4
The following tables set forth the rate of occurrence, in the
unaided plays of Fletcher and Massinger, of those linguistic forms
which are of value in distinguishing the respective shares of the
two dramatists in plays of divided authorship. I have omitted
The Faithful Shepherdess from the number of Fletcher's
unaided plays, for although it is undoubtedly Fletcher's own,
linguistically at least it has nothing in common with any other of
his unaided works. Its language is that of pastoral poetry,
uncol-loquial and somewhat archaic. It abounds in linguistic forms
(most notably the third person auxiliary forms hath and
doth) which Fletcher seldom or never uses in his other
unaided plays, while all the most distinguishing of his colloquial
forms are either completely absent, or present in only a negligible
degree. Nothing could be more misleading than to regard the
language of The Faithful Shepherdess as typically
Fletcherian.
Of the linguistic forms cited in the tables below, ye is
much the most important for purposes of authorial evidence. Since
Fletcher employs the form as both subject and object, direct or
indirect, in either singular or plural number, the rate of its
occurrence in his unaided plays is very high. In the fifteen
unaided plays of Massinger, the form occurs but twice. Contractions
in y' (y'are, y'ave and the like) are much less
frequent in Fletcher, and are of no value in distinguishing
Fletcher's work from Massinger's. The two occurrences of
y'are in Fletcher's Monsieur Thomas, Rule a Wife,
Bonduca, and The Pilgrim, for example, are matched
by
the
two instances of the form in Massinger's
The Bondman. The
single instances of
y'ave and
y'have in,
respectively, Fletcher's
The Chances and
Bonduca
are
paralleled by single appearances of the same forms in,
respectively, Massinger's
A New Way to Pay Old Debts and
The Guardian. There is nothing to distinguish Massinger's
use of contractions in
y' from Fletcher's, and I have not
included them among the forms cited in the following tables.
Regarding the verb form
hath, there is a distinct difference
in the Fletcher-Massinger usage. In Fletcher, the form never occurs
more than 6 times in a single play, and in two plays it occurs not
at all. In Massinger, on the other hand,
hath never occurs
less than 8 times in any one play, and generally it is found a good
deal more often than this—as often as 46 times in a single play.
Doth comes in only one of the fourteen Fletcherian plays
listed below, but since it
appears but 5 times in Massinger, the distinction in the practice
of the two dramatists on this point is not great. The contraction
'em appears in all of Fletcher's unaided plays, from 23
times in
Women Pleased to 130 times in
The Loyal
Subject. In certain of Massinger's plays, it will be noted,
'em is to be found occurring as frequently as it does in
certain of Fletcher's. But it seems significant that all of these
(e.g.,
The Picture, The Guardian, The City Madam) are late
plays, licensed for acting after Fletcher's death in 1625.
[8] In Massinger's early plays, which
would
presumably reflect his language practices at the time of his
collaboration with Fletcher,
'em is used a good deal more
sparingly than in the unaided plays of Fletcher or in the later
work of Massinger himself: 7 times, for example, in
The
Parliament of Love, 9 times in
The Renegado, 12
times
in
The Duke of Milan. I
tabulate the occurrence of the form for whatever value it may have
as a piece of corroborating evidence for distinguishing the work of
the two dramatists.
The evidence to be derived from the contraction i'th'
is,
on the whole, good. Despite the fact that the 7 occurrences of the
form in Fletcher's The Island Princess are equalled in
Massinger's The Guardian, the form is found at least 4 times
in all of Fletcher's plays, where it may appear as many as 28
times, while it is found in but 5 plays of Massinger's, and in none
of these more than 7 times. It may be worth noting that the five
plays in which the form occurs are late ones, and that i'th'
appears in no
play of Massinger's written before Fletcher's death. A form,
however, which Massinger tends to employ occasionally, but which
occurs only a single time in Fletcher, is the contraction
i'the. The contraction
o'th' affords evidence of
a
sufficiently clear-cut sort: the form occurs at least once in all
fourteen of Fletcher's unaided plays; it occurs not at all in
Massinger. The colloquial form
a (for
he) is
found
in
six of Fletcher's plays, but appears in none of Massinger's. Of a
similar nature is the contraction
'is (for
he is),
present in five of Fletcher's unaided plays, but not present in
Massinger.
H'as (for
he has) is found at least
twice
in each of the fourteen unaided plays of Fletcher, but it occurs
only a single time in Massinger. The contraction
t' (for
to, before a following vowel or
h) affords
evidence
of a sort for Massinger; it occurs at least once in ten of his
fifteen unaided plays, but is
found only a single time in Fletcher. Contractions involving
's for
his occur chiefly in Fletcher following
the
prepositions
in and
on. There are single
instances
in
Fletcher of enclitic
's for
his with four other
prepositions (
at, for, to, up); with an adverb
(
than); with a verb (
strike). In Massinger,
's
for
his occurs but three times: twice in the contraction
in's, once in the contraction
of's. Only the uses
of
's for
his with
in and
on
have seemed
worth recording in the tables that follow.
As for contractions in 's for us, these
occur
most
commonly in Fletcher with the imperative verb form let. I
find only two occasions in which Fletcher has used enclitic
's for us after other notional verbs
(put
and
make); elsewhere, he uses the form only after the
preposition on (5 times). In Massinger, 's for
us is used only in the contraction let's, and
even
this quite normal form Massinger uses very sparingly. It is the
only contraction in 's for us that I have
recorded
below. The enclitic use of 't for it with both
prepositions and verbs (in contractions such as in't, on't,
for't, to't, is't) is standard in the work of Elizabethan and
Jacobean dramatists, and contractions of this sort are of no worth
in distinguishing the work of Fletcher and Massinger, for their
rate of occurrence in the work of each is virtually identical. In
the following tables I have recorded
only one form in 't for it, the contraction
of't, and this only because the form does not appear in
Fletcher, while it occurs from one to nine times in thirteen of the
fifteen unaided plays of Massinger.
To summarize the chief features of the linguistic patterns of
Fletcher and Massinger: the Fletcherian pattern is one which is
marked above all by the constant use of ye; one which
exhibits a strong preference for the contraction 'em to the
expanded form them; one which regularly employs such other
contractions as i'th', o'th', h'as, and 's for
his, and which makes sparing use of the third person
singular verb forms hath and doth. Stated
Linguistic Tables for the Unaided Plays of Fletcher and
Massinger[*]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
's(his)
|
's(us)
|
|
ye
|
hath
|
doth
|
'em
|
i'th'
|
i'the
|
o'th'
|
a
|
'is
|
h'as
|
t'
|
in's
|
on's
|
let's
|
|
Fletcher
|
| M. Thom. |
343 |
6 |
|
27 |
9 |
|
6 |
|
|
2 |
|
3 |
|
10 |
| R. W. |
213 |
2 |
|
35[†]
|
20 |
|
12 |
|
5 |
7 |
|
3 |
1 |
12 |
| Bon. |
352 |
1 |
|
95 |
14 |
|
10 |
4 |
|
10 |
|
4 |
1 |
27 |
| Chan. |
290 |
2 |
|
44 |
12 |
|
4 |
4 |
|
10 |
|
2 |
|
20 |
| I. P. |
258 |
|
|
64 |
7 |
|
8 |
1 |
8 |
5 |
|
1 |
|
14 |
| H. L. |
367 |
5 |
|
80 |
28 |
|
11 |
2 |
|
11 |
|
3 |
3 |
11 |
| L. S. |
424 |
3 |
|
130 |
13 |
|
10 |
|
|
4 |
|
2 |
1 |
10 |
| M. L. |
308 |
6 |
|
25 |
16 |
1 |
4 |
15 |
4 |
7 |
|
3 |
|
17 |
| Pilg. |
400 |
3 |
|
62 |
15 |
|
9 |
|
|
9 |
|
7 |
|
18 |
| Valen. |
412 |
4 |
|
71 |
12 |
|
8 |
2 |
|
4 |
|
2 |
|
16 |
| W. M. |
176 |
|
|
41 |
4 |
|
1 |
|
1 |
2 |
|
5 |
1 |
17 |
| W. P. |
288 |
3 |
|
23 |
15 |
|
16 |
|
|
6 |
|
4 |
2 |
3 |
| W. G. C. |
543 |
1 |
|
61 |
8 |
|
6 |
|
1 |
3 |
1 |
|
1 |
15 |
| W. Pr. |
133 |
4 |
3 |
58 |
14 |
|
21[‡]
|
|
|
3 |
|
3 |
|
10 |
|
Massinger
|
| D. M. |
|
46 |
|
12 |
|
1 |
|
|
|
|
8 |
|
|
1 |
| Bond. |
|
8 |
1 |
15 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
1 |
|
|
2 |
| P. L. |
1 |
21 |
|
7 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1 |
| R. A. |
|
28 |
|
14 |
|
2 |
|
|
|
|
3 |
|
|
5 |
| Pict. |
|
35 |
|
52 |
5 |
3 |
|
|
|
|
3 |
|
|
1 |
| Ren. |
|
21 |
|
9 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
3 |
| Bel. |
|
36 |
|
26 |
|
1 |
| E. E. |
|
31 |
1 |
26 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
2 |
| M. H. |
|
25 |
|
31 |
|
5 |
|
|
|
|
2 |
| N. W. |
|
16 |
|
36 |
2 |
1 |
|
|
|
1 |
2 |
|
|
1 |
| G. D. F. |
|
26 |
|
15 |
| U. C. |
|
23 |
|
16 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1 |
| B. L. |
1 |
41 |
3 |
21 |
3 |
2 |
|
|
|
|
5 |
2 |
|
1 |
| Guard. |
|
26 |
|
47 |
7 |
4 |
|
|
|
|
4 |
|
|
3 |
| C. M. |
|
19 |
|
46 |
1 |
1 |
|
|
|
|
1 |
numerically, it is a pattern in which the average rate of
occurrence for the forms in question is as follows:
| Contraction |
Average occurrence per play |
| ye |
322 |
| hath |
3 |
| 'em |
59 |
| them |
8 |
| i'th' |
14 |
| o'th' |
9 |
| h'as |
6 |
| 's (his) |
5 |
The full significance of these figures can best be realized when
they are compared with the average rate of occurrence for the same
forms in the unaided work of Massinger. There
ye occurs
twice in fifteen plays.
Hath occurs at an average rate of 27
times. In the seven plays of Massinger's sole authorship written
before Fletcher's death, and so reflecting most nearly the author's
linguistic preferences during the period of his collaboration with
Fletcher,
'em is used an average of 12 times per play,
them an average of 23 times. The contraction
i'th'
is
found 18 times in five of Massinger's unaided plays, all of which
date after the death of Fletcher.
O'th' does not appear in
any of Massinger's unaided plays;
h'as is found but once (in
a post-Fletcher play);
's for
his occurs twice
(both
times in a play written after Fletcher's death). In the linguistic
pattern which emerges from the unaided plays of Massinger written
during Fletcher's lifetime, it can fairly be said then that the
Fletcherian
ye has no parallel; that Massinger's average use
of
hath is nine times greater than Fletcher's; that the
Fletcherian preference for
'em to
them is
precisely
reversed in Massinger; and that the contractions
i'th', o'th',
h'as, and
's for
his are completely
absent
from
his work at this period. The linguistic patterns of the two are as
nearly opposite as they could well be.
