possible Tourneur allusion in Sayers

[truepenny]

Compare this passage from Murder Must Advertise:

With a vacant wonder he gazed upon the twinkling sky-signs, as though, ignorant astronomer, he knew nothing of the creative hands that had set these lesser lights to rule the night.

(Sayers 96)

with this from The Atheist's Tragedy (D'Amville is the atheist villain of the title, also covetous):

D'AMVILLE. Behold, thou ignorant astronomer,
  Whose wandering speculation seeks among
  The planets for men's fortunes! With amazement
  Behold thine error and be planet-struck.
  These are the stars whose operations make
  The fortunes and the destinies of men.
  Yond' lesser eyes of Heaven, like subjects raised
  Into their lofty houses when their prince
  Rides underneath th'ambition of their loves,
  Are mounted only to behold the face
  Of your more rich impervious eminence
  With unprevented sight. Unmask, fair queen;

                                        Unpurses the gold

  Vouchsafe their expectations may enjoy
  The gracious favour they admire to see.
  These are the stars, the ministers of fate,
  And man's high wisdom the superior power
  To which their forces are subordinate.

(Tourneur 5.1.10-26)

It's not exact, but there are enough echoes--and enough appropriateness in D'Amville's words being used a propos of advertising--that I tend to think it's legit.

And anyway, it's cool.

---
WORKS CITED
Sayers, Dorothy L. Murder Must Advertise. 1933. New York: Perennial Library-Harper & Row, 1986.

Tourneur, Cyril. The Atheist's Tragedy. 1611. Ed. Brian Morris and Roma Gill. New Mermaids. 1976. London: A & C Black, 1989.

Comments

[pameladean]

It seems very probable to me. And yes, very cool indeed. It makes me wonder if there is an Annotated Sayers out there somewhere.

Pamela

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

I think there is an annotated Sayers--somebody was recommending it to me a while back, and of course I didn't make a note of it because sometimes I am stupid like that.

But I don't know if this incredibly covert, weird Tourneur allusion is the sort of thing it would cover or not.

[liudbert.livejournal.com]

Neat! There is a Lord Peter Wimsey Companion, recently revised by Stephan Clarke (http://www.sayers.org.uk/press/lpwc.html), but I haven't seen it either. Another thing (less subtle, but still amusing) that probably wouldn't be in it is a cross-reference between Harriet's comment to the Dean in chapter 16 of Gaudy Night "I'm afraid you're susceptible to fair hair and a slim figure. That in the slender's but a humourous word which in the stout is flat impertinence" and Measure for Measure, II.ii:

That in the captain's but a choleric word,
Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy.