W EBSTER'S tragedy of The Duchess of Malfi -"the perfect and exact Copy, with diverse things printed, that the length of the Play would not bear in the Presentment ”—was printed in 1623, having been acted by the King's servants at Blackfriars and the Globe, Burbadge playing the part of Ferdinand. It was printed again in 1640 and in 1678. Theobald published an adaptation of it, called The Fatal Secret, in 1735. The Duchess of Malfi was revived at the Haymarket in 1707, and again at Sadler's Wells in 1850. Concerning its performance at the latter theatre Professor Ward remarks, "I remember, not many years ago, seeing The Duchess of Malfi well acted by Miss Glyn; the impression which the tragedy produces on the stage is indescribable." The story of this play is in the Novelle of Bendello, Part I., N. 26. Through Belleforest's French version it found its way into Paynter's Palace of Pleasure. Lope de Vega in 1618 wrote El Mayordomo de la Duquesa de Amalfi. To the Rt. Hon. GEORGE HARDING, Baron Berkeley,1 Of Berkeley Castle, and Knight of the Order of the Bath to the illustrious Prince Charles. My Noble Lord, HAT I may present my excuse why, being a stranger to your lordship, I offer this poem to your patronage, I plead this warrant :-men who never saw the sea yet desire to behold that regiment of waters, choose some eminent river to guide them thither, and make that, as it were, their con duct or postilion: by the like ingenious means has your fame arrived at my knowledge, receiving it from some of worth, who both in contemplation and practice owe to your honour their clearest service. I do not altogether look up at your title; the ancientest nobility being but a relic of time past, and the truest honour indeed being for a man to confer honour on himself, which your learning strives to propagate, and shall make you arrive at the dignity of a great example. I am confident this work is not unworthy your honour's perusal; for by such poems as this poets have kissed the hands of great princes, and drawn their gentle eyes to look down upon their sheets of paper when the poets themselves were bound up in their winding-sheets. The like courtesy from your lordship 1 The twelfth Lord Berkeley. "My good lord," says Massinger, inscribing The Renegado to him, "to be honoured for old nobility or hereditary titles, is not alone proper to yourself, but to some few of your rank, who may challenge the like privilege with you: but in our age to vouchsafe (as you have often done) a ready hand to raise the dejected spirits of the contemned sons of the Muses. such as would not suffer the glorious fire of poesy to be wholly extinguished, is so remarkable and peculiar to your lordship, that, with a full vote and suffrage, it is acknowledged that the patronage protection of the dramatic poem is yours and almost without 1." shall make you live in your grave, and laurel spring out of it, when the ignorant scorners of the Muses, that like worms in libraries seem to live only to destroy learning, shall wither neglected and forgotten. This work and myself I humbly present to your approved censure, it being the utmost of my wishes to have your honourable self my weighty and perspicuous comment; which grace so done me shall ever be acknowledged By your lordship's in all duty and observance, JOHN WEBSTer. COMMENDATORY VERSES. IN THE JUST WORTH OF THAT WELL-DESERVER, MR. JOHN WEBSTER, AND UPON THIS MASTER-PIECE OF TRAGEDY. In this thou imitat'st one rich and wise, To trust to others' honourings is worth's crime, Write DUCHESS, that will fetch a tear for thee; Ut lux ex tenebris ictu percussa tonantis, THOMAS MIDDletonus, Poeta et Chron. Londinensis. |