Wittie, Familiar Letters, by Gabriel Harvey, in the following passage: "Nowe for your Heauen, Seauen, Eleauen, or the like, I am likewise of the same opinion: as generally in all words else: we are not to goe a little farther, either for the Prosody, or the Orthography (and therefore your Imaginarie Diastole nothing worthe) then we are licenced and authorized by the ordinarie vse, & custome, and proprietie, and Idiome, and, as it were, Maiestie of our speach: whiche I accounte the only infallible, and soueraigne Rule of all Rules. And therefore hauing respecte therevnto, and reputing it Petty Treason to reuolt therefro: dare hardly eyther in the Prosodie, or in the Orthography either, allowe them two sillables in steade of one, but woulde as well in Writing, as in Speaking, haue them vsed, as Monosyllaba, thus: heavn, seaon, a leavn, as Maister Ascham in his Toxophilus doth Yrne, commonly written Yron: Vp to the pap his string did he pull, his shafte to the harde yrne.' "Especially the difference so manifestly appearing by the Pronunciation, betwéene these two, a leaon a clocke and a leaven of Dowe, whyche lea-ren admitteth the Diastole, you speake of. But see, what absurdities thys yl fauoured Orthographye, or rather Pseudography, hathe ingendred: and howe one errour still bréedeth and begetteth an other. Haue wée not, Mooneth, for Moonthe: sithence, for since: whilest, for whilste: phantasie, for phansie: euen, for eon: Diuel, for Divl: God hys wrath, for Goddes wrath and a thousande of the same stampe: wherein the corrupte Orthography in the moste, hathe béene the sole, or principall cause of corrupte Prosodye in ouer many? 66 Marry, I confesse some wordes we haue indeede, as for example, fayer, either for beautifull, or for a Marte: ayer, both pro aere, and pro hærede, for we say not Heire, but plaine Aire for him to (or else Scoggins Aier were a poore iest) whiche are commonly, and maye indifferently be vsed eyther wayes. For you shal as well, and as ordinarily heare fayer, as faire, and Aier, as Aire, and bothe alike: not onely of diuers and sundrye persons, but often of the very same otherwhiles vsing the one, otherwhiles the other and so died, or dyde; spied, or spide: tryed, or tride: fyer, or fyre: myer, or myre: wyth an infinite companye of the same sorte: sometime Monasyllaba, some time Polysyllaba." Many words in Shakspeare's time were occasionally written with a vowel, which they have now lost, which, according to Wallis, might be considered as a remnant of the e feminine in our ancient language. He has specified commandment, which, even when he wrote, was considered as a word of four syllables. We certainly find it so used by Jonson: "But when to good men thou art sent Love Restored, folio 1616, vol. i. p. 994. Cavallery is used for cavalry, by Massinger : 66 I in mine own person "With part of the cavallery, will bid "These hunters welcome to a bloody breakfast." The Maid of Honour, Act II. Sc. III. Nor was this confined to poetry. Thus, in Grimeston's translation of Polybius, 1634, p. 80: "At first the Gaules had the better, for that the Roman horsemen were surprized by theirs. But being afterwards environed by the Roman Cavallery, they were broken and defeated." Spenser makes safety a word of three syllables: "O goodly golden chayne wherewith y fere Fairy Queen, b. i. canto ix. st. 1. In Hamlet, see vol. vii. p. 216, Mr. Malone states, that the quarto, 1604, reads, "The safety and health of this whole state;" where he supposes that the before health was inadvertently omitted. We may doubt, upon Spenser's authority, whether there was any omission. One class of verses have hitherto been considered as defective, but erroneously in my opinion. In the first scene of Macbeth this passage occurs. See vol. xi. p. 12: "1 Witch. Where the place? "2 Witch. Upon the heath. "3 Witch. There to meet with Macbeth." The second of these having been considered imperfect, the reader will see, at the page referred to, the remedies which have been proposed. In Love's Labour's Lost, vol. iv. p. 371, I have mistakingly printed "She for whom even Jove would swear In the old copies even is omitted, and thus we find it also in the Passionate Pilgrim, see vol. x; and in England's Helicon. I am satisfied that our ancestors had a measure consisting of only six syllables, and that both the lines quoted were perfectly correct as they originally stood. I have come to this conclusion, not only because other instances are to be found in Shakspeare's plays, but in many of his contemporaries. Thus, in A Midsummer Night's Dream: Again: "Puck. Over hill, over dale, "Thorough bush, thorough briar; "Thorough flood, thorough fire, "Swifter than the moon's sphere." Vol. v. p. 199. "Up and down, up and down, Ibid. p. 283. "Gentle breath of yours my sails 66 4. It is true that there are seven syllables in the lines which I have here marked by italicks; but a syllable may be either added or not at the beginning of such verses, as the common measure may consist of seven syllables or eight. If we had merely these several instances to produce from Shakspeare, we could scarcely consider them all as accidental corruptions; yet it might still be considered as a practice peculiar to himself. I have now to show that the same may be found in his contemporaries. The following, among others, occur in Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdess: "Let her fly, let her scape. Let us now turn to Ben Jonson: "Look, see!beshrew this tree "She can start our Franklins daughters "In her sleep with shrieks and laughters, "And on sweet St. Anne's night "Feed them with a promised sight at '{ "Mab. Fairies, pinch him black and blue, "Now you have him, make him r "Satyr. O hold, Mab I sue. rue. "But see, the hobby-horse is forgot, Entertainment at Althorpe. : As the seven or eight syllable measure was divided. into two short ones, "With ravished ears "The Monarch hears; so, also, out of this were formed two still shorter: Various lines in Shakspeare, and the poets of his time, which sound harshly to a mere modern ear, are brought back to regularity by resorting to a different accentutation, such as, détestable for detéstable; aspéct for aspect; and many other instances which are adverted to in the notes. Yet still the number is not |