Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/108

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. x. AUG. s, wu.

He leaves, bitterly reviling himself for his failure :

all hell's furies light on the proverb

That says " Faint heart."

The Widow's Tears. Tharsalio endeavours to conceal his ill-success from Lysander, but finds that he has already got wind of it. " What, blanketed ? " exclaims Lysander. " O the Gods ! spurn'd out by grooms like a base Bisogno ? thrust out by th' head and shoulders ? " Both he and Cynthia his wife bait Tharsalio unmercifully, Cynthia sar- castically congratulating him upon the easy conquest he has made. " The whelp and all ! " exclaims the mortified Tharsalio, as Hylus, too, adds a gibe at his expense.

He next goes to the pandress Arsace for assistance in his designs. She and her servant Tomasin have also heard the news, and they likewise jeer at him. Arsace asks the servant in his presence whether they had not already heard of the success of his suit :

Arsace. Did not one of the Countess's serving- men tell us that this Gentleman was sped ?

Tom. That he did, and how her honour grac't and entertained him in a very familiar manner.

Atsace. And brought him downstairs herself.

Tom. Ay, forsooth, and commanded her men to bear him out of doors.

Arsace. Nay more, that he had already pos- sessed her sheets.

Tom. No indeed, Mistress, 'twas her blankets.

Tharsalio angrily kicks Tomasin out of the room.

The Parliament of Love. -On Clarindore's return from his interview with Bellisant, his friends Novall and Perigot, hearing of his reception, resolve to make merry at his expense. On his entrance, melancholy and taciturn, Perigot mockingly suggests that his silence must be due to pride at his success, and No vail greets him with :

We gratulate

Though we pay for 't, your happy entrance to The certain favours, nay the sure possession Of madam Bellisant. Upon which Clarindore exclaims, aside :

The young whelp too !

Amongst other sarcastic pleasantries Noval observes :

I have heard that Bellisant was so taken with Your manly courage, that she straight preparec

you A sumptuous banquet.

" Yet," interposes Perigot,

his enemies Beport it was a blanket.

" She show'd him her chamber too," says Novall ; and Perigot adds that, whilst she was doing so,

Against her will, her most unmannerly grooms, 'or so 'tis runiour'd, took him by the shoulders And thrust him out of doors.

larindore, in a transport of rage, pulls the nose of one, kicks the o*her, and makes his i xit.

The Widow's Tears. Tharsalio gives Arsace a jewel to present to the Countess, and Arsace, thus provided, gains admittance to ler, and, as a means of arousing her interest n Tharsalio, tells her that he is a dangerous orofligate and of his reputation amongst | ourtesans. By bribing the ushers, who havfr ] jeen " charg'd to bar his entrance," Tharsalio again manages to obtain an interview with
 * he Countess. This time her anger at hUi

joldness gradually gives place to admiration* She yields to his suit, and consents to marry I lira.

The Parliament of Love. Clarindore's first interview with Bellisant is contrived by giving Beaupre a purse as an inducement to) admit him. He instructs her always toj praise him to her mistress, and to tell her how many women are mad for his love ancD of his notorious reputation for profligacyj In spite of his first repulse, he seeks and] obtains a further interview with Bellisant. ^

On this occasion his passionate protestaJ tions of his affection, and of his deep repent-j ance for his previous outrageous behaviourj coupled with a threat to kill himself if sha refuses, induce her to surrender herself tq him, or rather to pretend to surrender, foi Massinger here introduces a fresh develop ment of his plot in the shape of a repetition of the ruse by means of which Shakespeare'i Helena reclaims her husband in ' All 's Wei that Ends Well.' H. DUGDAL.E SYKES.

Enfield.

SIR JOHN GILBERT, J. F. SMITH, ANI

'THE LONDON JOURNAL.' (See 11 S. vii. 221, 276, 375; viii. 121, 142.

I THOUGHT I had finished with Smith, bu quite lately I have been lent a little volunn of the greatest interest to those who cai recollect the times literary, artistic, an< Bohemian it concerns itself with, namely about fifty ye r after 1837. In this I fim the following :

" ' Cassell's History of England ' had jus commenced publication in weekly numben J. P. Smith, a very popular writer of fiction, ha< been contributing to The London Journal th ' Lives of the Queens of England,' and probabl; for that reason he was engaged to write thl ' History.' This was by no means a happ; r arrangement. Smith was not sufficiently indutfi trious to make any subject a study ; his eagernesfl