save by a process which is commonly called cram: on all such matters there are abler writers than ourselves; the men, in fact, from whom we cram. Never let us hunt after a subject, unless we have something which we feel urged on to say, it is better to say nothing; who are so ridiculous as those who talk for the sake of talking, save only those who write for the sake of writing? but there are subjects which all young men think about. Who can take a walk in our streets and not think? the most trivial incident has ramifications, to whose guidance if we surrender our thoughts, we are ofttimes led upon a gold mine unawares, and no man whether old or young is worse for reading the ingenious and unaffected statement of a young man's thoughts. There are some things in which experience blunts the mental vision, as well as others in which it sharpens it. The former are best described by younger men, our province is not to lead public opinion, is not in fact to ape our seniors, and transport ourselves from our proper sphere, it is rather to shew ourselves as we are, to throw our thoughts before the public as they rise without requiring it to imagine that we are right and others wrong, but hoping for the forbearance which I must beg the reader to concede to myself, and trusting to the genuineness and vigour of our design to attract it may be more than a passing attention. I am aware that I have digressed from the original purpose of my essay, but I hope for pardon, if, believing the digression to be of more value than the original matter, I have not checked my pen, but let it run on even as my heart directed it. CELLARIUS. NOTE ON THE PRONUNCIATION OF CERTAIN WORDS IN SHAKSPEARE. THE origin of the surreptitious quarto editions of some of the plays of Shakspeare is yet an unsolved problem. The most plausible theories respecting it are that they were supplied by some of the inferior actors, and hurried into the market, or that they were printed from notes taken during the acting. The decision of the question must rest on the internal evidence derived from minute examination of the separate quartos, and if the latter is in any case the true solution of the difficulty, it cannot fail to be detected. On this I hope to enter in a future number, and have stated thus much because the latter theory, or a collateral one that the quartos were orally dictated, is incidently supported by some of the following passages which I select for a different object. It is to be presumed that the pronunciation of words, as well as the spelling, has materially changed in the last two centuries and a half; and this change must often make a pun fall very flat, and occasionally completely hide it from the reader of the present day. I am not aware of any authority we have on the subject of the pronunciation of words in the reign of Elizabeth, so that the following are mere surmises, and rest solely on the evidence that the passages themselves furnish: which will be limited to a very few, extracted solely from Shakspeare, which turn on such words as speak, eager, &c., which I imagine were then pronounced with what is now the Irish accent, as spake, aiger. Pt. The first passage I shall quote is from King Henry IV., Attend. Give me leave to tell you, you lie in your throat, if you say I am any other than an honest man. Fals. I give thee leave to tell me so! I lay aside that which grows to me! If thou gett'st any leave of me, hang me; if thou takest leave thou wert better be hanged. Now I challenge any but the most forced interpretation of Falstaff's reply except upon the supposition that leave was pronounced lave, in the double sense of permission, and of belongings left, in the most general sense, as it is used by the older English, and the Scotch poets. The support given to the above mentioned theory of the origin of the quartos by various readings in them of words which have, on this supposition, the same sound, is obvious, especially where a common word, wholly inapplicable, is substituted for a rarer one which was not recognized; a very common mistake, as every one who has tried shorthand reporting knows. In Love's Labour Lost we find break and speak rhyming, and in the same scene a various reading of the same words. So in Othello "the drugs that weaken (or waken) motion," a passage which has tried the commentators, and produced a vast amount of not very edifying discussion. It is not improbable that the puzzling word bating has crept into Juliet's much tormented speech in Act. 111., Sc. 11. from its similarity of sound with beating. The passage is thisCome, civil night... Hood my unmanned blood bating in my cheeks the reading as it stands at present seems to require a very harsh Greek construction, which is entirely foreign to the English. One more passage to the same effect. The reading which is, I believe, generally adopted in Hamlet, Act. 11., Sc. v. is the following,-which is the quarto reading with reduced spelling; With juice of cursed hebenon in a vial And curd, like eager droppings into milk What on earth is meant by " eager droppings"? How can the reading have arisen? I turn to the 2nd folio Edition With Juyce of cursed Hebenon in a Violl... The "aygre (or aigre) droppings" are intelligible enough, and on this hypothesis alone can the quarto reading be explained. There are many jokes that have been lost by the modern pronunciation; but the truth of conjectures on such points is very doubtful. For instance, it is scarcely likely that Bottom meant a pun on tear in Mid. Night's Dream, Act. 1., Sc. I.; and doubtful whether we derive any new pleasure from the similarity of sound of fear and fair in Banquo's speech in Macbeth, Act. 1., Sc. 111.; and I can imagine a Theban not perceiving the new point given to Moth's song in Love's Labour Lost, Act. 1., Sc. 11., but we cannot afford to lose Falstaff's excellent quibble on raisins and blackberries, so entirely in character with the jolly old knight. It is the well known passage in King Henry IV., Pt. 1., Act. II., Sc. IV. P. Hen. Come, tell us your reason; what sayest thou to this? Poins. Come, your reason, Jack, your reason. Fals. What! upon compulsion? No: were I at the strappado, or all the racks in the world, I would not tell you on compulsion! If reasons were as plenty as blackberries, I would give no man a reason upon compulsion, I. These examples will, I hope, be sufficient to illustrate my meaning; and will perhaps elicit a few notes from others. on the same or collateral subjects. The internal evidence for the origin of the quarto editions of Shakspeare is especially a subject full of interest. "W." TENNYSON. To those who have not met with the early Edition of Tennyson's Poems, the following description of statues of Elijah and Olympias, which found place in a note to the Palace of Art, in the edition of 1833, but have since been omitted, may be both new and interesting: 66 One was the Tishbite whom the raven fed, As when he stood on Carmel-steeps With one arm stretched out bare, and mocked and said, Tall, eager, lean and strong, his cloak windborne Behind, his forehead heavenly-bright From the clear marble pouring glorious scorn, Lit as with inner light. One was Olympias: the floating snake Rolled round her ancles, round her waist Her perfect lips to taste Round by the shoulder moved: she seeming blythe The Dragon curves melted and mingled with Of rounded limbs. The following stanzas also "expressive of the joy where"with the soul contemplated the results of astronomical experiments" were contained in a later note to the same poem, and were not inserted in the text only because the poet thought it already too long. "In the centre of the four quadrangles rose an immense tower Hither, when all the deep unsounded skies Shuddered with silent stars, she clomb, Regions of lucid matter taking forms, Brushes of fire, hazy gleams, Clusters and beds of worlds, and bee-like swarms Of suns, and starry streams. She saw the snowy poles of moonless Mars, That marvellous round of milky light Below Orion, and those double stars Whereof the one more bright Is circled by the other, &c. "M." |