Marlow, which I am inclined to think are superior to those of his rivals. It will not be disputed after what Mr Chalmers has produced in his "Supplemental Apology for the Believers in the Shakespeare papers," (p. 292 et seq.) that our greatest dramatic poet was under considerable obligations to Marlow, in as much as it now turns out that he only adapted the "True Tragedy of Richard Duke of York" by the latter to the stage, though from that day to our own it has been assigned to Shakespeare under the title of " Henry VI. Part 3." To this point I have already adverted at length, and I shall not now dwell upon it further than to note the inference, that, as Marlow was a very celebrated writer, his tragedy had most likely been frequently represent ed considerably before Shakespeare's improvement of it, which is conjec tured to have been made between 1593 and 1595. There is sufficient proof that he was acquainted with most of Marlow's known productions, dramatic and undramatic. In "As You Like it," A. III. sc. 5, he quotes a line from " Hero and Leander," with a sort of address to Marlow as a "dead shepherd." In "Romeo and Juliet," A. III. sc. 2, he puts into the mouth of the heroine four lines in "Edward II.;" and most readers are aware that ancient Pistol's "hollow-pampered jades of Asia" are taken from Marlow's "Tamburlaine." This brings us to the play which is the main subject of the present article, and the title of which may be quoted at length with more propriety, because this is the first time any attempt has been made to examine it critically, with a view to ascertain its real merits; to account for some of the exaggerated and inflated passages, and to point out, as far as room will allow, such parts as are obviously the production of a poet of no mean rank. It is divided into two parts, and the first is called, "Tamburlaine the Great; who, from a Scythian Shepheard, by his rare and wonderfull conquestes, became a most puissant and mightie Monarch: And for his tyrannie and terrour in warre, was tearmed the Scourge of God. The first part of the two Tragicall Discourses, as they were sundrie times most stately shewed upon stages in the Citie of London. By the Right Honorable the Lord Admirall his Seruauntes. Now newly Published. Printed by Richard Iones, dwelling at the signe of the Rose and Crowne, near Holborne Bridge, 1592." The title of the second part I shall notice hereafter. It is obvious that, although dated as early as 1592,* the year be fore Shakespeare printed his "Venus and Adonis," the "first heir of his invention," it is not the first edition; the words, now newly published, are decisive upon this point, even if no copy of the date of 1590 were in existence. Whether that was the first time it passed through the press is still a question, because there is evidence that it had been acted at least as early as 1588; the extreme popularity of the piece is established on many authorities, but on none more unquestionably than that of the printer, who, in an epistle prefixed, talks of the delight it had given when "shewed in London upon stages." From hence, too, we may perhaps infer, that it was acted upon more stages than one. The evidence to which I allude as shewing that it was well known in 1588, is a very rare pamphlet by Robert Greene, called Perimedes the Blacksmith," 1588, in the preface to which the au❤ thor makes a curious allusion to a charge brought against him, that he could not write blank verse for the stage in the style of " that atheist Tamburlaine." This was intended as a blow at Marlow, whose religious tenets were at least questionable, for there is nothing in the play which makes the word "atheist" particu larly applicable to its hero. It is to be observed, that both parts of "Tamburlaine" are in blank verse, in writing which it was said Greene was not skilful, and it is obvious from this and other circumstances, that the date when this performance was first represented, may be tolerably certainly fixed upon as the epoch when blank verse obtained its footing at the public theatres, to the exclusion of rhime, which was invariably used in the old Mysteries, Moralities, and Interludes. "Ferrex and Porrex," by Sackville and Norton, so often mentioned, had set the example, which *It may be just worth remarking, that the learned Mr Isaac Read knew of no edition before the 4to of 1605. 1820. On the Early English Dramatic Writers. was followed at a considerable interval by Hughes in his "Misfortunes of Arthur," a performance I have previously reviewed; but these were both pieces got up by the Inns of Court for the private entertainment of the queen, and not represented, that I am aware of, upon any public stage. Of this change Marlow speaks very unequivocally in the prologue to his work before us, where he says, From iygging vaines of riming mother wits, And such conceits as clownage keepes in pay, Weele lead you to the stately tent of war, burlaine Threatening the world with high astounding tearms, And scourging kingdomes with his conquering sword. View but his picture in this tragicke glasse, And then applaud his fortunes as you please. This clearly proves, that Marlow was attempting two important innovations, the one relating to the subject, and the other to the language of the stage; and in forming an opinion upon the merits and defects of "Tamburlaine," it is absolutely necessary to keep this fact in view; he was endeavouring to turn the public mind and taste from the low scurrilous and puerile matters which had previously amused it at the theatres, from "such conceits as clownage keepes in pay," "to the by leading the spectators stately tent of war," and he was anxious, at the same time, to introduce to them a new style of speaking suited to the loftier theme and more exalted personages, by forsaking "the jigging veins of rhyming mother-wits." In this view the performance under consideration assumes a degree of importance, connected with the history of our language and of the stage, that has not before been thought to belong to it. It is necessary here to add, that we have not the play handed down to us as it was originally written and represented, for the printer mentions, that he has omitted many parts which in his judgment were derogatory" to so honourable and stately a history," probably scenes of low humour inserted by Marlow for the purpose of gratifying the groundlings, and rendering his projected change less abrupt and hazardous. 319 A due consideration of these circumstances will or ought to reconcile the reader to many of the highlywrought descriptions and bombastic sentences in the two parts of " Tamburlaine." It ought to be recollected, that Marlow was obliged to furnish his auditors with some equivalent for the vulgar buffoonery with which they had previously been entertained, and if Shakespeare, and Beaumont and Fletcher afterwards, were enabled successfully to ridicule such "braggart puft-stuff," it was because the change had then been completed and established. It was Marlow's business to astonish, and to delight by astonishing, and if he had not succeeded so well, perhaps it would have been necessary that even Shakespeare himself should have penned many more of his plays in the style of Titus Andronicus." It is a conjecture by no means devoid of probability, that this semi-barbarous performance was written by him very early, in accommodation to the prevailing taste, before the alteration already adverted to was adopted and confirmed. Besides, it is not to be supposed that Marlow could write no better than most of the rant put into the mouth of Tamburlaine: this very play proves the contrary, without reference to his " Edward II." the chief character of which is drawn with as much truth and delicacy as that of "Richard II.," for Shakespeare's whom, probably, it served as the model. As to Marlow's claim to be considered the founder of what has been often called the school of Shakespeare, it depends very much upon circumstances to which I have above alluded. The minutest and most patient investigation would not probably enable us to arrive at any definite conclusion on the subject, and I shall not discuss it farther, observing merely in conclusion, that G. Peele, in his poem called "The Honour of the Garter," 1593, bears evidence, that his friend was then dead, and pays a tribute to his memory. I apprehend, that about this year, or very shortly before it, Shakespeare began to write for the stage. I will now proceed to some quotations from the two parts of " Tamburlaine the Great," apprising the reader, that as usual he must bear with the uncouthness of the old spelling, which I have thought it right to preserve. There is one singularity about this play which merits observation, and that is, that, unlike by far the greater number of historical plays of that period, it is divided with much exactness into acts and scenes. Tamburlaine first overcomes Mycetes, King of Persia, and subsequently his brother Cosroe, who took upon himself the government. The following is part of a scene immediately afterwards, in which Tamburlaine, with subtlety, justifies his usurpation by high authority and natural impulses. Enter to the Battel, and after the Battel enter Cosroe wounded, Theridamas, Tam. burlaine, Techelles, Vsumcasane, with others. Tech. And that made vs the friends of To lift our swords against the Persean king. Vsum. For as when Ioue did thrust old crowne, Neptune and Dis gain'd each of them a Cos. The strangest men that euer Na- I know not how to take their tyrannies. My bloodlesse bodie waxeth chill and colde, And with my blood my life slides through my wound; My soule begins to take her flight to hell, And summones all my senses to depart : The heat and moisture which did feed each other, For want of nourishment to feed them both, Is drie and colde; and now doth gastly death, With greedie tallents, gripe my bleeding hart, And like a harpye tires on my life. both! Now, in all this there is nothing offensive, nothing revolting to common sense, nothing that is not proper to the characters in the situations in which they are placed; if any thing, the language is rather too cold instead of being too fervid, while the artful and artificial justification of himself by Tamburlaine might be objected to by a fastidious few as out of place, if it be not out of character. These remarks will not apply to the succeeding extract from Act IV. scene 2, where the hero, having conquered his greatest enemy, Bajazet, carries him about in an iron cage, and compels the wretched Turk to bend his body as a footstool to enable Tamburlaine to mount his throne. Tamb. The chiefest God, first moouer of that spheare, Enchac'd with thousands euer shining lamps, Will sooner burne the glorious frame of heauen, Then should it so conspire my ouerthrow. That I may rise vnto my royall throne. Bai. First shalt thou rip my bowels with And sacrifice my soule to death and hell, bids what was wanting in the scenery and dresses, he was, in a manner, bound to make up for in the glitter and glare of description. As for any rhodomontades put into the mouth of Tambur laine, (for they are confined almost exclusively to him,) they are not half so exaggerated and wind-swollen as the sentiments Dryden has in many places given to his favourite Almanzor in The Conquest of Grenada." Nathan Lee's " Alexander the Great" has also gone beyond it in several well known instances; and if Marlow has represented his hero as drawn in his car by captive princes, he but complied with the popular notion of the character of Tamburlaine and the truth of history, as far as either was known to audiences at theatres. will venture to assert, that there is nothing from the beginning to the end of the two parts of Tamburlaine to compare with the absurd, not to say ridiculous speeches of Cethegus in Ben Jonson's "Catiline." How often has Lucan been lashed for the I inflated and disgusting picture he has given of the slaughters of Marius and Sylla; but Ben Jonson has not only put the whole of it into the mouth of Cethegus, but he has out-heroded Herod in the accumulation of bloated epithets and offensive impossibilities. I could easily verify what is stated by quotations, but they would lead us out of the way, and are perhaps unnecessary. Recollecting, with Drayton, that Marlow's " raptures were all air and fire," and that he was gifted with that "fine madness," with which poets' brains ought to be possessed, we may read the subsequent description of Zenocrate, the mistress of Tamburlaine, with much admiration. Ah faire Zenocrate, diuine Zenocrate, cheeks: It is not to be denied that this address of Tamburlaine is extravagant, perhaps bombastic; but besides the author's purpose to surprise by striking novelty, we ought to take into account the country in which his scene principally lies-Persia-the seat of grandeur and luxury; and in order to keep up mere probability, according to existing notions, Marlow was obliged to make his language correspond with the nature of the clime, And sprinklest saphyrs on thy shining face, and the dignity of the characters re- Where beauty, mother to the muses, sits presented, as far as the properties of And comments volumes with her iuory the theatre would allow in the utmost *** pen. gorgeousness of oriental splendour: If all the pens that euer poets held, VOL. VI. And like to Flora in her morning's pride, 3 U Which into words no vertue can digest. Nor is the whole of this play merely" in King Cambises vein:" there are parts that have considerable pathos, more especially the scenes between the unfortunate Bajazet and his queen Zabina, and the interview of Tamburlaine with certain virgins in deep mourning, who, like Volumnia and the Roman ladies in Coriolanus, throw themselves at the feet of the conqueror to induce him to spare Damascus. At present, however, no space is left for further extracts or observations, and a notice of the second part of this play, with a few remarks upon Edward II." the "Massacre of Paris," and some other dramatic pieces by Marlow, must be reserved for next month. London, May 1820. I. P. C. GERMAN REVIEWS. No. II. We never found any thing disagreeable in any of those subscription reading-rooms which collect and amuse the inhabitants of every town in Germany, but the too great number of journals scattered on their tables. Our attention was so much distracted ⚫ Zeitung für die Elegante Welt. Unterhaltungs Blatt. " "The Pages for Mind and Heart;" but, when we had learned the usual nature of their contents, we generally, if we sought political news, took up the "Opposition Paper," or the Hamburgh, Bremen, or Frankfort newspapers. If we sought literary and theatrical information, we had recourse to the Morning Paper; + and if we were desirous to collect scraps of a scientific and general nature, we read the "Isis, or Encyclopædiacal Newspaper." There are probably as many periodicals in Germany as in America; and we never had any liking for the Stamp Act till we discovered, by these two countries, in which no such regu lation as applied to journals exists, how much this inimitable measure curbs the ready pens of authors. We do not intend to furnish our readers with a catalogue of German periodicals, but merely to notice a very few of a single class. The great difference between the contents of American and German journals is, that the former are nearly exclusively political, the latter almost wholly literary and scientific. We even think we trace far less political matter, and less freedom of remark, in the reviews we recently received, than they were wont to contain-as if the congress of Carlsbad and the tribunal at Manheim had al-ready bound with their icy chains the whole stream of German thought. We are acquainted with no German reviews of equal merit with the Halle, the Jena, and the Leipsic, Universal Literary Journals; § and of these that published at Jena has the merit of being most liberal. It is edited by the "Geheime Hofrath Fichstädt."|| All these are large quartos, each containing on an average 215 closely printed half pages, published monthly. They review new books, and supply literary information of every species, including the death or promo Blätter für Herz und Geist. + Das Morgen Blatt. Isis, ou Encyclopedisch Zeitung.Published at Weimar, and edited by Prefessor Oken. § Allgemeine Literature Zeitung. One under the same title is published at each of these towns. We have no titles which correspond to the innumerable marks of distinction which are added as an honour to, or, according to the German phrase, "laid by," (beyge leght,) the names of celebrated men. |