count their value by their loss.-Another, and Thorow. These are the genuine signs of another spoiler came, and all my gain was true repentance; the only preparatory, the cerpoverty and reproach. My soul disdained, and tain way to everlasting peace.

yet disdains, dependence and contempt. Rich- Barn. What do I owe for all your genees, no matter by what means obtained, I rous kindness? But though I cannot, heaven saw secured the worst of men from both; I can and will reward you.

found it therefore necessary to be rich, and Thorow. To see thee thus, is joy too great to that end I summoned all my arts. You for words. Farewell.-Heaven strengthen thee! call 'em wicked; be it so; they were such as-Farewell. my conversation with your sex had furnished me withal.

Barn. Oh, sir, there's something I would say, if my sad swelling heart would give me leave. Thorow. Sure none but the worst of men Thorow. Give it vent awhile, and try. conversed with thee! Barn. I had a friend-'tis true I am unMill. Men of all degrees, and all profes-worthy-yet methinks your generous example sions, I have known, yet found no difference, might persuade. Could I not see him once, but in their several capacities; all were alike, before I go from whence there's no return? wicked to the utmost of their power. What Thorow. He's coming, and as much thy are your laws of which you make your boast, friend as ever. I will not anticipate his sorbut the fool's wisdom, and the coward's va- row; too soon he'll see the sad effects of this lour, the instrument and screen of all your contagious ruin.- This torrent of domestic villanies? By them you punish in others what misery bears too hard upon me. I must reyou act yourselves, or would have acted, had tire, to indulge a weakness I find impossible you been in their circumstances. The judge, to overcome. [Aside] Much loved-and much who condemns the poor man for being a thief, lamented youth!-Farewell. - Heaven strengthhad been a thief himself had he been poor.- en thee!-Eternally farewell. Thus you go on deceiving and deceived, harrassing, plaguing, and destroying one another. But women are your universal prey: Women, by whom you are, the source of joy,

With cruel arts you labour to destroy:
A thousand ways our ruin you pursue,
Yet blame in us those arts first taught by

you.

Oh, may from hence each violated maid, By flattering, faithless, barb'rous man betray'd,

Barn. The best of masters, and of menFarewell. While I live let me not want your

prayers.

Thorow. Thou shalt not. Thy peace being made with heaven, death is already vanquished. Bear a little longer the pains that attend this transitory life, and cease from pain forever.

[Exit.

Barn. Perhaps I shall. I find a power within, that bears my soul above the fears of death, and, spite of conscious shame and guilt, gives me a taste of pleasure more than mortal. Enter TRUEMAN.

When robb'd of innocence and virgin fame,
From your destruction raise a nobler name,
To avenge their sex' wrongs devote their mind, Barn. Trueman!-My friend, whom I so
And future Millwood's prove to plague man-wished to see; yet, now he's here, I dare not
[Exeunt. look upon him.

kind,

ACT V.

SCENE I. A Dungeon, a Table, and a Lamp.

BARNWELL reading.

[Weeps.

True. Oh, Barnwell, Barnwell! Barn. Mercy ! mercy ! gracious heaven ! For death, but not for this was I prepared.

True. What have I suffered since I saw thee last!-What pain has absence given me! -But oh, to see thee thus!

Enter THOROWGOOD, at a Distance. Thorow. There see the bitter fruits of pas- Barn. I know it is dreadful! I feel the ansion's detested reign, and sensual appetite in-guish of thy generous soul:-But I was born dulged: severe reflections, penitence, and tears. to murder all who love me. [Both weep. Barn. My honoured, injured master, whose True. I come not to reproach you; I thought goodness has covered me a thousand times to bring you comfort. Oh, had you trusted with shame, forgive this last unwilling disre- me when first the fair seducer tempted you, spect. Indeed I saw you not. all might have been prevented.

Thorow. 'Tis well; I hope you are better Barn. Alas, thou knowest not what a wretch employed in viewing of yourself; your jour- I've been. Breach of friendship was my first ney's long, your time for preparation almost and least offence. So far was I lost to goodspent. I sent a reverend divine to teach you ness, so devoted to the author of my ruin, to improve it, and should be glad to hear of that had she insisted on my murdering theeI think I should have done it.

his success.

Barn. The word of truth, which he recom- True. Pr'ythee aggravate thy faults no more. mended for my constant companion in this Barn. I think I should! Thus good and gemy sad retirement, has at length removed the nerous as you are, I should have murdered doubts I laboured under. From thence I have you! learned the infinite extent of heavenly mercy. True. We have not yet embraced, and may How shall I describe my present state of mind? be interrupted. Come to my arms.

I hope in doubt, and trembling I rejoice; I Barn. Never, never will I taste such joys feel my grief increase, even as my fears give on earth; never will I sooth my just remorse. way. Joy and gratitude now supply more Are those honest arms and faithful bosom fit tears than the horror and anguish of despair to embrace and support a murderer? These before. iron fetters only shall clasp, and flinty pave

ment bear me; [Throwing himself on the per guest, the abandoned and lost Maria brings Ground] even these are too good for such a despair, and sees the subject and the cause of bloody monster. all this world of woe. Silent and motionless True. Shall fortune sever those whom he stands, as if his soul had quitted her abode, friendship joined? Thy miseries cannot lay and the lifeless form alone was left behind. thee so low, but love will find thee. Here will Barn. I groan, but murmur not. Just heawe offer to stern calamity; this place the altar, ven! I am your own; do with me what you please. and ourselves the sacrifice. Our mutual groans Maria. Why are your streaming eyes still shall echo to each other through the dreary fix'd below, as though thou'dst give the greedy vault; our sighs shall number the moments as earth thy sorrows, and rob me of my due? they pass; and mingling tears communicate such Were happiness within your power, you anguish, as words were never made to express. should bestow it where you pleased; but in Barn. Then be it so. [Rising] Since you your misery I must and will partake. propose an intercourse of woe, pour all your Barn. Oh, say not so; but fly, abhor, and griefs into my breast, and in exchange take leave me to my fate. Consider what you are. mine. [Embracing] Where's now the an- So shall I quickly be to you-as though I had guish that you promised? Oh, take, take some never been. of the joy that overflows my breast! True. I do, I do. Almighty Power! how hast thou made us capable to bear at once the extremes of pleasure and of pain!

Keep. Sir.

Enter Keeper.

True. I come.

[Exit Keeper..

Maria. When I forget you, I must be so indeed. Reason, choice, virtue, all forbid it. Let women, like Millwood, if there are more such women, smile in prosperity, and in adversity forsake. Be it the pride of virtue to repair, or to partake, the ruin such have made. True. Lovely, ill-fated maid!

Maria. Yes, fruitless is my love, and una

Barn. Must you leave me?Death would vailing all my sighs and tears. Can they save soon have parted us for ever. thee from approaching death?-from such a True. Oh, my Barnwell, there's yet another death?-Oh, sorrow insupportable! task behind. Again your heart must bleed for

others woes.

Barn. Preserve her, heaven, and restore her peace, nor let her death be added to my crimes! Barn. To meet and part with you, I thought-Bell tolls]—I'm summoned to my fate. was all I had to do on earth. What is there more for me to do or suffer?

True. I dread to tell thee, yet it must be known!-Maria—

Barn. Our master's fair and virtuous daughter?

True. The same.

Re-enter Keeper.

Keep. Sir, the officers attend you. Millwood is already summoned.

Barn. Tell 'em I'm ready. [Exit Keeper] And now, my friend, farewell. [Embracing] Support and comfort, the best you can, this Barn. No misfortune, I hope, has reached mourning fair.-No more-Forget not to pray that maid! Preserve her, heaven, from every for me.e.-[Turning to Maria]-Would you, ill, to show mankind that goodness is your care! bright excellence, permit me the honour of a True. Thy, thy misfortunes, my unhappy chaste embrace, the last happiness this world friend, have reached her ear. Whatever you could give were mine.-[She inclines towards and I bave felt, and more, if more be possi- him; they embrace] Exalted goodness! Oh, ble, she feels for you. turn your eyes from earth and me to heaven, Barn. This is indeed the bitterness of death. where virtue like yours is ever heard. Pray [Aside. for the peace of my departing soul! Early my

If any youth, like you, in future times Shall mourn my fate, though he abhors my crimes;

True. You must remember (for we all ob-race of wickedness began, and soon I reached served it), for some time past, a heavy me- the summit. Thus justice, in compassion to lancholy weighed her down. Disconsolate she mankind, cuts off a wretch like me; by one seemed, and pined and languished from a such example to secure thousands from future cause unknown; till hearing of your dreadful ruin. fate, the long stifled flame blazed out, and in the transport of her grief discovered her own lost state, while she lamented yours. Barn. [Weeping] Why did not you let me die, and never know it? True. It was impossible. She makes no secret of her passion for you; she is determined to see you ere you die, and waits for [Exit.

me to introduce her.

Barn. Vain, busy thoughts, be still! What avails it to think on what I might have been? I am now what I've made myself.

Or tender maid, like you, my tale shall hear,
And to my sorrows give a pitying tear;
To each such melting eye and throbbing heart,
Would gracious heaven this benefit impart:
Never to know my guilt, nor feel my pain,
Then must you own you ought not to
complain,

Since you nor weep, nor I shall die in vain.
[Exit Barnwell.

True. In vain

Re-enter TRUEMAN, with MARIA. True. Madam, reluctant I lead you to this dismal scene. This is the seat of misery and A humane, gen'rous sense of others woe, guilt. Here awful justice reserves her public Unless we mark what drew their ruin on, victims. This is the entrance to a shameful death. And, by avoiding that, prevent our own. Maria. To this sad place then, no impro- [The Curtain descends to slow Music,

With bleeding hearts, and weeping eyes, we show

MASSINGER.

THIS excellent poet was son to Mr. Philip Massinger, a gentleman, who had some employment under the Earl of Pembroke, in whose service he died, after having spent several happy years in his family. Our author was born at Salisbury, in queen Elizabeth's reign, anno 1584, and at the age of 18, was entered a fellow-commoner of Alban Hall, in Oxford; in which station he remained three or four years, in order to complete his education, yet, though he was encouraged in the pursuit of his studies by his father's patron, the Earl of Pembroke, the natural bent of his genius lead him much more to poetry and polite literature, than to the dryer and more abstruse studies of logic and philosophy; being impatient for an opportunity of moving in a more public sphere of action, and improving his poetical fancy and his knowledge of the belles lettres, by conversation with the world, and an intercourse with men of wit and genius; he quitted the university without taking any degree, and came to London, where, applying himself to writing for the stage, he presently rose into high reputation; his plays meeting with universal approbation, both for the purity of their style, and the ingenuity and oeconomy of their plots. "Those who are unacquainted with Massinger's writings," says the Biographia Dramatica, "will, perhaps be surprised to find us placing him in an equal rank with Beaumont and Fletcher, and the immortal Ben; but we flatter ourselves that, upon a perusal of his plays, their astonishment will cease, that they will acquiesce with our opinion, and think themselves obliged to us, for pointing out so vast a treasury of entertainment and delight." Massinger has certainly equal invention, equal ingenuity, in the conduct of his plots, and an equal knowledge of character and nature, with Beaumont and Fletcher; and if it should be objected, that he has less of the vis comica, it will surely be allowed, that that deficiency is amply made amends for by that purity and decorum which he has preserved, and a rejection of that looseness and obscenity which runs through most of their comedies. As to Ben Jonson, we shall readily allow that he excels this author with respect to the studied accuracy and classical correctness of his style; yet Massinger has so greatly the superiority over him in fire, pathos, and the fancy and management of his plots, that we cannot help thinking the balance stands pretty even between them. Though his pieces bespeak him a man of the first-rate abilities, and well qualified both as to learning and a most perfect acquaintance with the methods of dramatic writing, yet he was at the same time a person of the most consummate modesty, which rendered him extremely beloved by all his contemporary poets, few of whom but esteemed it as an honour to join with him in the composition of their works. He died in 1659, some say 69.

THE DUKE OF MILAN.

ACTED at Black Friars, 1623. The plot is taken partly from Guicciardini, book 8, and partly from Josephus's History of the Jews, book 15, ch. 4, where will be found the story of Herod's leaving orders with his uncle Joseph to put his beloved wife Mariamne to death; from which the instructions given by Sforza to his favourite Francisco, for the murder of the Duchess Marcelia, his wife, seem evidently borrowed. This piece was altered, and produced at Covent Garden, by Mr. Cumberland, in 1799, but the additions made to it, from Fenton's Mariamne, rather injured than improved the play, and it was acted only two or three times. In its present state it was reproduced at Drury Lane, March 9, 1816; and from its reception promises to be a long and lasting favourite. Massinger seems to have been buried in obscurity, and forgotten among the number of writers of the same period, whose names were not worth calling forth from the cavern of oblivion; but when we consider, how long many of those pieces, even of the immortal Shakspeare himself, which are now the greatest ornament of the stage, lay neglected, although they wanted nothing but a judicious pruning of some few luxuriancies, some little straggling branches, which overhung the fairer flowers, and hid some of the choicest fruits, it is the less to be wondered at, that this author who though second, stands no more than second to him, should share for a while the same destiny. Thus has this precious gem been once more presented to an admiring audience, the modern taste demanding a different dress to that of former years; and the few judicious alterations which have taken place in it, have fitted it to shine in all its lustre.

SCENE. For the first and second Acts, in MILAN; during part of the third, in the Imperial Camp near PAVIA; the rest of the Play, in MILAN and its Neighbourhood.

To all you meet; I am this day the state drunkard,
I am sure against my will; and if you find
A man at ten that's sober, he's a traitor,
And, in my name, arrest him.

Julio. Very good, sir;

But say he be a sexton?

Grac. If the bells

Grac. It is capital treason;

Or, if you mitigate it, let such pay

Forty crowns to the poor; but give a pension
To all the magistrates you find singing catches,
Or their wives dancing; for the courtiers

reeling,

And the duke himself, I dare not say dis-
temper'd,

But kind, and in his tottering chair carousing,
They do the country service.
And So, dear friends, co-partners in my travails,
Drink hard; and let the health run through
the city,

Ring out of tune, as if the streets were burning,
And he cry, Tis rare music!" bid him Until it reel again, and with me cry,
"Long live the dutchess!"

sleep;

Tis a sign he has ta'en his liquor: and if you

meet

An officer preaching of sobriety,
Unless he read it in Geneva spirit,
Lay him by the heels.

Enter TIBERIO and STEPHANO.
Julio. Here are two lords! what think you?
Shall we give the oath to them?

Grac. Fie! no; I know them:

You need not swear them; your lord, by his Are these loud triumphs? in my weak opipatent, nion,

Stands bound to take his rouse, Long live They are unseasonable,

[Exeunt Graccho, Julio, and Giovanni. But only in the cause to be excus'd. Steph. The cause of this? but yesterday the It is the dutchess' birth-day, once a year

SCENE II.-Another Room in the same.
Enter FRANCISCO, ISABELLA, and MARIANA.
Mari. I will not go; I scorn to be a spot

By his strong judgment, still hath overcome), In her proud train.
Appears now shaken, it deserves no wonder: Isa. Shall I, that am his mother,
All that his youth hath labour'd for, the harvest Be so indulgent as to wait on her
Sown by his industry ready to be reap'd too, That owes me duty?

Being now at stake; and all his hopes con- Fran. 'Tis done to the duke,

My happiness, and mighty kings look pale
With envy, while I triumph in mine own.
O mother, look on her! sister, admire her!
For sure this présent age yields not a woman
Worthy to be her second.

Their numbers full, and in their councils wise;
But then, the haughty Spaniard is all fire,
Hot in his executions, fortunate

In his attempts, married to victory.
Ay, there it is that shakes me.

[Aside. Apart.

Marc. Speak to him, Francisco. Fran. Excellent lady, One gale of your sweet breath will easily Though I confess you give her but her own, Disperse these clouds; and, but yourself, there's

Fran. Your excellence,

Forces her modesty to the defence

Of a sweet blush.

Sfor. It need not, my Marcelia;
When most I strive to praise thee, I appear
A poor detractor: for thou art, indeed,
So absolute in body and in mind
That, but to speak the least part to the height,
Would ask an angel's tongue, and yet then end
In silent admiration!

Isa. You still court her

As if she were a mistress, not your wife.
Sfor. A mistress, mother! she is more to me,
And every day deserves more to be sued to.
Marc. My worthiest lord!

My pride, my glory, in a word, my all!
Bear witness, heaven, that I esteem myself
In nothing worthy of the meanest praise
You can bestow, unless it be in this,
That in my heart I love you, and desire,
When you are sated with all earthly glories,
And age and honours make you fit for heaven,
That one grave may receive us.

Sfor. 'Tis believ'd

Believ'd, my blest one.

Mari. How she winds herself Into his soul!

Sfor. Sit all. Let others feed On those gross cates, while Sforza with

Immortal viands ta'en in at his eyes.

I could live ever thus.

Sfor. Speak, is all lost?

And stand uncertain, whether I am master
Of aught that's worth the owning.

Marc. I am yours, sir;

This

And I have heard you swear, I being safe,
There was no loss could move you.
day, sir,

Is by your gift made mine. Can you revoke
A grant made to Marcelia? your Marcelia?
For whose love, nay, whose honour, gentle sir,
All deep designs, and state affairs deferr'd,
Be, as you purpos'd, merry,
Sfor. Out of my sight!

[Throws away the Letter. And all thoughts that may strangle mirth, forsake me.

Fall what can fall, I dare the worst of fate : Though the foundation of the earth should shrink,

The glorious eye of heaven lose his splendour, [Aside. Supported thus, I'll stand upon the ruins, And seek for new life here. Why are you sad? Some music there! by heaven he's not my friend,

banquets

Enter a Courier.

From whence?

Cour. From Pavia, my dread lord.

Cour. [Delivers a Letter] The letter

will

inform you.

[Exit.

Fran. How his hand shakes,

That wears one furrow in his face.
Come, make me happy once again. I am rapt-
Tis not to-day, to-morrow, or the next,
But all my days and years shall be employ'd
To do thee honour. [A Trumpet without.
Another post! hang him-

I will not interrupt my present pleasures,
Although his message should import my head.
Marc. Nay, good sir, I am pleas'd

To grant a little intermission to you:
[Aside. Who knows but he brings news we wish to
hear,

[Aside. To heighten our delights.
Sfor. As wise as fair!

Sfor. Though it bring death, I'll read it.

[Reads.

May it please your excellence to un

Enter another Courier.

derstand, that the very hour I wrote From Gaspero?

this, I heard a bold defiance delivered by a herald from the emperor, which was cheerfully received by the king of France. The battles being ready to join, and the

Cour. That was, my lord.

Sfor. How? dead?'

Cour. [Delivers a Letter] With the delivery of this, and prayers, can guard committed to my charge, en-To guard your excellency from certain dangers, forces me to end abruptly. Your high- He ceased to be a man.

ness's humble servant.

GASPERO. Sfor. All that my fears

[Music. Exit.

Ready to join!-By this, then, I am nothing. Could fashion to me, or my enemies wish, Or my estate secure. [Aside. Is fallen upon me. Silence that harsh music;