Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/89

12 S. I. JAN. 29, 1916. J

NOTES AND QUERIES. In Act III. sc. ii. the King (Fernando) endeavours to debauch the chaste Maria. This scene is typical of Dekker. The foiling of a royal or noble profligate's designs upon a virtuous woman was at this time his stock tragic motif. He uses it again in 'Satiromastix ' and in 'Westward Hoe.' Not only so, but the King in 'Satiromastix' and the Earl in 'Westward Hoe' employ the same machinations to compass their evil designs. In both these plays, as in 'Lust's Dominion,' music and a banquet are provided to add to the allurements of speech—absurdly enough in the present play, since Maria has been roused from her bed in the dead of night. Note also that it is by means of a soporific drug that Maria foils the King. This is a favourite device of Dekker's, appearing again not only in the kindred scenes of 'Satiromastix' and 'Westward Hoe,' but in 'Old Fortunatus' (III. ii.) and the First Part of 'The Honest Whore' (I. iii.). In 'Lust's Dominion' Maria administers the draught to the King; in 'Satiromastix' and 'Westward Hoe' it is the woman who takes the "somniferous potion," the sight of her supposed dead body inspiring the royal or noble lover with shame and remorse.

If this scene (excluding the few lines introducing Oberon and the fairies at the close) is carefully compared with 'Satiromastix,' V. ii. (Belles Lettres edition), and 'Westward Hoe,' IV. ii., its authorship will at once become apparent.

Two parallels with other works of Dekker are worth noting:—

Maria's speech:

For by beholding you my glory dies.

and 'Old Fortunatus,' III. i.:

Dead is my love, I am buried in her scorn, That is my sunset.

The drugged King exclaims:

the cold hand of sleep Hath thrust his icy fingers in my breast,

in words echoing those of Shakespeare in 'King John':

And none of you will bid the winter come To thrust his icy fingers in my maw. Act V. sc. vii.

a parallel noted by Hazlitt. What is more interesting for our purpose is that Dekker uses the same metaphor again in 'The Gull's Horn-book,' chap. iii.:

If the morning. . . .waxing cold, thrust his frosty fingers into thy bosom ;

and 'The Seven Deadly Sins of London' (Camb. Univ. Press reprint, p. 81) : . /. .he into whose bosom threescore winters have thrust their frozen fingers.

When we come to the next scene (III. iii.) the unmistakable rhythm of Dekker may be detected in Maria's dying utterance : Heaven, ope your windows, that my spotless soul,. Riding upon the wings of innocence, May enter Paradise.

This should be compared with the invoca- tions of music already quoted, and with the dying Susan' s speech in ' The Witch of Edmonton,' III. iii. :

my soul's purity

Shall with bold wings ascend the doors of Mercy ; ;

and also with the lines in Act I. sc. i. of ' Old Fortunatus ' :

Thy Heaven-inspired soul, on Wisdom's wings, Shall fly up to the Parliament of Jove.

When the King wakes and discovers that Maria is dead, he exclaims :

O my dear love ! Yet heavens can witness thou wert never mine,.

in words that recall the opening lines "of Hammon's speech ('The Shoemaker's Holi- day,' IV. i.) as he watches Jane at work : there my fair love sits ;

She's fair and lovely, but she is not mine.

In Act V. sc. v. the reference to ratsbane :

these dignities,

Like poison, make men swell; this ratsbane

honour,

O, 'tis so sweet ! they'll lick it till all burst, is Dekker' s. Compare ' The Whore of Babylon ' (Pearson, ii. 210) : If the sweet bane I lay be swallowed, oh ! a kingdom bursts.

Finally, in Eleazar's last speech in the play (V. vi.) we have one of Dekker' s numer- ous metaphorical allusions to the raising up of spirits within a magic circle from which they cannot stray : May'st thou, lascivious queen, whose damned

charms

Bewitch'd me to the circle of thy arms, Unpitied die;

with which we may compare ' Old For- tunatus,' III. i. :

If by the sovereign magic of thine eye Thou canst enchant his looks to keep the circle Of thy fair cheeks, be bold to try their charms.

Apart from these passages, Dekker' s hand is evidenced by certain peculiarities of style and the use of some of his favourite words and expressions. One of his most noticeable mannerisms is his habit of itera- ting words and phrases, often three or four - times over. He indulges in this trick to a far greater extent than any of his con- temporaries, who, as a rule, affect triple or fourfold repetitions only as a conventional means of indicating mental distraction or madness. There are several of these charac- teristic repetitions in this play- e.g. "away^.