i. 3, near the beginning, possibly verse, I' have heard of you, I do not all believe; Such knaveries yours." Hamlet, ii. 2, perhaps,— 66 "Why, then 'tis none to you; for there is nothing (The appearance of verse, however, is sometimes deceptive. The first part of the treaty of peace, as read by Gloster, 2 K. H. VI. i. 1, resolves itself without much difficulty into tolerable verse; yet it certainly was never meant for such, "It is agreed between the French king Charles, And crown her queen of England on the thirtieth The dutchy Anjou and the county Maine The king her father." Sicil for Sicilia, as a little above, "In presence of the kings of France and Sicil." I have also expunged of before Anjou and Maine. The last article though substantially the same-is differently expressed in the Cardinal's supplementary recital, which is palpable prose. A transition from verse to prose under such circumstances cannot possibly have been intended, even by the author of 2 and 3 K. H. VI.) On the other hand, in a few passages of Shakespeare, prose has been mistaken for verse, This, however, is very Coriolanus, ii. 1,— rare. "These are the ushers of Marcius: before him He carries noise, and behind him he leaves tears." This has also been corrected by Knight and Dyce, Remarks, p. 160. Hamlet, iv. 6, init. prose surely, "What are they that would speak with me? Attendant. Hor. They say, they have letters for you. Sailors, sir; Let them come in : I do not know from what part of the world Taming of the Shrew, ii. 1, "Saving your tale, Petruchio, I pray, Let us, that are poor petitioners, speak too: (For I pray, qu. pray.) See context. "Quick proceeders, marry! now tell me, I pray, You that durst swear that your mistress Bianca (Point: Lucentio,-) The folio, too, gives this speech as prose [or rather begins the second line with a small letter.-Ed.]; this, however, of itself would prove nothing. 1 K. H. IV. iii. 3. "Go bear this letter "-to "in the afternoon." 1 K. H. VI. iii. 1,— "1 Servant. Content: I'll to the surgeon's. 2 S. And so will I. 3 S. And I will see what physic the tavern affords." Romeo and Juliet, ii. 5,— "Your love says [insert comma] like an honest gentleman, And a courteous, and a kind, and a handsome, And, I warrant, a virtuous :-Where is your mother ? " The speech following proves nothing. Tempest, v. 1, towards the end of the play,— Ant. "Will money buy them? Very like, one of them Is a plain fish, and, no doubt, marketable." I do not feel quite certain that Antonio's speech ought not to be printed as prose. II. Passages of Shakespeare in which a compound epithet or participle (or a double substantive) has been resolved into two simple epithets, or an adverb and an epithet, &c. "As a long-parted mother with her child Plays fondly with her tears, and smiles in meeting, So weeping, smiling, greet I thee, my earth, And do thee homage with my royal hands." Surely Shakespeare wrote, more suo, weeping-smiling;-an attempt to embody in a word the same complex image, which Homer, according to the genius of his language, expressed by δακρύοεν γελάσασα. (Compare the Greek κλαυσιγέλως Xen. Helen. vii. 2, 9, ad fin. “ πάντας δὲ τοὺς παρόντας τότε γε τῷ ὄντι κλαυσιγέλως εἶχεν.” Note in Daniel, Civil Wars, B. vi. St. lxxxviii. the hyphen, "toucht with sorrowing-joy." K. H. VIII. iii. 1,— O, good my lord, no Latin: I am not such a truant since my coming, A strange tongue makes my cause more strange, suspicious: It is impossible that Shakespeare should have perpetrated such an awkwardness. Read strange-suspicious. Compare the similar flatness in the passages next quoted, as well in some others emended elsewhere. iii. 3, “Or if that surly spirit, melancholy, King John, Had bak'd thy blood, and made it heavy, thick, Heavy-thick. Winter Tale, ii. 1,— r be but about To say, 'She is a goodly lady,' and The justice of your hearts will thereto add, Honest-honourable; i.e. (if I mistake not) not merely honourable, by reason of her birth, dignity, and grace of person and mind,*—but likewise honest, i.e. virtuous ;· honourable with honesty. (* All's Well, &c. ii. 3,— She is young, wise, fair; In these to nature she's immediate heir, And these breed honour.") Compare K. H. VIII. i. 1, not far from the beginning, "As I belong to worship, and affect In honour honesty;" and Othello, v. 2, "But why should honour outlive honesty?" (Each of these words by the way-honour and honesty— was at times used in both meanings. Cymbeline, iv. 2,— He said, he was Dishonestly afflicted, but yet honest." And the sentiment quoted above from K. H. VIII. is thus expressed in Cymbeline, v. 5, "Give answer to this boy, and do it freely; Cyril Tourneur, Revenger's Tragedy, ii. 1, Dodsley's Old દ most constant sister, In this thou hast right honourable shown, Many are call'd by their honour, that have none.”) Julius Cæsar, i. 3, "And the complexion of the element Is favour'd like the work we have in hand, Most bloody, fiery, and most terrible." Read "Most bloody-fiery, and," &c. aiμópλož, as a Greek tragedian might have expressed it, or, in Latin poetical language, sanguineum ardens; covered over with fiery meteors of a blood-red colour. Merchant of Venice, iii. 4, "As I have ever found thee honest, true, Honest-true. Love's Labour 's Lost, v. 2, to wail friends lost Is not by much so wholesome, profitable, |