A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume Vii Part 110

Flowers of prime, pearles couched in gold, sonne of our day that gladdeneth the hart of them that shall yo'r shining beames behold, salue of eche sore, recure of euery smart, in whome vertue and beautie striueth soe that neither yeldes: loe here for you againe Gismondes vnlucky loue, her fault, her woe, and death at last, here fere and father slayen through her missehap. And though ye could not see, yet rede and rue their woefull destinie.

So Joue, as your hye vertues doen deserue, geue you such feres as may yo'r vertues serue w'th like vertues: and blissfull Venus send Vnto your happy loue an happy end.

_An other to the same_.

Gismond, that whilom liued her fathers ioy, and dyed his death, now dead doeth (as she may) by vs pray you to pitie her anoye; and, to reacquite the same, doeth humbly pray Joue shield yo'r vertuous loues from like decay.

The faithfull earle, byside the like request, doeth wish those wealfull wightes, whom ye embrace.

the constant truthe that liued within his brest; his hearty loue, not his unhappy case to fall to such as standen in your grace.

The king, prayes pardon of his cruel hest: and for amendes desireth it may suffise, that w'th his blood he teacheth now the rest of fond fathers, that they in kinder wise entreat the iewelles where their comfort lyes.

And we their messagers beseche ye all on their behalfes, to pitie all their smartes: and on our own, although the worth be small, we pray ye to accept our simple hartes auowed to serue, w'th prayer and w'th praise your honors, as vnable otherwayes.

[10] The play, as written in 1568, and as altered by Wilmot in 1591, differs so much throughout, that it has been found impracticable, without giving the earlier production entire, to notice all the changes.

Certain of the variations, however, and specialities in the Lansdowne MS., as far as the first and second scenes of the first act, will be printed (as a specimen) in the notes.

[11] In the Lansdowne MS. another person of the drama is mentioned: "Claudia, a woman of Gismunda's privie chamber;" and for _Choruses_ we have: "Chorus, four gentlewomen of Salerne."

[12] Not in the MSS.

[13] The County Palurin, a few lines lower, is called Earl. Mr Tyrwhitt says that _County_ signified _n.o.blemen_ in general; and the examples which might be quoted from this play would sufficiently prove the truth of the observation. See "Shakespeare," vol. x., p. 39. [_County_ for _Count_ is not very unusual; but it may be doubted if, as Tyrwhitt thought, _County_ signified _n.o.blemen in general_.]

[14] This is in the two MSS., but varies in many verbal particulars.

[15] Not in the copy of 1591.

[16] Presented to Gismond. She filled up the cup wherein the heart was brought with her tears and with certain poisonous water, by her distilled for that purpose, and drank out this deadly drink.

--Copy of 1568.

[17] The story of this tragedy is taken from Boccaccio's "Decameron,"

day 4th, novel first. [It was turned into verse] by William Walter, a retainer to Sir Henry Marney, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, [and printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1532. A different version appeared in]

1597, under the t.i.tle of "The Statly Tragedy of Guistard and Sismond, in two Bookes," in a volume ent.i.tled, "Certaine Worthye Ma.n.u.script Poems of great Antiquitie, reserved long in the Studie of a Northfolke Gent., and now first published by J.S." Mr Dryden also versified it a second time.

See his works, vol. iii., 8vo edition, p. 245. Oldys, in his MSS. Notes on Langbaine, says the same story is in Painter's Palace of Pleasure, vol. i., and a French novel called "Guiscard et Sigismonde fille de Tancredus Prince de Salerne mis en Latin. Par Leon Arretin, et traduit in vers Francois, par Jean Fleury." [See Brunet, dern. edit. v.

_Aretinus_, Hazlitt's edit. of Warton, 1871, and "Popular Poetry,"

ii. 66.]

[18] [This line is not in the MSS.]

[19] [Lo I in shape that seem unto your sight.--_Lansdowme MS_.]

[20] [Do rule the world, and every living thing.--Ibid.]

[21] This word seems anciently to have been p.r.o.nounced as two syllables.

See "Cornelia," act iv., Chorus.

[22] [And eat the living heart.--_Lansdowne MS_.]

[23] An epithet adopted from Virgil's "Aeneid," lib. vi, line 729--

"Et quae _marmoreo_ fert monstra sub aequore pontus."

Ibid. lib. vii. v. 28--

"Lento luctantur _marmore_ tonsae."

Again, "Georg. I.," v. 254--

"Infidum remis impellere _marmor_."

--_Steevens_.

[24] [What secret hollow doth the huge seas hide, When blasting fame mine acts hath not forth blown.]

--_Lansdowne MS_.

[25] Io.

[26] [Grazing in.--_Lansdowne MS_.]

[27] Like to Amphitrio [when he presented himself] to Alcmena.

[28] [Me.--_Lansdowne MS_.]

[29] [The b.l.o.o.d.y Mars hath felt my.--_Do_.]

[30] [Evened.--_Do_.]

[31] Hercules.

[32] Alexander.

[33] [Won the famous golden fleece.--_M.S_.]

[34] [What nature's bond or law's restraint avails, To conquer and deface me every hour.--MS.]

[35] Myrrha.

[36] i.e., For pity. So, act ii. sc. 2--

"As easily befalls that age which asketh _ruth_."

Act v. sc. 1--

"That hath the tyrant king Withouten _ruth_ commanded us to do."

Again, in Milton's "Lycidas," i. 163--

"Look homeward, angel, now and melt with _ruth_, And, O ye Dolphins, waft the helpless youth."

And in Churchyard's "Worthiness of Wales," 1587--

"Great _ruth_, to let so trim a seate goe downe, The countries strength, and beautie of the towne."