(What should I say? he was too good to be Where ill men were; and was the best of all Amongst the rar'st of good ones). . . . This Posthumus That had a royal lover) took his hint; And, not dispraising whom we prais'd (therein He was as calm as virtue), he began His mistress' picture. He, true knight, No lesser of her honour confident Than I did truly find her, stakes this ring; Of Phoebus' wheel; and might so safely, had it I return'd with simular proof enough IRONICAL PHRASES. Shakespeare has some sentences of irony, or ironically expressed :-- Words against me! This' a good friar, belike.-M. for M., v. I. By the bad voice.-Mer. of V., v. I. Thou tell 'st me there is murder in mine eye: 'Tis pretty, sure, and very probable, That eyes that are the frail'st and softest things, Who shut their coward gates on atomies Should be call'd tyrants, butchers, murderers!-As You L., iii. 5. Your gifts are so good, here's none will hold you.-Tam. of S., i. 1. Here's no knavery! see, to beguile the old folks, how the young folks lay their heads together. Ibid., i. 2. I play the noble housewife with the time, To entertain it so merrily with a fool.—All's W., ii. 2. There was excellent command-to charge in with our horse upon our own wings, and to rend our own soldiers!-Ibid., iii. 6. What wisdom stirs amongst you? Come, sir.-W. T., ii. 1. I know how much an ounce.-Very wisely, puppies!—Ibid., iv. 3. Bullets on this town.-O, prudent discipline!-John, ii. 2. Here's a good world! Knew you of this fair work?—Ibid., iv. 3. That know the strong'st and surest way to get.—R. II., iii. 3. Ay, or more than we should seek after; for we know enough, if we know we are the king's subjects; if his cause be wrong, our obedience to the king wipes the crime of it out of us.-H. V., iv. 1. I will never trust his word after.-You pay him then! That's a perilous shot out of an elder gun, that a poor and a private displeasure can do against a monarch!— Ibid., iv. I. Injurious duke, that threat'st where is no cause. True, madam, none at all: what call you this ?-2 H. VI., i. 4. 'Tis meet that lucky ruler be employ'd; Witness the fortune he hath had in France.—2 H. VI., iii. 1. Inferring arguments of mighty force.-3 H. VI., ii. 2. That cannot see this palpable device?-R. III., iii. 6. A proper title of a peace; and purchas'd At a superfluous rate!-H. VIII., i. I. Our count-cardinal has done this, and 'tis well; for worthy Wolsey, who cannot err, he did it.-Ibid., i. 1. With all their honourable points of ignorance How holily he works in all his business! And with what zeal! . . . . . And is not this course pious ?—Ibid., ii. 2. This priest has no pride in him.—Not to speak of.-Ibid., ii. 2. Follow your envious courses, men of malice; You have Christian warrant for them.-Ibid., iii. 2. Whilst your great goodness, out of holy pity, Yes, that goodness, Of gleaning all the lands' wealth into one, Into your own hands, cardinal, by extortion; The goodness of your intercepted packets, You writ to the pope, against the king: your goodness, You are always my good friend; if your will pass, You are so merciful.—Ibid., v. 2. Where are these porters, These lazy knaves? Ye have made a fine hand, fellows: Your faithful friends o' the suburbs? We shall have Great store of room, no doubt, left for the ladies, When they pass back from the christening.-Ibid., v. 3. Care for us! True, indeed! they ne'er cared for us yet.-Coriol., i. 1. That envied his receipt: even so most fitly As you malign our senators for that They are not such as you.-Ibid., i. 1. Take my prayers with you. I would the gods had nothing else to do, 'Tis a spell, you see, of much power: you know the way home again.-Do you how we are shent for keeping your greatness back ?—Ibid., v. 2. But, an you will not wed, I'll pardon you.-R. & Jul., iii. 5. hear Flow this way! A brave fellow! he keeps his tides well.—Timon, i. 2. I feel my master's passion! this slave Unto his honour has my master's meat in him.—Ibid., iii. 1. Who cannot want the thought, how monstrous In pious rage, the two delinquents tear, That were the slaves of drink, and thralls of sleep? Was not that nobly done? Ay, and wisely too.--Macb., iii. 6. That I essentially am not in madness, But mad in craft. 'Twere good, you let him know; For who, that's but a queen, fair, sober, wise, ·Such dear concernings hide? who would do so? Unpeg the basket on the house's top, Let the birds fly, and, like the famous ape, To try conclusions, in the basket creep, And break your own neck down.-Hamlet, iii. 4. This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are sick in fortune (often the surfeit of our own behaviour), we make guilty of our disasters, the sun, the moon, and the stars as if we were villains by necessity.-Lear, i. 2. I'll not be struck, my lord.-Nor tripped neither, you base football-player.Ibid, i. 4. 'Tis politic and safe to let him keep At point a hundred knights: yes, that, on every dream, Each buz, each fancy, each complaint, dislike, He may enguard his dotage with their powers, And hold our lives in mercy.-Ibid., i. 4. Got praises of the king For him attempting who was self-subdu'd; A woman's shape doth shield thee.- 'Tis meet I should be us'd so, very meet. How have I been behav'd, that he might stick The small'st opinion on my least misuse ?-Oth., iv. 2. Your mother too: she's my good lady; and will conceive, This is her honour! Let it be granted you have seen all this (and praise Be given to your remembrance), the description Of what is in her chamber nothing saves The wager you have laid.—Ibid., ii. 4. And he has some sentences spoken as what might be said, or suggested to be said :— That shall not be much amiss: yet, as the matter now stands, he will avoid your accusation; he made trial of you only.-M. for M., iii. 1. And we understand him well, How he comes o'er us with our wilder days, That men are merriest when they are from home.-H. V., i. 2. I will go meet them: and, my lord Æneas, We met by chance; you did not find me here.-Tr. & Cr., iv. 2. This is some fellow, Who, having been prais'd for bluntness, doth affect I did not send you: if you find him sad, Bliss in our brows' bent; none our parts so poor, cannot Would you praise Cæsar, say, "Cæsar"-go no farther.- poets, Lo, here she comes. I am ignorant in what I am commanded.-Cym., iii. 2. Some jay of Italy, Whose mother was her painting, hath betray'd him : And, for I am richer than to hang by the walls, I must be ripp'd:-to pieces with me !—Ibid., iii. 4. In the following passages Shakespeare has some ironical compli ments, or complimentary expressions mockingly applied :— How now, noble Pompey! . . . Adieu, trusty Pompey.-M. for M., iii. 2. Princes and counties! surely, a princely testimony, a goodly count, Count Confect; a sweet gallant, surely !—M. Ado, iv. 1. O noble fool! A worthy fool! Motley's the only wear.-As You L., ii. 7. O, my sweet beef, I must still be good angel to thee.-Ibid., iii. 3. Well said, i' faith, Wart; thou 'rt a good scab.-2 H. IV., iii. 2. Before we met, or that a stroke was given, Like to a trusty squire, did run away.-1 H. VI., iv. 1. Good night, sweet lord Menelaus. Sweet draught: sweet, quoth'a! sweet sink, sweet sewer.-Ibid., v. I. And all this courtesy !-Timon, i. I. 'Tis a noble Lepidus.—A very fine one.-Ant. & C., iii. 2. Still going? This is a lord! O noble misery, To be i' the field, and ask, what news, of me !-Cym., v. 3. And in the following passage he has an ironical simile: Of parallels; as like as Vulcan and his wife.—Tr. & Cr., i. 3. ITALIAN IDIOM. Shakespeare occasionally uses a peculiar idiomatic phraseology similar to that employed in the Italian language. He sometimes thus transposes the adjective and the pronoun in a phrase : Dear my brother, let him that was the cause.-W. T., v. 3. Dear my lord, make me acquainted with your cause of grief.—Jul. C., ii. 1. Dear my lord, be not familiar with her.-Lear, v. I. Dread my lord, your leave and favour to return.—Hamlet, i. 2. Gentle my lord, you scarce can right me thoroughly then.-W. T., ii. 1. Gentle my lord, sleek o'er your rugged looks.-Macb., iii. 2. Good my lord, give me thy favour still.-Temp., iv. I. Here, good my glass, take this for telling true.-Love's L. L., iv. 1. Then, good my mother, let me know my father.-John, i. 1. Thanks, good my countryman.-H. V., iv. 7. The Countess of Richmond, good my lord of Stanley.-R. III., i. 3. I beg of you to know me, good my lord.-Timon, iv. 3. Do, good my friend. In happy time, Iago.-Oth., iii. 1. Accept it and wear it, kind my lord.-Timon, i. 2. Ah, poor my lord, what tongue shall smooth thy name.-R. & Jul., iii. 2. I pray thee, Rosalind, sweet my coz, be merry.-As You L., i. 2. O, sweet my mother, cast me not away!—R. & Jul., iii. 5. Sometimes he thus transposes the noun and the pronoun: You brother mine, that entertain'd ambition.-Temp., v. 1. O mistress mine, where are you roaming?-Tw. N., ii. 3 (Song). Lady mine, proceed.-H. VIII., i. 2. Sometimes he thus uses a demonstrative pronoun and a possessive pronoun together :— Notwithstanding that your bond of duty.-Ibid., iii. 2. I. In whose comparison all whites are ink.-Tr. & Cr., i. 1 That murder'd Pompey.-Ibid., iii. 5. Draw that thy honest sword, which thou hast worn.—Ibid., iv. 12. This your sheep-shearing is as a meeting.—Ibid., iv. 2. This your air of France hath blown that vice in me.-H. V., iii. 6. |