Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/466

 382

NOTES AND QUERIES. [io. s. v. MAY 19, im.

Erected by her children Kiccardo and Car- lotta. G. S. PARRY, Lieut. -Col.

18, Hyde Gardens, Eastbourne.

MONTAIGNE, WEBSTER, AND MARSTON :

DR. DONNE AND WEBSTER. (See 10 th S. iv. 41, 121, 201, 302 ; v. 301.)

MONTAIGNE says :

To forbid us anything is the ready way to make us long for it. Book ii. chap. xv. p. 315, col. 1.

[Love is] a pleasure inflamed by difficulty. Book iii. chap. v. p. 434, col. 1.

The price or honor of the conquest is rated by the difficultie." Book iii. chap. v. p. 439, col. 1.

It is against the nature of love not to be violent, and against the condition of violence to be constant. Book iii. chap. v. p. 451, col. 1.

Thus in Marston :

Philocalia. But, dear madam, your reason of loving him ?

Dulcimel. Faith, only a woman's reason, because I was expressly forbidden to Jove him

Phi. But, when you saw no means of manifesting your affection to him, why did not your hopes perish ?

Dul. Philocalia ! that difficulty only enflames me : when the enterprise is easy, the victory is inglorious

Phi. love, how violent are thy passages !

Dul. Pish, Philocalia ! 'tis against the nature of love not to be violent.

Phi. And against the condition of violence to be constant.' The Fawn,' III. i. 242-73.

The source of Gonzago's saying re lies, in III. i. 420-23, is dealt with at 10 th S. iv. 122-3.

As I shall be dealing presently with the passage in Montaigne that is supposed to have been copied from Marston by Webster, I will anticipate matters here by showing further resemblances between 'The White Devil ' and the ' Essays.'

Marston may or may not have got a hint from Montaigne for a saying in the following speech :

Hercules. Your father, I may boldly say, he's

an ass

To hope that you '11 forbear to swallow What he cannot chew : &c.

4 The Fawn,' III. i. 512-14.

But there can be no manner of doubt about the origin of the same or a similar saying in Webster, who, like Montaigne, uses it in relation to the question of self-slaughter. Montaigne notes instances of men who have attempted, but failed, to kill themselves out- right, courage having deserted them in their extremity. The smarting wounds they in- flicted upon themselves served but to intensify the anguish of mind they already suffered, thus adding to their torments. To kill one self with a sword requires a steady hand and an unfaltering purpose ; at the moment

of execution there is no time to consult flesh and blood ; the mortal instrument

is a meate a man must swallow without chewing, &c. Book ii. chap. xiii. p. 312, col. 2.

Vit. Cor. To kill one's self is meat that we must

take

Like pills, not chew 't, but quickly swallow it ; The smart o' the wound, or weakness of the hand, May else bring treble torments.

4 The White Devil,' 11. 3319-22, p. 47, col. 2.

The previous speech by Vittoria Corombona elicits a reply from Flamineo which also is a close imitation of Montaigne :

Vit. Cor. L prithee, yet remember Millions are now in graves, which at last day Like mandrakes shall rise shrieking.

Flam. Leave your prating, For these are but grammatical laments, Feminine arguments : and they move me, As some in pulpits move their'auditory, More with their exclamation than sense Of reason or sound doctrine.

' The White Devil,' 11. 3306-14, p. 47, col. 2.

Caesars gowne disquieted all Rome, which his death had not done : the very sound of names, which jingleth in our eares, as, "Oh, my poore master"; or "Alas, my deare friend"; 4 '0h, my good father"; or, "Alas, my sweete daughter.'* When such like repetitions pinch me, and that I looke more nearely to them, I finde them but gram- maticall laments, the word and the tune wound me Even as Preachers exclamations do often move their auditory more then their reasons, c. Book iii. chap. iv. p. 425, col. 2.

At 10 th S. iv. p. 42, col. 1, and p. 121, col. 2, I showed that both Webster and Marston had taken notes from Montaigne, book i. chap. xl. pp. 117-18. Another case of borrow- ing from the same interesting chapter occurs in 'The White Devil,' where Flamineo is caught in the toils, and about to meet death. He laughs at the threats of Lodovico, and follows up this display of merriment in the presence of death by asking :

Would'st have me die, as I was born, in whining t

Gasparo. Recommend yourself to heaven.

Flam. No, I will carry mine own commendations thither. Lines 3461-3, p. 49, col. 2.

To another that exhorted him to recommend himselfe to God, he asked, " Who is going to him ?" And the fellow answering, " Yourselfe shortly :" "If it be his good pleasure, I would to God it might be to morrow night," replied he. " Re- commend but your selfe to him," said the other, "and you shall quickly be there." "It is best then," answered he, " that my selfe carry mine own commendations to him." P. 118, col. 1.

Again, Montaigne states that William, Duke of Guienne,

for penance-sake, wore continually a corselet under a religious habit. P. 122, col. 2.

In 'The White Devil' "two noblemen of Hungary," who accompany " the Moor," are said to