THOMAS MIDDLETON. [Born, 1570. Buried, 4th July, 1627?] THE dates of this author's birth and death are both unknown, though his living reputation, as the literary associate of Jonson, Fletcher, Massinger, Dekker, and Rowley, must have been considerable. If Oldys be correct, he was alive after November, 1627. Middleton was appointed chronologer to the city of London† in 1620, and in 1624 was cited before the privy-council, as author of The Game of Chess. The verses of Sir W. Lower, quoted by Oldys, allude to the poet's white locks, so that he was probably born as early as the middle of the sixteenth century.‡ His tragicomedy, "The Witch," according to Mr. Malone, was written anterior to Macbeth, and suggested to Shakspeare the witchcraft scenery in LEANTIO APPROACHING HIS HOME. How near I am now to a happiness That earth exceeds not! not another like it. Able to draw men's envies upon man; LEANTIO'S AGONY FOR THE DESERTION OF HIS WIFE. FROM THE SAME. Leantio, a man of humble fortune, has married a beautiful wife, who is basely seduced by the Duke of Florence. The duke, with refined cruelty, invites them both to a feast, where he lavishes his undisguised admiration on his mistress. The scene displays the feelings of Leantio, restrained by ceremony and fear, under the insulting hospitality, at the conclusion of which he is left alone with Livia, a lady of the court, who has fallen in love with him, and wishes to attach his affections. Leantio. (Without noticing Livia.) O HAST thou left me then, Bianca, utterly? O Bianca, now I miss thee! Oh! return, And save the faith of woman. I ne'er felt The loss of thee till now: 'tis an affliction Of greater weight than youth was made to bear; As if a punishment of after life *MS. notes on Langbaine. [ Or city poet. Jonson and Quarles filled the office after Middleton, which expired with Elkanah Settle, 1723-4.-C.] [The verses in question I believe to be a forgery of Chetwood.-DYCE's Middleton, vol. i. p. xiii.-C.] The songs beginning "Come the latter play. away," &c., and Black Spirits," &c., of which only the first two words are printed in Macbeth, are found in the Witch. Independent of having afforded a hint to Shakspeare, Middleton's reputation cannot be rated highly for the pieces to which his name is exclusively attached. His principal efforts were in comedy, where he deals profusely in grossness and buffoonery. The cheats and debaucheries of the town are his favourite sources of comic intrigue. With a singular effort at the union of the sublime and familiar, he introduces, in one of his coarse drafts of London vice, an infernal spirit prompting a country gentleman to the seduction of a citizen's wife.§ Lean. (Without noticing her.) Canst thou forget The dear pains my love took? how it has watch'd Whole nights together, in all weathers, for thee, Yet stood in heart more merry than the tempest That sung about mine ears,like dangerous flatterers, That can set all their mischiefs to sweet tunes, And then received thee from thy father's window, Into these arms, at midnight; when we embraced As if we had been statues only made for't, To show art's life, so silent were our comforts; And kiss'd as if our lips had grown together. Liv. This makes me madder to enjoy him now. Lean. (Without noticing her.) Canst thou forget all this, and better joys That we met after this, which then new kisses Took pride to praise ? Liv. I shall grow madder yet:-Sir! Lean. (Without noticing her.) This cannot be but of some close bawd's working :Cry mercy, lady! What would you say to me? My sorrow makes me so unmannerly, So comfort bless me, I had quite forgot you. Liv. Nothing, but e'en in pity to that passion Would give your grief good counsel. Lean. Marry, and welcome, lady, It never could come better. Liv. Then first, sir, To make away all your good thoughts at once of her, Know, most assuredly, she is a strumpet. [? Middleton's dramatic works, since this was written, have been collected by Rev. A. Dyce, whose contributions to English literary history are frequently quoted in this volume.-G.] Lean. Ha! most assuredly? Speak not a thing So vile so certainly, leave it more doubtful. Liv. Then I must leave all truth, and spare my knowledge, A sin which I too lately found and wept for. Liv. Ay, with wet eyes. Lean. Oh, perjurious friendship! Liv. You miss'd your fortunes when you met with her, sir. Young gentlemen, that only love for beauty, It brings on want, and want's the key of whoredom. Lean. Oh, not any, lady. [sir, Liv. Alas, poor gentleman! what mean'st thou, Quite to undo thyself with thine own kind heart? Thou art too good and pitiful to woman: Marry, sir, thank thy stars for this bless'd fortune, That rids the summer of thy youth so well From many beggars, that had lain a sunning In thy beams only else, till thou hadst wasted The whole days of thy life in heat and labour. What would you say now to a creature found As pitiful to you, and as it were E'en sent on purpose from the whole sex general, To requite all that kindness you have shown to't? Lean. What's that, madam? Liv. Nay, a gentlewoman, and one able To reward good things; ay, and bears a conscience to❜t: Couldst thou love such a one,that (blow all fortunes) Would never see thee want? Nay more, maintain thee to thine enemy's envy, And shalt not spend a care for't, stir a thought, Nor break a sleep? unless love's music waked thee, Nor storm of fortune should: look upon me, And know that woman. Lean. Oh, my life's wealth, Bianca! [out? Liv. Still with her name? will nothing wear it Where's my discretion now, my skill,my judgment? As a fair woman's body from his palace. SCENE FROM "THE ROARING GIRL." Mrs. Gallipot, the apothecary's wife, having received a letter from her friend Laxton that he is in want of money, thus bethinks her how to raise it. ALAS, poor gentleman! troth, I pity him. I know his 3's too well. My childbed linen, Mrs. G. Oh! he-he's born to be my undoer! I was to thee contracted, to him I swore. Mrs. G. So black a day, poor wretch, went o'er thee never. Mr. G. If thou shouldst wrestle with him at the law, Thou'rt sure to fall; no odd slight, no prevention. I'll tell him th' art with child. Mrs. G. Umph. Mr. G. Or give out, that one of my men was ta'en abed with thee. Mrs. G. Worse and worse still; You embrace a mischief to prevent an ill. Mr. G. I'll buy thee of him-stop his mouth with gold Think'st thou 'twill do? Mrs. G. Oh me! heavens grant it would! Yet now my senses are set more in tune; He writ, as I remember in his letter, That he, in riding up and down, had spent, Ere he could find me, thirty pound.-Send that; Stand not on thirty with him. Mr. G. Forty, Prue-say thou the word 'tis done. Of an ill bargain let's save what we can; FATHERS COMPARING SONS. BENEFIT OF IMPRISONMENT TO A WILD YOUTH. FROM THE SAME. Persons.-SIR DAVY DAPPER, SIR ALEX. WENGRAVE, and SIR ADAM APPLETON. Sir Dav. My son Jack Dapper, then, shall run All in one pasture. [with him, Sir Alex. Proves your son bad too, sir? [tian Sir Dav. As villany can make him : your SebasDotes but on one drab, mine on a thousand. A noise of fiddlers, tobacco, wine, and a A mercer, that will let him take up moreDice, and a water-spaniel with a duck.—Oh, Bring him a bed with these when his purse gingles Roaring boys follow at his tail, fencers and ningles, (Beasts Adam ne'er gave name to ;) these horseleeches suck My son, till he being drawn dry, they all live on Sir Alex. Tobacco ? [smoke. Sir Dav. Right sir; but I have in my brain That's set to catch this woodcock in-An action, [him? Sir Dav. Think you the Counter cannot break Sir Alex. Break him? yes, and break his heart too, if he lie there long. Sir Dav. I'll make him sing a counter-tenor, sure. Sir Alex. No way to tame him like it: there shall he learn What money is indeed, and how to spend it. Sir Alex. Ay, yet knows not how to mend it. So does a prisoner; with fine honied speech .... To lie in a clean chamber.. To make the keepers trust him. Sir Adam. Say they do. Sir Alex. Then is he held a freshman and a sot, Sir Dav. These gallants study hard. Sir Dav. Lies by the heels, i'faith! thanksthanks-I ha' sent For a couple of bears shall paw him. DEVOTION TO LOVE. FROM THE PLAY OF "BLURT, MASTER-CONSTABLE.” The leaves of the spring's sweetest book, the rose. Burns out the day in idle fantasies; To keep quick time unto the owl, whose voice INDIGNATION AT THE SALE OF A WIFE'S HONOUR. FROM "THE PHOENIX." Of all the deeds yet this strikes the deepest wound Reverend and honourable matrimony, All the whole world were soiled bastardy: ... But, if chaste and honest, There is another devil that haunts marriage, (None fondly loves but knows it,) jealousy, That wedlock's yellow sickness, That whispering separation every minute, LAW. FROM THE SAME. THOU angel sent amongst us, sober Law, Save only to be heard, but not to rail- This is true justice, exercised and used; To send a man without a sheet to his grave, "Tis not their mind it should be, nor to have CHARLES FITZGEFFREY, [Died, 1636.] CHARLES FITZGEFFREY was rector of the parish of St. Dominic, in Cornwall. TO POSTERITY. FROM ENGLAND'S PARNASSUS. 1600. DAUGHTER of Time, sincere Posterity, Yet changeable (like Proteus) on the earth, Sometime in plenty, sometime join'd with dearth: Always to come, yet always present here, Whom all run after, none come after near. Unpartial judge of all, save present state, Truth's idioma of the things are past, But still pursuing present things with hate, And more injurious at the first than last, Preserving others, while thine own do waste; True treasurer of all antiquity, Whom all desire, yet never one could see. FROM FITZGEFFREY'S LIFE OF SIR FRANCIS Look how the industrious bee in fragrant May, And then the mint, and then the rose doth climb, RICHARD NICCOLS. [Died, 1584.] THE plan of the Mirror for Magistrates, begun by Ferrers and Sackville, was followed up by Churchyard, Phayer, Higgins, Drayton, and many others. The last contributor of any note was Niccols, in 1610, in his Winter Night's Vision. Niccols was the author of the "Cuckow," written FROM THE LEGEND OF ROBERT DUKE OF Robert, Duke of Normandy, eldest son of William the Conqueror, on his return from the Crusades was imprisoned by Henry I. in Cardiff Castle. He thus describes a walk with his keeper, previous to his eyes being put out. As bird in cage debarr'd the use of wings, Where as a prisoner though I did remain; When I did please I to and fro might go, Thereby to ease me of my captive care, And solace my sad thoughts in th' open air. Wand'ring through forest wide, at length we gain A steep cloud-kissing rock, whose horned crown With proud imperial look beholds the main, Where Severn's dangerous waves run rolling down, From th' Holmes into the seas, by Cardiff town, Whose quick-devouring sands so dangerous been To those that wander Amphitrite's green : As there we stood, the country round we eyed To view the workmanship of nature's hand, There stood a mountain, from whose weeping side in imitation of Drayton's "Owl," and several poems of temporary popularity, and of a drama, entitled The Twynne's Tragedy. He was a Londoner, and having studied (says Wood) at Oxford, obtained some employment worthy of his faculties; but of what kind, we are left to conjecture. A brook breaks forth into the low-lying land, And there in shade a shepherd with his flock. The redbreast, who in bush fast by did stand Which made me think upon my summer past |