A friend in Germany has suggested to us the following
reading of a passage in SHAKSPE ARE; upon the correctness of which we do not consider ourselves competent to give a positive opinion— it is, however, at least plausible.
"Apropos of Shakspeare, I thought I had made a discovery a short time since. Theline A little more than kin, and less than kind,' always appeared obscure. It struck me that the German word kind' (child) sup- plied the sense perfectly—q. s. d., something beyond the ordinary near- ness of relationship, and yet short of paternity. Besides the word kind,' which is pronounced (and might have still been so in England during Shakspeare's time) so as to rhyme to lint' or flint,' makes the evi- dently intended antithesis to ' kin,' both in sound and sense. I mentioned this to a philological professor, and we referred to a German translation (Voss's, I think) of the poet. Without making the slightest comment, the sense had been so obvious to the eye of the German, that he had ren- dered it, Etwas mehr als vetter, minder au s Wen.' Something more than cousin, less thau son."
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