Chapter XI: Appendix: IV. on the Influence of Shakspere

The instances quoted in the text can be supplemented by many others. Compare the diction and thought of the following passages:

_Maid of Honour_, IV., 3, 61:

Ministers of mercy,
Mock not calamity.

_Hamlet_, I., 4, 39:

Angels and ministers of grace defend us!

_Maid of Honour_, V., 1, 133:

And I to make all know I am not shallow,
Will have my points of cochineal and yellow.

_Twelfth Night_, II., 5, 169:

Remember who commended thy yellow stockings.

_Virgin Martyr_, I., 1, 177:

All kind of tortures; part of which they suffer’d
With Roman constancy.

_Julius Cæsar_, II., 1, 226:

Let not our looks put on our purposes,
But bear it as our Roman actors do,
With untired spirits and formal constancy.

(_Cf._ _Duke of Milan_, V., 1, 128.)

_Parliament of Love_, II., 2, 37:

Yet since thou art
So spaniel-like affected.

_Midsummer-Night’s Dream_, II., 1, 205:

Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me.

_Two Gentlemen of Verona_, IV., 2, 14:

Yet, spaniel-like, the more she spurns my love,
The more it grows and fawneth on her still.

_Emperor of the East_, IV., 5, 105:

Methinks I find Paulinus on her lips.

_Othello_, III., 3, 341:

I found not Cassio’s kisses on her lips.

_Emperor of the East_, V., 2, 103:

Can I call back yesterday, with all their aids
That bow unto my sceptre? or restore
My mind to that tranquillity and peace
It then enjoyed?

_Othello_, III., 3, 330:

Not poppy, nor mandragora,
Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world,
Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep
Which thou owedst yesterday.

_Othello_, III., 3, 347:

O, now for ever
Farewell the tranquil mind! farewell content!

_Virgin Martyr_, I., 1, 342:

An humble modesty, that would not match
A molehill with Olympus.

_Great Duke of Florence_, IV., 2, 305:

As the lowly shrub is to the lofty cedar,
Or a molehill to Olympus, if compar’d,
I am to you, Sir.

_Roman Actor_, III., 1, 3:

If you but compare
What I have suffered with your injuries
(Though great ones, I confess), they will appear
Like molehills to Olympus.

(_Cf._ also _Duke of Milan_, I., 3, 193.)(539)

_Coriolanus_, V., 3, 29:

My mother bows;
As if Olympus to a molehill should
In supplication nod.

_Duke of Milan_, III., 1, 204:

Thou didst not borrow of Vice her indirect,
Crooked, and abject means.

_2 Henry IV_, IV., 5, 184:

God knows, my son,
By what by-paths and indirect crook’d ways
I met this crown.(540)

_Great Duke of Florence_, II., 2, 12:

Yes, and drink more in two hours
Than the Dutchman or the Dane in four and twenty.

_Hamlet_, I., 4, 18:

This heavy-headed revel east and west
Makes us traduced and tax’d of other nations.
They clepe us drunkards, and with swinish phrase
Soil our addition.

(_Cf._ also _Othello_, II., 3, 78-87.)

_Parliament of Love_, IV., 5, 137:

Now, as a schoolboy,
Does kiss the rod that gave him chastisement.

_Richard II_, V., 1, 31:

And wilt thou, pupil-like,
Take thy correction mildly, kiss the rod?

_Two Gentlemen of Verona_, I., 2, 58:

That, like a testy babe, will scratch the nurse,
And presently, all humbled, kiss the rod.

_Unnatural Combat_, IV., 2, 6:

Let his passion work, and like a hot-reined horse
’Twill quickly tire itself.

_Henry VIII_, I., 1, 132-4:

Anger is like
A full-hot horse, who being allow’d his way
Self-mettle tires him.

_Emperor of the East_, III., 1, 2:

A sudden fever
Kept me at home.

_Henry VIII_, I., 1, 5:

An untimely ague
Stay’d me a prisoner in my chamber.

_A Very Woman_, II., 1, 20:

The furnace of your father’s anger.

_Bondman_, III., 3, 170:

Or yield up
Our bodies to the furnace of their fury,
Thrice heated with revenge.

_Henry VIII_, I., 1, 140:

Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot
That it do singe yourself.

_Virgin Martyr_, V., 2, 158:

And now, in the evening,
When thou should’st pass with honour to thy rest,
Wilt thou fall like a meteor?

_Henry VIII_, III., 2, 226:

I shall fall
Like a bright exhalation in the evening,
And no man see me more.

_Guardian_, V., 4, 115:

In this casket are
Inestimable jewels.

_Richard III_, I., 4, 27:

Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels.

_Picture_, I., 2, 17:

Since this bubble honour
(Which is indeed the nothing soldiers fight for)
With the loss of limbs or life, is in my judgment
Too dear a purchase.

_As You Like It_, II., 7, 152:

Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth.

_Picture_, II., 2, 136:

It continuing doubtful
Upon whose tents plum’d victory would take
Her glorious stand.

_Othello_, III., 3, 349:

Farewell the plumèd troops, and the big wars,
That make ambition virtue!

_Virgin Martyr_, V., 2, 82:

There is a scene that I must act alone.

_Romeo and Juliet_, IV., 3, 19:

My dismal scene I needs must act alone.

_Great Duke of Florence_, III., 1, 57:

What you deliver to me shall be lock’d up
In a strong cabinet, of which you yourself
Shall keep the key.

_Hamlet_, I., 3, 85.

’Tis in my memory locked,
And you yourself shall keep the key of it.

_Believe as You List_, I., 2, 18:

When he smiles, let such
Beware as have to do with him, for then,
Sans doubt, he’s bent on mischief.

_Hamlet_, I., 5, 107:

Meet it is I set it down,
That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain.

_Old Law_, IV., 1, 36:

Besides, there will be charges saved too; the same rosemary that
serves for the funeral will serve for the wedding.(541)

_Hamlet_, I., 2, 180:

Thrift, thrift, Horatio! the funeral baked meats
Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.

_Parliament of Love_, III., 3, 133:

A hurtful vow
Is in the breach of it better commended,
Than in the keeping.

_Hamlet_, I., 4, 15:

It is a custom
More honour’d in the breach than the observance.

_Guardian_, V., 1, 44:

These woods, Severino,
Shall more than seem to me a populous city.

_Othello_, I., 1, 77:

The fire is spied
In populous cities.

(_Cf._ also IV., 1, 64.)

We may infer that Massinger studied the Folio of 1623 carefully.