Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/467

 in. MAY 20, 1905.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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well to look at that portion of ' The Woman's Prize ' which contains the allusion to the siege of Ostend. The scene (I. iii.)is a long one, and it will be sufficient to quote from the entry of Jaques to the appearance of Maria and Bianca. . Here it is, " P." standing for Petru- chio, "Pe." for Petronius, "J." for Jaques, " S." for Sophocles, and " M." for Moroso :

P. How now ! la my fair bride abed ?

J. No, truly, sir.

Pe. Not abed yet ? Body o' me, we '11 up And rifle her ! Here 's a coil with a maidenhead. 'Tis not entailed, is it ?

P. If it be,

I'll try all the law i' th' land, but I'll cut it off. Let 'a up, let's up : come.

J. That you cannot neither.

P. Why?

/. Unless you will drop thro' the chimney

like a daw,

Or force a breach i' th' windows : you may untile The house, 'tis possible.

P. What dost thou mean ?

J. A moral, sir : the ballad will express it : The wind and the rain Has turn'd you back again, And you cannot be lodged there. The truth is, all the doors are barricadoed : Not a cat-hole but holds a murderer in : t. She's victualled for this month.

P. Art not thou drunk ?

S. He's drunk, he's drunk: come, come, let 's up.

/. Yes, yes,

I am drunk : ye may go up, ye may, gentlemen ; But take heed to your heads : I say no more.

S. I '11 try that. [Exit.

Pe. How dost thou say ? the door fast locked, fellow ?

J. Yes, truly, sir, 'tis locked and guarded too, And two as desperate tongues planted behind it As e'er yet battered. They stand upon their honors, And will not give up without strange composition. I will assure you marching away with Their pieces cocked and bullets in their mouths Will not satisfy them.

P. How 's this ? how 's this ? they are !

Is there another with her ?

J. Yes, marry, is there,

And an engineer.

M. VVho 's that, for Heaven's sake?

J. Colonel Bianca : she commands the works. Spinola 's but a ditcher to her. There 's a half-moon ! I m but a poor man, but, if you '11 give me leave, I'll venture a year's wages, draw all your force

before it,

And mount your ablest piece of battery, You shall not enter it these three nights yet.

Enter SOPHOCLES.

P. I should laugh at that, good Jaques.

S. Beat back again !

She's fortified for ever.

J. Am I drunk now, sir ?

6'. He that dares most go up now and be cool'd. I have 'scaped a pretty scouring.

P. What ! are they mad ?

Have we another Bedlam ? They do not talk, I hope.

S. terribly, extremely fearful : The noise at London Bridge is nothing near her.

P. How got she tongue ?

S. As you got tail : she was born to 't.

P. Lock'd out o' doors, and on my wedding-night t Nay, an I suffer this. I may go graze. Come, gentlemen, I '11 batter. Are these virtues ?

S. Do, and be beaten off with shame, as I was. I went up, came to th' door, knock'd, nobody*

answer'd ; Knock'd louder, yet heard nothing; would have-.

broke in

By force, when suddenly a water-work Flew from the window with such violence That, had I not duck'd quickly, like a friar, Ccetera qttis nescit ?

The chamber 's nothing but a mere Ostend, In every window pewter cannons mounted : You '11 quickly find with what they are charged, sir..

P. Why, then, tantara for us !

S. And all the lower works lined sure with small

shot,

Long tongues with firelocks that at twelve score- blank Hit to the heart. Now, an ye dare, go up !

Of these 56 lines (excluding the one Latin line and the snatch of song) 32 ( = 57 per cent.) have masculine endings, 20 ( = 36 per cent.) have one over-syllable, and 4 ( = 7 per cent.) have more than one over-syllable. The- 145 lines of the ' Stukeley ' scene show per- centages strikingly similar 52 as against 57, 41 as against 36, and 7 as against 7. In the- Fletcher play 15 per cent, of the lines that have a single over-syllable have an emphasis on that syllable, and 25 per cent, of the lines with more than one over syllable emphasize the first of those syllables. In 'Stukeley*" these percentages are 18 (10 in 56) and 33 (3 in 9) respectively. Grouping the two lots together, we get a percentage of 20 (13 in 65)- in ' Stukeley ' and 17 (4 in 24) in the passage taken from * Woman's Prize.' This again is, to say the least of it, a wonderful coincidence;, and it is to be noted that, if the unknown be not Fletcher, he is some one who to a slight extent out- Fletchers Fletcher. The totals of" lines trochaic throughout are ten in 'Stukeley' and two in ' Woman's Prize,' giving per- centages of 7 and 4 respectively. In the- former, the proportion of end-stopped lines is 116 in 145 ; in the latter, 47 in 56 ; the one giving a percentage of 80, and the other of 84. This is another remarkable similarity. There is one other test that may be applied to- Fletcher's work. This is by the determina- tion of the exact proportion of lines con- taining anapaests and slurs. This is by no means an easy matter, for probably no two people would scan all these lines in the same way. The scansion of the Fletcher slurred line is a matter of individual taste or judg- ment; and I can only say, regarding my own results, that I worked them out first in the- 'Stukeley' before I turned to 'The Woman's-