CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 1924 013 166 750* Works; with some account of the author, a 3 1924 013 166 750 CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY GIFT OF Mrs. Stephen E. Whicher ^^ Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013166750 THE WORKS JOHN WEBSTER. THE WORKS JOHN WEBSTER: SOME ACCOUNT OF THE AUTHOR, AND NOTES, EEV. ALEXANDER DYCE. A NEW EDITION, EEVISED AND CORRECTED. LONHON : GEOEGE EOUTLEDGE AND SONS, THE BROADWAY, LUDGATB. NEW YORK : 416, BROOME STREET. 1871. LONDON : BRADBURY, EVANS, AND CO., PEiNTERS, WHITEFRIARS. NOTICE. In this re-impression of Webster's Works (whicli were first col- lected and edited by me in 1830) I have considerably altered both the Text and Notes throughout, and made some slight additions to the Memoir of the poet. I have also excluded from the present edition a worthless drama, which I too hastily admitted into the former one, — The Thracian Wonder; for though it was pubHshed by Kirkman as " written by John Webster and William Eowley," internal evidence decides that Webster could no more have had a hand in it than in another play called The Weakest goeth to the Wall, a portion of which is ignorantly ascribed to him by Phillips : see p. xv., note. A. DYCE. Deceubeb, 1857. CONTENTS. SOME ACCOUNT OF JOHN WEBSTER AND HIS WRITINGS . . . . ix THE WHITE DEVIL; OR, VITTORIA COROMBONA . . ... 1 THE DUCHESS OF MALFI .... 53 THE DEVIL'S LAW-CASE ... 103 APPIUS AND VIRGINIA . . . . 147 THE FAMOUS HISTORY OF SIR THOMAS WTATT 181 WESTWARD HO .... 205 NORTHWARD HO ... . ... .... 247 A CURE FOR A CUCKOLD 285 THE MALCONTENT ... .... .... 321 MONUMENTS OF HONOUR 363 A MONUMENTAL COLUMN . , 371 VERSES TO MUNDAT 377 ODE . 377 VERSES TO HEYWOOD 378 VERSES TO COCKERAM 878 INDEX TO THE NOTES 379 SOME ACCOUNT JOHN WEBSTER AND HIS WHITINGS. Seldom has the biographer greater cause to lament a deficiency of materials than ■when engaged on the life of any of our early dramatists. Among that illustrious band John Webster occupies a distinguished place ; and yet so scanty is our infor- mation concerning him, that in the present essay I can do little more than enumerate his different productionSj and adduce proof that he was not the author of certain prose-pieces which have been attributed to him. On the title-page of his Monuments of Honour, (fee, 1624, Webster is styled " Merchant-Tailor ; " and in the Dedication to that pageant he describes himself as " one bom free of the Merchant-Tailors' Company." * Hence Mr. Collier conjectures * "Which favours done to one horn free of your company, aad your servant," &o. See p. 364. That "yow company" means the Merchant-Tailors' Company, is certain, — John Gore, whom Wohster addresses, being "a right worthy brother" of that "fraternity." It was, of course, desirable that the Court-Books of the Merchant-Tailors' Company should be examined for the present work : and the important information, illustrative of personal history, which is afforded by wills, was too obvious not to cause a search to be made in Doctors' -Commons. But we cannot identify our poet with any of the Websters of whom notices have been there discovered. The following extracts from the Court-Book of Merchant-Tailors'-Company were made for me by the Clerk, 26th Dec. 1828, strangers, by a new regulation of the Company, not being allowed to inspect their documents : — From Court-Book, vol. i. fol. 557 ; " Lune X" die decembris 1571. " Item Anne Sylver, Widdowe, pflted and made free John Webster her late Apprentise.'' From Court-Book, vol. 11. fol. 48 ; " Lune XX" die Januarij A" dm j576. "Item John Palmer pilted John Webster his Apprtize aud'^ZT^'Sde the saide Webster free," From Court-Book, vol. vi. fol. 633 ; " Lxine Decimo Septimo die Novemb "Anno Dm 1617. "John Webster made free by Henry Clinckard his M'." JOHN WEBSTER AND HIS WRITINGS. that lie was the son of the John Webster, Merchant-Tailor, to whom John and Edward Alleyn acknowledge themselves debtors in the following terms : — " All men shall know by these presents that we, John Allein, cytysen and Inholder, of London, and Edward Allein, of London, gentleman, do owe and ar indebted unto John Webster, cytysen and merchauntayler of London, the somme of fyftene shyl- lynges of lawfuU money of England, to be payed to the sayd John Webster, or his From Index-Book to Freemen ; "Webster Jolies—# Annam Silver, -wid. 10 deoembr 1571 "Webster Johes — ^ Johem Palmer, ... 20 Januarij 1576 Webster Joshes — ^ Henricum Clinckard, 17 Norembris 1617." There are no other entries about any John Webster between the years 1571 and 1617. The following memoranda are derived from the Prerogative Office ; John Webstek, clothworker, of London, made his will on the 5th August, 1625. He bequeaths to his sister, Jane Cheney, dwelling within seven miles of Norwich, 101,, with remainder, if she died, to her children, and if they died, to his sister Elizabeth Pyssing ; to whom he also left lOZ., with remainder to her children. To his sister, Anne Webstar, of Holand, in Yorkshire, the same sum, with remainder to her children. To his father-in-law, WiUiam Hattfield, of Whittington, in Derbyshire, 151., and to his four children il. each. To his cousin, Peter Webstar, and his wife, dwelling in Doncaster, 40s. each. To his cousin, Peter Webstar, of Whittington, in Derbyshire, he gives 101., and if he died before it was paid, it was to be given to his brother, who was a protestant, " for I hear that one brother of my cousin Peter is a papist." To William Bradbury, of London, shoemaker, 51. To Richard Matthew, his (the testator's) son-in-law, 161. He mentions his father-in-law, Mr. Thomas Parman. He gives his cousin, Edward Curtice, 11. 2s. To his cousin, Edward Curtis, sou of Edward Curtis, senior, SI. He leaves the residue of his property to his brothers and sisters in law, by his wife ; specially providing that Elizabeth Walker should be one. He constitutes Mr. Eobert Aungel, and his cousin, Mr. Francis Ash, citizens, his executors ; and his cousins, Curtis and Tayler, overseers of his wiU, — which was proved by his executors on the 7th October, 1625. John Webstek, of St. Botolph's-without-Aldgate, citizen and tallow-chandler, of London, made his will on the 16th February, 1628, and orders by it, that his body should be buried in the churchyard of that parish, as near to his nephew, John Webster, as might be. To Katherine, his wife, he gives some freehold and copyhold lands in Clavering, in Essex, for life, with remainder to his nephew, James Webster ; together with some property in Houndsditch, she paying 50s. quarterly to Mary Lee, wife of James Lee, of London, Merchant-Tailor. To his nephew, James Webster, he bequeaths lands in Sabridgeworth, in Herts, with two-thirds of his printed books, sword, pike, and other arms, when of full age, with reversion, if he died without heirs, to William Webster, alias Wilkinson. To his three sisters Dorothy Wilkinson, Susan Nettleton, and Alice Brookes, hia lands at Clavering, after the decease of his wife ; they paying to Mary Wigge, Barbara Brend, Agnes Loveband, widow, and Clement Campe, his wife's four sisters, il., each yearly. He afterwards describes the beforemeutioned William Webster, alias Wilkinson, as "the eldest son of my eldest sister, Dorothy Wilkinson, late wife of Eichard Wilkinson, of Torkshire." If the said WiUiam died without issue, the property so given him was to go to the testator's nephews, Thomas, son of Thomas Nettleton, and Edmund, son of Robert Brookes. He also mentions his nephew, Henry Wilkinson ; his niece, Isabel Nettleton, then under age ; his apprentice, John Wigge • his niece, Elizabeth Brend, and her father, George Brende : to the children of John Alderston of Chelmsford, he gives 101. each ; and to his cousin, Benjamin Crabtree, 21. : and directs that the before- mentioned James Webster, when of age, shall surrender to Michael Wilkinson a close in Cawood, in Torkshire, which was the testator's father's, and fell, by descent, to his (the testator's) brother, James Webster, who sold it to Michael Wilkinson. He appoints Mr. Thomas Overman, alderman and leather- seller, of London, the aforesaid John Alderston, and Thomas Santy, citizen and merchant-tailor, of London, overseers, and his wife Eatheiine, executrix, of his will, who proved it on the 12th Nov., 1641. It is evident that both these persons died without issue. JOHN WEBSTER AND HIS WRITINGS. assygnes, on the last day of September next insewinge the date hereof, wherto wee binde us, our heyres and assygnes, by these presentes. Subscrybed this xxy"' day of July, 1591, and in the xxxiii of her Ma*'^* raygne. John Allbin Ed. Allbtn."* We are told that our poet was clerk of St. Andrew's, Holbom ; and it is possible that during some period of his career he may have filled that office : but the state- ment rests on a comparatively late and questionable authority, t From the researches of Mr. Collier we learn (presuming the person mentioned to be the dramatist) that he " resided in HolyweU Street, among the actors," and that " Alice Webster, his daughter, was baptized at St. Leonard's on the 9th May, 1606." Mr. Collier adds ; " If the following, from the same registers, relate to his marriage, it must have occurred when he was very young : — ' Married. John Webster and Isahell Sutton, 25 July, 1690.' Our principal reason for thinking that it may refer to him is, that elsewhere in the register he is sometimes called merchant-tailor, a designation himself assumed in his City Pageant of 1624." J Like several other of his contemporaries, he was perhaps an actor as well as a dramatist ; but when, in a tract (hereafter to be mentioned) called Histrw^mastix, &o.. Hall and his coadjutor speak of " Webster the quondam player," they appear to have used the word " player " as equivalent to " writer of plays." The following notices of Webster as a dramatist occur in Henslowe's Diary : — "Lent unto W" Jube, the 3 of novmbr 1601, to bye stameU clothe j iij"." "Lent unto the company, to lend the littell tayUer, to bye fusthen ^ and lynynge for the clockes for the masaker of France, the some of . j "Lent unto the company, the 8 of novmbr 1601, to paye imto the ^ litteU tayUer, upon his bell for mackyne of sewtes for the gwesse, the > some of . . . ) "Lent imto the companye, the 13 of novmbr 1601, to paye the litell \ tayUor, Eadford, upon his bill for the Gviisse, the some of . . j * The AUeyn Papers, ka., p. 14, ed. Shakespeare Soo. + "This Author [John Webster] was Clerk of St. Andrew's Paiish in Holhourne," &c. Gildon'a Lives and Ohwracters of the EngUsh Dram. Poets, 1698, p. 146.— I searched the registers of St. Andrew's Church, but the name of Webster did not occur in them ; and I examined the MSS. belonging to the Parish-Clerks' Hall, in Wood-street, with as little success. t Memoirs of the Principal Actors in the Plays of ShaJeespeare.—Introd. p. xxxii., ed. Shake- speare Soc. J 2 JOHN WEBSTER AND HIS WRITINGS. " Pd at the apoyntment of the companye, unto the littell tayller, in fulle payment of hie Bille for the Gwisse, the 26 of novmbr 1601, / xxmj b . The play which Henslowe in the above entries calls The Guise or The Massacre of France, is mentioned by Webster himself, under the first title, as one of his "works."t It has not come down to us ; and therefore we cannot determine whether it was a rifaccimento of Marlowe's Massacre at Paris or an original piece : — I am strongly inclined to believe that it was the latter. — Again : — "Lent unto the companye, the 22 of maij 1602, to geve unto ) Antoney Monday and MiheU Drayton, Webester, Mydelton and the > * • + Rest, in eameste of a Boocke called sesers Falle, the some of . . ' We are naturally curious to know how these combined poets treated a subject which employed the pen of Shakespeare ; but Ocesar's Fall has perished. — Again : — "Lent unto Thomas Downton, the 29 of maye 1602, to paye ) Thomas Dickers, Drayton, Mydellton, and Webester, and Mondaye, in [ ^iJ • ' § fulle paymente for ther playe called too harpes [?], the some of . ) The Two Harpies (if such be the correct title, which is far from certain) no longer exists. — Again : — " Lent unto Thomas Hewode and John Webster, the 2 of novmbr ) 1602, in eameste of a playe called Gyrssmas comes hut once a yeare, \ ^"J ■ the some of . . . . . . . . . . . j "Lent unto John Dewcke, the 23 of novmbr 1602, to paye unto harye chettell and Thomas Deckers, in pte of paymente of a playe called Grysmas comes but once a yeare, the some of . " Pd at the apoyntment of Thomas Hawode, the 26 of novmbr ) 1602, to harey chettell, in fulle paymente of a playe called Gryssmas \ ^^^^x'-" comes but once a yeare, the some of ......) " Layd owt for the companye, the 9 of novmbr [I)ecemJ>er ?] 1602, \ to bye ij calleco sewtes and ij buckram sewtes, for the playe of Oryss- [ xxxviijs 8\" mas comes but once a yeare, the some of . . . . . . j "Sowld imto the companye, the 9 of desembr 1602, ij peces ofV cangable taffetie, to macke a womones gowne and a robe, for the playe [ ^"J" ^'•" II of crysmas comes hut once a year, some of ..... j Christmas comes hut once a year is also lost. — In the same Diary, under October * Henalowe's Diary, pp. 202, 203, 204, ed. Shakespeare Soo. t Dedication to T/ie DeviVa Law-case, — ^p. 105. t Henslowe's Diary, p. 221. § Id. p. 222. || Id. pp. 243, 244, 245. JOHN WEBSTER AND HIS WRITINGS. 1602, are three entries relating to a play in Two Parts, entitled Lady Jane, the First Part the joint-production of Chettle, Dekker, Heywood, Smith and Webster, the Second Part composed (it would seem) by Dekker alone. These entries wOl be found in the introductory remarks on The Famous History of Sir Thomas Wyatt ; * which drama, with its text miserably mutUated and corrupted, is evidently nothing more than an abridgement of the Two Parts of Lady Jane, for it embraces the story of Suffolk's unfortunate daughter from her forced accession to her death. The second edition of Marston's Malcontent appeared in 1604, not only "augmented" by the original author, but " with additions '' by Webster, — who was well qualified to supply them, resembling, as he did, Marston in the mascidine character of his mind and style. How much he contributed to this vigorously written but unpleasing play, it is impossible to ascertain, t In 1607 were given to the press The Famous History of Sir Thomas Wyatt (which has been noticed above), and Westward Ho, and Northward Ho, — two comedies composed by Webster in alhance with Dekker. Westward Ho and Northward Ho (the former of which was on the stage in 1605) X are full of life and bustle, and remarkable for the light they throw on the manners and customs of the time. Though by no means pure, they are comparatively Uttle stained by that grossness from which none of our old come- dies are entirely free. In them the worst things are always called by the worst names : the licentious and the debauched always speak most strictly in character ; and the rake, the bawd, and the courtezan, are as odious in representation as they would be if actually present. But the public taste has now reached the highest pitch of refinement, and such coarseness is tolerated in our theatres no more. Some will perhaps maintain, that the language of the stage is purified in proportion as our morals have deteriorated, and that we dread the mention of the vices which we are not ashamed to practise ; while our forefathers, under the sway of a less fastidious but a more energetic principle of virtue, were careless of words and only considerate of actions. In 1612 The White Devil was printed; a play of extraordinary power. The story, though somewhat confused, is eminently interesting ; and, though abounding in, — if not a little overcharged with, — ^fearful incidents, it has nothing which we are disposed to reject as incredible. What genius was required to conceive, what skill to embody, so forcible, so various, and so consistent a character as Vittoria ! We shall not easUy find, in the whole range of our ancient drama, a more efi'ective scene than that in which she is arraigned for the murder of her husband. It is truth itself. Brachiano's flinging down his gown for his seat, and then, with impatient ostentation, leaving it behind him on his departiu-e ; the pleader's Latin exordium ; the jesting interruption of the culprit; the overbearing intemperance of the * See p. 182. t See p. 322. J See p. 206. JOHN WEBSTER AND HIS WRITINGS. Cardinal ; the prompt and unconquerable spirit of Vittoria ; — all together unite in producing on us an impression as strong as could result from an event of real life. Lamb, in his Specimens of English Dramatic Poets, speaks of the " innocence-resembling boldness" of Vittoria.* For my own part, I admire the dexterity with which Webster has discriminated between that simple confidence in their own integrity which the innocent manifest under the imputation of a great crime, and that forced and prac- tised presence of mind which the hardened offender exhibits when brought to trial. Vittoria stands before her judges, alive to aU the terrors that surround her, relying on the quickness of her wit, conscious of the influence of her beauty, and not without a certain sense of protection, in case of extreme need, from the interposition of Bra- chiano. She sinprises by the readiness of her replies ; but never, in a single instance, has the author assigned to her any words which were likely to have fallen from an Innocent person under similar circumstances. Vittoria is undaunted, but it is by effort. Her intrepidity has none of the calmness which belongs to one who knows that a plain tale can put down his adversary ; it is a high-wrought and exaggerated boldness, — a determination to outface facts, to brave the evidence she cannot refute, and to act the martyr though convicted as a criminal. Scattered throughout the play are passages of exquisite poetic beauty, which, once read, can never be forgotten. Three Elegies on the most lamented death of Prince Henry appeared in 1613 : the part of this tract written by Webster, entitled A Monumental Column, &c., contains some striking lines, but nothing characteristic of its author. In 1623 were published The Duchess of Malf, (first produced about 1616 t) and The Devil's Law-case. Of the latter of these plays the plot is disagreeable and far from probable ; but portions of the serious scenes are not unworthy of Webster. Few dramas possess a deeper interest in their progress, or are more touching in their conclusion, than The Duchess of Malf,. The passion of the Duchess for Antonio, a subject most difficult to treat, is managed with infinite delicacy : in a situation of great peril for the author, she condescends without being degraded, declares to her dependant that he is the husband of her choice without losing anything of dignity and respect, and seems only to exercise the privilege of rank ia raising merit from obscurity. We sympathize from the first moment in the loves of the Duchess and Antonio, as we would in a long-standing domestic affection ; and we mourn the more over the misery that attends them because we feel that happiness was the natural and legitimate fruit of so pure and rational an attachment. It is the wedded friendship of middle life transplanted to cheer the cold and glittering solitude of a court : it flourishes but a short time in that unaccustomed sphere, and then is blasted for ever. The sufferings and death of the imprisoned Duchess haunt the mind hke painful realities ; but it is the less necessary to dwell on them here, as no part of our author's See the quotation in p. 24, note, of the present work. f See p. 54. JOHN WEBSTER AND HIS WRITINGS. writings is so ■well known to the generality of readers as the scenes where they are depicted. In such scenes Webster was on his own ground. His imagination had a fond familiarity with objects of awe and fear. The silence of the sepulchre, the sculptures of marble monuments, the knoUing of church-bells, the cerements of the corpse, the yew that roots itself in dead men's graves, are the illustrations that most readily present themselves to his imagination. If he speaks of the force of love, his language is, — ■ " This is flesli and blood, sir ; 'Tis not the figure cut in alabaster Kneels at my husband's tomb ; " * and when he tells us that ' ' GHories, like glow-TPorms, afar off shine bright, But look'd to near, have neither heat nor light," + we are almost satisfied that the glow-worm which Webster saw, and which suggested the reflection, was sparkling on the green sod of some lowly grave. Monuments of Honour, &o. Invented and written hy John Webster, Merchant- Tailor, 1624, is the very rarest J of all our old city-pageants : — it is not by any means the best. In September 1624: Sir Henry Herbert licensed "A new Tragedy, called A late Murther of the Sonn upon the Mother, written by Forde and Webster § " ; of which, when we consider how well the terrible subject was suited to the powers of the two writers, we cannot fail to regret the loss. Appius and Virginia was printed in 1654. This drama is so remarkable for its sunplicity, its deep pathos, its imobtrusive beauties, its singleness of plot, and the easy unimpeded march of its story, that perhaps there are readers who wiU prefer it to any other of oxa author's productions. I need hardly observe that Appius and Virginia must have been brought on the stage long before 1654 : indeed, at that date Webster was, in all probability, dead. In 1661, Kirkman, the bookseller, published, from manuscripts in his possession, A Cure for a Cuckold and The Thradan Wonder, both of them, according to the title- pages, " Written hy John Webster and William Rowley" Webster's hand may, I think, be traced in parts of the former play. Of any share in the concoction of the latter he certainly was guUtless. || » p. 65. t P- 36, and p. 88. t The only copy of this pageant known to exist, is in the possession of the Duke of Devonshire, who, with his usual liberality, allowed me to transcribe it. § Chalmer^s Smpplemental Apology, &c., p. 218. II The Thraciam Wonder (which I inconsiderately reprinted in the first edition of the present collection) is partly founded on the story of Curan and Argentile in Warner's Albion's Bnglcmd. A poetical tract, founded also on the same portion of Warner's work, appeared in 1617, written by a William Webster, xvi JOHN WEBSTER AND HIS WEITINGS, The following lines* concerning our author are found in Henry Fitzgeffi-ey's Notes from Blaehfryers, 1620 ; ' ' But h' st ! ■with Iiim, crabbed Wehslerio, The play-wright, cart-wright : whether ? either ? ko — No further. Looke as yee'd bee look't into ; Sit as ye woo'd be read : Zord I who woo'd know him ? Was euer man so mangl'd with a poem ? See how he drawes his mouth awry of late, How he scrubs, wrings his wrests, scratches his pate ! A midwife I helpe ! By his hraines coitus Some Centaiire strange, some huge Bucephalus, Or Pallas, sure, ingendred in his braine : — Strike, Vulcam, with thy hammer once againe. This is the critticJe that, of all the rest, I'de not haue view mee : yet I feare him least : Heer 's not a word cwsiuely I haue writ, But hee'l industriously examine it, And in some 12 monthes hence, or thereabout, Set in a shamefull sheete my errors out. But what care I ? it will be so obscure That none shall vnderstand him, I am sure." Sig. F. 6. An inquiry now arises, — was John Webster, the dramatist, the same John Webster who was author of The Saints' Guide, of a celebrated tract called Academiarum Examen or The Examination of Academies, and of a volume of sermons entitled The Jvdgment set and the BooTcs opened ? Our dramatist, as we have seen, was a writer for the stage in 1601 ; and the first of the pieces just mentioned was printed in 1 653 : if he was only twenty-five when he composed The Guise, he must have been about seventy-seven when The Saints' Guide appeared. Those who are inclined to and entitled The most pleasant and delightfull Historic of Ov/ra/n, Prince of DansTce, and the fayre Prmcesse Argentile, Dwvkghtcr and Heyre of Adelbright, sometime King of Northumberlamd : and Mr. Collier plausibly conjectures (Poet. Decam., vol. i. p. 268.) that Kirkman's recollection of the poem by William Webster induced him to attribute the play to John Webster. Kirkman was not scrupulous in such matters. He published, in 1657, Lusts Dominion, or The Lascivious Queen, and put on the title-page " Written iy Ohristofer Marloe, Gent," though we have ' positiTO proof that it could not have been composed by that poet : see my Account of Marlowe and his Writings, — Worhs, i. Iviii. In the "Introduction" to his edition of Tlie Dramatic Works of John Webster, 1857, Mr. Hazlitt announces his intention of including among them, not only The Thracicm Wonder (which he justly describes as " a stream of dulness "), but The Weakest goeth to the Wall. The latter play he assigns to Webster "upon the authority of Winstanley " ; not being aware that when Winstanley wrote as follows in his Lives of the m^st famous English Poets, 1687, p. 137, he was merely transcribing the blunders of Phillips in the Theatrum Poetarvm, 1676 : "He [Dekker] was also an associate with John Webster in several well entertain'd Plays, viz. Northwa/rd, hoe ? The Noble Stranger ; New Trick to cheat the Devil ; Westward, hoe? The Weakest goes to the Wall jaiii A Womam will have her will." Here we have three plays confidently attributed to Dekker and Webster, of which we are certain that they did not write a word : The Noble Stranger is by Sharpe ; A New Trick to cheat the Devil, by Davenport ; and A Woman will have her will, by Haughton ! So much for the "authority " of Winstanley, or rather, of PhiDips. As to The Weakest goeth to the Wall, — from beginning to end it is written in a style utterly unlike that of Webster. * For verses by Sheppard on Webster's White Devil, see p. 2 ; for verses by Middleton, W. Eowley, and Ford, on his Duchess of Malfi, see p. 56. JOHN WEBSTER AND HIS WRITINGS. suppose that he was the author of that tract will not, of course, allow his advanced age to be employed as an argument against the probability of their hypothesis ; and it must be confessed that some persons at as late a period of life have produced works indicating that they retained the fuU possession of their intellectual powers. I shall presently, however, show that he was neither the author of it, nor of the other two pieces noticed above : in the meantime it is necessary to describe them more particularly. The Saints Guide, or, Christ the Rule and Ruler of Saints. Manifested ly way of Positions, Gonsectaries, and Queries. Wherein is contained the Efficacy of acquired Knowledge ; the Rule of Christians ; the Mission and Maintenance of Ministers ; and the power of Magistrates in Spiritual things. By John Webster, late Chaplain in the Army, a 4to. tract, was first printed in 1653 : it was reprinted in the same form the following year, and also in 12mo. in 1699*. No trace of the eloquence of Webster the poet is visible in this dull and fanatical production. In his prefatory- address, "To all that love the Lord Jesus Christ in Truth and Sincerity," the author saysj "For after the Lord, about eighteen years ago, had in his wonderfull mercy brought me -to the sad experience of mine own dead, sinfull, lost, and damnable condition in nature, and fuUy shewed me the nothingness and help- lessness of creaturely power, either without or within me," &c. : and Mr. Collier, who endeavours to prove that the writer of The Saints' Guide and the dramatist are the same person, thinks that the words "damnable condition," which have just been quoted, " can hardly mean anything but his ' damnable condition ' as a player t." Surely, not : in " damnable condition " there is no allusion to any profession the author might have followed, but merely to what he conceived to be his reprobate condition before he became a Saint. Academiarum Examen, or the Examination of Academies. Wherein is discassed and examined the Matter, Method, and Customes of Academich and Scholastic^ Learning, and the insufficiency thereof discovered and laid open; As also some Expedients proposed for the Reforming of Schools, and the perfecting and promoting of all Und of Science. Offered to the judgements of all those that love the proficiencie of Arts and Sciences, and the advancement of Learning. By Jo. Webster. In moribus et institutis Academiarum, Collegiorum, et similium conventuum, quae ad doctorum hominum sedes,