[275] “Illi mors gravis incubat, Qui notus nimis omnibus, Ignotus moritur sibi.” --_Sen. Thyestes_, act ii. Chor.
[276] In the original misprinted _ceeepe_.
[278] [In the Chorus to the third scene, the word _foulter_ is used in the undoubted sense of falter--
“They fall and foulter like the mellow fruit.”
But see Nares, edit. 1859, _v. fouldring_.]
[280] _Curæ leves loquuntur, ingentes stupent._
“The grief that does not speak, Whispers the o’er-fraught heart and bids it break.” --_Macbeth_, act iv., sc. 3.
[282] “In omni adversitate fortunæ infelicissimum genus infortunii est fuisse felicem.”--Boet: _De Consol Philos._ L. II.
“Nessun maggior dolore, Che ricordarsi del tempo felice Nella miseria.” --_Inferno_, c. v.
“E perchè rimembrare il ben perduto Fa piu meschino lo stato presente.” --_Ricciardetto_, c. xi., st. 81.
[283] [The writer seems to have had in his memory the fourth eclogue of Virgil.]
_The First Part of Ieronimo. With the Warres of Portugall, and the Life and Death of Don Andræa. Printed at London, for Thomas Pauyer, and are to be solde at his shop, at the entrance into the Exchange. 1605. 4to. Black letter._
From Heywood’s[286] “Apology for Actors,” it appears that Thomas Kyd was the author of the “Spanish Tragedy, or Hieronimo is Mad again.” But whether he likewise wrote this “First Part of Jeronimo” does not appear.
This “First Part of Jeronimo” is so scarce that many have doubted whether it ever existed; and Mr Coxeter and the author of the “Playhouse Dictionary” were of opinion, that what is called the “Spanish Tragedy, or Hieronimo is Mad again,” was only the old play altered and new-named. Ben Jonson has a passage in the induction to “Cynthia’s Revels,” 1600, that seems to favour that opinion: “Another swears down all that sit about him, that the old Hieronimo, as it was first acted, was the only best and judiciously pen’d play of Europe.”
They were, however, two distinct plays, as appears from this copy of the first part, which is printed from one in the valuable collection of David Garrick, Esq.
From another passage in the induction to “Cynthia’s Revels,” acted in 1600, it may be conjectured, that “Jeronimo” first appeared on the stage about the year 1588.[287] “They say (says one of the children of the Queen’s Chapel) the ghosts of some three or four plays, _departed a dozen years since_, have been seen walking on your stage here.”