Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/419

 10 th S. V. MAY 5, 1906.

NOTES AND QUERIES.

the occasion of a nobleman's wedding. It adds point, indeed, to the burlesque, if we think of the audience before whom it was first given, many of whom must have known the tedious originals only too well in former days, even if we are to suppose that in 1595 or thereabouts plays of this type had been entirely superseded in Court circles. Arid here it may be worth noting that a fairly full history of the production of a Court play of this kind can be pieced together, with the expenditure of some little trouble, from Cunningham's * Accounts of the Revels at Court' from the preliminary "perusing and reforming," to the last minute when all was ready, when it might happen that the play was never performed after all. This misfortune, which so nearly befell the " tedious brief scene of Pyramus and Thisbe," did actually befall a Mask of Ladies with lights, "being VI vertues, likewise prepared and brought thither in Redynesse, but not showen for theTediousnesseof theplaye thatnighte," which was one presented " by Mr. Munkes- ter's Children" (p. 62). On another occasion (p. 142) a play was put off because " the Queries Ma tie wold not come to heare the same." G. E. P. A.

(To be continued.)

ROBERT GREENE'S PROSE WORKS. (See 10 th S. iv. 1, 81, 162, 224, 483; v. 84, 202.)

I CONTINUE my notes on Greene and Pri- maudaye.

Primaudaye, chap, xii., 'Of Speech and Speaking,' p. 130: "Such bablers, whom Plato verie aptly called theeves of time, are compared by Plutarch to emptie vessels, which give a greater sound then they that are ful. So he," &c. Greene, ' Penelope's Web' (v. 221), 1587: "Plato calleth women that are bablers, theeves of tyme : And Plutarch compareth them to emptie vessels, which give a greater sound then they which are full : so they," &c.

Primaudaye, chap, xii., p. 130 : "the toong, which Bias called the best and worst thing

that was [Ten lines omitted.] It seemeth

that nature would teach us this by fortifying the toong better than any other part of the bodie, and by setting before- itthe bulworke of the teeth, that if it will not obey reason, which being within ought to serve in steade of a bridle to stay it from preventing the thought, we might restraine and chastice the impudencie thereof with blouddy biting. And because we have two eares and two eies, it ought to serve us for instruction, that we must heare and see much more than we

speake." Greene, * Penelope's Web' (v. 221),

1587: "It seemeth (saith Bias) that nature

[word for word to] and chastice such impudent babling by byting. And therefore, saith he, we have two eyes and two eares, that thereby we may learne to heare and see much more- then is spoken." Primaudaye does not attri- bute the well-known metaphor of " the- bulwark of teeth " (more commonly " pales "> to Bias, although it may be implied. It is used earlier in 'Euphues' (145): "Nature

hedged the tongue with two rowes ofr

teeth/ 3 And in Shakespeare ('Richard II.'), Chapman, Ben Jonson, &c. Very likely the image is met with earlier in English, but we see whence Greene derived it.

Primaudaye, chap, xii., p. 132 : " Caesar in a letter which he sent to Rome from the Persian battaile, wrote but these three words, Veni, vidi, vici, that is to saie, I came, sawe, and overcame." Greene, * Penelope's Web * (v. 206) : " Forward Calamus in thy purpose, triumph man, and say as Caesar did in his conquers, veni, vidi, vici." And again, 'The Spanish Masquerade' (v. 276, 277), 1589 r "Don Pedro, thinking that no sooner he woulde have arrived in the English Coast but he would have written back, as the Romain Monarch did, Veni, vidi, vici" Primaudaye's words here are those of North's 'Plutarch's Lives' ('Julius Caesar'), and also of Shakespeare's 'Love's Labour's- Lost,' IV. i. 69.

Primaudaye, chap, xiii., 'Of Friendship and a Friend,' p. 138 to p. 148 is bodily lifted into Greene's "Silvestro's discourse of Friendship," 'Second Part of Tritameron '} iii. 146-60), 1587. It begins thus in Primau- daye, p. 138: "First we say with Socrates, that [twelve lines skipped] Friend- ship is a communion of a perpetuall will,, the end whereof is fellowship of life, and ib is framed by the perfect habit of a long con- tinued love. Whereby," &c. Silvestro's discourse begins : " Socrates, whom Apollo himselfe noted for a wise man, said that Friendship is a communion," &c. From here- to p. 160, the end of Silvestro's discourse,, there is scarcely an alteration. But one or two are worthy of note. I may mention that in the two texts before me a page ofr Primaudaye gives Greene about a page and a quarter. On p. 145 Primaudaye adduces Jonathan and David amongst " the best and most excellent friendships." Greene omits- them, and also Achilles and Patroclus, begin- ning with Pylades and Orestes (p. 157, Greene). Greene on this page quotes Primaudaye's "Ephenus and Everitus" (p. 146) as "Ephemus and Everitius." On>