years, should be
catalogued in our first library, should be accessible to the eye of the
prying scholar, and yet never even be noticed till now, affords a
disagreeable but convincing proof of the want of interest in our early
literature displayed even by those whose studies in this field would
seem to point them out for the work of rescuing these literary treasures
from a fate as bad as that which befell those plays which perished at
the hands of Warburton's "accursed menial." The present play has some
remarkable features in it. It is taken from contemporary history (the
only one as far as we know of that class in which Massinger was
engaged). It was written almost immediately after the events it
describes. These events took place in the country in which Englishmen
then took more interest than in any other country in Europe. There is a
tone of political passion in the play which, particularly in one place,
breaks out in an expression which the hearers must have applied to their
own country. There is no doubt that the audience wandered away in their
thoughts from Sir John Van Olden Barnavelt, the saviour of his country
from the Spanish yoke, as he professed himself in his defence on his
trial, and Spain's determined enemy, to Sir Walter Raleigh, whose head
had just fallen on the block, the victim of a perfidious foe and of a
mean, shuffling king. The following is the passage:--

Octavius, when he did affect the Empire,
And strove to tread upon the neck of Rome
And all her ancient freedoms, took that course
That now is practised on you; for the Catos,
And all free spirits slain or else proscribed,
That durst have stirred against him, he then seized
The Absolute rule of all. _You can apply this_. p. 292.

In a note Mr. Bullen informs us, that "You can apply this" is crossed
through. He does not state whether there is anything to show that this
was done by Sir George Buck, Master of the Revels, and consequently
Censor for the Stage. But this would appear to be the case, the more so
as the present play seems to have raised scruples in many places in the
mind of the dramatic Cerberus. It is hardly possible to imagine that the
spectators did not apply the "free spirits" to Raleigh, and the "Catos"
to those members who were shortly after to be imprisoned on account of a
memorable protest entered in the journals of the House, which Octavius,
who was trying to seize the absolute rule of all, tore