- cid
- bafkreicbx4i63kzchcjknyxbpj35bm4t3l7zemsefzb4s3kldkbh2czyem
- content_type
- image/jpeg
- filename
- 06_poems_pericles_facsimiles_1905_oxford_page_0459.jpg
- height
- 2400
- key
- pdf-page-1769752548782-hez553bxapj
- ocr_model
- mistral-ocr-latest
- page_number
- 459
- size
- 530205
- text
- 48 SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE
**Irregularities of punctuation.**
Punctuation shows, on the whole, no more systematic care than other features of composition. Commas are frequent, both in and out of place. At times they stand for a full stop. At times they are puzzlingly replaced by a colon or semicolon, or again they are omitted altogether. Brackets are occasionally used as a substitute for commas, but not regularly enough to justify a belief that they were introduced on a systematic plan.¹
**Capitals and italics.**
Considerable irregularity characterizes the use of capital letters within the line or of italic type. Both appear rarely and at the compositor’s whim. It was the natural tendency to italicize unfamiliar or foreign words and names and to give them an initial capital in addition. But the printer of the sonnets usually went his own way without heed of law or custom.²
to a woman, is unsupported by authority or by the precise position of the brackets. They are directly attached to the single sonnet (CXXVI), and point to some imagined hiatus within its limits.
¹ Brackets, in the absence of commas, are helpful in such lines as these:
| Whilst I (my soueraine) watch the clock for you | LVII. 6. |
| --- | --- |
| Oh let me suffer (being at your beck) | LVIII. 5. |
| O if (I say) you looke vpon this verse | LXXI. 9. |
| When I (perhaps) compounded am with clay | 10. |
| Or (being wrackt) I am a worthlesse bote | LXXX. 11. |
Brackets are wrongly introduced in lines like:
| But since your worth (wide as the Ocean is) | LXXX. 5. |
| --- | --- |
| Bound for the prize of (all to precious) you, | LXXXVI. 2. |
The absence of all punctuation within the line in such lines as these is very perplexing:
| Which vsed llues th’ executor to be. | IV. 14. |
| --- | --- |
| Sings this to thee thou single wilt proue none. | VIII. 14. |
In several places a mark of interrogation takes the place of one of exclamation with most awkward effect.
² ‘Rose’ is used twelve times: it is italicized once (I. 2); the names of other flowers are not italicized at all (cf. XXV. 6, XCIV. 14, XCVIII. 9, XCIX. 6). ‘Alchemy’ (alcumie) is used twice: it is once italicized (CXIV. 4) and once not (XXXIII. 4). ‘Audite’ is used thrice, and is twice italicized. ‘Autumn’ appears twice, and is once italicized: ‘spring’, ‘summer’, and ‘winter’ are never thus distinguished. The following are the other italicized words in the sonnets: *Abisme* (CXII. 9); *Adonis* (LIII. 5); *Alien* (LXXVIII. 3);
- text_extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T06:18:41.341Z
- text_extracted_by
- ocr-service
- text_has_content
- true
- text_images_count
- 0
- text_source
- ocr
- uploaded
- true
- width
- 1750