instance a word used by Shakespeare with various
shades of meaning which it is not always easy to distinguish,— “motive, inducement, cause, ground; symptom, prognostic;
information, assurance; proof, example, indication:”
“my desires had instance and argument,”
THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, ii. 2.
221
;
“Gives me this instance,”
MEASURE FOR MEASURE, iv. 3.
126
;
“Gave any tragic instance of our harm,”
THE COMEDY OF ERRORS, i. 1.
65
;
“what's the instance?”
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, iv. 1.
38
;
“A certain instance that Glendower is dead,”
2 HENRY IV., iii. 1. 103
;
“his fears are shallow, wanting instance,”
RICHARD III., iii. 2. 25
;
“Instance, O instance,”
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, v. 2.
151
;
“no guilty instance gave,”
THE RAPE OF LUCRECE, 1511
;
“But not with such familiar instances,”
JULIUS CAESAR, iv. 2. 16
(where Mr. Craik chooses to explain instances by “assiduities”);
“The instances that second marriage move,”
HAMLET, iii. 2. 177.