s his most
interesting note by suggesting that the present play may be the one to
which Peele alludes; but he will at once perceive from my extracts that
the date 1589 is much too early. Here is a passage that might have been
written by Cyril Tourneur:--

[_Ganelon_ stabs _Richard_, his dearest friend,
suspecting him of treachery.]

_Rich_. O you've slayne me! tell me, cruell sir,
Why you have doone thys, that myne innocent soule
May teache repentance to you-- _dies_.

_Gan_. Speake it out,--
What, not a worde? dumbe with a littill blowe?
You are growne statlye, are you? tys even so:
You have the trycke of mightie men in courte
To speake at leasure and pretend imployment.
Well, take your tyme; tys not materyall
Whether you speake the resydue behynde
Now or at doomes day. If thy common sence
Be not yet parted from thee, understand
I doe not misse thee dyinge because once
I loved thee dearlye; and collect by that
There is no Devyll in me nor in hell
That could have flesht me to this violent deathe
Hadst thou beene false to all the world but me.

The concentrated bitterness of those lines is surpassed by nothing in
the _Revenger's Tragedy_. Indeed, I am inclined to believe that the
whole play, which is very unskilfully constructed, is by Tourneur, or
perhaps by the author[281] of the _Second Maiden's Tragedy_. All the
figures are shrouded in a blank starless gloom; to read the play is to
watch the riot of devils. Here is an extract from the scene where
_Orlando_, returning from the wars, hears that _Charlemagne_, his uncle,
has married _Ganelon's_ niece, and that his own hopes of succession have
been ruined by the birth of a son:--

_Orl[ando.]_ I am the verye foote-ball of the starres,
Th'anottomye of fortune whom she dyssects
With all the poysons & sharpe corrosyves
Stylld in the lymbecke of damde pollycie.
My starres, my starres!
O that my breath could plucke theym from theire spheares
So with theire ruyns to conclude my feares.

_Enter La Buffe_.

_Rei[naldo.]_ Smoother your passions, Sir: here comes his sonne--
A propertie oth court, that least his owne
Ill manners should be noted thyeks it fytt
In pollycie to scoffe at other mens.
He will taxe all degrees & thynke that that
Keepes hym secure from all taxation.

_Orl_. Y'are deceyvd; it is a noble gent