Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 9.djvu/253

 12 s. ix. SEPT. 10, i92i.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 203 of that play. Had it not been for this pas- write will be dangerous to him." When sage I should have been disposed to date j it afterwards appears that it is his signature ' Anything for a Quiet Life ' before Webster I to the deed which is required, George Cres- and Rowley's comedy, since it shows more j singham exclaims : indebtedness to Sidney's ' Arcadia ' and i sj r> I do now ingeniously perceive why you said Overbury's ' Characters,' thus suggesting | lately somewhat I should write would be my a date nearer that of ' The Devil's Law Case.' j undoing. Moreover, it does not borrow from Thomas | ^ The Devil's Law Case ' we have " in- Hey wood's vocabulary as 'A Cure' un- genuously perceive " but with the same mean- questionably does a feature which (though i ^ for ingenious " and " ingenuous ' r not to the same extent) it possesses in com- j were at tms t^ U sed indiscriminately mon with ' Appius and Virginia,' apparently Here again the reference is to the perception the latest of Webster's dramas.* Perhaps o f the significance of an obscure observation the passage is an interpolation, or it may i Qontarino has asked Leonora for her pic- To-for 4-.f orTY%cx in fit rl fin-i". 'f.TiQ'f: cmrrnr^C'hArl f.VlA i j it _ i - j _ i j i i refer to some incident that suggested the ^.^ arxd he cred jt s her with superhuman intelligence, for he assumes that she has fathomed his real meaning, which is that he wishes to marry her daughter : She has. . . ingenuously perceiv'd sub-plot of the Webster-Rowley play. Act III., sc. i. The disagreeable story of the Knavesbys and Lord Beaufort is here resumed, the three intervening scenes (showing no vestige of Webster's style) being concerned with a dishonest prank played upon Water -Camlet, the mercer, by Franklin junior and Sir : Francis Cressingham' s son. A feeble quibble occurring in the dialogue between Mistress Knavesby and Mistress George Cressingham That by her picture, which I begg'd of her, fa I meant the fair Jolenta. D.L.C.,' I. i. (III. 16). p. 472. The son begs his father not to dis inherit him simply to indulge his step- mother's whim, bidding him think how compassionate the creatures of the field that only live on the wild benefits of nature, (disguised as Lord Beaufort's page) may i ^ n ^ S y^ onS. serve as a definite mark of Webster's hand in this scene : p. 456. Mistress Knavesby : I could kiss you now, spite of your teeth, if it please me. Mistress Geo. Cressingham : But you could not, for I could bite you with the spite of my teeth, if it pleases me. Compare, in the dialogue between Raymond and Clare in ' A Cure for a Cuckold,' III. iii. : Raymond : I do love you in spite of your heart. Clare : Believe it, There was never a fitter time to express it, For my heart has a great deal of spite in it. Act IV., sc. i. There are plenty of indications of Web- For the " wild benefits of nature " Webster is indebted to the ' Arcadia,' Book IV. Speak- ing of "a rascal company of rebels " who have sought refuge in some woods, Sidney says that . . . as they were in the constitution of their minds little better than beasts, so they were apt to degenerate to a beastly kind of life, having now framed their gluttonish stomachs to have for food the ivild benefits of nature. Webster had previously made good use 01 this phrase. Applied in the same way as in this play, it comes still more effectively from the lips of the unfortunate Duchess of Malfy : The birds that live i' th' field On the wild benefit of nature, live Happier than we ; for they may choose their mates. 'D.M.,' III. v. (II. 225). It is only one of several instances in ster's hand here. p. 471. In order to comply with Lady ('icssingham's wish that he shall sell his lands, it is necessary that Sir Francis shall obtain the concurrence of his son, who which Webster h as used a passage adapted must join in the conveyance to bar his | from the Arcadia ' in more than OIie lay . Lg * ? u succ ? ssion - Sir Francis being D e first drew attention to these parallels. Webster s puppets, cannot tell his son Had 'Anything for a Quiet Life' been n plain language what it is that he wishes wholl the work of Middleton, it would have He must first mystify him by been difficu i t to account for them, for this marking that somewhat that he should : play is later than < The Duchess of Malfy ;, and Middleton was not in the habit of bor- nt attempts to prove that this plav was ! - vritten by Heywood have in no way shaken my rowing phrases either from the Arcadia belief in Webster's authorship. ; or from the works of his friends.