rence, while the only instances of anything of the kind in the first are, I believe, the following: 54. "I had as lief not be as live to be A wretched creature, and must bend his body." 54. "A man of such a feeble temper should 155. "All the interim is Like a phantasma." 307. "Desiring thee that Publius Cimber may 358. "And that we are contented Cæsar shall 406. "But yesterday the word of Cæsar might Not only does so rare an indulgence in it show that the habit of this kind of versification was as yet not fully formed, but in no one of these seven instances have we it carried nearly so far as it repeatedly is in some other Plays:-be, and is, and should, and may, and shall, and might, all verbs, though certainly not emphatic, will yet any of them allow the voice to rest upon it with a considerably stronger pressure than such lightest and slightest of "winged words" as and, or, but, if, that (the relative or conjunction), who, which, than, as, of, to, with, for, etc. 2. In some of the Plays at least the prosody of many of the verses constructed upon the principle under consideration has been misconceived by every editor, including the most recent. Let us take, for example, the play of Coriolanus, in which, as has just been observed, such verses are very numerous. Here, in the first place, we have a good many instances in which the versification is correctly exhibited in the First Folio, and, of course, as might be expected, in all subsequent editions; such as Only in strokes, but with thy grim looks and The thunder-like percussion of thy sounds."-i. 4. "I got them in my country's service, when Some certain of your brethren roared and ran.”—ii. 3. "The thwartings of your dispositions, if You had not showed them how you were disposed."—iii. 2. "Come, my sweet wife, my dearest mother, and "Permitted by our dastard nobles, who Have all forsook me."-iv. 5. "Mistake me not, to save my life; for if I had feared death, of all the men i' the world.”—iv. 5. "Had we no quarrel else* to Rome, but that Thou art thence banished, we would muster all.”—iv. 5. "You have holp to ravish your own daughters, and To melt the city leads upon your pates."-iv. 6. "Your temples burned in their cement; and Your franchises, whereon you stood, confined."—iv. 6. * The reading of all the copies is “No other quarrel else;” but it is evident that other is merely the author's first word, which he must be supposed to have intended to strike out, if he did not actually do so, when he resolved to substitute else. The prosody and the sense agree in admonishing us that both words cannot stand. So in Antony and Cleopatra, iv. 10, in the line "To the young Roman boy she hath sold me, and I fall;" young is evidently only the word first intended to be used, and never could be meant to be retained after the expression Roman boy was adopted. "Upon the voice of occupation, and The breath of garlic-eaters."-iv. 6. "I do not know what witchcraft's in him; but Your soldiers use him as the grace 'fore meat."—iv. 7. "Mine ears against your suits are stronger than Your gates against my force."-v. 3. "As if Olympus to a molehill should In supplication nod."-v. 3. "Hath an aspect of intercession, which, Great Nature cries, Deny not.”—v. 3. 'Aufidius, and you Volsces, mark; for we'll Hear nought from Rome in private."— -v. 3. "That thou restrain'st from me the duty which "And hale him up and down; all swearing, if "The city posts by this hath entered, and Intends to appear before the people, hoping.”—v. 5. "I seemed his follower, not partner; and He waged me with his countenance, as if I had been mercenary."—v. 5. "At a few drops of women's rheum, which are "With our own charge; making a treaty where "That prosperously I have attempted, and The gates of Rome." 'Breaking his oath and resolution, like A twist of rotten silk."-v. 5. "Though in this city he Hath widowed and unchilded many a one."-v. 5. These instances are abundantly sufficient to prove the prevalence in the Play of the peculiarity under consideration, and also its recognition, whether consciously and deliberately or otherwise does not matter, by the editors. But further, we have also some instances in which the editors most attached to the original printed text have ventured to go the length of rearranging the verse upon this principle where it stands otherwise in the First Folio. Such are the following: - "Commit the war of white and damask in Here the Folio includes their in the first line. "A kinder value of the people than He hath hereto prized them at."—ii. 2. The Folio gives this as prose. "To allay my rages and revenges with The Folio gives from "My rages" inclusive as a line. After this it is surely very strange to find in our modern editions such manifest and gross misconceptions of the versification as the following arrangements exhibit : "My gentle Marcius, worthy Caius, And-By deed-achieving honour duly named.”—ii. 1. "Have made them mutes, silenced their pleaders, 66 'Having determined of the Volsces, And-To send for Titus Lartius."-ii. 2. "To gratify his noble service, that hath Thus-Stood for his country."-ii. 2. "That valour is the chiefest virtue, And-Most dignifies the haver.”—ii. 2. 'Pray you, go fit you to the custom; And-Take to you, as your predecessors have."--ii. 2. "I have seen and heard of; for your voices Have -Done many things, some less, some more; your "Endue you with the peoples voice: Remains-That, in the official marks invested, You-Anon do meet the senate.”—ii. 3. "Would think upon you for your voices, voice."-ii. 3. And-Translate his malice towards you into love.”—ii. 3. "The apprehension of his present portance, Which-Most gibingly, ungravely, he did fashion."-ii. 3. "For the mutable, rank-scented many, Let them-Regard me as I do not flatter, "That would depopulate the city, And-Be every man himself."-iii. 1. In all these instances the words which I have separated from those that follow them by a dash belong to the preceding line; and, nearly every time that the first of the two lines is thus put out of joint, the rhythm of both is ruined. The modern editor who has shown the most disposition to tamper with the old text in the matter of the versification is Steevens. The metrical arrangement of the First Folio is undoubtedly wrong in thousands of instances, and it is very evident that the conception which the persons by whom the printing was superintended had of verse was extremely imperfect |