akespeare is surprisingly long. It embraces a greater
multitude than any man can easily number. Nevertheless, I have counted
those beginning with two letters. The result is that the apa? ?e?? mue?a
with initial _a_ are 364, and those with initial _m_ are 310. There is
no reason, that I know of, to suppose the census with these initials to
be proportionally larger than that with other letters. If it is not,
then the words occurring only once in all Shakespeare cannot be less
than five thousand, and they are probably a still greater legion.

The number I have culled from one hundred and forty-six pages of Schmidt
is 674. At this rate the total on the fourteen hundred and nine pages of
the entire Lexicon would foot up 6504. It is possible, then, that
Shakespeare discarded, after once trying them, more different words than
fill and enrich the whole English Bible. The old grammarians tell us
that a certain part of speech was called _supine_, because it was very
seldom needed, and therefore almost always lying _on its back_--i.e.
in Latin, _supinus_. The supines of Shakespeare outnumber the employes
of most authors.

The array of Shakespearian _apa? ?e?? mue?a_ appears still vaster if we
compare it with expressions of the same nature in the Scriptures and in
Homer. In the English Bible words with the initials _a_ and _m_ used
once only are 132 to 674 with the same initials in Shakespeare. The
scriptural _once-onlys_ would be more than twice as many as we find them
were they as frequent in proportion to their total vocabulary as his
are.

The Homeric _apa? ?e?? mue?a_ with initial _m_ are 78, but were they as
numerous in proportion to Homer's whole world of words as Shakespeare's
are, they would run up to 186; that is, to more than twice as many as
their actual number.

In the Greek New Testament I have enumerated 63 _apa? ?e?? mue?a_
beginning with the letter _m_--a larger number than you would expect,
for it is as large as that in both English Testaments beginning with
that same letter, which is also exactly 63. It indicates a wider range
of expression in the authors of the Greek original than in their English
translators.

The 310 Shakespearian words with initial _m_ used _once only_ I have
also compared with the whole verbal inventory of our language so far as
it begins with that letter. They make up one-fifth almost of that
entire stock, which musters in Webster only 1641 words. You will at once
inquire, "What is th