CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE'S DRAMAS.* 'To Messrs. Vizetelly belongs the honour of

the first really serious attempt to popularise the Elizabethan drama, as represented :tot by Shakespeare, who is the world's poet, but by the greatest of his predecessors, fellow-workers, and immediate followers,— all those "whose fire-hearts," to borrow the somewhat mannered language of our chief poetess,

"sowed oar farrows when

The world was worthy of each men."

The high merits of this drama, its unparalleled freshness,

• The Beet Mee of the Old Dramatists Christopher Marlowe. Edited by Ilavslook Ellis. With s General Introdnotion on the English Drama daring the Reigns of Elisabeth and James L. by J. A.. Symonds. London : Visetelly and Co. freedom, vigour, and variety, have been felt and warmly acknowledged by almost every capable literary student since Lamb first called attention to it by giving his priceless " Specimens " to the world. Yet it is to be feared that for the average Englishman of to-day, that drama, which, even without the great name of Shakespeare, would have been the noblest of the modern world, is still represented by the works of Shake- speare alone. One main cause, no doubt, of the neglect of the other dramatists is the almost complete banishment of their plays from the stage. If the same fate were to overtake the plays of Shakespeare, it is doubtful whether they would be so widely read as they are at present; at least, it is certain that they are read by many people more on account of the interest excited by their performance and for the better understanding of their complicated plots than for their intrinsic merits as literary compositions. Sing Lear, esteemed by many good judges the mightiest achievement of Shake- speare, has never been much of a favourite with the general reader; and the chief cause seems to be that it is not quite so good an acting play, nor so generally performed, as Hamlet or Macbeth. But probably the neglect of all the older dramatists except Shakespeare has been owing even more to the careless and unsatisfactory manner in which the cheaper modern editions of some of them have been printed and edited, and the in- accessibility, to most people, of the more expensive reprints in which the works of writers like Middleton and Dekker are alone obtainable, than to the non-performance of the plays. By inning, as Messrs. Vizetelly propose to do, the best plays of the old dramatists in half-crown monthly volumes under the editorship of leading literary men, a fair chance will at lad be given for the restoration of the Elizabethans to the general popularity they enjoyed in their own age. We heartily wish the venture all the success it deserves.

The first volume of the series, containing the dramatic master- pieces of Marlowe, is now before us. The type is large and clear, and the paper and binding are all that can be desired. Mr. Symonds furnishes an admirable introduction on "The English Drama during the Reigns of Elizabeth and James L," briefly yet effectively describing for us the distinguishing characteristics of each dramatist. And Mr. Havelock Ellis follows with a short account of Marlowe's life, and an enthusiastic, yet, on the whole, just critique of the poet's works. There are adequate notes on obscure passages in the plays, but, happily, the volume is not burdened with them.

Though Marlowe is probably better known than most of the other dramatists, and there may not, therefore, seem any urgent need for a new edition of his works, it was inevitable that the series should commence with him. He was undoubtedly the true founder of the romantic drama in England, for the influence on their successors of such playwrights as Greene and Peale, the most notable of Marlowe's contemporaries, may be said to count almost for nothing. Without Marlowe, Shakespeare might have accomplished as much for the English drama as he has done, but his plays would certainly have been very different in structure, spirit, and style from what they are. His blank verse is more supple and has much more variety of cadence than Marlowe's, yet it often has precisely the same ring, and in the earlier English historical plays especially is obviously modelled upon Marlowe's. Dying, as Marlowe did, ere he had completed his thirtieth year, it was impossible that his works should exhibit the qualities which distinguish the writings of men of mature age composed in the most advanced period of dramatic art. Marlowe had almost everything to teach to his successors, and little of importance to learn from his predecessors or contemporaries. Yet it is hardly too much to say that in masterly delineation of exceptional and, it must also be owned, somewhat repulsive types of character —souls completely absorbed by one master-passion, or devoted, without possibility of redemption, to the service of evil—in melodious, massive, and stately blank verse, in affluence of poetic imagery, in combined purity and splendour of diction, in vigour and breadth of conception, in fire and intensity, in eleva- tion though not in subtlety of thought, in rapturous expression of devotion to ideal beauty in all its forms, and in the portrayal of scenes of tragic terror and pathos, Marlowe's best plays are unrivalled by those of any of his successors, Shakespeare alone excepted. Those who may think this praise excessive should read and re-read (for Marlowe's merits, like those of most great poets, are not always obvious on a first perusal of his writings) the description of Tamburlaine's personal appearance and the wonderful lines which express the indefinable character of beauty in Tennburiaine the Great, the sublime colloquy between Faustus and Mephistophilis on the " whereabouts " of Hell (Borne passages of which Milton seems to have had in his mind when he wrote Satan's address to the Sun in Paradise Lost); the exquisite address to Helen of Troy, and the tremendous final monologue of Faustus, in Doctor Faustus; the opening soliloquy of Barabas in The Jew of Malta, in which we discover something of the large, imperial style of Shakespeare ; and the scenes of the King's resignation and murder in Edward II. The latter play is the most com- plete and artistic of all Marlowe's dramatic compositions, though Doctor Faustus undoubtedly displays more power. It is but little to say that Edward IL is the finest English his- torical play after Shakespeare's. Ford's Perkin Warbeck, which probably ranks next below it, contains nothing equal to it; nor has Shakespeare himself, in his purely historical plays, given us any single Beene of such gloomy power and overwhelming pathos as that of Edward's murder. The solemn, dirge. like music of the lines is wonderfully in keeping with the subject. It is, indeed, a superlative merit of Marlowe's verse that its music is almost always a true echo to the thought expressed. With all our admiration, however, for Edward II., we do not agree with Mr. Ellis in thinking it superior in every dramatic requisite to Shakespeare's Richard IL, with which it has been so often invidiously compared. That intel- lectual power which distinguished Shakespeare above all his contemporaries, and probably above all other poets who have ever lived, is manifest in almost every scene of Richard whereas in Marlowe's play we find very few pregnant or striking reflections such as those to which not only Shakespeare, but Webster, Beaumont, Chapman, and Tonrneur have accus- tomed us. Had Marlowe attempted to write an epic poem— and he had many qualifications for the task—he certainly would not have died of "plethora of thought," as, according to Words- worth, Shakespeare would in the like case. If it may justly be said that there is nothing in Richard II. to compare with the murder of Marlowe's King, it may as justly be answered that there is no passage in Marlowe's play in which high poetry, impressive rhetoric, and noble thought are so blended as in Richard's magnificent speech beginning,— " No matter where; of comfort no man speak,"

and ending with the line,—

" How can you say to me, I am a King ?"

It is always an ungracious thing, however, to make such comparisons. After all possible deductions have been made, Edward IL remains one of oar greatest tragic masterpieces, second, in many respects, to none but Shakespeare's. It has often been pointed out that both in its language and the structure of its blank verse, it served as a model for Shakespeare's Richard ; it well deserves, therefore, to be read on this account, if on no other, nor can Shakespeare's true position, and the influences by which be was moulded, be understood by those who make no study of Marlowe's play. There are many striking similarities of thought in the two plays. The sarcastic remark, for instance, of Shakespeare's Richard,—

" So wise, so young, they say, did never live long," recalls the words of Marlowe's Isabella,— " Ale, boy ! this towardness makes thy mother fear Thou art not marked to many days on earth."

Other parallel passages in the two plays, which have been dis- covered and pointed out by Marlowe's editors, we refrain from quoting here.

The present volume contains all Marlowe's acknowledged dramatic works, with the exception of Dido and Th,e Massacre at Paris. No one who is acquainted with these two plays will be likely to regard the omission of either as a diminution to the poet's reputation, or a lees to the reader, for Bide (from which the most characteristic scene is quoted in Mr. Ellis's notice of the poet) has more grace than strength, while The Massacre at Paris is deficient in both qualities, and is decidedly the very worst of Marlowe's productions. From Doctor Faustus, how- ever, as here given, there are some passages omitted which most of its admirers will, we think, regret to miss. The text adopted being that of the earliest known edition, with only a few readings from the new scenes in the third edition, published twelve years afterwards, some of the moat impressive additions to the great fifth act are excluded,—we mean the discourse of the good and bad angels, with the description of Hell, and the

colloquy between the scholars on the tragical end of Faustus. Though none of these passages appeared in the earliest editions of the play, it is difficult to doubt that Marlowe wrote them. Mr. Ellis, however, contrary to the judgment of Mr. Bullen and, we believe, most of Marlowe's editors, regards them as spurious, and rejects them accordingly. To us it appears that some of Marlowe's mightiest lines are to be found in these rejected scenes. It is almost as hard to believe that Marlowe did not write the following, as it would be to believe that Shakespeare did not write the defiant and spirit-stirring address of Macbeth to Macduff before they closed in deadly combat :—

"The devils whom Faustus served have torn him thus; For 'twist the hours of twelve and one, methotight I beard him shriek and cry aloud for help; At which selftime the house seemed all on fire, With dreadful horror of these damnZA fiends."

The material horrors of Hell, as described in one of the excluded passages, are somewhat at variance with the conception of Hell as given in the words of Mephistophilis ; but the discrepancy does not in itself afford good ground for the rejection of the passage, such inconsistencies being common in our posts. We cannot help thinking that it would have been better to print the additions to Doctor Faustus, even if they could be proved to. be spurious, at the end of the volume by way of appendix, rather than the Ballad of Faustus, and Bame's "Note" on the "Damnable Opinions" of Christopher Marlowe, which Mr. Ellis has thought fit to add. Bame's testimony is confessedly not worth much, and very few readers of Marlowe's works wilt be inclined to accept the " Opinions " as those seriously held by the poet.

We must not conclude without expressing a hope that the new edition of Marlowe may be so successful as to encourage Messrs. Fizetelly to issue, as they propose to do, the chief works of the other dramatists in the same cheap and elegant form. No literature is more worthy of serious study.