The Fatal Jealousie (1673)

Fatal Jealousie (1673), The

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Title: The Fatal Jealousie (1673)
Author: Henry Nevil Payne
Commentator: Willard Thorp
Release Date: October 21, 2005 [EBook #16916]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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Series Five: Drama No. 2
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. From Essex we learn that Payne was
deeply involved in the machinations of Berkeley and that he continued

to stir up trouble in Ireland even after his return to England.
Back in England, possibly by mid-May, 1672, Payne must have
plunged at once into work for the theater. The Fatal Jealousy was
performed at the Duke's Theatre in Dorset Garden in August 1672