of using such forms as either myself or himself as sufficient nominatives, though they still remain perfectly unobjectionable accusatives. We can say He struck myself," and "I saw himself;" but it must be "I myself struck him," and "He himself saw it." Here, as everywhere else, in the original text the myself is in two words, "My selfe." And tenour in all the Folios, and also in both Rowe's edition and Pope's, is tenure, a form of the word which we now reserve for another sense.

601. That by proscription, and bills of outlawry.—The word outlawry taking the accent on the first syllable, this line will be most naturally read by being regarded as characterised by the common peculiarity of a supernumerary short syllable-the tion or the and—to be disposed of, as usual, by the two being rapidly enunciated as one. It will in this way be exactly of the same prosody with another that we have presently :-" Struck Cæsar on the neck. O you flatterers" (690). It might, indeed, be reduced to perfect regularity by the tion being distributed into a dissyllable-ti-on-, in which case the prosody would be completed at out, and the two following unaccented syllables would count for nothing (or be what is called hypercatalectic),-unless, indeed, any one should insist upon taking them for an additional foot, and so holding the verse to be an Alexandrine. But taste and probability alike protest against either of these ways of managing the matter. (See what is said in regard to the dissyllabication of the tion or sion by Shakespeare in the note on 246. She dreamt to-night she saw my statue). Nay, even the running together of the tion and the and is not necessary, nor the way that would be taken by a good reader; that is not how the line would be read, but only how it might be scanned: in reading it, the and would be rather combined with the bills, and a short pause would, in fact, be made after the tion, as the pointing and the sense require. So entirely unfounded is the notion

that a pause, of whatever length, occurring in the course of a verse can ever have anything of the prosodical effect of a word or syllable.

604. Cicero is dead.-In the original printed text these words are run into one line with "and by that order of proscription." The text of the Variorum edition presents the same arrangement, with the addition of Ay as a prefix to the whole. "For the insertion of the affirmative adverb, to complete the verse," says Steevens in a note, "I am answerable." According to Jennens, however, this addition was also made by Capell. In any case, it is plain that, if we receive the Ay, we must make two lines, the first ending with the word dead. But we are not entitled to exact or to expect a perfect observance of the punctilios of regular prosody in such brief expressions of strong emotion as the dialogue is here broken up into. What do the followers of Steevens profess to be able to make, in the way of prosody, of the very next utterance that we have from Brutus,-the "No, Messala" of 605? The best thing we can do is to regard Cassius's "Cicero one?" and Messala's responsive "Cicero is dead" either as hemistichs (the one the commencement, the other the conclusion, of a line), or, if that view be preferred, as having no distinct or precise prosodical character whatever. Every sense of harmony and propriety, however, revolts against running "Cicero is dead" into the same line with "And by that order," etc.

613. With meditating that she must die once.-For this use of with see 363.-Once has here the same meaning which it has in such common forms of expression as 'Once, when I was in London," "Once upon a time," etc.—that is to say it means once without, as in other cases, restriction to that particular number. Steevens, correctly enough, interprets it as equivalent to "at some. time or other ;" and quotes in illustration, from The Merry Wives of Windsor, iii. 4, "I pray thee, once to

night Give my sweet Nan this ring."-The prosody of the line is the same that has been noted in 426, 436, and 537.

615. I have as much of this in art as you, etc.—In art Malone interprets to mean "in theory." It rather signifies by acquired knowledge, or learning, as distinguished from natural disposition. The passage is one of the many in our old poets, more especially Shakespeare and Spenser, running upon the relation between nature and art.

616. Well, to our work alive.-This must mean, apparently, let us proceed to our living business, to that which concerns the living, not the dead. The commentators say nothing, though the expression is certainly one that needs explanation.

619. This it is." The overflow of the metre," Steevens observes, "and the disagreeable clash of it is with 'Tis at the beginning of the next line, are almost proofs that our author only wrote, with a common ellipsis, This." He may very possibly be right. The expression "This it is" sounds awkward otherwise, as well as prosodically; and the superfluous, or rather encumbering, it is would be accounted for by supposing the commencement of the following line to have been first so written and then altered to 'Tis.

620. Good reasons must, of force.-We scarcely now say of force (for of necessity, or necessarily); although perforce continues to be sometimes still employed in poetry. It may even be doubted if this be Milton's meaning in

"our conqueror (whom I now

Of force believe almighty, since no less

Than such could have o'erpowered such force as ours)."

P. L. i. 145.

620. The enemy, marching along by them. This line, with the two weak syllables in the last places of two continuous feet (the second and third) might seem at first to be of the same kind with the one noted in 601.

But the important distinction is, that the first of the two weak syllables here, the -y of enemy, would in any cir⚫cumstances be entitled to occupy the place it does in our heroic verse, in virtue of the principle that in English prosody every syllable of a polysyllabic word acquires the privilege or character of a strong syllable when it is as far removed from the accented syllable of the word as the nature of the verse requires. See Prolegomena, Sect. vi. The dissonance here, accordingly, is very slight in comparison with what we have in 601.-For "Along by them" see 200.

620. By them shall make a fuller number up.-For this use of shall see the note on Cæsar should be a beast in 238. -The "along by them" followed by the "by them" is an artifice of expression, which may be compared with the "by Cæsar and by you" of 345.

620. Come on refreshed, new-hearted, and encouraged. -"New-hearted" is the correction of Mr Collier's MS. annotator; the old reading is new-added, which is not English or sense, and the only meaning that can be forced out of which, besides, gives us merely a repetition of what has been already said in the preceding line, a repetition which is not only unnecessary but would be introduced in the most unnatural way and place possible, whereas new-hearted is the very sort of word that one would expect to find where it stands, in association with refreshed and encouraged.

620. From which advantage shall we cut him off.-Shakespeare most probably wrote we shall.

622. Under your pardon.-Vid. 358.

622. We, at the height, etc.-Being at the height, are in consequence ready to decline-as the tide begins to recede as soon as it has attained the point of full flood.

622. Omitted.-The full resolution will be-which tide being omitted to be taken at the flood.

623. Then, with your will, etc.-In the original edition

"We'll along" is made part of the first line. Mr Collier prints, it does not appear on what, or whether on any, authority, "we will along," as had been done on conjecture by Rowe, Pope, and others. The "We'll along" gives us merely the very common slight irregularity of a single superabundant syllable.-"With your will" is equivalent to With your consent; "We'll along" to We will onward. But the passage is probably corrupt.

624. The deep of night is crept.-Vid. 374. This is the reading of all the old copies. But Mr Collier prints "has crept."

624. Which we will niggard.-Niggard is common both as a substantive and as an adjective; but this is probably the only passage in the language in which it is employed as a verb. Its obvious meaning is, as Johnson gives it in his Dictionary, "to stint, to supply sparingly."

624. There is no more to say.-There is no more for us to say. So, "I have work to do," "He has a house to let," etc. In Ireland it is thought more correct to announce a house as to be let; but that would rather mean that it is going to be let.

625. Early to-morrow will we rise, and hence.—It might almost be said that the adverb hence is here turned into a verb; it is construed exactly as rise is :-" Will we rise,” "will we hence." So, both with hence and home, in the opening line of the Play :

"Hence; home, you idle creatures."

626. Lucius, my gown, etc.-The best way of treating the commencement of this speech of Brutus is to regard the words addressed to Lucius as one hemistich and 'Farewell, good Messala" as another. There are, in fact, two speeches. It is the same case that we have in 506.—In the old editions the stage directions are; after 625, "Enter Lucius," and then, again, after 627, "Enter