304
NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. vm. OCT. is, 1913.
160. Thomas Hayes Gent. | died Deer. 25th
1782 1 aged 64 Years.
161. Mary Eaton | Relict of | the late Rev. .John Eaton LL.D. | died Deer. 8, 1839. | aged SQ years.
162. The Reverend | John Eaton, LL.D. | Hector of St. Paul's Deptford, | and of Fairstead, Essex. | died September 19th 1806. | aged 55 Years.
163. Mrs. Ann Dimes. J Died January 21, 1837 | In the 79th Year | of her .age.
164. Mr. William Dimes, | Died April the 1st 1814. | In the 86th Year of | His Age.
165. Benjamin Cowell Esqr. J Died March 30th
1783 | Aged 68 Years.
166. Rebecca Collier | widow of Thomas Collier | Surgeon | died 5th of May 1825. j Aged 61
Years.
167. James Chaddock [ Died J November 6th 1856 | (aged 77 years).
168. Elizabeth Cecil | died | December the 4th 1830. | Aged 75 Years.
169. Mary Bradley | daughter of the late | Revd. Wm. Bradley j Rector of Hampstead Norris Berks J died Sepr. 28th 1865. | aged 70 years.
170. Mrs. Mary Bradley | Widow of the late | Reverend Wm. Bradley | Rector of Hampstead Norris Berks | Died Feby. 22nd, A.D. 1825. j
- aged 50 Years.
171. Martha Bowden, j died j September 4, 1839, | aged 80 Years.
172. Thomas Bowden, | died | March 5th 1839. .} aged 74 Years.
L, H, CHAMBERS. Amersham.
(To be concluded.)
WEBSTER AND SIR THOMAS
OVERBURY. (See ante, pp. 221, 244, 263, 282.)
IT may be asked why it is assumed that the existence of parallel passages in ' The Duchess of Malfy ' and the ' Characters ' implies that Webster borrowed from the
- Characters.' Webster's play must have
appeared on the stage in 1614, if William Ostler played a part in it, whereas the ' New Characters ' were not published until 1615. It has been admitted that the ' Characters ' contain a passage closely resembling one that occurs in * The White Devil,' published in 1612, and that they also contain material derived from Sidney and Montaigne. Is it not, therefore, more likely that the writer of the ' Characters ' was indebted to Webster ? The reasons that forbid this conclusion are these :
1. The context of the passages in Webster's play, and the manner in which they are introduced into his text, clearly indicate that he was the borrower. In the ' Cha- racters ' the sentiments expressed by the
writer are always germane to the subject
under discussion, and arise naturally out of
the context. In Webster they usually
appear as detached reflections or casual
jokes, quite irrelevant to the purposes of
the dialogue, and obviously introduced solely
for the purposes of ornament.
2. Webster was a wholesale plagiarist. Even for a time when writers freely imitated one another, his works are remarkable for the profusion of borrowed matter they contain. Especially is this the case with ' The Duchess of Malfy,' which shows its indebtedness to Sidney's ' Arcadia ' and Florio's ' Montaigne ' on almost every page.
3. Apart from the parallels in the ' Cha- racters,' both ' The Duchess of Malfy ' and ' The Devil's Law Case ' contain, as I have shown, passages closely resembling lines in Sir Thomas Overbury's poem ' A W r ife ' ; and MR. CRAWFORD has also shown that ' The Duchess ' contains unmistakable bor- rowings from writings of Donne and Chap- man first published in 1612. Now Sir Thomas was a close prisoner in the Tower from 21 April, 1613, until his death on 15 Sept. ; and on 13 Dec. of the same year his poem was entered in the Stationers' Register. In the case of the poem, there- fore, it is practically certain that Webster was indebted to Overbury.
4. ' The Devil's Law Case,' which was certainly written after 1615, when the ' New Characters ' were in print, also presents a number of indubitable parallels.
Finally, is it possible, in spite of the repetition in ' The Duchess of Malfy ' of tho language and sentiments of the ' Characters,' that the play in its present shape may yet have been written before Ostler's death in 1614, and that Webster may have had access to Overbury's writings in an earlier MS. form ? The evidence of ' The Devil's Law Case ' parallels is of itself almost sufficient to disprove such a theory. But there is corroborative evidence which, although of a negative character, is none the less powerful. It is this : Webster's poem ' A Monumental Column,' which was published in 1613, contains, like ' The Duchess of Malfy,' scores of lines borrowed from the works of other writers, including passages derived from Donne's ' Second Anniversarie ' of 1612. It is, as MR. CRAWFORD says, " a mosaic of borrowings." But whereas ' The Duchess' contains more than a dozen passages derived from 'The Wife' and 'Characters,' 'A Monumental Column ' owes not a single line to either of them, and this though tho
