The writers of the Elizabethan age and previously, were all of them very
coarse in their mode of expression, and the dramatists not very delicate
in their plots, though in doing so they did but obey the dictates of
fashion and the bad taste of the times. Even prolixity and
circumlocution were countenanced, and the insufferable conceits we meet
with in the poems of Donne, Cowley, and others, were highly relished in
those days. Euphaeism (mentioned so often by Sir W. Scott in _The
Abbot_,) was also then in vogue, and all these various peculiarities of
style, language, &c. were indispensable in all that was offered to the
public. Shakspeare's fondness and propensity for punning may claim the
same excuse, viz. "the hoary head and furrowed face of custom;" yet
there are some of these puns interspersed through his works, which are
sad blots indeed to our modern fastidious eyes, and that we could well
wish to see expunged; such a one now is this:

"Say, '_pardon_,' king, let pity teach thee now."
"Speak it in French, king, say, '_pardonnez moi_.'"

"A quibble (says Dr. Johnson,) gave him such delight that he was content
to purchase it by the sacrifice of reason, of propriety, and even of
truth; a quibble was to him the fatal Cleopatra for which he lost the
world, and was content to lose it!"

Schiller, who is styled "the Shakspeare of Germany," and who is so
ardently admired at the present day, has indeed taken our author for his
model; he has in many respects been too servile a student, for his
plagiarisms are both close and numerous. Thus, any one acquainted with
his celebrated play of _The Robbers_, will readily recollect that the
whole story is built upon the secondary plot in _King Lear_, between the
Duke of Gloucester and his two sons; one of these who is a natural