Act 5 — THE CHANGELING.

205The Changeling: As it was Acted (with great Applause) at the Privat house in Drury-Lane, and Salisbury Court.

Written by Thomas Midleton and William Rowley Gent.

Never Printed before. London, Printed for Humphrey Moseley, and are to be sold at his shop at the sign of the Princes-Arms in St Pauls Church-yard, 1653. 4to. The edition just described was put forth with a new title-page in 1668,—The Changeling: As it was Acted (with great Applause) by the Servants of His Royal Highness the Duke of York, at the Theatre in Lincolns-Inn Fields, &c.

The Changeling has been reprinted in the 4th vol. of A Continuation of Dodsley’s Old Plays, 1816.

“The foundation of the Play,” says Langbaine, “may be found in Reynold[s]’s Gods Revenge against Murther. See the Story of Alsemero and Beatrice Joanna, Book I. Hist. 4.” Acc. of Engl. Dram. Poets, p. 371. To the story in Reynolds’s work the following Argument is prefixed: “Beatrice-Joana, to marry Alsemero, causeth De Flores to murther Alfonso Piracquo, who was a Suiter to her. Alsemero marries her,f and finding De Flores and her in adultery, kills them both. Thomaso Piracquo challengeth Alsemero for his Brothers death. Alsemero kills him treacherously in the field, and is beheaded for the same, and his body thrown into the Sea. At his Execution he confesseth that his Wife and De Flores murthered Alfonso Piracquo: their bodies are taken up out of their graves, then burnt, and their Ashes thrown into the Air.” The authors of The Changeling, as the reader will perceive, have deviated in some important points from the prose narrative of Reynolds; nor are they indebted to that source for the characters of Jasperino, Alibius, Lollio, Pedro, Antonio, Franciscus, and Isabella.

An edition (I believe, the earliest) of the First Book of The Triumphs of Gods Revenge against Murther, was printed in 1621: see Cat. Bibl. Bodlei.

A “Note of such playes as were acted at court in 1623 and 1624,” in Sir Henry Herbert’s Office-book, records: “Upon the Sonday after, beinge the 4 of January 1623, by the Queene 206of Bohemias company, The Changelinge, the prince only being there. Att Whitehall.” Malone’s Shakespeare (by Boswell), vol. iii. p. 227.

The part of Antonio, from which this once-popular drama has its name (Changeling—i. e. idiot, fool), appears to have been much relished by the audience: the last comic performer before the Civil Wars who obtained reputation in it was Robins: see Collier’s Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poetry, vol. ii. p. 107. Downes mentions that Betterton, when about twenty-two years of age, was highly applauded in the character of De Flores, and that Sheppy gave great satisfaction in that of Antonio: see Roscius Anglicanus, p. 26, ed. Waldron. Pepys has noted, under date of 23d Feb. 1660-1, “To the Playhouse, and there saw The Changeling, the first time it hath been acted these twenty years, and it takes exceedingly.” Diary, vol. i. p. 179, ed. 8vo.

207DRAMATIS PERSONÆ.

Vermandero, governor of the castle of Alicant.

Alonzo de Piracquo, Tomaso de Piracquo brothers.

Alsemero.

Jasperino, his friend.

Alibius, a doctor, who undertakes the cure of fools and madmen.

Lollio, his man.

Antonio, a pretended changeling.

Pedro, his friend.

Franciscus, a counterfeit madman.

De Flores, an attendant on Vermandero.

Madmen.

Servants.

Beatrice-Joanna, daughter to Vermandero.

Diaphanta, her waiting-woman.

Isabella, wife to Alibius.

Scene, Alicant.

209THE CHANGELING.