Chapter 9

(1)[The Portuguese Court.AndreaandBalthezarexchange defiance.]

(1)

[The Portuguese Court.AndreaandBalthezarexchange defiance.]

Andrea.Prince Balthezar, shall's meet?Balthezar.Meet, Don Andrea? yes, in the battle's bowels;Here is my gage, a never-failing pawn;'Twill keep his day, his hour, nay minute, 'twill.Andrea.Then thine and this, possess one quality.Balthezar.O, let them kiss!Did I not understand thee noble, valiant,And worthy my sword's society with thee,For all Spain's wealth I'd not grasp hands.Meet Don Andrea? I tell thee, noble spirit,I'd wade up to the knees in blood, I'd makeA bridge of Spanish carcases, to single theeOut of the gasping army.Andrea.Woot thou, prince?Why, even for that I love [thee].Balthezar.Tut, love me, man, when we have drunkHot blood together; wounds will tieAn everlasting settled amity,And so shall thine.

Andrea.Prince Balthezar, shall's meet?

Balthezar.Meet, Don Andrea? yes, in the battle's bowels;Here is my gage, a never-failing pawn;'Twill keep his day, his hour, nay minute, 'twill.

Andrea.Then thine and this, possess one quality.

Balthezar.O, let them kiss!Did I not understand thee noble, valiant,And worthy my sword's society with thee,For all Spain's wealth I'd not grasp hands.Meet Don Andrea? I tell thee, noble spirit,I'd wade up to the knees in blood, I'd makeA bridge of Spanish carcases, to single theeOut of the gasping army.

Andrea.Woot thou, prince?Why, even for that I love [thee].

Balthezar.Tut, love me, man, when we have drunkHot blood together; wounds will tieAn everlasting settled amity,And so shall thine.

(2)[On the battle-fieldAndreasearches forBalthezar.]

(2)

[On the battle-fieldAndreasearches forBalthezar.]

Andrea.—Prince Balthezar!Portugal's valiant heir!The glory of our foe, the heart of courage,The very soul of true nobility,I call thee by thy right name: answer me!Go, captain, pass the left wing squadron; hie:Mingle yourself again amidst the army;Pray, sweat to find him out.— [ExitCaptain.]This place I'll keep.Now wounds are wide, and blood is very deep;'Tis now about the heavy tread of battle;Soldiers drop down as thick as if death mowed them;As scythe-men trim the long-haired ruffian fields,So fast they fall, so fast to fate life yields.

Jeronimohas given us a really notable villain. From the first this character gains and holds our attention by the intellectuality of his wickedness. He is no common stabber, nor the kind of wretch who murders for amusement. Jealousy, the darkest and most potent of motives, lies behind his hate. He would have Andrea dead. But his position as the Duke of Castile's son forbids the notion of staining his own hands in blood. A hired creature must be his tool, whose secrecy may be secured either by bribery or death, preferably by death. A double plot, too, must be laid, so that, if one part fails, the other may bring success. So we watch the net being spread around the feet of the unwary victim, and hold our breath as the critical moment approaches when a chance recognition will decide everything. Undoubtedlythe author has achieved a genuine triumph in all this. Some of us may see the germ of his villain in Edwards's Carisophus; there is the same element of craft and double-dealing, of laying unseen snares for the innocent. But it is no more than the germ. The advance beyond the earlier sketch is immense. Lazarotto, the perfect instrument for crime, has not Lorenzo's position, wealth or motive; nevertheless a family likeness exists between the two. Lazarotto's cynicism is of an intellectual order, as is his ready lying to avert suspicion from his master. Perhaps the most shuddering moment of the play is when he leans carelessly against the wall, waiting for his victim, 'like a court-hound that licks fat trenchers clean.' We fear and loathe him for the callous brutality of that simile and for that careless posture. Yet even he cannot fathom the blackness of Lorenzo's soul, and falls a prey to a greater treachery than his own. This cunning removal of a lesser villain by a greater is repeated inThe Spanish Tragedyand is closely imitated by Marston inAntonio's Revenge(orThe Second Part of Antonio and Mellida). Lorenzo and Lazarotto together are the first of a famous line of stage-villains. Amongst their celebrated descendants may be named Tourneur's D'Amville and Borachio, Webster's Ferdinand and Bosola, and the already referred-to Piero and Strotzo of Marston.

All the other characters, except one, reproduce familiar types of brave soldiers and proud monarchs. Jeronimo himself, however, stands apart. Though completely overshadowed in our memory by his terrible development in the next play, he has here a certain independent interest on account of age and humour. True, he announces that he is just fifty, which is no great age. But he is old, as Lear is old; he is called the father of his kingdom. Vague, fleeting yet recurrentis the resemblance between him and Polonius. Tradition bids us regard Polonius as an intentionally humorous creation. Jeronimo's humour is of the same family. We feel sure that this newly appointed Marshal of Spain pottered about the Court, wagging his beard sagaciously over the unwisdom of youth, his mind full of responsibility, his heart of courage, but his tongue letting fall, every now and then, simple half-foolish sayings which betrayed the approach of dotage. He is very short, and exhibits a childish vanity in constantly referring to his shortness. 'As short my body, short shall be my stay.' 'My mind's a giant, though my bulk be small.' By such quaint speeches does he excite our smiles. And yet, by a very human touch, he is represented as furiously resenting any slighting allusion, by any one else, to his stature. In thepourparlersbefore battle Prince Balthezar grows impertinent. But we will quote the lines, and so take leave of Jeronimo.

[The Portuguese have already made a demonstration, with drums and colours.]

Jeronimo.What, are you braving us before we come!We'll be as shrill as you. Strike 'larum, drum![They sound a flourish on both sides.]Balthezar.Thou inch of Spain!Thou man, from thy hose downward scarce so much!Thou very little longer than thy beard!Speak not such big words; they'll throw thee down,Little Jeronimo! words greater than thyself!It must not [be].Jeronimo.And thou long thing of Portugal, why not?Thou, that art full as tallAs an English gallows, upper beam and all;Devourer of apparel, thou huge swallower,My hose will scarce make thee a standing collar.What! have I almost quited you?Andrea.Have done, impatient marshal.

Jeronimo.What, are you braving us before we come!We'll be as shrill as you. Strike 'larum, drum!

[They sound a flourish on both sides.]

Balthezar.Thou inch of Spain!Thou man, from thy hose downward scarce so much!Thou very little longer than thy beard!Speak not such big words; they'll throw thee down,Little Jeronimo! words greater than thyself!It must not [be].

Jeronimo.And thou long thing of Portugal, why not?Thou, that art full as tallAs an English gallows, upper beam and all;Devourer of apparel, thou huge swallower,My hose will scarce make thee a standing collar.What! have I almost quited you?

Andrea.Have done, impatient marshal.

The Spanish Tragedycontinues the story ofJeronimo. Balthazar (the spelling has changed) is brought back to Spain, the joint captive of Horatio and Lorenzo: to the former, however, is allotted the ransom, while to the latter falls the privilege of guarding the prisoner in honourable captivity. The Portuguese prince now falls in love with Bell'-Imperia, and has her brother's full consent to the match. But that lady has already transferred her affections to young Horatio. Lorenzo encourages Balthazar to solve the difficulty by the young man's death. While Bell'-Imperia and Horatio are making love together by night in a garden-bower, Lorenzo, Balthazar and two servants (Serberine and Pedringano) surprise them and hang Horatio to a tree beside the entrance. They then decamp with the lady, whom they forthwith shut up closely in her room at home. Old Hieronimo (formerly Jeronimo), alarmed by the outcry, rushes into the garden, closely followed by his wife Isabella. The body is instantly cut down, but life is extinct.—The rest of the play, from the beginning of the third act, is concerned with Hieronimo's revenge. It is a terrible story. His first information as to the names of the murderers reaches him in a message, written in blood, from Bell'-Imperia. This, however, he fears as a trap, and attempts to corroborate it from the girl's own lips. Unfortunately he only succeeds in awakening the suspicions of Lorenzo, who, to make the secret surer, bribes Pedringano to murder Serberine, at the same time arranging for watchmen to arrest Pedringano. Balthazar is drawn into the matter that he may press forward the execution of Serberine's murderer, while Lorenzo poses to the wretch as his friend with promises of pardon. Pedringano consequently is beguiled to death. Lorenzo is now at ease, and enlarges his sister's liberty. The suggestion of a political marriage between her andBalthazar is warmly supported by the king. Alone among the courtiers Hieronimo is plunged in unabated grief, uncertain where to seek revenge. By good fortune Pedringano, before his trial, wrote a confession, which the hangman finds and delivers to the Marshal. This corroborates the statement of Bell'-Imperia. Yet it brings small comfort, as it seems impossible to strike so high as at Lorenzo and Balthazar. In his despair Hieronimo contemplates suicide, until he remembers that the act would leave the murderers unpunished. He cries aloud before the king for justice, digs frantically into the earth with his dagger in mad excess of misery, then hurries away without telling his wrong. He haunts his garden at night-time; and in the silence of that darkness at last hits upon a scheme: under the appearance of quietness and simplicity he will return to Lorenzo's society, awaiting his time to strike. As if to soothe him with the thought that his griefs are shared by others, chance brings before him one, Bazulto, an old man also bereaved of his son by murder. The reminder, however, is too sharp: Hieronimo becomes temporarily mad, mistaking Bazulto for Horatio and uttering pathetic laments over the change that has passed over his youthful beauty.

Sweet boy, how art thou chang'd in death's black shade!Had Proserpine no pity on thy youth,But suffer'd thy fair crimson-colour'd springWith withered winter to be blasted thus?Horatio, thou art older than thy father.

When the fit passes, he and Bazulto go off together, one in their misery. But the guileful scheme is not forgotten. Some one has observed the strained relations between the Marshal and Lorenzo: Lorenzo's father insists on a reconciliation, and Hieronimo cordially agrees. Even when the final ratification is given to Bell'-Imperia's marriagewith Balthazar, Hieronimo is all smiles and acquiescence. He is willing to heighten the festivities with a play. Lorenzo, Balthazar, Bell'-Imperia and himself are to be the actors, though two of them demur at first at the choice of a tragedy. Still Lorenzo suspects no harm, for he is not present at the interview between the girl and the old man, in which she denounces his apparently weakening thirst for revenge, only to learn the secret of that gentle exterior. Unhappily, the delay of justice has preyed too grievously upon the mind of Isabella. There have been moments when she ran frantic. In a final throe of madness, having hacked down the fatal tree, she thrusts the knife into her own breast. The great day comes, and before the Viceroy of Portugal (father of Balthazar), the Spanish king, the Duke of Castile, and their train, Hieronimo's tragedy is acted. Real daggers, however, have been substituted for wooden ones. As the play proceeds, Bell'-Imperia kills Balthazar and herself, while Hieronimo slays Lorenzo. The only one left alive, Hieronimo, now explains the terrible realism behind all this seeming. Castile and the Viceroy learn that their children are dead, two of them killed to revenge the murder of Horatio. The drawing aside of the curtain at the back of the stage reveals that youth's corpse, avenged at last. Horrible scenes follow, Hieronimo being prevented from hanging himself as he intended. But, desperate, he bites out his tongue, stabs the Duke of Castile, and succeeds in killing himself. The Ghost of Andrea and Revenge, who opened the play and served as chorus to three previous acts, now close the play in triumph.

We may omit from our consideration the additions to the original supplied by Ben Jonson or some other dramatist of genius. These include the famous 'Painter'episode, part of the scene where Hieronimo finds his son's body hanging to a tree, his wonderful discourse to the 'two Portingals' on the nature of a son, and a section of the last scene. The strange hand is easily recognizable in the rugged irregularity and forcefulness of the lines. Attributable to it is the major portion of Hieronimo's madness, which accordingly occupies but a small space in our outline of the play. Structurally, the plot gains nothing by the additions; indeed, the 'Painter' episode duplicates and thereby weakens the effect of the conversation between Hieronimo and Bazulto. Nevertheless we will venture to quote a few lines from the speech to the Portingals, inasmuch as they aptly describe the underlying principle of the tragedy:

Well, heaven is heaven still!And there is Nemesis and furies,And things call'd whips;And they sometimes do meet with murderers:They do not always escape, that's some comfort.Ay, ay, ay, and then time steals on, and steals, and steals,Till violence leaps forth, like thunder, wrapp'dIn a ball of fire,And so doth bring confusion to them all.

From the hour of Horatio's dastardly murder we wait for Nemesis to fall upon the murderers. We see Lorenzo fortifying himself against detection; we watch, while 'time steals on, and steals, and steals'; Isabella, tired of waiting, kills herself; Hieronimo himself threatens to fail us, so terrible are his sufferings; the crime seems forgotten by those who committed it; its reward is about to drop into Balthazar's hands; and then, at last, 'violence leaps forth, like thunder, ... and so doth bring confusion to them all'.

When we remember the date, as early as, or earlierthan, Marlowe'sDoctor Faustus, we may be excused if we callThe Spanish Tragedya triumph of dramatic genius. Fully to appreciate its greatness we have only to compare the plot with that of any preceding tragedy, or of any play by Lyly, Greene, or Peele. In none of them shall we find anything approaching the masterful grip upon its spectators, the appeal to their sympathies, the alternation of fear and hope, the skilful subordination of many incidents to one purpose, the absolute rightness yet horror of the conclusion (the inset play), of Kyd's tragedy. It will repay us to examine some of the details of its workmanship.

The crisis begins, for the first time, to gravitate towards the centre of the play. In Classical Drama tragedies open with the crisis. English tragedies of the Senecan type tend to adopt the same practice:Gorboducbegins with Videna's report of the proposal to divide the kingdom;The Misfortunes of Arthurbegins with the king's return, referred to as imminent. Even the first scene ofDoctor Faustuspresents Faustus rejecting divinity for magic, while Mephistophilis enters in the third scene. By delaying the crisis, however, two great advantages are secured: the necessity of the catastrophe is more fully recognized by the spectators; and their capacity for emotion is not strained to the point of weariness before the last great scene is reached. Yet the sense of tragedy must not be entirely absent from the first part; otherwise the gravity of the crisis will come with too great a shock. Kyd's purpose in introducing the Villuppo incident is here discovered. He uses it with much skill as a counterbalance to the aspect of the main plot. Thus, immediately after the apparent satisfaction of the rival claims of Horatio and Lorenzo, he places the unsuspected treachery of Villuppo to Alexandro, as if to warnus not to judge merely from the surface: but when the wickedness of Lorenzo attains its blackest moment in the murder of Horatio, he supplies a ray of hope by the presentment of Villuppo's punishment, to let us know that justice still reigns in the world. Further, the intense (though needless) grief of the Viceroy over the supposed death of his son prepares us for the agony of Hieronimo, while the narrow escape of the innocent Alexandro excites our repugnance for hasty revenge and makes us sympathetically tolerant of Hieronimo's equally extreme caution in ascertaining that Lorenzo really is the murderer. We could wish, perhaps, that Kyd had found material for these two scenes in the Spanish Court: the transition to the Portuguese palace is a far and sudden flight. But his recognition of the artistic need of such scenes is notable and sound.

It is worth while to observe the close interweaving, the subtle irony and contrasts, the perfect harmony of the details. We must review them quite briefly. To illustrate the first, Pedringano's letter is not the 'wonderful discovery' that usually saves lost situations in weak novels: it has been referred to by him as already written before the Page takes Lorenzo's message, and its incriminating contents have been clearly indicated; nothing, moreover, could be more in order than that it should be found on him by the hangman and delivered to the judge who passed sentence. Or again, the success of Hieronimo's masque in the first act supplies the reason for Balthazar's request for a play at his wedding; that last tragedy is not suggested fortuitously to accommodate some previous scheme of Hieronimo's. The powerful nature of the meeting between Hieronimo and Bazulto was recognized by that other writer who added the 'Painter' episode in close imitation of it. But almost as bitter inits irony is the position of Hieronimo as judge, executing justice upon Serberine's murderer while his own son's murderers go scot free. Grimly ironical, too, is Castile's satisfaction in the reconciliation of Lorenzo and the Marshal, and grimmer and more ironical still the request for the fatal play by Lorenzo and Balthazar themselves, who of all men should most have shrunk from it. The most critical element in the general harmony of the play is the character of Bell'-Imperia. Kyd's women are his weak point, and this heroine is no brilliant exception. We certainly do not fall in love with her. But his sense of what is needed for the right tragic effect carries him through successfully in essential matters. Were Bell'-Imperia weak, irresolute, had she the feeble constancy of Massinger's or Heywood's famous heroines, there would be a wrecking flaw in the accumulated, resistless demand for revenge. As it is, her love for Horatio is passionate (though lacking delicacy), her responses to Balthazar's advances are cold, and her reproachful words to Hieronimo, for his delay in striking, proclaim her entirely at one with him in his final action. The part played by Isabella is also subordinated to the total effect. It may be questioned whether her madness does not weaken by exaggeration the impression made by Hieronimo's frenzy; but it must be remembered that her part was provided before the additional mad scenes, the work of the later hand, were included in the play. Kyd deliberately chose that her madness should precede and prepare us for the madness of Hieronimo, and it must be admitted that the interpolator's departure from this order has little to be said in its favour. As the weaker character, Isabella should be the first to collapse. Her frantic death, just before the 'play', emphasizes the imperative necessity that the long postponement of justice should be ended atlast. With never failing watchfulness of his audience Kyd softens the tension directly afterwards with a few light touches on the staging and disguises required for the forthcoming performance. Lastly, the choice of a court tragedy as the instrument of Hieronimo's revenge is admirable alike for its naturalness and for dramatic effect as a flashlight re-illumination of Lorenzo's and Balthazar's crime in all its horror, in the very hour of their punishment. Lorenzo, under the figure of Erastus, is forced to occupy the position once held by Horatio; Hieronimo, for the time being, becomes a second Lorenzo, abettor to the treacherous guest; thus Lorenzo falls by the same fate that he visited upon Horatio. Balthazar plays his own part under a new name; he is still the stranger basely seeking the love given to another; but this time he meets the reward due to treachery, slain by the hand of Bell'-Imperia.—The death of Hieronimo, badly mismanaged, is the only real blot upon the artistry of the play. It must be passed over with a sigh of regret, in the same way as we accept, as inexplicable, the 'Out, vile jelly!' ofKing Lear. To seize upon it as typical of the nature of the tragedy would be very unfair.

Hieronimo is the great character of the play. Most of the others are mere continuations, serviceable enough but without improvement, of those inJeronimo, Pedringano being a second edition of Lazarotto. But from the outline sufficient may be gathered to make unnecessary a long analysis of the author's new and greatest creation. We see in it originality of conception; we are touched by its intense humanness and by its inherent simplicity; but we are startled by its change, its growth, under the influence of circumstances, to a certain subtle complexity. All are great qualities, but the last is the greatest. Growth, the reaction of events upon character—not the easily portrayed action of character upon events—are the marks by which we recognize the work of the master-artists in characterization. We can guess at the tragic intensity of human sorrow from the difference between the simple-minded little Marshal who acts as Master of the Revels in arranging a 'show' and illustrates his reason for preferring Horatio's claim to be Balthazar's captor by quaint parallels from some old fable, and the arch-deceiver who can converse easily with the Duke of Castile as he fixes up the curtain that is to conceal Horatio's corpse and be the background to the murder of the duke's only son and daughter. Hieronimo's smallest claim to greatness, yet a considerable one, is the fact that he revealed to playwrights the strength and horror of madness on the stage. Of the extent to which Shakespeare made use of this character and certain scenes a reminder may be added. InHamletis found madness, assumed simplicity, delay in action, the invisible influence of the supernatural, and sacrifice of the avenger's life in the attainment of revenge, besides the ordinarily remembered adoption of an inset play.King Lear, in the scene between the king and Edgar on the heath, echoes the scene between Hieronimo and Bazulto.

Humour is absent from the play, unless we extend the courtesy of that name to the grim hoax (explained to us by a chuckling page, who thoroughly enjoys his part in it) practised by Lorenzo upon Pedringano, and the consequently mocking spirit of jest which pervades the hall of judgment during the misguided wretch's trial. The pert confidence of the prisoner, at the foot of the gallows, in the saving contents of a certain box, which the audience knows to be empty, is dramatic irony in its bitterest form.

Hard words have been written about the horrible scenes in the play, as though it were a huddled-up bundle ofbloodshed and ghosts. Such a conception is far from the truth. Horror is an element in almost all powerful tragedies; it is hardly to be separated from any unexpected or violent death. We reject it as monstrous only when its cause is the product of a vile and unnatural motive, or of a motive criminally insufficient to explain the impulse. What is repulsive inArden of Feversham, and in such recognized 'Tragedies of Blood' as have Tourneur, Marston and Webster for their authors, is the utter callousness of the murderers, and their base aims, or disgusting lack of any reasonable excuse for their crimes. When D'Amville pushes his brother over the edge of the quarry, or Antonio stabs the child Julio, or Bosola heaps torments upon the Duchess of Malfi, we turn away with loathing because the deed is either cruelly undeserved or utterly unwarranted by the gain expected from it. Alice Arden's murder of her husband is mainly detestable because her ulterior motive is detestable. Again, the ghosts which Marston and Chapman give us are absurd creatures of 'too, too solid flesh', who will sit on the bed to talk comfortably to one, draw the curtains when one wishes to sleep, or play the scout and call out in warning whenever danger threatens. Kyd does not serve up crime and the supernatural world thus. He shows us terrible things, it is true. But the causes are to be found deep down in the primary impulses of man, in jealousy, in fear, in despair, in blood-revenge. These impulses are not vile; our moral code does not cry out against them as it does against lust, greed, and motiveless cruelty. When we rise from the play it is not with a sense that we have moved amongst base creatures. Lorenzo repels us; but it is Hieronimo who dominates the stage, filling us with pity for his wrongs and weakness. The supernatural remains outside nature, crude, as all stage representations of it must be, but unobtrusive (and, in the prologue, at least, thoroughly dignified), serving a useful purpose in keeping before us the imminence of Nemesis biding its appointed hour. It is not easy to suggest how better an insistence upon this loftymotifcould have been maintained.

If we now revert to our former statement of the essential elements of a successful tragedy we find that each has been included and lifted to a high level in Kyd's masterpiece. The catastrophe is not only overwhelming but greatly just. The figure of Hieronimo has set a new standard in characterization. Scene after scene stamps itself on our memory. And the procrastinating evolution of the plot keeps us in fear, in hope, in uncertainty to the last. If this estimate of the greatness of the play seems exaggerated, we may fairly ask what other tragedy, before its date, combines all four qualities in the same degree of excellence.Doctor FaustusandThe Jew of Maltacontain far more wonderful verse, and the former holds within it grander material for tragedy, but as an example of tragic craftmanshipThe Spanish Tragedyis inferior to neither. It can be shown that both suffer very seriously from the neglect of one or more of the four essentials which we have named.

It is only fair to the reader to add that entirely opposite views to those set forth above have been expressed by other writers. Perhaps the most slashing criticism of the play is that by Mr. Courthope.[64]

It remains to illustrate Kyd's verse. InThe Spanish Tragedyit still clings to the occasional use of rhyme, as inJeronimo. Moreover it is becoming, if anything, more restrained, less spontaneously natural. The weight of tragedy seems to oppress the poetic inspiration, so that itrarely ventures outside the limits of melancholy dignity or regulated passion. Kyd's formalism is, unfortunately for him, magnified by its contrast with the superb freedom of the interpolated passages. If we resolutely shut our eyes to these patches of fierce irregularity, we shall be better able to criticize the author's own work by the standard of his contemporaries. The uncertainty of priority in time encourages a comparison between Kyd and Marlowe. It is fairly clear that the former was not much influenced by the latter, or he would have caught the taint of rant and bombast which infected Greene and Peele. If, then, Kyd's blank verse is an original development of the verse ofGorboducand other Senecan plays, and if he is the author ofJeronimo—the verse of which, as may have been seen from the quotations offered, is very much freer than that ofThe Spanish Tragedy—he must share some of the honour accorded to Marlowe as the father of dramatic blank verse. The two men are not on the same level as poets. Marlowe's muse soars repeatedly to heights which Kyd's can only reach at rare moments. Nevertheless, a comparison of Kyd's better passages with those of Sackville and Hughes will demonstrate how much blank verse might have owed to his creative spirit had not Marlowe arisen at the same time to eclipse him by his greater genius. Isolated extracts offer a poor criterion, but the following—to be read in conjunction with those selected fromJeronimoandSoliman and Perseda—will help the reader to form at least an idea of Kyd's originality and ability:

(1)[Isabellarejects all medicine for her grief.]

(1)

[Isabellarejects all medicine for her grief.]

Isabella.So that you say this herb will purge the eye,And this the head. Ah, but none of them will purge the heart!No, there's no medicine left for my disease,Nor any physic to recure the dead. [She runs lunatic.Horatio! O, where's Horatio?Maid.Good madam, affright not thus yourselfWith outrage for your son Horatio;He sleeps in quiet in the Elysian fields.Isabella.Why, did I not give you gowns and goodly things?Bought you a whistle and a whipstalk[65]too,To be revenged on their villanies?Maid.Madam, these humours do torment my soul.Isabella.My soul, poor soul; thou talk'st of things—Thou know'st not what: my soul hath silver wings,That mount me up unto the highest heavens:To heaven! ay, there sits my Horatio,Back'd with a troop of fiery cherubims,Dancing about his newly-healed wounds,Singing sweet hymns, and chanting heavenly notes,Rare harmony to greet his innocence,That died, ay, died a mirror in our days.But say, where shall I find the men, the murderers,That slew Horatio? Whither shall I runTo find them out that murdered my son? [Exeunt.

Maid.Good madam, affright not thus yourselfWith outrage for your son Horatio;He sleeps in quiet in the Elysian fields.

Isabella.Why, did I not give you gowns and goodly things?Bought you a whistle and a whipstalk[65]too,To be revenged on their villanies?

Maid.Madam, these humours do torment my soul.

Isabella.My soul, poor soul; thou talk'st of things—Thou know'st not what: my soul hath silver wings,That mount me up unto the highest heavens:To heaven! ay, there sits my Horatio,Back'd with a troop of fiery cherubims,Dancing about his newly-healed wounds,Singing sweet hymns, and chanting heavenly notes,Rare harmony to greet his innocence,That died, ay, died a mirror in our days.But say, where shall I find the men, the murderers,That slew Horatio? Whither shall I runTo find them out that murdered my son? [Exeunt.

(2)[Hieronimo,recovering his mental balance, perceives thatBazultois not his son.]

(2)

[Hieronimo,recovering his mental balance, perceives thatBazultois not his son.]

Ay, now I know thee, now thou nam'st thy son:Thou art the lively image of my grief;Within thy face my sorrows I may see:Thy eyes are gumm'd with tears, thy cheeks are wan,Thy forehead troubled, and thy muttering lipsMurmur sad words abruptly broken off;By force of windy sighs thy spirit breathes;And all this sorrow riseth for thy son.And selfsame sorrow feel I for my son.Come in, old man, thou shalt to Isabel;Lean on my arm; I thee, thou me, shalt stay;And thou and I, and she, will sing a song,Three parts in one, but all of discords fram'd.—Talk not of chords, but let us now be gone,For with a cord Horatio was slain.

Soliman and Persedainvites little further attention than that which one scene and one character alone demand. Its sharp descent from the tremendous force ofThe Spanish Tragedyis, however, slightly redeemed by the poetic warmth of its love passages. Love is the motive of the plot. Apart from that it sins unforgivably against probability, good taste, reason, and justice. Its reckless distribution of death is such that every one of the fourteen named characters come to a violent end, besides numerous nameless wretches referred to generically as witnesses or executioners. Nor is any attempt made to show just cause for their destruction. We could almost deny that the author of the previous tragedy had any hand in this play, did we not know, on the authority of his own signature, that the same author thought it worth his labour to translateCornéliefor the English stage. The fact was that dramatists had not yet the courage always to place their own artistic inclinations above the need of gratifying an unformed public taste, so that the same man may be found composing plays of widely differing natures for, presumably, different audiences.

The single character deserving mention is the boastful knight, Basilisco, whose incredible vaunts and invariable preference for the very freest of blank verse, in a play almost entirely exempt from either, read like an intentional burlesque ofTamburlaine. If so, and the suggestion is not ill-founded or improbable, it may be interpreted as an emphatic rejection of the influence of Marlowe and as a claim, on Kyd's part, to sole credit for his own form of tragedy and blank verse.

The only scene of conspicuous merit is that in which the Turkish Emperor, Soliman, attempts to kill his fair captive, Perseda, for rejecting his love, but is overcome by her beauty. It is quite short, but is handled with power and embellished with touches of delicate poetry. The best of it may be quoted here, together with a specimen of the Basilisco burlesque.

(1)[Soliman'sBashawbrings to him the two fairest captives from Rhodes.]

(1)

[Soliman'sBashawbrings to him the two fairest captives from Rhodes.]

Soliman.This present pleaseth more than all the rest;And, were their garments turn'd from black to white,I should have deem'd them Juno's goodly swans,Or Venus' milkwhite doves, so mild they are,And so adorn'd with beauty's miracle.Here, Brusor, this kind turtle shall be thine;Take her, and use her at thy pleasure.But this kind turtle is for Soliman,That her captivity may turn to bliss.Fair looks, resembling Phoebus' radiant beams;Smooth forehead, like the table of high Jove;Small pencill'd eyebrows, like two glorious rainbows;Quick lamplike eyes, like heav'n's two brightest orbs;Lips of pure coral, breathing ambrosy;Cheeks, where the rose and lily are in combat;Neck whiter than the snowy Apennines:A sweeter creature nature never made;Love never tainted Soliman till now.. . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . .

[Perseda,however, will not yield to his amorous proposals.]

Soliman.Then kneel thee down,And at my hands receive the stroke of death,Doom'd to thyself by thine own wilfulness.Perseda.Strike, strike; thy words pierce deeper than thy blows.Soliman.Brusor, hide her; for her looks withhold me.[ThenBrusorhides her with a veil.]O Brusor, thou hast not hid her lips;For there sits Venus with Cupid on her knee,And all the graces smiling round about her,So craving pardon, that I cannot strike.Brusor.Her face is cover'd over quite, my lord.Soliman.Why, so. O Brusor, seest thou notHer milkwhite neck, that alabaster tower?'Twill break the edge of my keen scimitar,And pieces, flying back, will wound myself.Brusor.Now she is all covered, my lord.Soliman.Why, now at last she dies.Perseda.O Christ, receive my soul!Soliman.Hark, Brusor; she calls on Christ:I will not send her to him. Her words are music,The selfsame music that in ancient daysBrought Alexander from war to banqueting,And made him fall from skirmishing to kissing.No, my dear love would not let me kill thee,Though majesty would turn desire to wrath:There lies my sword, humbled at thy feet;And I myself, that govern many kings,Entreat a pardon for my rash misdeed.

Soliman.Then kneel thee down,And at my hands receive the stroke of death,Doom'd to thyself by thine own wilfulness.

Perseda.Strike, strike; thy words pierce deeper than thy blows.

Soliman.Brusor, hide her; for her looks withhold me.

[ThenBrusorhides her with a veil.]

O Brusor, thou hast not hid her lips;For there sits Venus with Cupid on her knee,And all the graces smiling round about her,So craving pardon, that I cannot strike.

Brusor.Her face is cover'd over quite, my lord.

Soliman.Why, so. O Brusor, seest thou notHer milkwhite neck, that alabaster tower?'Twill break the edge of my keen scimitar,And pieces, flying back, will wound myself.

Brusor.Now she is all covered, my lord.

Soliman.Why, now at last she dies.

Perseda.O Christ, receive my soul!

Soliman.Hark, Brusor; she calls on Christ:I will not send her to him. Her words are music,The selfsame music that in ancient daysBrought Alexander from war to banqueting,And made him fall from skirmishing to kissing.No, my dear love would not let me kill thee,Though majesty would turn desire to wrath:There lies my sword, humbled at thy feet;And I myself, that govern many kings,Entreat a pardon for my rash misdeed.

(2)[Basiliscois asked to declare his country and past achievements.]

(2)

[Basiliscois asked to declare his country and past achievements.]

Basilisco. Sooth to say, the earth is my country,As the air to the fowl or the marine moistureTo the red-gill'd fish. I repute myself no coward,For humility shall mount; I keep no tableTo character my fore passed conflicts.As I remember, there happened a sore droughtIn some part of Belgia, that the juicy grassWas sear'd with the Sun-God's element.I held it policy to put the men-childrenOf that climate to the sword,That the mother's tears might relieve the parched earth:The men died, the women wept, and the grass grew;Else had my Friesland horse perished,Whose loss would have more grieved meThan the ruin of that whole country.

Christopher Marlowe, the greatest of all the University Wits, has been reserved to the last because in his work we rise nearest to the excellence of Shakespearian drama. By the inexhaustible force of his poetic genius he created literature for all time. We read the plays of his contemporaries chiefly for their antiquarian interest; we are pleased to discover in them the first beginnings of many features popular in later productions; one or two appeal to us by their own beauty or strength, but the majority are remembered only for their relationship to greater plays. This is not so with Marlowe's works. Having once been so fortunate as to have had our attention directed to them, we return again and again for the sheer joy of reading his glorious outbursts of poetry, of being thrilled with the intensity of his greater scenes.

Marlowe placed upon the stage men who live intensely, terrible men, for the most part, endued with surpassing power for good or evil. Around them he grouped hostile, enchaining circumstances, which they confront fearlessly and, for a time perhaps, master, until the hour comes when they can no longer conquer. Their lips he touched with a live coal from the altar of his muse, so that their words fire the heart with their flaming zeal or sear it with their despair. In the dramas of Peele we lamented the weakness of his characters, his inability to provide a dominant central figure for his action; we also saw how something of the same weakness softened his verse almost to effeminacy. Greene drew the outline of his charactersmore strongly. But Marlowe alone possessed the power, in its fullest degree, of projecting himself into his chief character, of filling it with his own driving force, his own boundless imagination, his own consuming passion and profound capacity for gloomy emotion. Each of his first three plays—counting the two parts ofTamburlaineas one play—is wholly given up to the presentment of one man; his tongue speaks on nearly every page, his purpose is the mainspring of almost every action; by mere bulk he fills our mental view as we read, and by the fervour, the poetry of his language, he burns the impression of himself upon our memory. It is not by what they do that we remember Marlowe's heroes or villains. Their deeds probably fade into indistinctness. Few of us quite remember what were Tamburlaine's conquests, or Faustus's wonder-workings, or Barabas's crimes. But we know that if we would recall a mighty conqueror our recollections will revive the image of the Scythian shepherd; if we would picture a soul delivered over to the torments of the lost there will rush back upon us that terrible outcry of Faustus when the fatal hour is come; if we would imagine the feelings of one for whom wealth is the joy, the meaning, the whole of life, we shall recite one of the speeches of Barabas.

Marlowe masters us by his poetry, and is lifted by it above his fellows, reaching to the pedestal on which Shakespeare stands alone. It is an astonishing thing to pass from the dramas which occupied our attention in the previous chapter to one of Marlowe's, and then realize that his were written first. Whereas before it was a matter of difficulty to find passages beautiful enough to quote, it now becomes a problem to select the best. It has been said, indeed, that he is too poetical for a dramatist, but a very little consideration of the plays of Shakespearewill tell us how much the greatest dramatic productions owe to poetry. When, therefore, we say that Marlowe's greatness as a dramatist depends on his poetry, that outside his poetry his best known work reveals almost every kind of weakness, we have not denied his claim to be the greatest of Shakespeare's predecessors. Into indifferent material poetry can breathe that quickening flame without which the most dramatic situations fail to satisfy. Marlowe had a supreme gift for creating moments, sometimes extended to whole scenes; he had to learn, from repeated failures, the art of creating plays.

Essentially a man of tragic temperament, if we may venture to peer through the printed page to the author, Marlowe lacked the sense of humour. This has been cast up against him as a serious weakness; but it is possible that just here lies the strength of his contribution to drama. His work in literature was to set a standard in the portrayal of deep emotions, and it may have been as well that the first models (Doctor Faustusexcepted) should not be weakened by apparent inconsistencies.

The list of Marlowe's dramas is as follows: The First and Second Parts ofTamburlaine(possibly before 1587),Doctor Faustus(1588),The Jew of Malta(? 1588-90),The Massacre at Paris(about 1590),Edward the Second(about 1590),Dido, Queen of Carthage(printed 1549). Fortunately for the reader, he can now obtain a volume containing all these plays in one of the cheap modern editions of the English classics. There will, therefore, be no attempt here to provide the details of plots with which every student of drama is doubtless well acquainted. A limited number of quotations, however, are supplied for the pleasure of the reader.

The First and Second Parts ofTamburlaine the Greatmay be discussed together, although they did not appeartogether, the second owing its existence to the immediate success of the first. Nevertheless there is such unbroken continuity in their representation of the career of the hero, and their style is so uniform, that it will be more convenient to refer to them conjointly under the one title. Reference has already been made to this famous production in the early portion of our discussion of Greene's work. The reader will recall what was said there of its contents, its popularity and influence, and of the meaning of the term Marlowesque, an adjective referring more directly toTamburlainethan to any other of Marlowe's plays. It is in this play that our ears are dinned almost beyond sufferance by the poet's 'high astounding terms', that the hero most nearly 'with his uplifted forehead strikes the sky': incredible victories are won, the vilest cruelties practised; vast empires are shaken to their foundations, kings are overthrown and new ones crowned as easily as the wish is expressed; everywhere pride calls unto pride with the noise of its boastings. There is no plot, unless we give that name to a succession of battles, pageants and camp scenes. There is not the least attempt at characterization: in their glorious moments Bajazeth, the Soldan of Egypt, Orcanes are indistinguishable from the Scythian shepherd himself. The popularity ofTamburlainewas not won by fine touches, but by spectacular magnificence, by the pomp and excitement of war, and by the thrills of responsive pride and boastfulness awakened in the hearers by the convincing magniloquence of the speeches. This was possibly the first appearance upon the public stage of matured drama as opposed to the moralities and interludes. Udall and Still wrote for school and college audiences; Sackville, Edwards, Hughes and their compeers presented their plays at court; so did Lyly; and it was there thatThe Arraignment of Pariswas acted. But Marlowe, likeKyd, laid his work before a larger, more unsophisticated audience, unrolling before its astonished gaze the full sweep of a five act play, crowded with warriors, headlong in its changes of fortune, and irresistible in its 'drum and trumpet' appeal to man's fighting instincts. From men of humble birth, in that age of adventure and romance, the victorious career of the Scythian shepherd won instant applause; with him they too seemed to rise; they shared in his glory, exulted with him in the chariot drawn by kings, forgave his savage massacres, and echoed his vaunts.

Yet there is something beyond all this, which has a lasting value, and appeals to the modern world as it appealed to Elizabethan England. Through the smoke of 'frantic boast and foolish word' may be discerned the fiery core of an idealized human grandeur. Breathing the intoxicating air of the Renaissance, Marlowe conceives man equal to his loftiest ideals, able to climb to the highest point of his thoughts. Choosing imperial conquest as the most striking theme he bids the shepherd aim at a throne, then bears him on the wings of unwavering resolution straight to his goal. The creation of Tamburlaine is the apotheosis of man on the earth. In such words as these does the conqueror announce his equality with the gods:

Back to Index Next