cleverness, and adultery as a joke; or they are (like Gostanzo and Cornelio) utterly devoid of consistency and character, mere weather-cocks in the poet's hand. The intrigue is well planned, it is true, and, with the exception of the conclusion, is carried on easily and cleverly. But as everything turns only upon sexual crimes, upon adultery and again adultery, the piece finally seems to be but a detailed satire upon marriage, or at least upon all jealous husbands valuing the honour of their wives; to them is offered in plain words the comfortless truth that, as matters are, infidelity is unavoidable and not to be prevented by jealousy. The prosaic coarseness of this idea of life, which forms the basis of the whole play, destroys all the good qualities of the piece, the rapid, animated movement of the action, the flowing, clever language, and the ready and usually appropriate wit, which, however, is but too monotonously slippery. 6 Chapman's later comedy, The Widowe's Tears' (1612),* is of a similar kind. For whereas in All Fools' the faithlessness of wives forms the theme and is drained to the very dregs, here it is the inconstancy and frivolity of widows that is made the subject of ridicule; the lowness of the idea of life-according to which women, without exception, are but the contemptible playthings for the commonest sensual desires-is the same in both cases. both pieces, as in 'Bussy d'Ambois,' the characteristic feature of the Ben Jonson School-which reduces the drama into a mere reflection of common reality--is unmistakable. In Thomas Middleton and William Rowley-two younger poets who wrote much in conjunction-appear to have pursued the same course as Chapman, Marston, Webster, and others. The oldest yet known printed piece by Middleton * Dodsley, l.c., vi. 119 ff. Middleton was descended from a good family and was born in London about 1570; probably, at least, no earlier. He died in 1627. It is possible that the strange and fantastic piece entitled, "The old Law,' was brought upon the stage as early as 1599, as is intimated by a passage in Act ii. 1. However, according to the old print of this drama, belonging to the year 1656, it was written by Massinger, Middleton, and Rowley (perhaps only revised by Massinger); but, how much is to be attributed to Middleton cannot, as Dyce very justly remarks, by any means be decided. See, The Works of Th. belongs to the year 1602, the first written by Rowley, to the year 1607; probably however, both were engaged in composing for the stage at even an earlier date. Middleton's Mayor of Quinborough,' first printed in 1661, but doubtless one of the poet's earliest works,* is written quite in the romantic, epic style of Greene's or Shakspeare's Pericles.' It, in general, treats of the same semi-legendary, semi-historical subject described in The Birth of Merlin,' but conceived from a different point of view. The latter is also worked out in the same spirit; hence, if it were a work of W. Rowley's (which, however, I as little believe as that Shakspeare had any hand in it),† these two pieces-which are so much alike-would show that both poets entered their dramatic career at one and the same point. And yet both subsequently quitted the path upon which they had originally started. Middleton's 'A Mad World, my Masters,' a comedy which appeared in print in 1608, already wavers in style and character between the old and newer schools. The idea of the play is intimated by the title, but Middleton's mad world consists only of a rich, good-natured, but vain and pleasure-seeking grandfather-who still indulges in the excesses of youth—and of his frivolous and dissolute grandson, who imposes upon the old man in all kinds of amusing ways, and is himself finally imposed upon by a cunning wench, who has long acted as a courtesan, but marries him as if she were an innocent and chaste virgin. In between these scenes, is the love affair of a Mr. Penitent Brothel with the young wife of an old jealous moralist; it stands in no sort of connection with the principal action, and is concluded by the sudden repentance of the lover. The devil (introduced under the name of Succubus) tries in vain to turn the penitent sinner from his better intentions, but the latter resists the temptation and even leads the wife back to the path of virtue. This interference of the devil, and the admixture Middleton, now first collected, etc., by the Rev. A. Dyce. London, 1840, vol. i. pp. ix., xiii., xvi., xxxviii. * Dyce, l.c., i. 121 ff. Further particulars in regard to this in Book IV. of a serious moral in the play-which otherwise appears but a copy of the frivolous customs of the fashionable London world of 1608-and the introduction of a bevy of witches in one of his later dramas,* proves that Middleton, so to say, fluctuated between the Middle Ages and more recent times, without being able to fill up the gap between them, because he did not comprehend either the old nor the new spirit of the age. Subsequently, however, if not in form, at all events in regard to subject, he went completely over to the newer School in its ideas of art and life. 'Women Beware of Women'† is a play full of immorality and adultery, murders and slaughter, the reflection of common reality in a completely demoralised age. The tragic muse is here no longer the earnest, exalted goddess absorbed in deep thought and moved by inward sympathy, but the Fury of crime who visits the demoralised world in order to destroy it, and herself with it. The moral forces are indeed partly represented by the Lord Cardinal, but they only externally affect the dramatic characters, without actually influencing their actions, and scarcely find time enough to express a few religious commonplaces about eternal punishment in hell and such things. We cannot sympathise with any of the persons represented, because they are mere fools and wretches, who rush past so rapidly and in so unmotived a manner, from crime to crime, or, like Brancha, fall so rapidly from the height of pure and noble womanhood into the lowest immorality, that they do not seem like real human beings, but empty, hideous masks. The composition corresponds with the subject, and i evidently incapable of controlling the multitude of events and actions, hence is somewhat restless and irregular and appears defective, forced and obscure. The catastrophe especially, is so unintelligible, that one cannot say with certainty how the six-fold murder, with which the piece closes, is brought about. And yet the piece is one of Middleton's best works and, as Hazlitt says, is distinguished by a rich marrowy vein of internal sentiment, and cool cutting irony of expression;'--still the language suffers A tragi-comedy called The Witch, in Dyce, iii. 247 ff. † Reprinted in Dyce, iv. 514 ff. 6 from a certain dryness and poverty, and hence may perhaps be adequate for describing what takes place externally, but not for delineating the violent emotions, affections and passions which arise in the piece. Middleton's later comedies and comedy was the principal field of his activity-bear the exact impress of the more modern School; they are merely reflexes of the evil customs and the low ideas of life presented to him by the spirit of his age. The best of these are again his earlier ones: A Trick to Catch the Old One,' and 'Michaelmas Term.' * 'A Game of Chess,' an allegory-in which the white and black figures (King, Queen, Knights, Bishops, etc.) are the characters represented, and in which Ignatius Loyola and 'Error' appear in the Induction-is a sharp satire upon the King of Spain, the Duke of Gondomar, the Bishop of Spalato, etc., in their relation to the English court. The piece brought punishment upon its author and the King's Players (who acted the piece on the stage), and also furnishes a proof that Middleton, even in this direction, followed the tendencies of the newer School. It is much the same with William Rowley's later works in comparison with his earlier ones, for while his comedy, 'A New Wonder, A Woman Never Vext' §--by the ingenious way and the fine irony with which it eulogises the virtue of feminine gentleness as a new wonder, and as a kind of talisman which, with magic power, changes the wildest rakes into excellent husbands, and conciliates the most embittered minds-still possesses something of the delicate, poetical colouring of the older school, his Match at Midnight,'|| is, I think, already more like a later comedy of the Ben Jonson tendency. For the latter is nothing but a dramatised genre-picture from common life, representing an old usurer courting a young rich widow, who, however, is deceived by her and his own jovial, dissolute son, with the help of a bawd, a courtesan and some other like-minded individuals. The point is, that in the end, the son also finds himself made a fool of by the supposed widow and her disguised husband. * Dyce, i. 414 f. ii. 1 ff. Dyce, i. p. xxviii. f. Ibid., vii. 299. + Dyce, iv. 302 ff. Lastly, 'The Changeling,'* a tragedy which W. Rowley wrote in conjunction with Middleton, shows pretty much the same conception of tragedy as we became acquainted with in Middleton's 'Women beware of Women.' The language, the delineation of character, and composition are also essentially the same. In the last respect it has the additional defect, that the love affair between Antonio, Francisco, and the wife of Doctor Alibius, stands not only in uo connection whatever with the main action, but is likewise founded upon an intrigue which, when scarcely begun, comes to a standstill in the middle, and hovers vaguely in mid-air without any conclusion. A similar position, that is, the same unfortunate indecision-partly leaning to the Shakspearian, partly to the Ben Jonson School-is met with in John Marston and John Webster, whose first poetical activity coincides with the commencement of the struggle between the two opposite tendencies. Both very likely appeared as dramatic authors much about the same time as Middleton and Rowley, hence, in the last years of the sixteenth century; according to Henslowe's Diary' (p. 156) the former made his first appearance in 1599, the latter in 1598.† In talent they, it is true, surpass their two above-mentioned contemporaries, but for this very reason the indecision, in which they resemble them, appears all the more decided. We must, however, not allow ourselves to be led astray by the circumstance, that Marston was originally at personal enmity with Ben Jonson (as is proved with certainty from Jonson's Poetaster'), and that even after a temporary reconciliation-during which, in 1604, he dedicated his Malcontent' to him, and wrote some lines in praise of Jonson's 'Sejanus'-he, in 1606, again pole * Old Plays, being a Continuation, etc., iv. 225, Dyce, l.c., iv. 204 ff. † At least, I do not consider the play entitled The Guise-which Henslowe (p. 110) mentions under the date of Nov. 27th, 1598-to be Marlowe's Massacre at Paris, but Webster's lost play, which he enumerates among the latter's earlier works in the dedication to the Devil's Law Case (1623) under the title of The Guise. For as Henslowe, in other passages, gives Marlowe's piece its right name, and under November 3rd, 1601, again expressly mentions The Guise in connection with Webster, I cannot see why the remark in 1598 should not have likewise applied to Webster's Guise. |