Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/105

 iv. JULY 29,1905.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 81 LONDON. SATVJtDAY. JULY ft?. 1905. CONTENTS.-No. 83. NOTES:—Robert Greene's Prose Works, 81—'The Bitter Withy,'84—New Light on the Douglas Cause, 85—John Wright—Astronomy in 'Gulliver's Travels'—"In danger" —"When dnctora differ," 86—Rushbearlng—"Hickery- packery "—The Monument on Kish Street Hill—The Irish Brigade, 87. <iUEKIKS:-Mantegna's House—Birch on Whitsunrtny— Almshonies, 87—History of High Peak anil Scarsdale— Batten Family—Joseph Anstice — De Faublas—"Gentle- man" as a Title — Bunyan's 'Holy War' — Nathaniel Cooper — George Cumberland, 88—"Dorset Place-name: Byrne Intrinseca— 'Chevy Chase'—"Clote"—Shepherd's Bush—Boddington Family—" Veni, Creator," 89—Tullpo- mania—Byrcb Arms—Locke: Lockie—Teed and Ashburner Families, 9U. BBPLIBS :—Ythancwster, Rsnex, 90-Plctures Inspired by Music—' The Beggar's Opera ' In Dublin—Swedish Royal Family—Authors of Quotations Wanted, 91—Lines on a Mug—Portrait! which have led to Marriages—Incledon : Cooke, 92—Sir George Davles, Bart.—Vulgate—Jack and Jill—' Bathilda,'!«-No. 53, Fleet Sweet—Parker Family- Cape Hoorn—" Jockteleg "—St. Qilltertof Sempringham, 94 — Prerogative Court of Canterbury Will Registers— Bibliographical Queries—Willesden Families—Forests set on Fire by Lightning — Cricket, Earliest Mention, 95 — William III. at the Boyne—Prisoners' Clothes an Per- quisites—"There shall no tempests blow," W—" Pclfry" u«ed by Johnson—Knights Templars—Black and Yellow the Devil's Colours—Cope of Bramshill, 97. NOTES ON BOOKS:—• Memoirs of a Royal Chaplain '— 'Scotland in the Time of Queen Mary* — Copinger's 'County of Suffolk'—Bacon's 'Philosophical Works'— R. L. Stevenson : New Volumes. Obituary :—The Hev. the Hon. G. H. F. Vane. Notice* to Correspondents. Stole*. ROBERT GREENE'S PROSE WORKS. (See ante, p. 1.) My former remarks may be regarded as preliminary. They are, I hope, nothing nearly as much too long for 'N. & Q.' as they are too short for the subject. I will now proceed to Greene's prose itself. And first it will be well to notice some of his special peculiarities, or Greenisms. I do not state that he invented these idioms, or whatever they may be; but lie gives them sufficient prominence to make of them a feature in his style. A dozen or so may be selected at random. 1. " It is a saying, Gwydpnius, not so com- mon as true, that he which will hear the Syrens sing must tye himself to the mast," Ac., 'The Carde of Fancie,' 1587 (Grosart, iv. 21). ''It is a saying, Gwydonius, not so common as true, that the hastie man never wants woe," ibid., p. 77. And ' Mamillia ' (ii. 191), 1580-3, "It is a saying, not so com- mon as true, that shee which soweth all her love in an houre shall not reape all her care in a yeare." This occurs several times later in Greene, and is nearly paralleled in Laneham's 'Letter,'1575 (Burn's ed., p. 67): "A thing, Master Martin, very rare and strange, and jet no more strange than true." Compare Shakespeare's " as true as it is strange," ' Measure for Measure,' V. i. 44. 2. The proverb formula, " An ounce of [so- and-so] is better than a pound [of the other thing]," varied to dram and tun, &c., Greene found a vade-mecum. The expression was formed, perhaps, from " Give him an inch and he'll take an ell," a proverb in Heywood, 1546. And " Better is one vnce of good lyfe than x pounde of pardon " -is found in 1526 ('N.E.LV). I find in Tottell's 'Miscellany' (Arher, p. 90), 1557 : "They weigh a chip of chance more than a pound of wit." Greene often uses "chip of chance" also (ii. 128; iv. 70, &c.) "An ounce of give in a lady's balance weigheth down a pound of love me," 'Euphues to Philautus' (Gros., vi. 263), 1587. " Would you have me, sir. buy an ounce of pleasure with a tunne of mishappes 1" ' Never too Late,' 1590. "For one dram of pros- peritie reapeth a whole pound of ruiserie," 'Anatomie of Fortune' (Grosart, iii. 201), 1584, and in 'The Carde of Fancie' (iv. 147), 1587. "Reaping a tunne of drosse for every dramme of perfect golde," ibid., p. 39. The grain and pound variant seems to be later. Sometimes these paddings become drivel with Greene : " A pound of golde is worth a tunne pflead,"'Pandosto'(iv. 241), 1588. His earliest is in ' Mamillia': " For every dram of pleasure a pound of sorrow " (ii. 26), 1580-3. And he had Lyly's authority in some cases : "A dram of give me is heavier than an ounce of hear me,"'Saphoand Phao,'I. iv., 1584. If this idiom was removed from Greene there would probably be half a hundred gaps. A different form is in ' Mamillia' (ii. 81) : " For a pince [pinch ? pint ?] of pleasure we receave a gallon of sorrow." 3. A very odd trick of Greene's is the following, which hinges, according to logic, on the causal " therefore" : " O infortunate Myrania, and therefore infortunate because Myrania, hast thou so little force to with- stand fancie t " ' Anatomie of Fortune' (iii. 196), 1584. "O infortunate Arbasto (quoth I), and therefore the more infortunate because Arbasto, art thou not worthye of thys mis- hap ? " " Infortunate Fawnia, and therefore infortunate because Fawnia," ' Pandosto' (iv. 279), 1588. There are variants to the figure : " Boost thou love, yea alas, and therefore unhappy because in love, a passion so unfit for thy young yeares," ' Perimedes the Blacke-Smith' (vii. 69), 588; but the monologue - opening cannot be dispensed with: " Infortunate Isabel, and therefore infortunate because thy sorrowes are more than thy yeares," 'Never top Late' (viii. 58), 1590. This example brings us dowa