Page:Timon of Athens (1919) Yale.djvu/143

Timon of Athens hand of George Wilkins, but his evidence is unconvincing. Wright, in commenting upon this latter theory, declares, with reason, that 'the nearer a reviewer comes to thinking that George Wilkins wrote the regular though wooden verse of the first two acts of Pericles, the farther he will be from a belief that the same man wrote the highly irregular verse of the interpolations in Timon.'

Fleay does not press his theory strongly, but points out that in ratio of rhyme to blank verse, irregularities of length, and double endings, Timon of Athens resembles closely The Revenger's Tragedy (1607) by Tourneur. He notes that Tourneur is fond of quoting Latin.

Fleay subjoins passages from The Revenger's Tragedy which he finds to be in exactly the strain of the unknown author of Timon of Athens, and states positively his belief that 'Cyril Tourneur was the only person connected with the King's Company who could have written the other part of the play.' It should be observed that Fleay's identification of Tourneur as reviser of Timon loses force if Tourneur's authorship of The Revenger's Tragedy be denied.