The "Arra^ Aeyof^eva in ShahsjDefe. 165 



sound of the wind, mure wall, meacoch henpecked, mop grin, 

 militarist soldier, murrion affected with murrain, mammering 

 hesitating, — mered only, — mountant raised up. 



The "Aixaq lvf6ij.z\ja. in Shakspere are often so beautifal and poet- 

 ical that we wonder how they could fail to be his favorites again 

 and again, for they are jewels that might hang twenty years be- 

 fore our eyes yet never lose their luster. Why were they never 

 shown but once ? 



Tbey remind me of the exquisite crystal bowl from which I 

 saw a Jewess and her bridegroom drink in Prague and which was 

 then dashed in pieces on the floor of the synagogue, or of the 

 Chigi porcelain painted by Raphael which, as soon as it had been 

 once removed from the table, was thrown into the Tiber. To 

 what purpose was this waste? Why should they be used up with 

 once using? Even the Greek drama that would never presume 

 to let a God appear but for an action worthy of a God, was not so 

 pervaded with horror of too much. 



Some specimens of this class which all writers but Shakspere 

 would have often paraded as pets, are such words as magical, 

 mirthful, mightful, merrines?, majestically, marbled, martyred, 

 mountainous, magnanimity, magnificence, marrowless, matin, mas- 

 terpiece, masterdom, meander, mellifluous, menaces, mockable, 

 monarchize, moon-beams, motto, mundane, mural, multipotent, 

 mourningly, etc. 



About one-tenth of the remaining ^'^^Trac /'vSj'o^asvcc with initial M, 

 are descriptive compounds. Nearly all of them are among the 

 following twenty-six adjectives : maiden-tongued, maiden-widowed, 

 man-entered, many-headed, marhle-hreasted, marhle-consta.nt, marble- 

 hearted, marrow-eating , mean-appareled, 'merchant- marring, mercy- 

 lacking, mirth-m.oving , moving -delicate, mock-water, more-having, 

 mortat-hreathing, mortal-living, mortal- staring, motley -minded, mouse- 

 eaten, moss-groion, mouth-filling, mouth-made, muddy -mettled, maid- 

 pale, momentary-swijt. 



From this list, which is nearly complete, it is evident that such 

 compounds as may be multiplied at will by a word coiner form 

 but a small proportion of the words that are used once only by 

 Shakspere. 



