Without farther preface, I will introduce
the subject, by asking Mr. Dyce to compare two passages which I shall
shortly point out; and, having done so, I think he will agree with me in
the opinion that the internal evidence, relating to our old dramatic
literature, cannot have been very much studied, while such a discovery
as he will then make still remained to be made. The first passage is
from the so-called _old "Taming of a Shrew"_ (six old plays, 1779, p.
161.), and runs as follows:--
"Now that the gloomy shadow of the night,
Longing to view Orion's drisling looks,
Leaps from th' Antarctic world unto the sky,
And dims the welkin with her pitchy breath;"
the second is from _Doctor Faustus_ (Marlowe's Works, vol. ii. p. 127.),
which, however, I shall save myself the trouble of transcribing; as,
with the exception of "look" for "looks," in the second line, and "his"
for "her," in the fourth, the two passages will be found identical.
Being, some years ago, engaged, in connection with the first of these
plays, in the pursuit of a very different object,--in which I cannot say
that I altogether failed, and the result of which I may take an
opportunity of communicating,--I made a note of the above; and at the
same time followed it up by a general examination of the style of
Marlowe. And, to make a long matter short, I may say that in this
examination, besides meeting with a dozen instances of the identity of
the writer of passages in the _Taming of a Shrew_ and of passages in
Marlowe's two plays, _Doctor Faustus_ and _Tamburlaine_, I found such
general resemblance in style as left no doubt upon my mind that, if one
of these plays be his acknowledged work, as indisputable will be his
claim to the other two.
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