...

she these colours: she is a captain or a lieutenant's wife in the Low Countries, and they come with letters from the soldier her husband. If merchants resort to her, then hoists she up these sails, she is wife to the master of a ship, and they bring news that her husband put in at the straits. If shopkeepers come to her, with 'what do you lack' in their mouths, then she takes up such and such commodities. ... But if the stream of her fortunes run low, and that none but apronmen launch forth there, then keeps she a politic tempster's [seamstress?] shop, or she starches them.

(1) Westward Ho V. 4: And therefore set the hare's-head against the goose-giblets.

Shoemaker's Holiday II. 1:

I'd set mine old debts against my new driblets,
And the hare's foot against the goose-giblets. [*]

(m) Westward Ho V. 4: Look you, your schoolmaster has been in France, and lost his hair. [Takes off his false hair.] Honest Whore II II. 3:

CAND. My man? my master, though his head be bare, But he's so courteous, he'll pull off his hair. LOD. Nay, if your service be so hot a man cannot keep his hair on, I'll serve you no longer. [Takes off his false hair.] BRIDE. Is this your schoolmaster?

Roaring Girl IV. 2: GREEN. Nay, gentlemen, seeing your women are so hot, I must lose my hair in their company, I see. [Takes off his false hair.]

CHAPTER VI.

THE PARALLEL-PASSAGE TEST.

NORTHWARD HO.

On the whole, I have not been able to find as many parallel passages for Northward Ho as for Westward Ho. This may be partly due to the fact that I have not been able to make quite such an exhaustive study for the latter comedy under this head; but I think it is also partly due to the play itself. Northward Ho, all things considered, is not quite so typical of Dekker's usual vein as Westward Ho; also, Webster had a larger part in it, and it is more difficult to get parallel passages from Webster, for reasons already mentioned. Nevertheless, I have found at least two passages for every scene in Northward Ho, usually a much larger number; and here again, as in the earlier comedy, the results of this test, although sometimes a trifle meagre, agree almost perfectly with the results of the three-syllable word-test.

Act I, Scene 1.

(193 solid lines; word-average, .301)
Passages from Webster.

(a) Northward Ho I. 1: GREEN. Not many nights coming to her and being familiar with her, MAY. Kissing, and so forth? GREEN. Ay, sir. MAY. And talking to her feelingly? ... What, did she talk feelingly to him, too?

Devil's Law Case I. 2:

I have seen this lord many a time and oft
Set her in's lap, and talk to her of love

So feelingly.

(b) Northward Ho I. 1: I'll deliver it to you, with protestation beforehand, I seek not to publish every gentlewoman's dishonour, only by the passage of my discourse to have you censure the state of our quarrel.

Cure for a Cuckold V. 1:

Yet, misconceive me not, I do entreat you,
To think I can be of that easy wit

Or of that malice to defame a lady,

Were she so kind as to expose herself.

(c) Northward Ho I. 1: MAY. And entertained your love? GREEN. As meadows do April.

White Devil IV. 2:

Instruction to thee

Comes like sweet showers to overhardened ground;
They wet, but pierce not deep.

Appius and Vir. IV. 2:

Thou lov'st me, Appius, as the earth loves rain;
Thou fain would'st swallow me.

Devil's Law Case I. 2:

If crying had been regarded, maidenheads

Had ne'er been lost; at least some appearance. Of crying as an April shower i' the sunshine. [?] (d) Northward Ho I. 1: The violence, as it seemed, of her affection-but, alas, it proved her dissembling-would, at my coming and departing, bedew her eyes with lovedrops: O, she could the art of woman most feelingly! White Devil V. 3:

Had women navigable rivers in their eyes, They would dispend them all: surely, I wonder Why we should wish more rivers to the city, When they sell water so good cheap. I tell thee, These are but moonish shades of griefs or fears; There's nothing sooner dry than women's tears. [Compare also use of 'feelingly' in passage (b)].

(e) Northward Ho I. 1: In the passage of our loves, amongst other favours of greater value, she bestowed upon me this ring, which, she protested, was her husband's gift.

Cure for a Cuckold V. 1:

ROCH.

Yet, to satisfy you,

And in some kind, too, to delight myself,

Those bracelets and the carcanet she wears
She gave me once.

LESS. They were the first and special tokens passed
Betwixt her and her husbaud.

(f) Northward Ho I. 1: Lying with her, as I say, and rising somewhat early from her in the morning.

Duchess of Malfi III. 2:

Wherefore, still, when you lie with my lady,
Do you rise so early?

Passages from Dekker.

(a) Northward Ho I. 1: True, but yet it comes scant of the prophecy,-Lincoln was, London is, and York shall be.

Wonderful Year, p. 101: Now and never till now did she laugh to scorn that worm-eaten proverb of Lincoln was, London is, and York shall be. [*]

(b) Northward Ho I. 1: BELLAMONT. Come, strive to blow over these clouds. MAYBERRY. Not a cloud; you shall have clean moonshine.

Whore of Babylon, p. 265:

All these black clouds we clear: look up, 't is day,
The sun shines on thee still.

It will be noticed that one of the two parallel passages from Dekker in this scene is from the speeches of Mayberry; that he has very little part in the parallel passages from Webster; and that the other parallel from Dekker is in the dialogue with the chamberlain. This is interesting in the light of the wordtest for this scene.

Conclusion. When we remember how much more the same number of passages count from Webster than from Dekker, we see at a glance that the parallelpassage test favors Webster decidedly in this scene.

Act I, Scene 2.

(108 solid lines; word-average, .185)
No passages from Webster.
Passages from Dekker.

(a) Northward Ho I. 2: Drawer, tie my shoe, prithee. Shoemaker's Holiday III. 4: Hans, pray thee, tie my shoe. (b) Northward Ho 1. 2: And is every one that swims in a taffeta gown lettuce for your lips.

Westward Ho II. 2: For as the cobbler in the night-time walks with his lantern, the merchant and the lawyer with his link, and the courtier with his torch, so every lip has his lettuce to himself.

(c) Northward Ho I. 2: I'm as melancholy now as Fleetstreet in a long vacation.

Satiro-mastix, p. 186: What senseless thing in all the house that is not now as melancholy as a new set-up schoolmaster? [*]

(d) Northward Ho I. 2: Those poor wenches that before Christmas fled westward with bag and baggage.