The Project Gutenberg EBook of Old English Plays, Vol. I, by Various

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Title: Old English Plays, Vol. I
A Collection of Old English Plays

Author: Various

Release Date: December 5, 2003 [EBook #10388]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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A COLLECTION OF OLD ENGLISH PLAYS, VOL. I

In Four Volumes

EDITED BY

A.H. BULLEN.

1882-1889

CONTENTS:

The Tragedy of Nero
The Mayde's Metamorphosis
The Martyr'd Souldier
The Noble Souldier

_PREFACE_.

Most of the Plays in the present Collection have not been reprinted,
and some have not been printed at all. In the second volume there will
be published for the first time a fine tragedy (hitherto quite unknown)
by Massinger and Fletcher, and a lively comedy (also quite unknown)
by James Shirley. The recovery of these two pieces should be of
considerable interest to all students of dramatic literature.

The Editor hopes to give in Vol. III. an unpublished play of Thomas
Heywood. In the fourth volume there will be a reprint of the _Arden of
Feversham_, from the excessively rare quarto of 1592.

INTRODUCTION TO THE _TRAGEDY OF NERO_.

Of the many irreparable losses sustained by classical literature few are
more to be deplored than the loss of the closing chapters of Tacitus'
_Annals_. Nero, it is true, is a far less complex character than
Tiberius; and there can be no question that Tacitus' sketch of Nero is
less elaborate than his study of the elder tyrant. Indeed, no historical
figure stands out for all time with features of such hideous vividness
as Tacitus' portrait of Tiberius; nowhere do we find emphasised with
such terrible earnestness, the stoical poet's anathema against tyrants
"Virtutem videant intabescantque relicta." Other writers would have
turned back sickened from the task of following Tiberius through mazes
of cruelty and craft. But Tacitus pursues his victim with the patience
of a sleuth-hound; he seems to find a ruthless satisfaction in stripping
the soul of its coverings; he treads