Читать книгу Philip Massinger - Alfred Hamilton Cruickshank - Страница 6

What is this life to me? Not worth, a thought:

Or, if it be esteem'd, 'tis that I lose it

To win a better; even thy malice serves

To me but as a ladder to mount up

To such a height of happiness, where I shall

Look down with scorn on thee and on the world;

Where, circled with true pleasures, placed above

The reach of death or time, 'twill be my glory

To think at what an easy price I bought it.

There's a perpetual spring, perpetual youth;

No joint-benumbing cold, or scorching heat,

Famine, nor age, have any being there.

Forget for shame your Tempe; bury in

Oblivion your feign'd Hesperian orchards;

The golden fruit, kept by the watchful dragon,

Which did require a Hercules to get it,

Compared with what grows in all plenty there,

Deserves not to be named. The Power I serve

Laughs at your happy Araby, or the

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Elysian shades; for He hath made His bowers

Better in deed than you can fancy yours.137

As an instance of Massinger's courtliness I will quote a short passage from The Great Duke of Florence: Contarino has come from the court of the Duke to fetch his nephew Giovanni, who has been brought up by a tutor, Charomonte by name, in the country. As the prince comes in, Charomonte addresses Contarino:

Charomonte. Make your approaches boldly; you will find

A courteous entertainment. (Contarino kneels.)

Giovanni. Pray you, forbear

My hand, good signior; 'tis a ceremony

Not due to me. 'Tis fit we should embrace

With mutual arms.

Contarino. It is a favour, sir,

I grieve to be denied.

Giovanni. You shall o'ercome;

But 'tis your pleasure, not my pride, that grants it.

Nay, pray you, guardian and good sir, put on;

How ill it shews to have that reverend head

Uncover'd to a boy!

Charomonte. Your excellence

Must give me liberty, to observe the distance

And duty that I owe you.138

Take another instance, from The Duke of Milan:

Sforza. Excuse me, good Pescara.

Ere long I will wait on you.

Pescara. You speak, sir,

The language I should use.139

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And this, from The Bashful Lover:

Farnese. Madam, I am bold

To trench so far upon your privacy

As to desire my friend (let not that wrong him,

For he's a worthy one) may have the honour

To kiss your hand.

Matilda. His own worth challenges

A greater favour.

Farn. Your acknowledgment

Confirms it, madam.140

I have used the word “lucid” of Massinger's style; perhaps a more appropriate word would be dexterous; not that he is obscure like Chapman, or like Shakspere in his later manner, far less turgid, but he is not afraid of somewhat long sentences. What he is really afraid of, unlike Fletcher, is a full-stop at the end of the verse. There are two devices which the reader will notice, often in combination; in the first place, Massinger is very fond of the “absolute” construction, and loves to multiply parentheses. The following passages from A New Way will serve as illustrations:

Furnace. She keeps her chamber, dines with a panada,

Or water gruel, my sweat never thought on.141

Woman. And the first command she gave, after she rose,

Was, her devotions done, to give her notice

When you approach'd here.142

Or again, from The Emperor of the East:

Astraea once more lives upon the earth,

Pulcheria's breast her temple.143

Or from The Bondman:

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And, to those that stay,

A competence of land freely allotted

To each man's proper use, no lord acknowledged.144

We find the “absolute” construction occasionally in Shakspere, as in The Merchant of Venice:

So are those crisped snaky golden locks

Which make such wanton gambols with the wind,

Upon supposed fairness, often known

To be the dowry of a second head,

The skull that bred them in the sepulchre.145

Or in Hamlet:

Folded the writ up in form of the other,

Subscribed it, gav't th' impression, placed it safely,

The changeling never known.146

A passage from The Fatal Dowry will show an elaborate use of parenthesis:

What though my father

Writ man before he was so, and confirm'd it,

By numbering that day no part of his life

In which he did not service to his country;

Was he to be free therefore from the laws

And ceremonious form in your decrees?

Or else because he did as much as man,

In those three memorable overthrows,

At Granson, Morat, Nancy, where his master,

The warlike Charalois, with whose misfortunes

I bear his name, lost treasure, men, and life,

To be excused from payment of those sums

Which (his own patrimony spent) his zeal

To serve his country forced him to take up!147

Compare also these lines from The Guardian:

And if you shew not

An appetite, and a strong one, I'll not say

To eat it, but devour it, without grace too,

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For it will not stay a preface, I am shamed,

And all my past provocatives will be jeer'd at.148

From The Picture:

Honoria. That you please, sir,

With such assurances of love and favour,

To grace your handmaid, but in being yours, sir,

A matchless queen, and one that knows herself so,

Binds me in retribution to deserve

The grace conferr'd upon me.149

From A Very Woman:

Paulo. This friend was plighted to a beauteous woman,

(Nature proud of her workmanship) mutual love

Possessed them both, her heart in his heart lodged

And his in hers.150

From The Bashful Lover:

Alonzo. By me, his nephew,

He does salute you fairly, and entreats

(A word not suitable to his power and greatness)

You would consent to tender that, which he

Unwillingly must force, if contradicted.151

From The Parliament of Love:

What coy she, then,

Though great in birth, not to be parallel'd

For nature's liberal bounties, (both set off

With fortune's trappings, wealth); but, with delight,

Gladly acknowledged such a man her servant?152

It has been pointed out by Zielinski that “the perfection of language in regard to the formation of periods depends upon the presence and prevalence of abbreviated [pg 051] by-sentences,”153 by which expression he describes “absolute” constructions.

Secondly, he delights in an expedient which the poems of Robert Browning have made familiar to this generation, the frequent omission of the relative pronoun.154 And so his sentences meander with a seemingly negligent grace to an unexpected conclusion. It is clear that such a style both requires and repays a careful study of the rhetorical art.

I give as an instance of this combination the words of Paulinus in The Emperor of the East. He is talking of the Emperor's sister and Prime Minister Pulcheria:

She indeed is

A perfect phœnix, and disdains a rival.

Her infant years, as you know, promised much,

But grown to ripeness she transcends, and makes

Credulity her debtor. I will tell you

In my blunt way, to entertain the time

Until you have the happiness to see her,

How in your absence she hath borne herself,

And with all possible brevity; though the subject

Is such a spacious field, as would require

An abstract of the purest eloquence

(Deriv'd from the most famous orators

The nurse of learning, Athens, shew'd the world)

In that man that should undertake to be

Her true historian.155

The style of Massinger is not only lucid and dexterous; it is strong, partly because of its ease, and more mature and modern than that of many of his contemporaries. Milton's prose would have gained much in directness if he [pg 052] had studied Massinger. This strength does not show itself so much in isolated fine lines, for, as we have already seen, epigram was foreign to his nature, though from time to time we get such lines, as, for example, in The Duke of Milan:

One smile of hers would make a savage tame;

One accent of that tongue would calm the seas,

Though all the winds at once strove there for empire.156

Or, again, in the same play:

How coldly you receive it! I expected

The mere relation of so great a blessing,

Borne proudly on the wings of sweet revenge,

Would have call'd on a sacrifice of thanks.157

Or, again, in A New Way:

Overreach. The garments of her widowhood laid by,

She now appears as glorious as the spring.158

Or in The Roman Actor:

Could I imp feathers to the wings of time,

Or with as little ease command the sun

To scourge his coursers up heaven's eastern hill.159

We may remark in passing that Massinger's best single lines are usually decasyllabic.

It has been remarked by Mr. Swinburne, whose discerning judgment of the Jacobean dramatists has lavished just praise on Massinger's art and style, that in the second act of Sir John Van Olden Barnavelt, “the student will say, ‘This tune goes manly,’ ” and it is remarkable that our poet had formed in 1619 the style which marked him to the end of his life.160

An instance of this simple strength may be given from [pg 053] The City Madam, where Luke debates whether he shall agree to the proposition of the pretended Indians:

Luke. Give me leave—(walks aside)

I would not lose this purchase. A grave matron!

And two pure virgins! Umph, I think my sister,

Though proud, was ever honest, and my nieces

Untainted yet. Why should not they be shipp'd

For this employment? They are burthensome to me,

And eat too much.161

When rudeness is necessary it is uttered with some vigour, as in The Fatal Dowry, where this is what Romont gets for his well-meant pains:

Rochfort. Sir, if you please

To bear yourself as fits a gentleman,

The house is at your service; but if not,

Though you seek company elsewhere, your absence

Will not be much lamented.162

The rejected lover in such a scene as the following has no illusions left him:

Mustapha. All happiness—

Donusa. Be sudden.

'Twas saucy rudeness in you, sir, to press

On my retirements; but ridiculous folly

To waste the time that might be better spent,

In complimental wishes.

Corisca. There's a cooling

For his hot encounter! (aside)

Donusa. Come you here to stare?

If you have lost your tongue and use of speech,

Resign your government; there's a mute's place void

In my uncle's court, I hear; and you may want me

To write for your preferment.163

Two minor features of Massinger's style may be mentioned here:

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1. The catalogue line, so familiar to the student of Lucretius—e.g.:

Believe as You List, I., 2, 85. The sapphire, ruby, jacinth,

amber, coral.

Believe as You List II, 2, 312. All circumstances,

Answers, despatches, doubts, and difficulties.

Picture, V., I, 59. The comfortable names of breakfasts,

dinners,

Collations, supper, beverage.

Emperor of East, 2 Prol., 8. With his best of fancy, judgment,

language, art.

I., 2, 194. To his merchant, mercer, draper,

His linen-man, and tailor.

V., 2, 88. As sacred, glorious, high, invincible.

City Madam, II., 1, 72. Tissue, gold, silver, velvets, satins,

taffetas.

IV., 3, 69. Entreaties, curses, prayers, or imprecations.

Unnatural Combat, II., 1, 128. All respect,

Love, fear, and reverence cast

off.

Great Duke of Florence, II., 1, 7. We of necessity must be

chaste, wise, fair.

2. A more marked feature is the repetition of words or short phrases in various parts of the line.164 The following instances may be given from (a) The Great Duke of Florence: