Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 6.djvu/155

 12 8. VI. Anm. 17, 1920.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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Giovanni. That you would please To take occasion to move the duke, &c.

Again, in Act III., sc. i., of the same play, Fiorinda begs a favour of the Duke of Florence :- - w - th your highness > pardon,

I am a suitor to you.

Duke. Name it, madam. With confidence to obtain it.

Fiorinda. That you would please To lay a strict command on Charamonte, &c. But it is in ' Henry VIII.' in the scene where Queen Katharine petitions the King on behalf of his over-taxed subjects that we find the most significant resemblance :

Q. Kath'trhic. Nay, we must longer kneel. I am a suitor.

Kinp Repeat your will and lake n.

Q. Kath. Thank your majesty: That ?/" i-o"ld love yourself, and in that love Not nnconsider'd leave your honour, &c.

I pass over several other suggestions of Massinger in this scene, and come to Act II. At the beginning of the act we find Gaspero expatiating on the beauty and accomplish- ments of Erota. At line 23 he observes :

Her beauty is superlative, she knows it. Similarly when, in the first scene of ' The Duke of Milan,' Stephano says of Marcelia :

She's indeed A lady of most exquisite form.

Tiberio remarks :

She knows it.

and again, in ' The Custom of the Country,' II. i. (Massinger), Manuel says of Duarte :

'tis most true

That he's an excellent scholar, and he knows it. Gaspero concludes his encomium of the princess thus :

whate'er her heart thinks, she utters : And so boldly, so readily, as you would judge It penn'd and studied.

" Penn'd " and ' ; studied " are both charac- teristic words of Massinger's vocabulary, and several times in his acknowledged works he uses them, as here, in close association,

e '9" ....ere I can Speak a penn'd speech I have bought and studied

for her. ' The Bondman,' II. m.

Some curate hath penn'd this invective, mongrel, And you have studied it.

' New Way to pay Old Debts, I. i.

In the latter part of the act, from Erota' s entry onwards, there is scarcely a hint of Massinger and much of it cannot possibly be his. The first two scenes of Act III. are not his either, but the third bears obvious signs of his workmanship, e.g., in the second speech of Philander : O, Madam, pour not (too fast) joys on me. But sprinkle 'em so gently I may stand em.

Compare ' The Bashful Lover,' III. iii. :

Oh, I am overwhelm'd

With an excess of joy ! Be not too prodigal, Divinest lady, of your grace and bounties, At once ; if 'you are pleased, I shall enjoy them,- Not taste them, and expire. and ' The Bondman,' IV. iii. :

Stay, best lady,

And let me by degrees ascend the height Of human happiness ! all at once deliver'd, The torrent of my joys will overwhelm me. A few lines later we find : -

Erota. Nay, but hear me !

Philander. More attentively than to an Oracle.

which again suggests Massinger. Cf. in 'The Great Duke of Florence' (end of

All you speak, sir, I hear as oracles. ' The Prophetess ' (end of IV. ii.) :

Delphia use those blessings that the gods

pour on you With moderation.

Diodes. As their Oracle I hear you, and obey you.

Act IV., sc. i., is at least partly Massinger's. Antinous in his first speech addresses Hyparcha as :- your gelf

Who are all excellence.

and it will be observed that in the next scene Ferdinand says to Annophel :

Thou art all virtue.

Similar expressions occur frequently in,' Massinger's acknowledged works, e.g. : She is all excellence, as you are all baseness. ' The Roman Actor,' IV. i.

you are all beauty, Goodness, and virtue.

' The Maid of Honour,' V. ii.

you, that are all mercy.

' New Way to pay Old ]Debts,' iV. iii.

On the entry of Decius, Antinous exclaims : O welcome, friend ; if I apprehend not Too much of joy, there's comfort in thy looks, and in ' A New Way to pay Old Debts ' (V. i.) Overreach greets Parson Willdo's : entrance with :

Welcome, most welcome ! There's comfort in thy looks.

These phrases are not of a very distinctive kind, but they at least raise some presump- tion in Massinger's favour, and this is con- firmed by another passage at the end of the scene where Gonzalo says of Cassilanes :

I build upon his ruins already. Compare : shall he build

Upon my ruins ?

' The Picture,' III. i.

.... but once resolve To build upon her ruins.

' The Emperor of the East,' IV. i.