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The London Merchant; Or, the History of George Barnwell, and Fatal T^testtdeb to rftlje ^niiJersit^ of 'Qloroitta The Estate of the late Professor A.S.P. '.Toodhouse > 'Bj €6e ^AWMmu^ J>erie^ SECTION III THE ENGLISH DRAMA FROM ITS BEGINNING TO THE PRESENT DAY GENERAL EDITOR GEORGE PIERCE BAKER rSOFBSSOK OF DRAMATIC IJTKRATO»« IN HAKVAKD UHIVKSSITV From Perin in Cornwall; OF A mod Bloody and vn-exampled Murthcr »ery latcJ; coniii)itted by a Father on his owne SoniK (»*# WitUtilf rttariui frim thi l»ijti) it ihe InAiguion of a mcccilefle Stcp-aothcr* Tt^etitr wilt titirftiUTtltmtJI viritetedemits. Mug all pcrfoimcdin tiic Month of Scptem- LONDON Ptiotcdb7£.4f.tadatc(aticfoldcaiCi>itCiwiigKCaIfl8» HE LONDON MERCHANT OR THE HISTORY OF GEORGE BARNWELL AND FATAL CURIOSITY By GEORGE LILLO EDITED BY ADOLPHUS WILLIAM WARiJ, Litt.D., F.B.A. MASTER OF PETERHOUSE COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND BOSTON, U.S.A., AND LONDON D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS COPYRIGHT, 1906, BY D. C. HEATH ft Ott ALL SIGHTS RESERVED 2 EO ppin , l3fograpi^r Very little is known concerning the personal life of George Lillo, the author of the two plays which are re- (irinted in this volume, and each of which may be said to have a place of its own in the history of the modem drama. His name is Flemish, and he was very probably a descendant of refugees whom religious persecution had driven to this country. ' Lillo ' was the name of the fort that stood above Antwerp on the northern bank of the Scheldt." On the occasion of the marriage, in 1734, of the Prin- cess Royal of Great Britain (Anne, daughter of King George II) to the Prince of Orange (William IV), Lillo produced a masque entitled Britannia and Bata'via. In this quite unpretending and uninteresting production, its two eponymous personages are introduced as the joint defenders of freedom against Spain and Rome, and it is proclaimed as Britannia's duty to requite Batavia, by means of the match now concluded, for the services of her champion Liberto (William III).^ Other passages in Lillo' s writings indicate his probably inherited hatred of 1 I am reminded of tbis circumstance by Mr. G. Edmundson, one of oor foremost living authorities on the history and literature of the Netherlands. ^ He adds : Motley speaks of the beautiful country house and farm of Lillo. The name was probably that of the owner, and it is quite possible that a family of that name may have been among the refugees who came to hngland, after the capture of Antwerp by Parma." X Batavia^s guardian.angel, Eliphas, observes ; * From proud Hispania's proud and cruel power I've brought her here ; And the Prince of Orange is saluted as * The princely youth In whom Libcrto's name Must live or be extinguished.* ; vi ilBtograpljp persecution and his ill-will towards the Spanish monarchy and it should be remembered that during the period of his literary activity Spain gradually became once more to Englishmen the most unpopular of foreign powers, ' and that in 1 740, when the masque was printed, she was once more at war with England. LjUp'^ biblical knowledge, as wpII as hj.; evidently RtrOPg ''''iS'"'"' '""''"mfTIt, !^•' pSfti333y-.flfrmmted for by the express statement that he apolitical opinions were no doubt in geiicfiil ugl'Kement with those which at that time pre- vailed among English Protestant nonconformists. 3 Lillo is stated to have been brought up a&-a jeweller^ and during a considerable part of his life appears Whave carried on this trade in the City of London, where the diamond business is to this day largely in the hands of Dutch merchants. With the City his writings — and not TAt London Mtrchant only — show him to have been familiar. 4 Whether or not his success as a playwright, which was established with great rapidity on the produc- tion of The London Merchant in.-t73i^^terfered with the steady progress of his business Im.-, fCmalns uncertain. In his later years, he appears to have resided at Rotherhithe. He died on September 3,,J4!42j_and was buried in the vault of Shoreditch Church. If any reliance is to be t See the bitter reference to religious persecution in Tha Londtn hftr- thant^ 11. 65-7;, p. 89, and the tirade against Spain in Fatal Curhiitj^ Act 1^ Sc. I (p. 149). z Several apt biblical illustrations will be noted in Thi Londfn Mtr- thant. LiUo's deep religious sentiment is welt brought out in his ptay Thi Chriitian Hire; see Scanderbeg's prayer, vol. I, p. 149, ed. 1775, and cf. the close of his speech in the opening scene, idim^ p. 288. { See the passage against the theory of Right Divine in Tht Chritttan Htrt^ Act V, ad fin. ^ idtm^ p. 30I. 4 It is curious that in a purely conceived and finely written passage of The Christian Hert^ idem., p. 269, Lillo should have introduced a graphic reminiscence of the darkest aspect of the London streets. See also the reference in The London Aicrc^nr, 11. 35-47,p. 88, to the blackmail levied by corrupt London (non-City) magistrates. — ' 515iograpliv vii placed on a couplet in Hammond's Prologue to Lillo's Elmerick, posthumously printed in 1 740 — * Deprest by want, afflicted by disease. Dying be wrote, and dying wish'd to please ' he must have fallen into or have been overtaken by pecu- niary difficulties at some time previous to his death. But the passage may be nothing but a fictitious appeal ad miser'uordiam — especially if the statement of the £10- graphia Dramatica be authentic, that he ' died possessed of an estate of ^40 per annum, besides other effects of a considerable value. ' The same authority describes him < as in person lusty, but not tall ; and of a pleasing as- pect, though unhappily deprived of the sight of one eye. Davies, who must have known him personally, speaks of his gentle manners ; and in the Linjes of the Poets, pur- porting to be by Theophilus Cibber, he is stated to have been ' a man of strict morals , great good-nature and sound sense, with an uncommon share of modesty.' But his personal worth is best attested by thTulbute to him inserted by Fielding in The Champion (February 26, 1739/40). Briefly noticing the production of Lillo's tragedy of Elmerick, Fielding says that ' such a Regard to Nature shines through the whole, that it is evident the Author writ less from his Head than from an Heart capable of exquisitely Feeling and Painting human Distresses, '~~'' " ' "~^ but 'ofof causmg noas,.' 'JL'o a rathef "RyperbolicaT meii3ation of Lillo's Fatal Curiosity, cited below, he then adds that the author ' had the gentlest and honestest Manners, and, at the same Time, the most friendly and obliging. He had a perfect Knowledge of Human Na- ture, though his Contempt of all base Means of Applica- tion, which are the necessary Steps to great Acquaintance, restrained his Conversation within very narrow Bounds. He harl thp gpirit nf an nlHQKoCTag,"^ined to the Inno- ' 115iograp!)p cence of a^spri mitive Christian i^ he was content with hi; little Slate 6t iTiJe, in which his excellent Temper of Mind gave him an Happiness beyond the Power of Riches ; and it was necessary for his Friends to have a sharp Insight into his Want of their Services, as well as good Inclina- tions or Abilities to serve him. In short, he was one of the best of Men, and those who knew him best will most regret his Loss.' A finer tribute has rarely been paid by one high-minded writer to another ; and it came in this instance with particular force and grace from one who was to hold the mirror up to human nature at large, as well as to magistrates in particular.' The following is a list of Lillo' s plays in the order of their production, with brief notes as to those not included in the present volume. It is due to Lillo that his compe- tence — to say the least — as a writer of the species of tragedy accepted by his age should not be altogether overlooked. Syl-via, or The Country Burial, first acted at Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1731, was printed in the same year. This < opera ' is of homespun, and in truth of quite coarse, ma- terial, virtue and vice being rather tumbled up together ; while the unbearably gross scene of the ' country burial and the resuscitation of the drunken wife has no connexion with the plot. There is nothing characteristic of Lillo in this piece except -^j^^i^ >»n^..r,,.y t Q-»i-TriTOtinurnB69r^ Tie London Merchant, or The History of George Barn- ivell, was first acted at Drury Lane June zz, 1731, and printed in the same year. __-__ __„^ ^? christian tiero^ regular »jgge3yin blank vers^ wasfirst acte3~ai DruryXane in 1 7^, and prlnidd Iti tlie I As to Ficlding'8 subsequent tribute, in Jastfh Andrtvti, to thi Lon- don Mtrchanl, see below, p. xxvii. ; llBiograplj? ix same year, with a Life of Scanderbeg (the hero of the play), which may, or may not, be Lillo's. This tragedy seems to have given offence to the friends of Whincop, the author of the tragedy of Scanderbeg (published after his death in the 1747), as an ungenerous plagiarism of his theme ; and ill-will shows itself in the List of Dramatic Authors printed with Whincop's piece, where Lillo is described as 'by profession a Jeweller, but having a strong Inclination for Poetry, which oftentimes is mistaken for Genius.' Lillo's own play, though untouched by poetic fire, and at the height of its action hardly equal to an exposition of the conflict in the hero between love and duty, is something more than wholesome and pure.
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