Philip Massinger Part 25

Marcellus R. Benfield.

Berecinthius T. Pollard.

Chrysalus E. Swanston.

Demetrius W. Patrick.

Amilcar Rowland.

1 Merchant J. Honeyman.

2 Merchant W. Penn.

3 Merchant Curt.

Calistus T. Hobbes.

t.i.tus R. Baxter.

Queen to Prusias Ball.

Cornelia Nick.

Courtesan Boy.

With regard to the three female parts, and another of a Moorish woman,(566) we are left much in the dark, and I have placed names against them with considerable hesitation.

The actors who doubled their parts were W. Penn, who was also a Jailor; Rowland, who was also King Prusias; Patrick, who was also a Captain; and Baxter, who was also an officer and a servant, besides, as well as we can judge, delivering a speech or two as Demetrius. Rowland must also have trebled his small parts. Besides these, we hear in the course of the play of W. Mago, Gascoine, Herbert, and Harry Wilson; the last was a singer....

It need hardly be added that the tragedy was got up and acted by the Company called the Kings Players, all the names being those of performers in that a.s.sociation in 1631.

APPENDIX VIII. COLLATION OF MS. OF BELIEVE AS YOU LIST

This play is accessible to the general public at present in Colonel Cunninghams edition of Ma.s.singer, and in Mr. Arthur Symonss edition in The Mermaid Series. An examination of the original MS., now in the British Museum, shows that Cunninghams text is not always correct. Though an exhaustive collation of the MS. is not necessary, several points of interest emerge from a study of the original doc.u.ment, which I have digested here. (C. = Cunninghams edition; MS. = Ma.n.u.script reading.

Brackets signify Cunninghams conjectural additions, which he has not always taken the trouble to indicate.)

Page 595. There is no list of dramatis personae in MS.

I., 1.C.: Enter Antiochus and a Stoic. The three servants enter after line 118.

MS.: Antiochus Stoic in philosophers habits; Chrysalus with a writing, Syrus, Geta, bondmen.

I., 1, 26.C.: Stoic.

MS.: Stoic: Hermit (cancelled).

I., 1, 56.C.:

Old (He) sper with his fierce beams (scorch)ing in vain Their (wives, their sisters and their tender daughters).

MS.: The line is much damaged, being the last on the page. A mention of the old after the young (lines 52 to 55) seems to be required.

I read it thus: Olde men with sil ... in vain. There is no trace of 57, but it is required by the sense.

I., 1, 60.MS.: The soldiers greedy l.u.s.ts. Greedy deleted.

I., 1, 85.C.: A prey so precious and so dearly purchased.

MS.: A prey so precious and dearly purchased.

Precious is scanned as a trisyllable.

I., 1, 117.C.:

The imperious waves (Of my) calamities have already fallen.

MS.: Of my is not in MS. The last word of 118 is Swollen. The word Marvell can be seen at the end of a line after 118.

Here comes a hiatus of two pages. No doubt Antiochus had a fairly long soliloquy. It is impossible to tell how many lines are lost here, as the characters seem to be conducting a rapid dialogue, in which it is not necessary to suppose that a whole line was a.s.signed to each speaker at a time.

I., 1, 119.C.:

Despair with sable wings (Sail-stretchd ab)ove my head.

MS.: Ore my head. A verb is wanted. (?) Sail-stretchd flies oer my head.

I., 1, 121.MS.: ... ius furnished me. The line begins with a name to which there is no clue, probably introduced in the part now lost.

I., 1, 122.C.: (And) make my first appearance like myself.

MS.: Made ? Which made, etc.

I., 1, 123.C.: (Have these) disloyal villains ravished from me. Addition required by sense.

I., 1, 124.C.: (Wret)ch that I was.

MS.: ch at end of a word which has disappeared. Wretch gives the sense.

I., 1, 125.C.: (With) such a purchase.

MS.: Such a purchase. The first word in the line has disappeared.

I., 1, 126.C.: Without (the) gold to fee an advocate.

MS.: Without gold to fee an advocate. The first word in the line has disappeared. (?) And.

I., 1, 127.C.: (To) plead my royal t.i.tle, nourish hope.

MS.: Plead my royal t.i.tle, nourish hope. The first word in the line has disappeared. To is required.