"'Tis Kate and I am wed, and you are sped:
And so, farewell, for we will to our bed."--p. 214.
Is it not evident that Shakespeare chose the word "sped" as a rhyme to
"bed," and that the imitator, in endeavouring to recollect the jingle,
has not only spoiled the rhyme, but missed the fact that all "three"
were "married," notwithstanding that "two" were "sped"?
It is not in the nature of such things that instances should be
either numerous or very glaring; but it will be perceived that in all
of the foregoing, the purpose, and sometimes even the meaning, is
intelligible only in the form in which we find it in Shakespeare. I
have not urged all that I might, even in this branch of the question;
but respect for your space makes me pause. In conclusion, I will
merely state, that I have no doubt myself of the author of the _Taming
of a Shrew_ having been Marlowe; and that, if in some scenes it appear
to fall short of what we might have expected from such a writer,
such inferiority arises from the fact of its being an imitation, and
probably required at a short notice. At the same time, though I do
not believe Shakspeare's play to contain a line of any other writer,
I think it extremely probable that we have it only in a revised form,
and that, consequently, the play which Marlow imitated might not
necessarily have been that fund of life and humour that we find it
now.