John Fletcher was born at Rye in December, 1579; being the son of that Dean of Peterborough who troubled the last moments of Mary, Queen of Scots, and later was bishop1, successively, of Bristol, Worcester, and London. Very early, aged2 about 12, the son entered Benet College, Cambridge, but before he was 17 the death of his father, in poverty, caused him to leave the University. We hear no more of him, on sound authority, till he began to write plays with Francis Beaumont, born in 1584, the third son of Sir Francis Beaumont of Grace-Dieu, a judge. In 1597 Beaumont entered Pembroke College, Oxford3, then known as Broadgates Hall; three years later he entered the Inner Temple. In 1605 Beaumont wrote some prefatory verses to Jonson's play "The Fox (Volpone)" as also did Fletcher. "Philaster" (1610?) is believed to have been the first play composed in their prolific5 partnership6, but it was also attributed to Beaumont alone. Beaumont died in March, 1616, the death-year of Shakespeare; Fletcher in 1625.
One need not be a Charles Lamb to discover that "after all, Beaumont and Fletcher were but an inferior sort of Sidneys and Shakespeares". But perhaps only a reader who is himself a poet can discover, with Mr. Swinburne's certainty, in Beaumont "the gifts of tragic7 pathos8 and passion, of tender power and broad strong humour"; in Fletcher "a more fiery9 and fruitful force of invention, a more aerial ease and swiftness of action, a more various readiness and fullness of bright original speech".
Others cannot pretend to assign to each author, or to their[Pg 243] various allies, their own contributions to each of the fifty-two dramas, which Mr. Swinburne suspected Coleridge of "never having really read". Whether Coleridge did or did not carefully peruse10 the fourteen stout11 volumes of Weber's edition, it is certain that very few people are more industrious12. A French critic, M. Jusserand, affirms that a friendly hand could make a pleasing selection of scenes, displaying tragical13 vigour14, eloquence15, poetry, wit, and that the selection would give "the falsest idea of their work," for "the lugubrious16 and the ribald were their chief domain17".
At all events other qualities than ribaldry will win their readers at present, and it is unnecessary to direct readers to a play in which a woman "makes the very satyrs blush at her sight." Coleridge thought it would be interesting to settle a question of statistics, "how many of these plays are founded on rapes18, how many on incestuous passions, and how many on mere20 lunacies". Mr. Swinburne provided the statistics, Plays 52, Rapes 2, Incestuous Passions 0, Lunacies 2.
In the throng21 of plays by Beaumont and Fletcher (of which a folio edition was published in 1647; an uncertain amount of the writing was ascribed to Massinger), it must suffice to speak of but a few. The bald analysis of any of these Jacobean dramas cannot do justice to its merits. The plots of the greatest dramas, those of the Athenian stage and of Shakespeare, rest, now on history, now on inventions of prehistoric22 antiquity23, myths and legends. The story of Lear has elements as impossible, and as primitive24, as the stories of ?dipus or of Thyestes. The events are monstrous25—"people don't do these things,"—but they afford to the dramatist great situations, and they were already familiar in tradition.
The events in "The Maid's Tragedy," on the other hand, could not have occurred, and have no traditional source. There have been callous26 and profligate27 kings, but Charles II, who declared that "in my reign28 all tragedies must end happily," and for whom Waller later made "The Maid's Tragedy" end happily, did not seduce29 innocent girls, hand them over as brides to courtiers who were already betrothed30 to other ladies, and retain his victims as his mistresses.
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The king in "The Maid's Tragedy" does these things, and is a moral monster. Amintor being in love with Aspatia, and she with him, the king forces him—for loyalty31 and passive obedience32 are his guiding stars—to reject Aspatia, and wed33 Evadne, whom nobody suspects of being the royal mistress. At Courts, however, these graces are not hid.
The bridal eve is not much enlivened by a masque of Neptune34 and ?olus, and is saddened by the wails35 and prophecies of the forlorn Aspatia. Other bridesmaids talk ribaldry enough, but the bridegroom, whose heart is with Aspatia, feels
A grief shoot suddenly through all my veins36;
Mine eyes rain: this is strange at such a time.
The bride receives him coldly. A man has wronged her, will he slay38 that man? She names the king: "To cover shame I took thee" she says. The situation,—with the horror-stricken loyalty of Amintor; his heart already a chaos39 of remorse40, regret, and desire; the implacable resolution of Evadne; "the murderess-Magdalen, whose penitence41 is of one crimson42 colour with her sin—" is undeniably tragically43 great. Ribaldries as of Pandarus in "Troilus and Cressida" greet the happy pair in the morning. The secret reaches Melanthius, brother of Evadne and the king's bravest captain. Evadne binds44 the sleeping king in his bed, wakens him, taunts45 him, and stabs him for her husband, her brother, and herself. Aspatia disguises herself as her own avenging48 brother, challenges Amintor who has deserted49 her, strikes him, kicks him; at last he draws, and she falls by the hand of the man she loves. Evadne enters, red-handed from regicide,
Am I not fair?
Looks not Evadne beauteous with these rites50?
The seeming dead speaks,—
I am Aspatia yet—
and takes farewell. Amintor stabs himself, but not before Evadne has set him the example. Had Ophelia fallen by the sword of Hamlet the tragedy would not have been "deeper".
"Philaster," again, is a romantic comedy, that deserves its[Pg 245] second title "Love lies a'bleeding". Philaster is kept out of his royalty51 by the king, who is wedding his daughter, Arethusa, beloved by Philaster, to Pharamond, prince of Spain, a random52 debauchee. His intrigue53 with the audacious wanton Megra, a Court lady, and the besetting54 of him by the armed burgesses, devoted55 to Philaster, yield the grim comic material. Philaster gives his page, Bellario (really the disguised Euphrasia, who loves him), to Arethusa. She is accused of an intrigue with the page, who is the soul of loyalty to her and to Philaster. He, in jealousy56, rejects both his lady and his page: they meet in a forest: he dismisses Bellario, and bids Arethusa stab him, or he will stab her.
We are two
Earth cannot bear at once.
He does stab her, and is attacked by a country fellow, who wounds him; he then flies from some of the Court who are approaching. Finding Bellario asleep in a glade57, Philaster wounds her; so that the pursuers, who
Have no mark to know me but my blood,
may suppose Bellario to be the assailant of Arethusa! "Oh, my heart, what a varlet's this, to offer manslaughter upon the harmless gentlewoman," we may cry, with the grocers wife in "The Knight58 of the Burning Pestle59". We "could hurl60 things at him," at Philaster: whose jealousy does not palliate his cruelty and treachery.
Through many complications the plot winds its way; Bellario, who is about to be tortured, proves to be a woman; both she and Arethusa survive; Philaster, of whom nobody thinks the worse, marries Arethusa; Pharamond is mobbed; all ends happily except for that most pathetic of patient Grizels, Bellario, who remains61 contented62 in the happiness of the others. The purity and sweetness of Arethusa, the loyalty of the loving Bellario, and her beautiful speeches, cannot enable this play to escape the blame of being unnatural64 and repulsive65.
The naked analysis of the plays of this age, is, of course, no fair criterion of their merit. A bare exposure of the plot of[Pg 246] "Cymbeline" would deter66 a man from reading it. The authors are protected by the magic of their poetry, which conveys them off in a golden cloud as Aphrodite saved ?neas. A bare analysis of "A King and No King" (1611), with the alternate valour and nobility, brag67, and unintelligible68 clemencies69 and ferocities of Arbaces, King of Iberia, who has defeated and captured Tigranes, King of Armenia, would move the most austere70 to mirth. But there is a method in the apparent madness of Arbaces; and Bessus, the braggart71 poltroon72, is an officer worthy73 to fight under the same standard as Parolles and Bobadil, while virtue74 and happiness are kept for Arbaces and Panthea, Tigranes and the faithful Spaconia, through the sudden revelation of Gobrias, the Lord Protector, that Arbaces is a warming-pan pretender, and neither son of Queen Arane (who unceasingly tries to have him stabbed or poisoned), nor the brother of Panthea.
The last tragedies are "The False One," and "Valentinian". Concerning "Thierry and Theodoret" it is not pleasant to speak out, and it is not honest to be silent. "Derived," we are told, "from the French chronicles of the reign of Clotaire the Second," the play is rancid with the humours of the lowest London haunts; marked by wild anachronisms—the Merovingian troops carry muskets,—and crammed75 with impossible crimes. For a contrast we have the eloquence of Thierry (poisoned by a handkerchief that robs him of sleep, after he has been drugged to deprive him of offspring), and the spotless virtues77 of his wife Ordella, whom Thierry has been on the point of sacrificing to the gods. The blank verse almost uniformly moves with a loose superfluous78 foot; as
The most remarkable79 thing in which kings differ,
From private men,
and so on, is a specimen80. There is a pearl to be found on this dust-heap, the stainless81 Ordella, "the most perfect idea of the female heroic character," says Lamb; but she is found after we have passed through a malodorous labyrinth82 of "unnatural and violent situations".
Plays like this, or even like "The Spanish Comedy," which opens pleasantly and humorously, and in the cure and his sexton[Pg 247] suggests the influence of Cervantes, but closes in a mist of evil passions, give some show of reason to the opinion of our French critic. "A friendly hand selecting with care" might give all of Beaumont and Fletcher's that can please readers not specially83 devoted to the study of the Drama. Even in the beautiful scenes of "The Faithful Shepherdess," in poetry worthy of Spenser's pastoral vein37, the author, quite needlessly, introduces a shepherdess who resembles the Brunhault of "Thierry and Theodoret" as Brunhault may have been in girlhood.
"The Knight of the Burning Pestle," on the other hand, with the grocer-critic who insists on a play in which a grocer shall "do admirable things"; with the humours of the grocer's wife, and the Quixotic adventures of Ralph, the apprentice84, is lively, and, says the Prologue85, "has endeavoured, to be far from unseemly words to make your ears glow". Yet, in the jail delivery of the Barber, the authors go out of their way to find ugly ribaldries. Famous among the comedies are "The Scornful Lady," "The Humorous Lieutenant," "The Wild-goose Chase," and "The Little French Doctor". The lyrics87 and songs are especially beautiful, even in the Elizabethan wealth of song.
A peculiarity88 of Fletcher's blank verse is his fondness for redundant89 syllables90 at the close, and indeed anywhere in the line. This manner was gaining on Shakespeare in his latest plays, and, in authors after Fletcher, led to the decay, almost to the death, of blank verse. Yet Fletcher's lines, as before Marlowe and Shakespeare, were often "end-stopped": the sense closed with the close of each line; this is not the manner of Shakespeare, or of Beaumont. In his later days Fletcher went for his plots to Spanish tales and romances.
Chapman.
The date of the birth (near Hitchin) of George Chapman, conjecturally91 placed in 1559, is unknown. He was at Oxford in 1574. The exactness of his scholarship must not be estimated by his translation of Homer; translations, whether in prose or verse, did not then aim at precision. In 1594 he published "The Shadow of Night," containing verses which have been used to[Pg 248] support the theory that he was the poet concerning whose favour Shakespeare expresses uneasiness in his Sonnets92. He wrote a conclusion to Marlowe's "Hero and Leander"; attempted the luscious95 (which did not suit his genius), in Ovid's "Banquet of Sense"; celebrated96 Henry, Prince of Wales, in "The Tears of Peace," is mentioned as a dramatist by Meres97 in 1598, and in that year published his version of "Seven Books of the 'Iliad'" (not the first seven), while he finished his "Iliad" in 1611, his "Odyssey98," some years later.
Thanks mainly to the perfect sonnet93 of Keats, Chapman's Homer is the work by which his memory is kept green except among special students of the Elizabethan drama. To have made Homer "common coin" was a great benefit to the English public, that had known only the mediaeval romances based on Ionian (700 b.c.), Athenian, and Roman perversions99 of the poet. The "Iliad" he did into "fourteeners," a jigging100 old measure,—[1] "a splendid swinging metre," says Saintsbury, "better able than any other English metre to cope with the body as well as the rhythm of the English hexameter". Tastes differ! Here are four lines ("Iliad" XV, 596-600). The poet speaks of Zeus,
For Hector's glory still he stood, and ever went about
To make him cast the fleet such fire as never should go out;
Heard Thetis' foul101 petition, and wished in any wise
The splendour of the burning ships might satiate his eyes.
"The last line alone would suffice to exhibit Chapman's own splendour at his best," says a critic, and this may be the best of Chapman. But it does not express the meaning of Homer, who says nothing about the "foulness102" of the prayer of Thetis, and whose Zeus does not desire to satiate his eyes with "the splendour of the burning ships," but to see one ship set on fire; as, on that signal, he intends to cause the instant rout103 of the Trojans. It will be observed that Chapman here compresses four Greek hexameters into four English "fourteeners"; and that the movement[Pg 249] of his verse is as rapid as the nature of the "fourteener" permits. He is, however, rugged76 and obscure and overloads104 the simplicity105 of Homer with Elizabethan conceits106 of his own invention. The "Odyssey" he rendered into heroic couplets with a free movement, and, had he been more sparing of his own conceits, the version would be more satisfactory. Unhappily no English measure represents the Homeric hexameter.
In 1604-5, Chapman with Marston was imprisoned107 for a very faint piece of satire108 on the Scots, in "Eastward109 Ho"; and Ben Jonson, who had been no partner to the passage, as a collaborator110 in tie play magnanimously insisted on sharing the punishment.
Chapman's comedy, "All Fools" opens with an imitation of a play of Terence (followed by Molière in "L'école des Pères"). We have the sensible and indulgent, and the severe and deceived father. But the plot becomes painfully involved, and jokes on cuckolds are no longer so delightful111 as they were for two centuries to English taste. His other comedies are not below the level of his contemporaries, excluding Shakespeare and Jonson.
Among Chapman's plays on contemporary French history, the two on Bussy d'Amboise vary much from "Byron's' (Biron's) Conspiracy112," and "The Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron". "Bussy d'Ambois" has all the faults of fustian113, obscurity, bloodshed, torture exercised on the stage, and great palpable ghosts. A friar is the go-between of le brave Bussy and Madame de Monsoreau, Chapman's "Tamyra, Countess of Mountsurry". He appears and disappears through a trap door, and when he dies "Umbra Friar" (the ghost of the holy man), "keeps on the business still". Mountsurry (Monsoreau) too, disguised as the friar, is very busy. A magician summons Behemoth, a monstrous fiend with whom Joan of Arc was accused of being too familiar. Tamyra is stabbed frequently on the stage, to make her write a letter inviting114 Bussy to a fatal tryst115; and next, being tortured, she complies and writes in her own blood. Bussy is overpowered by numbers and slain116. Charles Lamb admired a long description of a duel117 between six minions118 of Henry III, three on each side. The Nuntius (the messenger), a looker-on, tells how Bussy charged[Pg 250] his foe119 exactly as, in his youth, the Nuntius had seen a unicorn120 charge an Armenian jeweller, and
Nailed him with his rich antler to a tree.
In "The Revenge of Bussy" his ghost enters and dances with the ghosts of the Duc de Guise47, the Cardinal121, and Chatillon. The lookers-on are surprised, believing the Guises46 to be alive and well, when Aumale enters with the news that both have just teen assassinated122! The "Revenge" contains some very noble passages of reflection, in which Chapman always shines, and some reminiscences of Homer. The ghosts, though "affable familiar sprites," might be excused by the example of Seneca's tragedies. Dryden found in "Bussy d'Ambois" "a hideous123 mingle124 of false poetry and true nonsense," but not all of the poetry is false. There are, indeed, in Chapman's blank verse, passages of exquisite125 beauty and charm: praise which cannot be denied to passages in the works of all his contemporaries in dramatic writing.
John Marston.
John Marston was of an old Shropshire family: he is supposed to have been born in 1575 and educated at Coventry school. He was a member of Brasenose College, Oxford. His father intended him to be a barrister, but observes in his will that "man proposeth but God disposeth". He wrote satires126 first, and then plays, later took orders, in 1616 received the living of Christchurch in Hampshire, and died in London in 1634. His plays had been collected and published in 1633. Marston's earliest publications, under the assumed name of Kinsayder, 1598, were "The Metamorphosis of Pygmalion's Image, with Certain Satires," and, in the same year, "The Scourge127 of Villainy". As to "Pygmalion,"
My wanton Muse128 lasciviously129 doth sing,
he says: the verses are in the stanza130 of "Venus and Adonis". With a cheerful anachronism, Pygmalion, having made his ivory statue of a woman, invokes131 the shade of Ovid—who lived much after his time. At his prayer the statue lives, and Marston ceases to sing lasciviously.
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Of the Satires we may say in the words addressed by Mr. Toots to the Chicken, "the language is coarse and the meaning is obscure". The first attacks one Ruscus, for writing, like Mr. Toots, letters to himself. Parasites132 and boasting soldadoes are also satirized134. A quarrel with Hall who styled himself "the first English satirist," arose; the authors of "The Return from Parnassus" (1601) spoke135 of Marston with coarse but effective contempt. In 1599 this "new poet" sold a play to Henslowe. His "Antonio and Mellida," "Sophonisba," "What You Will," and "The Malcontent136" (a misanthrope137, as in Molière and Wycherley), do not receive much praise even from the greatest enthusiasts138 for the old drama. In the dedication139 to "The Malcontent" Marston made up his quarrel with Ben Jonson, whom he had assailed140 in "Satiromastix" in reply to Ben's "Poetaster" (1601), not before Ben, according to his own account, had beaten him. In 1605 Marston joined Chapman and Ben in composing "Eastward Ho". The remarks on the Scots, for which the authors were imprisoned, are merely such as Dr. Johnson used to make for the purpose of teasing Boswell. The play, on the whole, is a very good-humoured study of life in London—rather in Hogarth's manner,—with the honest goldsmith, his industrious and his idle apprentice; his ambitious daughter, who would marry a knight with a castle in the air; his quiet daughter, betrothed to the industrious apprentice; the usual number of jokes connected with "horns," and local colour that was useful to Scott in "The Fortunes of Nigel". Probably Marston did little in this favourite comedy; he wearied of play-writing, and was contemptuous of his own works, and careless of his own fame.
Dekker.
Thomas Dekker, as genial141 as Marston is crabbed142, was a playwright143 and bookseller's hack144, concerning whose life little is known except that he was one of Henslowe's "hands" in 1597; was redeemed145 by Henslowe from prison in the Poultry146 in 1598; and was still producing pamphlets in 1637. A Londoner by birth, he knew some Dutch, and as his Bryan in "The Honest Whore" proves, a little Gaelic. His most popular work in prose was "The[Pg 252] Gull147's Hornbook," which is full of the details of life in the taverns148; the thieves; the bona robas, usurers, fops, gamblers, all the world which is best known to the modern reader in "The Fortunes of Nigel".
The social historian finds matter gloomy enough as a rule, in "The Wonderful Year" of the accession of James I; and "The Seven Deadly Sins of London" shows a helpless horror of the crowded poverty of the town. Mr. Swinburne found in one of Dekker's tracts149 a genius akin150 to Goldsmith's, Thackeray's, Sterne's, Molière's, Dickens's, and not unlike Shakespeare's; with Goldsmith he is often compared; he has given men medicines to make them love him.
Dekker collaborated151 with other playwrights152, and his contributions are discerned by the bewildering light of internal evidence. Of his own pieces, "The Shoe Maker's Holiday" (1600) is a broadly cheerful comedy; the jolly son of St. Hugh, Simon Eyre, becomes Lord Mayor, and, in the upper plot, the hero, Lacy, is very readily pardoned after deserting his regiment153 in France to woo another Mayor's daughter in the disguise of a shoemaker.
"The Honest Whore," in two parts, shows Bellafront as a Magdalen redeemed by a sudden love which does not find its earthly close; she marries a scamp to whom, in the Second Part, she plays the Patient Grizel, backed by her father disguised as an old serving-man. There is abundance of the inevitable154 ribaldry.
In a play devoted to "Patient Grissil," that ideal of the dramatists, occurs the lovely lyric86 "Art thou poor, Yet hast thou golden slumbers"; in "Old Fortunatus" (in the story of the Magical Purse) is "Fortune's kind, cry holiday": other pretty songs occur in "The Sun's Darling" (Ford4 and Dekker).
"Satiromastix," as we have seen, secures for Dekker the praise of audacity155, for no craven would have attacked Ben Jonson. There are fine tirades156 of imaginative blank verse in "Fortunatus". Dekker admired a thoroughly157 good woman, whether converted or needing no conversion158, as most of his fraternity and as Fielding did. But Fortune, if she sometimes "cried holiday" to Dekker, was never "kind". He is best remembered for his songs and for the words
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the best of men
That e'er wore earth about him was a sufferer,
A soft, meek159, patient, humble160, tranquil161 spirit;
The first true gentleman that ever breathed.
When Lamb tells us that Dekker "had poetry enough for anything": when Mr. Swinburne declares that Dekker "was endowed in the highest degree with the gifts of graceful162 and melodious163 fancy, tender and cordial humour, vivid and pathetic realism, a spontaneous refinement165, and an exquisite simplicity of expression," we wish to search for his privately166 reprinted works in prose, and the solitary167 edition of his plays.
But on the other hand we are told that his "Satiromastix" is not too severely168 called "a preposterous169 medley170": that his "besetting vice171" is "reckless and sluttish incoherence"; that one play can be best explained as the work of an intoxicated172 man in a debtor's prison; that "there are times when we are tempted94 to denounce the Muse of Dekker as the most shiftless and shameless of slovens and of sluts." Dekker wrote several pamphlets, which, in a sort, resemble some minor173 work of Daniel de Foe.
Middleton.
Though Ben Jonson said in his haste that Middleton was "a base fellow," he was of a gentle house. The date of his birth is unknown (1570?), as early as 1597 he was writing for the Press; by 1602 he was working at plays in which five or six other men collaborated. Probably they settled on a plot, or rather on two plots, upper and under, and each author wrote an act: a little ready money came in, but the dramas must have been "in the veniable part of things lost". Middleton frequently worked with Dekker, also with Rowley. They are usually thought to have mainly contributed the noisy and incoherent underplots, but Dekker's admirers credit him with the dénouement of "The Old Law" (Middleton, Massinger, Dekker).
Mr. Bullen finds this passage the drollest of things droll174. There can be no doubt that it must have evoked175 hearty176 laughter on the stage.
Easily are Hoard177 and Lucre178 gulled179 in "A Trick to Catch the[Pg 254] Old One," namely the uncle of the young profligate Witgood. Granting that these ancient chuffs were incredibly credulous180, the play is a bustling181 comedy, with abundance of tricks and turns. The Mayor of Queenburgh in the play so styled was contemporary with Hengist and Horsa; is full of very serious matter, merrily set down. We must not approach in a spirit of historical pedantry182 a drama in which the Earls of Devonshire and Staffordshire, the sons of Constantine (namely Aurelius Ambrosius, Constantius, and Uther Pendragon), with Vortiger and Horsus, Hengist, the tanner Mayor of Quinborough, Aminada, and a number of button-makers and professional murderers, also two monks183, play their parts. The incoherencies, the button-makers, the chaste184 Constantius, an unwilling185 monarch186, his murder by the minions of Vortiger, their murder (in Macbeth's manner) by Vortiger, are the drollest of unconscious drolleries. This monstrous medley of dull disconnected humours, unspeakable villainies, and speeches in excellent blank verse, with the sufferings of the angelic Castiza, contains, as usual, a pearl of wronged and innocent womanhood.
Middleton is thought by some to walk more closely in Shakespeare's footsteps than even Webster, and his acknowledged masterpiece is "The Changeling," so called from the underplot (by Rowley), in which two sane187 men smuggle188 themselves as maniac189 and idiot into a private lunatic asylum190. The cheerful interludes of lunacy set off the tragedy.
Beatrice Joanna, betrothed to Alonzo de Piracquo, loves Alsemero at first sight, and for Piracquo's murderer suborns de Flores, a man whom she loathes191, and whose face seems charged with disaster. De Flores has a violent physical passion for Beatrice, endures her insults, haunts her, and accepts her murderous command. After slaying192 her betrothed, and cutting off his finger that wears the ring of betrothal193, he has that scene with Beatrice in which he rejects all her offers, even her whole fortune, and, by threatening to divulge194 her crime, compels her to be his mistress. This scene is justly celebrated; it does indeed move terror, and pity for the pitiless. But the adventures of Beatrice's bridal night with Alsemero; the absurd affair of the glasses marked M and C; the burning by de Flores of the girl who here plays the part of[Pg 255] Brangwain in the romance of Tristram and Iseult; all these things prove Middleton's inability to keep on the level of his own high conception.
After some powerful passages and the reappearance of the bleeding finger with the ring, de Flores murders Beatrice, and dies rejoicing in his success. Tragedy, as Shakespeare and Aristotle understood it, was not concerned with resolute195 ruffians and girls with violent passions, but with Cordelia and Hamlet, Othello and Desdemona, noble souls; with fate-driven and fallen Macbeth and Lady Macbeth; or Coriolanus ruined by the excess of his own qualities.
Middleton's comedy of "The Roaring Girl," a contemporary virago196 with pipe and sword, idealized as the champion of her sex; his prodigal197 old Sir Bounteous198 in "A Mad World," and his "Chaste Maid in Cheapside" were long popular; while the humours of the duel, and the sterling199 excellence200 of Captain Ager in "A Fair Quarrel," are contrasted with the horseplay of Middleton's constant partner, Rowley. In 1620, Middleton was appointed Chronologer to the City, and did the work for which he was paid. He continued to write for the stage, and his "Spanish Gipsy," an intermezzo of a very serious plot with the humours of gentlefolks playing gipsies; his "The Witch," with curious resemblances to the Witches in "Macbeth," and the highly successful "topical" play, "A Game of Chess," with the intrigues202 in the affairs of the Spanish match for Charles, Prince of Wales, are among the most notable of his many dramas. The Spanish ambassador, in August, 1624, caused the political "Game of Chess" to be withdrawn203, for "his Majesty," James I, "remembers well there was a commandment and restraint given against the representing of any modern Christian204 kings in those stage plays". James might well remember it! In 1604 Shakespeare's company had brought him on the stage, playing his part in the mysterious affair of 1600, the Gowrie Conspiracy. The play was stopped on the third night.
Middleton also wrote many City masques. He died on 4 July, 1627.
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Heywood.
Thomas Heywood was born in Lincolnshire, was a Cambridge man, and by 1596-1598 was an actor and a writer for the stage and the Press. He says that it is no custom of his to print his plays, being faithful to the actors (who lost their rights in a play, when printed). He confesses to having "had a hand or at least a main finger" in two hundred and twenty plays.
The strong point in Heywood is his study of domestic manners in Englishmen at home, and as adventurers abroad, as in "The English Traveller," and "The Fair Maid of the West". Here Clem, the son of a baker205 who, "when corn grew to be at a high rate, never doughed after," frankly206 says of four sea captains, "I believe they be little better than pirates".
Heywood's most celebrated play, "A Woman Killed with Kindness," reads as much like a modern novel as a Jacobean drama. There is no ribaldry, no horrors, only a duel between two sets of men over a disputed hawking207 match. The hero, Frankford, shelters and entertains a broken gentleman who flees from the field, and the man, though thoroughly conscious of his own villainy, seduces208 Frankford's wife, who is beautiful and hitherto a pearl of virtue. She yields at a word: Frankford discovers and spares them, the lady makes a pathetic end, and, dying of remorse (of which her lover has his full share), she is "killed with kindness".
The pathos and the details of manners are entirely209 in the style of many modern novels, and the underplot, also serious, if improbable, has the favourite stainless heroine, Susan; a girl of great nobility.
There is a most amusing list of the practising "Mediums" of the day, in "The Wise Woman of Hogsdon". They have their specialities, one "doth pretty well for a thing that is lost Mother Sturton deals in prevision—"is for fore-speaking"; another "practised the book and key" (an automatism, the key is tied into the book, the fingers hold it up under the handle of the key, and the book turns in answer to questions). "All do well," says the witch, "according to their talent. For myself, let the world speak There are some good speeches and good blank verse in[Pg 257] "The Iron Age," one of four dramas on the "Four Ages of Hesiod's Mythology210". In "The Rape19 of Lucrece" is an extraordinary set of popular songs, some coarse enough, one in Dutch, and among them the beautiful lyric,
Pack, clouds, away, and welcome day,
which, more than his twenty-four surviving dramas, keeps Heywood's memory green and fragrant211. He wrote miscellaneous pamphlets and books with enormous industry.
There is something sympathetic in his very carelessness,—what Lamb precisely212 meant when he called Heywood "a prose Shakespeare" is disputed. Possibly he meant that Heywood has sweetness of nature, humour, and knowledge of character, without much poetry.
Webster.
Concerning the life and adventures of John Webster next to nothing is known. In 1602 the account books of Henslowe, the financier of the stage, mention two lost plays as being, the first by Dekker, Drayton, Middleton, Munday, and Webster; and the second by Webster, Chettle, T. Heywood, Wentworth Smith, and Dekker. Dramas by so many hands cannot be masterpieces. Webster was a great and busy collaborator; in the bustling "citizen comedies," "Northward213 Ho" and "Westward214 Ho" he worked with Dekker. He is best known by Lamb's extracts from his "White Devil" and "Duchess of Malfi".
"The White Devil" (printed in 1612) is a chronicle play of the career of Vittoria Corombona, but Webster has altered the facts as he pleased. The more tragic humours of the betrayed husband (our liberal fathers gave him a shorter name) are exemplified in her lord Camillo, who, in the interests of her lover, the Duke of Brachiano, is murdered in a manner intended to disguise the crime: the device is about as subtle as the blowing up of Darnley with gunpowder215. The Duchess, another patient Grizel, except so far as Vittoria is concerned, men slay by poisoning the portrait of her faithless husband, which she kisses, and thus imbibes216 the infection. Cornelia, the mother of Vittoria and of[Pg 258] her leading murderer Flamineo, is a pathetic figure, and it is she who sings the beautiful lyric.
Call for the robin217 red breast and the wren218.
Lamb says of Cornelia, "she speaks the dialect of despair; her tongue has a smatch of Tartarus and the souls in bale. To move a horror skilfully219, to touch a soul to the quick, to lay upon fear as much as it can bear, to wean and weary a life till it is ready to drop, and then step in with mortal instruments to take its last forfeit220, this only a Webster can do." But if this is all that a Webster can do, and if to do this he needs an accumulation of unnatural horrors—fratricide, the murderer of a brother contemplating221 the madness which his deed has wrought222 in his mother; if the slain brother has just been kicking his strumpet sister; then we may ask whether an art that flourishes in these odious164 and extravagant223 conditions produces "one of the imperishable and ineradicable landmarks224 of literature".
The serene225 and audacious impudence226 of Vittoria, when accused of her first husband's, Camillo's, murder; and the Ophelia-like laments227 and the song of Cornelia; with the all-but imperturbable228 wickedness of Flamineo, yield the extracts which Charles Lamb made current coin. Webster, in fact, returned, with abundant genius, but without discretion229, to the class of Revenge-plays opened by Kyd in "The Spanish Tragedie".
The behaviour of the Duchess of Malfi, in the play of that name (printed 1623), introduced as she is by a noble panegyric230, does not prepare us for her sudden wooing of her steward231, Antonio. Her brothers, like the brothers of Keats's Isabella, determine to punish her: their instrument, Bosolo, is a character not wholly lost, who deliberately232 sells himself to guilt233; and the scene in which eight madmen are let loose to dance round the Duchess—they do not shake her resolution,—is much admired. She is strangled, the children are strangled on all sides, the servant Cariola is strangled, though "she bites and scratches". The Fifth Act is a scene of the Kilkenny cats; almost everybody, including Bosolo, is stabbed, and Ford, in commendatory verses, applauds Webster, as at least the equal of the Athenian tragedians.
[Pg 259]
Webster's genius was confessedly "subdued235 to that it worked in". In the preface to "The White Devil" he complains that the public will not endure a tragedy which observes the critical laws; "the sententious Chorus," and "the passionate236 and weighty Nuntius," the messenger who, in Greek tragedy, reports the horrors done off the stage. Deprived of the messenger, obliged to work his massacres237 on the scene, Webster was unsparing in horrors. His "Devil's Lawsuit239" is a complicated web of squalid intrigue; the blank verse is utterly240 degenerate241; and "Appius and Virginia" is not remarkable for originality243 in the representation of that famous Roman story.
Webster's idea of a ghost was rather unconventional; Brachiano's phantasm in "The White Devil" wore no common sheet, but "leather cassock and breeches, and boots; with a cowl, in his hand a pot of lily flowers, with a skull244 in't". Dekker advises his Gull at the play to laugh aloud in the crisis of the tragedy, and probably there were some hardy245 or hysterical246 spectators who thus received the too, too solid spirit of Brachiano. The Tragedy of Revenge inspired Cyril Tourneur's "Revenger's Tragedy," and horror has her home in this play and his "Atheist's Tragedy". What in them deserves reading may be found in Lamb's extracts.
Massinger.
Philip Massinger (born 1583) was the son of a gentleman patronized by the noble house of Pembroke. The poet was educated at St. Alban Hall, Oxford, but left without taking a degree (1606). He had fallen into debt, and commenced play-writing in 1614; his earliest known piece, in which Dekker took part, "The Virgin242 Martyr," was acted in 1622. The period represented is that of the persecution247 under Diocletian, and the piece is old-fashioned enough; introducing the angelic companion of St. Dorothea, and the devil who attends the persecutor248, Theophilus, a very late convert. Torture is introduced on the stage, and Theophilus slays249 his daughters, whom he had tortured out of Christianity back into the Olympian faith, and whom Dorothea reconverts by arguments with which they must already have long been familiar. There is a tendency to credit Dekker both with[Pg 260] the most gracious passages of verse in the piece and with the stupid but energetic ribaldries of Hircius and Spungius.
"The Unnatural Combat" (duel between a son and a father who rivals Cenci in Shelley's tragedy), "The Duke of Milan," with a most unnatural plot, "The Roman Actor," "The Fatal Dowry," are among Massinger's tragedies; some twelve of his plays were burned in manuscript by Betty Baker, or Barnes, the cook of Warburton, the herald250. If they contained such scenes as that of "the ghost of young Malefort," slain by his father, "naked from the waist, full of wounds, leading in the Shadow of a lady, her face leprous," our regret for them may not be overwhelming. We have plays enough in which a man is poisoned by the venomed251 paint on a canvas or on a dead lady's face; plays enough in which victims (as in "The Roman Actor") are cruelly tortured on the stage.
That Massinger has noble passages and great tirades is undeniable, and he is one of the four or five successors of Shakespeare who are said by their admirers to follow most closely in his footsteps. The play which keeps Massinger's memory green in common recollection is his "A New Way to pay Old Debts". The great part is that of Sir Giles Overreach, a financial ruffian, suggested probably by a real character equally nefarious252, Sir Giles Mompesson. A victim of Overreach's in his own nephew, Wellborn, and the play shows how Wellborn, with the aid of a rich and virtuous253 widow, Lady Allworth, cozens Overreach into advancing money; how his creature, Marrall, chouses him; and how his daughter, Margaret, marries young Allworth, and not the peer for whom the usurer designed her. Described as "both lion and fox," Overreach, always ready to fight, is more successful in the furious than in the furtive254 part of his nature. He bullies255 man and defies God in seeking satisfaction of his two chief desires, to ruin and humiliate256 his social superiors and to plunder257 the widow and the orphan258 or any other victim whose loss may be his gain.
But like the Mammon-worshippers in "A Trick to Catch the Old One," Overreach himself is credulous enough, an easy victim of the conspirators259 against his pride and pocket. Massinger's indelicacy "has not always the apology of wit," indeed he is not[Pg 261] remarkable for humour, any more than most of his contemporaries, who sought and doubtless got a laugh by stereotyped260 and witless ribaldries.
The character part of Greedy, a parasite133 of Overreach's, remarkable for his appetite,—a shield of brawn261 and a barrel of Colchester oysters262 "were to him a dish of tea" before breakfast,—must have been diverting on the stage; and when Marrall turns against his master, we are reminded of similar surprises by Mr. Micawber and Newman Noggs, though they were not accomplices263 in the iniquities264 which they exposed.
Massinger's plays are often interwoven with the work of other hands, and deal, in a more or less veiled way, with the political situations of his time. He lived in poverty, as his petitions to the Herbert family prove; and he died in 1640. He was dissatisfied with his fortunes and with public indifference265; poverty had forced him into poetry, and hunger had made him hasty in his work; the too common calamity266 of poor authors.
Ford.
John Ford was a native of Ilsington in Devonshire, baptized on 17 April, 1586. He was of good family, entered the Inns of Court, and is said to have practised in his profession. A contemporary rhymer speaks of him "deep in a dump," "with folded arms and melancholy267 hat". He worked at plays with Dekker, and in "The Witch of Edmonton" (1622?).
Four of his comedies were burned or otherwise put out of being by Betty Barnes, or Baker, the celebrated cook of Warburton, Somerset herald, who made away with at least fifty manuscripts of old plays: his earliest known comedy (1613) was among Betty's victims. His earliest independent surviving piece, "The Lover's Melancholy," was played in 1628. The more serious part has a rather improbable plot turning on the disguise of a girl as a man, but there are many beautiful romantic passages in the loves of Palador, Prince of Cyprus, and Eroclea. A masque of Bedlamites within the play indicates the strange contemporary taste for the terrors and humours of maniacs268.
[Pg 262]
In 1633 the famous plays "'Tis Pity She's a Whore," and "The Broken Heart," were printed. The former has a plot of incestuous loves, ending in a pretty general massacre238. Given the inspiration of the unnatural, Ford could do great things. In the Prologue to "The Broken Heart" (the scene is Sparta, of all unlikely places) Ford reprobates269 the staple270 of low contemporary comedy, "jests fit for a brothel court's applause," "apish laughter," "lame63 jeers271 at place or persons"; perhaps Ford was not unaffected by Prynne's famous attack on the stage, "Histriomastix" (1632).
"The Broken Heart" is free from the customary ribaldries; it is a tragedy of fate, the characters are noble. Ithocles is noble, despite the original wrong which he has committed in separating Orgilus and Penthea, and wedding Penthea to "the grey dissimulation272" of the jealous Bassanes. Orgilus, who murders Ithocles, is noble in his death, the death of Seneca without the bath. Penthea is noble, and the wanderings of her mind at the end of her slow suicide, are beautiful in their sad fantasy; finally the dancing of Calantha, while one after another come messengers with the tidings that break her heart, is noble, and probably her endurance is the reason for the placing of the scene in Sparta. As in Greek tragedy, all are doomed273 by Fate; the Oracle274 of Delphi has spoken truth, with the wonted obscurity which only Time can unriddle. It is true that the interest shifts, in the last scenes, from Penthea to Calantha, whom we have scarcely looked on previously275. But Ford aimed high, and came near to hitting his mark. He ought never to have, attempted his crazy low comedy scenes.
Ford's "Perkin Warbeck" is by far the most readable historical play of the old stage, after Marlowe's "Edward II," and Shakespeare's Chronicle plays. Perkin's character is resolute and princely, as is that of his Gordon bride, "The White Rose". "If he lost his life he died a king" in royal bearing. As King Henry says
The custom, sure, of being called a king
Has fastened in his thought that he is such.
Ford, in his Tragedies, is not to be reckoned among Mr. Swinburne's "splendid slovens". His blank verse never degenerates276 into skimble-skamble slackness, but, compared with most of his[Pg 263] contemporaries, he does not shine as a lyric poet. He retired277 to the country after the overthrow278 of the stage and the beginning of the civil war.
Shirley.
James Shirley, of an honourable279 family, was born in London, in 1596. He entered the Merchant Taylors' School, and, in 1612, went to St. John's, Oxford, where Laud234 was then master. Laud, who believed in "the beauty of holiness," is said to have prevented Shirley, as a blemished280 man, with a large mole281 on his face, from taking holy orders. He migrated to Cambridge, to St. Catherine's Hall, published a poem in 1616, did take orders, received a living; left it on becoming a Catholic, turned schoolmaster at St. Albans, and then went to town as a playwright.
His "Love's Tricks" was licensed282 in 1624-1625,—"a silly play," writes Mr. Pepys in 1667. Shirley was prolific; his "Witty283 Fair One" (acted 1628) is thought one of his best comedies. These dramas have a touch of the modern; we hear of "balls," a new name then for dancing parties. In "The Lady of Pleasure" (1635) Lady Bornwell's contempt for the country life and for country gentlemen, and her determination to spend her husband's fortune on the gaieties of the Court, are amusing, and we expect her to be a Lady Teazle. But, despite her husband's stratagem284 of beating her at her own game, and the humours of the nephew whom she has brought from Oxford, the piece can hardly be read with enthusiastic delight. It is deemed Shirley's masterpiece in comedy, and preludes285 to the comic drama of the Restoration and the Revolution of 1688. Dryden expresses extreme contempt for both Hey wood and Shirley; it is to be feared that his own plays are now no more popular than theirs.
After residing at Dublin under the great Earl of Strafford, and producing plays at the Viceregal Court, and after insulting in an ironic286 dedication of "The Bird in a Cage," the Puritan Prynne, who had been most cruelly punished for allusions287 in his work against the stage ("Histriomastix"), Shirley returned to London. His "The Cardinal" is imitated from Webster's "Duchess of Malfi," and with "The Traitor288" is reckoned (though Shirley preferred "The Cardinal"), "the best of his flock" in tragedy.[Pg 264] Pepys (1662) writes "there is no great matter in it," but Pepys's dramatic criticisms are no great matter. In 1642 came the shutting up of the theatres, and Shirley, after seeing the wars under his patron, the Duke of Newcastle, returned to his old profession as a schoolmaster.
He wrote a preface (1647) to some hitherto unprinted plays of Beaumont and Fletcher, commending their stage as a school of moral discipline, "In this silence of the stage thou hast a liberty to read these inimitable plays". In 1659 Shirley published his "Contention289 of Ajax and Ulysses," containing the noble lines which embalm290 his memory:—
The glories of our blood and state.
Are shadows, not substantial things.
His
Bid me no more good night, because
'Tis dark, must I away?
is also a pretty piece, like his "Song" (attributed wrongly to Carew).
Shirley's works were often acted at the beginning of the Restoration, but he refused to write more dramas. The shock of the great fire of 1666 is said to have caused the deaths, on the same day, of himself and of his wife. The blank verse of Shirley is seldom distinguished291. His numerous works suffer somewhat because they come at the end of a long period in which talent like his, with defects of taste often greater than his, have satiated and wearied all but the special student and enthusiastic devotee of the drama. The minor stars in the galaxy292 of playwrights almost defy enumeration293.
Space does not permit estimates of the last dramatists of "the first temple," Randolph, Suckling—whose dramatic verse is as chaotically294 bad as several of his lyrics are exquisite; Davenant, who tried to keep alive a semblance201 of the drama at the end of Cromwell's protectorate; Brome, Cartwright, Mayne, and others. The blank verse in which the elder poets had so often excelled was left to the care of Milton; the blank verse of the stage became formless, and, during the Restoration, rhymed heroic couplets usurped295 its place.
[1] As I write, an accidental "fourteener" meets the eyes in the heading of a magazine article—"Discovery of the Missing Link by Georgiana Knight". This metre does not seem the best in which to render Homer.
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1
bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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Oxford
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| n.牛津（英国城市） | |
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Ford
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| n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过 | |
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prolific
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| adj.丰富的，大量的；多产的，富有创造力的 | |
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partnership
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| n.合作关系，伙伴关系 | |
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tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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pathos
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| n.哀婉，悲怆 | |
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fiery
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| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
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peruse
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| v.细读，精读 | |
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industrious
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| adj.勤劳的，刻苦的，奋发的 | |
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tragical
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| adj. 悲剧的, 悲剧性的 | |
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vigour
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| （=vigor）n.智力，体力，精力 | |
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eloquence
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| n.雄辩；口才，修辞 | |
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lugubrious
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| adj.悲哀的，忧郁的 | |
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domain
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| n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围 | |
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rapes
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| n.芸苔( rape的名词复数 )；强奸罪；强奸案；肆意损坏v.以暴力夺取，强夺( rape的第三人称单数 )；强奸 | |
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rape
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| n.抢夺，掠夺，强奸；vt.掠夺，抢夺，强奸 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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throng
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| n.人群，群众；v.拥挤，群集 | |
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prehistoric
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| adj.（有记载的）历史以前的，史前的，古老的 | |
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antiquity
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| n.古老；高龄；古物，古迹 | |
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primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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callous
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| adj.无情的，冷淡的，硬结的，起老茧的 | |
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profligate
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| adj.行为不检的；n.放荡的人，浪子，肆意挥霍者 | |
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reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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seduce
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| vt.勾引，诱奸，诱惑，引诱 | |
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betrothed
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| n. 已订婚者 动词betroth的过去式和过去分词 | |
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loyalty
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| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
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obedience
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| n.服从，顺从 | |
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wed
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| v.娶，嫁，与…结婚 | |
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Neptune
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| n.海王星 | |
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wails
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| 痛哭，哭声( wail的名词复数 ) | |
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veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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vein
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| n.血管，静脉；叶脉，纹理；情绪；vt.使成脉络 | |
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slay
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| v.杀死，宰杀，杀戮 | |
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chaos
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| n.混乱，无秩序 | |
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remorse
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| n.痛恨，悔恨，自责 | |
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penitence
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| n.忏悔，赎罪；悔过 | |
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crimson
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| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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tragically
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| adv. 悲剧地，悲惨地 | |
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binds
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| v.约束( bind的第三人称单数 )；装订；捆绑；（用长布条）缠绕 | |
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taunts
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| 嘲弄的言语，嘲笑，奚落( taunt的名词复数 ) | |
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guises
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| n.外观，伪装( guise的名词复数 )v.外观，伪装( guise的第三人称单数 ) | |
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guise
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| n.外表，伪装的姿态 | |
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avenging
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| adj.报仇的，复仇的v.为…复仇，报…之仇( avenge的现在分词 )；为…报复 | |
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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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rites
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| 仪式，典礼( rite的名词复数 ) | |
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royalty
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| n.皇家，皇族 | |
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random
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| adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动 | |
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intrigue
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| vt.激起兴趣，迷住；vi.耍阴谋；n.阴谋，密谋 | |
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besetting
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| adj.不断攻击的v.困扰( beset的现在分词 )；不断围攻；镶；嵌 | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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glade
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| n.林间空地，一片表面有草的沼泽低地 | |
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knight
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| n.骑士，武士；爵士 | |
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pestle
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| n.杵 | |
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hurl
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| vt.猛投，力掷，声叫骂 | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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lame
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| adj.跛的，(辩解、论据等)无说服力的 | |
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unnatural
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| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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65
repulsive
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| adj.排斥的，使人反感的 | |
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66
deter
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| vt.阻止，使不敢，吓住 | |
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67
brag
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| v./n.吹牛，自夸；adj.第一流的 | |
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68
unintelligible
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| adj.无法了解的，难解的，莫明其妙的 | |
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69
clemencies
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| n.宽容，仁慈( clemency的名词复数 )；（尤指气候等）温和 | |
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70
austere
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| adj.艰苦的；朴素的，朴实无华的；严峻的 | |
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71
braggart
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|
| n.吹牛者；adj.吹牛的，自夸的 | |
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72
poltroon
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|
| n.胆怯者；懦夫 | |
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73
worthy
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|
| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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74
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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75
crammed
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|
| adj.塞满的，挤满的；大口地吃；快速贪婪地吃v.把…塞满；填入；临时抱佛脚( cram的过去式) | |
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76
rugged
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|
| adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的 | |
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77
virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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78
superfluous
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|
| adj.过多的，过剩的，多余的 | |
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79
remarkable
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|
| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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80
specimen
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|
| n.样本，标本 | |
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81
stainless
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|
| adj.无瑕疵的，不锈的 | |
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82
labyrinth
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|
| n.迷宫；难解的事物；迷路 | |
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83
specially
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|
| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
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84
apprentice
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|
| n.学徒，徒弟 | |
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85
prologue
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|
| n.开场白，序言；开端，序幕 | |
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86
lyric
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|
| n.抒情诗，歌词；adj.抒情的 | |
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87
lyrics
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| n.歌词 | |
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88
peculiarity
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|
| n.独特性，特色；特殊的东西；怪癖 | |
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89
redundant
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|
| adj.多余的，过剩的；(食物)丰富的；被解雇的 | |
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90
syllables
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|
| n.音节( syllable的名词复数 ) | |
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91
conjecturally
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|
| adj.推测的，好推测的 | |
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92
sonnets
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|
| n.十四行诗( sonnet的名词复数 ) | |
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93
sonnet
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| n.十四行诗 | |
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94
tempted
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|
| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
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95
luscious
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|
| adj.美味的；芬芳的；肉感的，引与性欲的 | |
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96
celebrated
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|
| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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97
meres
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|
| abbr.matrix of environmental residuals for energy systems 能源系统环境残留矩阵 | |
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98
odyssey
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| n.长途冒险旅行；一连串的冒险 | |
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99
perversions
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| n.歪曲( perversion的名词复数 )；变坏；变态心理 | |
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100
jigging
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| n.跳汰选，簸选v.（使）上下急动( jig的现在分词 ) | |
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101
foul
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|
| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
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102
foulness
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| n. 纠缠, 卑鄙 | |
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103
rout
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| n.溃退，溃败；v.击溃，打垮 | |
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104
overloads
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|
| 使负担太重( overload的第三人称单数 )； 使超载； 使过载； 给…增加负担 | |
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105
simplicity
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|
| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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106
conceits
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|
| 高傲( conceit的名词复数 )； 自以为； 巧妙的词语； 别出心裁的比喻 | |
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107
imprisoned
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| 下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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108
satire
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|
| n.讽刺，讽刺文学，讽刺作品 | |
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109
eastward
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|
| adv.向东；adj.向东的；n.东方，东部 | |
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110
collaborator
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|
| n.合作者，协作者 | |
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111
delightful
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|
| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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112
conspiracy
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|
| n.阴谋，密谋，共谋 | |
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113
fustian
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|
| n.浮夸的；厚粗棉布 | |
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114
inviting
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|
| adj.诱人的，引人注目的 | |
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115
tryst
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|
| n.约会；v.与…幽会 | |
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116
slain
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| 杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的过去分词 )； (slay的过去分词) | |
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117
duel
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|
| n./v.决斗；(双方的)斗争 | |
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118
minions
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| n.奴颜婢膝的仆从( minion的名词复数 )；走狗；宠儿；受人崇拜者 | |
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119
foe
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| n.敌人，仇敌 | |
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120
unicorn
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| n.(传说中的)独角兽 | |
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121
cardinal
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|
| n.(天主教的)红衣主教；adj.首要的，基本的 | |
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122
assassinated
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|
| v.暗杀( assassinate的过去式和过去分词 )；中伤；诋毁；破坏 | |
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123
hideous
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|
| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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124
mingle
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|
| vt.使混合，使相混；vi.混合起来；相交往 | |
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125
exquisite
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|
| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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126
satires
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| 讽刺，讥讽( satire的名词复数 )； 讽刺作品 | |
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127
scourge
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| n.灾难，祸害；v.蹂躏 | |
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128
muse
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| n.缪斯（希腊神话中的女神），创作灵感 | |
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129
lasciviously
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130
stanza
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| n.（诗）节，段 | |
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131
invokes
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| v.援引( invoke的第三人称单数 )；行使（权利等）；祈求救助；恳求 | |
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132
parasites
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| 寄生物( parasite的名词复数 )； 靠他人为生的人； 诸虫 | |
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133
parasite
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| n.寄生虫；寄生菌；食客 | |
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134
satirized
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| v.讽刺，讥讽( satirize的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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135
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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136
malcontent
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|
| n.不满者，不平者；adj.抱不平的，不满的 | |
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137
misanthrope
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|
| n.恨人类的人；厌世者 | |
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138
enthusiasts
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| n.热心人，热衷者( enthusiast的名词复数 ) | |
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139
dedication
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| n.奉献，献身，致力，题献，献辞 | |
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140
assailed
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| v.攻击( assail的过去式和过去分词 )；困扰；质问；毅然应对 | |
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141
genial
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|
| adj.亲切的，和蔼的，愉快的，脾气好的 | |
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142
crabbed
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|
| adj.脾气坏的；易怒的；（指字迹）难辨认的；（字迹等）难辨认的v.捕蟹( crab的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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143
playwright
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|
| n.剧作家，编写剧本的人 | |
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144
hack
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| n.劈，砍，出租马车；v.劈，砍，干咳 | |
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145
redeemed
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| adj. 可赎回的，可救赎的 动词redeem的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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146
poultry
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| n.家禽，禽肉 | |
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147
gull
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| n.鸥；受骗的人；v.欺诈 | |
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148
taverns
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| n.小旅馆，客栈，酒馆( tavern的名词复数 ) | |
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149
tracts
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| 大片土地( tract的名词复数 )； 地带； （体内的）道； （尤指宣扬宗教、伦理或政治的）短文 | |
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150
akin
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|
| adj.同族的，类似的 | |
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151
collaborated
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| 合作( collaborate的过去式和过去分词 )； 勾结叛国 | |
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152
playwrights
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| n.剧作家( playwright的名词复数 ) | |
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153
regiment
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| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
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154
inevitable
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|
| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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155
audacity
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|
| n.大胆，卤莽，无礼 | |
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156
tirades
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| 激烈的长篇指责或演说( tirade的名词复数 ) | |
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157
thoroughly
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|
| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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158
conversion
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| n.转化，转换，转变 | |
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159
meek
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| adj.温顺的，逆来顺受的 | |
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160
humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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161
tranquil
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|
| adj. 安静的, 宁静的, 稳定的, 不变的 | |
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162
graceful
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|
| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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163
melodious
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|
| adj.旋律美妙的，调子优美的，音乐性的 | |
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164
odious
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| adj.可憎的，讨厌的 | |
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165
refinement
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| n.文雅；高尚；精美；精制；精炼 | |
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166
privately
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| adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地 | |
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167
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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168
severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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169
preposterous
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| adj.荒谬的，可笑的 | |
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170
medley
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| n.混合 | |
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171
vice
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| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
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172
intoxicated
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| 喝醉的，极其兴奋的 | |
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173
minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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174
droll
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|
| adj.古怪的，好笑的 | |
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175
evoked
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| [医]诱发的 | |
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176
hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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177
hoard
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| n./v.窖藏，贮存，囤积 | |
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178
lucre
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| n.金钱，财富 | |
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179
gulled
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| v.欺骗某人( gull的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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180
credulous
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|
| adj.轻信的，易信的 | |
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181
bustling
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| adj.喧闹的 | |
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182
pedantry
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| n.迂腐，卖弄学问 | |
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183
monks
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| n.修道士，僧侣( monk的名词复数 ) | |
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184
chaste
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| adj.贞洁的；有道德的；善良的；简朴的 | |
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185
unwilling
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| adj.不情愿的 | |
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186
monarch
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| n.帝王，君主，最高统治者 | |
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187
sane
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| adj.心智健全的，神志清醒的，明智的，稳健的 | |
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188
smuggle
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| vt.私运；vi.走私 | |
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189
maniac
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| n.精神癫狂的人；疯子 | |
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190
asylum
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| n.避难所，庇护所，避难 | |
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191
loathes
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| v.憎恨，厌恶( loathe的第三人称单数 )；极不喜欢 | |
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192
slaying
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| 杀戮。 | |
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193
betrothal
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|
| n. 婚约, 订婚 | |
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194
divulge
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| v.泄漏(秘密等)；宣布，公布 | |
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195
resolute
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|
| adj.坚决的，果敢的 | |
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196
virago
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| n.悍妇 | |
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197
prodigal
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| adj.浪费的，挥霍的，放荡的 | |
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198
bounteous
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| adj.丰富的 | |
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199
sterling
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| adj.英币的(纯粹的，货真价实的)；n.英国货币(英镑) | |
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200
excellence
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| n.优秀，杰出，(pl.)优点，美德 | |
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201
semblance
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| n.外貌，外表 | |
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202
intrigues
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| n.密谋策划( intrigue的名词复数 )；神秘气氛；引人入胜的复杂情节v.搞阴谋诡计( intrigue的第三人称单数 )；激起…的好奇心 | |
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203
withdrawn
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| vt.收回；使退出；vi.撤退，退出 | |
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204
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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205
baker
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| n.面包师 | |
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206
frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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207
hawking
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| 利用鹰行猎 | |
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208
seduces
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| 诱奸( seduce的第三人称单数 )； 勾引； 诱使堕落； 使入迷 | |
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209
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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210
mythology
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| n.神话，神话学，神话集 | |
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211
fragrant
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| adj.芬香的，馥郁的，愉快的 | |
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212
precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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213
northward
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| adv.向北；n.北方的地区 | |
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214
westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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215
gunpowder
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| n.火药 | |
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216
imbibes
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| v.吸收( imbibe的第三人称单数 )；喝；吸取；吸气 | |
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217
robin
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| n.知更鸟，红襟鸟 | |
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218
wren
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| n.鹪鹩；英国皇家海军女子服务队成员 | |
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219
skilfully
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| adv. (美skillfully)熟练地 | |
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220
forfeit
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| vt.丧失；n.罚金，罚款，没收物 | |
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221
contemplating
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| 深思，细想，仔细考虑( contemplate的现在分词 )； 注视，凝视； 考虑接受（发生某事的可能性）； 深思熟虑，沉思，苦思冥想 | |
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222
wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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223
extravagant
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| adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的 | |
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224
landmarks
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| n.陆标( landmark的名词复数 )；目标；（标志重要阶段的）里程碑 ~ (in sth)；有历史意义的建筑物（或遗址） | |
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225
serene
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| adj. 安详的，宁静的，平静的 | |
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226
impudence
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| n.厚颜无耻；冒失；无礼 | |
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227
laments
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| n.悲恸，哀歌，挽歌( lament的名词复数 )v.（为…）哀悼，痛哭，悲伤( lament的第三人称单数 ) | |
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228
imperturbable
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| adj.镇静的 | |
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229
discretion
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| n.谨慎；随意处理 | |
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230
panegyric
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| n.颂词，颂扬 | |
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231
steward
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| n.乘务员，服务员；看管人；膳食管理员 | |
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232
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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233
guilt
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| n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责 | |
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234
laud
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| n.颂歌；v.赞美 | |
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235
subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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236
passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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237
massacres
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| 大屠杀( massacre的名词复数 )； 惨败 | |
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238
massacre
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| n.残杀，大屠杀；v.残杀，集体屠杀 | |
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239
lawsuit
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| n.诉讼，控诉 | |
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240
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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241
degenerate
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| v.退步，堕落；adj.退步的，堕落的；n.堕落者 | |
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242
virgin
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| n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的 | |
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243
originality
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| n.创造力，独创性；新颖 | |
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244
skull
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| n.头骨；颅骨 | |
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245
hardy
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| adj.勇敢的，果断的，吃苦的；耐寒的 | |
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246
hysterical
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| adj.情绪异常激动的，歇斯底里般的 | |
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247
persecution
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| n. 迫害,烦扰 | |
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248
persecutor
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| n. 迫害者 | |
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249
slays
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| 杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的第三人称单数 ) | |
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250
herald
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| vt.预示...的来临，预告，宣布，欢迎 | |
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251
venomed
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| adj.恶毒的，含有恶意的 | |
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252
nefarious
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| adj.恶毒的，极坏的 | |
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253
virtuous
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| adj.有品德的，善良的，贞洁的，有效力的 | |
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254
furtive
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| adj.鬼鬼崇崇的，偷偷摸摸的 | |
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255
bullies
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| n.欺凌弱小者, 开球 vt.恐吓, 威胁, 欺负 | |
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256
humiliate
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| v.使羞辱，使丢脸[同]disgrace | |
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257
plunder
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| vt.劫掠财物，掠夺；n.劫掠物，赃物；劫掠 | |
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258
orphan
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| n.孤儿；adj.无父母的 | |
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259
conspirators
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| n.共谋者，阴谋家( conspirator的名词复数 ) | |
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260
stereotyped
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| adj.(指形象、思想、人物等)模式化的 | |
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261
brawn
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| n.体力 | |
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262
oysters
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| 牡蛎( oyster的名词复数 ) | |
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263
accomplices
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| 从犯，帮凶，同谋( accomplice的名词复数 ) | |
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264
iniquities
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| n.邪恶( iniquity的名词复数 )；极不公正 | |
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265
indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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266
calamity
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| n.灾害，祸患，不幸事件 | |
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267
melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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268
maniacs
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| n.疯子（maniac的复数形式） | |
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269
reprobates
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| n.道德败坏的人，恶棍( reprobate的名词复数 ) | |
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270
staple
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| n.主要产物，常用品，主要要素，原料，订书钉，钩环；adj.主要的，重要的；vt.分类 | |
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271
jeers
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| n.操纵帆桁下部（使其上下的）索具；嘲讽( jeer的名词复数 )v.嘲笑( jeer的第三人称单数 ) | |
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272
dissimulation
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| n.掩饰，虚伪，装糊涂 | |
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273
doomed
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| 命定的 | |
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274
oracle
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| n.神谕，神谕处，预言 | |
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275
previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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276
degenerates
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| 衰退，堕落，退化( degenerate的第三人称单数 ) | |
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277
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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278
overthrow
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| v.推翻，打倒，颠覆；n.推翻，瓦解，颠覆 | |
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279
honourable
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| adj.可敬的；荣誉的，光荣的 | |
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280
blemished
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| v.有损…的完美，玷污( blemish的过去式 ) | |
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281
mole
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| n.胎块；痣；克分子 | |
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282
licensed
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| adj.得到许可的v.许可，颁发执照(license的过去式和过去分词) | |
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283
witty
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| adj.机智的，风趣的 | |
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284
stratagem
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| n.诡计，计谋 | |
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285
preludes
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| n.开端( prelude的名词复数 )；序幕；序曲；短篇作品 | |
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286
ironic
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| adj.讽刺的，有讽刺意味的，出乎意料的 | |
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287
allusions
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| 暗指，间接提到( allusion的名词复数 ) | |
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288
traitor
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| n.叛徒，卖国贼 | |
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289
contention
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| n.争论，争辩，论战；论点，主张 | |
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290
embalm
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| v.保存（尸体）不腐 | |
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291
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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292
galaxy
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| n.星系；银河系；一群(杰出或著名的人物) | |
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293
enumeration
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| n.计数，列举；细目；详表；点查 | |
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294
chaotically
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295
usurped
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| 篡夺，霸占( usurp的过去式和过去分词 )； 盗用； 篡夺，篡权 | |
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