aty of ten syllables, of which the second, fourth, sixth, eighth, and leuth are accented. The line consists, therefore, of five parts, each of which contains an unaccented followed by an accented syllable, as in the word attend. Each of these five parts forms what is called a foot or measure; and the five together form a pentameter. "Pentameter " is a Greek word signifying five measures." This is the usual form of a line of blank verse. But a long poem composed entirely of such lines would be monotonous, and for the sake of variety several important modifications have been introduced.

(a) After the tenth syllable, one or two unaccented syllables are sometimes added; as

66 'Me-thought | you said | you nei | ther lend | nor bor | row." (b) In any foot the accent may be shifted from the second to the first syllable, provided two accented syllables do not come together.

"Pluck' the young suck' | ing cubs' | from the' | she bear'. | " (c) In such words as "yesterday," "voluntary," "honesty," the syllables -day, -ta-, and ty falling in the place of the accent, are, for the purposes of the verse, regarded as truly accented.

"Bars' me the right' | of vol'- | un-ta' | ry choos' | ing."

(a) Sometimes we have a succession of accented syllables; this occurs with monosyllabic feet only.

"Why, now, blow wind, swell billow, and swim bark."

(e) Sometimes, but more rarely, two or even three unaccented syllables occupy the place of one; as

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"He says | he does, | be-ing then | most flat | ter-ed."

(f) Lines may have any number of feet from one to six.

Finally, Shakespeare adds much to the pleasing variety of his plank verse by placing the pauses in different parts of the line (especially after the second or third foot), instead of placing them all at the ends of lines, as was the earlier custom.

N. B.-In some cases the rhythm requires that what we usually pronounce as one syllable shall be divided into two, as fi-er (fire), su-er (sure), mi-el (mile), &c.; too-elve (twelve), jaw-ee (joy), &c. Similarly, she-on (-tion or -sion).

It is very important to give the pupil plenty of ear-training by means of formal scansion. This will greatly assist him in bi reading.

PLAN OF STUDY

FOR

'PERFECT POSSESSION.'

To attain to the standard of 'Perfect Possession,' the reader ought to have an intimate and ready knowledge of the subject. (See opposite page.)

The student ought, first of all, to read the play as a pleasure; then to read it over again, with his mind upon the characters and the plot; and lastly, to read it for the meanings, grammar, &c.

With the help of the scheme, he can easily draw up for himself short examination papers (1) on each scene, (2) on each act, (3) or the whole play.

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1. The Plot and Story of the Play.

(a) The general plot ;

(b) The special incidents.

2. The Characters: Ability to give a connected account of all that is done and most of what is said by each character in the play.

3. The Influence and Interplay of the Characters upon each other.

(a) Relation of A to B and of B to A;

(b) Relation of A to C and D.

4. Complete Possession of the Language.

(a) Meanings of words;

(b) Use of old words, or of words in an old meaning;

(c) Grammar;

(d) Ability to quote lines to illustrate a grammatical point.

5. Power to Reproduce, or Quote.

(a) What was said by A or B on a particular occasion;

(6) What was said by A in reply to B;

(c) What argument was used by C at a particular juncture;

(d) To quote a line in instance of an idiom or of a peculiar meaning.

6. Power to Locate.

(a) To attribute a line or statement to a certain person on a certain occasion;

(b) To cap a line;

(c) To fill in the right word or epithet.

INTRODUCTION

ΤΟ

A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM.

THERE are four old editions of this play, and the received text is an eclectic text made up from the four, with the addition of several conjectural emendations of the earlier editors and commentators, some of which appear too probable and valuable to be rejected even by the most conservative adherents of the original texts. The first of these editions was in quarto form, and appears thus on the Register of the Stationers' Company : "8 Oct. 1600 Tho. Fysher] A booke called a Mydsomer nights Dreame." The second was also a quarto, and appeared in the same year, printed by Iames Roberts, 1600." The second was merely a reprint of the first, and was probably a pirated edition printed for the use of the players. It was the edition however that was followed in the famous first folio of 1623-the third of our editions-some of its obvious misprints being copied there in spite of its editors' depreciatory remarks about sundry earlier "stolne and surreptitious" copies of the plays. The fourth edition of importance is of course the second folio of 1632, a reprint of the first, containing conjectural emendations, which are however more often wrong than right.

ΙΟ

The earliest known reference to the play occurs in the Palladis Tamia of Francis Meres, published in 1598. Its composition is dated by Drake, 1593; by Chalmers, 1598; by Malone, 1594; by Delius, later than 1594; by Fleay, 1592; but the evidence points most strongly to 1593 or 1594. It is difficult to resist the belief that the passage in Act II. (sc. i. 88-114), in which Titania describes the recent bad seasons, owed its point to the similar weather in the years 1593 and 1594, which would still be fresh in people's memories. Again, the lines in Act V. (sc. i. 52, 53) alluding to the recent hapless fortune of a poet and a scholar, correspond well either to Spenser's poem, The Tears of the Muses, published in 1591, or to Robert Greene's miserable death in 1592. Metrical tests, moreover, prove that the play was an early work written about the same time as the Two Gentlemen of Verona. It con-1 tains a large proportion of rhyming lines-one of the safest marks of its being an early work, as rhymed lines become fewer and fewer in Shakespeare's later plays. But too much must not be made of this in comparing it with plays of the same period, as the character of our play naturally called for a more liberal use of rhyme than usual. Such a succession of rhymes repeating a single sound as occur in Act III. (sc. i. 102-109), and Act. IV. (sc. i. 8289), were of course introduced with a special purpose. Here also we find comparatively few lines where the pause or break occurs in any part of the line save at the end. This is a second test of the date of the composition of a

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