10 th 8. V. JUNE 9, 1906.]
NOTES AND QUERIES.
44$
medes ' (vii. 43) 1589 : " Chilon the Lace-
demonian, being sent in Ambassage to
Corinth," &c. Greene alters here " peoples "
to "cities," "staine" to "eclipse," and
" ignominy " to " ignomy." He copies this
whole passage again into ' The Hoy all Ex-
change' (vii. 23), with one or two other
altered words, adhering to "eclipse" and
" ignomy." Greene's other illustration of
Chilon (iii. 157) has already been dealt
with from Primaudaye on 'Friendship'
(chap. xiii.).
Primaudaye, chap, xxjcviii., 'Of Injustice and of Severitie,' p. 408 : * Phillip the first, king of Macedonia, was slaine by Pausanias, a meane Gentle-man, bicause he would not let him have justice against Anti pater, who had offered him wrong." Greene, 'Farewell to Follie' (ix. 342) : " Philip, King of Mace- donia," &c., the rest identical. At the same reference the succeeding passage in both is of "Demetrius the besieger, 5; who threw his subjects' supplications over a bridge into a river, and thereby lost his kingdom. Greene alters a little. In this case Primaudaye repeats himself, and gives these two anec- dotes together in chap. Ix., ' Of the Office and Dutie of a Prince.'
Primaudaye, chap, xxxviii., p. 409 : " Fer- dinando the fourth of that name putting two knights to death more through anger than justly, one of them cried aloud in this sort : O unjust king, we cite thee to appeere within thirtie daies before the tribunall seate of Jesus Christ to receive judgement
for thy Injustice Upon the last of which
daies he died likewise." Greene (ix. 343) :
- ' Ferdinando the fourth putting to death a
knight more for anger than anie just cause, the Gentleman at the sentence cried out : Injurious Emperor, I cite thee to appear before the tribunall seate of God to answere this wrong within thirtie daies : on the last of which expired therein the Emperor died."
Primaudaye, chap, xxxviii., p. 411 : "Alexander Severus handled after another
fashion a servant of his who used like
a horse-leech to fulfil their request for a
good reward caused him to be tied to a
post and choked with smoke, making this proclamation by sound of trumpet, That they which sell smoke, should so perish with smoke." Greene (ibid., p. 343) : "Alexander Severus handled his Secretary, who being a caterpillar of the court and selling the verie
favourable lookes of his maister in re-
quitall was tied to a post and choked
with smoke," &c. (as above).
We corne now to an important chapter in
Primaudaye, chap. xliv. (pp. 467-78). At
any rate, Greene thought it important, for
the whole of ' Peratio his discourse upon
Fortune,' in ' The Second Part of Tritameron r
(iii. 128-39), is annexed from the translation
of the French writer. When a property is
annexed on any considerable scale the new
owner generally discovers many desirable
nooks and corners he was hardly aware of ^
and when I first read this part of Greene it
was with great interest indeed, I thought it
some of his best prose. Still, I felt uneasy
about it. It did not somehow ring true.
Like a sheep, stolen and skilfully skinned
and shorn, or a captured ship relieved of its-
superfluous cargo and flying the pirates' flag,
so this learned and well-laboured discourse
is Robert Greene's by no manner of right,
and must be restored to its lawful owner,.
Peter de la Primaudaye. The method of
quotation is here impossible, the extracts
being so considerable. But I will endeavour
to place Greene's alterations alongside of
the original text as lucidly as possible, so-
that any one in possession of either text can
see for himself the nature of the transaction
the artful Greene indulged in. Poor Greene I
his " New books from the Maker, New Books
from the Maker," were compelled to gallop,
apace at all costs. In Dekker's ' Lanthorne
and Candlelight,' chap, v., * How to catch*
Birdes by the Booke,' professes to expose
" strange villanies " of this description, but it
lacks interest and convincingness.
Primaudaye (p. 470), after a page upon his- topic, says : ** Aristotle saith, that Fortune is a casuall & accidentall cause in things, which, being purposely done for some cer- taine end, have no apparant cause of their falling out otherwise," tfec. He has in the preceding paragraph, given us : * Plato- saith, that Fortune is an accidentall cause & a consequence in those things which proceed from the counsell of man." From the close of Aristotle's opinions, being three more lines, Primaudaye goes on with "Epicurus said that Fortune was such a cause as agreed neither to persons, times, or manners." Then, immediately, we have Theophrastus, Juvenall, Pindarus, Sylla (Greene inserts that the speaker remembers this from Livy's Decades), Mithridates and Sylla, Julius Ciesar ("Csesar and his For- tune"), and Augustus his successor. This brings us to the foot of p. 471 in Primaudaye,, and of p. 131 in Greene, who inserts here a line and a half not in his exemplar. Greene's discourse commences (p. 128) " Aristotle, who by the sharpenes of lies reason pearced, &c. [two lines of his own], made this answere :.
