Fletcher abounds in optatives: 'Would Gods thou hadst been so blest!' 'Would there were any safety in thy sex!' and the like. He is also given to rhetorical interrogations and elaborate exclamations; more so than Beaumont. He affects the lighter kind of oath, the appeal to something sacred, in attestation--'Witness Heaven!' In entreaty--'High Heaven, defend us!' Or in mere ejaculation--'Equal Heavens!' He varies his asseverations so that they appear less bluntly profane: 'By my life!' 'By those lights, I vow!'--or more appropriate to the emergency: 'By all holy in Heaven and Earth!' He swears occasionally 'By the Gods,' but not so frequently as Beaumont, for there was a puritanical reaction after Beaumont's death. In the early joint-plays he affects particularly 'all the gods,' 'By _all_ those gods, you swore by!' 'By more than all the gods!' In his imprecations he is even more sulphurous than Beaumont: 'Hell bless you for it!' 'Hell take me then!' 'Thou all-sin, all-hell, and last all-devils!' In summary let us say of Fletcher's diction, that its vocabulary is repetitious; its sentence-structure, loose, cumulative, trailing: that its larger movement is, in general, dramatic, conversational, abrupt, rather than lyrical, declamatory, reflective. He writes for the plot--forward: not from the character--outward. When he bestows a lyrical or descriptive touch upon the narrative it is always incidental to conversation or stage business. When he indulges in a classical reminiscence he permits himself to embroider and bedizen; but usually his ribbons (from a scantly furnished, much-rummaged wardrobe) are carelessly pinned on. While capable, especially in tragedy, of occasional long speeches, he prefers the brief interchange of utterance, the rapid fire and spasm of dialogue. FOOTNOTES: [157] In the King's speech, 89-121. [158] For particulars, see Chapter XXV, Sec. 7, below. [159] As given in the _Camb. Engl. Classics_. [160] G. C. Macaulay, _Francis Beaumont_, p. 45. [161] Act I, Sc. 1, _Camb. Engl. Classics_, II, p. 286. [162] Crane _MS._ (1625). [163] _Cambridge_, II, p. 290. [164] _Ibid._, p. 292. [165] _Ibid._, p. 323. [166] _Ibid._, p. 346. [167] _Loyall Subject_, III, 1, end. [168] _Hum. Lieut., Cambridge_, II, p. 290. [169] John in II, 3, _Camb._, IV, p. 202. [170] I, 3, _Camb._, III, p. 84. [171] _Camb._, III, p. 170. [172] _Ibid._, p. 172. [173] _Engl. Studien_, XIV, 65. [174] _Variorum, B. and F._, Vol. II, 1905. [175] _Variorum, B. and F._, Vol. II, 1905. [176] New York, Nov. 14, 1912. CHAPTER XX FLETCHER'S MENTAL HABIT