a man have a lustie fier there, a
pot of good ale, a paire of cardes, a swinging peece of chalke,[1567]
and a browne toast that will clap a white wastcoat[1568] on a cup of
good drinke? 35

_Devil._ All this you may have there.

_Miles._ You are for me, freinde, and I am for you. But I pray
you, may I not have an office there?

_Devil._ Yes, a thousand: what wouldst thou be? 39

_Miles._ By my troth, sir, in a place where I may profit my selfe.
I know hel is a hot place, and men are mervailous drie, and much
drinke is spent there; I would be a tapster.

_Devil._ Thou shalt.

_Miles._ Theres nothing lets me from going with you, but that tis
a long journey, and I have never a horse. 45

_Devil._ Thou shalt ride on my backe.[1569]

_Miles._ Now surely her[e]s a courteous devil, that, for to
pleasure[1570]
his friend, will not stick to make a jade of him self.--But I
pray you, goodman friend, let me move a question to you.

_Dev._ Whats that? 50

_Miles._ I pray you, whether is your pace a trot or an amble?

_Dev._ An amble.

_Miles._ Tis well; but take heed it be not a trot; but tis no matter,
Ile prevent it. [_Stoops._]

_Dev._ What doest? 55

_Miles._ Mary, friend, I put on my spurs; for if I find your pace
either a trot or els uneasie, Ile put you to a false gallop; Ile make
you feele the benefit of my spurs.

_Dev._ Get up upon my backe.

_Miles._ O Lord, here's even a goodly marvel, when a man rides
to hell on the devil's back! _Exeunt_: [_the_ Devil] _roaring_.

[Scene Sixteenth. _At Court._]

_Enter the_ EMPEROUR _with a pointlesse sword; next the_ KING OF
CASTILE _carrying a sword with a point_; LACY _carrying the globe_;
EDWARD; WARRAINE _carrying a rod of gold with a dove on it_;[1571]
ERMSBY _with a crowne and sceptre; the_ QUEENE; [PRINCESS ELINOR]_ with
the faire Maide of Fresingfield on her left hand_; HENRY; BACON; _with
other Lords attending._

_Edward._ Great potentates, earth's miracles for state,
Think that Prince Edward humbles at your feet,
And, for these favours, on his martial sword
He vows perpetuall homage to yourselves,
Yeelding these honours unto Ellinour. 5

_Henrie._ Gramercies, lordings; old Plantagenet,
That rules and swayes the Albion diademe,
With teares discovers these conceived joyes,
And vows requitall if his men at armes,
The wealth of England, or due honours done 10
To Ellinor, may quite his favourites.[1572]
But all this while what say you to the dames
That shine like to the christall lampes of heaven?

_Emperour._ If but a third were added to these two,
They did surpasse those gorgeous images 15
That gloried Ida with rich beauties wealth.

_Mar._ Tis I, my lords, who humbly on my knee
Must yeeld her horisons to mighty Jove
For lifting up his handmaide to this state;
Brought from her homely cottage to the court, 20
And grasde with kings, princes, and emperours,
To whom (next to the noble Lincolne earle)
I vow obedience, and such humble love
As may a handmaid to such mighty men.

_P. Elin._ Thou martiall man that wears the Almaine crown, 25
And you the western potentates of might,
The Albian princesse, English Edwards wife,
Proud that the lovely star of Fresingfield,
Fair Margret, Countess to the Lincoln earle,
Attends on Ellinour,--gramercies, lord, for her,-- 30
Tis I give thankes for Margret, to you all,
And rest for her due bounden to your selves.

_Henrie._ Seeing the marriage is solemnized,[1573]
Lets march in triumph to the royall feast.--
But why stands Frier Bacon here so mute? 35

_Bacon._ Repentant for the follies of my youth,
That magicks secret mysteries misled,
And joyfull that this royall marriage
Portends such blisse unto this matchless realme.

_Hen._ Why, Bacon, what strange event shall happen to this land?
Or what shall grow from Edward and his queene? 41

_Bacon._ I find by deep praescience[1574] of mine art,
Which once I tempred in my secret cell,
That here where Brute did build his Troynovant,
From forth the royall garden of a king 45
Shall flourish out so rich and fair a bud,
Whose brightnesse shall deface proud Phœbus' flowre,
And over-shadow Albion with her leaves.
Till then Mars shall be master of the field,
But then the stormy threats of war shall cease: 50
The horse shall stamp as carelesse of the pike,
Drums shall be turn'd to timbrels of delight;
With wealthy favours plenty shall enrich
The strond that gladded wandring Brute to see,
And peace from heaven shall harbour in these leaves 55
That gorgeous beautifies this matchlesse flower:
Apollos helletropian[1575] then shall stoope,
And Venus hyacinth shall vaile[1576] her top;
Juno shall shut her gilliflowers up,
And Pallas bay shall bash her brightest greene; 60
Ceres carnation, in consort with those,
Shall stoope and wonder at Dianas rose.

_Henrie._ This prophecie is mysticall.--
But, glorious commanders[1577] of Europas love,
That make faire England like that wealthy ile 65
Circled with Gihen and swift[1578] Euphrates,
In royallizing Henries Albion
With presence of your princely mightinesse,--
Lets[1579] march: the tables all are spred,
And viandes, such as Englands wealth affords, 70
Are ready set to furnish out the bords.
You shall have welcome, mighty potentates:
It rests to furnish up this royall feast,
Only your hearts be frolicke; for the time
Craves that we taste of naught but jouissance. 75
Thus glories England over all the west. [_Exeunt omnes._]

_Omne tulit punctum qui miscuit utiie dulci._

FOOTNOTES:

[1262] Scenes not numbered in Qtos. Localities as indicated by W., in
general accepted. Framlingham and Fressingfield,--"Suffolke side." Sc.
iv. 33.

[1263] Q 1, 'Edward _the first_.'

[1264] Of late. Cf. _Ep._ to _Farewell to Folly_ (S. R. 1587).

[1265] Outstripped.

[1266] Hounds that roused and teased the game. Cf. _Play of Wether_,
ll. 292-293.

[1267] 'Nor have,' Dy. and W., separate line; but Qtos., a senarius as
here. For metres see Appendix; for this _D._ 3 _b_.

[1268] Qtos. and eds.: no dash, but period after 'dumpe.' Appendix _C_,
1 _b_.

[1269] Dy. and W., 'off.'

[1270] A coarse woollen cloth, cf. _Eastw. Hoe_ "stammel petticoat,"
in contempt. Here apparently of the kind of red; so, perhaps, Alleyn's
Inventory (Collier's _Mems. of E. A._, Shakesp. Soc. 1841) "A stammel
cloke with gould lace."

[1271] _à la mort_, dejected. So, also, Fortunatus in _Wily Beguiled_
"Why, how now, Sophos? all amort?" (Hawkins, _Orig. Eng. Drama_,
3:358); _Old Wives' Tale_, l. 1.

[1272] Probably a survival of the Vice's weapon of lath.

[1273] Dy., G., W., 'lovely.' But Q 3, which in many other particulars
corrects Q 1, retains 'lively'; so Do.

[1274] tablet.

[1275] coral cliffs.

[1276] The rare quality of her appearance; cf. viii. 16.

[1277] more exquisite; rarer; so iii. 77.

[1278] tint.

[1279] Q 1 has headline _The ... Bacon_ on each page.

[1280] "Would have put to the blush any woman that art," etc.

[1281] Appendix _D_, 3 _b_.

[1282] 'I' for 'ay'; 'and' for 'an,' as frequently.

[1283] so that; cf. Matthew xx. 31.

[1284] press.

[1285] swape. Prov. English for 'sweep.'

[1286] placket: here pocket.

[1287] See p. 413.

[1288] Four and one-half miles north of Fressingfield.

[1289] Dy. and G., 'to keep alongside of,' Fr. _côtoyer_. W. explains,
'to pass' and cites _Hamlet_, II. ii. 306. Derivation uncertain; but
the word is here figuratively used; as if the Prince should say,--"As a
greyhound in coursing goeth endways by his fellow and giveth the hare
a turn, so do thou outstrip the clown (head him off), court Margaret
(give her the turn), and thus cut him out." See _New Eng. Dict._ on
Turberville's _Venerie_, 246 (1575); and distinction between 'coting'
and 'coasting' or going alongside of. Professor Wagner's _Der abgesante
soll sich an die seite des ländlichen liebhabers heften, so dass
ihn dieser nicht los werden kann_ is somewhat amusing. Cf. "crost,
controulde" _2 A. W. A_. Sc. xii, l. 88.

[1290] Dy. reads 'dancer.' But why not a synecdoche? "Ned is become a
whole morris-dance of himself."

[1291] Appendix _B_, 1. Dy. queries '_all_ your.'

[1292] _nōs_ = _nostros_. Fleay.

[1293] Q 1, _habitares._

[1294] For divination by fire, water (hydromancy), and air, see Ward's
admirable _Old English Drama_, pp. 222-223.

[1295] Appendix _B_, 1.

[1296] Probably for 'pentagonon' (cf. xiii 92); here of the pentacle
or pentagram, the five-rayed star used in magic as a defence against
demons.

[1297] Belcephon; cf. Exodus xiv. 2; Numbers xxxiii. 7. Ward.

[1298] "This damnable art mathematical" (Bp. Hooker, _Works_, 1: 330),
meaning 'astrological.'

[1299] Either _v. tr._: 'draws' the long bow; or _v. intr._: 'ventures
in imagination' a bow-shot beyond his capability.

[1300] Appendix _D_, 3 _b._

[1301] So Qtos. Do., Dy., W., ''gainst.' On 'guesse' for 'guests,' Dy.
quotes Chamberlain's _Pharonnida_ (1659), Bk. IV. C. III. p. 53: "The
empty tables stood for never guess came there."

[1302] Q 1 has ll. 139-140 in prose; but Do., Dy., W., verse

[1303] Be abashed. So _Tullie's Love:_ "Like Diana when she basht at
Actæon's presence"; and _Orpharion_ (Grosart's _Greene_, VII. 115 and
XII. 50).

[1304] Line 156: Appendix _A_, 3; and _D_, 1.

[1305] Properly principal. In Bacon's day Brasenose _College_ was not
yet founded.

[1306] Wagner would read, "And hell and Hecat shall the friar fail,"
for "_Hecate ist sonst stets zweisilbig._" Wrong. Ward cites for the
trisyllable, Shakesp., _1 H. VI._, III. ii. 64, and Milton, _Comus_, v.
535.

[1307] bargain.

[1308] Q 4 omits. Appendix _A_, 2.

[1309] So Qtos. 1, 3, 4; = 'price,' not 'prize,' nor as in xiii. 41.

[1310] generous.

[1311] Margret's 'mythological' slips are not to be set down to her
rustic schooling; for Lacie's 'mythology' is no better; nor Greene's.

[1312] So Q 3. Q 1, _scoffes._ 'Your irony is evident on the face of
it.'

[1313] Q 3, 'beauties.' W. changes to 'duties' (?).

[1314] Appendix _D_, 3 _b._

[1315] Lines 34, 35, as prose in Q 1.

[1316] On the northern border of Suffolk.

[1317] W. explains 'shy'; but perhaps the word here means 'affectedly
nice'; in cant phrase, 'stuck-up.' Cf. Spenser, _F. Q._, III. vii. 10
(_Century_).

[1318] So Qtos. and G. "To me?" says M. with (affected?) surprise.
"Surely you mistake." "Ah, just like others of your sex," retorts L.,
"oblivious when you please." "Well," acknowledges M., "I do remember
the man; but have we time to waste on _his_ attentions?" Do., Dy., and
W. assign "You ... self" to Lacie: but is that necessary? Appendix C, 2
_b_.

[1319] Appendix _D_, 3 _a_.

[1320] Appendix _A_, 2.

[1321] So Dy., G., W. But Qtos. and Do. _surges_.

[1322] Appendix _E_.

[1323] He never fought before Damascus. Ward. For 'done,' Dy. queries
'shown.'

[1324] Not crown property in Henry III's reign; nor was Hampton crown
property, till Wolsey, who had built the house, exchanged it with Henry
VIII for Richmond. Ward.

[1325] Hapsburg. In lines 37, 44, etc., pronounce 'academie.'

[1326] Statement of scientific principles. Cf. 'Aphorisms' of
Hippocrates.

[1327] As in the laureation which accompanied the conferring of the
academic degree in Grammar.

[1328] So Dy. and W. Cf. _H. V._, Prol. to Act II. 34. Q 1, _fit_:
which cannot be the _v. tr., '_to array' or 'marshal' (see _Morte
Arthur_, 1755, etc., as in _N. E. D._) G. suggests 'fet,' which avails
nothing. Q 3 has 'sit,' which was probably intended for 'set.'

[1329] For the emergency. Cf. Fletcher, _Loyal Subject_, IV. ii.

[1330] Dodge. So Redford's _Wit. and Sc._, "The fechys of Tediousnes";
cf. _Lear_ II. iv.

[1331] Swaggering. Like Cowley's _Cutter_.

[1332] So Qtos. = "Can't I? Yes, I can." Dy. and W., unnecessarily:
'Yet, what,' etc.

[1333] On Edw.'s abrupt utterances, see Appendix _C_. On these lines
_C_, 1 _d_.

[1334] W.: 'thy fool disguise.' But Bacon means "That fool parading in
your clothes does not deceive me as to _your_ identity."

[1335] Cf. x. 3: (black) jacks, leathern wine-jugs.

[1336] After Bacon and Edw. had walked a few paces about (or perhaps
toward the back of) the stage, the audience were to suppose that the
scene was changed to the interior of Bacon's Cell. Dyce.

[1337] Common construction; but Q 3, 'pleade.' Metre, Appendix _B_, 2.

[1338] Perhaps the curtain which concealed the upper stage was
withdrawn, discovering M. and B., and, when the representation in the
glass was supposed to be over, the curtain was drawn back again. Dyce.

[1339] So Qtos. May be unintentional metathesis for 'sunne-bright' But
eds all adopt Do.'s 'brightsome,' which has additional authority of
_Alphonsus_ IV. p. 240 _a_ (Dyce ed.).

[1340] Dy. 'fair _witty_' for metre, arguing from iii. 61; vi. 33-35.
But the original reading is sufficiently metrical. See Appendix _B_, 1;
and _C_, i _a_.

[1341] Q 3 and G., 'lasse?' Wrong, for the clauses are conditional.

[1342] Cover with an excuse. Ward.

[1343] Qtos. 'cape,' which might be justified as = capture (See _N. E.
D._ for the verb; and cf. Greene's fondness for coining from the Latin,
_e.g. nocent_ in _Jas._, IV.) Do. suggests and eds. adopt 'rape.' But
my reading is confirmed by _Orl. Fur._, Sc. i. 176, concerning Helen,
who, "With a swaine made _scape_ away to Troy," = _escape_. In Q 1 of
our text the 's' was absorbed by the preceding possessive.

[1344] W. conjectures 'paragon'; but Greene had a weakness for
'paramour.'

[1345] Note that the prince does not hear what the audience hears.

[1346] For metre of ll. 47, 108, 127, 146, 176, _App. C_, 2 _a._

[1347] Q 3. Q 1 has _acception_; so also _Orpharion_ (Gros. XII. 50).
See Appendix _A_, 1 and 3.

[1348] As in l. 142.

[1349] Cf. Ethenwald's soliloquy in _Kn. Kn. Kn._ (H. Dods VI. 543-544).

[1350] Q 3 omits.

[1351] nearer, luckier.

[1352] image.

[1353] So x. 126 = prematurely.

[1354] Altogether too. So Heywood, _Johann._, l. 183, and frequently.
Still heard in New England.

[1355] Dy. and W. assign to Lacie; but Qtos. as above. Momentarily
even Margaret is deceived (or she pretends to be deceived) by Bungay's
"cunning."

[1356] Q 1: _injest_.

[1357] Dy., W., 'mean'; needlessly.

[1358] Lines 130, 161, Appendix _C_, 1 _a_.

[1359] Lines 131-132: Dy., "Is this a prose speech or corrupted verse?"
Neither; see Appendix _D_, 3 _a_.

[1360] A breviary for out-of-door use. Cf. _New Cust._, I. ii. (H.
Dods. III.) and _Confl. Consc._ III. iv. (Caconos).

[1361] So Qtos., meaning 'in respect of'; and W. in his first ed.
Wagner (_Anglia_, Vol. II.) would change to 'from,' saying "_for
mumbling_ würde heissen 'ich will ihn zum stillstand bringen dafür
dass er ableiert.'" Let us rather trust Greene for English. Cf. his
_Ep. Ded._ to _Orpharion_, "Else shall you discourage a gardener _for_
grafting"; also his _Never Too Late_ (ed. 1590), "A hat ... shelter
_for_ the sun," etc. The word means 'in respect of,' 'with regard to,'
and then 'against' and 'from,' as here. (See, also, _N. E. D._: _For
23. d._)

[1362] In sense of 'finishing.' Cf. iii. 22; vi. 159; xii. 21; _Alph._,
"soothe up" (ed. Dyce, p. 241).

[1363] Q 1. But Do., Dy., modernizing Elizabethan grammar, read
'passion.'

[1364] Q 1. (B. M.) _Bacon_, corrected in a handwritten 'Bungay.'

[1365] Line 162, Appendix _D_, 3 _a_; 163, _D_ 2.

[1366] Greene has in mind the Church of St. Mary the Virgin.

[1367] Appendix _C_, 1 _b_.

[1368] Do.'s suggestion for Qtos.' _Scocon_.

[1369] Died B.C. 62. Cf. _Never too Late_, Pt. I. (1590).

[1370] So Dyce; but Qtos. and Do. give the line to Clement.

[1371] Q 1, _Weele._

[1372] Inserted by Do., Dy., W. G. prefers 'ill.'

[1373] Q 3 omits. Do.: 'Let _us_ to Bacon.'

[1374] bullies. Cf. Shaksp., _Tit. And._, I. i. 313.

[1375] Skeltonical verse. Qtos. print thus, but Do., Dy., W., in
couplets.

[1376] _heavy_ head.

[1377] So Q 1. Miles is responsible for the Latin; cf. _habitares_ Sc.
ii. 4. The _asinus mundi_ is, of course, Raphe.

[1378] W. omits 'sheat.' G. reads, 'Neat, sheat, and [as] fine, as a
briske cup of wine.' Qtos. have comma after 'neat,' making 'sheat' an
adjective, for which _Cent. Dict._ suggests the meaning 'trim.' Poppey,
in Lodge's _Wounds of Civil War_ (H. Dods. VII. 191), says, "Fair,
fresh and fine, As a merry cup of wine."

[1379] dear: _Lk. Gl._, 1481; _R. D._, I. i. 49; and frequently. In
American slang, to-day, 'good-natured.'

[1380] Perhaps the caps of Doctors of Law and Physic. Ward.

[1381] Dy., W., careful of R.'s grammar, read '_I_ will.'

[1382] From the inner sole. Peg in _Wily Beg._ (Hawkins III. 356)
glories in 'cork'd shoes.' Ward. So also Mall in _2 A. W. A._ iii. 167.

[1383] So Qtos. The mistake for Barclay is as likely to be Miles's as
the compositor's.

[1384] Do., Dy., W. change to _dicis_. A parody of _Construas hoc_,
etc., in Skelton's _Ware the Hauke_. Dyce. So, for a fool, Ingeland's
_Disob. Child_ (H. Dods. II. 285); and frequently. Cf. 'Woodcock' in
_Johann_, and _Hamlet_, I. iii. 115.

[1385] Old north gate, Oxford, used as a prison; taken down, 1771. As
hard to get out of as the Bocardo mood of the syllogism. Dyce and Ward.

[1386] "Are meet for just such low-born devils as they are."

[1387] 5 Qtos., _Essex_.

[1388] Raphe.

[1389] Cf. the scene in _Kn. Kn._ (H. Dods. VI. 575).

[1390] Dy. and W. change to 'thy.'

[1391] Q 1 and G., 'passion.' Q 3, Do., Dy., W., 'passions': required
by 'them.' So "to show your passions," _Kn. Kn._ (H. Dods. VI. 574).

[1392] Shittim: cf. _Never too Late_ (Grosart, VIII. 40).

[1393] Cf. _Kn. Kn._ "dolphin's eye" (H. Dods. VI. 574); "purple main,"
etc. (H. Dods. VI. 565, 570). Ward notes resemblance of ll. 50-66,
'lavoltas,' 'purple plaines,' 'Thetis,' etc., to _Menapon_ (Grosart,
VI. 36).

[1394] Round dances; cf. _Hen. V._, iii. 5.

[1395] Cf. _Tamb._ "To entertain ... Zenocrate," etc.

[1396] So Dy., W., for 'attired.' Q 1, _tied_; Q 3, _tyed_ [= incased,
Grosart?].

[1397] So Qtos., and prob. Greene. Eds., 'came.'

[1398] So Qtos., Do., and prob. Greene. Dy., W., 'nor.'

[1399] Q 3.--Q 1, _abbata_.

[1400] In apposition with 'him,' l. 78.

[1401] than.

[1402] Dy. qy. 'our'? but Greene liked the contrast of 'my' and 'her.'
Grosart.

[1403] Q 3, catching up 'loves' of l. 117, substitutes it for 'leagues'
of l. 116; consequently omits l. 117 altogether.

[1404] With ll. 25, 112-128, compare _Campaspe_, V. iv.

[1405] Appendix _C_, 2 _b_.

[1406] Milto of Phocæa, whom Cyrus the Younger used to call Aspasia.
See Plutarch's _Pericles_, and _Artaxerxes_. Ward.

[1407] Q 1 omits. Q 3 supplies.

[1408] Revolted = overturned. If similar literal transference of Latin
words were not common among Elizabethans, one might suggest 'revokt,'
i.e. 'renounced,' citing xiv. 78, "a _vow_ that may not be _revokt_,"
and _Sir Clyom and Sir Clam._, "that mortal blow or stroke The which
shall cause thy wretched corpse this life for to _revoke_."

[1409] Appendix _A_, 4.

[1410] Cumnor, Hinksey, Cuddesdon, Shotover, etc., can hardly be called
mountains. The Emperour recalls the progress over the Chilterns, or
Greene romances.

[1411] Nutritious; cf. _battles_ and _batten_.

[1412] Qtos., Do. Possibly means 'covered.' But probably misprint for
'lade':--Dy., W.

[1413] Trismegistus.

[1414] Porphyry.

[1415] an atom compared with.

[1416] Qtos. and Do--Dy. and W., 'ground.' The 's' may have been
attracted from 'fiends' and 'spels.'

[1417] Qtos. and Do.--Dy. and W., 'hung.'

[1418] Dy. and W., 'vile.' But 'Vild' is common: see _F Q._, _2 A. W.
A._, _Sp. Gypsy_, etc.

[1419] Q 1, _gemii_.

[1420] Most of our old writers use Hesp. as the name of a place.

[1421] Ironically. Eds. place _after_ the stage direction; but the
Qtos. may stand.

[1422] Q 3, 'lordlings.'

[1423] razed.

[1424] So Q 3. Q 1, _prodie_.

[1425] G. would omit.

[1426] Q 1, _worrhy_.

[1427] Sienna. For metre, Appendix _D_, 1; for that of l. 116, _B_, 1;
of ll. 120, 148, 162, _C_, 2 _c_; of l. 129, _B_, 2.

[1428] So Q 3. Q 1, _Belogna_.

[1429] Text and metre, Appendix _E_.

[1430] So Qtos. Dy. and G., 'Utrecht [Paris] and' Fleay and Ward,
'Lu_tetia_ and O'; the compositor having probably been shunted by
the _ut_ from Ms. 'Lutetia' into 'Utrech.' Dekker spells the latter
'Utrich' (--_D. S._ 1606) Lutetia (or Paris) has been already mentioned
in _iv._ 50; whereas Utrecht was not yet a university town.

[1431] See n. 1427, p. 473.

[1432] _Mar. Witte and Sci._ (1570), "Not every _foile_ doth make a
falle."

[1433] Q 1, _herarchies_.

[1434] So Qtos.--Dy. and W alter 'came.'

[1435] So _Q_ 3, and eds., and (I think) Q 1--G. 'come.'

[1436] So eds.--Qtos., _springs_.

[1437] Appendix _C_, 1 _a_.

[1438] Love-kindling looks; cf. xii. 8. Dyce. So also _Never too Late_,
"wilie amorettes of a curtizan."

[1439] Q 1, _they_.

[1440] G. omits 'over.' See Appendix _D_, 3 _b_.

[1441] Ll. 205-209, as prose in Qtos. See note on vii. 40 _et seq._

[1442] Q 1, _thee_.

[1443] One who sets the table; Fr. _asseoir_. So Fletcher, _R. a W_ III
1. (_Century._)

[1444] Chopped meat in broth? (_N. E. D._)

[1445] Ll. 220-221, as prose in Qtos.

[1446] Wagner supplies 'but' before 'for'; the emperor supplied a gulp
of rage before 'fit.' Appendix _C_, 1 _c_.

[1447] Q 3.--Do., Dy. omit 'such'; G. and W. omit 'a.' This smoothing
out of the anapest has no historical warrant.

[1448] So Qtos. and G. Do., 'thee'; Dy. and W., 'these' unnecessarily.

[1449] Dy. and W., "This ... me.," as a verse.

[1450] Spices.

[1451] A small, light, and fast ship; caravel (_N. E. D._).

[1452] "This," observes my friend, Mr. W. N. Lettsom, "is much as if
France were to send claret and burgundy down her Thames." Dyce. Quoted
as with approval by G. and W. But may not Greene indulge in a figure
of speech? The Volga was the typical great river of the Elizabethans,
their Amazon or Mississippi; and is here used for the Euphrates by
antonomasia. Q 1 does not capitalize this _volga_, and the emphasis is
on _her._ See Appendix _C_, 1 _a_.

[1453] So in Greene's _Not. Discov. Coosenage_. Qtos. and Do.,
_mirabiles_.

[1454] Sugar plums.

[1455] Dyce regards the passage as mutilated. Mitford's 'balm' does
not fit the sense. For 'lamprey' (from W. Bell and Fleay), see Ward.
I think that explanation is good; for Greene is not averse to coining
words, and if he is translating _muræna_ by 'lamp,' the figure in the
next line suggests that a paronomasia may have won favor with him
by reason of a false derivation from λαμπρός (_sc._ the Lampris, a
_brilliant_ deep-sea fish).

[1456] W. alters to 'of.'

[1457] Q 1, _Serlby_.

[1458] pitchers of wine, 'blacke pots.'

[1459] Six miles N. E. of Framlingham.

[1460] jointure or jointress. Wagner.

[1461] Q 3 and eds. Q 1, _lanslord_.

[1462] estate.

[1463] G. 'Content _thee_,' by analogy with ix. 237, x. 73. But the
meaning is "We are satisfied." Malone on the margin of his 1630 quarto
(Bodl.) suggests 'good' after 'Content.' See Appendix _C_, 1 _b_ for
retention of Q 1, as above.

[1464] W. reads 'is.'

[1465] Q 1, _graves_.

[1466] Q 1, _tall_.

[1467] So Do., Dy., W., and G.--Q 1, _daughters_.

[1468] Q 1 retained. Do., Dy. object to this common form of the plural.

[1469] Consisting of wool fit for the market, such as Leominster (in
Herefordshire) cannot excel.

[1470] So Qtos. But Do., 'furnish'd.'

[1471] protuberant.

[1472] hang swaying; perhaps by a telescoping of 'paddle' and 'waggle.'
Ward suggests fusion of 'paddle' and 'bag.'

[1473] She pauses to think. Dy. would omit 'Give me.' But see Appendix
_D_, 3 _a_.

[1474] Dy. queries 'wrings.' No.

[1475] So Qtos.; but eds. read 'froward,' which Qtos. have in l. 142;
but 'forward' was common in this sense. Cf. _Selimus_, ll. 184, 271,
1292, 1548.

[1476] For 'haemerae' = ephemerae.

[1477] A common form. But Dy., silently, 'wrapp'st'; and so W.

[1478] Cliffs. So, also, _Selimus_, 1710.

[1479] Dy., "ll. 147-148, corrupted." Not in the least. In l. 149 Dy.,
qy. 'from _him'_; but see Appendix _D_, 3 _b_.

[1480] Dy., W., 'very.' But M. sighs at each thought as it is
enumerated; hence the _lacunas_ in l. 156. Appendix _C_, 2 _b_.

[1481] Dy. 'misfortunes.' No.

[1482] G., "with food"?

[1483] hollow sphere.--Ward.

[1484] Argus.

[1485] Phobetor, son of Morpheus: Ov. _Met._ xi. 640. The φόβητρον
(terror) of the Septuagint.

[1486] _Fist_ "klingt unpassend" to Wagner, but not to Greene (_O. F._
l. 25), nor Shak. (3 _H. VI._ II. i. 154), nor Stanyhurst (_Aeneis_, l.
28). Wagner's 'fee' is unnecessary.

[1487] Q 1, _awinke_.

[1488] From the _Nos autem gloriari_ (Rom. Liturgy). Ward.--Adam
(_Lkgl._ l. 224) makes the same joke.

[1489] Milesian for _populare_.--Q 3: _popelares_.

[1490] _Sc._: _mori_, as on a Death's head. Ward.

[1491] [_Nods, knocks his head against the post._] Grosart.

[1492] In ll. 49, 60, 69: [_a great noise_]. Dy., and W. But that would
have awakened Bacon earlier. Beside l. 49, Q. 1, are letters _wn and
your_--residue of stage direction.

[1493] pike.

[1494] Do., Dy. 'all _my_'; W. omits. But Q 1 is intelligible.

[1495] the snake that strikes. Ward.

[1496] Against his pike.

[1497] Q 3 '_have_ spent.'

[1498] Dy. and W. place above the stage direction.

[1499] Dy. and W. insert [_Rises and comes forward_]. G. rightly
disapproves. Bacon is half asleep and does not behold the mischief
until after 'love.'

[1500] Qtos, W., and G.--Do., Dy., 'Commentator.' But, as G. explains,
Miles is struggling with a reminiscence of 'Cunctator.'

[1501] Inserted by Do., and other eds. But why systematize Miles?

[1502] W., 'are all.' No.

[1503] Asmenoth.

[1504] Demogorgon: _O. F._ 1287. Mysterious nether deity mentioned as
early as the fifth century; and by Boccaccio, Ariosto, Spenser. (See
_N. E. D._)

[1505] Dy. 'to some fatal end,' and so G., W.

[1506] Obsolete for 'coursed.' Miles's pun.

[1507] Corner cap. Ward.

[1508] Dy., W. 'prime.' Prob.

[1509] Possible; but Dy., W. 'came.'

[1510] that. Dy. "line corrupted." No. Appendix _D_, 3 _b_.

[1511] Probable; but Do., Dy., W., 'say.'

[1512] For 'Mars's'--so eds.

[1513] Dy., 'rite,' needlessly. Perfectly clear.

[1514] For querry (equerry); so eds. But Q 3 'quiry.'

[1515] Appendix _A_, 1.

[1516] Dy., W., 'thyself.' G., as above, for Edw. means "I love Lacie
because he loves Margaret almost as well as I love you."

[1517] Beyond recall, "out of cry." Cf. the American slang "out of
sight," = in excess. Or is that a corruption of _ausgezeichnet_?

[1518] Q 1 repeats the line.

[1519] Appendix _C_, 1 _b_.

[1520] 3 Q 1 _on_.

[1521] So G. and W.--Qtos, Do., Dy. give the line to Bungay.--After
'hap,' Dy., and W. [_Knocking within_]; and after 'come in' [_Enter two
Scholars_]. But I think with G. that Q 1 may be right for, "the stage
may have been divided into two compartments."

[1522] Cratfield. Nine miles from Framl. Ward.

[1523] So Qtos, allowing for a foot-pause after 'Sit down.' But if the
4 ft. line is not intentional, W's reading is best "ere long; how | Or
in," etc. Dy. reads, "ere long, [sirs,] how" |.--G, "ere [it be] long"
|.

[1524] Q 1, _father lives._

[1525] Appendix _B_, 1 and 2.

[1526] In the upper stage.

[1527] risk.

[1528] ay.

[1529] Insertions by Dy. Cf. x. 85.

[1530] Now Pembroke.

[1531] Q 1, _about_.

[1532] Up to this point Bacon has been preparing the glass; after this,
the friars know only what the scholars impart.

[1533] cause of offence.

[1534] So Q 1. and Dy.--Q 3 has 'suffers harm.' Q 4 and W. 'have harm.'
I have heard 'harm' used intransitively in the west of Ireland.

[1535] bout. Shak. _M.W.W._ I. i. 296.

[1536] The fathers.

[1537] G. finds difficulties. But the text is clear: "My ... slaine" is
answered by "And ... mine"; "Serlby ... that" by "Lambert ... well."
Appendix _C_, 2 _c_; _D_, 3 _a_.

[1538] Dy., G., W. query 'scholars.' No. Bacon has now stepped to the
glass, and for the first time sees the catastrophe in Suffolk.

[1539] Q 1, 'brutes,' but evidently in the sense of 'braves' or
'Britons.' See _R.D._ I. ii. 124 and _N.E.D._

[1540] Dy. and W. 'their.'

[1541] fated.

[1542] W. reads 'efficient'; but it is possible that Greene intended
this more heroic formation.

[1543] Dy. and W. 'pentageron' in view of ii. 49; but Greene may have
written 'pentagonon.'

[1544] Σωτήρ.

[1545] Q 3, 'Eloim and Adonai.'

[1546] Q 3, 'Tetragrammaton'; the four-lettered symbol of the ineffable
name.

[1547] Which of the magical hierarchies is uncertain. See Ward, _O. E.
D._ pp. 267, 268.

[1548] ll. 100-106. Cf. _Faustus_, xiv. 72 and 77.

[1549] Appendix _C_, 1 _a_.

[1550] 2 Cor. xv. 56.

[1551] Appendix _C_, 1 _a_.

[1552] Wagner emends (?) 'lost.'

[1553] Eds. alter to 'my.' But M. may mean "in view of how you failed
me" or "in view of your mistaken fancy for me."

[1554] Q 3, _forme_.

[1555] For metre and text of ll. 77, 79, 99, see respectively Appendix
_C_, 1 _a_; B, 2, and _D_, 3 _a_; _C_, 2 _c_ c.

[1556] Q 1, _weich_.

[1557] G. pronounces 'husseband.' Yes.

[1558] See note 1555, p. 497.

[1559] Q 1 has lines 105-108, 111-112, as prose. Eds. as above.

[1560] entrails.

[1561] Eds. 'let us.' But see Appendix _C_, 1 _b_.

[1562] Q 1: _Deuill_.

[1563] Q 1: _Blegiton_; Q 3, Phlegiton.

[1564] Q 1, _watchidg._--Q 3 corrects.--G. qy. 'watchadge.'

[1565] _I.e._ in the church.

[1566] _I.e._ against facings and trimmings. Mouse in _Mucedorus_ uses
the same phrase (H. Dods. VII, 213).

[1567] For his ale-account. But G. qy. 'cheese.'

[1568] bring it to a froth.

[1569] So, as late as Newfangle in _L. Will to L._ and Bailiff in _Kn.
Kn._

[1570] Q 1 (B. M.) ends with this word.

[1571] The curtana or 'pointless sword' of mercy; the 'pointed sword'
of justice; the 'golden rod' of equity.

[1572] Dy., G. qy. 'favourers.'

[1573] solémnizèd.

[1574] The sequel is the compliment to Queen Elizabeth.

[1575] Q 3, 'hellitropian'; _Never too Late_ 'helitropion.' Any kind of
heliotrope or turn-sol.

[1576] In _G-a-Greene_ "vail staff"; in _O. F._ "vail thy plumes."

[1577] Dy., some corruption; suggests 'comrades.' But x. 148 confirms
the text. See also Appendix _D_, 3 _a_.

[1578] So Dy., citing _O. F._ ll. 40-41, "swift Euphrates." Q 1,
_first_.

[1579] Appendix _C_, 2 _c_.

APPENDIX

SOME ALLEGED IRREGULARITIES IN THE VERSIFICATION OF FRIAR BACON

If we take the first quarto of _Friar Bacon_ as we find it, we shall
see that some of the peculiarities in verse structure are mannerisms
with which every student of contemporary drama is familiar, and that
others may be justified as intended for rhythmical and dramatic
expressiveness. These considerations convince me that it is best to
leave the versification--and consequently most of the text--as it was
in 1594.

=A. Accent.=--1. Greene makes frequent use of the _stress-syllable
opening_.--Sometimes for emphasis as in

ii. 49. Bów to the fórce of his pentágerón; and in vi. 28, 35, 45, 58.

Sometimes for the tripping effect, as in many of the lines assigned to
Margaret, _e.g._ iii. 10, 13, 15, 21, 30, 31; and in lines expressive
of the blithe, or the beautiful, such as i. 14, 15, 56, 60, 75, 81.
Such stress-syllable openings are frequently counterbalanced by an
anapæstic second or third foot; occasionally by two anapæsts, as in

vi. 58. Lácie, love mákes no excéption of a friend;
xii. 56. Híe thee to Frésingfield and bring hóme the lásse.

2. The stress syllable is used also to open the verse-section after the
pause, _e.g._:--

i. 78. She túrned her smócke | óver her lilly ármes; and in iii. 7.

But 'over,' 'safely,' might be read with the hovering accent. So xvi.
21 ('prìncès'). Methods (1) and (2) appear to be combined in

iii. 79. Máke but a stép | ínto the keépers lódge; and in iii. 81,
iv. 5, vi. 138.

3. The extra syllable is adroitly used before the verse-section (the
_epic cæsura_) as a compensation for the stress-syllable opening:--

ii. 156. Maíster Búrd_en_ | whèn shàll we sée you at Hénley?
xiv. 47. (Pégg_ie_ | thy daúghter, etc.), and vi. 58 as above
(Lác_ie_ | lòve màkes).

4. The _hovering accent_ is evident in such lines as

viii. 149. I práy | Gòd Ì | like hèr | as I lóv|ed theé.

It emphasizes the reluctant utterance. Ignoring this, Dy. and G. change
text and rhythm to:--

'Pray Gód | I like | her ás | I lóv|ed thee.

=B. Quantity.=--1. A syllable is broken into a dissyllable, or
prolonged by way of emphasis, in such cases as i. 168 (your̈ heart's),
ii. 18 (of āll ⋀ this), ii. 170 (Ā-men), ix. 116 (haile, or hāile),
vi. 17, xii. 43 (fair̈e), xiii. 38 (hour̈e). In names like Marg(a)ret,
Erm(e)sbie, diæresis or dialysis often occurs. For Elizabethan usage,
see Schipper, _Neuengl. Metrik_, 1: § 53, and Knaut, _Metrik R.
Greene's_ (Halle, 1890).

2. In vi. 4, 171, vii. 25, etc., such words as _devil_, _spirit_, are
contracted by synæresis or slurring. In x. 55, xiii. 3, xiii. 38 (while
I've; he'd; thou'st), we find elision or apocope, as, also, in xiv.
79, vi. 162, xiii. 37 ('n if she bé; 'n if your hónour; there'll bé).
In _vig'r, El'nor, fri'r, pow'r, fi'ry_, syncope. In vi. 135, ix 129
(To⌒avoid; no⌒unlesse), synalœpha. Evidently the dramatist has in mind
the spoken sentence, in which slurring and rapid pronunciation are more
likely to occur than omission of syllables.

=C. Lacking Syllables.=--1. _Compensation for one syllable_ is made by
a rhetorical pause, or by lengthening or emphasizing the next syllable,
_e.g._,

(_a_) In the first foot, for an absent thesis:--

vi. 17. ⋀ Thát this fai-r coúrteous coúntrie swaíne;
vi. 130. ⋀ Made me thinke the shádows súbstàncès;

unless we read with hovering accent, _sc._ "Màde mè ⋀ thínke,"
which wouýld accumulate the emphasis upon 'thinke.' Do., Dy., W.,
gratuitously insert 'to' before 'thinke.'

vi. 161. ⋀ Whý stànds frìer Búngay só amázed?

Another acephalous line. The suppression of the light syllable
accentuates the arsis 'Why.' For similar suppression in questions see
i. 20, ii. 156.

xiv. 77. ⋀ Whý,--then Màrgret wíll be shórne a nún?

Accumulated emphasis of surprise. So, in iii. 4: (⋀ Thómas, maids when
they cóme), etc.; and in

xiv. 34. ⋀ Lóve ... oh, Lóve!--and wíth fond Lóve, farewéll.

Dy., G., W., "Farewell, oh Love" for first two feet. But why should
Margaret repeat a verb which she has used twice already in this speech?
As for Greene, he was not writing a primer of prosody for school
recitations. Margaret has said farewell to world, friends, father, and
dainty robes, then with a sigh or sob, for which Greene allows by the
lacuna, she bids adieu to the dearest--"⋀ Lóve ... oh Lóve." The pause
before _Love_ heightens the explosion. A similar effect is produced by
the suppression at the beginning of

xiv. 20. ⋀ Pride, | flàttèr iè ànd | incónstant thoúghts
or perhaps ⋀ Príde | ⋀ flát terie ánd.

Dy. says this line is mutilated, and G. inserts 'vanitie' after
'Pride.' But the line is all right. See also _C_, 2 _b_, below.

ix. 171. ⋀ Grátious ás the mórning stárre of heáven.

I prefer this to Ward's emendation (approved by Wagner) 'Gratious as
_is_,' because the Q is less sibilant and, owing to the pause, more
deliberate and forcible. Greene may have written 'As gracious'; for
compare _Looking-Glasse_, l. 14, 'As glorious,' etc.

ix. 257. ⋀ Pérsia, dówne _her_ Vòlga bý canóws.

The rhetorical emphasis on 'her' compensates (with the hovering
accent) for the aposiopesis before 'Persia.' Greene's metrical effects
don't always count upon the fingers, but they are often rhythmically
delightful.

(_b_) For a lacking thesis in the second foot, a similar rhetorical
pause, sometimes also an anapæstic third foot, may compensate, as in

i. 11. And nów ⋀ chángde to a mélanchólie dúmpe.

The 'a' is in Q 1. Wagner's emendation (_Anglia_, p. 523; 1879),
"_he's_ chang'd to melancholy dump," is futile.

ii. 62. Carved oút ⋀ like to the pórtall óf the súnne.

Pause for reflection. The ear is satisfied by the spondaic first foot
and the anapæstic third. (With i. 11 and ii. 62 cf. _A_ 2 above.)

vii. 3. For hé ⋀ troópt with áll the wésterne kíngs.

The rhythmical aposiopesis represents a rhetorical pause for which the
strongly accented 'troopt' and 'all' compensate. Do., Dy., G., W., read
'troopèd,'--but I don't think Greene did.

x. 27. Contént ⋀ keéper; sénd her únto ús.

I have inserted a dash for the pause of decision after 'content':
Lambert accepts the proposition and acts. No metrical stop-gap is
necessary. Sometimes the arsis is lacking, and is supplied by a pause
or gesture:--

xiii. 4. Ah, Búngay, ⊼ my Brazen-head is spoíled.

A second 'ah' suggests itself, and Dy. and W. print it. But I have no
doubt Greene intended the speaker to draw breath for a sigh indicative
of despair.

xiv. 111. Come, Sússex, ⊼ let's ín we sháll have móre.

The missing arsis is supplied by the pause that succeeds a command.
With different punctuation we have '⋀ Cóme! | Sússex, let's ín,' which
is as good. The editors keep Lacie talking.

(_c_) In the third foot, lacking thesis:--

ix. 229. And gíve us cátes ⋀ fit for coúntrey swáines.

If the emperor did not pause for language suitable to the emergency,
it was because he pronounced 'cates' as a dissyllable. Cf. Marlowe's
_Faustus_ (Dyce ed. 1850, p. 211), "Pardon me _sweet_, ⋀ Í forgot
myself."

ix. 144. How nów, ⋀ Vándermást! have you mét with your mátch?

Pause for surprise. If the pause should fall before 'have' it would
indicate the transition to inquiry. In this and the next instance
anapæstic compensation is prominent.

ix. 148. Why Vándermast, ⋀ árt thou óvercóme?

But it is rhetorically more natural to read: '⋀ Whý ⋀ Vándermást, art
thou óvercóme?'

(_d_) In the fourth foot, lacking thesis:--

v. 62-64. _Edw._ To whóm speakest thóu? _Bacon._ To thée. _Edw._
⋀ Whó art thóu?

Pause justified by change of speaker, and the indignant inquiry.

2. _Two or more syllables lacking._ To assume that omissions of
this kind are due to carelessness on the part of author, scribe, or
printer, is to beg the question. It is more reasonable to premise the
genuineness of the lines and consider whether each in turn is not to be
justified by its dramatic conditions. The following sixteen exhaust,
I think, the more flagrant instances of lacuna in this play. In none
would I alter the text of the first quarto.

(_a_) Edward's lines:--

vi. 47. Gogs wóunds ⋀ Bácon hére comes Lácie ⊼.

Abrupt outcry, in which the less and the more forcible exclamatory
pauses are metrically provided for by the lacking thesis and arsis
respectively. The lacking thesis allows also for the transition from
surprise to affirmation. This line is paralleled by

vi. 127. Gogs wóunds ⋀ Bácon they kísse! Ile stáb them ⊼.

The former pause for breathless amazement; the latter for decision and
a gesture. He raises his hand to deal the blow.

vi. 146. Helpe, Bácon ⊼! ⋀ stóp the márriage nów!

Dyce, "some word or words wanting." Others would supply "Helpe! and"
and so reduce the line to mediocrity. The omission is intentional. The
exclamatory pause after 'Bacon' is metrically equivalent to an accented
syllable. The pause before 'stop' is for Edward's quandary--as if he
should for a moment cast about for an appropriate request. The line
might of course be interpreted so as to require one lacking thesis
before 'Helpe' and one before 'Bacon.'

vi. 108. ⋀ Hów familiar they bé, Bacòn, ⋀ ⊼.

First pause, the gasp before an interrogatory exclamation. Second pause
for Bacon's 'Sit still,' which as a convertible fo_o_t is the last of
this line and the first of the next.

vi. 176. The foot pause before 'Flees' may allow for a burst of
laughter. Wagner suggests '_very_ fear,' which no compatriot of
Greene, if he read the line aloud, can tolerate. Until English is
a dead language it will hardly be judicious to encourage foreign
emendations of our masterpieces.

(_b_) Margaret's lines.

iii. 46. Suppression of the first two feet in rapid dialogue. The
words 'sent this rich purse' might have been set down before 'To me?'
but with what advantage save to fill the pentameter? For the clause
has occurred once and the verb twice already in the last six lines.
The suppression intensifies the dialogue, and accentuates the mingled
surprise and impatience of the speaker.

viii. 132. A rhetorical pause occupies the first foot or the last.
Like the preceding instance in so far as the aposiopesis indicates
question and surprise. Dy., G., insert 'indeed' before 'mean': easy
but needless.

x. 156. Dy. queries 'shall be' after 'wealth.' But the words 'shall
be' are implied from the preceding line, and so intentionally
omitted. An additional rhetorical emphasis falls upon _trash_:--

Wealth, ⊼ ⋀ träsh; love, háte; pleàsùre, dispaíre.

xiv. 20. Impassioned soliloquy within an address, like x. 158.
The light syllables of the first and second feet are suppressed to
increase the effect of the accented syllables: ⋀ Príde ⋀ flätterie
and--.

(_c_) Lines of other characters.

ii. 157. The infuriate Burden occupies the first foot with a stifled
'Henly!' or something unreverend.

ix. 120. An interrogatory pause for the first foot or an exclamatory
for the last; unless we combine the lines thus:--

_Van._ What art thóu that quéstionst thús? _Bacon._ Men cáll me Bácon.

ix. 162. Whý, ⋀ Bacon, whíther dost thóu send him.

As in vi. 161, and ix. 148, the lacunæ correspond with moments of
breathless surprise; and emphasis is accumulated upon the syllables
respectively succeeding. If we scan without pauses, the lacunæ will
occupy the fifth foot which might naturally be reserved for Bacon's
echo-question [send him?]. 'Whither,' probably contracted 'whe'r.'

x. 150. What ánswere shall Í retúrne to my lórd? [_Marg_. Retúrne?]

Another echo-foot. Unless we pronounce 'réturne' for which there is
authority, as in iv. 56, 'prógress,' ix. 242, 'éxceed.' See Schipper,
_Neuengl. Metr._, p. 153.

xiii. 72. My father slaine! ⋀⊼ Sèrlbỳ, ward thát.

The thesis of the third foot allows for the recoil of horror; the arsis
for the transition to revenge--the drawing of the rapier.

xiv. 99. Echo of the previous idea, unuttered because dramatically
understood; ['_As glád_] as if,' etc. Dy. suggests insertion
⋀ ⊼
'As _glad as_ if,' and G. adopts. No.

xvi. 69. Let's márch: ⋀ ⩡ the tábles áll are spréad.

The silent foot allows for the rhetorical pause between command and
affirmation. Cf. vi. 146. Dy.'s 'Let _us_ march _hence_,' and G.'s 'Let
_us_ march _on_,' will do well enough if we must keep somebody talking
all the time.

=D. Additional Syllables.=--Like the foregoing apparently deficient
lines it will be found that, properly read, most of the so-called
hypermetric lines conform to the pentameter. The dozen or so that do
not are warranted by historic, if not by rhetorical, conditions. At any
rate they are much more likely to be the lines that Greene wrote than
are the 'procrustitutes' which we might suggest.

1. Readers should allow for _feminine endings_, as

ix. 111. To thém of Síen, Flórence ánd Belógna;

or _Bolónia_, gliding ending.

ii. 156. ⋀ Maíster Búrden whèn shàll we sée you at Hénly?

Of feminine endings Knaut counts ten, and about four gliding.

2. They should allow also for the anapæst in itself (as ix. 231) or by
way of compensation for a missing syllable in an adjoining foot. Two
such give the appearance of a senarius. Occasionally, as in vi. 163
('gay straightwáy,' or 'way from Frés--'), the foot is awkward. Even
so, I do not think that the emendation 'straight' (Dy., W.) for this
'straightway' is necessary.

3. _Senarii._ (_a_) The following are such in appearance only. They
should be read as pentameters in which the anapæst, slurring, or
elision, is employed. In

i. 156. Send létters speéd'ly | to Óxford óf the néwes,

we have the epic cæsura. So also vi. 94, cæsura after 'Beckles'; and so

x. 77. Give mè ... but tén days' réspite | and Íle replý,
and xvi. 30. Atténds on Él'nor | gramércies, lórd, for hér.

In ix. 191. ⋀ Mártiall Plantágenet | Hénries highmínded sónne,

we have the lyric cæsura; so also in

xiii. 67. Then this for her | Áh, well thrúst. But márke, the wárd.

Cf. Schipper _Neuengl. Metr._, p. 25 _n_.

In iii. 51. For we've líttle leísure tó debáte of thát,

vi. 131-132. 'Twere a lóng poinárd, my lórd, to reách betweéne
⋀ Óxford and Frésingfiéld, but sit stíll and see móre,
vi. 162. I've stroók him dúm my lórd | 'n if your hónor pleáse,
ix. 31. Of éleméntal éssence, térra's but thóught,
ix. 45. Ànd òf the víg'r of the géomantic fiends,
xiv. 79. We cánnot stáy my lórd | 'n if she bé so stríct,--

anapaestic readings with natural apocope or syncope preserve the
pentameter. Dy's 'you' for 'your honor' in vi. 162, and omission of 'my
lord' in xiv. 79, are therefore unnecessary.

xvi. 64 appears to have six feet; but if it is taken in sequence with
the preceding line the effect is of two five-foot lines.

(_b_) The following senarii of Q 1 are real, and should be preserved,
though Dyce and Ward generally place the first foot in a line by
itself. The Marlowan reform had not yet completed the rout of the
Alexandrine,--and even if it had Greene would have remained unrouted.
He uses the Alexandrine, sometimes unconsciously, sometimes for
variety. Perhaps a few of these senarii, i. 10, 83; ii. 112, 148; iii.
26; vi. 77; ix. 185; x. 149; xi. 7, 92; xii. 18; xiv. 78; xvi. 40, are
accidental, but most of them are intended to be impressive, and the
additional foot generally indicates the person most concerned.

=E. Other Debated Lines.=

iv. 11. Ward retains the senarius. Dyce thinks 'corrupted,' and
queries, 'As Agenor's damsel did,' for 'through the deep' is almost a
repetition of 'through the seas.'--Wagner: 'like Europa through the
deep.'--Perhaps (says Palgrave acc. to Ward) the dramatist pronounced
the name _Ágenor_. We might then scan:--

And vénture as Ágenor's dámsel thróugh the deép.

But it is quite as likely that Greene intended, or let slip, a
senarius. ix. 112. The quartos are right, and we should scan thus:--

Reìmès, Lovaín, and faí-r Rótherdam.

For 'fayer,' etc., see _B_ 1, above. By altering to 'Rheims,' Do., Dy.,
G., and W. miss the metre. G., for instance, reads 'Rheims [and]'; Elze
(_Notes on Elizab. Dramatists_, Halle, 1886, cxcix): 'Of Rheíms, of
Loúvain ánd fair Rótterdám'; Knaut: 'Rheims, Loúvain, Páris ánd.' But
if we preserve the spelling of the quartos the scansion is simple.

=A Few Conclusions.=--Greene was sensitive to dramatic niceties
of utterance. Hence most of the metrical idiosyncrasies which are
improperly called irregularities. An induction from the instances
cited under _C_ above shows that the following were the conditions of
utterance to which he accorded special elocutionary recognition: the
pause before a question or a response and the increase of emphasis upon
the syllable succeeding the silence; the pause for reflection, and
the pause before deliberate utterance; decision attending a command;
the pause of speechless anger; the stoppage due to sighing, sobbing,
horror, or any recoil of emotion; the period of, or after, a gesture,
an inarticulate cry, a burst of laughter, an exclamatory remark; the
pause during the suppression of the self-explanatory. The examination
of his practice in _Friar Bacon_ shows that in order to represent
these conditions in dramatic blank verse Greene availed himself of
silent beats with a uniformity that might be called system, were it the
outcome of anything less spontaneous than the rhetorical instinct and
the feeling for rhythm. Subordinating these to his knowledge of stage
'business,' Greene seems, then, to have developed a metrical use of the
lacuna somewhat like this:--

_Before_ an important affirmation, the name of one addressed in
exclamation, an inquiry, an imperative request, a command;

_At_ the transition from one form of utterance to another, the
suppression of word or words understood, the gulp of rage, the burst of
laughter;

_After_ an outcry.

These conclusions are confirmed by an examination of the other plays
in which the text is fairly authentic. The dramatist naturally and,
in that sense, intentionally suited his 'lines' to the histrionic
emergency: an achievement not difficult for one of his rhetorical
quality, who was also familiar with the practice of the stage. On
similar grounds and with a regard likewise for the conditions of verse
at the time, his senarii are to be retained and defended.

Most of the attempts to reduce his dramatic blank verse to anything
like measured uniformity are, therefore, in my opinion academic and
superfluous. They are indeed worse, for not only do they ignore the
personal equation, they tend to pervert the data from which the history
of English metres must be derived. There may, of course, be lines,
like vi. 17 and ix. 47 of this play, where dramatist or intermediary
has unwittingly omitted something, or actor wantonly added, but they
are few; and unless the sense calls out for orthopædic assistance,
no literary, historical, or philological interest is subserved by
doctoring the text.

_Henry Porter_

THE PLEASANT HISTORY OF
THE TWO ANGRY WOMEN OF ABINGTON

_Edited with Critical Essay and
Notes by Charles Mills Gayley,
LL. D., Professor in the University
of California._

CRITICAL ESSAY

=The Facts of Porter's Life.=--_The Two Angry Women of Abington_ is the
only extant production of Henry Porter. In 1841 Mr. Collier, who was
then editing Henslowe's _Diary_, supplied Mr. Dyce with what purported
to be all the materials in that journal relative to this dramatist;
and these, with the exception of one of August 23, 1597, connecting
him with Nashe, which has been shown to be a forgery, are copied from
Dyce's Percy Society edition of the _Two Angrie Women_ by Mr. H. Ellis
for the preface to the Mermaid edition of the play. The statement is
there made that "the foregoing extracts--extending over the brief
period of a single year ... contain all the definite information which
has reached us concerning Henry Porter." An examination of Collier's
Henslowe's _Diary_ will show, however, that Mr. Ellis omits about a
dozen entries[1580] affecting our poet which, though inaccessible
to Dyce in 1841, have been available since 1845. A complete list of
such notices in their chronological order has not been set before the
public. I, therefore, subjoin the following, inserting an additional
memorandum (No. 8) of January 17, 1598-9, from another source, and
eliminating the suspicious Henslowe entries which Mr. George F.
Warner[1581] has branded as Collier forgeries. The references are to
the first volume of the _Diary_.

1. P. 77. Dd unto Mʳ Porter, the 16 of desembr 1596 vˡⁱ

2. P. 77. Lent unto Mʳ Porter, the 7 of march 1597 iiijˡⁱ

3. P. 124. Lent unto the Company, the 30 of maye 1598, to bye a boocke
called love prevented, the some of fower powndes, dd to THOMAS DOWTON.
Mʳ Porter[1582] iiijˡⁱ

4. P. 126. Lent unto Cheattell, the 26 of June 1598, in earnest of a
boocke called the 2 pte of blacke Battman of the north; and Mʳ Harey
Porter hath geven me his worde for the performance of the same, and
allso for my money xxˢ

5. P. 131. Lent unto the company, the 18 of Aguste 1598, to bye a
Boocke called hoote anger sone cowld of Mʳ Porter, Mʳ cheattell, and
bengemen Johnson, in fulle payment, the some of vjˡⁱ

6. P. 141. Lent unto thomas Dowton, the 22 of desembr 1598, to bye
a boocke of harey Poorter called the 2 pte of the 2 angrey wemen of
abengton vˡⁱ

7. P. 144. Lent unto harey Porter, the 17 of Janewary, 1598[-9] at the
request of Richard Alleyn and Wᵐ Birde the some of xxˢ

8. An acknowledgment of the transaction (No. 7) in the Bodleian. See
note prefixed to Malone's copy (Malone, 184): as follows,

"An acknowledgement of a debt of 20 _s_. owing to Philip Henslowe,
dated Jan. 17th, 1598[-9], and bearing the autograph signature of
Henry Porter, formerly lying loose in this volume is now to be
found in MS. Eng. Hist. C. 4, fol. 15. (Signed) W. H. A., June 8,
1885."

9. P. 143. Lent unto Thomas Dowton, the 31 of Janewary 1598[-9],
to bye tafetie for ij womones gownes, for the ij angrey wemen of
abengton, the some of ixˡⁱ

10. P. 145. Lent unto Thomas Downton, the 12 of febreary 1598[-9], to
paye Mʳ Poorter, in fulle payment for his boocke called the 2 pte of
the angry wemen of abington, the some of ijˡⁱ

11. P. 145. Lent unto Thomas Downton, the 12 of febreary 1598[-9], to
bye divers thinges for the playe called the 2 pte of the angrey wemen
of abington ijˡⁱ

12. P. 146. Lent unto harey porter, at the Requeste of the company,
in earneste of his boocke called ij mery wemen of abenton the sume
of forty shellings; and for the Resayte of that money he gave me
his faythfull promysse that I shold have all the boockes which he
writte, ether him selfe or with any other, which some was dd the 28 of
febreary, 1598[-9]. I saye xxxxˢ
THOMAS DOWNTON, ROBERT SHAWE[1583]

13. P. 146. Lent unto Harey Cheattell, the 4 of marche 1598[-9], in
earneste of his boocke, which harey Porter and he is a writinge, the
some of, called the Spencers xˢ

14. P. 146. Lent unto Robart Shawe, the 22 of marche 1598[-9], to paye
unto Mʳ porter, in full paymente of his playe called the Spensers the
some of vˡⁱ xˢ

15. P. 147. Lent unto Harey Porter, at the apoyntment of Thomas
Downton, the 7 of aprell 1599, the some of xxˢ

16. P. 151. [A note for the same in Porter's handwriting]--Borrowed of
phillip Henchlowe, xxˢ, the vijth of Aprill, anno. dom. 1599. (Signed)
HENRY PORTER

17. P. 148. Lent unto Thomas Downton, the 9 of Aprell 1599, to bye
dyvers thinges, as 4 clothe clockes, and macke up a womones gowne, the
some of--For the Spencers xˡⁱ

18. P. 94.[1584] Lent Harey Porter, the 11 of aprill 1599 the some of
ijˢ vjᵈ

19. P. 148. Lent unto Thomas Downton, the 14 of Aprell 1599, to macke
divers thinges for the playe of the Spencers, the some of xvˡⁱ

20. P. 148. Delyvered unto Thomas Downton boye, Thomas parsones,
to bye divers thinges for the playe of the Spencers, the 16 of
aprell 1599, the some of[1585] vˡⁱ

21. P. 94. Lent Harey Porter, the 16 of aprell, 1599, the some of
xijᵈ

22. P. 261. Harey Porter tocke a somsete of me, Phillipe Henslowe, the
16 of Aprell 1599, upon this condition, that yf I would geve him xijᵈ
at that instant, for that xijᵈ he bound hime seallfe unto me in xˡⁱ
of corant Inglishe mony, for this cawse to paye unto me the next daye
folowinge all the money which he oweth unto me, or els to ferfette for
that xijᵈ tenn powndes; which deate wase unto me xxvˢ, which he hath
not payd acordinge to his bonde, and so hath forfetted unto me:
wittnes to this a sumsette,
JOHN HASLETT, Va[ul]ter
Mᴿ KYNGMAN, the Elder.

[This entry which seems to refer to No. 21, would naturally be made on
the 18th of April, 1599, but in the _Diary_ it occurs at the end of a
confused sequence running March 25, 1598, November 16, 1599, August 9,
1598, September 18, 1602, September 19, 1602. Between it and the next
entry, undated but probably of February, 1601-2, leaves are missing or
mutilated. According to Dyce, whose information came from Collier, the
entry on p. 94 "is struck through, the money having been repaid." But
Collier does not record the payment of the xijᵈ in his edition of the
_Diary_; nor, according to p. 261, was Porter released from the "deate
of xxvˢ" or the "forfette of xˡⁱ."]

23. P. 94. Lent Harey Porter, the 5 of may 1599 the some of ijˢ 6ᵈ

24. P. 94. Lent Harey Porter, the 15 of maye 1599, the some of
ijˢ 6ᵈ
(Signed) HENRY PORTER

25. P. 94. Be it knowne unto all men, that I, Henry Porter, do owe
unto Phillip Henchlowe the some of xˢ, of lawfull money of England,
wcʰ I did borrowe of hym the 26 of maye, aº dom. 1599.
HENRY PORTER[1586]

=Other Early Notices.=--Meres, in the _Palladis Tamia_, 1598, names
our dramatist as one of the best for comedy among us, and places him
in good company: Lyly, Lodge, Gascoigne, Greene, Shakespeare, Nashe,
Thomas Heywood, Munday, Chapman, Wilson, Hathaway, and Chettle. It
is perhaps worthy of remark that, beginning with Nashe, all these
playwrights were at the time Porter's associates in the employ of
Henslowe and the Admiral's company, and that in this list our poet
rubs shoulders with Chapman and Wilson. Much less flattering are the
references in Richard West's _Court of Conscience or Dick Whipper's
Sessions_, 1607,[1587] to "ruffianly Dick Coomes" (Poem to _Prophane
Swearers_) and "Nimble-tongued Nicholas as the Proverbe saith" (Address
to _Liers_), which are undoubtedly allusions to our play[1588]:
for although Porter's Nicholas is not a liar, his Coomes is, in
the extreme, ruffianly and profane. The context of _The Court of
Conscience_ would indicate, however, that West was availing himself,
to some extent, of nicknames proverbial among the vulgar, such as
Suckblood, Tom Taylor, Money Monger, and Nicholas Newfangle. That
Porter's play was still in circulation as late as 1661 is shown by its
inclusion in Kirkman's Catalogue of that date.

=Conjectural Identity.=--Malone, Collier, and Dyce give no clue; in
fact they do not exhaust the materials in Henslowe. Langbaine mentions
only the printed play. Hunter, in his _Chorus Vatum Anglicanorum_[1589]
says "it can hardly be doubted that this is the same Henry Porter of
Christ Church who was made Bachelor of Music in July, 1600 (_Alumn.
Oxon._ III. 1182). Wood says that he had seen some of his compositions,
but thinks none were extant when he wrote. This Henry Porter was
father of Walter Porter, Master of the Choristers at Westminster, who
had friends in Sir Edward Spencer and Edward Laurence. He was related
to Dr. John Wilson." Foster in the _Alumni Oxonienses_, tells us, in
addition, that Walter became gentleman of the Chapel Royal of Charles
I. This information is all traceable to Wood's _Fasti_,[1590] but Wood
does not attempt to identify Henry Porter the dramatist with Henry
Porter the musical composer. Of the latter we learn, from the _Register
of the University of Oxford_,[1591] that he had studied music for
twelve years and had "composed" before he took his degree, July 4,
1600. There is no record of a degree in arts, nor of matriculation,
at Christ Church; this musical activity would seem, however, to have
occupied the career of the future bachelor of music from a date eight
years before Porter the dramatist appeared in Henslowe's employ to
a date after our poet had borrowed his last half-crown from that
employer. "The statutable conditions for the degree of Mus. Bac." at
that time, say Boase and Clark,[1592] "were that the candidate should
have been seven years _in re musica_, and that he should compose and
cause to be sung in the university a _canticum quinque partium_, giving
three days' notice of the performance of this exercise." That a student
like Porter of Christ Church, who had proceeded leisurely through his
course in music, taking twelve years instead of the seven prescribed,
and who, meanwhile, was composing canticles on elevated and, probably,
sacred themes, should be a man of maturity and acknowledged worth is
only natural to suppose. And such was the esteem in which Porter of
Christ Church was held by an Oxford undergraduate of that day, who
addresses him in the following verses, published in 1599:[1593]--

"AD HENRICUM PORTER

Porter I durst not mell with sacred writ,
Nor woe the mistris fore I win the maide;
For my yong yeres are taskt; its yet unfitte,
For youth as eld is never halfe so staid.
Thy selfe which hath the summe of Art and Wit
Thus much I know unto me would have said;
Thy silver bell could not so sweetly sing
If that too soone thou hadst begun her ring."

The Porter thus apostrophized by John Weever has set sacred writ to
music, but only after careful discipline leading to the musical art;
and his wisdom has been proved by the result: "Thy silver bell" of
music, says his admirer, "could not so sweetly sing, If that too soon
thou hadst begun her ring." Mr. Havelock Ellis,[1594] to whom these
verses were communicated by Mr. Bullen, understands them to refer to
Porter the dramatist, and concludes therefrom, that he was "at the
period of his _dramatic activity_ a man of mature age."

But there is nothing in Weever's verses applicable to the dramatist
as we know that personage: his extant play is anything but sacred,
it presents no particular evidence of mature authorship, betrays no
interest in musical affairs, yields no bell-tones of style or verse.
While Weever was writing his _Epigrams_, 1596 to 1599, the dramatist
was pursuing anything but a staid and silvern course at the Rose
Theatre on the Bankside. The slowly matured composer of canticles,
on the other hand, was completing a leisurely discipline at Christ
Church, and to such a student Weever's eulogy admirably applies.[1595]
In all probability the composer stuck to his _metier_. He was of a
musical family: his son obtained recognition from Court for his musical
attainments; and a kinsman, Dr. John Wilson, "a very eminent musician
of whom there is a long notice in Wood," was professor of music at
Oxford in 1656.[1596]

The familiarity with Oxford and its surroundings displayed in the drama
of the two angry women who meet in the neighboring village of Abington
is, however, indicative of Oxonian authorship, and we are again driven
to the registers of the university in search of some available Henry
Porter. There is, I find, but one capable, in point of chronology, of
fulfilling the conditions:

"Matriculations: 19 June, 1589, Brazenose, Porter, Henry; Lond.,
_gen. f._ 16."[1597]

Concerning the academic career of this Henry Porter there is
no information to be gathered from the records of university or
college--why he was not admitted B.A., or why or when he left his
college. I am apprised, however, by Mr. C. B. Heberden, the Principal
of Brasenose, who at my request kindly instituted the requisite search,
that such absence of information is not unusual, for the College
Register was very imperfectly kept in the sixteenth century. If this
was our Henry Porter, the author of the _Pleasant History of the Two
Angry Women_, he was born in 1573, the son of a gentleman of London,
he kept an uneventful term or so at Brasenose, and was perhaps still
there in 1592 when his future associate in Henslowe's employ, John
Marston, was matriculated. After his return to London he must have
taken speedily to play-writing, for he was not more than twenty-three
years of age when we find him selling his dramas to the Admiral's
company for distinctly reputable sums. A modest straw in favour of
the supposition that this was our dramatist is the explicit statement
in both editions of our play to the effect that its author was Henry
Porter, _Gent_. We have no proof that the Porter of Christ Church, who
took his only degree after our play was printed, had any right in 1599
to sign himself Gentleman.

=Dramatic Career.=--Although, as I have said, only one of Porter's
plays is extant, the entries in Henslowe, and their context, enable
us to form some conception of his relation to the contemporary drama.
They indicate that between December 16, 1596, and May 26, 1599, he
was associated as a writer of plays with the Admiral, the Earl of
Nottingham's company of actors, and that after February 28, 1599,
his services were pledged to that company alone. It is possible that
he had also acquaintance among the Earl of Pembroke's men, who were
acting at The Rose for a short time during October and November, 1597,
in partnership with the Admiral's company; but of this we cannot be
certain, for we have no record of Porter's actions between March 7,
1597, and May 30 of the ensuing year.

The payment of December 16, 1596, is not in loan nor "in earnest of a
boocke," but _delivered_ as for a play then completed; and the sum,
even if it were not a final instalment, would in itself indicate a
play of some promise, for £6 or £7 was as much as Henslowe usually
gave for a production even by an author already distinguished. If the
payment was for a completed "boocke," the play would, according to
the procedure of the Admiral's men, have been ready for presentation
within a period of ten days to six weeks after the date of purchase.
The following were the new plays presented by this company during
that period: _That Will Be Shall Be_, December 30, 1596; _Alexander
and Lodowick_, January 14, and _Woman Hard to Please_, January 27,
1597. Of these _Alexander_ was the most successful, and _That Will
Be_ next.[1598] It is possible that the third play was the work of
Heywood who had been recently paid 30s.--for a "boocke."[1599] As to
_Alexander_, it is mentioned two years later as the property of Martin
Slater,[1600] and there is reason to conjecture that it was written by
him. But, even if these attributions were conclusive, we should not be
justified in assuming--that the book remaining unassigned, _That Will
Be Shall Be_, was the property for which Porter was paid on December
16, 1596. It is not, however, impossible that his first production was
one of the three most popular plays put upon the boards at The Rose
that season. That Henslowe's loan to Porter on the following March 7
had any connection with a play of December 16, 1596, is most unlikely.
Henslowe was not by way of disbursing £9 for one "boocke." The date is
also too remote from May 30, 1598, to permit of our connecting this
loan with the payment for _Love Prevented_, there mentioned, let alone
the objection that if the entries of March 7, 1597, and May 30, 1598,
refer to the same play, the author was paid the unusually high sum of
£8. But though we cannot prove that Porter made much out of Henslowe
and the Admiral's men, it would seem that they made a good deal out
of him. For after certain purchases from Porter and during the period
within which the first performances of his plays must naturally have
occurred, the theatre receipts increased appreciably. The play of
May 30, 1598, for instance, would, according to custom, have been
presented some time between June 10 and June 30. The only other new
play that could during those weeks have assisted to swell the profits
of the theatre was the First Part of _Blacke Battman of the North_, by
distinguished authors, to be sure, but not extant. Henslowe's weekly
receipts from "my Lord Admerall's mean" during the month before June
10 had averaged £3 16_s._ 3_d._; during the period between June 10 and
June 30 they rose to an average of £5 4_s._ 4_d._; the week after June
30 they fell again to £2 11_s._ 6_d._[1601] That Porter was at that
time held in respect by Henslowe is shown by the transaction of June
26, when the crafty manager took his surety for the performance of a
literary and pecuniary obligation by Chettle, than whom no one could
have been habitually more in arrears. And that Porter's plays were
worth having is proved by Henslowe's engaging, in February of the next
year, everything that he might write, whether in partnership or alone.
That this appreciation of his plays was shared also by the company
appears from the unusual sums which they expended for the apparel and
properties necessary to their presentation.[1602]

Of the playwrights at that time attached to the Admiral's company,
the most intimately associated with Porter would appear to have been
Chettle; and, through him, our poet must have been brought into close
relations with Robert Wilson, who was Chettle's colleague in that
_Second Part of Blacke Battman_, for the completion of which Porter
went surety,--also with Dekker and Drayton, who had assisted in the
writing of the First Part, and were, maybe, interested in the Second.
In fact, Chettle, Dekker, Drayton, Wilson were boon companions in
productivity and the 'marshallsey': to go bail for one of them was
presumably to pay for all. With Ben Jonson, who was just then coming
into notice as a dramatist, Henry Porter must have drained many a
flagon. In August, 1598, these two have just finished writing a play
in company with Chettle, _Hot Anger Soon Cold_, and are paid a fair
price for it by Henslowe, who seems to regard Porter, however, as the
principal author, for he enters his name first in the record. But if
the returns from this play are included in Henslowe's receipts of the
next two months, it cannot have been more than an ordinarily successful
production.[1603]

During the latter part of 1598 our dramatist is engaged upon a play
called by Henslowe the _2 Pte of the 2 angrey women of abengton_.
This was rehearsed during January and February, 1599, and by February
12, the day on which final payment was made to Porter, £11[1604] had
been expended on properties for the performance. It was probably ready
for presentation at that time, and its success may have assisted the
sudden leap in Henslowe's share of the receipts from £7 10_s._, for
the week ending February 18, to £15 3_s._, for the ten days ending
February 29,[1605] 1599. This play paid Porter £7, a higher figure than
_Hot Anger_ had brought. Some two weeks later he is under contract
to produce a sequel, the _ij mery wemen of abenton_, and only four
days later still, March 11, he is engaged in a new partnership with
Chettle to produce a play entitled _The Spencers_, or _Despencers_, a
magnificent and tragic subject perhaps suggested by the reprinting of
Marlowe's _Edward II._ during the preceding year.[1606] _The Spencers_
was finished by the 22d of the same month. That it was looked upon
as a play of great promise appears from the large amounts which, as
already stated, were expended in its preparation for the stage. It
was first acted some time after April 14. On the 16th Henslowe enters
a final small disbursement for properties, of which perhaps the need
was perceived during the first performance. His receipts for the week
ending April 15 rise to £13 7_s._, four times as much as for the week
before; while the entry, £13 16_s._, for the week next ensuing, during
which the play was surely on the stage, is, with the exception of those
of February 29, already mentioned, and of June 3,[1607] the largest
that year. Perhaps by April 22 the novelty of _The Spencers_ had begun
to wear off, for there is again a drop in Henslowe's receipts, to £11
5_s._, the week ending April 29.[1608] This partnership with Chettle
existed, by the way, in the year when _Every Man in his Humour_ was
in course of composition, and it ended just about a month before
'Bengemen' passed a rapier through Gabriel Spenser in Hoxton Fields.

Beside the playwrights already mentioned, Porter must have known in
varying degrees of intimacy Heywood, Haughton, Day, Munday, Chapman,
Hathaway, and, perhaps, Rankins, who were then writing for the company;
also Samuel Rowley and Martin Slater, who appear to have been serving
as actor-dramatists. With the players Downton, Richard Alleyn, Robert
Shaw, and the polyonymous William Bird, Porter was associated in
various business negotiations. Of course he knew the above-mentioned
Gabriel Spenser, and Henslowe's son-in-law, Edward Alleyn, and the
two Jeffes, and Towne and Singer, and the other active members of the
company.

Most of the playwrights in Henslowe's pay lived in hand-to-mouth
style; but in art of cozening groats from the manager who in turn
squeezed angels from the dramatist, none excelled 'Harey' Chettle. It
is instructive to note that, from the period of close intimacy with
Chettle, Porter sinks ever deeper in Henslowe's debt. On January 17,
1599, he had borrowed a pound of Henslowe. He was then, still, in
the heyday of his success; but only six weeks later, February 28, we
find Henslowe, under cover of a further beggarly advance, acquiring a
lien on all his productivity. A few days after that the two 'Hareys,'
doubtless with a hope of release from the moneylender's grip, are
sweating out _The Spencers_ for him; and Chettle, with or without
Porter's knowledge, is borrowing another half-sovereign in earnest of
its completion. When, on March 22, the joint production is finished,
the dramatists are paid less for it than _The Second Part of the Two
Angry Women_ had brought to Porter alone; and before it is acted Porter
has given his note of hand to Henslowe for another pound; and so
proceeds the declension of 'Harey' Porter. Between December 16, 1596,
and June 26, 1598, he had been Henslowe's 'Mr. Porter'; as soon as he
begins to borrow, January 17, 1599, he is 'Harey' with a rare reversion
to the ancient style; after April 7 there is no reversion. The loans,
too, which at first were of a dignified amount, suddenly fall to 2_s._
6_d._ Familiarity has bred as usual; and, by April 16, 'Harey,' who
at this time owes the manager 25_s._, is compelled in consideration of
1_s._ to clear his debt on the morrow or forfeit £10. Next day Shylock
has him, but for some reason continues to dribble out the sixpences
until May 26. Then 'Harey' signs the last I. O. U. of which we have
record, and drops out of history and Henslowe with as little warning as
he had entered.

=Date of the Extant Play.=--Porter wrote two plays and engaged to write
a third on the _Women of Abington_. Of a First Part of the _Two Angry
Women_, there is no record in Henslowe, at least under that name. But
of the Second Part the entries of December 22, 1598, and February 12,
1599, make explicit mention; and an intervening note of January 31,
1599, which records an outlay for the play without specification of
the part is by date and position evidently a reference to this same
Second Part. According to the entries of February 12, the sum of £2
was on that day expended in a concluding purchase of properties for
the performance, and an equal amount was given to Porter in final
payment for the "boocke" entitled _the 2 pte. of the angry wemen of
abington_. So closes all record of that second part. The payment of £2,
two weeks later, February 28, is the usual advance "in earneste of" a
"boocke" not yet finished; but the title of it was _the ij mery women
of abenton_, and it was undoubtedly intended to be a continuation of
the general theme. There is, however, no record of final payment (of
£4 or £5) as in other cases, and no proof that the play was completed.
I have no doubt that the play of which the text is here given, _The
Pleasant History of the Two Angry Women of Abington_, is the unrecorded
First Part, above mentioned. Our drama was twice printed in 1599 "as
it was lately playde by ... the ... Admirall his servants," and it
had, in all probability, been in the possession of the company for
some time before publication; whereas the Second Part was only first
acted in that year, and would not, with the consent of the company,
have been turned over to printers. For it was to the player's interest
to restrict his dramatic stock-in-trade, while it was novel, to the
play-house. That the non-extant play of December 22, 1598-February 12,
1599, which is explicitly called the Second Part, was preceded by _The
Pleasant History_ is, moreover, confirmed by the title-page of _The
Pleasant History_, which is unconscious of predecessor and sequel
alike. By how long a period, then, did our play precede the missing
Second Part? The words "as it was lately playde" on the title-pages of
both editions may or may not be advertisement. But there is, at any
rate, no likelihood that the first performance antedated May 14, 1594,
when the Admiral's men began their long engagement with Henslowe; nor
that it fell between that date and December 16, 1596, for it does not
appear (nor any name that suggests it) in Henslowe's consecutive list
of plays performed by the Admiral's men during that period. And since
Henslowe observed his method of entry by days and plays until November
5, 1597, the _Pleasant History_ would have been specified in that part
of the diary[1609] if the first payment to Porter, December 16, 1596,
or the loan of the succeeding March 7, had been for a play bearing that
name. Since there is no mention of a _Pleasant History of the Two Angry
Women of Abington_ before the close of Henslowe's daily register, nor
of a _First Part of the Two Angry Women_ between that date and December
22, 1598, when negotiations are in progress for a Second Part, it
would seem that, whether our play came into existence before or after
November 5, 1597, it must have first passed under some other name.

In the former alternative not even the wildest conjecture can identify
it with any title recorded by Henslowe before March 7, 1597, except
_Woman Hard to Please_, and that is more suitable to the subject of
Heywood's _Challenge for Beauty_ than of our _Pleasant History_. It
is not until two months after the loan of March 7--four pounds to
Porter--that one comes upon the first performance of the only play of
that period that can at all correspond with the _Pleasant History._
This is the successful but as yet unidentified _Comodey of Umers_, for
the writing of which Henslowe records no payment, although he marks
it "new" and makes entries which show that it was acted no less than
twelve times at his "howsse" between May 11 and October 11 of that
year, and that it supplanted _Alexander_ and _That Will Be_ in the
favour of the public. It has been held, to be sure, that this anonymous
_Comodey_ was _Every Man in his Humour_; but that is impossible, for
Ben Jonson himself states that _Every Man_ was brought out during
the next year, 1598, and not by the Admiral's, but by the Lord
Chamberlain's servants,[1610] while Henslowe includes _The (Comodey
of) Umers_ even the year after it had been acted by the Admiral's
company in his "Note of all such bookes as belong to the Stocke [of
that same company], and such as I have bought since the 3d of Marche,
1598."[1611] Mr. Fleay thinks that the _Comodey_ was Chapman's
_Humerous Dayes Mirth_, and Dr. Ward inclines to accept the conjecture;
but I think that Mr. Fleay's plea in favour of Chapman's play will
apply as well to Porter's _Pleasant History_, the subtitle of which
advertises "the humorous mirth of Dick Coomes and Nicholas Proverbes,"
while the scenes develop "humours," which are much more natural than
those of Chapman's play, and fall but little short, indeed, of the
quality that characterizes B. J.'s _Every Man in his Humour_. As far
as plot goes I cannot for a moment believe that the ineptitudes of the
_Humerous Dayes Mirth_ can have commanded the popularity which was
achieved by the _Comodey of Umers_.

If, however, according to the latter alternative, the _Pleasant
History_ came into existence between November 5, 1597, and December
22, 1598, the attempt to identify it with the _Comodey of Umers_ falls
to the ground. But another possibility at once presents itself: for
the only mention by Henslowe of a play produced in the interim by
Porter alone is of "a boocke called _Love Prevented_."[1612] For this
a payment of £4 is made on May 30, 1598; and until _Love Prevented_
turns up, and turns out to be other than our play, it will be open to
conjecture whether under this title we have not the earliest record
of the _Pleasant History of the Two Angry Women_. For not only is
this the sole title assigned to Porter alone during the period under
consideration, it is also a title fairly descriptive of the central
movement of the _Pleasant History_.[1613] The date of payment,
moreover, would accord with the assertion of recent performance which
appears upon the title-page of our play as printed; it would also
allow for a reasonable lapse of time before the publication, which was
not by license and was probably of a printed copy. If this conjecture
be correct, the date of our play is May 30, 1598; and we have an
explanation, in part, of Henslowe's increased receipts during the
month following. If, on the other hand, our play be the _Comodey of
Umers_, the date of its first presentation is May 11, 1597. Whether
these identifications be correct or not, the play may be dated between
December 16, 1596, and December 22, 1598, and it was probably known to
Meres when during the latter year he included Porter among the writers
of comedy.[1614]

=Dramatic Qualities: Construction.=--Of the plot we may cry with
Goursey, "Here's adoe about a thing of nothing." Not this, but
occasional situations and the subconscious qualities of humour and
verisimilitude lend distinction to the play. The _Pleasant History_ has
atmosphere and therefore entity. It is a creation. Its characters stand
out. Porter knew their ways and words before he knew their history.
He had met them out Cumnor way or Hinksey, by Bagley, Abington, and
Milton on many a cross-country stroll. What basis there was for Mrs.
Barnes's jealousy, whether Master Barnes had too often gone to Milton
"a-hunting or such ordinary sports," and, once too often, "chatted
with" Mrs. Goursey "all day till night," we are not explicitly
informed. Nor is the dramatist. That Mrs. Goursey has given no cause
for offence goes without saying. But there is trouble in the air. The
wives are angered: after a dissension sufficiently prolonged to afford
us an insight into them and their surroundings, their wrath shall be
appeased. How, we know not; nor does the dramatist, but it seems to him
natural, if not novel, that the son and daughter of these foes should
with their marriage "bury their parents' strife." That end he pursues,
carrying all with him except those whom he most would carry. When the
hour is nigh and we are expectant, and the star-crossed lovers have
made for Carfax to be wed, they lose each other and everybody else
in a midsummer night's "cunny greene," where, whence, and whither,
darkling, the dramatic persons play blindman's buff with the plot till,
frustrate of discovery, they despair. Then in steps Sir Raph Smith,
_ex tenebris et machina_, to find the heroine, and prophesy solution
and "the lanthorne of the day" and lend our hopes a fillip, but
straight to lose us worse than ever in the devious night. Beholders
and beheld all now despair. And Porter might still be spasmodically
rounding his rabbits into the "cunny greene" and out again, had not
the quarrelsome wives happened each on other, and on them in turn
their husbands happened, who simulating mortal combat succeed at last
in terrifying their women into peace. Only after the characters most
concerned have thus by chance taken the solution into their own hands
and effected the reconciliation, does the peacemaker intended by the
dramatist drop in with the lost sweetheart on his arm; and the union of
the young lovers, which had been designed to promote the union of their
mothers, proceeds on its own merits, superfluous, like the second tail
on the proverbial toad. The plot, therefore, is not the "thing." Not
only does it pursue half a dozen possibilities, each of which it drops
halfway; it starts another half-dozen, which it never pursues. But the
auditor, unforewarned, pricks to each wild-goose chase in turn. The
complication of the angry women and the subplot of the lovers, with its
pretence of a solution, move rapidly through the first, third, sixth,
and eighth scenes; but in the second and fourth the farcical element
retards the pace; in the seventh a new and futile start is made, and
in the ninth the _platt_ itself slides into a kind of _commedia all'
improviso_. From this it is rescued at the beginning of Scene xii.
by Master Barnes's "pollicie." But although his "drift device" is of
the utmost importance to the audience, I have my doubts whether any
hearer has caught the hint, and I am sure that to most readers the
sham combat between the husbands in Scene xiv. comes as something
impromptu and secondary. Consequently a luxury of anticipation has
been forfeited. The "pollicie" is in itself a capital ruse for curing
shrewishness, and it has been frequently used of later years, as, for
instance, in Gillette's _Because She Loved Him So_; but in 1597 it
had the additional charm of novelty, and deserved a better handling.
The situation in Scene vi., where Mrs. Goursey snatches and restores
her husband's letter, is, conversely, well prepared, but lacks all
consequent. The marksman draws his bow to the top of its bent, then
gradually relaxes the tension--because he has forgot his arrow. But,
though Porter is guilty of imperfect devices, few English comedies
before his time can boast of scenes more realistic and humorous than
the game at tables, the burlesque wooing of Mall at her window, and the
comic irony of the climax between the disputatious mothers under whose
beaks the debated chickens are eloping. In fact, with all crudities,
the plot develops an interesting individuality, for which the author
does not seem to be at all responsible; none the less interesting if "a
German from the waist downward, all slops, and a Spaniard from the hip
upward, no doublet."

=Portrayal of Character.=--When we turn to the "persons" and
their "humours" we realize the architectonics of the play. There
is something at once natural and masterly in the ease with which
Porter introduces the condition of "neighbour amitie," wherewith the
masters delude themselves, while their spouses blow upon the coals
of hatred: the hostess, teeming with innuendo,--"malice embowelled
in her tongue,"--the lady of Milton read in Æsop's fables, quick to
conjecture, and "every day as good as Barnes's wife," whether to divert
a moral or direct a curse. And as the women promise they develop:
Mrs. Barnes, a "jealous, slandering, spiteful queane"; Mrs. Goursey,
subtler and fairer spoken, but incapable of backgammon "if slanders
by doe talke,"--patently obedient, but impatient of rebuke, soothing
her husband with soft words, but, inward, fuming at his "Peace, be
quiet, wife"; easily his better, bidding him "grow to the housetop with
your anger, Sir," and then humouring his pleasure, not because of his
"incensement," but his "health." The opprobrious epithets of Barnes's
wife Mistress Goursey returns into her teeth; damns her as "mankind";
takes up the quarrel last and is last to lay it down. In fact, as
Mistress Goursey is the more independent of the twain, she is also
historically the more original. Mrs. Barnes, on the other hand, is an
amalgam of stock shrews, gossips, and jealous wives: a descendant of
Tom Tyler's more strenuous half, a kinswoman of Dame Chat, a Kitely in
petticoats, the remote grandmother of Colman's Mrs. Oakly.

Barnes and Goursey are henpecked husbands of the remordent variety.
Barnes, the more experienced in domestic infelicity, is correspondingly
the more given to moral tags and pregnant sentences. He sometimes rises
almost to poetry, as when he tells his wife:--

"Rough, wrathful words
Are bastards got by rashness in the thoughts;"

from bathos he is just saved by a sense of the incongruous: "O doe not"
begs he of the virago whom he styles "sweete,"

"O, doe not set the organ of thy voice
On such a grunting tone of discontent!
Doe not deforme the beautie of thy tongue
With such mishapen answeres."

It is appropriate that upon him who has given rise to the brief
unpleasantness by inviting guests without his wife's consent, should
rest the _onus_ of devising the effective "pollicie" of reconciliation.

From him Goursey is well differenced. Possessed of a finer wife and a
quicker temper, when the former, contrary to expectation, crosses the
latter he well-nigh falls into an apoplexy. Oaths he abhors, but in
the access of his rage swears horribly and apologizes to the Almighty
between breaths.

That the morals of the sons reproduce those of the sires in their
salad days, I reluctantly suspect. It is the recital of young Frank's
licentiousness that convinces young Philip that here is just the
husband for Sister Mall. And--considering that Mall is frankly and
squarely what her mother calls her, a "lustie guts" and "vile girl," in
fact her mother's daughter, fit to "floute the devill and make blush
the boldest face of man that ere man saw" a swearing wench whose only
claim to morals is unmorality--Philip's judgment is correct. There is,
in my opinion, no coarser-minded girl in Elizabethan comedy; and at
the same time there obtains no dramatic portrayal of the animal more
observantly conceived or more faithfully executed. That she is, as Mr.
Ellis says, less sophisticated than Congreve's Prue, is not exactly to
her credit. Nor need I make her out "a wholesome, robust English girl
... with a brave openness, loving and sincere," in order to justify my
appreciation of Porter's skill in creating her. She is, indeed, robust
and Elizabethan, seventeen and upward; but within she is a mate for
Caliban; no relation to Prue,--rather a link between Wapull's Wilful
Wanton and Vanbrugh's Hoyden. It is hardly necessary to point out
the literary and dramatic affinities of Sir Raph and his wife: the
buck-hunting squire and the lady tender-hearted and "pitous."

The foregoing are characters of broad outline; but each has, as well,
his quirk of conduct, manners, or of style. The jealous wife with her
"stopt compares"; "Mistresse Would-Have," who has "let restrainèd
fancy lose," and sworn to lead no apes in hell; her brother, a poet at
second-hand, and "sick discourser" of his sister's wit; Nan Lawson's
lover of "quick invention" and "pleasure-aiming mind,"--these and
others of the major movement are as palpably in their "humours" as Mrs.
Otter, Doll Common, Master Stephen, or Kitely, or Truewit. And when we
turn to the secondary group we find the "humours" not only advertised
upon the title-page but specified in the text. Dick Coomes is "humord
bluntly" to brag and swear and drink and quarrel and talk bawdy. "I
see, by this dearth of good swords, that dearth of sword-and-buckler
fight begins to grow out; I am sorry for it," complains this
swashbuckler serving-man. With "Sbloud!" he comes upon the stage, and
there's little left of God unhallowed when Coomes subsides beneath his
buckler in the dark. "Why, what a swearing keeps this drunken asse,"
exclaims Francis. "Peace, do not marre his _humour_," Phil replies.
"Away, bawdie man," cries Hodge, and even the Boy must say, "Here him
no more, maister; he doth bedawbe ye with his durty speche." He has a
"merrie _humour_," too, this Coomes, of punning, and has brought "the
apparell of his wit ... into fashion of an honor." A Thraso of the
servants' hall, he'll outswear any 'Pharaoh's foot' of a tailor's shop.
He can dispute precedence with Ancient Pistol as "the foul-mouthedst
rogue in England"; and when he's in his "quarreling _humour_," not
Pistol, nor Bobadil, nor the 'humorous' Nim could swagger to Dawson's
close or out of a horse-pond with a more humorous grace. It is to be
noted that, in his first lines, Coomes animadverts upon "the humour of
those young springals," his masters, who "will spend all their fathers'
good at gaming"; also that Philip's servingman has his humour both of
manners and of style: "a spruce slave," cross-gartered like Malvolio,
"a nosegay bound with laces in his hat," "all proverbes in his speech
... because he would speak truth," a dramatic Camden or Ray, who
quotes Latin withal, and is as marked in his "humour" as Coomes and
Franke's Boy, and Mall and Mrs. Barnes in theirs.

=Place in the History of Comedy.=--It would, therefore, be of no
small importance to determine whether this _Pleasant History_ is
Henslowe's _Comodey of Umers_ of May 11, 1597; for if it be, this play
of characteristics precedes _Every Man in his Humour_, and disputes
the "place peculiar to itself in our dramatic literature" which most
critics have assigned to that masterpiece of Ben Jonson. But even if it
be not the play of May 11, 1597, our drama was certainly written before
December 22, 1598, probably by May 30 of that year; and consequently
to Porter, as an influential associate of Chapman and Jonson, must be
given something of the credit of blazing the path toward the comedy
of characteristic. The fun of the play has at once a Chaucerian
shrewdness and a something of the careless guffaw of W. Wager. Its
realism throws back to _Mak_, and _Johan_, _Tom Tyler_ and _Gammer
Gurton_. As a comedy of unadulterated native flavour, breathing rural
life and manners and the modern spirit, constructed with knowledge of
the stage, and without affectation or constraint, it has no foregoing
analogue except perhaps _The Pinner of Wakefield_. No play preceding or
contemporary yields an easier conversational prose, not even the _Merry
Wives_.

We must not close this study without remarking certain resemblances
to Shakespeare. In the matter of situations and language traces of
the _Romeo and Juliet_ of 1592, and the _Midsummer-Night's Dream_ of
1594-1595, appear. The fanciful reader might, indeed, suspect something
like a good-natured burlesque of the balcony scene in the conversation
between Frank and Mall "at her window"; perhaps even of the _motif_ of
Shakespeare's tragedy, in the loves of the children of the inimical
wives of Abington: "How, sir? your wife!" says Mrs. Barnes to Francis:--

"Wouldst thou my daughter have?
Ile rather have her married to her grave."

Even so had spoken Lady Capulet. And Romeo seems to be muttering in his
sleep through Philip's soliloquy:--

"The skie ...
Is in three houres become an Ethiope ...
She will not have one of those pearlèd starres
To blab her sable metamorphosis."

If anything further were needed to illustrate Philip's taste in plays,
it would be furnished by the hazy reminiscence of "the imperial
votaress" and "the nun, for aye ... in shady cloister mewed." Indeed,
if Porter did not have in mind the quadrilateral wanderings of the
_Midsummer-Night's Dream_ when Frank and Mall missed the way to Carfax,
I am much surprised. That Dick Coomes, when he stood between his
mistress and the angel to be tempted, was not thinking of Gobbo, is,
of course, possible, but it is not possible that Dick Coomes's creator
was not familiar with the _Merchant of Venice_. There is also, as I
have already implied, a quality in Dick's sword-and-buckler voice that
rings contemporaneous with the _Henry IV., Pts. I. and II._ To trace a
connection between the well-known lines of _Hamlet_ in 1602 and Porter's

"How loathsome is this beast man's shape to me
This mould of reason so unreasonable"

(1597-98), would, I fear, be fanciful. The resemblance, faint as it is,
may be due to mere coincidence or to derivation from a common source.

=Previous Editions and the Present Text.=--Two editions of this play
were published in 1599: one for Joseph Hunt and William Ferbrand;
the other for Ferbrand alone (in same place of business). From the
variations in spelling and text which characterize the Ferbrand quarto
and are evidently intended for improvements, and from the fact that
Ferbrand was still alone when, in 1600, he published another play,
_Look About You_, I conclude that the edition printed during the period
of partnership was the earlier of the two. It will be indicated in
the notes to the present text as Q 1. Of Q 1 a copy is to be found in
the British Museum (162. d. 55). Of Q 2, published by Ferbrand alone,
there are two copies in the Bodleian, one formerly owned by Malone,
the other by Douce. Q 2 furnishes the more careful text. That it was
made, however, not from manuscript, but from Q 1, is evidenced by the
retention of occasional printers' errors and oddities characteristic
of the earlier edition. Dyce, in his edition (Dy.) for the Percy
Society, 1841, followed Q 1, with occasional readings from Q 2 and
silent emendations. This edition, with modernized spelling, is included
in Hazlitt's _Dodsley_, Vol. VII. (H.). Mr. Havelock Ellis's edition
of the play (E.), with acts, scenes, and modernized spelling, for the
Mermaid Series (_Nero and Other Plays_, 1888), appears to be based
upon H. The present text is that of Q 2 (Bodl. Malone 184), with such
substitutes from Q 1 as are indicated in the footnotes.

CHARLES MILLS GAYLEY.

FOOTNOTES:

[1580] Nos. 1, 2, 4, 7, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 22.

[1581] _Catalogue of the MSS. and Muniments of Alleyn's College of
God's Gift at Dulwich_, Lond.: 1881, pp. 157-162. See also H. B.
Wheatley, _John Payne Collier_; Lond.: 1884, p. 61.

[1582] Collier says this name was added "in a different hand to
indicate" the author.

[1583] Witnesses.

[1584] Nos. 18, 21, 23, 24 are consecutive on p. 94, and in Henslowe's
writing, but with Porter's signature after 24.

[1585] After this follows an item, p. 149, to the effect that the
"boocke of the spencers" had helped Chettle to pay off "xˢ of a debt
with the companye."

[1586] The whole of this acknowledgment is in Porter's handwriting.

[1587] British Museum, C. 39, b. 21.

[1588] Heber (Bibl. Heber), Pt. IV., No. 2872, in B. M.

[1589] British Museum: Add. MS., 24487-92, Vol. II. 302.

[1590] _Fasti_, I. 284.

[1591] Boase and Clark, Vol. II., Pt. 1, p. 147.

[1592] As above, p. 145.

[1593] Douce, in a note in the unique copy in the Bodleian, says that
according to the date of the print by Cecill, Weever was twenty-three
in 1599. The epigram in which Weever says that he is not yet twenty may
therefore have been written as early as 1596.

[1594] Mermaid Series, _Porter_, p. 90.

[1595] With this opinion I find that Mr. Bayne agrees, _D. N. B_. Art.,
_Porter_.

[1596] Hunter, II, 300, and _Hist. Reg. Univ. Oxford_, 1888.

[1597] Boase and Clark, Vol. II., Pt. 2, p. 170.

[1598] _Alex._ was acted fifteen times during the next six months,
_That Will Be_ twelve times. The _Woman_ ran for four months and was
acted ten times. _Alex._ brought in almost as much as the others
combined.

[1599] Henslowe, p. 78. Fleay conjecturally identifies it with the
_Challenge for Beauty_.

[1600] Henslowe, pp. 123, 128; May 16, and July 18, 1598.

[1601] Henslowe, p. 101.

[1602] _Two A. W. A._, Pt. II., £18 5_s._; _The Spencers_, £30 10_s._
Properties rarely cost more than £15.

[1603] Henslowe, p. 129, August 26, October 28.

[1604] £18 5_s._, if we may assume (as Mr. Fleay does) that the
entries, pp. 143-144, of January 26 and February 1, refer to this play.

[1605] _Sic._: Henslowe, p. 130.

[1606] Not the other way around as Collier thinks (Henslowe, p. 146,
_n._) for _Edw. II._ had been in print since 1594.

[1607] Henslowe, pp. 130, 146. Cf. the advance from £10 8_s._ on May
27, 1599, to £16 12_s._ on June 3, the day after Dekker and Chettle's
_Agamemnon_ was licensed and probably first acted; and the advance from
£3 14_s._ on October 27, 1599, to £8 16_s._, the week ending November
3 (Henslowe, p. 152), during which the successful _Sʳ John Oldcastell_
had "ferste" been played.

[1608] But, of course, we cannot with certainty attribute the increase
of April 16 to _The Spencers_ alone. It may have proceeded, in part,
from the revival of _Alex. and Lodowick_, for the properties required
by which Henslowe had, on March 31, advanced £5 to Juby. Henslowe had,
moreover, obtained license during March for the _4 Kynges_, _Brute
Grensbillde_, and "four other plays" (pp. 146, 147).

[1609] pp. 82-91.

[1610] Title-page of _E. M. i. H_., edited by B. J., 1616.

[1611] _Diary_, p. 276.

[1612] p. 124.

[1613] Notice the résumé of the action in the speeches of Goursey and
Sir Raph, Sc. xiv., ll. 277-289, the "crossing of true love." I am
pleased to find that in this conjecture, which I had imagined to be
new, I have been anticipated by Mr. Fleay, _Chron. Engl. Drama._ 2, 163.

[1614] Halliwell-Phillips assigns _Palladis Tamia_ to the early part
of 1598, but there are no notes in the _S. R._ to aid us in the
investigation. Mr. Fleay assigns it to November, 1598.

THE
PLEASANT
HISTORY OF
_the two angry women_
of Abington.

With the humorous mirth of _Dicke Coomes_
and _Nicholas Prouerbes_, two
Seruingmen.

_As it was lately playde by the right Honorable_
the Earle of Nottingham, Lord high
Admirall his seruants

By _Henry Porter_ Gent.

[VIGNETTE]

_Imprinted at London for William Ferbrand_,
and are to be solde at his shop at the corner of
Colman streete neere Loathbury.

1599.

The Names of the Speakers[1615]

M. GOURSEY.
MIST. GOURSEY.
M. BARNES.
MIST. BARNES.
FRANKE GOURSEY.
PHILLIP [BARNES].
BOY.
MALL BARNES.
DICK COOMES.
HODGE.
NICHOLAS PROVERBS.
SIR RAPH SMITH.
[LADY SMITH.]
WILL, _Sir Raphes man_.

FOOTNOTES:

[1615] First in Q 2.

The Prologue

Gentlemen, I come to yee like one that lackes and would borrow, but
was loath to aske least hee should be denied: I would aske, but I
would aske to obtaine; O would I knewe that manner of asking! To beg
were base, and to cooche low and to carry an humble shew of entreatie
were too dog-like, that fawnes on his maister to get a bone from his
trencher: out, curre! I cannot abide it to put on the shape and habit
of this new worlds new found beggars, mistermed souldiers, as thus;
'Sweet gentlemen, let a poore scholler implore and exorate[1616] that
you would make him rich in the possession of a mite of your favours, to
keep him a true man in wit, and to pay for his lodging among the Muses!
so God him helpe, he is driven to a most low estate: tis not unknowne
what service of words he hath been at; hee lost his lims in a late
conflict of floute; a brave repulse and a hot assault it was, he doth
protest, as ever he saw since hee knewe what the report of a volley of
jestes were; he shall therefore desire you'--A plague upon it, each
beadle disdained would whip him from your companie. Well, gentlemen,
I cannot tell howe to get your favours better then by desert: then
the worse lucke, or the worse wit, or some what, for I shall not now
deserve it. Welcome[1617] then, I commit my selfe to my fortunes, and
your contents; contented to dye, if your severe judgements shall judge
me to be stung to death with the adders hisse.

FOOTNOTES:

[1616] Qtos., _exerate_.

[1617] Q 1, 'Well.'

The pleasant Comedy of the _two angry Women of_ Abington

[Scene First. _Abington. Near Master Barneses House: The Orchard_[1618]]

_Enter_ MASTER GOURSEY _and his wife, and_ MASTER BARNES _and his wife,
with their two sonnes, and their two servants_.

_Maister Goursey._ Good maister Barnes, this entertaine of yours,
So full of courtesie and rich delight,
Makes me misdoubt my poore ability
In quittance of this friendly courtesie.

_M. Bar._ O master Goursey, neighbour amitie 5
Is such a jewell of high reckoned worth,
As for the attaine of it what would not I
Disburse, it is so precious in my thoughts!

_M. Gou._ Kinde sir, neere dwelling amity indeed
Offers the hearts enquiry better view 10
Then love thats seated in a farther soyle:
As prospectives[1619] the[1620] neerer that they be
Yeeld better judgement to the judging eye;
Thinges seene farre off are lessened in the eye,
When their true shape is seene being hard by. 15

_M. Bar._ True, sir, tis so; and truely I esteeme
Meere[1621] amity, familiar neighbourhood,
The cousen germaine unto wedded love.

_M. Gou._ I,[1622] sir, thers surely some aliance twixt them,
For they have both the off-spring from the heart: 20
Within the hearts bloud ocean still are found
Jewels of amity and jemmes of love.

_M. Bar._ I, master Goursey, I have in my time
Seene many shipwracks of true honesty;
But incident such dangers ever are 25
To them that without compass sayle so farre:
Why, what need men to swim when they may wade?
But leave this talke, enough of this is said:
And, master Goursey, in good faith, sir, wellcome;--
And, mistresse Goursey, I am much in debt 30
Unto your kindnes that would visit me.

_Mi. Gou._ O master Barnes, you put me but in minde
Of that which I should say; tis we that are
Indebted to your kindness for this cheere:
Which debt that we may repay, I pray lets have 35
Sometimes your company at our homely house.

_Mi. Bar._ That, mistresse Goursey, you shall surely have;
Heele[1623] be a bolde guest I warrant ye,
And boulder too with you then I would have him.

_Mis. Gou._ How doe ye meane he will be bolde with me? 40

_Mi. Bar._ Why, he will trouble you at home, forsooth,
Often call in, and aske ye how ye doe;
And sit and chat with you all day till night,
And all night too, if he might have his will.

_M. Bar._ I, wife, indeed, I thanke her for her kindnes; 45
She hath made me much good cheere passing that way.

_Mi. Bar._ Passing well done of her; she is a kinde wench.--
I thanke ye, mistresse Goursey, for my husband;
And if it hap your husband come our way
A hunting or such ordinary sportes, 50
Ile do as much for yours as you for mine.

_M. Gou._ Pray doe, forsooth.--Gods Lord, what meanes the woman?
She speakes it scornefully: i faith I care not;
Things are well spoken, if they be well taken.-- [_Aside._]
What, mistresse Barnes, is it not time to part? 55

_Mis. Bar._ Whats a clocke, sirra?

_Nicholas._ Tis but new strucke one.

_M. Gou._ I have some busines in the towne by three.

_M. Bar._ Till then lets walke into the orchard, sir.
What, can you play at tables?[1624] 60

_M. Gou._ Yes, I can.

_M. Bar._ What, shall we have a game?

_M. Gou._ And if you please.

_M. Bar._ I faith, content; weele spend an hower so.--
Sirra, fetch the tables.[1625] 65

_Nic._ I will, sir. _Exit._

_Phil._ Sirra Franke, whilst they are playing heere,
Weele to the greene to bowles.

_Fra._ Phillip, content.--Coomes, come hyther, sirra:
When our fathers part, call us upon the greene.-- 70
Phillip, come, a rubber,[1626] and so leave.

_Phil._ Come on. _Exeunt_ [PHILLIP _and_ FRANCIS].

_Coom._ Sbloud, I doe not like the humour of these springals; theil
spend all their fathers good at gamming. But let them trowle the
bowles upon the greene; Ile trowle the bowles in the buttery by
the leave of God and maister Barnes: and his men be good fellows,
so it is; if they be not, let them goe snick up.[1627] _Exit._ 77

_Enter_ NICHOLAS _with the tables_.

_M. Bar._ So, set them downe.--
Mistresse Goursey, how doe you like this game?

_Mi. Gou._ Well, sir. 80

_M. Bar._ Can ye play at it?

_Mis. Gou._ A little, sir.

_M. Bar._ Faith, so can my wife.

_M. Gou._ Why, then, master Barnes, and if you please,
Our wives shall try the quarrell twixt us two, 85
And weele looke on.

_M. Bar._ I am content.--What, woman,[1628] will you play?

_Mis. Gou._ I care not greatly.

_Mis. Bar._ Nor I, but that I thinke sheele play me false.

_M. Gou._ Ile see she shall not. 90

_Mis. Bar._ Nay, sir, she will be sure you shall not see,
You of all men shall not marke her hand;
She hath such close conveyance in her play.

_M. Gou._ Is she so cunning growne? Come, come, lets see.

_Mis. Gou._ Yea, mistris Barnes, will ye not house your jests, 95
But let them rome abroad so carelesly?
Faith, if your jealious tongue utter another,
Ile crosse ye with a jest, and ye were my mother.-- [_Aside._]
Come, shall we play?

_Mis. Bar._ I, what shall we play a game? 100

_Mis. Gou._ A pound a game.

_M. Gou._ How, wife?

_Mis. Gou._ Faith, husband, not a farthing lesse.

_M. Gou._ It is too much; a shilling were good game.

_M_[_is_]. _Gou._ No, weell be ill huswives once; 105
You have oft been ill husbands: lets alone.

_M. Bar._ Wife, will you play so much?

_Mis. Bar._ I would be loath to be so franke a gaimster
As mistresse Goursey is; and yet for once
Ile play a pound a game aswell as she. 110

_M. Bar._ Go to, youle have your will. _Offer to goe from them._

_Mis. Bar._ Come, ther's my stake.

_Mis. Gou._ And ther's mine.

_Mis. Bar._ Throw for the dice. Ill luck! they are yours.

_M. Bar._ Master Goursey, who sayes that gamings bad, 115
When such good angels[1629] walke twixt every cast?

_M. Gou._ This is not noble sport, but royall play.

_M. Bar._ It must be so where royals walke so fast.

_Mis. Bar._ Play right, I pray.

_Mi. Gou._ Why, so I doe. 120

_Mis. Bar._ Where stands your man?

_Mis. Gou._ In his right place.

_Mis. Bar._ Good faith, I thinke ye play me foule an ace.

_M. Bar._ No, wife, she playes ye true.

_Mis. Bar._ Peace, husband, peace; ile not be judged by you. 125

_Mis. Gou._ Husband, master Barnes, pray both goe walke;
We cannot play, if standers by doe talke.

_M. Gou._ Well, to your game; we will not trouble ye.

[GOURSEY _and_ BARNES] _goe from them_.

_Mi. Gou._ Where stands your man now?

_Mi. Bar._ Doth he not stand right? 130

_Mi. Gou._ It stands betweene the pointes.

_Mi. Bar._ And thats my spight.
But yet me thinkes the dice runnes much uneven,
That I throw but dewes ase and you eleven.

_Mis. Gou._ And yet you see that I cast downe the hill. 135

_Mi. Bar._ I, I beshrew ye, tis not with my will.

_Mis. Gou._ Do ye beshrew me?

_Mi. Bar._ No, I beshrew the dice,
That turne you up more at once then me at twise.

_Mi. Gou._ Well, you shall see them turne for you anon. 140

_Mi. Bar._ But I care not for them when your game is done.

_Mi. Gou._ My game! what game?

_Mi. Bar._ Your game, your game at tables.

_Mi. Gou._ Well, mistresse, well, I have red Æsops fables,
And know your morrals meaning well enough. 145

_Mi. Bar._ Loe, you'l be angry now! heres good stuffe.

[_Re-enter_ GOURSEY _and_ BARNES.]

_M. Gour._ How now, woman?[1630] who hath wonne the game?

_Mi. Gou._ No body yet.

_M. Bar._ Your wife's the fairest for't.[1631]

_Mi. Bar._ I, in your eye. 150

_Mi. Gou._ How do you meane?

_Mi. Bar._ He holds you fairer for't then I.

_Mi. Gou._ For what, forsooth?

_Mi. Bar._ Good gamster, for your game.

_M. Bar._ Well, try it out; t'is all but in the bearing.[1632] 155

_Mi. Bar._ Nay, if it come to bearing, shee'l be best.

_Mi. Gou._ Why you'r as good a bearer as the rest.

_Mi. Bar._ Nay, thats not so; you beare one man too many.

_Mi. Gou._ Better doe so then beare not any.

_Mi. Ba._ Beshrew me, but my wives jestes grow too bitter; 160
Plainer speeches for her were more [fit]ter:[1633]
Malice lyes inbowelled in her tongue,
And new hatcht hate makes every jest a wrong. [_Aside._]

_Mi. Go._ Looke ye, mistresse, now I hit yee.

_Mi. Bar._ Why, I, you never use to misse a blot,[1632] 165
Especially when it stands so faire to hit.

_Mi. Gou._ How meane ye, mistresse Barnes?

_Mi. Ba._ That mistresse Gourse's in the hitting vaine.

_Mi. Gou._ I hot[1634] your man.

_Mi. Bar._ I, I, my man, my man; but, had I knowne, 170
I would have had my man stood neerer home.

_Mi. Gou._ Why, had ye kept your man in his right place,
I should not then have hit him with an ase.

_Mis. Bar._ Right, by the Lord! a plague upon the bones!

_Mi. Gou._ And a hot mischiefe on the curser too! 175

_M. Bar._ How now, wife?

_M. Gour._ Why, whats the matter, woman?

_Mi. Gou._ It is no matter: I am----

_Mis. Bar._ I, you are----

_Mi. Gou._ What am I? 180

_Mis. Bar._ Why, thats as you will be ever.

_Mis. Gou._ That's every day as good as Barneses wife.

_Mi. Bar._ And better too: then what needs al this trouble?
A single horse is worse then that beares double.

_M. Bar._ Wife, go to, have regard to that you say; 185
Let not your words passe foorth the vierge of reason,
But keep within the bounds of modesty,
For ill report doth like a bayliffe stand,
To pound the straying and the wit-lost tongue,
And makes it forfeit into follies hands. 190
Well, wife, you know tis[1635] no honest part
To entertaine such guests with jestes and wronges:
What will the neighbring country vulgar say,
When as they heare that you fell out at dinner?
Forsooth,[1636] they'l call it a pot quarrell straight; 195
The best they'l name it, is a womans jangling.
Go too, be rulde, be rulde.

_Mi. Bar._ Gods Lord, be rulde, be rulde!
What, thinke ye I have such a babies wit,
To have a rods correction for my tongue? 200
Schoole infancie; I am of age to speake,
And I know when to speake: shall I be chid
For such a[1637]----

_Mi. Gou._ What a? nay, mistresse, speake it out;
I scorne your stopt compares: compare not me 205
To any but your equals, mistresse Barnes.

_M. Gou._ Peace, wife, be quiet.

_M. Bar._ O, perswade, perswade!--
Wife, mistresse Goursey, shall I winne your thoughts
To composition of some kind effects? 210
Wife, if you love your credit, leave this strife,
And come shake hands with mistresse Goursey heere.

_Mi. Ba._ Shall I shake hands? let her go shake her heeles;
She gets nor hands, nor friendship at my hands:
And so, sir, while I live I will take heed, 215
What guests I bid againe unto my house.

_M. Bar._ Impatient woman, will you be so stiffe
In this absurdnes?[1638]

_Mi. Ba._ I am impatient now I speake;
But, sir, Ile tell you more another time: 220
Go too, I will not take it as I have done. _Exit._

_Mis. Gou._ Nay, she might stay; I will not long be heere
To trouble her. Well, maister Barnes,
I am sorry that it was our happes to day,
To have our pleasures parted with this fray: 225
I am sorrie too for all that is amisse,
Especially that you are moov'de in this.
But be not so, tis but a womans jarre,
Their tongues are weapons, words there blowes of warre.
'Twas but a while we buffeted you saw, 230
And each of us was willing to withdraw;
There was no harme nor bloudshed you did see:
Tush, feare us not, for we shall well agree.
I take my leave, sir.--Come, kinde harted man,
That speakes his wife so faire, I, now and than; 235
I know you would not for an hundreth pound
That I should heare your voyces churlish sound;
I know you have a farre more milder tune
Then 'Peace, be quiet, wife'; but I have done.
Will ye go home? the doore directs the way; 240
But, if you will not, my dutie is to stay. [_Exit._]

_M. Bar._ Ha, ha! why, heres a right woman, is there not?
They both have din'de, yet see what stomacks they have!

_M. Gou._ Well, maister Barnes, we cannot do with all:[1639]
Let us be friends still. 245

_M. Bar._ O, maister Goursey, the mettell of our minds,
Having the temper of true reason in them,
Affoordes[1640] a better edge of argument
For the maintaine of our familiar loves
Then the soft leaden wit of women can; 250
Wherefore with all the parts of neighbour love
I impart[1641] my selfe to maister Goursey.

_M. Gou._ And with exchange of love I do receive it:
Then here weel part, partners of two curst wives.

_M. Ba._ Oh, where shall wee find a man so blest that is not?[1642]
But come; your businesse and my home affaires 256
Makes me deliver that unfriendly worde
Mongst friends--farewell.[1643]

_M. Gou._ Twentie farewels, sir.

_M. Bar._ But harke ye, maister Goursey; 260
Looke ye perswade at home as I will do:
What, man! we must not alwayes have them foes.

_M. Go._ If I can helpe it.

_M. Bar._ God helpe, God helpe!
Women are even untoward creatures still. _Exeunt._ 265

[Scene Second. _In front of Barneses House._]

_Enter_ PHILIP, FRANCIS, _and his_ BOY, _from bowling_.

_Phil._ Come on, Franke Goursey: you have good lucke to winne the
game.

_Fran._ Why, tell me, ist not good, that never playd before upon your
greene?

_Phil._ Tis good, but that it cost me ten good crownes; that makes
it worse.[1644] 6

_Fran._ Let it not greeve thee, man; come ore to us;
We will devise some game to make you win
Your money backe againe, sweet Philip.

_Phil._ And that shall be ere long, and if I live: 10
But tell me, Francis, what good horses have yee,
To hunt this sommer?

_Fra._ Two or three jades, or so.

_Phil._ Be they but jades?

_Fran._ No, faith; my wag string here 15
Did founder one the last time that he rid,
The best gray nag that ever I laid my leg over.

_Boy._ You meane the flea bitten?

_Fran._ Good sir, the same.

_Boy._ And was the same the best that ere you rid on? 20

_Fran._ I, was it, sir.

_Boy._ I faith, it was not, sir.

_Fran._ No! where had I one so good?

_Boy._ One of my colour, and a better too.

_Fran._ One of your colour! I nere remember him; 25
One of that colour!

_Boy._ Or of that complexion.

_Fran._ Whats that ye call complexion in a horse?

_Boy._ The colour, sir.

_Fran._ Set me a colour on your jest, or I will-- 30

_Boy._ Nay, good sir, hold your hands!

_Fran._ What, shal we have it?

_Boy._ Why, sir, I cannot paint.

_Fran._ Well, then, I can;[1645]
And I shall find a pensill for ye, sir. 35

_Boy._ Then I must finde the table, if you do.

_Fran._ A whoreson, barren, wicked urchen!

_Boy._ Looke how you chafe! you would be angry more,
If I should tell it you.

_Fran._ Go to, Ile anger ye, and if you do not. 40

_Boy._ Why, sir, the horse that I do meane
Hath a leg both straight and cleane,
That hath nor spaven, splint, nor flawe,
But is the best that ever ye saw;
A pretie rising knee, O knee! 45
It is as round as round may be;
The full flanke makes the buttock round:
This palfray standeth on no ground
When as my maister's on her backe,
If that he once do say but, ticke;[1646] 50
And if he pricke her, you shall see
Her gallop amaine, she is so free;
And if he give her but a nod,
She thinkes it is a riding rod;
And if hee'l have her softly go, 55
Then she trips it like a doe;
She comes so easie with the raine,
A twine thred turnes her backe againe;
And truly I did nere see yet
A horse play proudlier on the bit: 60
My maister with good managing
Brought her first unto the ring;[1647]
He likewise taught her to corvet,
To runne, and suddainlie to set;
Shee's cunning in the wilde goose race, 65
Nay, shee's apt to every pace;
And to proove her colour good,
A flea, enamourd of her blood,
Digd for chanels in her neck,
And there made many a crimson speck: 70
I thinke theres none that use to ride
But can her pleasant trot abide;
She goes so even upon the way,
She will not stumble in a day;
And when my maister-- 75

_Fra._ What do I?

_Boy._ Nay, nothing, sir.

_Phil._ O, fie, Franke, fie!
Nay, nay, your reason hath no justice now,
I must needs say; perswade him first to speake, 80
Then chide him for it!--Tell me, prettie wag,
Where stands this prawncer, in what inne or stable?
Or, hath thy maister put her out to runne,
Then, in what field, what champion[1648] feeds this courser,
This well paste, bonnie steed that thou so praisest? 85

_Boy._ Faith, sir, I thinke----

_Fran._ Villaine, what do yee thinke?

_Bay._ I thinke that you, sir, have bene askt by many,
But yet I never heard that yee tolde any.

_Phil._ Well, boy, then I will adde one more to many, 90
And aske thy maister where this jennet feeds.--
Come, Franke, tell me, nay, prethie, tell me, Franke,
My good horse-maister, tell me--by this light,
I will not steale her from thee; if I do,
Let me be held a felone to thy love. 95

_Fran._ No, Phillip, no.

_Phil._ What, wilt thou we[a]re a point[1649] but with one tag?
Well, Francis, well, I see you are a wag.

_Enter_ COMES.

_Com._ Swounds, where be these timber turners, these trowle the
bowles, these greene men, these-- 100

_Fran._ What, what, sir?

_Comes._ These bowlers, sir.

_Fra._ Well, sir, what say you to bowlers?

_Coo._ Why, I say they cannot be saved.

_Fra._ Your reason, sir? 105

_Coo._ Because they throw away their soules at every marke.

_Fra._ Their soules! how meane ye?

_Phi._ Sirra, he meanes the soule[1650] of our bowle.

_Fra._ Lord, how his wit holdes bias like a bowle!

_Coo._ Well, which is the bias? 110

_Fra._ This next to you.[1651]

_Coo._ Nay, turne it this way, then the bowle goes true.

_Boy._ Rub, rub!

_Coo._ Why rub?

_Boy._ Why, you overcast the marke, and misse the way. 115

_Coo._ Nay, boy, I use to take the fairest of my play.

_Phi._ Dicke Coomes, me thinkes thou art[1652] very pleasant:
When[1653] gotst thou this mirrie humor?

_Coo._ In your fathers seller, the merriest place in th' house.

_Phi._ Then you have bene carowsing hard? 120

_Coo._ Yes, faith, 'tis our custome when your fathers men and
we meete.

_Phi._ Thou art very welcome thether, Dicke.

_Coo._ By God, I thanke ye, sir, I thanke ye, sir: by God, I have
a quart of wine for ye, sir, in any place of the world. There shall
not a servingman in Barkeshire fight better for ye then I will do,
if you have any quarrell in hand: you shall have the maidenhead of
my new sword; I paide a quarters wages for't, by Jesus. 128

_Phi._ Oh, this meate failer Dicke!
How well t'as made the apparell of his wit, 130
And brought it into fashion of an honor!--
Prethe,[1654] Dicke Coomes, but tell me how thou doost?

_Coo._ Faith, sir, like a poore man at service.

_Phi._ Or servingman.

_Coo._ Indeede, so called by the vulgar. 135

_Phi._ Why, where the devill hadst thou that word?

_Coo._ Oh, sir, you have the most eloquenst ale in all the[1655]
world; our blunt soyle affoordes none such.

_Fra._ Phillip, leave talking with this drunken foole.--Say, sirra,
where's my father? 140

_Coo._ 'Marrie, I thanke ye for my verie good cheere.'--'O Lord, it is
not so much worth.'--'You see I am bolde with ye.'--'Indeed, you are
not so bolde as welcome; I pray yee, come oftner.'--'Truly, I shall
trouble ye.'--All these ceremonies are dispatcht betweene them, and
they are gone. 145

_Fra._ Are they so?

_Coo._ I, before God, are they.

_Fra._ And wherefore came not you to call me, then?

_Coo._ Because I was loth to change my game.

_Fra._ What game? 150

_Coo._ You were at one sort of bowles, as I was at another.

_Phi._ Sirra, he meanes the buttery bowles of beere.

_Coo._ By God, sir, we tickled it.

_Fra._ Why, what a swearing keepes this drunken asse!--
Canst thou not say but sweare at every word? 155

_Phi._ Peace, do not marre his humour, prethie, Franke.

_Coo._ Let him alone; hee's a springall, he knowes not what
belongs to an oath.

_Fra._ Sirra, be quiet, or I doe protest--

_Coo._ Come, come, what doe you protest? 160

_Fra._ By heaven, to crack your crowne.

_Coo._ To crack my crowne! I lay ye a crowne of that,
Lay it downe, and ye dare;
Nay, sbloud, ile venter a quarters wages of that.
Crack my crowne, quotha![1656] 165

_Fra._ Will[1657] ye not yet be quiet? will ye urge me?

_Coo._ Urge yee, with a pox! who urges ye?
You might have said so much to a clowne,
Or one that had not been ore the sea to see fashions:
I have, I tell ye true; and I know what belongs to a man. 170
Crack my crowne, and ye can.

_Fra._ And I can, ye rascall! [_Offers to beat him._]

_Phi._ Hold, haire braine, holde! dost thou not see hees drunke?

_Coo._ Nay, let him come:
Though he be my masters sonne, I am my masters man, 175
And a man is a man in any ground of England.
Come, and he dares, a comes upon his death:
I will not budge an inche, no, sbloud, will I[1658] not.

_Fran._ Will ye not?

_Phi._ Stay, prithie, Franke.--Coomes, dost thou heare? 180

_Coo._ Heare me no heares:
Stand away, Ile trust none of you all.
If I have my backe against a cart wheele,
I would not care if the devill came.

_Phi._ Why, ye foole, I am your friend. 185

_Coo._ Foole on your face! I have a wife.

_Fra._ Shees a whore, then.

_Coo._ Shees as honest as Nan Lawson.

_Phi._ What she?

_Coo._ One of his whores. 190

_Phi._ Why, hath he so many?

_Coo._ I, as many as there be churches in London.

_Phil._ Why, thats a hundred and nine.

_Boy._ Faith, he lyes a hundred.

_Phi._ Then thou art a witnes to nine. 195

_Boy._ No, by God, Ile be witnes to none.

_Coo._ Now doe I stand like the George[1659] at Colbrooke.

_Boy._ No, thou standst like the Bull[1659] at S. Albones.

_Coo._ Boy, ye lye the hornes.[1660]

_Boy._ The bul's bitten; see how he buts! 200

_Phil._ Comes, Comes, put up,[1661] my friend and thou art friends.

_Coo._ Ile heare him say so first.

_Phil._ Franke, prethie doe; be friends, and tell him so.

_Fra._ Goe to, I am.

_Boy._ Put up, sir, and ye be a man, put up. 205

_Coom._ I am easily perswaded, boye.

_Phil._ Ah, ye mad slave!

_Coomes._ Come, come, a couple of whore-masters I found yee,
and so I leave yee. _Exit._

_Phil._ Loe, Franke, doost thou not see hees drunke, 210
That twits thee[1662] with thy disposition?

_Fra._ What disposition?

_Phil._ Nan Lawson, Nan Lawson.

_Fran._ Nay, then--

_Phil._ Goe to, ye wag, tis well: 215
If ever yee get a wife, i faith Ile tell.
Sirra, at home we have a servingman;
Hees[1663] not humord bluntly as Coomes is,
Yet his condition[1664] makes me often merrie:
Ile tell thee, sirra, hees a fine neate fellow, 220
A spruce slave; I warrant ye, heele[1665] have
His cruell[1666] garters crosse about the knee,
His woollen hose as white as the driven snowe,
His shooes dry leather neat, and tyed with red ribbins,
A nose-gay bound with laces in his hat, 225
Bridelaces, sir, in's hat--an all greene hat,[1667]
Greene coverlet for such a grasse greene wit.
'The goose that graseth on the greene,' quoth he,
'May I eate on when you shall buried be!'
All proverbes is his speech, hee's proverbs all. 230

_Fra._ Why speakes he proverbs?

_Phi._ Because he would speake truth,
And proverbes, youle confesse, are olde said sooth.

_Fra._ I like this well, and one day Ile see him:
But shall we part? 235

_Phil._ Not yet, Ile bring you somewhat on your way,
And as we goe, betweene your boy and you
Ile know where that [brave][1668] praunser stands at levery.

_Fra._ Come, come, you shall not.

_Phil._ I faith, I wil. _Exeunt._ 240

[Scene Third.[1669] _Barneses Garden._]

_Enter_ MASTER BARNES and his WIFE.

_M. Bar._ Wife, in my minde to day you were too blame,
Although my patience did not blame ye for it:
Me thought the rules of love and neighbourhood
Did not direct your thoughts; all indirect[1670]
Were your proceedings in the entertaine 5
Of them that I invited to my house.
Nay, stay, I doe not chide, but counsell, wife,
And in the mildest manner that I may:
You neede not viewe me with a servants eye,
Whose vassaile[1671] sences tremble at the looke 10
Of his displeased master. O my wife,
You are my selfe! when selfe sees fault in selfe,
Selfe is sinne obstinate, if selfe amend not:
Indeede, I sawe a fault in thee my selfe,
And it hath set a foyle upon thy fame, 15
Not as the foile doth grace the diamond.

_Mi. Bar._ What fault, sir, did you see in me to day?

_M. Bar._ O, doe not set the organ of thy voice
On such a grunting key of discontent!
Doe not deforme the beautie of thy tongue 20
With such mishapen answeres. Rough wrathfull words
Are bastards got by rashnes in the thoughts:
Faire demeanors are vertues nuptiall babes,
The off-spring of the well instructed soule;
O, let them call thee mother, then, my wife! 25
So seeme not barren of good courtesie.

_Mi. Bar._ So; have ye done?

_M. Bar._ I, and I had done well,
If you would do what I advise for well.

_Mi. Bar._ Whats that? 30

_M. Bar._ Which is, that you would be good friendes
With mistresse Goursey.[1672]

_Mi. Bar._ With mistresse Goursey!

_M. Bar._ I, sweet wife.

_Mis. Bar._ Not so, sweet husband. 35

_M. Bar._ Could you but shew me any grounded cause.

_Mis. Bar._ The grounded cause I ground because I wil not.

_M. Bar._ Your will hath little reason, then, I thinke.

_Mi. Bar._ Yes, sir, my[1673] reason equalleth my will.

_M. Bar._ Lets heare your reason, for your will is great. 40

_Mi. Bar._ Why, for I will not.

_M. Bar._ Is all your reason 'for I will not,' wife?
Now, by my soule, I held yee for more wise,
Discreete, and of more temperature in sence,
Then in a sullen humour to affect[1674] 45
That womans[1675] will borne, common, scholler phrase:
Oft have I heard a timely married girle,
That newly left to call her mother mam,
Her father dad, but yesterday come from
'Thats my good girle, God send thee a good husband!' 50
And now being taught to speake the name of husband,
Will, when she would be wanton in her will,
If her husband aske her why, say 'for I will.'
Have I chid men for[1676] unmanly choyse,
That would not fit their yeares? have I seene thee 55
Pupell[1677] such greene yong things, and with thy counsell
Tutor their wits? and art thou now infected
With this disease of imperfection?
I blush for thee, ashamed at thy shame.

_Mi. Bar._ A shame on her that makes thee rate me so! 60

_M. Bar._ O black mouth'd rage, thy breath is boysterous,
And thou makst vertue shake at this high storme!
Shees[1678] of good report; I know thou knowst it.

_Mi. Bar._ She is not, nor I know not, but I know
That thou dost love her, therefore thinkst her so; 65
Thou bearst with her, because she beares with thee.
Thou mayst be ashamed to stand in her defence:
She is a strumpet, and thou art no honest man
To stand in her defence against thy wife.
If I catch her in my walke, now, by Cockes[1679] bones, 70
Ile scratch out both her eyes.

_M. Bar._ O God!

_Mi. Bar._ Nay, never say 'O God' for the matter:
Thou art the cause; thou badst her to my house,
Onely to bleare the eyes of Goursey, didst not? 75
But I wil send him word, I warrant thee,
And ere I sleepe to[o]; trust upon it, sir. _Exit._

_M. Bar._ Me thinkes this is a mighty fault in her;
I could be angry with her: O, if I be so,
I shall but put a linke unto a torche, 80
And so give greater light to see her fault.
Ile rather smother it in melancholly:
Nay, wisedome bids me shunne that passion;
Then I will studie for a remedy.
I have a daughter,--now, heaven invocate, 85
She be not of like spirit as her mother!
If so, sheel be a plague unto her husband,
If that he be not patient and discreet,
For that I hold the ease of all such trouble.
Well, well, I would my daughter had a husband, 90
For I would see how she could demeane her selfe
In that estate; it may be, ill enough,--
And, so God shall help me, well remembred now!
Franke Goursey is his fathers sonne and heyre,
A youth that in my heart I have good hope on; 95
My sences say a match, my soule applaudes
The motion: O, but his lands are great,
Hee will looke high; why, I will straine my selfe
To make her dowry equall with his land.
Good faith, and twere a match, twould be a meanes 100
To make their mothers friends. Ile call my daughter,
To see how shees disposde to marriage.--
Mall, where are yee?

_Enter_ MALL.

_Mall._ Father, heere I am.

_M. Bar._ Where is your mother? 105

_Mal._ I saw her not, forsooth, since you and she
Went walking both together to the garden.

_M. Ba._ Dost thou heare me, girle? I must dispute with thee.

_Mal._ Father, the question, then, must not be hard,
For I am very weake in argument. 110

_M. Bar._ Well, this it is; I say tis good to marry.

_Mal._ And this say I, tis not good to marry.

_M. Bar._ Were it not good, then all men would not marry;
But now they doe.

_Mal._ Marry, not all; but it is good to marry. 115

_M. Bar._ Is it both good and bad? how can this be?

_Mal._ Why, it is good to them that marry well;
To them that marry ill, no greater hell.

_M. Bar._ If thou mightst marry well, wouldst thou agree?

_Mall._ I cannot tell; heaven must appoint for me. 120

_M. Bar._ Wench, I am studying for thy good, indeed.

_Mall._ My hopes and dutie wish your thoughts good speed.

_M. Bar._ But tell me, wench, hast thou a minde to marry?

_Mall._ This question is too hard for bashfulnes;
And, father, now ye pose my modestie. 125
I am a maide, and when ye aske me thus,
I like a maide must blush, looke pale and wan,
And then looke pale[1680] againe; for we change colour
As our thoughts change. With true fac'd passion
Of modest maidenhead I could adorne me, 130
And to your question make a sober cursie
And with close clipt civilitie be silent;
Or els say 'no, forsooth,' or 'I, forsooth.'
If I said 'no, forsooth,' I lyed, forsooth:
To lye upon my selfe were deadly sinne, 135
Therefore I will speake truth, and shame the divell.
Father, when first I heard you name a husband,
At that same very name my spirits quickned.
Dispaire before had kild them, they were dead:
Because it was my hap so long to tarry, 140
I was perswaded I should never marry;
And, sitting sowing, thus upon the ground
I fell in traunce of meditation;
But comming to my selfe, 'O Lord,' said I,
'Shall it be so? must I unmarryed dye?' 145
And being angry, father, farther said,
'Now, by saint Anne, I will not dye a maide!'
Good faith, before I came to this ripe groath,
I did accuse the labouring time of sloath:
Me thought the yeere did run but slow about, 150
For I thought each yeare ten I was without.
Being foureteene and toward the other[1681] yeare,
Good Lord, thought I, fifteene will nere be heere!
For I have heard my mother say that then
Prittie maides were fit for handsome men: 155
Fifteene past, sixeteene, and seventeene too,
What, thought I, will not this husband do?
Will no man marry me? have men forsworne
Such beauty and such youth? shall youth be worne,
As rich mens gownes, more with age then use? 160
Why, then I let restrained[1682] fansie loose,
And bad it gaze for pleasure; then love swore me
To doe what ere my mother did before me;
Yet, in good faith, I was[1683] very loath,
But now it lyes in you to save my oath: 165
If I shall have a husband, get him quickly,
For maides that weares corke[1684] shooes may step awry.

_M. Bar._ Beleeve me, wench, I doe not repprehend[1685] thee,
But for this pleasant answere do commend thee.
I must confesse, love doth thee mighty wrong, 170
But I will see thee have thy right ere long;
I know a young man, whom I holde most fit
To have thee both for living and for wit:
I will goe write about it presentle.

_Mall._ Good father, do. [_Exit_ BARNES.]
O God, me thinkes I should 175
Wife it as fine as any woman could!
I could carry a porte to be obayde,
Carry a maistering eye upon my maide,
With 'Minion, do your businesse, or Ile make yee,'
And to all house authoritie be take me. 180
O God, would I were married! be my troth,
But if I be not, I sweare Ile keepe my oath.

_Ent._ MI. BA.

[_Mi. Ba._] How now, minion, wher have you bin gadding?

_Mall._ Forsooth, my father called me forth to him.

_Mi. Bar._ Your father! and what said he too ye, I pray? 185

_Mall._ Nothing, forsooth.

_Mi. Bar._ Nothing! that cannot be; something he said.

_Mall._ I, somthing that as good as nothing was.

_Mi. Bar._ Come, let me heare that somthing nothing, then.

_Mal._ Nothing but of a husband for me, mother. 190

_Mi. Bar._ A husband! that was something: but what husband?

_Mall._ Nay, faith, I know not, mother: would I did!

_Mis. Bar._ I, 'would ye did'! i faith, are ye so hasty?

_Mall._ Hasty, mother! why, how olde am I?

_Mis. Ba._ To yong to marry.

_Mal._ Nay, by the masse, ye lie. 195
Mother, how olde were you when you did marry?

_Mis. Ba._ How olde so ere I was, yet you shall tarry.

_Mall._ Then the worse for me. Hark, mother, harke!
The priest forgets that ere he was a clarke:
When you were at my yeeres, Ile holde my life, 200
Your minde was to change maidenhead for wife.
Pardon me, mother, I am of your minde,
And, by my troth, I take it but by kinde.[1686]

_Mis. Bar._ Do ye heare, daughter? you shal stay my leasure.

_Mall._ Do you heare, mother? would you stay fro pleasure 205
When ye have minde to it? Go to, there's no wrong
Like this, to let maides lye alone so long:
Lying alone they muse but in their beds
How they might loose their long kept maiden heads.
This is the cause there is so many scapes, 210
For women that are wise will not lead apes
In hell:[1687] I tel yee, mother, I say true;--
Therefore, come, husband, maiden head, adew! _Exit._

_Mis. Bar._ Well, lustie guts, I meane to make ye stay,
And set some rubbes in your mindes smothest way.[1688] 215

_Enter_ PHILIP.

_Phi._ Mother--

_Mi. Ba._ How now, sirra, where have ye bin walking?

_Phil._ Over the meades, halfe way to Milton,[1689] mother,
To beare my friend Franke Goursey company.

_Mi. Ba._ Wher's your blew coat,[1690] your sword and buckler, sir?
Get you such like habite for a servingman, 221
If you will waight upon the brat of Goursey.

_Phil._ Mother, that you are moov'd, this maks me wonder,
When I departed I did leave yee friends:
What undigested jarre hath since betided? 225

_Mi. Bar._ Such as almost doth choake thy mother, boy,
And stifles her with the conceit of it;
I am abusde, my sonne, by Gourseys wife.

_Phil._ By mistresse Goursey?

_Mi. Bar._ Mistresse flurt, yon[1691] foule strumpet, 230
Light a love, short heeles! Mistresse Goursey
Call her againe, and thou wert better no.

_Phil._ O my deare mother,[1692] have some patience!

_Mis. Bar._ I, sir, have patience, and see your father
To rifle up the treasure of my love, 235
And play the spend-thrift upon such an harlot!
This same will make me have patience, will it not?

_Phili._ This same is womens most impatience:
Yet, mother, I have often heard ye say
That you have found my father temperate, 240
And ever free from such affections.

_Mi. Bar._ I, till[1693] my too much love did glut his thoughts,
And make him seek for change.

_Phi._ O, change your minde!
My father beares more cordiall love to you. 245

_Mi. B._ Thou liest, thou liest, for he loves Gourseys wife,
Not me.

_Phil._ Now, I sweare, mother, you are much too blame;
I durst be sworne he loves you as his soule.

_Mi. Bar._ Wilt thou be pampered by affection? 250
Will nature teach thee such vilde[1694] perjurie?
Wilt thou be sworne, I, forsworne,[1695] carelesse boy?
And if thou swearst, I say he loves me not.

_Phil._ He loves ye but too well, I sweare,
Unlesse ye knew much better how to use him. 255

_Mi. Bar._ Doth he so, sir? thou unnaturall boy!
'Too well,' sayest thou? that word shall cost thee[1696] somwhat:
O monstrous! have I brought thee up to this?
'Too well'! O unkinde, wicked, and degenerate,
Hast thou the heart to say so of thy mother? 260
Well, God will plague thee fort, I warrant thee:
Out on thee, villaine, fie upon thee, wretch!
Out of my sight, out of my sight, I say!

_Phil._ This ayre is pleasant, and doth please me well,
And here I will stay. 265

_Mi. Bar._ Wilt thou, stubborne villaine?

_Enter_ M. BAR.

_M. Bar._ How now, whats the matter?

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

_M. Ba._ Why, how now, Phillip? is this true, my sonne?

_Phil._ Deare father, she is much impatient:
Nere let that hand assist me in my need, 275
If I more said then that she thought amisse
To thinke that you were so licentious given;
And thus much more, when she inferd it more,
I swore an oath you lov'd her but too well:
In that as guiltie I do hold my selfe, 280
Now that I come to more considerate triall:
I know my fault; I should have borne with her:
Blame me for rashnesse, then, not for want of dutie.

_M. Ba._ I do absolve thee; and come hether, Phillip:
I have writ a letter unto master Goursey, 285
And I will tell thee the contents thereof;
But tell me first, thinkst thou Franke Goursey loves thee?

_Phil._ If that a man devoted to a man,
Loyall, religious in loves hallowed vowes,
If that a man that is soule laboursome 290
To worke his owne thoughts to his friends delight,
May purchase good opinion with his friend,
Then I may say, I have done this so well,
That I may thinke Franke Goursey loves me well.

_M. Ba._ Tis well; and I am much deceived in him, 295
And if he be not sober, wise, and valliant.

_Phi._ I hope my father takes me for thus wise,
I will not glew my selfe in love to one
That hath not some desert of vertue in him:
What ere you thinke of him, beleeve me, father, 300
He will be answerable to your thoughts
In any quallity commendable.

_M. Bar._ Thou chearst my hopes in him; and, in good faith,
Thoust[1697] made my love complete unto thy friend:
Phillip, I love him, and I love him so. 305
I could affoorde him a good wife I know.

_Phi._ Father, a wife!

_M. Bar._ Phillip, a wife.

_Phil._ I lay my life, my sister.

_M. Bar._ I, in good faith. 310

_Phil._ Then, father, he shall have her; he shall, I sweare.

_M. Bar._ How canst thou say so, knowing not his minde?

_Phi._ All is one for that; I will goe to him straight.
Father, if you would seeke this seaven yeares day,
You could not[1698] finde a fitter match for her; 315
And he shall have her, I sweare he shall;
He were as good be hang'd as once deny her.
I faith, Ile to him.[1699]

_M. Bar._ Hairebraine, hairebraine, stay!
As yet we do not know his fathers[1700] minde: 320
Why, what will master Goursey say, my sonne,
If we should motion it without his knowledge?
Go to, hees a wise and discreet gentleman,
And that expects[1701] from me all honest parts;
Nor shall he faile his expectation; 325
First I doe meane to make him privy to it:
Phillip, this letter is to that effect.

_Phil._ Father, for Gods[1702] sake send it quickly, then:
Ile call your man.--What, Hugh! wheres Hugh, there, ho?

_M. Bar._ Phillip, if this would proove a match, 330
It were the only meanes that could be found
To make thy mother frends with Mist[resse] Gou[rsey].

_Phil._ How, a match! Ile warrant ye, a match.
My sister's faire, Franke Goursie he is rich;
Her[1703] dowrie too will be sufficient; 335
Franke's yong,[1704] and youth is apt to love;
And, by my troth, my sisters maiden head
Standes like a game at tennis,--if the ball
Hit into the hole, or hazard, farewell all!

_Ma. Bar._ How now, where's Hugh? 340

[_Enter_ NICHOLAS.]

_Phil._ Why, what doth this proverbial with us?
Why, where's Hugh?

_M. Bar._ Peace, peace.

_Phil._ Where's Hugh, I say?

_M. Bar._ Be not so hasty, Phillip. 345

_Phil._ Father, let me alone,
I doe it but to make my selfe some sport.
This formall foole, your man, speakes naught but proverbs,
And speake men what they can to him, hee'l answere
With some rime,[1705] rotten sentence, or olde saying, 350
Such spokes[1706] as the ancient of the parish use,
With, 'neighbour, tis an olde proverbe and a true,
Goose giblets are good meate, old sacke better then new';
Then saies another, 'neighbour, that is true';
And when each man hath drunke his gallon round, 355
A penny pot, for thats the olde mans gallon,
Then doth he licke his lips, and stroke his beard
That's glewed together with his slavering droppes
Of yesty ale, and when he scarce can trim
His gouty fingers, thus hee'l phillip it, 360
And with a rotten hem say, 'hey, my hearts,
Merry go sorrie! cocke and pye, my heartes!'
But then their saving penny proverbe comes,
And that is this, 'they that will to the wine,
Berlady[1707] mistresse, shall lay theyr penny to mine.' 365
This was one of this penny-fathers[1708] bastards,
For, on my lyfe, he was never begot
Without the consent of some great proverb-monger.

_M. Bar._ O, ye are a wag.

_Phil._ Well, now unto my busines. 370
Swounds, will that mouth, thats made of olde sed sawes
And nothing else, say nothing to us now?

_Nich._ O master Phillip, forbeare; you must not leape over the
style before you come at it; haste makes waste; softe fire makes
sweete malt; not too fast for falling; there's no hast to hang true
men. 376

_Phil._ Father, we ha'te, ye see, we ha'te. Now will I see if my
memorie will serve for some proverbs too. O,--a painted cloath were
as wel worth a shilling as a theefe woorth a halter; well, after
my heartie commendations, as I was at the making hereof; so it is,
that I hope as you speed, so you're sure; a swift horse will tire,
but he that trottes easilie will indure. You have most learnedly
proverbde it, commending the vertue of patience or forbearance, but
yet, you know, forbearance is no quittance.

_Nich._ I promise yee, maister Philip, you have spoken as true as
steele. 386

_Phil._ Father, theres a proverbe well applied.

_Nich._ And it seemeth unto me, I, it seemes to me, that you,
maister Phillip, mocke me: do you not know, _qui mocat mocabitur_?
mocke age, and see how it will prosper. 390

_Phil._ Why, ye whoresen proverb-booke bound up in follio,
Have yee no other sence to answer me
But every worde a proverbe? no other English?
Well, Ile fulfill a proverb on thee straight.

_Nich._ What is it, sir? 395

_Phil._ Ile fetch my fist from thine eare.

_Nich._ Beare witnesse he threatens me!

_Phil._ Father, that same is the cowards common proverbe.--But
come, come, sirra, tell me where Hugh is. 399

_Nich._ I may, and I will; I need not except I list; you shall not
commaund me, you give me neither meate, drinke, nor wages; I
am your fathers man, and a man's a man, and a have but a hose
on his head; do not misuse me so, do not; for though he that is
bound must obay, yet he that will not tarrie, may[1709] runne away, so
he may. 405

_M. Bar._ Peace, Nicke, Ile see he shall use thee well;
Go to, peace, sirra: here, Nicke, take this letter,
Carrie it to him to whom it is directed.

_Nich._ To whom is it?

_M. Bar._ Why, reade it: canst thou read? 410

_Nich._ Forsooth, though none of the best, yet meanly.

_M. Bar._ Why, dost thou not use it?

_Nich._ Forsooth, as use makes perfectnes, so seldome seene is
soone forgotten.

_M. Bar._ Well said: but goe; it is to master Goursey. 415

_Phil._ Now, sir, what proverbe have ye to deliver a letter?

_Nich._ What need you to care? who speakes to you? you may
speake when you are spoken to, and keep your winde to coole your
pottage. Well, well, you are my maisters sonne, and you looke
for his lande; but they that hope for dead mens shooes, may hap to
go barefoote: take heed; as soone goes the yong sheep to the pot
as the olde. I pray God save my maysters life, for sildome comes
the better! 423

_Phil._ O, he hath given it me! Farewell, proverbes.

_Nich._ Farewell, frost.[1710] 425

_Phil._ Shal I fling an old shoe after ye?

_Nich._ No; you should say, God send faire weather after me!

_Phil._ I meane for good lucke.

_Nich._ A good lucke on ye! _Exit._

_M. Bar._ Alas, poore foole, he uses all his wit! 430
Phillip, in faith[1711] this mirth hath cheered thought,
And cussend it of his right play of passion.
Goe after Nick, and, when thou thinkst hees there,
Go in and urge to that which I have writ:
Ile in these meddowes make a cerckling walke, 435
And in my meditation conjure so,
As that same[1712] fend of thought, selfe-eating anger,
Shall by my spels of reason[1713] vanish quite:
Away, and let me heare from thee to night.

_Phil._ To night! yes, that you shall: but harke ye, father; 440
Looke that you my sister waking keepe,
For Franke I sweare shall kisse her ere I sleepe. _Exeunt._

[Scene Fourth. _The Court-yard of Master Gourseys House at Milton._]

_Enter_ FRANKE _and_ BOY.

_Frank._ I am very dry with walking ore the greene.--
Butler, some beere!--Sirra, call the butler.

_Bo._ Nay, faith, sir, we must have some smith to give the butler
a drench, or cut him in the forehead, for he hath got a horses
desease, namely the staggers; to night hees a good huswife, he
reeles al that he wrought to day; and he were good now to play at
dice, for he castes[1714] excellent well. 7

_Fran._ How meanst thou? is he drunke?

_Boy._ I cannot tell; but I am sure hee hath more liquor in him
then a whole dicker[1715] of hydes; hees sockt throughly, i faith. 10

_Fran._ Well, goe and call him; bid him bring me drinke.

_Boy._ I will, sir. _Exit._

_Fran._ My mother powtes, and will looke merrily
Neither upon my father nor on me:
He saies she fell out with mistresse Barnes to day; 15
Then I am sure they'l not be quickly friends.
Good Lord, what kinde of creatures women are!
Their love is lightly wonne and lightly lost;
And then their hate is deadly and extreame:
He that doth take a wyfe betakes himselfe 20
To all the cares and troubles of the world.
Now her disquietnes doth grieve my father,
Greeves me, and troubles all the house besides.--
What, shall I have some drinke? [_Horn sounded within_]--How now? a
horne!
Belike the drunken slave[1716] is fallen asleepe, 25
And now the boy doth wake him with his horne.

[_Enter_ BOY.]

How now, sirra, wheres the butler?

_Boy._ Mary, sir, where he was even now, a sleepe; but I wakt
him, and when he wakt, he thought he was in mayster Barnses
buttery, for he stretcht himselfe thus, and yauning said, 'Nicke,
honest Nicke, fill a fresh bowle of ale; stand to it, Nicke, and
thou beest a man of Gods making, stand to it'; and then I winded
my horne, and hees horne-mad. 33

_Enter_ HODGE.

_Hodg._ Boy, hey! ho, boy! and thou beest a man, draw.--O,
heres a blessed mooneshine, God be thanked!--Boy, is not this
goodly weather for barley? 36

_Boy._ Spoken like a right maulster, Hodge: but doost thou heare?
thou art not drunke.

_Hod._ No, I scorne that, i faith.

_Boy._[1717] But thy fellow Dicke Coomes is mightily drunke. 40

_Hod._ Drunke! a plague on it, when a man cannot carrie his
drinke well! sbloud, Ile stand to it.

_Boy._ Hold, man; see and thou canst stand first.

_Hodge._ Drunke! hees a beast, and he be drunke; theres no man
that is a sober man will be drunk; hees a boy, and he be drunke.

_Boy._ No, hees a man as thou art. 46

_Hodge._ Thus tis when a man will not be ruled by his friends: I
bad him keepe under the lee, but he kept downe the weather two
bowes; I tolde him hee would be taken with a plannet,[1718] but the
wisest of us all may fall. 50

_B._ True, Hodge. _Boy trip him._

_Hod._ Whope! lend me thy hand, Dicke, I am falne into a wel;
lend me thy hand, I shall be drowned else.

_Boy._ Hold fast by the bucket, Hodge.

_Hodg._ A rope on it! 55

_Boy._ I, there is a rope on it; but where art thou, Hodge?

_Hodge._ In a well; I prethie, draw up.

_Boy._ Come, give up thy bodie; wind up, hoyst.

_Hodg._ I am over head and eares.

_Boy._ In all, Hodge, in all. 60

_Fran._ How loathsome is this beast mans shape to me,
This mould of reason so unreasonable![1719]
Sirra, why doost thou trip him downe, seeing hees drunke?

_Boy._ Because, sir, I would have drunkards cheape.[1720]

_Fran._ How meane ye? 65

_Boy._ Why, they say that, when any thing hath a fall it is cheape;
and so of drunkards.

_Fran._ Go to, helpe him up [_Knocking without_]: but, harke, who
knockes? [BOY _goes to the gate, and returns_.]

_Bo._ Sir heeres one of maister Barnsies men with a letter to my olde
maister. 71

_Fran._ Which of them is it?

_Boy._ They call him Nicholas, sir.

_Fran._ Go, call him in. [_Exit_ BOY.]

_Enter_ COOMES.

_Coom._ By your leave, ho! How now, young maister, how ist?

_Fran._ Looke ye, sirra, where your fellow lies; 76
Hees in a fine taking, is he not?

_Coom._ Whope, Hodge! where art thou, man, where art thou?

_Hodge._ O, in a well.

_Co._ In a well, man! nay, then, thou art deepe in understanding.

_Fran._ I, once to day you were almost so, sir. 81

_Coom._ Who, I! go to, young maister, I do not like this humor in
ye, I tell ye true; give every man his due, and give him no more:
say I was in such a case! go to, tis the greatest indignation that
can be offered to a man; and, but a mans more godlier given, you
were able to make him sweare out his heart bloud. What though that
honest Hodge have cut his finger heere? or, as some say, cut a
feather? what thogh he be mump, misled, blind, or as it were? tis
no consequent to me: you know I have drunke all the ale-houses in
Abington drie, and laide the tappes on the tables when I had done:
sbloud, Ile challenge all the true rob-pots in Europe to leape up
to the chinne in a barrell of beere, and if I cannot drinke it
down to my foote ere I leave, and then set the tap in the midst of
the house, and then turne a good turne on the toe on it, let me be
counted nobodie, a pingler,[1721]--nay, let me be[1722] bound to
drinke nothing but small beere seven yeares after; and I had as
leefe be hanged. 97

_Enter_ NICHOLAS.

_Fran._ Peace, sir, I must speake with one.--Nicholas, I think, your
name is.

_Nich._ True as the skinne betweene your browes. 100

_Fran._ Well, how doth thy maister?

_Nich._ Forsooth, live, and the best doth no better.

_Fran._ Where is the letter he hath sent me?

_Nich._ _Ecce signum!_ heere it is.

_Fran._ Tis right as Phillip said, tis a fine foole [_Aside_].-- 105
This letter is directed to my father;
Ile carrie it to him.--Dick Coomes, make him drinke. _Exit._

_Coom._ I, Ile make him drunke,[1723] and he will.

_Nich._ Not so, Richard; it is good to be merrie and wise. 109

_Dick._[1724] Well, Nicholas, as thou art Nicholas, welcome; but as
thou art Nicholas and a boone companion, ten times welcome.
Nicholas, give me thy hand: shall we be merrie? and wee shall,
say but we shall, and let the first word stand.

_Nich._ Indeed, as long lives the merrie man as the sad; an ownce of
debt will not pay a pound of care. 115

_Coom._ Nay, a pound of care will not pay an ownce of debt.

_Nich._ Well, tis a good horse never stumbles: but who lies here?

_Coom._ Tis our Hodge, and I thinke he lies asleep: you made him drunk
at your house to day; but Ile pepper some of you fort.

_Nic._ I, Richard, I know youle put a man over the shooes, and if
you can; but hees a foole wil take more then wil do him good.

_Coom._ Sbloud, ye shall take more then will doe yee good, or Ile
make ye clap under the table. 123

_Nich._ Nay, I hope, as I have temperance to forbeare drinke, so have
I patience to endure drinke: Ile do as company doth; for when a man
doth to Rome come, he must do as there is done. 126

_Coomes._ Ha, my resolved Nicke, frolagozene![1725] Fill the potte,
hostesse; swounes, you whore! Harry Hooke's a rascall. Helpe me but
carry my fellow Hodge in, and weele crushe it, i faith.
_Exeunt._

[Scene Fifth. _In front of Gourseys House._]

_Enter_ PHILLIP.

_Phil._ By this, I thinke, the letter is delivered,
And twill be shortly time that I step in,
And wooe their favours for my sisters fortune:
And yet I need not; she may doe as well,
But yet not better, as the case doth stand 5
Betweene our mothers; it may make them friends;
Nay, I would sweare that she would doe as well,
Were she a stranger to one quality,
But they are so acquainted, theil nere part.
Why, she will floute the devill, and make blush 10
The boldest face of man that ever man saw;
He that hath best opinion of his wit,
And hath his braine pan fraught with bitter jestes
Or of his owne, or stolne, or how so ever,
Let him stand nere so high in his owne conceite, 15
Her wit's a sunne that melts him downe like butter,
And makes him sit at table pancake wise,
Flat, flat, [God knowes][1726] and nere a word to say;
Yet sheele not leave him then, but like a tyrant
Sheele persecute the poore wit-beaten man, 20
And so bebang him with dry bobs and scoffes,
When he is downe, most cowardly, good faith,
As I have pittied the poore patient.
There came a farmers sonne a wooing to her,
A proper man, well landed too he was, 25
A man that for his wit need not to aske
What time a yeere twere good to sow his oates
Nor yet his barley, no, nor when to reape,
To plowe his fallowes, or to fell his trees,
Well experienst thus each kinde of way; 30
After a two monthes labour at the most,
And yet twas well he held it out so long,
He left his love, she had so laste his lips
He could say nothing to her but 'God be with yee'!
Why, she, when men have din'd and call for cheese, 35
Will straight maintaine jests bitter to disgest;
And then some one will fall to argument,
Who, if he over master her with reason,
Then sheele begin to buffet him with mockes.
Well, I doe doubt Frances hath so much spleene, 40
Theil nere agree; but I will moderate.
By this time tis time, I thinke, to enter:
This is the house; shall I knocke? no; I will not
Waite while[1727] one comes out to answere;
Ile in, and let them be as bolde with us. _Exit._ 45

[Scene Sixth. _A Room in Gourseys House._]

_Enter_ MASTER GOURSEY, _reading a letter_.

_M. Gour._ _If that they like, her dowry shall be equall
To your sonnes wealth or possibility:
It is a meanes to make our wives good friendes,
And to continue friendship twixt us two._[1728]
Tis so, indeed: I like this motion, 5
And it hath my consent, because my wife[1729]
Is sore infected and hart sick with hate;
And I have sought the Galen of advice,
Which oneley tels me this same potion
To be most soveraigne for her sicknes cure. 10

_Enter_ FRANKE _and_ PHILLIP.

Heere comes my sonne, conferring with his friend.--
Fraunces, how do you like your friends discourse?
I know he is persuading to this motion.

_Fra._ Father, as matter that befits a friend,
But yet not me, that am too young to marry. 15

_M. Gou._ Nay, if thy minde be forward with thy yeares,
The time is lost thou tarriest. Trust me, boy,[1729]
This match is answerable to thy birth;
Her bloud and portion give each other grace;
These indented lines promise a sum, 20
And I do like the valew: if it hap
Thy liking to accord to my consent,
It is a match. Wilt thou goe see the maide?

_Fra._ Nere. Trust me, father, the shape[1730] of marriage,
Which I doe see in others, seeme[s][1731] so severe, 25
I dare not put my youngling liberty
Under the awe of that instruction;
And yet I graunt the limmits of free youth
Going astray are often restrainde by that.
But mistresse wedlocke, to my scholler thoughts, 30
Will be too curst, I feare. O, should she snip
My pleasure ayming minde, I shall be sad,
And sweare, when I did marry, I was mad!

_M. Gour._ But, boy, let my experience teach thee this--
Yet, in good faith, thou speakst not much amisse;-- 35
When first thy mothers fame to me did come,
Thy grandsire thus then came to me his sonne,
And even my words to thee to me he said,
And as to me thou saist to him I said,
But in a greater huffe and hotter bloud,-- 40
I tell ye, on youthes tip-toes then I stood:
Saies he (good faith, this was his very say),
'When I was yong, I was but reasons foole,
And went to wedding as to wisdomes schoole;
It taught me much, and much I did forget, 45
But, beaten much, by it I got some wit;
Though I was shackled from an often scoute,[1732]
Yet I would wanton it when I was out;
Twas comfort, old acquaintance then to meete,
Restrained liberty attainde is sweet.' 50
Thus said my father to thy father,[1733] sonne,
And thou maist doe this too,[1734] as I have done.

_Phi._ In faith, good counsell, Franke: what saist thou to it?

_Fra._ Phillip, what should I say?

_Phil._ Why, eyther I or no. 55

_Fra._ O, but which rather?

_Phil._ Why, that which was persuaded by thy father.

_Fra._ Thats I, then,[1735] I: O, should it fall out ill!
Then I, for I am guilty of that ill,--
Ile not be guilty, no. 60

_Phi._ What, backeward gone!

_Fra._ Phillip, no whit backward; that is, on.

_Phi._ On, then.

_Fra._ O, stay!

_Phil._ Tush, there is no good lucke in this delay: 65
Come, come, late commers, man, are shent.

_Fra._ Heigh ho, I feare I shall repent!
Well, which waye, Phillip?[1736]

_Phi._ Why, this way.

_Fra._ Canst thou tell,
And takest upon thee to be my guide to hell?-- 70
But which way, father?

_M. Gour._ That way.

_Fran._ I, you know;
You found the way to sorrow long agoe.
Father, God boye ye:[1737] you have sent your sonne
To seeke on earth an earthly day of doome, 75
Where I shall be adjudged,[1738] alacke the ruthe,
To penance for the follies of my youth!
Well, I must goe, but, by my troth, my minde
Is not love capable to[1739] that kinde.
O, I have lookt upon this mould of men, 80
As I have done upon a lyons den!
Praised I have the gallant beast I saw,
Yet wisht me no acquaintance with his pawe:
And must I now be grated with them? well,
Yet I may hap to proove a Daniell; 85
And, if I doe, sure it would make me laugh,
To be among wilde beastes and yet be safe.
Is there a remedy to abate their rage?
Yes, many catch them, and put them in a cage.
I, but how catch them? marry, in your hand 90
Carrie me foorth a burning fire brand,
For with his sparkling shine, olde rumor saies,
A fire brand the swiftest runner fraies:
This I may doe; but, if it proove not so,
Then man goes out to seeke his adjunct woe. 95
Phillip, away! and, father, now adew!
In quest of sorrow I am sent by you

_M. Gou._ Returne the messenger of joy, my sonne.

_Fran._ Sildome in this world such a worke is done.

_Phi._ Nay, nay, make hast, it will be quicklie night. 100

_Fra._ Why, is it not good to wooe by candle light?

_Phil._ But, if we make not haste theile be abed.

_Fran._ The better, candels out and curtans spred.

_Exeunt_ [FRANCIS _and_ PHILLIP].

_M. Gour._ I know, though that my sons years be not many,
Yet he hath wit to wooe as well as any. 105
Here comes my wife: I am glad my boy is gone

_Enter_ MISTRESSE GOURSEY.

Ere she came hether.--How now, wife? how ist?
What, are ye yet in charity and love
With mistresse Barnes?

_Mi. Gou._ With mistris Barnes! why mistris[1740] Barnes, I pray?

_M. Gou._ Because she is your neighbour and---- 111

_Mi. Gou._ And what?
And a jealous slandering spitefull queane she is,
One that would blur my reputation
With her approbrious mallice, if she could. 115
She wrongs her husband, to abuse my fame:
Tis knowne that I have lived in honest name
All my life time, and bin your right true wife.

_M. Gour._ I entertaine no other thought, my wife,
And my opinion's sound of your behaviour. 120

_Mis. Gou._ And my behaviour is as sound as it;
But her ill speeches seekes to rot my credit,
And eate it with the worme of hate and mallice.

_M. Gou._ Why, then, preserve it you by patience.

_Mi. Gou._ By patience! would ye have me shame my selfe,
And cussen my selfe to beare her injuries? 126
Not while her eyes be open will I yeelde
A word, a letter, a sillables valew,
But equall and make even her wrongs to me
To her againe. 130

_M. Gou._ Then, in good faith, wife, ye are more to blame.

_Mi. Gou._ Am I too blame, sir? pray, what letters this?

[_Snatches the letter._]

_M. Gou._ There is a dearth of manners in ye, wife,
Rudelie to snatch it from me. Give it me.

_Mi. Gou._ You shall not have it, sir, till I have read it. 135

_M. Gou._ Give me it, then, and I will read it to you.

_Mi. Gou._ No, no, it shall not need: I am a scholler
Good enough to read a letter, sir.

_M. Gou._ Gods passion, if she knew but the contents,
Sheele seeke to crosse this match! she shall not read it.--[_Aside._]
Wife, give it me; come, come, give it me. 141

_Mi. Gou._ Husband, in very deed, you shall not have it.

_M. Gou._ What, will you moove me to impatience, then?

_Mi. Gou._ Tut, tell not me of your impatience;
But since you talke, sir, of impatience, 145
You shall not have the letter, by this light,
Till I have read it; soule, ile burne it first!

_M. Gou._ Go to, ye move me, wife; give me the letter;
In troth, I shall growe angry, if you doe not.

_Mi. Gou._ Grow to the house top with your anger, sir! 150
Nere tell me, I care not thus much for it.

_M. Gour._ Well, I can beare enough, but not too much.
Come, give it me; twere best you be persuaded;
By God--ye make me sweare--now God forgive me!--
Give me, I say, and stand not long upon it; 155
Go to, I am angry at the heart, my very heart.

_Mis. Gou._ Hart me no hearts, you shall not have it, sir,
No, you shall not; nere looke so big,
I will not be affraide at your great lookes;
You shall not have it, no, you shall not have it. 160

_M. Gou._ Shall I not have[1741] it? in troth, Ile try that:
Minion, Ile hav'te; shall I not hav'te?--I am loath--
Go too, take pausment, be advisde--
In faith, I will; and stand not long upon it--
A woman of your yeares! I am ashamde 165
A couple of so long continuance
Should thus--Gods foote--I crye God hartely mercy!--
Go to, ye vex me; and Ile vexe ye for it;
Before I leave ye, I will make ye glad
To tender it on your knees; heare ye, I will, I will. 170
What, worse and worse stomacke! true, i[1742] faith!
Shall I be crost by you in my olde age?
And where I should have greatest comfort to,
A nursse of you?--nursse in the divels name!--
Go to, mistris; by Gods pretious deere, 175
If ye delaie--

_Mi. Gou._ Lord, Lord, why, in what a fit
Are you in, husband! so inrag'd, so moov'd,
And for so slight a cause, to read a letter!
Did this letter, love, conteine my death, 180
Should you denie my sight of it, I would not
Nor see my sorrow nor eschew my danger,
But willinglie yeeld me a patient
Unto the doome that your displeasure gave.
Heere is the letter; not for that your incensment 185
[_Gives back the letter._]
Makes me make offer of it, but your health,
Which anger, I doe feare, hath crasd,
And viper like hath suckt away the bloud
That wont was to be cheerefull in this cheeke:
How pale yee looke! 190

_M. Gou._ Pale! can yee blame me for it? I tell you true,
An easie matter could not thus have moov'd me.
Well, this resignement, and so foorth--but, woman,
This fortnight shall I not forget yee for it.--
Ha, ha, I see that roughnes can doe somewhat! 195
I did not thinke, good faith, I could have set
So sower a face upon it, and to her,
My bed embracer, my right bosome friend.
I would not that she should have seene the letter,
As poore a man as I am, by my troth, 200
For twenty pound: well, I am glad I have it.-- [_Aside._]
Ha, heres adoe about a thing of nothing!
What, stomack, ha! tis happy you come downe. _Exit._

_Mi. Gou._ Well, craftie[1743] fox, Ile hunt ye, by my troth:
Deale ye so closely? Well, I see his drift: 205
He would not let me see the letter, least
That I should crosse the match; and I will crosse it.--

_Enter_ COMES.[1744]

Dicke Coomes?[1744]

_Coom._ Forsooth.

_Mis. Gour._ Come hether, Dicke; thou art a man I love, 210
And one whom I have much in my regarde.

_Coo._ I thanke ye for it, mistris, I thanke ye for it.

_Mi. Gou._ Nay, heers my hand, I will do very much
For thee, if ere thou standst in need of me;
Thou shalt not lack, whilst thou hast a day to live, 215
Money, apparrell----

_Coo._ And sword and bucklers?

_Mis. Gou._ And sword and bucklers too, my gallant Dick,
So thou wilt use but this in my defence. 219

_Coom._ This! no, faith, I have no minde to this; breake my head,
if this breake not, if we come to any tough play. Nay, mistres,
I had a sword, I, the flower of Smithfield for a sword, a right
fox,[1745] i faith; with that, and a man had come over with a
smooth and a sharpe stroke, it would have cried twang, and then,
when I had doubled my point, traste my ground, and had carried my
buckler before me like a garden but,[1746] and then come in with
a crosse blowe, and over the picke[1747] of his buckler two elles
long, it would have cryed twang, twang, mettle, mettle: but a
dogge hath his day; tis gone, and there are few good ones made now.
I see by this dearth of good swords that[1748] dearth of sword
and buckler fight begins to grow ont:[1749] I am sorrye for it;
I shall never see good manhood againe, if it be once gone; this
poking fight of rapier and dagger will come up then; then a man, a
tall[1750] man, and a good sword and buckler man, will be spitted
like a cat or a cunney; then a boy will be as good as a man,
unlesse the Lord shewe mercie unto us; well, I had as lieve bee
hang'd as live to see that day. Wel, mistres, what shal I do? what
shal I do? 237

_Mis. Gour._ Why, this, brave Dicke. Thou knowest that Barnses[1751]
wife
And I am foes: now, man me to her house;
And though it be darke, Dicke, yet weelle have no light, 240
Least that thy maister should prevent our journey
By seeing our depart. Then, when we come,
And if that she and I do fall to words,
Set in thy foote and quarrell with her men,
Draw, fight, strike, hurt, but do not kill the slaves, 245
And make as though thou struckst at a man,
And hit her, and thou canst,--a plague upon her!--
She hath misusde me, Dicke: wilt thou do this?

_Coom._ Yes, mistresse, I will strike her men; but God forbid that
ere Dicke Coomes should be seene to strike a woman! 250

_Mi. Gour._ Why, she is mankind,[1752] therefore thou maist strike
her.

_Coom._ Mankinde! nay, and she have any part of a man, Ile strike her,
I warrant.

_Mi. Gour._ Thats my good Dicke, thats my sweet Dicke! 254

_Coom._ Swones, who would not be a man of valour to have such
words of a gentlewoman! one of their words are more to me then
twentie of these russet coates cheese-cakes and butter makers.
Well, I thanke God, I am none of these cowards; well, and a man
have any vertue in him, I see he shall be regarded. [_Aside._]

_Mi. Gour._ Art thou resolved, Dicke? wilt thou do this for me?
And if thou wilt, here is an earnest penny 261
Of that rich guerdon I do meane to give thee. [_Gives money._]

_Coom._ An angell, mistresse! let me see. Stand you on my left hand,
and let the angell lye on my buckler on my right hand, for feare of
losing. Now, heere stand I to be tempted.[1753] They say, every man
hath two spirits attending on him, eyther good or bad; now, I say,
a man hath no other spirits but eyther his wealth or his wife: now,
which is the better of them? why, that is as they are used; for use
neither of them well, and they are both nought. But this is a miracle
to me, that golde that is heavie hath the upper, and a woman that is
light doth soonest fall, considering that light things aspire, and
heavie things soonest go downe: but leave these considerations to
sir John,[1754] they become a blacke coate better than a blew. Well,
mistresse, I had no minde to daye to quarrell; but a woman is made to
bee a mans seducer; you say, quarrell. 275

_Mi. Gou._ I.

_Coom._ There speakes an angell: is it good?

_Mis. Gou._ I.

_Coom._ Then, I cannot doe amisse; the good angell goes with me.

_Exeunt._

[Scene Seventh.[1755] _The Forest near Sir Raphs House._]

_Enter_ SIR RAPH SMITH, _his_ LADY, _and_ WILL [_and_ ATTENDANTS].

_S. Raph._ Come on, my harts: i faith, it is ill lucke,
To hunt all day, and not kill any thing.
What sayest thou, lady? art thou weary yet?

_La._ I must not say so, sir.

_Sir Ra._ Although thou art. 5

_Wil._ And can you blame her, to be foorth so long,
And see no better sport?

_Ra._ Good faith, twas very hard.

_La._ No, twas not ill,
Because, you know, it is not good to kill. 10

_Ra._ Yes, venson, ladie.

_La._ No, indeed, nor them;
Life is as deere in deare as tis in men.

_Ra._ But they are kild for sport.

_Lad._ But thats bad play, 15
When they are made to sport their lives away.

_Ra._ Tis fine to see them runne.

_La._ What, out of breath?
They runne but ille that runne themselves to death.

_Ra._ They might make, then, lesse hast, and keep their winde.

_La._ Why, then, they see the hounds brings death behinde. 21

_Rap._ Then, twere as good for them at first to stay,
As to run long, and run their lives away.

_La._ I, but the stoutest of you all thats here
Would run from death and nimbly scud for feare. 25
Now, by my troth, I pittie those poor elfes.[1756]

_Ra._ Well, they have made us but bad sport to day.

_La._ Yes, twas my sport to see them scape away.

_Will._ I wish that I had beene at one bucks fall.

_La._ Out, thou wood-tyrant! thou art worst of all. 30

_Wil._ A woodman,[1757] ladie, but no tyrant I.

_La._ Yes, tyrant-like thou lovest to see lives dye.

_Ra._ Lady, no more: I do not like this lucke,
To hunt all day, and yet not kill a buck.
Well, it is late; but yet I sweare I will 35
Stay heere all night but I a buck will kill.

_La._ All night! nay, good sir Raph Smith, do not so.

_Ra._ Content ye, ladie.--Will, go fetch my bow:
A berrie[1758] of faire roes I saw to day
Downe by the groves, and there Ile take my[1759] stand, 40
And shoote at one; God send a luckie hand!

_La._ Will ye not, then, sir Raph, go home with me?

_Ra._ No, but my men shall beare thee company.--
Sirs, man her home.--Will, bid the huntsmen couple,
And bid them well reward their hounds to night.-- 45
Ladie, farewell.--Will, hast ye with the bow;
Ile stay for thee heere by the grove below.

_Wil._ I will; but twill be darke, I shall not see:
How shall I see ye, then?

_Ra._ Why, hollo to me, and I wil answer thee. 50

_Wil._ Enough, I wil.

_Raph._ Farewell. _Exit._

_La._ How willingly doost thou consent to go
To fetch thy maister that same killing bow!

_Wil._ Guiltie of death I willing am in this, 55
Because twas our ill haps to day to misse:
To hunt, and not to kill, is hunters sorrow.
Come, ladie, weell have venson ere to morrow. _Exeunt._

[Scene Eighth. _In front of Barneses House._]

_Enter_ PHILIP _and_ FRANK [_and_ BOY].

_Phil._ Come, Franke, now we are hard by the[1760] house:
But how now, sad?

_Fran._ No, to studie how to woe thy sister.

_Phil._ How, man? how to woe her! why, no matter how;
I am sure thou wilt not be ashamed to woe. 5
Thy cheekes not subject to a childish blush,
Thou hast a better warrant by thy wit;
I know thy oratorie can unfold
Quicke invention, plausible discourse,
And set such painted beautie on thy tongue, 10
As it shall ravish every maiden sence;
For, Franke, thou art not like the russet youth
I tolde thee of, that went to woe a wench,
And being full stuft up with fallow wit
And meddow matter, askt the pretty maide 15
How they solde corne last market day with them,
Saying, 'Indeed, twas very deare with them.'
And, do ye heare, ye[1761] had not need be[1762] so,
For she[1763] will, Francis, throwly[1764] trie your wit:
Sirra, sheel bow the mettall of your wits, 20
And, if they cracke, she will not hold ye currant;
Nay, she will way your wits as men way[1765] angels,
And, if it[1766] lacke a graine, she will not change[1767] with ye.
I cannot speake it but in passion,
She is a wicked wench to make a jest; 25
Aye me, how full of floutes and mockes she is!

_Fran._ Some _aqua vitæ_ reason to recover
This sicke discourser! Sound[1768] not, prethy, Philip.
Tush, tush, I do not thinke her as thou saiest:
Perhaps shees opinions darling, Phillip, 30
Wise in repute, the crowes bird. O my friend,
Some judgements slave themselves to small desart,[1769]
And wondernize the birth of common wit,
When their owne[1770] straungenes do but make that strange,
And their ill errors do but make that good: 35
And why should men debase to make that good?
Perhaps such admiration winnes her wit.

_Phil._ Well, I am glad to heare this bold prepare
For this encounter. Forward, hardy Franke!
Yonders the window with the candle int; 40
Belike shees putting on her night attire:
I told ye, Franke, twas late. Well, I will call her,
Mary, softly, that my mother may not heare.--
Mall, sister Mall!

_Enter_ MALL _in the window_.

_Mal._ How now, whose there? 45

_Phil._ Tis I.

_Mal._ Tis I! who I? I, quoth the dogge, or what?
A Christ crosse rowe I?[1771]

_Phi._ No, sweete pinckanie.[1772]

_Mal._ O, ist you, wilde oates? 50

_Phil._ I, forsooth, wanton.

_Mal._ Well said, scape thrift.

_Fran._ Philip, be these your usuall best salutes?

_Phi._ This is the harmlesse chiding of that dove.

_Fran._ Dove! one of those that drawe the queene of love? 55

_Mal._ How now? whose that, brother? whose that with ye?

_Phil._ A gentleman, my friend.

_Mal._ Beladie, he hath a pure wit.

_Fran._ How meanes your holy judgement?

_Mal._ O, well put in, sir! 60

_Fran._ Up, you would say.

_Mal._ Well climde, gentleman!
I pray, sir, tell me, do you carte the queene of love?

_Fran._ Not cart her, but couch her in your eye,
And a fit place for gentle love to lye. 65

_Mal._ I, but me thinkes you speake without the booke,
To place a fower[1773] wheele waggon in my looke:
Where will you have roome to have the coachman sit?

_Fran._ Nay, that were but small manners, and not fit:
His dutie is, before you bare to stand, 70
Having a lustie whipstocke in his hand.

_Ma._ The place is voide; will you provide me one?

_Fra._ And if you please, I will supply the roome.

_Mal._ But are ye cunning in the carmans lash?
And can ye whistle well? 75

_Fran._ Yes, I can well direct the coache of love.

_Mal._ Ah cruell carter, would you whip a dove?

_Phil._ Harke ye, sister--

_Mal._ Nay, but harke ye, brother;
Whose white[1774] boy is that same? know ye his mother? 80

_Phil._ He is a gentleman of a good house.

_Mal._ Why, is his house of gold?
Is it not made of lyme and stone like this?

_Phil._ I meane, hees well descended.

_Mal._ God be thanked! 85
Did he descend some steeple or some ladder?

_Phi._ Well, you will still be crosse: I tell ye, sister,
This gentleman by all your friends consent
Must be your husband.

_Mal._ Nay, not all, some sing another note; 90
My mother will say no, I hold a groate.
But I thought twas somewhat, he would be a carter;
He hath beene whipping lately some blinde beare,
And now he would ferke[1775] the blinde boy heere with us.

_Phil._ Well, do you heare, you, sister, mistresse Would-Have?[1776]
You that do long for somewhat, I know what-- 96
My father tolde me--go to, Ile tell all
If ye be crosse--do ye heare me? I have labourd
A yeares worke in this afternoone for ye:
Come from your cloyster, votarie, chas[t]e nun,[1777] 100
Come downe and kisse Franke Gourseys mothers sonne.

_Mal._ Kisse him, I pray?

_Phi._ Go to, stale maidenhead! come downe, I say,
You seveneteene and upward, come, come downe;
You'l stay till twentie else for your wedding gowne. 105

_Mal._ Nun, votarie, stale maidenhead, seventeen and upward!
Here be names! what, nothing else?

_Fran._ Yes, or a faire built steeple without bels.

_Mal._ Steeple! good people, nay, another cast.

_Fran._ I, or a well made ship without a mast. 110

_Mal._ Fie, not so big, sir, by one part of foure.

_Fran._ Why, then, ye are a boate without an oare.

_Mal._ O, well rode,[1778] wit! but whats your fare, I pray?

_Fran._ Your faire selfe must be my fairest pay.

_Mal._ Nay, and you be so deare, Ile chuse another. 115

_Fran._ Why, take your first man, wench, and go no further.

_Phi._ Peace, Francis.--Harke ye, sister, this I say:[1779]
You know my mind; or answer, I or nay.
Wit and judgement hath resolvde his mind,
And he foresees what after he shall finde: 120
If such discretion, then, shall governe you,
Vow love to him, heele do the like to you.

_Mal._ Vow love! who would not love such a comely feature,
Nor high nor lowe, but of the middle stature?
A middle man, thats the best syze indeed; 125
I like him well: love graunt us well to speed!

_Fran._ And let me see a woman of that tallnesse,
So slender and of such a middle smalnesse,
So olde enough, and in each part so fit,
So faire, so kinde, endued with so much wit, 130
Of so much wit as it is held a wonder,
Twere pittie to keepe love and her asunder;
Therefore go up, my joy, call downe my blisse;
Bid her come seale the bargaine with a kisse.

_Mal._ Franke, Franke, I come through dangers, death, and harmes,
To make loves patent[1780] with my[1781] seale of armes. 136

_Phi._ But, sister, softly, least my mother heare.

_Mal._ Hush, then: mum, mouse in cheese,[1782] cat is neere.

_Exit_ MAL.[1783]

_Fran._ Now, in good faith, Philip, this makes me smile,
That I have woed and wonne in so small while. 140

_Phi._ Francis, indeed, my sister, I dare say,
Was not determined to say thee nay;
For this same tother thing, calde maiden-head,
Hangs by so small a haire or spiders thred,
And worne so too[1784] with time, it must needs fall, 145
And, like a well lur'de hawke, she knows her call.

[_Enter_ MALL.]

_Mal._ Whist, brother, whist! my mother heard me tread,
And askt, Whose there? I would not answer her;
She calde, A light! and up shees gone to seeke me:
There when she findes me not, sheel hether come; 150
Therefore dispatch, let it be quickly done.
Francis, my loves lease I do let to thee,
Date of my life and thine: what sayest thou to me?
The entring, fine, or income thou must pay,
Are kisses and embrases every day; 155
And quarterly I must receive my rent;
You know my minde.

_Fran._ I gesse at thy intent:
Thou shalt not misse a minute of thy time.

_Mal._ Why, then, sweet Francis, I am onely thine.-- 160
Brother, beare witnesse.

_Phi._ Do ye deliver this as your deed?

_Mul._ I do, I do.

_Ph._ God send ye both good speed! Gods Lord, my mother!
Stand aside, and closely too, least that you be espied.[1785] 165

[_Enter_ MISTRESSE BARNES.]

_Mi. Ba._ Whose there?

_Phi._ Mother, tis I.

_Mis. Ba._ You disobedient ruffen, carlesse wretch,
That said your father lovde me but too well!
Ile thinke on't when thou thinkst I have forgotten[1786] it: 170
Whose with thee else?--How now, minion? you!
With whom? with him!--Why, what make you heere, sir,
And thus late too? what, hath your mother sent ye
To cut my throate, that heere you be in waite?--
Come from him, mistris, and let go his hand.-- 175
Will ye not, sir?

_Fra._ Stay, mistresse Barnes, or mother, what ye will;
Shees[1787] my wife, and here she shall be still.

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

_Phi._ Beate him, mother! as I am true man,
They were better beate the divell and his dam.

_Mi._ Bar. What, wilt thou take his part? 185

_Phil._ To do him good,
And twere to wade hetherto up in blood.

_Fran._ God a mercy, Phil![1789]--But, mother, heare me.

_Mis._ Bar. Calst thou me mother? no, thy mothers name
Carryes about with it reproche and shame. 190
Give me my daughter: ere that she shall wed
A strumpets sonne, and have her so mislead,
Ile marry her to a carter; come, I say,
Give me her from thee.

_Fra._ Mother,[1790] not to day, 195
Nor yet to morrow, till my lives last morrow
Make me leave that which I with leave did borrow:
Heere I have borrowed love, Ile not denaie[1791] it.--
Thy wedding night's my day, then Ile repay it.--
Till then sheel trust me.--Wench, ist[1792] not so? 200
And if it be, say I, if not, say no.

_Mal._ Mother, good mother, heare me! O good God,
Now we are even, what, would you make us odde?
Now, I beseech ye, for the love of Christ,
To give me leave once to do what I list. 205
I am as you were when you were a maide;
Gesse by your selfe how long you would have staide,
Might you have had your will: as good begin
At first as last, it saves us from much sinne;
Lying alone, we muse on things and things, 210
And in our mindes one thought another brings:
This maides life, mother, is an idle life.
Therefore Ile be, I, I will be a wife;
And, mother, doe not mistrust[1793] my age or power,
I am sufficient, I lacke nere an houre; 215
I had both wit to graunt when he did woe me,
And strength to beare what ere he can doe to me.

_Mi. Bar._[1794] Well, bold-face, but I meane to make you stay.
Goe to, come from him, or Ile make ye come:
Will yee not come? 220

_Phi._ Mother, I pray forbeare;
This match is for my sister.

_Mi. Bar._ Villaine, tis not;
Nor she shall not be so matcht now.

_Phi._ In troth, she shall, and your unruly hate 225
Shall not rule us; weele end all this debate
By this begun devise.

_Mi. Bar._ I, end what you begun! Villaines, theeves,
Give me my daughter! will ye rob me of her?--
Help, help! theil rob me heere, theil rob me heere! 230

_Enter_ MASTER BARNES _and his men_.

_M. Bar._ How now? what outcry is here? why, how now, woman?

_Mi. Ba._ Why, Gourseys sonne, confederates[1795] with this boy,
This wretch unnaturall and undutifull,
Seekes hence to steale my daughter: will you suffer it?
Shall he, thats sonne to my arche-enemy, 235
Enjoy her? have I brought her up to this?
O God, he shall not have her, no, he shall not!

_M. Bar._ I am sorry she knowes it. [_Aside_].--Harke ye, wife,
Let reason moderate your rage a little.
If you examine but his birth and living, 240
His wit and good behaviour, you will say,
Though that ill hate make your opinion bad,
He dooth deserve as good a wife as she.

_Enter_ MISTRIS GOURSEY _and_ COOMES.[1796]

_Mi. Bar._ Why, will you give consent he shall enjoy her?

_M. Bar._ I, so that thy minde would agree with mine. 245

_Mi. Bar._ My minde shall nere agree to this agreement.

_M. Ba._ And yet it shall go forward:--but who's heere?
What, mistris Goursey! how knew she of this?

_Phi._ Franke, thy mother.

_Fra._ Swones, where? a plague uppon it! 250
I thinke the devill is set to crosse this match.

_Mi. Go._ This is the house, Dick Coomes, and yonders light:
Let us go neere. How now? me thinkes I see
My sonne stand hand in hand with Barnes his daughter.--
Why, how now, sirra? is this time of night 255
For you to be abroad? what have we heere?
I hope that love hath not thus coupled you.

_Fra._ Love, by my troth, mother, love: she loves me,
And I love her; then we must needs agree.

_Mi. Bar._ I, but Ile keep her sure enough from thee. 260

_Mi. Go._ It shall not need. Ile keep him safe enough;
Be sure he shal not graft in such a stock.

_Mi. Bar._ What stock, forsooth? as good a stock as thine:
I doe not meane that he shall graft in mine.

_Mi. Gou._ Nor shall he, mistris.--Harke, boy; th'art but mad
To love the branch that hath a roote so bad. 266

_Fra._ Then, mother, Ile graft a pippin on a crab.

_Mi. Gou._ It will not proove well.

_Fra._ But Ile proove my skill.

_Mi. Bar._ Sir, but you shall not. 270

_Fra._ Mothers both, I will.

_M. Bar._ Harke, Phillip: send away thy sister straight;
Let Francis meete her where thou shall appoint;
Let them go severall to shun suspition,
And bid them goe to Oxford both this night; 275
There to morrow say that we will meete them,
And there determine of their marriage. [_Aside._]

_Phi._ I will: though it be very late and darke,
My sister will endure it for a husband. [_Aside._] 279

_M. Ba._ Well, then, at[1797] Carfolkes,[1798] boy, I meane to meet
them. [_Aside._]

_Phil._ Enough. _Exit_ [MASTER BARNES].
Would they would begin to chide!
For I would have them brawling, that meane while
They may steale hence, to meete where I appoint[1799] it. [_Aside_].--
What, mother, will you let this match go forward?--
Or, mistresse Goursey, will you first agree? 285

_Mi. Gou._ Shall I agree first?

_Phi._ I, why not? come, come.

_Mi. Go._ Come from her, sonne, and if thou lov'st thy mother.

_Mi. Bar._ With the like spell, daughter, I conjure thee.

_Mi. G._ Francis, by faire means let me win thee from her, 290
And I will gild my blessing, gentle sonne,
With store of angels. I would not have thee
Check thy good fortune by this cusning choise:
O, doe not thrall thy happie libertie
In such a bondage! if thou'lt be needs bound, 295
Be, then, to better worth; this worthlesse choise
Is not fit for thee.

_Mi. Bar._ Ist not fit for him? wherefore ist not fit?
Is he too brave[1800] a gentleman, I praie?
No, tis not fit; she shall not fit his turne: 300
If she were wise, she would be fitter for
Three times his better.--Minion, go in, or Ile make ye;
Ile keep ye safe from him, I warrant ye.

_Mi. Gou._ Come, Francis, come from her.

_Fra._ Mothers, with both hands shove I hate from love, 305
That like an ill companion would infect
The infant minde of our affection[1801]:
Within this cradle shall this minutes babe
Be laide to rest; and thus Ile hug[1802] my joy.

_Mi. Gou._ Wilt thou be obstinate, thou selfe wilde[1803] boy? 310
Nay, then, perforce Ile parte ye, since ye will not.

_Coom._ Doe yee heare, mistresse? praie yee give me leave to talke two
or three cold words with my yong master.--Harke ye, sir, yee are my
masters sonne, and so foorth; and indeed I beare ye some good will,
partlie for his sake, and partly for your own; and I do hope you do
the like to me,--I should be sorry els. I must needs saie, ye are a
yong man; and for mine owne part, I have seene the world, and I know
what belongs to causes, and the experience that I have, I thanke God I
have travelled for it.

_Fra._ Why, how far have yee travelled for it? 320

_Boy._ From my masters house to the ale-house.

_Coo._ How, sir?

_Bo._ So, sir.

_Coo._ Go to.--I praie, correct you boie; twas nere a good
world, since a boie would face a man so. 325

_Fra._ Go to.--Forward, man.

_Coom._ Wel, sir, so it is, I would not wish ye to marry without my
mistres consent.

_Fra._ And why?

_Coom._ Nay, theres nere a why but there is a wherefore; I have
known some have done the like, and they have daunst a galliard at
Beggers bush[1804] for it. 332

_Boy._ At Beggers bush!--here him no more, maister; he doth
bedawbe[1805] ye with his durty speech.--Doe ye heare, sir? how
farre stands Beggers bushe from your fathers house, sir? How, thou
whorson refuge[1806] of a tailor, that wert prentise to a tailor
half an age, and because if thou hadst served ten ages thou wouldst
proove but a botcher, thou leapst from the shop board to a blew
coate,[1807] doth it become thee to use thy tearmes so? wel, thou
degree above a hackney, and ten degrees under a page, sow up your
lubber lips, or tis not your sworde and buckler shall keep my poniard
from your brest. 342

_Coo._ Do yee heare, sir? this is your boy.

_Fran._ How then?

_Coom._ You must breech him for it. 345

_Fran._ Must I? how, if I will not?

_Coom._ Why, then, tis a fine world when boies keep boies, and know
not how to use them.

_Fra._ Boy, ye rascall!

_Mi. Gour._ Strike him, and thou darst. 350

_Coom._ Strike me! alas, he were better strike his father!--
Sownes, go to, put up your bodkin.[1808]

_Fran._ Mother, stand by; Ile teach that rascall--

_Coom._ Go to, give me good words, or, by Gods dines,[1809] Ile buckle
ye for all your bird-spit. 355

_Fran._ Will ye so, sir?

_Phi._ Stay, Franke, this pitch of frensie will defile thee;
Meddle not with it: thy unreprooved vallour
Should be high minded; couch it not so low.--
Dost heare me? take occasion to slip hence, 360
But secretly, let not thy mother see thee:
At the back side there is a cunny greene;[1810]
Stay there for me, and Mall and I will come to thee. [_Aside._]

_Fra._ Enough, I will. [_Aside_].--Mother, you doe me wrong
To be so peremptory in your commaund, 365
And see that rascall to abuse me so.

_Coom._ Rascall! take that and take all! Do ye heare, sir? I doe not
meane to pocket up this wrong.

_Bo._ I know why that is.

_Coo._ Why? 370

_Bo._ Because you have nere a pocket.

_Co._ A whip, sira, a whip!--But, sir, provide your tooles against
to morrow morning; tis somewhat darke now, indeed: you know Dawsons
close, betweene the hedge and the pond; tis good even ground; Ile
meete you there; and I do not, call me cut,[1811] and you be a man,
shew yourselfe a man; weele have a bout or two; and so weele part for
that present. 377

_Fran._ Well, sir, well.

_Nic._ [_approaching._] Boy, have they appointed to fight?

_Boy._ I, Nicholas; wilt not thou go see the fray? 380

_Nich._ No, indeed; even as they brewe, so let them bake. I wil not
thrust my hand into the flame, and[1812] need not; tis not good to
have an oare in another mans boate; little said is soone amended,
and in little medling commeth great rest; tis good sleeping in a
whole skin; so a man might come home by Weeping Crosse[1813]: no,
by lady, a friend is not so soone gotten as lost; blessed are the
peace-makers; they that strike with the sword, shall be beaten with
the scabberd. 388

_Phil._ Well said, proverbs: nere another to that purpose?

_Nic._ Yes, I could have said to you, sir, Take heed is a good
reed.[1814] 391

_Phil._ Why to me, take heede?

_Ni._ For happy is he whom other mens harms do make to beware.

_Phi._ O, beware, Franke!--Slip away, Mall.--You know what I told ye.
Ile hold our mothers both in talk meanwhile. [_Aside._] --Mother, and
mistris Barnes, me thinkes you should not stand in hatred so hard one
with the[1815] other.

_Mi. Bar._ Should I not, sir? should I not hate a harlot,
That robs me of my right, vilde boye? 400

_Mi. Gou._ That tytle I returne unto thy teeth,
[_Exeunt_ FRANCIS _and_ MALL.]
And spit the name of harlot in thy face.

_Mi. Bar._ Well, tis not time of night to hold out chat
With such a scold as thou art; therefore now
Thinke that I hate thee as I doe the devill. 405

_Mi. Gou._ The devill take thee, if thou dost not, wretch!

_Mi. Bar._ Out upon thee, strumpet!

_Mi. Gou._ Out upon thee, harlot!

_Mis. Bar._ Well, I will finde a time to be reveng'd:
Meane time Ile keep my daughter from thy sonne.-- 410
Where are you, minion? how now, are yee gone?

_Phi._ She went in, mother.

_Mi. Go._ Francis where are ye?

_Mi. Ba._ He is not heere. O, then, they slipt away,
And both together! 415

_Phi._ Ile assure ye, no;
My sister she went in, into the house.

_Mi. Ba._ But, then, sheele out againe at the backe doore,
And meete with him: but I will search about
All these same fields and paths neere to my house; 420
They are not far I am sure, if I make haste. _Exit._

_Mi. Go._ O God, how went he hence, I did not see him?
It was when Barnses wife did scolde with me;
A plague on[1816] her!--Dick, why didst not thou looke to him?

_Coo._ What should I looke for him? no, no, I looke not for him
while[1817] to morrow morning. 426

_Mi. Gou._ Come, go with me to help to looke him out.
Alas, I have nor light, nor linke, nor torche!
Though it be darke, I will take any paines
To crosse this match. I prethy, Dick, away. 430

_Coo._ Mistris, because I brought ye out, Ile bring ye home; but, if I
should follow, so hee might have the law on his side.

_Mi. Go._ Come, tis no matter; prethee, goe with me.

_Exeunt_ [MISTRESS GOURSEY _and_ COOMES.]

_M. Ba._ Philip, thy mothers gone to seeke thy sister,
And in a rage, i faith: but who comes heere? 435

_Ph._ Olde master Goursey, as I thinke, tis he.

_M. Ba._ Tis so, indeed.

[_Enter_ MASTER GOURSEY.]

_M. Gour._ Whoes there?

_M. Bar._ A friend of yours.

_M. Gou._ What, master Barnes! did ye not see my wife? 440

_M. Bar._ Yes, sir, I saw her; she was heere even now.

_M. Gou._ I doubted that; that made me come unto you:
But whether is she gone?

_Phil._ To seeke your sonne, who slipt away from her
To meete with Mall my sister in a place 445
Where I appointed; and my mother too
Seeke for my sister; so they both are gone:
My mother hath a torch; mary, your wife
Goes darkling up and downe, and Coomes before her.

_M. Gou._ I thought that knave was with her; but tis well: 450
I pray God, they may come by nere a light,
But both be led a darke daunce in the night!

_Ho._ Why, is my fellow Dick in the dark with my mistres? I pray God,
they be honest, for there may be much knaverie in the dark: faith, if
I were there, I wold have some knavery with them. [_Aside._]--Good
maister, wil ye carry the torch yourself, and give me leave to play
the blind man buffe with my mistris? 457

_Phil._ On that condition thou wilt do thy best
To keep thy mistresse and thy fellow Dick
Both from my sister and thy masters sonne, 460
I will entreate thy master let thee goe.

_Hod._ O, I, I warrant ye, Ile have fine tricks to cousen them.

_M. Gou._ Well, sir, then, go your waies; I give you leave.

_Hod._ O brave! but where about are they?

_Phil._ About our cunny green they surely are, 465
If thou canst find them.

_Hod._ O, let me alone to grope for cunnies.

[_Gives_ PHIL. _the torch, and_] _exit_.

_Phi._ Well, now will I to Franke and to my sister.
Stand you two harkning neere the cunny greene,
But sure your light in you must not be seene; 470
Or els let Nicholas stand afarre off with it,
[_Gives Nich. the torch._]
And as his life keep it from mistris Goursey.
Shall this be done?

_M. Bar._ Phillip, it shall.

_Phi._ God be with ye! Ile be gone. _Exit._ 475

_M. Bar._ Come on, master Goursey: this same is a meanes
To make our wives friends, if they resist not.

_M. Go._ Tut, sir, howsoever it shall go forward.

_M. Bar._ Come, then, lets do as Phillip hath advisd.
_Exeunt_ [_toward the cunny greene._]

[Scene Ninth.[1818] _The Cunny Greene._]

_Enter_ MALL.

_Mal._ Heere is the place where Phillip bid me stay
Till Francis came; but wherefore did my brother[1819]
Appoint it heere? why in the cunny borough?
He had some meaning in't, I warrant ye.
Well, heere Ile set me downe under this tree, 5
And thinke upon the matter all alone.
Good Lord, what pritty things these cunnies are!
How finely they do feed till they be fat,
And then what a sweet meate a cunny is!
And what smooth skins they have, both black and gray! 10
They say they run more in the night then day:
What is the reason? marke; why, in the light
They see more passengers then in the night;
For harmfull men many a haye[1820] do set,
And laugh to see them tumble in the net; 15
And they put ferrets in the holes,--fie, fie!--
And they go up and downe where conniees lye;
And they lye still, they have so little wit:
I marvell the warriner will suffer it;
Nay, nay, they are so bad, that they themselves 20
Do give consent to catch these prettie elfes.
How if the warriner should spie me here?
He would take me for a conny I dare sweare.
But when that Francis comes, what will he say?
'Looke, boy, there lyes a conney in my way!' 25
But, soft, a light! whose that? soule, my mother!
Nay, then, all hid: i faith, she shall not see me;
Ile play bo peepe with her behind this tree.

[_Enter_ MISTRESSE BARNES, _with a torch_.]

_Mis. Ba._ I marvell where this wench doth[1821] hide her selfe
So closely; I have searcht in many a bush. 30

_Mal._ Belike my mother tooke me for a thrush. [_Aside._]--

_Mis. Bar._ Shees hid in this same warren, Ile lay money.

_Mal._ Close as a rabbet sucker[1822] from an olde conney. [_Aside._]

_Mi. Bar._ O God, I would to God that I could find her!
I would keepe her from her loves toyes yet. 35

_Mal._ I, so you might, if your daughter had no wit. [_Aside._]

_Mi. Ba._ What a vilde girle tis, that would hav't so young!

_Mal._ A murren take that desembling tongue!
Ere your calves teeth were out, you thought it long. [_Aside._]

_Mi. Bar._ But, minion, yet Ile keepe you from the man. 40

_Mall._ To save a lye, mother, say, if you can. [_Aside._]

_Mi. Bar._ Well, now to looke for her.

_Mal._ I, theres the spight:
What trick shall I now have to scape her light? [_Aside._]

_Mi. Bar._ Whose there? what, minion, is it you?-- 45
Beshrew her heart, what a fright she put me to!
But I am glad I found her, though I was afraide. [_Aside._]
Come on your wayes; you are[1823] a handsome maide!
Why [steal] you foorth a doores so late at night?
Why, whether go ye? come, stand still, I say. 50

_Mal._ No, indeed, mother; this is my best way.

_M. Ba._ Tis not the best way; stand by me, I tell yee.

_Mall._ No; you would catch me, mother,--O, I smell ye!

_Mi. Bar._ Will ye not stand still?

_Mal._ No, by ladie, no. 55

_Mis. Bar._ But I will make ye.

_Mal._ Nay, then, trip and goe.

_Mi. Bar._ Mistresse, Ile make ye wearie ere I have done.

_Mal._ Faith, mother, then, Ile trie how you can runne.

_Mis. Bar._ Will ye? 60

_Mal._ Yes, faith. _Exeunt._

_Enter_ [FRANKE _and_ BOY.]

_Fran._ Mal, sweet heart, Mall! what, not a word?

_Boy._ A little further; call againe.

_Fran._ Why, Mal! I prethie, speake; why, Mal, I say!
I know thou art not farre, if thou wilt not[1824] speake; 65
Why, Mal!--
But now I see shees in her merry vaine,
To make me call, and put me to more paine.
Well, I must beare with her; sheel beare with me:
But I will call, least that it be not so.-- 70
What, Mal! what, Mall, I say!--Boy, are we right?
Have we not mist the way this same darke night?

_Boy._ Masse, it may be so: as I am true man,
I have not seen a cunny since I came;
Yet at the cunny-borow we should meete. 75
But, harke! I heare the trampling of some feete.

_Fran._ It may be so, then; therefore lets lye close.

[_Enter_ MISTRESSE GOURSEY _and_ COOMES.]

_Mis. Gou._ Where art thou, Dicke?

_Coo._ Where am I, quoth a! mary, I may be where any body will say I
am; eyther in France, or at Rome, or at Jerusalem, they may say I am,
for I am not able to disprove them, because I cannot tell where I
am. 82

_Mi. Gou._ O, what a blindfold walke have we had, Dicke,
To seeke my sonne! and yet I cannot finde him.

_Coo._ Why, then, mistresse, lets goe home. 85

_Mi. Gou._ Why, tis so darke we shall not finde the way.

_Fran._ I pray God, ye may not, mother, till it be day! [_Aside._]

_Coo._ Sbloud, take heed, mistris, heres a tree.

_Mis. Go._ Lead thou the way, and let me hold by thee.

_Bo._ Dick Coome, what difference is there between a blind man and he
that cannot see? 91

_Fra._ Peace, a poxe on thee!

_Coo._ Swounds, some body spake.

_Mi. Gou._ Dicke, looke about;
It may be here we may finde them out. 95

_Coo._ I see the glimpse[1825] of some body heere.--
And ye be a sprite, Ile fraie the bug beare.--
There a goes, mistresse.

_Mi. Gour._ O sir, have I spide you?

_Fr._ A plague on the boy! twas he that descried[1826] me. _Exeunt._

[Scene Tenth. _A Grove in the Fields between the Cunny Greene and the
Forest._]

[_Enter_ PHILIP.]

_Phi._ How like a beauteous lady, maskt in blacke
Lookes that same large circumference of heaven!
The skie, that was so faire three houres agoe,
Is in three houres become an Ethiope;
And being angrie at her beauteous change, 5
She will not have one of those pearled starres
To blab her sable metamorphesis:[1827]
Tis very darke. I did appoint my sister
To meete me at the cunny berrie below,
And Francis too; but neither can I see. 10
Belike my mother hapned on that place,
And fraide them from it, and they both are now
Wandring about the[1828] fields: how shall I finde them?
It is so darke, I scarce can see my hand:
Why, then, Ile hollow for them--no, not so; 15
So will his voice betray him to our mothers
And if he answere, and bring them where he is.
What shall I, then, do? it must not be so--
Sbloud,[1829] it must be so; how else, I pray?
Shall I stand gaping heere all night till day, 20
And then nere the neere?[1830]--So ho, so ho!

[_Enter_ WILL.]

_Wil._ So ho! I come: where are ye? where art thou? here!

_Phi._ How now, Franke, where hast thou[1831] been?

_Wil._ Franke! what Franke? sbloud, is sir Raph mad? [_Aside_].--
Heeres the bow.[1832] 25

_Phi._ I have not been much private with that voice:
Me thinke Franke Goursey talke and his doth tell me
I am mistaken; especially by his bow;
Franke had no bow. Well, I will leave this fellow,
And hollow somewhat farther in the fields. [_Aside_].-- 30
Doost thou heare, fellow? I perceive by thee
That we are both mistaken: I tooke thee
For one thou art not; likewise thou tookst me
For sir Raph Smith, but sure I am not he:
And so, farewell; I must go seeke my friend.-- 35
So ho! [_Exit._]

_Wil._ So ho, so ho! nay, then, sir Raph, so whoore!
For a whore she was sure, if you had her here
So late. Now, you are sir Raphe Smith;
Well do ye counterfeit and change your voyce, 40
But yet I know ye. But what should be that Francis?
Belike that Francis cussend him of his wench,
And he conceals himselfe to finde her out;
Tis so, upon my life. Well, I will go
And helpe him ring his peale of so ho, so ho! [_Exit._] 45

_Enter_ FRANKE.[1833]

_Fra._ A plague on Coomes! a plague upon the boy!
A plague too--not on my mother for an hundreth pound![1834]
Twas time to runne; and yet I had not thought
My mother could have followed me so close,
Her legges with age I thought had foundered; 50
She made me quite runne through a quickset hedge,
Or she had taken me. Well, I may say,
I have runne through the briers for a wenche;
And yet I have her not,--the woorse lucke mine.
Me thought I heard one hollow here about; 55
I judge it Philip: O, the slave will laugh
When as he heares how that my mother scarde me!
Well, heere Ile stand untill I heare him hollow,
And then Ile answere him; he is not farre.

[_Enter_ SIR RAPH SMITH.]

_Ra._ My man is hollowing for me up and downe, 60
And yet I cannot meet with him.--So ho!

_Frank._ So ho!

_Ra._ Why, what, a poxe, wert thou so neere me, man,
And wouldst[1835] not speake?

_Fra._ Sbloud, ye are very hot. 65

_Rap._ No, sir, I am colde enough with staying here
For such a knave as you.

_Fra._ Knave! how now, Phillip?
Art mad, art mad?

_Ra._ Why, art not thou my man 70
That went to fetch my bowe.[1836]

_Fra._ Indeed, a bowe
Might shoote me ten bowes downe the weather so:
I your man!

_Ra._ What art thou, then? 75

_Fran._ A man: but whats thy name?

_Rap._ Some call me Raph.

_Franke._ Then, honest Raph, farewell.[1837]

_Ra._ Well said, familiar Will! plaine Raph, i faith.
[_Hollow within_ PHILLIP _and_ WILL.[1838]]

_Fran._ There calles my man. 80

_Ra._ But there goes mine away;
And yet Ile heare what this next call will say,
[_Goes out toward the fields._]
And here Ile tarrie till he call againe.

[_Enter_ WILL.]

_Wil._ So ho!

_Fran._ So ho! where art thou, Phillip? 85

_Wil._ Sbloud,[1839] Philip!
But now he calde[1840] me Francis: this is fine. [_Aside._]

_Fran._ Why studiest thou? I prethy, tell me, Philip,
Where the wench[1841] is.

_Wil._ Even now he askt me Francis for the wench, 90
And now he asks[1842] me Phillip for the wench. [_Aside_]--
Well, sir Raph, I must needes tell ye now,
Tis not for your[1843] credit to be foorth
So late a wenching in this order.

_Fran._ Whats this? so late a wenching, doth he say? [_Aside_].--
Indeed, tis true I am thus late a wenching, 96
But I am forc'st to wench without a wench.

_Wil._ Why, then, you might have tane your bow at first,
And gone and kilde a bucke, and not have been
So long a drabbing, and be nere the neere. 100

_Fran._ Swounds, what a pussell am I in this night!
But yet Ile put this fellow farther [off][1844] [_Aside_].--
Doost thou heare, man? I am not sir Raph Smith,
As thou doost thinke I am; but I did meete him,
Even as thou saiest, in pursuite of a wench. 105
I met the wench to, and she[1845] askt for thee,
Saying twas thou that wert her love, her deare,
And that sir Raph was not an honest knight
To traine her thether, and to use her so.

_Wil._ Sbloud, my wench! swounds, were he ten sir Raphs--

_Fran._ Nay, tis true, looke to it; and so, farewell. _Exit._ 111

_Wil._ Indeed, I do love Nan, our darie maide:
And hath he traine[d] her forth to that intent,
Or for another? I carrie his crossebow,
And he doth crosse me, shooting in my bow. 115
What shall I do? [_Exit._]

[Scene Eleventh. _The Fields between the Grove and the Forest._]

_Enter_ PHILLIP.[1846]

_Phillip._ So ho!

_Raph._ So ho!

_Phil._ Frances, art thou there?

_Ra._ No, heres no Francis. Art thou Will, my man?

_Phil._ Will foole your man, Will gose[1847] your man! 5
My backe, sir, scornes to weare your liverie.

_Raph._ Nay, sir, I moov'de but such a question to you,
And[1848] it hath not disparegd you, I hope;
Twas but mistaking; such a night as this
May well deceive a man. God boye,[1849] sir. [_Exit._] 10

_Phil._ Gods will, tis sir Raph Smith, a vertuous knight!
How gently entertaines he my hard answer!
Rude anger made my tongue unmannerly:
I crie him mercie. Well, but all this while
I cannot finde a Francis.--Francis, ho! 15

[_Enter_ WILL.]

_Wil._ Francis, ho! O, you call Francis now!
How have ye usde my Nan? come, tell me, how.

_Phil._ Thy Nan! what Nan?

_Wil._ I, what Nan, now! say, do you not seeke a wench?

_Phi._ Yes, I do. 20

_Wil._ Then, sir, that is she.

_Phil._ Art not thou [he] I met withall before?

_Wil._ Yes, sir; and you did counterfeit before,
And said to me you were not sir Raph Smith.

_Phil._ No more I am not. I met sir Raph Smith; 25
Even now he askt me if I saw his man.

_Wil._ O, fine!

_Phil._ Why, sirra, thou art much deceived in me:
Good faith, I am not he thou thinkst I am.

_Wil._ What are ye, then? 30

_Phi._ Why, one that seekes one Francis and a wench.

_Wil._ And Francis seekes one Phillip and a wench.

_Phil._ How canst thou tell?

_Wil._ I met him seeking Phillip and a wench,
As I was seeking sir Raph and a wench. 35

_Phil._ Why, then, I know the matter: we met crosse,
And so we mist; now here we finde our losse.
Well, if thou wilt, we two will keepe togither,
And so we shall meet right with one or other.

_Wil._ I am content: but, do you heare me, sir? 40
Did not sir Raph Smith aske yee for a wench?

_Phi._ No, I promise thee, nor did he looke
For any but thy selfe, as I could gesse.

_Wil._ Why, this is strange: but, come, sir, lets away;
I feare that we shall walke here till it be day. _Exeunt._ 45

_Enter_ BOY.[1850]

[_Boy._] O God, I have runne so far into the winde, that I have runne
myselfe out of winde! They say a man is neere his end when he lackes
breath; and I am at the end of my race, for I can run no farther: then
here I be in my breath bed, not in my death bed. [_Exit._] 50

_Enter_ COOMES.

_Coom._ They say men moyle and toile for a poore living; so I moyle
and toile, and am living, I thanke God; in good time be it spoken.
It had been better for me my mistresse[1851] angell had beene
light, for then perhaps it had not lead me into this darknesse.
Well, the divell never blesses a man better, when he purses up
angels by owlight: I ranne through a hedge to take the boy, but I
stuck in the ditch, and lost the boy. [_Falls._] Swounds, a plague
on that clod, that mowlhil, that ditch, or what the devil so ere
it were, for a man cannot see what it was! Well, I would not for
the prize of my sword and buckler any body should see me in this
taking, for it would make me but cut off their legges for laughing
at me. Well, downe I am, and downe I meane to be, because I am
wearie; but to tumble downe thus, it was no parte of my meaning:
then, since I am downe, here Ile rest me, and no man shall remoove
me. 65

_Enter_ HODGE.

_Hodg._ O, I have sport in coney, i faith! I have almost burst
myselfe with laughing at mistresse Barnes. She was following of
her daughter; and I, hearing her, put on my fellow Dickes sword
and buckler voyce and his swounds and sbloud words, and led her
such a daunce in the darke as it passes. 'Heere she is,' quoth
I. 'Where'? quoth she. 'Here,' quoth I. O, it hath been a brave
here and there night! but, O, what a soft natured thing the durt
is! how it would endure my hard treading, and kisse my feete for
acquaintance! and how courteous and mannerly were the clods[1852]
to make me stumble onelie of purpose to entreate me lie downe and
rest me! But now, and I could find my fellow Dicke, I would play
the knave with him honestly, i faith. Well, I will grope in the
darke for him, or Ile poke with my staffe, like a blinde man, to
prevent a ditch. _He stumbles on_ DICK COOMES.[1853]

_Coom._ Whose that, with a poxe? 80

_Hod._ Who art thou, with a pestilence?

_Coom._ Why, I am Dicke Coomes.

_Hodg._ What, have I found thee, Dicke? nay, then, I am for yee,
Dicke. [_Aside._]--Where are ye, Dicke?
[_Assuming_ MISTRESSE GOURSEY'S _voice_.]

_Coom._ What can I tell where I am? 85

_Hodg._ Can yee not tell? come, come, ye waight on your mistresse
well! come on your wayes; I have sought you till I am wearie, and
calde ye till I am hoarse: good Lord, what a jaunt I have had this
night, hey[1854] ho! 89

_Coom._ Ist you, mistresse, that came over me? sbloud, twere a good
deed to come over you for this nights worke. I cannot affoord all
this paines for an angell: I tell ye true; a kisse were not cast
away upon a good fellow, that hath deserved more that way then a
kisse, if your kindnesse would affoord it him: what, shall I have
it, mistresse?

_Hodg._ Fie, fie, I must not kisse my man. 95

_Coom._ Nay, nay, nere stand; shall I, shall I? nobody sees: say but I
shall, and Ile smacke yee[1855] soundly, i faith.

_Hodg._ Away, bawdie man! in trueth, Ile tell your maister.

_Coom._ My master! go to, neere tell me of my maister: he may pray for
them that may, he is past it; and for mine own part, I can do somewhat
that way, I thanke God; I am not now to learne, and tis your part to
have your whole desire. 102

_Hod._ Fie, fie, I am ashamed of you: would you tempt your mistresse
to lewdnesse?

_Coom._ To lewdnesse! no, by my troth, thers no such matter in't,
it is for kindnesse; and, by my troth, if you like my gentle offer,
you shall have what courteously I can affoord ye. 107

_Hod._ Shall I indeed, Dicke? I faith, if I thought nobody would
see--

_Coom._ Tush, feare not that; swones, they must have cattes eyes,
then. 111

_Hod._ Then, kisse me, Dick.

_Coom._ A kinde wenche, i faith! [_Aside_].--Where are yee,
mistresse?

_Hodge._ Heere, Dick. O, I am in the darke! Dick, go about.

_Coom._ Nay, Ile grope[1856] sure: where are yee now?[1857] 116

_Hodge._ Heere.

_Coom._ A plague on this poast! I would the carpenter had bin
hangd that set it up so.[1858]--Where are yee now?

_Hod._ Heere. _Exit._ 120

_Coo._ Here! O, I come. [_Exit._] A plague on it, I am in a
pond, mistres!

_Hod._ [_re-entering._] Ha, ha! I have led him into a pond.--Where
art thou, Dick?

_Coomes._ [_within._] Up to the middle in a pond! 125

_Hod._ Make a boate of thy buckler, then, and swim out. Are yee so
hot, with a pox? would you kisse my mistresse? coole ye there, then,
good Dick Coomes. O, when he comes forth, the skirts of his blew coate
will dropp like a paint-house![1859] O, that I could see, and not be
seene, how he would spaniell it, and shake himselfe when he comes out
of the pond! But Ile be gone; for now heele fight with a flye, if he
but buz[1860] in his eare. _Exit._ 132

[_Re_]_enter_ COOMES.

_Coom._ Heeres so hoing with a plague! so hang, and ye wil, for
I have bin almost drownd. A pox of your lips,[1861] and ye call
this kissing! Yee talke of a drownd rat, but twas time to swim
like a dog; I had bin served like a drowned cat els. I would he
had digd his grave that digd the pond! my feete were foule indeed,
but a lesse pale then a pond would have served my turne to wash
them. A man shall be served thus alwayes, when he followes any of
these females; but tis my kinde heart that makes me thus forward in
kindnes unto them: well, God amend them, and make them thankfull
to them that would do them pleasure. I am not drunke, I would ye
should[1862] know it; and yet I have drunke more then will do me
good, for I might have had a pumpe set up with as[1863] good March
beere as this was, and nere set up an alebush for the matter. Well,
I am somewhat in wroth, I must needs say; and yet I am not more
angrie then wise, nor more wise then angrie but Ile fight with
the next man I meete, and it be but for luck sake; and if he love
to see him selfe hurt, let him bring light with him; Ile do it by
darkling els, by Gods dines. Well, heere will I walke, whoso ever
sayes nay. 151

_Enter_ NICHOLAS [_with a torch_].

_Nic._ He that worse may, must holde the candle; but my maister is
not so wise as God might have made him. He is gone to seeke a hayre
in a hennes nest, a needle in a bottle of haye, which is as sildome
seene as a black swan: he is gone to seeke my yong mistresse; and
I thinke she is better lost then found, for who so ever hath her,
hath but a wet eele by the taile. But they may do as they list; the
law is in their owne hands; but, and they would be ruld by me, they
should set her on the leland,[1864] and bid the divell split her;
beshrew her fingers, she hath made me watch past mine hower; but
Ile watch her a good turne for it. 161

_Coom._ How, whose that? Nicholas!--So, first come, first servd;
I am for him.--How now, proverbe, proverbe? sbloud, howe now,
proverbe?

_Ni._ My name is Nicholas, Richard; and I knowe your meaning, and
I hope ye meane no harme: I thanke ye, I am the better for your
asking. 167

_Coo._ Where have you been a whoring thus late, ha?

_Ni._ Master Richard, the good wife would not seeke her daughter
in the oven unlesse she had been there her selfe: but, good Lord,
you are knuckle deep in durt!--I warrant, when he was in, he swore
Walsingham,[1865] and chaft terrible for the time.--Looke, the water
drops from you as fast as hops. 173

_Coom._ What needst thou to care, whipper-jenny,[1866]
tripe-cheekes[1867]? out, you fat asse!

_Ni._ Good words cost nought, ill wordes corrupts good manners,
Richard: for a hasty man never wants woe; and I had thought you
had bin my friend; but I see al is not gold that glisters; ther's
falshood in fellowship; _amicus certus in re certa cernitur_; time
and truth tries all; and tis an olde proverbe, and not so old as
true, bought wit is[1868] best; I can see day at a little hole;
I know your minde as well as though I were within you; tis ill
halting before a criple: go to, you seek to quarrel; but beware
of had I wist[1869]; so long goes the pot to the water, at length
it comes home broken[1870]; I know you are as good a man as ever
drew sword, or as was ere girt in a girdle, or as ere went on
neats leather, or as one shall see upon a summers day, or as ere
lookt man in the face, or as ere trode on Gods earth, or as ere
broke bread or drunk drinke; but he is proper that hath proper
conditions; but be not you like the cowe, that gives a good sope
of milke, and casts it downe with her[1871] heeles; I speake
plainly, for plaine dealing is a jewel, and he that useth it shal
dye a begger; well, that happens in an houre, that happens not in
seaven yeeres; a man is not so soone whole as hurt; and you should
kill a man, you would kisse his--well, I say little, but I thinke
the more.--Yet Ile give him good words; tis good to hold a candle
before the devell; yet, by Gods me,[1872] Ile take no wrong, if
he had a head as big as Brasse,[1873] or lookt as high as Poules
steeple. [_Aside._] 197

_Coo._ Sirra, thou grashoper, that shalt skip from my sword as from
a sith; Ile cut thee out in collops, and egs, in steekes, in sliste
beefe, and frye thee with the fire I shall strike from the pike of
thy buckler.

_Nich._ I, Brag's a good dog; threatned folkes live long. 201

_Coo._ What say ye, sir?

_Nic._ Why, I say not so much as How do ye?

_Coo._ Do ye not so, sir?

_Nic._ No, indeed, what so ere I thinke; and thought is free. 205

_Coo._ You whoreson wafer-cake, by Gods dines,[1874] Ile crush yee
for this!

_Ni._ Give an inch, and youle take an elle; I wil not put my finger
in a hole, I warrant ye: what, man! nere crow so fast, for a blinde
man may kill a hare; I have knowne when a plaine fellow hath hurt a
fencer, so I have: what! a man may be as slow as a snaile, but as
fierce as a lyon and he be mooved; indeed, I am patient, I must needs
say, for patience in adversity brings a man to the Three Cranes in the
Ventree.[1875] 214

_Coo._ Do ye heare? set downe your torch; drawe, fight, I am
for ye.

_Ni._ And I am for ye too, though it be from this midnight to the
next morne.

_Coo._ Where be your tooles?

_Nic._ Within a mile of an oake, sir; hee's a proud horse will not
carry his owne provender, I warrant ye. 221

_Coo._ Now am I in my quarrelling humor, and now can I say
nothing but Sownes, draw! but Ile untrus, and then have to it.
[_Aside._]

_Enter_ [_severally_] HODGE _and_ BOY.

_Hod._ Whose there? boy! honest boy, well met: where hast thou
bin? 225

_Boy._ O Hodge, Dicke Coomes hath been as good as a crye of hounds, to
make a breathd[1876] hayre of me! but didst thou see my master?

_Hod._ I met him even now, and he askt me for thee, and he is gone up
and downe, whoing like[1877] an owle for thee. 230

_Boy._ Owle, ye asse!

_Hod._ Asse! no, nor glasse, for then it had been Owleglasse[1878]:
but whose that, boy?

_Bo._ By the masse, tis our Coomes and Nicolas; and it seemes
they are providing to fight. 235

_Hod._ Then, we shall have fine sport, i faith. Sirra, lets stand
close, and when they have fought a bout or two, weele run away
with the torch, and leave them to fight darkling; shall we?

_Boy._ Content; Ile get the torch: stand close. 239

_Coo._ So, now my back hath roome to reach: I doe not love to be
lac't[1879] in, when I goe to lace[1879] a rascall. I pray God,
Nicholas proove not a fly:[1880] it would do me good to deale
with a good man now, that we might have halfe a dozen good smart
stroakes. Ha, I have seen the day I could have daunst in my fight,
on, two, three, foure, and five, on the head of him; six, seaven,
eight, nine, and ten, on the sides of him; and, if I went so far
as fifteene, I warrant I shewed[1881] him a trick of one and
twentie; but I have not fought this foure dayes, and I lacke a
little practise of my warde; but I shall make a shift: ha, close
[_Aside_].--Are ye disposed, sir? 249

_Nic._ Yes, indeed, I feare no colours:[1882] change sides, Richard.

_Coo._ Change the gallowes! Ile see thee hangd[1883] first.

_Nich._ Well, I see the foole will not leave his bable[1884] for the
Tower of London.

_Coo._ Foole, ye roge! nay, then, fall to it.

_Nic._ Good goose, bite not. 255

_Coo._ Sbloud, how pursey I am! Well, I see exercise is all: I must
practise my weapons oftner; I must have a goale or two at foote-ball
before I come to my right kind [_Aside_].--Give me thy hand, Nicholas:
thou art a better man then I took thee for, and yet thou art not so
good a man as I. 260

_Ni._ You dwell by ill neighbours, Richard; that makes yee praise
your selfe.

_Coo._ Why, I hope thou wilt say I am a man?

_Ni._ Yes, Ile say so, if I should see yee[1885] hangd. 264

_Coo._ Hangd, ye roge! nay, then, have at yee. [_While they fight,
exeunt_ HODGE, _and_ BOY _with the torch_.] Swones,[1886] the light
is gone!

_Ni._ O Lord, it is as darke as pitch!

_Coo._ Well, heere Ile lye, with my buckler thus, least striking up
and downe at randall,[1887] the roge might hurt me, for I cannot see
to save it, and Ile hold my peace, least my voyce should bring him
where I am. [_Lies down and covers himself with his buckler._] 271

_Nic._ Tis good to have a cloake for the raine; a bad shift is better
than none at all; Ile sit heere, as if I were as dead as a doore
naile.

[Scene Twelfth. _The Grove._]

_Enter_ M. BARNES _and_ M. GOURSEY.[1888]

_M. Gou._ Harke! theres one holloes.

_M. Bar._ And theres another.

_M. Gour._ And every where we come, I heere some hollo,
And yet it is our haps to meete with none.

_M. Bar._ I marvell where your Hodge is, and my man. 5

_M. Gour._ I, and our wives; we cannot meet with them,
Nor with the boye, nor Mall, nor Franke, nor Phillip,
Nor yet with Coomes, and yet we nere stood still.
Well, I am very angry with my wife,
And she shall finde I am not pleasd with her, 10
If we meete nere so soone: but tis my hope.[1889]
She hath had as blind a journey ont[1890] as we;
Pray God, she have, and worse, if worse may be!

_M. Bar._ This is but short liv'de envie,[1891] maister Goursey:
But, come, what say yee to my pollicie?[1892] 15

_M. Gou._ I faith, tis good, and we will practise it;
But, sir, it must be handeled cunningly,
Or all is mard; our wives have subtill heads,
And they will soone perceive a drift devise.

_Enter_ SIR RAPHE SMITH.

_Raph._ So ho! 20

_M. Gour._ So ho!

_Raph._ Whose there?

_M. Bar._ Heers on[e] or two.

_Raph._ Is Will there?

_M. Bar._ No. Phillip? 25

_M. Gour._ Franke?

_Raph._ No, no.--
Was ever man deluded thus like me?
I thinke some spirit leads me thus amisse,
As I have often heard that some have bin 30
Thus in the nights.
But yet this mases me; where ere I come,
Some askes me still for Franke or Phillip,
And none of them can tell me where Will is. [_Aside._]

_Wil._ So ho! } 35
}
_Phil._ So ho! }
} _They hollo within._
_Hodg._ So ho! }
}
_Boy._ So ho! }

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

[_Enter_ HODGE.]

_Hodg._ Whope, whope!

_Raph._ Whose there? Will? 44

_Hod._ No, sir; honest Hodge: but, I pray yee, sir, did yee not
meete with a boye with a torche? he is runne away from me, a
plague on him!

_Raph._ Hey day, from Franke and Phillip to a torche,
And to a boye! nay, sownes, then, hap as twill. [_Aside._]
[_Exeunt_ SIR RAPH _and_ HODGE _severally_.]

_M. Gour._ Who goes there? 50

[_Enter_ WILL.]

_Wil._ Gesse heere.

_M. Bar._ Phillip?

_Wil._ Phillip! no, faith; my names Will,--ill will, for I was never
worse: I was even now with him, and might have been still, but that
I fell into a ditch and lost him, and now I am going up and downe to
seeke him. 56

_M. Gor._ What wouldst thou do with him?

_Wil._ Why, I would have him go with me to my maisters.

_M. Gou._ Whose thy maister?

_Wil._ Why, sir Raphe Smith; and thether he promist me he would come;
if he keepe his worde, so tis. 61

_M. Ba._ What was he[1893] doing when thou first found[1894] him?

_Wil._ Why, he holloed for one Francis, and Francis hollod for him;
I hallod for my maister, and my maister for me; but we mist still,
meeting contrary, Phillip and Francis with me and my maister, and I
and my maister with Philip and Franke. 66

_M. Gou._ Why, wherefore is sir Raphe so late abroade?

_Wil._ Why, he ment to kill a buck,--Ile say so to save his honestie,
but my Nan was his marke [_Aside_]--and when[1895] he sent me for his
bow, and when I came, I hollod for him; but I never saw such luck to
misse him, it hath almost made me mad. 71

_M. Bar._ Well, stay with us; perhaps sir Raphe and he
Will come anon: harke! I do heere one hollo.

_Enter_ PHILLIP [_from the fields_.]

_Phil._ Is this broad waking in a winters night?
I am broad walking in a winters night,-- 75
Broad indeed, because I am abroad,--
But these broad fields methinks are not so broad
That they may keepe me foorth of narrow ditches.
Heers a hard world!
For I can hardly keep myself upright in it: 80
I am marvellous dutifull--but, so ho!

_Wil._ So ho!

_Phil._ Whose there?

_Wil._ Heeres Will.

_Ph._ What, Will! how scapst thou? 85

_Wil._ What, sir?

_Ph._ Nay, not hanging, but drowning: wert thou in a pond or a ditche?

_Wil._ A pestilence on it! ist you, Phillip? no, faith, I was but
durty a little: but heeres one or two askt for yee. 90

_Phil._ Who be they, man?

_M. Bar._ Philip, tis I and maister Goursey.

_Phi._ Father, O father, I have heard them say
The dayes of ignorance are past and done;
But I am sure the nights of ignorance 95
Are not yet past, for this is one of them.
But wheres my sister?

_M. Bar._ Why, we cannot tell.

_Ph._ Wheres Francis?

_M. Gour._ Neither saw we him. 100

_Phi._ Why, this is fine.
What, neither he nor I, nor she nor you,
Nor I nor she, nor you and I, till[1896] now,
Can meet, could meet, or nere, I thinke, shall meete!
Cal ye this woing? no, tis Christmas sport 105
Of Hob man blind:[1897] all blind, all seek to catch,
All misse,--but who comes heere?[1898]

_Enter_ FRANKE _and his_ BOYE [_with torch_].

_Fra._ O, have I catcht yee, sir? it was your dooing
That made me have this pretty daunce to night;
Had not you spoake, my mother had not scard me: 110
But I will swinge ye for it.

_Phil._ Keepe the kings peace!

_Fran._ How! art thou become a constable?
Why, Phillip, where hast thou bin all this while?

_Ph._ Why, where you were not: but, I pray, whers my sister?

_Fran._ Why, man, I saw her not; but I have sought her 116
As I should seeke seeke--

_Phil._ A needle, have yee not?
Why, you, man, are the needle that she seekes
To worke withall. Well, Francis, do you heere? 120
You must not answere so, that you have sought her;
But have yee found her? faith, and if you have,
God give yee joy of that ye found with her!

_Fra._[1899] I saw her not: how could I finde her?

_M. Gou._ Why, could yee misse from maister Barnses house
Unto his cunnyberry? 126

_Fran._ Whether I could or no, father, I did.

_Phil._ Father, I did! well, Franke, wilt thou beleeve me,
Thou dost not know how much this same doth greeve me:
Shall it be said thou mist so plaine a way, 130
When as so faire a wenche did for thee stay?

_Fra._ Sownes, man!

_Phi._ Sownes, man! and if thou hadst bin blinde,
The cunny-borow thou needst must finde.
I tell thee, Francis, had it bin my case, 135
And I had bin a woer in thy place,
I would have laide my head unto the ground,
And sented out my wenches way, like a hound;
I would have crept upon my knees all night,
And have made the flint stones linckes to give me light. 140
Nay, man, I would--

_Fran._ Good Lord, what you would doe!
Well, we shall see one day how you can woe.

_M. Gor._ Come, come, we see that we have all bin crost;
Therefore lets go, and seeke them we have lost. _Exeunt._

[Scene Thirteenth. _The Same._[1900]]

_Enter_ MAL.

[_Mal_]. Am I alone? doth not my mother come?
Her torch I see not, which I well might see,
If any way she were comming toward me:
Why, then, belike shees gone some other way;
And may she go till I bid her turne! 5
Farre shall her way be then, and little faire,
For she hath hindered me of my good turne;
God send her wet and wearie ere she turne!
I had beene at Oxenford, and to morrow
Have beene releast from all my maidens sorrow, 10
And tasted joy, had not my mother bin;
God, I beseech thee, make it her worst sinne!
How many maides this night lyes in their beds,
And dreame that they have lost their maidenheads!
Such dreames, such slumbers I had to[o] enjoyde, 15
If waking mallice had not them destroide.
A starved man with double death doth dye,
To have the meate might save him in his eye,
And may not have it: so am I tormented,
To starve for joy I see, yet am prevented. 20
Well, Franke, although thou woedst and quickly wonne,
Yet shall my love to thee be never done;
Ile run through hedge and ditch, through brakes and briers,
To come to thee, sole lord of my desires:
Short woing is the best, an houre, not yeares, 25
For long debating love is full of feares.
But, hearke! I heare one tread. O, wert my brother,
Or Franke, or any man, but not my mother!

[_Enter_ SIR RAPH SMITH _from the fields._]

_S. Rap._ O, when will this same yeare of night have end?
Long lookt for daies sunne, when wilt thou ascend? 30
Let not this theefe friend, misty vale[1901] of night,
Incroach on day, and shadow thy faire light,
Whilst thou com'st tardy from thy Thetes bed,
Blushing foorth, golden haire and glorious red;
O, stay not long, bright lanthorne of the day, 35
To light my mist way[1902] feete to my right way!

_Mall._ It is a man, his big voice tels me so,
Much am I not acquainted with it tho;
And yet mine eare, sounds true distinguisher,
Boyes[1903] that I have been more familiar 40
With it then now I am: well, I doe judge,
It is not envies fellon, not of grudge[1904];
Therefore Ile plead acquaintance, hyer his guiding,
And buy of him some place of close abiding,
Till that my mothers mallice be expired, 45
And we may joy in that is long desired [_Aside_].--
Whose there?

_Ra._ Are ye a maide?--No question this is she
My man doth misse: faith, since she lights on me,
I doe not meane till day to let her goe; 50
For what[1905] she is my mans love I will know [_Aside_].--
Harke ye, mayde, if mayde, are ye so light
That you can see to wander in the night?

_Mal._ Harke ye, true man, if true, I tell you, no;
I cannot see at all which way I goe. 55

_Ra._ Fayre mayde, ist so? say, had ye nere a fall?

_Mal._ Fayre man, not so; no, I had none at all.

_Ra._ Could you not stumble on one man, I pray?

_Mal._ No, no such blocke till now came in my way.

_Ra._ Am I that blocke, sweete tripe? then, fall and try. 60

_Ma._ The grounds too hard a feather-bed; not I.

_Ra._ Why, how and you had met with such a stumpe?

_Mal._ Why, if he had been your height, I meant to jumpe.

_Ra._ Are ye so nimble?

_Mal._ Nimble as a doe. 65

_Ra._ Backt in a pye.

_Mal._ Of ye.

_Ra._ Good meate ye know.

_Mall._ Ye hunt sometimes?

_Ra._ I do. 70

_Mal._ What take ye?

_Ra._ Deare.

_Mall._ You'l nere strike rascall[1906]?

_Ra._ Yes, when ye are there.

_Mal._ Will ye strike me? 75

_Rap._ Yes: will ye strike againe?[1907]

_Mall._ No, sir; it fits not maides to fight with men.

_Ra._ I wonder, wench, how I thy name might know.

_Mall._ Why, you may finde it, sir, in the Christcrosse row.

_Rap._ Be my schoolemistresse, teach me how to spell it. 80

_Mall._ No, faith, I care not greatly if I tell it;
My name is Marie Barnes.

_Ra._ How, wench? Mall Barnes!

_Mal._ The verie same.

_Rap._ Why, this is strange. 85

_Mal._ I pray, sir, whats your[1908] name?

_Raph._ Why, sir Raph Smith doth wonder, wench, at this;
Why, whats the cause thou art abroad so late?

_Mal._ What, sir Raph Smith! nay, then, I will disclose
All the hole cause to him, in him repose 90
My hopes, my love: God him, I hope, did send
Our loves and both our mothers hates to end. [_Aside_].--
Gentle sir Raph, if you my blush might see,
You then would say I am ashamed to be
Found, like a wandring stray, by such a knight, 95
So farre from home at such a time of night:
But my excuse is good; love first by fate
Is crost, controulde,[1909] and sundered by fell hate.
Franke Goursey is my love, and he loves me;
But both our mothers hate and disagree; 100
Our fathers like the match and wish it don;
And so it had, had not our mothers come;
To Oxford we concluded both to go;
Going to meete, they came; we parted so;
My mother followed me, but I ran fast, 105
Thinking who went from hate had need make hast;
Take me she cannot, though she still persue:
But now, sweet knight, I do repose on you;
Be you my orator and plead my right,
And get me one good day for this bad night. 110

_Ra._ Alas, good heart, I pitty thy hard hap!
And Ile employ all that I may for thee.
Franke Goursey, wench! I do commend thy choyse:
Now I remember I met one Francis,
As I did seeke my man,--then, that was he,-- 115
And Philip too,--belike that was thy brother:
Why, now I find how I did loose myself,
And wander[1910] up and down, mistaking so.
Give me thy hand, Mall: I will never leave
Till I have made your mothers friends againe, 120
And purchast to ye both your hearts delight,
And for this same one bad many a good night.
Twill not be long ere that Aurora will,
Deckt in the glory of a goldon sunne,
Open the christall windowes of the east, 125
To make the earth enamourde of her[1911] face,
When we shall have cleare light to see our way:
Come; night being done, expect a happy day. _Exeunt._

[Scene Fourteenth. _A Hillside in the Fields._[1912]]

_Enter_ MISTRESSE BARNES [_with torch_].

_Mis. Ba._ O, what a race this peevish girle hath led me!
How fast I ran, and now how weary I am!
I am so out of breath I scarce can speake,--
What shall I doe?--and cannot overtake her.
It is[1913] late and darke, and I am far from home: 5
May there not theeves lye watching heere about,
Intending mischiefe unto them they meete?
There may; and I am much affrayde of them,
Being alone without all company.
I doe repent me of my coming foorth; 10
And yet I do not,--they had else beene married,
And that I would not for ten times more labour.
But what a winter of colde feare I thole,[1914]
Freecing my heart, least danger should betide me!
What shal I do to purchase company? 15
I heare some hollow here about the fields:
Then here Ile set my torch upon this hill,
Whose light shall beacon-like conduct them to it;
They that have lost theyr way, seeing a light,
For it may be seene farre off in the night, 20
Will come to it. Well, here Ile lye vnseene,[1915]
And looke who comes, and chuse my company:
Perhaps my daughter may first come to it. [_Retires to one side._]

[_Enter_ MISTRESSE GOURSEY.]

_Mi. Gour._ Where am I now? nay, where was I even now?
Nor now, nor then, nor where I shall be, know I. 25
I thinke I am going home: I may as well
Be[1916] going from home; tis so very darke,
I cannot see how to direct a step.
I lost my man, pursuing of my sonne;
My sonne escapt me too: now, all alone, 30
I am enforst[1917] to wander up and downe.
Barnses wife's abroad: pray God, that she
May have as good a daunce, nay, ten times worse!
Oh, but I feare she hath not; she hath light
To see her way. O, that some[1918] bridge would breake, 35
That she might fall into some deep digd ditch,
And eyther breake her bones or drowne her selfe!
I would these mischiefes I could wish to her
Might light on her!--but, soft; I see a light:
I will go neere; tis comfortable, 40
After this nights sad spirits dulling[1919] darknes.
How now? what, is it set to keep it selfe?

_Mis. Bar._ A plague ont, is she there? [_Aside._]

_Mis. Gou._ O, how it cheares and quickens up my thoughts!

_Mis. Bar._ O, that it were the besseliskies fell eye, 45
To poyson thee! [_Aside._]

_Mi. Gou._ I care not if I take it,--
Sure none is here to hinder me,--
And light me home.

_Mi. Bar._ I had rather she were hangd 50
Then I should set it there to doe her good. [_Aside._]

_Mis. Go._ I faith, I will.

_Mi. Ba._ I faith, you shall not, mistresse;
Ile venter a burnt finger but Ile have it. [_Aside._]

_Mi. Gou._ Yet Barnses wife would chafe, if that she knew 55
That I had this good lucke to get a light.

_Mi. Ba._ And so she doth; but praise your[1920] lucke at parting.
[_Aside._]

_Mi. Go._ O, that it were[1921] her light, good faith, that she
Might darkling walke about as well as I!

_Mi. Ba._ O, how this mads me, that she hath her wish! [_Aside._]

_Mi. Go._ How I would laugh to see her trot about! 61

_Mi. Bar._ Oh, I could cry for anger and for rage! [_Aside._]

_Mi. Go._ But who should set it here, I marvel, a Gods name.

_Mi. Bar._ One that will hav'te from you, in the devils name.
[_Aside._]

_Mi. Go._ Ile lay my life that it was Barnses sonne. 65

_Mi. Ba._ No, forsooth, it was Barnses wife.
[_Advancing to seize torch._]

_Mi. Gou._ A plague upon her, how she made me start! [_Aside_].--
Mistresse, let go the torch. [_They struggle for it._]

_Mis. Bar._ No, but I will not.

_Mh. Gou._ Ile thrust it in thy face, then. 70

_Mi. Bar._ But you shall not.

_Mi. Gou._ Let go, I say.

_Mi. Ba._ Let you go, for tis mine.

_Mis. Go._ But my possession saies, it is none of thine.

_Mi. Bar._ Nay, I have holde too. 75

_Mi. Gou._ Well, let go thy hold,[1922] or I will spurn thee.

_Mi. Bar._ Do; I can spurne thee too.

_Mi. Go._ Canst thou?

_Mi. Ba._ I, that I can.

_Enter_ MASTER GOURSEY _and_ BARNES.

_M. Gou._ Why, how now, woman?[1923] how unlike to women 80
Are ye both now! come, part, come, part, I say.

_M. Ba._ Why, what immodesty is[1924] this in you!
Come, part, I say; fie, fie.

_Mi. Ba._ Fie, fie! I say, she shall not have my torch.--
Give me thy torch, boy:--I will run a tilt, 85
And burne out both her eyes in my encounter.

_Mi. Go._ Give roome, and lets have this hot cariere.[1925]

_M. Go._ I say, ye shall not: wife, go to, tame your thoughts
That are so mad with fury.

_M. Ba._ And, sweet wife, 90
Temper your rage with patience; do not be
Subject so much to such misgovernment.

_Mi. Bar._ Shal I not, sir, when such a strumpet wrongs me?

_Mi. Go._ How, strumpet, mistris Barnes! nay, I pray, harke ye:
I oft indeed have heard you call her so, 95
And I have thought upon it, why ye should
Twit her with name of strumpet; do you know
Any hurt by her, that you terme her so?

_M. Ba._ No, on my life; rage onely makes her say so.

_M. Go._ [_with pretended suspicion_]. But I would know whence
this same rage should come; 100
Whers smoke, theres fire; and my heart misgives
My wives intemperance hath got that name;--
And, mistresse Barnes, I doubt and shrewdly[1926] doubt,
And some great cause begets this doubt in me,
Your husband and my wife doth wrong us both. 105

_M Ba._ [_with assumed indignation_]. How! thinke ye so? nay,
master Goursey, then,
You run in debt to my opinion,
Because you pay not such advised wisedome
As I thinke due unto my good conceit.

_M. Go._ [_angrily_]. Then still I feare I shall your debter proove.

[_M. Bar._].[1927] Then I arrest you in the name of love;
Not bale, but present answere to my plea; 112
And in the court of reason we will try
If that good thoughts should beleeve jelousie.
[_They make as if they were fighting._]

[_Enter_ PHILLIP, FRANK, COOMES, &c.]

_Phil._ Why, looke you, mother, this is long of you.-- 115
For Gods sake, father, harke! why, these effects
Come still from womens malice: part, I pray.--
Comes, Wil, and Hodge, come all, and helpe us part them!--
[_They try to part the combatants._
Father, but heare me speake one word, no more.

_Franke._ Father, but heare me[1928] speake, then use your will. 120

_Phil._ Crie peace betweene ye for a little while.

_Mi. Gou._ [_pulling her husband off_]. Good husband, heare him
speake.

_Mis. Bar._ [_pulling at hers_]. Good husband, heare him.

_Coom._ [_pulling at_ GOURSEY]. Maister, heare him speake; hees a good
wise young stripling for his yeeres, I tell ye, and perhaps may speake
wiser then an elder body; therefore heare him. 126

_Hod._ Master, heare, and make an end; you may kil one another in
jest, and be hanged in earnest. [_He parts them._]

_M. Go._ Come, let us heare him.--Then, speake quickly, Phillip. 129

_M. Ba._ Thou shouldst have done ere this; speak, Phil, speak.

_Mis. Bar._ O Lord, what haste you make to hurt your selves!--
Good Phillip, use some good perswasions
To make them friends.

_Phi._ Yes, Ile doe what I can.--
Father, and master Goursey, both attend. 135
It is presumption in so young a man
To teach where he might learne, or [to][1929] derect
Where he hath had direction; but in duety
He may perswade as long as his perswase
Is backt with reason and a rightfull sute. 140
Phisickes first rule is this, as I have learned,
Kill the effect by cutting of the cause:[1930]
The same effects of ruffin outrages
Comes by the cause of mallice in your wives;
Had not they two bin foes, you had bin friends, 145
And we had bin at home, and this same war
In peacefull sleep had nere bin dreamt upon.--
Mother, and mistresse Goursey, to make them friends,
Is to be friends your selves: you are the cause,
And these effects proceed, you know, from you; 150
Your hates give life unto these killing strifes,
But dye and if that envy dye in you.--
[_The fathers make as if to renew the combat._]
Fathers, yet stay.--O, speake!--O, stay a while!--[_They desist._]
Francis, perswade thy mother.--Maister Goursey,
If that my mother will resolve[1931] your minde[1932] 155
That tis but meere suspect, not common proofe,
And if my father sweares hees innocent,
As I durst pawne my soule with him he is,
And if your wife vow truth and constancy,
Will you be then perswaded? 160

_M. Gou._ Phillip, if thy father will remit
The wounds I gave him, and if these conditions
May be performde, I bannish all my wrath.

_M. Bar._ And if thy mother will but cleere me, Phillip,
As I am ready to protest I am, 165
Then master Goursey is my friend againe.

_Phi._ Harke, mother; now you heare that your desires
May be accomplished; they will both be friends,
If you'l performe these easie[1933] articles.

_Mi. Ba._ Shall I be friends with such an enemy? 170

_Phil._ What say you unto my perswase?

_Mi. Ba._ I say shees my deadly enemie.

_Phil._ I, but she will be your friend, if you revolt.[1934]

_Mi. Ba._ The words I said! what, shall I eate a truth?

_Phi._ Why, harke ye, mother. 175

_Fra._ Mother, what say you?

_Mis. Go._ Why, this I say, she slaundered my good name.

_Fra._ But if she now denie it, tis no defame.

_Mi. Go._ What, shall I thinke her hate will yeeld so much?

_Fra._ Why, doubt it not; her spirit may be such. 180

_M. Go._ [_Impatient for the reconciliation._] Why, will it be?

_Phi._ Yet stay, I have some hope.
Mother, why, mother, why, heare ye.[1935]
Give me your hand; it is no more but thus;
Tis easie labour to shake hands with her: 185
A[1936] little breath is spent in speaking of faire words,
When wrath hath violent deliveries.[1937]

_M. Bar._ What, shall we be resolved? [_As if to renew the fray._]

_Mi. Bar._ O husband, stay!-- [_Stepping between them._]
Stay, maister Goursey: though your wife doth hate me, 190
And beares unto me mallice infinite
And endlesse, yet I will respect your safeties;
I would not have you perish by our meanes:
I must confesse that onely suspect,
And no proofe els, hath fed my hate to her. 195

_Mi. Gour._ And, husband, I protest by heaven and earth
That her suspect is causles and unjust,
And that I nere had such a vilde intent;
Harme she imaginde, where as none was ment.

_Phil._ Loe, sir, what would yee more? 200

_M. Bar._ Yes, Phillip, this;
That I confirme him in my innocence
By this large universe.

_M. Gour._ [_with show of continued impatience._] By that I sweare,
Ile credit none of you, until I heere 205
Friendship concluded straight betweene them two:
If I see that they willingly will doe,
Then Ile imagine all suspition ends;
I may be then assured, they being friends.

_Phil._ Mother, make full my wish, and be it so. 210

_Mi. Bar._ What, shall I sue for friendship to my foe?

_Phil._ No: if she yeeld, will you?

_Mi. Ba._ It may be, I.

_Phil._ Why, this is well. The other I will trie.--
Come, mistresse Goursey, do you first agree. 215

_Mi. Gour._ What, shall I yeeld unto mine enemie?

_Phil._ Why, if she will, will you?

_Mi. Gou._ Perhaps I will.

_Phil._ Nay, then, I finde this goes well forward still.
Mother, give me your hand,--give me yours to[o]; 220
Be not so loath; some good thing I must do;
But lay your torches by, I like not them;
Come, come, deliver them unto your men:
Give me your hands.--So, now, sir, heere I stand,
Holding two angrie women in my hand: 225
And I must please them both; I could please tone,[1938]
But it is hard when there is two to one,
Especially of women; but tis so,
They shall be pleasd whether they will or no.--
Which will come first? what, both give back! ha, neither! 230
Why, then, yond may helpe that come both together.[1939]
So, stand still, stand[1940] but a little while,
And see how I your angers will beguile.
Well, yet there is no hurt; why, then, let me
Joyne these two hands, and see how theil agree: [_They kiss._] 235
Peace, peace! they crie; looke how they friendly kisse!
Well, all this while there is no harme in this:
Are not these two twins? twins should be both alike,
If tone speakes faire, the tother should not strike:
Jesus, these warriours will not offer blowes! 240
Why, then, tis strange that you two should be foes.
O, yes, youle say, your weapons are your tongues;
Touch lip with lip, and they are bound from wrongs:
Go to, imbrace, and say, if you be friends,
That heere the angrie womens quarrels ends. [_They embrace._] 245

_Mi. Gou._ Then heere it ends, if mistres Barnes say so.

_Mi. Bar._ If you say, I, I list not to say, no.

_M. Gou._ If they be friends, by promise we agree.

_M. Bar._ And may this league of friendship ever be!

_Phil._ What saist thou, Franke? doth not this fall out well? 250

_Fran._ Yes, if my Mall were heere, then all were well.

_Enter_ SIR RAPHE SMITH _with_ MALL [_who stands aside_].

_Raph._ Yonder they be, Mall: stay, stand close, and stur not,
Untill I call.--God save yee, gentlemen!

_M. Bar._ What, sir Raph Smith! you are a welcome man:
We wondred when we heard you were abroad. 255

_Raph._ Why, sir, how heard yee that I was abroad?

_M. Bar._ By your man.

_Raph._ My man! where is he?

_Will._ Heere.

_Raph._ O, yee are a trustie squire! 260

_Nic._ It had bin better, and he had said, a sure carde.

_Phil._ Why, sir?

_Nic._ Because it is the proverbe.

_Phil._ Away, yee asse!

_Nic._ An asse goes a foure legs; I go of two, Christ crosse. 265

_Phi._ Hold your tongue.

_Nic._ And make no more adoe.

_M. Gou._ Go to, no more adoe.--Gentle sir Raphe,
Your man is not in fault for missing you,
For he mistooke by us, and we by him. 270

_Raph._ And I by you; which now I well perceive.
But tell me, gentlemen, what made yee all
Be from your beds this night, and why thus late
Are your wives walking heere about the fields:[1941]
Tis strange to see such women of accoumpt 275
Heere; but I gesse some great occasion.

_M. Gour._ Faith, this occasion, sir: women will jarre;
And jarre they did to day, and so they parted;
We knowing womens mallice let alone
Will, canker like, eate farther in their hearts, 280
Did seeke a sodaine cure, and thus it was,--
A match betweene his daughter and my sonne:
No sooner motioned but twas agreed,
And they no sooner saw but wooed and likte:
They have it sought to crosse, and crosse it thus. 285

_Rap._ Fye, mistresse Barnes, and mistresse Goursey both;
The greatest sinne wherein your soules may sinne,
I thinke, is this, in crossing of true love:
Let me perswade yee.

_Mi. Bar._ Sir, we are perswaded, 290
And I and mistresse Goursey are both friends;
And, if my daughter were but found againe,
Who now is missing, she had my consent
To be disposd off to her owne content.

_Raph._ I do rejoyce that what I thought to doe, 295
Ere I begin, I finde already done:
Why, this will please your friends at Abington.--
Franke, if thou seekst that way, there thou shalt finde
Her, whom I holde the comfort of thy minde.

_Mall._ [_coming forward_]. He shall not seeke me; I will seeke
him out, 300
Since of my mothers graunt I need not doubt.

_Mi. Bar._ Thy mother graunts, my girle, and she doth pray
To send unto you both a joyfull day!

_Hodg._ Nay, mistresse Barnes, I wish her better; that those joyfull
dayes may be turned to joyfull nights. 305

_Coom._ Faith, tis a pretty wench, and tis pitty but she should
have him.

_Nich._ And, mistresse Mary, when yee go to bed, God send you
good rest, and a peck a fleas in your nest, every one as big as
Francis! 310

_Phil._ Well said, wisdome: God send thee wise children!

_Nich._ And you more money.

_Phil._ I, so wish I.

_Nich._ Twill be a good while ere you wish your skin full of ilet
holes.

_Phil._ Franke, harke ye: brother, now your woings doone, 315
The next thing now you do is for a sonne;
I prithe, for, i faith, I should be glad
To have myselfe cald nunckle, and thou dad.--
Well, sister, if that Francis play the man,
My mother must be grandam, and you mam.-- 320
To it, Francis,--to it, sister!--God send yee joy!
Tis fine to sing, "dansey, my owne sweete boye!"

_Fra._ Well, sir, jest on.

_Phil._ Nay, sir,[1942] do you jest on.

_M. Bar._ Well, may she proove a happy wife to him! 325

_M. Gou._ And may he proove as happy unto her!

_Raph._ Well, gentlemen, good hap betide them both!
Since twas my hap thus happily to meete,
To be a witnesse of this sweete contract,
I doe rejoyce; wherefore, to have this joye 330
Longer present with me, I do request
That all of you will be my promist guests:
This long nights labour dooth desire some rest,
Besides this wished end; therefore, I pray,
Let me deteine yee but a dinner time: 335
Tell me, I pray, shall I obtaine so much?

_M. Bar._ Gentle sir Raphe, your courtesie is such
As may impose commaund unto us all;
We will be thankfull bolde at your request.

_Phil._ I pray, sir Raph, what cheere shall we have? 340

_S. Raph._ I faith, countrie fare, mutton and veale,
Perchance a ducke or goose.

_Mal._ Oh, I am sick!

_All._ How now, Mall? whats the matter?

_Mal._ Father and mother, if you needs would know, 345
He nam'd a goose, which is my stomacks foe.

_Phil._ Come, come, she is with childe of some od jest,
And now shees sicke till that she bring[1943] it foorth.

_Mal._ A jest, quoth you! well, brother, if it be,
I feare twill proove an earnest unto me.-- 350
Goose, said ye, sir? Oh, that same very name
Hath in it much variety of shame!
Of all the birds that ever yet was seene,
I would not have them graze upon this greene;
I hope they will not, for this crop is poore, 355
And they may pasture upon greater store:
But yet tis pittie that they let them passe,
And like a common bite the Muses grasse.
Yet this I feare; if Franke and I should kisse,
Some creeking goose would chide us with a hisse: 360
I meane not that goose that sings it knowes not what;[1944]
Tis not that hisse when one saies, 'hist, come hither';
Nor that same hisse that setteth dogges together;
Nor that same hisse that by a fire doth stand,
And hisseth T. or F.[1945] upon the hand; 365
But tis a hisse, and Ile unlace my cote,
For I should sound[1946] sure, if I heard that note,
And then 'greene ginger for the greene goose' cries,
Serves not the turne,--I turn'd the white of eyes.
The _rosa-solis_[1947] yet that makes me live 370
Is favour[1948] that these gentlemen may give;
But if they be displeased, then pleasde am I,
To yeeld my selfe a hissing death to dye:
Yet I hope heeres none consents to kill,
But kindly take the favour of good will. 375
If any thing be in the pen to blame,
Then here stand I to blush the writers shame:
If this be bad, he promises a better;
Trust him, and he will proove a right true debter. [_Exeunt._]

FOOTNOTES:

[1618] E., Act I. Sc. 1. No division into acts and scenes in Qtos.

[1619] Prospects, views. Dyce.

[1620] Q 1, _be_.

[1621] Absolute, perfect. Dyce.

[1622] Ay; so also in l. 23 _et passim_.

[1623] Dyce suggests for the metre, 'He will.' But more probably
'Heele' was a monosyllable, and 'bolde' (Q 1, 'bould') a dissyllable.
According to the editor of the _Oxford Glossary_ "bold" is so
pronounced at the present day.

[1624] Backgammon; cf. Shakesp. _L. L. L_. V., ii. 326.

[1625] The audience were to suppose that the stage now represented an
orchard; for be it remembered that there was no movable painted scenery
in the theatres at the time when this play was produced. Dyce.

[1626] Q 1, 'rubbers,' as frequently used.

[1627] Q 1, 'sneik up'--be hanged.

[1628] Q 1, 'women;' but Barnes is addressing his wife. Dy. refers to
l. 147; and to l. 177, where both Qtos. have 'woman.'

[1629] The angel-noble was a gold coin worth from a third to half a
sovereign; the royal or rose-noble, 10_s._

[1630] Q 1, 'women.'

[1631] Q 2, _far't_.

[1632] A term of the game.

[1633] So Dy. Qtos. _better_.

[1634] hit.

[1635] Dyce reads, 'it is'; but probably in prov. pron. 'know' was
then, as frequently now, a dissyllable.

[1636] Q 2, _Forsoorh_.

[1637] Q 2, 'for such a' appended to line 202.

[1638] Q 2, 'in this absurdnes' appended to line 217.

[1639] cannot help it withal.

[1640] Q 1, 'Affoorde.'

[1641] So Qtos. Dy. suggests '_do_ impart'; cf. next line.

[1642] Note the anapæstic swing.

[1643] Qtos. append l. 258 to l. 257.

[1644] Dyce cuts lines 1-6 into a kind of blank verse.

[1645] Qtos., ll. 33 and 34 as one.

[1646] Dy., qy. 'tacke'? But, of course, the boy uttered the 'tchick'
with which one urges a horse.

[1647] Taught her to _tread the ring_,--to perform various movements
in different directions within a ring marked out on a piece of ground.
Dyce.

[1648] champaign.

[1649] A tagged lace used to attach the hose or breeches to the
doublet. Dyce.

[1650] sole, or oblate surface.

[1651] Qtos., ll 110 and 111 as one.

[1652] Q 1, 'th'art.'

[1653] Dy., qy. 'Wher.'

[1654] Q 2, _phethe._

[1655] Q 1, 'in the.'

[1656] ll. 162-165, 167-171, 174-176, 181-184, printed as verse in the
originals.

[1657] Q 2, _Wirl._

[1658] Not in Q 1.

[1659] Names of taverns. Ellis.

[1660] H. and E., "yee lye--the Hornes," as if a tavern name. But
Qtos., as above,--"You are lying about the horns, I have none."

[1661] your sword.

[1662] So Dyce. Qtos., _me_,--_my_.

[1663] Dy. suggests 'He is'; but qy. 'Coo-ums'?

[1664] quality, humour.

[1665] Dy. suggests 'he will.'

[1666] crewel.

[1667] The originals run, "Bridelaces sir his hat, and all greene hat";
so Dyce. Ellis, silently, "Bridelaces, sir--and his hat all green."
It _may_ have been written, "Bridelaces, sir. His hat'--an all," etc.
Coomes parades his wedding trophies.

[1668] So Dy. from Q 1; but not in Q 2.

[1669] E., Act II. Sc. 1.

[1670] H. and E., 'indiscreet.'

[1671] So Dy.; Qtos., 'vassailes.'

[1672] ll. 31 and 32 as one in Qtos.

[1673] Q 2, _me_.

[1674] Q 2, _effect_.

[1675] Q 1, 'womens.'

[1676] Qy. 'for _an._' Dyce.

[1677] discipline.

[1678] Read, for the metre, 'She is.' Dyce.

[1679] God's.

[1680] Dy. suggests 'red'; H. and E. adopt.

[1681] Q 1, 'tother yeere.'

[1682] Q 2, _restained_.

[1683] Dy., H., E. 'have beene.'

[1684] See p. 464 _n_ (_F. B._, vii. 74).

[1685] Qtos., _apprehend_,--but certainly Mall had spoken with
sufficient plainness. Dyce.

[1686] nature.

[1687] The fate of old maids; cf. Shakesp. _T. of S._ II. 1.

[1688] Q 1, _nay_.

[1689] Little Milton is about eight miles northeast of Abingdon, across
the fields. Great Milton is about a mile farther north.

[1690] The common dress of a servingman. Dyce.

[1691] Qtos., 'you,'--which, perhaps, is the right reading, some word
having dropt out after it. Qy. thus;--

"_Mis. Bar._ Mistresse flurt, you _mean_,
Foule strumpet, light a loue, short heeles! Mistresse Goursey
Call her," etc. Dyce. H. and E., 'yea.'

[1692] Q 2, _more_.

[1693] Q 1, _tell_.

[1694] vile.

[1695] Qtos., _forlorne_.

[1696] Q 1, _the_.

[1697] Q 1, _Thaust._

[1698] Q 2, _no_.

[1699] Q 2 appends this to the preceding line.

[1700] Q 2, _father_.

[1701] Q 2, _repeats_.

[1702] Q 1, 'Gads.'

[1703] Qtos., _His_.

[1704] Qy., "Franke he is young"? compare the preceding line but one.
Dyce.

[1705] Qtos., no comma. Qy., 'rime-rotten.'

[1706] _sprüche_: rare.

[1707] By our lady.

[1708] miser.

[1709] Q 1, _ma_.

[1710] As who should say, "Your company is indifferent to me." So in
_Mother Bombie_, "Farewell frost, my fortune naught me cost," and Ray's
_Proverbs_: "F.f., Nothing got nor nothing lost."

[1711] Q 1, _faith in_.

[1712] Qtos., _some_.

[1713] Qtos., _treason_.

[1714] vomits.

[1715] A quantity of ten: one-twentieth of a last.

[1716] So Q 2. Dy., etc., 'knave.'

[1717] Qtos., _But_.

[1718] Struck by a tramp vessel?

[1719] Cf. _Haml._ I. ii., "A beast that wants discourse of reason,"
and III. i., "the mould of form."

[1720] Q 1, _cehape_.

[1721] Perhaps the word squints at two contemporary significations:
cart-horse: squeamish eater.

[1722] Not in Q 1.

[1723] Q 1, 'drinke.'

[1724] Q 1, _Nich._

[1725] Cf. Du., _vrolijk zijn_, 'to be jolly,' and Heywood and Brome,
_Lanc. Witches_, "what, all lustick, all froligozene." _New Eng. Dic._
Q 2 reads 'Nicke _Frolagozene_' _sc._ 'Nick _Jovial_.'

[1726] Omitted in Q 2.

[1727] until.--Ought not the passage to stand as follows?--

"no, I will not;
_Nor_ waite while one comes out to answere _me_," Dyce.

[1728] Q 2, _to_.

[1729] ll. 6-10, printed as prose, Q 2. So also ll. 17-22, save that
the initial letter of each line, except 22, is capitalized.

[1730] H. and E, gratuitously, 'shackles.'

[1731] Qtos., _seeme_.

[1732] excess; cf. Scotch 'scouth'; free swing.

[1733] Q 1, _fathers_.

[1734] Qtos., _to_.

[1735] Q 1, _than_.

[1736] Qtos., _Franke_.

[1737] be wi' ye.

[1738] Q 2, 'judged.'

[1739] Dy.; qy., 'unto.'

[1740] Q 1, _maister_.

[1741] Q 2, _baun_.

[1742] Q 2, _ye_.

[1743] Q 1, _craft_.

[1744] So Q 2; but Dy., H., E., transpose these lines.

[1745] broadsword.

[1746] H., 'garden-butt.'

[1747] the sharp point in the centre. Dyce.

[1748] Q 1, _and_.

[1749] Qtos., _out_.

[1750] brave.

[1751] Q 2, _Gourseys_.

[1752] manlike.

[1753] Cf. _M. of V._, II. ii., dialogue between Gobbo's conscience and
the fiend.

[1754] the parson.

[1755] E., Act III. Sc. 1.

[1756] A line missing, to rhyme with 'elfes.' Hazlitt.

[1757] forester.

[1758] A barrow; also a burrow when of rabbits, as in Sc. X, l. 9. Here
it is probably a misprint for bevvie = bevy. So E.

[1759] Q 1, _me._

[1760] Q 1, 'th.'

[1761] Qtos., _he_.

[1762] Q 2, 'doe.'

[1763] Q 1, _thee_.

[1764] Q 1, 'thorowly.'

[1765] Q 2, 'may.'

[1766] Q 2, _I_.

[1767] Q 2, _chanke_.

[1768] Q 1, sound, _i.e._ swoon.

[1769] bow down before intellects of small merit.

[1770] Qtos., _wone_.

[1771] An _I_ of the Christ-cross row or alphabet.

[1772] pigsney. Cent. Dict. But Dyce: a term of endearment, formed,
perhaps, from _pink_, to wink, to contract the eyelids.

[1773] Qtos., _sower_.

[1774] dear.

[1775] beat, urge.

[1776] Q 2, 'would have.'

[1777] Cf. _M.N.D._, I. i. 70-72; II. ii. 162-163

[1778] rowed.

[1779] Q 2 prints ll. 117-120 as prose, but with initial capitals.

[1780] Qtos. _patient_.

[1781] So H. and E.; but Qtos. 'thy.'

[1782] Q 1, _cheesse_.

[1783] Q 2, After previous line.

[1784] Q 1, _to_.

[1785] Some word, or words, have dropt out here. The lines ought to be
arranged thus:--

"God send ye both good speed!--
Gods Lord, my mother!--_Quickly_ stand aside,
And closely too, least that you be espied." Dyce.

The missing foot before 'stand' may indicate the dramatic pause for
surprise. See my _Appendix_ to _Greene_ (Metres).

[1786] Dy., H., E., 'forgot.'

[1787] Read, for the metre, "Shee is." Dyce.

[1788] Cf. _Romeo and Juliet_, Act III. v. 141.

[1789] Eds. 'Philip.'

[1790] Q 2, _Mather_.

[1791] Q 2, 'deny.'

[1792] Read, for the metre, "is it." Dyce.

[1793] Q 1, _mistrurst_.

[1794] Q. 2, _Mi Gou_.

[1795] So Qtos. Eds., 'confederate.' But the plural is idiomatic: as
'he has gone _partners_ with Philip.'

[1796] Occurs here in Qtos. (to warn the actors to be in readiness for
coming on the stage). Dyce.

[1797] Q 2, 'to.'

[1798] Carfax (_quadrifurcus_), the centre of Oxford, at the junction
of Cornmarket, St. Aldate's, Queen St., and the High.

[1799] Q 2, _Oppoint_.

[1800] fine.

[1801] Q 2, _offection_.

[1802] Q 2, _huge_.

[1803] _Sc._, self-willed.

[1804] A common proverbial expression: "_Beggars bush_," says Ray,
"being a tree notoriously known, on the left hand of the London road
from Huntington to Caxton." _Proverbs_, p. 244, ed. 1768. Dyce.

[1805] Q 2, _be dawbe._

[1806] refuse.

[1807] livery.

[1808] Common term for a small dagger, but, like 'bird-spit' in the
next speech of Coomes, here used in contempt. Dyce.

[1809] The origin of this corrupted oath is unknown; Dy., H., and E.
_N.E.D._ queries _dignesse_ = Goddes dignity. But the poet seems to
be thinking of 'dine' = 'dinner'; hence Lord's meal, Lord's Supper.
Cf. "God's board" for communion-table (Bk. Com. Prayer, 1549), and
"God's bread" for the wafer, _G.G.N._, p. 219. That Coomes adopts this
popular etymology is confirmed by the collocation of 'God's dines' with
'wafer-cake' (for the Eucharist) in Sc. xi. l. 206 of this play.

[1810] rabbit-warren.

[1811] horse.

[1812] 'an I.'

[1813] repent of his behaviour. Cf. Heywood, _If you know not_, etc.,
ed. 1874, I. 267 (Century). Dyce has "Nares (_Gloss_, in v.) mentions
three places which still retain the name,--one between Oxford and
Banbury, another close to Stafford, the third near Shrewsbury."

[1814] advice

[1815] So Q 2. Eds., 'an.'

[1816] Q 1, 'vpon.'

[1817] till.

[1818] E., Act IV. Sc. 1.

[1819] Q 2, _bother_.

[1820] A kind of net for catching rabbits,--usually stretched before
their holes. Dyce.

[1821] Q 1, 'do.'

[1822] a young rabbit.

[1823] Q 1, 'you'r.'

[1824] Q 1, omits 'not'; but Q 2 is right: "Even if you won't speak I
know you are lying in wait for me."

[1825] Qtos., _glimpes_.

[1826] exposed.

[1827] Q 1, _metamorphesie_. For the figure cf. _R. and J._, I. v.,
"Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear," etc.

[1828] Q 1, 'these.'

[1829] Q 1, _sbloud_.

[1830] nearer.

[1831] Not in Q 1.

[1832] The scene is therefore the grove where Sir Raph had engaged to
await Will's return, Sc. vii.; not the warren, as E. has it.

[1833] E. mistakenly makes this 'Act IV. Sc. ii., _Another Part of the
Warren_'; but Frank has run from the warren to the grove where Sir Raph
is waiting for his bow.

[1834] Q 2, _bound_.

[1835] Q 2, _wouldn_.

[1836] So Q 2. Line wanting in Q 1.

[1837] Q 2 omits this line.

[1838] This stage-direction occurs after l. 75 in Qtos.

[1839] Qtos., _Sblould_.

[1840] Q 2, _clade_.

[1841] Q 1, _whench_.

[1842] Q 1, _asks_; Q 2, _aske_.

[1843] Q 1 omits.

[1844] Eds. substitute 'question,' evidently without sufficient reason.

[1845] Q 2 omits.

[1846] E. makes no new scene; but see Sc. X. l. 30.

[1847] goose. Q 1, _asgoe_.

[1848] Q 2, _Had_.

[1849] be wi're.

[1850] E. makes this 'Act IV., Sc. iii., _The Open Fields_'; but the
present scene began with Philip's entry, forty-five lines earlier.

[1851] Of course 'mistress.'

[1852] Q 1, _clowdes_.

[1853] Not in Q 1.

[1854] Q 1, 'ho.'

[1855] Q 1, 'it.'

[1856] Q 1, _throwe_.

[1857] So Q 2. Eds. omit.

[1858] So Q 2. Q 1, 'for me.'

[1859] pent-house.

[1860] Q 1, _buze._

[1861] Q 1, 'stones.'

[1862] Q 1, 'should well.'

[1863] Q 1, "I haue had a Pumpe set vp, as good."

[1864] H. and E., 'lee-land.' But the context indicates 'lealand,' the
open fields.

[1865] Perhaps he swore by our Lady of Walsingham,--in Norfolk. Dyce.

[1866] Whip-her-jenny: a game of cards. H.

[1867] Q 1, 'tripe-cheeke.'

[1868] Q 1, 'is _the_ best.'

[1869] "If I had only known in time!" Cf. _Secunda Pastorum_
(Towneley), l. 93.

[1870] Cf. _Secunda Pastorum_, l. 318.

[1871] Q 1, _his_.

[1872] So Qtos. H. and E. read 'dines.'

[1873] Qy. a proverbial allusion to the famous Brazen-head? Dyce.

[1874] See note, Sc. viii. l. 354.

[1875] H., 'Vintry.'

[1876] Q 1, _breath_.

[1877] Q 1 omits.

[1878] The hero of the popular German jest-book (_Eulenspiegel_), which
was translated into English at a very early period; see Gifford's note
on Jonson's _Works_, IV. 60, and Nare's _Gloss_. in V. Dyce.

[1879] Q 1, 'last': and 'lase.'

[1880] Q 1, 'silly.'

[1881] Q 1, 'shew.'

[1882] Q 2, _couriers_.

[1883] Q 2, _bandg._

[1884] By idiom 'bauble'; by sense 'babble.'

[1885] Q 2, _yon_.

[1886] Q 2, _swoses_.

[1887] random.

[1888] From the 'cunny greene' (see Sc. viii., end) having lost
Nicholas and the torch _en route._ E. mistakenly includes this in the
previous scene.

[1889] Qtos, _hap._

[1890] Q 2, 'out.'

[1891] spite.

[1892] The sham quarrel of Sc. xiv. l. 115.

[1893] So Q 2. Q 1 'a.'

[1894] Eds., 'foundst.'

[1895] Eds. omit.

[1896] Q 1, _tell_.

[1897] Blind-man's-buff.

[1898] Q 2 prints l. 105 as of fourteen syllables ending with "Hob man
blind," and line 106 as of twelve syllables ending with "heere."

[1899] So Q 2. Q 1 omits.

[1900] E. makes this 'Act v., Sc. 1, _In the Fields_'; but Sir Raph
frequents the grove, and Mall takes it in her flight across the fields
from the cunny greene.

[1901] veil.

[1902] missed-way.

[1903] (I suppose) Buoys. Dyce.

[1904] So Qtos. Dy.: qy. 'fellow?' H. followed by E., "It is no envious
fellow, out of grudge."

[1905] So Qtos. = 'why.' H. and E. read 'whe'er,' unnecessarily.

[1906] a deer lean and out of season. Dyce.

[1907] It has not seemed necessary to indicate that ll. 64, 65, 66-68,
etc., constitute verses; so in nearly every scene.

[1908] Q 2, _oyure._

[1909] See note on _F. B._, i. 142.

[1910] Q 1, _wandring_.

[1911] So Dy. and other eds. Qtos., 'thy.'

[1912] E includes with preceding scene.

[1913] Dy., ''Tis.'

[1914] So Dy., etc., _i.e._ suffer. Qtos, _stole._

[1915] The order of ll. 20-21 is reversed in Q 2.

[1916] Q 1, _Being_.

[1917] Q 1, _enforc'st_.

[1918] Q 1, _same_.

[1919] spirit-dulling.

[1920] So Q 1. Q 2, _you_.

[1921] Q 1, _weere_.

[1922] Eds. divide line here.

[1923] So Q 2. Eds., 'women.'

[1924] Q 2, _it._

[1925] Qtos., _carerie_.

[1926] Q 1, 'shrowdly.'

[1927] So Dyce. Qtos. assign to Goursey. Perhaps Barnes lays his hand
on Goursey who shakes it off. A scuffle appears to ensue: cf. ll.
161-163.

[1928] So Q 2. But Q 1, 'him,' which Dy., etc., for no sufficient
reason prefer.

[1929] So Dy. Qtos., _be_.

[1930] Cf. _F.B._, viii. 75.

[1931] convince.

[1932] So Dy. Qtos., _mindes_.

[1933] So Q 1. Q 2 omits.

[1934] Qy., revoke. Cf. _F. B._, viii. 144, n.

[1935] Dyce thinks something has dropt out here.

[1936] Ought probably to be omitted. Dyce.

[1937] So Q 2; which is just as intelligible as the 'deliverie' of Q 1
and Eds.

[1938] the one.

[1939] H. and E. change, unnecessarily, to "yond help that both may
come together."

[1940] Qy., _stand_ still? Dyce.

[1941] Q 1, _fileds_.

[1942] Q 2, _fie_.

[1943] Q 1, 'brings.'

[1944] A line, which rhymed with this one, has dropt out. Dyce. But H.
begins a new line with 'Sings.'

[1945] Traitor or Felon. Dyce.

[1946] Swoon.

[1947] a cordial.

[1948] Q 2, 'favours.'

_William Shakespeare_

AS A COMIC DRAMATIST

_A Monograph by Edward
Dowden, LL. D., Professor
in Trinity College, Dublin._

SHAKESPEARE AS A COMIC DRAMATIST

=The Essentials of Shakespearian Comedy.=--The Comedies of Shakespeare,
which form more than a third part of his dramatic work, belong to every
period of his career as a writer, except one. During a few years,
soon after the opening of the seventeenth century, he turned away
from comedy, or rather he was drawn by some irresistible attraction
to explore the tragic depths of life, and for a time its bright or
variegated surface was lost to view. The results of his passionate
inquisition of evil entered into the spirit of his latest plays, which
we might name "romances" rather than "comedies," and hence the study of
Shakespeare's lighter and brighter work cannot be wholly dissociated
from the study of that in which terror and pity are the presiding
powers.

To conceive Shakespearian comedy aright we must disconnect the word
"comedy" from the associations derived from its adjectives "comic"
and "comical"; we must recognize the fact that, though laughter is
one of its incidents, laughter is not its end. Our chief living
master of the carte and tierce of wit, Mr. George Meredith, describes
folly as the natural prey of the comic spirit, "known to it in all
her transformations, in every disguise; and it is with the springing
delight of hawk over heron, hound after fox, that it gives her chase,
never fretting, never tiring, sure of having her, allowing her no
rest." Shakespeare's comedy includes the intellectual delight of
chasing down folly and being in at the death, but this is not its main
purpose. Nor is he eager to assume the part of the indignant moral
satirist. It is not he but Ben Jonson, in the person of Asper, who
announces that "with an armèd and resolvèd hand" he will

"Strip the ragged follies of their time
Naked as at their birth ...
... and with a whip of steel
Print wounding lashes in their iron ribs."

Shakespeare on occasions can wield the whip of steel, but it is
when for a time he parts company with the spirit of comedy. Moral
truth radiates through all the world of his creation, but he does
not suppose that morality is served by being outrageously moral; in
writing comedy he has more faith in sunshine as a sanative agent than
in lightning and tempest. If he is ever contemptuous, it is because
the pitifulness of such a baffled pretender as Parolles, or of such
lean-witted conspirators as Antonio and Sebastian, admits of no other
feeling. From personal satire he, unlike several of his contemporaries,
wholly abstained, unless, indeed, the theory holds good, which finds in
_Troilus and Cressida_ that purge given by the player Shakespeare--so
Kempe tells Burbage in _The Return from Parnassus_--to the pestilent
fellow, Ben Jonson.

Perhaps it is impossible to include under any single general conception
works which differ from each other as widely as _The Comedy of
Errors_, _Measure for Measure_, and _The Tempest_; but if we cannot
seize it as a whole, we may see from a little distance this side and
that of comedy as understood by Shakespeare. Its vital centre is not
an idea, an abstraction, a doctrine, a moral thesis, but something
concrete--persons involved in an action. When philosophical critics
assure us that the theme of _The Merchant of Venice_ is expressed by
the words _Summum jus, summa injuria_, or that it exhibits "man in
relation to money," we admire the motto they discovered in their nut,
and prefer the kernel in our own. The persons and the action are placed
in some region, which is neither wholly one of fantasy nor yet one
encumbered with the dross of actuality. Aery spirits, an earth-born
Caliban, Robingoodfellow, the king and queen of Faery, may make their
incursion into it, yet it is in the truest sense the haunt and home
of "human mortals." The finer spirit of the poet's own age is forever
present, but he makes no laborious effort to imitate life in the lower
sense of reproducing contemporary manners. He turns away from his
own country. Once--by command--Sir John Falstaff makes love to the
laughing bourgeois wives of Windsor; but to comply with the necessity
Shakespeare's comedy descends from verse to prose. Ben Jonson's
invention is at home in Cob's Court and Picthatch, in the aisle of
Paul's, or among the booths of Bartholomew Fair; having disguised the
characters of his first important play under Italian names, he rightly
christened them anew as Londoners. Shakespeare's imagination, throwing
off the burden of the actual, desported itself in the Athenian moonlit
wood and on the yellow sands of the enchanted island, under green
boughs in Arden, in the garden at Belmont, in the palace of Illyria, at
the shepherd's festival in Bohemia.

The action corresponds with the environment. In the great tragedies
Shakespeare may on rare occasions demand certain postulates at the
outset. These having been granted, the plot evolves itself within the
bounds of the credible. In _King Lear_ the opening scene puts some
strain upon our imaginative belief, but Shakespeare received the legend
as it had been handed down to him, and all that follows the opening
scene--though the action is vast and monstrous--obeys an order and
logic which compel our acquiescence. It is not always so, if we refuse
its claims to fancy, in Shakespearian comedy. In a region which borders
on the realm of fantasy we must be prepared to accept many happy
surprises. Our desire for happiness inclines our hearts to a pleasant
credulity; if chance at the right moment intervenes, it comes as our
own embodied hope. When all and every one in Arden wood, save Jaques,
are on their way to wedlock, like couples coming to the ark, we are
not disposed to question the reality of that old religious man upon
the borders of the forest who suddenly converts the usurping Duke, and
turns back the mighty power which he had set on foot. We are grateful
for such hermits and such convertites.

The characters again correspond in comedy with the environment and
with the action. In tragedy character is either from the first fully
formed and four-square, or, if it is developed by events, it develops
in accordance with an internal law. Passion runs its inevitable
course, like a great wave driven of the wind, and breaks with thunder
upon the shoal of death. The human actors disappear; only the general
order of the world and the eternal moral law endure. But in comedy
the individual must be preserved, and must at the close enter into
possession of happy days; if he has erred through folly or vice, his
error has not been mortal; he may in the last scene of the fifth act
swiftly change his moral disposition as he would change his outward
garb. The traitor Proteus is suddenly restored to his better mind, and
Valentine is generous enough to resign to the repentant traitor all his
rights in Silvia. Bertram, who almost to the last entangles himself in
a network of dastardly lies, is rescued from his dishonesty and foolish
pride by a successful trick, and becomes the loyal husband of Helena.
The Duke Orsino transfers his amorous homage from his "fancy's queen"
Olivia to his "fancy's queen" Viola with a most convenient facility.
Angelo discovers his own baseness in the moment when he perceives it
is discovered by the world, and is straightway virtuous enough to
bring the happiness required by a fifth act to the wronged Mariana.
Even Iachimo--the Iago of a comedy--makes sorrowful confession of his
villany, and restores the purloined bracelet and the ill-won ring. Such
transformations as these indicate that even as regards character the
law of comedy is a law of liberty. When it suits Shakespeare's purpose,
the study of character can be profound and veracious; when occasion
requires it, incident becomes all-important, and character yields to
the requirements of the situation.

In truth, while it may be said that in Shakespearian tragedy character
is fate, in Shakespearian comedy, among the contrasts and surprises
which form so abundant a source of its vivacity, not the least
effective contrast is that of character set over, as it were, against
itself, not the least effective surprise is that of character entering
upon new phases under the play of circumstance. The unity and logic of
character may not in reality be impaired, but the unity is realized
in and through diversity. In punning, a word is made to play a double
part; it jostles its other self, and laughter ensues. What is so single
and indivisible as personality? But if John is mistaken for Thomas,
accident seems to triumph over law, and the incongruity arises of a
doubled personal identity--the apparent and the real. Antipholus, of
Syracuse, like the little woman of the nursery rhyme, whose sense of
personality was dependent on the length of her petticoats, is almost
persuaded that he is other than himself. If Viola disguises in doublet
and hose, she secures by anticipation the victory of Sebastian over
Olivia's heart, while in her own heart she endures a woman's hidden
love for the Duke. One man in his brief time on Shakespeare's comic
stage may play many parts. The ascetic scholars of Navarre are
transformed into the most gallant of lovers and the most ingenious of
sonneteers. Katherine the curst becomes more resolute in her wifely
submission than she had been in her virgin _sauvagerie_. Signior
Benedick, who challenged Cupid at the flight, in due time alters to
Benedick, the married man; my dear Lady Disdain, in pity for him, and
a little in pity for herself, has yielded upon great persuasion. If,
as Montaigne teaches us, man is the most variable of animals, perhaps
we learn as important a truth about human nature from Shakespeare's
comedies as from his more profound study of the fatality of character
and passion in the tragedies.

The essentials of Shakespearian comedy at its best are, after all,
simple and obvious enough--a delightful story, conducted, in some
romantic region, by gracious and gallant persons, thwarted or aided
by the mirthful god, Circumstance, and arriving at a fortunate issue.
Such would not serve as a description of the comedies of Ben Jonson.
He is pleased to keep us during the greater part of five laborious
acts in the company of knaves and gulls, and at the close, poetic
justice is satisfied with the detection of folly and a general
retribution descending on evil-doers. Shakespeare, in comedy, is no
such remorseless justicer. Don John, the bastard, is reserved for
punishment, but it shall be upon the morrow, and the punishment shall
be such as the mirthful Benedick may devise. Parolles escapes lightly
with the laughter of Lafeu, and mockery, qualified by a supper, will
not afflict him beyond endurance. Lucio is condemned to marry the
mother of his child, which is so dire an evil that all other forfeits
are remitted. Sir John Falstaff will join the rest by Mistress Page's
country fire in jesting at his own discomfiture. Even Shylock is not
wholly overwhelmed; he shall have godfathers and a godmother at his
baptism, and remain in possession of half his worldly goods. Sebastian
may live and discover that he is morally superior to Caliban, the
thief, and Stephano, the drunkard. Iachimo kneels and receives the free
forgiveness of Posthumus.

But if Shakespeare, in comedy, is niggard of punishment, he is liberal
in rewards. And since almost all the stories he chooses for his
comic stage are stories of love and lovers, what grand reward can
be reserved for the fifth act so fitting as the reward of love? In
the seventeenth century masque amid all its mythological, fantastic,
or humorous diversities, one point, or pivot, of the action remained
fixed--the incidents must give occasion to a dance of the masquers. So
in Shakespearian comedy we may, with almost equal certainty, reckon
upon a marriage, or more marriages than one, in act, or in immediate
prospect, before the curtain closes. Or, if not a marriage, for the
lovers may be wedded lovers at the opening, then, after division, or
separation of husband and wife, what we may call a remarriage, with
misunderstandings cleared up and faults forgiven. When Shakespeare
wrote his earlier plays he was himself young, and his gaze was fixed
upon the future; exultant lovers begin their new life, and the song
of joy is an epithalamium. When he wrote his latest plays, he was no
longer young, and he thought of the blessedness of recovering the
happy past, of knitting anew the strained or broken bonds of life, of
connecting the former and the latter days in natural piety. Youth still
must have its rapture; Florizel must win his royal shepherdess, queen
of curds and cream; the nuptials of Ferdinand and Miranda, "these, our
dear-beloved," must be duly solemnized at Naples; but Shakespeare's
temper is no longer the temper of youth; he is of the company of
Hermione and Prospero, and the music of the close is a grave and
spiritual harmony.

Between the first scene and the last the path in comedy is beset with
obstacles and dangers, past which love must find a way--"the course of
true love never did run smooth." These may be either internal--some
difficulty arising from character, or external--difference of blood or
of rank, the choice of friends, slanderous tongues, rival passions,
the spite of fortune. The resolution of the difficulty must be of a
corresponding kind; temper, or rash determination, must yield to the
predominance of love, or the external obstacles must be removed by
well-directed effort, or by a happy turn of events. The young king
of Navarre and his fellow-students are immured by their ascetic vow
of culture; Isabella is all but ceremonially pledged to the life of
religion; Olivia is secluded by her luxury of sentimental sorrow;
Beatrice, born to be a lover, is at odds with love through her pride
of independence and wilful mirth; Bertram has the young colt's
pleasure in freedom, refuses to be ranged, and suffers from the haughty
blindness of youth, which cannot recognize its own chief need and
highest gain. All such rebels against love will be subdued in good
time. On the other hand, it is her father who has decreed that Hermia
shall be parted from Lysander; both father and mother have rival
designs for marring the destiny of sweet Nan Page; a false friend and
fickle lover separates Valentine and Silvia; a malignant plotter, who
would avenge on all happy creatures the wrong of his own base birth,
strikes down Hero with the blow of slander as she stands before the
altar. But love has on its side gallantry and resource, loyalty and
valour, the good powers of nature and the magic of the moonlit faery
wood; and so, over the mountains and over the waves, love at last finds
out a way.

Love being the central theme of Shakespearian comedy, laughter cannot
be its principal end, and cruel or harsh laughter is almost necessarily
excluded. But the laughter of joy rings out in the earlier and
middle comedies, and a smile, beautiful in its wisdom and serenity,
illuminates the comedies of his closing period. If satire is present,
it is only on rare occasions a satire of manners; it deals rather
with something universal, a satire of the fatuity of self-lovers, of
the power which the human heart has of self-deception, or it is a
genial mockery of the ineptitude of brainless self-importance, or the
little languid lover's amorous endeavours, or the lumbering pace of
heavy-witted ignorance, which cannot catch a common meaning, even by
the tail; at its average rate of progress the idea whisks too swiftly
from the view of such slow gazers.

_The dramatis personæ_ form a large and varied population, ranging
in social rank from the king to the tinker and the bellows-mender.
Princes, dukes, courtiers, pages, dissolute gallants, soldiers,
sailors, shepherds, clowns, city mechanicals, the country justice,
the constable and head-borough, the schoolmaster, the parson, the
faithful old servant, the lively waiting-maid, roysterers, humourists,
light-fingered rogues, foreign fantasticoes, middle-class English
husbands and wives, Welshman, Frenchman, Spaniard, Italian, Jew, noble
and gracious ladies, country wenches, courtesans, childhood, youth,
manhood, old age, the maiden, the wife, the widow--all sorts and
conditions of human mortals occupy the scene, while on this side enters
Caliban, bearing his burden of pine-logs, and Ariel flies overhead upon
the bat's back, on the other, the offended king of faery frowns upon
Titania, and claims his pretty Eastern minion.

The characters are ordinarily ranged, with an excellent effect on
dramatic perspective, in three groups or divisions. The lovers and
their immediate friends or rivals occupy the middle plane. Above them
are persons of influence or authority by virtue of age or rank, on whom
in some measure the fortunes of the lovers depend. Below them are the
humbler aiders and abettors of their designs, or subordinate figures
lightly attached to the central action, yet sometimes playing into the
hands of benevolent Chance, and always ready to diversify the scene,
to enliven the stage, to afford a breathing-space between passages of
high-wrought emotion, to fill an interval with glittering word-play or
unconscious humour, to save romance from shrill intensity or too aerial
ascension by the contact of reality. Shakespeare in comedy was hardly
quite happy until he had found his Duke and his clown; then he had the
space in which he could move at ease; love remains his central theme,
but it is love which rises out of life; his principal figures are
rendered more distinct, are seen more in the round, because they stand
out from a rich and various background.

=Intrigue; and the Treatment of Materials.=--The intrigue of
Shakespeare's comedies is seldom of his own creation. He understood by
"invention" something finer or rarer than the construction of a plot.
The greatest workers in literature--we must perhaps except Dante--have
been the _trouvères_, the finders. To form a being out of the clay, and
to breathe into its nostrils the breath of life is an act of creation
in the finest sense of the word. What is material and mechanical
Shakespeare willingly accepts from others; his range of invention is
almost without limit, but it is invention in the spiritual world. No
sufficient sources have been found for his earliest comedy--_Love's
Labour's Lost_--and for what was perhaps his latest--_The Tempest_; it
does not follow, however, that in these instances he varied from his
customary practice. When Shakespeare dealt with the substantial matter
of history, he remained upon his native soil, until through Plutarch
he discovered Rome. No dramatist of his age is more truly an English
patriot; no other evocation of the past in poem or play is so truly
alive or so truly national as that effected in Shakespeare's series
of chronicle histories; and with his English history he has connected
his robustest piece of comedy--no romance of love, but a comedy of
character, essentially national in its humour, its exultant mirth, its
pathos, the chronicle history of King Falstaff on his tavern throne.
But breathing the air of the English Renaissance, he turned away in his
romantic comedies from his own country to Italy, the land of romance.
Once--in _Cymbeline_--he is a debtor to Holinshed, but Holinshed
has here to summon Boccaccio to his aid. Even _The Merry Wives of
Windsor_, as far as we can trace its sources, is indebted for some of
its laughable adventures to the Italian _novelle_. Twice Shakespeare
borrowed the plots of comedies from tales by contemporary writers
of England,--_As You Like It_ is founded upon Lodge's _Rosalynde_;
_The Winter's Tale_, upon Greene's _Pandosto_. But although Lodge's
story was in part derived from a poem of rough and humble incidents,
characteristically English, it was transformed in his hands into a
much-embroidered amorous pastoral of the Renaissance, and Greene's
_Pandosto_ is equally a product of exotic southern culture.

Boccaccio, Bandello, Cinthio, elder English dramas derived from
Italian sources, Spanish pastoral romance--these furnished the booty
on which Shakespeare laid hands with the right of a conqueror. He
selected, omitted, altered, added, moulding the mass of material with
plastic hands, which are gentle because they are strong. Frequently
he complicates the intrigue; sometimes he entangles a secondary plot
with the primary; sometimes he emends the ethics, or purifies the
atmosphere, or saves some cherished character from dishonour; in
many instances he creates new personages, who are the interpreters
of his own wisdom or humour or gracious temper. Thus in _As You
Like It_, though the loves of Orlando and Rosalind are transposed
from the languid artificial pastoral of Lodge into the spirited
wood-notes of Shakespeare, we look in vain through Lodge's romance
for the sentimental-cynical Jaques, dilettante collector of curious
experiences, for Touchstone, the courtier-clown, with his logic of
nice distinctions, for Audrey, no Dresden-china shepherdess, but
fascinating to her ingenious suitor by virtue of her robust charms and
her flattering inferiority of brain. Again, in _Twelfth Night_ the
character of Malvolio and of the whole group of his tormentors--Sir
Toby Belch, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, Fabian, Feste, Maria--are added to
his originals by Shakespeare. The languorous love-in-idleness of the
Duke Orsino, and Olivia's sadness prepense demanded a contrast, and in
Shakespeare's imagination sprang up this crew of toper and droll and
slender-witted gentlemen, and mischief-loving maid, who seem to take
hands and dance around the solemn figure of that deluded magnifico of
domestics. To cite but one other example, how would _Much Ado about
Nothing_ dwindle if Beatrice and Benedick, its brain of wit and pulse
of gallantry, were to disappear from the scene! But these, and with
them the office-bearing majesty of Dogberry, prince of constables, and
the astute intelligence of goodman Verges ("an old man, sir; but honest
as the skin between his brows") are engrafted by Shakespeare on the
original of Bandello.

=Relation to Predecessors and Contemporaries.=--From his predecessors
and early contemporaries Shakespeare doubtless learnt whatever it was
in their power to teach; at the same time he started forth on ways of
his own. In Lyly he saw how something of the ideality of the masque
could be transferred to comedy; how comedy could escape from the
grosser world of the actual to a realm of courtly classical fantasy;
how action could be suspended to give scope for the play of sparkling
or ingenious dialogue in prose; how dainty song could come to the
aid of speech which threatened to grow tedious; how disguises of sex
could lead to delicate and diverting confusions. But Shakespeare
must have perceived the lack of human interest in Lyly's plays; the
deficiency of action, which often causes the progress of the piece to
languish or to cease; the slight or colourless characterization; the
mechanical artificiality, and monotonous balance of certain elements in
Euphuistic prose. What was sprightly and ingenious in Lyly's dialogue
he preserved; but of Euphuism in the strict sense we find nothing
in Shakespeare's plays, except a passage of mockery, appropriately
introduced where Falstaff in the tavern discourses as a moralizing
father to that well-bred youth, Prince Hal,--"For though the camomile
the more it is trodden on the faster it grows, yet youth the more it is
wasted the sooner it wears." Nor, unless it be the passage describing
Oberon's vision of Cupid aiming his shaft at the fair vestal throned in
the West, does he follow Lyly in mythological allegory, which conceals
and betrays contemporary persons and events.

In the comedies of Robert Greene examples already existed of the
romantic tale of love and lovers handled in dramatic fashion. Amid
the vulgar surroundings of his sorry London life, Greene preserved a
certain purity of idyllic imagination. His comely maidens and loyal
wives, tried and true, had shown how important and how attractive a
part may be borne by women upon the comic stage. He had exhibited with
some skill the art of connecting two intrigues--the primary and the
subordinate. He had placed comic matter side by side with matter which
approximated to tragic. He could pass from verse to prose, and could
mingle with blank verse, sometimes brocaded with ornament but often
fresh and sweet, easy rhymed couplets and such other arrangements of
rhyme as Shakespeare practised in his early plays. But he often erred
through an attempt at Marlowesque magnificence and through the pride
and pomp of pseudo-classical decoration. He lacked that humour of
good sense, directed upon oneself, which warns a writer when he is in
danger of falling into absurdity. His ludicrous scenes do not always
assist the more serious or romantic matter of the play; they are too
much of the nature of an interlude or divertissement. His feeling for
what is laughable was somewhat primitive and crude; a vigorous bout at
quarter-staves, a lusty drubbing, the extravagant pranks of a mediæval
devil, were simple and unfailing receipts to shake the ribs of the
groundlings. If Shakespeare was a pupil of Greene's in comedy, he was
an intelligent pupil, who knew what to remember and what to forget.

Except as regards the form of his verse and prose it cannot be said
that Shakespeare, as a writer of comedy, was ever in a true sense
in discipleship to any master. He found suggestions, and used them,
but he took his own way. The history of his development consists in
great measure in the gradual coalescing of the various faculties from
which poetry may be derived. In his latest comedies intellect and
emotion are fused together; wit has been taken up into moral wisdom;
imagination in its highest reach is united with the simple, primary
feelings of our humanity; gaiety and seriousness interpenetrate each
other; tenderness and pity are alive in the breast of the comic
Muse; the laughter is often the laughter of human sympathy and of a
pathetic joy; if we smile at the quaint forms of the hieroglyph of
life, we know that it has a deep and sacred meaning. From the outset
Shakespeare thought of comedy as a mirror of human life, which should
reflect things sad and serious as well as mirthful, and which by its
magic power should convert pain into pleasure; but the two elements
of Shakespearian comedy exist side by side in the earliest plays;
they are not yet fused into one. In the main, Shakespeare at first
relied upon his nimble brain, and aimed at exciting laughter by comic
surprises, contrasts, and incongruities which lie upon the surface of
things and are the offspring of accident rather than of character. His
delight in wit-combats and word-play is a transference to language of
the same feeling which made him delight in the errors and disguisings
of his persons. There is a laughter which arises from no profounder
cause than titillation; the harlequinade of words, leaping one over the
other, parrying, riposting, and suddenly disappearing under a mask of
invisibility, yet still striking, as it were, out of the shadow, serves
as a titillation of the brain.

=Shakespeare's Development as a Comic Dramatist.=--In his earliest
group of comedies, _Love's Labour's Lost_, _The Comedy of Errors_, _The
Two Gentlemen of Verona_, _A Midsummer Night's Dream_, dating perhaps
from about 1590 to about 1594, Shakespeare experimented in various
directions. We might name the group that of his transformation plays.
The comic surprise, the comic incongruity is that of man suddenly
converted from his true to a false self or from a false self to a
true. Human will is here the sport of nature or the sport of accident.
Nothing is but what is not. The vowed students of Navarre are betrayed
into the very opposite of their assumed selves by the power of nature
and of love. Proteus, the servant of Julia, the comrade of Valentine,
forsakes his mistress and his friend, and is as suddenly reconverted.
The brothers Antipholus and the brothers Dromio are so shuffled
together by the juggler Chance, that we question if any personal
identity will survive and reëmerge at the close. Whether Lysander and
Demetrius will awake the rival lovers of Helena or the rival lovers
of Hermia, or whether Lysander will love Hermia and Demetrius Helena,
depends on the merest luck of fairy-land. But nature and luck are on
the side of love; all will be set right before the end. And because
women lie closer to nature than men, and their affections hold the bent
with the directness and certainty of nature, they are true and constant
to themselves, neither deluding their hearts with pseudo-ideals, nor
changed by the play of circumstances from what they are, but using
their woman's wit and woman's will to attain their proper ends.

_Love's Labour's Lost_ has the air of a young writer's effort to be
original, and to dazzle by unflagging cleverness; whence at times a
tedium of wit. Shakespeare seems to have resolved to owe his plot
to no man, with the result that it is somewhat too much a prepared
vehicle for the exposition of an idea. The little cloister of culture,
where education is to be a fine art removed from nature, is invaded by
woman, and with the entrance of woman enters nature, which has more
of wisdom to impart than all the academies or schools. The denouement
must be as original as the general design; death arrives in the midst
of mirth; there shall be no weddings in the fifth act; love's labour
is lost; or, if not lost, its reward is deferred a twelvemonth; the
scholars turned lovers are still infected with something of unreality
and affectation, exhaling their sentiment in Petrarchan ingenuities,
and one of them, Biron, with his mocking humour, takes life too proudly
and wilfully; the mad girls of France are at heart serious, and they
will test their lovers by a year of genuine probation, then, and not
till then, the marriage bells shall ring. The Spanish fantastico, Don
Adriano, towering in stature, though not in wit, above his minion
page, and the learned schoolmaster Holofernes, much admired of his
companion pedant, the curate, resemble stock figures of Italian
comedy. Affectations of language--the decorated dialect of fashion,
the pedantries of scholarship not too profound--are also departures
from nature, and must submit to the laughter of good sense. Nature may,
indeed, be mended by art, for nature in its first rudiments, as seen in
honest Costard and goodman Dull, is not wholly a thing of beauty and
of joy, but the art which mends nature must be, as the wise Polixenes
afterwards declared, an art that nature makes. _Love's Labour's
Lost_--the _Precieuses ridicules_ of Shakespeare, but with men for the
presenters of preciosity and women as the exponents of good sense--is
a comedy of dialogue rather than of incident. The stage is kept alive
with much tossing about of brains in wit-encounters, with maskings
and disguisings, and with that marred show of the Nine Worthies, a
heroi-comic forerunner of the tedious, brief scene of young Pyramus and
his love Thisbe, in which the hard-handed men of Athens appear before
Duke Theseus.

_The Comedy of Errors_ is a comedy of incident. Here Shakespeare
accepts his plot, his chief characters, and their adventures from
Plautus. But the adventures are complicated by his addition of the
two Dromios, which more than doubles the possibilities of ludicrous
confusion. The fun cannot be too fast or furious; the unexpected
always happens; the discovery is staved off to the fifth act with
infinite skill; the nearer each brother approaches his fellow, the
more impossible it becomes for them to meet. Nowhere has Shakespeare
ravelled and unravelled the threads of an intrigue with such
incomparable dexterity as in this early play. But Shakespeare's
imagination could not rest satisfied with a farce, however laughable or
however skilfully conducted. His vein of lyrical poetry breaks forth in
the love-episode, for the sake of which he created Luciana. And he has
set the entire comic business in a romantic and pathetic framework--the
story of the afflicted old Ægeon and the Ephesian abbess, in whom he
discovers his lost wife. The play opens with grief and the doom of
death impending over an innocent life; it closes, after a cry of true
pathos, with reconciling joy, and the interval is filled with laughter
that peals to a climax. This is not the manner of Plautus; but laughter
with Shakespeare would seem hard and barren--the crackling of thorns
under a pot,--if it were wholly isolated from grief and love and joy.

Shakespeare did not again attempt the comedy of mere incident. In _The
Two Gentlemen of Verona_ he struck into his favourite tune--the comedy
of romance. Among its sources is the Spanish pastoral of Jorge de
Montemayor, but the scene is Italy, the woman-country wooed in this
play before it was wed by the imagination of its poet in _The Merchant
of Venice_. The theme is love, its fidelity and its infidelity--love
with its incalculable surprises, love with its unalterable constancy.
The characters are lightly yet gracefully outlined; there are the
grave and reverend seniors; the contrasted pairs of lovers; the
waiting-woman; and the clownish men-servants, to whom the business of
laughter is intrusted. The persons are somewhat mechanically set over,
one against the other,--Valentine the loyal against the fickle Proteus,
Silvia the sprightly against the tender Julia, Speed the professional
wit against Launce the unconscious humourist, whose filial affections
and amorous desires for the milkmaid, who has more qualities than a
water-spaniel, are only secondary to his devotion to the cur Crab,
a dog, indeed, to whose share some canine errors fall, but endowed
with more qualities than a wilderness of milkmaids. The disguising
of Julia in masculine attire anticipates many such disguisings in
later comedies. It is no frolic masking like that of the girls of
France, but part of the serious-playful romance of a woman's brave and
gentle heart. The blank verse is sweet and regular rather than swift
or powerful in dramatic movement; rhyme is less frequently used than
heretofore; the prose of Launce's soliloquies has a homely directness
and vigour.

In _A Midsummer Night's Dream_ comedy becomes lyrical. Character is
subordinate to incident, but incident here has a dreamlike quality,
which unites itself with the poetry of a fantastic world. It is a
comedy of errors,--the errors of a night,--but the confusions are
not external and material as in the adventures of the brothers
Antipholus; they are inward and psychological; the bewilderment is one
of passions, not of persons. The triumph of the poet lies before all
else in the power which he shows of harmonizing materials seemingly
the most incongruous. The magnificence of Theseus and his Amazonian
bride,--power in the full tide of prosperity,--the crossed and wayward
loves of youths and maidens, the minikin-mighty strifes of fairy-land
and its roguish sports, the artistic pains and illustrious ineptitude
of the crew of hempen homespuns--all these are wrought together in a
dream which we accept with a tranquil and delighted wonder.

The power of the human will is, as it were, suspended in this play
of elfland magic. Before _The Merchant of Venice_ was written,
Shakespeare's feeling for dramatic action and passion had been deepened
and invigorated by his progress in dealing with English history and
probably by the creation of a great tragedy, _Romeo and Juliet_, the
tragedy of love and youth and death. _The Merchant of Venice_ is
Shakespeare's first, and perhaps his most remarkable, example of the
comedy of character. Here we pass from the realm of caprice to that
of human volition. A passive object, the merchant, is placed in the
midst as a prize to be contended for by forces naturally adverse--the
passion of concentrated revenge and the spirit of charity, armed with
the brightest weapons of intelligence. The masculine and the feminine
powers enter upon a single combat, and victory remains with mercy
and love, the "Ewigweibliche." No such figure as that of Shylock had
previously appeared upon the English stage. In his person Shakespeare
not only lays bare the nerve and muscle of a wrestler in the game of
life, but studies the darker and sadder features of a race. He is
no incredible monster like the Barabas of Marlowe, but a man, whose
origins and environment have made him what he is; whom, therefore, we
understand and whom in his very pitilessness we are constrained to
pity. Nor had the English stage hitherto seen any woman so complex in
her various powers of intellect, emotions, will, so single in their
harmonious coöperance, as the noble lady of Belmont. The same energy of
resolve which makes her the armed champion of Antonio had lain hidden
in her loyalty to the arduous conditions of her father's will. The
dramatist in this play postulates our acceptance of certain external
improbabilities; these concessions made, all things are wrought out
in accordance with the laws of life. The spirit of tragedy here is
neighbour to the comic spirit, yet observes the finest decorum. Two
actions--that of the caskets and that of the pound of flesh--work into
each other without a jar and become one. The characters are grouped
with perfect freedom and with an exact, though unobtruded, ordonnance,
for Shakespeare's art had now learnt to conceal itself. The fifth act
of the play is a kind of lovely epilogue, where, after the strained
anxiety of the trial-scene, joy is preserved from its own excess by the
instinct of self-mockery.

It may be that the humbler humorous scenes of the English historical
plays on which he was now engaged drew down the imagination of
Shakespeare as a writer of comedy from romance to realism, and made him
content to work for a little while in rougher material. _The Taming of
the Shrew_, whatever its chronological place may be, is only a spirited
adaptation of an older play, and is chiefly interesting as an example
of Shakespeare's art in transposing, developing, enriching with detail,
the ideas of a predecessor, and as a demonstration of the temper with
which he could kindle a predecessor's _allegro_ into an _allegro con
brio_. With old Sly's son of Burton heath, the village sot, he was
upon his native soil, and he could heighten his original with low-life
reminiscences of Warwickshire taverns. _The Merry Wives of Windsor_
is a direct offshoot from the greater comedy of Falstaff which is
incorporated in the historical plays. The tradition that it was hastily
written by command of Queen Elizabeth, who desired to see "Falstaff in
love," relieves us from the necessity of supposing that Shakespeare
voluntarily degraded his indomitable jester into the flouting-stock of
a bourgeois fabliau, "Well I am your theme: you have the start of me;
I am dejected; ... ignorance itself is a plummet o'er me; use me as
you will." That Shakespeare should throw himself with spirit into his
task was a crime for which he earns our forgiveness by its successful
issue. The merry wives are honest buxom dames, without a grain of real
malice in them. The French physician and the Welsh parson murder the
Queen's English with as happy a valiance as that of Fluellen and the
Princess Katharine in _King Henry V._ Slender is the most delightfully
incompetent of wooers--a Romeo _manqué_ of Windsor, whose amorous
passion waits upon his cousin Shallow's promptings and whose wit is
mislaid with his Book of Riddles. The buck-basket and the old woman of
Brentford are very palpable jokes, which the crassest gentleman-usher
or emptiest-headed maid-in-waiting could not miss. There are the proper
topical allusions to call forth an interchange of smiling mutual
intelligence. Altogether _The Merry Wives_ was a comedy delicate enough
for a queen. For such a play the proper medium was prose; verse is
reserved for the slender love-episode of Fenton and Anne Page, and for
the scenes connected with the fairy disguising.

As the pressure of the English historical plays lightened, Shakespeare
could turn again to Italy and to romance. In _The Merry Wives_ he had
grouped his characters in a circle around a gross old self-lover,
whom it was their business to delude and mock. Perhaps the same
device could be refined upon and turned to romantic uses. Falstaff
had professed love and had been convicted of sordid self-interest.
What it a pair of high-spirited persons, touched with the egotism of
self-sufficingness and wilful wit, and professing a superiority to the
toys of lovers, could be ensnared into that deep mutual passion which
was in truth written for them in the book of fate? But there must be
something deeper here than a jest; such brave union of hearts must be
cemented by a common effort to confront the sorrow of the world. At
this time, perhaps, Shakespeare was concerned with his revision of
_Love's Labour's Lost_. Might not Biron and Rosaline be reincarnated,
and in place of that crude test of a twelve months' visitation of the
speechless sick decreed for Biron, might not an immediate test of
valiant manhood be discovered, and the newer Biron come to the happy
ending of love's labour's won? In Beatrice and Benedick a brilliant
centre was found for the play of _Much Ado about Nothing_. The high
spirits, which gave life to _The Shrew_ and _The Merry Wives_ are here
refined by gallantry and beauty, wit and grace, and by the presence
of injury and pain. The other _dramatis personæ_ gather around the
hero and heroine to beguile them into love; the passion begotten of a
jest is brought forth in sorrow, and sorrow at the close is converted
into joy. With so much of quick and lambent dialogue as Beatrice
and Benedick have to utter, we want no outstanding jester here; his
speech would be an impertinence; but we need a counterfoil to wit in
the unconscious humour of a Dogberry and a Verges; and these worthies
assist effectively in the action of the play; Fate, the sphinx, assumes
an ironic smile; the dulness of a blundering watchman unties a knot
which has foiled the dexterity of the wise.

The comedy which followed _Much Ado about Nothing_ is one of sunshine
and dappled shadow under the greenwood of Arden. Landseer's companion
pictures, "War" and "Peace," find a parallel in Shakespeare's _King
Henry V._ and _As You Like It_, which probably belong to the same year;
and the scene of both the history and the comedy is laid in France.
He would have left untouched a favourite theme of the Renaissance if
he had wholly neglected the pastoral; but Shakespeare felt that the
conventional pastoral alone, with its cruel shepherdess and sighing
swain, however suitable for a piece of poetical tapestry, could not
furnish the life and body and movement demanded by the stage. His
Silvius and Phœbe, Arcadians of the mode and rhetoricians in verse,
are presented with a certain reserved irony; the veritable rustics are
William, whose pretty wit chiefly manifests itself in monosyllabic
answers, and the wench Audrey, whom the gods did not make poetical.
Touchstone, a clown among courtiers, is a courtier among clowns. The
other persons of the comedy are of the high-bred class, in the midst of
which the dramatist's imagination moved with most pleasure, but here
they are transported into a delightful open-air environment, which
breathes a freshness and sweetness into their spirits. "Sweet are
the uses of adversity," and especially of such adversity as that of
Rosalind, which enables her, in her disguise as Ganymede, to assist in
her own wooing and to play the part of a benevolent goddess of destiny
for several pairs of lovers including Orlando and herself. We learn
from a play of Ben Jonson's of the same date that melancholy was a
genteel fashion of the day. Shakespeare, on the suggestion of a current
affectation, created in Jaques a character which was wholly original.
Humourist, sentimentalist, critic, and cynic, he is the self-conscious
seeker for new experiences, the dilettante collector of curiosities to
be labelled in his museum as states of a human soul.

The midsummer of Shakespeare's comedy is reached in _Twelfth Night_.
Was it his effort to resist the invasion of sadder thought which raised
its mirth to the reeling heights of Sir Toby's Illyrian bacchanals?
We dare not venture such a surmise, for the light and warmth are at
flood-tide. The voluptuous love-languors of the Duke and Olivia's
luxury of grief fatten the idle soil for the blossoming of the rose.
The disease of overmuch prosperity in the palaces of Illyria seems set
over against the sanity of adversity in the forest of Arden. Viola, in
her disguises as Cesario, has a harder task than the banished Rosalind;
for instead of assisting at her own wooing, she is required to plead as
an envoy of love against herself. In place of the dilettante egotist
Jaques, who would range through all experiences, we have here the
solemn self-lover, Malvolio, pinnacled in his own sense of importance
and his code of formal propriety, yet toppling from his heights
to so grotesque a fall. Had Shakespeare encountered some starched
Elizabethan Puritan, who looked sourly on the theatre, and thought that
because he was virtuous there should be no more cakes and ale, and
did the dramatist read a humorous lesson to his time on an error more
deep-seated in the human heart than the excesses of a joyous temper?
Was the comic spirit here a swordsman armed with the blade of reason
and good sense? If such was the case, Shakespeare was assuredly no
partisan, and Sir Toby Belch is hardly his ideal representative of a
liberal humanism.

After the play of _Twelfth Night_ we become aware of the first ebb
of summer. It has been suggested that the events shadowed forth in
the _Sonnets_ took some of the joy out of Shakespeare's heart. It has
been suggested that the fall of Essex, involving the disgrace of the
poet's patron Southampton, tended to embitter his spirit. These are
conjectures that cannot be verified. What is certain is, that he turned
toward tragedy, and that his temper in comedy indicates a gathering of
the clouds. The spirit of _All's Well that Ends Well_ is as courageous
as is the title of the play; and there is a need for courage, not of
the gay and sportive kind, but serious and steadfast. The hero is no
gallant Orlando or high-spirited Benedick. He has in him, we must
suppose, the possibilities of noble manhood, but these are obscured by
the errors and the vices of youth. The heroine is no glad-hearted girl
like Rosalind, no scatterer of coruscating jests like Beatrice, but a
woman, clear-sighted, strong-willed, and bent on achieving her purpose.
She, the poor daughter of a physician, is a healer in a world that
stands in need of healing. The bright-winged Cupid of nods and becks
and wreathed smiles has been transformed into Love, the physician.
Helena, honoured and cherished by all who know her aright, is rejected
by the one man on whom her heart is fixed, and whom she rescues from
his baser self with something of that maternal protectiveness, which in
certain instances constitutes the nucleus of wifely love. The Countess
is Shakespeare's creation, and nowhere has he made age more beautiful.
The comic business lies chiefly in the unmasking of the pretender,
Parolles. It is required both by the action and the ethics of the play,
but there is little to afford us pleasure in the humiliation of so
paltry a _miles gloriosus_.

The atmosphere darkens in _Measure for Measure_. In the city of Vienna
corruption boils and bubbles. From the Duke's deputy to the lowest
drudge of vice, society is infected with the festering evil. To deal
with the subtleties of sin, virtue itself must learn crafty ways; mines
must be opposed by countermines. In Claudio the passions of youth,
snatching too eagerly at unlicensed satisfaction, are brought into the
presence of death; and to life, tender and florid, the vast regions of
the grave are full of obscurity and uncertain horror. It is hardly a
scene for the joy of love, though to two strong hearts love may come
in the end as the sequel of a common struggle for justice and moral
reformation. Rather is it a place for the trials and the victory of
virgin chastity. The Duke moves through subterranean passages, guided
by the dark lantern of moral prudence. Isabella illuminates the gloom
with the light of an indignant saintliness. Here it is no pompous
formalist who is humiliated; no common pretender who is detected
and delivered over to laughter; the deadliest ambushes of evil are
attacked; the heart, "deceitful above all things and desperately
wicked," is laid bare. Angelo, the self-deceiver, is exposed not
merely to others, but to himself; he gazes down appalled into the
abyss discovered in his own soul. We have travelled far from the fresh
wild-wood paths of Arden and from the glowing gardens of Illyria.

No problems connected with the plays of Shakespeare are more difficult
of solution than those offered by the satiric drama, in which matter
from the story of Troy is handled in so enigmatic a fashion. Shall
we place _Troilus and Cressida_ hard by _Measure for Measure_, or
date it some six years later, regarding it as a successor in comedy
to the tragic study of the misanthrope in _Timon of Athens_? The
evidence inclines in favour of the earlier date. Is some of the wood,
hay, and stubble of the lost _Troilus and Cressida_ of Dekker and
Chettle imbedded in Shakespeare's play? Is it a satire of humanity or
of contemporary individuals? Was this the "purge" which Shakespeare
administered to Ben Jonson, and, with Jonson disguised as Ajax, and
Marston as Thersites, was the play one of those alarums and excursions
connected with the war of the theatres, in which Marston, Dekker, and
Jonson were the principal combatants?[1949] Is Cressida a malicious
portrait of the deceitful enchantress of the _Sonnets_, and was a
satirical presentment of the heroes of Homer a retort upon the rival
poet, conjectured to be Chapman, the translator of Homer, who had
stolen away the favour of Shakespeare's young friend and patron.
These questions remain unanswered. We can only say that the spirit
of this comedy of disillusion is alien to that of genuine comedy
as conceived by Shakespeare in his happier days. The young love of
Troilus is betrayed by the courtesan born. Achilles is a dull-brained
fellow, barren of wit, who sulks or wantons in his tent; Ajax is a
clumsy elephant; Thersites lives on garbage, and spews his filth;
Pandar is a lecher, incapable except by proxy; to fight on account of
Helen is to set the world at odds for an harlot, yet on her behalf it
is that Hector, knowing the folly of it, dies. Troilus is indeed a
gallant youth, but his passion is a greenhorn's infatuation: let him
be cured of it by surgical incision, however cruel! Shall we say that
_Troilus and Cressida_ and _Measure for Measure_ are connected by a
certain contrast and resemblance? In each the world is bubbling with
corruption. The mighty persons of the earth in the one play are as
ignoble as the mean persons of the other; the confraternity of Mistress
Overdone includes the champions of the world and their renowned
lady-loves; the worldly wisdom of the Duke is lowered and broadened
into the all-embracing but wholly mundane experience of Ulysses; and in
this sorry society it is from worldly wisdom alone that we can hope for
any rescue or deliverance, for here we find no saintly Isabella, but a
Cressida, offering her lips to every solicitor of the Grecian tents.

The spirit of mirth withdrew itself for a time from Shakespeare's art.
He could still write comic scenes, but they were used to deepen the
effects of tragedy. The grave-diggers of _Hamlet_, the porter turning
the key of hell-gate on the night of murder in _Macbeth_, Lear's poor
fool jesting across the storm upon the heath, the clown whose basket
of figs conceals the worm of Nilus--these are humorous figures created
in the service of pity and terror. Shakespeare did not return to comedy
until his perception of the world and human life had been purified by
the tragic _katharsis_. With every faculty of his mind labouring at
its highest, he had pursued a long dramatic inquisition of the evil
that is in the world and in the heart of man. He had not retreated into
any facile creed of pleasant optimism, but boldly explored the face
of night, and night had brought out the stars. Such love as that of
Cordelia, such loyalty as that of Kent, could be fully revealed only
in and through the darkness. Man pleased Shakespeare and woman also,
when he wrote his tragedies, else the players would have had lenten
entertainment; for a drama founded upon misanthropy would have been
unendurable. In _Timon of Athens_ the poet exhibits misanthropy as the
evasion of weakness from the ruins of a self-indulgent optimism, and we
may say that in _Timon of Athens_ he bade farewell to gloom.

Shakespeare's latest comedies--_Pericles_(as far as it is his),
_Cymbeline_, _The Winter's Tale_, _The Tempest_--form a group, which
is distinguished by a special character. The atmosphere is light and
pellucid, like that which follows a thunder-storm. There is a great
and wide serenity abroad; the heavens seem more spacious, and they
bend down to embrace the margins of the land. The healing influences
of nature are felt in the country lanes where Autolycus sings his
tirra-lirra, and the meadows where Perdita follows her sheep, on the
seacoast of Tarsus where Marina bears her basket of flowers, among
the wild Welsh mountains with the gallant sons of Cymbeline, on the
enchanted island full of "sounds and sweet airs that give delight
and hurt not." The life of cities and courts had lost much of its
attraction for one who perhaps was now finding repose and restoration
among the Warwickshire fields. But Shakespeare did not plead, in the
manner of Rousseau, for a reversion to the primitive conditions of
humanity; he could smile at Gonzalo's imaginary commonwealth, where
property has no existence; he saw in Caliban the rudimentary man not
half informed with soul; he had faith in an art which mends nature,
while yet it is an art which nature makes. And nature itself, with
all of human life, seems to hang, dreamlike and yet real, in the
encompassing power of something that is above nature and that means
well, however little we can trace its ways. Dian appears to Pericles in
a vision, guiding him to her temple where joy awaits him; the innocence
of Hermione is vindicated by the oracle of Apollo; Posthumus in prison
is visited by Jupiter, giving him assurance of divine succour--"whom
best I love I cross"; Prospero is aided in his beneficent designs by
ministering elemental spirits. The growing resources of the Jacobean
stage assisted the dramatist in scenic effects, to which he imparted a
beautiful significance. The temper of these latest plays is a temper
of reconciliation; the wrongs of life are present, but for those who
can transcend the baser passions they work for good. Injuries are felt
but are forgiven; broken bonds of affection are reunited; the lost
are restored to hearts that have loved and suffered. "The oldest hath
borne most," says Albany in the closing lines of _King Lear_. The
old are seen in these last romances of Shakespeare as experienced in
suffering, caused by the offence of others or by the errors of their
own hearts; but they have learnt through suffering a certain detachment
from the greed of personal gain, and they lean over the joy of young
hearts, still immersed in the innocent egoism of youth, with a fond
protectiveness. Cymbeline and his recovered sons, Pericles and Marina,
Hermione and Perdita, Prospero and Miranda--it is the same sentiment,
varied and repeated, in each of its exemplars. Certain indications that
Shakespeare was loosening his connection with the theatre are present
in these plays. He could, as in the instance of _Pericles_ and perhaps
in those of _King Henry VIII._ and _The Two Noble Kinsmen_ contribute
fragments to a drama in which, as a whole, he took little interest.
In plays of which he is the sole author, his dramatic energy flags at
times, to be renewed where the subject moved his feelings or charmed
his imagination. The versification is breeze-like in its freedom, but
sometimes the breeze falls away and sometimes it wanders with too vague
an aim. The treatment of time passes from the extreme of romantic
license, as in _The Winter's Tale_, to the strictest observation
of the rule of unity in _The Tempest_. In _Pericles_, the earliest
of these romances, Shakespeare cared only for certain scenes and
situations. In _Cymbeline_, wherever Imogen, the loveliest figure in
his gallery of portraits of women appears, we are certain to receive
his finest workmanship. Hermione and Perdita wholly possessed his
imagination, while a crude sketch sufficed for the jealousy of Leontes.
_The Tempest_, if we set aside the laborious jesting of Antonio and
Sebastian (designed to express the barren brain that often accompanies
a callous heart), is wrought with equal power from the first scene to
the last.

Perhaps the conjecture is well founded that _The Tempest_, with its
masque of wedding blessings, was written for the marriage of Princess
Elizabeth to Frederick, Elector Palatine, in February, 1613. Perhaps
it was Shakespeare's latest play. And it may not be altogether an idle
notion of the poet Campbell, that in Prospero's breaking his magic
staff and dismissing his airy spirits we have the farewell to the stage
of the great enchanter who had summoned Prospero into being.

Shakespeare found poetic comedy in its rudiments; he left it fully
formed. He brought together its various elements and organized them
to fulfil the functions of a single living spirit. He made laughter
wise, and taught seriousness how to be winning and gracious. Through
no ascetic doctrine but by virtue of the spirit of life and beauty he
purified the drama from the dulness of what is gross, and kept its
temper above the seductions of sentimental morals and a nerveless
lubricity. Wit, fancy, grace, constructive dexterity, are found among
his successors. Shakespeare's sane outlook upon life as a whole, his
gentleness of strength in dealing with the passions, his reserve of
power, his moral wisdom, were lost to English comedy when Prospero
abjured his magic and retired to the duties of his Stratford lordship
of the soil.

EDWARD DOWDEN.

FOOTNOTES:

[1949] On this subject, see _The War of the Theatres_, by Mr. J. H.
Penniman, 1897, and _The Stage-Quarrel between Ben Jonson and the
so-called Poetasters_ by R. A. Small (Breslau, 1899).

INDEX OF HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL MATERIALS

ABERDEEN, Records of, xxxviii.

_Acolastus_, the, by Gnapheus (W. Fullonius), transl. by Palsgrave,
lxx, lxxi, lxxxi.

Acting and actors: in churches, xiii, xv, xix, xxi; in schools, xiv,
lxix; in churchyards, xii; by crafts, xviii, xx, xxxiii; the councils
against mimi, xix, xl; actors of Wakefield, xxv; mummers, xl; English
actors in Germany, xlv; acting at Cambridge, lxxi, 197; Udall and
school actors, 98; Lyly and boy actors, 265–268, 270, 279; Greene and
the companies, 399, 403, 408, 411, 418; Porter and the companies, 515,
516, 519–522, 524, 526–527.

Admiral's men, the, (_i.e._ under patronage of Lord Charles Howard,
Earl of Nottingham, 1585–1603) and Greene, 403, 408, 410; and Porter,
515–517, 520–528, _et passim_.

_Agamemnon_, Dekker and Chettle's, 523.

Agrippa, Henry Cornelius (von Nettesheim), 281.

Alberti, his _Philodoxeos_, lxvii.

_Albyon Knight_, lxxxvi.

_Alcmæon_, the play of, 268.

_Alda_, Latin play by William of Blois, xvii.

Aldrich, Robert, and Udall, 92.

Alençon, the _duc d'_, and _Endymion_, 268.

_Alexander, the Life of_ by Plutarch, 269, 283, _et seq._

_Alexander and Campaspe_, by Lyly, edition of, with essay, by Professor
Baker, 263–333; dates, sources, literary estimate, etc., 268–276.

_Alexander and Lodowick_, by Martin Slater, 523, 526.

Alexandrine, the Middle English, 189.

Allegory, and the drama, xxxvii, xl, lxxxi, xcii, 267.

Alleyn, Edward, and Greene's plays, 408, 410; catalogue of his MSS. at
Dulwich, 515; acquaintance with Porter, 524.

Alleyn, Richard, an actor in the Admiral's company, 524.

_All for Money_, Lupton's, xlviii, li, lxxxvi.

Allott, his _England's Parnassus_, 421.

_All's Well that Ends Well_, Shakespeare's, 191, 656.

_Alphonsus, Emperor of Germany_, by Chapman, attributed to Peele, 336.

_Alphonsus, King of Arragon, Comicall Historie_ of, by Greene, 389,
403–405, 407, 410, 411, 421.

_Andria_, of Terence, the English translation of, lxviii, lxxi, 107.

Antichrist legend, Protestant version of the, lxxv.

_Apius and Virginia, The tragical comedy of_, by R. B., lxxxvi, 141,
336, 341.

Apollodorus Tarsensis, compared with Peele, 337.

Apuleius, Adlington's translation of his _Metamorphoses of the Golden
Ass_, a possible source of Peele's 'Meroe,' 346, 383.

Arber, Professor E., his _English Garner_, 89; his reprint of _Roister
Doister_, 90, 104, 194; his _Transcripts of the Stationers' Registers_,
97, 197, 347, _et passim_.

_Archæologia_, on Udall, 93.

_Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen_, on Peele, 348.

Aretino, his _Poliscene_, lxvii.

Ariosto, his _I Suppositi_, lxviii; Gascoigne's translation of, lxxv,
lxxxiv; compared with Peele, 337; his _Orlando Furioso_, 389.

Argumentative plays, _debats_, and controversial morals, lxv, lxvi,
lxxv, xci; Heywood's, 10.

_Arraignment of Paris, The_, by Peele, 336, 341.

_Ascension, The_, Wakefield play of, xxvi, xxvii.

Ascham, Roger, referred to, 135.

_Asotus_, the, by Macropedius, lxx.

Ass, Feast of the, xx, xxi.

_As You Like It_, by Shakespeare, lxv, 275, 645, 654, 655.

BABIO, a Latin elegiac comedy, xviii.

Baker, D. E. (with Reed and Jones), his _Biographia Dramatica_, 200,
348.

Baker, Professor G. P., _Critical Essay on Lyly_, his life and place in
comedy, with special reference to _Alexander and Campaspe_, 263–277;
edition of _A. and C._, with notes, 278–333.

Bale, Bishop, his _Catalogus_, xviii, 89, 93; translation of
_Pammachius_, lxx, lxxi; his _Kyng Johan_, lxxii, lxxv.

Ballad plays, xli.

Bandello, 645.

Barclay, Alexander, and fool-literature, lii, liii.

Bardani, xli.

Barry, Lodowick, the song of "Three merrie men" in his _Ram Alley_, 352.

_Bartholomew Fayre_, by Ben Jonson, _Induction to_, 410.

_Basoche, clercs de la_, lxvi.

_Battle of Alcazar, The_, by Peele, 335, 337, 341.

_Baucis_, a Latin elegiac comedy, xviii.

Bayne, on Henry Porter in _Dict. Nat. Biog._, 519.

Beaumont and Fletcher, and the play within a play, 343.

_Beaux Stratagem, The_, by Farquhar, referred to, 429.

Bernhardi, his _R. Greene's Leben u. Schritten_, 397, 411.

_Bewick and Grahame_, the ballad, referred to, 366.

Bibbiena, Cardinal de, bis _Calandria_, lxviii.

Biblical miracles, xiii–xxxvii; _genre_ drama, idyllic or heroic
miracle, lxxvi.

_Bien-Avisé et Mal-Avisé_, a French _moralité_, liii, lxxii.

Birde, William, and Henry Porter, 516.

_Blacke Battman of the North_, Porter's relation to the play, 515, 521,
522.

Blank Verse, Peele's, 339, 340; Greene's, 404, 407, 414, 417; on the
rhetorical quality of dramatic; examination of Greene's practice, and a
few general conclusions, 503–513.

_Bloody Brother, The_, by Fletcher, Jonson, _et al._, parodies "Three
merry men," 352.

Blount, Edward, publisher of Lyly's plays, 269, 276.

_Blyssyd Sacrament, The_, Croxton play of, xxxix.

Boase and Clark, _Register of Univ. Oxford_, and the two Henry Porters,
518.

_Boccaccio, G._, 645.

Bodel, Jean, his play of _St. Nicholas_, xvi.

Bojardo, his _Timone_, lxviii.

Bower, his _Scotichronicon_, on Robin Hood, xli.

Bower, the R. B. of _Apius and Virginia_ (Fleay's conjecture), lxxxvi,
336.

Boy Bishop, the election of the, xx, xxi.

Bradley, Henry, mentioned, lxxii; his _Critical Essay on Gammer
Gurton's Nedle_, 197–204; date of _Gammer Gurton's Nedle_, and its
authorship, by Wm. Stevenson, 197; place of _G. G. N._ in the history
of comedy, 202; dialect, 203; previous editions and the present text,
204; edition of _G. G. N._, 205–257; appendix, 259.

Brand, the Rev. John, his _Popular Antiquities_, 127, 192.

Brandl, Professor A., his _Quellen u. Forschungen d. weltlichen Dramas
in England_, referred to, lx, lxxiii, lxxiv, lxxx, lxxxii, lxxxvii.

Brandt, Sebastian, his _Narrenschiff_, lii, liii.

Brasenose, the College Register of, and Henry Porter, 520.

Bridges, Dr. John, and _Gammer Gurton's Nedle_, 199; his _Defence of
the Government of the Church_, 200.

Briggs, the Rev. Thomas, his copy of _Roister Doister_, 97.

Broome, William, and _Alex. and Camp._, 276.

Brotherhood in Arms, Scott on the institution, 366.

Brown, Professor J. M., on Greene (_An Early Rival of Shakespeare_,
Auckland, 1877), 402, 405, 410, 415, 417.

_Brute Grenshillde_, and Henslowe, 523.

Bücher, K., _Arbeit u. Rhythmus_, referred to, on songs of labour, 384.

_Buffeting, The_, Wakefield play of, xxvii, xxviii.

_Bugbears, The_, a comedy of intrigue, lxxxviii.

Bulæus, on the _Ludus de S. Katharina_, xiv.

Bullen, Mr. A. H., his edition of Peele, 346, 348; see, also, notes to
Gummere's edition of _O. W. T._; on Henry Porter, 519.

Burby, Cuthbert, publisher, and Greene's plays, 418, etc.

Burlesque in church and festival plays, xix–xxi; in miracle cycles,
xxiv, xxix, xxxvi; in farces, lxv, lxvi; in school plays, lxxi–lxxii,
lxxv.

CADMAN, Thos., and Lyly's plays, 276.

_Cain_, the York play of, xxv.

_Calandria_, the, by Bibbiena, lxviii.

_Calisto and Melibœa_, by Cota and de Rojas, lxviii; the English play,
lxxii.

_Cambyses, King of Percia_, etc., by Thomas Preston, lii, liii, lxxxvi,
342.

Camden's _Proverbs_, 108, 194, _et passim_.

_Campaspe_, by Lyly, 263–333.

_Cante-fable_, reminiscences of the, 356, 375.

_Carde of Fancie, The_, by Greene, the _Dedication to_, 403.

_Carle off Carlile_, the poem, 127.

_Carmina Burana_, referred to, 191.

Carpenter, Professor F. I., his edition of Wager's _Marie Magdalene_
(University of Chicago Press), xciv.

_Castell of Perseverance, The_, play of, xlvii, xlviii, l, li, lviii.

Caxton, William, his translation of the _Legenda Aurea_, xxxi, xliv;
his _Prol. Eneydos_, 115.

Chaderton, William, his play and _Gammer Gurton_, 198.

_Challenge for Beauty, A_, by T. Heywood, 521.

Chalmers, Alexander, his _English Poets_, 191.

Chapman, George, lxxxviii; and Lyly, 275; and Porter, 517, 524, 533;
his _Humerous Dayes Mirth_, 527; and Shakespeare, 658.

Chappell's _Popular Music of the Olden Time_ and the song of "Three
merrie men," 352.

Character, portrayal of in miracles, xxxi, xxxiii; in marvels, etc.,
xxxix, xli; in morals, lii–liv, lxii–lxiii; in other plays, lxix,
lxxxvii, xcii; and see under _Authors_ and _Comedies_.

Chaucer, xix; the episode after his style, lxv, lxvi; and Heywood,
10–13; referred to, 127, 398, 426; and see notes to _R. D._; on
"hunting the letter," 374.

_Chester Cycle, The_, of miracle plays, xxiii, xxiv, xxix.

Chettle, Henry, his relations with Greene: his _Kind Hart's Dreame_,
419; his _Robert Greene to Pierce Pennilesse_, 422; and the
'Groatsworth Group,' 423, 424; his relations with Porter, 515–517, 522,
524; his _Troilus and Cressida_, 657.

Child, Professor, on Robin Hood plays, xl; on St. George plays, xliii,
176.

_Childe Maurice_, reference to, 359.

_Childe Rowland_, a possible reference to, in _O. W. T._, 345, 354, 356.

Children as players, 14, 98, 266, 267, 270, 275, 276.

_Christ led up to Calvary_, the York miracle of, xxvii.

Chronicle play, The English, lxxvi, Lyly and, 270.

Cicero, Lyly's indebtedness to, 267.

Cinthio, Giraldi, Shakespeare's indebtedness to, 645.

Clergy, the, and miracle plays, xiii, xviii–xx.

Clown, the, xlvii, xlviii, li, lii, liv, 388, 430, 644–646, 649, 651,
655.

_Coliphizatio_, one of the Wakefield plays, see _Buffeting_.

Collier, J. Payne, references to his _History of Dramatic Poetry
and Annals of the English Stage_, _Illustrations of Old English
Literature_, _Henslowe's Diary_, _Memoirs of Alleyn_, etc., xiv, xx,
xl, xlii, xlix, lvi, lviii, lxxiv, lxxvii, lxxix, lxxxvii, lxxxviii,
lxxxix, 97, 346, 409, 417, 515, 517, 518, 523, _et passim_; his _Old
Ballads_, 167.

Colman, George, the elder, his _Jealous Wife_, 530.

Colwell, Thomas, publisher of _Gammer Gurton_, 197, 199, 201, and of
the _Disobedient Child_.

_Comedy in England, Beginnings of_, by C. M. Gayley, xiii–xcii;
liturgical fragments, early saints' plays and parodies, xiii; comedy
of ridicule, xx; the miracle cycles in their relation to comedy, xxi;
dramatic value of the English miracle plays, xxxi; the contribution
of later "marvels" and early secular plays, xxxvii–xxxviii; the
Devil and the Vice, xlvi; the indebtedness of comedy to the Vice,
liii–liv; the relation between miracle, moral, and interlude, liv;
the older morals in their relation to comedy, lvii; the dramatic
contribution of the older morals, lxii; period of transition, farce and
romantic interlude, lxiv; period of transition, school of interlude
and controversial moral, 'Christian Terence' and _comedia sacra_,
lxix; polytypic, or fusion, plays, lxxvii; survivals of the moral
interlude, lxxxv; the movement toward romantic comedy, lxxxvii;
conclusion regarding the requisites of comedy, xci; comedy compared
with tragedy, xxxi, xxxvii–xxxviii, lxi–lxiv, 639; elements, kinds, and
relation to society, xci, 635, 648; pastoral, 4, 268; in miniature,
10; emancipation from miracle and moral, 15; _Commedia dell' arte_,
lxviii; see also under _Allegory_, _Romantic_, _Manners_, _Humours_,
_Latin_, _Woman_, _Prose_, _Plot_, _Character_.

_Comedy of Errors, The_, by Shakespeare, 648, 650.

_Common Conditions_, the play of, lxxxiii, lxxxviii, 336, 341, 342.

_Comodey of Umers, The_, 526, 528, 533.

_Complaynt of Scotland, The_, folk-tale in, 345.

_Comus, The_, of Milton, and _Old Wives' Tale_, 348, 364, 378.

_Conflict of Conscience, The_, by Nathaniel Woodes, xlix, li, lxxxvi,
426.

Congreve, William, the character of 'Prue' in his _Love for Love_, 536.

_Conny-Catching_, Greene's pamphlets on, 398, 418; _The Defence of_,
408.

_Conscious Lovers, The_, by Steele, 'Lucinda' in, 429.

_Conspiracy, The_, York and Wakefield, plays of, xxv, xxvi, xlvi.

_Contes_, the French, xvii, lxv.

_Conversion of St. Paul, The_, Digby play of, xxx, l, lxxxi.

Cooper, W. D., his _Extracts from the Corpus Christi Register_, 89; his
edition of _Roister Doister_, 104, 191, 194, and frequently in notes to
_R. D._

Copland, publisher of Robin Hood plays, xl.

_Cornish Plays, The_, xxiii, xxiv, xlvii.

Corpus Christi, Feast of, xiv, xx.

Cotgrave's _Dictionary_, 108, 194, _et passim_.

_Council of the Jews, The_, Coventry play of, l.

Council of Treves, The, xi.

Courthope, Mr. W. J., his _History of English Poetry_, xxxvii, lxiii,
lxiv.

Courtney, Bishop, _vs._ Feast of Fools, xxi.

_Coventry Gild Plays, The_, xxiii; and see under _N-town_.

Coventry, The Old Leet Book of, xlvi.

_Coventry Plays, The_, so-called, of Corpus Christi, xxiii, xxiv, xxix,
xlviii, lviii, lxxvii.

Crafts, in the religious drama, xviii, xxxi, etc.

Cranmer, Archbishop, on prayers for the dead, 193.

Creede, Thomas, publisher of some of Greene's plays, 403–405, 415, 420.

Creizenach, Professor Wilhelm, his _Geschichte d. neueren Dramas, Bae.
I, II_, mentioned, xvi, xviii, xix, xxi, xxxvi, xlv, lxx, lxxiv.

Crocus, his play of _Joseph_, lxx.

Croxton Play, The, of the _Sacrament_, xxxix.

_Crucifixion, The_, play of, xxii, xxvii.

Cushman, Professor L. W., his _Devil and Vice in English Dram. Lit._,
xlvii–xlix, liii.

Cycles, the English miracle, xviii, xxi, xxxi, etc.

_Cymbeline_, Shakespeare's, 645, 659, 660; the song, "Hark, hark, the
Lark" suggested by one of Lyly's, 322.

DAMON AND PITHIAS, by Richard Edwardes, lxxviii, lxxxiv, lxxxvii, xcii,
268, 269.

_Daniel, The History of_, by Hilarius, xv.

_Daryus, King_, xlix, lxxvi, lxxxvi.

_David and Bethsabe_ (_The Love of King David_, etc.), by Peele, 335,
336, 341.

Davidson, Professor Charles, his _English Mystery Plays_, xxxviii.

Day, John, his intimacy with Porter, 524.

_Débats_, Dramatic, lxv.

Dekker, Thomas, lxxiii; his _Satiro-Mastix_, 191; and Lyly, 274; "Three
merrie men" in _Westward Hoe_, 352; his _Knight's Conjuring_ and the
'Groatsworth' group of poets, 423; relations with Porter and Drayton,
522; with Chettle, 523; and the 'war of the theatres,' 657, 658.

_Descensus Astrææ_, by Peele, 416.

_Despencers, The_, by Porter and Chettle, 523

'Devil,' The, and the 'Vice,' xlvi–liv, lvi, lxxiii, 499.

_Devil is an Ass, The_, by Ben Jonson, xlviii, li, liii.

_Devil is in It, The_, (_If this be not a Good Play_, etc.), by Dekker,
xlviii.

_Dido, The_, by the Master of St. Paul's, lxxi.

_Digby Plays, The_, edited by Dr. Furnivall, xv; references to, xxix,
xxx, xxxi, xlvii, xlviii, l, lv.

Diogenes Laertius, his _Lives of the Philosophers_, 269, 280; and
elsewhere in notes to _Campaspe_.

Disguisings, xl.

_Disobedient Child, The_, by Thomas Ingeland, xlvii, li, liii, lv,
lxxxii, lxxv.

Disputations, lxv.

_Doctor Faustus_, by Marlowe, the relation of _Friar Bacon_ to it, 389,
413, 414.

Dodsley, Robert, his collection of _Old English Plays_, reëdited by W.
Carew Hazlitt, xx, 194, 430, _et passim_.

Don Quixote, an English:--'Ralph' of the _Burning Pestle_; foreshadowed
by 'Huanebango,' 343.

Douce, Francis, his _Illustrations of Shakespeare_, xxi, xlix, lii,
128; on Porter, 518, 534.

Dowden, Professor, A Monograph on William Shakespeare as a Comic
Dramatist, 635–661.

Downton [Dowton, Dunton, or Dutton], Thomas, an actor in the Admiral's
Company in Porter's time, 515, 516, 517, 524.

Drayton, Michael, relations with Porter, Dekker, etc., 522.

_Dream of Pilate's Wife_, the York play of _The_, xxv.

_Dublin, the History of the City of_, by Whitelaw and Walsh, xxxviii.

Du Méril, E., _Poés. Pop. lat. antiq._ 191.

Dunbar, William, his _Will of Maister Andrew Kennedy_, 192.

Durandus, _Rationale_, 192.

Dyce, Alexander, his edition of Skelton, 259; of Peele, 346, 348, and
see notes to Gummere's edition of _O. W. T._, _et passim_; of Greene,
402, 415, 420, 430, and notes to _Friar Bacon_; of Porter's _2 A. W.
A._, 515, 517, 518, 535, 544, and frequently in notes to the present
edition.

EBBSWORTH, _Roxburghe Ballads_, and "O man in desperation," 351.

Ebert, Professor Adolf, his article on _Die englischen Mysterien in
the Jahrbuch für romanische und englische Literatur_, xxxii; on the
"ambiguous letter," 150.

_Edward I_, by Peele, 335, 337, 383.

_Edward III_, anonymous, and Greene's _Orlando_ and _Never Too Late_,
410.

Edward VI, Injunctions under, on prayers for the dead, 193; Statute of
1547 on vagrancy, 193.

Edwardes, Richard, and _Godly Queen Hester_, lxxxiii; his _Damon and
Pithias_, lxxxiv; and Lyly, 271.

Elizabeth, and Edwardes' _Palamon and Arcite_, lxxxiv; prayers for
the dead, under, and her relation to the later edition of _Roister
Doister_, 193; and Lyly, 266, 269; and Greene, 408, 409, 416, 502.

Ellis, Mr. Havelock, his edition of Porter's _2 A. W. A._, 515, 519,
531, 535, 554, and frequently in the notes to the present edition.

Ellis, his _Original Letters of Eminent Literary Men_, 89, 91.

Elze, Dr. Karl, on a verse in _Friar Bacon_, 510.

_Encomium Lauri_, by Gabriel Harvey, a line in, ridiculed by Peele,
373.

_Endimion_, by Lyly (edited by Professor Baker), 265, 267, 269, 272,
291.

_Enfants de Maintenant, Les_, a French _moralité_, lxxxii.

_Enfants sans souci_, their _sotties_, lxvi.

_Englands Mourninge Gowne and Mourning Garment_, 412.

_England's Parnassus_, by Allott, 420.

Eton, Udall at, 90.

_Euphues_ and Euphuism, 265, 267, 297, 337, 646.

Eusebius, xxxviii.

_Everyman_, the _Moralle Play of_, l, liii, lv, lvi, lviii.

_Every Man in his Humour_, by Ben Jonson, its relation to Porter's
work, 524, 530, 533.

_Ezekias_, by Udall, 93.

FABLIAUX, xvii, lxv.

_Faire Em_ and Greene's _Friar Bacon_, 411, 412, 418, 427.

Fairholt, F. W., his edition of Lyly's dramatic works, 276; see also
notes to _Alexander and Campaspe_.

Farce, and farce interlude, xviii, xxxvii, lxiv, lxvii; French, lxv, 15.

_Farewell to Follie_, one of Greene's pamphlets, 398, 411, 412.

_Farewell to the Famous and Fortunate Generals_, poem by Peele, 403.

Ferbrand, William, publisher of Porter's _2 A. W. A._, 534.

Festival Plays, etc., xxxvii–xlvi.

_Fflagellacio, The_, Wakefield miracle of, xxvi–xxviii.

_Fidei Defensor_, use of the title, 184.

Fitzstephen, William, on saints' plays, xiv, xv.

Fleay, Mr. F. G., his _Chronicle History of the English Stage,
Biographical Chronicle of the English Drama_, and _Life of
Shakespeare_, lxxxii, lxxxiii, lxxxvi, lxxxviii, lxxxix, xci, 336, 339,
347, 360, 383, 399, 403, 404, 406, 410, 412, 415, 418, 421, 424, 426,
521, 523, 527, 528, and other references.

Fletcher, John, his _Bloody Brother_, 352; and Shakespeare, 660.

_Fleury Plays_, the, of St. Nicholas, xvi.

Floegel, _Geschichte d. grotesk-komischen, neuarbeitet von Ebeling_,
xlv.

Flügel, Professor Ewald, _Critical Essay on Udall_, 89–104; edition of
_Roister Doister_, 105–189; appendix to _R. D._, 189–194; also lxxviii;
his _Lesebuch_, 69, 91, 194.

Folk-lore, the background of, in _O. W. T._, 345–346.

_Folk Lore Journal_, specimens from, xliii.

Fool, literature of the, lii; relation to the Vice, xlvii–liv, lxxxii;
in _Roister Doister_, 100, 101; in Greene, 393, 430; in Shakespeare,
644–646, etc.

Fools, The Feast of, xx, lxvi.

_Four Elements, The_, interlude by John Rastell, lxi, lxxi–lxxiv;
referred to, 109.

_Four Kynges_, 523.

_Foure P.P._, the play called _The_, by John Heywood, 9, 10.

Foster's _Alumni Oxonienses_, 518.

Frazer, J. G., _The Golden Bough_, on the "death-index," cf. _O. W.
T._, 345.

_Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (The Famous Historie of Frier Bacon)_ by
R. Greene, edition of, with essay and notes, by C. M. Gayley, 433–503;
appendix on the versification of, 503; mention of, xlviii, li, liv,
338, 389, 410, 413, 426.

"Friar Rush," 231.

_Fulk Fitz Warine, The Story of_, 127.

Fuller's _Worthies_, cited, 65.

Furnivall, Dr., his edition of the _Digby Plays_, xxiii, xxx, xlvii,
lv; his _Polit. Rel. and Love Songs_, 191.

_Furnivall Miscellany, The_, xix.

GALLATHEA, by John Lyly, 268.

_Gammer Gurton's Nedle_, by William Stevenson, edition of, with essay
on the authorship, date and qualities of the play, by Mr. Henry
Bradley, 195–259; other mention of, lxxiii, lxxviii, lxx–lxxii, xcii,
99, 121, 338, 342, 533.

Gayley, Professor C. M., Preface to this volume, iii; An _Historical
View of the Beginnings of English Comedy_, xiii–xcii; regarding
_Roister Doister_, 97, 104; regarding _Gammer Gurton_, 198; on the
title of _Old Wives' Tale_, 347; _Critical Essay on Greene's Life and
the Order of his Works_, 397–431; edition of _Frier Bacon_, 433–502;
appendix on Greene's versification, 503–511: _Critical Essay on Henry
Porter's Life and his Place in English Drama_, 513–536; edition of _Two
Angry Women_, 537–633.

Gascoigne, George, his _Supposes_, lxxviii, lxxxiv, 517; his _Glasse of
Government_, lxxiv.

_Gentylnes and Nobylyte_, the dialogue of, 8.

Geoffrey, Abbot of St. Alban's, and the _Ludus de S. Katharina_, xiv,
xvi.

_George-a-Greene, the Pinner of Wakefield_, 338, 392, 401, 533; date
and authorship, 418–420.

_Germanic Philology, Journal of_, 336.

_Giant and the King's Daughter_, the tale of the, in _O. W. T._ 354.

Gillette's _Because She Loved Him So_, mentioned, 529.

Giraldus Cambrensis, referred to, 426.

_Glasse of Government, The_, by Gascoigne, lxxiv.

Gnapheus (W. Fullonius), his _Acolastus_, lxx, lxxi, lxxxi.

_Godly Queene Hester_, a moral play, xxxiv, lxxvi, lxxviii, lxxxiii.

Godwin's _Lives of the Necromancers_, 281.

_Golden Legend, The, of the Lives of the Saints_, translated by Caxton,
a source for plays, xv, xxxi, xxxvii, xliv.

Gosche's _Jahrbuch_, names of the Devil, 190.

Gosson, his _Ephemerides of Phialo_, 249; on dramatic attractions, 341.

Gower, John, and 'Titivillus,' 190, and _physique_, 398.

Graf, Herman, _Der Miles Gloriosus im englischen Drama_, 190.

Greban, A., his play of the _Passion_, xxxvi.

Greene, Robert, Monograph on his place in English Comedy, by Professor
Woodberry, 387–394; Critical Essay on his life and the order of
his plays, with edition of his _Frier Bacon_, and appendix on his
versification, by Professor Gayley, 395–511; life, 397; authorities
on, 397; misapprehensions concerning his career, 398; development as
dramatist and order of plays, 402; plays conjecturally assigned to
him, 418; 'Young juvenall' and the comedie 'lastly writ,' 422; _Frier
Bacon_, composition, 411; stage history and materials, 425; dramatic
construction, 427; previous editions and the present text, 430; Other
mention, lxxxii, lxxxv, lxxxvii, xc; and Lyly, 266; and Peele, 338–339;
and Porter, 517; and Shakespeare, 645, 647; his _Menaphon_, 337;
dates of his _Perimedes_, _Pandosto_, _Menaphon_, _Ciceronis Amor_,
_Philomela_, 398; _Arbasto_, _Morando_, _Planetomachia_, printed, 400.

_Greene's Vision_, 400.

Gregory IX, against clerical participation in miracle plays, xix.

_Grim, the Collier of Croydon_, xlviii.

Grimm, J., _Mythologie_, cited, 373.

Grindal, Archbishop, 192, 400.

Gringoire, his _l'Homme Obstiné_, xlix.

_Griselda_, play of, mentioned, lxxi.

'Groatsworth' group of poets, the, 422–423.

_Groatsworth of Wit, A_, by Greene, 397, 398, 400, 402.

Grosart, Dr. A. B., his edition of Nashe's works, 337, 351; of
Harvey's, 359; of Greene's works, 387, 397, 403, 410, 415, 416, 430;
article in _Englische Studien_, 418; his edition of _Selimus_, 420; on
the authorship of _A Knack_, 424.

Guevara, Antonia de, his _Dial of Princes_, used by Lyly, 267, 337.

Gummere, Professor F. B., edition of Peele's _Old Wives' Tale_ with
_Critical Essay_ on the author and the play, notes and appendix,
333–384.

_Guy of Warwick_, cited, 115.

HACKETT, Thomas, licensed to print _Roister Doister_, 97.

Hales, Professor J. W., on the date of _Roister Doister, Englische
Studien_, 95.

Halle, Adam de la, his opera of _Robin et Marion_, xli.

Halliwell (and Wright), collection of _Reliquiæ Antiquæ_, 191.

Halliwell-Phillipps, Mr. J. O., xli–xliii, xlv, liii, 171, 194, 528.

_Hamlet_, the early play attributed to Thomas Kyd, 427; Shakespeare's,
534, 658.

Harrison's _Description of England_, 117, 167.

Hartmann's _Iwein_, a similarity in, to _O. W. T._, 373.

Harvester's song, the, in _O. W. T._, proposed restoration of, 383.

Harvey, Gabriel, and Lyly, 266, 348; and Peele, 337, 340, 343; and
Nashe, in the _Trimming of Thomas Nashe_, 359; and 'Huanebango,' 343,
345, 358–359, 373, 383; and Greene, 398, 402, 423.

Haslewood, Joseph, his _Ancient Critical Essays upon English Poets and
Poesy_, 337.

Hathaway, R., and Porter, 517.

Haughton, W., and Porter, 524.

Hawkins, Thomas, his _Origin of the English Drama_, lxxvi, 24.

Hazlitt, W. C., his edition of Dodsley's _Old Plays_, 104, 194, 204,
535, _et passim_.

Heber, Richard (_Bibliotheca Heberiana_ in British Museum), on Porter,
517.

_Henno_, a play by Reuchlin, lxix.

_Henry IV., Parts I and II_, Shakespeare's, lxxxix, 534, 646.

_Henry V._, Shakespeare's, 653.

_Henry VI., Parts I and II_, 418, 427.

_Henry VIII._, Shakespeare's, 660.

Henry VIII., the usury statutes under, 95–97; his song of "Pastime,"
132.

Henslowe, Philip, his _Diary_, and Greene, 405, 408, 411, 415, 418; and
Porter, 515, 517, 518, 520, 522, 526–528.

Herford, Professor C. H., his _Literary Relations of England and
Germany,_ lxx, lxxiv, lxxvi, lxxxii, lxxxv, 90.

_Herod_, the Wakefield play of, xxvii.

Heywood, John, Critical Essay on his life and place in English comedy,
with editions of his _Play of the Wether_, and his _Johan_, by Mr. A.
W. Pollard, 19–85; life, 3; Heywood and Sir Thomas More, 5; dramatic
development and literary estimate, 6–12; his _Foure PP., Wether,
Wit and Folly, Love_, 6–11; _Pardoner_ and _Johan_, 6, assigned to
him, 11; _Wether_, early editions and the present text, 16; his two
achievements, 16; _Johan_, previous editions and the present text, 61;
Other mention of H., xvii, xlix, lvi, lix, lxi, lxvl–xviii, lxxviii,
lxxxii, 89, 95, 96; his _Proverbes_, 110, 191, 194, 275.

Heywood, Thomas, and Henry Porter, 517, 521, 524, 526.

Hilarius, his plays, xiv–xvi.

Hippe, Max, on the "Thankful Dead" theme, in Herrig's _Archiv_, 345.

_Historia Histrionica_, lxxxi.

_Histrio-Mastix_ (attributed to Marston), xlviii.

Hohlfeld, Professor, _Die altenglischen Kollectivmisterien_, in
_Anglia_, Bd. XIX, xxv.

Hoker's _Piscator_, lxxi.

Holinshed, R., _Chronicles_, on the dearth of corn in 1523, 40, 117.

Holland's _Translation of Pliny_, 279 _et seq._

_Homme Obstiné, l'_, xlix.

_Homme Pécheur, l'_, xlix, lxxii.

Hone, William, his _Ancient Mysteries_, xxi, xxxviii.

_Horestes_, by John Pikerynge, xlix, lii, lxxxvii, 204.

Host, the miracle of the, xxxix.

_Hot Anger Soon Cold_, by Porter (with Chettle and Ben Jonson), 522,
523.

Hox Tuesday play, the, mentioned, xxxvii, xli.

Hrosvitha, mentioned, xvii.

'Huanebango' in _O. W. T._, and Gabriel Harvey, 343, 345, 359, 383.

Humanists, their drama, etc., lxxiii, lxxvi, lxxxii, 98.

Humours, the comedy of, anticipations of, lii, liv, lxiii, lxxxvi, 532,
_et passim_.

Hunt, Joseph, published Porter's _2 A. W. A._, 534.

Hunter, Joseph, his _Chorus Vatum Anglicanorum_ (in the British
Museum), 518.

_Hunting of Cupid, The_, by Peele, 415.

_Hyckescorner_, a moral interlude, lx, lxxi, lxxiv; referred to, 133.

IDEAL, the, in comedy, xv, xxi, xxx, xxxi, xxxviii, lviii, lxi, lxii,
lxix, lxxviii, lxxxii, lxxxv, lxxxvii, xcii; in Udall's, 99; in
Greene's, 390, 392, 394, 419, 428, 429; in Shakespeare's, 637–643, 647,
648, 651, 654–661.

Induction, the use of, in _Old Wives' Tale_, 343; in plays by Greene,
Shakespeare, Nashe, Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher; Schwab's thesis on,
343–344.

Ingeland, Thomas, his interlude of _The Disobedient Child_, lxxv.

Innocent III, against acting, xix.

Interludes: _Interludium de Clerico et Puella_, xvii, xxxvii, lxvi;
interludes in churches, xx; moral, xl; relation of miracle, moral, and
interlude, lv; various kinds of interlude, lvi; causes of improvement
in, lvii; farce and romantic interlude, lxiv; school and controversial,
lxxii; Italian models, lxxxviii; See also under _John Heywood_.

Intrigue and passion, plot of, xcii.

_Iphigenia_, a children's play, 268.

JACKE JUGELER, play of, xlix, li, lxxii, lxxviii, lxxix, 103, 107.

_Jack the Giant-Killer_, the story of, in connection with _Old Wives'
Tale_, 345.

_Jack Wilton_, by Nashe, 266.

_Jacob and Esau, The Historie of_, a play, lxxiv, lxxvii, lxxx, lxxxii.

Jacobs, J., _English Fairy Tales_, 345, 359, 362.

_James IV, The Scottish Historie of_, by Greene, lxxxiii, 389, 392,
404, 415, 418, 420, 427.

Jeffes, Anthony, and Humphrey, actors in the Admiral's company in
Porter's time, 524.

Jew, the, in early comedy, xc (_Jew of Malta_, etc.).

_Jobe, A History of_, attributed to Greene, 418.

_Johan Johan, Tyb, etc., A mery play betwene_, assigned to John
Heywood, an edition with critical essay and notes, by Mr. A. W.
Pollard, 1–19, 59–87; Other mention, xvii, lxix, lxxxi, 533.

_Johan, Kyng_, by Bishop Bale, xlix, lxxii, lxxv–lxxvii.

_John, King of England, The Troublesome Raigne of_, attributed to
Greene, 418.

Jonson, Ben, liii, lxxiii, lxxv, lxxxviii; his _New Inn_ referred to,
109; and Lyly, 274, 275; his use of the induction, 343; and Henry
Porter, 515, 522, 533; on the purpose of comedy, 637, 645; in _Troilus
and Cressida_, 638, 657, 658.

Joseph and Mary Plays, the, of York, Wakefield, and Coventry,
chivalrous and romantic quality of, xxix.

Juby, Ed., the actor, and Greene, 401.

_Judicium_, the Wakefield play of _The_, xxvii, xxix, xlvi, xlviii,
lxxxi.

_Judith_, by Macropedius, lxx.

Jusserand, M. J. J., on Heywood's interludes, lxvi.

KILLING OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, the Digby play of the, xxiii, xxx.

_Kind Hart's Dreams_, by Chettle, 419, 422.

Kirchmayer (Naogeorgos), his _Pammachius_, lxv, lxx.

Kirkman, Francis, his catalogue of plays; Peele, 336; Greene, 419;
Porter, 518.

Kittredge, Professor G. L., on _Sir Clyomon_, 336; on a phrase in
_Alexander and Campaspe_, 303.

Klein, Professor G. L., his _Geschichte d. englischen Dramas_, xviii,
xxi, xxxvi, lii, lxviii, lxx.

_Knack to Know a Knave, A_, 'the comedie last writ' (?), compared with
_Friar Bacon_, and with the _Looking-Glasse_, 418, 424, 425 and note,
427, 429, 457, 499; mentioned, xlviii, xc.

_Knight of the Burning Pestle, The_, by Beaumont and Fletcher, 342, 343.

Koch, _Englische Studien_, note in, 190.

Kyd, Thomas, lxxxviii; and Lyly, 273; and Greene, 410.

LACUNA, the metrical use of in dramatic blank verse, 510.

Lämmerhirt, G. P., _Untersuchungen, u. s. w._, concerning Peele, 341,
348.

Langbaine, G., his _Account of the English Dramatick Poets_, 518.

Langland, xix; his _Piers Plowman_, xl, 108, 109, 191, etc.

Latimer, Bishop, his _Sermons_ (on exorcising the devil), 192, 193.

Latin,--tropes, xiii; saints' plays, xiv–xvi; cultivation of Plautus
and Terence in the Middle Ages and their impress on elegiac comedy,
xvii; history of the later comedy, lxv, lxvii.

Leach, A. F., _Some English Plays and Players_ (in the _Furnivall
Miscellany_), xix.

_Lear, King_, Shakespeare's, 418, 639, 660.

Lee, Mr. Sidney, his _Life of Shakespeare_, 406, 408.

Leicester, the Earl of, his relation to _Endimion_, 267; to _Alexander
and Campaspe_, 269; his players, 399.

_Legenda Aurea_, by Jacobus Voragine, xliv; see also under _Caxton_.

Legends, xviii, lxxxviii.

Leland, John, his relations with Udall, 89–92; his _Collectanea_, 89,
etc.

Leo X, and Heywood, 11.

Life-Index, the, instance of in _O. W. T._, 365.

_Like wil to Like, quod the Devel to the Colier_, by Ulpian Fulwel,
xlvii, xlviii, li, lii, lxxxiv, lxxxvi, 108, 110, 342, 499.

_Lillie's Light_, 266.

Liturgical drama, the, xiii, xx.

Locher's translation of the _Narrenschiff_, lx.

Lock, Henry, his _Ecclesiastes_, 266.

Lodge, Thomas, and Lyly, 266; and Peele, 337; and Greene; the
_Looking-Glasse_, and their respective contributions to it, 405–407;
Lodge's _Civil Wars_, 405, 407, 409, 415, 418, 420–422; and Porter,
517; and Shakespeare, 645.

_Longer thou Livest, etc._, by W. Wager, lxxxvi.

_Look About You_, published by Ferbrand, 534.

_Looking-Glasse for London and England, A_, by Greene and Lodge, 338,
352, 404; the parts written by Lodge, 405; characteristics of his
verse, 407, 414, 415, 422, 425.

Lorenz, A.O.F., on the _Miles Gloriosus and his Parasite_, 190.

_Loseley Mss., The_, edited by A. J. Kempe, 90, 93, 94.

_Love, The Play of_, by John Heywood, xlix, liii, lxvii, lxix, 8–12.

_Love's Labour's Lost_, Shakespeare's, xli, 275, 427, 644, 648, 649,
650, 654.

_Love's Metamorphosis_, by Lyly, 266, 268.

_Love Prevented_, by Porter, 521, 527.

Löwen, his _Prinz Pickelhering_, xlv.

_Ludi Sanctiores_, mentioned by Fitzstephen, xv.

_Ludi Beatæ Christinæ_, xxxviii.

_Ludus Coventriæ (seu Ludus Corporis Christi)_, the N-Town plays,
commonly assigned to Coventry, which see.

_Ludus de S. Katharina_, by Geoffrey, xiv, xvi.

_Ludus ludentem Luderum ludens_, lxxi.

_Ludus super Iconia S. Nicolai_, by Hilarius, xiv, xvi.

_Lusty Juventus_, by R. Wever, xlvii, li, lxxii, lxxvi.

Lydgate, John, lii.

Lyly, John, Critical Essay on his life and place in English comedy,
by Professor Baker, 263–276; life of Lyly, 265; place of _Euphues_ in
English literature, 266; Lyly's plays, subdivision of them, 267; date
and sources of _Alexander and Campaspe_, 268; literary estimate of _A.
and C._, 269; Lyly's development as a dramatist, 272; place in English
Comedy, 273; previous editions of _A. and C._, and the present text,
275; Professor Baker's edition of _A. and C._, 277–333; Other mention,
lxxxvii, xc, 348, 517, 646.

Lyndsay, Sir David, his _Thrie Estatis_, lxxv.

Lyric, the, in the plays of Lyly, 274; of Greene, 391.

MACBETH, Shakespeare's, 658.

Machiavelli, N., his _Discourses_, 200.

Macropedius, his _Asotus_ and other plays, lxx; his _Rebelles_, lxxiv.

_Mactacio Abel_, the Wakefield play of, xxviii.

_Magdalene, The Life of the_, in Caxton's _Golden Legend_, xxx.

_Magnyfycence_, a moral play by Skelton, lviii, 168.

_Maid's Metamorphosis, The_, not by Lyly, 266.

Malone, Edmund, li, 430, 516, 518, 534.

_Mamillia_, by Greene, 397.

_Mankynd_, a moral play, xlvii, l, li, lvi, lviii, lix, lx, lxxi,
lxxiv, lxxvi, lxxvii.

Manly, Professor J. M., his _Specimens of the Pre-Shakespearean Drama_,
xiii, xliii, 104, 204, 239, 276, 283; and in notes to _Roister_,
_Gammer Gurton_, and _Campaspe_.

Manners, of contemporary life as an element in drama, xvi, xvii, xx,
xxi, xxviii, xxix, xxxv, xxxvi, xxxix, xli, xlvi, xlix–liv, lviii–lxii,
lxiii, lxv, lxvii–lxix, lxxii, lxxviii _et seq._, xci; in Heywood,
4, 11; in Udall, 99, 103; in Stevenson, 202–204; in Lyly, 271, 275;
in Peele, 341–344, 347; in Greene, 391–394, 428–430; in Porter, 528,
530–533; in Shakespeare, 639, 641–644, 648–661, _passim_.

_Manuale ... ad usum insignis Ecclesiæ Eboracensis_, 192.

_Marie Magdalene, The Life and Repentaunce of_, by Lewis Wager, xxxi,
lxxxvi. Edited by Professor F. I. Carpenter (Univ. Chicago Press).

Marlowe, Christopher, lviii, xc; and Peele, 337, 339; and Greene, 388,
389, 403–405, 414, 423; and Porter, 523; and Shakespeare, 652.

Marprelate Controversy, the, Lyly's part in, 265.

_Marriage of Witte and Science, The_, see under _Wit Plays_.

Marston, John, and Henry Porter, 520.

_Martin Marprelate_, the _Epistle_ and _Epitome_ assign _G. G. N._ to
Bridges, 200.

_Martine Marsixtus_, by R. W., and Greene, 401, 404.

_Martin's Month's Minde_ (Nashe ?), cited, 353.

Marvels, or miracles of the saints, xiv, xv, xvi, xviii, xx, xxx,
xxxvii–xlvi, lxii, lxix, lxxxvi.

_Mary Magdalene_, the Digby play of, and the importance of the
character in romantic comedy, xxx, xxxi, xxxvii, xlviii, l, li, lviii.

Mary, the Virgin, her importance as a romantic character, xxix, xxx.

Maskell, _Monumenta Ritualia_, 144, 192.

Masques, xl, lxxxix; by Udall, 93, 94; by Lyly, 267, 272; by
Shakespeare, 650, 651, 660, 661.

_Measure for Measure_, Shakespeare's, 657.

Medwall, H., his _Goodly Interlude of Nature_, lx.

_Menaphon_, by Greene; his letter prefixed; and Nashe's _Preface_, 337,
389, 411, 412, 423, 424.

_Merchant of Venice, The_, Shakespeare's, xc, 305, 534, 583, 651, 652.

Meredith, Mr. George, on woman in comedy, lxi; on the comic spirit, 637.

Meres, Francis, his _Palladis Tamia_, on Peele, 337; on Greene and
Nashe, 422; on Porter, 517, 528.

Merlin, similarities to the character of, in _Old Wives' Tale_, 345,
356.

_Merrie conceited Jests of George Peele_, 337.

_Merry Wives of Windsor, The_, Shakespeare's, 533, 645, 652, 654.

Meyer, E., _Geschichte d. hamburgischen Schul-und-Unterrichtswesens im
Mittelalter_, xxi.

Middleton, Thomas, his _Game of Chess_, 275; his _Trick to Catch the
Old One_, cited, 359.

_Midsummer Night's Dream, A_, Shakespeare's, 275, 389, 415, 427, 533,
534, 648, 651.

'Miles Gloriosus,' the, of Plautus, in English literature, lxxiv, 98,
189, 190.

Milton, John, his _Comus_ compared with the _Old Wives' Tale_, 347.

Miracle plays, Biblical and legendary, xiv–xvi, xviii–xx; the cycles
in their relation to English comedy, xxi–xxxi; historical order of
comic passages in the cycles, sequence of æsthetic values, xxiv _et
seq._; dramatic value of, xxxi–xxxvii; relation to the stage, and the
theory of the English miracles, xxxii, xxxiv; national note in, xxxvi;
how they fall short of artistic comedy, xxxvii; nature of legendary,
xxxviii; relation to moral and interlude, lv.

Mirth plays, lxxi, lxxii.

_Misogonus_, by Thomas Richardes(?), lxxviii, lxxxi–lxxxiii, 191.

_Missa Gulæ_, in Halliwell and Wright's _Reliquiæ Antiquiæ_, 191.

_Mock Requiem_, the, in _Roister Doister_, sources, etc., 191–192.

_Monachopornomachia_, lxxi.

Mone, F. J., _Shauspiele des Mittelalters_, 190.

Monox, Will, and Greene, 423.

Montemayor, Jorge de, his pastoral of _Diana Enamorada_ and _Two
Gentlemen of Verona_, 650.

Moral, the, or moral play, not properly called morality, lv, note 61;
collective, of the fourteenth century, xxxiv; nature of the moral,
xlix; the vice in, xlvi, xlviii–liv; relation of moral, miracle, and
interlude, liv–lvii; the older morals in their relation to comedy,
lvii–lxii; their dramatic contribution, lxii–lxiv; school interlude
and controversial moral, lxix–lxxvii; French moralities, lxxii; fusion
plays, lxxvii, lxxviii; moral interlude, lxxx; survival of rudimentary,
decadent, functionless, lxxxv, lxxxvi; variations of, and moral
tragedies, lxxxvi; pleasant and stately, lxxxviii; other mention, 4, 5,
99, 103, 267, 407.

_Morando,_ Greene's, 397.

More, Sir Thomas, lxi, lxxvii; and Heywood, 5, 89.

Morley, Professor Henry, his _English Writers_, lii.

Morris-dance, xl.

_Mortificacio, The_, York play of, xxv.

Morton, Cardinal, 5.

_Mother Bombie_, by Lyly, 266, 268, 272, 273, 338.

_Mourning Garment, The_, by Greene, 398, 406, 412, 416.

Movement, the, in comedy, compared with that of tragedy, lxiii.

_Mucedorus_, by Lodge (?), 420, 499.

_Much Ado about Nothing_, Shakespeare's, 646, 654.

Mummings, xl.

Munday, Anthony, his _Two Italian Gentlemen_, lxxxviii; and Lyly, 266;
and Porter, 518, 524.

_Mundus et Infans_, lviii.

_Mydas_, by Lyly, 265, 267, 268, 272.

_Myroure of oure Ladye_, definition of 'Tytyvyllus,' 190.

Mysteries, Dodsley's imported name for miracles, xxii; _Corpus_ of
French, xxxiv.

Myth, classical, as material for plays, lxxxiv, lxxxvii, lxxxviii,
lxxxix, xcvi, 268, 657, 658, 660.

NAOGEORGOS (Kirchmayer), his _Pammachius_, lxx.

_Narcissus_, a play, 268.

_Narrenschiff_, Locher's translation, lx.

Nash's History of Worcestershire, 65.

Nashe, Thomas, on Gascoigne, lxxxv; his _Jack Wilton_, 266; his _Four
Letters Confuted_, 351; on Peele in his letter prefixed to Greene's
_Menaphon_, 337; on Kyd, 410; on Greene in _Have with You to Saffron
Walden_, 337, 419; on the Harveys in _Strange Newes_, 423; also, 373;
that he was "young Juvenal," 422; his relations with Greene proved by
reference to Meres, Chettle, Dekker, his own _Strange Newes, Anatomie
of Absurditie, Astrological Prognostication, Summer's Last Will_,
217, 422–424; his _Christe's Teares_, 424; his relations with the
'Groatsworth' group of poets, 403, 424; with Porter (?), 515, 517.

Nativity, plays of the, xxii, xxxiv.

_Nature, The Goodly Interlude of_, by Medwall, xlviii, l, lvi, lix–lx,
lxxi, lxxvi.

_Never too Late_, by Greene, 397, 398, 410.

_New English Dictionary, The_, by Dr. Murray, Mr. Bradley _et al._,
frequent references in notes to plays here presented.

_Newcastle Plays_, the sensational in _The_, xxiii, xxix.

_Newe Custome_, a controversial moral, lxxxvi.

_Nice Wanton_, the interlude of, lxxii, lxxiv.

Nicholas, his _Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council_, 91.

Nichols, John, _The Progresses and Public Processions of Queen
Elizabeth_, 93.

Nicholson, Dr. Brinsley, on _Old Wives' Tale_, 360, 370.

Nietzsche, F., his _Geburt d. Tragödie_, and _Fröhliche Wissenschaft_,
338.

_Nigromansir, The_, by Skelton, xlvii, xlix, li, lviii, lix.

_Noah_, the York Play of, xxv, lxxxi; the Wakefield play of, xxvii,
xxviii.

North, Sir Thomas, his translation of Plutarch's _Lives_, 285, 290,
291, 292 _et seq._

_Notes and Queries_, xliii.

_Novelle_, adaptation of them to drama, ix, lvii.

_N-town, The_, or so-called Coventry or Hegge Plays, xxiii, xxiv, xxix,
xxxiv, xxxvii, xlviii, l, lviii.

OFFICIUM LUSORUM, 191.

_Old Wives' Tale, The_, by George Peele, edited with critical essay
and notes by Professor Gummere, 333–382; also Appendix on Sources of
Characters, and the Harvesters' Song, by the same, 382–384; Other
mention, 409, 427.

_Orlando Furioso_, The, by Ariosto, 346; used by Peele in _O. W. T._,
383; by Greene, 409.

_Orlando Furioso, The Historie of_, by Greene, 342, 383, 389, 408–411,
414, 415, 417, 418.

Osborn, in _Teufelslitteratur_, names of the Devil, 190.

Ovid, Lyly's indebtedness to, 272, 281, 298, etc.

'Owleglasse,' mentioned in _Two Angry Women_, 613.

PALAMON AND ARCITE, by Richard Edwardes, lxxxiv.

_Palladis Tamia_, 528, and see under _Meres_.

Palsgrave, John, his edition of the _Acolastus_, lxx, lxxii, lxxxii;
_Lesclarcissement de la Langue Francoyse_, 109, 194, and frequently in
notes to _Roister_.

_Pammachius_, by Naogeorgos, translated by Bale, lxx, lxxv.

_Pamphilus_, the comedy of, xvii.

'Pancaste,' the real name of 'Campaspe,' 329.

Parasite, the domestic, xvii, lxxxii; in ancient and modern comedy,
100, 101.

_Pardoner, The, and the Frere_, interlude assigned to Heywood, lxvii,
lxix, lxxxi, 10, 15.

_Pardonneur_, etc., _Farce nouvelle d'un_, 15.

Paris, Matthew of, his _Lives of the Abbots of St. Albans_, xiv.

Parker, Archbishop, on Still, 201.

_Parker Society Publications_, on exorcism, 193.

Parodies, religious, xiv–xx; of church services, 191, 192.

Parsones, Thomas, and Porter, 516.

_Passion_, mystery play by A. Greban, xxxvi.

Pastoral scenes and masques, 272, 391.

_Paternoster Play, The_, xxxiv, l.

'Pathelin,' lxvi.

_Patient Grissel_, 191.

_Paul, St., The Conversion of_, in the Digby collection, xxx, xxxvii.

Peele, George, and Lyly, lxxxvii, xc, 275; Critical Essay on, with
edition of his _Old Wives' Tale_, by Professor Gummere, 333–384;
Peele's life, 335; plays assigned to him, 335; his place in the
development of English drama, 336; the _O. W. T._ an innovation, 341;
the background of folk lore in _O. W. T._, 345; literary estimate of,
346; sources, title, text of, 347, 382; the Harvesters' song in, 383;
his _Hunting of Cupid_, 423.

Peile, Dr., and _Gammer Gurtons Nedle_, 198.

Pembroke, the Earl of, his players, and Porter, 520.

Penner, E., his _Metrische Untersuchungen zu Peele_, 348.

Percy, Dr., on _Hyckescorner_, lx.

_Pericles_, probably Shakespeare's, 191, 659, 660.

_Pernet qui va au vin, tresbonne et fort ioyeuse, Farse nouuelle de_,
lxv, lxvi, 12, 15.

_Perymedes_, by Greene, 403, 406, 409.

Petit de Julleville, _La Comédie en France au moven âge_, xxi, lxvi.

Petrarch, his _Philologia_, lxvii.

Pettie, George, his _Petite Pallace of Pettie His Pleasure_, 267.

Philip II, and _Mydas_, 268.

Phillips, Edward, his _Theatrum Poetarum_ on _Faire Emm_, 418.

_Philogenia_, an Italian play, lxix.

Piccolomini, his _Crisis_, lxvii.

'Pickelhering,' xlv.

_Piers Plowman_, xl, 108, 109, 191, etc.

Pikerynge, John, his _Interlude of Vice concerning Horestes_, lxxv,
lxxxiii, lxxxvii.

Pilkington, _Exposition upon Aggeus_, 191.

_Pinner of Wakefield, The_, see _George-a-Greene_.

_Planetomachia_, by Greene, 397, 398.

Plautus, xvi, lxv, lxvii, lxviii, lxxii, lxxix, lxxxii, lxxxvi; Udall
and, 99; Lyly and, 268; Shakespeare and, 650; also frequent references
in notes to _Roister Doister_.

_Play of Love, The_, see _John Heywood_.

_Play of the Sacrament, The_, xxxix.

_Play of the Wether_, see _John Heywood_.

Play within the play, the, in Peele, etc., 343; in Greene, 426.

Players, see under _Acting_.

Pliny, Lyly's indebtedness to, 267, 269; his _History of World_, 279;
also frequently in notes to _Campaspe_.

Plutarch on _Education_, and on _Exile_ used by Lyly, 267; also his
_Life of Alexander_, 269, 283; and elsewhere in the notes to Lyly's
_Alexander and Campaspe_.

_Poliscene_, an Italian play, lxix.

Politics, in Lyly's allegories, 275.

Pollard, Mr. A. W., his edition of the _Towneley Plays_, xxiii, xxvi;
on the Towneley (Wakefield) master, xxviii; his _English Miracle
Plays_, xlix, li, lxvi; _A Critical Essay on John Heywood_, with
editions of his _Play of the Wether_ and _Johan_, 1–86.

_Polyhymnia_, by Peele, 336.

Polytypic plays, lvii, lxxii, lxxvii–lxxxv.

Popular festival plays, xxxix–xlvi.

Porter, Henry, the dramatist, lxxxviii; Critical Essay on his life and
dramatic work, with an edition of his _Two Angry Women_, by Professor
Gayley, 513–633; facts of Porter's life, 515; early notices, 517;
conjectural identity, 518; dramatic career, 520; his associates,
522–524; date of his extant play, 525; its dramatic qualities and
construction, 528; portrayal of character, 530; place in the history of
comedy, 533; previous editions and the present text, 535.

Porter, Henry, the musical composer, 518.

Porter, Walter, 518.

Prayer, the, at the end of early plays, 184; and see close of other
comedies in this volume.

Preston, Thomas, his _Cambises, King of Percia_, lxxxvi.

_Pride of Life, The_, a moral, liii, lvi, lviii.

'Priest of the Sun, The,' in Greene and Lodge's _Looking-Glasse_, 406.

_Processus Crucis_, story about a, by Bebel, xxxvi.

Prodigal Son Plays, lxxii–lxxiv, lxxx, lxxxii, lxxxiii.

Prose, in Medwall's _Nature_, lx; in the _Supposes_, lxxxv; in plays of
Lyly, 271, 274; of Greene, 417.

_Prouerbes in the Englishe Tonge, Dialogue Conteyneng the Number of the
Effectuall_, 3.

Publishers: of Heywood's plays, 5, 8, 10, 13, 16, 17, 63; of _Roister
Doister_, 97, 104; of _Gammer Gurton_, 197; of Lyly's plays, 276; of
Peele's _Old Wives' Tale_, 348; of Greene's plays, 403, 404, 405, 408,
411, 415, 418, 420, 430; of Porter's _2 A. W. A._, 534, 535.

Puttenham, George, his _Arte of English Poesie_, lxxxiii.

'Pyrgopolinices' in Plautus, 102.

QUADRIO, F. S., _Della Storia e della Ragione d'ogni Poesia_, xviii,
lxvii.

Queen's players (Elizabeth's, 1583–1592), Greene's relations with the,
408, 409, 411, 413, 417, 418.

_Querolus_, a Latin play, xvii.

_Quintus Fabius_, a play, 268.

_Quip for an Upstart Courtier, A_, by Greene, 371, 398, 423.

RADCLIFFE, Ralph, his _Griselde_ and other plays, lxxi.

_Ram Alley_, by Barry, 352.

Rankins, William, a writer for Henslowe in Porter's time; author of
_Mulmutius Dunwallow_; joint author of plays with Hathaway, 524.

_Rare Triumphs of Love and Fortune, The_, an early romantic comedy,
lxxxviii; the induction in, 343; 'Lentulo' in, 430.

Rastell, John, reputed author of _A New Interlude and Mery of the
Nature of the Four Elements_, lxi, lxxi; publisher and perhaps author
of _Calisto and Melibœa_, lxviii; relations with John Heywood, 5, 8.

Rastell, William, printer of four of Heywood's plays, 5, 6, 8, 10, 86.

Ray, J., _English Proverbs_, 108, etc., 194, 569, 595.

R. B. (Richard Bower?), Mr. Fleay's conjecture concerning, 336.

Realism in comedy: in Bodel's _St. Nicholas_, xvi; in late Latin
comedies, xviii; in religious parodies, xx; in the miracle cycles,
xxiv–xxx, xxxv–xxxvi; in the later 'marvels,' xxxix; in popular
festival plays, xli–xlvi; of the miracle Devil, xlvi _et seq._; of the
Vice, xlix _et seq._; in the older moral plays, lviii–lxii, lxiii;
in the French and English farce, etc., lxiv–lxvi; in school plays,
continental and English, lxix–lxxvii; in fusion plays, lxxvii _et
seq._; in survivals of the moral, lxxxvi; in the _Rare Triumphs_ and in
Wilson's 'Stately Morals,' lxxxviii–xc; comedy realistic or satirical,
xci; In Heywood, 4 _et seq._; in Udall, 99, 103; in Stevenson, 202–204;
in Lyly, 275; in Peele, 342–344; in Greene, 388, 391–394, 419, 428–430;
in Porter, 528–533; in Shakespeare, 644, 645, 648, 653 _et seq_.

_Rebelles_, by Macropedius, lxx, lxxiv.

_Red Ettin, The_, a fairy tale referred to in comment on _O. W. T._,
345, 362.

Redford's _Wit and Science_, lxix, lxxii.

Reed, Isaac, his edition of Baker's _Dictionary of the Stage_, on
_Gammer Gurton_, 201.

_Regularis Concordia Monachorum_, xiii.

Reinhardstoettner, Karl von, on Plautus, 117, 190.

_Reliquiæ Antiquæ_, by Halliwell and Wright, xxxvi, 191.

Renaissance, the, effect upon drama, lxiv; upon Greene, 390.

_Repentance of Robert Greene, The_, 398, 418.

_Respublica_, a controversial moral, xlix, lxxii, lxxiv, lxxvi, lxxvii.

_Resurrection, The_, miracle plays of, xiv, xix, xxii.

_Returne from Pernassus, The_, on rivalry of Jonson and Shakespeare,
638.

Reuter, Kilian, his Latin play of _St. Dorothea_, lxx.

_Revels at Court, Accounts of the_, 270; Udall and the Revels, 93.

Rhetorical pause, the, methods of representing it in dramatic blank
verse, 510–511.

Ribbeck, Otto, his _Alazon_, 189.

Richardes, Thomas, perhaps author of _Misogonus_, lxxxi.

Ritson's _Songs_, 191.

Ritter, O., on Greene's _Frier Bacon_, 413, 426.

_Rituale Romanum_, the, and Udall's parody of, 192.

Ritwyse, John, author of a satiric interlude, lxxi.

Robert of Gloucester, Robert of Brunne, their use of the _septenarius_,
189.

_Robin et Marion_, by Adam de la Halle, xli.

Robin Hood plays, xxxviii, xl; ref., 418; _The Lytell Geste_ of, 130.

_Roister Doister_, by Udall, lix, lxxii, lxxvii, lxxviii, lxxix, lxxx,
lxxxii, xcii. Edition with Critical Essay on the life of the author,
the text, date, plot, characters of the play, with notes and appendix
on various matters, by Professor Flügel, 87–194; other mention, 202,
203, 204, 338.

Rojas, Fernando de (and Cota), their _Calisto and Melibœa_, lxviii.

Rolls Series, xix.

Romantic, the, in saints' plays, xiv–xvi; in Latin interludes and
elegiac comedy, xvii, xviii; in miracle cycles, xxiv, xxix–xxx; in
various later 'marvels,' xxxvii, xxxviii; in the older moral plays,
lviii–lix; foreign influence and native romance, lxv, lxvii–lxix; in
the wit plays, lxxiii; in the plays of prodigals, lxxiv–lxxv; in fusion
plays, lxxvii _et seq._; especially in _Damon_ and _The Supposes_,
lxxxiv–lxxxv; the movement toward romantic comedy, lxxxvii; nature,
subjects, and kinds of romantic comedy, lxxxvii, lxxxviii, xci; in
Heywood, lxix, 6; in Lyly, 271–275; in Peele, 338, 341–347; in Greene,
390, 427; in Greene and Shakespeare, 643, 645, 647 _et seq._

_Romeo and Juliet_, Shakespeare's, 533, 590, 603, 652.

_Rosalynde, Euphues' Golden Legacie_, by Thomas Lodge, 645.

Rose Theatre, the, and Greene, 408, 411; and Porter, 519, 520, 521.

Ross, Mr. C. H., on the authorship of _Gammer Gurton_, 202.

Rowley, Samuel, intimacy of Henry Porter with, 524.

Royal entries, their dramatic significance, xl.

_Royal Exchange_, by Greene, 398.

Rutebeuf, his play of _Theophilus_, xvi.

R. W., his _Martine Marsixtus_, 424.

Rye's _East Anglian Glossary_, 211.

SACRAMENT plays, xxxvii, xxxix.

Saints' plays, the early, their nature and relation to comedy,
xiv–xxi; the later, their contribution to drama, xxvii; a list of,
and their connection with romantic plays, xxxviii; secularized as
in _St. George_, xli–xlv; mentioned, lxii, lxxxiv, lxxxviii; The
Play or Pageant of _St. Anne_, xv; _St. Botulf,_ xv, xxxviii; _St.
Christian_, _St. Christina_, _Sts. Crispin and Crispinian_, xxxviii;
_St. Dorothea_, lxviii; _St. Edward_ and _St. Fabyan_, xxxviii; _St.
George_, xv, xxxviii, xli; _St. Katharine_, xiv, xv, xxxviii; _St.
Laurence_, xxxviii; _St. Mary Magdalene_, xxx, xxxvii, lxxxvi; _St.
Nicholas_, xv, xvi; _St. Olave_, xxxviii; _St. Paul_, xxx, xxxvii, l;
_St. Sebastian_, xxxviii; _St. Susanna,_ xv, xxxviii.

St. Andrew's Day, note to mention in _O. W. T._, 358.

St. Augustine, against the _mimi_, etc., xix.

St. Dyryk, perhaps Theodoric, 69.

_St. James the More, Life of_, xliv.

St. Jerome, his attitude toward Plautus and Terence, xvii; and
legendary miracles, xxxviii.

St. John's, Beverley, Resurrection play at, xiii, xx.

St. Luke's Day, mentioned in _O. W. T._, 358.

St. Modwena, mentioned in _Johan_, 82.

St. Sithe (?), 213.

Satire, mediæval in drama, xvii; in religious parodies, xx; in the
miracles, xxiv, xxviii–xxix, xxxvi; the Devil not primarily satirical,
xlvi, xlviii; the Vice in satirical literature, li–liv; in the
interlude, lvi, lxv, lxx, lxxvi, lxxvii, lxxxiii, lxxxvi, xci; in
Heywood, 4 _et seq._; See also articles on Udall, Lyly (265, 267),
Peele, Greene, Shakespeare.

Scene, the, beside a scene, 424.

Schelling, Professor F. E., his _English Chronicle Plays_, lxxvi; his
edition of _Tom Tyler_, lxxxi.

Schick, Professor, his edition of Kyd's _Spanish Tragedy_, 410; on
_Faire Emm_, 411.

Schipper, Professor, his _Neuenglische Metrik,_ applied to Greene's
verses, 508–509.

School plays, xiv, lxv, lxix–lxxv; English for Latin, 90, 98, 197–198,
267, 270.

Schwab, _Das Schauspiel im Schauspiel_, 343.

_Scillaes Metamorphosis_, by Lodge, 406.

_Scipio Africanus_, the play of, 268.

Scott, Sir Walter, account of Shetland Sword Dance in _The Pirate_,
xliii, xlv; on "Brotherhood in Arms," 366.

_Second and Third Blast of Retrait from Plaies and Theaters_, Henry
Denham's, on 'strange' comedies, 342.

_Second Trial, The_, the York play of, xxv.

Secular plays, the early, and their contribution to comedy, xx–xxi,
xxxvii–xlvi; see also _Morals_, _Farce_, _Interludes_, and _Romantic
Comedy_.

_Secunda Pastorum_, the Second Shepherds' Pageant of the Wakefield
cycle, xxvii, xxviii, xxxii, lxix, 3, 202, 533.

_Selimus, The First Part of the Tragical Raigne of_, not by Greene,
418, 420, 482, 483.

_Senarius, The_, in Greene, 509; and the _Septenarius_ in Udall, 189.

Seneca, lxxxv, 275.

_Sequentia falsi Evangelii Secundum Marcam_, in Du Méril, 191.

Seven Deadly Sins, the, xxx, xxxi, xlix, l, lii, liv.

Shakespeare, William, the Fool in his plays, lii, lxxxiii; incidental
mention, lxxxv, 191 _et passim_; relation to Lyly's work, 271, 275,
287, 322; to Peele's, 336, 343, 345; to Greene's, 387–389, 393–394,
401–402, 415; resemblances to, in Porter, 517; _Shakepeare as a Comic
Dramatist_, a monograph by Professor Dowden, 635–661; the essentials
of Shakespearian comedy, 637; tragedy compared with comedy, 639;
comedy, the characters in, and their relation to incident, etc.,
640–660; punishment and rewards in Shakespeare's comedy, 641–642;
compared with Jonson's comedy, 641; complication and resolution, love,
laughter, satire, 642–643; intrigue and treatment of materials, 644;
euphuism, 646; his development as a comic dramatist, 648 _et seq._;
transformation plays, 648; _Love's Labour's Lost_, 649; _The Comedy of
Errors_, 650; _The Two Gentlemen of Verona_, 650; _A Midsummer Night's
Dream_, 651; _The Merchant of Venice_, 652; _The Taming of the Shrew_,
653; the Falstaff plays, _The Merry Wives of Windsor_, _King Henry V_,
653–654; _Much Ado about Nothing_, 654; _Twelfth Night_, 655; _All's
Well that Ends Well_, 656; _Measure for Measure_, 657; _Troilus and
Cressida_, 657; his relation to Chapman, Dekker, Marston, Jonson,
Southampton, 656–657; the period of tragedy, 657–658; _Pericles_,
_Cymbeline_, _The Winter's Tale_, _The Tempest_, _The Two Noble
Kinsmen_, 659–661.

Shaw, Robert, a player acquaintance of Henry Porter, 516, 524.

_Shearmen and Taylors' Pageant_, the Coventry Guild play of the, xxiii.

_Shepherd's Plays, The_, of York, xxv; of Wakefield, xxvii, xxviii,
lxxxi; and see _Secunda Pastorum_.

Sherwood, Thomas, his _Anglais et François Dictionaire_, added to
Cotgrave, 118, 194, etc.

_Shipwrights' Play, The_, of Newcastle, xlviii, lix.

_Short Discourse of my Life, A_, by Greene, 397.

Shows, dumb, lxxxix.

'Shrew' plays, lxxxi.

Shrewsbury, religious play at, xiii.

Sidney, Sir Philip, 337; his _Arcadia_, 389.

Simpson, R., his _School of Shakespeare_, 404, 422.

Singer, John, one of the Admiral's men in Porter's time.

_Sir Armadace_, the "Thankful Dead" in, and _O. W. T._, 345

_Sir Clyomon and Sir Clamydes_, lxxxviii, 335, 341, 342.

_Sir John Oldcastell_, by A. Munday and others, 523.

_Six Hundred Epigrams_, by John Heywood, 3.

Skeat, Professor W. W., xiii, 110, 190, 374.

Skelton, John, contribution to Fool-literature, lii; his
_Magnyfycence_, lviii, 189; his _Nigromansir_, xlviii, l, lviii; his
_Phyllyp Sparowe_, 192.

Slater, Martin, an associate of Henry Porter, 521.

Smeken, his _Sacrament Play_, xxxix.

Smith, Miss Lucy Toulmin, her edition of the _York Plays_, xxiii, xxvi.

Smith, Toulmin, his _English Gilds_, xxxviii.

_Solyman and Perseda_, perhaps by Kyd, the source of Peel's 'Erestus'
in _O. W. T._, 383.

_Sonnets_, the, of Shakespeare, 656, 658.

_Sotties_, the French, lxv–lxvi.

Southampton, the Earl of, 646.

_South English Legendary, The_, xliv.

_Spanish Masquerado, The_, by Greene, 398, 409.

_Spanish Tragedy, The_, by Thomas Kyd, 410, 427.

_Spencers, The_, or _Despencers_, a tragedy by Porter and Chettle,
516, 523.

Spenser, Edmund, Lyly compared with, 274; Harvey's characterization of,
340; his _Tears of the Muses_, 405; other mention, 421, 426.

Spenser, Gabriel, the actor, 524.

_Spider and the Flie, The_, by Heywood, 3.

Stansby, William, printer of Lyly's plays for Blount, 269, 276.

Stanyhurst, Richard, his hexameters and Harvey's ridiculed in _O.W.T._,
373.

_Staple of News, The_, by Ben Jonson, xlv.

Steevens, George, his letter on _Comus_, 348.

Stevenson, William, the author, according to Mr. Henry Bradley, of
_Gammer Gurtons Nedle_; Critical Essay on his life and the play
assigned to him, with an edition of _G.G.N._, notes and an appendix, by
Mr. Bradley, 205–259. Other mention, lix, lxxx, lxxxii.

Still, Dr. John, not the author of _Gammer Gurtons Nedle_, 199–202.

Storojenko, Professor, his _Life of Greene_ (in Dr. Grosart's edition
of Greene), 397, 406, 415.

Stow, John, his _Survey_, xxxviii; on mummings, xl.

Strange, Lord, his players (1589-1593), and Greene's _Orlando_, 408;
and _Frier Bacon_, 411.

_Studentes_, see Stymmelius.

Stymmelius, the author of the play of _Studentes_, lxx, lxxiv, lxxxii.

_Summer's Last Will and Testament_, by Thomas Nashe, 384, 424.

_Supposes, The_, by George Gascoigne, lxxviii, lxxxii, lxxxv, lxxxvii,
lxxxviii.

_Suppositi, I_, by Ariosto, adapted by Gascoigne, lxviii.

_Susanna_, a play by Macropedius, lxx; see also _St. Susanna_.

Sussex, the Earl of, his players (1591-1594), and _Friar Bacon_, 411;
and _George-a-Greene_, 413.

Swoboda, Dr., his _John Heywood als Dramatiker_, 12.

_Sword Plays_, xliii, xlv.

Symonds, J.A., his _Predecessors of Shakespeare_, lxviii, 339, 346, 422.

TALENTS, THE, the Wakefield play of, called _Processus Talentorum_,
xxviii.

_Tamburlaine the Great_, by Marlowe, and Greene's _Alphonsus_, 403; and
the _Looking-Glass_, 406; and _Orlando_, 410; and _George-a-Greene_,
418.

_Taming of a Shrew, The_, example of a play within a play, 343.

_Taming of the Shrew, The_, Shakespeare's, lxxxv, 415, 652.

_Tempest, The_, Shakespeare's, lxxxix, 644, 659, 660.

Ten Brink, Professor B., on the priority of legend to Scripture in
English comedy, xiii–xiv; on the dramatic value of the miracle plays,
xxxii; on the characteristics of tragedy and comedy, lxii.

Terence, indebtedness of modern comedy to, xvi, xvii, lxvii, lxviii;
the 'Christian Terence,' lxxii, lxxxii; Udall's _Flowers from Terence_,
89, 98, 101, 102; notes to _Roister Doister_, 288.

Tertullian, against acting, xix.

Thankful Dead, the, a popular _motif_, 345, 365.

_That Will Be Shall Be_, a play, 521, 526.

_Theophilus_, by Rutebeuf, xvi.

_Thersytes, A Newe Interlude called_, lix, lxxi, lxxii, lxxviii; the
authorship of, and date, 12–14, 108, 112, 191 _et passim_.

_Three Heads of the Well, The_, a fairy tale referred to in _O.W.T._,
345, 359, 372.

_Three Ladies of London, The_, by R.W., probably Robert Wilson,
lxxxviii, xc, xci.

_Three Lordes and Three Ladies of London, The_, by the R.W. of the
_Three Ladies_, lxxxviii, xc, xci.

_Thrie Estatis, A Satire of the_, by Lyndsay, xlix.

Thümmel, Julius, on the _Miles Gloriosus_ in Shakespeare, 190.

_Tyde Taryeth no Man, The_, by George Wapull, lxxxvi.

_Timon of Athens_, Shakespeare's, 659.

Tindale, on the use of the holy candle, 192; also cited, 142, 154.

'Titiville,' in _Roister Doister_, 190; 'Titivillus' in _Mankynd_,
xlvii, xlviii.

_Titus Andronicus_, 418.

_Tityrus and Gallathea_, by Lyly, 265.

_Tobias_, the Play of, mentioned, xxxiv.

_Tom Tyler and his Wife_, the play of, (edited by Professor Schelling),
lxxxi; Kirkman's edition, 336; mentioned, 530, 533.

Topsell's _History of Four-footed Beastes_, 280, 281.

Towne, Thomas, an actor in the Admiral's company in Porter's time, 524.

_Towneley Plays, The_, edited by A.W. Pollard and George England,
xxiii, xxiv, etc. See _Wakefield_.

Tragedy, compared with comedy, xxi, xxii, lxii, 639.

Train's _Geschichte d. Juden in Regensburg_, xxxi.

Transition, of plays from miracle and moral to comedy, lvii, lxii,
lxiv, lxix.

Travesties of religious services, xx, xxi.

_Trial before Herod, The_, in the York plays, xxv.

_Triall of Treasure, The_, lxxxvi, 121, 123.

Trimeter, in Roman comedy, 189.

_Troilus and Cressida_, Shakespeare's, a satire on Ben Jonson, 638,
657, 658.

_Tullie's Love_, by Greene, 410; similarity to _Friar Bacon_, 414.

Turberville, on Richard Edwardes, lxxxiv; Turberville's _Venerie_,
reference to 440.

'Tutivillus' in the Wakefield _Judicium_, xxix, xlvi, xlviii.

Tusser, Thomas, his _500 Pointes_, and Udall, 90.

_Twelfth Night_, Shakespeare's, 352, 646, 655, 656.

_Two Angry Women of Abington, The Pleasant Historie of the_, by Henry
Porter, edited with critical essay and notes by C.M. Gayley, 513–633;
_The Second Parte of the Two Angrey Women_, 516, 522, 524, 525.

_Two Gentlemen of Verona, The_, Shakespeare's, 648, 650.

_Two Italian Gentlemen_, or _Fidele and Fortunio_, by Anthony Munday,
lxxxviii.

_Two Mery Wemen of Abenton, The_, by Porter, 516, 523, 535.

_Two Noble Kinsmen, The_, by Shakespeare and Fletcher, 660.

UDALL, Nicholas, mention of his _Roister Doister_, lix _et passim_; his
_Flowers from Terence_, lxxi, 89; text of his _Roisier Doister_, edited
with critical essay, notes, and appendix, by Professor Flügel, 87–194;
life of Udall, 89; date of the play, 95; date of the early edition, 97;
place of _R.D._ in English literature, 98; the plot and characters,
100; the present text and earlier reprints, 104; his _Apophthegms_,
142, etc.; Appendix, 188–194; the metre of _R.D._, 189; the figure of
the _Miles Gloriosus_ in English literature, 189; 'Titiville,' 190;
'Mumblecrust' and the maids, 191; the mock requiem and other parodies,
191; Roister as 'Vagrant,' 192; the prayer and 'song' at the end, 193;
works quoted in the notes, 194.

Ugolino, his _Philogenia_, lxvii.

Ulrici, H., on Greene, 408.

Usury statutes of Henry VIII and Edward VI, 96.

VALENTINE AND ORSON, 418, 426.

Vanbrugh, Sir John, his character of 'Hoyden,' 531.

Vergerio, his _Paulus_, lxvii.

Versification, alleged irregularities in the, of _Friar Bacon_, a study
by C. M. Gayley, 503–513.

'Vice,' the rôle of the, in early plays, xlvi, xlviii–liv; lxxiii,
lxxvi, lxxxii, lxxxiii, lxxxvi, lxxxix; in Heywood, li and 10, etc.
('Mery Reporte'); Udall, 100; in Stevenson, 203; in Peele, 342; in
Greene, 393, 430.

_Viel Testament, le Mistère du_, xxxiv.

Vitalis of Blois, his dramatic poems, xvii.

Voragine, Jacobus de, his _Legenda Aurea_, xxx, xliv.

WADINGTON, William of, his _Manuel des Pechiez_, xix.

Wager, Lewis, his _Life and Repentaunce of Marie Magdalene_, xxxi,
lxxxvi.

Wager, William, his _The Longer thou Livest_, etc., lxxxvi, 533.

Wagner, Professor W., on _Friar Bacon_, 440, 446, 459, 510.

_Wakefield Plays, The_ (ordinarily called, from the family owning
the MS., the Towneley), xxiii, xxiv; indebtedness to the York cycle,
xxv–xxvi.

Wakefield, the Playwright of, xxv–xxix; his peculiar stanza, xxv–xxvi;
his improvements upon the second and third York schools of dramatic
composition and his original productions, xxvii–xxix.

Wapull, Geo., _The Tyde Taryeth no Man_, lxxxvi.

Ward, Dr. A. W., his _History of English Dramatic Literature_, xviii,
xix, xlix, lxviii, lxxvi, lxxxviii, xc, 89, 101, 102, 103, 346, 397,
403, 405, 417, 419, 421, 422, 426, 430 _et passim_; his _Old English
Drama_, 353, 363, 413; his edition of _Friar Bacon_ (in _O.E.D._), 415,
426, 430, 439, 441, 442, _et passim_ in the notes to _Friar Bacon_.

Wardrobe Accounts of Richard II, xl.

Warner, Mr. G. F., his _Catalogue of the MSS. and Muniments of
Alleyn's College of God's Gift at Dulwich_, exposing some of Collier's
'emendations,' 515.

Warton, Dr. Joseph, _Biographical Memoir of the late_, on _Comus_ and
the _Old Wives' Tale_, 348.

Warton, Thomas, his _History of English Poetry_, xxi, xxiii, xl, xli,
xlii, 90, 346; his _Milton's Poems_, etc., on the names in _Comus_, 383.

Watson, Thomas, his _Passionate Centurie of Love_, 265.

Wedego, Bishop, against religious plays, xxxvi.

Weever, John, his verses _Ad Henricum Porter_, not intended for the
dramatist, 519.

_Well of the World's End, The_, a fairy tale, see note to _O.W.T._,
345, 359.

West, Richard, his _Court of Conscience_, 517.

_Westward Hoe_, by Dekker _et al._, a song in, 352.

_Wether, The Play of the_, by John Heywood, edited with critical essay
and notes by Mr. A. W. Pollard, 3–59; Other mention, xlix, li, lxvii.

Wever, R., his _Lusty Juventus_, xlvii, li, lxxii, lxxvi.

"What Thing is Love?" a song in Peele's _Hunting of Cupid_, and in
the play of _Doctor Doddipoll_, 336; paralleled in Greene's _Mourning
Garment_ and _James IV_, 415–416.

Wheatley, H. B., his book on John Payne Collier, 515.

'White Bear of England's Wood, The,' a character referred to in _O. W.
T._, 345, 356–357.

White, Edward, publisher of Greene's _Friar Bacon_, 411; copyright
owned by William White, 430.

Whitgift, Bishop, Injunctions at York, etc., 193.

_Wife of Usher's Well, The_, referred to, notes to _O. W. T._, 363.

'Wilful Wanton,' a character in George Wapull's _Tyde Taryeth no Man_,
531.

William of Blois, his _Alda_, xvii.

'Will Summer,' Henry VIII's jester impersonated in Nashe's _Summer's
Last Will_, etc., lii, lxxxii, lxxxix, 344.

Wilson, Dr. John, Professor of Music at Oxford, 518, 519.

Wilson, Robert, the author of _Three Ladies of London_, and of _Three
Lordes and Three Ladies_, lxxxviii–xc; probably also of _A Knack to
Know a Knave_, xc, xci, 425; colleague of Chettle in the non-extant
_Second Part of Black Battman_, 522; his _Sir John Oldcastell_
mentioned, 523.

Wilson, Thomas, his _Arte of Logique or Rule of Reason_, the "ambiguous
letter" in, 93, 95, 97.

_Wily Beguiled_, cited, 24, assigned to Peele, 336.

_Winchester Tropers_, the, xiii.

_Winter's Tale, The_, Shakespeare's, 644, 659, 660.

Wireker, Nigel, his _Brunellus (Speculum Stultorum)_, alluded to,
xviii, lii.

_Wisdom that is Christ_, the moral of, in Furnivall's _Digby Plays_,
xlviii, l, li, liii, lv, lvi, lviii.

_Wisdome of Doctor Doddipoll, The_, assigned to Peele, 336.

_Wit and Folly_, the dialogue of, by John Heywood, 8.

Wit plays: _Wyt and Science_, by John Redford, lxix, lxxii, lxxiii,
lxxxviii, 426; _The Contract of a Marrige between Wit and Wisdome_,
liii, lxxi, lxxiii, lxxvii, lxxxi; _The Marriage of Witte and Science_,
a revision of Redford's play, conjectured by Mr. Fleay to be the same
as _Wit and Will_, lxxiii, lxxiv, lxxvii.

Wolsey, Cardinal, perhaps referred to in _Play of the Wether_, 52.

_Woman Hard to Please_, a lost play, 521, 526.

Woman, in comedy, Meredith on, lxi.

_Woman in the Moone, The_, by Lyly, 266, 268, 272.

Woodberry, Professor G. E., monograph on _Greene's Place in Comedy_,
387–394.

Wood, Anthony à, on Udall, 89; on the Porters, 518, 519.

Woodes, Nathaniel, author of _The Conflict of Conscience_, lxxxvi.

_World and the Child, The_, or _Mundus et Infans_, a moral, l, lviii.

Worthies, the Nine, and _Love's Labour's Lost_, xl, 650.

Wright, Thomas, his _Early Mysteries, etc., of the 12th and 13th
Centuries_, xviii; (and J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps), _Reliquiæ Antiquæ_,
xix; reprint of the _Interludium de Clerico et Puella_ mentioned, xvii,
lxvi.

Wycliff, his attitude toward miracles, xix.

YORK PLAYS, The, date and composition, xxiii; periods of, comedy in the
second and third, xxiv–xxv; relation of Wakefield plays to, xxv–xxvii;
the romantic and melodramatic in, xxix.

'Young Juvenall.' not Lodge but Nashe, 337.

_Youthe, Ballad of_, by Robert Greene, 397.

_Youth, The Interlude of_, lxi, lxxi, lxxiv.

Youth, school plays of, lxxii, lxxiv.

Yvers, Jacques, his _Printemps d'Iver_, 411.

Printed in the United States of America.

Transcriber's Note.

Variable spelling and hyphenation have been retained. Minor
punctuation inconsistencies have been silently repaired. Footnotes
were sequentially numbered and placed at the end of each section. On
pages xlii and 434 footnote references are missing in the original.
Misnumbered footnotes in pp. xlvii, lxxvi, 124 were corrected.

Corrections.

The first line indicates the original, the second the correction.

p. 194:

COTGRAVE. A French and English Dictionary, ed. 1650 (with the addition
of Dictionaire Anglais & François, by Robert Sherwood.

COTGRAVE. A French and English Dictionary, ed. 1650 (with the addition
of Dictionaire Anglais & François, by Robert Sherwood).

p. 420:

2. _The Firt Part of the Tragicall Raigne of Selimus_ (Creede, 1594)
2. _The First Part of the Tragicall Raigne of Selimus_ (Creede, 1594)

p. 521:

we should not he justified in assuming
we should not be justified in assuming

p. 650:

But Shakepeare's imagination
But Shakespeare's imagination

p. 679:

in the miracle cyles,
in the miracle cycles,

p. 686:

colleague of Chettle in the non-extant _Second Part of Black Bateman_,
522;
colleague of Chettle in the non-extant _Second Part of Black Battman_,
522;

Errata.

The first line indicates the original, the second how it should read:

p. 663:

in churchyards, xii;
in churchyards, xiii;

p. 665:

Carpenter, Professor F. I., his edition of Wager's _Marie Magdalene_
(University of Chicago Press), xciv.

Carpenter, Professor F. I., his edition of Wager's _Marie Magdalene_
(University of Chicago Press), xxxi.

p. 667:

Congreve, William, the character of 'Prue' in his _Love for Love_, 536
Congreve, William, the character of 'Prue' in his _Love for Love_, 531

Council of Treves, The, xi.
Council of Treves, The, xix.

_Latin_, _Woman_, _Prose_, _Plot_,
There is no entry marked _Plot_ in the index.

p. 670:

Gayley, Professor C. M., Preface to this volume, iii;
Gayley, Professor C. M., Preface to this volume, v;

p. 671:

Other mention of H., xvii, xlix, lvi, lix, lxi, lxvl–xviii,
Other mention of H., xvii, xlix, lvi, lix, lxi, xviii–lxxxii,

p. 676:

Myth, classical, as material for plays, lxxxiv, lxxxvii, lxxxviii,
lxxxix, xcvi
Number xcvi is not a valid page number.

p. 677:

Appendix on Sources of Characters, and the Harvesters' Song, by the
same, 382–384

Appendix on Sources of Characters, and the Harvesters' Song, by the
same, 383–384

p. 679:

of Heywood's plays, 5, 8, 10, 13, 16, 17, 63;
of Heywood's plays, 5, 8, 10, 13, 16, 17, 61;

p. 683:

notes to _Roister Doister_, 288.
notes to _Roister Doister_, 98.

p. 684:

Appendix, 188–194;
Appendix, 187–194;

p. 686:

Yvers, Jacques, his _Printemps d'Iver_, 411.
Yvers, Jacques, his _Printemps d'Iver_, 412.

*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Representative English Comedies - with introductory essays and notes" ***

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