Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/154

122 Reed can hardly be right, because Dryden's figure is that of a man grasping snow, which melts away in his hand. Montaigne and Sir Philip Sidney both use Webster's figure, and Webster was perfectly acquainted with both authors. It is also in Marston:—

Webster says that

But Montaigne, who is arguing that a man should marry a rich woman rather than a poor one, declares that such a wife will be

Note the word "civility"; it is the reading of the 1612 quarto; the quartos of 1631, 1665, and 1672 read "cruelty." This latter reading is borne out by Montaigne:—

It is cruelty, not civility, that keeps the beast tied up; and the object of this incivility is to make it more vicious when let loose. Montaigne argues for more freedom, not restraint.

Montaigne has a tilt at a certain class of scholars who delight in disputations and hair-splitting; and he selects for particular censure a Master of Arts. Deprive him, he says, of his gown, his Latin, and his Aristotle, and he will appear but a very ordinary man. His "implication and entangling of speech," which beguiles men, "may fitly be compared unto juglers' play of fast and loose" (book iii. c. viii. p. 473, col. 1). Compare the whole of the Conjurer's speech with Montaigne, especially the following:—

Montaigne explains what "fast and loose" means, and he is responsible for the reference to the jugglers' Latin in Webster. In his admirable edition of 'The White Devil' and of 'The Duchess of Malfi,' recently published, Prof. Martin Sampson quotes Mr. W. J. Craig's note in Reginald Scot. Fast and loose "is a trick game with a handkerchief or belt, the point being that a knot or loop which seems tied fast is really loose." This is exactly the meaning of the phrase in Montaigne.

I will turn to Marston once more. Dulcimel wishes to impart a secret to Philocalia, but the latter is chary of being its guardian:

In other words, fie on Montaigne!

Of course, this has reference to the well-known saying of Alexander the Great:—

The saying forms No. 123 of Bacon's 'Apophthegms,' and it is quoted in 'The Advancement of Learning,' book i., and in the corresponding part of the 'De Augmentis.' It is very surprising to find what a number of Bacon's 'Apophthegms' are paralleled in Montaigne. The moral is that there was no need for Shakespeare or others to go to Bacon for certain matter, which has been paraded with a great blowing of trumpets.

In his 'Essay of Truth' Bacon says :—