EDITIONS.

(1.) The troublesome Raigne and lamentable Death of Edward the Second, King of England: with the tragical fall of proud Mortimer. And also, the Life and Death of Peirs Gaveston, the great Earle of Cornewall, and mighty favorite of King Edward the Second. As it was publiquely acted by the right honorable the Earl of Pembroke his servauntes. Written by Chri. Marlow, Gent. Imprinted at London by Richard Bradocke, for William Jones, dwelling neere Holbourne Conduit, at the signe of the Gunne, 1598, 4to.

(2.) The troublesome Raigne and lamentable Death of Edward the Second, King of Eugland: with the tragical fall of proud Mortimer. And also the Life and Death of Peirs Gaveston, the great Earle of Cornewall, and mighty favorite of King Edward the Second. As it was publiquely acted by the right honourable the Earl of Pembroke his servants. Written by Christopher Marlow, Gent. Printed at London for Roger Barnes, and are to be sould at his shop in Chauncerie Lane, over-against the Rolles, 1612, 4to.

(3.) The troublesome Raigne and lamentable Death of Edward the Second, King of England: with the tragicall fall of proud Mortimer. And also, the Life and Death of Peirs Gaveston, the greate Earle of Cornewall, and mighty favorite of King Edward the Second. As it was publikely acted by the late Queenes Majesties Servants, at the Red Bull in S. Johns-streete. Written by Christopher Marlow, Gent. London printed for Henry Bell, and are to be sold at his shop at tlie Lame Hospital Gate neere Smithfield, 1622, 4to.

THE HEIR.

BY

THOMAS MAY.

THOMAS MAY, was the son of Sir Thomas May, of Mayfield, in the county of Sussex, knight; a gentleman of an ancient and honourable family, which had resided there many generations. He was born in the year 1595, and received his early education in the neighbourhood of his birth-place; from thence he was removed to Sidney-Sussex College in Cambridge, and took the degree of B. A. in 1612. On the 6th of August, 1615, he was admitted into the society of Gray's-Inn, and soon after became celebrated for his poetical performances.

Lord Clarendon, with whom he was intimately acquainted, says, "That his father spent the fortune which he was born to, so that he had only an annuity left him not proportionable to a liberal education; yet, since his fortune could not raise his mind, he brought his mind down to his fortune, by a great modesty and humility in his nature, which was not affected, but very well became an imperfection in his speech, which was a great mortification to him, and kept him from entering upon any discourse but in the company of his very friends. His parts of nature and art were very good, as appears by his translation of Lucan, (none of the easiest work of that kind,) and more by his Supplement to Lucan, which, being entirely his own, for the learning, the wit, and the language, may be well looked upon as one of the best epic poems in the English language He writ some other commendable pieces of the reign of some of our kings. He was cherished by many persons of honour, and very acceptable in all places; yet (to shew that pride and envy have their influences upon the narrowest minds, and which have the greatest semblance of humility) though he had received much countenance, and a very considerable donative from the king; upon his majesty's refusing to give him a small pension, which he had designed and promised to another very ingenious person, whose qualities he thought inferior to his own; he fell from his duty, and all his former friends, and prostituted himself to the vile office of celebrating the infamous acts of those who were in rebellion against the king; which he did so meanly, that he seemed to all men to have lost his wits when he left his honesty; and shortly after died miserable and neglected, and deserves to be forgotten."

He died suddenly on the night of the 13th of November, 1650, after having drank his cheerful bottle as usual. The cause of his death is said to have arisen from the tying of his night-cap too close under his chin, which occasioned a suffocation when he turned himself about.

He was buried, by appointment of the Parliament, in a splendid manner, in the south aisle of Westminster Abbey, where a monument to his memory was erected, with a Latin inscription thereon, composed by Marchemont Needham; which remained there until the Restoration, when it was destroyed, and kis body dug up, and buried in a large pit, belonging to St Margaret's church, with many others, who had been interred in the Abbey during the inter-regnum.

He was the author of the following dramatic pieces :

1. The Tragedy of Antigone, the Theban princesse. 8vo. 1631.

2. The Heire, a Comedy; acted by the company of the Revels, 1620. 4to. 1633.

3. The Tragedy of Julia Agrippina, Empress of Rome. 12mo. 1639.

12mo. 1654.

Life, 8vo. edition 1759, p. 35.

+ Some writers suppose he was disgusted that Sir William Davenant was appointed to succeed Ben Jonson as poet laureat, in the year 1637.

He was appointed to the post of Historiographer by the Parliament.

4. The Tragedy of Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt. 12mo, 1639. 12mo, 1654.

5. The Old Couple, a Comedy. 4to. 1658.

He also wrote "The Reign of King Henry the Second," and "The victorious Reign of Edward the Third," both in English verse; and translated, besides Lucan, the Georgics of Virgil, the Epigrams of Martial, the Icon Animorum, by Barclay, and the verses in Argenis, by the same author. He likewise was the author of " The History of the Parliament of England, which began November 3, 1640, with a short and necessary view of some precedent years." Folio, 1647.

The following inscription was made upon him by one of the Cavalier party, which he had abused:

Adsta, Viator, et Poetam legas
Lucani interpretem,

Quem ita feliciter Anglicanum fecerat,
Ut Mayus simul et Lucanus videretur,
Et sane credas Metempsichosin:

Nam uterque ingratus Principis sui Proditor;
Hic Neronis Tyranni, ille Caroli Regum optimi,
At fata planè diversa;

Lucanum enim ante obitum pœnitentem legis,
Mayus vero repentina morte occubuit,
Ne forsan pœniteret.

Parliamenti rebellis tam pertinax adstipulator,
Ut Musarum, quas olim religiose coluerat,
Sacrilegus hostis evaserit :

Attamen fingendi artem non penitus amisit,
Nam gesta eorum scripsit et typis mandavit
In prosâ mendax Poeta.

Inter tot Heroas Poetarum, Nobiliumque,
Quod tam indigni sepeliantur Cineres,
Videntur flere Marmora,

Nec tamen mirere eum hic rebelles posuisse,
Qui tot sacras Ædes, et Dei delubra
Equis fecere stabula.

TO MY HONOURED FRIEND

MR THOMAS MAY,

UPON HIS COMEDY

THE HEIR.

THE Heir being born, was in his tender age
Rocked in the cradle of a private stage,
Where, lifted up by many a willing hand,
The child did from the first day fairly stand;
Since, having gathered strength, he dares prefer
His steps into the public theatre,

The world where he despairs not but to find
A doom from men more able, not less kind.
I but his usher am, yet, if my word
May pass, I dare be bound he will afford
Things, must deserve a welcome, if well known,
Such as best writers would have wished their own:

You shall observe his words in order meet,
And, softly stealing on with equal feet,
Slide into even numbers, with such grace,
As each word had been moulded for that place.
You shall perceive an amorous passion, spun
Into so smooth a web, as had the Sun,
When he pursued the swiftly-flying maid,
Courted her in such language, she had staid;
A love so well exprest must be the same
The author felt himself, from his fair flame.

The whole plot doth alike itself disclose
Through 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;
And where his sportive muse doth draw a thread
Of mirth, chaste matrons may not blush to read.
Thus have I thought it fitter to reveal
My want of art, dear friend, than to conceal
My love. It did appear I did not mean
So to commend thy well-wrought comic scene,
As men might judge my aim rather to be,
To gain praise to myself than give it thee;

Though I can give thee none, but what thou hast Deserved, and what must my faint breath outlast.

Yet was this garment (though I skilless be To take thy measure) only made for thee; And if it prove too scant, 'tis 'cause the stuff Nature allowed me was not large enough.

THOMAS CAREW.*

Thomas Carew" was the younger brother of a good family, and of excellent parts, and had spent many years of his youth in France and Italy; and, returning from travel, followed the court, which the modesty of that time disposed men to do some time, before they pretended to be of it; and he was very much esteemed by the most eminent persons in the court, and well looked upon by the king himself for some years before he could obtain to be sewer to the king; and when the king conferred that place upon him, it was not without the regret even of the whole Scottish nation, which united themselves in recommending another gentleman to it; and of so great value were those relations held in that age, when majesty was beheld with the reverence it ought to be. He was a person of a pleasant and facetious wit, and made many poems, (especially in the amorous way,) which, for the sharpness of the fancy, and the elegancy of the language in which that fancy was spread, were at least equal, if not superior, to any of that time: but his glory was, that after fifty years of his life, spent with less severity or exactness than it ought to have been, he died with the greatest remorse for that license, and with the greatest manifestation of Christianity that his best friends could desire."-Life of Clarendon. 8vo. edit. Ï759. Vol. I. p. 36. He died in the year 1639.

+ Psectas.-i. e. Vituperator, which answers to her character. Former editions read Psecas.

Ros. Yes, my lord,

With every circumstance, the time, the place,
And manner of his death; that 'tis believed
And told for news with as much confidence
As if 'twere writ in Gallo-belgicus.'

Poly. That's well, that's very well: now, Roscio,
Follows my part; I must express a grief
Not usual; not like a well-left heir
For his dead father, or a lusty widow
For her old husband, must I counterfeit :
But in a deeper, a far deeper strain,
Weep like a father for his only son.
Is not that hard to do, ha! Roscio?
Ros. Oh no, my lord,

Not for your skill; has not your Lordship seen
A player personate Hieronimo? 2

Poly. By the mass 'tis true, I have seen the
knave paint grief

In such a lively colour, that for false
And acted passion, he has drawn true tears

From the spectators. Ladies in the boxes
Kept time with sighs and tears to his sad accents,
As he had truly been the man he seemed.
Well then, I'll ne'er despair; but, tell me, thou,
Thou that hast still been privy to my bosom,
How will this project take?

Ros. Rarely, my lord;

Even now, methinks, I see your lordship's house
Haunted with suitors of the noblest rank,
And my young lady, your supposed heir,
Tired more with wooing than the Grecian queen,*
In the long absence of her wandering lord.
There's not a ruinous nobility

In all this kingdom, but conceives a hope
Now to rebuild his fortunes on this match.

Poly. Those are not they I look for; no, my

nets

Are spread for other game; the rich and greedy,
Those that have wealth enough, yet gape for more,
They are for me.

Ros. Others will come, my lord,
All sorts of fish will press upon your nets;
Then in your lordship's wisdom it must lie
To cull the great ones, and reject the fry.

Poly. Nay, fear not that; there's none shall
have access

Gallo-belgicus.-Gallo-belgicus was the name of the first news-paper published in England. Cleveland, in bis Character of a London Diurnal, says, "The original sinner of this kind was Dutch, Giallo"belgicus the Protoplast, and the modern Mercuries but Hans en Kelders." The exact time when they were printed I am unable to discover; but they certainly were as early as the reign of Queen Elizabeth; some intelligence given by Mercurius Gallo-belgicus being mentioned in Carew's Survey of Cornwal, p. 126, originally published in 1602. Dr Donne, in his Verses upon Thomas Coryat's Cordities, 1611, says, "To Gallo-belgicus appear

"As deep a statesman as a gazetteer."

Beaumont and Fletcher mention Mercurius Gallo-belgicus, in the Fair Maid of the Inn, act 4.; and Ben Jonson, in the Poetaster, act 5. scene 3. Glapthorne also, in Wit in a Constable; and Howel, in his Letters, p. 185, edition 1754.

2 Hieronimo. See the Spanish Tragedy.

3 Grecian Queen.-Penelope.