I now release the reader from the discussion of the irregularities which occur, either in the praseology or metre of Shakspeare, which would have been an ungracious enquiry, were it not for the recollection that the slight spots which the most minute and scrupulous investigation can discover, are lost in the blaze of his excellence. I am now very shortly to call the reader's attention to the important change which he effected in our dramatick versification. Although I am unable to bestow upon Lord Surrey the praise which is claimed for him by my friend Dr. Nott, of having been the first who taught us metre, yet he is justly entitled to our gratitude for the introduction of blank verse into our language, which it is probable he was induced to adopt from the example which had been shown us by Italy, a country from which we have derived every real improvement in poetry, that we have borrowed from our continental neighbours. Dr. Nott is disposed to call this in question, on the ground that the Italia Liberata of Trissino was not published till after Surrey's death. He forgets that the Sophonisba, of the same author, had appeared before that nobleman was born, and that versi sciolti had become not only popular in Italy, but had been adopted at an early period in Spain. But although Trissino has had the honour generally ascribed to him of being the first who wrote in that measure, because he was the first who brought it to perfection; yet we learn from Crescimbeni that it existed in a ruder state in Italian literature long before his time. The Italians, indeed, seem, from the facilities which their eminently poetical language affords, to have led the way in every experiment upon metre. Thus, long before Sidney or Gabriel Harvey had taught English to halt on Roman feet, the same attempt had been made by Tolemei, with better materials, but not with much success. But whatever may have been the origin of Surrey's blank verse, it is exhibited in his translation of Virgil in a very imperfect state. It is formal and stiff. It reads as if it had originally been written in rhyming couplets, and the terminations subsequently altered. This measure was afterwards adopted by a still more distinguished ornament of the English aristocracy, who, as the author of the first tragedy in our language that at all deserved that name, and from his sublime Induction to the Mirror for Magistrates, may be considered as, in some degree, the precursor both of Shakspeare and Spenser. To him we owe the application of blank verse to the drama. Yet still, even in the hands of Sackville, it was heavy and pompous. The first who attempted to introduce any variety of pauses, was a writer whose name can never be mentioned without pain. If Marlowe had not led a life of profligate dissipation, which, perhaps, hastened his death, he would probably have held a very high rank among the poets of his country. He who was at the same time celebrated for his "mighty line," and could produce that exquisite specimen of pastoral sweetness, The Shepherd to his Love, was capable, under better auspices, of the greatest efforts of genius. In his Edward III. we occasionally meet with passages which exhibit the varied flow of succeeding poets: "A heavy case; "When force to force is knit, and sword and gleave "Slaughter themselves in others, and their sides "With their own weapons gore! But whats the help? Misgovernd kings are cause of all this wreck : "And Edward, thou art one among them all "Whose looseness hath betrayd thy land to spoil, "Of thine own people." His translation of the first book of Lucan, is a very spirited performance; and as I know of no other copy but that which is in Mr. Malone's collection, I will produce a specimen. It is from the speech of Lalius, the centurion. See Lucan. lib. i. 1. 361: "What, doubtst thou us? even nowe when youthful bloud But although these and similar passages evince that Marlowe's ear had sometimes taught him to release blank verse from the fetters which had been imposed upon it, yet the general strain of his versification resembles that of Surrey and Sackville. At last Shakspeare arose, who was destined to carry the drama in all its parts to the highest state of perfection; and even in the structure of his verse, not only left all his predecessors far behind him, but exhibited to those who came after him, a model of harmony which no one has ever surpassed. Perhaps no species of metrical excellence can be mentioned, which is not exemplified in his plays. He has equally avoided the formal monotony of those who went before him, and the laxity of his contemporaries; his metre is generally correct; but the inexhaustible variety of his modulation never palls upon the ear. Whether that spirit of his, in aspiration, lifts him from the earth;" or humbler topicks require a more subdued tone; whether he is 66 sublime, pathetick, familiar, or gay, the colours of to express : “ So on the tip of his subduing tongue "All kinds of arguments and questions deep, I have withdrawn from the Index, which will be Particles omitted: listen, listen to, xi. 105. other instances of particles omitted, xii. 23, 83. xiii. 228, 390. xiv. 131. xv. 33, 282. xix. 142. I Particles redundant: command upon, command, xi. 137. other instances, vi. 70. xiv. 58. Particles employed contrary to modern usage: for catching cold, lest they should catch cold, iv. 26. guilty to, guilty of, iv. 214. in, for into, iv. 434. ix. 34. xii. 139. in, for on, xviii. 243. xiv. 384. detected with, i. e. by, viii. 142. xiv. 379. charge with, i. e. charge for, xii. 172. xvi. 134. xviii. 427. I desire you of more acquaintance, v. 255. whom we intreated of succour, xvii. 349. Adjectives used adverbially: damnable, for damnably, x. 438. xiv. 318. honourable, for honourably, xiv. 288, 395. Double comparative: more wider, viii. 416. more richer, x. 11. Double superlative: most best, vii. 272. *For a multitude of particles similarly misapplied in the |