Shakspere and Montaigne Part 23

If any yet will, with particular sleight Of application, (Occasioned by some person's impertinent Exceptions.) wrest what he doth write; And that he meant, or him, or her, will say: They make a libel, which he made a play.

Nor will it be easy to find out who was the cause of _Volpone_ having been persecuted at one time--that is to say, forbidden to be acted on the stage. (Perchance by the 'obstreperous Sir Lawyer' who is mentioned in it?)

We direct the reader's attention to the eulogistic poems composed by Jonson's friends on _Volpone_. (_Ben Jonson_, by Cunningham, vol.

i. pp. civ.-cv.) First there are the extraordinary praises written by those who sign their names in full:--J. DONNE, E. BOLTON, FRANCIS BEAUMONT. Then follow verses, probably composed somewhat later, which are cautiously signed by initials only--D. D., J. C., G. C., E. S., J. F., T. R. This is not the case with any other eulogistic poems referring to Jonson's dramas. The verses before mentioned, which are only signed by initials, all speak of a 'persecuted fox, or of a fox killed by hounds.'

47: 'Come, my coach!' means: 'I value my honour less than my coach.'

The expression, 'O, how the wheel becomes it!' is of such a character that we must refer the reader to Montaigne's Essay III. 11.

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49: Until now it has been a.s.sumed that The Malcontent was acted by Shakspere's Company in the Globe Theatre. This conclusion was based on the t.i.tle-page of the drama, which runs thus:--

THE MALCONTENT _Augmented by Marston_ _With the Additions played by the Kings_ MAIESTIES SERVANTS _Written by_ JOHN WEBSTER.

It is, however, to be noted that in regard to all other plays of Marston, whenever it is mentioned by whom they were acted (so, for instance, in regard to _The Parasitaster_, the _Dutch Courtesane_, and _Eastward Hoe_), the t.i.tle is always indicated in this way (designating both the Theatre and the Company):--'As it was plaid in the Black Friars by the Children of her Maiesties Revels.' Again, the mere perusal of the 'Induction' of _The Malcontent_ (not to speak of the drama itself) shows that this play could not have been acted 'by the Kings Maiesties servants' during Shakspere's members.h.i.+p. For, in this Induction there appear four actors of Shakspere's company: Sly, Burbadge, Condell, and Lowin. They are brought in to justify themselves why they act a certain play, 'another Company having interest in it.' One of the actors excuses their doing so by saying that, as they themselves have been similarly robbed, they have a clear right to Malevole, the chief character in _The Malcontent_.

'Why not Malevole in folio with us, as Jeronimo _in decimo s.e.xto_ with them? They taught us a name for our play: we call it: "_One for Another_."' (That is to say, we give them 't.i.t for Tat.')

_Sly_. What are your additions?

_Burbadge_. Sooth, not greatly needefull, only as your sallet (salad) to your greate feast--to entertaine a little more time, and to abridge the not received custome of musicke in our theater. I must leave you, Sir. [_Exit_ Burbadge.

_Sinklow_. Doth he play _The Malcontent_?

_Condell_. Yes, Sir.

Our explanation of the Induction is this: Marston has committed satirical trespa.s.s upon _Hamlet_. Shakspere, on his part, made use of the chief action and the chief characters of _The Malcontent_ in his _Measure for Measure_ ('One for Another'); but he did so in his own n.o.bler manner. From the wildly confused material before him he composed a magnificent drama. Once more, in the very beginning of act i. sc. I, Shakspere makes the Duke utter words, each of which is directed against the inactive nature of Montaigne:--

Thyself and thy belongings Are not thine own so proper as to waste Thyself upon thy virtues, them on thee.

...For if our virtues Did not go forth of us, 't were all alike As if we had them not.

Shakspere's contemporaries were not over careful as regards style. 'With the additions played by the Kings Maiesties Servants, written by John Webster,' means that the additions, in which the servants of His Majesty, in the 'Induction,' are brought on the stage, were written by John Webster.

Read the 'Extempore Prologue' which Sly speaks at the conclusion of the Induction--a shameless travesty of the Epilogue in _As You Like It_. Read the beginning of act iii. sc. 2 of _The Malcontent_, where Malevole ('in some freeze gown') burlesques the splendid monologue in King Henry the Fourth (Part 11. act iv. sc. I). Read act iii. sc. 3 of _The Malcontent_, where Marston sneers at the scene in act iv. of _King Richard the Second_ when Richard says:--

Now is this golden crown like a deep well, That owes two buckets filling one another.

50: Is it imaginable that Shakspere could have allowed his own most beautiful productions to be thus leered at, and mocked, in his own theatre? Our feeling rebels against the thought.

Beniamini Jonsonio Poetae Elegantissimo Gravissimo Amico Suo Candido et Cordato Johannes Marston, Musarum Alumnus, Asperam Hanc Suam Thaliam DD.

51: Who else can be meant by the 'Frenchman's Helicon' than Montaigne? He is satirically called 'Helicon,' as he is taken down from his height in 'Hamlet.'

52: In meaning alike to Jonson's: 'Counting all old doctrine heresie.'

53: Act i. sc.2.

54: Act iv. sc. 5.

55: Act i. sc. 4.

56: Act i. sc. 7.

57: Act i. sc. 6.

58: Act iii. sc. 2.

59: Act ii. sc. 5.

60: Act i. Sc. 5 in _Hamlet_; _Malcontent_, act iii. sc. 3.

61: Perhaps an allusion to the conclusion of _Hamlet_, when the State falls into the hands of a soldier (Fortinbras).

--Soldaten-Religion, keine Religion ('a soldier's religion, no religion'), as the old German saying is.

62: Roch.e.l.le-Churchman--that is, Huguenot.

63: See Bacon's Essay, _Of Atheism_: 'All that impugn a received religion or superst.i.tion are by the adverse part branded with the name of Atheists.'

64: Sonnet lxvi. lx.x.xv.

65: xc. xci. xcii.

66: In _Eastward Hoe_, his most delicate poetical production, Ophelia, is most abominably parodied--'rudely strumpeted.'