220 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[Sept. 22. 1855. 



[SHAKSPEARIANA. 



1. ^^iTenry the Eighth." — I read in Fraser for 

 July, that " Schlegel has committed himself to the 

 rash assertion that Henry the Eighth has somewhat 

 of a prosaic appearance ;" and that " the exact 

 critic seems to have nodded," before he completed 

 his survey of that great historical tragedy, or, 

 rather, tragic history. I am of opinion that 

 Schlegel's meaning is, that the versification of the 

 Henry the Eighth borders upon prose in its struc- 

 ture, compared with the usual blank-verse manner 

 of Shakspeare — as it undoubtedly does; and I 

 have always felt it to be evidential of Shakspeare's 

 fine feeling of the "fitness of things" — this aban- 

 doning of the " mighty line," in a theme of, as it 

 were, his own scene and day. The structure of 

 the verse of Henry the Eighth is remarkably un- 

 like that of any of the other " histories." 



2. Shakspeare and his Coiemporaries. — In the 

 last Edinburgh's article on Dryden, the writer 

 says (p. 35.) : 



" The unequivocal supremacy attained by Shakspeare 

 over all his cotemporaries was, it must be remembered, 

 entirely posthumous." 



This I deny. It was coteraporary as well as post- 

 humous. To say nothing of the grand verse- 

 tributes of William Basse, Hugh Holland, Digges — 

 nothing of the prose-laud of Heminge andCondell — 

 who is not familiar with the magnificence of "Rare 

 Ben?" 



«' Soul of the Age ! 



The applause, delight, the wonder, of our stage ! 



Thou art a monument without a tomb ; 

 And art alive still, while thy book doth live, 

 And we have wits to read, and praise to give. 



Triumph, my Britain ! thou hast one to show, 

 To whom all scenes of Europe homage owe. 

 He was not for an age, but for all time." 

 &c. &c. &c. 



" Entirely posthumous," quotha ! Why, Shak- 

 speare was as " unequivocally " as much the most 

 popular poet of his own day, as was — descending 

 a little — Dryden, Pope, or Byron, of his. 



A Desultory Keader. 

 Jersey. 



3. Random Notes on Shakspeare. — The Two Gen- 

 tlemen of Verona is one of Shakspeare's shortest 

 plays, and may be taken as the average length of 

 our modern five act pieces. It contains 1962 

 lines. . The longest known play of antiquity is the 

 CEdipus Coloneus of Sophocles, which contains 

 1779 lines. The longest known play of Euripides 

 is the Phcemssce, 1766 lines. The average length 

 of his plays is 1500 lines. These numbers tend to 

 show that our modern plays are considerably 

 longer than those of the ancients. Ils'or is this to 



No. 308.] 



be wondered at, for they often listened to four or 

 five pieces at a sitting. 



The first line of the beautiful opening scene in 

 Twelfth Night is repeated, almost word for word, 

 in Antony and Cleopatra, Act II. Sc. 5. : 



" Music, moody food 

 Of us that trade in love." 



Our poet seems to have had some stock Latin 

 phrases which he repeated on occasion. Among 

 these is " Cucullus non facit monachum " in Mea- 

 sure for Measure, Act V. Sc. 1 . ; and again in 

 Twelfth Night, Act I. Sc. 5. It is rendered into 

 English in Henry VIII., Act III. Sc. 1., " But all 

 hoods make not monks." Another is " pauca 

 verba," in Love's Labour's Lost, Act IV. Sc. 2., 

 repeated in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act I. 

 Sc. 1., where, perhaps for the sake of the quibble, 

 the French parson translates it falsely as "good 

 worts." 



In All's Well that ends Well, Act II. Sc. 3., 

 ParoUes says : 



" A young man married, is a man that's marr'd." 



The same quibble in the same form of words, 

 though with a different meaning, is used in 

 another language by a writer who had probably 

 never heard of Shakspeare : 



" Oui, son mari, vous dis-je, et mari tr^s-marri." 



Moliere, Sganarelle, Acte I. Sc. 9. 



A.G. 



4. Dog-cheap. — Latham, in his English Lan- 

 guage, says : 



" This has nothing to do with dogs. The first syllable 

 is god = good, transposed, and the second the ch — p is 

 chapman (merchant), cheap, and Eastcheap." 



This is illustrated by a passage in Henry IV., 

 Part I. Act III. Sc. 3., where FalstafF says : 



" But the sack that thou hast drunk me would have 

 bought me lights as good cheap at the dearest chandler's 

 in Europe." 



In Troilus and Cressida, Hector, speaking of 

 Achilles, says : 



" But for Achilles, my own searching eyes 

 Shall find him by his large and portly size." 



Act IV. Sc. 5. 



This is not in character. Achilles was celebrated 

 for his agility, and is therefore called in Homer, 

 wSSas wKvs, fleet of foot. Now Hector could 

 hardly expect such a man to be " large and portly." 



A. G. 



5. Frailty of Woman. — The ejaculation of 

 Hamlet, 



" Frailty, thy name is woman ! " 



is a very condensed sentence, compared with that 

 of Saxo Grammaticus ; from whom Shakspeare 

 directly or indirectly borrowed, if not this idea. 



