Philip Massinger Part 34

The pert page in Act IV., 1, reminds us of a similar character in _Womans a Weatherc.o.c.k_, and is probably Fields handiwork. On the other hand, Pontaliers speech in the same scene (lines 119-140) reads to me like Ma.s.singer.

These instances may serve to show how hard it is to dissect the play satisfactorily.

APPENDIX XII. THE TRAGEDY OF SIR JOHN VAN OLDEN BARNAVELT

This play is to be found in Bullens _Old Plays_, vol. ii. It was printed from B.M. Add. MSS. 18653, a folio of thirty-one leaves in a small clear hand.

Mr. Bullen thinks that Ma.s.singer wrote III., 2; III., 6; IV. (the trial scene); V., 1. He ascribes the concluding scene to Fletcher. These ascriptions seem to me correct. There is much fine poetry in the play, notably in the Leidenberg scene. But Fleay goes too far when he calls the play magnificent. It is a piece of occasion,(572) written shortly after the tragic death of Barnavelt, in such a way, however, that it would not interest a later generation, who had forgotten the sensation of the time. In the second place, it has no unity, a fact no doubt partly due to the dual authors.h.i.+p. We do not know if we are intended to sympathise with Orange or Barnavelt. Such a specimen of the historical drama pure and simple makes us feel that more than a mere narrative of events is needed in a play; we look to the author to guide our sympathies, and have a view of his own about his theme.(573)

APPENDIX XIII. THE SECOND MAIDENS TRAGEDY

This play was reprinted by the Malone Society in 1909.(574) The writing of the original MS. in the British Museum is remarkably good. It is No. 807 in the Lansdowne Collection, and comes to us from the famous Warburton MSS. The play was licensed by Sir George Buck, October 31st, 1611, and acted by the Kings men. At the end is inscribed: by Thomas Goffe,(575) George Chapman, by Will Shakspear. A tragedy indeed!

The last phrase is true. The first two names are erased; the third name has been added by a late seventeenth or eighteenth century hand.

The underplot, according to Boyle, is derived from Cervantes _Curious Impertinent_, and in Acts I. and II. pa.s.sages are literally taken from that novel. There is an incident at the end of the play which reminds us of _The Duke of Milan_. The Tyrant removes the body of the heroine from her tomb, and sends for a painter to give colour to her face and lips.

Govia.n.u.s, her husband, comes in disguise to do the deed, and the Tyrant is killed by the poison which Govia.n.u.s has put on the lips of the corpse.

Ma.s.singer may therefore have known the play, but I differ entirely from Boyles estimate. He thinks Ma.s.singer wrote Acts I. and II., Tourneur Acts III., IV., V. I see no trace of Ma.s.singer in Act I., except the reference in line 541 to a cup of nectar. The sudden repentance of the heroines father Helvetius, in Act II., 1, 253, reminds us of a trait of Ma.s.singer referred to above;(576) but the style of the first two acts is too feeble and vague, and the metre too halting for him.(577) I cannot suppose that at the age of twenty-seven Ma.s.singer could have taken part in writing a play where A voice from within the tomb says to the mourning husband, I am not here!(578)

APPENDIX XIV. THE POWERFUL FAVORITE(579)

_The Powerful Favorite_, or the life of Aelius Seja.n.u.s, by P. M., printed at Paris, 1628. So runs the t.i.tle in the English translation.

Two translations of Pierre Matthieus book, Histoire dAelius Seja.n.u.s, appeared in the same year. One is padded out with additions; in the shorter and more exact translation, the initials on the t.i.tle-page of the Bodleian copy have been filled out thus: P. Ma.s.singer.

We know that Ma.s.singers political sympathies were against the Duke of Buckingham, and it is probable that a Life of Seja.n.u.s may have attracted attention at a time when the parallel was drawn and the unpopularity great; but it is simpler to suppose that P. M. stands for the French author. It would require some courage to publish under ones own name or initials a translation of the book.

It is noteworthy that in 1632, after Buckinghams death, a translation appeared by Sir T. Hawkins. The t.i.tle which he gave his book was Unhappy prosperitie expressed in the histories of Aelius Seja.n.u.s and Philippa, the Catanian. Underneath he adds the words: Written in French by P.

Matthieu.

APPENDIX XV. DOUBLE FALSEHOOD

In 1728 there appeared at London a play with the following t.i.tle: Double Falsehood, or The Distressed Lovers; written originally by W. Shakespeare, and now revised and adapted to the stage by Mr. Theobald, the author of _Shakespeare Restord_.

It was dedicated to the Rt. Hon. George Dodington, Esq. In the Preface Theobald states that one of the copies in MS. is of above sixty years standing. He goes on to say that there is a tradition that Shakspere wrote itin the time of his retirement from the stage. The story is taken from a novel in _Don Quixote_, which appeared in 1611, five years before Shaksperes death. Theobald professes to allow that the colouring, diction, and characters come nearer to the style and manner of Fletcher.

Some writers(580) have supposed that Theobald in compiling this play used materials from a lost play by Ma.s.singer. The first thing we notice in it is that there are a good many prose scenes. This is unlike Ma.s.singer. In the second place, the metre is unlike Ma.s.singers; it is simple and regular, and contains very few double endings or run-on lines. In Act II., 4, Leonora gives an important letter to her lover Julio, out of a window, to a citizen whom she does not know, by night. Is this improbable incident the sort of thing that Ma.s.singer would write?(581)

The whole play is an eighteenth-century effusion in the manner of Rowe.

There is no trace of Fletcher or Ma.s.singer here.

APPENDIX XVI. MIDDLETONS A TRICK TO CATCH THE OLD ONE

_A Trick to catch the Old One_ is a lively play, mainly written in prose, in which an air of plausibility is skilfully cast around a farcical plot.

There can be no doubt that Ma.s.singer borrowed the idea of _A New Way_ from Middleton, as well as a few expressions.(582) In both plays there are an uncle who has strained the law to deprive his nephew of his lands, a rich widow whose supposed affection for the nephew converts the uncle to make reparation, and creditors who have to be satisfied. The servants (_A Trick_, IV., 4) who are to discharge their duties in h.o.a.rds new household may have suggested the group in Lady Allworths house who supply a comic element. On the other hand, the two plays are constructed on very different lines. The central point of _A Trick_ is the hatred of the two usurers, Lucre and h.o.a.rd, for one another, both being in the end cheated by the hero Witgood. In _A New Way_ there is only one usurer, Sir Giles.

_A Trick_, though well constructed, has a lame and hurried conclusion; and it is overloaded with minor characters, who help the action but littlein particular, the usurer Dampit seems to be introduced for no particular reason except to fill up the time with mediocre fun. The part played by the heroine, Joyce, is small and obscure. Then again, there can be no comparison between the slight figure of h.o.a.rd and the powerful creation of Sir Giles Overreach. Wellborn does nothing in the play that misbecomes a gentleman; the ingenuity with which he frames a plan to deceive his uncle leads us to believe that when he has repented his wild life he has the capacity to make good. His prototype, Witgood, on the other hand, is merely an amusing adventurer. Indeed, Middleton seems throughout to be pursuing with his vengeance the sharp practices of those who lend money to fast young men, and we certainly sympathize with his castigation of Lucre, h.o.a.rd, and Dampit. Ma.s.singers widow is a lady of birth and t.i.tle; Middletons is a courtesan in disguise. When she marries h.o.a.rd, though we feel some satisfaction at the deception which has been practised on him, we cannot help asking ourselves as the characters retire to the conventional wedding dinner of an Elizabethan comedy, whether the solution would have worked in real life. The answer is, that while we have been much amused, we have been cheated by the authors great skill and vivacity into accepting an improbable plot. Ma.s.singers play, on the other hand, contains little that might not have happened, and the conclusion is so arranged that there is every prospect of the characters living happily hereafter. While Middletons play is a charming extravaganza, Ma.s.singers has held the stage ever since. The one play can be acted now, the other cannot. This is not merely due to the fact that _A New Way_ has more dignity and refinement than its predecessor, but it is because Ma.s.singers characters behave like real beings.(583)

APPENDIX XVII

These two poems are copied from a folio MS. in the library of Trinity College, Dublin (G, 2, 21), containing compositions of Donne and other poets of the seventeenth century. They are to be found on pages 554-559.

The handwriting is that of the seventeenth century. I have reproduced the original punctuation and spelling. Mr. Grosart published the poems in _Englische Studien_, No. xxvi. He says that the librarian of Trinity, Dr.

T. K. Abbot, had grounds for supposing that the MS. had been in the possession of Trinity College for a century; he does not, however, state what the grounds are. As far as the dates go which are indicated in the volume, it might have pa.s.sed into the library with other books from Archbishop Usshers collection.

From the tone of line 16 of the first poem we may a.s.sume that it was addressed by Ma.s.singer when quite young to William, the third Earl of Pembroke.

I

The Copie of a Letter written upon occasion to the Earle of Pembrooke Lo: Chamberlaine

My Lord

p. 554

Soe subiect to the worser fame Are even the best that clayme a Poets name: Especially poore they that serve the stage Though worthily in this Verse-halting Age.

And that dread curse soe heavie yet doth lie Wch the wrongd Fates falne out wth Mercurie p.r.o.nouncd for ever to attend upon All such as onely dreame of Helicon.

That durst I sweare cheated by selfe opinion I were Apolloes or the Muses Mynion 10 Reason would yet a.s.sure me, tis decreed Such as are Poets borne, are borne to need.

If the most worthy then, whose pays but praise Or a few spriggs from the now withering bayes Grone underneath their wants what hope have I Scarce yet allowed one of the Company 16