quent appeals, therefore, to the imaginations of the spectators: in Act IV., it is transferred at once from Cornwall to Morocco, and from Morocco to the Azores; but nobody is kept for more than a moment in suspense as to the place represented. This inartificial construction we have preserved, as a characteristic of the stage at the time; but, where it has seemed at all necessary to give additional explanation, we have ventured a hint of it in our notes, and have thus been able, as we trust, without making any variations in the arrangement of the scenes, or inserting any needless divisions, to render the progress of the story perfectly intelligible.

Our object has been not unnecessarily to intermingle our own handiwork, but to leave the whole drama as we may suppose Heywood would have left it; and to this system we shall endeavour in future to adhere. We have done nothing more than may be said to be required in our day, when the plays are not in a course of representation.

With the precise origin of the plot of "The Fair Maid of the West" we are not acquainted; but we have little doubt, from the usual habit of dramatists of Heywood's time, that both plays were founded upo some popular narrative or tradition, now lost, containing the romantic incidents represented in action and dialogue. They were printed together, in the usual quarto form, in 1631; and we know that they were in existence in 1617, when an attack was made upon the Cock-pit theatre, in Drury Lane, where they had been frequently acted. (Hist. Engl. Dram. Poetry

and the Stage, i., 403.) There is no doubt that they long continued popular performances; and we may imagine that a printed edition of them was called for, because their reputation had led to their recent performance before the King and Queen. The Prologues and Epilogues reprinted by us were such as were written for this occasion, and the fact is mentioned on the original title-page.

Great and many allowances must be made for the construction and conduct of the story: what would tell extremely well in a narrative, such as we conjecture Heywood to have used, would sometimes appear violent and improbable on the stage; and the Biographia Dramatica (i., 212) informs us that Dancer converted (probably only re-converted) the incidents into a novel, so well did he consider them adapted to the purpose. The Editor also has in his possession a long ballad in MS., founded upon the plays. Considering the difficulties with which Heywood in this respect had to contend, (aiding himself, however, by Chorus and dumb-show) it cannot be disputed that he has displayed much skill and ingenuity. The bustle is unceasing, and attention never wearies. For the coarseness of a small portion of the comic business, the usual excuse must be found in the manners of the time; and, at all events, it was not such as the King and Queen could not sit patiently to hear, and they perhaps listened to it with as much enjoyment as less exalted auditors. The poetry and pathos of some of the scenes in which the hero and heroine are engaged cannot be too highly praised: it is extremely

touching, from its truth to nature and its graceful simplicity, without the slightest apparent effort on the part of the author. The characters are strongly drawn and clearly distinguished, while that of the heroine is admirably preserved and is constantly attractive. Our purpose, however, is not now to criticise the performance, but merely to afford such preliminary explanations as will the better enable our readers to enjoy it.

The versification is varied and harmonious; but it is necessary to remark that Heywood appears to have been, in this particular, a somewhat careless writer, heeding little how his lines were divided in the printed copy, as long as they came agreeably or forcibly from the mouths of the actors. It seems to have been his great aim (like that of most, if not all, of his contemporaries) to satisfy on the stage, without thinking of the reader: the printer, too, has not unfrequently done his verse injustice; and we wonder that, as the sheets went through the author's hands, he did not himself regulate the lines, in many places, differently. This consideration has frequently checked us, when otherwise we should have felt disposed to make some changes, merely of location, in order to render the blank verse more conformable to ordinary rule: upon a few, and very few, changes we have ventured; but it is quite evident in many places, which we need not point out, that the omission or insertion of a monosyllable would sometimes have restored the measure, injured perhaps by the imperfectness of the memory, or of the ear, of the performer. We have

never felt ourselves at liberty to make the slightest insertion or omission, without either placing the added word within brackets, or distinctly mentioning in a note the exclusion of a particle. The language is Heywood's, to which we have adhered with scrupulous fidelity; and in cases of any doubt, we have preferred leaving the author's errors to the chance of interpolating our own.1

The Editor is anxious to say no more than is necessary on the present occasion; because, having undertaken the completion of an impression of Thomas Heywood's dramatic works for the Shakespeare Society, he must hereafter enter more at large into a discussion of this dramatist's peculiar claims and merits, both as a poet and a playwright. Like his contemporaries, the greatest as well as the smallest, he was extremely unequal; but it is ever to be remembered that most of his productions of a dramatic kind have come down to us, as regards the early impressions, even in a much less complete and finished state than those now presented to the reader; and no author of the time had more reason to complain of the pirating and surreptitious printing of his works: he himself, elsewhere, more than once, makes it a matter of formal remonstrance. On this account, if on no other, the Editor cannot but be sensible of the difficulty of the task he has to perform.

1 On p. 16, after line 4 of our reprint of the first part of "The Fair Maid of the West," it may be doubted whether a line has not been omitted: if not, the sense seems to have been left incomplete after "Your deceased hopes." We have given the passage exactly as it stands in the

old copy.

It is necessary to add that the present volume completes six of Heywood's plays, which, if the members of our Society think fit, may be bound in one volume, to which other volumes will hereafter be added. Thus we may hope, ere very long, to put forth, in a continuous series, all the extant dramas and pieces of a dramatic character which came from the prolific pen of Thomas Heywood. They will be preceded, in due time, by such biographical particulars as have come down to us, which, as our author lived through a long series of years, and published many books of a miscellaneous description, are more numerous than might be imagined. In order that his plays, separately printed by our Society, may be at any time arranged in larger consecutive volumes, if that course should be deemed expedient, we have prefixed to the present publication a general title-page to Vol. I., followed by a list of the dramas included in it.

J. P. C.

Kensington, February 12, 1850.