Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 5.djvu/233

 12 S. V. SEPT., 1919.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

227

jargon, there is nothing very distinctive in the vocabulary of his plays. In view of its traditional association with his name little more in the way of internal evidence will be required to complete the proof of his authorship of 'The Revenger's Tragedy.' It will doubtless be sufficient to draw atten- tion to the following points :

1 The author of ' The Revenger's Tragedy,' besides riming "another" with "mother," " brother " with " mother," " others " with " mothers," and " brother " with " t'other," twice rimes " brother " with " another " :

Vendice. Come, mother, sister : you'll bring me onward, brother ?

Hippolito. I will.

Vendice. I'll quickly turn into another.

1. 1. tV,Ld

I rise just in that place, Where thou'rt cut off ; upon thy neck, kind

brother ; The falling of one head lifts up another.

III. i. 385.

This "brother" "another" rime occurs also in ' The Atheist's Tragedy ' :

.... gentle love and noble courage are So near allied, that one begets another ; Or Love is sister, and Courage is the brother.

I. iv. 260.

2. In ' The Atheist's Tragedy,' I. i., Borachio sententiously observes :

Wealth is lord Of all felicity, and D'Amville replies :

'Tis oracle.* For what's a man that's honest without wealth ?

So in ' The Revenger's Tragedy ' (end of IV. i.) when Lussurioso remarks to the nobles of the Duke's court :

What in us

Would appear light, in him [i.e., the Duke] seems virtuous.

the " 3rd Noble " answers : '2'is oracle, my lord.

3. In ' The Atheist's Tragedy,' I. ii. 251, Belforest observes to Charlemont that no time should be employed in compliments, But what our serious business will admit,

ghost of Montferrers as
 * and at IV. iii. 316, D'Amville speaks of the

A fool unfit to be employed in

Any serious business for the state of hell.

Compare, in I. ii. of ' The Revenger's Tragedy ' (last speech of the Duke) : About it, then, my lords, with your best powers ; More serious business calls upon our hours.

4. In ' The Atheist's Tragedy,' IV. iii. 312, Castabella, on hearing the vile proposals of the " atheist " D'Amville, exclaims : O patient Heaven ! Why dost thou not express Thy wrath in thunderbolts, to tear the frame Of man in pieces ? How can earth endure The burthen of this icickedness without An earthquake ? Or the angry face of Heaven Be not inflamed with lightning ?

Compare with this Vendice' s outburst in ' The Revenger's Tragedy,' II. i. 372 : Why does not Heaven turn black, or with a froivn Undo the world ? Why does not earth start up , And strike the sins that tread upon't ? and again (IV. ii. 411) :

thou almighty patience ! 'tis my wonder That such a fellow, impudent and wicked, Should not be cloven as he stood ;

Is there no thunder left ; or is't kept up In stock for heavier vengeance ?

So far as the language of the two plays is concerned, this is the only striking parallel

1 can find. But there can scarcely be any question as to its significance.

Now for the evidence as to ' The Second Maiden's Tragedy.' Though in ' The Atheist's Tragedy ' and ' The Revenger's Tragedy ' we find the same atmosphere of vice and corruption, the same ingenuity in devising horrible situations and morbid satisfaction in revealing the uttermost depths of depravity, there is no close resemblance so far as their plots are con- cerned. But it is different with ' The Second Maiden's Tragedy.' This contains a gro- tesquely horrible incident the painting by Govianus of the lips and face of his dead wife with poison as a means of revenge upon the Tyrant who has sought to supplant him in her affections all but identical with a device appearing in ' The Revenger's Tragedy,' where Vendice wreaks vengeance upon the ravisher of his dead mistress by poisoning the lips of her skull. And there are other significant points of resemblance in the plots of these two plays. As Dr. Stoll has pointed out,* Helvetius's endeavour to persuade his daughter to yield to the ad- vances of the Tyrant (' S.M.T.,' II. i.) and Votarius's tempting of the wife of his friend Anselmus at the latter's instigation (' S.M.T.,' IV. i.) together contain all the elements of Vendice' s temptation of his mother and sister (' R.T.,' II. i.). Helvetius's conversion by his daughter and son-in-law ('S.M.T.,' II. i.) is remarkably like the conversion of


 * The punctuation of the Mermaid edition,
 * ' 'Tis, oracle " is obviously incorrect.

(Plays of) the Revenge Type ' in his ' John Webster,' pp. 114-5.
 * See the ' Sketch of the Development of