302 LIBRARY OF OLD AUTHORS. 



therefore be likely to use more words of Teutonic origin 

 than in his original compositions. But no English poet 

 can write English poetry except in English, — that is, in 

 that compound of Teutonic and Romanic which derives 

 its heartiness and strength from the one and its canor- 

 ous elegance from the other. The Saxon language does 

 not sing, and, though its tough mortar serve to hold to- 

 gether the less compact Latin words, porous with vowels, 

 it is to the Latin that our verse owes majesty, harmony, 

 variety, and the capacity for rhyme. A quotation of six 

 lines from Wither ends at the top of the very page on 

 which Mr. Fair lays down his extraordinary dictum, and 

 we will let this answer him, Italicizing the words of 

 Romance derivation : — 



" Her true beauty leaves behind 

 Apprehensions in the mind, 

 Of more sweetness than all art 

 Or inventions can impart ; 

 Thoughts too deep to be expressed, 

 And too strong to be suppressed." 



Mr. Halliwell, at the close of his Preface to the Works 

 of Marston, (Vol. I. p. xxii,) says, " The dramas now 

 collected together are reprinted absolutely from the 

 early editions, which were placed in the hands of our 

 printers, who thus had the advantage of following them 

 without the intervention of a transcriber. They are 

 given as nearly as possible in their original state, the 

 only modernizations attempted consisting in the alterna- 

 tions of the letters i and /, and u and v, the retention of 

 which " (does Mr. Halliwell mean the letters or the " al- 

 ternations " 1) " would have answered no useful purpose, 

 while it would have unnecessarily perplexed the modern 

 reader." 



This is not very clear ; but as Mr. Halliwell is a mem. 

 ber of several learned foreign societies, and especially of 



