Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/208

 166 NOTES AND QUERIES. [i2s.viii.F E B.2G,io2i. as found again in 'The Queen of Corinth, Jll-.i. : Five fair descents I can decline myself From fathers worthy both in arts and arms. and with the couplet that concludes one of Cornelius's speeches in the latter half 6f the scene : Yet when dogs bark, or when the asses bray, "The lion laughs ; not roars, but goes his way. compare the observation of Crates in 'The Queen of Corinth,' III. i. : . . f .the lion should not ' Tremble to hear the bellowing of the bull. In sc. ii. there is the speech of Dorigen -containing the striking parallel with that of Euphanes in IV. ii. of 'The Queen of 'Corinth ' already noted. In se. iii. Dorigen uses the word " ante- .-date " in the sense of "anticipate " : Yet why kneel I For pardon, having been but over-diligent Like an obedient servant, antedating jVly lords command ? So also Euphanes in ' The Queen of Corinth, III. i. :- You need not thank me, Conon, in your love You antedated what I can do for you. The word is not used by Beaumont. In 'The Triumph of Love,' just before Gerrard's entry in sc. ii., Benvoglio says to Ferdinand : Thy person and thy virtues in one scale Shall poise hers, with her beauty and her wealth -compare, in IV. iii. of 'The Queen of Oorinth ' : . . . .when in the scales, Nature and fond affection weigh together, One poises like a feather. A little later on in sc. ii. we have the rare .adjective "antipathous " : . . . .doth thy friendship play Lest gladness suffocate me ? which appears again in 'The Queen of Corinth,' III. ii. : She extends her hand As if she saw something antipathous Unto her virtuous life .and in the last scene there is the almost equally uncommon adverb "jocundly " : Oh Violante ! Might my life only satisfy the law, How jocundly my soul would enter Heaven ! ^also found in 'The Queen of Corinth,' III. ii. : . . . .cast ops the casements wide 'That we may jocundly behold the sun. . Here is- enough evidence to prove that these two "Triumphs" and Acts III. .-and IV. of ' The Queen of Corinth ' are from the same hand. And it is clear also th at hey must have been composed much about the same time, probably in the same year. Apart from the parallels I have noted, they are so exactly alike in style and metre, and so much more intimately connected with one another than with any play to which Field's name is attached, that it is impossible to arrive at any other conclusion than that they were written practically contempo- raneously. If 'The Queen 'of Corinth ' cannot be dated before 1617, it is to that year, or one very close to it, that the " Four Plays in One " belong. The direct clues to Field in ' The Triumph of Honour' and' 'The Triumph of Love/ if not quite so plain as those connecting these plays with 'The Queen of Corinth,' are yet clear enough. To take first the vocabulary -test, of the words noted as characteristic of Field, we find the exclamations "pish " and "hum " and the word " transgress " in the Induc- tion; "pish" occurs again in. the second "Triumph " and "hum " thrice in the first and twice in the second. Either " continent " or "continence *' appears in all three cf Field's acknowledged plays. The latter is to be met with in sc. ii. of ' The Triumph of Love ' : .-. . .you have over-charged my breast With grace beyond my continence ; I shall bluest, in a context which suggests a passage in 'A Woman is a Weathercock,' I. i. : ... .to conceal it [a secret] Will burst your breast ; 'tis so delicious, And so much greater than the continent. "Innocency" (Field shows a marked preference for the quadrisyllable form of the word) appears twice in ' The Triumph of Love ' (sc. iv. and v.), " integrity " once in each play, and "transgress " twice in 'The Triumph of Honour,' and once in 'The Triumph of Love.' In sc. ii. of 'The Triumph of Honour 'ap- pears the " vane " metaphor. See the second speech of Martius : . . . .the wild ragp of my blood Doth ocean-iik'e o'erflow the shallow shore Of my weak virtue ; my desire's a vane That the least breath from her turns every way. It is not used by Beaumont, Fletcher or Massinger. One would expect it from the author of ' A Woman is a Weathercock,' who has it in ' The Fatal Dowry, ' II. ii. : Virtue strengthen me ! Thy presence blows round my affoetion's vane ! You will undo me if you speak again. In the same scene of ' The Triumph of El.onour ' Martius says to Dorigen : thy words r>o fall like rods upon me ; but they have Such silken lines, and silver hooks, that I Am faster snar'd.
 * In this antipathous extreme with mine