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The BONDMAN.) Hitherto we have had no clue to guide us in ascertaining the true date of these dramas. The fortunate discovery of Sir Henry Herbert's Office-book enables us, from this period, to proceed with every degree of certainty.

The Bondman was allowed by the Master of the Revels, and performed at the Cockpit in Drury Lane, on the third of December, 1623. It was printed in the following year, and again in 1638. This last edition is full of errors, which I have been enabled to remove by the assistance of the first copy, for which I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. Malone.

This ancient story (for so it is called by Massinger) is founded on the life of Timoleon the Corinthian, as recorded by Plutarch. The revolt and subsequent reduction of the slaves to their duty, is taken from Herodotus, or, more probably, from Justin,* who repeats the tale. The tale, however, more especially the catastrophe, is trifling enough, and does little honour to those who invented, or those who adopted it; but the beautiful episode here founded upon it, and which is entirely Massinger's own, is an inimitable piece of art.

This is one of the few plays of Massinger that have been revived since the Restoration. In 1660 it was brought on the stage by Betterton, then a young man, who played, as Downes the prompter informs us, the part of Pisander, for which nature had eminently qualified him. It was again performed at Drury Lane in 1719, and given to the press with a second title of Love and Liberty, and a few insignificant alterations; and in 1779 a modification of it was produced by Mr. Cumberland, and played for a few nights at Covent Garden, but, as it appears, with no extraordinary encouragement. It was not printed.

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* It may, indeed, be taken from an account of Russia in Purchas's Pilgrims, a book that formed the delight of our ancestors. There it is said, that the

Boiards of Noviorogod reduced their slaves, who had seized the town, by the whip, just as the Scythians are said to have done theirs.

TO

The Right Honourable, my singular good Lord, PHILIP EARL OF MONTGOMERY,

KNIGHT OF THE MOST NOBLE ORDER OF

THE GARTER, &c.

RIGHT HONOURABLE,

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HOWEVER I could never arrive at the happiness to be made known to your lordshsip, yet u desire, born with me, to make a tender of all duties and service to the noble family of the Herberts, descended to me as an inheritance from

my dead father, Arthur Massinger. * Many years he happily spent in the service of your honourable house, and died a servant to it; leaving hist to be ever most glad and ready, to be at the command of all such as derive themselves from his most honoured master, your lordship’s most noble father. The consideration of this encouraged me (having no other means to present my humblest service to your honour) to shroud this trifle under the wings of your noble protection; and I hope, out of the clemency of your heroic disposition, it will find, though perhaps not a welcome entertainment, yet, at the worst, a gra, cious pardon. When it was first acted, your lordship’s liberal suffrage taught others to allow it for current, it having received the undoubted stamp of your lordship's allowance : and if in the perusal of any vacant hour, when your honour's more serious occasions shall give you leave to read it, it answer, in your lordship's judgment, the report and opinion it had upon the stage, I shall esteem my labours not‘ill employed, and, while I live, continue

the humblest of those that
truly honour your lordship,

PHILIP MASSINGER. * My dead father, Arthur Massinger.] So reads the first edition. The modern editors follow the second, which has Philip Mussinger. See the Introduction.

+ Leaving his to be ever most glad, &c.] So it stands in both the old quartos, and in Coxeter. Mr.M. Mason, without autho. rity, and indeed without reason, inserts son after his : but the dedication, as given by him, and his predecessor after the second quarto, is full of errors.

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ,

Timoleon, the general, of Corinth.
Archidamus, prætor of Syracusa.
Diphilus, a senator of Syracusa.
Cleon, a fat impotent lord.
Marullo, the BONDMAN (i. e. Pisander, a gentle.

man of Thebes; disguised as a slave.) Poliphron, friend to Marullo; also disguised as a

slave. Leosthenes, a gentleman of Syracusa, enamoured of

Cleora.
Asotus, a foolish lover, and the son of Cleon.
Timagoras, the son of Archidamus.

2

Gracculo

, } slaves.

A Gaoler.

Cleora, daughter of Archidamus.
Corisca, a proud wanton lady, wife to Cleon.
Olympia, a rich widow.
Timandra, slave to Cleora (i. e. Statilia sister to

Pisander.)
Zanthia, slave to Corisca.

Other Slaves, Soldiers, Officers, Senators.

SCENE, Syracuse, and the adjacent country.

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Timag. Why should you droop, Leosthenes, or

despair My sister's favour? What, before, you purchased By courtship and fair language, in these wars (For from her soul you know she loves a soldier) You may deserve by action.

Leost. Good Timagoras, When I have said my friend, think all is spoken That may assure me yours; and pray you believe, The dreadful voice of war that shakes the city, The thundering threats of Carthage, nor their

army Raised to make good those threats, affright not

me. If fair Cleora were confirm’d his prize, That has the strongest arm and sharpest sword, I'd court Bellona in her horrid trim, As if she were a mistress; and bless fortune, That offers my young valour to the proof, How much I dare do for your sister's love. But, when that I consider how averse Your noble father, great Archidamus,

VOL. II.

* C

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Is, and hath ever been, to my desires,
Reason may warrant me to doubt and fear,
What seeds soever I sow in these wars
Of noble courage, his determinate will
May blast, and give my harvest to another,
That never toil'd for it.

Timag. Prithee, do not nourish
These jealous thoughts; I am thine, (and pardon

me, Though I repeat it,) thy Timagoras," That, for thy sake, when the bold Theban sued, Far-famed Pisander, for my sister's love, Sent him disgraced and discontented home. I wrought my father then; and I, that stopp'd not In the career of my affection to thee, When that renowned worthy, that, brought with

him High birth, wealth, courage, as fee'd advocates To mediate for him ; never will consent A fool, that only has the shape of man, , Asotus, though he be rich Cleon's heir, Shall bear her from thee.

Leost. In that trust I love."

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(and pardon me, Though I repeat it,) thy Timagoras,] So the old copies. What induced the modern editors to make nonsense of the passage, and print my Leosthenes, I cannot even guess.

2 When that renowned worthy, that, brought with him] In this line Mr. M. Mason omits the second that, which, he says,

destroys both sense and metre.” The reduplication is entirely in Massinger's manner, and assuredly destroys neither. With respect to the sense, that is enforced by it; and no very

exquisite ear is required, to perceive that the metre is im. • proved.—How often will it be necessary to observe, that our old dramatists never counted their syllables on their fingers ?

3 Leost. In that trust I love.] Love is the reading of both the quartos. In the modern editions it is unnecessarily altered to live.

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