To the man who plays well, the highest stakes are
     paid.—­HUXLEY.

[Sidenote:  Superlative with two objects.]

Compare the first three sentences in Sec. 428 with the following:—­

     Which do you love best to behold, the lamb or the lion? 
     —­THACKERAY.

     Which of these methods has the best effect?  Both of them are
     the same to the sense, and differ only in form.—­DR BLAIR.

     Rip was one of those ... who eat white bread or brown, whichever
     can be got easiest.—­IRVING.

     It is hard to say whether the man of wisdom or the man of folly
     contributed most to the amusement of the party.—­SCOTT.

     There was an interval of three years between Mary and Anne.  The
     eldest, Mary, was like the Stuarts—­the younger was a fair
     English child.—­MRS. OLIPHANT.

     Of the two great parties which at this hour almost share the
     nation between them, I should say that one has the best cause,
     and the other contains the best men.—­EMERSON.

     In all disputes between States, though the strongest is nearly
     always mainly in the wrong, the weaker is often so in a minor
     degree.—­RUSKIN.

     She thought him and Olivia extremely of a size, and would bid
     both to stand up to see which was the tallest.—­GOLDSMITH.

     These two properties seem essential to wit, more particularly the
     last of them.—­ADDISON.

     “Ha, ha, ha!” roared Goodman Brown when the wind laughed at him. 
     “Let us see which will laugh loudest.”—­HAWTHORNE.

[Sidenote:  Double comparative and superlative.]

431.  In Shakespeare’s time it was quite common to use a double comparative and superlative by using more or most before the word already having _-er_ or _-est_.  Examples from Shakespeare are,—­

     How much more elder art thou than thy looks!—­Merchant of
     Venice.

     Nor that I am more better than Prospero.—­Tempest.

     Come you more nearer.—­Hamlet.

     With the most boldest and best hearts of Rome.—­J.  Caesar.

Also from the same period,—­

     Imitating the manner of the most ancientest and finest
     Grecians.—­BEN JONSON.

     After the most straitest sect of our religion.—­Bible, 1611.

Such expressions are now heard only in vulgar English.  The following examples are used purposely, to represent the characters as ignorant persons:—­

     The artful saddler persuaded the young traveler to look at “the
     most convenientest and handsomest saddle that ever was
     seen.”—­BULWER.