The Martyr’d Souldier, then, being his sole extant production, it must be confessed that Henry Shirley’s claim to attention is not a very pressing one.  Yet there is a certain dignity of language in this old play that should redeem it from utter oblivion.  It was unfortunate for Henry Shirley that one of the same name should have been writing at the same time; for in such cases the weakest must go to the wall.  Mr. Frederick Tennyson’s fame has been eclipsed by the Laureate’s; and there was little chance of a hearing for the author of the Martyr’d Souldier when James Shirley was at work.  From the address To the Courteous Reader, it would seem that Henry Shirley did not seek for popularity:  “his Muse,” we are told, was “seldome seene abroad.”  Evidently he was not a professional playwright.  In his attempts to gain the ear of the groundlings he is often coarse without being comic; and sometimes (a less pardonable fault) he is tedious.  But in the person of Hubert we have an attractive portrait of an impetuous soldier, buoyed up with self-confidence and hugging perils with a frolic gaiety; yet with springs of tenderness and pity ready to leap to light.  The writer exhibits some skill in showing how this fiery spirit is tamed by the gentle maiden, Bellina.  When the news comes that Hubert has been made commander of the King’s forces against the Christians, we feel no surprise to see that in the ecstacy of the moment he has forgotten his former vows.  It is quite a touch of nature to represent him hastening to acquaint Bellina with his newly-conferred honour and expecting her to share his exultation.  But the maiden’s entreaties quickly wake his slumbering conscience; and, indeed, such earnestness is in her words that a heart more stubborn than Hubert’s might well have been moved:—­

    “You courted me to love you; now I woe thee
    To love thy selfe, to love a thing within thee
    More curious than the frame of all this world,
    More lasting than this Engine o’re our heads
    Whose wheeles have mov’d so many thousand yeeres: 
    This thing is thy soule for which I woe thee!”

Henceforward his resolution is fixed:  he is no longer a soldier of fortune, “seeking the bubble reputation,” but the champion of the weak against the strong, the lively image of a Christian Hero warring steadfastly against the powers of evil.

Though the chief interest of the play is centred in Hubert the other characters, also, are fairly well drawn.  There is ample matter for cogitation in watching the peaceful end of Genzerick, who spends his dying moments in steeling his son’s heart against the Christians.  The consultation between the physicians, in Act 3, amusingly ridicules the pomposity of by-gone medical professors.  Eugenius, the good bishop, is a model of patience and piety; and all respect is due to the Saintly Victoria and her heroic husband.  The songs, too, are smoothly written.