by the editors of the Second Folio. Of the fifty-three relative clauses in the First Folio that have the predicate in the third singular, where a rigid adherence to formal grammar would require the plural, the Second Folio changes the following: Taming of the Shrew. II 1, 141–142. Petruchio: “As Mountaines are for windes, "Tis not the many oathes that makes the truth." "The Sands are numbred, that makes up my Life." F2: make. Troilus and Cressida. III 2, 159. Troilus: "Well know they what they speake, that speakes so wisely." "Farewell the plumed Troopes, and the bigge Warres, F2: make. Antony and Cleopatra. I 4, 21. Caesar: "With knaues that smels of sweate." III 6, 77–78. Octavia: "Betwixt two Friends, F2: doe. That does afflict each other." Of three indefensible plurals the Second Folio changes one: Julius Caesar. III 1, 114-115. Brutus: "How many times shall Caesar bleed in sport, That now on Pompeyes Basis lye along." F2: lyes. J. Hoops, Englische Studien. 30. I. 2 V. The passages hitherto cited have been those in which, in the concord of subject and predicate, the third singular form has invaded the domain of grammatical number. There remain to be considered those passages in which the third singular has invaded the domain of grammatical person, i. e. in which the form of the third person singular is used instead of the second (rarely the first) person singular. The First Folio has forty-six passages of this kind; the Second Folio changes the following 1): Measure for Measure. II 2, 115–116. Isabella: "Thou rather with thy sharpe and sulpherous bolt F2: Splitst. Love's Labour's Lost. V 1, 69. Holofernes: "Thou disputes like an Infant." Richard II. I 3, 16-17. Mowbray: "My name is Tho. Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, F2: come. II. Henry VI. V 1, 130. Clifford: "But thou mistakes me much." 1) Some of these changes seem to me hypercritical. They are additional evidence, however, that the First Folio mirrors the language as it was spoken, the Second as it was written. In many cases st is almost unpronounceable. Even if Shakespeare had written "Revisitst" (Ham. I 4, 53), the probability is that the actor, unless he had an ear impenetrable to the difference between cacophony and euphony, would have said "Revisits". There must have been in the spoken language of the time (as in Old English) a certain intermingling of the two forms. Es kann kaum ein zweifel sein, dass die gekürzte form der 2. person auf s (affects aus affect'st), die so mit der 3. person identisch ist, zu den zahlreichen schwankungen einigermassen beigetragen hat und an der häufigen ablenkung zu der 3. person mit schuld trägt.« (Franz, Sh.-Gram. p. 402.) III. Henry VI. III 3, 252-253. King Lewis: "And thou Lord Bourbon, our High Admirall "I for a Clarence weepes, so doth not she." F2: weepe. Romeo and Juliet. I 2, 88. Benvolio: "The faire Rosaline, whom thou so loues." F2: lovest. Macbeth. V 5, 39. Macb.: "Upon the next Tree shall thou hang aliue." F2: shalt. I 4, 52-53. Haml.: Hamlet. "That thou dead Coarse againe in compleat steele, Revisits thus the glimpses of the Moone." "And thou by that small hurst hath casheer'd Cassio." F2: hast. V 2, 63-65. Oth.: "Thou do'st stone my heart, A Murther." F2: makest. Antony and Cleopatra. I 3, 70-71. Ant.: "Making Peace or Warre, "That thou reciding heere, goes yet with mee." F2: goest. I 4, 66. Caesar: "The barkes of Trees thou brows'd." V 2 208-209. Cleopatra: "Thou, an Egyptian Puppet shall be shewne In Rome aswell as I." There is but one instance in the First Folio of are for art, almost certainly a misprint (as proved by the succeeding art): Merry Wives of Windsor. IV 5, 57. Host.: "Thou are clearkly: thou art clearkly (Sir John).” F2: art. VI. Such, then, are the syntactical differences between the First and Second Folios. It will be seen that the editors of the Second Folio proceeded cautiously in their revision, leaving unchanged a majority of passages exactly like those that they saw fit to change. But I trust that I have at least succeeded in showing (1) that the changes introduced were not aimless; (2) that, on the contrary, these changes give evidence of a definite editorial purpose, and thus make clear the raison d'être of the Second Folio; and (3) that the syntax of the First Folio, though fully as consistent with itself as is the syntax of the other Folios, was yet not regarded as the approved syntax of written English of the time. Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, La. (U.S.A.). TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. I. When we regard the long series of Shakespeare's plays, we see that they fall naturally into two great divisions. The first division reaches to Hamlet and includes Julius Caesar. In this period the poet works according to the canons of ancient art. He makes the happy or tragic issue depend on a fortunate conjuncture of external circumstances or on a struggle between the persons he delineates and an external power. It is the art of the old Greek poets. The external power may lie in the circumstances in which the dramatis personae are placed as in Romeo and Juliet. Or it may be the issue of a struggle between incompatible natures, uniting like Brutus and Cassius to reach a common aim. In Hamlet and the later plays, the happy or tragic issue depends on the struggle between the discordant elements lying in the soul of the hero himself. In this view of his art the great poet anticipated the words of Goethe: »Zwei seelen wohnen, ach! in meiner brust.< Two natures live and war within my breast. But there are many who never become aware of the two natures in their breasts. At a certain age they get into a groove and slide on in it to the end of their lives. Of them we cannot use the word development in the usual sense. But the man capable of development, in the full sense of the word, becomes sensible sooner or later of the discordant elements in his own nature. The golden dreams of youth are shattered at the first encounter with the stern realities of life. Our poet takes up Hamlet just at this period. Hamlet feels the impulse to revenge his father's murder and his mother's dishonour as an irresistible unseen power in himself: "Haste me to know it, that I, with wings as swift As meditation or the thoughts of love, May sweep to my revenge." A series of terrible revelations open up to him. Ophelia, timid and helpless as she is, appears to him in league with |