The introduction of such buffooneries into tragedy[c] is
censured by Hall towards the conclusion of a passage which,
as it mentions "the Turkish Tamberlaine," would seem to be
partly levelled at Marlowe:[d]

"One higher-pitch'd doth set his soaring thought
On crowned kings that Fortune hath low brought,
Or some vpreared high-aspiring swaine,
As it might be THE TURKISH TAMBERLAINE.
Then weeneth he his base drink-drowned spright
Rapt to the three-fold loft of heauen hight,
When he conceiues vpon his fained stage
The stalking steps of his greate personage,
Graced with huf-cap termes and thundring threats,
That his poore hearers' hayre quite vpright sets.

* * * * * * * * *

NOW, LEAST SUCH FRIGHTFULL SHOWES OF FORTUNE'S FALL
AND BLOUDY TYRANTS' RAGE SHOULD CHANCE APALL
THE DEAD-STROKE AUDIENCE, MIDST THE SILENT ROUT
COMES LEAPING IN A SELFE-MISFORMED LOUT,
AND LAUGHES, AND GRINS, AND FRAMES HIS MIMIK FACE,
AND IUSTLES STRAIGHT INTO THE PRINCE'S PLACE:
THEN DOTH THE THEATRE ECCHO ALL ALOUD
WITH GLADSOME NOYSE OF THAT APPLAUDING CROWD:
A GOODLY HOCH-POCH, WHEN VILE RUSSETTINGS
ARE MATCH['D] WITH MONARCHS AND WITH MIGHTIE KINGS!"[e]

But Hall's taste was more refined and classical than that
of his age; and the success of TAMBURLAINE, in which the
celebrated Alleyn represented the hero,[f] was adequate to
the most sanguine expectations which its author could have
formed.]

[a] "A ballad entituled the storye of Tamburlayne the
greate," &c. (founded, I suppose, on Marlowe's play)
was entered in the Stationers' Books, 5th Nov. 1594.

[b] P. 4 of the present volume.

[c] In Italy, at the commencement of the 18th century
(and probably much later), it was not unusual to
introduce "the Doctor," "Harlequin," "Pantalone," and
"Coviello," into deep tragedies. "I have seen," says
Addison, "a translation of THE CID acted at Bolonia,
which would never have taken, had they not found a
place in it for these buffoons." REMARKS ON SEVERAL
PARTS OF ITALY, &C. IN THE YEARS 1701, 1702, 1703,
p. 68, ed. 1745.

[d] Perhaps I ought to add, that Marlowe was dead when
(in 1597) the satire, from which these li