given to him on grounds quite as plausible as those applicable to Arden of Feversham. As Arden of Feversham is the earliest printed specimen of this species of drama, and as upon all accounts it

Every body will recollect the passage in Macbeth (Act iii. Scene 2) beginning

'Come seeling night,

'Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day, &c.'

Again, after the murder, Brown says—

'I gave him fifteen wounds,

'Which now be fifteen mouths that do accuse me :
In every wound there is a bloody tongue,

'Which will all speak, although he hold his peace.'

Compare this with Antony's speech in Julius Cæsar, Act iii. Scene 2'Show you sweet Cæsar's wounds, poor, poor dumb mouths, &c. and put a tongue

'In every wound of Cæsar,' &c.

A third parallel passage, as it may be called, is to be found later in the play, where Anne Sanders entreats Mrs. Drewry, an accomplice, not to betray her

which will instantly bring to mind the address of Richard III. (Act v. Scene 2) to Buckingham

'Now do I play the touch,

'To try if thou be current gold indeed.'

But the resemblance in A Warning for Faire Women is not merely verbal the speeches of Anne Sanders, the repentant wife, in the following extract, are Shakespearean in a much better sense. But for the extreme rarity of this tragedy, it might ere now have been attributed to Shakespeare

'Drewry. See where Master Brown is: in him take comfort, And learn to temper your excessive grief.

'Anne. Ah, bid me feed on poison and be fat,

'Or look upon the basilisk and live;

'Or surfeit daily and be still in health,

deserves attention, I shall adopt it as an illustration of this part of the subject; not meaning, however, at all to be understood to join in the conclusion that Shakespeare had any hand in it, although it contains characters strongly drawn, and some passages of no mean rank in the scale of poetry.

I have already said that the event on which it was founded occurred in the reign of Edward VI.*, and perhaps it was brought upon the stage as early as the

'Or leap into the sea and not be drownd.
'All these are even as possible as this,
That I should be recomforted by him
'That is the author of my whole lament.

'Browne. Why, mistress Anne, I love you dearly,
And but for your incomparable beauty,

'My soul had never dreamt of Sanders' death.
'Then give me that which now I do deserve,
'Yourself, your love; and I will be to you
'A husband so devote as none more just,
'Or more affectionate shall tread this earth.

'Anne. If you can crave it of me with a tongue
'That hath not been profan'd with wicked vows,
'Or think it in a heart did never harbour
'Pretence of murder, or put forth a hand
'As not contaminate with shedding blood,

'Then will I willingly grant your request.

'But, oh, your hand, your heart, your tongue, and eye,
'Are all presenters of my misery.

* The name ought properly to be written Arderne of Feversham, as we find it in the following extract from the Registers of the Privy Council, under date of 15th of June, 1551, the murder upon which the tragedy is founded having been perpetrated in that year. A letter to 'Sir William Godolphine, knight, of thankes for his diligence in the ' apprehension of Black Will, that killed Mr. Arderne of Feversham, ' and to sende him saufe-guarde, with promise of payment for the charges of the bringers.'

year 1578, when Murderous Michael was performed before the Queen, Michael being a very prominent personage, and one of the assassins of Arden. Possibly the play, as it was printed in 1592, might be founded upon this elder performance, although Michael, in Arden of Feversham, is one of the least guilty of the whole party concerned in the murder. His character may be judged from the following speech, when contemplating the murder of Arden, his master

'Conflicting thoughts encamped in my breast
'Awake me with the echo of their strokes,
'And I, a judge to censure either side,
'Can give to neither wished victory...
'That grim-fac'd villain, pityless Black-Will,
'And Shakebag, stern in bloody stratagem, ..

Have sworn my death if I infringe my vow,

'A dreadful thing to be consider'd of.

Methinks, I see them with their bolster'd hair,
'Staring and grinning in thy gentle face;

And in their ruthless hands their daggers drawn
'Insulting o'er thee with a peck of oaths,
'Whilst thou submissive, pleading for relief,
'Art mangled by their ireful instruments.
'Methinks I hear them ask where Michael is,
'And pityless Black Will cries "Stab, the slave!
The peasant will detect the tragedy."

'The wrinkles in his foul death-threatening face

Gape open wide, like graves, to swallow men

米,

Here, with some mixture of absurdity, there is unquestionably poetry, both in the outset and conclusion, although without regard to propriety it is put into the mouth of a menial. Here Jacob missed at least

* My quotations are from the rare edition of 1599, in the collection of the Duke of Devonshire,

as strong a proof as any he has adduced of Shakespeare's instrumentality in this play, in the use of the word bolstered,' in the line,

Methinks, I see them with their bolster'd hair, which, though spelt somewhat differently, would have afforded a useful illustration of the blood bolter'd Banquo' in Macbeth, A. iv. Sc. 1., much wanted by the commentators, who could find no instance of the use of such a word in any other author.

The plot of the tragedy is merely this-Alice the wife of Arden, a merchant of Feversham, is in love with Mosbie, a man of low extraction, in the same place they determine upon the murder of Arden; and when he goes to London on business, they employ three assassins, Black-Will, Shakebag, and Greene, together with Michael, Arden's servant, for the purpose. The attempt fails in London, and Arden, returning to Feversham, is followed by the ruffians who had been hired: they again endeavour to accomplish their purpose while Arden is journeying in the isle of Sheppey; but are again disappointed, their victim on both occasions being, as it were, providentially saved. At last they are reduced to the necessity of murdering Arden in his own house: Mosbie sits down with him to play at tables, and Black-Will, Shakebag, and Greene rush in from behind, and, in the presence of and with the aid of Alice Arden, Mosbie's sister Susan, and Michael, Arden is stabbed. His body is secretly house, but blood is

conveyed to a field behind the

found upon the floor, and the footsteps of the mur

derers are traced in the snow, which had unexpectedly fallen. Mrs. Arden and Mosbie confess, and, together with Susan and Michael, (who are in love with each other,) are carried out to execution. The epilogue informs us that Shakebag was eventually murdered in Southwark, Black-Will burnt at Flushing, and Greene hanged.

The characters are drawn with some force and distinctness. Arden is a kind-hearted husband, and his wife bad only in consequence of her fatal attachment to Mosbie, which leads her, step by step, to the last stage of guilt, but amid constant misgivings and feminine resolutions of virtue. Professor Tieck (who has translated this play into German with admirable skill and fidelity, and who is more than inclined to think that Shakespeare was the author of it) observes that Mosbie is always low and wicked * ;' but when we find the following lines uttered by him in the earlier part of the play, before the murder has been perpetrated, it cannot be denied that even he has something redeeming about him—

6

'Well fares the man howe'er his cates do taste That tables not with foul suspicion;

' And he but pines amongst his delicates

'Whose troubled mind is stuff'd with discontent.

My golden time was when I had no gold :

Though then I wanted, yet I slept secure.

'My daily toil begat my night's repose;

*Mosbie ist immer gemein und schlecht-Vorrede to his Shakespeare's Vorschule, p. xxv.