Lascivious metres, &c. Reports of fashions in proud Italy," &c. Hence in As You Like It, ii. 7,— "And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant," &c. I have no doubt that Shakespeare wrote, As, first," &c. (So in Browne, Britannia's Pastorals, Book ii. Song v. Clarke, p. 295, line 7, 't is sentenc'd so by those, That here on earth at destinies dispose read as.) It occurs also where only one particular is in question. As You Like It, v. 4, "—but when one of the parties were met themselves, one of them thought but of an If, as, ‘If you said so, then I said so and they shook hands," &c. ; XVIII. Inversion of the Indefinite Article. Tempest, iv. 1,— i.e., " so rare-wonder'd a father." So King John, iv. 2,— "Makes sound opinion sick, and truth suspected, For putting on so new a fashion'd robe." The looks to me like a sophistication for the sake of the sense. variation, however, does not interfere with Walker's interpretation of the word as.— -Ed. VOL. I. 9 Comedy of Errors, iii. 2, near the end, there's no man is so vain That would refuse so fair an offer'd chain; i.e., "so fair- [fairly-] offer'd a chain." (Compare Milton's Masque, 1. 322, "thy honest-offer'd courtesy.") Love's Labour's Lost, i. 1,— "Or, having sworn too hard-a-keeping oath, Beaumont and Fletcher, Island Princess, iv. 3, "So brave a mingled temper saw I never; i.e., "a temper so well mixed, so happily balanced." Sir F. Kinaston on Chaucer's Troilus and Cresside, printed 1796, p. 8,—“ It cannot be imagined that Chaucer, who was so great a learned scholler, should be ignorant of the story,”—“ a scholar so great-learned;" (compare Sidney, Defence of Poesy, p. 493, l. 39,-" I shall not do it without the testimonie of great learned [great-learned] men, both ancient and moderne;" p. 517, line 15, "diverse smalllerned courtiers ; Chapman, Lines to the Reader, prefixed to his Iliad, 4th page, old folio, "those great learn'd men that were his [Homer's] commentars; " and Selden as quoted in Gifford's Jonson, vol. i. p. civ., " a common-learned reader.") Chaucer, Frankeleines Tale, 1. 11825, Considering the best on every side, That fro his lust yet were him lever abide, Than do so high a churlish wretchednesse Chapman, Odyss. xii. note,-" But thus they botch, &c.— imagining so huge a great body must needs have a voice as huge." XIX. Certain Preterites used as Participles. Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 2, that the present need Speaks to atone you. Lep. Worthily spoken, Mecenas." Spoke; and so it is printed in Johnson and Steevens's Cas. Not till he hears how Antony is touch'd Venus and Adonis, St. clviii., "Hadst thou but bid beware, then he had spoke." And so I think we should read, Winter's Tale, v. 1,— “You might have spoke a thousand things that would Have done the time more benefit." And so write, Fletcher, Valentinian, i. 3, Moxon, vol. i. p. 442, col. 1, "I have spoken too much, sir. Val. Aecius. I'll have all. It fits not Your ears should hear their vanities." The parliamentary spoke is perhaps a relic of antiquity. So chose, took, &c., in the Elizabethan poets, and indeed much later. Gave seems to be used thus, Sonnet clii., "For I have sworn deep oaths of thy deep kindness, In Chapman, Il. iii. Taylor, vol. i. p. 92, 1. 8,— "And now my lance hath miss'd his end; my sword in shivers flew ; And he scapes all;" flew seems to be the participle. XX. Occasional licenses of rhyme in Shakespeare and his contemporaries, more especially as regards the interchange Venus and Adonis, St. xcv., of m and n. "What wax so frozen but dissolves with temp'ring, Sonnet cxx.,— "O that our night of woe might have remember'd Tarquin and Lucrece, St. cxciv.,— "The more she saw the blood his cheeks replenish, Venus and Adonis, St. viii., broken-open; lxxvi., open'dbetoken'd; Sonnet lxi., open-broken. Timon of Athens, iv. 3, For this one wish, That you had power and wealth (As Sir Henry Moody on Fletcher, Moxon's B. and F. vol. i. p. lvii., "Though thou diedst not possess'd of that same pelf, Troilus and Cressida, iii. 3, "Great Hector's sister did Achilles win; But our great Ajax bravely beat down him." Cymbeline, v. 4, "Like hardiment Posthumus hath To Cymbeline perform'd: Being all to dolours turn'd." Other writers. Surrey, ed. 1831, p. 10, demean-stream, some undone; p. 27, mine—time, soon-doom; pp. 28-9, come-son; p. 41, myself—stealth; p. 48, rewarded--deserved (pron. desarved); p. 59, bemoan—swoln; p. 66, time -define. Spenser, F. Q.,B. v. C. v. St.xix., thondred-sondred-encombred-numbred; ii. ix. i., alternate rhymes, adorne—forme. Hymne in Honour of Beautie, St. xxvi. vv. 6, 7, reflexion -impression. Spenser, however, is, I think, very sparing in licenses of this particular kind. Beaumont and Fletcher, Wit at Several Weapons, iv. 1, ad fin., rhyme, I think,— "These should be sure signs of her affection's truth; Ford, Fame's Memorial, Gifford, vol. ii. p. 588,- But to defend, aid, further, and confirm." |