Under the close curtains of the night. TOURNEUR (Atheist's Tragedy iv. 3.) 1611-1612. He draws night's curtains. Beaumont & FLETCHER (Elder Brother xv. 2.) 1637. In all these allusions to the Night it will be observed how consistently (particularly in the year 1594), the poets fail to perceive anything but gloom and villainy. Although on occasion the dramatists can be prosier than Polonius, in the ordinary course they display a vehement irritation at circumlocution and delay. Defer no time: delays have dangerous ends. SHAKESPEARE (I Henry VI. 111. 2.) 1623. Delay is dangerous and procureth harm. GREENE (Alphonsus) 1599. Dalliance dangereth our lives. MARLOWE (Edward II.) 1593-1598. I am impatient of delay. ANON (Selimus) 1594. In great affairs 'tis naught to use delay. ANON (Edward III. i. 1.) 1596. In this respect again they were in accord with Bacon to whom Law, Constitutional privileges and Theology were but means to certain ends. "If," as J. R. Green remarks, "these ends could be brought about in shorter fashion he saw only pedantry in insisting on more cumbrous means. So fiery was the energy with which Bacon attacked his duties as Lord Chancellor that shortly after his appointment we find him writing: 1 Short History. P, 439. "This day I have made even with the business of the Kingdom's common justice; not one cause unheard; not one petition unanswered. And this I think could not be said in our age before. This I speak not out of ostentation but out of gladness when I have done my duty. I know men think I cannot continue if I should oppress myself with business: but that account is made. The duties of life are more than life and if I die now I shall die before the world will be weary of me, which in our times is somewhat rare. A corollary to this energetic temperament was Bacon's hatred of superfluous circumstance. In the Promus manuscript we find him noting down "Matter of circumstance not of substance an entry which constantly reappears in his writings. To use many circumstances ere one come to the matter is wearisome. BACON (Essay: Discourse) 1597-8. Your brother kindly greets you. Not to be weary with you, he's in prison. SHAKESPEARE (Measure for Measure 1. 5.) 1604-1623. The dwelling upon them [ceremonies] and exalting them above the moon is not only tedious, but doth diminish the faith and credit of him that speaks. BACON (Essay Ceremonies) 1625. Long and curious speeches.... prefaces and passages and excusations, and other speeches of reference to the person, are great waste of time. BACON (Essay: Despatch) 1607-12. Similarly we find the dramatists extolling brevity and deprecating all digressions and swellings of style. It seems to have been a traditional rule of the theatre for all messengers either to break their news by intimating that they will leave circumstance and come to the purpose, or, failing in this respect, to be curtly reminded of the necessity. Of this I give instances. You... spend but time to wind about... with circumstance. SHAKESPEARE (Merchant of Venice 11.) 1600. Lets talk quickly. Plague o' this circumstance. BEAUMONT & FLETCHER (Little French Lawyer IV. 5.) 1620-47. Your plainness and your shortness please me well. SHAKESPEARE (Taming of the Shrew IV. 4.) 1623. What means this passionate discourse? This peroration with such circumstance? IBID (2 Henry VI. 1. 1.) 1623. What need this circumstance ? Pray you be direct. BEN JONSON (Every man in his Humour 11. 1.) 1598. Lay aside superfluous ceremony, speak, what is it? FORD (Love's Sacrifice 1. 1.) 1633. Leaving formal circumstance, proceed, you dally. IBID (The Fancies Iv. 1.) 1638. I will break my mind to her without ceremony [or circumstance. LYLY (Endymion 1. 3.) 1591. To be brief and cut off all superfluous circumstance. HEYWOOD (English Traveller III. 1.) 1633. Time cuts off circumstance, I must be brief. TOURNEUR (Atheist's Tragedy 1. 4.) 1611-1612. Haste cuts off circumstance. MASSINGER (Great Duke of Florence IV. 1.) 1627-1636. Time not affords to tell each circumstance. GREENE (Orlando Furioso) 1591-1594. Long circumstance in taking princely leaves GREENE (James IV.) 1594-1598. To leave frivolous circumstances, I pray You tell signor Lucentio.... SHAKESPEARE (Taming of the Shrew v. 1.) 1623. Not to spend the time in trifling words Thus stands the case.... KYD (Spanish Tragedy 11. 1.) 1594. Not to delay your grace with circumstance. SHIRLEY (The Cardinal v. 1.) 1641. To be sententious not superfluous Sol should have.... NASH (Summer's Last Will) 1592-1600. I mean to stand on a sententious guard ANON (Selimus) 1594. Tell me.... without all circumstance. BEAUMONT & FLETCHER (King and no King) 1619. Ladie, the circumstance is tedious. MARSTON (Antonio and Mellida 1. 1.) 1602. To lay aside unnecessary soothing And not to speed the time in circumstance, 'Tis bruited for a certainty my lord.... ANON (Edward III. 111. 1.) 1598. More circumstance the season intercepts J I will leave the circumstance and come to the [purpose, This Romelio is a bastard. WEBSTER (Devil's Law Case 1v. 2.) 1623. Not to abuse your patience noble friends Nor hold ye off with tedious circumstance.... Beaumont & FLETCHER (The Chances Iv. 2.) 1647. His Lordship came; and, not to trouble your Majesty with circumstances, both their Lordships concluded.... BACON (Letter to KING JAMES) 1614. As you please my lord But, to omit all circumstance, you bring HABINGDON (Queen of Arragon v. 1.) 1640. My Lord, to omit circumstance, I highly thank you. CHAPMAN (Admiral of France Iv.) 1635-1639. A conspicuous trait of the Elizabethan drama is its universalism. Of Shakespeare Emerson asks, "What point of morals, of manners, of economy, of philosophy, of religion, of taste, of the conduct of life has he not settled?" The dramatists seem to have known everything and to have been animated by the same spirit that prompted Bacon while a mere youth to declare modestly, "I have taken all knowledge to be my province. "Shakespeare, " says Schlegel, "unites in his existence the utmost depth, and the most foreign and apparently irreconcilable properties subsist in |