PROPER USE OF THE WORD ARGUMENT. 325 



If I would broach the vessels of my love. 

 And try the argument of hearts by borrowing, 

 Men and men's fortunes could I frankly use. 

 By a slight change from the second meaning, argument denotes a quarrel or dispute, as in 

 Lovers Labour's Lost, iii. 1 : " how did this argument begin ?" 



And instead of subject-matter, it may denote the theme or subject of the discourse, as in 

 Henry V. in. 7 : " Nay, the man hath no wit, that cannot from the rising of the lark to the 

 lodging of the lamb, vary deserved praise op my palfrey : it is a theme as fluent as the sea ; 

 turn the sands into eloquent tongues, and my horse is argument for them all : 'tis a subject for 

 a sovereign to reason on." 



Hence argument, in our Elizabethan writers, means the grounds or moving-cause of any 

 thing, as when Hamlet says (iv. 4) : 



Rightly to be great 

 Is, not to stir without great argument. 

 It means especially a cause of quarrel, as when Troilus says {Tr. and Cress. Act i. sc. l): 

 I cannot fight upon this argument : 

 It is too starved a subject for my sword. 

 Or when Henry V. (Act in. sc. 1) speaks of: 



Fathers, that, like so many Alexanders, 

 Have, in these parts, from morn till even fought. 

 And sheath'd their swords for lack of argument. 

 It may even mean an object of revenge, as when the Duke Frederick says {As You Like it. 

 Act III. sc. 1) : 



' Were I not the better part made mercy, 



I should not seek an absent argument 

 Of my revenge, thou present. 

 The commentators on Shakspere suppose that he uses the word argument to denote con- 

 versation in Much Ado about Nothing, in. 1 : 



Signior Benedick, 

 For shape, for bearing, argument, and valour 

 Goes foremost in report through Italy. 

 But it most probably signifies, as Johnson says, discourse, or power of reasoning, and in 

 the passage which they quote for the other meaning (Hen. IV. Pt. i. Act n. sc. 2) : " It would 

 be argument for a week, laughter for a month, and a good jest for ever," the subsequent words 

 of the Prince show that it means the subject-matter of conversation ; for when Falstaff says 

 (Act n. sc. 4), "Shall we have a play extempore?" the Prince answers: "Content: — and the 

 argument shall be thy running away." And in Much Ado about Nothing, Act i. sc. 1, Don 

 Pedro says to Benedick : "Well, if ever thou dost fall from this faith, thou wilt prove a notable 

 argument." When Milton (P. L. Book vi.) describes shields, as " various, with boastful argu- 

 ment portrayed," he of course uses the word to signify the subject of a picture or device. 



It only remains that I should state briefly why I consider the results of this discussion worth 



