Vice. In the second scene, next to the Prologue, my lord. More. Why, play on till that scene come, and by that time Wit's beard will be grown, or else the fellow returned with it. playest thou? Vice. Inclination the Vice, my lord. And what part More. Gramercy, now I may take the vice, if I list; and wherefore hast thou that bridle in thy hand? Vice. I must be bridled anon, my lord. More. An thou beest not saddled too, it makes no matter, for then Wit's inclination may gallop so fast, that he will outstrip Wisdom, and fall to folly. Vice. Indeed, so he does to Lady Vanity; but we have no folly in our play. More. Then there's no wit in it, I'll be sworn; folly waits on wit, as the shadow on the hody, and where wit is ripest there folly still is readiest. But begin, I prethee: we'll rather allow a beardless Wit, that Wit all beard to have no brain. The trumpet sounds, and the Prologue enters, saying Now, for as much as in these latter days, We therefore intend, good gentle audience, A pretty short interlude to play at this present, Desiring your leave and quiet silence To show the same, as it is meet and expedient. It is singular that the play which is now acted by them, instead of being part of the interlude here printed, should be nothing more than an alteration of Lusty Juventus, ingeniously adapted so as to suit the other title. As more than one explanation can be given, I shall content myself with stating the facts as I find them; merely observing that in the list of plays given above, Lusty Juventus occurs immediately before Wit and Wisdom. Perhaps the latter was old-fashioned and out of date at the time Sir Thomas More was composed. At all events, it is a curious circumstance, and it is possible further investigation may set the author's reasons in their true light. From the quotations given above, we had good grounds for believing that an independent play under the same title had existed in some shape or other before the year 1590. Mr. Larking's discovery proves such expectations to be well founded, and that there is no connexion between "Wit and Wisdom" and "Wit and Science." Two plays under the latter title are still preserved, one in Mr. Bright's manuscript, the other printed about 1570. The MS. from which our text is printed is a small quarto volume, containing 32 leaves, measuring 7% by 6 inches, and in very bad condition. The state of the MS. has, in some few instances, rendered a satisfactory reading next to impossible, without the assistance of another copy; while the original transcriber was evidently a person of no education, and has blundered most egregiously. The casual observer will detect many errors; even the arrangement of the acts and scenes is inaccurate; but we have thought it better to give a faithful copy of the manuscript, rather than attempt to form a version agreeable to a modern reader. There are, after all, but few difficulties of any serious moment; and as the interlude is worth a perusal for its own sake, we may perhaps venture to hope it will have a small share of attention as a work of the art in its infancy in this country. Before twenty years had elapsed from the date of this play, which may almost be called a primitive composition, Shakespeare had given to the world many of those wonderful works that reached the high position of perfect dramatic excellence. So rapid a transition and growth is unexampled in the history of any literature, and we look in vain to account for it from any ordinary causes. It was a time when history was a dry and inaccurate chronicle, and fiction completely puerile. Those two sciences were stationary, while the drama was progressing with such wonderful advances. And it is such reflections that invest with peculiar interest the few relics which immediately preceded the productions of the Avonian poet. Few of them fail to illustrate his plays or his progress in one way or other, and the discovery now made adds one link to the chain. enthusiastic inquirer might see in this the germ of a character introduced in the "Merry Wives of Windsor;" and the mere possibility is worthy accurate and careful investigation, for in the history of Shakespeare and his plays, the paucity of facts invites conjectural discussion; and however we may deprecate the danger of hasty deductions, and the liability of falling into them sometimes imperceptibly, which the greatest caution An |