THE FALSE ONE.'

A TRAGEDY.

Gardiner, the fast friend of Fletcher, in his Commendatory Verses, ascribes this excellent Tragedy to him alone; the Prologue and Epilogue, which seem to have been written for the first representation, and are much more to be depended on, speak of Those who penn'd 'this.' The False One was first printed in the folio collection of 1647.-We do not know that this Tragedy ever received any alterations, or that it has been performed in the course of many years past.

The False One.] Mr. Seward, conceiving that a slur is cast on this play (for so he expresses it) by Dr. Warburton's first note on the Tempest, is very copious in his defences of the False One, as the rival of Antony and Cleopatra.' He also gives very large quotations from

Lucan;

SCENE 1.

Enter Achillas and Achoreus.

ACT I.

Achoreus. I LOVE the king, nor do dis-
pute his power,

For that is not confin'd, uor to be censur'd
By me, that am his subject; yet allow me
The liberty of a man, that still would be
A friend to justice, to demand the motives
That did induce young Ptolomy, or Photinus,
(To whose directions he gives up himself,
And I hope wisely) to commit his sister,
The princess Cleopatra-If I said
The queen, Achillas, 'twere, I hope, no trea-
She being by her father's testament
(Whose memory I bow to) left co-heir
In all he stood possess'd of.

[son,

Achil. 'Tis confess'd,
[doms
My good Achoreus, that in these eastern king-
Women are not exempted from the sceptre,
But claim a privilege equal to the male;
But how much such divisions have ta'en from
The majesty of Egypt, and what factions
Have sprung from those partitions, to the ruin
Of the poor subject, doubtful which to follow,
We have too many and too sad examples:
Therefore the wise Photinus, to prevent
The murders, and the massacres, that attend
On disunited government, and to shew
The king without a partner, in full splendor,
Thought it convenient the fair Cleopatra
(An attribute not frequent in this climate)
Should be committed to safe custody,
In which she is attended like her birth,
Until her beauty, or her royal dower,
Hath found her out a husband.

Achor. How this may

Stand with the rules of policy, I know not;
Most sure I am, it holds no correspondence
Wi' th' rites of Egypt, or the laws of nature.
But, grant that Cleopatra can sit down
With this disgrace, tho' insupportable,
Can you imagine that Rome's glorious senate,

To whose charge, by the will of the dead king,

This government was deliver'd, or great Pompey,

That is appointed Cleopatra's guardian

As well as Ptolomy's, will e'er approve
Of this rash counsel, their consent not sought
for,

That should authorize it?

Achil. The civil war,

In which the Roman empire is embark'd
On a rough sea of danger, does exact
Their whole care to preserve themselves, and
give them

No vacant time to think of what we do,
Which hardly can concern them.

Achor. What's your opinion

Of the success? I have heard, in multitudes
Of soldiers, and all glorious pomp of war,
Pompey is much superior.

Achil. I could give you

A catalogue of all the several nations
From whence he drew his powers; but that
were tedious.

[ber, They have rich arms, are ten to one in numWhich makes them think the day already

Lucan and endeavours to shew the superiority of the False One over the Pompey of Corneille; in all which particulars we think him too prolix and too uninteresting to be entirely copied: Nor do we believe that our Authors meant (as the Rev. Commentator on the Tempest imagines) to break a lance with Shakespeare on this occasion. The Prologue utterly disclaims any competition either with his Julius Cæsar or his Antony and Cleopatra, truly asserting, that although the personages are the same with those that are celebrated in those plays, the situations of those personages, that furnish the subject of The False One, are totally different.

Achil. I love the king, &c.] The gross error of making Achillas speak this has run through all the editions. Seward.

We are very sorry Mr. Seward should begin a play he seems to admire, with a fallacious assertion: The first folio (in which Ach. stands for Achoreus throughout, and for Achillas only in one short scene, when Achoreus is not present) gives this speech to Ach. i. e. Achoreus. 3 So much I have heard

Caesar himself confess.] This reading supposes Achillas to have been in Greece, and in Cæsar's presence. The correction is very obvious.

Seward.

Inur'd to his command, and only know
To fight and overcome: And tho' that famine
Reigns in his camp, compelling them to taste
Bread made of roots forbid the use of man,
(Which they with scorn threw into Pompey's
As in derision of his delicates) [camp,
Or corn not yet half ripe, and that a banquet;
They still besiege him, being ambitious only
To come to blows, and let their swords de-
Who hath the better cause.
[termine

Enter Septimius.❤

Achar. May victory Attend on't, where it is.

Achil. We ev'ry hour Expect to hear the issue.

Sept. Save my good lords!

By Isis and Osiris, whom you worship,
And the four hundred gods and goddesses
Ador'd in Rome, I am your honours' servant.
Achor. Truth needs, Septimius, no oaths.
Achil. You're cruel;

If you deny him swearing, you take from him
Three full parts of his language.

Sept. Your honour's bitter.
Confound me, where I love I cannot say it,
But I must swear't: Yet such is my ill fortune,
Nor vows nor protestations win belief;
I think, (and I can find no other reason)
Because I am a Roman.

Achor. No, Septimius;

To be a Roman were an honour to you, [it,
Did not your manners and your life take from
And cry aloud, that from Rome you bring
nothing

[here,

But Roman vices, which you would plant
But no seed of her virtues.

Sept. With your reverence,

I am too old to learn.

Achor. Any thing honest;

That I believe without an oath.
Sept. I fear

Your lordship has slept ill to-night, and that
Invites this sad discourse; 'twill make
you old
Before your time. Oh, these virtuous morals,

And old religious principles, that fool us!
I have brought you a new song will make
you laugh,

Tho' you were at your prayers.
Achor. What is the subject?
Be free, Septimius.5

Sept. 'Tis a catalogue

Of all the gamesters of the court and city,
Which lord lies with that lady, and what gal
lant
[relate
Sports with that merchant's wife; and does
Who sells her honour for a diamond,
Who for a tissue robe; whose husband's jea

lous,
[wife,
And who so kind, that, to share with his
Will make the match himself: Harmless
conceits,

Tho' fools say they are dangerous, I sang it
The last night, at my lord Photinus' table.
Achor. How? as a fiddler?

Sept. No, Sir, as a guest,

A welcome guest too; and it was approv'd of
By a dozen of his friends, though they were
touch'd in't:

For look you, 'tis a kind of merriment,
When we have laid by foolish modesty
(As not a man of fashion will wear it)
To talk what we have done, at least to hear it,
If merrily set down, it fires the blood,
And heightens crest-fall'n appetite.

Achor. New doctrine!

Achil. Was't of your own composing?
Sept. No, I bought it

Of a skulking scribbler for two Ptolomies;
But the hints were mine own: The wretch
was fearful;

But I have damn'd myself, should it be question'd,

That I will own it.

Achor. And be punish'd for it?

Take heed, for you may so long exercise
Your scurrilous wit against authority, [jests
The king lom's counsels, and make profane
(Which to you, being an atheist, is nothing)
Against religion, that your great maintainers,

+ Enter Septinius.] The vulgar editions have much oftener wrote it Septinius than Septimius, and have given him the former name in the persons of the drama.-The reader will undoubtedly observe the fine moral couched under this infamous wretch's character, viz. That even among the grossest superstition of the Heathens, the atheistical scoffer at religion was the most pernicious pest of all society. The character seems drawn with exquisite art, and our Poets have by it much excelled their master Lucan, and their competitor Corneille. In the former there is only a sketch of a fierce inhuman villain, and in the latter Septimius is in the first scene introduced as a privy-counsellor, makes an harangue to persuade the death of Pompey, commits the murder, and being blamed for it by Cæsar, is said to have killed himself with the same sword with which he slew Pompey: But he has absolutely no character at all, nor is it judicious to make him die the death of Brutus and Cassius; though a Frenchman may perhaps look upon the punishment of Cæsar, in the same light with the vile assassination of Pompey. Seward.

s'Acho. What is the subject?

Be free, Septimius.] The mistake of giving this to Achoreus makes him speak much out of character. It is perfectly consonant to that of Achillas, to desire to hear Septimius's ribraldry.

Seward.

This speech is as proper for Achoreus as the two next; and all three imply a contempt for Septimius, not a desire to hear his ribaldry."

Enter Photinus and Septimius.

Achor. No more of him,

He is not worth our thoughts; a fugitive
From Pompey's army, and now in a danger
When he should use his service. 8

Achil. See how he hangs

On great Photinus' ear.

Sept. Hell, and the furies, [me, And all the plagues of darkness, light upon You are my god on earth! and let me have Your favour here, fall what can fall hereafter! Pho. Thou art believ'd; dost thou want money?

Sept. No, Sir.

Sep. For whores, I grant you,

To enquire and learn of you, Sir, whose grave
[good,
For Egypt's happiness, and great Ptolomy's
Hath eyes
and ears in all parts.

Enter Ptolomy, Labienus, and guard.
Pho. I'll not boast

What my intelligence costs me; but ere long
You shall know more. The king, with him a
Roman.

[war

Achor. The scarlet livery of unfortunate Dy'd deeply on his face.

When they are out of date, 'till then are safe too.] Former editions.

Seward.

7 Observers of all kinds.] Observers and observants are used in the old Authors in the sense of parasites and sycophants. So, in King Lear, they are stiled,

ducking observants

That stretch their duties nicely.'

and now in a danger

When he should use his service.] Mr. Sympson thinks this dark, it may therefore be proper to explain it, as it seems to me a very beautiful sentiment. Septimius was not only a fugitive from Pompey, but had deserted him in the midst of danger, when he was engaged in a war with Cæsar.' 'One need not add how infamous such a desertion is held among soldiers. Seward

The scarlet livery of unfortunate war Dy'd deeply on his face.] If the reader supposes the hint taken from the bleeding captain at the beginning of Macbeth, who comes to relate the fate of the battle between Macbeth and Macdonel, he will, I believe, agree, that our Authors have here not only emulated, but much

excelled

Shall make a certain stand; then, how the
plains
[vultures,

Flow'd o'er with blood, and what a cloud of
And other birds of prey, hung o'er both ar-
Attending when their ready servitors, [mies,
The soldiers, from whoin the angry gods
Had took all sense of reason and of pity,
Would serve in their own carcasses for a feast;
How Cæsar with his javelin forc'd them on
That made the least stop, when their angry
[face; 10
Were lifted up against some known friend's
Then coming to the body of the army,

hands

He shews the sacred senate, and forbids them
To waste their force upon the common soldier,
(Whom willingly, if e'er he did know pity,
He would have spar'd)-

excelled their master. But this cannot be said of their imitation of the following lines of Julius Cæsar, where the common fact of birds of prey following armies is turned to a noble omen.

ravens, crows and kites

Fly o'er our heads; and downward look on us

As we were sickly prey; their shadows seem
A canopy most fatal, under which

Our army lies ready to give the ghost.'

Though our Authors' lines do not equal this, yet they strongly partake of the same spirit.

9 Or how the Roman piles on either side

Seward.

Drew Roman blood, which spent, the prince of weapons (The sword) succeeded.] Lucan, speaking in contempt of the Parthian archers, when Pompey had thoughts of taking shelter among them, says,

Ensis habit vires, et gens quæcunque virorum est,
Bella gerit gladiis.

Lib. viii.

The reader will observe what a noble flight of poetry our Authors have built on this sentiment. And if he will please to look over Lucan's whole description of this battle, in the seventh book, I believe he will agree that our Authors have chose the noblest of his sentiments, and expressed them with the highest dignity; that they have shewed great spirit in their additions, and as great judgment in their omissions; that they seldom fall below, but often rise above him. Whereas in the Pompey of Corneille (if prejudice does not make me too much depreciate French poetry) almost the reverse of all these appears. Lucan charges Cæsar with forbidding the dead bodies to be burned, (a thing indeed neither probable nor confirmed by history, nor at all consonant to Cæsar's temper and good sense) but on this supposition he has some of the noblest lines in his whole poem. Seward.

10

when their angry hands

Were lifted up against some known friend's face.]
Adversosque jubet ferro confundere vultus.

Lucan.

The famous speech of Cæsar in this battle-Miles faciem feri, is variously interpreted, either to hinder them from knowing each other, as fathers fought against sons and sons against fathers, or else, that the gay handsome youths of Pompey's army would be more afraid of their faces than any other part of their bodies. This last is Florus's reason, our Authors prefer the former: But perhaps a better reason than either might be the true one. Pompey's army consisted chiefly of new-levy'd troops; now to all raw fighters, blows on the face are more dreadful and more confounding than any other; not through fear of spoiling their beauty, but that they see more of the stroke than if 'tware aimed at any other part. Seward. 4 B

VOL. I.