Notes and Queries, Number 22, March 30, 1850. Various
says,—
"Say that she frown; I'll say she looks as clear
As morning roses newly wash'd with dew."
Here is perfect consistency: the clearness of the "morning roses," arising from their being "wash'd with dew;" at all events, the quality being heightened by the circumstance. In a passage of the so-called "older" play, the duke is addressed by Kate as "fair, lovely lady," &c.
"As glorious as the morning wash'd with dew."—p. 203
As the morning does not derive its glory from the circumstance of its being "wash'd with dew," and as it is not a peculiarly apposite comparison, I conclude that here, too, as in other instances, the sound alone has caught the ear of the imitator.
In Act V. Sc. 2., Katharine says,—
"Then vail your stomachs; for it is no boot;
And place your hand below your husband's foot;
In token of which duty, if he please,
My hand is ready: may it do him ease."
Though Shakspeare was, in general, a most correct and careful writer, that he sometimes wrote hastily it would be vain to deny. In the third line of the foregoing extract, the meaning clearly is, "as which token of duty;" and it is the performance of this "token of duty" which Katharine hopes may "do him ease." The imitator, as usual, has caught something of the words of the original which he has laboured to reproduce at a most unusual sacrifice of grammar and sense; the following passage appearing to represent that the wives, by laying their hands under their husbands' feet—no reference being made to the act as a token of duty—in some unexplained manner, "might procure them ease."
"Laying our hands under their feet to tread,
If that by that we might procure their ease,
And, for a precedent, I'll first begin
And lay my hand under my husband's feet."—p. 213.
One more instance, and I have done. Shakspeare has imparted a dashing humorous character to this play, exemplified, among other peculiarities, by such rhyming of following words as—
"Haply to wive and thrive as least I may."
"We will have rings and things and fine array."
"With ruffs, and cuffs, and farthingales and things."
I quote these to show that the habit was Shakspeare's. In Act I. Sc. 1. occurs the passage—"that would thoroughly woo her, wed her, and bed her, and rid the house of her." The sequence here is perfectly natural: but observe the change: in Ferando's first interview with Kate, he says,—
"My mind, sweet Kate, doth say I am the man
Must wed and bed and marrie bonnie Kate."—p. 172.
In the last scene, Petruchio says,—
"Come, Kate, we'll to bed:
We three are married, but you two are sped."
Ferando has it thus:—
"'Tis Kate and I am wed, and you are sped:
And so, farewell, for we will to our bed."—p. 214.
Is it not evident that Shakespeare chose the word "sped" as a rhyme to "bed," and that the imitator, in endeavouring to recollect the jingle, has not only spoiled the rhyme, but missed the fact that all "three" were "married," notwithstanding that "two" were "sped"?
It is not in the nature of such things that instances should be either numerous or very glaring; but it will be perceived that in all of the foregoing, the purpose, and sometimes even the meaning, is intelligible only in the form in which we find it in Shakespeare. I have not urged all that I might, even in this branch of the question; but respect for your space makes me pause. In conclusion, I will merely state, that I have no doubt myself of the author of the Taming of a Shrew having been Marlowe; and that, if in some scenes it appear to fall short of what we might have expected from such a writer, such inferiority arises from the fact of its being an imitation, and probably required at a short notice. At the same time, though I do not believe Shakspeare's play to contain a line of any other writer, I think it extremely probable that we have it only in a revised form, and that, consequently, the play which Marlow imitated might not necessarily have been that fund of life and humour that we find it now.
St. John's Wood, March 19. 1850.
PROVERBIAL SAYINGS AND THEIR ORIGINS—PLAGIARISMS AND PARALLEL PASSAGES
"Ον οι Θεοι φιλουσιν αποθνησκει νεοσ."
Brunck, Poëtæ Gnomici, p. 231., quoted by Gibbon, Decl. and Fall (Milman. Lond. 1838. 8vo.), xii. 355. (note 65.)
"Quem Jupiter vult perdere, priùs dementat."
These words are Barnes's translation of the following fragment of Euripides, which is the 25th in Barnes' ed. (see Gent.'s Mag., July, 1847, p. 19, note):—
"Οταν δε Δαιμων ανδρι πορσυνη κακα,
Τον νουν εξλαψε προτον."
This, or a similar passage, may have been employed proverbially in the time of Sophocles. See l. 632. et seq. of the Antigone (ed. Johnson. Londini. 1758. 8vo.); on which passage there is the following scholium:—
"Μετα σοφιασ γαρ υπο τινοσ αοιδιμου κλεινον εποσ πεφανται,
Οταν δ' ο δαιμων ανδρι πορσυνη κακα,
Τον νουν εξλαψε προτον ω βουλευεtai.
Respecting the lines referred to in the Chorus, Dr. Donaldson makes the following remarks, in his critical edition of the Antigone, published in 1848:—
"The parallel passages for this adage are fully given by Ruhnken on Velleius Paterculus, ii. 57. (265, 256.), and by Wyttenbach on Plutarch, De Audiendis Poetis, p. 17. B. (pp. 190, 191.)"
"Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast,
To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak."
Congreve's Mourning Bride, act i. sc. i. l. 1.
"L'appetit vient en mangeant."
Rabelais, Gargantua, Liv. i. chap. 5. (vol. i. p. 136, ed. Variorum. Paris, 1823. 8vo.)
This proverb had been previously used by Amyot, and probably also by Jerome le (or de) Hangest, who was a Doctor of the Sorbonne, and adversary of Luther, and who died in 1538.—Ibid. p. 136 (note 49.).
I know not how old may be "to put the cart before the horse." Rabelais (i. 227.) has—
"Il mettoyt la charrette devant les beufz."
"If the sky falls, we shall catch larks."
Rabelais (i. 229, 230.):—
"Si les nues tomboyent, esperoyt prendre alouettes."
"Good nature and good sense must ever join;
To err is human, to forgive divine."
Pope's Essay on Criticism, pp. 524, 525.
"Nay, fly to altars, there they'll talk you dead;
For fools rush in where angels fear to tread."
The Emperor Alexander of Russia is said to have declared himself "un accident heureux."