Ralph as an excuse for this absurdity the author says 'The Gods, when we refuse the common means, In whom they breathe the pureness of their spirits, The heathen Gods and Goddesses, including Jupiter, Mars, Ceres, and the Muses, mix in the scene, and Mercury is a very principal agent: it is by his means that Ralph obtains the prophetic power, the chief object of which is to warn the Duke of the impending ruin of his state, unless he consents to introduce various reforms, and especially to unite the discordant classes of his subjects. The versification is varied-sometimes rhyme, in long and short lines-sometimes the principal characters use blank-verse—and sometimes rhyme and blank-verse are mixed, as in the following part of a dialogue between Contempt and Venus. Cont. Away, thou strumpet! scandal of the world, 'Cause of my sorrow, author of my shame! 'Follow me not, but wander where thou wilt In uncouth places, loathed of the light, Fit shroud to hide thy lustful body in, 'Whose fair 's distain'd with foul adulterous sin. 'Ven. Ah, my Contempt! prove not so much unkind To fly and leave thy love alone behind. 'I will go with thee into hollow caves, 'To deserts, to the dens of furious beasts; 'I will descend with thee unto the grave. 'Look on me, love; let me some comfort have.' The performance does not merit any more particular criticism. 249 DANIEL, LADY PEMBROKE, AND BRANDON. THERE were but three English poets, shortly before the close of the reign of Elizabeth, who by the example of their writings, opposed the progress of the romantic drama, and adhered to the forms, at least, of the classic stage of Greece and Rome. These were Samuel Daniel, the Countess of Pembroke, and Samuel Brandon. Daniel wrote only two plays, Cleopatra and Philotas: the last was certainly performed, and as certainly not the first; and there is also no ground for supposing that Lady Pembroke's Tragedy of Antony, or Brandon's Virtuous Octavia were ever represented on the stage. As they belong to a separate school of the drama, it will be necessary to notice them briefly; but the more briefly, because two of the four pieces above named were not printed until Shakespeare had been for some years a writer for the Lord Chamberlain's servants. Daniel was unquestionably one of the most skilful versifiers of his day, and in general his pen was guided by good taste, and by just if not strong feeling : although appointed to superintend the performances of the children of the Queen's Revels, on the accession of James I., he was a decided opponent of the romantic drama, which had then long flourished on our stage. In the 'Apology' subsequently appended to his Philotas, and not printed with the first edition in 1605, he speaks of the idle fictions' and 'gross follies,' with which 'men's recreations were abused' at the theatres. In the address to the Countess of Pembroke, before his Cleopatra, 1594, he also complains of the barbarism' of the time, and alludes to the manner in which Sir Philip Sidney, in his Apology of Poetry, had resisted its progress. As early as 1592 he said that his verse respected nor Thames nor Theatres *,' and his style is peculiarly undramatic, in 6 *This expression occurs in one of the Sonnets in his' Delia: Con 'taining certaine Sonnets: with the Complaynt of Rosamond. 1592, at 'London. Printed by J. C., for S. Watersonn:' dedicated to the Countess of Pembroke. No attempt has been made to ascertain who was meant by Delia; but in the Complaint of Rosamond' he tells us, by way of apostrophe, that she adorned the West;' and in the Sonnet above quoted he informs us, that she dwelt on 'Avon, poor in fame and poor in waters.' This therefore was before the reputation of Shakespeare had made that river for ever memorable; and the line may be taken as a slight proof of our great dramatist's little notoriety in 1592. A copy of Daniel's' Delia,' of 1592 (a most rare and beautiful edition which Ritson never saw), is in the library of the Duke of Devonshire in the later impressions the poet made many alterations, and some of the Sonnets he entirely changed, with more than the usual fastidiousness of authorship. He, besides, omitted two Sonnets, for what reason it would be vain to conjecture: they are certainly worth preserving, and I therefore, without apology, subjoin them. The first is without title: the initials, M. P., at the head of the last, no doubt stand for Mary Countess of Pembroke. : 'Oft and in vaine my rebell thoughts have ventred ' And shut those waies my friendly foe first entred, asmuch as it wants the vivacity and force that ought to belong to dialogue between living characters. Daniel's numerous works went through many editions, containing material variations: the most correct, and probably with the author's last emendations, was printed in 4to., in 1623, under the superintendence of ' And whilst I garde these windowes of this forte, 'Where my hart's thiefe to vexe me made her choice, 'And thether all my forces doe transport, 'An other passage opens at her voice. 'Her voice betrayes me to her hand and eye, 'With three such powers to plague one silly hart? 'Yet, my soule's soveraigne, since I must resigne, TO M. P. 'Like as the spotlesse Ermelin distrest, 'So I, inviron'd with a hatefull want, 'Looke to the heavens, the heavens yielde forthe no grace, 'I view my selfe, my selfe in wofull case. 'Heaven nor earth will not, my selfe cannot worke 'My fortune mantled with a clowde s'obscure, I have in my possession an edition of 1592, which accords with the title given by Ritson (Bibl. Poet. 179); but it is clearly the second, and an entirely different impression. It contains the first of the preceding Sonnets, but not the second. The whole number of Sonnets is fifty, after which is inserted An Ode,' and it is followed by The Complaint of Rosamond.' the poet's brother John Daniel; who, in 1618, assigned to Martin Slatier, and others, the patent he had obtained three years before for raising a juvenile company of actors *. In this volume, Cleopatra and Philotas are both included, and from it I shall quote, in preference to the older copies. It is not my intention to enter into a discussion of the construction of pieces of this class, which, under the supposition that delusion exists, endeavour to adhere to the ancient unities of time, place, and action. Daniel's Cleopatra only relates to the last few hours of her life, and he well preserves the dignity of his heroine in her sorrow: her grief is never otherwise than queen-like, and her deportment overawes the insolence of her adversaries. Perhaps the most pathetic passage in the play is the following, and yet it is rather a philosophical observation than an appeal to the heart-Cleopatra is speaking— 'Oh Cæsar, see how easy 'tis t'accuse 'Whom fortune hath made faulty by their fall: 'The wretched conquered may not refuse 'The titles of reproach he's charg'd withal. The conquering cause hath right, wherein thou art; 'The vanquish'd still is judg'd the worser part.' The death of Cleopatra is related by a Nuntius, with a tedious detail of unimportant and unaffecting circumstances: the following simile, applied to this event, has little but tolerable felicity of expression to recommend it : * Vide Annals of the Stage, i. 411. Samuel Daniel died in 1619. |