naunt witt, subtill, and to dessimule and fayne verie mete"; but I find no allusion to this trait in him. It was no new stage attraction and continued in favour. Lyly set the fashion in Mother Bombie, where Silena "raked together all the odd blind phrases that help them that know not how to discourse." Later Shakespeare and Ben Jonson respectively give us Touchstone and Downright (who are leading characters), and are supposed to beautify and enhance the value of their representations by the same device. It was becoming the vogue and it remained so for a couple of centuries-sometimes courtlysometimes scholarly-but continually attractive and required by the audiences. The Prince says of Gloucester

"Let Aesop fable in a winter's night,

His currish riddles sort not with this place" (v. v. 25-26). Gloucester has just used a common proverb. He doesn't begin in his earlier period, but once he is made Duke of Gloucester the humour develops. He gives "a nine days' wonder" at III. ii. 112, and a little earlier (50) "much rain wears the marble" appears. In IV. i. 83 he hears little, says not much, and thinks the more. At IV. vii. 25 he has a fox proverb I have not traced, and in the first scene of Act v., "strike while the iron is hot," is his, immediately after a card saying. Later, v. vi. II-12, an often-quoted distich on the thief, the bush and suspicion of an "officer," is his.

Was this a stage tradition? Has it anything to do with Burbage's acting the part of Richard III.? It is a sort of speciality that might be allotted to a favourite actor with a predilection that way. Burbage was a favourite as early as 1588, and Richard III. was one of his great parts. Halliwell conjectured that Henry calls Gloucester (or Richard III.) Roscius at V. vi. 10, because he took the part.

However it arose the characteristic is continued, and it is to be noted the adages used are such as were familiar and older than Shakespeare's time. In Richard III., Gloucester gives "Jack became a gentleman" (I. iii. 72); "eyes drop millstones" (I. iii. 354); he boasts of his trick at I. iii. 337 and III. i. 82-83 "ill weeds grow apace" (III. i. 103); the maid's part, "say nay and take it" (III. vii. 51); “so wise, so young, never lives long" (III. i. 79). After his elevation to the throne

he is more dignified. Besides these he is several times credited with proverbs by other speakers in both plays.

Lastly, there is the old True Tragedie of Richard the Third (reprinted in Shaks. Library, Hazlitt) which probably preceded Richard III., and is a poor production, but appears to have been remembered by Shakespeare. In it Richard goes at proverbs at once, as to find a knot in a rush" (67); "a bone to gnaw upon" (67); "ill jesting with edge tools" and "strike while iron is hot" and "if my neighbour's house be on fire let me seek to save my own" (68). And more of them later, pp. 76, 86, 116, etc.

I think the point is interesting. Is there any other chief character in Shakespeare deliberately made a proverb-monger? -one in a dignified position, I mean. Dr. Johnson suggested that Gloucester was called Aesop in the quoted lines "on account of his crookedness," but I think he misinterpreted the passage, and there is a further point in the gibe.

I have just found a character-Nicholas Proverbs in Porter's Two Angry Women of Abingdon (see Hazlitt's Dodsley, vol. vii.)—which may have brought the device in question into special favour at the time the character of Richard was in hand. The play can be shown to bear a sufficiently early date by a quotation from R. Harvey's Plaine Percevall (1589), a quotation showing its popularity on the stage and therefore the inherent likelihood of its yielding a suggestion. The passage is on p. 16 of the reprint in The Marprelate Controversy (J. Petheram, 1847): "yet I will nicke name no bodie: I am none of these traft mockado mak-a-dooes: for 'Qui mochat, moccabitur' quoth the servingman of Abingdon." This tract is of date 1589. On page 301 of the play, Nicholas Proverbs, the servingman, says: "it seems to me that you, Master Philip, mock me: do you not know, qui mocat mocabitur? mock age, and see how it will prosper." This date for this play, full of interesting references and matter, is very useful. No doubt it has been noted but I have not seen it. The earliest reference in Henslowe (to a continuation of the play, "the 2 pte of the 2 angrey wemen of abengton") dates 1598: 1599 is the date of the earliest known edition. Compare a passage in it (p. 275) with 3 Henry VI. v. v. mistress, well; I have read Aesop's fables, And moral meaning well enough."

25: "Well, know your

REAPPEARING PASSAGES.

Continuity of authorship evidence: or expressions characteristic of these five plays but not in Shakespeare's later work. Found here in two or more of the plays, two not including a pair of either First Contention and 2 Henry VI., or True Tragedy and 3 Henry VI., since in these cases they form a single reference. The references to The Contention and True Tragedy are to the parts of the final plays where these passages appear in collation. Uncommon, or otherwise unknown, expressions (at this date) alone are selected.

thread of life. 1 Henry VI. 1. i. 34; 2 Henry VI. IV. ii. 31. fight it out. 1 Henry VI. I. i. 99, 1. ii. 128, III. ii. 66; True Tragedy, 3 Henry VI. I. i. 117, 1. iv. 10 (varied from True Tragedy). And in Titus Andronicus, v. iii. 102, "fought Rome's quarrel out". Undaunted spirit. 1 Henry VI. 1. i. 127, III. ii. 99, v. v. 70. eyes.. .. more dazzled. . . as piercing as . . . the mid-day sun. 1 Henry

VI. 1. i. 12-14; 3 Henry VI. v. ii. 17.

to buckle with. 1 Henry VI. I. ii. 95, IV. iv. 5, v. iii. 28; True Tragedy; 3 Henry VI. 1. iv. 50.

replete with. 1 Henry VI. 1. i. 12, 1. vi. 15, V. v. 17; 2 Henry VI. 1. i. 20; True Tragedy; 3 Henry VI. m. ii. 84; True Tragedy (at 3 Henry VI. IV. vi. 70). And Love's Labour's Lost.

proud insulting. 1 Henry VI. 1. ii. 138; True Tragedy (twice); 3 Henry VI. II. i. 168, 11. ii. 84.

parching heat. 1 Henry VI. I. ii. 77; 2 Henry VI. 1. i. 79.

heart-blood. 1 Henry VI. 1. iii. 83; Contention; 2 Henry VI. 11. ii. 66; 3 Henry VI. 1. i. 223; True Tragedy (at 3 Henry VI. II. i. 79-80). And Richard II. (three times).

last gasp, latter gasp, latest gasp. 1 Henry VI. 1. ii. 126, 11. v. 38; True Tragedy; 3 Henry VI. II. i. 108, v. ii. 41. Last gasp is in Cymbeline, 1. v. 53. gather head. 1 Henry VI. 1. iv. 100; Contention; 2 Henry VI. IV. V. And Titus Andronicus.

10.

When I am dead and gone. 1 Henry VI. I. iv. 93; Contention; 2 Henry VI. II. iii. 37. "Dead and gone," ballad-scrap, Hamlet.

hungry-(hunger-)starved. 1 Henry VI. 1. v. 16; 3 Henry VI. 1. iv. 5. bells... and bonfires. 1 Henry VI. 1. vi. 11-12; Contention; 2 Henry VI. v. i. 3.

win the day. 1 Henry VI. 1. vi. 17; 3 Henry VI. Iv. iv. 15. And Richard III.

in procession sing.

praise and Solemne processions sung In laud.

1 Henry VI. I. vi. 20; Contention (at 2 Henry VI. IV. ix. 23-24).

for every drop of blood... five lives, more lives than drops of blood. 1 Henry VI. п. ii. 8; True Tragedy; 3 Henry VI. 1. i. 97. And Troilus and Cressida.

troops of armed men. 1 Henry VI. II. ii. 24; Contention (at 2 Henry VI. m. i. 314).

374.

perceive (my) mind. 1 Henry VI. п. ii. 59; 2 Henry VI. m. i.

realm of France. 1 Henry VI. п. ii. 36, IV. i. 147, IV. vii. 71, 82, V. iv. 112; 2 Henry VI. 1. iii. 160; Contention (at 1. iii. 160 and 211). And twice in Henry V.

fill the world with. 1 Henry VI. 1. ii. 43, v. iv. 35; True Tragedy; 3 Henry VI. v. v. 44.

give censure.

Richard III.

1 Henry VI. n. iii. 10; 2 Henry VI. 1. iii. 120. And

White rose dyed in bloody red . . . in lukewarm blood. 1 Henry VI. II. iv. 61; 3 Henry VI. 1. ii. 33-34. (Compare 2 Henry VI. II. ii. 65-66, and Contention.)

Shallow judgment (or spirit of judgment). 1 Henry VI. II. iv. 16; 3 Henry VI. IV. i. 62.

red rose and the white A thousand souls to death and red rose and the white... ... a thousand lives must wither. 1 Henry VI. 11. iv. 126-127; 3 Henry VI. II. v. 97-102.

book of memory. 1 Henry VI. II. iv. 101; 2 Henry VI. I. i. 100. Out of hand. 1 Henry VI. ш. ii. 102; 3 Henry VI. 1v. vii. 63. And in 2 Henry IV. and Titus Andronicus.

blood-drinking (or consuming) sighs, hate. 1 Henry VI. II. iv. 108 (b. d. h.); 2 Henry VI. II. ii. 61 (b. c. s.), II. ii. 63 (b. d. s.) (In Titus Andronicus "blood-drinking pit" occurs, literal meaning); blood-sucking sighs. 3 Henry VI. ïv. iv. 22.

choked with ambition.

VI. II. i. 143.

1 Henry VI. II. iv. 112, II. v. 123; 2 Henry

lavish tongue. 1 Henry VI. пI. v. 47; Contention (at 2 Henry VI. IV. i. 64). [Contention (at 2 Henry VI. 1. i. 24) “lavish of my tongue ".] I girt thee with the sword. 1 Henry VI. II. i. 171; Contention; 2 Henry VI. 1. i. 65.

lordly (to people, contemptuously). 1 Henry VI. m. i. 43, . iii. 62, v. iii. 6; 2 Henry VI. 1. i. 11; Contention; 11. i. 30. And Lucrece (in good sense).

54.

run a tilt. 1 Henry VI. m. ii. 51; Contention; 2 Henry VI. 1. iii.

twit one with cowardice... perjury. 1 Henry VI. I. ii. 55; Contention (at 2 Henry VI. m. i. 178, varied in transition); 3 Henry VI. v. v. 40. And (with falsehood) Two Gentlemen of Verona.

late-betrayed, late-deceased. 1 Henry VI. u. ii. 82, 132; the latter in Titus Andronicus. And late-disturbed, late-embarked occur 1 Henry IV., Venus and Adonis.

...

care is... corrosive, parting be a corrosive. 1 Henry VI. II. iii. 3; 2 Henry VI. ш. ii. 403.

with sugared words. 1 Henry VI. 1. iii. 16; 2 Henry VI. III. ii. 45. And Richard III.

with colours spread. 1 Henry VI. ш. iii. 31; True Tragedy; 3 Henry VI. I. i. 91.

slaughter-man. 1 Henry VI. I. iii. 75; 3 Henry VI. 1. iv. 169. And Titus Andronicus, Henry V. and Cymbeline.

dearest blood.

1 Henry VI. II. iv. 40; 3 Henry VI. v. i. 69; (dearest heart-blood), 3 Henry VI. 1. i. 223. broach blood. 1 Henry VI. m. iv. 40; 2 Henry VI. IV. x. 40; 3 Henry VI. п. iii. 15-16.

take exceptions at, or to. 1 Henry VI. IV. i. 105; 3 Henry VI. ш. ii. 46. And Two Gentlemen of Verona (twice).

presumptuous (of persons). 1 Henry VI. ш. i. 8, Iv. i. 125; 2 Henry VI. 1. ii. 42; True Tragedy; 3 Henry VI. 1. i. 157.

play the orator. 1 Henry VI. IV. i. 175; 3 Henry VI. 1. ii. 2 (and True Tragedy), II. ii. 43 (and True Tragedy), I. ii. 188. And in Richard III.

timeless death. 1 Henry VI. v. iv. 5; 2 Henry VI. m. ii. 187; 3 Henry VI. v. vi. 42. And Richard III.

God and Saint George. 1 Henry VI. IV. ii. 55; 3 Henry VI. п. i. 204; True Tragedy; 3 Henry VI. Iv. ii. 29. And Richard III.

malignant stars. 1 Henry VI. IV. v. 6; True Tragedy (at 3 Henry VI. I. iii. 6).

well I wot. 1 Henry VI. IV. vi. 32; True Tragedy; 3 Henry VI. II. ii. 134, IV. vii. 83, v. iv. 71 (first reference only, for True Tragedy). And Titus Andronicus, Midsummer Night's Dream.

effusion of blood

effuse of blood. 1 Henry VI. v.

i. 9;

True

Tragedy (effuse); 3 Henry VI. п. vi. 28.

mickle age. 1 Henry VI. IV. vi. 35; 2 Henry VI. v. i. 174. Marry, and shall. 2 Henry VI. 1. ii. 88; True Tragedy; 3 Henry VI. v. v. 42. And in 1 Henry IV. and Richard III.

Thou Icarus ... my Icarus ... my poor boy Icarus. 1 Henry VI. Iv. vi. 55, IV. vii. 16; True Tragedy; 3 Henry VI. v. vi. 21.

the woman wears the breeches (varied). 2 Henry VI. 1. iii. 145; True Tragedy; 3 Henry VI. v. v. 23.

...

from ashes... rear'd a phoenix . . . ashes . . . bring forth . . phoenix. 1 Henry VI. IV. vii. 93; True Tragedy; 3 Henry VI. 1. iv. 35. And Henry VIII.

stand on a..

point. 2 Henry VI. 1. i. 216; True Tragedy (at 3 Henry VI. IV. viii. 27, “upon "); 3 Henry VI. Iv. vii. 58. And Midsummer Night's Dream.

sumptuous. 1 Henry VI. v. i. 20; 2 Henry VI. 1. iii. 133, IV. vii. 100. And 1 Henry IV. "Sumptuously" is in Titus Andronicus. And Henry VIII. at my depart. Contention; 2 Henry VI. 1. i. 2; 3 Henry VI. 1v. i. 92. And Two Gentlemen of Verona.

installed in or into (a state), or shortly installed. 1 Henry VI. II. v. 89, IV. i. 17, v. i. 28; True Tragedy; 3 Henry VI. ш. i. 46. And Henry VIII.

...

dims mine eyes. . . dimmed eyes (with tears) . eyes dimmed. 2 Henry VI. 1. i. 54; Contention; 2 Henry VI. III. i. 218; 3 Henry VI. v. ii. 16 (" and eyes wax dim," 1 Henry VI.).

force perforce. Contention; 2 Henry VI. 1. i. 256; True Tragedy (at 3 Henry VI. п. iii. 5). And King John.

knit one's brows. 2 Henry VI. 1. ii. 3; True Tragedy; 3 Henry VI. II. ii. 20. And in Lucrece.