Instead of an EPILOGUE, only this of Martial supplies me: For the action of the play, 'twas generally well, and I dare affirm, with the joint-testimony of some of their own quality, for the true imitation of life, without striving to make nature a monster, the best that ever became them: whereof as I make a general acknowledgment, so in particular I must remember the well-approved industry of my friend Master Perkins,† and confess the worth * Hæc fuerint, &c.] ii. 91. Master Perkins] Richard Perkins was an actor of considerable eminence. As the old 4tos. of The White Devil do not give the names of the performers, we cannot determine what part he had in it. If, before this postscript was written, Burbadge had performed Brachiano (which we know was one of his characters, see p. 2), we cannot but wonder that no mention should be made of him here. Perhaps Perkins originally played that part.-Perkins continued to act for many years, chiefly, it appears, at the Cock-pit or Phoenix, where this play was produced. I find the following notices of him in Herbert's MSS. apud Malone; "[about 1622-:] of his action did crown both the beginning and end. the names of the chiefe players at the Red Bull, called The Tragedy of the Dutchesse of Malfy. As it was Presented priuatly, at the Black-Friers; and publiquely at the Globe, By the Kings Maiesties Seruants. The perfect and exact Coppy, with diverse things Printed, that the length of the Play would not beare in the Presentment. Written by John Webster. Hora.—Si quid -Candidus Imperti si non his utere mecum. London: Printed by Nicholas Okes, for Iohn Waterson, and are to be sold at the signe of the Crowne, in Paules Church-yard, 1623. 4to. The Dutchesse of Malfy. A Tragedy. As it was approvedly well acted at the Black-Friers, By his Majesties Servants. the perfect and exact Copy, with divers things Printed, that the length of the Play would not beare in the Presentment. Written by John Webster. Horat.-Si quid- -Candidus Imperti si non his utere mecum. London; Printed by I. Raworth, for 1. Benson, And are to be sold at his shop in St. Dunstans Churchyard in Fleetstreet. 1640. 4to. Theobald's The Duchess of Malfi was reprinted in 1678, and (newly adapted for representation) in 1708. alteration of it, called The Fatal Secret, appeared in 1735. A reprint of the 4to. of 1640, "with all its imperfections on its head," is given in the Ancient British Drama. The edition of 1623 is by far the most correct of the 4tos. : lines are found in it, which have dropt out from subsequent editions, leaving the different passages where they ought to stand, unintelligible. On collating several copies of this 4to., I have met with one or two various readings of no great importance: see prefatory remarks to The White Devil, p. 2. Malone (note on Shakespeare's Timon of Athens, act iii. sc. 3.) is of opinion that the Duchess of Malfi had appeared before 1616, supposing that it is the play alluded to in the Prologue (first printed in that year) to Ben Jonson's Every Man in his Humour ; "To make a child now-swaddled to proceed but Malone ought to have been aware that in all probability the Prologue in question was written when Every Man in his Humour was first acted, in 1595 or 1596. Among the MSS. notes of the same commentator in the Bodleian Library, I find the following: "I think it is probable that the Dutchess of Malfy was produced about the year 1612, when the White Devil was printed." But enough of such conjectures. We are certain that the Duchess of Malfi was performed before March, 1618-19, when Burbadge, who originally played Ferdinand, died; and we may conclude that it was first produced about 1616. The story of this play is in the Novelle of Bandello, Part I. N. 26; in Belleforest's translation of Bandello, N. 19; in Painter's Palace of Pleasure, vol. ii. N. 23, ed. Haslewood; in Beard's Theatre of God's Judgments, B. ii. ch. 22. p. 322, ed. 1597; and in Goulart's Histoires Admirables, vol. i. p. 319, ed. 1620. Lope de Vega wrote El Mayordomo de la Duquesa de Amalfi, 1618: see his Life by Lord Holland, vol. ii. p. 147, ed. 1817. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE GEORGE HARDING, BARON BERKELEY,* OF BERKELEY CASTLE, AND KNIGHT OF THE ORDER OF THE BATH TO THE ILLUSTRIOUS PRINCE CHARLES. My noble lord, That I may present my excuse why, being a stranger to your lordship, I offer this poem to your patronage, I plead this warrant :-men who never saw the sea yet desire to behold that regiment of waters, choose some eminent river to guide them thither, and make that, as it were, their conduct or postilion by the like ingenious means has your fame arrived at my knowledge, receiving it from some of worth, who both in contemplation and practice owe to your honour their clearest service. I do not altogether look up at your title; the ancientest nobility being but a relic of time past, and the truest honour indeed being for a man to confer honour on himself, which your learning strives to propagate, and shall make you arrive at the dignity of a great example. I am confident this work is not unworthy your honour's perusal; for by such poems as this poets have kissed the hands of great princes, and drawn their gentle eyes to look down upon their sheets of paper when the poets themselves were bound up in their winding-sheets. The like courtesy from your lordship shall make you live in your grave, and laurel spring out of it, when the ignorant scorners of the Muses, that like worms in libraries seem to live only to destroy learning, shall wither neglected and forgotten. This work and myself I humbly present to your approved censure, it being the utmost of my wishes to have your honourable self my wei ghty and perspicucus comment; which grace so done me shall ever be acknowledged By your lordship's in all duty and observance, JOHN WEBSTER. * George Harding, Baron Berkeley] This nobleman, the twelfth Lord Berkeley, was the son of Sir Thomas Berkeley, and succeeded his grand-father, Henry, the eleventh Lord Berkeley. He was made Knight of the Bath at the creation of Charles Prince of Wales, November 4th, 1616. He married Elizabeth, second daughter and co-heir of Sir Michael Stanhope of Sudbury in Suffolk, and died 10th of August, 1658. According to the inscription on his monument in Cranford church, Middlesex, he "besides the nobility of his birth, and the experience he acquired by foreign travels, was very eminent for the great candour and ingenuity of his disposition, his singular bounty and affability towards his inferiors, and his readiness (had it been in his power) to have obliged all mankind."—" My good lord," says Massinger, inscribing The Renegado to him, "to be honoured for old nobility or hereditary titles, is not alone proper to yourself, but to some few of your rank, who may challenge the like privilege with you: but in our age to vouchsafe (as you have often done) a ready hand to raise the dejected spirits of the contemned sons of the Muses, such as would not suffer the glorious fire of poesy to be wholly extinguished, is so remarkable and peculiar to your lordship, that, with a full vote and suffrage, it is acknowledged that the patronage and protection of the dramatic poem is yours and almost without a rival." The present dedication is found only in the 4to. of 1623. |