Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/273

. ii. SEPT. 17, 1904.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

221

LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1901..

CONTENTS. No. 38.

NOTES: John Webster and Sir Philip Sidney, 221 Burton's 'Anatomy of Melancholy,' L'23- " Saunter" "Agime ziphree" Dr. Bdraond Halley, 224" Klectron" Roger Mortimer's Escape" Mocassin," 225 Napoleon on England's Precedence English Extraordinary, 226.

QUERIES : Peel, a Mark Peg Woffington Portraits Marble Arch Longfellow Manor Court of Bdwinstowe, Notts -'Typographia Antiquae Koroa;,' 226 ' The Oxford Sausage ' ' Glen Moubray ' " Kavison " : " Scrivelloes " "Conscience money" Greenwich Fair Hectors of Buckland, Herts, 227 Pembroke Earldom Edward Colston, Jun. Hermit's Crucifix Tom Moody Mineral Wells, Streatham Bales Thomas Blacklock ' Lyrical Ballads,' 1793- Naval Action of 1779-Mazzard Fair, 228.

REPLIES : Mummies for ColourH, 229 -Bathing-Machines Gipsies : " Chigunnji," 230 Bel Folk-lore Humorous Stories I. H.S. Coutances, Winchester, and the Channel Islands, 231 Messrs. Coutts's Removal The Poet Close Dog-namea, 232 Vanishing London Closets in Edin- burgh Buildings Fettiplace Electric Telegraph Anti- cipated, 234 Sex before Birth Nine Maidens Cowper Woffington, 235 "A shoulder of mutton "Fair Maid of Kent, 236 First-Floor Refectories Antiquary v. Anti- quarianOwen Brigstocke, 237 Lady Elizabeth Germain Manzoni's 'Betrothed,' 238.

NOTES ON BOOKS : Dorman's 'British Empire in the Nineteenth Century ' White's ' Dukery Records ' - Johnston's 'Scottish Heraldry Made Easy ' Mylne's Cathedral Church of Bayeux Marvell's Poems Cow- ley's Essays Gaskoin's 'Alcuin' Swinburne's Poems 'Tom Brown's Schooldays' 'Hamlet' Holiday Guides.

Notices to Correspondents.

JOHN WEBSTER AND SIR PHILIP SIDNEY.

So little is known of the life of John Webster that Dyce, in his account of the dramatist's writings, complained that he could do little more than enumerate his different productions, several of which have been lost. Although I cannot add to the meagre par- ticulars that are known concerning the man and his daily life, I shall make it clear that it is possible by patient investigation to learn something of the writer and the authors he studied.

In these papers I purpose confining myself as much as possible to three of Webster's productions namely, * The Duchess of Malfi,' 'The Devil's Law-Case,' and the poem he wrote on the death of Henry, Prince of Wales, which is entitled 'A Monumental Column.' I shall show, what has not been noticed before, that Webster was a devoted admirer of the work of Sir Philip Sidney, and that many of his choice sayings and some of the most moving incidents in 'The Duchess of Malfi ' are taken from or based upon passages to be found in the ' Arcadia.' What Webster thought of Sir Philip Sidney as a scholar and a soldier can be seen from the allusions he makes to him in his 'Monuments of

Honour.' He styles him "the glory of our clime," and selects him from amongst all contemporary writers and heroes as the most fitting to be the celebrator of honour and preserver of the names of men and memories of cities to posterity. He had reason to be grateful to Sir Philip Sidney, as I shall show.

Doubt rests upon the date of 'The Duchess of Malfi,' which Malone, on insufficient grounds, assigned to the year 1612 or there- abouts. Yet it seems probable from the evidence obtained from a comparison of the tragedy with ' A Monumental Column,' written early in 1613, and a further com- parison of both pieces with the ' Arcadia,' that Malone's date must be very near the mark. The language and style of 'The Duchess of Malfi' and 'A Monumental Column ' are identical ; and throughout both the influence of the 'Arcadia' is persistent, and so palpable that it astonishes me that no previous writer has ever noticed it. * The Duchess of Malfi' was certainly performed before March, 1618/9, when Burbage, who originally played Ferdinand, died. As I cannot find any of Webster's other produc- tions repeating the phrasing and style of 'The Duchess of Malfi' so closely as *A Monumental Column,' I conclude that both pieces were composed much about the same time. Dyce thought the play was first pro- duced in 1616.

But, after all, the question of dates is not of primary importance, and I should not allude to it if it were not for the circumstance that it seems to me to be involved in the evidence which I have before me. 'The Devil's Law-Case' copies the 'Arcadia,' and quite as openly as ' The Duchess of Malfi ' and ' A Monumental Column ' do, but the repetitions of Sidney in that play are dis- tinctly of another order ; for, whereas the tragedy and the poem prove that Webster must have written them whilst his mind was full of the 'Arcadia,' the coincidences with the latter in ' The Devil's Law-Case ' have all the appearance of being notes used after a lapse of time, and when Webster's mind was not so familiar with the contexts in Sidney's work. In 'The Devil's La w- Case ' Webster does not imitate Sir Philip Sidney's style, he merely borrows from him ; in the other two pieces the influence of the * Arcadia ' is felt in almost every scene and page. My object, then, is to show that Webster was very much indebted to Sir Philip Sidney, and this fact, if it does not add to our knowledge of the dramatist's life, must of necessity give us more than a passing glimpse of the man and his methods of writing.