“O' your bodies,” &c.—
the two syllables being slurred into one, or rather snatched, or sucked, up into the emphasised “your.” In all points of view, therefore, Ben's judgment is just; for in this way, the line cannot be read, as metre, without that strong and quick emphasis on “your” which the sense requires;—and had not the sense required an emphasis on “your,” the tmesis of the sign of its cases “of,” “to,” &c., would destroy almost all boundary between the dramatic verse and prose in comedy:—a lesson not to be rash in conjectural amendments.—1818.
Ib. sc. 4.—
“P. jun. I love all men of virtue, frommy Princess.”
“Frommy,” fromme—pious, dutiful, &c.
Act v. sc. 4. Penny-boy, sen., and Porter.
I dare not, will not, think that honest Ben had Lear in his mind in this mock mad scene.
“The New Inn.”
Act i. sc. 1. Host's speech:—