DR. FARMER ON DRAYTON'S WORKS.
The following bibliographical memoranda, in the well-known hand of Dr. Farmer, occur in a copy of the edition of Drayton's Poems published in 1619, in small folio, by John Smethwick, which contains "The Barons' Wars; England's Heroical Epistles; Idea; Odes; The Legends of Robert Duke of Normandie, Matilda, Pierce Gaveston, and Great Cromwell; The Owle; and Pastorals, containing Eglogues, with the Man in the Moone."
They may be of use to some future editor of Drayton, an author now undeservedly neglected, whose Nymphidia alone might tempt the tasteful publisher of the "Aldine Poets" to include a selection, at least, of his poems in that beautiful series:—
"The works of Michael Drayton, Esq., were reprinted in folio, 1748. The title-page 'promises all the writings of that celebrated author,' but his Pastorals (p.433. &c., first published imperfectly in 4to. 1593) and many other of his most considerable compositions (Odes, the Owle, &c., see the Appendix), are not so much as spoken of. See his article in the Biog. Brit. by Mr. Oldys, curiously and accurately written.
"Another edition (which is called the best) was printed in 4 vols. 8vo. 1753. Robson, 1765.
"A Poem Triumphant, composed for the Society of the Goldsmiths of London, by M. Drayton. 4to. 1604. Harl. Cat. v.3. p. 357.
"Charles Coffey was the editor of the folio edit. 1748, he had a large< subscription for it, but died before the publication; and it was afterward printed for the benefit of his widow. See Mottley, p. 201.
"The print of Drayton at the back of the title-page, is marked in Thane's Catalogue, 1774, 7s. 6d.
"N.B. The copy of the Baron's Warres in this edition differs in almost every line from that in the 8vo. edit. 1610.
"It was printed under the title of Mortimeriados, in 7 line stanzaes.
"Matilda was first printed 1594, 4to., by Val. Simmes. Gaveston appears by the Pref. to have been publish't before. Almost every line in the old 4to. of Matilda differs from the copy in this edit. A stanza celebrating Shakespeare's Lucrece is omitted in the later edition.
"Idea. The Shepherd's Garland. Fashion'd in 9 Eglogs. Rowland's sacrifice to the 9 Muses, 4to. 1593. But they are printed in this Edition very different from the present Pastorals.
"A sonnet of Drayton's prefixed to the 2nd Part of Munday's Primaleon of Greece, B.L. 4to. 1619."
[The stanza in Matilda, celebrating Shakespeare's Lucrece, to which Dr. Farmer alludes, is thus quoted by Mr. Collier in his edition of Shakespeare (viii. p. 411.):—
"Lucrece, of whom proud Rome hath boasted long,
Lately revived to live another age,
And here arrived to tell of Tarquin's wrong,
Her chaste denial, and the tyrant's rage,
Acting her passions on our stately stage:
She is remember'd, all forgetting me,
Yet I as fair and chaste as e'er was she;"—
who remarks upon it as follows:—
"A difficulty here may arise out of the fifth line, as if Drayton was referring to a play upon the story of Lucrece, and it is very possible that one was then in existence. Thomas Heywood's tragedy, The Rape of Lucrece, did not appear in print until 1608, and he could hardly have been old enough to have been the author of such a drama in 1594; he may, nevertheless, have availed himself of an elder play, and, according to the practice of the time, he may have felt warranted in publishing it as his own. It is likely, however, that Drayton's expressions are not to be taken literally; and that his meaning merely was, that the story of Lucrece had lately been revived, and brought upon the stage of the world: if this opinion be correct, the stanza we have quoted above contains a clear allusion to Shakespeare's Lucrece; and a question then presents itself, why Drayton entirely omitted it in the after-impression of his Matilda. He was a poet who, as we have shown in the Introduction to Julius Cæsar (vol. viii. p. 4.), was in the habit of making extensive alterations in his productions, as they were severally reprinted, and the suppression of this stanza may have proceeded from many other causes than repentance of the praise he had bestowed upon a rival.">[