From our kind air, (to them unkind,) and minister Sickness in will, or wrestling strength in reason; 'I hath set a mark which nature could not reach to In Richard the Third, we have "I wish the bastards dead." In Othello-“ O that the slave had forty thousand lives." In Hamlet, a similar quibble--" A little more than kin, and less than kind." Several of the annotators concur in observing that the remainder of this quotation bears strong marks of Shakspeare. Again, in the Two Noble Kinsmen: Gaoler. Your friend and I Have chanced to name you here, on the old business ; In Othello, we have the same phrase: "I have done the state some service, and they know it; No more of that." The captive knights are thrown into prison, and the daughter of the gaoler says, It seems to me, They've no more sense of their captivity, But nothing of their own restraint and disasters.' In Othello, act iii. scene 3.--" I slept the next night well, was free and merry." From the window of the prison they discover Emilia, (the sister of Theseus' wife,) who is the cause of the fatal quarrel which now commences between the two cousins. Palamon declares, "If thou lovest her, Or entertain'st a hope to blast my wishes, In Othello, we have the same impressive declarations: Never pray more." For some cause which does not appear, Theseus directs Arcite to be released, and banished the country; the latter, VOL. I. 9 however, is not satisfied with leaving his companion behind, although in confinement; and says, 'He has a tongue will tame Tempests, and make the wild rocks wanton. Come what can come, The worst is death; I will not leave the kingdom: In Macbeth, we have, act i. scene 3.may." And in Othello, act v. scene 1.- "Come what come "Now, whether he kill Cassio, Or Cassio him, or each do kill the other, Arcite soon falls in with a company of wrestlers, and comes off victor in a trial before the court. friend and adviser of Theseus, observes, 'Upon my soul, a proper man.'-Scene 5. Perithous, the Which expression is also found in Richard the Third : "Upon my life, she finds, although I cannot, Myself to be a marvellous proper man." Arcite, in describing the object of his adoration, says, "Thou, O jewel O' th' wood o' the world.'-Act iii. scene 1. Which compliment, although far inferior, still bears a resemblance to the elegant address of Anthony to Cleopatra: "O thou day o' the world, Chain mine arm'd neck; leap thou, attire and all, In the mean time, the sympathy of the gaoler's daughter having been highly excited, she suffers Palamon to escape. While lurking in the woods, and not yet freed of his shackles, he meets Arcite, whom he upbraids in the most reproachful language as the rival of his love. Arcite with great mildness replies, In Macbeth, we have a similar phrase:--" Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff." Palamon, in no way moved by the gentleness of his cousin, acknowledges that his rival might once have been bold; but that, 'Their valiant temper Men lose, when they incline to treachery, And then they fight like compell'd bears, would fly Were they not ty'd.' This sentiment is common to all the dramas of Shakspeare; but our references will be limited. In Othello, we have""Tis not so now. **** Man but a rush against Othello's breast, and he retires." In Cymbeline, act iii. scene 4.-"Thou may'st be valiant in a better cause; But now thou seem'st a coward." And in King Lear, act v. scene 1. "Where I could not be honest, I never yet was valiant.” The concluding sentence of the passage will call to mind the murmuring ejaculation of Macbeth : "They have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly, But, bear-like, I must fight the course." After the escape of Palamon, the Gaoler's daughter begins to suffer the 'pangs of despised love,' and her mental faculties become impaired. In a soliloquy which follows, she thus expresses herself: 'I'm very cold; and all the stars are out too, The little stars, and all that look like aglets: Where am Inow? Yonder's the sea, and there's a ship; how't tumbles ! Act iii. scene 4. In Romeo and Juliet, we have, "little stars ;" and in Macbeth, the interrogatory phrase, "The thane of Fife had a wife; where is she now?" The Tempest and Winter's Tale afford instances of a similar hurried style, in scenes of apprehension and dismay. Act i. scene 1. of the Tempest :-"Good: speak to the mariners fall to't yarely, or we run ourselves aground; be stir, bestir. **** Down with the topmast; yare; lower, lower; bring her to try with main-course.' Act iii. scene 3. of Winter's Tale :-"I would you did but see how it chafes, how it rages, how it takes up the shore! **** Now the ship boring the moon with her mainmast. *** How the poor souls roared, and the sea mocked them.” In one of the songs of the gaoler's daughter, we find the following chorus, which we extract as an evidence of the high antiquity of the origin of our modern nursery paraphrase: 'There was three fools, fell out about an owlet : The other he said nay, The third he said it was a hawk, And her bells were cut away.'-Scene 5. A schoolmaster is next introduced, and appears quite as pedantic as Holofernes, that eternal "racker of orthography," in Love's Labour's Lost. One instance only of his quibbling propensity shall we quote: 'Upon this mighty morr-of mickle weight; Is-now comes in, which being glew'd together, Makes morris.'—Act iii. scene 5. In the Two Gentlemen of Verona, act i. scene 1. the reader will find a similar play upon the word Noddy, by the conjunction of Nod and I. Although this may be adduced as one of the poet's meanest attempts at humour, we are far from subscribing to the opinion of Dr. Johnson, that his indulgence in this puerile practice was the "Cleopatra, for which he lost the world!" To resume the play before us. Arcite returns to the forest, and agreeably to promise carries with him both food and armour for his rival; yet endeavours to dissuade him from the encounter. Palamon, however, continues inexorable, and Arcite finally declares, 'Then come what can come, Thou shalt know, Palamon, I dare as well Die, as discourse, or sleep.'-Act iii. scene 6. In Macbeth, a line corresponding to the first, has already been quoted; and for the remainder of the passage, we have in Richard the Second, act iv. scene 1. "How fondly dost thou spur a forward horse! If I dare eat, or drink, or breathe, or live, I dare meet Surrey in a wilderness." Their combat is interrupted by the appearance of Theseus and his court; and to the anger of the Duke (who now discovers that the persons are both outlaws) Arcite makes appeal : ''Tis to me A thing as soon to die, as thee to say it.' A similar feeling on a like occasion, in Othello, is expressed by the wife of Iago:-"Thou hast not half the power to do me harm, as I have to be hurt." At the intercession of his wife, and her sister, Emilia, the Duke decrees that the two knights shall retire to their own country, on condition of returning again to his court, accompanied by three knights each; and that he who shall succeed, by fair and knightly strength,' in forcing his cousin against a pyramid erected for the occasion, shall possess the object of their contention; but the other and his friends must lose their heads. Chaucer's doom, on this occasion, (observes an annotator,) is only banishment, and our authors altered it to render the catastrophe more interesting. Emilia, soliloquizing on the individual merits of her lo vers, says of Palamon, 'Thou'rt alone And only beautiful, and these thy eyes, These the bright lamps of beauty, that command In Hamlet, we have the well-known line--" An eye like Mars, to threaten and command." The return of the two knights with their companions, is at length announced; and the second of Arcite is first described: 'And on his thigh a sword; (Hung by a curious baldrick, when he frowns In Othello, we have the precise words, and nearly in the same order; affording a coincidence entirely too close to have been accidental: "Behold! I have a weapon; A better never did itself sustain Upon a soldier's thigh." The friend of Palamon is then alluded to: |