he was not ready to admit it, for in the preface to The White Devil, after analyzing the merits of Chapman, Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher, he dismisses Shakespeare, Dekker, and Heywood in one breath. He approaches Shakespeare on only one of his many dramatic sides, in his deeply human tragedy. His two best plays put us more nearly in the frame of mind produced by Hamlet, Lear, and Othello than those of any other Elizabethan dramatist. The two men are alike in giving us more than we have any right to demand in a play. Without enlarging on abstract subjects, without mere talk, they give us glimpses into deep musings over human nature, life, and destiny. Both had wide intellectual interests. Both, in their greatest plays, though not pessimists, are somber. Their people are more than carefully drawn and individual pictures; they have the contrasting sides and the suggestions of strange possibilities, of the hidden and unknown, which we feel in the rare individual in real

Inform him the corruption of the times? Though some o' th' court hold it presumption

To instruct princes what they ought to do,

It is a noble duty to inform them What they ought to foresee.1-Here comes Bosola,

The only court-gall; yet I observe his railing

Is not for simple love of piety: Indeed, he rails at those things which he wants;

Would be as lecherous, covetous, or proud,

Bloody, or envious, as any man,

If he had means to be so.-Here's the cardinal.

Enter Cardinal and Bosola.

Bos. I do haunt you still.
Card.

So.

Bos. I have done you better service than to be slighted thus. Miserable age, where only the reward of doing well is the doing of it!

Card. You enforce your merit too much. Bos. I fell into the galleys, in your service; where, for two years together, I wore two towels instead of a shirt, with a knot on the shoulder, after the fashion of a Roman mantle. Slighted thus! I will thrive some way. Blackbirds fatten best in hard weather; why not I in these dog days?

Card. Would you could become honest! Bos. With all your divinity do but direct me the way to it. I have known many travel far for it, and yet return as arrant knaves as they went forth, because they carried themselves always along with them. (Exit Cardinal.) Are you gone? Some fellows, they say, are possessed with the devil, but this great fellow were able to possess the greatest devil, and make him worse.

Ant. He hath denied thee some suit? Bos. He and his brother are like plumtrees that grow crooked over standing 2 pools; they are rich and o'erladen with fruit, but none but crows, pies, and caterpillars feed on them. Could I be one of their flatt'ring panders, I would hang on their ears like a horse-leech till I were full, and then drop off. I pray, leave me. Who would rely upon these miserable dependencies, in expectation

I provide against. 3 magpies. stagnant.

2

8

Ferd. Why, there's a wit were able to undo all the chirurgeons o' the city; for although gallants should quarrel, and had drawn their weapons, and were ready to go to it, yet her persuasions would make them put up.

Cast. That she would, my lord.-How do you like my Spanish gennet?? Rod. He is all fire.

Ferd. I am of Pliny's opinion, I think he was begot by the wind; he runs as if he were ballas'à 10 with quicksilver.

Sil. True, my lord, he reels from the tilt often.

Rod. Gris. Ha, ha, ha!

Ferd. Why do you laugh? Methinks you that are courtiers should be my touchwood, take fire when I give fire; that is, laugh when I laugh, were the subject never so witty.

Cast. True, my lord: I myself have heard a very good jest, and have scorn'd to seem to have so silly a wit as to understand it.

Ferd. But I can laugh at your fool, my lord.

Cast. He cannot speak, you know, but he

Ant. Some such flashes superficially hang on him for form; but observe his inward character: he is a melancholy churchman. The spring in his face is nothing but the engend'ring of toads; where he is jealous of any man, he lays worse plots for them than ever was impos'd on Hercules, for he strews in his way flatterers, panders, intelligencers, atheists, and a thousand such political 11 monsters. He should have been Pope; but instead of coming to it by the primitive decency of the church, he did bestow bribes so largely and so impudently as if he would have carried it away without heaven's knowledge. Some good he hath doneDelio. You have given too much of him. What's his brother?

Ant. The duke there? A most perverse and turbulent nature.

Last, for his brother there, the cardinal, They that do flatter him most say oracles

Hang at his lips; and verily I believe them,

For the devil speaks in them.

But for their sister, the right noble duchess,

You never fix'd your eye on three fair medals

Cast in one figure, of so different temper. For her discourse, it is so full of rapture, You only will begin then to be sorry When she doth end her speech, and wish, in wonder,

She held it less vain-glory to talk much, Than your penance to hear her. Whilst she speaks,

She throws upon a man so sweet a look That it were able to raise one to a galliard 12

That lay in a dead palsy, and to dote
On that sweet countenance; but in that
look

There speaketh so divine a continence
As cuts off all lascivious and vain hope.
Her days are practis'd in such noble vir-
tue,

That sure her nights, nay, more, her very sleeps,

Are more in heaven than other ladies' shrifts.

Let all sweet ladies break their flatt'ring glasses,

And dress themselves in her.

14 about to part.

13 throws into the shade.

17 to give you a spy's information.

12 a lively dance.

Ferd.

Bos.

There's gold.

So: What follows?-(Aside.) Never rain'd such showers as these Without thunderbolts i' th' tail of them. -Whose throat must I cut? Ferd. Your inclination to shed blood rides post 19

Before my occasion to use you. I give you that

To live i' th' court here, and observe the duchess;

To note all the particulars of her behavior,

What suitors do solicit her for marriage, And whom she best affects.20 She's a young widow:

I would not have her marry again. Bos. No, sir? Ferd. Do not you ask the reason; but be satisfied.

Ferd.

Be yourself; Keep your old garb of melancholy; 't will

express

You envy those that stand above your reach.

Yet strive not to come near 'em. This will gain

Access to private lodgings, where your

self

May, like a politic dormouseBos. As I have seen some Feed in a lord's dish, half asleep, not seeming

To listen to any talk; and yet these

rogues

Have cut his throat in a dream. What's my place?

The provisorship o' th' horse? Say, then, my corruption

Grew out of horse-dung: I am your creature.

Away!

Ferd. Exit. Bos. Let good men, for good deeds, covet good fame,

Since place and riches oft are bribes of

shame.

Sometimes the devil doth preach.

Erit.

SCENE 3. Amalfii. Gallery in the Duchess's palace.

Enter Ferdinand, Duchess, Cardinal, and

Cariola.

Take your devils,

19 runs ahead of.

20 likes.