The Works of Christopher Marlowe, with notes and some account of his life and writings by ... A. Dyce

Preface

. THE present edition of Marlowe's Works is not a reprint of that put forth by the same publisher in 1826, but exhibits a new text formed on a collation of the early copies. I had no concern in the edition of 1826, which, nevertheless, has been frequently cited as mine ; and when I characterize it as abounding with the grossest errors, I cannot offend its editor, who has been long deceased. Several years ago, an edition of Marlowe's Works was projected by Mr. J. P. Collier; but, on learning that I had commenced the present one, he abandoned his design, and kindly transferred to me some curious documents which he had intended to use himself, and which I have inserted in their proper places : nor, conscious as I am that there has been inexcusable delay in bringing out the present edition, ought I to be dissatisfied that Mr. Collier should have since

PREFACE.

. VLLL printed a considerable portion of those papers in the Prolegomena to his Shakespeare. I have also to return my thanks to Mr. Collier for furnishing me with all the entries concerning Marlowe's pieces which he had met with while preparing for the press his Extracts from the Registers of the Stationers' Company. My best acknowledgments are due to the Rev. Dr. Bandinel, Librarian of the Bodleian, Oxford, both for the information which he com municated to me by letter, and for the many courtesies which I experienced from him when I had occasion to inspect Malone's collection of English poetry, now added to the Bodleian treasures. By the ready services of the Rev. H. O. Coxe, of the same noble establishment, I have profited more than once. To the Rev. J. C. Robertson, Vicar of Beakes bourne, who spared neither time nor trouble in aiding my inquiries about Marlowe in his native city, I feel myself greatly indebted ; and to the Rev. W. S. H. Braham, Rector of St. George's, Canterbury, I am not without obligations. Having reason to believe that Marlowe had been educated at the King's School, Canterbury, I requested the Hon. D. Finch, Auditor, to ex-

PREFACE.

. IX amine certain old Treasurer's Accounts, which, I was told, were preserved in the Cathedral, and were likely to determine the point. With this request Mr. Finch complied ; and informed me that Marlowe was mentioned in those Accounts, as one of the King's Scholars who had received the usual stipend, during such and such years. But there his civilities ended. It was in vain that I continued asking him, as a particular favour, either to permit me to make the necessary extracts from those Accounts, or to allow a clerk to make them for me ; — in Mr. Finch's opinion, my solicitations were unreasonable. Several months after, a gentleman, whose influence is powerful at Canterbury, was induced (through the medium of a mutual friend) to exert himself in my behalf; and, in consequence of his kind interposition, the extracts from the Accounts were at last forwarded to me, accompanied with a special notice that " ten and sixpence" must be sent, in return, to Mr. Finch.

The task of tracing Marlowe's course at Cam bridge was voluntarily undertaken for me by the Rev. George Skinner, of Jesus College; and he performed it with a zeal for which I feel truly grateful.

PREFACE.

. X To the Rev. John Mitford, to W. J. Thorns, Esq., and to W. H. Black, Esq., I have to offer my thanks for various and not unimportant as sistance. The first edition of Marlowe's Hero and Le ander was lent to me by the late Mr. Miller of Craigentinny. ALEX. DYCE. The present edition of Marlowe's Works was just com pleted, when the following lines were sent to the Editor by Mr. Collier, who sound them written, in an old hand, on the title-page of a copy of Alurvm for London, or The Siedge of Antwerpe. With the ventrous actes and valorous deeds of the lame Soldier. As it hath been playde by the right Honorable the Lord Charberlaine [sic] his Seruants, London, SfC, 1602, ito:— " Our famous Marloe had in this a hand, As from his fellowes I doe vnderstand : The printed copie doth his Muse much wrong, But natheles rnanie lines ar good and strong.

Of Pan's' Massaker such was the fate ; A perfitt coppie came to hand to late." The report of Marlowe's " fellowes " may be true : but certainly in the Alarum for London (as we now possess it) no traces of his genius are discoverable. CONTENTS OF VOL. I. Page Account of Marlowe and bis Writings i Addenda and Corrigenda l«x First Part of Tamburlaine I Second Part of Tamburlafne ' 17 The Jew of Malta. . . S MARLOWE AND HIS WRITINGS. "IT/HEN the latest biographer of Marlowe set out with " * a declaration that " the time of this writer's birth cannot be ascertained,"* he rather hastily assumed the im possibility of discovering it. Christopher Marlowe, the son of John Marlowe, shoemaker,f was born at Canterbury in February 1563-4, and baptized in the Church of St. George the Martyr on the 26th of that month.} * Lives of English Dramatists, i. 49.

(Lardner's Cyclop.) t " Marlowe a shooe makers sonne of Cant." MS. Note, in a very old band, on the margin of a copy of Beard's Theatre of God's Judgments, 1598, which, when 1 saw it, belonged to the late Mr. B. H. Bright. — " His [Marlowe's] father was a shoemaker in Canterburie." MS. Note in a copy of Hero and Lean der, ed. 1629, now in the possession of Mr. J. P. Collier.— See also the last stanzabut four of the ballad called The Atheist's Tragedie, vol. iii. Appendix iv. X 1563-4, " The 26th day of ffebruary was christened Chris tofer the sonne of John Marlow." Register of St. George the Martyr, Canterbury. — The following entries are found in the same Register ; which, though very old, is only a transcript ; and the scribe was unable to decypher the Christian names in the fourth, seventh, and eighth entries. 1548, " The 28th day of December was christened Marget the daughter of John Marlow." 1562, " The xxi]t of May was christened Mary the daugh ter of John Marlowe." 1565, " The [date illegible] day of December was christened Margarit the daughter of John Marlowe." 1.

Our poet's history has hitherto been a blank up to the period of his graduating at Cambridge ; but that deficiency is now in some sort supplied by the following particulars. The King's School at Canterbury was sounded by Henry the Eighth for a Master, an Usher, and fifty Scholars be tween the ages of nine and fifteen, — the Scholars having each a stipend of four pounds per annum, and retaining their Scholarships for five years. To enable some of the more deserving Scholars, on completing their education at this establishment, to proceed to one of the Universities, several benefactions were made at various times. The earliest which I find recorded is that of Archbishop Parker. In 1569 he founded two Scholarships, each of the value of £3. 6s. 8a\, in Corpus Christi alias Benet College, Cam- 1568, "The last day of October was christened [sic] the sonne of John Marlow." 1569, " The 20th day of August was christened John the sonne of John Marlow." 1566, " The 10th day of December was buried Simon the sonne of Thomas Marlow." 1567, " The 5th day of November was buried [sic] the sonne of John Marlow." 1568, "The 28th day of August was buried [sic] the daughter of John Marlow." 1570, " The 7th day of August was buried Thomas y sonne of John Marlow." 1604, "John Marloe clarke of St. Maries was buried ye 26th of January."

Qy. does the last entry refer to the elder or the younger John Marlowe (see the fifth entry) 1 It is possible that, while our poet's father followed the business of a shoemaker (which, according to the stanza of the ballad referred to in the pre ceding note, he continued to do till his death), he also held the situation of " clarke of St. Maries." So unsettled was the orthography of the time, that our au thor's name Cas will be seen) was written in ten different ways, —Mario, Marloe, Marlow, Marlowe, Marley, Marly, Marlve, Marlen, Marlin, Marlyn ! bridge, to maintain, during the space of two hundred years, two Scholars, natives of Kent, and educated at the King's School, who were to be called Canterbury Scholars, and to be entitled to all the advantages enjoyed by the other Scholars in the college.

Archbishop Whitgift having renewed this foundation, it is now perpetual.* That the King's School may henceforth claim the honour of having contributed to the instruction of Marlowe is proved by a document which I obtained with great difficulty,-! — an extract from " the Treasurer's Accounts" concerning the " Stipend, sive Salar. La puerorum studen. Grammatic.,"forthe year ending at the Feast of St. Michael, 21st Eliz. It commences with " Idem denar. per dictum Thesaur. de exit, officii sui hoc anno solut. quinquaginta pueris studen. Grammatic. pro salariis suis ad s. iiij " pro quolibet eorum per annum," and contains four notices of the usual sum having been paid " Xrofero Marley," — "in primo termino hujus anni," "in secundo termino hujus anni," "in tercio termino hujus anni," and "in ultimo termino hujus anni."

If I may depend upon the information which I received together with the extract just quoted, Marlowe did not continue at the King's School the full period which its statutes allowed him to remain. | At the proper age Marlowe was removed to Cambridge ; and, as Benet was the college of which he became a member, * For other particulars concerning the King's School, see Hasted's Hist, of Kent, iv. 583 sqq. t See Preface. X "Marlowe's name," I am informed, "does not occur in [the Accounts for] 1575, 1576, 1577, nor 1581 : the interven ing Accounts are wanting." (It could not occur in the Ac counts for 1581). — The present Master of the King's School observes "that no special patronage was required for Marlowe's election as a Scholar; any boy of good ability may at any time get into the School."

SOME ACCOUNT 01 IV I at first concluded that he had been elected to one of the Parker Scholarships already mentioned ; but a careful ex amination of the records both of the University and of Benet, which has recently been made at my request, leaves, I am told, very little doubt that he did not obtain a Scholarship.* He was matriculated as Pensioner of Benet College, 17th March, 1580-1. f He took the degree of A. B. in 1583, and that of A. M. in 15874 If Marlowe did not benefit by the Parker foundation, we are at a loss to know how he was enabled to meet the ex penses of the University : that his father could have supplied him with the requisite sums, is altogether improbable ; and we are driven to conjecture that Marlowe owed his mainte nance at college either to some wealthier relative, or to some patron whose favour he had won by early indications of genius.

Among the Kentish gentry there was no one more likely to have lent him a helping hand than Sir Roger Man wood^ Chief Baron of the Exchequer, who had his principal * The only mention of him in the Books of Corpus (Benet) Coll. is an entry of his admission in 1 580 ; and there he is called " Marlin," without the christian name. My correspondent at Cambridge observes ; " the University books enter both the christian name and the surname in all cases ; the Benet Books only in the case of Scholars. It therefore seems nearly certain that Marlowe was not a Foundation Scholar. He may perhaps have held some bye-scholarship or exhibition." The same obliging informant has since communicated to me the remark of a gentleman belonging to Corpus, that " Scholars were entered with a ' pomp and circumstance ' not found in the notice of ' Marlin.' " t " 17 Mar. 1580 Chrof.

Marlen Pensioner." Cambridge Ma triculation-Book. X " Xros. Marlyn 1583 A. B."— " Chr: Marley 1587 A.M." Cambridge Grace-Book. § Sir Roger Manwood, the son of a draper, was born at Sandwich in 1525. He applied himself to the study of the law, and appears to have become earlv eminent in his profession. He was made a Serjeant, 23d April, 1567, a Justice of the Common- V mansion at St. Stephen's near Canterbury, and was much distinguished for his munificence. Indeed, it would seem that on some occasion or other Marlowe was indebted to the bounty either of that excellent man, or of his son Peter (afterwards Sir Peter) Manwood, who was both learned himself and an encourager of the learned; for, unless the Latin verses in vol. iii. p. 308, are wrongly assigned to our poet, which there is no reason to suppose, a tribute of respect to the memory of Sir Roger Manwood was among his latest compositions.

It is plain that Marlowe was educated with a view to one of the learned professions. Most probably he was in- Pleas, 14th Octr. 1572 ; and he was both knighted and ap pointed Chief Baron of the Exchequer, 17th Novr. 1578. He founded and endowed a free-school at Sandwich, and was a very liberal benefactor to the parish and church of St. Stephen's alias Hackington, where (in the neighbourhood of Canterbury) be mostly resided. Sir Roger was twice married : by his first wife he had three sons and two daughters ; by his second wife no issue. He died 14th Deer. 1592, and was buried in the parish-church of St. Stephen's, which contains a splendid mo nument to his memory. See Hist, of Sandwich, pp. 245-248, by Boys (who erroneously states that Sir Roger was author of the well-known treatise on Forest Laws : it was written by John Manwood ). — The monument above-mentioned was erected by Sir Roger himself shortly before his decease.

This fact was curiously confirmed some years ago when the monument was undergoing repairs : the person who was at work on it told the present rector of St. Stephen's that some letters and figures in the last line of the inscription (those that record the date of Sir Roger's death) were not cut by the same hand which had cut the rest. — The Register of St. Stephen's states that Sir Roger was buried 16th December. Peter Manwood, the eldest and only surviving son of Sir Roger, was created a Knight of the Bath at the Coronation of James the First. He served several times in Parliament for Sandwich; and died in 1625. His eldest daughter became the wife of Sir Thomas Walsingham, knight, who (as will after wards be shown) was on terms of intimacy with Marlowe. See Boys's Hist, of Sandwich, pp. 249, 250.

VI SOME ACCOUNT Of tended for the Church ; nor is it unlikely that, having begun, even during his academic course, to entertain those scep tical opinions for which he was afterwards so notorious, he abandoned all thoughts of taking orders. Be that as it may, his predilection for the drama was decided ; before 1587 it seems certain that he had produced Tamburlaine the Great ; and eventually he joined the crowd of adven turers in the metropolis with a determination to rely on his genius alone for a subsistence. At one time Marlowe unquestionably " fretted his hour upon the stage." According to Phillips, whose account is followed by Wood* and Tanner,f he " rose from an actor to be a maker of plays ; " J and in a very curious ballad, || which was composed while some of his contemporaries were still alive, we are told that he performed at the Curtain in Shore-ditch ; " He had alsoe a player beene Upon the Curtaine-stage, But brake his leg in one lewd scene When in his early age."

But is the assertion of Phillips, that Marlowe was first an actor and afterwards a dramatist, to be received as the exact truth ? I think not ; for, without taking into consideration the flagrant inaccuracies of Phillips's work, there are cir- * Ath. Oxon. ii. 7. ed. Bliss. t Biblioth. Brit. p. 512. X Theat. Poet. (Modern Poets), p. 24, ed. 1675.— Warton says that Marlowe was "often applauded, both by Queen Elizabeth and King James the First, as a judicious player " (Hist, oj Engl. Poet. iii. 433. ed. 4to.) ; yet he presently adds that Marlowe "died rather before the year 1593" (p. 437),— which was " rather before " King James ascended the throne of England. || The Atheist's Trugedie ; see vol. iii, — Appendix iv. The date of this ballad may be inferred from the second stanza, " A truer stone nere was told, As some alive can shave," Sic MARLOWE AND HIS WHITINGS.

VII cumstances in the history of Marlowe which seem strongly to contradict it. Nor do the words of the ballad, " When in his early age," necessarily confirm the statement of Phillips. In the stanza just cited, the ballad-monger (who found " age" an obvious rhyme to " stage") meant, I con ceive, no more than this, — that Marlowe's histrionic feats took place soon after he had formed a permanent connection with the London theatres for the sake of a livelihood ; and, as far as I can judge, such really was the case. We have seen that Marlowe took the degree of A. M. in 1587 ; and there is every reason to believe that he was then known as a successful dramatist : but if he had been also known as one who had exhibited himself on the London boards in the capacity of a regular actor (and as such the ballad-monger evidently describes him), I am by no means sure that, in those days, the University of Cambridge would have granted the degree.* On this point, however, I would not urge my opinion with any positiveness : new materials for Marlowe's biography may hereafter come to light, and prove that I am mistaken.

For the same person to unite in himself the actor and the dramatist was very common, both at that time and at a later period. Marlowe may have performed on more than one stage, though we can trace him only to the Curtain ; and we may gather from the terms of the ballad (" He had alsoe a player beene .... But brake his leg," 8cc.) that, the acci dent which there befell him having occasioned incurable lameness, he was for ever disabled as an actor. * Even the composing of plays for a London theatre by a member of the University was a proceeding very unlikely to meet with approbation from the Dons of Cambridge. They most probably held iu supreme contempt all modern dramas which were not academic,— which were not written to be acted iu a college-hall when some royal or dignified personage honoured the University with a visit.

SOME ACCOUNT OF The tragedy of Tamburlaine the Great, in two Parts (the Second Part, it appears, having been brought upon the stage soon after the First*), may be confidently assigned to Mar lowe, though the old editions have omitted the author's name. It is his earliest drama, at least the earliest of his plays which we possess. From Nash's Epistle " To the Gentlemen Students of both Universities,"-)- prefixed to Greene's Menaphon, 1587, and from Greene's Address "To the Gentlemen Readers, "\ prefixed to his Perimedes the Blacke-Smith, 1588, Mr. Collier concludes, and, I think, very justly, " that Marlowe was our first poet who used blank-verse in dramatic compositions performed in public theatres, that Tamburlaine was the play in which the successful experiment was made, and that it was acted anterior to 1587."§ On the authority of a rather obscure passage in The Black Book, 1604, Malone had conjectured that Tam- * See Prologue to the Sec.

Part. t In which Nash ridicules the then recent introduction of blank-verse on the public stage, and seems to allude to Mar lowe in contemptuous terms. X In which Greene expressly mentions Marlowe's tragedy ; " daring God out of heauen with that atheist Tamburtan, or blaspheming with the mad preest of the sonne." — Mr. Collier thinks that Marlowe also wrote the play in which " the Priest of the Sun " was a leading character. § Hist, of Engl. Dram. Poet. iii. 112. — Compare too the Pro logue to the First Part of Tamburlaine ; " From jigging veins of rhyming mother-wits, And such conceits as clownage keeps in pay, We'll lead you to the stately tent of war," &c. It must be remembered that, before the appearance of Tambur laine, writers for the regular theatres had confined themselves to the use of prose or rhyme.

All the English tragedies in blank verse which preceded Tamburlaine were performed either at court or before private societies.— Warton incidentally ob serves that Tamburlaine was " represented before the year 1588." Hist, of Engl. Poet. iv. 11. ed. 4to. burluiiie was written either wholly or in part by Nash :* but to that conjecture Mr. Collier, — besides adducing a line from a sonnet by Gabriel Harvey, in which Marlowe, then just deceased, is spoken of under the appellation of "Tam berlaine,"f — has opposed the explicit testimony of Hen slowe's Diary, " Pd unto Thomas Dickers [Dekker], the 20 of Desembr 1597 fyve shellenges for a prolog to Murloes Tamberlen." % I may add, that the rhymer who has turned the history of Marlowe into a ballad, describes him in one place as "blaspheming Tumbolin." § This tragedy, which was entered in the Stationers' Books, 14th August, 1590,|| and printed during the same year, has not come down to us in its original fulness ; and probably we have no cause to lament the curtailments which it suf fered from the publisher of the first edition.

" I have pur posely," he says, " omitted and left out some fond and fri- * Shakespeare (by Boswell), iii. 357. — The passage in The Black Book is, — " the spindle-shank spiders went stalking over his [Nash's] head as if they had been conning of Tamburlaine " (see Middleton's Works, v. 526, ed. Dyce) ; and it means, I have no doubt, that the spiders stalked with the tragic gait of an actor who is practising the part of Tamburlaine : compare the 8th line of the passage quoted from Hall's Satiies, in p. x. t " Weepe, Powles; thy Tamberlaine voutsafes to dye." A New Letter of Notable Contents, 1593, Sig. D 3. X Diary, p. 71, ed. Shake. Soe — As another proof that Tam burlaine is by Marlowe, Mr. Collier (Hist. ofEngl. Dram. Poet. iii. 114) adduces Heywood's Prologue to our author's Jew of Malta : but that Prologue is nothing to the purpose ; see note, vol. i. 231 of the present edition. — Notwithstanding the strong evidence to the contrary, Mr. Hallam (Introd. to the Lit. of' Europe, ii. 169, ed. 1843) still continues to regard Nash as Marlowe's coadjutor in Tamburlaine. § See vol. iii, — Appendix iv. || " A ballad entituled the storye of Tamburlayne the greate," ike.

(founded, I suppose, on Marlowe's play) was entered in the Stationers' Books, 5th Nov. 1594. SOME ACCOUNT OF X volous gestures, digressing, and, in my poor opinion, far unmeet for the matter, which I thought might seem more tedious unto the wise than any way else to be regarded, though haply they have been of some vain-conceited fond lings greatly gaped at, what time they were shewed upon the stage in their graced deformities : nevertheless now to be mixtured in print with such matter of worth, it would prove a great disgrace to so honourable and stately a his tory." * By the words, " fond and frivolous gestures," we are to understand those of the "clown," who very frequently figured, with more or less prominence, even in the most serious dramas of the time. The introduction of such buf fooneries into tragedy f is censured by Hall towards the conclusion of a passage which, as it mentions " the Turkish Tamberlaine," would seem to be partly levelled at Mar lowe : | " One higher-pitch'd doth set his soaring thought On crowned kings that Fortune hath low brought, Or some vpreared high-aspiring swaine, As it might be the Turkish Tamberlaine.

Then weeneth he his base drink-drowned spright Rapt to the three-fold loft of heauen hight, When he conceiues vpon his sained stage The stalking steps of his greate personage, Graced with huf-cap termes and thundring threats, That his poore hearers' hayre quite vpright sets. ***#***# Now, least such frights ull showes of Fortune's fall * Vol. i. 5. t In Italy, at the commencement of the 18th century (and probably much later) it was not unusual to introduce " the Doctor," " Harlequin," " Pantalone," and " Coviello," into deep tragedies. " I have seen," says Addison, " a translation of The Cid acted at Bolonia, which would never have taken, had they not found a place in it for these buffoons." Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, Sec. in the years 1701, 1702, 1703, p. 08, ed. 1745. X Perhaps I ought to add, that Marlowe was dead when (in 1597) the satire, from which these lines are quoted, was first given to the press.

And bloudy tyrants' rage should chance apall The dead-stroke audience, midst the silent rout Comes leaping in a selfe-m'ufarmed lout, And lauglies, and grins, and frames his mimik face, And iustles straight into the prince's place : Then doth the theatre eccho all aloud With gladsome noyse of that applauding crowd. A goodly hoch-poch, when vile russettings Are matched] with monarchs and with mightie kings ! * But Hall's taste was more refined and classical than that of his age ; and the success of Tamburlaine, in which the celebrated Alleyn represented the hero,f was adequate to the most sanguine expectations which its author could have formed. Nor did it cease to be popular when no longer a novelty ; the Scythian conqueror, gorgeous in his " copper laced coat and crimson velvet breeches,"]: riding in a chariot drawn by harnessed monarchs, § and threatening destruction * Hall's Virgid.

Lib. i. Sat. iii. ed. 1602. t See Heywood's Prol. to The Jew of Malta, vol. i. 231. } " Item, Tamberlynes cotte, with coper lace," — " Item, Tamberlanes breches of crymson vellvet." Appendix to Hen slowe's Diary, pp. 274-5, ed. Shake. Soe. We find ibid. p. 273, " Tamberlyne brydell" (i. e. the bridle for the captive kings.) § " Enter Tamhurlaine, drawn in his chariot by the Kings oj Trebizon and Soria, with bits in their mouths, Sec. " Tamb. Holla, ye pamper'd jades of Asia ! " &c. vol. i. 194. This has been quoted or alluded to, generally with ridicule, by a whole host of writers. Pistol's " hollow pamper'd jades of Asia" in Shakespeare's Henry IV. P. ii. Actii. sc.4, is known to most readers: see also Beaumont and Fletcher's Coxcomb, act ii. sc. 2 ; Fletcher's Women Pleased, act iv. sc. 1 ; Chap man's, Jonson's, and Marston's Eastward Ho, act ii.

Sig. B 3, ed. 1605; Brathwait's Strappado for the Diuell, 1615, p. 159 ; Taylor the water-poet's Thie/e and his World runnes on Wlieeles, — Workes, pp. Ill [121], '239, ed. 1630 ; A Brown Dozen of Drunkards, Sec 1648, sig. A 3 ; the Duke of Newcastle's Varietie, a comedy, 1649, p. 72; — but I cannot afford room for more references. — In 1566 a similar spectacle had been exhibited at Gray's Inn : there the Dumb Show before the first SOME ACCOUNT OF to the very powers of heaven,* was for many years a highly attractive personage to the play-goers of the metropolis. act of Gascoio-ne and Kinwelmersh's Jocasta introduced " a kins with an imperiall crowne vpon hys head," &c. " sitting in a chariote very richly furnished, drawen in by iiii kings in their dublets and hosen, with crownes also vpon theyr heads, repre senting vnto vs ambition by the historic of Sesostres," &c. * In defence of such passages Marlowe perhaps would have alleged the example of the Italian romanesque poets (who were more read in England during his time than they are at present).

In Le Prime Imprese del Conte Orlando by Dolce, when Ago lante hears that his son Almonte is slain, " egli ha sua stella Accusa, e la biastema parimente ; Et e da 1' ira stimolato tanto Che di strugger il ciel si dona vanto." C. xvii, p. 134, ed. 1579. Numerous entries concerning the performance of both Parts of this tragedy occur in Henslowe's Diary, the earliest dated 28th August, 1594, the latest 13th Nov. 1595* Taylor, the water-poet, makes Tom Coryat inform the Great Mogul, that Tamburlaine " perhaps is not altogether so famous in his own country of Tartaria as in England; "] and notices There are touches of this kind even in Ariosto ; " Dal sagace Spagnuol, che con la guida Di duo del sangue d'Avalo ardiria Farsi nel cielo e ne lo 'nferno via." Orl. Fur. C.xxxni. St. 51. The same sort of extravagance is occasionally sound in English dramatists later than Marlowe.

For instance, in Heywood's Four Prentices of London (acted about 1599, and certainly in tended for a serious play) the Soldan exclaims, Should Ioue hirnselfe in thunder answere I [i. e. ay], When we say no, wee'd pull him from the skie." Sig. F 2, ed. 1615. Yet this early production of Heywood contains some fine things ; e. g., In Sion towres hangs his victorious flagge, Blowing defiance this way ; and it showes Like a red meteor in the troubled aire, Or like a blazing comet that fore-tels The fall of princes." Sig. G. The line marked in Italics has been cited neither by the editors of Milton nor by those of Gray as parallel to the following passages ; Th' imperial ensign; which, full high advanc'd, Shone like a meteor streaming to the wind." Par. Lost. i. 536. Loose his beard, and hoary hair Stream 'd, like a meteor, to the troubled air."