Read Ebook: A Collection of Old English Plays Volume 2 by Bullen A H Arthur Henry Editor

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Ebook has 341 lines and 76941 words, and 7 pages

Such a verse as,--

"In every Princes Court highly esteemd of,"

or,--

"Now in the time you ought to fix your faith fast,"

can belong only to Fletcher. The swelling, accumulative character of the eloquence is another proof; for Fletcher's effects are gained not by a few sharp strokes, but by constant iteration, each succeeding line strengthening the preceding until at last we are fronted by a column of very formidable strength. Let us take another extract from the same scene:--

The whole scene is singularly fine and impressive; it shows us Fletcher at his highest.

But in other passages we find a second hand at work. In the second scene of the third act there is far less exuberance of language and a different style of versification, as may be seen in the following lines:--

Here we have vigorous writing, staid and grave and unimpassioned, and a more regular metre. In determining questions of authorship I have so often found myself at fault, that I shrink from adopting the dictatorial tone assumed in these matters by learned Germans and a few English scholars. But I think in the present instance we may speak with tolerable certainty. Before my mind had been made up, my good friend, Mr. Fleay, pronounced strongly in favour of Massinger. He is, I think, right; in fact, it is beyond the shadow of a doubt that Massinger wrote the speech quoted above. In all Massinger's work there is admirable ease and dignity; if his words are seldom bathed in tears or steeped in fire, yet he never writes beneath his subject. He had a rare command of an excellent work-a-day dramatic style, clear, vigorous, free from conceit and affectation. But he is apt to grow didactic, and tax the reader's patience; and there is often a want of coherence in his sentences, which amble down the page in a series of loosely-linked clauses. I will not examine scene by scene in detail; for I must frankly confess that I feel myself sometimes at a loss to determine whether a particular passage is by Fletcher or Massinger. Most of the impassioned parts belong, I think, to the former. I would credit Massinger with the admirably conducted trial-scene in the fourth act; but the concluding scene of the play, where Barnavelt is led to execution, I would ascribe, without hesitation, to Fletcher. In the scene where the French ambassador pleads for Barnavelt we recognise Massinger's accustomed temperance and dignity. To the graver writer, too, we must set down Leydenberg's solemn and pathetic soliloquy , when by a voluntary death he is seeking to make amends for his inconstancy and escape from the toils of his persecutors.

There is no difficulty in fixing the date of the present play. Barneveld was executed on May 13, 1619, and the play must have been written immediately afterwards, when all Christendom was ringing with the news of the execution. In the third scene of the first act there is a marginal note signed "G.B." The initials are unquestionably those of Sir George Buc, Master of the Revels from 1610 to 1622. On comparing the note with an autograph letter of Sir George's I find the hand-writing to correspond exactly. The date, therefore, cannot be later than 1622, but the probability is that the play was produced at Michaelmas, 1619.

Throughout the play there are marks of close political observation. To discover the materials from which the playwrights worked up their solid and elaborate tragedy would require a more extensive investigation than I care to undertake. An account of Barneveld's trial, defence, and execution may be found in the following tracts:--

"Barnavel's Apologie, or Holland's Mysteria: with marginall Castigations, 1618." The Apology, originally written in Dutch, had been translated into Latin, and thence into English. The Castigations, by "Robert Houlderus, Minister of the Word of God," are remarkable, even in the annals of theological controversy, for gross blackguardism. After indulging in the most loathsome displays of foul brutality, this "Minister of the Word of God" ends with the cheerful prayer,--"That they whom Thou hast predestinated to salvation may alwayes have the upper hand and triumph in the certainty of their salvation: but they whom Thou has created unto confusion, and as vessels of Thy just wrath, may tumble and be thrust headlong thither whereto from all eternitie Thou didst predestinate them, even before they had done any good or evil."

"Newes out of Holland: concerning Barnavelt and his fellow-Prisoners, their Conspiracy against their Native Country with the enemies thereof: The Oration and Propositions made in their behalfe unto the Generall States of the United Provinces at the Hage, by the Ambassadours of the French King," &c., 1619.

"The Arraignment of John Van Olden Barnavelt, late Advocate of Holland and West Freisland. Containing the articles alleadged against him and the reasons of his execution," &c., 1619.

THE TRAGEDY OF SIR JOHN VAN OLDEN BARNAVELT.

Sir John Van Olden Barnavelt.

SCAENA PRIMA.

... ... ...

Art thou afraid, too? out with thy two edgd tongue And lay about thee!

theis new Companies March by us through the Market, so to the Guard house, And there disarme;--wee'll teach ye true obedience;-- Then let 'em quitt the Towne, hansom swag fellowes And fitt for fowle play.

The State, I love him and shall greive that he, When he falls from it must deserve my pitty.

about their eares And quench it in their blood. What now I speake Againe ile speake alowd; let who will tell it, I never will fly from it.

hay choakes all, I cannot get beside it.

To kill himself?

--How now? What newes?

for his Excellencie and the Heeres That love him not. Ten hundred thousand blessings To him and thee, my vroa. .

And prepare them A sylent hearing.

, of your Barbers; they nere need washing after. Do's not thy neck itch now to be scratchd a little with this?

Har. Ye have it: thanck your fortune.

ceave.

Now you talke of Ladies--

but with quicker tyme Then you, I hope, can follow: thus I begin. Fa, la, la, &c.

did in a bush when the beare was a comeing, and then I shanot heare her.

--and that imperfect--remains. The late Lord Charlemont was a friend of Malone, and it is well known that Malone had many of the Dulwich documents in his possession for years. Mr. Warner's theory is that Malone lent the volume to Lord Charlemont, and that it was never returned. The objection that naturally suggests itself is, "How came so acute a scholar as Malone to fail to draw attention to a Collection of such considerable interest?" And I confess that I am not able to offer any satisfactory answer.

The volume contains in all fifteen plays, written in various hands. One piece has the author's initials attached, but the others have neither name nor initials.

What a noise is in this house! my head is broken Within a parenthesis: in every corner, As if the earth were shaken with some strange colic, There are stirs and motions.

As the words "within a parenthesis" were found in all the old copies Dyce did not feel justified in rejecting them, although he had only the most grotesque meaning to assign to them. Theobald rightly saw that "within a parenthesis" was a marginal note, mistaken for a part of the text when the book was sent to press. The MS. gives--

Sweet heart, What noyse is in this house? my head is broken In every corner, as the earth were shaken With some strange Collick: there are stirs and motions: What planet rules this house? Whos there?

Whether they be awake or sleepe, With what greate Care ought Virgins keepe, With what art and indevor, The Jewell which they ought to pryse Above the ritchest marchandise,-- And once lost lost for ever!

Virginity is a rare gem, Rated above a diadem, And was despised never: 'Tis that at which the most men ayme And being gott they count their game And once lost lost for ever.

"I command your Bookeeper to present mee with a faire Copy hereaft and to leave out all oathes, prophaness & publick Ribaldry as he will answer it at his perill. H. HERBERT."

It is plain therefore that the piece was intended for presentation on the stage; but it must have been a strange audience that could have listened to it. Dramatic interest there is none whatever. The piece is nothing more, than a laudation of the East India Company. In tables of statistics we have set before us the amount of merchandise brought from the East; and the writer dwells with enthusiasm on the liberality of the Company, and shows how new channels have been opened for industry. One extract will be enough:--

This play, the most valuable Christmas present English scholars have for half a century received, appears indubitably to belong to the Massinger and Fletcher series. Even a cursory glance will convince the reader that it is one of the greatest treasures of our dramatic literature. That such a gem should lie in manuscript for over 200 years, should be catalogued in our first library, should be accessible to the eye of the prying scholar, and yet never even be noticed till now, affords a disagreeable but convincing proof of the want of interest in our early literature displayed even by those whose studies in this field would seem to point them out for the work of rescuing these literary treasures from a fate as bad as that which befell those plays which perished at the hands of Warburton's "accursed menial." The present play has some remarkable features in it. It is taken from contemporary history . It was written almost immediately after the events it describes. These events took place in the country in which Englishmen then took more interest than in any other country in Europe. There is a tone of political passion in the play which, particularly in one place, breaks out in an expression which the hearers must have applied to their own country. There is no doubt that the audience wandered away in their thoughts from Sir John Van Olden Barnavelt, the saviour of his country from the Spanish yoke, as he professed himself in his defence on his trial, and Spain's determined enemy, to Sir Walter Raleigh, whose head had just fallen on the block, the victim of a perfidious foe and of a mean, shuffling king. The following is the passage:--

In a note Mr. Bullen informs us, that "You can apply this" is crossed through. He does not state whether there is anything to show that this was done by Sir George Buck, Master of the Revels, and consequently Censor for the Stage. But this would appear to be the case, the more so as the present play seems to have raised scruples in many places in the mind of the dramatic Cerberus. It is hardly possible to imagine that the spectators did not apply the "free spirits" to Raleigh, and the "Catos" to those members who were shortly after to be imprisoned on account of a memorable protest entered in the journals of the House, which Octavius, who was trying to seize the absolute rule of all, tore out with his own royal hands. There is a peculiar fitness in this hit at James as Octavius which probably did not escape the audience. There is another passage, on p. 253, which, singular to say, seems to have escaped the notice of the Censor:--

Such mild proceedings in a Government New settled, whose main power had its dependence Upon the power of some particular men, Might be given way to, but in ours it were Unsafe and scandalous.

In all growing empires Even cruelty is useful; some must suffer And be set up examples to strike terror In others, though far off: but when a state Is raised to her perfection, and her bases Too firm to shrink, or yield, we may use mercy And do't with safety.

When I should pass with glory to my rest.

When thou shouldst pass with honour to thy rest.

On page 211,

And end that race You have so long run strongly, like a child,

Page 213.

The desire of glory Was the last frailty wise men ere put off.

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