Chapter 33 of 38 · 3954 words · ~20 min read

Part 33

FIRST OFF. Room there. QUO. A little yet to raise my spirit, Here master Lethe comes to wed my daughter: That’s all the joy is left me.—Hah! who’s this? JUD. What crimes have those brought forth? SALE.[1152] The shame of lust: Most viciously on this his wedding morning This man was seiz’d in shame with that bold strumpet. JUD. Why, ’tis she he means to marry. LET. No, in truth. JUD. In truth you do: Who for his wife his harlot doth prefer, Good reason ’tis that he should marry her. COUN. W. I crave it on my knees; such was his vow at first. HELL. I’ll say so too, and work out mine own safety.— [_Aside._ Such was his vow at first indeed, my lord, Howe’er his mood has chang’d him. LET. O vild[1153] slave! COUN. W. He says it true, my lord. JUD. Rest content, He shall both marry and taste punishment. LET. O, intolerable! I beseech your good lordship, if I must have an outward punishment, let me not marry an inward, whose lashes[1154] will ne’er out, but grow worse and worse. I have a wife stays for me this morning with seven hundred pound in her purse: let me be speedily whipt and be gone, I beseech your lordship. SALE.[1155] He speaks no truth, my lord: behold the virgin, Wife to a well-esteemed gentleman, Loathing the sin he follows. LET. I was betray’d; yes, faith. REAR. His own mother,[1156] my lord, Which he confess’d through ignorance and disdain, His name so chang’d to abuse the world and her. LET. Marry a harlot, why not? ’tis an honest man’s fortune. I pray, did not one of my countrymen marry my sister? why, well then, if none should be married but those that are honest, where should a man seek a wife after Christmas? I pity that gentleman that has nine daughters to bestow, and seven of ’em seeded already; they will be good stuff by that time. I do beseech your lordship to remove The punishment; I am content to marry her. JUD. There’s no removing of your punishment— LET. O, good my lord! JUD. Unless one here assembled, Whom you have most unnaturally abus’d, Beget your pardon. LET. Who should that be? Or who would do’t that has been so abus’d? A troublesome penance!—Sir—— QUO. Knave in your face! leave your mocking, Andrew; marry your quean, and be quiet. LET. Master Easy—— EASY. I’m sorry you take such a bad course, sir. LET. Mistress[1157] Quomodo—— THO. Inquire my right name again[1158] next time; now go your ways like an ass as you came. LET. Mass, I forget my mother all this while; I’ll make her do’t at first.—Pray, mother, your blessing for once. MOTH. G. Call’st me mother? out, I defy[1159] thee, slave! LET. Call me slave as much as you will, but do not shame me now: let the world know you are my mother. MOTH. G. Let me not have this villain put upon me, I beseech your lordship. JUD. He’s justly curs’d: she loathes to know him now, Whom he before did as much loathe to know.— Wilt thou believe me, woman? MOTH. G. That’s soon done. JUD. Then know him for a villain; ’tis thy son. MOTH. G. Art thou Andrew, my wicked son Andrew? LET. You would not believe me, mother. MOTH. G. How art thou changed! Is this suit fit for thee, a tooth-drawer’s son? This country has e’en spoiled thee since thou earnest hither: thy manners [were] better than thy clothes, but now whole clothes and ragged manners: it may well be said that truth goes naked; for when thou hadst scarce a shirt, thou hadst more truth about thee. JUD. Thou art thine own affliction, Quomodo. Shortyard, we banish thee; it is our pleasure.[1160] SHO. Henceforth no woman shall complain for measure. JUD. And that all error from our works may stand, We banish Falselight evermore the land. [_Exeunt omnes._

END OF VOL. I.

LONDON: PRINTED BY LEVEY, ROBSON, AND FRANKLYN, 46 St. Martin’s Lane.

Footnotes

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# 1:

Or _Midleton_.

# 2:

In _Harl. MS._ 1116, fol. 115, is a note of this grant to William Middleton; but it supplies no information about his place of residence. The Middletons of Middleton Hall bore “Argent, a saltier ingrailed Sable:” he does not appear, however, to have belonged to that family; see Nicolson and Burns’s _Hist. of West. and Cumb._, vol. i. p. 255.

I may add, that from the dedication of _The Triumphs of Truth_ to Sir Thomas Middleton, Lord Mayor of London in 1613, we learn that our dramatist was not related to him: “next, in that myself, though unworthy, being of _one name_ with your lordship ... as if one fate did prosperously cleave to _one name_,” &c., vol. v. p. 217. The family of Sir Thomas Middleton was of Denbigh: he was brother to Sir Hugh Middleton.

# 3:

_Dethicks Guifts_, _Vincent_ 162, fol. 215, Coll. Arms.

# 4:

Of the various persons named William Middleton whose wills are extant, I cannot identify one with the father of the poet.

C 2. _Vis. Surrey_, 1623, p. 328, Coll. Arms.—This pedigree (translated) is also in _Harl. MS._ 1046, fol. 209.

# 6:

“Amy” in _Harl. MS._

# 7:

Mr. Campbell observes, that some verses, which will be afterwards cited, “allude to the poet’s white locks, so that he was probably born as early as the middle of the 16th century.”—_Spec. of the Brit. Poets_, vol. iii. p. 118. The verses in question I believe to be a forgery of Chetwood.

# 8:

“Mary” in _Harl. MS._

# 9:

“Marbecke” in _Harl. MS._,—rightly perhaps. I can find no mention of him elsewhere.

# 10:

_Harl. MS._ 1912, fol. 52.—No record of their admission is preserved in Gray’s Inn.

# 11:

In the Library of the Edinburgh University is a unique copy of _Epigrams and Satires: Made by Richard Middleton of Yorke Gentleman, London_, 1608. 4to. The Epistle Dedicatory is addressed “To the Gentleman of condigne desert William Bellasses.” The Epigrams end on p. 19; the Satires, entitled _Times Metamorphoses_, occupy the remainder of the work, which extends in all to 39 pages. The author is a wretched scribbler, and sometimes uses the grossest language.

# 12:

_The Silkewormes, and their Flies: Liuely described in verse, by T. M._, &c. _London_, 1599. 4to, is certainly not by Middleton: according to some authorities, the writer’s name was Moffat.

In _England’s Parnassus, or The Choysest Flowers of our Moderne Poets_, &c. 1600, 8vo, the following quotations are found:

“These two parts belong Vnto true knowledge, words and teares haue force To mooue compassion in the sauage mindes Of brutish people reason-wanting kindes. _Tho. Middleton._” (p. 281, under “Teares.”)

“There neuer shall bee any age so cleere, But in her smoothe face shall some faults appeare. _Th. Middl._” (p. 321, under “World.”)

But the compiler has given them to our author by mistake: both are taken from _The Legend of Humphrey Duke of Glocester_, written by CHRISTOPHER Middleton; see the reprint of that poem in the tenth vol. of _The Harleian Miscellany_, p. 170 and p. 182. ed. Park.

_Corona Minervæ. Or a Masque Presented before Prince Charles his Highnesse, The Duke of Yorke his Brother, and the Lady Mary his Sister, the 27th of February, at the Colledge of the Mvseum Minervæ._ _London_, 1635. 4to, has been ascribed to Middleton by those who were not aware that he was dead at that period.

Lowndes (_Bibliog. Manual_) attributes to Middleton _The pleasant comodie of Patient Grissell_, 1607, and a short tract called _Sir Robert Sherley sent Ambassadour, in the name of the King of Persia, to Sigismond the Third_, &c. &c. 1609. 4to. The former piece was written by Dekker, Chettle, and Haughton (see Malone’s _Shakespeare_, by Boswell, vol. iii. p. 323); the latter (which is reprinted in _The Harleian Miscellany_, vol. v.) has no author’s name, and, as far as I can discover, contains nothing to indicate that it is by Middleton.

# 13:

In act iii. scene 1. (vol. i. p. 48), the Clerk having read from the church-book “_Agatha, the daughter of Pollux—born in an. 1540_,” adds, “and NOW ’TIS 99.” Similar notices have served to ascertain the periods at which several other old dramas were first brought upon the stage; but they are not always to be relied on as evidence to that effect. In our author’s _No Wit, No Help like a Woman’s_, act iii.

## scene 1. (vol. v. p. 87), Weatherwise says, “If I, that have proceeded

in five-and-twenty such books of astronomy, should not be able to put down a scholar _now in one thousand six hundred thirty and eight_, the dominical letter being G, I stood for a goose.” That Middleton wrote this play there cannot, I think, be any doubt; but as he had been dead about ten years before 1638, that date must have been inserted by the actors when the piece was revived.

# 14:

Malone’s _Shakespeare_ (by Boswell), vol. iii. p. 327.

# 15:

_Id. ibid._ There can be no question that this is the piece which, according to Mr. Collier, in a part of Henslowe’s Diary not cited by Malone, is called _The Chester Tragedy_. _Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poetry_, vol. iii. p. 102. When Malone (_ubi supra_) observed, that _Randall Earl of Chester_ “was probably _The Mayor of Queenborough_,” he must have utterly forgotten the subject of the latter play.

Weber erroneously states that Middleton “wrote in combination with Ford.” Introd. to _Works of Beaumont and Fletcher_, p. xliv.

# 16:

_Lansdown MS. 807._—This play was entered on the Stationers’ Books Sept. 9, 1653.

# 17:

In vol. v. p. 527 and p. 562, I followed Mr. Collier’s statement (_Bridgewater House Catalogue_, p. 200), that Nash died during 1604, because in _The Black Book_ he is described as alive, and in _Father Hubburd’s Tales_ he is spoken of as dead, both these pieces having been published in 1604. But Nash must have died earlier; for, in _The Returne from Pernassus_, 1606, which internal evidence proves to have been written before the decease of Elizabeth, he is mentioned as being “in his mournefull chest,” sig. B 3; and the _Black Book_, though perhaps not printed, must have been composed, anterior to 1604. Whatever may have been the date of Nash’s death, Malone (see note vol. v. p. 561) was assuredly mistaken in interpreting the expression “humorous theft,” to mean that Rowlands had stolen _The letting of humours blood in the head vaine_, &c. from Nash: that piece is much too weak and spiritless to have been the production of the former.

# 18:

Continuation of Stow’s _Annales_, p. 928, ed. 1615.

# 19:

He had previously (in 1603) written a copy of verses for Dekker’s _Entertainment to King James_, &c.: see vol. v. p. 203.

# 20:

This pageant is placed as an Appendix to vol. v.

# 21:

Heath’s _Account of the Worshipful Company of Grocers_, p. 331. London, 1829 (privately printed). In the same document are these entries:

“Benevolences and Rewards to Officers and others which took paines about the sayde busynesse, with other particuler charges as followeth,

£. _s._ _d._

Payde and given in benevolence to Anthony Monday, gentⁿ, for his paynes in drawing a project for this busynesse which was offered to the Comyttee 5 0 0

Payde and given to Mr. Deckar for the like 4 0 0”

p. 335.

# 22:

“There are two MSS. of this Author’s [Middleton’s] in being which have never been taken notice of in any Accoᵗ. of him. They were sold in an Auction of Books at the Apollo Coffee House in Fleet Street abᵗ the year 1735 by Edw Lewis but puffd up to a great price, bought back, & coud not afterwᵈˢ be recoverd. They are entitled I. _Annales_: or a Continuation of Chronologie; conteyninge Passages and Occurrences proper to the Honnoᵇˡᵉ Citty of London: Beginninge in the Yeare of our Lorde 1620. By Thomas Midleton then received by their Honnoᵇˡᵉ Senate as Chronologer for the Cittye. There are in it, these Articles under the year 1621.—On Good Fryday in the Morn died John (King) Lord Bp. of London.—28 May Fra. Lᵈ Verulam committed to the Tower. (Seal taken from him the last day of April).—27 Decʳ. Sʳ Edwᵈd Coke Committed to the Tower.—Decʳ. The Fortune Play House, situate between White Cross Street and Golding Lane, burnt, &c. II. _Middleton’s Farrago_: In which there is—The Earl of Essex his Charge agᵗ Viscᵗ. Wimbleton, & the Viscᵗˢ. Answʳ.—The Treaty and Articles of Marriage between Pr. Cha: & Hen: Maria.—Parliamentary Matters, 1625-26.—Habeas Corpus 1627 &c.” _MS. note by Oldys_ on Langbaine’s _Account of Engl. Dram. Poets_, p. 370. (British Museum.)

# 23:

_Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poetry_, vol. i. p. 453.

# 24:

_Apology for the Believers in the Shakspeare-Papers_, p. 497, sqq.

# 25:

The original is in the State Paper Office: for the transcript I am indebted to Mr. J. P. Collier.

# 26:

Chalmers’s _Apology for the Believers_, &c. p. 500.

# 27:

Capell’s _Notes on Shakespeare_, vol. iii. p. 31. (_School of Sh._)

# 28:

“According to this statement,” says Malone, “they received above 166_l._ 12_s._ on each performance. The foregoing extracts [from Sir Henry Herbert’s Office-book] show, that there is not even a semblance of truth in this story. In the year 1685, when the London theatres were much enlarged, and the prices of admission greatly increased, Shadwell received by his third day on the representation of The Squire of Alsatia, only 130_l._, which Downes the prompter says was the greatest receipt had been ever taken at Drury-lane playhouse at single prices. _Roscius Anglicanus_, p. 41. The use of Arabick figures has often occasioned very gross errors to pass current in the world. I suppose the utmost receipt from the performance of Middleton’s play for nine days (if it was performed so often), could not amount to more than one hundred and fifty pounds. To the sum of 150_l._ which perhaps this old actor had seen as the profit made by this play, his fancy or his negligence added a cipher, and thus made fifteen hundred pounds. The play of Holland’s Leaguer [by Marmyon] was acted six days successively at Salisbury Court, in December 1631, and yet Sir Henry Herbert received on account of the six representations but _one pound nineteen shillings_, in virtue of the _ninth_ share which he possessed as one of the proprietors of that house. Supposing there were twenty- one shares divided among the actors, the piece, though performed with such extraordinary success, did not produce more than _six pounds ten shillings_ each night, exclusive of the occasional nightly charges already mentioned.” Malone’s _Shakespeare_ (by Boswell), vol. iii. p. 177.

# 29:

_Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poetry_, vol. i. p. 451.

# 30:

_Letters_, p. 123, ed. 1678. The letter is dated “Aug. 15, 1623;” and the last Editor of Dodsley’s _Old Plays_, after citing the passage, says, “This remark was made in the August of the year preceding the calling of Middleton before the Privy Council, and must therefore allude to some other play than the _Game of [at] Chess_,” vol. v. p. 279. Let us hear Oldys: “The first edition [of Howel’s _Letters_] in Q^o 1645 is in Six Parts or Sections; but no dates to any of the Letters: _Hence so many Errors when he did date them_.” _MS. note on_ Langbaine’s _Account of Engl. Dram. Poets_, p. 279. (British Museum.)

# 31:

## Act iii. scene 1,—_Works_, by Gifford, vol. v. p. 247.

# 32:

P. xii.

# 33:

Written, we are told, by Sir William Lower, on Middleton’s _Michaelmas Term_. They are given by Chetwood in “An Account of the Author,” prefixed to a reprint of _Blurt Master Constable_, which forms part of a small volume entitled _A Select Collection of Old Plays_, Dublin, 1750. Middleton, as Chetwood previously informs us, “lived to a very great age.... We may judge of his longævity by his works; since his first play was acted in 1601, and his last in 1665[!].... That he was much esteem’d by his brother poets, we may judge by four lines of sir William Lower upon his comedy call’d _A Michaelmas Term_, 1663”! Now, _Michaelmas Term_ was certainly not produced in Middleton’s “halting age,” having been licensed the 15th May, 1607, and printed during the same year; see vol. i. p. 413; there is no edition of it bearing date 1663; and, moreover, _Sir William Lower died in_ 1662. The lines are cited indeed by Oldys, in a MS. note on Langbaine’s _Account of Engl. Dram. Poets_, p. 373 (British Museum); but he doubtless copied them from Chetwood’s volume, of which he has transcribed the title, p. 371.

# 34:

See p. xiii.

# 35:

The following extracts from the same Records shew the various persons who succeeded Middleton in the office of City Chronologer till it was finally abolished.

“Martis Secundo die Septembris 1628 Annoque RRs Caroli Angliæ &c quarto.

Hamersly Mayor. Item: this daie Beniamyn Johnson[35A] Gent Rep. No. 42. f. 271. is by this Court admitted to be the Citties, Chronologer in place of Mr. Thomas Middleton deceased, to have hold exercise and enioye the same place and to have and receive for that his service out of the Chamber of London the some of one hundred Nobles per Annum to contynue duringe the pleasure of this Court and the First quarters payment to begin att Michaelmas next.”

“Jovis decimo die Novembris 1631 Annoque Regni Regis Caroli Angliæ &c septimo.

Whitmore Mayor. Item: it is ordered by this Court that Mr. Rep. N. 46. f. 8. Chamberlen shall forbeare to pay any more fee or wages unto Beniamine Johnson the Citties Chronologer until he shall haue presented unto this Court some fruits of his labours in that his place.”

“Martis xxvijͦ die Augusti 1633 Annoque RRs Caroli Angliæ &c nono.

Raynton Mayor. Item: this day upon the humble peticion of Rep. N. 47. f. 336. Edward Hewes sometimes the Citties Chronologer this Court in consideration of his bye and good services formerly performed in his said place doth order that Mr Chamberlen shall pay unto him as of the guift of this Court the summe of xx^{ls}.”

“Jovis xviijͦ die Septembris 1634 Annoque RRs Caroli Angliæ &c decimo.

Mowlson Mayor. Item: this day Mr Recorder and Sir James Rep. N. 48. f. 433. Hamersley Knight and Alderman declared unto this Court His Majesty’s pleasure signified unto them by the right honoᵇˡᵉ the Earle of Dorsett for and in the behalfe of Beniamine Johnson the Cittyes Chronologer, Whereupon it is ordered by this Court that his yearely pencion of one hundred nobles out of the Chamber of London shalbe continued and that Mr Chamberlen shall satisfie and pay unto him his arrerages thereof.”

“Martis quarto die Februarii 1639 Annoque RRs Caroli Angliæ &c xvᵗᵒ.

Garway Mayor. Item: this day att the request of the right Rep. N. 54. f. 86.^b hoᵇˡᵉ the Earle of Dorsett signified unto this Court by his letter this Court is pleased to retaine and admitt Francis Quarles Gent to bee the Citties Chronologer to have hold and enioy the same place with a fee of one hundred Nobles per annum, for and during the pleasure of this Court and this payment to begin from Christmas last.”

“Martis primo die Octobri 1644 Annoque RRs Caroli Angliæ &c vicesimo.

Wollaston Mayor. Item: this day Gualter Frost Esquire Rep. N. 57. f. 219.^b Swordbearer of this Citty is by this Court admitted the Citties Chronologer to have hold exercise and enioy the same place with the fee thereunto appointed soe long as hee shall well demeane himselfe therein and present once a yeare yearely something of his labours in this behalfe.”

“Jovis xxviijͦ die Februarii 1660 Annoque Caroli Secundi Angliæ &c xiiiͦ.

Browne Mayor. This day John Burroughs Esq^{re}. is by Rep. N. 67. f. 208. this Court admitted the Citties Chronologer (the same place being now void and having soe beene for severall yeares past) To have hold exercise and enjoy the same place and to have and receive for his service to bee performed therein out of the Chamber of London the summe of one hundred Nobles per annum to continue during the pleasure of this Court, And the first quarters payment to bee made at Lady day next.”

“Commune Consil. tent. in Camera Guihaldi Civitatis London die Lune vicesimo tertio die Novembris Anno Domini 1668 Annoque RRs Caroli Secundi vicesimo.

Turner Mayor. At this Court the Committee appointed to Jour. No. 46. f. 251. consider the State of the Chamber did deliver their report in writeing under their hands of their proceedings hitherto in that affair the Tenor whereof followeth viz.

To the Right honorable the Lord Major and to the Right worshipfull the Aldermen and Commons of the Citty of London in Common Council assembled.

It is humbly represented by the Committee appointed by order of this Honorable Court of the xii^{th} of February last to consider the State of the Chamber &c. inter alia,

That the yearly payment of one hundred Nobles to one —— Bradshaw called the Citties Chronologer be discontinued with the place there appearing no occasion for such an Officer.”

“Comune Consil. tent in Camera Guihaldi Civitatis London die Jovis vicesimo quarto die Februarii Anno Domini 1669 Annoque Regni Regis Caroli Secundi &c xxiiͦ.

Starling Mayor. Upon the peticion of Cornewall Bradshaw Jour. N. 47. f. 26.^b Gent late the Citties Chronologer for some recompence for his Sallary of thirty three pounds six shillings and eightpence payable out of the Chamber of London which hath been taken from him by vote of the Court—It is ordered that upon resigning of his said place to the Court of Aldermen Mʳ Chamberlen shall pay him one hundred pounds in full of all Claimes for his said place.”

“Jovis xviiͦ die Martii 1669 Annoque R.R’s Caroli Secundi Angliæ &c xxiiͦ.

Starling Mayor. This day Cornewall Bradshawe who in the Rep. N. 75. f. 136^b. time of the Mayoralty of Sir Thomas Bludworth Knight and Alderman was admitted the Citties Chronologer during the pleasure of this Court here present did freely surrender upp unto this Court the said place and all his right and interest therein, of which surrender this Court did accept and allowe.”

Ibid. f. 139. “This day at the humble desire of —— Bradshaw late Chronologer of this Citty this Court doth grant unto him the nominacion and benefitt of making one person free of this Citty by redempcion paying to Mr. Chamberlen the summe of five pounds.”

# 35A:

Gifford (_Memoirs of Ben Jonson_, p. clxii.) mentions that “the city, from whom he [Jonson] had been accustomed to receive an annual sum by way of securing his services when occasion called for them, seem to have watched the moment of declining favour, and withdrawn their bounty;” but does not appear to have known either that Jonson had been officially appointed Chronologer, or that his pension (see the fourth entry) was afterwards restored.

# 36:

P. xiii.

# 37: