Book A^ H"^ £nter Charles, Aldnfon^^urguniie^dfiard, Chat. Hail Yorkcand SomcrfeLbrougbtrcfcucin^ Wefhouldhavcfoundabloody day ofthis. Ba^, Howtbeyong whelpeof T'^^/jjraging wood, Viid ilcfh hispuny-fword in Freiichinens blood. Ph£. Owcc I encouiitrcd hiiTi,and thus 1 laid : Thou Maiden y oath, be vam^uiilit by a Maide. But with a provd Majeftkall high fcorne ^c m^S^Us^ '^ Heajifwer*d thus : Y ong Talhot was jiot bomt: i<;VbeW-/< To be tbcpjllageora Giglot Wenclv^^/'^ M'^'^ He left me proudly,as unwortbyJigbtT iJ^r.DoubtleiTe he would have made a noble Knight: See where he iye5 inherced in the ar Dies Of the wiottMoody NurlTcr of hi« harmes . (HK 6t7^iX*j Baft. Hew ihem to peeces, hack their bones alTundcr, Whofe life was Englands glory,Gallia's wonder t [har. Ohnoforbeare:For that which we have fled During the life, let as not Wrong it dead, q ^i Enter Lmcj. ou-^^.»r**M»^ X*.Herald,condu(^ mc to the Dolphins Tent, To l^now who hath obtained the glory of the day. Char, On what fubmijTive meflageart choufent? Lhcj- SubmiifionDolphin^Tiyamecre French word We Englifh" Warriour^ wot not whatitmeanes. I come to know what Prifoners thou baft tancj- And to furvey the bodies of the dead. Char. Forprifoners askft tliou?HeU our prifonis. But tell me^whom thou feek^"^ € tww Lhc^ But Where's the great Alcideiof the field. Valiant Lord ?'4/teEarle of Shrewsbury? Created for his rarefuccelTein Arines, Lord TaJwtoi^GoodrigdXidi VrchUfr/d, / NOTES AND EMENDATIONS TO THE TEXT OF m»LL9 !{ ■> SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS EARLY MANUSCKIPT CORRECTIONS A COPY OF THE FOLIO, 1632 m THE POSSESSION OF jrPAYNE COLLIER, ESQ. F.S.A. REDFIELD 110 AND 112 NASSAU STREET, NEW YORK. 1853. , APR 2 2 192frvyv4 Notes axd Emendations to pj^ge The Tempest 21 The Two Gentlemen of Verona 38 The Merry Wives of Windsor 50 Measure for Measure 62 The Comedy of Errors 77 Much Ado about Nothing 87 Love's Labour's Lost 101 A Midsummer Night's Dream 120 The Merchant of Venice 134 As You Like It 147 The Taming of the Shrew 163 _ All's Well that Ends Well 177 Twelfth Night 193 The Winter's Tale 205 King John 220 King Richard XL 23G King Henry IV. (Part L) 250 (PartlL) 264 King Henry V 275 King Henry VL (Part L) 288 (PartIL) 303 (PartlH.) 315 King Richard III 324 King Henry VIIL 341 Troilus and Cressida 353 Coriolanus .371 Titus Andronicus 392 Romeo and Juliet 348 Timon of Athens 413 Julius Caesar . 422 Macbeth 431 Hamlet 445 King Lear 462 Othello 477 Antony and Cleopatra 493 Cymbeiine 514 Notes 633 INTRODUCTION. In preparing the following sheets it has been a main object with me to give an impartial notion of the singular and interesting volume from which the materials have been derived. It is a copy of the folio of "Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies," which was published in 1632 : we need hardly say, that that edition was a reprint of a previous impression in the same form in 1623; and that it was again reprinted (with additional plays) in 1664, and for the fourth time in 1685. The reprint of 1632 has, therefore, been usually known as the second foho of the collected plays of Shakespeare. The singularity and interest of the volume arise out of the fact, that, from the first page to the last, it contains notes and emendations in a hand-writing not much later than the time when it came from the press. Unfortunately it is not perfect: it begins, indeed, with "The Tempest," the earliest drama, but it wants four leaves at the end of " Cymbeline," the latest dr^ma, and there are several deficiencies in the body of the book,* while all the prehminary matter, consisting of dedication, address, commendatory verses, &;c., may be said to be wantino-, in as much as it has been supplied by a comparatively recent possessor, from another copy of the second folio, and loosely fastened within the cover. Without adverting to sundry known mistakes of pagination, it may be stated that the entire volume consists of nearly 900 pages, divided between thirty-six plays ; and, besides the correction of literal and verbal errors, as well as lapses of a graver and more extensive kind, the punctuation has been carefully set right throughout. As there is no pao-e without from ten to thirty of these minor emendations, they do not, in the whole, fall short of 20,000 : most of them have, of * It deserves remark that all the defects in the body of the book are in the division of " ffistories," the plays forming which have been especially thumbed and maltreated. (3) 4 INTEODCCTION. course, been introduced in modern editions, since the plain meaning of a passage often contradicts the old careless and absurd pointing ; but it will be seen hereafter, that in not a few instances the sense of the poet has thus been elucidated in a way that has not been anticipa- ted.* With regard to changes of a different and more important character, where letters are added or expunged, where words are sup- pHed or struck out, or where hues and sentences, omitted by the early printer, have been inserted, together with all other emendations of a similar kind, it is difficult to form any correct estimate of their num- ber. The volume in the hands of the reader includes considerably more than a thousand of such alterations ; but to have inserted all would have swelled its bulk to unreasonable dimensions, and would have wearied the patience of most persons, not merely by the same- ness of the information, but by the monotony of the language in which it was necessarily conveyed. Nothing that was deemed essential has been left out : no striking or valuable emendation has been passed over, and many changes have been mentioned, upon which the writer of the notes seems to have insisted, but in which, in some cases, concurrence must either be with- held, or doubt expressed. Whenever I have seen ground for dissent- ing from a proposed amendment, or for giving it only a qualified approbation, I have plainly stated my reasons, more particularly in the later portion of the work: I pursued, indeed, the same method, to a certain extent, in the earlier portion ; but while I have there, perhaps, more sparingly questioned the fitness of adopting some changes, I have also noticed others, which, as I proceeded, and as the matter ac- cumulated, might possibly have been omitted.t If subsequent reflec- tion or information appeared to warrant a modification of opinion, such modification will be found in the notes appended to the volume. I can only expect that each suggested alteration should be judged upon its own merits ; and though I can, in no respect, be answerable for more than submitting them to critical decision, I have thought myself called upon, where they appeared to deserve support or eluci- dation, to ofier the facts, arguments, or observations that occurred to me in their favor. * As it is not easy to put the explanation of tliis apparently trifling matter m a short compass, the reader is referred particularly to pp. Ill, 117, 325, 399 and 507. ■f The old corrector of the folio, 1632, has himself allowed some apparent mistakes to escape him : thus, in "All's Well that Ends Well," Act in. Scene I., we might have ex- pected that he would alter " the younger of our nature" into "the younger of our nation.^' Again, in "Henry IV. Part n.," Act IV. Scene H., it may seem that " success of mischief" ought to be ^^ successive mischief;" but neither of these variations from the old text is ab- solutely necessary. I^nTRODUCTIoN. 5 In the history of the volume to which I have been thus indebted, I can offer Httle that may serve to give it authenticity.* It is very certain that the manuscript notes in its margins M^ere made before it was subjected to all the ill-usage it experienced. "When it first came into my hands, and indeed for some time afterwards, I imagined that the binding was the original rough calf in which many books of about the same date were clothed ; but more recent examination has con- vinced me, that this was at least the second coat it had worn. It is, nevertheless, in a very shabby condition, quite consistent with the state of the interior, where, besides the loss of some leaves, as already mentioned, and the loosening of others, many stains of wine, beer, and other liquids are observable : here and there, holes have been burned in the paper, either by the falling of the hghted snuff of a candle, or by the ashes of tobacco. In several places it is torn and disfigured by blots and dirt, and every margin bears evidence to fre- quent and careless perusal. In short, to a choice collector, no book could well present a more forbidding appearance. I was tempted only by its cheapness to buy it, under the following circumstances : — In the spring of 1849 I happened to be in the shop of the late Mr. Rodd, of Great Newport street, at the time when a package of books arrived from the country: my impression is. that it came from Bedfordshire, but I am not at all certain upon a point which I looked upon as a matter of no importance. He opened the parcel in my presence, as he had often done before in the course of my thirty or forty years' acquaintance with him, and looking at the backs and title-pages of several volumes, I saw that they were chiefly works of little interest to me. Two folios, however, attracted my attention, one of them gilt on the sides, and the other in rough calf: the first was an excellent copy of Florio's " New World of Words," 1611, with the name of Henry Osborn (whom I mistook at the moment for his celebrated namesake, Francis) upon the first leaf; and the other a copy of the second folio of Shakespeare's Plays, much cropped, the covers old and greasy, and, as I saw at a glance on opening them, ? I am by no means convinced that this copy of the folio, 1632, is an entire novelty in the book-world ; but it is quite certain that its curiosity and importance were never till now understood, nor estimated. Sir Thomas Phillips, Bart., rf Middle Hill (the discoverer of the marriage-bond of Shakespeare, who has most readily aided me in my inquiries), recollects to have seen, many years ago, an annotated copy of the folio, 1632, wliich he has always regretted that he did not purchase ; and since the general contents of my volume became known, several gentlemen appear to be in possession of folios with manuscript emenda- tions. I more than suspect, however, that one of these is the edition of 1685, formerly the property of the poet Southerne, with his autograph upon the title-page : of the notes it contains I was able, by the kindness of the then proprietor, to avail myself, when formerly editing the Shakespeare to wliich the present work is a Supplement. 6 . INTRODUCTION. imperfect at the beginning and end. Concluding hastily that the latter would complete another poor copy of the second folio, which I had bought of the same bookseller, and which I had for some years in my possession, and wanting the former for my use, I bought them both, the Florio for twelve, and the Shakespeare for thirty shillings.* As it turned out, I at first repented my bargain as regarded the Shakespeare, because, when I took it home, it appeared that two leaves which I wanted were unfit for my purpose, not merely by being too short, but damaged and defaced : thus disappointed, I threw it by, and did not see it again, until I made a selection of books I would take with me on quitting London. In the mean time, finding that I could not readily remedy the deficiencies in my other copy of the foho, 1632, I had parted with it ; and when I removed into the country, with my family, in the spring of 1850, in order that I might not be without some copy of the second folio for the purpose of reference, I took with me that which is the foundation of the present work. It was while putting my books together for removal, that I first ob- served some marks in the margin of this folio; but it was subsequently placed upon an upper shelf, and I did not take it down until I had occasion to consult it. It then struck me that Thomas Perkins, whose name, with the addition- of "his Booke," was upon the cover, might be the old actor who had performed in Marlowe's •' Jew of Malta,^' on its revival shortly before 1633. At this time I fancied that the binding was of about that date, and that the volume might have been his ; but in the first place, I found that his name was Pdchard Perkins, and in the next I became satisfied that the rough calf was not the original binding. Still, Thomas Perkins might have been a descendant of Eichard ; and this circumstance and others induced me to examine the volume more particularly : I then discovered, to my surprise, that there was hardly a page which did not present, in a hand-writing of the time, some emendations in the pointing or in the text, while on most of them they were frequent, and on many numerous. Of course I now submitted the folio to a most careful scrutiny ; and as it occupied a considerable time to complete the inspection, how * I paid the money for them at the time. Mr. "Wilkinson, of Wellington street, one of Mr. Rodd's executors, has several times obligingly afforded me the opportunity of inspecting Mr. Rodd's account-boots, in order, if possible, to trace from whence the package came, but without success. Mr. Redd does not appear to have kept any stock-book, showing how and when volumes came inlo his hands, and the entries in his day-book and ledger are not regular nor particular : his latest memorandum, on 19th April, only a short time before his sudden death, records the sale of "three books,'.' without specifying their titles, or giving the name of the purchaser. His m.emory was very faithful, and to that, doubt'ess, he often trusted. I am confident that the parcel was from the country ; but any inquiries, re- garding sales there, could hardly L>e expected to be satisfactorily answered. INTRODUCTION. 7 much more must it have consumed to make the alterations ? The ink was of various shades, differing sometimes on the same page, and I was once disposed to think that two distinct hands had been employed upon them : this notion I have since abandoned ; and I am now decid- edly of opinion that the same writing prevails from beginning to end, but that the amendments must have been introduced from time to time, during, perhaps, the course of several years. The changes in punc- tuation alone, always made with nicety and patience, must have required a long period, considering their number; the other alterations, sometimes most minute, extending even to turned letters and typogra- phical trifles of that kind, from their very nature could not have beea introduced with rapidity, while many of the errata must have severely tasked the industry of the old corrector.* Then comes the question, why any of them were made, and why such extraordinary pains were bestowed on this particular copy of the folio, 1632 ? To this inquiry no complete reply, that I am aware of, can be given ; but some circumstances can be stated, which may tend to a partial solution of the difficulty. Corrections only have been hitherto spoken of; but there are at least two other very peculiar features in the volume. Many passages, in nearly all the plays, are struck out with a pen, as if for the purpose of shortening the performance ;t and we need not feel much hesitation in coming to the conclusion, that these omissions had reference to the representation of the plays by some company about the date of the folio, 1632. To this fact we may add, that hundreds of stage-directions have been inserted in manuscript, as if for the guidance and instruction of actors, in order that no mistake might be made in what is usually denominated stage-business.J It is known that in this respect the old printed copies are very deficient ;§ and sometimes the written additions * It ought to be mentioned, in reference to the question of the authority of the emenda- tions, that some of them are upon erasures, as if the corrector had either altered his mind as to particular changes, or had obliterated sometliing that had been written before— possi- bly, 'By some person not so well informed as himself. f " Antony and Cleopatra" is the only drama that is entirely exempt from this treat- ment : possibly, the old corrector never witnessed the performance of it. In all the other plays, more or less is " cut out," generally, it should seem, in proportion to popularity. J In a few cases these manuscript stage-directions are of the highest importance in illus- trating the wonderful judgmxcnt and skill of Shakespeare in conducting the business of his scenes. This matter cannot well be explained in the compass of a note ; but if the reader will turn to p. 5, it will be seen of what consequence the mere words. Put on robe again, are to understanding in what way the sudden somnolency of Miranda, which has always excited remark, had been produced, and was to be accounted for. It would be easy to point out other instances, but they will occur in the course of the volume. \ Tliere is, I think, but one printed note of aside in the whole of the six-and-thirty plays ; but in manuscript the utmost care is taken so to mark all speeches intended to be heard by the audience, but not by the characters engaged in the scene. 8 INTRODUCTION. of this kind seem even more frequent, and more explicit, than might be thought necessary. The erasures of passages and scenes are quite inconsistent with the notion that a new edition of the foHo, 1632, was contemplated ; and how are they, and the new stage-directions, and " asides," to be accounted for, excepting on the supposition that the volume once belonged to a person interested in, or connected with, one of our early theatres ? The continuation of the corrections and emendations, in spite of, and through the erasures, may show that they were done at a different time, and by a different person ; but who shall say which was done first, or whether both were not, in fact, the work of the same hand ?* Passing by these matters, upon which we can arrive at no certain result, we must briefly advert to another point upon which, however, we are quite as much in the dark : — we mean the authority upon which these changes, of greater or of less importance, were introduced. How are we warranted in giving credit to any of them ? The first and best answer seems to be that which one of the most acute of the commentators appHed to an avowedly conjectural emenda- tion — that it required no authority — that it carried conviction on the very face of it.t Many of the most valuable corrections of Shake- speare's t3xt are, in truth, self-evident; and so apparent, when once suggested, that it seems wonderful how the plays could have passed through the hands of men of such learning and critical acumen, during the last century and a half (to say nothing of the period occupied by the publication of the four foUos), without the detection of. such indis- putable blunders. Let us take an instance from " The Taming of the Shrew," Act I. Scene I., where Lucentio, arriving in Padua, to read at the university, Tranio, his man, entreats his master not to apply himself too severely to study : — " Only, good master, while we do admire This virtue, and this moral discipline, Let's be no stoics, nor no stocks, I pray, Or so devote to Aristotle's checks. As Ovid be an outcast quite abjur'd." Such has been the invariable text from the first publication of the comedy, in 1623, until our own day ; yet it is unquestionably wrong, and wrong in the most important word in the quotation, as the old * Some expressions and lines of an irreligious or indelicate character are also struck out, evincing, perhaps, the advance of a better, or purer, taste about the period when the emendator went over the volume. t Monk Mason, in a note upon " Troilus and Cressida," Act m. Scene HI. ; which, how- ever, was there singularly inapt. INTRODUCTION. 9 corrector shows, and as the reader will be sure to acknowledge the moment the emendation is proposed : — "Lei's be no stoics, nor no stocks, I pray, Or so devote to Aristotle's Ethics, As Ovid be an outcast quite abjur'd." In the manuscript, from which the old printer worked, Ethics was, no doubt, written with a small letter, and with ke near the end of the word, as was then the custom, and the careless compositor mistook ethickes for " checkes," and so printed it : " checkes" is converted into ethickes in the hand-writing of the emendator of the folio, 1632 ; and it is hardly too much to say that this misprint can never be repeated. Another proof of the same kind, but perhaps even stronger, may be taken from "Coriolanus," Act II. Scene III. It relates to a word which has puzzled all editors, and yet ought not to have delayed them for a moment, fhe corruption, when pointed out by an emendation in the foho, 1632, being so glaring. The hero, disdainfully soliciting the "sweet voices" of the plebeians, asks himself, — " Wliy in this woolvish toge should I stand here, To beg of Hob and Dick ?" Johnson says that " Avoolvish" is 7'ough, hirsute ; and Malone, Steevens, Ritson, Douce, &c., have all notes regarding wolves (as if wild beasts had any thing to do with the matter), and all erroneous, but Johnson's the most unfortunate, because it has been previously stated that the -'toge" (or gown) was not hirsute, but absolutely " napless." It seems astonishing, on this very account, that the right word was never guessed, as it is found in the margin of my volume : ' ' Why in this woolless toge should I stand here, To beg of Hob and Dick?" Can there be an instant's hesitation about it ? The printer, or the scribe who wrote the copy used by the printer, mistook the termina- tion of the word, and " woolvish" has been eternally reiterated as the real language of the poet. It seems impossible that "woolvish" should ever hereafter find a single supporter. Other verbal amendments are restorations of words that were be- coming somewhat obsolete in the time of Shakespeare, such as hisson, blind, Head, fruit, &c. ; but there is one instance of the sort so remark- able, that I cannot refuse to notice it here. It regards the expression " a woollen bagpipe," in "The Merchant of Venice," Act IV. Scene I. ; and it must appear strange that " woolless" in one play, and " woollen" in another, should have formed such hard and insuperable stumbhng-blocks to all the commentators. When Shylock observes, 1* 10 INTR0DUCTI02T. " As there is no firm reason to be render'd, Why he cannot abide a gaping pig, Why he a harmless necessary cat, Why he a woollen bagpipe," &c. ingenuity has been exhausted to explain, or to explain away, the epi- thet "woollen," as applied to a bagpipe. Some would have it ivoodeUj others swollen, and a third party (myself among the number) were for adhering, in a case of such difficulty, to the . text of the old editions. What turns out to be the fact ? that every body was in error, and that our great dramatist employed an old word, which he had already used in his '"Lucrece," 1594, and which means swollen, \'vL.,holhn : it is the participle of the verb holne, " to become puffed up or swollen," as Sir r. Madden states, in his excellent " Glossary to the WycHfiite Versions of the Bible." Bollen is spelt in various ways by old and modern lex- icographers; but we may be confident that we shall never again see " woollen bagpipe" in any edition of the text of Shakespeare, unless it be reproduced by some one, who, having no right to use the emenda- tion of our folio, 1632, adheres of necessity to the antiquated blunder, and pertinaciously attempts to justify it. By the mention of the scribe, or copyist, who wrote the manuscript from which the printer composed, we are brought to the consideratir)n of another class of errors, for which, probably, the typographer was not responsible. If there be one point more clear than another, in connection with the text of Shakespeare as it has come down to us, it is that the person, or persons, who prepared the transcripts of the plays for the printer, wrote by the ear, and not by the eye: they heard the dialogue, and wrote it down as it struck them. This position has been completely established by Malone;* and only in this way can we ex- plain many of the whimsical mistakes in the quartos and folios. It is very well known that associations of actors, who bought dramas of their authors, were at all times extremely averse to the publication of them, partly under the persuasion that the number of readers would diminish the number of auditors.! The managers and sharers did their utmost to prevent the appearance of plays in print; and it is the sur- reptitious manner in which pieces got out to the public that will ac- count for the especial imperfectness, in respect to typography, of this department of our early literature. About half the productions of Shakespeare remained in manuscript until seven years after his death : not a few of those which were printed in his hfe-time were shamefully * See Maione's Shakespeare, by Boswell, vii. p. 36 ; xi. p. 422 ; xii. pp. £C8, 287, 313 ; xiv. p. 26 ; xix. p. 472, &c. f Another reason, of course, was the appreliension lest rival companies, then under very lax control, might act the piece. INTEODUCTIOK. 11 disfigured, and not one can be pointed out to the publication of which he in any way contributed. When he finally retired to Stratford-upon- Avon, we cannot find that he took the slightest interest in works which had delighted living thousands, and were destined to be the admiration of unborn millions : he considered them the property of the theatre for which they had been written, and doubtless conceived that they were beyond his control. If, therefore, popular dramas did make their way to the press, it was generally accomplished either by the employment of shorthand writers, who perfectly took down the words as they distinctly heard them, or by the connivance and aid of inferior performers, who, being "hire- lings" at weekly wages, had no direct interest in the receipts at the doors. They may have furnished the booksellers with such parts as they sustained, or could in any way procure from the theatre ; and it is not unlikely that, listening, as they must have daily done, to the rep- etitions of the principal actors, they would be able to recite, with more or less accuracy, whole speeches, and even scenes, which a httle ingenuity could combine into a drama. We may readily imagine, that what these inferior performers had thus got by heart, they might dic- tate to some mechanical copyist, and thus many words, and even sen- tences, which sounded like something else, would be misrepresented in the printed editions, and nobody take the pains to correct the blun- ders. Of course, those who were sharers in theatres would be the last to remedy defects ; and in this way oral representations on our early stages, by the chief actors, might easily be more correct than the published copies of performances. Upon this supposition we must account for not a few of the remark- able manuscript emendations in my foKo, 1632: the annotator of that volume may have been connected with one of our old play-houses ; he may have been a manager, or a member of a company, and as an admirer of Shakespeare, as well as for his own theatrical purposes, he may have taken the trouble, from time to time, to set right errors in the printed text by the more faithful dehvery of their parts by the principal abtors. This might have been accomplished by Him as a mere spectator, and he may have employed the edition nearest his own day as the receptacle of his notes ; Be may, however, have been aided by the prompt-books ; and the whole appearance of our volume seems to afford evidence that the work of correction was not done speedily, nor continuously, but as the misprints became apparent, and the means of correcting them occurred. Thus a long interval may have elapsed before this copy of the second folio was brought to the state in which it has reached us. 12 INTRODtJCTION. An example or two will suffice to make what is meant intelligible ; and here, as in former instances, I take them from many, almost at random, for the real difficulty is selection. When Henry VIII. (Act III. Scene II.) tells Wolsey,— " You have scarce time To steal from spiritual leisure a brief span, To keep your earthly audit ;" he cannot mean that the Cardinal has scarcely time to steal from " lei- sure," but from labor : the word was misheard by the scribe ; and while "leisure" makes nonsense of the sentence, Za&or is exactly adapt- ed to the place : — " You have scare time To steal from spiritual labor a brief span." The substituted word is found in the margin of the folio, 1632. This instance seems indisputable ; but we meet with a more striking proof of the same kind in " King Lear" (Act IV. Scene VII.), where, after he has read Groneril's letter of love to Edmund and hate to her husband? Edgar exclaims, as the poet's language has been represented, " 0, undistinguish'd space of woman's will ! A plot upon her virtuous husband's life." The commentators have striven hard to extract sense from the first hne, but not one of them satisfied another, nor indeed themselves. Edgar, in truth, is shocked at the profligate and uncontrollable licen- tiousness of Groneril : — '- unextingaislihl blaze of woman's will !" in other words, desire {i. e. " will" or lust) in the female sex bursts forth in a flame that cannot be subdued. The scribe did not understand what he put upon paper, misheard unextinguished Naze, and wrote "un- distinguish'd space." Such was, probably, the origin of the hitherto received nonsense. Another brief and laughable proof may be adduced from " Coriolanus :" it is where Menenius, in Act II. Scene I., is talking of himself to the Tribunes : — " I am known" (he says in all editions, ancient and modern) " to be a humorous patrician, and one that loves a cup of hot wine, with not a drop of allaying Tyber in it; said to be something imper- fect in favoring the first complaint." Nobody has offijred a note ex- planatory of " the first complaint," and it has always passed current as the language of Shakespeare. Is it so ? Assuredly not ; for what has "a cup of hot wine" to do with "the first complaint?" The old corrector calls upon us to read " a cup of hot wine, with not a drop of INTRODUCTION. 13 allaying Tyber in it ; said to be something imperfect in favoring the thirst complaint," and the utterly lost humor of the passage is at once restored. The scribe misheard thirsty and wrote " first;" and the blun- der has already lasted between two and three centuries, and might have lasted two or three centuries longer, but for the discovery of this corrected folio. It is to be observed that these last emendations apply to plays which were printed for the first time in the folio, 1623. This fact tends to prove that the manuscript, put into the hands of the printer by Hem- inge and Condell, in spite of what they say, was not in a much better condition than the manuscript used by stationers for the separate plays which they had previously contrived to publish. The effect of the en- suing pages must be considerably to lesson our confidence in the text furnished by the player-editors, for the integrity of which I, among ■ others, have always strenuously contended. Consequently, I ought to be among the last to admit the validity of objections to it; and it was not until after long examination of the proposed alterations, that I was compelled to allow their general accuracy and importance. There are some that I can yet by no means persuade myself to adopt ; others to which I can only give a qualified approbation ; but still a large re- mainder from which I am utterly unable to dissent.* It was, as may be inferred, very little, if at all, the habit of dramatic authors, in the time of Shakespeare, to correct the proofs of their pro- ductions ; and as we know that, in respect to the plays which had been published in quarto before 1623, all that Heminge and Condell did, was to put the latest edition into the hands of their printer, so, possi- bly, in respect to the plays which for the first time appeared in the folio, 1623, all that they did might be to put the manuscript, such as it was, into the hands of their printer, and to leave to him the whole process of typography. It is not at all unlikely that they borrowed playhouse copies to aid them ; but these might consist, sometimes at least, of the separate parts allotted to the different actors, and, for the * Some of the most interesting, if not the most curious emendations, apply not only to the songs by Shakespeare, introduced into various plays, but to the scraps of ballads and popular rhymes put into the mouths of many of his characters. Nearly all these, espe- cially the latter, are corrected, and in some places completed ; for it is not difficult to imagine that, even if originally accurately quoted, corruptions in the course of time, by the license of comic performers and other causes, crept into them. These manuscript restora- tions are so frequent, that it is out of the question to enumerate them, but they apply to nearly every play ; and in addition it may be noticed, that whenever the poet borrows any thing, it is invariably underscored by the old corrector : thus several quotations, not hith- erto suspected to be such, are clearly indicated ; and, as a singular specimen, we may point to the conclusion of " Troilus and Cressida," where Pandarus cites four lines, not hitherto suspected to have been written by any other author. 14 INTEODUCTIOK. sake of speed in so long a work, scribes might be employed, to whom the manuscript was read as they proceeded with their transcripts. This supposition, and the fraudulent manner in which plays in general found their way into print, ma;^ account for many of the blunders they unquestionably contain in the folios, and especially for the strange con- fusion of verse and prose which they sometimes exhibit. The not ua- frequent errors in prefixes, by which words or lines are assigned to one character, which certainly belong to another, may thus also be explain- ed : the reader of the drama to the scribe did not at all times accu- rately distinguish the persons engaged in the dialogue ; and if he had only the separate parts, and what are technically called the cues, to guide him, we need not be surprised at the circumstance. The follow- ing is a single proof, the first that occurs to memory : it is from "Romeo and Juliet," Act III. Scene V., where the heroine declares to her mother that, if she must marry, her husband shall be Romeo : — " And when I do, I swear, It shall be Romeo, -whom j'ou know I hate, Rather than Paris. — These are news indeed !" This is the universal regulation ; but, as we may very well believe, the closing words, " These are news, indeed !" do not belong to Juhet, but to Lady Capulet, who thus expresses her astonishment at her daugh- ter's resolution : therefore, her speech ought to begin earher than it ap- pears in any extant copy. JuKet ends, — " And when I do, I s^vear, It shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate, Rather than Paris. La. Cap. Tliese are news, indeed ! Here comes your father ; tell him so yourself, And see how he will take it at your hands." There cannot surely be any dispute that this is the mode in which tlie poet distributed the lines, and in which the old corrector of the folio, 1632, had heard the dialogue divided on the stage in his time. It has been stated that he did not pass over minute changes, some- times of most trifling consequence ; but it is obvious that alterations, very insignificant in appearance, may be of the utmost importance in effect. A single letter, wrongly inserted, may strangely pervert or ob- scure the meaning ; and it may never have been suspected that the early editions were in fault. We meet with a remarkable instance of it in " Macbeth," Act I. Scene VII., where the Lady is reproaching her irresolute husband for not being' ready to murder Duncan when time and opportunity offered, although he had previously vaunted his determination to do it: she asks him. — INTRODUCTION. 15 " What beast was't then, That made you break this enterprise to me ? "When you durst do it, then you were a man." Such is the text as it has always been recited on modern stages, and printed in every copy of the tragedy from the year 1623 to the year 1853 ; yet that there is a most singular misprint in it will be manifest, when the small, but most valuable, manuscript emendation of the foho, 1G32, is mentioned. In truth, Lady Macbeth does not ask her hus- band'the absurd question, "what beast" made him communicate the enterprise to her ? but, what induced him to vaunt that he would kill Duncan, and then, like a coward, shrink from his own resolution ?— " What hoast was't then, Tliat made you break this enterprise to me ? When you durst do it, then you were a man." She taunts him with the braggart spirit he had at first displayed, and the cowardice he had afterwards evinced. It cannot be denied by the most scrupulous stickler for the purity of the text of the folio, 1623 (copied into the folio, 1632), that this mere substitution of the letter o for the letter e, as it were, magically conjures into palpable existence the long-buried meaning of the poet. In another place, and in another play, the accidental omission of a single letter has occasioned much doubt and discussion. In Act III. Sceiie I. of " The Tempest," Ferdinand, while engaged in carrying logs, rejoices in his toil, because his burdens are lightened by thoughts of Miranda : — "This my mean task Would be as heavy to me, as odious ; but The mistress which I serve quickens what's dead, And makes my labors pleasures ;" and he afterwards adds, as the passage is given in the folio, 1623 :— "Butlhese sv/eet thoughts do even refresh my labors, Most busy lest when I do it." The foho. 1632, altered the hemistich to "Most busy least when I do it " and Theobald read " Most husiless when I do it," not understanding how Ferdinand, at the same moment, could be most busy, and least busy The corrector of the foho, 1632, however, removes the whole difficulty by showing that in the folio, 1623, a letter had dropped out in the press, the addition of which makes the sense clear and consist- ent, and concludes the speech by a most fehcitous compression of the sentiment of the whole in seven words :— 16 mTRODUCTION. " But these sweet thoughts do even refresh my labors, Most busy, — hlest when I do it : " that is to say, he was most laboriously employed, but hlesi in that very toil by the sweet thoughts of his mistress. The old corrector con- verted " least," of the folio, 1632, into hlest, by striking out a, and by inserting b with a caret. The constantly recurring question in all these cases is, from whence the information was derived, which enabled a person, so frequently and so effectually, to give us what, by implication, he asserts to be the real language of the greatest poet of mankind ? Was he in a condi- tion to resort to other and better manuscripts ? Had he the use of printed copies which do not now remain to us ? Was he instructed by more accurate recitation at a theatre ? Was he indebted to his own sagacity and ingenuity, and did he merely guess at arbitrary emenda- tions ? I am inclined to think that the last must have been the fact as regards some of his changes ; and, so far, his suggestions are only to be taken as those of an individual, who lived, we may suppose, not very long after the period when the dramas he elucidates were written, and who might have had intercourse with some of the actors of Shake- speare's day. As to this, and other sources of his knowledge, all we can do is to speculate. * There is a class of emendations, not yet adverted to, even more con- vincing, than the happiest alterations we have already noticed, that the old corrector must have had recourse to some not now extant authority. Malone contended that lines, in the old editions, were more frequently omitted than ordinary readers were disposed to be- lieve ; and he might well so argue, seeing that in his own text, as we last receive it in the Yariorum Edition of 1821,t no fewer than three entire lines are left out in three separate plays ; while those who have been content to reprint that text have not discovered the deficiencies. J * We have not spoken of another circumstance \Aiiich ought to be taken into account. About one-fifth of the pUiys in the folios are not divided into acts and scenes ; but in this corrected folio, 1632, tlic omissions are supplied. In many instances the divisions there made do not accord with those in modern impressions : and in some the old printed divisions are struck out, and others substituted — perhaps, such as prevailed about the time when the second folio was published. This fact may tend farther to show, that the early possessor of the volume was in some way concerned in dramatic representations. f As it comprises the notes of all editors and commentators, from Rowe to Malone, it may be as well to state that it is the impression used hereafter, when speaking of their remarks and suggestions. If, in any instance, I have not stated that a proposed emendation has been previously suggested, it has arisen from my ignorance of the fact, or from pure inad- vertence. In many cases, the older conjectures of Theobald, Warburton, Pope, Hanmer, &c., are remarkably confirmed. I See Malone's Shakespeare, by Boswell, v. 479, xiii. 91, xxi. 272. The miperfections may be supplied by referring to the corresponding portions of the plays in the edition pub- lished by Messrs. Whittaker and Co. in 1844, 8 vols. Svo. INTEODUCTION. 17 No wonder, then, if the old editors and printers, who made no profes- sions of peculiar care and accuracy, were guilty of similar mistakes, and that several of them should have remained undetected to our own day. They are indicated in the folio, 1632, and are written in the margin for insertion in the proper places. To say nothing of words, sometimes two, three, and four together, which are wanting in the folios, and are supplied in manuscript, to the improvement, both of meaning and measure, there are at least nine different places where lines appear to have been left out. From what source could these have been derived, if not from some more perfect copies, or from more faithful recitation ? However we may be willing to depreciate other emendations, and to maintain that they were only the results of bold, but happy speculation — the feliciter audentia of conjecture — how can we account for the recovery of nine distinct lines, most exactly adapted to the situations where they are inserted, except- ing upon the supposition that they proceeded from the pen of the poet, and have been preserved by the curious accuracy of an individual, almost a contemporary, who, in some way, possessed the means of supplying them ?* In certain cases the absence of a corresponding line, in a rhyming speech, affords evidence that words terminating with the required jingle have been lost. Are we prepared to say that the old corrector, noting the want, has, of his own head, and out of his own head, forged and furnished it, making it also entirely consistent Math what precedes and follows ? When, in " Henry VI., Part II.," Act II. Scene III., Queen Margaret calls upon Gloster to relinquish his staff of office to her son, the Protector, addressing the young king, exclaims, — " My staff? here, noble Henry, is my staff: To think I fain would keep it makes me laugh : As willingly I do the same resign, As e'er thy father Henry made it mine." The line in Italic type is met with in no old copy, but when we find it in a hand-writing of about the time ; when we see that something has so evidently been lost, and that what is offered is so nicely dovetailed into the place assigned to it, can we take upon ourselves to assert that it was foisted in without necessity or authority ? On the contrary, * A few words, occurring in certain of the emendations, may be thought to be of rather a more modern stamp than the time of Shakespeare — such as "struggling," "wheedling," "generous," "exhibit," &c. It is not impossible, however, that they were in earlier use than our lexicographers represent ; nor is it unlikely that in some cases the old corrector's merely conjectural emendations (supposing them to deserve that character) were colored by the language of his own later day. Our tongue had then undergone some material changes. 18 IXTRODUCTION. ought we not to welcome it with thankfuhiess, as a fortunate recovery, and a valuable restoration ? In several instances, it is easy, on other grounds, to understand how the blunders were occasioned. In more than one of those places, where Malone was himself guilty of omissions of the sort, two conse- cutive Hues ended with the same word, and the modern printer missed one of them, thinking that he had already composed it. Such was, doubtless, the predicament of the ancient printer ; and we may quote a remarkable proof of the fact from " Coriolanus," that worst specimen of typography in the whole foHo. In Act III. Scene II., Volumnia thus entreats her indignant and impetuous son to be patient : — " Pray be counsell'd. I have a heart as little apt as yours, But yet a brain, that leads my use of anger To better vantage." To what is Volumnia's heart as little apt as that of Coriolanus ? She does not tell us, and the sense is undeniably incomplete ; but it is thus completed in the folio, 1632, by the addition of a lost hne : — " Pray be counsell'd. I have a heart as little apt as yours To brook control without the use of anger, But yet a brain, that leads my use of anger To better vantage." It seems impossible to doubt the genuineness of this insertion, unless we go the length of pronouncing it not only an invention, but an in- vention of the utmost ingenuit}'-; for w}iile it renders perfect the defi- cient sense, it shows at once what caused the error : the recurrence of the same words, " use of anger," at the end of two following lines, deceived the old compositor, and induced him to fancy that he had already printed a line which he had excluded. Are we not entitled, then, to consider this copy of the folio, 1632, an addition to our scanty means of restoring and amending the text of Shakespeare, as important as it is unexpected ? If it had contained no more than the comparatively few points to which we have adverted in this Introduction, would it not have rendered an almost inappreciable service to our literature, and to Shakespeare as the great example of every species of dramatic excellence ? It strikes me as an impossible supposition, that such as these were purely conjectural and arbitrary changes ; and it follows as a question, upon which I shall not now en- large, how far such indisputable emendations and apposite additions warrant us in imputing to a higher authority, than we might other- INTRODUCTION. 19 wise be inclined to acknowledge, some of the more doubtful alterations recorded in the ensuing pages. In order to give the reader an exact notion of the hand-writing of the old corrector, and of his businesslike method of annotation, a facsimile has been prefixed, which faithfully represents the original. In this place the ink seems uniform, but our choice has been influenced, not so much by the worth of the play, or by the value of the emendations, as by the circumstance that it includes, in the compass of an octavo page, examples of the manner in which corrections of nearly all kinds are made, from the insertion of a single letter to the addition of a hne, omitted in all the folios, together with the striking out of a passage not considered necessary for the performance.* It will be remarked, from the title-page, that the present volume is supplemental to the edition of Shakespeare's Works I formerly super- intended. It was there my leading principle to adhere to the old quartos and folios, wherever sense could be made out of the words they furnished : that they were wrong, in many more places than I suspected, will now be evident ; but I allowed myself no room for speculative emendation, even where it seemed most called for. Had the copy of the folio, 1632, the authority for nearly all that follows, devolved into my hands anterior to the commencement of that under- taking, the result would have been in many important respects different : as it is, those volumes will remain an authentic representation of the text of our great dramatist, as it is contained in the early editions ; and all who wish to ascertain the new readings proposed in the present work, will have the means of doing so without disturbing the ancient, and hitherto generally received, language of Shakespeare. It will, I hope, be clear from what precedes, that I have been anxious rather to underrate, than to overstate the claims of this anno- tated copy of the folio, 1632. I ought not, however, to hesitate in avowing my conviction, that we are bound to admit by far the greater body of the substitutions it contains, as the restored language of Shakespeare. As he was especially the poet of common life, so he was * It a'so explains the mode in which the corrector proceeded, when the di\'ision of a new scene had been improperly introduced in the old copy ; for the erasure of Actus Quintus, Sccena Prima, and the insertion of same in manuscript mean, that what follows is m.erely a continuation of a preceding scene. The word briefely, lower down in the margin, ex- actly illustrates the way in which, by the non-crossing of the letter /, it was frequently mistaken for the long s ; of course in this case no such blunder could be made. Those who were present on any of the four occasions, last year, when this volume was exhibited before the Shakespeare Society and the Society of Antiquaries, had an opportunity of ob- serving all these peculiarities on other pages. It has been separately shown to many who wished to see the character of the alterations. 20 INTRODUCTION. emphatically the poet of common sense ; and to the verdict of common sense I am willing to submit all the more material alterations recom- mended on the authority before me. If they will not bear that test, as distinguished from mere verbal accuracy in following old printed copies, I, for one, am content to relinquish them. Hitherto the quartos and fohos have been our best and safest guides ; but it is notorious that in many instances they must be wrong ; and while, in various places, the old corrector does not attempt to set them right, probably from not possessing the means of doing so, the very fact, that he has here refrained from purely arbitrary changes, ought to give us addi- tional confidence in those emendations he felt authorized to intro- duce. I shall probably be told, in the usual terms, by some whose preju- dices or interests may be affected by the ensuing volume, that the old corrector knew little about the spirit or language of Shakespeare ; and that, in the remarks I have ventured on his emendations, I prove myself to be in a similar predicament. The last accusation is probably true : I have read and studied our great dramatist for nearly half a century, and if I could read and study him for half a century more, I should yet be far from arriving at an accurate knowledge of his works, or an adequate appreciation of his worth. He. is an author whom no man can read enough, nor study enough ; and as my ambition always has been to understand him properly, and to estimate him sufficiently, I shall accept, in whatever terms reproof may be conveyed, any just correction thankfully. J. P. C. THE TEMPEST. ACT I. SCENE I. P. 9. The introductory stage-direction in the old folios, especially with the manuscript addition in that of 1632 (which we have marked in Italics), is striking and picturesque : — " A tempestuous noise of thunder and lightning heard : enter a Shipmas- ter, and a Boatswain, as on shipboard, shaking off wet.'''' In Mai one's Shakespeare, by Boswell, (vol. xv. p. 19) it stands only, — " A storm with thunder and lightning. Enter a Ship- master and Boatswain ;" but, from the corrected folio, 1632, it appears that the two actors who began the play entered as if on deck, shaking the rain and spray from their garments as they spoke, and thus- giving an additional appearance of reality to the scene. " Enter Mariners, wet," occurs soon afterwards, and we are left to conclude that they showed the state of their dress in the same way, but we are not told so, either in print or in manuscript. Alonso, Sebastian, Antonio, Eerdinand, Gonzalo, and the rest, come up From the cahin^ (a part of the direction also supplied in manu- script, in the folio, 1632,) meaning, no doubt, that they ascended from under the stage, and are consequently supposed not to be in the same dripping condition. P. 9. " Alon. Good boatswain, have care." It may be just worth remark, that the colloquial expression is, '*■ Have a care ;" and a is inserted in the margin of the corrected (21) 22 THE TEMPEST. [ACT I. folio, 1632, to indicate, probably, that the poet so wrote it, or at all events, that the actor so delivered it. SCENE II. P. 12. The reading of all editions has been this : — " The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch, But that the sea, mounting to the welkin's cheek, Dashes the fire out." The manuscript corrector of the folio, 1632, has substituted heat for " cheek," which is not an unlikely corruption by a person writing only by the ear. The welkin's heat was occasioned by the flaming pitch, but the fire was dashed out by the fury of the waves. The firing of the " welkin's cheek" seems a forced image ; but, nevertheless, we meet elsewhere with " heaven's face," and even the " welkin's face." P. 12. Miranda exclaims : — '' A brave vessel, Who had, no doubt, some noble creature in her, Dash'd all to pieces !" Creatures^ for " creature," was the reading of Theobald, and he was right, though it varies from all the old copies. The corrector of the folio, 1632, added the necessary letter in the margin. Miranda speaks also of " those she saw suffer," and calls them " poor souls." P. 13. The emendation in the subsequent lines, assigned to Prospero, is important. -The reading, since the publication of the folio, 1623 (with one exception to be noticed immediately), has invariably been as follows : — " The direful spectacle of the wreck, which touch'd The very virtue of compassion in thee, I have with such provision in miue art So safely order'd, that there is no soul — No, not so much perdition as an hair Betid to any creature in the vessel." The only exception to the above text was a corruption which SC. II.] THE TEMPEST. 28 found its way into the folio, 1632, where " compassion" of the second line was repeated in the third : — " I have with such compassion in mine art," &c. the printer havuig caught the word from the preceding line. '' I have with sucli provision in mine art," the word in the folio, 1623, has always been followed ; but that it was an error may be said to be proved by the manuscript-cor- rector of the folio, 1632, who altered "compassion" (as it stood there) not to " provision" (as it stood in the folio, 1623), but to pr (^vision, in reference to Prosperous power of foreseemg what would be the result of the tempest he had raised : — '• I have with such prevision in mine art So safely order'd, that there is no soul," &c. " Provision" would answer the purpose of giving a meaning, because Prospero might have provided that no soul should suffer ; but prevision supplies a higher and finer sense, showing that the great magician had by his art foreseen that there should not be " so much perdition as an hair" among the whole crew. The alter- ation of a single letter makes the whole difference. P. 14. There is certainly some misprint in the following con- clusion of a speech by Prospero : — '•' And thy father Was Duke of Milan, and his only heir ♦ And princess no worse issued." Tlie sense is intelligible, but the expression obscure. Malone and Steevens read, — " And his only heu: A princess, no worse issued ;" but the corruption, according to the corrector of the folio, 1632, is in the preceding line ; for he alters the passage thus — " And thy father Was Duke of Milan, thoti his only heir And princess, no worse issued," which removes the difficulty. The compositor, perhaps, caught " and" from the line above. 24 - THE TEMPEST. [ACT I. P. 15. A very trifling change, the transference of a preposition from one word to another, clears up one of the most celebrated passages in this drama. Prospero, speaking of his false brother, Antonio, who, having been entrusted with unlimited power, had turned it against the rightful Duke, observes : — • " He beiug thus lorded, Not only with what my revenue yielded, But what my power might else exact, — like one "Who having unto truth, by telling of it, Made such a sinner of his memory To credit his own lie,— he did believe He was indeed the duke." Various modes of improving this unquestionably corrupt sen- tence have been suggested by Warburton (who changed into of the folios to " unto"), Monk Mason, Steevens, Malone, and Bos- well ; but not one of them hit upon the right emendation, which is indicated by the corrector of the folio, 1632, in the shortest and simplest manner, by erasing the preposition in one place, and by adding it to the word immediately adjoining : he also substitutes loaded for "lorded" in the first Ime, — perhaps, a questionable change. He puts the whole in this form : — ''' He being thus loaded, Not only with what my revenue yielded. But what my power might else exact, — like one Who having, to untruth, by telling of it, Made such a sinner of his memory To credit his own lie, — he did believe He was indeed the duke." There cannot be a doubt that this, as regards "untruth," is the true language of Shakespeare; and, by an insignificant transposi- tion, what has always been a stumbling-block to commentators is now satisfactorily removed. P. 16. The ordmary reading has been' this : — " "^Tiereon, A treacherous army levied, one midnight Fated to the purpose, did Antonio open The gates of Milan ; and i' the dead of darkness, The ministers for the purpose hurried thence Me, and thy crying self." SC. II.] THE TEMPEST. 25 Here we see the word " purpose" awkwardly and needlessly- repeated with only an intervening line. The manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, supplants "purpose," in the first instance, by practise : he was, most likely, supported by some good authority; and Shakespeare constantly uses the word practise to denote con- trivance, artifice, or conspiracy, and therefore, we may presume, wrote, — " One midnight Fated to the practise, did Antonio open The gates of Milan," &c. P. 17. In all the old copies the folio wig reading has been pre- served : " Where they prepar'd A rotten carcass of a butt, not rigg'd, Nor tackle, sail, nor mast ; the very rats Instinctively have quit it." Rowe altered " butt" to hoat^ and " have quit it" to had quit it : in both changes he is supported by the corrector of the folio, 1632. Modern editors, who were naturally anxious to adhere to the folios, as the best existing authority, findmg that sense could be made out of the reading of the old copies, followed them, as above, in what appear to be two errors. P. 18, An important and curious point is settled by a manu- script stage-direction opposite the words used by Prospero in the commencement of his tliird speech on this page, — ''Now I arise." What is \\Titten in the margin of the corrected folio, 1632, is, Fut on robe again ; and the full force of this addition may not at first be obvious. It refers back to an earlier part of the same scene (p. 12), where Prospero says to Miranda, — • '' Lend thy hand. And pluck my magic garment from me. — So : Lie there my art." The words Lay it down are written against this passage, as Put on robe again are written against " Now I arise." The fact is that Prospero, having put off his " magic garment," never put it on 2 26 THE TEMPEST. [ACT I. again, according to all existing copies of the drama ; and it was this singular omission that the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, supplied. The great propriety of Prospero's removal of his robe of power, during his narration to iiis daughter, is evi- dent: he did not then require its aid; but just before he con- cluded, and just before he was to produce somnolency in Miranda by the exercise of preternatural influence, he resumed it, a cir- cumstance by which the judgment and skill of the poet are re- markably illustrated. Annotators have endeavored to account for the sudden disposition of Miranda to sleep, in spite of her in- terest in her father's story, in various ways, but the effect upon her, by the resumption of his " magic garment" by Prospero, has escaped observation, because every editor, from the first to the last, seems to have forgotten that Prospero, having laid aside his outer dress near the beginning of the scene, ought to put it on again, at all events, before the end of it. When, therefore, he says, " Now I arise," he does not mean, as Steevens absurdly supposed, " Now my story heightens," because the very reverse is the fact ; but that he rose from the seat he had taken, in order to invest himself again in his " magic garment," having occasion to use it now in producing sudden drowsiness on Miranda. The manu- script-corrector of the folio, 1632, has previously pointed out what nobody else ever noted, viz., the precise moment when, of old, the actor of the part of Prospero took his seat, by writing Sit doivn opposite the following lines (p. 13) with which the ma- gician commences his narrative : — '* The hour's now come, The very minute bids thee ope thine ear ; Obey, and be attentive." [Sit down. Having here taken his seat, we may conclude that he continued to occupy it until he uttered " Now I arise." Miranda, who had stood eagerly listening by his side, then sat do\Mi in her turn : her father, clothed again in his "magic garment," enjoins her to " sit still ;" and not long afterwards we come to the manuscript stage direction. She sleeps^ — an effect wrought upon her senses, not by any physical weariness, but by the agency of Prospero, empowered by that robe with which he had only recently re-in- so. II.] THE TEMPEST. 27 vested himself for the purpose. Thus we see the value of ap- parently triflhig stage directions in explaining so singular an incident as the sudden and deep slumber of Miranda, at the moment when Prospero had concluded his surprising and exciting story. P. 20. Ariel, giving Prospero an account of the fate of the rest of the dispersed fleet, tells Mm, — *' They all have met again, And are upon the Mediterranean flote, Bound sadly home for Naples." In order to make the sentence grammatical, it has been neces- sary to consider " flote" a substantive, from the Fr. fiot, a wave. The misprint of " are" for all near the beginning of the second line has led to this imaginary introduction of a foreign and affected word into our language, when it was never contemplated by Shakespeare. The reading, as given in manuscript in the cor- rected folio, 1632, is, " They all have met again, And all upon the Mediterranean ^oa<, Bound sadly back to Naples." " Float," in fact, is a verb, used by every body, and not a sub- stantive, used by no other English writer. P. 23. In no printed copy of this drama is inserted any stage direction to show when Miranda awakes out of her slumber, al- though we are told when she goes to sleep. According to the manuscript-corrected folio, 1632, she wakes with the excuse to her father, — " The strangeness of your story put Heaviness in me." [ Wahing. Johnson, not knowing that what Prospero calls " a good dull- ness" (because it was what he wished) in Miranda had been mag- ically superinduced, maintains that " experience proves that any violent agitation of the mind easily subsides into slumber." This explanation is altogether needless, for the audience had seen Pros- pero resume his art with his magic garment, and was aware that Miranda's " heaviness" was the effect of preternatural mfluence. 28 THE TEMPEST. [ACT. II. P. 25. The speech beginning, — " Abhorred slave, "VVliicli any print of goodness will not take," &c. was first assigned to Prospero, instead of Miranda (to whom it is given in all the folios), by Dryden and Davenant in their alteration of this drama. Theobald and others have followed this arrange- ment, and the fitness of it is confirmed by the corrected folio, 1632, where the prefix Mir. is changed to Pro. m the margin. P. 26. There is no dispute that in Ariel's song, " Come unto these yellow sands," a line is misprinted in all the old copies, where it appears exactly thus : — '' Foot it fe ally here and there, and sweet sprites bear the burthen.''^ It ought to run thus : — " Foot it featly here and there, And sweet sprites the burthen bear." In this form it has been ordinarily printed, and so it stands in manuscript in the corrected folio, 1632. It seems manifest that the words, in a new line, " the burthen," — were meant as the indi- cation of the commencement of that burthen, and as a sort of heading or title to what immediately follows. P. 27. The manuscript stage-direction in the corrected folio, 1632, Music above, m the middle of Ferdinand's speech, *' The ditty does remember," &c. proves, we may infer, that when the play was formerly acted, the air was continued while the performer was speaking. P. 28. Tlie stage direction, Kneels, in manuscript, opposite the speech of Ferdinand, ''Most sure a goddess," &c. shows that the performer of the part assumed a posture of won- der and adoration, which he kept till Miranda had finished her reply, when Rising is also mserted in the margin of the corrected SC. II.] THE TEMPEST. 29 folio, 1632. Aside is there noted when Prospero says, a few lines afterwards, — "The Duke of Milan," &c. It is the earliest direction of the kind that occurs in the volume, and we need only mention that it is repeated several times after- wards m this scene. ACT n. SCENE I. P. 32. The portion of the scene from " He receives comfort like cold porridge," &c. do^vn to " Aye and a subtle, as lie most learnedly delivered," is crossed out with a pen in the corrected folio, 1632, probably with the object of shortenmg the performance. P. 35. Modern editors have concurred with Malone in the fol- lowing reading : — " And the fair soul herself Weigh'd, between lothness and obedience, at Which end o' the beam she'd bow." It deviates from the old copies by converting should into " she'd," which is unnecessary (and to the detriment of the sense) if we correct, as is done in manuscript m the folio, 1632, a single literal error, and read, — " And the fair soul herself Weigh'd between lothness and obedience, as Which end o' the beam should bow." P. 36. From the speech of Sebastian, " Foul w^eather," down to the entrance of Ariel, p. 38, is struck through with a pen, but several literal errors are nevertheless corrected in the folio, 1632. The erased portion includes the celebrated passage, copied almost verbatim from Florio's translation of " Montaigne's Essays," fol. 1603, B, I. ch. 30,.p. 102. 80 THE TEMPEST. [ACT II. P. 38. The old stage direction on the entrance of Ariel is, — Enter Ariel playiyig solemn music. to which the manuscript corrector of the folio, 1632, has added, above, invisible. The spirit was therefore supposed to be in the air, listening to what passed below. In all modern editions, Exit Ariel, as soon as Alonso falls asleep ; but from the words in the margin, Corpse down, added ui manuscript to the prmted direction, Enter Ariel, with music and song, on p. 42, we may, probably, be warranted in inferring that the spirit hovered in the air unseen all the time Sebastian and Antonio were plottmg against the life of Alonso, and then descended to sing in Gonzalo's ear, and give him warning of the danger. Ariel remains present, but invisible, to the end of the scene ; and that there was some contrivance for suspending performers in the air, we know from several author- ities, and among them, from the last scene of Act III,, where Pros- pero remains, as it is stated, on the toj), invisible, until near its conclusion. P. 40. There is a comparatively trifling change in Antonio's speech, — " She that is queen of Tunis," &c. The old folios all read, in the fifth line of it, "she that from whom ;" but Rowe (who has been here followed by later editors) omitted " that," and printed, " she from whom." The true read- ing seems to be " she for whom," or on account of whom ; and this correction is made in the margin of the folio, 1632. In the third line of the next speech by Antonio, " Measure us back to Naples," ought, on the same authority, to be, " Measure it back to Naples." Nevertheless, the former seems preferable. P. 42. When Alonso starts out of his sleep and finds Sebastian and Antonio with their swords drawn, about to slay him, he asks, accordmg to all modern editions, — " Why are you drawn ? Wherefore this ghastly looking?" "This" was misprinted for thus (a common error), and ^i for i •was therefore inserted in the margin of the corrected folio, 1632, — SC. I.] THE TEMPEST. 81 " "WTierefore thus ghastly looking ?" The change is minute, and may be said to be not absolutely ne- cessary. In the fifth line of Gonzalo's speech, on the next page (43), another literal error occurs, where the old courtier says, " That's verily," instead of " That's verity.'''' The old corrector of the folio, 1632. did not allow the mistake to escape him. SCENE II. P. 45. Trinculo, sheltering himself under the gabardine of Cali- ban, says, — " I will here shroud, till the dregs of the storm be past ;" but a manuscript correction in the folio, 1632, informs us that "dregs" is a misprint for drench; and certainly Trinculo was much more likely to be anxious to avoid the drench^ or extreme violence of the storm, than the mere " dregs," or conclusion of it. P. 49. Caliban's song has this line : — " Nor scrape trenchering, nor wash dish 5" but the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, has obliterated the last syllable of " trenchering," so that the passage there stands more correctly, "Nor scrape trencher, nor wash dish." ACT III. SCENE I. P. 50. The hemistich, at the conclusion of Ferdinand's speech, has occasioned much doubt and controversy. It seems set at rest by the manuscript correction in the folio, 1632. The following is the usual reading of the whole passage : — "But these sweet thoughts do even refresh my labors: Most busy, least when I do it." Such, in fict, are the w^ords in the folio, 1632; but in the earlier folio, 1623, the last line stands thus : — " Most busy lest, when I do it." 82 THE TEMPEST. [ACT IV. The editor of the folio, 1632, not understanding " lest," in that connection, altered it to least. It appears (as was not an uncom- mon occurrence), that a letter had dropped out in the press, and that the real language of the poet was as beautifid as it was brief. We are indebted for it to the manuscript of the corrector of the folio, 1632, who has merely inserted the missing letter. Earlier in his speech, Ferdinand, exclaiming against his laborious employ- ment, adds that the thought of Miranda rendered delightful what would otherwise be intolerable : — " This my mean task "Would be as heavy to me as odious ; but The mistress which I serve quickens what's dead, And makes my labors pleasures ;" and, at the close of what he says, he repeats the same sentiment, but in a shorter form : — " But these sweet thoughts do even refresh my labors : Most busy — blest, when I do it." ■ That is to say, he deems himself hlest even by heavy toils, when they are made light by the thoughts of Miranda ; he was " most busy," but still hlest^ when so employed. The accidental dropping out of the letter h has been the cause of all the doubt that, for nearly two centuries and a half, has involved this passage. It is right to add that this emendation is, like a few others, upon an erasure, as if sometliing had been written there before : perhaps the page had been blotted. ACT IV. SCENE I. P. 63. Prospero, commending his daughter to Ferdinand, re- marks, — " For I Have given you a third of mine own life." Such is the reading of all the folios, and there seems no especial reason why Prospero should divide his life into three, and call Mi- randa " a third" of it. The text has been much disputed, and for "third" of the old prmted copy, the corrector of the folio, 1632, SC. I.J THE TEMPEST. 83 has written thrid (i. e. thread) m the margin. This fact may pos- sibly be decisive of the question. P. ^Q. In the subsequent passage, from the speech of Iris, two manuscript corrections are made in the folio, 1632. We first give the Imes, as ordinarily printed : — " Thy banks with pioned and twilled brims, Which spongy April at thy hest betrims, To make cold nymphs chaste crowns ; and thy broom groves Whose shadow the dismissed bachelor loves, Being lass-lorn." In the corrected folio, 1632, they stand thus: — " Thy banks with pioned and tilled brims, Which spongy April at thy hest betrinl?!. To make cold nymphs chaste crowns '• and thy brown groves Whose shadow the dismissed bachelor loves, Being lass-lorn." Tilled of course refers to cultivation by " pioning," or digging ; but brown groves, m allusion to their deep shade, is a more impor- tant emendation. There seems no reason why a "dismissed bachelor" should love the covert of "broom groves," especially recollecting that broom trees are seldom found in " groves." It may be added that the word slowly is subjoined to the prmted stage-direction, Juno descends, — to show, perhaps, that the god- dess was gradually descending all the time Ceres and Iris deliver- ed their speeches. P. 68. An important change is made in the song given to Juno (and not divided, in the corrected folio, 1632, between her and Ceres, as has been usual) in the couplet, — " Spring come to you, at the farthest, In the very end of harvest." The first Ime is altered to, — " Rain come to you, at the farthest," &c. It may be asked why Juno should wish spring to be so long deferred 1 On the other hand, rain before " the very end of har- vest," would be a misfortune, and the singer is deprecating such disasters. 2* 84 THE TEMPEST. [ACT V. P. 68. The following would seem to be mistakenly printed as a couplet : — " So rare a wond'red father and a wise Makes this place Paradise." The unequal length of the lines, and the fact that the last is a hem- istich, completed by the opening of Prospero's next speech, mili- tates against this notion : Malone and others therefore printed wife fcr "wise," supposing that the compositor had mistaken the long s for /. Under the circumstances, perhaps, the decision of the corrector of the folio, 1632, may be held final, and he adopts wife : — " So rare a wond'red father and a wife Makes this place Paradise." In the next speech of Iris, " windring" has been treated as a misprint for winding^ and " sedg'd crowns," is altered in the mar- gin to " sedge-crownis," regarding the fitness of which we can hardly doubt. P. 71. To the o'd stage-direction, Enter Ariel, loaden with glistering a2:)parel, the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, has added the explanatory w^ords. Hang it on the line ; but whether we are to understand a line tree (as has been suggested by Mr. Hunter, in his learned Essay on the Tempest, 8vo. 1839), or a mere rope, is not stated. \Yhen Stephano and Trinculo discover it, Seeing the apparel is wi^itten opposite the speech of the latter, beginning, " O, king Stephano ! O peer ! O, worthy Stephano ! look, what a wardrobe here is for thee !" p. 72. ACT V. SCENE I. P. 75. Only one manusci'ipt emendation is made in Prospero's great speech, abjuring his magic ; but it is worth attention. The passage has invariably run : — '' You demy puppets, that By moonshine do the green-sour ringlets make, Whereof the ewe not bites." SC. I.] THE TEMPEST. 35 Tor "sour" the corrector substitutes sivard — "the green-sward ringlets," or ringlets on the green-sward, which sheep avoid, and to which the unusual compound epithet " green-sour " may pro- perly be applied. Here we may not see the necessity of this alteration, though it may have been w^arranted by some manu- script to which the corrector of the folio, 1632, was able to resort. P. 76. We meet with changes of the received text in two con- secutive lines of the continuation of the speech of Prospero, after Alonso, Gonzalo, Sebastian, Antonio, &c., have become " spell- stopped" in the magic circle. The reading of all the editions has been, — " Holy Gonzalo, honorable man, Mine eyes, even sociable to the show of thine, Fall fellowly drops." The epithet " holy " is inapplicable to Gonzalo, while nolle (sub- stituted by the corrector of the folio, 1632) is on all accounts appropriate. In the " Winter's Tale" (Act V. Scene I.) Leontes tells Florizel, " You have a holy father," where the word seems equally out of place, and where the corrector has, as in " The Tempest," erased it and written noble in its stead. In both these cases the copyist must have misheard ; but the second error in the same passage, "show" for Jloiv, most probably arose out of the common mistake between the long s and the/. The manu- script-corrector gives the whole in these terms : — " JVoble Gonzalo, honorable man. Mine eyes, even sociable to ihejlow of thine, Fall fellowly drops." The eyes of Gonzalo were flowing with tears, and those of Pros- pero wept in fellowship with them. P. 77. In the same speech Prospero again addresses Gonzalo as — " 0, good Gonzalo, My true preserver, and a loyal sir To him thou follow'st." This is an uncommon, though not unprecedented, use of the B6 THE TEMPEST. [ACT V. word " sir ;" and the fact is (according to the corrector of the folio, 1632), that it was a jnisprint for servant. In the manuscript used by the printer the word servant was probably abbreviated, and thus the error produced, the true reading being, — " My true preserver and a loyal servant To him thou follow'st." P. 78. Prospero, in the words of the manuscript stage direc- tion, being Attired as duke of Milan, presents himself before his astonished brother, after Gonzalo has prayed some heavenly power to guide them out of the " fearful country." Antonio, in the first instance, believes that the whole is a diabolical delusion, and, ac- cording to all editions, exclaims, " Whe'r tliou beest he, or no, Or some enchanted trifle to abuse me, As late I have been, I not know." The word " trifle" seems a most strange one to be employed in such a situation, and it reads like a misprint : the manuscript-cor- rector of the folio, 1632, informs us that it undoubtedly is so, and that the line in which it occurs ought to run, " Or some enchanted devil to abuse me." Sebastian just afterwards declares of Prospero, that "the devil speaks in him." P. 80. To the printed stage-direction, Here Prospero discovers Ferdinand and Miranda playing at chess, the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, adds a note, showing in what way, according to the simplicity of our early theatres, the lovers were disclosed to the audience : his words are, Draiv curtain ; so that Prospero drew a traverse at the back of the stage, and showed Ferdinand and Mi- randa at their game. P. 84. Prospero describing Sycorax, in the presence of Cali- ban, tells Antonio, — " His mother was a witch ; and one so strong, That could control the moon, make flows and ebbs, And deal in her command, without her power." so. I.] THE TEMPEST. 87 The words " without her power" have naturally occasioned con- siderable discussion, in which Malone hinted that Sycorax might act by a sort of " power of attorney" from the moon, while Stee- Yens strangely supposed that " without her power" meant " with less general power." All difficulty, however, is at an end, when we find the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, marking "with- out" as a misprint, and telling us that it ought to have been with all ; — " That could control the moon, make flows and ebbs, And deal in her command with all her power :" that is, Sycorax could "make flows and ebbs" matters in the com- mand of the moon, with all the power exercised over the tides by the moon. The error of the press here is, we think, transparent. THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF YEEONA. ACT I. SCENE I. P. 92. The reading of the subsequent line has hitherto been, — " 'Tis true ; for you are over boots in love ;'■ but the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, has changed it to " 'Tis true ; hut you are over boots in love ;" "which seems Kiore consistent with the course of the dialogue ; for Proteus, remarking that Leander had been " more than over shoes in love" with Hero, Valentine answers, that Proteus was even more deeply in love than Leander ; Proteus observes of the fable of Hero and Leander, — " That's a deep story of a deeper love, For he was more than over shoes in love." Valentine retorts : — " 'Tis true ; hut you are over boots in love." " For," instead of hut^ was perhaps caught by the compositor from the preceding line. The following change, lower in the page, seems hardly neces- sary, but it is not the only instance in which the manuscript-cor- rector of the folio, 1632, has converted the active into the passive participle : he altered (38) so. II.] THE TWO GENTLEMEIST OF VEROXA. 89 " Even so by love the young and tender wit Is turned to folly ; blasting in the bud," to " blasted in the bud ;" for the bud does not blast, but is itself blasted : the " young and tender wit" is a " bud" blasted by love. P. 96. Steevens and Malone differed about Speed's observa- tion to Proteus, as it stands in the folio, 1G23 : — " And being so hard to me that brought your mind, I fear she'll prove as hard to you in telling your mind." Steevens adopted the words from the folio, 1632 — " And being so hard to me that brought your mind, I fear she'll prove as hard to you in telling her mind." Probably neither old reading is quite right, and the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, has made it intelligible by his emendation, — " And being so hard to me that brought to her your mind, I fear she'll prove as hard to you in telling yoit her mind." The words to her and you- are added in the margin. The fact is, that the whole speech was intended for irregular familiar verse, and the manu- script-corrector has added the word bet.'er at the end of the first line, which had apparently dropped out : the whole will therefore run as follows : — " Sir, I could perceive nothing at all from her better, No, not so much as a ducat for delivering your letter ; And being so hard to me that brought to her your mind, I fear she'll prove as hard to you in telling you her mind." As a slight confirmation of the opinion that rhyming verse was intended, it may be mentioned, that in the folios the lines begin with capital letters as they are above printed. Still the same cir- cumstance belongs to other places, where it is clear that prose only was to be spoken. SCENE n. P. 97. Rhyme is also restored in the next scene between Julia and Lucetta, where they are discussing the merits and claims of various amorous gentlemen. An apparent misprint of another kind, " lovely" for loving^ is also corrected in manuscript in the folio, 1632. Julia has asked her maid what she thinks of Proteus, 40 THE TWO GENTLEMEN" [ACT I. aiicl Lucetta's answer provokes the following, as we find it in all editions : " Jul. How now ! what means this passion at his name ? Luc. Pardon, dear madam : 'tis a passing shame, That I, unworthy body as I am, Should censure thus on lovely gentlemen. Jul. Why not on Proteus, as of all the rest ? Luc. Then thus, — of many good I think him best." It seems clear that the two middle lines should rhyme as well as all the others ; and the manuscript-corrector not only cures this defect, but gives Lucetta's answer a particular application to the very person of whom both she and her mistress are speaking. The emendation is tliis : " That I, unworthy body, as I can, Should censure thus a loving gentleman." Lucetta, knowing that Proteus is a " loving gentleman" to her mistress, Welshes to be excused from giving her opinion, as well "as she can" form one, uj)on him, until Julia compels her to do so. The above is by no means the only part of the scene that is in rhyme, and in two subsequent places the corrector restores what we may presume to have been the original jingle, thus (p. 100):- '' She makes it strange, but she would be pleas'd better To be so anger'd with another letter." Here for " pleas'd better ^'^ the ordinary reading has been " best pleas'd." Again (p. 101) :— " Ay, madam, you may see what sights you think ; I see things too, although you judge I wink." Hitherto the first of these lines has been, " Ay, madam, you may say what sights you see." It is not improbable, that in this comedy, confessedly one of its author's earliest works, rhymes originally abounded more fre- quently than at the time it was printed in 1623, the fashion in the interval having so changed, that they were considered not only unnecessary, but possibly had become distasteful to audiences. ACT II.] OF VERONA. 41 When "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" was, according to our best conjectures, first produced, blank verse had only recently been adopted on the stage. We shall see this point more fully illustrated hereafter, when we come to speak of " Titus Andron- icus," m which several passages have been restored by the correct- or of the folio, 1632, apparently to the form in which they were recited when the tragedy was acted quite in the beginning of Shakespeare's career. ACT II. SCENE I. P. 106. There can be no doubt that the small word we have printed below in italics, and which was inserted by the manuscript- corrector of the folio, 1632, is necessary in the following ridicule by Speed of his master, for having been changed by his love for Silvia : — '' You were wont, when you laughed, to crow like a cock ; when you walked, to walk like one of the lions ; when you fasted, it was presently after dinner ; when you looked sadly, it was for want of money ; and now you are so metamori^hosed with a mistress, that, when I look on you, I can hardly think you my master." Nevertheless, so has been always omitted. SCENE IV. P. 116. The following passage, as it stands in all impressions, is unquestionably a piece of tautology. The Duke asks Valen- tine if he knows Don Antonio ? " Val. Ay, my good lord ; I know the gentleman To be of worth, and worthy estimation. And not without desert so well reputed." The manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, substitutes a word in the second line, easily misprinted, and which being restored, is certainly an improvement : — " To be of loealth and worthy estimation." Wealth would be an additional recommendation to the Duke, and it entirely avoids the objectionable repetition : if Antonio were of 42 THE TWO GENTLEMEN [ACT II. " worth " and " worthy estimation," he could not well be so re- puted " without desert." P. 119. Hie line " Disdain to root the summer-swelling flower," has been disputed, the epithet "summer-smelling" having been preferred by some critics ; but the old copies having " summer- swelling," that reading has generally prevailed. The corrector of the folio, 1632, has however altered the compound, probably on good authority, with wliich we are not now acquainted, to " sum- TCiQv-smelling.'''' SCENE YI. P. 124. Johnson tells us, that '' sweet suggesting love ! if tliou hast sinn'd, Teach me, thy tempted subject, to excuse it," means, " Oh, tempting love ! if thou hast influenced me to sin ;" but, when Proteus is lamenting the breach of his vows to Julia, it seems much more natural for him to say, " if I have sinn'd," and so it is given by the corrector of the folio, 1632. Further on, in the same soliloquy, he reads, " precious to itself" for "precious in itself," which is quite consistent with the context, — " I to myself am dearer than a friend, For love is still most precious to itself," SCENE VII. P. 126. The epithet ivide substituted by the corrector of the folio. 1632, seems more appropriate in the following lines, but it has been uniformly printed "wild :" Julia is speaking of a current that " with gentle murmur glides" between its banks, — " And so by many winding nooks he strays With willing sport to the wide ocean." This is, of course, one of the cases in which either reading may be right : if we prefer loide, it is mainly because the old corrector had some ground for adopting it. ACT I.] OF VERONA. 43 P. 128. There is a misprint in the following line, as pointed out hy the corrector of the folio, 1632 : — *•' To furnish me upon my longing journey." Julia is about to travel in male attire in search of the object of her devoted regard, Proteus, and desires her maid to provide her with all the apparel necessary, and to come with her to her chamber — * " To take a note of what I stand in need of To furnish me upon my loving journey." " Loving journey," in reference to the purpose of it, seems to recommend itself. ACT III. SCENE I. P. 131. There are several oversights as to the place of action in this comedy. For instance, in Act II. Scene V. (p. 122), Speed welcomes Launce to Padua instead of Milan ; and here we find the Duke telling Valentine " There is a lady in Veroiia here," when it ought also to be Milan. Again, in Act V. Scene IV. (p. 168), Valenthie is made to speak of Verona, when he means Mi- lan. In the two last places three syllables are necessary for the verse ; and Pope and Theobald resorted to different contrivances to obviate the difficulty : in one case Pope interpolated " Sir," and in the other Theobald read behold for " hold." The manuscript- corrector of the folio, 1632, has shown how both these changes may be avoided, by only supposing that Shakespeare, instead of speaking of Milan, as it is called in our language, inserted Milano^ the Italian name of the city. Milano suits the measure just as well as Verona, and it is more likely that the printer or copyist were in fault, than the poet. SCENE II. P. 141. On the same authority, "some" ought to be printed sure in tike following line, where the Duke is about to employ Pro- teus most confidentially : — 44 THE TWO GENTLEMEN [ACT IT. " For thou hast shown some sign of good desert." Sure is written in the margin, and ''" some" struck out, because Proteus had already given undoubted proofs of fidelity to the Duke, and of treachery to Valentine. In the next page, " weed," as it stands in the folios, and in subsequent editions, reads like an error of the press, and doubtless it. was so, since " weed" was displaced by the corrector of the folio, 1632, and wean, a word much better adapted to the situation, inserted : — " But say, this wean her love from Valentine, It follows not that she will love Sir Thurio." A third mistake of the same kind is pointed out on p. 146, in the first scene between Valentine and the Outlaws, where the whole body having chosen him captain, the third Outlaw exclaims, — *• Come, go with us : we'll bring thee to our crewe, And show thee all the treasure we have got." For " crews" we ought to read cave, in wliich the treasure was de- posited : cave is therefore written in the margin, and crews erased : the " crews" (so to call them) were present on the stage, and Val- entine needed not to be brought to them. ACT IV. SCENE II. P. 148. In the song, " Who is Silvia ?" (fee, there is a repeti- tion of " she" in the third luie, as the rhyme to " she" in the first line ; and although such a license was by no means unprecedented, still it was usual for writers not to avail themselves of it. If the corrector of the folio, 1632, give the song as it was written by Shakespeare, the inelegance to which we refer was avoided by the adoption of an epithet which our great dramatist has else- where employed with reference to female simplicity and inno- cence (" Twelfth Night," Act II. Scene IV.). The first stanza of the song, as corrected in the folio, 1632, is this : — " Who is Silvia? what is she, That all our s^^ains commend her? Holy, fair, and wise as free ; The heaven such grace did lend her, * That she might admired be." SC. IV.] OF VERONA. 45 SCENE III. P. 153. We have here a very important emendation, supplying a whole line, evidently deficient, and yet never missed by any of the commentators. It is in one of the speeches of Sir Eglamour, wherein he consents to aid Silvia in her escape. Until now, it has run : — " Madam, I pity much your grievances ; Which since I know they virtuously are plac'd, I give consent to go along with you." Here there is no connection between the first and the second lines, because Sir Eglamour could not mean that the " griev- ances," but that the affections of Silvia were " virtuously placed." Shakespeare must, therefore, have written what we find in an ad- joining blank space of the folio, 1632, which makes the sense complete : — " Madam, I pity much your grievances, And the most true affections that you hear ; Which since I know they virtuously are plac'd, I give consent to go along with you." We shall hereafter see that other passages, more or less valu- able, are supplied by the corrector of the folio, 1632. These were, probably, obtained from some better manuscript than that used by the old prmter. SCENE IV. P. 155. Proteus having sent a little dog as a present to Silvia, meets Launce, and learns that the latter, having lost the little dog, had offered to the lady his own huge cur. Proteus asks him, — '■'■ What ! didst thou oifer her this cur from me ?" The word cur bemg derived from the manuscript of the corrector, and necessary to the completion of the line. Besides this novelty, there is an emendation of Launce's reply, which explains a point never yet properly understood. The folio, 1623, reads: " Ay, sir : the other squirrel was stolen from me by the hangman's boya in the market-place," &c, 46 THE TWO GENTLEMEN [ACT. V. The folio, 1632, gives the hangman only one boy, — " by the hangman's boy in the market-place ;" but the true reading seems to be that of the corrected folio, 1632, where " a hangman boy" is used just in the same way that Shakespeare elsewhere speaks of a gallows-boy, — " Ay, sir : the other squirrel was stolen from me by a hangman hoy in the market-place ;" that is, by a ras- cally boy. P. 157. We give the following to show how Shakespeare's verse has probably been oorrupted. Julia, presenting Silvia with a paper, says, — " Madam, please you peruse this letter : " a line which requires two additional syllables, naturally, and most likely truly, furnished by the corrector of the folio, 1632: — ''Madam, so please you to peruse this letter." Two little words, not absolutely necessary to the sense, but abso- lutely necessary to the measure, were omitted by the copyist, or by the old printer. P. 159. It is worth notice that Julia, descanting on Silvia's pic- ture, says, in the first folio, that " her eyes are gray as glass," which may be right ; but which the second folio alters to "her eyes are gray as grass," which must be wrong. The manuscript-cor- rector of the folio, 1632, converts " gray" into green — " her eyes are green as grass ;" and such we have good reason to suppose w^as the true readmg. ACT V. SCENE II. P. 162. The sudden entrance of the Duke is not marked in the old copies, and is supplied in manuscript in the folio, 1632, Enter Duke^ angerJy ; and his first speech is there thus corrected : — " How now, Sir Proteus ! How now, Thurio ! Which of you saw Sir Eglamour of late ?" The folio, 1623, gives the last line, — " Which of you saw Eglamour of late V\ SC. II.] OF VERONA. 47 And the folio, 1632, before it was corrected in manuscript, — •' "Which of you, sa}/, saw Sir Eglamour of late ?" There is no note when the Duke goes out, but Exit in haste^ is written in the margm. The additional stage-directions in the cor- rected folio, 1632, are very numerous throughout this play ; but they are, in general, merely explanatory of what may be gathered from the text, so that it is seldom necessary to remark upon them. They must have been intended to make what is technically termed the stage-busmess quite intelligible. P. 164. Two passages in the speech of Valentine, as they ap- pear in all the printed copies, and as they stand in the manuscript of the corrector of the folio, 1632, require notice, on account of valuable emendations. The usual opening is in these lines : — *' How use doth breed a habit in a man ! This shadowy desert, unfrequented woods, I better brook than flourishing peopled towns." Tlie manuscript-corrector renders the second line, — '• These shadowy, desert, unfrequented woods," &c. Lower down we are informed, m an unprinted stage- direction, that shouts are heard, and then follow these lines : — " These my rtuJe mates, that make their wills their law, Have some unhappy passenger in chace ;" which is certainly better than the common mode of printing the passage, which leaves the verb " have" without any antecedent: — " These are my mates, that make their wills their law, Have some unhappy passenger in chace." The first speech of Proteus to Silvia, on entering, is also altered by reading "have" having, and by making the sentence continuous, as in the old copies, and not, as in modern editions, terminating it by a period at the end of the fourth line. The corrector of the folio, 1632, puts it in this amended form : — " Madam, this service having done for you, (Though you respect not aught your servant doth) 48 THE TWO GENTLEMEN [ACT V. To hazard life, and rescue you from him, That would have forc'd your honor and your love, • Vouchsafe me, for my meed, but one fair look," &c. SCENE IV. P. 166. It is admitted by the commentators that the measure ill the following extract is defective : they have tried to amend it in various ways, but they have not been so fortunate as to hit upon the right changes. We first quote the passage as Malone regulates it, and follow it by the alteration recommended by the corrector of the folio, 1632. Valentine says — '' The private wound is deepest : time most accurst ! 'Mongst all foes, that a friend should he the worst ! Prot. My shame and guilt confounds me !" Malone, in justification, observes that Shakespeare sometimes em- ploys lines of twelve syllables ; but here, in three Imes, we have three varieties ; the first line is of twelve syllables, the second of ten, and the third of only seven. We are far from wishing to re- duce the language of Shakespearse to a finger-counting standard, but the subsequent emendation shows, at all events, that at an early date the passage was deemed corrupt, and that it ought to run as follows : — " The private wound is deep'st. time accurst, 'Mongst all my foes, a friend should be the worst ! Prot. My shame and desperate guilt at once confound me !" It seems more than likely that we have here recovered the lan- guage of Shakespeare ; and it is to be remarked that the lines of the poet are regular, both before and after the preceding quotation. P. 170. The following manuscript emendation in the corrected folio, 1632, tends to establish that conclude was the right w^ord, and that " include," adopted by editors from the folios, was a misprint : — " Come ; let us go : we will conclude all jars With triumphs, mirth, and rare solemnity." The epithet "rare," in the folio, 1623, is all in the folio, 1632 ; but restored to " rare" by the manuscript-corrector, perhaps from the prior edition, or possibly on some other authority. In so. IV.] OF VERONA. 49 all impressions the word stripling, m the next line but two, is omitted in the following speech by Valentine, introducing Julia to the Duke, — " What think you of this stripling page, my lord?" Stripling is written in the margin of the corrected folio, 1632, as M^ell as Valentine at the end of the next line but one, where it must have been accidentally left out : — *' What mean you by that saying, Valentine /" The two lines which close the play are in rhyme, according to the same authority. In the folio, 1623, they do not rhyme, and there stand, — " That done, our day of marriage shall he yours ; One feast, one house, one mutual happiness." The manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, tells us that the lines ought to run as follows : — " Our day of marriage shall he yours no less, — ^ One feast, one house, one mutual happiness." We have no doubt that this is an accurate representation of the fact : no fewer than twenty-nine of the thirty-six plays in the folio terminate with couplets ; and considering, as already observed, that "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" was wi'itten at so early a date, when rhyme was popular, it would be strange if it, of all others, had been an exception. THE MEKEY WIVES OF WIJSDSOK. ACT I. SCENE I. P. 177. All the characters who take part at any time during the scene are mentioned at the commencement of the scenes in this play, but the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, has struck out all the names but those of Justice Shallow, Slender, and Sir Hugh Evans, who, in flict, begin the comedy. The entrances of the others are afterwards noted in the margin, precisely at the places where they come upon the stage. Thus, when Evans, on p. 179, knocks at Page's door, the master of the house does not enter at first, but looks out at a window {above, as the manuscript- corrector states), and asks, " Who's there T but does not join the rest outside his house, until the end of Evans's answer, when Enter Page is marked. This old mode of commencing the comedy may seem to give the scene additional vivacity and re- ality. Falstaff, Bardolph, Nym, and Pistol, of course, enter, w^hen Page says, "Here comes Sir John," &c., p. 180. P. 184. Opposite Slender's ejaculation, " O heaven ! this is Mis- tress Anne Page !" the corrector of the folio, 1632, has written this stage-direction. Following her ; from which we may gather that Slender, struck by Anne's appearance, follows her a few steps to- wards the door of the house, when she quits the stage. Such, probably, was the practice of some old comedian who had the part of Slender, and it is a curious relic of stage-business. P. 185. It was not meant that Sir Hugh Evans should, like (50) SC. III.] THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. 61 Slender, grossl}^ misapply words : therefore, in the following ob- servation, the corrector of the folio, 1632, has properly altered " command" to demand. " But can you affection the 'oman? Let us command to know that of your mouth or of your lips ;" &c. P. 186. According to the manuscript-correction of the folio, 1632, the commentators have been right in altering the old read- ing of the sentence, " I hope, upon familiarity will grow more con- tent," into " 1 hope, upon familiarity will grow more contempt ;" for Slender could hardly misquote a proverb he found in his copy-book. Besides, the humor of the passage depends upon the use of the word " contempt." P. 187. When Slender asks Anne Page, " Why do your dogs bark so 1 — Be there bears i' the town 1" the insertion of a manu- script stage-direction in the folio, 1632, Dogs hark., affords evidence that there was formerly an imitation of the barking of dogs out of sight of the audience, in order to give greater verisimilitude. SCENE III. P. 189. A rigid adherence to the old copies has here misled editors, who have given Nym's speech as, " The good humor is to steal at a minute's rest," instead of " a minim s rest," which the sense seems to require, in allusion to what has just been said of "an unskilful singer" not keeping time. The manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, has converted "minute's" into minim's. P. 190. A misprint in the old editions of " carves" for craves^ has occasioned some difficulty in the passage where Falstaff, speak- ino- of the expected result of his enterprise against Mrs. Ford, observes, as the words have been invariably given, " I spy enter- tainment in her ; she discourses, she carves, she gives the leer of invitation." A note in the margin of the corrected folio, 1632, shows that we ought to read " she craves, she gives the leer of in- vitation." There seems no sufficient reason for supposing that " carves" ought to be taken in the figurative sense of wooes ; and although ladies might now and then " carve" to guests, in the lit- eral meaning of the word (as in the passage quoted by Boswell from Webster's " Vittoria Corombona," Shakesp. by Malone, 52 THE MEKRY WIVES [SC. IV. VIII. 38), yet carving was undoubtedly an accomplishment pecu- liarly belonging to men. FalstafF evidently, from the context, intends to say that Mrs. Ford has a craving for him, and there- fore gave " the leer of invitation." The misprint was a very easy one, occasioned merely by the transposition of a lettter, and any forced construction is needless. P. 190. The word "legend," in the sentence, "He hath a legend of angels," is altered to legion in the corrected folio, 1632 ; but still the passage does not conform to the old 4to, 1602, where it is said " she hath legions of angels." That, however, is evi- dently an edition of no accuracy. P. 191. The reading of all the printed authorities, speaking of Mrs. Page, is, " She is a region in Guiana, — all gold and bounty," which might be accepted, had we no warrant for improving the text to, " She is a region in Guiana, — all gold and heauty^'' such being the manuscript emendation in the folio, 1632. Guiana was famous for its beauty, as well as for its gold, and thus the paral- lel between it and Mrs. Page was more exact. The 4to, 1602, lays particular emphasis on her heautij ; and "bounty" and beauty were easily mistaken. P. 191. The corrector of the folio, 1632, like modern editors and the 4to, 1602, reads : — " Falstaff will learn the humor of this age," and not '■'• honor of this age," as in all the folios. P. 192. Pistol's exclamation, "By welkin, and her star!" is, "By welkin, and her stars P'' in the corrected folio, 1632, and as far as we can judge, rightly, since the welkin has not one, but innumerable stars. SCENE rv. P. 197. Mrs. Quickly 's speech, at the bottom of this page, begms, in the corrected folio, 1632, " Will 1 1 I'faith, that / will !" and not " that we will," as m the printed copies. ACT I.] OF WINDSOR. 53 ACT II. SCENE I. P. 198. Dr. Farmer conjectured that "Though love use reason for his precisian" ought to be, "Though love use reason for his physician.'''' The word "precisian" is so altered in the margin of the manuscript-corrected folio, 1632 ; and of the fitness of it there can now be no doubt. P. 202. Dr. Johnson's conjecture that the words " Believe it, Page ; he speaks sense," belong to Nym, and are not a continua- tion of Pistol's speech, is fully confirmed 'by a correction in the folio, 1632, where Nym is written as the prefix in the margin opposite. P. 204. In all editions, where the entrance is marked at all, the Host and Shallow are made to come upon the stage together ; but it is clear that they did not, for when the Host, having entered, calls out, " Cavaliero-justice, I say !" Shallow, coming after him, answers, " I follow, mine host, I follow." Their en- trances are separately noted in the corrected folio, 1632, and this fact shows that the emendator paid great attention to these little points. P. 205. It is necessary here to quote the whole of the Host's short speech, as it is ordinarily printed, for the sake of observa- tions arising out of two parts of it : — " Host. My hand, bully : thou shalt have egress and regress ; said I well? and thy name shall be Brook. It is a merry knight. — Will you go, An- heires?" With regard, first, to the name assumed by Ford : in the 4to, 1602, it is Brooke, and in all the folios, 1623, 1632, 1664, and 1685, it is Broome ; but from the pun upon the name made by Falstaff, in a subsequent scene (p. 211), "Such Brooks are wel- come to me, that o'erflow such liquor," it has always been con- sidered a misprint in the folios. That the name was misprinted there we cannot doubt, but we may doubt whether Broome was a misprint for " Brooke," or for Bourne (the latter being decid- edly the more probable), and whether, in fact, the name was not 54 THE MERRY WIVES [ACT. II. originally Bourne^ which the manufacturer of the surreptitious 4to, 1602 (for there never was an authentic impression of "The Merry Wives" until the folio, 1623), altered to "Brooke," not understanding, perhaps, how the joke about " o'erflowing such liquor" could, at all events, so well apply to Bourne. The truth is, that as Brooke and Bourne mean the same thing, viz., a small stream, the joke would apply to the one as to the other; and the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, invariably strikes out Broome^ and substitutes Bourne. Hence we may not un- reasonably infer, that the true alias of Ford was not Brooke (which originated in the 4to, 1602), but Bourne; and that when the comedy was acted, in the time of the corrector, he always heard it pronounced Bourne^ and not " Brooke." In the manu- script used for the folio, 1623 (followed in all the other editions m that form), we have little hesitation in believing, that the name was written Bourne^ which the compositor misprinted Broome. There is certainly another error of the press, which we may al- low the corrector of the folio, 1632, to set right upon his better knowledge of the true reading. We allude to the last clause, " Will you go, An-heires ]" out of which no sense can be made. Warburton suggested " herls^ the old Scotch word for master ;" Steevens, hearts ; Malone, hear us ; Boaden, cavaliers, &c. The manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, merely changes one letter, and omits two, and leaves the passage, " Will you go on, here V The Host urging them forward, as he does again just afterwards, nearly in the same words, differently placed, " Here, boys, here, here ! — shall we wag f He is anxious that no time should be lost. How so ordinary an expression as " Will you go on, here T came to be misprinted, " Will you go, An-heires f we are at a loss to imagine : perhaps the writing before the printer was very illegi- ble, and he could not believe that any thing so simple and intelli- gible could be intended. It is singular that nobody seems ever to have conjectured that on here might be concealed under "An- heires." P. 205. Page observes, of the duellists, " I had rather hear them scold than fight." This may have been an elliptical sen- tence, but it is more likely that two words were accidentally SC. II.] OF WINDSOK. "S'S omitted, and that the true readuig is that furnished by the correct- or of the folio, 1632, " I had rather hear them scold, than see them fight." SCENE XL P. 206. In FalstafF's reply to Pistol, the compound epithet, according to the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, is not, " Coach-fellow, Nym," hut " CowcA-fellow, Nym," as, indeed, it was printed by some of the earlier editors, as equivalent to "bed- fellow." Nevertheless, " coach-fellow" may be, and has been, rec- onciled to sense, P. 208. It seems improbable that Mrs. Quickly should have had " twenty angels" given to her " this morning" by a person who wished to be in the good graces of Mrs. Ford ; and in the folio, 1 632, the sentence is thus altered in manuscript, " I had myself twenty angels given of a morning." P. 212. Ford, pressing his "bag of money" upon Falstaff, says, " If you will help to bear it, take all, or half, for easing me of the carriage." It seems more likely that Ford would say, "take half, or all." Falstaff would draw back at first, and Ford would then endeavor to induce him to take all, if half did not make the impression he expected. The manuscript-corrector has changed the places of "all" and "half, — "Take half or all, for easing me of the carriage." The difference is not material either way. Throughout the whole of this scene Ford is called Bourne^ and the old corrector has, therefore, erased Broome, in favor of the other name, in ten separate instances. P. 213. The propriety of the following emendation can hardly be questioned. Ford, adverting to the hopelessness of proceeding in his intended suit to Mrs. Ford, as the passage has always hith- erto been given, speaks thus to Falstaff: — "She dwells so se- curely on the excellency of her honor, that the folly of my soul dares not present itself" The manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, reads suit for "soul" — "that the folly of my suit dares not present itself." 66 THE MEERY WIVES [ACT III. SCENE in. p. 216. In the beginning of the scene between Caius and Jack Rugby, the former wishes to practise his fencing on his man, and, offering to lunge at him with his rapier, Jack Rugby exclaims, "Alas, sir! I cannot fence." The corrector of the folio, 1632, has added, as a descriptive marginal direction, the words, Afeard, runs hack ; which amusingly shows the manner in M^hich the old actor of Jack Rugby received, or rather shunned, the advances of his master. P. 218. "We meet here with a singular blunder by the printer, which has occasioned much puzzle and conjecture, but which is at once set right by the manuscript-corrector of the folit) 1632. It occurs at the end of one of the Host's speeches to Dr. Caius : — " I will bring thee where Mistress Anne Page is, at a farm-house a feast- ing, and thou shalt woo her. Cried game, said I well?" The difficulty has been how to make any sense out of " Cried game ;" and various suggestions, such as tried game, cry aim, &c., have been made ; but the truth seems to be, that the Host, hav- ing said that Anne Page was feasting at a farm-house, in order still more to incite Dr. Caius to go there, mentioned the most or- dinary objects of feasting at farm-houses at that time, viz. curds and cream : " curds and cream" in the hands of the old compos- itor became strangely metamorphosed into cried game — at least this is the marginal explanation in the corrected folio, 1632. The Host, therefore, ends his speech about Anne Page's feasting at the farm-house by the exclamation, " Curds and cream ! said I well?" ACT III. SCENE I. P. 219. The passage is not one of any very great importance, but for " the pitty-ward, the park- ward, every way ; Old Windsor way, and every way but the town way," the corrected folio, 1632, has, certainly with the advantage of intelligibility, " the pit-way, the park-way. Old Windsor way, and every way but the town way," the words or letters not wanted, and probably not understood, have been struck through with a pen. SC. III.] OF WINDSOR. 67 P. 222. The folios are evidently deficient in tnat part of the Host's speech, where he is endeavouring to make reconcilement between Evans and Caius. The folio, 1623, reads, " Give me thy hand (celestial), so. Boys of art, I have deceived you both." Malone's text has been, " Give me thy hand, terrestrial ; so : — ■ Give me thy hand celestial ; so. — Boys of art, I have deceived you both." The reading of the corrected folio, 1632, has "and terrestrial" added in manuscript, giving the following as the lan- guage of the poet, and still preserving the antithesis in about half the number of words : — " Give me thy hands, celestial and terreslrial : so. Boys of art, I have deceived you both." SCENE IL P. 223. The pronoun your seems clearly necessary in the fol- lowing answer by Ford to Mrs. Page, who asks whether his wife is at home 1 — " Ay, and as idle as she may hang together for want of your company. I think, if your husband were dead, you two would marry." The word is in the margin of the corrected folio, 1632. P. 224. Where for " there" is doubtless the true mode of printing Ford's observation — " The clock gives me my cue, and my assurance bids me search ; there I shall find Falstatf " — "and , my assurance bids me search where I shall find Falstaft"' is the corrected and more natural reading of the folio, 1632. The stage-direction, Clock strikes ten, is written in the margin ; and FalstafF had already told Ford that he was to visit Mrs. Ford " between ten and eleven." SCENE III. P. 230. We have a glimpse of the comic business of the scene in the manuscript stage-direction (there is no printed one in the folios), when Falstaff, in great alarm, hides himself among the foul linen in the buck-basket. The words are, Oets in the lasfcet and falls over ; meaning, probably, that in the eagerness of his haste he " fell over" on the other side of the basket, and occasioned still greater ludicrous confusion. 3* 58 THE MERRY WIVES [ACT IT. ACT IV. SCENE I. P. 243. The change of a letter makes an improvement in the speech of Evans : " No; Master Slender is let the boys leave to play." For " let" the corrector of the folio writes " get ;" that is to say, "Master Slender is get (or has obtained) the boys leave to play." " To let the boys leave to play" is not a phrase that even the Welsh parson would have used. On the next page the corrected reading is, " Hast thou no understandings for thy cases, and the numbers, and the genders," instead of " of the genders," but the difference is trifling. SCENE II. P. 249. There is no stage-direction in the old copies when Ford meets the servants with the buck-basket in the second in- stance, and, in the words of modern editions. Pal's the clothes out of the haaket. The old manuscript stage-direction in the folio, 1632, aflbrds a much more striking picture of Ford's anger and its consequences, when it informs us that he Throws about the clothes all over the stage, and adds, lower down, that they are All thrown out. Such is consistent with the modern practice, and Ford's suspicions would hardly let him leave a rag unexamined, SCENE IV. P. 253. In the doubted passage, " I rather will suspect the sun with gold," whether the last word should not be cold, the cor- rected folio, 1632, shows that Rowe was justified in adopting the latter : the g in " gold" is struck through, and doubtless, if the margin had not there been torn away, we should have seen c in- serted in its stead. On the next page Evans is made by the old corrector to remark, "You see, he has been thrown into the rivers," instead of " You say," &c. The fact is, that the other persons engaged in the scene had said nothing of the kind, and Evans referred merely to the known sufferings of Falstaff, as a reason why he would not again be entrapped. SCENE V. P. 258. Modern editors have needlessly changed the prefixes of the folios in this part of the scene : the corrector of that of ACT v.] OF WINDSOR. * 59 1632 has altered two small words, and made the dialogue run quite consistently. Simple tells FalstafF and the Host that he had other tilings to have spoken on behalf of his master to " the wise woman of Brentford :" " Fal. What are they? let us know. Host. Ay, come ; quick. Fal. You may not conceal them, sir. Host. Conceal them, and thou diest." The common method has been to put " 1 may not conceal them, sir," into the mouth of Simple, followed by a mark of interroga- tion ; and the Host's next speech has been invariably printed "Conceal them, or thou diest." The Host was desirous that Sim- ple should reveal, and would not, therefore, threaten death if he disclosed them. Dr. Farmer wished reveal to be sub- stituted for " conceal," but the only alteration here required is and for " or," — " Conceal them and thou diest." Such is the emen- dation of the corrector of the folio, 1632. P. 258. Bardolph, rushing in, compkins of cozenage, and the Host inquires what has become of his horses % Bardolph, in all editions, replies, — '' Run away with the cozeners ;" as if the horses had run away with the cozeners against their will. The manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, inserts by in the margin, — " Run away with hy the cozeners," and the rest of Bardolph's speech confirms this interpretation: as soon as they had thrown him off into the mire, the cozeners" set spurs and away" with the Host's horses. ACT V. SCENE III. P. 265. The text of the folios, " Where is Nan now, and her troop of fairies ? and the Welsh devil, Heme," is certainly wrong. Theobald altered " Heme" to Hugh, and he was, of course, right as to the person intended ; but the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, erases " Heme," and inserts Evans, as the proper 60 ' THE MERRY WIVES [ACT V. reading. Had "Hugh" been the word, it seems probable that Mrs. Ford might have paid him the respect of calling him Sir Hugh. SCENE V. P. 267. We have the evidence of the corrected folio, 1632, in favour of " 6n"6e-buck," instead of "brib'd-buck" of the early- printed copies. This was Theobald's emendation. P. 267. In several preceding scenes we are informed that Anne Page was to represent the Fairy Queen in the attack upon Fal- staff m Windsor Park. Nevertheless, Malone and others assigned all her speeches to Mrs. Quickly, the only excuse being that the first of the prefixes is " Qui." The manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, changed it to Que, and made it Que. (for Queen) in all other places ; and after the printed stage-direction, " Enter Fairies," he added, with the Queen, Anne. It does not, indeed, appear that Mrs. Quickly took any part at all in the scene, although she most likely in some way lent her assistance, in order that she might be on the stage at the conclusion of the per- formance. P. 268. The whole of what is delivered by the Queen and the rest of the Fairies is in verse, with the exception of two lines, which have constantly been misprinted thus : — " Cricket, to Windsor chimneys shalt thou leap : Where fires thou find'st unrak'd, and hearths unswept," &c. There is no doubt that this was originally a couplet, until a cor- ruption crept in, which no editor felt himself competent to set right. Tyrwhitt, mdeed, does not seem to have been aware of the defect; but it struck the corrector of the folio, 1632, who, by manuscript changes in the margin, informs us that the lines ought to run as follows, by which the rhyme is preserved : — " Cricket, to Windsor chimneys when thouht leapH, Where fires thou find'st unrak'd, and hearths unswept, There pinch the maids as blue as bilberry," &c. This must have been the way in which the passage originally stood. Lower down in the same page, for SC. v.] OF WINDSOR. 61 " Raise up the organs of her fantasy," the same authority reads, " Bouse up the organs," &c. He re- moves the vulgarism, in the next line but one, by reading, " But those that sleep," &c., instead of " But those as sleep," &c., which, however, was sometimes in the language of the day. P. 274. Fenton, vindicating his conduct in marrying Anne Page against the will of both her parents, says, in all impressions of the play, — " And this deceit loses the name of craft, Of disobedience, or unduteous title," &c. "Title" sounds like a misprint, and so it appears to be; the true word, which entirely corresponds with the preceding line, having perhaps been misheard by the copyist. The corrector of the folio, 1632, inserts what he tells us is the proper reading in the margin : — " Of disobedience or unduteous guile." MEASTJEE FOE MEASUEE. ACT I. SCENE I. Vol. IT. p. 7. The Duke, in all editions of this play, observes to Escalus, after calling him to his side, — " Of government the properties to unfold, Would seem in me t' affect speech and discourse ; Since I am put to know, that your own science Exceeds, in that, the lists of all advice My strength can give you : then, no more remains, But that, to your sufficiency, as your worth is able, And let them work." This reading has been derived from the four folios ; but, ac- cording to the corrected folio. 1632, it is erroneous in three par- ticulars : the first is not of any great consequence, inasmuch as " Since I am put to know" is as intelligible and forcible as " Since I am apt to know ;" but the great improvement is in the sixth line quoted above, in which "that" is a misprint for add^ and into which the conjunction as, and the two words at the end have, ac- cidentally perhaps, been foisted. The correct reading, with the aid of the manuscript in the margin of the folio, 1632, is as follows : — " Since I am apt to know, that your own science Exceeds, in that, the lists of all advice My strength can give you : then, no more remains, But add to your sufficiency your worth. And let them work." These small changes remove what has always been a difficulty on the very threshold of this play. P. 9. It has been made a question between Johnson, Steevens, and Tyrwhitt, whether, when the Duke says, — (62) SC. III.] MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 63 " Hold, therefore, Angelo," he offered to his intended deputy the commission which had been prepared for him. Now, the manuscript stage-directions in the folio, 1632, make it certain that at the words " Hold, there- fore, Angelo," the Duke Tendered the commission to Angelo, but did not actually place it in his hands until he finished his speech with " Take thy commission." The point would scarcely be worth notice, if it had not been dwelt upon by the commentators. SCENE 11. P. 12. Near the end of Mrs. Overdone's speech, " is" is re- quired before the words " to be chopped off" — "and within three days his head is to be chopped off." It is deficient in all printed copies, and is inserted in manuscript in the margin of the cor- rected folio, lGo2. In the same way, the word "bawdy" is omitted in the Clown's speech (p. 13) : " All bawdy houses in the suburbs of Vienna must bo plucked down." The proclamation was against "bawdy houses in the suburbs," and not against other houses there. The word wanting is supplied in manuscript, which accords with Tyrwhitt's suggestion. SCEXE III. P. 14. The division Scena tertia is struck through, and properly, because there is clearly no change of place, the Provost, Claudio, and Officers walking in, as the Clown, Bawd, &c., make their exit. Juliet is mentioned as one of the characters entering, but her name is erased by the corrector of the folio, 1632, for it does not appear that she took any part in the scene, and in fact is spoken of by Claudio as absent. Nevertheless, in all editions the scene is erroneously marked as a new one, and Juliet is stated to have come on the stage with Claudio, and to have listened pa- tiently to the description of her offence. It was, therefore, not the practice of our stage, when the folio of 1632 was corrected, to place her in a situation so painful and indelicate, and Shakespeare could hardly have intended it. P. 15. Two rather important words are altered in the corrected folio, 1632, in Claudio's speech. The usual reading is, — 64 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. [ACT I. '' She is fast my wife, Save that we do the denunciation lack Of outward order : this we came not to, Only for propagation of a dower." '•Denunciation" is changed to pronunciation^ and "propagation" to procuration^ meaning, of course, the procuring of the dower. SCENE IV. P. 18. In the following line, as it stands in all the folios, — " The needful bits and curbs to headstrong weeds," Theobald rightly altered " weeds" to steeds^ as it stands corrected in manuscript in the folio, 1632. Lower down, in the same speech. Pope added the word " becomes" in the passage, — ''In time the rod Becomes more mock'd, than feared ; so our decrees," &c. But the true language of the poet, as far as the evidence of the corrected folio, 1632, enables us to judge of it, was this : — " In time the rod^s More mock'd than fear'd ; so our inostjust decrees. Dead to infliction," &c. It is evident that two syllables w^re deficient in the second line ; and it seems likely that the Duke would dwell emphatically upon the justice of the decrees neglected to be enforced, rather than use so tame an expression as " Becomes more mock'd than fear'd." P. 19. It was proposed by Pope, Hanmer, Johnson, Steevens, &c., to alter the following passage in the folio, 1623, in various ways,— " And yet my nature never in the fight, To do in slander." Without adverting to the discordant proposals of the commen- tators, we may quote the satisfactory words, and their context, as they are exhibited in the manuscript correction of the folio, 1632 :— ACT IT.] MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 65 " I have on Angelo impos'd the ofiBce, Who may, in th' ambush of my name, strike home, And yet my nature never in the sight To draw on slander. '' That is to say, " I have imposed the duty upon Angelo, of pun- ishing severely, while I draw no slander on myself, being out of sight." The use of the long s will easily explain how the error of " fight" for sight arose ; but it is not so easy to understand how drawe^ as it is spelt in the manuscript note, came to be misprinted " doe," as it is spelt in the folio, 1632. SCENE V. P. 20. Malone took a great liberty with the text, when he printed " Sir, make me not your storie'-" of the first folio, " Sir, mock me not — your story." The fact is that Sir W. Davenant gave the true word in his alteration of " Measure for Measure," — '' Sir, make me not your scorn.'"' The manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, has also scorn for " storie," as might be expected. ACT n. SCENE I. P. 27. In Froth's sentence, " I have so ; because it is an open room and good for winter," some difficulty has arisen, because it could not well be understood how " an open room" could be " good for winter." Froth, in truth, did not speak of " winter" at all, but rather of summer, since reading ivindoivs for " winter," as is done by the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, the matter is set right and an error of the press removed — " I have so ; be- cause it is an open room, and good for windows'''' — that is, good on account of the windows. P. 30. The Clown, adverting to the ruin that would be brought on Vienna by enforcing the law against bawdy houses, is made to employ a word which is not easily understood in the place where Q6 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. [ACT 11. it is found : he says, " If this law hold in Vienna ten year, I'll rent the fairest house in it after three pence a bay." The commenta- tors have explained it by reference to " bays of building," " bay windows," " bays of barns," &c. It is a mere error of the press — " bay" for da.T/ ; " after three pence a c/c/y" is the word in the corrected folio, 1682. Three pence a day would be only 4/. lis. Sd. a year for the " fairest house in Vienna." SCENE II. P. 35. We meet with a bold and striking emendation in one of Isabella's noble appeals to Angclo. The common text has been, — " How would you be, If he, which is the top of judgment, should But judge you as you are?" The amended folio, 1632, has it, — " How would you be, If he, which is the God of judgment, should But judge you as you are ?" Tills is not to be considered at all in the light of a profane use of the name of the Creator, as in oaths and exclamations ; and while top may easily have been misheard by the scribe for " God," the latter word, though the meaning is of course the same, adds to the power and grandeur of the passage. P. 35. Sir Thomas Hanmer's proposal to read " But ere they live to end" is fidly supported by the corrected folio, 1632. The first folio has " But here they live to end," which Malone, with re- markable infelicity, altered to " But where they live to end." P. 37. Angelo starting at the offer of Isabella to bribe him, she interposes, in the words of all modern editions, that she wdll do it, " Not with fond skekels of the tested gold."&c, It is spelt sickles in the old copies, but the true word may be cir- cles ; and the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, has altered "sickles" to sirkles, Paying no other attention to the spelling of the word. Nevertheless " shekels" may be right, and it is used, SC. IV.] MEASUEE FOR MEASURE. 67 exactly with the same spellmg, by Lodge in his "Catharos," 1591, sign. C, where we read, "Here in Athens the father hath suffred his somie to bee hanged for forty sickles, and hee worth four hundred talents." SCENE in. P. 40. The manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, makes an important change in a line of the Duke's speech which has been doubted, while he passes over some preceding lines, regarding which needless disputes have arisen. The amended line is, — " Showing, we would not serve heaven, as we love it." The common reading is " spare heaven," which some editors \vould print " seek heaven ;" but " serve heaven," which seems un- questionably right, did not occur to any of them. The whole pas- sage will therefore stand thus : — " 'Tis meet so, daughter : but least you do repent, As that the shi hath brought you to this shame ; Which sorrow is always toward oursclres, not heaven, Showing, we would not serve heaven, as we love it, But as we stand in fear." The old corrupt reading of "spare heaven" seems litte better than nonsense — the emendation indisputable. SCENE IV. P. 44. Tyrwhitt is authorized by the corrected folio, 1632, in reading in-shelVd, for "enshield" of the old, copies, in the follow- ing passage : — '•' As these black masks Proclaim an enshield beauty ten times louder Than beauty could displayed." Lower down on the same page An gel o says, — " As I subscribe not that, nor any other, But in the loss of question ;" which occasioned discussion between Johnson, Steevens, and Ma- lone as to the meaning of the phrase " in the loss of question." The corrector of the folio, 1632, writes in the margin, "but in the 68 MEASUEE FOR MEASURE. [ACT III. force of question" — that is to say, in the compulsion of question, or for the sake of question, a sense the word will very well bear, the copyist having misheard force " loss." Four lines lower we have in manuscript " the manacles of the all-binding law^," instead of " all-building law," which was the mistaken epithet in the old copies. Dr. Johnson first substituted all-binding. ACT in. SCENE I. P. 49. The sentence in the Duke's homily on death, ending, — " For all thy blessed youth Becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms Of palsied eld:" is altered in manuscript in the corrected folio, 1632, to " For all thy boasted youth," &c. which, looking at the context, appears to be a decided improve- ment upon the old text. P. 51. We are glad to obtain an authority, which we may con- sider to a certain extent decisive, upon a much doubted portion of the scene between Isabella and her brother. She tells him of An- gel o's design upon her virtue, and he exclaims in astonishment, according to the first folio, — " The prenzie Angelo?" The second folio, not being able to find any sense in prenzie, gives it " princely :" — " The princely Angelo ?" and the editors of Shakespeare have not at all known what to make of the epithet, which is repeated in Isabella's reply. War- burton proposed priestly^ and that now appears to be the w^ord of the poet, but another corruption found its way into the text, which nobody pointed out, and which is thus set right in manu- script in the corrected folio, 1632: — Claud. '' The priestly Angelo ? Jsah. 0, 'tis the cunning livery of hell, sc. il] measuke foe measuke. 69 The damned'st body to invest and cover In priestly garhJ'^ For " priestly garb" the first folio has " prenzie guards," ^and the second " princely guards ;" but priesthj garb is unquestionably the true language of Shakespeare, which has reference to the sanctimo- nious appearance and carriage of Angelo. Warburton is to have the credit of " priestly," but all the commentators have been un- der a mistake as to " guards." P. 54. After Claudio has withdrawn, the Duke tells Isabella, " The hand that hath made you fair hath made you good ;" and then follows what, in the ordinary text, is not easily understood — " the goodness that is cheap in beauty makes beauty brief in goodness." The manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, proposes to read, " the goodness that is chief in beauty makes beauty brief in goodness ;" from which we may deduce this meaning — that when goodness consists chiefly in beauty, beauty is rendered brief in the possession of that goodness. SCENE IL P. 57. A play upon the double meaning of the word usances has been hitherto lost by printing it " usuries," where the Clown, in allusion to the suppression of bawdy houses, and to the allowed interest of money, observes, in the received text, " 'Twas never merry world, since, of two usuries, the merriest was put down, and the worser allowed by order of law," &c. The word usances is substituted for usuries in the margin of the corrected folio, 1632, usance being to be taken as usage or custom, as well as interest of money. P. 58. In the Ime of the Duke's speech, " I drink, I eat, array myself, and live," the old copies misprint " array" aivay ; but the true word is re- stored by a correction in the folio, 1632. Theobald saw that the change was necessary. P. 59. The pronoun it was omitted in the old editions before " clutched" in Lucio's speech, but is inserted in the margin in the 70 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. [ACT III. corrected folio, 1632. Near the end of the same speech occurs the question, — " What say'st thou, Trot," and several notes have been written upon " Trot," which turns out on the same authority to be a misprint for troth, one of the most common expletives — '' What say'st thou, troth f ' P. 65. Three small, but not unimportant, words — " the due of" — appear to have dropped out in the press, or to have been left out in the manuscript used by the compositor in the beginning of the speech of Escalus, which, according to the corrected folio, 1632, ought to run, "You have paid the heavens the due of your function, and the prisoner the very debt of your calling." The invariable readmg^ has been, " You have paid the heavens your function," &c. P. QQ. Two portions of the Duke's twenty-two short verses, concluding this Act, are amended in manuscript in the corrected folio, 1632. The first is,— *'' Grace to stand, virtue to go," instead of '' Grace to stand and virtue go:" which exactly accords with Coleridge's suggested emendation in his Lit. Rem. ii. 124. The other change marked in the folio, 1632, applies to those difficult lines, — " How may likeness, made in crimes, Making practice on the times, To draw with idle spiders' strings Most pond'rous and substantial things !" The proposed alteration does not clear aw^ay the whole difficulty, but, notwithstanding, it is valuable, — " How may likeness, made in crimes, Ifaskincf practice on the times, Draw with idle spiders' strings Most ponderous and sulostantial things !" Warburton boldly asserts " Shakespeare wrote it thus," and then gives Ms own notion j while Steevens recommended another SC. III.J MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 71 method, and Malone that generally received, viz. ^'Mocking, practise on the times." By '^masking practice on the times" is to be understood concealing methods of deception, and then the whole passage mny mean — " How many persons, alike in crimi- nality, conceal their deceptions so successfully as to draw ponder- ous and substantial advantages, even with spiders' w^ebs !" ACT IV. SCENE I. P. 69. In the Duke's soliloquy on " place and greatness," this passage occurs, — '' Volumes of report Run with these false and most contrarious quests Upon thy doings." But "these" can hardly be right, since no "false and contrarious quests" have been previously mentioned. The reading of the line appears from the corrected folio, 1632, to be, — '' Run with base, false, and most contrarious quests." In the next line, " dream " is converted into dreams^ which seems fit, since " fancies," in the next line, is also in the plural. SCENE II. P. 73. The line in the old folios,— " Wounds th' unsisting postern with these strokes," has produced discussion, Blackstone contending that "unsisting" was to be taken as never resting ; but the corrector of the folio, 1632, marks "unsisting" as an error of the press, and very natu- rally substitutes resisting : the postern resisted the entrance of the messenger, who, therefore, wounded it with strokes. When he enters, the Duke observes, " It is his lordship's man," and not " his lord's man," as it stands printed in the folios. SCENE III. P. 80. After the Duke's interview with Barnard ine, he is made to exclaim, in all editions, and nobody has found fault with the expression,-r-. 72 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. [ACT IV. " Unfit to live or die. O, gravel heart !" The woids " gravel heart " havmg been considered equivalent to stony heart ; but the fact seems to be, that it is a misprint. And that the Duke's real exclamation is much more appropriate, — '' Unfit to live or die. O, grovelling beast f the character of Barnardine having been reduced by idleness and intoxication to that of a mere prone brute. Such is the manu- script correction in the folio, 1632. P. 81. For the disputed epithet of the folios, Hanmer, Heath, and Monk Mason recommend i^e/Z-balanced in the line, — '^ By cold gradation and weal-balanced form ;" and that they were judicious in this opinion, the corrector of the folio, 1632, furnishes evidence in his margin. P. 82. The manuscript stage-direction in the folio, 1632, Catches her^ shows that the performer of the part of Isabella fell into the Duke's arms at the unexpected tidings that Angelo, in spite of his promise, had taken the life of her brother. In her exclama- tion just afterwards, — " Injurious world ! Most damned Angelo !" the epithet "injurious" reads tamely and out of place; and the word substituted by the corrector of the folio, 1632, is certainly more adapted to the occasion, though but rarely used, — " Perjurious, world ! Most damned Angelo !" Two syllables are wanting m the third line of the Duke's speech, lower down, — " Mark what I say, which you shall find," &c. The omission was, doubtless, accidental, and the required words are found in the margin of the folio, 1632, — " Mark what I say to you, which you shall find," In the Duke's next speech, the usual text of the eighth line has been, — " I am combined by a sacred vow ;" £0. VI.] MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 73 but " combined" for confined was an easy misprint, and the latter a more natural word, which has been supplied by the manuscript- corrector of the folio, 1632. SCENE IV. P. 85. A passage, the subject of comment, is found in Angelo's soliloquy, which is not entirely explained, but still is rendered more comprehensible by a slight alteration of the received reading, proposed by the corrector of the folio, 1032. We will quote the whole, with his amended punctuation also : — " But that her tender shame Will not proclaim against her maiden loss, How might she tongue me ! yet reason dares her ; no ; For my authority bears such a credent bulk, That no particular scandal once can touch, But it confounds the breather." The folios have " of a credent bulk," and Steevens suspected " of " to be a blunder, as it appears in flict to have been. Malone read " off a credent bulk" which hardly affords sense, whereas " bears such a credent bulk," is, at least, intelligible. Still, though the poet's meaning may be collected from his language, it is ob- scure. SCENE VI. P. 87. Theobald's happy emendation of the last line of Isabel- la's first speech is borne out by the corrector of the folio, 1632. Before correction it stood thus : " I am advis'd to do it, He says, to vail full purpose ;" that is, as Theobald suggests, " t'availful purpose," which Ma- lone objected to, and, at the recommendation of Johnson, read, "to veil full purpose." In the folio, 1632, as amended in manu- script, it stands precisely in this form: "■ He says, to 'vail-full purpose ;" that is, to a purpose that is availful or beneficial, and seems the true reading ; for in the next line, Isabella, disliking duplicity, says the same thing by a figure, — 4 74 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. [ACT Y. '' 'tis a physic That's bitter to sweet end." ACT V. SCENE I. P. 89. To show how easily words, even of importance, some- times drop out in the press, we may mention that in the line of the first folio, — . '* And she will speak most bitterly and strange," the second folio has it imperfectly, — " And she will speak most bitterly." The manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, therefore added and strangely at the end of the line, and he slightly altered the next line, which commences the retort of Isabella, thus : — " Most strangely, yet most truly will I speak." It is a decided improvement, and was most probably the form in which Shakespeare left the line, the old and less elegant reading being,— " Most strange, but yet most truly will I speak." P. 90. We have here a misprint that can only have arisen from the carelessness of the copyist or the printer. The invariable text of Isabella's passionate appeal has been, — '•' 0, gracious duke ! Harp not on that ; nor do not banish reason For inequality ; but let your reason serve To make the truth appear." " Inequality" could not be right : and what does the manuscript corrector of the folio tell us is the real word that ought to be pufc in its place 1 — '* 0. gracious duke ! Harp not on that ; nor do not banish reason For incredulity ;■'' i.e. do not refuse to give your reason fair play, on account of the incredulity with which you listen to my complaint. SC. I.] MEASURE FOR MEASURE. . 75 P. 93. Another word is more than plausibly substituted in the speech of the Friar, where he is giving a character of the Duke, who, he pretends, was a brother of his order. The way in which the passage is usually printed is this, and it does not seem liable to much objection ; but nevertheless we may feel confident that there has been an error of the press iii it : — '* And. ou my trust, a man that never yet Did, as he vouches, misreport your grace." Now. " on my trust," that is to say, on my belief or credit, is in- finitely less forcible than what is placed in the margin as the poet's w^ord, — '' And, on my truth, a man that never yet," &c. The Friar was of course anxious in the most emphatic way to bear testimony to the good conduct of the disguised Duke. P. 98. This is an instance of a similar kind ; but not s© strong as the preceding, because the word, which the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, would induce us to throw out of the text, is not very ill adapted to the place, though not so well adapted as that which he has written in the margin. The Duke, returning to the scene in his friar's disguise, declares that the suppliants, Isabella and Mariana, have been unfairly treated by the Duke, when he referred the decision on their case to the party who was himself accused : — '' The Duke's unjust, Thus to retort your manifest appeal, And put your trial in the villain's mouth, Which here you come to accuse." The manuscript-corrector informs us that " retort," in the second line, is a misprint for reject^ a mistake not unlikely to be made. Isa- bella had appealed to the Duke, and he had rejected that appeal, and left the trial to Angelo : therefore, the reading ought to be, — ■ " The Duke's unjust, Thus to reject your manifest appeal," &c. P. 100. The manuscript stage-directions in this scene are minute and numerous, the more so as the printed ones are few and 76 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. [ACT V. un-satisfaetory — by no means sufficient to regulate the acting and business of the play. Thus, whenever Isabella or ^Mariana are to kneel, rise or unveil, it is duly noted in the margin ; and, when the Duke is to be discovered, Lucio is told to seize on him and to 2^ull off his disguise, at which, it is added in another place, all start and sland, gazing upon the Duke. It is remarkable that there is no Exeunt at the end of the play, but the words " Curtain drawn" are appended in manuscript, perhaps the first time they were ever applied m that way. They may be taken as proving that, in this instance, at least, the characters did not go out, but that a " cur- tain" was " drawn" before them, in order to separate them from the audience, in the same way that in more modern times a cur- tain (formerly of green baize) is let down from the top of the proscenium at the conclusion of the performance. It is possible that this mode of denoting that the drama was at an end was not very uncommon at the period when the folio, 1632, was corrected ; but we are not aware of the existence of any other distinct proof of the prevalence of it on our stage anterior to the Restoration. THE COMEDY OF EEEOES. ACT I. SCENE I. P. 114. The life of /Egeoii being forfeit to the laws of Ephesus, by his accidental arrival there in search of his son, he relates his story to the Duke (who has just passed sentence upon him), ob- serving, as the passage has hitherto stod, — " Yet that the world may witness, that my end Was wrought by nature, not by vile offence, I'll utter what my sorrow gives me leave." The manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, states that "nature," in the second line, ought to be fortune^ since ^Egeon was not about to lose his life in the course of " nature," but by having been so unlucky as to arrive in a town by the laws of which it was sacrificed : his end, therefore, — " "Was wrought hj fortune, not by vile offence." Possibly, by " nature" we might understand the natural course of events. P. 115. ^geon, overtaken by a storm at sea, which threatened death to himself, his wife, and two children, says, — '• Which though myself would gladly have embrac'd, Yet the incessant weeping of my wife," &c. There seems no reason why ^Egeon should "gladly have em- braced" death, if he could have escaped it ; and a marginal cor- rection in the folio, 1632, shows that the word gently (i. e. pa- tiently and submissively) was Shakespeare's word, — (77) 78 THE COMEDY OF ERROES. [ACT I. " Which though myself would gently have embrac'd." SLx lines lower, in the same speech, "And this it was" is altered to "And thus it was," not necessarily, but certainly judiciously. P. 11 7. The expression "of all love," indicating strength of impulse, is not unusual in Shakespeare and in other writers of his time, ^geon consents that the twin-son and twin-servant, pre- served with him, should go in search of their brothers ; and in the following lines, as they appear in all copies of the play, there are on the authority of the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, two errors : — " Whom whilst I labour'd of a love to see, I hazarded the loss of whom I lov'd.-' They ought to run, — " Whom w^hilst he labour'd of oil love to see, I hazarded the loss of whom I lov'd."' It w^as the son who was to undertake the task of seeking his brother, although the father, having in this way " hazarded the loss of whom he loved," afterwards went in quest of his " youngest boy." P. 118. The line, near the end of the Duke's last speech, as it appears in the folios, — '' To seek thy help by beneficial help," has produced several conjectures for its emendation, and among them one by the editor of the present volume, who suggested that the true reading might be, — " To seek thy hope by beneficial help ;'- and such is precisely the change proposed by the corrector of the folio, 1632: ^Egeon was to seek what he hoped to obtain (viz. money to purchase his life), by the " beneficial help " of some per- sons in Ephesus. Four lines lower, the verse is deficient of a syllable ; and, to supply it, now is inserted in manuscript in the margin : — " Jailor, now take him to thy custody." P. 121. Pope's emendation of " clock" for cook is supported by ACT. II.] THE COMEDY OF ERRORS. 79 the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, in the following pas- sage : — " Methinks your maw, like mine, should be your clock ; And strike you home without a messenger:" nevertheless, obvious as the error seems, cooh was, we believe, printed in all editions until Pope's time, and has even been re- stored in our own. ACT II. SCENE L P. 124, By the misprint of "doubtfully" for douhhj in two places, as pointed out by the corrector of the folio, 1632, the hu- m.our of one of Dromio's replies has been entirely lost. He has been beaten by a person he took for his m^aster when sent to bring him home to dinner. Luciana asks, according to the usual text, "Spake he so doubtfully, thou couldst not feel his meaning 1" Here " doubtfully" ought to be doubly^ as well as in Dromio's re- ply, " Nay, he struck so plainly, I could too well feel his blows ; and withal so doubtfully, that I could scarce understand them." We ought here also to read, " and withal so doubly that I could scarce understand them ;" i. e. the blows were so doubly powerful that Dromio could hardly stand under them. P. 126. It is worth while to mention that the line, — " I see, the jewel best enameled," and the two next lines (the folio, 1632, omits two others in the folio, 1623) are struck out, perhaps, as unintelligible to the manu- script-corrector, he having no means of setting the corrupt j)as- sage right. SCENE II. P. 130. It has been thought rather a happy conjectural emen- dation by Pope, when he converted "trying" of the old copies into tiring in the following sentence, yet he was certainly mis- taken: — "The one to save the money that he spends in 'tiring; the other that at dinner they should not drop in his porridge." Anti- pholus and Dromio of Syracuse are talking of hair, and on the 80 THE COMEDY OF ERRORS. [ACT II. advantages of baldness, and the word trimming was quite techni- cal in reference to cutting and dressing the hair ; it is misprinted trying in the old copies, and it is clear that the letter m had drop- ped out, tryming, or trimming, being the word intended — " to save the money that he spends in trimming,''^ not in " 'tiring" or attiring, which has relation not to the hair merely, but to the whole apparel, whereas the hair only was under discussion. The manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, has done no more than place the missing letter in the margin. P. 131. A doubt is removed by the corrector of the folio, 1632, regarding the last line of Adriana's speech, — "Hive disstaiu'd, thou undlslionoured." The use of the word " disstained" in this way has no example, and Theobald recommended unstaind, but did not insert it in his text. It is found in manuscript, and we cannot doubt that it was the word of the poet. P. 133. Antipholus of Syracuse, wonder-struck at the advances of Adriana, who invites him home, exclaims, according to the usual text, — " To me she speaks ; she moves me for her theme !" " Moves" here is a misprint for means, and so it is marked by the corrector of the folio, 1632 : " She means me for her theme." Three lines lower we have another mistake of the same kind, where Antipholus asks, — '' What error di-Ives our eyes and ears amiss?" " Drives" ought incontestibly to be draios, as we learn on the same authority ; and we may perhaps accept the old corrector's emendation of the next line but one with as little hesitation, — '• I'll entertain the proffered fallacy," for " I'll entertain the freed fallacy" of the old copies. The last has generally been printed " the offer'd fallacy," without much objection. For " elvish sprites," four lines below (the folio, 1623, has no w^ord corresponding with " elvish"), the corrector reads " elves and sprites," and he makes no change in " owls," for which ACT. III.] THE COMEDY OF ERRORS. 81 Theobald needlessly, though not without plausibility, substituted ouphes. ACT III. SCENE I. P. 135. Two words, omitted in a line in a speech by Dromio of Ephesus, were supplied by the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632 : a word is also changed for the better in the preceding line. We give the couplet as it stands with the marginal emen- dation : — " If my skin were parchment, and the blows you gave were ink, Your own hand- writing would tell you /or certain what I think." P. 136. Another change for the better, both as regards the rhyme and the sense, is made in a speech by tlie same character, farther on in the scene. The common reading is, — '' If thou had'st been Dromio to-day in my place, Thou wouldst have chang'd thy face for a name, or thy name for an ass." *' Or thy name for a face''' are the words inserted by the corrector of the folio, 1632, which seem more accurately to preserve the antithesis and the rhyme. SCENE II. P 140. The first four lines of this scene are thus given in the folios : — " And may it be that you have quite forgot A husband's office ? shall, Antipholus, Even in the spring of love thy love-springs rot ? Shall love in buildings grow so ruinate ?" Malone, for the rhyme's sake, changed " ruinate" to ruinous, but it appears by the manuscript-correction in the folio, 1632, that the lines ought to run as follows, and that Malone altered the wrong word : — " And may it be, that you have quite forgot A husband's office ? Shall unkind debate, Even in the spring of love, thy love-spring rot ? Shall love in building grow so ruinate ?" 4* 82 THE COMEDY OF ERRORS. [ACT IV. P. 142. The line,— " Far more, far more to you do I decline," may be reconciled to sense ; but the reading of the corrector of the folio, 1632, which makes a very trifling change, seems pre- ferable : — " Far more, far more to you do I incliae." P. 144. All that intervenes between the question of Antipholus, " What complexion is she of?" and Dromio's observation, on the next page, " O ! sir, 1 did not look so low," is struck out in the corrected folio, 1632. ACT IV. SCENE T. P. 148. "Among my wife and their confederates" of the folio, 1632 (as well as that of 1623), is altered by the manuscript- corrector to "Among my wife and these confederates." The common reading is " her confederates," which may be right. In the next speech of Antipholus the corrector of the folio has added me in the second line, " I promis'd 7ne your presence, and the chain." In the second line of Angelo's reply raccat of the folio, 1632 ("charect," folio, 1623), is properly corrected to " carrat." P. 149. The change o£ "send b?/ me some token" for "send me by some token" seems scarcely required ; but it was necessary to insert more in Angelo's speech lower down, " You wrong me more, sir, in denying it," the word having been omitted in the folio, 1632. P. 150. Angelo demanding his money for the chain of Antipho- lus of Ephesus, is answered in the folio, 1623, "Consent to pay thee that 1 never had V Thee having been omitted in the folio, 1632, the corrector caused the line to run thus : — " Consent to pay /or that I never had?" which is certainly more to the purpose. SC. II.] THE COMEDY OF ERRORS. 83 SCENE 11. P. 152. Dromio arrives in great haste to obtain from his mis- tress and her sister the purse to pay his master's supposed debt, and when he enters, out of breath, he exclaims, as the passage has always been printed, — " Here, go : the desk ! the purse ! sweet, now make haste." But he would hardly address the ladies so familiarly as to call them sweet ; and the corrector of the folio, 1632, tells us that he did not, " sweet" having been rnisprinted for swift : Dromio wishes them to use the utmost dispatch — " swift now, make haste." P. 153. A line is evidently wanting in Dromio's speech, which, but for that omission, and a small word which has dropped out, is entirely in rhyme : the line ending with steel has no corresponding verse ; but the deficiency, though apparent, has never been re- marked upon. In all editions the passage has stood thus : — " No, he's in Tartar limbo, worse than hell : A devil in an everlasting garment hath him, One whose hard heart is button'd up with steel, A fiend, a fairy, pitiless and rough ; A wolf, nay, worse, a fellow all in buff.'' It is thus given by the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632:— *' No, he's in Tartar Umbo, worse than hell : A devil in an everlasting garment hath him, fell ; One whose hard heart is button'd up with steel, Who has no touch of mercy, cannot feel; A fiend, 2ifury, pitiless, and rough ; A wolfe, nay worse, a fellow all in buff," &c. Theobald suggested /wry for " fairy ," but he entertained no no- tion that a whole line had been lost, to say nothing of the word fell as the triplet-rhyme in the second line. It is not likely that any objection will be felt on account cf irregularity in the meas- ure, coming as it does from Dromio, a sort of ad libitum ver- sifier. 84: THE COMEDY OF EKROES. [ACT V. SCENE in. P. 157. Antipholus of Syracuse fancies himself surrounded by witches and sorcerers, and when the Courtezan asks him to go home with her, he exclaims, " Avoid then, fiend !" The manu- script-corrector of the folio, 1632, has it, "Avoid, thou fiend!" which is probably accurate, but the change is triflhig. P. 161. Two small variations are made, both in speeches by Dromio, one Avhere, alluding to the beating he had received, he says his " bones bear witness," — " That since have felt the vigour of his rage." The manscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, here reads rigour for " vigour ;" and lower down he makes Dromio exclaim, — " God and the rope-maker now bear me witness," instead of merely " bear me witness," which is not in the regular measure which Dromio just here employs. ACT Y. SCENE I. P. 167, For the line,— '■'■ In company I often glanced it," the manuscript-corrector reads, with apparent fitness, — '' In company I often glanc'd at it." In the speech of the Abbess the epithet " moody" is applied to " melancholy" in the folio, 1623, which is altered to muddy m the folio, 1632. The manuscript-corrector most properly restored " moody." P. 168. The line in the Merchant's speech, as it is given in the folios, — " The place of depth and sorry execution," is amended in manuscript in the folio, 1632, to " The place of death and solemn execution ;" both words, as we may suppose, having been misheard by the copyist. so. I.] THE COMEDY OF EREORS. 85 P. 169. Adriona, speaking of her husband, who had been seized as a madman, says — '' Anon, I wot not by what strong escape, He broke from those that had the guard of him." " Strong" the corrector of the folio, 1632, converts mto " strange," perhaps because all were astonished at the escape. P. 172. Antipholus of Ephesus, describing the manner in which he had been seized, bound, and confined, observes, — ^' They fell upon me, bound me, bore me thence, And in a dark and dankish vault at home There left me," &e. The corrector of the folio, 1632, alters it to " They left me," which is clearly right. P. 174. TEgeon, astonished at not being recognized by Anti- pholus of Ephesus, exclaims, in the reading of the first and other folios, — " 0, time's extremity ! Hast thou so crack'd and splitted my poor tongue ?" &c. but we learn from the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, that the last line ought to be, as seems natural, — " Hast thou so crack'd 7n^ voice, split my poor tongue ?" P. 177. All copies agree in what appears to be a decided though a small error in reading, — " And thereupon these errors are arose." " These errors all arose" has been suggested as the poet's words ; and we find all in the margin of the corrected folio, 1632, while " are" is erased in the text. P. 178. The following lines, as they are printed in the folio, 1623, have been the source of considerable cavil : " Thirty- three years have I but gone in travail Of you, my sons, and till this present hour My heavy burden are delivered." S6 THE COMEDY OF ERROES. [ACT. V. That the above is corrupt there can be no question ; and in the folio, 1632, the printer attempted thus to amend the passage : — '•' Thirty-three years have I been gone in travail Of you, my sons, and till this present hour My heavy burdens are delivered." Malone gave it thus : — " Twenty-five years have I but gone in travail Of you, my sons ; until this present hour My heavy burden not delivered." The manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, makes the sliglitest possible change in the second line, and at once removes the whole difficulty ; he puts it, — *• Thirty-three years have I been gone in travail Of you, my sons, and at this present hour My heavy burdens are delivered." The Abbess means, of course, that she was, as it were, delivered of the double burden of her twin sons at the hour of this discovery of them. With such an easy and clear solution of what has pro- duced many conjectural emendations, it is needless to notice the va- rious proposals of Theobald and others, which are all nearly equally wide of the mark. MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, ACT I. SCENE I. P. 188. In the stage-direction at the opening of the scene the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, has expunged the words Innogen^ his ivife^ as if the practice had not then been for her to appear before the audience in this or in any other portion of the comedy ; and it is certain that no word ever escapes from her in the dialogue. It has been supposed by some that, though merely a mute, she was seen by the spectators, but in what way she was to be known to them to be the mother of Hero and the wife of Leonato is not stated. Another change in the same stage-direc- tion merits notice : it is that the word " Messenger" is converted into Gentleman, and the manner in which he joins m the conversa- tion shows, that he must have been a person superior in rank to what we now understand by a messenger. Consistently with this notion all the prefixes to what he says are altered from Mes. to Gent, In other dramas Shakespeare gives important parts to per- sons whom he only calls Messengers ; and it requires no proof that in the reign of Elizabeth the Messengers who conveyed news to the Court from abroad were frequently officers whose services were in part rewarded by this distinction. It was in this capacity that Raleigh seems first to have attracted the favour of the Queen. P. 195. For " he that hits me," the corrector of the folio, 1632, gives " he that Jimi hits me," which supports the notion that the successful marksman was to be called Adam, as the first man. The allusion can hardly be to Adam Bell, because it is William of Cloudesley who, in the ballad, is the principal archer, and who cleaves the apple on his sou's head. (87) 88 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. [ACT II. P. 197. There is certainly a misprint in the second line of Don Pedro's speech, where he is adverting to Claudio's reason for "loving Hero : — ''What need the bridge much broader than the flood? The fairest grant is the necessity." Here "grant" has little or no meaning, for Hero has not yet even been sounded upon the point, and the line ought to run in the mamier in which the corrector of the folio, 1632, has left it, " The fairest ground is the necessity." The fairest ground for Claudio's love was the necessity of the case, which rendered needless any " treatise." SCENE III. P. 199. John the Bastard, telling Conrade of his melancholy, says "There is no measure in the occasion that breeds," the pro- noun it being wanting after the verb, which is found in the mar- gin of the corrected folio, 1632. Lower, on the same page, Conrade remarks "You have of late stood out against your brother ;" but they had been reconciled, and the expression ought to be, as we find it in the same authority, " You have till of late stood out against your brother." ACT II. SCENE I. P. 202. The speech of Beatrice requires father in the first clause as well as in the second, but all the folios are without it : it is thus added ui manuscript in the folio, 1632, " Yes faith ; it is my cousin's duty to make courtesy, and say. Father, as it please you," &c. P. 203. The drollery of Beatrice's description of the difference between " wooing, wedding, and repenting" is much injured by the omission of a pun just at the conclusion — " the first suit (she says) is hot and hasty, like a Scotch jig, and full as fantastical; the wedding, mannerly, modest, as a measure, full of state and an- cientry ; and then comes repentance, and with his bad legs falls into the cinque pace faster and faster, 'till he sink a pace into Ms SC. II.] MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. 89^ grave." Tlie words in Italics are left out in the printed copy, but are added in manuscript in the margin of the folio, 1632. P. 204. It is just worth observation that the corrector of the folio, 1632, altered love of the folios to "Jove" of the quarto. P. 206. The last line of Claudio's soliloquy is redundant in measure, by the use of " therefore" instead of then : the corrected folio, 1632, has the Ime " Which I mistrusted not. Farewell, then, Hero." P. 207. In the folio, 1632, there are two decided errors of the press in Benedick's soliloquy, where " fowl" is misprinted soul, and "yea" you : both are remedied in manuscript. They do not exist in the folio, 1623. P. 208. It was proposed by Johnson, in Benedick's long speech to the Prince against Beatrice, to read importable, for " impossi- ble" (of all the printed editions) in the sense of unbearable, in- supportable ; and " impossible" is converted into importable by the corrector of the folio, 1632. Three lines lower her is prop- erly mserted before " terminations ;" but the change made in the next sentence of lent for "left" is of more consequence and quite as evidently right : — " I would not marry her (he exclaims) though she were endowed with all that Adam had lent him before he transgressed." Adam was endowed with every thing " before he transgressed" and Benedick is referring to his state of perfec- tion. The folio, 1623, has also the blunder of " left" for hnt. P. 209. The folios give the latter part of the speech of Beatrice thus — "But civil. Count, civil as an orange, and something of a jealous complexion." The 4to, 1600, has " of that jealous com- plexion;" but the corrector of the folio, 1632, reads " something of as jealous a complexion," Avhich affords exactly the same point, and seems to prove that he was not guided by the old 4to. SCENE II. P. 213. In Borachio's statement of the mode in which he would proceed in tainting the character of Hero, he tells John the Bas- tard, that if he will bring the Prmce and Claudio at night, they 90 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. [ACT II. shall hear Margaret, disguised as Hero, " term me Claudio," which must be an error, as Claudio was to be one of the spectators. For " Claudio " Theobald wished to substitute Borachio, in order to remove the difficulty, and the abridgment of the name of Bomchio is inserted in the margin of the corrected folio, 1632, proving that Theobald was not mistaken. P. 214. The word "truths" of the folios ought to be proofs^ where Borachio says, "There shall appear such seeming truths of Hero's disloyalty." The corrector of the folio, 1632, has it, " There shall appear such seeming iiroofs of Hero's disloyalty," which is unquestionably what is meant. SCENE III. P. 215. For "orthography" of the folios, modern editors have " orthographer," and in this change they are supported by the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632. Stage-C-irections in this scene, so necessary to the intelligibility of it, are omitted in the old printed copies. When Benedick en- ters, we are told in manuscript in the folio, 1632, that he has his Boij following ; and when at the end of his speech, with the words " I will hide me in the arbour," he withdraws^ as Malone expresses it, the corrector of the folio, 1632, has added Retires behind the trees. The name of "Jack Wilson" (who did not sing the song when the folio, 1632, was corrected) is struck out, and Balthazar's entrance is marked in the proper place. AVhen Benedick after- wards comes from his ambush, nothing is said in the printed folios to indicate the flict ; but Forward^ meaning that he advanced to the front of the stage, is written in the margin of the folio, 1632. Against his speeches to himself, while he is concealed, is written Behind ; so that we here see exactly the mode in which the rather complicated business of the scene was anciently conducted. P. 217. The second verse of Balthazar's song is thus altered in manuscript, in the folio, 1632. *' Sing no more ditties, sin^ no mo, . Or dumps so dull and heavy ; l!hQ frauds of men were ever so Since summer first was leafy." ACT III.] MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. 91 It seems right thus to distinguish between ditties and dunips, apparently two distinct species of composition ; and the third line is evidently improved by putting " frauds," like the verb it governs, in the plural : the usual mode of printing it has been, " The /rated of men was ever so." P. 219. The difference is not very material, but the meaning is heightened by the addition of the word full at the close of the speech of Leonato, " there will she set in her smock, till she have writ a sheet of paper full." The sentence ends at " paper," ex- cepting in the manuscript of the corrector of the folio, 1632. Lower down, Claudio has been made to say, " Then, down upon her knees she falls, weeps, sobs, beats her heart, tears her hair, l^rays, curses ; — O sweet Benedick ! God give me patience." For "curses" the corrector of the folio, 1G32, substitutes cries; and we are hardly to suppose that Beatrice utters " curses " at all, but especially at the very moment when she exclaims, " O, sweet Benedick ! " and when she " prays " that God would " give her patience." For " It were an alms to hang him," put into the mouth of Don Pedro, the corrected folio has, " It were an alms deed to hang him," such being the usual expression. P. 222. The force of Beatrice's speech is considerably increased by the insertion of a negative. Benedick asks Beatrice whether she takes pleasure in the message to him ? and she answers, as the passage has always been printed, " Yea, just so much as you may take upon a knife's point, and choke a daw withal." The corrected folio, 1632, tells us that the pleasure to which Beatrice acknowledged was so little that it might be taken on a knife's point, "and not choke a daw withal : " it was not enough even to choke a daw. ACT III. SCENE I. P. 223. " Enter Beatrice stealing in behind'''' is the expressive stage-direction in the corrected folio, 1632, and the scene is con- ducted much in the same way as the preceding, in which the same trick is played upon Benedick. When Hero and Ursula are to talk loud in praise of Benedick, in order that Beatrice may over- hear them, that word is inserted in the margin. 92 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. [ACT IV. P. 225. Ursula asks Hero, when she is to be married, and the unintelligible answer is, " Why, every day ; — to-morrow : " the correction of the folio, 1632, has made it quite clear by setting right a misprint : there Hero replies, " Why, in a day, — to-morrow." P. 226. There is a curious misrepresentation of the poet's lan- guage in Beatrice's soliloquy, on coming forivard after lying con- cealed in the " woodbine coverture." It begins, " What fire is in mine ears? Can this be true ? Stand I condemn- d for pride and scorn so much ? Contempt, farewell ! and, maiden pride, adieu ! No glory lives behind the back of such.-' Nobody has explained what is meant by the words " behind the back of such," nor need we inquire into it, since they are merely one of the perversions arising out of the mishearing of the scribe of the copy of the play used by the printer : the real words of the fourth line appear to be " No glory lives hut in the lack of such ;" that is to say, no maiden can expect to triumph or glory in any love enterprise, who is afflicted with pride, scorn, and contempt: let her want, or lack them, and she may attain the object of her wishes. The sound of " behind the back," and of " but in the lack " is not so dissimilar, that we cannot account for the blunder, on the supposition that the copyist wrote from what was read, or possibly recited to him. ACT IV. SCENE I. P. 243. Pope altered Claudio's exclamation as it stands in the old copies, " Out on thee seeming ! " to " Out on thy seeming ! " The corrector of the folio, 1632, supports the change by convert- ing " thee" into thy. For " That rage in savage sensuality," he substitutes, " That range in savage sensuality ;" SC. I.] MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. 93 which does not seem a necessary emendation, any more than his change of ivild into " wide " in the next line. P. 246. Two important mistakes are made in Leonato's speech on the supposed detection of Hero : the father wishes her to die, rather than survive the imputation cast upon her, and tells her, according to the folio, 1623, " For did I think thou would'st not quickly die, Thought I thy spirits were stronger than thy shames, Myself would on the reward of reproaches Strike at thy life. Griev'd I, I had but one ? Chid I for that at frugal nature's frame ?" The folio, 1632, has rearward for "reward," and makes no other change ; but what appears to be the true reading ? We have it among the manuscript-corrections of the second folio, "Myself would, on the hazard of reproaches. Strike at thy life ;" or at the risk of the reproaches that would follow such a deed : and afterwards '' Griev'd I, I had but one? Chid I for that at frugal nature's /rozi»7i/" that is to say. Did I complain of the frown of frugal nature, which forbade my having more than one daughter ? " Chid I for that a frugal nature's frame," puzzled the commentators, and they endeavour to reconcile us to the word "frame" in various ways; but they never seem to have supposed, as now appears to be the case, that "frame" had been misprinted for froivne. There is a still more injurious representation of Shakespeare's language in the last line of the same speech : — '' ! she is fallen Into a pit of ink, that the wide sea Hath drops too few to wash her clean again, And salt too little, which may season give To her foul tainted flesh !" 91 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. [ACT lY. This has been the universal reading, upon which Steevens re- marks that " the same metaphor from the kitchen" occurs in "Twelfth Night." This "metaphor from the kitchen" has entirely arisen out of the ordinary error of mistaking the / and the long s ; for the correction in the margin of the folio, 1632, shows that Shakespeare had no notion of the kind, and instead of using such commonplace epithets as " foul" and " tainted," that he employed one of his noblest compounds, — soul- tainted^ — '•' And salt too little, which may season give To her soul-tainted flesh." Hero's flesh was tainted to the soul by tne accusation just made agauist her. P. 247. The old printer was peculiarly unfortunate in this great scene : m the third line of the Friar's speech '•' And given way unto this course of fortune," ought to be, in allusion to the unexpected charge against Hero, which had altered Claudio's purpose, " And given way unto this cross of fortune." But the last line is still worse, where the Friar, after maintaining from circumstances that Plero had been unjustly accused, says, " Trust not my age, My reverence, calling, nor divinity. If this sweet lady lie not guiltless here Under some biting error." Tlie corrector of the folio, 1632, informs us that this passage should certainly run thus : — " Trust not my age. My reverend calling, nor divinity, If this sweet lady lie not guiltless here Under some blighting error." To show in what a brief, but still intelligible, way the corrector of the folio, 1632, made his alterations, we may notice that, blight- ing being mis-printed " biting" in the old copies, he did nothing more than add the letter I after the letter 6, leavmg the rest of the letters to be understood. SC. I.] MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. 95 P. 248. Further on we meet with two other bhinders of the same kmd, though perhaps not of so much importance — one of them in a line which has been quoted by Steevens to justify the use of " frame" in a former passage : — " Whose spirits toil in frame of villainies." Tlie manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, changes "frame of" to fraud and — *' A\Tiose spirits toil in fraud and villainies," which seems a much more easy and natural expression than " frame of villainies ;" but in this way the commentators have sometimes vindicated one corruption by another. At the same time, it must be admitted that " in frame of villainies," may mean in the fabrication of villainies. More doubt may be entertained as to the next, real or supposed^ error of the press : it is in Leonato's indignant speech, where this couplet occurs : " But they shall find awak'd in such a kind, Both strength of limb and policy of mind." Now, independently of the consideration, which perhaps de- serves little weight, that a grieved and infuriated father would not be disposed to rhyme under such circumstances, it will be observ- ed that " find," also rhyming to " kind" and " mind," is met with in the first of the two lines : — neither is " kind" very well fitted to the place where it occurs. On the whole, we may feel wil- ling to adopt the emendation of the corrector of the folio, 1632, when he reads, " But they shall find, awak'd in such a cause, Both strength of limb and policy of mind." The " cause" in which his strength, and policy, were to be awa- kened, was, of course, that of his daughter, should it turn out that she had been traduced. The taste of the corrector may here have come in aid of such a change. P. 240. To show the minuteness of the criticism of the manu- script-corrector we may advert to a mere transposition (but still 96 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. [ACT lY. triflingly affecting the sense), which he makes in the Friar's speech, where he remarks, " That what we have we prize not to the worth Whiles we enjoy it, but being lack'd and lost, Why, then we rack the value." Now, as a thing would probably not be "lacked" till after it had been " lost," the corrector changed the position of the words, and read " lost and lack'd," which might be the order in which the words came from Shakespeare's pen. SCENE II. P. 252. In this comic scene, in the old copies, great confusion prevails in the prefixes of the various speeches. The names of the actors, such as Kemp, Cowley, and Andrew, are put instead of those of the characters they sustained, and the manuscript-cor- rector of the folio, 1632, perhaps did not think it necessary to set them right. Dispute has arisen as to the mode of dividing a part of the dialogue, obviously misprinted in other respects : in the folios it stands as follows : — " Const. Come, let them be opinioned. Sex. Let them be in the hands of Coxscomb. Ketn. Gods my life, where's the Sexton?" &c. This has been distributed in different ways, into which it is not necessary to enter, but we will subjom the manner in which it is corrected in manuscript in the folio, 1632 : — " Const. Come, let them be opinioned. Sexton. Let them be hound. Borachio. Hands off, coxcomb." P. 255. When Dogberry, to show his importance, says that he is " a rich fellow enough, go to ; and a fellow that hath had losses, " it has naturally puzzled some persons to see how his losses could tend to establish that he was rich. Here, in truth, we have another misprint : leases was often spelt of old — leasses^ and this is the origin of the blunder ; for, according to the corrector of the folio, 1632, w^e ought to read, " a rich fellow enough, go to ; and a fellow that hath had leases.''^ To have been the o^vner of leases might very well prove that Dogberry was " a rich fellow enough.'* ACT. v.] MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHIJSTG. 97 ACT V. SCENE I. P. 256. The defective line, " And bid him speak of patience," Ritson, who had no very good ear, but who was nevertheless right in this instance, recommends should be thus printed : — " And bid him speak to me of patience." The addition is obvious enough, and it is made by the corrector of the folio, 1632. Few passages have produced more contention and doubt than this line, as it is given in the first and other folios, " And sorrow, wag ! cry hem, when he should groan." Leonato is telling his brother, that his grief is beyond all exam- ple, and that he can never be comforted, until he shall meet with a man, suffering under equal calamities, who can defy his mis- fortunes, " If such a one will smile, and stroke his beard ; And sorrow, wag! cry hem, when he should groan," &c. The corrector of the folio, 1632, shows that, "And sorrow wag," was a misprint for "Call sorrow joy," so that he reads, '• If such a one will smile, and stroke his beard 5 Call sorrow >?/; cry hem, when he should groan ; Patch grief with proverbs ; make misfortune drunk With candle-wasters ; bring him you to me. And I of him will gather patience." This seems to be as good a solution as we are likely to obtain : the difficulty is to account for the misprint. P. 261. Boiled calf's head and capers was formerly not an un- usual dish ; and when Claudio tells Don Pedro, that Benedick hath " bid him to a calf's head and a capon," the corrector of the folio, 1632, marks it as an error of the press, and alters it to " calf's head and capers." Claudio means to joke upon the chal- lenge that he had received. P. 262. For the scriptural allusion, in the words " God saw him, when he was hid in the garden," the corrector puts it as 5 98 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. [ACT V. a question, " Who saw him, when he was hid in the garden ?" It seems likely that the speech was so amended, in consequence of the increased prevalence of puritanism soon after the date when the folio, 1632, was published. We shall have to notice other changes of the same kind, and, perhaps, for the same reason hereafter. P. 265. According to the folio, 1623, Leonato says to Clau- dio, — *' I cannot bid you bid my daughter live." The folio, 1632, in its uncorrected state gives it, — '' I cannot bid you daughter live ;" and the manuscript-corrector of that impression tells us that the line should be, — " I cannot bid you cause my daughter live." It is impossible now to know from what source this euphonious emendation was derived. SCENE in. P. 271. The following is the " Song" as it is found corrected in the folio, 1632:— " Pardon, goddess of the night, Those that slew thy virgin bright, For the which, with songs of woe, Round about her tomb we go. Midnight, assist our moan ; help us to sigh and groan Heavily, heavily. Graves yawn and yield your dead Till death be uttered, Heavily, heavily^ Thus we see virgin hi'ight for " virgin knight ;" ive go for " the} go ;" and Heavily, heavily, m the last instance, for " Heavenly, heavenly." There was a well-known tune of " Heavily, heavily,' and probably the above was sung to it. (See British Biblio grapher, ii. 560.) It will be remarked that the rest of this scene is in rhyme, with the exception of these two Imes : — SC. IV.] MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. 99 " Thanks to you all, and leave us : fare you well. Good morrow, masters : each his several way." Probably this couplet also rhymed as the play was originally written, and the corrector of the folio, 1632, shows how slight a change was necessary to restore the jingle, — *' Good morrow, masters : each his way can tell?^ SCENE IV. P. 272. Leonato desires his daughter, his niece, and Ursula to withdraw, and to return to the scene " masked." Such was^ no doubt, the course when this comedy was originally produced, about the year 1599 ; but it should seem that in the time of the corrector of the folio, 1632, it was the practice for the ladies to enter veiled^ when Claudio was expecting to be married to the niece, and not to the daughter of Leonato. Therefore, when An- tonio enters with the ladies (p. 274), we are told, in a manuscript stage-direction, that they are veiled ; and when Hero, and subse- quently Beatrice, discover themselves, unveil is in both instances written in the margin. In the interval between the first acting of " Much Ado about Nothing," and the reprinting of it in the folio, 1632, the fashion of wearing masks had perhaps declined among ladies, and for that reason veils may have been substituted for masks in the performance. P. 274. When Hero unveils, Claudio can hardly believe his eyes, but the lady re-assures him by saying, according to the folios, — which is a defective verse, and the quarto, 1600, has the line thus : — " One Hero died defiled, but I do live." Now, it is most unlikely that Hero should herself tell Claudio that she had been " defiled," and the word supplied by the cor- rector of the folio, 1632, seems on all accounts much preferable: — " One hero died belied, but I do live." 100 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. [ACT V. Here we see the lady naturally denying her guilt, and attributing her death to the slander thrown upon her. Shakespeare's word must have been belied, and the mishearing of it may have led to the insertion of " defiled," in the 4to, 1600. The editor of the folio, 1623, perhaps purposely omitted defiled on account of its unfitness. P. 275. Sir Thomas Hanmer conjecturally added for in the subsequent line to the improvement of the metre, — " Have been deceived ; for they swore you did." The corrector of the folio, 1632, takes precisely the same course, and in the few succeeding lines makes changes clearly recommend- ed by the greater accuracy of the verse and language. We tran- scribe them as they stand in manuscript, but it is not necessary to accompany them by the text as ordinarily represented, and we have printed the added or altered words in italics : — *' Bene. Why then your uncle, and the prince, and Claudio Have been deceived ; for they swore you did. Beat. Do not you love me ? Bene. Troth, no more than reason. Beat. Why then, my cousin Margaret and Ursula Ai'e much deceived, for they sioore you did. Be7ie. They swore that you were almost sick for me Beat. They swore that you were well-nigh dead for me. Berie. It is no matter. — Then, you do not love me. Beat. No, truly, but in friendly recompence." Here the halting measure of the lines, as contained in all the folios, is set right, and the effect of the retorts much increased by the adoption by each party of precisely the same forms of ex- pression. P. 276. The old editions assign " Peace ! I will stop your mouth" to Leonato; but most modern editors, following the ex- ample of Theobald, have transferred it to Benedick. So does the corrector of the folio, 1632. After the word " Dance," at the very conclusion of the play, the manuscript-corrector has added of all the actors., to show that every person on the stage joined in it. Perhaps it might have been guessed from what is said, without this information. LOYE'S LABOUE'S LOST. ACT I. SCENE I. P. 285. Tlieobalcl judiciously proposed to alter the line, — " When I to fast expressly am forbid," as follows : — ''When I to feast expressly am forbid." The same change was made in manuscript by the corrector of the folio, 1632. Lower down, that edition has, — " Light, seeking light, doth light beguile ;" evidently defective in sense and measure, and the corrector, by in- serting " of light" in the margin, makes the passage run as in the folio, 1623,— '' Light, seeking light, doth light of light beguile ;" which of course is the true reading. P. 287. Tlie folio, 1623, presents us with this passage : — " So you to study now it is too late, That were to climb o'er the house to unlock the gate." This text the folio, 1632, adopted, excepting that it has f unlock for "to unlock." The quarto, 1598, had previously printed the coup- let thus : — " So you to study now it is too late, Climb O'er the house to unlock the little gate." Finally, we present it as it appears in the folio, 1632, corrected in manuscript, which seems preferable to the other authorities : — (101) 102 love's labour's lost. [act I. " So you, by study now it is too late, Climb o'er the house-^op to unlock the gate." Five lilies lower we meet in the folio, 1623, with, — *' Yet confident, I'll keep what I have sworne j" which is exactly copied from the quarto, 1598. The editor of the folio, 1632, seeing that a rhyme was intended, printed the line, — " Yet confident, I'll keep what I have swore ;" But the manuscript-corrector of that impression gives us what Shakespeare wrote, which preserves the rhyme, and at the same time avoids the vulgarism : — " Yet confident I'll keep to what I swore." We come to a more important emendation lower down, where Biron reads the decree " that no woman shall come within a mile " of the court, " on pain of losing her tongue." Tliis Longa- ville declares, according to all editions, to be " A dangerous law against gentility ;" the corrector of the folio, 1632, tells us to read, — "A dangerous law against garrulity. ^^ The two words were easily confounded, but the latter certainly affords the clearer, the stronger, and the more humorous meaning. P. 288. All the folios have,— which must be wrong, and speak has usually been placed instead of "break" in the second instance; but the corrector of the folio, 1632, mforms us that the true word is plead : — " If I break faith, this word shall plead for me." P. 289. The King describes Armado as " A refined traveller of Spain, A man in all the world's new fashion planted." The folio, 1632, has it thus: — " A man in all the world new fashion planted." sc. I.] love's labour's lost. 103 Planted yields but a poor sense, and the manuscript-corrector of that edition reads, — ■ '' A man in all the world-new fashions _^aw«fec?." That is, a man fiaunted^ or decked out, in all the world-new fash- ions, Shakespeare elsewhere uses the substantive, " flaunts," but not the verb. P. 290. Theobald congratulated himself on the change of "heaven" to having in this passage, "A high hope for a low heaven : God grant us patience !" He was most likely wrong. The subject of conversation is "a letter from the magnificent Armado " just brought in by Costard, upon which Bh-on observes, " How low soever the matter, I hope in God for high words." Longaville's reply has reference to these " high words," and the corrector of the folio, 1632, says that we "ought to erase " heaven" for hearing : — " A high hope for a low hearing : God grant us patience !" What Biron adds seems consequent upon it, when he asks whether the patience prayed for is to be granted, " to hear, or to forbear hearing.'''' Four lines below, the manuscript-corrector has altered "clime in the merriness" of the old copies, to '■^chime in in the mer- riness," in allusion to the laughable contents expected in Arma- do's letter, "in the merrmess" of which the King and his com- panions hope to " chime in," or participate. P. 291. The words of Armado's letter, "that shallow vassal," appear always to have been misprinted, and the context, as well as the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, require us to alter it to " that shallow vessel.'''' The connecting words are " that un- lettered small-knowing soul, that shallow vessel^ which, as I re- member, hia;ht Costard," &c. P. 293. " Sirrah, come on," has uniformly been assigned to Biron ; but it seems more properly to belong to the Constable, who had Costard in custody, and to him they are given by the corrector of the folio, 1632. He also, five lines below, inserts thee in the proverbial sentence, " Set thee down, sorrow," as it 104 love's labouk's lost. [act I. stands in the quarto, 1598, and as it occurs again, Act IV. Scene III. p. 331, where Biron exclaims, " Well, set thee down, sorrow !" The same proverb was most likely quoted m the same words in both places. SCENE n. P. 296. When Moth apostrophises, " My father's wit, and my mother's tongue, assist me !" Armado, in foolish admiration, breaks out, " Sweet invocation of a cliild ! most pretty and most pathetical !" Thus it is given in all editions ; but the old correct- or changes " pathetical" mto poetical, in reference to the boy's poetical " invocation." Yet he allows " pathetical" to remain in the text in Act IV. Scene I. (p. 324), where Costard terms Moth " a most pathetical nit." The word occurs in " As you like it," Act IV. Scene II. (p. 77), where Rosalind tells Orlando that if he " come one minute behind his hour" she will consider him a " most pathetical break-promise ;" but there no reason existed for mak- ing any correction. P. 299. When Armado, relinquishing arms for love, exclaims, " Adieu, valour ! rust, rapier ! be still, drum ! for your manager is in love," nobody has made a note upon the uncouth word "manager" so applied. The corrector of the folio, 1632, shows it to have been an error of the printer, or of the scribe, for a much more appropriate and expressive term, which, perhaps, they did not understand, armiger — " Adieu, valour ! rust, rapier ! be still drum, for your armiger is in love." This emendation is fol- lowed by another, two lines lower, where the old copies have " Assist me some extemporal god of rhyme, for, I am sure, I shall turn sonnet." For sonnet^ which, so used, is little better than nonsense, the proposed reading is sonnet-maher, as ballad-maker, song-maker, &c., " for, I am sure, I shall turn sonnet-maker^'' The usual word has been sonnetteer, which would answer the purpose, if it were in use at the time. The form of the word at that date and earlier would rather have been sonnetter, like enginer, miiti- ner^ &c. ACT III.] love's labour's LOST. 105 ACT II. SCENE I. P. 300. Steevens has appended a note to the line, — " Now, madam, summon up your dearest spirits," in which he observes, that " Dear, in our author's language, has many shades of meaning : in the present instance and the next, it appears to signify, best, most powerful." The fact is (if we may trust the corrector of the folio, 1632), that "dearest" was a mis- print for clearest ; and it is easy to see how cl might be mistaken for d. He gives the line : '* Now, madam, summon up your clearest spirits :'- that is, her brightest and purest spirits, that the Princess might adequately discharge the important embassy entrusted to her by her father. P. 306. All the folios have a decided corruption in the line, — " Though so denied farther harbour in my house," which has commonly been printed with fa'r for " farther." This may be right, but the manuscript-corrector inserts perhaps a bet- ter word in his margin: " Though so denied /ree harbour in my house:" alluding to the refusal to the Princess of the unrestrained rights of hospitality in the King's palace. P. 306. In the short snip-snap dialogue between Rosaline and Biron, the prefixes to the speeches of the latter are always wrong, as if Boyet had been engaged with the lady in the wit-contest. The corrector of the folio, 1632, puts them right, in consistency with the quarto, 1598. ACT III. SCENE I. P. 309. In the folios this Act commences thus 5* 106 love's labour's lost. [act III. " Enter Braggart and Boy. Song. Brag. Warble, child : make passionate my sense of hearing. Boy. Concolinel. Brag. Sweet air ! Go, tenderness of years,-' &c. Hence we may gather that the scene opens while the Boy is sing- ing, and that Armado (called Braggart)., delighted with the music, requires more, upon which the boy commences an Italian song, the first words of which are Con Colinel. The manuscript-cor- rector of the folio, 1632, inserts the first words both of the Eng- lish and of the Italian song, See my love., being the first, and Ainato (which he spells armato) bene., the second. This circum- stance may lead to the detection of them in some of our ancient collections of musical airs. Possibly, if not probably. Con Colinel was not the same as what in manuscript is called Amato bene., and it may, in the time of the corrector, have been substituted, the air of Con Colinel having gone out of fashion. Any scrap of in- formation regarding the songs written or introduced by Shake- speare is highly interesting. P. 310. After the Page's dissertation on the mode of " betray- ing nice wenches," Armado asks, — " How hast thou purchas'd this experience ?" and the answer is, as it stands printed in the old copies, — " By my penne of observation." Sir Thomas Ilanmer altered "penne" to penny, and Farmer and Ritson say that it alludes to a tract called " The Pennyworth of Wit." The manuscript-corrector entertained an entirely different notion : he tells us, as seems not at all unlikely, that jm^ne (so spelt of old) was misprinted " penne ;" and this is the more pro- bable, because the letter y at the end of penny would hardly have been converted into e. The true answer would therefore be, when Armado inquires how the Boy had procured his know- ledge ?— *' By my pain of observation," or by the pams he had taken in observing the characters of men sc. I.] love's labour's lost. 107 and women. What most militates against this alteration is the figurative use of the word " purchased," for obtained, by Armado. P. 311. For " a message well sympathised" we ought unques- tionably to substitute " a messenger well sympathised." Costard was to be the messenger^ not the message. " Message" is altered to " messenger" in the margin of the corrected folio, 1632. P. 312. There are two emendations m Armado's soliloquy, after his Page has gone out to fetch Costard, one of them denot- ing a strange corruption which has crept into the text from the earliest date, and in all impressions. The lines have been uni- versally printed as follows : — " A most acute juvenal ; voluble and free of grace ! By thy favour, sweet welkin, I must sigh in thy face : Most rude melancholy, valour gives thee place." In the corrected folio, 1632, they are made to run: — " A most acute juvenal ; voluble and fair of grace ! By thy favour, sweet welkin, I must sigh in thy face : Moist-eyed melancholy, valour gives thee place." "Fair of grace" is good-looking, whereas "free of grace" means little more than had been already said by the epithet voluble. "Most rude melancholy" has no particular appropriateness, whereas, '■^ moist- eyed melancholy" is peculiarly accordant with the sighs Armado breathes, with due apology, in the face of the welkin. It may be enough to say with reference to Costard's speech, a few lines below, that the manuscript-corrector completely justifies Tyrwhitt's emendation " no salve in them all.'''' P. 313. Tlie last line of the Page's Lenvoy is this in the mxanu- script-corrected folio, 1632 : — " Staying the odds by making four," instead of " adding four :" to add four would not have " stayed the odds." The next line is thus divided between Armado and the Page in the corrected folio, whereas in all editions it is made to belong to the Page only : — 108 love's labour's lost. [act IV. " Ann. A good Lenvoy ! Page. Ending in goose, would you desire more ?'' This change gives greater pungency to the dialogue, and makes Armado's position more ridiculous. P. 314. A point has been wholly lost by the omission of a word supplied by the manuscript-corrector. The ordinary, indeed the only, text has been this : — *' Armado. Sh'rah Costard, I will enfranchise thee. Costard. ! marry me to one Frances ?" &c. This is unintelligible, for how could Costard imagine that Armado meant " to marry him to one Frances" or to any body else by merely saying to him, " I will enfranchise thee % " What Armado says, is : — " Sirrah Costard, marry, I will enfranchise thee ; " to which Costard's blundering answer applies naturally enough, " O ! marry me to one Frances % " &c. Just afterwards, for the incomplete expression of Armado, " I mil give thee thy liberty, set thee from durance," the manuscript-corrector gives " set thee free from durance," the omission by the printer having been caused, no doubt, by the words '■ thee " and " free " foUowmg each other immediately. P. 317. What has usually been printed, — " A whitely wanton with a velvet brow," the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, converts mto "a witty wanton," the true word, in reference to Rosaline's talents, and certamly not to her complexion, which we are over and over again told is dark. The word is whiihj in the old copies, and is a mere error of the press. We must therefore certainly read, — " A witty wanton with a velvet brow." ACT IV. SCENE L P. 319. The Princess good-humouredly rebukes the Forester for flattering her, and exclaims, — sc. II.] love's labouh's lost. 109 " 0, heresy in fair, fit for these days ! A giving hand, though foul, shall have fair praise." The corrector of the folio, 1632, has it, — " 0, heresy in faith, fit for these days !" which is probably right, although Shakespeare, like many other poets of his time, uses "fair" for fairness or heauty, P. 324. Costard speaks a soliloquy in rhyme at the close of this scene, one line in which is wanting, as is evident from the cor- respondmg line, and from the insertion of the addition, though in a wrong place, by the corrector of the folio, 1632. He perhaps intended to write it in the blank space nearest to where it ought to come in, but he has written it in another blank space above it, and has drawn a mark with his pen to the spot where it is wanted. The whole passage is this, and the line in manuscript we have printed in italics : — '' Armado o' the one side, — 0, a most dainty man ! To see him walk before a lady, and to bear her fan ! To see him kiss his hand! and how most sweetly a' will swear! Looking babies in her eyes his passion to declare ; . And his page o' t' other side, that handful of small wit ! Ah heavens, it is a most pathetical nit !" Besides the entire line, which escaped the printer or the copyist of the drama, the word small was also left out. SCENE IL P. 324. The manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, has made Act IV. commence with this scene ; but improperly, because Holofernes, Sir Nathaniel, and Dull enter on the exit of Costard, so that there is, in fact, no change of place, which usually consti- tutes the division. P. 325. Part of Sir Nathaniers speech is in rhyme, and part in prose, and there can be little doubt that the whole of it was originally in irregular jingling verse : the corrector of the folio, 1632, shows that some words, necessary to it, had been lost, 110 love's labour's lost. [act IV. though he evidently does not supply all that is wanting. Sir Na- thaniel's first line rhymes to what Holofernes had said, — '' 0, thou monster ignorance, how deformed dost thou look ! Nath. Sir, he hath never fed of the dainties that are bred in a book. He hath not eat paper, as it were, he hath not drunk ink : His intellect is not replenished ; he is only an animal, not to think ; Only sensible in the duller parts, and such barren plants Are set before us that we thankful should be. Which w^e, having taste and feeling, are for those parts that do fructify in us more than he : For as it would ill become me to be vain, indiscreet, or a fool, So were a patch set on learning, to set him in a school," &c. It is not possible to put the whole right, but the old corrector's contributions towards the original text are printed above in italics : how it happened that he could add so much, and not be able to furnish the rest, is a point we do not pretend to explain. The sense is a little obscure ; and as far as jingle is concerned, the line ending with " plants " has nothing to rhyme with it. P. 329. The characters of Holofernes (usually called the Pedant in the old prefixes) and of Sir Nathaniel are much confused in this scene ; it may be sufficient to state that the speech " Here are only numbers ratified," &c., is given to Holofernes ; but Theobald's apparently excellent emendation of imitari for " imi- tary" of the old copies is not countenanced by the corrector of the folio, 1632, who, instead of " imitary is nothing," reads, " imi- tadng is nothing," meaning that there is no merit in mere imitation. For " tired horse" he reads " trained horse," which affords a clear- er and less dubitable meaning. SCENE in. P. 331. The manuscript stage-directions in this scene, inserted in manuscript in the folio, 1632, are extremely minute, and the King cannot enter with " Ay me !" but we are mformed in the margin that he sighs. When, at this juncture, Biron conceals himself, the printed stage-direction is only He stands aside, but that is obliterated, and He gets him in a tree is put in its place in manuscript. When, too, Biron interposes some remark to him- self, it is added that he is in the tree, and when he descends to de- sc. III.] love's labour's lost. Ill tect liis companions, Come down is inscribed in the margin. As each character retires or advances on the stage, information of it is duly given, so that the whole business and conduct of the scene are clearly explained. P. 332. Two transpositions, one of them of some moment, are pointed out by the manuscript-corrector : the first occurs in the fourth line, where "night of dew" (strangely justified by Steevens) is altered to dew of night; the second mstance is only thou dost for " dost thou," in the fifteenth line of the King's sonnet. P. 333. A question has been agitated, whether, when Biron says, aside^ in the old copies, — " 0, rhymes are guards on wanton Cupid's hose ; Disfigure not his shop," we ought to read shape or slop. Theobald was in flivor of slop, and his conjecture is confirmed by the corrector of the folio, 1632, who erases the h in the text and inserts I. P. 334. The old readmg of quarto and folios, — '' By earth, she is not corporal : there you lie," has also created dispute. Malone and other modern editors have usually adopted Theobald's alteration, " By earth, she is hut cor- poral." The corrector of tl)p folio, 1632, substitutes most for 7iot, " By earth, she is most corporal," which affords a still stronger contradiction to Dumaine. P. 336. Steevens contended that the line m Dumaine's " Son- net "— " Thou for whom Jove would swear," was defective, and washed to read, with Pope, — ** Thou for whom ev''n Jove would swear ;" while Malone absurdly insisted that " swear" was to be read as a dissyllable. The corrector of the folio, 1632, treats the line as if it wanted a syllable, and gives it, — " Thou for whom great Jove would swear," 112 love's labour's lost. [act IV. the word great having dropped out m the press. After Diimahie has read his poem, he says, in all editions, — '' This will I send, and something else more plain, That shall express my true love's fasting pain." Here we see nearly the same error pointed out by the old cor- rector which we also find set right in " Hamlet" (Vol. vii. p. 222,) " fasting" for lasting^ although Johnson thought that " fastmg" might here be taken as longing, hungry. P. 338. When Jaquenetta and the Clown enter with Biron's letter, the Kmg, according to all copies of the play, asks them, — " What present hast thou there ?" when he had no reason whatever to think that they had brought any " present." The mistake has been the printing of " present" for peasant, " ^]i2ii peasant hast thou there ?" Costard was a clown or peasant^ and is so addressed by the King. The manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, points out the blun-. der. P. 341. Biron having pronounced a eulogium upon the dark complexion of Rosaline, is laughed at by the King and his other companions : — '' 0, paradox ! Black is the badge of hell, The hue of dungeons and the school of night.-' This, the reading of the old copies, is evidently nonsense, and the corrected folio, 1632, contains the last Ime m this form : — " The hue of dungeons and the shade of night," which is possibly the true reading, and not " scowl of night," which has been generally adopted. P. 342. Nobody has suspected a misprint where one certainly occurs : it is in the passage, — " For where is any author in the world Teaches such beauty as a woman's eye ?" sc. I.] love's laboue's lost. 113 The misprint is in the word " beauty," \Yhich incontestably should be learning^ " Teaches such learning as a woman's eye ?" and it stands thus correctod hi the folio, 1632. The whole tenor of Biron's argument proves that the change is necessary, for he proceeds : — '• Learning is but an adjunct to ourself, And where we are our learning likewise is : Then, when ourselves we see in ladies' eyes, Do we not likewise see our learning there ?'-' The hemistich, "With ourselves," which in the quarto, 1598, and in the folio, 1623, precedes the last line, is omitted in the folio, 1632, and is not restored in manuscript, so that we are better warranted in treating it as an accidental and unnecessary interpolation. P. 344. The line, as it has always stood, — " And plant in tyrants mild humility," according to the evidence of the old corrector should be, — " And plant in tyrants mild humanity ;" an evident improvement, since tyrants are void rather of human- ity than of " humility," and the preceding line shows that the cor- rection must be right. The next five lines are crossed out in the folio, 1632, three of them being nearly a repetition of what Biron had said in a previous part of his harangue to prove that oath- breach was lawful. ACT V. SCENE L P. 346. Theobald's conjecture that "infamie" of the old copies, near the close of the speech of Holofernes, ought to be insanie, is warranted by the corrector of the folio, 1632, excepting that he gives it m Latin, insania ; but he adds to it a farther emendation, which clears the passage still more : he gives it — " This is abhomi- nable, wliich we would call abominable : it insinuateth one of insaniar Thus one is substituted for me. which Farmer wished 114 love's labour's lost. [act v. to change to men ; while the blunder of " infamie" for insarila was the result of the common mistake of reading /for the long s. P. 348. Armado asks Holofernes, " Do you not educate youth at the charge-house on the top of the mountain V Steevens tells us that he " supposes the 'charge-house' means the free-school;" but neither he nor any other person has adduced a single instance to show that "charge-house" and //'ee-5c/iOoZ were synonymous. It appears that it was only a misprint for " large house," for so the corrector of the folio, 1632, treats it. SCENE IL P. 350. To the stage-direction, " Enter Princess and Ladies," the corrector of the folio, 1632, has added, with presents, in order to show that the performers displayed to the audience the various gifts they had accepted from the Kmg and his companions. P. 351. When Rosaline says that she also has received lauda- tory verses, she is laughed at, and Katharine taunts her with being " Fair as a text B in a copy-book ; but there seems no reason to choosing the letter B ; and the i'orrec- tor, in reference to the first letter in Rosaline's name, alters it to, " Fair as a text R in a copy-book." The next four lines are erased, probably because they were not intelligible, or were inapplicable. P. 352. The commentators have been puzzled by the following line in the folio, 1623, which is repeated in the other folios : — " So pertaunt like would I o'ersway his state." They at length agreed that it should be read " portent-like," ex- cepting Douce, who, somewhat at random, suggests scojffingly. It turns out that the disputed w^ord (obviously not understood by any old editor or printer) is purely an error of the press. Rosa- line thus alludes to the absolute power she would exercise over Biron, were she sure that he was unalteraby attached to her : — sc. ii.J love's laboue's lost. 115 " How would I make him fawn, and beg, and seek, And wait the season, and observe the times,' And spend his prodigal wits in bootless rhymes, And shape his service wholly to my behests, And make him proud to make me proud with jests ! So potently would I o'ersway his state, That he should be my fool, and I his fate." The use of potently here can reqiure no explanation ; and it seems scarcely possible to doubt that it was the word of the poet, and for this reason it is placed in the margin of the corrected folio, 1632. P. 353. Boyet brings word of the intended attack upon the Princess and her Ladies by the King and his Lords : — " Arm, wenches, arm ! encounters mounted are." But it is not " encounters," but encounter ers that are " mounted," and so the old corrector notes. Again, six lines lower, the Prin- cess, in all ordinary editions, is made to ask, — '' What are they That charge their breath against us ?" " To charge their breath" is nonsense, and the corrector alters it, most naturally, to, — '' What are they That charge the breach against us?" The Princess carrying on the joke of supposing that she and her Ladies are in a state of siege. P. 354. We do not feel so confident respecting the next emen- dation, at the end of Boyet's long account of the project he had overheard, the concoction of wliich had given such delight to the King and his merry companions : in fact they had laughed at it until they cried ; — " That in this spleen ridiculous appears, To check their folly, passion's solemn tears." " Solemn tears" may possibly be right ; but we do not think it is, because the corrector of the folio, 1632, erases the word, and substitutes another in the margin, which certainly better answers the purpose : — 116 love's labour's lost. [act v. " To clieck their folly, passion's sudden tears." That is to say, they la-iighed until they suddenly burst out crying &5 and thus checked their folly. We are to recollect that, as the old spelling of " sudden" was usually sodaine, the mistake would be easily made. Five lines lower we arrive at a change which cannot be doubt- ed, and again rendered necessary by the blunder of / for long s. Boyet says that the King and his Lords will come to court the Ladies as Muscovites, and the invariable text has been, — " And every one his love-feat will advance Unto his several mistress." " Love-feat" could hardly be Shakespeare's word, and as amended by the corrector of the folio, 1632, the line reads thus unobjec- tionably : — "And every one hislove-s?w^ will advance Unto his several mistress." The fitness of the alteration seems self-evident. P. 360. The King and his Lords are so derided, jeered, and flouted by the Prmcess and her Ladies, that they are compelled to make a precipitate retreat, Biron having admitted that they had all been " dry-beaten with pure scoff*." As soon as they are gone, the triumphant party burst out in expressions of joy and ridicule, and, among others, the Princess exclaims, as the line has always been printed, — '' 0, poverty in wit, kingly poor flout !" Of which readers have been left to make what sense they could. The old corrector clearly saw no sense in it, and has furnished us with other words so well qualified for the place that we cannot hesitate to approve of them. The enemy had been utterly routed and destroyed, and the Princess, in the excess of her de- light, breaks out, — " 0, poverty in wit ! killed hy pure flout !" meanmg, of course, in consistency with what Biron had said of " pure scoff," that the King and his companions, disguised as Mus- sc. II.] love's labour's lost. 117 covites, had been driven from the field by the mere mockery of the Ladies. P. 375. In the old editions Costard makes his exit after the speech of the King, " Stand aside, good Pompey," and, accord- ing to the corrector of the folio, 1632, he enters again after Ar- mado has delivered the words, " This Hector far surmounted Hannibal," the manuscript stage-direction being, Unter Costard in haste and unarmed : he is suddenly to bring word to Armado respecting the pregnancy of Jaquenetta, and afterwards to engage in his shirt in a conflict with the Spaniard, who turns out to be shirt- less. Such was, doubtless, the manner in which this portion of the comedy was originally conducted, notwithstanding modern editors have needlessly and clumsily inserted a stage-direction, Biron whispers Costard^ as if the latter had never left the scene. He had quitted it to disarm from liis part of Pompey, and to convey the alarming tidings regarding Jaquenetta. P. 377. The emendation proposed by Theobald, — '' A heavy heart bears not a nimble tongue," instead of " an humble tongue" of the old impressions, is war- ranted by good sense, and by the change introduced by the cor- rector of the folio, 1632; but three lines lower, we come to a pas- sage hitherto passed over, but which evidently requires the emen- dation which it has received from the same authority. The lines are commonly printed, — " The extreme parts of time extremely form All causes to the purpose of his speed." The passage is corrupt, and the manuscript alteration made in the folio, 1632, thus sets it right, and renders the sense dis- tinct : the Princess is on the point of hastily quitting Navarre, on the news of the death of her father, and the King observes, — •' The extreme parting time expressly forms All causes to the purpose of his speed." Another error occurs in the answer of the Princess to the request 118 love's labour's lost. [act v. of the King, that she would not forget his love-suit : the reading has been, — ^' I understand you not : my griefs are double." She did not understand him, because her sorrows had deadened her faculties, and the line, as we find from the manuscript correc- tion in the folio, 1632, ought to be, — " I understand you not : my griefs are dull^'' the copyist mishearing " double" for dull. Biron then takes up the subject, and when, among other things, he says, — '•'■ As love is full of unbefitting strains, As wanton as a child," we ought to read strangeness for " strains," which is quite con- sistent with what he adds just afterwards when he tells us that love is " Full of strange shapes, of habits, and of forms ;" instead of "straying shapes," as it is misprinted m the folios. Both these words are altered by the old corrector. P. 378. It seems clear that Biron meant to conclude his ad- dress in rhyme, but it closes thus in all editions of the play : — " We to ourselves prove false. By being once false forever to be true To those that make us both, — fair ladies, you : And even that falsehood, in itself a sin. Thus purifies itself and turns to grace." Eead, with the corrector of the folio, 1632, and the sense is pre- cisely the same while the rhyme is restored, — " And even that falsehood, in itself so base, Thus purifies itself, and turns to grace." P. 379. The six lines m all the old copies, which read only like an abridgment of the penance imposed afterwards by Rosaline on Biron, are expunged by the corrector of the folio, 1632, as a need- less and injurious reduplication. P. 380. Rosaline tells Biron that he is sc. II.] love's labour's lost. 119 '' Full of comparisons and wounding flouts, Which you on all estates will execute." " Will exercise'^ is the plausible manuscript-correction in the folio, 1632. P. 381. There can, we apprehend, be no doubt that, instead of the following, — '' Then if sickly ears. Deaf d with the clamours of their own dear groans, "Will hear your idle scorns, continue then, And I will have you and that fault withal," we ought, with the old corrector, to read, — '■'■ Then, if sickly ears. Deaf d with the clamours of their own dire groans. Will hear your idle scorns, continue them, And I will have you and that fault withal ; But if they will not, throw away that spirit," &c. Dire for " dear" and them for " then" are slight changes, but edi- tors have hitherto been unwilling to make them in the flice of the old impressions. MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DEEAM. ACT L SCENE I. P. 391. Rowe was the first editor who changed the old read- ing,— " And then the moon, Hke to a silver bow, Now bent in heaven," to " new bent in heaven ;" but the corrector of the folio, 1632, was of the same opinion as Rowe^ although it is in vain to inquire whence he derived his knowledge. P. 392. By a very trifling emendation he makes Theseus end his speech with a couplet, which seems so naturally led to, that it is a wonder the alteration should never before have suggested itself : — " Eut I will wed thee in another key, With pomp, with triumph, and with revelry," the common reading being " with revelling." The old corrector also renders it quite clear that " Stand forth, Demetrius," and " Stand forth, Lysander," lower do^vn in the same page, are parts of the speech of Egeus, and not mere stage-direc- tions, as they are printed in the ancient editions in quarto and folio. The corrector placed carets where the words ought to come in, and drew a line from the carets to the words, adding in the margin directions for the performers to step forward. Still lower, he reads " stubborn hardness'''' for " stubborn harshness," which is more in accordance with the rest of the sentence. P. 394. Capel's emendation, — (120) ACT I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHt's DREAM. 121 "But earthly happier is the rose clistilled," whicli has been generally adopted since his time, is supported by a similar correction m the folio, 1632. The old reading is, " But earthlier happy," &c. P. 396. We here meet with a confirmation of Theobald's change of " love" to low^ in — " cross ! too high to be enthralFd to low." The line in the old copies, three lines farther down, — " Or else it stood upon the choice of merit," is evidently misprinted, and friends has ordinarily been substitu- ted for " merit ;" but men^ inserted ui the margin by the corrector of the folio, 1632, is more likely to have been the real word mis- heard by the copyist : — " Or else it stood upou the choice of mm." P. 398. The corrector of the folio, 1632, gives the subsequent line differently from any other early authority, viz. — ''lliQfatdt,fair Helena, is none of mine." Fisher's cjuarto has it, — '' His folly, Helena, is no fault of mine ;" and Roberts' quarto and the folios, — "Ilis folly, Helena, is none of mine." P. 399. Near the end of Helena's speech occurs tliis couplet, where she is stating her determination to inform Demetrius of the mtended flight of Lysander and Hermia : — " and for this intelligence, If I have thanks, it is a dear expense ;" which is only just intelligible, but the old corrector singularly improves the passage by the word he substitutes : — '' and for this intelligence, If I have thanks, it is dear recompense.-^ It cannot be doubted that the original reading is thus restored, although here, as m many other places, it is difficult to understand how the corruption crept into the text. 6 122 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT's DREAM. [ACT II. P. 400. In the first scene of the actors of the burlesque tragedy of Pyramus and Thisbe, a question has arisen out of the words of the old copies, at the end of Bottom's second speech, " and so grow on to a point." The expression has not been w^ell under- stood, and it appears that, when the corrections in the folio, 1632, were made, it was deemed a misprint, and that the words ought to be, " and so go on to appoint ;" that is, to appoint the different actors to their parts, which, in fact, is done immediately after- wards. P. 401. Bottom's declaration that if he play Pyramus, "let the audience look to their eyes ; I will move storms," is amended in manuscript in the folio, 1632, to " I will move stones ;" and when the word was written " stormes," it was not an unlikely blunder for a printer or scribe to make : either word will do. ' ACT n. SCENE I. P. 403. The words, " Take pains ; be perfect ; adieu," are given to Quince by the old corrector, as well as " At the Duke's oak we meet," and they seem to belong to him, as the manager of the play, rather tlian to Bottom. P. 404. The Fairy, soon after meeting Puck, says, speaking of Titania, — " The cowslips tall her pensioners be ; In their gold coats spots you see : Those be rubies, fairy favours, In those freckles live their savours." There seem several objections to tliis passage as it has stood in all editions. First, cowslips are never " tall," and, next, the crimson spots are not in their " coats," or on the petals, but at the bottom of the calix, as Shakespeare has hmiself told us in " Cymbeline," Act II. Scene II. '' Like the crimson drops I' th' bottom of a cowslip." The alteration authorised in manuscript in the folio, 1632, is, therefore, as follows : — SC. I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 123 " The cowslips all her pensioners be ; In their gold cups spots you see : Those be rubies, fairy favours, In those freckles live their savours." Rubies would be singular decorations for a "coat," but were common ornaments to golden chalices. P. 405. Johnson and others saw that the line commenced by the Fairy's question, — " Are you not he ?" was not completed by Puck's answer, — '' Thou speak'st aright ;" and it was proposed to fill up the vacancy by " / am ; thou speak'st aright ;" but the true word seems to be that given by the corrector of the folio, 1632, — " Fairy, thou speak'st aright." P. 408. It is a mere trifle, but still, in relation to the integrity of Shakespeare's text, worth notice, that in the corrected folio, 1632, Titania tells Oberon,— *' Thy fairy land buys not the child of me." It is "The fairy land" in the old editions ; but Titania afterwards repeats nearly the same words when she again refuses the boy to Oberon, "Not for thy fairy kingdom." We may, therefore, con- clude, that thy is the original. In the later part of the same speech the expression occurs, " her womb then rich with my young squire," which is altered in manuscript in the folio, 1632, to "her womb then ripe with my young squire;" the word " r/cA" had perhaps been caught from a line just below. P. 410. There is a defect in the construction of the subsequent extract : — *' The juice of it, on sleeping eye-lids laid. Will make a man or woman madly dote Upon the next live creature that it sees ;" 124 A MIDSUMMER NiaHT'S DREAM. [ACT II. accordingly we find the old corrector altering the last Ime thus, which is probably what the poet -svrote : — " Upon the next live creature that is seen^ Puck's answer to Oberon has constantly been printed, — " I'll put a gu'dle round about the earth In forty minutes 5" but Oberon had not required any such task of him, but merely to fetch a plant of " Love in idleness." What Puck means is to show his readiness to obey, even if he had been commanded to do much more, and therefore the manuscript-corrector has it, — "/'c? put a girdle round about the earth In forty minutes." The word " round," which is also inserted by him as necessary to the measure, is only met with m the quarto published by Pisher. P. 412. The change recommended, from "flowers" (which is the old reading) to bowers^ in the following passage, may admit of doubt : but bowers certainly appears best adapted to the place ; and if best adapted, we may feel well assured that it was the word Shakespeare employed : — " Quite over canopied with lush woodbine, With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine : There sleeps Titania, some time of the night, Lull'd in these bowers with dances and delight." It is certain that the " lush woodbine," musk-roses, and eglantuie, which "quite over-canopied" the bank, converted it into bowers. Lush (also supplied by the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632) is a decided improvement upon " luscious," which is too much for the verse. Theobald had proposed to read lush, and we have already met with it in " The Tempest," Act II. Scene I. SCENE n. P. 415. Hermia and Lysander, wearied by wandering in the ACT III.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT's DREAM. 125 wood, are about to lie down, when Hermia, in maiden modesty, asks her lover to rest farther from her, but he urges her to repose her trust in liim. The usual text has been : — " O, take the sense, sweet, of my innocence ; Love takes the meaning in love's conference." But the passage, as amended by the corrector of the folio, 1632, is clearly much more to the purpose : — " 0, take the sense, sweet of my innocence ; Love takes the meaning in love's confidences'^ ACT ni. SCENE L P. 421. In the rehearsal scene of the mock-play by the Athe- nian artisans, the corrector of the folio, 1632, gives Bottom's speech, as to the contrivance of a wall, thus : " And let him have some plaster, or some lime^ or some roughcast about him, and let him hold his fingers thus," &c. The ordinary reading is "loam" and " or "; but the sentence is clearly not in the alterna- tive. Theseus afterwards speaks of the wall as made of " lime and hair." In the play itself, the first line delivered by Pyramus ought to run, — " Thisby, the flowers have odious savours sweet," and not " of odious savours sweet ;" because the next line is, — " So hath thy breath, my dearest Thisby, dear." Pope, to meet the difliculty, altered "hath" to doth; but the error was, as the corrector of the folio, 1632, shows, in the word " of" in the previous Ime ; properly, therefore, the passage ought to be printed hereafter, — '' Thisby, the flowers have odious savours sweet, So hath thy breath," &c. P. 422. The manuscript stage-directions in this scene, and in- deed in others, are as precise and fall as can possibly be required, and supply all deficiencies of the kind in the printed copies. Thus, when the "hempen home-spuns" are in the utmost dismay and confusion, just previous to the return of Bottom after his 126 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. [ACT III. transformation, we are told that Robin is amon^ them, that the Clownes all exeunt in confusion, and that Snout afterwards Exit frighted, having seen the Weaver with the ^5.5 head on his oivn. It may be here mentioned that when the eyes of Titania and the others are to be touched with the magic herbs, there is no infor- mation in the printed copies as to the exact moment ; but in manuscript we have annoint her eyes and annoint his eyes in the precise place in the margin, in the hand-writing of the corrector. In the same way, though the printed copies state when the char- acters sleep, we are told only in manuscript when they ivake, which is quite as material. P. 424. The five Imes in Titania's speech, declaring her love for Bottom, are strangely confused in the folio editions, and in Roberts' quarto; but the corrector of that of 1632, by inserting a figure opposite each line, shows that they are to be read in the order in which they stand in Fisher's quarto, and such has pro- perly been the modern arrangement. SCENE n. P. 428. Hermia, imagining that Demetrius has killed Lysan- der, vents her rage upon him in a speech of some length and great violence; upon which, as the passage has hitherto been given, Demetrius coolly remarks, — " You spend your passion on a mispris'd mood : I am not guilty of Lysander's blood ;"' but the corrector of the folio, 1632, says that we ought to read, — " You spend your passion in a mispris'd ^ooc?;" that is, in a mistaken torrent, which appears to give additional force and greater mtelligibility. P. 431. The conjecture hazarded in note 6, that "princess of pure white" ought to be read '■'■impress of pure white," is con- firmed by the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, and the quotation ought in future to stand, — '* 0, let me kiss This impress of pure white, this seal of bliss." SC. II.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. 127 In flict, the use of the word "impress" m the begmning of the line naturally led to the word " seal " at the end of it. P. 432. The old corrector, in accordance with Fisher's quarto, inserts Helen before " It is not so," in Lysander's speech, in order to complete the verse. P. 433. In Helen's speech occurs the same misprint as that pointed out in " The Two Gentlemen of Verona," Act I. Scene II. p. 18. '* So we grew together Like to a double cherry, seeming parted, But yet an union in partition ; Two lovely berries moulded on one stem." It is not at all likely that Helena would call herself one of the " lovely berries," whatever she might say of Hermia ; but the fact is that the whole speech turns upon their mutual employment and mutual affection, and as the old corrector of the folio, 1632, informs us, we ought to displace "lovely" for loving : — " Two loving berries moulded on one stem." The heraldic couplet which follows is struck out by the same hand, probably because, like most other readers, he did not under- stand it. P. 436. In Herraia's first speech, on this page, a ludicrous error of the press has been eternally repeated. She is wonder- struck and bewildered by Lysander's infidelity, — '' What ! can you do me greater harm than hate ? Hate me! wherefore? 0, me !" and then what follows % this strange question, — " T\Tiat news, my love ?" It is astonishing that the blunder did not long ago expose itself; but it is easily accounted for : "news" was formerly spelt newes, and so it stands in the folios, and the printer or copyist misread meanes " newes." Hermia's question ought, indisputably, to be, — 128 A MIDSUMMEK NIGHT's DREAM. [ACT IV. " "VVTiat 7neans my love ?" which is a natural inquiry for an explanation why Lysancler had abandoned her. The manuscript-corrector obliterates newes, and inserts meanes. ACT IV. SCENE I. P. 444. The expression of Titania, — " Fairies, be gone, and be all ways away," has occasioned some controversy, the word being " always " in the old copies : Theobald made the suggestion of " all ways ;" Upton, Steevens, and M alone stating their concurrence or dissent. It seems to be an error of the press, for Titania does not wish her attendants to be permanently, but only temporarily absent — not "always," but a while — and such is the manuscript-correction in the folio, 1632. Titania could not mean to dismiss the Fairies entirely and for ever, and therefore says, — '' Fairies, be gone, and be a while away." The error arose from the compositor confounding the words a while and " away," which come next each other. P. 450. A blunder from a somewhat similar cause has been committed in Lysander's speech, which in the folios and in one of the quartos is thus given : — " And be bid us follow to the temple," instead of " And he did bid us follow to the temple." The words " did " and " bid " being in juxta-position, the printer omitted the first of them (which is found in Fisher's quarto only), and thus ruined the verse. The manuscript-corrector places did in the margin. P. 450. Bottom concludes his speech in these terms m all the old copies : he is speaking of the ballad of " Bottom's Dream," — ACT y.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT's DREAM. 129 " I will sing it in the latter end of a play, before the Dake : per- adventure, to make it the more gracious, I shall sing it at her death." Now, no particular play is here mentioned, and " at her death" seems to have no personal applicj^tion. Nevertheless it is evident that the play of Pyramus and Thisbe was in the Clown's mind ; and what he proposed to do was to sing " Bottom's Dream " at the death of Thisbe. Such is the statement of the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, who, to make the matter quite clear, has ended the speech thus : " And I will sing it at the latter end of the play before the Duke : peradventure, to make it the more gracious, I shall sing it at Thisbe's death." SCENE 11. P. 451. In this scene Flute, the bellows-mender, is thrdiifrhout introduced as a speaker by the name of the part he performs in the mock-tragedy ; but the manuscript-corrector has been careful, in every instance, to alter the prefix from " Thisbe" to Flute. ACT V. SCENE I. P. 453. There is a remarkable discrepancy between the old folio, and the old quarto editions in respect to an important pas- sage, w^hich we give as it appears in the latter, which have been al- most universally followed : — '' And, as imagination bodies forth The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing A local habitation and a name." The quartos, therefore, have " gives to air?/ nothing," and the folios, without any point after aire, " gives to aire nothing." With some editors it has been a question, which reading ought to be adopt- ed ; but, as the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, by placing the letter i in the margin, indicates that the word was airie, and as the line is incomplete without the additional syllable, we need not entertain much hesitation upon the point. P. 454. The doubling of the parts of Egeus and Philostrate,. that is, one actor filling both, perhaps led to the confusion be- 130 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT's DREAM. [ACT. V. tween the prefixes of those characters in this scene. Theseus, in the quarto editions, says, " Call Philostrate," and in the folios, " Call Egeus." The folio, 1623, adopted the quarto, by Roberts, as its foundation ; but at some time subsequent to the publication of that quarto, the part of Philostrate, having been given, in the economy of our old stage, also to the actor of Egeus, the name of Egeus became substituted for that of Philostrate in the folio, 1623. This is probably the cause of the variation, which the corrector of the folio, 1632, only in part sets right; for while Egeus produces the " brief" of the " sports" that are " rife," Lysander reads it, and then Philostrate takes up the dialogue, by giving a description of the play, the players and the rehearsal. It seems likely that the poet meant the whole of this to have been said by one man, Philostrate, wdio in the very opening of the drama is sent out by Theseus to " stir up the Athenian youth to merriments," and who acted as a sort of Master of the Revels on this occasion. P. 455. Theseus, referring to the ridiculous contradiction in " the tragical mirth" of the title of the play about to be repre- sented before him, observes '' That is, hot ice and wondrous strange snow." Now, unless we read " wondrous" as a trisyllable, the measure is defective : the sense too is much in the same predicament ; for " wondrous strange snow," does not necessarily imply opposition, like " hot ice." The truth is that Shakespeare meant boiling snow, only the compositor, or copyist, mistook seething for " strange," the true word having been supplied by the old corrector, — " That is, hot ice and wond'rous seething snow '" which is exactly what was intended to be expressed. Theseus, in the fourth line of the scene, has already used the word " seeth- ing," which renders the misprint here less pardonable. P. 457. After the Prologue by a speaker who, as Theseus re- marks, did not " stand upon his points," w^e come to the introduc- tion of the mock-actors, and the old stage-direction in the folios is " Tawyer with a trumpet before them." It has been thought so. l] a midsummer night's dream. 131 that " Tawyer" was the name of the trumpeter ; but a manu- script-correction in the folio, 1632, calls him Presenter, and it places Pres. as a prefix to the argument of the main incidents of the burlesque. In it, it was necessary to observe punctuationfor the sake of intelligibility, and, not to derange it, as in the case of the Prologue, for the sake of laughter. This argument was, there- fore, not delivered by the Prologue speaker, as has been invariably stated, but by the Presenter, whose name was in all probability Tawyer. P. 460. On the exit of Wall, Theseus observes, in the quartos, " Now is the moon used between the neighbours." The folios read, with even less intelligibility, " Now is the moral down be- tween the neighbours." Theobald altered " moral" to " mural," but no instance has been adduced of the employment of mural as a substantive ; and the manuscript-corrector erases " moral" and inserts wall, which, at least, is the word wanted. Lower down in the Lion's speech w^e ought, on the same authority, to read, — " Then know, that I, one Snug the joiner, am A lion's fell, nor else no lion's dam." By " lion's fell" we are to understand lion's skin, and Snug was to assure the ladies, that he was no more than a man in a lion's hide. This correction was conjecturally proposed some years ago by the late Mr. Barron Field, who never imagined that he had been anticipated in the emendation by full two centuries. P. 462. The manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, converts " mouz'd" of the old copies into mouthed, in the exclamation of Theseus, " Well moused, lion." Steevens was in favour of the same change ; but, nevertheless, the old reading may perhaps stand, from museau, French, muzzle, and the Italian muso. P. 463. The lamentation of Pyramus on the supposed death of Thisbe produces an observation from Theseus, which has been al- ways thus printed : — " This passion, and the death of a dear friend, would go near to make a man look sad ;" but it has parti- cular reference to the " passion" of Pyramus on the fate of Thisbe, 132 A MIDSUMMEK NIGHT's DREAM. [ACT Yv. and therefore the corrector of the folio, 1632, properly changes " and" to on, and reads, " This passion on the death of a dear friend," &c. When Pyramus kills himself with the words, — '' Thus die I, thus, thus, thus !" there is this singular manuscript stage-direction in the opposite margin. Stab himself as often : that is, as often as he exclaims, " thus, thus, thus !" Exit Moonshine is inserted just before Py- ramus dies. These instructions to the players are not in any of the old impressions. P. 464. In part of Tliisbe's dying rhapsody, as it appeared be- fore Theobald's time, he saw that the rhymes did not correspond, as they ought : — " These lily lips, This cherry uose, These yellow cowslip cheeks," &c. He therefore proposed brows instead of " lips ;" but he missed the alteration of the right word : the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, gives it, and, no doubt, accurately, — " This lily lip, This cherry tip,^' in allusion to the tip of the nose of Pyramus, to which, we may imagine, Thisbe pointed at the moment. P. 465. Tlie early editions do not inform us where the " Bergo- mask Dance" was introduced ; but the old corrector tells us, that it came in just before Tlieseus recommences his speech, with " The iron tongue of midnight," &c. The words written m a blank space are Dance : then, the Duke s^yeaks. It is a singular addition to the old stage-direction of " Enter Puck," to be told that he came in with his broom on his shoulder, doubtless in the very way in which he is represented on the title-page of the old tract of " Robin Goodfellow, his Mad Pranks," &c., ui the library of Lord Ellesmere, and in the chap-book in verse upon liis liisto- ry : that Puck was so furnished we have his own evidence, when he tells the audience, — SC. I.l A MIDSUMMER NIGHT's DEEAM. 133 " I am sent with broom before, To sweep the dust behind the door." P. 467. In "tJie Song," just preceding Puck's last speech, there are two small, but not trifling emendations, made by the corrector of the folio, 1632. The one is by a change in the punc- tuation to carry on the sentence about " the blots of nature's hand" for another line, thus : — •' And the blots of nature's hand Shall not in their issue stand ; Never mole, hare-lip, nor scar, Nor mark prodigious, such as are Despised in nativity Shall upon their children be. With this field-dew consecrate." That is, none of these disfigurements shall be seen on the children consecrated with, the field-dew. Then begins a new sentence, wdiich is judiciously altered in two words by the corrector, and reads as follows : — " Every fairy take this gait. And each several chamber bless, Through this palace, with sweet peace : Ever shall ii safely rest And the owner of it blest. Trip away ; make no stay ; Meet me all by break of day." Tlie question is whether the fairies, or the issue of the different couples are to be " consecrate" with the "field-dew ;" and there seems no reason why such delicate and immortal beings should require it, while children might need it, to secure them from "marks prodigious." Reading the line, as in old as well as modern editions, — " Ever shall in safety rest," there is a want of an antecedent ; whereas, the manuscript emen- dation in the folio, 1632, renders the whole " song " consecutive, grammatical, and intelligible. THE MEECHANT OF VENICE. ACT I. SCENE I. P. 478. In the following quotation Rowe changed " when " of all the old copies, quarto and folio, into lolio^ — '■' When, I am very sure, If they should speak, would almost damn those ears. Which, hearing them, would call their brothers fools." Rowe was followed in this change by Pope, Theobald, Warbur- ton, Malone, and others ; but the emendation recommended on the authority of the corrector of the folio, 1632, is much slighter, simpler, and more effectual — merely "would" to Hwoiild : — '' WTien, I am very sure. If they should speak, 'hvould almost damn those ears, Which, hearing them, would call their brothers fools." P. 479. Only one of the two quartos printed in 1600 gives this line as it ought to stand, viz. — " Farewell : I'll grow a talker for this gear." The other quarto of the same date, and all the folios read, to the injury of the verse, — " Fare you well : I'll grow a talker for this gear." The manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, who seems to have had an accurate and a sensitive ear, properly strikes out you. P. 480. Bassanio tells Antonio, in all editions, — " I owe you much, and, like a wilful youth, That which I owe is lost." (134) SC. III.] THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 135 The folio, 1G32, as corrected, substitutes a more appropriate word in reference to Bassanio's extravagance, — " I owe you mucli, and, like a loastefal youth, That which I owe is lost.-' It is not easy to account for some of these blunders, either by the copyist or by the compositor: and " wilful" may possibly have been the poet's word ; but he does not elsewhere represent Bassanio as " wilful," while Bassanio admits and deplores his own wastefulness. ' SCENE II. P. 482. The corrector of the folio, 1632, seems here to have inserted another alteration from one of the early quartos : in the folios Portia observes, " But this reason is not in the fashion," &;c. ; but in the quartos "reason" is reasoning. In her next speech but one Portia observes of the Neapolitan Prince and his horse, that " he makes it a great appropriation to his own good parts that he can shoe him himself" "Appropriation to" is altered by the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, to appro- hation of^ in the sense of proof — a great proof of his own good parts, &c. Approbation is not unfrequently used by Shakespeare in this way ; whereas, if "appropriation" were his word, this is the only place where he has employed it. P. 483. In order not to offend James I., the word " Scottish" of the quartos, published more than two years before he came to the throne, was altered in the folio, 1623, to other ^ in Nerissa's question, " What think you of the Scottish lord, his neighbour % " In the folio, 1632, the word other is struck through with a pen, and Irish placed in the margin, as if it had not been considered objectionable, in the time of the corrector, so to stig- matise Irish lords. SCENE III. P. 486. There is here a transposition in all printed copies of this play, by which Shylock is made to call " ?a7^(i-thieves," in- stead of " i(?a^er-thieves," pirates. He tells Bassanio, " There be 136 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. ACT II.] land-rats and water-rats, water-thieves and land-thieves ; I mean, pirates." Shylock could not mean that land-thieves were pirates, and therefore the corrector of the folio, 1632, reverses the words, and makes them follow the order of " land-rats and water-rats," — " there be land-thieves and water-thieves ; I mean, pirates." The change is not very important, but as it shows that comparative trifles did not escape. P. 487. The corrector of the folio, 1632, again adopts the text of both the quarto editions in reading "well-won thrift," for ^'■well-worn thrift," as the epithet stands in the folios. P. 488. The whole passage regarding Jacob and Laban down to Antonio's reflection, — '■ 0, what a goodly outside falsehood hath !" is erased ; but nevertheless an emendation is made in Antonio's answer to Shy lock, as hitherto printed, — " Was this inserted to make interest good ?" which is changed by the corrector of the folio, 1632, to, — " Was this inferred to make interest good?" There is no doubt that Shakespeare frequently uses the verb to infer in the sense of to bring in ; and Antonio mquires whether Shylock brought in the story of Laban to justify the taking of interest. ACT II. SCENE I. P. 492. In the second line of the speech of the Prince of Mo- rocco we meet with a change of epithet which deserves notice : the reading has been : — " The shadow'd livery of the burnish'd sun ;" but the corrector has written, — *' The shadow'd livery of the burning sun," SC. v.] THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 137 which seems much more proper, when the African Prince is speakmg of his black complexion as the effect of the sun's rays. To speak of the sun as artificially " burnish'cl" is very unworthy. Lower down the reading of the corrector is, " I would ow^stare" of one of the quartos, instead of" o'er-stare" of the other quarto, and of the folios. P. 493. The almost inevitable conjecture of Theobald, — " So is Alcides beaten by his page," instead of "beaten by his r«^e" of all the early impressions, is borne out by the corrector of the folio, 1632. SCENE II. P. 494. Launcelot in the old copies calls the devil " a courage- ous fiend," a word certainly very ill applied, when he is advising the boy to run away ; and in the margin of the folio, 1632, the word is made contagious^ as appropriate as "courageous" is inap- propriate, unless we suppose Launcelot to speak ironically. At the end of what he says, he is about to make his escape with all speed, and this manuscript stage-direction is added. As he is going out in haste, when he is met by his flxther. As the dialogue be- tween them proceeds, we are told when Launcelot kneels to re- ceive his father's blessing, and when he rises, after the old man has compared his son's hair to Dobbin's tail. SCENE V. P. 504. The manuscript-corrector again introduces the reading of the quarto editions where Shylock is speakmg of Launcelot : the folio, 1623, has it, — " Snail-slow in profit, but he sleeps by day More than the wild-cat." The folio, 1632, omits " he ;" but the quartos have, " and he sleeps by day," &;c. Both words are inserted in the margin of the folio, 1632. The proverb with which the speech ends is given differ- ently both from quartos and folios ; for instead of " Fast bind, fast find," we have " Safe bind, safe find." The lines from, — " ! ten times faster Venus' pigeons fly," 138 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. [ACT II. down to the entrance of Lorenzo, are crossed out ; but the gross error of the folios, " to steal love's bonds," instead of " to seal love's bonds," is dulj corrected. The two quartos have " seal." SCENE VII. P. 507. When the Prince of Morocco enters to his choice of the caskets, we are informed by a manuscript stage-direction in the folio, 163*2, that a curtain is draiun or rather withdrawn in front of them, as, indeed, is the case afterwards when the Prince of Ar- ragon and Bassanio go through the same ceremony. This fact is easily to be collected from what is said by the characters, but the object was to take care that the caskets should be exposed to the view of the audience at the proper moment. The inscription upon the golden casket, in the second line of the speech of the Prince of Morocco, is different in the folios from the subsequent repetitions of it, by the omission of the word " many," — "Who choose th me shall gain what men desire," instead of " wdiat many men desire." In the quarto impressions "many" is found, and the corrector of the folio, 1632, has placed it in the margin : thus all three inscriptions were rendered of the same length, and are in the same measure. SCENE IX. P. 512. There is a material emendation in the speech of the Prince of Arragon, when commenting on the caskets. The read- ing has always been, — '' What many men desire : that many may be meant By the fool multitude, that choose by show, Not learning more than the fond eye doth teach ; Which pries not to th' interior, but, like the martlet, Builds in the weather," &c. This is certainly intelligible, but the verse is redundant in the first line by " many," which is erased, and the corrector of the folio^ 1632, fiirther informs us that the words of the poet, in the fourth line, were, — " WTiich prize not th' interior, but, like the martlet, Builds in the weather," &c. ACT III.] THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 139 That is to say, the fool multitude do not prize, or value the inte- rior, but judge only by externals. It will be observed also, that this new reading restores in some degree the regularity of the verse. ACT III. SCENE I. P. 516. Where Shylock calls Antonio " A beggar that used to come so smug upon the mart," the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, reads " A beggar that was wont to come," &c. ; and as in the subsequent part of the same short speech Shylock re- peats the expression, " he was wont to call me usurer," and " he was wont to lend money," it seems probable that in the different clauses of the same sentence the same words would be employed. SCENE II. P. 520. The expression " to peize the time" in Portia's intro- duction of Bassanio to the caskets has not been well understood : to " peize" is to weigh, to poise ; but the sense wanted is to delay, and that sense we have in the corrector's manuscript, who writes pause for " peize" m the following extract : — " I speak too long : but 'tis to pause the time, To eke it, and to draw it out at length, To stay you from election." Portia wished to postpone Bassanio's choice, lest he should select the wrong casket, and thus necessarily and suddenly terminate their intercourse. P. 522. Much controversy has been produced by these lines, where Bassanio is moralizing upon the deceitfulness of external appearance : — '' Thus ornament i^ but the guiled shore To a most dangerous sea, the beauteous scarf Veiling an Indian beauty ; in a word, The seeming truth which cunning times put on To entrap the wisest." As to the first line, the folio, 1623, has " guiled shore," as above, 140 THE MEECHANT OF VENICE. [ACT III. which the editor of the folio, 1632, not understanding, he altered it to guilded, i. e. gilded ; so that Avhen Steevens asserts that " all the ancient copies" have " gulled," he was mistaken. The manu- script-corrector of the folio, 1632, not approving guilded, and seemg that the participle ought to be active and not passive, a point to which Shakespeare did not much attend (as indeed it was not the habit of his age), changed guilded to guiUng. This how- ever is not by any means the most important emendation m the passage, since a remarkable alteration for the better is wrought by the mere change of punctuation. No editor has been satisfied with " Veiling an Indian beauty," because " beauty" was obvious- ly the very converse of what the poet intended : Sir Thomas Hanmer therefore proposed " Indian dowdy ;" but no other vari- ation from the old text is necessary than to observe the stops which the corrector of the folio, 1632, introduced, and to read the lines as follows : — " Thus ornament is but the gulling shore To a most dangerous sea, the beauteous scarf Veiling an Indian : beauty, in a word, The seeming truth which cunning times put on To entrap the wisest." Here every thing is clear and consistent ; but it is most likely that had the introducer of this emendation \\'ritten in the time of the author he illustrates, he would not have thought it necessary to change " gulled" to guiUng. It was perhaps recited guil'ing on the stage in his day. P. 523. Bassanio, descanting on the portrait of Portia, thus expresses his admiration of the eyes : — '' How could he see to do them ? having made one, Methinks, it should have power to steal both his, And leave itself unfurnish'd." The corrector has it, " And leave itself unfinisKd^'' which reads extremely Avell, if we suppose that the word applies to the por- trait, and not to the eye alone. " Unfurnish'd," if it refer to the fellow eye, reads awkwardly, and Shakespeare would scarcely SC. II.] THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 141 have left the expression of what he mtended so imperfect. Stee- vens hesitated about unjinislid. P. 524. Portia, stating the sources of her happiness after the successful choice by Bassanio, thus sums them up : — • " Happiest of all is, that her gentle sphit Commits itself to yoivrs to be directed." The correction of in for " is" appears a trifle, but it makes a great difference in the grace of the expression : — *' Happiest of all, in that her gentle spirit Commits itself to yours to be dhected." The use of in that for inasmuch as was common. P. 526. Gratiano, speaking of his eager courtship of Nerissa, observes : — " For wooing here, until I sweat again. And swearing till my very roo/ was dry," &c. Tlie manuscript-corrector of the folio tells us that " roof" ought to be tongue : the old spelling is " rough," and as r was often misprinted for t, and u for n, tongue seems at least as probable an error, especially as "roof" was never, even of old, spelt rough : — " And swearing till my very tongue was diy," is more natural, though not necessary. P. 529. Bassanio tells Portia that Antonio is, — '■'• The best condition'd and unwearied spirit In doing courtesies ;" but the corrector has put "unwearied" also in the superlative, '■'■ unwearied'' st spirit," which is quite in the manner of Shakespeare, and quite consistent with Bassanio's opinion of his friend. P. 535. What passes between Lorenzo and Launcelot, regard- ing the negro with child by him, is erased in the corrected folio, 1632. 142 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. [ACT IV. ACT IV. SCENE I. P. 539. We here meet with an emendation which must, in all probability, have been derived from some good authority; cer- tainly better than any resorted to for all the printed editions, judging from the result. The commentators have been at fault respecting an epithet applied by Shylock to a bagpipe : " As there is no firm reason to be rendered Wliy he cannot abide a gaping pig, Why he, a harmless necessary cat, Why he, a woollen bagpipe," &c. The question at issue was, why a bagpipe should be called " wool- len," and some have argued that it was because the bag was cov- ered with cloth, while Johnson was for changing the word to wooden, and Hawkins and Steevens, more plausibly, to swollen. As to the meaning, they were right, though wrong as to the word. Shakespeare's word unquestionably was bollen, from the Anglo- Saxon, which means swollen. It was spelled in various ways, as boln, bolne, boll'n, and bollen, and it is used by several authors of Shakespeare's time, which it is needless to refer to, because he avails himself of it in his own " Lucrece," vol. viii. p. 455 : — " Here one, being throng'd, bears back, all boll'n and red." It was, therefore, a w^ord with which he was well acquainted, and there can be no doubt that in future the passage above quoted from this drama ought to be printed as follows : " As there is no firm reason to be render'd, Why he cannot abide a gaping pig, Why he, a harmless necessary cat. Why he, a bollen bagpipe," &c. P. 540. All appeals failing to move Shylock, Antonio entreats for judgment, observing, as the lines are printed m the folio, 1632,— " Or even as well use question with the wolf. The ewe bleat for the lamb : when you behold." Such are the words, and such the punctuation ; but the earlier folio, of 1623, gives the sentence even more imperfectly: — SC. I.] THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 143 " Or even as well use question with the wolf, The ewe bleat for the lamb :" the rest of the line behig wanthig. How, then, is the defect rem- edied by the corrector of the folio, 1632 ? Simply by a transpo- sition and the removal of a colon, which accomplishes all that is wanted by making the meaning indisputable : he reads, — " Or even as well use question with the wolf, When you behold the ewe bleat for the lamb." This is nearly the text of the quarto published by Heyes, in the copy belonging to the Earl of Ellesmere. P. 542. Malone was disposed to preserve the misprint in the following : — " 0, be thou damn'd, inexecrable dog :" at all events he thought it doubtful whether " inexecrable " were not the true word, in preference to inexorable, which it did not become in print till 1664. " Inexorable " is in the margin of the corrected folio, 1632, and there can surely be no doubt that it is what Shakespeare really wrote, P. 546. "When Portia asks,— " Are there balance here to weigh The flesh ?" Shylock ansM^ers instantly, — " I have them ready ;" but neither in ancient nor modern printed editions is there any stage-direction, showing that at this point it was the duty of the actor to display his scales to the audience. The deficiency is supplied in manuscript by the corrector of the folio, 1632, by the words. Produce them, in the margin. Afterwards (p. 547), when Shylock exclaims, — " Most learned judge ! a sentence ! come, prepare !" there is another note, which proves that the scales were again effectively paraded by the Jew as ready for use, Show scales 144 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. [ACT V. again ; while we are previously told that he whets his knife. These particulars are not necessarily to be inferred from what is said, and we may conclude that they represent the practice of our elder stage. P. 548. The change of a word in the subsequent passage seems, if not required, probable : — '•' If thou tak'st more Or less than a just pound, — be it so much As makes it light or heavy in the balance,''^ &c. The usual reading has been " in the substance ; " but the addition by the heroine, — *' Nay, if the scale do turn But in the estimation of a hair," renders it likely that balance was the right text, and " substance " is altered to balance in manuscript in the margin of the folio, 1632. . ACT V. SCENE I. P. 555. There could hardly be a doubt on the point whether " Sweet soul," at the commencement of Lorenzo's speech, belong to him, or to Launcelot, to whom the words are assigned in all the old copies. In the folio, 1632, the expression is " Sweet Zoye," which the manuscript-corrector has not thought it necessary to change to " Sweet soul " (the reading of the earlier folio and of the quartos), but he has transferred it to Lorenzo. P. 556. In the folio, 1632, there is a singular misprint upon which modern editors have not remarked, and which it is only necessary to notice here, in order to state that the manuscript- corrector of that impression detected and remedied the blunder. It stands, as printed, — " Therefore the poet Did feign that Orpheus drew tears, stones, floods," &c. Tor tears, we should of course read " trees," in accordance with the folio, 1623, and with the two early editions in quarto. The SC. I.] THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 145 corrector's first emendation was to beasts, but he struck it out subsequently, and properly inserted " trees " in its stead. This may look like speculative emendation. P. 557. At the end of Portia's speech we have this passage, as it is found in all the old copies : — " Peace ! how the moon sleeps with EndymioD, And would not be awak'd." Malone changed it to " Peace, hoa ! the moon," &c. ; but the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, tells us that the error was not hoiv for " hoa," but how for " now : " this is the more likely, because when the folios came from the press it was not usual to spell the interjection " hoa," but ho ; and we know that it was a very common mistake to print " how " for now, and vice versa ; therefore we ought to read, — " Peace ! now the moon sleeps with Endymion, And would not be awak'd," P. 558. The corrector of the folio, 1632, has taken pains to set right even the most mmute errors. Tlius, in the fifth line, he has erased "from," and properly substituted /or. Lower down, he has shown us how the versification of a defective line ought to be amended: it is where Gratiano says, that he had already had a quarrel with Nerissa " About a hoop of gold, a paltry ring, That she did give me ; whose poesy was. For all the world, like cutlers' poetry." Here we must read, for the sake of the measure, " That she did give to me," &c. That " poesy" ought not to be read as three syl- lables we have evidence within three lines, where Nerissa uses it as two syllables only : — '^ What talk you of the poesy, or the value?" The carelessness of the printer, or of the transcriber, omitted " to," and spoiled the harmony : the old corrector inserted it. P. 560. To the same cause we may probably attribute the em- ployment of " contain," in Portia's accusation of Bassanio, instead 7 146 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. [ACT V. of retain^ although the words, of old, were sometimes used nearly synonymously : — " Or your own honour to contain the ring." Shakespeare often has to retain in the sense of to keep ; but the change here made may show only the customary mode of deliv- ering the line in the time of the corrector. P. 561. Antonio, pleading to Portia for Bassanio, says, in the folio impressions, — '' I once did lend my body for thy wealth ;" but it ought to be "for his wealth," and so it stands in the quarto editions, and so it has been made to stand in the folio, 1632, by the corrector of it. P. 562. An adverb of place instead of an adverb of time has been misprinted in all the editions of this play, where Gratiano remarks, — •' "Why, this is like the mending of highways In summer, where the ways are fair enough." We ought certainly to substitute when for " where" in this pas- sage, because the question is not as to where the roads are to be repaired, but when; the speaker means to point out the absurd- ity of doing a particular act at the period when it is least wanted. The manuscript-corrector places when in the margin, and expunges " where." It is a misprint of frequent occurrence. AS YOU LIKE IT. ACT I. SCENE I. Vol. iii. P. 7. The corrector of the folio, 1632, has made an emendation at the very outset of this play, which is nearly in ac- cordance with Mai one's proposal, to insert a period after "fashion" and to commence a new sentence with Ae, in reference to the bequest of Orlando's father. The corrector's reading is this : — " As I remember, Adam, it was upon this fashion : he bequeathed me by will but a poor thousand crowns," &c. Orlando and Adam enter talking on the subject of the will of Sir Roland de Bois. When Oliver comes in shortly afterwards (p. 8), a manuscript stage-direction informs us that, while the two brothers are con- versing, Adam goes apart, and comes forward again, when Or- lando has taken Oliver by the throat, and, in the words written in the margin, shakes him. P. 10, To remove ambiguity regarding the "old" and the "new" Duke, both spoken of by Charles, the wrestler, the manuscript-corrector inserts the words old and new, where they are not found in the early copies, but where they seem required, and were, probably, originally found : — " Olioer. Can you tell if Rosalind, the old duke's daughter, he banished with her father ? Charles. ! no ; for the new duke's daughter, her cousin, so lovea her," &c. The meanmg is more complete with the added words, though intelligible without them. P. 11. The two last portions of the two speeches of Charles (147) 148 AS YOU LIKE IT. [ACT I. and Oliver, after the word " withal" in the first, and after the word "living" in the second instance, are struck out in the cor- rected folio, 1632. The object seems to have been to shorten the colloquy. SCENE n. P. 16. A trifling change, the omission of a letter, shows that Shakespeare intended to make Le Beau talk in an affected man- ner. He enters to give Rosalind and Celia tidings regarding the wi-estling, and the common reading has been, — "Xe Beau. Fair princess, you have lost much good sport. Ce^ia. Sport? Of what colour ? Le Beau. What colour, madam ? How shall I answer that ? " The point, such as it is, is thus entirely lost : Celia ought to say,— ^'Spot ? Of what colour," viz. of what colour is the spot^ for Le Beau must have pronounced the word " sport," as if it were spot^ or Celia's question " Of what colour ?" is as unintelligible to others as it was to Le Beau. The corrector of the folio, 1632, has put his pen through the let- ter r in " sport." P. 18. Sir Thomas Hanmer was right in altering, " there is such odds in the man," to " there is such odds in the ?ne;i," viz. the two men, Orlando and Charles, the wrestler. "Man" an- swers the purpose : but as the old corrector puts it in the plural, we may perhaps be satisfied that it ought to be so. Lower down the sentence is thus changed, and evidently for the better, " If you saw yourself with our eyes, or knew yourself with owr judgment, the fear of your adventure would counsel you to a more equal enterprise :" the folios have " your " in both places. P. 19. In the old copies there is no stage-direction that Charles is thrown by Orlando, and carried out ; nor, on the next page (20), that Rosalmd puts a chain round the neck of Orlando. These are supplied in manuscript by the corrector of the folio, 1632. SC. III.] AS YOU LIKE IT. 149 P. 21. The old copies represent Le Beau as telling Orlando that " the taller'''^ is daughter to the Duke — an oversight in the author, or an error in the printer. Malone substituted " smaller," but the manuscript-corrector informs us that the word was shorter^ and he therefore displaced " taller." SCENE HI. P. 22. We are rejoiced to find Coleridge's delicate conjecture fortified, or rather entirely justified, by the folio, 1632, as amend- ed in manuscript : Celia asks, — "But is all this for your father? " and Rosalind replies, as her answer has always been printed, — "No, some of it is for my child's father," which turns out to be an unnecessary piece of coarseness. The passage, as it stands with the change in manuscript, is merely this :— "No, some of it is for mj father s child,''^ Rosalind meaning herself as her father's child, and not Orlando as the father of a child to be born of her. P. 23. When the Duke suddenly banishes Rosalind from the Court, he tells her, — " Mistress, dispatch you with your safest haste ; " but, if we may trust the old corrector, supported by obvious plau- sibility, we ought in future to give the line thus : — " Mistress, dispatch you with jovlV fastest haste," or with your greatest speed. In " The Merchant of Venice" (p. 115), we have seen safe misprinted "fast," in two instances close together: here we hdiYo, fastest misprinted "safest." P. 24. The line hi Celia's speech, — " Still we went coupled and inseparable," is altered in the folio, 1 632, to, — " Still we went coupled and inseparate." 150 AS TOU LIKE IT. [ACT 11. Shakespeare uses inseparate iii " Troilus and Cressida," Act V. Scene II., but he also has "inseparable" in " King John," Act III. Scene IV. "Inseparate" is in the poet's manner, and the old cor- rector states that such was the word in " As you like it." But for the sake of accuracy, it would hardly have seemed necessary for him to have pointed out the difference: one word was as good as the other, excepting as one must have been the text of Shake- speare. P. 26. The line in the folio, 1632,— " Maids as we are, to travel so far/' clearly wants a word which had dropped out, and is found in the folio, 1623,— " Maids as we are, to travel /or;;/* so far." The corrector puts " forth" in the margin, and perhaps he derived it from the earlier edition. On the same page the line, — " I'll have no worse a name than Jove's own page," is corrected to " I'll have no worser name than Jove's own page," which is a form of the comparative of perpetual occurrence in Shakespeare and in authors of his time. ACT II. SCENE I. P. The banished Duke remarks, — " Here feel we not the penalty of Adam, The seasons' difference ; as, the icy fang And churlish chiding of the winter's wind," &c. ; but the sentence is improved by a very small restoration by the corrector of the folio, 1632, who reads, — " The seasons' difference, or the icy fang," &c. In the 1st Lord's speech also (p. 28), hath for" had" is decidedly for the better : — SC. III.] AS YOU LIKE IT. 151 " Giving thy sura of more To that which hath too mach." It is clearly of the essence of the thing, that the stream should have too much at the moment when the " hairy fool" is weeping into it ; otherwise the satire of Jaques is almost meaningless. SCENE III. P. 31. The folio, 1632, erroneously reads, — "0, unhappy youth, Come not with these doors : within this roof The enemy of all your graces lives." The folio, 1623, has, properly enough, "within these doors;" but it has also " within this roof," which can hardly be right, and the manuscript-corrector gives what is doubtless the true text, the printer having carelessly repeated " within :" — '' Come not within these doors : beneath this roof The enemy of all your graces lives." A misprint is also pointed out in a line below the preceding, which runs, to say the least of it, rather uncouthly : — '' Of a diverted blood and bloody brother." The commentators dwell upon the meaning of '" diverted," which cannot well be doubted, but the word in fault is that which follows it, and the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, puts it thus: — " Of a diverted, proud, and bloody brother." When " blood," as in this very line in the old copies, was spelt bloud, the error of the press which converted proud into bloud might easily be committed. P. 32. Orlando, addressing Adam, says, — " 0, good old man ! how well in thee appears The constant service of the antique world, When service sweat for duty, not for meed!" The word ''service" thus occurring in two consecutive lines may nevertheless be right, but the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, changes the second line to 152 AS YOU LIKE IT. [ACT II. "The constant /awowr of the antique world." The '■'■ seventy years" of the old copies, occurring afterwards, is properly altered to " seventeen years," though it, somewhat un- accountably, remained '■'■seventy years" until the time of Rowe. SCENE IV. P. 33. The old editions bemn this scene with Rosalind's excla- mation, — *' 0, Jupiter ! how merry are my spirits !" a decided misprint for " how weary are my spirits," to which it is changed in manuscript by the old corrector. Theobald has " weary," and was the first to adopt it in print. P. 34. All known impressions represent Silvius as stiting in the presence of Rosalind, Celia, and Corin, by printing his speech thus : — " Or if thou hast not sat, as I do now, Wearying thy hearer in thy mistress' praise," &c. It is sate in the folios ; but the language of the poet was undoubt- edly, as the context shows, as well as the correction in the folio, 1632,— '' Or if thou hast not spaJce, as I do now," &e. The scribe, probably, misheard " sate " for spake. P. 35. Rosalind's observation in short rhyme, — " Jove ! Jove ! this shepherd's passion Is much upon my fashion," reads like a quotation from an old ballad, as well as Touchstone's reply ; and not only does the old corrector underscore the lines, as if to mark the fact, but he slightly alters them, and makes an important addition of a line in what is said by the Clown : the whole, therefore, runs thus, according to his statement ; and it is to be remarked that he does not represent Rosalind as calling upon " Jove ! Jove !" but upon " Love ! Love /" which, under such circumstances, was much more in keeping : — " Ros. Love ! Love ! this shepherd's passion Is too much on my fashion. so. VII.] AS YOU LIKE IT. 153 C7o. And mine ; but It grows something stale with me, And begins to fail with me." The Italic type marks what is only found in the hand-writing of the corrector. We take it that the addition by the Clown was a farther portion of the same popular production. P. 36. The whole of Scene V., with the song of Amiens and the parody by Jaques, is struck out ; possibly, when this play was revived, at some date subsequent to the appearance of the folio, 1632, no performer who could sing well enough belonged to the company. The omissions may, however, have been made merely for the sake of compression. SCENE VI. P. 38. Orlando tells old Adam to cheer up, and says to him, " For my sake be comfortable." There seems no particular rea- son for any change, excepthig that what is printed was perhaps not the true reading : there is a correction in the folio, 1632, which may restore it, in the words, " For my sake be comforted^ Shakespeare in many other places uses both " comfortable" and comforted. SCENE VII. P. 41. There is an evident defect in every old copy in the fol- lowing lines by Jaques : — " He, that a fool doth very wisely hit, Doth very foolishly, although he smart. Seem senseless of the bob : if not," &c, Theobald inserted " Not to" before " seem senseless," and he was nearly right, though not entirely so, for the better correction in the folio, 1632, is, — " Doth very foolishly, although he sniart, But to seem senseless of the bob : if not The wise man's folly is anatomized," &c. Lower in the same page occurs another line, which has caused dispute. The printed words in the folio, 1623, are these : — 7* 154 AS YOU LIKE IT. [ACT III. " Till that the weary very means do ebb." This is indisputably corrupt ; and Pope, and nearly all editors after him, altered it as follows : — " Till that the very very means do ebb." This repetition is poor and unlike Shakespeare, and the corrector gives us, we may believe, the poet's words, — '' Till that the very means of wear do ebb :" " of wear" in some way got transposed, and the printer or tran- scriber, not knowing how to restore it to its right place, mutilated the meaning, which, however, is now quite intelligible : we are to take " the very means of wear" to be the money which buys the apparel. P. 45. Amiens' song is struck out, and the Duke ends by call- ing for music, which, we may presume, was played while he talked with Orlando regarding his parentage. There is a manuscript stage-direction, wanting in every printed copy, Duke confer with Orlando. The object must have been here, as elsev.'here, to make the stage-business clear. ACT III. SCENE I. P. 46. The Duke enters talking with Oliver about the absence of his brother, Oliver having previously told him that he has not seen him. " Not seen him, Sir ?" exclaims the incredulous Duke, according to the corrector of the folio, 1632, and not, "Not see him. Sir T as it has always been printed and reprinted. SCENE XL P. 48. Orlando after hanging a pa2')er on a tree^ in the words of a manuscript stage-direction, makes his exit and Touchstone and Corin enter ; but the latter half of what they say, after the words " mockable at court," down to " I cannot see else how thou SC. III.] AS YOU LIKE IT. 155 shoiild'st 'scape," is crossed out Still, several literal errors are set right. P. 50. In Touchstone's verses the line, — " Wintred garments must be lin'd," is corrected to " Winter garments must be lin'd," which may be the true reading, although the folios all have win- tred. The variation from the old copies by modern editors ought, at least, to have been noted. P. 51. The first line of Orlando's Poem has the indefinite arti- cle supplied by the corrector, in conformity with Pope's emen- dation, — " Why should this a desert be ? " Tyrwhitt and Malone took a needless liberty with the text when they thrust silent into the line. P. 57. Rosalmd offers to tell Orlando the different paces of time with different people, and afterwards " whom he stands still withal ;" and when she comes to the last, Orlando, according to all editions, asks " Whom stays it still withal V For " stays it " the manuscript-corrector inserts stands he, which is consistent with what has gone before, and assuredly the language of the poet. SCENE III. P. 62. A misprint is met with in the middle of Touchstone's speech upon horns, which, we think, has hitherto not been sus- pected, but the correction of which makes an obscure passage quite clear. It is given in the four folios in these terms : — " Many a man has good horns and knows no end of them. Well, that ia the dowry of his wife : 'tis none of his own getting ; horns even so poor men alone : No, no, the noblest deer hath them as huge as the rascal." Malone and others printed, "Horns'? even so: — Poor men alone ]" and what follows these words is an answer to the obscure 156 AS YOU LIKE IT. [ACT III. question, which explains what was the import of that question. It appears that are had accidentally dropped out, and that for " even so " we ought to read given to^ and then Touchstone's question "vyill be perfectly intelligible : " Are horns given to poor men alone f "No, no (replies Touchstone to his own interrogatory) ; the noblest deer hath them as huge as the rascal." This emendation may have been obtained from some good authority. P. 63. All prmted editions have missed the rhyme in the last line of the fragment of the ballad, " O, sweet Oliver." Perhaps it was only the extemporal invention of Touchstone, but it is thus given by the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632. " sweet Oliver, brave Oliver ! Leave me not behind thee : But wend away ; begone, I say, I will not to wedding hind thee." " I will not to wedding with thee," has hitherto been the conclu- sion. " Wend away " was Johnson's suggestion. SCENE IV. P. QQ. Perhaps " dies," in the following passage, is to be taken in the sense of causes to die; but the corrector of the folio, 1632, removes all doubt, if we may take his representation of the original text, by substituting kills. Silvius is asking Phebe whether she will be more cruel than the common executioner : — •' Will you sterner be Thau he that dies and lives by bloody drops ? " If we may read kills for " dies," the difficulty upon which War- burton, Johnson, Steevens, Toilet, and others have dwelt is at an end. Can dines have been the true word ? P. 67. The commentators differ as to the precise meaning of "capable" in this passage : — '' Lean but on a rush, The cicatrice and cajDable impressure Thy palm some moment keeps ; " but "capable" appear i not to have been the poet's word, and the SC. IV.] AS YOU LIKE IT. 157 manuscript-corrector has it ^^poJpahle impressure," — an indentation that may be felt. P. 69. It is worth a note that Marlowe's celebrated line, quoted in this play, — "Who ever lov'd that lov'd not at first sight?" was underscored by the corrector because it was a quotation. P. 70. From " But what care I for words ?" down to " For what had he to do to chide at me V is crossed out in the folio, 1632, apparently for brevity's sake. P. 73. There is a remarkable misprint of Rosalind's speech, which has been every where repeated, because not till now made apparent. She and Orlando are talking of kissing, as a resource if a lover be " gravell'd for lack of matter." The dialogue has always been this : — " OtI. How if the kiss be denied ? Ros. Then she puts you to entreaty, and there begins new matter. Orl. Who could be out, being before his beloved mistress ? Ros. Marry, that should you, if I were your mistress, or I should think my honesty ranker than my wit." The blunder pointed out by the corrector of the folio, 1632, is in the last speech ; and when the genuine text is given it will be seen in an instant how the errors, for there are more than one, occurred. Rosalind ought to say, in answer to Orlando's question, "Who could be out, being before his beloved mistress *?" " Marry, that should you, if I were your mistress, or I should thank my honesty rather than my wit." This is a singular restoration of Shakespeare's text, which could scarcely have arisen from any ingenious guess at the author's meaning. P. 74. The folio, 1632, is very ill-printed in this scene, and it makes Orlando say, / c/o, instead of " I die," and lower down converts Coroners into Chroniclers. These mistakes are corrected in the margm. 158 AS YOU LIKE IT. [ACT IV. P. 76. Sir Thomas Hanmer made a tolerable guess, when he altered " occasion," m the following sentence, to accusation^ — " O, that woman that cannot make her fault her husband's occasion, let her never nurse her child herself, for she will breed it like a fool." It is accusing in the corrected folio, 1632 ; no doubt, Shakespeare's word. P. 77. The manuscript-corrector adds a small word to the sentence with which Rosalind parts with Orlando in this scene, " Well, time is the old justice that examines all such offenders, and let tim& try yow." The sentence is incomplete without you^ which is found in the margin. ACT IV. SCENE II. P. 78. This short scene is erased, perhaps on account of the song ; but if nothing of the kind were given on the stage it would bring the two interviews of Rosalind and Orlando in juxta-posi- tion, and allow no interval. Although the song is struck out with the rest, that which is only a prose direction, but is printed as part of the song, " Then sing him home : the rest shall bear this burden," is underlined by the corrector to indicate the mistake. SCENE III. P. 78. It has struck nobody that what Celia says in the com- mencement of this scene must be a quotation, and it is under- scored as such by the corrector of the folio, 1632. Rosalind, impatient at Orlando's 'apparent want of punctuality, observes, — " How say you now ? Is it not past two o'clock ? And here mucli Orlando ! " To which Celia answers jestingly by two lines taken, we may suppose, from some now unknown production, — " I warrant you, with pure love and troubled brain, He hath ta'en his bow and arrows, and gone forth — To sleep." We hear nothing before, nor afterwards, about bows and arrows, and Celia terminates her quotation by two words of her own, ACT T.] AS YOU LIKE IT. 159 jeering Rosalind upon the inattention of her lover. The two lines before " To sleep," read like a quotation ; and if they were not, there seems no reason why the corrector should have drawn his pen under them : he erases the redundant word is, " and is gone forth," as injurious to the measure, and most likely not m the original from which Shakespeare took the lines. P. 83. Malone believed that a line had been lost after " As, how I came into that desert place ; " but if there be any such deficiency, which we do not suspect, it must apply to w^hat precedes, and not to what follows the above. The corrector of the folio, 1632, does not give the slightest hint that any thing is missing, which he has done in other places, and, if properly read, the sense is carried on, in spite of erroneous punctuation, through the whole passage. When Rosalind just afterwards swoons, and is raised by Oliver, the circumstance is noted in the margin, in the absence of printed stage-directions. ACT V. SCENE H. P. 89. Silvius, describing love, says, among other things, that it is to be made of " All adoration, duty, and observance ; All humbleness, all patience, and impatience ; All purity, all trial, all observance." Malone suggested that " observance" in the second instance ought to hQ obedience ; but the fact is that the misprint is in the first " observance," for the corrector of the folio, 1632, makes the Ime, — " All adoration, duty, and obedience,''^ obedience more properly following "duty" than " trial." SCENE III. P. 91. Considering the difference among the commentators upon the point, it may be fit to mention that in the burden of the song, " It was a lover and his lass," the line runs, in the corrected folio, — 160 AS YOU LIKE IT. [ACT V. " In the spring time, the only pretty ring time/' and not '■'■rang time," as in the old copies, nor '•'•rank time," as Johnson recommended. Steevens was for " ring time," and Pope for a repetition of " spring time." Figures against the separate stanzas show that the order in which they are printed is wrong, and that the song ought to be as represented in the manuscript in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh. Probably the company for which this comedy was prepared could manage this three-part song, and therefore it was not erased, like others, for only one voice. Tlie word, in Touchstone's comment upon the singing, is not " untuneable," as in the folios, but unthneahle^ as corrected in that of 1632. This has been a disputed point. SCENE IV. P. 92. A misprinted line in Orlando's first speech has produced much doubt, and many proposals for emendation. It stands as follows in all the old copies : — " As those that fear they hope, and know they fear." It seems strange that nobody should yet have suggested the right change ; for the mere substitution of to for " they," in the first in- stance, gives a very intelligible and consistent meaning. The Duke asks if Orlando believes Rosalind can do what she has promised, and Orlando replies : — " I sometimes do believe, and sometimes do not. As those that fear to hope, and know they fear." He was afraid to hope that she could be as good as her word, and knew that he was afraid. In the next line but one Rosalind observes, — ''Patience once more, whiles our compact is urg'd." "Urg'd" seems a word not well adapted to the place, and the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, informs us that it is anoth- er error of the press, and that we ought to read, — " Patience once more, whiles our compact is heard; " and then she proceeds, orderly and audibly, to recapitulate to the party the several articles of the compact. so. IV.] AS YOU LIKE IT. 161 P. 93. Rosalind makes her exit with an imperfect line, as it stands printed in all editions : she addresses Silvius, — " Keep your word, Silvius, that you'll marry her, If she refuse me : — and from hence I go. To make these doubts all even. l.Exeunt Rosalind and Celia." It appears that the dropping out of two small words after " To make these doubts all even," rendered the line defective, and spoiled the intended rhyme, which gives point to the termination of the speech. According to the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, the couplet ran thus in its complete state : — '' If she refuse me : — and from hence I go, To make these doubts all even — even so.'' The w^ords thus recovered are of little value, in themselves, but we can hardly doubt that they came from Shakespeare's pen. P. 96. A stage-direction (wanting in the old printed copies) in- forms us that when Rosalind returns, ushered by Hymen, she is apparelled as a woman; and from this part of the scene to the end of the play the old corrector has been very particular, by WTiting in the initials and otherwise, to " bar confusion " as to the various persons addressed, and to make every thing so clear that the actors could commit no mistake. P. 97. Hymen's address ends thus, as always printed, — " That reason wonder may diminish. How thus we met, and these things finish." But it is put much more tersely in the manuscript of the corrector of the folio, 1632:— " That reason wonder may diminish. How thus we met, and thus we finish." We can readily believe that such was the authentic conclusion of the speech. P. 98. The line in Hymen's song, — " To Hymen, god of every town," is slightly altered by the old corrector, and with apparent fit- 162 AS you LIKE IT. [act v. " To Hymen, god in every town." He also introduces an emendation into the last line but two of the Second Brother's speech : — '^ His crown bequeathing to his banish'd brother, And all their lands restor'd to them again That were Avith him exil'd," The old text is " him" for them., which may by ingenuity be rec- onciled to propriety ; but them makes the passage more easily- understood, which here, at least, in the winding up of the plot, must have been a main object w^ith the poet. THE TAMING OF THE SHEEW. INDUCTION. SCENE I. P. 107. Tlie stage-direction at the commencement of this comedy in the old folios is confused and redundant : Enter Beg- gar and Hostess, Ckristophero Slg ; but the " Beggar" and Chris- tophero Sly are the same person : therefore the corrector of the folio, 1632, has made the stage-direction run merely as follows : Enter Hostess and Christo2^hero Shj. The prefixes to what Sly says are always printed Beg., for " Beggar," but they are in every instance changed in manuscript to Sly. Sly's exclamation from "The Spanish Tragedy," "Go by S. Jeronimy," has given commentators some trouble, in consequence of the capital S. before " Jeronimy." It seems to be merely a printer's blunder (who might fancy that St. Jerome was alluded to), and so the old corrector treated it, by unceremoniously putting his pen through it. P. 110. The folios have this line in the Lord's speech of instruc- tions to his servants : — " And when he says he is, say that he dreams :" later editors have printed it thus : — " And when he says he is — , say, that he dreams :" leaving it to be supposed that the Lord left his sentence incora- ' plete. Such does not appear to be the fact, for the manuscript- - corrector of the folio, 1632, makes the line run naturally enough, — " When he says what he is, say that he dreams." (163) 164: THE TAMING OF THE SHREW. [iNDUO. In modern editions, by the separate printing of insignificant words, such as is it for " is't" and an it for " an't" of the old copies, syllables have been multiplied in preceding lines, so as to conceal an evident defect in one near the bottom of the page, — " That offer service to your lordship." Here two syllables are wanting, and the corrector of the second folio credibly informs us that we should complete the measure thus : — " That ofifer humhle service to your lordship." Adopting this word, it will be necessary to put the Lord's ques- tion in this very usual form : — " How now! who isH? Serv. An't please your honour, Players, That offer humble service to your lordship." The Players then enter, and after the words, Unter Players, " 5 or 6" are added in parentheses, to show that there ought not to be fewer in the company offering their services. SCENE II. P. 113. The Lord (dressed like a servant), w^ishing to persuade Sly that he has been insane, begins his speech, as commonly print- ed, with this line : — " Heaven cease this idle humour in your honour !" and the manuscript-corrector strikes out " idle," and inserts evil, which is probably right, as is proved by the context, where the Lord adds that Sly has been possessed by a " foul spirit." " Idle humour" was, therefore, by no means so proper as " evil humour," and was most likely an error of the press. P. 114. Shakespeare has mentioned his native county in a place where hitherto it has not been at all suspected. Sly, according to all editions, says, — ''Ask Marian Hacket, the fat alewife of Wincot, if she know me not: if she say I am not fourteen pence on the score for sheer ale, score me up for the lyingest knave in Christendom." Malone did not know what to make of " sheer ale," but sup- posed that it meant shearing or reaping ale, for so reaping is SC. II.] THE TAMING OF THE SHREW. 165 called ill Warwickshire. What does it mean '? It is spelt sheere in the old copies, and that word begins one line, WarwicJc having undoubtedly dropped out at the end of the preceding line. The corrector of the folio, 1632, inserted the missing word in manu- script, and made the last part of the sentence run, — *' If she say I am not fourteen pence on the score for Warwickshire ale, score me up for the lyingest knave in Christendom." Wincot, where Marian Hacket lived, is some miles from Strat- ford-upon-Avon. It was formerly not at all unusual to spell "shire" sheere; and Sly's "sheer ale" thus turns out to have been Warwickshire ale, which Shakespeare celebrated, and of which he had doubtless often partaken at Mrs. Racket's. We almost wonder that, in his local particularity, he did not mention the sign of her house. This emendation, like many others, must have been obtained from some better manuscript than that in the hands of the old printer. P. 118. Sly thus addresses his supposed wife : — " Madam wife, they say that I have dream'd. And slept above some fifteen year, and more." The sense tells us that we ought to read, — '' And slept about some fifteen year, or more ;" and " above " is altered to about by the corrector of the folio, 1632. P. 118. A misprint of a different kind, and an awkward trans- position, destroyed the rhyming couplet w^ith which the Induction ought to end. It has been always prmted as follows : Sly is speakmg of the play about to be exhibited before him : — " Well, we'll see't. Come, madam wife, sit by my side, And let the world slip : we shall ne'er be younger." We are to bear in mind that Sly's expression, used in the very opening, is " Let the world slide.'''' How, then, does the manu- script corrector of the folio, 1632, state that the above luies should run ? — l6& THE TAMING OF THE SHREW. [ACT I. " "Well, we'll see't. Come, madam wife, sit by my side ; "We shall ne'er be younger, and let the world slide.^' The comedy then begins ; and, according to the ancient arrange- ments of our theatres, the supposed spectators, viz. Sly, his Lady, the Lord, &c., occupy the balcony at the back of the stage, and facing the real audience : the manuscript stage-direction, therefore, in this place is, The^/ sit above, and look on below ; that is, look on at what is acted on the stage below them. ACT I. SCENE I. P. 119. Recollecting how many learned hands our great dra- matist's works have passed through, it is wonderful that such a blunder as that we are enabled now to point out, should not have been detected and mentioned in print at least a century ago. Lucentio, attended by Tranio, having arrived at Padua to study in the university there, the servant thus addresses his master, and our quotation is the same in all impressions, ancient and modern :-^ *• Let's be no stoics, nor no stocks, I pray ; Or so devote to Aristotle's checks. As Ovid be an outcast quite abjur'd." What are "Aristotle's checks?" Undoubtedly a misprint for Aristotle's Ethics^ formerly spelt ethicks, and hence the absurd blunder. *' Or so devote to Aristotle's ethics'^ is the line as it stands authoritatively corrected in the margin of the folio, 1632. In the last line of this page, Lucentio is represented as apos- trophising his absent boy, Biondello, — " If Biondello, thou wert come ashore," &c. The real words being merely in the form of an observation, — "If Biondello noio were come ashore," &c. This is one of the mistakes that must have arisen from mishear- SC. II.] THE TAMING OF THE SHKEW. 167 ing on the part of the copyist of the play. The manuscript-cor- rector of the folio, 1632, sets the matter right. P. 120. Two errors, one of omission and the other of commis- sion, occur in a question by Katherine and an answer by Horten- sio. The first is leaving out the word gracious^ which is wanting for the completeness of the line, and the other the misprint of "mould" for mood ; both are thus corrected in the margin of the folio, 1632 :— " Kath. I pray you, sir, is it your gracious will To make a stale of me among these mates ? Hort. Mates, maid ! how mean you that ? no mates for you, Unless you were of gentler, milder mood." P. 123. Lucentio breaks out into a speech in rhyme in admira- tion of Bianca's beauty, but it is injured by the misprinting of so poor a word as "had" for race : — " 0, yes, I saw sweet beauty in her face, Such as the daughter of Agenor's race, That made great Jove to humble him to her hand, "When with his knees he kiss'd the Cretan strand." The above is the greatly improved reading of the corrector of the folio, 1632. P. 125. The old copies present us with this corrupt and imper- fect line, where Tranio is urging his master to speed in exchanging clothes with him : — " In brief, sir, sith it your pleasure is," which is thus altered by the old corrector : — " Be brief then, sir, sith it your pleasure is." Malone, without any authority, had guessed at the insertion of then, but allowed "In brief" to remain. Lower down, for " wounded eye " the correction is " wondering eye," which may or may not be right, but the presumption is much in its favour. SCENE II. P. 134. Gremio, referring to Petruchio's enterprise against Katherme, tells Hortensio, — 168 THE TAMING OF THE SHREW. [ACT. II. *■' This gentleman is happily arriv'd, My mind presumes, for his own good, and yours ;" but it was for Gremio's good, as well as for that of Hortensio, both being suitors to Bianca ; and there is little doubt that the corrector of the folio, 1632, was justified in changing "yours" to ours. ACT II. SCENE L P. 137. In the line of Bianca's speech, — " That I disdain 5 but for these other goods," Theobald read gauds for " goods," but the manuscript-corrector tells us that gards or guards, in the sense of ornaments, was our great poet's word. It may be so. P. 139. Petruchio says, when ironically praising Katherine to her father, — "That, hearing of her beauty, and her wit. Her affability, and bashful modesty, Her wondrous qualities, and mild behaviour," he had come to woo her. The word "wondrous" seems out of place, and in the corrected folio the line in which it occurs thus stands, with evident improvement, — " Her woinan's qualities, and mild behaviour ;" for the hero was dwelling upon the heroine's female recommenda- tions and attributes. P. 144. The point of Katherine's retort to Petruchio has been lost by an error either of the copyist or of the printer. Petru- chio tells her, — " Women are made to bear, and so are you ;" to which she replies, as the line has been given since the publica- tion of the second folio, — "No such jade, sir, as you, if me you mean ;" ACT III.] THE TAMING OF THE SHREW. 169 thus calling Petruchio a jade ; but the point of her reply is, that although a woman and made to bear, she was not such a jade as to bear Petruchio : — '• No such jade to hear you, if me you mean." The folio, 1623, gives the line even less perfectly than that of 1632, and it is evident that the corrector of the second folio has supplied words which had in some way escaped from the text. The coarse joke about the wasp's sting, near the bottom of the page, is struck out by him. P. 147. Petruchio, givmg Baptista an account of his interview with Katherine, remarks, — " She is not frowarcl, but modest as the dove ; She is not hot, but temperate as the morn ;" to which ordinary text no objection would perhaps present itself, did not the corrector inform us, by a marginal note, that the last line ought to be, — " She is not hot, but temperate as the moon;^^ which, in reference to the chaste coldness of the moon, was doubt- less the true word. P. 151. Steevens thought a couplet was intended at the close of this Act, and proposed to read doing for " cunning." He wished to alter the ^vrong word, for the manuscript-corrector makes it appear that, for the purpose of the rhyme, " woomg" ought to be winning : — " but in this case of winniwg, A child shall get a sire, if I fail not of my cunning." ACT ni. SCENE I. P. 151. Lucentio and Hortensio, disguised as a language mas- ter and a musician, quarrel as to precedence in the instruction of Bianca. All editions represent Hortensio's speech as beginning thus defectively : — 8 170 THE TAMIIS^G OF THE SHREW. [ACT III. " But, wrangling pedant, this is The patroness of heavenly harmony." The corrector of the folio, 1632, gives " But" as a misprint for the interjection Tut I (of frequent occurrence in this and other plays) and furnishes two missing words m the following manner : — " Tut ! wrangling pedant, I avouch this is The patroness of heavenly harmony," &c. which is somewhat better than the insignificant mode adopted by Kitson, who only wanted to fill up the line, " But, wrangling pe- dant, know this lady is," &c. There must have existed some ori- gmal for / avouch. SCENE II. P. 156. Biondello's exclamation, as it is given with obvious defectiveness in the early impressions, " Master, master ! news, and such news as you never heard of," has been amended in va- rious ways ; but the manuscript correction in the folio, 1632, differs from all others, and is doubtless what the poet intended, viz. " Master, master ! news, and such old news as you never heard of." That old is wanted appears from Baptista's question, " Is it old and new too f which immediately follows. Old is often used as a superlative. P. 157. If the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, be ac- curate in one of his emendations, it appears to throw a new and singular light upon an incident in Shakespeare's life, a difference with Michael Drayton, and why the latter, having praised our greatest dramatist and liis " Lucrece" in " Matilda," first pub- lished in 1594, withdrew the stanza, in 1596, and never after- wards reprinted it. It is not easy to account for this change on any other ground than that some offence had been taken by Drayton at Shakespeare, and the point is adverted to in Vol. viii., p. 411. We have, perhaps, a clue to the origin of the dif- ference in one of the manuscript changes made in the play under consideration, which would show that it arose out of a particular allusion by Shakespeare to one of Drayton's poems, and not out of any competition between them as dramatic authors. Bion- dello, bringing an account of the arrival of Petruchio and his SC. II.] THE TAMING OF THE SHREW. 171 man Griimio, an J of their strange caparisons and appearance, says of the latter, that he wore " an old hat, and the humour of forty fancies prick'd in't for a feather." This is precisely as the passage is given in all editions of all periods ; and Warburton and Stee- vens speculated that " the humour of forty fancies" was a collec- tion of short popular poems, which Grumio had stuck in his hat by way of ornament. The notion that such was the case, is strengthened by the corrector of the folio, 1632 ; but he gives us more than a hint what was the publication in question, by alter- ing the text as follows : '•' An old hat, and the Amours, or Forty Fancies, prick'd in't for a feather." The commentators could find no work at all corresponding in title to " the humour of forty fancies;" but here it is stated by the old corrector, that the title was erroneously quoted, or in other words that the compositor had printed " Humour" for Amoicrs, and "of" for or. Now, there is a small production, by Drayton, consisting of love poems, the title of which, though not identical, approaches sufficiently near to what is found in the amended text, to warrant a suspicion that it might be the work alluded to by our great dramatist, and that Drayton had been so annoyed by the reference that he expunged from the latter editions of his " Matilda," the praise he had given to Shakespeare in the first im- pression in 1594. This notion may be a little supported by the fact, that the ridicule, if intended, was effectual, for Drayton never afterwards reprinted the poetical tract in question, although he in- serted some of the sonnets it contains in others of his republi- cations. The tract came out in 1594, under the subsequent brief title :— " Ideas Mirrour. Amours in Quatorzains." The word " Amours" is in such large type, compared with " Ideas Mirrour," that, popularly, it might be called Drayton's "Amours," and although not in " forty," it is in fifty " fancies," or short love poems ; but " forty fancies," with the introductory word "Amours," was probably enough for Shakespeare's purpose, and he might not wish to be more exact. It is, of course, merely conjecture that 172 THE TAMING OF THE SHKEW. [ACT III. he meant to produce a harmless laugh against his contemporary by an allusion to this collection of his small poems ; and, if well- founded, it would carry back the composition and first representa- tion of " The Taming of the Shrew" to about the period assigned by Malone, viz. 1595 or 1596, It is to be observed that Shake- speare's " Lucrece," Drayton's "Amours," and "Matilda," and the old "Tammg of a Shrew," were all published with the date of 1594. Upon the last, Shakespeare, as is well known, founded his comedy, and his attention might be directed to the subject by the appearance of " The Taming of a Shrew," in 1594. We give the w^hole of this merely as a speculation ; and it is nearly twenty years since we saw the sole existing copy of Drayton's " Amours in Quatorzains." P. 158. If any confirmation were needed that "the scrap of a ballad repeated by Biondello, and printed as prose in all previous editions, was in verse, and a quotation, it is afforded by the cor- rector of the folio, 16S2, who as usual underscores it on that ac- count. When Petruchio and Grumio enter, instantly afterwards, a manuscript stage-direction is inserted to tell us that they are strangely/ clad, and something else seems to have been added, which was erased, and is therefore not legible. The first line spoken by Petruchio, alluding to his apparel, is deficient of a syl- lable, — " Were it better, I should rusli in thus." The word wanting is supplied by the corrector, — " Were it much better, I should rush in thus." P. 159. Havmg inquired after Katherine, and talked for some time, Petruchio suddenly reproves himself, — " But what a fool am I to chat with you, "When I should wish good-morrow to my bride, And seal the title with a lovely kiss?" " Lovely" is here misprinted, as in various other places, for loving, and that word is found, therefore, in the margin of the folio, 1632. Five lines lower in the folio, 1632,— " But, sir, love coucerneth us to add," ACT IV.J THE TAMING OF THE SHREW. 173 is amended in manuscript to " But to our love concerneth us to add," ^^'"^ Ta\^ '^ preserves the verse, makes the meaning apparent. Theobald has "our"_ for to our, and Tyrwhitt recommended, £.ut, Sir, to her, which, however, renders the measure redundant. ACT IV. SCENE I. P. 168. The manuscript stage-directions m this part of the play are descriptive and particular : thus we are informed that when Petruchio and his wife enter, all the servants, frightened, run away— that he sin^s the two fragments of ballads— that the meat is served m— that both sit domi to it, and that he throius it all about. Modern editions have only some of these instructions for the due performance of the piece, and the old folios none of them. SCENE II. P. 172. The evident misprint at the end of Hortensio's speech "them" for her, which the second folio caught from the first, is duly set right by the manuscript-corrector. Tranio, immediately afterwards, says, — " And here I take the like unfeigned oath Never to marry with her, though she would entreat." The words "with" and "would" are both redundant, and are struck through by the old corrector, leaving the line, thus per- fect, — " Never to marry her, though she entreat." In the first line of Hortensio's reply the necessary pronoun her is omitted ; — "Would all the world, but he, had quite forsworn Aer." It is written in the margin, and had probably dropped out at the end of the line. P. 173. The word "Angel" in the following line,— "An ancient Angel coming down the hill," has produced various conjectural emendations, the one usually adopted being that of Theobald, who proposed to read "ancien 174 THE TAMING OF THE SHREW. [ACT. lY. engle ;" but we are to recollect that the person spoken of was on foot, and we have no doubt that the word wantmg is ambler, which we meet with in the margin of the corrected folio, 1632. As to engle or ingle, which means a person of weak understand- ing, how was Biondello to know that "the Pedant" was so, by merely seeing him walk down the hill ? he could see at once that he was an amhler. How ambler came to be misprinted "angel" is a difficulty of perpetual recurrence. SCENE lY. P. 183. Baptista, conferring with the false Vincentio, consents to the marriage of Bianca on the passing of a sufficient dower : if so, he adds, — ^' The match is made, and all is done.*' This is clearly a defective line, out of which the word happHy has escaped, as we learn from the corrector of the folio, 1632, — " The matcli is made, and all is happily done." In the next line but one, we have "know" misprinted for hold, " Where, then, do you know best," instead of " Where, then, do you hold best." P. 185. Lucentio, receiving from Biondello instructions how he should proceed, the latter says in the folio, 1623, which has been commonly followed by modern editors, " The old priest at St. Luke's Church is at your command at all hours :" *' Luc. And what of all this ? Bion. I cannot tell ; expect ; they are busied about a counterfeit assur- ance, take you assurance other," &c. The folio, 1632, properly prints except for "expect," but does not go quite far enough in the emendation, which is thus finished by the old corrector, — " Bion. I cannot tell ; except, while they are busied about a counterfeit assurance, take you assurance of her," &c. This addition of icMle cannot be ^vrong, for Lucentio was to make off with Bianca to St. Luke's during the time that the old folks were " busied" about the pretended deed for the lady's dower. ACT v.] THE TAMING OF THE SHREW. 17$ P. 186. When Petruchio cannot make his wife say that the sun is the moon, he resolves, as a punishment to her, not to proceed on his journey to Baptista's, and tells one of his servants to fetch the horses back that he had sent forward : the invariable text has been, — "Go on, and fetch our horses back again." But one was of old often spelt " on," and such was the case here, for a marginal note informs us that we ought to read, — " Go one, and fetch our horses back again." It is a mere trifle ; and lower down, in the same page, Katherine admitting that the sun is the moon, says, — " And so it shall be so for Katherine." The manuscript-corrector very properly makes the last "so" still : " And so it shall be still for Katherine." ACT Y. SCENE I. P. 192. The real father of Lucentio, having been roughly treated by the pretended fither and Tranio, exclaims in old and modern editions, — " Thus strangers may be haled and abus'd," which is hardly verse, but the addition of two omitted letters makes it indisputably so, — '' Thus strangers may be handled and abus'd." Handled, which was misprinted " haled," is supplied in manuscript in the corrected folio, 1632. SCENE II. P. 194. Petruchio remarks, in all the folios, — " And time it is, when raging war is come, To smile at 'scapes and perils overblo\^Ti." Rowe altered "come" to "done," some emendation of the kind being necessary ; but, according to the correction in the folio, 176 THE TAMING OF THE SHREW. [ACT V. 1632, the proper word was not "done," but gone^ as conjectured in note 2, at the foot of this page. P. 196. The corrector of the folio, 1632, informs us, as we may readily believe, that the word several has strangely escaped from the subsequent line by Petruchio : " Let's each one send unto his wife," instead of " Let's each one send unto his several wife," which makes the sense and measure complete. "Words would scarcely have been inserted in this way without some adequate warrant in the possession of the corrector. P. 198. Lucentio's wife, Bianca, not obeying his directions to come to him, he tells her that her refusal, — " Hath cost me five hundred crowns since supper time." We need have no scruple in amending a line so manifestly cor- rupt both in substance and form, for the wager was not five hun- dred, but " one hundred crowns," and the verse is also redundant, though easily reduced to its proper length without any loss, ex- cepting of a useless word that, in some unexplained manner, found its way into it. In the corrected folio, 1632, the passage appears thus : — '' The wisdom of your duty, fair Bianca, Cost me one hundred crowns since supper time." Pope was the first to set right the numerical blunder in print ; but until now, when we have this new authority before us, no editor has thought himself at liberty to reject the needless aux- iliary. ALL'S WELL THAT E]N"DS WELL. ACT I. SCENE I. P. 208. The Countess, speaking of Gerard de Narbon, says, as the passage has been invariably printed, " Whose skill was almost as great as his honesty ; had it stretched so far, would have made nature immortal," &c. The auxiliary verb "was" is struck out in the corrected folio, 1632, and the sentence is made to run less elliptically, " Whose skill, almost as great as his honesty, had it stretched so far, would have made nature immortal," &c. P. 210. In the passage of Helena's speech, — " My imagination Carries no favour in't but Bertram's," the last line is clearly defective, the word onlt/ having been acci- dentally omitted : " Carries no favour in' t but only Bertram's," is doubtless the true reading from the corrected folio, 1632. P. 212. In the dissertation on virginity by Parolles, " ten" is altered to two, which has not been the usual mode of printing the sentence, " Within two years it will make itself two, which is a goodly increase." This was Steevens' mode of curing the mis- print, and, on the whole, it seems preferable to Sir Thomas Han- mer's change of " two," in the second instance, to ten, " Within ten years it will make itself ;e?z," Parolles would hardly look for- ward to so distant a period. This speech, and indeed all the rest of the scene until the entrance of the Page, is crossed out in the folio, 1632. Nevertheless several emendations are made in the 8* (177) 178 all's well that e:n-ds well. [act i. margin : thus Parolles at the end of his harangue asks Helena, " Will you do any thing with it," which connects her reply, " Not with my virginity yet," and the question : do and with are both added by the old corrector of the folio, 1632. The whole of this part of the scene is a very blundering specimen of typography. P. 214. A difficulty which has arisen respecting the couplet, — • " The mightiest space in fortune nature brings To join like likes, and kiss like native things," is in a great degree, if not entirely, removed by the transposition of the words "fortune" and "nature:" the manuscript-corrector instructs us to read thus : — '' The mightiest space in nature fortune brings To join like likes, and kiss like native things." The meaning is then evident, viz.^ that fortune occasions things that are like each other to join, notwithstanding the mightiest space in nature may intervene between them. SCENE in. P. 220. It has been stated that it was the practice of the cor- rector of the folio, 1632, to mark under every passage quoted, whether from a ballad or a book ; and by amending the Clown's repetition of an old song he has supplied a deficiency, which War- burton perceived and w^ould have set right, but not in the right way. We may feel satisfied that it ran thus, and the necessary words. Good sooth it was, are written in an adjoining blank space : — " Was this fair face, quoth she, the cause Wliy Grecians sacked Troy? Fond done, done fond, good sooth it was ; Was this King Priam's joy ?" The rest is the same as in the old folios. The Countess com- plains th.'^t the Clo^\^l " corrupts the song," which he denies ; and his answer contains another addition to the text of some impor- tance, besides the correction of a printer's error, which has always been amended in a way to injure, instead of improving, the sense. sc. III.] all's well that ends well. 179 The Clown says, in reply to the charge that he " corrupts the song " by allowing only one good woman in ten, — ** One good woman in ten, madam, which is a purifying o' the song and mending o' the sex. Would God would serve the world so all the year ! we'd find no fault with the tithe-woman, if I were the parson. One in ten, quotha ! An we might have a good woman born — but one — every blazing star, or at an earthquake, 'twould mend the lottery well." Thus, besides the restoration to the original text of the words " and mending o' the sex," the meaning is strengthened by " but owe" instead of " but ere," or "but o?t," as it stands in the old impressions. Steevens left it out because he did not know what to make of it, and Malone suggested " but or.'''' The emen- dation of " ore " to one adds point to the satire intended by the Clown. P. 221. The Clown's ridicule of the puritans and the Steward's remark about the " queen of virgins " are both erased — the last, probably, because it was unintelligible to the corrector. P. 222. The Countess has received information from her Stew- ard of Helena's secret love for Bertram, and in a soliloquy (for according to the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, the hero- ine enters too early in all editions) makes excuses for the young lady's pa^^sion, ending with this couplet as it has always been printed : — " By our remembrances of days foregone, Such were our faults ; or then we thought them none." Here there is a misprint, arising no doubt out of the mishearing of the scribe, the correction of which is of importance, because it makes the meaning of the Countess quite evident, whereas, in the ordinary state of the text, it is obscure. The lines ought to run, as we learn from the old corrector's manuscript, — *' By our remembrances of days foregone Search we out faults— /or then we thought them none." i. e. let us measure faults in others by the recollection of our own, when we thought them none. Helena enters at the moment, and 180 all's well that ends well. [act il the suspicions of the Countess are confirmed by her appearance, " Her eye is sick on't," &c. P. 225. In Helena's speech, describing her father's prescrip- tions, she says, in all copies of the play, that they are '• such as his reading And manifest experience had collected." Tor "manifest," the corrector of the folio,. 1632, places manifold in the margin, in allusion to the old physician's great practice. We may safely admit the emendation. ACT IL SCENE L P. 229. The corrector of the folio, 1632, not being able to make any thing out of the words, " there do muster true gate," has struck them out, and left the sentence to run thus : " For they wear themselves in the cap of the time, eat, speak, and move vm- der the influence of the most received star." For move, the second folio has the misprmt of more. P. 230. Some of the commentators fancied that a line had been lost at the close of Lafeu's speech in praise of the wonderful prescription he had seen, which was able to do much more than cure the King, for it could raise Pepin from his grave, and enable Charlemaine to write a love letter to the owner of the medicine. The passage has hitherto been given as follows : — '* whose simple touch Is powerful to araise King Pepin, nay, To give great Charlemaine a pen in's hand And write to her a love-line." Of the w^ord " araise," we have no other example, and the old cor- rector writes it upraise, for which it was most likely misprinted — while to alter " and" to " to," at the beginning of the next line but one, makes the whole meaning clear, without supposing any thing to have been lost : — " whose simple touch Is powerful to upraise King Pepin, nay, so. III.] all's well that ends well. 181 To give great Charlemaine a pen in's hand To write to her a love-line." P. 233. The manuscript-corrector reads, " despair most fits^"^ for "shifts" ill the last line of Helena's speech; and, supported as the change is by other authorities, there can be no dispute that it is the right word, in preference to " despair most sits " of Pope. P. 234, In the King's speech, accepting the services of Helena, occurs a line of only eight syllables, to which Warburton added the word "virtue" to complete the measure. It has been sup- posed by some that it might have been left by the author purposely defective ; but, on the other hand, we now find that the corrector of the folio, 1632, introduced an emendation of it, and we cannot but conclude that he had some warrant for doing so, especially as the change he recommends is free from the objection to which the suggestion of Warburton was liable : he also proposes a slight change in the next line, w^hich appears to be a decided improve- ment. The couplet stands thus in all the folios : — " Youth, beauty, -wisdom, courage, all That happiness and prime can happy call." As amended by the old corrector, it runs, — ''Youth, beauty, wisdom, courage, lionour, all That happiness in prime can happy call." " Happiness in prime" is of course happiness in youth, the spring of life, as Johnson explains the word " prime." SCENE III. P. 240. The King, after his cure, calls forth the young lords under his wardship, that Helena may make her choice from them, telling her that " they stand at his bestowing :" — " O'er whom both sovereign power and father's voice I have to use." The manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, puts " sovereign" as well as " father " in the genitive : — " O'er whom both sovereign's power and father's voice I am to use." 182 all's well that ends well. [act II. The King was to use his power as a sovereign, as well as his voice as a father, with his youthful nobility. In Lafeu's speech, just below, "And writ as little beard" is changed to "And with as little beard," with obvious fitness in this place, although elsewhere Shakespeare may use "writ" and "write" with some peculiarity. P. 242. When Helena makes her choice of Bertram with the . words, " This is the man," a stage-direction is added in manuscript, He draios back, to show in what way the hero on the instant indi- cated his astonishment and reluctance. The notifications of the kind throughout this play are comparatively few and of little mo- ment. P. 243. Regarding the sentence, — *' My honour's at the stake, which to defeat I must produce my power," the commentators differ, some being for defend and others for preserving " defeat." There can be no doubt that defend is the word naturally required by the sense, and we find " defeat" altered to defend in the margin of the corrected folio, 1632. It seems a mere error of the press. P. 247. Another misprint occurs in Lafeu's attack upon Parol- les, where he says, according to all old copies of the play, " You are more saucy with lords and honourable personages, than the com- mission of your birth and virtue gives you heraldry." Malone altered the places of "commission" and "heraldry" without any improvement, and without being aware that " commission" was merely a blunder for condition : " than the condition of your birth and virtue gives you heraldry," is the true reading, supplied by the corrector of the folio, 1632. P. 248. Rowe was the first in print to change " detected" to detested in the following passage, — " War is no strife To the dark house, and the detested wife." It is " detected" in the old editions ; but in the folio, 1632, it is corrected in manuscript to detested — thus settmg right an indis- putable error. ACT III.] all's well that ENDS WELL. 18S SCENE IV. P. 250. In modern editions (in some A\dthout notice) two speeches by the Clown are made only one ; and in the old folios he is represented as speaking twice running. The fact is (as con- jectured in note 6), that an answer by Parolles to the Clown's first speech has been accidentally omitted in the printed copies, but is supplied in manuscript in the folio, 1632. The dialogue, therefore, ought to run, — " Par. Go to, thou art a witty fool : I have found thee. Clo. Did you find me in yourself, sir, or were you taught to find me ? Par. Go to, I say : 1 have found thee : no more ; I have found thee a xoittyfool. Clo. The search, sir, was profitable," &c. What we have printed in Italics is written in the lower margin of the folio, 1632, with a line drawn to the place in the page where it ought to come in. The omission was not of great value in it- self; but we are, of course, glad to preserve any lost words (if such they be) of our great dramatist. SCENE V. P. 252. As might be expected, the mistake, in Bertram's speech, of, " And ere I do begin," for '■'■ End ere I do begin," did not escape the corrector of the folio, 1632, who marked the emendation in the margin. Another instance of misprmting " end" and^ occurs in " Henry the Fifth." ACT III. SCENE II. P. 258. The commencement of the speech of the Countess to Helena, on the return of the latter to Rousillon, has always been given as follows : — " I pr'ythee, lady, have a Ibetter cheer ; If thou en grossest all the griefs are thine, Thou robb'st me of a moiety." The old corrector tells us, and we may readily believe him, that there is a small, but important, error in the second line, — 184 all's well that ends well. [act III. " If thou engrossest all the griefs as thine, Thou robb'stme of a moiety." P. 259. A decided corruption is pointed out in one of the French Envoy's remarks upon Parolles : the words, as commonly printed, are, — " Indeed, good lady, The fellow has a deal of that too much. Which holds him much to have." If two errors in the last Ihie had not been committed, the com- mentators would have been spared much useless conjecture ; for the passage ought, as we learn from a manuscript note in the folio, 1632, to stand as follows : — " Indeed, good lady. The fellow has a deal of that too much Which lioves him much to leave." What was unintelligible, without the exercise of peculiar and mis- placed ingenuity, is thus rendered clear and palpable. P. 260. In the same way, and upon the same evidence, we are able to set right a quotation which has given infinite trouble and occasioned many notes. It occurs in Helena's speech, where she is reflecting on the danger to which Bertram will be exposed in the wars: she says, according to the folio, 1623, '' ! you leaden messengers, That ride upon the violent speed of fire, Fly with false aim ; move the still-peering air, That sings with piercing, do not touch my lord !" &c. The folio, 1632, has "still-piercing air" and "that stings with piercing." Malone printed "still-piecing air," and so far was right; but the old corrector substitutes volant for "violent" and wound for "move," and gives the whole passage thus dis- tinctly : — " ! you leaden messengers, That ride upon the volant speed of fire, Fly with false aim ; wound the still-piecing air, That sings with piercing, do not touch my lord !" &c. ACT lY.] all's well THAT ENDS WELL. 185 The mistake of " violent" for volant was almost to be expected ; and the copyist, having misheard the word, wrote " move" instead of loound. This is an emendation that might possibly have been made without the assistance of a better manuscript than that used for the folio in which the error first appeared. Mai one truly states that in the line, — " I met the ravin lion "when he roar'd," " ravin" means ravening : the old corrector states that " ravin" was a misprint for ravening. SCENE lY. P. 263. In the passage, " Which of them hoth Is dearest to me, I have no skill in sense To make distinction," " skill or sense" seems preferable, and " in" is altered to or by the corrector of the folio, 1632. SCENE VI. P. 269. For " let him fetch his drum," the correction in the fo- lio, 1632, is " let him fetch off his dram," which is the very phrase used in the next speech. Theobald speculated that " lump of ours," of the old copies, should be " lump of ore," but " lump of ores''' is proposed in the margin of the folio, 1632. ACT lY. SCENE IL P. 278. We here meet with an easy misprint and a happy emendation of the text. Bertram, endeavouring to melt and mould the virtuous Diana to his wishes, tells her, — '•' If the quick fire of youth light not your mind, You are no maiden, but a monument : When you are dead, you should he such a one As you are now, for you are cold and stem." Steevens seems to have had a notion that " stern" was not the right word, but he did not know what to put instead of it. Ber- 186 all's well that ends well. [act IV. tram complains that Diana is not a " maiden, but a monument," and the old corrector explains how she was a monument, — " For you are cold and stone.'''' P. 279. The seven lines in Diana's speech, which begin " What is not holy/' and end " That I will work against him," are erased in the corrected folio, perhaps as difficult to be understood, and Johnson and others have admitted themselves to be " at a loss" for the meaning. P. 280. The following passage, as it is printed in all the old editions, has. caused much vexation : Diana is speaking to Ber- tram, who is doing his utmost to make his suit acceptable to her, — " I see that men make ropes in such a scarre, That we'll forsake ourselves." The reading of Rovf e, the earliest editor after the appearance of the last of the four folios, in 1685, was, '^ I see that men make hopes in such affairs, That we'll forsake ourselves." Other emendations have been proposed ; but it may be sufficient to state that Malone adopted Jwpes from Rowe, and substituted "in such a scene,'''' for "in such a scarre." The corrector of the folio, 1G32, appears to have detected the real misprint, and the correction of it makes it evident that Diana intends to say, that when men endeavour to seduce women from virtue, they indulge hopes that the weaker sex, thus assailed, will abandon themselves " in such a suit," and submit to importunity : — " I see that men make hopes in such a suit, That we'll forsake ourselves." Thus we find that hopes (as Rowe supposed) had been misprinted " ropes," and that suit (often spelt suie of old) had been mis- printed "scarre." With these two errors set right the meaning of the poet seems ascertained. P. 281. Diana, having assented to Helerfa's wish that she so. III.] all's well that ends well. 187 should be her substitute, exclaims, just before Bertram makes his exit — '•' You have won A wife of me, althougli my hope be done." The manuscript-corrector erases " done," and inserts none : she had gained a wife for Bertram, although her hope in the transac- tion was nothing. We may take it for granted, perhaps, that the original word was none ; but here, as in some former cases, it may be thought, on any other account, a matter almost of indif- ference. SCENE III. P. 282. Those who have desired to adhere closely to the folio, 1623, have sometimes been induced to refuse to correct even de- cided errors of the press; as in the following instance, where the French Gentleman is made to ask, " Is it not meant damnable in us, to be trumpeters of our unlawful intents T " Is it not most damnable," &c., is required by the sense, as well as warranted by the corrector of the folio, 1632. In the next speech of the same character we ought, on the same warranty, to change "company" into companion^ although sense may certainly be made out of " company" of the old impressions. P. 283. There are three mistakes of the same description in another short speech by the French Gentleman on this page : we first quote it as printed in the folio, 1632 : — " The stronger part of it by her own letters ; which make her story true, even to the point of her death ; her death is self, which could not be her office to say, is come, was faithfully confirmed by the rector of the place." The corrector of the folio, 1632, and common sense, tell us for " stronger," to read stranger ; for " is self," to read itself (as has of course been done by all modern editors) ; and for " was," to read and. P. 286. After Parolles has offered to take the sacrament, in order to testify the truth of what he says, the following words, " All's one to him," are absurdly made part of his own speech in the old copies. It has been usual, with Malone and others, to as- 188 all's well that ends well. [act IV. sign them to Bertram, but Ritson contended that they rather be- longed to Dumain. A manuscript-correction shows that it was an observation made aside by the person who pretended to act as In terpreter, the prefix Int. having been inserted in the margin of the folio, 1632. SCENE lY. P. 293. The passage in Helena's speech, beginning, " But O, strange men," and ending, " But more of this hereafter," is struck through with a pen. We may here mention that such is the case with a part of the next scene, from Lafeu's question, " Whether dost thou profess thyself," &c., down to the Clown's speech ending with the words, " the great fire." The reason for the last omission we can readily understand. P. 294. When Helena is in haste to take her departure from Florence, with Diana and the Widow, she is represented in the folios as saying to them, — " We must away ; Our waggon is prepar'd, and time revives us." Nearly all the commentators agree that " revives" must be a mis- print, and Johnson suggests invites as the proper word ; but the corrector of the folio, 1632, informs us that "revives" is an error for reviles : the time found fault with Helena and her companions for delay. In the earlier part of the same speech he converts " word" into world : — " But with the world the time will bring on summer.-' Helena washes Diana to wait with patience the issue of events, which would produce as happy a result, as in the natural world, where the beauty of summer followed the dreariness of winter. This trifling change seems to render unnecessary any speculation. SCENE V. P. 295. For " 5a/ac?-herbs" (which Rowe inserted, the word being only "herbs" in the folios), we ought, according to the old corrector, to read pot-herhs, the printer, or scribe, as in some other cases already pointed out, having blundered, because two ACT v.] all's well THAT ENDS WELL. 189 words came together with nearly the same letters and somid : — "They are not ^o^herbs, you knave; they are nose-herbs." Lower down, we have properly name for " maine" of the old im- pressions. P. 296. The Countess, describing the Clown, says that " he has no pace, but runs where he will." A letter has merely been omitted, as we learn from a manuscript-correction, and we ought to read ^^Zace for " pace," the Countess meaning that the Clown had no fixed duties, although allowed the run of the house. This slight change, wliich accords with Tyrwhitt's notion, renders it needless to suppose, with Johnson, that the Countess makes a far- fetched allusion to the pace of a horse. ACT V. SCENE L P. 298. Steevens originally fancied that " Astringer" was an error of the press for a stranger ; but he afterwards introduced a long note to show that "a gentle Astringer" of the folio, 1623, was "a gentleman falconer." In the folio, 1632, the word is printed A stranger^ and the manuscript-corrector has altered the stage-direction to this form. Enter a gent, a stranger : that is, Enter a gentleman^ a stranger.^ — a person not known to Helena and her companions. We may feel confident that it was a mis- take, first made in the folio, 1623, and that this gentleman., a stranger., had no necessary connexion w^th falconry. In confirma- tion it may be added, that when he afterwards appears again before the King at Rousillon, he is only called in the old copies a gentleman, without any hint that he is what Steevens terms " an astringer ;" and the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, has altered the stage-direction in that place to Enter the gentleman stranger., in order to identify him with the Gent, a stranger^ in the former scene. SCENE IL P. 299. To the words, " Enter Clown and Parolles," the old corrector has subjoined ill-favoured ., to show that the apparel of Parolles was very different, in this scene, to the gay attire he had worn before his exposure and dismissal. 190 all's well that ends well. [act v. SCENE nL p. 302. The alteration of hlaze for " blade" in the line,— " Natural rebellion, done in the blade of youth," of the old copies, is confirmed by a manuscript marginal note in the folio, 1632. Theobald was the first judiciously to substitute Haze. P. 304. In the Kmg's speech, beginning " Well excus'd," the epithet " sour," before" " offence," is altered to sore with apparent fitness, while the two strange lines, — " Our own love, waking, cries to see what's done, While shameful hate sleeps out the afternoon," are erased, giving some countenance to Johnson's " hope" that they were "an interpolation of a player," though we believe it to be an inexplicable corruption. It has been the practice of all modern editors to assign the couplet, — " Which better than the first, 0, dear heaven bless ! Or, ere they meet, in me, nature, cease," to the Countess instead of the King, to whom they are certainly wi'ongly given in all the folios. The manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, places the prefix of Lafeu before them, making his speech begin there, and not at " Come on, my son," &c. No material objection to this arrangement seems to present itself. The conclusion of the speech, as it stands m the old impres- sions, — '' Such a ring as this. The last that ere I took her leave at court, I saw upon her finger," runs much more intelligibly as follows : — " Such a ring as this, ^ The last time ere she took her leave at court, I saw upon her finger." Rowe proposed she ; but the alteration of " that" to time seems equally necessary, and it is justified in the hand- writing of the old corrector. sc III.] all's well that ends well. 191 p. 307. A good deal of contrariety of opinion has prevailed respecting Lafeu's speech, rejecting Bertram. In the folio, 1623, it is this, with the observance of the old punctuation, which is here material : — " I will buy me a son in law in a fair, and toll for this. I'll none of him." The folio, 1632, furnishes the text thus varied : — ^' I will buy me a son in law in a fear and toll hitn for this. I'll none of him." The old corrector of that edition merely alters the stops (setting right the mis-spelling of the word " fair "), and renders the sen- tence quite perspicuous : — " I will buy me a son in law in a fair, and toll him : for this, I'll none of him." i. e. pay toll, as usual in fairs, on the transaction, but have nothing more to do with Bertram. P. 308. An improvement in the versification is produced by the addition of a single letter in one of the King's speeches, where he says, — " Come hither, count. Do you know these women ?" The manuscript-correction is, — " Come hither, county. Do you know these women ?" County, for " count," is of constant occurrence. P. 309. The line in Bertram's explanation how Diana obtained the ring from him, — " Her insuit coming with her modern grace," has been, supposed to refer to her solicitation for the ring ; but the words, " insuite comming," as they are spelt in the folio, 1623 (the folio, 1632, omits the final e), are merely misprinted; and on the evidence of the manuscript-corrector, as well as common sense, we must print the passage hereafter, — 192 all's well that ends well. [act v. " Her infinite cunning, with her modern grace, Subdued me to her rate." This appears to be one of the instances in. which a gross blunder was occasioned, in part by the mishearing of the old scribe, and in part by the carelessness of the old printer. The sagacity of the late Mr. Walker hit upon tliis excellent emendation. See Athenaeum, 17 April, 1852. P. 310. The word "have" is struck out in the followmg line ; and as it is injurious to the measure, as well as needless to the meaning, we may feel assured that it accidentally found its way into the text of the folios : — " You that have turn'd off a first so noble wife." It must have originally stood, — " You that turn'd off a first so noble wife." Malone felt the objection to " have " so strongly that he omitted it, but inexcusably without notice. P. 313. When Bertram, just after the entrance of Helena, ex- claims, " Both, both ! O, pardon ! " he flung himself upon his knees, when this play was anciently acted, and Kneels is therefore inserted as a marginal stage-direction. We might gather from the first words of the " Epilogue " (not so called in the old copies, the six lines having no headmg), that it was spoken by the King ; but it is so stated in manuscript by the corrector of the folio, 1632, Epilogue hy the King. TWELFTH NIGHT OR, WHAT YOU WILL. ACT I. SCENE I. P. 325. From the manuscript stage-direction in the corrected folio, 1632, inserted before the Duke speaks,— Music behind— we may infer that the comedy opened by the performance of some instrumental strains at the back of the stage. When the Duke exclaims " Enough ! no more," Cease is written in the margin ; so that, perhaps, the musicians continued to play, in a subdued manner, while the Duke was delivering his first seven lines. An authority has been long wanted for the word south (in preference to " sound" of all editions until Pope's time), in the passage, — '' ! it came o'er my ear like the sweet south, That breathes upon a bank of violets." The corrector of the folio, 1632, supplies that authority, and has struck out the two last letters of " sound," and replaced them by th, in his ordinary brief and business-like manner. We may thus, perhaps, consider " sound," which has had but few advocates in modern times, as in future exploded from the text of Shakes- peare. SCENE m. P. 332. The old copies, when Maria is going, make Sir Toby say, " An thou let part so, Sir Andrew," omitting a pronoun which seems necessary, and which is supplied by the manuscript- 9 (193) 194 TWELFTH night; OR, [ACT I. corrector, " An thou let her part so, Sir Andrew." Farther on in the same dialogue the folio, 1632, left out me in the sentence by Sir Andrew, " Never in your life, I think ; unless you see Canary put me down." A note in the margin makes the passage correspond in this particular with the folio, 1623. P. 333. Theobald detected a singular printer's error, when, in all early editions. Sir Toby tells Sir Andrew that his hair " will not cool my nature," instead of " will not curl hy nature." The old corrector of the folio, 1632, alters " cool" to curl^ and " my" to hy^ as might be expected. P. 335. Pope was wrong in his change respecting " flame- colour'd stock :" the old editions have it " damd colour'd stock," which the manuscript-corrector informs us ought to be " dun-Q.o- lour'd stock." When Sir Andrew, referring just before to his dancing, tells Sir Toby, that he has " the back-trick simply as strong as any man in Illyria," a stage-direction is inserted in the margin, Dances fantastically, to show that the knight exhibited his proficiency to the audience. At the close of the scene, when Sir Toby observes to Sir Andrew, " Let me see thee caper," the stage-direction is Dances again, we may presume as ridiculously as before. These notes, for the direction of the performer of the part, are not in any edition ancient or modern, and were very possibly derived in part from the practice of the old actor of the character of Sir Andrew. SCENE ly. P. 337. The Duke having directed Viola to make love on his behalf to Olivia, the latter replies, — " I'll do my best To Avoo your lady," and then adds, aside, — " Yet, a ])arful strife ; Whoe'er I woo, myself would be his wife." The force of the last passage is much augmented by making tho first hemistich an exclamation, — ^^T II.] WHAT YOU WILL. 195 " Yet, barful strife !' which is the judicious reading afforded by the corrector of the folio, 1632. SCENE V. P. 342. It is clear that the following ought to be in the alter- native: Malvolio speaks: "He says he'll stand at your door like ^ sheriff^'s post and be the supporter of a bench, but he'll speak lo you." Viola could not suppose herself " a sheriff's post," and ' the supporter of a bench" at the same time ; therefore the' man- iscript-correction is "or be the supporter of a bench." Such enendations are minute, but they are generally important, as far £B the sense of the poet is concerned; and, at all events, they ^ow the attention the corrector paid even to what might be con- sidered trifles, did they relate to any other author than Shakespeare. P. 345. The. expression, " Such a one I was this present," has 3Jcited much comment, editors not exactly knowing what to make of it. The manuscript-corrector says that we ought to read, " Such a me I am at this present," which, bearing in mind that Olivia unreils at the instant, is reasonable ; but, nevertheless, the old rea;ling might stand. ACT n. SCENE L P. 349. It is not easy to determine with whom the responsi- bility rests of the strange, but decided, blunder here pointed out iby ^he corrector of the folio, 1632. Sebastian is speaking of liis repited likeness to his sister : — i " i lady, sir, though it was said she much resembled me, was yet of ^anr accounted beautiful : but, though I could not with such estimable woncer overfar believe that, yet thus far I will boldly publish her," &c. h is not surprising that the commentators should have been at Strife regarding the meaning of this passage; and Warburton was so gjavelled by it, that he felt obliged to omit the words, " with such estimable wonder," as " a player's interpolation." This is a Tery ready way of overcoming any obstacle. It certainly is dif- 196 TWELFTH night; OR, [ACT II. flcult to account for the gross misprints in the above short sen- tence ; but they are most distinctly pointed out by the corrector of the folio, 1632, in his own clear and accurate manner ; and when we read the words he has substituted for those of the re- ceived text, we see at once that he could not be mistaken. Se- bastian modestly denies that he much resembled his beautiful lost sister, observing, — " A lady, sir, though it was said she much resembled me, was yet of mam accounted beautiful ; but, though I could not with self-estimation wande- so far to believe that, yet thus far I will boldly publish her," &c. May we conclude, that this new and self-evident improvement cf the absurd old reading was derived from some original sourct, perhaps from some better manuscript than that employed by tl^ old printer of the folio, 1623, which was exactly followed in tie folio, 1632? Such an emendation could hardly be the result 3f mere guess-work. P. 351. The ambiguity, to say the least of it, belonging to Violi's words, "She took the ring of me," is entirely avoided by readiig, " She took no ring of me ;" and this, no doubt, was the language of the poet. The corrector of the folio, 1632, strikes out "tie" in the body of the text, and places no in the margin. 7his alteration renders what the heroine afterwards says quite consist- ent, "I left no ring with her," and "Why, he sent her none.'''' SCENE III. P. 353. We meet here with a welcome addition to the :ext where it cannot be doubted that somethinor is wantins;. On3 of the speeches of Sir Andrew has hitherto only terminated wih a hyphen, showing that even the conclusion of a word has jeen carelessly omitted in the old copies : in modern editions the hy- phen has been elongated, as if the knight had been interrupted by the Clown, and not allowed to finish his sentence. In the fir?t and other folios, this part of the dialogue stands exactly as follov^s : — " Sir To. Come on : there is sixpence for you ; let's have a song Sir An. There's a testril of me, too : if one knight give a- Clo. Would you have a love-song, or a song of good life ?" SC. III.] WHAT YOU WILL. 197 The. elongation of the hyphen in modern editions, has made Sir Andrew's speech of course appear thus, but it is a misrepresenta- tion of the originals : — " Sir And. There's a testril of me too : if one knight give a " Now, what ought to be the text, according to the addition made to it by interlineation in the corrected copy of the folio, 1633 1 It will be seen that the continuation of the sentence, thus cut short by a hyphen in the early impressions, completes the word, of which the two syllables had been separated : we give the speech, to the minutest particular, in the form in which it appears, partly in print, and partly in the hand-writing of the old corrector, marking the latter by italic type : — "Sir An. There's a testrill of me too : if one knight give a- way size pence so will I give aii other ; go to, a song." Tlie first line ends with a-, and the next begins with wai/ : unless, therefore, the corrector of the folio, 1632, mvented this termina- tion of an unfinished sentence, he must have obtained it from some accurate and authentic source. In this instance, we appre- hend that the manuscript used by the old printer was not defect- ive, but that a line, consisting of what is above inserted in Italics, was accidentally left out by the compositor of the folio, 1623, and the defect never discovered. In all the copies of the folios, 1623 and 1632, which we have had an opportunity of examining, the same deficiency is to be noted. P. 354. An alteration is made in the Clown's song, which gives a different, if not an improved, meaning to the second line of it : — " 0, mistress mine ! where are you roaming ? O ! stay, /or here your true love's coming," &c. The ordinary words are " Oh ! stay and hear," &c. The stage-directions regarding the singing of the scraps of bal- lads, catches, &c., in this scene, are numerous and precise : but there is one manuscript note opposite the line of the ballad, — " ! the twelfth day of December," which is not easily understood : it merely consists of " 17 JH^ov.''^ 198 TWELFTH NIGHT ; OR, [ACT II. Why the 12th December was especially mentioned in the ballad quoted, we know not ; but the 17th November was the day on which Queen Elizabeth ascended the throne, and it was usual to compose and publish loyal songs to celebrate it. When this comedy was first produced, it seems probable that Elizabeth was still reigning, and a song on the 17th November may possibly fiave been originally introduced in her honour, which might be altered to some other, beginning, " ! the twelfth day of De- cember," after her demise. This curious fact may have been within the knowledge of the corrector of the folio, 1632, and he may have thus briefly recorded it. SCENE IV. P. 363. Just before the exit of the Clown the Duke is made to say, in the old copies as well as in modern editions, " Give me now leave to leave thee," which can hardly be right, seeing that it is the Clown who is going to leave the Duke, not the Duke the Clown: the old corrector therefore makes these necessary changes : " / give thee leave to leave me." Thee and me got trans- posed, and / was omitted. SCENE V. P. 367. In Malvolio's speech beginning, " And then to have the humour of state," we meet with the common misprint of *' humour" for honour. There can be little doubt that the cor- rector of the folio, 1632, has furnished the true word, although the false one has been argued upon by various commentators, "And then to have the honour of state." Malvolio is fancying himself married to the Countess, and assuming dignity in conse- quence among his menials. The suggestion in note 10, that " cars" has been misprinted, gives a hint at the explanation of a speech by Fabian, which we find in the hand-writing of the corrector. Fabian is enforcing silence in order that Malvolio, while they are watching him, may not discover them, and says in the folio, 1623, '• Though our si- lence be drawn from us wdth cars, yet peace !" The folio, 1632, prints "cars" ca7'es, and many proposals have been made to alter " cars" to cables, carts, &c. ; but " with cars" turns out to be an ACT III.] WHAT YOU WILL. 199 error of the press for hy tK tars, or hy the ears, and the meaning is perfectly clear when we read, " Though our silence be drawn from us hy tK ears, yet j^eace !" This scene is very carelessly printed in the old copies, and subsequently w^e have " stallion" for stannyel (the corrector of the folio, 1632, gives the word falcon, which means nearly the same thing), " become" for horn, &c. The folio, 1632, renders the matter worse by additional errors, besides those in the earlier impression of 1623 ; but they are all set right in manuscript. ACT in. SCENE L P. 374. Viola, disserting upon the qualifications of a professed jester, remarks : — " He must ol)serve their mood on whom he jests, The quality of persons, and the time, And, like the haggard, check at every feather That comes before his eye." The haggard was a wild hawk that flew at all birds ; and what Viola is therefore made to say is the contrary of what she must mean. The old corrector renders her speech consistent by reading, — " Not like the haggard, check at every feather That comes before his eye." P. 377. Olivia, in her apology to Viola for sending the ring after her, says, in all printed copies of this comedy, — " Under your hard construction must I sit. To force that on you, in a shameful cunning," &c. The manuscript-corrector tells us to substitute shame-fac'd for " shameful," as the poet's original language. The fitness of this emendation seems disputable. SCENE III. P. 382. The folio, 1632, omits two lines, contained in the folio, 1623, from which it was printed, and they are written in the mar- gin by the corrector of the latter of these impressions, but not in the defective terms in wdiich they are found in the earlier : in 1623 they were thus given : — 200 TWELFTH NIGHT; OR, [ACT III. '-' And thanks : and ever oft good turns Are shuffled off with such incurrent pay." Two syllables are clearly wanting in the first line, and editors have resorted to various expedients for supplying them ; but certainly none so good as the following, — " And thanks, still thanks ; and very oft good turns Are shuffled off with such incurrent pay," which the old corrector inserts as the passage in his time. We have no doubt that he was right; but it is to be remarked that " still thanks" is interlined, in the same hand- writing, but in differ- ent ink. SCENE ly. P. 384. The manuscript stage-directions in this scene 'are re- markable for the minute manner in which they describe the con- duct of Viola and Sir Andrew, when Sir Toby and Fabian are in- citing them to a desperate encounter. When Sir Andrew enters we are told that he hangs hack ; and of Viola it is said that she is unwiUhig ; while they afterwards, at the instance of Sir Toby and Fabian, both draiv^ but instead of advancing, go back. It would not be easy to act such a scene without these or other similar in- structions, which are not in the old printed copies. P. 396. The moment the following misprint is pointed out it will probably be admitted. Antonio, seized by the officers, appeals to Viola, thinking her Sebastian, and to his grief and disappoint- ment is repelled as a stranger. He then reproaches the supposed Sebastian with the services he had rendered to him, and with the affection he had borne him, adding these lines, — " And to his image, which, methought, did promise Most venerable worth, did I devotion." The corrector of the folio, 1632, places the letters in the margin, which convert " venerable" (an epithet hardly applicable to per- sons like Viola or Sebastian) to veritable. He found the worth not veritable, because he fancied himself deceived in his friend when most he needed his aid. At the same time it must be al- lowed that " venerable," in a certain sense, answers the author's purpose, though his own word must have been veritable. ACT IV. v.] WHAT YOU WILL. 201 ACT IV. SCENE L P. 398. For the Clown's declaration, " I am afraid this great lubber, the world, will prove a cockney," the manuscript-corrector has " luhherly world." SCEN'E II. P. 405. An alteration in the margin of the corrected folio, 1632, proves that Farmer and Steevens were right in supposing that for " Adieu, goodman devil," in the last line of the Clown's introduced ballad, the reading ought to be, — *' Adieu, goodman drivel.'^'' In a preceding line, — " Like to the old Vice," — the corrector erases "to;" and has ^^with a trice" for "in a trice," the former being the older expression, and probably the true word of the ancient ballad cited. ACT V. SCENE I. P. 408. For " The triplex, sir, is a good tripping measure," said by the Clown when he wishes the Duke to give him a third piece of money, the manuscript-corrector gives " the tri'plet^'' the allusion apparently being to the triplet^ or triple mode of rhyming in poetry. P. 412. Olivia commands the Priest, on his entrance, to relate what had passed between herself and Sebastian, when he married them : he replies, — " A contract of eternal bond of love," instead of " A contract and eternal bond of love," which is most likely right, the printer having by mistake inserted "of" for and. The change is marked in the margin of the folio, 1632. Lower down, the second folio has " How little faith," for " Hold little faith," of the first folio ; and the right word is restored by the same authority, thus making the second folio accord with the first. P. 414. On the entrance of Sebastian, the corrector of the folio, 1632, has added, as a stage-direction, All start, to indicate, 202 TWELFTH NIGHT ; OE, [ACT V. no doubt, the surprise which ought to be expressed by the per- formers at the evident and remarkable similarity bet\Yeen him and Viola. P. 415. The resemblance in sound between true and "drew" may have misled the copyist of this play in the second of the following lines : — " So comes it, lady, you have been mistook ; But nature to her bias drew in that." The old corrector converts "drew" into true^ by merely striking out c?, and inserting t in the margin : nature was true to her bias, although Olivia had been mistaken in supposing herself contracted to Viola. P. 416. The Duke, sending for Malvolio, checks himself, — "And yet, alas, now I remember me. They say, poor gentleman, he is distract. A most extracting frenzy of my own From my remembrance clearly banish'd his." The printer of the folio, 1632, converted "extracting," of the folio, 1623, which could hardly be right, into exacting^ which is more wrong ; for the corrector of that edition informs us that exacting ought to be distracting, inasmuch as the Duke is repre- senting himself as m the same condition with Malvolio. Mai one persuaded himself that " extracting" was Shakespeare's w^ord, but here we have strong evidence to the contrary. P. 417. Olivia, speaking of the joint celebration of her own and of the Duke's nuptials, says, — " One day shall crown the alliance on't, so please you, Here at my house, and at my proper cost." The corrector of the folio, 1632, puts it thus : — " One day shall crown the alliance, and, so please you, Here at my house," &c. P. 418. When Malvolio is brought upon the scene by Fabian, we meet with a very particular stage-direction, obedience to •which must have been intended to produce a ludicrous effect upon SC. I.] WHAT YOU WILL. 203 the audience: Enter MalvoUo, as from prison, with straw about him ; in order to show the nature of the confinement to which the poor conceited victim had been subjected. P. 418. In the speech of the Countess there appear to be two errors of the press in these Imes, as they are contained in all editions : — " It was she First told me thou wast mad ; then cam'st in smiling, And in such forms which here were presuppos'd Upon thee in the letter." According to corrections in the margin of the folio, 1632, the pas- sage should be printed thus : — *' It was she First told me thou wast mad : thou cam'st in smiling, And in such forms, which here were preimpos''d Upon thee in the letter." Both emendations seem required : thou was easily misprinted "then," and "presuppos'd upon thee" is little better than non- sense. P. 419. Olivia adds insult to injury when she thus laments Malvolio's ill-treatment : "Alas, poor fool, how have they baffled thee !" What Shakespeare made her say was merely compassionate, if we may believe the old corrector : — " Alas, poor soul, how have they baffled thee !" Soul being written with a long s was very likely to be confounded with "fool." Lower in the page, the Clown is made to repeat Maria's letter correctly, " Some have greatness thrust upon them," not '■'•thrown upon them," as it erroneously stands in all the folios. P. 420. The Clown sings his song at the end to pipe and tabor, the usual musical instruments of such personages ; and in the first scene of Act III. he enters, playing on his pipe and tabor, two stage-directions only found in the manuscript additions to the folio, 1632. There can, be no doubt that he was furnished on both 204z TWELFTH night; OR, WHAT YOU WILL. [ACT V. occasions with these accessories. The fourth staiiza of his "song" is thus altered by the manuscript-corrector: — *' But when I came unto my bed, With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, With toss-pots still / had drunken head, For the rain it raineth every day." Modern editors have rightly put " bed" and "head" in the singu- lar, instead of the plural as in the old impressions ; but the inser tion of the pronoun in the third Ime is new, and necessary, unless we can suppose it to be understood. We may presume, perhaps, that it was not understood in the original manuscript. THE WINTEK'S TALE, ACT I. SCENE I. P. 430. The word so seems to have been accidentally omitted where Camillo is speaking of the friendly intercourse kept up between Leontes and Polixenes, while at a distance in their sepa- rate dominions : he says : " Their encounters, though not personal, have been so royally attorney'd, with interchange of gifts, letters, loving embassies, that they have seemed to be together, though absent," &c. The manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, adds so in the margin, and puts gifts in the plural, which is in the sin- gular in that edition. SCENE 11. P. 431. The subsequent passage in the speech of Polixenes ha3 given trouble to the commentators : — " That may blow No sneaping winds at home, to make us say, * This is put forth too truly.' " The allusion seems unquesti(*nably to be to the putting forth of buds or blooms in spring, when they may be cut off by " sneap- ing," or nipping winds ; and the alteration of " truly " to earli/^ as we find it in the corrected folio, 1632, seems to remove great part of the difficulty ; there is also an emendation at the commence- ment, which renders the whole intelligible ; we there read as follows : — " May there blow No sneaping winds at home, to make us say, ' This is put forth too earli/.^ " At all events, the above is not " nonsense," which Warburton calls the original, as first printed in the folio, 1623. (205) 206 THE winter's tale. [act I. p. 432. We learn from a manuscript stage-direction, that Leontes walked apart^ as if not paying particular attention, while Hermione was using arguments to prevail upon Polixenes to stay. P. 433. There is no doubt that we ought to amend the words of the old copies, " What lady she her lord," to " What lady should her lord," not merely because it so stands corrected in the folio in Lord Eilesmere's library, but because precisely the same alteration is made in the margin of the folio, 1632, in our hands. Two concurrent and independent authorities must be decisive. P. 435. The line given to Hermione, — " With spur we heat an acre. But to the goal," is to be read, as in no edition it has been yet given ; the context, as always printed, is, — *' You may ride's With one soft kiss a thousand furlongs, ere With spur we heat an acre. But to the goal : — My last good deed was to entreat his stay : What was my first ?" Tlie Queen first speaks of the facility with which women may be won by kindness to do any thing ; and from thence she proceeds to advert to the two " good deeds " which Leontes admitted she had done. The changes recommended by the corrector of the folio, 1632, are singularly to the purpose : — " With spur we clear an acre. But to the good:'' that is, women may be made to go a thousand furlongs for a kiss, while by spurring they can hardly be made to clear an acre. In the first part of the line, clear was misprinted "heat;" and in the last, good was misprinted " goal." Hermione is reverting to the good her husband had admitted she had twice done, and calls upon him to name her first good deed as well as her last. " But to the ffood,''^ is as much as to say, " But come to the good deeds which you admit I have done." P. 436. Malone was well warranted by the old corrector in SC. II.] THE winter's TALE. 207 supposing that in the followmg line we ought to substitute " hour)^ tys fertile bosom" for " From heartiness, from bounty, fertile bosom ;" from which, however, sense may be extracted. P. 437. An expression used by Leontes, usually printed " As o'er-dyed blacks," is shown on the same authority to be an error of the press : it occurs w^here the King is speaking of the falsehood of women, which he likens to the false show of mourning often put on at funerals, and then technically called " blacks :" — '' But they were false As o'er-dyed blacks, as wind, as waters." The commentators fancied that the allusion was to the want of permanence in over-dyed blacks, or blacks that were dyed too much; some of them properly took "blacks" to mean funeral mourning, but they stumbled at " o'er-dyed." The corrector, by a slight change, shows the precise meaning of the poet : — " But they are false As our dead blacks, as winds, as waters." " Our dead blacks," were blacks worn at the deaths of persons whose loss was not at all lamented. This emendation may have been derived from a better manuscript, or, perhaps, from a better recitation ; but, nevertheless, the obscure conclusion of this speech, from " Affection 1 thy intention," &c., is crossed out in the folio, 1632. P. 438. A stage-direction. Holding his forehead, proves that Hermione's observation, — • " You look, As if you held a brow of much distraction," is to be taken literally. P. 444. The dispute whether to read "her medal" or "Ais medal," is set at rest by the assurance of the old corrector that neither i^ right, but that " a medal" was the poet's language. 208 THE winter's tale. [act II. p. 448. It may be enough to mention that the j^unctuation of the passage, beginning, " As you are certainly a gentleman," &c., is exactly that introduced by the corrector of the folio, 1632, and is opposed to the regulation of the passage in this respect adopted by Malone (Shaksp., by Boswell, xiv. p. 269). Lower down, the corrector represents Camillo as saying, " I am appointed him to murder you," which agrees with the reading of the folio, 1623. P. 450. Much discussion has been produced by a passage near the end of this scene where Polixenes says, — *' Good expedition be my friend, and comfort The gracious queen, part of his theme, but nothing Of his ill-ta'en suspicion." Warburton reasonably asks, how could " good expedition " com- fort the queen 1 and Johnson, Steevens, and Malone have each disserted upon the question at large. If we may confide in the manuscript-correction we meet with in the folio, 1632, there are two errors of the press, the removal of which, at the same time removes all doubt : for one of them, " and " for heaven^ we are not well able to account: the other, "theme" for dream, has clearly arisen from mishearing : — " Good expedition be my friend : heaven comfort The gracious queen, part of his dream, but nothing Of his ill-ta'en suspicion." While PolLxenes was befriended by expedition, he prayed heaven to comfort Hermione, part of the jealous dream of Leontes, but no part of his unfounded suspicion. ACT II. SCENE I. P. 452. In the following, there appears to be a decided mis- print : — " There may be in the cup A spider steep'd, and one may drink, depart, And yet partake no venom." The emendation in the folio, 1632, is, — so. II.] THE winter's TALE. 209 " and one may drink a part, And yet partake no venom 5" i. e. drink a part of the contents of the cup, and yet take no por- tion of the venom supposed to be communicated by the spider. P. 456. The conjecture in note 7 respecting the word "stables," m the ensuing observation by Antigonus, is in some degree con- firmed by the manuscript-corrector : — " If it prove She's otherwise, I'll keep my stables where I lodge my wife." We ought to read " stables" in the singular, and to substitute me for " my ;" and the meaning then is, that Antigonus would keep himself stable w^here he lodged his wife, lest she should offend in the same way as Hermione : — " If it prove She's otherwise, I'll keep me stable where I lodge my wife." He would never allow her to be out of his sight : he would keep his stabuhcm, or abode, always near her. In the next note, more than a doubt is expressed that " land-damn," of the old copies, was not a misprint for lainback, a word of not unfrequent occur- rence ; but the corrector of the folio, 1632, erases "land-damn" in the text, and places lanihacJc in the margin. At all events, this fact will put an end to the conjectures respectmg lant^ by Sir T. PTanmer, and laudanum^ by Steevens. Johnson was well founded in thinking the Avord, for which " land-damn" was intended, " one of those which caprice brought into fasliion." SCENE II. P. 460. When Paulina, in the subsequent exclamation, speaks of the " dangerous unsafe lunes i' the king," it is mere tautology, for what is "dangerous," is evidently "unsafe." By "lunes," Shakespeare means fits of distraction, and when the old corrector directs us to read, instead of " unsafe," unsane, — " These dangerous unsane lunes i' the King, beshrew them," — we must at once admit the value of the emendation. 210 THE winter's tale. [AOT III. SCENE in. p. 4G2. The manuscript stage-directions in this scene, cleai'ly required for the government of the actors, are frequent and exphi- natory. Paulina first enters at the hack of the stage, ivith the babe, and after a struggle with the attendants, lai/s it doivn before Leontes. When she is pushed out, she leaves the child behind her : when the Lords kneel, we are told so ; and information is similarly given when the King draws his sivord to swear Antigonus upon it, who takes up the infant, and departs with it. None of these need- ful instructions are found in the old printed copies, and they show the precise manner in which the business was conducted when, we may suppose, the corrector of the folio, 1632, saw the drama performed at one of our early theatres. ACT III. SCENE I. P. 470. This whole scene is crossed out with a pen, as capable of being dispensed with; but it seems to have been inserted by the author for the purpose of giving more time for the prepara- tion of the trial-scene of Hermione. If it w^ere not acted, the in- terval between the second and third acts must have been propor- tionally extended. SCENE n. P. 471. To the old brief stage-direction. Silence. Enter, is added, in manuscript, Hermione attended to her trial, just before the indictment against her is read. P. 473. Few passages in this play have occasioned more notes than this, in Hermione's address : — '' Since he came, With what encounter so uncurrent I Have strain'd, t' appear thus:" &c. She is alluding to the visit of Polixenes, out of which, by some " uncurrent encounter," or unjustifiable meeting, the jDresent ac- cusation had grown. The difficulty has chiefly arisen out of the word" strain'd," for which the corrector writes stray d; and it seems so. III.] THE winter's TALE. 211 to clear away much of the difficult}^ Hermione was charged with having strayed from her duty by an " uncurrent encounter" with Polixenes, and she inquires where and how it had happened, in order to justify her appearance before the court : — '• Since he came, With what encounter so uncurrent I Have stray'di" appear thus:'' &c. Perhaps the meaning would be still clearer, had the whole been put interrogatively, " Have I stray d^^^ &c. P. 479. When Paulina brings word of the sudden death of the Queen, we are told, in manuscript, that Leontes/a/Zs h?.ck in his seat, and Paulina begins to repent the cruel reciipitulation she has previously noade of the consequences of the King's conduct to his dead wife, son, &;c. As this part of tlie scene has always been printed, she thus expresses her regret : — " What's gone, and what's past help, Should be past grief: do not receive aflBiction At my petition, I beseech you ; rather. Let me be punish'd, that have minded you Of what you should forget." Now, what can here be the meaning of the words, " at my peti- tion V It is merely an error of the press, or of the copyist. Pau- lina has repeated in most bitter terms all the evils that have been occasioned by the jealousy and obstinacy of Leontes ; and the corrector of the folio, 1632, striking out "my," and inserting re before " petition," makes the sentence stand thus : — " Do not receive affliction At repetition, I beseech you," — in other words, " Do not allow my repetition of the fatal results of your jealousy to afflict you." Nothing can surely be plainer, or more pertinent. SCENE in. P. 481. Antigonus, in the relation of his dream, in which he imagined he saw the weeping Hermione, says, — 212 THE winter's tale. [act IV. '•' I never saw a vessel of like sorrow, So fill'd, and so becoming." " So becoming," can scarcely be right ; and we learn from the manuscript-corrector that there was a natmial connexion between the words, " so fill'd," and what follows them, which was entirely lost, as we must imagine, by the mishearing of the person who wrote the copy of the play used by the printer. The true read- ing appears to be : — " I never saw a vessel of like sorrow, So fiU-d, and so o'er-running.'''' The sorrow with which Hermione was so filled, was overrunning at her eyes. Lower down on the same page, another error oc- curs in the dream, where Hermione directs Antigonus to proceed with the babe to Bohemia, and adds, — '' There weep, and leave it crying," instead of '• There wend, and leave it crying." "There wend'''^ '\% of course, thither proceed; and whether this blunder, constantly repeated by all editors, originated with the scribe, or was introduced by the printer, we are not in a condition to determine. That it was a blunder, appears almost indubitable. ACT IV. SCENE I. P. 487. In ancient and modern editions, Camillo informs Polix- enes that he has " missingly noted" the absence of his son Flori- zel from court ; the corrector of the folio, 1632, marks " miss- ingly," as an error, and inserts musingly instead of it — a some- what questionable change. scene II. P. 488. The manuscript-corrector notes, with great particu- larity, that the fragments of ballads, with which Autolicus com- mences this scene, were sung by him to three several tunes, put- ting " 1 Tune','' " 2 Tune:;'' and " 3 Tune^'' against each of them. The three stanzas begmning, — so. III.] THE winter's TALE. 213 *' When daffodils begin to peer," were sung to the first tune, whatever it may have been ; the one stanza, commencing, — "But shall I go mourn for that, my dear?" was sung to the second tune ; and the last fragment, — '-' If tinkers may have leave to live," to the third tune. This information is followed by the words in the margin, And more if need be, by which we are probably to understand, that it was left to the comic jDerformer to decide whe- ther he would not amuse the audience by other snatches, if he could furnish them. It may also be remarked that, for " pugging tooth," of the old copies, the emendator substitutes " prigging tooth ;" and " pugging" may have been a misprint for the more familiar cant term for stealing. P. 490. All the necessary (some, perhaps, more than are abso- lutely necessary) stage-directions are provided in the margin : for instance, we are told that Autolicus, pretending to have been robbed and beaten, rolls about on the ground, and that the Clown helps him on his legs, after which he has his purse cut by the party he had assisted. P. 492. According to the corrector of the folio, 1632, there has been a singular misconception in the last sentence given to Autolicus at the close of this scene. It is where, according to the invariable misrepresentation of Shakespeare's text, the Pedlar wishes that his name may " be unrolled," and " put in the book of virtue ;" the word should be enrolled, as is clear from what follows : he wishes his name to be enrolled^ and placed in the book of virtue. SCENE III. P. 493. Two mistakes are pointed out in Perdita's speech, one of them in the first line : for *' Sir, my gracious lord," &c., the manuscript-corrector has 214 THE winter's tale. [act IV. " Sure, my gracious lord, To chide at your extremes it not becomes me," The change is at least plausible, but the clifFerence is not impor- tant. The other error is near the close of the speech in which Perdita contrasts her own gay apparel with the " swain's wear- ing," in which the Prince w^as clad : she remarks : — " But that our feasts In every mess have folly, and the feeders Digest it with a custom, I should blush To see you so attir'd, sworn, I thiak, To show myself a glass." In what way was Florizel " sworn " to show Perdita a glass 1 Besides the line wants a syllable, which is supplied by the cor- rector in the margin of the folio, 1033, while the sense is also improved : — " I should blush To see you so attir'd, so worn, I think, To show myself a glass." The meaning, therefore, is that Florizel's plain attire was " so worn" to show Perdita, as in a glass, how simply she ought to have been dressed. P. 494. Pitson was right in recommending that, " Nor in a w^ay so chaste," should be printed, " Nor any w^ay so chaste." Such is the emendation in the corrected folio. Lower down, the unusual expression of Florizel, " Be merry, gentle," is altered to " Be merry, ^ir/," a mistake not very unlikely when the word was spelt, as of old, with a final e, girle. P. 498. Another error of the press is pointed out in the speech of Polixenes, where he is praising Perdita : — " Nothing she does or seems, But smacks of something greater than herself." Tlie proposed alteration is by no means necessary, but it makes the observation more natural : — " Nothing she does, or says,'^ &c. Formerly says was often written saies^ which may in some degree SC. III.] THE winter's TALE. 215 account for the misprint. Just afterwards, Camillo remarks to Polixenes, of Florizel, — " He tells her something That makes her blood look on't." This is the old text of the folios, but Theobald, for "on't," in spite of the apostrophe, printed owi, and missed the correction of the true error, viz. " makes," instead of wakes : — " He tells her something That wakes her blood — look on't." Such is precisely the mode in which the passage stands corrected in the folio, 1632, "look on't" being addressed emphatically to Polixenes, to direct his attention to the blush of Perdita^ thus poetically described as waking her blood. P. 499. The old v^'ord jape, a jest (generally used in an indeli- cate sense), according to the corrector of the folio, 1632, has been misprinted " gap " in the following part of the Clo^ai's speech regarding the license of ballad singers : " And where some stretch- mouthed rascal would, as it were, mean mischief, and break a foul gap into the matter, he makes the maid to answer, ' Whoop, do me no harm, good man.' " For " gap," we are to read jape. Some controversy has arisen respecting the words, "unbraided wares," where the Clown, just below, asks wdiether Autolicus has any such to sell. Johnson, Steevens, Toilet, Malone, Monk Ma- son, and Boswell, have each endeavoured to explain what turns out to be a mere misprint for " emhroided wares," as embroidered commodities were then frequently spelt. This point has, there- fore, been set at rest by the corrected folio. P. 501. For "whistle off those secrets," the folio, 1632, as corrected, has, perhaps needlessly, " ivhisper off those secrets." In the same speech and on the same authority, " Clamour your tongues," ought indisputably to be " Charm your tongues," as Grey originally suggested, and as Gifford (Ben Jonson, iv. 405) maintained. In fact, the expression, " Charm your tongue," occurs in " The London Prodigal." See Mai one's Supplement, ii. 466, though he never thought of illustrating by it " clamour your 216 THE winter's tale. [act. IV. tongues" ill "The Winter's Tale." The editors of Shakespeare have not hitherto felt themselves warranted in altering his text on the mere suspicion of a misprmt, or " charm your tongues" would long ago have been adopted ; and note 2, on this page, affords evidence that the error has been stated, though not always ac- knowledged, ever since the time of Grey. P. 506. Florizel, making his protestation of love before his disguised father and Camillo, exclaims, as all editions establish, — " Were I the fairest youth That ever made eye swerve ; had force and knowledge, More than was ever man's," &c. Tor "force and knowledge," the corrector of the folio, 1632, writes " sense and knowledge ;" and the error of the press is again to be imputed to the compositor's confusion between the long s and/. P. 507. We can hardly doubt that another misprint is pointed out, on the same authority, in a subsequent speech by Polixenes, where he is endeavouring (still disguised) to persuade the young prince to consult his father, and asks, whether he refrains because liis father is imbecile ? — '* Can he speak ? hear ? Know man from man ? dispute his own estate ? Lies he not bed-rid ?" " Dispute his own estate," may be reconciled to sense, but " dispose his own estate" seems a much more likely expression. and the manuscript-corrector informs us that it was employed in this place. P. 514. A very trifling omission in all the early folios, and in subsequent editions, has made Florizel leave off speaking with a broken sentence, when, in fact, the period is complete : he tells Camillo, who urges him to proceed as his father's ambassador to Leontes, — '■' How shall we do ? We are not furnish'd as Bohemia's son. Nor shall appear in Sicily" — SC. III.] THE winter's TALE. 217 Such is the mode iii which the quotation has been hitherto given ; but the slightest possible change, urged by the corrector of the folio, 1632, is thus made with the best possible effect : — *' We are not furnisli'd as Bohemia's son, Nor shall appear t in Sicily." i. e. nor shall appear as Bohemia's son m Sicily. There is an unquestionable error in the answer of Camillo, which is of more importance : he assures Florizel that he wdll take care to furnish him like Bohemia's son, and adds, — '•' It sliall be so my care To hare you royally appointed, as if The scene you play were mine." To make the scene appear as if it were Camillo's could be of no service to the young prince, and the old corrector supplies what we may conclude was the true word of the poet, although we may not be able well to account for the blunder thus exposed : — " It sliall be so my care To have you royally appointed, as if Tlie scene you play were true :" as if he were really the ambassador from his father, which he pretended to be. P. 522. After the departure of the old Shepherd and his son, Autolicus is left to soliloquise, and, among other reflections, he observes, as the words have from the first been printed : — *•' I am courted now with a double occasion — gold and a means to do the prince my master good ; which, who knows how that may turn back to my advancement ?" What can be the meaning here of turning " back to his ad- vancement?" What is "to turnback to his advancement?" The corrector of the folio, 1632, may be said to answer the ques- tion by pointing out its needlessness, if we only read what was actually written, — " which, who knows how that may turn luck to my advancement." Autolicus hopes that the " double occasion" by which he was " courted," would turn luck in his favour. 10 218 THE winter's tale. [act v. ACT V. SCENE I. P. 526. The old stage-direction is, Enter a Servant, but from what he says, and is said of him, we learn that he had written an elegy upon Hermione. Modern editors have, therefore, called him " a gentleman." lie was evidently a retainer in the Court of Leontes, and the manuscript-corrector has added poe^ to his de- scription of servant, Enter a Servant-poet^ in order, probably, to distinguish him from the ordinary hirelings of the palace. We may notice here the peculiar fulness and explicitness of the stage- directions towards the close of this play, although it has not been thought necessary to particularize them. P. 529. Polixenes tells Florizel,— " You have a holy father, A graceful gentleman," &c. For " holy," which seems quite out of place, the corrector of the folio, 1632, writes noble in the margin, the right word having been misheard by the scribe. Precisely the same mistake was made in " The Tempest" (see p. 35), and from the same cause. SCENE 11. P. 531. Much of this scene is struck out for the purpose, as we may infer, of abridging the performance, because no part that is erased is absolutely necessary to the intelligibility of the plot. The corrections of the text are continued notwithstanding with the same patience and perspicuity. Thus, on p. 533, we have " weather- 5ca^e?i conduit," for " weather-bitten conduit." Again, immediately afterwards, the third Gentleman observes, " I never heard of such another encounter, which lames report to follow it, and undoes description to do it," instead of " undoes description to show it," which must surely be right. This part of the drama is even worse printed than the rest ; and on p. 534, the third Gentleman tells Autolicus and the rest, in reference to the death of Hermione, that Leontes " bravely confessed and lamented" it, instead of " heamly confessed and lamented" it. Minor errors, some of them merely typographical, it is not necessary to point out, as they are not transferred to modern editions, and do not materially affect the text. It may be stated, that when the Shep- SC. III.] THE winter's TALE. 219 herd and Clowii enter, towards the close of the scene, an addition is made to the stage-direction, to inform us that they are in new aiyparel. SCENE III. P. 539. One of those highly-important completions of the old, and imperfect, text of Shakespeare, consisting of a whole line, where the sense is left unfinished without it, here occurs. War- burton saw that something was wanting, but in note 3 it is sug- gested that Leontes in his ecstasy might have left his sentence un- finished : such does not appear to have been the case. The pas- sage has hitherto been printed as follows : — '' Let be, let be ! Would I were dead, but that, metbinks, already — What was he that did make it?" &c. " Let be, let be !" is addressed to Paulina, who offers to draw the curtain before the statue of Hermione, as we find from a manu- script stage-direction, and the Avriter of it, in a vacant spaoe ad- joining, thus supplies a missing line, which we have printed in Italic type : — " Let be, let be! Would I were dead, but that, methinks, already I am but dead, stone looking upon stone. What was he that did make it?" &c. But for this piece of evidence, that so important an omission had been made by the old printer, or by the copyist of the manu- scaipt for the printer's use, it might have been urged, that, sup- posing our great dramatist to have written here no more ellipti- cally than in many other places, his sense might be complete at " already :" " Would I were dead !" exclaims Leontes, " but that, methinks, / ajn already ;" in other words, it was needless for him to wish himself dead, since, looking upon the image of his lost queen, he was, as it were, dead already. However, we see above, that a line was wanting, and we may be thankful that it has been furnished, since it adds much to the force and clearness of the speech of Leontes. " P. 541. When Hermione descends from the pedestal, and ad- 220 THE winter's tale. [act v. vances towards her husband, a manuscript stage-direction informs us that she co7nes clown sloivly, and that hautboys and viols play. There is not a single printed instruction of the kind in any part of the scene, where they appear to be so requisite for the infor- mation of the performers ; but that deficiency is abundantly sup- plied by the old corrector of the folio, 1632, who has taken great pains that nothing should go wrong during the representation. When Paulina first draics the curtain from before the supposed statue of the Queen, the hautboys are told to play: she several times offers to draw the curtain again, in order to conceal the figure, when the King becomes too much moved ; and she stays him when he declares that he will kiss the statue : she had done the same, when Perdita had previously wshied to kiss the hand of the supposed representation of her mother. We are also told, after Hermione has come down, that she and her husband embrace^ and that the daughter kneels to receive her mother's blessing. Strictly speaking, these last were needless. P. 542. The last emendation, of any importance, is in the last speech of the play, where Leontes is choosing Camillo as a hus- band for Paulina. The prosaic line in which it occurs is this : — " And take her by the hand whose worth and honesty ;" which is redundant by two syllables : these are erased by the cor- rector of the folio, 1632, without the slightest detriment to the sense, and with great improvement to the measure : — " Come, Camillo, And take her hand whose worth and honesty Is richly noted and here justified." We may feel well assured that the expletives, " by the," obtamed insertion without the participation of the pen of the author. KIK"G JOHN. ACT I. SCENE I. Vol. iv. P. 8. We cannot but approve of a change made in an important epithet in the reply of King John, where he despatches Chatillon with all haste, and tells him that the English forces will be in France before the ambassador can even report their inten- tion to come. The reading has always been: — " Be thou the trumpet of our WTath, And sullen presage of your own decay." In the first place, the sound of a trumpet could not, with any fit. ness, be called a " sullen presage ;" and, secondly, as Chatillon was instantly to proceed on his return, it is much more probable that Shakespeare wrote, — '' Be thou the trumpet of our wrath, And sudden presage of your own decay." The old corrector says that sudden was the word of our great dramatist, and a scribe or a prmter might easily mistake sudden and " sullen." P. 9. The folio, 1632, omits " Robert" before Faulconbridge, in the Bastard's first speech, but the corrector restored it in the margin. It is found in the folio, 1623, and must have accidentally dropped out of that of 1632. P. 14. Besides a misprint, there appears to be an error in punctuation in this part of the Bastard's soliloquy, as given in modern editions : — " For new-made honour doth forget men's names: 'Tis too respective, and too sociable, (221) 222 KING JOHN. [ACT 11. For your conversion. Now your traveller, He and his tooth-pick at my worship's mess," &c. The corrector of the folio, 1632, mforms us that we should point and read as follows : — " For new-made honour doth forget men's names : 'Tis too respective, and too sociable. For your diversion, now, your traveller, He and his tooth-pick at my worship's mess," &c. It was common to entertain " picked men of countries," for the diversion of the company at the tables of the higher orders, and this is what the Bastard is referring to in the last two lines, while the sense of the first two is complete at '• sociable." P. 16. In the first and second folios, these lines, thus printed, occur : — " Sir Robert could do well, marry to confess Could get me Sir Robert could not do it." Tills is clearly wrong, and the question is how the passage can be amended. Modern editors have introduced " he" and a mark of interrogation in the second line, — " Could he get me ?" On the other hand, the corrector of the second folio merely inserts a negative ;. and if, in the manuscript used by the printer, a mark of interrogation had been found in this place, it would hardly U tve been omitted : as amended, the couplet stands, — " Sir Robert could do well ; marry, to confess, Could not get me ; Sir Robert could not do it," ACT II. SCENE I. P. 18. A single letter makes an important improvement in the following, where young Arthur expresses his acknowledg- ments to Austria : — so. I.J KING JOHN. 223 " I give you welcome with a powerless hand, But with a heart full of unstained love." The love of such a child would, of course, be "unstained:" what he meant to saj^, according to a correction in the folio, 1632, was, that he bade Austria welcome with a heart full of love, which, without effort, spontaneously flowed from it : — "But with a heart full o^ unstrained love." P. 19. We may presume that the change made in the subse- quent passage conformed to some better manuscript than that used by the printer, or that the compositor committed an error : — " And then we shall repent each drop of blood, That hot rash haste so indirectly shed." The manuscript-corrector says that we ought to read, — " That hot rash haste so indiscreetly shed." Nevertheless, our great poet sometimes uses "indirectly" in a peculiar manner. P. 20. The old corrector does not read, with modern editors, — ''An Ate stirring him to blood and strife ;" but instead of " An x\ce," of all the folios, he has, — " With him along is come the mother-queen. As Ate, stirring him to blood and strife." P. 23. In the following line there are, according to the ordinary rules of dramatic blank- verse, two redundant syllables, and the punctuation is wrong, according to a correction in the folio, 1632: — • " Of this oppressed boy. This is thy eldest son's son," &c. The proposed alteration, with the context, stands thus : — " Thou and thine usurp The dominations, royalties, and rights Of this oppressed boy, thy eld'st son's son, Infoi'tunate in nothing but in thee." Tlie above may well be as the poet wrote the passage, " this is " being detrimental, as well as unnecessary. 224 KING JOHN. [act II. P. 25. Ill his speech to the citizens of Angiers, John says, as all the old copies represent it, — " All preparation for a bloody siege, And merciless proceeding by these French, Comfort your city's eyes." It has been urged by those who wished to adhere to the text of the folios, as long as it was unimpugned by any old authority, that " comfort" was here used ironically : Eowe did not think so, when he printed confront; but the corrector of the folio, 1632, with less violence, has, — '•' Come fore your city's eyes," &c. P. 33. We here meet with the converse of the misprint in "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" (Act IV. Scene L), niece^ for " neere." The Citizen, from the walls, recommends a marriage between the Dauphin and the lady Blanch, observing, — " That daughter there of Spain, the lady Blanch, Is near to England." Such has been the universal reading, "near" being spelt neere in the folios ; but she was niece to King John, as indeed she is after- w^ards called, and the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, tells us, naturally enough, to read, — " That daughter there of Spain, the lady Blanch, Is niece to England." This is unquestionably right, and the mistake was readily made : we only wonder that it was not till now corrected, because, as Steevens states, Blanch was daughter to Alphonso IX., and niece to King John, by his sister Eleanor. Three lines lower, the folio, 1632, omits "should," in — '•' If zealous love should go in search of virtue ;" but the old corrector inserts it, thus makmg the Ime tally with the folio, 1623. P. 38. Monck Mason desired us to read aim for " aid," in this line, as given m the folios, — ACT III.] KING JOHN. 225 " Hath drawn him from his own determin'd aid." He was right, as appears by a coiTection in the folio, 1632, but the necessity for the change is not very evident. Lower down, •' Not that I have the power to dutch my hand," is amended to, " Not that I have no power," &c., which comes very near one of the suggestions in note 3, at the foot of the page. ACT III. SCENE I. P. 40. Constance says, that she could be content with her grievous disappointment, if Arthur had been " Full of unpleasing blots, and sightless stains." For " and sightless," the manuscript-corrector substitutes un- sightly^ w^iich was most likely the author's word, the scribe hav- ing misheard what was read or recited to him. P. 42. The same circumstance has produced the next blunder pomted out by the old corrector. All impressions have this line, *• Is cold in amity, and painted peace." Why should the epithet " painted " be applied to peace 1 What propriety is there in it, unless we can suppose it used to indicate hollowness and falsehood 1 The correction in the margin of the folio, 1632, shows that the ear of the scribe misled him: Con- stance is referring to the friendship just established between France and England, to the ruin of her hopes, and remarks : — " The grappling vigour, and rough fr'own of war, Is cold in amity, and/am< in peace, And our oppression hath made up this league." P. 44. The word "heaven" is repeated with great additional force in the subsequent passage, which we copy as it is given in the corrected folio, 1632. King John speaks : — " But as we under heaven are supreme head, So, under heaven, that great supremacy, "V^Tiere we do reign, we will alone uphold." 10* 226 KING JOHN. [act III. For heaven^ the invariable reading has been "him." Neverthe- less, satisfactory as this emendation may appear, it is possible that the original reading (before the passing of the statute of James I., against the use of the name of the Creator on the stage) "was God^ for " heaven," in the first instance, and then "him," in the second instance, might be proper enough. When " heaven" was substituted for God^ the repetition of " heaven," in the next line, became necessary. P. 48. The error of " cased," for caged ^ in the following, — "A cased lion by the mortal paw," is so evident, ag pointed out by the old corrector, that it is sur- prismg the emendation was never conjecturally adopted ; espe- cially when Malone's quotation from Rowley's " When you see me you know me," regarding " a lion in his cage,^^ so inevitably led to it. SCENE II. P. 51. Precisely the same remark grows out of a passage cited by Percy, in reference to the subsequent speech by the Bastard, when he rushes in with Austria's head, as it has been uniformly printed : — *' Now, by my life, this day grows wondrous hot ; Some airy devil hovers in the sky, And pours down mischief." The word is spelt oyery in the folio, 1632, and the corrector of that edition has changed the word to fyery, which, we may feel confident, was that of the poet, and which is so consistent with the context : — " Now, by my life, this day grows wondrous hot ; Some fiery devil hovers in the sky And pours down mischief." Percy quotes Burton's " Anatomy of Melancholy," where, among other things, it is said, " Fiery spirits or devils are such as com- monly work by blazing stars," &c. SC. IV.] KING JOHN. . 227 SCENE ni. p. 52. In the subsequent passage their^ which seems required both by meaning and metre, is inserted in the hand-writing of the corrector of the folio, 1632 : — ** See thou shake the bags " Of hoarding abbots ; their imprison'd angels Set at liberty." Malone, as is stated in note 9, transposed " imprisoned angels ; " and Hanmer read, " Set thou at liberty," both without the slight- est authority, and merely as matters of taste. P. 53. The old corrector supports Pope (if support were here needed), in " some better time," instead of " some better imi^," as it had been commonly misprinted. In the last line but one of this page, the folio, 1632, as amended, has, — " Sound on into the di'owsy ear of night," instead of " race of night," as it stands in the folios : when " ear " was spelt eare, as was most frequently the case, the mistake was easy, and we may now be pretty sure that " race " was a mis- take. P. 54. Instead of representing the blood as running " tickling up and down the veins," the manuscript-corrector tells us to read tingling ; and a few lines lower, for, — " Then in despite of broaded watchful day," he has " the broad watchful day," as if Pope's broad-eyed were merely fanciful. We own a preference for broad-eyed. SCENE IV. P. 55. The same editor was nearly right when he proposed " collected sail " for " convicted sail " hi what follows : — " A whole armado of convicted sail Is scattered, and disjoined from fellowship." The true word, given \n the margin of the folio, 1632, has the 228 ' e:in-g john. [act iv. same meaning as collected^ but is nearer in form and letters to the misprint in the ordinary text, viz : — " A whole armado of convented sail," &c. i. e., a fleet that had been convened at some port to bring aid to the Dauphin. There is no need, therefore, to strain after a mean- ing for " convicted," if, as we are assured, it was not the word of the poet. P. 56. Upon the passage in the speech of Constance, where she is speaking of death, " l\Tiich cannot hear a lady's feeble voice, Which scorns a modern invocation," Johnson remarks that "it is hard to say what Shakespeare means by modern.''^ Now, we know that our great dramatist often uses "modern," for common, or ordinary ; but "modern," as used above, is one of the strange errors of the press which found their way into the text ; and a marginal note in the cor- rected folio, 1632, proves that we ought to substitute for it a word exactly applicable to the condition of Constance : — " Which cannot hear a lady's feeble voice, Which scorns a ividow's invocation." When we bear in mind that m and w were often mistaken by the old compositors in this volume, the misprint will not be thought so extraordinary. Such an emendation could hardly have had its source in the fancy, or even in the ingenuity, of the old corrector. Four lines above, he reads, — '' Then with ivhat passion I would shake the world 5" an obvious, though comparatively trifling, improvement of the old text, "Then with a passion," &c. He gives the beginning of the next speech of Constance, " Thou are not holy," a change made in the fourth folio, and never disputed. This part of the scene was badly printed in 1623, and not made better m 1632. ACT IV. SCENE I. P. 61. The manuscript stage-directions in this play are not so SC. II.] KING JOHN. 229 frequent as in some others, but they seem to have been added in all situations where they were necessary. The asides are also marked, particularly in this scene, where Hubert speaks not to be heard by Arthur. The exit and re*entrance of the Execu- tioners are omitted in the printed copy, but are duly supplied by the old corrector, and when the heated iron is to be brought to Hubert the proper ^Dlace is noted in the margin. SCENE II. P. 68. John has been assigning some reasons to Salisbury, Pembroke, &c., for the repetition of his coronation, principally founded upon apprehensions arising out of his defective title : at length he tells them, as the folio, 1623, represents his lan- guage :— " Some reasons for this double coronation I have possessed you with, and think them strong. And more, more strong, then lesser is my fear I shall indue you with." A good deal of controversy has been excited by the hemistich, "then lesser is my fear," which the folio, 1632, prints, "then less is my fear." Theobald dropped a letter, and read, in parentheses (" the lesser is my fear"); and Steevens and Malone (" when lesser is my fear"), but they omitted to show why John should defer the statement of his stronger reasons till his fear was less, or why he should fancy that his fear would be less at any time than just after his second coronation, which was to confirm him on the throne. The manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, makes it clear that the King referred to his strong reasons as having diminished his own apprehensions, which reasons he was ready hereafter to communicate to his peers : he puts it thus :— " And more, more strong, thics lessening my fear, I shall indue you with." The strength of his reasons had lessened his own fear, and he im- agined that, when stated, they would produce a good effect upon others. The misprint was, " then lesser is," for thus lessening, not a very violent change, and rendering the meanmg apparent. 230 KING JOHN. [act IV. Lower in the same page, the words " then" and " should" seem injm'iously to have changed places : the old text is, — '• Why then your fears, which, as they say, attend The steps of wrong, should move you to mew up Your tender kinsman?'' instead of '• Why should your fears, which, as they say, attend The steps of wrong, the7i move you to mew up Your tender kinsman ?" P. 74. It may be sufficient to mention that the words " deeds ill," in John's reproach of Hubert, are transposed by the corrector of the folio, 1632, so as to make the passage read more naturally, " Makes ill deeds done." P. 75. In John's next speech of the same kind, he says, as the text has always stood, — '' But thou didst understand me by my signs, And didst in signs again parley with sin." The last word is spelt sinne in the old copies, and ought undoubt- edly, as we are instructed in manuscript, to be sign^ formerly spelt signe : " But thou didst understand me by ray signs, And didst in signs again parley with sign.'- SCENE III. P. 76. We here meet with an error of the press, which shows how the letters m and w were again mistaken by the old printer. Pembroke asks, — " Who brought that letter from the cardinal ?" and Salisbury's answer relates to a private communication he had received at the same time. The words of the folios have here always been taken as the true text, viz : — " The Count Melun, a noble lord of France, Whose private with me of the Dauphin's love. Is much more general than these lines import." SC. III.] KIXG JOHN. 231 The notes upon this passage have all referred to the word " pri- vate," when the blunder lies in " with me :" '* Whose private ynissive of the Dauphin's love," is the way in which the corrector of the folio, 1632, says that line should have been printed : the Count Melun had, at the same time that he conveyed the Cardinal's letter, brought to Salisbury a " private missive," or communication, containing assurances of the Dauphin's regard. This correction seems to imply resort to some original, such as that which the printer of the folio, 1623, had misread. Just afterwards, on the next page, the old corrector points out an egregious error, which ought not to have escaped detection, even without such aid : it occurs in Salisbury's reply to the Bas- tard : — " The King hath dispossess'd himself of us : We will not line his thin bestained cloak." The folios place a hyphen between " thin" and " bestained," as if to lead us to the discovery of the error, which is thus set right in manuscript, and at once challenges admission into the genuine text of our author : — '' We will not line his sin-hestained cloak :" a fine compound, the use of which is amply justified by the crimes of which the revolted lords consider John guilty. P. 78. Nobody suspected the above misprint, but the next we are to notice was more than hinted at by Farmer, viz. head for " hand" in the first of the ensuing lines, where Salisbury vows never to be " conversant with ease and idleness," until he has re- venged the death of Arthur, — " Till I have set a glory to this hand By giving it the worship of revenge." A manuscriptrcorrection in the folio, 1632, shows, as Farmer sup- posed, and as Malone opposed, that the true language of Shake- speare was, — " Till I have set a glory to this head,^^ 282 KING JOHN-. [ACT V. meaning the head of Arthur, whose dead body had just been dis- covered on the ground. ACT V. SCENE I. P. 83. The preceding emendations may be thought to justify two others on this page, which occur close together, and which, though improvements of the usual reading, are not forced upon our adop- tion by anything like necessity. The Bastard is endeavouring to cheer the spirits of the disheartened King ; and we here give the passage as it has been handed down to us corrected: — *' Let not the world see fear, and blank distrust, Govern the motion of a kingly eye : Be stirring as the time ; meet fire with fire, Threaten the threatener," &c. For hlanh^ old and modern editions tamely read " sad," and for meet^ merely " be ;" both words were, perhaps, misheard. At the end of this speech we have, in all editions, — " Forage, and run To meet displeasure further from the doors ;" which ought, on the same credible authority, to be, " Courage ! and run to meet displeasure," &c. There is, then, no necessity for hunting after what Johnson calls, " the original sense" of " for- age." On the next page, for " Send fair-play order," we ought, probably, to read, " Send fair-play offers^'' the last word being writ- ten in the margin of the folio, 1632. This portion of the play is abundant in errors of the press of more or less importance. SCENE II. P. 85. Salisbury, in anguish at the compulsion he was under to draw his sword against his country, interposes this parehthesis: — '■' I must withdraw, and weep Upon the spot of this enforced cause." " Spot" reads like a misprint, and it appears to be so, although not hitherto suspected ; the corrector of the folio, 1632, informs us that " spot" was misheard for a word sounding something like it:— SC. IV ] KING JOHN. 283 " I must withdraw, and weep Upon the thought of this enforced cause." That is, the reflection upon the cause, which compelled hnn to bear arms against his country, drew tears. P. 89. The manuscript-corrector gives no countenance to Theo- bald's proposal to read unhair^d for "unheard;" and that his attention was directed to the line, is evident from the fact that he makes an emendation, though not of much importance, in it ; he reads : — " This unheard sauciness 0/ boyish troops ;" of instead of " and," referring to the unparalleled insolence of the youthful invaders from France. Lower down, in the same page and speech, the Bastard ridicules the cowardice of the French when assailed in their own teiTito- ries ; and here we encounter a very remarkable mistake, either by the old compositor or copyist, most likely the latter, for which we cannot account on the ground of mishearing. The passage is where Faulconbridge is addressmg the French, and charging them with havmg been made " To thrill, and shake. Even at the crying of your nation's crow." What is the French nation's crow ? Malone strangely thought that the allusion was to the " caw of the French crow ;" but Douce's suspicion, that the crowing of the cock might be meant, is fully confirmed by the emendation which we find in manuscript in the folio, 1632, where the passage is thus given, — " To thrill, and shake, Even at the crowing of your nation's cock, Thinking this voice an armed Englishman." There can, we apprehend, be no dispute that this must be the true text. SCENE IV. P. 92. Discussion has arisen respecting a line in which the dy- ing Melun advises Salisbury and Pembroke to return to their duty to their Sovereign, and to 234 KING JOHN. [ACT V. '' Unthread the rude eye of rebellion," as the line stands in the ancient, and in most modern editions. Theobald was not far wrong when he changed " Unthread" to unlread, and "eye" to iva^j ; but he missed the emendation of another word, which, with the others, is thus altered by the cor- rector of the folio, 1632: — ■ '' Untread the road-\my of rebellion," • i. e. return by the road you took when you rebelled against King John. In confirmation, we may notice, that, very soon after- wards, Salisbury himself repeats nearly the same terms : — " We will untread the steps of damned flight." To misprint untread the road-icay^ " unthread the rude eye," seems an excess of carelessness, which we cannot in any way explain. The fault must, in this instance, lie with the compositor. P. 93. Salisbury tells the expiring Melun, — " For I do see the cruel pangs of death Right in thine eye ;" and some commentators would for " right' read fright^ or pight^ and others Jight : bright appears, from the old corrector's inser- tion of the necessary letter in the margin, to be the word, in ref- erence to the remarkable brilliancy of the eyes of many persons just before death : — " For I do see the cruel pangs of death Bright in thine eye." Editors guessed at almost every word but the right one. SCENE V. P. 94. For the line, as it stands in the folios, " And wound our tott'ring colours clearly up," the old corrector has, — " And wound our tottWed colours closely up." SC. VII.] KING JOHN. 235 Tattered was then usually spelt " tottered," and he preferred the passive to the active participle, though we may doubt if Shake- speare exercised any such discretion. Neither are we prepared to say that we like closehj better than " clearly," the latter, perhaps, indicating the winding up of the colours, without obstruction from the enemy. SCENE VII. P. 97. Much contention has arisen upon a question, which the amended folio, 1632, will set at rest, founded upon this passage, where Prince Henry refers to the King's fatal illness : — " Death, having prey-d upon the outward parts, Leaves them, invisible ; and his siege is now Against the mind." In the old copies, " mind" is misprinted wind; and besides set- ting right this obvious blunder, the old corrector remedies another defect of greater importance. It has been suggested by diflcrent annotators that "invisible" ought to be insensible, invincible, &c. There is no doubt that " invisible" is wrong, and the corrector converts it into umisiled^ which may, we think, be adopted without hesitation — death has abandoned the King's external form, and has laid siege to his understanding : — " Death, having prey'd upon the outward parts, Leaves them unvisited; and his siege is now Against the mind." P. 98. It appears that the practice of the theatre in the time of the corrector of the fi)lio, 1632, was to bring the dying King in, sitting in a chair, and the manuscript stage-direction is in those terms, which are added to the printed stage-direction, "John brought in." We are not told, in any of the old copies, when he dies, but those words are written in the mnrgin, just after the Bastard has concluded his statement of the loss of " the best part of his power" in the washes of Lincolnshire. This accords with the modern representation of the fact. KING EICHAED II. ACT I. SCENE I. P. 112. At the very beginning of Bolingbroke's first speech, a word has dropped out, the absence of which spoils the metre : it is found in a manuscript-correction of the folio, 1632, and we have printed it in Italic type : — '•' Full many years of bappy days befal My gracious sovereign," &c. P. 113. In Bolingbroke's next speech, an error of the press of some consequence is noticed : it is where he denies that he is actuated by any private malice against Mowbray : — " In the devotion of a subject's love, Tendering the precious safety of my prince, And free from other misbegotten hate, Come I appellant," &c. "What " other misbegotten hate" does he refer to ? The corrector of the folio, 1632, tells us to read the third line, — And free from wrath or misbegotten hate, Come I appellant," &c. Bolingbroke appeals his antagonist, not out of anger or hatred, but out of loyal affection to his King. We may question the necessity for tliis change. Lower down, " reins and sj)urs" are in the singular, but this is a matter of less moment. P. 116. Mowbray answers the pecuniary part of the charge against him, by assertmg that the King was in debt to him — ACT I.] KING EICHAED II. 237 " Upon remainder of a dear account, Since last I went to France." For "dear account," the old corrector has ''^ clear account," which has a distinct meaning — the account was clear — while the epithet " dear" seems ill applied to " account," in any of the senses which that word bears in Shakespeare. SCENE II. P. 121. We may feel assured that the word "farewell" was repeated in the following line, and we find it in manuscript in the margin of the folio, 1632, though not in any extant printed copy of the play : — " Why then, I will. "FoxqwoW, farexoell, old Gaunt." The repetition of the word led to the accidental omission of it by the old scribe or compositor. In the preceding line, the first and second folios have "the widow's champion to defence," instead of " and defence." P. 122. The repetition of the word "desolate," in the subse- quent couplet, which ends the Duchess of Gloucester's speech, is unlike Shakespeare : — " Desolate, desolate, will I hence and die : The last leave of thee takes my weeping eye." The carelessness of the printer, or of the copyist, occasioned the blunder, for in the corrected folio, 1632, the first line stands thus:— '' Desolate, desperate, will I hence and die." She was "desolate" because a helpless w^idow, and desperate be- cause she could not move Gaunt to revenge the death of her hus- band. P. 125. It deserves remark that, whereas in the line, — "■ And furbish new the name of John of Gaunt," the folios have ^^ furnish new ;" the manuscript-corrector restores the older and better reading of the earlier quarto impressions. A 238 KING RICHARD II. [ACT II. few lines farther on, the second folio has captain for " captive," which did not pass unnoticed. ACT XL SCENE I. P. 135. The simplicity of our earlj^ stage seldom allowing changes of scene, various contrivances were resorted to in order to render them needless, but at the same time to preserve suffi- cient verisimilitude. Gaunt was here to be represented ill in bed, and the printed stage-direction is only, Enter Gaunt sick, with York, and modern editors have represented Gaunt as on a couch ; but a manuscript note in the folio, 1632, shows precisely the way in which the matter was managed in the time of the old corrector, and no doubt earlier, the words being, Bed drawn forth, so that the dying Gaunt was pulled forward on the boards, in his bed. When it was necessary for him to make his exit (the only printed note in tha4; place), the words, added in manuscript, are Brawn out in bed; and just afterwards, Northumberland arrives with the news of the death of the old Duke. P. 138. On the entrance of the King, Queen, &c., York says to Gaunt, as the passage has always stood : — *' The King is come: deal mildly with his youth ; For young hot colts, being rag'd, do rage the more ;" which is nothing better than a truism, that young hot colts rage the more by being raged. This defect has arisen from a misprint, which seems very obvious as soon as it is pointed out by the cor- rector of the folio, 1632, who alters the second line as follows : — " For young hot colts, being urg-d, do rage the more." This is beyond controversy an improvement. P. 144. Another easily explained error of the press occurs on this page. Northumberland complains that the King is basely led— '' By flatterers ; and what they will inform, Merely in hate, 'gainst any of us all, That will the King severely prosecute, 'Gainst us, our lives, our children, and our heirs." ^^' II-] ' KIXG RICHARD 11. 239 Here ' Gainst us, our lives," is tautologous ; for, of course, what the Knig prosecuted against the "lives" of his nobility, must be aganist them. The correction in the folio, 1632, makes the pas- sage so far unobjectionable : — " 'Gainst us, our 7Mives, our children, and our heirs." The copyist, in this case, misheard wives, " lives." P. 145. Northumberland, Ross, and Willoughby are plottin^ armour in parenthesis, showing, as indeed we learn from a passage in it, that the speaker was " a Prologue armed." He alters the mis-spelt name of Antenonidus to Ante- norides ; and, what is more important, he reads, " sparre up the sons of Troy," for " stirre up the sons of Troy," about which there can be no dispute, although, until the time of Theobald, the four folios, Rowe, and Pope had it " stir up the sons of Troy." The proper orthography seems to be " sperr up the sons of Troy," wdiich has precisely the same meaning as " sparre up the sons of Troy," the word of the old corrector. We may add that in "The Cobbler of Canterbury," first printed in 1590, and again in 1608, the very year before Shakespeare's " Troilus and Cressida" came out, we meet with the following couplet, which occurs just after the mention of Troilus : — " Grey and sparkling, like the stars When the day her light up sparsP Possibly, therefore, our great dramatist was put in mind of the word by seeing it, in connexion with his hero, in the tract above quoted, just before he sat down to write : Shakspeare's use of it, however, is infinitely more proper, since to " sperr up a gate" is a natural expression, but to " sperr up light," a violent metaphor. ACT I. SCENE I. P. 14. Rowe and Pope made two excellent emendations in the line, — (353) 854 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. [ACT I. " So, traitor! — when she comes ! when is she thence?" The manuscript-correction in the folio, 1632, only applies to " when" instead of then of the old copies, while it leaves unchang- ed "when she is thence," although the transposition, " when is she thence V is equally wanted. Thus, in this instance, the corrector did only half what seenis necessary to render the poet's meaning intelligible. Six lines lower, he properly altered scorn to "storm," which was also Rowe's emendation, but sufficiently obvious. SCENE 11. P. 17. The Acts and Scenes are not distinguished in any of the old printed editions, but the corrector has introduced them in manuscript, with more or less accuracy, in the folio which went through his hands. P. 23. Pandarus tells Cressida that Antenor is " a proper man of person," which it may seem needless to change ; but a manu- script note in the margin of the folio, 1632, tell us to read, " a proper man of his person." On the next page, the necessary word " see " is inserted where it is omitted in the folios, — " you shall see Troilus anon." P. 27. Por the evidently misprinted line, — " Achievement is command ; ungain'd beseech," we are informed that we ought to read, — " Achieved men still command 5 ungain'd beseech." That achieved men should have been converted by the old compo- sitor into " achievement," seems not unlikely ; but how still be- came " is " in his hands, it is not easy to imagine ; and we may feel some surprise that the emendation of the line proposed in note 8, — '' Achiev'd men us command ; ungain'd beseech." is not supported by the authority of the corrector of the folio, 1 632 : us for " is," was a most probable mistake. SC. Til.] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. 855 P. 28. Agamemnon, referring to the disasters that have hitherto attended the siege of Troy by the Greeks, and observing that dis- appointment constantly accompanies human undertakings, in- quires, — " Why then, you princes, Do you with cheeks abash'cl behokl our works, And call them shames?" This is as the passage has been invariably printed ; but the old annotator points out an easy misprint, the correction of which is in exact accordance with the rest of Agamemnon's speech, where he advises the Greeks not to be disheartened by their previous misfortunes : — " Why then, you princes. Do you with cheeks abash'd behold our ivrecks, And call them shames ?" The word wreck is frequently used by Shakespeare, and by wri- ters of his day, to signify any kind of disaster or rum, and such is its meaning in this place. SCENE III. P. 29. The folio, 1632, is very carelessly printed in this part of the play ; and for " place and sway," of the earlier impres- sions, it has " place and m«?/," The old corrector does not pass over this blunder, nor others : thus, a few lines above, he has " replies to chiding fortune," for " retires to chiding fortune ;" and in the beginning of Nestor's speech, ''godlike seat" for "godly seat." Pope has " returns," and Hanmer " replies," for retires ; and all modern editors, " godlike" for godly : the last was an error of the folios only. P. 33. Such was not the case with a mistake in the second great speech of Ulysses, wdiere he is referring to the mimicry, by Pa- troclus, of the chiefs of the Grecian army : — " And in this fashion. All our abilities, gifts, natures, shapes, Severals and generals of grace exact, Achievements, plots," &c. 856 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. [ACT I. fell under the ridicule of Achilles : here the words " of grace ex- act," seem wrong, although always so printed, because the com- plaint was, that they were not " of grace exact," but grossly cari- catured. Therefore the corrector of the folio, 1632, thus altered the expression to a form much more in accordance with the con- text : — " Severals and generals, all grace extract ;" i. e. deprived of all the grace which really belonged to the per- sons Patroclus imitated. This appears to be an important im- provement of the received text ; but it is certainly one which did not require resort to any independent authority, inasmuch as close attention to what must have been the meaning of the author, may have led to the detection of the error. P. 35. In a celebrated speech by JEneas, a fine compound epi- thet appears to have escaped in the hands of the old printer : — " The worthiness of praise distains his worth, If that the jirais'd himself bring the praise forth ; But what the repining enemy commends, That breath fame blows ; that praise, sole pure, transcends." The second folio omits But at the commencement of the third line, as injurious to the metre ; and a small manuscript-correction in the margin, converts a poor expression in the fourth line into one of great force and beauty : — " What the repining enemy commends, That breath fame blows ; that praise, sow^pure, transcends." The scribe wrote, or the compositor wrought, only by the sound, and that sound has hitherto satisfied. To show how readily mis- prints are even now made, we may mention that both Malone and Steevens give the last line, most ruinously to the measure, thus : — " That breath fame follows ; that praise, sole pure, transcends." P. 37. All the folio editions have this line : — " I'll pawn this truth with my three drops of blood:" the quartos, more intelligibly, — " I'll prove this truth with my three drops of blood." ACT II.] TEOILUS AND CKESSIDA. 857 The old corrector of the folio, 1632, erases pawn, and places "prove" m the margin; but, supposing that he obtained the lat- ter word from the quartos, he made no alteration in the next line, which in the folios varies from the quartos in two not unimpor- tant particulars : the folios read, — " Now heavens forbid such scarcity of youth ;" while the quartos give it, — "Now heavens /ore/mc? such scarcity of me/?." If, therefore, "prove" were derived by the old corrector from the quartos, it is clear that, for some reason, he preferred the next line as it stands in the folios. ACT II. SCENE I. P. 41. Considering the difference between the quartos and the folios, the first reading unsalted, and the second " whinid'st," we may notice that the old corrector preferred the last, but altered the spelling of the word to whinewd'st, meaning vinewd'st, or most mouldy. Vinney, or vinnewT/, for mouldy, is still a word in use m the provmces. SCENE II. P. 46. There can be no doubt that the line, — " And fly like chidden Mercury from Jove," is misplaced in the folios, and rightly placed in the quartos : the corrector of the folio, 1632, appears first to have tried to remedy the blunder in his usual method, by figures in his margin, but not finding that effectual, he struck out the line, and inserted it in manuscript in the situation to which it unquestionably belongs. He subsequently set right two misprints in the same speech, hard for " hare," and lovers for " livers :" the first belongs also to the folio, 1623, and the last only to the folio, 1632. P. 50. We may, perhaps, receive with thankfulness a change in what Paris says regarding the dangers which had attended his enterprise hi securing and retaining Helen, — 858 TKOILUS AND CRESSIDA. [ACT III. " Yet, I protest, Were I alone to pass the difficulties. And had as ample power as 1 have will, Paris should ne'er retract what he hath done, Nor faint in the pursuit." Here for " pass the difficulties" (spelt jjasse in the old copies), the old corrector tells us to substitute ^'- poise the difficulties," or weigh them, which we may believe, if only from the context, to have been Shakespeare's word. P. 55. The emendation of " We sent our messengers," instead of ^'■He sent our messengers," of the folios, and "He sate our messengers," of the quartos, is warranted by an emendation of W for H'm the margin. Theobald read, " He shent our messen- gers ;" but this change is not required, nor is it supported by the fact, since, as is stated in note 3, Achilles had not shent, or rebuked, any messengers from Agamemnon. SCENE III. P. 56. The emendation of "lunes" for lines, in *' His pettish lines, his ebbs, his flows, as if," &c., as it stands in the folios (the quartos have an entirely different text), is made in a correction in the folio, 1632; and "lunes" is certainly the word intended. ACT III. SCENE I. P. 64. Much discussion has been occasioned by the words of Paris, in all the early impressions, where he calls Cressida his " disposer," saying that Troilus is going to sup " with my disposer Cressida." The difficulty has been to discover why Paris should call Cressida his " disposer :" and some commentators have rec- ommended deposer, others despiser, instead of " disposer," while Steevens wished to deprive Paris of the speech altogether, and to transfer it to Helen. It is surprising that no editor should have guessed at the right word, when speculating that "disposer" was an error of the press: a manuscript note in the folio, 1632, in- forms us that for " disposer" we should substitute dispraiser, Cres- so. II.] TROILUS AND CEESSIDA. 859 sida being a person who did not allow the merits of Paris. Pan- darus, just after Paris has called Cressida his dispraiser, observes that there had been some difference between them— "She'll none of him ; they two are twain" — and though he does not state on what point they had disagreed, it is enough to warrant us in be- lieving that Paris calls Cressida, not his " disposer," but his dis~ praiser. The word recurs twice in this part of the dialogue, and in each instance the old corrector has converted "disposer" into dispraiser. It is to be remarked also, that he makes no change in the prefixes, but allows "You must not know where he sups" to remain in Helen's speech, in contradiction to the practice of mod- ern editors, which, it must be allowed, seems founded upon a correct notion of the course of the dialogue. Possibly the mistake in the prefix in this place, did not attract the attention of the writer of the marginal emendations ; but it can make no differ- ence in the apparent fitness of changing "disposer" to dispraiser. SCENE II. P. 67. It is a very noticeable circumstance that the expression of Troilus, as found m some copies of the quarto of 1690, as stated in note 2, — '' Love's thrice repured nectar," instead of" Love's thrice reputed nectar" of the folios and other quartos, is transferred by the corrector of the folio, 1632, to that impression. This fact may show, if no independent authority were resorted to, how the passage was recited before and after the second folio made its appearance, and confirms it, if confirma- tion were wanted, as the true reading. We often find t and r misprinted for each other ; and all that it was necessary to do was to put the pen through the first, and to insert the last in the margin. Although this important emendation was made, another emendation of considerable value, near the end of the play, aims for "arms" (p. 141, note 5), also found in some copies of the quarto of 1609, was not adopted. This looks as if the corrector had not there been guided by the same authority. P. 72, In the amorous dialogue between Troilus and Cressida, 860 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. [ACT III. the latter, affecting coyness, distinguishes between her two selfs, in all the ordinary copies of this play, as follows : — '' I have a kind of self resides with you, But au unkind self, that itself will leave, To be another's fool." The antithesis, undoubtedly intended by the poet, is thus, accord- ing to a note in the folio, 1632, sacrificed to an error of the press, and we are instructed, therefore, to read the passage thus : — '•■ I have a kind self, that resides with you, But an unkind self, that itself will leave, To be another's fool." Cressida represents her kind self as wishing to remain with Troilus, and her " unkind self" as wishing to separate itself from his com- pany. SCENE III. P. 74. All the old editions have the subsequent passage near the commencement of the speech of Calchas, and several pages of notes have been written upon it : — " Appear it to your mind, That through the sight I bear in things to love I have abandoned Troy." Some modern editors have given the second line, — *' That through the sight I bear in things to come" an amendment that unquestionably clears the sense of the author, and which Monk Mason considered so happy as to require no authority in its favour. Nevertheless, the most usual course has been to print differently, viz. : — '' That through the sight I bear in things, to Jove I have abandon'd Troy." Here it has been reasonably asked, why should Calchas desert and abandon his native city to Jove, who was its protector'? Theobald, Warburton, Johnson, Steevens, and Mai one, all wasted their time and ingenuity on a mere misprint, wdiich is set right in a moment, and which proves that the old compositor misread above SC. III.] TEOILUS AND CKESSIDA. 361 " to love :" there is an error also, but of minor importance, in the preceding line, where " appear" is put for a^ppml, in the sense of recall or bring back, and the whole should, therefore, stand thus : — " Appeal it to your mind, That, through the sight I bear in things above, I have abandoned Troy ;" i.e. recall to mind that I abandoned Troj by reason of the sight I enjoy in things aSoi;^— foreseeing what would be the issue of the struggle. If Monk Mason thought "things to come'''' an emenda- tion not requiring authority, a fortiori, " things above'' is an emen- dation even less requiring it, because nearer the misprinted letters in the quartos and folios, while we have the testimony of the old corrector of the folio, 1632, and common sense in its behalf. P. 78. There is an indisputable, though hitherto undiscovered misprint, in what follows : — '• For speculation turns not to itself, Till it hath travell'd, and is married there Where it may see itself." This is part of the reply of Achilles to Ulysses, who has adverted to the manner in which an individual sees his virtues reflected in another, and thus becomes sensible of them : Achilles answers that this effect is not at all strange, and explams it by reference to the knowledge obtained of personal beauty by sight of it in a looking-glass, adding, — *' For speculation turns not to itself, Till it hath travell'd, and is mirror'd there Where it may see itself." To read " married there where it may see itself," seems sheer nonsense, in comparison with the fine and distinctly expressed meaning of the poet, when, with the aid of a marginal emenda- tion in the folio, 1632, we read mirror'^d for "married." P. 79. The quartos and folios differ in an important epithet : the first have the hemistich, " And great Troy shrieking," and the last, "And great Troy shritiking." There can be no dispute which is right, though Steevens raised the question ; and the old cor- 16 362 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. [ACT III. rector put his pen through the letter n, and left the word shriMng^ which was all he thought necessary. P. 80. Here again the folios misrepresent the author's words, if not his meaning : that of 1623 has, — "Since things in motion begin to catch the eye :" the printer of the folio, 1632, seeing that the line was redundant, altered "begin" to ^gin ; but the quartos read, — " Since things in motion sooner catch the eye," which we may, perhaps, admit as the true text ; but, nevertheless, the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, alters '"^m ifo" to quicklier, which may have been the word of the poet, and which he employs elsewhere : — "Since things in motion qxdcTclier catch the eye." Here, therefore, the writer of the emendation did not follow the quartos, but he may have guessed at the word he inserted in his margin, or obtained it from some authority. In the next line he alters "out" to once^ which agrees with the quartos and with the sense. It merits observation that the two changes, quicklier and once^ were, most probably, not made at the same time, since the ink used is different. P. 81. The following is a couplet, in which there appear to be two lapses by the printer : — " Keeps place with thought, and almost, like the gods, Does thoughts unveil in their dumb cradles." Hanmer read, " Keeps pace with thought," and so did the old cor- rector : Warburton vindicated " place," though in the next line, properly represented (which it has never yet been), Shakespeare follows up the idea, and tells us that the providence of a watchful state, like the gods, almost anticipates thoughts — not only keeps pace with them, but goes beyond them, — "Does thoughts unveil in their dumb crudities ;^^ i.e. unveils them before they even become thoughts. This must have been the poet's language, and we find crudities for " cradles" ACT IV.] TEOILUS AND CKESSIDA. 363 in the margin of the folio, 1632. Hanmer, Malone, Steevens, (fee, saw that "cradles" was not, in point of measure, enough for the line, but they never dreamed that the word was a misprint. The whole passage is, therefore, thus cleared : — " The providence that's in a watchful state Knows almost every grain of Plutus' gold, Finds bottom in th' uncomprehensive deeps, Keeps joace with thought, and almost, like the gods, Does thoughts unveil in their dumb crudities'* Here meaning and metre are both accomplished ; but in what way the emendation was arrived at, we have no knowledge : it seems something better than a merely speculative suggestion. P. 82. For " sweet, rouse yourself," addressed by Patroclus to Achilles, when he is endeavouring to excite him to renewed action, we are instructed in manuscript to read, " Swift, rouse yourself" We have before had swift misprinted " sweet" (p. 83). Three Ihies lower, the old corrector does not strike out airy in the pas- sage, " Be shook to airy air," as it stands in the folios ; but he makes it, " Be shook to very air," which is much more emphatic than merely " Be shook to air." Nevertheless, if the poet uitend- ed his measure to be regular, very is not required. ACT IV. SCENE I. P. 85. Diomed tells ^Eneas, that when the truce is at an end, he will " play the hunter for his life," — '' With all my force, pursuit, and policy :" the line seems to run more properly as it is amended in the folio, 1632,— " By Jove, I'll play the hunter for thy life, With all vdj fierce pursuit, and policy." However, the change is by no means unavoidable. SCENE II. P. 90. When Troilus tells iEneas to keep his counsel, the lat- ter replies, in the folios, — 364: TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. [ACT IV. " Good, good, my lord ; the secrets of nature Have not more gift in taciturnity." Now, unless we read " secrets" as a trisyllable, the measure is faulty : Theobald proposed " the secret things of nature ;" and here resort to the quartos affords no aid, for they absurdly have " the secrets of neighbour Pandar." The corrector of the folio, 1632, inserts a word wliich, most likely, had dropped out in the press, and which we may, perhaps, accept upon his evidence, be- cause it is the very word required, in reference to the hidden ope- rations of nature : — " Good, good, my lord, the secret laws of nature Have not more gift in taciturnity." SCENE IV. P. 93. We have already seen that various scraps of ballads, introduced into the dialogue, have been erroneously given, when neither copyist nor printer was perhaps in fault ; for the author himself may have quoted from memory. Here we have another instance of the same kind, where Pandarus cites some well-known popular production : it is thus given in the early authorities : — " heart ! heart ! heavy heart ! Why sigh'st thou without breaking ? Because thou canst not ease thy smart By friendship, nor by speaking." Pope inserted an interjection before " heavy heart," for metre's sake ; but it seems probable, from mere perusal, that the last line has been mis-remembered, mis-written, or misprinted, since there is no antithesis between " friendship" and "speaking." The folio, 1632, has sittest for " sigh'st," an error which the old corrector remedies, and represents that the quatram should stand as fol- lows : — " heart ! heart ! heavy heart ! Why sigh'st thou without breaking? Because thou can'st not ease thy smart By silence nor by speaking." It is underlined as a quotation, though printed as prose in all the old copies. SC. v.] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. 365 P. 96. Troilus, alluding to the danger of too much reliance on our own supposed constancy, observes, — *' And sometimes we are devils to ourselves, When we will tempt the frailty of our powers, Presuming on their changeful potency.'' " Changeful potency " seems the very contrary of what was in- tended : if the verse w^ould allow it, we ought rather to read, — " Presuming on their wwchangeful potency :" or the potency wdth which they would resist change ; and a manu- script alteration in the folio, 1632, leads us to believe that the scribe misheard the word,-— " Presuming on their chainful potency," the potency with which they cham, and fetter us to the particular object of our affections. SCENE V. P. 99. There is a remarkable discrepancy between the quartos and folios, when Cressida is introduced by Diomed to the Grecian commanders, and when such as like kiss her in succession. When Menelaus advances for the purpose, Patroclus interposes and kisses for him : Menelaus says, — " I had good argument for kissing once," alluding, of course, to the time w^hen he was living with Helen ; and Patroclus answers, — " But that's no argument for kissing now ; For thus popp'd Paris in his hardiment, And parted thus you and your argument." The last line is only in the quartos, and the corrector of the folio, 1632, seemg its importance, whites it in a blank space, but differ- ing in one word, — " And parted you, and your same argument ;" adding this explanatory stage-direction, Fufs back Menelaus, who thus allowed liimself to be defeated in his design upon the lips of B66 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. [ACT IV. Cressida. Patroclus, having kissed for Menelaus, afterwards kisses on his own behalf, and then a note of kisses again is placed in the margin. If the corrector had derived the additional line from the quartos, it seems probable that he would have followed the precise wording of those editions. P. 100. Few lines in this play have produced more comment than the second of the following, where Ulysses is censuring the wanton spirit of Cressida : — " ! these encounterers, so glib of tongue, That give a coasting welcome ere it comes," &c. What is " a coasting welcome ?" has been the question ; and we learn from the old corrector that the word, miswritten, we may suppose, in the manuscript used by the printer, was most appro- priate to the place,^ — " ! these encounterers, so glib of tongue, That give occasion welcome ere it comes, And wide unclasp the tables of their thoughts. To every tickling reader, set them down As sluttish spoils of opportunity, And daughters of the game." They became the " spoils of opportunity " by giving welcome to occasion even before it arrived. P. 102. Shakespeare employs the word " utterance " as the ex- treme result of a personal encounter in " Macbeth,'' Act III. Scene I., and in " Cymbeline," Act III. Scene I. Tne manuscript- corrector of the folio, 1632, informs us that he used it also in the following passage, which refers to the conflict between Hector and Ajax, instead of the much less appropriate term " uttermost :" Agamemnon speaks to Diomed, — "As you and lord JSneas Consent upon the order of their fight, So be it ; either to the utterance, Or else a breach." i. e. at your discretion either let them pursue the conflict to ex- tremity, or else break oflT before it comes to that : breach is a ACT v.] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. 367 printed emendation in the folios, instead of " breath " of the earlier editions in quarto, which can only be understood as a breathing time. ACT V. SCENE L P. 110. Nobody has attempted to explain why Thersites, when he calls Patroclus the "male varlet" and "masculine whore" of Achilles, ends by wishing a list of loathsome diseases (part of which only are mentioned in the folios) to afflict " such prepos- terous discoveries." What can be the meaning of " discoveries " so applied ? The old corrector has it " such preposterous disccl- ourers;''^ and perhaps rightly, the allusion being to the painting and discolouring of nature by Patroclus, like a female prostitute. SCENE n. P. 113. The quartos and folios vary materially in one of the speeches of Thersites. According to the first, he says of Cres- sida, " And any man may sing her, if he can take her cliff; she's noted :" on the other hand, the folios, with evident corruption, give the passage thus : " And any man may find her, if he can but take her life : she's noted." The allusion is, probably, in- delicate ; and the old corrector inserts one word in the folio, 1632, that had been omitted, and alters another that had been mis- printed — "And any man may find her kej/, if he can take her clefft ; she's noted." The figure is, of course, borrowed from signing at sight, and this last reading seems preferable to that of the quartos. P. 115. In the speech of Cressida, — " lu faith, I will, la : never trust me else," w^e have something like a repetition of the blunder committed in " Henry IV.," Part II. Act I. Scene III., where " lo." for lord^ of the quartos, was subsequently misprinted lo ! as if it were an in- terjection, and then to as if it were a preposition. In the instance before us, the corruption seems to have originated with the quartos: la, there, became lo ! m the folio, 1623, andyoe in the folio, 1632. 368 TKOILUS AND CRESSIDA. [ACT Y, The old corrector of that edition thought, or knew, that the word ought to be lord, and he so amended the line : — " In faith I will, lord: never trust me else." Still, the earliest impressions may be right, and Cressida may merely have used " la" as a feminine expletive, though we have the above evidence to the contrary. It is not a point of impor- tance. SCENE III. P. 121. Andromache's speech to Hector only consists of these words in the amended folio, 1632 : — " ! be persuaded : do not count it holy To hurt by being just." The rest is struck through with a pen, as if the person who intro- duced the manuscript-emendations could make nothing of the pas- sage either by guess or guide. This, therefore, is one of the places in which we are still left in the dark, not, indeed, as to the meaning of the poet, since that is pretty obvious, but as to the precise form in which he expressed that meaning. SCENE IV. P. 126. Cressida, having given to Diomed the sleeve she had received from Troilus, the latter hunts the former thi'ough the field to recover it. Thersites watches the pursuit, and, when they enter, observes, as all printed copies have it, — " Soft ! here comes sleeve and th' other." A point (not indeed of much value) has certainly been lost; for upon the authority of an emendation m the folio, 1632, Thersites ought to say, — " Soft ! here comes sleeve and sleeveless." Troilus being, as it were, upon " a sleeveless errand," in search of the sleeve he had given Cressida, which was still in the pos- session of his rival : " Here comes sleeve and th' other" reads so poorly, that we may feel sure Shakespeare never wrote it. In so. IV.] TEOILUS AND CEESSIDA. 869 the same way, when Troilus and Diomed fight, while Thersites stands behind, he exclaims, as if alternately encouraging each, — "Hold thy whore, Grecian! Now for thy whore, Trojan! Now the sleeve ! Now the In all editions we find only, " Now tne sleeve ! Now the sleeve ! " P. 133. For the line, as it stands in the quartos, — " So, Ilion, fall thou next ! now Troy, sink down," the folio, 1632, as corrected, has, — " So, Ilion, fall thou ! Now, great Troy, sink down !" which shows that the writer of the marginal notes did not here follow the earlier impressions. He saw that the line required a syllable, but whether he added great upon conjecture, or upon authority, we know not. The folios, 1623 and 1632, omitting " next" of the quartos, left the line imperfect. P. 135. There can be no doubt that for "broker, lackey," in Troilus' dismissal of Pandarus, we ought to substitute brothel- lackey, i. e. the servant of a brothel, not merely from the occupa- tion Pandarus had taken upon himself, but from the peculiarities of the old copies : the quartos read, " broker lackey ;" the folio, 1623, in one place (where the lines were mistakenly inserted) has "brother lackey," and afterwards, "broker, lackey;" the folio, 1632, has, in one place, " brother lachy,^'' and in the other, " brother lackey." " ^ro^/i^Z-lackey" was one of the few changes for the better in the folio, 1664 ; but it must have been preceded by the manuscript-emendation in the folio, 1632, where the passage is made to run as follows : — " Hence, brothel-lackey, ignomy and shame Pursue thy life." Two circumstances are to be noted in reference to the conclu- sion of this play, as it appears in the corrected folio, 1632. The first is, that the following words are written in a blank space op- posite the speech of Pandarus, after all the other characters have 16* 870 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. [ACT V. made their exit — Left alone^ let him say this by way of Epilogue. The other circumstance is that the four lines after Pandarus asks, " What verse for it ? what instance for it 1 — Let me see," are un- derlined as a quotation ; and we may infer that they were extract- ed from some popular, but now unknown, production of the day, and applied by the poet to his own purpose. We have repeatedly seen that the old corrector scored with his pen under every scrap by any other author, to whom Shakespeare appears to have been in this manner mdebted. COEIOLANUS. ACT L SCENE I. P. 141. The earliest manuscript-emendation cannot be called a necessary one ; but still it seems, taking the context into account, a considerable improvement, and may, perhaps, be admitted on the evidence of the corrector of the folio, 1632. It occurs in the speech of 1 Citizen, where he is referring to the wants of the poor, and to the superfluities of the rich : — *' But they think we are too dear : the leanness that afflicts us, the ahject- ness of our misery, is as an inventory to particularize their abundance ; our suffering is a gain to them." For abjectness, the common reading has been " object" — " the ob- ject of our*misery ;" that is to say, the sight of our misery ; but the speaker has talked of the " leanness" of the poor citizens of Rome, and he follows it up by the mention of the abjectness of their misery. This substitution could hardly have proceeded from the mere taste or discretion of the old corrector, but still it is hardly wanted. P. 145. We encounter an important change in one part of Menenius' apologue, where the belly admits that it is the general receiver of food, adding, as the passage has always been given, — " But, if you do remember, I send it through the rivers of your blood. Even to the Court, the heart, to the seat o' the brain, And through the cranks and oflBces of man." It is evident that the last line but one is not measure ; and we are instructed to read it, and the next, in a way that not only cures this defect, but much improves the sense, by following up the (371) 872 COKIOLANUS. [ACT I. figure of " the court, the heart," and completing the resemblance of the human body to the various parts of a commonwealth : — " Even to the Court, the heart, the Senate, braia ; And through the ranks and ofiQces of man." Tyrwhitt thought " the seat o' the brain " a very " languid expres- sion ;" and Mai one agreed with him in taking " seat " to mean royal seat. When " seat" was written seate, the mistake for senate was easy ; and the change (which never occurred to any commentator) is supported both by what precedes, and by what follows it, going through the various degrees in a state — the court, the senate, persons of different ranks, the holders of offices, &c. P. 148. Menenius, speaking of the crowd, says, — '• Nay, these are almost thoroughly persuaded" &c. ; whereas, according to the old corrector, the line, as properly read, is much more emphatic, — •'Nay, these are all most thoroughly persuaded," &c. Lower down, at the end of the next speech of Marcius, — " Shooting their emulation," of the old copies, is altered to " shouting their exullation.^^ Mod- ern editors have adopted shouting; and "emulation," in the sense m which Shakespeare uses it, does not seem to require change : exultation^ however, better expresses what is intended ; and " shooting," for shouting^ shows that the compositor was careless. In the next line, we have tributes for " tribunes," and just afterwards, unroost for " unroof 'd." SCENE III. P. 154. The reading of the second folio has almost invariably been accepted, where Volumnia says that " The breasts of Hecuba, When she did suckle Hector, look'd not lovelier Than Hector's forehead, when it spit forth blood At Grecian swords contending." This, at least, is sense, but the first folio had absurdly printed SC. IV.] CORIOLANUS. 873 "contending" Contenning^ putting it in Italic type, as if it were a name, exactly thus : — " At Grecian sword. Contenning, tell Valeria We are fit to bid her -welcome." In note 6 of this page a suggestion is offered that contemning was, perhaps, Shakespeare's word ; and the probability is confirmed by the fact, that the corrector of the folio, 1632, informs us that we ought to print as follows : — " Look'd not lovelier Than Hector's forehead, when it spit forth blood, At Grecian swords conte^yining :" i. e. contemning at Grecian swords, despising them. "Tell Valeria," &c., of course begms a new sentence. SCENE IV. P. 158. When the Romans are beaten back to their trenches, Marcius enters, " cursing " his flying followers ; and we here arrive at a line which has been fertile of discussion. Malone and most modern editors have concurred in supposing that Marcius, in his rage and vexation, commences a sentence which he does not finish, and have represented the passage thus : — ^' All the contagion of the south light on you, You shames of Rome ! you herd of Boils and plagues Plaster you o'er ; that you may be abhorr'd Further than seen, and one infect another Against the wind a mile !" In the folios, the words, spelling, and punctuation, are — " You shames of Rome : you Heard of Byles and Plagues Plaister you o're," &c. This mode of spelling heard leads us to the corruption, which was detected (possibly by mere conjecture, but more probably with the aid of some extraneous authority) by the manuscript-annotator of the folio, 1632 ; and when pointed out, it must, we apprehend, be admitted without an instant's controversy : — 874 CORIOLANUS. [ACT I. " All the contagion of the south light on you, You shames of Rome ! Unheard of boils and plagues Plaster you o'er," &c. The whole difficulty seems to have been produced by a strange lapse on the part of the old printer. The old stage-directions are confused in this part of the drama, for we are told that Marcius is shut in before he enters the gates of Corioli. This blunder is set right in manuscript, and when all the Roman soldiers, seeing the gates close, exclaim, " To the pot I warrant him," an expression that nobody has attempted to elucidate, it is explained at once by the corrector of the Colio, 1632 :— " Sold. See, they have shut him in. " All. To the port, I warrant him." They finish the sentence the soldier has begun, " See, they have shut him in — to the port, I warrant him." The enemy had shut Marcius into ih^port or gate ; and very shortly afterwards Lartius directs, " Let the ports be guarded." All editions, ancient and modern, have "pot" ^or port. P. 159. It is worth noting that, "Even to Calues wish," of the first folio, and " Even to Calves wish," of the second folio, is properly altered to " Even to Cato's wish," in the margin of the latter impression. Such a blunder seems to expose itself; but, nevertheless, it was continued until the time of Theobald, passing not only through the four folios, but through the editions of Rowe and Pope. SCENE VI. P. 164. Marcius, by permission of Cominius, and after an ani- mating speech, wishes to select a certain number of soldiers to ac- company him in an attack upon Aufidius and his Antiates : he, therefore, tells the troops, — " Please you to march ; And four shall quickly draw out my command, Which men are best inclin'd." Here a difficulty has arisen, why "four" were to draw out his SC. IX.] CORIOLANUS. 875 command, and many notes have been \vritten upon the question. We print the passage, as we find it amended, which shows that the scribe or the compositor (most likely the former in this in- stance) was to blame : — " Please you march before, And I shall quickly draw out my command, Which men are best inclin'd." Whoever made the copy for the printer, must have understood hefore as hy four, and put it in the wrong place, curing the defect in the metre of the first line by arbitrarily inserting to. Nothing could be more natural than for Marcius to direct the soldiers to march in front of him, that he might himself make the selection of such as he was to lead. SCENE VIII. P. 165. When Marcius and Aufidius meet, the latter addresses the former, as the text has always been given, — " Not Afric owns a serpent I abhor More than thy fame and envy." This cannot be right, inasmuch as, taking "envy" even in the sense of hate, Aufidius could hardly mean that he abhoiTed the fame and the hate of Marcius : the printer made a slight error by mistaking the pronoun / for the contraction of the conjunction ; therefore the old corrector reads, — " Not Afric owns a serpent I abhor More than thy fame / envy." SCENE IX. P. 168. Tyrwhitt's emendation of coverture for "overture," in the subsequent lines, is precisely that found in the margin of the folio, 1632; but "them" is also there altered to it, with obvious fitness : — " When steel grows soft as the parasite's silk Let it bs made a coverture for the wars." If coverture were not introduced into the text, it was from the hope that sufficient meaning might be made out of the old printed 876 CORIOLANUS. [ACT II. language of the folios ; but the authority of a manuscript-correc- tion here comes in aid of a speculative emendation, and it appears to us that we need not hesitate upon the point hereafter. ACT II. SCENE I. P. 173. Yew scenes are worse printed in the early copies than this between Menenius and the two Tribunes : it is full of literal errors, and of some which are important to the author's sense, and are set right in manuscript in the second folio. Thus Me- nenius says of himself, — • '•' I am known to be a humorous patrician, and one that loves a cup of hot wine, with not a drop of allaying Tyber in't : said to be something imper- fect in favouring the first complaint." What is "the first complamt" in connexion with Menenius's love for " a cup of hot wine ?" It is merely an error from mishearing on the part of the copyist ; for, undoubtedly, we ought to alter "first" to thirst, — "the thirst complaint:" — " One that loves a cup of hot wine, without a droj^ of allaying Tyber in't : said to be something imperfect in favouring the thirst complaint." The humour is entirely lost in the old misprinted text, " first com- plaint;" and although no objection need be raised to "with not," instead of loithout, nothing could be easier than the misprint of one word for the other: seeing that "thirst complaint" must be right, we can readily believe in the less important change. Lower down in the same speech, a negative and a pronoun are omitted, and "bisson" is misprmted heesome: while, still lower, we have "rejourn" for adjourn, though "rejourn" may answer the pur- pose. Near the top of the next page, " controversy bleeding " is put for "controversy pleading,^'' or controversy that was in a course of discussion before the Tribunes. P. 175. The word in the old editions, " emperickqutique," has, naturally enough, occasioned a pause among the annotators, who at last concurred with Ritson in thinking it " an adjective evidently formed from empirick." Such is not the case : the sentence in which it occurs is part of a speech by Menenius. who is so re- SC. I.] COEIOLANUS. 877 joiced at having a letter from the hero, that he declares that it will lengthen his life seven years — ^" the most sovereign prescrip- tion in Galen is but emperickqutique, and to this preservative of no better report than a horse-drench." " Emperickqutique " was not, if we are to believe the old corrector, formed from " empir- ick," but was a blunder of the printer for two words, w^hich he absurdly combined in one, namely, "empirick" and "phisique," as physic was then often spelt: we ought, therefore, to read, " the most sovereign prescription in Galen is but empiric physic, and to this preservative of no better report than a horse-drench." " Empiric ^%si*c" is, of course, only quack-medicine. P. 178. The first part of the subsequent quotation hardly re- quires a note ; while the awkward expression in the last part of it has attracted no observation : — " Your prattling nurse Into a rapture lets her baby cry, While she chats him." Brutus is here referring to the triumphant return of Coriolanus (now so called) to Rome; and "chats him" is certainly intelligi- ble in the sense of talks about him, though " chats of him" would be more proper : but a note in the folio, 1632, induces us to believe that Shakespeare did not use the term "chats" at all, and that the word has been misprinted, the compositor taking ee for a, and t (the commonest blunder) for r : — " Your prattling nurse Into a rapture lets her baby cry, While she cheers him." This change is quite consistent with the context. P. 180. In the following, Theobald read "teach," reach, on the supposition that, here also, t had been inserted by the compositor, instead of r : — " This, as you say, suggested At some time when his soaring insolence Shall teach the people," &c. 878 CORIOLANUS. [ACT II. The right word was neither " teach" nor reach^ but a word much better adapted to the situation than either : — " This, as you say, suggested At some time when his soaring insolence Shall touch the people," «fcc. i. e. shall gall or irritate them. This use of touch is common in Shakespeare and other writers. SCENE n. P. 183. When the Senators and Tribunes have assembled "to thank and to remember" the services of Coriolanus, Sicinius re- marks, — " "We are convented Upon a pleasing treaty." The corrector of the folio, 1632, directs us to substitute treatise {ov " treaty," a change supported by " theme," which immediately follows ; but he recommends a more necessary emendation in the speech of Brutus, just afterwards, where the Tribune adverts to the fitness of honouring and advancing the hero for his services : he says, — " Which the rather We shall be blest to do, if he remember A kinder value of the people." The scribe clearly misheard the word, and wrote " blest" for prest, i. e. ready — of perpetual occurrence in all writers of the time : — " A\Tiich the rather We shall he presf to do," &c. Even the grudging Tribunes might declare themselves readij " to honour and advance the theme of their assembly," but there seems no reason why they should state that they should be " blest" in doing so. P. 185. This scene is ill-printed in the folio, 1623, but much worse in the folio, 1632, where errors of all kinds are so nume- so. III.] COEIOLANUS. 379 roiis that the margin is filled with corrections in manuscript. It may be sufficient to mention that in the speech of Cominius, re- counting the deeds of Coriolanus, the old corrector alters " trim'd with dying cries," of the folio, 1632 (it is " tim'd with dying cries" in the folio, 1623), to " tund with dying cries," which may be right ; and " shunless defamif to " shunless destiny," which was very likely derived from the earlier impression. SCENE III. P. 190. Many notes have been written upon the question of Coriolanus, thus represented in the folio, 1623 : — " Why in this woolvish tongue should I stand here ?" In the folio, 1632, "tongue" is altered to gown; but the poet's word was doubtless " togue'' for toga^ mistaken by the compositor, and printed " tongue." The difficulty has not arisen out of this substantive, but out of the epithet which precedes it, woolvish ; and Johnson, Steevens, Ritson, Malone, &c., have all tried in vain to explain its meaning in the place where it occurs. It is nothing but a lapse by the printer, who, earlier in the play (p. 179), did not know what to make of "napless," and called it Naples^ — " the Naples vesture of humility :" here, again, he did not under- stand what he was putting in type, and therefore committed a singular, and hitherto inexplicable blunder. A manuscript note in the folio, 1632, sets all right, and offers a most acceptable emendation : — " Why in this woolless togue should I stand here, To beg of Hob and Dick?" &c. As the toga was " napless," so it was ivoolless, an alteration for the better, that carries conviction on the very face of it. Are we to impute it merely to the sagacity of the early possessor of the folio, 1632, when nobody since his time has had any notion of the sort ? or are we to suppose that he had in this mstance, and in some others, a guide by which his speculations were assisted 1 P. 195. Pope's line respectmg Censorinus, as one of the an- cestors of Coriolanus, was not wanted, inasmuch as this portion 880 CORIOLANUS. [ACT III. of the speecn of Brutus was struck out by the old corrector, pos- sibly, because he saw the defect, and was not in a condition to remedy it. Nevertheless, something was at one time written in the margin, but it is so erased as not now to be legible. ACT ni. SCENE I. P. 201. Modern editors, since the time of Theobald, have pro- perly corrected the first line of the speech of Coriolanus, — "0, good, but most unwise patricians !" which stands in the old copies, " O God ! but most unwise," &c. ; "but there are very important blunders in subsequent lines, which they have allowed to pass without remark. We will first, as usual, insert the text as it stands universally printed, and follow it by the excellent emendations contained in the folio, 1632 : — " 0, good, but most unwise patricians! why, You grave but reckless senators, have you thus Given Hydra here to choose an officer, That with his peremptory ' shall,' being but The horn and noise o' the monsters, wants not spirit To say he'll turn your current in a ditch. And make your channel his ? If he have power, Then vail your ignorance : if none, awake Your dangerous lenity." In the above, besides the first, — God for " good," — there are no fewer than five striking errors of the press, or perhaps of the scribe, for some of them are hardly to be imputed to the compo- sitor. Trusting to the corrector of the folio, 1632, we ought hereafter to give the passage as follows : — " 0, good, but most unwise patricians ! why, You grave but reckless senators, have you thus Given Hydra leave to choose an officer. That with his peremptory ' shall' (being but The horn and noise of the monster) wants not spirit To say, he'll turn your current in a ditch, And make your channel his ? If he have power, Then vail your impotence : if none, revoke Your dangerous bounty,^' SC. I.] COEIOLANUS. 881 The meaning of the last portion of the quotation is, that if the Tribune have power, let the impotence (not "ignorance," which is not the proper antithesis of power) of the senate submit to it ; but if he have none, let the senate revoke the bounty by which such a perilous privilege had been conceded to the populace. The " lenity" of the patricians was not to be " awakened :" Corio- lanus calls upon them to revoke the bounty which had caused them to relinquish a power properly belonging only to themselves. What the hero says afterwards is in entire consistency with this view of the passage : — '' At once pluck out The multitudinous tongue : let them not lick The sweet which Is their poison." The corrector of the folio, 1632, therefore, informs us that the whole passage ought, hereafter, to be printed as above ; and the faults of the received text are glaring enough, without supposing, with Johnson, that, farther on in the same speech, we ought to read " most palates" must palate^ which the corrector does not require, and which he would, no doubt, have required, had it been necessary. P. 202. The grossness of the blunders just pointed out, will, in some degree, prepare us for others in the next speech by the same character, where he inveighs against those who had yielded to clamour in distributing corn gratis to the populace. The lan- guage of Shakespeare has been hitherto stated to be this : — *' Th' accusation Which they have often made against the senate, All cause unborn, could never be the native Of our so frank donation. Well, what then ? How shall this bosom multiplied digest The senate's courtesy ?" Corrections in the folio, 1632, call upon us to read thus: — " Th' accusation Which they have often made against the senate, All cause unborn, could never be the motive Of our so frank donation. Well, what then ? 382 COEIOLANUS. [ACT III. How shall this bisson multitude digest The senate's courtesy ?" Monk Mason proposed motive for " native ;" but " bosom multi- plied," a misprint most evident now it is pointed out, has always been retained in the text. It can never be reprinted ; and is it too much to infer that the old corrector had somewhere seen or heard the above passage, and others, represented with undoubted improvement ? On p. 172, we have had " bisson" printed hesome^ and here it is printed bosome : it is very clear that the compositor did not understand the meaning of the word, which, perhaps, was then becoming somewhat obsolete : this consideration can, how- ever, afford him no excuse for converting " multitude" into multi- plied. P. 208. It ought to be remarked that in the subsequent ex- tract,-^ " That our renowned Rome, whose gratitude Towards her deserved children is enroll'd," &c., the passive participle is changed to the active, — " Towards her deserving children." It may have been so recited at the time the corrections were made m the folio, 1632. SCENE II. P. 211. A rather noticeable change is made by the old annota- tor in the entrance of Volumnia : in print she is made to come in just before the Patrician's speech, " You do the nobler," stand- ing by and saying nothing, while Coriolanus speaks of her in the third person. A manuscript-emendation fixes her arrival on the scene, more naturally perhaps, at the words of Coriolanus, ad- dressed expressly to her, " I talk of you," &c. We may suppose that this arrangement represents the practice of our old stage in this respect. Her first speech begins, not " O, sir, sir, sir," but '' O, son, son^ son,^^ which seems more proper. P. 212. On the same evidence, we here recover a line, which is certainly wanting in the old copies, since they leave the sense in- complete without it. It is m Volumnia's entreaty to her son, — SC. in.] CORIOLANUS. 883 " Pray be counsell'd. I have a heart as little apt as yours, But yet a brain that leads my use of anger To better vantage." To what was Volumnia's heart " as little apt " as that of Coriola- nus ? The insertion of a missing line (the absence of which has not hitherto been suspected) enables us to give the answer : — " I have a heart as little apt as yours To brook control without the use of anger, But yet a brain, that leads my use of anger To better vantage." The line in Italics is written in a blank space, and a mark made to where it ought to come in. The compositor w^as, doubtless, misled by the recurrence of the same words at the ends of the two lines, and carelessly omitted the first. From whence, if not from some independent authority, whether heard or read, was this addition to the text derived 1 Nevertheless, a previous line in the folio, 1632, unquestionably misprinted, things being used for " thwartings" (a word excellent- ly guessed by Theobald), is left imperfect in its meaning, as if it had escaped attention, a most unusual circumstance with the manuscript-corrector. SCENE III. P. 217. The following must be allowed to be a valuable emen- dation of a passage, which is thus given in every edition, ancient or recent : — " He hath been us'd Ever to conquer, and to have his worth Of contradiction." Malone gravely says, that " to have his worth of contradiction," means to have his pennyworth of it ; but the whole figure here is taken from horsemanship. When a restive animal obtains his own way, he is said to have his mouth given to him : to give a horse his mouth, is to free him from restraint ; therefore Brutus, speaking of Coriolanus and of his irritable spirit, remarks, — 884 CORIOLANUS, [ACT lY. " He hath been us'd Ever to conquer, and to have his mouth Of contradiction : being once chaf 'd, he cannot Be rein'd again to temperance." The old printer again confounded m and w^ and read mouth " worth." The necessary letters are wa^itten in the margin of the folio, 1632, and struck through in the text. P. 219. There is certainly no play in the whole volume so badly printed as that before us ; and passing over several strange blunders, such as through for "throng," actions for "accents" (both corrected by Theobald), we arrive at one which may not be quite as glaring, but still must be pronounced an error of the press : it is where Coriolanus declares his contempt of death, rather than consent to purchase life by submission to the people : — "I would not buy Their mercy at the price of one fair word, Nor check my courage for what they can give, To have't with saying, good morrow." It is most inconsistent with the noble character of the hero to re- present him in this way applauding and vaunting his own " cour- age :" the old corrector writes carriage for " courage," an easy mistake, the setting right of which is an evident improvement : — " Nor check my carriage for what they can give," «S:c. The very same misprint has been pointed out, and remedied in the same way, in Henry VI., Part III., p. 317 of this volume. ACT TV. SCENE I. P. 222. The commentators have clearly not understood part of Coriolanus' address to his mother : — "Nay, mother, Where is your ancient courage ? you were us'd To say, extremity was the trier of spirits ; That common chances common men could bear ; That, when the sea was calm, all boats alike so. v.] CORIOLANUS. 885 Show'd mastership in floating ; fortune's blows, When most struck home, being- gentle wounded, craves A noble cunning." Some editors have inserted warded for " wounded ;" Johnson, on the other hand, insisted upon the text of the folios ; but a slight change, which presupposes that the printer again mistook m and w^ is vastly for the better. Coriolanus is distinguishing between the modes in wliich common men, and those of nobler faculties bear misfortunes; and, when his language is truly given, ob- serves, — ^' Fortune's blows When most struck home, being gentle-wmc?ec? craves A noble cunning." That is, it requires a noble cunning for a man to be gentle- minded, when fortune's blows are most struck home. SCENE in. P. 226. The suggestion of Steevens that, in the speech of the Volsce, " appeared" should be approved^ is supported by the testi- mony of the old corrector, who also warrants the change, by the same commentator, on p. 229, of "my birth-place have I" to " my birth-place hate I." In a previous line of the same speech, — ''Whose hours, whose bed, whose meal, and exercise," the old corrector has, " Whose house ^ whose bed," &c., with some apparent fitness. The literal errors are here superabundant in both folios, but they are multiplied in that of 1632. SCENE V. P. 236. Perhaps the following may be considered as belonging to that class : it is where the third Servant is speaking of the friends of Coriolanus, who do not dare to show themselves so " whilst he is in directitude." The first Servant naturally asks, what is the meaning of " directitude V and receives no answer, excepting by implication, derived from the supposition that Cori- olanus will soon be again in prosperity, and surrounded by his supporters. " Directitude" is clearly a misprint for dejectitude, — • 17 886 coRiOLANus. [act IV. a rather fine word, used by the third Servant to denote the disas- trous condition of the affairs of Coriolanus, which might be just as unintelligible to the first Servant as " directitude." The blunder must have been produced by the scribe having written deitctitude, with an i instead of a j. It has remained, however, " directitude," from the earliest times to the present. P. 237. The first Servant, stating his preference of war to peace, says that war is " sprightly, waking {walking in the folios), audi- ble, and full of vent." Johnson tells us that '• full of vent" means "full of rumour, full of materials for discourse." " Full of vaunt,^'' says the old corrector, with much greater plausibility, full of deeds deserving to be vaunted. SCENE VI. P. 240. On p. 201 we have seen (/od misprinted for " good ;" and, in what follows, a marginal correction in the folio, 1632, shows that " good" has been misprinted for god. Brutus could hardly intend to call Marcius " good," when adverting to his re- ported return ; but he applies the word " god" to him in deri- sion, as if Coriolanus were in a manner worshipped by a certain class of his admirers : Brutus asserts that the rumour of his re- turn has been '' Rais'd only, that the weaker sort may wish God Marcius home again." Such is the emendation, which adds vastly to the force of the pas- sage, and is most accordant with the character of the speaker ; " good Marcius" is comparatively tame and unmeaning. Comi- nius soon afterwards, talking of Coriolanus, says, " lie is their ffod" &c. P. 242. The point of another passage appears, on the authority of the old corrector, to have been sacrificed to an error, where Menenius says to the Tribunes, — '• You have made fair hands, You and your crafts; you have crafted fair." We ought unquestionably to read handy craftsiov "crafts," and to SC. VI.] CORIOLANUS. 887 print the lines as follows, both on account of the meaning and the metre : — - " You have made fair hands ^ You and your handy crafts have crafted fair." This change completes the defective line, and shows that Menenius uses the introductory expression, " You have made fair hands," in order that he may follow it up by the contemptuous mention of handycrafis. P. 245. The conclusion of the speech of Aufidius, where he is adverting to the manner in which high merits may be obscured, and even extinguished by the character and conduct of the pos' sessor, has excited much comment. We print it first as the pas- sage appears in the folio, 1623 :— '* So our virtue Lie in th' interpretation of the time, And power, unto itself most commendable, Hath not a tomb so evident as a chair T' extol what it hath done. One fire drives out one fire 5 one nail, one nail ; Rights by rights fouler, strengths by strengths do fail." The only difference between the folio, 1623, and that of 1632, is, that the latter corrects a grammatical blunder by printing " virtue" in the plural ; but, besides this trifle, there appear to be several other mistakes, of more consequence, and we subjoin the text as amended in manuscript: — '' So our virtues Live in the interpretation of the time. And power, in itself most commendable, Hath not a tomb so evident as a cheer T' extol what it hath done. One fii-e drives out one fire, one nail, one nail ; Rights by rights suffer, strengths by strengths do fail." Most editors have seen that " Rights by rights fouler" must be wrong, and have proposed various changes, though none so ac- ceptable as that above given. However, the main difficulty has arisen out of the word " chair," which the old corrector informs us should be cheer^ in reference to the popular applause which usu- 888 coRiOLANus. [act IV. ally follows great actions ; and, by extolling what has been done, confounds the doer. The change of " lie" to live^ in a preceding line, is countenanced by the word " tomb," afterwards used ; and the whole passage means, that virtues depend upon the construc- tion put upon them by contemporaries, and that power, though praiseworthy, may be buried by the very applause that is heaped upon it, &c. The last couplet requires no elucidation, when suffer is substituted for " fouler," an error that may, in part, have been occasioned by the letter / having been employed instead of the long s. It is difficult to say how far some independent authority may, or may not, have been used in this emendation. P. 250. In order to induce the guard to admit him to an inter- view with Coriolanus, Menenius says, as the lines have always been given, — " For I have ever verified my friends (Of whom he's chief) with all the size that verity Would without lapsing suffer." This surely is little better than nonsense, the compositor having printed " verified" in the first line from his eye having caught " verity" in the second. We are, therefore, told to read thus : — " For I have ever magnified my friends," &c. ; and Menenius goes on to say, that he had magnified them to the utmost " size" that truth would allow. P. 254. Another instance in which the annotator of the folio, 1632, preferred the active to the passive participle occurs here, and where the one seems, to our ears, to answer the purpose quite as well as the other : it is in Volumnia's speech to her son, — " I kneel before thee, and unproperly Show duty, as mistaken all this while Between the child and parent ;" mistaking is written in the margin for " mistaken," the word in all impressions, and requiring no alteration. P. 256. Shakespeare has always been hitherto represented as guilty of a grammatical blunder, little less than ridiculous : — SC. VI.] CORIOLANUS. 389 " Making the mother, wife, and child to see The son, the husband, and the father tearing His country's bowels out. And to poor we, Thine enmity's most capital." Here the punctuation of the old copies leads to the detection of two typographical errors, "to" for so, and "enmities" for ene- mies : — " And the father tearing His country's bowels out ; and so poor we Thine enemies most capital." i.e. and so poor we are thy most capital enemies. These small and natural changes at once remove the solecism. P. 258. The additions to the stage-directions in this play are not many, nor of much consequence ; but we here encounter one that requires notice, because it serves to show the n^nner of the old actor of the part of Coriolanus at this point of the noblest scene, perhaps, in the whole range of dramatic literature. After Volumnia's grand and touching appeal, beginning, " Nay, go not from us thus," we are informed in the ancient editions that Corio- lanus holds her hy the hand silent ; and the following descriptive addition is miade in manuscript, long, and self- struggling. After this protracted strife, which shook the whole fabric of the hero, he yields, with the exclamation, — " mother, mother ! What have you done ?" &c. P. 263. An alteration which can hardly be subject to doubt or dispute, occurs where Aufidius is descanting on the manner in w^hich he had "served the designments" of Coriolanus to his own injury : the passage in all editions has stood as follows : — " Serv'd his designments In mine own person 5 holp to reap the fame Which he did end all his." Rowe printed maJce for " end," and he was followed by several editors, who did not see how sense could be extracted from " end." Shakespeare is here only using a metaphor which he has 890 CORIOLANUS. [act IV. often employed before, and it is obvious from the context that for " end" we ought to read ear^ which means, in its derivation as well as in its use, to plough : therefore, when Aufidius says that he had " Holp to reap the fame Which he did ear all his ;" he means that Coriolanus had ploughed the ground, intending to reap a crop of fame, which Aufidius had assisted him to harvest. The use of the word "reap" proves what was in the mind of the poet. It is needless to enumerate the places where Shakespeare employs the verb, to ear, in the sense of to plough. P. 266. It is a mistake, in note 7 on this page, to state that Ma- lone (Shakspeare, by Boswell, xiv. p. 225) reads voices : he prints it Voices^ which is strictly right, although all the old copies have Volscians. The folio, 1632, like that of 1623, has, " flattered your Volscians in Coriolus ;" but the corrector of the former has alter- ed "flatter'd" to fluttered, by striking out the a, and placing u m the margin. Fluttered is the word in the folio, 1664, and so it has continued ever since: "Volcians" is altered to Voices in no old copy. Lower down, where All People is the prefix to various excla- mations by different citizens against Coriolanus, the figures 1, 2, 3, 4, are placed in manuscript in the margin to show that the speeches, " He killed my son — my daughter — he killed my cousin Marcus — he killed my father," were uttered by different people, whose families Coriolanus was charged with having thinned. P. 267. In the old impressions, when the Conspirators assail Coriolanus and kill him, the stage-direction is, Braiu hath the Conspirators and kill Martins ; but we have already seen Aufi- dius instructing three Conspirators. Perhaps, in the economy of our old stage, only two were so employed at the time the hero was actually struck, and that the actor, who had played the thh'd Conspirator on p. 264, had other duties to perform in the busy last scene of the drama. We have before said that the stage- directions are little added to or altered in this play ; but, at the SC. YI.] CORIOLANUS. 891 very close, some words are subjoined which require notice : the old printed stage-direction is, Exeunt bearing the body of Martius. A dead march sounded ; to which the following words are ap- pended in manuscript — whiles they leave the stage^ marching round : the dead march was, therefore, continued to be played, until the whole procession had passed round the stage, in order, doubtless, to render the ceremonial more distinct and impressive. This, we believe, is a traditional practice, which has ever since been continued. TITUS AIS^DEONICUS. ACT I. SCENE I. P. 275. There can be no difficulty in admitting the subsequent emendation of an evident misprint near the opeiiuig of this play, where Eassianus says, — " Keep then this passage to the Capitol, And suffer not dishonour to approach Th' imperial seat, to virtue consecrate, To justice, continence, and nobility." There is no reason why the Capitol should be said to be conse- crate to " continence," especially when, in the preceding line, it is stated to be consecrate to " virtue :" the corrector of the folio, 1632, therefore, alters the last line thus : — " To justice, conscience, and nobility,'' Besides, " contmence," read as a tri-syllable, is too much for the verse. SCENE n. P. 279. Rhymes, whether lost by a change in the practice of the stage, by carelessness of recitation, copying, printing, or other- wise, are restored in various parts of this tragedy : the earliest instance of the kind occurs at the end of one of the speeches of Titus, where he tells Tamora that her son must be slain as a sa- crifice .for his dead sons; the rhyme seems so inevitable, that we can hardly suppose it relinquished excepting by design : — " To this your son is mark'd ; and die he must To appease their groaning shadows that are dust.''^ The printed copies poorly read " gone" for dust. (392) ACT II.] TITUS ANDRONICUS. 893 P. 282. When the people wish to elect Titus for their Empe- ror, he declines on account of age and infirmity : — " What ! should I don this robe, and trouble you ? Be chosen with proclamations to-day, To-morrow yield up rule, resign my life. And set abroad new business for you all." '•'Proclamations" may be right, but acclamations is the word writ- ten in the margin instead of it ; and for " set abroad," the more natural reading is set abroach, which is also supplied in the folio, 1632. P. 288. We have here a proof that the old corrector may have resorted to the quarto copies of this play, where only, and not in the folios, in the following line, — • ''That slew himself, and wise Laertes' son," the epithet "wise" is found. It is possible, however, that the necessary word was obtained from recitation, or even from some independent authority, written or printed. Some of the changes in this play could scarcely have been made without some such aid. ACT II. SCENE I. P. 297. When Aaron is prompting Chiron and Demetrius to ravish Lavinia, he tells them that they may safely do it in the forest : — " The woods are ruthless, dreadful, deaf, and dull." To say that the woods are " dreadful," seems the very opposite of what is meant : they were pitiless, and discovery or opposition were not to be dreaded ; we are, therefore, told to read, — " The woods are ruthless, dreadless, deaf, and dull." SCENE II. P. 297. In the opening of this scene, we meet with one of those passages to which the rhymes have been elaborately restored, 17* 894: TITUS ANDRONICUS. [ACT II, where, from the nature of the description, they seem natural, and to which we may feel confident they at one time belonged. The use of the phrase, " the hunt is up," in the outset, would almost appear to call for them, especially in a drama of the age to which "Titus Andronicus" must be assigned. It is needless to quote the lines as given in all editions, but we subjoin them with the manuscript-emendations, as they occur in the folio, 1632 : — '• The hunt is up, the morn is bright and gay, The fields are fragrant and the woods are wide, Uncouple here, and let us make a bay, And wake the emperor and his lovely bride, And rouse the prince and sing a hunter's round, That all the court may echo with the sound. Sons, let it be your charge, and so will I, To attend the emperor's person carefully : I have been troubled in my sleep this night, But dawning day brought comfort atid delight.^' Nothing can well reacl more easily, naturally, or harmoniously. The first six lines form a stanza, and such were not uncommonly introduced by Shakespeare in his earlier plays, instances being found in " Love's Labour's Lost," &c. To say that " the morn is bright and grey," as in the old copies, reads a little contradic- torily, and the word gay is, we see, substituted as that of the poet. How far any of these changes were su23ported by author- ity, must remain a question ; at least we are not in a condition to answer it. An addition to the old stage-direction, wind horns, informs us that The hunt is up was here sung by the performers. SCENE III. P. 300. A mere misprint, pointed out by the old corrector, has been the occasion of notes by Heath, Steevens, Malone, and Boswell, upon the lines, — ^' Thy temples should be planted presently, With horns, as were Actaeons ; and the hounds Should drive upon thy new transformed limbs." Heath proposed thrive for " drive," and Steevens was for pre- ACT III.] TITUS ANDRONICUS. 395 serving the old word, which, nevertheless, all admitted could scarcely be right. Now, as everybody knows that Actseon was devoured by his own dogs, it is singular that the blunder was never yet guessed at by any commentator : it is, — " Should dine upon thy new transformed limbs." P. 303. Lavinia tells Chiron and Tamora, — " The lion, moved with pity, did endure To have his princely paws par'd all away." It was not his " paws," but his claws, that he endured to be pared away : — " To have his princely daws par'd all away." It is not likely that pity would have allowed the beast to re- main quiet, while his " paws" were " pared all away." SCENE V. P. 310. There can hardly be a doubt, -unless we suppose Shakespeare to have left the line purposely incomplete, that the ensuing addition to an imperfect hemistich was justified by some authority with which the corrector of the folio 1632, was ac- quamted, though now lost. Marcus is referring to the music Lavinia sang to the lute before her tongue was cut out : — " Or had he heard the heavenly harmony, Which that sweet tongue hath made in minstrelsy, He would have di-opp'd his knife," &c. ACT III. SCENE I. P. 321. "When Titus Andronicus sends his son to Lucius to raise an army among the Goths, he ends his speech with a couplet rhyming with the same word : — " And, if you love me, as I think you do, Let's kiss and part, for we have much to do." This was probably a corruption, for the old corrector shows how easy it was to avoid the awkwardness : — " And, if you love me, as I think His true, Let's kiss and part, for we have much to do." 896 TITUS ANDRONICUS. [ACT IV It does not require any very strong faith to believe that this must have been the original reading. SCENE n. P. 323. That part of the scene ^yhich relates to the killing of the fly is erased ; and the blunder at the end, where seven lines are given to Marcus, is set right by assigning the five last to An- dronicus. Copies of the folio, 1623, differ m this respect: in the folio, 1632, the prefix And, for Andronicus, is printed only, as if it were the conjunction. ACT IV. SCENE II. P. 331. When the Nurse brings to Aaron the black child of ■the empress, she says, — " Here is the babe, as loathsome as a toad Among the fairest breeders of our clime." The child was not a " breeder," but a burden, and so it stands amended in the folio, 1632 : — " Among the fairest burdens of our clime." P. 334. For the line as we find it in all the old copies, — '' Not far, one Muliteus my countryman," the correction is, — " Not far hence Muli lives, my countryman." Steevens conjectured that " Muli lives" had been corrupted to Muliteus, and he was right ; but hence appears also to have been misprinted one : the latter change is, however, by any means re- quired. Lower down, for the awkward expression, — *' This done, see that you take no longer days," the old corrector tells us to substitute, — " This, done, see that you make no long delays.''^ This, too, cannot be said to be a necessary change, but it is clearly an advantageous one, and most likely what the author wrote. ACT v.] TITUS ANDRONICUS. 897 SCENE III. P. 336. This scene is made part of the preceding by the manu- script-corrector ; and very possibly it was so, when the play was acted of old, in order to avoid too frequent changes of the kind. It is also much shortened by the erasure of the two long passages, in which Andronicus shows his distraction, and Publius humours it. SCENE IV. P. 339. Eowe amended the^ following line by the awkward in- sertion of "as do" in the middle of it: — " My lords, you know, as do the mightfiil gods 5" but the emendation in the folio, 1632, shows that words had not dropped out in the middle of the line, which was not so likely, but at the end of it, and they were, of course, not what Rowe con- jectured : — \ no less.'^ " My lords, you know, the mightful gods ACT V. SCENE I. P. 345. There can be no doubt, on the evidence of the old cor- rector of the folio, 1632, that the words, " Get me a ladder," be- long to Lucius and not to Aaron, whose speech begins with, " Lucius, save the child." A manuscript stage-direction proves that a ladder was brought, and that the Moor made all his subse- quent speeches standing upon it. Before he ascends it, he tells the Goths that he will disclose "Complots of mischief, treason, villainies, Ruthful to hear, yet piteously perform 'd :" " Piteously perform'd " must be the very reverse of what he means, and there can be no hesitation in prmting the last line in future, as we are instructed by an emendation, — '< Ruthful to hear, despiteoushj perform'd." SCENE II. P. 349. The old introduction to this scene is, Unter Tamora and her two Sons disguised ; and in manuscript we are informed 898 TITUS ANDROXICUS. [ACT Y. that the characters they assumed were those of Revenge, Rape^ and Murder. Andronicus, when they call him, opens his study door above, i. e. in the balcony over the back of the stage, from whence he comes down, and joins them helow, to converse about vengeance for the sufferings of himself and the rest of the An- dronici. Such appears to have been the mode in which the scene was managed in the time of the corrector, and, perhaps, from the first production of the tragedy. P. 355. When Andronicus cuts the throats of Demetrius and Chiron, Lavinia catcheth the blood in a basin she had procured : there seems little occasion for this addition to the usual stage- direction, as we are previously told the part she is to play in the transaction ; but the writer of the manuscript notes was anxious to be most explicit. SCENE III. P. 358. There is a remarkable discordance between the quar- tos and folios regarding the speech beginning, — "Lest Rome herself be bane unto herself:" the quartos strangely assign it to a Roman Lord ; and the folios, most absurdly, to a Goth. It seems evident from what precedes, where Marcus says, — " ! let me teach you how to knit again," &c., that the whole belongs to him ; and the corrector of the folio, 1632, has, therefore, put his pen through the prefix Goth, and makes the next twenty- three lines run on as the continuation of what Marcus delivers. P. 362. According to the old emendator, rhymes were numer- ous towards the close of this play. Lucius, speaking of his father, says to his young son, — " Shed yet some small drops from thy tender spring, Because kind nature doth require it so: Friends should associate friends in grief and woe. Bid him farewell ; commit him to the grave ; Do him that kindness, and take leave of him." SC. III.] TITUS ANDRONICUS. 899 " And take leave of him," besides marring the rhyming couplet, sounds very tamely and weakly, and is, in another form, a mere repetition of " Bid him farewell," of the preceding line. We m.ay, therefore, on all accounts, be prepared to acquiesce in the subse- quent manuscript-emendation : — '• Bid him farewell ; commit him to the grave ; Do him that kindness — all that he can have.''' It will excite surprise how rhymes like these escaped : they must have been more impressed upon the memory of the actor ; and, even if w^e suppose them to have been abandoned, on account of the advance made by blank-verse on the stage, that advance had hardly occurred when "Titus Andronicus" was first printed. Moreover, in the mstance before us, and in others, the original lines (supposing them to have been such) were so much better adapted to the occasion, and to the person who pronounced them. EOMEO AND JULIET. ACT I. SCENE I. P. 375. A manuscript-emendation in the folio, 1632, makes it certain that " civil," in the following portion of Sampson's speech, is a misprint : — " When I have fought with the men, I v/ill be civil with the maids ; I will cut off their heads." " Civil" is struck out, and cruel mserted instead of it. Malone rightly preferred cruel. P. 378. The corrected folio, 1632, gives one line differently from any other authority : it is a reading which may be right, but which ought not, perhaps, to have weight enough to induce us to alter the received and very intelligible text. It is met with in the Prince's reproof of Montague and Capulet for allowing the quar- rels of their followers to disturb the public peace ; the universal reading has been, — " Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word,'' &c. For "ayery word" (so spelt in the folios) the substitution is " angry word." P. 382. Romeo, describing love, remarks, — " Love is a smoke, made with the fume of sighs ; Being purg'd, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes." Johnson, Steevens, Reed, and others, have contended that " purg'd" cannot have been the poet's language ; and they suggest urg'^d^ in the sense of excited. This emendation might answer the purpose, if no better were offered, but in the margin of the folio, 1632, we are told to substitute a word that exactly belongs to the place, and that might be easily misread " purg'd" by the printer : — (400) ACT I.] EOMEO AND JULIET. 401 *'' Being puff'd, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes." Every body is aware how a fire sometimes sparkles in the eyes of those who blow it with their breath : the somke is first "made" by the gentle " fame of sighs," and then caused to sparkle by being violently puffed by the lover's breath. If this emendation be capable of dispute, that in a line at the top of the next page cannot be doubted, since it accords, almost exactly, with the old copies, and obviously gives the sense of the author. Romeo is speaking of Rosaline, — '■' Slie hath Dian's wit, And in strong proof of cliastity well arm'cl, From love's weak childish bow she lives unharm'd." Such has always been the reading since the time of Rowe ; but the quarto, 1597, and the folios have, — " From love's weak childish bow she lives uncharm^d.^' "Unharm'd" may here again be said to answer the purpose, by giving a clear meaning ; but the alteration required by the cor- rector of the folio, 1632, is only of a single letter, and a much more poetical turn is given to the thought : — " She hath Dian's wit, And in strong proof of chastity well arm'd, From love's weak childish bow she lives encharm^d.-^ That is to say, she was magically encharmcd from love's bow by chastity. Nobody will deny that "unharm'd" is comparatively flat, poor, and insignificant. SCENE II. P. 384. The line, which in the folios is printed, — " And too soon marr'd are those so early made," had been given in the quartos, — " And too soon marr'd are those so early married;''^ and that should seem to be the true proverbial word, for the old corrector adopts it, and expunges " made." 402 ROMEO AND JULIET. [ACT I. SCENE IV. P. 395. He makes three emendations in Mercutio's descrip- tion of Queen Mab, all deserving notice, if not adoption : the first is the most singular, where, of the Fairy's wagoner, it is said, in the folio, 1623, that he is not half so big as a worm, — " Prick'd from the lazy finger of a man ;" and in the folio, 1632, — "Prick'd from the lazy finger of a woman ;^' while in the quarto, 1597, only, it stands, — " PicTcd from the lazy finger of a tnaid^ The modern reading has been compounded of both : — " Prick'd from the lazy finger of a maid." From whence the writer of the manuscript note in the folio, 1632, derived his information we know not, but he presents us with a fifth variety : — " Picked from the lazy finger of a m?7A;-maid." As might be expected, seven lines lower, he alters countries knees, of the same edition, to " courtiers' knees," and cursies to " court- esies ;" but his emendation of the last line of the page, — " Sometimes she gallops o'er a courtier's nose," merits most attention. It has been properly objected that this is the second time the poet has introduced "courtiers" into the de- scription. To avoid this. Pope read " lawyer'' s nose," adopting in part the '•'■ lawyer'' s lap^' of the quarto, 1597 : but while shunning one defect, he introduced another ; for though the double mention of "courtiers" is thus remedied, it occasions a double mention of " lawyers." In what way, then, does the old corrector take upon himself to decide the question? He treats the second "courtiers" as a misprint for a word which, when carelessly written, is not very dissimilar : — " Sometimes she gallops o'er a counsellor's nose, And then he dreams of smelling out a suit." ACT II.] ROMEO AND JULIET. 403 That counsellors^ and their interest in suits at court, should thus be ridiculed, cannot be thought unnatural. The third emendation is in the line, — '' And bakes the elf-locks in foul sluttish hairs," which is changed, more questionably and unpoetically, to " And makes the elf-locks," &c. P. 397. The quarto, 1597, when the wind is spoken of, alone has, — '' Turning his face to the dew-dropping south :" it is altered in all other old impressions to " Turning his side to the dew-dropping south ;" and by the old corrector, more than plausibly, to "■ Turning his tide to the dew-dropping south," The modern reading has been, " Turning his face," &;c. ; but as the quarto, 1597, has a decided mistake in the preceding line, we may receive " Turning his tide " as Shakespeare's language, though tide may more fitly and strictly belong to water than to wind. ACT XL SCENE I. P. 404. The Acts and Scenes (excepting the first) are not marked in any of the old impressions ; and by a manuscript note in the folio, 1632, Act II. is made to begin before, and not after the Chorus. Such was, perhaps, the ancient arrangement, but the point, though requiring notice, is one of comparatively little con- sequence. The words in this page, " Nay, I'll conjure too," assigned in all the quartos and folios to Benvolio, clearly belong to Mercutio, and the prefix is, therefore, altered in manuscript in the edition of 1632. The blunder has, we think, never been repeated in modern times. SCENE II. P. 406. Eomeo, speaking of the moon, and apostrophising Juliet, tells her, — 404 EOMEO AND JULIET. [ACT IL " Be not her maid, since she is envious ; Her vestal livery is but sick and green, And none but foob do wear it." Here we meet in the folio, 1632, with an emendation that calls for explanation : — " Her vestal livery is but white and green, And none but fools do wear it." The compositor perhaps caught " sick " from a line above, where Romeo describes the moon as " sick and pale ; " " white and green " must be the true reading, as is proved by what follows, where it is said that it was worn by " none but fools." " White and green " had been the royal livery in the reign of Henry VIIL, but Elizabeth changed it to scarlet and black ; and although mot- ley was the ordinary dress of fools and jesters, it is capable of proof that, earlier than the time of Shakespeare, the fools and jesters of the court (and perhaps some others) were still dressed in " white and green : " thus it became proverbially the livery of fools. Will Summer (who lived until 1560, and was buried at Shoreditch on the 15th June in that year) wore "white and green," and the circumstance is thus mentioned in " Certain Edicts of Parliament," at the end of the edition of Sir Thomas Over- bury 's "Wife," in 1614 : — "Item, no fellow shall begin to argue with a woman, &c., unless he wear white for William, and green for Summer " — that is, unless he be a fool, like W^ill Summer. Again, in Fox's "Acts and Monuments," iii. 114, a story is told of a person, who, noticing the colours in which St. John had been painted by the Papists in St. Paul's, said, " I hope ye be but a Summer's bird, in that ye be dressed in white and greeny It appears also that Skelton (Works by Dyce, I. xii. and 128), who boasts of " the habit the king gave " him, wore "white and green,", because he was the royal jester, though he also assumed the rank of laureat. In the time of Shakespeare it may have been discon- tinued as the dress even of court-fools, but it seems to have been traditionally so considered ; and on this account it is stated by him that " none but fools do wear it." P. 407. For " lazy-pacing clouds," the old corrector (in con- SC. 11.] ROMEO AND JULIET. 405 formity with the suggestion in note 8) converts lazy-pufing of the folios into lazy-passing ; and gives the Ime, — " Thou art thyself though not a Montague," in the following manner, though, perhaps, properly punctuated, the change is not necessary : — '^ Thou art thyself, although a Montague.'' He erases " belonging to a man," not being aware, possibly, of the omission of the preceding words, " Nor any other part," which are found in the quarto, 1597. This circumstance looks as if he had not referred to that edition. P. 410. On the other hand, we here find him inserting one word from all the quartos, and substituting another, met with only in the quarto, 1597 : the folios have, — " Lady, by yonder moon I vow ;" obviously incomplete from the omission of "blessed" before " moon," which is in every quarto ; but the quarto, 1597, alone gives the whole line as follows : — '' Lady, by yonder blessed moon I swear ;^^ "Swear" is in no other impression, yet the old corrector not merely inserts " blessed," but erases " vow," and puts swear in the place of it : swear is clearly right, as we learn from Juliet's reply. In these cases it appears most probable, that the writer of the manuscript-emendations was guided by the manner in which he heard the text repeated on the stage. P. 414. The last lines of Romeo's last speech ui this scene as given in the folio, 1632, are erased. Four of them, in fact, be- long to Friar Laurence, in the opening of Scene III., but as the sense is complete without them, they might not be recited, and the old corrector, therefore, takes no farther notice of them : he makes the speech of the Friar begin with, — " Now, ere the sun advance his burning eye." 406 ROMEO AND JULIET. [ACT II. SCENE III. P. 415. A single letter makes an important difference in the following : — ''But where unbruised youth, with unstufFd brain, Doth couch his limbs, there golden sleep doth reign." Friar Laurence is drawing a contrast between the wakefulness of careful age, and the calm sleep of untroubled youth : the epithet "unbruised" has, therefore, little propriety, and we are instructed to amend the line thus : — "But where unhusied youth, with uustuflTd brain," &c. This comes, we apprehend, w^ithin the class of extremely plausi- ble emendations. SCENE IV. P. 424. The Nurse says to Romeo, regarding Juliet, as the text has always stood: — "And, therefore, if you should deal double with her, truly, it were an ill thing to be offered to any gentlewoman, and very weak dealing." We can easily believe that "weak" is here not the proper epithet, and a manuscript marginal note warrants in altering it to " and very wicked deal- ing." The copyist, probably, misheard ; and in a case like this we certainly might venture to alter the defective text. SCENE V. P. 428. The Nurse brings tidings that Romeo is waiting for Juliet, in order to be married at the cell of Friar Laurence, and says,— " Now comes the wanton blood up in your cheeks, They'll be in scarlet straight at any news. Hie you to church," &c. It was not " at any news" that Juliet's cheeks would be in scarlet, but at the particular and joyful tidings brought by the Nurse, who, according to an emendation in the folio, 1632, tells her, — *• Now comes the wanton blood up in your cheeks, They'll be in scarlet straightway at my news." ACT III.] ROMEO AND JULIET. 407 ACT III. SCENE I. P. 435. It may be sufficient to state that a correction in the folio, 1632, converts "fire and fury," of the later quartos and folios, into " fire-eyed fury," of the quarto, 1597. On a previous page (432), the same course has been taken with the words, " Romeo, the hate I bear thee," instead of " the love I bear thee." Did the corrector derive these emendations from the quarto, 1597, or from more accurate recitation of the text than as it ap- pears in the folios 1 P. 437. We may conjecture that such was the case, from an addition to the text which we here meet with, and which is neces- sary for the completion of a line, but is not contained in any known copy, quarto or folio. It is in Benvolio's narrative of the fatal encounter between Mercutio and Tybalt : of the former he says,— " And with a martial scorn, with one hand beats Cold death aside, and with the other sends It back to Tybalt, whose dexterity Retorts it. Romeo he cries aloud 'Hold friends! friends part!' " &c. Here it is certain that the line, — " Retorts it, Romeo he cries aloud," is abridged of a syllable, which is supplied in manuscript : — " Retorts it home. Romeo he cries aloud," &c. On the next page we have " hate's proceeding," instead of ''heart's proceeding," although the quarto, 1597, is the only copy of the play which reads " hate's proceeding." SCENE II. P. 439. The line of Juliet's speech, as usually printed, — " That run-away 's eyes may wink," &c., has always been a stumbling-block, and perhaps no emendation can be declared perfectly satisfactory. The change proposed by the corrector of the folio, 1632, at all events makes very clear sense out of the passage, although it may still remain a question, 408 ROMEO AND JULIET. [ACT III. whether that sense be the sense of the poet 1 another subsidi- ary question will be, how so elaborate a misprint could have been made out of so simple and common a word 1 He gives the whole passage thus : — " Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night, That enemies' eyes may wink, and Romeo Leap to these arms untalk'd of and unseen." In the margin of the folio, 1632, enemies is sipelt enimyes ; but the letters are, perhaps, too few to have been mistaken for run-awaies. At the same time it seems extremely natural that Juliet should wish the eyes of enemies to be closed, in order that they might not see Eomeo leap to her arms, and talk of it afterwards. The Capulets were, of course, the enemies to whom she must particu- larly refer. SCENE V. P. 453. We here encounter a comparatively insignificant error, which is injurious to a very beautiful passage ; it is in the parting scene of Romeo and Juliet : — " I'll say, yon grey is not the morning's eye, 'Tis but the pale reflex of Cynthia's brow." Cynthia's "brow" would not occasion a "pale reflex," and by the omission of one letter the light is at once cleared : — " 'Tis but the pale reflex of Cynthia's how.'^ P. 457. The old corrector informs us that the words, " These are news indeed ! " do not belong to Juliet, but to her Mother, as seems highly probable : it is where Juliet has directly refused to marry Paris, and Lady Capulet exclaims, — '' These are news indeed ! Here comes your father 5 tell him so yourself," &c. This judicious arrangement is not in accordance with any known authority; and just above, "I swear" is erased, perhaps, as not adding to the force of Juliet's expression, hardly consistent with the delicacy of her character, and certainly destructive to the measure. ACT v.] ROMEO AND JULIET. 409 ACT IV. SCENE I. P. 462. In Henry VIII. (p. 344) we have seen ivay printed for " sway ;" and here we have " sway" printed for way. Paris remarks, — " Now, sir, her father counts it dangerous, That she doth give her sorrow so much sway." "So much way''^ is the correction in the margin of the folio, 1632; but the text may, perhaps, stand without change, although the corruption is a very easy one. SCENE II. P. 468. When Juliet says, speaking of Paris, that she had met him, — " And gave him what becomed love I might," the corrector of the folio, 1632, alters " becomed," the passive, to becoming^ the active participle : he has, as the reader is aware, pur- sued the same course in other places. SCENE V. P. 479. It is to be noted, that, contrary to his usual practice, the old corrector adds nothing to Peter's quotation from the poem by Edwards, although it is certainly defective, and is shown to be so by the quarto, 1597, where it is more completely given. He, however, underscores it with a pen, as he always does when Shakes- peare emplo^^s any thing derived from another author. The whole of this part of the scene is struck out, perhaps as needless to the performance ; and it was most likely inserted by Shakespeare to give more importance to the character of Peter, and to afford William Kemp, who played it, an opportunity of exciting the laughter of the audience. When Kemp was gone, it was, perhaps, no longer wanted. ACT V. SCENE I. P. 480. The first line of this act has hitherto presented a se- rious difficulty. Romeo says, — 18 410 KOMEO AND JULIET. [ACT V. " If I may trust the flattering truth of sleep, My dreams presage some joyful news at hand." Nobody has been able at all satisfactorily to explain the expres- sion " flattering truth," since " truth" cannot flatter : and Mai one, not liking Johnson's interpretation, preferred what is to the full as unintelligible, the text of the quarto, 1597 — " the flattering eye of sleep." The real truth (not the " flattering truth") seems to be, that the old compositor was confounded between "trust," in the first part of the line, and death near the end of it, and printed a word which he compounded of the beginning of the one word, and of the end of the other. Sleep is often resembled to death, and death to sleep; and when Romeo observes, as the correction in the folio, 1632, warrants us in giving the passage, — "If I may trust the flattering death of sleep ;" he calls it " the flattering death of sleep" on account of the dream of joyful news from which he had awaked: durmg this "flatter- ing death of sleep," he had dreamed of Juliet, and of her revival of him by the warmth of her kisses. Two lines lower, the folio, 1623, has a remarkable corruption, — "And all thisan day an vceustom'd spirit," which the folio, 1632, prints, in order to remedy the defect, — " And all this winged unaccustom'd spirit." Whence it obtained winged does not appear, but the true reading has been the common text, — " And, all this day, an unaccustom'd spirit :" to which the folio, 1632, is amended in manuscript. On the next page, " Then, I deny you, stars," is also properly altered to " Then, I defy you, stars." SCENE m. P. 485. The corrector makes a change, not authorised by any extant authority, in the speech of the Page attending Paris, whom his master has told to lie all along on the ground under some yew-trees : the line, as always printed, is, — SC. III.] ROMEO AND JULIET. 411 " I am almost afraid to stand alone ;" but Paris has expressly ordered him to lie down, with his ear close to the ground, that he might listen : therefore, the following alter- ation seems most proper, and is, doubtless, what the poet wrote : — " I am almost afraid to stay alone Here in the churcliyard ; yet I will adventure." P. 486. Numerous stage-directions are written in the margins of the folio, 1632. In this scene, Romeo's Man ("Peter" is erased) Enters ivith a torch ; and we are previously informed that the Monument of the Capulets, or some stage-property to repre- sent it, is seen by the audience, and that Paris brings with him a basket of flowers. When he and. Romeo fight, Paris falls, and Romeo 2^uts him in the monument. Printed stage-directions are entirely wanting, and no note is even made w^hen Romeo drinks the poison, or dies. These, and others in subsequent parts of the tragedy, are supplied. P. 489. The words " Shall I believe," which are mere surplus- age, are struck out, as well as the whole passage, obviously foist- ed in by some strange mistake, beginning, " Come, lie thou in my arms," and ending, " Depart agam." P. 494. The Prince of Verona, in the midst of the confusion and dismay, tells the people, — " Seal up the mouth of outrage for a while, Till we can clear these ambiguities." Perhaps " outrage" is to be taken in the general sense of disturb- ance • but the manuscript-corrector gives the w^ord differently, — " Seal up the mouth of outcry for a while." The necessity for this change is not very apparent ; but neverthe- less. Lady Capulet has exclaimed on entering, — " ! the people in the street cry Eomeo, Some Juliet, and some Paris ; and all run With open outcry toward our monument." P. 497. The last emendation in this play certainly looks as 412 EOMEO AND JULIET. [ACT V. much like the exercise of taste on the part of the old corrector as any alteration hitherto noticed : it is where old Montague declares his intention to raise a statue of Juliet " in pure gold :" — " There shall no figure at such rate be set, As that of true and faithful Juliet." The words "true and faithful" are indisputably tautologous, and it is not unlikely that Shakespeare left the last line as we read it with the change introduced in the margin of the folio, 1632 : — " As that of /a?r and faithful Juliet." We can suppose " true and faithful," a corruption introduced on the frequent repetition of this popular performance, although the alliteration of " fair and faithful" may seem more impressive upon the memory. We are previously told, in manuscript, that the heads of the two hostile houses shake hands over the dead bodies of ther children. TIMOK OF ATHENS. ACT I. SCENE I. P. 506. After giving the obviously corrupt passage, — '' Our poesy is as a gown, which uses From whence 'tis nourish'd," in this manner, as indeed Pope recommended, " Our poesy is as a gum, which issues From where 'tis nourished," the old corrector of the folio, 1632, puts his pen through the rest of the Poet's speech, excepting the final question, " What have you there f This is certainly an easy method of getting over a difficulty ; but, perhaps, the writer of the emendation here had no other. Johnson suggested oozes for "uses," which is, perhaps, hardly as good as "issues," with reference to the process of poeti- cal composition ; and Shakespeare no where else employs ooze as a verb, and whenever it occurs as a substantive it is spelt, in the old copies, ooze, and never use. P. 507. It seems improbable that Shakespeare, who, like other dramatists of his day, cared little about representing correctly the customs of the time or country in which he laid his scene, should make the Poet speak thus of the new work he was about to pre- sent to Timon : — • '' My free drift Halts not particularly, but moves itself In a wide sea of wax." Why " in a wide sea of wax ?" Admitting that not only the an- cients, but that the English, at a very early date, wrote upon waxen (413) 414 TIMON OF ATHENS. [ACT I. tablets (and such is the forced explanation of Hanmer, Steevens, and Malone), it would scarcely be understood by popular audi- ences before whom this drama was originally acted. " Wax," of old, was commonly spelt waxe (although it is "wax" in the folios), and confiding, as we are disposed to do, in a representation in the margin of the folio, 1632, the compositor must have read " waxe " for a word not very dissimilar in form, but much more appropriate and intelligible : — " My free drift Halts not particularly, but moves itself In a wide sea of verseJ^ The Poet's work was, of course, in vei-se, and there is no appa- rent reason why Shakespeare should not have employed that word instead of " wax," which looks something like a sort of pedantry, of which he would certainly be the last to be guilty. P. 513. The following answer by Apemantus has produced much dispute : — " That I had no angry wit to be a lord." It is introduced as follows : Apemantus exclaims, — " Heavens, that I were a lord ! Tim. What would'st do then, Apemantus? Apem. Even as Apemantus does now ; hate a lord with my heart. Tim. What, thyself? Apem. Ay. Tim. Wherefore ? Apem. That I had no angry wit to be a lord." Though a meaning, as Johnson says, may be extracted from these last words, yet nearly all editors have agreed that some corrup- tion has crept into the text. Warburton proposed, " That I had so hungry a wit to be a lord ;" and Monk Mason, " That I had an angry wish to be a lord." The restoration offered in the folio, 1632, is the same as parts of both these suggestions, and at once renders the sense evident — " That I had so hungry a wish to be a lord." Apemantus would hate himself for having entertained so strong a desire to be a lord. It thus seems that Warburton and Monk Mason were both right, and yet both wrong. ACT II.] TIMON OF ATHENS. 415 SCENE II. P. 518. There appears to be a remarkable lapse by the printer in the four Imes which precede Apemantus' grace, where, during the feast, he takes a cup of water in his hand, and says, — " Here's that which is too weak to be a sinner, Honest water, which ne'er left man i' the mire : This and my food are equals, there's no odds ; Feasts are too proud to give thanks to the gods." These lines are introduced by prose, and it can hardly be doubted, on reading them, that they were intended for two rhyming coup- lets. Apemantus is adverting to the intoxication which follows drinking strong wdnes and ardent spirits, and contrastmg " honest water" with them ; and we may feel assured that the two first lines ought to be printed hereafter as they are made to run by the old corrector : — " Here's that, which is too weak to be 2ifire, Honest water, which ne'er left man i' the mire." Water was too weak to possess the fiery and intoxicating property of wine, which often "left man in the mire." How^re came to be misprinted " sinner," cannot be easily explained • but perhaps the long s and the /had something to do with the blunder. ACT II. SCENE XL P. 527. Flavius, Timon's Steward, lamenting over his master's lavish and thoughtless expenditure, as the text has always stood, says of him that he " Takes no account How things go from him, nor resumes no care Of what is to continue. Never mind Was to be so unwise, to be so kind." This can hardly bo riglit : " nor resume no care," as it stands in the folios, is a very uncouth, even if an allowable phrase, and the last line reads still more objectionably. Two valuable manuscript changes are made which remove all ground of complaint : — 410 TIMON OF ATHENS. [ACT III. " Takes no account How things go from him ; no reserve ; no care Of what is to continue. Never mind Was surely so unwise, to be so kind." Perhaps the occurrence of "to be" in the last part of the line, led to the mis-insertion of it in the first part ; and we can see at once how no reserve might become " nor resume." ACT ni. SCENE 11. P. 538. The vagueness of the sum, " so many talents," men- tioned by Servllius to Lucius, when the former comes to borrow of the latter, on behalf of Timon, has occasioned remark, and Steevens conjectured that no precise amount was stated by Shake- speare, but that it was left to the player. This does not seem probable, and in a note in the folio, 1632, the sum is given as 500 talents, both here and afterwards, where Lucius speaks of " fifty-five hundred talents." We may presume, therefore, that it was the practice of the theatre, in the time of the corrector, to consider that Timon sent to borrow 500 talents, and that that was the amount required by Servilius, and repeated by Lucius. The pomt is, however, of little importance, because it does not in any way affect the spirit and purport of the scene. SCENE V. P. 548. When Alcibiades is pleading before the Senate on behalf of his friend, who had killed an adversary, he observes, — "He did behave his anger, ere 'twas spent, As if he had but prov'd an argument." Here the printer was in error ; in the old copies the lines are thus printed : — '' He did behoove his anger ere 'twas spent, As if he had but prov'd an argument." Modern editors have consented to suppose behoove intended for " behave," and they have taken great pains to justify the expres- sion, " he did behave his anger ;" but the old corrector of the folio, ACT IV.] TIMON OF ATHENS. 417 1632, shows that their labour has been thro\vii away, since the author did not use the phrase, but wrote as follows : — " He did reprove his anger, ere 'twas spent, As if he had but mov''d an argument." If these small, but more than plausible, emendations be admitted, no explanation is wanted. P. 549. In the line, as printed by Malone and others, — '• If there were no foes, that were enough alone," Sir Thomas Hanmer received praise from Steevens for adding the word alone, " to complete the measure." In fact, it more than completes it ; it renders it redundant ; and as it is hardly to be disputed that the passage is wrong, as it stands baldly in the folios, — ■ " If there were no foes, that were enough To overcome him," we may be disposed to place confidence in the change recom- mended in the folio, 1632, — " Were there no foes, that were itself enough To overcome him." Here, with little violence, the measure is restored, and the sense of the speaker strengthened. ACT IV. SCENE 11. P. 557. Old and modern impressions furnish us with this text : — " Who would be so mock'd with glory, or to live But in a dream of friendship ? To have his pomp, and all what state compounds, But only painted, like his varnish'd friends." Much of the speech is in rhyme, and a couplet precedes the above, which, after the interval of a line, is succeeded by four other rhymes. We learn from manuscript-emendations, that what we have just quoted most imperfectly represents the passage ; that 18* 418 TIMON OF ATHENS. [ACT IV. the hemistich ought to be completed by two words carelessly omitted, and that an important verb ought to be altered : the whole passage will then remain as follows : — '' Who'd Tbe so mock'd with glory, as to live But in a dream of friendship, and revive To have his pomp, and all state comprehends, But only painted, like his varnish'd friends?" SCENE III. P. 558. Timon's speech, when he enters " in the woods," is very carelessly printed in the folio, 1623; and the errors are multiplied ui the second folio, but they are there corrected in manuscript : thus for *' Raise me this beggar, and deny't that lord," the reading is, " decline that lord," i. e. reduce him in his rank and condition, using the word in the same way as in " Antony and Cleopatra," Act III. Scene II. Again, for " brother's sides " we have " rother'^s sides " properly substituted ; farther on, Timon, digging for roots, discovers gold, and asks, — " What is here ? Gold ? yellow, glittering, precious gold ? No, gods, 1 am no idle votarist. Roots, you clear heavens !" The word has always been printed " idle ; " but it ought as cer- tainly to be idol, — " I am no ic?oZ-votarist," no worshipper of gold, which many make their idol, but a searcher for roots ; for which he again exclaims — " Roots, you clear heavens ! " until, glancmg at the treasure once more, he is led to moralise upon it. P. 563. There are few instances, where mishearing on the part of the scribe has been the origin of a corruption of the text more striking, than the blunder we are now about to point out, and set right, on the authority of the annotator of the folio, 1632. It is where Phrynia and Timandra entreat Timon to give them some of his gold, and ask if he has more : he replies, — SC. in.] TIMON OP ATHENS. 419 " Eaough to make a whore forswear her trade, And to make whores, a bawd." Johnson strives hard to extract sense from this last clause, for of course the meaning of the first is very evident : it is in the hem- istich that the error lies, for we ought beyond dispute to read, — " Enough to make a whore forswear her trade, And to make whores abhor r'd.^'' Whoever read, or recited, to the copyist dropped the aspirate, and induced him, merely writing mechanically and without attending to the sense, to put " a bawd" for abhorrd. P. 565. In the same way ingenuity has been exercised by the same commentator to reconcile us to the word "marrows," where Timon is imprecating the earth in future to bring forth nothing but monsters, and to put an end to the race of " ingrate- ful man :" — " Dry up thy marrows, vines, and plough-torn leas." What connexion is there between "marrows, vines, and plough- torn leas f We ought surely to read with the corrector of the folio, 1632,— " Dry up thy meadoivs, vines, and plough-torn leas." Parch them up, that they may produce no " liquorish draughts" or " morsels unctuous" for the gratification and sustenance of man. P. 567. Timon reproaches Apemantus with his base origin, and tells him that he had never known luxury, adding, — " Hadst thou, like us, from thy first swath, proceeded The sweet degrees that this brief world affords To such as may the passive drugs of it Freely command, thou wouldst have plung'd thyself In general riot." " The passive drugs" of the world surely cannot be right. Timon is supposing the rich and luxrious to be, as it were, sucking freely at the " passive dugs" of the world ; and an emendation in manu- script, which merely strikes out the superfluous letter, supports 420 TIMON OF ATHENS. [ACT IV. this view of the passage, and renders needless Monk Mason's somewhat wild conjecture in favour of drudges. P. 572. The accidental omission of hiin has induced editors to convert a participle and preposition into a sort of substantive, by a hyphen. One of the Banditti says of Timon, as the words have been ordinarily printed, " the falling-from of his friends drove him into this melancholy." May we not feel satisfied, upon the assu- rance of the old corrector, that the sentence ran thus? — "The mere want of gold, and the falling from him of his friends, drove him into this melancholy." P. 577. The mercenary Poet and Painter visit Timon at his cave to ascertain the truth of the report, that he has still abun- dance of gold. In all editions the latter says to the former, " It will show honestly in us, and is very likely to load our purposes with what they travel for." This is very like nonsense, although no correction of it has ever been recommended : the amiotator of the folio, 1632, thus proves what must have been in the author's mind :- '' It will show honestly in us ; and is very likely to load our purses with what we travel for :" referring, of course, to Timon's wealth. This may be said to be one of the emendations that requires no authority : it carries con- viction on the face of it. SCENE IV. P. 586. The old introduction to this scene is. Enter a Soldier in the woods, seeking Timon, to which is added in manuscript, the necessary information, finding his grave. Modern editors say, and a Tomb-stone seen, but we meet with nothing of the kind in the early copies : that there must, however, have been some rude erection, or pile of earth, visible to the audience, is clear from the soldier's words, — '• Some beast rear'd this ; there does not live a man." The folios have it, "Some beast read this ;" but it is undoubt- edly an error, and the old corrector converts 7'ead into " rear'd." Such has alwavs been the word since Warburton's time. so. lY.] TIMON OF ATHENS. 421 P. 588. The last emendation requiring notice, although it may- deserve to be so termed, is certahily not one of the changes that must be adopted, since the ordinary text, although somewhat un- couth, will serve : it occurs where the Senators of Athens are pleading to Alcibiades for the lives of the citizens : — " All have not offended ; For those that were, it is not square to take On those that are, revenge." The correction in the folio, 1632, puts it as an interrogative ap- peal, and substitutes another word for the unusual expression, " it is not square :" — " All have not offended ; For those that were, is't not severe to take On those who are, revenge ?" Steevens altered "revenge" to revenues, for the sake of the metre, and very justifiably, since the word occurs just above in the plu- ral, but the old corrector leaves it in the singular. Frol. and Epilogue is written at the end in a blank space, and perhaps it was meant only as a note that they were deficient ; but such has been the case with the tragedy immediately preceding, and with others, to which no such words are appended. The stage-directions, added in manuscript, are not always as complete and precise as would seem to be convenient ; and the division into Acts and Scenes does not, in some instances, accord with modern editions : the old copies are destitute of any such distinctions : Act IV. is made unusually long, while Act III. and Act V. are too short : Act IV. begins, rather injudiciously, with Timon's banquet of hot water, and in the next scene he is outside the walls of iVthens, cursing the city. JULIUS C^SAE. ACT I. SCENE I. Vol. vii. p. 7. The Acts, but not the Scenes, are distingiiished in the old copies of this tragedy : the latter are supplied in man- uscript in the folio, 1632, but they do not by any means tally with the sajne divisions as contained in modern editions. The economy of our early stage, and the deficiency of mechanical and other contrivances to denote changes of place, frequently rendered it necessary to continue the same, or nearly the same objects before the eyes of the audience, although by the characters and dialogue it appeared that the scene was altered. As an illustration, it may be mentioned that the fifth Act of "Julius Ctesar" is divided by Malone and others into five Scenes, by representing that what oc- curs passes on as many different parts of the plains of Philippi ; whereas the old annotator of the folio, 1632, makes the Act con- sist of only two Scenes, the first where the forces under Octavius and Antony march in, and the second where Brutus endeavours, after the battle, to persuade one of his friends to kill him, in order that he may not survive the freedom of his country. According to this arrangement, Cassius dies on the same ground that had been occupied by his enemies. SCENE n. P. 14. The two following Imes have always been printed thus : — " When could they say, till now, that talk'd of Rome, That her wide walks encompass'd but one man ?" This reading has never, we believe, been doubted, and, strictly speaking, a change is not necessary; but who will say that the (422) ACT I.] JULIUS CJESAE. 423 last line does not run better with the emendation proposed in the folio, 1632?— '•That her wide walls encompass'd but one man?" Cassius is speaking of the walled city of Rome, and not of the Roman empire, although walks reads awkwardly in either case : neither does he refer to Csesar's "walks and private arbours," mentioned on p. 61. Possibly the occurrence of the verb "talk" in the preceding line, led to the intrusion of " walk" in the second line. P. 15. The manuscript-corrector requires us to make another change, which seems even less necessary, but at the same time is judicious : — " Brutus had rather be a villager.. Than to repute himself a son of Rome Under these hard conditions, as this time Is like to lay upon us." "Under such hard conditions" sounds better, followed as it is by " as this time ;" but this is, perhaps, a matter of discretion, and we have no means of knowing whether the writer of the notes might not here be indulging his taste. SCENE III. P. 20. A note in the margin of the folio, 1632, will, probably, settle a dispute carried on at considerable length, and with some pertinacity, between Johnson, Steevens, and Malone, regarding a word in a couplet thus printed in the folio, 1623 : — " Against the Capitol I met a lion Who glaz'd upon me, and went surly by." Pope was the first to read glar'd for " glaz'^," and Johnson poorly substituted gaz'd ; in the folio, 1632, the second line stands, — " Who glaz'd upon me, and went fiurely by ;" there can be no doubt about the last error, and that, as well as the first, is set right by striking out the e in surely^ and by con- verting "glaz'd" into glar'd. 424 JULIUS C^SAR. [act II. p. 24. A question has arisen respecting another passage in this scene : — " And the complexion of the element In favour's like the work we have in hand." Tlie old copies have, " Is favours like the work," &c., and Reed would have it, " l^fevWous like the work," &c, ; but only change Is to " In," and nothing more can be required. This is done by the old corrector, and such has been the usual course in modern times. ACT II. SCENE I. P. 31. It is proper to notice a small, but not immaterial change, where Brutus says, — " And let our hearts, as subtle masters do, Sth* up their servants to an act of rage. And after seem to chide 'em. This shall mark Our purpose necessary, and not envious." The usual reading, as authorised by the early copies, has been " This shall make," instead of " This shall mar^," or denote our purpose as necessary, and not as proceeding from malice or hatred. P. 32. Tlie observation of Metellus, in the folio, 1623,— " Caius Ligarius doth bear Caesar hard," was converted in print in the folio, 1632, to " Caius Ligarius doth bear Caesar hatred." The phrase occurs in two other places in this play ; and the man- uscript-corrector makes the folio, 1632, here conform to that of 1623. P. 33. When Lucius falls asleep, Brutus says, as* the passage has always been given, — *' Fast asleep ? It is no matter ; Enjoy the honey-heavy dew of slumber." ACT III.] JULIUS C^SAJl. 425 The compound unquestionably is not " honey-heavy," but " honey- Jew," a well-known glutinous deposit upon the leaves of trees, &c. : the compositor was guilty of a transposition, and ought to have jDrinted the line in this form : — " Enjoy the heavy honey-dew of slumber." Such is the manuscript emendation. ACT III. SCENE I. P. 44. Artemidorus, pressing forward to deliver his warning to Csesar, observes, — " Mine's a suit That touches Caesar nearer." To which Cassar replies, as his answer has constantly been repre- sented, — " What touches us ourself shall be last serv'd." The corrector of the folio, 1632, puts it interrogatively, more pointedly, and more naturally, making Csesar repeat the very words of Artemidorus : — " That touches us ? Ourself shall be last serv'd." It was Cassar who was to be " last served," not what touched him nearly. P. 45. There is a mistake in the distribution of the dialogue shortly before Cassar is stabbed : " Are we all ready ?" certainly belongs to one of the conspirators, and some commentators would assign the words to Cinna, making them the conclusion of his speech. Casca, however, was to strike the first blow ; and, accord- ing to a note in the margin, he reasonably first inquires, " Are we all ready f The course of the dialogue will, therefore, properly be this : — Brutus, speaking of Metellus Cimber and of his peti- tion, says, — '' He is address'd : press near and second him. Cin. Casca, you are the first that rears your hand. 426 JULIUS C^SAR. [ACT III. Case. Are we all ready ? Cces. What is now amiss, That Cffisar and his Senate must redress ?" Metellus Ciraber then kneels, and offers his petition on behalf of his brother. In Ceesar's rejection of it, three misprints are indi- cated, viz. " couchings" for crouchings^ " the lane of children" for " the law of children" (so corrected conjecturally by Johnson), and " low crooked courtesies" for " low crouched courtesies." No change is proposed in the passage, " Know, Csesar doth not wrong," &c., so that the sjDeculation upon it, founded upon Ben Jonson's " Discoveries," is so far not supported. P. 49. A manuscript stage-direction (the printed copy is desti- tute of notes of the kind) requires Antony, on his entrance with the line, — " mighty Csesar ! dost thou lie so low ?" to kneel over the hody.^ and to me, when he says, — '' I know not, gentlemen, what you intend," &c. On the next page, after " I doubt not of your wisdom," he takes one after other of the conspirators by the hand, and turns to the hody^ and bends over it while he says, — " That I did love thee, Casar, ! 'tis true," &c. SCENE III. P. 62. When Cinna, the poet, enters, he observes, — " I dream'd to-night that I did feast with Caesar, And things unluckily charge ray fantasy." Why should he consider it unlucky to dream of feasting with Caesar ? His fancy was charged with things improbable, not un- lucky, and the marginal correction in the folio, 1632, is, — " And things unlikely charge my fantasy." The word unlikely also suits the measure better. ACT lY,] JULIUS C^SAR. 427 ACT lY. SCENE III. P. 69. In tlie folio, 1623, when Brutus observes, — *' I had rather be a dog, and bay the moon, Than such a Roman," Cassius replies, in the folio, 1623, as if he had misheard, — " Brutus, halt not me." The fitness of this diversity, "bay" m one place, and "bait" in the other, has been maintained by Malone, and disputed by Steevens. If the change from " bait " to 6ay, made in manuscript in the folio, 1632, can be considered at all conclusive, the differ- ence is at an end : it is there printed " bait " in both instances, and in both instances hay is substituted. P. 69. An emendation of some interest is made in a celebrated passage in the quarrel-scene between Brutus and Cassius. The latter has said, — " I am a soldier, I, Older in practice, abler than yourself To make conditions." Brutus afterwards makes this calm remark : — '' You say, you are a better soldier : Let it appear so ; make your vaunting true. And it shall please me well. For mine own part, I shall be glad to learn of noble men." Cassius had said nothing about " noble men," and his reply to the above has reference to what he did actually utter : — " You wrong me every way ; you wrong me, Brutus; I said an elder soldier, not a better." His w^ord had been " abler," not nohle^ nor nobler ; and in order to make the retort of Brutus apply to what Cassius had asserted, Brutus unquestionably ought to say, — '* For mine own part, I shall be glad to learn of abler men." " Noble " is struck through by the old corrector, and abler inserted 428 JULIUS C^SAR. [ACT V. in the place of it ; whether upon any other authority than appa- rent fitness must remain doubtful. P. 75. A question arising in council, whether the forces of Brutus and Cassius should march towards the enemy, or wait for him, Brutus urges the former course, and Cassius the latter. Brutus contends that if they delay, the enemy will be strength- ened and refreshed as he advances : — " The enemy, inarching along Tby them, By them shall make a fuller number up, Come on refresh'd, new-added, and encourag'd." The corrector of the folio, 1632, implies by his proposed change, that " new-added " is merely a repetition of what is said in the preceding line — " by them shall make a fuller number up " — and he inserts a word instead of " added," which is not only more forcible, but more appropriate, and which we may very fairly suppose had been misheard by the scribe : — " By them shall make a fuller number up, Come on refresh'd, new-hearted, and encourag'd." This error might be occasioned by the then broad pronunciation of " added " having been mistaken for hearted. P. 77. The printer of the folio, 1632, blunderingly transposed two lines, spoken by Brutus to the drowsy Lucius. The error has not been noticed, that we are aware of, and we only mention it, to state that it is corrected in manuscript : nothmg of the kind seems to have escaped attention. When Lucius, after singing, falls asleep, and when Brutus takes his book, the circumstances are duly noted in the margin. ACT V. SCENE I. P. 81. Octavius, in his interview with Brutus and Cassius, de- clares that he will never sheathe his sword, — " till Cassar's three and thirty wounds Be well aveng'd ; or till another Caesar Have added slaughter to the sword of traitors." SC. I.] JULIUS C^SAR. 429 Steevens subjoined what he considered a parallel passage from " King John," Act II. Scene 11. :— " Or add a royal number to the dead, With slaughter coupled to the name of kings." There is certainly some resemblance, but it is stronger when the quotation from "Julius Caesar" is printed as the old corrector ad- vises : — " Or till another Cjesar Have added slaughter to the word of traitor. ^^ Octavius terms Brutus a traitor, and challenges him to add slaughter to the word^ in the same way that slaughter, in " King John," was to be coupled " to the name of kings." This emenda- tion seems plausible, though we may not be disposed to insist upon it. P. 82. So with the next emendation, where Cassius informs Messala, — " Coming from Sardis, on our former ensign Two mighty eagles fell." For " former ensign," we are told to read '-^forward ensign," which is probably right, although "former" need not necessarily be displaced, and may be understood 2i^ foremost. The ensign being described as in front, at the head of the army, the copyist may have misheard, and therefore miswritten "former" for forward. Near the bottom of this page we are told to read term for " time," and those for "some :" it is where Brutus declares against suicide, — " But I do find it cowardly and vile, For fear of what might fall, so to prevent The ter7n of life, — arming myself with patience, To stay the providence of those high powers, That govern us below." The above unquestionably reads better than as the text has been ordinarily given : to " prevent the term of life" means, as Malone states, to anticipate the end of life ; but still he strangely perse- vered in printing " time" for term. 430 JULIUS C^SAR. [ACT V. P. 89. The folio, 1632, omits "word" iii the following :— " And see whe'r Brutus be alive or dead, And bring us word unto Octavlus' tent." The line stands correctly in the folio, 1623, and perhaps from thence the emendator derived " word ;" but the vacancy seems almost to supply itself. The second folio is carelessly printed here; and not long afterwards (p. 90) "m" was omitted, or al- lowed to drop out. Brutus, just before he runs on his own sword, and after he has shaken hands severally (these stage-directions, like others, are only in manuscript) with liis countrymen, observes, — " My heart doth joy that yet, in all my life, I found no man but he was true to me." The folio, 1632, has "that yet all my life:" "in" is necessary to the metre, though, as far as the absolute meaning is concerned, it might possibly be spared. It is w^ritten in the margin. P. 91. In Antony's brief character of Brutus, at the close of the tragedy, we meet with two material variations pointed out by the old corrector, which merit notice, and perhaps adoption : the passage has hitherto appeared as follows : — " All the conspirators, save only he, Did that they did in envy of great Csesar ; He, only, in a general honest thought And common good to all, made one of them." It must, we think, be admitted that the last two lines are improved if we read them as we are told they ought to be amended : — " He only, in a generous honest thought Of common good to all, made one of them." " A general honest thought and common good to all," is at least tautology ; and to say that Brutus was actuated by " a generous thought of common good to all" (i. e. a thought worthy of his rank and blood) is consistent with the disinterested nobility of his character, and an admission that might be expected from his great adversary. It is hardly requiring too much, in such a case, to suppose that the scribe misheard generous, and wrote general: but the propriety of introducing the change into the text is a matter of discretion. MACBETH. ACT I. SCENE I. P. 101. Although, as is stated in note 5, "quarry" (so printed in the old copies) affords an obvious meaning, we find the old corrector substituting for it a word sounding very like it, for which it might be mistaken, and which, in fact, Johnson proposed. The line is as follows, and it relates to the rebellion of Macdonwald, who, having supplied himself with kerns and gallowglasses from the Western Isles, for a time had been successful : — " And fortune on his damned quarry smiling." While they continued triumphant the rebels could hardly be called a " quarry," unless by anticipation ; and the corrector of the folio, 1632, introduces this alteration : — '' And fortune on his damned quarrel smiling." Malone, who was well disposed to adopt the language of the early editions, here deserted them (mainly on the ground that at the end of this play, " quarrel " is used in the same way for the cause of quarrel), and this without any confirmatory authority, such as we now possess. P. 102. When Koss enters suddenly, with tidings of the victory, by Macbeth and Banquo over the Norwegians, Lenox observes, — '^ What a haste looks through his eyes ! So should he look, that seems to speak things strange." Various commentators have here seen the difficulty of making Ross " seem to speak things strange" before he had spoken at all: (431) 432 MACBETH. [act I. it was, therefore, suggested that teems was the word instead of " seems :" but if the objection be not hypercritical, it is entirely- removed by the old annotator, who assures us that " seems" (spelt seemes in the folios) had been misprinted : — '' So should he look, that comes to speak things strange." Ross certainly came " to speak things strange," and on his entrance looked, no doubt, as if he did. SCENE III. P. 104. After the second and third Witches have bestowed winds upon the first, she says, — " I myself have all the other ', And the very ports they blow, All the quarters that they know I' the shipman's card. I will drain him dry as hay," &c. All is in rhyme, excepting that " i' the shipman's card" has no corresponding line, and is evidently short of the necessary sylla- bles. These are furnished by an emendation in the folio, 1632, which we can scarcely doubt gives the words of the poet, by some carelessness omitted : — " All the quarters that they know I' the shipman's card to show." Lower down, we meet with a proof that the ordinary confusion between the /and the long s extended even to capitals : Banquo, in the folios, asks, " How far is't called to Soris?''^ instead of " Fores." In the manuscript used by the printer, " Fores" was most likely not written with a capital letter, and he read it so7'is; but, supposing it the name of a place, he printed it, as he fancied properly, Soris. The error is, of course, set right in the margin of the corrected folio, 1632. P. 106. The old impressions have, — " As thick as tale Can post with post." Rowe wished to read hail for " tale," but without warrant ; but SC. v.] - MACBETH. 433 Can was unquestionably misprinted for " Came." Near the bot- tom of the next page, " That trusted home," of the folios, is changed to " That thrusted home." In modern times the word has been variously treiated. SCENE IV. P. 110. Duncan thus speaks of the merits of Macbeth in the folio, 1623 :— " Thou art so far before, That swiftest wing of recompence is slow To overtake thee." The folio, 1632, misprints the second line, — '•' That swiftest wine of recompence is slow ;" and the corrector of that edition amends the decided defect, not by converting wine into " wing," but into winde or wind^ — " That swiftest wind of recompence is slow." This may, or may not, have been the line as it came from the poet's pen : at all events, and for some unexplained reason, a per- son writing soon after 1632, seems to have preferred wind to " wing," when either would answer the purpose. Another emen- dation, in the passage which immediately succeeds the above quo- tation, seems warranted by the sense : — " Would thou hadst less deserv'cl, That the proportion both of thanks and payment Might have been mine," say the folios : " might have been more," says the annotator on the edition of 1632 : Duncan wishes that his thanks and payment could have been more in proportion to the deserts of Macbeth. This change is doubtful. SCENE V. P. 113. A very acceptable alteration is made, on the same evi- dence, in Lady Macbeth's speech invoking night, just before the entrance of her husband : it is in a word which has occasioned much speculation : — 19 - 434: MACBETH. [ACT I. " Come, thick niglit, And pall thee in the clunnest smoke of hell, That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, To cry, ' Hold, hold !' " Steevens, with reference to " blanket," quotes rug and rugs from Drayton ; and Malone seriously supposes that the word was sug- gested to Shakespeare by the " coarse woollen curtain of the thea- tre," when, in flict, it is not at all known whether the curtain, sep- arating the audience from the actors, was woollen or linen. What solution of the difficulty does the old corrector offer % As it seems to us, the substitution he recommends cannot be doubted : — " Nor heaven peep through the hlanhness of the dark To cry, ' Hold, hold !' " The scribe misheard the termination of blankness, and absurdly wrote " blanket." SCENE vn. P. 116. The folio, 1632, omits some important words, consist- ing of nearly a whole line, where Macbeth is soliloquizing on the "bloody instructions" which "return to plague the inventor." They are added in manuscript in the margin, perhaps from the folio, 1623 ; but instead of " this even-handed justice," the old corrector writes, " thus even-handed justice," the propriety of which change was urged by Monk Mason. P. 118. It is not easy to imagine a case in which the alteration of a single letter would make so important a difference as in the ensuing portion of the interview between Macbeth and his Lady, where he is irresolute, and she reproaches him with want of cour- age to execute the murder he once vaunted he was ready to un- dertake : we give the text as it has appeared in every edition, from the earliest in 1623 to our own day : — '' Macb. Pr'ythee peace. I dare do all that may become a man ; AVho dares do more is none. • Lady M. What beast was't, then, ^CT II.] MACBETH. 435 That made you break this enterprize to me? When you durst do it, then you were a man," &c. Surely it reads like a gross vulgarism for Lady Macbeth thus to ask, " What beast made him divulge the enterprize to her ?" but she means nothing of the kind : she alludes to Macbeth's former vaunt that he was eager for the deed, and yet could not now " screw his courage " to the point, when time and place had, as it were, "made themselves" for its execution ; this she calls a mere hoast on his part : — " What hoast was't, then, That made you break this enterprise to me ?" she charges him with bemg a vain braggart, first to profess to be ready to murder Duncan, and afterwards, from fear, to relinquish it. That this emendation might be guessed by a person who care- fully read the text, without attention to the conventional mode of giving and understandmg these words, we have this proof,— that it was communicated to the editor of the present volume, six months ago, by an extremely intelligent gentleman, whose name we have no authority to give, but who dated from Aberdeen, and who had not the slightest knowledge that boast, for " beast," was the manu- script reading in the folio, 1632. It is very possible, therefore, that the old corrector of the folio, 1632, arrived at his conclusion upon the point by the same process ; on the other hand, it is im- possible to deny that he may have had some authority, prmted, written, or oral, for the proposed change ; and it is quite certain that people have been in the habit of reading " Macbeth" for the last 200 years, some of them for the express purpose of de- tecting blunders in the text, and yet, as far as can be ascertained, have never once hit upon this improvement, so trifling as regard/ typography, but so valuable as respects the meanmg of Shake speare. ACT 11. SCENE I. P. 122. Steevens suggested " curtain'd sZe^^er" for "(':3'2, and its corrections, we learn that the omis- sion of the aspirate has occasioned a serious error here : " Neces- sity's sharp pinch !" has always been printed as an exclamation by itself, without connexion ; but it seems that Shakespeare made the verb hoiol transitive, and that in future the lines ought to be prmted as follows : — '• To be a comrade with the wolf, and howl Necessity's sharp pinch.'' i.e. howl like the wolf when he feels the sharp pinch of necessity. Tlie punctuation of the folios, if that can be any guide, warrants this construction of the text. ACT IV.] KIS(} LKAH. 4f'/3 Ac/i III. '<(:i:si-: i. P. 417. Kent tells the Gentlerrian, whom he rnccts, of Hornc di.sagreorriont between the Dukes, iriforrfialir,n r.f whir;h [at.s been communicated to France by their " HffrvixTiiH, who worn no lofi^, Which arc to I'r&m': tho HpioH and iq)(iCin]iiiUjm Intelligent of our Htate." "SpeeulationH," of alJ the old copies, must be wrong both as T(tfrdr(h meaning and measure; and the old com^.-tor instnjct,s us to read HpacMitf/rH instead of it, although the accentuation may he unusual : — " Which arc to France the Kpie:- and nyMaifyft, Intelligent of our Htat^;." A few lines lower he jjuts f/mriHhinfjH for '•'■ furnishings," with ap- parent fitness, though Steevens wouhi justify "furnishings" by a quotittion from the prcSaco. to one of Greene's tracts, no doubt it^ self a corruption, where he t^lks of "lending the world a furm'sh of wit ;" ^^aflourinh of wit" mast have been Greene's expn^ion. Here, again, one comiiAion is atUiUipUid to be supported by another. SCEXE IV. P. 425. In two several s^x^er^hes by I/lgar, on this page, the quart,o editions are folio wf^l and deserte/i by the old corrector: thuii in " through the sharp hawthorn blow the cold wind«," co^ which he irtserts, is found in the quartos only ; while in the next si)eech of the same cliaracter, for " through sword and whirl-f^^^ol" he puts "through *%'am/y and whirl-pool :" it is "ford and whirl- pool " in the quartos. The first of these hi marked as a quota- tion (both here and on p. 427, where it again occurs), in the usToal manner ; and it most likely was derived from s^^me then known balla^l ACT IV. SCENE L P. 44'i. ^Ve meet with two comparatively sTrjall, but valuable amendments in the first line of I>Jgar's speech, which opeas tliia 470 KING LEAR. [ACT IV. Act, one of which was speculated upon by Johnson. The com- mon readmg has been : — " Yet better thus, and known to be contemn'd, Than still contemn'd and flatter'd." Johnson's suggestion was to read "and known'''' unJcnown ; and this is what the corrector states is the true text. Edgar says that it is better to be contemn'd because unknown, as he is in his disguise, than to be contemn'd and flattered when known. There is, however, a further change which deserves notice, viz. Yes for " Yet." Edgar enters, moralising with himself, and giv- ing his assent to some proposition that he had stated before he comes upon the stage : the passage ought, therefore, to stand as follows : — •'* Yes, better thus unknown to be contemn'd, Than still contemn'd and flatter'd." At the bottom of this page we have another example of the man- ner in which the frequent mistake of iv for in has in part led to the introduction of a corruption. Blind Gloster says, in answer to the Old Man, — " I have no way, and therefore want no eyes : I stumbled when I saw. Full oft 'tis seen Our means secure us ; and our mere defects Prove our commodities." In what way do " our means secure us ?" The point is not that our means secure us, but that having no means is advantageous : " our mere defects," or deficiencies, " prove our commodities." The printer read wants " means," and hence the blunder. Glos- ter is speaking of the advantage even of want of sight : — " Full oft 'tis seen Our wants secure us. and our mere defects Prove our commodities." Pope w^ould read mean for " means," but it does not support Gloster's argument ; and it, besides, requires that the verb should be in the singular instead of the plural, as it is printed in all the old copies. "Means" is struck out, and wants substituted in the folio, 1632. SC. VI.] KING LEAR. 471 P. 445. Gloster, giving Ms purse to Edgar, whom he still sup- poses a lunatic beggar, says, — " Heavens, deal so still ! Let the superfluous, and lust-dieted man, That slaves your ordinance, that will not see," &c. Discussion has been produced by the expression, " that slaves your ordinance :" Johnson understood it to mean, that slights or ridicules it, and Steevens, that makes a slave of it ; while Malone, because he could suggest nothing, was in favour of adhering to the quartos — " that stands your ordinance." The setting right of a trifling typographical error clears the sense of the whole : — *• Heavens, deal so still ! Let the superfluous, and lust-dieted man, That braves your ordinance, that will not see, Because he doth not feel, feel your power quickly." He braves the ordinance of heaven by his luxury, selfishness, and want of charity. This emendation can want no support. SCENE rv. P. 454. Whether the old corrector did or did not resort to the quartos, he makes the reading of the folios tally with them, where Cordelia entreats all the " unpublish'd virtues of the earth " to '■ be aidant and remediate In the good man's distress." The word is desires^ for "distress," in the folio. 1623, and the error was copied into the second folio. SCENE VL P. 460. Lear having entered dressed loith straws and Jloivers^ according to the manuscript stage-direction (for no printed note of the kind is found, even where it is most wanted), inveighs against lust and hypocrisy : — " Behold yond' simpering dame, Whose face between her forks presageth snow ; Who minces virtue, and does shake the head To hear of pleasure's name." 472 KING LEAK. [ACT IV. Malone says that " who minces virtue " means " whose virtue consists in appearance ; " but that is the meaning of the poet, rather than of the words imputed to him ; for it does not follow that " a lady who walks mincingly along," as Malone has it, means thereby to affect virtue. " Minces," in truth, is a lapse by the printer for mimics — " a dame that mimics virtue ; " that is, who puts on the externals of modesty : — " Who 7nimics virtue, and does shake the head To hear of pleasure's name." Unless it can be shown that " minces " means the same as mimics, this emendation must surely hereafter form part of the text of Shakespeare. P. 463. Lear thus incoherently preaches to blind Gloster, in every known copy of the play, — " When we are born, we cry that we are come To this great stage of fools. — This a good block ? It were a delicate stratagem, to shoe A troop of horse with felt." The commentators have been puzzled to explain why Lear starts away with the words, " This a good block ; " and Ritson asks if we ought not to read " '^zs a good block." They suppose that Lear pulls off his hat when he begins to preach, and speaks of it, but how does it appear that he has any hat on his head, when he comes in " fantastically dressed up with flowers." He does not advert to his hat as " a good block " at all, but to the excellent stratagem he has in his mind, of shoeing a troop of horse with felt. The emendator of the folio, 1632, gives the text most satisfactorily, and shows that the word of the poet had been misheard : — " 'Tis a good plot : It were a delicate stratagem, to shoe A troop of horse with felt." This was the " good plot " uppermost in Lear's thoughts. Lower down, the corrector adds, " And laying Autumn's dust," perhaps from the quartos (where, however, it stands, " Ay, and for laying SC. VII.] KING LEAR. 473 Autumn's dust "), in order to complete the sense, which is left defective in the folios. P. 466. After reading Goneril's letter to Edmund, Edgar ex- claims, as the words have always been printed after the folios, — " 0, undistinguish'd space of woman's will ! A plot upon her virtuous husband's life ; And the exchange my brother!" Editors have speculated differently as to the meaning of the first line ; but they reasoned upon false premises, since it does not by any means represent the poet's language, if we may put faith in the alteration introduced in the folio, 1632, or if we may trust to common sense. Edgar is struck by the uncontrollable licentious- ness of the desires of woman : — " 0, unextinguisli'd blaze of woman's will ! " Blaze " is to be taken for fire, and " will " for disposition ; and the scribe misheard, or miswrote, unextinguish'^d blaze as " undis- tinguish'd space," making nonsense of a passage which, properly printed, is as striking as intelligible. Malone's explanation was particularly unfortunate, viz. that there w^as no distinguishable space between the likings and loathings of women : the meaning clearly is, " Oh, the blaze of woman's licentiousness, which can never be extinguished ! " SCENE VII. P. 467. Cordelia urges Kent to put off his humble disguise, but he answers, — '' Pardon me, dear madam ; Yet to be known shortens my made intent." Eor "made intent," Warburton would, substitute " laid intent:" but Johnson contends that " made intent" is only another word for formed intent. Both were wrong : " main intent" was miswritten " made intent,' and hence the doubt. Kent refers to the chief purpose for which he had disguised himself, wdiich would be anti- cipated and defeated, if he were too soon known : — 474 KING LEAR. [ACT IV. " Yet to be known shortens ray main intent." P. 480. Tlie quartos and folios differ when Albany accuses Edmund of treason, and throws down his gauntlet, saying, — " I'll prove it on thy heart Ere I taste bread, thou art in nothing less Than I have here proclaimed thee." This is the reading of the quartos ; the folios more imperfectly have, — " I'll t7iake it on thy heart," &c. The corrector of the folio, 1632, instead of taking "prove" from the quartos, and striking out " make," which was all that was ne- cessary, keeps " make," and puts ffood, instead of " it," after it : — ''' I'll make good on thy heart," &c. This is another instance where the text of the quartos is de- serted, although it would have been quite as easy here, as else- where, to follow it. Was the word good inserted only as a mat- ter of judgment, to cure the evident defect of the folios, or was it derived from any authority 1 P. 481. When Edgar challenges Edmund, he declares, — " Maugre thy strength, youth, place, and eminence," &c. " thou art a traitor." The folio, 1632 (like that of 1623), trans- poses " place" and " youth," and in manuscript " place"' is super- seded by skill: — " Maugre thy strength, skill, youth, and eminence." Skill has evidently been written in the margin, but part of it hav- ing been accidentally torn away, only the three first letters of the word remain. It seems not unlikely that the mention of skill would follow " strength :" and " place" is certainly not wanted, with " eminence" in the same line. P. 487. When Lear enters, bearmg the dead Cordelia, he aslra for a looking-glass : — SC. VII.] EIKG LEAR. 475 " Lend me a looking-glass ; If that her breath will mist or stain the stone, Why, then she lives." The looking-glass was not " stone," and a manuscript-correction substitutes sJiine, as having been misprinted " stone :" " If that her breath will mist or stain the shine ;" i.e. the polish of the looking-glass. " Stain" and " stone" read awk- wardly in juxta-position, and the error might easily be committed. Of old mirrors were made of steel, and Gascoigne wrote a well- known satire called by the contradictory title of " The Steel-glass :" hence it would not have surprised us if the poet's word had been steel for " stone." P. 488. After Kent has spoken, Lear looks at him doubtingly, and observes, in all impressions, — " This is a dull sight. — Are you not Kent?" The words, " This is a dull sight," are not in the quartos ; and Steevens parallels them by " This is a sorry sight," from Macbeth ; while Blakeway contends that Lear only means that his eyesight is bedimmed. Lear has previously stated that his eyes " are none of the best," and here he means to complain of the badness, not of his " sight," but of the light :— " This is a dull light " is the word in the folio, 1632, as amended. Lear would hardly call the sad spectacle before him " a dull sight ;" but his eyes being dim, and the light dull, he could not be sure whether the man before him was Kent. It was a mere misprint of " sight" for light. P. 490. The folio, 1632, generally deficient in stage-directions, went out of its course to insert the word Dies after Kent's two lines, — " I have a journey, sir, shortly to go : My master calls me ; I must not say, no." Hence some editors have imagined that the Speaker died instantly on the stage, before all the characters exeunt with a dead march. 476 KING LEAR. [ACT IV. No other ancient authority supports this notion, which Malone and Steevens disputed ; and that they were well warranted in doing so, is proved by the fact that the old corrector of the folio, 1632, put his pen decisively through the word Dies, We may, therefore, certainly conclude that Kent, in what he says, only con- templates the probability of the near approach of the termination of his career, and that the editor or printer of the folio, 1632, had an entirely mistaken notion upon the subject. Dies is found in no quarto impression, nor was it derived from the folio, 1623. OTHELLO. ACT I. SCENE I. P. 499. The first striking emendation in this tragedy is one which admits of much doubt : it occurs in the passage of lago's speech : — " Others there are, Who, trimm'd in forms and visages of duty. Keep yet their hearts attending on themselves." For this the corrector of the folio, 1632, substitutes, — '' Who learn'd in forms and usages of duty," &c. It is certain that usages was formerly spelt vsages^ and the com- positor may have committed an error by printing "visages" for usages ; but, on the other hand, " hearts," in the next line, would seem intended as an antithesis to " visages," or outward appear- ances ; and, in the second place, if the author had meant to employ the words " forms and usages,''^ he would, perhaps, have said, not " learn' d in forms and usages,''' but " train d in forms and usages" On the whole, therefore, it may be deemed unsafe to alter the received text ui this instance, although in " Troilus and Cressida," Act IV. Scene II., we have the word visage misprinted for " usage," exactly as in the case before us. It is to be remarked that the proposed emendation applies to a part of lago's speech which is erased with a pen, viz. from " We cannot all be masters," down to " I w^ould not be lago." P. 500. We should feel no hesitation in altering "timorous" to clamorous in the followmg, where lago tells Roderigo to awake and alarm Brabantio : — (477) 478 OTHELLO. [act I. " Do ; with like timorous accent, and dire yell, As when by night and negligence, the fire Is spied in populous cities." Here "timorous," even taking it a^ frightened^ seems quite out of place, when coupled with " dire yell ;" and we may, therefore, fairly conclude that the poet wrote, as the old corrector states, — " Do ; with like clamorous accent, and dire yell," &c. P. 502. Roderigo informs Brabantio that his daughter had " made a gross revolt," — " Tying her duty, beauty, wit, and fortunes In an extravagant and wheeling stranger." Here the commentators have notes upon " extravagant," but pass over "wheeling" without explanation, although very unintelli- gible where it stands : a manuscript-correction in the folio, 1632, shows that it is a misprint for a most applicable epithet ; and other emendations are proposed, such as Laying for " Tying," and on for " in," which render the meaning much more obvious than in the ordinary reading : — " Laying her duty, beauty, wit, and fortunes On an extravagant and wheedling stranger." Pope, adopting " Tying," follows it in the next line by the pre- position to instead of " in ;" neither Laying nor on are by any means absolutely necessary, but wheedling for "wheeling" is an important improvement of the text, and shows that the word was of older employment in our language than some lexicographers have supposed. Nothing can be more natural than that Roderigo should call Othello a ^'■wheedling stranger," who had insinuated himself into the good graces of both father and daughter. P. 503. Nobody has remarked upon a curious variation between the folios, 1623 and 1632, in lago's line,— " Though I do hate him as I do hell pains." This is the reading of the quartos ; but in the folio, 1623, the letters of the last word are misplaced, — SC. III.] OTHELLO. 479 " Though I do hate him as I do hell apines." The printer of the folio, 1632, not being able to understand apmes, omitted the word altogether, making the line end imperfectly at " hell." The old corrector either saw what was meant in the folio, 1623, or, perhaps, was assisted by the quartos, for he places paines (as the word was then commonly spelt) in his margin, with a caret in the text after " hell." SCENE IIL P. 509. The 2 Senator, referring to the contents of his letters, as difterent in the particulars, although alike in the main circum- stances, observes, — " As iu these cases, where they aim reports, 'Tis oft with difference." The expression, " where they aim reports " (or " where the aim reports," as Malone-gives it from the folios), has occasioned dis- cussion, although Johnson's interpretation has been usually fol- lowed. According to a correction in the folio, 1632, the words were misheard and misprinted, and the line is there given in a manner that clears away all obscurity : — " As in these cases, with the same reports, 'Tis oft with difference." That is, where the "reports" were substantially the same, there were frequent minor discrepancies. Such, we may readily be- lieve, was Shakespeare's meaning, and Shakespeare's language. P. 513. A manuscript change in the text in the folio, 1632, differs from all known editions. The quartos make the Duke say,— " To TQuch this is no proof: Without more certain and more over test, Than these thin habits, and poor likelihoods," &c. The folio, 1623, gives the second line thus : — " Without more wider and more over test ;" and in the folio, 1632, as corrected, it stands : — 480 OTHELLO. [ACT I. " "Without more evidence and overt test." Modern editors have ^' overt test;" but from whence evidence was derived by the old corrector, we cannot guess, unless he so heard the passage recited : the corruption, originating in the first folio, seems to afford some slight clue to the altered reading m the sec- ond folio. P. 516. It ought to be noted that when, in the folios, Othello tells the Senate, — " She gave me for my pains a world of kisses," the last word of the line is deleted in the folio, 1632, and "sighs" substituted in the margin, in accordance with the quarto impres- sions ; perhaps " sighs " was obtamed from them, or from an actor's mouth. P. 520. Some material changes are made in Othello's speech, after Desdemona has besought the Senate that she may accom- pany her husband to Cyprus. The text in the folio, 1623, is the following : — " I therefore beg it not, To please the palate of my appetite, Nor to comply with heat the young affects In my defunct, and proper satisfaction. But to be free and bounteous to her mind : And heaven defend your good souls, that you think I will your serious and great business scant When she is with me. No ; when light-wing'd toys Of feather'd Cupid seal with wanton dulness My speculative and offic'd instrument," &c. The only difference between the folios, 1623 and 1632, is that, in the latter, " affects " is printed effects ; but various emendations have been proposed by modern editor^ (into which it is not ne- cessary here to enter) in order to explain or remove the obscuri- ties belonging to nearly the whole passage. We subjoin the representation of the text as made by the corrector of the folio, 1632 :— '' I therefore beg it not, To please the palate of my appetite, so. III.] OTHELLO. 481 Nor to comply wi' the young effects of heat (In me defunct) and proper satisfaction, But to be free and bounteous to her mind : And heaven defend your counsels, that you think I will your serious and great business scant, When she is with me. No ; when light-wing'd toys Of feather 'd Cupid /oi^ with wanton dulness My speculative and offic'd instruments,''^ &c. In the third line it seems that " heat " got transposed, while of was omitted ; in the fourth line, me was misprinted " my ; " and in the sixth line, counsels became " good souls," terms Othello would hardly apply to the Duke and Senators of Venice. Foil, in the ninth line, agrees with the quartos, where instruments is also in the plural. These changes appear to be so effectual, as far as regards the plain sense of the passage, that all that some com- mentators have said in favour of disjunct^ instead of " defunct " (the word in every old edition), is thrown away : Othello did not ask for the company of his wife for his own proper satisfaction, or to comply with the young effects of heat, in him defunct at the age at which he had arrived ; and he therefore undertook that no amorous trifling should induce him to neglect the great duties entrusted to him. P. 524. We meet with the change of an important epithet where lago is encouraging Roderigo to hope that distaste will soon grow up between Othello and Desdemona : it is where he says, as it is commonly printed, — " If sanctimony and a frail vow, betwixt an erring barbarian and a super- subtle Venetian be not too hard for my wits, and all the tribe of hell, thou shalt enjoy her." How had Desdemona given proof that she was " super-subtle % " if she were so, she might be too cunning for the artifices of lago. "What he wished was to persuade Roderigo that her love for Othello was not firmly rooted, that " she must have change," and that ere long she would be found, as her countrywomen prover- bially were, complying and yielding to her own desires : there- fore, for " super-subtle," the correction in the folio, 1632, is super- supple : because she was " a super-supple Venetian," Roderigo 21 482 OTHELLO. [ACT II. was to hope that she would submit to his importunity. "A frail vow " had passed between " an erring barbarian and a super-supple Venetian," which lago was soon to break. ACT n. SCENE I. P. 533. After lago has delivered his satirical verses against the female sex, Desdemona asks, " How say you, Cassio 1 is he not a most profane and liberal counsellor 1 " By " counsellor," John- son was here obliged to understand "one that discourses fearlessly and volubly ; " but if we may believe the author of the emenda- tions in the folio, 1632, "counsellor" was not the poet's word, but censurer, used in the same way as in " Henry VIII.," Act I. Scene II., where Wolsey speaks of " malicious censurers : " so Desdemona appeals to Cassio whether lago, in the character he had given of women, was not " a most profane and liberal cen- surer .^" P. 538. The subsequent quotation, as it appears in the folios, has occasioned discussion : lago speaks : — '- Which thing to do, If this poor trash of Venice, whom I trace For his quick hunting, stand the putting on," &c. The quartos have crush for " trace," which must be wrong, and Warburton read brack, meaning a dog, for " trash." He was right in his guess, according to a correction in the folio, 1632, where the passage is thus given : — " Which thing to do, If this poor brack of Venice, whom I trask For his quick hunting, stand the putting on," &c. To trask a dog was to chastise it ; and lago in this sense chastised Roderigo for his too eager pursuit of Desdemona. The composi- tor blundered between brack and trask, and printed trash where he ought to have put " brach," and trace where he ought to have put " trash :" these emendations remove the whole difficulty. ACT II.] OTHELLO. 483 SCENE in. P. 541. There is a remarkable discrepancy between the quarto and folios, which deserves the more notice, because the correc- tion of an error in the folio, 1632, leads to an entirely new read- ing of an important word ; lago says, in the quarto, — " Three lads of Cyprus, noble swelling spirits ;" in the folios it is, — " Thi-ee else of Cyprus, noble swelling spirits," an undoubted blunder ; and the question is how " lads," in the quartos, became else in the folios 1 Simply from mishearing on the part of the scribe : the poet's word was probably not " lads," but, as lago jocularly calls them, — " Three elfs of Cyprus, noble swelling spirits ;" and the manuscript-corrector alters "else" to elfes. Whether the true text be " lads" or elfs^ the variation is curious ; and it seems probable, as lago terms them " spirits" in the last part of the line, that he should call them elfs in the first part of it. Our convic- tion is that Shakespeare wrote elfes, which, not being immediately understood, was printed " lads" m the quarto, 1622. P. 547. We have several times seen words which begin with q printed with c: thus in Henry VIII. we have had chine for " queen" (p. 351), and in Macbeth cooled for " quailed" (p. 443). Here we meet with a repetition of the same strange mistake, in regard to a word that has been the source of considerable discus- sion in the line, — " And passion having my best judgment collied." The quarto has cooled for " collied ;" and various explanations of " collied" have been given, but we are not required to state them, in as much as " collied" was, probably, not the poet's word : — '' And passion having my best judgment quelled,^'' is the substitution in the folio, 1632; and Malone says that some " modern editor," whom he does not otherwise distinguish, had 484 OTHELLO. [ACT III. proposed quelled : Othello's judgment was quelled^ or subdued, by his passion. There can hardly be a doubt that this is the proper restoration. P. 552. It may be enough to say that the old corrector does not accept the contraction of " probal," as it stands in all editions, but alters it to prohahle^ which, pronounced in the time of two syllables, may suit the verse sufficiently well. ACT HL SCENE L P. 554. The dialogue between Cassio, the Clown, and the Mu- sicians is struck out, probably because it was necessary to abridge the performance : several verbal and literal errors are, neverthe- less, set right ; thus, " speak tljrough the nose" is amended to " squeak through the nose ;" me is erased as injurious surplusage where Cassio says, "Dost thou hear me^ mine honest friend'?" for "the gentlewoman that attends the general," we have " the gen- tlewoman that attends the general's wife;'''' and for " I shall seem to notify unto her," we are told to read, " I shall seem so to notify unto her." All these emendations seem more or less required. SCENE III. P. 559. In the parenthesis in Desdemona's appeal to Othello on behalf of Cassio, — " (Save that, they say, the wars must make examples Out of her best)," the word " her" is altered naturally, but by no means necessarily, to " Out of our best." All this part of the play is so well printed in the folios, that few corrections, excepting of punctuation, are in- troduced in the margin. It ought not to escape notice, however, that mock^ of all the early impressions, is converted into " make" in the disputed line (p. 564), — " It is the green-ey'd monster, which doth make The meat it feeds on ;" while the conclusion of the same speech is thus given : — "Who dotes, yet doubts ; suspects, jet fondly loves." • SC. III.] OTHELLO. 485 It is " strongly loves" in the quartos, and " soundly loves" in the folios; but the old corrector changed soundly to "fondly," and we are disposed to conclude that such was the received text in his time. P. 566. The next emendation seems questionable, because the intention of the poet is expressed with sufficient distinctness as the text has hitherto stood : it is where lago says, — " But pardon me ; I do not in position Distinctly speak of her." He may refer merely to the position Desdemona occupies ; but still, what follows the above appears to countenance the recom- mended alteration :— " But pardon me, I do not in suspicion Distinctly speak of her, though I may fear, Her will, recoiling to her better judgment, May fall to match you with her country forms, And happily repent." P. 568. The imperfect and corrupt line in the folios, — " If she be false. Heaven mock'd itself," appears thus in the quartos : — " If she be false, ! then heaven mocks itself." The emendatQr of the folio, 1632, famishes a reading different from any old copy : — " If she be false, ! heaven doth mock itself. — I'll not believe it." Such may have been his mode of completing the line, or it may have been the way in which he had seen it written or heard it re- cited, though the difference is not very material. The unprinted stage- directions are not many, but the ancient impressions have very few, even where most required. When Desdemona produces her handkerchief, in order to bind it round Othello's temples. Offers to hind is written in the margin ; and when he rejects it, Throws it away is inserted in the same manner, lago subsequently snatcheth it from Emilia. 486 OTHELLO. [ACT III. P. 571. Othello's passionate exclamation in the quarto, — " What sense had I of her stolen hours of lust ?" is the same in the folio, 1623, exceptmg that "of" is made in : in the folio, 1632, it is printed, — " What sent had I in her stolen hours of lust?" The old corrector here restores the language of the quarto ; and two lines lower he erases " fed well," which found its way into the folios, and is not only utterly needless, but most prejudicial. P. 574. The grossest portions of lago's description of what Othello might wish to see for the sake of conviction, and of Cas- sio's supposed dream, are struck through with a pen, but errors are still carefully amended : " to bring to that prospect" the cor- rector makes " to bring W^ (not " them," as in the folio, 1623) " to that prospect ;" he supplies " and" before " then kiss me hard," and converts " sigh," " kiss," and " cry," of the folios, to the past tense, as in each case in the quarto. P. 576. A printer's error has occasioned difficulty in the line, where Othello draws a simile from " the Pontick sea," which, as the folios have it, — " Ne'er keeps retiring ebb, but keeps due on," &c. " Keeps" must be wrong in the first instance, and Pope altered it to " feels," which was, perhaps, derived by him frotn the quarto, 1630 ; but the manuscript-emendation in the folio, 1632, is, — " Ne'er Jcnows retiring ebb, but keeps due on," &c. This seems the superior reading, and may have been that of the poet : to say that a sea " ne'er feels retiring ebb," is hardly the language of Shakespeare. SCENE rv. P. 579. Othello, wishing to see the handkerchief, says to Des- demona, in the quarto,— " I have a salt and sullen rheum offends me," which may be the correct text ; but the folios read, — ACT IV.] OTHELLO. 487 " I liave a salt and sorry rheum offends me." The manuscript-emendator alters " sorry" to sudden^ as if Othello meant that the rheum had unexpectedly come upon him, and therefore that he needed his wife's handkerchief: — " I have a salt and sudden rheum offends me." This seems natural, and in " King John," Act I. Scene I. (p. 122), we have already seen sudden misprinted sullen. P. 582. Cassio entreats Desdemona, if she cannot remove Othello's displeasure, to let him know the result, in order that he may at once adopt some other method of life : — " So shall I clothe me in a forc'd content, And shut myself up in some other course To fortune's alms." This is as the passage has always appeared, but we are directed in the margin of the folio, 1632, to correct the two following lapses by the printer : — " So shall I clothe me in a forc'd content, And shift myself upon some other course . To fortune's alms." Cassio was not to " shut himself up in," but to ^'' shift himself upon some other course" to obtain the favours of fortune, per- haps, by changing his profession. ACT IV. SCENE L P. 587. Just before 0\\\q\\o falls in a trance^ as the old copies describe it, he exclaims, " I tremble at it. Nature would not in- vest herself in such shadowing passion, without some mstruction. It is not words that shake me thus." He means, of course, that his own conviction of the fact of Desdemona's guilt, not lago's promptings, produced such a trembling and shaking effect upon him. Warburton has a note in favour of reading induction for " instruction ;" and Johnson calls a speculation respecting the in- duction of the moon before the sun, so as to overshadow it, " a noble conjecture." It appears, however, that " shadowing" (often 488 OTHELLO. [ACT IV. of old spelt shaddowing) is a misprint for shuddering^ which is en- tirely consistent with what precedes, as well as with what follows about trembling and shaking ; the old corrector alters the passage in the following manner : — " I tremble at it. Nature would not invest herself in such shudderinff passion, without some instruction. It is not words that shake me thus," &c. " Shadowing passion" seems to have no meaning, but that fanci- fully suggested by Warburton, where he supposes Othello, in the height of his grief and fury, to illustrate his owai condition by ref- erence to an eclipse. It was the mistake of an epithet, very naturally applied to " passion," that forced the commentator upon this speculation. The person who abridged the tragedy (probably for representation at some period soon after 1632) struck out the words from " nature " down to " instruction," as well as a few previous expressions, for a different, but obvious reason. P. 589. The folios introduce a strange corruption where they convert " And his unbookish jealousy must construe" into " And his unbookish jealousy must conserve :" a correction of it is found in manuscript m the folio, 1632 ; but m the last line of this page an emendation of a singular, kind is met with. Othello overhearing Cassio laugh, when lago alludes to Bianca, imagines that Cassio is exulting over him in consequence of his success with Desdemona ; — '• Do you triumph, Roman ? do you triumph ?" are the words put into Othello's mouth, " Roman," in the old copies, being spelt Romaine. Why should Othello call Cassio Roman 1 Johnson says, because the word " triumph" brought Roman into his thoughts. This may unquestionably be so ; but the manuscript-corrector says that the w^ord Roman (perhaps writ- ten without a capital letter in the copy used by the printer) has been entirely mistaken, and that we ought to read, — " Do you triumph o'er me? do you triumph ?" It is not easy to imagine how romaine became o'er me, either by SC. III.] OTHELLO. 489 mishearing or misprinting ; but certainly the allusion to a Roman triumph seems very forced in the mouth of a Moor, and the ques- tion, " Do you triumph o'er me V most fit and natural. Without confirmation, however, it might require considerable courage to in- sert in the text of our great poet so peculiar an emendation. SCENE II. P. 598. The subsequent passage has produced discussion, arising mainly out of discordance of texts in the quarto and folios, the quarto it is, — '* But, alas ! to make me A fixed figure for the time of scorn To point his slow unmoving finger at." The folios have " The fixed figure," and " slow and moving," but both quarto and folios " time of scorn," which Rowe properly changed to " hand of scorn," as appears by a correction in the folio, 1632. Another emendation in the next line, converts " slow and movmg," not into "slow unmoving," of the quarto, but into ^'■slowly moving," the text of no old copy, so that the whole is there thus represented, with manifest improvement : — '* But, alas ! to make me A fixed figure for the hand of scorn To point his slowly moving finger at." P. 600. Here we have another variation in the folio, 1632 (as corrected), from any known copy. The quarto reads, — " How have I been behav'd, that he might stick The smallest opinion on my great'st abuse ?" The folios have " my least misuse" for " great'st abuse ;" both can- not be right, and the old corrector informs us that neither is so, but that we should print, — '' The smalPst opinion on my least misdeed ;^' i. e. " how can he have formed the smallest ill opinion of me from the least misdeed that I have committed V SCENE HI. P. 607. Desdemona's willow-ballad begins in the folios, — 21* 490 OTHELLO. [ACT V. " The poor soul sat singing by a sycamore tree." But the original (Percy's Rel. I. 212) has sighing for " singing," and such is the written correction ; but it goes farther by making it commence with the indefinite article : — " A poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree." There ls no other change in, or addition to it. That part of the dialogue between Desdemona and Emilia, which relates to the in- fidelity of wives to their husbands, is marked for omission. ACT V. SCENE I. P. 609. There is not a single printed stage-direction in this busy and difficult scene, where so many seem necessary ; but they are furnished in the margin, or in vacant spaces of the folio, 1632. When Roderigo draws his sword, to wait for Cassio, he is told to stand hack ; lago wounds Oassio and exit ; and subsequently en- ters umeady^ with a torch and sword drawn. The entrance of Emilia is not at all marked in the folios, but the corrector duly notes the place, and the whole business of the scene is elsewhere accurately pointed out. This Act, with a few exceptions, is com- paratively well prmted m the folios. SCENE IL P. 616. One of these exceptions is found in Othello's first speech, where the folios print "I'll smell thee on the tree" Instead of " I'll smell it on the tree." Before he commences he is instructed to loch the door. Another exception occurs on p. 619, where "Z>^■£? yawn at alteration" ought to be "Should yawn at altera- tion." These changes are introduced in the folio, 1632. P. 621. The folios give the following imperfectly, — " Ay, with Cassio. N ay, had she been true," by omitting " nay ;" but the old corrector states that the line ought to be, — " Ay, with Cassio. Had she been but true," &c. SC. II.] OTHELLO. 491 The difference is small, and, as a mere matter of taste, we prefer the reading of the quarto. P. 624. It is difficult to decide, in the subsequent instance, which text ought to be adopted, that of the quarto, 1622, that of the folio, 1623, and quarto, 1630, or that of the corrected folio, 1632, for they all differ :— '' No, I will speak as liberal as the north." So it stands in the folio, 1623, and in the quarto, 1630; but the quarto, 1622, has it, "as liberal as the a^V," and the folio, 1632, as amended, — " No, I will speak as liberal as the wind." Why, we may ask, should the old corrector make the change, in as much as no reasonable objection can be urged against the use of " north," which he deletes, not in favour of " air," of the quarto, 1622, but in favour of wind^ We may presume, perhaps, that he altered the word because he had heard the line repeated in that manner on the stage. Montano's speech, near the top of the next page, affords another proof to the same effect : — " Which I have here recover'd from the Moor." The folios omit " here," clearly necessary to the measure ; but mstead of inserting it from the quarto, the old corrector placed noiv in the margin. P. 628. The same authority is indisputably right when he sup- plied another omission in the folios where Ludovico, after telling Othello that he must " go with us," turns to lago, and threatens him with torture : the line there is, — " To the Venetian state. — Come ; bring away." The quarto has, " Come ; bring him away ;" but both Othello and lago were to accompany the officers of justice, and therefore the old corrector properly puts it, " Come ; bring them away." He again varies triflingly from every old edition in the concluding words of Othello : — 493 OTHELLO. [ACT V. " And say, besides, that in Aleppo once, Where a malignant and a turban'd Turk Beat a Venetian, and traduc'd the state," &c. He alters "where" to when: the "where" had been already- stated, viz. in Aleppo, and when has reference to the time and cause of Othello's anger, not to the place in which he gave vent to it. We are not informed in the folios, as printed, that Othello stabs himself at the words, " And smote him thus," but merely, four lines afterwards, that he " dies " — on the bed, adds the corrector. Emilia expires, without any note in the folios, after she has been wounded by her husband, also without' note. According to the old mode of performmg the part, it seems that Othello threw himself, in an agony, upon the ground just before Emilia said, " Nay, lay thee down and roar," but started up again, exclaiming, " O ! she was foul," &c. In modern editions it is stated that at these points he fell upon the bed, and rose from it again. In the time of the corrector he did not fall upon the bed until the mo- ment before his death. Some descriptive additions are made in manuscript, for the first time in the volume, to the list of " the Actors' names " ap- pended to the play : thus we are told that lago is Ancient to the Moor, Gratiano Uncle to Desdemona, &c. One of these, and only- one, is of importance, and that with reference to the question agi- tated by Tyrwhitt, Henley, Mai one, Steevens, &;c., whether Bi- anca were a courtezan of Cypfus or of Venice ? The Venetian courtezans were famous in the time of Shakespeare, and he here exhibited one of them on the stage ; for to " Bianca, a courtezan," in the enumeration of the characters, is added of Venice in the hand-writing of the annotator on the folio, 1632. There is no doubt, therefore, that she is supposed in the tragedy to have fol- lowed Cassio from Venice to Cyprus, and, to a certain extent, aided in bringing about the catastrophe. It may be deemed more than probable, that she was dressed, at least in the time of the old corrector, in the costume so strikingly represented as that of Venetian Courtezans in Coryat's "Crudities," 4to. 1611. ANTONY AND CLEOPATEA. ACT I. SCENE I. Vol. viii. p. 6. The heroine taunts Antony with supposed sub- jection to Csesar : — '' Who knows If the scarce-bearded Caesar have not sent His powerful mandate to you, ' Do this, or this 5 Take in that kingdom, and enfranchise that ; Perform 't, or else we damn thee.' " Such has been the universal reading, and there may be no suffi- cient reason to alter it; but the word "damn" sounds ill in Cle- opatra's mouth, reads like a vulgarism in the place where it occurs, and may easily have been misprinted : " Perform't, or else we doom thee" is the emendation of the corrector of the folio, 1632. P. 7. An adverb, a decided misprint, as it seems to us, has hitherto escaped correction, where Antony tells Cleopatra that every mood becomes her : — '' Whose every passion fully strives To make itself in thee fair and admir'd." "Fully strives" is a clumsy expression, and a manuscript note points out a word, so much more acceptable and appropriate, that we may be satisfied in future to reject the blunder : the whole passage is, — " Fie, wrangling queen ! Whom every thing becomes, to chide, to laugh, To weep ; whose every passion /^Zy strives To make itself, in thee, fair and admir'd." (493) 494 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. [ACT I. A compositor might carelessly commit such a blunder : the wonder seems to be that it has never been detected. SCENE II. P. 9. It only requires a brief note to state that Warburton's emendation of" fertile," iov foretell of the folios, is not confirmed by the corrector of the folio, 1632 : the word ui the marghi of that impression is fruitful ; fertile may come nearer the letters, but fruitful is certainly better adapted to the sense : — " If every of your wishes had a womb, Anii fruitful every wish, a million." P. 12. The subsequent quotation may be (as indeed it has been) construed into a meaning ; but when we state the errors of the press it contains, we can scarcely doubt regarding corruption : — " The present pleasure, By revolution lowering, does become The opposite of itself." Such has always been the text, and Johnson, after admitting it to be obscure, confesses himself" unable to add any thing" to War- burton's explanation, which relates to the " revolutions of the sun in his diurnal course." ToUett and Steevens each made an at- tempt with about the same success ; but can any thing be better than the changes offered by the old annotator ? — '' The present pleasure, By repetition souring, does become The opposite of itself." This needs neither illustration nor enforcement : sour and souring were of old spelt sower and soiuering. Two lines fiirther on, the printer of the folio, 1632, left out the epithet " enchanting" before "queen," but the old corrector mserted it, perhaps from the folio, 1623. SCENE III. P. 15. Few things can be clearer than that the punctuation of the line where Cleopatra tells Charmain, — " Thou teachest like a fool : the way to lose him," SC. IV.] ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. 495 is wrong ; yet it has been almost invariably followed. Malone, and others after him, have given it in that manner, but the sense unquestionably runs on : — "Thou teachest, like a fool, the way to lose him." The corrector of the folio, 1632, erases the colon. P. 18. Cleopatra pretends to doubt the affection of Antony, who observes, in ajl editions, — '^ My precious queen, forbear ; And give true evidence to his love, which stands An honourable trial." " Evidence " is one syllable too long for the verse, unless it be read ev''dence ; but that, if any, is the smallest objection to it, as will be seen when we quote the passage as corrected, and as it must be given in future : — "And give true credence to his love, which stands An honourable trial." SCENE IV. P. 19. For " one great competitor" we must hereafter read " our great competitor," as Johnson conjectured ; the old corrector substitutes our for " one." In the first lin^ of the next page, the negative at the end dropped out in the second folio ; and if it were not obtained from the first folio, the sense would necessarily supply it. Lower down, it appears equally proper to read " Fall on him for't," and the C is struck through, and F placed in the margin : Johnson's forced construction of " Visit him" for "Call on him," will not bear examination ; surfeits and dryness of his bones were to fall (not to " call") on Antony for his unrestrained voluptuousness. P. 20. A messenger brings intelligence that " Pompey is strong at sea," and he adds, — '' To the ports The discontents repair, and men's reports Give him much wrong'd. The emendator of the folio, 1632, substitutes, with much plausi- 496 AKTONY AND CLEOPATRA. [ACT I. hilitj, fleets for "ports;" and it seems likely that the compositor blundered in consequence of the word " report" being found two lines above, and "reports" just below. It is improbable that Shakespeare would have been guilty of the cacophony : neverthe- less, it is not to be disputed that, as far as the sense is concerned, " ports " answers the purpose quite as well as fleets. SCENE V. P. 24. Alexas arrives, not " from Caesar," as stated in the old copies, but from Antony, as an emendation in the folio, 1632, informs us ; and at the end of his third speech he describes the manner of the hero as he delivered his message for Cleopatra, and then mounted his steed. The words have been usually printed in this manner : — " So he nodded, And soberly did mount an arm-gaunt steed, Who neigh'd so high, that what I would have spoke Was beastly dumb'd by him." The first difficulty has arisen out of the epithet " arm-gaunt," and, without noticing other proposed emendations, we may state that Sir Thomas Hanmer's "arm-^ir^" is precisely that of the old cor- rector, who also makes a very important change in the last hem istich, which, in the folios, stands, — " Was beastly dumbe by him." The commentators have properly taken "dumbc" as a misprint for dumVd, and have referred to " Pericles," where dumbs is used as a verb. It seems that "beastly" was not Shakespeare's word, which we can well suppose: in "Macbeth" we have seen "boast" misprinted beast, and in Henry V. (Chorus to Act IV.) we meet with the line, — " Steed threatens steed in high and boastful neighs." In the passage before us, Alexas says that the "arm-girt steed" neighed so "high" that he could not address Antony: in what way, then, does the corrector of the folio, 1632, give the whole passage 1 — ACT II.] ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. 497 " So lie nodded, And soberly did mount an urm-girt steed, Who neighed so high, that what I would have spoke "Was boastfully dumb'd by him." One slight objection to this change is that boastfully must be read as a dissyllable, and such is the case with various words, one of them being " evidence," in a preceding quotation, if we could refrain from admittmg credence instead of it. Boastfully might be, and probably was, misprinted " beastly ;" and the arm-girt steed, neighing proudly as Antony mounted him, ^^ boastfully dumbed" what Alexas would have spoken to his master. ACT II. SCENE I. P. 27. We own that we do not like the first change in the fol- lowing, where Pompey expresses his hope that the beauty and blandishments of Cleopatra w^ll detain Antony in Egypt : — " Salt Cleopatra, soften thy wand lip. Let witchcraft join with beauty, lust with both : Tie up the libertine in a field of feasts, Keep his brain fuming," &c. For "wand lip" the old corrector, prosaically as it seems to us, has " warm lip ;" but it is very possible that warin was misheard " wand." However, he goes on to make a double alteration in the next line but one, where he puts Lay for " Tie," and flood for " field." It reads very unlike Shakespeare to talk of tying up a libertine in a field of feasts. The proposed emendations, then, are these : — *' Salt Cleopatra, soften thy warm lip. Let witchcraft join with beauty, lust with both ; Lay up the libertine in d, flood offcasts ; Keep his brain fuming," &c. To us the above appears one of the least satisfactory emendations made in this play in the folio, 16S2 : it sounds too much like conjecture; yet on p. 478 we have seen tying misprinted for *'laymg." 498 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. [ACT II. SCENE n. P. 29. When Antony says to Csesar, — . " Were we before our armies, and to fight, I should do thus," we are no where told, in ancient or modern editions, what Antony did, whether he embraced or shook hands with his competitor. There is a manuscript note, Shake hands, in the folio, 1632, which may be said to settle the doubt, as far as regards the old practice of the stage ; and Cassar, taking the proffered hand of Antony, says, " Welcome to Rome." This is nearly the first additional stage-direction that has occurred in the hand-writing of the cor- rector, and instructions of the kind are not so frequent as in some other dramas. Shake hands is repeated, when the engagement respecting Octavia is concluded between Antony and Cassar. P. 33. When Agrippa first recommends this marriage, Caesar slily and jocosely remarks, as the passage is given in all modern editions, — " Say not so, Agrippa : If Cleopatra heard you, your reproof Were well deserv'd of rashness." This is intelligible, but hardly as the poet must have left his text; and the sentence is thus most blunderingly printed in the folios : — " Say not, say Agrippa, if Cleopater heard you, Your proof were w^ell deserv'd of rashness." The old corrector shows that proof is to be taken as " reproof," which was Warburton's supposition, not as "approof," v/hich Theobald inserted; and the folio, 1632, gives the lines in this way :— " Say it not, Agrippa : If Cleopatra heard you, your reproof Were well deserv'd /or rashness." This is most comprehensible ; and it is easy to see how part of the blunders found their way into the old impressions : the pro- posal of a marriage between Antony and Octavia might well de- serve reproof for its rashness, if Cleopatra had been by to hear it. SC. III.] ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. 499 P. 35. There seems to be a slight error m the description of Cleopatra's pavilion upon the Cydnus : — ** She did lie In her pavilion (cloth of gold of tissue), O'er-pictiiring that Venus," &c. A manuscript note informs us, as we may reasonably imagine, that cloth of gold was not " of tissue," but that we ought to read, — '' In her pavilion (cloth of gold and tissue)," &c. It was composed of cloth of gold and tissue : perhaps the cloth of gold was lined with tissue. Lower in the same page, " To gloue the delicate cheeks," of the folio, 1623, and " To glove Wvq delicate cheeks," of the folio, 1632, are altered to "To glow the delicate cheeks," as in modern impressions. On the next page (36) it has been invariable to print as follows : — '' The silken tackle Swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands. That yarely frame the office." Why, or how, was the silken tackle to " swell with the touches of flower-soft hands V The printer again mistook m for iv : the poet is alluding to the perfume derived by the silken cordage from the flower-soft hands through which it passed, and adds,— ''From the barge A strange invisible perfume hits the sense Of the adjacent wharfs." Tlierefore, we ought undoubtedly, with the old corrector, to amend the text to ''Smell with the touches of those flower-soft hands," &c. SCENE m. P. 38. Whether it be or be not " more poetical," it is certain that the old corrector tells us to read, — " But near him thy^ angel Becomes afear'd" and not " Becomes a fear." This emendation is at least consistent 500 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. [ACT 11. with North's Plutarch — " for thy Demon is afraid of his" — as well as with Shakespeare himself, who makes the Soothsayer re- peat, — " I say again, thy spirit Is all afraid to govern thee near him." The poet may, however, have here intended to vary the expression. P. 40. The Messenger who brings intelligence to Cleopatra of Antony's marriage with Octavia, and who appears again in a sub- sequent scene (p. 60), is called Ells in a marginal note in both places in the folio, 1632. Whether Elis, or Ellis, were the name of the part, or of the performer may be doubted, but we have no knowledge of any actor of the time so called. SCENE vn. P. 54. When Antony, during the debauch, says to Caesar, " Be a child o' the time," Csesar replies, rather unintelligibly, — ''Possess it, I'll make answer ; but I had rather fast From all four days, than drink so much in one." What does he mean by telling Antony to " possess it V Profess it is the emendation in the folio, 1632 : that is, professed to be a child of the time ; but Caesar follows it up by stating his dislike of drinking to excess. In the first scene of " King Lear" (p. 462) we have had the converse of this misprint — professes for " possesses." A question has arisen whether to preserve heat^ of the old copies, or to print " bear," where Enobarbus says, in reference to the boy's song, — " The holding every man shall beat," &c. Theobald was in favour of " bear," and he is proved to have been right, not merely because that change is made in the folio, 1632, but because the old annotator has placed the two last lines of the song in a mark of inclusion, and has designated them as the bur- then^ or " holding," which the jovial company was to hear " as loud as their strong sides could volley." Johnson's notion that " drum- ming on the sides " was intended, is out of the question. No prmter's error was more common than t for r, and vice versa. ACT III.] ANTONY AND CLEOPATEA. 501 ACT in. SCENE I. P. 56. Although at the opening of this drama in the folios, we have Actus primus^ Scena prima^ no such divisions are elsewhere noted from beginning to end. Malone and other modern editors have marked Act III. as commencing with the entrance of Venti- dius in triumph in Syria ; but the corrector of the folio, 1632, makes Act III. begin after this scene, where the place of action is Eome, and where we read in the old editions. Enter Agrippa at one door^ Enoharhus at another. This should seem to have been the division in the time of the corrector ; and it is certainly more proper and convenient than liiat adopted since the days of Rowe, because it tends somewhat to diminish the extreme length of Act III., which, even according to the representation in the amended folio, 1632, comprises eight scenes. In more than one instance the place was supposed to be changed, although no actual altera- tion had occurred. SCENE rv. P. 63. The usual reading of the following has been, — " When the best hint was given him, he not took't, Or did it from his teeth." The folio, 1623, has " he not look'd," and the folio, 1632, " he had look'd." There appears no sufficient ground for doing more than amend the frequent error of "not" for but ; it avoids an awk- wardness when Antony complains of Csesar, that, — " When the best hint was given him, he hut look'd, Or did it from his teeth." Such is the emendation in the folio, 1632, the meaning being, that Cassar only looked when the best hint was given him, or merely applauded Antony from his teeth, and not from his heart. The opinion of Steevens that " from his teeth" is to be understood " in spite of his teeth," of course, cannot be sustamed for an instant. SCENE YI. P. 67. Csesar finds fault with Antony for sending back Octavia without due ceremony and attendance : — 502 ANTONY AND CLEOPATEA. [ACT III. " But you are come A market-maid to Rome, and nave prevented The ostentation of our love, wMcli, left unshown, Is often left unlov'd." " Left unlov'd" is the reading of all editions ; but, nevertheless, it seems to be wrong, and in the folio, 1632. as corrected, we are told to print the last part of the quotation thus : — " Which, left unshown, Is often held unlov'd ;" the meaning being, that where the ostentation of love was omitted, it was often held, or considered, that love did not exist. Lower down, the alteration of two letters in the margin, properly con- verts abstract into " obstruct," which Warburton first mtroduced. P. 68. We surely need not pause in making a change which only requires the omission of a letter, which must have acciden- tally become a part of the text, and which is palpably an " ob- struct" to the author's sense. Cassar is still addressing his sister : — "Your letters did withhold our breaking forth, Till we perceiv'd, both how you were wrong led, And we in negligent danger." The corrector of the folio, 1632, puts wronged for "wrong led:" the objection was, not that Octavia had been "wrong led," but wronged by Antony, who had abandoned her, and returned to Cleopatra. Cassar, when he informs Octavia of this fact, calls her " my most wronged sister." SCENE vin. P. 74. After the loss of the battle, Scarus attributes it to the presence and flight of Cleopatra. Enobarbus asks, " How ap- pears the fight V and Scarus replies, — " On our side like the token'd pestilence, Where death is sure. Yond' ribald-rid nag of Egypt, Whom leprosy o'ertake, i' the midst o' the fight, When vantage, like a pair of twins, appear'd SC. XI.] ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. 503 Both as the same, or rather ours the elder ; — The brize upon her like a cow in June, Hoists sails, and flies." Here the folio, 1632, omits take iii " o'ertake," and has " Both of the same" for "Both as the same," of the folio, 1623; but the two folios read, " Yond ribaldred nag of Egypt," an expression that has occasioned much doubt and comment. Tyrwhitt suggested hag for "nag," but the prevailing . text has been "nag" and "ribald-rid," for ribaldred. It is to be remarked, however (a circumstance mentioned in note 7), that the line is overloaded by a syllable : this redundancy the old corrector remedies, but he also instructs us, in conformity with Tyrwhitt's notion, that hag has been misprinted "nag," and that the line ought to run thus: — ■ *' Where death is sure. Yond' ribald hag of Egypt," &c. Ribald hag is most appropriate to Cleopatra on account of her profligacy, as w^ell as her witchcraft ; and it is just possible that in the manuscript before the compositor the word was miswritten ribaldry, which in his hands became ribaldred^ and has been the occasion of considerable difficulty. Besides, how was leprosy to afflict a nag ? SCENE XI. P. 80. We cannot approve of the commencement of Act IV., as marked in the corrected folio, 1632. It is made to begin with this scene between Cleopatra, Enobarbus, Charmian, and Iras, in Alexandria, instead of the scene where Csesar enters (near Alex- andria) reading a letter, and accompanied by Agrippa, Mecoenas, and others. This arrangement still farther shortens Act III., but it lengthens Act IV., and is liable to several objections, into which it is not necessary here to enter. The conjecture in note 9, founded upon Johnson's hint, that "meered" might be a lapse by the printer for mooted, in the ex- pression, "he being the meered question," is supported by a manuscript change of the old corrector. In future we may safely print " mooted question." P. 81. Enobarbus ridicules the challenge of Antony to Csesar 504 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. [ACT III. to engage with him in single combat, on the ground that Antony, after the defeat of his forces, and his disgraceful flight, has nothing to lose, while Caesar has nothing to gain : he exclaims, in solilo- quy, as the language of the poet has always been represented,^- " That he should dream, Knowing all measures, the full Caesar will Answer his emptiness !" Nobody has explained what is meant by " Knowing all measures." It might mean that Antony knows how to measure beween him- self and Cassar, were it not clear that Antony is quite ignorant upon the point ; and a correction leads us to believe that the printer was again in fault, and composed "measures" for a word like it, which he hastily misread : — "■ That he should dream, Knowing all miseries, that the full Csesar will Answer his emptiness !" Enobarbus refers to the miserable plight and prospects of Antony at the time he dared Caesar to " lay his gay comparisons apart," and meet him " sword agamst sword." Just above, " quality" is changed to qualities, but this is a variation of little importance ; nevertheless, it reads as if it were right. P. 82. Thyreus tells Cleopatra that Caesar would be pleased to hear that she had left Antony, "And put yourself under his shroud, •The universal landlord." The first of these lines halts for want of two syllables ; neverthe- less, the text is such in the folio, 1623 ; but in the folio, 1632, the word "landlord" is strangely separated from what precedes, and put two lines lower. The old corrector sets this matter right, and adds what completes the measure of the first line, and was in all probability what Shakespeare wrote : — " And put yourself under his shroud, who is The universal landlord." Three lines farther on the folios have, — " Say to great Caesar this in disputation." ACT IV.] ANTONY AND CLEOPATEA. 505 It is the introduction to a message of submission from Cleopatra to Csesar ; and Warburton, very judiciously, as now appears, put "deputation" for d^i.s;pi«to^io?i, which last had Malone and others for adherents ; but the correction in the folio, 1632, goes some- what farther :— • " Say to great Csesar, that in deputation I kiss his conquering hand," &c. ACT IV. SCENE IV. P. 92. According to the regulation of such matters in the folio, 1632, this is the fifth scene of the fourth act ; but, as we have already stated, we think the old corrector so far wrong in his di- vision of the play, Antony enters calling for his armour : — " Mine armour, Eros !'* and when the man brings it, Antony is made to say m the old copies, " Put thine iron on ;" but surely it ought to be, as a man- uscript note renders it, " Put mine iron on :" Eros then begins to arm the hero, while Cleopatra insists upon lending her aid ; and in this place, in the early editions, three or four speeches are jum- bled together, and all assigned to Cleopatra. The corrector sep- arates them by marginal notes, but not precisely as has been done by Sir T. Hanmer and later editors. We give the mode of reg- ulating the dialogue in the amended folio, 1632, and on compari- son it will be seen that it varies : — " Cleo. Nay, I'll help too, Antony, What's this for? Ant. Ah, let be, let he ; thou art The armourer of ray heart. False, false ; this, this. Cleo. Sooth, la, I'll help. Ant. Thus must it be. Well, well : We shall thrive now." The chief difference is that "Thus must it be" is given by the old corrector to Antony, and not to Cleopatra. Afterwards An- tony observes, — " He that unbuckles this, till we do please To dofift for our repose, shall hear a storm." 22 506 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. [ACT IV. "Shall hear a storm," says a marginal note, with much more fit- ness, the compositor having taken a wrong letter. An enemy who should attempt to unbuckle Antony's armour, was not likely to "hear a storm" of words, but ''to hear a storm" of blows. SCENE vm. P. 98. Antony, entering for a time victorious, tells liis follow- ers, as it has always been printed, — " We have beat him to his camp. Run one before And let the queen know of our guests." Johnson adds a note, stating that by these words Antony means to say that he will bring his officers to sup with Cleopatra ; but near the end of the scene, while Antony laments that the palace had not " capacity to camp this host," he says not a word about feasting even the officers. The truth is that, from the first, the word has been mistaken, and because it was spelt guests in the old copies, it has always been supposed to mean what we call company. The amender of the folio, 1632, merely strikes out the letter w, leaving the word gests^ and it requires no proof that a gest^ from the Latin, formerly meant a deed^ and was synonymous with it. When, therefore, Antony directs, — " Run one before, And let the queen know of our gests,^^ it is as much as to say, " let her know of our deeds," and the man- ner in which M-e have beaten the Romans to their tents. Gest was unquestionably Shakespeare's word. SCENE IX. P. 101. Enobarbus dying of grief and remorse on the stage, one of the soldiers present says that he sleeps, but another ob- serves, — ** Swoons rather : for so bad a prayer as his Was never yet for sleep." Steevens arbitrarily changed " sleep" to sleeping ; but instead of "for sleep" we ought to read '•'-'' fore sleep," or before sleep, and the word is altered in manuscript accordingly : the sense is, that SC. XII.] ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. 607'. so bad a prayer^ as Enobarbus had ended with, was never uttered before sleep. SCENE X. P. 103. Antony rushes m in despair, with the words "All is lost !" and afterwards proceeds, — " Betray'd I am. O, this false soul of Egypt ! this grave charm, — Whose eye beck'd forth my wars," &c. Is it not evident, upon mere perusal, that " soul" must be wrong, that it could not be the word of the poet ? Almost the same may be said of " grave," in connexion with " charm ;" and when Johnson states that "grave charm" means "majestic beauty," he forgot that " charm " in Shakespeare's time, and indeed our own, was to be taken as enchantment. The manuscript-corrector alters both words thus : — " 0, this false spell of Egypt ! this great charm," &c. Cleopatra, notwithstanding she was a " false spell,''' was a grand piece of witchcraft. On her entrance, immediately afterwards, Antony receives her with the words, " Ah, thou spell ! Avaunt !" SCENE XII. P. 110. When Diomed, speaking of Cleopatra, tells Antony, — *' You did suspect She had dispos'd with Caesar," Steevens subjoins a note stating that " dispose, in this instance, perhaps signifies to make terms,, to settle matters ;" but he adds no example of such being its signification any where else. A cor- rection in the folio, 1632, treats it as a mere lapse by the printer : such we may confidently deem it, and that the poet's language was, — " She had compos'd with Caesar ;" i. e. had entered into a composition or treaty with him. The printer used the wrong preposition. 608 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. [ACT IV. SCENE XIII. P. 111. This scene, numbered the thirteenth in modern im- pressions, according to the old corrector, begins Act V. ; and un- less the last act be made unusually short, this should seem to be the proper division. Cleopatra, on the next page, declaring to Antony that she will never be led in triumph by Csesar, adds, as the text has been con- stantly repeated, — " Your wife Octavia, with her modest eyes, And still conclusion, shall acquu'e no honour Demuring upon me." What signification can we attach to " still conclusion ?" Johnson replies " sedate determination," a very forced construction, while a manuscript emendation, proposing the substitution of three let- ters, seems to put the matter incontrovertibly at rest : — '- Your wife, Octavia, with her modest eyes, And still condition, shall acquire no honour Demuring upon me." The stillness of the condition of Octavia, her gentleness and tran- quillity of deportment, have already been dwelt upon in various places. P. 112. A good deal of doubt has been occasioned by Cleopa- tra's " strange words," as Johnson calls them (and justly, if they were such as they have alw^ays been represented), when she and her women are endeavouring with all their strength to raise the dying Antony into the monument : — "Here's sport, indeed!" Steevens calls it " affected levity," and Boswell wishes to make it " a melancholy contrast with her former sports." The corrector of the folio, 1632, strikes out the letter s in "sport," and leaves the word merely port — " Here's port indeed !" Milton uses the participle ported, and here Shakespeare appears to have employed port as a substantive to indicate weight : — " Here's port indeed !— How heavy weighs my lord !" The French use port for burden, and navire de grand port is a ship A.CT v.] ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. 509 of great burden, Cleopatra speaks of the weight of Antony by the same word ; and though we may not be able to point out any other instance where port signifies in English a load or weight, we can hardly doubt that such is the fact in the case before us, and that, when the heroine exclaims, " Here's port mdeed !" she means, here's a load, weight, or burden, indeed. It is evident that the person who made the emendation in the folio, 1632, so understood it ; the printer probably did not, and hence his blunder. The alteration is very trifling, and it overcomes a great difficulty. ACT V. SCENE I. P. 115. The first lines of this act have created discussion : they stand thus in the old copies, where Caesar speaks of Antony : — " Go to him, Dollabella, bid him yield. Being so frustrate, tell him, He mocks the pauses that he makes. Dol. Caesar, I shall." Malone could not comprehend what was meant by " He mocks the pauses that he makes," and printed " He mocks us hy the pauses that he makes." This is not at all like the change introduced in manuscript in the folio, 1632, which may be considered all that is necessary both to complete the sense and the verse : — " Go to him, Dollabella ; bid him yield. Being so frustrate, tell him that he mocks The pauses that he makes. Dol. Caesar, I shall." By " he mocks the pauses that he makes," we must understand Caesar to charge Antony with trifling with the pauses he made in finally submitting to his enemies. It is certain that the corrector considered it necessary to supply nothing but the word that^ and with this addition (whencesoever he procured it) he imagined,' no doubt, that he had left the poet's meaning clear. P. 116. Dercetas brings tidings of Antony's death in these terms, as commonly printed : — " But that self hand, Which writ his honour in the acts it did, 510 ANTONY AND CLEOPATKA. [ACT V. Hath, with the courage which the heart did lend it, Splitted the heart. This is his sword ; 1 robb'd his wound of it," &c. Here, in spite of the word split being converted into two syllables, the line in which it occurs is left short of two others. In " the Comedy of Errors" (p. 85) we have seen "splitted," of the folios, amended to split^ and here the same course has been pursued, and two words added, in entire consistency with what has gone before, and at the same time completing the defective measure. We have " self hand" for seJf same hand in the first line, and in the fourth line, as amended, we have " self noble heart" for self same noble heart — " But that self hand. Which writ his honour in the acts it did, Hath, with the courage which the heart did lend it, Split that self nolle heart. This is his sword," &c. Every old copy has the defective line in a situation where there seems no reason why a defective line should be found ; and it is perfected in manuscript of the time by words which, in all proba- bility, had accidentally escaped. SCENE II. P. 118. Cleopatra, contemplating suicide, says it is ** To do that thing that ends all other deeds, Which shackles accidents and bolts up change ; Which sleeps, and never palates more the dung, The beggar's nurse and Cfcsar's." We must hero see the impropriety of talking of palating "dung," and afterwards c-alling that "dung" "the beggar's nurse and Cas- sar's." By "dung" has been understood "gross terrene suste- nance," but the sense is much cleared when we ascertain from a note in the folio, 1632, that the scribe misheard " dung" for dug: the dug of sustenance may most fitly be called " the beggar's nurse and Caesar's," and it may reasonably be supposed to be pal- ated by mankind : the corrector, therefore, has it, — " Which sleeps, and never palates more the dug, The beggar's nurse and Caesar's." SC. II.] ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. 511, This emendation may, or may not, have been conjectural, but we may be pretty sure it is right. P. 120. The following is pointed out most likely as a printer's error : Cleopatra is on the same theme, declaring that she will in some way destroy herself: — '' Sir, I will eat no meat, I'll not drink, sir ; If idle talk will once be necessary, I'll not sleep neither.'' The poet's word was, no doubt, accessary : if idle talk would keep her awake, and thus be accessary to her death, she would indulge in it, and never sleep : — " If idle talk will once be accessary, I'll not sleep neither." P. 122. In the subsequent speech of Dolabella, compassionating Cleopatra, the change of a single letter makes sense out of non- sense : the old copies have this text : — - But I do feel, By the rebound of yours, a grief that suites My very heart at root" Malone and others read "shoots" for suits, but the poet's word (as speculatively suggested in note 5) was smites^ and not shoots nor suits: — " A grief that smites My very heart at root." The old corrector put his pen through the letter u in suites, and WTote m in the margin instead of it. Not long afterwards, (p. 125), Cleopatra herself uses the word smites : — '' Ye gods ! it smites me Beneath the fall I have." In all copies, ancient and modern, it stands, "The gods ! it smites me," &c. ; but as tlie was often formerly written ye, the article was mistaken for it in this instance. The sentence has relation to the contradiction of Cleopatra by Seleucus, in the presence of 512 ANTON r AND CLEOPATRA. [ACT V. Caesar, as to the jewels, &c., she had reserved ; and when she de- sires the Stewart to quit her presence, we encounter a change of expression which is not of much moment, and which can hardly be said to be necessary ; but as the folio, 1632, has a note upon it, it is perhaps fit to mention it : it is where Cleopatra says to Seleucus : — "■ Prythee, go hence ; Or I shall show the cinders of my spirits Through th' ashes of my chance." Such has been the common reading ; but the old corrector tells us, what appears extremely plausible, that two mistakes are here to be set right : — " Prythee, go hence ; Or I shall show the cinders of my spirit Through th' ashes of mischance."' " My chance" may here, perhaps, be understood in the same sense as mischance. There can be little dispute that just afterwards "are" should be and^ where the heroine tells Caesar, — '' When we fall, We answer other's merits in our name^ And therefore to be pitied." Of course, " merits" here means deserts. P. 127. Iras declares that her nails shall tear out her eyes rather than see her queen led in triumph ; and Cleopatra's obser- vation is this : — " Why, that's the way To fool their preparation, and to conquer Their most absurd intents." The old corrector gives it thus : — " Why, that's the way To foil their preparation, and to conquer Their most assured intents." Theobald proposed assitr^d for " absurd," but the change has since his time been rejected; and although foil may read better on SC. II.] ANTONY AND CLEOPATEA.. 513 some accounts, still "fool" is stronger, and the alteration of the text so for not called for. P. 130. After the death of Iras, Cleopatra remarks, — " This proves me base : If she first meet the curled Antony, He'll make demand of her," &c. The folio, 1632, is most carelessly printed in this part of the play, and instead of " first meet," repeats j^roves^ which the composi- tor's eye caught from the preceding line, — " If she proves the curled Antony," &c. A marginal note restores the text as it appears in the folio, 1623 ; but even a more stupid blunder of a different kind is made on the last page of the play ; for there the word " aspick," occurring in two nearly consecutive lines, one of them is misprinted aspect, and the necessary verb is omitted : the passage there stands precisely thus : — *' This an aspects traile And these fig-leaves have slime upon them, such As th' aspicke leaves upon the caves of Nile." These errors are remedied by the old corrector, though he' does not amend the regulation of the lines ; but it may deserve remark, that he gives no countenance to the proposition (alluded to in note 3) to read ^^ canes of Nile" instead of "caves of Nile." If Shakespeare had intended to refer to the reeds that grow upon the banks of the Nile, he would hardly have called them canes. 22* CYMBELINE. ACT I. SCENE I. P. 139. The mode in which the person who made the emenda- tions in the folio, 1632, points and corrects the three first lines in this play, is the following, showing Tyrwhitt's sagacity in omitting the 5 after " kings," as it is printed in all the early editions : — '' You do not meet a man but frowns. Our Woods No more obey the heavens, than our courtiers Still seem as does the king." i. e. Our bloods do not more obey the heavens, than our court- iers imitate the king : as the king frowns, so all others look gloomy. There cannot be a doubt that this is the right reading. P. 140. The second folio is very ill printed in the opening of this scene : it has " wt/ so " for " why so," " he like " for " his like," and ^'' which himself" for "within himself" These blunders are set right ; but on the same authority we find all the folios wrong in the parenthesis, not there so printed, — '' (Then old and fond of issue,") for we are told that it ought to be, — " Then old and fond of's issue ;" or " fond of his issue : " the correction is of little importance, since it varies neither sense nor metre. SCENE II. P. 144. As the subsequent passage has been ordinarily printed, it ought to have been followed by a mark of interroga- tion : — (514) SC. v.] CYMBELINE. 515 '•' Thou took'st a beggar ; would'st have made my throne A seat for baseness." Such, however, has not been the punctuation in ancient or modern editions ; and the fact appears to be, that it was not in- tended as a question, for a slight manuscript alteration in the folio, 1632, makes it run, — " Thou took'st a beggar would have made my throne A seat for baseness :" that is, " a beggar, who would have made my throne," &c., by a very common ellipsis: Imogen's indignant counter-assertion, "No; I rather added a lustre to it," seems to render it probable that a question was not intended, SCENE V. P. 150. We here encounter the first manuscript emendation that is of much value. lachimo observes, that the marriage of Posthumus with his king's daughter, tends to enhance the opinion of his merits, adding, — '■ Ay, and the approbation of those, that weep this lamentable divorce under her colours, are wonderfully to extend him ; be it but to fortify her judgment, which else an easy battery might lay flat, for taking a beggar without less quality." What can be the meaning of the expression, " under her colours?" how was the " lamentable divorce " under the colours of Imogen 1 Johnson tells us that " under her colours" is to be understood as " by her influence." Surely not : Posthumus was not banished by the influence of Imogen, but in direct opposition to her wishes. How does the annotator of the folio, 1632, exf)lain the matter? By showing that here occurs another of the many gross mistakes of the scribe, or of the printer, which have been from time to time pointed out : " under her colours " ought to have been and her dolours^ a word not unfrequently used by Shakespeare, and most applicable to the distresses of Imogen in her separation from her husband. But besides this error, there are several others in the sentence, together with the omission of the verb wont^ carelessly excluded, because, perhaps, as the next word begins with won^ the 516 CYMBELINE. [ACT I, compositor missed what is almost essential to the intelligibility of the passage : then, near the close, we have " less " for more^ although Malone, -not aware of any of the preceding defects, strives hard to justify " less." Read the whole, therefore, as the corrector says it was written, and nothing can well be plainer : — " Ay, and the approbations of those, that weep this lamentable divorce and her dolours, are wont wonderfully to extend him 5 be it but to fortify her judgment, which else an easy battery might lay flat, for taking a beg- gar without more quality." P. 154. Another remarkable corruption has been perpetuated near the close of this scene. lachimo has vaunted that he will overcome the chastity of Imogen, and Posthumus has accepted his wager : the latter observes, as the text has always stood, — " Let us have articles betwixt us.— Only, thus far you shall answer : if you make your voyage upon her, and give me directly to understand you have prevailed, I am no farther your enemy," &c. Now, '' if you make your voyage upon her" may be understood as referring to the voyage lachimo was to make to Britain, in order to endeavour to carry his vaunt into effect ; but still the expres- sion is awkward, and one which a correction in the folio, 1632, in- forms us the poet did not use : the word " voyage " is a misprmt, in part, perhaps, occasioned by the omission of an adjective which ought almost immediately to precede it : Posthumus observes, that if lachimo make good his boast, then Imogen would not be worth anger : he therefore says, — *' Only, thus far you shall answer : if you make good your vauntage upon her, and give me directly to understand you have prevailed, I am no farther your enemy." In other words, " if you succeed and accomplish your boast, she does not merit debate." It seems probable that good was left out in the manuscript, and that the compositor mistook vauntage, and printed " voyage," knowing that lachimo must necessarily cross the sea, in order to carry out his project. The sense of the poet appears to have been as different, as it was superior to the ordinary interpretation. SC. VII.] CYMBELINE. 517 SCENE VII. P. 159. Two emendations were proposed by Warbiirton and Theobald in the following : both are found in the margin of the folio, 1632, with a confirmatory addition of some importance. We here give the passage as amended, marking the changes in Italics as usual : — " What ! are men mad ? Hath nature given them eyes To see this vaulted arch, and the rich cojpe O'er sea and land, which can distinguish 'twixt The fiery orbs above, and the twinn'd stones Upon th' unnumbered beach," &c. For cope the ordinary text has been " crop," for O'er " Of," and for th'' unnumbered " the nuniber'd." We may m future safely adopt these emendations, which require no explanation. O'er is proposed for the first time. P. 162, There can be no doubt that the old corrector has, by the alteration of a smgle letter, rendered quite evident what has puzzled all commentators : it is where lachimo pretends to de- scribe to Imogen the infidelity of Posthumus while in Rome : the folios have what follows : — " Slaver with lips as common as the stairs That mount the Capitol ; join gripes with hands Made hard with hourly falsehood (falsehood as With labour) then by peeping in an eye Base and illustrous as the smoky light That's fed with stinking tallow." Some editors have adhered to this text, while others, Malone and Johnson for instance, have printed " by peeping in an eye" " lie peeping in an eye ;" but all have been mistaken, and what was meant was merely an allusion to the game of bo-peep, which is mentioned by Shakespeare and other authors (among them Lodge, in his " Alarum against Usurers," 1584), and is here again introduced : — " Then, ho-peeping in an eye Base and illustrous," &c. Posthumus is represented by lachimo as pressing the hard hands 518 CYMBELINE. [ACT II. of the most hackiiied prostitutes, and playing at ho-peep in their lack-lustre eyes. On such evidence we can readily believe in another amendment, proposed on the next page, which, however, is not so necessary, but, at the same time, by no means uncalled for : it is part of the same description of the dealings of Posthumus. " With diseas'd ventures, That play with all infirmities for gold Which rottenness can lend nature." The corrector states that they do not " play" with these infirmities for gold, but pay^ or make return for gold by the most loathsome diseases : — ' That pay with all infirmities for gold.'' P. 163. When Imogen tells lachimo, — *' I do condemn mine ears, that have So long attended thee," a marginal manuscript note directs us again to change a single letter, and much strengthen the old and ordinary reading :— " I do contemn mine ears, that have So long attended thee." She despised her ears for having listened so long to the slanders of lachimo. The reader will almost have anticipated this amend- ment, which, however, has never been made, though adding much to the force of the heroine's indignation. We may add that in lachimo's last speech in this scene, the old corrector of the folio, 1632, substitutes out-stay'' d for out stood ^ at least with plausibility. ACT II. SCENE I. P. 166. It requires notice, in reference to the divisions of this drama, that when, probably, it was represented in the time of the annotator on the folio, 1632 (we know that it was revived and performed at Court, 1st January, 1633), the second Act began with what is made Scene VII. of Act I. in modern editions. SC. IT.] CYMBELINE. 519 In all the old printed copies also, Act 11. commences with the en- trance of Cloten and the two Lords ; but the words Actus Secun- dus, Scoena Prima are struck through with a pen in the folio, 1632, and transferred to what is headed Scoena Septima of the preceding act. This change seems not unadvisable, if only for the sake of lengthening Act II. 'Therefore, above Enter Cloten and the two Lords, is written " Scene 2 ;" and we are informed, also in manuscript, that the three characters come on the stage as from the Bowling Alley. SCENE II. P. 168. The introduction to this scene in the old copies, is merely Enter Imogen in her hed, and a Lady, while nothing is said about the place and manner of lachimo's concealment : to remedy this omission, A great trunk is added in manuscript in the folio, 1632, to show that this stage-property was exhibited to the audi- ence. According to additional directions in the margin, lachimo not merely takes off Imogen's bracelet, but previously kisses her, at the words, — '' That I might touch ! But kiss 5 one kiss !" It is very possible that such was part of the ancient business of the scene ; but it was a perilous undertaking that, at all events in modern times, has not usually been risked. Still, if the Italian could remove the heroine's bracelet, and turn down the bed- clothes so as to be able to note the " mole cinque-spotted " on her left breast (supposing it not to have been accidentally exposed) without waking her, he might, perhaps, hazard the kissing of her lips. Opposite the words, " I will write all down," Take out tables, meaning his table-book, is placed in the margin, and Exit hilo the trunk again, at the end of the scene. These notes are altogether wanting in pruit in the folios. P. 170. It is not easy to make sense out of " Swift, swift, you dragons of the night, that dawning May bare the raven's eye." Such was Theobald's emendation, and if the meaning be that light 520 CYMBELINE. [ACT II. may make bare the raven's eye, the expression is uncouth for " may o^e the raven's eye." The old corrector converts htare^ of the folios, into dare. : — "■ That dawning May dare the raven's eye :" ^. e. may dazzle the eye of the raven, in the same way that larks were dared by the glitter of a lookmg-glass. This may be the true explanation of the sentence, but still it is obscure ; and at a guess, supposing the old corrector's change to be nothing more, we might fancy that heare was a misprint for hleare^ m the sense of to dim. SCENE IV. P. 178. When lachimo returns to Italy, Posthumus, m his con- fidence in Imogen, asks him, referring to their wager, — •* Sparkles this stone as it was wont? or is't not Too dull for your good wearing ?" To which lachimo is always made to reply, — •' If I have lost it, I should have lost the worth of it in gold," &c. But it was Posthumus who had the chance of losing the ring, and lachimo the value of it, therefore the old corrector makes him answer, with much more apparent propriety, — " If I had lost, I should have lost the worth of it in gold ;" and from thence he proceeds to show that he had not lost, but, in fact, had won the wager. P. 179. All impressions represent lacliimo as not completing his sentence when describing the tapestry in Imogen's chamber: — "■ Which, I wonder'd, Could be so rarely and exactly wrought, Since the true life on't was" Post, This is true," &c. SC. v.] CYMBELINE. 621 Here, besides the imperfectness of the sense, the measure is at fault, because " this is true " does not finish the line lachimo had begun. Corrections in the folio, 1632, remedy both defects in a way that seems to carry conviction in then- favour : — " Which, I wonder'd, Could be so rarely and exactly wrought, Since the true life on't Hwas. Post. This is most true," &c. lachimo wondered at the excellence of the tapestry " smce ''tioas the true life" of the scene it represented. The word most was carelessly left out in the answer of Posthumus, as Hwas in the preceding line was misprinted " was." Near the bottom of the page, lachimo thus describes part of the furniture : — " Her andirons (I had forgot them) were two winking Cupids Of silver." The emendation here is winged for "winking" Cupids; and it certainly is not likely that lachimo should have so nicely observed at night, as to perceive that they were " winking," though he might have easily seen that they were winged. At the same time, this may be looked upon as one of the many cases where the fitness of altering the received text is doubtful, in as much as Shakes- peare may have intended thus to show the elaborate exactness of the scrutiny of lachimo. SCENE V. P. 182. In all modern editions, this soliloquy by Posthumus is converted into a new scene ; but such was not the case of old, for lachimo and Philario go out and leave the hero behind them to make his reflections upon what had passed, and to curse wo- mankind. Here we meet with a word that has produced difficulty : Posthumus supposes lachimo to have easily overcome the scruples of Imogen, and we first give the terms exactly as they appear in the two earliest folios : — " Perchance he spoke not, but Like a full Acorn'd Boare, a larmen on, Cry'de oh, and mounted." 522 CYMBELIXE. [aCT III. Dispute has arisen as to the meaning of the unintelligible words " a larmen on ;" and while Pope and Warburton read " a churning on," which Malone calls a sophi.stication, he himself read " a German one^'' surely a greater sophistication, as if Shakespeare could have had no boars in his thoughts but German ones. There is an evident misprint, and the emendator of the folio, 1632, points out what it was : — ''Like a full acorn'd boar, 2l foaming one, Cried oh ! and mounted." The manuscript must have been imperfectly written, and the prin- ter mistook the/, with which foaming begins, for a capital /, then frequently carried below the line, and did not attend to the g at the end of the word. One^ as Malone truly states, was often miswritten and misprinted " on," and there seems no doubt that the poet meant to express the furious audi foaming eagerness of the fuU-acorn'd boar. Malone weakly supports his notion about a German boar, by stating that boars were never hunted in Eng- land ; but Posthumus was speaking in Italy, and we are not to imagine that Shakespeare's notions regarding boar-hunting were derived solely from German representations, whether in " water- work" or in tapestry. We feel no hesitation in substituting so natural a word Si's, foaming for such an utterly unintelligible word as larmen. The mechanical compositor never thought of the sense of what he was printing. ACT III. SCENE I. P. 185. A line in Cymbeline's address to Lucius stands pre- cisely thus in the folios : — " Ourselves to be, we do. Say then to Ctesar.- ' With the immediate context it has been printed as follows in modern editions ; the king is speaking of the Roman yoke : — " Which to shake off Becomes a warlike people, whom we reckon Ourselves to be. We do say, then, to Caesar, Our ancestor was that Mulmutius, which Ordain'd our laws," &c. SC. III.] CYMBELINE. 523 The clumsy contrivance of making Cymbeline use the expression, " We do say, then, to Caesar," has proceeded (as an emendation in the folio, 1632, shows) from a blunder on the part of the com- positor or of the copyist, who made one of Cloten's impertinent interjections a portion of the speech of Cymbeline. This part of the dialogue is there divided as follows : — Cymbeline ends, — ■ " Whicli to shake off Becomes a warlike people, whom we reckon Ourselves to be. Clot. We do. Ct/m. Say, then, to Csesar, Our ancestor was that Mulmutius, which Ordain'd our laws," &c. This interruption by Cloten is most consistent with his character and conduct, and we have no doubt that such was the mode in wdiich the line we have first quoted was distributed, before the corruption had crept into the early editions. SCENE II. P. 189. Warburton justly calls the phrase, "the sands that run i' the clock's behalf," fantastical ; but it is only so because "behalf" w^as misprinted. Imogen is speaking of horses that run much faster than the sands in clocks, and she goes on, by a familiar expression, to state how much faster they run : — " I have heard of riding wagers, Where horses have been nimbler than the sands That run i' the clocks by half;^^ adding, " But this is foolery," in reference, perhaps, to her own simile. SCENE III. P. 190. Belarius, contrasting the life he, Guiderius, and Arvi- ragus lead m the woods and mountains with that at court, ob- serves, in the ordinary text, — " ! this life Is nobler, than attending for a check ; Richer, than doing nothing for a bribe ; Prouder, than rustling in unpaid-for silk." 524 CYMBELINE. [ACT III. The old copies give the third line, — " Richer than doing nothing for a 6a6e," and Hanmer substituted "bribe," though bribes are seldom given for doing nothing, while Warburton has bauble, and Malone adhered to babe. All three are unquestionably wrong : the sec- ond line supposes a courtier to dance attendance, and only to obtain " a check," or reproof, for his pains ; and the third line fol- lows up the same notion, that he does nothing, yet is rewarded with a blow : Shakespeare repeatedly uses bob (the word in man- nscript in the margin of the folio, 1632) m this way; and babe, then pronounced with the broad open a, was miswritten for it : therefore, the passage, properly printed, appears to be this : — " ! this life Is noljler, than attending for a check, Richer, than doing nothing for a bob,'' &c. P. 193. The copyist made an evident mistake when he wrote the following, where Belarius is soliloquizing on his two boys, and describing the way in which they listen to his account of " warlike feats :" of the elder, he says, — '' He sweats, Strains his young nerves, and puts himself in posture That acts my words. The younger brother, Cadwal, (Once Arviragus) in as like a figure Strikes life into my speech," &c. Here vigour was misheard " figure" (which could only refer to the " posture" of Guiderius), and for this reason the old corrector alters the word in the margin of the folio, 1632 : — " The younger brother, Cadwal, (Once Arviragus) in as like a vigour Strikes life into my speech." That is, with the same energy with which Guiderius had " strained his young nerves." SCENE ly. P. 195. We here arrive at a most singular instance of mis- hearing, which we must impute wholly to the writer of the manu- so. IV.] CYMBELINE. 525 * script used by the compositor. It is in a speech by Imogen, where she supposes that Posthumus has been seduced by some Italian courtezan : — " Some jay of Italy, WTiose mother was her painting, hath betray'd him : Poor I am stale, a garment out of fashion 5" &c. Now, for " whose mother was her painting," of all editions, we are told by the amender of the folio, 1632, to read, — " Some jay of Italy, Who smothers her with painting, hath betray'd him." We fairly admit it to be possible that the old corrector, not un- derstanding the expression, " Whose mother was her pamting," as it was recited before him, might mistake it for " Who smothers her with painting ;" but it is much more likely that m this place, where Imogen was to give vent to her disgust and anger, she would not use a metaphor, especially so violent a one, as to call the daub- ing of the face actually the " mother" of a courtezan. She was describing a woman of abandoned character, who not merely tinged her cheeks, but absolutely smothered herself with painting, and who, though so made up and artificial, had, nevertheless, se- duced Posthumus from the arms of a beautiful and innocent wife. Imogen would, therefore, be disposed to render the contrast as strong as words could make it, and would not be content to throw blame upon her debased and profligate rival, merely by a far- fetched figure of speech. Shakespeare, indeed, even in this very play (p. 215), employs such a figure, but under extremely different circumstances, viz., where Guiderius ridicules Cloten for asking if he did not know him by his fine clothes ? The answer is, — '• No, nor thy tailor, rascal, Who is thy grandfather : he made those clothes, Which, as it seems, make thee." These lines occur in Act IV., and what Imogen says of the " jay of Italy," is inserted in the immediately preceding act ; and if one thing more than another could persuade us that " who smothers her with painting" is the true text, it is that, if we suppose differ- ently, it makes Shakespeare employ the very same metaphor in 526 CYMBELINE. [ACT III. two consecutive acts. Our great dramatist was neither so poverty- stricken as regards language, nor so injudicious as regards nature, to repeat himself in this way, and to make Imogen convey her scorn and detestation of the prostitute, who had betrayed her hus- band, in so mild a form as to term painting the " mother" of the se- ducer. Imogen would not study metaphors at such a moment, but, in the plainest and strongest language she could employ, such as charging the "jay of Italy" with smotheruig herself with paint- ing, would express her abhorrence of the paint-plastered prosti- tute. It is an axiom that genuine passion avoids figures of speech, because passion does not reflect, and a figure of speech is the fruit of reflection : therefore, we feel assured that the scribe misheard, and wrote "whose mother was her painting" instead of " who smothers her with painting." The coincidence of sound seems otherwise almost inexplicable. P. 196. We can have little difficulty, on the authority of the old corrector, in treating the word "fellows" in these lines as a lapse by the old printer : — " And thou, Posthumus, that didst set up My disobedience 'gainst the king my father. And make me jiut into contempt the suits Of princely fellows, shalt hereafter find It is no act of common passage, but A strain of rareness." For " princely fellows," the emendation is " princely followers,''^ the noble suitors whom Imogen had rejected in favour of Posthu- mus. Near the top of the next page is an expression upon which Hanmer, Johnson, Steevens, and Mai one have very unsatisfactory notes. Pisanio informs Imogen that he has not slept since he received command to destroy her : — " Imo. Do't, and to bed, then. Pis. I'll wake mine eye-balls first. Imo. Wherefore, then, Didst undertake it?" What does Pisanio mean by " I'll wake mine eye-balls first ? " To extract some sense from the declaration, it has been usual to SC. IV.] CYMBELINE. 627 print "I'll wake mine eje-balls hlind first;" but another printer's error has occasioned all the trouble. The corrector converts "wake" into cracke, and doubt vanishes : he also inserts a small word in Imogen's inquiry, and presents the whole thus perfect in measure and meaning : — " Inio. Do't, and to bed, then. Pis, I'll crach mine eye-balls first. Imo. And wherefore, then, Did'st undertake it ?'■ P. 198. Mai one considered it vain to seek for the two-syllable epithet, obviously wanting, in a line where Imogen speaks of Cloten, — '' With that harsh, noble, simple nothing." Steevens would complete the measure by Cloten at the end, for- getting, perhaps, that the name occurs at the very beginning of the next line ; but the missing word is found written in the margin of the folio, 1632:— '• With that harsh, noble, simple, empty nothing." It had, doubtless, escaped by mere accident, and we may be thankful for the restoration. Lower down in the page occurs the words " Pretty and full of view." What can be the meaning of "pretty" in that place ? It is an indisputable blunder, perhaps from defective hearing : Pisa- nio is showing Imogen how she may remain concealed, and yet have a full view of all that is passing around her : we print the passage here as it is corrected : — " Now, if you could wear a mind Dark as your fortune is, and but disguise That, which, t'tappear itself, must not yet be But by self-danger, you should tread a course Privy, yet full of view : yea, haply, near The residence of Posthumus." She was to remain private, and unknown, while she was able to mark all that was done by others. The alteration of "courage" to carrza^e, near the top of the next page, may be contested j and in as much as " courage " an- 528 CYMBELINE. [ACT IV. swers its purpose, perhaps it would be unwise to displace it, though more than once (see pp. 317, 384) the same easy error has been pointed out. Pisanio tells Imogen that when she has disguised herself as a youth, she must change '' Command into obedience ; fear, and niceness, (The handmaids of all women, or more truly, Woman it pretty self) into a waggish courage : Ready in gibes, quick-answer'd," &c. Here " waggish camaye " seems more appropriate to a youth, though disputable. SCENE VI. P. 206. The old introduction to this scene is merely, " Enter Imogen alone," to which the following necessary words are added in manuscript in the folio, 1632, ''tird like a hoy^ i. e. attired like a boy. She commences her speech thus : — '' I see, a man's life is a tedious one : I have tir'd myself, and for two nights together Have made the ground my bed." It has always been supposed that "I have tir'd myself" is to be taken in the sense of " I have fatigued myself; " but the corrector places an apostrophe before tir'd — Hird — and clearly means that " tir'd," in the speech, is to be understood in the same way as Hird like a hoy in what he appended to the heading of the scene. This is a point upon which we may or may not take his word ; for we may imagine that Imogen means that she has tired herself with the tediousness of a man's life, and with sleeping two nights following upon the ground. It seems, however, more likely that she should refer to her dress, and purposely call the attention of the audience to the change it had undergone. The entrance of Belarius, Guiderius, and Arviragus is improp- erly made a new scene in the folios ; but Scoena Septima is struck through with a pen, and Same written mstead of it, as in several former instances. ACT IV. SCENE I. P. 211. The word " imperseverant," as it stands printed in the SC. II.] CYMBELINE. 529 folios, has naturally given trouble to the commentators, who have not known w^hat to do with it. Hanmer altered it to " ill-perse- verant," meanmg persevering in ill, while Steevens argued that it was to be understood as perseverant. It appears, on the authority of an emendation in the folio, 1632, that the compositor blun- dered by combining two words, one of which had relation to the obstinacy of Imogen, and the other to the wandering life to which she had taken. It is Cloten who speaks, and who is complaining of the perverseness of the heroine, w^ho absurdly preferred Pos- thumus to him, and ran away from court in order to avoid him. Very probably the manuscript was here confused and illegible, which led to the printing of " imperseverant " for perverse errant, as it is amended, and as we may be confident it ought hereafter to be prmted — " Yet thi^ perverse, errant thing loves him in my des- pite." Cloten had come to Milford Haven in search of this " perverse, errant thmg," and to destroy Posthumus. SCENE II. P. 217. The question, somewhat hotly argued between Theo- bald, Warburton, Mason, Malone, &c., whether in the following, as we find it in the old copies, — " Though his honour "Was nothing but mutation," "honour" should not be read humour, is decided (if, in truth, de- cision were wanted) by the old corrector, who converts "honour" into humour by the change of two letters in the margin. It has been a misreading of frequent occurrence. P. 221. An emendation in the folio, 1632, changes " the leaf of eglantine," very naturally, but not necessarily, into "the leafy eglantine ;" but at the end of the speech we meet with a val- uable improvement of the text in the setting right of a misprint, which has occasioned some pages of useless explanation and com- ment. It applies to this passage, as given in the folios : — " The ruddock would With charitable bill (0, bill, sore shaming Those rich-left heirs, that let their fathers lie Without a monument !) bring thee all this ; 23 630 CYMBELINE. [ACT IV. Yea, and furr'd moss besides, -when flowers are none, To winter-ground thy corse." The puzzle has been the compound verb " to winter-ground;" and Warburton insisted upon " winter-^ow?^," while Malone and Stee- vens were for preserving the text unaltered. Warburton was right in treating " winter-ground " as a blunder, but no farther ; and when we show, from the corrected folio, 1632, what must have been the poet's language, it will be seen that the compositor's mistake was an easy one : — " Yea, and furr'd moss besides, when flowers are none, To wmteT-guard thy corse :" i. e. the redbreast would bring furred moss to j^rotect Imogen's corse in winter, when there were no flowers. P. 222. There is a substitution in the song over the body of Imogen, which requires notice, and which improves the reading of a line, but by no means forces adoption upon us : the text has always been, — '• Golden lads and girls all must, As chimney-sweepers, come to dust." It is altered as follows in the amended folio, 1632 : — '' Golden lads and lasses must. As chimney-sweepers, come to dust." " Lads and lasses" may be said to follow each other in every song (as well as in every place), and perhaps Shakespeare here pur- posely avoided the repetition. Several variations from the received text are marked in this part of the play; but near the end of the volume the outer margins are so worn, torn, and encroached upon by damp and rough handling, that although words are corrected, or crossed out, what was sub- stituted for them has sometimes disappeared. The subsequent comparatively trifling change on p. 224, has just escaped : it is where Imogen wakes and says, — '* I hope I .dream, For so I thought I was a cave-keeper." ACT v.] CYMBELINE. 631 The proposed emendation is to convert an adverb into an inter- jection : — " For lo ! I thought I was a cave-keeper." This part of the play is carelessly printed in the second folio, and literal errors (all of them corrected by the manuscript-annotator, though his writing is often obscured or obliterated) are very fre- quent. ACT V. SCENE I. P. 231. Only about one page of this act has been preserved in the corrected folio, 1632, four leaves at the end of the volume being entirely wanting. A manuscript edition to the heading of the first scene has been partly torn away, so that we can only read in print, " Enter Posthumus alone," and toith a following it m the writing of the old corrector : probably napkin or handker- chief was the word lost. P. 232. The last emendation we have to notice (beyond the insertion of some new stage-directions relating to the battle, such as Drums and trumpets, Alarums on both sides, &c.) is in the soliloquy of Posthumus, and it relates to a passage which has been mnch discussed, but never clearly understood : the old text has been this : — " You some permit To second ills with ills, each elder worse ; And make them di'ead it, to the doer's thrift." Here, in the first place, is an admitted inaccuracy, because, as Malone remarked, the last ill deed, which was the " worse," was, in fact; the younger, and not the " elder." For this the correc- tor provides a remedy, and writes later in the margin for " elder," which was, perhaps, a misprint. The line that follows is far from intelligible, for to what does "them" in it apply? — " And make them dread it to the doer's thrift." The last antecedent was "ills," but "them" cannot refer to the 582 CYMBELINE. [ACT V. crimes committed. This appears to be another instance where "them" has been misheard for another word, the adoption of which, on the testimony in our hands, makes a clear meaning out of an obscure line. The passage, therefore, stands thus, as amend- ed in the folio, 1632 :— " You some permit To second ills with ills, each later worse, And make men dread it. to the doer's thrift." The doer of ill deeds profited by the fears produced in men by still-increasing enormities. Later^ therefore, was misprinted "elder," and men misheard " them." The word men is only just legible in the margin, in consequence of a stain and the abrasion of the paper. NOTES. Page 22. It should be added that m " Ricahrd n.," vol. iv. p. 172, the poet speaks of "■ the cloudy- cheeks of heaven ;" and, on the whole, heat in this place seems to be one of those altera- tions, which, though supported by some probability, it might be inexpedient to insert in the text. Page 22. It ought to be noted that opposite the expression, on p. 13, " Out three years old," the old corrector of the folio, 1632, has written the word Quite, but he has not erased " Out ;" and possibly he only meant that " Out three years old" was to be understood as " Quite three years old." As he made no change, we may conclude that the text is right. Page 30. Perhaps neither of the smaller emendations on p. 40 is necessary : " she, from whom" may mean, she, coming from whom " we were all sea-swallowed." Page 33 Nevertheless, it seems proper so to divide the song ; and, possibly, it, is a point which did not attract the attention of the corrector of the folio, 1632. The emendation of rain for " spring," appears somewhat violent, and s;prings for " spring" might have been all that was really necessary. Page 45. In reference to the line supplied in manuscript in the folio, 1632, it is very possible that it was obtained from more correct recitation. Page 47. At the bottom of this page, " Scene IV." ought to have been marked as preceding the passage quoted from vol. i. p. 164. This division ought, therefore, to be deleted on p. 48. Page 48. We may add that it is much more easy to suppose <'mclude " misprinted for conclude, than to accept the very forced construction of Malone, that all jars were to be " included or shut in the bosoms of the parties, and to be prevented from gettmg out by triumphs, masques," &c. Page 55. In "Othello," Act I. Scene m., the folios misprint <' couch" coach, where the hero is speaking of " the flinty and steel couch of war." (533) 534 NOTES. Page 61. In the sentence '* which, however, was sometimes in the language of the day," dele in. Page 65. This mistake of " winter" for toindows, ought not here, properly, to have been charged upon the printer, but upon the copyist, who, writing by his ear, mistook the sound of the word. Page 66. It is to be observed, however, that Shakespeare uses " top" sometimes in a peculiar man- ner : thus in "Macbeth," Act IV. Scene I., he speaks of "the round and top of sovereign- ty ;" and in " Ooriolanus," Act I. Scene IX., he has " the spire and top of praises." Page 68. This emendation of boasted for < ' blessed' ' may have been adopted as a mere matter of taste. Page 71. It ought to have been stated that Pope made the correction of " his lordship's man," which has ever since been considered the text.— In the last line but tlu-ee of this page, the full point ought to be only a comma, and the sentence should run — " but the fact seems to be that it is a misprint, and that the duke's real exclamation," &c. Page 73. Johnson was once, he tells us, in favour of confined, in preference to " combmed." Page 73. The expression, " bears mch a credent bulk," may look more like an attempt to mend, than an emendation. Page 75. On further consideration we may be disposed to prefer an adherence to the old text, since to " retort" and to " reject" etymologically have nearly the same meaning. Page 82. Nevertheless, it seems to us thatMalone's alteration of ruinate to "ruinous," in order to rhyme with Antipholus, is on some accounts preferable : at all events it is shorter. Page 88. The word " father," which is left out in the folios, is found in the quarto, 1600—" to make courtesy and say. Father, as it please you." Perhaps the old corrector of the second folio obtained it from thence. Page 99. It seems not unlikely that the compositor, confusing the two similar terminations, died and belied, misprinted the latter " defil'd." Page 100. It should be stated, as mentioned in note 8, that most of these emendations were suggest- ed by Hanmer, and have since been adopted by Malone and some other modern editors. Page 110. For "the manuscript stage-directions," read " the stage-directions." Page 118. Malone has " strange shapes" for " straying shapes," but he did not detect the previous error of s^angenesa for " strains." KOTES. 535 Page 122. The note on "Take pains ; be perfect," &c., belongs to Act I. Scene H. : the same re- mark applies to the two preceding notes on pp. 400, 401 ; but that division has been acci- dentally omitted in its right place. The division, ActH. Scene I., ought to precede the note on p. 404. Page 128. Theobald supp«sed that Bottom was to sing the ballad of his dream after his death on the stage, and Steevens terms it a happy emendation ; but his own notion, that Bottom might mean that he would smg it at Tliisbe's death, turas out to be the correct one. PVGE 142. "Bollen" occurs m Chaucer, Compl. of the Bl. Knight, and Tyrwliitt derives it from Bolge, of which, he says, it is the part. pa. It may be doubted whether Bolstrum, a bolster, which we meet with in Beovrulf, had not its origm in the A. S. word signifymg to swell. Pagk 144. Of this we have proof m Act V. Scene I. of this play, on the entrance of Launcelot ; but elsewhere we sometimes find it printed hoa. Page 149. • Nevertheless, " safest haste" may allude to the danger Rosalind would incur by remaining. Page 152. Tliis emendation, and the note upon it, as we discover in a subsequent scene (Act IH. Scene IV.), is founded upon a mistake : "sat," or "sate," seems perfectly right. Page 154. This quotation should have been "Not seen him since," both here and immediately after- wards. Page 165. It does not follow that this emendation, regardmg Warwickshire ale, was necessarily obtained from some better manuscript, in as much as the corrector of the folio, 1632, might have heard the old actor of the part of Sly repeat the true text. Page 171. See also a note in vol. viii. 475, where it is stated that Shakespeare seems to alhide to Drayton and his little volume called "Amours," in sonnet xxi., which begins,— " So is it not with me, as with that muse Stirr'd by a painted beauty to his verse," &c. Tliis may have formed another ground of difference between Shakespeare and Drayton. The whole collection of sonnets is headed " Amours ;" but on the title-page that word only comes second : we quote it exactly, with the imprint, as we copied it many years smce :— " Ideas Mirrour. Amovrs in Qvatorzams. Che serve e tace assai domanda. At London, Printed by James Roberts, for Nicholas Linge. Anno. 1594." 4to. Page 175. It might be doubted whether " haled" is not to be taken as haiOed ; but still the true word may have been handled. 536 NOTES. Page 189. Yet if Helena were right in what she says, <'Sir, I have seen you in the Court of France," he was not an absolute " stranger" to her. Most likely she only means it as a sort of in- troduction, to warrant her in addressing him. Page 197. It is easy to see how this remarkable blunder originated : both the speeches of Sir Toby and Sir Andrew (as amended) end with " song," and the eye of the compositor glanced from one to the other, and omitted the last, with its introductory words. Page 202. On reconsideration we are inclined to think that the old reading, "drew in that," may be right. Page 212. Unless we suppose Hermione to mean " there, while you weep yourself, leave the infant crying." This, however, seems a very forced construction, to which we are not at all driven. Page 215. In fact, the expression, "charm your tongues," wants no illustration from any other author than Shakespeare himself, who uses it in "Henry VI. Part III.," Act V. Scene V. : in " The Taming of the Shrew," Act 17. Scene H., he has " charm your chattering tongue," &c. Page 222. Farther reflection, on the proposed change of "conversion" into "diversion," induces us to give preference to the former, as well as to the ordinary punctuation. It is, however, not to be disputed that the corrector of the folio, 1632, may be right in his construction ; but we do not consider him so decidedly right as to warrant, in this place, the desertion of the usual text. The next emendation is possibly in the same predicament : the intro- duction of a mark of interrogation certainly makes the passage read with more spirit. Page 224. A note ought to have been made applicable to a line on p. 30 of "King John :" it has been common to pruit it thus : — " You equal potents, firy-kindled spirits ;" but the emendator of the folio, 1632, informs us that it ought to run : — "You equal potent, fike-y kindled spirits." Page 225. Johnson says that " sightless" is here used for imsightly : not so the old corrector ; nor have the commentators pointed out any other similar application of "sightless." Page 237. Scene in. ought to have been placed before the emendation in the line, "And furbish new," &c. A note, applicable to a passage on p. 133, should have been added : Aumerle says, — " Farewell : and for my heart disdained that my tongue Should counterfeit oppression of such grief," &c. The measure of the first of these Imes is restored by printing clisdain''d and omittmg t?ujU. On p. 35, the two hemistichs, "Where lies he?" and "At Ely house," are completed by now added to the King's interrogatory, and by viy liege subjoined to Bushy's answer. The fainlness of the ink in the correction of the folio, 1632, occasioned the omission. NOTES. 537 Page 239. The lines as quoted from a manuscript (note 7, p. 143) do not support the change of "as thoughts" to " our thoughts," but the last cannot possibly be wrong. Page 241. Scene in. ought to have preceded the note upon the epithet despoiling for *' despised." Page 248. It should have been mentioned that the old corrector puts/or, instead of "sir," in the line beginning "Now, sir, the sound," &c. Page 249. It has been omitted to be stated that there is a change of punctuation on p. 216, which makes it appear that Bolingbroke declares that he will incontinent, or vidth all speed, visit the Holy Land ; and consistently with tliis emendation we find him, at the opening of *' Henry IV. Part H.," ordering immediate preparations. The passage, just before the closing couplet of " Henry IV. Part I.," is made to run thus in the corrected folio, 1632 :— " Come, mourn with me for that I do lament^ And put on sullen black. Incontinent I'll make a voyage to the Holy Land, To wash this blood off from my guilty hand." Page 253. When it is said, that the old corrector of the folio, 1632, was indebted for the emendation of Lord either to the quarto, 1598, or to his own sagacity, it ought to have been added, as in some other places, that he possibly derived it from some source, independent of the quarto, 1598, such, for instance, as having heard the passage properly delivered on the stage. Page 257. A small, but interesting emendation, on p. 287, escaped notice, which may be mentioned here : it is welling for " swellmg," when Mortimer tells his weeping wife, " That pretty Welsh, Which thou pour'st down from these swelling heavens, I am too perfect in." Steevens maintained that "swelling heavens" meant Lady Mortimer's " two prominent lips," while Douce rightly argued that her eyes were intended, and that they were swol- len with tears. The poet's word was, doubtless, welling, the compositor having preceded it by s by mistake. To tuell is to issue as from a spring : and Lady Mortimer's tears welled from her blue eyes : we must in future read, — " Which thou pour'st down from these wELLiNa heavens." Page 269. In vol. vi. p. 312 of "Notes and Queries," an emendation of the closing couplet of Hen- ry's speech on sleep is proposed by Mr. Cornish : for "happy low, lie down," he proposes to read " happy lowly clown." The change, we may remark, is needless, the sense being very evident, and the expression not at all improved : the King by "happy low" means all the humble classes of the community, and does not confine himself to mere country clowns. Just before, he has expressly mentioned "the wet sea-boy," and he would hardly fly off, wathout the slightest introduction, to such a discordant object as a lowly clown. The cor- rector of the folio, 1632, makes no alteration in the received text, 23* 588 NOTES. Page 272. It ought here to have been stated, that in the quarto, 1600, tlie word is mn, so spelt. Page 288. For "Julius Cfesar on bright Cassiope," read " or bright Cassiope." Page 292. It ought to have been mentioned that the regulation of tlie verse, near the close of tho Master Gunner's second speech, is materially altered in the folio, 1632, by the insertion of the w^ords on my post after " I can stay no longer." The lines are thus rendered quite reg- ular. On p. 44, an emendation makes blind Mortimer refer to his long imprisonment " in a cage of care," meaning the Tower, instead of " in an age of care," which are the words in the folios. Page 317. See this vol. p. 384 ; but, perhaps, it is hardly as certain there as here, that "courage" ought hereafter to be printed carriage. A third instance is pointed out in a subsequent play (p. 528), but still it is not decisive. Page 320. How English and foreign soldiers were distinguished, as regards dress, at that time, on the stage, is not explained any where that we remember. It is not stated that Edward, Eicliard, and Hastings had any English soldiers with them. Page 322. The line, " They that stabb'd Caesar shed no blood at all," is from the older play which Shakespeare used, but there is no trace in it of the two lines which follow. Page 322. Except that "a boding" is printed as one word : it has also undigest for "indigest," but they were, in fact, the same. Page 344. This blunder of printing toay for " sway," with the pronoun " his" before it, occurs in a couplet at the end of " Henry IV. Part I.," where, m the folios, we read,— " Rebellion in this land shall lose his wat," instead of " lose his sway." Page 350. The words, " And of an earthy coldness,' ' ought not to be followed by a mark of inter- rogation : it is not a question, but an observation. Page 356. It stands " that breath fame/oZZows," &c., in Malone's Shakespeare, by Boswell, vol. viii p. 27L In the quarto, 1609, is is properly printed "fame blows." Page 358. At the same time, "pass the difficulties," in the sense of go through the difficulties, is very intelligible, and may be right. Page 376. It should have been stated that although physic of old was sometimes spelt physique, the most usual orthography of the word at that time was physicke. Even this mode of spelling might account for the corruption, and emperickgutique is mere nonsens«. NOTES. 639 Page 382. When referring to the misprinting of bisnan on p. 173, we ought to have added that in the folios it is spelt beesome in one place, as it is bosome in the other. Page 387. The note applicable to p. 245 ought to have been preceded by "Scene Vn.," which was accidentally omitted. Page. 396. In the note on p. 334, for the words, "the latter change is, however, by any means re- quired," read "the latter change is, however, not by any means required." Page 399. There is a mistake in reference to the date when Titus Andronicus was "printed:" the word "printed" ought to have been acted. We know of no impression older than that of 1600, in the library of the Earl of Ellesmere ; but Langbaine tells us that it originally came out in 1594, and we find it entered in the Stationers' Registeu on 6th February, 1593, wliich looks like a memorandum just anterior to publication. Henslowe inserts a play, which he calls " Titus and Andronicus," under the date of 23 Jan., 1593 : it was then a new play, and it may very likely have been the piece entered at Stationers' Hall only a fortnight after- wards. Page 406. Correctly speaking, something more is required than the alteration of a single letter, in as much as to make " unbruised" unbusied, not only the r is to be struck out, but the place of the i is to be changed. Page 406. The blood had begun to mantle in Juliet's cheeks, and the Nurse anticipated that the moment afterwards they would be scarlet at the news she had just communicated. Page 408. The letters would scarcely be too few, if we suppose (as was frequently the case, though not here in the margin of the folio, 1632) that enemies was spelt ennemyes. We can also imagine that the compositor may have been puzzled by the word " eyes," which intmiedi- ately followed ennemyes. Page 409. It is not unlikely that the corrector of the folio, 1632, did not know Edwards's poem, al- though he might be sure that the lines he underscored were a quotation. Page 420. When it is said that " to load our purposes" is very like nonsense, compared with the expression " to load our _pMrses, " it ought to have been admitted that some meaning may be gathered from the passage by a forced construction, which supposes that the Poet and Painter came to have their designs loaded. Page 437. But for this emendation of Lay for " Let," we should have thought that the alteration might have been only that of a letter, mz.— " Sbt your highness' Command upon me." 8d would have answered the purpose nearly as well as Lay ; it is a mere trifle, but " Let" can hardly be right 54:0 NOTES. Page 439. "With reference to the amended word Headed for " bladed," Spelman, in his Glossarium, p. 83, tells us : Certe apudpriscos Saxones (a quibus late per Europam vox diffunditur) blada, seu blaeda, omnemfmctum significat, etiam arborum et vitis : he also gives seges and frumen- tvm as other meanings of the word. Jamieson, in his Elym. Diet., under Bled, speculates that in the expression, " Of his blude bled," Ued is to be understood as sprung of his blood, from A. S. llmd, fruit. Page 440. An objection to ripened instead of " opened," may be, that Malcolm is representing these " particulars of vice" in liim as already at maturity. Page 442. The old corrector writes " may of life" without a capital, and we feel assured that the blunder was caused by the confusion, common with the old printer, between to and w. We have had many instances of it. In the repetition of the line, — " Cleanse the stufPd bosom of that perilous geief," " that" is accidentally misprinted the. Page 453. Still the emendation of ^Mrse for *' prize" is liable to the objection that " prize," or price, in the sense of purse, affords a consistent meaning. l^e word Finis marks " the conclusion of the piece ;" of course, as it was abridged probably for performance, with the omission of all the portions struck through with a pen. Page 465. In " Notes and Queries," vol. vi. p. 6, is a suggestion by Mr. Singer for reading the com- mencement of this quotation as follows : — "Let him fly far, Not iu this land shall he remain uncaught, Unfound," &c. According to this conjectural change, " despatch" would hardly refer to Edgar, so much as to the Duke, whose speedy arrival was expected. Page 466. We have not been able to find in Stow, or in any other authority, a notice of Finsbury Pinfold, but we need scarcely doubt of its existence in Shakespeare's time. Page 469. But for the sake of the verse, which would be continued redundant, we might read, with even a smaller alteration of the old text, — " Which are to France the spies and speculaTOES." We are by no means satisfied with "spectators," recommended in the margin of the foUo, 1632. Page 470. As the sentence ends at "flattered," the words " when known," which we have added in our comment, are supposed to be understood. KOTES. 541 Page 471. If delires had been a word in use in Shakespeare's age, it would on all accounts appear preferable to " distress :" delires might easily have been misorinted " desires," and it would most accurately express the state of King Lear's mind. Page 478. Todd, in his edit, of Johnson's Diet., oerives the verb "to wheedle" from the A. S., which he says means seclucere, " to entice by soft words ;" but the earliest instance he cites of its use is from Butler's " Hudibras." Richardson gives wcedlidn, A. S., to cajole, to coax, as tlie etjanology. Page 487. It is very possible that Richard Burbadge, the origmal Othello, cast himself on the ground in the agony of his despair and remorse ; but not at all likely that he would be guilty of the needless brutality of dragging Dcsdemona by the hair, as described in a ballad written, it should seem, shortly before the Civil Wars. Eyllierdt Swanston, as he spelt his own name, was a distinguished actor, who, certainly at one time, between 1619 and 1642, had the part of Othello ; and it is not unlikely that he, in order to give greater effect to the scene, before a degenerate audience, introduced more coarseness and violence than was ever displayed by his great predecessor. Page 496. We might have guessed that dumbe, or dumb'd, was a misprint for drmmi'd ; but tlie words of Alexas could not have been drowned, unless they had been first spoken : he says that what he " would have spoke" was " ioastfulltj dumb'd" by the neighing of the horse. Page 498. The expression, " well deserv'd of rashness," may, perhaps, be understood in the same sense as " well deserv'd/or rashness." Page 504. Still it may be fit to hesitate before miseries for " measures" is introduced into the text. Page 516. Shakespeare does not elsewhere use the word vauntage, but " vaunting ;" and on p. 427 we have already seen " make your vaunting true," in the same way as here we have " make good your I'aiwta^e. " Page 518. At the same time the meaning may certamly be, that they gamble with tbek infirmities, staking them against the gold that is paid to them. Page 525. Ml-. Halliwell has thought this emendation worthy of a separate and clever tract {Lon- don, 1852), m which he has inserted various passages where Shakespeare resorted to a similar mode of expression. The more our great and original poet has done so elsewhere the less likely is he to have done so here ; but if some of Mr. Halliwell 's quotations are apposite, which we admit them to be, others are opposite, as most people will perceive them to be. Mrs. Cowden Clarke's admirable " Concordance" viall furnish them all, so that it is not necessary to quote them ; and we freely acknowledge Mr. Halliwell 's in"-e- nuity in sometimes applying to liis purpose what in no way makes in his favour : it is one thing to represent a prostitute as the mother of her painting, and another to say that paint- ing is the mother of the prostitute : so it is one thing to represent a young fop as the father of his garments, and another to make the garments the father of the young fop. 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He takes in his speeches the same wide and comprehensive grasp of his subject that he does in his essays, and treats it in the same elegant style."— Philadelphia Evening Bulletin. " The same elaborate finish, spai-kling antithesis, full sweep and copious flow of thought, and transpai-ency of style, which made his essays so attractive, are found in his speeches. They are so perspicuous, so brilliantly studded with ornament and illus- tration, and so resistless in their current, that they appear at the time to be the wisest and greatest of human compositions," — NewYork Evangelist. M. TRENCH ON PROVERBS. On the Lessons in Proverbs, by. Richard Chenevix Trench, B. D., Professor of Divinity in King's College, London, Author of the " Study of Words." 12mo, cloth, 50 cents. "Another charming book by the author of the " Study of Words," on a subject which is so ingeniously treated, that we wonder no one has treated it before." — Yankee Blade. " It is a book at once profoundly instructive, and at the same time deprived of all approach to dryness, by the chaitning manner in which the subject is treated." — AT' thur's Home Gazette. " It is a wide field, and one which the author has well cultivated, adding not only to his own reputation, but a valuable work to our Wtar&tKLYG."— Albany Evening Transcript. " The work shows an acute perception, a genial appreciation of wit, and great re- search. It is a very rare and agreeable production, which may be read with profit and delight." — Nc:io York Evangelist. " The style of the author ia terse and vigorous — almost a model in its kind."— Port- land Eclectic i THE LION SKIN And the Lover Hunt ; by Charles de Bernard. 12mo, $1.00. *' It is not often the novel-reader can find on his bookseller's shelf a publication so full of incidents and good humor, and at the same time so provocative of honest thought.** — National (Worcester, Mass.) jEgis. " It is full of incidents ; and the reader becomes so interested in the principal person- ages in the work, that he is unwilling to lay the book down until he has learned their whole history." — Bosto?i Olive Branch. " It is refreshing to meet occasionally with a well-published story which is written for a story, and for nothing else— which is not tipped with the snapper of a moral, or loaded in the handle with a pound of philanthropy, or an equal quantity of leaden phi- losophy."— 5i7ri7/^^eZd Republican. THE WORKS OF WILLIAM H. SEWARD. EDITED BY GEORGE R BAKER. In Three Vols., 8^0— Petce $2.60' per Vol. CONTENTS OF VOL. I. Biographic Memoir, with a finely-engraved Portrait of Gov. Seward. Speeches and Debates in the Senate of New York, The Militia System — Bank of the United States — Removal of the Dcposites — Election of Mayors by the People — Prison Discipline — Corporations — Colonial Histoiy of New York, &c. Speeches and Debates in Senate of United States. Freedom in the New Territories, in District of Columbia, in New INIexico, in Europe — French Spoliations — Kossuth — Exiles of Ireland — American Steam Navisration — Eulo- gies on Henly C\^y and Daniel Webster — Survey of Arctic and Pacific Oceans — The Fisheries — Father Mathew — Sir John Franklin — Amin Bey — New York Mint — Peon Slaveiy — The Public Lands — Internal Improvements— Fugitive Slave Law— Catlin's Indian Gallery, &lc. Forensic Arguments. The Freedom of the Press, Cooper vs. Greoley — Di^fenco of William Freeman — Patent Cases — Fugitive Slave Law— Defence of Abel F. Fitch, &c., Slc CONTENTS OP VOL. II. Notes on New York. Government — Education — the Clergy — the Legal and Medical Professions — Internal Im- provements — Political History, &c. Annual Messages to the Legislature. 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842— Internal Improvements— Enlargement of Canal— Railroads- Education — Immigration — Le^al Reform — The Currency — Free Banking — Prison Dis- cipline — Anti-rent Troubles, &c., &c. Special Messages. Virginia Slave Case — Georgia do. — South Carolina do. — M'Leod Case — Suppressed Veto Message of New York Registry Law, &c., &;c. Official Correspondence. Virginia Controversy — M'Leod do. — Letters to Gen. Harrison, Daniel Webster, John Quincy Adams, Widow of Gen. Harrison, &c., &c. Pardon Papers. Case of W. L. M'Kenzie — Thomas Topping— John C. Colt— Benj. Rathbum, &c. Political Writings. Address of Republican Convention, '1824 — Address of Minority of Members of Legislup tare, 1831— Do., 183a— Do., 1834^Do., 1837, &c. CONTENTS OF VOL. IIL Orations and Discourses. Eulogy on Lafayette, 1834— Oration on Daniel O'Connell — Oration on John Quincy Adams — Discourse on Education, 1837 — Do. on Agriculture, 1842 — Ireland and Irish- men, 1844 — True Greatness of our Country— Farms and Farmers, 1852, &c., &c. Occasional Speeches and Addresses. Tlie Union, 1825— For Greece, 1827— Sunday Schools, 1839— Croton Celebration—Jobn Quincy Adams, 1843 — Cleveland Speech, 1848 — St Patrick's Dinner— Elections — In- ternal Improvements, &c., &c. General Correspondence. Letters to William Jay, Gen. Gaines, E. C. Delavan, Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, John Quincy Adams, Thomas Ewing, Thomas Clarkson (Ena:land), Bishop Hughes, John C. Spencer, Rev. Dr. Nott, Lewis Gaylord Clark, Silas Wright, Luther Bradish, Gerrit Smith, James Bowen, George Bliss, H. C. Westervclt, Boston Convention, 1851, St Patrick's Society, &c., &c Letters from Europe. Boa. 1 to 6a England, Seotland, Ireland, France, &c., &c. 4. I.- 'w i w' Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 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