he embraced the Roman Catholic religion, to which he afterwards adhered with fidelity. Of course he had made up his mind to forfeit his benefice, and, for his livelihood, he submitted, for a short time, to the drudgery of teacher to a grammarschool in St. Alban's. But the neighbourhood of the metropolis opened brighter prospects to a man of poetic talent. Perhaps while yet in his humble situation he had made his first attempt on the stage with 'Love's Tricks.' This comedy, though with little originality or power, yet from its liveliness, and its strokes of satire at some of the follies, the affected language, and ridiculous accomplishments of the day, seems to have met with success, and probably determined at once the future destination of Shirley. He had protested in his prologue, and at the time, perhaps, in perfect sincerity,

" This play is

The first fruits of a muse, that before this
Never saluted audience, nor doth mean

To swear herself a factor for the scene.'

But, supposing, no doubt, that at poets', as well as at lovers' perjuries Jove laughs,' his ambition soon soared beyond drilling the accidence into the little boys of St. Alban's :-he chose, if the more precarious, the more pleasant and lucrative employment of ministering to the delight and sharing in the favour of a splendid court and an opulent city. In the downright words of old Wood, he retired to the metropolis, lived in Gray's Inn, and set up for a play-maker.' The halcyon days of the stage were not yet over; the dark times to which we have alluded did not yet even cast their shadows before.' For several years the prolific invention of Shirley poured forth dramas in quick and unfailing succession; he appears to have lived on terms of intimacy with many of his brother poets-to have been universally esteemed for his gentle manners and amiable disposition; real respect for the blamelessness of his morals may be traced even through the flattering language of commendatory verses. Though his printed plays are by no means free from the vice of the age, coarse and indelicate allusions, yet in his later dramas he is far less offensive, and by the master of the revels, he is quoted as a pattern of a more beneficial and cleanly way of poetry. The comedy called The Young Admiral, being free from oaths, prophaneness, or obsceaness, hath given mee much delight and satisfaction in the readinge, and may serve for a patterne to other poetts, not only for the bettring of maners and language, but for the improvement of the quality, which hath received some brushings of late.'* Such is part of an

entry

* Mr. Dyce quotes another curious passage from this document: it appears that

the

entry in the office-book of Sir Henry Herbert, who latterly seems to have turned somewhat of a precisian.'

Shirley was twice married, and had several children, but of the birth or quality of his two wives we know nothing, though Mr. Dyce conjectures that the first was a lady, whom he addresses in many poems, written in the conceited and metaphysical style of the day, under the name of Odelia. He gained,' says Wood, not only a considerable livelihood, but also great respect and encouragement from persons of quality, especially from Henrietta Maria, the queen consort, who made him her servant.' It appears, however, that he failed in improving the opportunities of advancement which such patronage afforded. I never,' he observes, affected the ways of flattery; some say, I have lost my preferment by not practising that court sin.' His broad and humorous song on the birth of Charles II., considering the adulation usually poured forth on such events, will scarcely impeach his sinlessness on this head.

Probably something of a chivalrous feeling of indignation at the insult supposed to be offered to Henrietta Maria by Prynne in bis Histriomastix' embittered the fierce irony with which he dedicated his Bird in a Cage' to the Puritan in prison :

'The fame of your candour and innocent love to learning, especially to that musical part of humane knowledge, poetry, and in particular that which concerns the stage and scene (yourself, as I hear, having lately written a tragedy*), doth justly challenge from me this dedication. I had an early desire to congratulate your happy retirement; but no poem could tempt me with so fair a circumstance as this in the title, wherein I take some delight to think (not without imitation of yourself, who have ingeniously fancied such elegant and apposite names for your own compositions, as Health's Sickness, The Unloveliness of Lovelocks, &c.) how aptly I may present you, at this time, with the "Bird in a Cage," a comedy which wanteth, I must confess, much of that ornament, which the stage and action lent it, for it comprehending also another play or interlude, personated by ladies, I must refer to your imagination the music, the songs, the the players were apt to speak more than was set down for them,' and to interpolate oaths and other offensive expressions, the blame of which fell upon the innocent licenser of the plays. This led to a delicate question. The kinge is pleased to take faith, death, slight, for asseverations, and no oaths-as to which I doe humbly submit to my master's judgment; but under favour conceive them to be oaths, and enter them here, to declare my opinion and submission.' This will remind the reader of a scene in the Spiritual Quixote,' or of a still more recent farce enacted in the Committeeroom of the House of Commons,-where a part of the great legislative council of this nation were gravely employed in ascertaining from the elderly Grinner, who, we presume, upon the same principle on which the famous Barrington was made a judge in New South Wales, has been selected to watch over the morals of the drama, his opinions on the propriety of calling a woman an angel, and other equally deep points of doctrine!

* The second part of the Histriomastix' was entitled the 'Actor's Tragedie.'

dancing,

dancing, and other varieties, which I know would have pleased you infinitely in the presentment.'

The cruel sentence of Prynne, it is well known, was inflicted on account of some real or supposed allusion to the queen as having danced in an interlude at court; and our poet no doubt justified by his loyalty, as well as by the internecine hostility between puritanism, whose spirit was embodied in Prynne, and the stage, of which Shirley might stand forth as the champion, this merciless tone of exultation in his sufferings.

Shirley was engaged in a more honourable and more public testimony which was borne at this time against the austere opinions of Prynne. He was appointed to write the poetry for the most splendid interlude ever performed at Whitehall, The Triumph of Peace,' which, at this seasonable time,' was represented at the expense, and by members, of the Inns of Court. The distinguished names, which were selected to conduct this gorgeous pageant, remind us of the days when

-The grave Lord Keeper led the brawls,

The seals and maces danced before him;

while at the same time they carry us on to that darker period, of which the clouds were beginning to gather, and in which these great men, now uniting in festive rejoicings, and alike eager to display their loyalty, were to be arrayed in opposite ranks, and grapple in deadly opposition. For the Middle Temple were chosen Mr. Hyde and Mr. Whitelock; Sir Edward Herbert and Mr. Selden for the Inner Temple; for Lincoln's Inn, Mr. Attorney Noy and Mr. Gerling; Sir John Finch and another for Gray's Inn. The pageant paraded London from Ely House in Holborn to Whitehall. The masque was performed in the Banqueting-house; the decorations were by Inigo Jones, the music by William Lawes and Simon Ives. The sumptuousness of the dresses and decorations may be best estimated by the expense -the interlude cost 20,000l. to the Inns of Court. The following observation of a correspondent of Strafford's, then Lord Deputy in Ireland, is very remarkable, and illustrative of the memorable chapter in Clarendon, in which he expatiates on the prosperity of the nation before the civil wars :- Oh that they would give over these things, or lay them by for a time, and bend all their endeavours to make the king rich! For it gives me no satisfaction, who am but a looker on, to see a rich commonwealth, a rich people, and the crown poor. God direct them to remedy this quickly.'

When Strafford proceeded to Ireland in 1633, John Ogilby, a name with which that of Shirley was unfortunately associated in later days, went over as posture-master, and teacher of the art of

handling

handling the pike and musket in the family of the deputy, from which he rose to be master of the revels to the vice-regal court. The ill-omened friendship of Shirley with this worthy, who, from an excellent dancing-master, by one unfortunate caper, was lamed into a miserable poet, had already been formed in London; and in 1637 Shirley went to Ireland on his invitation, to support the Dublin stage by his acknowledged talents in dramatic composition. Several of his plays were first acted in the theatre of the Irish metropolis. It does not appear at what time his spirited stanzas on the recovery of the Earl of Strafford' were written; whether they were inspired by gratitude for his patronage when in Ireland, or that more general admiration of his character, prevalent among the royalist party.

My lord, the voice that did your sickness tell,
Strook like a midnight chime or knell;
At every sound

I took into my sense a wound,

Which had no cure till I did hear

Your health again

Restor'd, and then

There was a balsam pour'd into mine ear.

.....

'But hymns are now requir'd; 'tis time to rise,

And pay the altar sacrifice:

My heart allows

No gums, nor amber, but pure vows;
There's fire at breathing of your name,

And do not fear

I have a tear

Of joy, to curb any immodest flame.' &c.-vol. vi., p. 428. Shirley resided about two years in Ireland; on his return to London he resumed his occupation-but that occupation soon came to an end. Those days of fiercer excitement were at hand, -the spirit of Prynne was in the ascendant, and in 1642, the first ordinance for the suppression of stage-plays was issued by the parliament. This ordinance, according to Mr. Collier, was not altogether effective; the players, in more than one instance, defied or attempted to elude the hostile edict. On one occasion, in 1644, Beaumont and Fletcher's tragedy, King and no King,' (whether purposely selected on account of its significant title, is not clear,) was performed at the theatre in Salisbury Court. It was not till 1647, that severer measures were taken. An act then passed, empowering the Lord Mayor and other magistrates to pull down and destroy all theatres; condemning all players to be publicly whipped; confiscating all money received, for the good of the poor; and enforcing a fine of five shillings upon any person present at a dramatic representation. It cannot be wondered that

all

all persons connected with the stage threw themselves into the royal ranks. Shirley followed the fortunes of the brave and chivalrous, but unsteady and eccentric Newcastle,* to whom he had already dedicated one of his plays, the Traitor,' in language, as is generally the case in Shirley's dedications, though highly complimentary, yet remarkably graceful, and even dignified. There occurs, by the way, in one of Shirley's amatory pieces, an allusion to his northern campaign, which has escaped the notice of his biographer. The poem may be quoted as a specimen of the sweet and tender thoughts which the bards of that day, after the example of Donne, were apt to mar by quaint language and whimsical metreThat mistress I pronounce but poor in bliss,

That, when her servant parts,

Gives not as much with her last kiss,
As will maintain two hearts

Till both do meet

And many accidents do wait on war.'-vol. vi.,

p. 408. On the discomfiture of Newcastle at Marston Moor, and his unaccountable abandonment of the royal cause, Shirley stole back to London, where, in his obscurity, he obtained the patronage of a man of much higher literary rank than Newcastle, Thomas Stanley, the editor of Eschylus,' and author of the History of Philosophy.' But his chief maintenance and that of his wife and family depended on his own exertions; he was glad to sink again to his old drudgery of keeping a school in White Friars; the poetic spirit which had so long delighted a polished court and a tasteful age, by the fertility of its invention, the grace and elegance of its dramatic dialogue, now condescended to versify the accidence of the Latin Grammar; the successor, if not the rival of Fletcher and Massinger, entered the lists with old John Lily. The author of the Traitor' and the Cardinal' now sang thusIn di, do, dum, the Gerunds chime and close: Um the first Supine, u the latter shows.'

An amusing chapter in the history of human life might be *Wood insinuates, that Shirley had no inconsiderable hand in the plays which this singular nobleman afterwards published. Mr. Dyce is inclined to acquit him of his serious charge.

formed