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Diary Extending From 1648 to 1679, Arranged by C. Severn
Diary Extending From 1648 to 1679 Arranged by C Severn Author:John Ward General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1839 Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million book... more »s for free. Excerpt: SHAKSPEARE'S NAME. I Shall briefly state my reasons for adopting the usual mode of spelling the poet's name, though I confess it is with some hesitation I refer to the subject. The difference of one or more letters is of trivial importance, where individual identity so nobly asserts triumphant claims; we might better follow the wise example of the Rhodian woman, who pointing the attention of Apelles to the flowing line of grace and beauty traced on the canvas by a master's hand, said, " The person for whom you are inquiring is here." The poet need not be cited into court to prove his identity, -- he painted from and to the soul, and who can mistake thetracings of his pencil, while nature is herself, while the heart is true to feeling, the eye to sight, and the mind to sense: one line from his creative hand can never fail to tell us, that Shakspeare, the master, has been there! The vast uncertainty in the orthography of the names of places and persons about the Elizabethan era is universally acknowledged. Neglecting nobler topics of discussion, disputants, relative to the correct mode of spelling Shakspeare's name, have been busily engaged in settling this very minute point of feeble and exhausted interest. The " Archseologia " contains an essay on the inconsequential subject; a writer there considers that the agreement of two of the signatures in Shakspeare's will, with the autograph in the volume of Florio's translation of Montaigne, has set the matter for ever at rest, and, consequently, that the poet's name contained no ' a' in the final syllable. Independent of the great variation and utter want ...« less