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Fourth Edition
Originally published by Robert Dodsley in the Year 1744.
Now first chronologically arranged, revised and enlargedwith the Notes of all the Commentators, and new Notes.
1876.
Tancred And Gismunda
The Wounds Of Civil War
Mucedorus
The Two Angry Women Of Abington
Look About You
The Tragedie of Tancred and Gismund. Compiled by the Gentlemen of theInner Temple, and by them presented before her Maiestie. Newly reuiuedand polished according to the decorum of these daies. By R.W. London,Printed by Thomas Scarlet, and are to be solde by R. Robinson, 1591,4to.
[Some copies are dated 1592; but there was only a single edition. Of theoriginal text, as written in 1568, there is no printed copy; but MSS. ofit are in MS. Lansdowne 786, and Hargrave MS. 205, neither of whichappears to present any evidence of identity with the copy mentioned byIsaac Reed below as then in private hands. Both these MSS. have now beencollated with the text of 1591, and the conclusion must be, that Wilmot,though he unquestionably revived, did not do so much, as he might wishto have it inferred, in polishing the play. The production was formedon a classical model, and bears marks of resemblance in tone and styleto the "Jocasta" of Euripides, as paraphrased by Gascoigne in 1566. TheLansdowne MS. of "Tancred and Gismunda" was written, about 1568-70,while the Hargrave is much more modern.]
It appears from William Webbe's Epistle prefixed to this piece, thatafter its first exhibition it was laid aside, and at some distance oftime was new-written by R. Wilmot. The reader, therefore, may not bedispleased with a specimen of it in its original dress. It is here givenfrom the fragment of an ancient MS. taken out of a chest of papersformerly belonging to Mr Powell, father-in-law to the author of"Paradise Lost," at Forest Hill, about four miles from Oxford, where inall probability some curiosities of the same kind may remain, thecontents of these chests (for I think there are more than one) havingnever yet been properly examined. The following extract is from theconclusion of the piece.—Reed. [Reed's extract has been collated withthe two MSS. before-mentioned; where the Powell MS. may now be, theeditor cannot say. The differences, on the whole, are not material;but the Lansdowne MS. 786 has supplied a few superior readings andcorrections.]
But in thy brest if eny spark remaine
Of thy dere love. If ever yet I coulde
So moche of thee deserve, or at the least
If with my last desire I may obtaine
This at thy handes, geve me this one request
And let me not spend my last breath in vaine.
My life desire I not, which neither is
In thee to geve nor in my self to save,
Althoughe I wolde. Nor yet I aske not this
As mercye for myne Erle in ought to crave,
Whom I to well do knowe howe thou hast slayen.
No, no, father, thy hard and cruell wronge
With pacience as I may I will sustaine
In woefull life which now shall not be longe.
But this one suite, father, if unto me
Thou graunt, though I cannot the same reacquite
Th'immortall goddes shall render unto thee...