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, "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, I think rhyme is intended. For seekes read suites. 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, 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, think, ye see The very persons of our noble story, In the Epilogue,- "All the expected good we are like to hear The merciful construction of good women." Jonson, Epigram cxiv. Gifford, vol. viii. p. 226,— "For Cupid 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; 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. To swift perdition; leave no untrain❜d engin 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 ? Catiline, iii. 1, Gifford, vol. iv. p. 250, 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, (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, Marlowe and Chapman, Hero and Leander, Sestiad, iii. "Till our Leander, that made Mars his Cupid, Sest. v. p. 86, ແ Sest. iv. it erected To chaste Agneia, which is Shamefac❜dness, "And stood not resolute to wed Leander; 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, |