man.

fectations. Gibbon thought that his experience as an officer in the Hampshire militia was of assistance to him in describing that vast nutation in history whereby the Roman world, by a process almost physical in appearance, shifted from temperate simplicity, grandeur, civilization, and solidity to tropical luxury, effeminacy, barbarism, and quick decay. Were every detail of Falconer's and Somerville's lives unknown, it would be certain from their works that the one was a sailor and the other a sportsSir Walter Scott had been called to the bar and his works attest his legal proficiency. We see Fielding's experience as a magistrate in the examination of Partridge, in the conspiracy between Lady Booby and Lawyer Scout against Fanny, and in that masterpiece of savage irony, the life of the late Mr. Jonathan Wild the Great. We know from the details of mercantile routine in Robinson Crusoe and Colonel Jack that Defoe must have been & merchant. That Thackeray had been an artist is very apparent in his works. Donne, (1572– 1631,) who had been a student at Lincoln's Inn, satirized a barrister's wooing in law phrase:

" he throws,

Like nets or lime twigs, wheresoe'r he goes,
His title of barrister on every wench,

And woos in language of the pleas and bench.
A motion, lady! Speak, Coscus. I have been
In love e'er since tricesimo the queen.
Continual claims I've made, injunctions got
To stay my rival's suit, that he should not
Proceed; spare me, in Hilary term I went;
You said if I returned next 'size in Lent,
I should be in remitter of your grace.

In th' interim my letters should take place
Of affidavits."

The argument on the present question rests mainly, of course, upon the general and constant employment by Shakespeare of the terms of a science which, in his time, was crabbed and harsh, and which has at any time few points of contact with the graces of literature.

There is another special argument of great force, in presenting which my inadequate resources for comparison restrict me to the use of Hamlet, though I have no doubt that corroborative results will be yielded to any one who may make a more extended investigation.

Hamlet was published in quarto in 1603. Compared with the final version which appeared in the folio of 1623, it is a magnificent imperfection, but

invaluable because it shows how the hand of the master wrought upon his work. From the one to the other we see Shakespeare's mind in operation. Its creative processes are disclosed. Its industry is demonstrated. Here are the blotted lines Jonson wished for. We see the growth of immortal blossoms from barren common-places. It is as if some sculptor, with an enchanter's power, had wrought upon an unadorned Milan cathedral through one night, so that the morning showed thousands of carvings and statues where the day before were only walls of unadorned simplicity.

If Shakespeare's use of legal learning were not that of a full man, with pride in his skill, we should not expect to see, in the changes by which he brought the play to perfection, any additions or elaborations in that respect. But that they do appear most remarkably, the following, in which the text of the quarto is given, together with that of the finished version, will show:

Who by a seale compact, well ratified by law
And heraldrie, did forfeit with his life all those

His lands which he stood seazed of to the conqueror,
Against the which a moiety competent

Was gaged by our king

(Quarto.)

To this Shakespeare added:

which had returned

To the inheritance of Fortinbras,

Had he been vanquisher; as by the same covenant
And carriage of the article designed,

His fell to Hamlet.

He hath, my lord, wrung from me a forced graunt.

He hath, my lord, wrung from me my slow leave,
By laborsome petition, and at last
Upon his will I sealed my hard consent.

Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd

His canon 'gainst self-slaughter!

(Quarto.)

(Standard Version.)

(Not in Quarto.)

Oph. My lord, he hath made many tenders of his love to me. Cor. Tenders. I, I, tenders you may call them.

Oph. And withall such earnest vowes.

Cor. Springes to catch woodcocks.

What, do I not know when the blood doth burne
How prodigall the tongue lends the heart vowes.
In brief, be more scanter of your maiden presence,
Or tendering thus you'l tender mee a foole.

(Quarto.)

Oph. He hath, my lord, of late made many tenders Of his affection to me.

Pol. Affection! Pooh! You speak like a green girl Unsifted in such perilous circumstance.

Do you believe his tenders, as you call them?

Oph. I do not know, my lord, what I should think.
Pol. Marry, I'll teach you think yourself a baby:

That you have ta'en these tenders for true pay
Which are not sterling. Tender yourself more dearly:
Or-not to crack the wind of the poor phrase,

Running it thus-you'll tender me a fool,

(Standard Version.)

"Do not believe his vows, for they are brokers,
Not of that dye which their investments show,
But mere implorators of unholy suits,
Breathing like sanctified and pious bawds,
The better to beguile."

I did repel his letters, deny his gifts,

As you did charge me.

I did repel his letters, and denied

His access to me.

(Not in Quarto.)

(Quarto.)

(Standard Version.)

For in that dreame of death, when we awake,
And borne before our everlasting judge,
From whence no passenger euer returned,
The undiscovered country, at whose sight
The happy smile and the accursed damn'd.

(Quarto.)

(Standard Version.)

The undiscovered country from whose bourne
No traveller returns.

Yet you cannot

Play upon me, besides to be demanded by a spunge.

(Quarto.)

Besides, to be demanded of a spunge: what replication Should be made by the son of a king? (Standard Version.)

King. Now must your conscience my acquittance seal.

Laer. It will appear: but tell me

Why you proceeded not against these feats

So crimeful and so capital in nature.

(Not in Quarto.)

First Clo. I say no, she ought not to be buried

In Christian burial.

Sec. Clo. Why, sir?

First Clo. Marry, because shee's drown'd.

Sec. Clo. But she did not drowne her selfe.