... “he had the use of
Your bodies,” &c.
Now, however, I doubt the legitimacy of my transposition of the “of” from
the beginning of this latter line to the end of the one preceding;—for
though it facilitates the metre and reading of the latter line, and is
frequent in Massinger, this disjunction of the preposition from its case
seems to have been disallowed by Jonson. Perhaps the better reading is—
“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.”