Lippincott'S Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science, Volume 26 December, 1880. by Various None (smart ebook reader .txt) 📕

Classical And Two-Thirds Saxon. But Then All The Classical Elements Have

Inherent Meaning,  While Half Of The Saxon Have None. We May Hence Infer

That Of The Significant Words In Shakespeare One-Half Are Of Classical

Derivation. Now,  Of The Apa? ?E?? Mue?A With Initial _A_,  I Call 262 Words

Out Of 364 Classical,  And With Initial _M_,  152 Out Of 310; That Is,  414

Out Of 674,  Or About Four-Sevenths Of The Whole Shakespearian Host

Beginning With Those Two Letters. In doubtful Cases I Have Considered

Those Words Only As Classical The First Etymology Of Which In Webster Is

From A Classical Or Romance Root. In The Biblical Words Used Once Only

The Classical Portion Is Enormous--Namely,  Not Less Than Sixty-Nine Per

Cent.--While The Classical Percentage In Shakespearian Words Of The Same

Class Is No More Than Sixty-One.

Among The 674 _A_ And _M_ Shakespearian Words Occurring Once Only The

Proportion Of Words Now _Obsolete_ Is Unexpectedly Small. Of 310 Such

Words With Initial _M_,  Only One-Sixth,  Or 51 At The Utmost,  Are Now

Disused,  Either In Sense Or Even In Form. Of This Half-Hundred A Few Are

Used In Shakespeare,  But Not At Present,  As Verbs; Thus,  To _Maculate_,

To _Miracle_,  To _Mud_,  To _Mist_,  To _Mischief_,  To _Moral_--Also

_Merchandized_ And _Musicked_. Another Class Now Wellnigh Unknown Are

_Misproud,  Misdread,  Mappery,  Mansionry,  Marybuds,  Masterdom,

Mistership,  Mistressship._

Then There Are Slight Variants From Our Modern Orthography Or Meanings,

As _Mained_ For Maimed,  _Markman_ For Marksman,  _Make_ For Mate,

_Makeless_ For Mateless,  _Mirable,  Mervaillous,  Mess_ For Mass,

_Manakin,  Minikin,  Meyny_ For Many,  _Momentarry_ For Momentary,

_Moraler,  Mountainer,  Misgraffing,  Misanthropos,  Mott_ For Motto,  To

_Mutine,  Mi'Nutely_ For Every Minute.

None Seem Wholly Dead Words Except The Following Eighteen: To _Mammock_,

Tear; _Mell_,  Meddle; _Mose_,  Mourn; _Micher_,  Truant; _Mome_,  Fool;

_Mallecho_,  Mischief; _Maund_,  Basket; _Marcantant_,  Merchant; _Mun_,

Sound Of Wind; _Mure_,  Wall; _Meacock_,  Henpecked; _Mop_,  Grin;

_Militarist_,  Soldier; _Murrion_,  Affected With Murrain; _Mammering_,

Hesitating; _Mountant_,  Raised Up; _Mered_,  Only; _Man-Entered_,  Grown

Up.

About One-Tenth Of The Remaining _Apa? ?E?? Mue?A_ With Initial _M_ Are

Descriptive Compounds. Among Them Are The Following Adjectives:

_Maiden-Tongued,  Maiden-Widowed,  Man-Entered_ (Before Noted As

Obsolete),  _Many-Headed,  Marble-Breasted,  Marble-Constant,

Marble-Hearted,  Marrow-Eating,  Mean-Apparelled,  Merchant-Marring,

Mercy-Lacking,  Mirth-Moving,  Moving-Delicate,  Mock-Water,  More-Having,

Mortal-Breathing,  Mortal-Living,  Mortal-Staring,  Motley-Minded,

Mouse-Eaten,  Moss-Grown,  Mouth-Filling,  Mouth-Made,  Muddy-Mettled,

Momentary-Swift,  Maid-Pale_. From This List,  Which Is Nearly Complete,

It Is Evident That Such Compounds As May Be Multiplied At Will Form But

A Small Fraction Of The Words That Are Used _Once Only_ By Shakespeare.

The Words Used _Once Only_ By Shakespeare Are Often So Beautiful And

Poetical That We Wonder How They Could Fail To Be His Favorites Again

And Again. They Are Jewels That Might Hang Twenty Years Before Our Eyes,

Yet Never Lose Their Lustre. Why Were They Never Shown But Once? They

Remind Me Of The Exquisite Crystal Bowl From Which I Saw A Jewess And

Her Bridegroom Drink In Prague,  And Which Was Then Dashed In Pieces On

The Floor Of The Synagogue,  Or Of The Chigi Porcelain Painted By

Raphael,  Which As Soon As It Had Been Once Removed From The Farnesina

Table Was Thrown Into The Tiber. To What Purpose Was This Waste? Why

Should They Be Used Up With Once Using? Specimens Of This Sort,  Which

All Poets But Shakespeare Would Have Paraded As Pets Many A Time,  Are

Multifarious. Among A Hundred Others Never Used But Once,  We Have

_Magical,  Mirthful,  Mightful,  Mirth-Moving,  Moonbeams,  Moss-Grown,

Mundane,  Motto,  Matin,  Mural,  Multipotent,  Mourningly,  Majestically,

Marbled,  Martyred,  Mellifluous,  Mountainous,  Meander,  Magnificence,

Magnanimity,  Mockable,  Merriness,  Masterdom,  Masterpiece,  Monarchize,

Menaces,  Marrowless_.

Again,  A Majority Of Shakespearian _Apa? ?E?? Mue?A_ Being Familiar To Us

As Household Words,  It Seems Impossible That He Who Had Tried Them Once

Should Have Need Of Them No More. Instances--All With Initial _M_--Are

As Follows: _Mechanics,  Machine,  Maxim,  Mission,  Mode,  Monastic,  Marsh,

Magnify,  Malcontent,  Majority,  Manly,  Malleable,  Malignancy,  Maritime,

Manna,  Manslaughter,  Masterly,  Market-Day-Folks,  Maid-Price,  Mealy,

Meekly,  Mercifully,  Merchant-Like,  Memorial,  Mercenary,  Mention,

Memorandums,  Mercurial,  Metropolis,  Miserably,  Mindful,  Meridian,  Medal,

Metaphysics,  Ministration,  Mimic,  Misapply,  Misgovernment,  Misquote,

Misconstruction,  Monstrously,  Monster-Like,  Monstrosity,  Mutable,

Moneyed,  Monopoly,  Mortise,  Mortised,  Muniments_,  To _Moderate_,  And

_Mother-Wit_ These Words,  And Five Thousand More Equally Excellent,

Which Have Remained Part Of The Language Of The English-Speaking World

For Three Centuries Since Shakespeare,  And Will No Doubt Continue To

Belong To It For Ever,  We Are Apt To Declare He Should Have Worn In

Their Newest Gloss,  Not Cast Aside So Soon. Why Was He As Shy Of

Repeating Any One Of Them Even Once As Hudibras Was Of Showing His

Wit?--

      Who Bore It About,

  As If Afraid To Wear It Out

  Except On Holidays Or So,

  As Men Their Best Apparel Do.

This Question,  Why A Full Third Of Shakespeare'S Verbal Riches Was Never

Brought To Light More Than Once,  Is Probably One Which Nobody Can At

Present Answer Even To His Own Satisfaction. Yet The Phenomenon Is So

Remarkable That Every One Will Try After His Own Fashion To Account For

It. My Own Attempt At A Provisional Explanation I Will Present In The

Latter Part Of This Paper.

Let Us First,  However,  Notice Another Question Concerning The _Apa?

?E?? Mue?A_--Namely,  That Which Respects Their _Origin_. Where Did They

Come From? How Far Did Shakespeare Make Them? And How Far Were They

Ready To His Hand? No Approach To Answering This Inquiry Can Be Made For

Some Years. Yet As To This Matter Let Us Rejoice That The Unique

Dictionary Of The British Philological Society Is Now Near Publication.

This Work,  Slowly Elaborated By Thousands Of Co-Workers In Many Devious

Walks Of Study On Both Sides Of The Atlantic,  Aims To Exhibit The First

Appearance In a Book Of Every English Word. In Regard To The Great Bulk

Of Shakespeare'S Diction It Will Enable Us Ten Years Hence To Determine

How Much Of It Was Known To Literature Before Him,  And How Much Of It He

Himself Gathered Or Gleaned In Highways And Byways,  Or Caused To Ramify

And Effloresce From Saxon Or Classical Roots And Trunks,  Thus "Endowing

His Purposes With Words To Make Them Known." Meantime,  We Are Left To

Conjectures. As Of His Own Coinage I Should Set Down Such Vocables As

_Motley-Minded,  Mirth-Moving,  Mockable,  Marbled,  Martyred,  Merriness,

Marrowless,  Mightful,  Multipotent,  Masterdom,  Monarchize_,  Etc. Etc.

But,  However Much Of His Linguistic Treasury Shakespeare Shall Be Proved

To Have Inherited Ready-Made--Whatever Scraps He May Have Stolen At The

Feast Of Languages--It Is Clear That He Was An Imperial Creator Of

Language,  And Lived While His Mother-Tongue Was Still Plastic. Having A

Mint Of Phrases In His Own Brain,  Well Might He Speak With The Contempt

He Does Of Those "Fools Who For A Tricksy Word Defy The Matter;" That

Is,  Slight Or Disregard It. He Never Needed To Do That. Words Were

"Correspondent To His Command,  And,  Ariel-Like,  Did His Spiriting

Gently."

In A Thousand Cases,  However,  Shakespeare Cannot Have Rejected Words

Through Fear Lest He Should Repeat Them. It Has Taken Three Centuries

For The World To Ferret Out His _Apa? ?E?? Mue?A_: Can We Believe That He

Knew Them All Himself? Unless He Were The Providence Which Numbers All

Hairs Of The Head,  He Had Not Got The Start Of The Majestic World So Far

As That,  However Myriad-Minded We May Consider Him. An Instinct Which

Would Have Rendered Him Aware Of Each And Every Individual Of Five

Thousand That He Had Employed Once Only Would Be As Inconceivable As

That Of Falstaff,  Which Made Him Discern The Heir-Apparent In Prince Hal

When Disguised As A Highwayman. In Short,  Shakespeare Could Not Be

Conscious Of All The Words He Had Once Used,  More Than Brigham Young

Could Recognize All The Wives He Had Once Wedded.

In The Absence Of Other Theories Concerning The Reasons For

Shakespeare'S _Apa? ?E?? Mue?A_ Being So Abundant,  I Throw Out A

Suggestion Of My Own Till A Better One Shall Supplant It.

Shakespeare'S Forte Lay In characterization,  And That Endlessly

Diversified. But When He Sketched Each Several Character It Seems That

He Was Never Content Till He Had Either Found Or Fabricated The Aptest

Words Possible For Representing Its Form And Pressure Most True To Life.

No Two Characters Being Identical In any Particular More Than Two Faces

Are,  No Two Descriptions,  As Drawn By His Genius,  Could Repeat Many Of

The Selfsame Characterizing Words. Each Of His Vocables Thus Became Like

Each Of The Seven Thousand Constituents Of A Locomotive,  Which Fits The

One Niche It Was Ordained To Fill,  But Everywhere Else Is Out Of Place,

And Even _Dislocated_. The More Numerous His Ethical Differentiations,

The More His Language Was Differentiated.

His Personages Were As Multifarious As Have Been Portrayed By The Whole

Band Of Italian Painters; But,  As A Wizard In Words,  He Resembled The

Magician In Mosaic,  Who Can Delineate In Stone Every Feature Of Those

Portraits Because He Can Discriminate And Imitate Shades Of Color More

Numberless Than Even Shakespeare'S Words.

It Is Hard To Believe That The Shakespearian Characters Were Born,  Like

Athene From The Brain Of Zeus,  In Panoplied Perfection. They Grew. The

Play Of _Troilus_ Was A Dozen Years In Growth. According To The Best

Commentators,  "Shakespeare,  After Having Sketched Out A Play On The

Fashion Of His Youthful Taste And Skill,  Returned In after Years To

Enlarge It,  Remodel It,  And Enrich It With The Matured Fruits Of Years

Of Observation And Reflection. _Love'S Labor Lost_ First Appeared In

Print With The Annunciation That It Was 'Newly Corrected And Augmented,'

And _Cymbeline_ Was An Entire _Rifacimento_ Of An Early Dramatic

Attempt,  Showing Not Only Matured Fulness Of Thought,