Old English Plays (Volume 4); May Day, by George Chapman. Spanish Gipsy the Changeling, by T. Middleton and W. Rowley. More Dissemblers Besides Women, (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE CHANGELING TRAGEDY. T. MIDDLETON AND W. ROWLEY. VOL. IV. The drama which is now presented to our readers was undoubtedly very popular when it was first performed, though, like many others, it was not printed by the authors, and probably not till many years after the death of both. It was first printed in the year 1653, when the public exhibition of plays was not permitted, and (as it may be conjectured) to relieve the distresses of the actors, in whose hands it had remained till then. We are told by Langbaine, that the foundation of the plot is to be found in the Story of Alsemero and Beatrice Joanna, in Reynolds's " God's Revenge against Murder;" and, from their adhering to the names of the principal persons, it is evident that the writers of the play had no wish to conceal the source from whence the story was derived. The attentive reader, however, cannot fail to observe, that the leading circumstances of the tragic part are almost precisely the same with those in the tragedy of " Marcella," by Mr. Hayley. The deformity of De- flores in the one, and Hernandez in the other; the love of Deflores to Beatrice, and of Hernandez to Marcella; the dropping of the glove in each play; the pre-contract of both Beatrice and Marcella; the murder of their lovers, and the taking of a ring from the finger of each by the assassin, are sufficient proofs that the foundation of the " Changeling" and of " Marcella" was the same. Mr. Hayley, in the preface to " Marcella," has informed the reader, that the recommendation of this story to Dr. Young by the author of " Clarissa," and of Mr. Thornton to himself, were the circumstances which induced him to write a tragedy- on this subject, and he evidently was not aware of the existence of the present play. Whether Richardson, who rela...