Whither I must, I must ; and, to conclude,
This evening must I leave you, gentle Kate.
I know you wise ; but yet no farther wise
Than Harry Percy's wife : constant you are ;
But yet a voman : and for secrecy,
No lady closer ; for I well believe
Thou wilt not utter what thou dost not know,
And so far will I trust thee, gentle Kate."[1]
PRINCESS KATHARINE.
[KING HENRY V.]
Did Shakespeare really write the scene in which the Princess Katharine takes a lesson in the English language, and are all the French phrases in it with which John Bull is so much pleased, his own ? I doubt it. Our poet might have produced the same comic effect by means of an English jargon, and all the more easily because the English language has this peculiarity, that, without being ungrammatical, it can by the mere use of Latin[2] words and constructions bring out a certain French expression of thought. In
