Cynthia's Revels.] The first edition of this "Comical Satire" was printed in quarto, 1601, with this motto,
Quod non dant proceres, dabit histrio—
Haud tamen invideas vati, quem pulpita pascunt;
which probably bore an allusion to some circumstance now unknown. When Jonson republished it, he chose a more intelligible passage: Nasutum volo, nolo polyposum; and transferred the last line of the former motto, to the title-page of his general works. The folio edition of this play, which appeared in 1616, differs considerably from the quarto, being increased by several new scenes, with which, to the utter discomfiture of the reader's patience, the author injudiciously swelled out the last two acts. Cynthia's Revels appears to have been not unfavourably received, since we are told that it was "frequently acted at the Blackfriars, by the children of queen Elizabeth's chapel." It was also among the earliest plays revived after the Restoration, and was often performed at the New Theatre in Drury Lane, "very satisfactorily," as Downes says, "to the town:" though now laid aside. Cynthia's Revels was first acted in 1600, and the folio gives the names of the boys (children, as they were called) who performed the principal parts: "Nat. Field, Sal. Pavy, Tho. Day, I. Underwood, Rob. Baxter, and Job. Frost." Of these some lived to be eminent in their profession; and one, who died young, and who was, indeed, an actor of very extraordinary promise, was honoured by the grateful poet with an epitaph, which has not often been surpassed.
