A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 11
General
A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 11
English drama
This passage is quoted by Chetwood from the "Two Maids of Moreclack,"
where it is not to be found, though it seems to be a genuine extract;
and the writer, by whom it was produced, had perhaps forgotten whence he
transcribed it. Heywood, who published this play, says in the preface to
it:--"As for Master Greene, all that I will speak of him (and that
without flattery) is this: there was not an actor of his nature in his
time of better ability in performance of what he undertook, more
applauded by the audience, of greater grace at the court, or of more
general love in the city." From this preface it appears Green was dead
when it was written, and Oldys[148] says there are three epitaphs upon
him in Braithwaite's "Remains after Death," 1618, by which it seems that
he died after being newly arrived from sea.[149] He was the author of "A
Poets Vision and a Princes Glorie. Dedicated to the high and mightie
Prince James, King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland," 4º,
1603; and some verses prefixed to [the reprint in octavo of] Drayton's
poem on the Barons' Wars. I have seen only two editions of this comedy,
one without a date, and the other in 1614, which I apprehend was about
the time it was originally published. Chetwood, upon whom no dependence
is to be had with respect to dates, asserts it was printed in 1599.[150]
As it is said to have been acted by the Queen's servants, it probably
appeared on the stage in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. [There is an
entry in the office-book of the Master of the Revels under date of
Twelfth Night, 1624, showing that "the masque being put off, and the
Prince only there," Tu Quoque, "by the Queen of Bohemia's servants, was
acted in its stead."[151]] Langbaine says it was revived after the
Restoration at the theatre in Little Lincoln's-Inn-Fields.
"Green's Tu Quoque" is mentioned in "The World's Folly," by I. H., 1615,
which contains a general attack on the stage. It would also seem, from
the subsequent passage, as if Green the actor had performed the part of
a baboon:--
"'Vos quoque' *[or, 'Tu quoque,' opposite the asterisk in the margin]
and you also who, with Scylla-barking, Stentor-throated bellowings,
flash-choaking squibbles of absurd vanities into the nosthrils of your
spectators; barbarously diverting nature and defacing Gods owne image by
metamorphosing humane shape* [_Greenes Baboon_ in the margin opposite
the asterisk] into bestiall forme."
FOOTNOTES:
[144] P. 73.
[145] He was an actor at the Red Bull Theatre, as appears by a rather
curious scene in the course of this play, where Green is spoken of by
name--
"GERALDINE. Why then we'll go to the Red Bull: they say Green's
a good clown.
BUBBLE. Green! Green's an ass.
SCATTERGOOD. Wherefore do you say so?
BUBBLE. Indeed. I ha' no reason; for they say he is as like me
as ever he can look."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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