of Chichester, now difperfed, was a Collection of fhort comic ftories in profe, printed in the black letter under the year 1570, "fett forth by maifter Richard Edwardes mayster of her maief"ties reuels." Undoubtedly this is the fame Edwards: who from this title exprefsly appears to have been the general conductor of the court festivities: and who most probably fucceeded in this office George Ferrers, one of the original authors of the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES. Among these tales was that OC • Who had certainly quitted that office before the year 1575. For in George Gafcoigne's Narrative of queen Elifabeth's fplendid vifit at Kenilworth-caftle in War. wickshire, entitled the PRINCELIE PLEASURES OF KENILWORTH-CASTLE, the tave ftanzas spoken by the Lady of the Lake, are faid to have been "devifed and "penned by M. [Mafter] Ferrers, fome"time Lord of Mifrule in the Court." Signat. A. iij. See alfo Signat. B. ij. This was GEORGE FERRERS mentioned in the text, a contributor to the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES. I take this opportunity of infinuating my fufpicions, that I have too clofely followed the teftimony of Philips, Wood, and Tanner, in fuppofing that this GEORGE Ferrers, and EDWARD Ferrers a writer of plays, were two diftin&t perfons. See fupr. p. 213. I am now convinced that they have been confounded, and that they are one and the fame man. We have already feen, and from good authority, that GEORGE Ferrers was Lord of Mifrule to the court, that is, among other things of a like kind, a writer of court interludes or plays; and that king Edward the fixth had great delight in his paftimes. See fupr. vol. ii. 381. The confu fion appears to have originated from Puttenham, the author of the ARTE OF ENGLISH POESIE, who has inadvertently given to GEORGE the chriftian name of EDWARD. But his account, or character, of this EDWARD Ferrers has ferved to lead us to the truth." But the principal man in "this profeffion [poetry] at the fame time [of Edward the fixth] was maister ED WARD Ferrys, a man of no leffe mirth "and felicitie that way, but of much more "fkil and magnificence in his meeter, and "therefore wrate for the moft part to the ftage in Tragedie and fometimes in Co"medie, or Enterlude, wherein he gave "the king fo much good recreation, as he "had thereby many good rewardes." Lib. i. ch. xxxi. pag. 49. edit. 1589. And again," For Tragedie the Lord Buck"hurft, and maifter Edward Ferrys, for "fuch doinges as I have fene of theirs, "deserve the highest price." Ibid. p. 51. His Tragedies, with the magnificent meeter, are perhaps nothing more than the stately monologues in the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES; and he might have written others either for the ftage in general, or the more private entertaiment of the court, now loft, and probably never printed. His Comedie and Enterlude are perhaps to be understood, to have been, not fo much regular and profeffed dramas for a theatre, as little dramatic mummeries for the courtholidays, or other occafional feftivities. The court-fhows, like this at Kenilworth, were accompanied with perfonated dialogues in verfe, and the whole pageantry was often styled an interlude. This reafoning alfo accounts for Puttenham's feeming omiffion, in not having enumerated the MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES, by name, among the fhining poems of his age. I have before observed, what is much to our purpofe, that no plays of an EDWARD Ferrers, (or Ferrys, which is the same,) in print or manufcript, are now known to exift, nor are mentioned by any writer of the of the INDUCTION OF THE TINKER in Shakespeare's TAMING THE SHREW and perhaps Edwards's ftory-book was the immediate fource from which Shakespeare, or rather the author of the old TAMING OF A SHREW, drew that diverting apologue'. If I recollect right, the circumstances almost exactly tallied with an incident which Heuterus relates, from an Epistle of Ludovicus Vives, to have actually happened at the marriage of Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy, about the year 1440. I will give it in the words, either of Vives, or of that perfpicuous annalist, who flourished about the year 1580. "Nocte quadam a cæna cum aliquot præcipuis amicorum per urbem deambulans, jacentem confpicatus eft medio foro hominem de "plebe ebrium, altum ftertentem. In eo vifum eft experiri quale effet vitæ noftræ ludicrum, de quo illi interdum effent "collocuti. Juffit hominem deferri ad Palatium, et lecto Ducali "collocari, nocturnum Ducis pileum capiti ejus imponi, exu66 taque fordida vefte linea, aliam e tenuiffimo ei lino indui. De "mane ubi evigilavit, præfto fuere pueri nobiles et cubicularii "Ducis, qui non aliter quam ex Duce ipfo quærerent an luberet 66 furgere, et quemadmodum vellet eo die veftiri. Prolata "funt Ducis veftimenta. Mirari homo ubi fe eo loci vidit. In"dutus eft, prodiit e cubiculo, adfuere proceres qui illum ad "facellum deducerent. Interfuit facro, datus eft illi ofculan"dus liber, et reliqua penitus ut Duci. A facro ad prandium "instructiffimum. A prandio cubicularius attulit chartas lufo"rias, pecuniæ acervum. Lufit cum magnatibus, fub ferum the times with which we are now concerned. GEORGE Ferrers at least, from what actually remains of him, has fome title to the dramatic character. Our GEORGE Ferrers, from the part he bore in the exhibitions at Kenilworth, appears to have been employed as a writer of metrical fpeeches or dialogues to be fpoken in cha racter, long after he had left the office of lord of milrule. A proof of his reputed excellence in compofitions of this nature, and of the celebrity with which he filled that department. I alfo take this opportunity, the earliest which has occurred, of retracting another flight mistake. See fupr. p. 272. There was a fecond edition of Niccols's MIRROUR OF MAGISTRATES, printed for W. Afpley, Lond. 1621. 4to. See SIX OLD PLAYS, Lond. 1779. 12mo. "deambulavit "deambulavit in hortulis, venatus eft in leporario, et cepit aves aliquot aucupio. Cæna peracta eft pari celebritate qua pran"dium. Accenfis luminibus inducta funt mufica inftrumenta, puellæ atque nobiles adolefcentes faltarunt, exhibitæ funt fabulæ, dehinc comeffatio quæ hilaritate atque invitationibus ad potandum producta eft in multam noctem. Ille vero largiter fe "vino obruit præftantiffimo; et poftquam collapfus in fomnum "altiffimum, juffit eum Dux veftimentis prioribus indui, atque "in eum locum reportari, quo prius fuerat repertus: ibi tranfegit "noctem totam dormiens. Poftridie experrectus cæpit fecum de "vita illa Ducali cogitare, incertum habens fuiffetne res vera, "an visum quod animo effet per quietem obfervatum. Tandem "collatis conjecturis omnibus atque argumentis, ftatuit fomnium “fuisse, et ut tale uxori liberis ac viris narravit. Quid interest "inter diem illius et noftros aliquot annos? Nihil penitus, nifßi quod hoc eft paulo diuturnius fomnium, ac fi quis unam "duntaxat horam, alter vero decem fomniaffet." To an irresistible digreffion, into which the magic of Shakefpeare's name has infenfibly feduced us, I hope to be pardoned for adding another narrative of this frolic, from the ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY by Democritus junior, or John Burton, a very learned and ingenious writer of the reign of king James the firft. "When as by reafon of unfeasonable weather, "he could neither hawke nor hunt, and was now tired with "cards and dice, and fuch other domefticall sports, or to fee "ladies dance with fome of his courtiers, he would in the " evening walke disguised all about the towne. It fo fortuned, "as he was walking late one night, he found a country fellow "dead drunke, fnorting on a bulke: hee caused his followers "to bring him to his palace, and then stripping him of his old "clothes, and attyring him in the court-fashion, when he "wakened, he and they were all ready to attend upon his Ex "cellency, and perfuaded him he was fome great Duke. The poore fellow admiring how he came there, was ferved in ftate "all day long after fupper he saw them dance, heard musicke, "and all the rest of those court-like pleasures. But late at "night, when he was well tipled, and againe faste asleepe, they put on his old robes, and fo conveyed him to the place where they first found him. Now the fellowe had not made there "fo good fport the day before, as he did now when he returned "to himselfe; all the jeft was, to fee how he looked upon it. In conclufion, after fome little admiration, the poore man "told his friends he had feene a vifion, constantly believed it, "would not otherwise be perfuaded, and fo the joke ended 1." If this is a true ftory, it is a curious fpecimen of the winterdiversions of a very polite court of France in the middle of the fifteenth century. The merit of the contrivance, however, and comic effect of this practical joke, will atone in some measure for many indelicate circumftances with which it must have neceffarily been attended. I prefume it first appeared in Vives's Epiftle. I have seen the ftory of a tinker disguised like a lord in recent collections of humorous tales, probably transmitted from Edwards's story-book, which I wish I had examined more carefully. I have affigned Edwards to queen Mary's reign, as his reputation in the character of general poetry feems to have been then at its height. I have mentioned his fonnets addressed to the court-beauties of that reign, and of the beginning of the reign of queen Elifabeth'. Burton's ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY. Part ii. §. 2. pag. 232. fol. Oxon. 1624. There is an older edition in quarto. i Viz. Tit. A. xxiv. MSS. COTT. (See fupr. p. 284.) I will here cite a few lines. HAWARDE is not haugte, but of fuch fmylynge cheare, That wolde alure eche gentill harte, hir love to holde fulle deare: DACARS is not dangerus, hir talke is no thinge coye, Hir noble ftature may compare with Hector's wyfe of Troye, &c. At the end, " Finis R. E." I have a faint recollection, that fome of Edwards's forgs are in a poetical mifcellany, printed by T. Colwell in 1567, or 1568. "Newe Sonettes and pretty pamphlettes, &c." Entered If I should be thought to have been difproportionately prolix in speaking of Edwards, I would be understood to have partly intended a tribute of refpect to the memory of a poet, who is one of the earliest of our dramatic writers after the reformation of the British stage. Entered to Colwell in 1567-8. REGISTR. STATION. A. fol. 163. b. I cannot quit Edwards's fongs, without citing the first stanza of his beautiful one in the Paradife of Daintie Deuifes, on Terence's apothegm of 4mantium iræ amoris integratio eft. Num. 50. SIGNAT. G. ii. edit. 1585. In going to my naked bed, as one that would have flept, I heard a wife fing to her child, that long She fighed fore, and fang full fweete, to She was full- wearie of her watch, and greeved with her childe; She rocked it, and rated it, till that on her Then did she say, now haue I found this The falling out of faithfull frendes renu- The clofe of the fecond stanza is prettily conducted. Then kiffed fhe her little babe, and fware by God aboue, The falling out of faithfull frendes, renuyng is of love. |