  Act iv. sc. 3. Pecunia's speech:— “No, he would ha' done, That lay not in his power: he had the use Of your bodies, Band and Wax, and sometimes Statute's.” Read (1815)— ... “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. [pg 282]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. |
|
