XIII.

Writing of the letter O.

Twelfth Night, ii. 3,

"O, the twelfth day of December."

Fol. "O the," &c. Read "O' th' twelfth," &c. It is the first line of a narrative ballad. (By the way, B. and F., Monsieur Thomas, iii. 3, Moxon, vol. i. p. 481, col. 1, in the enumeration of ballads, for "The Devil and ye dainty Dames," read "The Devil and ye Dainty Dames," which I suppose to be the title of a ballad.38 In the Two Gentle

men of Verona, the folio has,—

"Best sing it to the tune of Light O, Love;"

meaning, ut vulg., Light o' Love.

Beaumont and Fletcher, Women Pleased, ii. 3, fol. 1647 [and f. 1679],

"Death, O my soule!" for "Death, o' my soule!"

This last, however, may be a mere erratum, arising from the printer's misunderstanding the author's meaning. O' in the forms o' my truth, o' my life, &c., is frequently expressed by ô. B. and F., Captain, iii. 3, fol. 1647,— Yes, it shewes very sweetly.

Frank. Nay do not blush Sir, ô my troth it does;" and just below, "ô my conscience;" a little above, "ô my faith."

38 See Mr. Dyce's note to the passage in his edition, vol. vii. p. 365, where he explains the matter differently. He readily disposes of the "dainty dames," but the "Devil" is more troublesome. He is probably right, though nothing can be more ingenious than Walker's explanation.-Ed.

False One, ii. 3,

"A tempting Devill, ô my life: go off Cæsar."

(In one of Jeremy Taylor's funeral sermons occurs the name Phelim 6 Neale.) As is also the interjection 0. Twelfth Night, ii. 4, fol. p. 262, col. 2,—

Sad true louer neuer find my graue to weepe there.”

M. N. D. v. 1, p. 160, col. 2,

"O grim look't night, ô night with hue so blacke,
O night, ô night, alacke, alacke, alacke."

ô that woman that

As You Like It, iv. 1, p. 201, col. 2,– cannot make her fault her husbands occasion, let her never nurse her childe herself, &c. And so folio passim. Beaumont and Fletcher, Fair Maid of the Inn, ii. 4, fol. 1647, p. 36, col. 2,

“Pray Sir resolve me, ô for pitty doe.” iii. 2, p. 37, col. 2,—

Of learning, shame of duty."

Demetrius and Enanthe, ii. 1, Dyce, p. 25,

"But she (forsooth) when I put theis things to her, (theis thinges of honest Thrift), groanes, ô my conscience,

and so, p. 31, "ô most extremely,"-"ô I have her; "-and elsewhere in the same play.

Daniel, Civil Wars, 1623, passim ; e.g., B. i. St. lxxxix. xc. B. v. St. lxviii. Sidney, Arcadia, passim; e.g., B. i. p. 76, 11. 14, 24,

“This Maide, thus made for ioyes, ô Pan, bemone her;

Farre other case, ô Muse, my sorrow tries."

XIV.

Peculiar Mode of Rhyming.

Sonnet CXXXV.,—

"Wilt thou, whose will is large and spacious,
Not once vouchsafe to hide my will in thine?
Shall will in others seem right gracious,

And in my will no fair acceptance shine?"

This species of rhyme is frequent in Shakespeare and his contemporaries.

Sonnet lxvii.,

X.,

"Ah! wherefore with infection should he live,
And with his presence grace impiety,

That sin by him advantage should achieve,
And lace itself with his society?"

"For shame! deny that thou bear'st love to any,
Who for thyself art so unprovident :

Grant, if thou wilt, thou art belov'd of many,

But that thou none lov'st, is most evident."

lxii., antiquity-iniquity. Taming of the Shrew, ii. 1,— "Skipper, stand back: 'tis age that nourisheth. Tra. But youth in ladies' eyes that flourisheth." Merry Wives of Windsor, v. 3, about the end,— "Against such lewdsters, and their lechery,

Those that betray them do no treachery."

Venus and Adonis, St. cliv., somewhat differently, as spectacles-chronicles, below,

'

"O hard-believing love, how strange it seems
Not to believe, and yet too credulous!
Thy weal and woe are both of them extremes,
Despair and hope make thee ridiculous."

Other poets. Spenser, F. Q., B. ii. C. vii. St. lxii.,—

"I Pilate am, the falsest judge, alas!
And most uniust; that, by unrighteous
And wicked doome, to Jewes despiteous
Deliverd up the Lord of Life to dye."

The following three are curious. Beaumont, Translation
of Ovid's Remedy of Love, Moxon, vol. ii. p. 703, col. 1,-
"If she should send her friends to talk with thee,
Suffer them not too long to walk with thee."

Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet, 1562, Var. Shak. vol. vi. p. 297,

"The nurce that knew no cause why she absented her,

Did doute lest that some sodain greefe too much tormented her." Jonson, Forest, xi. (10 and 6-syllable lines),

Ford, Fame's Memorial, St. xxx. Gifford, vol. ii. p. 574, vanity, humanity, urbanity; xlii. p. 577, maturity, obscurity, security; lx. p. 582, severity, temerity; lxxxii. p. 587, servility, nobility; lxxxviii. p. 589, prodigality, liberality; also in many instances, where the lines are of unequal lengths. Middleton, Wisdom of Solomon Paraphrased, Dyce, vol. v. p. 364,

383,

"Some blinded be in face, and some in soul;

The face's eyes are not incurable;

The other wanteth healing to be whole,
Or seems to some to be endurable."

"Thyself art dross to her comparison;
Thy valour weak unto her garrison."

413,

"Thus marching one by one, and side by side,
By the profane, ill-limn'd, pale spectacles,
Making both fire and fear to be their guide,

Pull'd down their vain-adoring chronicles."

Fletcher, Faithful Shepherdess, iv. 3, Moxon, vol. i. p. 278, 1. ult.,

what men call

Wonder, or, more than wonder, miracle!
For sure, so strange as this, the oracle
Never gave answer of."

Jonson, Cynthia's Revels, Prologue, init. Gifford, vol. ii. p. 229,

"If gracious silence, sweet attention,

Quick sight, and quicker apprehension," &c.

Epigram xi.,

"At court I met it, in clothes brave enough
To be a courtier, and looks grave enough

To seem a statesman."

Daniel, Queen's Arcadia, ii. 4, 1623, p. 355,

"And note but how these cankers always seaze
The choysest fruits with their infections,

How they are still ordained to disease

The natures of the best complections."

(Daniel, by the way, deals very little in the -ïon.) W. Browne, Britannia's Pastorals, B. i. Song ii. Clarke, vol. i. p. 70,—

"The alder, whose fat shadow nourisheth,

Each plant set near to him long flourisheth."