Tamburlaine the Great who from a Scythian Shepheard, by his rare and wonderful conquestes became a most puissant and mightie monarch: And (for his tyrannie and terror in warre) was tearmed, The scourge of God. The first part of the two Tragicall discourses, as they were sundrie times most stately shewed upon stages in the citie of London. By the right honourable the Lord Admirall his servantes now first and newlie published, Printed by Richard Jhones', dwelling at the signe of the Rose and Crowne neere Holborne Bridge, 1590. 8vo. TAMBURLAINE THE GREAT. This play, or history as the publisher calls it, which is founded on the vulgar notion of Tamburlaine's history, is one of the most wild and extravagant productions of an imperfectly formed stage: and yet from what the publisher says in his address to the reader we may infer that it was originally still more extravagant. “ I have purposely,” says he, “omitted 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.” With an audience of this kind we could hardly expect the author to prefer the modesty of nature. As far as the delineation of Tamburlaine himself goes, some justification for the extravagant stuff which is put into his mouth may be found in the lofty oriental strain which he really adopted in his correspondence with foreign princes. The title of Marlowe however to this play, or rather its title to him, has been disputed. That Marlowe was the author of a play called “ Tamburlaine," has long been the received opinion, founded on one of the pro XX logues written by Thomas Heywood, to the Jew of Malta, and which has been supposed to convey that information. It appears to us doubtful whether this play has not been attributed to Marlowe under a misconception of Heywood's meaning. The passage in question is as follows : “ We know not how our play may pass this stage, But by the best of poets* in that age, The Malta Jew had being and was made ; And he then by the best of actors + play'd : In Hero and Leander, one did gain A lasting memory: in Tamburlaine, This Jew, with others many : th' other wan The attribute of peerless, being a man Whom we may rank with (doing one wrong) Proteus for shapes and Roscius for a tongue.” This is the way in which the lines printed in Italics are punctuated in the old editions, and those lines have always been read as if the poet meant to say that one gained a lasting memory in Hero and Leander, Tamburlaine and many other compositions. Langbaine appears to have been the first who put this construction upon the passage, and he says, “ Had I not Mr. Heywood's word for it in the forementioned prologue, I should not believe this to be his.” Dr. Farmer conjectured, “ that the play, Tamburlaine, praised by Heywood, might be different from the bombast one, and that written by Kyd.” We are inclined to think independently of internal evi dence, which is strong against the supposition of this play being written by Marlowe, that it was the composition of some other author. The sole authority upon which it is attributed to him is the prologue just quoted. The words in italics may with equal if not greater propriety be read in this way, “ In Hero and Leander one did gain The attribute of peerless.”In the words of the poet one “made” and the other “ played,” the Jew; and therefore as far as relates to this play the latter part of the sentence may be applied to either Marlowe or Allen, and in like manner what is said of Tamburlaine, may independently of other evidence, be applied either to the author or the actor. But it may be urged that the intention of the writer of the prologue was to illustrate his praise by giving examples of those things in which the objects of his eulogium gained reputation; as that Marlowe was famous for the poem of Hero and Leander, and Allen, in the character of Tamburlaine and the Jew of Malta. It may also be added that the words “ with others many" are much more applicable to Allen, whose characters were numerous, than to Marlowe, whose compositions were few; besides this reading seems more likely to have been the natural order of the poet's thoughts,-one was celebrated in Hero and Leander, the other in Tamburlaine. The confusion arises from both being associated with the Jew of xxii bad play. Malta. Another reason for this construction is, that by it we get rid of the improbability, that Heywood himself, an excellent dramatist, who knew well how to touch the passions, should praise a composition like the one in question; but he might without any impropriety praise the excellence of a good actor, even in a Some other circumstances may be mentioned as tending to support this construction of the passage. Both the Jew of Malta and Tamburlaine were acted at the Rose Theatre, of which Henslowe, who married Mrs. Allen's stepmother, was proprietor; and it is probable that Allen played the part of Tamburlaine, which was in his line of character. Indeed it appears from “ the plotte” of the first part of Tamar Cam' (l'amerlane) printed in Malone's Shakspeare, and which that editor supposes to have formed part of Allen's collection, that he actually did perform the part of “Tamar Cam;' but the incidents and the names of the characters appear to be totally different from those of the present play. It may be inferred from the prologue to “ The troublesome reign of John, King of England,” that Tamburlaine was written by the same author as that play which has never been assigned to Marlowe. “ You that with friendly grace of smoothed brow A warlike Christian and your countryman." Malone conjectured “that Tamburlaine was either written wholly or in part by Nash, from the |