PREFACE. ix SPECIMEN SECOND, FROM SHAKESPEARE. If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well Macbeth, Act i. Sc. 7. (Page 98.) 1. Observe the three words “done,” each bearing a different shade of meaning. The abstractions to be lodged in the reader's mind are, I. COMPLETION WITHOUT CONSEQUENCE; 2. EXECUTION OR PERFORMANCE; and, 3. GUILT. The first "done" expresses completion without consequence; the second "done" denotes performance with the idea of guilt; the third "done" implies performance independent of the idea of guilt; so that the passage, paraphrased by synonymes, might stand thus: :-" If all were OVER WITHOUT CONSEQUENCES when the deed is PERpetrated, it were well it were EXECUTED quickly." These contrasted significations of the same word in juxtaposition are not uncommon, as in "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." If the Saxo-English is poor in inflection, it is most rich in application. What a fund of examination is opened up in a word like "cast;" e. g. a cast of an eye; a cast of countenance; a cast of the dice; a cast in metal or plaster; recast; an outcast; to cast a servant; to cast accounts; a counter-caster. (Othello, Act i. Sc. 1), etc. 2. Note the beauty of "it," applied to the murder, denoting the sudden outspeaking of presupposed intense thought, and the speaker's shrinking from the mention of the deed in language by its own terrible name. Compare King John, Act iii. Sc. 3; Othello, Act v. Sc. 2; Richard III. Act iv. Sc. 2. 3. Compare the sense of the first, second, and fourth "it" with that of the third. 4. Compare the two words "were;" examine their grammatical construction, and the theory of the equivalence of the first to "would be," and of the second to "should be." 5. Note the etymology of "were," and its relation to "worth" (noun and interjection), and to "without," etc. 6. Give the etymology of "assassin," and illustrate its historical allusions. Explain the figure in “trammel." 7. Examine "sur" in "surcease;" illustrate other senses of the prefix in different words. 8. Note the fact in the history of our language involved in the application of "his;" illustrate it by other examples, especially from Scripture. 9. Notice the meaning of "success" in its Latin literality of that which succeeds or follows, and Johnson's remark respecting its interchangeability of position with "surcease," if taken in its common meaning of "good fortune:" give other examples of English words used in their rarer Latin and Greek senses. 10. Explain "be-all" and "end-all;" give other examples of complex phraseologies used as nouns, and further illustrate by such phrases as veto, mittimus, recipe: the bull "Unigenitus," etc. Notice other compounds of “all,” as withal, always, allwork, and state the orthographic rule for words // when compounded. 11. Illustrate the figure "bank and shoal;" shew its relation to the metaphor "ocean" applied to eternity; notice the different image involved in “bank,” as evidently compared in the writer's mind with shoal; add the etymologies and other applications of these words. 12. Explain, "We'd jump the life to come;" shew its different interpretations with relation to the rest of the sentence; illustrate jump as an adverb (see Othello, Act iii. Sc. 3, three lines from the conclusion of the scene). Note the fact, that this word, with many others, has, since Shakespeare's days, lost caste in the fastidious ears of modern delicacy; illustrate by "pate" (Hamlet); “grunt” for groan (Hamlet); “squeal” and “squeak” (Hamlet and Julius Cæsar); "hugger-mugger" (Hamlet), etc. 13. Note the difference between "if" in the first clause and "if" in the second clause; compare "if" in the second clause with "that" in the third clause; illustrate the relation of these words to the ideas commonly denominated in grammar subjunctive and imperative; compare "that" with "que," in the third person singular of the French imperative, and exhibit the philosophy of the expression. 14. Sum the clauses of the sentence; point out the beauty of the climactical periphrasis in relation to the represented state of the speaker's mind, and notice that the magnificent effect is produced chiefly by Saxon elements. 15. Convert the passage into prose language adapted to the received phraseology of the present or the last century. See Johnson's beautiful paraphrase of Hamlet's soliloquy, "To be, or not to be," etc. CONTENTS. ON THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF ENGLISH POETRY Page xxiii I. FOURTEENTH CENTURY.-This and the two preceding centuries constitute the age of Romances in Verse and Prose, of the Provençal and Norman-French literature; of the development of Italian literature-of rhymed "Chronicle Histories"-of "Miracle" plays-and of the com- pletion of the form of the English language, as distinguished from Anglo-Saxon.-Reformation movement begun by John Wycliffe. II. FIFTEENTH CENTURY.-An age barren in English Poetry,- SOVEREIGNS.-England, Henry IV., V., VI., Edward IV., V., III. SIXTEENTH CENTURY.-Progress of the Revival of Learning.- The age is remarkable for great sovereigns on the European thrones; e. g., Charles V., Emperor of Germany and King of Spain, Francis I. of France, Pope Leo X., Henry VIII., and Elizabeth of England, Mary of Scots, Henry IV. of France, Pope Sixtus V.-Completion of the structure of the English language; increased Italian influence on English literature; theological poetry of Edward VI.'s reign; development of SOVEREIGNS.-England, Henry VII., Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, Elizabeth; Scotland, James IV., James V., Mary, James VI. (I. 54 From the Induction to the Mirror for sonages in Hell described From the Complaint of Henry Duke ROBERT SOUTHWELL, born Self-contemplation - Times go by turns - EDMUND SPENSER, born 1553? died 1599 88 IV. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.-Decay of the drama;-" Meta- BRITISH SOVEREIGNS.-James I., Charles I. (Commonwealth, |