304
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. H. OCT. is, IQM.
Contarino. I am ever bound to you
For many special favours.
Leonora. Sir, your fame renders you Most worthy of it.
Cont. It could never have got A sweeter air to fly in than your breath.
' The Devil's Law-Case,' I. i. 142-7. The last line, except for one word, is to be found in 'A Monumental Column ': Never found prayers, since they convers'd with
death, A sweeter air to fly in than his breath.
J_jl. L,^lj --
The sentiment and its phrasing are taken from the 'Arcadia,' book ii., where Dorus addresses Pamela in most courtly style :
" But most sure it is that, as his fame could by no means get so sweet and noble air to fly in as in your breath, so," &c.
The passage, as shown by Dyce, is imitated by Massinger; but that is not strange, for Massinger knew his ' Arcadia' almost by heart.
The following is a sentence which reads like a proverb, but it is only a quotation from Sidney :
Angiolella. If you will believe truth, There 's naught more terrible to a guilty heart Than the eye of a respected friend.
'The Devil's Law-Case,' V. I. 8-10.
Note Webster's " If you will believe truth " the words imply a reference to a proverb generally known. But I will quote :
Pyrodes [to Musidorus]. But my wishes grew into unquiet longings, and knowing that to a heart resolute counsel is tedious, and reprehension loath- some, and that there is nothing more terrible to a guilty heart than the eye of a respected friend, &c. Book i.
Again, note the "has still been held" in the following :
Leonora. For man's experience has still been held Woman's best eyesight. .
' The Devil's Law-Case,' 1. 1. 200, 201.
Compare :
Cecropia [to Philoclea]. For, believe me, niece, believe me, man's experience is woman's best eye- sight. Book iii.
In the same part of the 'Arcadia' Dorus is said to have "wandered half mad for sorrow in the woods, cry- ing for pardon of her who could not hear him, but indeed was grieved for his absence, having given the .wound to him through her own heart." The phrase pleased Webster, hence these speeches :
Leonora. You have given him the wound you
speak of Ouite thorough your mother's heart.
ThS Devil's Law-Case,' III. iii. 249, 250.
Clare. O, you have struck him dead thorough heart ! ' A Cure for a Cuckold,' IV. ii. 33.
But the parallels with the 'Arcadia' n 'The Devil's Law-Case' are few and far be
}ween, and utterly different from those which
can be cited from ' The Duchess of Malfi ' and
A Monumental Column.' . Very rarely do we Eind Webster in the former play imitating the
- Arcadia '; he merely quotes from it, or makes
use of passages that he had noted down when reading the book. But the imitation of Sidney in the other two pieces is constant, and bits of the 'Arcadia' come together "huddle on huddle." The inference to be drawn seems obvious, especially when viewed in relation to the external evidence which is to hand concerning the dates of the plays and poem and their internal relation to each other.
The Duchess of Malfi' and 'A Monumental Column ' were produced about the same time, and followed, after a somewhat lengthy interval, by ' The Devil's Law-Case.'
A case of "huddle on huddle" occurs in the first speech of Bosola in 'The Duchess of Malfi,' IV. i. 3-9. This speech is made up of three passages of the ' Arcadia,' two of which I quoted in my first paper. The following completes and accounts for the remainder of the speech : Bosola. She 's sad as one long us'd to 't, and she
seems
Rather to welcome the end of misery Than shun it.
In Sidney thus :
" But Erona, sad indeed, yet like one rather used than new fallen to sadness, as who had the joys of her heart already broken, seemed rather to welcome than to shun that end of misery," &c. Book ii.
Sidney contrasts the bearing of Erona and her unworthy husband in affliction :
" For Antiphilus, that had no greatness but out- ward, that taken away, was ready to fall faster than calamity could thrust him, with fruitless begging of life," &c. Book ii.
When Bosola is about to stab the Cardinal the latter cries, " O, mercy ! " Bosola replies : Now it seems thy greatness was only outward ; For thou fall'st faster of thyself than calamity Can drive thee.
' The Duchess of Malfi,' V. v. 55-8. At the beginning of the same scene, where Bosola enters bearing Antonio's body, the Cardinal greets him by saying : Thou look'st ghastly :
There sits in thy face some great determination Mix'd with some fear. LI. 8-10.
Webster's mind was so full of the ' Arcadia ' that he could nob help reproducing its phrases :
" Euarchus passed through them like a man that did neither disdain a people, nor yet was anything tickled with their flatteries, but, always holding his own, a man might read a constant determina- tion in his eyes." Book v.
CHAS. CRAWFORD. (To be continued.)
