names, as 'Persia's king?' See Lowth's Grammar, p. 42, note; who further observes that the direct derivation of this case from the Saxon genitive is sufficient of itself to decide the matter.' In one of the three examples in King Henry VI., Bowdler has very improperly altered the text' France his sword' into France's sword,' not considering, probably, that France is there to be understood not of the country, but of the French king. Besides, if the alteration is to be made in one instance, it should be made in all.

5. Proceeding to the Pronouns, I notice first the elliptic use, still common in many phrases, of the dative case of the personal pronouns; e. g. 'me,' 'us,' instead of 'for me,' 'for us. Thus in 2 Sam. xix. 26, I will saddle me an ass,' i. e. for myself; where the idiom in question represents the force of the middle verb in Greek. So also in Deut. x. 1. 'Make thee an ark ;' in Josh. xxii. 26, ‘Let us now prepare to build us an altar;' and ibid. 16, Ye have builded you an altar;' in Judges vi. 2, vi. 2, The children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains.' Again, where the notion of the verb is not reflexive: In 1 Kings xiii. said unto his sons, Saddle me the ass. saddled him the ass; and he rode thereon.' like manner, Shylock in the Merchant of Venice :

Go with me to a notary; seal me there
Your single bond.

13, 'He

So they

Act i. Sc. 3.

In

And Pandulf, in King John,* Act iii. Sc. 4, ‘John lays you plots.' But our poet has examples of the idiom still more peculiar. Thus Shylock again in the speech quoted below, p. 65 :—

The skilful shepherd peeled me certain wands.

The ambiguity to which such a manner of speaking may give rise, has been taken advantage of in the humorous scene between Petruchio and his servant Grumio at the door of Hortensio, in Taming of the Shrew :

Petruchio. Here, sirrah Grumio; knock, I say.

Grumio. Knock, sir? Whom should I knock? Is there any man has rebused your worship?

Petruchio. Villain, I say, knock me here soundly.

Grumio. Knock you here, sir? Why, what am I, sir, that I should knock you here, sir?

Petruchio. Villain, I say, knock me at this gate,

And rap me well, or I'll knock your knave's pate. Act i. Sc. 2.

6. Formerly 'it,' the neuter pronoun of the third person, besides borrowing the form thereof' to supply the possessive case, was indebted for its declension to the pronouns masculine and feminine of the same person, and instead of its,† his and

* See the elegant volume upon Shakspeare and his Birthplace, by Mr. Wise, who gives other instances, and speaks of it as an idiom still current in Warwickshire, p. 112, sq.

+ Dean Alford, in his Plea for the Queen's English, informs us that 'its' never occurs in the English version of the Bible, and that it is said only to occur three times in Shakspeare, and once in Paradise Lost. See Good Words for 1863, p. 192.

hers were used with reference to a thing spoken of. Thus in Joshua iv. 18, The waters of Jordan returned unto their place, and flowed over all his banks, as they did before.' In S. Matthew xxvi. 52, 'Put up thy sword again into his place.' In Haggai ii. 3, 'Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory?' These examples* are sufficient to prove that our poet was guilty of no vulgarity, as then considered, when he put into the mouth of Cæsar the following words addressed to Antony :

Let me lament

That thou, my brother, my competitor,
The arm of mine own body, and the heart
Where mine his thoughts did kindle-

Antony and Cleopatra, Act v. Sc. 1.

But it is curious that our translator of the Apocryphal Book of Ecclesiasticus should have so far differed at once from Shakspeare, and from himself, as to make the heart' not masculine, but first feminine and then neuter, as he does in xxii. 19, He that pricketh the heart maketh it to show her knowledge.' We find another example in the same play, where Euphronius says to Cæsar:

Such as I am, I come from Antony:

I was of late as petty to his ends,

As is the morn dew on the myrtle leaf
To his grand sea.

Act iii. Sc. 10.

* See also Exod. xxxvii. 17; Acts xii. 10; Rev. xxii. 2, quoted by Dean Alford. Gen. i. 1 1 ; Ps. liv. 7, quoted in Mr. Booker's Glossary.

C

The explanation of Steevens that by 'his' we are to understand 'its,' is, I believe, the true one.

7. We know that the neuter of the relative pronoun, which, was formerly used as masculine, or feminine; as in 'Our Father which art in heaven,' where we should now say 'who.' Again, in Gen. xviii. 27, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes.' In Matt. xxvii. 55, 56, we have which' for both 'who' and whom : -And many women were there beholding afar off, which followed Jesus from Galilee ministering unto Him, among which was Mary Magdalene,' &c. Both usages are to be met with in Shakspeare. Thus in the Tempest, Act iii. Sc. 1, Ferdinand says, The mistress which I serve,' and in King Richard III. Gloster, the future king, to Prince Edward: :

Those uncles which you want, were dangerous.

Act iii. Sc. I.

On the other hand we find in Shakspeare, though not, so far as I have noted, in our translation of the Bible, the use of who' for which:' as in the Tempest, Act i. Sc. 2:—

A brave vessel,

Who had, no doubt, some noble creatures in her.

And again in the same play, Act iii. Sc. 3:—

The elements

Of whom your swords are tempered.

There are two other peculiarities in the use of the relative pronoun, both of which may derive illustration from the comparison upon which we are engaged. I mean the redundant insertion before the relative, of the definite article, and also of the personal pronoun. Thus, the which,' Matt. xiii. 14, and in the which,' Acts xxvi. 6, may be compared with Coriolanus, Act i. Sc. 1, 'Fame, at the which he aims;' and with Antony and Cleopatra, Act ii. Sc. I :

To lend me arms and aid, when I required them,
The which you both denied.

And as examples of the other construction which I just now named, we have in Luke iv. 34, 'I know thee who Thou art,' and in King Lear, Act i. Sc. 1, 'I know you what you are,' and again in King Henry VI. 3rd Part, Act ii. Sc. 6:—

And he nor sees, nor hears us what we say.

The idiom is one supposed to be borrowed from the Greek. It is certainly frequent in the ancient Greek authors, especially the tragedians.

8. There is nothing which occurs to me as calling for remark in connexion with the grammar of Adjectives except the use of double comparatives and superlatives. Of the former Shakspeare would seem to have been specially fond. I have noted down more than thirty examples, and among them 'more better,' also worser' and 'more worse,'