THE LOVERS' PROGRESS': A TRAGEDY. This Play is by Gardiner, in the Commendatory Verses, ascribed to Fletcher alone. It appears to have been one of those pieces which were left unfinished by him, and completed by another writer. From the difference in the language and measure of the fifth act from the other parts of this performance, we imagine that Fletcher had no concern in the conclusion of it. As Shirley is said to have sometimes assisted our Author, possibly his unfinished pieces fell into that writer's hands, and therefore we may impute the alterations to him. The Lovers' Progress was first printed in the folio of 1647; and has not been acted for many years past. The Lovers' Progress.] Progress, in this title, significs Pilgrimage, PROLOGUE. A STORY, and a known one, long since writ, Demanding, and receiving too the pay • He being ambitious that it should be known For a new poem, you may find it due, own. What's good was Fletcher's, and what ill his own.] This passage is a flaming contradiction to an assertion of the Bookseller, in his preface to the edition of 1647, which the reader will see in the introductory note upon The Coxcomb, and thither I refer him for what I have said upon that occasion. Sympson. This passage is not, in our opinion, any contradiction at all to the Bookseller's assertion. See our remark at the beginning of The Coxcomb. Clarinda's still perverse. ACT I. Malf. She's worse; obdurate, Flinty, relentless; my love-passion's jeer'd at, My presents scorn'd! Leon. 'Tis strange, a waiting-woman, In her condition, apt to yield, should hold out, A man of your place, reverend beard and Besieging her. [shape, Malf. You might add too, my wealth, Which she contemns; five hundred crowns per annum (For which I've ventur'd hard, my conscience knows it) Not thought upon, tho' offer'd for a jointure; This chain, which my lord's peasants worship, flouted; [at, My solemu hum's and ha's, the servants quake No rhetorick with her; ev'ry hour she hangs You shall direct me; still provided, that I understand who is the man, and what His purpose that pleads for me, Leon. By all means, First, for the undertaker, I am he: Leon. You know your lady, chaste Calista, Malf. Too well; that makes her proud. This beauteous lady (I may stile her so, If that you make the least doubt otherwise, Malf. 'Pray you stay, sir! You are my friend; yet, as the proverb says, When love puts in, friendship is gone:" Suppose You should yourself affect her 2 Leon. Do you think I'll commit incest! for it is no less, [sir, She being my cousin-german. Fare you well, Malf. I had forgot that; for this once, fore Of any man's access to her? Malf. I would not Receive the dor; but as a bosom friend This chain.] Mr. Steevens observes, that stewards anciently wore a chain, as a mark of superiority over other servants; in proof of which he cites the following authorities: Dost thou think I shal! become the steward's chair? Will not these slender haunches shew well in a chain?' Martial Maid. Bob. It is both right and just, sir; "For though I am a steward, I did get it With no man's wrong.' Ibid. Nash, in his piece entitled Have with You to Saffron Walden, 1559, taxes Gabriel Harvey with having stolen a nobleman's steward's chain, at his lord's installing at Windsor. So in Middleton's Mad World, my Masters, 1608: Gag that gaping rascal, though he be my grandsire's chief gentleman in the chain of gold.' See Notes on Twelfth Night. R. [reaching Dropping affection; your high forehead, Almost to th' crown of your head; your slender waist, [ing And a back not like a thresher's, but a bendAnd court-like back, and so forth, for your body. But when I touch your mind, (for that must With all the under-officers o' th' house, Malf. As I will be. Leon. As you shall, so I'll promise.- As playing on a cittern, or a Jew's trump- Leon. Fear you nothing. Then singing her asleep with curious catches Of your own making; for, as I have heard, You are poetical. Malf. Something giv'n that way: [reason Yet my works seldom thrive; and the main The poets urge for't is, because I am not As poor as they are. Leon. Very likely. Fetch her, While I am in the vein. Malf. 'Tis an apt time, My lady being at her prayers. Leon. Let her pray on. Nay, go; and if, upon my intercession, She do you not some favour, I'll disclaim her. I'll ruminate on't the while. Malf. A hundred crowns Is your reward. Leon. Without 'em-Nay, no trifling. [Exit Malf. That this dull clod of ignorance should know How to get money, yet want eyes to see How grosly he's abus'd, and wrought upon! 4 Malf. As I will be. Leon. As you shall, so I'll promise.] To restore lost puns has been an office, that critics have been laughed at, rather than praised for: but the original, be it bad or good, ought to be restored; and therefore we should not drop a conundrum here intended. Leon should answer, 'Ass you shall, so I'll promise.' i. e. I'll promise you shall be made an ass of. Suppose him otherwise; yet, coming in Clari. I grant you're made of pureness, And that your tenderness of honour holds The sovereignty o'er your passions: Yet you have A noble husband, with allow'd embraces To quench lascivious fires, should such flame in you, As I must ne'er believe. Were I the wife Cal. You grow saucy! Do I look further? Clari. No, dear madam ; and It is my wonder, or astonishment rather, Cal. Did not mine honour Clari. 'Tis true; but yet [sence Ev'n in his least perfections,] i. e. but faintly imitate his virtues. The old Zany was a mimick or buffoon. Upon the rind of ev'ry gentle poplar, And amorous myrtle, (trees to Venus sacred.)] Our poet has either committed an oversight, in making the poplar and the myrtle both sacred to Venus, or if he had any authority for so doing, I don't know it at present: Tis true, as the poplar delights in moisture, and grows upon the banks of rivers, and has leaves with dark and white sides, it may be a pretty symbol of the unlimited command of that powerful goddess, throughout the three allotments of Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto. But, notwithstanding this, I ain inclined to think that the reading and pointing was originally thus: of ev'ry gentle poplar, And amorous myrtle tree, to Venus sacred.' By changing the number, and altering the comma, we affix the epithet sacred' solely to the myrtle, and take away the confusion, which before subsisted, of appropriating two trees to one deity, when in reality the case was very far otherwise, as any one knows who is the least versed in the Classicks. Sympson. We believe the old reading genuine, and that it ought to be followed. We do not, indeed, recollect that there is any authority for making the poplar, as well as the myrtle, sacred to Venus; but think the Poets here meant it. Yet I could wish the cause had concern'd others, I might have met his sorrows with more pity; At least,have lent some counsel to his miseries. Tho' now, for honour sake, I must forget him, And never know the naine more of Lisander; Yet in my justice I am bound to grant him, Laving his love aside, most truly noble : But mention him no more. This instant hour My brother Lidian, new return'd from travel, And his brave friend Clarangè, long since For fair and rich Olinda, are to hear [rivals Her absolute determination, whom She pleases to elect. See all things ready To entertain 'em; and, on my displeasure, No more words of Lisander! [most! That, where we are most su'd to, we must fly But we are tied to grow alone. Oh, honour, Thou hard law to our lives, chain to our freedoms! He that invented thee had inany curses. Exit. Enter Cleander, Lidian, and Clarangè. Ce. How insupportable the difference Of dear friends is, the sorrow that I feel For my Lisander's absence (one that stamps A reverend print on friendship) does assure You're rivais for a lady. a fair tady; [me. And, in the acquisition of ber ravours, Hazard the cutting of that gordian knot From your first childhood to this present hour, By all the ties of love and amity fasten'd. I am blest in a wife (Heav'n make me thankInferior to none, sans pride I speak it; [ful!) Yet if I were a freeman, aud could purchase At any rate the certainty to enjoy Lisander's conversation while I liv'd, (Forgive me, my Calista, and the sex!) I never would seek change. Lad. My lord and brother, [worth I dare not blame your choice, Lisander's Being a mistress to be ever courted; Nor shall our equal suit to fair Qhuda VOL. II. Malf. The rich heir is come, sir. Malf. Yes, sir; and makes choice, To win the prize, and your despair to lose Lid. No, sir; I am arm'd. Clara. I confident of my interest. When you've eudur'd the test. Enter Culista, Olinda, and Clarinda. [higher Untied? You promis'd that I should grow In doing you service. Clari. Fallo, or you lose me! [Exit Mulf. Cle. Nay, take your place; no Paris now sits judge On the contending goddesses: You are The deity that must make curst, or happy, One of your languishing servants. Olin. I thus look With equal eyes on both; either deserves 2 K Nay, should I add a princess of the blood, Clari. The more, I say, the merrier. You burn with equal flames, and so affect me: And that before my life I must prefer: |