FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81  
82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   >>   >|  
and not found in any other part of the volume. There can be no doubt that whoever transcribed _Calisto_ transcribed also _The Captives_. But from internal evidence alone--putting aside the testimony afforded by the handwriting, and ignoring the entry in Sir Henry Herbert's Office-Book--any competent reader could plainly perceive that the play is Heywood's. In the very first scene--in the conversation between Treadway and Raphael--we feel at once the charm of that hearty "Christianism" which is never absent from Heywood's work. There is no affectation in Heywood; he is always natural and simple, though occasionally the writing sprawls. Everybody knows the droll description in Heywood's _English Traveller_ of the "Shipwreck by Drink,"[45]--how some unthrift youths, carousing deeply, chanced to turn their talk on ships and storms at sea; whereupon one giddy member of the company suddenly conceived that the room was a pinnace, that the sounds of revelry were the bawlings of sailors, and that his unsteady footing was due to the wildness of the tempest; the illusion spread among his companions, and a scene of whimsical confusion followed. In _The Captives_, ii. 2, we have a similar conceit suggested:-- _Scrib_. Such was the grace heaven sent us, who from perill, Danger of lyfe, the extreamest of all extreames Hathe brought us to the happy patronage Of this most reverent abbott. _Clowne_. What dangers? what extreames? _Scrib_. From the sea's fury, drowneing; for last night Our shipp was splitt, wee cast upon these rocks. _Clowne_. Sayd in a jest, in deede! Shipwreck by land! I perceive you tooke the woodden waggen for a ship and the violent rayne for the sea, and by cause some one of the wheels broake and you cast into some water plashe, you thought the shipp had splitt and you had bene in danger of drowneinge. The main story of _The Captives_ is borrowed from Plautus's _Rudens_, many passages being translated almost word for word. It will be remembered that in the _English Traveller_ Heywood was indebted to another of Plautus's plays--the _Mostellaria_. I have not been able to discover the source of the very curious underplot of _The Captives_. The MS. from which the play is printed bears every appearance of being a play-house copy. Numerous passages have been cancelled, seemingly (for the most part) by the hand of some reviser. In most instances I have restored
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81  
82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Heywood

 

Captives

 
English
 

Traveller

 

splitt

 

extreames

 

passages

 
Plautus
 

Clowne

 

Shipwreck


transcribed

 

perceive

 

woodden

 
waggen
 
violent
 

drowneing

 

brought

 
patronage
 

perill

 

Danger


extreamest
 

dangers

 
Calisto
 

reverent

 

abbott

 

broake

 

curious

 

underplot

 

printed

 
source

discover

 

Mostellaria

 

reviser

 
instances
 

restored

 
seemingly
 
cancelled
 

appearance

 

Numerous

 
indebted

remembered

 
volume
 
danger
 

drowneinge

 

thought

 

plashe

 

wheels

 
translated
 
borrowed
 

Rudens