Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/207

12 S. VIII. FEB. 26, 1921.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 165 ('Englische Stuclien,' xv. (1891), pp. 348-9) accepts Beaumont's authorship of 'The Triumph of Love,' but gives the Induction and ' The Triumph of Honour ' to Field. Prof. Gavley ('Francis Beaumont,' p. 303) further assigns to Field three scenes (i., ii. and vi.) of 'The Triumph of Love.' I go further still, claiming for Field the whole of both "Triumphs," as well as the Induction. If the two authors collaborated in the same piece, I should have little faith in the ability of any critic to distinguish them by the characteristics of their verse, and as I find in every scene of 'The Triumph of Love ' suggestions of Field's vocabulary and imagery, 1 see no reason for assuming that Beaumont had any share at all in the " Four Plays in One." Moreover there is, as will be seen, strong presumptive evidence that they belong to a considerably later date than is usually assigned to them, and it is more than probable that they were not written until after Beaumont's death. If a critic with a knowledge of Beaumont's characteristics as intimate as Prof. Gayley's cannot find Beaumont's hand in the Induc- tion or "The Triumph of Honour,' one may rest satisfied that there are substantial grounds for rejecting his authorship. But the reason given by Prof. Gayley (Op. cit., p. 302) for attributing them to Field can hardly be called satisfactory. After remark- ing that they are full of polysyllabic Latin- isms such as Field uses, he adds : " Beaumont never uses : ' to participate affairs,' ' torturous engine,' &c., and they are marked by simpler Fieldian expressions, ' wale,' ' gyv'd,' ' blown man,' ' miskill,' ' vane,' ' lubbers,' ' urned,' and a score of others not found in Beaumont '^undoubted writings. It is true that not one of these words or expressions is used by Beaumont. But the first two, though they occur in Field's 'A Woman is a Weathercock,' do not occur in either of the two "Triumphs," while the other words (with the sole exception of "vane," which is significant) occur in the "Triumphs" but not in any of Field's undoubted writings, and to call them "Fieldian expressions " is merely to beg the question. On the other hand "basilisk," noted by Prof. Gayley as one of the few words slightly suggestive of Beaumont, is equally characteristic of Field, who has it twice in ' A Woman is a Weathercock ' and once in 'Amends for Ladies.' What led me to the conclusion that * The Triumph of Honour ' and ' The Triumph of L"ve ' had been wrongly attributed to Beaumont was the discovery that they were written by the author of Acts III. and IV. of 'The Queen of Corinth,' in which Beau- mont's collaboration has never been alleged and is, indeed, all but impossible, since- Act III. contains an allusion to Goryat's- ' Greeting,' not published until 1616, the year of Beaumont's death. The two- "Triumphs " are so closely related to these two acts of ' The Queen of Corinth ' that I propose first to show that they are by the sa:iie hand, and afterwards to identify that hand as Field's. In sc. ii. of ' The Triumph of Honour/ Martius, the Roman general, makes ad- vances to Dorigen, the chaste wife of the Duke of Athens, and she reproaches him for his violation of "friendship, hospitality, and all the bonds of sacred piety " in ar* eloquent speech that contains these lines : When men shall read the records of thy valouiy- Thy hitherto-brave virtue, and approach (Highly content yet) to this foul assault Included in this leaf, this ominous leaf, They shall throw down the book, and read no- more Thoxigh the best deeds ensue. In Act IV. sc. ii. of ' The Queen of Corinth/ Euphanes, the Queen's favourite, says to- the Corinthian general Leonidas : . . . .when posterity Shall read your volumes filPd with virtuous acta,- And shall arrive at this black bloody leaf, . what follows this Deciphering any noble deed of yours Shall be quite lost, for men will read no more. There are only two possible explanations- of the resemblance between these passages ; either both were written by the same man- or one is a deliberate imitation of the, other. - Any doubt as to the correct inference to be drawn will soon be dispelled if the two "Triumphs " and the acts of 'The Queen of Corinth ' referred to are compared more closely. To 'begin with the Induction, the Queen of Portugal in her first speech thus addresses - the king : Majestic ocean, that with plenty feeds Me, thy poor tributary rivulet ; Curs'd be my birth-hour, and my ending day, When back your love-floods I forget to pay. In Act III. sc. ii. of ' The Queen of Corinth 5 Euphanes says to his mistress : I came to tender you the man you have made, And, like a thankful stream, to retribute All you, my ocean, have enrich'd me with. In * The Triumph of Honour ' note firsfr that the alliteration "arts and arms/' in sc. i. (third speech of Martius) : This Athens nurseth arts as well as arms.