PREFACE.

ix

SPECIMEN SECOND, FROM SHAKESPEARE.

If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well
It were done quickly: if the assassination
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch,
With his surcease, success: that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all here,
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,
We'd jump the life to come.

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.

SOVEREIGNS:-England, Edward I., II., III., Richard II. ;

Scotland, Robert Bruce, David II., Robert II., III.

II. FIFTEENTH CENTURY.-An age barren in English Poetry,-
exhibiting a great partiality for classical legends, especially those of
Theseus, of Troy, and of Alexander the Great. The fifteenth century
is distinguished by eminent Scottish Poets, both in the commencement
and in the conclusion. A partiality displayed for allegorical poems
founded on Italian models, and on those of the preceding century;
dramatic "Moralities; "—"Revival of Learning.”—Printing introduced
into England by Caxton in 1471.

SOVEREIGNS.-England, Henry IV., V., VI., Edward IV., V.,
Richard III., Henry VII.; Scotland, James I., II., III., IV.

xiv.

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

the English drama.

SOVEREIGNS.-England, Henry VII., Henry VIII., Edward VI.,

Mary, Elizabeth; Scotland, James IV., James V., Mary, James VI. (I.

of England).

Page

67

69

69

FULKE GREVILLE, LORD BROOKE,

born 1554, died 1628

From the Treatise of Humane

Learning-Imagination

From the Treatise of Monarchy-

71

71

43

Constitutional

limitation of

despotism

72

45

From the Treatise of Religion—

Reality of a True Religion

72

45

SAMUEL DANIEL, born 1562,

died 1619

From the Civil Wars-Introduction

of foreign vices deprecated

From the Epistle to the Countess of

Cumberland

From Musophilus-The Nobility

exhorted to the patronage of

learning

2 23

73

73

74

75

48

49

CHRISTOPHER

MARLOWE,

born 1564, died 1593

76

Faustus' Vision of Helen of Greece 76

The Death of Faustus

- 77

79

The Passionate Shepherd to his

Love

79

Answer to the above by Sir Walter

Raleigh

80

53

The Soul's Errand, by Raleigh

-

81

54

From the Induction to the Mirror for
Magistrates-Allegorical Per-

sonages in Hell described

From the Complaint of Henry Duke
of Buckingham

ROBERT SOUTHWELL, born
1550, died 1595

Self-contemplation -

Times go by turns -

EDMUND SPENSER, born 1553?

died 1599

From the Faerie Queene-

Una and the Lion

83

MICHAEL DRAYTON, born 1563,

died 1631-

From Nymphidia; the Court of

Fairy-Pigwiggen's Equipment 83

From the Polyolbion-Personifica-

tion of the river Severn

The Stag Hunt

58 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, born

56

84

85

Prince Arthur

Belphoe oe

House of Riches

60

1564, died 1616

86

61

From the

Midsummer Night's

63

Dream-Oberon's Vision

88

The Ministry of Angels

The Chamber of Memory in the

Castle of Alma

From Measure for Measure-The
Duke to Claudio

-

Prince Arthur's Address to Night

The Garden of Adonis

65

671

Mercy-Portia to Shylock

Music-Lorenzo and Jessica

88

IV. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.-Decay of the drama;-" Meta-
physical" poetry;-literature of the Cavalier and Puritan parties ;-
French influence in the literature of the reign of Charles II. ;-Rhymed
Plays; perfection of the structure of the language by Dryden ;-age of
the great Theology of England ;-Revolution, 1688.

BRITISH SOVEREIGNS.-James I., Charles I. (Commonwealth,
Protectorate of the Cromwells), Charles II., James II., William III.,
and Mary.