of the author. He is, with all. the emphasis of friendship, called dear, worthy, much-esteemed, beloved, honoured, true, deserving, longknown, and long-loved friend. Even the actors, whose kindness in granting him leave to publish had often been put to the test by him, felt not only pity, but affection, for him. This we think manifest from the prologue to "The Guardian," in which the actors inform the public that

"After twice putting forth to sea, his fame

Shipwrecked in either, and his once-known name
In two years' silence buried, perhaps lost,
In the general opinion; at our cost

Our author weighs up anchor, and once more,
Forsaking the security of the shore,
Resolves to prove his fortune; what 'twill be
'Tis not in him, or us, to prophesie:
You only can assure us. Yet he prayed
This little in his absence might be said,
Designing me his orator. He submits
To the grave censure of those abler wits
His weakness; nor dares he profess that when
His critics laugh, he'll laugh at them agen.
(Strange self-love in a writer.) He would know
His errors as you find them, and bestow
His future studies to reform from this
What in another might be judged amiss.
And yet despair not, gentlemen; though he fear
His strength to please, we hope that you
shall hear
Some things so writ that you may truly say,
He hath not quite forgot to make a play-
As 'tis with malice rumoured. His intents
Are fair; and though he want the compliments
Of wide-mouthed promises, who still engage,
Before their works are brought upon the stage,
Their parasites to proclaim them; this last birth,
Delivered without noise, may yield such mirth,
As, balanced equally, will cry down the boast
Of arrogance, and regain his credit lost."

We have in this prologue an acknowledgment of the former fame of Massinger, a confession of his failure in two pieces, and an expression of the love and sympathy of the actors for him in his distress. We have, it is true, along with this an accusation of malice against some critic or critics unknown-or, as he calls them, the "Catos of the stage "--who had managed to snatch at once the laurel from his brow and the bread from his mouth. But this implies, be it remembered, no personal animosity, but only rivalry in art. One of the failures herein alluded to was doubtless "The Emperor of the East," of the unfavourable reception of which mention has been already made. Regarding that play, the prologue informs us that

"He hath found

(And suffered for't.) Many are apt to wound

His credit in this kind; and whether he

Express himself fearful or peremptory,

He cannot escape their censures who delight
To misapply whatever he shall write→→

'Tis his hard fate. And though he will not sue
Nor basely beg such suffrages, yet to you,
Free and ingenious spirits, he doth now

In me present his service, with his vow
He hath done his best."

What the other piece was, we do not know. It is satisfactory to learn that, although not immediately acknowledged as a valuable addition to dramatic literature, it was at length produced at Court, probably at the intercession of some of his patrons, or perhaps at the suggestion of some of the friendly actors, and there received with favour a verdict which the general public afterwards sanctioned, as it was thereafter frequently acted at the Blackfriars and Globe playhouses.

In the various dedications to his plays he occasionally alludes to his impoverished condition, which, as Gifford curiously enough, considering his theory of the poet's obscurity and want, remarks, he imThe incessant call and strain on his invention, "goaded on famine grim," kept him always before the public; while his modest reservedness withheld him from courting its favourable notice except upon the ground of acknowledged desert. That he felt himself aggrieved by any usage which he had received from the Herberts, who were great patrons of dramatic talent to them Hemminge and Condell dedicated their edition of Shakespear is not at all to be inferred from his silence upon the point, so far as William Earl of Pembroke was concerned. We have conjectured reason sufficient for that without so great a licence of inference as his conversion to Catholicism implies. Indeed, we cannot avoid thinking, that matter contained in the dedication to "The Bondman" is almost conclusive against that theory. That dedication reads thus:

putes to " misfortune rather than choice."

"To the Right Honourable my good lord PHILIP EARL OF

MONTGOMERY, K.G.

"RIGHT HONOURABLE,-However I could never arrive at the happiness to be made known to your lordship, yet, a desire born with me, to make a tender of all duties and service to the noble family of the Herberts, descended to me as an inheritance from my dead father, Arthur Massinger. Many years he happily spent in the service of your honourable house, and died a servant in it; leaving his [son] to be ever most glad and ready to be at the command of all such as derive themselves from his most honoured master, your lordship's most noble father. The consideration of this encouraged me-having no other means to present my humblest service to your honour-to shroud this trifle under the wings of your noble protection; and I hope, out of the clemency of your heroic disposition, it will find, though perhaps not a welcome entertainment, yet, at the worst, a gracious pardon. When it was first acted, your lordship's liberal suffrage taught others to allow it for current, it having received the undoubted stamp of your lordship's allowance: and if in the perusal of any vacant hour, when your honour's more serious occasions shall give you leave to read it, it answer in your lordship's judgment the report and opinion it had upon the

stage, I shall esteem my labours not ill employed, and while I live continue the humblest of those that truly honour your lordship. "PHILIP MASSINGER."

So far as a guess may lead to the ascertainment of the probable facts, we would incline to interpret this dedication in another light than that which Gifford strives to throw around it. We see in it the kindly feeling of the hereditary patron-for a long time restrained, in delicacy to the disquietude any expression thereof might produce in the mind of one who, to himself, seemed a deserter from a high and holy office, for which he felt unsuited, and a distruster or a contemner, or, at least, the avoider of the unwelcome humiliation of receiving the bounty of a patron he could not serve in the manner that his father's wishes had foreshadowed-at last breaking the reserve at the critical moment when the success of a new play seemed to depend on his recognition of its merits, and thus overturing the coy poet to return to the allegiance and love which he had forsaken. The poet, still impressed with a sense of shame, unwillingly dragged from the shades which overhung his fortune, acknowledging the kindliness exhibited to him, the claim to respect which for their goodness to his father they had upon the son, yet cautiously abstaining from saying aught which will bear the appearance of repentance of the new path into which he had flung himself; at the same time that he as evidently proves his own freedom from any sense of disgrace or merited coldness, still less of a consciousness of present and persistent perversity in a faith which the law did not permit, and the patronage of which in an age so critical might have been dangerous even in a favoured knight. That the Earl was not offended, and that Massinger was not affronted with pressing offers of help, is equally creditable to both parties, and is quite apparent from the address which Massinger presented to him, after his accession to the earldom of Pembroke by the demise of his elder brother, on the loss of his son, who died of the small pox at Florence in 1635. Few things are more difficult to manage than to administer help to an over-sensitive man of genius in the right time and way, and this Montgomery seems to have felt. And it is perfectly plain that disreputable concessions of thought were neither asked nor given.

Of the other numerous nobles, female and male, to whom he dedi. cates his other plays, we need not now take notice, further than to state that they are highly creditable to the author, who frankly and honestly as well as gratefully acknowledges the benefits which resulted from their bounty or kindness in his various times of need. They are pearls of great price," inasmuch as they assure us of the charitable hand working in secret, yet owned and thus rewarded openly. Without servility, and without an affected humility, concealing a false pride or a disingenuous disposition, he braves and even avows his servitude to poverty, that he may utter forth their deserved praise.

All that we can now add to the memorials of his life is but a record of his various dramas. These we shall mention in chronological series, reserving for the sequel a detailed statement of their plots, and a criticism and appreciation of his works. "The Duke of Milan,"

briefly and tastefully dedicated to Lady Katherine Stanhope, was printed in 1623; in which year, also, "The Bondman" is first entered in the book of the Master of the Revels. This he printed and dedicated, as we have seen, to Philip Earl of Montgomery. Then follows what we may suppose to have been the brief season of the summer of his success, for though he produced several plays, he did not send any to the press till 1629, in which year he gave the public a work containing "The Renegado" and "The Roman Actor." Next year "The Picture" was published; and in 1631 no fewer than three novelties of his were put upon the stage, viz., "Believe As You List,' "Unfortunate Piety," and "The Emperor of the East." "The Fatal Dowry," from which Rowe stole the plot of "The Fair Penitent," appears in type in 1632. "The City Madam" followed in 1633, though it was not printed for nineteen years after his death. At this same time want seems to have pressed him severely, the more especially, as we have already related two of his plays have failed to satisfy the audiences of that time. It is most affecting to read in his dedication of the "Maid of Honour," to Sir Francis Foljambe and Sir Thomas Bland, the painfully ingenuous confession contained in the following words :-"I had not to this time subsisted, but that I was supported by your frequent courtesies and favours." "The New Way to Pay Old Debts" was a product of this year's activity, as well

as

as

"The Guardian." In 1634, three plays were given to the stage. Two of these are lost, and the third, entitled "A Very Woman," we find from the prologue, was undertaken at the request of one of his patrons, probably Philip Earl of Pembroke. It is supposed to be a reproduction of a former play, called "The Spanish Viceroy," which the author had written in 1624. With untiring industry, though still in the clutch of want, most precariously supplied with the necessities of life, so much so as to be obliged to acknowledge to Sir Robert Wiseman, of Thorrell's Hall, Essex, that "he had but faintly subsisted, if he had not often tasted of his bounty,' "The Bashful Lover" was produced," and "The Great Duke of Florence" printed, in 1636. Several other early productions were now sent to the press-amongst others, "The Unnatural Combat," in the dedication of which we find the poet, with zealous thankfulness and justifiable pride, reporting of his past career, that "many of eminence, and the best of such, who disdained not to take notice of me, have not thought themselves disparaged-I dare not say honoured-to be celebrated the patrons of my humble studies: in the first file of which, I am confident, you will have no cause to blush, to find your name written." There is here that humble, yet noble self reliance, which usually accompanies and enhances great genius and a noble life-an humble pride, not to use the words paradoxically, which justifies the thought that, rightly appreciated, the world would find him worthy of love. Between this and the date of his death, Massinger wrote three plays, all of which have been lost. The last of these, "The Anchoress of Philippo," was acted in January, 1640, only a few weeks prior to his death, which took place suddenly, 17th of March, 1640. He was buried at the expense of the actors at the several theatres, in the

same grave with Fletcher, his former partner in the Muses' train, in St. Saviour's, Southwark, in the register of which, despite his livelong popularity, his name is entered in these sad words " March 30, 163940, buried Philip Massinger, a stranger."

Of his life we have no records-his works we possess. Let us do homage in our subsequent criticisms to the heir of Shakespear's genius.

A BRAZILIAN GRANDEE.

BY EDWARD WILBERFORCE.

Author of "Brazil Viewed through a Naval Glass."

I WAS spending a week in Rio, on my passage home from Valparaiso. I had exhausted all the ordinary objects of curiosity; had scaled every mountain that commanded an extensive survey of the harbour with its hundred islands; had seen the botanical gardens, and galloped over every inch of ground that offered any attractions; and yet three days remained for me to employ. I took the liberty of asking an English merchant, at whose shop I had ordered some preserved limes and guava jelly, what other sights existed?

"Have you seen the "Château Gomes ?" he asked.

'No, I've not heard it mentioned. What is it ?"

"The 'Château Gomes,' as we call it, is the abode of a certain Candido José Gomes, a retired merchant, who has made a fortune by various means. It lies about five miles out of Rio, on the slope of the Concovado. Go and see the man; breakfast with him to-morrow morning. He'll be glad to see you, for he speaks English, and likes to keep up an acquaintance with the language. He doesn't stand on ceremony with strangers, and you'll find him agreeable as long as you avoid business."

Taking the merchant's advice, I hired a horse, and a negro guide, early the next morning, and took my way to the renowned château. On my way, I may give the reader a biographical sketch of the gentleman whom I was going to visit. He was born in a village on the coast of Brazil, being the son of an influential man who kept the largest shop there, and was, consequently, governor of the village. The pedigree of the Gomes' family will not bear a strict scrutiny. But they had the blood of kings in their veins. On the female side they were descended from Jack Purramoota, a powerful monarch on the West coast of Africa. On the male side they could trace, through a naval captain, to one of the Plantagenets. Candido in time arrived at his father's dignity; but he was not content to remain governor of a small village, and longed to migrate to Rio Janeiro. This step was effected by a bold stroke. A slave vessel landed her cargo on the shore over which he ruled; he seized the negroes for the Brazilian Government, and sold them on his own account. was, at that time, the vigilance of our cruizers, and such the demand for slaves, that he cleared £30,000 by the sale of those seized on this occasion, and was able to pacify the Government by a considerable

Such