Thou dost lie in 't, to be in 't and say it is thine: 'tis for the dead, not for the quick; therefore thou liest.-Hamlet, v. 1. Not only does Hamlet occasionally doggerelise, as if he were quoting scraps from some remembered popular rhyme or verse; but he sometimes lapses into a rhyming couplet amid his own blank-verse speeches : But I have that within which passeth show; These but the trappings and the suits of woe.—Ibid., i. 2. The time is out of joint:-0, cursèd spite, That ever I was born to set it right !—Ibid., i. 5. As hell whereto it goes. My mother stays: This physic but prolongs thy sickly days.-Ibid., iii. 3. A bloody deed! Almost as bad, good mother, As kill a king, and marry with his brother.-Ibid., iii. 4. Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.—Ibid., iii. 4. The passages where the prince seems to be repeating quoted scraps are these: Then came each actor on his ass.-Ibid., ii. 2. One fair daughter, and no more, The which he loved passing well.—Ibid., ii. 2. As by lot, God wot.-Ibid., ii. 2. It came to pass, as most like it was.-Ibid., ii. 2. The hart ungalled play; For some must watch, while some must sleep; So runs the world away.-Ibid., iii. 2. For thou dost know, O Damon dear, This realm dismantled was Of Jove himself; and now reigns here A very, very-peacock.-Ibid., iii. 2. For if the king like not the comedy, Why, then, belike, he likes it not, perdy.—Ibid., iii. 2. Might stop a hole to keep the wind away: O that that earth, which kept the world in awe, Should patch a wall t' expel the winter's flaw !—Ibid., v. 1. Let Hercules himself do what he may, The cat will mew, the dog will have his day.-Ibid., v. 1. Even in his letter to Ophelia, Hamlet (in accordance with an antique fashion for lovers) addresses his mistress partly in doggerel verse:— Doubt thou the stars are fire; Doubt truth to be a liar; But never doubt I love.-Hamlet, ii. 2. There is also a recurrence of iterated words in the present play [See ITERATED WORDS]; which is likewise referable to a characteristic point of diction in the prince, who makes this one token of the mental derangement which he assumes. Certain words are, more than once during the five acts, used in peculiar and various senses:— It is a nipping and an eager [* sharp,' ‘keen '] air.—Ibid., i. 4. And, with a sudden vigour, it doth posset And curd, like eager [sharp,' acid,'' sour'] droppings into milk, the thin and wholesome blood: so did it mine.—Ibid., i. 5. Season ['temper,'' modify'] your admiration for a while With an attent ear.-Ibid., i. 2. Farewell: my blessing season ['temper,' 'turn to profit'] this in thee!—Ibid., i. 3. My lord, that would dishonour him.— Faith, no; as you may season ['temper,' ' qualify'] it in the charge.—Ibid., ii. 1. And who in want a hollow friend doth try, Directly seasons him [tempers him into,' moulds him into'; also including the sense of inures, habituates, or accustoms him to become '] his enemy.-Ibid., iii. 2. In "King Lear" are observable a recurrence of double comparatives; an unusual number of interrupted speeches [See UNFINISHED SENTENCES]; a marked frequency of compound epithets; and several instances of verbs formed from nouns [See PARTS OF SPEECH DIVERSELY USED]. Also, there are in this tragedy a few words peculiarly employed : Am I in France? In your own kingdom, sir.— He is attended with a desperate train; And what they may incense him to, being apt To have his ear abus'd [ beguiled '], wisdom bids fear.—Ibid., ii. 4. Then Edgar was abus'd ['slandered,' 'falsely accused '].—Ibid., iii. 7. Ah! dear son Edgar, The food of thy abused [' deceived'] father's wrath !—Ibid., iv. 1. O, you kind gods, Cure this great breach in his abused ['ill-used,' ‘injured'] nature!—Ibid., iv. 7. I am mightily abus'd ['bewildered,' ' perplexed '].—Ibid., iv. 7. That thought abuses [' deceives,'' wrongs'] you.—Ibid., v. 1. For equalities are so weighed, that curiosity '['carefullest scrutiny'] in neither can make choice of either's moiety.—Ibid., i. 1. Wherefore should I Stand in the plague of custom, and permit The curiosity [scrupulousness,' punctiliousness'] of nations to deprive me, Lag of a brother? Why bastard? wherefore base ?-Ibid., i. 2. I have perceived a most faint neglect of late; which I have rather blamed as mine own jealous curiosity ['susceptible punctilio,' over-scrupulous care for deference] than as a very pretence and purpose of unkindness.—Ibid., i. 4. Servants, who seem no less, Which are to France the spies and speculations Intelligent* [ aware' and 'communicative'] of our state.-Lear, iii. 1. This is the letter he spoke of, which approves him an intelligent ['informed' and 'communicative '] party to the advantages of France.-Ibid., iii. 5. Our posts shall be swift and intelligent ['communicative of intelligence,' 'conveyant of intelligence'] betwixt us.-Ibid., iii. 7. .66 In Othello," there are recurrent instances of words ending in 'ce' and 'te': Not with vain thanks, but with acceptance bounteous.-Oth., iii. 3. If this be known to you, and your allowance.—Ibid., i. 1. Of more arrivance.-Ibid., ii. 1. What needs this iterance, woman ?-Ibid., v. 2. Out of his scattering and unsure observance.—Ibid., iii. 3. That we should, with joy, pleasance, revel, and applause, transform ourselves into beasts!-Ibid., ii. 3. This sight would make him do a desperate turn, But I shall, in a more continuate time, Strike off this score of absence.-Ibid., iii. 4. Wherein none can be so determinate as the removing of Cassio.-Ibid., iv. 2. In this play we find "to do" twice used for 'ado' : To have so much to do, To bring him in !—Ibid., iii. 3. I have much to do, But to go hang my head all at one side.—Ibid., iv. 3. And we meet with two instances of "trash" used as a contemptuous epithet : If this poor trash of Venice.-Ibid., ii. 1. Gentlemen all, I do suspect this trash To be a party in this injury.-Ibid., v. 1. Then, too, we have several examples of words used in peculiar senses: After some time to abuse ['misinform '] Othello's ear That he is too familiar with his wife.-Ibid., i. 3. I'll have our Michael Cassio on the hip; Abuse [ misrepresent'] him to the Moor in the rank garb.—Ibid., ii. 1. If you think other, Remove your thought; it doth abuse [' deceive''wrong'] your bosom.-Ibid., iv. 2. That there be women do abuse ['betray,' 'wrong'] their husbands In such gross kind?—Ibid., iv. 3. Are there not charms, By which the property of youth and maidhood May be abused ['deluded,' 'injured ']?—Ibid., i. 1. * See ELLIPTICALLY USED WORDS for farther explanation of this word. That thou hast practis'd on her with foul charms; Abus'd injured,' 'deluded '] her delicate youth with drugs or minerals She is abus'd ['deluded,'' injured'], stol'n from me, and corrupted Her delicate tenderness will find itself abused [‘beguiled'].—Ibid., ii. 1. I would not have your free and noble nature, Out of self-bounty, be abus'd ['cheated,' ' beguiled '].—Ibid., iii. 3. I swear, 'tis better to be much abus'd [' deceived,' ' injured '], The Moor's abus'd ['deceived,' 'deluded'] by some most villainous knave.Ibid., iv. 2. I therefore apprehend and do attach thee For an abuser ['injurer,' 'impostor'] of the world, a practiser Of arts inhibited and out of warrant.-Ibid., i. 2. For, I do know, the state, However this may gall him with some check,— Cannot with safety cast ['cashier '] him.-Ibid., i. 1. Our general cast ['dismissed'] us thus early for the love of his Desdemona.—Ibid., ii. 3. You are but now cast ['cashiered '] in his mood.—Ibid., ii. 3. How he upbraids Iago, that he made him Brave me upon the watch; whereon it came That I was cast [ 'cashiered'].—Ibid., v. 2. What a full [ plenarily good,' 'complete'] fortune does the thick-lips owe, For I have serv'd him, and the man commands Like a full [fully accomplished,' 'complete'] soldier.-Ibid., ii. 1. Is this the noble Moor whom our full ['complete,' 'entire,' and 'fully competent to judge'] senate Call all-in-all sufficient?-Ibid., iv. 1. The verb "affin'd" is used in this play twice, and in no other, excepting once in "Troilus and Cressida "; while the noun "affinity" occurs nowhere else than in the present tragedy:— Now, sir, be judge yourself, If partially affin'd, or leagu'd in office, Thou art no soldier.—Ibid., ii. 3. The Moor replies, That he you hurt is of great fame in Cyprus We find in "Antony and Cleopatra " various recurrent features of style marked condensation in the diction with elliptical force of construction [See ELLIPTICAL STYLE]; more than one instance of “ he,' "him," and "his" used in abstract; frequent employment of a turn of phrase which resembles one used in Italy [See ITALIAN IDIOM]; and several sentences where "but" is used exceptively. The peculiar expressions" discandy" and discandying are introduced by Shakespeare into no play besides the present one :— The hearts That spaniel'd me at heels, to whom I gave By the discandying of this pelleted storm, The play of "Cymbeline" abounds with contracted forms of words [See ELISIONAL ABBREVIATIONS] and with extremely condensed phraseology [See ELLIPTICAL STYLE]. There are several passages where the pronoun is varied in the same sentence when referring to the same antecedent; there are three passages where "sir" is used as a noun ; and there are some sentences where "for" is peculiarly used in this play. In "Pericles" there is a marked introduction of antiquated words and of words with the final syllable "en," such as "killen," "lien," "perishen," and "thoughten." There are some vestiges of coincident thought and style in certain plays by Shakespeare that seem to denote his having written the productions bearing these tokens of similarity at the same period of his career. For instance, we find the word "defeature" in "Venus and Adonis" (stated by himself, in his preface to this poem, to be "the first heir of my invention "), and the word "defeatures twice in the "Comedy of Errors" (evidently an early composition), but in no other of his plays: To mingle beauty with infirmities, And pure perfection with impure defeature.-V. & Adon., Stanza 123. And careful hours, with Time's deformed hand, Have written strange defeatures in my face.-Ibid., v. 1. The contracted plural form of "corse"" for corses,' and the unusual form of "strond" for 'strand' occur in both the opening scenes of the two Parts of King Henry IV.," and in no other of his dramas :— A thousand of his people butchered; Upon whose dead corse' there was such misuse.-1. H. IV., i. 1. My lord, your son had only but the corse', But shadows, and the shows of men, to fight.-2 H. IV., i. I. So looks the strond, whereon th' imperious flood There are evidences of special coincident points in the "Second Part of King Henry IV.," and in the comedy of " Much Ado About Nothing"; and singularly enough as regards our theory, the entry in the Registers of the Stationers' Company makes mention of both these plays together: 23 Aug: 1600. And. Wise. Wm. Apsley] Two books, the one called Muche Adoe about Nothing,' and the other, The Seconde Parte of the History of King Henry IIII., with the Humours of Sir John Falstaff: wrytten by Mr. Shakespeare.” Farthermore, two of these special coincident points coexist in an evidently early written play by 6 |