Appendix VII. “Believe As You List”
This play was edited by Mr. T. Crofton Croker, with a short Preface, in the Percy Society's Publications, Vol. XXVII., 1849. The Tudor Society has published a photographic facsimile of the MS., now in the British Museum (Egerton MSS., 2828). Cf. B.M. Catalogue of Additions, 1907, p. 384. The MS. was purchased for the Museum at a sale on November 27, 1900, for £69. It is of paper. The original document, measuring 12-1/2 inches by 7-1/2 inches, comprises folios 5 to 29; folios 2 and 3 are the old vellum cover.
Mr. Croker's account of the MS. (Pref., p. ix) runs as follows:
“The MS., from its commencement to the termination of the licence, was written on forty-eight pages of foolscap paper, in a small hand, sometimes not easy to be read. Of the second leaf only an inconsiderable portion remains, and the top and bottom of the paper have been injured in some places by damp. In four additional pages after the licence, the Prologue, Epilogue, and property directions are preserved. The MS. is stitched up in a parchment cover, which appears to have been a cancelled ‘Indenture’ of Elizabeth's reign. On the outside page of this parchment, or back of the cancelled indenture, is written the title, in what I agree with Mr. Beltz in regarding as Massinger's autograph.”[545]
From the letter of Mr. S. Beltz, given by Mr. Crofton Croker, we learn that Gifford had more than once lamented to Mr. Croker the disappearance of this MS., which Colley Cibber had seen;[546] and that the MS. had formerly been in David Garrick's hands. Mr. S. Beltz also says: “It is well known from other sources that the play was acted on May 7, 1631.”
The MS. had belonged to George Beltz, Lancaster Herald, and executor of Garrick's widow. His brother Samuel found it among “a mass of rubbish.” It was in the possession of J. O. Halliwell Phillips at one time. This well-known Shaksperian scholar inserted a note about it on p. 1, in which he says, inter alia: “This is one of the few play-house copies of any English plays before the suppression of theatres known to exist. I strongly suspect it has some corrections in Massinger's own autograph.”
Sir George F. Warner, in the Athenæum (January 19, 1901) discusses the MS. He believes it is in Massinger's own hand, as the alterations are made currente calamo. This fact can easily be verified from a perusal of the MS. Sir G. Warner, after comparing the MS. with the Henslowe document at Dulwich, arrived at the conviction that the writing was Massinger's. He considers that the title and marginal stage-directions are due to the manager, and that the Prologue and Epilogue are in a third hand. He points out that “Carthage” is written over “Venice” (Crofton Croker, p. 41), “Affricque” over “Europe” (p. 44), and “Berecinthius” over “Sampayo” (p. 79).[547] He proceeds to explain the reason for these alterations, and then emends some of Mr. Croker's mistakes.
With all due deference to the great authority of Sir G. Warner, I do not feel certain that this hand is that of the appeal to Henslow. On the other hand, we must remember that seventeen years had elapsed, and that it is unlikely that a poor man like Massinger would have employed an amanuensis. Capital “I,” “s,” “f,” and “e” are alike in the two documents; but “ve” in “have ever” did not seem to me to be the same, nor did any of the “r's” at Dulwich resemble the hand in the play.[548]
There are few mistakes in the MS. beyond those which the writer has corrected himself. The corrections and additions all appear to be in the same hand. The simplest explanation of the MS. is to suppose that Massinger had before him the MS. of the play which had been condemned by the Censor, and that he copied it out again, making the necessary changes of name, etc. This would account for one or two mistakes which the writer has corrected.[549] In other passages we can see his judgment at work, altering the phraseology,[550] or expanding one line into two.[551] Sometimes a word is repeated from a previous line and then cancelled,[552] as if the writer had been tired, as he might well be. The writing combines German and Italian forms.
The play was remodelled from its original form by order of the Censor.[553] Sir G. Warner has pointed out that it is derived from “the strangest adventure that ever happened, either in the ages passed or present: containing a discourse concerning the successe of the King of Portugal, Dom Sebastian. London: printed for Frances Henson, dwelling in the Blackfriers, 1601.”[554]
This book is the story of a claimant to the throne of Portugal. On p. 78 we have “the markes and signes which the King of Portugall Dom Sebastian beares naturally on his body.” Twenty-two in all are given. Among them are:
(1) He hath the right hand greater than the left.
(2) The right arme longer than the left.
(5) The right legge is longer than the left.
(6) The right foote greater than the other.
Compare these statements with the words erased in the MS., folio 8.[555]
1 Marchant:
His verie hand legge and foote, and the lefte side
Shorter than on the right.
(12) He hath little pimples on his face and hands.
Cf. 2 Marchant:
The moles upon
His face and hands[556]
(21) Another marke or wound upon the head.
(22) Another upon the right eye-brow.
Cf. 3 Marchant:
The scarres, caused by his hurts,
On his right browe and head.[557]
(14) He lackes one tooth on the right side in the neather jaw.
Cf. Berecinthius:
The hollownesse
Of his under jawe, occasion'd by the losse
Of a tooth pull'd out by his chirurgion.[558]
(18) The lip of Austriche,[559] like his
Grandfather Charles the Fift, Emperor,
Father to his mother, and of his
Grandmother, Catherine, Queen of
Portugall, mother to his father, sister
To the said Charles the Fift.
Compare the original reading in the play,[560] “His nose! his German lippe!” Over German “very” has been written, and underneath is traceable the “A” of Austrian.
These passages leave no doubt as to the derivation of the earlier part of the story which Massinger dramatised.
On p. 45 of The Strangest Adventure we read that Dom Sebastian comes to Venice “very poorely, and robbed by five of his own servants, which he entertained in Cicilie.” This incident occurs in Believe as You List, Act I. At Venice he was persecuted by the “embassadour of Castile,” whose name is not given, but whose place in the play is taken by Flaminius. On p. 49 he is said to have been beaten by the Moors in Africa in 1578, and to be now (1600) a prisoner at Venice. In Believe as You List the period of twenty-two years is referred to as the interval during which Antiochus has been travelling about the world.[561] On p. 50 Dom Sebastian arrives at Venice with “but one poor gazete.” In the play Antiochus, after being robbed by his servants, finds “a waste paper” lying near him, and speaks as follows:
There is something writ more.
Why this small piece of silver? What I read may
Reveal the mystery: “Forget thou wert ever
Called King Antiochus. With this charity
I enter thee a beggar.”[562]
On p. 67 Sebastian is set free, and on p. 86 he goes to Florence, on his way to Marseilles, with some talk of trying to establish his identity in Holland. But the narrative closes abruptly, and we know no more of the claimant to the Portuguese throne from The Strangest Adventure.
The ineffectiveness of the play may be partly due to the necessity of altering the original modern setting to an ancient [pg 181] one. It is hard, for example, to see how the monk Sampayo was metamorphosed into Berecinthius, the fat priest of Cybele.
Mr. Croker's reprint was the cause of a very pretty literary quarrel between the Shakespeare Society and the Percy Society. A writer who signed himself “A Member of both Societies” published a pamphlet animadverting on Mr. Croker's abilities as an editor,[563] and Mr. Croker replied in no measured terms. The documents may be seen at the British Museum.
The anonymous writer, working on the many indications given in the marginal notes, reconstructed the cast of Believe as You List.[564] “My cast,” he says, “has been a work of difficulty, and, in the case of some of the minor performers, a matter of considerable doubt, more especially as a few of them doubled or even trebled their parts; and as we here see (the only instance of the kind I am acquainted with), perhaps exchanged characters during the progress of the play.
Antiochus J. Taylor.[565]
Flaminius J. Lowin.
Lentulus R. Robinson.
Marcellus R. Benfield.
Berecinthius T. Pollard.
Chrysalus E. Swanston.
Demetrius W. Patrick.
Amilcar — Rowland.
1 Merchant J. Honeyman.
2 Merchant W. Penn.
3 Merchant — Curt.
Calistus T. Hobbes.
Titus R. Baxter.
Queen to Prusias — Ball.
Cornelia — Nick.
Courtesan — Boy.
“With regard to the three female parts, and another of a Moorish woman,[566] we are left much in the dark, and I have placed names against them with considerable hesitation.
“The actors who doubled their parts were W. Penn, who was also a Jailor; Rowland, who was also King Prusias; Patrick, who was also a Captain; and Baxter, who was also an officer and a servant, besides, as well as we can judge, delivering a speech or two as Demetrius. Rowland must also have trebled his small parts. Besides these, we hear in the course of the play of W. Mago, Gascoine, Herbert, and Harry Wilson; the last was a singer.... It need hardly be added that the 'tragedy' was got up and acted by the Company called the King's Players, all the names being those of performers in that association in 1631.”