English Wordplay ~ Listen and Enjoy
Sonnet 80
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"Shakespeare Revealed, a Biography" by René Weis: Now he has just one rival poet. The word 'might' might be a clue to the poet's identity. Many years later in 1623, Ben Jonson comparing his dead friend Shakespeare to his peers, concluded that Shakespeare did 'our Lyly outshine,/ Or sporting Kid, or Marlowe's mighty line'. It may well be that 'mighty' was a coterie word applied by poets and dramatists to Marlowe's verse.
From The Shakespeare Miscellany by David and Ben Crystal (see below):
About a quarter of Shakespeare's poetic lines exist entirely of monosyllabic words, increasing the impression of pace and drawing the verse in the direction of everyday speech.
O! how I faint when I of you do write, Knowing a better spirit doth use your name, And in the praise thereof spends all his might, To make me tongue-tied speaking of your fame! But since your worth--wide as the ocean is,-- The humble as the proudest sail doth bear, My saucy bark, inferior far to his, On your broad main doth wilfully appear. Your shallowest help will hold me up afloat, Whilst he upon your soundless deep doth ride; Or, being wrack'd, I am a worthless boat, He of tall building, and of goodly pride: Then if he thrive and I be cast away, The worst was this,--my love was my decay.
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