ently given to the audience. I shall now proceed to notice Marlow's other performances, having, I apprehend, said enough to show that Tamburlaine, as a dramatic poem, considered by itself, is very far from contemptible, and taken with relation to the circumstances under which, and the purpose for which it was written, that it merits high admiration.

Marlow's Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, in all probability was written very soon after his Tamburlaine the Great, as in 1588,' a ballad of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus,' (which in the language of that time, might mean either the play or a metrical composition founded upon its chief incidents,) was licensed to be printed. The earliest known edition of Marlow's Tragedy is dated in 1604, and there is very good reason for thinking that much had then been added to it, with which the original author had no concern. It seems to have been written in the first instance for the Lord Admiral's players, and from an entry in Henslowe's journal, already quoted, of the year 1597, we learn that it had been performed so long and so often, as to require 'additions' by Dekker: in 1602, William Birde and Samuel Rowley were paid 41. for farther additions.' As the usual price of a new play at this date was only 6l., or at most 8l., we may conclude that the additions last made were very considerable, and with them, probably, the piece was printed in 1604 *.

At a later date, some fresh alterations were made, as is evidenced by the edition of 1663, in which a scene at Rome is transferred to

This may account for the introduction of a good deal of buffoonery, intended to be comic, and which no doubt was well relished by the auditory: some of it might, however, have originated with Marlow, and the printer of his Tamburlaine, it will be recollected, exercised his discretion in leaving out the comic portion of that performance.

Faustus was intended to follow up the design, which may almost be said to have been accomplished in Tamburlaine, and to establish the use of blank-verse on the public stage. Here the poet, wishing to astonish, and to delight by astonishing, has called in the aid of magic and supernatural agency, and has wrought from his materials, a drama full of power, novelty, interest, and variety. All the serious scenes of Faustus eminently excite both pity and terror.

Before I enter upon a cursory examination of the ingredients and structure of Faustus, it may be proper to remark, that I shall follow it up by a similar criticism upon his other plays, (as nearly as I can judge in the order in which they were written), with a view to trace the gradual improvement of his style and versification, and to show that he often introduced into his mighty line' (as Ben Jonson calls it), not less vigour and majesty than Shakespeare, with such varieties of pause, inflection, and modulation, as left our greatest dramatist little more to do than to follow

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Constantinople, and another interpolated from The Rich Jew of Malta. Henslowe notices the performance of Faustus in 1594 and 1597; in the last instance, perhaps, as improved by Dekker's additions.

his example. This position supposes, as I have already endeavoured to establish, that Shakespeare had not written any of his original plays prior to 1593, (when Marlow was killed,) although, anterior to that year, he might have employed himself in altering and improving for representation some of the works of older dramatists. It is, of course, important to trace the gradual improvement of blank-verse in the hands of Marlow; and I may be excused for dwelling upon the subject more at large, because it has been totally neglected by those who have treated of the versification of Shakespeare, who do not seem to be aware how comparatively little he added to the force, richness, or melody of what one of our elder critics upon English poetry has aptly denominated the licentiate Iambic *.'

The body of Mr. Boswell's Essay on the Phraseology and Metre of Shakespeare' is a singular contradiction to its title, for while he devotes many pages to the style and peculiarities of preceding poets, he only just before the close calls the reader's attention to the important change which Shakespeare effected

in our dramatic versification;' and the three pages which follow, as far as they prove anything, establish that Shakespeare effected no change at all. Mr. Boswell admits that Marlow improved our versification, but it never occurred to him to inquire who made the first bold attempt in popular plays to throw

* Thomas Campion, in his Observations on the Art of English Poesie, 1602. Chap. iv.