Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/511

 12 s. ii. DEC. 23, 1916.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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Convey 11ic.sc princes to their funeral: Before them le.t a hundred mourners ride. In every time of their enforced abodo. Hear up a cross in token of their worth, Whereon fair Elinor's picture shall be placed. Arrived at London near our palace-bounds, Inter my lovely Elinor, late deceased ; And in remembrance of her royalty, Erect a rich and stately carved cross, Whereon her stature shall with glory shine.

' Edward I.,' xxv. 234-47.

With Mr. Robertson's suggestion, that ' Alphonsus ' the English portion of the text shows traces of other hands than Peele's, I do not agree. There are doubtless one or two words and phrases somewhat suggestive of Greene or Marlowe, but then Peele was an imitative writer. Mr. Robert- sou says that the opening scene of the play can hardly be Peele's. It is, on the contrary, this very scene that most plainly bears his stamp. In the Emperor's first speech there is a passage, referring to Lorenzo : ... .1, not muffled in simplicity,

Haste to the augur of my happiness,

To lay the ground of my ensuing wars.

He learns his wisdom, not by flight of birds,

M'.l /"'.'/'".'/ into sacrificed beasts,

By hares that cross the way, by howling wolves,

By gazing on the starry element,

Or vain imaginary calculations ;

But from a settled wisdom in itself

Which teacheth to be void of passion,

for which a parallel of the most striking kind is to be found in sc. xv. of ' David and Bethsabe ' :

Thou power

That now art framing of the future world, Know'st all to come, not by the course of heaven, By frail conjectures of inferior signs, My monstrous floods, by flights and flocks of birds, Ji>j bowels of a sacrificed beast Or by the figures of some hidden art; But by a true and natural presage, l.mjiny the ground and perfect architect Of all our actions now before thine eyes.

With this evidence before us it is scarcely necessary to note one of Peele's characteris- tically I'fpi'titive lines in the next long speech of Alphonsus :

They ward, they watch, they cast and they con- spire. P. 202.

with which we may compare ' Edward I.,' v. 3:

They fear, they fly, they faint, they fight in vain,

or the following lines from the same

speech :

Thou knowest how all things stand as well as we,

Why xvi.ids.'and who by force of arms. \,-.

P. 202.

which should be compared with another passage from the scene of ' David and

Bethsabe ' from which I have just quoted :

It would content me, father, first to learn How the Eternal framed the firmament ; Which bodies lend their influence by fire, And which are fill'd with hoary winter's ice ; What sign is rainy, and what star is fair, c.

xv. 11. 74-8.

The more closely one examines the play the more palpable do the marks of Peele's hand become, and they are nowhere more- evident than in this first scene.

The German dialogue, however, of which there is a considerable quantity, presents a real difficulty. One of the characters (the Princess Hedewick, daughter of the Duke of Saxony) is made to speak German through- out. There are also many passages that reveal an intimate knowledge of the domestic life and political institutions of Germany.. Nowhere else does Peele display the slightest acquaintance with the German- language or German customs. The play was revived on May 5, 1636, at the Blackfriars " for the Queen and Prince Elector.' ' Doubt- less, as Mr. Fleay conjectures, it was selected for performance on account of the Teutonic part in it. One is tempted to suggest that some person conversant with the German language may have been commissioned to revise the play for the express purpose of this revival. Perhaps some one familiar with the older German literature may be able to say whether the German portion of the text was written in 1636 or forty or fifty years earlier. If it is contemporaneous with the remainder of the text it would seem difficult to escape the conclusion that a German writer, or some Englishman who had lived in Germany, assisted Peele in the composition of the play. H. DUGDALE SYKES.

Enfield.

CASANOVA IN ENGLAND. (See 10 S. viii. 443, 491 ; ix. 116; xi. 437; 11 S. ii. 386; iii. 242 ; iv. 382, 461 ; v. 123, 484 ; 12 S. L 121, 185, 285, 467.) Casanova men- tions " une cantatrice au theatre de Haymarket " named Calori, and describes how she and Giardini, the director of the Opera - House, managed to prevail upon the importunate husband from whom* she was separated to betake himself to the Continent (Gamier, vi. 478-80). It is often difficult to identify the performers at the King's Theatre in the Haymarket. Contemporary newspapers did not advertise- the cast, as in the case cf Drury Lane and Covent Garden. Genest's ' Account ' of