translation, for the purpose of attracting more attention to it. It certainly does not read like a translation in many places, and it is quite certain that a passage like the following, which speaks of a dance, named after that national hero, Robin Hood, and his mistress, could not be rendered from the original "The minstrell he was called in, some pretty jest to play: And he would very fayne have daunst This mention of Robin Hood and Malkin, as a popular dance of the time, played by an itinerant minstrel, is curious, and we hear of it on no other authority. At the same time, it is not impossible that Drout here paraphrased the Italian; and it is to be admitted that in the course of his story he employs some anglicised Italian words: one of these is "oselly," which, without precedent, he uses for eyes, and which is obviously from ocelli. The whole narrative, with some occasional variations, is in verse, like the above quotation, of fourteen-syllable couplets, divided into a ballad-metre of eight syllables in one line, and six in the next. The incidents relate to the adventures of two friends, who, after long separation, come together in a foreign country unexpectedly: one being supposed guilty of a murder, the other wishes to suffer in his stead, but both are acquitted, on the open and remorseful confession of the real assassin, who stood by during the trial. Then, to make amends for their sufferings, they are invited by the Governor of the place to a ball, where both fall in love with Charina, the Governor's daughter: here ensues a severe struggle between friendship and affection, but the former is triumphant, in consequence of which the lady and both her lovers commit suicide, and, in the end, not a single person connected with the story is left alive. But that Drout does not seem capable of humour, some parts of his poem read almost as if they were intended, not to imitate, but to burlesque, productions of the class to which it belongs. We give part of a letter from Barnardo to Charina, the heroine, as a specimen of the author's best manner: "My lady deare, in whome as you shall thinke it best : See how thy fyery flame of love I live, and yet doe dayly dye, I follow death; yea, death himselfe to shewe my pyning wo, My silly senses disagree, eche one I should do so, That they myght take theyr rest, as they haue done before, For that my sorrowes still begin, and vexe mee more and more. I sigh as doth a wounded deere into a place alone; Where as I do on fansies feede, One peculiarity about this poem deserves especial notice, because I am not aware that it belongs to any other production of a similar description. It is a narrative, but still a sort of dramatic character is given to it by the circumstance, that, in order to save explanation as to who are the speakers, when any one of the persons addresses another, prefixes are employed exactly as in a play: instead of having “quoth Bernardo," or "quoth Gaulfrido," or "quoth the Host," we have Barn., Galf., and Host., inserted in the margin, to indicate where their several harangues begin. Thus the poem is at once narrative and dramatic, a mode of writing unlike either Arthur Broke's "Romeus and Juliet" of 1562, Peter Beverley's "Ariodanto and Jeneura," printed about 1568, or Bernard Garter's "Tragicall and true Historie which happened betwene two English Lovers," 1565, which last was evidently the more immediate prototype of John Drout's "Pityfull Historie of ij Loving Italians." We rejoice that the sole existing copy has fallen into the hands of a gentleman who is of so liberal a disposition as to allow any use to be made of it that can be advantageous to letters, and five and twenty copies have been printed for private distribution. Kensington, 28th April, 1845. J. PAYNE COLLIER. ART. XX. - Plays acted at Court, Anno 1613 (from the Accounts of Lord Harrington, Treasurer of the Chamber to King James I.) In the interleaved Langbaine, in the possession of Edward Vernon Utterson, Esq., (kindly placed by him in the hands of the Council of the Shakespeare Society, for the purpose of publication) the following notes were found in the handwriting of the late Joseph Haslewood. Steevens it appears had transcribed the notes of Oldys upon Langbaine from the transcript made by Dr. Percy from Oldys' own volume, then in the possession of Dr. Birch, by whom it was bequeathed to the British Museum. Steevens's copy subsequently became the property of the late Sir Egerton Brydges, by whom it was lent to the late Mr. Haslewood, who transcribed the whole of the notes with his own hand into an interleaved Langbaine in two octavo volumes. Of the original Books from whence these notes have been derived, Steevens gives the following account: "The Books from which these notes were taken, with several others now lost, belonged to Secretary Pepys, and afterwards to Dr. Rawlinson, who lent them to Mr. Vertue." The information they supply is of some importance in the chronology of our literature. We hear of "The Tempest" for the second time, through these notes,—of several of the plays of Beaumont and Fletcher for the first time, and of plays mentioned, it is believed, nowhere else. "Item paid to William Rowley, upon the Council's Warrant, dated from Whitehall, June 7th, 1613, for himself and the rest of his fellows, the Princes Servants and Players, for presenting before his Highness Count Palatine and the Lady Elizabeth two several plays, viz: The First Part of the Knares, on the 2nd of March last, and one other play called The Second Part of the Knaves, on the 5th day of the same month......... £13 6 8." ..... "Item paid to Joseph Taylor, June 28, 1613, for himself and the rest of his company, the Lady Elizabeth, her Grace's Servants and Players, for presenting before the Prince's Highness Count Palatine Elector and the Lady Elizabeth, two several plays, one called Cockle-de-Moy,' on the 20th February last, and the other called Raymond Duke of Lyons, on the first of March following, the sum of £13 6 8." "Paid to John Hemmings, upon the Councils Warrant, dated at Whitehall 20th of May, 1613, for presenting before the Lady Elizabeth and the Prince Palatine Elector, fourteen several plays, viz; Philaster; one other call'd The Knot of Fools; one Much Ado About Nothing; the Maid's Tragedy; the Merry Devil of Edmonton; The Tempest;2 A King and No King; The Twins Tragedie; The Winter's Tale; Sr John Falstaff; The Moor of Venice; The Nobleman; Cæsar's Tragedy; and one other, Love lies a 1 A character in the Dutch Courtezan, a comedy by John Marston, 4to, 1605. 2 It appears from the MSS. of Mr. Vertue that "The Tempest" was acted by John Heminge and the rest of the King's Company before Prince Charles, the Lady Elizabeth, and the Prince Palatine Elector, in the beginning of the year 1613.—Malone, Shak. ed., 1793, i., 610. (See Revels at Court, 210, and Collier's Shakespeare, i., 3.) 3 This was probably the earliest performance at court of Beaumont and Fletcher's play of "A King and No King," allowed to be acted, in 1611, by the Master of the Revels. Shakespeare by Boswell, iii. 263. Dyce's Beaumont and Fletcher, ii., 233. It appears from the papers of the late Mr. George Vertue that a play called "Cæsar's Tragedy" was acted at Court before the 10th of April, in the year 1613 [?] This was probably Shakespeare's Julius Cæsar, it being much the fashion at that time to alter the titles of his plays.— Malone Shak., ed. 1793, i., 599. See also Collier's Shakespeare, vii., 5, and Henslowe's Diary, 221. |