Appendix IV. On The Influence Of Shakspere

The instances quoted in the text can be supplemented by many others. Compare the diction and thought of the following passages:

Maid of Honour, IV., 3, 61:

Ministers of mercy,

Mock not calamity.

Hamlet, I., 4, 39:

Angels and ministers of grace defend us!

Maid of Honour, V., 1, 133:

And I to make all know I am not shallow,

Will have my points of cochineal and yellow.

Twelfth Night, II., 5, 169:

Remember who commended thy yellow stockings.

Virgin Martyr, I., 1, 177:

All kind of tortures; part of which they suffer'd

With Roman constancy.

Julius Cæsar, II., 1, 226:

Let not our looks put on our purposes,

But bear it as our Roman actors do,

With untired spirits and formal constancy.

(Cf. Duke of Milan, V., 1, 128.)

Parliament of Love, II., 2, 37:

Yet since thou art

So spaniel-like affected.

Midsummer-Night's Dream, II., 1, 205:

Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me.

Two Gentlemen of Verona, IV., 2, 14:

Yet, spaniel-like, the more she spurns my love,

The more it grows and fawneth on her still.

Emperor of the East, IV., 5, 105:

Methinks I find Paulinus on her lips.

Othello, III., 3, 341:

I found not Cassio's kisses on her lips.

Emperor of the East, V., 2, 103:

Can I call back yesterday, with all their aids

That bow unto my sceptre? or restore

My mind to that tranquillity and peace

It then enjoyed?

Othello, III., 3, 330:

Not poppy, nor mandragora,

Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world,

Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep

Which thou owedst yesterday.

Othello, III., 3, 347:

O, now for ever

Farewell the tranquil mind! farewell content!

Virgin Martyr, I., 1, 342:

An humble modesty, that would not match

A molehill with Olympus.

Great Duke of Florence, IV., 2, 305:

As the lowly shrub is to the lofty cedar,

Or a molehill to Olympus, if compar'd,

I am to you, Sir.

Roman Actor, III., 1, 3:

If you but compare

What I have suffered with your injuries

(Though great ones, I confess), they will appear

Like molehills to Olympus.

(Cf. also Duke of Milan, I., 3, 193.)[539]

Coriolanus, V., 3, 29:

My mother bows;

As if Olympus to a molehill should

In supplication nod.

Duke of Milan, III., 1, 204:

Thou didst not borrow of Vice her indirect,

Crooked, and abject means.

2 Henry IV, IV., 5, 184:

God knows, my son,

By what by-paths and indirect crook'd ways

I met this crown.[540]

Great Duke of Florence, II., 2, 12:

Yes, and drink more in two hours

Than the Dutchman or the Dane in four and twenty.

Hamlet, I., 4, 18:

This heavy-headed revel east and west

Makes us traduced and tax'd of other nations.

They clepe us drunkards, and with swinish phrase

Soil our addition.

(Cf. also Othello, II., 3, 78-87.)

Parliament of Love, IV., 5, 137:

Now, as a schoolboy,

Does kiss the rod that gave him chastisement.

Richard II, V., 1, 31:

And wilt thou, pupil-like,

Take thy correction mildly, kiss the rod?

Two Gentlemen of Verona, I., 2, 58:

That, like a testy babe, will scratch the nurse,

And presently, all humbled, kiss the rod.

Unnatural Combat, IV., 2, 6:

Let his passion work, and like a hot-reined horse

'Twill quickly tire itself.

Henry VIII, I., 1, 132-4:

Anger is like

A full-hot horse, who being allow'd his way

Self-mettle tires him.

Emperor of the East, III., 1, 2:

A sudden fever

Kept me at home.

Henry VIII, I., 1, 5:

An untimely ague

Stay'd me a prisoner in my chamber.

A Very Woman, II., 1, 20:

The furnace of your father's anger.

Bondman, III., 3, 170:

Or yield up

Our bodies to the furnace of their fury,

Thrice heated with revenge.

Henry VIII, I., 1, 140:

Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot

That it do singe yourself.

Virgin Martyr, V., 2, 158:

And now, in the evening,

When thou should'st pass with honour to thy rest,

Wilt thou fall like a meteor?

Henry VIII, III., 2, 226:

I shall fall

Like a bright exhalation in the evening,

And no man see me more.

Guardian, V., 4, 115:

In this casket are

Inestimable jewels.

Richard III, I., 4, 27:

Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels.

Picture, I., 2, 17:

Since this bubble honour

(Which is indeed the nothing soldiers fight for)

With the loss of limbs or life, is in my judgment

Too dear a purchase.

As You Like It, II., 7, 152:

Seeking the bubble reputation

Even in the cannon's mouth.

Picture, II., 2, 136:

It continuing doubtful

Upon whose tents plum'd victory would take

Her glorious stand.

Othello, III., 3, 349:

Farewell the plumèd troops, and the big wars,

That make ambition virtue!

Virgin Martyr, V., 2, 82:

There is a scene that I must act alone.

Romeo and Juliet, IV., 3, 19:

My dismal scene I needs must act alone.

Great Duke of Florence, III., 1, 57:

What you deliver to me shall be lock'd up

In a strong cabinet, of which you yourself

Shall keep the key.

Hamlet, I., 3, 85.

'Tis in my memory locked,

And you yourself shall keep the key of it.

Believe as You List, I., 2, 18:

When he smiles, let such

Beware as have to do with him, for then,

Sans doubt, he's bent on mischief.

Hamlet, I., 5, 107:

Meet it is I set it down,

That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain.

Old Law, IV., 1, 36:

Besides, there will be charges saved too; the same rosemary that serves for the funeral will serve for the wedding.[541]

Hamlet, I., 2, 180:

Thrift, thrift, Horatio! the funeral baked meats

Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.

Parliament of Love, III., 3, 133:

A hurtful vow

Is in the breach of it better commended,

Than in the keeping.

Hamlet, I., 4, 15:

It is a custom

More honour'd in the breach than the observance.

Guardian, V., 1, 44:

These woods, Severino,

Shall more than seem to me a populous city.

Othello, I., 1, 77:

The fire is spied

In populous cities.

(Cf. also IV., 1, 64.)

We may infer that Massinger studied the Folio of 1623 carefully.