EMILY. Zour orisoun, sir, sounds with sic skil, Quhair poetis hes thair flame and furie socht, Nocht taisting of sweit Helicon for nocht, As be zour plesant preface dois appeir, Tending thairby, quhill as we haue na thocht, To mak vs to zour purpois to adheir. Emily assumes the dress of a young gentleman, and in this disguise leaves her father's house. In the mean time, her brother Philerno returning after a long absence, is mistaken for Emily, to whom he bears a striking resemblance: he concurs in his sister's stratagem, and consents to marry Philotus; who commits his supposed bride to the custody of Brisilla, his daughter by a former marriage. This youthful pair find themselves pleased with each other's company; and, after certain invocations, Philerno pretends to be metamorphosed into a man. An interval of a month is supposed to elapse between the elopement of Emily and the nuptials of Philo Mox precibus flexi Pelidae robore sacro Injecto membris pulvere plaga fuit. In the eighth of these verses, the poet has shortened the penult of salubrem ; and several modern poets have ventured to follow the example. Among this number is Buchanan, Psalm, xcix, whose error was long ago noted by Pincier. (Parerga Otii Marpurgensis Philologica, p. 380. Herbornæ Nassov. 1617, 8vo.) tus; but the period at length arrives, and a priest performs the marriage-ceremony with sufficient formality. Philerno, "fearing to be discovered, maketh a brawling that same night with Philotus, and abuseth him vyllie, and to colour the mater the better, agreeth with a whore to go to bed with Philotus." Flavius, who had been secretly married to Emily, is struck with astonishment on witnessing the marriage of this old man to a person whom he supposes to be the real daughter of Alberto; and, after various conjurations, he dismisses her as an evil spirit who had assumed an earthly shape. She returns to her father's house, and is there met by Philotus: the one complains of her husband, and the other of his wife, and a comic situation is thus produced. The mystery being at length explained, Emily returns to Flavius, and Brisilla is married to Philerno. After this arrangement of their domestic affairs, Philotus expatiates on his own folly, and a person named the Messenger makes a concluding address to the audience. This comedy, in its plan and execution, discovers a much nearer approach to the modern drama than Sir David Lindsay's "Satyre of the three Estaitis." It possesses the merit of easy versification, but the speeches are frequently too long and declamatory. The author has not divided his play into acts and scenes. The proba bility of the incidents is sometimes impaired by the introduction of a certain character denominated the Pleasant, who, without any apparent concern in the business of the drama, intrudes himself into the most private conferences for the mere purpose of aiming at a joke. The plot and indeed the entire story of Philotus are borrowed from a work of Barnaby Rich, published under the title of "Rich his Farewell to Militarie Profession; conteining very pleasant Discourses fit for a peaceable time." The work includes eight different tales, of which he has given this preliminary account: "The histories (altogether) are eight in number, whereof the first, the seconde, the fift, the seuenth, and eight are tales that are but forged onely for delight, neither credible to be beleued, nor hurtfull to be perused. The third, the fowerth, and the sixt are Italian histories, written likewise for pleasure, by Maister L. B." The tale of Phylotus and Emelia is the eighth in the series, and, according to this account, belongs to the author's original stock. As the book is of great rarity, it has been thought advisable to insert this tale in an appendix. For the use of a mutilated copy of a very early, if not the first edition, we are indebted to Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, Esq. It is a small quarto, printed in black letter; but as it wants the title and nearly all the last leaf, the date cannot be ascertained. The first edition is said to have been printed in the year 1583. In the following reprint of the eighth tale, the defects of this copy have, by the kindness of Dr Bliss, been supplied from the edition of 1606, a copy of which is preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. The passages taken from the latter impression are distinguished by being enclosed in brackets. Rich's second tale, of Apolonius and Silla, appears to have furnished the plot of Shakspeare's Twelfth Night.1 In what he entitles the Conclusion, he has introduced a tale of a certain devil named Balthaser, who married a young lady of singular beauty, rejoicing in the name of Mildred. The husband was so pestered with the wife's love of the new fashions in dress, that he finally determined to relinquish the connexion; and, in pursuance of this resolution, he directed his course to Edinburgh, where he possessed the king of Scots. "While Mistres Mildred was proceeding in these speeches or suche other like, the deuill her housbande was stroke in suche a dumpe, that not able any longer to indure her talke, he not onely auoided hymself from her presence, but also deuised with speede to flie the countrie, and cummyng to Douer, thinkyng to crosse the seas, finding no shippyng readie, he altered his course, and gat hym into Scotlande, neuer staiyng till he came to Edenbrough, where the kyng kept his court; and now forgettyng all humanitie whiche he had learned before in Englande, he began againe a freshe to plaie the deuil, and so possessed the king of Scots himself with such strange and vnaquainted passions, that by the coniecture of phisitions, and other learned men that were then assembled together, to iudge the kynges diseases, 1 See Boswell's Shakspeare, vol. xi. p. 321. Collier's Annals of the Stage, vol. i. p. 328, and likewise his Poetical Decameron, vol. ii. p. 134. thei all concluded that it must needes bee some feende of hell that so disturbde their prince." Such is the story as it stands in the earlier edition; but before the year 1606, a king of Scots had become formidable to an English author or printer, and in the later edition we find a prudent substitution of the Grand Turk. "Thinking to crosse the seas, finding shipping ready, he toke his course and gat him to Rome, neuer staiyng till he came to Constantinople, where the Turke kept his court; and nowe forgetting all humanitie which he had learned before in England, he began againe afresh to play the deuill, and so possessed the Turke himselfe." The comedy of Philotus is here reprinted from a copy of the first edition deposited in the Advocates' Library. A second edition of this delectable treatise was printed at Edinburgh by Andrew Hart in the year 1612. Both editions are in quarto, and both are extremely rare. The song inserted at the end of the first edition, and omitted in the second, is transcribed from Campion; and, according to the opinion of Mr Crowe, it exhibits " the most extraordinary combination of English verse that is perhaps any where to be found."1 From a copy belonging to the Duke of Devonshire, the various readings of the second edition have been very politely supplied by J. Payne Collier, Esq. It has not been considered of any importance to mark such variations as are merely ' Crowe's Treatise on English Versification, p. 105. Lond. 1827, 8vo. |