able job would eventually appear; and as I had previously rescued the lovers of our old drama from a verbatim copy of Monck Mason's Massinger, I ventured to hope for their liberal construction of my endeavours in the kindred office of relieving them from a second edition of Mr. Weber's Ford. All this may savour of vanity-to those who know me not. About this, however, I give myself no concern, well assured that the most inveterate of my enemies cannot entertain a humbler opinion of this work than I do myself, as far as Mr. Weber and his friends are concerned. If it prove useful to the cause of truth and justice, and tend in any degree to check the unlicensed career of ignorance and presumption, I have all the reward that I ever coveted. To the text, which will, I flatter myself, be found as correct as that of Massinger, a few short notes are subjoined and here I must bespeak the reader's indulgence if he occasionally observes an explanation when all seems sufficiently clear. In these cases the reference is always to the labours of Mr. Weber, who might, if consulted, still mislead the reader. Of the general nature of this person's notes, some idea may be formed by the few (they are but a few[?]) which I have placed as specimens in the Introductory part. My remarks, together with the innumerable corrections of the text, should have been subjoined to the respective pages, had I not indulged a hope that whenever another edition of this poet should be called for, the future editor (as the reading will then probably be considered as established) would remove . this part of the Introduction, and relieve the work altogether from the name of Weber. To the dramas I have subjoined for the first time Fame's Memorial, which had been already given to the press, from the old copy, by Mr. Joseph Haslewood.32 It requires no comment. A few good lines, and even stanzas, might be selected from it; but as a whole it is little more than the holiday task of an ambitious schoolboy. The elegies and encænias of those days were usually of a formidable length; but the mortuary tribute of our youthful bard outstrips them all. In ten pages he might have said all that he had to say, or his subject required; but he was determined to have fifty, and the inevitable consequence followed: five times he repeats himself, and in every successive repetition becomes more vapid, unnatural, and wearisome. What is still more vexatious, after dragging his reader through an hundred seven-line stanzas, and very pertinently demanding "What more yet unremember'd can I say?" he bursts forth in a deep and awful strain of pathos, which Old Jeronymo33 never reached; 32 The preface to this publication by the editor, the professed admirer of Mr. Weber's talents, is drawn-up with such neatness and perspicuity that it would be a crying injustice to the author to suppress it, were it not morally certain that, like the poem to which it is prefixed, it would never obtain a reader. At the conclusion Mr. Haslewood, who qualifies himself very properly as an unspleened dove, has aimed a swashing blow at me-who was even ignorant of his existence of a most tremendous kind; "Be merciful, great duke, to men of mould !" 33 See The Spanish Tragedy (which critics agree in assigning to the pen of Kyd), "O eyes! no eyes," &c. act iii. D. "Life? ah, no life, but soon-extinguish'd tapers; He then erects "Nine Tombs" over his patron's ashes, upon every one of which he places an epitaph; and, as if this were not sufficient, breaks out once more in a childish rant, which can only excite pity by its hopeless imbecility. Could it be supposed for an instant that a single person would toil through this Memorial, I should have subjoined an observation or two, for which occasion was offered; but to write merely to be overlooked is not very encouraging: I have therefore satisfied myself with the reprint, leaving the notes to be hereafter excogitated by the former editor, who, after innocently confounding the poet with his cousin of Gray's Inn, very feelingly laments that "there yet survives a puny race of fastidious readers who will continue to esteem a naked text in preference to a page three parts enriched by notes critical and illustrative"! The work closes with an additional poem, composed under better auspices and in a far better taste. It is a warm and cordial tribute of praise to the "best of English poets," written in 1637, and published in the Jonsonus Virbius of the following year. Two or three smaller pieces of a complimentary kind might be added,34 but they are not worth the labour of tran 34 I have added two or three, in order to render this edition as complete as possible. D. scribing; and the reader, who has yet to wade through the corruptions of the last edition,35 has already been too long detained from the dramatic pieces. 35 Detailed in a supplement to the present Introduction; which supplement I have omitted, according to the wish of Gifford : see p. lxvi., and my Preface. D. A LIST OF FORD'S PLAYS. 1. The Lover's Melancholy, T. C. Acted at the Blackfriars and the Globe, 24th November 1628. Printed 1629. 2. 'Tis Pity she's a Whore, T. Phoenix. Printed 1633. Acted at the 3. The Broken Heart, T. Printed 1633. Acted at the Blackfriars. .4. Love's Sacrifice, T. Printed 1633. Acted at the Phoenix. 5. Perkin Warbeck, H. T. 6. The Fancies Chaste and Phoenix. Printed 1634. Acted at the Phoenix. Noble, C. Printed 1638. Acted at the 7. The Lady's Trial, T. C. Acted at the Cockpit in May 1638. Printed 1639. 8. The Sun's Darling, M. By Ford and Decker. Acted in March 1623-24, at the Cockpit. Printed 1657 [see vol. iii. p. 102]. 9. The Witch of Edmonton, T. By Rowley, Decker, Ford, &c. Printed 1658. Probably acted soon after 1622. Acted at the Cockpit and at Court. 10. Beauty in a Trance, T. Entered on the Stationers' books September 9th, 1653, but not printed. burton's servant. II. The London Merchant, C. 12. The Royal Combat, C. 13. An ill Beginning has a good End, &c. C. Played at the Cockpit, 1613. Destroyed by Mr. War 14. The Fairy Knight. By Ford and Decker. Entered on the Stationers' books June 29th, 1660, but not printed. Destroyed by Mr. Warburton's servant. 15. A late Murther of the Sonne upon the Mother. By Ford and Webster. 16. The Bristowe Merchant. By Ford and Decker. These are given from the researches of Mr. G. Chalmers. For other pieces attributed to our author see p. xx. |