Anthony Munday and his plays. dramatists. Henry Porter's productions. Thomas Dekker, William Haughton, Henslowe's connection with Shake- Wentworth Smith. John Webster. Thomas Middleton. Prolific talents of our old dramatists. R. Greene's Menaphon, 1587, and Peri- Proofs that Marlow wrote the two parts Examination of the Life and Death of Examination of the Massacre at Paris. Inquiry into Marlow's Versification. Personal particulars regarding Greene. Pandosto, Groat's-worth of Wit, and other tracts, by Greene. History of Orlando Furioso. Friar Bacon and Friar Bongay. James the Fourth. George-à-Green, the Pinner of Wake- Alphonsus, King of Arragon. Lodge, Greene, and Kyd compared. dation of As You Like It. Wounds of Civil War. Lodge's and Greene's Looking-Glass for His satirical and vituperative talents. Play called the Isle of Dogs. Contest with Gabriel Harvey. Summer's Last Will and Testament. The Classic Drama as opposed to the Romantic Drama. Tragedy of Cleopatra, by Daniel. Tragedy of Philotas, by Daniel. Samuel Brandon's Virtuous Octavia. OLD THEATRES, THEIR APPURTENANCES, &c. Price of admission to theatres. Properties, apparel, and furniture. THE HISTORY OF DRAMATIC POETRY. TRAGEDY AND COMEDY, THEIR RISE AND PROGRESS, (CONTINUED): DAMON AND PYTHIAS-THE SUPPOSES-JOCASTATANCRED AND GISMUND-TRANSLATIONS FROM SENECA-PLAYS AT COURT BETWEEN 1568 AND 1580. RICHARD EDWARDS enjoyed a very high reputation as a dramatic poet, but he seems to have owed much of it to the then comparative novelty of his undertakings. Thomas Twine (who completed Phaer's translation of the Eneid in 1573), in an epitaph upon the death of Edwards, calls him -the flower of our realm 'And phoenix of our age *,' and specifically mentions two of his plays, Damon and * In 'an Epitaph upon the death of the worshipfull Maister Richarde 'Edwardes, late Maister of the Children of the Queenes Majesties Chappell,' in Turberville's Epitaphes, Epigrams, Songs and Sonets, printed in 1567, 8vo. Turberville was murdered in 1579, by John Morgan, as appears by the following entry in the Stationers' Registers of that year :-'A dittie of M. Turberville murthered, and 'John Morgan that murthered him, with a letter of the said Morgan 'to his mother, and another to his sister Turberville.' VOL. III. B Pythias and Palamon and Arcyte, adding, however, that he had written more equally fit for the ears of princes 6 Thy tender tunes and rhymes, • Wherein thou wont'st to play, 'Each princely dame of court and town 'Thy Damon and his friend, Arcyte and Palemon, • With more full fit for princes ears, Though thou from earth art gone, 'Shall still remain in fame' &c.* He is mentioned in Webbe's Discourse of English Poetry, 1586; and Puttenham in his Art of English Poesy, 1589, tells us that the Earl of Oxford (of whose dramatic productions there is no other trace) and Edwards deserve the highest prize for comedy and interlude.' Meres, in his Palladis Tamia, 1598, repeats the applause given by Puttenham, with the omission of the word 'interlude,' then out of fashion, terming Edwards 'one of the best for comedy.' The earliest notice we have of Edwards as a dramatic poet occurs in 1564-5, when a tragedy by him, the name of which is not given, was performed by the children of the chapel under his direction, before the Queen at Richmond. It has been remarked elsewhere, that this might possibly be his Damon and * Warton (Hist. Eng. Poet. iv. 112) says that Twine was an actor in Edwards's Palamon and Arcyte, and that Miles Winsore, the antiquary, was another of the performers, and afterwards delivered an oration before the Queen at Bradenham. † Annals of the Stage, vol. i. p. 189. |