Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

fore, remain in doubt, as I am not aware of the existence of any testimony, direct or indirect, upon the point, unless it arose out of the manner in which the children of Paul's had brought Martin Marprelate on their stage in 1589, as before mentioned. In his Have with you to Saffron Waldon,' 1596, Nash states that the interdict had not then been taken off, for he expresses a wish to see the plays at Pauls up again.' It had been removed prior to 1600, because a piece called The Maids Metamorphosis,' attributed to Lyly, was 'acted by the Children of Powles' and printed in that year. In 'Jack Drum's Entertainment,' first published in 1601, the following dialogue occurs respecting their audiences and their plays.

'hereafter come will not, I hope, impute these abuses to any trans'gression in us, who have ever been careful and provident to shun the like.'

We are to recollect, that at the time when Hamlet was first produced (perhaps late in 1602, or early in 1603), the children of the Revels performed, as an independent and rival body, at the Blackfriars Theatre, as well as the full-grown company to which Shakespeare belonged; and I entertain little doubt, that the poet meant his attack for the children of the Revels, and not for the children of Paul's. Malone says, 'our author cannot be supposed to direct any satire at 'those young men who played occasionally at his own theatre:' why not? especially if they were more 'the fashion,' 'berattled the common stages,' and attracted larger audiences.

The 4to of 1603, in the Collection of the Duke of Devonshire, and which, I think, was demonstrably published in haste from a short-hand copy, taken from the mouths of the players, was not discovered when Malone fixed the date of the production of Hamlet in 1600.

Sir Edw. Fortune. I saw the children of Powles last

'night,

'And, troth, they pleas'd me pretty, pretty well:

'The apes in time will do it handsomely.

'Planet. I'faith, I like the audience that frequenteth 'there,

'With much applause. A man shall not be choked
With the stench of garlick, nor be pasted
'To the barmy jacket of a beer brewer.

[ocr errors]

Brabant, Jun. 'Tis a good gentle audience, and I 'hope the boys

Will come one day into the Court of Requests.

'Brabant, Sen. Aye; and they had good plays, but 'they produce

Such musty fopperies of antiquity,

And do not suit the humorous age's back

"With clothes in fashion.'

Hence we may infer that the performance by the children of Paul's had not long recommenced, because it is remarked that they wanted practice- the apes in time will do it handsomely:'-they, perhaps, acted before 1601, chiefly musty fopperies of antiquity,' because, during their long silence, they had not been able to furnish themselves with pieces, that would 'suit the humorous age's back with clothes in fashion.' Marston, Dekker, and others, soon provided them with more modern and more attractive plays, and the 'Antonio and Mellida' of the first, and the 'Satiromastix' of the last, were acted in, or before 1602. The conclusion, from all the existing evidence, seems to be, that the interdiction was imposed about 1589 or 1590, and withdrawn about 1600. When, in the

preceding quotation, Brabant, junior, expresses a hope that the boys of Paul's will come one day into the Court of Requests,' he means, that they will again be in request for performances at court, as they formerly had been.

[ocr errors]

In 1591, Queen Elizabeth paid a visit to Lord Burghley, at Theobalds, where, it seems, she was received with much solemnity, although the Lord Treasurer did not himself make his appearance to welcome her. In March, 1587, he had lost his mother at a very advanced age, and in April, 1589, his wife, to whom he was deeply attached, died: in the interval, also, his daughter, Lady Oxford, had expired, so that in 1591, depressed by these misfortunes, he had resolved to retire from public life, and the visit of the Queen was, perhaps, intended to revive his spirits, and to recall him to her active service. Mr. Nichols, in his Progresses,' under this date, relates all that was known upon this point, and without being able to explain it, inserts from Strype a sort of mock writ or summons, directed to Sir Christopher Hatton, the object of which was, by a little official playfulness, to withdraw Lord Burghley from his seclusion in that document he is spoken of as a Hermit; and it seems clear, that since the death of his wife, two years and some months anterior, he had quitted his noble mansion in disgust, and, making only occasional visits to court, had resided in some obscure cottage in the neighbourhood of Theobalds.

:

A MS. poem, in blank verse, has fallen into my hands, which serves to explain the whole proceeding: it is a speech supposed to be delivered by a Hermit to the Queen, on her first arrival at Theobalds, the purpose of which was to excuse the absence of Lord Burghley, by stating that he had taken up his abode in the cell belonging to the Hermit, in consequence of his grief, and had enjoined the Hermit to do the honours of the house in his stead. Robert Cecill, knighted just afterwards, was the person who pronounced the speech, and he referred to it when the Queen again came to Theobalds in 1594. It was written by a poet no less distinguished than George Peele, who was employed by Lord Burghley's son to aid the scheme; for the mock writ, before mentioned, which puzzled Strype, and as he says, defied commentary, is besought by the individual in the disguise of a Hermit. The whole piece is in the poet's handwriting, and his initials, G. P., are subscribed at the end. It refers to other points (among them, to the defeat of the Spanish Armada) which will be easily understood by those who are at all acquainted with the public and private history of the times:

* The circumstance of his having been employed, and successfully, on this occasion, may have emboldened Peele, in 1596, to make a charitable appeal to Lord Burghley, when in extreme poverty he sent to his lordship the 'Tale of Troy.' See a fac-simile of Peele's letter, from Lansdown MS., No. 99, in the 2d edition of 'Peele's Works,' by the Rev. A. Dyce. That letter is in the Italian hand, then most fashionable, but Peele also wrote the common English hand: the body of this poem is in the latter, and some corrections in the former.

however interesting, as it would occupy too much space in the text, I have subjoined the whole of this production in a note *.

*It has no title nor introduction, but commences thus:

'My soverayn Lady, & most gratious Queene,

'Be not displeased, that won [one] so meanly clad
'Presumes to stand thus bowldly in the way

That leades into this howse, accownted yours:
'But myld, and full of pytty as you ar,
'Hear & respect my lamentable tale.

'I am a hermitt that this x yeares space
'Have led a sollytarye & retyred lyfe,
'Hear in my cell, not past a furlonge hence,
'Tyll by my fownder, he that buylt this howse,
'Forgettfull of his wryghttynge & his woord,
'Full sore agaynst my wyll I was removed;
'For he, oretaken with excessive greefe,
'Betooke hym to my sylly hermytage,

[ocr errors]

And there hath lyued two yeeres & som few monethes,

'By reason of these most bitter accidents.

As, fyrst of all, his aged Mother's deathe

'Who lyved a fyfte, & saw her fower discents
"Of those that linneally have sproong from her :
'His daughters deathe, a countess of this land,
'Lost in the pryme & mornynge of her yowthe;
And last of all his deare & loveinge wyfe.
"These broght him to this solitary aboade,
Wher now he keepes, & hath injoyned me
'To govern this his howse & famely:
'A place unfitt for on [one] of my professyne;
'And therfore have I ofte desyred with teares,
'That I myght be restored to my cell,
'Becawse I vowed a lyfe contemplatyve:
'But all in vayn; for though to serve your Matie
'He often quyttes the place & coms to cowrte,
'Yett thether he repayres, & ther wyll lyve.
'Which I perceavyng, sought by holly prayers
'To chaynge his mind, & eas my troubled cares;
'Then haveinge many dayes with sacred rytes
'Prepard my selfe to entertayn good thoughts,

« AnteriorContinuar »