THE WORKS OF CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2014 https://archive.org/details/worksofchristophOOmarl_0 THE WORKS OF CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE: SOME ACCOUNT OF THE AUTHOR, AND NOTES, REV. ALEXANDER DICE. A NEW EDITION, REVISED AND CORRECTED. LONDON : GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS, THE BROADWAY, LUDGATE. NEW YORK: 416, BROOME STREET. 1876. LONDON : BRADBURY, AGXEW, & CO. , POINTERS, WH1 7EFR I A R5, JOHN FORSTER Esq., AUTHOR OF THE LIFE OF GOLDSMITH, ETO. AS A SLIGHT RETURN FOR MANY KINDNESSES, BY HIS SINCERE FRIEND, THE EDITOR. [1850 ] PREFACE TO THE EDITION OF 1850 (IN THREE VOLUMES). The present edition of Marlowe's Works is not a reprint of that put forth by the same publisher in 1826, but exhibits a new text formed on a collation of the early copies. I had no concern in the edition of 1826, which, nevertheless, has been frequently cited as mine ; and w r hen I charac- terize it as abounding with the grossest errors, I cannot offend its editor, who has been long deceased. Several years ago, an edition of Marlowe's Works was projected by Mr. J. P. Collier ; but, on learning that I had commenced the present one, he abandoned his design, and kindly transferred to me some curious documents which he had intended to use himself, and which I have inserted in their proper places : nor, conscious as I am that there has been inexcusable delay in bringing out the present edition, ought I to be dissatisfied that Mr. Collier should have since printed a considerable portion of those papers in the Prolegomena to his Shakespeare. I have also to return my thanks to Mr. Collier for furnishing me with all the entries concerning Marlowe's pieces which he had met with while preparing for the press his Extracts from the Registers of the Stationers 9 Company. My best acknowledgments are due to the Rev. Dr. Bandinel, Librarian of the Bodleian, Oxford, both for the information which he communicated to me by letter, and for the many courtesies which I experienced from him when I had occasion to inspect Malone's collection of English poetry, now added to the Bodleian treasures. By the ready services of the Rev. H. O. Coxe, of the same noble establishment, I have profited more than once. To the Rev. J. C. Robertson, Vicar of Beakesbourne, who spared neither viii PREFACE TO THE EDITION OF 1850. time nor trouble in aiding my inquiries about Marlowe in his native city, I feel myself greatly indebted ; and to the Eev. W. S. H. Braham, Bector of St. George's, Canterbury, I am not without obligations. Having reason to believe that Marlowe had been educated at the King's School, Canterbury, I requested the Hon. D. Finch, Auditor, to examine certain old Treasurer's Accounts, which, I was told, were preserved in the Cathedral, and were likely to determine the point. With this request Mr. Finch complied ; and informed me that Marlowe was mentioned in those Accounts, as one of the King's Scholars who had received the usual stipend during such and such years. But there his civilities ended. It was in vain that I continued asking him, as a particular favour, either to permit me to make the necessary extracts from those Accounts, or to allow a clerk to make them for me ; — in Mr. Finch's opinion, my solicitations were unreasonable. Several months after, a gentleman, whose influence is powerful at Canterbury, was induced (through the medium of a mutual friend) to exert himself in my behalf ; and, in consequence of his kind interposition, the extracts from the Accounts were at last forwarded to me, accompanied with a special notice that " ten and sixpence " must be sent, in return, to Mr. Finch. The task of tracing Marlowe's course at Cambridge was voluntarily undertaken for me by the Eev. George Skinner, of Jesus College ; and he performed it with a zeal for which I feel truly grateful. To the Eev. John Mitford, to W. J. Thorns, Esq., and to W. H. Black, Esq., I have to offer my thanks for various and not unimportant assistance. The first edition of Marlowe's Hero and Leander was lent to me by the late Mr. Miller of Craigentinny. ALEX. DYCE. CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE TO THE EDITION OF 1850 vii SOME ACCOUNT OF MARLOWE AND HIS WRITINGS . . . xi THE FIRST PART OF TAMBURLAINE THE GREAT. ... 5 THE SECOND PART OF TAMBURLAINE THE GREAT . . , . . 39 THE TRAGICAL HISTORY OF DOCTOR FAUSTUS FROM THE QUARTO OF 1604 75 THE TRAGICAL HISTORY OF DOCTOR FAUSTUS FROM THE QUARTO OF 1616 103 BALLAD OF FAUSTUS . 136 THE JEW OF MALTA .... . 139 EDWARD THE SECOND 179 THE MASSACRE AT PARIS ... . 223 THE TRAGEDY OF DIDO, QUEEN OF CARTHAGE 247 HERO AND LEANDER ... 275 OVID'S ELEGIES .... 311 EPIGRAMS BY J. D 351 IGNOTO 366 _ CONTENTS. PAGE THE FIRST BOOK OF LUCAN 367 THE PASSIONATE SHEPHERD TO HIS LOVE 381 FRAGMENT 382 DIALOGUE IN VERSE 382 IN OBITUM R. MAN WOOD 384 APPENDIX I. THE ATHEIST'S TRAGEDIE 387 APPENDIX II. NOTE CONCERNING MARLOWE'S OPINIONS . . .389 APPENDIX III. PORTIONS OF GAGER'S DIDO 391 APPENDIX IV. SPECIMENS OF PETOWE'S CONTINUATION OF HERO AND LEANDER 398 INDEX TO THE NOTES 403 SOME ACCOUNT OP MARLOWE AND HIS WRITINGS. When the latest biographer of Marlowe set out with a declaration that "the time of this writer's birth cannot be ascertained," * he rather hastily assumed the impossibility of discovering it. Christopher Marlowe, the son of John Marlowe, shoemaker,t was born at Canterbury in February 1563-4, and baptized there in the Church of St. George the Martyr on the 26th of that month. J * Lives of English Dramatists, i. 49. (Lardner's Cyclop.) •j* " Marlowe a shooe makers sonne of Cant." MS. Note, in a very old hand, on the margin of a copy of Beard's Theatre of God's Judgments, 1598, which, when I saw it, belonged to the late Mr. B. H. Bright. — "His [Marlowe's] father was a shoemaker in Canterburie." MS. Note in a copy of Hero and Leander, ed. 1629, now in the possession of Mr. J. P. Collier. — See also the last stanza but four of the ballad called The Atheist's Tragedie, Appendix I. to this volume. + 1563-4, " The 26 th day of ffebruary was christened Christofer the sonne of John Marlow." Register of St. George the Martyr, Canterbury. — The following entries are found in the same Register ; which, though very old, is only a transcript ; and the scribe was unable to decypher the Christian names in the fourth, seventh, and eighth entries : 1548, " The 28 th day of December was christened Marget the daughter of John Marlow." 1562, " The xxi st of May was christened Mary the daughter of John Marlowe." 1565, " The [date illegible] clay of December was christened Margarit the daughter of John Marlowe." 1568, " The last day of October was christened [sic] the sonne of John Marlow." 1569, " The 20 th day of August was christened John the sonne of John Marlow." 1566, " The 10 th day of December was buried Simon the sonne of Thomas Marlow." 1567, " The 5 th day of November was buried [sic] the sonne of John Marlow." 1568, " The 28 th day of August was buried [sic] the daughter of John Marlow." 1570, " The 7 th day of August was buried Thomas y e sonne of John Marlow." 1604, " John Marloe clarke of St. Maries was buried y e 26 th of January." Qy. does the last entry refer to the elder or to the younger John Marlowe (see the fifth entry) ? It is possible that, while our poet's father followed the business of a shoemaker (which, according to the stanza of the ballad referred to in the preceding note, he continued to do till his death), he also held the situation of " clarke of St. Maries." So unsettled was the orthography of the time, that our author's name (as will be seen) was written in ten different ways, — Mario, Marloe, Marlow, Marlowe, Marley, Marly, Marlye, Marlen, Marlin, Marlyn ! xii SOME ACCOUNT OF MARLOWE AND HIS WRITINGS. Our poet's history has hitherto been a blank up to the period of his graduating at Cambridge ; but that deficiency is now in some sort supplied by the following particulars. The King's School at Canterbury was founded by Henry the Eighth for a Master, an Usher, and fifty Scholars between the ages of nine and fifteen, — the Scholars having each a stipend of four pounds per annum, and retaining their Scholarships for five years. To enable some of the more deserving Scholars, on completing their education at this establishment, to proceed to one of the Universities, several benefactions were made at various times. The earliest which I find recorded is that of Archbishop Parker. In 1569 he founded two Scholarships, each of the value of £3. 6s. 8d., in Corpus Christi alias Benet College, Cambridge, to maintain, during the space of two hundred years, two Scholars, natives of Kent, and educated at the King's School, who were to be called Canterbury Scholars, and to be entitled to all the advantages enjoyed by the other Scholars in the college. Archbishop Whitgift having renewed this foundation, it is now perpetual.* That the King's School may henceforth claim the honour of having contributed to the instruction of Marlowe is proved by a document which I obtained with great difficulty, f — an extract from " the Treasurer's Accounts " concerning the " Stipend, sive Salar. L a puerorum studen. Grammatic.," for the year ending at the Feast of St. Michael, 21st Eliz. It commences with " Idem denar. per dictum Thesaur. de exit, officii sui hoc anno solut. quinquaginta pueris studen. Grammatic. pro salariis suis ad s. iiij u pro quolibet eorum per annum," and contains four notices of the usual sum having been paid " Xrofero Marley," — " in primo termino hujus anni," " in secundo termino hujus anni," "in tercio termino hujus anni," and "in ultimo termino hujus anni." If I may depend upon the information which I received together with the extract just quoted, Marlowe did not continue at the King's School the full period which its statutes allowed him to remain. J At the proper age Marlowe was removed to Cambridge ; and, as Benet was the college of which he became a member, I at first concluded that he had been elected to one of the Parker Scholarships already mentioned ; but a careful examination of the records both of the University and of Benet, which has recently been made at my request, leaves, I am told, very little doubt that he did not obtain a Scholarship^ | * For other particulars concerning the King's School, see Hasted's Hist, of Kent, iv. 583 sqq. + See Preface. t "Marlowe's name," I am informed, "does not occur in [the Accounts for] 1575, 1576, 1577, nor 1581 : the intervening Accounts are wanting." (It could not occur in the Accounts for 1581).— The present Master of the King's School observes to me " that no special patronage was required for Marlowe's election as a Scholar ; any boy of good ability may at any time get into the School." § The only mention of him in the Books of Corpus (Benet) Coll. is an entry of his admission in 1580 ; and there he is called "Marlin," without the Christian name. My correspondent at Cambridge observes; "the University books enter both the Christian name and the surname in all cases; the Benet Books only in the case of Scholars. It therefore seems nearly certain that Marlowe was not SOME ACCOUNT OF MARLOWE AND HIS WRITINGS. He was matriculated as Pensioner of Benet College, 17th March, 1580-1.* He took the degree of A.B. in 1583, and that of A.M. in 1587. t If Marlowe did not benefit by the Parker foundation, we are at a loss to know how he was enabled to meet the expenses of the University : that his father could have furnished him with the requisite sums, is altogether improbable ; and we are driven to conjecture that Marlowe owed his maintenance at college either to some wealthier relative, or to some patron whose favour he had won by early indications of genius. Among the Kentish gentry there was no one more likely to have lent him a helping hand than Sir Roger Man wood, J Chief Baron of the Exchequer, who had his principal mansion at St. Stephen's near Canterbury, and was much distinguished for his munificence. Indeed, it would seem that on some occasion or other Marlowe was indebted to the bounty either of that excellent man, or of his son Peter (afterwards Sir Peter) Manwood, who was both learned himself and an encourager of the learned; for, unless the Latin verses in p. 384 of the present volume are wrongly assigned to our poet, which there is no reason to suppose, a tribute of respect to the memory of Sir Roger Manwood was among his latest compositions. It is plain that Marlowe was educated with a view to one of the learned professions. Most probably he was intended for the Church ; nor is it unlikely that, having begun, even during his academic course, to entertain those sceptical opinions for which he was afterwards so notorious, he abandoned all thoughts of taking a Foundation Scholar. He may perhaps have held some bye-scholarship or exhibition." The same obliging informant has since communicated to me the remark of a gentleman belonging to Corpus, that "Scholars were entered with a ' pomp and circumstance' not found in the notice of 'Marlin.' " * "17 Mar. 1580 Chrof. Marlen Pensioner." Cambridge Matriculation-Booh. t " Xrof. Marlyn 1583 A.B." — " Chr : Marley 1587 A.M." Cambridge Grace-Book X Sir Roger Manwood, the son of a draper, was born at Sandwich in 1525. He applied himself to the study of the law, and appears to have become early eminent in his profession. He was made a Serjeant, 23d April, 1567, a Justice of the Common-Pleas, 14th Octr. 1572 ; and he was both knighted and appointed Chief Baron of the Exchequer, 17th Novr. 1578. He founded and endowed a free-school at Sandwich, and was a very liberal benefactor to the parish and church of St. Stephen's alias Hackington, where (in the neighbourhood of Canterbury) he mostly resided. Sir Roger was twice married : by his first wife he had three sons and two daughters ; by his second wife no issue. He died 14th Deer. 1592, and was buried in the parish-church of St. Stephen's, which contains a splendid monument to his memory. See Hist, of Sandwich, pp. 245-248, by Boys (who erroneously states that Sir Roger was author of the well-known treatise on Forest Laws : it was written by John Manwood). — The monument above-mentioned was erected by Sir Roger himself shortly before his decease. This fact was curiously confirmed some years ago when the monument was undergoing repairs : the person who was at work on it told the present rector of St. Stephen's that some letters and figures in the last line of the inscription (those that record the date of Sir Roger's death) were not cut by the same hand which had cut the rest. — The Register of St. Stephen's states that Sir Roger was buried 16th December. Peter Manwood, the eldest and only surviving son of Sir Roger, was created a Knight of the Bath at the Coronation of James the First. He served several times in Parliament for Sandwich ; and died in 1625. His eldest daughter became the wife of Sir Thomas Walsingham, knight, who (as will after- wards be shown) was on terms of intimacy with Marlowe. See Boys's Hist, of Sandwich, pp. 249, 250. I I xiv SOME ACCOUNT OF MARLOWE AND HIS WRITINGS. orders. Be that as it may, his predilection for the drama was decided : before 1587 it seems certain that he had produced Tamhurlaine the Great ; and eventually he joined the crowd of literary adventurers in the metropolis with a determination to rely on his genius alone for a subsistence. At one time Marlowe unquestionably " fretted his hour upon the stage." According to Phillips, whose account is followed by Wood * and Tanner,t he " rose from an actor to be a maker of plays ; " % and in a very curious ballad,§ which was composed while some of his contemporaries were still alive, we are told that he performed at the Curtain in Shore-ditch ; " He had alsoe a player beene Upon the Curtaine-stage, But brake his leg in one lewd scene When in his early age." But is the assertion of Phillips, that Marlowe was first an actor and afterwards a dramatist, to be received as the exact truth ? I think not ; for, without taking into consideration the flagrant inaccuracies of Phillips's work, there are circumstances in the history of Marlowe which seem strongly to contradict it. Nor do the words of the ballad, "When in his early age," necessarily confirm the statement of Phillips. In the stanza just cited, the ballad-monger (who found " age " an obvious rhyme to " stage ") meant, I conceive, no more than this, — that Marlowe's histrionic feats took place soon after he had formed a permanent connection with the London theatres for the sake of a livelihood ; and, as far as I can judge, such really was the case. We have seen that Marlowe took the degree of A.M. in 1587 ; and there is every reason to believe that he was then known as a successful dramatist : but if he had been also known as one who had exhibited himself on the London boards in the capacity of a regular actor (and as such the ballad-monger evidently describes him), I am by no means sure that, in those days, the University of Cambridge would have granted the degree. 1 1 On this point, however, I would not urge my opinion with any * Ailu Oxon. ii. 7, ed. Bliss, t Biblioth. Brit. p. 512. X Theat. Poet. (Modern Poets), p. 24, ed. 1675. — Warton says that Marlowe was "often applauded, both by Queen Elizabeth and King James the First, as a judicious player " (Hist, of Engl. Poet. iii. 433, ed. 4to.) ; yet he presently adds that Marlowe "died rather before the year 1593" (p. 437), — which was "rather before" King James ascended the throne of England. § The Atheists Tragedie ; see Appendix I. to this volume. The date of the ballad may be inferred from the second stanza, — " A truer storie nere was told, As some alive can showe," &c. || Even the composing of plays for a London theatre by a member of the University was a proceeding very unlikely to meet with approbation from the Dons of Cambridge. They most probably held in supreme contempt all modern dramas which were not academic, — which were not written to be acted in a college-hall when some royal or dignified personage honoured the University with a visit. SOME ACCOUNT OF MARLOWE AND HIS WRITINGS. xv positiveness : new materials for Marlowe's biography may hereafter come to light, and prove that I am mistaken. For the same person to unite in himself the actor and the dramatist was very common, both at that time and at a later period. Marlowe may have performed on more than one stage, though we can trace him only to the Curtain ; and we may gather from the terms of the ballad (" He had alsoe a player beene .... But brake his leg," &c.) that, the accident which there befell him having occasioned incurable lameness, he was for ever disabled as an actor. The tragedy of Tamburlaine the Great, in Two Parts (the Second Part, it appears, having been brought upon the stage soon after the First*), may be confidently assigned to Marlowe, though the old editions have omitted the author's name. It is his earliest drama, at least the earliest of his plays which we possess. From Nash's Epistle " To the Gentlemen Students of both Universities," t prefixed to Greene's Menaphon, 1587, and from Greene's Address "To the Gentlemen Readers," % prefixed to his Perimedes the Blacke-Smith, 1588, Mr. Collier concludes, and, it would seem, justly, "that Marlowe was our first poet who used blank-verse in dramatic compositions performed in public theatres, that Tamburlaine was the play in which the successful experiment was made, and that it was acted anterior to 1587."§ On the authority of a rather obscure passage in The Black Book, 1604, Malone had conjectured that Tamburlaine was written either wholly or in part by Nash : || but to that conjecture Mr. Collier, — besides adducing a line from a sonnet by Gabriel Harvey, in which Marlowe, then just deceased, is spoken of under the * See Prologue to the Sec. Part. t In which Nash ridicules the then recent introduction of blank-verse on the public stage, and seems to allude to Marlowe in contemptuous terms. X In which Greene expressly mentions Marlowe's tragedy; " daring God out of heauen with that atheist Tamburlan, or blaspheming with the mad preest of the sonne." — Mr. Collier thinks that Marlowe also wrote the play in which " the Priest of the Sun" was a leading character. § Hist, of Engl. Dram. Poet. iii. 112.— Compare too the Prologue to the First Part of Tam- burlaine ; * 1 From jigging veins of rhyming mother-wits, And such conceits as clownage keeps in pay, We'll lead you to the stately tent of war," &c. — Mr. Collier informs us, that, before the appearance of Tamburlaine, writers for the regular theatres had confined themselves to the use of prose or rhyme ; and that all the English tragedies in blank verse which preceded Tamburlaine were performed either at court or before private societies. — Warton incidentally observes that Tamburlaine was " repress uteu before the year 1588." Hist, of Engl. Poet. iv. 11, ed. 4to. || Shakespeare (by Boswell), iii. 357. — The passage in The Black Book is, — "the spindle-shank spiders went stalking over his [Nash's] head as if they had been conning of Tamburlaine " (see Middleton's Works, v. 526, ed. Dyce) ; and it means, I have no doubt, that the spiders stalked with the tragic gait of an actor practising the part of Tamburlaine : compare the 2d line of the quotation from Hall in p. xvii. xvi SOME ACCOUNT OF MARLOWE AND HIS WRITINGS. appellation of "Tamberlaine,"* — has opposed the explicit testimony of Henslowe's Diary, " Pd unto Thomas Dickers [Dekker], the 20 of Desembr 1597 fyve shellenges for a prolog to Marloes Tamberlenr t I may add, that the rhymer who has turned the history of Marlowe into a ballad, describes him in one place as " blaspheming Tamholinr % This tragedy, which was entered in the Stationers' Books, 14th August, 1590,§ and printed dining the same year, has not come down to us in its original fulness ; and probably we have no cause to lament the curtailments which it suffered from the publisher of the first edition. " I have purposely," he says, " omitted and left out some fond and frivolous gestures, digressing, and, in my poor opinion, far unmeet for the matter, which I thought might seem more tedious unto the wise than any way else to be regarded, though haply they have been of some vain-conceited fondlings greatly gaped at, what time they were shewed upon the stage in their graced deformities : nevertheless now to be mixtured in print with such matter of worth, it would prove a great disgrace to so honourable and stately a history." || By the words, " fond and frivolous gestures," we are to understand those of the " clown," who very frequently figured, with more or less prominence, even in the most serious dramas of the time. The introduction of such buffooneries into tragedy 1T is censured by Hall towards the conclusion of a passage which, as it mentions " the Turkish Tamberlaine," would seem to be partly levelled at Marlowe :** " One higher-pitch' d doth set his soaring thought On crowned kings that Fortune hath low brought, Or some vpreared high-aspiring swaine, As it might be the Turkish Tamberlaine. Then weeneth he his base drink-drowned spright Rapt to the three-fold loft of heauen hight, * "Weepe, Powles ; thy Tamberlaine voutsafes to dye." A New Letter of Notable Contents, 1593, Sig D 3. t Diary, p. 71, ed. Shake. Soc. — As another proof that Tamberlaine is by Maidowe, Mr. Collier (Hist, of Engl. Dram. Poet. iii. 114) adduces Hey wood's Prologue to our author's Jew of Malta : but that Prologue is nothing to the purpose; see note ||, p. 142 of the present volume. — Notwithstanding the strong evidence to the contrary, Mr. Hallam (Introd. to the Lit. of Europe, ii. 169, ed. 1843) still continues to regard Nash as Marlowe's coadjutor in Tamburlaine. t See Appendix I. to the present volume. § "A ballad entituled the storyeof Tamburlayne the greate," &c. (founded, I suppose, on Marlowe's play) was entered in the Stationers' Books, 5th Nov. 1594. II P. 4 of the present volume. U In Italy, at the commencement of the 18th century (and probably much later), it was not unusual to introduce "the Doctor," "Harlequin," "Pantalone," and "Coviello," into deep tragedies. "I have seen," says Addison, "a translation of The Cid acted at Bolonia, which would never have taken, had they not found a place in it for these buffoons." Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, d-c. in the years 1701, 1702, 1703, p. 68, ed. 1745. ** Perhaps I ought to add, that Marlowe was dead when (in 1597) the satire, from which these lines are quoted, was first given to the press. SOME ACCOUNT OF MARLOWE AND HIS WRITINGS. xvii When he conceiues vpon his fained stage The stalking steps of his greate personage, Graced with huf-cap termes and thundring threats, That his poore hearers' hayre quite vpright sets. ********* Now, least such fright full showes of Fortune's fall And bloudy tyrants' rage should chance apall The dead-stroke audience, midst the silent rout Comes leaping in a self e-mis formed lout, And laughes, and grins, and frames his mimiJc face, And iustles straight into the prince's place : Then doth the theatre eccho all aloud With gladsome noyse of that applauding crowd : A goodly hoch-poch, when vile russettings Are matched] with monarchs and xoith mightie Icings /" * But Hall's taste was more refined and classical than that of his age ; and the success of Tamburlaine, in which the celebrated Alleyn represented the hero,t was adequate to the most sanguine expectations which its author could have formed. Nor did it cease to be popular when no longer a novelty : the Scythian conqueror, gorgeous in his " copper -laced coat and crimson velvet breeches,":); riding in a chariot drawn by harnessed monarchs,§ and threatening destruction to the very powers of heaven,|| was for many years a highly attractive personage to the play- * Hall's Virgid. Lib. I. Sat. iii., ed. 1602. f See Heywood's Prol. to our author's Jew of Malta, p. 142 of the present volume. X "Item, Tamberlynes cotte, with coper lace," — " Item, Tarn berlanes breches of cryrason vellvet." Appendix to Henslowe's Diary, pp. 274-5, ed. Shake. Soc. We find ibid. p. 273, " Tamberlyne brydell" (i. e. the bridle for the captive kings). § "Enter Tamburlaine, drawn in his chariot by the Kings of Trebizon and Soria, with bits in their mouths, &c. " Tamb. Holla, ye pamper'd jades of Asia !" &c. p. 64, sec. col. This has been quoted or alluded to, generally with ridicule, by a whole host of writers. Pistol's "hollow pamper'd jades of Asia" in Shakespeare's Henry IV. P. ii. Act ii. sc. 4, is known to most readers : see also Beaumont and Fletcher's Coxcomb, act ii. sc. 2 ; Fletcher's Women Pleased, act iv. sc. 1 ; Chapman's, Jonson's, and Marston's Eastward Ho, act ii. sig. B 3, ed. 1605 ; Brathwait's Strappado for the Diuell, 1615, p. 159 ; Taylor the water-poet's Thief e and his World runnes on Wheeles, — Workes, pp. Ill [121], 239, ed. 1630 ; A Brown Dozen of Drunkards, &c. 1648, sig. A 3 ; the Duke of Newcastle's Varietie, a comedy, 1649, p. 72 ; — but I cannot afford room for more references. — In 1566 a similar spectacle had been exhibited at Gray's Inn : there the Dumb Show before the first act of Gascoigne and Kinwelmersh's Jocasta introduced " a king with an imperiall crowne vpon hys head," &c. "sitting in a chariote very richly furnished, drawen in by iiii kings in their dublets and hosen, with crownes also vpon theyr heads, representing vnto vs ambition by the historie of Sesostres," &c. || In defence of such passages Marlowe perhaps would have alleged the example of the Italian romanesque poets (who were more read in England during his time than they are at present). In Bojardo's Orlando Innamorato, when Marfisa finds that she cannot overcome Kanaldo, "Chiama iniquo Macone e doloroso, Cornuto e becco Trivigante appella ; Ribaldi, a lor dicea, per qual cagione, Tenete il cavalier in su'l'arcione ? xviii SOME ACCOUNT OF MARLOWE AND HIS WRITINGS. goers of the metropolis. Numerous entries concerning the performance of both Parts of this tragedy occur in Henslowe's Diary, all of them, however, subsequent to the death of Marlowe: the earliest is dated 28th August, 1594, the latest 13th Nov. 1595* Venga un di voi, et lascisi vedere, Et pigli a suo piacer questa difesa, Ch'io faro sua persona rimanere Qua giu riversa e nel prato distesa. Voi non volete mia forza temere Perche la su non posso esser ascesa ; Ma, s'io prendo il cammino, io ve n'avviso, Tutti v'uccido, ed ardo il Paradise " Lib. i. C. xviii. st. 9, ed. Pan. In the same poem Agramante declares to his council that he is resolved to subdue, not only Carlo Mano, but the whole world ; and he concludes, "Poi che battuto avrd tutta la terra, Ancor nel Paradiso io vo' far guerra." Lib. ii. C. i. st. 64. In Le Prime Imprese del Conte Orlando by Dolce, when Agolante hears that his son Almonte is slain, ' ' egli ha sua stella Accusa, e la biastema parimente ; Et e da 1' ira stimolato tanto Che di strugger il ciel si dona vanto." C. xvii. p. 134, ed. 1579. There are touches of this kind even in Ariosto ; 4 1 Dal sagace Spagnuol, che con la guida Di duo del sangue d'Avalo ardiria Farsi nel cielo e ne lo 'nferno via," Orl. Fur. C. xxxiii. st. 51. The same sort of extravagance is occasionally found in English dramatists later than Marlowe. For instance, in Heywood's Four Prentices of London (acted about 1599, and certainly intended for a serious play) the Soldan exclaims, * ' Should Ioue himselfe in thunder answere I [i. e. ay], When we say no, wee'd pull him from the skie." Sig. F 2, ed. 1615. Yet this early production of Heywood contains some fine things ; e. g., " In Sion towres hangs his victorious flagge, Blowing defiance this way ; and it showes Like a red meteor in the troubled aire, Or like a blazing comet that fore-tels The fall of princes." Sig. Gr. The line marked in Italics has been cited neither by the editors of Milton nor by those of Gray as parallel to the following passages ; "Th' imperial ensign; which, full high advane'd, Shone like a meteor streaming to the wind." Par. Lost, l 536. ( 1 Loose his beard, and hoary hair Stream'd, like a meteor, to the troubled air." The Bard. * Pp. 40-60, ed. Shake. Soc. — The play called Tambercame, which is mentioned in the same Diary, was doubtle*is a distinct piece from Marlowe's Tamburlaine. / SOME ACCOUNT OF MARLOWE AND HIS WRITINGS. xix Taylor, the water-poet, makes Tom Coryat inform the Great Mogul, that Tamburlaine "perhaps is not altogether so famous in his own country of Tartariaas in England and notices of the play, which shew that it was still in some repute, might be cited from writers of a more recent period, t But before the close of the seventeenth century it had sunk into oblivion : a precocious young gentleman, a Mr. Charles Saunders, whose Tamerlane (after having been acted, with a Prologue by Dryden) was printed in 1681, writes thus in his Preface ; " It hath been told me, there is a Cock-pit play going under the name of The Scythian Shepherd or Tamberlain the Great, which how good it is any one may judge by its obscurity, being a thing, not a bookseller % in London, or scarce the players themselves who acted it formerly, cow'd call to remembrance." With very little discrimination of character, with much extravagance of incident, with no pathos where pathos was to be expected, and with a profusion of inflated language, Tamburlaine is nevertheless a very impressive drama, and undoubtedly superior to all the English tragedies which preceded it ; — superior to them in the effectiveness with which the events are brought out, in the "poetic feeling w r hich animates the whole, and in the nerve and variety of the versification. Marlowe was yet to shew that he could impart truthfulness to his scenes ; but not a few passages might be gleaned from Tamburlaine as grand in thought, as splendid in imagery, and as happy in expression, as any which his later works contain. A memorandum that Marlowe " translated Coluthus's Rape of Helen into English rhyme in the year 1587," is cited from Coxeter's MSS. by Warton ; who observes that " Coluthus's poem was probably brought into vogue, and suggested to Marlowe's notice, by being paraphrased in Latin verse the preceding year by Thomas Watson." § * Oration to the Great Mogul, p. 85, Worhes, ed. 1630. + E. Gr. "Tut, leave your raging, sir ; for though you should roar like Tamerliu at the Bull," &c. Cowley's Guardian, act iii. sc. 6, ed. 1650. £ Since those days, the old editions of Marlowe's pieces have, of course, become more and more difficult to procure. The following fragment of Memoranda, in the handwriting of (I believe) Dr. Ducarel, was obligingly forwarded to me by Mr. Bolton Corney, and may prove not uninteresting to some readers. "One fine summer's day, in the year one thousand seven hundred and sixty-four, going into an old book-shop kept by an old woman and her daughter, on the north side of Middle-Row, Holbourn, to look for any ancient books ; not being there long, looking round the shop, before Dodd the comedian came in, to search, as he told me, for any one of Kit Marlow's plays. I asked the old woman if she had any more books besides those in the shop. She said ' she had ; but they were in an inner room without any window-light ; and that the last person that had been there was the noted book- worm Dr. Rawlinson,' — who then had been sleeping with his fathers some few years. "Mr. Dodd ask'd if it was agreeable for him to accompany me. We had two candles lighted, and going into this dark recess, saw a great number of books laying on the ground, which took us some hours looking over. He brought out a book or two ; but was not lucky enough to find Kit Marlow there. And, after turning over, for three or four hours, many dirty books, I only found worth buying," &c. Though Dodd failed in Middle-Row, he must have found "dark recesses" in other localities where a search after early dramas was not made in vain ; for his collection of plays (sold by auction after his decease) was very curious and valuable. § Hist, of Engl. Poet. iii. 433, ed. 4to ; where Warton also remarks, ' 1 1 have never seen it [Marlowe's translation of Coluthus] .... But there is entered to Jones, in 1595, * A booke entituled b 2 SOME ACCOUNT OF MARLOWE AND HIS WRITINGS. — The poet of Lycopolis so seldom rises above mediocrity, that the loss of Marlowe's version may be borne with perfect resignation. It is to be presumed that Tamburlaine had not been long before the public, when Marlowe produced his Faustus* The date of the first edition of the prose-romance which supplied the materials for this play, is, I believe, doubtful ; but " A ballad of the life and death of Doctor Faustus the great cungerer" was licensed to be printed 28th February, 1588-9 ; and, as ballads were frequently founded on favourite dramas, it is most likely that the ditty just mentioned was derived from our author's play. A stanza in Rowlands's Knave of Clubs, not only informs us that Alleyn acted the chief part in this tragedy, but also describes his costume ; "The gull gets on a surplis, With a crosse upon his brest, Like Allen playing Faustus, In that manner was he drest." + The success of Faustus was complete. Henslowe has sundry entries X concerning it ; none, however, earlier than 30th Sept. 1594, at which date Marlowe was dead, and the play, there is every reason to believe, had been several years on the prompter's list. Henslowe has also two important memoranda regarding the " additions" which were made to it, when, in consequence of having been repeatedly performed, it had somewhat palled upon the audience ; "Pd unto Thomas Dickers [Dekker], the 20 of Desembr 1597, for adycyons to Fostus twentie shellinges." "Lent unto the oompanye, the 22 of novmbr 1602, to paye unto W m Birde and Samwell Rowley for ther adicyones in Docter Fostes, the some of ... . iiij 11 § Faustus was entered in the Stationers' Books 7th January 1 600-1. || The earliest edition yet discovered is the quarto of 1604; which never having been Raptus Helena, Helen's Rape, by the Athenian duke Theseus'." Surely, Warton could not mean, that the book entered to Jones in 1595 was perhaps Marlowe's version of Coluthus ; for Coluthus relates the rape of Helen by Paris, not by Theseus. * Mr. Collier observes that " Marlowe's Faustus, in all probability, was written very soon after his Tamburlaine the Great, as in 1588 'a ballad of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus' (which in the language of that time might mean either the play or a metrical composition founded upon its chief incidents) was licensed to be printed." Hist, of Engl. Dram. Poet. iii. 126. As we find that the play was entered in the Stationers' Books in 1601, the "ballad of Faustus " must mean the story of Faustus in verse, — perhaps, that ballad which I have reprinted in the present volume, p. 136. Mr. Collier, in a note on Henslowe's Diary, p. 42, ed. Shake. Soc, states that "the old Romance of Faustus, on which the play is founded, was first entered on the Stationers' books in 1588 :" qy. does he mean the old ballad of Faustus ? t P. 22. ed. Percy Soc. (reprint of ed. 1611). — An inventory of Alleyn's theatrical apparel includes " Faustus Jerkin, his cloke." Collier's Mem. of Alleyn, p. 20. X Diary, pp. 42—91, ed. Shake. Soc. § Ibid. pp. 71, 228. — Among the stage -properties of the Lord Admiral's men {Ibid. p. 273) we find "j dragon in fastest' II I make this statement on the authority of the MS. notes by Malone in his copies of 4tos 1604 and 1631 (now in the Bodleian Library). SOME ACCOUNT OF MARLOWE AND HIS WHITINGS. examined either by Marlowe's editors or (what is more remarkable) by the excellent historian of the stage, Mr. Collier, they all remained ignorant how very materially it differs from the later editions. The next quarto, that of 1616 (reprinted in 1624 and in 1631), besides a text altered more or less from the commencement to the end, contains some characters and scenes which are entirely new : but, as the present volume includes both the edition of 1604 and that of 1616, a more particular account of their variations is unnecessary here. — We have seen that "additions" were made to Faustus in 1597, and again in 1602, at the first of which dates Marlowe had been several years deceased; and a question arises, is the quarto of 1604 wholly from our author's pen, or is it, — as the quarto of 1616 indisputably is, — an alteration of the tragedy by other hands? Malone believed that the quarto of 1604 was "Marlowe's original play;"* but a passage in a speech of the Horse- courser proves him to have been mistaken. The words are these ; " Mass, Doctor Lopus was never such a doctor :"t now, Marlowe died in 1593 ; and the said Doctor Lopez did not start into notoriety till the following year, during which he suffered death at Tyburn for his treasonable practices. % I at first entertained no doubt that the (somewhat mutilated and corrupted) quarto of 1604 presented Faustus with those comparatively unimportant "additions" for which Dekker was paid twenty shillings in 1597 ; and that the quarto of 1616 exhibited that alteration of the play which was made by the combined ingenuity of Bird and Rowley in 1602. But I have recently felt less confident on this subject, having found that the anonymous comedy The Taming of a Shrew, which was entered in the Stationers' Books and printed in 1594, contains a seeming imitation of a line in Faustus, — a line which occurs only in the quarto of 1616 (reprinted in 1624 and 1631), and which belongs to a scene that, as the merest novice in criticism will at once perceive, was not the composition of Marlowe. If the line in question § was really imitated by the author * MS. Note in his copy of 4to 1604. — In his copy of 4to 1631 he has written ; "The reason why Eowley and Bird's additions did not appear in the edition of 1604, was, that they were retained for the use of the theatre." (Malone, it would seem, was not then aware that Dekker had made additions to Faustus in 1597.) — Mr. Collier says, "We may conclude that the additions last made [to Faustus by Bird and Rowley] were very considerable; and with them probably the piece was printed in 1604." Hist, of Engl. Dram. Poet. ill. 126 : but when Mr. Collier made this remark, he was unacquainted with the quarto of 1604, as is proved by his quoting, throughout his valuable work, the text of the later Faustus. t P. 96, sec. col. t He was executed in June 1594 : see Stowe's Annales, p. 768, ed. 1615. § It is, — " Or hevSd this flesh and bones as small as sand." P. 126, first col,. The probable imitation of it is, — " And hew'd thee smaller than the Libian sandes." The resemblance between these two lines might have been considered as purely accidental, did not The SOME ACCOUNT OF MARLOWE AND HIS WRITINGS. of The Taming of a Shrew, we must conclude that, earlier than 1597, Faustus had received " additions" concerning which the annals of the stage are silent ; nor must we attempt to assign to their respective authors those two rifacimenti of the tragedy which are preserved in the quartos of 1604 and 1616. — A fifth quarto of Faustus was printed in 1663, With New Additions, as it is now Acted. With several New Scenes, together with the Actors Names [i. e. the names of the Dram. Pers.], the new matter* occupying much less space than the title-page would lead us to imagine, and evidently supplied by some poetaster of the lowest grade. — The repeated alterations and editions of this tragedy seem to justify the assertion of Phillips, that " of all that Marlowe hath written to the stage, his Dr. Faustus hath made the greatest noise, with its devils and such like tragical sport."t The well-known fact, that our early dramatists usually borrowed their fables from novels or " histories," to which they often servilely adhered, has not been considered any derogation from their merits. Yet the latest biographer of Marlowe dismisses Faustus as " unworthy of his reputation," chiefly because it " closely follows a popular romance of the same name." J Certain it is that Marlowe has "closely followed" the prose History of Doctor Faustus; but it is equally certain that he was not indebted to that History for the poetry and the passion which he has infused into his play, for those thoughts of surpassing beauty and grandeur with which it abounds, and for that fearful display of mental agony at the close, compared to which all attempts of the kind by preceding English dramatists are " poor indeed." In the opinion of Hazlitt, "Faustus, though an imperfect and unequal performance, is Marlowe's greatest work."§ Mr. Hallam remarks; "There is an awful melancholy about Marlowe's Mephistophiles, perhaps more impressive than the malignant mirth of that fiend in the renowned work of Goethe. But the fair form of Margaret is wanting." 1 1 In the comic scenes of Faustus (which are nearly all derived from the prose History) we have buffoonery of the worst description ; and it is difficult not to believe that Marlowe is answerable for at least a portion of them, when we recollect that he had inserted similar scenes in the original copy of his Tamburlaine. Taming of a Shrew contain various passages almost transcribed from Tamburlaine and Faustus : see much more on this subject; p. li. of the present essay. * Mr. Collier is mistaken when he states that in 4to. 1663 " a scene at Rome is transferred to Constantinople, and another interpolated from The Rich Jew of Malta." Hist, of Engl. Dram. Poet. iii. 126. There is no scene at Constantinople, nor any interpolation from the Jew of Malta ; but there is a scene at Babylon, during which the Sultan questions one of his Bashaws concerning the taking of Malta, and is informed how they had won the town by means of the Jew. Perhaps it is hardly worth mentioning that Marlowe's Faustus was " made into a Farce, with the Humours of Harlequin and Scaramouch," by the celebrated actor Mountfort, who was so basely assassinatod in 1692. t Thcat. Poet. {Modern Poets), p. 25, ed. 1675. % Lives of English Dramatists, i. 58 (Lardner's Cyclop.). § Lectures on Dram. Lit. p. 53, ed. 1840. II Introd. to the Lit. of Europe, ii. 171, ed. 1843. SOME ACCOUNT OF MARLOWE AND HIS WRITINGS. xxiii In what year Marlowe produced The Jew of Malta we are unable to determine. The words in the Prologue, "now the Guise is dead," are evidence that it was composed after 23rd Dec. 1588 ; and Mr. Collier thinks that it was probably written about 1589 or 1590.* Barabas was originally performed by Alleyn;t and the aspect of the Jew was rendered as grotesque and hideous as possible by means of a false nose. In Rowley's Search for Money, 1609, a person is described as having "his visage (or vizard) like the artificiall Jewe of Maltae's nose ;"J and a speech in the play itself, " 0, brave, master ! I worship your nose for this,"§ is a proof that Marlowe intended his hero to be distinguished by the magnitude of that feature. It would seem, indeed, that on our early stage Jews were always furnished with an extra quantity of nose : it was thought that a race so universally hated could hardly be made to appear too ugly. The great popularity of this tragedy is evinced by Henslowe's Diary, where we find numerous notices concerning it, the earliest dated 26th February 1591-2, the latest 21st June 1596 ; and again, a notice of its revival 19th May 1601.|| Though entered in the Stationers' Books 17th May 1594,H it remained in manuscript till 1633, when, after having been acted at court and at the Cock-pit with prologues and epilogues by Heywood, it was published under the auspices of the same dramatist. The character of Barabas, upon which the interest of the tragedy entirely depends, is delineated with no ordinary power, and possesses a strong individuality. Unfor- tunately, however, it is a good deal overcharged ; but I suspect that, in this instance at least, Marlowe violated the truth of nature, not so much from his love of exaggeration, as in consequence of having borrowed all the atrocities of the play from some now-unknown novel, whose author was willing to natter the prejudices of his readers by attributing almost impossible wickedness to a son of Israel. " The first two acts of The J ew of Malta" observes Mr. Hallam, " are more vigorously conceived, both as to character and circumstance, than any other Elizabethan play, except those * ITisL of Engl. Dram. Poet. iii. 135. t See pp. 141, 142. t P. 19, ed. Percy Soc. § P. 157, sec. col. || Pp. 21—74, 187, ed. Shake. Soc. We also find (Ibid. p. 274) in an inventory of the stage- properties of the Lord Admiral's men, " j cauderm for the Jewe," i. e. the caldron into which Barabas falls. IT On the preceding day was entered " a ballad" on the same subject, derived, we may presume, from the tragedy. — Sir John Harington has the following couplet in an epigram written perhaps as early as 1 592 ; " Was ever Jew of Malta or of MiUain Then [Than] this most damned Jew more Jewish villain ? " Of a devout usurer — Epigrams, B. iii. Ep. 16, ed. folio. In his Cutter of Coleman-street (an alteration of his Guardian), Cowley makes one of the characters say, "But I'm the very Jew of Malta, if she did not use me since that worse than I'd use a rotten apple." Act ii. sc. 3 [sc. 1]. xxiv SOME ACCOUNT OF MARLOWE AND HIS WRITINGS. of Shakespeare : " * but the latter part is in every respect so inferior, that we rise from a perusal of the whole with a feeling akin to disappointment. If the dialogue has little poetry, it has often great force of expression. — That Shakespeare was well acquainted with this tragedy cannot be doubted ; but that he caught from it more than a few trifling hints for The Merchant of Venice will be allowed by no one who has carefully compared the character of Barabas with that of Shylock.t — An alteration of The Jeiv of Malta was brought out at Drury-lane Theatre in 1818, when Kean was in the zenith of his fame, and, owing to his exertions in Barabas, it was very favourably received. Warton incidentally mentions that Marlowe's Edward the Second was " written in the year 1590 and, for all we know, he may have made the assertion on sufficient grounds, though he has neglected to specify them. Mr. Collier, who regards it (and, no doubt, rightly) as one of our author's latest pieces, has not attempted to fix its date. It was entered in the Stationers' Books 6th July 1593, and first printed in 1598. From that heaviness, which prevails more or less in all " chronicle histories " anterior to those of Shakespeare, this tragedy is not quite free ; its crowded incidents do not always follow each other without confusion ; and it has few of those " rap tures," for which Marlowe is eulogized by one of his contemporaries. § But, taken as a whole, it is the most perfect of his plays ; there is no overdoing of character, no turgidity of language. On the two scenes which give the chief interest to this drama Lamb remarks ; " the reluctant pangs of abdicating royalty in Edward furnished hints which Shakespeare scarce improved in his Richard the Second ; and the death-scene of Marlowe's king moves pity and terror beyond any scene ancient or modern with which I am acquainted." || The excellence of both scenes is indis- putable ; but a more fastidious critic than Lamb might perhaps justly object to such an exhibition of physical suffering as the latter scene affords. The Massacre at Paris was, we are sure, composed after August 2nd, 1589, when Henry the Third, with whose death it terminates, expired in consequence of the wound he had received from Jaques Clement the preceding day.1T On the * Jntrod. to the Lit. of Europe, ii. 170, ed. 1843. t See a considerable number of what have been called the " parallel passages" of these two plays in the Appendix to Waldron's edition, and very ingenious continuation, of Jonson's Sad Shepherd, p. 209. X Hut. of Engl. Poet. iii. 438, ed. 4to. § See the lines by Drayton quoted in p. liii of this memoir. II Spec, of Engl. Dram. Poets, p. 28, ed. 1808. II " The Jew of Malta contains, in its original prologue, spoken by Machiavel, an allusion to The Massacre at Paris, which had preceded it." Hist, of Engl. Dram. Poet. iii. 135. But when Mr. Collier made this remark, he had not yet seen Henslowe's MSS. : and as to the words in question, " now the Guise is dead,"— they only shew that The Jew of Malta was written after the death of the Duke of Guise. SOME ACCOUNT OF MARLOWE AND HIS WRITINGS. entry in Henslowe' s Diary, — " Rd at the tragedey of the guyes [Guise] 30 [January, 1593*] iij s . . . . iiij s ," — Mr. Collier observes, " In all probability Marlowe's Massacre at Paris. This entry is valuable, supposing it to apply to Marlowe's tragedy, because it ascertains the day it was first acted, Henslowe having placed ne [i. e. new] in the margin. It was perhaps Marlowe's last play, as he was killed about six months afterwards." Henslowe has several later entries concerning the performance of the same piece (which he also designates The Massacre) ; but probably, when he notices " the Guise " under the year 1598,t he refers to a revival of the tragedy with additions and alterations. — It appears that in the play as originally written, the character of Guise was supported by Alleyn. 4 — The Massacre at Paris was printed without date (perhaps about 1595 or 1596), either from a copy taken down, during representation, by some unskilful and ignorant short-hand- writer, or from a very imperfect transcript which had belonged to one of the theatres. It would be rash to decide on the merits of a play which we possess only with a text both cruelly mutilated § and abounding in corruptions ; I strongly suspect, however, that The Massacre at Paris, even in its pristine state, was the very worst of Marlowe's dramas. We must now turn from his works to the personal history of Marlowe. — It is not to be doubted that by this time he had become acquainted with most of those who, like himself, were dramatists by profession ; and there can be little doubt too that beyond their circle (which, of course, included the actors) he had formed few intimacies. Though the demand for theatrical novelties was then incessant, plays were scarcely recognized as literature, and the dramatists were regarded as men who held a rather low rank in society : the authors of pieces which had delighted thousands were generally looked down upon by the grave substantial citizens, and seldom presumed to approach the mansions of the aristocracy but as clients in humble attendance on the bounty of their patrons. Unfortunately, the discredit which attached to dramatic writing as an occupation was greatly increased by the habits of those who pursued it : a few excepted, they were improvident, * It is quite manifest, both from what precedes and what follows in the Diary, that Henslowe (who was an egregious blunderer) ought to have written here " 1592," i. e. 1592-3 (see Diary, p. 30, ed. Shake. Soc.) ; and with that date the entry has been given by Malone, Shakespeare, by Boswell, iii. 299, as well as by Mr. Collier, Hist, of Engl. Dram. Poet. iii. 132. t " Lent W m Birde, alias Borne, the 27 of novembr [1598], to bye a payer of sylke stockens, to playe the Gwisse in J-xx 8 ." " Lent unto W m Borne, the 19 of novembr, 1598, upon a longe taney clocke of clothe, the some of xij s , w Lh hesayd yt was to Imbrader his hatte for the Gwisse }xij s ." Diary, pp. 110, 113., ed. Shake. Soc. At a later date Webster wrote a drama (now lost) which was called The Guise, and which is more likely to have been an original work than one founded upon Marlowe's tragedy. + In an inventory of theatrical apparel belonging to Alleyn is "hose [i. e. breeches] .... for the Guises." Collier's Mem. of Alleyn, p. 21. § See note * p. 239. SOME ACCOUNT OF MARLOWE AND HIS WRITINGS. unprincipled) and dissolute, — now rioting in taverns and " ordinaries " on the profits of a successful play, and now lurking in the ha ants of poverty * till the completion of another drama had enabled them to resume their revels. — At a somewhat later period, indeed, a decided improvement appears to have taken place in the morals of our dramatic writers : and it is by no means improbable that the high respectability of character which was maintained by Shakespeare and Jonson may have operated very beneficially, in the way of example, on the play-wrights around them. — But among those of superior station there was at least one person with whom Marlowe lived on terms of intimacy : the publisher of his posthumous fragment, Hero and Leander, was induced to dedicate it " to the right worshipful Sir Thomas Walsingham, knight,"t because he had " bestowed upon the author many kind favours, entertaining the parts of reckoning and worth which he found in him with good countenance and liberal affection." % Nor is this the only proof extant that Sir Thomas Walsingham cultivated a familiarity with the dramatists of his day ; for to him, as to his " long-loved and honourable friend" Chapman has inscribed by a sonnet the comedy of Al Fooles, 1605.§ Among the play-wrights of the time, Robert Greene was far from the meanest in the estimation of his contemporaries. The ill-will which he appears to have borne to Marlowe || when the latter first rose into public favour, had most probably passed away long before the period at which we are now arrived ; and we may conclude that they eventually kept up a friendly intercourse with each other, undisturbed by any expression of uneasiness on the part of Greene at Marlowe's acknowledged preemi- nence. — The wretched Greene, reduced to utter beggary, and abandoned by the companions of his festive hours, expired at the house of a poor shoemaker near Dowgate on the 3rd of September 1592 ; IF and soon after his decease, his Groatsworth of Wit bought with a million of Repentance was given to the public by Henry Chettle, one of the minor dramatic and miscellaneous writers of the day. The following " Address," which occurs towards the conclusion of that tract, has been frequently * The author of The Atheist's Tragedie has not failed to notice such vicissitudes of fortune in Marlowe's case ; " A poet was he of repute, And wrote full many a playe, Now strutting in a silken sute, Then begging by the way." See Appendix I. to this volume. + Sir Thomas Walsingham, knight, of Chesilhurst in Kent. He married Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Sir Peter Manwood, Knight of the Eath (see ante, note £, p. xiii), and died in 1630, aged 69. See Thorpe's Registrum Roffense, p. 933, and Hasted's Hist, of Kent, i. 99. X See p. 277. § This poetical dedication is found, I believe, in only a single copy of the play. || See ante, note £, p. xv. For various other particulars, see the Account of Greene, &c, p. lxxii. sqq., prefixed to his Dram. Works, p. 359, of the present volume, for notices of them from Guilpin's Skialetheia, &c, 1598, (where Davies is termed "our English Martiall,") from Sir J. Harington's Metamorphosis of Ajax, 1596, and from Bastard's Chrestoleros, &c, 1598. See also Meres's Palladis Tamia, &c, 1598, fol. 284 ; Fitzgeoffrey's Affanice, &c, 1601, Sigs. B 3, E 4 ; R. Carew's Epistle on the Excell. of the English Tongue, p. 13 (appended to his Survey of Cornwall, ed. 1769) ; and Jonson' s Conversations with Drummond, pp. 15, 26, 37, (where mention is made of two epigrams not in the printed collection), ed. Shake. Soc. — In Jonson's xviii th Epigram is the line " Davis and Weever, and the best have been" (i.e. and the best epigrammatists that have been), Works, vm. 161 ; where Grifford gives, without any addition of his own, a note by Whalley, who says that Jonson alludes to Davies of Hereford and to Weever's Funeral Monuments : but the allusion is to Sir John Davies's Epigrams and to Weever's Epigrams, 1599. SOME ACCOUNT OF MARLOWE AND HIS WRITINGS. chiefly recommend themselves to readers of the present day, as illustrating the manners and " humours " which prevailed towards the close of Elizabeth's reign. I have given them with the text considerably improved by means of one of the Harleian MSS. When Davies republished his poems in 1622, he did not admit a single Epigram into the volume. A paraphrase on the very elegant production of the Pseudo-Musaeus * had been projected and was already partly composed by Marlowe, when death put an end to his labours ; and as much of Hero and Leander as could be discovered after his decease having been entered in the Stationers' Books 28th September, 1593,t was given to the press in 1598. — While the poem of the Greek grammarian is comprised in 341 verses, the fragment in question extends to above 800. In this paraphrase J Marlowe has somewhat impeded the progress and weakened the interest of the story by introducing extraneous matter and by indulging in whimsical and frivolous details ; he occasionally disregards costume ; he is too fond of conceits, and too prodigal of " wise saws " and moral axioms. But he has amply redeemed these faults by the exquisite perception of the beautiful which he displays throughout a large portion of the fragment, by descriptions picturesque and vivid in the extreme, by lines which glow with all the intensity of passion, by marvellous felicities of language, and by skilful modulation of the verse. — The quotation from this poem in As you like it § may be considered as a proof that it was admired by Shakespeare ; and the words which are there applied to the author, — "dead shepherd," — sound not unlike an expression of pity for his sad and untimely end. * " Musasus station'd with his lyre Supreme among th' Elysian quire, Is, for the dwellers upon earth, Mute as a lark ere morning'' s birth.'''' (Wordsworth's Lines written in a blank leaf of Macpherson' s Ossian.) Yet various learned men believed that the Greek poem on Hero and Leander was really composed by the ancient Musseus : and we therefore need not be surprised at finding Marlowe and his continuator Chapman entertain that belief. — The elder Scaliger had not only persuaded himself that the poem was genuine, but that it was superior to the works of Homer. The younger and the greater Scaliger, however, thought very differently ; and I give the following passage from his Epistolce, because it is not cited by Schrader in the Prolegomena to Mnsceus. " Parcior et castigatior [Dionysio Per., Oppiano, et Nonno] quidem Musseus, sed qui cum illorum veterum frugalitate comparatus, prodigus videatur. Neque in hoc sequimur optimi parentis nostri judicium, quern acumina ilia et flores declamatorii ita cceperunt, ut non dubitavit eum Homero prrcferre." p. 531, ed. 1627. t "It occurs again in the registers of the Stationers, in 1597, 1598, and 1600." [The latest entry must refer to an edition of the poem with Chapman's continuation.] Warton's Hist, of Engl. Poet. iii. 434, ed. 4to. + By an oversight, Warton calls it a "translation." Hist, of Engl. Poet. iii. 434, ed. 4to. Though Warton was perhaps better acquainted with the Greek and Roman writers than any of our poetical antiquaries, Tyrwhitt always excepted, yet this is not the only mistake he has made in such matters. For instance, in vol. ii. 461, he mentions Grindal's "recommending such barbarous and degenerate classics as Palingenius [i. e. Pier Angelo Manzolli], Sedulius, and Prudentius," &c. § See note +, p. 281 of the present volume. SOME ACCOUNT OF MARLOWE AND HIS WRITINGS. xli Jonson, too, in Every M an in his Humour * has cited Hero and Leander ; and he is reported to have spoken of it often in terms of the highest praise, t The age of Elizabeth, so fertile in great poets, had also its indifferent rhymers in abundance ; and one of the latter class lost no time in attempting to complete this beautiful fragment. Before the close of the year 1598 Henry Petowe pnt forth The Second Part of Hero and Leander, contemning their further fortunes ; % and, though none of his contemporaries has informed us how it was received by the public, there can be little doubt that it met with the contempt and ridicule which it deserved. In a Dedicatory Epistle to Sir Henry Guilford, knight, Petowe writes as follows. " This historie of Hero and Leander, penned by that admired poet Marloe, but not finished (being preuented by sodaine death), and the same (though not abruptly, yet contrary to all menns expectation) resting, like a heade seperated from the body, with this harsh sentence, Desunt nonnulla ; I, being inriched by a gentleman, a friend of mine, with the true Italian discourse of those loners' further fortunes, haue presumed to finish the historie, though not so well as diners riper wits doubtles would haue done," &c. Whether Petowe really borrowed the substance of this Continuation from a foreign original, or whether what he says about "the true Italian discourse " is to be understood as an ingenious fiction, I haue taken no pains to inquire : it is at least certain that the wretched style in which he relates the very foolish incidents is all his own.§ One passage (and the best, too,) of the poem must * See note *, p. 282 of the present volume. + In an address "To the Reader," signed R. C, prefixed to The Chast and Lost Lovers, &c, 1651, the work of William Bosworth, ' ' a young gentleman 1 9 years of age, " who was then deceased, is the following passage ; " The strength of his fancy and the shallowing of it in words he [Bosworth] taketh from Mr. Marlow in his Hero and Leander, whose mighty lines Mr. Benjamin Johnson (a man sensible enough of his own abilities) was often heard to say that they [sic] were examples fitter for admiration than for parallel." But I cannot help suspecting that all R. C.'s knowledge of Jonson's admiration of "Mr. Marlow" was derived from Ben's verses on Shakespeare, where we find the words, "Marlowe's mighty line." Some other notices of Marlowe's poem may be thrown together here. — "Let me see, hath any bodie in Yarmouth heard of Leander and Hero, of whome diuine Musseus sung, and a diuiner Muse than him, Kit Marlow ? .... At that, she [Hero] became a franticke Bacchanal outright, and made no more bones but sprang after him [Leander], and so resignd vp her priesthood, and left worke for Musseus and Kit Marlowe." Nash's Lenten Stuffe, &c, 1599, pp. 42, 45. — "[Will you read] Catullus? [take] Shakespeare, and Barlowes [Marlowe's] Fragment " R. Oarew's Epistle on the Excell. of the English Tongue, p. 13. (appended to his Survey . TAMBURLAINE THE GREAT. 70 THE SECOND PART OF ACT V. As when tbey swallow assafoetida, Which makes them fleet* aloft and gapef for air. Tamb. Well, then, my friendly lords, what now remains, But that we leave sufficient garrison, And presently depart to Persia, To triumph after all our victories ? Ther. Ay, good my lord, let us in X haste to Persia ; And let this captain be remov'd the walls To some high hill about the city here. Tamb. Let it be so ; — about it, soldiers ; — But stay ; I feel myself distemper'd suddenly. Tech. What is it dares distemper Tamburlaine 1 Tamb. Something, Techelles; but I know not what. — But, forth, ye vassals § ! whatsoe'er || it be, Sickness or death can never conquer me. [Exeunt. SCENE II. Enter Callapine, King of Amasia, a Captain, and train, with drums and trumpets. Call. King of Amasia, now our mighty host Marcheth in Asia Major, where the streams Of Euphrates H and Tigris swiftly run ; And here may we ** behold great Babylon, Circled about with Limnasphaltis' lake, Where Tamburlaine with all his army lies, Which being faint and weary with the siege, We may lie ready to encounter him Before his host be full from Babylon, And so revenge our latest grievous loss, If God or Mahomet send any aid. K. of Ama. Doubt not, my lord, but we shall conquer him : The monster that hath drunk a sea of blood, And yet gapes still for more to quench his thirst, Our Turkish swords shall headlong send to hell; And that vile carcass, drawn by warlike kings, * fleet] i. e. float. t gape] So the 8vo. — The 4to "gaspe." I in] So the 8vo. — Omitted in the 4to. § forth, ye vassals] Spoken, of course, to the two kings who draw his chariot. || wliatsoe'er] So the 8vo. — The 4to " whatsoeuer." Euphrates] See note §, p. 36. ** may we] So the 8vo. — The 4to "we may." The fowls shall eat ; for never sepulchre Shall grace this * base-born tyrant Tamburlaine. Call. When I record f my parents' slavish life, Their cruel death, mine own captivity, My viceroys' bondage under Tamburlaine, Methinks I could sustain a thousand deaths, To be reveng'd of all his villany. — Ah, sacred Mahomet, thou that hast seen Millions of Turks perish by Tamburlaine, Kingdoms made waste, brave cities sack'd and burnt, And but one host is left to honour thee, Aid + thy obedient servant Callapine, And make him, after all these overthrows, To triumph over cursed Tamburlaine ! K. of A ma. Fear not, my lord : I see great Mahomet, Clothed in purple clouds, and on his head A chaplet brighter than Apollo's crown, Marching about the air with armed men, To join with you against this Tamburlaine. Capt. Renowmed § general, mighty Callapine, Though God himself and holy Mahomet Should come in person to resist your power, Yet might your mighty host encounter all, And pull proud Tamburlaine upon his knees To sue for mercy at your highness' feet. Call. Captain, the force of Tamburlaine is great, His fortune greater, and the victories Wherewith he hath so sore dismay 'd the world Are greatest to discourage all our drifts ; Yet, when the pride of Cynthia is at full, She wanes again ; and so shall his, I hope ; For we have here the chief selected men Of twenty several kingdoms at the least ; Nor ploughman, priest, nor merchant, stays at home ; All Turkey is in arms with Callapine ; And never will we sunder camps and arms Before himself or his be conquered : This is the time that must eternize me For conquering the tyrant of the world. Come, soldiers, let us lie in wait for him, And, if we find him absent from his camp, Or that it be rejoin'd again at full, Assail it, and be sure of victory. [Exeunt. * this] So the 8vo.— The 4to "that " (but in the next speech of the same person it has " this Tamburlaine "). t record] i.e. call to mind. t Aid] So the 8vo.— The 4to " And." § Renowmed] See note ||, p. 11. So the 8vo.— The 4to "Renowned." — The prefix to this speech is wanting in the old eds. SCENE III. SCENE III. Enter Theridamas, Techelles, and Usumcasane. Ther. Weep, heavens, and vanish into liquid tears ! Fall, stars that govern his nativity, And summon all the shining lamps of heaven To cast their bootless fires to the earth, And shed their feeble influence in the air ; Muffle your beauties with eternal clouds ; For Hell and Darkness pitch their pitchy tents, And Death, with armies of Cimmerian spirits, Gives battle 'gainst the heart of Tamburlaine ! Now, in defiance of that wonted love Your sacred virtues pour'd upon his throne, And made his state an honour to the heavens, These cowards invisibly * assail his soul, And threaten conquest on our sovereign ; But, if he die, your glories are disgrac'd, Earth droops, and says that hell in heaven is plac'd ! Tech. 0, then, ye powers that sway eternal seats, And guide this massy substance of the earth, If you retain desert of -holiness, As your supreme estates instruct our thoughts, Be not inconstant, careless of your fame, Bear not the burden of your enemies' joys, Triumphing in his fall whom you advanc'd ; But, as his birth, life, health, and majesty Were strangely blest and governed by heaven, So honour, heaven, (till heaven dissolved be,) His birth, his life, his health, and majesty ! Usum. Blush, heaven, to lose the honour of thy name, To see thy footstool set upon thy head ; And let no baseness in thy haughty breast Sustain a shame of such inexcellencef, To see the devils mount in angels' thrones, And angels dive into the pools of hell ! And, though they think their painful date is out, And that their power is puissant as Jove's, Which makes them manage arms against thy state, Yet make them feel the strength of Tamburlaine (Thy instrument and note of majesty) Is greater far than they can thus subdue ; For, if he die, thy glory is disgrac'd, Earth droops, and says that hell in heaven is plac'd ! * invisibly] So the 4to. — The 8vo " inuincible." t inexcellence] So the 4to.— The 8vo " inexcellencie." 71 Enter Tamburlaine *, drawn in Ms cliariot (as be/ore) by Orcanes king of Natolia, andthe King of Jerusalem, Amyras, Celebinus, and Physicians. Tamb. What daring god torments my body thus, And seeks to conquer mighty Tamburlaine ? Shall sickness prove me now to be a man, That have been term'd the terror of the world ? Techelles and the rest, come, take your swords, And threaten him whose hand afflicts my soul : Come, let us march against the powers of heaven, And set black streamers in the firmament, To signify the slaughter of the gods. Ah, friends, what shall I do ? I cannot stand. Come, carry me to war against the gods, That thus envy the health of Tamburlaine. Ther. Ah, good my lord, leave these impatient words, Which add much danger to your malady ! Tamb. Why, shall I sit and languish in this pain] No, strike the drums, and, in revenge of this, Come, let us charge our spears, and pierce his breast Whose shoulders bear the axis of the world, That, if I perish, heaven and earth may fade. Theridamas, haste to the court of Jove ; Will him to send Apollo hither straight, To cure me, or I '11 fetch him down myself. Tech. Sit still, my gracious lord ; this grief will cease f, And cannot last, it is so violent. Tamb. Not last, Techelles ! no, for I shall die. See, where my slave, the ugly monster Death, Shaking and quivering, pale and wan for fear, Stands aiming at me with his murdering dart, Who flies away at every glance I give, And, when I look away, comes stealing on ! — Villain, away, and hie thee to the field ! I and mine army come to load thy back With souls of thousand mangled carcasses. — Look, where he goes ! but, see, he comes again, Because I stay ! Techelles, let us march, And weary Death with bearing souls to hell. First Phy. Pleaseth your majesty to drink this potion, Which will abate the fury of your fit, And cause some milder spirits govern you. * Enter Tamburlaine, &c] Here the old eds. have no stage-direction ; and perhaps the poet intended that Tamburlaine should enter at the commencement of this scene. That he is drawn in his chariot by the two captive kings, appears from his exclamation at p. 72, first col. " Draw, you slaves ! " t cease] So the 8vo.— The 4to "case." TAMBURLAINE THE GREAT. 72 THE SECOND PART OF ACT V. Tamb. Tell me what think you of my sickness now 1 First Phy. I view'd your urine, and the hypos- tasis, * Thick and obscure, doth make your danger great : Your veins are full of accidental heat, Whereby the moisture of your blood is dried : The humidum and calor, which some hold Is not a parcel of the elements, But of a substance more divine and pure, Is almost clean extinguished and spent ; Which, being the cause of life, imports your death : Besides, my lord, this day is critical, Dangerous to those whose crisis is as yours : Your artiersf, which alongst the veins convey The lively spirits which the heart engenders, Are parch'd and void of spirit, that the soul, Wanting those organons by which it moves, Cannot endure, by argument of art. Yet, if your majesty may escape this day, No doubt but you shall soon recover all. Tamb. Then will I comfort all my vital parts, And live, in spite of death, above a day. [Alarms within. Enter a Messenger. Mes. My lord, young Callapine, that lately fled from your majesty, hath now gathered a fresh army, and, heai-ing your absence in the field, offers to set upon $ us presently. Tamb. See, my physicians, now, how Jove hath sent A present medicine to recure my pain ! My looks shall make them fly ; and, might I follow, There should not one of all the villain's power Live to give offer of another fight. Usum. I joy, my lord, your highness is so strong, That can endure so well your royal presence. Which only will dismay the enemy. Tamb. I know it will, Casane. — Draw, you slaves ! In spite of death, I will go shew my face. [Alarms. Exit Tamburlaine with all the rest (except the Physicians), and re-enter presently. Tamb. Thus are the villain cowards § fled for fear, * hypostasis] Old eds. "Hipostates." t artier s] See note *, p. 18. t upon] So the 4to. — The 8vo "on." § villain cowards] Old eds. "villaincs, towards " (which is not to be defended by "Villains, cowards, traitors to our state ", p. 67, sec. col ). Compare '* But where's this coward villain," «fcc., p. 61 see. coi. Like summer's vapours vanish'd by the sun ; And, could I but a while pursue the field, That Callapine should be my slave again. But I perceive my martial strength is spent : In vain I strivo and rail against those powers That mean t' invest me in a higher throne, As much too high for this disdainful earth. Give me a map ; then let me see how much Is left for me to conquer all the world, That these, my boys, may finish all my wants. [One brings a map. Here I began to march towards Persia, Along Armenia and the Caspian Sea, And thence unto * Bithynia, where I took The Turk and his great empress prisoners. Then march'd I into Egypt and Arabia ; And here, not far from Alexandria, Whereasf the TerreneJ and the Red Sea meet, Being distant less than full a hundred leagues, I meant to cut a channel to them both, That men might quickly sail to India. From thence to Nubia near Borno-lake, And so along the ^Ethiopian sea, Cutting the tropic line of Capricorn, I conquer'd all as far as Zanzibar. Then, by the northern part of Africa, I came at last to Grsecia, and from thence To Asia, where I stay against my will ; Which is from Scythia, where I first began,§ Backward[s] and forwards near five thousand leagues. Look here, my boys ; see, what a world of ground Lies westward from the midst of Cancer's line Unto the rising of this|| earthly globe, Whereas the sun, declining from our sight, Begins the day with our Antipodes ! And shall I die, and this unconquered? Lo, here, my sons, are all the golden mines, Inestimable drugs and precious stones, More worth than Asia and the world beside; And from th' Antarctic Pole eastward behold As much more land, which never was descried, Wherein are rockb of pearl that shine as bright As all the lamps that beautify the sky ! And shall I die, and this unconquered ] Here, lovely boys ; what death forbids my life, That let your lives command in spite of death. Amy. Alas, my lord, how should our bleeding hearts, * unto] So the 8vo.— The 4 to " to." t Whereas] i.e. Where. X Terrene] i.e. Mediterranean. § began] So the 8vo. — The 4to "begun." || this] So the 8vo. — The 4to "the." SCENE III. TAMBURLAINE THE GREAT. 73 Wounded and broken with your highness' grief, Retain a thought of joy or spark of life ? Your soul gives essence to our wretched subjects,* Whose matter is incorporate in your flesh. Cel. Your pains do pierce our souls ; no hope survives, For by your life we entertain our lives. Tamb. But, sons, this subject, not of force enough To hold the fiery spirit it contains, Must part, imparting his impressions By equal portions intof both your breasts ; My flesh, divided in your precious shapes, Shall still retain my spirit, though I die, And live in all your seeds + immortally. — Then now remove me, that I may resign My place and proper title to my son. — First, take my scourge and my imperial crown, And mount my royal chariot of estate, That I may see thee crown'd before I die. — Help me, my lords, to make my last remove. [They assist Tamburlaine to descend from the chariot. Ther. A woful change, my lord, that daunts our thoughts More than the ruin of our proper souls ! Tamb. Sit up, my son, [and] let me see how well Thou wilt become thy father's majesty. Amy. With what a flinty bosom should I joy The breath of life and burden of my soul, If not resolv'd into resolved pains, My body's mortified lineaments § Should exercise the motions of my heart, Pierc'd with the joy of any dignity ! O father, if the unrelenting ears Of Death and Hell be shut against my prayers, And that the spiteful influence of Heaven Deny my soul fruition of her joy, How should I step, or stir my hateful feet Against the inward powers of my heart, Leading a life that only strives to die, And plead in vain unpleasing sovereignty ? * subjects'] Mr. Collier (Preface to Coleridge's Seven Lec- tures on Shakespeare and Milton, p. cxviii) says that here "subjects" is a printer's blunder for "substance": yet he takes no notice of Tamburlaine' s next words, "But, sons, this subject not of force enough," &c. — The old eds. are quite right in both passages : compare, in p. C2, first col. ; " A form not meet to give that subject essence Whose matter is the flesh of Tamburlaine," &c. + into'] So the 8vo. — The 4to ' ' vnto. " J your seeds] So the 8vo.— The 4to "our seedes." (In p. 18, first col., we have had " Their angry seeds" ; but in p. 47, first col., "thy seed" :— and Marlowe probably wrote " seed " both here and in p. 18.) § lineaments] So the 8vo. — The 4to "laments."— The Editor of 1826 remarks, that this passage "is too obscure for ordinary comprehension." Tamb. Let not thy love exceed thine honour, son, Nor bar thy mind that magnanimity That nobly must admit necessity. Sit up, my boy, and with these* silken reins Bridle the steeled stomachs of these+ jades. Ther. My lord, you must obey his majesty, Since fate commands and proud necessity. Amy. Heavens witness me with what a broken heart {Mounting the chariot. And damnedj spirit I ascend this seat, And send my soul, before my father die, His anguish and his burning agony ! [They crown Amyras. Tamb. Now fetch the hearse of fair Zenocrate ; Let it be plac'd by this my fatal chair, And serve as parcel of my funeral. Usum. Then feels your majesty no sovereign ease, Nor may our hearts, all drown'd in tears of blood, Joy any hope of your recovery ] Tamb. Casane, no ; the monarch of the earth, And eyeless monster that torments my soul, Cannot behold the tears ye shed for me, And therefore still augments his cruelty. Tech. Then let some god oppose his holy power Against the wrath and tyranny of Death, That his tear-thirsty and unquenched hate May be upon himself reverberate ! [TJiey bring in the hearse of Zenocrate. Tamb. Now, eyes, enjoy your latest benefit, And, when my soul hath virtue of your si^ht, Pierce through the coffin and the sheet of gold, And glut your longings with a heaven of joy. So, reign, my son ; scourge and control those slaves, Guiding thy chariot with thy father's hand. As precious is the charge thou undertak'st As that which Clymene's§ brain-sick son did guide, When wandering Phoebe's || ivory cheeks were scorch'd, And all the earth, like iEtna, breathing fire : Be warn'd by him, then ; learn with awful eye To sway a throne as dangerous as his ; For, if thy body thrive not full of thoughts As pure and fiery as Phyteus'U beams, * these] So the 4to.— The 8vo "those." t these] So the 4to.— The 8vo "those." X damned] i.e. doomed,— sorrowful. § Clymene's] So the 8vo. — The 4to "Clymeus." || Phoebe's] So the 8vo.— The 4to "Phoebus." 1" Phyteus'] Meant perhaps for "Pythius"', according to the usage of much earlier poets : " And of Phyton [i.e. Python] that Phebus made thus fine Came Phetonysses," &c. Lydgate's Warres of Troy, B. ii. Sig. K vi. ed. 1555. Here the modern editors print "Phoebus' ". 74 THE SECOND PART OF TAMBURLAINE THE GREAT. act v. The nature of these proud rebelling jades Will take occasion by the slenderest hair, And draw thee* piecemeal, like Hippolytus, Through rocks more steep and sharp than Caspian cliffs :t The nature of thy chariot will not bear A guide of baser temper than myself, More than heaven's coach the pride of Phaeton. * thee] So the 8vo.— The 4to "me." t cliffs] Here the old eds. " clifts " and "cliftcs " : but see p. 12, line 5, first col. Farewell, my boys ! my dearest friends, farewell! My body feels, my soul doth weep to see Your sweet desires depriv'd my company, For Tamburlaine, the scourge of God, must die. [Dies. Amy. Meet heaven and earth, and here let all things end, For earth hath spent the pride of all her fruit, And heaven consum'd his choicest living fire ! Let earth and heaven his timeless death deplore, For both their worths will equal him no more ! [Exeunt. THE TRAGICAL HISTORY OF DOCTOR FAUSTUS PROM TUB QUARTO OF 1004, The Tragicall History of D. Faustus. As it hath bene Acted by the Right Honorable the Earle of Nottingham his teruants. Written by Ch. Marl. London Printed by V. S. for Thomas Bushell 1604. In reprinting this edition, I have here and there amended the text by means of the later 4tos, — 1616, 1624, 1681. — Of 4to 1CG3, which contains various comparatively modern alterations and additions, I have made no use. DRAMATIS PEKSONjE. The Pope. Cardinal of Lorrain. The Emperor of Germany. Duke of Vanholt. Faustus. Wagner, servant to Faustus. Clown. Robin. Ralph. Vintner. Horse-courser. A Knight. An Old Man. Scholars, Friars, and Attendants. Duchess of Vanholt Lucifer. Belzebub. Mephistophilis. Good Angel. Evil Angel. The Seven Deadly Sins. Devils. Spirits in the shapes of Alexander the Great, of his Paramour and of Helen. Chorus. THE TRAGICAL HISTORY OF DOCTOR FAUSTUS FROM THE QUARTO OF 1604. Enter Chorus. Chorus. Not marching now in fields of Thrasy- mene, Where Mars did mate * the Carthaginians ; Nor sporting in the dalliance of love, In courts of kings where state is overturn' d ; Nor in the pomp of proud audacious deeds, Intends our Muse to vaunt f her J heavenly verse : Only this, gentlemen, — we must perform The form of Faustus' fortunes, good or bad : To patient judgments we appeal our plaud, And speak for Faustus in his infancy. Now is he born, his parents base of stock, In Germany, within a town call'd Rhodes : Of riper years, to Wertenberg he went, Whereas § his kinsmen chiefly brought him up. So soon he profits in divinity, The fruitful plot of scholarism grac'd, That shortly he was grac'd with doctor's name, Excelling all whose sweet delight disputes In heavenly matters of theology ; Till swoln with cunning, || of a self-conceit, His waxen wings did mount above his reach, And, melting, heavens conspir'd his overthrow ; For, falling to a devilish exercise, And glutted nowH with learning's golden gifts, He surfeits upon cursed necromancy; Nothing so sweet as magic is to him, Which he prefers before his chiefest bliss : And this the man that in his study sits. [Exit. * mate] i. e. confound, defeat. t vaunt] So the later 4tos.— 2to 1604 "daunt." t her] All the 4tos " his. " § Whereas] i. e. where. || cunning] i. e. knowledge. II now] So the later 4tos.— 2to 1604 " more.'- Faustus discovered in his study* Faust. Settle thy studies, Faustus, and begin To sound the depth of that thou wilt profess : Having commenc'd, be a divine in shew, Yet level at the end of every art, And live and die in Aristotle's works. Sweet Analytics, 'tis thou f hast ravish'd me ! Bene disserere est finis logices. Is, to dispute well, logic's chiefest end ? Affords this art no greater miracle ? Then read no more; thou hast attain'd that £ end : A greater subject fitteth Faustus' wit : Bid Economy § farewell, and || Galen come, Seeing, Ubi desinit philosophus, ibi incipit medi- cus: Be a physician, Faustus ; heap up gold, And be eterniz'd for some wondrous cure : Summum bonum medicinae sanitas, The end of physic is our body's health. Why, Faustus, hast thou not attain'd that end 1 Is not thy common talk found aphorisms ? Are not thy bills hung up as monuments, Whereby whole cities have escap'd the plague, And thousand desperate maladies been eas'd'? Yet art thou still but Faustus, and a man. * Faustus discovered in his study] Most probably, the Chorus, before going out, drew a curtain, and discovered Faustus sitting. In B. Barnes's Divils Charter, 1607, we find; "Seen. Vltima. Alexander vnbraced betwixt two Car- dinalls in his study looking vpon a booke, whilst a groome draweth the Curtaine." Sig. L 3. t Analytics, 'tis thou, &c] Qy. "Analytic"? (but such phraseology was not uncommon). t that] So the later 4tos.— 2to 1604 " the " (the printer having mistaken "y l " for "y e "). § Economy] So the later 4tos (with various spelling). — 2to 1604 " Oncaymajon." || and] So the later 4tos. — Not in 4to 1604. 80 THE TRAGICAL HISTORY OF DOCTOR FAUSTUS. Couldst* thou make men + to livo eternally, Or, being dead, raise them to life again, Then this profession were to be esteem'd. Physic, farewell I Where is Justinian? [Reads. Si una eademque res legator % duobus, alter rem, alter valorem rei, ph. Here they be. Faust. 0, thou art deceived. Meph. Tut, I warrant thee. [Turns to them. Faust. When I behold the heavens, then I repent, And curse thee, wicked Mephistophilis, Because thou hast depriv'd me of those joys. Meph. Why, Faustus, Thinkest thou heaven is such a glorious thing 1 ? I tell thee, 'tis not half so fair as thou, Or any man that breathes on earth. Faust. How prov'st thou that ? Meph. 'Twas made for man, therefore is man more excellent. Faust. If it were made for man, 'twas made for me : I will renounce this magic and repent. Enter Good Angel and Evil Angel. G. Ang. Faustus, repent; yet God will pity thee. E. Ang. Thou art a spirit; God cannot pity thee. Faust. Who buzzeth in mine ears I am a spirit] Be I a devil, yet God may pity me ; Ay, God will pity me, if I repent. E. Ang. Ay, but Faustus never shall repent. [Exeunt Angels. Faust. My heart's so harden'd, I cannot repent : Scarce can I name salvation, faith, or heaven, But fearful echoes thunder in mine ears, " Faustus, thou art damn'd ! " then swords, and knives, Poison, guns, halters, and envenom'd steel Are laid before me to despatch myself; And long ere this I should have slain myself, Had not sweet pleasure ronquer'd deep despair. Have not I made blind Homer sing to me Of Alexander's love and GEnon's death ? And hath not he, that built the walls of Thebes With ravishing sound of his melodious harp, Made music with my Mephistophilis? Why should I die, then, or basely despair ? I am resolv'd ; Faustus shall ne'er repent. — Come, Mephistophilis, let us dispute again, And argue of divine astrology.* Tell me, are there many heavens above the moon Are all celestial bodies but one globe, As is the substance of this centric earth ? Meph. As are the elements, such are the spheres, Mutually folded in each other's orb, And, Faustus, All jointly move upon one axletree, Whose terminine is term'd the world's wide pole ; Nor are the names of Saturn, Mars, or Jupiter Feign'd, but are erringf stars. Faust. But, tell me, have they all one motion, both situ et tempore ? Meph. All jointly move from east to west in twenty-four hours upon the poles of the world ; but differ in their motion upon the poles of the zodiac. Faust. Tush, These slender trifles Wagner can decide : Hath Mephistophilis no greater skill ? Who knows not the double motion of the planets ] The first is finish'd in a natural day; The second thus ; as Saturn in thirty years ; Jupiter in twelve ; Mars in four ; the Sun, Venus, and Mercury in a year ; the Moon in twenty- eight days. Tush, these are freshmen's^ sup- positions. But, tell me, hath every sphere a dominion or intelligentia ? Meph. Ay. Faust. How many heavens or spheres are there 1 Meph. Nine ; the seven planets, the firmament, and the empyreal heaven. Faust. Well, resolve § me in this question ; why have we not conjunctions, oppositions, aspects, eclipses, all at one time, but in some years we have more, in some less ? * And argue of divine astrology, &c] In The History of Dr. Faustus, there are several tedious pages on the sub- ject ; but our dramatist, iu the dialogue which follows, has no particular obligations to them. t erring] i. e. wandering. \ freshmen' s~\ "A Freshman, tiro, novitius." Coles's Diet. Properly, a student during his first term at the university. § resolve] i. e. satisfy, inform. FROM THE QUARTO OF 1G04. Meph. Per incequalem motum respectu totius. Faust. Well, I am answered. Tell me who made the world ] Meph. I will not. Faust. Sweet Mephistophilis, tell me. Meph. Move me not, for I will not tell thee. Faust. Villain, have I not bound thee to tell me any thing 1 Meph. Ay, that is not against our kingdom ; but this is. Think thou on hell, Faustus, for thou art damned. Faust. Think, Faustus, upon God that made the world. Meph. Remember this. [Exit. Faust. Ay, go, accursed spirit, to ugly hell ! 'Tis thou hast damn'd distressed Faustus' soul. 1st not too late 1 Re-enter Good Angel and Evil Angel. E. Ang. Too late. 0. Ang. Never too late, if Faustus can repent. E. Aug. If thou repent, devils shall tear thee in pieces. Q. Ang. Repent, and they shall never raze thy skin. [Exeunt Angels. Faust. Ah, Christ, my Saviour, Seek to save* distressed Faustus' soul ! Enter Lucifer, Belzebub, and Mephistophilis. Luc. Christ cannot save thy soul, for he is just : There's none but I have interest in the same. Faust. 0, who art thou that look'st so terrible ? Luc. I am Lucifer, And this is my companion-prince in hell. Faust. 0, Faustus, they are come to fetch away thy soul ! Luc. We come to tell thee thou dost injure us ; Thou talk'st of Christ, contrary to thy promise : Thou shouldst not think of God : think of the devil, And of his dam too. Faust. Nor will I henceforth : pardon me in this, And Faustus vows never to look to heaven, Never to name God, or to pray to him, To burn his Scriptures, slay his ministers, And make my spirits pull his churches down. Luc. Do so, and we will highly gratify thee. Faustus, we are come from hell to shew thee some pastime : sit down, and thou shalt see all the Seven Deadly Sins appear in their proper shapes. * Seek to save] Qy. ' ' Seek thou to save " ? But see note ||, p. 18. 89 Faust. That sight will be as pleasing unto me, As Paradise was to Adam, the first day Of his creation. Luc. Talk not of Paradise nor creation ; but mark this show: talk of the devil, and nothing else. — Come away ! Enter the Seven Deadly Sins.* Now, Faustus, examine them of their several names and dispositions. Faust. What art thou, the first ? Pride. I am Pride. I disdain to have any parents. I am like to Ovid's flea ; I can creep into every corner of a wench ; sometimes, like a perriwig, I sit upon her brow ; or, like a fan of feathers, I kiss her lips ; indeed, I do — what do I not 1 But, fie, what a scent is here ! I'll not speak another word, except the ground were per- fumed, and covered with cloth of arras. Faust. What art thou, the second 1 Covet. I am Covetousness, begotten of an old churl, in an old leathern bag : and, might I have my wish, I would desire that this house and all the people in it were turned to gold, that I might lock you up in my good chest : 0, my sweet gold! Faust. What art thou, the third ? Wrath. I am Wrath. I had neither father nor mother : I leapt out of a lion's mouth when I was scarce half-an-hour old ; and ever since I have run up and down the world with this case + of rapiers, wounding myself when I had nobody to fight withal. I was born in hell ; and look to it, for some of you shall be my father. Faust. What art thou, the fourth? Envy. I am Envy, begotten of a chimney- sweeper and an oyster-wife. I cannot read, and therefore wish all books were burnt. I am lean with seeing others eat. 0, that there would come a famine through all the world, that all might die, and I live alone ! then thou shouldst see how fat I would be. But must thou sit, and I stand ? come down, with a vengeance ! * Enter the Seven Deadly Sins] In The History of Br. Faustus, Lucifer amuses Faustus, not by calling up the Seven Deadly Sins, but by making various devils appear before him, " one after another, in forme as they were in hell." " First entered Beliall in forme of a beure," &c. — "after him came Beelzebub, in curled haire of a horse- flesh colour," &c. — "then came Astaroth, in the forme of a worme," &c. &c. During this exhibition, "Lucifer himselfe sate in manner of a man all hairy, but of browne colour, like a squirrell, curled, and his tayle turning upward on his backe as the squirrels use : I think he could crack nuts too like a squirrell." Sig. D, ed. 1648. t case] i. e. couple. THE TRAGICAL HISTORY OF DOCTOR FAUSTUS 90 Faust. Away, euvious rascal ! — What art thou, the fifth ? Glut. Who I, sir? I am Glutton}'. My parents are all dead, and the devil a penny they have left me, but a bare pension, and that is thirty meals a-day and ten bevers,* — a small trifle to suffice nature. 0, I come of a royal parentage ! my grandfather was a Gammon of Bacon, my grandmother a Hogshead of Claret-wine; my godfathers were these, Peter Pickle-herring and Martin Martlemas-beef ; 0, but my godmother, she was a jolly gentlewoman, and well-beloved in every good town and city ; her name was Mistress Margery March-beer. Now, Faustus, thou hast heard all my progeny ; wilt thou bid me to supper ? Faust. No, I'll see thee hanged : thou wilt eat up all my victuals. Glut. Then the devil choke thee ! Faust. Choke thyself, glutton ! — What art thou, the sixth? Sloth. I am Sloth. I was begotten on a sunny bank, where I have lain ever since; and you have done me great injury to bring me from thence : let me be carried thither again by Gluttony and Lechery. I'll not speak another word for a king's ransom. Faust. What are you, Mistress Minx, the seventh and last? Lechery. Who I, sir? I am one that loves an inch of raw mutton better than an ell of fried stock-fish; and the first letter of my name begins with L.f Faust. Away, to hell, to hell ! J [Exeunt the Sins. Luc. Now, Faustus, how dost thou like this? Faust. 0, this feeds my soul ! Luc. Tut, Faustus, in hell is all manner of delight. Faust. 0, might I see hell, and return again, How happy were I then ! Luc. Thou shalt ; I will send for thee at mid- night §. * bevers] i. e. refreshments between meals. t L ] All the 4tos " Lechery." — Here I have made the alteration recommended by Mr. Collier in his Preface to Coleridge's Seven Lectures on Shakespeare and Milton, p. cviii. \ Away, to hill, to hell] In 4to 1604, these words stand on a line l>y themselves, without a prefix. (In the later 4tos, the corresponding passage is as follows ; " begins with Lechery. Loc. Away to hell, away! On, piper! [Exeunt the Sins. Faust. O, how this sight doth delight my soul !"