THE PLAYS OF PHILIP MASSINGER, IN FOUR VOLUMES. WITH NOTES CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY, By W. GIFFORD, Esq. HAUD TAMEN INVIDEAS VATI QUEM PULPITA PASCUNT. THE SECOND EDITION. VOLUME THE SECOND. CONTAINING THE BONDMAN. THE RENEGADO. THE PARLIAMENT OF LOVE. THE ROMAN ACTOR. THE GREAT DUKE OF FLORENCE. LONDON: PRINTED FOR G. AND W. NICOL; F. C. AND J. RIVINGTON; CADELL By W. Bulmer and Co. Cleveland-Row, St. James's. 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 limoleon 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. *It may, indeed, be taken from an account of Russia in Purchas's Plgrims, 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. ΤΟ The Right Honourable, my singular good Lord, PHILIP EARL OF MONTGOMERY, KNIGHT OF THE MOST NOBLE ORDER OF RIGHT HONOURABLE, * HOWEVER I could never arrive at the happiness to be made known to your lordshsip, yet a 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 gracious 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 Massinger. 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. |