Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/57

 io-s. iv. JULY is, iocs.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 41 LONDON, SATURDAY, JCLY 15, 1905. CONTENTS.-No. 81. KOTKS : —Montaigne, Webster, and Marston, 41 —'The Oxford Ramble,' 43—Preface by Foxe the Marty rologist— " To Ply," 44—' The Light of the World '—" Robert Burns's la»t words"—M.—" The Lights of London," 45—Dupli- cate Will Registers — Abraham Lincoln and Whately— Charles I.'s Execution, 46. QUBRIES:—Sir T. Wilkinson — Adolphe Belot — Music t Louis XIV., 46—Chaucer and the Bngllsh Universities —• The Lovers,' 1683— Izard—• Bdward and Ellen '—Jen- nings of Soddylt Hall—Gastrell and Shakespeare's Home —KnglUb. Ancestry of General Grant, 47—Ple«hey Forti- fications—" Love In pbantastlck triumph sat"—Cromwell House, Highgate—Ythancscster, Kssex—Maneis : Mayne —"Fostell," " Foslett"—Bishop Cox of Ely, 48—"Nad- gairs" — Hogarth— Paul Family—William Mason's Por- traits—'Coryat's Crudities'—Shakespeare's Vocabulary, 49. KBPLIES : — "Concert* of Antlent Music." 49—'The Street* of London' —John Bolt Nixon—" Besp.," 60— Mint at Leeds, Yorkshire—Benson Barle Hill—The Horse- ferry, Westminster, 51 — Carnegie : Its Pronunciation- Sarah Curran, Robert Emmet, and Major Sirr, 52—Hates in Aid, 5J —Academy of the Muses—"Pop goes the weasel," 54 — Badges — Bishops' Signatures — William tthelley, 55—' Pictures of tlie Old and New Testament* '— Conyers—Local Records—John Hazlitt and Samuel Sbar- wood—Pictures Inspired by Music, 57. NOTKS ON BOOKS :—'New English Dictionary'—'Four- teenth-Century English Biblical Version' — " Stratford Town " Shakespeare, Works and Sonnett. Booksellers' Catalogues Obituary:—Mr. F. M. Jackson. Notices to Correspondents. MONTAIGNE, WEBSTER, AND MARSTON DR. DONNE AND WEBSTER. THIS series of articles is intended prin- cipally to show the influence of Florio's translation of the essays of Montaigne on Webster in the composition of 'The White Devil' and 'The Duchess of Malfi,' and therefore it is really a continuation of the series I wrote for 'N. & Q.' on Sir Philip Sidney and Webster, the first of which appeared at 10th S. ii. 221. But on account of the repetition of certain matter in 'The White Devil' that had appeared previously in Marston's ' The Fawn,' I have had to turn aside and examine the latter play, because it is assumed that Webster copied Marston. My inquiries have been rewarded with a larger measure of success than I could have hoped for, and now I am in a position to prove that not only did Webster and Marston « . t i ,.._?__! 1.1 f I take no delight in proving that Webster was a wholesale borrower of the good things in other men's work, and could wish that my present task were confined to showing up the plagiary of Marston or of some other author whose work I am too dull to appreciate at its proper value. Webster generally puts what he borrows to noble uses ; but Marston is one of those men of whom Ben Jonson said " that they are born only to suck out the poison of books." If Webster sows vice, he sows it with the hand, but Marston scatters it broadcast and with the basket. As John Florio's translation was entered at Stationers' Hall so early as 1599, and published in 1603, little or no value can be attached to its evidence as regards the date of ' The White Devil,' believed to have been written in the winter of 1611-12, or of 'The Duchess of Malfi,' which was certainly not in its present form before 1612. All that I can prove is that Florio's book in its entirety was known to Webster before he wrote either of his plays. Xow, this fact is rather interesting, because Sidney's 'Arcadia,' which afforded so much material for ' The Duchess of Malfi,' was, so far as I can gather, a sealed book to Webster when he wrote 'The White Devil.' ' The Arcadia,' or its influence, can be traced in ' The Devil's Law-Case' and ' A Monumental Column," as I proved ; but I have vainly searched for a trace of Sidney's book in ' The White Devil.' The inference I draw is that Webster wrote the latter play before he became possessed of a copy of ' The Arcadia,' and, consequently, this negative bit of testimony bears out the received opinion that ' The White Devil' is an earlier work than ' The Duchess of Malfi.' But, if the evidence of Florio is not very helpful in the dating of Webster's work, it is certainly of some value when applied to the work of Marston. Is not it of interest to know that these essays, which were pub- lished in 1603, are copied over and over again in 'The Dutch Courtezan,' 1605, 'The Fawn,' 1C06, and ' Sophouisba,' published in the same year ? I will now deal with some of the less valuable evidence that has come intomy hands obtain the repeated matter, independently of each other, from Montaigne, but that both dramatists are under a very heavy debt of obligation to Florio's translation of the essays. As regards Dr. Donne, I rely upon his evidence to fix a nearer date for ' The Duchess of Malfi' than has as yet been claimed for it with any show of probability. reserving more important matter for future papers of this series ; and I shall mingle the parallels with Montaigne in Webster and Marston as a preliminary in proof of my statement that both dramatists copied from Florio's book independently of each other. The editions I quote from are Prof. Henry Morley's reprint of Florio's ' Montaigne," Dyce's ' Webster,'and Mr. Bullen's ' Marston.' I will give page and column as well as other