favor and countenance do not appear to have either of them undergone the transference of meaning which has befallen the English forms. But contenance, which is still also used by the French in the sense of material capacity, has drifted far away from its original import in coming to signify one's aspect or physiognomy. It is really also the same word with the French and English continence and the Latin continentia. 54. For my single self. Here is a case in which we are still obliged to adhere to the old way of writing and printing my self. See 56. 54. I had as lief.- Lief (sometimes written leef, or leve), in the comparative liefer or lever, in the superlative liefest, is the Saxon leof, of the same meaning with our modern dear. The common modern substitute for lief is soon, and for liefer, sooner or rather, which last is properly the comparative of rath, or rathe, signifying early, not found in Shakespeare, but used in one expression "the rathe primrose" (Lycidas, 142) — by Milton, who altogether ignores lief. Lief, liefer, and liefest, are all common in Spenser. Shakespeare has lief pretty frequently, but never liefer; and liefest occurs only in the Second Part of King Henry VI., where, in iii. 1, we have "My liefest liege." In the same Play, too (i. 1), we have "Mine alderliefest sovereign," meaning dearest of all. "This beautiful word," says Mr. Knight, " is a Saxon compound. Alder, of all, is thus frequently joined with an adjective of the superlative degree, — as alderfirst, alderlast." But it cannot be meant that such combinations are frequent in the English of Shakespeare's day. They do occur, indeed, in a preceding stage of the language. Alder is a corrupted or at least modified form of the Saxon genitive plural aller, or allre; it is that strengthened by the interposition of a supporting d (a common expedient). Aller, with the same signification, is still familiar in German compounds. — The effect and construction of lief in Middle English may be seen in the following examples from Chaucer: "For him was lever han at his beddes head" (C. T. Pro. 295), that is, To him it was dearer to have (lever a monosyllable, beddes a dissyllable); "Ne, though I say it, I n' am not lefe to gabbe" (C. T. 3510), that is, I am not given to prate; "I hadde lever dien," that is, I should hold it preferable to die. And Chaucer has also "Al be him loth or lefe” (C. T. 1839), that is, Whether it be to him agreeable or disagreeable; and "For lefe ne loth" (C. T. 13062), that is, For love nor loathing. - We e may remark the evidently intended connection in sound between the lief and the live, or rather the attraction by which the one word has naturally produced or evoked the other. [Had lever is rightly explained here, but had rather (see 57) is a very different phrase; probably an expansion of I'd rather. Had came to be regarded as a sort of auxiliary for such phrases. Had rather and had better have the sanction of good English usage, though many of the writers of grammars tell us that we should say would rather, etc., instead. The latter makes sense, of course, but the more idiomatic expression is not to be condemned. See on 468. Tennyson uses rathe: "The men of rathe and riper years." The following are examples of rather in the sense of earlier, sooner : — Wolde God this relyke had come rather! Heywood. And it arose ester and ester, till it arose full este; and rather and rather. Warkworth. Seynt Edward the Martyr was his sone Robt. of Gloucester. he sholde Han lost his regne rather than he wolde. Chaucer, C. T. 10176. The rather lambes bene starved with cold. Spenser, Shep. Cal. Feb. 83. The superlative rathest is found in Chaucer, Compl. of Bl. Kt. 428: Accept be now rathest unto grace.] 54. [The troubled Tiber chafing. — Chafe is from the Latin calefacere, through the French échauffer and chauffer. The steps by which the word has acquired its modern meaning seem to be, first, to warm; then, to warm by rubbing; and finally, to rub generally, in either a literal or a figurative sense. See 2 Sam. xvii. 8. See also The Taming of the Shrew, i. 2:— Have I not heard the sea puffed up with winds Fain would I go chafe his paly lips With twenty thousand kisses. 2 Henry VI. iii. 2. Henry VIII. i. 1. What, are you chafed? Ask God for temperance; Do not chafe thee, cousin; And you, Achilles, let these threats alone. Troil. and Cress. iv. 5. For other examples illustrating Shakespeare's use of the word, see Mrs. Clarke's Concordance.] 54. Cæsar said to me, etc. it is "Cæsar saies to me." - In the Second Folio And three lines lower down it is there "Accounted as I was." Other errors of that copy in the same speech are chasing 66 with her shores," and "He had a Feaher when he was in Spaine." energy, 54. [With lusty sinews. — Lusty, vigorous, full of is "derived from the Saxon lust in its primary sense of eager desire, or intense longing, indicating a corresponding intensity of bodily vigor." See Judges iii. 29. - The Scotch lusty had the sense of beautiful, handsome. Gawin Douglas translates Virgil's "Sunt mihi bis septem praestanti corpore nymphae" (Æn. j. 71) by "I have, quod sche, lusty ladyis fourtene."] 54. Arrive the point proposed. - Arrive without the now indispensable at or in is found also in the Third Part of King Henry VI. (v. 3):— Those powers that the queen Hath raised in Gallia have arrived our coast. And Milton has the same construction (P. L. ii. 409): Ere he arrive The happy isle. 54. I, as Eneas, etc. This commencement of the sentence, although necessitating the not strictly grammatical repetition of the first personal pronoun, is in fine rhetorical accordance with the character of the speaker, and vividly expresses his eagerness to give prominence to his own part in the adventure. Even the repetition (of which, by the by, we have another instance in this same speech) assists the effect. At the same time, it may just be noted that the I here is not printed differently in the original edition from the adverb of affirmation in “Ay, and that tongue of his," a few lines lower down. Nor are the two words anywhere distinguished. It may be doubted whether Macbeth's great exclamation (ii. 2) should not be printed (as it is by Steevens) "Wake Duncan with thy knocking: Ay, would thou couldst!" (instead of "I would," as usually given). verse. 54. The old Anchises, etc. — This is a line of six feet; but it is quite different in its musical character from what is called an Alexandrine, such as rounds off the Spenserian stanza, and also frequently makes the second line in a rhymed couplet or the third in a triplet. It might perhaps be going too far to say that a proper Alexandrine is inadmissible in blank There would seem to be nothing in the principle of blank verse opposed to the occasional employment of the Alexandrine; but the custom of our modern poetry excludes such a variation even from dramatic blank verse; and unquestionably by far the greater number of the lines in Shakespeare which have been assumed by some of his editors to be Alexandrines are only instances of the ordinary heroic line with the very common peculiarity of certain superfluous short syllables. That is all that we have here, the ordinary heroic line overflowing its bounds, which, besides that great excitement will excuse such irregularities, or even demand them, admirably pictures the emotion of Cassius, as it. were acting his feat over again as he relates it, with the shore the two were making for seeming, in their increasing efforts, to retire before them, and panting with his remembered toil. 54. His coward lips did from their colour fly.There can, I think, be no question that Warburton is right in holding that we have here a pointed allusion to a soldier flying from his colors. The lips would never otherwise be made to fly from their color, instead of their color from them. The figure is quite in Shakespeare's manner and spirit. 54. Did lose his lustre. There is no personification here. His was formerly neuter as well as masculine, or the genitive of It as well as of He; and |