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carries it, I say. Schmidt (Coriolanus): Modern editors place the period after ‘it,’ beginning the next sentence with ‘I say.’ But, not to mention that a comic twist is thereby lost, it may perhaps be worth noting that Shakespeare never begins a sentence with this emphatic ‘I say.’ [‘Never’ and ‘always’ are somewhat perilous words to use in reference to Shakespearian usage. Here, then, are three examples taken at random which are contradictory, I think, to Schmidt's assertion: ‘I say it is the moon that shines so bright,’ Tam. of Shr., IV, v, 4; ‘I say she's dead; I'll swear't,’ Wint. Tale, III, ii, 104; ‘I say the earth did shake when I was born,’ 1 Henry IV: III, i, 21.—Ed.]—W. A. Wright, in reference to the Folio pointing, says: ‘But the Third Citizen is somewhat of a wit, and a truism of this kind has no comic effect in his mouth.’

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