Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/490

 484

NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. n. DEC. ie, 1916.

PEELE'S AUTHORSHIP OF ALPHOXSUS:

OF CKKMAXY:

(See ante, p. 464.)

PEELE is notably diffuse in his style, often using two or three almost synonymous verbs or adjectives in conjunction, and obviously employing words or phrases merely for the purpose of filling up a line. As an illustra- tion of this we may note the addition of the superfluous words " in the (this, that) cause " at the end of a line : "Then may I speak my conscience in the cause. Hattlc of Alcazar,' II. ii. 22.

Your wisdoms would be silent in that cause.

' Edward I.,' xxv. 61.

Other examples might be quoted from ' The Arraignment of Paris.' I cannot find that this trick is characteristic of any cf Peele's contemporaries. But we have two v lines of this sort in ' Alphonsus ' : Now speak, and speak to purpose in the cause.

Act I. p. 202.

We do admire your wisdoms in this cause.

Act II. p. 213.

Such a small point as this may seem hardly worthy of notice, but trifling peculiarities of style are often quite as useful in determining a question of authorship as striking parallel- isms of phrase, such as that between the following line of ' Alphonsus ' : And fill'd thy beating veins with stealing joy.

Act III. p. 245.

and ' The Arraignment of Paris,' II. i. 176 : To ravish all thy beating veins with joy.

So obvious a resemblance is as con- sistent with a supposition of plagiarism as with identity of authorship, and it is necessary therefore to examine the play carefully as a whole with a particular eye to such correspondences of phrase or pecu- liarities of style as cannot reasonably be supposed to be due to plagiarism.

A phrase several times repeated in ' Alphonsus ' is " kill my heart " : O me, the name of Father kills my heart.

P. 212. But grief thereof hath almost kill'd my heart.

P. 226. 'The sound whereof did kill his dastard heart.

P. 281.

Once the word " slay " is used : My body lives although my heart be slain.

P. 252.

When we find this expression four times in this one play, we should naturally expect it to be used elsewhere by Peele, if the play is

his. Nevertheless, we should not be justified in drawing any inference from the circum- stance that it nowhere occurred in his acknowledged plays ; for though we often find that a dramatist of this period will use some pet phrase in one after another of his plays, it is by no means unusual to find that he will repeat a phrase over and over again in the course of a single pl a y> and yet never once use it elsewhere. If ' Edward I.' had not survived we should not have known that such an expression as " kill my heart " or " slay my heart " was ever used by Peele. But twice in that play we have " slay my heart " : How this proud humour slays my heart with grief!

x. mo.

. . . .this wonder needs must wound thy breast, For it hath well-nigh slain my wretched heart.

xxv. 165-6.

In Act V. of ' Alphonsus ' the Emperor alludes to the Empress as That venomous serpent nurst within my breast To suck the vital blood out of my veins. P. 269

" Vital blood " occurs twice in Peele's ' David and Bethsabe ' : And to our swords thy vital blood shall cleave.

ii. 45. Her beauty, having seiz'd upon my heart,

Sets now such guard about his vital blood.

iii. 14.

It is so unusual that its ccr-virrence in ' Titus Andronicus ' (V. i. 39) has been noted as a probable indication of Peele's hand in that play. It is important to notice that the words used in ' Alphonsus ' are " suck the vital blood," for it is again in ' David and Bethsabe ' alone of Peele's acknowledged works that the expression " to suck one's blood " is used, and here it occurs three times :

To suffer pale and grisly abstinence

To. . . .suck away the blood that cheers his looks.

iii. 6-8. Thou art the cause these torments suck my blood.

viii. 4. Now sit thy sorrows sucking of my blood.

xv. 192.

A few other less important correspondences may be grouped together :

1. In Act II. of ' Alphonsus ' the Bishop of Mentz addresses Prince Edward as

Brave Earl, wonder of princely patience.

In ' The Battle of Alcazar ' (II. iv. 93) Stukeley calls King Sebastian Courageous King, the wonder of my thoughts.

2. In Act II. of ' Alphonsus ' (Palsgrave's final speech) we find :

. . . .the better to dive into the depth Of this most devilish murderous complot.