4. A Funerall Poeme upon the Death of the most worthie and true Souldier, Sir Francis Vere, Knight, Captaine of Portsmouth, Lord Governor of His Majestie's Cautionarie Towne of Briell, in Holland. 1609. 5. A Griefe on the Death of Prince Henrie. Expressed in a broken Elegie according to the nature of such a sorrow. 66 Besides the plays above named, Tourneur was concerned in other dramatic productions, which are either anonymous or have been lost; he is thus mentioned by Robert Daborne, in a letter to Henslowe dated 5th June, 1613: "I have not only laboured my own play, which shall be ready before they (the company) come over, but given Cyril Tourneur an act of the Arraignment of London to write, that we may have that likewise ready for them." Of The Revenger's Tragedy Mr. Lamb thus writes: The reality and life of the dialogue, in which Vindici and Hippolito first tempt their mother, and then threaten her with death for consenting to the dishonour of their sister, passes any scenical illusion I ever felt. I never read it but my ears tingle, and I feel a hot blush overspread my cheeks, as if I were presently about to proclaim such malefactions of myself as the brothers here rebuke in their unnatural parent, in words more keen and dagger-like than those which Hamlet speaks to his mother. Such power has the passion of shame, truly represented, not only to strike guilty creatures unto the soul, but to 'appal' even those that are free.”* ROBERT DABORNE. Robert Daborne, a gentleman of liberal education, master of arts, and in holy orders, is the author of two plays,-The Christian turned Turk (1612) and The Poor Man's Comfort (1655). His humble fortunes appear to have improved in his later days; for there is extant a sermon preached by him at Waterford, in Ireland, where he had a living. NATHANIEL FIELD. Nathaniel Field, a distinguished member of Henslowe's company of comedians,—for Henslowe actually consented to give him six shillings a week out of his own receipts, in addition to Field's dividend as a sharer-a concession which the old curmudgeon would never * Specimens of English Dramatic Poets. Moxon. 66 have made had he not found Field a very profitable associate,- -was also, like many of his fellow-actors, a purveyor for the stage. We have of his own writing two plays; Woman is a Weathercock, written before 1610, and the preface to which (it was published in 1612), addressed "to any woman that hath been no weathercock," lets us into a secret of the authorship of that period: "I did determine not to have dedicated my play to anybody; because forty shillings I care not for, and above, fewe or none will bestowe on these matters." As Collier remarks, the usual price of a play at this time being 127., the fee of 21. for a dedication seems a very high charge. Amends for Ladies, a second part of Woman is a Weathercock, acted before 1611. Both these plays have been reprinted by Mr. Collier, who felt that, considering the celebrity which Nat. Field had of late acquired in consequence of his connection with Massinger in writing the Fatal Dowry, it was very desirable that the two plays, in which he was unaided by any contemporary dramatist, should be brought within the reach of the reading public, if only to assist the formation of a judgment as to the probable degree of Massinger's obligation. Mr. Collier adds, that both plays are the productions of no ordinary poet; in comic scenes Field excels Massinger, who was not remarkable for his success in this department of the drama; and in those of a serious character he may be frequently placed on a footing of equality." In one matter the two were certainly on an equality-in misfortune. We have a letter from Field, Massinger, and Daborne, entreating, with humiliating piteousness, a small loan from skinflint Henslowe to save them from imprisonment. In 1601 Field, as one of the Children of Queen Elizabeth's Revels, played in the Poetaster; and in 1608, still on the same establishment, he appeared in Epicene. In 1614 Ben Jonson couples him histrionically with Burbage, and speaks of him as "the best actor" of the day. He belonged to the Blackfriars' company; and having, as we see in the Dulwich Gallery portraits, a rather feminine look, undertook, early in his career, female parts, which he afterwards abandoned, and obtained much celebrity as the hero of Chapman's Bussy d'Ambois; in the prologue to the edition of 1641, he is mentioned as the player "whose action first did give it name.' It has been supposed that he died before 1641; because in the prologue just cited it is asserted, "Field is gone," though Mr. Collier suggests that this expression may merely mean that he had then quitted the profession of the stage. However this may have been, we know nothing further about him after that period. PHILIP MASSINGER. (1584-1640.) Philip Massinger, the son of a gentleman attached to the household of Henry Earl of Pembroke, was born at Salisbury in 1584, and educated at Wilton, the Wiltshire seat of the Pembroke family. In 1602 he became (May 14) a commoner of St. Alban's Hall, Oxford, where he applied himself to study with uncommon energy, his literary acquisitions at this time manifesting themselves multifarious and extensive. The completion of his academical course was, however, prevented ere he had obtained a degree, by the death of his father in 1606, which, closing the supplies which had hitherto maintained him at college, compelled him to withdraw from Oxford, and to seek a livelihood in London. There has been much speculation why the Earl of Pembroke, the father's patron, did not extend his protection and support to the bereaved son; Mr. Gifford' plausibly accounts for the circumstance by the suggestion, that Philip Massinger having, as he conjectures, changed at college the religion of his father and his father's patron for Roman Catholicism, at that time the object of persecution, hatred, and terror, did not apply to the earl for assistance, or, at all events, did not obtain it. However this may have been, the period of Massinger's misfortunes commenced with his arrival in London. His father had probably applied most of his property to his education; and when the small remainder was exhausted, he was driven (as he more than once observes) by his necessities, and somewhat inclined perhaps by the peculiar bent of his talents, to dedicate himself to the service of the stage. This expedient, writes Mr. Gifford, though not the most prudent, nor indeed the most encouraging, to a young adventurer, was not hopeless. Men who will ever be considered the pride and boast of their country, Shakespeare, Jonson, Fletcher, were solely, or in a considerable degree, dependent on it; nor were there wanting others of an inferior rank, such as Rowley, Middleton, Chapman, Field, Dekker, Shirley, &c., writers to whom Massinger, without any impeachment of his modesty, might consider himself as fully equal, who subsisted on the emoluments derived from dramatic writing. There was also something to tempt the ambition, or, if it must be so, the vanity of a young adventurer in this pursuit. Literature was the sole means by which a person undistinguished by birth or fortune could at this time hope to acquire the familiarity or secure the friendship of the great; and of all its branches none was so favourably received, or so liberally encouraged, as that of the drama. Tilts and tournaments, the boisterous but magnificent entertainments of the court, together with pageantries and processions, the absurd and costly mummeries of the city, were rapidly giving way to more elegant and rational amusements, to revels, masques, and plays; nor were the latter merely encouraged by the presence of the nobility; the writers of them were adopted into the number of their acquaintance, and made at once the objects of their bounty and their esteem. It is gratifying to observe how the names of Jonson, Shakspeare, &c. have come to us in connection with the Sidneys, the Pembrokes, the Southamptons, and other great and splendid ornaments of the courts of Elizabeth and James. Considerations of this kind may naturally be supposed to have had their weight with Massinger, as with so many others; but whatever was his motive, Wood informs us, that "being sufficiently formed for several specimens of wit, he betook himself to making `plays." Of what description these specimens were, Anthony does not say; he probably spoke without much examination into a subject for which he had little relish or solicitude; and, indeed, it seems more reasonable to conclude, from the peculiar nature of Massinger's talents, that the drama was his first and sole pursuit. It must appear singular, after what has been observed, that, with only one exception, we should hear nothing of Massinger for the long period of sixteen years, that is, from his first appearance in London, in 1606, to 1622, when his Virgin Martyr, the first of his printed works, was given to the public. That his necessities would not admit of relaxation in his efforts for subsistence is certain; and we have the testimony of a contemporary poet, as preserved by Langbaine, for the rapidity with which he usually composed: "Ingenious Shakespeare, Massinger that knows The strength of plot, to write in verse and prose; Some threescore miles of fancy in an hour." The best solution of the difficulty would seem to be, that the poet's modesty, combined with the urgency of his wants, deterred him, at first, from attempting to write alone; and that he therefore lent his assistance to others of a more confirmed reputation, who could depend on a ready market for their joint productions. When men labour for the demands of the day, it is imprudent to leave much to hazard, and such certainly was the case with Massinger. There is among other proof that he wrote in conjunction with Fletcher, for example, the mournful testimony of the following letter to Henslowe, dragged by Mr. Malone's assiduity from the dust of Dulwich College: "To our most loving friend, Mr. Philip Hinchlow, Esquire, these. "Mr. Hinchlow, You understand our unfortunate extremitie, and I do not thincke you so void of Christianitie but that you would throw so much money into the Thames as wee request now of you, rather than endanger so many innocent lives. You know there is xl. more at least to be received of you for the play. We desire you to lend us vl. of that, which shall be allowed to you; without which we cannot be bayled, nor I play any more till this be dispatch'd. It will lose you xxl. ere the end of the next week, besides the hinderance of the next new play. Pray, sir, consider our cases with humanity, and now give us cause to acknowledge you our true friend in time of neede. Wee have entreated Mr. Danson to deliver this note, as well as to witness your lowe, as our promises, and alwayes acknowledgment to be ever "Your most thanckfull and loving friends, "The money shall be abated, remayns for the play of Mr. Fletcher "ROBERT DABORNE." and ours. "I have ever found you a true loving friend to mee; and in soe small a suite, it beinge honest, I hope you will not fail us. Indorsed. "PHILIP MASSINGER." "Received by mee, Robert Danson, of Mr. Hinchlow, for the use of Mr. Deboerne, Mr. Feeld, Mr. Messenger, the sum of vl. "ROB. DANSON." This letter tripartite, which it is impossible to read without tears at the distress of such men, fully establishes the partnership between Massinger and Fletcher, who must, indeed, have had considerable assistance to enable him to bring forward the numerous plays attributed to his name. We can thus account for a part of the time which Massinger spent in London before his appearance in print as a professed writer for the stage. But this is not all. Among the manuscript plays collected with much care by Mr. Warburton, and applied with much perseverance by his cook to the covering of her pies, were no fewer than twelve, said to have been written by Massinger ;* and * 1. Minerva's Sacrifice. 2. The Forced Lady. 3. Antonio and Valia. 4. The Woman's Plot. 5. The Tyrant. 6. Philenzo and Hippolita. 7. The Judge. 8. Fast and Welcome. 9. Believe as you list. 10. The Honour of Women. 11. The Noble Choice. 12. The Parliament of Love. |
