Jonson, Forest, xi., "It is a golden chain, let down from heaven, That falls like sleep on lovers, and combines Fairfax's Tasso, B. xvii. S. lx., keep them well in mind, till in the truth A wise and holier man instruct thy youth." sin che distingua Meglio a te il ver più saggia e santa lingua.”) B. xix. St. lxxiii., had I liberty to use this blade, Who slow, who weakest is, soon should be seen." chi sia più lento.") And so I think B. xviii. St. lxxii.,— k where the wall high, strong, and surest was, That part would he assault, and that way pass." ("La' dove il muro più munito ad alto In pace stassi, ei vuol portar l'assalto.") Chapman, Odyss. vi. p. 91, "one of fresh and firmest spirit would change T'embrace so bright an object." Hudibras, P. iii. C. i. 567; see context, "Of which the true and faithfull'st lover C. ii. 743, the adverb similarly used,— "We never fail to carry on The work still, as we had begun ; But true and faithfully obey'd, And neither preach'd them hurt, nor pray'd." So Beaumont and Fletcher, Love's Cure, v. 3, Moxon, vol. ii. p. 174, col. 2, "—it hath therefore pleased his sacred majesty, as a sweet and heartily-loving father of his people, to order and ordain, &c.," i.e., "as a sweetly and heartily loving," &c. Goffe, Courageous Turk, 1632, ii. 3,— "The vain and haughtiest minds the sun e'er saw.” Play of Ram Alley, i. Dodsley, vol. v. p. 373,— let's in, And on with all your neat and finest rags." John Onley, Lines to W. Browne, Clarke's Browne, vol. i. p. 17, "Fair Muse of Browne, whose beauty is as pure As women brown, that fair and long'st endure." Compare Shakespeare, Sonnet lxxx., "But since your worth (wide, as the ocean is) The humble as the proudest sail doth bear." Beaumont and Fletcher, Pilgrim, ii. 2, Then thou should'st have brav'd me, Done something worthy feat: 73 Now poor and basely Here again, as elsewhere occasionally, we have the adverbial termination. So King Richard III. iii. 4 (the ly preceding), “His grace looks cheerfully and smooth this morning.” Othello, iii. 4, "Why do you speak so startingly and rash." Merchant of Venice, iii. 2, "The dearest friend to me, the kindest man, 73 Read fame for feat, I think. For other emendations see Mr. Dyce's Beaumont and Fletcher, vol. viii. p. 30, note o.—Ed. This usage, whereby the latter of two superlatives copulated with and is changed into a positive, is frequent in Shakespeare and his contemporaries.74 Jonson, Induction to Cynthia's Revels, Gifford, vol. ii. p. 228,-"the only best and judiciously penn'd play of Europe." Daniel, Hymen's Triumph, iii. 4, ed. 1623, p. 301, of the purest and refined clay Whereto th' eternal fires their spirits convey." "Call me the horrid'st and unhallow'd thing I notice in Ramsay's Gentle Shepherd, Sang x.,- ' "Its XXXVI. Sometimes, something, nothing, with a shifting accent. But, as it were, in sort or limitation, To keep with you at meals, comfort your bed, And talk to you sometimes? Dwell I but in the suburbs Write, "And talk t' you sometimes? Dwell I but i' th' suburbs," &c. 74 This usage seems to have grown obsolete in the time of Mr. Collier's Old Corrector, who has altered unwearied to unwearied'st.-Ed. (This last allusion, by the bye, is connected with what follows, So by the way, Lover's Complaint, St. xxxiii.,"Take all these similes to your own command; read t' your.) Sometimes and sometimes, or rather sometimes and sometimes, were both current in Shakespeare's time; e.g. (if instances be worth quoting), Hamlet, ii. 2, "You know, sometimes he walks for hours together," &c. and v. 2, "Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well, When our deep plots do fail." (Compare wherefore and wherefore; S. V. art. xi.) " In like manner sómething and nothing were not unfrequent in Shakespeare's time. The former, and I suppose also the latter, though I happen only to have noticed the former, are common in the earlier English poetry. Note that Surrey always lays the stronger accent on the final syllable of such words. Winter's Tale, ii. 2,— "She is, something before her time, deliver'd." As if he had said some whit before,” &c.,— t I cannot speak So well, nothing so well; no, nor mean better." King Richard II. ii. 2,— my inward soul At nothing trembles; at something it grieves 75 More than with parting from my lord the king.” 75 Perhaps another instance occurs at the close of the Queen's next speech, (Var. some thing.) See context. King Richard III. i. 2,— But, gentle lady Anne, To leave this keen encounter of our wits, And fall something into a slower method," &c. Romeo and Juliet, v. 3, As signal that thou hear'st something approach." To one that reads the play continuously it is evident that the ear demands something. Fol. (which, by the way, has hearest), some thing; whereas just below it reads, "The boy gives warning, something doth approach." Taming of the Shrew, v. 2, "Padua affords this kindness, son Petruchio. Petr. Padua affords nothing but what is kind." The double accent restores harmony to the line. Troilus and Cressida, iii. 1, Pandarus's song, "Love, love, nothing but love, still more!" In fact, just before the folio has, 14th page of the play, col. 1,—“ Par. I, good now loue, loue, no thing but loue. Pan. In good troth it begins so." Othello, iv. 1, What trumpet is that same? Iago. I warrant, something from Venice." Warrant as a monosyllable, S. V. art. iv. p. 65. I hardly know whether the Hamlet of 1603, C 3, is worth quoting, "It beckons you, as though it had something To impart to you alone." 66 so heavy sad, As, though in thinking on no thought I think, Makes me with heavy nothing faint and shrink." Surely common sense requires us to read no thing for no thought. -Ed. |
