Giambattista Porta's L'Astrologo (1606). No importance is to be attached to the suggestion of H. I. in 3 N. Q. ix. 178, 259, 302, that Shakespeare was the author and wrote manuscript notes in a copy possessed by H. I. Dryden regards the play as the model of Jonson's Alchemist (1610):
Subtle was got by our Albumazar, That Alchymist by our Astrologer.
Unless Dryden was mistaken, the performance in 1615 was only a revival, but the payment for 'penning' makes this improbable.
Doubtful Later Play G. C. Moore Smith (M. L. R. iii. 149) supports the attribution by Winstanley to Tomkis of Pathomachia or the Battle of Affections (1630), also called in a running title and in Bodl. MS. Eng. Misc. e. 5 Love's Load-stone, a University play of c. 1616, in which there are two references to 'Madame Lingua'. CYRIL TOURNEUR (?-1626). Tourneur, or Turnor, first appears as the author of a satire, The Transformed Metamorphosis (1600), but his history and relationships to the Cecils and to Sir Francis Vere suggest that he was connected with a Richard Turnor who served in the Low Countries as water-*bailiff and afterwards Lieutenant of Brill during 1585-96. His career as a dramatist was over by 1613, and from December of that year to his death on 28 Feb. 1626 he seems himself to have been employed on foreign service, mainly in the Low Countries but finally at Cadiz, where he was secretary to the council of war under Sir Edward Cecil in 1625. He died in Ireland and left a widow Mary.
Collections 1878. J. C. Collins, The Plays and Poems of C. T. 2 vols. 1888. J. A. Symonds, Webster and Tourneur (Mermaid Series). Dissertations: G. Goodwin in Academy (9 May 1891); T. Seccombe in D. N. B. (1899).
The Atheist's Tragedy. 1607 < > 11
S. R. 1611, Sept. 14 (Buck). 'A booke called, The tragedy of the Atheist.' John Stepneth (Arber, iii. 467). 1611. The Atheist's Tragedie: Or The honest Man's Reuenge, As in diuers places it hath often beene Acted. Written by Cyril Tourneur. For John Stepneth and Richard Redmer.
1612. For John Stepneth and Richard Redmer. [Another issue.]
Fleay, ii. 263, attempts to date the play before the close of the siege of Ostend in 1604, but, as E. E. Stoll, John Webster, 210, points out, this merely dates the historic action and proves nothing as to composition. Stoll himself finds some plausible reminiscences of King Lear (1606) and suggests a date near that of publication.
