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To our most loving friend, Mr. Philip Hinchlow, and died: "However I could never arrive

Esquire, These.

"Mr. Hinchlow,

You

"You understand our unfortunate extremity, and I do not think you so void of Christianity but that you would throw so much money into the Thames as we request now of you, rather than endanger so many innocent lives. know there is xl. more at least to be received of you for the play. We desire you to lend us vl. of that; which shall be allowed to you; without which we cannot be bailed, nor I play any more till this be dispatched. It will lose you xxl. ere the end of the next week, besides the hinderance of the next new play. Pray, Sir, consider our cases with humanity, and now give us cause to acknowledge you our true friend in time of need. We have entreated Mr. Davison to deliver this note, as well to witness your love as our promises, and always acknowledgment to be

ever

"Your most thankful and loving friends,

"NAT. FIELD.

"The money shall be abated out of the money remains for the play of Mr. Fletcher and ours.

"ROBERT DABORNE.

"I have ever found you a true loving friend to me, and in so small a suit, it being honest, I hope you will not fail us.

"PHILIP MASSINGER."

By an indorsement on the letter it is shown that Henslow made the advance which these unfortunate men required. But how was it that Massinger, who was brought up under the patronage of a family distinguished for their encouragement of genius, was doomed to struggle with abject penury?* Gifford conjectures that he became a Roman Catholic early in life, and thus gave offence to the noble family with whom his father had been so intimately connected. In 1623 Massinger published his 'Bondman,' dedicating it to the second of the Herberts, Philip, Earl of Montgomery. The dedication shows that he had been an alien from the house in the service of which his father lived

*In Mr. Collier's Memoirs of Actors' the fact of Massinger's burial at St. Saviour's church, in 1639, being recorded as that of Philip Masenger, stranger,' is not regarded as any indication of his poverty and loneliness: "Every person, there interred, who did not belong to the parish, was called a stranger." The payment of 21. for expenses would show "that Massinger was interred with peculiar cost and ceremony."

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at the happiness to be made known to your Lordship, yet a desire, born with me, to make a tender of all duties and service to the noble family of the Herbert's descended to me as an inheritance from my dead father, Arthur Massinger. Many years he happily spent in the service of your honourable house, and died a servant to it." There is something unintelligible in all this; though we may well believe with Gifford that, "whatever might be the unfortunate circumstance which deprived the author of the patronage and protection of the elder branch of the Herberts, he did not imagine it to be of a disgraceful nature; or he would not, in the face of the public, have appealed to his connexions with the family."* It is difficult to trace the course of Massinger's poetical life. The Virgin Martyr,' in which he was assisted by Dekker, was the first printed of his plays; and that did not appear till 1622. But there can be little doubt that it belongs to an earlier period; for in 1620 a fee was paid to the Master of the Revels on the occasion of "New reforming The Virgin Martyr." The 'Bondman' was printed within a year after it was produced upon the stage; and from that period till the time of his death several of his plays were published, but at very irregular intervals. appear that during the early portion of his career Massinger was chiefly associated with other writers. To the later period belong his great works, such as 'The Duke of Milan,' 'The City Madam,' and the New Way to pay Old Debts.' Taken altogether, Massinger was perhaps the worthiest successor of Shakspere; and this indeed is praise enough.

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NAT. FIELD, the writer of the letter to Henslow, was a player, as we learn by that letter. The same document shows that he he is mentioned in the first folio edition of was a player in the service of Henslow. But Shakspere's plays, as one of the principal

actors in them. The best evidence of the genius of Field is his association with Massinger in the noble play of 'The Fatal Dowry.' He probably was not connected with Shakspere's company during Shakspere's

* Introduction to the Works of Massinger.

life; but he is named in a patent to the actors at the Blackfriars and Globe in 1620. Robert Daborne, who was associated with Field and Massinger in their "extremity," was either at this period, or subsequently, in holy orders.

THOMAS MIDDLETON was a contemporary of Shakspere. We find him early associated with other writers, and in 1602 was published his comedy of 'Blurt Master-Constable.' Edward Phillips describes him as "a copious writer for the English stage, contemporary with Jonson and Fletcher, though not of equal repute, and yet on the other side not altogether contemptible." He continued to write on till the suppression of the theatres,

and the opinion of Phillips was the impression as to his powers at the period of the Restoration. Ford,-who has truly been called “of the first order of poets"-Rowley, Wilson, Hathway, Porter, Houghton, Day, Tourneur, Taylor, arose as the day-star of Shakspere was setting. Each might have been remarkable in an age of mediocrity, some are still illustrious. The great dramatic literature of England was the creation of half a century only; and in that short space was heaped up such a prodigality of riches that we regard this wondrous accumulation with something too much of indifference to the lesser gems, dazzled by the lustre of the

"One entire and perfect chrysolite."

CHAPTER II.

THE TWO NOBLE KINSMEN.

THE title-page of the original edition of "The | into violent conflict, rendered the
Two Noble Kinsmen' sets forth that it was
"written by the memorable worthies of their
time, Mr. John Fletcher and Mr. William
Shakspeare." This was printed in 1634,
nine years after the death of Fletcher, and
eighteen years after the death of Shakspere.
The play was not printed in the first col-
lected edition of Beaumont and Fletcher's

works, in 1647, for the reason assigned in the
'Stationers' Address.' "Some plays, you
know, written by these authors, were hereto-
fore printed: I thought not convenient to
mix them with this volume, which of itself is
entirely new." The title-page of the quarto
of 1634 is, therefore, the only direct external
evidence we possess as to Shakspere's par-
ticipation in this play. Nor have we to
offer any contemporary notice of 'The Two
Noble Kinsmen' which refers to this ques-
tion of the co-authorship. The very pro-
logue and epilogue of the play itself are
silent upon this point. They are, except in
a passage or two, unimportant in themselves;
have no poetical merit; and present some of
those loose allusions which, as we approach
the days when principles of morality came

stage so The pro

justly obnoxious to the Puritans.
logue, speaking of the play, says—
"It has a noble breeder, and a pure,
A learned, and a poet never went
More famous yet 'twixt Po and silver Trent:
Chaucer (of all admired) the story gives;
There constant to eternity it lives!"
And it then adds:—

"If we let fall the nobleness of this,

And the first sound this child hear be a hiss,
How will it shake the bones of that good

man,

And make him cry from under-ground, 'Oh, fan

From me the witless chaff of such a writer That blasts my bays, and my famed works makes lighter

Than Robin Hood?''

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The expression "such a writer is almost evidence against the double authorship. It implies, too, that, if Fletcher were the author, the play was presented before his death; for if the players had produced the drama after his death, they would have probably spoken of him (he being its sole author) in the terms

of eulogy with which they accompanied the | his pains." It is clear that the fable of performance of 'The Loyal Subject :'

"We need not, noble gentlemen, to invite Attention, pre-instruct you who did write This worthy story, being confident

We

Chaucer must have been treated in a dif-
ferent manner by Edwards than we find it
treated in 'The Two Noble Kinsmen.'
have another record of a play on a similar
subject. In Henslow's 'Diary' we have an

The mirth join'd with grave matter and entry, under the date of September 1594, of

intent

To yield the hearers profit with delight,
Will speak the maker: And to do him right
Would ask a genius like to his; the age
Mourning his loss, and our now-widow'd stage
In vain lamenting."

The inferences, therefore, to be deduced from the prologue to 'The Two Noble Kinsmen' (supposing Fletcher to be concerned in this drama),—that it was acted during his life-time, and that he either claimed the sole authorship, or suppressed all mention of the joint-authorship,-are to be weighed against the assertion of the title-page, that it was "written by the two memorable worthies of their time." We are thrown upon the examination of the internal evidence, then, without any material bias from the publication of the play, or its stage representation. Before the first builders-up of that wondrous edifice, the English drama, lay the whole world of classical and romantic fable, "where to choose." One of the earliest, and

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'Palamon and Arsett' being acted four times. It is impossible to imagine that ‘The Two Noble Kinsmen' is the same play. Here, then, was a subject adapted to a writer who worked in the spirit in which Shakspere almost uniformly worked. It was familiar to the people in their popular poetry; it was familiar to the stage. To arrive at a right judgment regarding the authorship of 'The Two Noble Kinsmen,' we must examine the play line by line in its relation to 'The Knight's Tale' of Chaucer.

'The Knight's Tale' opens with the return to Athens of the "duke that highté Theseus" after he had

66

conquer'd all the regne of Feminie,
That whilom was ycleped Scythia,
And wedded the freshe queen Hypolita,
And brought her home with him to his coun-
trey

With muchel glory and great solempnitie,
And eke her youngé sister Emelie."

6 The Two Noble Kinsmen opens with
Theseus at Athens, in the company of Hip-

bration of his marriage with the "dreaded Amazonian." Their bridal procession is interrupted by the

"three queens whose sovereigns fell before The wrath of cruel Creon."

In Chaucer the suppliants are a more

numerous company.

proaching Athens,

As Theseus was ap

consequently least skilful, of those work-polyta and her sister, proceeding to the celemen, Richard Edwards, went to the ancient stores for his 'Damon and Pythias,' and to Chaucer for his 'Palamon and Arcyte.' We learn from Wood's MSS. that when Elizabeth visited Oxford, in 1566, "at night the Queen heard the first part of an English play, named 'Palæmon, or Palamon Arcyte,' made by Mr. Richard Edwards, a gentleman of her chapel, acted with very great applause in Christ Church Hall." An accident happened at the beginning of the play by the falling of a stage, through which three persons were killed a scholar of St. Mary's Hall, and two who were probably more missed, a college brewer and a cook. The mirth, however, went on, and "afterwards the actors performed their parts so well, that the Queen laughed heartily thereat, and gave the author of the play great thanks for

"He was 'ware, as he cast his eye aside,
Where that there kneeled in the highé way
A company of ladies tway and tway,

Each after other, clad in clothés black;
But such a cry and such a woe they make,
That in this world n'is creature living
That ever heard such another waimenting."
Briefly they tell their tale of woe, and as

*Nichols's Progresses of Queen Elizabeth,' vol. i. pp. 210, 211.

rapidly does the chivalrous duke resolve to | but at the same time so original that they avenge their wrongs:

The

"And right anon, withouten more abode, His banner he display'd, and forth he rode To Thebes ward, and all his host beside." The Queen and her sister remained at Athens. Out of this rapid narration, which occupies little more than a hundred lines in Chaucer, has the first scene of 'The Two Noble Kinsmen' been constructed. Assuredly, the reader who opens that scene for the first time will feel that he has lighted upon a work of no ordinary power. mere interruption of the bridal procession by the widowed queens-the contrast of their black garments and their stained veils with the white robes and wheaten chaplets and hymeneal songs with which the play opens is a noble dramatic conception; but the poet, whoever he be, possesses that command of appropriate language which realizes all that the imagination can paint of a dramatic situation and movement; there is nothing shadowy or indistinct, no vague explanations, no trivial epithets. When the First Queen says

66

Oh, pity, duke ! Thou purger of the earth, draw thy fear'd sword

That does good turns to the world; give us the bones

Of our dead kings, that we may chapel them!" we know that the thoughts which belong to her condition are embodied in words of no common significancy. When the Second Queen, addressing Hippolyta, "the soldieress," says,

"Speak 't in a woman's key, like such a woman As any of us three; weep ere you fail; Lend us a knee;

But touch the ground for us no longer time Than a dove's motion, when the head's pluck'd off!"

we feel that the poet not only wields his harmonious language with the decision of a practised artist, but exhibits the nicer touches which attest his knowledge of natural feelings, and employs images which, however strange and unfamiliar, are so true that we wonder they never occurred to us before,

appear to defy copying or imitation. The whole scene is full of the same remarkable word-painting. There is another quality which it exhibits, which is also peculiar to the highest order of minds-the ability to set us thinking—to excite that just and appropriate reflection which might arise of itself out of the exhibition of deep passions and painful struggles and resolute selfdenials, but which the true poet breathes into us without an effort, so as to give the key to our thoughts, but utterly avoiding those sententious moralizings which are sometimes deemed to be the province of tragedy. When the Queens commend the surrender which Theseus makes of his affections to a sense of duty, the poet gives us the philosophy of such heroism in a dozen words spoken by Theseus :

"As we are men,

Thus should we do; being sensually subdued, We lose our humane title."

The first appearance, in Chaucer, of Palamon and Arcite is when they lie wounded on the battle-field of Thebes. In The Two Noble Kinsmen' the necessary conduct of the story, as a drama, requires that the principal personages should be exhibited to us before they become absorbed in the main action. It is on such occasions as these that a dramatist of the highest order makes his characters reveal themselves, naturally and without an effort; and yet so distinctly that their individual identity is impressed upon the mind, so as to combine with the subsequent movement of the plot. The second scene of 'The Two Noble Kinsmen' appears to us somewhat deficient in this power. It is written with great energy; but the two friends are energetic alike: we do not precisely see which is the more excitable, the more daring, the more resolved, the more generous. We could change the names of the speakers without any material injury to the propriety of what they speak. Take, as an opposite example, Hermia and Helena, in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream,' where the differences of character scarcely required to be so nicely defined. And yet in description

the author of "The Two Noble Kinsmen makes Palamon and Arcite essentially different:

"Arcite is gently visaged: yet his eye

Is like an engine bent, or a sharp weapon
In a soft sheath; mercy and manly courage
Are bedfellows in his visage. Palamon
Has a most menacing aspect; his brow

Is graved, and seems to bury what it frowns

on;

Yet sometimes 't is not so, but alters to
The quality of his thoughts; long time his

eye

Will dwell upon his object; melancholy
Becomes him nobly; so does Arcite's mirth;
But Palamon's sadness is a kind of mirth,
So mingled, as if mirth did make him sad,
And sadness, merry; those darker humours,
that

Stick misbecomingly on others, on him
Live in fair dwelling."

This is noble writing; and it is quite suffi-
cient to enable the stage representation of
the two characters to be well defined. Omit
it, and omit the recollections of it in the
reading, and we doubt greatly whether the
characters themselves realize this descrip-
tion: they are not self-evolved and mani-
fested. The third scene, also, is a dramatic
addition to the tale of Chaucer. It keeps
the interest concentrated upon Hippolyta,
and, especially, Emilia; it is not essential to
the action, but it is a graceful addition to it.
It has the merit, too, of developing the cha-
racter of Emilia, and so to reconcile us to
the apparent coldness with which she is
subsequently content to receive the triumph-
ant rival, whichever he be, as her husband.
The Queen and her sister talk of the friend-
ship of Theseus and Perithous. Emilia tells
the story of her own friendship, to prove
"That the true love 'tween maid and maid
may be

More than in sex dividual."

This, in some sort, modifies the subsequent position of Emilia, "bride-habited, but maiden-hearted." Her description of her early friendship has been compared to the celebrated passage in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream :'

"Is all the counsel that we two have shared," &c.

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You talk of Perithous' and Theseus' love; Theirs has more ground, is more maturely season'd,

More buckled with strong judgment, and their needs

The one of th' other may be said to water
Their intertangled roots of love; but I
And she (I sigh and spoke of) were things
innocent,

Loved for we did, and like the elements
That know not what, nor why, yet do effect
Rare issues by their operance; our souls
Did so to one another: what she liked
Was then of me approved; what not, con-
demn'd,

No more arraignment; the flower that I would pluck

And put between my breasts (oh, then but beginning

To swell about the blossom), she would long
Till she had such another, and commit it
To the like innocent cradle, where phoenix-
like

They died in perfume: on my head no toy
But was her pattern; her affections (pretty,
Though happily her careless wear) I follow'd
For my most serious decking; had mine ear
Stol❜n some new air, or at adventure humm'd

one

From musical coinage, why, it was a note

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