Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 49.djvu/370

 emphasis, and he is sadly wanting in artistic form and refinement. He had, however, a rare vein of whimsical humour (cf. the episode of Gnotho in the Old Law, iii. 1), and occasionally he shows an unexpected mastery of tragic pathos. Drake ranks him in the same class with Massinger, Middleton, Heywood, Ford, Dekker, and Webster, but puts him last in this category. With all these he was associated, and it was asserted that Shakespeare himself co-operated with him in ‘The Birth of Merlin’ (title-page of quarto, 1663); but this was a bookseller's fib, unsupported by any evidence external or internal (cf., ii. 570). That Rowley was in such request as a collaborator was probably owing to his well-known power to tickle the risibility of the ‘groundlings.’ Thus the madhouse scenes in the ‘Changeling,’ which the modern reader is apt to wish away, were just those which achieved popularity when produced upon the boards. His broadly comic effects were felt to be an indispensable relief to the gloomy backgrounds and improbable horrors of some of his greater contemporaries. As an actor-playwright he probably altered and edited a much larger proportion of those pieces which were presented by the companies he served than has been hitherto associated with his name.

The following plays are claimed on the title-pages as Rowley's unassisted work:
 * 1) ‘A new Wonder. A Woman never vexed,’ 1632, 4to. Dyce calls this Rowley's best piece. The old story of a wedding-ring being found in a fish's belly is utilised in the plot, but the whole drama is very probably no more than an adaptation of an old rhyming play. It was altered by Planché, and produced at Covent Garden in 1824. Extracts from both this play and No. 2 appear in Lamb's ‘Specimens’ (it is also in  Old English Plays, 1814, vol. v.;  British Theatre, and, ed. Hazlitt, xii. 85 seq.).
 * 2) ‘All's lost by Lust,’ 1633, 4to; based on a Spanish legend, containing some powerfully imagined scenes, it was acted at the Cockpit about 1622, and at the Phœnix in Drury Lane by Lady Elizabeth's men. On it Mrs. Pix based her ‘Conquest of Spain,’ 1705 (see, i. 36, ii. 330).
 * 3) ‘A Match at Midnight. A pleasant Comedy as it had been acted by the Children of the Revels,’ 1633 (, ed. Hazlitt, xiii. 1–98). Messrs. Fleay and Bullen hold that the ground-plan of this comedy was Middleton's work, but that it was more or less extensively altered by Rowley about 1622. Planché produced an adaptation of it and Jasper Mayne's ‘City Match,’ entitled ‘The Merchant's Wedding,’ in 1828.
 * 4) ‘A Shoomaker a Gentleman, with the Life and Death of the Cripple that stole the Weathercock at Paules,’ 1638, 4to; the plot was founded on ‘Crispin and Crispianus, or the History of the Gentle Craft’ (1598); it was acted at the Red Bull in 1609.

The plays in which Rowley collaborated are:
 * 1) ‘The Travailes of the Three English Brothers,’ 1607, 4to. This, a hurried production, written in partnership with George Wilkins and  (fl. 1606) [q. v.], was acted at the Curtain by Queen Anne's men in the summer of 1607. It describes the journey of Sir Thomas, Sir Anthony, and Robert Shirley to the court of Russia, and then to Rome and Venice (see Retrospective Review, ii. 379). The piece was reprinted in A. H. Bullen's edition of Day's ‘Works,’ vol. ii. (cf. Mr. Bullen's Introduction, i. 19 seq.).
 * 2) ‘A fair Quarrel, as it was acted before the king and divers times publikly by the prince his highness' servants,’ 1617, 4to. Unsold copies were reissued in the same year, with a fresh title and three additional pages of comic matter, ‘the bauds song,’ &c.; another edition, 1622 (, Middleton, vol. iv.). This was written in conjunction with Middleton, and contains some of Rowley's ‘strongest writing.’
 * 3) ‘A Courtly Masque; the deuice called the World Tost at Tennis. As it hath beene divers times presented by the Prince and his servants,’ 1620, 4to (, vol. vii.). Rowley wrote the first part of this ingenious invention in conjunction with Middleton.
 * 4) ‘The Changeling, as it was acted with great applause at the Private House in Drury Lane and Salisbury Court,’ 1653, 4to. The unsold copies were reissued with a new title-page in 1668. This was performed in 1621, and again by the Queen of Bohemia's company on 4 Jan. 1623 ( and, vol. vi.) This is the finest of the plays written by Rowley and Middleton in collaboration. Rowley's contribution is defined by Mr. Fleay as i. 1, 2, iii. 3, iv. 3, v. 3. Hayley based upon the ‘Changeling’ his weak play of ‘Marcella,’ produced at Drury Lane on 7 Nov. 1789.
 * 5) ‘The Spanish Gipsy,’ 1653 and 1661, 4to, by Rowley and Middleton (, Contin. vol. iv. Old English Plays;  and, vol. vi.). Rowley's share in this comedy, which was performed at Whitehall in November 1623, was probably slight.
 * 6) ‘Fortune by Land and Sea,’ 1655, 4to, by Rowley and Heywood, who is responsible for the larger share. Based in part upon a ballad of  [q. v.], commemorating the fate of the pirates Clinton and Thomas Watton, it was