A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume Xi Part 123

FOOTNOTES:

[394] [Old copy, _him_.]

[395] Verstegan, in his "Rest.i.tution of Decayed Intelligence," 1634, p. 126, gives the following account of the origin of this term: "As this Lady (_i.e._, Rowena) was very beautiful, so was she of a very comely deportment, and Hingistus, having invited King Vortiger to a supper at his new-builded castle, caused that after supper she came foorth of her chamber into the King's presence, with a cup of gold filled with wine in her hand, and making in very seemly manner a low reverence unto the King, sayd, with a pleasing grace and countenance, in our ancient language, _Waes heal hlaford Cyning,_ which is, being rightly expounded according to our present speech, _Be of health, Lord King_, for as _was_ is our verbe of the preterimperfect tense, or preterperfect tense, signifying _have bin_, so _was_ being the same verb in the imperative mood, and now p.r.o.nounced _wax_, is as much as to say _grow, be_, or _become;_ and _waes-heal_, by corruption of p.r.o.nunciation, afterwards became to be _wa.s.saile_. The King not understanding what shee said, demaunded it of his chamberlaine, who was his interpreter, and when he knew what it was, he asked him how he might againe answer her in her owne language, whereof being informed, he sayd unto her _Drinc heal_, that is to say, _Drink health_."--See also a note to "The Ordinary," in vol. xii.

[396] _Didst_ in the old copy, where these lines are printed as a stage direction.

[397] The 4 reads--

"I overslip what Croesus _suit_ command."

--_Collier._

[398] Or muscadel. A kind of wine so called, because for sweetness and smell it resembles musk. "From Bosco Helerno we soon came to Montefiascone, standing upon a hill. It's a bishop's seate, and _famous for excellent Muscatello wine_," &c.--La.s.sells' "Voiage of Italy," 8, 1670, 244.--_Gilchrist._

[399] [Referring to some tale of the day. Compare p. 468.]

[400] See note to "A Match at Midnight," act i. sc. i. (vol. xiii.)

[401] aeneas.

[402] [Meaning Hog.]

EPILOGUE

Now expectation hath, at full receiv'd, What we late promised; if in aught we've pleas'd, 'Tis all we sought t'accomplish; and much more Than our weak merit dares to attribute Unto itself, till you vouchsafe to deign, In your kind censure, so to gratify Our trivial labours.---- If it hath pleased the judicial ear, We have our author's wish; and, void of fear, Dare ignorant men to show their worst of hate, It not detracts, but adds unto that state Where desert flourisheth.

We'll rest applauded in their derogation, Though with a hiss they crown that confirmation.

For this our author saith, if't prove distasteful, He only grieves you spent two hours so wasteful; But if it like,[403] and you affect his pen, You may command it, when you please, again.

[403] _If it like_ is a very common old expression for _if it please;_ but Mr Reed allowed it to be altered to the vulgarism of _if it's liked_.

THE HEIR.

_EDITION._

_The Heire. A Comedie. As it was acted by the Company of the Revels. 1620. Written by T.M. London, Printed by Augustine Mathewes, for Thomas Iones, and are to be sold at his shop in S.

Dunstans Church-yard in Fleetstreet._ 1633. 4.[404]

[404] There are two t.i.tle-pages to this comedy in the year 1633, but they are both the same edition. The one has the words _the second impression_ upon it; the other is without them; but in all other respects they are precisely similar. Whether the performance did not sell well in the first instance, and the stationer resorted to this expedient to get rid of copies remaining on hand, must be matter of conjecture only.--_Collier._

INTRODUCTION TO THE FORMER EDITION.

Thomas May was the son of Sir Thomas May, of Mayfield, in the county of Suss.e.x, Knight, a gentleman of an ancient and honourable family.[405] He was born in the year 1595, and received his early education in the neighbourhood of his birthplace; thence he was removed to Sidney-Suss.e.x College in Cambridge, and took the degree of B.A. in 1612. On the 6th of August 1615, he was admitted into the society of Gray's-Inn, and soon after became celebrated for his poetical performances.

Lord Clarendon,[406] with whom he was intimately acquainted, says "that his father spent the fortune which he was born to, so that he had only an annuity left him not proportionable to a liberal education; yet, since his fortune could not raise his mind, he brought his mind down to his fortune by a great modesty and humility in his nature, which was not affected, but very well became an imperfection in his speech, which was a great mortification to him, and kept him from entering upon any discourse but in the company of his very friends. His parts of nature and art were very good, as appears by his translation of Lucan (none of the easiest work of that kind), and more by his Supplement to Lucan which, being entirely his own, for the learning, the wit and the language, may be well looked upon as one of the best epic poems in the English language. He writ some other commendable pieces of the reign of some of our kings. He was cherished by many persons of honour, and very acceptable in all places; yet (to show that pride and envy have their influences upon the narrowest minds, and which have the greatest semblance of humility) though he had received much countenance, and a very considerable donative from the king, upon his majesty's refusing to give him a small pension,[407] which he had designed and promised to another very ingenious person, whose qualities he thought inferior to his own, he fell from his duty and all his former friends, and prost.i.tuted himself to the vile office[408] of celebrating the infamous acts of those who were in rebellion against the king; which he did so meanly, that he seemed to all men to have lost his wits when he left his honesty, and shortly after died miserable and neglected, and deserves to be forgotten."

He died suddenly on the night of the 13th of November 1650, after having drank his cheerful bottle as usual. The cause of his death is said to have arisen from the tying of his nightcap too close under his chin, which occasioned a suffocation when he turned himself about.

He was buried, by appointment of the Parliament, in a splendid manner, in the south aisle of Westminster Abbey, where a monument to his memory was erected, with a Latin inscription thereon, composed by Marchemont Needham, which remained there until the Restoration, when it was destroyed, and his body dug up, and buried in a large pit belonging to St Margaret's Church, with many others who had been interred in the abbey during the Interregnum.

He was the author of the following dramatic pieces--

1. "The Tragedy of Antigone the Theban princesse." 8. 1631.

2. "The Heire: a Comedy: acted by the Company of the Revels, 1620." 4.

1633.

3. "The Tragedy of Julia Agrippina, Empress of Rome." 12. 1639. 12.

1654.

4. "The Tragedy of Cleopatra, Queen of aegypt." 12. 1639. 12. 1654.

5. "The Old Couple: a Comedy." 4. 1658.

He also wrote "The reign of king Henry the Second," and "The victorious reign of Edward the Third,"[409] both in English verse; and translated, besides Lucan, the "Georgics" of Virgil, the "Epigrams" of Martial, the "Icon Animorum" by Barclay, and the verses in the "Argenis" of the same author. He likewise was the author of "The History of the Parliament of England, which began November 3, 1640, with a short and necessary view of some precedent years." Folio. 1647.[410]

The following inscription[411] was made upon him by one of the Cavalier party, which he had abused--

Adsta, Viator, et Poetam legas Lucani interpretem, Quem ita feliciter Anglicanum fecerat, Ut Mayus simul et Luca.n.u.s videretur, Et sane credas Metempsuchosin: Nam uterque ingratus Principis sui Proditor; Hic Neronis Tyranni, ille Caroli Regum optimi, At fata plane diversa; Lucanum enim ante obitum poenitentem legis, Mayus vero repentina morte occubuit, Ne forsan poeniteret.

Parliamentia Rebellis tam pertinax adstipulator, Ut Musarum, quas olim religiose coluerat, Sacrilegus Hostis evaserit: Attamen fingendi artem non penitus amisit, Nam gesta eorum scripsit et typis mandavit In prosa mendax Poeta.

Inter tot Heroas Poetarum, n.o.biliumque, Quod tam indigni sepeliantur Cineres, Videntur fiere Marmora.

Nec tamen mirere c.u.m hic Rebelles posuisse, Qui tot sacras aedes, et Dei delubra, Equis fecere Stabula.

[A MS. note in one of the former editions says: "This comedy is full of most palpable imitations of Shakespeare and others, but it is very pleasingly, and even elegantly, written in many parts."]

FOOTNOTES:

[405] "Thomas May, father of the poet, purchased Mayfield Place, in Suss.e.x (formerly an archiepiscopal palace, and afterwards the seat of the Greshams), of Henry Neville, of Billingbere, Berks, in 1597. He was knighted at Greenwich, July 3, 1603, and died 1616. He was father to Thomas May, the celebrated poet and historian, by whom Mayfield was aliened from the family in 1617: his mother, Joan May, and cousin, Richard May, of Islington, gent. joining with him in the conveyance to John Baker, Esq., whose descendants have ever since enjoyed it."--Nichols's "Leicesters.h.i.+re," iii. 156, note.--_Gilchrist._]