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ried two of the Daughters of that Count of Provence, was against the French: (by that name noting all Forreigners.--- )

*To remue the Frente men to libbe beyond fe, Bi hor londs her and ther,and ne come noght age.

And to granti God laws and the old Charter also, That lo ofte was igranted er, and so ofte undo.

And yet from this Marriage, fprang those our Kings which afterwards conquered France.

These reflections have drawn me too far beyond my purpose, which was only to treat of dramatick representations. (e) Of which kind Stow tells us that in the time of R. II. An. 1391. the Parish Clerks of London Acted a Play at the Skinners Well by Smithfield, which lafted three days; and was of Matters from Adam and Eve. And in H. IV. his time, Ann. 1409. another was reprefented at the fame place, which held eight days.

From this, and what was noted before in France and Italy, we may gather that the Old Testament, Chrifts Paffion, and the Acts of the Apostles, were the ordinary en

*Rob. Gloc. Mss. Cotton. (e) Survey of London.

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tertainment on the Stage, all Europe over, for an hundred year or two, ofour greatest ignorance and darkness. But that in England we had been used to another fort of Plays in the beginning of H. VIII. Reign may be feen from that ofthe * Laureat on Cardinal woolfey:

Like Mahound in a Play;
Roman dare him with lay.

And in the fame reign we find printed the Interludes of John Heywood. But early under Queen Elizabeth, our dramatick Poetry grew to fomething of a juft fymmetry and proportion in 1566. Geo. Gafcoigne of Grays-Inn tranflated the Supposes, from Ariosto, which was there acted: as alfo his focafta Englished from Euripides, the Epilogue witten by Chr. Telverton.

And after that were reckon'd for Comedy, Edward Earl of Oxford; for Tragedy amongst others, Thomas Lord of Buchurst, whofe Gorboduck is a fable, doubtless, better turn'd for Tragedy, than any on this fide the Alps in his time, and might have been a better direction to Shakespear and Ben. Johnson than any guide they have had the luck to follow. Here

* Skelton.

Here is a King, the Queen, and their two Sons. The King divides his Realm, and gives it betwixt his two Sons. They quarrel. The Elder Brother Kills the Tounger Which provokes the Mother to Kill the El der. Thereupon the King Kills the Mothers And then to make a clear Stage the people rife and dispatch old Gorboduck.

It is objected by our Neighbours against the English,that we delight in bloody fpectacles. Our Poets who have not imitated Gorboduck in the regularity and roundness of the defign, have not failed on the Theatre to give us the atrocité and blood, enough in all Confcience. From this time Dramatick Poetry began to thrive with us, and flourish wonderfully. The French confefs they had nothing in this kind confiderable till 1635. that the Academy Royal was founded. Long before which time we had from Shakespear, Fletcher, and Ben. Johnfon whole Volumes; at this day in poffeffion of the Stage, and acted with greater applause than ever. Yet after all, I fear what Quintilian pronounced concerning the Roman Comedy, may as juftly be faid of Englifh Tragedy: In Tragedia maxime claudicamus, vix levem confequimur umbram. In Tragedy we come fhort extreamly; hardly have we a flender shadow of it. CHAP.

CHAP. VII

Othello. More of a piece. in Tragedy four parts. Fable, the Poets part. Cinthio's Novels. Othello altered for the worse. Marriage, abfurd, forbidden by Horace. Fable of Othello. Ufe and Application. Othello's Love powder. High-German Doctor. Venetians odd taste of things. Their Women fools. Employ Strangers. Hate the Moors. Characters. Nothing of the Moor in Othello, of a Venetian in Desdemona. Of a Souldier in Jago. The Souldiers Character, by Horace. What by Shakespear. Agamemnon. Venetians no fenfe of Jealoufie. Thoughts, in Othello, in a Horfe, or Mastiff, more fenfibly expreft. Ill Manners. Outragious to a Nobleman, to Humanity. Addrefs, in telling bad news. In Princes Courts In Aristophanes. In Rabelais. Venetian Senate. Their Wif dom.

F

Rom all the Tragedies acted on our Eng.

lish Stage,Othello is faid to bear the Bell away. The Subject is more of a piece, and there is indeed fomething like, there is, as it were, fome phantom of a Fable. The Fable is always accounted the Soul of Tragedy. And it is the Fable which is properly the Poets part. Because the other

three

three parts of Tragedy, to wit the Characters are taken from the Moral Philofopher; the thoughts or fence, from them that teach Rhetorick: And the last part, which is the expreffion, we learn from the Grammarians.

This Fable is drawn from a Novel, compos'd in Italian by Giraldi Cinthio, who alfo was a Writer of Tragedies. And to that ufe employ'd fuch of his Tales, as he judged proper for the Stage. But with this of the Moor, he meddl'd no farther.

Shakespear alters it from the Original in feveral particulars, but always, unfortu nately, for the worse. He bestows a name on his Moor; and styles him the Moor of Venice a Note of pre-eminence, which neither History nor Heraldry can allow him. Cinthio, who knew him beft, and whose creature he was, calls him fimply a Moor. We fay the Piper of Strasburgh; the Jew of Florence; And, if you please, the Findar of Wakefield: all upon Record, and memorable in their Places. But we fee no fuch Cause for the Moors preferment to that dignity. And it is an affront to all Chroniclers, and Antiquaries, to top upon 'um a Moor, with that mark of renown, who yet had never faln within the Sphere of their Cognisance. G 4 Then

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