THE SUN'S DARLING.

THE Masque is the joint production of two authors, certainly not of equal merit, but, in their day, of nearly equal populari. ty. It would be in vain to assign the different scenes to the two different poets who produced them; and the usual practice of editors, in these joint performances, of assigning the best parts to the author whose works they are editing, and the worst to his colleague, is too invidious not to deserve reprehension. Decker, besides some very valuable pamphlets, wrote a considerable number of plays, and in several others assisted Massinger, Rowley, Middleton, Webster, &c. The comedies of Old Fortunatus, The Honest Whore, and Satiromastrix, or the Untrussing of the Humorous Poet, an answer to an attack from Ben Jonson, have very considerable merit. Oldys, in his MS. notes on Langbaine, says that this veteran play-wright was "full three-score years old in 1638," and that "he was in King's Bench prison between 1613 and 1616, and how much longer I know not."

The following is the full title of the present Drama: “The Sun's-Darling: A Moral Masque: As it hath been often presented by their Majesties servants, at the Cock-pit in DruryLane, with great applause. Written by John Foard and Tho. Decker, Gent. [Then a wood-cut illustrative of the subject.] London, printed by T. Bell, for Andrew Penneycuicke, Anno Dom. 1657. 4to." This masque was first presented in March 1623-4, a fact ascertained by Mr Malone, which fixes the rank it holds in the chronological order of our author's productions. A metrical commendation by J. Tatham is prefixed, which will be found in the first volume.

ΤΟ

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

THOMAS WRIOTHESLEY,

EARL OF SOUTHAMPTON,

LORD WRIOTHESLEY, OF TITCHFIELD, &c.

MY LORD!

HERODOTUS reports, that the Ægyptians, by wrapping their dead in glass, present them lively to all posterity: but your lordship will do more, by the vivifying beams of your acceptation revive the parents of this orphan poem, and make them live to eternity. While the stage flourished, the poem lived by the breath of general applauses, and the virtual favour of the court; but since hath languished for want of heat, and now, near shrunk up with cold, creeps, with a shivering fear, to extend itself at the flames of your benignity. My lord, though it seems rough and forlorn, it is the issue of worthy parents, and we doubt not, but you will find it accomplished with their virtue. Be pleased then, my lord, to give it entertainment; the more destitute and needy it is, the greater reward may be challenged by your charity; and so, being sheltered

* Fervor.] So the quarto reads.

under your wings, and comforted by the sunshine of your favour, it will become proof against the injustice of time, and, like one of Demetrius' statues, appear fresher and fresher to all ages. My lord, were we not confident of the excellence of the piece, we should not dare to assume an impudence to prefer it to a person of your honour, and known judgment; whose hearts are ready sacrifices to your name and honour, being, my lord, your lordship's most humble and most obligedly submissive servants,

THEOPHILUS BIRD'.

ANDREW PENNEYCUICKE 3.

Prefer.] This verb was often used for offer, or proffer. * See p. 225 of this volume.

3 Andrew Penneycuicke, as well as Bird, was a performer of reputation. His line of acting was principally confined to female characters.

READER,

It is not here intended to present thee with the perfect analogy betwixt the world and man*, which was made for man; nor their co-existence, the world determining † with man: this, I presume, hath been by others treated on: but, drawing the cur. tain of this moral, you shall find him in his progression as followeth :

The First Season,

Presents him in the twilight of his age,

Not pot-gun-proof ‡, and yet he'll have his page :
This small knight-errant will encounter things
Above his perch, and like the partridge springs.

The Second Season:

Folly, his squire, the lady Humour brings,
Who in his ear far sweeter novels sings.
He follows them; forsakes the April queen,
And now the noon-tide of his age is seen.

The Third Season.

As soon, as nerv'd with strength, he becomes weak,
Folly and Humour do § his reason break;

World and man.] In this age allegory was considered the most perfect qualification of poetry; every poem of reputation was supposed to contain a continued strain of mysterious significations. The most terrestrian, and there, fore one of the most delightful of poets, Ariosto, was construed to have written with an apparent levity, but with a deep and profound meaning, which, of course, the commentators.took great pains to demonstrate. The "analogy betwixt the world and man," or Macrocosmus and Microcosmus, was particularly a favourite subject, and furnished subjects for several poetical pieces, such as Sir John Davies's Microcosmus, the Moral Masque, of the same name, by Thomas Nabbes, and the present drama, which, we must confess, is, in point of poetical merit, far surpassed by the performance last mentioned.

† Determining.] This word is frequently employed by the old writers for terminating,

Not pot-gun proof.] A pot-gun is a favourite plaything among boys, consisting of a hollow cane or reed. It is employed reproachfully in Webster's Duchess of Malfy, Act III. sc. 3.

"I saw a Dutchman break his pate once

For calling him pot-gun; he made his head
Have a bore like a musket."

§ Do.] The old copy reads ungrammatically doth, and in the next line hurries.