Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/563

 10'" s. v. jrsE 10, i9oa.i NOTES AND QUERIES.

463

"Being well grounded in religion and learning at home, his noble father [Lord Harington] sent him to travel abroad in France and Italy, attended by his tutor ' Master Tovey, a grave and learned religious man, formerly head master of the free school, at Coventry.' But 'how dangerous a thing it is for religious gentlemen to travel into these popish countries, may appear by the example of this nobleman and his tutor, whose sound religion and heavenly zeal for the truth being taken notice of by the Jesuits, they took an opportunity to administer a slow-working poison to them, that, seeing they had no hopes of corrupting their minds, they might destroy their bodies, and bring them to their graves.' Or this poison, Mr. Tovey, being aged, and so less able to encounter with the strength of it, died presently after his return into England ; but the lord Harrington, being of strong and able body, and in the prime of his age, bore it better and conflicted with it longer ; yet the violence of it appeared in his face presently after his return, and not long after, hastened his death, at the age of twenty-two."

ROBERT GREENE'S PROSE WORKS.

(See 10 th S. iv. 1, 81, 162, 224, 483 ; v. 84, 202, 343, 424, 442.)

I NOW conclude my notes on Greene's in- debtedness to Primaudaye.

In chap. xlvi. Primaudaye continues " Of a house and familie, and of the kinds of marriage : of certaine ancient customes ob- served in marriage " a brief but interesting discourse. There is a curious passage about Queen Elizabeth's wooers in it. Greene picks a few plums out of this chapter, and places them in a storehouse, 'The Royal Exchange,' which is admirably suitable for the purpose. We find here where he got his Martia as an authority upon marriage (p. 494), but she furnished Greene with a name only. On p. 494 we have : " This caused a yoong man to go to Pittacus, one of the

sages of Grecia, and to aske his counsel!

Marke (said this wise man) when children are readie to play at fence ; go to them, and

they will counsel! thee When they saw

this yoong man coming, who exceeded them

in bigness, they said aloud, let every

one go to his match. Whereby he learned what he was to do." Greene has this, in slightly different words (iii. 270), and in his differing he has produced silliness: "Going to a play that they had, which was, euerie man choose his peere." On p. 497 (same chapter) we find, speaking of second mar- riages : "Valeria of Rome may serve for a notable example to women, who said, that hir husband died for others, but lived to hir for ever." Greene quotes these words of "the Romane Lady Valeria" exactly, in ' Penelope's Web' (v. 161). Near the be- ginning of chap. xlvi. (pp. 492-4) ? Primaudaye

has a discourse upon the four kinds of mar- riage, "namely, the marriage of honour, the marriage of love, the marriage of labour, and the marriage of grief." He divides the first into three sorts, all " supernatural, and appointed of God, in an unspeakable manner." He then deals with the other three. Greene, in 'Penelope's Web' (v. 159-60), omits the first sort entirely, and says at random : " Therefore Pittachus, one of the seaven sages, settest downe three kinds of marriages. The first of love, the second of labour, the third of griefe. As touching the first, Themistocles tearmes it a charitable conjunction, unitie, and societie of them that are good." These latter are Primaudaye's words, but he does not attribute them to Themistocles, whose name appears, indeed, on that page (493), but in a wholly different connexion. Primaudaye then quotes the comic poet Plautus " that in marriage a man must take his wife by the ears, and not by the fingers." Greene makes another jumble, quoting this correctly from Primaudaye in words, but not in application. And then he borrows "Olimpias, the mother of Alexander," and makes her say other than she did. Greene's medley is very quaint.

Primaudaye (chap, xlvii. p. 510) gives us the headings of the tale of Ninus and Semi- ramis, the wife of Menon. Greene developes this in good story-telling form in ' The Tale of Cosimo' in his 'Farewell to Follie' (ix. 298). Immediately after the passage about Menon, who is quoted as an example " Of the particular dutie of a Husband towards his Wife," Primaudaye gives the cases of Marcus Lepidus, who, "being driven into banishment, heard that his wife was married to another, whereupon he died for sorrow"; and "Sylanus [Sylaus in Greene], a Romane, [who] slue himself after his wife, whom he singularly loved, was taken from him and given to Nero the Emperor "(pp. 510, 511). Greene puts these two examples into Menon's mouth (p. 313), showing where he drew his story from. There is a good deal in common between this tale of Cosimo's and ' Penelope's Second Tale ' in ' Penelope's Web ' (v. 203). Greene's finish to his tale of Semiramis and Ninus has no counterpart in their known history, I believe. At any rate, he draws it from Primaudaye ; it is the story, somewhat altered, of Gamma and Synorix (pp. 521, 522), in chap, xlviii., 'Of the Dutie of a Wife towards her Husband.' The word- ing is identical, as well as the situation, in several places. Other examples in this tale of Greene's are Panthea, the wife of Abra- datus ; Portia ? the wife of $rutus ; and