author; they will be noticed in due time in their proper place. It may, and no doubt will be a disputed point, what rank Shirley is entitled to hold in the scale of dramatic poets: the number of his theatrical performances exceeds that of any writer either before or since his time, except Heywood, and had he lived in an age more favourable to the exercise of his talent, it is not unlikely that he might have rivalled even him in the fertility of his pen: but at the period when his genius may be supposed to have been in its zenith, he fell upon evil times and evil tongues," and his ardour was chilled by the cold anti-poetic spirit of puritanical institu tions: the straight-haired zealots, while they themselves acted the bloodiest and most real tragedies, interdicted the exhibition of their shadows on the stage as "the very pomps of the Devil; as sinful, heathenish, infamous, and ungodly spectacles and most pernicious corruptions" Notwith standing this prohibition, enforced with the greatest rigour, plays were sometimes secretly performed, and several by Shirley bear the information upon the title page that they were acted at the private houses in Black Friars or Drury Lane. It is not our purpose here so much to criticise as to enable the reader to form an opinion for himself; but after having read the whole of the productions of Shirley, with only the single'exception of a play which we could not procure, it may not be unfit to observe that he does not appear to us to deserve to be placed upon the same level with Fletcher or Massinger; of the two, he most resembles the former in taste and delicacy, but he seldom approaches the eloquence and dig nity of the latter; he has many prettinesses and elegant passages dispersed through his works, and now and then we meet with an ingenious display of fancy, but it seldom or never attains the height of imagination; his pathetic powers are very considerable, and some of his love scenes are unexcelled in beauty and tenderness. He does not deal in the majestic and high-wrought similes of Chapman, nor does he rival him in the weight and energy of his language, but he is far superior in the lighter dialogues of comedy and in the easier scenes of familiar intercourse: thus in the tragedy of Philip Chabot, which they wrote conjointly, the difference is as clearly to be marked as the distinction be tween the styles of Massinger and Dekker in the Virgin Title to Prynnes' Histriomastix, 1638. Martyr. In the invention and management of his plots, Shirley is generally skilful, and possesses a degree of originality which few dramatic writers can boast; many of them seem to be the mere produce of his brain, unassisted by the events of history or the traditions of the chroniclers. From what we have said, it may be inferred that the cha racters of Shirley are not so strongly drawn as those of some of his contemporaries, or rather precursors, but to this there are exceptions, as may be particularly illustrated in the Cardinal and the Royal Master. It is to be recollected, that Shirley often wrote on the spur of the moment to obtain bread for his wife and numerous family; yet not one of his many productions are devoid of considerable merit; and his quick invention and ready wit always secured him from becoming contemptible. Besides his own intrinsic merit he is worthy of admiration and respect as "the last supporter of the dying scene," as one of his friends well expresses it;* for as we have elsewhere remarked in the course of our articles upon old English literature, he was the last of what may be termed, for the sake of distinction, the school of Shakspeare, the decline of whose popularity he laments in the prologue to his Love Tricks ; "In our old plays, the humor love and passion, Is laugh'd at as improper for our stage." Nearly all the particulars known of the life of Shirley are contained in the memoir in the Biographia Dramatica: he was born in 1594, and after being at Merchant Taylors' School was sent to Oxford, and from thence went to Cambridge. A living was given him near St. Albans, but he * Verses by Hall, prefixed to the Cardinal. He was of Catherine Hall, as appears by the following epigram which Mr. Gifford in his Massenger very incorrectly gives from a MS. in Mr. Waldron's hands; the original is to be found in a rare collection of Epigrams and Epitaphs, by Thomas Bancroft, printed in 1639. TO JAME SHIRLEY. "James, thou and I did spend some precious yeares In our poetick braines (as plaine appeares) A whirling trick, then caught from Katherine's Wheele." Catherine's Wheel was, no doubt, the sign of a tavern. The above is al most the only notice of Shirley by contemporaries, excepting in the commendatory verses prefixed to many of his plays. resigned it on changing of his religion to the catholic persuasion. Like another, and a greater poet, he became a schoolmaster, but on the breaking out of the civil war he joined the king's party under the Duke of Newcastle, who patronized him, and whom, it is asserted, he assisted in some of his plays. On the decline of the cause of Charles I. he returned to London, and recommenced his school, which he continued for many years, publishing various tracts connected with his avocation: one of them is rather a curious performance, entituled, " Via ad Latinam Languam complanata, &c. the Rules composed in English and Latin Verse," 1649. This is another respect in which he resembled Milton; his Rules continued so long in estimation, that they were reprinted as late as 1726. Another singular tract published with his initials and motto about this time, contains disjected sentences from various writers, collected in the course of his reading. He continued to print his plays till 1660, when Andromana appeared; but it is probable that the last he wrote was Honoria and Mammon, with the Contest of Ajax and Ulysses, 1659, which is one of the scarcest of his productions, and though a very small volume usually sells at the price of three or four guineas: he there says, that "it is like to be the last, for in my resolve nothing of this nature shall after this engage either my pen or my invention." It appears from the dedication to his Royal Master, that he was in Ireland in 1638, where several of his pieces were played: he mentions his return in the prefatory matter to the Opportunity, 1640. The mind of Shirley was certainly of a very delicate texture, and the portraits that have been preserved of him, justify this opinion: he was burnt out of his house by the great fire in 1666, and he died very soon afterwards: it is supposed that this dreadful event accelerated his end at the advanced age of 72: his wife survived him only twentyfour hours, and they were buried in the same grave. Among his friends were many of the literary men of the day in the dedication to his Grateful Servant, he terms Ben Jonson his "acknowledged master," though there is little general resemblance in the stile of the two poets. Thomas Stanley, John Ford, Philip Massinger, Thomas May, Alex. Broome, William Habingdon, Robert Stapylton, and several other poets, lend their names to him in commendatory verses, at that time often prefixed by authors to their works, whether in prose or verse: the Grateful Servant is ushered by no less than ten laudatory poems in English and Latin, which Shirley states were "the free vote of his friends, whom he could not with civility refuse." Although this practice was often abused, yet it originated in - a noble disinterestedness far above the petty rivalships of modern authors. Although at the head of this article we have placed only one of the productions of Shirley, (which indeed is one of his best, and one of the rarest and dearest), yet it is by no means our intention to confine ourselves to extracts from it, but to give such specimens of his various pieces as will enable the reader to form a fair estimate of his talents or genius. He has left behind him numerous efforts in all departments of the drama, tragedy, comedy, pastoral, and masque, besides poems, each of which we shall notice as we proceed, and in so doing we shall confine ourselves to those works in which there is every reason to believe that Shirley was solely engaged. It may be necessary to premise that we do not pretend to give the very best extracts that might have been chosen tastes will of course differ upon a point of this kind, but we have selected them with a double view, to their excellence, and to the characteristic marks they bear of the author. It is admitted that no plays have been worse printed than those of Shirley, but as it can fall to the lot of few individuals to examine the originals, and as their condition is a matter of curiosity, we have only made such alterations as were obvious and injurious mistakes, without presuming to change any word purposely employed by the author. : For our specimens of the tragic powers of Shirley, we have chosen the Cardinal, not because we think it superior upon the whole to some others, but because the author himself, in his dedication and prologue, gives it as his opi nion, that "it is the best of his flock." One objection to it in our judgment is, that it bears too near a resemblance to the Duchess of Malfy, by Webster, a tragedy below none, excepting those of Shakspeare. The description Shirley gives of his Duchess Rosaura* in her distress, is exactly the picture of Webster's heroine, worn out by the persevering cruelty of her tormentors. Shirley finely says, "She never had so deep a cause of sorrow; Volume, wherein she walks so like a ghost, IA * The part of the Duchess was played by Hart, an actor of note in his time: this fact appears from the Dialogue on Actors, annexed to the last edition of Dodsley's Old Plays, by Reid. A hint of the story will be enough to make our extracts intelligible: Rosaura has been left a very young widow of immense possessions, which the ambitious Cardinal (who gives the name to the tragedy) is anxious to secure for his nephew Columbo, a rough and successful soldier; in this attempt he is opposed by the love of Rosaura, which is fixed upon Alvarez, a gallant gentleman, but of comparatively mean estate. The following is a scene between Rosaura and Alvarez: "Enter D'Alvarez. "D'Alv. Madam, I present One that was glad to obey your Grace, and come Dut. Where I once Did promise love, a love that had the Power "D'Alv. But I can look upon you Madam, as "Dut. Hath love taught thee no more assurance in D'Alv. Your Graces pardon To speak with freedom, I am not so old Not to see when, and where I am at loss, And how to bear my fortune, and my wounds, I am not ignorant your birth and greatness, |