The blank verse of Surrey and of the authors of Gordebuc--admitting, as we have seen, verses of six feet--may be regarded as strictly decasyllabic. But when it became the standard verse of the theatres it gradually relaxed from its strictness, and admitted trisyllabic feet more and more as it advanced, so that in Fletcher we actually meet with lines containing fifteen syllables, though of no more than five feet. It is most strange that, with these facts staring them, as I may say, in the face, editors, almost without exception, seem to have been haunted by a spectre of five decasyllabic feet. "How often," says Gifford, "will it be necessary to observe that our old dramatists never counted their syllables on their fingers!" They also seem to be unaware of the existence of Alexandrines, or verses of six feet. The play of Othello, for instance, is as full of them as Dryden's riming couplet verse; and yet Mr. Dyce--whom I generally notice as being usually regarded as a leading critic--writes frequently as if such a line were not admissible in dramatic verse. Again, there are critics who regard a verse as good if it contains ten syllables, no matter how made or how arranged. Thus Malone gives as good verses, What wheels, racks, fires, flaying, boiling.--W. T. iii. 2. Curs'd be I that did so. All the chärms.--Temp. i. 2. Poürs into captains' wounds? banishment.--Timon, iii. 5. Mr. Collier regards as a good verse, To yond generation you shall find.--M. for M. iv. 3. "Doth comfort thee in _thy_ sleep. Live and flourish" is the usual reading in Rich. III. v. 5; mine is at least more euphonious. It has never to my knowledge been sufficiently noticed that Shakespeare makes occasional use of the seven-foot verse of Golding's Ovid and Phaer's Virgil, works in which it is evident he was extremely well-read. Such are the following lines:-- For often have you writ to her, and she in modesty, Or else for want of idle time, could not again reply; Or fearing else some messenger, that might her mind discover, Herself hath taught her love himself to write unto her lover.--Two Gent. ii. 1. A cherry-lip, a bonny eye, a passing-pleasing tongue. Rich. III. i. 1. My visor is Philemon's roof; within the house is Jove.-- Why then your visor should be thatch'd.-- Speak low, if you speak love.--Much Ado, ii. 1. Convey the wise it call: steal! foh! a fico for the phrase!-- Well, sirs, I am almost out at heels.-- Why, then, let kibes ensue.--Mer. Wives, i. 3. As many devils entertain, and To her, boy! say I.--Ib. Thou art the Mars of malcontents. I follow thee, troop on. Ib. Die men like dogs; give crowns like pins; have we not Hiren here?--2 Hen. IV. ii. 4.