A SELECT COLLECTION OF OLD ENGLISH PLAYS.

BY W. CAREW HAZLITT.

BENJAMIN BLOM, INC.

First published 1874-1876 Reissued 1964 by Benjamin Blom, Inc. L.C. Catalog Card No.: 64-14702

Printed in U.S.A. by NOBLE OFFSET PRINTERS, INC. NEW YORK 3, N.Y.

[Pg 1]

THE OLD COUPLE A WOMAN NEVER VEXED. THE ORDINARY THE LONDON CHANTICLEERS. THE SHEPHERDS' HOLIDAY. FUIMUS TROES: THE TRUE TROJANS THE LOST LADY.

[Pg 2]

THE OLD COUPLE

EDITION.

The Old Couple. A Comedy. By Thomas May, Esq.; London, Printed by J. Cottrel, for Samuel Speed, at the signe of the Printing-press in S. Paul's Churchyard. 1658. 4o.

[A MS. note in one of the former editions says: "This comedy is pleasingly and fluently written, and though it contains little poetry, is not without some eloquent and beautiful passages. The first scene is the best in the play."]

[Pg 3]

INTRODUCTION

It seems probable that this comedy, as it is called, was never acted, and on the title-page of the old edition (not printed until 1658, eight years after the death of the author), it is not mentioned that it was performed by any private or public company. This fact was usually stated, though during the period when the theatres were silenced exceptions were not very uncommon. It is pretty obvious, however, from the general structure of the piece and the nature of the dialogue, that "The Old Couple" was not calculated or intended by the author to please the multitude. No inconsiderable part of the plot, and some of the characters, may be considered allegorical, and for the sake of preserving it, some constraint is used in a few of the incidents, and forced and unnatural conversions take place among the persons.[1]

[Pg 4]

As to the period when it was written, judging from internal evidence, it might be thought that May produced "The Old Couple" late in life, and it was certainly the last printed of any of his works. It will be observed that two lines in the last scene of this play close "The Goblins" of Sir John Suckling.

Sir J. Suckling does not introduce them as a quotation, but nevertheless, from the situation in which they are found in his comedy, it seems likely that they were so, and that they originally belong to May. If this supposition be correct, "The Old Couple" must have been written before 1641, in which year Suckling died, and the latter must have seen it in MS.[2]

[Pg 5]

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ

MEN.

WOMEN.

[Pg 6] [Pg 7]

THE OLD COUPLE

ACT I.

Eugeny solus.

Enter Artemia.

Euphues, Dotterel, Barnet.

Enter Lady Whimsey, with Artemia.

Enter Master Freeman.

[Exeunt Lady Whimsey, Freeman, Dotterel, and Barnet.

[Exit Artemia.

Manet Euphues.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] [It is difficult to allow that this piece is particularly allegorical in any of its parts or characters. It has the air of a drama which had lain by for some time, and been hastily finished, as some of the incidents and characters are not developed with due regard to dramatic propriety. The conversion of Earthworm, especially, is unnaturally abrupt and violent.]

[2] "The Goblins" was publicly performed, whereas the "Old Couple" does not seem to have been so. Suckling died early in 1641. I confess that the evidence appears to me to lie strongly against May, who was a great borrower—even from himself, the most allowable kind of plagiarism.

[3] Former editions—

—Pegge.

[4] Dante ("Inferno," c. v.) says—

—Collier.

[5] Two romances of the time, very well known, often reprinted, and frequently mentioned in old authors.—Collier.

[6] i.e., Shrive her, hear her at confession. So in Shakespeare's "King Richard III."—

—Steevens.

[7] These lines seem a parody on the following one in "Bonduca," by Beaumont and Fletcher, act iv. sc. 3—

The time when Prior wrote his beautiful Ode to the Memory of Colonel George Villiers, drowned in the river Piave, in Friuli, 1703, is so near the period in which Mr Pope composed his elegy to the memory of an unfortunate lady, that it is difficult to say which of these great men borrowed from the other. It appears certain, however, that one of them, in the following lines, was indebted to his friend, unless it can be supposed that both of them were obliged to the above line of Beaumont and Fletcher. Prior says—

Mr Pope writes thus—

I know not why we should suppose that Pope borrowed from Prior, or that either of them was indebted to Beaumont and Fletcher on this occasion. Sit tibi terra levis! is a wish expressed in many of the ancient Roman inscriptions. So in that on Pylades—

Again, in the sepulchral dialogue supposed to pass between Atimetus and Homonœa—

Again, in Propertius, El. xvii. lib. 1—

Again, in Ovid—

Thus also Juvenal, Sat. vii.—

Again, in Persius, Sat. i.—

On the contrary, Sit tibi terra gravis and Urgeat ossa lapis were usual maledictions, the ancients supposing that the soul remained for some time after death with the body, and was partner in its confinement. The latter of these wishes is ludicrously adopted by Dr Evans, in his epitaph on Sir J. Vanbrugh—

It may be observed that such ideas, however poetical, have no great degree of propriety when introduced into Christian elegies, as we have no belief that the soul is in danger of being oppressed by a monument or stifled in a grave.—Steevens.

[8] These customs are still preserved by the inferior ranks of females in different parts of the kingdom. Among others, they frequently fast on St Agnes' Eve, and at the same time make use of several singular rites and ceremonies; all which are described and ridiculed in Gay's comedy of the "Wife of Bath." See also ["Popular Antiquities of Great Britain," 1870, i. 20, et alibi.]

ACT II.

Earthworm, Theodore.

[Gives Theodore the keys.

[Pg 26]

Enter Jasper.

Eugeny solus.

Enter Theodore.

Song.

Enter Matilda.

Enter Fruitful, Trusty.

[Pg 34]

Enter Freeman, Euphues, Barnet, Dotterel, Lady Whimsey.

Enter Lady Covet on crutches.

Manent Barnet, Dotterel.

FOOTNOTES:

[9] Richard Braithwaite printed precisely the same thought in 1621, in his "Times Curtaine Drawne"—

The coincidence is remarkable.—Collier.

[10]

—Juv., Sat. v. 3.

[11] [Conscience.]

[12] Mr Gifford, in a note on Massinger's "Virgin Martyr," points out an elegy by Secundus as the origin of this pretty fancy, which is thus employed by Fairfax in his translation of Tasso's "Jerusalem Delivered"—

The allusion is not to be found in the original Italian (bk. ii. s. 34). Davenant, in bk. ii. c. 7, of his "Gondibert," also mentions the fable, and it would be easy among foreign writers to point out many instances in which more extensive use has been made of it. The sonnets by Annibale Nozzolini and by Girolamo Pompei are well known.—Collier.

[13] [Old copy, was.]

[14] So in "Macbeth," act v. sc. 5—

[And see note to the "Heir," xi. 449.]

ACT III.

[Earthworm's house.]

Theodore, Neighbours with sacks.

[Exeunt.

Euphues, Barnet.

Sir Argent Scrape and Lady Covet brought in in chairs.

[Aside.

[Aside.

[Aside.

[Aside.

Enter Servants, and carry them out.

Enter Dotterel, Lady Whimsey.

[He reads it again.

Theodore, Artemia.

Enter Euphues.

[Aside.

FOOTNOTES:

[15] I suppose he means a bumper, a cup filled till the wine rises above the top of it. Such a character as Dotterel is hardly made to allude to the pocula coronata of the Romans.—Steevens.

A crowned cup was not an unusual expression for a bumper: thus, in "All Fools," Fortunio says—

Dotterel might therefore very properly employ words in ordinary use, without supposing him acquainted with "the pocula coronata of the Romans."—Collier.

[16] [Compare vol. iv. p. 68.]

[17] So Pope—

—"Moral Essays," Ep. iii. l. 170.

ACT IV.

Earthworm, Jasper.

Enter Theodore.

Enter Neighbours.

Lady Covet, Fruitful.

Enter Trusty.

Manet Fruitful.

Enter Sir Argent Scrape.

Enter Fruitful.

Enter Lady Covet.

Enter Freeman, Euphues, Barnet, Dotterel, Lady Whimsey.

[Pg 68]

FOOTNOTES:

[18] [A MS. note in one of the former edits. says: "This sudden and total change, unnatural as it is, is one of the characteristics of the old plays."]

ACT V.

Matilda, Theodore.

Eugeny in the Officers' hands.

Enter Euphues, Artemia.

Enter Barnet, Lady Whimsey.

Enter Trusty, Lady Covet.

Enter Freeman, Artemia.

Enter Euphues.

[Pg 76]

Enter Servant, and Sir Argent in his chair.

Enter Earthworm and Theodore.

Enter Fruitful and Trusty.

[Freeman reads it to himself.

Enter Barnet, Dotterel, Lady Whimsey.

[Pg 83]

Enter Theodore and Matilda.

[Pg 84] [Pg 85]

FOOTNOTES:

[19] i.e., Collect my prey like the shark-fish. So in "Hamlet"—

—Steevens.

[20] [See Introduction to this play, p. 4.]

[Pg 86]

A WOMAN NEVER VEXED.

EDITION.

A New Wonder, A Woman never Vext. A Pleasant Conceited Comedy: sundry times Acted: never before printed. Written by William Rowley, one of his Maiesties Servants. London, Imprinted by G. P., for Francis Constable, and are to be sold at his shop, at the signe of the Crane in Saint Pauls Churchyard. 1632. 4o.

[Pg 87]

DILKE'S PREFACE

(With Additions, &c.)[21]

This writer is ranked by the editors of the "Biographia Dramatica" in the third class of dramatic writers, and Mr Gifford justly observes it is impossible to place him higher. [Mr Collier, in a note to Rowley's "Match at Midnight," 1633, Introd., supposed that Samuel Rowley, the writer of the historical play on "Henry VIII.," 1605, might be the "Master Rowley, once a rare scholar of Pembroke Hall," mentioned by Meres ("Politeuphuia," 1598, "Anc. Crit. Essays," iii. 154), as one of the best for comedy; but Meres, who was himself a university man, would scarcely confound either Samuel or William Rowley with the Ralph Rowley of Pembroke Hall, writer of certain occasional poetry now forgotten (Cooper's "Athenæ," ii. 388); and it is grossly improbable, surely, that Meres should cite Ralph Rowley as "one of the best for comedy" on the strength of such [Pg 88]pieces as are connected with Samuel Rowley's name. Mr Collier remarks, that it appears from Henslowe's memoranda ("Diary," pp. 120, 218) that "in the very year in which Meres wrote, [Samuel Rowley] was

reduced to accept the situation of a hireling at Henslowe's theatre." There is no trace of anything written by him earlier than Jan. 7, 1601-2, when he assisted William Haughton and William Borne in writing a piece called "Judas." As to William, he could scarcely have acquired any reputation so early, and what, on the whole, is most likely to have been the truth is, that Ralph Rowley composed pieces which, like those of the Earl of Oxford and others, have not survived.[22] Of the time or place of his birth, or decease, we are altogether ignorant. Of his life it is only known that he was a player. That he lived on terms of intimacy with the dramatic writers of his time is sufficiently evident from his having written in conjunction with many of them; and, if we may believe the title-page, [which we cannot, we should be able to believe that] in one[23] he received assistance from Shakespeare himself. He was a comedian, and one of the Prince's company of players; and Oldys observes, in his MSS. notes to Langbaine, on the authority of [transcripts made

by Vertue from] the office books of Lord Harrington, Treasurer of the Chambers in those years, that "One William Rowley was head of the Prince's company of comedians from 1613 to 1616:" this, there can be [no] doubt, was our author; and [he continued to belong [Pg 89]to that company till the death of James I.[24]] The tragedy of "All's Lost by Lust" (as it is better known) would perhaps have been selected in preference, but for the resemblance it bears, in the general outline, to the "Women beware Women" of Middleton, and the "Appius and Virginia" of Webster,[25] to either of which, in my opinion, it is inferior. On the present play Langbaine observes that the passage of the widow's finding her wedding-ring, which she dropped in crossing the Thames, in the belly of a fish which her maid bought accidently in the market, is founded either upon the story of Polycrates of Samos, as the author may read at large in Herodotus, lib. 3, sive Thalia; or upon the like story related of one Anderson of Newcastle, by Doctor Fuller, in his "Worthies of England." The story here referred to is

this: "A citizen of Newcastle (whose name I take to be M. Anderson) talking with a friend of his upon Newcastle bridge, and fingering his ring, before he was aware let it fall into the river; and was much troubled with the losse of it, till by a fish caught in the river that losse was repaired, and his ring restored to him." It is quite impossible, however, that our author could have had this story from Fuller's "Worthies," which was not published till many years after this drama was in print: he might, however, have found it, whence indeed Fuller himself took it (and the story of Polycrates is likewise quoted there), in the Preface to a little work called "Vox Piscis, or the Book-Fish, containing three Treatises, which were found in the belly of a Cod-fish in Cambridge Market, on Midsummer Eve [Pg 90]last, Anno Domini 1626;" published in London in 1627. It is not noticed either by Langbaine or the editors of the "Biographia Dramatica" that this play is, in part, historical. This, however, is the case; and I have collected together, from various scattered notices in

Stow and Strype, the best account I was enabled of Stephen Foster, his wife, and Alderman Brewen,[26] three of the principal persons in the drama. Sir Stephen Foster was the son of Robert Foster of London, stock-fishmonger; he was elected Sheriff of London in the year 1444, and Lord Mayor in 1454, and served as member for that city in the parliament held at Westminster in the thirteenth of Henry VI. Speaking of Ludgate, Strype says, (Append, p. 26), "There happened to be prisoner there, one Stephen Foster, who (as poor men are at this day) was a cryer at the grate, to beg the benevolent charities of pious and commiserate benefactors that passed by. As he was doing his doleful office, a rich widow of London hearing his complaint, enquired of him what would release him? To which he answered, Twenty pound; which she in charity expended; and clearing him out of prison, entertained him in her service; who, afterward falling into the way of merchandise, and increasing as well in wealth as courage, wooed his mistress, Dame Agnes, and married her.

"Her riches and his industry brought him both great wealth and honour, being afterwards no less than Sir Stephen Foster, Lord Mayor of the honourable city of London: yet whilst he lived in this great honour and dignity, he forgot not the place of his captivity; but, mindful of the sad and irksome place wherein poor men [Pg 91]were imprisoned, bethought himself of enlarging it, to make it a little more delightful and pleasant for those who in aftertimes should be imprisoned and shut up therein. And, in order thereunto, acquainted his lady with this his pious purpose and intention, in whom likewise he found so affable and willing a mind to do good to the poor, that she promised to expend as much as he should do for the carrying on of the work; and, having possessions adjoining thereunto, they caused to be erected and built the rooms and places following, that is to say, the paper house, the porch, the watch-hall, the upper and lower lumbries, the cellar, the long ward, and the chapel for divine service; in which chapel is an inscription upon the wall, containing these words—

"This chapel was erected and ordained for the divine worship and service of God, by the Right Honourable Sir Stephen Foster, Knight, some time Lord Maior of this honourable city, and by Dame Agnes his wife, for the use and godly exercise of the prisoners in this prison of Ludgate, Anno 1454.

" ... He likewise gave maintenance for a preaching minister," ... and "ordained what he had so built, with that little which was before, should be free for all free-men, and that they providing their own bedding should pay nothing at their departure for lodging or chamber-rent."[27]

There can be little doubt from the inscription in the chapel, that this worthy man was alive in the year 1454; it is still more certain from the following extract from Stow, that he was dead in 1463: "In the year 1463, the third of Edward the Fourth, Mathew Philip being mayor, in a common counsaile, at the request of [Pg 92]the well-disposed, blessed, and devout woman, Dame Agnes Foster, widow, late wife to Stephen Foster, fishmonger, sometime mayor, for the comfort and reliefe of all the poore prisoners, certaine articles were established. In primis, that the new works then late edified by the same Dame Agnes, for the inlarging of the prison of Ludgate, from thenceforth should be had and taken as a parte and parcell of the saide prison of Ludgate, so that both the old and new works of Ludgate aforesaid, be one prison, gaile, keeping, and charge for evermore." To this Stow adds, "The said quadrant strongly builded of stone, by the fore-named Stephen Foster, and Agnes his wife, contayneth a large walking-place by ground, ... the like roome it hath over it for lodgings, and over all

a fayre leades to walke upon, well imbattayled, all for ease of prisoners, to the ende they shoulde have lodging and water free without charge: as by certaine verses grauen in copper, and fixed on the said quadrant, I have read in forme following—

"This plate, and one other of his armes, taken downe with the old gate, I caused to be fixed over the entrie of the said quadrant, but the verses being unhappily turned inward to the wall, the like in effect is graven outward in prose, declaring him to be a fishmonger, because some upon a light occasion (as a maydens heade in a glasse window) had fabuled him to bee a mercer, and to have begged there at Ludgate." "They were both buried (Stow, p. 163, edit. 1598) at Butolph's church, Billingsgate." How far the poet has deviated from the[Pg 93] tradition as recorded by Strype, the reader will be now as well able to decide as myself: when I speak of the tradition, I allude only to the circumstance of his having been confined a prisoner in Ludgate, and to his release by his wife (by his nephew according to the drama); and this I do on the authority of Stow, the elder of the historians who, in his concluding remarks, refers to it as a fable. Of the charitable acts of these worthy people there can be no doubt. In relation to the character of Bruin, I find (Strype, ii. 260) that

"In the year 1197, Walter Brune, a citizen of London, and Rosia his wife, founded the hospital of Our Lady, called Domus Dei, or St Mary the Spittle, without Bishopsgate in London, an house of such relief to the needy, that there was found standing at the surrender thereof nine score beds well furnished for receipt of poor people." The reader cannot fail to notice the gross anachronisms with which the plot of this drama abounds; something, however, may be said in excuse of the bringing together such men as Foster and Bruin; but the introduction of Henry III. is so wanton and unnecessary, that there can be little doubt it is an error of the printer's, and that Henry VI. is the character intended, in whose time Sir Stephen Foster lived. I did not, however, think it necessary to disturb the text; not out of respect to the quarto, for a more disgraceful work never issued from the press even of the printers of that age, but because, the circumstance having been once noticed, it becomes of little consequence. While on this subject I may just observe, that in the original