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QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY
NEW YORK
THE J. K. GILL COMPANY
PORTLAND, OREGON
THE CUNNINGHAM, CURTISS & WELCH COMPANY
LOS ANGELES
THE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON AND EDINBURGH
THE MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA
TOKYO, OSAKA, KYOTO, FUKUOKA, SENDAI
THE MISSION BOOK COMPANY
SHANGHAI
QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
Part I INTRODUCTORY
BY
ALBERT H. TOLMAN
Professor of English Literature The University of Chicago
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
Copyright igio By The University of Chicago
All Rights Reserved
Published July 1910 Second Impression March 191&
Composed and Printed By
The University of Chicago Press
Chicago. Illinois, U.S.A.
TO MY CHUM AT JOHNS HOPKINS
CHARLES BAKER WRIGHT
PREFACE
The purpose of the present work is fully ex- plained in the Introduction.
, The writer wishes to express his great indebted- ness to his friend Mrs. Ella Adams Moore for advice and criticism in the preparation of Parts I and II. Her interest could hardly have been greater if the books had been her own.
Professor I. N. Demmon of the University of Michigan, Professor C. G. Dunlap of the Uni- versity of Kansas, Professor J. M. Manly and Mr. D. A. Robertson of the University of Chicago, and Librarian W. N. C. Carlton and Miss Durkee of the Newberry Library, Chicago, have given valu- able assistance in connection with the Bibliography. It is a cause for regret that the final work upon the Bibliography could not be done in the Shakespeare Library of the University of Michigan. Through the kind mediation of Professor Demmon, the writer has at various times received help from that valuable collection. Advanced students of Shake- speare may well make pilgrimages thereto.
A. H. T.
Vll
CONTENTS
PAGE
Introduction i
The Study of Shakespeare's Language . 25
Introduction 27
I Nouns 32
1. Coined nouns 32
2. Adjective form as abstract noun . 32
3. Adjective form as substantive to denote single person .... 32
4. Abstract noun with concrete meaning 33
5. Abstract noun in the plural . . 33
II. The Pronouns 33
1. Object of preposition in nomina- tive 36
2. Object of verb in nominative . 36
3. Irregular appositional use ... 37
4. Doubling of pronoun .... 37
5. Logical subject in nominative . 37
6. Subject of infinitive in nominative 38
7. His=its 38
8. Peculiar uses of possessive . . 39
9. Dative uses. Ethical dative . . 39 to. It is I, etc 40
11. Fare thee well, etc 40
12. The force of thou 41
13. It as indefinite object .... 42
ix
CONTENTS
14. The reinforced substantive
15. The reinforced relative pronoun
Two-faced words
W ho = whom
= IV, § 1 ...... .
Attraction by a relative Omission of relative or of ante- cedent
Implied antecedent .... Which with clause for antecedent Who impersonal, which personal Pronoun separated from ante- cedent
Adverbial use of what
16.
17.
18. 19. 20.
21 22
23 24
25
III Verbs (see also under IV)
1. Coined verbs
2. The subjunctive mood
3. Omission of verb of motion
4. Impersonal verbs .
5. Double object, person and clause
6. Strong preterite and participle alike
7. Omission of -en or -n of strong participle
8. Omission of -ed or -/ of weak par- ticiple
9. Participles with irregular force 10. Presence or absence of to in infini- tive
PACE
43 44 44 45 46 46
46
47 47 47
48 48
48 48 49
5o 5o 5o
51
5i
52 52
53
CONTENTS XI
PAGE
ii. The force of the infinitive with to 53
12. Infinitive with force of finite verb.
See II, § 6 54
13. The use of be in the indicative 54
14. Be as auxiliary with verbs of motion, etc 54
15. Negative sentences without do,
does 54
IV. The Agreement of Verb and Subject . 55
1. Agreement with relative pronoun
as subject 55
2. Here is, etc., with plural subject 56
3. Compound subject with singular members •. 56
4. Plural subject with is, was, or present-indicative in -s 56
5. Plural subject with doth or hath . 59
6. Plural subject with present indica- tive in -en or -n 59
7. Second singular of present indica- tive in -es or -5 60
8. Attraction 61
V. Adjectives and Adverbs .... 61
1. Coined adjectives 61
2. Double comparative or superlative 62
3. One ending of comparison for different adjectives .... 62
4. The transferred epithet ... 62
xii CONTENTS
PAGE
5. Loose use of adjectives ... 63
6. Double accentuation .... 64
7. The voice of adjectives ... 65
8. Adjectives in -ed. See under III,
§ 9 65
9. Adjectives used as nouns. See
under I, §§ 1, 2 65
10. Correlative words 65
11. Adjective form as adverb . . 66
12. One adverbial ending for different
words 67
13. Double negative 67
14. Concealed double negative . . 67
VI. Conjunctions and Prepositions . . 68
1. Each simple conjunction had broader meaning than now . . 68
2. Conjunctions followed by that . 69
3. That may continue previous con- junction 70
4. And meaning if 70
5. Each simple preposition had broader meaning than now . . 70
6. Doubling of the preposition . . 72
VII. Peculiar Constructions. Ellipsis.
Word-Order 72
1. Mixture of constructions ... 72
2. Respective constructions ... 74
3. Anticipation 75
CONTENTS
Xlll
4. Double object, person plus a clause =111, § 5
5. Ellipsis
6. Word-order
7. Pronoun separated from ante- cedent = 11, § 24
VIII. Etymology. Word-Formation. Changes of Meaning
1. Words in Latin meaning .
2. Suffix with irregular force .
3. Words with better meaning than now
4. Words with worse meaning than now
5. Other changes of meaning
IX. A Few Topics That Involve Subject- Matter
1. Elizabethan coloring .
2. Former theories and beliefs
3. Legal and musical terms .
4. Outdoor sport ....
5. Description of nature .
6. Fabulous natural history .
The Study of Shakespeare's Verse
The nature of verse
The typical line
Shifting of the stress ....
PAGE
76 76 78
78
79 79 79
80
80 81
82 82 83
84 84 85
87
89
89 90
Xiv CONTENTS
PAGE
Degrees of stress. Measures with no
stress 91
Measures with two stresses .... 92
Measures of three syllables .... 92
Measures apparently of one syllable . . 93
"End-stopt" lines. Run-on lines ... 94
Double endings 95
Extra mid-syllables 96
"Mid-stopt" speeches 96
Alexandrines 96
Short lines 96
Words pronounced in two ways ... 97
Doubtful cases 98
Rhyme 98
The changes in Shakespeare's verse . . 98
Light and weak endings 99
Statistical table 10 1
Select General Bibliography ... 103
I. Bibliographical Helps .... 106 II. Quartos and Folios. Modern Repro- ductions 109
III. Modern Editions 118
IV. Commentaries. Histories of the Drama. General Works ... 126
V. Shakespeare's Life. Shakespeare the Man. His Relation to His Age.
The History of His Reputation . 137 VI. The Language, Grammar, and Style
of Shakespeare 143
CONTENTS XV
PAGE
VII. Shakespeare's Verse. The Chrono- logical Order of the Plays. The Variation between Verse and Prose 149
VIII. Shakespeare's Text. The History
of the Text 160
IX. Shakespeare's Sources. Literary
Influences Affecting Him . . . 166
X. Shakespeare's London. The Eliza- bethan Theater and Stage. Modern Adaptations. Controversies. The
Private Stages 172
XL The Doubtful Plays 180
XII. Dramatic Technique 182
XIII. The Histories 187
XIV. Stratford-on-Avon and Vicinity. Shakespeare's Family .... 189
XV Special Works. The History and Social Life of the Period. Mis- cellaneous 191
Index (not including Bibliography) . 201
Index to Bibliography 208
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INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
There are very many reasonable ways in which the exercises in Part II of the present work can be used;
And every single use of them is right.
The teacher who looks through some of the ques- tions in order to get suggestions for exercises of his own framing, the private reader who notes them in order that he may read a particular play more intelligently — these make just as legitimate a use of the book, and one just as much intended by the author, as does the systematic student who writes out formal answers to most of the questions upon some play or group of plays.
No one can rightly criticize a teacher for using with a class any questions from this work that he considers suitable. It is supremely important that the topics assigned to pupils shall be interesting and profitable; it is not at all important where they come from. I believe that the pupil has a right to have his work in English assigned in a way that is both clear and helpful. He should know when he has accomplished the assigned task, the work for which on the particular occasion he is to be held responsible. There is no proper time in any classroom for haphazard questioning. To ask
3
iirrii«fiiM>fniii
4 QUESTIONS OX SHAKESPEARE
the pupil simply to "take" ten pages, or twenty pages, of a play, seems hardly a wise procedure. Where shall he take them ?
Some teachers may think best to have the pupils themselves select some of the questions that are to receive special attention. Although an ordinary class can use but a few of the exercises upon a play, it would help the members to glance at most of them. Questions that are not formally assigned may be useful as a stimulus to thought, and may save the pupils from false and one-sided concep- tions. It is well, too, that young people should realize that their study of a play has been only partial and superficial.
The main portion of the pupil's study should be expended upon questions that are literary in their nature. He should not devote his chief strength to topics concerning which Shakespeare himself cared little or nothing.
The prime necessity in the study of Shakespeare is that the pupil's self-activity shall be called forth. The poetry, the humor, the pathos, the abounding diversified life of the plays must be directly appro- priated by each individual reader. He must grapple with Shakespeare for himself. With each new drama "a new planet swims into his ken." It is not desirable that the results of some other man's reading and thinking shall be poured
■™™«™" ~*nnmnnn
INTRODUCTION 5
out upon him in lectures. The true test, however, is that of results. A lecture may be profitable; but it will be most profitable when it is made to have some direct connection with the pupil's own reading and reflection.
The author hopes that this work will be of service to many private students of Shakespeare, indeed to many who would call themselves only readers. The isolated reader needs to be kept from a careless or mechanical perusal of the text. The questions here raised ought to stimulate such an one, and to enlarge the scope of his interest.
It was my intention at one time to put at the beginning of this book a discussion of various topics for dramatic study. On some future occa- sion I may write such a paper. But I was afraid that I should impose my ideas upon those who use the book rather than stimulate and draw out their own.
I have tried to make the exercises clear and self- explanatory, and not to use a jargon of my own. Though forced to employ a few terms in a some- what technical way, I have chosen for the purpose words that are as luminous as possible, and when- ever it seemed necessary, I have carefully explained at some place in the book the meaning which I attach to each term. Through the index to each Part these explanations can be consulted at will.
6 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
Five different kinds of exercises on each play are here presented, as follows: (i) general ques- tions, (2) questions on individual acts and scenes, (3) character-study, (4) the relation of the play to its sources, (5) questions concerning text or mean- ing. It has not seemed best to try to keep these divisions entirely apart. Thus, questions that per- tain to the great interest of character-study are often given under the individual scenes. Again, while the difficulties that concern the text and the language of Shakespeare are left for the most part to be taken up for each play under that specific head, certain topics of this kind are considered in the questions upon the individual scenes. In this way certain more important textual questions will probably be brought to the notice of some who will pay little attention to the detailed study of the language.
The general questions on each play are somewhat difficult. They put the student upon his own resources, and ask him to handle the play as a master-interpreter. Instead of using the criticisms of others, he is to write a criticism of his own. One such topic may demand much time before it can be discussed with fulness and insight. These questions are not for babes; and even a class that is fitted to handle them will not be able to take up many of the general exercises with any fulness.
INTRODUCTION 7
Nevertheless, so far as pupils are ready for them, these general questions, and the study and inter- pretation of the important characters, are the topics which seem to me to have the most value. The pupil is given "the freedom of the city"; and the tasks that are assigned him can be made highly educative.
The study of Shakespeare's versification as such has not been taken up in the questions upon the earlier plays. The purpose is to consider this topic in connection with later plays, and then to make the development of the poet's verse the sub- ject of comprehensive study and interpretation. However, by making use of the detailed descrip- tion of Shakespeare's versification given in Part I, this subject can be taken up whenever the teacher desires. Some attention has been paid, even in the study of the earlier plays, to Shakespeare's increasing use of prose, and to the principles gov- erning the variation between prose and blank verse.
The paper upon Shakespeare's language makes no attempt to treat that subject with fulness. The purpose is to bring out the main differences between the language of Shakespeare and that of today. This outline, it is hoped, will give the pupil some helpful information, and will stimulate him to make similar comparisons for himself.
The bibliography is select. Especially in the
8 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
general divisions, many available books have not been named. It is hoped that the more important works are given.
In writing this book I have made constant use of three complete editions of the text of Shake- speare: the second edition of The Cambridge Shakespeare, The Eversley Shakespeare of Herford, and the one-volume edition of Neil son (see under III in Bibliography). The last two have the standard line-numbers of the Globe edition. The text constantly before my eyes has been that of Herford.
While working out the questions, I have made little use of Mr. W. H. Fleming's four volumes entitled How to Study Shakespeare (Doubleday, N.Y.), or of the excellent " study programmes" by Miss Porter and Miss Clarke (in the volumes of Poet-Lore, Boston. See under XV in Bibliog- raphy). Inasmuch, however, as I had previously consulted these sources in order to get topics for my classes, I may well owe more to these predeces- sors than I realize. Of the eight plays taken up in Part II, three have been treated by Mr. Fleming, and two by Miss Porter and Miss Clarke.
Trom the commentators and critics I have taken suggestions with the utmost freedom. Especial help in working out my questions has come to me from the Boswcll-Malone Variorum Shake-
INTRODUCTION Q
speare of 1 82 1 , from some volumes of the incomplete Arden edition (Heath), from Rolfe's old edition, from the admirable First Folio edition of Miss Porter and Miss Clarke (Crowell), now approach- ing completion, and from the volumes of The New Variorum edition (Lippincott) of Dr. Horace Howard Furness, the honored teacher of us all.1
I have not hesitated to ask the student to express his judgment upon the quality of Shakespeare's work. Of course he should consider well before making any disapproving comment; and if he does make it, he should have a clear appreciation of the fact that fuller knowledge and reflection may modify or even reverse his unfavorable opinion. When Shakespeare seems to be in fault, the student must bear in mind that the exact purpose of the dramatist may not have been apprehended. Again, the modern reader may easily fail to appreciate the accepted conventions and limitations of the Elizabethan stage, and therefore of Elizabethan play-writing. One must note, too, that dramatic economy often forces even the most careful drama- tist to indulge in a kind of foreshortening, a hurrying forward of the action, which at times crowds out some of the preparation that would make the progress of events seem more easy and natural. Shakespeare's fondness for love at first
1 See under III of Bibliography.
IO QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
sight — his men fairly tumble in love — is probably due in part to the dramatic economy of this expedient.
Once more, we should note that some feature of a play which can fairly be called objectionable may be an almost necessary incident in accomplish- ing some larger purpose. Thus, Horatio's speech in Hamlet I. i. 79-107 is somewhat forced. It is not likely that Bernardo and Marcellus are so ignorant of an important episode in the recent history of their own country that they need to have it recited in such detail. But by means of this speech Shakespeare manages to bring into his play the exposition that is needed; and the strain- ing of probability is scarcely noticed.
It is clear, too, that Shakespeare was very much hampered in composing his English historical plays by the necessity of conforming to what were accepted as the facts of history. Previous drama- tizations furnished in some cases an outline which he felt called upon to follow. These plays of the master-dramatist must be judged, not as pure drama, but as applied drama, since in writing them he was only in part a free agent.
But, after all proper precautions have been taken, the pupil must form and express judgments con- cerning Shakespeare's work, if he is to study the dramatist at all. The most appreciative students
INTRODUCTION n
of the poet have felt free to call attention to his occasional shortcomings. Professor Dowden says of Richard II, V. iii. 119 (" Speak it in French, King; say, Tardonne moi' "): "This execrable line would never have been admitted by the mature Shakespeare."1 Concerning a portion of the same scene Professor Herford says: "The Duchess of York's ride, and the tragi-comic encounter of plea and counter-plea which follows, is Shake- speare's addition [to Holinshed], a strangely injudi- cious one."2
Professor Baker comments as follows upon the closing portion of The Two Gentlemen of Verona: "Having lured his audience on by writing scenes which constantly promised complicated action ahead, when the closing in of the afternoon at last drives him to bay, [the dramatist] gets out of his difficulties in the swiftest possible fashion, but with complete sacrifice of good dramatic art, the rich possibilities of his material, and truth to life."3
The ordinary student of Shakespeare is not a Dowden, a Herford, or a Baker; but it is his task
1 Cited by Herford in his ed. of Richard II, Heath, p. 179.
2 The Eversley Shakespeare, Vol. VI, p. 233.
3 The Development 0} Shakespeare as a Dramatist, Macmillan, 1907, p. 122.
12 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
lis truly as it is theirs to form his own opinion concerning the relative success or failure of the dramatist at each point. He will look upon Shake- speare as a great fellow-man, not as a god. If the poet seems to him to have committed an artistic fault at any point, he will say so. He may grad- ually modify any particular conclusion, but only by being honest with himself can he ever rise on the stepping-stones of outgrown opinions to a finer and fuller appreciation of Shakespeare, and so to a finer and fuller intellectual life.
In what order is it most profitable to read the plays of Shakespeare? The order which is indi- cated a little later in this Introduction attempts to accomplish two things. The first purpose is to study the plays approximately in the order in which they were written; the second purpose is to read together plays of the same general class. The gradual development of Shakespeare's mind and art is a fascinating subject of study. This continued story gives a constant interest to the study of the successive plays. It is also very sug- gest tve and stimulating to compare plays of the same kind. The plays are therefore taken up in small groups. Each group contains only plays of the same general type, and the groups follow each other in chronological order. The three larger classes rec< 6nized in the First Folio, come-
INTRODUCTION 13
dies, histories, tragedies, are made the basis of the grouping here presented; but Cymbeline and TroUus and Cressida are considered as comedies; and Pericles, not in the First Folio, belongs in the same class.
As in the Folio, only the dramas based upon English history subsequent to the Norman Con- quest are treated as histories. Those concerned with earlier, legendary British history, and those treating Roman history, are not included among the plays called "histories." It is plain that this •class is not logically co-ordinate with the two other divisions, comedies and tragedies. Some of the histories are genuine comedies; the best example is / Henry IV. Others are genuine tragedies; a striking example is Richard III. But something like half of the histories are what may be called chronicle-plays, in distinction from both comedies and tragedies. A chronicle-play may be roughly denned as one that presents the important events of a reign or a period, rather than a complete, unified action. A play which I should call distinc- tively a chronicle-play is likely to have one or more of the following peculiarities: to show what may be termed two or more coexistent rival main lines of action; to have two or more successive main actions; to begin a new line of action at the close of a play (or Part); to complete an action fully
14 QUESTIONS OX SHAKESPEARE
inaugurated in a preceding play (or Part), or in preceding history.
The attempt to dramatize authentic English history makes all of these ten plays sufficiently alike to be looked upon as forming one general class; and it is interesting to trace in them the growth of Shakespeare's power to present history in the form of drama.
In order to get a correct impression of Shake- speare as a historical dramatist, it is necessary that the four plays which treat of the fall of the house of Lancaster and the coming of Henry VII be studied before the riper tetralogy which presents the rise of Lancaster. It is not best, after reading / Henry IV, to gO back to the artistic crudity of / Henry VI. I follow at this point the example of Professor Herford in The Eversley Shakespeare. In all cases the order of the plays within each smaller group follows that of Neilson's edition, the most satisfactory one-volume Shakespeare.
The following table will make clear the order in which the present writer recommends that the plays and poems of Shakespeare be read by one who seeks to trace the development of his mind and art. The table indicates also the plan for the successive Parts of the present work.
INTRODUCTION 15
QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
PART II {Ready)
I. The First Histories: The Fall of Lancaster and the Coming of Tudor.
1. I Henry VI.
2. II Henry VI.
3. Ill Henry VI.
4. Richard III.
I A. The Early Poems.
Venus and Adonis. The Rape of Lucrece. A Lover's Complaint. The Passionate Pilgrim The Phoenix and the Turtle.
II. The First Comedies.
5. Love's Labour's Lost.
6. The Comedy of Errors.
7. The Two Gentlemen of Verona.
8. A Midsummer-Night's Dream.
PART III III. The First Tragedies. 9. Titus Andronicus. 10. Romeo and Juliet.
IV The Riper Histories: King John, and the Rise of Lancaster. n. King John. 12. Richard II.
16 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
13. I Henry IV.
14. II Henry IV.
15. Henry V.
PART IV
V. The Sunny Middle Comedies.
16. The Merchant of Venice.
17. The Taming of the Shrew.
18. The Merry Wives of Windsor.
19. Much Ado about Nothing.
20. As You Like It.
21. Twelfth Night.
VA. The Sonnets.1
VI. The Sterner Middle Comedies.
22. T roil us and Cressida.
23. All's Well That Ends Well.
24. Measure for Measure.
PART V
VII. The Period oj Tragedy.
25. Julius Caesar.
26. Hamlc t.
27. Othello.
28. King Lear.
1 Unfortunately the statement appears in Part II, which was in type some time before Part I, that the Sonnets are to be taken up immediately after Group III of the plays. That statemenl is hereby canceled.
INTRODUCTION 17
29. Macbeth.
30. Timon of Athens.
31. Antony and Cleopatra.
32. Coriolanus.
PART VI VIII. The Last Comedies: The Reconciliation Plays.
32,- Pericles.
34. Cymbeline.
35. The Winter's Tale.
36. The Tempest.
IX. One More History.
37. Henry VIII.
In making up the smaller groups that have been given, it has been necessary to disturb somewhat the chronological order of the works. Thus, Shakespeare's first history, first poem, and first comedy may well have been composed at dates not far apart, Venus and Adonis being probably the earliest of the three. Also, the later plays of Group IV, the riper histories, and the earlier plays of Group V, the sunny middle comedies, are be- lieved to belong in general to the same years, 1596-99. The groups are in part synchronous, not successive. Although the three sterner come- dies which make up Group VI cannot be dated with accuracy, they probably belong to the same years as the earlier tragedies of Group VII.
1 8 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
In the succession of the plays three somewhat sudden breaks are apparent. The first is the striking change in technique and dramatic method that is noted in passing from Richard II to I Henry IV. This sharp contrast is due in part to our method of grouping; Neilson suggests 1594 and 1597 as the dates of the two plays.
The two other marked breaks in our table are the abrupt change of tone in going from Group V, the sunny middle comedies, to Groups VI and VII, the sterner middle comedies and the great trage- dies; and the equally abrupt change of mood that we experience when we leave behind Group VII, the period of tragedy, and take up Group VIII, the last comedies, the reconciliation plays. These two sudden alterations in the tone and temper of the plays are noteworthy. They challenge attention. How shall they be interpreted ?
In the following words Stopford Brooke brings out the contrast between the sunny middle come- dies and the plays which follow, and connects this change in tone with some of the known facts of Shakespeare's life:
Shakespeare had grown wealthy during this period, famous, and loved by society. He was the friend of the Earls of Southampton and Essex, and of William Herbert, Lord Pembroke. The Queen patronized him; all the best literary society was his own. He
INTRODUCTION 19
had rescued his father from poverty, bought the best house in Stratford and much land, and was a man of wealth and comfort. Suddenly all his life seens to have grown dark. His best friends fell into ruin, Essex perished on the scaffold, Southampton went to the Tower, Pembroke was banished from the court; he may himself, as some have thought, have been con- cerned in the rising of Essex. Added to this, we may conjecture, from the imaginative pageantry of the Sonnets, that he had unwisely loved, and been betrayed in his love by a dear friend. Disgust of his profession as an actor and public and private ill weighed heavily on him, and in darkness of spirit, though still clinging to the business of the theatre, he passed from comedy to write of the sterner side of the world, to tell the tragedy of mankind.
His third period .... opens with Julius Caesar. .... The darker sins of men, the unpitying fate which slowly gathers round and falls on men, the avenging wrath of conscience, the cruelty and punish- ment of weakness, the treachery, lust, jealousy, ingrati- tude, madness of men, the follies of the great and the fickleness of the mob, are all, with a thousand other varying moods and passions, painted, and felt as his own while he painted them, during this stern time.1
It is dangerous to give to these changes in Shake- speare's writing an unqualifiedly autobiographical interpretation. We do not know enough about his
1 Primer 0} English Literature (New York, 1882), pp. 99-100.
20 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
personal history to do this with certainty. Pro- fessor Thorndike, in various publications, has given to some features in the succession of the plays a literary interpretation. That is, he would say that Shakespeare followed the literary fashions of his day. Thus, the dramatist sought to succeed in a business way rather than to express his own mood. For example, Thorndike holds that Hamlet was written to take advantage of the great interest in "revenge plays" which had been aroused by The Spanish Tragedy, perhaps the most popular play of its period, and other similar dramas.1 There is unquestionably much truth in this method of ex- plaining the production of Hamlet.
Mr. Sidney Lee looks upon the Sonnets as exercises written in accordance with a prevailing literary fashion. Indeed, he may fairly be said to have proved that they were so written; but his conclusion that therefore the Sonnets have little autobiographical significance is something which he has not proved, and which most students can- not accept.
I believe in the substantial truth of the auto- biographical interpretation of the changes in Shakespeare's mood, but we must be careful not
1 "The Relations of Hamlet to Contemporary Revenge Plays," Publications Modem Language Asso.f XYII (1902), pp. 125-220.
INTRODUCTION 21
to interpret them in this way exclusively or too specifically.
Halliwell-Phillipps once jested at the idea that Shakespeare's writing was decisively influenced by his mood, by the stage reached in his mental and emotional development. Professor Walter Raleigh both quotes and answers Halliwell-Phillipps in the following passage:
Plays of the same type have been shown to fall within the same period of [Shakespeare's] life. His early boisterous Comedies and his prentice- work on history are followed by his joyous Comedies and mature Histories; these again by his Tragedies and painful Comedies; and last, at the close of his career, he reverts to Comedy, but Comedy so unlike the former kind, that modern criticism has been compelled to invent another name for these final plays, and has called them Romances. There is no escape from the broad lines of this classification. No single play can be proved to fall out of the company of its own kind. The fancies of those critics who amuse themselves by picturing Shakespeare as the complete tradesman have no facts to work upon. "One wonders," says Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps, "what Heminge and Condel, would have thought if they had applied to Shakespeare for a new comedy, and the great dramatist had told them that he could not possibly comply with their wishes, he being then in his Tragic Period." What they would have thought may admit a wide conjecture;
22 QUESTIONS OX SHAKESPEARE
what they got is less doubtful. If they asked for a comedy when he was writing his great tragedies, they got Measure for Measure or Troilus and Cressida; if they asked for a tragedy when he was writing his hap- piest works of wit and lyric fantasy, they got Romeo and Juliet.1
It is at least clear that there are four larger periods in the writings of the dramatist. These Professor Neilson has happily termed the periods of experiment, of sunshine, of gloom, and of placidity.2 How far this succession of moods rep- resents a simple process of mental and moral ripening, and how far it was caused by special circumstances, we shall never fully know.
It is pleasant to feel that Shakespeare's last mood was a kindly one. His closing dramas I have called reconciliation plays; for Henry VIII is believed to be only in part by him. In each of the three that are wholly the work of the dramatist — Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale, The Tempest — there are wron^-doing and estrangement; but after sin and suffering comes peace, the peace of for- giveness. In The Winters Tale we are back in the country again; we see the festival of the sheep-
1 Shakespeare (in "The English Men of Letters"), M.k millan, 1007, p. 131.
2 Complete Works of SJiakespeare, 1 vol., Houghton, k;o6, pp. xiv-xv.
INTRODUCTION 23
shearing, and the wild flowers of the Avon meadows. "The wheel is come full circle." To one who reads the plays in the order here indicated, these, closing dramas are a benediction. The gracious, queenly women who here smile upon us are the choicest embodiments of human nobleness, of moral beauty, in all literature. In Miranda, Imogen, Perdita, and Hermione, we have a vision of "the crowning race of human-kind."
THE STUDY OF SHAKESPEARE'S LANGUAGE
THE STUDY OF SHAKESPEARE'S LANGUAGE
Introduction
The usual method of studying Shakespeare's language is to take up the peculiar words and expressions in succession, just as these meet one in reading the text. In this way one is always dealing with an individual item, with a single fact. The tendency is to forget all about one word in passing on to the next; one nail drives out another in regular sequence. The ordinary student does not easily rise from these successive particulars to interesting general facts and larger truths, of which the individual items are simply happy illustrations.
In order that his classes might escape from this tyranny of particulars, and might grasp some of the larger facts and characteristics of Shakespeare's language, the writer has often described for them in detail some of the peculiarities which mark the style of the dramatist, and asked them to find illus- trations of each of these points in the play that was then being considered. It is out of such exercises that this part of the present work has grown.
The attempt has been made to indicate here the most salient peculiarities of the grammar and dic-
27
28 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
tion of Shakespeare, usually points in which it differs from the accepted English usage of the present day. It is intended that the topics given below shall be made a basis for independent work on the part of the pupil. He should be asked to furnish illustrations of some, at least, of the points specified; and he should be encouraged to point out any general facts which he may observe that have not been here formulated.
To a degree which seems bewildering to a modern reader, Shakespeare wrote as he pleased. Coming before English usage had been systematized and tabulated, before any grammars or dictionaries had been made, he did what seemed right in his own eyes. Thus he enjoyed an intoxicating meas- ure of freedom, though he was always subject, of course, to the necessity of being understood by his readers. Shakespeare is always ready, for example, to use any word as a noun, verb, or ad- jective, whatever may be the part of speech to which it originally and regularly belongs. He is equally ready to use a word in a new meaning. We shall take up some of these licenses later under separate heads. In this daring practice of word- coinage he probably went beyond other men of his age. Says Professor Raleigh: "Although the first recorded occurrence of a word or meaning often belongs to Shakespeare, it is impossible, in
SHAKESPEARE'S LANGUAGE 29
any given case, to prove that he was the first in- ventor. But the cumulative evidence for his invent- ive habit is irresistible."1
Shakespeare's characters use colloquial English. Even in the formal blank-verse speeches of kings and nobles, this colloquial coloring is present, helping to give a lifelike impression. Mixtures of constructions extreme ellipses, and illogical case-forms of the pronouns, are some of the collo- quial licenses that we shall touch upon later. I will give one illustration of this colloquial quality. In the following passage Henry V begins to sum- marize in the indirect form a proclamation which he wishes to have made to the soldiers. Suddenly, in the middle of his sentence, becoming indignant at an imagined coward, he passes to the more vivid imperative of the proclamation itself:
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart.
— Henry V, IV. iii. 34-36.
It is usually impossible to distinguish sharply between the English of Shakespeare and Eliza- bethan English. By the help of the New English Dictionary, some two-thirds of which is now com- pleted, individual coined words can often be traced
1 Shakespeare, Macmillan (1907), p. 217.
■ua
30 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
to Shakespeare as their possible or probable creator; but even in these cases the dramatist has only coined such words as others felt free to fashion. In general, the student of Shakespeare's language should recognize that he is studying simply the finest and fullest expression of Elizabethan English. Shakespeare made use of an astonishingly large number of different words, though he has compara- tively few archaic or dialectic forms. His vocabu- lary has been estimated at 20,000 words; while Milton employed only 7,000 to 8,000. Strangely enough, the amazing variety and naturalness of Shakespeare's language seem to have disguised his greatness from the men of his own day. The self-consciousness and even the affectations of Lyly, Sidney, Spenser, and Ben Jonson caused them to be honored very early as creators and mod- els of refined English. Gill, the master of St. Paul's School, London, in his grammatical work on English, Logonomia Anglica, 1619, cites Sidney, Spenser, and Ben Jonson, but never Shakespeare. The first English dictionary that makes citations from Shakespeare comes from the year 1725. The first one for which the writings of the great drama- tist were really a chief source was that of Dr. John- son, published in 1755. Shakespeare's language was too natural to seem important to the men of his own day, and too diversified to lead to much
SHAKESPEARE'S LANGUAGE 31
imitation. We appreciate the mental greatness and the creative power that are expressed in the naturalness, copiousness, and many-sidedness of his diction; but his contemporaries did not.1
The development of Shakespeare's style is not taken up here. Little indication is given, in con- nection with the following topics, of the fact that the plays do not all manifest the same maturity of mind, and that they do not all show a single, uniform mode of expression. The characteristics of Shakespeare's early manner, the changes therein which gradually manifested themselves, the intense, elliptical style of the final plays, and other topics of this nature will be studied in connection with particular plays. Naturally the growth of Shake- speare's style will not come up for any full treat- ment in the questions upon the earlier plays. The subject cannot be considered with care until there has been a sufficient amount of change so that plays can be compared which are somewhat different in style, and the trend of the development can be brought out.
■ In selecting and stating the following topics, free use has been made of the works upon the lan- guage and grammar of Shakespeare that are men-
1 This paragraph is based upon Professor Friedrich Kluge's article "Ueber die Sprache Shakes peares," Jahrbuch XXVIII, 1-15. See especially pp. 3, 4, 6.
32 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
tioncd in the Bibliography, but for the most part specific references to them are not given. The writer wishes to acknowledge his special indebted- ness to Abbott, Franz, Schmidt, Clarke, Jespersen, and C. Alphonso Smith.
The intention has been to state the following points clearly and briefly, with a minimum of explanation and comment.
I. Nouns
i. Coined nouns. — A word belonging primarily to some other part of speech is used as a noun when desired.
Lady, you are the cruell'st she alive.
— Twelfth Night, I. v. 259.
Thou losest here, a better where to find.
— King Lear, I. i. 264.
2. Adjective form as abstract noun. — Contrary to present usage, an adjective may be used as an abstract noun, denoting a quality.
Say what you can, my false o'erweighs your true. — Measure for Measure, II. iv. 170.
3. Adjective form as substantive to denote single person.— Contrary to present usage, an adjective may be used substantively to denote a single person.
SHAKESPEARE'S LANGUAGE 33
'Tis not enough to help the feeble up, But to support him after.
— Timon of Athens, I. i. 107-8.
4. Abstract noun with concrete meaning. — An abstract noun is frequently used with concrete meaning. This kind of metonymy "is common to all languages . . . . , but no [other] poet has been nearly so bold in it as Shakespeare" (Schmidt).
The murmuring lips of discontent.
— King John, IV. ii. 53. Farewell, fair cruelty.
— Twelfth Night, I. v. 307.
5. Abstract noun in the plural. — An abstract noun is often used in the plural by Shakespeare where present usage would employ the singular. Evidently the word was not so completely abstract then as it is now.
I will requite your loves.
— Hamlet, I. ii. 251. Hold your peaces.
— Winter's Tale, II. i. 139.
II. The Pronouns
There is very much irregularity in the use of the pronouns in Shakespeare. Says Lounsbury:
After the middle of the sixteenth century .... the distinction between nominative and objective was
34 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
showing everywhere symptoms of breaking down. In fact, if the language of the Elizabethan drama represents fairly the language of society .... great license in this respect had begun to prevail. Me, thee, us, you, him, her, and them were frequently treated as nomina- tives; while the corresponding nominative forms were treated as objectives. Modernized editions of the authors of that period do not in this respect represent justly the usage of the time, as in all or nearly all of them changes in the text are silently made. But, with the exception of ye and you, this confusion of case did not become universally accepted. The original dis- tinction gradually reasserted itself, and is now perhaps more strongly insisted upon, at least by grammarians, than at any period since the sixteenth century. Yet the popular, and to some extent the literary speech has preserved expressions which still show this dis- regard of strict inflection.1
Let us look at a few general facts which will throw light upon some of the particular points that are to be taken up.
The nominative of a pronoun is felt to be the general or naming form of the word. Whenever, therefore, the construction of a pronoun is not distinctly felt, the speaker is likely to put it into the general form, that is, into the nominative. Let us now bring into connection with this point
1 History oj the Eng. Language, ed. of 1894 (Holt), PP- «72 73-
SHAKESPEARE'S LANGUAGE 35
another general fact which Professor C. Alphonso Smith terms "the short circuit in English syntax." By this phrase he means that "syntactical relations do not span wide spaces in English. The laws of concord, especially as illustrated in spoken English, operate best at close quarters. They do not carry far."1 Thus in the expression between you and I (Merchant of Venice, III. ii. 321), which is still heard, the governing force of between seems to be all expended upon the first object; and the second pronoun, so to speak, escapes into the general form, the nominative.
Another important fact is the influence of position. Because the subject of the finite verb is in the nominative and regularly precedes the verb, the position before the verb comes to be associated with the nominative form. We shall find that a pronoun which precedes the verb is sometimes put into the nominative even when it is logically the object of a verb or a preposition, simply because
1 Studies in English Syntax (Ginn), 1906, pp. 33-34.
While I am constantly indebted to Professor Smith's admirable paper upon "The Short Circuit in English Syntax'1 (Studies, etc., pp. 32-60), I find the title somewhat misleading. "The short circuit" suggests to me ellipsis, omission, which is not the idea at all. As substitutes for Professor Smith's expression I would suggest "the short word-group," or "the short syntactic group." These phrases seem to me somewhat clearer.
36 QUESTIONS OX SHAKESPEARE
it stands in what may be called nominative territory. In a similar way the position after the verb becomes associated with the objective form, and pronouns which stand there sometimes take an objective form to which they are not logically entitled.1
An illogical form of a pronoun is sometimes used as the result of an ellipsis, the omission of words necessary to indicate the complete construction. Because the nature of the omission is misappre- hended, an inappropriate form of the pronoun is sometimes used. Comparative expressions with than and as are elliptical, and often contain a pronoun in an illogical case-form. For example:
A man no mightier than thyself or me
— Julius Caesar, I. iii. 76.
Let us pass now to particular facts concerning the use of pronouns in Shakespeare.
1. Object of preposition in nominative. — A pro- noun used as one of the later objects of a preposi- tion often takes the nominative form. See above.
There is such a league between my good man and he! — Merry Wives, III. ii. 25-26.
2. Object of verb in nominative. — A pronoun used as one of the later objects of a transitive verb may take the nominative form.
1 Cf. chap, iii of Smith's Studies.
SHAKESPEARE'S LANGUAGE 37
Praise him that got thee, she that gave thee suck. — Troilus and Cressida, II. iii. 252.
3. Irregular ap positional use. — A pronoun often takes the nominative form when used in apposition with a noun or another pronoun that is in the objective relation.
We that take purses go by the moon and the seven stars, and not by Phoebus, he, "that wandering knight so fair."
— / Henry IV, I. ii. 15-17.
It should be noted that an appositive to a noun or pronoun in the possessive case is often put in the nominative in present English. Smith cites from Tennyson:
He saw his brother's shield, Sir Lionel.
4. Doubling of pronoun. — An idea is sometimes named by means of a pronoun in the nominative, and then, in order to conform to the construction, is repeated in a pronoun in the possessive or ob- jective. This is an example of "the short circuit. " The sentence breaks up into semi-independent groups of words.
Your majesty and we that have free souls, it touches us not.
— Hamlet, III. ii. 251-52.
5. Logical subject in nominative. — Sometimes a grammatical objective seems to be felt as the
38 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
subject of a proposition, and to be put in the nominative for this reason.
Let fortune go to hell for it, not /. [= Fortune shall go to hell for it, not I.]
— Merchant of Venice, III. ii. 21.
We are free to say here that two constructions have been carelessly mingled (see VII, 1), and that the not me of the first construction indicated has been replaced by the not I of the second.
6. Subject of infinitive in nominative. — Occa- sionally the nominative of the pronoun seems to be used after a conjunction as the subject of an infinitive, the infinitive being felt, however, as a finite verb.
Heaven would that she these gifts should have, And / to live and die her slave.
— As You Like It, III. ii. 161-62.
7. His = its. — His (possessive of the older neuter nominative hit) is the usual word in Shake- speare for the meaning its; however, the form it is used fifteen times in the First Folio in the meaning of its. The modern its (sometimes appearing as it's) occurs ten times, but only in dramas that were printed for the first time in the First Folio, 1623 (Franz, Grundziige, § 159).
How far that little candle throws his beams!
— Merchant oj Venice, X . i. 90.
SHAKESPEARE'S LANGUAGE 39
It lifted up it head
— Hamlet, I. ii. 216.
8. Peculiar uses of possessive. — A pronoun is sometimes employed in the objective genitive (possessive) contrary to present usage; less com- monly the same is true of a pronoun in the sub- jective genitive.
To have his sight [=the sight of him] thither and back
again.
— Midsummer- N ighf s Dream, I. i. 251.
They know the corn Was not our recompense [=a recompense given by us].
— Coriolanus, III. i. 120-21.
9. Dative uses. Ethical dative. — The objective form of the pronoun is often used to represent the older dative of advantage or disadvantage, where we should employ a preposition.
His physicians fear [for] him mightily.
— Richard III, I. i. 137.
The form me is sometimes used simply to indicate the interest of the speaker in what he is saying. This usage is known as the ethical dative. You is employed in a somewhat similar way to bring out the assumed personal interest of the listener in what is said. This use may fairly be included in the ethical dative. The possessive your often has a similar effect.
40 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
He plucked me ope his doublet and offered them his
throat to cut.
— Julius Caesar, I. ii. 267-68.
If a' be not rotten before a' die ... . a' will last
you some eight year or nine year: a tanner will last
you nine year.
— Hamlet, V. i. 180-84.
Your serpent of Egypt is bred now of your mud by the operation of your sun.
— Antony and Cleopatra, II. vii. 29-30.
The ethical dative shades off into the dative of advantage, already treated.
I followed me close.
— / Henry IV, II. iv. 240-41.
10. "77 is I" etc. — 77 15 /, it is he, etc., represent the regular usage of Shakespeare. The modern colloquialisms of the type it is me, it is him, etc., occur but eight times, according to Smith, "the speakers being in three cases illiterates."
This is he.
—Love's Labours Lost, I. i. 187.
Timon. Ay, [I am proud] that I am not thee. — Timon of Athens, IV. iii. 277.
11. "Fare thee well," etc. — Expressions of this type are very common in Shakespeare. This usage may be explained in different ways : (1 ) as a blunder lor fare thou well, due to the influence of the usual
SHAKESPEARE'S LANGUAGE 41
word-order, verb plus object; (2) the spelling thee is a misinterpretation of the dull pronunciation of thou after an emphatic verb (Abbott. Compare "Woa then, wiltha [ = thou]? damgtha [=thee]!" in Tennyson's Northern Farmer: New Style) ; (3) thee is a correct reflexive dative, the expression meaning something like fare well for thy self (Franz) ; (4) a mixture of constructions is possible, expressions like fare thou well and keep thee well having been blended. When the verb is transitive, or may be so considered, as in haste thee, get thee away, (5) the thee may be considered as a direct reflexive object (=thy self).
12. The force of "thou" — Thou, in Shakespeare, is used toward a friend or relative to express affec- tionate intimacy; toward one of lower social standing, a servant, a dog, etc., to express good- humored or even affectionate superiority; toward a stranger or a formal acquaintance to express contempt or insult; and, as now, in the higher poetic style, and in the language of solemn prayer. It seems strange to us that one form should indicate all these ideas; but a man of today, as Smith points out, addresses his dog, servant, child, and wife by the personal name only;1 and he may address God directly in prayer without the use of any formal expression of honor.
1 Studies in English Syntax, pp. 29-30.
42 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
If the respectful sir is used, the form you is commonly associated with it.
Sometimes these distinctions come to clear expression. In the dialogue between Hamlet and the grave-digger (Hamlet, V. i. 127-201), the Prince instinctively uses thou to the laborer. The grave-digger jests very freely with his unknown interlocutor, but, recognizing him as a man of rank and culture, employs you. The thou of intimacy and the thou of insult are both indicated in the advice which Sir Toby gives to Sir Andrew about writing the challenge:
If thou thou'st him some thrice, it shall not be amiss. — Tweljth Night, III. ii. 48-49.
It must be admitted, however, that Shakespeare's use of thou and you is sometimes hard to interpret, and sometimes inconsistent. Abbott hardly suc- ceeds in explaining the inconsistency in the letter of Artemidorus to Caesar:
If thou beest not immortal, look about you.
-Julius Caesar, II. iii. 7-8.
13. "77" as hide finite object. — 77 is sometimes used as an indefinite object. In a few cases the word may refer to something already in the mind of the person addressed; but often the it represents no definite idea, especially when joined to an
SHAKESPEARE'S LANGUAGE 43
intransitive verb. This indefinite it is very apt to be used with a verb that has been made out of some other part of speech.
Pernicious protector, dangerous peer, That smooth'st it so with king and commonweal ! — II Henry VI, II. i. 21-22.
Lord Angelo dukes it well.
— Measure for Measure, III. ii. 100.
14. The reinforced substantive. — A syntactically superfluous personal pronoun is sometimes placed immediately after its substantive. This seems to give emphasis. Sometimes the pronoun stands for a long substantive clause. When a clause has intervened, the reinforcing pronoun often brings out the construction more distinctly.
On what occasion, God he knows, not I.
—Richard III, III. i. 26.
God, I pray him, That none of you may live your natural age.
— Ibid., I. iii. 212-13.
My brother he is in Elysium.
— Twelfth Night, I. ii. 4.
That I have ta'en away this old man's
daughter,
77 is most true.
— Othello, I. iii. 78-79.
44 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
.... and my two school -fellows, Whom I will trust as I will adders fang'd, They bear the mandate.
— Hamlet, III. iv. 202-4
15. The reinforced relative pronoun. — The rela- tive pronoun is often reinforced by a personal pronoun. This makes the meaning more distinct, and the sentence easier of apprehension.
.... your brave father, whom. Though bearing misery, I desire my life Once more to look on him.
— Winter's Tale, V. i. 136-38.
Both the reinforced substantive and the rein- forced relative are examples of "the short circuit," or the short word-group, as explained above.
16. Two-faced words. — But may sometimes be looked upon either as a preposition, to be followed by the objective, or as a conjunction introducing the subject of a new clause in the nominative. The same is true of except, and occasionally of other words. Since expressions of comparison are often very elliptical, the conjunction than or the conjunction as may be followed by a pronoun which can reasonably be conceived either as a nominative or as an objective. These ambiguous words helped to confuse the mind, and easily led to the use of illogical case-forms, abundant examples
SHAKESPEARE'S LANGUAGE 45
of which can be found in modern English also. Than whom has become with us the only allowable form.
Methinks no body should be sad but / [two-faced].
— King John, IV. i. 13.
You know my father hath no child but / [=me].
— As You Like It, I. ii. 18.
.... for my soul, yet I know not why, hates nothing worse than he [—him].
— Ibid., I. i. 171-72.
17. Who = whom. — Who, both interrogative and relative, is constantly used in the objective relation. This arises undoubtedly from the fact that who regularly begins the sentence or clause, and so stands in the customary place of the subject. When whom is used where who is called for, it is usually clear that we have a careless mixture of constructions, or that some attraction has operated.
Sweet declares that "in present spoken English whom may be said to be extinct, except in the rare construction with a preposition immediately before it, as in Of whom are you speaking?"1
[I must] wail his fall Who I myself struck down.
— Macbeth, III. i. 122-23.
1 New English Grammar (Clarendon Press), I, p. 342.
46 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
Iago. He's married.
Cassio. To who?
— Othello, I. ii. 52.
Young Ferdinand, whom they suppose is
drown'd.
[A mixture of whom . ... to be drown' d and w/w
. ... is drown'd.]
— Tempest, III. iii. 92.
18. See IV, § 1, concerning the agreement of the relative pronoun and its verb.
19. Attraction by a relative. — A personal pronoun which is the antecedent of a neighboring relative, or of one that is omitted, is sometimes attracted into the case of the relative.
.... when him [=hewhom] we serve's away. — Antony and Cleopatra, III. i. 15.
20. Omission of relative or of antecedent. — The relative pronoun is omitted much more freely than in present English. " Modern usage confines this omission mostly to the objective" (Abbott).
. . the hate of those [who] love not the king. — Richard II, II. ii. 128.
Thy honourable metal may be wrought From that [to which] it is disposed.
— Julius Caesar, I. ii. 313-14.
The relative wJw is sometimes used with the antecedent omitted.
SHAKESPEARE'S LANGUAGE 47
Fixing our eyes on [him on] whom our care was fix'd.
— Comedy of Errors, I. i. 85.
I will set this foot of mine as far As [he] who goes farthest.
— Julius Caesar, I. iii. 119-20.
21. Implied antecedent. — Shakespeare often uses a pronoun when the antecedent has been merely implied, not specifically named.
The king loves you; Beware you lose it not.
— Henry VIII, III. i. 171-72.
Anon he's there afoot, And there they fly or die.
— Troilus and Cressida, V. v. 21-22.
22. "Which" with clause for antecedent. — The use of which with a clause for its antecedent is more common than in present English.
And, which became him like a prince indeed, He made a blushing cital of himself.
— / Henry IV, V. ii. 61-62.
23. "Who" impersonal, "which" personal. — The relative who often applies to things and animals and which to persons.
The first [casket], of gold, who this inscription bears, — Merchant oj Venice, II. vii. 4.
48 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
.... a gentleman Which I have sometime known.
—All's Well, III. ii. 86-87.
24. Pronoun separated from antecedent. — Per- sonal and relative pronouns are more freely sepa- rated from their antecedents than in present English, even when the separation causes difficulty or ambiguity.
.... when the searching eye of heaven is hid Behind the globe, that [=eye of heaven] lights the lower world,
— Richard II, ill. ii. 37-38.
By this, your king Hath heard of great Augustus: Caius Lucius Will do's commission throughly; and I think He [=your king] '11 grant the tribute.
— Cymbeline, II. iv. 10-13.
25. Adverbial use of "what." — What is often used adverbially, meaning why. Compare Latin quid.
What need we any spur but our own cause, To prick us to redress ?
— Julius Caesar, II. i. 123-24.
III. Verbs (See also under IV)
1. Coined verbs. — Shakespeare feels perfectly free to make verbs, either transitive or intransitive,
SHAKESPEARE'S LANGUAGE 49
out of words belonging to other parts of speech; also to make intransitive verbs transitive, and the reverse. It is impossible to be absolutely sure, in any particular case, that Shakespeare was the first one to employ a new usage; but his perfect willingness to coin new verbs is unquestionable.
It shall advantage more than do us wrong.
— Julius Caesar, III. i. 242.
.... be he ne'er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition.
— Henry V, IV. iii. 63.
He childed as I father' df
— King Lear, III. vi. 117.
2. The subjunctive mood. — The subjunctive forms were used much more freely than with us. They were especially common in subordinate clauses to express an assertion made doubtfully or conditionally. Consequently it was much more easy for the Elizabethans to interpret as subjunc- tives verbal forms which are logically such, but which do not differ outwardly from indicatives. The subjunctive mood was employed in independ- ent sentences to express wish.
She were an excellent wife for Benedick.
— Much Ado, II. i. 366-67.
I hope he be in love.
— Ibid., III. ii. 17.
50 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
'Twere best he speak no harm of Brutus here. — Julius Caesar, III. ii. 73.
Disorder, that hath spoil'd us, friend us now!
— Henry V, IV. v. 17.
3. Omission of verb of motion. — The omission of a verb of motion after an auxiliary is very com- mon; sometimes such a verb is wanting after an adverb or a preposition that implies motion.
77/ home to-morrow.
— Twelfth Night, I. iii. in.
And every man hence to his idle bed.
— Julius Caesar, II. i. 117.
Towards Florence is he ?
—All's Well, III. ii. 71.
4. Impersonal verbs. — There were many more impersonal verbs in Elizabethan English than are found in present usage. Shakespeare sometimes uses a verb either personally or impersonally at will.
Diomedes. I do not like this fooling.
Thet 'sites. Nor I, by Pluto: but that that likes not you pleases me best.
— Troilus and Cressida, V. ii. 101-3.
5. Double object, person and clause. — Shake- speare uses freely after transitive verbs a double object, a person plus a clause, where we should
SHAKESPEARE'S LANGUAGE 51
omit the personal object. Kellner points out that this older usage is more concrete.1 Compare I, § 5.
I see you ivhat you are, you are too proud.
— Twelfth Night, I. v. 269.
6. Strong preterite and participle alike. — The preterite and the past participle of a strong verb are sometimes made alike contrary to present usage. Since these two forms are regularly alike in all of the weak verbs and in many of the strong, there has always been a marked tendency to assimi- late them.
I drunk him to his bed.
— Antony and Cleopatra, II. v. 21.
.... our dastard nobles, who Have all forsook me, ....
— Coriolanus, IV. v. 81-82.
7. Omission of -en or -n of strong participle. — The final -en or -n of the past participle of a strong verb is often omitted contrary to present usage. Modern English is very conservative here. It rarely drops this ending, except in the case of the sing and bind verbs, which already end in a nasal or a nasal combination.
He has broke my head across.
— Twelfth Night, V. i. 178.
1 Historical Outlines of English Syntax (Macmillan), §§ 24, 94-
52 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
8. Omission of -ed or -t of weak participle. — The final -ed or -/ of the past participle of a weak verb is often omitted contrary to present usage. This is partly due to the influence of the Latin perfect participles, and partly to that of the con- tracted past participles of English weak verbs ending in -d or -/, such as met, hurt, fed.
He was contract to Lady Lucy.
— Richard III, III. vii. 179.
A pure unspotted heart, Never yet taint with love, I send the king.
—I Henry VI, V. iii. 182-83.
9. Participles with irregular force. — The par- ticiples in -ing, -en, -n, -ed, -t are often used with irregular force. Thus, beholding regularly has the meaning beholden; -ed often has the force of -able, etc. Words in -ed are often not proper participles, but rather ordinary adjectives, some- times newly coined. Such a word in -ed " formed from an adjective means 'made (the adjective)/ and derived from a noun means 'endowed with (the noun).' "—Abbott.
For Brutus' sake I am beholding to you.
— Julius Caesar, III. ii. 70.
All unavoided [unavoidable] is the doom of destiny.
— Richard III, IV. iv. 217.
SHAKESPEARE'S LANGUAGE 53
Shall that victorious hand be jeebled here ?
— King John, V. ii. 146.
Thus ornament is but the guiled shore To a most dangerous sea.
— Merchant oj Venice, III. ii. 97-98.
10. Presence or absence of icto" in infinitive. — The to of the infinitive is often omitted and often present contrary to modern usage. In particular, if two infinitives which belong to the same auxiliary have words intervening between them, the second infinitive is apt to take a reinforcing to, to make its nature clear. Smith points out that we some- times have this to in present English; for example, in the sentence, "I had rather stay than to go with him."
Worthy Montano, you were wont be civil.
— Othello, II. iii. 190.
Keep your word, Phebe, that you'll marry me, Or else, refusing me, to wed this shepherd.
— As You Like It, V. iv. 22-23.
11. The force of the infinitive with uto." — The infinitive with to was often used where we should now employ some other preposition with the infini- tive in -ing. The first example given is one that we might still use.
Thou but offend'st thy lungs to speak [by speaking] so loud.
— Merchant 0] Venice, IV. i. 140.
54 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
If this be so, why blame you me to love you [for loving] ?
— As You Like It, V. ii. no.
What cause withholds you then to mourn [from mourning] for him ?
— Julius Caesar, III. ii. 108.
1 2. Infinitive with force of finite verb. — See II, § 6.
13. The use of "be" in the indicative. — Be is often used as the plural of the present indicative.
These clothes are good enough to drink in; and so
be these boots too.
— Twelfth Night, I. iii. 11-12.
14. " Be" as auxiliary with verbs of motion, etc. — Be is the regular auxiliary with verbs expressing motion or a change of condition, where the lan- guage now employs have. Modern German still agrees with the Elizabethan usage.
The noble Brutus is ascended.
— Julius Caesar, III. ii. n.
Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed, That he is grown so great ?
— Ibid., I. ii. 149-50.
15. Negative sentences without "do," "does." — In negative sentences, both indicative and impera- tive, Shakespeare prefers the form without do, docs. Franz notes that the verbs care, know, doubt, mistake are rarely used with do, docs. The
SHARKS IMA RE'S LANGUAGE 55
phrases I care not, I know not, I doubt not, doubt not (imperative) are very common.
/ love thee not, therefore pursue me not.
— Midsummer-Night's Dream, II. i. 188.
.... they perceive not how Time moves. — As You Like It, III. ii. 350-51.
IV. The Agreement of Verb and Subject
1. Agreement with relative pronoun as subject. — The relative pronoun is apt to take its verb in the third person singular, whatever may be the person or number of the antecedent. This is an example of "the short syntactic group"; the antecedent cannot "carry" so far, since there is nothing in the form of the relative to indicate the person or number. Modern editions of Shakespeare often falsify the text in these cases.
.... and all things that belongs [Ff, Q, Neilson; belong Cambridge, Herford].
— Taming of the Shrew, II. i. 357.
They laugh that wins [Qq, Fi, 2, 3, Neilson; win F4, Cambridge, Herford].
-Othello, IV. i. 126.
[Time speaks] I, that please some, try all,
both joy and terror Of good and bad, that makes and unfolds
error,
— Winter's Tale, IV. i. 1-2.
56 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
2. "Here is," etc., with plural subject. — Skeat formulates the older usage thus:
When a verb occurs as the second word in a sentence, and is preceded by such words as it, that, what, where, here, and the like, such a verb is usually employed in the singular number, irrespective of the number of the substantive which follows it. Examples of such usage are common from the ninth century onwards. [Cited on p. 147 of Furness' edition of Twelfth Night.]
The practice of Shakespeare conforms to this statement.
.... and there is pansies, that's for thoughts. — Hamlet, IV. v. 176-77.
Here comes the townsmen on procession.
—II Henry VI, II. i. 68.
3. Compound subject with singular members. — Any compound subject made up of singular mem- bers may take its verb in the singular.
.... when his disguise and he is parted,
—All's Well, III. vi. 112-13.
4. Plural subject with "is," "was," or present indicative in -s. — In the three preceding cases dif- ferent kinds of plural subjects have taken verbs in the singular form. The point now to be brought out is that a noun or a pronoun that is plural both in form and meaning is sometimes used in Shake- speare as the subject of is, or of was, and is very
SHAKESPEARE'S LANGUAGE 57
often used as the subject of a present indicative
ending in -s. Lounsbury estimates that "there
are more than two hundred" of these -s indicatives
with plural subjects in Shakespeare's plays; he
undoubtedly includes in this estimate the cases
under the last section, but not those with is and
was. There is much falsification of the text here
in modern editions.
Ill deeds is doubled with an evil word
[F^ Neilson; are F2, 3, 4, Cambridge,
Herford].
— Comedy of Errors, III. ii. 20.
Be pitiful to my condemned sons,
Whose souls is not corrupted as 'tis
thought.
[Qq, Fx; are F2, 3, 4, Cambridge, Herford,
Neilson.]
— Titus Andronicus, III. i. 8-9.
Even when their sorrows almost was
forgot. [Qq, FI( Neilson; were Cambridge,
Herford; sorrow .... was F2, 3, 4.]
— Ibid., V. i. 137.
These high wild hills and rough uneven ways Draws out our miles, and makes them wearisome.
— Richard II, II. iii. 4-5.
The most inclusive and probable explanation of this peculiarity is that of Professor C. Alphonso Smith:
58 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
(1) In is, was, -s, -th, used with plural subjects, we have not instances of borrowing, but evidence rather of a tendency on the part of the third indicative singu- lar . . . . to establish itself as the norm [for all per- sons and both numbers], and thus to usurp the place held by the indicative plural.1
That is, in accordance with the general tendency to drop inflections, the most common form of the present indicative, the third singular, wras often extended to cover the entire tense. This explana- tion finds " abundant illustrations in the popular speech of to-day."
(2) The usual explanation has been that these so-called -s plurals of the present indicative arose from the influence of the northern dialect, in which the plural of the present indicative regularly ended in -s, though the ending was dropped under some circumstances. This usage continues to the present day in the North of England.2 This explanation, that of Abbott and Lounsbury,3 leaves the use of is and was with plural subjects unaccounted for.
The explanation of Smith is highly satisfactory,
1 P. 367 of "Shakespeare's Present Indicative -s Endings with Plural Subjects," Publications Modem Language Assoc, XI (1896), pp. 363-76:
2 Wright, Eng. Dialect Grammar (Oxford, 1905), p. 296.
3 Lounsbury, History of the Eng. Language, ed. 1894 pp. 406-14, discusses this point and the next.
SHAKESPEARE'S LANGUAGE 59
but the influence of the northern dialect may well have been a co-operating force.
5. Plural subject with "doth" or "hath." — The forms doth and hath are found very frequently with plural subjects. Modern editions often falsify the text in these places. In Merchant of Venice, III. ii. 33, since only the First Folio, among the early texts, has doth, the editors have some justification for printing do.
.... their encounters, though not personal, hath been royally attorn eyed . . . . [Fx, Neilson; have F2, 3, 4, Cambridge, Herford]. — Winter's Tale, I. i. 28-30.
Wars hath not wasted it [Qq, Ff, Neilson; have
Cambridge, Herford].
— Richard II, II. i. 252.
By what right does the editor of a scholarly -dition print have in the line last cited, when the nine authoritative editions, five Quartos and four Folios, all show hath? (1) The explanation of Smith applies fully here. (2) Lounsbury holds that these forms are due to the influence of the southern dialect. In Somerset and Devon, present indicative plurals in -th have not entirely died out to this day (Wright, p. 296).
6. Plural subject with present indicative in -en or -n. — So far as I know, there is only one example in the plays printed as Shakespeare's of the old present indicative plural in -en or -n, except in the
60 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
Gower choruses of Pericles; and these choruses are usually thought not to have been written by Shake- speare. These plurals in -en, -n were the regular form in Chaucer, and survive to this day in the dialect speech of much of western middle England.
And then the whole quire hold their hips and laugh,
And waxen in their mirth
— Midsummer-Night's Dream, II. i. 55-56.
He, doing so, put forth to seas,
Where when men been, there's seldom ease;
All perishen of man, of pelf, — Pericles, Gower chorus preceding Act II, 11. 27-28, 35.
7. Second singular of present indicative in -es' or -s. — The ending -es or -5 is frequently found in agreement with thou as a subject; but it is usually normalized to -est by the editors.
Why even what fashion thou best likes, Lucetta [likes Ff, Neilson; likest Cam- bridge, Herford].
-Two Gentlemen of Verona, II. vii. 52.
That thou expects not [Qq, Ff, Neilson; expect' st Cambridge, Herford]
— Romeo and Juliet, III. v. in.
Fiend, thou torments me [all early texts,
Neilson; torment' st Cambridge, Herford]. — Richard II, IV. i. 270.
SHAKESPEARE'S LANGUAGE 61
Here both the explanations indicated above under § 4 are available. The form in -es or -s may be "the dominant third singular" extended to the second person; or this -es, -s, may have come in from the northern dialect. The first explana- tion is the more probable, or, if both influences are present, at least the more important.
8. Attraction. — It "seems almost to have become a rule, or, at any rate, a license in Shakespeare's own time, that a verb shall agree in number with the nominative intervening between the true governing noun and the verb." — The Cambridge Shakespeare, 2d ed., I, p. xv.
How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds Make deeds ill done!
— King John, IV. ii. 219-20.
The very thought of my revenges that way Recoil upon me.
— Winter's Tate, II. iii. 19-20.
The venom clamours of a jealous woman Poisons more deadly than a mad dog's tooth.
— Comedy of Errors, V. i. 69-70.
V. Adjectives and Adverbs
1. Coined adjectives. — An adjective is often made from another part of speech. This usage is still common.
62 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
Draw them to Tiber banks.
— Julius Caesar, I. i. 63
2. Double comparative or superlative. — A double comparative of an adjective, or a double superla- tive is sometimes used.
.... for the more better assurance, — Midsummer-Night' 's Dream, III. i. 20-21.
.... and we will grace his heels With the most boldest and best hearts of Rome. — Julius Caesar, III. i. 120-21.
3. One ending of comparison for different adjec- tives.— The ending that denotes the comparative degree, or the superlative, is sometimes given to only one of two or three adjectives, though serving
for all.
The generous and graves/ citizens.
— Measure for Measure, IV. vi. 13.
4. The transferred epithet. — Shakespeare very often transfers an adjective to a noun to which it does not logically apply. Sometimes the adjec- tive represents what would be an adverb or a noun in the literal form of the sentence. Occasionally an adverb has been transferred from an adjective; this may be called the transferred adverb.
The transferred epithet is common in poetry at all times; but Shakespeare uses it very freely and in striking forms.
SHAKESPEARE'S LANGUAGE 63
And every man hence to his idle bed.
— Julius Caesar ; II. i. 117.
To furnish me upon my longing journey.
— Two Gentlemen of Verona, II. vii. 85.
For ere the glass, that now begins to run, Finish the process of his sandy hour,
— / Henry VI, IV. ii. 35-36.
Held a late court at Dunstable [=lately],
— Henry VIII, IV. i. 27.
What with our help, what with the absent king [= absence of the king],
— I Henry IV, V. i. 49.
Let me wipe off this honourable dew, That silverly doth progress on thy cheeks [=silver dew, that is, silver-bright].
— King John, V. ii. 45-46.
5. Loose use of adjectives. — "The English adjec- tive .... was formerly apt to form a looser connection with its substantive than in other languages, and, instead of expressing a quality or degree pertaining to the [substantive], to be employed to limit the extent and sphere of it" (Schmidt). These adjectives are apt to need special interpretation. They may sometimes be looked upon as transferred epithets, and so be brought under the preceding section.
64 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come [the wrinkles of age],
— Merchant of Venice, I. i. 80.
The virgin tribute [= consisting of virgins]
paid by howling Troy
—Ibid., III. ii. 56.
Oppress'd with two weak evils [=that cause weakness], age and hunger,
— As You Like It, II. vii. 132.
Ere my tongue Shall wound my honour with such feeble wrong [= caused by feebleness],
— Richard II, Li. 190-91.
" Hence it comes that sometimes the relation of the adjective and its noun seems inverted and confounded." — Schmidt.
.... but if yourself, Whose aged honour [= honourable age] cites a virtuous youth,
— All's Well, I. iii. 215-16.
.... in negligent danger [= dangerous negligence].
— Antony and Cleopatra, III. vi. 81.
6. Double accentuation. — Schmidt has shown it to be a general rule that two-syllabled adjectives1 and participles which otherwise are accented on
1 Shakespeare-Lexicon (Reimer, Berlin), pp. 1413-15.
SHAKESPEARE'S LANGUAGE 65
the second syllable take the stress on the first syllable when they precede nouns that accent the first syllable. Some of the more common words showing this double accentuation are: adverse, distinct, exiled, express, extreme, forlorn, humane (in which the two accentuations have given rise to different words, humane, human), sincere.
Whilst thou liest warm at home, secure and safe; — Taming of the Shrew, V. ii. 151.
Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole,
— Hamlet, I. v. 61.
7. The voice of adjectives. — Sometimes an adjec- tive is active or passive in meaning contrary to present usage.
.... heaven's cherubim horsed Upon the sightless [— invisible] couriers of the air,
— Macbeth, I. vii. 22-23.
As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air
[=that cannot be cut]
With thy keen sword impress as make me
bleed.
— Ibid., V. viii. 9-10.
8. Adjectives in -ed. — See under III, § 9.
9. Adjectives used as nouns. — See under I,
§§ i> 2.
10. Correlative words. — Wrhat are called correla- tive words are often paired off in a way that is
66 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
contrary to present usage. In the following cases the first of the two correlatives is either an adjective or an adverb.
You speak to Casca, and to such a man That is no fleering tell-tale.
— Julius Caesar, I. iii. 1 16-17.
Yet such extenuation let me beg,
As .... I may ....
Find pardon on my true submission.
-I Henry IV, III. ii. 22-28.
Those arts they have as I Could put into them.
— Cymbeline, V. v. 338-39.
11. Adjective form as adverb. — The adjective form is often used without change as an adverb. These cases arose from the fact that the old adver- bial ending -e was dropped in pronunciation dur- ing the fifteenth century. This made each adverb that had ended in -e identical in form with its associated adjective. Modern English has a number of words in which the two parts of speech still have the same form; and in colloquial and illiterate use this feature is very prominent.
'Twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful.
— Othello, I. iii. 161. I do it more natural.
— Twelfth Night, II. iii. 89.
SHAKESPEARE'S LANGUAGE 67
12. One adverbial ending for different words. — One adverbial ending in -ly sometimes applies to two or three different words.
Why do you speak so startingly and rash ?
— Othello, III. iv. 79.
When he demean'd himself rough, rude,
and wildly.
— Comedy of Errors, V. i. 88.
13. Double negative. — Shakespeare frequently employs two or even more negatives, contrary to the best modern usage. Vulgar English still shows these redundant negatives.
And that [heart] no woman has; nor never
none Shall mistress be of it, save I alone.
—Twelfth Night, III. i. 171-72.
14. Concealed double negative. — Shakespeare has some single words and some passages in which the doubling of the negation is more or less con- cealed, and has no effect upon the meaning. This feature takes subtle forms; and some of the passages concerned have puzzled the commentators. Exam- ples of single words in which a negative prefix has no force are: disannul = annul, dissever = sever. Unloose (= loose) is still common.
First he denied you had in him no right.
— Comedy of Errors, IV. ii. 7
68 QUESTIONS OX SHAKESPEARE
I beseech you, let his lack of years be no impediment to let him lack a reverend estimation.
— Merchant of Venice, IV. i. 161-63.
VI. Conjunctions and Prepositions
1. Each simple conjunction had broader meaning than now. — In Shakespeare each simple conjunction covered more ground than at present. " Since that represents different cases of the relative, it may mean 'in that' 'for that,'' 'because' {quod), or 'at which time' (quum)" (Abbott). It was also used to mean so that. While, whiles, whilst sometimes had the meaning until. As was often used where we should now employ as if; this meaning has been retained in the stereotyped phrase as it were. For as meaning that, see under V, § 10.
Unsafe the while that [=because] we
Must lave our honours
— Macbeth, III. ii. 32-33.
.... is not this the day That [=when] Hermia should give answer of her choice ? — Midsummer-Night's Dream, IV. i. 139-40.
Albeit I will confess thy father's wealth Was the first motive ///(// [=jor which] I woo'd thee, Anne.
— Merry Wives, III. iv. 13-14.
SHAKESPEARE'S LANGUAGE 69
Have you not made an universal shout, That [=so that] Tiber trembled . . . . ?
— Julius Caesar, I. i. 49-50.
He shall conceal it Whiles [=until] you are willing it shall come to note.
— Twelfth Night, IV. iii. 28-29.
To throw away the dearest thing he owed, As [=as if] 'twere a careless trifle.
— Macbeth, I. iv. 10-11.
2. Conjunctions followed by "that." — Conjunc- tions which stand alone in modern usage are often followed by that in Shakespeare. Some phrasal conjunctions still retain the that, or may do so, such as considering that, seeing that, provided {that), now that, except that.
After thai things are set in order here,
We'll follow them
— / Henry VI, II. ii. 32-33.
Because that she as her attendant hath A lovely boy,
— Midsummer-Night's Dream, II. i. 21-22.
Mark'd you not How that the guilty kindred of the queen Look'd pale . . . . ?
— Richard III, II. i. 134-36.
When that my care could not withhold thy
riots,
— // Henry IV, IV. v. 135.
70 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
3. "That" may continue previous conjunction. — The word that is regularly used simply to continue the force of a previous conjunction. It may be called a pro-conjunction.
When he had carried Rome and that we
look'd For no less spoil than glory,
— Coriolanus, V. vi. 43-44.
If we have entrance, as I hope we shall, And that we find the slothful watch but weak, — / Henry VI, III. ii. 6-7.
Since you to non-regardance cast my faith, And that I partly know the instrument
— Twelfth Night, V. i. 124-25.
4. "And" meaning "if." — And with the mean- ing of if is very common in Shakespeare. Modern editors constantly change this word to an. An —if is not very common in the early texts. For exam- ple, although the eight Quartos and four Folios all have and in I Henry IV, II. iv. 421 and 462, the Cambridge, Herford, and Neilson editions print an in both cases. The Folios have an in —
Ay, my lord, aw't please you.
— Julius Caesar, IV. iii. 258.
5. Each simple preposition had broader meaning than noii'. — Each of the simple prepositions covered much more ground in Shakespeare's use than at
SHAKESPEARE'S LANGUAGE 71
present. Consequently these words are used in ways that are no longer allowable. Because of the breadth and the vagueness in the meanings of the prepositions, Franz notes that the verb repent could be used with for, in, of, or over. We now use the stereotyped combination repent of. The narrowing down of each preposition to a more limited field has been much helped by the formation of very many phrasal prepositions, each with a very specific meaning, such as on account of, with reference to, by means of, etc.
In the first two sentences cited, modern usage would exchange the prepositions:
Why, this fellow has banished two ow's daughters, — King Lear, I. iv. 1 14-15.
How shall I feast him ? what bestow of him ? — Twelfth Night, III. iv. 2.
.... and is received
Oj the most pious Edward
— Macbeth, III. vi. 26-27.
And, to [=in addition to] that dauntless temper of his mind,
He hath a wisdom
—Ibid., III. i. 52-53.
How say you by [= about] the French lord, Monsieur Le Bon ?
— Merchant oj Venice, I. ii. 58-59.
72 QUESTIONS OX SHAKESPEARE
Nay, we will slink away in [= during]
supper-time,
— Ibid., II. iv. i.
6. Doubling of the preposition. — The preposition sometimes appears twice. This is undoubtedly due in part to the fact that the word is usually appropriate in either of the places where it appears. Because of the length of the sentence, this repetition furnishes in some cases a reinforcement that is helpful to clearness.
Of what kind should this cock come of?
— As You Like It, II. vii. 90.
But on us both did haggish age steal on
—All's Well, I. ii. 29.
.... in all shapes that man goes up and down in from fourscore to thirteen, this spirit walks in.
— Timon of Athens, II. ii. 1 19-21.
VII. Peeuliar Constructions. Ellipsis. Word-Order
1. Mixture of constructions. — Two different wavs of saying the same thing, or nearly the same thing, are sometimes blended in an illogical third form. Shakespeare was a fluent and powerful writer, but not a yery careful one; and the language was still yery free in fashioning new phrases and idioms. Naturally, therefore, his plays show- many blendings of the kind just indicated.
SHAKESPEARE'S LANGUAGE 73
.... you and [that] those poor number [people]
saved with you
— Twelfth Night, I. ii. 10.
I [received] heard no letter [news] from my
master
— Cymbeline, IV. iii. 36.
A mixture of constructions has sometimes become accepted as good usage. This is true of Antony's expression, " Friends am / with you all" {Julius Caesar, III. i. 220). "A friend am I with you all" has been blended with "Friends are we all."
Shakespeare sometimes shows by the preposition used with a verb that he is thinking of another verb with a somewhat similar meaning.
I rather will suspect the sun with cold Than thee with wantonness [suspect .... of is blended with charge .... with].
— Merry Wives, IV. iv. 7-8. [At] To Milan let me hear [send me word] from thee by letters
— Two Gentlemen of Verona, I. i. 57.
Blendings in connection with a superlative form, or idea, are common in Shakespeare, and, indeed, are frequent today. Good usage allows us at present to employ the illogical expression, "You, of all others ("above all others" blended with "0/all men") ought not to complain." Expressions like the following, however, illustrate a very common
74 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
mistake: "the most interesting novel of all that has appeared this year" (of all that have blended with that has).
This is the greatest error of all the rest [greatest . . . of all blended with greater
.... than all the rest].
— Midsummer-Night' 's Dream, V. i. 250.
We have already noted, at the close of II, § 17, a type of blending in which whom is concerned. 2. Respective constructions. —
There is a construction of language much affected by writers of the Shakespearian era, which may be characterized as a respective construction; that is, a series of phrasal adverbs qualifies, respectively, a series of adjectives; a series of adjectives qualifies, respec- tively, a series of nouns; a series of verbs is governed, respectively, by a series of subject-nouns; a series of object-nouns complements, respectively, a series of verbs; a series of subject-nouns or object-nouns governs, respectively, a series of nouns in the genitive case; a relative pronoun, representing two or more antecedents, governs verbs referring, respectively, to those antecedents; etc.1
Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear
1 2
Your favours nor your hate.
1 2
— Macbeth, I. iii. 60-61.
1 Corson, Introduction to Shakespeare (Heath), p. 374.
SHAKESPEARE'S LANGUAGE 75
.... though I with death and with
i Reward did threaten and encourage him,
21 2
Not doing't and [it] being done.
I 2
— Winter's Tale, III. ii. 164-66.
Professor Jevons said of Antony and Cleopatra, III. ii. 16-18: " Shakespeare has united six sub- jects and six predicates, or verbs, so that there are, strictly speaking, six times six or thirty-six proposi- tions."1 The sentence is a respective construction, and there are but six propositions in all.
Sometimes, either for the sake of rhythm or from carelessness, the second series of expressions fails to keep the same order as the first.
.... if knife, drugs, serpents, have
1 2 3
Edge, sting, or operation, I am safe. 1 3 2
— Antony and Cleopatra, IV. xv. 25-26.
3. Anticipation. — The rhetorical license of pro- lepsis, or anticipation, is present whenever we have "an effect to be produced represented as already produced, by the insertion of an epithet" (Schmidt). A somewhat similar usage is to speak of an ima-
1 Lessons in Logic, ed. of 1876 (Macmillrn), p. 90.
76 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
gined or predicted future condition as already present.
Ere humane statute purged the gentle weal [that is, purged the commonweal and so made it gentle].
— Macbeth, III. iv. 76.
Upon them! Victory sits on our helms.
— Richard III, V. iii. 351.
4. Double object, person plus a clause. — See III,
§5-
5. Ellipsis. — Abbott declares that "the Eliza- bethan authors objected to scarcely any ellipsis, provided the deficiency could be easily supplied from the context" (p. 279). These words are true of Shakespeare in a special degree. This peculiar- ity increased as he grew older; and some passages in his later plays are most daringly elliptical. We have spoken of Shakespeare's frequent use of the transferred epithet. Some examples of this are highly elliptical; for example, the last one that was cited under V, § 4.
Schmidt points out that Shakespeare regularly omits that of and those of in expressions like the following:
Whose veins bound richer blood than [those of] Lady Blanch ?
— King John, II. i. 431.
SHAKESPEARE'S LANGUAGE 77
Her dowry shall weigh equal with [that of]
a queen.
—Ibid., II. i. 486.
Shakespeare is fond of using a single word with very large implications, expecting us to let the word represent a decidedly complex idea, perhaps an intricate clause. A few examples of these pregnant, inclusive, elliptically used words will now be given. I add in each case the explanation offered in Clarke, The Shakespeare Key (pp. 313,
3*7, 323)-
May one be pardon'd and retain the offence
[=the gain for which the offence was
committed] ?
— Hamlet, III. iii. 56.
.... that you might The better arm you to the sudden time [=time of sudden changes that will take place in affairs after the king's death],
— King John, V. vi. 25-26.
All by the name of dogs: the valued file Distinguishes the swift, the slow, the subtle [=the file or list where dogs valuable for particular qualities are entered: including also the meaning of the file in which dogs have their several qualities valued, described, and specially stated: thus using the
78 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
word valued so as to combine its senses of esteemed and estimated],
— Macbeth, III. i. 95-96.
The two following passages are notable for their daring omissions:
O, think on that; And mercy then will breathe within your
lips, Like [the breath of life in the lips of] man new made [=the new-born child, or, the freshly created Adam].
— Measure for Measure, II. ii. 77-79.
She hath all courtly parts more exquisite
Than lady, ladies, woman [=than any
lady has; than all other ladies can
show; than is otherwise possible to
the nature of woman].
— Cymbeline, III. v. 71-72.
6. Word-order. — An adjective that precedes its noun may be qualified by a phrase that follows the noun.
As a long- parted mother with her child
—Richard II, III. ii. 8.
.... our suffering country Under a hand accursed!
— Macbeth, III. vi. 48-49.
7. Pronoun separated from antecedent. — See II, § 24.
SHAKESPEARE'S LANGUAGE 79
VIII. Etymology. Word-Formation. Changes of Meaning
1. Words in Latin meaning. — In many cases a word derived from the Latin has in Shakespeare a meaning which is nearer to its Latin value than that which attaches to it in modern usage. Hal- lam makes this comment:
I must venture to think that Shakespeare possessed rather more acquaintance with the Latin language than many believe. The phrases, unintelligible and improper, except in the sense of their primitive roots, which occur so copiously in his plays, seem to be unac- countable on the supposition of absolute ignorance. [Cited in Furness' ed. of A Midsummer --Night's Dream,
P- 303]
The extravagant and erring spirit hies
To his confine.
— Hamlet, Li. 154-55.
[Rivers] have overborne their continents.
— Midsummer- Nights Dream, II. i. 92.
2. Suffix with irregular force. — A suffix is often used with what is to us an irregular force. The participles spoken of under III, § 9, and many of the adjectives described under V, § 7, might be cited here. The modern word comfortable (=com- forting) shows the survival of the suffix -able in an irregular force.
80 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
This is a slight immeritable [=unmeriting, undeserving] man,
— Julius Caesar, IV. i. 12.
Nor [stain] the insuppressive [=insup- pressible] mettle of our spirits,
— Ibid., II. i. 134.
3. Words with better meaning than now. — Many words, regularly or occasionally, have a better, that is a pleasanter, meaning in Shakespeare than now.
Tell me in sadness, who is that you love.
— Romeo and Juliet, I. i. 205.
Like valour's minion carved out his
passage
— Macbeth, I. ii. 19.
4. Words with worse meaning than now. — Many words have regularly a worse, or less pleasant meaning in Shakespeare than now. Sometimes a word expressing an unpleasant idea is simply stronger, more intense, in Shakespeare than at present.
Since you are strangers and come here
by chance, We'll not be nice: take hands.
— Love's Labour's Lost, V. ii. 218-19. I was advertised their great general slept, Whilst emulation in the army crept.
— T'roilus and Cressida, II. ii. 211-12.
SHAKESPEARE'S LANGUAGE 81
Against the Capitol I met a lion,
Who glared upon me, and went surly by,
Without annoying me.
— Julius Caesar, I. iii. 20-22.
5. Other changes of meaning. — There have been many interesting changes in the meanings of words since Shakespeare's day outside of those under the last two sections. Mere is with Shake- speare an intensifying word; with us it is a mini- mizing word. Ecstasy applies in Shakespeare to any kind of transport, or being beside one- self; when specialized it usually signifies madness, but has its present meaning in Merchant of Venice, III. ii. 1 12.
Engaged my friend to his mere enemy,
— Merchant of Venice, III. ii. 265.
Mark how he trembles in his ecstasy!
— Comedy of Errors, IV. iv. 54.
Discover where thy mistress is at once, At the next word.
— Cymbeline, III. v. 95-96.
The common auxiliary verbs are often used by Shakespeare nearer to their original force than in present English. May expressed originally the idea of power, might; can meant, primarily, to know how, to have knowledge or skill — in Shake- speare it is often a verb of complete predication;
82 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
shall had the fundamental meaning of duty or necessity; will signified willing, purposing.
.... they can well on horseback.
— Hamlet, IV. vii. 85.
For certain friends that are both his and mine, Whose loves I may not drop, but wail his fall Who I myself struck down.
— Macbeth, III. i. 121-23.
IX. A Few Topics That Involve Subject-M alter
1 . Elizabethan coloring. — Elizabethan dress, cus- toms, inventions, and modes of life are freely trans- ferred to plays which have their scene laid in foreign countries or in early times. Shakespeare did not hesitate to commit any anachronism that was not likely to trouble his hearers.
.... he [Caesar] plucked me ope his doublet — Julius Caesar, I. ii. 267.
The clock hath stricken three.
Ibid., II. i. 192.
To beg of Hob and Dick,
— Coriolanus, II. iii. 123.
If you deny it, let the danger light Upon your charter and your city's freedom. [Venice is thought of as an English city, having a charter from the king.]
— Merchant oj Venice, IV. i. 38-39.
SHAKESPEARE'S LANGUAGE 83
2. Former theories and beliefs. — Shakespeare has many references to scientific theories and popular superstitions that are now abandoned. The conceptions of astrology and the Ptolemaic astronomy explain many passages. The word influence always has some reference to its astro- logical meaning. Except in Timon of Athens,
I. i. 66, the word sphere always refers to the Ptole- maic spheres. Every sigh was believed to consume a drop of blood, etc.
By each particular star in heaven and By all their influences,
— Winter's Tale, I. ii. 425-26.
.... you would lift the moon out of her sphere,
— Tempest, II. i. 183.
With sighs of love, that costs the fresh blood dear. — Midsummer-Night^ s Dream, III. ii. 97.
3. Legal and musical terms. — Shakespeare is especially ready and accurate in his use of the technical terms of law and of music. Hamlet, V. i. 106-21, where Hamlet imagines that he has in his hand the skull of a lawyer, is a good example of Shakespeare's legal lore. Twelfth Night begins with an appreciative description of music. In
II. iii. the jesting abounds in musical terms, and the plot turns on some untimely singing. II. iv. moves in an atmosphere of song. The whole play
84 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
is saturated with music, until it ends with a song of the Clown.
4. Outdoor sport. — Shakespeare is exceptionally full of very exact references to outdoor sport, especially to falconry, the hunting of the deer, and horsemanship. The author of the best book on the subject (Madden, The Diary of Master William Silence, Longmans) expresses his " amazement at Shakespeare's knowledge of the most intimate secrets of woodcraft and falconry, and, above all, of the nature and disposition of the horse. In his use of this knowledge for the illustration of human character, thought, and action," says Madden, " Shakespeare stands alone" (p. vi).
These growing feathers pluck'd from
Caesar's wing, Will make him fly an ordinary pitch, Who else would soar above the view of
men, And keep us all in servile fearfulness.
— Julius Caesar, I. i. 77-80.
5. Description of nature. — Shakespeare describes natural scenery, natural objects, and animals with great vividness and power.
Under an oak whose antique root peeps
out Upon the brook that brawls along this
wood.
—As You Like It, II. i. 31-32.
SHAKESPEARE'S LANGUAGE 85
.... daffodils, That come before the swallow dares, and
take The winds of March with beauty;
— Winter's Tale, IV. iv. 118-20.
6. Fabulous natural history. — In contrast with the last two sections, Shakespeare is full of the fabulous natural history that was current in his day. He has many references to fabulous animals, and to fabulous attributes of real animals. All that is cited here might be brought under § 2.
I'll slay more gazers than the basilisk.
Ill Henry VI, III. ii. 187
Sweet are the uses of adversity, Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.
— As You Like It, II. i. 12-14.
THE STUDY OF SHAKESPEARE'S
VERSE
THE STUDY OF SHAKESPEARE'S VERSE
The following description of Shakespeare's verse is based upon Julius Caesar, a play written at about the middle of his career. A good method for the student to follow will be to find in any play that he is studying examples of the various peculiari- ties noted here, and also to point out any charac- teristics of the verse that are not here brought out.1
The nature of verse. — The accents of verse come at regular intervals. In general they mark off to the ear equal intervals of time, like the accents in music; but in verse the movement is not so exact and uniform as in music.
The typical line. — Julius Caesar is written in what is called blank verse, that is, in verse without rhyme. The typical line is made up of five meas- ures, also called feet, each measure having two syllables. A stress, or accent, falls on the second syllable of each measure. More briefly: a typical blank verse line consists of jive two-syllabled meas- ures, each with an accent on the second syllable. For example:
These grow | ing feath | ers pluck'd | from Cae | sar's wing — I. i. 77.
1 Free use has been made of the section on Shakespeare's verse in the Introduction to the writer's edition of Julias Caesar, Globe School Book Co., New York.
89
90 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
If we represent an accented syllable by a and an unaccented one by x, we may represent a typical line by the formula $xa. The versification of Julius Caesar is very regular, and the play will be found to contain a large number of typical lines.
Shifting of the stress. — If all lines were of the typical character, the verse of a play would be exceedingly monotonous. One way to avoid monotony is to allow the stress to fall occasionally upon the first syllable of a measure instead of the second. This shifting of the stress is especially common at the beginning of a line, or immediately after a natural pause within the line. Examples are: •
Run to | your houses, fall upon your
knees, Pray to | the gods to intermit the plague
^ -I. i. 58-59. Draw them | to Tiber banks, and weep
your tears — I. i. 63. But nev j er till | to-night, | never | till
now, — I. iii. 9.
The first three of the above lines may be said to be of the form ax + 4 xa; the last one is plainly 3 xa-\-ax-\-xa.
One advantage of this shifting of the stress, as has been pointed out, is the avoiding of monotony. But lines of this kind are especially effective when
SHAKESPEARE'S VERSE 91
the word that receives the irregular, or shifted accent is decidedly emphatic. The energy given to the first two lines cited above, by having them begin with a blow of the voice, and the emphasis thus put upon the ideas "Run" and "Pray," are very effective.
Degrees of stress. Measures with no stress. — There are various degrees of stress, or accent, but if one of the syllables of the measure receives more stress than the other, that syllable is felt to be stressed, even though the accent is really a very light one. In some cases it seems correct to say that a measure has no stress. This means that both syllables are very light, and are equally light. It is often hard to say whether a measure should be interpreted as unstressed or as slightly stressed; sometimes it seems fitting to read a line either way. Perhaps the first two of the measures italicized below may be said to have no stress; the others are somewhat doubtful, but they seem to be lightly stressed:
To be I exalt | ed with | the threatening
clouds: — I. iii. 8. Either | there is \ a civil strife in heaven, Or else the world, too sauc | y with | the
gods, Incenses them to send destruc | tion. —
I. iii. 11-13.
92 QUESTIONS OX SHAKESPEARE
Measures with two stresses. — Some measures seem to have two stresses. One of these is usually stronger than the other; or, if both are substan- tially equal, the voice naturally follows the habit of the verse and slightly increases the second stress.
Ride, ride. | Messala, ride, and give these bills— V. ii. i.
A measure with two stresses is decidedly heavy, and is often followed or preceded by a measure that is very light, as in this case:
That her | wide walls | encom | pass'd but | one man ? — I. ii. 155.
The following line is peculiar in that three of its measures, and perhaps four, may be said to have each two distinct stresses:
Why, now, | blow wind, | swell bil | low, and I swim bark ! — V. i. 67.
Is it not true that the great weight of this line is felt to symbolize the gravity of the decision just made, and the sternness and importance of the battle that is now to begin ?
Measures of three syllables give variety to the movement.
A sooth I saver bids | you beware | the ides I of March. — I. ii. 19.
SHAKESPEARE'S VERSE 93
In the following case the three-syllabled feet seem to represent a hurried utterance :
Let me see, | let me see; | is not | the leaf | turn'd down ? — IV. iii. 273.
A very heavy three-syllabled foot occurs in the line,
We'll along I ourselves, and meet them at Philippi — IV. iii. 225.
Measures apparently of one syllable. — Occasion- ally a measure seems to consist of a single syllable. In some of these cases a syllable is concerned that, as pronounced at the present day, hovers between one syllable and two, and we may be confident that Shakespeare had in mind the two-syllabled pronunciation. Some words that contain an r fall most plainly under this class.
I have I an hou | r's talk | in store | for
you. — II. ii. 121. As fi I re drives | out fire, | so pit | y pity.
—III. i. 171.
The double use of fire in the last line is especially noticeable.
And with | the brands | fire | the trai | tors' houses. — III. ii. 260.
The word means seems to be prolonged to take the time of two syllables in the following line of four measures:
94 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
Our best friends made, our means stretch'd; — IV. i. 44.
There may be some error in the text here.
The line,
"Speak, strike, redress!" Am I en- treated?— II. i. 55.
admits of several interpretations. One is that the first two words are to be prolonged in speaking, so that each shall occupy the time of an entire measure; a second is that the unaccented syllable is wanting in each of the first two measures, being replaced by a pause. Since a pause of this kind counts in the movement of the line, it has been termed a " silent syllable." But measures that seem to have only one syllable are less common in Shakespeare than lines containing only four measures. I therefore prefer to look upon the line as one of four measures.
End-stopt lines. Run-on lines. — A five-accent line in Julius Caesar usually has a natural pause at the end. This is often indicated by a comma, or some other mark of punctuation, but not always. Such a line is called an end-stopt line. Often, however, the line of verse has no natural pause at the end; in reading aloud the voice runs right on to the next line, without making any break. Such a line is a run-on line. There is no sharp division separating these two kinds of lines. In
SHAKESPEARE'S VERSE 95
doubtful cases, one man will consider a line end- stopt that another will call run-on; but in a broad way the distinction is very clear. The following passage contains both kinds of lines:
I cannot tell what you and other men
Think of this life; but, for my single self,
I had as lief not be as live to be
In awe of such a thing as I myself.
I was born free as Caesar; so were you:
We both have fed as well, and we can both
Endure the winter's cold as well as he.
—I. ii. 93-99.
Double endings. — Shakespeare often varies the movement of his verse by adding an extra syllable at the end of the line; for example:
The live- | long day, | with pa | tient ex | pecta I tion, — I. i. 46.
Lines of this kind are spoken of as having double endings. In some cases, two light extra syllables seem to be allowed at the end of the line, giving a triple ending, though such lines can be looked upon as having six measures. Lines of this kind which end with the name Antony are especially numerous.
Popil I ius Le | na speaks | not of | our
pur I poses. — III. i. 23. But here | comes Ant | ony. | Welcome, |
Mark Ant | ony.— III. i. 147.
96 QUESTIONS OX SHAKESPEARE
Extra mid-syllables. — Extra syllables also occur in connection with an important pause in the line. These are called extra mid-syllables. In his earliest plays Shakespeare rarely made use of lines of this type. Examples from Julius Casar are:
That touch | es Cae | sar near | er: read it, | great Cae | sar. — III. i. 7.
He is I not doubt | ed. A vvord, | Lucil | ius. — IV. ii. 13.
Mid-stopt speeches. — In scene iv of Act II of Julius Caesar there are nine speeches which are longer than a single line. Three of these come to a close in the middle of a line; in the case of two of them, the next speech begins by completing the unfinished line. A speech which ends thus in the middle of a line is called a mid-stopt speech. Alexandrines. — Occasionally we find lines con- sisting of six measures. Such a line is called an alexandrine.
The old ] Anchi | ses bear, | so from | the
waves I of Ti | ber — I. ii. 114. And these does she apply for warnings and portents — II. ii. 79.
SJiort lines containing one, two, three, or four measures are occasionally met with. The follow- ing are examples:
Look. — V. i. 50.
Begone! — I. i. 57.
SHAKESPEARE'S VERSE 97
I have not slept. — II. i. 62. Come hither, sirrah. — V. iii. 36. Unto some monstrous state. — I. iii. 71. Give me my robe, for I will go. — II. ii. 107.
Words pronounced in two ways. — It is desirable to distinguish in the printing participles in which the -ed is pronounced as a separate syllable. Compare enclosed, V. iii. 28, with enclosed, 1. 8 of the same scene; and answered, IV. i. 47, V. i. 1, with answered, IV. iii. 78. In most cases, however, the difference between the full and contracted pronunciation of a word — or better, between the clear and the slurred pronunciation — does not appear in the spelling. The word opinion is used as four syllables in II. i. 145, as three syllables in II. i. 92, and elsewhere. Soldier is counted as three syllables in IV. i. 28, IV. iii. 51, and as two in IV. iii. 56. Cassius is used freely as either two or three syllables. Business is three-syllabled in IV. i. 22, and two-syllabled in V. i. 124. In the second of these lines it is possible to say that business is three-syllabled, and that one of the measures of the line has three syllables. Antony keeps repeating
Yet Bru | tus says | he was | ambi | tious,
but uses ambition as three-syllabled in the line,
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff. — III. ii. 97.
98 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
Doubtful cases. — We have already seen that the movement of a line may admit of more than one interpretation. In the following cases others may not entirely agree with the readings indicated:
Leave me | with haste. | Luci | us, who's | that knocks? — II. i. 309.
Lucil I ius, I do you | the like; | and let | no man — IV. ii. 50.
Let me | tell you, | Cassi | us, you | your- self— IV. iii. 9.
Rhyme. — Rhyme is somewhat common in Shake- speare's earlier plays. Later, a rhymed couplet is often used to mark the close of a scene; but this occurs only four times in Julius Caesar — at the close of I. ii., II. iii., V. iii., and V. v. At V. iii. 89-90 and V. v. 50-51, we have rhyme; and these couplets are logically the close of scenes, though not so counted. There is very little rhyme in Julius Caesar, only five of Shakespeare's plays hav- ing less of it. An interesting case of rhyme occurs in the speech of the intruding poet, IV. iii. 131-32.
The changes in Shakespeare fs verse. — In the questions upon some of Shakespeare's maturer plays, we shall study with care the changes which, as he grew older, manifested themselves in his method of writing verse. These are to be set
SHAKESPEARE'S VERSE 99
forth here only in a general way. Attention will be called to six important features of his serve in which changes appeared. Figures will be given concerning all of them. Five of these fea- tures have already been made clear; the sixth will now be explained.
Light and weak endings. — In Julius Caesar the last measure of the line is almost sure to have upon it a distinct accent. In Shakespeare's latest plays he feels free to place at the end of the line a measure that is accented either very slightly or not at all. It is these line-endings that have been termed light and weak endings.
The whole body of light and weak endings is made up of unemphatic pronouns, auxiliaries, prepositions, conjunctions, and the copula, when these stand in the place of the last metrical accent. With the exception of unto and upon, these words are all one-syllabled. Light endings are words on which "the voice can to a certain extent dwell," while the weak endings are so entirely without stress that we are forced to run them in pronuncia- tion and in sense "into the closest connection with the opening words of the succeeding line." Speci- men light endings are am, be, can, the auxiliaries do and has, I, they, them, etc.; the weak endings are slighter still, such words as and, if, in, of, or. Professor Ingram reckons the first of the following
ioo QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
lines as having a light ending, and the third line, a weak ending.
Had I been any god of power, I would Have sunk the sea within the earth or ere It should the good ship so have swal- low'd and The fraughting souls within her.
— Tempest, I. ii. 10-13.
These endings appear somewhat suddenly in Shakespeare's latest plays. The largest number of light endings in any play before Macbeth was 11. Macbeth, a short play, is the first one in which light endings are freely employed; it has 21, with 2 weak endings. Antony and Cleopatra has 71 light endings and 28 weak endings, and is probably the first play to use weak endings freely. Corio- lanus has 44 weak endings, and, as the place of this play in the succession of Shakespeare's works is determined solely by the internal evidence cf style and versification, these figures have excep- tional interest. According to Ingram, there are only six plays in the First Folio that have each more than two weak endings.
The following figures concern what are consid- ered to be the first three comedies that Shakespeare wrote; also three comedies written at the middle of his career, about 1 599-1 600; and finally the last three plays, also comedies, that are believed
SHAKESPEARE'S VERSE
IOI
to be solely by him. These plays clearly cover the whole range of his metrical development.
Love 's Labour's Lost. . The Comedy of Errors The Two Gentlemen . .
Average
Much Ado
As You Like It.
Twelfth Night.
Average
Cymbeline
The Winter's Tale. Tempest
Average
41.7
1"
7-7 16.6 18.4
14.2
22.9
25-5
2K .6
24.7
3° -7 32-9 35-4
33
-a °<
10.
5-5
20.7 21 .6 36-3
26.2
85-
87.6
84.5
85-7
62.2 19.4
6-5
29.4
5-2
6-3
13-7
8.4
3-2
of . I
1 .1
W
o o
0+
i-7 2.4
3-4
2-5
3-4
3- 2.4
2.9
c a
3
0+
O O
0 + 0 + 0 +
0 + 4-8
5-5 4.6
5
* That is, more than 18 five-accent lines out of every 100 are run-on.
t Konig excludes from his reckoning prologues, epilogues, plays wiihin plays, and inserted love-poems. The Time-Chorus of The Winter's Tale, IV. i., is in rhyme; but it is not reckoned, because it is a sort of prologue to the second part of the play, and stands outside the play proper.
It is by no means certain in advance that any particular poet will develop uniformly, and alonjj; a definite path, in the style of his versification. There is no necessary reason why he should.
102 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
Shakespeare, however, seems to have moved very steadily in one direction.
The figures here given represent in five of the columns the percentage of the five-accent lines in the play which show the peculiarity in question. Under midst opt speeches the figures indicate how many speeches in the hundred are mid-stopt, out of all the verse speeches in the play that arc each more than one line in length.1
There is one unifying principle that appears in all this development. In all six of the features indicated, Shakespeare passed from restraint to freedom, from a traditional bondage to an intelli- gent, self-expressive liberty.
1 The figures in the first four columns are taken from Konig's very careful work, Der Vers in Shaksperes Dramen, Strassburg (1888), pp. 130-34. The percentages of extra mid-syllables are based upon the statistics given by Fleay in his paper on "Metrical Tests Applied to Shakespeare," printed in Ingleby's Shakespeare the Man and the Book, Part II (London, 1881). The percentages of light and weak endings are given by Ingram on p. 450 of his paper, "On the 'Weak Endings' of Shakspere," Transactions 0} the New Shakspere Soc. (1874), pp. 442-64.
SELECT GENERAL BIBLIOG- RAPHY
SELECT GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
The information of especial interest to the general student will be found under Sections III and IV.
The individual bibliography on each play will be printed at the close of the questions on that play.
Books marked with an asterisk are especially useful for the general student who is not well acquainted with many of the plays, unless the nature of the book or of the comment makes it clear that the work appeals to the specialist.
The name of the publisher is given instead of the place of publication whenever, in the judgment of the compiler, this method seems likely to be more helpful.
The intention has been to print the name as Shake- speare in all cases except when the author in question spells it Shakspere, and then to use this latter form.
ios
I. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL HELPS
*Lowndes, William Thomas. The Bibliographer's Manual of English Literature, etc. Revised ... by Henry G. Bohn. Often in six vols.; pagination is continuous. London, 1857-64. The section on Shakespeare comes in Vol. IV and covers pp. 2252-2366.
Bates, Katharine Lee, and Godfrey, Lydia Boker. English Drama, A Working Basis. Wellesley College, 1896. Pp. 50-57.
*British Museum Catalogue of Printed Books [concern- ing] William Shakespeare. London, 1897.
Winchester, C. T. Five Short Courses of Reading in English Literature. Revised ed. Ginn, 1900. Pp. 1, 2, 4, 7-1 1. Useful for the general student.
Barton Collection [of the] Boston Public Library, Catalogue of the. Part I, Shakespeare's WTorks and Shakespeariana. Boston, 1878-80.
*Rolfe, William J. A Life of William Shakespeare. D. Estes & Co. [1904]. Chap, xxi: " Bibliog- raphy." Pp. 49I~5i7-
Katalog der Bibliothek der. deutschen Shakespeare- Gesellschaft. Weimar, 1909.
Ward, A. W. See under Section IV
Greg, W. W. A List of English Plays Written before 1643 and Printed before 1700. London, 1900, for the Bibliographical Society. Pp. 94-104. In Sidney Lee's A Life of William Shakespeare
(revised ed., Macmillan, 1909), chaps, xix, xx, "Bibli-
106
BIBLIOGRAPHY, SECTION I 107
ography" and " Posthumous Reputation," contain some well-digested bibliographical information. The treatment is more condensed in the same author's article on Shakespeare in The Dictionary of National Biography, London, 1897.
The article on "Shakespeare" in the Ninth Edition of The Encyclopaedia Britannica is followed by a valuable classified bibliography.
The annual Jahrbuch der deutschen Shakespeare- Gesellschajt (Vol. XLV, 1909) reviews the recent works upon Shakespeare. In the "Zeitschriftenschau" recent articles in periodicals are summarized and criticized. This is a most valuable service.
The sixteen volumes of A New Variorum Shake- speare, edited by Horace Howard Fumess and his son (H. H. F., Jr.), contain in each case a full bibliog- raphy of the play concerned. See further under Section III of this bibliography.
*At the close of the entries in the Index under "Wil- liam Shakespeare," p. 676 of Vol. II of F. E. Schelling's Elizabethan Drama (Houghton, 1908), come full references to that author's admirable "Bibliographical Essay" in the same volume.
See under Section II concerning A. W. Pollard's Shakespeare Folios and Quartos.
The "Anhang" to Max Koch's Shakespeare (in German), Stuttgart [1883], contains a bibliography that is especially valuable for works in German.
Sonnenschein, Wm. Swan. The Best Books. London, 1894. A useful bibliographical help in many departments.
io8 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
II. QUARTOS AND FOLIOS. MODERN REPRODUCTIONS
Detailed information concerning the quarto editions of the individual plays and poems of Shakespeare can be found in The Cambridge Shakespeare (see under Section III). See also the introductions to the separate volumes of The Shakspere Quarto Facsimiles, enu- merated below. Mr. A. W. Pollard's valuable work on the Shakespeare Folios and Quartos (see below) discusses quartos of the plays only, not of the poems.
Of the 36 plays in the First Folio of 1623, just one half, 18, had appeared in quarto editions prior to 1623, provided that we accept the quarto editions of The First Part of the Contention betwixt the Two Famous Houses of York and Lancaster, etc., as imperfect quartos of 77 Henry VI, and those of The True Tragedy of Richard Duke of York as imperfect quartos of 7/7 Henry VI. Of these 18 plays, 17 appeared in quarto form during Shakespeare's lifetime; while Othello was first published in 1622.
The "second issue" of the Third Folio edition of the plays bears the date 1664. To the 36 plays of the preceding Folios it adds 7 more. Every one of these seven was printed before 1623 in a quarto which seemed to claim Shakespeare as the author; though some of the title-pages used only the veiled statement "By W. S." One of these seven plays, Pericles, and this one only, is generally believed to be in part the work
IO()
no QUESTIONS OX SHAKESPEARE
of Shakespeare, and is reprinted in our modern editions of the poet.
In order to economize space I have printed in full-faced type the dates of those quartos which" were issued in The Shakspere Quarto Facsimiles (London, 1880-89, 43 volumes), under the superintendence of Dr. F. J. Furnivall. Seventeen of these were published by W. Griggs, and twenty-three by C. Praetorius. The introductions are valuable for questions of text.
QUARTO EDITIONS OF SEPARATE PLAYS IX THE FIRST FOLIO THAT HAD APPEARED BEFORE 1623
i. Titus Andronicus: 1594 (the discover}' of this quarto was announced in The Athenaeum, Jan- uary 21, 1905, pp. 9I-92), l600, l6l I.
2. 77 Henry VI {The Contention): 1594, 1600,
1619.
3. Ill Henry VI {The True Tragedy): 1595, 1600,
1619.
4. Romeo and Juliet: 1597 (shorter text), 1599
(longer text), 1609, undated.
5. Richard III: 1597, 1598, 1602, 1605, 1612, 1622.
6. Richard II: 1597, 1598, 1608 (IV. i. 154-318, first printed in Third Quarto), 1615.
7. Love's Labour's Lost: 1598 (said on title-page to be "Newly corrected and augmented").
8. / Henry IV: 1598, 1599, 1604, 1608, 1613, 1622.
9. A Midsummer-Night's Dream: 1600 (Fisher), 1600 (Roberts. According to Greg and Pollard the Roberts quarto was printed in 1619 and falsely dated. See below).
BIBLIOGRAPHY, SECTION II in
10. The Merchant oj Venice: 1600 (Roberts), 1600 (Heyes). The Cambridge Shakespeare calls the Roberts Quarto Qx. Greg and Pollard hold that the Roberts Quarto was printed in 16 19 and falsely dated.
n. 77 Henry IV: 1600. In some copies III. i. was accidentally omitted.
12. Henry V: 1600, 1602, 1608. All these quartos print a shorter text. The longer text appeared first in the First Folio.
13. Much Ado about Nothing: 1600.
14. The Merry Wives of Windsor: 1602, 1619. Both quartos print a shorter text. Longer text appeared in First Folio.
15. Hamlet: 1603 (shorter text), 1604 (longer text),
1605, 1611.
16. King Lear: 1608 (Pide Bull), 1608 (N. Butter. According to Greg and Pollard, the "N. Butter quarto" was printed in 16 19 and falsely dated).
17. Troilus and Cressida: 1609. There was but one edition but some of the copies have one of two title-pages, and some have the other. See The Cambridge Shakespeare (2d ed.), VI, vii-x.
18. Othello: 1622.
EARLY QUARTOS OF PERICLES
19. Pericles: 1609, 1609, 161 1, 1619.
QUARTOS OF POEMS BEFORE 1623
Venus and Adonis: 1593, 1594, 1594, i599> [1600?] 1602, 1602, 1617, 1620.
H2 QUESTIONS OX SHAKESPEARE
Lucrccc: 1594, 1598, 1600, 1607, 1616.
The Passionate Pilgrim: 1599, 161 2 (called "the third
edition"). See Part II of present work, p. 186. Love's Martyr; or Rosalin's Complaint: 1601. This
collection issued by Robert Chester contains
Shakespeare's The Phoenix and the Turtle. See
Part II of the present work, p. 189. Shakespeare's Sonnets [and A Lover's Complaint]:
1609.
None of Shakespeare's non-dramatic works were reprinted in any of the Folios.
Thirty-six of The Shakspere Quarto Facsimiles are indicated above by heavy type. Two copies of Qr of Richard II are reproduced, the Devonshire and the Huth copies. Q2 of Othello, 1630, and Q5 of Richard II, 1634, are also included. The four remain- ing facsimiles in this series are: Qx of The Troublesome Reign of King John, Part I, 1591 ; Part II, 1591 ; Qx of The Famous Victories of Henry V, 1598; Qx of The Taming of a Shrew, 1594.
Unfortunately The Shakspere Quarto Facsimiles are not always accurate. See the Preface to Vol. IX of the second edition of The Cambridge Shakespeare, 1893, pp. xxxvi f. In his introduction to the Devon- shire Qx of Richard II (p. xv note), Mr. P. A. Daniel points out that a peculiarity of that text on which he comments does not appear in the facsimile.
The quarto facsimiles (forty-eight in all) prepared by E. W. Ashbee under the direction of Halliwell- Phillipps (London, 1862-71) are very rare.
BIBLIOGRAPHY, SECTION II 113
Shakespeare^ 's Poems and Pericles, edited by Sidney Lee (Clarendon Press, 1905; 1,000 copies printed), reproduces in facsimile the first quartos of Venus and Adonis, 1593; Lucrece, 1594; The Passionate Pilgrim, 1599; Shakespeare }s Sonnets, 1609. Each of these has a separate introduction and bibliography. No explan- atory matter accompanies the facsimile of Qr of Pericles, 1609.
THE FOLIOS
The reprint of the First Folio edition of Shakespeare's plays by Lionel Booth (London, 1864) is very accurate. It is a page-for-page reproduction.
A Reproduction .... of the First Folio of 1623, by Photo-Lithography. Under the Superintendence of H. Staunton, London, 1866.
The First Edition of Shakespeare .... reduced facsimile from the famous first folio edition of 1623. With an intro. by J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps. London, 1876.
A Reproduction in Facsimile of the First Folio Edition 1623. With Introduction and Census of Extant Copies [this last a pamphlet in separate cover] by Sidney Lee [1,000 copies printed]. Clarendon Press, 1902. Notes and Additions to the Census, 1906.
"The number of surviving copies [of the First Folio] exceeds one hundred and eighty, of which one- third are now in America." "It may be estimated that the edition numbered 500." (Lee, Life of
114 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
Wm. Shakespeare. Macmillan, revised ed. of 1909, PP- 325> 3J7-)
A somewhat full description of the First Folio is given in W. J. Rolfe's Life of Shakespeare, Boston [1904], pp. 493-5°6-
The Bankside Shakespeare, 21 vols. Vols. I-XX, 1888-92; Vol. XXI, 1906. New York. Each of the 19 first quartos of plays indicated above is printed on opposite pages from the First Folio text of the same play. Of the two remaining volumes, one prints the first quarto of The Trouble- some Reign of King John, 159 1, on opposite pages from the First Folio text of Shakespeare's King John. The other prints in the same way The Taming of a Shrew, 1594, and Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew in the First Folio text.
The "First Folio" Shakespeare, edited by (Miss) Charlotte Porter and (Miss) Helen A. Clarke (see Sec- tion III), Crowell & Co., is destined to be the most widely available reprint of the First Folio.
The [First Folio] Edition of 1623. Faithfully Repro- duced in Facsimile. Methuen & Co., 1909.
The [Second Folio] Edition of 1632. Faithfully Repro- duced in Facsimile. Methuen & Co., 1909.
In Englische Studien, XXX, 1-20, Professor C. Alphonso Smith discusses "The Chief Difference between the First and Second Folios of Shakespeare." He tells us that "the vast majority of the changes made [in the Second Folio] are to be found in the concord of
BIBLIOGRAPHY, SECTION II 115
subject and predicate, and especially in the change of a singular predicate into the plural." E.g., "My bones beares witnesse," Comedy of Errors, IV. iv. 80, shows the form beare in F2.*
The [Third Folio] Edition of 1664. Faithfully Repro- duced in Facsimile. Methuen & Co., 1909.
The [Fourth Folio] Edition of 1685. Faithfully Repro- duced in Facsimile. Methuen & Co., 1909.
Greg, W. W. "On Certain False Dates in Shake- spearian Quartos." The Library, IX (1908),
*i3-3h 38l~409- * Pollard, Alfred W. Shakespeare Folios and Quartos: a Study in the Bibliography of Shakespeare's Plays, 1594-1685. Methuen & Co., 1909.
Ii6 QUESTION'S ON SHAKESPEARE
BIBLIOGRAPHY, SECTION II 117
III. MODERN EDITIONS
Only the specialist has occasion to use any edition of Shakespeare that preceded the last complete vari- orum, the Boswell-Maione edition of 182 1. I will give in the briefest form the earlier editions (described by Lowndes; see Section I) which are listed in Dr. H. H. Furness' new variorum Antony and Cleopatra, 1907. The dates here given are from Lowndes. Other editions cited as by these editors are presumably reprints of the last edition here given. N. Rowe, 1709-10, 1714; A. Pope, 1723-25, 1728; L. Theobald, 1733, 1740; Sir T. Hanmer, 1744-46; W. Warburton, 1747; S. Johnson, 1765; E. Capell [1767-68]; S. John- son and G. Steevens, 1773, 1778, 1785, 1793 (generally called "Steevens' own edition"), 1803 (5th ed., revised by I. Reed, called "Reed's Steevens"), 1813 (6th ed., "Reed's Steevens"); J. Rann, 1786-94; E. Malone, 1790. !
A somewhat full description will now be given of the dozen or more modern editions which seem to the present writer to be especially useful. Seven of these are marked with an asterisk as of the highest value
*The Plays and Poems of William Shakespeare .... [Edited] by the late Edmond Malone. With a new Glossarial Index [by James Boswell]. 21
1 This list follows Lowndes. Professor I. N. Demmon sends me the following corrections to Lowndes: Hanmer 1743-44, 2d ed., 1745; Capell [1760-68]; Rann [1786-91].
118
BIBLIOGRAPHY, SECTION III 119
vols. London, 1821. This is the most important complete edition of Shakespeare for the special student. It was brought out by James Bos- well, Malone having died in 1812, and is known as "the Boswell-Malone Variorum" or as "Boswell's Malone." The first three volumes reprint the important prefaces of the preceding editors, Dr. Farmer's "Essay on the Learning of Shakespeare," the Lives of Shakespeare by Rowe and by Malone, Malone's "Attempt to Ascertain the Chronological Order of the Plays," his "Historical Account of the English Stage," and many important docu- ments. It was Boswell's purpose in this edition, following Malone's own plan, to insert "all the notes of [Malone's] predecessors" (Vol. I, p. viii). No full and systematic record was made of the various readings of the early texts or of the emendations of scholars.
by Charles Knight. 8 vols. London, 1838-43.
This was known as the "Pictorial edition." It contains "several hundred woodcuts." Knight's "second edition" "with corrections and altera- tions" appeared in 12 vols., 1842-44, and is known as the "Library edition." For later editions by Knight, see Lowndes.
by Richard Grant White. 12 vols. Boston,
1857-66. White's later "Riverside edition" in 6 vols., Boston, 1883, is less valuable than the earlier and much fuller edition.
*- — by W. G. Clark, W. A. Wright, and J. Glover.
120 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
9 vols. London, 1863-66; second ed. by W. A. Wright, 1891-93. "The Cambridge Shake- speare." This edition furnishes the only accurate and complete record of the various readings of the early texts, and of the emendations proposed by scholars. It is indispensable for textual study. Even the very valuable edition of Miss Porter and Miss Clarke (see below) credits to Pope some of the emendations which he took into his second edition, 1728, from Theobald's Shakespeare Restored, 1726. * by Horace Howard Furness. 16 vols, and
still in progress. Philadelphia, 1871 — . The "New Variorum edition." The great storehouse of information concerning the plays so far edited. The following volumes have appeared: (1) Romeo and Juliet, 187 1; (2) Macbeth, 1873, revised ed., I9°3I (3) Hamlet, Vol. I (text and comment), 1877; (4) Hamlet, Vol. II (general topics and criticism), 1877; (5) King Lear, 1880; (6) Othello, 1886 [beginning with this volume the text printed is that of the First Folio, which is also reproduced in the revised ed. of Macbeth, No. 2 above]; (7) The Merchant of Venice, 1888; (8) As You Like It, 1890; (9) The Tempest, 1892; (10) A Midsummer-Night's Dream, 1895; (n) The Winter's Tale, 1898; (12) Much Ado about Nothing, 1899; (13) Twelfth Night, 1901; (14) Love's Labour's Lost, 1904; (15) Antony and Cleopatra, 1907; (16) Richard III, 1908, edited by Horace Howard Furness, Jr., who also
BIBLIOGRAPHY, SECTION III 121
brought out the revised edition of Macbeth, No. 2 above.
— by W. G. Clark and W. A. Wright. 1 vol. Macmillan, 1865. Frequently reissued with changed date. " The Globe edition." The Globe line-numbers have been accepted as standard. The print of this edition is too small for general use.
— by Alexander Dyce. Third edition, 9 vols. London, 1875. (1st ed., 6 vols., 1857; 2d ed., 9 vols., 1864-67.)
— by Israel Gollancz. 40 vols. London, 1894-96. Small, convenient volumes. Also in 12 vols. "The Temple edition." Has Cambridge text, Globe line-numbers, and a preface and glossary for each play.
by C. H. Herford. 10 vols. Macmillan,
1899. "The Eversley edition." Has Globe line- numbers, large type, valuable introductions, and brief but helpful footnotes.
by (Misses) Charlotte Porter and Helen A.
Clarke. 28 vols, and still in progress. New York, 1903 — . "The 'First Folio' Shakespeare." This edition prints in handy form the First Folio text of each play, inserting in brackets the passages found in other early texts, and marking in the same way modern stage-directions and act-and- scene divisions. The more important emendations are noted at the foot of the page. Each volume has an introduction, full discussions and notes, a glossary, and selected criticisms; each is a well-
122 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
made multum in parco. Of the ten English his- tories only Henry V has appeared; all the other plays have been published (February, 1910). This edition will probably be completed by the close of 191 1. * by William Allan Xeilson. 1 vol. Boston,
1906. Should be called "The Neilson edition," and not by the name upon the cover. The best one-volume edition, and the most satisfactory modernized text of Shakespeare that has yet been printed. In each play, departures from and additions to the early text taken as the basis, and modern stage-directions are bracketed. There is an adequate glossary. The introductions to the individual plays are compact statements of the important facts and of the results of the investi- gations of scholars.
— by W. J. Craig, Edward Dowden, and others. 32 vols, to be ready by the summer of 19 10; the others in the near future. Methuen, London, and Bobbs-Merrill, Indianapolis. Called in England "The Arden Shakespeare"; in the United States, "The Dowden Shakespeare." An excellent edi- tion. by W. J. Rolfe. 40 vols. 1870-83. Second
edition, 1903-6. The volumes of the old edition reprint valuable passages from standard critics; the volumes of the new edition omit these, but are superior as textbooks. Both editions are now published by the American Book Co. This is
BIBLIOGRAPHY, SECTION III 123
the best edition, containing all the works, that is both annotated and expurgated.
The following editions all subsequent to 182 1 deserve record: S. W. Singer, 10 vols., 1826; 2d ed., 1856; J. P. Collier, 8 vols., 1842-44; 2d ed., 6 vols., 1858; H. N. Hudson, 11 vols., 1851-56; 2d ed.. 20 vols., 1880-81; J. O. Halliwell (later Halliwell-Phillipps), 16 vols, folio, 1853-65; H. Staunton, 3 vols., 1858-60; N. Delius, 5th ed., 2 vols., Elberfeld, 1882 (notes in German); N. Delius and F. J. Furnivall, 1 vol., 1877 (see also under Section IV); Sir Henry Irving and F. A. Marshall, 8 vols., 1888-90; W. J. Craig, 1 vol., 1894; F. J. Furnivall, The Old Spelling Shakespeare, to be completed in 40 vols., Duffield, New York. Four- teen volumes have already appeared.
124 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
BIBLIOGRAPHY, SECTION III 125
IV. COMMENTARIES. HISTORIES OF THE DRAMA. GENERAL WORKS
(See also under Sections V and XII)
With the exception of the work of Bradley, no book has been marked with the asterisk which does not comment on substantially all the piays; and no book is thus marked which is not confined to Shakespeare as its subject.
Baker, George Pierce. The Development of Shake- speare as a Dramatist. Macmillan, 1907. The book points out also Shakespeare's debt to his predecessors. Particularly useful for the life of the time. The illustrations are numerous and valuable.
*Boas, Frederick S. Shakspere and His Predeces- sors. Scribner, 1896. Full, useful.
*Bradley, A. C. Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth. Macmillan, 2d ed., 1905. The other tragedies are characterized incidentally. "No such mi- nutely searching and patiently convincing studies of Shakespeare are known to me" (William Archer).
*Brandes, George. William Shakespeare [translated]. Macmillan, 2-vol. ed., 1898; i-vol. ed., 1899. Very full and interesting. Connects the dramatist with the life of his age. Indulges in conjecture somewhat too freely.
126
BIBLIOGRAPHY, SECTION IV 127
*Ten Brink, Bernhard. Five Lectures on Shakespeare [translated]. Holt, 1895. A stimulating short survey and interpretation.
Brooke, Stopford A. On Ten Plays of Shakespeare. New York, 1905. The following plays are con- sidered: A. M.-N. D., R. and J., Richard II, Richard III, The M. of V., A. Y. L. It, Macbeth, Coriolanus, The W. T., The Tempest.
Cambridge History of English Literature, The. Cam- bridge University Press and Putnams. Vol. V will treat "The Elizabethan and the Jacobean Drama."
Carlyle, Thomas. On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History. " Lecture III. The Hero as Poet: Dante; Shakespeare." Excellent edition of entire work by A. MacMechan. Ginn, 190 1.
Clarke, Charles Cowden. Shakespeare-Characters. London, 1863. Twenty plays are treated, includ- ing the better known ones.
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. Lectures and Notes on Shakspere, etc. Bell (Bohn Library), 1885. These comments have at times the highest value. Use the Index.
Corson, Hiram. An Introduction to the Study of Shakespeare. Heath, 1889.
Courthope, W. J. A History of English Poetry. Vol. IV. Macmillan, 1903.
Creizenach, Wilhelm. Geschichte des neueren Dramas. Band IV=Das Englische Drama im Zeitalter Shakespeares: Erster Teil. [Period covered = 1570—93.] Halle a. S., 1909. Full and reliable.
128 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
*Dowden, Edward. Shakspere. Appleton, New York, 1879. In series of Literature Primers. A standard brief introduction to Shakespeare.
*Dowden, Edward. Shakspere .... His Mind and Art. Harper [188 1]. A standard book that deserves its high reputation.
Dowden, Edward. ''Shakespeare as a Comic Drama- tist," pp. 635-61 in Representative English Come- dies, ed. by C. M. Gayley. Macmillan, 1903.
Elze, Karl. Essays on Shakespeare. London, 1874. (Tempest, A M.-N. Dream, M. of Venice, AIVs Well, Henry VIII, Hamlet in France, Supposed Travels of Sh., etc.)
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Representative Men. Con- tains " Shakespeare, the Poet." Boston, 1850.
Fleay, F. G. Shakespeare Manual. Macmillan, 1876. Acute. Indulges freely in conjecture. Not for beginners.
Furnivall, Frederick J. Introduction to The Leopold Shakspere, pp. vii-cxxxvi. London, 188 1. Con- densed but stimulating.
Furnivall, F. J., and Munro, John. Shakespeare: Life and Work. London, 1908. A moderate- priced book that is also an introduction to Elizabethan life. The story of each play is outlined.
Gervinus, G. G. Shakespeare Commentaries. Trans< lated by F. E. Bunnett. London, 1883. Valuable; the style is somewhat heavy. Contains nearly one thousand 8vo pages.
Hazlitt, Wm. Characters of Shakespeare's Plays.
BIBLIOGRAPHY, SECTION IV 129
Originally appeared in 181 7. Published together with Lectures on the Literature of the Age of Eliza- beth as a volume in the Bohn Library, London, 1869.
*Hudson, Henry N. Shakespeare: His Life, Art, and Characters. 2 vols. Ginn, revised ed., 1882. Choice criticism. In the essays upon the individ- ual plays, Hudson is almost wholly concerned with character-study.
Hugo, Victor. William Shakespeare. Translated by M. B. Anderson. Chicago, 1887.
Jameson, Mrs. Anna. Shakespeare's Heroines. Bohn Library, 1879. Also in Everyman's Library, London and N. Y.
Johnson, Samuel. Johnson on Shakespeare ... with an Introduction by Walter Raleigh. London, 1908.
Jusserand, J. J. A Literary History of the English People. [Translated.] Vol. III. Putnams, 1909.
Kreyssig, F. Vorlesungen iiber Shakespeare. 3te Aufl., 2 Biinde. Berlin, 1877. Excellent.
Lloyd, Wm. Watkiss. Critical Essays on the Plays of Shakespeare. London, 1875.
Lounsbury, Thomas R. Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist. Scribner, 1902. Outlines the various discussions and opinions concerning Shakespeare's rank as a dramatic artist, down to the end of the eighteenth century.
Lowell, James R. " Shakespeare Once More," in Among My Books, Vol. I. Houghton, 1870.
13° QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
Luce, Morton. A Handbook to ... . Shakespeare. London, 1906.
Martin, Lady [=Helen Faucit]. On Some of Shake- speare's Female Characters. Blackwood, 1888.
Mezieres, A. Shakespeare, ses ceuvres et ses critiques. Paris, 1861; 3d ed., 1882.
[Montagu, Mrs. Elizabeth.] An Essay on the Writings and Genius of Shakespeare, etc. London, 1769. The interest in this Essay, famous in its day, is now mainly historical. Fully discussed in T. R. Lounsbury's Shakespeare and Voltaire, Scribner, 1902.
Morgann, Maurice. An Essay on the Dramatic Character of Sir John Falstaff. London, 1777. Reprinted in Eighteenth Century Essays on Shake- speare, ed. by D. Nichol Smith, pp. 216-303. Glasgow, 1903. This remarkable essay contains many illuminating comments upon Shakespeare's dramatic art.
Moulton, Richard G. Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist. 3d ed., Oxford, 1893. The papers upon *The Merchant of Venice and *The Tempest are especially full and illuminating. Other plays treated are: Richard III, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, King Lear, Othello, L. L. Lost, A. Y. L. It.
Moulton, Richard G. Shakespeare as a Dramatic Thinker [originally called The Moral System of Shakespeare]. Macmillan, 1907. A commentary upon all the plays.
*Raleigh, Walter. Shakespeare (in English Men of Letters). Macmillan, 1907. This book is pri-
BIBLIOGRAPHY, SECTION IV 131
marily an appreciation of the poet rather than a biography. It is charming, stimulating, sane. Richardson, Wm. Essays on Shakespeare's Dramatic Characters of Richard the Third, King Lear, and Timon of Athens; with an Essay on the Faults of Shakespeare, and additional Observations on the Character of Hamlet. London, 1784; sixth ed., 1812. Richardson published A Philosophical Analysis and Illustration of Some of Shakespeare's Dramatic Characters, Glasgow, 1774; also Essays on Shakespeare's Dramatic Character of Sir John Falstaff; and on his Imitation of Female Charac- ters, London, 1788; reprinted 1789. Richard- son's three works were collected into a single vol- ume, Essays on Some of Shakespeare's Dramatic Characters, etc., London, 1797; reprinted 1798.
Wm. J. Rolfe, in his life of the dramatist (see under Section V), collects many important critical utterances concerning the individual plays, and summarizes others.
Schelling, Felix E. The English Chronicle Play.
Macmillan, 1902. Schelling, Felix E. Elizabethan Drama 1558-1642.
2 vols. Houghton, 1908. Exceptionally valuable.
Consult Index. Schlegel, August Wilhelm. Lectures on Dramatic
Art and Literature [translated]. In the Bohn
Library. 2d ed., revised, 1892.
Shakespeare Societies. — The Shakespeare Society of England issued 48 volumes between 184 1 and 1853. The Transactions oj the New Shakspere Society, Parts
132 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
i to 14, appeared between 1874 and 1892. The Transactions contain important original articles. Many oilier publications were brought out by this society during those years, including reprints of Shakespeare quartos, of books which served as the sources of plays, and of other important Elizabethan productions. The Jahrbuch der deutschen Shakes pear x- Gesellschajt appears annually; the one for 19 10 is numbered XLVI. These volumes contain scholarly articles, usually in German. See also the comment under Section I.
Sherman, L. A. What Is Shakespeare? Macmillan, 1902. Detailed studies of Cymbeline, The W. Tale, R. and Juliet, and Macbeth. Questions on The W. Tale, R. and J., Tw. Night. Chap, vi, " Shakespeare the Man."
Sievers, E. W. William Shakespeare: Sein Leben und Dichten. Band I [no more published]. Gotha, 1866.
Smith, D. Nichol, Editor. Eighteenth Century Essays on Shakespeare. Glasgow, 1903. Contains the prefaces of the editors of Shakespeare, Rowe's Life of Shakespeare, etc. With the exception of Morgann's essay on Falstaff (see above), and John Dennis, "On the Genius and Writings of Shakespeare" (1711), these essays are in Vol. I of the Boswell-Malone Variorum (see under Section III).
♦Snider, Denton J. The Shakespearian Drama. 3 vols. : The Comedies, The Histories, The Tragedies.
BIBLIOGRAPHY, SECTION IV 133
Sigma Publishing Co., St. Louis. Copyright 1887-89. A large body of good criticism. Mr. Snider's system, however, sometimes forces him to take extreme views.
Stoll, Elmer Edgar. " Anachronism in Shakespeare Criticism," Modern Philology, VII, pp. 557-75 (April, 19 10). "Any meaning put upon [Shake- speare's works] which bears no relation to his personality and time is fantastic and illusory; any which contradicts what we know of these is by that very fact null and void."
Swinburne, Algernon Charles. A Study of Shake- speare. 4th ed., London, 1902.
Thorndike, Ashley H. Tragedy. Plough ton, 1908. Chap, v, "Shakespeare and His Contemporaries"; chap, vi, "Shakespeare."
Ulrici, H. The Dramatic Art of Shakespeare [trans- lated]. 2 vols. In the Bohn Library, 1876.
Ward, Adolphus Wm. A History of English Dramatic Literature. 3 vols. Macmillan, 2d revised ed., 1899. The treatment of Shakespeare comes in Vols. I and II. The papers on the individual plays (II, 54-209) serve as guides to the important literature.
Weiss, J. Wit, Humor, and Shakespeare. Boston, 1876.
*Wendell, Barrett. William Shakspere, a Study in Elizabethan Literature. Scribner, 1894.
[Whately, Thos.] Remarks on Some of the Characters of Shakespeare. London, 1785. New ed., with Preface by Archbishop Whately, 1839.
134 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
BIBLIOGRAPHY, SECTION IV 135
136 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
V. SHAKESPEARE'S LIFE. SHAKESPEARE THE MAN. HIS RELATION TO HIS AGE. THE HISTORY OF HIS REPUTATION
*Lee, Sidney. A Life of Wm. Shakespeare. Mac millan, 1898. Second ed., revised, 1909 The standard life. Much space given to Lee's view of the Sonnets, which marks an extreme. This new ed. is presumably complete, but Mr. Lee has complained that the American editions do not incorporate his additions and corrections with due promptness. The interesting Preface to the second edition outlines references to Shakespeare dis- covered during the last decade.
*Halliwell-Phillipps, J. O. Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare. 2 vols. Longmans, 10th ed., 1898. The early documents that concern Shakespeare are here carefully reprinted, and the results of the important special investigations of the author are summarized.
Lambert, D. H., Editor. Cartae Shakespeareanae: Shakespeare Documents. London, 1904. This is simply a reprint of the documents and records concerning Shakespeare.
Rolfe, Wm. J. A Life of Wm. Shakespeare. Boston, 1904. Many quotations from the whole body of Shakespearean lore increase the value of this book.
Fleay, Frederick G. A Chronicle History of the Life and Work of Wm. Shakespeare. London, 1886.
i37
138 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
The book is full of interesting hypotheses, but must be used with care.
Mabie, Hamilton W. Wra. Shakespeare, Poet, Drama- tist, and Man. Illustrated. Macmillan, 1901.
Elze, Karl. Wm. Shakespeare: A Literary Biography [translated]. In the Bohn Library, 1888.
White, Richard Grant. Memoirs of the Life of Wm. Shakespeare, with an Essay toward the Expression of his Genius, etc. Boston, 1865. Also in Vol. I of White's ed. of Shakespeare. See under III.
Drake, Nathan. Shakespeare and His Times. 2 vols. London, 181 7.
Skottowe, Augustine. Life of Shakespeare, etc. 2 vols. London, 1824. "An able performance" (Lowndes).
Brandl, Alois. Shakspere. Berlin, 1894.
Halleck, Reuben P. "How Shakspere's Senses Were Trained" is chap, x in The Education of the Cen- tral Nervous System. Macmillan, 1896.
Rolfe, Wm. J. Shakespeare the Boy. Harpers, 1905. Topics: "His Native Town, etc."; "His Home Life"; "At School"; "Games and Sports"; "Holidays, Festivals, Fairs, etc."
Baynes, Thomas S. Shakespeare Studies. Longmans, 1893. Contains the valuable article on Shake- speare from the ninth edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica; also "What Shakespeare Learnt at School," pp. 147-249.
Watson, Foster. The English Grammar Schools to 1660: Their Curriculum and Practice. Cam- bridge University Press, 1909.
BIBLIOGRAPHY, SECTION V 139
An excellent article on the schools of Warwickshire, telling about the masters of the Stratford school, cur- ricula, etc., is in A History of Warwickshire. Edited by H. Arthur Doubleday and William Page. 4 vols. London, n.d. In the series entitled The Victoria History of the Counties of England.
Bagehot, Walter. " Shakespeare, the Man" (1853). In Literary Studies, Vol. I, Longmans, 1879. In Vol. I of Bagehot's Works (5 vols.), Hartford, U.S.A., 1889.
Smith, Goldwin. Shakespeare, the Man. New York, 1900.
Bradley, A. C. " Shakespeare the Man." In Oxford Lectures on Poetry, pp. 309-57. Macmillan, 1909.
Stephen, Leslie. "Shakespeare as a Man," National Review, April, 1901, pp. 220-39 (also in Living Age for May, and Eclectic for July). *
Morsbach, Lorenz. " Shakespeare als Mensch," Jahrbuch XLIV (1908), xiii-xxviii.
Elze, Karl. "Shakespeares Charakter, seine Welt- und Lebensanschauung," Jahrbuch X, 75-126.
Wallace, Charles Wm. Shakespeare, The Globe, and Blackfriars. To be published at Stratford-upon- Avon, presumably in 1910. Professor Wallace has already printed for private circulation a "por- tion of a plea at the Common Law in a case set for trial, February, 1616." The document is translated and interpreted in the London Times of October 2 and 4, 1909. This plea gives exa< I information concerning the ownership of the
140 QUESTIONS OX SHAKESPEARE
Globe and Blackfriars Theaters up to 1616, the year of Shakespeare's death. Professor Wallace's article in Harper's Magazine for March, 19 10, "New Shakespeare Discoveries," gives important new information about the poet's life in London.
THE HISTORY OF SHAKESPEARE'S REPUTATION
The Shakespeare Allusion Book. Reprints all known references to Shakespeare and his works before the close of the seventeenth century. Chron- ologically arranged. 2 vols. Re-edited by John Monroe. New York, Dufneld, 19 10. Replaces the earlier edition published by the New Shakespere Society, edited by Ingleby, Lucy T. Smith, and Furnivall.
Smith, D. Nichol. See under Section IV.
Cohn, Albert. Shakespeare in Germany in the Six- teenth and Seventeenth Centuries. London, 1865.
Lounsbury, Thos. R. Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist. Scribner, 1901. Shakespeare and Vol- taire. Scribner, 1902.
Jusserand, J. J. Shakespeare in France. Illustrated. London, 1899.
BIBLIOGRAPHY, SECTION V 141
142 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
VI. THE LANGUAGE, GRAMMAR, AND STYLE OF SHAKESPEARE
CONCORDANCES, DICTIONARIES, ETC.
*Bartlett, John. Concordance to Shakespeare. Mac- millan, 1894. This great work sets aside all previous concordances. References are to the lines as numbered in the Globe edition. In each reference much of the context is cited.
^Schmidt, Alexander. Shakespeare-Lexicon: a Com- plete Dictionary [to Shakespeare, with a valuable appendix]. 2 vols. 3d ed., revised by Gregor Sarrazin. Berlin and New York, 1902.
*Dyce, Alexander. A Glossary to ... . Shakespeare.
Revised by H. Littledale. London and New
York, 1902. Explains and discusses the peculiar
and difficult words and expressions.
The serious student of Shakespeare will find it very
desirable to have access to all three of the above works.
*A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles. Ed. by J. A. H. Murray and others. To be com- pleted in 10 volumes. The Clarendon Press, 1884 — . Seven complete volumes and the main portion of Vol. VIII have appeared. This work is the principal authority on the history of the meanings and forms of English words.
Clarke, Charles and Mary Cowden. The Shakespeare
Key, Unlocking the Treasures of His Style
London, 1879.
143
144 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
Nares, R. A Glossary .... of Words, Phrases, etc., in ... . English Authors, Particularly Shake- speare and His Contemporaries. A new edition by Halliwell and Wright. 2 vols. London, 1859. Copies of later date are reprints of this ed.
Phin, John. The Shakespeare Cyclopaedia and New Glossary7. With Introduction by Edw. Dowden. London and N. Y., 1902.
A Pocket Lexicon and Concordance to the Temple Shakespeare, Macmillan, 1909.
Cunliffe, R. J. A New Shakespearean Dictionary. Scribner, 1910. Not examined.
Some special works mentioned under Section XV of this bibliography explain and illustrate certain por- tions of Shakespeare's vocabulary. See, e.g., the works of Harting, Phipson, Ellacombe, Madden, there cited.
GRAMMARS, ETC. SHAKESPEARE'S STYLE
*Abbott, E. A. A Shakespearean Grammar. Mac- millan, 3d ed., 1870.
*Franz, W. Shakespeare-Grammatik. Niemeyer, Halle a. S., 2te verbesserte Auflage, 1909.
*Franz, W. Die Grundzuge der Sprache Shake- speares. Berlin, 1902. Both a revision and a condensation of the first ed. of the preceding book.
Smith, C. Alphonso. "Shakespeare's Present Indica- tive 5-Endings with Plural Subjects," Publica- tions Modern Language Assoc, XI (New Series
iv), 363-76.
BIBLIOGRAPHY, SECTION VI 145
Craik, G. L. The English of Shakespeare, Illustrated by ... . Julius Caesar. Edited from 3d revised London ed. by W. J. Rolfe. Ginn, 9th ed., 1900.
Kluge, F. "Ueber die Sprache Shakespeares," Jahr- buch XXVIII, 1-15.
Clarke, Charles and Mary Cowden. See above under "Dictionaries."
Students of Shakespeare's grammar will find the following books very useful, though they are not limited to that field:
Jespersen, Otto. Progress in Language, with Special
Reference to English. London, 1894. Smith, C. Alphonso. Studies in English Syntax.
Ginn, 1906. Matzner, Eduard. Englische Grammatik. 3 Bde.
Berlin, 3te Auflage 1880-85. Wright, W. A. Bible Word-Book. 2d ed., 1884.
Many illustrations from Shakespeare.
THE CHANGES IN SHAKESPEARE'S STYLE
The changes in Shakespeare's style and in his dramatic handling — his method of managing and developing a dramatic action — constitute one kind of evidence concerning the chronological order in which his plays were probably written. Most of the material bearing upon the chronology of the plays is placed under the next head, Section VII. The following references concern Shakespeare's style: Spalding, William. A Letter on Shakespeare's Author- ship of The Two Noble Kinsmen. Edinburgh and London, 1833. Republished by the New
146 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
Shakspere Soc, Series VIII, No. 1, London, 1876. In describing Shakespeare's style, Spalding is always thinking of his final style. This final style is characterized with fulness and effectiveness.
Spedding, James. "On the Several Shares of Shak- spere and Fletcher in the Play of Henry VIII " Transactions of the New Shakspere Soc, 1874, Part I, pp. i*-i8* of Appendix. Reprinted from the Gentleman's Magazine for August, 1850, pp. 115-23. Shakespeare's " latest manner" is well characterized.
Dowden, Edward. In the Primer (see Section IV) the changes in Shakespeare's style are pointed out, pp. 36-39. Chap, ii in the same author's Shak- spere, His Mind and Art (see Section IV) is en- titled "The Growth of Shakspere's Mind and Art," pp. 37-83. Note especially pp. 52-55.
Verity, A. W. The Influence of Christopher Marlowe on Shakespeare's Earlier Style. Cambridge, 1886.
Sarrazin, Gregor. "Wortechos bei Shakespeare," Jahrbuch XXXIII, 120-65; XXXIV, 119-69. Complete lists are given of Shakespeare's dis- legomena and trislegomena (twice-used words and thrice-used words).
BIBLIOGRAPHY, SECTION VI 147
148 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
VII. SHAKESPEARE'S VERSE. THE CHRON- OLOGICAL ORDER OF THE PLAYS. THE VARIATION BETWEEN VERSE AND PROSE
GENERAL WORKS ON VERSIFICATION
Abbott, E. A. A Shakespearan Grammar. Mac- millan, 3d ed., 1870. "Prosody" covers pp. 328- 429. Abbott "is too much enamoured with a mechanical regularity" (Mayor).
Browne, Geo. H. Notes on Shakspere's Versification. Pamphlet. Ginn, 1884. Brief but accurate.
Gummere, Francis, B. A Handbook of Poetics. Ginn, 1885.
Lanier, Sidney. The Science of English Verse. Scrib- ner, 1886. Stimulating and valuable, but not a complete treatment of verse.
*Mayor, J. B. Chapters on English Metre. Cam- bridge University Press, 2d ed., revised and en- larged, 1901. Discusses the various methods of interpreting English verse.
*Konig, Goswin. Der Vers in Shaksperes Dramen. Strassburg, 1888. Reliable, scholarly.
Corson, Hiram. A Primer of English Verse. Ginn, 1892. Stimulating and helpful; not a complete presentation.
Parsons, James C. English Versification. Boston and N. Y., 2d ed., 1894. 149
150 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
Schipper, J. Grundriss der Englischen Metrik. Braumiiller, Wien und Leipzig, 1895. Full, historical. For most purposes more useful than the same author's large 3-volume work: Englische Metrik, Bonn, 1881-88.
Herford, C. H. "Outline of Shakespeare's Prosody," pp. 185-99 and 11-14 in his edition of Richard II, Heath, 1895. An excellent brief treatment.
*Gayley, Charles M., and Scott, Fred N. An Intro- duction to the Methods and Materials of Literary Criticism. Ginn, 1899. Chap, vii, "The Prin- ciples of Versification," estimates the different works on versification.
*Alden, Raymond M. English Verse: Specimens Illustrating Its Principles and History. Holt, 1903. Sane and well balanced.
Bright, Jas. W., and Miller, Raymond D. The Ele- ments of English Versification. Ginn, 1910. Not yet examined.
THE CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER OF THE PLAYS
The following books and articles are placed in chronological sequence, in order to indicate when each of the important characteristics of Shakespeare's verse received distinct recognition. The technical terms used are explained in this book under "The Study of Shake- speare's Verse." Consult Table of Contents or Index.
In the sixth edition of Thomas Edwards' Canons of Criticism, 1758, first appeared some notes on Shake- speare by Richard Roderick. In these it was pointed out "that there are many more verses in [Henry VIII]
BIBLIOGRAPHY, SECTION VII 151
than in any other [play], which end with a redundant syllable," a double ending. The remarks of Roderick "On the Metre of Henry VIII" are reprinted in the Appendix to the Transactions of the New Shakspere Soc. for 1874, pp. 66*-68*.
Malone, Edmond. "An Attempt to Ascertain the Order in Which the Plays of Shakespeare Were Written." Published in 1778, and in a revised form in Malone's ed. of 1790. It occupies pp. 288- 468 (see also table on pp. 470-71) of Vol. II of the Boswell-Malone Variorum of 182 1 (see under Section III), to which I here refer. Boswell's note to p. 471 implies that the essay of 182 1 shows some changes from that of 1790. Malone held that an abundance of rhyming lines in a play is probably a mark of early composition (p. 327 note). He also considered The Comedy of Errors, Love's Labour's Lost, and The Taming of the Shrew to be early productions, because they show in places "a kind of doggerel measure" of which the last four lines of The Shrew are an example (pp. 340-41). Knight, Charles. In the 2d ed. of his Shakspere, Vol. VII (1843; see under Section III), 263, Knight points out the great abundance of run-on lines in Henry VIII. He is wrong in saying that this peculiarity "is not found in any other of Shak- spere's works." Spedding, James. "On the Several Shares of Shak- spere and Fletcher in the Play of Henry VIII " Appendix to Part I of the Transactions of the
152 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
New Shakspere Soc. for 1874, pp. i*-22*. Re- printed from the Gentleman's Magazine for August, 1850, pp. 115-23. Spedding recalls Roderick's comment of 1758 on the great frequency of double endings in this play. The passages in which these are more abundant than in Shake- speare's other very late plays, Spedding assigns to Fletcher. In the same year (1850) Ralph Waldo Emerson in his Representative Men called atten- tion to the two styles in Henry VIII, one of them marked by a peculiar " cadence" (see note to p. 21* of Transactions).
Walker, W. Sidney. Shakespeare's Versification. .... London, 1854. Walker points out that run-on lines are especially frequent in Shakespeare's later plays, and that extra mid-syllables are admis- sible in these plays, though in the earlier ones "they scarcely occur at all." This is the first notice of extra mid-syllables.
[Bathurst, Charles.] Remarks on the Differences in Shakespeare's Versification in Different Periods. .... London, 1857.
Bathurst and Craik (1857; see under Section VI) were the first to recognize clearly what were later called light and weak endings, and to see that Shakespeare used these in his latest plays with increasing frequency. Bathurst points out that the difference between Shake- speare's earliest and latest styles of verse "is almost as great .... as can be found between the versification of two different authors." He made the sound generali-
BIBLIOGRAPHY, SECTION VII 153
zation "that in metre, Shakespeare changed very nearly regularly and gradually, always in the same direction."
Hertzberg, W. A. B. Einleitung zu Cymbeline. Bd. XII, Shakespeare's dramatische Werke nach der Uebersetzung von A. W. Schlegel und L. Tieck. 12 Bande. Berlin and Leipzig, 1867-71. 2te Aufl., 1897. Statistics were given of the double endings for seventeen plays. Many of the words used as weak endings were specified.
Fleay, F. G. "On Metrical Tests as Applied to Dra- matic Poetry. Part I. Shakspere," Transactions of the New Shakspere Soc, Part I, 1874, pp. 1-16, 38-39. Mr. Fleay gave statistics of rhymes and double endings for all the plays. He attached an excessive value to the decreasing use of rhyme as a test for determining the order of the plays. See the remarks of Dr. Furnivall and others, pp. 17-37. Dr. Furnivall in various places emphasized "the stopt-line test" (the increasing use of run-on lines) as the best single metrical test for determining the succession of the plays.
Ingram, John K. "On the 'Weak Endings' of Shak- spere, with Some Account of the History of the Verse-Tests in General," Transactions of the New Shakspere Soc, 1874, pp. 442-64. A com- plete and final treatment of the subject of light and weak endings, with full statistics.
Furnivall, F. J., and Dowden, Edw. "The Order of Shakspere's Plays" [in tabular form], Transac- tions of the New Shakspere Soc, 1875-76, Part II, p. 464. FurnivalPs table appears also in the Intro-
154 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
duction to The Leopold Shakspere, and in the Introduction to the Eng. translation of Gervinus' Commentaries. Dowden's appears also in the Preface to the 3d ed. of Shakspere, His Mind and Art (see under Section IV). Stokes, H. P. An Attempt to Determine the Chrono- logical Order of Shakespeare's Plays. London, 1878.
Dowden's Primer in 1879 (see under Section IV) out- lined the whole matter of " verse tests" very clearly in chap, iv, "Evidence of the Chronology of Shakspere's Writings."
Pulling, F. S. "The 'Speech-Ending' Test Applied to Twenty of Shakspere's Plays," Transactions of the New Shakspere Soc, 1877-79, ^art HI (published 1880), pp. 457-58. The "mid-stopt" speeches of 20 plays are enumerated and reduced to percentages.
[Boyle, Robert.] "Report of the Tests Committee of the St. Petersburg Shakespeare Circle," Englische Studien, III, 473-503. The subjects of run-on lines and light and weak endings are discussed with especial care.
Fleay, F. G. "On Metrical Tests Applied to Shake- speare," in C. M. Ingleby's Shakespeare, the Man and the Book, Part II, pp. 50-141. London, 1881. Complete statistics are here given of Shake- speare's extra mid-syllables.
*Konig, Goswin. Der Vers in Shaksperes Dramen. Strassburg, 1888. Chap, vii, "Chronologisches,"
BIBLIOGRAPHY, SECTION VII 155
gives the most accurate statistics that we have concerning Shakespeare's use of rhyme, double endings, run-on lines, and "mid-stopt" speeches. The careful discussion of the factors that affect the run-on quality (enjambement), pp. 97-104, is noteworthy.
EXTERNAL EVIDENCE CONCERNING THE DATE OF THE COMPOSITION OF SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS
Under this head I cite three sources of external evidence, each of which concerns a number of plays. With one exception, diaries, documents, books, etc., which have contributed evidence concerning the date of the composition of individual plays, are not mentioned, but each will be cited in the bibliography of the play concerned.
Meres, Francis. Palladis Tamia: Wits Treasury, etc. London, 1598. Near the end of this work is a short sketch entitled "A Comparative Dis- course of Our English Poets with the Greek, Latin, and Italian Poets." In this " comparative dis- course" Shakespeare's name is mentioned nine times, once as the author of his Sonnets, once as the author of twelve plays that are named. Eleven of these we have; the twelfth is the enigmatical Love's Labour's Won1 (Loue labours wonnc). The
1 For the various theories concerning this play, see in A. H. Tolman's '/'he Views about Hamlet, etc. (Hough- ton, 1904), "Shakespeare's 'Love's Labour's Won,'" pp. 243-3 !3-
156 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
entire "comparative discourse," with some pre- ceding pages, is printed in Shakspere Allusion- Books, Part I, ed. by Ingleby, New Shakspere Soc, London, 1874, pp. 151-67; also in the Shakespeare Allusion Book, 1909 (see under Section V). The nine passages that mention Shakespeare are reprinted in Tolman, The Views about Hamlet, pp. 247, 258-61.
First Quarto editions of separate plays. See under Section II.
Arber, Edward. A Transcript of the Registers of the Company of Stationers of London, 1554-1640. 5 vols Privately printed. London and Birming- ham, 1875-94.
It is very hazardous, in trying to fix the time at which a play was composed, to rely upon what seem to be allusions to the play or allusions in the play to other works or outside happenings. Evidence of this sort is "partly external and partly internal." Dr. Furness' account of the various opinions that have been held concerning the date of composition of Twelfth Night, and of the supposed allusions that were offered in support of the different opinions, is equally amusing and instructive (New Variorum ed. of Twelfth Night, pp. vii-xi). From the following work we now know that Twelfth Night was played on February 2, 1601-2:
Manningham, John, The Diary of. Published by the Camden Society, 1868.
BIBLIOGRAPHY, SECTION VII 157
THE VARIATION BETWEEN VERSE AND PROSE
Delius, N. "Die Prosa in Shakespeares Dramen," Jahrbuch V, 227-73. Reprinted in his Abhand- lungen zu Shakespeare. 2 vols. Berlin, 1889.
Janssen, Vincent Franz. Die Prosa in Shaksperes Dramen, Erster Teil: Anwendung. Strassburg, 1897.
Sharpe, Henry. "The Prose in Shakspere's Plays, etc.," Transactions New Shakspere Soc, 1880-86, pp. 523-62. See also the valuable discussion, pp. i52*-58*.
Moulton, Richard G. Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist. 3d ed., Oxford, 1893, pp. 349~55-
An excellent paragraph on the variation between verse and prose is to be found on p. 163 of the ed. of As You Like It by J. C. Smith, Heath, 1895.
Hiiimiwom
158 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
BIBLIOGRAPHY, SECTION VII 159
r.
VIII. SHAKESPEARE'S TEXT. THE HISTORY OF THE TEXT
Rowe, the first editor of Shakespeare, based his edition on the Fourth Folio of 1685, a most unfortunate choice. The following table shows the text which each editor took as the basis; it is adapted from Walder (p. 78. See below) :
FOURTH FOLIO, 1 685.
I
Rowe, 1709 and 1714.
I Pope, 1725 and 1728.
I
I I I
Theobald, Hanmer, 1 744-46. x Warburton, 1747.
1733 and 1740.
Johnson, 1765.
It was not until 1768 that an edition appeared that was based throughout on early texts — the First Folio and early quartos. This was the edition of Edward Capell in ten volumes. After comparing the authori- ties, I judge that Theobald corrected the text of Pope by the use of quartos and the early folios, but that Capell started with the early texts. I suppose the statement of Sidney Lee that ''Theobald made the First Folio the basis of his text" (Life of Shakespeare, ed. of 1909, p. 332) to be an error.
1 This is the date of Lowndes. Professor Demmon corrects this to 1743-44.
160
BIBLIOGRAPHY, SECTION VIII 161
GENERAL DISCUSSIONS OF SHAKESPEARE'S TEXT
The Cambridge Shakespeare (1863-66; 2d ed., 1891-93) has been looked upon as presenting the generally received text. Neilson's edition (1906), however, is distinctly more conservative. The editions of Furness and of Porter and Clarke pay full attention to questions of text (see under Section III). A gen- eral account of the treatment of Shakespeare's text by the different editors is given in Vol. I of The Cam- bridge Shakespeare (ed. of 1891), pp. xxiv-xliii.
*Lounsbury, Thomas R. The Text of Shakespeare. Scribner, 1906. An account of the editions of Pope and Theobald, and of the controversies between the men.
Walder, Ernest. Shakespearian Criticism, Textual and Literary, from Dry den to the End of the Eight- eenth Century. Bradford, England, 1895.
Johnson, Charles F. Shakespeare and His Critics. Houghton, 1909. A useful book. It attempts to outline all Shakespearean criticism, textual and literary. Sometimes inaccurate.
White, Richard Grant. In Vol. I of his edition of Shakespeare, 1865 (see under Section III), note the Preface, pp. vii-xxxiv, and the "Historical Sketch of the Text of Shakespeare," pp. civ- ccclvi.
*Ingleby, C. M. Shakespeare Hermeneutics, or The Still Lion. London, 1875.
VanDam, A. P., and Stoffel, C. William Shakespeare, Prosody and Text. Leyden, 1900. Part II,
162 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
" Criticism of the Text of Shakespeare," is some- what venturesome and overconfident, but well deserves attention.
Smith, C. Alphonso. "The Chief Difference between the First and Second Folios of Shakespeare," Englische Studien, XXX, 1-20.
Collins, John Churton. "The Porson of Shake- spearian Criticism" [=Theobald], Essays and Studies, London, 1895, pp. 263-315.
DETAILED STUDIES OF SHAKESPEARE'S TEXT
Furness gives a list of 60 emendations in the First Folio text of Antony and Cleopatra which are accepted in The Cambridge Shakespeare (New Variorum ed., pp. 598-99). The present writer has noted 105 other emendations (principally in the earlier plays) that are accepted by the conservative Neilson. This makes a list of 165 emendations that have some claim to be considered ideally good. The sources of these are: Theobald, 50; Rowe, 30; Pope, 17; Capell, 17; Warburton, 8; Hanmer, 8; Thirlby (communicated through Theobald), 7; Johnson, 6; Heath, 3; Tyrwhitt, 3; Singer, 3; Dyce, 3; Malone, 2; Walker, 2; six others, 6. Total, 165. Most of these men contributed their emendations only in their editions of Shakespeare (see under Section III). But some separate works by them deserve mention.
*Theobald, Lewis. Shakespeare Restored. London, 1 726. A searching criticism of Pope's Shakespeare, 1st ed., 1725; and the first important piece of textual criticism on an English author.
BIBLIOGRAPHY, SECTION VIII 163
Heath, Benjamin. A Revisal of Shakespeare's Text.
London, 1765. [Tyrwhitt, Thomas.] Observations and Conjectures
on Some Passages of Shakespeare. London,- 1766. Capell, Edward. Notes and Various Readings to
Shakespeare. 3 vols. London, 1779-80 (Lowndes).
Professor Denjmon says: " Undated, but [1779-
83]"
Walker, W. S. A Critical Examination of the Text of Shakespeare. London, i860.
[Edwards, Thomas.] Canons of Criticism. Pub- lished in London, 1747. First given the above name in the 3d ed., 1748. [I have followed Lowndes. Professor Demmon gives 1st ed. as 1748, and 3d ed. 1750.] The posthumous 6th ed., 1758, and especially the 7th ed., 1765, contain important additional matter. See under Section VII. A brilliant, sarcastic attack upon War- burton's edition of Shakespeare, 1747. Edwards has been called "the wittiest of all commentators."
1 64 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
BIBLIOGRAPHY, SECTION VIII 165
IX. SHAKESPEARE'S SOURCES. LITERARY INFLUENCES AFFECTING HIM
REPRINTS OF SOURCES
*Boswell-Stone, W. G., Editor. Shakspere's Holinshed. New York and London, 1896. Thir- teen of Shakespeare's plays are here compared with Holinshed, which was undoubtedly the im- mediate source of most of them.
*Shakespeare's Library. 2d ed., 6 vols. Ed. by W. C. Hazlitt, London, 1875. The editor of the first edition (1843) was J. P. Collier. The attempt was made to reprint all the important sources of the plays, with the exception of Holin- shed.
*Skeat, W. W. Shakespeare's Plutarch. Macmillan, 1892. Plutarch is the great source of /. Caesar, A. and Cleopatra, and Coriolanus. A. M.-N. Dream and Timon have been thought to be indebted to Plutarch.
Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans
Englished by Sir Thomas North anno 1579
6 vols. London, 1895-96. In the Tudor Trans- lations. Also in 10 vols, in The Temple Classics, London, 1898-99.
*Furness, H. H. The volumes of A New Variorum Shakespeare (sec under Section III) reprint the important sources and discuss fully questions of indebtedness.
166
BIBLIOGRAPHY, SECTION IX 167
Painter, Wm. The Palace of Pleasure. Ed. by Joseph Jacobs. 3 vols. London, 1890 (original date, 1566-67). One hundred stories from Latin, Greek, French, and Italian. Shake- speare's Lucrece, Coriolanus, Titnon, All's Well, and R. and Juliet "all owe something to Painter" (S. Lee).
Shakespeare's Ovid. Arthur Golding's Translation of the Metamorphoses. Ed. by W. H. D. Rouse. London, 1904.
*The Shakespeare Classics, edited by I. Gollancz. New York, Duffield. This series is to reprint and discuss all of Shakespeare's direct sources, except the matter in Boswell-Stone's Shakespeare's Holinshed (now also published by Duffield). $1.00 per vol. The volumes already issued con- cern A . Y. L. It, W. Tale, R. and Juliet, Taming 0} the Shrew t A. M.-N. Dream, Lear. Volumes are announced that concern K. John, Hamlet, Com. of Errors, M. for Measure; also two volumes of extracts from North's Plutarch, and a reprint of The Famous Victories of Henry V.
DISCUSSIONS OF SOURCES AND INFLUENCES
*Anders, H. R. D. Shakespeare's Books. [In Eng- lish.] Berlin, 1904.
Simrock, Karl. Die Quellen des Shakespeare. 2 Bde. 2te Aufl., Bonn, 1870 (ite Aufl., 1831).
Douce, Francis. Illustrations of Shakespeare, etc. 2 vols., illustrated. London, 1807. New ed., 1839.
1 68 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
Hunter, Joseph. New Illustrations of ... . Shake- speare. 2 vols. London, 1845.
Ward, A. W. See under Section IV. The discussions of separate plays (II, 54-209) take up questions of sources. *The volumes of The "First Folio" Shakespeare
of Miss Porter and Miss Clarke (see under Section III)
discuss the sources of each play.
*Delius, Nicolaus. Abhandlungen zu Shakespeare. 2 vols. Berlin, 1889. Six articles, each comparing one of the following plays with its main source, are reprinted from the Jahrbuch: As You Like It (Jahrbuch VI), Coriolanus (XI), The Winter's Tale (XV), Romeo and Juliet (XVI), Julius Caesar (XVII), All's Well (XXII).
Moorman, F. W. "Shakespeare's History-Plays and Daniel's 'Civile Wars,' ' Jahrbuch XL, 69-83.
Verity, A. W. The Influence of Christopher Marlowe on Shakespeare's Earlier Style. Cambridge, 1886. See in Part II of this work, pp. 36, 108.
For the influence of John Lyly on Shakespeare, see the Bibliography to Love's Labour's Lost, Part II, pp. 228-29, a^so PP- 286-87; concerning the influence of Robert Greene, see Part II, pp. 108-9, 287-88.
Farmer, Richard. "An Essay on the Learning of Shakespeare," Vol. I of the Boswell-Malone Shake- speare (see under Section III), pp. 300-366. First printed in 1767. Important in its time.
Collins, J. Churton. "Shakespeare as a Classical Scholar," "Shakespeare and Holinshed," and
BIBLIOGRAPHY, SECTION IX 169
"Shakespeare and Montaigne," in Studies in Shakespeare. London, 1904.
Hooker, Elizabeth R. "The Relation of Shakespeare to Montaigne," Publications of the Modern Lan- guage Association, XVII (N. S., X), 312-66.
Thorndike, Ashley H. The Influence of Beaumont and Fletcher on Shakspere. Worcester, Mass., 190 1. The view of Thorndike that Philaster decisively influenced Cymbeline is ably combated in Schilling's Elizabethan Drama (see Section IV), II, 199-200, 203-4.
Thorndike, Ashley H. "The Influence of the Court Masques on the Drama, 1608- 16 15," Publica- tions of the Modern Language Association, XV (N. S., VIII), 114-20.
Root, R. K. Classical Mythology in Shakespeare. Holt, 1903.
170 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
BIBLIOGRAPHY, SECTION IX 171
X. SHAKESPEARE'S LONDON. THE ELIZA- BETHAN THEATER AND STAGE. MODERN ADAPTATIONS. CONTRO- VERSIES. THE PRIVATE STAGES
*Besant, Sir Walter. London in the Time of the Tudors. London, 1904. Fully illustrated.
*Wheatley, Henry B. London Past and Present. 3 vols. London, 1891. In dictionary form. A revision of Peter Cunningham's Handbook of London: Past and Present. 2 vols. London, 1849.
Wheatley, Henry B. The Story of London. London, 1904.
Ordish, Thos, Fairman. Shakespeare's London. Lon- don, 1897.
Stephenson, Henry T. Shakspere's London. Holt, 1905.
Ordish, Thos. Fairman. Early London Theatres. London, 1894.
Stow, John. A Survey of London, 1603. Ed. by C. L. Kingsford. 2 vols. Oxford, 1908.
Collier, J. P. History of English Dramatic Poetry to Time of Shakespeare, etc. 3 vols. London, 1879 (1st ed., 1831).
Vol. Ill of the Boswell-M alone Shakespeare (see under Section III) "remains even yet the best collection of citations illustrating all the aspects of the Elizabethan theatre" (Baker).
172
BIBLIOGRAPHY, SECTION X 173
Fleay, F. G. A Chronicle History of the London Stage, 1559-1642. London, 1890. For specialists, Anders calls for a carefully revised edition, " which will give its authorities, and state its guesses."
Brandl, A. Einleitung to Vol. I of a new edition of the Schlegel-Tieck translation of Shakespeare, Leip- zig, 1897, pp. 125-33. Holds that successive scenes were often presented alternately upon the front and back portions of the Elizabethan stage, the theory of "alternation staging."
Brodmeier, Cecil. Die Shakespeare Biihne nach den alten Buhnenanweisungen. Weimar, 1904. Applies in detail to all of Shakespeare's plays the theory of alternation staging.
I give brief memoranda of a number of articles in the Jahrbuch on Elizabethan staging, omitting titles: Genee, XXVI; Kilian, XXVIII, XXXII, XXXVI; Grube, XXXIV; Bormann, XXXVII; Grabau, XXXVIII.
Gaedertz, K. T. Zur Kenntnis der altenglischen Biihne. Bremen, 1888. First publication of the well-known sketch of the interior of the Swan Theater, from about 1596. The picture is commented on by H. B. Wheatley in Transactions New Shakspere Soc, 1887-92, pp. 215-25, 39^40*. ♦Reynolds, G. F. "Some Principles of Elizabethan Staging," Modern Philology, II, 581-614; III, 69-97 (I9°5)- Opposes alternation staging as the sole principle. Suggests three possible forms of Elizabethan stage: the Swan stage, the corridor stage, the alcove stage. Holds that incongruous
174 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
staging was permitted, that is, the presence on the stage of properties needed in some other scene, but incongruous to the scene in progress.
Reynolds, G. F. "Trees on the Stage of Shakespeare," Modern Philology, V (October, 1907), 153-68.
Wegener, Richard. Die Biihneneinrichtung des Shake-
spear'schen Theaters Halle a. S., 1907.
Accepts Swan picture in main; but cuts away part of rear wall between the two doors, and makes a room under the gallery that can be opened and closed by a curtain (Albright).
*Archer, Wm. "The Fortune Theatre, 1600," Jahr- buch XLIV (1908), 159-66. By pictures Archer makes clear his proposed reconstruction of this theater. His stage resembles Reynolds' "alcove stage."
*Archer, Wm. "The Elizabethan Stage," Quarterly Review, April, 1908, pp. 442-71.
*Albright, Victor E. The Shaksperian Stage. Co- lumbia University Press, 1909. Illustrated. Recon- structs the stage much in the manner of Archer. Suggestions taken from the so-called Messalina picture of 1640, considered the most valuable early picture. Against Reynolds he holds that "incon- gruity never existed as a principle of ... . Eliza- bethan staging"; but Albright's conception of different sedes or "homes," indicated upon the stage, would easily approximate or even reach what Reynolds calls "incongruity." Albright gives full bibliography.
[Wright, James.] "Historia Histrionica: An His-
BIBLIOGRAPHY, SECTION X 175
torical Account of the English Stage .... a Dialogue of Plays and Players." Originally published in 1699. In the Hazlitt-Dodsley Col- lection of Old English Plays, XV, 399-431. Lon- don, 1876. Also in the 1825 ed. of Dodsley.
Lawrence, W. J. "Some Characteristics of the Eliza- bethan-Stuart Stage," Englische Studien, XXXII (1903), 36-51; "A Forgotten Stage Convention- ality," Anglia, XXVI (1903), 447-60; "Music in the Elizabethan Theatre," Jahrbuch XLIV (1908), 36-50; "Title and Locality Boards on the Pre-Resto ration Stage," Jahrbuch XLV (1909), 146-70.
Baker, George P. Introduction to his edition of A Midsummer-Night's Dream. Longmans, 1895. Also chap, ii of The Development of Shakespeare, etc. (see under Section IV).
Hale, Edw. E., Jr. "The Influence of Theatrical Conditions on Shakespeare," Modern Philology, I (June, 1903), 171-92.
Tolman, Albert H. "Shakespeare's Stage and Modern Adaptations," in The Views about Hamlet and Other Essays, pp. 115-39. Houghton, 1904. A simple statement of the theory of alternation staging. Tells of the "Shakespeare-stage" at Munchen, and of its successor, the revolving stage. "Alternation in the Staging of Shake- speare's Plays," Modern Philology, VI (April, 1909), 517-34. Discusses five places in Shake- speare which fit in well with the theory of alter- nation staging.
i 76 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
Corbin, John. "Shakespeare and the Plastic Stage," Atlantic Monthly, March, 1906, 369-83.
Bradley, A. C. "Shakespeare's Theatre and Audi- ence," in Oxford Lectures on Poetry, pp. 359-93. Macmillan, 1909.
Skemp, Arthur R. "Some Characteristics of the English Stage before the Restoration," Jahr- buch XLV (1909), 101-25. Skemp offers as something new the picture of a stage found on the Messalina title-page (1640). Reynolds repro- duced this in April, 1905.
Of several discussions of the question how Shake- speare's plays should now be staged, only the two following are cited here:
Lee, Sidney. "Shakespeare and the Modern Stage," Nineteenth Century, January, 1900 (also in Eclectic for April). Republished in book of essays. See under XV, Miscellaneous.
Tree, H. Beerbohm. "The Staging of Shakespeare: A Defense of the Public Taste," Fortnightly Review, July, 1900 (also in Eclectic for October).
SOME MODERN ADAPTATIONS OF SHAKESPEARE'S STAGE
Genee, R. Die Entwickelung des scenischen Theaters und die Buhnenreform in Miinchen. Stuttgart, 1889. Gives a description of the "Shakespeare- stage" at Miinchen (first used in 1889), also a picture and a floor-plan.
Von Klarbach, Alfred, Frh. Mensi. "Die Shakespeare- Biihne im Jahre 1898," Jahrbuch XXXV (1899), 362"75-
BIBLIOGRAPHY, SECTION X 177
Von Possart, E. "Welches System der Scenerie .... fur die Darstellung .... der Shakespear- ischen Dramen?" Jahrbuch XXXVII (1901), xviii-xxxvi. Praises the revolving stage at Miin- chen, which succeeded the "Shakespeare-stage."
CONTROVERSY AND GOVERNMENT REGULATION
Thompson, Elbert N. S. The Controversy between the Puritans and the Stage. Holt, 1903. With Bibliography.
Gildersleeve, Virginia C. Government Regulation of the Elizabethan Drama. Columbia Univer- sity Press, New York, 1908. With Bibliography.
THE PRIVATE STAGES, ETC.
Chambers, E. K. Notes on the History of the Revels Office under the Tudors. London, 1906.
Feuillerat, Albert. Documents Relating to the Office of the Revels in the Time of Queen Elizabeth. Louvain, 1908.
Helmholtz-Phelan, Anna Augusta. The Staging of the Court Drama to 1595. Publications Modern Language Assoc, XXIV (1909; N. S., XVII), 185-206.
^Wallace, Chas. Wm. The Children of the Chapel at Blackfriars, 1597-1603. University of Nebraska, 1908. Holds that Queen Elizabeth established and maintained the Blackfriars Theatre. Throws new light on Hamlet, II. ii.
178 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
BIBLIOGRAPHY, SECTION X 179
XI. THE DOUBTFUL PLAYS
Strictly speaking, this class should contain all plays that have been attributed to Shakespeare and are not included in the First Folio; but Pericles, alone among the seven plays added in the Third Folio, is usually looked upon as having established its place in the canon.
*Brooke, C. F. Tucker. The Shakespeare Apocrypha. Oxford, 1908. Reprints the fourteen most impor- tant of the doubtful plays, with a scholarly intro- duction and full bibliographies. Simpson, R. "On Some Plays Attributed to Shak- spere," Transactions New Shakspere Soc, 1875- 76, pp. 155-80. Ward, A. W. See under Section IV. Vol. II, pp.
209-45. Von Vincke, Gisbert Freiherr. "Die zweifelhaften Stiicke Shakespeare's," Jahrbuch VIII (1873), 368-76. Gives a list of thirty-three plays. Sachs, R. "Die Shakespeare zugeschriebenen zwei- felhaften Stiicke," Jahrbuch XXVII (1892), 135-99-
180
BIBLIOGRAPHY, SECTION XI 181
tnjTani iv i f n 1 1 j » 1 1 n n rm n i rrrrn inu
XII. DRAMATIC TECHNIQUE
Alden, Raymond M. "The Decline of Poetic Justice," Atlantic Monthly, February, 1910, pp. 260-67.
*Bradley, A. C. Shakespearean Tragedy. Mac- millan, 2d ed., 1905. Lecture I, "The Substance of Shakespearean Tragedy"; Lecture II, "Con- struction in Shakespeare's Tragedies."
Bulthaupt, Heinrich. Dramaturgic des Schauspiels: Band II, Shakespeare. Leipzig, 7te Aufl., 1902.
Caffin, Chas. H. The Appreciation of the Drama. New York, 1908.
Fleming, Wm. H. Shakespeare's Plots. Putnams, 1 90 1. Chap, i, "A Drama as a Work of Art"; chap, ii, "A Drama: Its Nature; the Laws of Its Construction."
*Freytag, Gustav. The Technique of the Drama. Translated from 6th German ed.; Chicago, 2d ed., 1896. This translation is very faulty, but has a full index. (Die Technik des Dramas. Leipzig, 7te Aufl., 1894.)
Halpin, N. J. The Dramatic Unities of Shakspere. Dublin, 1850. Reprinted in Transactions New Shakspere Soc, 1875-76, pp. 388-412. See also pp. 349-50. Discusses Shakespeare's use of double-time in his plays. See below under John Wilson. On this topic, see the Introduction to J. M. Manly's ed. of Macbeth, Longmans, 1896, pp. xxvi-xxxii. See also the exceedingly full 182
BIBLIOGRAPHY, SECTION XII 183
treatment of " Dramatic Time" in the Shakespeare Key of the Cowden Clark es (under Section VI), pp. 105-283.
Hamilton, Clayton. The Theory of the Theatre, etc. Holt, 1910. Not yet examined.
*Hennequin, Alfred. The Art of Playwriting. Hough- ton, 1890. Is concerned entirely with the modern drama and stage, but is clear and very useful.
Matthews, Brander. A Study of the Drama. Hough- ton, 1910. Not yet examined.
*Moulton, R. G. Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist. Oxford, 3d ed., 1893. Part II is a survey of dra- matic criticism. The papers in Part I upon The Merchant of Venice and The Tempest throw much light upon important problems of dramatic con- struction.
Price, W. T. The Analysis of Play-Construction. New York, 1908. This larger work sets aside the same author's The Technique of the Drama. New York, 1892.
Werner, R. M. "Die Gruppen im Drama," in For- schungen zur neueren Litteraturgeschichte: Fest- schrift fur Richard Heinzel. Weimar, 1898, pp. 7-27.
Wilson, John. His writings on double-time in Shake- speare's plays are reprinted in abridged form in Transactions New Shaksperc Soc, 1875-76, pp. 349-87; also 1877-79, PP- 2i*~4i*. The papers originally appeared in Blackwood's Magazine in 1849-50. See above under N. J. Hal pin.
184 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
*Woodbridge, Elisabeth. The Drama: Its Law and Its Technique. Holt, 1898. Reviewed by the present writer in Jahrbuch XXXV, 295-97.
BIBLIOGRAPHY, SECTION XII 185
1 86 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
XIII. THE HISTORIES
Courtenay, T. P. Commentaries on the Historical
Plays of Shakespeare. 2 vols. London, 1840. Wordsworth, Charles. Shakespeare's Historical Plays,
Roman and English: with [Expurgated] Text,
Introductions, and Notes. 3 vols. London,
1883. Warner, Beverley E. English History in Shakespeare's
Plays. Longmans, 1896. Schelling, F. E. The English Chronicle Play. Mac-
millan, 1902. See also chap, vi, "The National
Historical Drama," in Vol. I of the same author's
Elizabethan Drama, Houghton, 1908. Boswell-Stone, W. G. Shakspere's Holinshed. New
York and London, 1896. See under Section IX. Pater, Walter. "Shakespeare's English Kings," in
Appreciations. Macmillan, 1889. Simpson, Richard. "The Politics of Shakespeare's
Historical Plays," Transactions New Shakspere
Soc, 1874, pp. 396-441. Konig, Wilhelm. "Shakespeares Konigsdramen," etc.,
Jahrbuch XII, 228-60.
187
1 88 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
XIV. STRATFORD-ON-AVON AND VICINITY. SHAKESPEARE'S FAMILY
Wise, J. R. Shakespeare, His Birthplace and Its Neighborhood. London, 1861.
*Lee, Sidney. Stratford-on-Avon. London, new ed., 1890.
Williams, Jas. L. Homes and Haunts of Shakespeare. Am. ed., Scribner, 1894. Superbly illustrated.
Ward, H. Snowden. Shakespeare's Town and Times. London and New York, 1896. Illustrated. Popular.
Stopes, Mrs. C. C. Shakespeare's Family. London and New York, 1901.
Elton, Chas. I. William Shakespeare, His Family and Friends. London, 1904.
French, G. R. Shakespeareana Genealogica. Lon- don, 1869. "On the Shakespeare and Arden families, persons and places in Warwickshire mentioned by Shakespeare, and characters in the historical plays" (Rolfe).
180
igo QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
XV. SPECIAL WORKS. THE HISTORY AND
SOCIAL LIFE OF THE PERIOD.
MISCELLANEOUS
SPECIAL
Bucknill, J. C. The Medical Knowledge of Shake- speare. London, i860. The Mad Folk of Shake- speare. London and Cambridge, 2d ed., 1867. The first ed. was entitled The Psychology of Shakespeare.
Campbell, J. (Lord). Shakespeare's Legal Acquire- ments. London, 1859.
Daniel, P. A. "A Time-Analysis of the Plots of Shak- spere's Plays," Transactions New Shakspere Soc, 1877-79. Part II entire. Compare work of John Wilson and N. J. Halpin under Section XII.
Dyer, T. F. T. The Folk-Lore of Shakespeare. Lon- don, 1883.
Ellacombe, H. N. Plant-Lore of Shakespeare. Lon- don, new ed., 1896.
Elson, Louis C. Shakespeare in Music. Boston, 1901.
Furnivall, F. J. "Shakspere's Astronomy," Trans- actions New Shakspere Soc, 1877-79, PP- 43I_5°-
Go!l, August. Criminal Types in Shakespeare. [Translated.] London, 1909.
Harting, J. E The Ornithology of Shakespeare. London 1871.
Hartmann, Sadakichi. Shakespeare in Art. Boston, 190 1.
10.
192 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
Heard, F. F. Shakespeare as a Lawyer. Boston, 1883.
Koeppel, E. Studien uber Shakespeare's Wirkung auf zeitgenossische Dramatiker. Louvain, 1905.
Madden, D. H. The Diary of Master William Silence: A Study of Shakespeare and of Elizabethan Sport. Longmans, 1897; new ed., 1907. The second title indicates the nature of this valuable book.
Naylor, Edward W. Shakespeare and Music. Lon- don, 1896. See Elson above.
Much information about the musical settings that have been composed for Shakespeare's songs is given in Transactions New Shakspere Soc, as follows: 1880-85, Part II, Appendix IV, pp. i9t~33t; 1880-86, Part III, Appendices V-VII, pp. 35f-67t-
Norris, J. Parker. Portraits of Shakespeare. Phila- delphia, 1885.
Phipson, Miss Emma. The Animal-Lore of Shake- speare's Time. London, 1883.
Root, Robert K. Classical Mythology in Shakespeare. Holt, 1903.
Wordsworth, Charles. On Shakespeare's Knowledge and Use of the Bible. London, 3d ed., 1880.
THE HISTORY AND SOCIAL LIFE OF THE PERIOD
Creighton, Mandell. The Age of Elizabeth. Scribner,
1876. Gardiner, Saml. R. The Puritan Revolution: 1603-
1660. Scribner, 1876. ^Gardiner, Saml. R. History of England from the
BIBLIOGRAPHY, SECTION XV 193
Accession of James I to the Outbreak of the Civil War. 10 vols. Longmans, 2d ed., 1883-84.
*Traill, H. D., Editor. Social England. 6 vols. London, 2d illustrated ed., 1901-4. See Vols. Ill and IV.
Drake, Nathan Shakespeare and His Times. 2 vols. London, 1817.
Thornbury, G. W. Shakspere's England: or, Sketches of Our Social History in the Reign of Elizabeth. 2 vols. London, 1856.
Sheavyn, Phoebe A. B. The Literary Profession in the Elizabethan Age. University Press, Manches- ter, 1909.
Rye, Wm. B. England as Seen by Foreigners in the Days of Elizabeth and James the First. London, 1865.
Dekker, Thomas. The Gull's Hornbook [1609]. Edited by R. B. McKerrow. London, 1905. In The King's Classics.
[Wm.] Harrison's Description of England in Shak- spere's Youth. Ed. by F. J. Furnivall. Part I, 1877; Part II, 1878; Part III, 1881. These parts were published for The New Shakspere Soc, London. Part IV, completing the work, was published by Chatto, London, 1908. A valu- able book of selections from Harrison, entitled Elizabethan England, is published by Scott, Lou don [1902], at 40 cents.
Robert Laneham's Letter, Describing Part of the Entertainment to Queen Elizabeth at Kcnilworth, 1575. Ed. by F. J. Furnivall. London and N. Y., 1907. In the Shakespeare Library.
194 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
The Rogues and Vagabonds of Shakespeare's Youth. [A reprint of some Elizabethan pamphlets.] Ed. by Edw. Viles and F. J. Furnivall. London and N. Y., 1907. In The Shakespeare Library.
THE BACON-SHAKESPEARE QUESTION
Wyman, W. H. Bibliography of the Bacon-Shake- speare Controversy. Cincinnati, 1884.
Holmes, N. The Authorship of Shakespeare. 2 vols. New York, 3d ed., 1886. Perhaps the leading work in favor of Bacon's authorship.
Stopes, Mrs. C. C. The Bacon-Shakespeare Question Answered. London, 2d ed., enlarged, 1889.
Allen, Charles. Notes on the Bacon-Shakespeare Question. Houghton, 1900. Discusses also Shakespeare's knowledge of law.
Marriott, Miss E. Bacon or Shakespeare ? London, 3d ed., 1899.
Greenwood, G. G. The Shakespeare Problem Re- stated. London, 1908.
Beeching, H. C. Wm. Shakespeare, Player, Playmaker, and Poet: a Reply to M. Geo. Greenwood, M. P. London, 2d ed., 1909.
MISCELLANEOUS
Griffiths, L. M. Evenings with Shakspere. Bristol, 1889. A useful book for reading-clubs. Some valuable statistics have been taken from this book into Part II of the present work.
Lamb, Charles and Mary. Tales from Shakespeare. With Introduction by A. Ainger. London, 1879
Black, Wm. Judith Shakespeare. Harper, 1884
BIBLIOGRAPHY, SECTION XV 195
Shakespeare's daughter is here made the heroine of an interesting and carefully studied novel.
Bennett, John. Master Skylark; a Story of Shak- spere's Time. N. Y., 1898. "Gives a pleasing picture of the period."
Collins, J. Churton. Studies in Shakespeare. Placed here because its range is so wide. Topics: "Shake- speare as a Classical Scholar"; "Shakespearean Paradoxes"; "Sophocles and Shakespeare as .... Ethical Teachers"; "Shakespeare as a Prose Writer"; "Was Shakespeare a Lawyer"? "Shakespeare and Holinshed"; "Shakespeare and Montaigne"; "The Text and Prosody of Shakespeare"; "The Bacon-Shakespeare Mania."
White, Richard Grant. Studies in Shakespeare. Houghton, 1891. Topics: "On Reading Shake- speare"; "The Bacon-Shakespeare Craze"; " Glossaries and Lexicons" ; "Macbeth"; "Ham- let": "Othello"; " As Y ou Like It" ; "K.Lear."
Lee, Sidney. Shakespeare and the Modern Stage, with other Essays. London, 1906.
Porter, Miss Charlotte, and Clarke, Miss Helen A. Shakespeare Study Programmes in the volumes of Poet-Lore, Boston, as follows: K. John, VIII; Rich. II, XIII; I Hy. IV, XI; II Ily. IV, XI; Hy. VIII, XIV; As Y. L. It, IX; A. and Cleo- patra, XII; Cymbeline, X; Hamlet, III; /. Caesar, X; L. L. Lost, XIV; K. Lear, X (reprinted, XVI); Macbeth, II (this developed into a book: Shakespeare Studies — Macbeth, Am. Book Co., 1901); A. M.-N. Dream, VIII (reprinted, XV);
196 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
Othello, IX; Tempest, VIII (reprinted, XV); Tw. Night, VIII; W. Tale, IV (reprinted, XIV).
Fleming, Wm. H. How to Study Shakespeare. 4 vols. New York, 1898, 1899, 1903, 1904. These vol- umes contain questions for study as follows: I, Othello, Tw. Night, J. Caesar, M. 0} Venice, Macbeth, A. M.-N. Dream, Rich. Ill, Tempest; II, Hamlet, As Y. L. It, K. Lear, Hy. V, R. and Juliet; III, Much Ado, A. and Cleopatra, K. John, W. Tale, L. L. Lost; IV, Rich. II, Cymbeline, I Hy. IV, II Hy. IV, Taming of the Shrew.
Sherman, Lucius A. For his questions on three plays see under IV; for those on Macbeth, see his edition, Holt, 1899. Separate pamphlets published by J. H. Miller, Lincoln, Neb., give questions on A. and Cleopatra, Cymbeline, Hamlet, J. Caesar, Othello.
Victor, Wilhelm. A Shakespeare Phonology, etc. Marburg and London, 1906.
Vietor, Wilhelm. A Shakespeare Reader in the old Spelling. Marburg and London, 1906.
In Vols. XII (July-December, 1874), XIII (January- June, 1875), and XVI (July-December, 1876), of The Architect, London, Edward W. Godwin, F.S.A., has published the articles indicated below upon "The Architecture and Costume of Shakespeare's Plays":1 As You Like It, XIII, 255; Cymbeline, XII, 267; the Greek plays of Shakespeare, XIII, 270, 284, 298,
1 I am indebted for this list to Miss Durkee, of the Newberry Library, Chicago.
BIBLIOGRAPHY, SECTION XV 197
328; Hamlet, XII, 224; Henry IV, XII, 331; Henry V, XII, 349; XVI, 142, 188, 192; Henry VI, XIII, 46, 60, 73; Henry VIII, XIII, 116, 133; King John, XII, 298; King Lear, XII, 281; Love's Labour's Lost, XIII, 255; Macbeth, XII, 281; Measure for Measure, XIII, 224; The Merchant of Venice, XIII, 182, 196; Merry Wives, XIII, 2; (Me//tf, XIII, 151; Richard II, XII, 314; Richard III, XIII, 87; the Roman plays, XIII, 344, 358, 372; Romeo and Juliet, XII, 252; The Taming of the Shrew, XIII, 210; The Tempest, XIII, 211; Twelfth Night, XIII, 240; The Two Gentlemen of Verona, XIII, 168.
In the same periodical Mr. Wm. Burgess discusses " Archaeology on the Stage" in XVI, 224 (concerning Richard III); and in XVI, 238 (concerning Henry V).
198 QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
INDEXES
INDEX I
NOT INCLUDING BIBLIOGRAPHY
Words and phrases from Shakespeare, inflectional endings and formative suffixes cited by themselves, and all titles, including those of longer sections of this book, are printed in italics.
Abbott, E. A., 32, 58, 68, 76.
Abstract noun, Adjective form as, 32.
Abstract noun in plural, 33.
Abstract noun with con- crete meaning, t>3-
Adjective form as adverb, 66; as substantive, 32.
Adjective separated from qualifying phrase, 78.
Adjectives and Adverbs, 61- 68.
Adjectives, Coined, 61 ; different, with a single ending of comparison, 62; double accentuation of, 64; in -ed, 52- loose use of, 63; voice of,
65-
Adverbial ending for dif- ferent words, One, 67.
Adverbial use of what, 48.
Agreement 0} verb and subject, 55-61.
Agreement of verb with relative pronoun as sub- ject, 55.
Alexandrines, 96.
And meaning if, 70.
Antecedent of pronoun: im- plied, 47; omission of,
46; pronoun separated from, 48.
Anticipation, 75.
Antony and Cleopatra, 100.
Appositional use of pro- noun, Irregular, 37.
Arden Shakespeare, The [American], 9.
Astrology, 83.
Attraction of verb into agreement with a noun ' not the subject, 61.
Attraction exerted by rela- tive pronoun, 46.
Autobiographical interpre- tation of changes in Shake- speare's writing, 19, 20.
Auxiliary verbs, Meanings of, 81.
Auxiliary with verbs of motion, Be as, 54.
Baker, G. P., ir.
Be as auxiliary with verbs
of motion, 54. Be in indicative, The use
of, 54- Bernardo (Hamlet), 10. Better meaning than now,
Words with, 80. Bibliography, Nature of
the, 7.
201
202
QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
Boswell-M alone Shake-
speare, The, 8.
Breaks in the succession of the plays, 18.
Brooke, Stopford, 18.
Cambridge Shakespeare, The, 8, 70.
Changes in the artistic quality, or in the tone and temper of the plays, Sudden, 18; Autobio- graphical interpretation of, 19, 20.
Changes in Shakespeare's verse, 98.
Changes of meaning, 80, 81.
Character-study, 6.
Chronicle-play, The char- acteristics of a, 13.
Clarke, C. C. and Mary
C, 32> 77- Clarke, Helen A., 8, 9. Clause as antecedent of
which, A, 47. Coined adjectives, 61. Coined verbs, 48. Colloquial character of
Shakespeare's language,
29. Comedies, The First, 15;
The Sunny Middle, 16,
17, 18; TheSternerMiddle,
16, 17, 18; The Last,
17, 18, 22. Comparative expressions
elliptical, 36.
Comparative or superla- lative, Double, 62.
Comparison, One ending of, with different adjec- tives, 62.
Composition of the plays, The order of the, 12-
17-
Compound subject with
singular members, 56.
Condell, Henry, 21.
Conjunctions and Preposi- tions, 68-72.
Conjunction, each simple one had broader mean- ing, 68.
Conjunctions followed by that, 69.
Constructions, Mixtures of, 29, 72; respective, 74.
Coriolanus, 100.
Correlative words, 65.
Cymbeline, 13, 22, 23.
Dative uses of pronouns: the ethical dative, 39.
Degrees of stress in verse, 91.
Do, does, Negative sen- tences without, 54.
Doth or hath with plural subject, 59.
Double accentuation of ad- jectives, 64.
Double comparative or su- perlative, 62.
Double endings in verse, 95, 101.
Double negative, 67; con- cealed, 67.
Double object, person plus a clause, 50.
Doubling of preposition,
72. Doubling of pronoun, 37. Doubtful cases in scansion
of lines, 98.
INDEX I
203
Elizabethan coloring, 82.
Elizabethan England, 29.
Ellipsis, 29, 76; in com- parative expressions, 36; influencing form of pro- noun, 36.
Ending of comparison with different adjectives, A single, 62.
Endings, Double, 95, 101; light and weak, 99, 101.
End-stopt lines, 94.
Epithet, Transferred, 62.
Essex, Earl of, 18, 19.
Ethical dative, 39.
Exercises, The kinds of, 6.
Exposition, 10.
Eversley Shakespeare, The, 8,14.
Extra mid-syllables, 96, 101.
Fabulous natural history, 85.
Falconry, 84.
Fare thee well, etc., 40.
Fire, 93.
First Folio, The, 13.
11 First Folio" Shakespeare,
The, 9. Fleay, F. G., 102. Fleming, W. H., 8. Franz, W., 32, 71. Freedom of Shakespeare's
use of language, 28. Furness, H. H., 9.
General questions, 6, 7.
Gill, A., 30.
Globe Shakespeare, The, 8.
Hallam, H., 79. Halliwell-Phillipps, J. O., 21.
Hamlet, i&, 20^-8,3. Hath or doth with plural
subject, 59. Heminge, John, 21. / Henry IV, 13, 14, 18. Henry V, 29. / Henry VI, 14. Henry VIII, 22. Herbert, William-, Lord
Pembroke, 18, 19. Here is, etc., with plural
subject, 56. Herford, C. H., 8, 11, 14,
70. Hermione {The Winter's
Tale), 23. His meaning its, 38. Historical plays, The Eng- lish, 10, 13, 14. _ Histories, The First, 15;
The Riper, 15, 17. History, One More, 17. Holinshed, R., 11. Horatio {Hamlet), 10. Horse in Shakespeare, The,
84.
Illogical case forms of pro- nouns, 29.
Imogen {Cymbeline), 23.
Impersonal verbs, 50.
Indicative, The use of be in the, 54.
Infinitive, Force of to in the, 53; presence or absence of to in the, 53; subject of, put in nomina- tive, 38; with force of finite verb, 38.
Influence, 83.
Ingleby, C. M., 102.
Ingram, J. II., 00, 100, 102.
204
QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
Introduction, 1-24. Irregular force of partici- ples, 52; of suffixes, 79. It as indefinite object, 42. It is I, etc., 40.
Jespersen, Otto, 32. Johnson, Samuel, 30. Jonson, Ben, 30. Julius Caesar, 19, 89 ff.
Kluge, F., 31. Konig, G., 101, 102.
Language, The Study of Shakespeare's, 7, 25-85.
Latin meaning, Words used in their, 79.
Lee, Sidney, 20.
Legal terms, 83.
Light and weak endings, 99, 101.
Lines, End-stopt, 94; rhymed, 98, 101; run- on, 94, 101; short, 96.
Logical subject put irregu- larly in nominative, 37.
Logonomia Anglica, 30.
Loose use of adjectives, 63.
Lounsbury, T. R., ^3, 57> 58.
Lyly, John, 30.
Macbeth, 100. Madden, D. H., 84. Main actions, Coexistent,
13; successive, 13. Marcellus {Hamlet), 10. Meanings of auxiliary verbs,
81. Meanings of words better or
worse than now, 80.
Meanings of words, Changes
in, 81. Means, 93.
Measure for Measure, 22. Measures: apparently of
one syllable, 93; of three
syllables, 92; with no
stress, 91; with two
stresses, 92. Metrical table, 101. Mid-stopt speeches, 96, 101,
102. Mid-syllables, Extra, 96,
101. Miranda (The Tempest),
?3-
Mixtures of constructions,
29, 72.
Motion, Be as auxiliary with verbs of, 54; omis- sion of verb of, 50.
Musical terms, 83.
Natural historv, Fabulous,
85.. Negative, Concealed, 67;
double, 67. Negative sentences without
do, does, 54. Neilson, W. A , 8, 14, 18,
22. New English Dictionary,
A, 29. Nominative as general, or
naming form of pronoun,
3*
Nominative, Logical sub- ject in, 37; object of preposition in, 36; ob- ject of verb in, 36; subject of infinitive in, 38.
INDEX I
205
Noun, Abstract, in plural, 33; abstract, with con- crete meaning, 33; ad- jective form as abstract,
32- Nouns, 32-33. Nouns, Coined, 32. Northern dialect, Supposed
influence of, 58, 59.
Object, Double, person plus a clause, 50.
Omission of relative pro- noun or antecedent, 46.
Omission of verb of motion,
One syllable, Measures ap- parently of, 93.
Order of composition of the plays, The, 12-17.
Outdoor sport, 84.
Participle, Omission of -ed or -/ in weak, 52; omis- sion of -en or -n in strong,
51; .
Participles with irregular
force, 52. Peculiar Constructions, 72 ff . Pembroke, Lord, 18, 19. Perdita ( The Winter's
Tale), 23. Pericles, 13, 60. Plays, Table of the order
of composition of the,
I5-I7- Plural subject: with doth or hath, 59; with here is, etc., 56; with is, was, or present indicative in -s, 56; with present indica- tive in -en or -n, 50.
Poems, The Early, 15.
Porter, Charlotte, 8, 9.
Position, Influence of, upon form of pronoun, 35.
Possessive, Peculiar uses of the, 39.
Preposition, Doubling of the, 72; each simple one had broader mean- ing, 70; object of, in nominative, 36.
Prepositions and Conjunc- tions, 68-72.
Present indicative, second singular in -es or -s, 60.
Preterite and participle alike, 51.
Pronoun, Antecedent of, implied, 47; doubling of the, 37; influence of position upon form of, 35; irregular apposition- al use of, 37; nomina- tive as general form of, 34; separated from ante- cedent, 48.
Pronouns, Illogical case- forms of, 29; irregular- ity in the use of, in Pvlizabethan period, 33.
Pronouns, The, 33-48.
Ptolemaic astronomv, The, 83."
Qualifying phrase, Adjec- tive separated from, 7X.
Questions on character- study, 6; general, 6; on individual acts and scenes, 6; on the sources, 6; on text or mean- ing, 6.
206
QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
Raleigh, W., 21.
Reconciliation Plays, The, 17, 18, 22.
Reinforced relative pro- noun, The, 44.
Reinforced substantive,
The, 43.
Relative pronoun: as sub- ject, agreement of verb with, 55; attraction by a, 46; omission of the, 46.
Respective constructions,
74- Rhyme, 98, 101. Richard II, 11, 18. Richard III, 13. Rolfe, W. J, 9. Romeo and Juliet, 22. Run-on lines, 94, 101.
Scansion of lines, Doubt- ful cases of, 98.
Schmidt, A., 32, 63, 64, 75, 76.
Second singular of present indicative in -es or -s, 60.
Shifting of the stress, 90.
Short circuit in English syntax, The, 35.
Short lines, 96.
Sidney, Sir Philip, 30.
Smith, C. Alphonso, 32,
35> 57-59-
Sonnets, The, 16, 20.
Sources, Questions on re- lation of play to, 6.
Southampton, Earl of, 18, 19.
Spanish Tragedy, The, 2c.
Speeches, Mid-stopt, 96, 101, 102.
Spenser, Edmund, 30.
Sphere, 83.
Sport, Outdoor 84.
Stress, Degrees of, 91; measures with no, 91; shifting of the, 90.
Strong participle omitting -en or -n, 51.
Strong preterite and parti- ciple alike, 50.
Study 0} Shakespeare's Language, The, 7, 25-85.
Study 0} Shakespeare's Verse, The, 87-102.
Style of Shakespeare, De- velopment of the, 31.
Subjunctive mood, The, 49.
Substantive, Adjective form as, 32; the reinforced,
Suffixes with irregular force,
79- Superlative, Double, 62.
Table of the plays, 15-17. Table showing changes in Shakespeare's verse, 101. Tempest, The, 22, 23, Terms of law and of music,
83- That: continuing the force
of a conjunction, 70;
following a conjunction,
69. Thorndikc, A. H., 20. Thou, The force of, 41. Three syllables, Measures
of, 92. To in infinitive, The force
of, ^y, the presence cr
absence of, 53. Tragedies, The First 15
INDEX I
207
Tragedy, The Period of,
16, 17, 18. Transferred epithet, 62. Troilus and Cressida, 13,
22. Twelfth Night, 83. Two-faced words, 44. Two Gentlemen 0} Verona,
The, 11. Two stresses, Measures
with, 92. Typical line, The, 89.
Venus and Adonis, 17.
Verb and Subject, Agree- ment of, 55-61.
Verb, Object of, in nomi- native, 36.
Verb of motion, Be as auxiliary with, 54; omis- sion of, 50.
Verbs, 48-55.
Verbs, Coined, 48; im- personal, 50,
Verse, The nature of, 89. Verse, The Study of Shake- speare's, 87-102. Voice of adjectives, The, 65.
Weak endings, 99, 101. Weak participle, Omission
of -ed or -/ in, 52. What, Adverbial use of, 48. Which with clause for
antecedent, 47. Who = whom, 45. Winter's Tale, The, 22, 23. Woodcraft in Shakespeare,
84. Word-order, 78. Words pronounced in two
ways, 97. Worse meaning than now,
Words with, 80. Wright, J., 58.
York, The Duchess of (Richard II), 11.
INDEX II
INDEX TO BIBLIOGRAPHY
General topics are in italics.
The titles of plays and poems, of periodicals, and of series or sets of books are in italics.
With a few exceptions, the titles of individual books are not indexed.
The order of the page numbers is sometimes departed from in order to put the more important reference first.
Abbott, E. A., 144, 149.
Albright, V. E., 174.
Alden, R. M., 150, 182.
Allen, C, 194.
All's Well That End's Well, 167, 168.
Allusion Book, The Shake- speare, 140, 156.
Allusions in plays, Sup- posed, 156.
Alternation staging, The theory of, 173-75.
Anders, H. R. D., 167, 173.
Antony and Cleopatra, 118, 120, 162, 195, 196.
Arber, E., 156.
Archer, W., 174.
Architect, The, 196-97.
Architecture and costume of the plays, The, 196-97.
Arden Shakespeare, The, 122.
Ashbee, E. W., 112.
As You Like It, 120, 157, 167, 168, 195, 196.
Bacon-Shakespeare Ques- tion, The, 194, 195.
Bagehot, W., 139.
Baker, G. P., 126, 172,
I75-. Bankside Shakespeare, The,
114.
Bartlett, J., 143.
Bates, K. L., 106.
Barton Collection, Cata- logue of the, 106.
Bathurst, C, 152, 153.
Baynes, T. S., 138.
Beaumont, F., and Fletcher, J., 169.
Beeching, H. C, 194.
Bennett, J., 195.
Bibliographical Helps, 1 06 ff.
Bibliothek der deutsch- en Shakespeare-Gesell- schaft, Katalog der, 106.
Black, W., 194.
Blackfriars Theater, The, 177.
Boas, F. S., 126.
Bormann, W., 173.
Boswell, J., 118, 119.
Boswell-M alone Edition 0} Shakespeare, The, 118, 172.
208
INDEX II
209
Boswell-Stone, W. G., 166,
187. Boyle, R., 154. Bradley, A. C, 126, 139,
176, 182. Brandes, G., 126. Brandl, A., 138, 173. Bright, J. W., 150. Ten Brink, B., 127. British Museum Catalogue,
etc., 106. Brodmeier, C., 173. Brooke, C. F. T., 180. Brooke, S. A., 127. Browne, G. H., 149. Bucknill, J. C., 191. Bulthaupt, H., 182. Burgess, W., 197.
Caffin, C. H., 182. Cambridge History 0) Eng.
Literature, The, 127. Cambridge Shakespeare,
The, 119, 109, in, 112,
161, 162. Campbell, J. (Lord), 191. Capell, E., 160, 118, 162,
163. Carlyle, T., 127. Chambers, E. K., 177. Changes in Shakespeare's
verse, The, 152-53. Chronological Order oj the
Plays, The, 150 ff. Clark, W. G., 119, 121. Clarke, C. C., 127; (and
M. C.) 143, 145, 183. Clarke, H. A. See Porter
and Clarke. Cohn, A., 140. Coleridge, S. T., 127. Collier, J. P., 123, 166, 172.
Collins, J. C, 162, 168, 195. Comedy 0/ Errors, The, 151,
167. Commentaries, 126 £f. Concordances, Dictionaries,
etc., 143 f. Contention, etc., The First
Part o) the, 109, no. Corbin, J., 176. Coriolanus, 167, 168. Corson, H., 127, 149. Costume of the plays,
Architecture and, 196-
97- Courtenay, T. P., 187. Courthope, W. J., 127. Craig, W. J., 122, 123. Craik, G. L., 145. Creighton, M., 192. Creizenach, W., 127. CunlifTe, R. J., 144. Cunningham, P., 172. Cymbeline, 169, 195, 196.
Daniel, P. A., 112, 19 r. Daniel, S., 168. Dekker, T., 193. Delius, N., 123, 157, 168. Demmon, I. N., 118, 160,
163. Dennis, J., 132. Deutsche Shakespearc-
Gesellschaft, Die, 106,
132. Devonshire Qi of Richard
II, The, 1 1 2. Dictionary 0} National
Biography, The, 107. Dictionaries, Concordances,
etc., 143 f. Doggerel lines, 151. Doubleday, II. A., 139.
2IO
QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
Double endings, 151, 152,
153-
Doubtful Plays, The, 180.
Douce, F., 167.
Dowden, E., 128, 122, 146,
153. J54. Dowden Shakespeare, The,
122. Drake, N., 138, 193. Drama, Histories of the
Elizabethan, 126 ff. Dramatic Technique, 182 ff. Dyce, A., 121, 143, 162. Dyer, T. F. T., 191.
Editions 0} Shakespeare,
Modern, 118 ff. Edwards, T., 163, 150. Elizabeth, Queen of Eng- land, 177. Ellacombe, H. N., 191. Elson, L. C, 191. Elton, C. I., 189. Elze, K., 128, 138, 139. Emerson, R. W., 128, 152. Encyclopaedia Britannica,
The, 107. Enjambement. See Run-on
lines. Eversley Shakespeare, The,
121. External Evidence 0) Dates
of Plays, 155 f. Extra mid-syllables, 152,
154.
Family, Shakespeare' s, 189. Famous Victories of Henry
V, They i\2, 167. Farmer, R., 119, 168. Faucit, Helen, 130. Feuillerat, A., 177.
"First Folio" Shakespeare
The, 121, 114, 168. Fleay, F. G., 128, 137, 153,
154, 173- Fleming, W. H., 182, 196. Fletcher, J., 146, 151-52,
169. Folios, The, 109; Reproduc- tions of, 113 ff. Franz, W., 144. French, G. R., 189. Freytag, G., 182. Furness, H. H., 120, 107,
118, 156, 161, 162, 166;
H. H., Jr., 120. Furnivall, F. J., 128, no,
123, 140, 153, 191, 193,
194.
Gaedertz, K. T., 173.
Gardiner, S. R., 192.
Gayley, C. M., 150.
Genee, R., 173, 176.
General Works on Shake- speare, 126 ff.
Gervinus, G. G., 128.
Gildersleeve, V. C, 177.
Globe Shakespeare, The, 121.
Glover, J., 119.
Godfrey, L. B., 106.
Godwin, E. W., 196.
Golding, A., 167.
Goll, A., 191.
Gollancz, I., 121, 167.
Grabau, C., 173.
Grammar of Shakespeare, The, 144 f.
Greene, R., 168.
Greenwood, G. G., 194.
Greg, W. W., 115, 106, no, in.
INDEX II
211
Griffiths, L. M., 194. Griggs, W., no. Grube, M., 173. Gummere, F. B., 149.
Hale, E. E., Jr., 175. Hallcck, R. P., 138. Halliwell (later Halliwell-
Phillipps), J. O., 137,
112, 113, 123, 144. Halpin, N. J., 182. Hamilton, C, 183. Hamlet, in, 120, 167, 177,
195, 196. Haniror, T., 118, 160, 162. Harrison, W., 193. Harting, J. E., 191. Hartmann, S., 191. Hazlitt, W., 128. Hazlitt, W. C, 166. Heard, F. F., 192. Heath, B., 162, 163. Helmholtz-Phelan, A. A.,
177. Hennequin, A., 183.
I Henry IV, no, 195, 196.
II Henry IV, 111, 195, 196. Henry V, 11 1, 121, 167,
196.
II Henry VI, no.
III Henry VI, no. Henry VIII, 146, 151, 152,
Herford, C. H., 121, 150. Herlzberg, W. A. B., 153. Histories of the Elizabethan
Drama, 126 ff. Histories, The, 187. History 0} Shakes peat pe 's
Reputation, The, 140. History 0} the Period, The,
192 f.
Holinshed, R., 166, 195. Holmes, N., 194. Hooker, E. R., 169. Hudson, H. N., 129, 123. Hugo, Victor, 129. Hunter, J., 168. Huth Qx of Richard II, The, 112.
Influences Affecting Shake- speare, Literary, 166 ff. Ingleby, C. M., 161, 140. Ingram, J. K., 153. Irving, H., 123.
Jacobs, J., 167. Jahrbuch der deutschen Shakes pear e-Gesellscha ft,
107, 173- Jameson, A., 129. Janssen, V. F., 157. Jespersen, O., 145. John, King, 167, 195, 196. Johnson, C. F., 161. Johnson, S., 118, 129, 160,
162. Julius Caesar, 168, 195,
196. Jusserand, J. J., 129, 140.
Kilian, E., 173. Klarbach, Alfred von, 176. Kluge, F., 145. Knight, C, 119, 151. Koch, M., 107. konig, ('.., [49, 154. konig, W., 1S7. Koeppel, E., [92. Kreyssig, F., 129.
Lamb, C. and M., [94. Lambert, 1). II., [37.
212
QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
Laneham, R., 193. Language of Shakespeare,
The, 143 ff. Lanier, S., 149. Lawrence, W. J., 175. Lear, King, 111, 120, 167,
195, 196. Lee, Sidney, 137, 106, 113,
160, 176, 189, 195. Life of Shakespeare, The,
.137 ff. Light and weak endings,
152, !53> I54- Littledale, H., 143. Lloyd, W. W., 129. London of Shakespeare, The,
172. Lounsbury, T. R., 129, 130,
140, i5i. Lover's Complaint, A, 112. Love's Labour's Lost, no,
120, 151, 195, 196. Love's Labour's Won, 155. Love's Martyr; or Rosalin s
Complaint, 112. Lowell, J. R., 129. Lowndes, W. T., 106, 118,
160, 163. Luce, M., 130. Lucrece, 112, 113, 167. Lyly, J., 168.
Mabie, H. \\\, 138. Macbeth, 120, 195, 196. Madden, D. H., 192. Matzner, E., 145. Malone, E., 118, 119, 151,
162. Manly, J. M., 182. Manningham, J., 156. Marriott, E., 104. Marshall, F, A., 123.
Martin, Lady, 130. Matthews, B., 183. Mayor, J. B., 149. McKerrow, R. B., 193. Measure for Measure, 167. Merchant of Venice, The,
in, 120, 196. Meres, F., 155. Merry Wives of Windsor,
The, in. Messalina, 176. Mezieres, A., 130. Mid-stopt speeches, 154. Midsummer-Xighf s Dream,
A, no, 120, 167, 195, 196. Mid-syllables, Extra, 152,
154.
Miller, R. D., 150.
Miscellaneous Works, 194 s.
Modem Editions of Shake- speare, 118 ff.
Modern Reproductions of Quartos and Folios, noff.
Moorman, F. \Y., 168.
Montagu, E., 130.
Montaigne's relation to Shakespeare, 169.
Morgann, M., 130, 132.
Morsbach, L., 139.
Moulton, R. G., 130, 1^7, 183.
Much Ado about Nothing, in, 120, 196.
Munro, J., 128, 140.
Murray, J. A. H., 143.
Musical settings for Shake- speare's songs, 192.
Nares, R., 144. Nay lor, E. \V., 192. Neilson, \Y. A., 122, 161, 162.
INDEX II
213
New English Dictionary, A ,
143-
New Shakspere Society, The, 132.
New Variorum Shake- speare, A, 107.
Norris, J. P., 192.
North, T., 166, 167.
Ordish, T. F., 172. Othello, in, 112, 120, 195,
196. Ovid, 167.
Page, W., 139. Painter, W., 167. Parsons, J. C, 149. Passionate Pilgrim, The,
112, 113. Pater, W., 187. Pericles, 109, in, 113. Phil aster, 169. Phin, J., 144. Phipson, E., 192. Phoenix and the Turtle,
The, 112. Plutarch, 166. Pollard, A. W., 115, 107,
109, no, III. Pope, A., 118, 120, 160, 161,
162. Porter, C, and Clarke,
H. A., 121, 114, 120, 161,
168, 195. Possart, E. von, 177. Praetorius, C, no. Price, W. T., 183.
Quartos, The, 109, iioff;
Modern Reproductions of,
iioff. Queen Elizabeth, 117.
Raleigh, W., 130.
Rann, J., 118.
Reed, I., 118.
Relation of Shakespeare to
His Age, 137 ff. Reputation, The History
of Shakespeare's, 140. Revolving stage, The, 177. Reynolds, G. F., 173, 174,
176. Rhyme, 153. Richard II, no, 112, 195,
196. Richard III, no, 120, 196. Richardson, W., 131. Roderick, R., 150, 152. Rolfe, W. J., 122, 106, 114,
137, i38- Romeo and Juliet, no, 120,
167, 168, 196. Root, R. K., 169, 192. Rouse, W. H. D., 167. Rowe, N., 118, 119, 160,
162. Run-on lines, 151, 152, 153,
154, 155. Rye, W. B., 193.
Sachs, R., 180. Sarrazin, G., 146. Schelling, F. E., 107, 131,
169, 187. Schipper, J., 150. Schlegel, A. W., 131. Schmidt, A., 143. Scott, F. N., 150. Shakespeare Allusion Booh,
The, 140. Shakespeare Classics, The,
167. Shakespeare Library, The,
193, x94-
214
QUESTIONS ON SHAKESPEARE
Shakespeare's Family, 189.
Shakespeare's Library, 166.
Shakespeare's Life, 137 ff.
Shakspere Quarto Fac- similes, The, 109, no, 112.
Shakespeare Societies, 131.
Shakespeare's Sources,
166 ff.
Shakespeare-Stage, The,
i75> i76> x77- Shakespeare the Man, 139. Sharpe, H., 157. Sheavyn, P. A. B., 193. Sherman, L. A., 132, 196. Sievers, E. W., 132. Simpson, R., 180, 187. Simrock, K., 167. Singer, S. W., 123, 162. Skeat, W. W., 166. Skemp, A. R., 176. Skottowe, A., 138. Smith, C. A., 145, 114, 144,
162. Smith, D. N., 132, 130, 140. Smith, G., 139. Smith, J. C, 157. Smith, L. T., 140. Snider, D. J., 132. Social Life 0} the Period,
The, 192 ff. Sonnenschein, W. S., 107. Sonnets, Shakespeare's, 112,
"3» J37. 155- Spalding, W., 145.
Special Works, 191 f.
Spedding, J., 146, 151.
Staunton, H., 113, 123.
Steevens, G., 118.
Stephen, L., 139.
Stephenson, H. T., 172.
Stoffel, C, 161.
Stokes, H. P., 154.
Stoll, E. E., 133.
Stopes, C. C, 189, 194.
Stow, J., 172.
Stratford-on-Avon and Vi- cinity, 189.
Style 0} Shakespeare, The, 143 ff; Changes in, 145 f.
Swan Theater, The, 173.
Swinburne, A. C, 133.
Taming 0} a Shrew, The,
112, 114. Taming 0} the Shrew, The,
114, 151, 167, 196. Technique, Dramatic, 180. Tempest, The, 120, 196. Temple Shakespeare, The,
121. Ten Brink, B., 127. Text of Shakespeare, The,
160 ff; History 0} the,
160 ff. Theobald, L., 162, 118,
120, 160, 161. Thirlby, S., 162. Thompson, E. N. S., 177. Thornburv, G. W., 193. Thorndike, A. H., 133, 169. Times, The London, 139. Timon of Athens, 167. Titus Andronicus, no. Tolman, A. H., 155, 156,
175, 184. Traill, H. D., 193. Transactions of the AVa'
Shakspere Society, The,
i32> IS1- Tree, H. B., 176. Troilus and Cressida, in. Troublesome Reign of King
John, The, 112, 114.
INDEX II
215
no.
True Tragtdy of Richard Warburton, W., 118, 160, Duke of York, The, 109, 162, 163.
Ward, A. W., 133, 106, 168,
180. Ward, H. S., 189. Warner, B., 187. Watson, F., 138. Weak endings, 152, 153. Wegener, R., 174. Weiss, J., 133. Wendell, B., 133. Werner, R. M., 183.
Twelfth Night, 120, 156,
196. Two Noble Kinsmen, The,
i45- Tyrwhitt, T., 162, 163.
Ulrici, H., 133.
VanDam, A. P., 161.
Variation between Verse and Whately, T., 133.
Prose, The, 157. Wheatley, H. B., 172, 173.
Venus and Adonis, 11 1, White, R. G., 119, 138, 161,
113. 195.
Verity, A. W., 146, 168. Williams, J. L., 189.
Verse, Shakespeare' s, 149 ff. Wilson, J., 183.
Victoria History of the Winchester, C. T., 106.
Counties of England, Winter's Tale, The, 120,
The, 139. Vietor, W., 196. Viles, E., 194. Vincke, G. von, 180.
Walder, E., 161.
Walker, W. S., 152, 162,
163. Wallace, C. W., 139, 177.
167, 168, 196. Wise, J. R., 189. Woodbridge, E., 184. Wordsworth, C, 187, 192 Wright, J., 174. Wright, T., 144. Wright, W. A., 119, 121,
145- Wyman, W. H., 194.
4/94 30910-90
AH° ^60-0^