History of English Literature Volume 1 (of 3)

by Hippolyte Taine

[451]Ibid. p. 78.

[452]Marlowe "Doctor Faustus," I. p. 80.

[453]See the trial of Vittoria Corombona, of Virginia in Webster, of Coriolanus and Julius Cæsar in Shakespeare.

[454]Falstaff in Shakespeare; the queen in "London," by Greene and Decker; Rosalind in Shakespeare.

[455]In Webster's "Duchess of Malfi" there is an admirable accouchement scene.

[456]This is, in fact, the English view of the French mind, which is doubtless a refinement, many times refined, of the classical spirit. But M. Taine has seemingly not taken into account such products as the Medea on the one hand, and the works of Aristophanes and the Latin sensualists on the other.—Tr.

[457]See Hamlet, Coriolanus, Hotspur. The queen in "Hamlet" (V. 2) says: "He (Hamlet) is fat, and scant of breath."

[458]Middleton, "The Honest Whore," part I. IV. 1.

[459]Beaumont and Fletcher, "Valentinian, Thierry and Theodoret." See Massinger's "Picture," which resembles Musset's "Barberine." Its crudity, the extraordinary repulsive energy, will show the difference of the two ages.

[460]Massinger's Works, ed. H. Coleridge, 1859, "Duke of Milan," II. 1.