FOOTNOTES:

"Shall never Frenchman say an English maidOf threats of forraine force will be afraid,"[1218]

"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 inFriar 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 ofJames 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 itutileas well asdulce. Some of the scenes in which Ida and the queen figure are, accordingly, almost altogether rhymed. The rhythmicalmovement is, however, no less liberal than inOrlandoandBacon; the proportion of monotone and penthimimeral is as low; and as many as fifty per cent of thecæsuræare 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 theLooking-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 theLooking-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 ofThe Troublesome Raigne of King John,[2] and of theFirst 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, andA Knack to Know a Knave.[1224]We can consider only the last three.

1. The earliest extant exemplar ofGeorge-a-Greene, the Pinner of Wakefieldis 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 1599Orlando; and the same printer, Burbye, had, in 1592, published other works of Greene: theThird Part of Conny-CatchingandThe 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 ofFriar Bacon, theydo 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 thedramatis personærefers to Tamberlaine.[1225]No light is thrown upon the authorship by contemporary publications; and, as late as Kirkman'sCatalogue, 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 inFriar BaconandJames 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 ofFriar 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 loveBreeds fretting humours in a restless mind."

"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 fancyis 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 inThe Pinner; nor the coloured negligence of Greene, the studied, off-hand blush, the conscious affectation of unconscious art. Of such devicesJames 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 allThe Pinner. The three or four classical allusions inThe Pinnerare stark. But Greene's employment of the mythological is never unattractive; it issui generis. It has always a quiddity of the indirect, the unexpected: a relish of distinction. These bald "Cæsars" and "Helenas" ofThe Pinnerare 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 theCivill Warand theLooking-Glasse, and suspect him inMucedorus. 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 inThe Pinner, the metrical style would fix its date just before or afterJames IV.It has the ease and variety ofBacon, but is as signal an experiment in conversational blank verse as wasJames IV.in rhymed dramatic; and it is a fairly successful experiment.

2.TheFirstPart of the Tragicall Raigne of Selimus(Creede, 1594) has been reclaimed for Greene by Dr. Grosart, principally on theevidence ofEngland's Parnassus(1600) which assigns to Greene two passages taken fromSelimus.[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 fromSelimusassigned by Allott to Greene, but upon the style of each passage. In theParnassus, 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 fromSelimusonDelaieandDamocleshave not Greene's characteristic, then twenty such assignments do not prove that he wroteSelimus. 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 theDelaie, or the platitude of theDamocles. 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 theAlphonsus: stanzaic form, and the crudities of rhythm, diction, and technique determine that; nor, on the other hand, could it have been written earlier than theAlphonsus, for withAlphonsusGreenebegan"to treat of bloody Mars." It is not incumbent upon me to find an author forSelimus, but I think that the probabilities indicate Lodge (circa1586-87). It has perhaps not been noted that Bullithrumble's lines (1955-1958) about godfathers are duplicated by Lodge's Alcon in theLooking-Glasse(l. 1603); and that the parlance of Bullithrumble is paralleled by Curtall and Poppey in Lodge'sCivill War(circa1587). The dogberryisms, clipped words, and inverted phrases of the same character are of a piece also with those of Mouse inMucedorus[1238]—aplay which has indeed so many of the idiosyncrasies that mark theCivill Warthat 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 inSelimus, and considers to be peculiarly Greene's, are to be found in theCivill Warand theMucedorus; and that some non-Greenian characteristics of theSelimusappear in one or the other of these plays. The "to-fore," for instance, which Dr. Grosart marks as Greenian inSelimusoccurs four times inMucedorusalone. The blank verse of theSelimusfinds its parallel in that of theCivill 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 theCivill Warare nearer akin to those of theSelimusthan to anything of Greene's.

3. 'Young Juvenall' and the 'Comedie lastly writ.'—"With thee" says Greene to Marlowe in theGroatsworth, "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 theLooking-Glasseand the 'Juvenal,' Lodge: TheLooking-Glassehad 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 considerationsI 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 theGroatsworth, "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 theGroatsworth, had the pamphlet in mind when he conceived this letter. Second,—The pains taken by Nashe, in hisStrange 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'sMenaphonand scoring Greene's rivals inThe 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'sAstrological Prognostication, and in the next, Greene'sQuip, 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 hisKnight's Conjuringof 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'sGroatsworth. "Marlow, Greene, and Peele," writes he, "had got under the shades of a large vynelaughing 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 agreenow?" A preciseGroatsworthissue to which Nashe responds in properGroatsworthphrase, with echo as well from his Preface to theMenaphon, 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 theGroatsworthgroup 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 forSummer's Last Will and Testament,[1249]on certain counts of R. W.'s diatribe inMartine Marsixtus,[1250]but I doubt whether it would convince. Simpson thinks that the 'comedie' was not improbablyA 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 readsA Knackcan 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 ofA Knackwas not foreign to the genius of Nashe; that two of the characters,the satirical commentator and the Welshman, have their counterparts in hisSummer'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 parallelsFriar Bacon, and in another[1254]theLooking-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'srococo,[1256]the style is more like that of theLast Will. To be sure there areseptenariiin theKnack, and none in theWill; 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 theKnackcalls itself "a most pleasant and merie newComedie," that Greene calls the play "lastly writ" a 'comedie,' and that no other play connected with his name save the doubtfulPinneris so described. Also that the date of theKnackaccords with the conditions: it was playedabout two months before theGroatsworthwas 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 fromThe 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 theConflict 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'sWyt and Science, but that is a different thing. The 'glass prospective' is adapted inFriar Baconto a species of stage business which is unique: thescene beside a scene,—a deviceessentially 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 theSpanish TragedyorHamlet, nor a mere mechanism for diversion as inJames IV.andMidsummer Night, nor an episode as inLove's Labor, nor a substitute for the initial movement like the play within theOld Wives' Tale, but a something that combines qualities from each. The parallel scene is at the same time its ownraison d'être, and a reflex of its principal which it multiplies and raises to a higher power.

Themotif—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 ofFaire Em, theKnack, and, I believe,1 Henry VI.There are likewise to be found precursors of Edward's renunciation, as in theCampaspe, and later instances, as in theKnackand 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 issui 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, theimpresario; 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, andcouleur 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 theKnack, Bridget inEvery Man in his Humour, Harriet in theMan of Mode, Dorinda in theBeaux' Stratagem, Lucinda in theConscious 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 thePostis 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 hisdramatic 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 theRare Triumphswas 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 weremember 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. Thisapologia, 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'sGroatsworthandShort Discourse of My Life(appended to theRepentance). Grosart'sIntroductionand Storojenko'sLifein Grosart'sGreene, 12 vols., Huth Library; Dyce'sAccount of R. Greene and his Writings; Bernhardi's R. Greene'sLeben u. Schriften; Ward'sHist. Engl. Dram. Lit.Also Grosart'sNasheandHarvey.[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 inNever Too Laterepresents 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 toPerimedes(S. R.March 29, 1588);Pandosto, pub. 1588;Menaphon, pub. August 1589 (perhaps before July, 1588); andCiceronis 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 hisLamb of Godhad "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 substaunceThe 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'sRegister, fol. 225, as in Grosart, I. Prefatory Note.[1153]See respectivelyHave with You, andStrange 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'sFoure Letters, pp. 9, 25.[1155]Brown (Grosart'sGreene, Vol. I., Introduction, xi.et seq.) arranges:A.,O. F., andF. B.(1584-87);Jas. IV., andPinner(1590-91);L.-G.(1591-92). Storojenko (Grosart, I., 167-226) arranges:A.(afterTamburl., 1587-88),O., andL.-G.(1588-89);Jas. IV., F. B.,Pinner(1589-92).[1156]No mention of theM. A., which is given when his name is attached to other plays.Alphonsusis neither mentioned by Henslowe, nor recordedS. R.[1157]Acted by the Admiral's men, 1587, according to Fleay.Ep.toMenaphon, which refers to it,mayhave been written as early as 1587 (Storojenko).[1158]Act. IV.; the lines 1578, 1579 do not look like additions.[1159]ProloguetoAlph., l. 28.[1160]Ward,E. D. L.l. 324 n.[1161]To the Famous and Fortunate Generals: "Mahomet's powand mighty Tamberlaine" (see Fleay,Life of Shakesp., pp. 96-97).[1162]SeePerymedes,Menaphon,Anatomie of Absurditie, and the opening ofGreene'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 asEnter Remilia; Sc. v. (Dy., pp. 124-126; Gros., ll. 654-868) Alcon, Thr., Lawy., Judge, Usur., as far asEnter 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., toExit 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 growOr 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 theL.-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 theSpan. Masquer.(S. R.February 1, 1589), verses calling Greene hisdoux amiandcompagnon 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 directionA 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 ofThe Defence of Connycatching.[1176]Fleay,Hist. Stage, pp. 76-82.[1177]Lee,Life of Shakespeare, p. 37.[1178]Probably theRose; Henslowe'sDiary. 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. alsoO. F.ll. 73-76 withO. 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 inPerymedes' Tale of the Third Night's Exercisenot only of 'Melissa' and her cousin 'Angelica,' but of 'Brandamant' and 'Rosilius,' who at once suggest the Brandimart and Rosillion ofOrlando.[1188]Life of Shakespeare, p. 96.[1189]Grosart, I. xxvi.[1190]See above, p.404.[1191]Between 1584 and 1588 (seeInductiontoBarth. 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 theMenaphonfirst appeared before July, 1588 (Greene, I. 104). In theEpistleprefixed to it, Nashe ridiculed theHamlet.[1193]Cf.O. F.ll. 83, 84, withTullie's Love(1589), "one orient margarite richer than those which Cæsar brought," etc.; andO. F.ll. 461, 462, withN. T. L.(published 1590); "If the Cobler hath taught thee to sayAve 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, andF. B.XI. 108; "Mars's paramour"—O. F.l. 1545,F. B.XIII. 47.[1195]Arber'sTranscript, II. 649.[1196]Bernhardi, Greene'sLeben u. Schriften, p. 40; Storojenko in Grosart, I. 253. Cf. Greene'sFair 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'sO. E. D.cxliii-cxliv.[1203]Dropping thequi 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. ofBaconto 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 theTaming 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 theS.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.Helurkesin flowres, he pearcheth on the trees,He on king's pillowes, bends hisprettieknees...."[1214]Continuing:—"It is apricke, it is asting,It is aprettie,prettiething.It is a fire, it is a coleWhose flamecreepsin 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 thingAs sweete unto a shepheard as a king."—The Shepheard's Wife's Song, as in Dyce, p. 305.Grosart's transcript ofQ.1616 (IX. 144) accidentally omits all but the last two lines of this song.[1216]Besides the frequent identity of tone, note such coincidences asJames IV.l. 2669, 'aldertruest,'M. G.(Descript. of Sheph. and Wife), 'alderliefest,' an archaism found nowhere else in Greene,—but in the Folio of 2Henry VI.l. 28 (prob. by Greene, Fleay,Shakespeare, p. 269). The sentiment of Philador'sScrowle and OdeinM. G.is a variant of the Ovidian precept ofJames IV.l. 1108.[1217]Lines 1575-1580, 2655-2699.[1218]Lines 1901-1902.[1219]To the Gentlemen ReadersofPerymedes.[1220]S. R.1594.[1221]Fleay,Hist. Stage, pp. 399, 400;Life of Shakesp., p. 255et seq.He guesses alsoTrue Chron. Hist. of Leir, Valentine and Orson, andRobin Hood(Hist. Stage, 89, 400).[1222]Phillips'sTheatrum Poetarum.[1223]Grosart inEnglische Stud.XXII. (1896).[1224]See under 'Young Juvenall' below.[1225]Line 48.[1226]Page401, 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 (forbeauty), 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 myAppendixtoFriar Bacon.[1235]OnDelaie, ll. 503-509; onDamocles, ll. 853-857.[1236]In Vol. I. ofGreene's Works, and in theTemple Dramatists.[1237]Hist. E. D. L.Vol. I.[1238]Lines 1980-1983 ofSelimusare reproduced inMucedorus(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]InKind Harts Dreame, 1592.[1243]Strange Newes, Sig.l.4.[1244]Ibid., Sig. c. 2, 3.[1245]SeeSaffron 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.ande.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 yettheyshame not to subscribe 'By a graduate in Cambridge' 'In Artibus Magister.' ...Theyare the Pharisees of our time," etc. Note the plural. But though Nashe had revived Will Somers in theL. W. and T., though he was entitled to subscribe himself "Graduate in C.," as Greene had done, and though Greene is theA. M.and intended "Pharisee," etc., the "scurrilous prognostications" and the other earmarks are hard to find inL. W. and T., as we have it. The "lute-string" passage (Dods. IX. 22) recalls Thrasybulus' remarks inLk.-Gl.Sc. v.; but that scene is probably by Lodge, and Nashe himself parallels the passage more closely inChrist's Tears(1593).[1251]Life of Shakesp., p. 109.[1252]Greene, I. lxii.[1253]Cf.Kn.(H. Dods. 514) withF. B., Sc. i. 155, "the vicarious wooing."[1254]Cf.Kn., Episode of Philarchus, withLk.-Gl., that of Radagon.[1255]Cf. the sequel of the vicarious wooing inKn.with that inF. 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., withLk.-Gl., Sc. viii. 1247;Kn.(p. 523), "disdain ... want," withLk.-Gl.1273;Kn.(p. 526), "Mother's curse ... hated," etc., withLk.-Gl.l. 1275. Resemblances to Lodge's lines are: Usurer,Kn.(pp. 548-549), andLk.-Gl., Scs. iii. v.;Kn., "My house ... goods," andLk.-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., withF. 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 ofPeeleand Wilson.[1258]Fleay,Life of Shakesp., and in Ward'sO. 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 theOdysseyand 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.

[1137]Greene'sGroatsworthandShort Discourse of My Life(appended to theRepentance). Grosart'sIntroductionand Storojenko'sLifein Grosart'sGreene, 12 vols., Huth Library; Dyce'sAccount of R. Greene and his Writings; Bernhardi's R. Greene'sLeben u. Schriften; Ward'sHist. Engl. Dram. Lit.Also Grosart'sNasheandHarvey.

[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 inNever Too Laterepresents 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 toPerimedes(S. R.March 29, 1588);Pandosto, pub. 1588;Menaphon, pub. August 1589 (perhaps before July, 1588); andCiceronis 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 hisLamb of Godhad "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 substaunceThe nature and the substance."—Gower,Conf. Am., VII.

[1147]"Physique is ... to techen ... of everichon" (herbs, stones, etc.),

"That ben of bodely substaunceThe nature and the substance."

"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'sRegister, fol. 225, as in Grosart, I. Prefatory Note.

[1153]See respectivelyHave with You, andStrange 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'sFoure Letters, pp. 9, 25.

[1155]Brown (Grosart'sGreene, Vol. I., Introduction, xi.et seq.) arranges:A.,O. F., andF. B.(1584-87);Jas. IV., andPinner(1590-91);L.-G.(1591-92). Storojenko (Grosart, I., 167-226) arranges:A.(afterTamburl., 1587-88),O., andL.-G.(1588-89);Jas. IV., F. B.,Pinner(1589-92).

[1156]No mention of theM. A., which is given when his name is attached to other plays.Alphonsusis neither mentioned by Henslowe, nor recordedS. R.

[1157]Acted by the Admiral's men, 1587, according to Fleay.Ep.toMenaphon, which refers to it,mayhave been written as early as 1587 (Storojenko).

[1158]Act. IV.; the lines 1578, 1579 do not look like additions.

[1159]ProloguetoAlph., l. 28.

[1160]Ward,E. D. L.l. 324 n.

[1161]To the Famous and Fortunate Generals: "Mahomet's powand mighty Tamberlaine" (see Fleay,Life of Shakesp., pp. 96-97).

[1162]SeePerymedes,Menaphon,Anatomie of Absurditie, and the opening ofGreene'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 asEnter Remilia; Sc. v. (Dy., pp. 124-126; Gros., ll. 654-868) Alcon, Thr., Lawy., Judge, Usur., as far asEnter 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., toExit 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 growOr tie my pen to penny-knaves delight,But live with fame and so for fame to write."

[1168]He vows:—

"To write no more of that whence shame doth growOr tie my pen to penny-knaves delight,But live with fame and so for fame to write."

"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 theL.-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 theSpan. Masquer.(S. R.February 1, 1589), verses calling Greene hisdoux amiandcompagnon 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 directionA 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 ofThe Defence of Connycatching.

[1176]Fleay,Hist. Stage, pp. 76-82.

[1177]Lee,Life of Shakespeare, p. 37.

[1178]Probably theRose; Henslowe'sDiary. 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."

[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."

"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. alsoO. F.ll. 73-76 withO. 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 inPerymedes' Tale of the Third Night's Exercisenot only of 'Melissa' and her cousin 'Angelica,' but of 'Brandamant' and 'Rosilius,' who at once suggest the Brandimart and Rosillion ofOrlando.

[1188]Life of Shakespeare, p. 96.

[1189]Grosart, I. xxvi.

[1190]See above, p.404.

[1191]Between 1584 and 1588 (seeInductiontoBarth. 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 theMenaphonfirst appeared before July, 1588 (Greene, I. 104). In theEpistleprefixed to it, Nashe ridiculed theHamlet.

[1193]Cf.O. F.ll. 83, 84, withTullie's Love(1589), "one orient margarite richer than those which Cæsar brought," etc.; andO. F.ll. 461, 462, withN. T. L.(published 1590); "If the Cobler hath taught thee to sayAve 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, andF. B.XI. 108; "Mars's paramour"—O. F.l. 1545,F. B.XIII. 47.

[1195]Arber'sTranscript, II. 649.

[1196]Bernhardi, Greene'sLeben u. Schriften, p. 40; Storojenko in Grosart, I. 253. Cf. Greene'sFair 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'sO. E. D.cxliii-cxliv.

[1203]Dropping thequi 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. ofBaconto 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 theTaming 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 theS.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.Helurkesin flowres, he pearcheth on the trees,He on king's pillowes, bends hisprettieknees...."

[1213]Continuing:—

"That like a Bee,Love hath a little sting.Helurkesin flowres, he pearcheth on the trees,He on king's pillowes, bends hisprettieknees...."

"That like a Bee,Love hath a little sting.

Helurkesin flowres, he pearcheth on the trees,

He on king's pillowes, bends hisprettieknees...."

[1214]Continuing:—"It is apricke, it is asting,It is aprettie,prettiething.It is a fire, it is a coleWhose flamecreepsin 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.

[1214]Continuing:—

"It is apricke, it is asting,It is aprettie,prettiething.It is a fire, it is a coleWhose flamecreepsin at everie hole...."

"It is apricke, it is asting,

It is aprettie,prettiething.

It is a fire, it is a cole

Whose flamecreepsin 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 thingAs sweete unto a shepheard as a king."—The Shepheard's Wife's Song, as in Dyce, p. 305.Grosart's transcript ofQ.1616 (IX. 144) accidentally omits all but the last two lines of this song.

[1215]July 1 or November 2:—

"Ah, what is love? It is a prettie thingAs sweete unto a shepheard as a king."

"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 ofQ.1616 (IX. 144) accidentally omits all but the last two lines of this song.

[1216]Besides the frequent identity of tone, note such coincidences asJames IV.l. 2669, 'aldertruest,'M. G.(Descript. of Sheph. and Wife), 'alderliefest,' an archaism found nowhere else in Greene,—but in the Folio of 2Henry VI.l. 28 (prob. by Greene, Fleay,Shakespeare, p. 269). The sentiment of Philador'sScrowle and OdeinM. G.is a variant of the Ovidian precept ofJames IV.l. 1108.

[1217]Lines 1575-1580, 2655-2699.

[1218]Lines 1901-1902.

[1219]To the Gentlemen ReadersofPerymedes.

[1220]S. R.1594.

[1221]Fleay,Hist. Stage, pp. 399, 400;Life of Shakesp., p. 255et seq.He guesses alsoTrue Chron. Hist. of Leir, Valentine and Orson, andRobin Hood(Hist. Stage, 89, 400).

[1222]Phillips'sTheatrum Poetarum.

[1223]Grosart inEnglische Stud.XXII. (1896).

[1224]See under 'Young Juvenall' below.

[1225]Line 48.

[1226]Page401, 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 (forbeauty), 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 myAppendixtoFriar Bacon.

[1235]OnDelaie, ll. 503-509; onDamocles, ll. 853-857.

[1236]In Vol. I. ofGreene's Works, and in theTemple Dramatists.

[1237]Hist. E. D. L.Vol. I.

[1238]Lines 1980-1983 ofSelimusare reproduced inMucedorus(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]InKind Harts Dreame, 1592.

[1243]Strange Newes, Sig.l.4.

[1244]Ibid., Sig. c. 2, 3.

[1245]SeeSaffron 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.ande.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 yettheyshame not to subscribe 'By a graduate in Cambridge' 'In Artibus Magister.' ...Theyare the Pharisees of our time," etc. Note the plural. But though Nashe had revived Will Somers in theL. W. and T., though he was entitled to subscribe himself "Graduate in C.," as Greene had done, and though Greene is theA. M.and intended "Pharisee," etc., the "scurrilous prognostications" and the other earmarks are hard to find inL. W. and T., as we have it. The "lute-string" passage (Dods. IX. 22) recalls Thrasybulus' remarks inLk.-Gl.Sc. v.; but that scene is probably by Lodge, and Nashe himself parallels the passage more closely inChrist's Tears(1593).

[1251]Life of Shakesp., p. 109.

[1252]Greene, I. lxii.

[1253]Cf.Kn.(H. Dods. 514) withF. B., Sc. i. 155, "the vicarious wooing."

[1254]Cf.Kn., Episode of Philarchus, withLk.-Gl., that of Radagon.

[1255]Cf. the sequel of the vicarious wooing inKn.with that inF. 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., withLk.-Gl., Sc. viii. 1247;Kn.(p. 523), "disdain ... want," withLk.-Gl.1273;Kn.(p. 526), "Mother's curse ... hated," etc., withLk.-Gl.l. 1275. Resemblances to Lodge's lines are: Usurer,Kn.(pp. 548-549), andLk.-Gl., Scs. iii. v.;Kn., "My house ... goods," andLk.-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., withF. 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 ofPeeleand Wilson.

[1258]Fleay,Life of Shakesp., and in Ward'sO. 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 theOdysseyand 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.

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