Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/369

 5. m. MAY is, mi NOTES AND QUERIES.

363

raised slightly above the level of the eceding letter, suggesting that it is in ality n inverted.

'As You LIKE IT,' II. iv. 44-58 (9 th S. ii. 204 ; 64), I think we may agree that Rosalind i is in mind the fatal effect of hopeless love mark, " Thou speakest wiser than thou art ware of," is only another way of saying That's truer than you think for." Touch- tone lightly utters as a merry jest what to yr is sober truth.
 * 1 e incurable wound it may inflict. Her

That the first " mortal " in the comparison means " subject to death " can hardly be oubted, and that the second " mortal " has

lie same meaning the "as so "of the com-

nirison would seem to make equally certain,

eaving no room for a suspicion of one of the

>oet's " darling equivocations," as Johnson

)uts it. It is hard to resist DR. SPENCE'S

xplanation "extreme" when looking at the

jhrase " mortal in folly," but I was led away

rom this meaning by the necessary relation

I which the phrase bears to the remainder of

the comparison above referred to.

While itis notnecessary to assertthatTouch- stone was capable, like Lear's fool, of pining away in the absence of either of his gentle mistresses, yet he has given proof of his unselfish devotion in surrendering the ease of court life to follow their fortunes, making good Celia's words, " He '11 go along o'er the wide world with me" (I. iii. 134). In the light of this loyalty, Touchstone's next speech, " Nay, I shall ne'er be ware of mine own wit Itill I break my shins against it "(II. iv. 59, 60), Ishows us the man who regards himself as !the protector of these two helpless creatures, (and expresses the impatience he feels with jhimself for having inadvertently said some- ling to call forth Rosalind's sober rejoinder, his element of regret shows the reason of is wishing to "be ware " of his own wit ; he ad just broken his shins against it done omething through his wit that he was sorry )r. His remark is usually uttered as a light ut I believe we are not refining the fool's laracter too much to take the other mean- ig. Touchstone was no ordinary fool, and I ke to feel that in these words he has per- itted us to see the man beneath the motley.
 * st, in the same vein as the preceding one

E. MERTON DEY. St. Louis.

' OTHELLO,' I. i. 21 (5 th S. xi. 383 ; 9 th S. i. (3, 283, 422, 483 ; ii. 203, 402, 524 ; iii. 64, 222, 82). I am most reluctantly compelled to epart from my resolution to withdraw from his discussion ; but I cannot possibly remain

silent under C. C. B.'s misstatements at the last reference. With misapprehension he began his part in the discussion (9 th S. i. 422), confessing afterwards (9 th S. ii. 203) that it was in consequence of " a temporary lack of intelligence"; and with misapprehension he seems inclined to close. I hope nothing worse than "lack of intelligence" is the cause of the confusion at the last reference given above.

His note (iii. 65) in which he charged me with " horrible sibilation " this horrible sibi- lation, as he himself explained, consisting in throwing two " sibilants together at the end of the verse " (not a word then about " two long syllables ") was written in answer to my note (ii. 402) in which, for C. C. B.'s special behoof, I had been careful to scan both the line in the text and the amended line thus : A fellow almost damn'd in a fa-ir wife. A fellow all must damn in affa-irs wise. When (iii. 222) I replied to that last note of his I took it for granted that he had dealt with the line as I had scanned it for him ; and, in refutation of his charge of " horrible sibilation" in throwing two "sibilants to- gether at the end of the verse," I was not (as he now charges me) guilty of irrelevancy in any one of the similar instances of " horrible sibilation " which I quoted. There is no more " horrible sibilation " in " affa-irs wise " than there is in " his wife was false," " and kissed his lips," " own kisses sin," &c.

But C. C. B. and at this I am justly in- dignant had all the while a card up his sleeve (the " two long syllables "), which he has now produced at what he thought the end of the game. He says my " long string of quotations is entirely irrelevant ; for in none of them is a verse ending with two long syllables, each carrying a sibilant." There was not a word about the "two long syllables" before. The attack was on the " two sibilants " alone, and this attack my " long string of quotations " was intended to meet.

I ask now, Where are the "two long syllables, each carrying a sibilant," in " affa-irs wise " 1 And where is the justification for C. C. B.'s remark, "If DR. SPENCE cannot appreciate the difference in sound between ' his wife was false ' and ' in affairs wise ' I can ; and I venture to think that Shakespeare could'"? I can appreciate the difference quite as well as C. C. B., and, in fact, better ; for his ear tells him that " in a fair wife " is a pleasant ending to a line, while my ear tells me that no line ends pleasantly with two long syllables, whether sibilants or not ; but appreciate no difference in sound between " his wife was false" and "in affa-irs wise," with which form