CHAPTER XXIV.

VENUS AND ADONIS PHRASES REPEATED IN THE PLAYS.

'Good phrases are surely, and ever were very commendable."

-Second Henry IV, iii, 2.

To enable the reader to judge for himself as to the resemblance between the words and phrases in the poem of Venus and Adonis and the plays which Meres enumerates as written by Shakespeare before the year 1598, I cite the following examples of similarity between the poem and the plays. They should be carefully examined and scrutinized by the studious reader. I am taking it for granted, as heretofore stated, that the Venus and Adonis was written by one man and one man only, and as I maintain the proposition that the plays embody the words and thoughts of several writers, the discovery of the writer of the poem will greatly aid in leading us to the discovery of the man who was the true Shakespeare. To avoid the charge of tediousness, I will cite only enough of resembling words and phrases to satisfy the reader that the author of the poem was a principal writer of the plays.

I first give the phrase or word to be particularly noted, and then under it, the resembling sentences.

ABOVE COMPARE.

"The field's chief flower, sweet above compare.'

-Venus and Adonis, 8.

"Which she hath praised him with above compare.

ALL COMPACT OF.

-Romeo and Juliet, iii, 5.

"Love is a spirit all compact of fire."

-Venus and Adonis, 149.

"Are of imagination all compact."

-A Midsummer Night's Dream, iv, 1.

"If he, compact of jaw, grows musical."

ALL SWOLLEN.

-As You Like It, ii, 7.

"All swol❜n with chafing, down Adonis sits."

-Venus and Adonis, 325.

"All swol❜n and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye."

AN EMPTY EAGLE.

"Even as an empty eagle sharp by fast."

-Macbeth, iv, 3.

-Venus and Adonis, 55.

"Wert not all one, an empty eagle were set."

-Third Henry VI, iii, 1.

"And like an empty eagle,

Tire on the flesh of me and of my son.'

ANNOY (as a noun).

-Third Henry VI, iii, 1.

"Good angels guard thee from the boar's annoy."

-Richard III, v, 3.

ANTHEM.

"Her heavy anthem still concludes in woe.'

-Venus and Adonis, 839.

"As ending anthem of my endless dolor."

-Two Gentlemen of Verona, iii, 1.

ANY JOT.

"If springing things be any jot diminished."

-Venus and Adonis, 417.

"Than in possession any jot of pleasure.'

AT RANDOM.

-Third Henry VI, iv, 2.

"But hatefully at random dost thou hit."

-Venus and Adonis, 940.

"And the great care of goods at random left."

-Comedy of Errors, i, 1.

"I writ at random, very doubtfully."

-Two Gentlemen of Verona, ii, 1.

BATE-BREEDING.

"This sour informer, this bate-breeding spy."

-Venus and Adonis, 655.

"Breeds no bate with telling of discreet stories."

"Than foeman's marks upon his battered shield."

-Titus Andronicus, iv, 1.

BEPAINTED.

"Whose pretty mouth bepainted all with red."

-Venus and Adonis, 901.

"Else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheek."

BUT ALL IN VAIN.

-Romeo and Juliet, ii, 2.

"But all in vain, good queen, it will not be."

-Venus and Adonis, 607.

"But all in vain are these mean obsequies."

-Second Henry VI, iii, 2.

"But all in vain, they had no heart to fight."

-Third Henry VI, iii, 2

"Till Hymen's torch be lighted, but in vain."

-The Tempest, iv, 1.

BY SUBTILTY.

"Or as the fox, which lives by subtilty."

-Venus and Adonis, 675.

"Be it by gins, by snares, by subtilty."

-Second Henry VI, iii, 1.

"He chafes her lips, a thousand ways he seeks."

-Venus and Adonis, 477.

"Fain would I go to chafe his paly lips."

-Second Henry VI, iii, 2.

CHAOS COME AGAIN.

"And beauty dead, black chaos comes again."

-Venus and Adonis, 1020.

"And when I love thee not, chaos is come again.”

CHEERING UP.

-Othello, iii, 3.

"Till cheering up her senses all dismay'd."

-Venus and Adonis, 996.

"Went through the army, cheering up the soldiers."

CHURLISH DRUM.

-Richard III, v, 3.

"Scorning her churlish drum and ensign red."

-Venus and Adonis, 107.

"The interruption of their churlish drums."

CLOSURE.

"Into the quiet closure of my breast."

-King John, ii, 1.

-Venus and Adonis, 782.

"Within the guilty closure of thy walls."

-Richard III, iii, 3.

COAL-BLACK.

"And coal-black clouds, that shadow heaven's light."

-Venus and Adonis, 533.

"That comes in likeness of a coal-black Moor." -Titus Andronicus, iii, 2.

"Coal-black is better than another hue."

COLD FAULT.

-Titus Andronicus, iv, 2.

"With much ado the cold fault cleanly out.'

-Venus and Adonis, 694.

"Saw'st thou not, boy, how Silver made it good At the hedge corner in the coldest fault?"

-Taming of the Shrew, Ind., 20.

COMES STEALING.

"How she came stealing to the wayward boy."

-Venus and Adonis, 344.

"That time comes stealing on by day and night."

-Comedy of Errors, iv, 1.

CONGEALED BLOOD.

"And stains his face with her congealed blood."

-Venus and Adonis, 1122.

"Thy tears would wash the cold congealed blood."

-Third Henry VI, 1, 1.

COPE HIM.

"They all strain courtesy who shall cope him first."

-Venus and Adonis, 888.

"They say he yesterday coped Hector in the battle.”

-Troilus and Cressida, i, 2.

COPIOUS.

"Their copious stories oftentimes begun."

-Venus and Adonis, 845.

-Richard III, iv,

4.

"I hear his drum; be copious in exclaims."

CURST (meaning fierce).

"Finding their enemy to be so curst."

-Venus and Adonis, 887.