Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/204

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. xn. SEPT. 11, 1915.

pianist, he was able to play his own accom- paniments ; he would not be long in the house before wo begged for a song, and he went to the piano with ready good -humour. One of our favourites was an inspiring military song from ' Le Chalet,' which is Adolphe Adam's second-best comic opera, first published in 1834.

All I can recall after the lapse of over fifty years are the following stanzas :

Dans le service de 1'Autriche

Le militaire n'est pas riche ; Chacun salt ca !

Je suis un soldat de parade,

J'ai toujours support^ mon grade ;

On peu voir ca !

After each stanza the chorus could be repeated ad Ubiium. This we boys (and girls) sang automatically, never for a moment thinking about the meaning of the words, which, when I began this note, I had entirely forgotten. I have, however, lately looked at the score, and I am surprised to find that they are as follows :

Vive le vin, 1'amour et le tabac !

Voila, voila, voila, le refrain du bivouac.

All three are now out of my creed !

RALPH THOMAS.

A WEBSTER-MASSINGER PLAY.

' THE FAIR MAID OF THE INN.'

(See ante, pp. 134, 155, 175.)

ACT V. sc. i.

APART from minor indications of Webster's phraseology note (in Cesario's first speech) :

1 humbly beg,

Since 'tis not in your power to preserve me

Any longer in a noble course of life,

Give me a worthy death.

The sentiment is derived from the ' Arcadia/

Book III. :

"for then will be the time to die nobly, when you

cannot live nobly" (Routledge,p. 419),

already utilized by Webster in ' The Devil's

Law Case,' I. ii. (iii. 25) :

There is a time left for me to die nobly,

When I cannot live so.

Alberto's advice to his son to bear his wrongs

With noble patience, the afflicted's friend Which ever in all actions crowns the end, recalls the closing couplet of ' The Duchess of Malfy ' :

Integrity of life is fame's best friend Which nobly, bevond death, shall crown the end.

Haditt, ii. 282.

Cesario replies :

I will not lose

My former virtue, my integrity Shall not yet forsake me ; but as the wild ivy Spreads and thrives better in some piteous ruin Or tower, or defac'd temple, than it does Planted by a new building ; so shall I Make my adversity my instrument To wind me up into a full content.

There is a comparison of much the same sort in ' The White Devil ' :

Antonio (to Lodovico). Have a full man within

you.

We see that trees bear no such pleasant fruit There where they grew first, as where they are new set

.... and so affliction Expresseth virtue fully. I. i. (ii. 13).

But here, Lodovico being under sen- tence of banishment, it is the fruit tree, which is said to thrive better by being trans- planted, that is chosen for the purpose of illustration.

Alberto greets Cesario's noble sentiment with

'Tis worthily resolved,

a.n expression of approval which I have already noted (see Act III. sc. ii., ante, p. 156) as typical of Webster.

ACT V. so. ii.

A prose scene, occupied entirely by dia- logue between Forobosco and the Clown.

Almost at the beginning we have :

Forobosco We must remove.

Cloicn. Whither? Foro. Any whither.

Compare :

Jolenta. Let thou and L^ wench, get as far as we can from the noise of it [i.e., the combat between Ercole and RomelioJ.

Angiolella. Whither ?

Jolenta. No matter, any whither.

1 The Devil's Law Case,' V. i. (iii. 105).

Forobosco proposes that they shall break into one of the rooms of the inn, and steal the gold and jewels of one of the guests during his absence. This, he says, " might be a means to make us live honest hereafter." " 'Tis but an ill-road to 't," observes the Clown, " that lies through the high way of thieving," an 'observation which recalls a passage in the soliloquy of 'Rochfield, "the honest thief" of 'A Cure for a Cuckold ' :

To beg is out of my way,

And borrowing is out of date. The old road, The old highway [i.e., thieving] 't must be, and

I am in't. II. i. (iv. 25).