ground we may fairly consider him as a critick exhibiting his opinion as to what that style admitted of, in the most unequivocal way, by his own example. As Comus now appears, the following lines occur, among others: " Harpies and Hydras or all the monstrous forms,” v. 605. "Not being in danger, as I trust she is not ;" v. 370. As the poem originally stood, we meet with more instances of this sort of metre; thus, instead of v. 485, as it now appears : "Some roving robber calling to his fellows." we find in his own MS. in Trinity College, Cambridge: " Some curld man of the sword calling to his fellows." He probably thought that too great an intermixture of these irregularities would be injurious to the effect of a short composition; but he has lavishly admitted them in Paradise Lost. Creech was very far from being a rugged or a careless writer, yet in his translation of the first book of Manilius, he has these lines, describing the earth : " Its parts to one fixt point press jointly down, " And meet, and stop each other from moving on." But the principal point which we have to ascertain, is the usage of Shakspeare and his contemporary dramatists; and here our materials are so abundant, that the only difficulty is in selection. I have already produced a passage in Henry VI.; but as this play, according to Mr. Malone's hypothesis, was not entirely written by our author, it may be considered as questionable authority. I will, therefore, produce lines from other plays, which I have taken at random: " And why, I pray you? Who might be your mother " Over the wretched, what though you have no beauty." As You Like It, vol. vi. p. 459. "But in these cases " I cannot strike at wretched Kernes, whose arms "They say he parted well, and paid his score, "Menenius. Think on the wounds his body bears which show " Scars to move laughter only. "Men. Scratches with briars, Consider further."Coriolanus, vol. xiv. p. 144. I might go on to fill pages; but the reader will apply the principle to other passages as they present themselves. Let us now look to Beaumont and Fletcher: "Expect a trumpet and a herald with you, "To bid you render; we two perdues pay for't else." Mad Lover, Act I. Sc. I. "Though he never saw a woman of great fashion "Before this day, yet methinks 'tis possible Ibid. " Her thoughts were merciful, but she laughed at you." "He turns away in scorn! I am contemned too! Ibid. " Sir, you that have abused me, and now most basely " And sacrilegiously robbed this fair temple, " I fling all these behind me, but look upon me.".. Queen of Corinth, Act II. Sc. I. 66 She's young and blessed, "Sweet as the spring, and as his blossoms tender; " And I a nipping north-wind, my head hung "With hail and frosty icicles. Are the souls so too, "When they depart hence, lame, and old, and loveless? "No, sure 'tis ever youth there; time and death "Follow our flesh no more; and that forced opinion "That spirits have no sexes, I believe not; "There must be love, there is love." Mad Lover, Act IV. Sc. I. So Ben Jonson, in his character of Germanicus: " Sabinus and myself "Had means to know him within; and can report him. " And every action nearer to the gods, So Massinger: 66 Sejanus, Act I. Sc. I. There's no drop "Of melting nectar I taste from her lip " But yields a touch of immortality " To the blest receiver; every grace and feature " Prized to the worth, bought at an easy rate Roman Actor, Act II. Sc. I. The poetry of that age was not only occasionally redundant, it was as often defective. Even Mr. Steevens acknowledges that an accidental hemistich sometimes occurs in our author's plays, without ascribing it to the blunders of Heminge and Condell: nor were Shakspeare and his dramatick contemporaries alone subject to this accident; for the same measure is found in the satires of Marston and Hall: "Say, curteous sir, speakes he not movingly Marston, sat. 10. "Time was, and that was term'd the time of gold, "Of the Dodonian oakes." Hall, lib. iii. sat. 1. As I have shown that a syllable was sometimes added to the beginning of a line, so one was sometimes withdrawn from it. Massinger is justly praised by Mr. Gifford for the general harmony of his versification; I will therefore produce two instances from his plays: 66 Only hold me "Your vigilant Hermes with aërial wings "And I am made immortal." " And Beaumelle my daughter in the place, The Fatal Dowry, Act IV. Sc. IV. Shakspeare, as well as his contemporaries, has sometimes indulged in this licence; but upon two occasions may, perhaps, have done it on purpose, that the sound might correspond to the sense. In the first scene of Macbeth, the witch says: "Fair is foul and foul is fair, The third scene thus commences: "1 Witch. Where hast thou been, sister? Killing swine." I may be thought fanciful, but I own, that to my ear, there seems to be something characteristick in the swinging cadence of these two lines, which would be lost if we were to make them regular, which might be easily done: "Let's hover through the fog and filthy air "Say where hast thou been, sister? Killing swine." Some passages, which are apparently defective, Mr. Malone has proposed to supply, by supposing that many words which are now considered as monosyllables, were pronounced as dissyllables, and vice versa, in Shakspeare's time; and this, to a certain degree, is admitted by Mr. Steevens. With regard to a large class of words, namely, those in which lorr is subjoined to another consonant, the reader will find Mr. Tyrwhitt's opinion, as to the mode in which they may be pronounced, in vol. iv. p. 31, and more largely stated at p. 137, of the same volume. Mr. Malone has followed up this principle, and by its help has endeavoured to show that a line, such as the following: " Prove it, Henry, and thou shalt be king," is not deficient in its proper quantity of syllables, if we read Henery. It has been objected to this, that still the line would not be correct measure, as we cannot lay the emphasis on the second syllable of the name Henéry. Mr. Malone never contended that the measure would be correct; but only that it would be such as frequently passed current in our old English poetry. How far this was well founded, will be seen when we come to the discussion of the halting versification, that is found in our ancient writers. But as many deficient lines are found in Shakspeare, it might be a simpler explanation of such passages, to refer them to that class. Mr. Steevens allows that such words as year, hear, may be resolved into dissyllables, because they consist of two vowels; but he denies that the same process is applicable to those which have only one, such as here. This, I apprehend, is totally overthrowing Mr. Tyrwhitt's principle, which teaches us that the letters I or rare susceptible, in themselves, of an additional vowel in pronunciation The licences which were resorted to by the writers of that time in lengthening or shortening words, are fully pointed out in Three Proper, and |