“What, kill a King!—forbid it Heav'n! 66 Angels stand like his guards about his person. "But Kings are sacred, and the Gods alone The Queen Mother says. " 'tis indeed the King." "For Heaven alone can punish him." Florella says to the King" All the divinity "About your sacred person, could not guard you; "You, tho' a King, cannot divine your fate; Kings only differ from the Gods in that." In the 5th act Abdelazer says "a King's a Deity!" The last Editor of the B. D. represents this play as printed in 1671-a mistake seemingly copied from Langbaine-Barker says 1677-in 1671 Mrs. Behn had but just begun to write plays-Percival and Mrs. Barry were not on the stage. In Lust's Dominion the Cardinal says "I'll satisfy with trentals, dirges, prayers.” The Editor of the Old Plays in 1814-1815 tells us, that trentals are 30 masses on the same account —but 30 masses said at any time would not be trentals-Burnet in his History of the Reformation— Part 2d-Book 1st-says-" That which brought in "most custom was, Trentals, which was a method of delivering souls out of Purgatory, by saying 30 "masses a year for them: and whereas it was observed, "that Men, on the Anniversaries of their Birth-days, Wedding, or other happy accidents of their lives, "were commonly in better humour, so that favours were more easily obtained; they seemed to have "had the same opinion of God and Christ: so they "ordered it, that 3 of these should be said on Christ"mas day, 3 on Epiphany, 3 on the Purification of "the Blessed Virgin, 3 on the Annunciation, 3 on "the Resurrection, 3 on the Ascension, 3 on Whitsunday, 3 on Trinity-sunday, 3 on the Assumption "of the Blessed Virgin, and 3 on her Birthday; hoping that these days would be the mollia tempora, "when God and Christ, or the Blessed Virgin, would "be of easier access, and more ready to grant their "desires." 66 RYMER. A critical work by Rymer was licensed July 17 1677, and published in 1678--it consists of 144 pages in small 8vo.-it is called-" The Tragedies of the "last Age consider'd and examined by the Practice "of the Ancients, and by the Common sense of all Ages; in a letter to Fleetwood Shepheard Esq. By Thomas Rymer of Grays-Inn Esquire." Rymer begins with saying that he had purchased and perused Rollo-King and no King-Maid's Tragedy-Othello-Julius Cæsar and Catiline. 66 66 He adds" I have chiefly considered the Fable or "Plot, which all conclude to be the soul of a Tra 66 gedy; which, with the Ancients, is always found "to be a reasonable soul; but with us, for the most "part, a brutish, and often worse than brutish." Rollo-Rymer has not made a single observation which deserves any particular notice. King and no King-Rymer points out some improbabilities in the plot and conduct of this play--he concludes his remarks with a dissertation of more than 20 pages on the Hippolitus of Euripides and Seneca-Rymer observes (p. 61)-" We are to pre"sume the greatest vertues, where we find the highest "of rewards; and though it is not necessary that all "Heroes should be Kings, yet undoubtedly all crown'd heads by Poetical right are Heroes. This character "is a flower, a prerogative, so certain, so inseparably annex'd to the Crown, as by no Poet, no "Parliament of Poets, ever to be invaded"—this is exquisite loyalty, but contemptible criticism. 66 Maid's Tragedy—The King in this play is a most worthless fellow, but Rymer observes" There"fore, I say, the King was not to blame; or how"ever not so far, as in any wise to render his life "obnoxious * * * as for Melantius, he had no "reason to be angry at any but at his sister Evadne" -If Charles the 2d had made Rymer's own sister a whore, he would perhaps have thought differently. Rymer adds (p. 141) Othello comes next to “hand, but laying my papers together without more scribbling, I find a volumn, * * * if the characters "I have examined are the same I take them for, I "send you Monsters enough for one Bartholemew "Fair * * * with the remaining Tragedies I shall "also send you some reflections on that Paradise "lost of Milton's, which some are pleased to call a 66 66 "Poem 66 Let me only anticipate a little in "behalf of Catiline, and now tell you my thoughts, "that though the contrivance and œconomy* is faulty enough, yet we there find more of Poetry and of good thought, more of nature and Tragedy, than peradventure can be scrap't together from all those "other Plays." 66 66 Rymer seems to have deferred his remarks on Othello, Julius Cæsar, and Catiline till 1693, in which year he published "A short view of Tragedy; "its original, excellency, and corruption: with some "reflections on Shakespear, and other practitioners "for the stage"-it consists of 182 pages in small 8vo. at p. 4 and p. 5 he has a cut at Othello-his regular attack on it begins at p. 86, and ends at p. 146-he says "the fable of this T. is drawn from an Italian novel-Shakespear alters it from the original in several particulars, but always, unfor"tunately, for the worse nothing is more "odious in nature than an improbable lye; and, "certainly, never was any play fraught, like this of "Othello, with improbabilities in the neigh 66 66 66 * ing of an horse, or in the growling of a mastiff, "there is a meaning, there is as lively expression, and, "may I say, more humanity, than many times in the tragical flights of Shakespear 66 * never, sure, "was form of pleading so tedious, and so heavy as "that of Othello-take his own words - Most po * Dr. Johnson spells this word as economy, thereby destroying the etymology of it—Bailey and Ainsworth spell it as œconomy -Dr. Johnson's authority is very great in most cases-but not where Greek is concerned. "tent, grave, and reverend Signiors &c' * * * in "the 3d act comes the wonderful scene, where Iago by shrugs, half words, and ambiguous reflections, "works Othello up to be jealous * * * whence 66 comes it, that this is the top scene that raises "Othello above all other tragedies in our theatres? "it is purely from the Action; from the mops, and "mows, the grimace, the grins and gesticulation : "such scenes as this have made all the world run "after Harlequin and Scaramuccio *** the foun"dation of the play is monstrous, and the constitution, foul disproportion, which instead of moving 66 pity, or any passion tragical and reasonable, can "produce nothing but horror and aversion * * * "Desdemona says O good Iago, what shall I do "to win my lord agen?' No woman bred out of a pig-stye, cou'd talk so meanly * there is in "this play, some burlesk, some humour and ramble "of comical wit, some show, and some mimickry to "divert the spectators: but the tragical part is, plainly none other, than a bloody Farce, without "salt or savour." Rymer is much more concise in his remarks on Julius Cæsar and Catiline-he says-" Shakspear "might be familiar with Othello and Iago, as his ❝ own natural acquaintance: but Cæsar and Brutus "were above his conversation: to put them into "fools' coats, and make them Jack-puddens is Sacrilegde: the truth is, the authors head was full of “villainous, unnatural images, and history has only " furnish'd him with great names, thereby to recom"mend them to the world *** but to pass to the "famous scene, where Brutus and Cassius are by 66 |
