Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/68

 NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. ix. JA*. w,

than Mr. Joseph Knight thought, that " Langbaine .... anticipates Warton's asser- tion with regard to the resemblance between Mirza' and ' Catiline.' "

Most of ' Mirza ' is in blank verse. The introductory speeches of the first three acts are, however, in rimed lines, the sense of which is not confined within the couplet. The Choric Ode at the end of Act I. is in rimed octosyllabics ; that at the end of Act II. in the * In Memoriam ' metre, used also by Lord Herbert of Cherbury in his poems not published till ten years later ; that at the end of Act III. (in iambic lines alternately of 8 and 11 syllables, alternately riming) will be quoted lower. Act IV. contains a song in octosyllabic rimed couplets, and closes with an Ode in iambic lines, alter- nately of 8 and 4 syllables, alternately riming. Act V. opens with a funeral and a ' Funerall Elegie sung to the Harp ' in heptasyllabic verse, (" Grief and Horror seize on all," &c. ). The play ends with a riming couplet and without a final Choric Ode.

The tragedy is followed by a hundred pages of notes, in which Baron cites his historical and philosophical authorities : Sandys, Knollys, Herbert, " my friend Mr. Raymond in his * Mercuric Italico ' " (1648), and Browne's ' Pseudodoxia ' and ' Religio Medici.' He criticizes (p. 207) " the late pub- lished English Translation " of the Alcoran (1649): "I cannot commend its faithful- nesse."'

The subject of the tragedy evidently appealed to Baron from the analogy it pre- sented with recent events in England. This is especially seen in the choric ode (p. 72) :

What is it Heavens, you suffer here?

'Tis punishable to speak reason,

Now reason and loyal tie are out of fashion, And Tyranny and Treason

Have all the vogue in this besotted Nation. He that our great Palladium was,

No lesse our strength and bulwark, then our

glory, A prey to rampant malice lies,

Whose fall almost, the doers selves makes sorry.

His innocent issue suffer too

His noble friends

Some to strickt bounds confined are,

Some to remote ; all judg'd without due tryall.

Who, he says, will not be tempted to desert the down -trodden cause, when they see the prosperity of evil ? So would it be, but that there are

A wiser few, that know on high there sitteth O' th world, an upright Governour,

And every thing is best that he permitteth. We know a punishment it be

To eyill to prosper, nor shall long endure, The wicked's false prosperitie,

Though justice slowly moves, she striketh sure.

Baron, according to the ' D.N.B.,' i& chiefly to be remembered as a plagiarist of Milton ; but are not these lines curiously anticipative of Milton in ' Samson Ago- nistes ' ? If Baron has little claim to be considered a poet, he is entitled to be treated with respect for the courage and sincerity with which in the darkest days he expressed his faith in his cause. His annotations to ' Mirza ' show him as a man of wide reading and scholarly and lively mind. He had not forfeited the interest of his friends, which had been shown so clearly in his earlier books. ' Mirza ' has verses from John Hall, " M[ultse] Spei Juveni, Rob. Baronio, Amico " ; from Jo. Quarles, his old school- fellow, ' Upon the incomparable Tragedy called Mirza written by my dear Friend ' ; by " Ro. Hills, Esq./' by " Jo. Gary, M.A.," and " E. Mannyng,"

Who '1 number our best Playes aright First Cataline, then let him Mirza write. Quarles reads in the play the lesson which the author intends. Addressing Mirza, th& tragic hero of the play, who fell a victim to the wiles of Ally-beg, he says : We mourn thy loss, admire thy worth, and grieve Our Isle a Mirz' and Allybeg can give. Thus Text and Time doe sute, and whilst you tell Your Tale, wee '1 easily find a Parallell.

One friend, whose name does not appear in Baron's book, his fellow-poet Henry Bold, wrote some lines on 'Mirza' (printed in ' Poems,' 1664, p. 196), in which he also saw the topical character of the piece, and something of the learning and spirit of Jonson in its execution.

To R. B. Esq ; having Read his Mirza. Thy scene was Persia, but too like our own, Only our Sojfie has not got the Crown, Me-thinks it so concernes us, as it were A Romance there, but a true story here. Had Johnson liv'd t' have seen this work h 'ad sed Th'adst been his bravest Boy! strok't thee oth'

head

Given thee his blessing in a bowle of Wine Made thee 's Administrator, or Assign. But father Ben. I think was too much Poet, To have much wealth (one need not care who owe it) Besides had Elder Sons, yet, where there 's merit, Or custom, Yonger brothers oft inherit. What though of 's Gold th'ast got the Devil a bit, I 'm* sure th'art heir apparent to his Wit Which thou hast in that vigour, and high shine As when he wrote his Strenuous Caleline. Hence be't observ'd 'mongst our Chronologers,

Since Johnson inspir'd Baron Years.

You are so much each other (no dispraise) Robin and Ben. are now synonyma's Nor can time blast a Wit : thine 's ripe as His That Age, a Johnson crown'd, a Baron this.


 * Printed " I 'ne.'