A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume Viii Part 35

[_Exeunt_.

_Manent_ SIR JOHN ELTHAM _and_ SKELTON.

SIR JOHN. Then, Skelton, here I see you will conclude.

SKEL. And reason good: have we not held too long?

SIR JOHN. No, in good sadness, I dare gage my life, His highness will accept it very kindly: But, I a.s.sure you, he expects withal To see the other matters tragical, That follow in the process of the story.

Wherein are many a sad accident, Able to make the stoutest mind relent: I need not name the points, you know them all!

From Marian's eye shall not one tear be shed?

Skelton, i' faith, 'tis not the fashion.

The king must grieve, the queen must take it ill: Ely must mourn, aged Fitzwater weep, Prince John, the lords, his yeomen must lament, And wring their woful hands for Robin's woe.

Then must the sick man, fainting by degrees, Speak hollow words, and yield his Marian, Chaste maid Matilda, to her father's hands; And give her, with King Richard's full consent, His lands, his goods, late seiz'd on by the Prior, Now by the Prior's treason made the king's.

Skelton, there are a many other things, That ask long time to tell them lineally; But ten times longer will the action be.

SKEL. Sir John, i' faith, I know not what to do, And I confess that all you say is true.

Will you do one thing for me? Crave the king To see two parts: say, 'tis a pretty thing.

I know you can do much; if you excuse me, While Skelton lives, Sir John, be bold to use me.

SIR JOHN. I will persuade the king; but how can you Persuade all these beholders to content?

SKEL. Stay, Sir John Eltham: what to them I say, Deliver to the king from me, I pray.

Well-judging hearers, for a while suspend Your censures of this play's unfinish'd end, And Skelton promises for this offence The second part shall presently be penn'd.

There shall you see, as late my friend did note, King Richard's revels at Earl Robert's bower; The purpos'd mirth and the performed moan; The death of Robin and his murderers.

For interest of your stay, this will I add: King Richard's voyage back to Austria, The swift-returned tidings of his death, The manner of his royal funeral.[246]

Then John shall be a lawful crowned king, But to Matilda bear unlawful love.

Aged Fitzwater's final banishment; His piteous end, of power tears to move From marble pillars. The catastrophe Shall show you fair Matilda's tragedy, Who (shunning John's pursuit) became a nun, At Dunmow[247] Abbey, where she constantly Chose death to save her spotless chast.i.ty.

Take but my word, and if I fail in this, Then let my pains be baffled with a hiss.

FINIS.

_EDITION_.

_The Death of Robert Earle of Huntington. Otherwise called Robin Hood of merrie Sherwodde: with the lamentable Tragedie of chaste Matilda, his faire maid Marian, poysoned at Dunmowe by King Iohn. Acted by the Right Honourable the Earle of Notingham, Lord high Admirall of England, his seruants. Imprinted at London, for William Leake_ 1601. 4to. B.L.

INTRODUCTION.

Henry Chettle, who certainly joined Anthony Munday in writing "The Death of Robert Earl of Huntington,"[248] if he did not also a.s.sist in penning "The Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntington," was a very prolific dramatic author. Malone erroneously states that he was the writer of, or was concerned in, thirty plays; according to information which he himself furnishes, forty-two are, either wholly or in part, to be a.s.signed to Chettle. The t.i.tles of only twenty-five are inserted in the "Biographia Dramatica." The proof of his connection with the historical play now reprinted has been already supplied,[249] and it is derived from the same source as nearly all the rest of the intelligence regarding his works--the MSS. of Henslowe.

Of the incidents of the life of Henry Chettle absolutely nothing is known: we are ignorant of the times and places of his birth and death, and of the manner in which he obtained his education. It has been conjectured that he either was, or had been, a printer, but the point is very doubtful.[250] In a tract by him, called "England's Mourning Garment," on the death of Queen Elizabeth, he speaks of himself as having been "young almost thirty years ago," and as having been a witness of what pa.s.sed at that period in the Court. If Ritson's conjecture [had been] well-founded, he [might have been admitted as]

an author as early as 1578;[251] but the poetical tract a.s.signed to him [under that date was the work of some other writer with the same initials, whose name is not known.]

The first account we have of Chettle in connection with the stage is under date of April 1599,[252] when, according to Henslowe, he was engaged with Dekker in writing a play called "Troilus and Cressida;" but there is good reason to infer, that if in 1603 he were "young almost thirty years ago," he had written for the theatre before 1599. Besides, in his "Kind Hartes Dreame," produced about three months after the death of his friend Robert Greene, on September 3d, 1592, he speaks generally of his connection with the dramatic poets of that day, as if it were not newly formed. Malone supposed that Shakespeare, with whom Chettle had then recently become acquainted, was alluded to in the same tract. In "England's Mourning Garment" Chettle addresses a stanza to "silver-tongued Melicert," [whom some critics have supposed to be Shakespeare. But this is mere conjecture.]

Francis Meres, in his often-quoted "Palladis Tamia" (1598), includes Chettle in a long list of other writers for the stage, as "one of the best for comedy;" but in earlier works upon the poetry and literature of England, such as Webbe's "Discourse" in 1586, and Puttenham's "Art of English Poesie" in 1589, he is not mentioned.

Henslowe's list of plays, with the authors' names attached, as [edited by Mr Collier], begins [in February 1591-2;] and there the first mention of Chettle is in February 1597-8: between that date and March 1602-3, a period of little more than five years, he wrote, or a.s.sisted in writing, all the dramatic performances with which his name is a.s.sociated; a fact of itself sufficient to show, if Henslowe be accurate, that in many of them his share must have been very inconsiderable, perhaps only amounting to a few alterations. They are the following, exclusive of those pieces already enumerated,[253] in which he was concerned with Munday:--

1. The Valiant Welchman, by Michael Drayton and Henry Chettle, February 1597-8. Printed in 1615.[254]

2. Earl Goodwin and his Three Sons, Part I., by Michael Drayton, Henry Chettle, Thomas Dekker, and Robert Wilson, March 1598. Not printed.

3. Earl Goodwin, Part II., by the same authors, and under the same date in Henslowe's papers. Not printed.

4. Piers of Exton, by the same authors, same date. Not printed.

5. Black Batman of the North, Part I., by Henry Chettle, April 1598. Not printed.

6. Black Batman of the North, Part II., by Henry Chettle and Robert Wilson. Same date. Not printed.

7. The Play of a Woman, by Henry Chettle, July 1598. Not printed.[255]

8. The Conquest of Brute with the first finding of the Bath, by John Day, Henry Chettle, and John Singer. Same date. Not printed.

9. Hot Anger soon Cold, by Henry Porter, Henry Chettle, and Ben Jonson, August 1598. Not printed.

10. Catiline's Conspiracy, by Robert Wilson and Henry Chettle. Same date. Not printed.

11. 'Tis no Deceit to Deceive the Deceiver, by Henry Chettle, September 1598. Not printed.

12. Aeneas' Revenge, with the Tragedy of Polyphemus, by Henry Chettle, February 1598-9. Not printed.

13. Agamemnon, by Henry Chettle and Thomas Dekker, June 1599. Not printed. Malone thought that this was the same play as "Troilus and Cressida" before mentioned.

14. The Stepmother's Tragedy, by Henry Chettle, August 1599. Not printed.

15. Patient Grissel, by Thomas Dekker, Henry Chettle, and William Haughton, December 1599. Printed in 1603.

16. The Arcadian Virgin, by Henry Chettle and William Haughton. Same date. Not printed.

17. Damon and Pithias, by Henry Chettle, January 1599-1600. Not printed.[256]

18. The Seven Wise Masters, by Henry Chettle, Thomas Dekker, William Haughton, and John Day, March 1599-1600. Not printed.