B. viii., Argument, They threaten Godfrey: he prays to the Lord," &c. B. xii. St. lxi., "But this much know, I am one of those twain Which late with kindled fire destroy'd the tower." Browne, B. i. Song ii. Clarke, p. 60,— "My waters should bring from the sea The coral red," &c. Song iii. p. 92, "She thank'd the nymph for her kind succour lent, "So Walla, which to gather long time stood, Whether those of the field or of the wood; Or those that 'mong the springs and marish lay," &c. Cartwright, Ordinary, ii. 1, Dodsley, vol. x. p. 194, Come sweating in a breast of mutton stuff"d Herrick, Farewell to Sack, ad fin., Hereafter, shall smell of the lamp, not thee." I have selected the above passages as particularly clear and convincing. The same is the case in Chaucer and Surrey. The observance of the above rule will remove a certain degree of harshness, less striking indeed than that in the above-quoted passages, but still annoying to a musical ear, from numerous passages in the old poets. Daniel, Defence of Rhyme, Poems, 178, vol. i. p. 27,'Again, who knows not that we cannot kindly [i.e., naturally] answere a feminine number with a masculine rhime, or (if you will so term it) a trochei with a sponde, as weakness with confess, nature with endure, only for that thereby we shall wrong the accent, the chief lord and grave governor of numbers; also you cannot in a verse of four feet, place a trochei in the first, without like offence, as, 'Yearly out of his watry cell;' for so you shall sound it, Yearlie, which is unnatural." Had the pronunciation been as now, out of, Daniel would unavoidably have been led to notice the intolerable discord of two consecutive trochees in such a place; or rather he would never have thought of selecting such a verse at all by way of illustration. In our old writers, in fact, the preposition was more closely connected in pronunciation with its noun, or shall I rather say, had more of an accent than now. (A similar observation may be made as regards the Latin language; to this latter remark I was led by Parr's remarks on the pronunciation of inter se in the Latin poets as one word; but it applies to Latin prepositions in general, and will remove a certain harshness from numberless lines in the Roman poets.) Sidney, Arcadia, B. i. p. 85, l. 9, – "His mark a pillar was, devoid of stay, As bragging that, free of all passions' moan, Well might he others bear, but lean to none.' Jonson, Fox, iii. 2, Gifford, vol. iii. p. 237, I do feel the fever Entering in at mine ears: O for a charm Massinger, Bondman, i. 3, Moxon, p. 79, col. 1,— Unworthy to taste of those cates you feed on, - As I guess, With a seeming kind of joy; but yet appears not Renegado, v. 3, p. 120, col. 2, "The clearness of this is a perfect sign Of innocence." (But is this at all emphatic here?) Jonson, Staple of News, v. 1, Gifford, vol. v. p. 294,— "But there must be a gratitude thought on, And aid, sir, for the charges of the suit." Note thought on. I should conjecture, that the pronunciation in this respect was in James I.'s time beginning to fluctuate, and that Massinger was a partizan of the old mode; for in him appears more strikingly than in any other of our old poets, as far as I have noticed. it LXXXIV. Noticeable Instances of the Use of the Apostrophe in the First Folio. 's Tale, ii. 1, near the beginning; fol. 281, col. 2, Winter's' Taught 'this for taught ye this.97 Vulg.,-" Or a halfmoon made, &c.- -Who taught you this?" ii. 3, p. 285. col. 2, "We have alwayes truely seru'd you, and beseech' Ib., "Seru. Please' your Highnesse, Posts From those you sent to the' Oracle, are come An houre since." iii., near the end, p. 289, col. 1,-"'Marry will I." iv. 3 p. 292, col. 1,— "The Mary-gold, that goes to bed with 'Sun;" which however, I suppose, is an erratum for "with th Sun." P. 297, col. 1, "'Pray heartily he be at 'Pallace;' rustice for "at the palace;" I suppose the apostrophe wa meant to imply this. P. 293, col. 1,-"'May be he ha paid you more." P. 296, col. 1,— "She's as forward, of her Breeding, as She is i' th' reare 'our Birth." Troilus and Cressida, ii. 3, towards the end, 13th page the play, col. 1, 1.2,— "Know the whole world he is as valiant." Measure for Measure, iii. 1, 1. 3, p. 70, col. 2,— "I' haue hope to liue, and am prepar❜d to die.” (The passage is properly verse, as all the later editor give it.) I have hardly attended to this point, except i the Winter's Tale. Tempest, ii. 2, folio, page 9, col. 2,"while Stephano breathes at 'nostrils." Meant, I sup 97 See Mr. Dyce's note on this passage in his recent edition.-E pose, to indicate that it is a contraction of at th' nostrils, or perhaps, secundum Eboracenses, at t' nostrils. 1 King Henry VI. v. 3, p. 116, col. 1,— "I: Beauties Princely Majesty is such, 'Confounds the tongue, and makes the senses [rough].” To indicate that it is an abbreviation of it confounds. Demetrius and Enanthe, iv. 4, p. 88, may be added to the above, "Is really in love with' King most doatingly." LXXXV. Instances in which Speeches are assigned in the Folio to Wrong Characters.98 Tempest, i. 2, last line of p. 5 and beginning of p. 6,"Pro. Follow me. Pros. Speake not you for him," &c. ; dividing Prospero's speech into two. A similar instance occurs, Two Gentlemen of Verona, i. 3, p. 22 ad fin. and p. 23, "Pro. Sweet Loue, &c. Pro. Oh heavenly Julia." Two Gentlemen of Verona, v. 2, p. 36, col. 2,"Thu. 'Tis true, such Pearles as put out Ladies eyes, For I had rather winke, then looke on them. Thu. How likes she my discourse ?" 99 Some of the mistakes noticed in this article are original sins of the first folio; others are derived from earlier quartos.-Ed. VOL. II. 12 |