Draw me to wander after idle fires, Through mire and standing pools, to find my ruin. [Faithful Shepherdess.] 'The lyrical pieces scattered throughout the plays of Beaumont and Fletcher, though not generally equal, are still of much the same character as those with which Jonson's dramas abound. Of these we subjoin the following : MELANCHOLY. Hence, all you vain delights, Wherein you spend your folly! But only melancholy! Welcome folded arms, and fixed eyes, Fountain heads, and pathless groves, SONG. Look out, bright eyes, and bless the air! That breaks out clearer still and higher. Look out nobly, then, and dare [Nice Valour.] [False One.] THE POWER OF LOVE. Hear ye, ladies that despise What the mighty Love has done; Hear ye, ladies that are coy, What the mighty Love can do, The chaste moon he makes to woo. Circled round about with spies Never dreaming loose desires, [Valentinian.] SONG TO PAN, AT THE CONCLUSION OF THE FAITHFUL SHEPHERDESS. All ye woods, and trees, and bow'rs All ye virtues and ye pow'rs, That inhabit in the lakes, In the pleasant springs or brakes, Move your feet To our sound, Whilst we greet All this ground, With his honour and his name That defends our flocks from blame. He is great and he is just, He is ever good, and must Let us fling, Ever holy, Ever honour'd, ever young! Lecture the Fifteenth. GEORGE CHAPMAN-THOMAS DEKKER-JOHN WEBSTER THOMAS MIDDLETONJOHN MARSTON-PHILIP MASSINGER-ROBERT TAYLOR-WILLIAM ROWLEYCYRIL TOURNEUR-GEORGE COOKE-THOMAS NABBES-NATHANIEL FIELD-JOHN DAY-HENRY GLAPTHORNE THOMAS RANDOLPH RICHARD BROME-JOHN FORD -THOMAS HEYWOOD-JAMES SHIRLEY. T HE great dramatists with whom we have been engaged during the last two lectures, have absorbed so much of our time and attention, that we shall be constrained to notice much more briefly those of their contemporaries who are still to pass in review before us. Of these, Chapman, Dekker, Webster, Middleton, Marston, and Massinger, first claim our attention. GEORGE CHAPMAN was born at Hitching Hill, Hertfordshire, in 1557. He commenced his collegiate studies at Oxford, and finished them at Cambridge; but in consequence of devoting himself at both universities to the Latin and Greek classics, to the exclusion of philosophy and logic, he did not succeed in obtaining his degree at either. From Cambridge he repaired to London, when the gracefulness of his manners and the elegance of his taste soon recommended him to the acquaintance, and even intimacy, of Spenser, Sir Philip Sydney, and other leading wits of the age. Chapman commenced his literary career with a translation of the Iliad of Homer. This, with all its faults, is a production of great value and interest. It is written in the cumbrous and unwieldy old English measure of fourteen syllables; but notwithstanding this heavy drawback, such passages as the following description from the thirteenth book, of Neptune and his chariot, exhibit, with great clearness, the force and energy of the translation: He took much ruth to see the Greeks from Troy receive such ill, With his dread entry. In the depth of those seas he did hold The beauty of Chapman's compound Homeric epithets, such as silverfooted Thetis, triple-feathered helm, the fair-haired boy, high-walled Thebes, and the strong-winged lance, bear the impress of a poetical imagination, chaste yet luxuriant. Chapman's first play, The Blind Beggar of Alexandria, was produced in 1598; but as a dramatist, he did not realize the expectations which his translations had excited. He continued to furnish, for the stage, frequent tragedies and comedies for over twenty years, yet of the sixteen that have descended to us, all are heavy and cumbrous, and not one possesses the creative and vivifying power of dramatic genius. In didactic observation and description, he is sometimes happy, and hence he has been praised for possessing 'more thinking' than most of his contemporaries of the dramatic muse. His judgment, however, vanishes in action; for his plots are unnatural, and his style is too hard and artificial to admit of any nice delineation of character. The best of his plays are Bussy D'Ambois, Byron's Conspiracy, All Fools, and The Gentleman Usher. Chapman's dramas do not contain many striking passages, but the following invocation for a Spirit of Intelligence, in 'Bussy D'Ambois,' is worthy of very high praise: I long to know How my dear mistress fares, and be inform'd |