Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher Part 37

"Wit At Several Weapons."

Act i. Oldcraft's speech:-

"I'm arm'd at all points," &c.

It would be very easy to restore all this pa.s.sage to metre, by supplying a sentence of four syllables, which the reasoning almost demands, and by correcting the grammar. Read thus:-

"Arm'd at all points 'gainst treachery, I hold My humour firm. If, living, I can see thee Thrive by thy wits, I shall have the more courage, Dying, to trust thee with my lands. If not, The best wit, I can hear of, carries them.

For since so many in my time and knowledge, Rich children of the city, have concluded _For lack of wit_ in beggary, I'd rather Make a wise stranger my executor, Than a fool son my heir, and have my lands call'd After my wit than name: and that's my nature!"

_Ib._ Oldcraft's speech:-

"To prevent which I have sought out a match for her."

Read-

"Which to prevent I've sought a match out for her."

_Ib._ Sir Gregory's speech:-

... "_Do you think_ I'll have any of the wits hang upon me after I am married once?"

Read it thus:-

... "Do you think That I'll have any of the wits to hang Upon me after I am married once?"

and afterwards-

... "Is it a fashion in London To marry a woman, and to never see her?"

The superfluous "to" gives it the Sir Andrew Ague-cheek character.

"The Fair Maid Of The Inn."

Act ii. Speech of Albertus:-

... "But, Sir, By my life, I vow to take a.s.surance from you, That right hand never more shall strike my son,

Chop his hand off!"

In this (as, indeed, in all other respects, but most in this) it is that Shakespeare is so incomparably superior to Fletcher and his friend,-in judgment! What can be conceived more unnatural and motiveless than this brutal resolve? How is it possible to feel the least interest in Albertus afterwards? or in Cesario after his conduct?

"The Two n.o.ble Kinsmen."

On comparing the prison scene of _Palamon and Arcite_, act ii. sc. 2, with the dialogue between the same speakers, act i. sc. 2, I can scarcely retain a doubt as to the first act's having been written by Shakespeare.

a.s.suredly it was not written by B. and F. I hold Jonson more probable than either of these two.

The main presumption, however, for Shakespeare's share in this play rests on a point, to which the st.u.r.dy critics of this edition (and indeed all before them) were blind,-that is, the construction of the blank verse, which proves beyond all doubt an intentional imitation, if not the proper hand, of Shakespeare. Now, whatever improbability there is in the former (which supposes Fletcher conscious of the inferiority, the too poematic _minus_-dramatic nature of his versification, and of which, there is neither proof nor likelihood) adds so much to the probability of the latter. On the other hand, the harshness of many of these very pa.s.sages, a harshness unrelieved by any lyrical inter-breathings, and still more the want of profundity in the thoughts, keep me from an absolute decision.

Act i. sc. 3. Emilia's speech:-

... "Since his depart, his _sports_, Tho' craving seriousness and skill," &c.

I conjecture "imports,"-that is, duties or offices of importance. The flow of the versification in this speech seems to demand the trochaic ending - u; while the text blends jingle and _hisses_ to the annoyance of less sensitive ears than Fletcher's-not to say, Shakespeare's.

"The Woman Hater."

Act i. sc. 2.-

This scene from the beginning is prose printed as blank verse, down to the line-

"E'en all the valiant stomachs in the court"-

where the verse recommences. This transition from the prose to the verse enhances, and indeed forms the comic effect. Lazarillo concludes his soliloquy with a hymn to the G.o.ddess of plenty.

THE END.