Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/419

 ID* s. ii. OCT. 29, 1904.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

U3.

the 'Arcadia' and borrowed from it, yet several times he varies Sir Philip Sidney in the very words used by Webster. It is also strange that he should adopt the phrasing of Beaumont and Fletcher in exactly the same way. Take the foregoing parallel as an in- stance, and see how the " dog " of Sidney is particularized by Massinger and Webster as the English mastiff:

Francisco. These Turkish dames

(Like English mastives, that increase their fierce- ness

By being chain'd up), from the restraint of freedom, &c. * The Renegade,' I. ii.

Then, as regards Beaumont and Fletcher, note the following :

as borrowing some of his spirit, they went like young eagles to the prey under the wings of their dam." 'Arcadia,' Book lii.
 * ' For the very cowards no sooner saw him but,

Ferdinand. My soldiers (like young eaglets prey- ing under

The wings of their fierce dam), as if from him They took both spirit and fire, bravely came on. ' The Picture,' II. ii.

The passage in Beaumont and Fletcher, which Mr. W. J. Craig pointed out to me, agrees with Massinger in changing Sidney's


 * ' * <-lci " f/-w "oorrlnfo" anrl in uf.vlincr f.llA

eagles" to "eaglets, dam "fierce":

and in styling the

Achillas. And, as inspired by him, his following

friends,

With such a confidence as young eaglets prey Under the large wing of their fiercer dam, Brake through our troops, and scatter'd 'em.

'The False One,' V. iv.

Massinger has the same allusion, in almost the same words, in 'The Unnatural Combat,' II. i., and he repeats the remainder of the speech in the latter in another scene of ' The Renegado,' as well as in 'The Duke of Milan ' and other plays. He was a writer who thought he could not say a good thing too often. As regards 'The False One,' it is conjectured that Massinger and Fletcher wrote the play between them, and therefore it is possible that Massinger is only borrow- ing from himself, as usual. But that theory would not account for the great number of other parallels that are to be found in Massinger and Beaumont and Fletcher.

When the duchess is parting from her husband, she says to him,

In the eternal church, sir, I do hope we shall not part thus.

' The Duchess of Malfi,' III. v. 85-6.

The phrase is from Sidney :

to send her soul at least to be married in the eternal Church with him."' Arcadia,' Book ii. CHARLES CRAWFORD. (To be c&nduded.)
 * ' She sought all means, as well by poison as knife,

SHAKESPEARIANA.

' TROILUS AND CRESSIDA,' V. i. 20. Shake- speare puts into the mouth of Thersites the following adjuration to Patroclus : "Prythee be silent boy, I profit not by thy talke, thou art thought to be Achilles male Varlot." To which answers Patroclus : " Male Varlot you Rogue? What's that?" and receives th& reply : " Why, his masculine Whore." The " Globe " edition of Shakespeare differs fron> this text of 1623 only in printing "varlet" for " Varlot." Surely the various emen- dators of Shakespeare's text have here omitted to rectify a very obvious typographical error- "Male varlot," or "varlet," is clearly non- sense : a varlet is always male, so far as I am aware. Nor is there any resemblance between a varlet and a loose woman, even a varletess being, according to Mr. Samuel Richardson, nothing worse than a waiting- woman. But by the alteration of a single letter in the 1623 edition it is possible to make absolute sense instead of absolute nonsense. Reading. h for v, we have a male harlot, which is pre- cisely a masculine lohore. If I have not dis- covered a mare's nest, or started a quarry already put up by others, may I commend this suggested emendation to the favourable consideration of Shakespearians ?

JAMES DALLAS.

The Old Vicarage, Long Crendon.

" AN INDIAN BEAUTY," ' MERCHANT OF VENICE/ III. ii. 99. In 1673 Francis Osborn seems to use this phrase in the same sense as Shakspere, who implies that the Eastern beauty was frightfully ugly to the Eliza- bethans. Osborn prints * A Letter to two Sisters, the one Black, the other Fair,' and holds them both lovely : " To both which I remain an equal Captive." He adds to his- 'Letter' a bit of verse, as usual ('Works/ p. 546) :

Beauty is writ in several Characters, None but are skil'd in some : who find out All? Which votes them mad, do say that this man errs Because his choice is Black, or Low, or Tall : Nature would have all pleas'd : and such as fall On Ordinary Features, are less learn'd : The Indian Beauties are as plain discern'd By those do know their Figure, as the White Nor can Expression render it so right As may force others to approve the Text : Reason, with Taste and Love, should not be vexU

F. J. F.

1 TWELFTH NIGHT/ I. i. 5-7 : O it came o'er my ear like the sweet South, That breathes upon a bank of violets, Stealing and giving odour.

Pope's change of "sound" to "South" was very happy ; and I feel sure that he was right There are many variants of ' this