It resteth thus; whether she live or dye,
She is your Beades-man everlastinglie.
Finis--Rob. Yarington.
_Laus Deo_
INTRODUCTION TO THE CAPTIVES; OR, THE LOST RECOVERED.
In Sir Henry Herbert's MS. Office-Book, under date Sept. 3rd, 1624, is
the entry:--"for the Cock-pit Company[44] a new play called the Captive
[_sic_] or the Lost Recovered, written by Hayward," i.e., Heywood. The
lost recovered! Lost for two centuries and a half was this comedy of
dear Tom Heywood, until I recovered it from Egerton MS. 1994. I am proud
to have rendered this service to a gentle poet who has given me many
hours of delight.
The play is without title or author's name in the MS. After reading the
first page I judged that the author was Heywood, and this impression was
soon confirmed beyond all doubt. In the MS. the present play is
immediately followed by a piece called _Calisto_, which consists of
scenes from Heywood's _Golden Age_ and _Silver Age_. I have elsewhere
mentioned (Vol. ii. p. 419) that _Calisto_ and _The Captives_ are
written in the same desperately difficult handwriting,--peculiar to
these two plays, and not found in any other part of the volume.
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