2°<i S. X. Dec. 22. '60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



499 



frequently pronounced as a word of four syl- 

 lables. 



In these extracts it will be seen that there are 

 no break-downs, no " halting • blanlc verses," as 

 Mb. Nichols, most unjustLy, I think, terms ray 

 arrangement of Malvolio's letter, not a line of 

 which could not be justified by scores of lines in 

 that and other plays of Shakspeare. I do not 

 accuse Mr. Nichols of not knowing how to read 

 dramatic verse, but I can assure him that that 

 accomplishment is a much rarer one than he may 

 imagine ; he seems, however, to be somewhat 

 affected with the decasyllabic malady. I farther 

 claim for myself some knowledge of and skill in 

 composing blank verse ; for which I can refer to 

 my translations from Homer and other poets in 

 my Mythologies. 



The last extract, it will be seen, is the begin- 

 ning of Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia ; for I have 

 ascertained that Lyly's plays are not the first 

 specimens of metric prose after Chaucer. Lyly 

 himself had written his EupTiues in it, and before 

 him, Johnson his Seven Champions : and if I may 

 trust to extracts, Painter his Palace of Pleasui'e. 

 Sidney wrote in it both his Apology of Poetry and 

 his Arcadia^ and Spenser all his prose, even his 

 View, &c. I think I may assert that all the prose of 

 all the plays anterior to the Civil War is metric. 



Chaucer, I am convinced, intended this metric 

 prose for verse ; and the only reason I can see 

 for his having written it consecutively was to 

 spare cost of paper, rather a high-priced article 

 in his days. This, and this alone, must have been 

 the motive with the French poet Racan, for 

 writing, as we know he did, his riming verses con- 

 secutively. Owing to Chaucer's thrift, this verse 

 is now pretty sure to be always printed as prose. 



I must finally remind the upholders of deca- 

 syllabism that the earliest dramatic verse, that of 

 Bishop Bale, was not such. His God^s Promises, 

 for example, is in five-foot stanzas chiefly, and 

 here is a fair specimen of them : — 



" Cayn hath slayne Abel, hys brother, an innocent, 

 Whose blonde from the earth doth call to me for ven- 



gannce ; 

 My children with mennis so carnally consent, 

 That their vaj'ne workynge is unto me moche gre- 



vaunce. 

 Mankynde is but fleshe, in hys whole dallyaunce ; 

 All vyce encreaseth in hym contynuallye, 

 Nothynge he regardeth to walk unto my glorye." 



Here we have the five-metric ictus, but no re- 

 gard to the number of syllables. 



Let Mb. Nichols or any one else select the 

 most prosaic passages of Shakspeare, and name 

 them to me, and I will engage to put them into 

 a correct metric form. As, however, it might not 

 be fair to occupy the pages of " N. & Q.," I add 

 my address, so that the queries may be sent to 

 me direct. Thos. Keightlet. 



Mortlake. 



I quite agree with your correspondents Mb. 

 Nichols and Mb. Moktimeb Collins in their 

 observations on Mb. Keightley's claim to the 

 merit of having " discovered metre " in Shak- 

 speare's prose. When the same subject was dis- 

 cussed above fourscore years ago in the presence 

 of Dr. Johnson, he merely observed, 



" Such verse we make when we are writing prose. 

 We make such verse in common conversation." 



And both Kemble and Mrs. Siddons, from their 

 habit of committing to memory and reciting dra- 

 matic blank verse, unconsciously made their most 

 ordinary observations in that measure. Kemble, 

 for instance, on giving a shilling to a beggar, thus 

 answered the surprised look of his companion : — 



" It is not often that I do these things, 

 But when I do, I do them handsomely." 



And when once, in a walk with Walter Scott on 

 the banks of the Tweed, a dangerous looking bull 

 made his' appearance, Scott took the water, but 

 Kemble cried out, — 



" Sheriflf, I'll get me up in yonder tree." 



The presence of danger usually makes a man 

 speak naturally, if anything will. If a reciter of 

 blank verse, then, fall unconsciously into the 

 rhythm of it when intending to speak prose, much 

 more may an habitual writer of it be expected to 

 do so. Instances of the kind from the table-talk 

 of both Kemble and his sister might be multiplied. 

 " I ask'd for water, boy, you've brought me beer," 



is one of the best known. 



Upon the whole I am inclined to think that 

 Mb. Keightley has " discovered " no more than 

 what all students of the English language are 

 familiar with. S. H. M. 



Dixon of Ramshaw (2°'* S. x. 348.) — George 

 Dixon, who appeared at St. George's Visitation 

 for CO. Durham, anno 1615, was of Ramshaw, near 

 Bishop- Auckland. The family is no longer there, 

 and is said to be extinct. I take this opportunity 

 of contrasting the conduct of the incumbent of 

 Playford (" The Felbrigg Brass," 2°<> S. x. 416.) 

 with that of the vicar of Cheshunt, who, on being 

 recently applied to with respect to the mutilated 

 brass of Nicholas Dixon, called it " the glory of 

 his church," and most obligingly offered every 

 facility for the accomplishment of its restoratk)ii . 



R. AV. DixoN 



The family of Dixon of Ramshaw Hall, Durham, 

 I believe is represented by Francis Dixon Johnson, 

 Esq. of Aykley Heads, near Durham. Ramshaw 

 Hall is in the chapelry of Etherley, part of the old 

 parish of St. Helen's, Auckland. It belongs to a 

 person named Humphries, though Mr. F. D. John- 

 son has property in the neighbourhood. A. 



Yule Dolls (2°^ S. x. 464.) — " Yul' Upos," 

 as they are there called by all classes, are at the 



