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The Club-Men. In 1664 a ballad, Love in Languishment,' embodying the story of the drama, was published in Thomas Jordan's Royal Arbor of Loyal Poesie. In 1695 Elkanah Settle produced, at the Theatre Royal, a revised version of the play, with the last two Acts rewritten, and with a Prologue and Epilogue. The Prologue contains the following tribute :'Poets of their new plays so vainly fond, Mistake the Bristol for the Diamond, But when reviv'd Philaster does appear We come secure, bring sterling merit here, A staunch old Orient with true lustre dres't, Wit that has stood the hammer, bore the test.'

In 1714 there was printed in a collection of the works of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, The Restauration; or, Right will take Place: a Tragic-comedy, which is an adaptation of Philaster, with the names of the dramatis persona entirely changed. It is, however, doubtful whether the Duke is really responsible for the piece.

The most successful version of the play was that of George Colman, produced at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in 1763. His aim was 6 to remove the objections to the performance of this excellent play on the modern stage,' and he therefore left out several scenes, including Act 11. Scene 4. The Prologue is interesting as a sign of the growing reaction from the pseudoclassic to the romantic drama.

'While modern tragedy, by rule exact,

Spins out a thin-wrought fable, Act by Act,
We dare to bring you one of those bold plays
Wrote by rough English wits in former days,

Beaumont and Fletcher; those twin stars that run
Their glorious course round Shakespeare's golden sun,
Or when Philaster Hamlet's place supplied,

Or Bessus walk'd the stage by Falstaff's side.'

Colman's version was reprinted in 1764, 1780, and 1791.

Colman edited, in 1778, Beaumont and Fletcher's works in ten volumes, and succeeding editions have been those of Weber, 1812; Darley, 1840; and Dyce, 1843. Of these, that of Dyce is far the fullest and most valuable. Philaster has not been hitherto published separately, but Benno Leonhardt in Anglia (vol. xix.) has printed the chief textual variations in the early editions. The same writer, in Anglia (vol. viii.), wrote a suggestive but over-elaborated article on the relations of Philaster to Hamlet and Cymbeline. The play has been translated into German by A. Seubert.

PHILASTER

DRAMATIS PERSONE

KING

PHILASTER, Heir to the Crown of Sicily
PHARAMOND, Prince of Spain
DION, a Lord
CLEREMONT

THRASILINE

An old Captain
Citizens

A Country Fellow

Two Woodmen

Guard, Attendants.

ARETHUSA, Daughter to the King

EUPHRASIA, Daughter to Dion, disguised as a
Page under the name of BELLARIO
MEGRA, a Court Lady

GALATEA, a Lady attending the Princess
Two other Ladies

SCENE.-MESSINA and its neighbourhood.

PHILASTER

OR

LOVE LIES A-BLEEDING

ACT THE FIRST
SCENE I

The Presence Chamber in the Palace.

Enter Dion, Cleremont, and Thrasiline.

Cle. Here's nor lords nor ladies.

Dion. Credit me, gentlemen, I wonder at it. They received strict charge from the King to attend here: besides, it was boldly published, that no officer should forbid any gentleman that desired to attend and hear.

Cle. Can you guess the cause?

Dion. Sir, it is plain, about the Spanish Prince, that's come to marry our kingdom's heir and be our sovereign.

ΙΟ

Thra. Many, that will seem to know much, say she looks not on him like a maid in love.

Dion. Faith, sir, the multitude, that seldom know anything but their own opinions, speak that they would

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