168 Wtsconshi Academy of Sciences^ Arts, and Letters. 



Nowhere perhaps will the student of Shaksperian diction be 

 more astonished than in observing how uncommon is the repetition 

 of the commonest words. Who would anticipate that such voca- 

 bles as the following would never do duty but once? Fuller,, 

 shoemaker^ straggler^ playing, crazy, sisterly, scliolarly, profoundly, 

 prodigiously, wordless, comeliness, restful, fitful, forefoot, forecast^ 

 springhalt, rinsing, flannel, frocli, sprout, leech, salamander, flail,, 

 flake, cater, corpulent, beverage, navigation, salary, omen, obscurity, 

 cataract, cathedral, symbol, gospel, inwardness, Jesus, disciple, apos- 

 tle, exhortation, homily, dirge, papist, institution, fragile, — or such 

 word-clusters as, deflnite, definitive, definitively ; or these five sprouts 

 from one root, to elf, elvish, elvish-marked, elf-lock, elf -skin. 



Ko one class of once-used words is more conspicuous in Shak- 

 ^"^Qie ihsin alliterative compounds. This fact will be clear from 

 the following very partial register of such formations: cdl- abhorred., 

 all-admiring, bow-back, burly-boned, bugbear, bidl-bearing, bull-beeves, 

 blood-bespottid, broio bound, bate-breeding, blood-bolter ed, bow-boy, 

 baby-brow, care-crazed, cloud-capped, counter -caster, cain-colored, can- 

 vas-climber, child- changed, custard- coffin, chamber -council, death-dart- 

 ing, deio- dropping, death-divining, deep-drawing, drug-damned, 

 dove-draum, dismal-dreaming, double-dealing, double-damned, deep- 

 drenched, dumb-discoursive, ever-esteemed, fast-falling, folly-fallen, 

 foot-fall, fauUful, fitful, fiery-footed, fieetfooi, fall-flovnng, forceful, 

 fraudfid, feast- finding , false-faced, foul faced, free-footed, filly-foal^ 

 full-fed, fond-fault, full-fraught, glass-gazing, gain-giving, grim-grin- 

 ning, guts-griping, great-grown, hard-hearted, hard handed, heaven- 

 huid, heavenly-harnessed, heavy-hanging, heart-hardening, hell-hated, 

 highly -heaped, hoary-headed, hollow-hearted, hydra-headed, honey- 

 heavy, honest-hearted, harvest-home, king-killer, love-lacking 

 low laid, lackluster, love-letter, lack linen, lack-love, lank-lean, 

 lass-lorn, long legged, lilylivered, lazar-like, long-lived, lean-looked, 

 light- 0^ love, peaceparted periwig -pated, proud-pied, pity -pleading, 

 plume-plucked, pistol-proof plot-proof, ripe red, riding-robe, riding- 

 rod, surfeit swelled, cinque- spotted, sweet suggesting, saint- seducing, 

 sober sad, sad-set, sea-salt, sea-sorroio, sea-swallowed, silver-sweety 

 sober-suited, still stand, ship-side, spirit stirring , super. subtle, super- 

 serviceable, siueet seasoned, summer sivelling, summer steaming, sick- 



