Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/227

 s. viii. SEPT. 14, i9oi.i NOTES AND QUERIES.

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so on throughout the poem we constantly meet with conceits and phrases that can be found in almost the same form ^scattered throughout Marlowe's work. In 'Tambur- laine,' for instance, is the following :

Tamb. Like to Flora in her morning's pride, Shaking her silver tresses in the air, Rain'st on the earth resolved pearl in showers.

Part 1, V. i. p. 32, col. 2.

Compare with 'Cynthia':

And raining down resolved pearls in showers.

Arber, p. 49.

The whole of such passages in Marlowe are in the same vein, and they stand out clearly from their contexts, just as if they had once formed part of a poetical composition re- sembling the * Fragment' which Dyce quotes from 'England's Parnassus' in Marlowe's 'Works,' p. 382, and which was attributed to Marlowe by the author of the anthology. 'They seem to have been copied into the plays to give colour and tone to the speeches. It seems to me, then, that Barnfield copied his bits of Marlowe from a lost poem by the latter, written in elaboration of the song " Come live with me," &c., and that this poem may be the one that is partly known to us under the name of ' A Fragment.' Con- sequently, the 'Fragment' is, perhaps, only a portion of one of the books disowned by Barnfield. That Barnfield could have pieced together from the plays such bits of Marlowe as can be traced in his poem, and that he should have hit upon the idea of putting them into a piece which is neither more nor less than a bald imitation of Marlowe's beau- tiful song, appear to me to be propositions that are quite untenable. Neither do I think it is possible that Marlowe and Barnfield borrowed from a common source, but rather that, being struck by the popularity which his song had attained, Marlowe elaborated it with particular reference to the fable of Jupiter and Ganymede, and was then imi tated by his less-known contemporary. Mar- lowe used his ' Hero and Leander ' and his translations in the same way as I suppose him to have used the missing poem in this case. CHARLES CRAWFORD.

53, Hampden Road, Hornsey.

( To be continued. )

DANTEIANA. 1. ' INF.,' xiii. 62-3.

Fede portal al glorioso ufizio,

Tanto ch' io ne perdei lo sonno e i polsi.

a. This is a passage which affects criticism of the text as distinct from commentary on its meaning. It is mainly a question of col-

lation, and touches comment but secondarily. Yet the former depends upon the latter for finality in choice of readings. The com- mentator decides where the collator doubts. All the better if the two offices coalesce in the scholar, as in Westcott and Hort in New Testament textual criticism, 'and in Scar- tazzini, Witte, and our own Dr. Moore in 'D. C.' ditto. That this last named holds both worthily passes beyond the bounds of controversy by nis ' Contributions to Textual Criticism of the "D. C."' His indefatigable collating is only equalled by his acuteness in commenting. As an instance of both reference need only be made to p. 304 of his work, wherein he deals with the diffi- culties presented by the above lines, having examined over 200 MSS. on them besides many printed editions. His researches have resulted in the discovery of 102 MSS. which give the reading sonni e i polsi, which he very properly dismisses as "a feeble attempt to introduce uniformity with the plural polsi."

The battle seems to lie between le vene e i polsi, which has 56 MSS. in its favour, and lo sonno e i polsi (as in above text of Scar- tazzini), which is supported by only 13 MSS. There can be no reasonable doubt which way the victory should incline. Intrinsic pro- bability must decide even against weight of external evidence and the "high antiquity" of Jacopo della Lana. Le vene obscures the obvious meaning, apparently antedates Pier delle Vigne's death, and certainly destroys the charmingly suggested antithesis between sleep and activity, while lo sonno is the exact converse of all this. The professed resem- blance (and therefore likelihood) between le vene here and in 'Inf.,' i. 90, is altogether visionary. The one is metaphorical, the other literal. Bishop Serravalle's paraphrase would alone reconcile me to the interpolation : " Perdidi venas et pulsus : i.e. vigilare et dormire in sanitate, quod per venas in pulsu cognoscitur sanitas." Dr. Moore clearly re- cognizes the almost incontestable claims of lo sonno, yet curiously enough adopts a text with le vene. I note, however, his warning (p. 444) that "the printed text accompany- ing ,them [commentaries] has no authority whatever, and is often flatly inconsistent with the commentary itself." The paradox nowhere obtains more markedly than in this instance, which is, however, con- siderably modified by the suggested alter- ation at p. 712 of his text (Witte's) on this point. A word on the variant sensi e i polsi, which Dr. Moore somewhat incon- sistently rejects, with senso, senno, and senm, on the ground of its being "feebly sup-