2°d s. X. Nov. 24 '60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



403 



on the top of which was carved the likeness of her 

 admired poet William Shakspeare, and which Shak- 



spearian relic is now in the possession of ." 



I read the paper, but not making out what it all 

 meant, or what he was aiming at, I returned it to 

 him again, when he withdrew from a blue bag he 

 had with him an old-fashioned sort of oval-shaped 

 parlour bellows, on the top of which he had carved 

 in bas-relief the (presumed) lineaments of the fea- 

 tures of the Bard of Avon. 



Query, was this second bellows cheat in con- 

 nexion with William Shakspeare (then in enibryo) 

 ever carried out ? or is old Zincke's son I before 

 alluded to yet alive (I believe his name was 

 Charles) ? If so, he could give the wanted in- 

 formation, and likewise impart to the public 

 through the pages of "N. & Q." the contents 

 from memory, or the MS. memorandum-book it- 

 self, if still in his possession, containing an ac- 

 count of all his father's Shakspearian and other 

 portrait-forgeries. Such would now afford amus- 

 ing matter for an Addenda to Boaden and Wivel, 

 or for a distinct work of the class of the " Confes- 

 sions " of Samuel Ireland the Younger. 



HCMPHBY ClilNKEB. 



BLANK VERSE. 



I have shown, as it appears to me, that Chaucer 

 was the first to use verse, neither riming nor alli- 

 terative, in our language. I hope, by the way, 

 the reader has compared my extracts with the 

 original ; for, my corrections coming too late, 

 there are many errors in them, 



I cannot speak positively, but, as far as my 

 knowledge extends, there occurs no other speci- 

 men of this prosaic blank verse for two centuries ; 

 but in 1584, John Lyly, the celebrated author of 

 Euphues, published his comedies of Endimion and 

 Campaspe, which are printed consecutively in the 

 manner of prose, as his other plays are, one ex- 

 cepted ; and which, I believe, no critic has ever 

 suspected to be anything else than mere prose. 

 How far that Is the case will appear from the fol- 

 lowing extracts, which are the opening speeches 

 of those two plays and of his Sapho and Phao : — 



" I find, Eumenides, in all things both variety 

 To content, and satiety to glut ; 

 Saving only in my affections, which are 

 So stayfed, and withal so stately, that I 

 Can neither satisfy my heart with love 

 Nor mine eyes with wonder. My thoughts, Eumenides, 

 Are stitched to the stars, which being as high 

 As I can see, thou mayst imagine how much 

 Higher they are than I can reach. — If you be," &c. 

 Endimion, Act I. So. 1. 



" Parmenio, I cannot tell whether I should 

 Commend in Alexander's victories, 

 Courage or courtesy ; in the one being a resolution 

 Without fear, in the other a liberality 

 Above custom. Thebes is razed, the people not racked, 

 Towers thrown down, bodies not thrust aside, 



A conquest without conflict, and a cruel 



War in a mild peace. — Clytus, it becometb," &c. 



Campofpe, Act I. Sc. 1. 

 " Thou art a ferriman, Phao, yet a freeman ; 

 Possessing for riches content, and for honours quiet. 

 Thy thoughts are no higher than thy fortunes, nor 

 Thy desires greater than thy calling. Who climbeth, 



standeth 

 On glass and falleth on thorns. Tliy heart's thirst is 

 Satisfied with thy hand's thrift, and thy gentle labours 

 In the day turn to sweet slumbers in the night. 

 As much doth it delight thee to rule thine oar 

 In a calm stream, as it doth Sapho to sway 

 The sceptre in her brave court. Envy never casteth 

 Her eyes low, ambition pointeth always upward, 

 And revenge barketh only at stars. Thou farest 

 Delicately, if thou have a fare to buy any thing. 

 Tliine angle is ready, when thine oar is idle; 

 And as sweet is the fish, which thou gettest in the river. 

 As the fowl which other buy in the market ; thou 



needest not 

 Fear poison in thy glass, nor treason in thy guard. 

 The wind is thy greatest enem}', whose might is 

 Withstood with policy. O sweet life ! seldom found 

 Under a golden covert, often under 

 A thatchM cottage. But here cometh one, I will 

 Withdraw myself aside ; it may be a passenger." 



Sapho and Phao, Act I. So. 1. 



This, it will be seen, is, if not exactly, very 

 nearly the same verse as that of Chaucer, and the 

 question Is, did Lyly borrow It from him, or in- 

 vent It independently — a question which cannot 

 be answered. I feel disposed to term it comic 

 or familiar blank verse : for It bears precisely the 

 same relation to the stately decasyllabic lines of 

 Gordebuc and Its successors as the comic iambics 

 of Aristophanes and Terence do to the tragic iam- 

 bics of .3)schylus and Sophocles. The difference 

 consists In the admission of trisyllabic feet. 

 JEschylus admits but one, only in proper names ; 

 Sophocles, in his later plays, has sometimes two ; 

 Euripides even three, while In the comic poets 

 three are of common occurrence. Just so In this 

 comic verse lines with two, three, or even four 

 trisyllabic feet, are to be met with : nay, in 

 Fletcher, there are lines wholly composed of them, 

 and which yet are printed as verse. It is the 

 same In Italian poetry, ex. gr. : — 



" Non danno i colpi, or finti, or pieni, or scarsi." 



Tasso Ger., lib. xii. 55. 



Nothing in fact can be more erroneous than the 

 Idea, with which most editors seem to be haunted, 

 that the dramatic verse of our old poets was ^ 

 strictly decasyllabic. Malone and Mr. Collier, * 

 indeed, are of opinion that if a line has ten sylla- 

 bles and no more, no matter how the metric accents 

 fall, It Is a good and a legitimate verse. The 

 truth however is, that a dramatic verse may con- 

 tain from ten to fifteen syllables, provided It has 

 but five metric accents. 



I will give a few instances. In the Two Gen- 

 tlemen of Verona, perhaps Shakspeare's earliest 

 play, we meet these lines : — 

 " Gentlewoman, good day. I pray j-ou be my means. 



A virtuous gentlewoman, mild and beautiful ! " 



