Nearly the whole of the piece is written in the ordinary seven-line stanza, with here and there the insertion of a couplet, more, no doubt, for convenience than for variety. The author seems to have very little consulted the wishes and tastes of a popular assembly; for, independently of the wearisome introduction, the interlocutions are sometimes carried to the extreme of tediousness, and the comic scenes are few, and failures. Perhaps, if any exception can be made, it is in favour of the interview between Hypocrisy, Tyranny, and Avarice, where the first, in consistency with his character, succeeds somewhat humorously in imposing upon both his companions. The long address of Caconos and his subsequent dialogue with Hypocrisy, Tyranny, and Avarice, is recommended to notice as an ancient and accurate specimen of our northern dialect. The long passage, where Caconos describes his knowledge of his portas by its illuminations, has been imitated by other authors, and, very likely, was not new in this drama.
What we have to state regarding the text of this play applies strictly to all the others. We have given, as far as modern typography would allow, faithful representations of the original copies, with the close observation of spelling and other peculiarities. If, for the sake of mere intelligibility, we have rarely added a word or even a letter, we have always inserted it between brackets; and for the settlement of difficulties, and the illustration of obscure customs and allusions, we refer to the notes which succeed each play. We might have subjoined them at the foot of the page, but we thought they would be considered by many a needless interruption; while, if we had reserved the whole for the end of our volume, their bulk, and the numerous paginal references might have produced confusion and delay. We judged it best, therefore, to follow each separate production by the separate notes applicable to it; and the reader will thus have, as far as our knowledge extends, the ready means of required explanation, which we have endeavoured to compress into the smallest compass. We ought to add, that the only liberty we have taken is with the old and ill-regulated punctuation[3] which it was often necessary to alter, that the sense of the author might be understood and appreciated.
The production which stands second in this volume may also be looked upon, in another sense, as intermediate with reference to stage-performances. It has for title "The rare Triumphs of Love and Fortune," and was probably designed by its unknown author for a court-show. The earliest information we possess regarding it establishes that it was represented before Queen Elizabeth between Christmas 1581 and February 1582. The following is the entry regarding it in the Accounts of the office of the Revels of that date:—
"A Historic of Love and Fortune, shewed before her Majestie at Wyndesor, on the sondaie at night next before new yeares daie. Enacted by the Earle of Derbies servauntes. For which newe provision was made of one Citty and one Battlement of Canvas, iij Ells of sarcenet, a [bolt] of canvas, and viij paire of gloves, with sondrey other furniture in this office."[4]
There exists in the same records a memorandum respecting "The play of Fortune" ten years earlier,[5] but the terms employed are so general, that we do not feel warranted in considering it "The rare Triumphs of Love and Fortune" which we have reprinted: the "History of Love and Fortune," mentioned in the preceding quotation from the Revels' Accounts, was no doubt the drama under consideration; and we see that, besides sarcenet and gloves, the new properties (as they were then, and still are, called) necessary for the performance were a city and a battlement to be composed of, or represented on, canvas. We may perhaps conclude that the piece was not written long before it was acted at Windsor; but it did not come from the press until 1589, and the sole copy of it is preserved in the library of the Earl of Ellesmere, who, in his known spirit of liberal encouragement, long since permitted the Editor to make a transcript of it. We have met with no entry of its publication in the Registers of the Stationers' Company.
It will be observed that the foundation of the piece depends upon a contest for superiority between Venus and Fortune, and that the first act (for the drama is regularly divided into acts, though the scenes are not distinguished) is a species of induction to the rest. It is the more remarkable, because it contains some early specimens of dramatic blank-verse, although it may be questioned whether the piece was ever exhibited at a public theatre.
We discover no trace of it in "Henslowe's Diary,"[6] nor in any other authority, printed or manuscript, relating to plays exhibited before public audiences in the reign of Elizabeth; but it is nevertheless clear that it was "played before the Queen's most excellent Majesty" (as the title-page states) by the retainers of the Earl of Derby, a company of actors at that date engaged in public performances; and it was then, and afterwards, usual for the Master of the Revels to select dramas for performance at court, that were favourites with persons who were in the habit of frequenting the houses generally employed, or purposely erected, for dramatic representations. If "The rare Triumphs of Love and Fortune" were ever acted at a public theatre, the several shows in the first act, of Troilus and Cressida, of Alexander, of Dido, of Pompey and Caesar, and of Hero and Leander, would of course have been attractive.
It is not necessary to enter at all into the plot, which was composed to evince alternately the power of Venus and of Fortune in influencing the lives of a pair of faithful lovers: the man, with some singularity, being called Hermione, and the woman Fidelia. They are successively placed by the two goddesses in situations of distress and difficulty, from which they are ultimately released; and in the end Venus and Fortune are reconciled, and join in promoting the happiness of the couple they had exposed to such trials. The serious business is relieved by some attempts at comedy by a clownish servant, called Lentulo, and in the third act a song is introduced for greater variety, which, as was not unusual at a later period of our stage history, seems to have been left to the choice of the performer. The prayer for the Queen, at the conclusion of the drama, put into the mouth of Fortune, was a relic of a more ancient practice, and perhaps affords further proof, if it were wanted, that it was represented before Elizabeth.[7] It appears not unlikely that, if "The rare Triumphs of Love and Fortune" had been chosen by the Master of the Revels for representation at court on account of its popularity, the fact of its having been acted by a particular company at a known theatre would have been stated upon the title-page, as a testimony to its merits, and as an incentive to its purchasers.
We need not hesitate in stating that the third and fourth dramas in the present volume were "publicly played," and the title-page of one of them states the fact. Moreover, they were the authorship of a most distinguished individual, perhaps only second to Tarlton as an actor, and decidedly his superior as an author. Nothing that has come down to us leads us to suppose, that Tarlton had much beyond his lavish extemporal wit and broad drollery to recommend him; for although various productions were attributed to him, such as are extant do not warrant an opinion that, as a writer, he had much originality.[8] The reverse is the case with Robert Wilson, whose initials are on the title-pages of "The three Ladies of London," and of "The three Lords and three Ladies of London," and who, besides his well-attested talents as a public performer, was indisputably a dramatist of great ability. He, too, was famous for his extreme readiness of reply, when suddenly called upon; but we cannot help suspecting that some confusion has arisen between the Robert Wilson, the writer of the two dramas above-named (as well as of "The Cobbler's Prophecy," 1594, a production of a similar character), and the Robert Wilson who is mentioned in "Henslowe's Diary," and whom Meres, as late as 1598, calls "our worthy Wilson," adding that he was "for learning and extemporal wit, without compare or compeer."[9] The younger Robert Wilson was, perhaps, the son of the elder; but without here entering into the evidence on the point (with which we were not formerly so well-acquainted), we may state our persuasion generally, that the Robert Wilson who was appointed one of the leaders of one of Queen Elizabeth's two companies of players in 1583,[10] was not the same Robert Wilson who was a joint-author, with Munday, Drayton, and Hathway, in the drama on the story of Sir John Oldcastle, imputed to Shakespeare on the authority of some copies printed in 1600.
There are two old editions of "The three Ladies of London," one of them printed in 1584, the text of which we have followed, and the other in 1592, the various readings of which we have noted. Both of them have the initials R.W. on the title-page as those of the writer; but some doubt has been thrown upon the question of authorship, because, at the end of the piece, in both impressions, we read "Finis. Paul Bucke." The fact, however, no doubt is that Paul Bucke who, it has been recently ascertained, was an actor,[11] subscribed the transcript, which about 1584 he had procured for Roger Ward the printer, in order to authenticate it: hence the connection of his name with the production, in the performance of which he may also have had a share, and he may thus have had access to the prompter's book. The Paul Bucke, who in 1578 was the author of a "prayer for Sir Humphrey Gilbert," was in all probability the same individual.[12]