say Marte: ayer, both pro aere, and pro hærede, for we 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 66 By Joves supreme commandement." 66 I in mine own person "With part of the cavallery, will bid P. 994. "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. So also in the Epilogue to the Tempest: "Now my charms are all o'erthrown, * * "Gentle breath of yours my sails Vol. xv. p. 182. 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 : "By that heavenly form of thine, "And live! Therefore on this mould 66 "Here be berries for a queen, "I must go, I must run." "There I stop: fly away "Truth that hath but one face- Act I. Sc. I. Ibid. Ibid. Act III. Sc. I. * * "Let her fly, let her scape, Let us now turn to Ben Jonson : "Look, see!-beshrew this tree- "But see, the hobby-horse is forgot, Ibid. 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: "Here we may "Are but toys." 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 inconsiderable, which by no process whatever can be rendered harmonious. The defence that must be set up for Shakspeare is, that his contemporaries were equally faulty in this respect. It may be observed, that this defect is scarcely ever found but in the heroick metre of ten syllables. syllables. Those who wrote smoothly in a shorter measure, fall into the most hobbling versification when they attempt the heroick couplet. The smaller pieces, for instance, of Nicholas Breton, have a very pleasing flow, of which the well-known ballad, "On a hill there grows a flower," may be cited as an instance. But the same writer, in his "Sir Philip Sidney's Ourania,” has exhibited the most deplorable specimens of doggrel that the language can supply. The commencement of his Shepherd's song will show in what measure he intended to compose: "Before this world, quoth he, was set in frame, Yet we soon after find him hobbling in this manner : "Yet were no angels as then created, "Nor angels offices destinated; "Nor could their attendance do him pleasure, "In whom consisted all blessed treasure:" and the greater part of his poem is much in the same strain. But much higher names than Breton are liable to a similar reproach. Thus, even Spenser: Again: "Faire seemely pleasaunce each to other makes Fairy Queen, b. i. c. ii. st. 30. "Vile caytive vassall of dread and dispayre." B. ii. c. iii. st. 7. |