Page 443. V. N., to whom Lamb's letter was addressed, was, of course, Vincent Novello, the organist and composer. There is no record of Novello's having complied with Lamb's suggestion. Page 464. "The Antipodes." The manuscript copy of this instalment of the Garrick Extracts, No. XXXIV., contains the following crossed-out note on Brome : "The writer of this Play had been a menial servant to Ben Jonson; in what capacity we are not told; but if he had been his lowest scullion, or his hog rubber, or something worse, Ben could not have addressed more coarse and disgusting lines to him than he has done in what he was pleased to consider some 'Commendatory Verses' prefixed to one of Brome's Comedies. Ben was luckier in his Servants than in his Sons: for neither Randolph, Mayne nor Cartwright (so dubbed by him) in their comedy ever approached within a shadow of comparison to the exquisite felicity and pleasantry of this scene, in which the anti-natural is made positively natural and delightful. To Brome (besides other excellent Plays) the Public is indebted for the 'Jovial Crew, or the Merry Beggars,' which, made into an Opera, gave them so much satisfaction a few years since at the Lyceum. They will not easily (I shall not) forget Miss Kelly's Meriel." Lamb had written of "The Jovial Crew," when it was revived at the Lyceum in 1819, in The Examiner (see Vol. I., page 186). On that occasion, however, Miss Kelly played Rachel, and Miss Stevenson Meriel. Ben Jonson's verses, to which Lamb refers, were prefixed to The Northern Lasse, 1632. They are entitled "To my old Faithful Servant, and (by his continu'd Vertue) my loving Friend, the Author of this Work, Mr. Richard Brome." They hardly merit Lamb's strong words. The opening indeed is handsome, but the lines end with a sneer, to the effect that once Page 470. The Cobbler kept him to his mall, but now "Querer por Solo Querer." Concerning the printing of this instalment in the Table Book Lamb wrote to Hone : "Postscript "Who is your compositor? I cannot praise enough the beauty and accuracy of the Garrick Play types. slip. In his Note-Book Lamb copied four more lines after the passage, "The True Absence in Love," on page 475; thus:— QUERER POR SOLO QUERER BANISH'D LOVER But I love thee with all my heart, Whom therefore thou canst never fly; Since in whatever place thou art, Thou'rt present to my fantasy. Page 489. "Edward the Third." Certain resemblances in the text of this play and passages in Shakespeare lead to the belief that Shakespeare had a hand in it. Lamb's manuscript copy of this instalment, No. XXV., of the Garrick Extracts contains the following crossed-out note:"I wish to believe it to be old Heywood's: it bears his stamp and likelihood, as does more especially The Yorkshire Tragedy. Compare the latter with The Woman Killed with Kindness. But in those days there were, I was going to say, 'five hundred good as he.'" Page 507. "A Woman's a Weathercock." The manuscript copy of this instalment of the Garrick Extracts, No. XXX., contains the following crossed-out note: "The affected reluctance, and real curiosity, of Nevill to see the letter is to be vindicated by a presumption that he guessed at its contents and the falseness of them. The whole struggle between his friend to show it, and himself not to see it, is a vie of generosity (as these old playwriters would have called it) nobly plaid, and most nobly concluded." Page 526. "Love's Dominion." Lamb placed some lines from the Invocation to Silence at the head of his Elia essay "A Quaker's Meeting." Page 530. Lamb's footnote. The reference is to Edward Alleyn (1566-1626), the actor, and founder of Dulwich College. Heywood, in his Apology for Actors, 1612, says of him: "Among so many dead let me not forget one yet alive in his time the most worthy, famous, Maister Edward Allen;" and in his prologue to the Rich Jew of Malta" (Cockpit, 1633) he says that the part of the Jew was "by the best of actors play'd." Page 544. Footnote. "He damns the Town." This sentiment was appended not by Lamb, but by William Hone. The line is presumably an adaptation of Dryden's He curses God, but God before cursed him. Absalom and Achitophel, Part II., 467. Page 545. Footnote. "Inexplicable dumb show" is Hamlet's phrase, III., ii., 13. Page 568. Serious Fragment, No. 4. Lamb quotes this passage in his Elia essay "The Superannuated Man.” Page 571. Serious Fragment, No. 23. At the end of this extract, from "Fatal Jealousy," Lamb copied in his Note-Book two more lines :— For they all doubt what they pretend to know, And fear to mount lest they should fall below. Page 588. Satiro-mastix. Fleay attempts to answer Lamb's query. In his Biographical Chronicle of the English Drama, 1891, Vol. I., pages 127-128, he suggests that the play is "The Life and Death of Captain Stukely." Decker, he writes, "had patched the play with half of one by Peele on the Moor Mahomet, and then published it." Unfortunately, "Captain Stukely," so far as is known, was not published before 1605, whereas Satiro-mastix was printed in 1602. Page 588. Captain Hannam. Mr. Bullen thinks that the Captain is not to be found in any extant play. Possibly in one of those mentioned by Gayton in his Festivous Notes on Don Quixote. EPILOGUE CONSISTING OF MR. SWINBURNE'S SONNET SEQUENCE ON THE OLD DRAMATISTS, FROM TRISTRAM OF SONNETS ON ENGLISH DRAMATIC POETS (1590-1650)1 I CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE CROWNED, girdled, garbed and shod with light and fire, Had fed the feeling of their masters' thoughts,' The flight of all their spirits were impelled Towards one great end, thy glory-nay, not then, II WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Not if men's tongues and angels' all in one Spake, might the word be said that might speak Thee. What power is in them all to praise the sun? His praise is this, he can be praised of none. Man, woman, child, praise God for him; but he Time knows not his from time's own period. From Tristram of Lyonesse and Other Poems. By A. C. Swinburne. London, 1882. |