Leaves 245-267 are taken up with the Tragedy of Nero, which was printed in 1624. Then comes [Daborne's] Poore Man's Comfort (268-292), an inferior play printed in 1655. Afterwards follows a dull play (leaves 293-316), Loves Changlelings Changed, founded on Sidney's Arcadia. The last piece in the book (leaves 317-349) is The lancheinge of the May, Written by W.M. Gent in his return from East India, A.D. 1632. There is a second title, The Seamans honest wife, to this extraordinary piece. On the last leaf is a note by Sir Henry Herbert:—"This Play called ye Seamans honest wife, all ye Oaths left out in ye action as they are crost in ye booke & all other Reformations strictly observed, may bee acted, not otherwise. This 27th June, 1633. HENRY HERBERT.
"I command your Bookeeper to present mee with a faire Copy hereaft[er] and to leave out all oathes, prophaness & publick Ribaldry as he will answer it at his perill. H. HERBERT."
It is plain therefore that the piece was intended for presentation on the stage; but it must have been a strange audience that could have listened to it. Dramatic interest there is none whatever. The piece is nothing more, than a laudation of the East India Company. In tables of statistics we have set before us the amount of merchandise brought from the East; and the writer dwells with enthusiasm on the liberality of the Company, and shows how new channels have been opened for industry. One extract will be enough:—
Nor doe our marchants tradinge into Spayne,
The Streights, to Venice, Lisbon or the like,
Give entertaynment unto novices
Which have not some experience of the sea.
But when all doors of Charitie are shutt
The East India gates stand open, open wide,
To entertayne the needie & the poore
With good accomodation. Two monthes paye
They have before hand for to make provision,
Needfull provision for so longe a voyage,
And two monthes paye theyr wives are yearely payd
The better to mayntayne theyr poore estate
Duringe the discontinuance of theyr husbands.
Yf in the voyage he doe chance to [MS. doe] dye
The widowe doth receave whatere's found due,
Yf not by will disposed otherwise;
Which often happeneth to be such a sume
As they togeather never sawe the like.
And when did any of these widowes begge
For mayntenaunce in Churches as some doe?
Blackwall proclaymes theyr bountie; Lymehouse speakes
(Yf not ingrate) their liberalitie;
Ratcliffe cannot complayne nor Wapping weepe,
Nor Shadwell crye agaynst theyr niggardnes.
No, they doe rather speake the contrary
With acclamations to the highest heavens.
APPENDIX II.
The following note is by Mr. Robert Boyle, of St. Petersburg, a Shakespearian scholar, whose name is well known to readers of the Anglia and the New Shakspere Society's Transactions. Mr. Boyle, who has a close acquaintance with Massinger, on seeing the proof-sheets of Sir John Van Olden Barnavelt, pointed out several repetitions of expressions used in other plays of Massinger. It will be understood that I do not adopt Mr. Boyle's conclusions unreservedly. Possibly in an Appendix to Vol. IV. I may return to a consideration of Barnavelt, but the present volume has already swollen beyond its limits.
Sir John Van Olden Barnavelt.
This play, the most valuable Christmas present English scholars have for half a century received, appears indubitably to belong to the Massinger and Fletcher series. Even a cursory glance will convince the reader that it is one of the greatest treasures of our dramatic literature. That such a gem should lie in manuscript for over 200 years, should be catalogued in our first library, should be accessible to the eye of the prying scholar, and yet never even be noticed till now, affords a disagreeable but convincing proof of the want of interest in our early literature displayed even by those whose studies in this field would seem to point them out for the work of rescuing these literary treasures from a fate as bad as that which befell those plays which perished at the hands of Warburton's "accursed menial." The present play has some remarkable features in it. It is taken from contemporary history (the only one as far as we know of that class in which Massinger was engaged). It was written almost immediately after the events it describes. These events took place in the country in which Englishmen then took more interest than in any other country in Europe. There is a tone of political passion in the play which, particularly in one place, breaks out in an expression which the hearers must have applied to their own country. There is no doubt that the audience wandered away in their thoughts from Sir John Van Olden Barnavelt, the saviour of his country from the Spanish yoke, as he professed himself in his defence on his trial, and Spain's determined enemy, to Sir Walter Raleigh, whose head had just fallen on the block, the victim of a perfidious foe and of a mean, shuffling king. The following is the passage:—
Octavius, when he did affect the Empire,
And strove to tread upon the neck of Rome
And all her ancient freedoms, took that course
That now is practised on you; for the Catos,
And all free spirits slain or else proscribed,
That durst have stirred against him, he then seized
The Absolute rule of all. You can apply this. p. 292.
In a note Mr. Bullen informs us, that "You can apply this" is crossed through. He does not state whether there is anything to show that this was done by Sir George Buck, Master of the Revels, and consequently Censor for the Stage. But this would appear to be the case, the more so as the present play seems to have raised scruples in many places in the mind of the dramatic Cerberus. It is hardly possible to imagine that the spectators did not apply the "free spirits" to Raleigh, and the "Catos" to those members who were shortly after to be imprisoned on account of a memorable protest entered in the journals of the House, which Octavius, who was trying to seize the absolute rule of all, tore out with his own royal hands. There is a peculiar fitness in this hit at James as Octavius which probably did not escape the audience. There is another passage, on p. 253, which, singular to say, seems to have escaped the notice of the Censor:—