A Warning for Fair Women: A Critical Edition 9783110879858, 9789027931344

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STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE Volume LXXXVI

A WARNING FOR FAIR WOMEN A Critical Edition

by CHARLES DALE CANNON The University of Mississippi

1975 MOUTON THE HAGUE . PARIS

© Copyright 1975 Mouton & Co. B.V., Publishers, The Hague. No part of this book may be translated or reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publishers.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER: 73-81080 ISBN 90 279 3134 8

Printed in The Netherlands by Mouton & Co., The Hague.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks are due Professors Richard Hosley, William Jones, Dick Renner, and Betty Littleton for their help and encouragement during the preparation of this edition. Miss Lucille Cobb of the University of Missouri Library at Columbia was especially kind in facilitating my work with microfilm. Thanks are due the humanistically-oriented Cultural Attache of the Embassy of the United States of America in The Hague, Mr. Philip A. Benson. I am indebted to Miss Evonne Burdison, Dr. Christina Murphy, and Dr. Ann Julian Abadie for gradiously consenting to read the proof. Finally I am indebted to The University of Missisippi for a grantin-aid supporting the publication of this work.

PREFACE

The purpose of this edition is to recover, assemble, and present what can be learned about A Warning for Fair Women using both internal as well as external evidence. The biblio-textual method employed in this edition is indebted to the work of W. W. Greg, R. B. McKerrow, Fredson Bowers, and others following in their steps. Though the journals devoted to Shakespeare reflect "the new way with Shakespeare's text", The Library and Review of English Studies in England and Studies in Bibliography in the United States have been the repository of much of the scholarship on textual studies of dramatic texts. In addition to the work published in these and other journals, Greg, McKerrow, Bowers, and others who follow the bibliographical tradition have published their findings in books and have edited numerous plays. In format this edition of A Warning more nearly resembles the Arden Shakespeare or the Revels Plays, a series of plays not written by Shakespeare but following the Arden format. This edition follows the Cambridge New Shakespeare, Folger Library General Reader's Shakespeare, and the Pelican Shakespeare in including staging and stage history within its purview. In numeration this work follows the method of the Malone Society Reprints. There is a sense in which each play to be edited presents problems similar to those of other plays. In another sense, however, each play affords unique problems peculiar to it alone. The absence, paucity, or plenitude of external evidence affects the extent to which internal evidence must be relied on in solving a particular problem. Each play has its own combination of problems, evidence, or the lack of it, affecting the text, date, author-

6

PREFACE

ship, source, and evaluation of the play. The setting forth of variants follows Fredson Bowers' edition of The Dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker and is indebted ultimately to R. B. McKerrow's Prolegomena for the Oxford Shakespeare where many of the symbols used for setting forth the variants were proposed by McKerrow for his use in the Oxford Shakespeare, a work which McKerrow's untimely death kept him from accomplishing.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

3

Preface

5

Introduction The Text Author Date Staging The Play Genre Source Criticism

9 10 25 43 48 58 58 64 80

A Warning for Fair Women

93

Notes

179

Appendices A. Emendation of Accidentals B. Press-Variants C. Historical Collation D. A Briefe Discourse E. Stow's Annales F. Holinshed's Chronicles

196 196 203 210 216 231 234

Bibliography

237

INTRODUCTION

A Warning for Fair Women (Greg, Bibliography, no. 155)1 was entered in the Stationers' Register on November 17, 1599.2 The title page of the quarto bears the date 1599 and states that it has been "lately" acted by "the right Honorable, the Lord Chamberlaine his Servantes". Richard Simpson included A Warning in his School of Shakspere, published in 1878, and A. F. Hopkinson edited the play in 1893 and again in 1904. The 1904 edition showed extensive revision and enlargement compared with the earlier edition, though neither one is listed in the Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature. In 1912 J. S. Farmer edited A Warning in the Tudor Facsimile Text series, the facsimile being of the Dyce copy of the quarto of A Warning. In addition to the problems posed by the text of the play, the editor of A Warning is confronted with problems of date, authorship, and staging. Though there have been no recent studies devoted solely to the text of A Warning, there have been some studies involving the printer and Chamberlain's Men's plays in general, and these studies have contributed to a better understanding of the text of the play. There have been no recent attribution studies of A Warning. Recent students of the play, if they mention authorship at all, are 1 Collation: 4°, A-K4, 40 leaves unnumbered Al TP; Alv blank; A2-2v Induction; A3 Text; K3v finis; K4 blank. 2 Edward Arber, ed., Transcript of the Registers of the Company of Stationers of London, 1554-1640 A.D. (London: n.p., 1876), III, 151.

10

INTRODUCTION

content either to refer to the play as anonymous or make an oblique and fleeting reference to the fact that someone several decades ago has suggested a particular candidate for the author. Little evidence bearing on the date or the stage history has been forthcoming. No critics accept 1599, the date of the title page, none accept the play as contemporaneous with the crime it memorializes (1573), and most prefer a date of near 1590. It is unfortunate that the consensus of "near 1590" is based on so little evidence or, if there was evidence for the assertions of the date, that the evidence was not set forth at the time when individual critics assigned a date for the play. There is no external evidence about the staging or stage history of the play beyond the statement on the title page declaring that the play had been "lately" and at "diverse times" acted by the Lord Chamberlain's Men. This assertion has neither been challenged nor amplified. The play itself, however, affords information about staging in the Induction, and inferences about its own staging may be made from the stage directions and the text.

THE TEXT

A Warning for Fair Women was "Printed at London by Valentine Sims for William Aspley" in 1599, according to the title page of the play. Both Sims and Aspley were instrumental in the printing of Shakespeare's works, Sims having printed quartos of Richard the Second, Richard the Third, both parts of Henry the Fourth, and Much Ado about Nothing. Aspley, a bookseller in London, was a "joint publisher with Andrew Wise of the first editions of Shakespeare's Much Ado about Nothing, and 2 Henry IV, and, with William Jaggard and others, of the First Folio".3 The evidence based on an analysis of spelling and typography of A Warning indicates that the type was set by two compositors, hereafter referred to as A and B. 3

R. B. McKerrow, ed., A Dictionary of Printers and Booksellers in England, Scotland and Ireland, and of Foreign Printers of English Books 1557-1640 (London : Blades, East & Blades, 1910), 245.

INTRODUCTION

11

Compositor A prefers -ie to -y (61 %) as an ending, master to maister (75%), and has an absolute preference for Drury (-ie) rather than Drewry. Compositor B, on the other hand, prefers the -y ending to -ie (75%), maister to master (54%), and has a slight preference for Drewry over Drury (-ie) (52 %). Compositor A prefers abbreviated speech prefixes (71 %) set in roman type with no mixture of italic (71 %). He is sparing in his placement of stage directions on the right margin (27 %), and in these directions shows preference neither for roman nor italic type. Compositor Β is indifferent about the abbreviation or lack of it in his speech prefixes, and though he prefers roman type only in the speech prefixes (67%), his preference is less marked than that of Compositor A. In contrast to Compositor A's sparing use of stage directions at the right margin, Compositor Β places them there rather frequently (73 %) and prefers italic type to roman in these directions (69%). Fredson Bowers and W. Craig Ferguson have noted the work of one or both of these compositors of Valentine Sims. Of the characteristics noted by Bowers and Ferguson, however, only the overall preference for the -y or -ie ending has been found significant in the spelling and typographical analysis of A Warning for Fair Women, their analyses having been made on Sims' compositors' work on other plays,4 not on A Warning. Of the seventy-six pages of the quarto it is possible on the basis of spelling analysis to assign with some degree of certainty fortyfive pages to Compositor Β and twenty-seven pages to Compositor A. Of four doubtful pages, B4, E3v, Fl, and H3v, it seems likely that the latter three belong to Compositor A and that the first is the work of Compositor B. The distribution, then, is thirty pages for Compositor A and forty-six for Compositor B. Compositor A has 35 per cent of the pages, and Compositor Β has 65 per cent. The distribution between compositors may be seen below: 4

See Fredson Bowers, ed., The Dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1953), I, 9-17; and W. Craig Ferguson, "The Compositors of Henry IV, Part 2, Much Ado about Nothing, The Shoemaker's Holiday, and The First Part of the Contention", SB, ΧΙΠ (1960), 19-29.

12

INTRODUCTION

Compositor A: A2-4v Compositor Β: B1

Blv-3

C3-4v

B3v-C2v

Compositor A: Dlv Compositor Β: Dl Compositor A: F3v Compositor B: F2v-F3

D3 D2-2v F4v F4

Compositor A: Il-2v

14

Compositor B: H4v

I3-3v

E3v

Fl

D3v-E3

F2 E4-4v

Glv-2

H3v-4

Gl

G2v-H3

Flv

I4v-K3v

The first and last sheets of the play, A and K, were each set by a single compositor, A setting sheet A, and Β setting sheet K. No other sheet lacked the joint work of both compositors. With the exception of Sheet A, where Compositor A set both inner and outer formes, there is no other forme that is the unaided work of A. Compositor B, however, not only composed inner and outer formes of sheet K, the final sheet, but set the entire outer formes of E, G, and H. The typical sheet of the play shows the work of both compositors with Compositor Β doing from half to all the work in each of the formes (never all of both except for the final K) and Compositor A doing from half to none of the work in a particular forme but always contributing one or more pages of each sheet. With the exception of sheet A, set entirely by Compositor A, and the outer forme of I, of which he set three-fourths, Compositor A never did more than half the work of any particular forme. Beginning with sheet A, where Compositor A set both formes, and advancing to sheet B, it is apparent that sheets Β and C show an equal division of work, each compositor having set half of each forme. Compositor Β did all the work for the outer forme of G. The inner forme of Η has an equal division of work, but the outer forme is the work of Compositor Β alone. The inner forme of

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INTRODUCTION

RUNNING-TITLE ANALYSIS 4 2

(0

(i)

(o) 3v 3

BLK Ind.

I A

3

4v

2

3

1

TP

II Β

12

11

9

10

12

11

9

10

I

II

III C

2

3

1

8

III D

12

11

9

10

Π E

I

ΠΙ

II

4

3v

2

3

1

8

12

11

9

10

7

6

5

4

12

11

9

10

BLK 6 5

4

3

(o) 4v

I F

2

3

1

8

II G

12 9

11 II 10

II H

7

6

5

4

in I

12

11 III 10

II Κ

9

7 5

II

II 4

sheet I is unique for a sheet with both compositors at work on it, for Compositor A did three-fourths of the work. He and Compositor Β shared equally the work of the outer forme of I with Compositor Β doing all the work for sheet K. Evidence based on the running titles, the composition, and a method of proofing consonant with that for two- and three-skeleton printing set forth by Bowers in "Elizabethan Proofing" suggests the following order of the formes through the press : Press I Skeleton Compositor

A(i) A(o) I I A A

B(i) II A&B

B(o) Π A&B

D(i) D(o) ΙΠ ΠΙ A&B A&B

14

INTRODUCTION

Press II Skeleton Compositor F(i)

F(o)

I

I

H(i) H(o) II II A&B Β

A&B A&B E(i) E(o) II II A&B Β

Press I Skeleton Compositor Press II Skeleton Compositor A&B

C(o)

ι

A&B A&B

Press I Skeleton Compositor Press II Skeleton Compositor

C(i)

m

G(i)

G(o)

III

III

A&B Β K(i) II

K(o) II

Β

Β

KO

Ko) III III A&B A&B

Three skeletons are employed in the printing of A Warning for Fair Women. With the exception of sheet C, which has skeleton III for the inner forme and skeleton I for the outer forme, all sheets have the same skeleton for both inner and outer formes. Skeleton I (2, 3,1,8) is used for both inner and outer formes of sheet A, the outer forme of sheet C, and the inner and outer formes of sheet F. Skeleton II (7,6,5,4) is used to print the inner and outer formes of sheets Β,5 Ε, H, and K, and skeleton III (12,11,9,10) is used to print the inner forme of sheet C and both inner and outer formes of sheets D, G, and I. The printing of A Warning appears to have made use of one press only for sheets A and B. With sheet C, however, there appears to have been the introduction of a second press concomitant with the introduction of the third skeleton. Though the use of three skeletons does not compel the use of two presses, Bowers says that "when three-skeleton Elizabethan plays are properly investigated most of them will prove to be the result of printing with two presses".6 The introduction of the third skeleton in C and the joint work 6

Skeleton II shows the variation 7, 5, 6, 4 in the outer forme of sheet B. Fredson Bowers, "Elizabethan Proofing", Joseph Quincy Adams Memorial Studies (Washington: The Folger Shakespeare Library, 1948), 585. β

INTRODUCTION

15

of the compositors appear to be an effort to gain more speed and at the same time to balance the speed of composition with that of the press work. Compositor A was either a slower workman than Β or he did not devote all his time to composition, for there is evidence that under certain circumstances he was able to hold his own with Compositor B, though of the entire play he set only 35 per cent compared with the 65 per cent by Compositor B. A Warning for Fair Women is not a bad quarto. Though not completely free of corruption, it is not a mutilated, foreshortened work which exhibits great discrepancies in quality in various parts of the play, nor does it have repetition, garbling, and extended patches of nonsense characteristic of some bad texts. The play is very near the average length of Chamberlain-King's Men plays.7 Of the good texts there are many specific kinds of copy the printer may have had, but the author and the playhouse are the two major sources of a good text, and it is these sources that must be considered in ascertaining the kind of copy the printer of A Warning had. Both the accessories and the text itself are sources of evidence for the kind of copy lying behind the printed text. The speech prefixes of A Warning are regular and consistent in their references to the characters. Such spelling variations that they exhibit appear to be explicable on the basis of individual preference of the compositors who set the type. One compositor, for example, has an absolute preference for Drury (ie), whereas the other compositor employs Drury (ie) and Drewry with almost equal favor. Though irregularity and inconsistency in the references of speech prefixes to the same person is evidence of foul papers, the regular and consistent reference in A Warning is not necessarily evidence of prompt copy for the printer of the play. In fact McKerrow considers regular speech prefixes a sign that the play is "likely to have been printed from some sort of fair copy". 8 There are a number of reasons why author's papers of A Warning may have had regular prefixes. First the author is dealing with his7

A. Hart, "The Length of Elizabethan and Jacobean Plays", RES, VIII (1932), 154. 8 R. B. McKerrow, "A Suggestion Regarding Shakespeare's Manuscripts", RES, XI (1935), 459.

16

INTRODUCTION

torical personages, and in adhering to their names he is exercising no special care. Moreover, though inconsistencies may point to foul papers, the regularity of speech prefixes is not inconsistent with a hypothesis of authorial fair copy where even if, as is unlikely, there had been inconsistent designations in the foul papers they would likely have been made regular for fair copy. Finally, the tangles, false starts, and "blotting" that are assumed for foul papers vary from author to author. There is good evidence that there was rather wide variation in the fluency with which authors composed and in the cleanness of the copy. Stage directions constitute another source of evidence for determining the nature of the copy for the printer of A Warning. A number of these directions have authorial hallmarks by being especially full or literary in character,9 by being permissive or indefinite,10 and by being descriptive in a manner similar to those directions Greg has cited as characteristic of an author.11 From the very beginning of the play there are directions characteristic of an author. The first direction in the play fits one of Greg's descriptive directions said to be characteristic of an author, a direction which involves "the grouping of characters... particularly in entries from opposite directions" : 12 Enter at one doore, Hystorie with Drum and Ensigne: Tragedie at Another, in her one hand a whip, in the other hand a knife. (A2)

At other points there are descriptive directions wherein "characters are described on their first appearance, and their status and relationships may be defined:..."13 The following stage directions in A Warningfitthis category : (1) Enter Anne Sanders with her little boy. (B2v) (2) Enter Anne Drewry and Trusty Roger her man, to them Browne. (B3v) • W. W. Greg, The First Folio (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1955), 124. Greg, The First Folio, 135. 11 The First Folio, 124-132. 12 The First Folio, 125; this study follows Greg in using roman type for citing stage directions. 13 The First Folio, 124. 10

INTRODUCTION

17

(3) Enter Maister Barnes and John Beane his man. (D3v) (4) Enter a yeoman of the Buttery, Browne, and mayster James. (F2v) (5) Enter George Browne, and one Browne a Butcher in Rochester. (G3V)

These directions define relationships and, in one instance, indicate status in a manner in keeping with the descriptive directions Greg classifies as authorial. As a whole the stage directions in A Warning are rather complete and full, a number of them evincing authorial characteristics. The directions below appear characteristic of an author: (1) Exeunt Sanders. A. San. makes a curtesie and departs, and all the rest saving Roger, whom Browne calles. (A4) (2) Whilst they sit down Tragedie speakes. (Dl) (3) Here Browne starts up : drawes his sword, and runnes out. (Dl) (4) Here enters Browne speaking, in casting one side of his cloake under his arme. While master Sanders and he are in busie talke one to another, Browne steps to a corner. (D2v) (5) Beane left wounded and for dead, stirres and creepes. (Fl v) (6) Enter some to prepare the judgement seat to the Lord Maior, Lo. Justice, and the foure Lords, and one Clearke, and a Shiriff, who being set, commaund Browne to be brought forth. (H3v) The direction at D2v is especially full, lacking the terseness associated with the bookkeeper and consisting in part of a complex sentence. The direction at Flv has the phrase "for dead", an idea that was in the mind of the author. Beane's wounding and consequent incapacitation may be readily viewed by those in the playhouse, but the author in having "for dead" is anticipating further developments in the play that may even involve such matters as God's providence and a "deathbed" confession. The final direction listed, appearing at H3v, has a fullness and balance and more of a literary quality than the directions usually considered characteristic of prompt copy. Among the kinds of stage directions thought characteristic of an author are those that are permissive and indefinite. Four such directions in A Warning fall within this category : (1) Here some strange solemne musicke like belles. (Dl) (2) Enter Sanders, and one or two with him. (D2) (3) Enter some to prepare the judgement seat to the Lord Maior, Lo.

18

INTRODUCTION

Justice, and the foure Lords, and one Clearke, and a Shiriff, who being set, commaund Browne to be brought forth. (H3v) (4) Enter all as before. (H4)

The indefinite and permissive nature of these directions may be noted in the language of the directions: "some strange solemne musicke like belles", "one or two", and "some to prepare the judgement seat..." The second and third directions have an indefiniteness that can easily be settled at the time of production, though the directions do not appear to be the kind that the bookkeeper would write. The fourth direction is indefinite in the sense that it refers to an indefinite direction preceding it; moreover it is inadequate for prompt copy. Sucha definition may have been satisfactory for the author who wished everyone to return "as before", but the direction must surely have been inadequate in view of the circumstances that "All as before" represents : Enter some to prepare the judgement seat to the Lord Maior, Lo. Justice, and the foure Lords, and one Clearke, and a Shiriff, who being set, commaund Browne to be brought forth. (H3v)

Additional evidence in support for a hypothesis of author's papers may be seen in a misassignment of speech prefixes in the dumb show. Though at C4v a stage direction reads "Enter Tragedie with a bowle of bloud in her hand", at Dlv, seventy lines later, a direction reads "Murther settes downe her blood and rubbes their hands". The bowl of blood, insofar as may be determined from the stage directions and the text, has been transferred from Tragedy's hands to those of Murther. Though Murther is mentioned as entering "into al their hearts", there is no provision for the physical entrance of Murther as a character. It is true that Murther has entered the hearts of some of the participants in the dumb show, but she does not seem to have entered the dumb show as a character in her own right. If, as seems likely, the direction should refer to Tragedy, the misassignment of prefixes would be in favor of the author's papers. A number of stage directions in A Warning mention properties, and it is needful to examine the directions for whatever insight they may yield in the problem of ascertaining the copy for A Warning. The following stage directions mention one or more

INTRODUCTION

19

properties: (1) Enter Tragedie with a bowle of bloud in her hand. (C4v) (2) Enter Browne reading a Letter, and Roger. (E4) (3) Enter Anne Sanders, Anne Drewry and Roger: Drewry having the bloudy handkercher in her hand. (F3) (4) Enter three Lords, Maister James, and two Messengers with their boxes, one Lord reading a letter. (Gl) (5) This hath the letter. ÍG1) (6) He takes and reades the letter. (Gl) (7) Enter Drury, and Roger with a bagge. (G2) (8) Maister James delivers a letter. (H3) (9) Enter Sheriffe bringing in Trusty Roger with holberds. (K3) According to McKerrow a "mark of genuine prompter's copies is the mention, at the time of entry of a character, of properties which he will require later in the scene, but either must not or need not exhibit to the audience at the time of entry". Greg accepts this criterion and quotes McKerrow's language in a footnote in his First Folio.u An examination of these stage directions in the light of McKerrow's criterion shows that not a single one meets the qualification of a property that "must not or need not" be exhibited to the "audience at the time of entry". In view of the fact that these directions do not meet the requirements to validate them as evidence of prompt copy, the mention of the properties of itself does not argue against the hypothesis of author's papers as copy for the printer of A Warning. A Warning is not free of brief imperative directions as "take her aside" (A4v), "Give her a Ring" (Blv), and "Kisse Joane" (El) indicate, but such directions are few. Moreover Greg dismisses as an "old superstition" the belief "that the author writes directions in the indicative and the prompter in the imperative mood". 15 Such directions cannot and should not be dismissed without serious consideration, for should such terse directions appear in substantial numbers and especially in conjunction with, say, warnings or duplication of stage directions, they might well be considered as corroborative evidence of prompt copy. As they are, however, they 14 15

Greg, The First Folio, 141. The First Folio, 124.

20

INTRODUCTION

cannot be held as proof of prompt copy. At best they may be considered annotation for prompt at the point where they occur. Further evidence in favor of author's copy for A Warning may be found in the omission of entrances and exits in the play.18 There are twenty-one necessary entrances and exits missing in the play. Only one signature, signature B, is not deficient in one or more entrances or exits. Though an appreciable lack of entrances and exits may be evidence of author's papers, the completeness of entrances and exits is not necessarily evidence of prompt copy. The circumstance of completeness in Β and lack of completeness in the other signatures, however, invites attention to see whether signature Β exhibits any unmistakable marks of prompt copy. An examination of signature Β reveals that neither the text nor the accessories disclose any undoubted item of evidence in favor of prompt copy. There is no warning, no duplication of stage directions, no mention of properties that must not or need not be exhibited to the audience at the time of anyone's entry. At line 278 there is what may well be the printing of a stage direction as part of the text of the play, "To them Browne", but such an irregularity is explicable as a printer's error and no particular hallmark of prompt copy. If one of the best evidences of author's papers is stage directions which but contemplate "the possibility of some action or stage effect",17 one of the best evidences of prompt copy is warnings, Greg saying that "warnings for actors to be ready... provide perhaps the best evidence of all of the intervention of the bookkeeper".18 Another mark of prompt copy, already cited, is "the mention, at the time of the entry of a character, of properties which he will require later in the scene, but either must not or need not exhibit to the audience at the time of entry". In accepting this hallmark of prompt copy and quoting McKerrow's language,

16 Wilfred T. Jewkes, Act and Scene Division in Elizabethan and Jacobean Plays, 1583-1616 (Hamden : Shoe String Press, 1958), 14. 17 Greg, The First Folio, 135-136. 18 The First Folio, 139.

INTRODUCTION

21

Greg refers to it as "in effect a form of warning".19 As was pointed out in the earlier citation of this characteristic of prompt copy, none of the stage directions mentioning properties in A Warning fulfill the condition that the properties "must not or need not" be exhibited at the time of entry. Another kind of warning, and evidence of prompt copy, according to McKerrow, is "the entry of a character before the proper time". He believes that what was intended as a "warning to be ready has been printed as an actual entrance".20 Greg holds that "the persistent placing of directions a few lines too early does indicate the use of prompt-copy, though the inference may not be a very strong one". He adds that "anticipatory directions of this kind would afford no time to call an actor if he were not already at his post". 21 Finally the use of an actor's name as a gloss is accepted as a characteristic of prompt copy by both Greg22 and McKerrow.23 The text of A Warning at H2v invites careful consideration in the light of the characteristics of prompt copy listed above. Two directions, one at 1. 2079, and another at 1. 2087, disclose some irregularity of the text. The stage direction at 1.2079 reads "Enter M. Maior,M. James, &c". Master James enters, speaks one sentence, and then departs. He says that "the Maior of Rochester is come with Browne". The Fourth Lord responds to the statement of Mr. James by saying "Let him come in" whereupon the First Lord greets the Mayor: "Welcome good master Maior of Rochester." The irregularity of the text at this point derives from the fact that the First Lord's greeting of the Mayor is between two stage directions calling for the entrance of the Mayor, several lines after the entrance calling for the entrance of "M. Maior, M. James, &c", but just before the direction at 11. 2087-2088, "Enter Maior, Browne, a Messenger, another, and M. Humpherie". 19

The First Folio, 141. R. B. McKerrow, "The Elizabethan Printer and Dramatic Manuscripts", The Library, XII (1931), 272. 21 Greg, The First Folio, 139. 22 The First Folio, 117. 23 McKerrow, "The Elizabethan Printer...", 272. 20

22

INTRODUCTION

Part of the direction at 11.2087-2088 is a duplication of the earlier direction calling for the Mayor's entrance. Greg considers a duplication of stage directions such as this an evidence of prompt copy and accounts for the duplication in print by saying that the first of the two directions was a warning that has been mistaken by the printer as an entrance and printed as one.24 It seems possible either that the earlier direction, "Enter M. Maior, M. James &c", has been found inadequate and that the "&c" is made more explicit in the direction about ten lines later, or that the earlier direction is an appearance in print of what was a warning for the Mayor and possibly others who appear later, excepting Master James whose entrance and exit are accounted for at the earlier point. The appearance of "Mr. Humpherie" in the direction at H2v merits consideration in that there is no other mention of a Mr. Humpherie in the play. It is useful to consider the direction mentioning Mr. Humpherie both in the light of the text and the stage directions that precede and follow the one mentioning him which reads "Enter Maior, Browne, a Messenger, another, and M. Humpherie". An earlier direction at 1.2055 reads "Enter the Lords at the Court and Messengers". In the ensuing dialogue the lords are numbered one through four. The two messengers are likewise referred to as numbers by the stage directions: "1 Mess., 2 Mess." The lords and messengers take part in the dialogue following the direction calling for their entrance. The direction at 1. 2087 again calls for the entrance of a "Messenger, another, and M. Humpherie". This direction displays, as well as reflects, the irregularity of the text at H2v, confirmed by both the text and the stage directions that precede and follow. The direction calls for "a Messenger, another and M. Humpherie", but there is no function to be fulfilled by either a messenger or a Mr. Humpherie, if indeed there is any difference, in the ensuing dialogue. The dialogue from the point of this stage direction (!. 2087) to the end of the scene at 1.2153, where the direction "exeunt. 24

Greg, The First Folio, 138.

INTRODUCTION

23

om." occurs, is made up solely of utterances by the Mayor, Browne, and the First, Second, Third, and Fourth Lords. It appears that "M. Humpherie" is an actor's name, a gloss for one of the messengers written by the bookkeeper. Though both authors and bookkeepers have been given credit for writing actors' names, Greg points out that when an actor's name appears as a gloss, the appearance of the actor's name is evidence of the hand of the bookkeeper.25 It seems highly probable that the copy for the printer at H2v was prompt copy. The duplication of the stage direction alone would suggest prompt copy for the printer, and when the duplication of the stage direction appears in conjunction with what appears to be an actor's name as a gloss, the evidence is strong for prompt copy. If, however, the printer was following prompt copy at H2v, he does not seem to have had it much beyond that point. A stage direction at H3v ("Enter some to prepare the judgement seat to the Lord Maior, Lo. Justice, and the foure Lords, and one Clearke and a Shiriff, who being set, commaund Browne to be brought forth") does not give much basis for believing that prompt copy served at that juncture. This direction, as has been pointed out earlier, has authorial hallmarks. Its length is not in keeping with the terseness associated with directions from the hand of the bookkeeper, and the use of some reveals an indefíniteness characteristic of an author's direction. Overall the text of A Warning is relatively free from the tangles, false starts, and blotting characteristic of foul papers. There is no gainsaying the obscurities of lines 538 ("All is but George"), 1433 ("sure as death the harlotries are bespoken"), and 1671 ("And liv'd in dayes where you have wealth at wil"). There are, in addition, instances involving single words which either require emendation or compel careful study before justifying a failure to emend, but there are barely more than half a dozen instances of this nature. Minim errors and misreading of the text by the compositor can account for most of the errors. In fine, the text of A 25

The First Folio, 117.

24

INTRODUCTION

Warning for Fair Women is good enough to support a hypothesis of authorial fair copy for the printer of the play. Such a hypothesis is consonant with the evidence of the stage directions and speech prefixes and does not contradict any external evidence about the nature of the copy. An examination of the text and accessories will not support a hypothesis of prompt copy. As was pointed out earlier, however, such an examination does reveal evidence of the strong probability that the printer was following prompt copy at H2v. The aim of this edition is to present the text as it would have appeared as an authorial fair copy. The degree of emendation, therefore, is in keeping with this aim and with the hypothesis concerning the nature of the copy in the hands of the printer of A Warning. The text of this edition is based on a collation of seven of the eight known exemplars of the 1599 quarto, the only substantive text: Bodleian, Dyce, Folger, Harvard, Huntington, Pforzheimer, and Yale. Substantive emendations appear as footnotes on the pages of the text. Both the emendation of accidentals and a collation of the quarto with Simpson's and both of Hopkinson's editions appear in the Appendix. With the exception of silent alterations mentioned in the following paragraph, all changes in spelling or punctuation are recorded in the emendation of accidentals. In general there has been a sparing alteration of punctuation except when, in some instances, many speeches are closed with commas rather than periods. The emendation has been limited to correcting of errors by the compositors. Silent alterations have been made in speech prefixes although there has been no attempt to attain absolute uniformity in the degree of abbreviation, or lack of it, found in the play. There has been a modernizing of the i for j, the long s, the u for v, the initial ν for M, and the F F for W. Editorial additions to the stage directions as well as the signatures and scene divisions are enclosed in brackets. Textually this edition is patterned after Fredson Bowers' edition of The Dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker26 and is indebted to 26

Fredson Bowers, ed., The Dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1953), I, xv-xviii.

INTRODUCTION

25

R. Β. McKerrow's Prolegomena for the Oxford Shakespeare27 for the use of symbols in setting forth the emendations and collations.

AUTHOR

The first attribution of an author for A Warning for Fair Women was made in the seventeenth century when Edward Phillips in his Theatrum Poetarum of 1675 credited Lyly with the play.28 In 1687 William Winstanley in his Lives of the Most Famous English Poets listed A Warning as a work by Lyly,29 and though much of Winstanley's work is taken from the Theatrum Poetarum of Phillips, William Riley Parker considers the account of Lyly in Winstanley's Lives "among the accounts that are utterly independent of Phillips..." 30 Though Anthony à Wood in Athenae Oxonienses in 1691 lists A Warning as one of Lyly's works,31 Gerard Langbaine in An Account of the English Dramatic Poets, also published in 1691, denies the attribution of A Warning to Lyly. He says that Mr. Philips and his Transcriber Mr. Winstanley are mistaken, in affirming, That all Mr. Lilly's Plays are printed together in a volume: Nor are they less mistaken in ascribing to him a Play call'd Warning for Fair Women, it being writ by an Anonymous Author. 32

Charles Gildon, successor to Langbaine, in 1698 lists A Warning under "Unknown Authors". 33 Moreover editors of Wood's 27

R. B. McKerrow, Prolegomena for the Oxford Shakespeare (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1939). 28 Edward Phillips, Theatrum Poetarum (London: Charles Smith, 1675), 112-113. 29 William Riley Parker, ed., The Lives of the Most Famous English Poets (Gainesville: Scholars' Facsimiles and Reprints, 1963), 97-98. 80 Parker, ed., Lives, viii. 31 Philip Bliss, ed., Athenae Oxonienses (London: F. C. and J. Rivington and others, 1813), 1,675. 82 Gerard Langbaine, An Account of the English Dramatic Poets (Oxford: L. L. for George West and Henry Clements, 1691), 330. 83 Charles Gildon, The Lives and Characters of the English Dramatic Poets (London: Printed for Thomas Leigh at the Peacock against St. Dunstan's Church and William Turner at the White Horse, without Temple Bar, [1699]), 171.

26

INTRODUCTION

Athenae Oxonienses,31 and the Biographica Dramatical derived from it, have not permitted the attribution of A Warning to Lyly to stand unchallenged, footnotes in editions of both works denying the attribution by saying "Ascribed to him very erroneously, having been written by an anonymous author." 36 Though there is a modern survival of the attribution to Lyly,37 the attribution is rebuked sharply by Ε. K. Chambers in The Elizabethan Stage and by Arthur M. Clark in Thomas Heywood, Chambers saying that A Warning has been "ascribed incredibly to Lyly",38 and Clark saying that A Warning "has been ascribed incredibly to Lyly".39 Tucker Brooke in his Shakespeare Apocrypha takes knowledge of the fact that A Warning has been attributed to Shakespeare, but he does not consider it among those plays that "can be regarded as having a real claim to the title" of "doubtful plays of Shakespeare".40 Never having had a real claim to inclusion within the Shakespeare canon, A Warning is now so thoroughly excluded from the Shakespeare apocrypha that Baldwin Maxwell's recent Studies in the Shakespeare Apocrypha has no mention of the play.41 Frederick G. Fleay suggested Lodge as the author, but in doing so emphasized the fact that the attribution was "conjectural", indicating that his attribution was "founded less on positive evidence than on the method of exhaustions".42 Having suggested Lodge as the author of A Warning, Fleay lists A Warning under the section "Anonymous Plays", a testimony to the uncertainty of his 34

Bliss, 675. Stephen Jones, ed., Biographica Dramatica (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and others, 1812), 466. 36 Jones; Bliss, 675. 37 Reginald Clarence, The Stage Cyclopedia (London: "TheStage", 1909),475. 88 Ε. K. Chambers, The Elizabethan Stage (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1945), IV, 52. 39 Arthur M. Clark, Thomas Heywood (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1931), 338. 40 C. F. Tucker Brooke, ed., The Shakespeare Apocrypha (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1918), ix-xi. 41 Baldwin Maxwell, Studies in the Shakespeare Apocrypha (New York: King's Crown Press, 1956). 48 Frederick G. Fleay, A Biographical Chronicle of the English Drama, 15591642 (London : Reeves and Turner, 1891), II, 54-55. 35

INTRODUCTION

27

attribution. 43 Ε. H. C. Oliphant says "A Warning and A Larum have been credited to Lodge, perhaps rightly, though the reasons...] amount to little more than guesswork" ; 44 moreover Adolphus W. Ward in A History of English Dramatic Literature dismisses the attribution to Lodge as unworthy of notice in view of the fact that the work does not come within the "period of his ascertained dramatic activity" and the further fact that "the ascertained share of Lodge in [domestic tragedy]... cannot be described as other than relatively unimportant and exiguous". 45 Fleay said that Shakespeare and Jonson were writers for the Chamberlain's Men, and that if people object to his attribution of A Warning to Lodge, they must either choose Shakespeare or Jonson 46 or "some unknown playwright not otherwise heard of". 47 Such a candidate for authorship of A Warning is Robert Yarington, who, if he is not unknown or unheard of, is at least relatively obscure compared to the ones Fleay is considering. Symonds in Shakespeare's Predecessors suggested Robert Yarington as the author of A Warning. Yarington's name appears on the title page of Two Tragedies in One, a domestic tragedy published in 1601. Symonds says of Yarington that "we know nothing except that he wrote one domestic tragedy", and he bases his attribution on the similarity of the "method of dealing with the prose text" noted in Two Tragedies in One, A Warning, and Arden of Feversham. He attributes both Arden and A Warning to Yarington. 48 Sidney Lee stresses the fact that little is known of Yarington, 43

A Biographical Chronicle, 313. E. H. C. Oliphant, "The Problems of Authorship in Elizabethan Dramatic Criticism", MP, VIII (1911), 3. 45 Adophus W. Ward, A History of English Dramatic Literature to the Death of Queen Anne (London: Macmillan, 1899), 418. 48 The only person who has chosen Jonson is Ernest A. Gerrard who in his Elizabethan Drama and Dramatists, 1583-1603, listed the plays in "The Repertoire of the Chamberlain Company". Among these was A Warning followed by "Anon. 1599 (Probably by Ben Jonson)" (Oxford: University Press, 1928), 47. 47 Fleay, II, 54-55. 48 John A. Symonds, Shakespeare's Predecessors (London: Smith, Elder, & Company, 1906), 332-333. 44

28

INTRODUCTION

saying that "I believe there were hundreds of Elizabethans of whom, if we knew the names, we should know nothing more of them than we do of Robert Yarington."49 Of the attribution to Yarington H. H. Adams says that the author of A Warning "far surpassed Yarington in dramatic skill and in psychological insight into the characters".50 Something less than an outright attribution is J. P. Collier's assertion that Anthony Munday "may have had a hand (as the earliest narrator of the story)"51 in A Warning because of his account of Browne's murder of Sanders in his View of Sundry Examples. If the quality of the play accounts for the tentative nature of the attribution, if it does not contradict it, the whole foundation of the attribution is undercut by the knowledge that Arthur Golding, not Anthony Munday, is the author of the first account of the murder of George Sanders by George Browne, and that Golding's account, A Briefe Discourse, is the undoubted primary source of the play. In the twentieth century two additional prospective authors of A Warning have been suggested, Kyd and Thomas Heywood. Though it remains to be seen whether either of these has a valid claim to authorship of the play, each claim should be weighed on merit and without prejudice. In examining the claims both of A. F. Hopkinson for Kyd and Joseph Quincy Adams for Heywood it will be useful to pay close attention to the common features of A Warning for Fair Women, The Spanish Tragedy, and A Woman Killed with Kindness·, for A Woman Killed is a domestic tragedy by Heywood, and The Spanish Tragedy, though orthodox tragedy, is accepted by all as an authentic work of Kyd's. Though it is reasonable to assume that there will be greater similarities in the two domestic tragedies, A Warning and A Woman Killed, than in The Spanish Tragedy and A Warning, there will be some common features in A Warning and each of the other plays to be compared with it. 49

Sidney Lee, "The Topical Side of Elizabethan Drama", Transactions of the New Shakespeare Society, Ser. 1, No. 11 (1887), 27-28. 80 H. H. Adams, English Domestic, or Homiletic Tragedy, 1575 to 1642 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1943), 114. 81 J. P. Collier, "Anthony Munday's John a Kent and John a Cumber", Shakespeare Society Publications, XI (1851), xxxix.

INTRODUCTION

29

All the plays have interjections and affirmative adverbs, whether spelled "Aye", "Ay", or "I". Moreover all of them use language susceptible of mannerism, rhetorical ornament, and stylistic characteristics that may be isolated. All of the plays refer to or make use of Christianity. Both A Warning and The Spanish Tragedy have court scenes and dumb shows in common, and A Woman Killed and A Warning both have repentant women who express their repentance at some length. Both Hopkinson and Adams have used the common features of A Warning and representative plays of the author they propose as evidence for their candidate's authorship of A Warning, but closer comparison and contrast are called for at the specific points of likeness or difference. In editions of A Warning in 1893 and 1904 A. F. Hopkinson asserted his claims for Kyd as the author, but it was in his edition of 1904 that he presented his case for Kyd in more detail. Hopkinson bases his claim for Kyd on the following reasons : 1. The doctrine that murder will out occurs both in Kyd's The Murder of John Brewen and in A Warning. 2. Kyd's John Brewen treats a crime similar to that found in A Warning and "in each case the motive is the same." 3. The use of the indictments in A Warning shows the hand of Kyd since he is thought to have been familiar with the form and content of indictments. 4. Both the works of Kyd and A Warning were published anonymously. 5. Both the works of Kyd and A Warning include "allegorical personages, dumb shows, murder, bloodshed, and lust". 6. There is a Senecan element in A Warning and in the works of Kyd. 7. The phraseology and the bye scenes in A Warning are similar to the works of Kyd. 52

Hopkinson's attribution found no support at the time he wrote and finds none now. Gregor Sarrazin53 and Charles Crawford, 54 who wrote near the time of Hopkinson's attribution, did not con52

A. F. Hopkinson, ed., A Warning for Fair Women (London: M. E. Sims & Co., 1904), x-xiv. 58 Gregor Sarrazin, Thomas Kyd und Sein Kreis (Berlin: Emil Felber, 1892). 54 Charles Crawford, A Concordance to the Works of Thomas Kyd, Materialeη zur Kunde des älteren Englischen Dramas, XV (Louvain, 1906), i.

30

INTRODUCTION

sider Kyd the author of A Warning, nor do F. S. Boas55 and Félix Carrère,58 recent students of Kyd, consider him the author of A Warning. Most of the evidence offered in favor of Kyd's authorship of A Warning is very general, and the touchstones of Kyd's authorship set forth by Hopkinson do not stand up well under critical scrutiny. Worthless as evidence in favor of Kyd's authorship is the fact that A Warning and the works of Kyd were published anonymously. The doctrine that murder will out is a commonplace that cannot be held distinctive of Kyd. Moreover the plentiful supply of "warning" or "deterrent" literature as the Theatre of Gods Judgment and kindred works that describe the wrath of God visited on evildoers testifies to the fact that there is nothing unique about prose accounts of the death of people, especially any death that may be interpreted as an instance of God's righteous wrath. Finally, adultery as a motivation for murder can hardly be considered unusual. Fifty-seven extant plays have dumb shows in them, and the influence of Seneca in A Warning and The Spanish Tragedy is susceptible of three possible interpretations rather than the one of joint authorship by Kyd, posited by Hopkinson. Two possibilities not considered by Hopkinson are that one of the two plays may be influenced by the other and that separate authors may be aligning themselves with the Senecan tradition without regard to the existence of the other play. If Hopkinson's evidence supporting Kyd's authorship of A Warning seems rather general and unspecific, the best means of confirming or refuting his attribution is to take an undisputed work of Kyd's, The Spanish Tragedy, and compare it with A Warning to see what similarities and dissimilarities the works exhibit, bearing in mind during the comparison, that the plays are not of the same specific genre. 55 F. S. Boas, ed., The Works of Thomas Kyd (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1950); A Warning is not included; in his Introduction to Tudor Drama he refers to it as "anonymous" (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1959), 106. 5e Félix Carrère, Le Théâtre de Thomas Kyd (Toulouse: Edouard Privat, 1951), 461.

INTRODUCTION

31

Since The Spanish Tragedy is orthodox, not domestic tragedy, one may not assume the general identity of purpose and similarities that would exist in plays of the same genre. Were A Warning and The Spanish Tragedy written by the same author, however, one would have the reasonable expectation of finding similarities in the texts to confirm the hypothesis of common authorship. There are insufficient similarities in the two plays to confirm Hopkinson's hypothesis that Kyd wrote both plays. On linguistic, ideational, and technical grounds I find such fundamental dissimilarities in The Spanish Tragedy and A Warning that I cannot accept Kyd as the author of A Warning. First there is a disparity in the use of interjections in A Warning and in The Spanish Tragedy. For example, Faith or Yfaith occurs ten times, Forsooth five times, in A Warning, neither of these appearing in The Spanish Tragedy. On the other hand, the affirmative adverb aye (ay, I) appears thirty-three times in The Spanish Tragedy as I, once as ay, but only three times in A Warning where it is always spelled I. Another difference worth remarking is the use of languages other than English in The Spanish Tragedy with eleven instances of the use of Latin, in addition to the use of other foreign languages. Were Kyd the author of A Warning, it seems that there would have been at least one outcropping of a tendency that found expression fifteen times in the Spanish Tragedy, even if we discount Hieronymo's statement that the play within the play was to be presented in Latin, Greek, Italian, and French. The incidence of conceits, stychomythia, and parallelism is much greater in the Tragedy than in A Warning. A Warning is not wholly free of verbal artifice, and it is true that one play is domestic tragedy and the other is not, but the use of these resources in the Tragedy is frequent enough to be considered a stylistic characteristic of Kyd. Moreover the dates of A Warning and the Spanish Tragedy, insofar as they can be dated with precision, are close enough to rule out drastic alterations in technique or mannerisms as a result of increase or decline in power or effectiveness of the author. A highly favored rhetorial device in the Spanish Tragedy is parallelism. There are twenty instances in the play of lines begin-

32

INTRODUCTION

ning with the same word. Moreover the instances occur throughout the play from the first hundred lines to the last. At 122ff. there are six lines beginning with "Both". Sometimes there will be variations: "In whose...", "On whose...", "On whose...", and "In whose..." In a highly rhetorical passage at 727ff. "Glad" and "Sad" alternate twice to be followed after an interval of one line with four lines beginning with "And". A few lines later in the same speech "Which" is used as the first word for several lines. Sometimes the first two words of several lines will be the same. There are, in addition, other instances of parallelism and an extensive use of stychomythia unmatched in A Warning. In addition to the patent stychomythia of single lines spoken by alternate speakers there is Balthazar's debate within himself as he meditates on his love for Belimperia: Yet might she love me for my valiancie I but thats slaundred by captivitie. Yet might she love me to content her sire : I but her reason masters his desire. Yet might she love me as her brothers freend, I, but her hopes aim at some other end. Yet might she love me to upreare her state, I, but perhaps she hopes some nobler mate. Yet might she love me as her beauteous thrall, I, but I feare she cannot love at all. (630-639) 57

Henri Fluchère refers to this as "nothing but the pattern of stichomythia, reserved for dialogue, in which each of the two speakers is given a line or hemistich in turn". 58 The difference between the amount of parallelism involving the use of the same word to begin several lines noted in The Spanish Tragedy and in A Warning is striking. The typography readily reveals this kind of parallelism, and whereas the reader of The Spanish Tragedy can anticipate one or more instances of this kind of parallelism within two or three pages of the text, the reader of A Warning finds almost none. There is in A Warning but one in57

The line numbers of The Spanish Tragedy follow the Malone Society Reprint. Henri Fluchère, Shakespeare and the Elizabethans (New York: Hill and Wang, Inc., 1962), 155.

58

INTRODUCTION

33

stance of parallelism with three lines beginning with the same word. In contrast to A Warning, however, is The Spanish Tragedy which has nine instances of three-line parallelism, two of four-line, and one of five-line parallelism. Of the nineteen instances in A Warning when two lines begin with the same word, thirteen begin with and, and as the seven other instances of two-line parallelism made of repetition of subject (I, He, She), verb (Do), or preposition (of, by), the repetition serves for clarity, not for ornament. Hopkinson has urged the use of the dumb shows in The Spanish Tragedy and in A Warning as evidence that Kyd wrote A Warning, but it is useful to rely not on the existence of the shows but to see whether there is a similarity in form and function of the dumb shows in the different plays. In the first place there are two dumb shows in The Spanish Tragedy but three in A Warning. There are, in addition, two who act as presenters (Revenge and the Ghost of Andrea) in The Spanish Tragedy, but only one (Tragedy) in A Warning. In The Spanish Tragedy there is one purely symbolic dumb show but none in A Warning. Finally the dumb show in The Spanish Tragedy has one feature of such singular nature that it is shared by only one other play of the fifty-six other extant plays having dumb shows in them: As is true in Hamlet, one of the dumb shows in The Spanish Tragedy "plays the part of an entertainment for the amusement of the personages of the main play". 59 According to Pearn, the dumb show developed from the wholly symbolical shows to the realistic ones peopled by the main characters of the play presenting an integral part of the plot. Pearn speaks of the transitional nature of the dumb shows of A Warning, Tancred and Gismund, and "also in a way Appius and Virginia".60 The Spanish Tragedy, however, is not included among the plays having dumb shows of a transitional nature in them. The appearance of the dumb show, then, in the work of Kyd and in A Warning cannot be held as evidence of Kyd's authorship of A Warning. Instead of substantiating the claim for Kyd, the dumb show in A Warning helps refute the claim. 59 60

B. R. Pearn, "Dumb-Show in Elizabethan Drama", RES, XI (1935), 403. "Dumb-Show...", 392.

34

INTRODUCTION

Hopkinson has suggested that the use of the indictments in A Warning is evidence of Kyd's hand in the play since Kyd is thought to have had knowledge of legal proceedings. A comparison of the court scenes in The Spanish Tragedy and in A Warning does not reveal evidence that the same man was at work in these scenes in both plays. In the trial scene in The Spanish Tragedy the word gear appears five times, Pedringano using it four times and the Hangman using it once. The affirmative adverb / appears seven times. In A Warning, however, the word gear not only is absent from the court scene in the play but does not appear at all in the entire play. Moreover there is but one appearance of the affirmative adverb, spelled I, in three hundred lines devoted to the trial. The thoroughgoing concern of the members of the court for the souls of the accused, noted in A Warning, is absent in The Spanish Tragedy. Hieronymo does reflect on the "monstrous times" and the fact that "the soul, that should be shrined in heaven, / Solely delights in interdicted things", but as he thinks of Pedringano he is not moved with compassion but says Murder, O bloudy monster, God forbid, A fault so foule should scape unpunished. Dispatch, and see this execution done. (1561-1563)

The examination of the court scenes in The Spanish Tragedy and A Warning does not disclose striking similarities or evidence that Kyd wrote both The Spanish Tragedy and A Warning but reveals dissimilarities arguing against authorship of A Warning by Kyd. Hopkinson alleged Kyd's knowledge of court proceedings as evidence for his having written A Warning. Knowledge of court proceedings cannot be held an exclusive possession of Kyd's in an age when many printers and authors, sometimes to their sorrow, had occasion to learn at first hand about judicial proceedings in which they were personally involved. An examination of the reasons Hopkinson urged in his support of Kyd as the author of A Warning and a comparison of The Spanish Tragedy with A Warning do not disclose evidence to substantiate

INTRODUCTION

35

an attribution of A Warning to Thomas Kyd. The application of what Muriel Byrne calls the "negative check" 61 is expecially damaging to much of Hopkinson's evidence. Hopkinson does not, for example, establish the fact that Senecanism, dumb shows, the doctrine that murder will out, anonymous publication, and adultery as a motivation for murder cannot be found in plays other than A Warning and the work of Kyd. The successful use of his commonplace parallels as evidence is vitiated by the fact that they may be duplicated in many other plays and are not characteristics peculiar to Kyd. If Hopkinson's reasons themselves are inadequate to sustain his attribution to Kyd, an examination of The Spanish Tragedy in comparison with A Warning but confirms the invalidity of Hopkinson's claim for Kyd. General similarities used as evidence for the claim for Kyd do not withstand a careful comparison of the work in both plays. To differences in the dumb shows may be added differences in language, in interjections, and in the use of rhetorical ornament, whether parallelism, conceit, stychomythia, or word play in general. Since Hopkinson's attribution of A Warning to Kyd no one has joined him. An examination of the evidence offered in support of Kyd's authorship and a comparison of The Spanish Tragedy and A Warning for Fair Women confirm the wisdom of rejecting the attribution of A Warning to Kyd. Joseph Quincy Adams in 1913 set forth nine reasons for believing that Thomas Heywood wrote A Warning, and having done so, expressed confidence that Heywood scholars would join and confirm him in the attribution. His reasons for believing that Heywood wrote A Warning follow: 1. Heywood had enough experience in 1597-1598 to write a play as good as A Warning based on Golding's Briefe Discourse. 2. Heywood had written a domestic tragedy. 3. The style of A Warning is "strongly suggestive of Heywood". It has no "mighty line", but "easy-flowing though rarely inspired blank verse". 4. There is a "similarity in use and manner of choruses" between the 61

Muriel St. C. Byrne, "Bibliographical Clues in Collaborate Plays", The Library, XIII (1932), 24.

36

INTRODUCTION

work of Heywood and A Warning. 5. The author of A Warning had a pronounced objection to his theme. "He did not approve of the material he was dramatizing (it may well have been an assigned task), and he humbly apologizes for it." 6. "A Warning is conspicuous for its sincere and wholesome Christianity and Heywood is noted for the 'Christianism' of his plays." 7. "The wholesome personality of Heywood may be discovered in almost every scene in the play." 8. Anecdotes illustrative of the belief that murder will out appear in A Warning and in Heywood's Apology for Actors. 9. There are parallel "minute details of composition-ways of thinking, sentence structure, colorless phrases". If there are not many striking parallelisms of thought, it should be remembered that the author was dealing with true material and felt his duty to "adhere to the facts truly", that "he gave his inventive genius very little liberty". 62 The reasons Adams cites for believing Heywood wrote A Warning deal with both external and internal evidence, some of it the same that Hopkinson used to support Kyd as the author. Adams points out that Heywood is the author of domestic tragedy and says he had enough experience in 1597-1598 to write a play as good as A Warning based on Golding's Briefe Discourse. Such an assertion is challenged by Miss Otelia Cromwell who, though she would join the scholarly consensus that A Woman Killed with Kindness is a better play than A Warning, finds parts of A Warning to be beyond •Heywood's reach at any period of his development. She refers once to the author of A Warning as "a greater poet". 63 Nor will she accept the evidence offered by Adams that there is a "similarity in use and manner of Chorus" in A Warning and in the work of Heywood. Differing with Adams, Miss Cromwell says that "In purpose and in spirit Heywood's Choruses are unlike the Chorus in A Warning."®4 Moreover she points out that "the Chorus of Heywood does not appear between the scenes of the plays which are domestic drama". 65 62

Joseph Quincy Adams, "The Authorship of A Warning for Fair Women", PMLA, XXVIII (1913), 594-620. 83 Otelia Cromwell, Thomas Heywood: A Study in the Elizabethan Drama of Everyday Life (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1928), 139. 64 Thomas Heywood, 188-189. 65 Thomas Heywood, 187-188.

INTRODUCTION

37

The anecdotes illustrative of the doctrine that murder will out are urged in favor of Heywood's authorship of A Warning. These anecdotes appear to have been a commonplace of especial utility in favor of the moral efficacy of drama, no special hallmark of Heywood or any other author. The fact that Heywood has in his Apology for Actors an anecdote appearing in A Warning is susceptible of explanations not positing Heywood as the author of both A Warning and his Apology. Heywood may have taken the anecdote from A Warning, or both the author of A Warning and Heywood may have taken the anecdote from someone else. Some of Adams's reasons for Heywood's authorship of A Warning are logically inconsistent with each other. He cannot at the same time claim as evidence for Heywood's authorship such characteristics of Heywood that appear in A Warning yet reject what contradicts Heywood's authorship by appealing to the same circumstances supporting Heywood's authorship. For example, Adams uses as evidence of Heywood's authorship the "sincere and wholesome Christianity" for which Heywood is noted while excusing the fact that there are "not many striking parallelisms of thought" by saying that Heywood was so bound by "duty" to follow "the facts truly" that he "gave his inventive genius very little liberty". If he followed A Briefe Discourse, the pious pamphlet, with such servility that will excuse his failure to be creative or use comic relief as he usually does and will excuse the absence of "striking parallelisms of thought", then the Christianity of A Warning and the wholesomeness of the play must be credited to the source, not used as evidence of Heywood's authorship. In addition, one of Adams's items of evidence for Heywood's authorship of A Warning is the fact that he is a known author of domestic tragedy. Yet Adams uses as additional evidence for Heywood "The pronounced objection that the playwright had to his theme." It is difficult to see how Heywood would have had any "pronounced objection" to the theme of A Warningfor Fair Women. An undoubted author of domestic tragedy and a person noted for his "Christianism", Heywood could hardly, it seems, have found the theme of A Warning a repugnant one. It is both necessary and useful to compare A Warning and A

38

INTRODUCTION

Woman Killed with Kindness in the light of Joseph Quincy Adams' assertion that Thomas Heywood wrote both these plays. Since both plays are domestic tragedy, there should be the best possible opportunity to ascertain whether both were written by the same person. If the plays were intended for disparate audiences, if one were orthodox Elizabethan tragedy, or one were a comedy, a good many dissimilarities could be posited on the basis of the different characteristics peculiar to the separate genres. With both plays domestic tragedies, however, the best possible circumstances obtain, it would appear, for ascertaining whether Heywood wrote both A Warning and A Woman Killed. Since the Christianism of Heywood has been urged as evidence of Heywood's authorship of A Warning, a comparison of the use of Christinaity in both A Warning and in A Woman Killed is in order. Preliminary to this consideration, however, it may be well to note that the use of Christianity in domestic tragedy is the rule, rather than the exception, and that H. H. Adams used English Domestic or Homiletic Tragedy as the title of his book treating domestic tragedy. I do not find the use of Christianity in A Warning to have sufficient similarity to the use of Christianity in A Woman Killed to be considered evidence in favor of Heywood's authorship of A Warning for Fair Women. It is true and well worth remarking that both plays have Christian principles exemplified in them. Both George Sanders in A Warning and Master Frankford in A Woman Killed align themselves with the Christian tradition, but the discrepancies outweigh the similarities. George Sanders in A Warning asks God's forgiveness for himself and the one who kills him, George Browne. In A Woman Killed Master Frankford kills neither his adulterous wife nor Master Wendoll. He does, however, brandish a sword, and the kindness toward his wife is lethal. Moreover Master Frankford's tongue is not always so well bridled as the Scriptures would enjoin, and he castigates Nan for her fall before visiting on her the kindness which he appears to have good reason to believe will punish her as severely as a court. It should be said to his credit, however, that he does visit her, forgive her, kiss her, and restore to her the titles of "wife" and

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"mother", earlier bereft f r o m her because of her fall. His wife, however, is not far from death at the time he visits and forgives her. Opposed to the joint use of Christianity, however, are differences so fundamental that they point to separate authors for the two plays. The sombreness and moral earnestness of A Warning make A Woman Killed appear almost flippant by comparison, even in the use of the Christian elements. The Christian element of A Warning is greatly concerned with remorse and confession. Moreover the Last Judgment is not far off in the background for those who have been tried and are not far from the time of execution. There are utterances in A Woman Killed that would be unthinkable in A Warning. At one point in A Woman Killed Sir Charles Mountford said to his sister, "Thy honour and my soul are equal in my regard." Moreover she even says of herself " M y honour I esteem as dear and precious As my redemption." Anne Frankford expresses a similar attitude after she has been taken in adultery with Wendoll : Oh, to redeem mine honour Nay to whip this scandal out, I'd hazard The rich and dear redemption of my soul. (IV, v, 133, 136-137) There is no one in A Warning who is willing to risk his soul for anything else, whatever kind of life he has lived. Neither the murderer Browne nor the procuress Drury, much less Anne Sanders, is willing to hazard his soul. Browne says once, in reflecting on his crime after he has committed it, "And yet I have a soul." Moreover, as steeped in viciousness as Mrs. Drury is, she says Should I, to purchase safety for another, Or lengthen out anothers temporali life, Hazard mine owne soule everlastingly, And loose the endlesse joyes of heaven, Preparde for such as wil confesse their sinnes? No mistris Sanders, yet there's time of grace (2589-2594) The difference between the attitudes held by Anne Frankford and Anne Sanders after their fall is remarkable. Anne Frankford,

40

INTRODUCTION

though using some of the language of piety, is more concerned with the scandal and with herself. As was cited earlier, she showed a willingness to "hazard / The rich and dear redemption of my soul" in order "to whip this scandal out". Her concern is with appearances, not atonement, and though she can bear the thought of death, she does not wish to be disfigured : — even for His sake That hath redeem'd our souls, mark not my face Nor hack me with your sword : (IV, ν, 95-97) Such an attitude on the part of Anne Frankford contrasts sharply with that of Anne Sanders who comes to the point that she is thankful God ferreted out her sin and punished it on earth since the discovery was instrumental in her gaining the endless joys of Heaven : And God I thanke that hath found out my sin, And brought me to affliction in this world, Thereby to save me in the world to come. (2683-2685) References to Scripture and Christianity in A Warning occur almost exclusively at times of crisis, and refer to the Providence of God, confession, and repentance in relationship to the crime. In A Woman Killed, however, there are Biblical allusions that appear in the dialogue even though the primary concern at hand is not necessarily sin, salvation, atonement, and redemption. Master Frankford, for example, repeatedly alludes to the Scriptures in referring to Wendoll. When WendolPs perfidy is first suggested to Master Frankford he says It is as hard to enter my belief As Dives into heaven. (Ill, ii, 68) Frankford twice compares Wendoll to Judas. Once he refers to Wendoll as "that Judas that hath borne my purse, / Hath sold me for a sin. O God! O God!" (Ill, ii, 105-106) Later on, when a maid restrains Master Frankford from using his drawn sword on Wendoll,

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whom he has surprised sleeping with Mrs. Frankford, Master Frankford is again put in mind of Judas as he addresses Wendoll: Go, to thy friend A Judas ; pray, pray, lest I live to see Thee, Judas like, hang'd on an elder-tree ! (IV, ν, 39-41)

Though the restraint of a maid was needed to keep Master Frankford from using his sword on Wendoll, her restraint was sufficient. Christian principles overcame the righteous indignation generated by his discovery of Wendoll and Mrs. Frankford asleep in each other's arms : But that I would not damn two precious souls, Bought with my Saviour's blood, and send them laden With all their scarlet sins upon their backs Unto a fearful judgment, their two lives Had met upon my rapier. (IV, v, 10-14)

Moreover he asks God to give him patience before he wakes the couple. When Master Frankford is preparing to "sentence" his wife for adultery, as well as when he forgives her near her death, his speech is studded with references to Christianity and the Scriptures. "Heaven", the "book of life", and "martyrdom" are part of his speech. He pardons his wife Even as I hope for pardon at that day When the Great Judge of heaven in scarlet sits... (V, ν, 65-66)

In contrast to Master Frankford of A Woman Killed, Master Sanders of A Warning alludes to Christianity only when he is about to be killed. The references to Christianity and the Scriptures in A Woman Killed permeate the dialogue and are the elements of metaphor. Examples are "as Dives", "Judas like", "a Judas", and "as far from hope... / As Lucifer from Heaven", "of my Redeemer", and "like a Cain". In A Warning, however, the allusions are occasioned largely by the crime itself. Mr. Sanders' references to

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INTRODUCTION

Christianity come when he is at the point of losing his life and relate directly to his own quitting of this world. They are not like Mr. Frankford's allusions. In A Warning members of the court, the culprits, and the Doctor of Divinity speak the language of piety, but until the first unsuccessful attempt to kill Sanders there is no reference to Christianity, though almost a thousand lines of the play have elapsed. Another difference that may be noted between A Woman Killed and A Warning is the strength and variety of oaths found in them. The oaths in A Woman Killed lack the variety of those found in A Warning but are much stronger. Of the oaths occurring in A Woman Killed "'sblood" and "Zounds" constitute an overwhelming majority, "'sblood" appearing six times and "zounds" appearing three. In A Warning there is one use of "swounds", a variant of "zounds", and no use of "'sblood". Moreover the solitary use of "swounds" is made by George Browne at a time of great perturbation and stress. Such expletives as "forsooth", "tut", "passion of me", "fie", and "A plague upon't", which have such currency in A Warning do not appear in A Woman Killed. The disparity in the use of oaths and expletives, then, is at odds with the suggestion that Thomas Heywood wrote both A Woman Killed and A Warning for Fair Women. In addition to the discrepancy in the use of oaths between A Warning and A Woman Killed there is marked disparity in the use of humour. In A Warning there is no equivalent for the names in A Woman Killed of "Spigot the Butler", "Jack Slime", "Roger Brickbat", and "Cicely Milkpail". The epilogues of the two plays also point up the contrast in the use of humour, for A Warning earnestly refers to the "lances that have sluiced forth sin". A Woman Killed, on the other hand, has in its epilogue how "An honest crew, disposed to be merry, Came to a tavern by, and call'd for wine..." The epilogue goes on to point out that the same wine may be assessed differently according to different tastes in the same manner that playgoers may have different assessments for the same play. There is nothing of the disposition to be merry in the epilogue of A Warning. An examination of A Warning for Fair Women and A Woman

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Killed with Kindness in the light of Joseph Quincy Adams's attribution of A Warning to Thomas Heywood does not confirm the attribution. A comparison of A Woman Killed with A Warning discloses a marked disparity in the use of Christianity, in the strength of the oaths, and in the use of humour, differences too great to be consonant with a hypothesis that Thomas Heywood wrote both A Woman Killed and A Warningfor Fair Women. It is not possible to say with certitude that the author of A Warning will never be established. It does seem possible to say with some confidence, however, that as yet there has been insufficient evidence brought forth to establish any one of the several candidates hitherto proposed for the author of A Warning. The claims for Kyd and Heywood meet an insuperable barrier when examined in the light of the linguistic and ideational characteristics of the representative plays of theirs when compared with A Warning. Closer examination of the general similarities noted in A Warning, A Woman Killed, and The Spanish Tragedy indicates, in addition, that far from being alike in specific detail and evidence of the same hand for A Warning, the general similarities reveal fundamental differences of manner and detail so clearly that the specious similarities are the best evidence against the proposed candidates for authorship of A Warningfor Fair Women. The "Golden Age" of attribution studies has been spoken of as fifty years ago or more. No new attribution for A Warning has been proposed since 1913. Until new evidence is forthcoming, evidence confirmed by close textual analysis, it appears wise to consider Λ Warningfor Fair Women an anonymous play.

DATE

It is not possible to fix with precision the date of A Warning for Fair Women. The date on the title page is 1599, which may be considered a terminus ad quem ; the date of the murder, 1573, constitutes a terminus a quo. If, however, it is not possible to fix the date of the play with precision, it is perhaps possible to narrow the gap between 1573 and 1599. No student of the play has suggested that the play

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INTRODUCTION

is a dramatic version of the crime following hard on the heels of the crime itself, and none suggest that the play dates from the late 1590's. Though their reasons for assigning a date are rarely offered, most of the critics believe A Warning dates from 1588-1590, Sidney Lee saying "about 1590",66 J. S. Farmer maintaining 15891590,67 A. F. Hopkinson supporting 1588-1590,68 and John Payne Collier suggesting "shortly before 1590"69 as the proper date. Arthur Clark believes the play is "several years earlier" than 1599,70 and Adolphus Ward asserts that it was "acted much earlier" than 1599.71 Louis Wright and Ε. K. Chambers focus on the terminal date for the play, Wright referring to the play as "before 1599"72 and Chambers using > 1599 to indicate that the play is not later than 1599.73 The "chronological distribution" of plays with dumb shows in them is important as an aid in establishing the probable date for A Warning for Fair Women. B. R. Pearn lists the fifty-seven plays with dumb shows in them according to the decade of their appearance. His distribution of plays with dumb shows follows :

ββ

Date

Plays with Dumb Shows

1561-1570 1571-1580 1581-1590

4 0 4

Sidney Lee, "The Topical Side of Elizabethan Drama", 27-28. " J. S. Farmer, ed., A Warning for Fair Women (London: Tudor Facsimile Texts, 1912), 1. 68 A. F. Hopkinson, ed., A Warning for Fair Women (London: M. E. Sims & Company, 1893), xiv. 69 John Payne Collier, History of English Dramatic Poetry to the Time of Shakespeare (London: John Murray, 1831), III, 52. 70 Arthur M. Clark, Thomas Hey wood (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1931), 337-338. 71 Adolphus W. Ward, A History of English Dramatic Literature to the Death of Queen Anne (London : Macmillan, 1899), II, 164. 72 Louis B. Wright, Middle-Class Culture in Elizabethan England (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1935), 633. 73 E. K. Chambers, The Elizabethan Stage (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1945), IV, 52.

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INTRODUCTION

1591-1600 1601-1610 1611-1620 1621-1631

13 16 14 674

There is an absence of dumb shows for an even greater period of time than the table indicates, for Pearn points out that Of the four plays of the decade 1561 to 1570, the latest is dated 1567, and of the four plays of the decade 1581 to 1590 the earliest is dated, so far as the date of this play can be ascertained, in the year 1587.75

There is, thus, a period of twenty years with no extant play with a dumb show in it. If A Warning were earlier than 1587, it would be the only play within two decades to have a dumb show in it. Pearn yokes the increasing popularity of the dumb show after its revival in the latter part of the eighth decade of the sixteenth century to the fact that "this first play in which it reappears is the famous Spanish Tragedy of Kyd". 76 The author of A Warning has likely capitalized on the popularity of Kyd's play. The alignment of A Warning with the highly popular "warning" or "deterrent" literature and the author's choice of a crime celebrated in Arthur Golding's A Briefe Discourse, printed in 1573 and reprinted in 1577, testify to the fact that the author was not oblivious to the benefit of aligning himself with a popular tradition. The evolution of the dumb show, in addition to the distribution chronologically, is significant to the dating of A Warning. Dumb shows in the drama developed from the earlier stage of allegorical shows that made little or no contribution to the plot to the later form of dumb show which was realistic and had principal characters of the play presenting necessary elements of the plot. The dumb show in A Warning is a transitional type since, as Foster indicates, it has the "symbolic abstractions as Lust and Chastity" yet like the later type "presents integral parts of the main plot, contains the characters of the play, and is introduced by a presen74 75 78

B. R. Pearn, "Dumb Show in Elizabethan Drama", RES, XI (1935), 386. "DumbShow...",387. Ibid.

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INTRODUCTION

ter". 77 A number of allusions of apparent promise are not helpful in dating A Warning for Fair Women with any precision. Clark and other modern students do not accept Fleay's reliance on the reference in the Induction to "this fair circuite" and "this Round" as evidence that the play was presented at the Globe in 1599.78 Nor does the assertion of the play that many of the spectators were once moved to tears by the crime the play memorializes contribute significantly to fixing the date. An interval of twenty-six years, assuming that the date of the play is as late as 1599, the date of the title page, would make no impossible demands on the age of the spectators or their memories, especially in view of the factors that could have kept alive the memory of the most sensational murder done in Kent. The allusion to John Bradford, "that vertuous chosen servant of the Lord", is not helpful in dating A Warning. Though he died in 1555,79 several years before the murder of George Sanders, his works survived him long enough to keep his "workes", bequeathed by Anne Sanders to her children, from serving as a means of dating the play. A similar circumstance would obtain if the Dr. Steevens, whose remedy was suggested by Mistress Drury, could be identified; for his remedy, like those of Dr. Tichenor and Dr. Caldwell in the twentieth century, undoubtedly bore his name after this death. An allusion to a "tobacco pipe" is helpful in establishing a terminus a quo of more than a decade later than 1573, the date of the murder of George Sanders. Whenever tobacco was introduced into England, the custom of smoking tobacco in pipes seems to date from the middle of the 1580's. Though Wrightman Garner credits Sir Richard Grenville with introducing "pipe smoking as practiced by the Indians" in America "upon his return to England in 1585",80 Sir Walter Raleigh is more often accorded the credit. 77

F. A. Foster, "Dumb Show in Elizabethan Drama before 1620", Englische Studien, XLIV (1912), 8. 78 Clark, Thomas Heywood, 337-338. 79 D.N.B., II, 1065. 80 Wrightman W. Garner, "Tobacco", The Encyclopedia Americana, XXVI (1959), 660.

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Donald Chidsey81 and Milton Waldman 82 accord Sir Walter Raleigh the credit for introducing the custom of pipe smoking into England, Waldman fixing 1585 as the time of introduction. The anonymous author of "Tobacco Pipe" in the 1960 Britannica says that The introduction of the tobacco pipe into Europe is generally ascribed to Ralph Lane, first governor of Virginia, who in 1586 brought an Indian pipe to Sir Walter Raleigh and taught that courtier how to use it. 83

Raleigh smoked before the Queen and was famed for his many pipes, some made of precious metal "sometimes set with gems". Very successful as a popularizer of smoking, Raleigh's example was "imitated, in a humbler manner, all over the kingdom", and by 1598 Paul Hentzler, who visited England, "found the curious habit of pipe smoking, still unknown on the Continent, so common at bull- and bear-baitings that some of the spectators had difficulty watching the sport". 84 There was, of course, an interval between the innovation near 1585 and the widespread adoption of the habit of pipe smoking. It is not possible, however, to know whether the allusion to the tobacco pipe in A Warning represents the stage of incipient popularity or whether the custom had been generally adopted by the time of the composition of the play. At any rate the allusion is useful in establishing the earliest date for the play which appears to be the middle of the 1580's. The consensus of the critics of near 1590 for the date of A Warning is surprising in view of the lack of evidence adduced to support the dates that have been suggested. There is an interval of twenty-six years between the event memorialized by the play and the date of the title page. There has been no desire to have the date of composition the same as the date of publication. It is probable that the relatively lengthy and well developed dumb 81

Donald B. Chidsey, Sir Walter Raleigh (New York: John Day Company, 1913), 108. 82 Milton Waldman, Sir Walter Raleigh (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1929), 45. 88 "Tobacco Pipe", The Encyclopaedia Britannica, XXII (1960), 264. 84 Chidsey, Sir Walter Raleigh, 108.

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show employing allegorical characters, as well as the principal characters of the play, has in part accounted for placing the date a decade or slightly more before the date of the title page. There is, in addition, a tendency, as Pearn indicated, to relate A Warning to The Spanish Tragedy and the recrudescence of popularity of dumb shows consequent to the popularity of the Tragedy. A Warningfor Fair Women, then, was written between the middle of the 1580's, when the custom of smoking tobacco was introduced into England, and 1599, the date of the title page. To attempt greater precision, based on the evidence that is available, would be to go beyond the evidence and enter the realm of conjecture and speculation. Of speculation alone there has already been a surfeit.

STAGING

A dumb show in a play is likely to be one of its most arresting features. The interest in spectacle was satisfied by the dumb show even at a time when, in the evolution of dumb shows, they were becoming more realistic. Dumb shows in some plays appear to be little more than slightly lengthened stage directions, but the dumb show in A Warning is rather well developed and has both realistic and allegorical elements. The principal characters of the play, Browne, Sanders, Rogers, Anne Sanders, and Anne Drury, mix with the allegorical personages, Lust,Chastity, Justice, Mercy, and Diligence. There is a sense in which both the staging and the mood of the dumb show in A Warning are but the same as the play at large raised to the second power. The sombre tone and the images of darkness that pervade the entire play are even more prevalent in the dumb show than in the play proper. The "detestable factes" of the murder of George Browne, even when represented symbolically, would be terrible enough, but the dumb shows of A Warning has in addition an unusually gruesome spectacle called the "bloody banquet". Miss Bradbrook says that a dumb show of particular horror was the bloody banquet... It was rather like the Thystean feast: the table was set with black candles,

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drink set out in skulls and the Furies served it up. The tradition of these diabolical suppers might be behind the cauldron scene in Macbeth.85 In the dumb show in A Warning Tragedy enters with "a bowle of bloud in her hand". In the light of the convention of the bloody banquet the spectators may well have been put in mind of what was to follow by the appearance of the bowl of blood. Both the imaginative creation of the scene and the properties mentioned by Tragedy, the presenter for the dumb show, contribute to the gloom and horror of the dumb show. Tragedy refers to the "dismall act", the "sable curtains", the "direful play", and "This deadly banquet". Hardly any image of terror or horror is left unmentioned as Tragedy speaks : This deadly banquet is preparde at hand, Where Ebon tapers are brought up from hel, To leade blacke murther to this damned deed, The ugly Schreechowle, and the night Raven, Withflaggywings and hideous croking noise, Do beate the casements of this fatal house, Whilst I do bring my dreadful Furies forth, To spread the table to this bloudy feast. (780-787)

Whether there was an imitation of the screechowl or night raven is a matter of conjecture, but the indisputable presence of the Furies, the ebon tapers, the sable curtains, and the bowl of blood contributed to the atmosphere of horror. Moreover the "lustfull wine" that was later to be served was "in pale mazors made of dead mens sculles". Sound effects were used to good advantage in the dumb show. Tragedy speaks of "the gastly fearefull chimes of night" and the "dolefull peale" anticipating by a line the stage direction "Here some strange solemne musike like belles is heard within." Shortly thereafter the Furies dance to the solemn music. Miss Bradbrook has commented on the importance of sound to the performance of the Elizabethan drama. She says that 8S

Muriel C. Bradbrook, Themes and Conventions in Elizabethan Tragedy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1960), 18.

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INTRODUCTION

Noises of all kinds were most important. The directly stimulating effect of music must have been much greater than at present to judge from the way in which characters responded, a way quite reminiscent of Dryden's Alexander. It regularly charmed and controlled the insane; it accompanied all the most emotional passages, solemn meditations, religious ceremonies, dumb shows, tableaux, love scenes. 86

Music regularly accompanied dumb shows, and according to both the text and the stage directions of A Warning there was a pealing of bells. The "solemne musike" was, indeed, "like bells". Of bells Miss Bradbrook says A feeling of suspence is often heightened by the striking of a clock or bell. The clock at the end of Faustus is similar to the "little bell" which in Macbeth summons Duncan "to Heaven or to Hell." 87

In the second appearance of the dumb show in A Warning a great tree "suddenly riseth up" between Mistress Sanders and Mistress Drury. Trees on the Elizabethan stage are not unusual, but this tree that rises from below is of more than usual significance. Interesting from the standpoint of staging is the fact that the tree "suddenly riseth up". Though Beckerman says it "is difficult to distinguish when prop trees are used and when stage posts", 88 in this particular instance the evidence is unmistakable. Of equal interest is the means that would permit the tree to rise suddenly. Irwin Smith cites the particular appearance of this tree as a use of the platform trap which is thought to have been capable of both rapid and slow, gradual movement.89 The author of A Warning elected to represent the fall of Anne Sanders in a dumb show rather than in the play proper. By doing so he could compress the rather lengthy narrative source and at the same time obey a decorum that was appropriate for a public theater. The exclusion of the information about Anne Sanders' giving 86

Themes and Conventions, 19. Themes and Conventions, 20. 88 Bernard Beckerman, Shakespeare at the Globe (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1962), 81. 89 Irwin Smith, Shakespeare's Globe Playhouse (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1956), 74. 87

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51

birth to a child, except for an oblique reference during a scene in court, reinforces the belief that the playwright did not wish to make any more explicit than necessary the "detestable factes" about Anne Sanders or feed the curiosity of the playgoers any more than a dramatic account on such a subject would feed it. Opposing attitudes have been taken toward the fact that the seduction of Anne Sanders is presented solely through the symbolism of the dumb show. One attitude is to charge the dramatist with ineptitude for failing to use in the play proper the best dramatic material he had instead of putting it in the dumb show. Another attitude that may be taken, and it seems the right one, is that the author was obeying decorum. Such an inference finds confirmation in the fact that Mrs. Sanders' giving birth to a child is almost entirely suppressed. The tree in the dumb show is symbolic of Sanders, and though Lust "bringeth an axe to Mistres Sanders, shewing signes that she should cut it downe", she refuses even though Anne Drury offers to help her cut it. Lust then "brings the Axe to Browne" who "roughlie and suddenly hews downe the tree", and he and Mistress Sanders "run togither and embrace". At that point Chastitie, with her haire disheveled, and taking mistress Sanders by the hand, brings her to her husbands picture hanging on the wall, and pointing to the tree, seemes to tell her, that that is the tree so rashly cut down· Wherupon she wringing her hands in teares departes,... (11. 1274-1278)

Tragedie, the presenter, follows to make explicit the implications of this part of the dumb show, patent as the dumb show appears to modern readers. The use of a presenter for the dumb show favors the performance of A Warning in a public playhouse because of the evidence that presenters for dumb shows were lacking in private performances, or if they existed, the explanation for the dumb show was likely deferred to the end of the act, rather than given right after the show as in plays thought to have been performed for a popular audience.90 80

B. R. Pearn, "Dumb-Show in Elizabethan Drama", RES, XI (1935), 389.

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INTRODUCTION

Further evidence for the public performance of A Warning, in addition to the assumptions that may be based on the subject and the method of its treatment, may be found in the fact that the play is not divided into acts. The research of Jewkes has shown that of the plays printed before 1616 most of the plays intended for a private audience are divided (59 to 8) whereas most of the plays intended for a public audience are not divided (104 to 30).91 The third appearance of the dumb show has no problem of staging. It lacks the spectacular nature of the gieat tree rising and has no bloody banquet or "ebon tapers". Tragedy, as is typical, presents the dumb show and following the dumb show, interprets it, a characteristic of plays intended for performance in a public playhouse. Though Mistress Sanders, Mistress Drury, Trusty Roger, and Mr. Sanders' body all appear in the dumb show, the significant action in the third appearance of the dumb show is performed by the allegorical personages - Chastity, Justice, Mercy, and Diligence. The use and disposition of properties, whether in the dumb show or in the play proper, afford insight into the methods and technique of the dramatist as well as give information about the physical facilities and conditions of the stage. Less spectacular than the tree that suddenly "riseth" is the disposition of other properties, but they are nonetheless important. The walk-on direction at 1. 1896, for example, directs that John Beane be brought on stage in a bed. Of the larger properties used in A Warning, a great many are seats, tables, or benches. Anne Sanders sits at her door (B2v), the Furies cover a table in the dumb show (Dl), and Drury, Browne, and Sanders sit at a table during the dumb show (Dl). Seats are necessary for Justice and Mercy in a latter appearance of the dumb show (G3). The court proceedings require a seat and a bench. A judgment seat is prepared (H3v), Alan Trapp suggesting that the judgment seat was probably distinguished from other seats by position or decoration.92 A small but important property in A Warning is a handkerchief. 81

Jewkes, Act and Scene Division in Elizabethan and Jacobean Plays, 96. Alan Wesley Trapp, "Properties at the Globe Theatre (1599-1608)", unpublished Master's thesis, The University of Missouri, Columbia, 1960,27 92

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The handkerchief was dipped in the blood of Mr. Sanders and sent to Anne Sanders as a token of Browne's success in dispatching her husband. Though it was probably thought that Anne Sanders would be happy to learn she was free of her husband, the handkerchief caused her to become even more hysterical than she already was. She referred to it as an "ensigne of despair" and asked that it be burned or buried in the earth. A further reference to this property is made in the court when Anne Sanders is questioned about her receipt of the handkerchief. She adamantly denied receiving it and said that she was in her childbed chamber at the time she was said to have received it. Of the smaller properties in A Warning a great number are containers for drink, be they "sculles", cups, or unnamed containers for wine. Another small property in A Warning is money which changes hands rather often in the play either as a payment for services or as a tip. With Trusty Roger and Mistress Drury as careful of their reward for their services as they are, it is necessary for Browne to ply them constantly with money and to hold ever before them the prospect of additional reward in order to keep them interested in furthering his interests. In addition to the handkerchief hitherto mentioned there is the "napkin" that Old John gives to Joane to stop the blood from John Beane's wounds (F2). A sword is needed for Browne for his appearance in the dumb show and in the play proper for his unsuccessful attempts to slay Sanders, as well as for the successful attempt. Several pieces of paper representing letters, or documents relating to the apprehension and trial of Browne and the others, are required as properties. At one point (C4) Browne enters reading a letter, and at another Master Barnes gives a letter to John Beane for delivery to the cofferer (D3v). Moreover in the judicial proceeding letters are necessary. A Lord enters reading a letter (Gl), the Mayor of Rochester shows a "commission" to Browne (G4) when apprehending him for the murder of Sanders, and Master James delivers a letter to one of the Lords (H3). Finally, the Lord Justice shows a letter to Roger (Ilv). A white rose worn by Mistress Sanders during her appearance in court is the subject of questioning by the justice. Anne tells the

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court that she wears it in token of her "spotless innocence", but later on the Justice tells her that the rose is now of "another hew". Thus there is another instance of God's Providence at work in ferreting out and exposing the wickedness of misdoers to the world. Though the text of the play does not indicate what hue the rose turned, scarlet or black would be appropriate. The hanging on stage in A Warning is not unique in English drama but is of interest to the student of staging. The direction indicates that Browne jumped off, probably from a bench or stool, and hanged himself. In an earlier scene Tom Peart and Will Crow, the carpenters, have been working on gallows strong enough to hold more than one person. Whatever the technique of representing the hangings may have been, there is reason to believe that the representation was effective. Lawrence believes that there may have been occasional "misadventures" on the stage with the actors barely surviving the hangings.93 On the other hand it is possible that the trick had been so often done at an early period that mayhap it had been quickly perfected. In Pickering's Horestes, which had been performed at court as early as 1567, Egistus is hanged from a ladder and Orestes' mother... comes in to view the spectacle. So, too, in Sir Thomas More a gibbet is brought in and set up and Lincoln, after mounting up to it by means of a ladder, "leapes off." A similar leaping off was witnessed in the second act of A Warning for Fair Women.9*

If a hood shrouded the head, shoulders, and upper body of the person being hanged, it seems possible that the person might support his body for a time by grasping the rope with his hands, letting his arms, not his neck, support his weight. It might also be possible to have a harness-like device that would enable the shoulders or upper body to support almost all the weight of the body even though there was a rope about the person's neck. It would be necessary, in order to maintain the illusion, to have some tension on the rope around the person's neck, and to conceal the other 93

William J. Lawrence, Pre-Restoration Stage Studies (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1927), 241-242. 94 Ibid.

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means of suspension. Another possibility would be a kind of combination of the two methods mentioned above. There might be two ropes below the hood, or if no hood was used, two ropes with one going down the person's back but not visible to the spectators. The rope going down the person's back could either be attached to a harness or be around his shoulders. If a hood was used at the time of execution, the person being executed could use his hands either to grasp the rope to guard against failure or as a regular means of sparing the harness. When the drop had taken place he could gradually release the weight his arms had supported and let the harness, or rope around his body, support all or most of his weight and let his neck support a little in order to make the illusion more realistic. Failures of "misadventures" in such an execution could be accounted for by failure of the harness, the auxiliary rope, or the inability of the person to support most of his weight with his arms by grasping the rope. In A Warning images of darkness are pervasive. Darkness is associated with evil, and there are allusions to the "sable curtains" (778) appropriately in evidence during the performance of tragedy. Repeated references to light, e.g., "A light ho there" (877), "Light a torch there" (888), "It is light enough" (889), and "Tis very light" (892), indicate something of the imaginative creation of the scene. The later appearance of a Gentleman "with a man with a torch before" (923) at a time when Browne is about to strike with his sword is the use of a property to add realism to the scene of darkness. According to W. J. Lawrence "lights were never brought in during the performance in either the public or private theatre with the principal aim of assisting the vision or suiting the convenience of the spectator". The reason for bringing lights on stage "was not... necessity but illusion". 95 Allusions to night are frequent as is the yoking of night with evil. Though George Browne is not the only person to allude to night and darkness in A Warning, he does refer to it rather often, some95

W. J. Lawrence, "Light and Darkness in the Elizabethan Theater", Englische Studien, XLV (1912), 182.

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times linking darkness to the evil deed he is planning to commit. At one point he soliloquizes Oh sable night, sit on the eie of heaven That it discerne not this blacke deede of darknesse, Be then my coverture thicke ugly night The light hates me and I doe hate the light. (11. 910-915)

Later on he observes .. .tis darke and somewhat close (1. 1165)

As Browne contemplates the deed he is seeking to perform he once hears the voice of Anne Sanders, whose presence prevents him from killing her husband, since he does not wish to kill Sanders with Anne at the scene. On hearing Anne he says It is my love, Oh how the dusky night Is by her comming forth made sheene and bright lie know of her why shee's abroad so late. (11. 1187-1189)

On the arrival of Sanders, whom Anne and George Browne have been expecting, he leaves the Waterman who brought him home and bids him "good night". Anne comments on his being so "late upon the water". Sanders expresses surprise that John Beane, who has awaited him for so long a time, must return to Woolwich so late. What to night? there is no such haste, I hope. (1.1214)

Though Browne is sorely disappointed at being prevented by Anne's presence from killing Sanders, her husband, he nonetheless intends to try again and tells Roger that ... at thy mistres house weele spend this night, In consultation how it may be wrought. (11.1242-1243)

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Before Browne makes another attempt on Sanders' life he again is in a mood of reflection. He says that his "thoughts are studious and unsociable". The sun had not shone all day, and he says it is at least seven thirty o'clock: ... the aire is gloomie, N o matter, darknesse best fittes my intent, (11. 1347-1348)

In addition to the imaginative creation of scenes of darkness there are many allusions in the text to a wooded area: this woodie way (1.1019) shrowd my selfe within these bushes I would to God we were past this wood

(1.1349) (1.1353)

The man we saw, he slipt so soone away, behind the bushes (11. 1361-1362) O could I crawle but from this cursed wood, Before I drowne my selfe in my owne blood. (11. 1429-1430)

Though there is no question about the physical representation of a tree in the dumb show when the tree rises and is later hewn down, it is likely that the instances cited above may depend on the text itself to effect an imaginative creation of the scene. The Induction of A Warning has evidence of interest to the staging of Elizabethan drama. In addition to the use of a drum and ensigne, as well as a fiddle, there is a reference to the dress of a ghost ("fowle sheete, or a leather pelch") and to the means of simulating lightning ("a little Rosen flasheth forth"). Though neither of these bits of information occurs only in A Warning, it is useful to have confirmed in a dramatic text itself information about staging that has otherwise depended on sources outside the drama. Richard Hosley has pointed out that there is no discovery in A Warning for Fair Women.96 Of the twenty-six actions in the play, 98

Richard Hosley, "The Discovery-space in Shakespeare's Globe", Shakespeare Survey, XII (1959), 43-44.

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five involve a presenter with twenty-one remaining for the play, excluding Induction, dumb show, and Epilogue. Of the twenty-one actions remaining, fourteen are represented as a room, whether buttery, prison cell, or room in a person's house. It is regrettable that there is no external evidence about the staging beyond the statement of the title page that it "hath beene... acted by... the Lord Chamberlaine his Servauntes". Henslowe's Diary records no transactions that may be identified with A Warning. From the text of the play itself it seems reasonable to infer that the play was presented in a public playhouse. The use of the platform trap, the explanation of the dumb show just after the appearance of the show, the subject of the play, and the treatment of the subject are in favor of a performance in a public playhouse. Whether or not the play was acted at the Globe is a matter of controversy, Hosley accepting A Warning as a Globe play 97 with Beckerman rejecting it as not having been performed at the Globe. 98 Though 1599 is the date for the completion of the Globe and is the date of the title page of A Warning, the difference of opinion arises since the play may or may not have been performed as late as the year of publication or the time of year when the Globe was completed. The title page indicates that A Warning was acted by the Chamberlain's Men, and there is no evidence, external or internal, to challenge this assertion.

THE PLAY

Genre The genre of A Warning is domestic tragedy. Domestic tragedies, characteristically about persons who are not of noble birth, have an unfaithful wife who is put to death, usually with accomplices who participated in the crime. Moreover domestic tragedies usually dramatize a crime that has actually taken place. Domestic tragedies, 97 98

Hosley, 36. Beckerman, Shakespeare at the Globe, 81.

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according to their own testimony, do not attempt to equal the heights of other tragedy. H. H. Adams in English Domestic or Homiletic Tragedy says that "The most obvious characteristic, and the only one not occasionally violated, was the humble station of the hero of the tragedy. He is always below the ranks of nobility." 99 Adams says that domestic tragedy arose after the conception of the tragic hero changed so that the hero no longer, as formerly, had to be a prince or a king; 100 for as long as the earlier conception obtained, the death of a sturdy citizen as a consequence of the infidelity and connivance of his wife would not be considered the stuff of tragedy. Another characteristic of domestic tragedy, singled out by Adams and reflected in the title of his book, is the didactic element of domestic tragedy, particularly its moral concern for the events antecedent to and consequent upon the tragedy celebrated in the play. Adams says that "throughout its history" domestic tragedy "attempted to teach". The Elizabethan domestic tragedies afforded "lessons of morality and religious faith [for] the citizens who came to the theatres by offering them examples drawn from the lives and customs of their own kind of people". 101 Domestic tragedies, of course, differ from each other in some particular respects, but Adams does find some characteristics that remain constant. He asserts that "The choice of the hero, the moralizing, and the religious teaching are the only consistent attributes of these plays." 102 Turning his attention to the word domestic of domestic tragedy, Adams notes two meanings that relate to domestic tragedy. One meaning is "any phase of family life", and to that extent "even Hamlet may be called a 'domestic tragedy'". The word may also mean "familiar" or "local". 103 Domestic tragedy involves the family, usually at a time of crisis or disruption, typically brought 99 H. H. Adams, English Domestic or Homiletic Tragedy (New York: Columbia University Press, 1943), viii. 100 Adams, English Domestic or Homiletic Tragedy, 1. 101 Adams, viii. 102 Ibid. 103 Adams, 1.

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about by the infidelity of the wife. Domestic tragedy treats the familiar and local in that it may well be, as A Warning is, the dramatization of crime and punishment involving people well known by many in the audience of the playhouse. Domestic tragedy has suffered as a consequence of being the youngest form of tragedy and has been "snubbed by respectable critics". To the extent that critics and playwrights obeyed Aristotle's Poetics on the proper characteristics of tragedy and to the extent that the spheres of comedy and tragedy were rigidly separated, the development of domestic tragedy was inhibited, for domestic tragedy does not conform to the classical distinctions of tragedy and comedy.104 According to Adams the rules were less influential on the development of Elizabethan drama than they were on continental drama, and the "English classicists seem to have exerted surprisingly little influence upon the composition of stage plays". The "English critics", he asserts, "had small connection with the popular theatre". The effect was that the English critics' "dicta did not have the same stifling influence on dramatic growth" in England that it had on the continent. 105 The extent to which domestic tragedy violates the commonly accepted characteristics distinguishing comedy and tragedy is pointed out by Adams who lists six "distinctions between tragedy and comedy at the end of the fifteenth century". 106 These distinctions, taken from J. E. Spingarn's Literary Criticism in the Renaissance, follow: 1. The characters in tragedy are kings, princes, or great leaders; those in comedy, humble persons and private citizens. 2. Tragedy deals with great and terrible actions; comedy with familiar and domestic actions. 3. Tragedy begins happily and ends terribly; comedy begins rather turbulently and ends joyfully. 4. The style and diction of tragedy are elevated and sublime; while those of comedy are humble and colloquial. 5. The subjects of tragedy are generally historical; those of comedy are 104 105 loe

Adams, 2. Adams, 5. Adams, 3.

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always invented by the poet. 6. Comedy deals largely with love and seduction; tragedy with exile and bloodshed.

Adams says that "It will be noted that domestic tragedy runs counter to three of these six rules."107 Though rules 1,2, and 4 are likely the ones he considers violated by domestic tragedy, rule 6 is not free from infraction by domestic tragedy, though the extent of the infraction would depend on the emphasis placed on largely. There is no scholarly consensus about the extent to which the domestic tragedy may be aligned with traditions antedating it and the extent to which it is unique. Though the De casibus tradition and the tradition of the moralities have been considered significant factors in the development of domestic tragedy, the mere existence of these traditions would not have been sufficient to account for domestic tragedy so long as there was a strict obedience to the rules governing tragedy and comedy. Bradbrook, Doran, Clark, and Adams call attention to the relationship of domestic tragedy to the morality plays, Miss Bradbrook noting "The debates between several allegorical personages" as "a clear survival of the morality",108 and Miss Doran observing that domestic tragedies "owe a great deal to the morality". She indicates that domestic tragedies have "been seen as a direct derivation from the morality play, especially of the Prodigal Son type".109 Clark believes that domestic tragedy is indebted to the morality both for the realism and the moral concern. He alludes to the "love of realism often catered for" in the morality plays and says that when "the morality was secularized... wefindplays still with a strong moral interest, almost completely domestic in tone".110 Adams finds in the morality plays two factors significantly affecting the domestic tragedy that followed. He says that it was "in 107

Adams, 3-5. Muriel C. Bradbrook, Themes and Conventions ofElizabethan Tragedy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1960), 44. we Madeleine Doran, Endeavors of Art: A Study of Form in Elizabethan Drama (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1954), 143. 110 Arthur M. Clark, Thomas Heywood (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1931), 227228. 108

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the morality plays" that the plain "citizen first came to be recognized as a character suitable for serious drama", and it was the moralities that "first used as plots the kind of stories which evolved into domestic tragedies". 111 Adams calls attention especially to the prodigal son plays where "the situation was domestic, the treatment realistic, the attitude serious". Moreover, in some of these plays there was a departure "from the Biblical parable by bringing the tale to a tragic conclusion, and in this way became the first real domestic tragedies". 112 Adams observes that it was "only as the De casibus virorum illustrium type of tragedy acquired the idea of retributive justice that its purpose approached that which was later to animate domestic tragedy". 113 Willard Farnham in The Medieval Heritage of Elizabethan Tragedy discusses the Mirror tradition, and in a chapter titled "The Progeny of the Mirror" says that "numerous writings other than close imitations of the Mirror... demonstrate how vital for the age was the question of such [mundane] retribution". The latter half of the sixteenth century was a time "when the marvelous operation of God's laws against wrong doing, as evidenced in worldly event, was often brought to man's attention.. ." 114 Among the authors whose works are considered "progeny of the Mirror" is Anthony Munday who in his View of Sundry Examples "capitalized the idea of mundane punishment and did what he could... to make such retribution vivid,... not in tragical stories of outstanding figures from the past but in news stories of ordinary human beings and of marvelous happenings from the present". Munday's View of Sundry Examples tells of "men and cities that have fallen" and predicts that "God is serving notice of fresh wrath". Munday's examples "of murder and the just reward for murder" are presented in "the barest narrative form", but they are "murder tragedies in germ", playwrights using "exactly such material in plays like Arden of Feversham, A Warning, and A 111

Adams, English Domestic or Homiletic Tragedy, 55. Adams, 67. 113 Adams, 3. 114 Willard Farnham, The Medieval Heritage of Elizabethan Tragedy (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1936), 304. 112

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Yorkshire Tragedy".11S There is, of course, no clear-cut dichotomy of critics with half asserting the influence of pre-existing traditions on domestic tragedy, the other half stressing the unique, special contributions of domestic tragedy. Nicoli, Symonds, and Wright, however, are among those who point out the unique contribution of domestic tragedy. Allardyce Nicoli in stressing the contribution of domestic tragedy says that domestic tragedy has within it "something distinctly novel. Not France or Italy or Spain, leaving out of account Rome and Athens in classical times, had ever dreamt of a serious play which should be contemporary and topical."116 Symonds speaks of the domestic tragedies as "all founded upon recent tragical events in real life. Tales of thrilling horror... supplied the dramatists with themes for sombre realistic treatment."117 Louis B. Wright noted that the "tragic relations of husband, wife and illicit lover" afforded "a vehicle for a theatrical sensation capable of running the gamut of sentimentality or pandering to the grosser appetites of the multitude" and at the same time "preached a sermon against the crying sins of adultery and murder".118 Miss Doran, who has been cited earlier for her comment on the influence of the morality on domestic tragedy, believes that domestic tragedies made the most of material that was available. She says that domestic tragedies may be viewed as "the dramatization of a class of stories, which like chronicles, romances, novelle, or any sort of lively story, looked like promising material to be put on the stage". She says it would have been strange if the "popular stage had neglected" to make use of "stories of contemporary crime [which] would have a special appeal as thrillers". Though not disavowing completely the influence of the morality on domestic tragedy, Miss Doran does not maximize it. She says that the trace...of a moral plan or homiletic scheme of temptation, sin, 118

Farnham, 316-317. Allardyce Nicoli, British Drama (New York: Thomas Y. Cromwell Company, 1925), 197-199. 117 John Addington Symonds, Shakespeare's Predecessors (London: Smith, Elder, & Company, 1906), 329. 118 Louis B. Wright, Middle Class Culture in Elizabethan England (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1935), 631. 118

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repentance, and punishment looks less like the original impulse to the plays than like a conventional moral pattern such subjects would attract.119 The appeal of the genre, sometimes referred to as the "murder plays", had greater range and continuity than might be inferred from the nature of the material. Moreover, it appears to have met the competition rather well. Though Parrott and Ball say that domestic tragedy "seems to have disappeared... with the wave of romanticism that swept over the English stage in the nineties", they concede a recrudescence of popularity at the close of the century. 120 Ranged against this opinion of the eclipse of domestic tragedy by a "wave of romanticism" are Clark and Symonds. Clark says that So far was the flourishing of the romantic drama from affecting the appeal of the domestic drama that we may say the triumph of realism coincided in time with the greatest of the romantic plays...121 Symonds says that "plays founded on... subjects of contemporary crime were popular throughout the flourishing age of the drama" according to the "dates and titles preserved in several records" and that "all classes of society seemed to have enjoyed them..." 122 Source

The primary source of A Warning is Arthur Golding's A Briefe Discourse, published anonymously in 1573 by Henry Bynneman, also the publisher of Holinshed's Chronicles in 1577. In 1577 A Briefe Discourse was reprinted and had at the end of it the name Arthur Golding instead of the initials A. G. that were at the end of the work in 1573. Golding built a substantial reputation as a translator and was noted for his translation of Ovid; at the same time he was a "stout 119

Doran, Endeavors of Art, 143. Thomas M. Parrott and Robert Hamilton Ball, A Short View ofElizabethan Drama (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1958), 121. 121 Arthur M. Clark, Thomas Heywood, 228. 122 Symonds, Shakespeare's Predecessors, 329-330. 120

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Calvinist" whose concern for the moral implications of his work led him "to force a serious moral interpretation upon the stories of the loves of the gods". 123 His work as a translator earned the commendation of Meres in Palladis Tamia,124 and Louis Golding, his descendant and biographer, says that Arthur Golding's "translation of Ovid... in a series of editions, held its preeminence for nearly sixty years". 125 Golding's interest in Christianity and in Calvinism is reflected in his translations of Calvin's sermons based on several books of the Bible and in his translation to English of The Trewness of the Christian Religion from the French of Phillippe Mornay. 126 The account of George Browne's murder of George Sanders also appears in the Chronicles of Stow and Holinshed, but these identical accounts are derived from Golding's Discourse. The chronicle accounts do, however, differ from the Discourse in that they include information about "singing a Psalm on the scaffold", Browne's throwing himself from the ladder at the time of execution, and the fact that Browne's brother was taken from Newgate to be hanged at York. 127 The author of A Warning used two of these items - Browne's throwing himself from the ladder and his brother's being taken to York for hanging. Whether, however, the playwright took the items from chronicle accounts of the murder is a matter of conjecture, since he could very well have had personal knowledge of the execution or have shared what may have been common knowledge of these facts. Though Simpson in The School of Shakspere prints the chronicle account of the murder from Stow, he says that "Holinshed and Stowe give an identical relation, drawn, with slight corrections from a contemporary account written either by Clearke or Nowell, the 123 A. C. Baugh, ed., A Literary History of England (New York: AppletonCentury-Crofts, 1948), 405. 124 Louis T. Golding, An Elizabethan Puritan (New York: Richard R. Smith, 1937), 205. 125 An Elizabethan Puritan, 202. 126 An Elizabethan Puritan, 138. 127 A. F. Hopkinson, Play Sources (London: M. E. Sims & Company, 1913), iii.

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two ministers who prepared the murderers for their execution."128 Simpson did not know when he prepared The School of Shakspere, a collection of plays including A Warning, that Arthur Golding was the author of A Briefe Discouse, but he showed a considerable amount of insight into the relationship of the various early accounts of the murder by noting that the accounts of Stow and Holinshed are identical and derivative from A Briefe Discouse. Moreover the piety of the Discourse is such that one could readily infer that a minister wrote it. Golding's A Briefe Discouse is admirably suited to be the source of a kind of drama that H. H. Adams has called domestic or homiletic tragedy. About seven times the length of the account in the Chronicles, the Discourse has a theological framework around the murder, apprehension, and trial that is lacking in the Chronicles, and the reason is that the account of the Chronciles has been excerpted from A Briefe Discourse with some deletions but few alterations of language. At the beginning of the Discourse Golding takes pains to dispel the notion that his motive in writing is to feed the curiosity of the people rather than to amend their behavior. He says that the reader should not look for every "particuler bymatter appendant to the present case", eagerly sought out and discussed by those people "more inquisitive of other folkes offenses than hastie to redresse their owne". Once the law has given people their deserts they should not be harassed because of their failing, for "christian charitie willeth men eyther to burie the faults of the offendours in perpetual silence, or else so to speak of them, as the vices, and not the parties them selves may seeme to be any more touched".129 Golding says that he will tell of the "murthering of master Saunders by George Brown" and the "apprehension, triall and execution" of Brown as well as the trial and execution of the others. In addition to this he will tell of certain "sayings and dealings of the parties" in the interval between the time of their apprehension and of their execution. Though not strictly related to the account of the ap128

Richard Simpson, ed., The School ofShakspere (London: Chatto and Windus, 1878), 211. 129 Simpson, 222.

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prehension, trial, and execution, such information is helpful in arriving at "the verie originali cause, and first grounde of this ungodlye deede". Moreover the Discourse will be concluded with a "shorte admonition howe we oughte to deale in this and al other such cases".130 Golding presents the facts of the murder, apprehension, trial, and execution within relatively brief compass stating that on Tuesday "in Easter weeke last past", the 24 of March, George Browne learned by a letter from Mistress Drury that George Sanders would stay in Woolwich with Master Barnes and go to Saint Mary Cray the next day. The next morning between "seven and eight" Browne met Sanders near Shooter's Hill and killed him and John Beane, Master Barnes's servant. When Sanders had been struck the mortal blow, he knelt and asked God's mercy and forgiveness of sins for himself and Browne his slayer. By way of parenthesis the Discourse states that Sanders did not know Browne, "whatever report hath been made of former acquayntance betwixte them". 131 Having done the deed, Browne was so stricken that he almost fainted and could eat no food even the day after killing Sanders. When he saw one of the Sanders children, "He was so abashed... as he had much adoo to forbeare from swownding in the street", to which Golding adds, "a notable example of the secret working of Gods terrible wrath in a guiltie and bluddie conscience".132 The moral element is reinforced as Golding tells how John Beane, "having ten or eleven deadly wounds, and being left for dead", revived and by "gods woonderful providence" was able to creep on his hands and knees until found by an old man and his girl who took him to Woolwich where he "gave evident tokens and markes of the murtherer". Moreover he stayed alive until Browne, the murderer, had been apprehended and brought within his presence, Beane dying "the next Munday after". 133 130

131 132 133

Ibid.

Simpson, 222-223. Simpson, 223. Ibid.

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Through Roger, Browne sent word of his success in killing Sanders to Mistress Drury and later went to her house to get money to help him flee for his life. Goldingsays that Browne did not speak with Mistress Drury but conferred with her through Roger.134 Browne received twenty pounds, the combined aid of Mistress Drury and Mistress Sanders. He was later sent six more pounds. Despite his flight, however, he was apprehended in Rochester by the mayor on March 28 in a Mr. Browne's house. George Browne was then brought to court where he confessed that he did the deed at the "instigation of Widowe Drewrie, who... had promised to make a marriage between him and mistresse Saunders ... the desire of which hope hasted him forwarde to dispatche the fact". 135 According to Golding Browne untruthfully cleared Mistress Sanders of any guilt and was himself arraigned at Kings Bench on Friday, April 17, and on admitting his guilt was condemned, sentenced, and hanged in chains.136 Later Roger, Mistress Drury, and Mistress Sanders were tried and executed, though there was an interval occasioned by the birth of a child to Mistress Sanders. Convicted of being accessories, they were executed on May 13.137 About forty per cent of A Briefe Discourse is expressly devoted to the moral aspects of the murder, and the narration of events not directly concerned with the moral significance of the crime is pervaded with comments on the providence of God revealed in the events being narrated. Several pages from the end of the work Golding says "Now remayneth to shewe what is to be gathered of this terrible example, and how we oughte to apply the same to our owne behoof." Appended to the Discourse is the confession of Anne Sanders as she is said to have spoken is "at the place of execution", and following that the prayer which she said, "the copie wherof, she delivered unto the right honourable the Earle of Bedforde".138 134 138 184 187 138

Ibid. Simpson, 223-234. Simpson, 224. Simpson, 225-226. Simpson, 236-237.

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The surpassing concern for the moral is attested by the statement appearing just before A Briefe Discourse turns its attention to the "incidents that hapned from the time of their apprehension to the time of their deathes", and the indication that following the account of these events the work will proceed "to the admonition which is the conclusion and fruite of this whole matter".139 At the very beginning of the admonition in A Briefe Discourse Golding invokes the theological concept of the "chain of vice", the belief that as people commit sins God withdraws from them to the extent that each sin begets another one of greater enormity. He says that "God giveth them over to their own lustes, so as they runne on from sinne to sinne, and from mischiefe to mischiefe, to do such things as are shameful and odious, even in the sight of the worlde, to their own unavoydable perils."140 According to Golding God does not "bring on the stage" iniquities such as those involving Mrs. Sanders and Browne so that people can "gaze... at the persons, as byrdes do at an Owle" or so that people can enjoy themselves or "upbrayd" the relatives of the guilty but so that the terrible example may cause people to eschew vice and cleave to virtue.141 "Impes of the old Adam", as people are, it is but by the grace of God "we stände... not the goodnesse of our nature northestrengthe of oure owne will".142 Golding is at some pains to show that the people whose iniquity is punished openly both in ancient times as well as at Smithfield are not the only guilty ones nor necessarily the most vicious of the wicked. Not greater sinners than the onlookers, "Their faults came into the open Theater & therefore seemed the greater to our eyes, and surely they were great in deed : neither are ours the lesse, bicause they lye hidden in the covert of our hearte."143 The final part of Golding's admonition adjures people both married and unmarried to learn from the example of Mrs. Sanders 139 140 141 148 148

Simpson, 226. Simpson, 233. Simpson, 233-234. Simpson, 234. Simpson, 235.

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to possesse & keepe their vessell in honestie and cleannesse. For if the knot between man and wife (whiche ought to be inseparable) be once broken, it is seldome or never knit again.144 Even if the knot is joined again there is likely to be difficulty at a later time. Golding closes the admonition with the hope that his work will lead to the bettering of the "state" of the reader and not "to the occasion of slaunder, nor to the hurt of thine owne conscience, nor to the offence of thy christian brethren". 145 Golding tells of the effort of the clergy to recover all the culprits from "Sathans kingdom" and how they were instructed in the principles of true religion while at the same time being exhorted to "clear their conscience" by telling all they knew about the involvement of any of the others accessories before or after the fact. The repentance and confession of Anne Sanders and Anne Drury are dwelt upon in painstaking detail as are the many leavetakings of Anne Sanders. Browne and Trusty Roger, according to the Discourse, come to acknowledge their faults. Anne Sanders' lengthy confession and prayer said at the time of execution may have all the validity of lengthy battlefield speeches that appear in the works of chroniclers of British history, but they are utterly in keeping with the purpose and tone of the Discourse. Opinions vary about the quality of the material available in A Briefe Discourse for the use of the author of A Warning for Fair Women. To one critic the work is a "thin pamphlet", which would require a playwright of considerable ability to make the play that came from it. To another the author of A Warning had better material as a source than did the author of Arden of Feversham, but did not know what to do with it. Regardless of merit, the Discourse is the undoubted source of A Warning and the Chronicles. A playwright's use of his sources affords insight into his special concerns, his technique, and the success or lack of it with which he transmutes his source into drama. If the source is of any length and is available for comparison with the play, the means of compression become of interest. 144 145

Simpson, 236. Ibid.

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It is as important to note what the author of A Warning excluded as it is to note what he selected and what use he made of what he selected. With respect to compression the author of A Warning had a resource not employed in all Elizabethan plays but found in some - the dumb show. By means of the dumb show in A Warning it was possible to portray silently and sometimes more economically material that otherwise would have to be presented in the play proper and at greater length. Moreover it was possible to obey decorum in presenting the seduction of Anne Sanders in a dumb show rather than have the dalliance between her and Browne made explicit by use of language. Though there is some enquiry in the court about the sexual immorality between Anne Sanders and George Browne, it is eminently fitting that such interrogation take place in order to clarify, if not establish, the motivation for the murder of George Sanders even though in the other part of the play the fall of Anne Sanders is represented in the dumb show. One item of the Discourse by Golding that is not found in A Warning for Fair Women except for an oblique reference is the fact that Mrs. Sanders had a child, presumably by Browne. Though A Briefe Discourse speaks of Anne Sanders' being "delivered of a child and churched, for at the time of her husbands death she looked presently to lie down", the only reference in the play to childbirth is in Anne Sanders' denial that a blood-stained handkerchief was delivered to her as proof of her husband's death. She said, in denying the charge, that she kept her "childbed chamber" at that time, and that it was not "meet" for any man to see her. Another matter found in A Briefe Discourse but treated briefly in the play is the account of Mr. Meli, the unfrocked minister who, smitten by Anne Sanders and wishing to marry her, placed his life in jeopardy in order to try to secure her release. Though the play does treat the event, it does not disclose how Mr. Mell's plans were overthrown although it does show the punishment meted out to him for his folly. The Discourse explains how Mr. Meli was undone by revealing his plans to someone he thought was sympathetic to his plans but who was not. Thorn Golding, descendant and biographer of Arthur Golding, thinks the one who betrayed Mr. Mell's

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plans into the hands of the justices may well have been Arthur Golding, author of the Discourse.146 Another evidence of compression noted in A Warning is the fact that the trial of Anne Sanders and of Anne Drury follows hard on the heels of the trial of George Browne. What is gained in compression at this point, however, seems to be lost in the reading of the indictments in the play, and there is a net loss to the effectiveness of the play. Missing from A Warning is the account of accusations against Anne Drury's character. Hardly represented as a paragon of virtue in the play since she is a bawd and a pander having, in the words of Trusty Roger, her man, brought many a woman to "stoop unto the lewre", as he expresses it, there is, nonetheless, no account, as in A Briefe Discourse, of the accusations that she poisoned her late husband, that she has dealt in sorcery and witchcraft, or that she was responsible for the separation of the Earl of Derby from his wife. Moreover she has been charged with accusing "divers merchante mens wives of dissolute and unchast living".147 In view of the fact that she is a procuress, she probably spoke with authority. Whatever omissions, contradictions, and discrepancies that may exist between A Briefe Discourse and A Warning, the works agree regarding the homiletic emphasis. A Briefe Discourse is replete with confessions of Anne Sanders, with her prayers at the time of execution, with Browne's scaffold speech, andjthe comments of the Doctor of Divinity who does his best to bring the culprits and sinners "to a better mind". He wishes them to confess freely so that the strict rigor of justice may be imposed on all who are involved, whether as principals or accessories, however remote from the commission of the crime. Moreover, the homiletic concern is demonstrated not only in the contrition of the guilty and the concern of the chaplain but also is evinced in the dual concern of the magistrates and the judiciary for both celestial as well as earthly justice. A thoroughgoing moral concern is manifested throughout the 148 147

Golding, An Elizabethan Puritan, 68. Simpson, 231.

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play with the epilogue of the play referring to the lances that have "sluiced forth sin". Typical of the moral concern shown by those involved in the arrest, trial, and even execution of the culprits is the attitude shown by the Lord Justice. His concern for the souls of the guilty is great. The best evidence of their repentance is contrition, humility, and confession so that all who are involved may be brought to judgment. Beyond that, the guilty sinners should not begrudge the afflictions of this world arising as a consequence of breaking the law of God and man. When, for example, the Lord Justice says "But if you spurne at his affliction, / And beare his chasticement with grudging minds", it is clear that his chasticement is God's chastisement, though it is also clear that the Lord Justice conceives no discrepancy of purpose between himself and God, believing rather that he is an instrument of God's justice. The dual concern of the Lord Justice is manifest in this speech that bespeaks, especially at the beginning, a concern for the soul of the guilty and closes with the sentence of death. Addressing Anne Sanders, the Lord Justice says Go to, Clog not your soule, With new additions of more hainous sinne. the justice of the righteous God Meaning to strike you, yet reserves a place Of gracious mercy if you can repent ; And, therefore, bring your wickednesse to light, That suffering for it in this world, you might Upon your hearty sorrow, be set free, And feare no further judgement in the next ; But if you spurne at his affliction, And beare his chasticement with grudging minds, Your precious soule, as wel as here your bodies, Are left in hazard of eternal death. Be sorry, therefore, 'tis no petty sinne, But murder, most unnatural of al. (11. 1342-1358)

Broadening his audience to include Anne Sanders, Anne Drury, and Trusty Roger, the Lord Justice said

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You shal al three be hang'd til you be dead. And so the Lord hav mercy on you soules. (11.1365-1366) The expression "The Lord have mercy on your soules" may have survived as a conventional and perfunctory utterance in later centuries, but it appears to have been a meaningful statement in this instance if the speech as a whole is used as the context. The magistrates repeatedly mention the culprits' relationship to God. At a point when the Sheriff is trying to get Browne to admit Mrs. Sanders' complicity in her husband's death the adamant Browne is told that it is confest by Druries wife That she is guilty; which doth fully prove Thou hast no true contrition, but conceals't Her wickedness, the bawd unto her sinne. (11. 1440-1443) When Browne responds by saying of Anne Drury, "Let her confesse what she thinkes good" and asks to be bothered no more, the Sheriff responds by saying "Browne, thy soule knowes." Browne says "Yea, yea, it does..." The culprits themselves are aware of the dual nature of their transgression. When the Clerk of the Court asks Anne Sanders and Anne Drury how they will be tried, they say "By God and by the Countrey". The author of A Warning has been charged with servility in following A Briefe Discourse, but it is useful to see how far the charge can be sustained. To the extent that there is a basic identity of purpose both in the Discourse and A Warning a close following of the source need not convict the playwright of servility in following his source, though there is no intent to deny the fact that the play follows the facts, and at some points the language, rather closely. It should be said on the author's behalf, however, that he is independent enough to begin the play with a scene based on information that is expressly denied in the source, that George Browne and George Sanders knew each other. In the play Sanders and Browne are with each other and apparently have been in conversa-

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tion. Later in the play George Browne is represented as talking with Anne Drury after his flight to London following his murder of Sanders, though A Briefe Discourse says Browne did not talk personally with her. As was pointed out earlier, the author of A Warning omitted information about Anne Drury's character found in A Briefe Discourse and represents no delay between the trials of George Browne and the trial of Anne Sanders, Anne Drury, and Trusty Roger. The birth of a child to Anne Sanders was virtually ignored by the author of the play, and the aifair with Mr. Meli was sharply abbreviated. Moreover, the separate leavetakings of Anne Sanders from her people and her husband's people are fused in the play. The charge of servility cannot be adequately sustained, it appears. It seems more likely that when the source was peculiarly well adapted to the wishes of the playwright, he followed it closely. When the source was intractable or at cross purposes with his own, the author of A Warning rejected his source entirely. The Play The Induction, the dumb show, the realism, and the didacticism are aspects of A Warning that have often been the subject of comment by critics. Though there has been a unity of response in the comments on the realistic and didactic elements of the play, the Induction and the dumb show have inspired some critical debate. H. H. Adams says the Induction of A Warning is "an evident imitation of the beginning of Yarington's Two Lamentable Tragedies". He adds that in the Induction of A Warning History, Comedy, and Tragedy dispute over the right to hold the stage for the day. Comedy attempted to crush one of her rivals, satirizes the contemporary fashion in tragedy.148

Creizenach speaks of prologues and epilogues and says that "Prologues... elaborated into a complete scene were termed 'Induc-

148

H.H. Adams, English Domestic or Homiletic Tragedy, 115.

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tions'". He tells of the "prevailing custom" which demanded a prolgoue and epilogue. He says that The speaker of the prologue appeared, as in Italy, with a wreath upon his head, and wearing a long garment; there are several allusions to his black velvet cloak. 149

Sometimes "the speaker of the prologue was... described as the 'Chorus' and introduced further on in the play in order to give the audience a narrative account of the events". There were also times when The dramatists followed the Italian custom of turning the prologue into a conversation. This was an excellent opportunity for the introduction of allegorical figures. In A Warning for Fair Women, for instance, Comedy, History and Tragedy appear in bodily form on the stage... 180

Both Irving Ribner and Creizenach call attention to the comments on genre found in the Induction to A Warning. Ribner is interested in the fact that the author of A Warning seemed "to have some distinction in mind" between history and tragedy, a distinction that Ribner believes was not customarily made by Elizabethans in classifying kinds of drama. 151 Creizenach mentions the "three allegorical figures representing Comedy, History, and Tragedy" which appear in the "prologue to the tragedy of crime entitled A Warning for Fair Women". Though he says that "Shakespeare's fellow actors" followed this division in preparing the first "collected edition of his works", not many "adhered with any degree of consistency to this classification". The classification was so loose that the designations appearing on title pages of the plays "appear to have been chosen at random by some one other than the author". 152 It is possible to dispute the judgment that the Induction is the most important part of A Warning and yet accord it a position of 149 Wilhelm Creizenach, The English Drama in the Age of Shakespeare (London: Sidgwick & Jackson, Ltd., 1916), 275-279. 150 Creizenach, 279. 151 Irving Ribner, The English History Play in the Age of Shakespeare (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1957), 27-28. 152 Creizenach, 235-236.

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considerable importance. In addition to the heavy-handed banter by Comedy and Tragedy about the respective demerits of the other's genre, there are in the induction comments on the dress of ghosts ("a foul sheet or a leather pilch") and the method of simulating lightning ("a little rosen flasheth forth"). There is Comedy's sneer at the "filthy whining ghost" with its cry "Revenge" and a further thrust at Tragedy which, according to Comedy, treats "How some damnd tyrant to obtain a crown / Stabs hangs impoysons, cutteth throats." There is, in addition, a reference to the fact that "The stage is hung in black, and I perceive I The auditors prepar'd for Tragedy." Tragedy says that "Many now in this Round / Once to behold me in sad tears were drown'd." The Induction of A Warning is not the sole source of information on the dress of ghosts, the custom of having black hangings on the stage when tragedy is presented, or the method of simulating lightning, but it is important to have the source of such information in a dramatic text. Few critics of A Warning have failed to comment on the dumb show. Miss Bradbrook treats both dumb show and the Induction by saying that the use of dumb shows and inductions... helped to confuse the time sequence. Lengthy acts were presented in dumb shows symbolically... The figures of the inductions, when they were allegorical, were outside time or space; moreover they can predict the action which is to follow. 1 5 3

"Pageants and dumb shows", according to Miss Bradbrook, "depended on the rest of the play and could be subtly co-ordinated." A dumb show of particular horror... [was] the "bloody banquet" (The Battle of Alcazar, Act 4, Prologue; A Warning for Fair Women, Act 2, Prologue; The Bloody Banquet, Act 5, Prolgoue). It was rather like the Thyestean feast: the table was set with black candles, drink set out in skulls, and the Furies served it up. The tradition of these diabolical suppers might be behind the cauldron scene in Macbeth.16* 153 M. C. Bradbrook, Themes and Conventions of Elizabethan Tragedy (Cambridge University Press, 1960), 14. 154 Themes and Conventions, IS.

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The dumb show was a resource available to a playwright. It afforded crowd-pleasing spectacle and a means of presenting without speech but ordinarily to the accompaniment of music material that might otherwise be presented in the play proper. H. H. Adams accounts for the "figures of Chastity and Lust" in the dumb show of A Warning by saying they were "imported from the morality plays" and observes that "the action in this dumb show resembles scenes in the early homiletic dramas".155 Creizenach, on the other hand, stresses the Italian origin of the dumb show, saying it originated in Italy "and was transmitted to the popular stage by the humanistic dramatists". He says This connection with the neo-classical stage shows itself especially clearly during the earlier period when the dumb-shows were placed at the beginning of the acts and foreshadowed their contents in a historical or symbolical picture. 156

Earlier dumb shows were likely to be allegorical and have little or no relationship to the plot, whereas later ones lost most or all of the allegorical part and began to include material that was integral to the plot of the play at large. In A Warning for Fair Women the fall of Anne Sanders is represented symbolically in the dumb show. The wisdom of depicting this part of the plot symbolically is disputed. Harbage emphasizes the fact that the "old decorum" is maintained in the popular theaters in contrast to the "coterie" productions which had rather open and frank accounts of sensuality. He says that in A Warning "A stage direction... portrays the seduction of... Anne Sanders by Captain Browne.... From this point on" she is a "fallen woman, although the only contact between her and Captain Browne has been strictly allegorical."157 Creizenach, however, believes the author of A Warning put in the dumb show something that might have been better depicted in the play proper. Though he says that the "choice of... conven156

English Domestic or Homiletic Tragedy, 115-116. The English Drama in the Age of Shakespeare, 388-389. 157 Alfred Harbage, Shakespeare and the Rival Traditions (New York: The Macmillan Company, 19S2), 205. 158

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tional or allegorical treatment was evidently influenced by a certain delicacy", he nonetheless tells how the author of A Warning has given a well-thought-out cleverly executed representation of how the adventurer Brown, aided by the gossip Drury who serves as his procuress, step by step undermines the virtue of Mistress Sanders, a citizen's wife, and forces her to complicity in her husband's murder.158 He then continues by saying "But the climax is expressed in a dumb show".«» Almost as inescapable as the dumb show to the reader of A Warning are the moral element and the realism of the play. Sin, salvation, atonement, and redemption permeate the play. The justice of the court is not divorced from the justice of God, and the plethora of confessions, repentances, and pious leavetakings attest the preeminence of the moral concern. Less dominant, perhaps, but still apparent is the realistic aspect of A Warning. A plain and "home borne tragedy" does not seek to use the tricks and artifice that another kind of drama might freely employ. Nor is realism considered a defect by the authors of domestic tragedy. The authors of Arden, A Warning, and Two Tragedies in One "emphasize" the realism "in prologue and epilogue". They say that "The events described... are true, and...familiar....They take credit for avoiding all embellishment."180 If the author of A Warning has avoided embellishment in the text of the play proper, and by and large he has, he more than made up for it with the dumb show, especially one having as a part of it the "bloody banquet". Though the realism of domestic tragedy may be ubiquitous, the realism is not identical in all the plays. Symonds in his comment on the realism of domestic tragedy says that the realism which gives the ground tone to their art is varied. A Warning might be compared to a photograph from the nude model. A Yorkshire Tragedy is the same model treated in a rough sketch by a swift fierce master's 158

Creizenach, 388-389.

"» Ibid. no L ee> "The Topical Side of Elizabethan Drama", 34.

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hand, defining form and character with brusque chiaroscuro. Arden adds colour and composition to the study.161 The realism of A Warning for Fair Women, likened by Symonds to the photograph of a nude model, is sometimes effective. At other times, however, there is a surfeit of realism. The indictments at court are a realistic touch, but the reading of the lengthy documents almost brings the play to a halt. Realism at its best may be noted in the "bye-scenes" dealing with the old man and his maiden, the carpenters Tom Peart and Will Crow as they construct the gallows, and in scenes of domestic life involving Sanders, his wife, and the Sanders child. It may be saying too much to say that the "bye-scenes" are the "salt" of the play, if the implication is that they constitute the best, or the only good parts of the play. It is not too much, however, to say that the realism in these scenes, and in the main scenes that advance the plot of the play, gives insight into the life and manners of lower- and middle-class sixteenth century England. This insight constitutes one of the lasting contributions of the play. Criticism The rating that A Warning receives depends in part on the context of the criticism, whether the play is considered solely as an exemplar of Elizabethan drama, as Elizabethan tragedy, as domestic tragedy, or whether it is judged, as it often is, in comparison with, say, Arden of Feversham or other domestic tragedies. The highest praise accorded A Warning is by H. H. Adams in English Domestic or Homiletic Tragedy. Adams considers A Warning among the "colossi" of domestic tragedy and includes Arden of Feversham, A Yorkshire Tragedy, and 'Tis Pity She's a Whore among this select body of domestic tragedies. Adams speaks of the "manifold excellencies" and "many virtues" to be found in these plays.162 Somewhat less enthusiastic is G. B. Harrison who in his Eliza161 162

Shakespeare's Predecessors, 337. Adams, 19.

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bethan Plays and Players says that A Warning's "most permanent interest is in the Induction". He says that "Though the verse never rose to any height, it seldom descended to the utter doggerel of some of the murder plays."163 According to Creizenach the author of A Warning attempted more than he could achieve. The author tried to depict the process by which a citizen's wife is gradually drawn into the toils of a libertine and seduced... but the attempt failed... after a very promising beginning... 164

Though Creizenach considers the scenes portraying the crime "absorbing and exciting", the ones "presenting the trial and the last hours of the penitent sinners" are "spun out with... prolixity, plentiful use being made of Golding's unctuous narrative".165 Creizenach says that A Warning, according to the title page, was performed by the Chamberlain's Men providing that "troop" with a piece intended to compete with the criminal tragedies which at that time occupied a place in Henslowe's repertory. It is expecially regrettable that the loss of Page of Plymouth has deprived us of an opportunity of comparing it with these plays... 166

Undoubtedly many other students of Elizabethan drama would join Charles Sisson's lament: "What would we not give to have Ben Jonson's handling of a murder melodrama in Page of Plymouth^''167 Lost plays by some of the finest dramatists would undoubtedly create a problem, but a welcome problem, should they be discovered. The Page and A Warning show that the Chamberlain's Men did not disdain domestic tragedy. Such merit as Symonds can see in A Warning inheres largely in what he terms the "bye-scenes", scenes that are tangential to the advancement of the plot. He says that These bye-scenes, it may be said in passing — the scene before Anne's 1,3

G. B. Harrison, Elizabethan Plays and Players (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1956), 194-195. 194 Creizenach, 281. 185 Creizenach, 210. 196 Ibid. i·' Charles J. Sisson, Lost Plays of Shakespeare's Age (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1936), 1.

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house-door, the scene in the Court-buttery, the scene of Joan and her father driving their cow home, the scene of the carpenters at Newgate — are the salt of the play. It is their blunt and unvarnished portraiture of manners which gives value to a sufficiently prosaic piece of work. 1 4 8

From a "purely historical standpoint" Lee finds Two Tragedies in One, Arden, and A Warning "very accurate though not very striking descriptions of middle class society in London in the 16th century... The scene in A Warning revolves about Billingsgate.. ." 1ββ Rather sparing in his praise, Lee finds that even in the good passages he has cited in A Warning I notice occasional relapses into the prevailing flatness, which diminish the poetic effect and give support to the theory that a practiced dramatist went over the work of a hack writer, suggesting improvements, but not troubling himself to work all of them fully out. 1 7 0

Somewhat more favorable to the play is Bayne, who says that A Warning is "composed with more pains that Henslowe's writers usually bestowed upon their productions". Though he finds the author of A Warning "without dramatic or poetic genius", he credits him with a realistic "transcript" from "the daily life of the people". Free of exaggeration and idealizing, A Warning "makes no effort to be tragic or comic, but it is so steeped in English lower class sentiment and feeling that it will always possess interest and value".171 Many critics prefer to compare A Warning with Arden, almost unanimously to the discredit of A Warning. Although Symonds has spoken of the "bye-scenes" of A Warning as the "salt of the play", he says that "If anything could be said in commendation of the bye-scenes in A Warning, much more and much higher praise must be bestowed on the successive episodes which lead up to the climax" of Arden.112 According to Lee, the account of the trial and execution of the plotters is "not prolonged in Arden as in the case of The Warning 168

Shakespeare's Predecessors, 324. "» Lee, "The Topical Side of Elizabethan Drama", 24-25. 170 "TheTopicalSide...,31-32. 171 Ronald Bayne, "Lesser Elizabethan Dramatists", CHEL, V, 325. 172 Shakespeare's Predecessors, 366.

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and the Two Tragedies, so as to ruin utterly the artistic temper of the play". 173 Although "his source, a tract by the puritan Golding, written in 1573, furnished" the author of A Warning "with far more dramatic material than the author of Arden had", Creizenach adjudges A Warning as "far from attaining to the high level reached in Grifen."174 Finally, Symonds compares Arden and A Warning and says that Arden does not "follow the narrative" of the source "with the prosaic servility of A Warning".115 Moreover he asserts that "Little on the score of art can be claimed for this tragedy." The only figure which stands out with distinctness from the canvas is George Browne. Him we readily invest with brawny form and lawless appetites. We see him swaggering, an English bravo, in his suit of white and blue. On the scaffold we are touched by his feeling for the woman, to win whom he committed murder in the world, and to save whose life he leaves it with a lie upon his lips. Widow Drury has also, in the first part at least of the action, a definite and recognizable personality. She is not unskillfully portrayed as the human reptile, squatting in slums and ill-famed haunts of vice, whose secret nature only emerges into the light of day to work mischief. But though the play is a poor specimen of dramatic art, its bare, indifferent presentation of a squalid crime may have been ethically more effective and more drastic as a purge to a burdened memory than a tragedy better qualified by a moving terror and pity to purify the emotions of the audience. Lust and murder, the self-loathing which follows guilt, the pitiful uselessness of bloodshed, the sordid end of evildoers, are unmasked with surgical brutality.176 On characterization A Warning deserves a higher score than Symonds has been willing to accord it. Though Captain Browne stands out sharper than the other characters, the person who reads the play with attention will not find him the only person worthy of recall. Indeed the Sanders family is presented in some detail with George Sanders, concerned with business affairs, going to the Burse, returning hours late for the evening meal, and asking "Is supper ready?" immediately on his return. We see the exchange of affectionate remarks between him and Anne and domestic charac173 174 176 178

"The Topical Side of Elizabethan Drama", 28-30. The English Drama in the Age of Shakespeare, 210. Shakespeare's Predecessors, 350. Shakespeare's Predecessors, 344.

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teristics that validate Anne's statement to Anne Drury in the early part of the play: " I have e'en as good a husband in him as any wench in London." Prudent in his concern for meeting his debts and careful of his honor, Browne tells his servant "I do not use to break my word, much less my bond." As will happen in the best of households, Anne is once vexed because her husband fails to supply all the money she wishes when she wants it. However, it is not because of habitual niggardliness or or any lack of generosity on George Sanders' part. It is that he has an urgent obligation requiring all his cash at a time when the draper and milliner, summoned earlier at Anne's request, make their appearance. There is no evidence at all that George Sanders failed to live up to the praiseworthy evaluation Anne made of him and expressed to Anne Drury. From his earliest conversation with Captain Browne to the scene of his death when, having appealed to George Browne as one gentleman to another not to defile his hands with blood of innocents, he asked God's forgiveness not only for himself but for the one who slays him, George Sanders is represented as a sturdy, upright citizen of means, exemplary in conduct and a model husband. In the Sanders household, moreover, at least one of the children gives testimony to some of the constants in human behavior by wanting to eat between meals, asking for new clothes and toys, and by showing incipient signs of juvenile delinquency during the absence of his parents. This pert boy, at one time styled "Sir Sauce" by his mother, seems to have a good many of the less favorable characteristics of his mother. He is caught gambling by playing at "cross and pile", and, to compound matters, attempts bribery in order to escape punishment. If his impertinent behavior to his mother and his gambling in the absence of his parents are any earnest of the future, he will surely test the efficacy of Bradford's Godly Meditations and the admonitions of the clergy written in the book at the request of his mother who presented the book to the children just before her execution. Anne Sanders emerges as a remarkable woman in many respects. The apex of a triangle that resulted in the death of six people, she has a winsomeness of character that ensnared two men, one of

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whom paid with his life and another of whom was publicly humiliated and compelled to watch her execution. Not thè least of her accomplishments was the winning of an advocate in Mr. Meli, an unfrocked minister who wished to marry her and who, believing her innocent, placed himself in jeopardy by asserting her innocence and trying to free her. He was for his pains sentenced to the stocks on the day and in the presence of the execution of Anne Sanders and compelled to wear a sign with large letters telling that his punishment was for "attempting to colour the detestable facts" concerning Anne Sanders. A many-sided person, Anne could be, or play, the dutiful housewife who sent George Browne on his way when during the absence of her husband he attempted to talk with her as she sat at the doorstep of her house awaiting the return of her husband. Somewhat later she could resign herself to the will of God, as transmitted through the soothsaying of Mrs. Drury, surgeon and fortune teller, and anticipate taking a second husband on the death of her husband despite the laudatory evaluation of him she could truthfully make. So distraught and hysterical on learning the death of her husband that Roger and Mrs. Drury thought her lamentations and outcries would "bewray" them all, she nevertheless recovered to the extent that she gave an astonishing performance in the courtroom. In fact, despite the hysterical outburst on the death of her husband, her shamefaced and abject contrition at the time she is about to quit this world comports ill with the audacity displayed during the trial. Though she may have had confidence in the steadfastness with which the others would shield her by denying her involvement, she was unshaken in her denial of guilt even in the face of Trusty Roger's testimony that she was involved. Shortly after Roger had testified to her involvement in her husband's death and she had denied his testimony by saying he was hired to betray her life, she was asked by one of the Lords in court why she wore a white rose. She responded that it was worn In token of my spotlesse innocence: As free from guilt as is this flower from stain. (11. 2313-2314)

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When Trusty Roger testified in court that Anne Sanders had contributed some of her plate to raise money for the "relief" of of Browne after he had killed her husband, Anne denied his testimony, saying that she missed some of her plate and charging him with the theft of it. Accused of having had the bloody handkerchief delivered to her as a token of her husband's death, she compounded her perjury by adding another false item in her answer. She said the handkercheif was not delivered to her : I kept my childbed chamber at that time Where 'twas not meete that he, or any man, Should have accesse. (11. 2344-2346)

She is, of course, not telling the truth because she not only saw the handkerchief but spoke of it in one of the most passionate outcries in the entire play : Oh shew not me that ensigne of despaire, But hide it, burne it, bury it in the earth, It is a kalender of bloody letters, Containing his, and yours, and all our shames. (11. 1535-1538)

That Anne Drury could recover from this remorseful state and present such a brazen facade to a court in which she is on trial for her life is evidence of a character that critics should note with greater care. Captain George Browne is not an unrelieved villain, a "drunken swearing desperate dicke", and though his scaffold speech details a life of immorality from his youth up, the play itself does not present him as an ideal type of vice or a diabolical agent of Satan. Browne is represented by all (especially before, but even after his apprehension for the murder) as a gentleman, a "proper man", not only with a good store of coin but also a person with seemly qualities befitting a gentleman. A man of parts who impressed both men and women alike, Browne is the creation of an author who in dealing with character, justice, and morality has not taken the easy way out with a complete denigration of the villain. As George Sanders is no reprehensible man and unworthy husband deserving of death at the hands of a righteous God, so George

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Browne is no epitome of viciousness. Adulterer and murderer that he is, he is not without redeeming qualities. For one thing he strives mightily to shield Anne Sanders. "Have I not made a covenantwith her?" he soliloquizes at one point. By no means insensitive to his soul's cure, he is once asked in court to confirm, if not reveal (Trusty Roger has already taken care of the revelation) Anne Sanders' complicity in her husband's murder. Browne refuses and says "Well, God the rest reveal." When at another time he is told by one in the court "Thy soul knows", he says "Yea, yea, it does" and begins his scaffold speech detailing a life lived athwart God's purposes. Aware of the Providence of God and His supernatural intervention in the lives of men, Browne interprets his being unable to dispatch Sanders in an earlier unsuccessful attempt as evidence of the power of prayer and the intervention of Divine Providence. Having killed Sanders, Browne asked who "Thundered in my ear the name of Jesus", though the voice of the motally wounded Sanders as it pronounced the name of Jesus must have been barely above a whisper in view of his condition. So touched with remorse was Browne on seeing a Sanders child that he could hardly forbear "Swounding in the street", according to Golding, and the play does nothing to counter this representation If anything, the dramatic account reinforces it. When Browne sees the boy he says the sight of him Strikes such a terror to my guilty conscience, As I have not the heart to looke that way, Me thinkes in him I see his fathers wounds Fresh bleeding in my sight; nay, he doth stand Like to an Angel with a firy sword, To barre mine entrance at that fatali doore. (11. 1613-1620)

George Browne is a goodly man who inspires favorable comments even by those who are sworn to uphold the law and who have the duty to apprehend him and bring him to the bar of justice. Though Anne Sanders seems not to have fallen under his charm when he

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first talked to her as she sat at her door awaiting her husband, both Trusty Roger and Mistress Drury were aware of his merit. Roger referred to him as " a fine gentleman" as he pressed on Anne Drury, his mistress, the claims of George Browne for her aid in furthering his suit with Anne Sanders. When George Sanders, who is about to be murdered, begs his life of George Browne, he appeals to Browne as a gentleman not to soil his hands with "blood of innocents". Moreover the men who discover the blood on Browne's clothes consider him a worthy man as does the "cousin Browne" in whose home George Browne is apprehended for the murder. Everyone who knows Browne recognizes his potential for good, his seemly qualities, and laments his fall. His valiant effort to spare Anne Sanders is noted by all and would, in a sense, partially rehabilitate him if he were no more than a "swearing, drunken desperate dicke", which he is not. His pride and self-respect are reflected in his request to the court, that his body not be hanged in chains. A Warning does not use all the resources of A Briefe Discourse in portraying the character of Anne Drury, but she emerges, nonetheless, a remarkable person. Surgeon, soothsayer, and procuress, she is instrumental in furthering Browne's suit by convincing Anne Sanders through reading her palm that it is the will of God that she take another husband on the death of George Sanders, her present one. Able to exploit skilfully a dispute of little consequence between Anne Sanders and her husband and turn it to advantage, Anne Drury plies her several trades with dexterity drawing on the knowledge of each to support her efforts in another. According to Trusty Roger, her man, she is broadening her resources by studying the law. A versatile and a clever woman, she is able with the aid of Trusty Roger, her man, to cloak some of her nefarious activities in such a way that they are not evident to the world at large. She, like Roger, is careful about being rewarded for her work. Reminded once by Roger that she should not help Browne's suit without appropriate reward, she says that she will gain enough money to

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match her daughter with someone of greater substance than Brown, gentleman that he is. The tag "trusty" is at times well justified but at others belied in A Warning by Trusty Roger, Anne Drury's man. He is willing to do his mistress' bidding and "straight or crooked" will do his best to carry out her wishes. With his eye on the main chance, he wishes to be paid well for his services whether in the coin of the realm or a "cast sute of apparel" from a gnetleman whom he aids by his services. Indefatigable in spying out the prospects in preparing for the murder of George Sanders, Roger confirms his title by having passed on him the benediction "Roger is trusty, of that I'll be sworn." With implicit faith in the versatility and efficacy of his Mistress, Roger praises her to prospective clients, tells how she has taught many a one to "stoop unto the lewre", how she is so persuasive that she can "supple a stone", and how she is "studying the law", an addition to her knowledge of surgery, palmistry, and bawdry. Finally the characters in the bye-scenes are memorable despite their brief appearance. Tom Peart and Will Crow, the carpenters who build the scaffold at Newgate, the old man and Joan who are tending their cattle, and "cousin" Browne at Rochester make a contribution that is far from contemptible, for it is in such scenes that the reader of A Warning notes realism at its best. The merit of A Warningfor Fair Women lies, it seems, somewhere between the judgment of H. H. Adams who considers it a colossus of domestic tragedy to the judgments of Creizenach and Symonds. Creizenach considers the play "remarkable" though "unsuccessful", and Symonds adjudges the play "a poor specimen of dramatic art" with a "bare, indifferent presentation of a squalid crime". The apparent disparity in judgment is mitigated by an awareness of the context of the criticism. If Elizabethan tragedy or Elizabethan drama is the context, A Warning may not be done an injustice by being styled "unsuccessful" especially when redeemed by the modifier "remarkable". If the context is domestic tragedy, it is not, perhaps, too strong to refer to it as among the colossi of domestic tragedy. The close study of any subject, including that of a work of litera-

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ture below the first rank in merit, is subject to the liability that the one who studies it may seek to magnify its worth out of proportion and praise it beyond its desert. There is, however, another liability incident to close study. It is that the demerits of a work may be magnified to the point that the overall evaluation may emphasize the faults and obscure the virtues. It is important, then, to note the context of any evaluation of A Warning. As has been pointed out earlier, the play must be considered a respected and important member of the class domestic tragedy. It assumes a highly significant if not a commanding position in the context of domestic tragedy. Considered as Elizabethan tragedy, A Warning is, of course, less significant since there are many better plays. Even here, however, it is well to recognize the province of domestic tragedy and that of orthodox Elizabethan drama. Considered in the context of Elizabethan drama, A Warning may be said to occupy a rather modest position, but by no means should it be considered one of the humblest specimens of Elizabethan drama. A number of factors contribute to maintain its position of importance. From a historical standpoint the fact that it is a dramatic account of a crime passionnel involving a respected and highly regarded citizen is important. As drama it is significant as a part of the repertoire of the Chamberlain's Men. Though Simpson did not consider A Warning to be by Shakespeare, the surpassing desire to learn all that can be learned about Shakespeare was a motivating force behind his School of Shakespere, at present the only collection of plays including A Warning. The association of A Warning and Shakespeare, however tenuous the connection or obscure the relationship, enhances the importance of A Warning. For the light that the play sheds on the staging of Elizabethan drama, as well as for the problems it presents in other areas, A Warning is important. Moreover, the play's embodiment of popular theology, its representation of middle-class ideals, and the insight it gives into family relationships make it a useful document contributing to a fuller understanding of the age that gave rise to it. To assert the merit of A Warning as drama is not to be blind to its deficiencies. The points have been made, and with some justice,

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that the length of the trial in the play is to the detriment of the dramatic effectiveness, and that the author's urge to preach sometimes became the surpassing concern with the result of an obtrusive, rather than an organic moral. Though it must remain a matter of conjecture, the play as printed may present more of the homiletic material and the material of the courtroom than was represented on the stage. The deficiencies, however, should not obscure the virtues. Moreover, the fact that there was a historical George Sanders should not divert attention from the fact that A Warning partakes of conventions and traditions long antedating the death or birth of George Sanders. Some of the most perceptive students of A Warning, from the earliest to the most recent, have pointed out the associations of A Warning with the morality plays and the tradition of the Mirror for Magistrates. Though George Sanders was not one of the princes of the blood, he was a prominent, respected, and highly regarded citizen. In addition to A Warning's alignment with the morality tradition and the Mirror tradition, it appears to be involved in the Puritan controversy over the stage. The three anecdotes illustrative of the doctrine that murder will out include material that was part of the stock defense of the presentation of plays against the accusation of those who would do away with the presentation of stage plays. A Warning, then, is important as a part of a contemporaneous controversy as well as a continuation of two earlier traditions. A Warningfor Fair Women, then, is not a failure. It can be adjudged a failure only by placing the play in the context of the Elizabethan drama at large with the assumption that the author was one of thefinestplaywrights at the peak of his powers. Judged in the context of domestic tragedy, A Warning for Fair Women is a success. If not the best domestic tragedy in English, it is one of the best, and was in the repertoire of a company of actors including Shakespeare.

A WARNING FOR FAIR WOMEN Containing,

The most tragicall and lamentable murther of Master George Sanders of London Marchant, nigh Shooters hill.

Consented unto By his owne wife, acted by M. Browne, Mistris Drewry and Trusty Roger agents therin: with their severall ends.

As it hath beene lately diverse times acted by the right Honorable, the Lord Chamberlaine his Servantes.

Printed at London by Valentine Sims for William Aspley 1599.

THE CHARACTERS (in order of appearance)

History Tragedy Comedy Master Sanders Anne Sanders, wife to Sanders Browne, a Captain Trusty Roger, servant to Anne Drury Servant, to Sanders Anne Drury, surgeon and soothsayer Son, to George and Anne Sanders Draper Milliner The Furies Lust Chastitie Torch Bearer Master Barnes John Bean, servant to Barnes Old John Joan his maid Yeoman of the Buttery Master James Young Sanders Harry, a friend to Young Sanders Four Lords Two Messengers Waterman

96 Page Justice Mercy Mayor of Rochester Pursuivant Lord Mayor Lord Justice Clerk Sheriff Browne's Brother Minister Tom Peart, a carpenter Will Crow, a carpenter Doctor Keeper of Newgate

THE CHARACTERS

A WARNING FOR FAIRE WOMEN

[Induction]

Enter at one doore, Hystorie with Drum and Ensigne: Tragedie at another, in her one hand a whip, in the other hand a knife. Tragedie. Whither away so fast? peace with that drum: Downe with that Ensigne which disturbs our stage Out with this luggage, with this fopperie, This brawling she epeskin is intollerable. Hyst. Indeed no marvel though we should give place Unto a common executioner: Roome, roome for Gods sake, let us stand away, Oh we shall have some doughtie stuffe to day.

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Enter Comedie at the other end. Tra. What yet more Cats guts? O this filthie sound Stifles mine eares : More cartwheeles craking yet? A plague upont, lie cut your fiddle strings, If you stand scraping thus to anger me. Com. Gup mistris buskins with a whirligig, are you so tuchie? Madam Melpomine, whose mare is dead That you are going to take off her skin? Tra. A plague upon these filthie fidling trickes, Able to poyson any noble wit: Avoid the stage or lie whip you hence. [ííg. A2v]

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Com. Indeed thou maist, for thou art Murthers Beadle, The common hangman unto Tyrannie. But Hystorie, what all three met at once? What wonder's towards that we are got togither? Hyst. My meaning was to have beene here to day, But meeting with my Ladie Tragedie, She scoulds me off: And Comedie, except thou canst prevaile, I thinke she meanes to banish us the stage. Com. Tut, tut, she cannot; she may for a day Or two perhaps be had in some request, But once a weeke if we do not appeere, She shall find few that will attend her heere. Trag. I must confesse you have some sparkes of wit, Some odde ends of old jeasts scrap't up togither, To tickle shallow injudiciall eares, Perhaps some puling passion of a lover, but slight & childish, What is this to me? I must have passions that must move the soule, Make the heart heave, and throb within the bosome, Extorting teares out of the strictest eyes, To racke a thought and straine it to his forme, Untili I rap the sences from their course, This is my office. Com. How some damnd tyrant, to obtaine a crowne, Stabs, hangs, impoysons, smothers, cutteth throats, And then a Chorus too comes howling in, And tels us of the worrying of a cat, Then of afilthiewhining ghost, Lapt in some fowle sheete, or a leather pelch, Comes skreaming like a pigge hälfe stickt, And cries Vindicta, revenge, revenge: With that a little Rosen flasheth forth, Like smoke out of a Tabacco pipe, or a boyes squib : Then comes in two or three like to drovers, With taylers bodkins, stabbing one another, [sig. A3] Is not this trim? is not here goodly things?

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That you should be so much accounted of, I would not else. Hyst. Now before God thoul't make her mad anone Thy jeasts are like a Wispe unto a scould. Com. Why say I could: what care I Hystoriél Then shall we have a tragedie indeed: Pure purple Buskin, blood and murther right. Tra. Thus with your loose and idle similies, You have abusde me: but He whip you hence, She whips them. Ile scourge and lash you both from off the stage, T'is you have kept the Theatres so long, Painted in play-bills, upon every poast, That I am scorned of the multitude, My name prophande: but now lie raigne as Queene In great Apollos name and all the Muses, By vertue of whose Godhead I am sent, I charge you to be gone and leave this place. Hyst. Looke Comedie, I markt it not till now, The stage is hung with blacke; and I perceive The Auditors preparde for Tragedie. Com. Nay then I see she shall be intertain'd, These ornaments beseeme not thee and me, Then Tragedie, kil them to day with sorrow, Wee'l make them laugh with myrthfull jeasts to morrow Hyst. And Tragedie although to day thou raigne, To morrow here lie domineere againe. Turning to the people. Tra. Are you both gone so soone? why then I see All this faire circuite here is left to me : All you spectators, turne your chearfull eie, 45 heave] Hopkinson 2; heavie Q

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Give intertainment unto Tragedie, My Sceane is London, native and your owne, I sigh to thinke, my subject too well knowne, I am not faind: many now in this round, Once to behold me in sad teares were drownd, Yet what I am, I will not let you know, Untili my next ensuing sceane shal show. Enter Sanders, Anne Sand: Drurie, Browne, Roger and master Sand: servant. San. Gentlemen, here we take our leave, Thanking you for your curteous companie, And for your good discourse of Ireland, Whereas it seemes you have been resident, By your well noting the particulars. Bro. True sir, I have been there familiar, And am no better knowne in London here, Than I am there unto the better sort, Chiefely in Dublin where ye heard me say, Are as great feasts as this we had to day. San. So have I heard, the land gives good increase, Of everie blessing for the use of man, And t'is great pittie the inhabitants, Will not be civili, nor live under law. Bro. As civili in the English pale as here, And lawes obeide, and orders duly kept, And al the rest may one daie be reduced. San. God grant it so : I praie you whats your name? Bro. My name's George Browne. San. God be with ye good master Browne. Bro. Manie farewells master Sanders to your selfe, and to these Gentlewomen: Ladies, God be with you. A. San. God be with ye sir. Dru. Thanks for your companie, I like your talk of Ireland so wel That I could wish time had not cut it off,

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I pray ye sir if ye come neere my house Call, and you shal be welcome master Browne. Bro. I thanke ye mistris Drurie; is't not so? Dru. My name is Anne Drurie. San. Widow, come, will ye go? Dru. Ile waite upon you sir.

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Exeunt Sanders. A. San. makes a curtesie and departs, and all the rest saving Roger, whom Browne calles. Bro. Hearke ye, my friend, Are not you servant unto mistres Drurie? Rog. Yes indeed forsooth, for fault of a better, I have serv'd her (man and boy) this seven yeeres. Bro. I pray thee do me a peece of favour then, And lie requite it. Rog. Any thing I can. Bro. Entreate thy mistres when she takes her leave, Of maister Sanders and his wife, to make retire Hither againe, for I will speake with her. Wilt thou do't for me? Rog. Yea sir that I will. Where shal she finde ye? Bro. Ile not stirre from hence: Say I intreate her but a worde or two, She shall not stay longer then likes her selfe. Rog. Nay sir for that as you two can agree, lie warrant you lie bring her to ye straight.

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Exit Roger. 155 Bro. Straight or crooked, I must needes speake with her, For by this light my heart is not my owne, But taken prisoner at this frolicke feast, Intangled in a net of golden wiar, Which love had slily laid in her faire lookes. 160 O maister Sanders th'art a happie man, To have so sweet a creature to thy wife, Whom I must winne, or I must lose my Ufe,

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But if she be as modest as she seemes, Thy heart may breake George Browne ere thou obtaine. This mistres Drurie must be made the meane, What ere it cost to compasse my desire, And I hope wel, she doth so soone retire,

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Enter Roger and Drurie. Good mistris Drurie pardon this bold part [iig. A4v\ That I have plaid upon so small acquaintance, To send for you, let your good nature hide The blame of my bad nurture for this once. Dru. I take it for a favour master Browne, And no offence, a man of your faire parts, Wil send for me to steede him anie way. Rog. Sir, ye shall find my mistris as curteous a gentlewoman, as any is in London, if ye have occasion to use her. Take her aside. Bro. So I presume friend, mistris by your leave, I would not that your man should heare our speech, For it concernes me much it be conceald. Dru. I hope it is no treason you wil speake. Bro, No by my faith, nor felonie. Dru. Nay then, though my man Roger heare it, never care If it be love, or secrets due to that, Roger is trustie I dare pawne my life, As anie fellow within London walles, But if you have some secret maladie, That craves my helpe, to use my surgerie, Which though I say't is preitie: he shall hence, If not, be bold to speake, there's no offence. Bro. I have no sore, but a new inward griefe, Which by your phisicke may find some reliefe. Dru. What, is't a surfet? Bro. I, at this late feast. Dru. Why Aqua coelestis, or the water of balme, Or Rosa solis, or that of Doctour Steevens

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Will help a surfeit. Now I remember me, Mistris Sanders hath a soveraigne thing, To help a sodaine surfeit presently. Bro. I thinke she have: how shal I compasse it? Dru. Ile send my man for some on't. Bro. Pray ye stay. Sheele never send that which wil do me good. Dru. O say not so, for then ye know her not. [sig. Bl] Bro. I would I did so well as I could wish. Aside. Dru. Shees even as curteous a gentlewoman sir, As kind a peate, as London can affoord: Not send it quotha? yes and bring't herselfe, If neede require: a poore woman tother day, Her water-bearers wife, had surfeted With eating beanes (ye know tis windy meate) And the poore creature's subject to the stone: She went her selfe, and gave her but a dramme, It holp her strait, in lesse than hälfe an houre She fell unto her business till she sweat, And was as well as I am now. Bro. But that which helps a woman helps not me. A womans help will rather do me good. Dru. Ifaith I ha found you, are ye such one? Well Maister Browne, I warrant, let you alone. Bro. But Mistris Drewry, leave me not yet alone, For if ye do, I never shall alone Obtaine the company that my soule desires: Faith tell me one thing, can ye not do much With Mistris Sanders, are you not inward with her? Dru. I dare presume to do as much with her, As any woman in this cittie can. Bro. Whats your opinion of her honesty? Dru. O very honest, very chaste yfaith, I will not wrong her for a thousand pound. Bro. Then all your physicke can not cure my wound. Dru. Your wound is love, is that your surffet sir? Bro. Yea, and tis curelesse without helpe of her.

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Dru. I am very sorie that I cannot ease yee. Bro. Well, if ye can, yfaith I will well please ye. Dru. You weare a pretty turkesse there me thinkes, I would I had the fellow on't. Bro. Take ye this, Upon condition to effect my blisse. Dru. Pardon me that sir, no condition, [sig. 57 v] For that griefe I am no phisition, How saist thou Roger, am I? Rog. Yea forsooth mistris, what? what did ye aske? Dru. This gentleman's in love With mistris Sanders, and would have me speake In his behalfe, how saist thou, dare I doo't, And she so honest, wise and vertuous? Bro. What meane ye mistris Drurie to bewray, Unto your man, what I in secret spake? Dru. Tush, feare not you, tis trustie Roger this, I use his counsell in as deepe affaires, How saist thou Hodgel Rog. Mistris, this say I: though mistris Sanders be very honest, as in my conscience she is, and her husband wise and suttle, and in al Billingsgate-ward not a kinder couple, yet if you wold wrong her husband your deere frind, me thinks ye have such a sweete tongue, as wil supple a stone, and for my life, if ye list to labour, youle win her. Sir sticke close to my mistris, she is studying the law: and if ye be not straite aced ye know my mind, sheele do it for ye, and ile play my part. Bro. Here Mistres Drurie this same ring is yours,

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Give her a Ring Wear't for my sake, and if ye do me good, Command this chaîne, this hand, and this heart bloud, What say ye to me? speake a cheereful word. Rog. Faith mistris do, hees a fine gentleman, Pittie he should languish for a little love.

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Dru. Yea but thou knowest they are both my friends, Hee's very wise, she verie circumspect, Verie respective of her honest name. Rog. If ye list you can cover asgreat a blame. Dru. If I should breake it, and she take it il. Rog. Tut, you have cunning, pray ye use your skil : To her master Browne. Bro. What say ye to me Ladie? Dru. This I say. I can not make a man, to cast away So goodly a creature as your selfe, were sinne: Second my onset, for I wil begin To breake the ice that you may passe the foorde, Do your good wil, you shal have my good word. Bro. But how shal I have oportunitie? Dru. That must be watch'd, but verie secretly. Bro. How? at her house? Dru. There ye may not enter. Bro. How then? Dru. By some other fine adventure, Watch when her husband goes to the Exchange, Shee'l sit at doore: to her though she be strange, Spare not to speake, ye can but be denide, Women love most, by whom they are most tride, My man shal watch, and I wil watch my turne, I can not see so faire a Gallant mourne. Bro. Ye blesse my soule by shewing me the waie, O mistris Drurie, if I do obtaine, Do but imagine how lie quit your paine, But where's her house? Dru. Against Saint Dunstones church. Bro. Saint Dunstones in Fleetestreete? Dru. No, neere Billingsgate, Saint Dunstones in the East, thats in the West, Be bold to speake for I wil do my best. Bro. Thanks mistris Drurie, Roger drink you that, And as I speede expect your recompence.

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Rog. I thanke ye sir, nay lie gage my hand, Few women can my mistris force withstand. 310 Dru. Sir, this is all ye have to say? Bro. For this time mistris Drurie we wil part. Winne mistris Sanders, and ye winne my heart. Dru. Hope you the best, she shal have much adoe, 314 To hold her own when I begin to wooe: come Hodge. Exit. Rog. I trust sir when my mistris has obtaind your sute, [sig. B2v] You'le sute me in a cast sute of your appareil. Bro. Cast and uncast shal trustie Roger have, If thou be secret, and an honest knave. Exeunt omnes. 320

[»] Enter Anne Sanders with her little sonne, and sit at her doore. Boy. Praie ye mother when shal we goe to supper? A. San. Why, when your father comes from the Exchange, Ye are not hungrie since ye came from schoole. 325 Boy. Not hungrie (mother,) but I would faine eate. A. San. Forbeare a while until your father come, I sit here to expect his quicke returne. Boy. Mother, shal not I have new bow and shafts, Against our schoole go a feasting? 330 A. San. Yes if ye learn, And against Easter new apparel too. Boy. Youle lend me all your scarfes, and al your rings, And buy me a white feather for my velvet cappe, Wil ye mother? yea say, praie ye say so. 335 A. San. Goe pratling boy, go bid your sister see My Closet lockt when she takes out the fruite. Boy. I wil forsooth, and take some for my paines. Exit Boy. A. San. Wei sir sauce, do's your master teach ye that? I praie God blesse thee, thart a very wagge. 341

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Enter Browne. Bro. Yonder she sits to light this obscure streete, Like a bright diamond worne in some darke place, Or like the moone in a blacke winters night, To comfort wandring travellers in their waie, But so demure, so modest are her lookes, So chaste her eies, so vertuous her aspect, As do repulse loves false Artilerie; Yet must I speake though checkt with scornful nay, Desire drawes on, but Reason bids me staie, My Tutresse Drurie gave me charge to speake: And speake I must, or els my heart wil breake. God save ye mistris Sanders, al alone? Sit ye to take the view of passengers? A. San. No in good sooth sir, I give smal regard Who comes, or goes, my husband I attend, Whose comming wil be speedie from th' Exchange. Bro. A good exchange made he for single life, That joynde in marryage with so sweete a wife. A. San. Come ye to speake with maister Sanders sir? Bro. Why aske ye that? A. San. Because ye make a staie, Here at his doore. Bro. I staie in curtesie, To give you thankes for your last companie, I hope my kind salute doth not offend. A. San. No sir, and yet such unexpected kindnesse, is like herb John in broth. Bro. I praie ye how's that? A. San. T' may even as wel be laid aside as usde, If ye have businesse with my husband sir, Y'are welcome, otherwise De take my leave. Bron. Nay gentle mistris, let not my accesse Be meanes to drive you from your doore so soone : I would be loath to prejudice your pleasure, For my good liking at the feast conceiv'd,

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If master Sanders shal have cause to use, The favour of some noble personage, Let him imploie no other but George Browne, T'efiect his sute without a recompence, I speake I know not what, my tongue and heart, [Aside] are so divided through the force of Love. A. San. I thanke ye sir, but if he have such cause, I hope hees not so voide of friends in Court, But he may speede and never trouble you, Yet I wil do your errand if ye please. Bro. Even as't please you : I doubt I trouble ye.

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[sig. B3v] A. San. Resolve your doubt, and trouble me no more. Bro. Twil never be : I thought as much before. God be with you Mistris. A. San. Fare ye wel, good sir. Bro. He to Nan Drewry yet, and talke with her. A. San. These arrand-making Gallants are good men, That cannot passe and see a woman sit Of any sort, alone at any doore, But they will find a scuse to stand and prate, Fooles that they are to bite at every baite.

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Enter Sanders. Here he comes now whom I have lookte for long. San. How now sweet Nan, sitst thou here all alone? A. San. Better alone, than have bad company. San. I trust there's none but good resorts to thee. A. San. There shall not sir, if I know what they be : Ye have staide late sir at th'Exchange to night. San. Upon occasion Nan, is supper ready? A. San. An houre agoe. San. And what good company? None to sup with us? Send one for Nan Drewry, Sheele play the wagge, tell tales, and make us merrie. A. San. I thinke sh' as supt, but one shall run and looke :

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If your meate be marrde, blame your selfe, not the cooke. San. How ere it be, weele take it in good part For once and use it not, come, lets in sweet heart. Exeunt. Enter Anne Drewry, and Trusty Roger her man, to them Browne. Dru. Roger come hither, was there no messenger This day from maister Browne to speake with me? Rog. Mistris, not any, and that I marvell at : But I can tell you, he must come and send, And be no niggard of his purse beside, Or else I know how it will go with him : He must not thinke to anker where he hopes, Unlesse you be his pylot. Dru. Where is that? The fellow talkes and prates he knowes not what, I be his pylot? whither? canst thou tell? The cause he doth frequent my house thou seest, Is for the love he beares unto my daughter. Rog. A verie good cloake mistres for the raine, And therein I must needes commend your wit, Close dealing is the safest : by that meanes The world will be the lesse suspicious : For whilest t'is thought he doth affect your daughter, Who can suspect his love to mistris Sanders'? Dru. Why now thou art as I would have thee be Conceited, and of quicke capacitie, Some heavie drawlatch would have bin this moneth, (Though hourlie I had instructed him) Before he could have found my policie. But Hodge, thou art my hearts interpreter, And be thou secret still, as thou hast beene, And doubt not but weele all gaine by the match : George Browne as thou knowest is well reckond of, A proper man and hath good store of coinè,

[iii]

420

[sig. B4] 425 [Aside.]

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A WARNING FOR FAIR WOMEN

And mistres Sanders she is yong and faire, And may be tempred easily like waxe, Especially by one that is familiar with her. Rog. True mistres, nor is she the first by many, That you have wonne to stoope unto the lewre, It is your trade, your living, what needs more? Drive you the bargain, I will keepe the doore. Dru. Trustie Roger, thou wel deservest thy name, Rog. But mistris, shall tell you what I thinke? Dru. Yes Hodge, what ist? Rog. If you'le be ruld by me, Let them pay well for what you undertake : Be not a spokeswoman mistres for none of them, But be the better for it : times will change,

450

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[sig. B4v] And there's no trusting to uncertainties. Dru. Dost thinke I will? then beg me for a foole, The mony I willfingertwixt them twaine Shall make my daughter such a dowrie, As I will match her better then with Browne, 465 To some rich Atturney, or Gentleman : Let me alone, if they injoy their pleasure, My sweete shalbe to feede upon their treasure. Rog. Hold you there mistres : here comes master Browne. Enter Browne. Bro. Good morrow mistres Drurie. Dru. What maister Browne, Now by my faith you are the very last man We talkt of : y'are welcome sir, how do you? And how speede you concerning that you wot of? Rog. Mistres, He voyd the place, if so you please, And give you leave in private to conferre. Bro. Whither goes Roger! call him backe againe. Dru. Come hither sirra, M. Browne will have you stay. Bro. Why how now Roger! wil you shrinke from me?

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A WARNING FOR FAIR WOMEN

Because I saw you not, do you suppose I make no reckoning of your company. What man? thy trust is it I build upon. Rog. I thanke you sir : nay pray you be not offended, I would be loath to seeme unmannerly. Bro. Tut a figs end : thy councell will do well, And we must use thee, therefore tarry here, I have no other secret to reveale, But onely this, that I have broke the ice, And made an entrance to my loves pursute : Sweete mistris Sanders that choice argument Of all perfection, sitting at her doore Even now I did salute : some words there past, But nothing to the purpose, neither time, Nor place consorted to my minde : beside, Recourse of servants, and of passengers Might have been jealous of our conference: And therefore I refraind all large discourse, Only thus much I gatherd by her speech, That she is affable, not coy, nor scornfull, And may be wunne, would you but be intreated To be a mediator for me, and perswade her. Rog. I pray you do so mistres, you do know That maister Brown's and honest gentleman, And I dare sweare will recompence you well. Bro. If she doe mistrust me, there's my purse, And in the same ten angels of good gold, And when I can but have accesse to her, And am in any possibilitie To winne her favour, chalenge of me more, A hundred pound in marriage with your daughter. Dru. Alas how dare I master Browne? her husband Is one that I am much beholding to, A man both loving, bountifull and just, And to his wife, in all this cittie, none More kinde, more loyall harted, or more firme, What sinne were it to doe him then that wrong?

111

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[j/g. CI] 500

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A WARNING FOR FAIR WOMEN

Bro. Oh speake not of his worth, but of her praise, If he be firme, shees faire, if he bountifull, Shees beautifull, if he loyall, shees lovely, If he, in all the Cittie for a man Be the most absolute; she, in all the world Is for a woman the most excellent: Oh earth hath seldome such a creature seene, Nor subject bin possest with such a love. Rog. Mistris, can you heare this, and not be mov'de? I would it lay in me to helpe you sir, I faith you should not need so many words. Bro. I know that, thou hast alwayes beene my friend, And though I never see Anne Sanders more, Yet for my sake drinke this : and mistres Drewrie, England I must be forst to bid farewell, Or shortly looke to heare that I am dead, Unlesse I may prevaile to get her love. [sig. CI v] Rog. Good mistres leave your dumps, and speake to him. You need not studie so, t'is no such labour : Alas, wil you see a gentleman cast away? All is but George, I pray you let be done. Dru. Well maister Browne, not for your monies sake So much, as in regard I love you well, Am I content to be your Orator, Mistres Sanders shall be certified, How fervently you love her, and withal, Some other words He use in your behalfe As you shal have accesse to her at least. Bro. I aske no more, when will you undertake it? Dru. This day, it shal no longer be deferd, And in the evening you shal know an answere. Bro. Here at your house? Dru.· Yea here if so you please. Bro. No better place, I rest upon your promise : So fare well mistresse Drurie till that houre, What sweet can earth affoord will not seeme sowre. [Exit.] Dru. Hee's sped yfayth : come Roger let us go,

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A WARNING FOR FAIR WOMEN

113

111 is the wind doth no man profite blow. Rog. I shall not be the woorse for it, that I know.

555 Exeunt.

Enter maister Sanders and his man.

[iv]

San. Sirra, what bils of debt are due to me? Man. All that were due sir as this day, are paid. San. You have inough then to discharge the bond Of maister Ashmores fifteene hundred pound, That must be tendred on the Exchange to night? Man. With that which maister Bishop owes, we have. San. When is his time to pay? Man. This after noone. San. Hee's a sure man, thou needst not doubt of him. In any case take heed unto my crédité, I do not use (thou knowest) to breake my worde, Much lesse my bond : I pre thee looke unto it,

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570 [«£. C2]

And whenas master Bishop sends his money, Bring the whole summe : Ile be upon the Burse, Or if I be not, thou canst take a quittance. Man. What shall I say unto my mistres, sir? She bade me tell out thirtie pounds even now, She meant to have bestowed in linnen cloath. San. She must deferre her market till to morrow, I know no other shift : my great affaires Must not be hindred by such trifling wares. Man. She told me sir the Draper would be here, And George the Milliner with other things, Which she appointed should be brought her home. San. All's one for that, another time shall serve, Nor is there any such necessitie, But she may verie well forbeare a while. Man. She will not so be answered at my hand. San. Tell her I did command it should be so. Man. Your pleasure shalbe done sir, though thereby

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585 Exit.

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Tis I am like to beare the blame away. Enter Anne Sanders, mistres Drurie, a Draper and a Miliner.

590

A. San. Come neare I pray you, I do like your linnen, and you shall have your price: but you my friend, the gloves you shewed me, and the Italian purse are both well made, and I doe like the fashion, but trust me, the perfume I afraide will not continue, yet upon your worde lie have them too. Sirra where is your Maister? Man. Forsooth hees gone to th'Exchange even now. A. San. Have you the mony ready which I cald for ? Man. No, if it please you, my master gave me charge I should deliver none. A. San. Howes that sir knave? Your master chargd you should deliver none? Go to, dispatch and fetch me thirtie pound,

595

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605 [sig. C2v]

Or I wil send my fingers to your lips. Dru. Good fortune, thus incenst against her husband, I shal the better breake with her for Browne. Man. I praie you mistris pacifie your selfe, I dare not do it. A. San. You dare not, and why so? Man. Because there's money to be paide to night, Upon an obligation. A.San. What ofthat? Therefore I may not have to serve my turne. Man. In deede forsooth there is not in the house, As yet sufficient to discharge that debt. A. San. Tis wel that I must stand at your reversion, Intreat my prentise, curtesie to my man : And he must be purse-bearer, when I neede, This was not wont to be your masters order. Dru. No, lie be sworne of that : I never knew,

Aside.

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A WARNING FOR FAIR WOMEN

But that you had at al times mistris Sanders, A greater summe than that at a command, Mary perhaps the world may now be chang'd. Man. Feede not my mistris anger, mistris Drewry, You do not well : to morrow if she list It is not twice so much but she may have it. A. San. So that my breach of crédité, in the while Is not regarded : I have brought these men, To have their mony for such necessaries, As I have bought, and they have honestly Delivered to my hands, and now forsooth, I must be thought so bare and beggarly, As they must be put of until to morrow. I. Good mistris Sanders trouble not your selfe, If that be all, your word shalbe sufficient, Were it for thrice the value of my ware. 2 And trust me mistris you shal do me wrong, If otherwise you do conceit of me, Be it for a weeke, a fortnight, or a month, Or when you wil, I never would desire Better securitie for all I am worth. A. San. I thanke you for your gentlenes my friends, But I have never usde to goe on crédité. There is two crownes betwixt you for your paines, Sirra, deliver them their stuffe againe, And make them drinke a cup of wine, farewell. 1 Good mistris Sanders let me leave the cloth, I shal be chidden when I do come home. 2 And I, therefore I pray you be perswaded. A. San. No no, I wil excuse you to your maisters. So if you love me use no more intreatie.

115

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640 [sig. C3]

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Exeunt [Draper and Milliner]. I am a woman, and in that respect, Am well content my husband shal controule me, But that my man should over-awe me too,

655

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A WARNING FOR FAIR WOMEN

And in the sight of strangers, mistris Drurie, I tell you true, do's grieve me to the heart. Dru. Your husband was too blame, to say the troth, That gave his servant such authoritie, What signifies it but he doth repose More trust in a vilde boy, than in his wife? A. San. Nay give me leave to thinke the best of him, It was my destinie and not his malice, Sure I did know as wel when I did rise This morning, that I should be chaft ere noone, As where I stand. Dru. By what, good mistris Sanders? A. San. Why by these yellow spots upon my fingers, They never come to me, but I am sure To heare of anger ere I goe to bed. Dru. Tis like enough, I pray you let me see, Good sooth they are as manifest as day, And let me tel you too, I see disciphered, Within this palme of yours, to quite that evil, Faire signes of better fortune to ensue, Cheere up your heart, you shortly shalbe free From al your troubles. See you this character [wg. Directly fixed to the line of life? It signifies a dissolution, You must be (mistris Anne) a widow shortly. A. San. No, God forbid, I hope you do but jest. Dru. It is most certaine, you must burie George. A. San. Have you such knowledge then in palmestrie? Dru. More then in surgerie, though I do make That my profession, this is my best living, And where I cure one sicknesse or disease, I tell a hundred fortunes in a yeere. What makes my house so haunted as it is, With merchants wives, bachlers and yong maides, But for my matchlesse skil in palmestrie? Lend me your hand againe, Ile tel you more. A widow said I? yea, and make a change,

A WARNING FOR FAIR WOMEN

117

Not for the worse, but for the better farre : A gentleman (my girle) must be the next, A gallant fellow, one that is belov'd Of great estates, tis playnely figurd here, And this is calld the Ladder of Promotion. A. San. I do not wish to be promoted so, My George is gentle, and belov'd beside, And I have even as good a husband of him, As anie wench in London hath beside. Dru. True, he is good, but not too good for God, Hee's kind, but can his love dispence with death, Hee's wealthie, and an hansome man beside, But wil his grave be satisfied with that? He keeps you wel, who saies the contrary? Yet better's better. Now you are araide After a civili manner, but the next Shall keepe you in your hood, and gowne of silke, And when you stirre abroade, ride in your coach, And have your dozen men all in a liverie To waite upon you: this is somewhat like: A.San.

Yet had I rather be as now I am,

If God were pleased that it should be so. Dru. I marrie now you speake like a good Christian, If God were pleased : O but he hath decreed It shalbe otherwise, and to repine Against his providence you know tis sinne. A. San. Your words do make me think I know not what, And burden me with feare as wel as doubt. Dru. Tut, I could tel ye for a neede, his name, That is ordaind to be your next husband, But for a testimonie of my former speeches, Let it suffice I find it in your hand, That you already are acquainted with him, And let me see, this crooked line derivde From your ringfingershewes me, not long since You had some speech with him in the streete, Or neere about your doore I am sure it was.

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[sig.C4\

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A WARNING FOR FAIR WOMEN

A. San. I know of none more than that gentleman, That supt with us, they cal him captarne Browne, And he I must confesse against my wil, Came to my doore as I was sitting there, And usde some idle chat might a beene sparde And more I wis than I had pleasure in. Dru. I cannot tel, if captarne Browne it were, Then captaine Browne is he must marrie you. His name is George I take it : yea tis so, My rules of palmestrie declare no lesse. Α. San. Tis verie strange how ye should know so much. Dru. Nay I can make rehearsal of the words, Did passe betwixt you if I were disposde, Yet I protest I never saw the man, Since, nor before the night he supt with us, Briefly, it is your fortune mistris Sanders, And there's no remedie but you must leave him, I counsel you to no immodestie Tis lawful, one deceast to take an other.

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750 [i/g. C4v]

In the meane space I would not have you coy, But if he come unto your house, or so, To use him courteously, as one for whom You were created in your birth a wife. A. San. If it be so, I must submit my selfe, To that which God and destenie sets downe: But yet I can assure you mistres Drurie, I do not find me any way inclinde To change or new affection, nor God willing Will I be false to Sanders whilest I live. By this time hees returnd from th'Exchange, Come, you shal sup with us. Dru. Ile folow you. Why this is wel, I never could have found A fitter way to compasse Brownes desire, 759 change or] Hopkinson 1 ; change off Q

755

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A WARNING FOR FAIR WOMEN

Nor in her womans breast kindled loves fire. For this will hammer so within her head, As for the new, sheele wish the old were dead, When in the necke of this I will devise Some stratageme to close up Sanders eies.

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[Exit.] 770

[Dumb Show I] Enter Tragedie with a bowle of bloud in her hand. Tra. Til now you have but sitten to behold, The fatal entrance to our bloudie sceane, And by gradations seene how we have growne Into the maine streame of our tragedie : Al we have done, hath only been in words, But now we come unto the dismall act, And in these sable curtains shut we up, The Comicke entrance to our direful play, This deadly banquet is preparde at hand, Where Ebon tapers are brought up from hel, To leade blacke murther to this damned deed, The ugly Screechowle, and the night Raven, With flaggy wings and hideous croking noise, Do beate the casements of this fatal house, Whilst I do bring my dreadful Furies forth, They come to cover.

775

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785

[jig. Dl]

To spread the table to this bloudy feast. The while they cover. Come forth and cover, for the time drawes on,

790

Dispatch, I say, for now I must imploy ye To be the ushers to this damned traine. Bring forth the banquet, and that lustfull wine, Which in pale mazors made of dead mens sculles, They shall carowse to their destruction :

795

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A WARNING FOR FAIR WOMEN

By this thei're entred to this fatali doore, Harke how the gastly fearefull chimes of night Do ring them in : and with a dolefull peale Here some strange solemne musike like belles is heard within.

800

Do fill the roofe with sounds of tragedie : Dispatch, I say, and be their Ushers in. The Furies goe to the doore andmeete them: first the Furies enter before leading them, dauncing a soft daunce to the solemne musicke: next comes Lust before Browne, leading mistris Sanders covered with a blacke vaile: Chastitie all in white, pulling her backe softly by the arme: then Drewry, thrusting away Chastitie, Rogerfollowing: they march about, and then sit to the table: the Furiesfill wine, Lust drinckes to Browne, he to Mistris Sanders, she pledgeth him: Lust imbraceth her, she thrusteth Chastityfrom her, Chastity wringes her hands, and departs: Drury and Roger imbrace one an other: the Furies leape and imbrace one another. Whilst they sit downe, Tragedie speakes. Here is the Maske unto this damned murther, The Furies first, the divell leades the daunce : Next, lawlesse Lust conducteth cruell Browne, He doth seduce this poore deluded soule, Attended by unspotted Innocence, As yet unguiltie of her husbands death. Next followes on that instrument of hell That wicked Drurie, the accursed fiend, That thrusts her forward to destruction, And last of al is Roger, Druries man, A villaine expert in all trecherie, One conversant in all her damned drifts,

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[sig. Dlv] 825

A WARNING FOR FAIR WOMEN

And a base broker in this murderous act. Here they prepare them to these lustful feasts, And here they site al wicked murthers guests. Tragedie standing to beholde them a while, till the shew be done, againe turning to the people. Thus sinner prevailes, she drinkes that poysoned draught, With which base thoughts henceforth infects her soule, And wins her free consent to this foule deed, Now bloud and Lust, doth conquer and subdue, And Chastitieis quite abandoned: Here enters Murther into al their hearts, And doth possesse them with the hellish thirst Of guiltlesse blood : now wil I wake my chime And lay this charming rod upon their eyes, To make them sleepe in their securitie. They sleepe. Thus sittes this poore soule, innocent of late, Amongst these divels at this damned feast, Wunne and betraid to their detested sinne, And thus with blood their hands shalbe imbru'de, Tragedy settes downe her blood, and rubbes their hands. To Browne. Thy hands shal both be touch'd for they alone Are the foule actors of this impious deed:

850 Tragedy settes] Murther settes Q

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A WARNING FOR FAIR WOMEN

To Drewry and Roger.

[sig. D2]

And thine : and thine : for thou didst lay the plot, And thou didst worke this damned witch devise, Your hands are both as deepe in blood as his. To Anne.

860

Only thou diptst a finger in the same, And here it is : Awake now when you will, For now is the time wherein to worke your ill. Here Browne starts up: drawes his sword, and runnes out. Thus he is gone whilest they are all secure, Resolv'd to put these desperate thoughts in ure, They follow him : and them wil I attend, Untili I bring them all unto their end.

865

[Exeunt.]

Enter Sanders, and one or two with him. San. You see sir still I am a dayly guest, But with so true friends as I hold your selfe, I had rather be too rude, then too precise. Gent. Sir this house is yours : you come but to your owne, And what else I cai mine, is wholy yours, So much I do endeere your love sweet master Sanders, A light ho, there. San. Wei sir at this time lie rather be unmannerly then ceremonious, He leave you sir to recommend my thanks, Unto your kind respective wife. Gent. Sir for your kind patience, shee's much beholding to you And I beseech you remember me to mistris Sanders. San. Sir I thanke you for hir. Gent. Sirra, ho, whose within there?

[v] 871

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A WARNING FOR FAIR WOMEN

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[Enter Prentice.] Prentice. Sir? Gent. Light a Torch there, and wait on M. Sanders home. San. It shall not need sir, it is light enough. [sig. D2v] Let it alone. Gent. Nay, I pray ye sir. San. Yfaith sir at this time it shall not neede, Tis very light, the streetes are ful of people, And I have some occasion by the way that may detaine me. Gent. Sir, I am sorie, that you go alone, tis somwhat late. San. Tis wel sir, God send you happie rest. Gent. God blesse you sir : passion of me, I had forgot one thing, I am glad I thought of it before we parted : Your patience sir a little.

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Here enters Browne speaking, in casting one side of his cloake under his arme. While master Sanders and he are in busie talke one to another, Browne steps to a corner. Bro. This way he should come, and a fitter place, The towne afioordes not, tis his neerest waie, And tis so late, he wil not goe about, Then stand close George, and with a luckie arme, Sluce out his life, the hindrer of thy love : Oh sable night, sit on the eie of heaven, That it discerne not this blacke deede of darknesse, My guiltie soule, burnt with lusts hateful fire, Must wade through bloud, t'obtaine my vile desire, Be then my coverture, thicke ugly night, The light hates me, and I doe hate the light. San. Good night sir. Gent. Good night good master Sanders.

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A WARNING FOR FAIR WOMEN

Sir I shal see you on the Exchange to morrow. San. You shal God willing Sir : good night. [Exit Gentleman.] 920 Bro. I heare him comming faire unto my stand Murther and death sit on my fatal hand. Enters a Gentleman with man with a torch before, Browne drawes to strike. Gent. Whose there? San. A friend. Gent. Master Sanders? wel met. [i/g. D3] San. Good even gentle sir, so are you. Gent. Where have you beene so late sir? Bro. A plague upon't, a light and companie, Even as I was about to do the deede. Browne aside. See how the divell stumbles in the nicke. San. Sir, here at a friends of mine in Lumberd streete At supper : where I promise you, Our cheere and entertainement was so great, That we have past our ho wer, Beleeve me sir the evening's stolne away, I see tis later than 1 tooke it for. Gent. Sirra turne there at the corner since tis late, I will go home with master Sanders. San. No, I praie you sir trouble not your selfe, Sir I beseech you. Gent. Sir pardon me, sirra go on now where we are, My waie lies just with yours. San. I am beholding to you. Exeunt.

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Browne commeth out alone. Bro. Except by miracle, thou art delivered as was never man, My sword unsheathd, and with the piercing Steele, Ready to broch his bosome, and my purpose Thwarted by some malignant envious starre.

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A WARNING FAOR FAIR WOMEN

Night I could stabbe thee, I could stabbe my selfe, I am so mad that he scaped my hands. How like a fatal comet did that light, With this portentious vision fright mine eies? A maske of divels, walke along with thee, And thou the torch bearer unto them all, Thou fatal Brand nere maist thou be extinct, Til thou hast set that damned house on fire, Where he is lodgde that brought thee to this place. Sanders this hand doth hold that death alone, And beares the seale of thy destruction: Some other time shall serve till thou be dead, My fortunes yet are nere accomplished. Enter Maister Barnes and John Beane his man. Beane. Must I go first to Greenewich sir? Bar. What els? Beane. I cannot go by water, for it ebbes, The wind's at west, and both are strong against us. Bar. My meaning is that you shal go by land, And come by water, though the tide be late, Faile not to be at home againe this night, With answere of those letters which ye have. This letter give to maister Cofferer, If he be not at court when ye come there, Leav't at his chamber in any case, Pray maister Sanders to be here next weeke, About the matter at Saint Marie Cray. Beane. Me thinkes sir under your correction, Next weeke is ill apppointed. Bar. Why, I pray ye? Beane. T'is Easter weeke, and every holiday, Are sermons at the Spittle. Bar. What ofthat? Beane. Can maister Sanders then be sparde to come? Bar. Wei said John foole, I hope at afternoone,

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[sig. D3v] Exit. [vi]

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A WARNING FOR FAIR WOMEN

A paire of Oares may bring him downe to Wolwich, Tel him he must come downe in any wise. Beane. What shal I bring from London? Bar. A fooles head. Beane. A calfes head's better meate, Tis Maundie thursdaie sir, and every butcher, Now keepes open shoppe. Bar. Wei get ye gone, and hie ye home, how now? Beane stumbles twice.

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What art thou drunke, canst thou not stand? Beane. Yes sir, I did but stumble, God send me good lucke I was not wont to stumble on plaine ground. Bar. Look better to your feete then. [ijg. D4] Exit Barnes. 100* Beane. Yes forsooth : and yet I do not like it at my setting forth They say it doe's betoken some mischance : I feare not drowning if the boate be good, There is no danger in so short a cut, 1005 Betwixt Blacke wall and Wolwich is the worst, And if the watermen wil watch the Anchors, lie watch the catches and the hoyes my selfe, Well I must go : Christs crosse, God be my speede. Enter olde John, and Joane his maide. Who comes there a Gods name? this wooddy way Doth harbour many a false knave they say. Old John. False knaves, ha? where be they? let me see them, mas as old as I am, and have little skil, lie hamper a false knave yet in my hedging bill : stand theefe or true man. Joane. Master it is John Beane. John. Jesu John Beane, why whither away by land? What make you wandring this wooddie way? Walke ye to Greenewich, or walke ye to Cray? Beane. To Greenwich father John, good morow, good

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morow Good morrow Joane, good morrow sweete to thee. Joane. A thousand good morrowes gentle John Beane, I am glad I met ye for now I have my dreame, I have been so troubled with ye al this night, that I could not rest for sleeping and dreaming : me thought you were growne taller and fairer, and that ye were in your shirt, and me thought it should not be you, and yet it was you; and that ye were al in white, and went into a garden, and there was the umberst sorte of flowers that ever I see : and me thought you lay downe upon a green banke, and I pinned gilliflowers in your ruffe, and then me thought your nose bled, and as I ran to my chest to fetch ye a handkercher, me thoght I stumbled and so waked : what do's it betoken? Beane. Nay, I cannot tell, but I like neither thy 1035 [j/g. D4v] dreame nor my owne, for I was troubled with greene Medowes, and buls fighting and goring one another, and one of them me thought ran at me, and I ran away, that I swet in my sleepe for feare. Old John. Tut, feare nothing John Beane, dreames are but fancies : I dreamed my selfe last night, that I heard the bels of Barking as plaine to our towne of Wolwich, as if I had line in the steeple. And that I should be married, and to whom tro west thou? but to the fine gentlwoman of London that was at your masters the last summer? Beane. Who? mistres Sanders'? I shall see her anon, for I have an errand to her husband : shal I tell her ye dreamed of her? 1050 Old John. Gods forbod, no : sheele laugh at me, and call me old foole. Art thou going to London? Beane. Yea when I have bin at the Court at Greenwich : whither go you and your maid Joanel Old John. To stop a gap in my fence, and to drive home a Cowe and a Calfe that is in my close, at Shooters hill foote. Beane. T'is well done, Mas I am merry since I met you two, I would your journey lay along with mine. 1059

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Joane. So would I with all my heart. John, pray ye bestowe a groate or sixe pence of Carnation Ribbin to tie my smocke sleeves, they slappe about my handes too bad, and He give you your mony againe. Beane. That I will yfayth : will you have nothing, father Johrii Old John. No God-amercie sonne John, but I woulde thou hadst my Aqua vitae bottle, to fill at the blacke Bull by Battell bridge. Beane. So would I : wel, here our wayes part, you must that way, and I this. Old John. Why, John Beane, canst part with thy love without a kisse? Beane. Ye say true father John, my busines puts kissing

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[sig.El] out of my mind, farewel sweete Joane. Kisse Joane. Joane. Farewel sweet John, I pray ye have a care of your selfe for my dreame, and blesse ye out of swaggerers companie, and walke not too late, my master and I wil pray for ye. Old John. That we will yfaith John Beane. Beane. God be with ye both : I could e'ne weepe to see how kind they are unto me, theres a wench, wel, if I live lie make her amends. Exeunt. Enter Browne and Drury. Bro. Nay speak your conscience, wast not strange fortune That at the instant when my sword was drawne, And I had thought to have naild him to a post, A light should come, and so prevent my purpose? Dru. It was so master Browne: but let it passe, Another time shall serve, never give ore Till you have quite remov'd him out your way. Bro. And if I do, let me be held a coward, And no more worthy to obtaine her bed, Than a foule Negro to embrace a Queene.

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Dru. You neede not quaile for doubt of your reward, You know already she is wonne to this, What by my perswasion, and your owne suite, That you may have her company when you will, And she herselfe is thoroughly resolv'd, None but George Browne must be her second husband. Bro. The hope of that makes me a nights to dreame Of nothing but the death of wretched Sanders, Which I have vow'd in secret to my soule Shall not be long before that be determin'd. But I doe marvel that our skowt returnes not, Trusty Roger whom we sent to dogge him. Dru. The knave's so carefull (maister Browne) of you, As he will rather die than come again, Before he finde fit place to do the deede.

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[sig. Elv] Bro. I am beholding to you and him, And mistris Drewry, lie requite your loves.

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Enter Roger. Dru. By the masse see where the whorson comes Puffing and blowing, almost out of breath. Bro. Roger how now, where has thou beene al day? Rog. Where have I beene? where I have had a jaunt, Able to tyre a horse. Bro. But doest thou bring Any good newes where I may strike the stroke, Shall make thy selfe and me amends for al? Rog. That gather by the circumstance : first know, That in the morning, til twas nine a clock, I watcht at Sanders doore til he came forth, Then folowed him to Cornhil, where he staied An hower talking in a marchants warehouse, From thence he went directly to the Burse, And there he walkt another hower at least, And I at s heeles. By this it strooke eleven,

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Home then he comes to dinner, by the way He chanced to meet a gentleman of the court, With whom as he was talking, I drew neere, And at his parting from him heard him say, That in the after noone without al faile, He would be with him at the court : this done I watcht him at his doore til he had din'd, Followed him to Lion key, saw him take boate, And in a paire of Oares, as soone as he Landed at Greenewitch, where ever since, I trac'd him too and fro, with no lesse care Than I had done before, til at the last I heard him cal unto a water man, And bade he shoulde be ready, for by sixe He meant to be at London backe againe. With that away came I to give you notice, That as he landes at Lion key this evening, You might dispatch him and escape unseene.

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Bro. Hodge, Thou hast won my hart by this daies work. Dru. Beshrew me, but he hath taken mighty paines. Bro. Roger come hither, there's for thee to drinke, And one day I will do thee greater good. Rog. I thanke you sir, Hodge is at your commaund. Bro. Now mistris Drury, if you please, go home, Tis much upon the houre of his returne. Rog. Nay, I am sure he will be here straitway. Dru. Well, I will leave you, for tis somewhat late. God speed your hand, and so maister Browne good night. Rog. Mistris I pray you spare me for this once, lie be so bold as stay with Maister Browne. Dru. Doe, and maister Browne, if you prevaile, Come to my house, lie have a bed for you. Bro. You shall have knowledge if I chance to speede, But lie not lodge in London for a while, Untili the rumour shalbe somewhat past : Come Roger, where ist best to take our standing?

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Rog. Mary at this corner, in my minde. Bro. I like it well, tis darke and somewhat close, By reason that the houses stand so neare : Beside, if he should land at Billingsgate, Yet are we still betwixt his house and him. Rog. You say well Maister Browne, tis so indeede. Bro. Peace then, no more words for being spyed.

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Enter Anne Sanders, and John Beane. A. San. I marvell John thou sawst him not at court, He hath beene there ever since one a clocke. J oh. Indeede mistris Sanders I heard not of him. 1174 A. San. Pray God that captain Browne hath not bin mov'd By some ill motion, to indanger him, Aside I greatly feare it, hee's so long away : But tell me John, must thou needes home to night? John. Yes of necessitie, for so my Maister bade. A. San. If it be possible, I pre thee stay 1180 Untili my husband come. John. I dare not, trust me, [sig. E2v] And I doubt that I have lost my tide already. A. San. Nay thats not so : come, lie bring thee to the key, I hope we shall meet my husband by the way. 1185 Rog. That should be mistris Sanders by her tongue. Bro. It is my love, Oh how the dusky night Is by her comming forth made sheene and bright : lie know of her why shee's abroad so late. Rog. Take heed master Browne, see where Sanders comes. Bro. A plague upon't, now am I prevented, She being by, how can I murther him? Enter Sanders [and a Waterman]. San. Your fares but eighteene pence, here's half a crown. Waterman. I thank your worship, God give ye good night. San. Good night with al my heart.

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A. San. Oh here he is now : Husband, y'are welcome home : now Jesu man That you will be so late upon the water? San. My busines, sweet heart, was such I could not chuse. A. San. Here's M. Barnses man hath staid al day to speak with you. San. John Beane, welcome, how ist? How doth thy master, and al our friends at Wolwich! John. All in good health (sir) when I came thence. San. And what's the new, John Beane? John. My Maister (sir) requests you, that upon tuesday next you would take the paines to come downe to Wolwich, about the matter you wot of. San. Wei John, to morrow thou shalt know my minde. John. Nay sir, I must to Wolwich by this tide. San. What to night? there is no such haste, I hope. John. Yes truely (with your pardon) it must be so. San. Well then, if John you will be gone, commend me to your Maister, and tell him, without faile on tuesday sometime of the day lie see him, and so good night. A. San. Commend me likewise to thy master John. John. I thanke you mistris Sanders for my cheere, Your commendations shalbe delivered.

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[Exeunt Sanders, Anne, and Beane.] Bro. I would thy selfe and he were both sent hence [sig. E3] To doe a message to the divel of hell, For interrupting this my solemne vow, But questionlesse some powre or else praier Of some religious friend or other guardes him, Or else my swords unfortunate, tis so, This mettall was not made to kil a man. Rog. Good master Browne fret not your selfe so much, Have you forgot what the old proverbe is, The third time payes for all? Did you not heare,

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That he sent word to master Barnes of Woolwich, He would be with him as on tewsday next : Twixt that and then lie you in waite for him And though he have escapt your hand so oft, You may be sure to pay him home at last. Bro. Furie had almost made me past my selfe, Tis wel remembred: Hodge, it so shalbe, Some place wil I picke out as he does passe, Either in going or in comming backe, To end his hateful life : come lets away, And at thy mistres house weele spend this night, In consultation how it may be wrought. [Dumb Show II]

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Exeunt.

[Enter Tragedy.]

Tra. Twice (as you see) this sad distressed man, The onely marke whereat foule Murther shot : Just in the loose of envious eager death, By accidents strange and miraculous, Escap't the arrow aymed at his hart. Suppose him on the water now for Woolwich, For secrete businesse with his bosome friend, From thence, as fatal destinie conducts him, To Mary-Cray by some occasion cald: Which by false Druries meanes made knowne to Browne, Lust, Gaine, and Murther spurd this villaine on, Still to pursue this unsuspecting soule, And now the dreadful houre of death is come, The dismal morning when the destenies, Do shere the labouring vitall threed oflife, When as the lambe left in the woods of Kent Unto this ravenous woolfe becoms a pray, [¿ig. E3v] Now of his death the generali intent, Thus Tragedie doth to your eyes present. The Musiche playing, enters Lust bringingforth Browne and Roger, at one ende mistres Sanders and mistres

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Drurie at the other, they offering cheerefully to meete and embrace, suddenly riseth up a great tree betweene them, whereat amazedly they step backe, wherupon Lust bringeth an axe to mistres Sanders, shewing signes, that she should cut it downe, which she refuseth, albeit mistres Drurie offers to helpe. her. Then Lust brings the Axe to Browne, and shews the like signes to him as before, wherupon he roughlie and suddenly hewes downe the tree, and then they run togither and embrace. With that enters Chastitie, with her haire disheveled, and taking mistres Sanders by the hand, brings her to her husbands picture hanging on the wall, andpointing to the tree, seemes to tell her, that that is the tree so rashly cut downe. Wherupon she wringing her hands, in teares departes, Browne, Drurie, Roger and Lust, whispering, he drawes his sword, and Roger followes him. Tragedie expressing that now he goes to act the deed.

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Lust leades togither this adulterous route, But as you see are hindred thus, before They could attaine unto their fowle desires. The tree springs up, whose bodie whilest it stands, Stil keepes them backe when they would faine embrace, Whereat they start, for furie evermore Is full repleat with feare and envie. Lust giveth her the Axe to cut it downe, To rid her husband whom it represents, In which this damned woman would assist hir. But though by them seduced to consent, And had a finger in her husbands bloud: Could not be woone to murther him her selfe. Lust brings the Axe to Browne, who suddenly,

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Doth give the fatal stroke unto the tree, Which being done, they then embrace togither: The act performde, now Chastitie appeares, And pointing to the picture, and the tree,

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Unto her guiltie conscience, shewes her husband, Even so cut off by that vile murtherer Browne, She wrings her hands repenting of the fact, Touch't with remorse, but now it is too late. Whats here exprest, in act is to be done, The sword is drawne, the murtherer forth doth run, Lust leades him on, he followes him with speede, The onely actor in this damned deed.

[Exit.]

Enter Browne reading a Letter, and Roger.

[viii]

Bro. Did I but waver, or were unresolv'd, These lines were able to encourage me, Sweete Nan I kiss thy name, and for thy sake, What coward would not venture more then this? Kil him? Yea, were his life ten thousand lives, Not any sparke or cynder of the same Should be unquencht in bloud at thy request. Roger thou art assurde heele come this way? Rog. Assurde sir? why I heard him say so : For having lodg'd at Wolwich, al last night, As soone as day appeard, I got me up, And watcht aloofe at maister Barnses doore, Til he and master Sanders both came forth. Bro. Til both came forth? what are they both togither? Rog. No sir, master Barnes himselfe went backe againe, And left his man to beare him companie. John Beane: you know him, he that was at London When we laid wait for him at Billingsgate. Bro. Is it that stripling? wel, no more adoe, Roger go thou unto the hedge corner At the hill foote : there stand and cast thine eie Toward Greenwich parke, see if black heath be cleare, Least by some passenger we be descride.

1311 kiss] Hopkinson 1; kist Q

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Rog. Shal ye not neede my help sir? they are twaine. Bro. No, were they ten, mine arme is strong enough, Even of it selfe to buckle with them al, And ere George Sanders shal escape me now, I wil not recke what massacre I make. Rog. Wei sir, lie go and watch, and when I see Any body comming, lie whistle to you. Bro. Do so I pre thee: I would be alone, My thoughts are studious and unsociable, And so's my body, till this deede be done. But let me see, what time a day ist now? It cannot be imagin'd by the sunne, For why I have not seene it shine to daie, Yet as I gather by my comming forth, Being then sixe, it cannot now be lesse Than hälfe an hower past seven: the aire is gloomie, No matter, darknesse best fittes my intent, Here wil I walke, and after shrowd my selfe Within those bushes when I see them come.

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E4v]

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[Exit.] 1340

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Enter maister Sanders and John Beane. San. John Beane, this is the right way, is it not? John. I sir, would to God we were past this wood. San. Why art thou affraide? See yonder's companie. Bro. They have espied me, I wil slip aside. John. O God sir, I am heavy at the heart. Good maister Sanders lets returne backe to Wolwich, Me thinkes I go this waie against my wil. San. Why so I pre thee? John. Truly I do not like The man we saw, he slipt so soone away, behind the bushes. San. Trust me John, nor I, But yet God willing we wil keepe our way. John. I pray you sir let us go backe againe, I do remember now a dreame was told me,

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That might I have the world I cannot choose But tremble every joynt to thinke upon't. San. But we are men, lets not be so faint hearted, As to affright our selves with visions, Come on a Gods name.

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Browne steps out and strikes up Johns heeles. John. Oh we are undone. San. What seeke you sir? Bro. Thy bloud which I wil have. 1375 San. Oh take my mony, and preserve my life. Bro. It is not millions that can ransome thee, Nor this base drudge, for both of you must die. San. Heare me a word, you are a gentleman, Soile not your hands with bloud of innocents. 1380 Bro. Thou speakest in vaine. [He stabs Sanders.] San. Then God forgive my sinne, Have mercie on me, and upon thee too, The bloudie author of my timelesse death. Bro. Now wil I dip my hankercher in his bloud, 1385 And send it as a token to my love, Looke how many wounds my hand hath given him, So many holes lie make within this cloth. San. Jesu receive my soule into thy handes. Bro. What sound was that? it was not he that spake, The breath is vanisht from his nostrils, 1391 Was it the other? no, his wounds are such, As he is likewise past the use of speech. Who was it then that thundred in mine eares, The name of Jesu? Doubtlesse twas my conscience, 1395 And I am damn'd for this unhallowed deede. O sinne how hast thou blinded me til now, Promising me securitie and rest, But givest me dreadful agonie of soule? What shall do? or whither shal I flie? 1400 The very bushes wil discover me.

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See how their wounds do gape unto the skies, Calling for vengeance.

Flv]

Enter Roger. Rog. How now master Browne? What have you done? why so, lets away, For I have spide come riding ore the heath, Some hälfe a dozen in a company. Bro. Away to London thou, He to the Court, And shew my selfe, and after follow thee, Give this to mistris Sanders, bid her reade Upon this bloudy handkercher the thing, As I did promise and have now performd, But were it Roger to be done againe, I would not do it for a kingdomes gaine. Rog. Tut faint not now, come let us haste away. Bro. Oh I must feare, what ever thou dost say. My shadow, if nought else will me betray. Beane left wounded, andfor dead, stirres and creepes. Bea. Dare I looke up, for feare he yet be neere That thus hath martirde me? yea, the coast is cleere : For all these deadly wounds, yet lives my heart, Alacke, how loath poore life is from my limbes to part. I cannot goe, ah no, I cannot stand, O God that some good bodie were neere hand: To helpe me home to Wolwich ere I die, To creep that way-ward whilst I live lie trie: O could I crawle but from this cursed wood, Before I drowne my selfe in my owne blood. Enter old John and Joane. Old John. Now by my fathers saddle Joane I think we are bewitched, my beasts were never wont to breake out so often : sure as death the harlotries are bespoken : but it is that heifer with the white backe that leades

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139

them al a gadding, a good lucke take her. Joane. It is not dismall daie maister? did ye looke

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[sig. F2] in the Amminicke? if it be not, then tis either long of the brended cow, that was nere wel in her wits since the butcher bought her calf, or long of my dreame, or of my nose bleeding this morning, for as I was washing my hands my nose bled three drops, then I thought of John Bean, God be with him, for I dreamd he was married, and that our white calfe was kild for his wedding dinner, God blesse them both, for I love them both well. Beane creepes. Old John. Marie amen, for I tel thee my heart is heavie, God send me good luck : my eies dazel, and I could weepe. Lord blesse us, what sight is this? looke Jone, and crosse thy selfe. Jone. O master, master, looke in my purse for a peece of ginger, I shall sweb, I shall swound, cut my lace, and cover my face, I die else, it is John Beane, killd, cutte, slaine, maister, and ye be a man, help. Old John. John Beane? Now Gods forbod, alocke alock good John, how came ye in this pitteous plight? speake good John, nay groane not, speake who has done this deede? thou hast not fordone thy selfe, hast thou? Beane. Ah no, no. Joane. Ah, no, no, he neede not have done that, for God knowes I loved him as deerely as he loved me, speake John, who did it? Beane. One in a white dublet and blew breeches, he has slaine another too, not farre off: O stoppe my woundes if ye can. Old John. Joane, take my napkin and thy apron, and bind up his wounds, and cows go where they wil til we have carried him home. Joane. Wo worth him John that did this dismal deede,

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Heart-breake be his mirth, and hanging be his meede.

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[jfc. F2v] Old John. Ah weladay, see where another lies, a hansome comely ancient gentleman : what an age live we in? when men have no mercy of men more than of dogges, bloudier than beasts? This is the deed of some swaggering, swearing, drunken desperate Dicke. Call we them Cabbaleers? masse they be Canniballes, that have the stabbe readyer in their handes than a penny in their purse: Shames death be their share. Jone, hast thou done? Come lend me a hand, to lay this good man in some bush, from birds and from beasts, till we carry home John Beane to his Maisters, and rayse all Wolwich to fetch home this man, and make search: lift there Jone: so, so.

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They carry out Sanders. Beane. Lord comfort my soule, my body is past cure. Old John. Now lets take up John Beane : Softly Jone, softly. Jone. Ah John, little thought I to have carried thee thus within this weeke, but my hope is aslope, and my joy is laide to sleepe. Enter a yeoman of the Buttery, Browne, and mayster James. Yeo. Welcome maister Browne, what ist you'le drinke, ale or beere? Bro. Mary ale and if you please, You see sir I am bold to trouble you. Yeo. No trouble sir at all, the Queene our Mistris Allowes this bounty to all commers, much more To Gentlemen of your sort: some ale there ho.

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Enter one with a Jacke and a court dish.

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Yeo. Here maister Browne, thus much to your health. Bro. I thanke you sir : nay, prethee fill my cup. Here maister James, to you with all my heart. How say you now sir? was I not adry? Yeo. Beleeve me yes, wil't please ye mend your draught? Bro. No more sir in this heate, it is not good. M. James. It seemes, maister Browne, that you have

1505 [sig. F3]

gone apace. Came you from London that you made such haste? But soft, what have I spide? your hose is bloudy. Bro. How, bloudy? where? Good sooth tis so indeede. Yeo. It seemes it is but newly done. Bro. No more it is : And now I do remember how it came, My selfe, and some two or three Gentlemen more Crossing the field this morning here from Eltham Chaunc'd by the way to start a brace of hares, One of the which we kild, the other scapt, And pulling foorth the garbage, this befell : But tis no matter, it wil out againe. Yeo. Yes there's no doubt, with a little sope and water. M. James. I would I had been with you at that sport. Bro. I would you had sir, twas good sport indeede. Bro. Now afore God, this bloud was ill espied? But my excuse I hope wil serve the turne. Gentlemen, I must to London this forenoone, About some earnest busines doth concerne me, Thankes for my ale, and your good companies. Both. Adieu good maister Browne. Bro. Farewell unto you both. M. James. An honest proper Gentleman as lives : God be with you sir, lie up into the Presence. Yeo. Y'are welcome M. James, God be with ye sir.

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Exeunt.

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Enter Anne Sanders, Anne Drewry, and Roger·. Drewry [x] having the bloudy handkercher in her hand. A. San. Oh shew not me that enisgne of despaire, But hide it, burne it, bury it in the earth, It is a kalender of bloody letters, Containing his, and yours, and all our shames. Dru. Good mistris Sanders, be not so outragious. A. San. What tell you me? is not my husband slaine?

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Are not we guiltie of his cruel death? Oh my deare husband I wil follow thee : Give me a knife, a sword, or any thing, Wherewith I may do justice on my selfe. Justice for murther, justice for the death Of my deare husband, my betrothed love. Rog. These exclamations will bewray us all, Good mistres Sanders peace. Dru. I pray you peace, Your servants, or some neighbours else will heare. A. San. Shall I feare more my servants, or the world, Then God himselfe? He heard our trecherie, And saw our complot and conspiracie: Our hainous sinne cries in the eares of him, Lowder then we can crie upon the earth : A womans sinne, a wives inconstancie, Oh God that I was borne to be so vile, So monstrous and prodigious for my lust. Fie on this pride of mine, this pamperd flesh, I will revenge me on these tising eies, And teare them out for being amourous. Oh Sanders my deare husband, give me leave, Why doe you hold me? are not my deeds uglie? Let then my faults be written in my face. Dru. Oh do not offer violence to your selfe. A. San. Have I not done so alreadie? Is not The better part of me by me misdone?

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My husband, is he not slaine? is he not dead? But since you labour to prevent my griefe, lie hide me in some closet of my house, And there weepe out mine eies, or pine to death, That have untimely stopt my husbands breath. Dru. What shall we doe Roger? go thou and watch For master Brownes arrival from the Court, And bring him hither, happily his presence Wil be a meanes to drive her from this passion.

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In the meane space I will go after her, And do the best I can to comfort her. Rog. I will : take heede she do not kill her selfe. Dru. For Gods sake haste thee, and be circumspect. [Exeunt.] Enter Sanders yong sonne, and another boy camming from schoole. Yong San. Come Harrie shall we play a game? Har. At what? Yong San. Why at crosse and pile. Har. You have no Counters. Yong San. Yes but I have as many as you. Har. Ile drop with you, and he that has most, take all. Yong San. No sir, if youle play a game, tis not yet twelve by hälfe an houre, lie set you like a gamster. Har. Go to, where shall we play? Yong San. Here at our doore. Har. What and if your father find us? Yong San. No hees at Woolwich, and will not come home to night. Har. Set me then, and here's a good. Enter Brown and Roger. Bro. Is she so out of pacience as thou saist?

[xi]

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Rog. Wonderfull sir, I have not seene the like. Bro. What does she meane by that? nay what meane I To aske the question? has she not good cause? 1601 Oh yes, and we have every one of us just cause To hate and be at variance with our selves. But come, I long to see her. He spies the boy Rog. How now captarne? 1605 Why stop you on the sudden? why go you not? What makes you looke so gastly towards the house? Bro. Is not the formosi of those prettie boyes One of George Sanders sonnes? Rog. Yes, t'is his yongest. 1610 Bro. Both yong'st and eld'st are now made fatherlesse By my unluckie hand. I prethee go, And take him from the doore, the sight of him [jjg. Strikes such a terror to my guiltie conscience, As I have not the heart to looke that way, 1615 Nor stirre my foote untili he be remoov'd. Me thinkes in him I see his fathers wounds Fresh bleeding in my sight, nay he doth stand Like to an Angel with a firie sworde, To barre mine entrance at that fatali doore, 1620 I prethee steppe, and take him quickly thence. Rog. Away my prettie boy, your master comes, And youle be taken playing in the street, What at unlawful games? away be gone, T'is dinner time, yong Sanders youle be jerkt, Your mother lookes for you before this time. Yong San. Gaffer if you'le not tel my master of me, lie give you this new silke poynt. Rog. Go to I will not. Har. Nor of me, and there's two counters, I have 1630 woone no more. Rog. Of neither of you, so you wil be gone. Yong San. God be with you, ye shal see me no more. Har. Nor me, I meane playing at this doore. [Exeunt.] Rog. Now captarne if you please you may come forward

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But see where mistris Sanders and my mistris Are comming forth to meete you on the way?

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[Enter Anne Sanders and Drury.] Dru. See where master Browne is, in him take comfort, And learne to temper your excessive griefe. A. San. Ah, bid me feed on poyson and be fat, Or looke upon the Basiliske and live, Or surfet daily and be stil in health, Or leape into the sea and not be drownde : All these are even as possible as this, That I should be recomforted by him, That is the Authour of my whole lament. Bro. Why mistris Anne I love you dearly, And but for your incomparable beautie My soule had never dreamt of Sanders death: [j/g. Gl] Then give me that which now I do deserve, Your selfe, your love, and I will be to you A husband so devote, as none more just, Or more affectionate shal treade this earth. A. San. If you can crave it of me with a tongue That hath not bin prophande with wicked vowes, Or thinke it in a heart did never harbour Pretence of murther, or put foorth a hand As not contaminate with shedding bloud, Then will I willingly graunt your request : But oh your hand, your heart, your tongue, and eye, Are all presenters of my misery. Bro. Talke not of that, but let us study now How we may salve it, and conceale the fact. A. San. Mountains will not suffice to cover it, Cymerian darkenesse cannot shadow it, Nor any pollicie wit hath in store, Cloake it so cunningly, but at the last If nothing else, yet will the very stones That lie within the streetes cry out vengeance,

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And point at us to be the murderers.

Exeunt.

Enter three Lords, Maister James, nad two Messengers with their boxes, one Lord reading a letter. This hath the letter.

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1 Lo. Fore God (my Lords) a very bloudy act. 2 Lo. Yea, and committed in eye of Court Audatiously, as who should say, he durst Attempt a murther in despite of Law. 3 Lo. Pray ye lets see your letter (good my Lord).

1675

He takes and reades the letter. Tenne wounds at least, and deadly ev'ry wound, And yet he lives, and tels markes of the man, Ev'n at the edge of Shooters hill, so neare? 1 Lo. We shal not need to send these Messengers, For hew and cry may take the murtherers. Enter a fourth Lord with a Water man and a Page. 4 Lo. Nay sirra you shall tel this tale againe Before the Lords, come on: my Lords what newes? 1 Lo. Bad newes my Lord, A cruel murthers done, Neere Shooters hill, and here's a letter come From Wolwich, from a gentleman of worth, Noting the manner, and the marks of him, (By likelihoode) that did that impious deede. 4 Lo. Tis noysd at London, that a marchants slain, One maister Sanders dwelling neere Tames streete, And that George Browne, a man whom we al know, Is vehemently suspected for the fact, And fled upon't and this same water man, That brought me downe saies he row'd him up, And that his hose were bloudy, which he hid Stil with his hat sitting bare head in the boate,

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And sigh'd and star'd as one that was afraide, How saist thou sirra, was't not so he did? Wat. Yes, and't please your Lordship so it was. Lo. What did he weare? Wat. A doublet of white satten, And a large paire of breeches of blew silke. 2 Lo. Was he so suted when you dranke with him, Here in the butterie? M. Ja. Yea my Lord he was. 3 Lo. And his hose bloudy? M. Ja. Just as he affirmes. 3 Lo. Conferre the markes the wounded fellow telles with these reports. 1 Lo. The man that did the deede, Was faire and fat, his doublet of white silke, His hose of blew, I am sorie for George Browne.

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Lookes o f f . Twas he my Lords. 4 Lo. The more accursed man, Get warrants drawne : and messengers attend, Cal al your fellowes, ride out everie waie, Poste to the Ports, give charge that no man passe Without our warrant, one take boate to London, Command the Sheriffes make wise and speedie search, Descipher him by al the marks you can, Let bloud be paid with bloud in any man. 1 Lo. We were too blame els : come my lords, lets in, To signe our warrants, and to send them out.

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Exeunt omnes. Enter Drury, and Roger with a bagge. Dru. Why Roger, canst thou get but twentie pound, Of al the plate that thou hadst from us both, Mine owne's worth twentie, what hadst thou of her?

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Rog. Two bolles and spoones I know not what my selfe. Tis in a note, and I could get no more But twentie pound. Dru. Alas twil do no good. And he must thence, if he be tane he dies, On his excape thou knowest our safetie lies. Rog. Thats true, alas what wil ye have me do? Dru. Runne to Nan Sanders bid her make some shift, Trie al her friends to helpe at this dead lift: For al the mony that she can devise, And send by thee with al the haste she may, Tel her we die if Browne make any stay. Rog. I wil I wil. Exit Roger. Dru. Thou wilt, thou wilt, alas, That ere this dismal deede was brought to passe, But now tis done, we must prevent the worst. Enter Browne.

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And here comes he that makes us al accurst: How now George Browne? Bro. Nan Drurie now undone. Undone by that, that thou hast made me doe. Dru. I make ye do it? your owne love made ye do it. Bro. Wei, done it is, what shal we now say too't? Search is made for me, be I tane, I die, And there are others as farre in as I. I must beyond sea, money have I none, Nor dare I looke for any of mine owne.

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Dru. Here's twenty pound I borrowed of my plate, And to your Mistris I have sent for more Enter Roger. By Hodge my man : now Roger, hast thou sped? Rog. Yea, of six pound, tis all that she can make,

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She prayes ye tak't in worth, and to be gone : She heares the Shiriffes wil be there anone, And at our house : a thousand commendations She sends you, praying you to shift for your selfe. Bro. Even as I may Roger, farewel to thee, If I were richer, then thou shouldst go with me, But povertie partes company, farewel Nan, Commend me to my mistris if you can. Dru. Step thither your selfe, I dare not come there, lie keepe my house close, for I am in feare. Rog. God be with you, good Captarne. Bro. Farewel, gentle Hodge, Oh master Sanders, wert thou now alive, Al Londons wealth thy death should not contrive : This heate of love and hasty climbing breeds, God blesse all honest tall men from such deedes.

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[Dumb Show III] Enter Tragedie afore the shew. Tra. Prevailing Sinne having by three degrees, Made his ascension to forbidden deedes, As first, alluring their unwary mindes To like what she proposde, then practising To draw them to consent: and last of all Ministring fit meanes and opportunitie To execute what she approoved good : Now she unvailes their sight, and lets them see The horror of their foule immanitie And wrath that al this while hath bin obscurde, Steps forth before them in a thousand shapes Of gastly thoughts, and loathing discontents : So that the rest was promisi, now appeares

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Unrest, and deepe affliction of the soule, Delight prooves danger, confidence dispaire,

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As by this folowing shew shall more appeare. Enter Justice and Mercy : when having taken their seates, Justice falls into a slumber, then enters wronged Chastitie, and in dumbe action uttring her grief e to Mercie, is put away, whereon she wakens Justice, who listning her attentively, starts up, commanding his Officers to attend her. Then go they with her, and fetch forth master Sanders body, mistris Sanders, Drury, and Roger, led after it, and being shewne it, they al seeme very sorrowful, and so are led away. But Chastitie shewes that the chief e offender is not as yet taken, whereon Justice dispatcheth his servant Diligence to make further enquirie after the murderer, and so they depart the stage with Chastitie. Tra. Thus lawles actions and prodigious crimes Drinke not the bloud alone of them they hate, But even their ministers, when they have done Al that they can, must help to fil the Sceane, And yeeld their guilty neckes unto the blocke. For which intent, the wronged Chastity Prostrate before the sacred throne of Justice, With wringing hands, and cheekes besprent with teares, Pursues the murtherers. And being heard Of Mercy first, that in relenting wordes, Would faine perswade her to humilitie, She turnes from her : and with her tender hand Wakes slumbering Justice, when her tale being told, And the dead body brought for instance forth, Strait inquistition and search is made, And the offenders as you did behold, Discover'd where they thought to be unseene. Then triall now remaines as shall conclude, Measure for measure, and lost bloud for bloud.

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[Exit.]

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Enter George Browne, and one Browne a Butcher in Rochester. But. T'is marvell coosen Browne, we see you here. And thus alone without all companie : You were not woont to visit Rochester, But you had still some friend or other with you. Bro. Such is th'occasion coosin at this time, And for the love I beare you, I am bold To make my selfe you guest, rather then lie In any publike Inne : because indeed The house where I was woont to host, is full Of certaine Frenchmen and their followers. But. Nay coosin Browne, I would not have you thinke I doe object thus much as one unwilling To shew you any kindnesse that I can, My house though homely, yet such as it is, And I my selfe will be at your commaund. I love you for your name sake, and trust me sir, Am proud that such a one as you will call me coosin, Though I am sure we are no kin at all. Bro. Yes coosin we are kin : nor do I scorne At any time to acknowledge as much, Toward men of baser calling then your selfe. But. It may be so sir : but to tell you truth, It seemed somewhat strange to me at first, And I was hälfe afraid some ill had hapend, That made you carefull whom you trusted to. Bro. Faith coosin none but this : I owe some mony, And one I am indebted to of late, Hath brought his action to an outlawrie, And seekes to do me all extremitie, But that I am not yet provided for him, And that he shall not have his will of me, I do absent me, till a friend of mine Do see what order he may take with him. But. How now whoe's this?

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Enter maister Maior, master James, with a pursevant, and others. Maior. Where are you neighbour Browne? But. Master Maior, y'are welcome, what's the news sir You come so guarded, is there aught amisse? Bro. Heaven will have justice showne, it is even so. Ja. I can assure you tis the man we seeke, Then doe your office master Maior. Maior. George Browne, I do arrest you in her highnesse name, As one suspected to have murdred George Sanders Citizen of London. Bro. Of murther sir? there lives not in this land Can touch me with the thought of murther. Maior. Pray God it be so : but you must along Before their honors there to answer it. Here's a commission that commands it so. Bro. Well sir I do obey, and do not doubt But I shall prove me innocent therein. Ja. Come master Maior, it is the Councels pleasure, You must assist us till we come to Woolwich, Where we have order to conferre at large With master Barnes concerning this mishap. Maior. With all my heart, farewell good neighbor Brown. But. God keepe you maister Maior, and all the rest, And master Browne beleeve me I am sorie It was your fortune to have no more grace. Bro. Coosin grieve not for me, my case is cleare, Suspected men may be, but need not feare.

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Enter John Beane brought in a Chaire, and master Barnes, and master James. Bar. Sir how much I esteemd this Gentleman, And in how hie respect I held his love, My griefes can hardly utter.

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M. James. It shall not neede, your love after his death expresses it. Bar. I would to god it could : and I am verie glad, My Lords of her most honourable Councel Have made choise of your selfe, so grave a gentleman To see the maner of this cruell murther. M. Ja. Sir, the most unworthie I of many men, But that in the hie bountie of your kindnes, so you terme me. But trust me maister Barnes, amongst the rest That was reported to them of the murther, They hardly were induced to beleeve, That this poore soule having so many wounds, Laying his hand upon him. And all so mortali as they were reported, With so much losse of blood, should possibly yet live : Why it is past beliefe. Bar. Sir it is so, your worthie selfe can witnes. As strange to us that looke upon the wretch, As the report thereof unto their wisdoms. M. Ja. More fearfull wounds, nor hurts more dangerous Upon my faith I have not seene. Beane. Hey hoe, a little drinke, oh my head. Bar. Good John how doest thou? Beane. Whose that? father Johrii Bar. Nay John, thy maister. Beane. O Lord my belly. M. Ja. He spends more breath that issues through his wounds ν then through his lippes. Bea. I am drie. Bar. John doest thou know me? M. Ja. See where thy master is : look dost thou know him? Bar. Sir he never had his perfit memorie, since the

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first houre. M. Ja. Surely he cannot last. Bar. And yet sir to our seeming I assure you, He sat not up so strongly, as you see him Since he was brought into this house as now. M. Ja. Tis vene strange.

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Enter the Maior of Rochester, with Browne, and Officers. Bar. As I take it, maister Maior of Rochester? Maior. The same good master Barnes. Bar. What happie fortune sent you here to Woolwich : That yet your company may give us comfort, in this sad time? Maior. Beleeve me sad in deed, and verie sad, Sir the Councels warrant lately came to me About the search, for one Captaine George Browne, As it should seeme suspected for this murther, Whom in my search I hapt to apprehend. And hearing that the bodies of the murdred Remained here, I thought it requisite, To make this in my way unto the Court, Now going thither with the prisoner. Bar. Beleeve me sir ye have done right good service, And shewne your selfe a painful Gentleman, And shall no doubt deserve well of the state. M. James. No doubt you shall, and I dust assure you so, The Councel wil accept well of the same. Bar. Good maister Maior this wretched mam of mine, Is not yet dead : looke you where he sits, But past all sense, and labouring to his end. Maior. Alas poore wretch. Barnes. Is this that Browne that is suspected to have done The murther? a goodly man beleeve me :

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Too fair a creature for so fowle an act. Bro. My name is Browne sir. M. Ja. I know you well, your fortunes have been faire, As any Gentlemans of your repute. But Browne, should you be guiltie of this fact, As this your flight hath given shrewde suspition, Oh Browne, your hands have done the bloodiest deed That ever was committed.

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Bro. He doth not live dare charge me with it. M. Ja. Pray God there be not. Maior. Sergeants bring him neare : see if this poore soule know him. Bar. It cannot be : these two dayes space He knew no creature. Bro. Swounds, lives the villaine yet? Oh how his very sight affrights my soule! His very eies will speake had he no tongue, And will accuse me. Bar. See how his wounds break out afresh in bleeding. M. Ja. He stirs himselfe. Maior. He openeth his eyes. Bar. See how he lookes upon him. Bro. I gave him fifteene wounds, Which now be fifteene mouthes that doe accuse me, In ev'ry wound there is a bloudy tongue, Which will all speake, although he hold his peace, By a whole Jury I shalbe accusde. Bar. John, dost thou heare? knowest thou this man? Beane. Yea, this is he that murdred me and Master Sanders.

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He sinckes downe. M. Ja. O hold him up. Maior. John comfort thy selfe. M. Ja. Bow him, give him ayre.

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Bar. No he is dead. Bro. Me thinks he is so fearefull in my sight, That were he now but where I saw him last, For all this world I would not looke on him. Bar. The wondrous worke of God, that the poore creature, not speaking for two dayes, yet now should speake to accuse this man, and presently yeeld up his soule. M. Ja. Tis very strange, and the report thereof Can seeme no lesse unto the Lords. Maior. Sergeants, away, prepare you for the court, And I will follow you immediatly.

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[Exeunt Officers with Browne.] Bar. Sure the revealing of this murther's strange. [sig. H2] M. Ja. It is so sir : but in the case of blood, Gods justice hath bin stil myraculous. Maior. I have heard it told, that digging up a grave, Wherein a man had twenty yeeres bin buryed, By finding of a naile knockt in the scalpe, By due enquirie who was buried there, The murther yet at length did come to light. Bar. I have heard it told, that once a traveller, Being in the hands of him that murdred him, Told him, the fearne that then grew in the place, If nothing else, yet that would sure reveale him : And seven yeares after, being safe in London, There came a sprigge of fearne borne by the wind, Into the roome where as the murtherer was, At sight whereof he sodainely start up, And then reveald the murder. M. Ja. Ile tell you (sir) one more to quite your tale, A woman that had made away her husband, And sitting to behold a tragedy At Linne a town in Norffolke,

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Acted by Players travelling that way, Wherein a woman that had murtherd hers Was ever haunted with her husbands ghost: The passion written by a feeling pen, And acted by a good Tragedian, She was so mooved with the sight thereof, As she cryed out, the Play was made by her, And openly confesst her husbands murder. Barnes. How ever theirs, Gods name be praisde for this: You M. Maior I see must to the Court, I pray you do my duety to the Lords. Maior. That will I sir. M, Ja. Come, lie go along with you. Enter the Lords at the Court, and Messengers.

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1 Lo. Where was Browne apprehended, Messenger? 2 Mess. At Rochester (my Lord) in a Butchers house

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of his owne name, from thence brought up to Wolwich. 4 Lo. And there the fellow he left for dead with all those wounds affirm'd that it was he. 1 Mess. He did my Lord, and with a constant voice, praid God forgive Browne, and receive his soule, and so departed. 1 Lo. T'is a wondrous thing, But that the power of heaven sustained him, A man with nine or ten such mortal wounds, Not taking foode should live so many daies, And then at sight of Browne recover strength, And speake so cleerely as they say he did. 4 Lo. I, and soone after he avouch'd the fact Unto Brownes face then to give up the ghost. 2 Lo. T'was Gods good wil it should be so my Lord, 2069 cleerely] cheerely Q

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But what said Browne, did he denie the deede? 1 Mess. Never my Lord, but did with teares lament, (As seemd to us) his hainous crueltie. 1 Lo. When wil they come? 1 Mess. Immediately my Lord, For they have wind, and tide, and boats do wait.

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Enter M. James. M. Ja. My Lordes, the Maior of Rochester is come 2080 with Browne. Exit M. James. 4 Lo. Let him come in : you messenger, Haste you to London to the Justices, Will them from us see an indictment drawne, Against George Browne for murdring of George Sanders. 2085 Enter Maior, Browne, a Messenger, another and M. Humpherie. 1 Lo. Welcome good master Maior of Rochester. Maior. I humbly thanke your honours. 4 Lo. We thank you, For your great care and diligence in this, And many other faithful services. Now maister Browne, I am sorie it was your happe To be so farre from grace and feare of God, As to commit so bloudy a murder, What say ye? are ye not sorie for it? Bro. Yes my Lord, and were it now to do, Al the worlds wealth could not intice me too't. 1 Lo. Was there any ancient quarrel Browne, Betwixt your selfe and maister Sanders? Bro. No. 2 Lo. Was't for the mony that he had about him? Bro. No my good Lord I knew of none he had. 4 Lo. No, I heard an inckling of the cause, You did affect his wife ( George Brown) too much.

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Bro. I did my Lord, and God forgive it me. 3 Lo. Then she provok'd ye to dispatch him? Bro. No. 4 Lo. Yes, and promised you should marrie her. Bro. No, I wil take it upon my death. 1 Lo. Some other were confederate in the fact, Confesse then Browne, discharge thy conscience. Bro. I wil my Lord at hower of my death. 2 Lo. Nay now that they with thee may die for it.

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Maister James delivers a letter.

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4 Lo. From whom is this letter? Open and reade it. M. Ja. From the Sheriffes of London. 4 Lo. I told ye mistris Sanders hand was in. The act's confessd by two, that she knew on't. Bro. They do her wrong my Lords upon my life. 4 Lo. Why Druries wife and Roger do affirme Unto her face, that she did give consent. Bro. God pardon them, they wrong the innocent. They both are guiltie and procurde the deed, And gave me mony since the deede was done, Twenty sixe pound to carrie me away, But mistris Sanders, as I hope for heaven, Is guiltlesse, ignorant how it was done, But Druries wife did beare me stil in hand, If he were dead she would effect the marriage,

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And trusty Roger her base apple-squire Haunted me like a spright till it was done, And now like Divels accuse that harmlesse soule. 1 Lo. Well M. Browne, w'are sory for your fall, You were a man respected of us all, And noted fit for many services, And fie that wanton lust should overthrow Such gallant parts in any Gentleman : Now al our favours cannot do ye good,

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The act's too odious to be spoken of, 2140 Therefore we must dismisse ye to the Law. 4 Lo. Expect no life, but mediate of death, And for the safegard of thy sinful soule, Conceale no part of trueth for friend or foe. And maister Maior, as you have taken paines, 2145 So finish it, and see him safe conveyd To the Justices of the Bench at Westminster: Wil them from us to try him speedily, That Gentleman shal go along with you, And take in writing his confession. 2150 2 Lo. Farewel George Browne, discharge thy conscience. Bro. I do my Lord, that Sanders wife is cleere. Exeunt om. Enter some to prepare the judgement seat to the Lord Maior, Lo. Justice, and the foure Lords, and one Clearke, and a Shiriff who being set commaund Browne to be brought forth.

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1 O f f . Come lets make haste, and wel prepare this place. 2 O f f . How well I pray you? what haste more then was wont? 2161 1 O f f . Why divers lords are come from court to day, To see th'arraignment of this lustie Browne. 2 O f f . Lustie? how lustie? now hees tame enough, And wilbe tamer. Oh a lustie youth, 2165 Lustily fed, and lustily apparelled, Lustie in looke, in gate, ingallant talke, Lustie in wooing, in fight and murthring, And lustilie hangd, there's th'end of lustie Browne. [sig. H4] 1 O f f . Hold your lustie peace, for here come the 2170 Lords.

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[Enter Lord Mayor, Lord Justice, and four other Lords.] L. Maior. Please it your honors, place your selves my lords. L. Justice. Bring forth the prisoner, and keepe silence there, Prepare the Inditement that it may be read. Browne is brought in. Cleark. To the barre George Browne, & hold up thy hand. Thou art here indited by the name of George Browne, late of London Gentleman, for that thou upon the xxv. day of March in the xv. yeare of the raigne of her sacred Majestie whom God long preserve, betweene the houres of vii. and viii. of the clocke in the forenoone of the same day, neere unto Shooters hill, in the countie of Kent, lying in wait of purpose and pretended malice, having no feare of God before thine eies, the persons of George Sanders Gentleman, and John Bean yeoman, then and there journeying in Gods peace and the princes, feloniously did assault, and with one sword, price sixe shillings, mortally and wilfully, in many places diddest wound unto the death against the peace, crown and dignitie of her majestie. How saiest thou to these fellonious murders, art thou guiltie or not guiltie? Bro. Guiltie. Lo. Just. The Lord have mercie upon thee. Master Shiriff ye shal not need to returne any Jury to passe upon him, for he hath pleaded guiltie, and stands convict at the barre attending his judgement. What canst thou say for thy selfe Browne, why sentence of death should not bee pronounced against thee? Bro. Nothing my Lord, but onely do beseech, Those noble men assistants on that bench, And you my Lord who are to justice sworne,

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As you will answere at Gods judgement seat, To have a care to save the innocent, And (as my selfe) to let the guiltie die, That's Druries wife, and her man trustie Roger : But if Anne Sanders die, I do protest [s/g. H4v] As a man dead in law, that she shall have The greatest wrong that ere had guiltlesse soule. Lo. Just. She shal have justice, and with favour, Browne. 4 Lo. Assure your selfe (Browne) she shal have no wrong. Bro. I humbly thanke your Lordships. 2 Lo. Hearke ye Browne, What countryman are ye borne? Bro. Of Ireland, and in Dublin. Lo. Just. Have you not a brother calld Anthony Brownel Bro. Yes my Lord, whome (as I heare) Your Lordship keepes close prisoner now in Newgate. Lo. Just. Wei, two bad brothers, God forgive ye both. Bro. Amen my Lord, and you, and al the world. Lo. Just. Attend your sentence. Bro. Presently my Lord : But I have one petition first to make Unto those Noble men, which on my knees I do beseech them may not be denyed. 4 Lo. What ist George Brownel Bro. I know the Law Condemnes a murtherer to be hangd in chaînes, O good my Lords, as you are Noble men Let me be buried so soone as I am dead. 1 Lo. Thou shalt, thou shalt, let not that trouble thee, But heare thy judgement. Lo. Just. Browne, thou art here by Law condemnd to die, Which by thine owne confession thou deserv'st.

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Al men must die, although by divers meanes, The maner how is of least moment, but The matter why, condemns or justifies : But be of comfort, though the world condemne, Yea, though thy conscience sting thee for thy fact, Yet God is greater then thy conscience, And he can save whom al the world condemnes, If true repentance turne thee to his grace. Thy time is short, therefore spend this thy time [sjg. Il] In praier and contemplation of thy end, Labour to die better then thou hast liv'd, God grant thou maist. Attend thy judgement now: Thou must go from hence to the place from whence thou camst From thence to th'appointed place of execution, And there be hangd untili thou be dead, And thy bodie after at the princes pleasure : And so the Lord have mercie upon thee Browne. Master Shiriff, see execution, and now take him hence, And bring those other prisoners that you have. Bro. My Lords forget not my petitions, Save poore Anne Sanders for shees innocent : And good my Lords let me not hang in Chaînes. Browne is led out, and Anne Sanders, and Drurie brought in. 4 Lo. Farewel, let none of these things trouble thee. 1 Lo. See how he labors to acquit Anne Sanders. 4 Lo. What hath his brother that is in Newgate done? Lo. Just. Notorious fellonies in Yorkeshire my Lord, Here come the prisoners : bring them to the barre : Read their inditement: master Shiriffe prepare Your Jurie readie : command silence there.

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Anne Sanders hath a white Rose in her bosome. Cleark. Anne Sanders, and Anne Drurie, To the barre and hold up your hands. [Reads.] You are here joyntly & severally indited in forme following, vz. that you Anne Sanders, and Anne Drurie, late of London Spinsters, & thou Roger Clement, late of the same yeoman, and everie of you joyntly and severally, before and after the xxv. day of March last past, in the XV. yeare of the reigne of her sacred Majestie, whom God long preserve, having not the fear of God before your eies, did maliciously conspire and conclude with one George Brown Gent, the death of George Sanders, late husband to you Anne Sanders, and did intice, animate and procure the said George Browne to murder the said maister Sanders : [sig. Ilv] And also after the said heinous murther committed, did with mony and other means, aid releeve, and abet the said Browne, knowing him to have done the deede, whereby you are all accessaries both before and after the fact contrarie to the peace, crowne, and dignitie of our soveraigne Lady the Queene: how say ye severally, Are ye guiltie, or not guiltie, as accessaries both before and after to this felonie and murther? A. San. Not guiltie. Dru. Not guiltie. Clerk. How wil ye be tried? Both. By God and by the Countrey. Lo. Just. Bring forth trustie Roger there, [Enter Roger.] Roger what saist thou to this letter? Who gave it thee to carrie unto Browne? Rog. My mistris gave it me, And she did write it on our Ladies Eve. Lo. Just. Did mistris Sanders know thereof or no?

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A WARNING FOR FAIR WOMEN

Rog. She read it twise before the same was seald. A. San. Did I thou wicked man? This man is hirde to betray my life. 2 Lo. Fie mistris Sanders, you do not wel, To use such speeches, when ye see the case Is too too manifest. But I pray ye, Why do you weare that white rose in your bosome? A. San. In token of my spotlesse innocence, As free from guilt as is this flower from staine. 2 Lo. I feare it wil not fai out so. Lo. Just. Roger what mony carried you to Browne, After the deede to get him gone withall? Rog. Twentie sixe pounds, which coinè was boro wed Parte of my mistris plate, and some of mistris Sanders. Lo. Just. How say ye to that mistris Sanders? A. San. Indeede I grant I misse some of my plate, And now am glad I know the theefe that stole it. Rog. O God forgive ye, you did give it me.

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[sig. 12) And God forgive me, I did love you al, Too wel, which now I deerely answer for. 1 Lo. Anne Drurie, what say you, was not the plate, Part of it yours, and the rest mistris Sanders, According as your man hath here confessde, With which he borrowed twentie pound for Browne? Dru. My Lord it was. 2 Lo. And you and she together, Were privie of the letter which was sent. Was it so or no? why do you not speake? Dru. It was my Lord, and mistris Sanders knew, That Roger came the morning ere he went, And had a token from her to George Browne, A handkercher, which after was sent backe, Imbrude in Sanders bloud. Lo. Just. Who brought that handkercher? Dru. That did my man. 2329 he] Hopkinson 1 ; she Q

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1 Lo. To whom did you deliver it sirra? Rog. To mistris Sanders at her house my Lord. A. San. O God (my Lords) he openly belies me. I kept my childbed chamber at that time, Where t'was not meete that he or any man Should have accesse. Lo. Just. Go to, clog not your soule, With new additions of more hainous sinne. Tis thought, beside conspiring of his death, You wrongd your husband with unchaste behaviour, For which the justice of the righteous God, Meaning to strike you, yet reserves a place, Of gracious mercie, if you can repent, And therefore bring your wickednesse to light, That suffering for it in this world, you might, Upon your heartie sorrow be set free, And feare no further judgement in the next, But if you spume at his affliction, And beare his chasticement with grudging minds, Your precious soule as wel as here your bodies, [j/g. I2v] Are left in hazard of eternal death, Be sorrie therefore, tis no pettie sinne, But murder most unnatural of al, Wherewith your hands are tainted, and in which, Before and after the accursed fact, You stand as accessarie : to be briefe, You shal be carried backe unto the place, From whence you came, and so from thence at last, Unto the place of execution, where You shal al three be hang'd til you be dead, And so the Lord have mercie on your soules. A. San. Ah good my Lords be good unto Anne Sanders, Or els you cast away an innocent. 2 Lo. It should not seeme so by the rose you weare, His colour now is of another hue. A. San. So you wil have it : but my soule is stil, As free from murther as it was at first.

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A WARNING FOR FAIR WOMEN

Lo. Just. I think no lesse, Jailer, away with them. A. San. Wei wel Anne Drwry I may curse the time, That ere I saw thee, thou broughtst me to this. Rog. I will not curse, but God forgive ye both, For had I never knowne nor you nor her, I had not come unto this shameful death. Enter maister Browne to execution with the Sheriffe and Officers.

167

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Exeunt. [xviii]

Bro. Why do you stay me, in the waie of death, The peoples eies have fed them with my sight, The little babies in the mothers armes, Have wept for those poore babies seeing me, That I by my murther have left fatherlesse, And shreekt and started when I came along, And sadly sigh'd, as when their nurses use To fright them with some monster when they crie. Sher. You have a brother Browne, that for a murther

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[sig. 13} Is lately here committed unto Newgate, And hath obtained he may speake with you. Bro. Have I a brother, that hath done the like? Is there another Browne hath kild a Sanders? It is my other selfe hath done the deede, I am a thousand, every murtherer is my owne selfe, I am at one time in a thousand places, And I have slaine a thousand Sanderses, In every shire, each cittie, and each towne, George Sanders stilis murthered by George Browne.

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Brownes brother is brought forth. Brot. Brother. Bro. Dost thou meane me? Is there a man wil call me brother? Brot. Yes I wil cal thee so, and may do it,

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A WARNING FOR FAIR WOMEN

That have a hand as deepe in bloud as thou. 2409 Bro. Brother I know thee well, of whence was thine? Brot. Of Yorke he was. Bro. Sanders of London mine. Then see I wel Englands two greatest townes, Bothfildwith murders done by both the Brownes. Brot. Then may I rightly chalenge thee a brother. 2415 Thou slewest one in the one, I one in th'other. Bro. When didst thou thine? Brot. A month orfiveweekes past. Bro. Hardly to say then which was done the last, Where shalt thou suffer? 2420 Brot. Where I did the fact. Bro. And I here brother where I laid my act : Then I see wel that be it nere or further, That heaven wil stil take due revenge on murther. Brot. Brother farewel, I see we both must die, 2425 At London you this weeke, next at Yorke I. Browne. Two lucklesse brothers sent both at one hower, The one from Newgate, th'other from the Tower. Exit. Brot. Sher. Browne, yet at last to satisfie the world, 2430 And for a true and certaine testimonie, Of thy repentance for this deed committed, [s/g. /iv] Now at the houre of death, as thou doest hope To have thy sinnes forgiven at Gods hands, Freely confesse what yet unto this houre, 2435 Against thy conscience {Browne) thou hast concealde, Anne Sanders knowledge of her husbands death. Bro. Have I not made a covenant with her, Aside. That for the love that I ever bare to her, I will not sell her life by my confession, 2440 And shall I now confesse it? I am a villaine. I will never do it: Shall it be said Browne proov'd A recreant : (and yet I have a soule). Well, God the rest reveale : I will confesse my sinnes, but this conceale. 2445

A WARNING FOR FAIR WOMEN

169

Upon my death shees guiltlesse of the fact. Well, much ado I had to bring it out, Aside. My conscience scarce would let me utter it, I am glad tis past. Sher. But Browne, it is confest by Druries wife, 2450 That she is guiltie : which doth fully prove Thou hast no true contrition, but concealst Her wickednesse, the bawd unto her sinne. Bro. Let her confesse what she thinkes good : Trouble me no more good master Shiriff. 2455 Sher. Browne, thy soule knowes. Bro. Yea, yea, it does : pray you be quiet sir : Vile world how like a monster come I soyld from thee? How have I wallowed in thy lothsome filth, Drunke and besmeard with al thy bestial sinne? 2460 I never spake of God, unlesse when I Have blasphemed his name with monstrous oathes : I never read the scriptures in my life, But did esteeme them worse then vanitie : I never came in Church where God was taught, 2465 Tooke benefite of Sacrament or Baptisme: The Sabboth dayes I spent in common stewes, [sig. 14] Unthriftie gaming, and vile perjuries : I held no man once worthie to be spoke of That went not in some strange disguisde attire, 2470 Or had not fetcht some vile monstrous fashion, To bring in odious detestable pride : I hated any man that did not doe Some damned or some hated filthie deede, That had beene death for vertuous men to heare, 2475 Of all the worst that live, I was the worst, Of all the cursed, I the most accursed, All carelesse men be warned by my end, And by my fall your wicked lives amend. He leapes o f f .

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A WARNING FOR FAIR WOMEN

Enter a Messenger. Mess. It is the Councels pleasure master Shiriff, The bodie be convaide to Shooters hill, And there hung up in Chaînes. Sher. It shal be done. Enter master James with the Minister.

[Exeunt.] [xix] 2485

M. Ja. Why, then you are perswaded certainly, That mistres Sanders is meere innocent? Min. That am I sir, even in my verie soule, Compare but all the likelihoodes thereof, First hir most firme deniall of the fact, Next mistres Druries flat confession, That onely she and Roger did contrive The death of master Sanders: then your selfe Cannot but be of mine opinion. M. Ja. Then al you labour for, Is that I should procure her pardon. Min. To save an innocent, Is the most Christian worke that man can do Beside, if you perforine it sir, sound recompense, Shal quit your paines so well imployed herein.

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2500 I4v]

M. Ja. Now let me tell ye, that I am ashamde, A man of your profession should appeare So far from grace, and touch of conscience, As making no respect of his owne soule, He should with such audaciousnes presume To baffle Justice, and abuse the seate, With your fond over-weening and slie fetch. Think you the world discerneth not your drift? Do not I know, that if you could prevaile, By this far fetcht insinuation, And mistris Sanders pardon thus obtainde, That your intent is then to marry her?

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A WARNING FOR FAIR WOMEN

And thus you have abused her poore soule, In trusting to so weake and vaine a hope. Wei sir, since you have so forgot your selfe, And (shamelesse) blush not at so bold offence : Upon their day of execution, And at the selfe same place, upon a pillorie, There shall you stand, that al the world may see, A just desert for such impietie. Min. Good sir heare me. M. Ja. I wil not heare thee, come and get thee hence, For such a fault, too meane a recompence. Enter two Carpenters under Newgate.

171

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Exeunt. [xx]

Will. Tom Peart my old companion? well met. Tom. Good morrow Wil Crow, good morrow, how dost? I have not seene thee a great while. Will. Wei I thank God, how dost thou? where hast thou bin this morning so early? Tom. Faith I have bin up ever since three a clocke. Will. About what man? Tom. Why to make worke for the hangman : I and an other have bin setting up a gallowes. Will. O for mistris Drewry, must she die to day? Tom. Nay I know not that, but when he does, I am

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2535 tar. Ki]

sure there is a gallowes big enough to hold them both. Will. Both whom, her man and her? Tom. Her man and her, and mistris Sanders too, tis a swinger yfayth. But come lie give thee a pot this morning, for I promise thee I am passing drie after my worke. Will. Content Tom, and I have another for thee, and afterward lie go see the execution. Tom. Do as thou wilt for that. Will. But dost thou thinke it will be to day? Tom. I cannot tell, Smithfield is full of people, and

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the Shiriffes man that set us a worke told us it would be to day. But come shall we have this Beere? Will. With a good will, leade the way. Enter Anne Sanders and her keeper following her. Keeper. Cal'd you mistres Sanders1 A. San. Keeper I did : I prethee fetch up mistres Drurie to me, I have a great desire to talke with her. Keep. She shall be brought unto you presently. A. San. Oh God, as I was standing at a grate, That lookes into the streete, I heard men talke, The execution should be done to day, And what a paire of Gallowes were set up, Both strong and big enough to hold us all : Which words have strucke such terror to my soule, As I cannot be quiet till I know Whether Nan Drurie be resolved still To cleare me of the murder as she promist, And here she comes : I prethee gentle Keeper, Give us a little leave we may conferre Of things that neerly do concerne our soules. Keep. With al my hart, take time & scope enough. Dru. Now mistris Sanders, whats your wil with me? A. San. Oh mistris Drury, now the houre is come To put your love unto the touch, to try If it be currant, or but counterfait. This day it is appoynted we must die, How say you then, are you stil purposed To take the murder upon your selfe? Or wil you now recant your former words? Dru. Anne Sanders, Anne, tis time to turne the leafe, And leave dissembling, being so neere my death, The like I would advise your selfe to do.

Exeunt. [xxi]

2555 Exit.

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[sig. Klv] Exit. 2570

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173

We have bin both notorious vile transgressors, And this is not the way to get remission, By joyning sinne to sinne, nor doth't agree With godly Christians, but with reprobates, And such as have no taste of any grace, And therefore (for my part) lie cleere my conscience, And make the truth apparant to the world. A. San. Will you prove then inconstant to your friend? Dru. Should I, to purchase safety for another, Or lengthen out anothers temporali life, Hazard mine owne soule everlastingly, And loose the endlesse joyes of heaven, Preparde for such as wil confesse their sinnes? No mistris Sanders, yet there's time of grace, And yet we may obtaine forgivenes, If we wil seeke it at our Saviours hands. But if we wilfully shut up our hearts Against the holy spirit that knockes for entrance It is not this worlds punishment shal serve, Nor death of body, but our soules shal live In endlesse torments of unquenched fire. A. San. Your words amaze me, and although lie vow I never had intention to confesse My hainous sinne, that so I might escape The worlds reproach, yet God I give him thanks [s/g. K2] Even at this instant I am strangely changed, And wil no longer drive repentance off, Nor cloake my guiltinesse before the world : And in good time see where the Doctor commes, By whome I have bin seriously instructed. [Enter a Doctor.] Doct. Good morrow mistris Sanders, and soules health Unto you both : prepare your selves for death, The houre is no we at hand, and mistris Sanders, At length acknowledge and confesse your fault,

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That God may be propitioner to your soule. A. San. Right reverend sir, not to delude the world, Nor longer to abuse your patience, Here I confesse I am a grievous sinner, And have provok't the heavy wrath of God, Not onely by consenting to the death Of my late husband, but by wicked lust, And wilful sinne, denying of the fault : But now I do repent and hate my selfe, Thinking the punishment preparde for me, Not hälfe severe enough for my deserts. Doct. Done like a Christian and the childe of grace, Pleasing to God, to angels, and to men, And doubt not but your soule shall finde a place In Abrahams bosome, though your body perish. And mistris Drewry, shrinke not from your faith, But valiantly prepare to drinke this cup Of sowre affliction, twill raise up to you A crowne of glory in another world. Dru. Good M. Doctor, I am bound to you, My soule was ignorant, blind, and almost choak't With this worlds vanities, but by your councell, I am as well resolv'd to goe to death, As if I were invited to a banquet : Nay such assurance have I in the bloud Of him that died for me, as neither fire, Sword nor torment could retaine me from him. Doct. Spoke like a champion of the holy Crosse. Now mistris Sanders, let me tell to you : Your children hearing this day was the last They should behold their mother on the earth, Are come to have your blessing ere you dye, And take their sorrowful farewel of you. A. San. A sorrowfull farewel t'wil be indeede To them (poore wretches) whom I have deprivde, Of both the natural succours of their youth : But call them in, and gentle Keeper, bring me

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A WARNING FOR FAIR WOMEN

175

Those bookes that lie within my chamber window. Oh maister Doctor, were my breast transparent, That what is figurde there, might be perceiv'd, Now should you see the very image of poore And tottred ruines, and a slaine conscience: Here, here they come beblind mine eyes with teares, And soule and body now in sunder part.

2655

[Her Children are Brought /«.]

All. Oh mother, mother. A. San. Oh my deare children! I am unworthy of the name of Mother. All. Turne not your face from us, but ere you die, Give us your blessing. A. San. Kneele not unto me, Tis I that have deserv'd to kneele to you. My trespas hath bereft you of a father, A loving father, a kinde careful father, And by that selfe same action, that foule deede Your mother likewise is to go from you, Leaving you (poore soules) by her offence, A corasie and a scandali to the world. But could by husband and your father heare me, Thus humbly at his feete would I fai downe, And plentifull in teares bewayle my fault. Mercy I aske of God, of him, and you, And of his kinred which I have abusde, And of my friends and kinred wheresoever, Of whom I am ashamed and abasht, And of al men and women in the world, Whome by my foule example I have griev'd, Though I deserve no pity at their hands, Yet I beseech them all to pardon me, And God I thanke that hath found out my sin, And brought me to affliction in this world, Thereby to save me in the world to come.

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Oh children learne, learne by your mothers fall To follow vertue, and beware of sinne, Whose baites are sweete and pleasing to the eie, But being tainted, more infect than poyson, And are farre bitterer than gall it selfe, And li'vd in dayes where you have wealth at wil, As once I had, and are well matcht beside : Content your selves, and surfet not on pride.

2690

Enter Sheriffe bringing in Trusty Roger with holberds.

2695

Sher. What M. Doctor, have you made an end? The morning is far spent, tis time to go. Doct. Even when you wil, M. Sheriffe, we are ready. A. San. Behold (my children) I wil not bequeath, Or gold or silver to you, you are left Sufficiently provided in that poynt, But here I give to each of you a booke Of holy meditations, Bradfords workes, That vertuous chosen servant of the Lord, Therein you shal be richer than with gold, Safer than in faire buildings : happyer Than al the pleasures of this world can make you. Sleepe not without them when you go to bed, And rise a mornings with them in your hands. So God send downe his blessing on y ou al : Farewel, farewel, farewel, farewel, farewel. She kisses them one after another. Nay stay not to disturbe me with your teares, The time is come sweete hearts, and we must part, That way go you, this way my heavie heart.

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[sig. K3v\

Exeunt.

A WARNING FOR FAIR WOMEN

[Epilogue] Tragedie enters to conclude. Tra. Here are the launces that have sluic'd forth sinne, And ript the venom'd ulcer of foule lust, Which being by due vengeance qualified, Here Tragedie of force must needes conclude. Perhaps it may seeme strange unto you al, That one hath not revengde anothers death, After the observation of such course: The reason is, that now of truth I sing, And should I adde, or else diminish aught, Many of these spectators then could say, I have comitted error in my play. Beare with this true and home-borne Tragedie, Yeelding so slender argument and scope, To build a matter of importance on, And in such forme as happly you expected. What now hath faild, to morrow you shall see, Perform'd by Hystorie or Comedie.

ABBREVIATIONS

The following abbreviations are used in the Notes: Apperson

George L. Apperson, English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases (London, 1929).

Bradbrook

M. C. Bradbrook, Themes and Conventions in Elizabethan Tragedy (Cambridge, 1960).

Brewer

E. C. Brewer, Dictionary ofPhrase and Fable (New York, n.d.).

D.N.B.

Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee, eds., The Dictionary of National Biography (London, 1937-1938).

Heywood

Thomas Hèywood, An Apology for Actors (London, 1612).

Hopkinson 1

A. F. Hopkinson, ed., A Warning for Fair Women (London, 1893).

Hopkinson 2

A. F. Hopkinson, ed., A Warning for Fair Women (London, 1904).

Lewis

A. O. Lewis, "A Warning for Fair Women", N&Q, CXCIX, N.S., I (1954), 18-19.

O.E.D.

The Oxford English Dictionary (London, 1933).

Reynolds

George F. Reynolds, "'Trees' on the Stage of Shakespeare", MP, V (1907-1908), 153-168.

Ringler

William A. Ringler, Jr., "Hamlet's Defense of the Players", Essays on Shakespeare and Elizabethan Drama in Honor of Hardin Craig (Columbia, Mo., 1962), 201-213.

Simpson

Richard Simpson, ed., The School of Shakespere (London, 1878). M. P. Tilley, A Dictionary of the Proverbs in England in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (Ann Arbor, 1950).

Tilley

NOTES

Induction 19 Gup: "An exclamation of derision, remonstrance, or surprise; often coupled with marry" (O.E.D lb). 20 Melpomine: the Muse who presided over tragedy. 21 whose mare is dead: what's the matter; 2 Henry IV, II, i, 46: "How now? Whose mare's dead? What's the matter?" (Tilley, 443). 47 racke: "to strain the meaning of (words, etc.); to give a forced interpretation to" (O.E.D. 3). 48 rap: "To take up and carry off, transport, remove" (O.E.D. 2 ; cites A Warning). 55 pelch: pilch, "An outer garment made of skin dressed with the hair; in later use, a leathern or coarse woollen outer garment" (O.E.D. la). 66 wispe: "A twist or figure of straw for a scold to rail at" (O.E.D. 2b). 82 The stage is hung with blacke: the first of references in this play to the custom of having black hangings when tragedy is being presented. scene i 117 English pale: that part of Ireland "to which for some centuries after its invasion by the English under Henry II in 1172 the dominion of the latter was confined" (Hopkinson 2,98).

NOTES

160 lookes: Α. Ο. Lewis reminds "future editors" of A Warning that this word may be a printer's error for locks, or that it may be an alternate spelling of locks. (A. O. Lewis, "A Warningfor Fair Women", Notes & Queries, CXCIX, N. S. 1(1954), 18-19); the spelling of the copy text is retained though it may represent either the modern looks or locks. 197 Aqua coelestis: heavenly water; probably a popular nostrum or panacea similar to "Rosa solis". 198 Rosa solis: rose of the sun; "a cordial or liquer originally made from or flavored with the juice of the plant sundew, but subsequently composed of spirits (esp. brandy) with various essences or spices, sugar, etc." (O.E.D. 2). 209 peate : pet, "Used as a ternfof endearment to a girl or woman; pet of a woman" (O.E.D. la). 238 turkesse: turquoise (O.E.D. 1; cites A Warning). 274 respective: "Careful or regardful of something" (O.E.D. lb; cites A Warning). scene ii 350 scornful nay: Simpson and Hopkinson 1 emend to scornful way, but the reading of the quarto is satsifactory as it stands. 437 conceited: ingenious, intelligent (O.E.D. la, b). scene iii 439 drawlatch: a thief, a "lazy laggard" (O.E.D. 2, 3; cites A Warning). 495 consorted: accorded, agreed (O.E.D. 6). 507 angels: "An old English gold coin, called more fully at first the Angel-Noble, being originally a new issue of the Noble having as its device the archangel Michael standing upon and piercing the dragon" (O.E.D. 6a). 522 absolute: "perfect" (O.E.D. 4).

NOTES

181

scene iv 572 The Burse: "The Royal Exchange in London built by Sir Thomas Greshamin 1566" (O.E.D. 3b). 573 quittance: discharge or release "from a debt or obligation" (O.E.D. 2). 583 All's one for that: It doesn't matter; "For 'tis all one a hundred years hence" (Apperson, 7). 605 dispatch: Obey my orders ; do what I told you. 618 reversion: "The right of succeeding to the possession of something after another is done with it, or simply of obtaining it at some future time" (O.E.D. 2a). 639 Hopkinson's (1 and 2) emendation of the quarto prefix I to Mill, and moving it to 1. 641 have been rejected. The text is inadequate to determine the Milliner from the Draper. Altering the placement of the prefix does violence to the terminal punctuation of 1. 638 and affords no improvement in the understanding of the text. 640 conceit: think, "conceive" (O.E.D. 3; cites A Warning). 654 Exeunt [Draper and Milliner]: Exeunt is at 1. 652 in the quarto but is emended and placed at 1. 654 so that the Draper and the Milliner may hear all the remarks directed toward them. 737 wis: know 748 leave him: Simpson's emendation have him and his suggestion love him are rejected and the reading of the quarto is retained, the antecedent of him being understood as her husband, not Browne. 759 change or: Hopkinson's emendation of 1893 and 1904 is adopted and the quarto reading change off is rejected. The compositor has likely mistaken a cramped r for an / a n d then expressed his preference in spelling by doubling the/. 769 necke: in the necke of, "on top of, immediately upon or after" (O.E.D. 4).

182

NOTES

Dumb Show I Dumb Show I: Miss Bradbrook treats "the bloody banquet" found in this dumb show: "There was a dumb show of particular horror known as 'the bloody banquet' (...A Warning for Fair Women, Act 2, Prologue; ...) It was rather like the Thyestean feast: the table was set with black candles, drink set out in skulls and the Furies served it up. The tradition of these diabolical suppers might be behind the cauldron scene in Macbeth. A great deal of painstaking and elaborate work went to the staging of atrocities. The realism of the mutilations was helped by bladders of red ink and the use of animals' blood" (Badbrook, 18). 777 dismall: evil 778 sable curtains: Displayed during the performance of tragedy, the sable curtains are especially appropriate for the bloody banquet. 779 direful: dreadful, terrible (O.E.D. 1). 781-786 The author of A Warning by referring to "Ebon tapers", "Screech owle", and 'Furies" loses no opportunity to reinforce the pervasive gloom of the dumb show. 794 mazors: mazer, "a bowl or drinking-cup or goblet without a foot, originally made of 'mazer' (maple) wood" (O.E.D. 2). 799-800 Here some strange...: The permissive nature of this authorial direction is apparent. The importance of "noises of all kinds" as a part of staging is attested by Miss Bradbrook, who says that the "directly stimulating effect of music must have been much greater than at present, to judge from the way in which characters responded..." In addition, "A feeling of suspense is often heightened by the striking of a clock or a bell. The clock at the end of Faustus is similar to the 'little bell' which, in Macbeth, summons Duncan 'to Heaven or to Hell..." (Bradbrook 19). 850 Tragedy settes: The quarto is emended from Murther

NOTES

183

to Tragedy in order to correct an apparent mis-assignment of speech prefixes. It is Tragedy, not Murther, who at line 771 entered with "a bowle of bloud in her hand", and in the intervening lines there is no transfer of the bowl of blood to Murther. Though Murther is said to have entered "into all their hearts", it does not appear that Murther as a character in its own right has entered the dumb show in A Warning. 862 Hopkinson 2 divides this line after is, printing the direction To Anne flush right. 867 ure: use, practice (O.E.D. la). scene ν 870 Enter Sanders, and one or two with him: The indefinite nature of this direction favors author's papers as copy for the printer. 888 wait on: The copy text is retained; Simpson emends to wait and, and Hopkinson 1 omits and after wait, though neither emendation improves the quarto nor has adequate justification. 889 It shall: Simpson misread the quarto and printed If shall. 909 sluce: "To let out, to cause to flow out, by the opening of a sluice. Freq. fig." (O.E.D. 1 ; cites A Warning). 910-911 Oh sable night: Cf. Macbeth: Come seeling night, Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day. (Illjii, 46-47)

scene vi 983 are sermons at the Spittle: "Spittle Sermons: Sermons preached formerly on Easter Monday and Tuesday at St. Mary Spital, Spitalfields, in a pulpit erected expressly for the purpose. Subsequently they were given at St. Bride's and later at Christchurch, Newgate Street" (Brewer, 857).

184

NOTES

992 Tis Maundie thursdaie: the day before Good Friday. On Maundy Thursday there was a ceremonial washing of the feet of poor people "in commemoration of Christ's washing the Apostles' feet at the Last Supper". The washing of feet was performed by "royal or other eminent persons, or ecclesiastics" and was accompanied by the distribution of money or other gifts (O.E.D. la, b). 999 plaine: "flat, level, even" (O.E.D. la). 1008 hoyes: "small vessels usually rigged as a sloop, and employed in carrying passengers and goods, particularly in short distances on the sea-coast" (O.E.D. 1). 1008 catches: ketches, "strongly-built two-masted vessels, usually from 100 to 250 tons burden" (O.E.D. 1). 1029 umberst: "most numerous", superlative of umber, "numerous" (O.E.D. 1). 1031 greene Medowes: The ominous nature of this dream of green meadows is reminiscent of Falstaff who, according to Mistress Quickly (Henry V, II, iii, 18), was said to have "babbled of green fields" before his death. There is, moreover, a reference to flowers both in the dream in A Warning and in the account of Falstaff's death. 1043 line: lain 1067 Aqua vitae: "Any form in which ardent spirits have been drunk, as brandy, whisky, etc." (O.E.D. 2). 1176 motion: "motive, reason; a ground or cause for action" (O.E.D. 8,10). 1231 The third time payes for all: Tilley notes the occurrence of this proverb in the Mirror for Magistrates and Twelfth Night (V, i, 40) as well as in A Warning (Tilley, 669). Dumb Show II 1266 suddenly riseth up a great tree: Reynolds, discussing trees on the Elizabethan stage, says it was not at all unusual to have one tree or several trees represented on the stage. "In The Warning (dumb show, Act II) a tree suddenly rises which is later hewn down before the

NOTES

185

audience..." Moreover "the instances might be multiplied, showing that a single tree was no uncommon property, and that it was sometimes very elaborate in construction" (Reynolds, 160). 1274 Chastitie, with her haire disheveled: The author of A Warning has seen fit to exclude from the body of the play itself details that are set forth in A Briefe Discourse. There is no mention in the play of the child borne by Anne Sanders except an oblique reference by her when she is in court. From the play alone it is not possible to learn that she had a child, presumably by Browne. scene viii 1320 aloofe: "apart, away at some distance" (O.E.D. 3). 1334 buckle: "to grapple, engage, come to close quarters" (O.E.D. 3a). 1340 studious: "giving careful attention; intent on a purpose or object, heedful, solicitous" (O.E.D. 2a). 1344 For why: because 1436 dismall day: "The dies mali, evil, unlucky or unpropitious day, of the medieval calendar... by extension... evil days (generally), days of disaster, gloom, or depression... The dies mali were Jan. 1, 25; Feb. 4, 26; Mar. 1, 28 ; Apr. 10,20 ; May 3,25 ; June 10,16 ; Jul. 13,22 ; Aug. 1, 30; Sept. 3, 21 ; Oct. 3, 22; Nov. 5, 28; Dec. 7, 22. They are said to have been called 'Egyptian days' because first discovered or computed by Egyptian astrologers..." (O.E.D. la). 1451 sweb: to faint, swoon (O.E.D. 1). 1451 swound: to swoon, to faint (O.E.D. 1). 1454 forbod: "to forbid; God's forbode: said of anything outrageous or extravagant" (O.E.D. 1). scene ix 1499 Jacke: "a vessel for liquour; a quarter of a pint" (O.E.D.

186

NOTES

2,20). 1516 brace: "pair, couple, esp. certain kinds of game" (O.E.D. 15b). 1518 garbage: the entrails (O.E.D. 1). scene χ 1537 kalender: calendar, "A list or register of any kind" (O.E.D. 4). 1547 bewray: betray 1553 complot: "a design of a covert nature planned in concert ; a conspiracy, a plot" (O.E.D. 1). 1560 tising: Hopkinson 1 reads 'ticing. scene xi 1581 Hopkinson 2 replaces another boy with Harry. 1585 crosse and pile: croix et (pu) pile, "Head or tail, i.e. tossing up to decide a stake or anything doubtful by the side of a coin which falls uppermost" (O.E.D. 21c). 1625 jerkt: jerk, "To strike with or as with a whip, switch, or wand; to scourge, whip, lash, switch" (O.E.D. la). 1627 Gaffer: a fellow (O.E.D. 2a). 1628 poynt: "thread lace made wholly with the needle... a piece of lace used as a handkerchief" (O.E.D. 31a, b). 1638 Hopkinson adds Enter Anne Sanders and Drury in his 1904 edition. 1641 Basiliske: a serpent whose breath or look was said to be fatal 1662 study: "search, 'cast about'/or" (O.E.D. 2f). 1665 Cymerian: Cimmerian, "Of or belonging to the Cimmerii, a people fabled by the ancients to live in perpetual darkness" (O.E.D. 1). scene xii 1693 noysd: noise, "To report, rumour, spread (abroad)...

NOTES

187

in the phrase 'it is noised that,' etc." (O.E.D. la; cites A Warning). 1696 vehemently: "to a very great extent ; in a very high degree : used with reference to suspicion" (O.E.D. 1). 1712 Conferre: "compare, collate" (O.E.D. 4). 1725 Descipher: decipher, "To find out, discover, detect" (O.E.D. 4). scene xiii 1731 Why Roger: Simpson and Hopkinson 1 omit Why. 1741 shift: "An expedient" (O.E.D. 3). 1750 prevent: "to meet beforehand or anticipate" (O.E.D. la). 1766 worth: money (O.E.D 1). 1772 Poverty partes company: "'Poverty parteth fellowship' 1406: Hoccleve, Minor Poems, 29 (E.E.T.S.); also found in Ashby's Poems, 29 (E.E.T.S.) and in Heywood's Proverbs" (Apperson, 509), (Tilley, 552). 1780 and hasty climbing: Hopkinson 2 emends to an hasty climbing noting Simpson's suggestion that an hasty climbing may refer to the ladder of the scaffold. Dumb Show III 1786 practise: "To lay schemes or plans especially for an evil purpose... to scheme, plot, conspire" (O.E.D. 9). 1791 immanitie: cruelty, savagery (O.E.D. 2). scene xiv scene xiv: Browne the butcher is suspicious of his "cousin", Captain Browne's visit, especially since he is not accompanied by others. The suspicions prove well grounded.

NOTES

scene xv scene xv: The conversation about the critical condition of John Beane after his many mortal wounds and the reference to the fact that his memory had been bad after the wounding help to throw in sharper relief the intervention of Divine Providence to sustain Beane and enable him to identify the murderer. 1987 Hopkinson 2 has the Aside at 1.1990. 1991 See how his wounds: There was a belief that the body of a person who had been murdered would bleed "on the touch or approach of the murderer" (Hopkinson 2, 115). 1995 Hopkinson 2 has the Aside at 1.1999. 1996 Which now befifteenemouthes: A similarity may be noted to the line in Julius Caesar: "Show you sweet Caesar's wounds, poor, poor dumb mouths" (III, ii, 225). 2026 The murther... did come to light: The first of three stories illustrative of the doctrine that "murder will out". This part of the play, with the possible exception of the Induction, has been the subject of more critical comment than any other part of the play. The doctrine that murder will out is no special hallmark of Kyd, Heywood, Shakespeare, or Chaucer, despite the fact that persons advancing a particular candidate for authorship of A Warning have urged the holding of this doctrine as evidence of authorship. Though the account behind the mayor's story is found in Heywood's Apology for Actors, the appearance there is no guarantee of Heywood's authorship of A Warning. It is as likely, if not more likely, that Heywood took the account from A Warning, than it is that he wrote A Warning. Moreover, the anecdote, as William Ringler has pointed out, was a theatrical commonplace appearing in A Warning, Der bestrafte Brudermord, and Hamlet. Ringler believes the anecdote may derive ultimately from "the anonymous Mary of Nemmegen, a Dutch morality play..." (Ringler, 206). Heywood's account in An Apology for Actors fol-

NOTES

189

lows: Another of the like wonder happened at Amsterdam in Holland, a company of our English Comedians (well knowne) travelling those Countryes, as they were before the Burgers and other the chiefe inhabitants, acting the last part of the 4 sons of Aymon, towards the last act of the history, where penitent Renaldo, like a common labourer, lived in disguise, vowing as his last pennance, to labour & carry burdens to the structure of a goodly Church there to be erected: whose diligence the labourers envying, since by reason of his stature and strength, hee did usually perfect more worke in a day, then a dozen of the best, (hee working for his conscience, they for their lucres.) Whereupon by reason his industry had so much disparaged their living, conspired amongst themselves to kill him, waiting some opportunity to finde him asleepe, which they might easily doe, since the sorest labourers are the soundest sleepers, and industry is the best preparative to rest. Having spy'd their opportunity, they drave a naile into his temples, of which wound immediatly he dyed. As the Actors handled this, the audience might on a sodarne understand an out-cry, and loud shrike in a remote gallery, and pressing about the place, they might perceive a woman of great gravity, strangely amazed, who with a distracted & troubled braine oft sighed out these words: Oh my husband, my husband! The play, without further interruption, proceeded; the woman was to her owne house conducted, without any apparant suspition, every one conjecturing as their fancies led them. In this agony she some few dayes languished, and on a time, as certaine of her well disposed neighbours came to comfort her, one amongst the rest being Church-warden, to him the Sexton posts, to tell him of a strange thing happening him in the ripping up of a grave: see here (quoth he) what I have found, and shewes them a faire skull, with a great nayle pierst quite through the braine-pan, but we cannot conjecture to whom it should belong, nor how long it hath laine in the earth, the grave being confused, and the flesh consumed. At the report of this accident, the woman, out of the trouble of her afflicted conscience, discovered a former murder. For 12 yeares ago, by driving that nayle into that skull, being the head of her husband, she had treacherously slaine him. This being publickly confest, she was arraigned, condemned, adjudged, and burned. (Heywood, An Apology for Actors, G2-v). 2034 start: "jumped, leaped" (O.E.D. 1). 2036 quite: requite (O.E.D. 10). 2058 And openly confessi her husbands murder: The account from Thomas Heywood's Apology follows : At Lin in Norfolke, the then Earle of Sussex players acting the old

190

NOTES

History of Fryer Francis, & presenting a woman, who insatiately doting on a yong gentleman, had (the more securely to enjoy his affection) mischievously and seceretly murdered her husband, whose ghost haunted her, and at divers time in her most solitary and private contemplations, in more horrid and fearefull shapes, appeared, and stood before her. As this was acted, a townes-woman (till then of good estimation and report) finding her conscience (at this presentment) extremely troubled, suddenly skritched and cryd out Oh my husband, my husband! I see the ghost of my husband fiercely threatning and menacing me. At which shrill and unexpected out-cry, the people about her, moov'd to a strange amazement, inquired the reason of her clamour, when presently unurged, she told them, that seven yeares ago, she, to be possest of such a Gentleman (meaning him) had poysoned her husband, whose fearefull image personated it selfe in the shape of that ghost: whereupon the murdresse was apprehended, before the Justices further examined, & by her voluntary confession after condemned. That this is true, as well as by the report of the Actors as the records of the Towne, there are many eyewitnesses of this accident yet living, vocally to confirme it. (Heywood, Apology, Glv-2).

scene xvi 2079 The quarto's direction, Enter M. Maior, M. James, & c, is emended because the Mayor does not enter until later. 2088 M. Humpherie: apparently an actor's name as a gloss for one of the Messengers. 2105 affect: like, "seek to obtain" (O.E.D. 1,2). 2120 They do her wrong: Browne adamantly maintains Mrs. Sanders' innocence in the face of unimpeachable evidence of her complicity in and knowledge of the crime. 2131 apple-squire: "A cant term for pimp" (Hopkinson 2, 119). scene xvii 2154-2156 The permissive nature of this stage direction, as well as its length, makes it necessary to emend the direction at 1. 2172. The authorial direction at 1. 2172, Enter all as before, may well have been sufficient for an author as he composed the play but would have been inadequate for

NOTES

191

the producer. Though there are some parts of A Warning that seem to reveal evidence of the book-keeper's hand, the directions at both 11. 2154ff. and at 1. 2172 do not appear to have had his oversight. 2172 The stage direction of the quarto, Enter all as before, has been emended. 2177 Prepare the Inditement that it may be read: Hopkinson bases part of his claim for Kyd's authorship of A Warning on the fact that Kyd likely had experience and training in reporting and would have been able to give an account of the trial with its legal phraseology. A close examination of the court scenes in The Spanish Tragedy and in A Warning for Fair Women discloses no evidence to support Hopkinson's attribution. 2186 pretended malice: malice aforethought (Hopkinson 2,120). 2190 price sixe shillings: a realistic note. 2210 As a man dead in law: Browne is presumably attesting the truth of what he says by an implied comparison with a deathbed utterance. He is not telling the truth and, as the play reveals later, is not very successful in trying to convince the lords. 2263-2264Save poor Anne... hang in Chaines: Both of Browne's requests fall on deaf ears though he is told by one of the lords to "let none of these things trouble thee". 2279 Spinsters: widows would be a more accurate designation. 2312 white rose in your bosome? One of the lesser interventions of Divine Providence noted in A Warning is the fact, as inferred from a later reference in the play, that the white rose, a token (as Anne Sanders said) of her "spotlesse innocence", changes its hue, probably to scarlet or black. 2344 I kept my childbed chamber: Mrs. Sanders' excuse is at least as old as the Second Shepherd's Play and is false. This may be an oblique reference to the fact that she bore a child, as A Briefe Discourse indicated, but not at a time that would serve as an excuse for her not having seen Roger. One of her most passionate outbursts in the play was over the handkerchief, the "ensign of despair".

192

NOTES

2349-2350 Tis thought... You wrongd your husband with unchaste behaviour: The Lord Justice is pursuing a line of investigation that has fuller treatment in the sources than in the play itself, the infidelity having been represented symbolically in the play by means of a dumb show, with no explicit reference to the child Mrs. Sanders bore Browne. 2371 And so the Lord have mercie on your soules: The author has not adhered very closely to the facts of the case in making Mrs. Sanders' trial immediately follow Browne's. According to the accounts of the crime, Browne was tried on the 18th of April, and executed on the 20th; Mrs. Sanders and Drury were tried on the 6th of May, and executed on the 13th; perhaps the requirements of stage representation induced him to depart from a strict observance of the historical succession of events. — (Simpson, 120). scene xviii 2415 chalenge: "claim for oneself, lay claim to" (O.E.D. 5). 2421 fact: "evil deed or crime" (O.E.D. lc). 2424 heaven wil stil take due revenge on murther: a pervasive doctrine in A Warning. 2438 Hopkinson 2 places the Aside at 1.2445. 2452 Thou hast no true contrition: Though it would seem that the Sheriff already has sufficient evidence to convict the accessories as well as the principals, the test of contrition for Browne and Mrs. Sanders, as well as for the others, is whether the person is willing to tell all that he knows about the aid that others gave. 2457ff. Brown's scaffold speech is in keeping with the homiletic nature of A Warning and A Briefe Discourse. 2479 He leapes o f f : "A rare instance of an execution on stage. Kyd has the same thing in The Spanish Tragedy, iii.6. Other instances may be found in Sir Thomas More, iii.l ; 2 Edward IV, v. 2, and Two Tragedies in One, ν fin" (Hopkinson 2,121). 2483 And there hung up in Chaines: Browne's request for immediate burial after execution is denied and his body is

NOTES

193

exposed according to law. scene xix 2487 meere innocent: "nothing short of, downright" (O.E.D. 4). 2512 to marry her: The minister was a Mr. Meli who attended Anne Sanders in Newgate after her condemnation (not the Doctor). He tried to secure her freedom and would have married her had he been successful. For his efforts he was put into the stocks on the day of Mrs. Sanders' execution with a sign on him with large letters reading "For practising to colour the detestable factes of George Sanders wife" (Hopkinson 2, 121-122); an appropriate excerpt from A Briefe Discourse follows : And besides al this, one Meli, a minister that had heretofore ben suspended from his Ministerie, accompanying mistresse Saunders from hir condemnation to Newgate, and conferring with hir, as it had bene to give hir good counsell and comforte, was so blinded wyth hir solemne asseverations and protestations of innocencie, that notwithstanding he had heard hir inditement, with the exact and substantiall triall of hir case; yet notwithstanding, he perswaded himself that she was utterly cleere, and thereuppon falling in love wyth hir, dealte with mistresse Drewrie to take the whole guilt upon hir selfe, undertaking to sue for mistresse Saunders pardon. And so what by his terrifying of hir, with the horroure of mischarging and casting away of an innocent, what with his promising of certaine money to the mariage of hir daughter, and with other perswasions: she was so wholly woone that way, that as wel before certaine personages of honour, as also before the Deane of Paules & others, she utterly cleered mistresse Saunders of the facte, or of consent to the same, taking the whole blame thereof to hir self, and protesting to stände therin to the death, contrarie to hir former confession at the tyme of hir arreignement. (Appendix D, 00-00). scene xx 2524 Hopkinson emends the two carpenters of the stage direction in the quarto to Tom Peart and Will Crow. 2546 Smithfield is full of people: The tremendous press of

194

NOTES

people attending the execution may be accounted for in part by the standing of Mr. Sanders and the fact that this was one of the most sensational events of its kind in Elizabethan England. scene xxi 2558 I heard men talke: A Warning follows A Briefe Discourse rather closely at this point : ...the constant reporte goeth, that as certaine men came talking through Newgate, one happened to speake lowde of the gallowes that was set up, and of the greatnesse and strongnes of the same, saying it would hold them both and moe, the sound of which wordes did so pierce into the watchfull eares of mistresse Saunders, who lay neare hand, that being striken to the heart with the horror of the present death which she looked for that day, she went immediately to mistresse Drewrie, and telling hir that she knew certainly by the wordes which she had heard, that they should by all likelihoode be executed that day, asked hir if she would stand to her former promise. (Appendix D, 00) 2566 And here she comes: Hopkinson 2 divides this line after comes and adds the direction Enter Anne Drury and the Keeper. 2590 Or lengthen out anothers temporali life: The account from A Briefe Discourse follows : But mistresse Drewrie after better consideration of hirself, counselling hir to fall to playne and simple dealing: telling hir, that for hir owne part she was fully determined not to dissemble any longer, nor to hazarde hir owne soule eternally for the safetie of another bodies temporali life. Then mistresse Saunders, who had determined to acknowledge nothing against hir selfe, so long as she might bee in any hope of life; howbeit that she always purposed to utter the truth, whensoever she should come to the instant of death, as she hir self confessed afterward; being striken both with feare and remorse, did... send for the Deane of Paules agayne, and declared... unto him... that shee had given hir consent and procurement to hir husbands death, through unlawfull lust and liking that she had to Brown, confessing hir sinfulnesse of life committed with him: and humbly submitting hirself to her deserved punishment,... (Appendix D, 00-00)) 2609 see where the Doctor comes: a Doctor of Divinity, possibly the prison chaplain.

NOTES

195

2697 Abrahams bosome: Heaven. 2634ff. Mrs. Drury's confession and repentance before the Doctor as well as that of Mrs. Sanders earlier in this scene (11. 2616ff.) are in keeping with the tone and spirit of A Briefe Discourse. Both women show a considerable facility with the language of piety to have been found"so rawe and ignorant" concerning spiritual matters, as A Briefe Discourse indicated. As A Briefe Discourse contains lengthy prayers purportedly said by Mrs. Sanders shortly before the time of her execution, so A Warning has those characteristics that place it among what H. H. Adams calls domestic or homiletic tragedy. 2671 corasie: corrosive, "a cause of trouble and grief, a grievance" (O.E.D. 2; cites A Warning). 2703 Bradfords work.es: John Bradford was a "protestant martyr... born of gentle parents about 1510 in the parish of Manchester". He was burned at the stake on Sunday, June 30, 1555, in Smithfield before a large crowd of people. Among his many works are Godlie Meditations upon the Lordes Prayer, the Beleefe, and Ten Commandements... published in 1562 and reprinted in 1578, 1604, and later. This work, as well as others, would have been appropriate for Mrs. Sanders to give to her children for their edification (D.N.B. II, 1065-1067). Epilogue 2725 of truth I sing: Tragedy reiterates what was stated in the Induction, that the subject is "not faind", but real and indeed is known by many in the audience. 2729 Beare with this true and home-borne Tragedy: "A similar apology is made at the end of Arden of Feversham" (Hopkinson 2,123).

APPENDIX A

Emendation of Accidentals

Prologue 7

Out] out scene i

103 Gentlemen] Gentleman 179 Take her aside. ] take her aside. 207 wish.] ~ / \ 207 Aside.] aside 236 yee.] 257 Billingsgate] Corrected in H 265 Mistres] Mi. 302 Saint] S. 303 Saint] S. 304 Billingsgate] Corrected in H 305 Saint] S. scene ii 325 (mother)] (mother.) 358 th'Exchange.] 367 offend.] ~ / \ 383 Aside.] aside

APPENDIX A

388 Bro.] Dro. scene iii 445 448 454 455 469 476 476 524 547

of,] waxe,] name.]~, Rog.] Rog, master] mast. Mistres,] Miistres, please,] seene,] ~ : deferd,] scene iv

563 to night?] Corrected in D, Hu, Y 571 whenas] when as 595 made,] ~ . 615 turne.] 648 farewell.] 658 Drurie,] ~ Λ 703 beside.] 714 like.] ~ : 716 so.] 720 sinne.] Corrected in D, Hu, Ρ, Y 737 in.] 741 lesse.] 742 much.] 746 us:] Dumb Show I 784 noise,] ~ . 786 Furies] furies

198

APPENDIX A

849 imbru'de.] 857 thine and thine] ~ : and ~ : 859 his.] Corrected in B, D, Hu, Ρ, Y scene ν 887 Sir?] 888 home.] Corrected in B, D, Hu, Ρ, Y 893 way] Corrected in B, D, Hu, Ρ, Y 895 late.] 898 thing,] ~ Λ 913 desire:] ~ 915 light.] 919 God Λ ] 943 on] Corrected in B, D, Hu, Ρ, Y scene vi 995 stumbles] Corrected in B, D, Hu, Ρ, Y 1003 mischance : ] Corrected in B, D, Hu, Ρ, Y 1009 crosse,] Corrected in B, D, Hu, Ρ, Y 1011 way] Corrected in B, D, Hu, Ρ, Y scene vii 1098 thoroughly] throughly 1105 Trusty] Trusty

APPENDIX A

1145 unseene.] All beyond η is obliterated in Y. 1146 work.] ~ Λ 1158 Doe,] ~ : 1176 Aside.] aside. 1195 crown.] ~ A 1202 chuse.] ~ Λ Dumb Show II 1259 the woods] thew oods 1307 deed.] scene viii 1316 way?] 1332 sir?... twaine.] ~ : ... 1336 make.] 1337 Rog.]Rrog. 1368 upon't.] 1377 is] is is 1391 vanisht Λ ] 1421 coast] The a is obliterated in Y. 1444 blesse] besse 1474 we] The w is obliterated in Y. scene ix 1520 a little] alitile 1521 sport.] scene χ 1566 alreadie?] The r is obscured in all quartos collated.

200

APPENDIX A

scene xi 1604 He spies] he spies 1610 his] is 1626 mother] mother scene xii 1678 (good my Lord).] (good my Lord.) scene xiii 1758 others] other Dumb Show III scene xiv 1855 1859 1874 1889 1891

hapend] hapned outlawrie,] Browne,] With all] Withall rest,] ~ Λ scene jcv

1904 1921 1937 1945 1949 1975 1976

of her] ofher Jam.] ~ : houre.] ~ Λ Rochester?] Corrected in B, Hu company] cöpany been faire] been —. As any] Faire, as any 1987 Aside.] aside. 1995 Aside.] aside. 2002 Master] M.

APPENDIX A

2051 Court,] ~ : scene xvi 2069 2077 2107 2116 2151 2153

cleerely] cheerely Lord,] him?] Open] open conscience.] ~ A Exeunt.] exeunt. scene xvii

2161 2162 2162 2174 2213 2222

wont?] ~ Λ from] frö today,] lords.] ~ Λ Browne.] ~ A prisoner] The er is obscured in Y. 2254 from] fro 2306 seald.] Corrected in Ρ 2308 life.] scene xviii 2413 townes,] 2421 fact.] ~ A 2430 Browne,] ~ : 2432 committed,] Corrected in B, Hu, Ρ 2443 soule).] soule.) scene xix

202

APPENDIX A

scene xx 2537 whom,] 2537 her?] scene xxi 2584 2626 2647 2657 2698

Christians] christians Christian] christian you.] ~ : Here,] ~ Λ Sheriffe,] sheriffe 2699 (my children)] (my children,) Epilogue 2717 sluic'd] slnic'd

APPENDIX Β

PRESS-VARIANTS IN Q (1599)

Copies collated: Β (British Museum); D (Dyce); F (Folger Shakespeare Library); H (Harvard University Library); Hu (Henry E. Huntington Library) ; Ρ (Carl F. Pforzheimer Library) ; Y (Yale University Library). Sheet A (outer forme) Corrected: B, D, F, H, Y Uncorrected : Η, Ρ sig. A2v 50 tyrant,] tyrant Sheet Β (inner forme) Corrected: Η Uncorrected : B, D, F, Hu, Ρ, Y sig. B2 304 Billingsgate] Belinsgate Sheet C (inner forme) Corrected: D, Hu, Ρ, Y Uncorrected : B, F, H

204

APPENDIX Β

sig. Civ 563 night?] night, sig. C3v 698 playnely] playne sig. C4 720 sinne.] sinne, 745 of the words,] of more, Sheet D (inner forme) Corrected : B, D, Hu, Ρ, Y Uncorrected : F, H sig. Dlv 831 sitte all wicked murthers guests.] site al wicked murtherers guests. 842 chime] chine sig. D2 859 his.] his, 888 home.] home, sig. D3v 986 afternoone] afternoone, 995 stumbles] tumbles

sig. D4 1003 mischance:] mischance. 1009 cross,] cross 1011 way] way, sig. D4v 1051 no] no: Sheet D (outer forme) Corrected : B, D, Hu, Ρ, Y Uncorrected: F, H sig. D2v 893 way.] way:

APPENDIX Β

936 hower:]hower, sig. D3 943 on] on, Sheet E (inner forme) Corrected: B, D, F, Η, Ρ, Y Uncorrected: Hu sig. Elv 1110 Enter] Emter Sheet E (outer forme) Corrected : B, D, F, Hu, Ρ, Y Uncorrected: H sig. El 1105 him.] him? sig. E2v 1225 praier] praier. 1227 so,] so sig. E3 1229 Rog.]Rog: 1233 tewsday next:] twesday next. 1239 passe,] passe. 1244 (as you see)] as you see 1245 shot: ]shot. 1247 accidents] accedente 1250 For] Eor 1252 Mary-Cray... cald:] Mary-cray... cald. 1245 Gaine,... vilaine] gaine,... villaine sig. E4v 1337 see] see, 1338 you.] you, 1349 seife] seife,

206

APPENDIX Β

Sheet F (outer forme) Corrected: Β Uncorrected: D, F, H, Hu, Ρ, Y sig. F3 1521 sport] sport, Sheet G (inner forme) Corrected : Β, D, F, H, Hu, Ρ Uncorrected : Y sig. Glv 1688 A cruel] O cruel 1702 was't not] whas't not 1703 was.] was, 1720 drawne :] drawne, Sig. G2 1727 els:] els, 1731 pound,] pound, sig. G3v 1857 mony,] mony 1863 mine] mine, sig. G4 1872 tis the man] is the man 1873 then doe] then dde Sheet G (outer forme) Corrected: D, F, H, Hu, Ρ Uncorrected : Β, Y sig. Gl 1659 request:] request,

APPENDIX Β

sig. G4v 1905 choise... gentleman] chose... gentleman 1912 beleevejbeleeve: Sheet Η (inner forme) Corrected : B, D, F, Hu, Ρ, Y Uncorrected: H sig. H2 2045 Tragedian,] Tragedian; Sheet H (outer forme) Corrected : D , F , H , P , Y Uncorrected: B, Hu sig. HI 1945 Rochester.] Rochester? 1958 way unto the Court,] way to the Court, 1961 shewne] show'ne 1964 you so,] you, so 1972 me:] me. sig. H2v 2084 an indictment] and indictment 2090 you,] you. sig. H3 2105 (George Brown)] George Browne 2113 death.] death, 2119 two,] two 2120 life.] life, 2121 affirme] affirme, 2122 face,] face 2127 Sanders,] Sanders

208

APPENDIX Β

Sheet I (inner forme) Corrected : B, D, F, H, Hu, Y Uncorrected: Ρ sig. Ilv 2293 Lady the Queene :] the Lady Queene : 2293 severally,] severally 2295 and murther?] ther? 2304 did write] read write 2306 read it... seald] did it... seald. 2310 case] case, sig. 12 2326 you,] you 2337 handkercher,] handkercher 2349 thought,] thought sig. I3v 2432 committed,] committed. 2438 with her,] with hell 2440 will not sell] will sell 2447 ado] a do sig. 14 2482 convaide] covaide Sheet I (outer forme) Corrected : D, F, H, Hu, Ρ, Y Uncorrected: Β sig. II 2263 innocent.] innocent. 2270 Lo. Just.] Lo. Just, 2286 intice,] intice sig. I2v 2369 execution, where] execution where, 2378 Lo. Just.] Io. Just. 2378 lesse, Jailer, away] lesse Jailer away

APPENDIX Β

sig. 13 2395 you.] you, 2399 seife] selfe, sig. I4v 2511 obtainde,] obtainde: 2514 hope.] hope?

APPENDIX C

HISTORICAL COLLATION

Editions collated: Q(1599), Simpson (1878), Hopkinson (1893), Hopkinson (1904). Note: References in this collation to Hopkinson's edition of 1893 will be Hopkinson 1 and to his edition of 1904 will be Hopkinson 2. The reference Hopkinson 1, 2 will indicate that both editions are alike. Prologue 54 Then of] Then, too, Simpson 60 three like to drovers] three more like to drovers Simpson; like unto drovers Hopkinson 1,2 100 Exit.] Hopkinson 2; Q scene i 135 155 167 221 316

Exit Sanders. ] Hopkinson 2 ; Exeunt Sanders. Q Exit Roger.] Exit. Hopkinson 2 it cost] it costs Hopkinson 1,2 such one?] such a one? Simpson, Hopkinson 1 Exit Rog.] Exit. Hopkinson 1,2

APPENDIX C

scene ii 350 scornful nay,] scornful way; Simpson, Hopkinson 1 390 ] Aside. Hopkinson 1,2 415 Exeunt.] They enter the house. Hopkinson 1,2 scene iii 416-417 ...man, to them Browne.] ...man. Hopkinson 1,2 427 Aside.] Hopkinson 2 ; Q 477 ] Going. Hopkinson 1,2 482 make no reckoning] made no reckoning Hopkinson 1 483 is it] it is Simpson, Hopkinson 1 526 heare this,] beare this, Hopkinson 1 538 let be done] let't be done Hopkinson 1 553 Exit.] Hopkinson 2; Q scnene iv 585 592 595 636 639 641 649 651 730 748 759 770

But she may] That she may Hopkinson 1,2 pray you, I] pray. I Hopkinson 1 fashion, but trust] fashion ; trust Hopkinson 1 1] Dra. Hopkinson 1,2 2], Hopkinson 1,2 1] Mill. Hopkinson 2 1 ] Dra. Hopkinson 2 2] Mill. Hopkinson 2 speech] speeches Simpson leave him] have him Simpson change or] Hopkinson 1,2; change off Q Exit.] Hopkinson 2 ; Q Dumb Show I

788 They come to cover] The Furies comeforth. Hopkinson 2 857 the plot] this plot Hopkinson 2 869 Exeunt. ] Hopkinson 2 ; Q

212

APPENDIX C

scene ν 887 Enter Prentice.] Hopkinson 2 ; Q 888 wait on] wait and Simpson ; suggests it should be wait on though he prints wait and, apparently having misread the quarto ; wait Hopkinson 1 889 It shall] If shall Simpson ; suggests I shall as a possible alternative though he prints If shall 900 ] He enters the House. Hopkinson 2 902 arm. While. ..]arm. [Re-enter Gentleman.] While ...Hopkinson 1, 2 920 Exit Gentleman.] Hopkinson 1,2; Q 931 Browne aside.] Aside, at 1. 932, Hopkinson 1, 2 953 he scaped] he escaped Hopkinson 1 scene vi 1000 1007 1011 1074

Exit Barnes.] Exit. Hopkinson 1,2 watermen] waterman Hopkinson 2 Who comes there] Who's come there Hopkinson 1 Kisse Joane.] He kisses her. Hopkinson 1,2 scene vii

1192 Enter Sanders and a Waterman.] Hopkinson 2 ; Enter Sanders. Q 1221 Exeunt Sanders, Anne, and Beane. ] Hopkinson 2 ; Exit. Q 1237 past my selfe] pass myself Hopkinson 1 Dumb Show II 1244 Enter Tragedy. ] Hopkinson 2 ; Q 1263 enters Lust] Lust enters Hopkinson 1 1266 riseth up a great tree] a great tree rises up Hopkinson 1 1279 he drawes] Browne draws Hopkinson 1

APPENDIX C

1307 Exit.] Hopkinson2;

Q scene viii

1311 1338 1350 1381 1389 1411 1483

I kiss] I kiss Hopkinson 1 ; I kist Q Exit.] Hopkinson 2; Q those bushes] these bushes Hopkinson 2 He stabs Sanders.] Hopkinson 2 ; Q ] Dies. Hopkinson 2 _ ] Gives him the handkerchief. Hopkinson 2 They carry out Sanders.] They carry out Sanders, and return. Hopkinson 2 1489 Exeunt.] Exeunt bearing off Beane. Hopkinson 2 scene ix scene χ 1560 tising eies] 'ticing eyes Hopkinson 1 1580b Exeunt.] Hopkinson 2; Q scene xi 1593 What and if] And what if Hopkinson 1 1634 Exeunt.] Hopkinson 2 ; Q 1637b Enter Anne Sanders, andDrury.] Hopkinson 2; 1645 recomforted] recomfited Hopkinson 2 scene xii 1729 Exeunt omnes.] Exeunt. Hopkinson 2 scene xiii 1731 Why Roger,] Roger, Simpson, Hopkinson 1 1746 Exit Roger.] Exit. Hopkinson 2 1763 Enter Roger.] Re-enter Roger. Hopkinson 2

214

APPENDIX C

1780 and hasty climbing] an hasty climbing Hopkinson 2 1781 Exeunt. ] Hopkinson 2 ; Q Dumb Show III 1785 As first,] At first, Hopkinson 1 1802 she wakens Justice] she wakes Justice Hopkinson 2 1829 Exit.] Hopkinson 2; Q scene xiv 1830 George Browne] master Browne Hopkinson 2 1871 ] Aside. Hopkinson 2 scene xv 1896 1975 1976 1985 2018 2048 2051

Chaire, and master ] chaire, Master Hopkinson 2 have been faire] Hopkinson 2 ; have been _Q As any] Hopkinson 2 ; Fair as any Q these two] this two Hopkinson 2 Exeunt Officers with Browne.] Hopkinson 2; Q confessi] confess Simpson You M. Maior] You Maior Simpson, Hopkinson 2 scene xvi

2078 boats do wait] boats to wait Hopkinson 1 2079 Enter Master James.] Hopkinson 2 ; Enter M. Maior. M. James &c.Q 2081 Exit M. James.] Exit. Hopkinson 2 2115 James delivers] James and delivers Hopkinson 2 2153 Exeunt om.] Exeunt. Hopkinson 2 scene xvii 2154 Enter a Sheriff, Clerk of the Court, and Officers.] Hopkinson 2 ; Enter some to prepare the judgement

APPENDIX C

2158 2172 2191 2259 2277 2300b 2321 2329 2360 2380

seat to the Lord Maior, Lo. Justice, and the foure Lords, and one Clearke, and a Shiriff. who being set, commaund Browne to be broughtforth. Q wel prepare] we'll prepare Hopkinson 1 Enter Lord Mayor, Lord Justice, andfour other Lords.] Hopkinson 2 ; Enter aiï as before. Q diddest] didst Hopkinson 2 mercie upon thee] mercy on thee Hopkinson 1 Reads.] Hopkinson 2 ; _Q ] Enter Roger. Hopkinson 2 I misse] I missed Hopkinson 2 he borrowed] Hopkinson 1 ; she borrowed Q precious soule] precious souls Hopkinson 1,2 ere I saw thee] e'er I saw thee Hopkinson 2 scene xviii

2387 in the mothers armes] in their mothers' arms Hopkinson 1,2 2424 will still take] will take Hopkinson 2 2484 Exeunt.] Hopkinson 2 ; Q scene xix scene xx scene xxi 2584 2610b 2613 2658 2661

there's time] there's a time Simpson, Hopkinson 1 Enter a Doctor.] Hopkinson 2; _Q But now] And now Hopkinson 1 Her Children are Brought in. ] Hopkinson 2 ; Q corasie] coresie Hopkinson 1 ; corsie Hopkinson 2 Epilogue

2716 Tragedy enters] Enter Tragedy Hopkinson 2

APPENDIX D

A BRIEFE DISCOURSE

Forasmuch as the late murther of Master Saunders, Citizen and Merchant taylor of this citie, ministreth great occasion of talk among al sorts of men, not onelie here in the Towne, but also farre abrode in the Countrie, and generally through the whole Realme: and the sequeles and accidents ensewing thereupon, breede much diversitie of reports and opinions, while some do justly detest the horriblenesse of the ungratious facte, some lamente the greevous losse of their deare friends, some rejoice at the commendable execution of upright justice, the godlye bewayle the immeasurable inclination of humane nature to extreame wickednesse, and therewith magnifie Gods infinite mercie in revoking of forlorne sinners to finali repentance, many to heare and tell newes, without respect of the certentie of the truth, or regarde of dewe humanitie, every man debating of the matter as occasion or affection leades him, and few folke turning the advised consideration of God's open judgements, to the speedie reformation of their owne secrete faults: It is thought convenient (gentle reader) to give thee a playne declaration of the whole matter, according as the same is come to light by open triall of Justice, and voluntarie confession of the parties, that thou mayst knowe the truth to the satisfying of thy mind, and the avoyding of miscredite, and also use the example to the amendment of thy life. Notwithstanding thou shalt not look for a full discoverie of every particular bymatter appendant to the presente case, whiche might serve to feede the fond humor of such curious appetites as are more inquisitive of other folkes offences than hastie to redresse

APPENDIX D

217

their owne: for that were neyther expedient nor necessarie. And mens misdoings are to be prosecuted no further with open detestation, than till the parties be eyther reclaymed by reasonable and godly perswasion, or punished by orderly and lawfull execution, according to the qualitie of their offence. When law hath once passed upon them, and given them the wages of their wicked deserts; then christian charitie willeth men eyther to burie the faults with the offendours in perpetual silence, or else so to speak of them, as the vices and not the parties themselves may seeme to be any more touched. But hereof shall more be spoken (God willing) in the winding up of this matter. Nowe I will set downe, first the murthering of master Saunders by George Brown with Browne's apprehension, triall and execution; then the trial and execution of Anne Saunders, the wife of the said George Saunders, of Anne Drewrie, Widowe, and of Roger Clement, called among them trustye Roger, the servant of the said Anne Dreurie; And lastlye a briefe rehearsall of certaine sayings and dealings of the parties convicted, betwene the tyme of their apprehensions and the tyme of their execution, which are not things propre and peculiar to the very bodie of the case, but yet incident, and therfore necessarie for the hearer, as wherby will appeare the vene originali cause, and first grounde of this ungodlye deede; And this rehearsall shall be shutte up and concluded with a [s]horte Admonition howe we ought to deale in this and al other such cases. The Tuisdaye in Easter weeke last past (which was the xxiiij day of March) the sayde George Browne receyving secrete intelligence by letter from mistresse Drewrie that master Saunders shoulde lodge the same nighte at the house of one Master Barnes in Woolwich and from thence go on foote to Sainte Marie Cray the nexte morning, met him by the way a little from Shooters hill, betwene seven and eight of the clocke in the forenoone, and there slew both him, and also one John Beane the servant of the said Master Barnes. As soone as master Saunders felt himself to have his deathes wounde (for hee was striken quite and cleane through at the first blowe) he kneeled downe, and lifting up his handes and eyes unto heaven, sayd, God have mercie on mee, and forgive me my sinnes,

218

APPENDIX D

and thee too, (speaking to Browne, whom in deede he knewe not, whatsoever report hath been made of former acquayntance betwixte them) and with that worde he gave up the Ghost.'And Browne (as he himselfe confessed afterwarde) was thereat striken with suche a terrour and agonie of hart, as he wist not what to doo, but was at the point to have fainted even then and oftentimes else that day, and coulde brooke nother meate nor drinke that he receyved of all that day after. He was so abashed afterward at the sight of one of master Saunders little yoong children, as he had much adoo to forbeare from swownding in the street, a notable example of the secret working of Gods terrible wrath in a guiltie and bluddie conscience. But M. Barneses man having ten or eleven deadly wounds, and being left for dead, did by Gods woonderfull providence revyve againe, and creeping a great waye on all foure, (fore hee could nother go nor stände) was found by an old man and his mayden that went that way to seeke their kine, and conveyed too Woolwich, wher he gave evident tokens and markes of the murtherer, and so continewing still alive till he had bin apprehended and brought unto him, dyed the next Munday after. Immediatly upon the deede doing, Browne sent mistresse Drewrie woorde thereof by trustie Roger, he himself repayred forthwith to the Court at Greenwich, and anone after him came thither the report of the murther also. Then departed he thence unto London streightwayes, and came to the house of Mistresse Drewrie, howbeit he spake not personally with hir. But after conference had with him, by hir servant Roger, she provided him xx pounds the same day, for the which mistress Drewry layde certaine plate of hir owne and of mistresse Saunders to gage. And upon the next day beeing Thursday morning (havying in the meane tyme had intelligence that Brown was sought for) they sent him sixe pounds more by the sayde Roger, and warned him to shifte for himselfe by flight, which he forslowed not to do. Neverthelesse the Lordes of the Queenes Majesties Counsell, caused so speedie and narow searche to be made for hym in all places, that upon the 28 of the same moneth he was apprehended in a mans house of his own name at Rochester, by the Mayor of the towne : and beeing brought backe again to the Courte, was examined by the Counsell, unto whom he confessed the deede, as

APPENDIX D

219

you have hearde, and that he had oftentymes before pretended and soughte to do the same, by the instigation of the said widowe Drewrie, who (as he says) had promised to make a mariage between him and mistresse Saunders, (whome he seemed to love excessively) the desire of which hope hasted him forwarde to dispatche the fact. Nevertheles he protested, (howbeit untruly) y4 mistres Saunders was not privie nor consenting thereunto. Upon this confession he was arreigned at y e Kings Bench in Westminster Hal on friday y e xvii of April, wher acknowledging himself guiltie, he was condemned as principali of the murther of Master Saunders, according to whiche sentence he was executed in Smithfield on monday the xx of the same moneth, at which tyme (thoughe untruely, as she hirself confessed afterwarde) he laboured by all meanes to clear mistress Saunders of committing evil of hir bodie with him: and afterward was hanged up in chaynes neare unto the place, where he hadde doone the facte. Thus much concerning the very case of the murther itselfe, and the punishment of the principali doer therof. As for the acknowledgement of the former wickednesse of his life, and the heartie repentance that he pretended for the same, even to his very death, I deferre them to the last part of this matter, to which place those things do more peculiarly pertain. In the mean time Mistress Drewrie and hir man beeing examined, and as well by their own confessions, as by the falling out of the matter in consequence, and also by Brownes appeachment, thought culpable, were committed to warde. And anone after Mistresse Saunders beeing delivered of childe & churched (for at the time of her husband's death she looked presently to lye downe) was upon Mistresse Drewries mans confession, and upon other great likelyhoodes and presumptions likewise committed to warde, and on Wednesday, the sixth of May, arreigned with Mistresse Dreurie at the Guildehall, the effecte of whose severall inditements is this : That they had by a letter written, been procurers of the sayd murther, and so accessaries before the fact: And knowing the murther done, had by money and otherwise, relieved and been ayding to the murtherer, and so accessaries also after the facte. Whereunto they both of them pleaded not giltie. And Mistresse Saunders, notwithstanding the avouchement of

220

APPENDIX D

Mistresse Drewries man face to face, and the great probabilities of the evidence given in against hir by master Geffry the Queenes majesties Serjeant, stood so stoutly stil to the deniall of all things (in which stoute deniall she continued also a certain tyme after hyr condemnation) that some were brought in a blinde beliefe, that either she was not giltie at all, or else had but brought hir selfe in danger of lawe through ignorance, and not through pretenced malice. Howbeit forasmuch as bare deniall is no sufficient barre to discharge manifest matter, and apparent evidence: they were both condemned as accessaries to master Saunder's death, and executed in Smithfield the thirteenth of May, beeing the Wednesday in the Whitsonweeke, at whiche time they both of them, confessed themselves guiltie of the facte, for which they were condemned, and with very greate repentaunce and meakenesse, receyved the rewarde of their trespasse, in the presence of many personages of honor and worship, and of so great a number of people, as the like hathe not bene seene there togither in any mans remembraunce. For almoste the whole fielde, and all the way from Newgate, was as full of folke as coulde well stände one by another: and besides that, great companies were placed bothe in the chambers neere abouts (whose windowes & walles were in many places beaten down to looke out at) and also upon the gutters, sides, and toppes of the houses, and upon the battlements and steeple of S. Bartholmewes. Mistresse Drewries man was arreigned at Newgate on Friday the viii of Maye, and beeing there condemned as accessarie, was executed with his mistresse, at the time and place aforesayd. Thus have ye heard the murthering of master Saunders, with the apprehension, arreignement, condemnation, and execution of the principali and of the accessaries to the same. Now let us proceede to the incidents that hapned from the times of their apprehensions to the time of their deathes, and so to the admonition, which is the conclusion and fruite of this whole matter. Whereas it was determined that mistresse Saunders & mistresse Drewrie should have suffered upon the nexte Saterday after their condemnation, whiche was Whitson even; the matter was stayde till the Wednesday in Whitson weeke, upon these occasions ensuing. The booke of maister Saunders accomptes and reckenings, wher-

APPENDIX D

221

upon depended the knowlege of his whole state, was myssing. Certaine summes of money were sayde to be in the handes of parties unknowne, the intelligence whereof was desyred and sought for to the behoofe of master Saunders children. The parties convicted were to be reformed to Godwarde, and to be broughte to the willing confessing of the things for which they had bene justly condemned, and whiche as yet they obstinatly concealed. And besides al this, one Meli, a minister that had heretofore ben suspended from his Ministerie, accompanying mistresse Saunders from hir condemnation to Newgate, and conferring with hir, as it had bene to give hir good counsell and comforte, was so blinded wyth hir solemne asseverations and protestations of innocencie, that notwithstanding he had heard hir inditement, with the exact and substantiall triall of hir case: yet notwithstanding, he perswaded himself that she was utterly cleere, and thereuppon falling in love with hir, dealte with mistresse Drewrie to take the whole guilt upon hir selfe, undertaking to sue for mistresse Saunders pardon. And so what by his terrifying of hir, with the horroure of mischarging and casting away of an innocent, what with his promising of certaine money to the mariage of hir daughter, and with other perswasions: she was so wholly woone that way, that as wel before certaine personages of honour, as also before the Deane of Paules & others, she utterly cleered mistresse Saunders of the facte, or of consent to the same, taking the whole blame thereof to hir self, and protesting to stände therin to the death, contrarie to hir former confession at the tyme of hir arreignement. Mistresse Saunders also, after the laying of this platte, stoode so stoutely to hir tackling, that when the Deane of Paules gave hir godly exhortation for the clearing of hir conscience, and for the reconciling of hir self unto God, as the time and case most needefully required, (as other had done before) he coulde obtayne nothing at hir hande. By meanes whereof, he was fayne to leave hir that time, which was the Friday, not without great griefe and indignation of mind to see hir stubborne unrepentauntnesse. In the meane while, the sayd Meli discovering his purpose, and whole platforme to honest Gentleman, whom he unskilfully toke to have bin a welwiller to obtayne the pardon of mistresse Saunders, was partly

222

APPENDIX D

by that meanes, and also by other follies of his owne, cut off from his enterpise. For when he came to sue for hir pardon, which thing he did with such outrage of doting affection, that he not only proffered summes of money, but also offered his owne body and life for the safety of the woman, whom he protested upon his conscience to be unguilty. The Lordes of the Counsell, knowing hir to be rightly condemned by good justice, and being privie to the state of the case beforehand, and also finding him out by his owne unwise dealings (whereof among other one was, that he intended to marie hir) not only frustrated his desire, but also adjudged him to stand upon the pillorie, with apparent notes and significations of his lewde and foolishe demeanour. According to the which appointment, he was set upon a pillorie by the place of execution at the tyme of theyr suffering, with a paper pinned upon hys breast, wherein were written certain wordes in great Letters conteyning the effecte of his fact, to his open shame: videlicet, For practising to colour the detestable facies of George Saunders wife Which was a very good lesson to teache all persons to refrayne from any devises or practises to deface or discrédité the honorable proceedings of Counsellours, and publike and lawfull forme of trialles and judgementes according to Justice, or to hinder the beneficiali course of so good examples. By this occasion Mistresse Sanders was utterly unprovided to die at that time, and therfore as well in respect of mercie, as for the considerations aforesaid, a further respite was given to them unwitting, and a reprivie was sent by M. Mackwilliams for a time if neede were. In the meane time, (that is to wit upon the Saturday morning) the constant reporte goeth, that as certaine men came talking through Newgate, one happened to speake lowde of the gallowes that was set up, and of the greatnesse and strongnes of the same, saying it would hold them both and moe, the sounde of which wordes did so pierce into the watchfull eares of mistresse Saunders, who lay neare hand, that being striken to the heart with the horror of the present death which she loked for that day, she went immediately to mistresse Drewrie, and telling hir that she knew certainly by the wordes which she had heard, that they should by all likelihode be executed that day, asked hir if she would stand

APPENDIX D

223

to hir former promise. But mistresse Drewrie after better consideration of hirself, counselling hir to fall to playne and simple dealing: telling hir, that for hir owne parte she was fully determined not to dissemble any longer, nor to hazarde hir owne soule eternally for the safetie of another bodies temporali life. Then mistresse Saunders, who had determined to acknowledge nothing against hir selfe, so long as he might bee in any hope of life; howbeit that she always purposed to utter the truth, whensoever she should come to the instant of death, as she hir self confessed afterward; being striken both with feare and remorse, did by the advice of master Cole, (who laboured very earnestly with hir to bring hir to repentance, and was come to hir verye early that morning, because it was thought they should have been executed presently) send for the Deane of Paules agayne, and bewayling her former stubburnes, declared unto him and master Cole, master Charke, and master Yong, that shee had given hir consent and procurement to hir husbands death, through unlawfull lust and liking that she had to Brown, confessing hir sinfulnesse of life committed with him: and humbly submitting hirselfe to her deserved punishment, besought them of spirituali comfort and councell, which thing they were glad to perceyve, and thereupon employed their travell to do them good: and laboured very painfully to instruct them aright: for (God wote) they founde all the three prisoners very rawe and ignorant in all things perteyning to God and to their soule health, yea and even in the very principles of the Christen religion. Neverthelesse through Gods good working with their labour, they recovered them out of Sathans kingdome unto Christ, insomuch that besides their voluntary acknowledging of their late heinous fact, they also detested the former sinfulnesse of their life, and willingly yelded to the death which they had shunned, uttering such certaine tokens of their unfayned repentance, by all kinde of modestie and meekenesse, as no greater could be devised. For Mistresse Saunders the same day sent for hir husbands brothers and their wives and kinsfolke that were in the towne, whiche came unto hir the day before hir death: in whose presence she kneeling mildely on hir knees, with abundance of sorrowful teares, desired them of forgivenesse for bereving them of their deare brother and friende:

224

APPENDIX D

whereunto Master Saunders the Lawyer in the name of them al answered, that as they were very sorie both for the losse of theyr friend, and also for hir heinous fault, so they heartily forgave hir, and, in token thereof kneeled downe altogyther, praying to GOD wyth hir and for hir, that hee also woulde remitte hir sinne. Besides this pitiful submission, she also bewayled hir offence towardes hir owne kinred, whome she had stayned by hir trespas, and towardes the whole worlde, whom she had offended by hir crime, but especially hir children, whome she had not onely bereite bothe of father and mother, but also lefte them a coarsie and shame. Wherfore, after exhortation given to such of them as were of any capacitie and discretion, that they shoulde feare God, and learne by hir fall to avoyde sinne, she gave eche of those a booke of maister Bradfordes meditations, wherin she desired the foresayd three preachers to write some admonition as they thought good. Whiche done, she subscribed them with these wordes, Youre sorowfull mother Anne Saunders; And so blessing them in the name of God and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, she sent them away out of hir sorrowfull sight, and gave hirselfe wholly to the settling of hir grieved heart, to the quiet receiving of the bitter cup, which she dranke of the next day, as hath bene tolde before. Howbeit, without doubt, to hir everlasting comforte. And mistresse Drewrie, no lesse carefull of hir owne state, besides hir humble repentance in the prison, and hir earnest desiring of the people to pray for hir selfe, and the others with hir as they came toward execution, did upon the Carte not onely confesse hir giltinesse of the facte, as mistresse Saunders had don, but also with great lowlinesse and reverence, first kneeling downe towards the Earle of Bedforde and other noble men that were on horssbacke on the East side of the stage, tooke it upon hir death that whereas it had bin reported of hir that she had poysoned hir late husbande Master Drewrie, and dealt with witchcraft and sorcerie, and also appeached divers merchante mens wives of dissolute and unchast living, she had done none of all those things, but was utterlie cleare bothe to God and the worlde of all such manner of dealing. And then with like obeysance, turning hir self to the Earle of Darbie, who was in a chamber behind hir, she protested unto him before

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God that whereas she had bene reported to have bene the cause of separation betwixte him and my Lady his wyfe; she neither procured nor consented to any suche thing. But otherwise, wheras in the time of hir service in his house, she had offended him, in neglecting or contemning hir duetie, she acknowledged hir fault, and besoughte him for Gods sake to forgive hir: who very honorably, and even with teares accepted hir submission, and openly protested himselfe to pray hartily to God for hir. Hir servant also, having openly acknowledged his offence, kneeled meekly downe, praying severally with a preacher, as eche of them had done at their first comming to the place. Which done they were all put in a readinesse by the Executioner, and at one instant (by drawing away the Cart wheron they stoode) were sent togither out of this worlde unto God. And Browne also, a good while afore, during the time of his imprisonment, comming to a better minde than he had bene of in time paste, confessed that he had not heeretofore frequented sermons, nor received the holy sacrament, nor used any calling upon God private or publike, nor given him self to reading of holy Scripture, or any bookes of godlynesse: but had altogither followed the appetites and lustes of his sinfull flesh, even with greedinesse and outragious contempt both of God and man. Neverthelesse God was so good unto him, and schooled him so well in that short time of imprisonment, as he cloased up his life with a marvellous apparance of heartie repentance, constant trust in Gods mercy through Jesus Christ, and willingnesse to forsake this miserable worlde. Now remayneth to shewe what is to be gathered of this terrible example, and how we oughte to apply the same to our owne behoofe. First I note with S. Paule, that when men regarde not to knowe God, or not to honour him when they know him; God giveth them over to their own lustes, so as they runne on from sinne to sinne, and from mischiefe to mischiefe, to do such things as are shamefull and odious, even in the sight of the worlde, to their owne unavoydable perils. And when the measure of their iniquitie is filled up, there is no way for them to escape the justice of God, which they have provoked. Insomuch that if they might eschue all

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bodily punishment, yet the very hell of their owne conscience would prosecute them, and the sting of their minde would be a continuali prison, torment and torture to them, wheresoever they went. Agayne on the other side we must marke the infinite greatnesse of Gods wisdome and mercy, who perceyving the perverse wilfulnesse of mans frowarde nature to sinning, sufireth men sometimes to runne so long upon the bridle, till it seeme to themselves, that they may safely do what they liste, and to the worlde, that they be past recoverie unto goodnesse: and yet in the end catching them in their chiefe pride, he rayseth them by their overthrow, amendeth them by their wickednesse, and reviveth them by their death, in such wise blotting out the stayne of their former filthe, that their darknesse is turned into light, and their terrour to their comfort. Moreover, when God bringeth such matters upon the stage, unto ye open face of the world, it is not to the intent that men should gaze and wonder at the persons, as byrdes do at an Owle, not that they should delight themselves & others with the fond and peradventure sinister reporting of them, nor upbrayd the whole stocke and kinred with the fault of the offenders : no surely, God meanest no such thing. His purpose is that the execution of his judgements, should by the terrour of the outward sight of the example, drive us to the inward consideration of ourselves. Beholde, wee bee all made of the same moulde, printed with the same stampe, and indued with the same nature that the offenders are. We be the impes of the old Adam, and the venim of sinne which he received from the olde serpent, is shedde into us all, and woorketh effectually in us all. Suche as the roote is, such are the braunches, and the twiggs of a thorne or bramble can beare no grapes. That we stände it is the benefite of Gods grace, and not the goodnesse of our nature, nor the strengthe of oure owne will. That they are faine, it was of frayltie: wherfrom we be no more priviledged than they: and that shoulde we oversoone perceive by experience, if we wer left to our selves. He that looketh severely into other mennes faultes, is lightly blynd in his owne: and he that either upbraydeth the repentant that hath receyved punishment, or reprocheth the kinred or ofspring with the fault of the auncestor or alye, how greate so ever the same hath ben ; shewethhimselfe not to have any remorse of his

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owne sinnes, nor to remember that he himselfe also is a man : but (which thyng he woulde little thinke) he fully matcheth the crime of the misdoer, if he do not surmount it by his presumptuousnesse. When it was tolde our Saviour Chryst that Pylate had mingled the blood of certain men with their owne sacrifise, what answere made hee? Did he detest the offenders? did he declame against their dooings? Did he exaggerate the fault of the one, or the crueltie of the other? No. But framing and applying the example too the reformation of the hearer, suppose ye (sayd he) that those Galileans wer greater sinners than all the other Galileans, bycause they suffered such punishment? Iteli you nay: but except ye repente ye shall all likewise perish. Or think ye that those eightene upon whom the toure in Silo fell, and slew them, were sinners above all y* dwelt in Hierusalem? I tel you nay: but except ye repent, ye shall all perishe likewise. Let us applie this to our presente purpose. Were those whom we saw justly executed in Smithfield greater sinners than al other English people? were they greater sinners than all Londoners? Were they greater sinners than all that looked upon them? No verily: but except their example leade us to repentance, we shall all of us come to as sore punishment in this worlde, or else to sorer in the worlde to come. Their faults came into the open Theater, & therefore seemed the greater to our eyes, and surely they were great in deede: neyther are ours the lesse, bicause they lye hidden in the covert of our hearte. God the searcher of all secrets seeth them, and if he list he can also discover them. He hath shewed in some, what al of us deserve, to provoke us al to repentance, that al of us might have mercie at his hand, and shewe mercie one to an other, & with one mouthe, and one hearte glorifie his goodnesse. It is sayde by the Prophete Samuel, that disobedience is as the sinne of Witchcrafte. Lette every of us looke into himselfe (but first lette him put on the spectacles of Gods lawe, and carie the lighte of Gods worde with him) and he shall see suche a gulfe of disobedience in himselfe, as he maye well thinke there is none offender but himselfe. I say not this as a cloaker of offences, that white should not be called white, & blacke, blacke; or as a patrone of misdoers, that they should not have their deserved hyre: but to represse our hastie judgementes and uncharitable speeches, that

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we myght both detest wickednesse with perfect hatred, and rue the persons with christen modestie: knowing that with what measure we met unto others, with the same shall it be moten to us agayne. Finally, let al folkes both maried & unmaried, learne hereby to possesse & keepe their vessell in honestie and cleannesse. For if the knot betwene man and wife (whiche ought to be inseparable) be once broken, it is seldome or never knit again. And though it be, yet is not the wound so thoroughly healed, but there appeereth some skarre ever after. But if the sore rancie & fester inwardly (as commonly it doth except the more grace of God be) in the end it bursteth forth to the destruction or hurt of both parties, not lightly without great harme to others also besides themselves, as we see by this example. For when the body which was dedicated to God to be his temple and the tabernacle of his holy spirite is become the sinke of sinne & cage of uncleannesse, the divill ceasseth not to drive the parties still headlong unto naughtinesse, till they be faine eytherinto open shame and daunger of temporali law: or into damnable destruction both of body and soule, according as Salomon in his Proverbes sayth, that the steps of a harlot leade downe unto death, and hir feete perce even unto hell. Therefore good reader, so heare and reade this present example, as the same may turne to the bettering of thy state, and not to occasion of slaunder, nor to the hurt of thine owne conscience, nor to the offence of thy Christian brethren. Fare well. Anne Saunders confession as she spake it at the place of execution. Good people, I am come hither to die the deathe, whereunto I am adjuged as worthely & as deservedly as ever died any; I hada good husband, by whom I had manie children, with whom I lived in wealth, & might have done stil, had not the devili kindled in my hearte, first the hellish firebrand of unlawfull lust & afterward a murtherous intent to procure my saide husbande to be bereved of his life, which was also by my wicked meanes accomplished, as to the world is known. And as I woulde if he coulde heare me, if it might be, prostrate upon the ground, at my husbands feete, aske mercy with plentiful teares of him, so that which I may & I oughte to doe, I aske mercye of God, I aske mercie of all men and women, of the world, whom by my deede & example I have offended: and

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especiallye I bewaile my husband, and aske mercie of my children whom I have bred of so good a father. I aske mercy of his kindred and frendes whom I have hurt, & of all my frends & kindred of whom I am abashed and ashamed: as beyng of my selfe unworthy of pittie, yet I besech them all, & you all, & all the whole worlde of the same, even for Gods sake, and for our Savior Christs sake. And I thank God with my whole hart, he hathe not suffered me to have the reigne and bridle of sinning gyven me at my will, to the daunger of my eternali damnation, but that he hath founde out my sin, and brought me to punishment in this world, by his fatherly correction, to amend, to spare, and save me in the world to come; & I beseche him graunte me his heavenly grace, that all who do behold or shall heare of my death, may by the example therof be frayed from like sinning. And I besech you all to pray for me and with me. The Prayer whiche was said by Anne Saunders at the place of execution, the copie wherof, she delivered unto the right honourable the Earle of Bedforde. As I doe confesse wyth great sorrow (O deare father) that I have grievously, and oftentimes sinned against heaven and against thee, & am unworthy to be called thy daughter, so (O deare Father) I acknowledge thy mercy, thy grace & love towards me, most wretched sinner, offred me in my Lord & saviour Jesus Christe, in whom thou givest me an heart to repent. And by repentance hast put away my sinnes and throwne them into the bottome of the Sea, O deare Father encrease and continue this grace untili the ende, and in the ende. I testifie this day (O Lord my God) thy love, O Lorde, thy saving health is life everlasting, and joy without end: and bicause thou hast touched my sinfull heart with the displeasure of my sinne, and with a desire of thy kindome, O deare Father, for thy Christes sake, as I hope thou wilt, so I beseeche thee to finish that good worke in me. Suffer me not, mercifull & loving Father, to be troubled with death when it layeth hold on me: nor with the love of life when it shall be taken away. O Lorde nowe as thou hast, so still lifte up my soule as it were with an eagles wings unto Heaven, there to beholde thee. Lorde into thy hands I commit my body, that it be not troubled in death, and my soule that it see not dam-

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nation. Come Lord Jesu come assiste me with thy holy Spirite, a weake woman in a strong battell, come Lord Jesu, come quickly save thy handmaide that putteth hir trust in thee, beholde me in Christ, receive me in christ, in whose name I pray, saying, Our Father & c. Anne Saunders dying to the world, and living to God. After this she also said a godly Prayer out of the Service boke which is used to be said at the hour of death. A note of a certaine saying which Master Saunders had lefte written with his owne hand in his Studie. Christ shalbe magnified in my body whither it be thorough life or else death. For Christ is too me life, death is to me advantage. These words were M. Nowels Theame which he preached at the buriall of my brother Haddon upon Thursday being ye xxv day of Januarie Anno do. 1570, Anno Reginae Elizabeth 13. Among other things which he preached this saying of his is to be had alwayes in remembrance, that is, that we must all (when we come to pray) first accuse and condemne ourselves for our sinnes committed against God before the seat of his Justice, and then after cleave unto him by faythe in the mercy and mérités of our Savioure & Redeemer Jesus Christ whereby we are assured of eternali salvation. Arthur Golding, A Briefe Discourse, in The School of Shakspere, ed. Richard Simpson (London: Chatto and Windus, 1878), 221-239.

APPENDIX E

STOW'S ACCOUNT

The 25. of March being Wednesday in Easter weeke, and the feast of the Annunciation of our lady, George Browne cruelly murdered two honest men neere unto Shooters hill in Kent, the one of them was a wealthie merchant of London, named George Sanders, the other John Beane of Woolwich : which murther was committed in manner as followeth. On Tuesday in Easter weeke (the foure and twentieth of March) the saide George Browne receiving secret intelligence by letter from mistres Anne Drewrie that master Sanders shoulde lodge the same night at the house of one master Barnes in Woolwich, and from thence go on foote to S. Mary Cray the next morning, lay in waite for him by the way, a little from Shooters hill, and there slewe both him and John Beane, servant to master Barnes: but John Beane having ten or eleven wounds, and being left for dead, by Gods providence revived againe, and creeping away on all foure, was found by an olde man and his maiden, and conveyed to Woolwich, where he gave evident markes of the murtherer. Immediatly upon the deede dooing, Browne sent mistres Drewrie word thereof by Roger Clement (among them called trusty Roger) he himselfe repaired foorthwith, to the court at Greenwich, and anone after him came thither the report of the murther also. Then departed he thence unto London, and came to the house of mistres Drewrie, where, though he spake not personally with hir, after conference had with hir servant trusty Roger, she provided him

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twenty pounds that same day, for the which she laid certaine plate of hir owne and of mistresse Sanders to gage. On the next morrow being Thurseday (having intelligence, that Browne was sought for) they sent him six pounds more by the same Roger, warning him to shift for himselfe by flight, which thing he foreslowed not to doe : neverthelesse the lords of the Queenes majesties councell, caused speedy and narrow search to be made for him, that upon the eight and twentieth of the same moneth, he was apprehended in a mans house of his owne name at Rochester, and being brought backe againe to the court, was examined by the councell, to whom he confessed the deede as you have heard, and that he had often times before pretended and sought to do the same, by the instigation of the saide mistres Drewrie, who had promised to make a marriage betweene him and mistres Sanders (whom he seemed to love excessively) nevertheless he protested (though untruly) that mistres Saunders was not privy nor consenting thereunto. Upon his confession he was arraigned at the Kings bench in Westminster hall the eighteenth of April, where he acknowledged himselfe giltie, and was condemned as principali of the murder, according to which sentence, he was executed in Smithfield on Monday the 20. of Aprili, at which time also untruely (as she hir selfe confessed afterward) he labored by al means to cleare mistres Sanders of committing evill of hir body with him, and he flung himselfe besides the ladder: he was after hanged up in chaînes neere unto the place where he had done the fact. In the meane time mistresse Drewrie and hir man being examined, as well by their owne confessions, as by falling out of the matter (and also by Brownes appeachment thought culpable) were committed to warde. And after mistresse Saunders being delivered of childe, and churched (for at the time of hir husbands death she looked presently to ly downe) was upon mistresse Drewries mans confession and other great likelihoods, likewise committed to the tower, and on Wednesday the sixt of May arraigned with mistresse Drewrie at the Guild hall, the effect of whose inditement was, that they by a letter written had beene procurers of the said murder, and knowing the murder done, had by money and otherwise releeved the murderer: whereunto they pleaded not giltie, howbeit,

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they were both condemned as accessaries to master Saunders death, and executed in Smithfield the thirteenth of May, being Wensday in Whitson weeke, at which time they both confessed themselves giltie of the fact. Trustie Roger mistresse Drewries man was arraigned on friday the eight of May, and being there condemned as accessarie, was executed with his mistresse at the time and place aforesaid. Not long after, Anthonie Browne, brother to the forenamed George Browne, was for notable felonies conveyde from Newgate to York, and there hanged. John Stow, The Annales of England... (London: Ralfe Newbery, 1592), 11521153.

APPENDIX F

HOLINSHED'S ACCOUNT

The five and twentith of March being wednesdaie in Easter weeke, and the feast of the Annuntiation of our ladie, George Browne cruellie murthered two honest men neere to Shooters hill in Kent, the one of them was a wealthie merchant of London named George Sanders, the other John Beane of Woolwich, which murther was committed in manner as followeth. On tuesdaie in Easter week (the foure and twentith of March) the said George Browne receiving secret intelligence by letter from mistresse Anne Drurie, that master Sanders should lodge the same night at the house of one master Barnes in Woolwich, and from thense go on foot to saint Marie Craie; the next morning he laie in wait for him by the waie, a little from Shooters hill, and there slue both him and John Beane servant to master Barnes. But John Beane having ten or eleven wounds, and being left for dead, by Gods providence did revive againe : and creeping awaie on all foure, was found by an old man and his maiden, and conveied unto Woolwich, where he gave evident marks of the murtherer. Immediatly upon the deed dooing, Browne sent mistresse Drurie word thereof by Roger Clement (among them called trustie Roger) he himselfe repaired foorthwith to the court at Greenewich, and anon after him came thither the report of the murther also. Then departed he thense unto London, and came to the house of mistresse Drurie, where though he spake not personallie with hir, after conference had with hir servant trustie Roger, she provided him twentie pounds that same daie, for the which she laid certeine

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plate of hir owne, and of mistresse Sanders to gage. On the next morning being thursdaie (having intelligence that Browne was sought for) they sent him six pounds more by the same Roger, warning him to shift for himselfe by flight, which thing he foreslowed not to doo. Neverthelesse, the lords of the queens majesties councell caused so speedie and narrow search to be made for him, that upon the eight and twentith of the same moneth he was apprehended in a mans house of his owne name at Rochester and being brought backe againe to the court, was examined by the councell: unto whome he confessed the deed ( as you have heard) and that he had oftentimes before pretended and sought to doo the same, by the instigation of the said mistresse Drurie, who had had promised to make a marriage betweene him and mistresse Sanders (whom he seemed to love excessivelie) neverthelesse he protested (though untrulie) that mistresse Sanders was not privie nor consenting thereunto. Upon his confession he was arreigned at the Kings bench in Westminster hall the eighteenth of Aprili, where he acknowledged himselfe guiltie, and was condemned as principali of the murther, according to which sentence he was executed in Smithfield, on mondaie the twentith of Aprili: at which time also untrulie ( as she hir selfe confessed afterward) he laboured by all meanes to cleere mistresse Sanders of committing evill of hir bodie with him, and then floong himselfe besides the ladder. He was after hanged up in chains neere unto the place where he had doone the fact. In the meane time mistresse Drurie and hir man being examined, as well by their owne confessions, as by falling out of the matter, and also by Brownes appeachment thought culpable, were committed to ward. And after mistresse Sanders being delivered of child, and churched (for at the time of hir husbands death she looked presentile to lie downe) was upon mistresse Druries mans confession, and other great likelihoods, likewise committed to the tower, and on wednesdaie the sixt of Maie she was arreigned with mistresse Drurie at the Guildhall. The effect of their indictment was, that they by a letter written had beene procurers of the said murther: and knowing the murther doone, had by monie and otherwise releeved the murtherer:

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whereunto they pleaded not giltie. Howbeit they were both condemned as accessaries to master Sanders death, and executed in Smithfield the thirteenth of Maie, being wednesdaie in Whitsunweeke, at which time they both confessed themselves guiltie of the fact. Trustie Roger mistresse Druries man was arreigned on fridaie the eight of Maie, and being there condemned as accessarie, was executed with his mistresse at the time and place aforesaid. Not long after, Anthonie Browne brother to the fornamed George Browne, was for notable felonies conveied from Newgate to Yorke, and there hanged. Raphael Holinshed, Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (London: Printed for J. Johnson and others, 1808), IV, 322-333.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ON BIBLIOGRAPHY Bald, R. C , "Evidence and Inference in Bibliography", English Institute Annual, 1941 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1942), 159-183. Bowers, Fredson, "Notes on Running Titles as Bibliographical Evidence", The Library, Fourth Series, XIX (1938-39), 315-338. —, "The Headline in Early Books", English Institute Annual, 1941 (New York : Columbia University Press, 1942), 185-205. —, "Elizabethan Proofing", Joseph Quincy Adams Memorial Studies (Washington: The Folger Shakespeare Library, 1948), 571-586. —, "Bibliographical Evidence from the Printer's Measure", SB, II (1949-50), 153-168. —, On Editing Shakespeare and the Elizabethan Dramatists ([n.p.]: University of Pennsylvania Library, 1955). Ferguson, W. Craig, "The Compositors of Henry IV, Part 2, Much Ado About Nothing, The Shoemaker''s Holiday and The First Part of the Contention", SB, XIII (1960), 19-30. Greg, W. W., "An Elizabethan Printer and his Copy", The Library, Fourth Series, IV (1923), 102-118. —, Dramatic Documents from the Elizabethan Playhouses (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1931), 2 vols. —, "Principles of Emendation in Shakespeare", Shakespearean Criticism 19191935 (Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1937). —, A Bibliography of the English Printed Drama to the Restoration (London: Oxford University Press for The Bibliographical Society, 1939), 4 vols. —, Variants in the First Quarto of King Lear (London: Oxford University Press, 1940). —, "The Rationale of Copy Text", SB, III (1950), 19-36. —, The Editorial Problem in Shakespeare, second edition (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1951). —, The Shakespeare First Folio (Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1955). Hinman, Charlton, "Principles Governing the Use of Variant Spellings as Evidence of Alternate Setting by Two Compositors "The Library, Fourth Series, XXI (1940), 78-94. —, "New Uses for Headlines as Bibliographical Evidence", English Institute

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Annual, 1941 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1942), 207-222. Kirschbaum, Leo, Shakespeare and the Stationers (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1955). McKerrow, R. B., A Dictionary of Printers and Booksellers in England, Scotland and Ireland, and of Foreign Printers of English Books 1557-1640 (London: Blades East & Blades, 1910). —, An Introduction to Bibliography for Literary Students (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1928). —, "A Suggestion Regarding Shakespeare's Manuscripts," RES, XI (1935), 459-465. —, Prolegomena for the Oxford Shakespeare (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1939). Simpson, Percy, Shakespearian Punctuation (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1911). Williams, George Walton, "Setting by Formes in Quarto Printing", SB, XI (1958), 39-53. Williams, Philip, "The Compositor of the 'Pied Bull' Lear", SB, I (1948-1949), 61-88.

GENERAL REFERENCE Books Adams, Henry H., English Domestic or Homiletic Tragedy (New York: Columbia University Press, 1943). Baker, Howard, Induction to Tragedy (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1939). Beckerman, Bernard, Shakespeare at the Globe (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1962). Boas, Frederick S., Thomas Heywood (London: Williams & Norgate, 1950). —, An Introduction to Tudor Drama (Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1959). Bowers, Fredson, Elizabethan Revenge Tragedy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1940). Bradbrook, Muriel C., Themes and Conventions of Elizabethan Tragedy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1960). Bresnehen, Vivian Honora, "Domestic Tragedy between 1590 and 1642", Unpublished Master's thesis, The University of Missouri, Columbia, 1911. Brooke, C. F. Tucker, The Shakespeare Apocrypha (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1908). Carrère, Félix, Le Théâtre de Thomas Kyd (Toulouse : Edouard Privat, 1951). Chambers, Ε. Κ., The Elizabethan Stage (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1945), 4 vols. Chidsey, Donald Barr, Sir Walter Raleigh (New York: John Day Company, 1931). Clarence, Reginald, The Stage Cyclopedia (London : The Stage, 1909). Clark, Arthur M., Thomas Heywood (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1931). Collier, John Payne, History of English Dramatic Poetry to the Time of Shakespeare (London : John Murray, 1831), 3 vols. Crawford, Charles, A Concordance to the Works of Thomas Kyd (Materialen zur Kunde des älteren Englischen Dramas, XV) (Louvain, 1906).

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Creizenach, Wilhelm, The English Drama in the Age of Shakespeare, trans. Cecile Hugon (London : Sidgwick & Jackson, Ltd., 1916). Cromwell, Otelia, Thomas Heywood: A Study in the Elizabethan Drama of Everyday Life (New Haven : Yale University Press, 1928). Doran, Madeleine, Endeavors of Art: A Study of Form in Elizabethan Drama (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1954). Farnham, Willard, The Medieval Heritage in Elizabethan Tragedy (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1936). Fleay, F. G., Chronicle History of the Life and Works of William Shakespeare (London: John C. Nimmo, 1886). —, A Biographical Chronicle of the English Drama, 1559-1642 (London : Reeves and Turner, 1891). Fluchère, Henri, Shakespeare and the Elizabethans (New York: Hill and Wang, 1962). Gerrard, Ernest Α., Elizabethan Drama and Dramatists 1583-1603 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1928). Gildon, Charles, The Lives and Characters of the English Dramatic Poets (London: Thomas Leigh: [1699]). Golding, Louis Thorn, An Elizabethan Puritan: The Life of Arthur Golding (New York: Richard Smith, 1937). Grivelet, Michel, Thomas Heywood et Le Drame Domestique Elizabethain (Paris : Didier, 1957). Harbage, Alfred, Shakespeare and the Rival Traditions (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1952). Harrision, G. B., Elizabethan Plays and Players (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1956). Jewkes, Wilfred T., Act and Scene Division in Elizabethan and Jacobean Plays, 1583-1616 (Hamden, Conn. : Shoe String Press, 1958). Langbaine, Gerard, An Account of the English Dramatick Poets (Oxford: L. L. for George West and Henry Clements, 1691). Lawrence, William J., Pre-Restoration Stage Studies (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1927). Nicoli, Allardyce, The British Drama (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1925). Parrott, Thomas Marc, and Robert Hamilton Ball, A Short View of Elizabethan Drama (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1958). Phillips, Edward, TheatrumPoetarum (London: Charles Smith, 1675). Ribner, Irving, The English History Play in the Age of Shakespeare (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1957). Sarrazin, Gregor, Thomas Kyd und Sein Kreis (Berlin : Emil Felber, 1892). Sisson, Charles J., Lost Plays of Shakespeare's Age (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1936). Smith, Irwin, Shakespeare's Globe Playhouse (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1956). Symonds, John Addington, Shakespeare's Predecessors (London: Smith, Elder, & Company, 1906). Thompson, Edward, Sir Walter Raleigh (New Haven : Yale University Press, 1936). Thorndike, Ashley H., Shakespeare's Theater (New York: The Macmillan

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