LETTER TO THE EDITOR DEAR SIR, It is not unknown to you, that about nineteen years since I published "Specimens of English Dramatic Poets, who lived about the Time of Shakspeare." For the scarcer Plays I had recourse to the Collection bequeathed to the British Museum by Mr. Garrick. But my time was but short, and my subsequent leisure has discovered in it a treasure rich and exhaustless beyond what I then imagined. In it is to be found almost every production in the shape of a Play that has appeared in print, from the time of the old Mysteries and Moralities to the days of Crown and D'Urfey. Imagine the luxury to one like me, who, above every other form of Poetry, have ever preferred the Dramatic, of sitting in the princely apartments, for such they are, of poor condemned Montagu House, which I predict will not speedily be followed by a handsomer, and culling at will the flower of some thousand Dramas. It is like having the range of a Nobleman's Library, with the Librarian to your friend. Nothing can exceed the courteousness and attentions of the Gentleman who has the chief direction of the Reading Rooms here; and you have scarce to ask for a volume, before it is laid before you. If the occasional Extracts which I have been tempted to bring away, may find an appropriate place in your Table Book, some of them are weekly at your service. By those who remember the "Specimens," these must be considered as mere after-gleanings, supplementary to that work, only comprising a longer period. You must be content with sometimes a scene, sometimes a song; a speech, or passage, or a poetical image, as they happen to strike me. read without order of time; I am a poor hand at dates; and for any biography of the Dramatists, I must refer to writers who are more skilful in such matters. My business is with their poetry only. January 27, 1827. Your well-wisher, C. LAMB. I KING JOHN AND MATILDA. A TRAGEDY [PUBLISHED 1655]. BY ROBERT DAVENPORT [FLOURISHED 1623]. ACTED IN 1651 John, not being able to bring Matilda, the chaste daughter of the old Buron Fitzwater, to compliance with his wishes, causes her to be poisoned in a nunnery. SCENE. JOHN. The Barons: they being as yet ignorant of the murder, and having just come to composition with the King after tedious wars. Matilda's hearse is brought in by HUBERT. John. Hubert, interpret this apparition. Hub. Behold, sir, A sad-writ Tragedy, so feelingly Languaged, and cast; with such a crafty cruelty Would weep to lay their ears to, and (admiring Told thee thou hadst a daughter. Oh, look here! Barons. Matilda! Fitzw. By the lab'ring soul of a much-injured man, It is my child Matilda! 2 Bruce. Sweet niece! Leic. Chaste soul! 3 John. Do I stir, Chester? Good Oxford, do I move? stand I not still To watch when the griev'd friends of wrong'd Matilda 1 Fitzwater: son of water. pun with the expression of the profoundest sorrows. Grief, as well as joy, finds A striking instance of the compatibility of the serious ease in thus playing with a word. Old John of Gaunt in Shakspeare thus descants on his name: "Gaunt, and gaunt indeed;" to a long string of conceits, which no one has ever yet felt as ridiculous ["Richard II.," Act ii., Sc. 7, line 72]. The poet Wither thus, in a mournful review of the declining estate of his family, says with deepest nature: The very name of Wither shows decay. "[Two lines omitted.] [One line.] Will with a thousand stabs turn me to dust, Hub. Unmatch'd Matilda ; Celestial soldier, that kept a fort of chastity 'Gainst all temptations. Fitzw. Not to be a Queen, Would she break her chaste vow. Truth crowns your Unmatch'd Matilda was her name indeed. John. O take into your spirit-piercing praise My scene of sorrow. I have well-clad woes, Pathetic epithets to illustrate passion, And steal true tears so sweetly from all these Shall touch the soul, and at once pierce and please. reed: [Peruses the motto and emblems on the hearse. "To Piety and Purity "-and "Lilies mix'd with Roses " How well you have apparell'd woe! this Pendant, To Piety and Purity directed, Insinuates a chaste soul in a clean body, Virtue's white Virgin, Chastity's red Martyr! Suffer me then with this well-suited wreath To make our griefs ingenious. Let all be dumb, Chest. His very soul speaks sorrow. John. Hail Maid and Martyr! lo on thy breast, Devotion's altar, chaste Truth's nest, I offer (as my guilt imposes) Thy merit's laurel, Lilies and Roses; Lilies, intimating plain Thy immaculate life, stuck with no stain; Roses red and sweet, to tell How sweet red sacrifices smell. Hang round then, as you walk about this hearse, The songs of holy hearts, sweet virtuous verse. Fitzw. Bring Persian silks, to deck her monument ; John. Corinthian ivory, her shape to praise : Fitzw. And write in gold upon it, In this breast Virtue sate mistress, Passion but a guest. John. Virtue is sweet; and, since griefs bitter be, Strew her with roses, and give rue to me. Bruce. My noble brother, I h' lost a wife and son1; A public benefit." When it shall please, Fitzw. Do any thing; Do all things that are honourable; and the Great King John. Back unto Dunmow Abbey. There we'll pay Song. Matilda, now go take thy bed 5 Rest there, chaste soul, fix'd in thy proper sphere, The last words [Act v., Sc. 3.] This scene has much passion and poetry in it, if I mistake not. of Fitzwater are an instance of noble temperament; but to understand him, the character throughout of this mad, merry, feeling, insensible-seeming lord, should 1 Also cruelly slain by the poisoning John. 2i.e., of peace; which this monstrous act of John's in this play comes to counteract, in the same way as the discovered death of Prince Arthur is like to break the composition of the King with his Barons in Shakspeare's play. The Dauphin of France, whom they had called in, as in Shakspeare's play. 4 [Four lines omitted.] [Davenport, ed. Bullen, 1890. For other extracts from Davenport see pp. 444 "["Rest thou" (Bullen).] and 586.] |