extent indebted to Radcliffe's production. The story, however, was well-known, and existed in other shapes; Chaucer having long before rendered it familiar to English readers in the Canterbury Tales. The date of the receipt in Henslowe's Diary-19 December, 1599-determines the date of the play from which the following songs are derived.] THE PLEASANT COMEDY OF PATIENT GRISSELL. SWEET CONTENT. ART thou poor, yet hast thou golden slumbers? Oh, sweet content! Art thou rich, yet is thy mind perplexed? Dost thou laugh to see how fools are vexed Work apace, apace, apace, apace; Then hey noney, noney, hey noney, noney. Canst drink the waters of the crispèd spring? Swimmest thou in wealth, yet sinkest in thine O, punishment! [own tears? Then he that patiently want's burden bears, No burden bears, but is a king, a king! O, sweet content! &c. LULLABY. Work apace, apace, &c. OLDEN slumbers kiss your eyes, ВЕ Care is heavy, therefore sleep you; Rock them, rock them, lullaby. BEAUTY, ARISE! EAUTY, arise, shew forth thy glorious shining; Honour and youth attend to do their duty To thee, their only sovereign beauty. Beauty, arise, whilst we, thy servants, sing, Io to Hymen, Io, Io, sing, Of wedlock, love, and youth, is Hymen king. Beauty, arise, thy glorious lights display, Of wedlock, love, and youth, is Hymen king. JOHN WEBSTER. [IN passionate energy and intensity of expression Webster resembles Marston and transcends him. He had a profounder dramatic power, and possessed a command over the sources of terror which none of our dramatists have exhibited so effectively. To move a terror skilfully,' observes Lamb, 'to touch a soul to the quick, to lay upon fear as much as it can bear, to wear and weary a life till it is ready to drop, and then step in with mortal instruments to take its last forfeit: this only a Webster can do. Writers of an inferior genius may 'upon horror's head horrors accumulate,' but they cannot do this. They mistake quantity for quality, they terrify babies with painted devils,' but they know not how a soul is capable of being moved; their terrors want dignity, their affright ments are without decorum.' This criticism refers specially to the Duchess of Malfy, but indicates generally that peculiar quality of Webster's genius which chiefly distinguishes him from his contemporaries. The earliest notice of Webster occurs in 1602. He is said to have been clerk of St. Andrew's, Holborn, and a member of the Merchants Tailors' Company; but Mr. Dyce could not discover any trace of his name, although he searched the registers of the church, and the MSS. belonging to the Parish Clerk's Hall. In tracing, in his collected edition of Webster's works, the order of his productions, and examining every collateral question of authorship likely to throw any light upon his identity, Mr. Dyce has supplied all the information that can be obtained respecting him. It relates almost exclusively to his writings. His personal history is buried in obscurity.] THE WHITE DEVIL; OR, VITTORIA COROMBONA. 1612. A DIRGE. CALL for the robin-redbreast and the wren, The ant, the field-mouse, and the mole, To rear him hillocks that shall keep him warm, * 'I never saw anything like this Dirge, except the Ditty which reminds Ferdinand of his drowned Father in the Tempest. As that is of the water, watery; so this is of the earth, earthy. Both have that intenseness of feeling, which seems to resolve itself into the elements which it contemplates.'-LAMB. THE DUCHESS OF MALFY. 1623. THE MADMAN'S SONG. LET us howl some heavy note, O, some deadly dogged howl, Sounding, as from the threatning throat As ravens, screech-owls, bulls and bears, "Till irksome noise have cloyed your ears, At last, whenas our quire wants breath, We'll sing, like swans, will welcome death, THE PREPARATION FOR EXECUTION. HARK, now everything is still, The screech-owl, and the whistler shrill, Call upon our dame aloud, And bid her quickly don her shroud! Their death, a hideous storm of terror. JOHN WEBSTER AND WILLIAM ROWLEY. L THE THRACIAN WONDER. 1661. WOMAN'S LOVE. OVE is a law, a discord of such force, That 'twixt our sense and reason makes divorce; Love's a desire, that to obtain betime, We lose an age of years plucked from our prime; Then what must women be, that are the cause I LOVE MUST HAVE LOVE. CARE not for these idle toys, That must be wooed and prayed to; The first man had a woman Delay in love's a lingering pain, |