Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/248

 202 s. iv. SEPT. 9. 1905. NOTES AND QUERIES, Sosola. I have done you better service than to be alighted thus. Miserable age, where only the reward of doing well is the doing of it.— Ihe Duchess of Malfi,' I. i. 32-4, p. 59, cols. 1 and 2. The speech is addressed to the Cardinal, and it perverts a lofty sentiment expressed by Seneca : — Recte facti, fedssR mf.rc.es est : Offlcii fructt, wsum officium e*t : The reward of well-doing is the doing, and the fruit of our duty is our duty.— Montaigne, book ii. chap. xvi. p. 323, col. 1. The Cardinal, replying to Bosola, exclaims, Would you could become honest ! Bosola. With all your divinity do but direct me the way to it. I have known many travel far tor it, and yet return as arrant knaves as they went forth, because they carried themselves always along with them. — 'The Duchess of Main,' 1. i. 43-8, p. 59, col. 2. We must go to Plato's great master for illustration this time : — It was told Socrates that one was no whit amended by his travell: 'I believe itwel (said he) for he carried himselfe with him.'— Book i. chap. xxxviii. p. 109, col. 1. Cicero says : — Multi failure docuerunt, dnm timent falli, et aliis jus peccandi auspicando fecerunt : Many have taught others to deceive while themselves feare to be deceived, and have given them just cause to offend by suspecting them unjustly. —Book iii. chap. ix. p. 486, col. 1. Thus in Webster :— Bosola. He did suspect me wrongfully. Ferdinand. For that You must give great men leave to take their times. Distrust doth cause us seldom be deceiv d. /JOT_ ' Yet, take heed ; For to suspect a friend unworthily Instructs him the next way to suspect you, i278.87, p. 62, col. 1. Bosola has a lively imagination, which leads him at times to exaggerate very simple facts. Montaigne has the following, to prove to what lengths some persons will go to add to their personal charms :— Who hath not heard of her at Paris, which only to get a fresher hew of a new skin, endured to have her face dead all over?-Book i. chap. xl. p. 122, col. 1. The experiment, apparently, was success- ful ; but this is how Bosola represents the result : — There was a lady in France that, having had the small-pox, flayed the skin off her face to make it more level ; and whereas before she looked like a nutmeg-grater, after she resembled an abortive hedge-hog.-' The Duchess of Malfi,' II. i. 33- 1, p. 67, col. 1. But Bosola is nothing if he is not philo- sophical ; he is never lost for a theme, and bears down everybody with his brain :— Antonio. Now, air, in your contemplation? You are studying to become a great wise fellow. Bosola, U, sir, the opinion of wisdom is a fool «tter that runs all over a man's body : if simplicity lirect us to have no evil, it directs us to a happy jeing; for the subtlest folly proceeds from the subtlest wisdom : let me be simply honest.—'The Duchess of Malfi,' II. i. 90-7, p. 67, col. 2. The sentiments are Montaigne's, and occur in book ii. chap, xii., where they are widely separated by other matter :— The opinion of wiadome is the plague of ruan. That is the occasion why ignorance is by our religion recommended unto us as an instrument fitting beleefe and obedience.—P. 246, col. 2. Whence proceeds the subtilest follie but from the subtilest wisdome?—P. 248, col. 2. I say therefore, that if simplicitie directeth ua to have no evill, it also addresseth us according to our condition to a most happy estate.—P. 249, col. 2. Antonio is duly impressed by these deep- brained reasonings, out thinks that the scholar's melancholy, which Bosola affects so- much, is out of fas_hion, and therefore he begs him to leave it, and be wise for him- self :— Bosola. Give me leave to be honest in any phrase, in any compliment whatsoever. Shall I confess myself to you ? I look no higher than I can reaoh: they are the gods that must ride on winged horses. -LI. 103-7, p. 67, col. 2. Montaigne says:— It is for Gods to mount winged horses, and to feed on Ambrosia.—Book i. chap. xlii. p. 133, col. 1. Finally, Bosola treats Antonio to an ex- position of his views on the question of the divinity of kings, and he demolishes the popular fallacy with the aid of some highly original illustrations, the parson's humble tithe-pig trotting in to form the tail-end of the argument:— Say you were lineally descended from King Pepin, or he himaelf, what of this? Search the heads of the greatest rivers in the world, you shall find them but bubbles of water. Some would think the souls of princes were brought forth by some more weighty cause than those of meaner persons: they are deceived, there's the same hand to them; the like passions away them ; the same reason that makes a vicar to go to law for a tithe-pig, and undo his neighbours, makes them spoil a whole province, and batter down goodly cities with the cannon.—LI. 115-26, y>. 67-8. Compare :— The soules of Emperours and Coblerg are all cast in one same mould. Considering the importance of Princes actions, and their weight, wee perswade ourselves they are brought forth by some »s weighty and important causes; wee are deceivedI: They are moved, stirred and removed in their motions by the same springs and wards that we are in ours. The same reason that makes u> chide and braule and fall out with any of our neighbour!, causeth a warre to follow betweene Princes; the same reason that makes us whip or beat a lackey