Page images
PDF
EPUB

3. Jew of Malta, a Tragedy played before the King and Queen at Whitehall, 1633. This play was in much esteem in thofe days; the Jew's part being performed by Mr. Edward Allevn, the greatest player of his time, and a man of real piety and goodness; he founded and endowed Dulwich hofpital in Surry; he was fo great an actor, that Betterton, the Rofcius of the British nation, used to acknowledge that he owed to him thofe great attainments of which he was master.

4. Luft's Dominion; or the Lafcivious Queen, published by Mr. Kirkman, 8vo. London, 1661. This play was altered by Mrs. Behn, and acted under the title of the Moor's Revenge.

5. Maffacre of Paris, with the death of the Duke of Guife, a Tragedy, played by the Right Honourable the Lord Admiral's fervants. This play is divided into acts; it begins with the fatal marriage between the King of Navarre, and Margurete de Valois, fifter to King Charles IX; the occafion of the maffacre, and ends with the death of Henry III of France.

6. Tamerlain the Great; or the Scythian Shepherd, a Tragedy in two parts, printed in an old black letter, 8vo. 1593. This is faid to be the worft of his productions.

****************

R

ROBERT GREEN

*****

ECEIVED his education at the university of Cambridge, and was, as Winftanley fays, a great friend to the printers by the many books he writ. He was a merry droll in those times, and a man fo addicted to pleasure, that as Winstanley obferves, he drank much deeper draughts of fack, than of the Heliconian ftream; he was amongst the first of our poets who writ for bread,

and

and in order the better to fupport himself, tho' he lived in an age far from being diffolute, viz. in that of the renowned Queen Elizabeth; yet he had recourse to the mean expedient of writing obfcenity, and favouring the caufe of vice, by which he no doubt recommended himself to the rakes about town, who, as they are generally no true judges of wit, fo eftimate the merit of a piece, as it happens to fuit their appetite, or encourage them in every irregular indulgence. No man of honour who fees a poet endowed with a large fhare of natural understanding, proftituting his pen to the vileft purpose of debauchery and lewdness, can think of him but with contempt; and his wit, however brilliant, ought not to fcreen him. from the juft indignation of the fober part of mankind. When wit is proftituted to vice, 'tis wit no more; that is, it ceases to be true wit; and I have often thought there fhould be fome public mark of infamy fixed on thofe who hurt fociety by loose writings. But Mr. Green must be freed from the imputation of hypocrify, for we find him practifing the very doctrines he taught. Winftanley relates that he was married to a very fine and deferving lady, whom he bafely forfook, with a child fhe had by him, for the company of fome harlots, to whom he applied the wages of iniquity, while his wife ftarved. After fome years, indulgence of this fort, when his wit began to grow ftale, we find him fallen into abject poverty, and lamenting the life he had led which brought him to it; for it always happens, that a mistress is a more expenfive piece of furniniture than a wife; and if the modern adulterers would fpeak the truth, I am certain they would acknowledge, that half the money which, in the true fenfe of the word, is mifpent upon thofe daughters of deftruction, would keep a family with decency, and maintain a wife with honour. When our author was in this forlorn miferable state, he

writ

writ a letter to his wife, which Mr. Winftanly has preferved, and which, as ic has fomewhat tender in it I fhall infert. It has often been observed, that half the unhappy marriages in the world, are more owing to the men than the women : That women are in general much better beings, in the moral fenfe, than the men; who, as they buftle lefs in life, are generally unacquainted with thofe artifices and tricks, which are acquired by a knowledge of the world; and that then their yokefellows need only be tender and indulgent, to win them. But I believe it may be generally allowed, that women are the best or worst part of the human creation none excel them in virtue ; but when they depart from it, none exceed them in vice. In the cafe of Green, we shall fee by the letter he sent his wife how much fhe was injured.

:

"THE remembrance of many wrongs offered "thee, and thy unreproved virtues, add greater "forrow to my miferable state than I can utter,

or thou conceive; neither is it leffened by con"fideration of thy abfence, (tho' fhame would "let me hardly behold thy face) but exceedingly "aggravated, for that I cannot as I ought to thy own"felf reconcile myself, that thou might it witnefs my "inward woe at this inftant, that hath made thee a "woful wife for folong a time. But equal heaven has. "denied that comfort, giving at my laft need, like "fuccour as I have fought all my life, being int "this extremity as void of help, as thou hast been "of hope. Reafon would that after fo long waite, "I fhould not fend thee a child to bring thee charge; but confider he is the fruit of thy, womb, in whole face regard not the father, for "much as thy own perfections: He is yet green, "and may grow ftrait, if he be carefully tended, "otherwife apt enough to follow his father's folly. "That I have offended thee highly, I know;

that thou canst forget my injuries, I hardly be

"lieve

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

lieve; yet I perfwade myself, that if thou faweft my wretched eftate, thou couldst not but lament "it, nay certainly I know, thou wouldft. Althy wrongs mufter themfelves about me, and every evil at once plagues me; for my contempt of "God, I am contemned of men; for my fwear"ing and forfwearing, no man will believe me; "for my gluttony, I fuffer hunger; for my drunkennefs, thirft; for my adultery, ulcerous "fores. Thus God hath caft me down that I might be humbled, and punished for example "of others; and though he fuffers me in this "world to perish without fuccour, yet I truft in the "world to come, to find mercy by the merits of my Saviour, to whom I commend thee, and com"mit my foul."

[ocr errors]

Thy repentant husband,

for his disloyalty,

ROBERT GREEN.

This author's works are chiefly thefe,

f

The Honourable History of Fryar Bacon, and Fryar Bungy; play'd by the Prince of Palatine's fervants. I know not whence our author borrowed his plot, but this famous fryar Minor lived in the reign of Henry III. and died in the reign of Edward I. in the year 1284. He joined with Dr. Lodge in one play, called a Looking Glafs for London; he writ alfo the Comedies of Fryar Bacon and Fair Enome. His other pieces are, Quip. for an upftart Courtier, aud Doraftus and Fawnia. Winstanley imputes likewife to him the following pieces. Tully's Loves; Philomela, the Lady Fitzwater's Nightingale; Green's News too Late, first and fecond part; Green's Arcadia ;. Green's

Green's Farewel to Folly; Green's Groatsworth of Wit.

It is faid by Wood in his Fafti, p. 137, vol. i. that our author died in the year 1592, of a furfeit taken by by eating pickled herrings, and drinking with them rhenifh wine. At this fatal banquet, Thomas Nafh, his cotemporary at Cambridge was with him, who rallies him in his Apology of Pierce Pennylefs. Thus died Robert Green, whofe end may be looked upon as a kind of punishment for a life fpent in riot and infamy.

W

EDMUND SPENSER

AS born in London, and educated at Pembroke Hall in Cambridge. The accounts of the birth and family of this great man are but obfcure and imperfect, and at his firft fetting out into life, his fortune and intereft feem to have been very inconfiderable.

After he had for fome time continued at the college, and laid that foundation of learning, which, joined to his natural genius, qualified him to rife to fo great an excellency, he ftood for a fellowfhip, in competition with Mr. Andrews, a gentleman in holy orders, and afterwards lord bishop of Winchefter, in which he was unfuccefsful. This disappointment, joined with the narrowness of his circumftances, forced him to quit the university

and we find him next refiding at the house of a friend in the North, where he fell in love with his

* Hughes's Life of Spenfer, prefixed to the edition of our au thor's works.

Rofalind,

« PreviousContinue »