Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 6.djvu/328

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

that." He frequently uses such sentences. But in Scene 5 the evidence is varied and convincing. Middleton was fond of the adjective " comely " ; so, in ' Tinion,' we find " of comely virtues." At about the time the play was apparently written (1606-8) Middleton was employing the term " rioter " frequently. It occurs in ' Michael- mas Term,' and in ' A Trick to catch the Old One,' four times xmqualified and three times with an adjective : " noted rioter." " daily rioter," and " common rioter." In this scene he uses " sworn rioter." And how is it possible not to see in these lines :

He's truly valiant that can wisely suffer

The worst that man can breathe, and make his

wrongs His outsides, to wear them, like his raiment,

carelessly, And ne'er prefer his injuries to his heart.

the hand of the author of the following passage from ' A Fair Quarrel ' ?

O kind lieutenants,

This is the only war we should provide for, Where he that forgives largest, and sighs

strongest,

Is a tried soldier, a true man indeed, And wins the best field, makes his own heart

bleed.

If that were not enough, Middleton's authorship is almost incontestably proved by the resemblance between lines from this scene and others from ' A Chaste Maid in Cheapside,' Act V. sc. i. These are from ' Timon ' :

Alcib. Must it be so ? it must not be. My lords.

I do beseech you know me.

Sec. Sen. How ?

Alcib. Call me to your remembrances.

Third Sen. What ?

Alcib. I cannot think but your age has forgot me ;

It could not else be I should prove so base

To sue and be denied such common grace :

My ivounds ache at you.

These are from ' A Chaste Maid in Cheap - side ' :

Sir Wai. Touch me not. villain ! my wound aches at thee, Thou poison to my heart !

AHwit. He raves already :

His senses are quite gone, he knows me not. Look up, an't like your worship ; heave those

eyes,

Call me to mind ! is your remembrance left ? Look in my face.

The same association of an aching wound with anger is seen in ' Your Five Gallants ' :

Forgive me, dear boy ; my wound ached and I grew angry. iii. 3.

And a passage in Act III, sc. i. of ' Anything for a Quiet Life ' :

Le Beau. Either your eye's blinded or your remembrance broken, Call to ndnd wherefore you came hither, lady,

connects itself with both the extracts given above.

Beyond Timon's outburst at the feast, there is very little of Shakespeare in the last scene of Act III. ; but Middleton is denoted by (if nothing else) these two sentences :

My worthy friends, wil you draw near ? Push ! did you see my cap ?

This invitation to " draw near " is common to some of our old dramatists, but none uses it so often as Middleton. It is given four times in ' Timon,' and it also occurs in, among others, ' A Trick to Catch the Old One,' ' Your Five Gallants,' ' A Chaste Maid in Cheapside,' ' The Honest Whore,' and ' The Old Law,' " Push " is probably the older form of " pish." It is always so printed in Middleton's earlier works, though in the later plays the two are used in- discriminately. It is, besides, Middleton's commonest expletive.

The first scene of Act IV. is all Shake- speare's, but Middleton is seen in the beginning of scene ii. and in the speech of Flavius, after the exit of the other servants. Scene iii., again, is mainly Shakespeare'^ , though the Middleton stratum occasionally peeps through, " Beast ! Slave ! Toad ! Rogue ! " may be compared with the " Toad I Aspic ! Serpent ! Viper ! " of 'A Trick to Catch the Old One ' and the " Toad ! Pagan ! Viper ! Christian ! " of ' The Mayor of Queenborough.' The dialogue between Timon and Flavins, sometimes assigned to Shakespeare, is also Middleton's, who must be credited with the creation of the one worthy character of the play.

Shakespeare's hand is manifest in the prose opening of Act V., although this is visually put upon the other poet, and these three lines from that part of the scene recognised as Shakespeare's

He and myself

Have travailed in the great shower of your gifts, And sweetly felt it.

are surely a remnant of the earlier Middle- ton play. For the rest, I am not so sure that Middleton wrote the eight-line scene. It sounds to me more like Shakespeare's, though, indeed, a long way from his best.

There are a few minor points which may be noted. In the early plays of Middleton,