238 



SHAKESPEARE. 



EVERYONE who rightly cherishes and studies Shake- 

 speare becomes more or less a commentator upon him. 

 So vast is his variety that among the creations of his 

 genius every man may find some counterpart to him- 

 self and his own moods of mind. Every taste and 

 temper is met and satisfied with something that is done 

 better than it was ever done before or since. 



I put down here a few scattered comments ; none 

 perhaps new, but some of them not occurring to my 

 recollection elsewhere. 



Every good English writer knows the efficiency 

 of monosyllables. Shakespeare manifestly appreciated 

 their force and value. Frequent instances occur of 

 three or four lines wholly thus composed. In one 

 passage ( ' Eichard II.,' act iv. scene 1) seven lines 

 come consecutively with only one dissyllabic word. 



I have often tried, but never could discover any 

 principle determining Shakespeare in his use of 

 rhymed verses, and admixture of them with prose, 

 save in those cases where a rhyme at the close of a 

 scene or long speech is brought in to give force and 

 point to the conclusion. In other cases it would seem 

 simply as if he indulged in that careless abandonment 

 to his genius so peculiar to the man one rhyme, 



