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You quite roared with delight when you heard of a fool, who, mistrusting himself and his bride, tried his fortune after the fashion of the Sortes Virgilianæ, by dipping into Shakspeare on his wedding-day and finding "Not poppy nor mandragora, Nor all the drowsy syrups of the East, Shall ever med'cine to thee that sweet sleep Which thou ow'dst yesterday."
Shakespeare made a play that could appeal to the rabble of that middle-western town; but he wrote it in a verse that none of them could hear: Not poppy, nor mandragora, Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world, Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep Which thou ow'dst yesterday. The greatest dramatist of all, in writing for the crowd, did not neglect the individual.
It is not much use to remark on "the uncolloquial vocabulary of the speakers." Iago's vocabulary is not colloquial when he says: "Not poppy nor mandragora Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep That thou ow'dst yesterday." Borrow is not describing Gypsy life but the "dream" of his own early life.
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