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more importance, that the resultant music is the same, is quite incapable of proof. In matters of the ear every one must judge for himself at least, every one to whom God has given an ear. Personally, I attach more importance to the impression the verse makes upon me than I do to any other single factor; and I have little hesitation on this score alone of pronouncing in Middleton's favor; but I do not attempt the hopeless task of proving my case in that way. Instead, I shall seek to prove it by the more favored method of parallel passages-a method capable of much abuse and one to be used with great caution, but nevertheless a method of no little value, and one that has the advantage of presenting in a handy form evidence the worth of which any scholar can test for himself, without having to turn to originals.

In the opening scene we have "my study's ornament," which parallels "my study's ornaments" in More Dissemblers (MD). Next we find the word "shine," the use of which as a noun is almost a specialty of Middleton's. It occurs no fewer than five times in this play, the closest parallel being afforded by "the comfortable shine of you" (that is to say, money) in II, 1, which may be compared with " the comfortable shine of joy" in I, 3 of No Wit (NW). This word "comfortable" is one to which Middleton was particularly partial; and, as for the noun "comfort," there are very few plays of Middleton's that do not contain it at least once. In WBW I have counted seven instances of its occurrence. The very phrase "That is my comfort" (RT, I, 4) is repeated in NW, V, 1; MD, V, 1; SMT, III, 1; Old Law (OL), IV, 2, twice; and probably in others; and, I could instance over forty other cases where the form is but slightly different, as in "What a comfort 'tis," which occurs in both Anything for a Quiet Life (A), IV, 1, and SMT, III, 1, or “That's a comfort," as in Phoenix (Ph), I, 2, and Michaelmas Term (MT), IV, 4.

In I, 2 occurs a passage made famous by the praise of Charles Lamb. It begins "O, what a grief 'tis that a man should live / But once i' the world, and then to live a bastard," and ends "Halfdamned in the conception by the justice / Of that unbribéd everlasting law." In WBW we have similarly "What a grief it is

It may be remarked that the vocabulary of the play is markedly Middletonian.

to a religious feeling / To think a man should have a friend so goodly,/ So wise, so noble, nay, a duke, a brother, / And all this certainly damned!" while the unusual word "unbribéd" is to be found also in A Trick, III, 1.

"What, brother, am I far enough from myself?" is the opening of I, 3. It means "Am I well disguised?" It constitutes an interesting parallel with "I am far enough from myself" (with a similar meaning) in II of BB, the Middletonian part-authorship of which should be obvious to anyone acquainted with his style. The "Be absent; leave us " of the same scene and "Your absence; leave us" of II, 2 are paralleled in "Your absence, gentle brother " in II, 1 of WBW. Further on we find "I have been witness / To the surrender of a thousand virgins; And not so little," which reminds one of 66 I've sworn the same things, / I'm sure, forty times over, not so little" (MD, III, 1), and of "Some twenty times a day; nay, not so little" (Changeling, II, 1).

Middleton was fond of denouncing the midnight hour, and of characterising minutes and hours and days. Both habits are reproduced in RT; as, in Ph (V, 1), we read of "The dreadful brow of twelve last night," so here (I, 3) we are told that "If anything be damned, it will be twelve o'clock at night." So too, as, in Your Five Gallants (YFG), IV, 8, we have "a happy minute," in BB, I, 4, " a most unlucky minute," in A Mad World (MW), IV, 5, "this bewitching minute," in Widow, V, 1, "this afflicting minute," in Fair Quarrel (FQ), II, 1, "a most awful hour," and, in SMT, II, 1, "this friendly hour"; in RT, we find "false minute" (I, 2), "a whispering and withdrawing hour" (1, 2), "this luxurious day" (I, 3), "vicious minute" (I, 4), and "a bewildering minute" (III, 5-so-called "4").

A curious habit of Middleton's is illustrated in I, 3 and in other scenes-no less than six times in all. This is the use of "faith" or "troth" as an asseveration in conjunction with the word "true" (“In troth, it is true," "I' faith, to say true," etc.). I have noted instances in several of Middleton's other plays; but in fairness I must remark that I also find in Webster's Devil's Law-case an example of this absurd redundancy: "Faith, to say truth" (III, 2). In I, 3 is yet another Middleton parallel, with SMT this time, "Honesty / Is like a stock of money laid to sleep, / Which, ne'er so little broke, does never keep " recalling "Thy once crack'd

honesty
to good, but wastes away" in II, 1 of that play.

Is like the breaking of whole money: / It never comes

In II, 1 Dondolo, a clownishly witty servant, exercises his wit upon his mistress; he is rebuked by her and told to "cut off a great deal of dirty way." Middleton occasionally repeats the names of his characters; and more than one of the names in this play occurs elsewhere. It is significant that a humorous servant of similar character in MD is also named Dondolo, and that he announces his intention" to be short and cut off a great deal of dirty way." In II, 1 again we find "It is the sweetest box that e'er my nose came nigh, The finest drawn-work cuff that e'er was worn." Middleton has of course no monopoly of examples of the superlative followed by "that e'er "; but I doubt if so many instances could be gathered from the entire theatre of his contemporaries as from his plays. I have jotted down no less than forty-eight from his other dramatic work (besides another dozen practically, though not verbally the same), the nearest to this being from FQ, II, 1, "It is the joyfull'st blow that e'er flesh felt."

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In the same scene we have two examples of Middleton's fondness for asides giving ironical confirmation of remarks made, as in Ph, 1, Spoke truer than you think for," which is very like Vendice's "Spoke truer than you meant it." Still more marked is Middleton's habit of making one character express approval of what is said by another. I have noted twenty-eight examples of this, of which no less than eight are in RT. As specimens let me quote: NW, IV, 2, "That's well said "; BB, I, 1, “Your grace defines him right "; Ph, I, 1, "Your grace hath spoke it right "; Ph, II, 2, "Unfortunate,' indeed! That was well placed "; MW, I, 1, "Syllable' was [well] placed there; Witch, III, 2, “Why, that's well spoke "; SMT, V, 1, ""Twas finely spoke that "; RT, I, 1, "Y'have truly spoke him "; RT, III, 5, "You've spoke that right"; RT, III, 5, "You have my voice in that" (with which compare in III, 5 of Timon-a scene partly or wholly Middleton's"You have my voice to't "); RT, II, 2, "Thou'st spoke that true."

Yet another mark of Middleton appears in II, 1 in the application of the adjective "poisonous " to a human being. He had, however, perhaps a slight preference for the noun, as when Castiza (not the Castiza of RT, but the Castiza of Ph) speaks of Proditor as "my poison." It is another of the many proofs of Middleton's

participation in BB that we have there "I'm sick of thy society, poison to mine eyes" (V, 1), as we have in The Chaste Maid (ChM) "thou poison to my heart" (V, 1).

In no less than four several scenes we have a characteristic expression of Middleton's, not found, so far as I am aware, outside of his work. In I, 1 is "Give Revenge her due, / She has kept touch hitherto "; in II, 2, " Give them their due, / Men are not comparable to them "; and, in two scenes of III, ""Tis we are mad in sense, they but in clothes. / Hip. Faith, and in clothes too, give us our due," and "He showed himself a gentleman in that, give him his due." It will be noticed that in every case the infinitive "to" or the conditional "if you' is understood. This is entirely Middletonian.

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The heroine's pretended non-recognition of her mother is parallelled in regard to a wife in BB, IV, 3, and in regard to a father in SMT, II, 1, in each case because of disapprobation of the person's conduct. Though these may have been taken from the similar pretence of Lear in regard to Goneril, in Lear, I, 4, they are, I consider, of much more consequence than the many parallels of incident and of technique between Acts III and IV and SMT. So, too, I do not attach much importance to the appearance of a blazing star in the last act of RT, as in the last of BB: an easily imitable piece of stagery affords no sure clue to authorship; but there are some astonishing verbal parallels yet to be pointed out. Middleton had a strange fancy for thirds. As we have, in NW, V, 1, "Not the third part now so loosely minded,” and, in IV, 2, "the third part of husbands," and, in II, 3, "the third part of an hour," in MD, IV, 1, "the third part of an hour's stay," and, in WBW, III, 1, "the third part of an hour," so here, in III, 3 ("2"), we find "the third part of a minute." that there is any dramatist other than Middleton given to dividing his time into thirds. In the next scene, four officers are described as "a trick," because "a trick is commonly four cards," just as, in OL, III, 1, a group of four men is spoken of as "a trick of discarded cards." In the scene that follows, there are several points of resemblance to other of Middleton's plays. The most remarkable

are:

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(1) "O, 'tis able / To make a man spring up and knock his forehead Against yon silver ceiling "; NW, V, 1, "Methinks I

could spring up and knock my head / Against yon silver ceiling now for joy"; OL, II, 1, "Leaped for joy / So mountingly, I touched the stars methought "—the idea being exactly the same, though the wording is different.

(2) "Are lordships sold to maintain ladyships?" Ph, II, 2, "Would sell his lordship, if he liked her ladyship."

(3) The denunciation of false shows in the masquerade of life in "See, ladies, with false forms / You deceive men, but cannot deceive worms" (and also, in I, 3, " And, in the morning, / When they are up and dressed, and their mask on, / Who can perceive this, save that eternal eye / That sees through flesh and all "); YFG, II, 1, "Whose clothes / E'en stand upright in silver, when their bodies/Are ready to drop through 'em. Such there be. / They may deceive the world: they ne'er shall me." Witch, II, 1, "Some can make merry with a friend seven year, / And nothing seen; as perfect a maid still, / To the world's knowledge, as she came from rocking."

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Another scene affording many parallels is IV, 2. I may instance (1) the use of " Covetous " in "I'm covetous to know the villain" (MD, IV, 1, "I'm covetous of her sight; MOQ, I, 1, "Covetous / Of a succession from your loins "; OL, II, 2, "Covetous of your own father's death"; (2) the use of for sasarara certiorari (Ph, thrice, "sursurrara "); (3) the use in this scene and I, 4 of "Draw nearer" and "Come nearer," Mr. William Wells having shown Middleton's fondness for such invitations; (4) the employment of "seven years" for a large indefinite period-" some seven years' thinking" (Game, IV, 1; Trick, II, 1; Witch, I, 1 and II, 1; Widow, V, 1; RG, III, 1 and III, 3, the latter being probably Dekker's; ChM, III, 2); (5) “It hits as I could wish," a variant of Middleton's frequently used "It hits right "; (6) "All this is I," which duplicates the explanatory "That's I" of I, 3, which reappears in NW, V, 1.

Though I must hasten to a conclusion, I must not fail to draw attention to some of the parallels in V, 1. "Not so little "" occurs again. "How quaintly he died, like a politician, in huggermugger-made no man acquainted with it," reminds one of "Would he die so like a politician, and not once write his mind to me?" (Ph. I, 6). "Hereafter" as an adjective ("hereafter times") occurs also in MW, I, 1 ("my hereafter fortunes ").

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