תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

SE C T. XXXIX.

TH

HIS appearance of a regular tragedy, with the divifion of acts and scenes, and the accompaniment of the antient chorus, represented both at the Middle-temple and at Whitehall, and written by the most accomplished nobleman of the court of queen Elifabeth, feems to have directed the attention of our more learned poets to the study of the old claffical drama, and in a short time to have produced vernacular verfions of the JOCASTA of Euripides, as it is called, and of the ten Tragedies of Seneca. I do not find that it was fpeedily followed by any original compofitions on the fame legitimate model.

The JOCASTA of Euripides was tranflated by George Gafcoigne and Francis Kinwelmersh, both students of Grays-inn, and acted in the refectory of that fociety, in the year 1566. Gascoigne tranflated the second, third, and fifth acts, and Kinwelmersh the firft, and fourth. It was printed in Gascoigne's poems, of which more will be faid hereafter, in 1577, under the following title, "JOCASTA, a Tragedie written in Greeke by Euripides. Translated and digested into Acte, by George "Gafcoigne and Francis Kinwelmerfhe of Graies inn, and there by them prefented, An. 1566." The Epilogue was written in quatraines by Chriftopher Yelverton, then one of their brother students. So ftrongly were our audiences ftill attached to fpectacle, that the authors did not venture to present their play, without introducing a DUMB SHEW at the beginning of every

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

act.

For this, however, they had the example and authority of GORDOBUC. Some of the earlieft fpecimens of Inigo Jones's Grecian architecture are marred by Gothic ornaments.

It must, however, be observed, that this is by no means a just or exact translation of the JOCASTA, that is the PHOENISSÆ, of Euripides. It is partly a paraphrafe, and partly an abridgement, of the Greek tragedy. There are many omiffions, retrenchments, and tranfpofitions. The chorus, the characters, and the substance of the story, are entirely retained, and the tenor of the dialogue is often preferved through whole fcenes. Some of the beautiful odes of the Greek chorus are neglected, and others substituted in their places, newly written by the tranflators. In the favorite addrefs to Mars, Gafcoigne has totally deferted the rich imagery of Euripides, yet has found means to form an original ode, which is by no means deftitute of pathos or imagination.

O fierce and furious Mars! whofe harmefull hart
Reioiceth most to shed the giltleffe blood;
Whose headie will doth all the world fubvart,
And doth enuie the pleasant merry mood
Of our estate, that erft in quiet stood:
Why doft thou thus our harmleffe towne annoy,
Whych mighty Bacchus gouerned in ioy?

Father of warre and death, that dooft remoue,
With wrathfull wrecke, from wofull mothers breft
The trufty pledges of their tender loue!

So graunt the goddes, that for our final reft
Dame Venus' pleasant lookes may please thee best:
Whereby, when thou shalt all amazed stand,
The sword may fall out of thy trembling hand':

And thou mayst proue fome other
The bloody prowess of thy

• See PHOENISS. pag. 140. edit. Barnef.

Ω πολύμοχθος Άρης,

Τί ποθ' άιμαλι

Kay Imvaly nalixn, &c.

way

ful wel
mighty speare,

So Tibullus, where he cautions Mars
not to gaze on his mistress. Lib.iv. ii. 3.
At tu, violente, caveto,
Ne tibi miranti turpiter arma cadant.

Wherewith

Wherewith thou raisest from the depth of hel
The wrathful fprites of all the Furies there ;
Who, when they wake, do wander euery where,
And neuer reft to range about the coftes,
T'enrich that pit with spoyle of damned ghoftes.

And when thou haft our fields forfaken thus,
Let cruel DISCORD beare thee company,
Engirt with fnakes and ferpents venemous;
Euen She, that can with red vermilion die
The gladsome greene that florisht pleasantly;
And make the greedy ground a drinking cvp,
To fup the blood of murdered bodies vp.

Yet thou returne, O Ioie, and pleasant Peace!
From whence thou didst against our willes depart :
Ne let thy worthie mind from trauel cease,
To chase disdayne out of the poysned heart,
That raysed warre to all our paynes and smart,

Euen from the breast of Oedipus his fonne

Whose swelling pride hath all this iarre begon, &c *.

I am of opinion, that our tranflators thought the many mythological and historical allufions in the Greek chorus, too remote and unintelligible, perhaps too cumbersome, to be exhibited in English. In the ode to CONCORD, which finishes the fourth act, tranflated by Kinwelmerfhe, there is great elegance of expreffion and verfification. It is not in Euripides,

O bliffefull CONCORD, bred in facred breft
Of hym that rules the restleffe-rolling skie,
That to the earth, for mans affured reft,

From height of heauens vouchsafest downe to flie!

A&t ii. Sc. ult.

In thee alone the mightie power doth lie,
With sweet accorde to keepe the frowning ftarres,
And euerie planet els, from hurtful warres.

In thee, in thee, fuch noble vertue bydes,
As may commaund the mightiest gods to bend :
From thee alone fuch fugred frendship flydes
As mortall wights can fcarcely comprehend.
To greatest ftrife thou fetft deliteful end.
O holy Peace, by thee are only found
The paffing ioyes that euerie where abound!

Thou only, thou, through thy celestiall might,
Didst first of all the heauenly pole devide

From th' old confused heap, that Chaos hight:
Thou madste the funne, the moone, the ftarres, to glyde
With ordred course, about this world fo wyde:
Thou haft ordaynde Dan Tytans shining light
By dawne of day to change the darksome night.

When tract of time returnes the lufty ver',
By thee alone the buds and bloffoms fpring,
The fields with flours be garnifht euery where;
The blooming trees aboundant fruite doe bring,
The chereful byrdes melodioufly doe fing:
Thou doeft appoynt the crop of fummers feede,
For mans releefe, to ferue the winters neede.

Thou doft inspire the hearts of princely peers,
By prouidence proceeding from aboue,
In flowring youth to choose their proper feeres;
With whom they liue in league of lafting loue,
Till fearfull death doth flitting life remoue :

[blocks in formation]

And looke howe faft to death man payes his due!
So faft agayne doeft thou his stock renue.

By thee the basest thing aduanced is:

Thou euery where doest graffe such golden peace,
As filleth man with more than earthly bliffe:
The earth by thee doth yeelde her sweete increase,
At beck of thee al bloody difcords cease.
And mightiest realmes in quyet do remayne,
Whereas thy hand doth hold the royall rayne.

But if thou fayle, then all things gone to wrack:
The mother then doth dread her natural childe;
Then euery towne is fubiect to the fack,
Then spotles maydes, then virgins be defilde;
Then rigour rules, then reason is exilde;

And this, thou woful THEBES! to ovr greate payne,
With present spoyle art likely to sustayne.
Methink I heare the waylful-weeping cryes
Of wretched dames in euery coaft refound!
Methinks I fee, howe vp to heauenly skies,
From battred walles the thundring-claps rebound:
Methink I heare, howe al things go to ground:
Methink I fee how fouldiers wounded lie

With gafping breath, and yet they cannot die, &c'.

The conftant practice of ending every act with a long ode fung by the chorus, feems to have been adopted from GORDOBUC'.

f A&t iv. Sc. ult.

? It may be proper to obferve here, that the tragedy of TANCRED and GISMUND, acted alfo before the queen at the Innertemple, in 1568, has the chorus. The title of this play, not printed till 1592, fhews the quick gradations of tafte. faid to be" Newlie revived and polished according to the decorum of thefe daies, "by R. W. Lond. printed by T. Scarlet,

66

It is

"&c. 1592." 4to. R. W. is Robert Wilmot, mentioned with applause as a poet in Webbe's DISCOURSE, Signat. C 4. The play was the joint-production of five ftudents of the fociety. Each feems to have taken an act. At the end of the fourth is Compofuit Chr. Hatton, or fir Christopher Hatton, undoubtedly the fame that was af terwards exalted by the queen to the office of lord Keeper for his agility in dancing. But

« הקודםהמשך »