The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) Volume II Part 1

The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753).

by Theophilus Cibber.

Volume II.

THE

LIVES

OF THE

POETS

ANTHONY BREWER,

A poet who flourished in the reign of Charles I. but of whose birth and life we can recover no particulars. He was highly esteemed by some wits in that reign, as appears from a Poem called Steps to Parna.s.sus, which pays him the following well turned compliment.

Let Brewer take his artful pen in hand, Attending muses will obey command, Invoke the aid of Shakespear's sleeping clay, And strike from utter darkness new born day.

Mr. Winstanley, and after him Chetwood, has attributed a play to our author called Lingua, or the Contention of the Tongue and the Five Senses for Superiority, a Comedy, acted at Cambridge, 1606; but Mr.

Langbaine is of opinion, that neither that, Love's Loadstone, Landagartha, or Love's Dominion, as Winstanley and Philips affirm, are his; Landagartha being written by Henry Burnel, esquire, and Love's Dominion by Flecknoe. In the Comedy called Lingua, there is a circ.u.mstance which Chetwood mentions, too curious, to be omitted here.

When this play was acted at Cambridge, Oliver Cromwel performed the part of Tactus, which he felt so warmly, that it first fired his ambition, and, from the possession of an imaginary crown, he stretched his views to a real one; to accomplish which, he was content to wade through a sea of blood, and, as Mr. Gray beautifully expresses it, shut the Gates of Mercy on Mankind; the speech with which he is said to have been so affected, is the following,

Roses, and bays, pack hence: this crown and robe, My brows, and body, circles and invests; How gallantly it fits me! sure the slave Measured my head, that wrought this coronet; They lie that say, complexions cannot change!

My blood's en.o.bled, and I am transform'd Unto the sacred temper of a king; Methinks I hear my n.o.ble Parasites Stiling me Caesar, or great Alexander, Licking my feet,--&c.

Mr. Langbaine ascribes to Brewer the two following plays,

Country Girl, a Comedy, often acted with applause, printed in 4to.

1647. This play has been revived since the Restoration, under the t.i.tle of Country Innocence, or the Chamber-maid turned Quaker.

Love-sick King, an English Tragical History, with the Life and Death of Cartesmunda, the Fair Nun of Winchester; printed in 4to. London, 1655; this play was likewise revived 1680, and acted by the name of the Perjured Nun. The historical part of the plot is founded upon the Invasion of the Danes, in the reign of King Ethelred and Alfred.

This last play of Anthony Brewer's, is one of the best irregular plays, next to those of Shakespear, which are in our language. The story, which is extremely interesting, is conducted, not so much with art, as spirit; the characters are animated, and the scene busy.

Canutus King of Denmark, after having gained the city of Winchester, by the villainy of a native, orders all to be put to the sword, and at last enters the Cloister, raging with the thirst of blood, and panting for destruction; he meets Cartesmunda, whose beauty stops his ruffian violence, and melts him, as it were, into a human creature. The language of this play is as modern, and the verses as musical as those of Rowe; fire and elevation run through it, and there are many strokes of the most melting tenderness. Cartesmunda, the Fair Nun of Winchester, inspires the King with a pa.s.sion for her, and after a long struggle between honour and love, she at last yields to the tyrant, and for the sake of Canutus breaks her vestal vows. Upon hearing that the enemy was about to enter the Cloister, Cartesmunda breaks out into the following beautiful exclamation:

The raging foe pursues, defend us Heaven!

Take virgin tears, the balm of martyr'd saints As tribute due, to thy tribunal throne; With thy right hand keep us from rage and murder; Let not our danger fright us, but our sins; Misfortunes touch our bodies, not our souls.

When Canutus advances, and first sees Cartesmunda, his speech is poetical, and conceived in the true spirit of Tragedy.

Ha! who holds my conquering hand? what power unknown, By magic thus transforms me to a statue, Senseless of all the faculties of life?

My blood runs back, I have no power to strike; Call in our guards and bid 'em all give o'er.

Sheath up your swords with me, and cease to kill: Her angel beauty cries, she must not die, Nor live but mine: O I am strangely touch'd!

Methinks I lift my sword, against myself, When I oppose her--all perfection!

O see! the pearled dew drops from her eyes; Arise in peace, sweet soul.

In the same scene the following is extremely beautiful.

I'm struck with light'ning from the torrid zone; Stand all between me, and that flaming sun!

Go Erkinwald, convey her to my tent.

Let her be guarded with more watchful eyes Than heaven has stars: If here she stay I shall consume to death, 'Tis time can give my pa.s.sions remedy, Art thou not gone! kill him that gazeth on her; For all that see her sure must doat like me, And treason for her, will be wrought against us.

Be sudden--to our tents--pray thee away, The h.e.l.l on earth is love that brings delay.

THOMAS MAY,

A Poet and historian of the 17th century, was descended of an ancient, but decayed family in the county of Suss.e.x, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth[1], and was educated a fellow commoner in Sidney Suss.e.x College in Cambridge. He afterwards removed to London, and lived about the court, where he contracted friendships with several gentlemen of fashion and distinction, especially with Endymion Porter esquire, one of the gentlemen of the bedchamber to King Charles I. while [sic] he resided at court he wrote five plays, which are extant under his name.

In 1622, he published at London, in 8vo. a translation of Virgil's Georgics with annotations; and in 1635, a Poem on King Edward III. It was printed under the t.i.tle of the Victorious Reign of Edward III.

written in seven books, by his Majesty's command. In the dedication to Charles I. our author writes thus; "I should humbly have craved your Majesty's pardon for my omission of the latter part of King Edward's reign, but that the sense of mine own defects hath put me in mind of a most necessary suit, so beg forgiveness for that part which is here written. Those great actions of Edward III. are the arguments of this poem, which is here ended, where his fortune began to decline, where the French by revolts, and private practices regained that which had been won from them by eminent and famous victories; which times may afford fitter observations for an acute historian in prose, than strains of heighth for an heroic poem." The poem thus begins,

The third, and greatest Edward's reign we sing, The high atchievements of that martial King, Where long successful prowesse did advance, So many trophies in triumphed France, And first her golden lillies bare; who o're Pyrennes mountains to that western sh.o.r.e, Where Tagus tumbles through his yellow sand Into the ocean; stretch'd his conquering hand.

From the lines quoted, the reader will be able to judge what sort of versifier our author was, and from this beginning he has no great reason to expect an entertaining poem, especially as it is of the historical kind; and he who begins a poem thus insipidly, can never expect his readers to accompany him to the third page. May likewise translated Lucan's Pharsalia, which poem he continued down to the death of Julius Caesar, both in Latin and English verse.

Dr. Fuller says, that some disgust was given to him at court, which alienated his affections from it, and determined him, in the civil wars to adhere to the Parliament.

Mr. Philips in his Theatrum Poetarum, observes, that he stood candidate with Sir William Davenant for the Laurel, and his ambition being frustrated, he conceived the most violent aversion to the King and Queen. Sir William Davenant, besides the acknowledged superiority of his abilities, had ever distinguished himself for loyalty, and was patronized and favoured by men of power, especially the Marquis of Newcastle: a circ.u.mstance which we find not to have happened to May: it is true, they were both the friends of the amiable Endymion Porter, esq; but we are not informed whether that gentleman interested himself on either side.

In the year 1647, was published in London in folio, The History of the Parliament of England, which began November 3, 1640, with a Short and Necessary View of some precedent Years, written by Thomas May, Esq; Secretary to the Parliament, and published by their authority. In 1650 he published in 8vo. A Breviary of the History of the Parliament of England. Besides these works, Mr. Philips tells us, he wrote a History of Henry IV. in English verse, the Comedy of the Old Wives Tale, and the History of Orlando Furioso; but the latter, Mr. Langbaine, who is a higher authority than Philips, a.s.sures us was written before May was able to hold a pen, much less to write a play, being printed in 4to.

London, 1594. Mr. Winstanley says, that in his history, he shews all the spleen of a mal-content, and had he been preferred to the Bays, as he happened to be disappointed, he would have embraced the Royal interest with as much zeal, as he did the republican: for a man who espouses a cause from spite only, can be depended upon by no party, because he acts not upon any principles of honour or conviction.

Our author died suddenly in the year 1652, and was interred near the tomb of Camden, on the West side of the North isle of Westminster Abbey, but his body, with several others, was dug up after the restoration, and buried in a pit in St. Margaret's church yard[2]. Mr.

May's plays are,

1. Agrippina, Empress of Rome, a Tragedy, printed in 12mo. London, 1639. Our author has followed Suetonius and Tacitus, and has translated and inserted above 30 lines from Petronius Arbiter; this circ.u.mstance we advance on the authority of Langbaine, whose extensive reading has furnished him with the means of tracing the plots of most part of our English plays; we have heard that there is a Tragedy on this subject, written by Mr. Gray of Cambridge, the author of the beautiful Elegy in a Country Church Yard; which play Mr. Garrick has sollicited him to bring upon the stage; to which the author has not yet consented.

2. Antigone, the Theban Princess, a Tragedy, printed in 8vo. London, 1631, and dedicated to Endymion Porter, Esq; Our author in the contexture of this Tragedy, has made use of the Antigone of Sophocles, and the Thebais of Seneca.

3. Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, a Tragedy, acted 1626, and printed in 12mo. London, 1639, and dedicated to Sir Kenelme Digby: The author has followed the historians of those times. We have in our language two other plays upon the same subject, one by Shakespear, and the other by Dryden.

4. Heir, a Comedy, acted by the company of revels, 1620; this play is much commended by Mr. Thomas Carew, in a copy of verses prefixed to the play, where, amongst other commendations bestowed on the stile, and natural working up of the pa.s.sions, he says thus of the oeconomy of the play.

The whole plot doth alike itself disclose, Thro' the five Acts, as doth a lock, that goes With letters, for 'till every one be known, The lock's as fast, as if you had found none.

If this comedy, is no better than these wretched commendatory lines, it is miserable indeed.

5. Old Couple, a Comedy, printed in 4to; this play is intended to expose the vice of covetousness.

Footnotes: 1. Langbaine's Lives of the Poets.