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The Fatal Jealousie (1673) By: Henry Neville Payne (fl. 1672-1710) |
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Henry Nevil Payne, The Fatal Jealousie (1673)
With an Introduction by
Willard Thorp
The Augustan Reprint Society
November, 1948
Price One Dollar
GENERAL EDITORS RICHARD C. BOYS, University of Michigan
EDWARD NILES HOOKER, University of California, Los Angeles
H.T. SWEDENBERG, JR., University of California, Los Angeles
ASSISTANT EDITOR W. EARL BRITTON, University of Michigan
ADVISORY EDITORS EMMETT L. AVERY, State College of Washington
BENJAMIN BOYCE, University of Nebraska
LOUIS I. BREDVOLD, University of Michigan
CLEANTH BROOKS, Yale University
JAMES L. CLIFFORD, Columbia University
ARTHUR FRIEDMAN, University of Chicago
SAMUEL H. MONK, University of Minnesota
ERNEST MOSSNER, University of Texas
JAMES SUTHERLAND, Queen Mary College, London
Lithoprinted from copy supplied by author
by
Edwards Brothers, Inc.
Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.A.
1949
INTRODUCTION
None of Henry Nevil Payne's plays, The Fatal Jealousie (1673), The
Morning Ramble (1673), The Siege of Constantinople (1675), bears his
name on the title page. Plenty of external evidence exists, however, to
prove his claim to them. John Downes, in Roscius Anglicanus (1708),
has this to say: " Loves Jealousy [i.e. The Fatal Jealousy ], and The
Morning Ramble . Written by Mr. Nevil Pain . Both were very well
Acted , but after their first run, were laid aside, to make Room for
others; the Company having then plenty of new Poets" (ed. Montague
Summers, London, n.d., pp. 33 34). "After the Tempest, came the Siege of
Constantinople , Wrote by Mr. Nevill Pain " ( ibid. , p. 35).
Langbaine's An Account of the English Dramatick Poets (1691) gives no
author for The Siege of Constantinople , but says of The Fatal
Jealousy that it is "ascribed by some to Mr. Pane" (p. 531) and of The
Morning Ramble that this "Play is said to be written by One Mr. Pane ,
and may be accounted a good Comedy" (p. 541). We do not have to depend on the early historians of the English drama
for certain knowledge that Payne was for a time a dramatist. Though his
brief excursion into the theater must later have seemed to him a minor
episode in his life, Payne's enemies were aware of the fact that he was
a playwright and have written their knowledge into the record of his
treasonable activities. For example, the author of a burlesque life of
Payne, which contains, so far as I know, the only connected account of
his activities, makes this useful remark: "Then [after his return from
Ireland in 1672] he composes a Tragedy of a certain Emperour of
Constantinople, whom he never knew; but in whose person he vilifies a
certain Prince [Charles II], whom he very well knows" ( Modesty
Triumphing over Impudence ... 1680, pp. 18 19). As an agent of the Catholic party, Payne had excellent reasons for
wishing to keep his affairs well veiled. What we know of his life has
had to be pieced together from information found in state papers, court
records, and "histories" of the branches of the damnable Popish plots.
The date of his birth is not known, nor of his death, unless Summers was
correct in giving it (without supporting evidence) as 1710 ( The Works
of Aphra Behn , 1915, V, 519). [Footnote: For this biographical sketch of Payne I have drawn
on my "Henry Nevil Payne, Dramatist and Jacobite Conspirator,"
published in The Parrott Presentation Volume , Princeton, 1935,
pp. 347 381.] Payne's first opportunity to serve the Catholic party came, apparently,
in 1670, when he went to Ireland in the employ of Sir Elisha Leighton,
who was private secretary to the new lord lieutenant, Lord Berkeley. By
April 1672 Berkeley's pro Catholic rule had so alienated the city
council of Dublin that he was ordered to return to England and the Earl
of Essex was sent out in his place... Continue reading book >>
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