" Break, stubborn silence."1 In Marston's Sophonisba an unhappy character is haled up and down by the hair to the words, "Break, stubborn silence."2 In the Taming of the Shrew Katherine exclains, "Her silence flouts me... I'll be revenged." She then "flies after Bianca

an exit

conventionally followed by a crash. The dramatists had a conspicuous and violent aversion to garlic.

GARLIC.

Hence! I am qualmish at the smell of leek. SHAKESPEARE (Henry V. IV. 1.) 1600. onions nor garlic, for we are to

Eat no utter sweet breath.

IBID (Midsummer Night's Dream Iv. 2.) 1600. Aye, but the garlic I doubt not will make your breath stink.

ANON (Taming of a Shrew) 1594.

I have no leeks or garlic at my table...
Foh! How he stinks of garlic.

ANON (Timon v.) 1600. He that eats garlic on that morning shall be a rank knave till night.

CHAPMAN (Monsieur d'Olive) IV. 1.) 1606.

Come hither, and hold your fan between.
You have eaten onions.

BEAUMONT & FLETCHER (Wife for a Month
Ιν. 2.) 1624-1647.

To Beaumont and Fletcher garlic was so distasteful that they flog an eater for his indiscretion.

I

Guardian III. 6. 1633.

That knave has eaten garlic, whip him and bring him back.

(Prophetess III. 1.) 1622-1647.

Among Bacon's manuscript notes we find the entry Ne allia comedas et fabas (Erasmus), "Do not eat garlic and beans." Evidently to Bacon garlic was as pestilent and baneful as to the dramatists. In Sylva Sylvarum (1626) he alludes to it as the receptacle for "the more fœtid juice of the earth. " It seems in his opinion to have been the very acme of unpleasant flavours; the antithesis of things sweet.

"

"

In his love for fragrant air, and hatred of ill odours Bacon was greatly in advance of the stalwart and imperturbable Elizabethan nostril. "None of his servants, says Aubrey, " durst appear before him without Spanish leather boots : for he would smell the neates leather which offended him." Among the articles enumerated in his Will was a silver "casting bottle. It was customary for the supersensitive in those days to carry these scent sprinklers for the purpose of sweetening, or counteracting their surroundings. In his Essay Of Masques Bacon lays down that " in such a company as there is steam and heat the unseen sprinkling of sweet odours is a thing " of great pleasure and refreshment. Not infrequently the dramatists imply strong protest against "steam and heat;" they likewise advocate the sprinkling of sweet odours.

The ushers should have seen this room per

[fumed, in faith

They are too negligent.

MACHIN (Dumb Knight IV. 1.) 1608.

This room smells!
It has been perfumed.

DEKKER (Wonder of a Kingdom III. 1.) 1636. We have already shewn how repellently the atmosphere of the crowd affected the playwrights. It is conventional for poetic minds to perceive beauties in the Night. I pick up at random Drummond of Hawthornden and find him apostrophising, "Dear Night, the ease of Care, untroubled seat of Peace, Time's eldest child. Though here and there are favourable passages, the dramatists mostly manifest an implacable dislike for her. To them Night is a child of Hell, brutish, a murderous slut, a foul mother and a grim paramour.

NIGHT.

"

Night! thou foul mother of annoyance sad,
Sister of heavy Death, and nurse of Woe,
Which wast begot in heaven, but for thy bad
And brutish shape thrust down to hell below.

Under thy mantle black there hidden lie
Light-shunning Theft, and traitorous Intent,
Abhorréd Bloodshed, and vile Felony,
Shameful Deceit, and Danger imminent,
Foul Horror, and eke hellish Dreriment.

SPENSER (The Fairy Queen Bk. III. c. IV.)

1590-1609.

O comfort-killing Night, image of Hell,
Dun registrar and notary of shame,
Black stage for tragedies and murders fell,
Vast sin concealing chaos, nurse of blame.

SHAKESPEARE (Lucrece) 1594.

Night, the coverer of accursed crime.

KYD (Spanish Tragedy IV. 4.) 1594. Dark Night, dread Night, the silence of the Night Wherein the Furies mask in Hellish troops.

ANON (Contention Pt. 1.) 1594.

The silent deeps of dead-sad Night, where sins

do mask unseen.

The silence of the speechless Night,

Dire architect of murders and misdeeds.

KYD (Cornelia 11.) 1594.

PEELE (Alcazar) 1594.

Night is a murderous Slut.

KYD (Spanish Tragedy III. 122.) 1594.

Hellish night.

ANON (Locrine v. 4.) 1594.

Horrid night, the child of Hell.

Hell-born night.

SHAKESPEARE (Henry V. IV. 1.) 1600.

ANON (Lingua III. 6.) 1607.

Cynthia's.... negro paramour, grim Night.

DEKKER (Old Fortunatus 1. 1.) 1600. Farewell black night, thou beauteous mistress of a murderer !

TOURNEUR (Atheist's Tragedy 11. 4.) 1611. They almost invariably associated night and iron rust, thus :

Darkness dulled with iron rust.

SPENSER (Fairy Queen VI. III.) 1590.

Dusky Night in rusty iron car.

MARLOWE (Edward II.) 1593-1598. The rusty coach of Night.

MARSTON (Antonio and Mellida. IV.) 1602. Our iron chariot, that from his shod wheels rusty darkness flings.

HEYWOOD (Silver Age III.) 1612-1613.

They revel in the splendid simile of sable wings :

The night begins with sable wings
To overcloud the brightness of the Sun.

KYD (Spanish Tragedy II. 4.) 1594. The wings of night spread o'er me like a sable hearse cloth.

SHIRLEY (The Cardinal v. 3.) 1641-1652. The dragon wing of night o'erspreads the earth. SHAKESPEARE (Troilus & Cressida v. 8.) 1609. The gloomy wing of night begins to stretch Her lazy pinion.

MARSTON (Antonio IV. 5.) 1602.

Black Night has stretched her gloomy limbs. And laid her head upon some mountain top. FALKLAND (Marriage Night 1.) 1664.

At other times curtains supersede wings :

The curtain of the night is overspread.

GREENE (Perimedes) 1588.

Darksome night.... displayed,

Her coalblack curtain over brightest sky.

SPENSER (Fairy Queen I.IV.XLIV.) 1590.

Night had shadowed all the Earth

With sable curtains.

ANON (King John) 1591.

The gloomy curtain of the night is spread.

MARSTON (Scourge of Villainy) 1599.