of his wit.] The arrows of Shakspeare's wit are not the lightly feathered shafts which Fletcher discharges, and as little are they the iron-headed bolts which fill the quiver of Jonson; but they are weapons forged from materials unknown to the others, and in an armoury to which they had no access; their execution is [23:1]resistless when they reach their aim, but they are covered with a golden massiveness of decoration which sometimes impedes the swiftness of their flight. But whether the effect of these peculiarities of Shakspeare be good or evil, their use in helping an identification of his manner is very great. [Sidenote: Contrast with Fletcher's.] Nothing can be more directly opposite to them than the slow elegance and want of pointedness which we find in Fletcher, who is not free from conceits, but does not express them with Shakspeare's hard quaintness, while he is comparatively quite guiltless of plays on words. The following instances are only a few among many in the present drama, which seem to be perfectly in Shakspeare's manner, and to most of which Fletcher's works could certainly furnish no parallel, either in subject or in expression. [Sidenote: Passages by Shakspere, not Fletcher.] Oh, my petition was Set down in ice, which, by hot grief uncan|died, Melts into tears; so sorrow, wanting form, Is pressed with deeper matter.--Act I. scene i. Theseus speaks thus of the Kinsmen lying before him in the field of battle desperately wounded:-- [Sidenote: Shakspere metaphors.] Rather than have them Freed of this plight, and in their morning state, Sound and at liberty, I would them dead: But forty thousand fold we had rather have | them[24:1] _Prisoners to us than Death_. Bear them speedi|ly From _our kind air, to them unkind_, and min|ister What man to man may do.--Act I. scene iv. A lady hunting is addressed in this strain: Oh jewel O' the wood, O' the world!--Act III. scene i. In the same scene one knight says to another,-- [Sidenote: Shakspere metaphor.] This question sick between us, By bleeding must be cured. [24:2]And the one, left in the wood, says to the other, who goes to the presence of the lady whom both love-- You talk of feeding me, to breed me strength; You are going now to look upon a sun, That strengthens what _it_ looks on.--Act III. scene i. The two knights, about to meet in battle, address each other in these words:-- _Pal._ Think you but thus; That there were aught in me which strove to shew Mine enemy in this business,--were't one eye Against another, arm opposed by arm, I would destroy the offender;--coz, I would, Though parcel of myself: then from this, gath|er How I should tender you!