When the genius of Shakspeare afterwards blazed out, we shall hereafter find that Spenser was not insensible to his merits. Edward Blount, who was at once a bookseller and a writer, and who had undoubtedly often seen the effect produced by his comedies 3, describes as the rarest poet of that time (that is, his own time,—the period previous to the appearance of Shakspeare), "the witty, comical, facetiously quick, and unparalleled John Lilly"." His contemporaries Webbe 7, Nashe ", s Edward Blount, who was one of the original publishers of Shakspeare's plays, in folio, was probably born in 1564, having been bound an apprentice to William Ponsonby, for ten years, from Midsummer, 1578. He was admitted to the freedom of the Stationers' Company in June, 1588. 6 In 1632, Edward Blount published six of his comedies under the following title: "Sixe Court Comedies, often presented and acted before Queen Elizabeth by the Children of her Majesties Chappell and the Children of Paules. Written by the only rare. poet of that time, the wittie, comicall, facetiously quicke and unparalleled, John Lilly, Master of Artes. Decies repetita placebunt." 66 In his Dedication to Richard Lord Viscount Lumley, he observes, "It can be no dishonour to listen to this poet's musike, whose tunes alighted in the eares of a great and ever famous Queene: his invention was so curiously strung, that Elizaes Court held his notes in admiration." Lilly, he adds, sat at the Sunne's table: Apollo gave him a wreathe of his own bayes without snatching: the lyre he played on had no borrowed strings.'' In his Preface, he says, "Reader I have for the love I beare to posteritie, dig'd up the grave of a rare and excellent poet, whom Queene Elizabeth then heard, graced and rewarded. These papers of his lay like dead lawrels in a churchyard; but I have gathered the scattered branches up, and by charme, gotten from Apollo, made them greene againe, and set them up as epitaphes to his memory.... A sinne it were to suffer these rare monuments 1 and Meres, give him no less praise; and Lodge highly commends his "extraordinary facility of dis of wit to be covered in dust.... Oblivion shall not so trample on a sonne of the Muses, and such a sonne as they called their darling.... These his playes crowned him with applause and the spectators with pleasure. Thou cannot repent the reading of them over. When old John Lilly is merry with thee in thy chamber, thou shalt see few or none of our poets now [1632] are such wittie companions, and thank me that brought him to thy acquaintance." The six plays here collected, are, Endymion, Alexander and Campaspe, Sappho and Phao, Galathea, Mydas, and Mother Bombie. They had originally been printed in quarto; but being, as he said, scattered and unconnected, he had the merit of making them more accessible, by printing them together in a small volume; and he added, from manuscript, the numerous songs which had been omitted in the original editions. The plays of Lilly, which were not collected in this volume, are, The Woman in the Moon, printed in quarto, in 1597, and a pastoral, entitled Loves Metamorphosis, quarto, 1600. Kirkman, a bookseller, after the Restoration, ascribed also to this author The Maids Metamorphosis; but it was printed anonymously in 1600; and on that, and other grounds, it may be doubted whether it was Lilly's composition. Wood erroneously calls the collector of Lilly's plays Sir Henry Blount. 7 Discourse of English Poetry, quarto, 1586. 8 See Nashe's Apologie of Pierce Pennilesse, quarto, 1593, signat. G 4. (He is speaking of Lilly, and the person whom he addresses is Gabriel Harvey.) "He that threatned to conjure up Martin's wit, hath written something in thy praise in Paphatchet [a pamphlet written by Lilly in 1589] for all you accuse him to have covertlie incenst the Earle of Oxford against you. Mark him well; he is but a little fellow, but hee hath one of the best wits in England. Should he take thee in hand againe (as he flieth from such inferior concertation), I prophecie there would be more gentle readers die of a merrie mortalitye ingendred by the eternal jests he would maule thee with, than there have done this course," by which he may have meant dialogue. But the strongest proof, perhaps, that can be adduced to show how highly his comick talents were rated, is found in the encomiastick verses on Shakspeare, written by Jonson; who, knowing the opinions of the former age, and the high estimation in which the productions that we are now considering had been held, thought he could not, in a few words, more forcibly describe our great dramatick poet's comick excellence, than by saying he out-shone even Lilly in comedy, as he surpassed the admired and lofty stories of Marlowe in the tragick drama: "That I not mix thee so, my brain excuses; "I mean, with great, but disproportion'd Muscs; last infection. I my self that enjoy but a mite of wit in comparison of his talent, in pure affection to my native country make my style carry a presse sail,-am faine to cut off half the streame of thy sport-breeding confusion, for feare it should cause a general hicket throughout England." See also his Have With You to Saffron Walden, quarto, 1596, signat. X 2. b. 9 Ubi supra. 1 "Divine wits, for many things as sufficient as all antiquity, (I speake it not on light surmise, but considerate judgment,) to you belongs the death that doth nourish this poison; to you the paine that endure the reproofe. Lilly, the famous for facility in discourse; Spencer, best read in ancient poetry; Daniel, choice in word and invention; Drayton, diligent and formal; Th. Nashe, true English Arctine;-all you unnamed professors or friends of poetry, but by me inwardly honoured; knit your industries in private, to unite our fames in publike,.... and all so embattle your selves, that hate of virtue may not embase you." Wits Miserie and the Worlds Madnesse, by Thomas Lodge, 4to. 1596. 2 Chaucer, Spenser, and Beaumont. He considered the last "For, if I thought my judgement were of years, Supposing, however, that Spenser's eulogy went beyond the opinions of that age, which does not appear to have been the case, some allowance, as has been already hinted, may be claimed for the kindness of friendship, and for the feelings of this exquisitely tender and moral poet, whose taste would naturally prefer scenick productions, founded, as Lilly's generally were, on classick fables, and conducted in some instances with a pastoral simplicity, to any other. Whenever Spenser visited the playhouse, we may be confident that he directed his steps to the theatre where Lilly's comedies were performed by the singingboys of St. Paul's, or the children of the Revels, rather than to the city theatres (the Red Bull, &c.), where the compositions of Greene, Peele, and Marlowe, were represented. named writer, though a dramatist, as disproportioned, probably on account of his superior learning. 3 The dramatick poets. This epithet appears to have been chosen merely in allusion to Kyd's name; yet not a single comedy of his has come down to us. He was the author of The Spanish Tragedy (to which Jonson himself made additions); the tragedy of Cornelia, both printed; and probably several others, that have been lost. 5 Of Marlowe, some account will be given hereafter. 6 How congenial the sentiments of Spenser and Lilly were, with respect to the decorum of the stage, and the true ends and objects of comedy, appears from the following passage in Lilly's prologue, at Blackfriars, to Sappho and Phaon, 1584; which, when compared with the verses already quoted from the John Lilly was born in Kent, about the same year with Spenser' (1553); and it is not improbable that when Spenser quitted his residence in the North, and came into Kent, about the year 1577 or 1578, he might have formed a friendship with this poet, then, I believe, newly returned from abroad, and perhaps a visitor in his native county. Lilly, in 1569, at sixteen years of age, became a member of Magdalen College in Oxford; in 1573 he took the degree of Bachelor, and that of Master of Arts in 1575-69. He seems afterwards to have travelled; and in 1579, if not before, after his return from foreign parts, his cele Tears of the Muses, afford considerable support to my interpretation of that passage. See particularly the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh stanzas: "Our intent was at this time, to more inwarde delight, not outwardelighnes, and to breede, if it might be, soft smiling, not lowd laughing: knowing it to the wise to be as great pleasure to heare counsell mixed with witte, as to the foolish to have sport mingled with rudenesse. They were banished the theater at Athens and from Rome hissed, that brought parasites on the stage with apish actions, or fooles with uncivil habites, or curtizans with immodest words. We have endevored to be as far from unseemly speeches, to make your eares glow, as we hope you will be free from unkinde reportes, to make our cheekes blush." 7 In his Euphues and his England (signat. Hh 2 b.), he says, he can speak little of Queen Mary's reign, being then scarce born. Mary ascended the throne, June 1, 1553. I find, from the register of the University (in which he is described as "plebeii filius "), that he was matriculated in 1571. He is there said to be seventeen; which does not exactly agree with Wood's account. 8 See the Commentary on Spenser's Fifth Eclogue, 4to. 1579. 9 Ath. Oxon. i. 295. |