xii JOHN WEBSTER was sparkling on the green sod of some lowly grave. Of the piece next to be mentioned I have spared no pains in endeavouring to procure a copy, but unfortunately I have not succeeded *.. It is a small pamphlet, entitled The Monument of Honour, at the confirmation of the right worthy brother John Goare in his high office of his Majesty's lieutenant over his royal chamber, at the charge and expense of the right worthy and worshipfull fraternity of eminent Merchant-Taylors. Invented and written by John Webster, Taylor. 1624. 4to. Appius and Virginia was printed in 1654. When I consider its simplicity, its deep pathos, its unobtrusive beauties, its singleness of plot, and the easy unimpeded march of its story, I cannot but suspect * It is not in the Bodleian Library, nor in the British Museum ; nor is it possessed by several of the most celebrated book-collectors of the present day, whose liberality in affording the use of their treasures for literary purposes I am bound to acknowledge. I beg leave here to offer my most respectful thanks to his Grace the Duke of Devonshire, who took the trouble of ascertaining that the Pageant in question was not in his library: and also to the Earl Gower, who very obligingly searched the dramatic collection at Bridgwater-House for the same piece. Nichols was unable to obtain the sight of a copy of The Monument of Honour: see his Progresses of Jumes the First, vol. iv., p. 1006. AND HIS WRITINGS. xiii that there are readers who will prefer this drama to any other of our author's productions. Before the time that Appius and Virginia was given to the press, Webster was, in all probability, dead. In 1661, Kirkman, the bookseller, published from manuscripts in his possession, A Cure for a Cuckold and The Thracian Wonder, asserting that these were written by our author, in conjunction with William Rowley. Webster's hand may, I think, be traced in parts of the former play. Of any share in the concoction of the latter, he certainly was guiltless. Webster composed several dramas of which only the names remain; and others, doubtless, of which there is no memorial. Henslowe's notice of the Two Harpies and Lady Jane has been already cited, at p. v. Among the extracts from Sir Henry Herbert's official register, given by G. Chalmers, (Supplemental Apology, p. 219,) we find "A new Tragedy called A Late Murther of the sonn upon the Mother, written by Forde and Webster;" of which, when we consider how well the terrible subject was fitted to the powers of the two writers, we cannot fail to regret the loss. Webster himself, in the VOL. I. C dedication to The Devil's Law-case, (vol. ii. p. 5), mentions The Guise as one of his dramatic performances. The following lines, concerning our author, are found in Henry Fitzgeffrey's Notes from Blackfryers, 1620; "But h' st! with him Crabbed (Websterio) The Play-wright, Cart-wright: whether? either! ho- Sit as ye woo'd be Read: Lord! who woo'd know him? See how he drawes his mouth awry of late, How he scrubs; wrings his wrests: scratches his Pate; And in some 12 monthes hence (or there about) That none shall understand him (I am sure)." Sig. F. 6. An inquiry now arises was John Webster, the dramatist, the same John Webster who was author of The Saints' Guide, of a celebrated tract called Academiarum Examen, or The Examination AND HIS WRITINGS. XV of Academies, and of a volume of sermons, entitled The Judgment Set and the Books opened? Our dramatist, as we have seen, was a writer for the stage in 1602; and the first of the tracts just mentioned was printed in 1653; if he was twenty when he assisted in the composition of the Two Harpies, he must have reached his seventy-first year when The Saints' Guide appeared. Those who are inclined to suppose that he was the author of that tract will not, of course, allow his advanced age to be employed as an argument against the probability of their hypothesis; and it must be confessed that many persons at as late a period of life have composed works indicating that they retained the full possession of their intellectual powers. I think I shall be able to show hereafter that he was neither the author of it, nor of the other two pieces noticed above in the meantime it is necessary to describe them more particularly. The Saints' Guide, or Christ the Rule and Ruler of Saints. Manifested by way of Positions, Consectaries, and Queries. Wherein is contained the Efficacy of Acquired Knowledge; the Rule of Christians; the Mission and Maintenance of Ministers; and the Power of Magistrates in Spiritual Thing. By John C 2 Webster, late Chaplain in the Army, a 4to. tract, was first printed in 1653: it was reprinted in the same form the following year, and also in 12mo., in 1699*. Assuredly no trace of the manly eloquence, and thrilling pathos, and high-toned morality which distinguish Webster the poet can be traced in a single sentence of this mysterious and fanatical production: it is altogether stupid and worthless. In his prefatory address, "To all that love the Lord Jesus Christ in Truth and Sincerity," the author says, "For after the Lord, about eighteen years ago, had in his wonderfull mercy brought me to the sad experience of mine own dead, sinfull, lost, and damnable condition in nature, and fully showed me the nothingness and helplessness of creaturely power, either without or within me," &c. Mr. J. P. Collier, who endeavours to prove that the author of The Saints' Guide and the dramatist are the same person, thinks that the words "damnable condition," which have just been quoted, "can hardly mean anything but his 'damnable condition' as a player t." * The dedication to this edition is dated "April 28, 1663," which is doubtless an error of the printer for 1653; the two earlier editions, of which it is an exact copy, having the dedication dated April 28, 1653. † Poetical Decameron, vol. i, p. 262. |