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While we were interchanging thrusts and blows,

Came more and more, and tought on part and part,

Till the prince came, who parted either part.-R. & Jul., i. 1.

That he is not only plagued for her sin,

But God hath made her sin and her the plague

On this removed issue, plagu'd for her,
And with her plague, her sin; his injury
Her injury, the beadle to her sin;
All punish'd in the person of this child,
And all for her; a plague upon her!—
Thou unadvised scold, I can produce
A will that bars the title of thy son.-
Ay, who doubts that? A will! a wicked will;
A woman's will; a canker'd grandam's will!-
Peace, lady! pause, or be more temperate;
It ill beseems this presence to cry aim
To these ill-tunèd repetitions.-John, ii. 1.
The Moor already changes with my poison :-
Dangerous conceits are, in their natures, poisons,
Which at the first are scarce found to distaste,
But, with a little act upon the blood,

Burn like the mines of sulphur. I did say so :-
Look, where he comes-Oth., iii. 3.

The word "poison" has been objected to as probably erroneous; whereas we not only think its proximity to " poisons" shows it to be in accordance with Shakespeare's style, but we think the one word is used in direct reference to the other, as illustrative comment, thus: 'The Moor already changes with the poison I have administered to himfor dangerous fancies such as I have suggested to his mind are, in their inflaming quality, poisons, which, &c.' The very words that follow"I did say so look where he comes!"-serve to support our view of the passage; since they imply, I have just said that the poisonous. ideas I have suggested burn fiercely; and see where he comes to confirm my words by his pangs of restless misery!'

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For young hot colts, being rag'd, do rage the more.-R. II., ii. 1.

To avoid the effect of repetition, various substitutions have been proposed for "rag'd"; but, in our opinion, "rag'd" was here used by Shakespeare as an abbreviated form of enraged' (to express 'fretted,' 'irritated,' ' provoked'), for the sake of producing that very repetitional effect which offends some of his would-be emendators, but in which he delighted, and which delights those who admire his spirited style.

There, take the paper: see it be return'd ;

Or else return no more into my sight.—Two G. of V., i. 2.

And when we have our armours buckled on,

The venom'd vengeance ride upon our swords,

Spur them to ruthful work, rein them from ruth.-Tr. & Cr., v. 3.

O miracle of men !-him did you leave,

(Second to none, unseconded by you)
To look upon the hideous god of war

In disadvantage.—2 H. IV., ii. 3.

But I love thee

By love's own sweet constraint, and will for ever
Do thee all rights of service.—

Ay, so you serve us,

Till we serve you; but when you have our roses,
You barely leave our thorns to prick ourselves,

And mock us with our bareness.-All's W., iv. 2.

By changing the word "barely" to basely,' Rowe showed that he did not perceive the Shakespearian emphasis of repetition which marks the whole of this passage, or the Shakespearian condensation whereby the last sentence is made succinctly and poetically to express, You leave us deprived of all save our stings of conscience, and then reproach us with our deprivation.'

Shame come to Romeo!

Blister'd be thy tongue

For such a wish! he was not born to shame :

Upon his brow shame is ashamed to sit.—R. & Jul., iii. 2.

So come my soul to bliss, as I speak true;

So speaking as I think, I die,—Í die.—Oth., v. 2.

We shall not spend a large expense of time
Before we reckon with your several loves,
And make us even with you.-Macb., v. 7.

Although in this passage we have left the word "expense" in the text of all our editions of the poet, and although we here cite it among our examples of nearly similar words repeated, yet we feel by no means confident that it is not a misprint; perhaps for either extent or expanse,' which have been suggested as probably supplying the original word.

And with some sweet oblivious antidote

Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff

Which weighs upon the heart ?—Ibid., v. 3.

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See FAMILIAR AND HOMELY EXPRESSIONS for an explanation of our views upon the above passage.

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And I, like one lost in a thorny wood,

That rents the thorns, and is rent with the thorns,

Seeking a way, and straying from the way;

Not knowing how to find the open air,

But toiling desperately to find it out,

Torment myself to catch the English crown:

And from that torment I will free myself,

Or hew my way out with a bloody axe.

Why, I can smile, and murder while I smile.-3 H. VI., iii. 2.

If, like a Christian, thou hadst truly borne

Betwixt our armies true intelligence.-1 H. IV., v. 5.

For I have ever verified my friends

(Of whom he's chief) with all the size that verity
Would without lapsing suffer.-Coriol., v. 2.

There have not been wanting objectors to the word "verified" in this sentence: but not only does its similarity to "verity" offer likelihood of its being what Shakespeare wrote, taking it to be used in the sense of affirmed the excellence of,'' asserted the merit of,'' borne witness to the worth of,' it may also be taken to bear the sense of 'spoken the truth of,' in which case the sentence would be quite in his style, as implying, 'I have always spoken the truth of my friends as largely as truth would allow without ceasing to be truth.'

This he wish'd

I, after him, do after him wish too.-All's W., i. 2.

RHYMES.

Several of Shakespeare's plays contain passages and even whole. speeches written in rhyme; but among these rhymed portions, there are a few that present instances of a non-rhyming couplet occurring :Cricket, to Windsor chimneys shalt thou leap;

Where fires thou find'st unrak'd, and hearths unswept.-Merry W., v. 5.
These lily lips,

This cherry nose.-Mid. N. D., v. I.

May I, sweet lady, beg a kiss of you?—

You may.

I do desire it.

Why, beg, then.-Tr. & Cr., iv. 5.

Here's that, which is too weak to be a sinner,

Honest water, which ne'er left man i' the mire.-Timon, i. 2.

And winking Mary-buds begin

To ope their golden eyes;

With every thing that pretty is:

My lady sweet, arise.-Cym., ii. 3 (Song).

He also occasionally gives an imperfectly rhyming couplet; and, when he wrote, considerable licence was taken in forming rhymes from words that merely sounded somewhat alike :

In very likeness of a roasted crab;

And, when she drinks, against her lips I bob.-Mid. N. D., ii. 1.

May be the lady. Thou shalt know the man

By the Athenian garments he hath on.—Ibid., ii. 2.

Ay, that left pap,

Where heart doth hop.-Ibid., v. 4.

Nay, by Saint Jamy,

I hold you a penny,
A horse and a man

Is more than one,

And yet not many.-Tam. of S., iii. 2.

Great Hector's sister did Achilles win;

But our great Ajax bravely beat down him.-Tr. & Cr., iii. 3.

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Make such unquiet that the ship

Should house him safe, is wreck'd and split.—Ibid., ii. (Gower).

The mutiny he there hastes t' oppress;
Says to them, if King Pericles

Come not home in twice six moons,

He, obedient to their dooms.

This stage the ship, upon whose deck

The sea-tost Pericles appears to speak.—Per., iii. (Gower).

Dionyza doth appear,

With Leonine, a murderer.-Ibid., iv. (Gower).

Now our sands are almost run;

More a little, and then dumb.-Ibid., v. 2. (Gower).

We find a few instances of Shakespeare's giving a single unrhymed line among several that rhyme :

This grisly beast, which Lion hight by name.—Mid. N. D., v. 1.

I'll do, I'll do, and I 'll do. . .

I' the shipman's card. .

Look what I have.

Show me, show me.

Thus do go about, about:

Peace! the charm's wound up.-Macb., i. 3.

In the above-cited instances, we believe that the defective rhyming was intentional on the part of our author; in the first-cited instance, to denote the slipshod style of the doggerel that forms the dialogue in the Interlude of "Pyramus and Thisbe " (and which we have always cherished a conviction Shakespeare intended to be taken as written by Peter Quince himself; because in the Folio we find, “ Enter the Prologue Quince," and because, in act iv., sc. 1, Bottom says:

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I will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of this dream,

showing that Quince is an author as well as stage-manager and deliverer of the prologue); and in the second-cited instance, to give the effect of ruggedness and irregularity to the diction of those wild, weird creatures, the witches.

Sometimes Shakespeare passes from couplet rhyming to alternate rhyming as in the speeches of the Chorus, Gower; which are for the most part in couplet, but which at the opening of act v. are given in alternate rhymes:

Marina thus the brothel 'scapes, and chances
Into an honest house, our story says.

She sings like one immortal, and she dances

As goddess-like to her admired lays.—Per. v. (Gower).

In a few cases, Shakespeare allows himself to rhyme with the same word :

Our prayers do out-pray his; then let them have

That mercy which true prayers ought to have.—R. II., v. 3.

To seek her as a bed-fellow,

In marriage pleasures play-fellow.—Per. i. (Gower).

Where our scenes seem to live. I do beseech you

To learn of me, who stand i' the gaps to teach you.-Ibid., iv. 4 (Gower).

Potent at court: he, none but he, shall have her,

Though twenty thousand worthier come to crave her.-Merry W., iv. 4

In the two last-quoted examples there is merely a licence that would always be and is now permissible in playful rhyming; inasmuch as the

rhyme lies in the penultimate word, and the final word counts for no more than a mute half-foot at the end of the line.

Shakespeare, in accordance with a practice of other dramatists, frequently terminates a scene with a rhyming couplet :

Prospero, my lord, shall know what I have aune:

So, king, go safely on to seek thy son.—Temp., ii. 1.

If I can check my erring love, I will;

If not, to compass her I'll use my skill.-Two G. of V., ii. 4.

To Master Brook you yet shall hold your word;

For he to-night shall lie with Mistress Ford.-Merry W.,

Is more to bread than stone: hence shall we see,

v. 5.

If power change purpose, what our seemers be.-M. for M., i. 4.
Hopeless, and helpless, doth Ægeon wend,

But to procrastinate his lifeless end.—Com. of E., i, 1.

For others say thou dost deserve, and I

Believe it better than reportingly.-M. Ado, iii. 1.

Well, I will love, write, sigh, pray, sue, groan:

Some men must love my lady, and some Joan.—Love's L, L., iii, 1.

A fortnight hold we this solemnity,

In nightly revels and new jollity.-Mid. N. D., v. I.

Where money is; and I no question make,

To have it of my trust, or for my sake.-Mer. of V., i.: I.

After my flight. Now go we in content

To liberty, and not to banishment.-As You L., i. 3.

Seize thee that list: if once I find thee ranging,

Hortensio will be quit with thee by changing.-Tam. of S., iii. 1.

Begone to-morrow; and be sure of this,

What I can help thee to, thou shalt not miss.-All's W., i. 3,

Away before me to sweet beds of flowers:

Love-thoughts lie rich, when canopied with bowers.-Tw. N., i. 1.
Strong reasons make strange actions: let us go:

If you say ay, the king will not say no.-John, iii. 4.'

Come home with me to supper; I will lay

A plot shall show us all a merry day.—R. II., iv. I.

I'll so offend, to make offence a skill;

Redeeming time, when men think least I will. -1 H. IV,, i. 2.

Get posts and letters, and make friends with speed,—

Never so few, and never yet more need.-2 H. IV., i. 1.

Cheerly to sea; the signs of war advance :

No king of England, if not king of France.-H. V., ii. 2.

Come, let us four to dinner: I dare say

This quarrel will drink blood another day.—1 H. VI., ii. 4.

And force, perforce, I'll make him yield the crown,

Whose bookish rule hath pull'd fair England down.-2 H. VI., i. 1.

Now therefore let us hence; and lose no hour,

Till we meet Warwick with his foreign power.-3 H. VI., iv. 1.

Clarence still breathes; Edward still lives and reigns;

When they are gore, then must I count my gains.—R. III., i. 1.

That little thought, when she set footing here,

She should have bought her dignities so dear.-H. VIII., iii. 1.

Two curs shall tame each other: pride alone

Must tarre the mastiffs on, as 'twere their bone.-Tr. & Cr., i. 3.
Come, let's away. When, Caius, Rome is thine,

Thou art poor'st of all; then shortly art thou mine.-Coriol., iv. 7.
Farewell: thou canst not teach me to forget.—

I'll pay that doctrine, or else die in debt.-R. & Jul., i. 1.

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