382
NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. ix. MAY w, 191*
III. ii. 1 :
Lear. Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks 1
rage, blow !
A couple of syllables has certainly fallen out of this line. For " rage ! blow ! " Capell conjectured " blow ; rage and blow ! " Or we might read : Blow [blow, you] winds, and crack your cheeks ;
rage ! blow 1
As the line contains only monosyllables, it is longer than usual ; and, beyond question, the Folio printers solved the difficulty of restricted space as in many other in- stances by leaving out some words or syllables.
III. vii. 54-60 :
Reg. Wherefore to Dover, sir ?
Glou. Because I would not see thy cruel nails Pluck out his poor old eyes, nor thy fierce sister In his anointed flesh stick bearish fangs. The sea, with such a storm as his bare head In hell-black night endured, would have buoy'd
up, And quench'd the stelled fires.
This should certainly be printed :
Reg. Wherefore to Dover ?
Glou Because I would not see
Thy cruel nails pluck out his poor old eyes, Nor thy fierce sister in his anointed flesh Stick bearish fangs. The sea, with such a storm As his bare head in hell-black night endured, Would have buoy'd up and quench'd the stelled fires.
The " sir " of the Quartos is omitted, I think rightly, in the Folio. For " sticke " the Quartos read " rash," which ought, perhaps, to be preserved. Onions, ' Sh. Gloss.,' says " rash " is mainly a Scottish word, and this is correct as far as it goes ; but in Elizabethan times it was the old hunt- ing term for the oblique stroke made by che wild boar with his fangs, as Steevens pointed out. Spenser, ' F.Q.,' III. v. 8, uses it of the lion :
And through the thickest like a Lyon flew, Rashing off helmes.
Cf. ' Rd. III.,' III. v. 11 :
He dreamt the Bore had rased off his Helme. And so also Holinshed in the corresponding passage. See also Percy, ' Reliques ' (' Sir Lancelot du Lake,' st. xxviii.) :
They buckled them together so, Like unto wild boares rashing.
We may be allowed to suspect that Shake- speare wrote " Rash," and that it was altered to " Sticke " in a prompt book or by an ignorant Folio printer.
HENRY CUNINGHAM.
WEBSTER'S SHARE IN
' A CURE FOR A CUCKOLD.'
[This note was in our hands at the same time as BARON BOURGEOIS'S article on 'Webster and the
N.E.D.'" (see ante, pp. 302, 324, 343). Some coincidences in the work of these two independent scholars will be observed with interest. Two other articles on Webster by BARON BOURGEOIS will be printed shortly.]
THE object of this paper is to set at rest any further doubts as to Webster's authorship of the greater portion of the play entitled
- A Cure for a Cuckold.' Although, on its
first publication by Kirkman in 1661, it was attributed to Webster and Rowley, it is impossible to place reliance upon this attribu- tion alone, inasmuch as Kirkman also as- signed ' The Thracian Wonder ' to the same authors, the attribution in the latter case being undoubtedly erroneous.
' A Cure for a Cuckold ' is on an entirely different footing from 'The Thracian Won- der.' Most critics are inclined to admit that it bears traces of Webster's hand. Dyce r Hazlitt, Symonds, Sir Sidney Lee, and Prof. Sampson all, however, suggest that the matter is open to considerable doubt ; so also- does Prof. Thorndike, whose selection from the plays of Webster and Tourneur has but recently appeared. Only three writers of iknowledged authority (Mr. Edmund Gosse> r. E. E. Stoll, and Prof. C. E. Vaughan) pronounce unhesitatingly in favour of Web- ster's part authorship, and of these Dr. Stolt alone supports his opinion with evidence based upon a detailed examination of the play. As this evidence is insufficient to- convince Prof. Thorndike, it is evident that Webster's authorship has not yet been fully demonstrated. I hope to show conclusively that 'A Cure for a Cuckold ' is substantially Webster's play, and that it presents marks of his hand far more numerous and distinctive than has hitherto been supposed. I hope further to determine with greater precision than has yet been attempted the share of each partner in its composition. Those who- have definitely pronounced their belief in the accuracy of Kirkman' s attribution have assumed that Webster was responsible only for the main plot, the love story of Lessing- ham and Clare, and that the comic under- plot, from which the play takes its title, is entirely Rowley's. On this assumption that " the Webster portion of the joint produc- tion forms a complete and independent work,' r Mr. Gosse has countenanced the publication of the comedy apart from the farcical sub- plot, under the title of ' Love's Graduate/
