Syntax, but are rather stretched and strained English idioms, this habit and method of tempering and twisting the language is a sort of imported habit,-an unconscious assumption that the English language, without inflections, may be as plastic as the Latin language with inflections. In construing Shakespeare we must continually decide which word is in the Nominative Case, which in the Dative or Ablative, where the Ablative absolute must be assumed, whether a verb usually neuter is or is not used actively, what prepositions are to be understood; in short any of the rules of Latin Syntax may contribute to the elucidation of difficult passages. In the following quotations the words in brackets are such as may be supposed to be understood to complete the sense, There is no woe [comparable] to his correction, Nor [in comparison] to his service no such joy on earth, All I can [say] is nothing [in comparison] to her, She is alone. (Ib. 167). Heaven me such uses send [as that I may] not [have] to pick bad from bad, but [if I must have bad usage that I may] by bad [usage] mend. (Othello IV. iii. end). Ne'er mother rejoiced [at] deliverance more. This omission of a preposition requires the preposition in order to very common, and very classic. (Cymb. V. v. 369). after a verb which make it transitive, is It has been already referred to (p. 311). The following specimens may be INVERTED SENTENCES. 315 The elisions in such a passage as the following are very classic: Love goes towards love as schoolboys [go] from their books, But love from love [as schoolboys] toward school with heavy looks. (R. F. II. ii. 156). The construction of a sentence in which the order of words is inverted is distinctly classical, requiring such inflexions to indicate person, number, case or tense, as the classic languages supply. Your large speeches may your deeds approve. (Lear I. i. 184). What cannot be preserved when Fortune takes (Oth. I. iii. 206). What cannot be preserved is evidently the objective of the verb takes; and a mockery is the objective of the verb makes. Her injury is connected by a preposition understood with the objective of the verb makes-makes a mockery [of] her injury. Still more anomalous is: Opinion's but a fool that makes us scan (Per. II. ii. 56). The outward habit is governed by the preposition by which follows it; and the objective governed by the word scan is the inward man, the accusative being separated by a large gap from the transitive verb which rules it. If the poet had been writing in simple vernacular English he would have said The inward habit by the outward man. So again, such a sentence as the following must be construed as carefully as a sentence of Cicero or Tacitus, and indeed is cast in the mould characteristic of these authors rather than in that of vernacular English, Fortune's blows when most struck home, Being gentle wounded, craves a noble cunning. (Cor. IV. i. 7). which Cowden Clarke thus paraphrases,—When the blows of Fortune strike most directly, to be gentle, though wounded, requires a noble philosophy. Timon abounds in these cryptic classic constructions : Like madness is the glory of this life As this pomp shows to a little oil and root. construed thus:-Such madness is the (Tim. I. ii. 139). glory of this life, as the pomp of this feast appears, when compared with the frugal repast of a little oil and a few roots. Here is another specimen : Best state, contentless, Hath a distracted and most wretched being, Worse than the worst, content. (Tim. IV. iii. 245). Again :—the omission of the word to, to mark the infinitive shows a writer accustomed to rely on inflexions :— You ought not walk. (Ful. C. I. i. 3). How long within this wood intend you stay? (M. N. D. II. i. 138). The Subjunctive or optative or other mood must be inferred from the position of the verb in such a sentence as this : Live [i.e., if I were to live] a thousand years, I shall not find myself so apt to die. The use of a noun or a pronoun in an absolute sense, ENGLISH AS SPOKEN BY AN ANCIENT ROMAN. 317 analogous to the ablative or nominative absolute,-is frequent or the pronoun may be omitted, its place being supplied by a participle or an adjective. Then deputy of Ireland; who, removed, These classic constructions are of perpetual recurrence : 'Tis not my profit that doth lead mine honour Mine honour it. (Ant. Cl. II. vii. 83). i.e., but it is mine honour that doth go before my profit. 'Tis not enough to help the feeble up, (Tim. I. i. 107). (Luc. 931). Be guilty of my death, since of my crime. This must be known: which being kept close might move (Ham. II. i. end). which Dr. Abbott construes thus :-This ought to be revealed; for it, by being suppressed might excite more grief in the King and the Queen by the hiding of it, than an unwillingness to tell bad news would excite love. For many other such instances see Cowden Clarke's Shakespeare Key. 318 CHAPTER XIV. THE CLASSIC DICTION OF SHAKESPEARE. THE examples of Latin construction we have given may suffice to prove that the poet not only derived facts, thoughts, ideas, illustrations, allusions, ornaments, from classic writers; all this might perhaps have been done by the use of translations; but it shows that the language itself had taken strong possession of his mind, had given form and substance to his speech, had coloured and shaped his style, and enabled him to write according to the usages of the Latin grammar, in modes of expression which a simple adhesion to his own native language would not have permitted. This will become still more evident now that we come to the fourth kind of evidence of classic knowledge-the object of which is to show that Shakespeare's vocabulary was in the highest degree classic-that Latin was a language which he could use as a vehicle of his own thoughts--that his English contains very large augmentations from the Latin. It shows him constantly making linguistic experiments, endeavouring to enrich his native language by coining new words, derived from the Latin; and that even ordinary English words often became plastic and elastic in his speech, carrying a larger import than their vernacular employment can account for. this kind of evidence has not hitherto been very completely shown, and only incidentally noticed, I will give as full a collection as I can of words used in a classic sense by Shakespeare either non-naturalized Latin words, or else English words of Latin derivation,-which although they As |