the notes as brief as possible, keeping in mind that this volume is to be read as literature, and not as a text-book to furnish puzzles in antiquarian difficulties nor in philological niceties. I have compared the explanations of the best editors, and adopted the best, supplementing them from my own researches where it seemed necessary. I have set the notes at the bottom of each page, rather than at the end of the book, so that the reader can see at a glance whether the information he seeks is there, or not: those who, like myself, have often wasted time by turning to the back of a volume only to find that the editor has passed over without comment the word they wished him to explain, will, I trust, approve of this arrangement.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

For the benefit of those who wish to pursue their reading in the Elizabethan Drama, the following short bibliography is added: —

MARLOWE. Edited by Dyce, "The Old Dramatists": new edit., 1887. Edited by Bullen, 1886.

JONSON. Complete works edited by Gifford, 1816; new edit., 1860. BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER. Edited by Darley, "The Old Dramatists," new edit., 1883.

TWO NOBLE KINSMEN. The edition by Littledale (New Shakspere Society publications, Series II, 7, 8, 15) is exhaustive. For students, Skeat's edition, 1875, is very convenient; Rolfe's, 1883, is also excellent. See also essays by Spalding, Hickson, Furnivall, Fleay, and Swinburne.

WEBSTER. Edited by Dyce, "The Old Dramatists." Also Swinburne's admirable essay, Nineteenth Century, 1886, Vol. XIX.

The chief works of all these dramatists are also republished in the recent Mermaid Series." Charles Lamb's Specimens of English Dramatic Poets, and Leigh Hunt's Selections from Beaumont and Fletcher, are chosen with rare taste, and are as satisfactory as fragments can ever be. The chapters in Taine's English Literature referring to the Elizabethan Drama, may be consulted for a foreigner's opinion, although they seem to me to lack spiritual insight.

I.

THE JEW OF MALTA.

BY CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE.

Probably written in 1589 or 1590: acted in 1591, with Alleyn as Barabas. Kean brought out an adaptation of the play at the Drury-Lane Theatre in 1818. The source of the story has not been discovered.

THE JEW OF MALTA.

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ.

FERNEZE, Governor of Malta.

LODOWICK, his Son.

Two Merchants.
Three Jews.

SELIM CALYMATH, Son of the Knights, Bassoes, Officers, Guard,

Machiavel. Albeit the world thinks Machiavel1 is dead, Yet was his soul but flown beyond the Alps,

And now the Guise 2 is dead, is come from France,

To view this land, and frolic with his friends.

1 Machiavelli, the Florentine statesman, died in 1527. His name was long a synonym for political perfidy and cold-blooded cruelty.

2 The Duke of Guise, organizer of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, in 1572, was assassinated in 1588.