Chapter III: Introduction (2)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In the lines,

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

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

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

When Don Sago in iv. 3 exclaims--

"A hundred times in life a coward dies,"

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

"Cowards die many times before their death;"

and Sago's lament in v. 1,

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Crack not the sinews of my patience,"

which is ridiculed in _The Poetaster_--

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

In act ii. are these ridiculous lines--

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

so in _The Poetaster_--

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Presently the poet indulges in his invocation:--

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Your truly devoted,

"WILLIAM SHEARES."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"_To acute Mr. John Marston._

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ADDENDA.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ERRATA.

VOL. I.

Page 64, line 48, for _Tyrrian_ read _Tyrian_.

Page 120, note 2, for _Grumean_ read _Grumeau_.

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

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

VOL. II.

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

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

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

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

VOL. III.

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

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

ADDITIONAL CORRECTIONS AND EMENDATIONS.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FIRST PART

OF

ANTONIO AND MELLIDA.

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

STORY OF THE PLAY.

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

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

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

J. M.

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

_DRAMATIS PERSONÆ._[33]

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

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

SCENE--VENICE AND THE NEIGHBOURHOOD.

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

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

INDUCTION.[35]

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

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

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

_Alb._ Whom do you personate?

_Pier._ Piero, Duke of Venice.

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

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

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

_Pier._ Good: but whom act you? 20

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

_Gal._ Well, and what dost thou play?

_Bal._ The part of all the world.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

_Feli._ Why, what must you play?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

_Feli._ What then?

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

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

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

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

[_Exeunt._

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

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

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

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

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

[40] Rents, cracks.

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

[42] Hurl violently.

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

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

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

[46] Old eds. "_Exit_ ALB."

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

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

[49] A bottle for sprinkling perfumes.

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

THE PROLOGUE.

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

[_Exit_ Prologue.

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

THE FIRST PART

OF

ANTONIO AND MELLIDA.