thought to render examples from him less adducible. Fairfax, B. xii. St. lxvi.,— "His heart relenting nigh in sunder rave With woeful speech of that sweet creature." Was not the e in creäture pronounced like the French é? Othello, iv. 1, "O, the world hath not a sweeter creature." Here it is probably a dissyllable; but the ea must have been pronounced (as it usually was in those times) like a contraction of éä, not of eea; otherwise Shakespeare would hardly have tolerated the cacophony. By the way-though the cases are not analogous, as far as I see-treasure and pleasure seem to have been sometimes used as trisyllables by the Elizabethan poets. See the next article. LI. On treasure and pleasure as trisyllables. 2 King Henry VI. i. 3,— "Thy sumptuous buildings, and thy wife's attire, Have cost a mass of public treasury." Treasury in our old poets is (sometimes, at least) synonymous with treasure. Quære, whether in passages where treasurie concludes the line, and where the signification treasure is admissible, we ought necessarily to retain the reading treasurie, or whether it may not be in some instances an erratum for treasure, pronounced treasure. Passages in point, and which may help to settle the question. Daniel, Civil Wars, B. viii. St. xlv., "As he, who having found great treasury, The first year offers, with most grateful cheer, A sheep of gold to Juno's deity; And next, of silver, for the second year," &c. "My breach of faith occasion'd bloody wars, Ford, Broken Heart, iii. 1, Moxon, p. 58, col. 2, In this seal'd box, he sends a treasure [to you], Dear to him as his crown;" &c. I am inclined to expunge Gifford's addition, to you. Marlowe, King Edward II. i. 4 [Dodsley, vol. ii. p. 336],— nor let me have more wealth Than I may fetch from this rich treasure." Play of Lingua, iv. 2, Dodsley, vol. v. p. 176; Auditus speaks, "Thither do I, chief justice of all accents, Psyche's chief porter, Microcosme's front [read scout], Reason's discourse," &c. Here it is obviously an erratum for treasurie.20 Chapman, Bussy d'Ambois, Old English Plays, vol. iii. p. 269, 66 make the violent wheels Of Time and Fortune stand; and great existence, To all but my approaching friends and me." Should we not read treasure here? Pleasure seems to have been sometimes used as a trisyllable by our old dramatists. Beaumont and Fletcher, Spanish Curate, iii. 3, Moxon, vol. i. p. 169, col. 1,— 20 Or rather, I should say, for treasurer; a case of final e misprinted for final er; see art. lxi. of this work.-Ed. I know not; But 'tis my lord th' Assistant's pleasure, I should attend here." Captain, iv. 5, Moxon, vol. i. p. 638, col. 2, which if we do perceive, We'll leave, and think it is her pleasure That we should deal with others." Webster, Dutchess of Malfy, Dyce, vol. i. p. 260, Play of Soliman and Perseda, F 3, 1. ult.,— “Take her and use her at your pleasure." Ib., H 2,— "I will, my Lord. Lord Marshal, it is his highness' pleasure, That you commend him to Erastus' soul." We should arrange, I think, "I will, my Lord. Lord Marshal, 'tis his highness' pleasure LII. Accentuation of poltroon, buffoon, baboon. 3 King Henry VI. i. 1, "Patience is for poltroons, 21 such as he." The second 21 Poltroon occurs nowhere else in Shakespeare. folio inserts and before such, sacrificing sense to metre. Having gone so far, the sophisticator might have altered as to is. He seems to have accented poltroon on the second syllable. He is followed by Mr. Knight, no doubt through negligence.-Ed. Poltronès? If the word came direct from Italy, or even from France, the e may have adhered to it. But I prefer Patience (ut sæpe)-póltrones. Jonson, Magnetic Lady, iii. 4, Gifford, vol. vi. p. 69,— There's no cowardice, No poltronery, like urging why? wherefore?" So buffoon, passim; e.g., Jonson, Poetaster, v. 1, Gifford, vol. ii. p. 524, "Players, or such like buffoon barking wits." Cynthia's Revels, iii. 2, p. 283, "Into the laps of bawds, and buffoons' mouths." And Carlo Buffone, Every Man Out of his Humour, i. 1, page 39, "I envy not this Buffone, for indeed," &c. Massinger, Duke of Milan, i. 1, Moxon, p. 50, col. 1,— "No smile, not in a buffoon to be seen, Or common jester." Earle on Beaumont, Seward's Beaumont and Fletcher, vol. i. p. 12, 66 'Who, if my pen may as my thoughts be free, Were scurril wits and buffoons both to thee." Here, by the way, though not exactly in point, may be noticed báboon. Gifford, note on Jonson, Cynthia's Revels, i. 1, vol. ii. p. 239,—“nor your hyæna, nor your babion." 'Our old writers spelt this word in many different ways; all, however, derived from bavaan, Dutch. We had our knowledge of this animal from the Hollanders, who found it in great numbers at the Cape." (Is not the Dutch word Baviaan ? 22 There is a spot in Caffraria called Bavians 22 So it would seem from Sewel's Dictionary. For Bavian see Mr. Dyce's note f, vol. xi. p. 383, of his Beaumont and Fletcher. -Ed. kloof, or the Baboons' Valley; and with this one of our old forms, Babion, ut supra, agrees.) The Bavian is one of the performers in the rustic pageant, Two Noble Kinsmen. Macbeth, iv. 1, "Cool it with a baboon's blood." So pronounce, Pericles, iv. 6, and arrange somewhat as follows, "Do any thing But this thou dost. Empty old receptacles, Doest 23 (the usual reading in the second line) is not much in the manner of the Elizabethan dramatists. I find since that Knight has arranged,— "For what thou professest, a baboon, could he speak, In cæteris ut vulg. Balloon.-Ford, Lover's Melancholy, ii. 1, Moxon, p. 6, col. 2, "Where's your great horse, your hounds, your set at tennis, Your balloon ball, the practice of your dancing," &c. Dubartas, ii. iv. iii., "Against one ship, that skips from stars to ground, From wave to wave, like balloons' windy bound." Note, by the way, Hudibras, P. iii. C. i. 345,"And held my drubbing of his bones Too great an honour for poltrones ;" 23 The fourth folio, the only copy which I have been able to consult, reads dost, and gives the whole speech as prose.-Ed. |