ON TWO PASSAGES IN "ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL." Among the few passages in Shakspeare upon which little light has been thrown, after all that has been written about them, are the following in Act. IV. Sc. 2. of All's Well that Ends Well, where Bertram is persuading Diana to yield to his desires: "Bert. I pr'ythee, do not strive against my vows: I was compell'd to her; but... more...

NOTE UPON A PASSAGE IN "MEASURE FOR MEASURE." The Third Act of Measure for Measure opens with Isabella's visit to her brother (Claudio) in the dungeon, where he lies under sentence of death. In accordance with Claudio's earnest entreaty, she has sued for mercy to Angelo, the sanctimonious deputy, and in the course of her allusion to the only terms upon which Angelo is willing to remit... more...

Notes. ILLUSTRATIONS OF CHAUCER, NO. VI. Unless Chaucer had intended to mark with particular exactness the day of the journey to Canterbury, he would not have taken such unusual precautions to protect his text from ignorant or careless transcribers. We find him not only recording the altitudes of the sun, at different hours, in words; but also corroborating those words by associating them with physical... more...

The Arke of Artificial Day. Before proceeding, to point out the indelible marks by which Chaucer has, as it were, stereotyped the true date of the journey to Canterbury, I shall clear away another stumbling-block, still more insurmountable to Tyrwhitt than his first difficulty of the "halfe cours" in Aries, viz. the seeming inconsistency in statements (1.) and (2.) in the following lines of the... more...