NOTES.
AUTHORSHIP OF HENRY VIII.
In my last communication on the subject of Henry VIII., I referred to certain characteristic tricks of Fletcher's style of frequent occurrence in that play, and I now beg leave to furnish you with a few instances. I wish it, however, to be understood, that I advance these merely as illustrative specimens selected at random; as there is scarcely a line of the portions of the play I assume to be Fletcher's but would furnish some evidence to a diligent student of this writer's style: and that, although I think each separate instance as strongly characteristic of Fletcher as it is unlike Shakspeare, it is only in their aggregate number that I insist upon their importance.
The first instance to which I call attention is the use of the substantive "one" in a manner which, though not very uncommon, is used by no writer so frequently as Fletcher. Take the following:—
"So great ones."—Woman's Prize, II. 2.
"And yet his songs are sad ones."—Two Noble Kinsmen, II. 4.
and the title of the play, The False One.
Compare with these from Henry VIII.:—
"This night he make a supper, and a great one."—Act I. 3.