H́nh ảnh trang
PDF
ePub

King's fervants.* This circumftance alone, in my opinion, might almost decide the queftion.

This much appears on the firft fuperficial view of these pieces; but the paffage quoted by Mr. Tyrwhitt from an old pamphlet, entitled Greene's Groatsworth of Witte, &c. affords a still more decifive fupport to the hypothefis that I am endeavouring to maintain; which, indeed, that pamphlet first suggested to me. As this paffage is the chief hinge of my argument, though it has already been printed in a preceding page, it is neceffary to lay it again before the reader.-"Yes," fays the writer, Robert Greene, (addreffing himself, as Mr. Tyrwhitt conjectures with great probability, to his poetical friend, George Peele,)" trust them [the players] not; for there is an upstart crowe BEAUTIFIED WITH OUR FEATHERS, that with his tygres heart wrapt in a player's hide fupposes hee is as well able to bombaste out a blank verfe as the best of you; and being an abfolute Johannes fac totum, is, in his own conceit, the only Shake-fcene in a country."- "O tyger's heart, wrapt in a woman's hide!" is a line of the old quarto play, entitled The first Part of the Contention of the two Houfes, &c.

That Shakspeare was here alluded to, cannot, I think, be doubted. But what does the writer mean by calling him " a crow beautified with our feathers ?" My folution is, that GREENE and PEELE were the joint authors of the two quarto plays, entitled The first Part of the Contention of the Two famous Houfes of Yorke and Lancaster, &c. and The true Tragedie of Richarde Duke of Yorke, &c. or that Greene was the author of one, and Peele of the other. Greene's pamphlet, from whence the foregoing paffage is extracted, was written recently before his death, which happened in September, 1592. How long he and Peele had been dramatick writers, is not precifely afcertained. Peele took the degree of Master of Arts at Oxford, in 1579: Greene took the fame degree in Cambridge, in 1583. Each of them has left four or five plays, and they wrote feveral others, which have not been published. The earliest of Peele's printed pieces, The Arraignment of Paris, appeared in 1584; and one of Greene's pamphlets was printed in 1583. Between that year and 1591 it is highly probable that the two plays in question were written. I fufpect they were produced in 1588 or 1589. We have undoubted proofs that Shakspeare was not above working on the materials of other His Taming of the Shrew, his King John, and other

men.

* The first edition of Romeo and Juliet, 1597, is faid in its title-page to have been acted "By the right honourable the L. of Hunfdon his fervants." STEEVENS.

plays, render any arguments on that point unneceffary. Having therefore, probably not long before the year 1592, when Greene wrote his Dying Exhortation to a Friend, new-modelled and amplified these two pieces, and produced on the stage what, in the folio edition of his works, are called The Second and Third Parts of King Henry VI. and having acquired confiderable reputation by them, Greene could not conceal the mortification that he felt at his own fame and that of his affociate, both of them old and admired play-wrights, being eclipsed by a new upstart writer, (for fo he calls our great poet,) who had then firft, perhaps, attracted the notice of the publick by exhibiting two plays, formed upon old dramas written by them, confiderably enlarged and improved. He therefore, in direct terms, charges him with having acted like the crow in the fable, beautified himself with their feathers; in other words, with having acquired fame furtivis coloribus, by new-modelling a work originally produced by them and wifhing to depreciate our author, he very naturally quotes a line from one of the pieces which Shakspeare had thus re-written; a proceeding which the authors of the original plays confidered as an invafion both of their literary property and character. This line, with many others, Shakspeare adopted without any alteration. The very term that Greene ufes-" to bombaft out a blank verse," exactly correfponds with what has been now fuggefted. This new poet, fays he, knows as well as any man how to amplify and fwell out a blank verfe. Bumbaft was a foft stuff of a loose texture, by which garments were rendered more swelling and protuberant.

:

[ocr errors]

Several years after the death of Boiardo, Francesco Berni undertook to new-verfify Boiardo's poem, entitled ORLANDO INNAMORATO. "Berni (as Baretti obferves) was not fatisfied with merely making the verfification of that poem better; he interfperfed it with many ftanzas of his own, and changed almost all the beginnings of the cantos, introducing each of them with fome moral reflection arifing from the canto foregoing." What Berni did to Boiardo's poem after the death of its author, and more, I fuppofe Shakspeare to have done to The First Part of the Contention of the Two Houses of Yorke and Lancaster, &c. and The true Tragedie of Richarde Duke of Yorke, &c. in the life time of Greene and Peele, their literary parents; and this Rifacimento (as the Italians call it) of thefe two plays I fuppofe to have been executed by Shakspeare, and exhibited at the Globe or Blackfriars theatre, in the year 1591.

He

I have faid Shakspeare did what Berni did, and more. did not content himself with writing new beginnings to the acts;

he new-verfified, he new-modelled, he tranfpofed many of the parts, and greatly amplified and improved the whole. Several lines, however, and even whole fpeeches which he thought fufficiently polished, he accepted, and introduced into his own work, without any, or with very flight, alterations.

In the prefent edition, all thofe lines which he adopted without any alteration, are printed in the usual manner; thofe fpeeches which he altered or expanded, are diftinguitbed by inverted commas ; and to all the lines entirely compofed by himself, afterisks are prefixed. The total number of lines in our author's Second and Third Part of King Henry VI. is Six THOUSAND AND FORTY-THREE: of thefe, as I conceive, 1771 lines were written by fome author who preceded Shakspeare; 2373 were formed by him on the foundation laid by his predecessors; and 1899 lines were entirely his own compofition.

That the reader may have the whole of the subject before him, I fhall here transcribe the fourth scene of the fourth A&t of The Third Part of King Henry VI. (which happens to be a fhort one,) together with the corresponding scene in the original play; and also a speech of Queen Margaret, in the fifth A&, with the original speech on which it is formed. The firft fpecimen will ferve to fhow the method taken by Shakspeare, where he only new-polished the language of the old play, rejecting fome part of the dialogue, and making fome flight additions to the part which he retained; the second is a striking proof of his facility and vigour of compofition, which has happily expanded a thought comprized originally in a very short speech, into thirtyseven lines, none of which appear feeble or fuperfluous.

THE TRUE TRAGEDIE OF RICHARDE DUKE OF YORKE, &c. Sign. F. 4. edit. 1600.

Enter the Queene, and the Lord Rivers.

Riv. Tell me, good madam,

Why is your grace fo paffionate of late.

Queene. Why, brother Rivers, heare you not the news

Of that success king Edward had of late?

Riv. What? loffe of fome pitcht battaile against Warwick? Tufh; fear not, fair queen, but caft these cares afide. King Edwards noble minde his honours doth display; And Warwicke may lose, though then he got the day. Queene. If that were all, my griefes were at an end;

But greater troubles will, I feare, befall.

Riv. What is he taken prifoner by the foe, To the danger of his royal perfon then?

Queene. I, there's my griefe; king Edward is furprifde, And led away as prifoner unto Yorke.

Riv. The newes is paffing ftrange, I must confeffe ; Yet comfort yourselfe, for Edward hath more friends Than Lancaster at this time muft perceive,

That some will fet him in his throne againe.

Queene. God grant they may! but gentle brother, come, And let me leane upon thine arm a while,

Until I come unto the fanctuarie;

There to preserve the fruit within my womb,

King Edwards feed, true heir to Englands crowne.

[Exeunt.

KING HENRY VI. PART III. ACT IV. SCENE IV.

Enter the QUEEN and RIVERS.

Riv. Madam, what makes you in this fudden change?
Queen. Why, brother Rivers, are you yet to learn,
What late misfortune is befall'n king Edward?

Riv. What, lofs of fome pitch'd battle against Warwick?
Queen. No, but the lofs of his own royal person.
Riv. Then is my fovereign flain?

Queen. Ay, almoft flain, for he is taken prisoner;
Either betray'd by falfhood of his guard,
Or by his foe furpriz'd at unawares:
And, as I further have to understand,

Is new committed to the bishop of York,

Fell Warwick's brother, and by that our foe.

Riv. These news, I must confefs, are full of grief:

Yet, gracious madam, bear it as you may ;

Warwick may lofe, that now hath won the day.
Queen. Till then, fair hope muft hinder life's decay.
And I the rather wean me from despair,

For love of Edward's offspring in my
This is it that makes me bridle paffion,

womb :

And bear with mildness my misfortune's crofs;
Ay, ay, for this I draw in many a tear,
And ftop the rifing of blood-fucking fighs,

Left with my fighs or tears I blast or drown

King Edward's fruit, true heir to the English crown.
Riv. But, madam, where is Warwick then become?
Queen. I am informed, that he comes towards London
To fet the crown once more on Henry's head:
Guefs thou the reft; king Edward's friends must down.
But, to prevent the tyrant's violence,

(For truft not him that once hath broken faith,)

I'll hence forthwith unto the fanctuary,
To fave at least the heir of Edward's right;
There fhall I reft fecure from force, and fraud,
Come therefore, let us fly, while we may fly;
If Warwick take us, we are fure to die.

[Exeunt.

THE TRUE TRAGEDIE OF RICHARDE DUKE OF Yorke, &c. Sign. G. 4. edit. 1600.

.

C.

Enter the Queene, Prince Edward, Oxford, Somerset, with drumme and fouldiers.

Queen. Welcome to England, my loving friends of France; And welcome Somerset and Oxford too.

Once more have we spread our failes abroad;
And though our tackling be almost confumde,
And Warwicke as our main-mast overthrowne,
Yet, warlike lordes, raise you that sturdie poft,
That bears the failes to bring us unto rest;
And Ned and I, as willing pilots fhould,
For once with careful mindes guide on the fterne,
To bear us thorough that dangerous gulfe,
That heretofore hath swallowed up our friendes.

KING HENRY VI. PART III. ACT V. SCENE IV.

March. Enter Queen MARGARET, Prince EDWARD,
SOMERSET, OXFORD, and Soldiers.

Q. Mar. Great lords, wife men ne'er fit and wail their lofs, But cheerly feek how to redress their harms.

What though the maft be now blown over-board,

The cable broke, the holding anchor loft,

And half our failors fwallow'd in the flood?

Yet lives our pilot ftill: Is't meet, that he
Should leave the helm, and, like a fearful lad,
With tearful eyes add water to the fea,

And give more ftrength to that which hath too much;
Whiles, in his moan, the ship splits on the rock,
Which industry and courage might have fav'd?
Ah, what a fhame! ah, what a fault were this!
Say, Warwick was our anchor; What of that?
And Montague our top-maft; What of him?
Our flaughter'd friends the tackles; What of these ?
Why, is not Oxford here another anchor ?

[blocks in formation]
« TrướcTiếp tục »