Passing to the Second Act, we discover at once a new manner of
expression, in which the sentence has a looser structure, the verse
a quicker _tempo_, the poetry a striving now and again for a note of
lyric beauty which, although satisfactorily achieved in but few lines,
is by Massinger’s verse not even attempted. A liberal sprinkling
of rhymes appears. The Scene is a trifle more vividly conceived;
the emotions have a somewhat more genuine ring. Simultaneously,
resemblances to the phraseology of Massinger’s other plays become
infrequent; _and, to increase the wonder_, is almost the only reminder
of him in the whole of Scene i. On the other hand we must not expect
to find in the work of Field the same large number of recognizable
expressions as mark that of Massinger; for he was not nearly so given
to repeating himself, nor are there many of his plays extant from
which to garner parallels. The figure of speech with which Charalois
opens his funeral address [Field shows a great predilection for
“aqueous” similes and metaphors], the liberal use of oaths (_’Slid_,
_’Slight_), a reference (l. 137) to the Bermudas (also mentioned
in _Amends for Ladies_: M. 427), and the comparison to the oak and
pine (ll. 119-121--cf. a Field Scene of _The Queen of Corinth_: D. V,
436-7) are the only specific minutia to which a finger can be pointed.
The verse analysis testifies similarly to a different author from
that of Act I, double endings being 20 per cent., run-on lines 15 per
cent.--figures which are quite normal to Field.
To the actor-dramatist may be set down the prose of II, ii without
question. Massinger practically never uses prose, which is liberally
employed by Field, as is the almost indistinguishable prose-or-verse by
which a transition is made from one medium to the other. The dialogue
between Beaumelle and her maids is strikingly like that between two
“gentlewomen” in _The Knight of Malta_, I, ii--a Scene generally
recognized as by his hand; the visit of Novall Junior which follows
is like a page out of his earlier comedies. Notable resemblances are
ll. 177-8, _Uds-light! my lord, one of the purls of your band is,
without all discipline, fallen out of his rank_, with _I have seen him
sit discontented a whole play because one of the purls of his band was
fallen out of his reach to order again_. (_Amends for Ladies_, M. 455);
and l. 104, _they skip into my lord’s cast skins some twice a year_,
with _and then my lord_ (_like a snake_) _casts a suite every quarter,
which I slip into_: (_Woman is a Weathercock_, M. 374). The song, after
l. 131, recalls that in _Amends for Ladies_, M. 465.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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