174 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2-d s. VI. 139., Aug. 28. '68. 



Saj-s one to the other, 

 Oh, brother! oh, brother! 

 They make us take terrible rides.' " 



So far the Athenmim. I may add that old 

 Fuller's translation of Ovid's precatory verse has 

 been made the basis' of a story about Dr. Watts, 

 who is made to have been afflicted with involun- 

 tary versification in his childhood, and to have 

 propitiated his father as follows : — 



" Pray, father, do some pity take. 

 And I will no more verses make." 



There is an instance of successive verses, I 

 think, in the third part of Dickens's Christmas 

 Carol, beginning — 



" Far in this den of infamous resort." 



M. 



Add to the instances noted by Mr. Nichols 

 the following, which have been extracted from 

 the most popular works of Mr. Charles Dickens. 

 They are written in blank verse, of irregular 

 metre and rhythms, common with Southey, Shel- 

 ley, and others : — 



" Nelly's Funeral. 

 (From Oliver Twist.) 

 " And now the bell — the bell 

 She had so often heard by night and daj', 

 And listened to with solemn pleasure, 

 E'en as a living voice — 

 Rung its remorseless toll for her. 

 So young, so beautiful, so good, 



" Decrepit age, and vigorous life. 

 And blooming youth, and helpless infancy. 

 Poured forth — on crutches, in the pride of strength 

 And health, in the full blush 

 Of promise, the mere dawn of life — 

 To gather round her tomb. Old men were there. 

 Whose eyes were dim 

 And senses failing — 

 Grandames who might have died ten years ago, 

 And still been old — the deaf, the blind, the lame. 

 The palsied. 

 The living dead in many shapes and forms, 

 To see the closing of this early grave. 

 What was the death it would shut in 

 To that which still could crawl and creep above it ! 



" Along the crowded path they bare her now ; 

 Pure as the new-fallen snow 

 That covered it ; whose day on earth 

 Had been as fleeting. 

 Under that porch, where she sat when Heaven 

 In mercy brought her to that peaceful spot, 

 She p.issed again, and the old church 

 Received her in its quiet shade." 



" Oh ! it is hard to take to heart 



The lesson that such deaths will teach. 



But let no man reject it, 



For it is one that all must learn. 



And is a mighty, universal Truth. 



When Death strikes down the innocent and young. 



For every fragile form from which he lets 



The parting spirit free, 



A hundred virtues rise. 



In shapes of mercy, charity, and love. 



To walk the world and bless it. 

 Of every tear 

 That sorrowing mortals shed on such green graves. 

 Some good is born, some gentler nature comes." 



Throughout the whole of the above only two 

 unimportant words have been omitted — " in " and 

 " ils " ; " grandames " has been substituted for 

 " grandmothers," and " e'en " for " almost." And 

 the following is from the concluding paragraph of 

 Nicholas Nickleby : — 



" The grass was green above the dead boy's grave, 



Trodden by feet so small and light, 



That not a daisy drooped its head 



Beneath their pressure. 



Through all the spring and summer time 



Garlands of fresh flowers, wreathed by infant hands, 



Rested upon the stone." 



A somewhat similar kind of versification in the 

 prose may be discovered in the 77th Chapter of 

 Barnahy Rudge. /3. 



The interesting paper vi this subject in " N. & 

 Q." induces me to express an opinion I have long 

 entertained, that Shakspeare often wrote in in- 

 voluntary measure when he intended his minor 

 characters to speak in prose ; and that, in fact, he 

 could not help adopting rhythmical language for 

 them. 



I am aware of Me. Collier's reasons for " the 

 constant confusion between verse and prose no- 

 ticeable in the printed productions of Shakspeare;" 

 but cannot believe that the poet intended lines of 

 verse in many passages which are printed as such 

 in modern editions. 



In the first and second folios, the description of 

 Queen ]\Iab (Romeo and Juliet, Act I. Sc. 4.) is 

 printed as prose, except the last sentence. But in 

 the English Parnassus (1677, p. 337.), by Josua 

 Poole, the following lines are quoted as distinct 

 lines of measure ; and they are the whole of the 

 imperfect quotation from Romeo and Juliet : — 

 " Drawn by a team of little Atomies: 

 The Waggon-spokes made of a Spinner's legs; 

 The cover of the wings of Grasshoppers, 

 Her traces of the smallest Spider's web. 

 Her collars of the Moon-shine's wat'ry beams. 

 Her Wagoner a small gray-coated Gnat, 

 Her Charriot is an empty Hasel Nut 

 Made by a Squirrel." 



It may be observed that the possessive or geni- 

 tive cases are here all marked by an apostrophe ; 

 whereas such was not the rule at an early date in 

 the seventeenth century. 



Queries. Whence did Josua Poole derive his 

 authority for division of the lines ? When was 

 the rule established for marking the genitive case 

 by an apostrophe ? 



I can point to one example of the kind in the 

 first folio edition oi Romeo and Juliet; and I may 

 add that the definitions of this mark in Bailey, 

 Johnson, and Webster require correction. J. R. 



