Page images
PDF
EPUB

Pericles of Tyre, i. 2,

"Whereas reproof, obedient, and in order,

Fits kings as they are men, for they may err.'

I think the occasion (the winding-up of a yvwμn) requires rhyme; see context. But is the passage Shakespeare's? Midsummer Night's Dream, v. i.,—

"Through which the lovers, Pyramus and Thisby,

Did whisper often, very secretly."

This is of a piece with the purposely incondite composition of this dramiticle. So a little above,—

"This beauteous lady Thisby is certain."

We might indeed scan: "Pyram | us and | Thisby;" but this is not likely. In Sonnet xlv. we have,—

"For when these quicker elements are gone

In tender embassy of love to thee,

My life, being made of four, with two alone

Sinks down to death, opprest with melancholy."

But Shakespeare was incapable of anything so discordant as this. The other instances, occurring in the places they do, are less offensive; besides that they are from his earlier works. Let any one with a tolerable ear read the Sonnets continuously, and judge. Ought melancholy to be pronounced mélanch❜ly? Instances from other writers. Play of How a Man may Choose a Good Wife from a Bad, 1604, iv. ad fin. Old English Drama, vol. i. p. 79,—

"Then thus resolv'd, I straight will drink to thee

A health thus deep, to drown thy melancholy."

This, standing as it does at the end of a scene, must be a rhyme of the common sort; the other would be intolerable. And so, I think, Jonson, Prologue to the Sad Shepherd,"You shall have love, and hate, and jealousy,

As well as mirth, and rage, and melancholy."

Dedication to Chapman's Play of All Fools, as printed in Dodsley's Plays, 1825, vol. iv. p. 107; I know not whether melanch❜ly is from Chapman, or a correction of Dodsley's or Collier's,

[ocr errors]

"And drown'd in dark death-ushering melanch❜ly,"

rhyming to vanity. Play of Hieronimo, Part ii. 1, Dodsley, ed. 2, vol. iii. p. 130 (ed. 1825, p. 109), —

‘Aye, aye, this earth, image of melancholy,
Seeks him whom fates adjudge to misery."

I think rhyme is intended. For seekes read suites.
(By the way, the pronunciation melancholy was also in use;
Spenser, F. Q. B. i. C. v. St. iii.—C. xii. St. xxxviii.,—
"To drive away the dull melancholy."

Donne, Poems, ed. 1633, p. 28, Holy Sonnets, i.,"Weav'd in my low devout melancholy."

P. 100,

"Bred in thee by a wise melancholy." Dubartas, ii. ii. iii. p. 131, col. 2,

"If this among the Africans we see,

Whom cor'sive humour of melancholy

Doth always tickle with a wanton lust," &c.

Comedy of Errors, iv. 2, 1. 4,—

“Ah, Luciana, did he tempt thee so?

Mightst thou perceive austerely in his eye

That he did plead in earnest, yea or no?

Look'd he or red, or pale; or sad, or merrily?"

The twelve-syllable line, if I mistake not, nowhere occurs in Shakespeare, except under certain circumstances, which do not exist here. Perhaps he wrote merry. 2 King Henry VI. iii. 2 (not Shakespeare's part, surely),—

"This get I by his death: Ay me unhappy,
To be a queen, and crown'd with infamy."

Rhyme perhaps, from its situation. Taming of the Shrew, i.

ad fin.,

"The motion's good indeed, and be it so :

Petruchio, I shall be your ben venuto ;"

at least, if the Italian was rightly pronounced. Can the following be an instance? Romeo and Juliet, v. 3,—

t

O, true apothecary!

Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die."

Instances from other writers. In the Prologue and Epilogue to K. H. VIII., consisting together of only 46 lines, it occurs twice, once in each; a sufficient argument, were there no other, to prove that these compositions were not written by Shakespeare. In the Prologue,

[ocr errors]

think, ye see

The very persons of our noble story,
As they were living."

In the Epilogue,-

"All the expected good we are like to hear
In this play at this time, is only in

The merciful construction of good women."

Jonson, Epigram cxiv. Gifford, vol. viii. p. 226,— "For Cupid

[ocr errors]

Hath chang'd his soul, and made his object you,

Where finding so much beauty met with virtue," &c.

For soule, qu. scope, τὸν τοῦ τόξου σκοπόν ?

Sejanus, i. 2, Gifford, vol. iii. p. 36,—

only a long,

A lasting, high, and happy memory

They should, without being satisfied, pursue;
Contempt of fame begets contempt of virtue."

I think these lines rhyme, from their position; one who is

familiar with the play, or even with this speech, will bably agree with me.

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

To swift perdition; leave no untrain❜d engin
For friendship or for innocence."

pro

Here indeed, but that Jonson corrected the folio edition of his works himself, so that such erratum is perhaps unlikely, we might imagine that he had written gin, see art. xii. above. v. 1, near the beginning,—

"Is there not something more than to be Cæsar ?
Must we rest there? it irks t' have come so far,
To be so near a stay."

Catiline, iii. 1, Gifford, vol. iv. p. 250,

[blocks in formation]

And ease the while: let the other's spirit toil, And wake it out, that was inspired for turmoil." Peele, Arraignment of Paris, i. 4, Dyce, vol. i. p. 15,"Accounts more honour done to her this day, Than ever whilom in these woods of Ida."

And so ib. ad fin. p. 16—ii. 1, init., so-Echo. The following, ii. 2, Dyce, vol. i. p. 27, is curious,

"And for thy meed, sith I am queen of riches,

Shepherd, I will reward thee with great monarchies."

ii. 1, p. 24,

"That Venus is the fairest, this doth prove,

That Venus is the lovely queen of love.

The name of Venus is indeed but beauty,
And men me fairest call per excellency:
If then the prize be but bequeath'd to beauty,
The only she that wins the prize am I."

(Excellency here is perhaps used as a trisyllable, which, as

I think, is not uncommon: so excellent as a dissyllable passim. Massinger, Guardian, ii. 4, Moxon, page 348, col. 2,

and from their wants

Her excellences take lustre.")

Peele, ut supra, ad fin., he-controversy. And so elsewhere in the same play, passim. In King Edward I. it occurs less frequently; in the War of Troy, often.

ii. 181,

"So Peleus' noble son, the great Achilles,

That lothly with the Grecians went to seas,
Clad by his dame in habit of a woman,
Unworthy cowardice of a valiant man," &c.

Marlowe and Chapman, Hero and Leander, Sestiad, iii.
Dyce's Marlowe, vol. iii. p. 47,-

"Till our Leander, that made Mars his Cupid,
For soft love-suits, with iron thunders chid."

Sest. v. p. 86,

Sest. iv.

it erected

To chaste Agneia, which is Shamefac❜dness,
A sacred temple, holding her a goddess."
p. 58,-

"And stood not resolute to wed Leander;
This serv'd her white neck for a purple sphere."

Sest. vi. p. 95,

"Men kiss but fire that only shows pursue,

Her torch and Hero, figure show and virtue." And so passim, throughout the three latter Sestiads; in the two first, which are confessedly Marlowe's, no instance occurs; in the latter part of the third there are, I think,

« PreviousContinue »