Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/163

 ii 8. xii. AUG. 28, i9i5.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

155

we have the following eloquent entry in the chaplain's Diary :

" 1. October 1804. In Camp Sullivan's Cove. The Articles of War were read by Capt. Lieut. Sladdeii acting as adjutant. After the parade a court martial was held by order of Lieut. Govr. Col. Collins of the Royal Marines upon a private [blank] Woolley. At 5 P.M. the military assem- bled at the parade and marched off to the place of punishment. [Blank] Woolley was sentenced to receive 200 lashes for drinking with a convict named [blank] Plunket. Each of which men received one 100 each. N.B. The Lieut. Govr. <fc Lt. Col. of the Royal Marines the same morn lasted with a convict & his wife by the name of Matthew Powers. She always lives at the Col.' 8 table."

The name of Lieutenant Lord does not occur again the Diary after the angry scene with the Governor, but evidently his breach of discipline was not followed by serious consequences as, according to James Bon- wick's ' Discovery and Settlement of Port Phillip ' (Melbourne, 1856), when the Governor died at Hobart Town in March, 1810, he was followed in the government of the Colony by Lieutenant Edw^arcl Lord of the Royal Marines.

With the help of the MS. before me I am able also to solve a mystery of " figures " which puzzled the annotator and editor of the government publication.

On 9 June, 1803, we find the following entry on the outward voyage :

" At i past 11 we crossed the equinoctial line or Equator.

" L. observed 35."

" L." in this case evidently stands for " Longitude " and not " Lat." as printed in the official publication. L. L. K.

A WKBSTER-MASSINGER PLAY.

' THE FAIR MAID OF THE INN.'

(See ante, p. 134.)

ACT III. so. i.

WITH this scene we return to the Host, Hostess, and Biancha. All the first part of the scene (with the exception of a single speech from Biancha) is in prose, and is clearly Webster's. With the entry of Forobosco and the Clown the prose changes to \vrse, and here the quarrel between these two is strongly reminiscent of the scene in ' Tin- Duchess of Malfy ' immediately follow- ing the murder of the Duchess, where Duke Ferdinand quarrels with Bosola :

I-'ur<>bosco. ....I discharge thee

From my s.-rvi<-c : .svr ine no more henceforth.

Cti.irn. Discharge me! Is that my year's

I'll not be so answer'd.

Foro. Not, Camel ? Sirrah, / a m liberal to thee f Thou hast thy life, be gone.

Compare ' The Duchess of Malfy,' IV. ii. :

Bosola. I challenge

The reward due to my service. Ferd. I'll tell thee

What I'll give thee.

Bosola. Do.

Ferd. I'll give thee a pardon For this murder.

Bosola. Ha !

Ferd. Yes, and 'tis The largest bounty I can study to do thee.

Never look upon me more.

IV. ii. (ii. 249)..

After a dance, in which a tailor, a dancery a m.ule-driver, a schoolmaster, and a clerk all suitors for the hand of Biancha take part, Cesario enters, and Forobosco and the dancers depart. Then follows an interview in verse between Cesario and Biancha. Here we may note :

Cesario. Cans't thou love ?

Biancha. Love ! Is there such a word in any

language That carries honest sense ?

With which we may compare Ferdinand's speech in ' The Duchess of Malfy,' III. ii. (which is, by the way, almost a literal tran- script of another passage from Gynecia's speech at the beginning of Book II. of the ' Arcadia ') :

Virtue, where art thou hid ? what hideous thing Is it that doth eclipse thee ? Or is it true that thou art but a bare name And no essential thing ?

(Hazlitt, ii. 208.)

ACT III. so. ii.

That this is substantially Massinger's is clear, not only from, the style of the verse, but from the presence of several of Massinger's characteristic self -repetitions. Mr. Boyle attributes it entirely to Massinger, but there are one or two slight but significant sugges- tions of Webster's hand. The first of these is in the words used by Mariana when asked by the Duke to " deliver her aggrievances " :

Though divided

I stand between the laws of truth and modesty, Yet let my griefs have vent ....

. . . .the burthen

Of my charg'd soul must be laid down before you ; Wherein, if strict opinion cancel shame, My frailty is my plea.

There can be little doubt that " if strict opinion counsel shame," Deighton's con- jectural emendation, is the correct reading here. Deighton (who did not, of course, suspect Webster's hand in this play) sup- ports his conjecture by comparing 'Leonora's words iii ' The Devil's Law Case,' IV. ii.