226
NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. v. SEPT..
with a prefatory note from which we learn
that the name of " William Goughe " is
written on the back of the manuscript,
subsequently altered to " G. Chapman," and
this again to " Will. Shakespeare." Nothing
is known of any William Goughe, and it is
inconceivable that either Chapman or
Shakespeare can have had a hand in the
play. As the chief figure of the tragedy is
called simply "The Tyrant," it has been
suggested that it may be identifiable with a
play of that name entered in the Stationers'
Register by Moseley in 1660 as Massinger's.
W T hether this be so or not, ' The Second
Maiden's Tragedy ' has nothing in common
with any known work of Massinger's, nor is
there any evidence that Massinger was writ-
ing for the stage so early as 1611. Fleay
believed that it was written by the author,
not of ' The Atheist's Tragedy,' but of
- The Revenger's Tragedy.' There is no
doubt whatever in my mind that all three plays are the work of one hand, and that the hand of Cyril Tourneur.
On comparing the texts of ' The Atheist's Tragedy ' and ' The Revenger's Tragedy ' one of the first points I noted was that colloquial contractions of the smaller parts of speech and especially 't for " it " were unusually common in both plays. On examining ' The Second Maiden's Tragedy ' I found these contractions even more numerous. Used in association with the common words " do," " for," " in," "on," " upon," " is," " was," and " to," the contraction of "it" to 't ("do't," " for't," " in't," &c.) will be found about 20 times in ' The Atheist's Tragedy,' nearly 50 times in ' The Revenger's Tragedy,' and over 70 times in ' The Second Maiden's Tragedy.'* The plays do not differ greatly in length, and the lack of uniformity in the figures is doubtless to be accounted for by differences of date. Besides the above we find " confer't," " done't," " mak't," " sha't," " then't," " under't " in ' The Atheist's Tragedy'; " and't," " else't," " gi'en't," " keep't," " o'er't," " take't," " were't " in ' The Revenger's Tragedy ' ; and " bestow' t," " by't," " have't," " know't," " me't," " par- don't," " recover't," " restore't," " turn't" " unto't," " with't " in ' The Second Maiden's Tragedy.' This is not conclusive evidence of Tourneur's authorship, for there
- I have (perhaps unwisely) assumed that the
modern reprints of the plays in the Mermaid edition of Webster and Tourneur and Hazlitt's ' Dodsley ' (here used) accurately reproduce the early copies so far as this contraction is con- cerned.
are other dramatists of the period (Middled
for instance) who use this elision just
freely, but it is an important feature comm
to the three plays.
Though rime is much more abundant ' The Revenger's Tragedy ' than in * T Atheist's Tragedy,' both contain a lai number of rimed couplets. These are of t sententious, moralizing type found also Webster, and, later, in Ford. But t author of ' The Atheist's Tragedy ' and ' 1 Revenger's Tragedy ' is much niore addict to antithesis than either of these t 1 dramatists. Fully one-third of the coupl in each play are antithetical. Here are soi of those in ' The Atheist's Tragedy ' :
Let all men lose, so I increase my gain, I have no feeling of another's pain.
Act I. sc. i., Mermaid Edn., p. 249
And fear not that your profit shall be small ; Your interest shall exceed your principal.
I. ii. 254
But we may say of his brave blessed decease He died in war, and yet he died in peace.
III. i. 289
I've buried under these two marble stones Thy living hopes, and thy dead father's bom
III. i. 290
and, from ' The Revenger's Tragedy ' :
But there's a cold curse laid upon all maids Whilst others clip the sun, they clasp the shad
II. i. 369
If all feared drowning that spy waves ashore, Gold would grow rich, and all the merchants pc
II. i. 370
Age hot is like a monster to be seen ; My haii-s are white, and yet my sins are gre
II. iv. 383
As much as the dumb thing can, he shall feel What fails in poison, we'll supply in steel.
'III. iv. 393
Couplets are less abundant in ' The Seco Maiden's Tragedy ' than in ' The Atheis Tragedy ' and there is much less antithej But it appears now and then, e.g. :
I wish no better to bring me content, Lovers' best freedom is imprisonment.
Hazlitt, ' Dodsley/ x. 394
And yet confess too that you found me kind
To hear your words, though I withstood y<
mind. P. 410
So by imprisonment I sustain great loss, Heav'n opens to that man the world keeps clc
P. 426
The money ne'er will thrive, that's a sure st What's got from grace is ever spent in law.
P. 444
Tourneur does not repeat phrases to a noticeable extent, and though in his ea] satirical poem ' The Transformed Me1 morphosis ' there is a deal of outlandi
