For truth to overpeer.-Rather than fool it so,

Let the high office and the honour go

To one that would do thus."

The whole speech is in couplets: write therefore, "For truth t'o'erpeer." And so, too, write, Coriolanus, i. 1,— "Yet are they passing cowardly. But, 'beseech you, What says the other troop?"

for I beseech you; and 2 K. H. VI. ii. 3,—

"'Beseech your majesty, give me leave to go."

Atque ita passim in vett. poëtis; e.g., Chapman and Shirley, Chabot, iv. 1, Gifford and Dyce's Shirley, vi. 144,— "I beseech your majesty, let all my zeal

To serve your virtues," &c.

'Beseech.

Compare 'protest. Ford, Lady's Trial, ii. 1, ed. Gifford,

And trow; Much Ado, &c. iii. 4,-" What means the fool, trow?" ubi vide Var. M. W. of W. i. 4,-" Who's there, trow?" (al. I trow.26)

(Beaumont and Fletcher, Wit at Several Weapons, iv. 1,—

"Does fury make you drunk? know you what you say?"

We should pronounce, I imagine, know'e.)

It may be observed in general, that the substitution of the

26 Here the folio reads I trow; in Much Ado, &c., and in Cymbeline, i. 7, trow, without the preposition. In these passages the phrase has the same meaning, and apparently answers to the modern I wonder. The usual signification of trow is trust, think.— Ed.

fuller forms of words for the abbreviated ones (e.g., against for 'gainst, alas for 'las, i'faith for 'faith, whatsoe'er for whate'er) is a frequent error in the old editions of our poets.

1 K. Henry VI. v. 1,—

"Marriage, uncle? alas, my years are young."

Surely; "Marriage, uncle? 'las, my years," &c. (as, e.g. 5,—

"Marriage is a matter of more worth," &c.)

K. Henry VIII. ii. 4, near the beginning,―

No judge indifferent, nor no more assurance

Of equal friendship and proceeding. Alas, sir,
In what have I offended you ?"

And so, I think, Timon of Athens, iv. 2,

..

t

thy great fortunes

Are made thy chief afflictions. Alas, kind lord!" &c. Ford, ""Tis Pity She's a Whore," ii. 6, Moxon, page 33, col. 2,

Ann.

"Receive it Annabella.

Alas, good man!")

Qu. 'Las; and in Putana's speech just below," she said, 'Las good man

!

Marlowe, K. Edward II. Dodsley, vol. ii. p. 392,

"We'll enter in by darkness to Killingworth."

Read dark.

Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, Dyce's Green, vol. i. p. 208,

"Whatsoe'er betide, I cannot say him nay."

Write whate'er; and so correct metri gratia, passim in

Greenianis. Chapman and Shirley, Chabot, i. 2, Gifford and Dyce, vol. vi. p. 103,

st

is this the consequence

Of an atonement made so lately between

The hopeful Montmorency and his lordship?"

Read late. i. 1, p. 90,—

""Tis brave, I swear.

All.

Read worth.

Nay it is worthy your wonder."

Ib. 2,
Ib. 2, p. 100,-

"Assuring me he never more would offer

To pass [press] a suit unjust, which I well know
This is, above all, and have often been urg'd
To give it passage."

Read oft.

IX.

E'er for ever, ne'er for never and the like.
Winter's Tale, iv. 3, fol. and vulg.,-

"As you have ever been my father's honour'd 27 friend;" Write, "As y' have e'er been." Indeed the Var. 1813 has "As you have e'er been;" but that of 1821, ever. E'er for ever, when used in the sense of always,—though much more rare than in its other sense, unquam,—occurs now and then in our old poets. I hardly know whether it is needful to produce instances. King John, ii. 1,—

"St. George, that swindg'd the dragon, and e'er since
Sits on his horse' back at mine hostess' door."

27 The earlier editors improperly followed the 2nd and succeeding folios in omitting honour'd.-Ed.

VOL. I.

6

Coriolanus, v. 3,

that kiss

I carried from thee, dear; and my true lip
Hath virgin'd it e'er since."

Twelfth Night, i. 1,

"And my desires, like fell and cruel hounds,
E'er since pursue me."

Heywood, Fair Maid of the Exchange, sig. B 4, ed. 1625, ap. Dyce, Remarks, p. 76,—

"Men are so captious they'll ever conster [i.e. construe] ill." Write e'er. Play of the Country Girl, Retrosp. 2nd Series, vol. ii. 21,

p.

"The contumelious and unmanly darings,

That, to enforce me from the peacefulness

Ere liv'd in my calm bosom, you have most
Uncivilly cast upon me."

E'er, surely. Beaumont and Fletcher, Wit at Several
Weapons, iii. 1,—

"Beware a sturdy clown e'er while you live."

Two Noble Kinsmen, v. 3, Knight, Pict. S. p. 164, col. 2,

cr

E'er?

which shows

The one the other. Darkness, which ever was

The dam of Horror," &c.

Taylor, Hog hath lost his Pearl, iii. 1, Dodsley, vol. vi. p. 361,

"If e'er thy tongue did utter pleasing words,

Let it now do so, or hereafter e'er

Be dumb in sorrow."

Henry More on the Soul, P. iii. C. 1, St. 1,

"The soul's ever durancy I sung before

Ystruck with mighty rage."

For ever.

Massinger and Dekker, Virgin Martyr, v. i.

Moxon, p. 23, col. 1,

a conscience all stain'd o'er, Nay, drown'd and damn'd for ever in Christian gore."

i. 1, p. 1, col. 2,—

Abandoning for ever the Christian way.”

I notice, even in a poem published in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1735, p. 429, col. 2, 1. 343,

..

hateful hatred does for e'er endure,

And with that hatred, plagues for evermore." Everlasting. Comedy of Errors, iv. 2,—

"A devil in an everlasting garment hath him."

As the context is in the ordinary blank verse, I conclude that Shakespeare wrote e'erlasting; as in Glapthorne's Hollander, at least if the passage is copied correctly in Retrosp. vol. x. p. 139,

And so perhaps we should write, B. & F., Spanish Curate, ii. 1, the passage being in comic blank verse on the usual model of the twin dramatists,—

"To have a thin stipend and an everlasting parish,

Lord, what a torment 'tis !"

And Middleton, Women beware Women, iv. 1, Dyce, vol. iv. p. 603,

"But come I to your everlasting parting once,

Thunder shall seem soft music to that tempest."

"your e'erlasting."

Knight-if it were worth mentioning-has in numerous

28 The old quarto 1640 has ere' lasting.--Ed.