Notes and Queries, Number 64, January 18, 1851 by Various
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page 4 of 66 (06%)
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The first instance to which I call attention is the use of the substantive "one" in a manner which, though not very uncommon, is used by no writer so frequently as Fletcher. Take the following:-- "_So_ great ones."--_Woman's Prize_, II. 2. "And yet his songs are sad ones."--_Two Noble Kinsmen_, II. 4. and the title of the play, _The False One_. Compare with these from _Henry VIII._:-- "This night he make a supper, and a great one."--Act I. 3. "Shrewd ones."--"Lame ones."--"_so_ great ones."--_Ibid._ "I had my trial, And must needs say a noble one."--Act II. 1. "A wife--a true one."--Act III. 1. "They are a sweet society of fair ones."--Act I. 4. Fletcher habitually uses "thousand" without the indefinite article, as in the following instances: "Carried before 'em thousand desolations."--_False One_, II. 9. "Offers herself in thousand safeties to you."--_Rollo_, II. 1. "This sword shall cut thee into thousand pieces."--_Knight of Malta_, IV. 2. In _Henry VIII._ we have in the prologue: "Of thousand friends." |
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