Kitabı oku: «A Chronicle History of the Life and Work of William Shakespeare», sayfa 13
1603
Sejanus, by Jonson, was acted this year. Jonson had returned to the Chamberlain's men from the Admiral's, for whom he wrote after leaving the Chapel children in 1601; but this play being a political satire on Leicester got the company into trouble, and he again left them for the children of the Revels. See supra, p. 49.
1604
The Malcontent, by Marston, was acted "with the additions played by the King's Majesty's servants" by Webster, and entered S. R. 25th July. This play belonged to the Revels' children, and was appropriated in retaliation for their playing Jeronymo, which was the property of the King's men. (See the Induction.) Compare p. 52.
1604
Gowry, already noticed, was performed this year.
1603-4
The Miseries of Enforced Marriage, by George Wilkins, was entered S. R. 31st July 1607. It was founded on the life of Mr. Caverley, the hero of The Yorkshire Tragedy, and the play ends with a reconciliation before October 1603, when his third child was born, and dating about January or February, just before the accession of King James. This play was written before 1605. Mr. P.A. Daniel discovered the identity of story in it and in The Yorkshire Tragedy. The share of G. Wilkins in the authorship of Timon and Pericles has already been noticed. He left the King's company for the Queen's in 1607, before publishing the present play. He is not the G. Wilkins who died in 1603: Mr. W.C. Hazlitt's statement in his Handbook to that effect is a mistake.
1605
A Yorkshire Tragedy, founded on the same story, was certainly acted soon after the execution of Caverley, 5th August 1605. The murdered children were buried in April. The prose account of Caverley's trial was entered S. R. 24th August, and the story of his life was printed by V. S. (Valentine Simmes) in the same year. The play was entered S. R. 2d May 1608, and printed as by William Shakespeare. I cannot think that this was unauthorised. Compare the parallel instance of The London Prodigal. Was the author his brother Edmund; and did Shakespeare assist in or revise his work? (See p. 60.) The "young mistress" of Scene 1 is the Clare Harcup of the Enforced Marriage, and her decline is inconsistent with her death in that play, but in accordance with facts. Together with three other probably similar short plays it was acted as All's One, or one of the Four Plays in One.
1605
Volpone or the Fox, by Jonson, was acted in this year.
1605-6
Mucedorus, an old play, originally written, I think, for the Queen's company by T. Lodge, was revived under exceptional circumstances, with additions at Court. From the added part at the end of the play it appears that "a lean hungry neagre (meagre) cannibal," "a scrambling raven with a needy beard," had written "a comedy" for the King's players, containing "dark sentences pleasing to factious brains," and that information had been given to "a puissant magistrate," and that the players feared "great danger or at least restraint" in consequence. Moreover, this "unwilling error" had been lately "presented" to the King: nevertheless, not being "boys," but "men," they had avoided the "trap," apologised, and been pardoned. The only known new comedy, not Shakespeare's, produced by the King's men between 1604 and 1610 was Jonson's Fox. It contains a good deal, even in its present state, that must have been unpalatable at Court, especially on monopolies and spies; and Jonson altered his plays so much after performance for publication, that it is dangerous to draw conclusions as to what the play may have originally contained. One thing in it, however, was particularly "obnoxious to construction," the miraculous "Oglio del Scoto," which, in the case of one who was this same year imprisoned for satirising the Scots in Eastward Ho, might well be taken as a gird at the Scotch King's miraculous charisma in treating for the King's evil. It is to the Eastward Ho affair that the "trap for boys, not men," alludes; and the meagreness and "needy beard" plainly indicate Jonson as the "raven" (Corbaccio) who wrote the comedy. In accordance with this view stands the fact that on the Christmas succeeding this unfortunate performance of 1605-6 there was no Court masque produced by Jonson. The date hitherto assigned to the "additions" in Mucedorus has been 1610, because the edition of that year was issued as it was acted before the King on Shrove Sunday night. But there was no Court performance in the 1609-10 winter on account of the plague. The date 1610 is therefore impossible; the words on the title were probably repeated in the usual way from the 1606 edition, of which, though mentioned in Beauclerc's Catalogue, 1781, no copy unfortunately is extant. Of the authorship of the original play, with its Induction, "cooling-card" mark, and many similarities to Marius and Sylla, there can be no doubt: it was written by Lodge. Who wrote the "additions" in 1605-6 it would be hard to say: perhaps Wilkins.
1607-11
The Revenger's Tragedy by Cyril Tourneur (?) was entered S. R. 7th October 1607, and probably acted not long before. The Second Maiden's Tragedy, licensed in 1611, which we know to have been acted by the King's men, was probably by the same author.
In 1610 Jonson returned to the King's men (he had been writing for the Revels' children since he left, after producing Volpone), and his Alchemist was acted in that year; in 1611 his Cataline, and Beaumont and Fletcher's Philaster, Maid's Tragedy, and King and no King; c. 1612 Webster's Duchess of Malfy was produced. The further prosecution of this subject belongs to a life of Fletcher rather than of Shakespeare.
SECTION VII.
EARLY ENGLISH PLAYS IN GERMANY
The importance of the performance of English plays in Germany and its bearings on our own stage history has never been duly estimated. This is owing to the fact that the groups of such plays have not been treated as wholes, only isolated references to single dramas having been occasionally made by our critics. I must here confine myself to such groups as have reference to the productions of Shakespeare. In 1626-7 a company of Englishmen acted at Dresden, and a list of their performances has fortunately been preserved (Cohn, Shakespeare in Germany, p. 115). This company appears from their Christian names to have been the Company of the Revels, which broke up in 1625 in the plague-time. In the Runaway's Answer, 1625, to Dekker's Rod for Runaways, which was directed against those who left London for fear of the plague, the players say, "We can be bankrupts on this side and gentlemen of a company beyond the sea: we burst at London and are pieced up at Rotterdam." The 1626 Dresden company were Robert Pickleherring [R. Lee] and two boys; Jacob der Hesse, and Johan Eydtwardtt (two Germans); Aaron the dancer (probably a German Jew); Thomas die Jungfrau [T. Basse], John [Cumber], William the wardrobe-keeper (probably a German), the Englishman, the Redhaired, and four boys. The other members of the Revels' company can be traced in England; and although Robert, Thomas, and John are common christian names, they are not to be found in conjunction in any other list of English players of the date. The plays acted by these men were the following: —
• 1. Duke of Mantua and Duke of Verona. Comedy.
• 2. Christabella. C.
• 3. Amphitryon. C.
• 4. Romeo and Julietta. Tragedy. [Founded on Shakespeare's play of 1591; extant in German MS., and printed by Cohn.]
• 5. Duke of Florence. Tragi-Comedy. [Not Massinger's play, which is of ten years' later date.]
• 6. King of Spain and ViceRoy of Portugal. C. [Kyd's Jeronymo, c. 1588.]
• 7. Julius Cæsar. T. [Query, the old play mentioned by Gosson in 1580, or the Admiral's play of 1594, or Shakespeare's, or the Admiral's of 1602, or the Oxford of 1606, or Chapman's, or the old play on which Chapman's is founded? The last most likely.]
• 8. Crysella. C.
• 9. Duke of Ferrara. C.
• 10. Somebody and Nobody. T.C. [Printed in German, 1620; extant in an altered form, by Heywood in my judgment, as played by Queen Anne's men in English; published c. 1609. In its original form acted c. 1591.]
• 11. King of Denmark and King of Sweden. T. C. [Clyomon and Clamydes.? by R. Wilson, c. 1585.]
• 12. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. T. [From Kyd's old play, c. 1589; extant in modernised MS. in Germany; printed in Cohn. The Induction with Night and the Furies is quite in Kyd's manner.]
• 13. Orlando Furioso. C. [Greene's play, c. 1587.]
• 14. King of England and King of Scotland. C. [Greene (and Lodge)'s James IV., 1591.]
• 15. Hieronymo, Marshal of Spain. T. [Kyd's Spanish Tragedy, c. 1588.]
• 16. Haman and Queen Esther. T. C. [Printed in German, 1620, from an English play acted in 1594 by the Chamberlain's men, but an old play then; originally not later than 1591. Compare the interlude in Kirkman's Wits, which was probably founded on it. The German play ought to be made accessible to English readers.]
• 17. The Martyr Dorothea. T. [Perhaps from a play by Dekker and Massinger, revived for the Revels' company between 1619 and 1622. This is the only play in this list to which I can assign a definite date later than 1592. But were both taken from an older play?]
• 18. Dr. Faust. T. [Marlowe's play, 1588.]
• 19. King of Arragon. T. C. [Greene's Alphonsus, c. 1588.]
• 20. Fortunatus. T. [Printed in German, 1620, as Comedy of Fortunatus and his Purse and Wishing Cap, in which appear first three dead souls as spirits, and afterwards the Virtues and Shame. Evidently from the first part of Fortunatus by Dekker, as acted, 3d February 1596, as an old play. It was probably written c. 1591. This play like (16.) ought to be made accessible to English readers.]
• 21. Joseph, the Jew of Venice. C. [From another early play of Dekker's, c. 1591. The German version is extant in MS. in the Imperial Library at Vienna, and ought to be edited and translated. The Jew, however, is therein called Barabbas, and there are three suitors, as in Shakespeare's play, but no caskets. Dekker's play was entered 9th September 1653 on S. R.]
• 22. The Dextrous Thief. T.C.
• 23. Duke of Venice. T.C.
• 24. Barrabas, the Jew of Malta. T. [Marlowe's play, 1589.]
• 25. Old Proculus. C.
• 26. Lear, King of England. T. [From the old Queen's play, c. 1589. Yet it is strange that it should be called a tragedy. It would hardly be Shakespeare's play, as no other of so late date occurs in the list.]
• 27. The Godfather. T.C.
• 28. The Prodigal Son. C. [Printed in German, 1620. Translated in Simpson's School of Shakespeare. Probably from an old play revived by Heywood for Derby's men c. 1599, but originally founded on Greene's Mourning Garment, 1590, and written (for what company?) c. 1591. So I conjecture.]
• 29. The Graf of Angiers. C.
• 30. The Rich Man. T. [Acted on 17th September 1646 as The Rich Man and the Poor Lazarus. Perhaps from a very old play by Ralph Radcliffe before 1553; more likely from the Moral by the player (? R. Wilson) in Greene's Groatsworth of Wit, 1592, who wrote the Moral of Man's Wit and the dialogue of Dives, and played in Delphrigus, The King of Fairies, The Twelve Labors of Hercules, and The Highway to Heaven.]
It appears from this list that while only one, if any, of these plays, Dorothea, which was probably taken with them by the Revels' company in 1625, can be assigned to a comparatively late date with certainty, the majority are early productions, anterior to 1592. Bearing in mind that there were a large number of plays published before 1626 which might have been used without fear of any opposition from companies in England, it is clear that in Germany the preference was given to older plays, which must have been imported at an early date, either by Leicester's players in 1586, by Pembroke's in 1599, or Worcester's [Admiral's] in 1590 and 1592. Leicester's returned to England in 1577 and Pembroke's c. 1601; but Worcester's, or rather a detachment from the Admiral's, were permanently established in Germany. E. Brown and R. Jones indeed came back to England; but Thomas Sackville and John Broadstreet are traceable in Germany, the latter to 1606 and the former to 1617. There is little doubt that the Hamlet and Romeo, in their German versions, are from early plays, anterior to 1592. This conclusion is confirmed by the list of plays published in Germany in 1620, "acted by the English in Germany at Royal, Electoral, and Princely Courts: " —
• 1. Queen Esther and Haughty Haman. C. [16. in previous list.]
• 2. The Prodigal Son, "in which Despair and Hope are cleverly introduced." C. [28. in previous list.]
• 3. Fortunatus and his Purse and Wishing Cap, "in which appear first three dead souls as spirits, and afterwards the Virtues and Shame." C. [20. in previous list.]
• 4. A King's Son from England and a King's Daughter from Scotland. C. [Serule and Astræa; probably the same as Serule and Hypolita, acted 1631.]
• 5. Sidonia and Theagine. C.
• 6. Somebody and Nobody. C. [10. in previous list.]
• 7. Julio and Hypolita. T. [Query, Philippo and Hypolita, acted as an old play at the Rose, 9th July 1594; similar in plot to The Gentlemen of Verona.]
• 8. Titus Andronicus. T. [Not our extant play, but the Titus and Vespasian acted by Lord Strange's men, April 1592.]
• 9. The Beautiful Mary and the Old Cuckold. A merry jest.
• 10. In which the clown makes merry pastime with a stone.
I am not acquainted with Ayres's plays; but it appears from Cohn (p. 64) that among them are Mahomet the Turkish Emperor (from Peele's play, c. 1591), The Greek Emperor at Constantinople and his daughter Pelimperia with the hanged Horatio (Kyd's Spanish Tragedy, 1588); Valentine and Orson (from an old English play S. R. 23d May 1595); Edward III., King of England, and Elisa Countess of Warwick (from Marlowe's play, 1590: Philip Waimer had already dramatised the same subject at Danzig in 1591); The Beautiful Phenicia (on the same story as Much Ado, and strongly confirming the identity of that play with Love's Labour's Won, 1590: Cupid enters in person, and shoots Count Tymborus, the Benedick of the German version); The Two Brothers of Syracuse (from the Comedy of Errors, c. 1590); The Beautiful Sidea (containing some incidents showing that it came from some source in common with that of the Tempest, but certainly not from that play direct); and King of Cyprus (founded on the same story as The Dumb Knight by Machin and Markham, c. 1607). Cohn does not give exact dates of authorship, but is of opinion that we should not assign to any a year later than 1600; and in 1605 Ayres died. Here again we meet with the same phenomenon – acquaintance with many English plays of date anterior to 1592; but not with any one that can be shown to be later. No doubt Ayres's knowledge of English plays was obtained from the Worcester's (Admiral's) company, who went over in 1590-2.
Yet further, in the tragedy of An Adulteress by Duke Henry Julius of Brunswick, printed 1594, we find the plot of The Merry Wives almost identically reproduced (see Cohn, p. 45, &c.) I do not see, however, so much likeness between his Vincentius Ladislaus and Much Ado.
As regards Shakespearian chronology, it results from this examination of English plays in Germany that there is no positive evidence of English plays of later date than 1592 having been acted there before 1625; that there is evidence that many (a score at least) of date not later than 1592 were acted between 1592 and 1626; that these plays were probably among those imported by Worcester's (Admiral's) players in 1592; and that in the list are contained The Comedy of Errors, Romeo and Juliet, The Merry Wives, The Gentlemen of Verona, and Love's Labours Won, i. e. every play by Shakespeare except Love's Labour's Lost, that is in this treatise placed at a date not later than 1592; besides Kyd's Hamlet, Marlowe's Edward III., and other plays with which Shakespeare was indirectly connected.
APPENDIX
In Table I. I give the dates of the Stationers' Registers entries of Shakespeare's plays as collected in 1623, the printers and publishers of the earliest extant edition of each, and the dates of all known subsequent editions anterior to the 1623 Folio. A. appended to a date means Anonymous, i. e. published without the author's name; F. means that the edition was used by the Folio editors as copy to print from. The relative popularity of the plays will be in some measure seen by a glance at this table. The most popular were Richard III. (six editions in sixteen years); I Henry IV. (six editions); Edward III. (five editions in twenty years); Richard II. (four editions in nineteen years); Henry V. (three editions in nine years). All these were Histories. Next to the Histories rank the Tragedies Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and Pericles: the other great tragedies, Lear, Othello, and the Comedies being decidedly less to the popular taste than the Histories. The entries of change of copyright will be found in their places in Table V.
Table II. gives similar information for every known extant play not of Shakespeare's authorship in which he may have been an actor or reviser. Edward III. appears in both these tables. The extreme popularity of Mucedorus is very noticeable.
Table III. gives the number of Court performances in each year for such companies as are known to have been playing in London. From this table it is evident that up to 1591 the Queen's men were the most important of all; in other words, that Greene was the chief Court stage poet, and held the position formerly occupied by Lyly, who wrote for the Chapel children before the public theatrical companies had obtained the prominent place. His chief rival was Marlowe of the Admiral's company. But after 1591 Lord Strange's company takes the lead and keeps it, which means that Shakespeare was the principal Court stage writer till 1611. This throws new light on the relations of Greene, Shakespeare, and their respective companies. But this table comprises, in fact, a compendium of the whole stage history of the time; and as the current versions of this history by Collier, Halliwell, and others are replete with blunders, it may be well to give a very short summary of the results of my investigations – proofs, where lengthy, of some minor details being necessarily reserved for a future publication. Column i. concerns one company only: as Lord Leicester's it was acting in London in 1585; in 1586 it was acting on the Continent; in 1587-8 it was travelling about England; after Leicester's death it began in 1589 to act in London, and was patronised by Lord Strange, who became Earl of Derby in 1593: after his death in 1594, Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon, the Lord Chamberlain, became its patron, who died in 1596; they then passed to his heir, George Carey: in 1603 they were patented as the King's men, and retained that title till the closing of the theatres.
Column ii. The Admiral's men were abroad from 1591 to 1594; in 1603 they were assigned to Prince Henry, and after his death in 1612 to the Palsgrave. The Earl of Hertford's men, who appear once in this column, were not a regular London company, but probably invited to play this once at Court while the Admiral's were abroad, in consequence of the Queen having been entertained by Hertford in the preceding year's progress.
Column iii. Queen Elizabeth's company, formed 1583, took the lead till 1591: they only reappear in conjunction with Sussex in 1593-4, when both companies vanish from the London stage. About 1599 Derby's company appears in London: it became Worcester's in 1602, and was assigned to Queen Anne in 1603.
Column iv. The Earl of Oxford's "boys" were in London in 1586; they travelled in the plague year, and are almost certainly the same company who reappear in London in 1589 as Pembroke's. By Marlowe's aid they prospered a year or two, but after his death became insignificant, and are only dimly traceable to 1600.
In 1597 the Chapel children are stated to have occupied Blackfriars, but till 1600 no play is traceable to them. In 1603-4 they were reorganised as the Children of the Revels, and again in 1610 as a new company under the same name: in 1612 they were again reorganised as the second Lady Elizabeth's company, the first of that name, set up in 1611, having broken up.
Column v. The Paul's boys were inhibited c. 1590, re-established 1600, finally put down 1607.
The Duke of York's men were established 1610, and at Prince Henry's death in 1612 took the name of the Prince of Wales' men.
The reader will observe that never more than five companies existed contemporaneously; and scarcely ever more than two of considerable importance. The statements of Collier and Halliwell are grossly exaggerated.
In Table IV. every entry of a play that I can find in the Stationers' Registers is extracted with all necessary fulness. The only point requiring explanation is that the capital letters after the publishers' names indicate the names of the licensers: – T.=Tylney; B.=Sir G. Buck; S.=Segar, his deputy; A.=Sir John Astley; H.=Sir Henry Herbert; T.=Thomas Herbert, his deputy; Bl.=Blagrave, also his deputy. Where the Master of the Revels or his deputy was not the licenser, the insertion of the Wardens' names, &c., would have needlessly encumbered the tables. The spelling has been modernised, except in proper names, &c., where it is of advantage to retain the old forms. These tables afford for the first time complete means of estimating Shakespeare's influence, in I. on the reading public positively; in II. as compared with his co-workers; in III. at Court; in IV. as compared with writers for other companies.
Table V., of transfers of copyright, is, I fear, in spite of much labour, incomplete. Notifications of omission will be welcome and duly acknowledged with gratitude.
