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Sometimes in pottering inquiry:

What's that, what's that?

What do you talk of?

What were you talking of when I came ?-Tr. & Cr., i. 2.

Sometimes, and admirably, as a characteristic of garrulous senility:Justice Shallow. That he will not: 'tis your fault, 'tis your fault: 'tis a good dog. Sir, he's a good dog, and a fair dog; can there be more said? He's good, and fair.-Merry W., i. 1.

He hath wrong'd me, Master Page... He hath wrong'd me; indeed, he hath; at a word, he hath; believe me, Robert Shallow, Esquire, saith, he is wronged.-Ibid., i. 1. Nay, conceive me, conceive me, sweet coz.-Ibid., i. I.

'Tis the heart, Master Page; 'tis here, 'tis here.—Ibid., ii. 1.

Marry, I thank you for it; I thank you for that good comfort.-Ibid., iii. 4.
Indeed, Master Ford, this is not well, indeed.—Ibid., iv. 2.

Justice Shallow. Come on, come on, come on, sir; give me your hand, sir, give me your hand, sir.-2 H. IV., iii. 2.

The same, Sir John, the very same . . . and the very same day did I fight with one Sampson Stockfish.-Ibid., iii. 2.

Certain, 'tis certain; very sure, very sure: death, as the Psalmist saith, is certain to all; all shall die. . . Death is certain . . Dead! See, see! he drew a good bow; and dead! he shot a fine shoot: . . . Dead! . . . And is old Double dead!Ibid., iii. 2.

It is well said, in faith, sir; and it is well said indeed, too. Better accommodated! it is good; yea, indeed, is it: very good; a good phrase.-Ibid., iii. 2.

.

Give me your good hand, give me your worship's good hand: by my troth, you look well, and bear your years very well: welcome, good Sir John.—Ibid., iii. 2.

Where's the roll? where's the roll? where's the roll? Let me see, let me see, let me see: 50, so, so, so. Yea, marry, sir: Ralph Mouldy! let them appear as I call; let them do so, let them do so. Let me see; where is Mouldy ?—Ibid., iii. 2.

Very singular good! In faith, well said, Sir John; very well said.—Ibid., iii. 2.
Ha, ha, ha! you can do it, sir; you can do it.—Ibid., iii. 2.

Nay, she must be old; she cannot choose but be old; certain she's old.-Ibid., iii. 2. That we have, that we have, that we have; in faith, Sir John, we have: our watchword was, 46 Hem, boys!" Come, let's to dinner; come, let's to dinner. O the days that we have seen! Come, come.-Ibid., iii. 2.

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I will not excuse you; you shall not be excused; excuses shall not be admitted; there is no excuse shall serve; you shall not be excused. Why, Davy! Davy, Davy, Davy, Davy, let me see, Davy; let me see, Davy; let me see: yea, marry, William Cook, bid him come hither. Sir John, you shall not be excused. With red wheat, Davy. But for William Cook. . . Let it be cast, and paid. Sir John, you shall not be excused. any pretty little tiny kickshaws, tell William Cook

Yea, Davy, Use his men

I will use him well a friend i' the court is better than a penny in purse. well, Davy. Where are you, Sir John? Come, come, come, off with your boots. ... Come, Sir John.-Ibid., v. i. Barren, barren, barren; beggars all, beggars all, Sir John: marry, good air. Spread, Davy; spread, Davy: well said, Davy. A good varlet, a good varlet, a very good varlet, Sir John. By the mass, I have drunk too much sack at supper: a good varlet. Now sit down, now sit down: come, cousin. Be merry, Master Bardolph; and my little soldier there, be merry Honest Bardolph, welcome: if thou wantest anything, and wilt not call, beshrew thy heart. Welcome, my little tiny thief; and welcome, indeed, too. Lack nothing: be merry.-Ibid., v. 3.

It doth so. certain.

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it doth so... It doth, it doth, it doth.*'Tis so, indeed.-Ibid., v. 5.

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It is most

The Quarto assigns the three speeches of Shallow, "It doth so," &c., to Pistol; while the Folio corrects the error in the first instance, though leaving it in the two latter. But we think the mere iteration suffices to prove that all three speeches belong to Shallow.

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Sometimes as producing humorous effect :

There is not a white hair on your face, but should have his effect of gravity. —
His effect of gravy, gravy, gravy.—2 H. IV., i. 2.

A pick-axe, and a spade, a spade.-Hamlet, v. 1 (Song).

Sometimes to express graceful and undulating motion :--
When you do dance, I wish you

A wave o' the sea, that you might ever do
Nothing but that; move still, still so,

And own no other function.-W. T., iv. 3.

Occasionally Shakespeare iterates a word, with the addition of an emphatic epithet :

Madam, you have done me wrong, notorious wrong.—Tw. N., v. 1.

And him-O wondrous him! O miracle of men !-2 H. IV., ii. 3.

The third day comes a frost, a killing frost.-H. VIII., iii. 2.

What you have charg'd me with, that have I done;

And more, much more; the time will bring it out.-Lear, v. 3.
This hand, whose touch, whose every touch.-Cym., i. 7.

66

IT SEEMS.

Shakespeare uses this phrase, and a few similar phrases, in a somewhat peculiar manner; sufficiently so to testify that the original reading of the First Folio, in the passage below cited from "Romeo and Juliet," is as the author wrote it, and consequently should be retained in the text. The editor of the Second Folio substituted the words "her beauty for it seems she"; and since then many editors have adopted the substitution, although there is not the slightest known authority for its having been Shakespeare's writing. Whereas we now collect together several passages in which he uses phrases so closely resembling" it seems she," that we think there can be no doubt these were the words he here employed :—

Oh, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!

It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night

Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear;

Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear !—R. & Jul., i. 5.

The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch,

But that the sea, mounting to the welkin's cheek,

Dashes the fire out.-Temp., i. 2.

It seems,his sleeps were hinder'd by thy railing:

And therefore comes it, that his head is light.-Com. of E., v. I.

It seems it is as proper to our age

To cast beyond ourselves in our opinions,

As it is common for the younger sort

To lack discretion.-Hamlet, ii. 1.

It seems not meet, nor wholesome to my place,

To be produc'd (as, if I stay, I shall)

Against the Moor.-Oth., i. 1.

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This is the reading of the Folio, while the Quartos give By Heaven` instead of

"It seems."

Inform us of thy fortunes; for it seems

They crave to be demanded.-Cym., iv. 2.

There might you have beheld one joy crown another, so, and in such manner, that, it seemed, sorrow wept to take leave of them-for their joy waded in tears.W. T., v. 2.

And now and then an ample tear trill'd down
Her delicate cheek: it seem'd she was a queen
Over her passion; who, most rebel-like,
Sought to be king o'er her.-Lear, iv. 3.

Ay, madam, it is common.—

If it be,

Why seems it so particular with thee?-Hamlet, i. 2.

What a haste looks through his eyes! so should he look

That seems to speak things strange.-Macb., i. 2.

Nothing she does or seems but smacks of something greater than herself.—W. T., iv. 3.

All that impedes thee from the golden round,
Which fate and metaphysical aid doth scem
To have thee crown'd withal.-—Macb., i. 5.
Plant those that have revolted in the van,

That Antony may seem to spend his fury upon himself.-Ant. & C., iv. 6.
Wherein our dearest friend

Prejudicates the business, and would seem

To have us make denial.-All's W., i. 2.

You would play upon me; you would seem to know my

Stops; you would pluck out the heart of my mystery.-Hamlet, iii. 2.

How courtesy would seem to cover sin,

When what is done is like a hypocrite,

The which is good in nothing but in sight.-Per., i. 1.

She is stirring, sir; if she will stir hither, I shall seem to notify unto her.—Oth., iii. 1. An it shall please you to break up this, it shall seem to signify.—Mer. of V., ii. 4. Write me a prologue; and let the prologue seem to say.-Mid. N. D., iii. 1.

JESTING.

There are a few peculiar and whimsical modes of jesting to be met with in Shakespeare, which we here point out. One is an irrelevancy in jesting; where the fun consists in a mad waggery of darting off upon a track wholly disconnected with the conversation then going on :Art thou wise?

Ay, sir, I have a pretty wit.

Why, thou sayest well. I do now remember a saying "The fool doth think he is wise; but the wise man knows himself to be a fool." The heathen philosopher, when he had a desire to eat a grape, would open his lips when he put it into his mouth; meaning thereby, that grapes were made to eat, and lips to open. You do love this

maid?

I do, sir.—

Give me your hand. Art thou learned?

No, sir.

Then learn this of me: to have, is to have; for it is a figure in rhetoric, that drink, being poured out of a cup into a glass, by filling the one doth empty the other; for all your writers do consent, that ipse is he: now, you are not ipse, for I am he.—

Which he, sir?

He, sir, that must marry this woman.-As You L., v. I.

In sooth, thou wast in very gracious fooling last night, when thou spokest of Pigrogromitus, of the Vapians passing the equinoctial of Queubus: 'twas very good, i' faith. I sent thee sixpence for thy leman: hadst it?

I did impeticos thy gratillity; for Malvolio's nose is no whipstock : my lady has a white hand, and the Myrmidons are no bottle-ale houses.—Tw. N., ii. 3.

Bonos dies, Sir Toby: for, as the old hermit of Prague, that never saw pen and ink, very wittily said to a niece of king Gorboduc, “That, that is, is ; so I, being master parson, am master parson; for, what is that, but that? and is, but is ?—Ibid., iv. 2. By the lord, thou sayest true, lad. And is not my hostess of the tavern a sweet wench?

As the honey of Hybla, my old lad of the castle. And is not a buff jerkin a most sweet robe of durance ?–

How now, how now, mad wag! what, in thy quips, and thy quiddities? What a plague have I to do with a buff jerkin?-Why, what a pox have I to do with my hostess of the tavern ?-1 H. IV., i. 2.

Wilt thou rob this leathern-jerkin, crystal-button, nott-pated, agate-ring, pukestocking, caddis-garter, smooth-tongue, Spanish-pouch,

O lord, sir, who do you mean?

Why then, your brown bastard is your only drink; for, look you, Francis, your white canvas doublet will sully: in Barbary, sir, it cannot come to so much.What, sir?-Ibid., ii. 4.

Take thou some new infection to thy eye,
And the rank poison of the old will die.—
Your plantain leaf is excellent for that.—
For what, I pray thee?—

For your broken shin.-R. & Jul., i. 2.

Another fashionable form of jesting, when Shakespeare wrote, was the asserting palpable absurdities; such as the following-affirming that the blind god is a quick seer, and the blacksmith god is a good carpenter :

But speak you this with a sad brow? or do you play the flouting Jack, to tell us Cupid is a good hare-finder, and Vulcan a rare carpenter?-M. Ado, i. 1.

Another was the propounding riddle-like questions :—

What was a month old at Cain's birth, that's not five weeks old as yet?—Love's L. L., iv. 2.

What is he, that builds stronger than either the mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter? Hamlet, v. 1.

Another was the giving gravely hoaxing answers to foolish questions:What manner o' thing is your crocodile ?—

It is shaped, sir, like itself; and it is as broad as it hath breadth; it is just so high as it is, and moves with its own organs; it lives by that which nourisheth it; and the elements once out of it, it transmigrates.—

What colour is it of?

Of its own colour too.

'Tis a strange serpent.

'Tis so and the tears of it are wet.-Ant. & C., ii. 7.

He gives more than one specimen of quibbling jesting on the subject of late orgies and early rising :

Approach, Sir Andrew: not to be a-bed after midnight is to be up betimes; diluculo surgere, thou know'st,

and

Nay, by my troth, I know not; but I know, to be up ate, is to be up late.A false conclusion: I hate it as an unfilled can. To be up after midnight, and to go to bed then, is early; so that, to go to bed after midnight, is to go to bed betimes.— Tw. N., ii. 3.

I am glad I was up so late; for that's the reason I was up so early.—Cym., ii. 3.

There is a quaintly worded jest that Shakespeare has twice indulged in, with slight variation :—

An honest, willing, kind fellow, as ever servant shall come in house withal; and, I warrant you, no tell-tale, nor no breed bate: his worst fault is, that he is given to prayer ; he is something peevish that way: but nobody but has his fault.—Merry W., i. 4. Every man has his fault, and honesty is his.-Timon, iii. 1.

He has several jesting passages of blundering speech :—

I am the dog ;-no, the dog is himself, and I am the dog,-O, the dog is me, and I am myself: ay, so, so.— .-Two G. of V., ii. 3.

I am the poor duke's constable, and my name is Elbow.-M. for M., ii. 1.

But we are the poor duke's officers.-M. Ado, iii. 5.

You must understand he goes but to see a noise that he heard, and is to come again. -Mid. N. D., iii. 1.

The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man's hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream was. - Ibid., iv. 1. I am famished in his service; you may tell every finger I have with my ribs.-Mer. of V., ii. 2.

It was not for nothing that my nose fell a-bleeding on Black Monday last at six o'clock i' the morning, falling out that year on Ash-Wednesday was four year in the afternoon.-Ibid., ii. 5.

For the table, sir, it shall be served in; for the meat, sir, it shall be covered.— Ibid., iii. 5.

Petruchio is coming, in a new hat and an old jerkin; a pair of old breeches thrice turned; a pair of boots that have been candle-cases, one buckled, another laced; an old rusty sword ta'en out of the town armoury, with a broken hilt, and chapeless; with two broken points.*—Tam. of S., iii. 2.

Grumio, my horse!—

Ay, sir, they be ready: the oats have eaten the horses.—Ibid., iii. 2.

'Twere as good a deed as to drink when a man's a-hungry, to challenge him to the field.-Tw. N., ii. 3.

Here's another ballad, of a fish, that appeared upon the coast, on Wednesday the fourscore of April, forty thousand fathom above water, and sang this ballad.W. T., iv. 3.

Hast thou never an eye in thy head? canst not hear ?-1 H. IV., ii. 1.

It is written, that the shoemaker should meddle with his yard, and the tailor with his last, the fisher with his pencil, and the painter with his nets.-R. & Jul., i. 2.

Sirrah, if thou wouldst not be a villain, but do me true service, undergo those employments wherein I should have cause to use thee with a serious industry—that is, what villany soe'er I bid thee do, to perform it directly and truly-I would think thee an honest man.-Cym., iii. 5.

And, in the following passage, Shakespeare gives us an example of a joke that was in vogue when he wrote,† of translating Latin sentences into English with an entirely different meaning from the original:

Hac ibat, as I told you before, -Simois, I am Lucentio, hic est, son unto Vincentio of Pisa, Sigeia tellus, disguised thus to get your love;-Hic steterat, and that Lucentio that comes a-wooing,-Priami, is my man Tranio,-regia, bearing my port,—celsa senis, that we might beguile the old pantaloon.-Tam. of S., iii. 1.

These "points," apparently referring to the sword, refer to the dress; being tagged strings or laces formerly used to attach the upper part of the suit to the lower.

† Chaucer also turns it to excellently humorous effect in his story of “The Cock and the Fox," where sly Master Chanticleer thus befools his Madame Partelote:

For all so siker, as In principio

Mulier est hominis confusio,'

(Madam, the sentence of this Latin is,
'Woman is mannés joy and mannés bliss').

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