A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 10 — Reading Companion

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In Category - Adventure Picaresque Fiction

Authors: Hazlitt, William Carew, 1834-1913 [Editor] Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2014 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: English drama Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

Edition facts

Words 139,025

Reading time 605 min

Text sections 34

The source record for A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 10 — Reading Companion measures this digital text at 139,025 words, 10 hr 5 min estimated reading time, and 34 detected text sections.

The text analysis averages about 14.2 words per sentence, while the detected sections provide another way to judge how the source is divided.

Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “English drama,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #46412

This volume of Dodsley's collection includes Cyril Tourneur's 'The Revenger's Tragedy' and other early 17th-century plays, with editorial apparatus by W. Carew Hazlitt. The excerpts reveal a focus on textual variants, footnotes on archaic language, and a bawdy subplot in 'The Revenger's Tragedy' involving a stolen heiress.

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Text length15 pts
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File: pg46412

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Yet thought upon's? speak, are we happy yet? Thy wrongs and mine are for one scabbard fit.

HIP. It may prove happiness.

VEN. What is't may prove? Give me to taste.

HIP. Give me your hearing, then. You know my place at court?

VEN. Ay, the duke's chamber! But 'tis a marvel thou'rt not turn'd out yet!

HIP. Faith, I've been shov'd at; but 'twas still my hap To hold by th' duchess' skirt: you guess at that: Whom such a coat keeps up, can ne'er fall flat. But to the purpose-- Last evening, predecessor unto this, The duke's son warily inquir'd for me, Whose pleasure I attended: he began By policy to open and unhusk me About the fame[11] and common rumour: But I had so much wit to keep my thoughts Up in their built houses; yet afforded him An idle satisfaction without danger. But the whole aim and scope of his intent Ended in this: conjuring me in private To seek some strange-digested fellow forth, Of ill-contented nature; either disgrac'd In former times, or by new grooms displac'd, Since his step-mother's nuptials; such a blood, A man that were for evil only good-- To give you the true word, some base-coin'd pander.

VEN. I reach you; for I know his heat is such, Were there as many concubines as ladies, He would not be contain'd; he must fly out. I wonder how ill-featur'd, vile-proportion'd, That one should be, if she were made for woman Whom, at the insurrection of his lust, He would refuse for once. Heart! I think none. Next to a skull, though more unsound than one, Each face he meets he strongly doats upon.

HIP. Brother, y' have truly spoke him. He knows not you, but I will swear you know him.

VEN. And therefore I'll put on that knave for once, And be a right man then, a man o' th' time; For to be honest is not to be i' th' world. Brother, I'll be that strange-composed fellow.

HIP. And I'll prefer you, brother.

VEN. Go to, then: The smallest advantage fattens wronged men: It may point out occasion, if I meet her, I'll hold her by the foretop fast enough; Or, like the French Mole,[12] heave up hair and all. I have a habit that will fit it quaintly. Here comes our mother.

VEN. We must coin: Women are apt, you know, to take false money; But I dare stake my soul for these two creatures, Only excuse excepted, that they'll swallow, Because their sex is easy in belief.

_Enter_ GRATIANA _and_ CASTIZA.

GRA. What news from court, son Carlo?

HIP. Faith, mother, Tis whisper'd there the duchess' youngest son Has play'd a rape on Lord Antonio's wife.

GRA. On that religious lady!

CAS. Royal blood! monster, he deserves to die, If Italy had no more hopes but he.

VEN. Sister, y'have sentenc'd most direct and true, The law's a woman, and would she were you. Mother, I must take leave of you.

GRA. Leave! for what?

VEN. I intend speedy travel.

HIP. That he does, madam.

VEN. For since my worthy father's funeral, My life's unnatural[13] to me, even compell'd; As if I liv'd now, when I should be dead.

GRA. Indeed, he was a worthy gentleman, Had his estate been fellow to his mind.

VEN. The duke did much deject him.

VEN. Too much: And though disgrace oft smother'd in his spirit, When it would mount, surely I think he died Of discontent, the noble man's consumption.

GRA. Most sure he did.

VEN. Did he? 'lack! you know all: You were his midnight secretary.

GRA. No, He was too wise to trust me with his thoughts.

VEN. I' faith, then, father, thou wast wise indeed; "Wives are but made to go to bed and feed." Come, mother, sister: you'll bring me onward,[14] brother?

VEN. I'll quickly turn into another. [_Aside. Exeunt._

_Enter the old_ DUKE, LUSURIOSO _his son, the_ DUCHESS: _the Bastard, the Duchess's two_ _sons_ AMBITIOSO _and_ SUPERVACUO; _the third,_ _her youngest, brought out with Officers for the_ _rape. Two_ JUDGES.

DUKE. Duchess, it is your youngest son, we're sorry, His violent act has e'en drawn blood of honour, And stain'd our honours; Thrown ink upon the forehead of our state; Which envious spirits will dip their pens into After our death; and blot us in our tombs: For that which would seem treason in our lives Is laughter, when we're dead. Who dares now whisper, That dares not then speak out, and e'en proclaim With loud words and broad pens our closest shame?

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The tenth volume of Dodsley's Select Collection opens with Cyril Tourneur's The Revenger's Tragedy, a play that the editor W. Carew Hazlitt introduces with a brief biographical note—remarking that Tourneur's contemporary fame was such that he was 'not to be despis'd, nor over-prais'd.' The editorial apparatus is dense: footnotes trace variant readings across early quartos, gloss obscure terms like 'garboils' and 'quirks,' and cite sources from Shakespeare to Lyly. One manuscript note, quoted in the introduction, calls the play 'a most splendid work' whose protagonist 'surpasses anything else of the kind.'

Editorial Annotations and Textual Evidence

The excerpts show Hazlitt's method of collating early editions. For instance, a footnote on The Revenger's Tragedy records that the 1607 and 1608 quartos both read 'retires,' but the editor suggests it might mean 'draw back' rather than 'withdraw.' Another note corrects a misreading of 'studient' to 'studient,' arguing the form is 'legitimate, though uncommon.' These annotations reveal a scholarly concern with recovering the playwright's original wording, even when the meter or sense is ambiguous.

Hazlitt also engages with earlier commentators: he quotes Collier on the inferiority of The Atheist's Tragedy and disputes a claim by the Rev. Mr. Todd about the word 'garboil,' pointing out that Bishop Hall was satirizing Stanihurst's translation, not using the word himself. Such cross-references build a layered editorial conversation across centuries.

Bawdy Subplot and Linguistic Play

In the excerpt from The Revenger's Tragedy (Act II, Scene 1), the dialogue between Oliver Small-Shanks and his son Thomas is laced with sexual innuendo. Oliver boasts of his youthful prowess: 'I could have ferk'd, and ferk'd y' away a wench, / As soon as e'er a man alive.' The language is earthy and energetic, with terms like 'conveyance,' 'quirks,' and 'ferk'd' carrying double meanings. The scene introduces a stolen heiress, Frances, whom William Small-Shanks calls 'wench of gold,' planning to use her 'bare gettings' to purchase land. This subplot contrasts sharply with the revenge tragedy's main action, offering a comic, mercenary counterpoint.

The footnotes gloss 'ferk'd' as a form of 'prick' and explain 'quirks' as 'subtleties,' citing Lyly's Euphues. The editorial attention to these bawdy passages underscores their linguistic richness and the period's tolerance for explicit wordplay.

Catalog Subjects vs. Actual Content

The Project Gutenberg record classifies this volume under 'Adventure & Picaresque Fiction' and 'English drama,' but the excerpts reveal a work that is primarily scholarly and editorial. The bulk of the text consists of introductions, footnotes, and collations—not the plays themselves. The 'Adventure' tag may derive from the revenge plot of The Revenger's Tragedy, but the excerpts emphasize textual criticism over narrative action.

Moreover, the bawdy subplot and the editor's focus on linguistic curiosities (e.g., 'garboils,' 'studient') suggest a readership interested in philology and early modern stage conventions. The volume is less a collection of adventure tales than a critical edition for specialists, with Hazlitt's notes forming a substantial part of the reading experience.

Readers approaching this volume should expect a scholarly apparatus that sometimes overshadows the plays themselves. Hazlitt's footnotes reward careful attention, as they illuminate the textual history and linguistic texture of early 17th-century drama. The bawdy subplot in The Revenger's Tragedy offers a vivid example of the period's comic register, but the volume's primary value lies in its editorial reconstruction of lost or variant readings.

There’s something tender about old playbooks—the footnotes fussing over lost words, the bawdy plotlines tucked beside grim ones. I often think of that while settling in with a holiday anthology, where mischief softens into warmth. The White Christmas and other Merry Christmas Plays — Story, Setting & Ideas feels like that same quiet shelf, holding gentler echoes of old stages. Just a wistful nod between cousins.