Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/29

 ii s. x. JULY 11, 1914.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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dates," and " such details, though they may trouble the pedantry of our time, were despised by our bolder fathers." There was the probability that Marryat had met Mait- larid as well as Sir Alexander Ball, for he returned in 1813 to the Mediterranean station, where he had already served in 1806 and 1811-12. Maitland left Ceylon on 15 March, 1812.

Anyway, there is strong evidence that he was Midshipman Easy's patron. There is none that this was Sir Alexander Ball.

PENRY LEWIS.

JOHN WEBSTER A CONTRIBUTOR

TO SIR THOMAS OVERBURY'S

'CHARACTERS.'

(See ante, p. 3.)

THESE are only the passages in which parallelism of phrase cannot be denied ; many are the instances when distinct, though remote, similarity may be detected. Some of the Characters seem to be copied or enlarged from certain dramatis personal in ' The White Devil ' or ' Duchess of Malfi ' (the 'Distaster of the Time ' from Flamineo and Bosola, or the ' Vainglorious Coward in Command ' from Malatesti) ; while the per- sons of Leonora and Ariosto in ' The Devil's Law Case ' were but the dramatic versions of the ' Vertuous Widdow ' and the ' Rever- end Judge ' in the 1615 book.

Webster's authorship is not to be deduced solely from such parallelism, but every one of these Characters is found to be exactly achieved in the dramatist's peculiar manner ; on the other hand, some passages in his dramas might have been lengthened into similar essays, as, for instance, Francesco's description of a cunning intruder into favour ('W.D.,' III. iii.), Bosola's account of a politician ('D.M.,' III. ii.), or Appius Claudius's exposure of the knavish scrivener ('App.,' III. ii.). Does not the following passage own the true Websterian ring ?

" With one suitor she shootes out another, as Boies doe Pellets in elderne Gunnes.* She com- mends to them a single life, as Horse-cours* rs doe their Jades, to put them away." ' An Ordinary Widdow.'

And the conclusion of the ' Fair and Happy Milkmaid,' so sweetly praised by Izaak Walton, strikes the genuine poetical note which Charles Lamb recognized in Webster :

" All her care is, she may dye in the Springtime, to have store of flowers stuck upon her winding- sheet."*

We have seen that most of the parallel passages occur in ' A Monumental Column ' (written after November, 1612) and ' The Duchess of Malfi ' (acted before December, 1614). These two works had already been considered as belonging to the same period, on account of constant verbal references to Sidney's ' Arcadia ' ; it now seems probable that the composition of the ' Characters ' published in 1615 must have taken place very shortly after the production of the. poem and tragedy.

That Webster thought of turning the results of his observations into Characters only after the first appearance of ' Overbury's Characters ' (May, 1614) is probable ; that the last among his essays were written in 1615, just before being sent to the press, is evident from a dir ct allusion to a book publi-hed in the same yea an allusion which brought down on him such a shower of abuse that it may have prevented him from ever publicly acknowledging the author- ship of his Characters.

Early in 1615 a book by John Stephens of Lincoln's Inn had been published, under the title of ' Satyrical Essays, Characters and Others,' in which a very bitter description of ' A Common Player ' was included. The reader must be reminded that, three years earlier, Thomas Heywood had triumphantly dis- posed of the objections raised by Puritanical prejudice against the Quality in his 'Apology tor Actors ' ; in 1615. however, the con- troversy had been revived with a ' Refuta- tion of the Apology ' (by J. G.), and so foul was John Stephens's abuse that it called forth a sharp retort from a friend of the stage players. So, in the character of ' An Excellent Actor ' (meant as a repre- sentation of Richard Burbage), the dignity of the profession was vindicated by Webster, while he made a direct allusion to Stephens in the following words :

" Therefore the imitating Characterist was extreame idle in calling them Rogues. His Muse it seemes, with all his loud invocation, could not be wak't to light him a snuffe to read the Statute : for I would let his malicious ignorance understand, that rogues are not to be imploide as maine orna- ments to his Maiesties Revels ; but the itch of bestriding the Presse, or getting up on this wooden Pacolet, hath defil'd more innocent paper, the ever did Laxative physicke : yet is their inven-

' Malcontent ' (IV. ii.), a play to which Webster may havf contributed some passages, and from which he took several phrases.
 * This simile is borrowed from Marston's

well acquainted with Florio's Montaigne, whose intluence over Webster was proved at full length by MR. CHARLES CRAWFORD.
 * The author of the 42 Characters of 1615 was