Note 958 — ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA.

Has forgot, &c.] The next speech of Rearage concludes a couplet, which can only be rendered complete by the following awkward arrangement of the text;

“Has forgot his father’s

Name, poor Walter Gruel, that begot him,

Fed him, and brought him up.”

But let me observe, that Middleton, when he introduces a couplet, does not always think it necessary that the first line should consist of as many feet as the second: compare the lines at the end of the fourth act of this play;

“Delay not now; you’ve understood my love;

I’ve a priest ready; this is the fittest season.

No eye offends us: let this kiss

Restore thee to more wealth, me to more bliss.”

See also The Phœnix, p. 351, where my remark (note ⁸⁴⁵) about the dropping out of part of the line was inconsiderate.

Nor is this somewhat slovenly style of writing peculiar to our author: in one of Brome’s plays, a speech which consists of regular blank verse concludes with the following couplet;

“So, now dye and sinke

Into thy grave, to rid us of thy stinke.”

The Sparagus Garden, 1640, sig. H. 3. (acted 1635.)