Dived low as to the center, and then reacht (Nor 'scaped Things Intermediate), for your love A CHALLENGE FOR BEAUTY. A TRAGI-COMEDY [See page 84] BY T. HEYWOOD In the Prologue to this Play, Heywood commends the English Plays; not without a censure of some writers, who in his time had begun to degenerate. The Roman and Athenian Dramas far In seeking to ape others) cannot 'quit Some of our Poets, who have sinn'd in it. For where, before, great Patriots, Dukes, and Kings, 1 His own Play. "[See also "Serious Fragments," page 573.] [Works, vol. v., Prologue. See also page 546.] The foundations of the English Drama were laid deep in tragedy by Marlowe, and others-Marlowe especially-while our comedy was yet in its lisping state. To this tragic preponderance (forgetting his own sweet Comedies, and Shakspeare's), Hey. wood seems to refer with regret; as in the "Roscian Strain" he evidently alludes to Alleyn, who was great in the "Jew of Malta," as Heywood elsewhere testifies, and in the principal tragic parts both of Marlowe and Shakspeare. Or the flattery in the epitaph?—which shows Rom. Very well then I have a certain meditation, (If I can think of,) somewhat to this purpose ;while my mother there I'll say it to you, Numbers her beads. "You that dwell near these graves and vaults, Note what a small room does suffice And are to the Drapers a good hearing; "Tween heav'n and this, yield no more light To remove you to a place more airy, Of sacrilege have turn'd graves to vilder uses. Here rest these bones to the Last Day; When Time, swift both of foot and feather, May bear them the Sexton knows not whither ?— Be in the desart, or in the deep; [Act ii., Sc. 3.] 1 Webster was parish clerk at St. Andrew's, Holborn. The anxious recurrence to church-matters; sacrilege; tomb-stones; with the frequent introduction of dirges in this, and his other tragedies, may be traced to his professional sympathies. II. That thy theatre's loud noise III. That no actor's made profane, To debase Gods, to raise thy strain; And people forced, that hear thy Play, Their money and their souls to pay: IV. That thou leav'st affected phrase To the shops to use and praise; And breath'st a noble Courtly vein,— Such as may Cæsar entertain, V. When he wearied would lay down VI. These are thy inferior arts, But when thou carriest on the plot, VII. When the scene sticks to every thought, And can to no event be brought; When (thus of old the scene betraid) Poets call'd Gods unto their aid, I have a strange noise in my head. Oh, fly in [pieces]. That have no good to hope for.1 Let me sink, Where neither man nor memory may find me. (Falls to the ground.2) Confessor (entering). You are well employ'd, I hope; the best pillow in th' world For this your contemplation is the earth, And the best object, Heaven. Leonora. I am whispering To a dead friend- Obstacles. Let those, that would oppose this union, [Act iii., Sc. 3.] [Act i., Sc. 2.] Falling out. To draw the Picture of Unkindness truly [Act i., Sc. 1.] THE BRIDE. A COMEDY [PUBLISHED 1640]. THOMAS NABBS Antiquities. HORTEN, a Collector. His friend. Friend. You are [likewise] learned in Antiquities ? I should affect them more, were not tradition One of the best assurances to show They are the things we think them. What more proofs, [Four lines and a half omitted.] 2[Four lines.] BY Where poets flourish but in endless verse, G. Chapman. COMMENDATORY VERSES BEFORE THE REBELLION. A TRAGEDY [PUBLISHED 1640]. BY T. RAWLINS [1620 ?-1670]1 To see a Springot of thy tender age With such a lofty strain to word a Stage; That one so young should know dramatic laws: Or greasy thumbs of every common man. The damask rose that sprouts before the Spring, Go on, sweet friend: I hope in time to see [See Dodsley, vol. xiv.] Robert Chamberlain. "[Should be "wonderstruck ".] |