APPENDICES
35 lines✦
69 equivalence in the feet, or, better, the thinking more inlines and less in feet 1 — is strikingly absent in Appiusand Virginia. These prosodic habits are also almost aslittle prominent in the possibly Websterian part ofA Cure for a Cuckold. But there is another pointwhich marks Appius and Virginia off from all the rest.In the other plays, there is little attempt to keep a linethat is divided between two speakers pentametrical. Ifone speech ends with a line of two and a half feet, thenext may begin with a line of two feet, or of three, orwith a complete line. Appius and Virginia keeps al-most invariably to the old tradition, by which thespeeches dovetail perfectly . 2 The first and almost the only characteristic in thisplay to strike a casual reader, is the vocabulary. Itis full of rare Latin words, mostly wearing an air ofrecent manufacture; “to deject” (in a literal sense),“munition,” “invasive,” “devolved,” “donative,”“palped,” “enthronised,” “torved,” “strage,” andmany more. This particular vocabulary is a mark ofcertain writers, especially of the period at the end ofthe sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth cen- 'E. g. Duchess of Malfi, III. 2: “Did you ever in your life know an ill painterDesire to have his dwelling next door to the shopOf an excellent picture maker?” 1 For the perplexing metrical part which Appius and Virginiaplays, see the metrical table on p. 190 of Dr. Stoll’s John Webster.Its resemblance to A Cure for a Cuckold is only in some direc-tions, and more statistical than real. The metre of both is rathersmooth; but in a very different way. It is, of course, ratherrisky to lay much emphasis on A Cure for a Cuckold: it may havebeen worked over by Rowley. 170
✦