Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/450

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NOTES AND QUERIES. to. a. ix. j r 6, uu.

found in all Webster's plays, from ' The White Devil ' onwards, and may be said to be a sign-manual of the dramatist. Dr. Stoll has noted several instances of this verbal trickery, but the quotations he has selected omit some of the most characteristic examples, amongst which may be men- tioned Ferdinand's cryptic letter to the Duchess in ' The Duchess of Malfy ' :

" Send Antonio to me ; I want his head in a business .... I stand engaged to your husband for several debts at Naples : let not that trouble him ; I had rather have his heart than his money."

With this may be compared Clare's letter to Lessingham in the play now under dis- cussion. There are several other instances in ' A Cure for a Cuckold,' of which the two following may serve as examples :

Clare. He .... left with me A report had almost kill'd me.

Bonvile. What was that ?

Clare. That he had kill'd you.

Bonvile. So he has .... He has kill'd me for a friend, &c.

. . III. i. (iv. 45).

Again :

Woodroff. Where 's your friend ? . . ..

+ **

Lessingham truth is, he 's dangerously

wounded.

Woodroff. But he 's not dead, I hope.

Lessingham. No, sir, not dead, Yet sure your daughter may take liberty To choose another.

Woodroff. Why, that gives him dead.

Lessingham. Upon my life, sir, no.

/ told you he was wounded, and 'tis true

He is wounded in his reputation.

/ told you likeivise, which I am loth to repeat,

That your fair daughter might take liberty

To embrace another, &c. V. i. (iv. 87).

Dr. Stoll draw r s attention to this latter passage, and compares with it the last three lines of the second speech of Appius in the extract from ' Appius and Virginia ' given below. Strangely enough, he has over- looked the real parallel with Lessingham's speech which is contained in the speech that follows, here quoted. Appius, it should be explained, has just been chosen as one of the Decemviri, and feigns reluctance to accept the office. His refusal will entail his banishment from Rome.

Appius noble friends,

We now must part ; necessity of state

Compels it so ;

I must inhabit now a place unknown ;

You see 't compels me leave you. Fare you well.

First Cousin. To banishment, my lord ?

Appius. I am given up To a long travel full of fear and danger ;

Banish'd from all my kindred and my friends ; Yea, banish'd from myself ; for I accept This honourable calling.

Second Cousin. We are made for ever ; noble

kinsman, 'Twas but to fright us.

Appius. But, my loving kinsmen, Mistake me not ; for what I spake was true.

I told you first

I was to inhabit in a place unknown : 'Tis very certain, for this reverend seat

Receives me as a pupil

/ showed you next

I am to travel ; 'tis a certain truth. Look ! by how much the labour of the mind Exceeds the body's, so far am I bound With pain and industry, beyond the toil

Of those that sweat in war

/ told you I must leave you ; 'tis most true : Henceforth the face of a barbarian And yours shall be all one, &c.

' A. and V.,' I. i. (iii. 132-3).

The conclusion that this speech and the speech of Lessingham are by the same hand is surely irresistible.

I propose to deal with other indications of Webster's authorship in the order in which they appear in the play. The references within parentheses are to volume and page of Hazlitt's edition of Webster's works.

(i.) and it were sin

Not in our age to show what we have bin. ' C. C.,' I. i. (iv. 16).

This jingle of " sin " and " bin " pleased Webster so much that he not only introduced it into a couplet in ' The White Devil,' but repeated this couplet in ' The Duchess of Malfy ' :

'Twere fit you 'd think on what hath former bin : I have heard grief nam'd the eldest child of sin.

' W. D.,' V. i. (ii- 124).

I suffer now from what hath former bin : Sorrow is held the eldest child of sin.

' D. M.,' V. v. (ii. 279).

(ii.)

Thy dulness sads the half part of the house, And deads that spirit which thou wast wont to quicken. ' C. C.,' I. ii. (iv. 18).

The use either of " sad " or " dead " as a verb is very unusual. Both can be paral- leled from Webster's acknowledged plays :

It sads me much.

' A. and V.,' II. i. (iii. 146). . . . .here is one thing more Deads all good thoughts of him.

' D. L. C.>' V. ii. (iii. 107).

(iii.)

It may be the forgetful wine begot

Some sudden blow. ' C. C.,' III. i. (iv. 45).

Compare :

Never shall rage, or the forgetful wine, Make me confess like fault.

' W T. D.,' IV. ii. (ii. 88).

(iv.) Fight, as lawyers plead,

Who gain the best of reputation When they can fetch a bad cause smoothly off. C. C.,' III. i. (iv.)45.