&c.
He is mentioned in Webbe’s “Discourse of English Poetry,” 1586, and Puttenham, in his “Art of English Poesie,” 1589, tells us that the Earl of Oxford (of whose dramatic productions there is no other trace) and Edwards deserve the highest prize for “comedy and interlude; and Lord Buckhurst and Master Edward Ferrys [George Ferrers] for tragedy.” Meres, in his “Palladis Tamia,” 1598, repeats the applause given by Puttenham, with the omission of the word “interlude,” then out of fashion, terming Edwards “one of the best for comedy.”
“The earliest notice we have of Edwards as a dramatic poet,” continues Collier, “occurs in 1564-5, when a tragedy by him, the name of which is not given, was performed by the children of the chapel, under his direction, before the Queen at Richmond. This might possibly be his ‘Damon and Pythias,’ termed by Lord Burghley, in the uncertain phraseology of that time, ‘a tragedy,’ or it might be one of the other dramatic performances of which, according to Twine, Edwards was the author. ‘Damon and Pythias,’ however, is the only extant specimen of his talents in this department of Poetry.” Besides his dramatic productions, Edwards was the author of several poems in “The Paradyse of Daynty Devises” (1576), the sundry pithie and learned inventions of which, indeed, are announced in the title to have been “devised and written for the most part by M. Edwards, sometime of her Majesties Chapel.” Two of these learned inventions are given by Ellis, in his “Specimen of Early English Poets,” vol. ii., and one of them in especial has aroused the enthusiasm of Mr Haslewood by the happiness of the illustration, the facility, elegance, and tenderness of the language, and the exquisite turn of the whole.[5] “When he was in extremitie of his sickness,” writes Wood, narrating our author’s death, “he composed a noted poem, called ‘Edwards’ Soul Knil’ (knell), or the ‘Soul Knil of M. Edwards,’ which was commended for a good piece. In support of this tradition, Anthony quotes Gascoigne, whereas Gascoigne, on the contrary, only refers to the story for the purpose of ridiculing the idea that the ‘Knil’ was written under any such circumstances.”[6]
Among the Cotton MSS. in the British Museum are four poems by Edwards, one of which is addressed to some court beauties of his time;[7] one of these also is given by Mr Ellis in his “Specimens.” A part of his song “In Commendation of Musick,” in the “Paradise of Dainty Devices,” is given by Shakespeare, “Romeo and Juliet,” act iv., sc. 5: “Where gripyng grief the hart would wound,” &c. Ritson mentions “An Epytaphe of the lord of Pembroke” by Mr Edwards (1569-70); but this is merely said to be written by a Mr Edwardes, and was not, at any rate, from the pen of the author of “Damon and Pithias.”[8]
“Among the books of my friend, the late Mr William Collins, of Chichester, now dispersed,” writes Warton,[9] “was a collection of short comic stories in prose, printed in the black letter, and, in the year 1570, ‘Set forth by Maister Richard Edwardes, Mayster of Her Maiesties Revels.’ There is a mistake in assigning this office to Edwards, for Sir Thomas Cawarden and Sir Thomas Benger were successively Masters of the Revels in our author’s time. However, among these tales was that of the ‘Induction of the Tinker’ in Shakespeare’s ‘Taming of the Shrew;’ and perhaps,” writes Warton, “Edwards’ story book was the immediate source from which Shakespeare, or rather, the author of the old ‘Taming of the Shrew’ drew that diverting apologue.”
The drama here reprinted from the earliest known edition of 1571,[10] collated with that of 1582, may have been the same as the tragedy performed before Queen Elizabeth by the children of the chapel at Christmas, 1564-5. “Although,” writes Collier, “Edwards continued in this play to employ rhymes, he endeavoured to get rid of some part of its monotony, by varying the length of his lines, and by not preserving the cæsura. It was nearly new, at the date when this piece was written, to bring stories from profane history upon the stage. ‘Damon and Phythias’ was one of the earliest attempts of the kind; and at any other period, and without the Queen’s extraordinary commendation, it may at least be doubted whether Edwards would have acquired an equal degree of notoriety.[11]
THE SPEAKERS’ NAMES.
Aristippus, a Pleasant Gentleman.
Carisophus, a Parasite.
Damon, Two Gentlemen of Greece.
Pithias,
Stephano, Servant to Damon and Pithias.
Will, Aristippus’ Lackey.
Jack, Carisophus’ Lackey.
Snap, the Porter.
Dionysius, the King.
Eubulus, the King’s Councillor.
Gronno, the Hangman.
Grim, the Collier.
THE PROLOGUE.
On every side, whereas I glance my roving eye,
Silence in all ears bent I plainly do espy:
But if your eager looks do long such toys to see,
As heretofore in comical wise were wont abroad to be,
Your lust is lost, and all the pleasures that you sought,
Is frustrate quite of toying plays. A sudden change is wrought:
For lo, our author’s muse, that masked in delight,
Hath forc’d his pen against his kind[12] no more such sports to write.
Muse he that lust (right worshipful), for chance hath made this change,
For that to some he seemed too much in young desires to range:
In which, right glad to please, seeing that he did offend,
Of all he humbly pardon craves: his pen that shall amend.
And yet (worshipful audience) thus much I dare avouch,
In comedies the greatest skill is this, rightly to touch
All things to the quick; and eke to frame each person so,
That by his common talk you may his nature rightly know:
A roister ought not preach, that were too strange to hear,
But as from virtue he doth swerve, so ought his words appear:
The old man is sober, the young man rash, the lover triumphing in joys.
The matron grave, the harlot wild, and full of wanton toys.
Which all in one course they no wise do agree;
So correspondent to their kind their speeches ought to be.
Which speeches well-pronounc’d, with action lively framed,
If this offend the lookers on, let Horace then be blamed,
Which hath our author taught at school, from whom he doth not swerve,
In all such kind of exercise decorum to observe.
Thus much for his defence (he saith), as poets earst have done,
Which heretofore in comedies the self-same race did run.
But now for to be brief, the matter to express,
Which here we shall present, is this: Damon and Pithias.
A rare ensample of friendship true, it is no legend-lie,
But a thing once done indeed, as histories do descry,
Which done of yore in long time past, yet present shall be here.
Even as it were in doing now, so lively it shall appear.
Lo, here in Syracuse th’ ancient town, which once the Romans won,
Here Dionysius palace, within whose court this thing most strange was done.