A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume Viii Part 10

"Feb. 1597-8.--The first part of Robin Hood by Anthony Mundy.

"The second part of the Downfall of Earl Huntington, sirnamed Robinhood by Anthony Mundy and Henry Chettle."

It is to be observed that what Henslowe mentions as "the second part of the Downfall of Earl Huntington" is in fact the play called on the printed t.i.tle-page "The Death of Robert Earl of Huntington." Hence we find that Anthony Munday wrote the _first part_ or "Downfall" alone, and the _second part_ or "Death" in conjunction with Henry Chettle: nevertheless there is a memorandum by Henslowe, by which it seems that Chettle had something to do also with the _first part_. It is in these terms:--

"Lent unto Robarte Shawe the 18 of Novemb. 1598, to lend unto Mr Cheattle upon the mending of The First Part of Robart Hoode, the sum of xs."

The loan here mentioned was perhaps in antic.i.p.ation of "the mending;"

and Malone subsequently met with the following notice: "For mending of Robin Hood for the Corte;" which might be written after the improvements, considered necessary before the performance of the play at Court, had been completed.

Anthony Munday must have been born in 1553, for the monument to him in the Church of St Stephen, Coleman Street, states, that at the time of his death, 10th August 1633, he was eighty years old. From the inscription we likewise learn that he was "a citizen and draper." In 1589 he lived in the city, and dates his translation of "The History of Palmendos" "from my house in Cripplegate." That he carried on the business of a draper, or had some connection with the trade as late as 1613, may be gathered from the following pa.s.sage at the close of "The Triumphs of Truth," the city pageant for that year, by Thomas Middleton: "The fire-work being made by Maister Humphrey Nichols, a man excellent in his art; and the whole work and body of the Triumph, with all the proper beauties of the workmanship, most artfully and faithfully performed by John Grinkin; and those _furnished with apparel_ and porters by Anthony Munday, Gentleman." The style of "gentleman" was probably given to him with reference to the productions of his pen.

At what date he acquired the t.i.tle of "poet to the city" does not appear: he wrote the Lord Mayor's Pageant in 1605; but he had certainly earlier been similarly employed, as Ben Jonson introduces him in that capacity in "The Case is Altered," which was written in the end of 1598 or beginning of 1599.[149] He there throws some ridicule upon Don Antonio Balladino (as he calls Munday), and Mr Gifford was of opinion that Middleton meant to censure him in his "Triumphs of Truth," as the impudent "common writer" of city pageants; but this is hardly consistent with the mention Middleton introduces of Munday at the close of that performance. Besides, Dekker wrote the pageant for the year 1612, immediately preceding that for which Middleton was engaged; and that Munday was not in disrepute is obvious from the fact that in 1614, 1615, and 1616, his pen was again in request for the same purpose.

Whatever might have been Munday's previous life, in the year 1582 he was placed in no very enviable situation. He had been mainly instrumental in detecting the Popish Conspiracy in that year, which drew down upon him the bitter animosity of the Jesuits. They charged him in their publications (from which extracts may be seen in Mr A. Chalmers'

"Biographical Dictionary," and elsewhere) with having been "first a stage-player and afterwards an apprentice," and after being "hissed from the stage" and residing at Rome, with having returned to his original occupation. Munday himself admits, in the account he published of Edmund Campion and his confederates, that he was "some time the Pope's scholar in the Seminary of Rome," but always stoutly denied that he was a Roman Catholic. Perhaps the most curious tract upon this subject is that ent.i.tled, "A breefe and true reporte of the Execution of certaine Traytours at Tiborne the xxviii, and x.x.x dayes of May 1582. Gathered by A.M. who was there present." He signs the Dedication at length "A. Munday," and mentions that he had been a witness against some of the offenders. The persons he saw executed were, Thomas Foord, John Shert, Robert Johnson, William Filbie, Luke Kirbie, Lawrance Richardson, and Thomas Cottom; and he seems to have been publicly employed to confute them at the foot of the gallows, and to convince the populace that they were traitors and Papists, denying the supremacy of Queen Elizabeth. He there had a long dispute with Kirbie upon matters of fact, and, according to his own showing, was guilty while abroad, at least of a little duplicity. He notices having seen Captain Stukely at Rome, who was killed at the Battle of Alcazar in 1578. In the conclusion he promises his "English Romaine Lyfe" "so soon as it can be printed," in which he purposes to disclose the "Romish and Sathanical juglings," of the Jesuits.

Munday was a very voluminous author in verse and prose, original and translated, and is certainly to be reckoned among the predecessors of Shakespeare in dramatic composition. His earliest work, as far as can be now ascertained, was "The Mirror of Mutability," 1579, when he was in his 26th year: he dedicates it to the Earl of Oxford, and perhaps then belonged to the company of players of that n.o.bleman, to which he had again attached himself on his return from Italy.[150] The Council Registers show that this n.o.bleman had a company of players under his protection in 1575. Munday's "Banquet of Dainty Conceits" was printed in 1588, and we particularise it, because it was unknown to Ames, Herbert, and Ritson. Catalogues and specimens of his other undramatic works may be found in "Bibliographia Poetica," "Censura Literaria,"

"British Bibliographer,"[151] &c. The earliest praise of Munday is contained in Webbe's "Discourse of English Poetrie," 1586, where his "Sweete Sobs of Sheepheardes and Nymphes" is especially pointed out as "very rare poetrie." Francis Meres, in 1598 ("Palladis Tamia,"

fo. 283, b.), enumerating many of the best dramatic poets of his day, including Shakespeare, Heywood, Chapman, Porter, Lodge, &c., gives Anthony Munday the praise of being "our best plotter," a distinction that excited the spleen of Ben Jonson in his "Case is Altered," more particularly, as he was omitted.

Nearly all the existing information respecting Anthony Munday's dramatic works is derived from Henslowe's papers.[152] At what period he began to write for the stage cannot be ascertained: the earliest date in these MSS. connected with his name is December 1597; but as he was perhaps a member of the Earl of Oxford's theatrical company before he went abroad, and as he was certainly at Rome prior to 1578, it is likely that he was very early the author of theatrical performances. In the old catalogues, and in Langbaine's "Momus Triumphans," 1688, a piece called "Fidele and Fortunatus" is mentioned, and such a play was entered at Stationers'

Hall, Nov. 12, 1584. There is little doubt that this is the same production, two copies of which have been discovered, with the running t.i.tle of "Two Italian Gentlemen," that being the second t.i.tle to "Fidele and Fortunatus" in the Register. Both copies are without t.i.tle-pages; but to one of them is prefixed a dedication signed A.M., and we may with tolerable certainty conclude that Anthony Munday was the author or translator of it, and that it was printed about the date of its entry on the Stationers' Books. It is pretty evident that the play now reprinted from the only known edition in 1601 was written considerably before 1597-8, the year when it is first noticed in the accounts of the proprietor of the Rose. The story is treated with a simplicity bordering upon rudeness, and historical facts are perverted just as suited the purpose of the writer. Whether we consider it as contemporary with, or preceding the productions of the same cla.s.s by Shakespeare, it is a relic of high interest, and nearly all the sylvan portions of the play, in which Robin Hood and his "merry men" are engaged, are of no ordinary beauty. Some of the serious scenes are also extremely well written, and the blank-verse, interpersed with rhymes, as was usual in our earlier dramas, by no means inharmonious.

The subsequent catalogue of plays which Munday wrote, either alone or in conjunction with others, is derived from the materials supplied by Malone.

1. Mother Redcap, by Anthony Munday and Michael Drayton. December 1597.

Not printed.[153]

2. The Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntington, by Anthony Munday.

February 1597-8. Printed in 1601.

3. The Death of Robert Earl of Huntington, by Anthony Munday and Henry Chettle. February 1597-8. Printed in 1601.

4. The Funeral of Richard Cordelion, by Robert Wilson, Henry Chettle, Anthony Munday, and Michael Drayton. May 1598. Not printed.

5. Valentine and Orson, by Richard Hathwaye and Anthony Munday. July 1598. Not printed.

6. Chance Medley, by Robert Wilson, Anthony Munday, Michael Drayton, and Thomas Dekker. August 1598. Not printed.

7. Owen Tudor, by Michael Drayton, Richard Hathwaye, Anthony Munday, and Robert Wilson. January 1599-1600. Not printed.

8. Fair Constance of Rome, by Anthony Munday, Richard Hathwaye, Michael Drayton, and Thomas Dekker. June 1600. Not printed.

9. Fair Constance of Rome, Part II., by the same authors. June 1600.

Not printed.

10. The Rising of Cardinal Wolsey,[154] by Anthony Munday, Michael Drayton, Henry Chettle, and Wentworth Smith. November 12, 1601. Not printed.

11. Two Harpies, by Thomas Dekker, Michael Drayton, Thomas Middleton, John Webster, and Anthony Munday. May 1602. Not printed.

12. The Widow's Charm, by Anthony Munday. July 1602. Printed in 1607, as Malone conjectured, under the t.i.tle of "The Puritan or Widow of Watling Street," and ascribed to Shakespeare.

13. The Set at Tennis, by Anthony Munday. December 1602. Not printed.[155]

14. The first part of the Life of Sir John Oldcastle, by Anthony Munday, Michael Drayton, Robert Wilson, and Richard Hathwaye.

Of the last, two editions were published in 1600, the one with, and the other without, the name of Shakespeare on the t.i.tle-page; but Mr Malone discovered, from the Registers of the Stationers' Company, that he was not concerned in it. Whether Munday wrote any plays subsequent to the date to which Henslowe's papers extend, is not known.

Such particulars as have come down to us regarding Henry Chettle will be prefixed to "The Death of the Earl of Huntington," the second part of the play now reprinted.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE.[156]

SKELTON.

SIR JOHN ELTHAM.

KING RICHARD THE FIRST.

PRINCE JOHN.

ROBERT EARL OF HUNTINGTON.

LITTLE JOHN.

SCARLET.

SCATHLOCK.

FRIAR TUCK.

MUCH, _the Clown_.

LEICESTER.

RICHMOND.

SALISBURY.

CHESTER.

SENTLOE.

FITZWATER.

LACY.

SIR HUGH LACY.

SIR GILBERT BROUGHTON.

BISHOP OF ELY.

PRIOR OF YORK.

JUSTICE WARMAN.

WARMAN'S COUSIN.

RALPH.

_Jailor of Nottingham, Sheriff, Messenger, Boy, Colliers, &c_.

QUEEN ELINOR.

MATILDA, _Fitzwater's Daughter_.

WARMAN'S WIFE.

OLD WOMAN.