simplicity of language has been deliberately adopted for artistic
purposes; that the author held plenty of strength in reserve, and would
not have been wanting if the argument had demanded a loftier style. In
Yarington's case we have no such feeling. He seems to be giving us the
best that he had to give; and it must be confessed that he is
intolerably flat at times. It is difficult to resist a smile when the
compassionate Neighbour (in his shirt), discovering poor Thomas
Winchester with the hammer sticking in his head, delivers himself after
this fashion:--

"What cruell hand hath done so foule a deede,
Thus to bemangle a distressed youth
Without all pittie or a due remorse!
See how the hammer sticketh in his head
Wherewith this honest youth is done to death!
Speak, honest _Thomas_, if any speach remaine:
What cruell hand hath done this villanie?"

Merry's "last dying speech and confession" is as nasty as such things
usually are.

In the introduction to _Arden of Feversham_ I intend to return to the
consideration of Yarington's _Two Tragedies_.




Two Lamentable Tragedies.