A CRITICAL EXAMINATION

OF THE

TEXT OF SHAKESPEARE.

A CRITICAL EXAMINATION

OF THE

TEXT OF SHAKESPEARE,

WITH

REMARKS ON HIS LANGUAGE AND THAT

OF HIS CONTEMPORARIES,

TOGETHER WITH

NOTES ON HIS PLAYS AND POEMS.

BY

WILLIAM SIDNEY WALKER,

FORMERLY FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.

VOL. I.

LONDON:

JOHN RUSSELL SMITH,

36, SOHO SQUARE.

1860.

1871, July 1. Shapleigh Fund.

leis. I.-III.

LONDON:

PRINTED BY F. PICKTON,
PERRY'S PLACE, 29, OXFORD STREET.

36-21

18-2

CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

PRELIMINARY NOTICE

PREFACE

ᎪᏒᎢ.

I.-Verse mistaken for prose, and the converse

II.-Compound words improperly resolved

III.-Arrangement of words, natural, but grammatically

1

21

55

62

x.—A interpolated, and sometimes omitted, in the first

XI.-Certain words used with reference to the agent

XII.-Ingenious, engin, gin, &c.

XIII.—Writing of the letter O.

XIV.-A peculiar mode of rhyming

XV. Another peculiar mode of rhyming

XVI.-A third peculiar mode of rhyming

XVII.-As in the sense of to wit

XVIII.-Inversion of the indefinite article

XIX.-Certain preterites used as participles

XX.-Occasional licences of rhyme, more especially as re-

gards the interchange of m and n

86

94

100

104

. 106