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Othello.

That can thy light[rělulmine. Whenfi've plück'd the rōfe

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That father loft|lost his|ănd the furvivĕr bound

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In

made to use this measure, which the editors knew not. the Merry Wives of Windfor, A& II.

Why then the world's I mine oyster | which I|with sword | will open I will retort the fum in equipage.

[He blunders, and means he will retrench. This is humourous. the editors did not understand it.]

In the second part of K. Henry IV. A& II.

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Pift. I'll fee her damn'd first:

"To Pluto's damned lake, to the infernal deep,

"Where Erebus and tortures vile also.

"Hold hook and line, fay I down! down, dogs; down

"Fates:

:

[So this fuftian fhould have been printed.] He presently after repeats a piece of an old Ballad, and blunders in reciting an Italian proverb. They have corrected Piftol's blunders, which they think correcting the context] our bombaft ancient goes on.

"Pift. What, fhall we have incifion! fhall we enbrew "Then death rock me asleep, abridge my doleful days:

66 Why,

SHAKESPEARE ufes not only the iambic, but the trochaic measure. As for example, the trochaic dimeter brachycatalectic, commonly called the ithyphallic, confifting of three trochees.

Bacche Bacchě | Bacche

whére haft thou been sífter.
1

Macb.

The trochaic dimeter catalectic; a fort of verse Aristophanes was fond of, when he ridi

66

Why, then let grievous, ghaftly, gaping wounds "Untwine the fifters three: come, Atropos, I fay."

In King Henry V. A& III.

Pift. "Fortune is Bardolp's foe, and frowns on him; "For he hath ftoln a pax, and hanged must a be; "Damn'd death! let gallows gape for dog, let man 66 go free."

Thus 'tis manifeft at firft fight that it fhould be printed. -muft a be-this mode of expreffion is used now in many parts of England. And Phaer thus renders Virgil. VI, 590. Prob Jupiter! ibit

Hic, ait, et noftris illuferit advena regnis ?

"O God (quoth she) and shall a go

"Indede ? and fhall a floute me thus within my king"doms, fo?

B. Johnson. Poetafter, A&t III. Sc. II.

"Hor. "Death! will a leve me."

These alterations and hints may at prefent be fufficient.

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Sóon he foóth'd his | foul to | pleasure. Dryd.

The trochaic tetrameter catalectic of fix feet, and closing with a trochee and a femiped, what the Greeks call κατακλείς.

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Τηδε, τῇ πόλει πρόσ, εἶναι ταῦτα, μὲν τοῦ τῆς θε, ες,

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This dancing measure is very proper to the character of Polonius, a droll humourous old courtier and the mixture of the trochaic has no bad effect. The verfes are thus to be ordered. In Hamlet, Act II.

;

As.

As are companions noted and most known
To youth and liberty. R. As gaming my Lord.
P. Ay or drinking, fencing, fwearing, quarrelling,
drabbing, you may go

So far. R. My Lord, thou would dishonour him.

Nor is Shakespeare without inftances of the anapestic verse; which verfes confift of anapefts, fpondees, dactyls; and fometimes is intermixed the pes proceleufmaticus; as

ὁ μὲν οἱ [ χόμενος | φυγάς ὅ δὲ [ νεκὺς ὤν. Eurip. Oreft.

The anapeftic monometer acatalectic, of two feet.

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Midfummer's Night's Dream, A& III.

on the ground | fleep found.

I'll apply to your eỹe
Gentlě lŏvěr | rěmědỹ

When thou wākst | thōu tākst
True delight in the sight

of thy former | lǎdy's eye.

These verses are in the Midfummer Night's Dream, Act III. and ought to have been printed according to this measure.

These measures are all fo agreeable to the genius of our language, that Shakespeare's fine ear and skill are seen in what he gives us, as well as in what he omits. Sir Philip Sydney, who was a scholar (as noblemen were in Queen Elizabeth's reign) but wanted Shakespeare's ear, has dragged into our language verfes, that are enough to set one's ear an edge: thus for inftance the elegiac verses,

Förtüne nätüre love long | have cōn | tended ǎ | boūt mē Which should möft mise ries | caft on ǎ | wörme that ĭām. Sir Philip Sydney thought, like Voffius, that fuch a number of fyllables was the only thing want

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