e Sonnets, was evidently
susceptible of a double interpretation. The first and most natural
explanation of the term would at once suggest itself; the playhouse would
of necessity be dearest to the actor dependent on it for subsistence, as
the means of getting his bread; but he thought it not unreasonable to
infer from this unmistakable allusion that the entrance fee charged at
the Fortune may probably have been higher than the price of seats in any
other house. Whether or not this fact, taken in conjunction with the
accident already mentioned, should be assumed as the immediate cause of
Shakespeare's subsequent change of service, he was not prepared to
pronounce with such positive confidence as they might naturally expect
from a member of the Society; but he would take upon himself to affirm
that his main thesis was now and for ever established on the most
irrefragable evidence, and that no assailant could by any possibility
dislodge by so much as a hair's breadth the least fragment of a single
brick in the impregnable structure of proof raised by the argument to
which they had just listened.

This demonstration being thus satisfactorily concluded, Mr. F. proceeded
to read his paper on the date of _Othello_, and on the various parts of
that play respectively assignable to Samuel Rowley, to George Wilkins,
and to Robert Daborne. It was evident that the story of Othello and
Desdemona was originally quite distinct from that part of the play in
which Iago was a leading figure. This he was prepared to show at some
length by means of the weak-ending test, the light-ending test, the
double-ending test, the triple-ending test, the heavy-monosyllabic-
eleventh-syllable-of-the-double-ending test, the run-on-line test, and
the central-pause test. Of the partnership of other poets in the play
he was able to adduce a simpler but not less cogent proof. A member
of their Committee said to an objector lately: "To me, there are the
handwritings of four different men, the thoughts and powers of four
different men, in the play. If you can't see them now, you must
wait till, by study, you can. I can't give you eyes." To this argument
he (Mr. F.) felt that it would be an insult to their understandings if he
should attempt to add another word. Still, for those who were willing to
try and learn, and educate their ears and eyes, he had prepared six
tabulated statements--

(At this important point of a most interesting paper, our rep