262
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. n. OCT. i, iot
angry voice asked who was there. ' A poor gentle-
woman,' answered the party, * that wish[esj long
life unto you.' ' And I soon death unto you,' said
he, 'for the horrible curse you have given me.' "
' Arcadia,' book iii.
Duchess. Who must despatch me ?
I account this world a tedious theatre, For I do play a part in 't against my will.
Bosola. Come, be of comfort ; I will save your life.
Duch. Indeed, I have not leisure to tend So small a business.
Bos. Now, by my life, I pity you.
Duch. Thou art a fool, then, To waste thy pity on a thing so wretched
As cannot pity itself
Enter Servant. What are you ?
Serv. One that wishes you long life.
Duch. I would thou wert hang'd for the horrible
curse Thou hast given me. IV. i. 100-14.
Of course, only the latter portion of this quotation resembles the reply of Pyrocles to his comforter ; but as the dialogue between the duchess and Bosola is from another part of the ' Arcadia/ I quoted at length.
" But she, as if he had spoken of a small matter when he mentioned her life, to which she had not leisure to attend, desired him, if he loved her, to show it in finding some way to save Antiphilus. For her, she found the world but a wearisome stage unto her, where she played a part against her will, and therefore besought him not to cast his love in so unfruitful a place as could not love itself," &c. ' Arcadia,' book ii.
The lady in this case is the queen Erona, who is bewailing the misfortunes of herself and her husband. In her sorrow, says Sid- ney, one could " perceive the shape of loveli- ness more perfectly in woe than in joyful- ness." These words, slightly altered, help to describe the duchess in her grief :
Bosola. You may discern the shape of loveliness More perfect in her tears than in her smiles.
IV. i. 8-9. Again :
Duchess. I am acquainted with sad misery As the tann'd galley-slave is with his oar ; Necessity makes me suffer constantly, And custom makes it easy. Who do I look like
now?
Cariola. Like to your picture in the gallery, A deal of life in show, but none in practice.
IV. ii. 34-9.
The last two lines are from a speech of Pyrocles, who says he was stunned when he beheld the glorious beauty of Philoclea for the first time ; he could not take his eyes from her, his sight
" was so fixed there that I imagine I stood like a well-wrought image, with some life in show, but none in practice." Book i.
An echo of the saying is to be found in ' The Devil's Law-Case,' which often repeats 'The Duchess of Malfi ' :
Jolenta. My being with child was merely in
supposition, Not practice. V. i. 21-2.
Philoclea asks Pamela :
" Do yoxi love your sorrow so well as to grudge me part of it? Or do you think I shall not love a sad Pamela so well as a joyful? Or be my ears unworthy, or my tongue suspected? What is it, my sister, that you should conceal from your sister yea, and servant, Philoclea?"' Arcadia,' book ii.
When using this passage of the 'Arcadia' Webster tacked on to it a reply imitated from Shakespeare :
Julia. Are you so far in love with sorrow You cannot part with part of it ? or think you I cannot love your grace when you are sad As well as merry ? or do you suspect I, that have been a secret to your heart These many winters, cannot be the same Unto your tongue ?
Cardinal. Satisfy thy longing,
The only way to make thee keep my counsel Is, not to tell thee. V. ii. 270-9.
Everybody remembers the reply of Hotspur to Lady Percy :
Constant you are, But yet a woman : and for secrecy, No lady closer ; for I well believe Thou wilt not utter what thou dost not know.
'1 Henry IV., 'II. iii. 113-16: A somewhat similar thing occurs again in- Webster's play. He refers to a saying varied from Sir Francis Bacon, and follows it up with a reply taken from Sidney's ' Astrophel and Stella.'
In 'The White Devil,' as Dyce pointed out, the lines Perfumes, the more they are chaf'd, the more they
render
Their pleasing scents ; and so affliction Expresseth virtue fully, &c.
(11. 60-2, Dyce, p. 6, col. 1), parallel Bacon's
" Certainly virtue is like precious odours, most fragrant when they are incensed or crushed ; for prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue." Essay of 'Adversity.'
That the allusion to the crushing of perfumes to make them smell sweeter is proverbial is recognized, Lyly in his 'Euphues' having the remark, "If you pound spices they smell the sweeter " (Arber, p. 41, 1. 23). But the particular application of the proverb in Webster, his mode of phrasing it, and the circumstance that lie has copied much from Bacon especially from the latter's 'Apophthegms' are sufficient testimony as to the origin of the saying in ' The White Devil.' The passage in ' The Duchess of Malfi ' is as follows :
Antonio. O, be of comfort ! Make patience a noble fortitude.
Man, like to cassia, is prov'd best, being bruis'd-
