Sivut kuvina
PDF
ePub

"Othello" at Harefield, the company by which it was represented is called "Burbadges Players," that designation arising out of the fact, that he was looked upon as the leader of the association: he was certainly its most celebrated actor, and we find from other sources that he was the representative of "the Moor of Venice ". Whether Shakespeare had any and what part in the tragedy, either then or upon other

10 99

10 On a previous page we have inserted the names of some of the principal characters, in plays of the time, sustained by Burbadge, as they are given in the Epitaph upon his death, in 1619. Our readers may like to see the manner in which these characters are spoken of by the contemporaneous versifier. The production opens with this couplet :

"Some skilful limner help me, if not so,

Some sad tragedian to express my woe;"

which certainly does not promise much in the way of excellence; but the enumeration of parts is all that is valuable, and it is this :

[ocr errors]

"No more young Hamlet, though but scant of breath,

Shall cry, Revenge! for his dear father's death:

Poor Romeo never more shall tears beget

For Juliet's love, and cruel Capulet:

Harry shall not be seen as King or Prince,

They died with thee, dear Dick,

Not to revive again. Jeronimo

Shall cease to mourn his son Horatio.

They cannot call thee from thy naked bed
By horrid outcry; and Antonio's dead.
Edward shall lack a representative;
And Crookback, as befits, shall cease to live.
Tyrant Macbeth, with unwash'd bloody hand,
We vainly now may hope to understand.
Brutus and Marcius henceforth must be dumb,
For ne'er thy like upon our stage shall come,
To charm the faculty of ears and eyes,
Unless we could command the dead to rise.
Vindex is gone, and what a loss was he!
Frankford, Brachiano, and Malevole.
Heart-broke Philaster, and Amintas too,
Are lost for ever, with the red-hair'd Jew,

Which sought the bankrupt Merchant's pound of flesh,
By woman-lawyer caught in his own mesh. ***
And his whole action he would change with ease

From ancient Lear to youthful Pericles.

But let me not forget one chiefest part

Wherein, beyond the rest, he mov'd the heart;

The grieved Moor, made jealous by a slave,

Who sent his wife to fill a timeless grave,

Then slew himself upon the bloody bed.

All these, and many more, with him are dead," &c.

The MS. from which the above lines are copied seems, at least in one place, defective, but it might be cured by the addition of the words, "and not long since." See also Vol. vi. p. 4, for a ballad on Burbadge's Othello.

occasions, is not known; but we do not think any argument, one way or the other, is to be drawn from the fact that the company, when at Harefield, does not seem to have been under his immediate government'. Whether he was or was not one of the "players" in "Othello,” in August 1602, there can be little doubt that as an actor, and moreover as one "excellent in his quality," he must have been often seen and applauded by Elizabeth.

The Queen died on the 24th of March, 1602-3, and many more pens seem to have been employed to congratulate her successor on his arrival than to lament her loss. This circumstance is adverted to in the following street-ballad, printed by T. P. (i. e. Thomas Pavier, who published various plays unduly, if not fraudulently, assigned to Shakespeare) but without date. It is a curiosity, but of no merit, and indeed of no other interest, than that it introduces the names of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and Thomas Greene, as three poets who ought to have occupied themselves in writing funereal tributes upon a Queen, who certainly had given literature, and especially the drama, substantial encouragement. Our readers must pardon the poverty, flatness, and insipidity of the ensuing anonymous verses, as well for the sake of the rarity of the broadside, as for the distinguished names it contains: we give it precisely in the terms in which the only known copy has come down to us.

"A MOURNEFULL DITTIE ENTITULED ELIZABETH'S LOSSE, TOGETHER WITH A WELCOME FOR KING JAMES.

[blocks in formation]

1 In "The Life of Hugh Peters," 1661, the company is called Shakespeare's Players, and Peters is said to have belonged to it in his youth.

"Weepe, wring your hands, all clad in mourning weeds, Shew foorth your loue in tongue, in hart, and deeds. Lament, lament, &c.

"Full foure and fortie yeeres, foure moneths, seauen dayes, She did maintaine this realme in peace alwayes.

Lament, lament, &c.

"In spite of Spaines proud Pope, and all the rout, Who Lyon like ran ranging round about.

Lament, lament, &c.

"With traiterous plots to slay her Royall grace Her realme, her lawes, and gospell to deface. Lament, lament, &c. .

"Yet time and tide God still was her defence, Till for himselfe from vs hee tooke her hence. Lament, lament, &c.

"We neede not to rehearse what care, what griefe She still endured, and all for our reliefe.

Lament, lament, &c.

"We neede not to rehearse what benefits
You all inioyed, what pleasures and what gifts.
Lament, lament, &c.

"You Virgins, all bewayle your Virgin Queene,
That Phenix rare, on earth but sildome seene.
Lament, lament, &c.

"With Angels wings she pearst the starrie skie, When death, grim death, hath shut her mortall eye. Lament, lament, &c.

"You Nimphs that sing, and bathe in Fountaine cleere, Come, lend your helpe to sing in mournefull cheere. Lament, lament, &c.

"All you that do professe sweet musics Art,

Lay all aside your Vyoll, Lute and Harpe.

Lament, lament, &c.

"Mourne Organs, Flutes, mourne Sagbuts with sad sound: Mourne trumpets shrill, mourne cornets mute and round. Lament, lament, &c.

"You poets all, brave Shakspeare, Johnson, Greene, Bestow your time to write for Englands Queene. Lament, lament, &c.

"Returne your Songs and Sonnets, and your Layes, To set foorth sweete Elizabeths praise.

Lament, lament, &c.

"In fine, all you that loyall harts possesse

With Roses sweate bedeck her Princely hearse.
Lament, lament, &c.

"Bedecke that hearse sprong from that famous King, King Henrie the eight, whose fame on earth doth ring. Lament, lament, &c.

"Now is the time that we must all forget
Thy sacred name, oh sweete Elizabeth !
Lament, lament, &c.

"Praying for King James, as earst we prayed for thee,
In all submissive loue and loyaltie.

[blocks in formation]

"And make his raigne more prosperous here on earth,
Then was the raigne of late Elizabeth.

Lament, lament, &c.

"Wherefore, all you that [of] subiects true beare names,
Still pray with me, and say God save King James !
Lament, lament, lament you English Peeres;
Lament your losse enioyd so many yeeres.

FINIS.

"Imprinted at London for T. P."

It is evident that what precedes must have been the work of some of the "goblins and under-elves of poetry," who, according to Henry Chettle's "England's Mourning Garment," had put forth on the occasion "rude rhymes and metres reasonless." This production by one of Shakespeare's dramatic contemporaries (whose name has already been introduced in connexion with R. Greene's "Groatsworth of Wit " and with "Kind-heart's Dream ") contains applauses of nearly all the popular poets of that day, in terms and allusions that cannot be mistaken, calling upon them to celebrate in verse the obsequies of Elizabeth. Chettle appeals in succession, and in the following order, to Daniel, Warner, Chapman, Ben Jonson, Shakespeare, Drayton, Sackville, (at that date Lord Buckhurst) Dekker, and Petowe, who is termed "Hero's last Musæus." It is not necessary to quote these particular addresses, and that to Shakespeare, (which even in 1603 says nothing of his plays, and refers only to one of his poems) we have given on a former page (105). Chettle introduces the whole by a becoming allusion to the recent death of Spenser 2.

2 Spenser's loss is also gracefully lamented by Richard Niccols in a poem, published anonymously in 1603, at the end of a "Funeral Oration " upon the death of Queen Elizabeth: the verses, which, we believe, have never been alluded to, are exceedingly harmonious and elegant, and we subjoin the five last stanzas :—

66

'Upon the altar place your virgin spoils,

VOL. I.

And one by one with comeliness bestow

[Diana's

[CHAP. XIV. James I. reached Theobalds, in his journey from Edinburgh to London, on the 7th May, 1603. Before he quitted his own capital he had had various opportunities of witnessing the performances of English actors; and it is an interesting, but at the same time a difficult question, whether Shakespeare had ever appeared before him, or, in other words, whether our great dramatist had ever visited Scotland? We have certainly no affirmative testimony upon the point, beyond what may be derived from some passages in "Macbeth," descriptive of particular localities, with which passages our readers must be familiar: there is, however, ample room for conjecture; and although, on the whole, we are inclined. to think that he was never north of the Tweed, it is indisputable that the company to which he belonged, or a part of it, had performed in Edinburgh and Aberdeen, and doubtless in some intermediate places. We will briefly state the existing proofs of this fact.

The year 1599 has been commonly supposed the earliest date at which an association of English actors was in Scotland; but it can be shown beyond contradiction that “her Majesty's players," meaning those of Queen Elizabeth, were

Diana's buskins and her hunting toils,

Her empty quiver and her stringless bow.

"Let every virgin offer up a tear,

The richest incense nature can allow,
And at her tomb for ever, year by year,
Pay the oblation of a maiden vow.

"And the tru'st vestal, the most sacred liver,
That ever harbour'd an unspotted spirit,
Retain thy virtues, and thy name for ever

To tell the world thy beauty and thy merit.

"Where's Colin Clout, and Rowland now become,
That wont to lead our shepherds in a ring?
Ah me! the first pale death hath strucken dumb;
The latter none encourageth to sing.

"But I, unskilful, a poor shepherd's lad,

That the high knowledge only do adore,
Would offer more, if I more plenty had;

But, coming short of their abundant store,

"A willing heart, that on thy fame could dwell,
Thus bids Eliza happily farewell."

As Colin Clout was Spenser's, so Rowland was Drayton's pastoral name; but the poem contains no allusion to Shakespeare by any appellation. The authorship of Niccols is ascertained by an autograph ascription on the title-page of a copy of the little 4to. volume in the hands of the editor.

« EdellinenJatka »