Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/366

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. XL MAY s, 1915.

From 'A Worthy Commander in the IVarres ' :

(a) He holds it next his creed that no coward can be an honest man, and dare die in 't.

(6) He doth not thinke his body yeelds a more spreading shadow after a victory then before ....

(e) He knowes the hazard of battels, not the pompe of ceremonies, are souldiers best theaters.

(d) ... .never is he knowne to slight the weak'st enemy that comes arm'd against him in the hand of justice.

From Sidney's ' Arcadia ' : (d) ... .think not lightly of never so weak'an arm, which strikes with the hand of justice.

Book III. (Routledge, p. 35-1).

From Webster : (a) Let me continue

An honest man ; which I am very certain A coward cannot be.* ' D.L.C.,' V. iv.

(&) Who knew his humble shadow spread no more After a victory than it did before.

' A Monumental Column,' 11. 76-7. (c) Who knew that battles, not the gaudy show Of ceremonies, do on kings bestow Best theatres. Ibid., 11. 90-92.

(d) Who found weak numbers conquer arru'd

with right. Ibid., 1. 75.

(d) The weakest arm is strong enough, that strikes with the sword of justice.

' D.M.,' V. ii. (ii. 269). From ' An Intruder into Favour ' :

(a) He knowes the art of words so well that (for shrowding dishonesty under a faire pretext) he seems to preserve nmd in chrystall.

(b) If ever he doe good deed.... his mouth is the chronicle of it.

(c) Debts he owes none but shrewd turns, and those he payes ere he be sued.

(d) He is a flattering-glass to conceal age and wrinkles.

(e) ... .when he is falling, hee goes of himselfe faster than misery can drive him.

From Sidney's * Arcadia.' :

(a) ... .as if he would carry mud in a chest of crystal. Book II. (Routledge, p. 173).

(e) Antiphilus, that had no greatness but out- ward, that taken away was ready to fall faster than calamity could thrust him.

Book II. (p. 271).

From Webster : (&) You

Are your own chronicle too much.

'D.M.,' III. i. <c) He never pays debts unless they be shrewd

turns, And those he will confess that he doth owe.

' D.M.,' I. ii. (Hazlitt, ii. 165).

I find this again in one of the ' Epigrams ' of Sir John Davies ('Poems of Sir John Davies ' ed. Grosart, 1876, vol. ii. p. 41) : IN SILL AM. When I this proposition had defended,

" A coward cannot be an honest man," Thou. Silla, seem'st forthwith to be offended, And holds the contrary, and sweares he can.

(d) Let all sweet ladies break their flattering- glasses. ' D.M.,' I. ii. (Hazlitt, ii. 165).

Now it seems thy greatness was only out- ward ;

For thou fall'st faster of thyself, than calamity Can drive thee. ' D.M.,' V. v. (ii. 278).

From ' A Distaster of the Time ' :

Any man's advancement is the most capital offence that can be to his malice.

From Sidney's ' Arcadia ' : . . . .advancement, the most mortal offence to envy. Book II. (Routledge, p. 168).

From ' An Improvident Young Gallant ' :

(a) If all men were of his mind, all honesty would be out of fashion.

(b) He is travelled, but to little purpose ; only went over for a squirt, and came back againe, yet never the more mended in his conditions, 'cause he carried himselfe along with him.

From FJorio's * Montaigne ' :

(b) It was told Socrates that one was no whit

amended by his travell ; I believe it well (saith

he) for he carried himselfe with him.

' Essays,' Book I. c. xxxviii. From Webster :

(a) If he laugh heartily, it is to laugh

All honesty out of fashion.

' D.M.,' I. ii. (Hazlitt, ii. 164). (b) I have known many travel far from it

[honesty],

And yet return as arrant knaves as they went forth Because they carried themselves always along

with them. 'D.M.,' I. i. (Hazlitt, ii. 159).

In considering the significance of these parallels between the ' New Characters ' of 1615 and Webster's works, a distinction must be drawn between the parallels afforded by 'The White Devil,' 'The Duchess of Malfy,' and 'A Monumental Column,' i.e., the works printed or performed before that year, and those contained in ' The Devil's Law Case ' and ' A Cure for a Cuckold,' which were written after it. ' The Devil's Law Case,' written after these ' Characters ' were published, clear Jy borrows from them from ' A Worthy Commander,' ' A Water- man,' ' A Vertuous Widdow,' ' A French Cooke,' and perhaps others. If the parallels as a whole are to be taken as implying Webster's authorship of the 1615 ' Cha- racters,' we must assume that he repeated passages from ' The White Devil,' ' The Duchess of Malfy,' and ' A Monumental Column ' when he wrote the ' Characters,' and that subsequently in writing ' The Devil's Law Case ' he" repeated passages from his own ' Characters.' In support of this conjecture BAIION BOURGEOIS remarks that Webster repeatedly borrowed phrases, lines, and sentences, not only from other