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ARTES
1817)
SCIENTIA
VERITAS
LIBRARY
OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
TUEBOR
I·QUÆRIS PENINSULAM·AMŒNAM.
CIRCUMSPICE
FROM THE LIBRARY OF
EDWARD A. BARNES
AB 1883:
THE GIFT OF
MRS. BARNARD PIERCE
MRS. CARI. HAESSLER
MRS. HOWARD LUCE
MISS Margaret KNIGHT
$


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2951
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1853
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great shakespeanage scholar, but was
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be acceptiel as his nothing he says should
witout / corfintiation
NOTES AND EMENDATIONS
EAB
from orter sources
TO THE TEXT OF
SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS,
FROM
EARLY MANUSCRIPT CORRECTIONS
IN
A COPY OF THE FOLIO, 1632,
IN THE POSSESSION OF
J. PAYNE COLLIER, ESQ. F.S.A.
FORMING
A Supplemental Volume
TO THE
WORKS OF SHAKESPEARE BY THE SAME EDITOR.
THE SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED.
LONDON:
WHITTAKER AND CO: AVE MARIA LANE.
1853.
LONDON:
GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, PRINTERS,
ST. JOHN'S Square.
Library E. 8.A.
Bes
O
fig - h
KR
G. Barnes
9-10-41
PREFACE
TO THE PRESENT EDITION.
NEARLY the whole of what was thought necessary by way of
preface to the present edition had been written, when I was
favoured by a gentleman, of whom I had no personal know-
ledge, but the deeds of whose near and illustrious relative are
upon historical record, with information which has led to an
important discovery regarding the ownership and history of
my corrected folio, 1632.
John Carrick Moore, Esq., of Hyde Park Gate, Kensington
(nephew to Sir John Moore, who terminated his brilliant
career at Corunna in January, 1809), struck by the indisput-
able value of many of the published emendations, and ani-
mated, like other members of his family, by the warmest love
for Shakespeare and his works, was kind enough to address a
note to me, in which he stated that a friend of his, a gentle-
man of the name of Parry, had been at one time in possession
of the very folio upon which I founded my recent volume of
"Notes and Emendations "that Mr. Parry had been well
acquainted with the fact that its margins were filled through-
out by manuscript notes, and that he accurately remembered
the hand-writing in which they were made. On being shown
the fac-simile, which accompanied my first edition, and which
is repeated in the present, he declared his instant conviction
that it had been copied from what had once been his folio,
A 2
iv
PREFACE.
1632. How or precisely when it escaped from his custody
he knew not, but the description of it in my "Introduction"
exactly corresponded with his recollection.
I lost no time in thanking Mr. Moore for these tidings, and
in writing to Mr. Parry for all the particulars within his
knowledge. Unfortunately the latter gentleman, just before
he received my note, had met with a serious injury, which
confined him to his bed, so that he was unable to send me
any reply.
For about ten days I remained in suspense, but at last
I determined to wait upon Mr. Moore to inquire whether he
was aware of any reason why I had not received an answer
from Mr. Parry. He accounted for the silence of that gentle-
man on the ground of his recent accident; and as Mr. Moore
was confident that Mr. Parry was correct in the conclusion
that my folio, 1632, had formerly belonged to him, he ad-
vised me to call upon him, being sure that he would be
glad to satisfy me upon every point. I accordingly hastened
to St. John's Wood, and had the pleasure of an interview
with Mr. Parry, who, without the slightest reserve, gave me
such an account of the book as made it certain that it was
the same which, some fifty years ago, had been presented
to him by a connexion of his family, Mr. George Gray. Mr.
Parry described both the exterior and interior of the volume,
with its innumerable corrections and its missing leaves, with
so much minuteness that no room was left for doubt.
On the question from whence Mr. Gray, who resided at
Newbury, had procured the book, Mr. Parry was not so clear
and positive: he was not in a condition to state any distinct
evidence to show out of what library it had come; but he
had always understood and believed that it had been ob-
tained, with some other old works (to the collection of which
Mr. Gray was partial), from Ufton Court, Berkshire; formerly,
and for many years before the dispersion of the library, the
residence of a Roman Catholic family of the name of Perkins,
one member of which, Francis Perkins, who died in 1736, was
PREFACE.
the husband of Arabella Fermor, the heroine of "The Rape
of the Lock"."
This information has been communicated to me so recently,
that I have not yet been able to ascertain at what date, and
in what way the books at Ufton Court were disposed of. Mr.
Parry is strongly of opinion that Mr. Gray became the owner
of this copy of the folio, 1632, considerably before the end of
the last century; and Mr. Parry was himself at Ufton Court
about fifty years since, when a Roman Catholic clergyman,
eighty years of age, who had remembered the books there all
his life, showed him the then empty shelves upon which they
had been placed in the library.
A Mr. Francis Perkins died at Ufton Court three years
after the publication of the folio, 1632; and if Mr. Parry's
belief be correct, that the copy which Mr. Gray gave to him
had once been deposited there, it is not impossible that
Francis Perkins was the first purchaser of it. If so, we might
be led to the inference, that either he or one of his immediate
descendants was the writer of the emendations; but, as has
been mentioned elsewhere, the present rough calf binding
was not the original coat of the volume; and, as far as
my imperfect researches have yet gone, I do not find any
Thomas Perkins recorded as of Ufton Court. The Christian
name of the great actor of the reign of Charles I. was
Richard; and a Richard Perkins, called Esquire in Ashmole's
Collections, at a date not stated, married Lady Mervin, a
benefactress of the parish. Why should we deem it impos-
•
1 I copy the following from Lysons' Magna Britannia, "Berkshire."
"The family of Perkins resided many years at Ufton Court. Arabella,
wife of Francis Perkins, Esq., who died in 1736, was the Belinda of Pope's
Rape of the Lock,' which is dedicated to her under her maiden name of
Fermor; she died in 1738. In the parish church (called Ufton-Nervets)
are some monuments of this family. The most remarkable is that of
Francis Perkins, Esq., who died in 1635; this monument, which exhibits
the figures of Mr. Perkins and his lady under an arch supported by Corin-
thian columns, is of chalk. In Ashmole's Collections, mention is made of
a monument for Richard Perkins, Esq., and his wife, Lady Mervin, who
was a benefactress to the parish."
vi
PREFACE.
sible that Richard Perkins, having attained eminence on the
stage, subsequently married a lady of title and property?
However, this and other points, dependent chiefly upon dates,
remain to be investigated, and upon any of them I shall be
most thankful for information.
The only facts I am yet able to establish are, that my folio,
1632, with its elaborate corrections, about half a century
since came into the possession of Mr. Parry from Mr. George
Gray, who, it is probable, obtained it from Ufton Court
(about eight miles from his residence), where it is unques-
tionable that at an early date there was a library, likely to
have contained such a book, which library was afterwards dis-
persed. The name of "Tho. Perkins" on the cover is a strong
confirmation of the opinion, that it once formed part of that
library; and as to the identity of the volume, and hand-writing
of the marginal notes, Mr. Parry feels absolutely certain.
Having thus made, very unexpectedly, the first step (de-
cidedly a long one) towards the history of this copy of the
book, and having shown that, in its annotated state, it was
in existence so many years ago, it remains for me, on the
present occasion, to do little more than to advert to a few of
the objections to the volume of "Notes and Emendations,"
of which this is the second impression.
If there were any justice in the complaint, that I have
noticed various unnecessary changes in the ordinary text of
Shakespeare, it would apply even with more force to the
edition now in the hands of the reader, because I have thought
it right to insert some additional proposed alterations of that
text, which I had, either by design or accident, previously
passed over. They are not in general of much importance,
although a few of them may be considered novel and ingenious.
My principle in the outset was to give, within a reasonable
compass, the fairest possible representation of the appearance
and contents of my folio-to furnish specimens, good, bad,
and indifferent, so that an accurate judgment might be formed
of the sources of the old corrector's information, and of his
PREFACE.
vii
again stated, that among.m
capacity for discharging the duty he undertook. Hence the
notes where he had apparently been guided by the ancient
printed editions; where he may have deserted them in favour
of some earlier or contemporary authorities, whether written
or recited; and where he seemed to have been directed
merely by his own, often erroneous, sense of fitness and expe-
diency. I have always admitted, and I have over and over
the indubitable emendations, self-
evident and impressing the mind at once with a conviction
in their favour, were others that looked like alterations of a
purely arbitrary and conjectural kind. Therefore, no pertina-
cious advocate for the integrity of the received text could un-
dertake a much easier or a less enviable task, than purposely
to select only the latter description of changes, and to decry
and disparage the rest, as if they were all of the same
character and complexion.
On the other hand, my labour would have been lighter
and more agreeable, if I had chosen to publish such amend-
ments only as severe sticklers for the old readings could
not venture to dispute: in that case I should not have
exposed myself to the "Remarks," "Observations," "Criti-
cisms,” “Vindications," &c., which, I happen to know, are
in preparation, and which, I happen to know also, will recom-
mend themselves to perusal mainly by assailing points which,
not only have I never defended, but which I myself have
attacked for their weakness. It would be difficult in a volume
of more than 500 pages to make no statement, and to offer no
opinion, that was not liable to cavil, especially by those whose
prejudices or interests are affected; but with a love for our
great dramatist as sincere as it is ancient, wherever I have
given an opinion, I have endeavoured to arrive at a fair de-
cision on the claims of each suggested alteration as it came
under my view, and to afford the reader an opportunity of
determining for himself, with such assistance as my long
study, particularly of authors of the time, enabled me to
supply. While speaking of about twelve hundred changes in
viii
PREFACE.
the popular text of Shakespeare, I am aware that I must
have fallen into errors; but I myself wish them to be de-
tected, and I am glad to say that I do not think they are
very likely to escape observation.
It cannot be surprising that individuals, who for many
years have been accustomed to see passages, even such as
are avowedly corrupt, repeated in every edition, and to hear
them recited by the best performers of our own or other days,
should at first feel repugnance to proposed alterations, how-
ever excellent'; but we cannot so readily account for the
obstinate adherence (with due respect be it spoken) by some
men, of acknowledged learning and acuteness, to antiquated
blunders, with about as much reason as the parish priest dis-
played when he insisted upon "his old mumpsimus,” in pre-
ference to "the new sumpsimus," in the Roman Catholic ritual.
Regarding the vast number of lapses in the mechanical
process of printing exhibited in the folio, 1632, and patiently
set right by the early owner of the volume, I cannot do
better than quote a small portion of a letter which a practical
printer, whom I have not the pleasure of knowing, did me
the favour to write, in order to satisfy me that many of the
suggestions for the improvement of Shakespeare's text were
warranted by defects of art, even now of the most ordinary
occurrence³. He says,—
2 I do not mean to say that it is at all a just mode of settling the worth
of any suggested change, to imagine that the text had always stood as pro-
posed, and that the old reading is the emendation; but still it will afford
some criterion. Thus, if we had been accustomed to consider "the blank-
ness of the dark" the language of Shakespeare in "Macbeth," what should
we have thought of any annotator who advised us to substitute for it "the
blanket of the dark?" Yet, I dare say, blanket will find its mumpsimus
defenders.
3 Among the most remarkable typographical errors is that in "The
Merry Wives of Windsor," where Ford assumes an alias, which is printed
Brooke in the quarto, 1602, and Broome in the folio, 1623. The old cor-
rector of the folio, 1632, altered it from Broome to Bourne; but as it is a
mere name, and does not in any way affect the sense or humour of the
author, and as Brooke may be said to be fixed in the recollections both
PREFACE.
ix
"The volume you have recently published, containing
emendations of the text of Shakespeare from the corrected
folio, interesting as it must be to all connected with literature,
is peculiarly so to those who, like myself, find their daily
occupation in the correction of typographical errors. The
process by which those errors have been perpetrated is, in
most cases, perfectly familiar to us by our hourly experience,
and could be paralleled from the first proofs of almost any
printing-office in London. So natural are the emendations,
so perfectly printer-like are the errors, that those who know
best the defective state of typography three centuries since,
can have no doubt as to the authenticity of the corrections."
As the instrument of communicating these emendations
to the world, in a genuine spirit of inquiry into their merits,
I cannot well account for the almost personal animosity with
which, in some quarters, I have been already met, and with
which I am threatened hereafter. My accidental discovery of
the corrected folio, 1632, has, I fear, tended to cool friendships
of long standing; and individuals with whom I was formerly
acquainted now look upon me as if I had done them some
injury, which they could not overlook, and yet did not know
how to revenge. Some persons complain that I am too dog-
matical in my criticisms; others, that I am too bold in my
speculations; a third party thinks that I have not done
justice to earlier editors; and a fourth (which I apprehend is
the greatest grievance of all), that I have unfairly abridged
the field for future speculation. As to the charge of dogma-
of hearers and readers, I have not thought it necessary to make the change
in the recent impression of the text of Shakespeare, as regulated by the old
copies and by the emendations in the folio, 1632. I may be excused for
adding, that a few alterations, noticed in the ensuing pages, unquestionably
wrong, have there been designedly omitted.
4 So determined have a few been to find fault, that they have censured
me even for the employment of the commonest forms of expression: thus,
when I have stated that the old corrector tells us to read "fruitful,” or
instructs us to substitute "soul," they beg to know in what terms he tells
us, or instructs us? just as if I had not said, an hundred times oftener
X
PREFACE.
tism, it will be found, in the present edition, that I have
never hesitated to qualify or withdraw an opinion, where I
have seen reason to change it; if I have been bold, it has
been where I imagined (perhaps mistakenly) that I had a
right to take a firm position; if I have not done justice to
previous commentators, the omission was wholly accidental
and unintentional; and if those who shall come after me, as
editors of Shakespeare, find the bounds of conjectural im-
provement considerably narrowed, I hope that disappoint-
ment will not cause them to lose their temper as well as
their time, bearing in mind that all we ought to aim at is
the true understanding of our author, and that a just esti-
mate of that author must more and more convince us of our
own insignificance. It is the fancied neglect of imaginary
importance, that seems to have irritated some of my would-
be adversaries.
I cannot too emphatically repeat what I stated in the "In-
troduction" to the first edition of this work, that it is my
earnest wish that every emendation should be tried by the
sound principles of criticism, and adopted or rejected by the
judgment of common sense. I cannot but allow it to be very
possible that, as the discoverer of the corrected folio, 1632,
I may, here and there, have evinced a partiality for novelty,
which is not supported by knowledge. I have done my best
to guard against undue bias; but, in spite of these endea-
vours, and in spite of my previous practice, to admit as few
variations as possible from the oldest impressions of the plays
of our great dramatist, it may have had its influence, and
those who are most angrily opposed to some of my conclusions
are welcome to the benefit of this admission.
J. P. C.
than was agreeable, that the striking out of one word in the text, and the
insertion of another in the margin, was the mode in which he constantly
conveyed the information.
INTRODUCTION
TO THE FIRST EDITION.
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 Shake-
speare'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 folio 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 drama, and there are several deficiencies in the
body of the book', while all the preliminary matter, con-
sisting of dedication, address, commendatory verses, &c.,
may be said to be wanting, in as much as it has been
¹ It deserves remark, that all the defects in the body of the book
are in the division of "Histories," the plays forming which have been
especially thumbed and maltreated.
xii
INTRODUCTION.
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 pagina-
tion, it may be stated that the entire volume consists of
nearly 900 pages, divided among 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
page without from ten to thirty of these minor emenda-
tions, they do not, in the whole, fall short of 20,000: most
of them have, of 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 here-
after, that in not a few instances the sense of the poet has
thus been cleared in a way that has not been anticipated².
With regard to changes of a different and more important
character, where letters are added or expunged, where words
are supplied or struck out, or where lines and sentences,
omitted by the early printer, have been inserted, together
with all other emendations of a similar kind, it is dif
ficult to form any correct estimate of their number. The
volume in the hands of the reader includes considerably
more than a thousand of such alterations; but to have in-
serted all would have swelled its bulk to unreasonable
dimensions, and would have wearied the patience of most
persons, not merely by the sameness of the information, but
by the monotony of the language in which it was neces-
sarily conveyed.
Nothing that was deemed essential has been left out:
no striking or valuable emendation has, I think, been passed
over, and many changes have been mentioned, upon which the
writer of the notes seems to have insisted, but in which, in
2 As it is not easy to put the explanation of this apparently trifling
matter in a short compass, the reader is referred particularly to pp. 111,
117, 325, 399, and 507.
INTRODUCTION.
xiii
some cases, concurrence must either be withheld, or doubt
expressed. Whenever I have seen ground for dissenting from
a proposed amendment, or for giving it only a qualified
approbation, I have plainly stated my reasons, more par-
ticularly 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 accu-
mulated, might possibly have been omitted. If subsequent
reflection 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 sug-
gested 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
elucidation, to offer the facts, arguments, or observations that
occurred to me in their favour.
In the history of the volume to which I have been thus
indebted, I can offer little that may serve to give it authen-
ticity. It is very certain that the manuscript notes in
3 The old corrector of the folio, 1632, has himself allowed some appa-
rent mistakes to escape him: thus, in "All's Well that Ends Well,"
Act III. Scene I., we might have expected that he would alter "the
younger of our nature" into "the younger of our nation." Again, in
"Henry IV. Part II.," Act IV. Scene II., it may seem that "success of
mischief" ought to be "successive mischief;" but neither of these varia-
tions from the old text is absolutely necessary.
4 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 Phillipps, Bart., of 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, which he has always regretted that he did not purchase; and since
the general contents of my volume became known, several gentlemen ap-
pear to be in possession of folios with manuscript emendations. 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 :
xiv
INTRODUCTION.
its margins were made before it was subjected to all the ill-
usage it has 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 examina-
tion has convinced 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 lighted 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 frequent and careless perusal. In short,
to a choice collector, no book could well present a more for-
bidding 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 Bedford-
shire, 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
of the notes it contains I was able, by the kindness of the then proprietor,
to avail myself, when formerly editing the Shakespeare to which the pre-
sent work is a Supplement.
INTRODUCTION.
XV
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, 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 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 quit-
ting London. In the mean time, finding that I could not
readily remedy the deficiencies in my other copy of the folio,
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 foun-
dation of the present work.
It was while putting my books together for removal, that
I first observed 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
5 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-books, in order, if
possible, to trace from whence the package came, but without success.
Mr. Rodd does not appear to have kept any stock-book, showing how and
when volumes came into 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 pur-
chaser. His memory was very faithful, and to that, doubtless, he often
trusted. I am confident that the parcel was from the country; but any
inquiries, regarding sales there, could hardly be expected to be satisfac-
torily answered.
xvi
INTRODUCTION.
struck me that Thomas Perkins, whose name, with the addi-
tion 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 Richard 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 Richard; 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 scru-
tiny; and as it occupied a considerable time to complete the
inspection, how 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
decidedly 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 punctuation 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 typographical trifles of that kind, from their very
nature could not have been introduced with rapidity, while
many of the errata must have severely tasked the industry of
the old corrector ®.
6 It ought to be mentioned, in reference to the question of the authority
of the emendations, that some of them are upon erasures, as if the cor-
rector had either altered his mind as to particular changes, or had ob-
INTRODUCTION.
xvii
:
Then comes the question, why any of them were made, and
why such extraordinary pains were bestowed on this par-
ticular copy of the folio, 1632? To this inquiry no com-
plete 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";
and we need not feel much hesitation in coming to the con-
clusion, that these omissions had reference to the representa-
tion 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. It is known that in this respect the old
printed copies are very deficient'; and sometimes the written
additions of this kind seem even more frequent, and more
literated something that had been written before-possibly, by some
person not so well informed as himself.
7 "Timon of Athens," "Julius Cæsar," and "Antony and Cleopatra,"
are the only dramas that are entirely exempt from this treatment. In all
the other plays, more or less is "cut out," generally, it should seem, in
proportion to popularity.
8 In a few cases these manuscript stage-directions are of the highest
importance in illustrating the wonderful judgment and skill of Shake-
speare 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.
⁹ There 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.
a
xviii
INTRODUCTION.
explicit, than might be thought necessary. The erasures of
passages and scenes are quite inconsistent with the notion
that a new edition of the folio, 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
hand¹.
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 war-
ranted 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 applied to an avowedly
conjectural emendation—that it required no authority-that
it carried conviction on the very face of it. Many of the most
valuable corrections of Shakespeare's text 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 folios),
without the detection of such indisputable 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
¹ 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.
2 Mason, in a note upon "Troilus and Cressida," Act III. Scene III.;
which, however, was there singularly inapt. See p. 339.
INTRODUCTION.
xix
university, Tranio, his man, entreats his master not to apply
himself too severely to study:-
"Only, good master, while we do admirè
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 un-
questionably wrong, and wrong in the most important word
in the quotation, as the old corrector shows, and as the
reader will be sure to acknowledge the moment the emenda-
tion is proposed :—
"Let'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 care-
less 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, the corrup-
tion, when pointed out by an emendation in the folio, 1632,
being so glaring. The hero, disdainfully soliciting the "sweet
voices" of the plebeians, asks himself,—
(c
Why in this woolvish toge should I stand here,
To beg of Hob and Dick?"
Johnson says that "woolvish" is rough, hirsute; and Malone,
Steevens, Ritson, Douce, &c., have all notes regarding wolves
* At least until 1826, when Mr. Singer introduced "Ethics," which had
been recommended by Blackstone in a note upon the comedy.
3
a 2
XX
INTRODUCTION.
}
(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, mis-
took the termination 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 becoming somewhat obsolete in the time of Shake-
speare, such as bisson, blind, blead, fruit, &c.; but there
is one instance of the sort so remarkable 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 stumbling-blocks to all the commentators. When
Shylock observes,
"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 epithet "woollen," as applied to a bagpipe. Some would
have it wooden, 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, viz.
INTRODUCTION.
xxi
bollen: it is the participle of the word bolne, "to become
puffed up or swollen," as Sir F. Madden states, in his ex-
cellent "Glossary to the Wycliffite Versions of the Bible."
Bollen is spelt in various ways by old and modern lexicogra-
phers; but we may be confident that we shall never again see
"woollen bagpipe" in any edition of the text of Shake-
speare, unless it be reproduced by some one, who, having no
right to use the emendation 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 consideration of another class of errors, for which, pro-
bably, the typographer was not responsible. If there be one
point more clear than another, in connexion with the text of
Shakespeare as it has come down to us, it is that the 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 explain 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 ex-
tremely 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 surreptitious manner in which pieces got out to the
public that will account for the especial imperfectness, in
respect to typography, of this department of our early litera-
About half the productions of Shakespeare remained
in manuscript until seven years after his death: not a few of
4 See Malone's Shakespeare, by Boswell, vii. p. 36; xi. p. 422; xii.
pp. 268, 287, 313; xiv. p. 26; xix. p. 472, &c.
5 Another reason, of course, was the apprehension lest rival companies,
then under very lax control, might act the piece.
xxii
INTRODUCTION.
those which were printed in his lifetime were shamefully
disfigured, and not one can be pointed out to the publication
of which he in any way contributed. When he finally re-
tired to Stratford-upon-Avon, we cannot find that he took the
slightest interest in works which had delighted living thou-
sands, 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 employ-
ment of shorthand writers, who imperfectly took down the
words as they indistinctly heard them, or by the conniv-
ance and aid of inferior performers, who, being "hirelings" 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 repetitions of the principal actors, they
would be able to recite, with more or less accuracy, whole
speeches, and even scenes, which a little ingenuity could com-
bine into a drama. We may readily imagine, that what these
inferior performers had thus got by heart, they might dictate
to some mechanical copyist, and thus many words, and even
sentences, which sounded like something else, would be mis-
represented in the printed editions, and nobody take the
pains to correct the blunders. 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
remarkable manuscript emendations in my folio, 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
INTRODUCTION.
xxiii
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 delivery of their parts by
the principal actors. 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;
he 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 continu-
ously, 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.
An example or two will suffice to make what is meant in-
telligible; 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 "leisure," but from labour: the word was misheard by the
scribe; and while "leisure" makes nonsense of the sentence,
labour is exactly adapted to the place:
"You have scarce time
To steal from spiritual labour a brief span.”
"3
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 Edgar has read Goneril's
letter of love to Edmund and hate to her husband, he ex-
claims, as the poet's language has been represented,
"O, undistinguish'd space of woman's will!
A plot upon her virtuous husband's life."
The commentators have striven hard to extract sense from
xxiv
INTRODUCTION.
the first line, but not one of them satisfied another, nor in-
deed themselves. Edgar, in truth, is shocked at the profli-
gate and uncontrollable licentiousness of Goneril:-
“O unextinguish'd 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 unex-
tinguish'd blaze, and wrote "undistinguish'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 imperfect
in favouring the first complaint." Nobody has offered a note
explanatory 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 allaying Tyber in
it; said to be something imperfect in favouring the thirst com-
plaint," and the utterly lost humour of the passage is at
once restored. The scribe misheard thirst, and wrote "first;"
and the blunder 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 Heminge 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
ensuing pages must be considerably to lessen our confidence
INTRODUCTION.
XXV
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 ex-
amination 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 remainder 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 productions; 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, possibly, 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 con-
sist, sometimes at least, of the separate parts allotted to the
different actors, and, for the sake of speed in so long a work,
scribes might be employed, to whom the manuscript was read
• 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, especially 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 licence of comic performers and other causes,
crept into them. These manuscript restorations 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 hitherto 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.
xxvi
INTRODUCTION.
as they proceeded with their transcripts. This supposition,
and the fraudulent manner in which plays in general found
their way into print, may account for many of the blunders
they unquestionably contain in the folios, and especially for
the strange confusion of verse and prose which they sometimes
exhibit. The not unfrequent errors in prefixes, by which words
or lines are assigned to one character, which certainly belong
to another, may thus also be explained: the reader of the
drama to the scribe did not at all times accurately dis-
tinguish 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 circum-
stance. The following 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 you 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 Juliet, but to Lady Capulet, who thus expresses
her astonishment at her daughter's resolution: therefore, her
speech ought to begin earlier than it appears in any extant
copy. Juliet ends,—
La. Cap.
"And when I do, I swear,
It shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate,
Rather than Paris.
These 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 the 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
INTRODUCTION.
xxvii
changes, sometimes 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 obscure 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,—
"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 sin-
gular misprint in it will be manifest, when the small, but
most valuable, manuscript-emendation of the folio, 1632, is
mentioned. In truth, Lady Macbeth does not ask her hus-
band the absurd question, "what beast" made him commu-
nicate 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 boast was't, then,
That 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 dis-
played, and the cowardice he had afterwards evinced. It can-
not 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 omis-
xxviii
INTRODUCTION.
sion of a single letter has occasioned much doubt and discus-
sion. In Act III. Scene 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 labours pleasures ;"
and he afterwards adds, as the passage is given in the folio,
1623:-
"But these sweet thoughts do even refresh my labours,
Most busy lest when I do it."
The folio, 1632, altered the hemistich to "Most busy least
when I do it," and Theobald read "Most busiless when I do
it," not understanding how Ferdinand, at the same moment,
could be most busy, and least busy. The corrector of the
folio, 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 consistent,
and concludes the speech by a most felicitous compression of
the sentiment of the whole in seven words:
"But these sweet thoughts do even refresh my labours;
Most busy, blest when I do it:"
that is to say, he was most laboriously employed, but blest in
that very toil by the sweet thoughts of his mistress. The
old corrector converted "least," of the folio, 1632, into blest,
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 condition 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
INTRODUCTION.
xxix
own sagacity and ingenuity, and did he merely guess at
arbitrary emendations? 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
Shakespeare'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 convincing, than the happiest alterations we have
already noticed, that the old corrector must have had re-
course to some not now extant authority. Malone contended
that lines, in the old editions, were more frequently omitted
than ordinary readers were disposed to believe; and he
might well so argue, seeing that in his own text, as we last
receive it in the Variorum Edition of 1821, 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". No wonder, then, if the old
7 We have not spoken of another circumstance which ought to be taken
into account. About one-fifth of the plays in the folios are not divided
into acts and scenes; but in this corrected folio, 1632, the 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.
8 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 pre-
viously suggested, it has arisen from my ignorance of the fact, or from
pure inadvertence. In many cases the older conjectures of Theobald,
Warburton, Pope, Hanmer, &c., are remarkably confirmed.
9 See Malone's Shakespeare, by Boswell, v. 479; xiii. 91; xxi. 272.
The imperfections may be supplied by referring to the corresponding
portions of the plays in the edition published by Messrs. Whittaker and
Co. in 1844, 8 vols. 8vo.
זי
XXX
INTRODUCTION.
editors and printers, who made no professions 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.
However we may be willing
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?
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, excepting upon the sup-
position 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 ¹?
1
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 with what precedes and
follows? When, in "Henry VI. Part II." Act II. Scene III.,
Queen Margaret calls upon Gloster to relinquish his staff of
""
1 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
coloured by the language of his own later day. Our tongue had then
undergone some material changes.
INTRODUCTION.
xxxi
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, ought we
not to welcome it with thankfulness, as a fortunate recovery,
and a valuable restoration?
In several instances, it is easy, on other grounds, to un-
derstand how the blunders were occasioned. In more than one
of those places, where Malone's printer was guilty of omis-
sions of the sort, two consecutive lines ended with the same
word, and he probably missed one of them, thinking that he
had already composed it. Such was, doubtless, the predica-
ment of the ancient printer; and we may quote a remark-
able proof of the fact from "Coriolanus," that worst specimen
of typography in the whole folio. 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 Corio-
lanus? 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 line:-
"Pray be counsell'd.
I have a heart as little apt as yours
xxxii
INTRODUCTION.
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 inser-
tion, unless we go the length of pronouncing it not only an
invention, but an invention of the utmost ingenuity; for
while it renders perfect the deficient 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 un-
expected? If it had contained no more than the compa-
ratively few points to which we have adverted in this Intro-
duction, 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 enlarge, how far such
indisputable emendations and apposite additions warrant us
in imputing to a higher authority, than we might otherwise
be inclined to acknowledge, some of the more doubtful altera-
tions 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 line, omitted in all the folios,
INTRODUCTION.
xxxiii
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 superintended. 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 spe-
culative 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 com-
mencement of that undertaking, 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 dis-
turbing 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 annotated 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 substitu-
tions it contains, as the restored language of Shakespeare.
2 It also explains the mode in which the corrector proceeded, when
the division of a new scene had been improperly introduced in the old
copy; for the erasure of Actus Quintus, Scæna Prima, and the insertion
of same in manuscript mean, that what follows is merely a continuation of
a preceding scene. The word briefely, lower down in the margin, exactly
illustrates the way in which, by the non-crossing of the letter f, 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 oc-
casions, last year, when this volume was exhibited before the Shakespeare
Society and the Society of Antiquaries, had an opportunity of observing
all these peculiarities on other pages. It has been separately shown to
many who wished to see the character of the alterations.
b
xxxiv
INTRODUCTION.
1
As he was especially the poet of real life, so he was empha-
tically the poet of common sense; and to the verdict of
common sense I am willing to submit all the more material
alterations recommended 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 folios
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 additional confidence in those emendations
he felt authorized to introduce.
I shall probably be told, in the usual terms, by some whose
prejudices 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 know-
ledge 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 form reproof may be conveyed, any just cor-
rection thankfully.
со
CONTENTS.
NOTES AND EMENDATIONS TO
The Tempest
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
The Merry Wives of Windsor
Measure for Measure
The Comedy of Errors
Much Ado about Nothing
Love's Labour's Lost.
•
A Midsummer Night's Dream
The Merchant of Venice
As You Like It.
The Taming of the Shrew
All's Well that Ends Well
Twelfth Night
The Winter's Tale
King John
King Richard II.
King Henry IV. (Part I.)
King Henry V.
(Part II.)
PAGE
1
17
29
•
41
56
66
80
98
112
•
125
141
155
171
183
•
199
214
228
243
254
King Henry VI. (Part I.)
267
(Part II.)
282
(Part III.)
293
King Richard III.
303
King Henry VIII.
320
Troilus and Cressida
332
•
Coriolanus.
Titus Andronicus
350
371
Romeo and Juliet
Timon of Athens
Julius Cæsar
Macbeth
Hamlet
King Lear.
Othello
Antony and Cleopatra
Cymbeline.
382
396
•
407
·
417
431
449
466
484
507
Notes
527
I
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 Ship-
master, and a Boatswain, as on shipboard, shaking off wet."
In Malone's Shakspeare, 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 ap-
pearance 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 manuscript. Alonso, Sebastian,
Antonio, Ferdinand, Gonzalo, and the rest, come up From the
cabin, (a part of the direction also supplied in manuscript,
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 folio, 1632, to indicate, probably, that the poet so
wrote it, or, at all events, that the actor so delivered it.
B
2
[ACT I.
THE TEMPEST.
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 substi-
tuted 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 imme-
diately) 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 mine 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 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 having caught the word from the preceding line.
"I have with such provision in mine art,"
SC. II.]
3
THE TEMPEST.
has always been followed; but that it was an error may be
said to be proved by the manuscript-corrector of the folio,
1632, who altered "compassion" (as it stood there) not to
"provision" (as it stood in the folio, 1623), but to prævision,
in reference to Prospero's power of foreseeing 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 mean-
ing, 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 alteration of a single letter
makes the whole difference.
P. 14. There is certainly some misprint in the following
conclusion of a speech by Prospero :-
"And thy father
Was Duke of Milan, and his only heir
And princess no worse issued.”
The sense is intelligible, but the expression obscure.
Malone and Steevens read,-
"And his only heir
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, thou his only heir
And princess, no worse issued."
which removes the difficulty. The compositor, perhaps, caught
"and" from the line above.
P. 15. A very trifling change, the transference of a prepo-
sition 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 un-
limited power, had turned it against the rightful Duke,
observes,―
B 2
4
[ACT I.
THE TEMPEST.
"He being 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
sentence have been suggested by Warburton (who changed
into of the folios to "unto "), Mason, Steevens, Malone, and
Boswell; 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 un
in one place, and by adding it to the word immediately
adjoining: he also substitutes loaded for "lorded" in the first
line, and 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 "at
least, is the language of Shakespeare; and, by an insignificant
transposition, what has always been a stumbling-block to
commentators is now satisfactorily removed.
P. 16. The ordinary reading has been this:—
"Whereon,
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.'
Here we see the word "purpose" awkwardly and need-
lessly repeated with only an intervening line. The manu-
script-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 contrivance, artifice, or conspiracy,
and therefore, we may presume, wrote,—
SC. II.]
5
THE TEMPEST.
LO
"One midnight
Fated to the practise, did Antonio open
The gates of Milan," &c.
P. 17. In all the old copies the following reading has been
preserved :-
"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 boat, 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 autho-
rity, finding 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
manuscript stage-direction opposite the words used by Pros-
pero in the commencement of his third speech on this page,—
"Now I arise."
What is written in the margin of the corrected folio, 1632,
is, Put 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 is written against "Now I arise." The
fact is that Prospero, having put off his "magic garment,"
never put it on again, according to all existing copies of the
drama; and it was this singular omission that the manu-
script-corrector of the folio, 1632, supplied. The great pro-
priety of Prospero's removal of his robe of power, during his
narration to his daughter, is evident: he did not then require
its aid; but just before he concluded, and just before he was
to produce somnolency in Miranda by the exercise of preter-
natural influence, he resumed it, a circumstance by which
the judgment and skill of the poet are remarkably illustrated.
Annotators have endeavoured to account for the sudden dis-
6
[ACT I.
THE TEMPEST.
position of Miranda to sleep, in spite of her interest in her
father's story, in various ways, but the effect produced 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," be-
cause 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 now occasion to use it in producing
sudden drowsiness on Miranda. The manuscript-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 down opposite
the following lines (p. 13) with which the magician com-
mences 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 remained eagerly listening, continued to
occupy her seat, and 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-invested himself for
the purpose. Thus we see the value of apparently trifling
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 him,-
"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
necessary to consider "flote" a substantive, from the Fr.
SC. II.]
7
THE TEMPEST.
flot, 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 corrected folio, 1632, is,
cr
"They all have met again,
And all upon the Mediterranean float,
Bound sadly back to Naples."
"Float," in fact, is a verb, used by every body, and not a
substantive, 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, although we are told when she goes to sleep. Ac-
cording to the manuscript-corrected folio, 1632, she wakes
with the excuse to her father,—
"The strangeness of your story put
Heaviness in me.”
[Waking.
Johnson, not knowing that what Prospero calls "a good
dullness" (because it was what he wished) in Miranda had
been magically superinduced, maintains that "experience
proves that any violent agitation of the mind easily subsides
in slumber." This explanation is altogether needless, for the
audience had seen Prospero resume the externals of his art
with his magic garment, and was aware that Miranda's
"heaviness" was the effect of preternatural influence.
P. 25. The speech beginning,-
"Abhorred slave,
Which 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 arrangement, and the fitness of it is confirmed by the
corrected folio, 1632, where the prefix Mir. is changed to Pro.
in 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 thus:-
"Foot it featly here and there, and sweet sprites bear
the burthen."
8
[ACT II.
THE TEMPEST.
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 indication of the commencement of that burthen, and as
a sort of heading or title to what immediately follows: viz.
'Hark, hark," &c.
((
P. 27. The manuscript stage-direction in the corrected folio,
1632, Music above, in 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. The stage-direction, Kneels, in manuscript, opposite
the speech of Ferdinand,
"Most sure a goddess," &c.
shows that the old performer of the part assumed a posture of
wonder and adoration, which he kept till Miranda had finished
her reply, when Rising is also inserted in the margin of the
corrected 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 inserted by the manu-
script-corrector, and we need only mention that it is repeated
several times afterwards in this scene.
ACT II. SCENE I.
P. 32. The portion of the scene from
down to
"He receives comfort like cold porridge," &c.
"Aye and a subtle, as he most learnedly delivered,"
is crossed out with a pen in the corrected folio, 1632, probably
with the object of shortening the performance.
SC. I.]
9
THE TEMPEST.
P. 35. Modern editors have concurred with Malone in the
following 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 in 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 weather,"
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. We
may be pretty sure on this evidence, that "The Tempest" was
not written until after James I. had ascended the throne;
and the editor possesses that king's own copy of "Montaigne's
Essays" by Florio.
P. 38. The old stage-direction on the entrance of Ariel is,-
Enter Ariel playing 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, Come down, added in manuscript to
the printed 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 plotting against the life of Alonso, and suddenly de-
scended 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 authorities, and
among them from the last scene of Act III. where Prospero
remains, as it is stated, on the top, invisible, until near its
conclusion.
10
[ACT II.
THE TEMPEST.
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 reading may 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;" but the former
may seem 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, according to all modern editions,-
"Why are you drawn?
Wherefore this ghastly looking?"
"This" was misprinted for thus (a common error), and u for i
was therefore inserted in the margin of the corrected folio,
1632,-
"Wherefore thus ghastly looking?
The change is minute, and may be said to be not absolutely
necessary. 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 cor-
rector of the folio, 1632, did not allow the mistake to escape
him.
SCENE II.
P. 45. Trinculo, sheltering himself under the gabardine of
Caliban, 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.
ACT III.]
11
THE TEMPEST.
P. 49. Caliban's song has this line:-
"Nor scrape trenchering, nor wash dish;"
but the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, has obli-
terated 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. A hemistich, at the conclusion of Ferdinand's first
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 passage:-
"But these sweet thoughts do even refresh my labours:
Most busy, least when I do it."
Such, in fact, are the words in the folio, 1632; but in the
earlier folio, 1623, the last line stands thus:-
"Most busy lest, when I do it."
The editor of the folio, 1632, not understanding "lest," in
that connexion, altered it to least. It appears (as was not an
uncommon occurrence) that a letter had dropped out in the
press, and that the real language of the poet was as beautiful
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 employment, adds that the thought
of Miranda rendered delightful what would otherwise be
hateful:
•
"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 labours pleasures;"
and, at the close of what he says, he repeats the same senti-
ment, but in a shorter form :—
"But these sweet thoughts do even refresh my labours:
Most busy-blest, when I do it."
That is to say, he deems himself blest even by heavy toils,
when they are made light by the thoughts of Miranda; he
12
LACT IV.
THE TEMPEST.
was "most busy," but still blest, when so employed. The
accidental dropping out of the letter b seems to have 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 some others, upon an erasure, as if some-
thing had been written there before: perhaps the page had
been blotted; and the first line of Miranda's reply looks as if
it had once been struck through.
ACT IV. SCENE I.
P. 63. Prospero, commending his daughter to Ferdinand,
remarks,-
"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 Miranda "a third" of it. The text has been much
disputed, and for "third" of the old printed copy, the cor-
rector of the folio, 1632, has written thrid (i. e. thread)
in the margin. This fact may possibly be decisive of the
question between "third" and thread.
P. 66. In the subsequent passage, from the speech of Iris,
two manuscript corrections are made in the folio, 1632. We
first give the lines, 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 betrims,
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, in allusion to their deep shade,
is a more important emendation. There is no reason why
SC. I.]
13
THE TEMPEST.
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 printed stage-direction, Juno descends,-
to show, perhaps, that the goddess was gradually descending
all the time Ceres and Iris delivered 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 line 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? On the other hand, rain before "the very end of
harvest," would be a misfortune, and the singer is deprecating
such disasters. Nevertheless, this is an error for which it is
not easy to account by supposing the word either misheard or
misprinted.
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 hemistich, completed by the opening of Prospero's next
speech, militates against this notion: Malone and others
therefore printed wife for "wise," supposing that the com-
positor had mistaken the long s for f. 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 by
him as a misprint for winding, and "sedg'd crowns" is altered
in the margin to "sedge-crowns," regarding the fitness of
which we can hardly doubt.
P. 71. To the old stage-direction, Enter Ariel, loaden with
glistering apparel, the manuscript-corrector of the folio,
14
[ACT V.
THE TEMPEST.
1632, has added the explanatory words, 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.
When Stephano and Trinculo discover it, Seeing the apparel
is written 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 manuscript emendation is made in Pro-
spero'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."
For "sour" the corrector substitutes sward-"the green-
sward ringlets,” or ringlets on the green-sward, which sheep
avoid, and to which the unusual compound epithet "green-
sour may properly be applied. Here we may not see the
inevitableness of this alteration, though it may certainly have
been warranted by some authority to which the corrector of
the folio, 1632, was able to resort.
P. 76. We meet with changes of the received text in two
consecutive lines of the continuation of the speech of Pro-
spero, after Alonso, Gonzalo, Sebastian, Antonio, &c., have
become "spell-stopped" in the magic circle. The reading of
all the editions has been,-
"
'Holy Gonzalo, honourable man,
Mine eyes, even sociable to the show of thine,
Fall fellowly drops."
The epithet "holy" is inapplicable to Gonzalo, while noble
(substituted by the corrector of the folio, 1632) is on all ac-
counts 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, as
in "the Tempest," has erased it, and written noble in its stead.
In both these cases the copyist must have misheard; but the
SC. I.]
15
THE TEMPEST.
second error in the same passage, "show" for flow, most pro-
bably arose out of the common mistake between the long s
and the f. The manuscript-corrector gives the whole in
these terms:-
"Noble Gonzalo, honourable man,
Mine eyes, even sociable to the flow of thine,
Fall fellowly drops."
The eyes of Gonzalo were flowing with tears, and those of
Prospero wept in fellowship.
P. 77. In the same speech Prospero again addresses Gon-
zalo as-
“O, good Gonzalo,
My true preserver, and a loyal sir
To him thou follow'st."
This is an uncommon, though by no means unprecedented,
use of the word "sir;" and the fact is (according to the cor-
rector of the folio, 1632) that it was a misprint 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-
direction, 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, according to all editions, exclaims,
"Whe'r thou beest he, or no,
Or some enchanted trifle to abuse me,
As late I have been, I not know."
"
The word (C
trifle seems a most strange one to be em-
ployed in such a situation, and it reads like a misprint: the
manuscript-corrector 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."
16
THE TEMPEST.
P. 80. To the printed stage-direction, Here Prospero dis-
covers Ferdinand and Miranda playing at chess, the manu-
script-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,
Draw curtain; so that Prospero drew a traverse at the back
of the stage, and showed Ferdinand and Miranda at their
game.
P. 84. Prospero describing Sycorax, in the presence of
Caliban, 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."
The words “without her power" have naturally occasioned
considerable discussion, in which Malone hinted that Sy-
corax might act by a sort of "power of attorney" from the
moon, while Steevens as 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 "without" 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
command 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
VERONA.
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; but you are over boots in love;"
which seems more 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; but you are over boots in love."
"For," instead of but, was perhaps caught by the compositor
from the preceding line.
The following change, lower in the page, seems hardly
necessary, but it is not the only instance in which the manu-
script-corrector of the folio, 1632, has converted the active
into the passive participle: he altered
"Even so by love the young and tender wit
Is turn'd to folly, blasting in the bud,”
C
18
[ACT I.
THE TWO GENTLEMEN
to "blasted in the bud;" for the bud does not blast, but is
itself blasted: the "young and tender wit" is a "bud" pas-
sively blasted by love.
P. 96. Steevens and Malone differed about Speed's ob-
servation to Proteus, as it stands in the folio, 1623:-" And
being so hard to me that brought your mind, I fear she'll
Steevens
prove as hard to you in telling your mind.”
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 you her mind.”
The words to her and you are added in the margin. The
fact is, that the whole speech was intended for irregular fami-
liar verse, and the manuscript-corrector has added the word
better 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 circumstance belongs to other places, where it
is clear that prose only was spoken.
SCENE II.
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, and 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,
SC. II.]
19
OF VERONA.
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 the others; and the manuscript-corrector not only
cures this defect, but gives Lucetta's answer a particular ap-
plication to the very person of whom both she and her mis-
tress are speaking. The emendation is this :—
"
"That I, unworthy body, as I can,
Should censure thus a loving gentleman."
Lucetta, knowing that Proteus is a "loving gentleman" to
her mistress, wishes to be excused from giving her opinion,
as well as she can " form one, upon 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 cor-
rector restores what we may presume to have been the ori-
ginal 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 frequently 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. When "The Two Gentlemen of
Verona was, according to our best conjectures, first pro-
duced, blank verse had only recently been adopted on the
stage. We shall see this point more fully illustrated here-
after, when we come to speak of "Titus Andronicus," in
which several passages have been restored by the corrector
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.
c 2
20
[ACT II.
THE TWO GENTLEMEN
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 metamorphosed 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 impres-
sions, is unquestionably a piece of tautology. The Duke
asks Valentine 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 wealth and worthy estimation."
Wealth would be an additional recommendation to the Duke,
and it entirely avoids the objectionable repetition: if An-
tonio were of "worth" and "worthy estimation," he could
not well be so reputed "without desert."
tr
P. 119. The 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 which we are not
now acquainted, to "summer-smelling."
SC. VII.]
21
OF VERONA.
SCENE VI.
P. 124. Johnson tells us, that
"O sweet suggesting love! if thou 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 wide 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 " be-
tween 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 wide, it is mainly because the old
corrector must have had some ground for adopting it.
P. 128. There is a misprint in the following line,-—
"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 pro-
vide 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, even if it had not the support of the cor-
rector of the folio, 1632.
22
[ACT III.
THE TWO GENTLEMEN
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 Verona here,"
when it ought also to be Milan. Again, in Act V. Scene IV.
(p. 168), Valentine is made to speak of Verona, when he
means Milan. 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 mea-
sure just as well as Verona, and it is more likely that the
printer, or copyist, was in fault than the poet.
SCENE II.
P. 141. On the same authority, "some" ought to be
printed sure in the following line, where the Duke is about
to employ Proteus most confidentially :—
"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 cor-
rector 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,
ACT IV.]
23
OF VERONA.
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 crews,
And show thee all the treasure we have got."
For "crews" we ought to read cave, in which the treasure
was deposited: cave is therefore written in the margin, and
crews erased: the "crews" (so to call them) were present on
the stage, and Valentine needed not to be brought to them.
ACT IV. SCENE II.
P. 148. In the song, "Who is Silvia ?" &c., there is a re-
petition of "she" in the third line, as the rhyme to "she" in
the first line; and although such a licence 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 elsewhere employed with re-
ference to female simplicity and innocence ("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 swains commend her?
Holy, fair, and wise as free;
The heaven such grace did lend her,
That she might admired be.”
SCENE III.
P. 153. We have here a very important emendation, sup-
plying a whole line, evidently deficient, and yet never missed
by any of the commentators. It is in the speech of Sir
Eglamour, where 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 connexion between the first and the
24
[ACT IV.
THE TWO GENTLEMEN
second lines, because Sir Eglamour could not mean that the
"grievances," but that the affections of Silvia were "virtuously
placed." Shakespeare must, therefore, have written what we
find in an adjoining blank space of the folio, 1632, which
makes the sense complete :—
Madam, I pity much your grievances,
And the most true affections that you bear;
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
valuable, are supplied by the corrector of the folio, 1632.
They were, perhaps, obtained from some better manuscript
than that used by the old printer, or from the correct reci-
tation of the speech on the stage.
SCENE IV.
P. 155. Proteus having sent a very small 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 offer her this cur from me?"
the word cur being 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 boys
in the market-place," &c.
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 Shake-
speare elsewhere speaks of a gallows boy,-" Ay, sir: the
other squirrel was stolen from me by a hangman boy in the
market-place;”—that is, by a rascally boy, who deserved the
hangman.
P. 157. We give the following to show how Shakespeare's
verse has probably been corrupted. Julia, presenting Silvia
with a paper, says,—
"Madam, please you peruse this letter :"
ACT V.]
25
OF VERONĄ.
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
absolutely 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
picture, says, in the first folio, that "her eyes are grey as
glass," which may be right; but which the second folio
alters to "her eyes are grey as grass," which must be wrong.
The manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, 'converts "grey
into green—“ her eyes are green as grass ;" and such we have
good reason to suppose was the true reading.
وو
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, angerly; 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?"
And the folio, 1632, before it was corrected in manuscript,-
"Which of you, say, saw Sir Eglamour of late?"
There is no note when the Duke goes out, but Exit
in haste, is written in the margin. The additional stage-
directions in the corrected 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-business quite intelligible.
26
[ACT V.
THE TWO GENTLEMEN
SCENE IV.
P. 164. Two passages in the speech of Valentine, as they
appear 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."
The manuscript-corrector renders the second line,-
"These shadowy, desert, unfrequented woods," &c.
Lower down we are informed, in an unprinted stage-direc-
tion, that shouts are heard, and then follow these lines:-
"These my rude 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 ante-
cedent :-
"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 sen-
tence 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)
To hazard life, and rescue you from him,
That would have forc'd your honour and your love,
Vouchsafe me, for my meed, but one fair look," &c.
P. 166. It is admitted by the commentators that the mea-
sure in 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: O time most accurst!
'Mongst all foes, that a friend should be the worst!
Prot. My shame and guilt confounds me!"
SC. IV.]
27
OF VERONA.
Malone, in justification, observes that Shakespeare sometimes.
employs lines of twelve syllables; but here, in three lines, 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 reduce the language of Shakespeare to a finger-
counting standard, but the subsequent emendation shows,
that at an early date the passage was deemed corrupt, and
that it ought to run as follows:-
"The private wound is deep'st. O 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
language of Shakespeare; and it is to be remarked that the
lines of the poet are regular, both before and after the pre-
ceding quotation.
P. 170. The following manuscript emendation in the cor-
rected folio, 1632, tends to establish that conclude was the
right word, and that "include," adopted by editors from
the folios, though it may serve the turn, 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 all the impressions the word stripling, in 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 well 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, ac-
cording to the same authority. In the folio, 1623, they do
not rhyme, and there stand,-
"That done, our day of marriage shall be yours;
One feast, one house, one mutual happiness."
28
THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF Verona.
The manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, tells us that
the lines ought to run as follows:
"Our day of marriage shall be 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 written at so early a date, when rhyme was still popular,
it would be strange if it, of all others, had been an exception.
THE MERRY WIVES
OF
WINDSOR.
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 Shal-
low, Slender, and Sir Hugh Evans, who, in fact, begin the
comedy. The entrances of the others are afterwards noted in
the margin, precisely at the places where they are to 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?" 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 reality.
Falstaff, Bardolph, Nym, and Pistol, of course, enter, when
Page says, "Here comes Sir John," &c., p. 180.
cr
P. 184. Opposite Slender's ejaculation, "O heaven! this is
Mistress Anne Page!" the corrector of the folio, 1632, has
written this stage-direction, Following her; from which we
may gather that Slender, struck by admiration of Anne's
appearance, follows her a few steps towards 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.
30
[ACT I.
THE MERRY WIVES
P. 185. It was not meant that Sir Hugh Evans should,
like Slender, grossly misapply words: therefore, in the fol-
lowing observation, 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 reading of the sentence, "I hope, upon familiarity
will grow more content," into "I hope, upon familiarity will
grow more contempt;" for Slender could hardly misquote a
proverb he found in his copy-book. Besides, the humour of
the passage depends upon the use of the word "contempt."
P. 187. When Slender asks Anne Page, "Why do your
dogs bark so?-Be there bears i' the town ?" the insertion
of a manuscript stage-direction in the folio, 1632, Dogs bark,
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 to the scene.
SCENE III.
P. 189. A rigid adherence to the old copies has here
misled editors, who have given Nym's speech as, "The good
humour is to steal at a minute's rest," instead of "a minim's
rest," which, as Langton suggested, 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 where Falstaff, speaking
of the expected result of his enterprise against Mrs. Ford,
observes, as the words have been invariably given, "I spy
entertainment 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 invitation." 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
SC. IV.]
31
OF WINDSOR.
"carve" to guests, in the literal meaning of the word (as in
the passage quoted by Boswell from Webster's "Vittoria
Corombona," Shakesp. by Malone, VIII. 38), yet carving was
undoubtedly an accomplishment peculiarly belonging to men.
Falstaff, evidently, from the context, intends to say that Mrs.
Ford has a craving for him, and therefore gave “the leer of
invitation." The misprint was a very easy one, occasioned
merely by the transposition of a letter, and any forced con-
struction is needless. Z. Jackson pointed out this blunder
thirty years since in his "Shakspeare's Genius Justified.”
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 evidently 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 beauty," such being the manuscript emendation in the
folio, 1632. Guiana was famous for its beauty, as well as for
its gold, and thus the parallel between it and Mrs. Page was
more exact. The 4to, 1602, here lays particular emphasis on
her beauty; 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 humour of this age,"
and not "honour of this age," as in all the folios.
P. 192. Pistol's exclamation, "By welkin, and her star!"
is, "By welkin, and her stars!" in the corrected folio, 1632,
and, as far as we can judge, rightly, since the welkin has not
one, but innumerable stars.
SCENE IV.
P. 197. Mrs. Quickly's speech, at the bottom of this page,
begins, in the corrected folio, 1632, "Will I? I'faith, that I
will!" and not "that we will," as in the printed copies.
32
[ACT II.
THE MERRY WIVES
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
continuation of Pistol's speech, is fully confirmed by a cor-
rection 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 entrances are separately noted in the corrected folio,
1632, and the fact shows that the emendator paid great at-
tention 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 observations 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 welcome to me, that o'erflow such liquor," it has
always been considered 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 decidedly the more probable), and
whether, in fact, the name was not originally Bourne, which
the manufacturer of the surreptitious 4to, 1602 (for there
never was an authentic impression of "The Merry Wives"
sc. I.]
33
OF WINDSOR.
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 manuscript used for the folio, 1623 (followed in all the
other editions in that form), we have little hesitation in
believing, that the name was written Bourne, which the com-
positor misprinted Broome. In the old 4to of "King Lear,"
Act III. Scene VI., this very blunder is committed, for the
word "bourne " is there misprinted broome.
There is certainly another error of the press, which we
may allow 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 "heris, 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?" 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?" He is anxious that no time
should be lost. How so ordinary an expression as "Will you
go on, here?" came to be misprinted, "Will you go, An-
heires?" we are at a loss to imagine: perhaps the writing
before the printer was very illegible, and he could not believe
that any thing so simple and intelligible could be intended.
It is singular that nobody seems ever to have conjectured
that on here might be concealed under " An-heires ;" and but
for this emendation we might have been tempted to hint at
“go on, heroes” as the true reading.
P. 205. Page observes, of the duellists, "I had rather hear
them scold than fight." This may have been an elliptical
sentence, but it is more likely that two words were acci-
dentally omitted, and that the true reading is that furnished
D
31
[ACT I.
THE MERRY WIVES
by the corrector of the folio, 1632, "I had rather hear them
scold, than see them fight."
SCENE II.
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," but "Couch-fellow, Nym," as,
indeed, it was printed by some of the earlier editors, and
equivalent to "bed-fellow." Nevertheless, "coach-fellow'
may be, and has been, reconciled to sense. In "Othello,"
Act I. Scene III., the folios misprint "couch" coach.
""
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, 1632, the sentence is thus altered in manu-
script, "I had myself twenty angels given me 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 endeavour 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 favour 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 hitherto been given, speaks thus to
Falstaff:-" She dwells so securely on the excellency of her
honour, 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."
SCENE III.
P. 216. In the beginning of the scene between Caius and
Jack Rugby, the former wishes to practise his fencing on his
ACT III.]
35
OF WINDSOR.
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 direc-
tion, the words, Afeard, runs back; which amusingly shows the
manner in which 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 folio, 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, having said that Anne Page was feasting at a
farm-house, in order still more to incite Dr. Caius to go
there, mentioned the most ordinary objects of feasting at
farm-houses at that time, viz. curds and cream: "curds and
cream" in the hands of the old compositor became strangely
metamorphosed into cried game-at least this is the mar-
ginal 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?" In "The Winter's Tale," Act IV. Scene III., Perdita
is called "the queen of curds and cream."
ACT III. SCENE I.
P. 219. The passage is not one of any great importance,
but for "the pitty-ward, the park-ward, every way; Old
Windsor way, and every way but the town way," the cor-
rected folio, 1632, has, certainly with the advantage of intel-
ligibility, "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.
P. 222. The fòlios are evidently deficient in that part of
D 2
36
[ACT III.
THE MERRY WIVES
The folio, 1623, reads,
Boys of art, I have de-
the Host's speech, where he is endeavouring to make recon-
cilement between Evans and Caius.
"Give me thy hand (celestial), so.
ceived 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 manu-
script, giving the following as the language of the poet, and
still preserving the antithesis in about half the number of
words:-"Give me thy hands, celestial and terrestrial: so.
Boys of art, I have deceived you both."
SCENE II.
P. 223. The pronoun your seems clearly necessary in the
following answer by Ford to Mrs. Page, who asks, whether
his wife is at home?" Ay, and as idle as she may hang
together for want of your company. I think, if your hus-
bands 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 Falstaff”
"and my assurance bids me search where I shall find Fal-
staff" 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 him-
self among the foul linen in the buck-basket. The words
are, Gets into the basket 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 con-
fusion.
ACT IV.]
37
OF WINDSOR.
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 gen-
ders," 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
instance, and, in the words of modern editions, pulls the
clothes out of the basket. The old manuscript stage-direction
in the folio, 1632, affords 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 corrected 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 inserted 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.
38
[ACT IV.
THE MERRY WIVES
SCENE V.
P. 258. Modern editors have needlessly changed the pre-
fixes of the folios in this part of the scene: the corrector of
that of 1632 has altered two small words, and made the dia-
logue run quite consistently. Simple tells Falstaff and the
Host that he had other things 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 "I may not conceal
them, sir," into the mouth of Simple, followed by a mark
of interrogation; and the Host's next speech has been in-
variably printed "Conceal them, or thou diest." The Host
was desirous that Simple should reveal, and would not,
therefore, threaten death if he disclosed them. Dr. Farmer
wished reveal to be substituted for "conceal," but the only
alteration here required is and for "or,"-" Conceal them and
thou diest." Such is the emendation of the corrector of the
folio, 1632.
P. 258. Bardolph, rushing in, complains of cozenage, and
the Host inquires what has become of his horses? Bar-
dolph, 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 by 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.]
39
OF WINDSOR.
ACT V. SCENE III.
P. 265. The text of the folios, "Where is Nan now, and
her troop of fairies? and the Welsh devil, Herne," is certainly
wrong. Theobald altered "Herne" to Hugh, and he was, of
course, right as to the person intended; but the manuscript-
corrector of the folio, 1632, erases "Herne," and inserts
Evans, as the proper 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 "bribe-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 Falstaff in 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 ma-
nuscript-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 performance.
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 corruption crept in, which no editor felt himself compe-
tent to set right. Tyrwhitt, indeed, 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, in-
40
THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.
forms us that the lines ought to run as follows, by which the
rhyme is preserved :-
"Cricket, to Windsor chimneys when thou'st leap't,
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
"raise up the organs of her fantasy,"
He
""
the same authority reads, "Rouse up the organs," &c.
removes 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 the language of the
day.
P. 272. Ford calls Falstaff, not "a hodge-pudding," as it
has always been printed, but "a hog-pudding," which is
probably right.
P. 274. Fenton, vindicating his conduct in marrying Anne
Page against the will of both her parents, says, in all impres-
sions 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."
MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
ACT I. SCENE I.
Vol. II. p. 7. The Duke, in all editions of this play, ob-
serves 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,
according to the corrected folio, 1632, it is erroneous in three
particulars: the first is not of any great consequence, inas-
much as "Since I am put to know" is as intelligible and
proper as "Since I am apt to know;" but the great improve-
ment 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, accidentally 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 diffi-
culty on the very threshold of this play.
42
[ACT I.
MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
P. 9. It has been made a question between Johnson,
Steevens, and Tyrwhitt, whether, when the Duke says,-
"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,
therefore, 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 II.
tr
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 mar-
gin of the corrected folio, 1632. 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 be 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 Tyr-
whitt's suggestion.
SCENE 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 cor-
rector 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 patiently 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.
SC. IV.]
43
MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
P. 15. Two rather important words are altered in the cor-
rected folio, 1632, in Claudio's speech. The usual reading
is,-
"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 "propaga-
tion" to procuration, meaning, of course, the procuring of the
dower. Jackson recommended procuration, but left denun-
ciation untouched.
SCENE IV.
P. 18. In the following line, as it stands in all 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 fear'd; 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 roď's
More mock'd than fear'd; so our most just decrees,
Dead to infliction," &c.
It is evident that two syllables were deficient in the second
line; and it seems likely that the Duke would dwell em-
phatically upon the justice of the decrees neglected to be en-
forced, rather than use so tame an expression as "Becomes
more mock'd than fear'd."
P. 19. It was proposed by Pope, Hanmer, Johnson, Stee-
vens, &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 com-
mentators, we may quote the satisfactory words, and their
44
[ACT II.
MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
context, as they are exhibited in the manuscript correction
of the folio, 1632:
"I have on Angelo impos'd the office,
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
punishing 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.
Four lines farther on, for "in person bear," the correction
naturally is, "in person bear me.'
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 II. 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 windows
for "winter," as is done by the manuscript-corrector of the
folio, 1632, the matter is set right and an error removed-
"I have so; because 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
SC. II.]
45
MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
houses, is made to employ a word which is not easily under-
stood in the place where it is found: he says, "If this law
hold in Vienna ten year, I'll rent the fairest hou in it after
three pence a bay." The commentators 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 day;
"after three pence a day" is the word in the corrected folio,
1632. Three pence a day would be only 4. 11s. 3d. 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 Angelo. 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?"
This 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. It
is true, however, that Shakespeare sometimes uses the word
"top" in a rather peculiar manner.
P. 35. Sir Thomas Hanmer's proposal to read “But ere
they live to end" is fully supported by the corrected folio,
1632. The first folio has "But here they live to end," which
Malone, with remarkable 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
will do it,
"Not with fond shekels of the tested gold,” &c.
It is spelt sickles in the old copies, but the true word may be
circles; and the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, has
altered “sickles” (which, so used, he obviously did not under-
46
[ACT II.
MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
stand) to sirkles, paying no other attention to the spelling of
the word. Nevertheless "shekels" may be right, and it is
used, exact with the same spelling, by Lodge in his "Ca-
tharos,” 1591, sign. C, where we read, "Here in Athens the
father hath suffred his sonne to bee hanged for forty sickles,
and hee worth four hundred talents."
In the last line but one of this scene the old corrector adds
from youth before "till now," and the defective measure is
thereby completed.
SCENE III.
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
would print "seek heaven;" but "serve heaven," which seems
unquestionably right, did not occur to any of them. The
whole passage will therefore stand thus:
""Tis meet so, daughter: but least you do repent,
As that the sin hath brought you to this shame;
Which sorrow is always toward ourselves, 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 little better
than nonsense-the emendation indisputable.
SCENE IV.
P. 44. Tyrwhitt is authorized by the corrected folio, 1632,
in reading in-shell'd, for "enshield" of the old copies, in the
following passage:-
"As these black masks
Proclaim an enshield beauty ten times louder
Than beauty could displayed."
Lower down on the same page Angelo says,-
"As I subscribe not that, nor any other,
But in the loss of question;"
which occasioned discussion between Johnson, Steevens, and
Malone as to the meaning of the phrase "in the loss of ques-
ACT III.]
47
MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
tion." The corrector of the folio, 1632, writes, in the margin,
"but in the force of question "-that is to say in the compul-
sion 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 substi-
tuted all-binding.
ACT III. SCENE I.
P. 49. The sentence in the Duke's homily on death, end-
ing,-
"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 im-
provement upon the old text.
P. 51. We are glad to obtain an authority, which we may
consider to a certain extent decisive, upon a much doubted
portion of the scene between Isabella and her brother. She
tells him of Angelo'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.
Warburton proposed priestly, and that now appears to be the
word of the poet, but another corruption found its way into
the text, which nobody pointed out, and which is thus set
right in manuscript in the corrected folio, 1632:-
Claud.
"The priestly Angelo!
Isab. O, 'tis the cunning livery of hell,
The damned'st body to invest and cover
In priestly garb.”
48
[ACT III.
MEASURE FOR MEASURE
For "priestly garb" the first folio has "prenzie guards,”
and the second "princely guards;" but priestly garb is un-
questionably the true language of Shakespeare, which has
reference to the sanctimonious appearance and carriage of
Angelo. Warburton is to have the credit of "priestly," but
all the commentators have been under 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 II.
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 line of the Duke's speech,
"I drink, I eat, array myself, and live,"
the old copies misprint "array" away; but the true word is
restored 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 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,
SC. II. ]
49
MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
one of the most common expletives-"What sayest thou,
troth?" On p. 61, the old corrector supports Theobald's
emendation of "motion ungenerative" so far as to change
generative," of the folios, to ingenerative.
CC
"the
P. 65. Three small, but not unimportant, words
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 hea-
vens the due of your function, and the prisoner the very debt
of your calling." The invariable reading has been, "You
have paid the heavens your function," &c.
P. 66. Two portions of the Duke's twenty-two short verses,
concluding this Act, are amended in manuscript in the cor-
rected folio, 1632. The first is,-
instead of
"Grace to stand, virtue to go,"
"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 may not clear away the whole diffi-
culty, but, notwithstanding, it is highly valuable,-
"How may likeness, made in crimes,
Masking practice on the times,
Draw with idle spiders' strings
Most ponderous and substantial things ! '
Warburton boldly asserts "Shakespeare wrote it thus," and
then gives his own notion; while Steevens recommended
another 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 decep-
tion, and then the whole passage must mean-“How many
persons, alike in criminality, conceal their deceptions so suc-
E
50
[ACT IV.
MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
cessfully as to draw ponderous and substantial advantages,
even with spiders' webs!"
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 contra-
rious 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. On p. 70, for "tithes to sow," the emendation is
"tilthe's to sow," which was Warburton's word.
SCENE II.
P. 73. The line in the old folios,-
“Wounds th' unsisting postern with these strokes,"
has produced discussion, Blackstone contending that “un-
sisting" was to be taken as never resting; but the corrector
of the folio, 1632, marks "unsisting" as an error of the press,
and very naturally 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. This conforms with Pope's proposal.
SCENE III.
P. 80. After the Duke's interview with Barnardine, he is
made to exclaim in all editions, and nobody has found fault
with the expression,—
"Unfit to live or die. O, gravel heart!"
the words "gravel heart" having been considered equivalent
SC. III.]
51
MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
to stony heart; but the fact seems to be that it is a mis-
print, and that the Duke's real exclamation is much more
appropriate,-
"Unfit to live or die. O, grovelling beast!"
the character of Barnardine having been reduced by idleness
and intoxication to that of a mere prone brute. Such is the
manuscript correction in the folio, 1632.
P. 81. For the disputed epithet of the folios, Hanmer,
Heath, and Mason recommend well-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 exclamation 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 in 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," &c.
In the Duke's next speech, the usual text of the eighth line
has been,-
"I am combined by a sacred vow;"
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.
E 2
52
[ACT IV.
MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
SCENE IV.
P. 85. A passage, the subject of comment, is found in An-
gelo'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, 1632.
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 fact to have been.
Malone read "off a oredent bulk," which hardly affords sense,
whereas "bears such a credent bulk" is intelligible, though
it may look more like an attempt to mend than an emen-
dation.
SCENE VI.
P. 87. Theobald's happy change in the last line of Isabella'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
Malone objected to, and, at the recommendation of Johnson,
read, "to veil full purpose." In the folio, 1632, as amended
in manuscript, it stands precisely in this form :-
"He sayes, to 'vaile-full purpose;"
that is, to a purpose that is availful or beneficial, and seems
the true reading; for in the next line, Isabella, disliking du-
plicity, says the same thing by a figure,-
"'tis a physic
That's bitter to sweet end."
ACT V.]
53
MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
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 inva-
riable text of Isabella's passionate appeal has been,—
cr
"O, 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 manu-
script-corrector of the folio tell us is the real word that ought
to be put in its place?—
“O, 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.
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
54
[ACT V.
MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
feel confident that there has been an error of the press in
it :-
"And, on 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
infinitely less forcible than what is placed in the margin as
the poet's word,—
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 so
strong as the preceding, because the word, which the manu-
script-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 mar-
gin. 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. Isabella had appealed to the Duke, and he had re-
jected 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 unsatisfactory-by no means sufficient to regulate the
acting and business of the play. Thus, whenever Isabella or
Mariana are to kneel, or 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 pull off his disguise, at which, it is added
in another place, all start and stand, 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 manu-
SC. I.]
55
MEASURE FOR MEASURE.
script, perhaps the first time they were ever applied in that
way. They may be taken as proving that, in this instance at
least, the characters did not go out, but that a "curtain" 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 ERRORS.
ACT I. SCENE I.
P. 114. The life of Egeon 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 sen-
tence upon him), observing, as the passage has hitherto
stood,-
"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 "na-
ture," in the second line, ought to be fortune, since Ægeon
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 by fortune, not by vile offence."
Possibly, by "nature" we might understand the natural
progress of events.
P. 115. Ægeon, 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 Ægeon should "gladly have em-
braced" death, if he could have escaped it; and a marginal
correction in the folio, 1632, shows that the word gently (i. e.
patiently and submissively) was Shakespeare's word,—
"Which though myself would gently have embrac'd.”
THE COMEDY OF ERRORS.
57
Six lines lower, in the same speech, "And this it was" is
altered to "And thus it was," not necessarily, but certainly
judiciously.
P. 117. The expression "of all love," indicating strength
of impulse, is not unusual in Shakespeare and in other
writers of his time. Egeon consents that the twin-son and
twin-servant, preserved 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 manu-
script-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 whilst he labour'd of all love to see,
I hazarded the loss of whom I lov'd."
It was 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." In a previous line, "And by misfortune"
is substituted for "That by misfortunes."
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 persons in Ephesus. Four lines lower, the verse is de-
ficient 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 the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, in the following
passage:-
58
[ACT II.
THE COMEDY OF ERRORS.
"Methinks, your maw, like mine, should be your clock :
And strike you home without a messenger:"
nevertheless, obvious as the error seems, cook was, we believe,
printed in all editions until Pope's time, and has even been
restored in our own.
ACT II. SCENE I.
P. 124. By the misprint of "doubtfully " for doubly in two
places, as pointed out by the corrector of the folio, 1632, the
humour of one of Dromio's replies has been entirely lost.
He has been beaten by a person he took for his master, 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?" Here "doubtfully" ought to be doubly,
as well as in Dromio's reply, "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 enamelled,"
and the two next lines (the folio, 1632, omits two others in
the folio, 1623) are struck out, perhaps, as unintelligible to
the manuscript-corrector, he having no means of setting the
corrupt passage right.
SCENE II.
P. 130. It has been thought rather a happy conjectural
emendation by Pope, when he converted "trying" of the old
copies into tiring in the following sentence, yet he was cer-
tainly mistaken:-"The one to save the money that he
spends in 'tiring; the other that at dinner they should not
drop in his porridge." Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse
are talking of hair, and on the advantages of baldness, and
the word trimming was quite technical in reference to cutting
and dressing the hair: it is misprinted trying in the old copies,
SC. II.]
59
THE COMEDY OF ERRORS.
and it is clear that the letter m had dropped 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,-
"I live disstain'd, thou undishonoured."
The use of the word "disstained" in this way has no example,
and Theobald recommended unstain'd, 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 ad-
vances 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 drives our eyes and ears amiss?"
“Drives” ought incontestably to be draws, 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 free'd 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 word corresponding with "elvish"), the corrector
reads "elves and sprites," and he makes no change in "owls,"
for which Theobald needlessly, though not without plausibi-
lity, substituted ouphes.
60
[ACT III.
THE COMEDY OF ERRORS.
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 pre-
ceding line. We give the couplet as it stands with the mar-
ginal emendation :-
"If my skin were parchment, and the blows you gave were ink,
Your own hand-writing would tell you for 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 the same cha-
racter, farther on in the scene. The common reading is,-
"If thou had'st been Dromio to-day in my place,
Thou would'st 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 cor-
rector of the folio, 1632, which seem more accurately to pre-
serve the antithesis and the rhyme. On the next page, the
rhyme is preserved by the alteration of "I hope" into “I
trow," forming a triplet, and no line having been lost, as
Malone supposed.
SCENE II.
P. 140. The four first 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?"
P. 142. The line,-
"Far more, far more to you do I decline,"
may be reconciled to sense; but the reading of the corrector
ACT IV.]
61
THE COMEDY OF ERRORS.
of the folio, 1632, which makes a very trifling change, seems
preferable :-
"Far more, far more to you do I incline."
P. 144. All that intervenes between the question of Anti-
pholus, "What complexion is she of?" and Dromio's obser-
vation, on the next page, "O! sir, I did not look so low," is
struck out in the corrected folio, 1632.
ACT IV. SCENE I
P. 148. "Among my wife and their confederates" of the
folio, 1632 (as well as that of 1623), is altered by the manu-
script-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 me 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 of "send by 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
Antipholus of Ephesus, is answered in the folio, 1623, "Con-
sent to pay thee that I never had?" Thee having been
omitted in the folio, 1632, the corrector caused the line to
run thus:-
"Consent to pay for that I never had ?”
which is certainly more to the purpose.
SCENE II.
P. 152. Dromio arrives in great haste to obtain from his
mistress 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,-
"C
Here, go: the desk! the purse! sweet, now make haste."
62
[ACT IV.
THE COMEDY OF ERRORS.
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 misprinted 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 remarked 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 limbo, 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, a fury, pitiless, and rough;
A wolfe, nay, worse, a fellow all in buff,” &c.
Theobald suggested fury for "fairy;" but he entertained
no notion 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 of
irregularity in the measure coming as it does from Dromio,
a sort of ad libitum versifier. On p. 154" any hour in the
day" is written in the margin for "an hour in the day.”
SCENE III.
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 manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, has it, “Avoid,
thou fiend!" which is probably accurate, but the change is
trifling.
ACT V.]
63
THE COMEDY OF ERRORS.
P. 161. Two small variations are made, both in speeches
by Dromio, one where, alluding to the beating he had re-
ceived, he says his "bones bear witness,"
"That since have felt the vigour of his rage."
The manuscript-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 V. SCENE I.
P. 164. For "good sir, draw near to me," we are told to
read, as seems natural, "good sir, draw near with me.”
P. 167. Instead of 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
in 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.
P. 169. Adriana, speaking of her husband, who had been
seized as a madman, says,-
cc
(c
"Anon, I wot not by what strong escape,
He broke from those who had the guard of him.”
Strong" the corrector of the folio, 1632, converts into
strange," perhaps because all were astonished at the escape.
64
[ACT V.
THE COMEDY OF ERRORS.
P. 173. 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, and my man, both bound together.”
The corrector of the folio, 1632, alters it to "They left me,"
&c., which is clearly right, though not absolutely necessary.
P. 174. Ægeon, astonished at not being recognized by
Antipholus of Ephesus, exclaims, in the reading of the first
and other folios,—
"O, time's extremity!
Hast thou so crack'd and splitted my poor tongue?" &c.
but we are told by the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632,
and can well believe, that the last line ought to be,—
"Hast thou so crack'd my voice, split my poor tongue ?"
P. 176. In the line,-
"Besides her urging of her wreck at sea;"
the pronoun "her" is altered to his in both instances, and
very justifiably.
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. All is misprinted
"are" in "The Tempest," Act I. Scene II.
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."
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."
SC. I.]
65
THE COMEDY OF ERRORS.
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
slightest 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, deli-
vered 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 produced many conjectural emendations, it is
needless to notice the various proposals of Theobald and
others, which are all nearly equally wide of the mark.
F
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
Innogen, his wife, 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-direction merits notice:
it is that the word "Messenger" is converted into Gentle-
man, and the manner in which he joins in the conversation
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 im-
portant parts to persons 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 first 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
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.
67
the principal archer, and who cleaves the apple on his son's
head.
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 been even sounded upon the point; and the line ought to
run in the manner 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 melan-
choly, says
"There is no measure in the occasion that
breeds," the pronoun it being wanting after the verb, which
is found in the margin 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 in manuscript in the folio, 1632, "Yes
faith; it is my cousin's duty to make courtesy, and say,
Father, as it please you," &c. It so stands in the 4to,
1600.
P. 203. The drollery of Beatrice's description of the differ-
ence between "wooing, wedding, and repenting" is much
injured by the omission of a pun just at the conclusion-
1
F 2
68
[ACT II.
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.
"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 ancientry; and then comes repent-
ance, and with his bad legs falls into the cinque-pace faster
and faster, 'till he sink a pace into his grave." The words
in Italics are left out in all the printed copies, 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 line
"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
"impossible" (of all the printed editions) in the sense of
unbearable, insupportable; and "impossible" is converted
into importable by the corrector of the folio, 1632. Three
lines lower her is properly inserted 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 trans-
gressed" and Benedick is referring to his state of perfection.
The folio, 1623, has also the blunder of "left" for lent.
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 complexion;" but the corrector of the folio, 1632,
reads "something of as jealous a complexion," which affords
exactly the same point, and seems to prove that he was not
guided by the old 4to.
SC. III.] MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.
69
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 Bastard, that if he will bring the Prince and
Claudio at night, they 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 diffi-
culty, and the abridgment of the name of Borachio is in-
serted 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 seem-
ing truths of Hero's disloyalty." The corrector of the folio,
1632, has it, "There shall appear such seeming proofs 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-directions in this scene, so necessary to the intelligi-
bility of it, are omitted in the old printed copies. When
Benedick enters, we are told in manuscript in the folio, 1632,
that he has his Boy 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. When Benedick afterwards.
comes from his ambush, nothing is said in the printed folios
to indicate the fact; 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.
70
[ACT II.
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.
P. 217. The second verse of Balthazar's song is thus altered
in manuscript in the folio, 1632.
"Sing no more ditties, sing no mo,
Or dumps so dull and heavy;
The frauds of men were ever so
Since summer first was leafy."
It seems right thus to distinguish between ditties and dumps,
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,
(C
"The fraud of men was ever so."
P. 219. The difference is not very material, but the mean-
ing 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," excepting 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, prays, curses;-0 sweet Benedick! God
give me patience." For "curses" the corrector of the folio,
1632, substitutes cries; and we are hardly to suppose that
Beatrice utters "curses" at all, but especially at the very mo-
ment 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.
"6
P. 222. The force of Beatrice's speech is considerably in-
creased by the insertion of a negative. Benedick asks Bea-
trice 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.]
71
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.
ACT III. SCENE I.
P. 223. "Enter Beatrice stealing in behind” is the expres-
sive stage-direction in the corrected folio, 1632, and the scene
is conducted 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 overhear them, that word is inserted in
the margin.
"
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
language in Beatrice's soliloquy, on coming forward after
lying concealed 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 mishear-
ing 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 but 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 con-
tempt 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.
72
[ACT IV.
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.
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 converting "thee" into thy. For
he substitutes,
"That rage in savage sensuality,"
"That range in savage sensuality;"
which does not seem a necessary emendation, any more than
his change of "wide" into wild 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 frown?"
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 endeavoured 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 frowne.
SC. I.]
73.
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.
There is a still more injurious representation of Shake-
speare's language in the last line of the same speech:-
"O! 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!"
This has been the universal reading, upon which Steevens
remarks 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 ƒ 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."
P. 247. The old printer was peculiarly unfortunate in
this great scene: in 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 main-
taining, from circumstances, that Hero 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.
The 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
74
[ACT IV.
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.
notice that, blighting being misprinted "biting" in the old
copies, he did nothing more than add the letter l after the
letter b, leaving the rest to be understood.
P. 248. Further on we meet with two other blunders of the
same kind, though perhaps not of so much importance-one
of them in a line which has been quoted by Steevens to jus-
tify the use of "frame" in a former passage:-
"Whose spirits toil in frame of villainies."
The manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, changes "frame
of" to fraud and—
"Whose spirits toil in fraud and villainies,"
which seems a much more easy and warranted 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 sup-
posed, 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
deserves little weight, that a grieved and infuriated father
would not be disposed to rhyme under such circumstances,
it will be observed 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 willing 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
awaked, was, of course, that of his daughter, should it turn
out that she had been traduced.
P. 249. The minuteness of the criticism of the manuscript-
corrector is evinced by a mere transposition (but still tri
SC. II.]
75
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.
flingly 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," or missed,
till after it had been "lost," the corrector changed the posi-
tion of the words and read "lost and lack'd," which might be
the order in which they came from Shakespeare's pen.
SCENE II.
P. 252. In this comic scene, in the old copies, great con-
fusion 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-corrector 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.
Kem. 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 subjoin the manner in
which it is corrected in manuscript in the folio, 1632:
"Const. Come, let them be opinioned.
Sexton. Let them be bound,
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 at the time
he was speaking. Here, in truth, we have another misprint:
leases was often spelt of old-leasses, and this may have been
the origin of the blunder; for, according to the corrector of
the folio, 1632, we ought to read, "a rich fellow enough, go to ;
and a fellow that hath had leases." To have been the owner
of leases might very well prove that Dogberry was "a rich
fellow enough."
76
[ACT V.
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.
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 cor-
rector 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 ex-
ample, and that he can never be comforted, until he shall
meet with a man, suffering under equal calamities, who can
defy his misfortunes,
"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;
Call sorrow joy; 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
unusual dish; and when Claudio tells Don Pedro, that Be-
nedick hath "bid him to a calf's head and a capon," the cor-
rector 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 challenge 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
a question, “Who saw him, when he was hid in the garden?”
It seems likely that the speech was so amended, in conse-
SC. III.]
77.
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.
quence of the increased prevalence of puritanism soon after
the date when the folio, 1632, was published. Other changes
of the same kind, and, perhaps, for the same reason are made
elsewhere.
P. 265. According to the folio, 1623, Leonato says to
Claudio,-
"I cannot bid you bid my daughter live."
The folio, 1632, in its uncorrected state, gives it,—
"I cannot bid your 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 eupho-
nious emendation was derived.
SCENE III.
P. 271. The following is the "Song" as it is found cor-
rected 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 bright for "virgin knight;" we go for "they
go;" and Heavily, heavily, in 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 Bibliographer, ii. 560.) It will be remarked that the
rest of this scene is in rhyme, with the exception of these
two lines:-
"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.”
78
[ACT V.
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.
SCENE IV.
P. 272. Leonato desires his daughter, his niece, and Ur-
sula to withdraw, and to return to the scene "masked."
Such was, no doubt, the course when this comedy was ori-
ginally 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 Antonio enters with the ladies
(p. 274), we are told, in a manuscript stage-direction, that
they are veiled; and when Hero, and subsequently 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 de-
clined 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,-
"One Hero died, but I do live;"
which is a defective verse, and the quarto, 1600, has the line
thus:
"One Hero died defil'd, 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
corrector of the folio, 1632, seems on all accounts much pre-
ferable :—
"One Hero died belied, but I do live."
Here we see the lady naturally denying her guilt, and at-
tributing her death to the slander thrown upon her. Shakes-
peare'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."
SC. IV.]
79
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.
The corrector of the folio, 1632, takes precisely the same
course, and in the few succeeding lines makes changes
clearly recommended by the greater accuracy of the verse
and language, and, at least, some of which had been proposed
by the Oxford editor. We transcribe 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
Are much deceived, for they swore you did.
Bene. They swore that you were almost sick for me.
Beat. They swore that you were well nigh dead for me.
Bene. 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 in-
creased by the adoption by each party of the same forms of
expression.
P. 276. The old editions assign "Peace! I will stop your
mouth" to Leonato; but most modern editors, following the
example 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, which may have been meant for the persons en-
gaged in the performance.
LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST.
ACT I. SCENE I
P. 285. Theobald 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 inserting "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. The 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
t'unlock for "to unlock." The quarto, 1598, had previously
printed the couplet 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, cor-
rected in manuscript, which seems preferable to the other
authorities:-
LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST.
81
"So you, by study now it is too late,
Climb o'er the house-top to unlock the gate."
Five lines lower we meet in the folio, 1623, with,—
"Yet, confident, I'll keep what I have sworne;"
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.
This Longaville 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.
On the next page, rather is put in the place of “hither,'
and the rhyme shows it to be right.
P. 288. All the folios have,-
"If I break faith, this word shall break for me;"
>>
which must be wrong, and speak has usually been placed
instead of "break" in the second instance; but the cor-
rector of the folio, 1632, informs 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."
G
82
[ACT I.
LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST.
•
Planted yields but a poor sense, and not a very good rhyme,
and the manuscript-corrector of that edition reads,-
"A man in all the world-new fashions flaunted."
That is, a man flaunted, or decked out, in all the world-
new fashions. 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 Biron 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 merriness," in allusion to the
laughable contents expected in Armado's letter, "in the
merriness" of which the King and his companions 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 unlettered, small-knowing soul,
that shallow vessel, which, as I remember, hight 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 it is
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 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 in the same words in both places.
ACT II.]
83
LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST.
SCENE II.
P. 296. When Moth apostrophises, "My father's wit, and
my mother's tongue, assist me!" Armado, in foolish ad-
miration, breaks out, "Sweet invocation of a child! most
pretty and most pathetical!" Thus it is given in all editions;
but the old corrector changes "pathetical" into 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
making any correction.
P. 299. When Armado, relinquishing arms for love, ex-
claims, "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 followed 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-maker, 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,
mutiner, &c.
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 lan-
G 2
84
[АСТ III.
LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST.
guage, 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 misprint 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 fair for "farther.'
This may be right, but the manuscript-corrector inserts per-
haps a better word in his margin :—
Though so denied free harbour in my house :"
alluding to the refusal to the Princess of the unrestrained
rights of hospitality in the 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:
"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
singing, 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
SC. I.]
85
LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST.
manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, inserts the first words
both of the English and of the Italian song, See my love,
being the first, and Amato (which he spells armato) bene,
the second. This circumstance may lead to the detection of
them in some of our ancient collections of musical airs. Pos-
sibly, 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 information re-
garding the songs written or introduced by Shakespeare is
highly interesting.
P. 310. After the Page's dissertation on the mode of "be-
traying 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 Hanmer altered "penne" to penny, and Farmer
and Ritson say that it alludes to a tract called "The Penny-
worth of Wit." The manuscript-corrector entertained an
entirely different notion: he tells us, as seems not at all un-
likely, that paine (so spelt of old) was misprinted "penne;"
and this is the more probable, because the letter y at the end
of penny would hardly have been converted into e. The true
answer would therefore appear to be, when Armado inquires
how the Boy had procured his knowledge?-
"By my pain of observation,"
or by the pains he had taken in observing the characters of
men and women. What most militates against this altera-
tion is the figurative use of the word "purchased," for
obtained, by Armado.
P. 311. For "a message well sympathised" we ought un-
questionably to substitute "a messenger well sympathised."
Costard was to be the messenger, not the message. "Mes-
sage" is altered to "messenger" in the margin of the cor-
rected folio, 1632.
P. 312. There are two emendations in Armado's short soli-
loquy, after his Page has gone out to fetch Costard, one of
86
[ACT III.
LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST.
them denoting a strange corruption which has crept into the
text from the earliest date, and in all impressions. The lines
have been universally 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 appro-
priateness, whereas "moist-eyed melancholy" is peculiarly
accordant with the sighs Armado breathes, with due apology,
in the face of the "sweet 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. The last line of the Page's Lenvoy is this in the
manuscript-corrected folio, 1632:-
"Staying the odds by making four,"
instead of "adding four:" to add four would not bave
"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:-
"Arm. 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. Sirrah Costard, I will enfranchise thee.
Costard. O! 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
ACT IV.]
87
LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST.
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 will 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" fol-
lowing 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 into "a
witty wanton," the true word, in reference to Rosaline's
talents, and certainly not to her complexion, which we are
over and over again told is dark. The word is whitly in the
old copies, and is a mere error of the press. We must there-
fore certainly read,-
"A witty wanton with a velvet brow."
ACT IV. SCENE I.
P. 319. The Princess good-humouredly rebukes the Fo-
rester for flattering her, and exclaims,-
“O, heresy in fair, fit for these days!.
A giving hand, though foul, shall have fair praise.
The corrector of the folio, 1632, has it,—
“O, 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 beauty.
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 corresponding 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
88
[ACT IV.
LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST.
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,-O, 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 II.
P. 324. The manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, has
made Act IV. commence with this scene; but improperly, be-
cause Holofernes, Sir Nathaniel, and Dull enter on the exit
of Costard, so that there is, in fact, no change of place, which
usually constitutes the division.
P. 325. Part of Sir Nathaniel's 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, though he evidently does not supply all that is
wanting. Sir Nathaniel's first line rhymes to what Holo-
fernes had said,—
"O, 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 replenish'd; 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 we, 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 cor-
rector'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
SC. III.]
89
LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST.
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 change of
imitari for “imitary" of the old copies is not countenanced by
the corrector of the folio, 1632, who, instead of " imitary is
nothing," reads, "imitating is nothing," meaning that there
is no merit in mere imitation. For "tired horse he reads
"trained horse," which affords a clearer and less dubitable
meaning.
""
SCENE III.
P. 331. The 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 informed 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 himself, it is added that he is in the tree,
and when he descends to detect his companions, Come down
is inscribed in the margin. As each character retires or ad-
vances on the stage, information of it is duly given, so that
the whole business and conduct of the scene are clearly ex-
plained.
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 instance
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,—
"O! rhymes are guards on wanton Cupid's hose;
Disfigure not his shop,"
90
[ACT IV.
LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST.
we ought to read shape or slop. Theobald was in favour of
slop, and his conjecture is confirmed by the corrector of the
folio, 1632, who erases the h in the text, and inserts l
P. 334. The old reading 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 but corporal." The corrector of the folio, 1632, substitutes
most for not, "By earth she is most corporal," which affords a
still stronger contradiction to Dumaine.
P. 336. Steevens contended that the line in Dumaine's
"Sonnet,'
""
"Thou for whom Jove would swear,"
was defective, and wished to read, with Pope,-
"Thou for whom ev'n Jove would swear;'
while Malone hibernically 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,'
""
the word great having dropped out in the press. After
Dumaine 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
corrector, which we also find set right in "Hamlet" (Vol. vii.
p. 222), "fasting" for lasting, although Johnson thought that
"fasting" might here be taken as longing, hungry.
P. 338. When Jaquenetta and the Clown enter with
Biron's letter, the King, 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,
"What, peasant, hast thou there?
SC. III.]
91
LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST.
Costard was a clown or peasant, and is so addressed by the
King. The manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, points
out the blunder.
P. 341. Biron having pronounced a eulogium upon the
dark complexion of Rosaline, is laughed at by the King and
his other companions:-
O, 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 line in 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 cer-
tainly occurs: it is in the passage,-
"For where is any author in the world
Teaches such beauty as a woman's eye?"
The misprint is in the word "beauty," which incontestably
should be learning,
“Teaches such learning as a woman's eye?”
and it stands thus corrected in the folio, 1632. The whole
tenor of Biron's argument proves that the change is neces-
sary, 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,"
92
[ACT V.
LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST.
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
humanity than of "humility," and the preceding line tends to
show that the correction 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 I.
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 in Latin, insania; but he adds to
it a farther emendation, which clears the passage still more:
he gives it-"This is abhominable, which we would call
abominable: it insinuateth one of insania." Thus one is
substituted for me, which Farmer wished to change to men;
while the blunder of "infamie" for insania was the result
of the common mistake of reading ƒ for the long s.
P. 348. Armado asks Holofernes, "Do you not educate
youth at the charge-house on the top of the mountain?"
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 free-school were synonymous. It appears that it was
only a misprint for "large house," for so the corrector of the
folio, 1632, treats it.
SCENE II.
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
King and his companions.
P. 351. When Rosaline says that she also has received
SC. II.]
93
LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST.
laudatory 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
corrector, 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 fol-
lowing 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,"
excepting Douce, who, somewhat at random, suggests scof-
fingly. It turns out that the disputed word (obviously not
understood by any old editor or printer) is purely an error of
the press. Rosaline thus alludes to the absolute power she
would exercise over Biron, were she sure that he was unal-
terably attached to her:-
"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 require no explanation; and it
was probably the word of the poet, and for this reason it is
placed in the margin of the corrected folio, 1632. "Portent-
like” is, however, not to be rejected without consideration.
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 encounterers that are
"mounted," and so the old corrector notes. Again, six lines
lower, the Princess, in all ordinary editions, is made to
ask,-
94
[ACT V.
LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST.
"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
emendation, at the end of Boyet's long account of the project
he had overheard, the concoction of which 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:-
"To check their folly, passion's sudden tears.”
That is to say, they laughed until they suddenly burst out
crying, 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 can hardly be
doubted, and again rendered necessary by the blunder of f
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 not be Shakespeare's word, and as amended
by the corrector of the folio, 1632, the line reads thus unob-
jectionably :—
"And every one his love-suit will advance
Unto his several mistress."
The fitness of the alteration seems almost self-evident.
P. 360. The King and his Lords are so derided, jeered,
and flouted by the Princess and her Ladies, that they are
compelled to make a precipitate retreat, Biron having ad-
SC. II.]
95
LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST.
mitted 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,—
'O, 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 delight, breaks out,-
"O, poverty in wit! kill'd by pure flout!
meaning, of course, in consistency with what Biron had said
of "pure scoff," that the King and his companions, disguised
as Muscovites, had been driven from the field by the mere
mockery of the Ladies.
P. 364. The parenthesis ("to the manner of the days")
is made (“to the manner of these days"), and it certainly runs
more easily and naturally.
P. 375. In the old editions, Costard makes his exit after
the speech of the King, "Stand aside, good Pompey," and,
according to the corrector of the folio, 1632, he enters again
after Armado has delivered the words, "This Hector far sur-
mounted Hannibal," the manuscript stage-direction being,
Enter Costard in haste and unarmed: he is suddenly to
bring word to Armado respecting the pregnancy of Ja-
quenetta, and afterwards to engage in his shirt in a conflict
with the Spaniard, who turns out to be shirtless. 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 his part of Pompey,
and to convey the fearful 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
warranted by good sense, and by the change introduced by
96
[ACT V.
LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST.
the corrector of the folio, 1632; but three lines lower, we
come to a passage hitherto passed over, but which evidently
requires the emendation 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
distinct: 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 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-correction 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
consistent 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 in the
folios: both these words are altered by the old corrector.
Malone has "strange shapes," but not strangeness for "strains.”
P. 378. It seems clear that Biron meant to conclude his
address in rhyme, but it closes thus in all editions of the
play:-
"We to ourselves prove false,
By being once false for ever 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."
SC. II.]
97
LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST.
Read, with the corrector of the folio, 1632, and the sense is
precisely 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 in 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 needless and injurious reduplication.
P. 380. Rosaline tells Biron that he is
"Full of comparisons and wounding flouts,
Which you on all estates will execute."
"Will exercise" is the plausible, but still questionable, manu-
script-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 editors have hitherto been unwilling to make them in
the face of the old impressions.
H
1
A
MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.
ACT I. SCENE I.
P. 391. Rowe was the first editor who changed the old
reading,-
"And then the moon, like 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:-
"But 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 down
in the same page, are parts of the speech of Egeus, and not
mere stage-directions, 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 ac-
cordance with the rest of the sentence.
F
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.
99
P. 394. Capel's emendation,-
"But earthly happier is the rose distilled,"
which has been generally adopted since his time, is sup-
ported by a similar correction in 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—
"O cross! too high to be enthrall'd 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 sub-
stituted for "merit;" but men, inserted in the margin by
the corrector of the folio, 1632, is likely to have been the real
word, misheard by the copyist:
"Or else it stood upon the choice of men.'
P. 398. The corrector of the folio, 1632, gives the sub-
sequent line differently from any other early authority, viz.—
"His fault, fair Helena, is none of mine."
Fisher's quarto has it,-
"His folly, Helena, is no fault of mine;"
and Roberts' quarto and the folios,—
"His folly, Helena, is none of mine."
Near the bottom of the page, sweet is evidently the proper
reading instead of "swell'd," and companies instead of “com-
panions," for the same reason.
P. 399. Near the end of Helena's speech occurs this
couplet, where she is stating her determination to inform
Demetrius of the intended 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 sin-
gularly improves the passage by the word he substitutes:-
"and for this intelligence,
If I have thanks, it is dear recompense.”
H 2
100
[ACT II.
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.
It cannot be doubted that the original reading is thus re-
stored, although here, as in many other places, it is difficult
to understand how the corruption crept into the text.
SCENE 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 well understood, and it appears that, when the cor-
rections in the folio, 1632, were made, it was deemed a mis-
print, 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 afterwards.
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.
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 than to Bottom.
ACT II. SCENE I.
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 this 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 himself
told us in "Cymbeline," Act II. Scene II.,-
SC. I.]
101
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.
"Like the crimson drops
I' th' bottom of a cowslip."
The alteration authorised in manuscript in the folio, 1632,
is, therefore, as follows:-
"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 measure of 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 "I 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 in
tegrity of Shakespeare's text, worth notice, that in the cor-
rected 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 after-
wards repeats nearly the same words when she again refuses
the boy to Oberon, "Not for thy fairy kingdom." We may,
therefore, conclude, that thy is the original.
In a 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 "rich" had perhaps
been caught from a line just below.
P. 410. There is a defect in the construction of the sub-
sequent 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;"
102
[ACT II.
i
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.
accordingly we find the old corrector altering the last line
thus, which is probably what the poet wrote:-
"Upon the next live creature that is seen."
Puck's answer to Oberon has constantly been printed,—
"I'll put a girdle round about the earth
In forty minutes;"
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,—
"I'd put a girdle round about the earth
In forty minutes."
The word "round," which is also inserted by him as neces-
sary to the measure, is only met with in the quarto pub-
lished by Fisher.
P. 412. The change recommended, from "flowers" (which
is the old reading) to bowers, in the following passage, may
be disputed: bowers certainly seems 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."
Unquestionably the "lush woodbine," musk-roses, and eglan-
tine, 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 proposed to read
lush, and we have already met with it in "The Tempest,'
Act II. Scene I.
"
SCENE II.
P. 415. Hermia and Lysander, wearied by wandering in
the wood, are about to lie down, when Hermia, in maiden
modesty, asks her lover to rest farther from her, but he
CT III.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.
103
urges her to repose her trust in him. 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 much more to the purpose:
"O! take the sense, sweet, of my innocence;
Love takes the meaning in love's confidence.'
ACT III. SCENE I.
P. 421. In the rehearsal scene of the mock-play by the
Athenian 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 alternative. 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 difficulty, altered "hath" to doth; but the
error was, as the corrector of the folio, 1632, shows, in the
word "of" in the previous line: properly, therefore, the
passage ought to be printed hereafter,—
"l
Thisby, the flowers have odious savours sweet,
So hath thy breath," &c.
P. 422. The manuscript stage-directions in this scene, and
indeed in most others, are as precise and full 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
104
[ACT III.
À MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.
return of Bottom after his transformation, we are told that
Robin is among them, that the Clowns all exeunt in con-
fusion, and that Snout afterwards Exit frighted, having seen
the Weaver with the Ass head on his own. 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 information
in the printed copies as to the exact moment; but in manu-
script we have annoint her eyes and annoint his eyes in
the precise places in the margin, in the hand-writing of the
corrector. In the same way, though the printed copies state
when the characters sleep, we are told only in manuscript
when they wake, which is quite as material.
P. 424. The five lines 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 been the modern arrangement.
SCENE II.
P. 428. Hermia, imagining that Demetrius has killed
Lysander, 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 flood;"
that is, in a mistaken torrent, which appears to give ad-
ditional force and greater intelligibility.
P. 431. The conjecture hazarded in note 6, that "princess
of pure white" ought to be read "impress of pure white," is
confirmed by the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, and
the quotation ought in future to stand,-
"O! let me kiss
This impress of pure white, this seal of bliss."
SC. II.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.
105
In fact the use of the word "impress" in the beginning 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, and it completes 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
understand it, and thought that audiences would be in the
same condition.
P. 436. In Hermia'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? O, me!"
and then what follows? this strange question,—
"What 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,—
"
"What means my love?"
106
[ACT IV.
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM,
which is a natural inquiry for an explanation why Lysander
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 Malone stating their con-
currence 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 :-
instead of
"And he bid us follow to the temple,"
"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 in all
the old copies: he is speaking of the ballad of "Bottom's
Dream,"-"I will sing it in the latter end of a play, before
the Duke: peradventure, to make it the more gracious, I
ACT V.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.
107
shall sing it at her death." Now, no particular play is here
mentioned, and "at her death" seems to have no personal
application. Nevertheless it is evident that the play of Pyra-
mus 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." Such was
also Steevens's explanation of the difficulty.
SCENE II.
P. 451. In this scene Flute, the bellows-mender, is through-
out introduced as a speaker by the name of the part he per-
forms in the mock-tragedy; but the manuscript-corrector
has been careful, in each 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
passage, which we give as it appears in the latter, which
have been almost 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 airy nothing,” and
the folios, without any point after ayre, "gives to ayre
nothing." With some editors it has been a question, which
reading ought to be adopted; but, as the manuscript-corrector
of the folio, 1632, by placing the letter i in the margin,
indicates that the word was ayrie, and as the line is incom-
plete without the additional syllable, we need not entertain
much hesitation upon the point.
P. 454. The doubling of the parts of Egeus and Philostrate,
108
[ACT V.
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.
that is, one actor filling both, perhaps led to the confusion
between 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 sub-
sequent to the publication of that quarto, the part of Philos-
trate, 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, who 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
represented before him, observes
"That is, hot ice and wondrous strange snow.'
Now, unless we read "wondrous" as a trisyllable, the mea-
sure is defective: the sense too is much in the same predica-
ment; for "wondrous strange snow," does not necessarily
imply opposition, like "hot ice." The truth is that Shakes-
peare 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
"seething," which renders the misprint here less pardonable.
P. 457. After the Prologue by a speaker who, as Theseus
remarks, did not "stand upon his points," we come to the
introduction of the mock-actors, and the old stage-direction in
the folios is "Tawyer with a trumpet before them." It has
been thought that "Tawyer" was the name of the trumpeter;
SC. I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.
109
but a manuscript-correction in the folio, 1632, calls him Pre-
senter, and it places Pres. as a prefix to the argument of
the main incidents of the burlesque. In it, it was necessary
to observe punctuation for the sake of intelligibility, and
not to derange it, as in the case of the Prologue, for the sake
of laughter. This argument was, therefore, 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 between the neighbours." Theobald altered
"moral" to "mural," but no instance has been adduced of
the employment of mural as a substantive; and the manu-
script-corrector erases "moral" and inserts wall, which, at
least, is the word wanted. Lower down in the Lion's speech
we 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 by full two centuries.
At the end of the speech "on my life" is altered, perhaps
rightly, to "on your life."
P. 462. The manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, con-
verts "mouz'd" of the old copies into mouthed, in the ex-
clamation 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 always thus printed:-"This passion, and the death
of a dear friend, would go near to make a man look sad;"
but it has particular reference to the "passion" of Pyramus
on the fate of Thisbe, and therefore the corrector of the folio,
1632, properly changes "and" to on, and reads, "This passion
110
[ACT V.
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.
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 oppo-
site margin, Stab himself as often; that is, as often as he
exclaims, "thus, thus, thus!" Exit Moonshine is inserted just
before Pyramus dies. These instructions to the players are
not in any of the old impressions.
P. 464. In part of Thisbe's dying rhapsody, as it appeared
before Theobald's time, he saw that the rhymes did not
correspond, as they ought :-
"These lily lips,
This cherry nose,
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. The early editions do not inform us where the
"Bergomask Dance" was introduced; but the old corrector
tells us, that it came in just before Theseus recommences his
speech, with "The iron tongue of midnight," &c. The words
written in a blank space are Dance: then, the Duke speaks.
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 repre-
sented on the title-page of the old tract of "Robin Good-
fellow, his Mad Pranks," &c., in the library of Lord Elles-
mere, and in the chap-book in verse upon his history, re-
printed by the present editor: that Puck was so furnished we
have his own evidence, when he tells the audience,-
"I am sent with broom before,
To sweep the dust behind the door."
P. 467. In “the Song," just preceding Puck's last speech,
there are two small, but not trifling emendations, made by
SC. I.] A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.
111
the corrector of the folio, 1632. The one is by a change in
the punctuation 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, which 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 it safely rest
And the owner of it blest.
Trip away; make no stay;
Meet me all by break of day."
The question is whether the fairies, or the issue of the dif-
ferent 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
emendation in the folio, 1632, renders the whole "song'
consecutive, grammatical, and intelligible.
THE
MERCHANT OF VENICE.
ACT I. SCENE I.
P. 478. In the following quotation Rowe changed" when
of all the old copies, quarto and folio, into who,—
"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, War-
burton, Malone, and others; but the emendation recom-
mended on the authority of the corrector of the folio, 1632, is
much slighter, simpler, and more effectual-merely “would”
to 'twould
"When, I am very sure,
If they should speak, 'twould 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.
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE.
113
P. 480. Bassanio tells Antonio, in all editions,-
"I owe you much, and, like a wilful youth,
That which I owe is lost."
The folio, 1632, as corrected, substitutes a more appropriate
word in reference to Bassanio's extravagance,—
"I owe you much, and, like a wasteful 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.; while 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 appropria-
tion to his own good parts that he can shoe him himself.”
"Appropriation to" is altered by the manuscript-corrector
of the folio, 1632, to approbation of, in the sense of proof-a
great proof of his own good parts, &c. Approbation is not
unfrequently used by Shakespeare for probation; whereas, if
appropriation" were his word, this is the only place where
he has employed it.
(C
P. 483. In order, perhaps, 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 stigmatise 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 "land-thieves,”
instead of "water-thieves," pirates. He tells Bassanio,
I
114
[ACT II.
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE.
"There be 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,-
"O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!
is erased; but nevertheless an emendation is made in An-
tonio's answer to Shylock, 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 inquires
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
Morocco 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,”
which seems much more proper, when the African Prince is
speaking of his black complexion as the effect of the sun's
rays. To speak of the sun as artificially "burnish'd" is
sc. v.]
115
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE.
surely unworthy. Lower down the reading of the corrector is,
"I would out-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 rage" 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
courageous 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 inappropriate, 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, till he is met
by his father. As the dialogue between them proceeds,
we are told when Launcelot kneels to receive 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 speaking 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 differently both from quartos and folios; for instead
of "Fast bind, fast find," we have "Safe bind, safe find."
The lines from,—
"O! ten times faster Venus' pigeons fly,"
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 duly corrected. The two quartos
I 2
116
[ACT II.
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE.
have "seal." Subsequently (p. 506) the words "lovely gar-
nish of a boy" are transposed to "garnish of a lovely boy"
without much reason.
SCENE VII.
P. 507. When the Prince of Morocco enters to his choice
of the caskets, we are informed by a manuscript stage-direc-
tion in the folio, 1632, that a curtain is drawn or rather
withdrawn in front of them, as, indeed, is the case afterwards
when the Prince of Arragon 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 audi-
ence 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 repe-
titions of it, by the omission of the word "many,"
"Who chooseth me shall gain what men desire,"
instead of "what many men desire." In the quarto im-
pressions "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. It is worth a note, that Johnson's emendation of
gilded tombs" for "gilded timber" (p. 509), is fully sus-
tained; and apply for "employ," on p. 511, is a farther im-
provement of the old text.
re
SCENE IX.
P. 512. There is a material emendation in the speech of
the Prince of Arragon, when commenting on the caskets.
The reading 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, farther informs us that the words of the
poet, in the fourth line, were,—
ACT III.]
117
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE.
"Which prize not th' interior, but, like the martlet,
Builds in the weather," &c.
That is to say, the fool multitude do not prize, or value the
interior, but judge only by externals. It will be observed
also, that this new reading restores in some degree the re-
gularity of the verse: "builds" agrees with "martlet.”
ACT III. SCENE I.
P. 516. Where Shylock calls Antonio "A beggar that
used to come so smug upon the mart," the manuscript-cor-
rector 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 twice repeats 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
introduction 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" in 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 is 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."
118
[ACT III.
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE.
As to the first line, the folio, 1623, has "guiled shore," as
above, which the editor of the folio, 1632, not understanding,
he altered it to guilded, i. e. gilded; so that when Steevens
asserts that “all the ancient copies" have "guiled," he
is mistaken. The manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632,
not approving guilded, and seeing 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 guiling. This however is not by
any means the most important emendation in 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
obviously the very converse of what the poet intended: Sir
Thomas Hanmer therefore proposed "Indian dowdy;" but
no other variation from the old text is necessary than to
observe the stops which the corrector of the folio, 1632, in-
troduced: he reads the lines as follows:-
"Thus ornament is but the guiling 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 written in
the time of the author he illustrates, he would not have
thought it necessary to change "guiled" to guiling. It was
perhaps recited guiling 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 unfinish'd," which
reads extremely well, if we suppose that the word applies
to the portrait, and not to the eye alone. "Unfurnish'd," if
it refer to the fellow eye, reads awkwardly, and Shakespeare
would scarcely have left the expression of what he intended
so imperfect. Steevens hesitated about unfinish'd.
P. 524. Portia, stating the sources of her happiness after
the successful choice by Bassanio, thus sums them up :-
ACT IV.] THE MERCHANT OF VENICE.
119
1
“Happiest of all is, that her gentle spirit
Commits itself to yours 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 directed."
The use of in that for inasmuch as was common.
P. 526. Gratiano, speaking of his eager courtship of Ne-
rissa, observes:-
"For wooing here, until I sweat again,
And swearing till my very roof was dry," &c.
The 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 dry"
is more likely, 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 super-
lative, "unwearied'st spirit," which is quite in the manner of
Shakespeare, and quite consistent with Bassanio's opinion of
his friend.
SCENE IV.
On p. 532 the old corrector puts "sacred vow" for "secret
vow," in Portia's speech; and in the next scene, p. 535, what
passes between Lorenzo and Launcelot, regarding the negress
with child by him, is erased.
ACT IV. SCENE I.
P. 539. We here meet with an emendation which must, in
all probability, have been derived from some good authority;
120
[ACT IV.
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE.
certainly 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 render'd,
Why 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
"woollen," and some have argued that it was because the bag
was covered with cloth, while Johnson was for changing the
word to wooden, and Hawkins and Steevens, more plausibly, to
swollen. As to the meaning, the two last 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, and
earlier, whom it is needless to refer to, because he avails him-
self 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 word 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 in
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 :-
"Or even as well use question with the wolf,
The ewe bleat for the lamb;"
the rest of the line being wanting. How, then, is the defect
remedied by the corrector of the folio, 1632? Simply by a
transposition and the removal of a colon, which accomplishes
SC. I.]
121
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE.
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:-
"O, 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 answers 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
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.
122
[ACT V.
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE.
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 “sub-
stance" 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 ex-
pression is "Sweet love," 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 the words 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 re-
medied the blunder. It stands, as printed,-
"Therefore the poet
Did feign that Orpheus drew tears, stones, floods," &c.
For tears, we should of course read "trees," in accordance
with the folio, 1623, and with the two early editions in
quarto. The corrector's first emendation was to beasts, but
he struck it out subsequently, and properly inserted "trees
in its stead.
"
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 Endymion,
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 how for "hoa," but how for "now:" this is
SC. I.]
123
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE.
the more likely, because when the folios came from the
press it was not so usual to spell the interjection "hoa," as
ho; and we know that it was a very common mistake to
print "how" for now, and vice versâ : 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 minute errors. Thus, in the
fifth line, he has erased "from," and properly substituted
for. 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 syllables 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.
P. 560. To the same cause we may probably attribute the
employment of "contain," in Portia's accusation of Bassanio,
instead 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 delivering 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.
124
THE MERCHANT OF VENICE.
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
passage, because the question is not as to where the roads
are to be repaired, but when; the speaker means to point
out the absurdity 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 mis-
print 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 accordance with Malone's proposal, to insert a period
after "
fashion," and to commence a new sentence with he,
in reference to the bequest of Orlando's father. The cor-
rector'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
Orlando 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 where they were, probably, originally found :-
"Oliver. Can you tell if Rosalind, the old duke's daughter, be banished
with her father?
Charles. O! no; for the new duke's daughter, her cousin, so loves
her," &c.
The meaning is more complete with the added words, though
intelligible without them.
126
[ACT I.
AS YOU LIKE IT.
P. 11. The two last portions of the two speeches of Charles
and Oliver, after the word "withal" in the first, and after
the word "living" in the second instance, are struck out in
the corrected folio, 1632. The object seems to have been
merely to shorten the colloquy.
SCENE II.
P. 16. A trifling change, the omission of a letter, shows
that Shakespeare intended to make Le Beau talk in an
affected manner. He enters to give Rosalind and Celia
tidings regarding the wrestling, and the common reading has
been,-
"Le Beau. Fair princess, you have lost much good sport.
Celia. 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 pro-
nounced 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 only
put his pen through the letter 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
men,” viz. the two men, Orlando and Charles, the wrestler.
"Man" answers 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 our 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 Rosalind puts a chain round the neck of
Orlando. These are supplied in manuscript by the corrector
of the folio, 1632.
P. 21. The old copies represent Le Beau as telling Orlando
SC. III.]
127
AS YOU LIKE IT.
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 III.
P. 22. We are rejoiced to find Coleridge's delicate con-
jecture fortified, or rather entirely justified, by the folio, 1632,
as amended 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 my 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
plausibility, we ought in future to give the line thus:-
"Mistress, dispatch you with your fastest haste,"
or with your greatest speed. In "The Merchant of Venice "
(p. 115), we have seen safe misprinted "fast," in two in-
stances close together: here we have fastest misprinted
"safest."
P. 24. The line in Celia's speech,-
"Still we went coupled and inseparable,"
is altered in the folio, 1632, to,-
"Still we went coupled and inseparate."
Shakespeare uses inseparate in "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,
128
[ACT II.
AS YOU LIKE IT.
and the old corrector 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 Shakespeare, the other not.
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 forth 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. 27. 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 season's difference, or the icy fang," &c.
In the 1st Lord's speech also (p. 28), hath for "had" is de-
cidedly for the better :-
"Giving thy sum of more
To that which hath too much.”
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.
SC. III.]
129
AS YOU LIKE IT.
SCENE III.
P. 31. The folio, 1632, erroneously reads,-
66
'O, 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,—
"O, 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
"The constant favour of the antique world."
The “seventy years" of the old copies, occurring afterwards,
is properly altered to "seventeen years," though it, some-
what unaccountably, remained "seventy years" until the time
of Rowe.
K
130
[ACT II.
AS YOU LIKE IT.
SCENE IV.
P. 33. The old editions begin this scene with Rosalind's
exclamation,-
"O, 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. 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 Touch-
stone's reply; and not only does the old corrector under-
score 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, ac-
cording 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.
Clo. 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 produc-
tion.
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.
SC. VII.]
131
AS YOU LIKE IT.
SCENE VI.
P. 38. Orlando tells old Adam to cheer up, and says to
him, "For my sake be comfortable." There seems no par-
ticular reason for any change, excepting 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
following 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 correc-
tion in the folio, 1632, is,—
"Doth very foolishly, although he smart,
But to seem senseless of the bob: if not
The wise man's folly is anatomiz'd," &c.
Lower in the same page occurs another line, which has
caused dispute. The printed words in the folio, 1623, are
these:-
"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 cor-
rector 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
transcriber, not knowing how to restore it to its right place,
mutilated the meaning, which, however, is now quite intelli-
gible: we are, of course, to take "the very means of wear
to be the money which buys the apparel.
""
K 2
132
[ACT III.
AS YOU LIKE IT.
P. 43. For "take upon command," the old corrector wishes
us to read "take upon commend," which is clearly more con-
sistent with the context. The same emendation is made by
him in "Cymbeline."
P. 45. Amiens' song is struck out, and the Duke ends by
calling 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; and the object must have been
here, as elsewhere, 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 since?"
exclaims the incredulous Duke, according to the corrector of
the folio, 1632, and not, "Not see him since?" as it has
always been printed and reprinted.
SCENE II.
P. 48. Orlando after hanging a paper 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 should'st 'scape," is crossed out. Still,
several literal errors are set right.
P. 50. In Touchstone's verses the line,
is corrected to
"Wintred garments must be lin’d,”
"Winter garments must be lin'd,”
which may be the true reading, although the folios all have
wintred. The variation from the old copies by some modern
editors ought, at least, to have been noted.
SC. III.]
133
AS YOU LIKE IT.
P. 51. The first line of Orlando's Poem has the indefinite
article supplied by the corrector, in conformity with Pope's
emendation,—
""
Why should this a desert be?"
Tyrwhitt and Malone took a very needless liberty with the
text, when they thrust silent into the line.
P. 57. Rosalind 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?"
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 Touch-
stone's speech upon horns, which, we think, has hitherto not
been suspected, 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
is 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 pointed thus, "Horns? even so :-Poor
men alone?" and what follows these words is an answer to the
obscure 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 will be perfectly intelligible: "Are
horns given to poor men alone?" "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 printed 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,
134
[ACT III.
AS YOU LIKE IT.
but it is thus given by the manuscript-corrector of the folio,
1632.
"O sweet Oliver, O brave Oliver!
Leave me not behind thee:
But wend away; begone I say,
I. will not to wedding bind thee."
"I will not to wedding with thee," has hitherto been the
conclusion. "Wend away" was Johnson's suggestion.
SCENE IV.
P. 66. 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
Than he that dies and lives by bloody drops?"
If we may read kills for "dies," the difficulty upon which
Warburton, Johnson, Steevens, Tollet, 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 capable impressure
Thy palm some moment keeps ;'
but "capable" appears not to have been the poet's word,
and the manuscript-corrector has it "palpable impressure,"
an indentation that may be felt.
P. 69. It is worth a note that Marlow's celebrated line,
from his "Hero and Leander," 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?" is crossed out in the
folio, 1632, apparently for brevity's sake.
ACT IV.]
135
AS YOU LIKE IT.
ACT IV. SCENE I.
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:-
“Orl. 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. In answer to Orlando's question, "Who
could be out, being before his beloved mistress?" Rosalind
ought to say,
"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, I do, instead of "I die," and lower
down (like the earlier folio) converts Coroners into Chroni-
clers. These mistakes are corrected in the margin.
P. 76. Sir Thomas Hanmer made a tolerable guess, when
he altered "occasion," in the following sentence, to accusa-
tion,-"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
passage with which Rosalind parts with Orlando in this
scene, "Well, time is the old justice that examines all such
offenders, and let time try you." The sentence is hardly
complete without you, which is found in the margin.
136
[ACT IV.
AS YOU LIKE IT.
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-position, and allow no interval. Although the song
is struck out with the rest, that which is only a prose direc-
tion, 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
commencement of this scene must be a quotation, and it is
underscored as such by the corrector of the folio, 1632.
Rosalind, impatient at Orlando's apparent want of punc-
tuality, observes,—
"How say you now? Is it not past two o'clock?
And here much 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, 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 in 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 what precedes, and not to what follows the
ACT V.]
137
AS YOU LIKE IT.
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 II.
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 be obedience; but the fact is that the misprint is in
the first "observance," for the corrector of the folio, 1632,
makes the line,-
"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,-
"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.
138
[ACT V.
AS YOU LIKE IT.
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. The word, in Touch-
stone's comment upon the singing, is not "untuneable," as
in the folios, but untimeable, as corrected in that of 1632.
This has been a disputed point. In the third stanza of the
song itself, “a life" seems properly altered to "our life."
SCENE IV.
P. 92. A misprinted line in Orlando's first speech has pro-
duced 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 instance, 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.
66
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 another error of the scribe, 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 parties the several articles of the compact.
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.
[Exeunt ROSALIND and CELIA.”
SC. IV.]
139
AS YOU LIKE IT.
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 words thus recovered are of little value, in themselves,
but as we can hardly doubt that they came from Shakes-
peare's pen, we ought to be thankful.
P. 96. A stage-direction (wanting in the old printed
copies) informs 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 writing 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 con-
clusion 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 some ap-
parent fitness,-
"To Hymen, god in every town.”
140
AS YOU LIKE IT.
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 with him exil'd.”
The old text is "him" for them, which may by misapplied
ingenuity be reconciled 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 with
the poet.
THE
TAMING OF THE SHREW.
INDUCTION. SCENE I.
"
P. 107. The stage-direction at the commencement of this
comedy in the old folios is confused and redundant, viz.: Enter
Beggar and Hostess, Christophero Sly; but the "Beggar'
and Christophero Sly are the same person: therefore, the
corrector of the folio, 1632, has made the stage-direction run
merely as follows: Enter Hostess and Christophero Sly. The
prefixes to what Sly says are always printed Beg., for
"Beggar," but they are in every instance changed in manu-
script to Sly.
Sly's exclamation from "The Spanish Tragedy," "Go by
S. Jeronimy," has given commentators some trouble, in con-
sequence 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
instructions 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
incomplete. Such does not appear to be the fact, for the
142
[INDUC.
THE TAMING OF THE SHREW.
manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, makes the line run
naturally enough,-
"When he says what he is, say that he dreams.”
In modern editions, by the separate printing of insig-
nificant 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 offer humble service to your lordship."
Adopting this word, it will be necessary to put the Lord's
question in this very usual form :--
Serv.
"How now! who is't?
An't please your honour, Players,
That offer humble service to your lordship."
The Players then enter, and after the printed words, Enter
Players, "5 or 6" are added in manuscript, 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), wishing to
persuade Sly that he has been insane, begins his speech, as
commonly printed, 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 had 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,-
SC. II.]
143
THE TAMING OF THE SHREW.
"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
supposed that it meant shearing or reaping ale, for so reaping
is called in Warwickshire. What does it mean? It is spelt
sheere in the old copies, and that word begins one line,
Warwick having undoubtedly dropped out at the end of the
preceding line. The corrector of the folio, 1632, inserted the
missing word in manuscript, 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
Stratford-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 cele-
brated, and of which he had doubtless often partaken at
Mrs. Hacket's. We almost wonder that, in his local par-
ticularity, he did not mention the sign of her house. This
emendation, like many others, may have been obtained from
some better manuscript than that in the hands of the old
printer, or from more correct recitation on the stage.
P. 117. Sly thus addresses his supposed wife:-
"Madam wife, they say that I have dream'd,
And slept above some fifteen year, or 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
transposition, destroyed the rhyming couplet with which the
Induction ought to end. It has been always printed as
follows: Sly is speaking 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
144
[ACT I.
THE TAMING OF THE SHREW.
very opening, is "Let the world slide." How, then, does
the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, state that the
above lines should run?
"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 ar-
rangements 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, They 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
dramatist's works have passed through, it is wonderful that
such a blunder as that we are now to point out, should
not have been long ago universally inserted in the text.
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
printer's blunder.
"Or so devote to Aristotle's ethics"
is the line as it stands authoritatively corrected in the margin
of the folio, 1632. Blackstone proposed ethics, but, we appre-
hend, that it has been adopted only by Mr. Singer.
In the last line of this page, Lucentio is represented as
apostrophising his absent boy, Biondello,—
"If, Biondello, thou wert come ashore," &c.
The real words being merely in the form of an observation,-
“If Biondello now were come ashore," &c.
SC. I.]
145
THE TAMING OF THE SHREW.
This is one of the mistakes that must have arisen from mis-
hearing on the part of the copyist of the play. The manu-
script-corrector of the folio, 1632, sets the matter right.
P. 120. Two errors, one of omission and the other of com-
mission, occur in a question by Katherine and an answer by
Hortensio. The first is leaving out the word gracious, which
is wanting to 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 ad-
miration of Bianca's beauty, but it is injured by the mis-
printing of so poor a word as "had" for race:
"O, 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. Three lines lower he strikes out "hardly
in favour of scarce, to amend the measure.
P. 125. The old copies present us with this corrupt and
imperfect 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 guessed at the insertion of then, but allowed "In
brief" to remain. Lower down, for "wounded eye" the cor-
rection is "wond'ring eye," which may or may not be right,
but the presumption is much in its favour. On p. 129, for
or a worse," the folio, 1632, as corrected, reads "or even
worse."
L
146
THE TAMING OF THE SHREW. [ACT II.
SCENE II.
P. 134. Gremio, referring to Petruchio's enterprise against
Katherine, tells Hortensio,-
"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 Hor-
tensio, both being suitors to Bianca; and there is little
doubt that the corrector of the folio, 1632, was justified in
changing "yours" to ours. On p. 136, Rowe's change of
"seek" to feat is also warranted.
ACT II. SCENE I.
P. 137. In the line of Bianca's speech,-
“That I disdain; but for these other goods,"
Theobald read gauds for "goods," but the manuscript-
corrector tells us that gards or guards, in the sense of orna-
ments, 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 woman's qualities, and mild behaviour;"
for the hero was dwelling upon the heroine's female re-
commendations and attributes.
P. 144. The point of Katherine's retort to Petruchio has
been obscured by an error either of the copyist or of the
printer. Petruchio tells her,-
"Women are made to bear, and so are you;"
ACT III.] THE TAMING OF THE SHREW.
147
to which she replies, as the line has been given since the
publication of the second folio,-
"No such jade, sir, as you, if me you mean;"
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 bear you, if me you mean.
The folio, 1623, gives the line even less perfectly than that
of 1632, and the corrector of the second folio has supplied
words which had in some way been misrepresented in the
text. The coarse joke about the wasp's sting, near the
bottom of the page, is struck out by him.
P. 147. Petruchio, giving Baptista an account of his inter-
view with Katherine, remarks,-
"She is not froward, 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
doubtless the true word. Lower down, "part" is changed to
pact, meaning, of course, compact or agreement.
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 wrong word, for the manuscript-
corrector makes it appear that, for the purpose of the rhyme,
"wooing" ought to be winning :
"but in this case of winning,
A child shall get a sire, if I fail not of my cunning.”
ACT III. SCENE I.
P. 151. Lucentio and Hortensio, disguised as a language-
master and a musician, quarrel as to precedence in the
L 2
148
[АСТ III.
THE TAMING OF THE SHREW.
instruction of Bianca. All editions represent Hortensio's
speech as beginning thus defectively:
"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! (of frequent occurrence in this and
other plays of the time) and furnishes two missing words
in 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 Ritson, who only wanted to fill up the line,
'But, wrangling pedant, know this lady is," &c. There must
have existed some original for I avouch. On p. 154, “old,”
as applied to "inventions," is obliterated, and new written in
its stead.
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 various ways; but the manuscript correction in the folio,
1632, differs from all others, and is questionless 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?" which imme-
diately follows. Old was often used as a superlative. Lower
down, the proposed reading is heaped for "hipped."
P. 157. If the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, be
accurate 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 to explain why the
latter, having praised our greatest dramatist and his "Lu-
crece" in "
in "Matilda," first published in 1594, withdrew the
stanza in 1596, and never afterwards 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., pp. 411. 475. We have,
perhaps, a clue to the origin of the difference in one of the
manuscript changes made in the play under consideration,
which would show that it arose out of a particular allusion by
SC. II.] THE TAMING OF THE SHREW.
149
(c
Shakespeare to one of Drayton's poems, and not out of any
competition between them as dramatic authors. Biondello,
bringing an account of the arrival of Petruchio and his man
Grumio, and 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 Steevens speculated that "the humour of
forty fancies" was a collection 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 altering the text as
follows:-
“An old hat, and the Amours, or Forty Fancies, prick'd in't for a
feather."
The old compositor probably obtained "humour" from two
lines below, where it is also in immediate juxta-position with
the verb "pricks," and the commentators could find no work
at all corresponding in title to "the humour of forty fancies;"
here, however, it is stated by the old corrector, that the title
was erroneously quoted, or in other words, that the compositor
had printed "Humour" for Amours, 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 nearly 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 later editions of
his "Matilda,” the praise he had given to Shakespeare in the
first impression in 1594. This notion may be a little sup-
ported by the fact, that the ridicule, if intended, was effectual,
for Drayton never afterwards reprinted the poetical tract in
question, although he inserted some of the sonnets it contains
in others of his republications. 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 introduc-
tory word "Amours," was probably enough for Shakespeare's
150
[ACT III.
THE TAMING OF THE SHREW.
purpose, and he might not wish to be more exact. It is,
of course, merely conjecture that he meant to produce a
harmless laugh against his contemporary by an allusion to
this collection of sonnets; and, if well-founded, it would
carry back the composition, and first representation 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," his "Matilda,"
and the old "Taming 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 whole 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 corrector of the folio, 1632, who as usual underscores
it on that account. 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 there-
fore not legible. The first line spoken by Petruchio, alluding
to his poor apparel, is deficient of a syllable,—
"Were it better, I should rush in thus."
The word wanting is supplied by the corrector,-
"Were it much better, I should rush in thus."
P. 159. Having 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 concerneth us to add,”
is amended in manuscript to
“But to our love concerneth us to add,”
+
ACT IV.] THE TAMING OF THE SHREW.
151
which, while it preserves the verse, makes the meaning appa-
rent. Theobald has "our" for to our, and Tyrwhitt recom-
mended, "But, sir, to her," which, however, renders the mea-
sure redundant.
ACT IV. SCENE I.
P. 168. The manuscript stage-directions in 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 sings the two fragments of
ballads-that the meat is served in—that both sit down to it,
and that he throws 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
perfect ;-
"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 her."
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
"ancient engle," but we are to recollect that the person
spoken of was on foot, and we have no doubt that the
152
[ACT IV.
THE TAMING OF THE SHREW.
word wanting 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 understanding, how was Biondello
to know that "the Pedant" was so, by merely seeing him walk
down the hill? he could, indeed, see at once that he was an
ambler. How ambler came to be misprinted "angel" is a
difficulty of perpetual recurrence.
SCENE IV.
P. 183. Baptista, conferring with the false Vincentio, con-
sents 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
happily has escaped, as we learn from the corrector of the
folio, 1632,-
"The match 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 as-
surance, take you assurance of her," &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 while cannot be wrong, 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.]
153
THE TAMING OF THE SHREW.
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, Kathe-
rine 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.”
Four lines below, the insertion of what in the line
“But soft! what company is coming here?
seems almost as necessary to the meaning as to the measure.
"
ACT V. SCENE I.
P. 192. The real father of Lucentio, having been roughly
treated by the pretended father 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, we may suppose, 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 overblown."
154
THE TAMING OF THE SHREW.
Rowe altered "come" to "done," some emendation of the
kind being necessary; but, according to the correction in the
folio, 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:
instead of
"Let's each one send unto his wife,"
"Let's each one send unto his several wife,"
which makes the sense and measure complete. Words would
scarcely have been arbitrarily inserted in this way without
any warrant within the knowledge 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
corrupt both in substance and form, for the wager was not
five hundred, but "one hundred crowns;" and the verse is
also redundant, though easily reduced to its proper length
without any loss, excepting 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; but
until now, when we have this new authority before us, no
editor has thought himself at liberty to reject the needless
auxiliary.
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS
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 faulty, the word only having been
accidentally omitted:
“ Carries no favour in't but only Bertram's,”
is doubtless the true reading from the corrected folio, 1632.
در
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 misprint, and, on the whole, it seems preferable
to Sir Thomas Hanmer's change of "two," in the second
instance, to ten, "Within ten years it will make itself ten."
Parolles would hardly look forward to so distant a period.
This speech, and indeed all the rest of the scene until the
156
[ACT I.
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
entrance of the Page, is crossed out in the folio, 1632. Never-
theless several emendations are made in the 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 typo-
graphy.
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 trans-
position of the words "fortune" and "nature :" the manu-
script-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 III.
P. 220. It has been stated that it was the practice of the
corrector 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 Warburton perceived and would 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
Why 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
complains that the Clown "corrupts the song," which he
denies; and his answer contains another addition to the
text of some importance, besides the correction of a printer's
error, which has always been amended in a way to injure,
SC. III.] ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL,
157
instead of improving, the sense. 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 strength-
ened by "but one," instead of "but ere," or "but ore," 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 emendation of “ore
ore" to one adds force 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
Steward of Helena's secret love for Bertram, and in a soliloquy
(for according to the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632,
the heroine enters too early in all editions) makes excuses
for the young lady's passion, 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 mis-
hearing of the scribe, the correction of which is of im-
portance, 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-for 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 the suspicions of the Countess are confirmed
by her appearance, "Her eye is sick on't," &c.
158
[ACT II.
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
P. 225. In Helena's speech, describing her father's pre-
scriptions, she says, in all copies of the play, that they are
“such as his reading
And manifest experience had collected."
For "manifest," the corrector of the folio, 1632, places mani-
fold in the margin, in allusion to the old physician's great
practice. We may safely admit the emendation.
ACT II. SCENE I.
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 under the influence of the most re-
ceived star." For move, the second folio has the misprint 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 won-
derful 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 word "araise," we have no other example, and the
old corrector 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,
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" in the last line of Helena's speech; and,
SC. III.]
159
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
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.
(c
P. 234. In the King's speech, accepting the services of
Helena, occurs a line of only eight syllables, to which War-
burton added the word "virtue" to complete the measure. It
has been supposed 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 right to do so, especially as the change he recom-
mends is free from the objection to which the suggestion
of Warburton was liable: he also proposes a slight change in
the next line, which appears to be a decided improvement.
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, honour, 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:" "in
prime" was Jackson's conjecture, but he never guessed at the
important word supplied in the preceding line. For that we
are indebted to the old corrector.
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."
The King was to use his power as a sovereign, as well as his
160
[ACT II.
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
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 uses "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 draws back, to show in what way the hero on
the instant indicated his astonishment and reluctance. The
notifications of the kind throughout this play are compara-
tively few, and of little moment.
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 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
Parolles, where he says, according to all old copies of the
play, "You are more saucy with lords and honourable per-
sonages, than the commission 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 condi-
tion: "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 setting right
an indisputable error.
ACT III.] ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
161
SCENE IV.
P. 250. In modern editions (in some without 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 conjectured 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: I have found thee: no more; I have found thee, a
witty fool.
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 itself; but we are, of course, glad to pre-
serve any lost words 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 mis-
printing "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 better cheer;
If thou engrossest 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,-
M
162
[ACT III.
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
"If thou engrossest all the griefs as thine,
Thou robb'st me of a moiety.”
P. 259. A decided corruption is pointed out in one of the
French Envoy's remarks upon Parolles: the words, as com-
monly 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 line had not been committed, the
commentators would have been spared much useless con-
jecture; 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 'hoves him much to leave."
What was unintelligible, without the exercise of peculiar
and misplaced ingenuity, is thus rendered clear and pal-
pable.
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,
"O! 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 distinctly :-
“O! 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.
The mistake of "violent" for volant was almost to be ex-
pected; and the copyist, having misheard the word, wrote
"move" instead of wound. This is an emendation that might
possibly have been made without the assistance of a better
ACT IV.] ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
163
manuscript than that used for the folio in which the error
first appeared. Malone truly states that in the line,-
“ravin
"
"I met the ravin lion when he roar'd,"
means ravening: the old corrector states that
“ravin” was a misprint for ravening.
SCENE IV.
P. 263. In the passage,
"Which of them both
Is dearest to me, I have no skill in sense
To make distinction,"
"skill or sense" seems colloquially 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 folio, 1632, is "let him fetch off his drum," 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 IV. SCENE II.
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 be such a one
As you are now, for you are cold and stern."
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. Bertram 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."
M 2
164
[ACT IV.
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
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
Bertram, 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 Rowe, 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 suffi-
cient to state that Malone adopted hopes from Rowe, and
substituted "in such a scene," for "in such a scarre.' The
corrector of the folio, 1632, 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
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 mis-
printed "ropes," and that suit (often spelt suite of old), had
been misprinted "scarre." With these two errors set right
the meaning of the poet seems ascertained.
P. 281. Diana, having assented to Helena's wish that she
should be her substitute, exclaims, just before Bertram makes
his exit,-
"You have won
((
A wife of me, although my hope be done."
The manuscript-corrector erases done,” and inserts none:
she had gained a wife for Bertram, although her hope in the
transaction was nothing. We may take it for granted, per-
haps, that the original word was none; but here, as in some
SC. III.] ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
165
former cases, it may be thought, on any other account, a
matter of much indifference.
SCENE III.
P. 282. Those who have desired to adhere closely to the
folio, 1623, have sometimes been induced to refuse to correct
even decided 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 in-
tents?" "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, al-
though 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. 285. For "counterfeit module" the old corrector has
not "model," but medal: medals were often counterfeit.
P. 286. After Parolles has offered to take the sacrament,
in order to testify to 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 assign them to Bertram, but Ritson contended that
they rather belonged to Dumain. A manuscript-correction
shows that it was an observation made aside by the person
who pretended to act as Interpreter, the prefix Int. having
been inserted in the margin of the folio, 1632.
166
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL. [ACT IV.
SCENE IV.
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 under-
stand.
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
misprint, and Johnson suggests invites as the proper word ;
but the corrector of the folio, 1632, informs us that "revives"
is an error for reviles: time blamed Helena and her com-
panions 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 wishes 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 specu-
lation.
SCENE V.
P. 295. For "salad-herbs" (which Rowe inserted, the
word being only "herbs" in the folios), we ought, according
to the old corrector, to read pot-herbs, the printer, or scribe,
as in some other cases already pointed out, having blundered,
because two words came together with nearly the same letters
and sound:-"They are not pot-herbs, you knave; they are-
nose-herbs." Lower down, we have properly name for "maine"
of the old impressions.
P. 296. The Countess, describing the Clown, says that
"he has no pace, but runs where he will." A letter has
ACT V.] ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
167
merely been omitted, as we learn from a manuscript-correc-
tion, and we ought to read place for "pace," the Countess
meaning that the Clown had no fixed duties, although al-
lowed the run of the house. This slight change, which
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 I.
P. 298. Steevens originally fancied that "Astringer" was
an error of the press for a stranger; but he afterwards in-
troduced 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, although
she had seen him at court. We may feel confident that it
was a mistake, first made in the folio, 1623, and that this
gentleman, a stranger, had no necessary connexion with
falconry. In confirmation 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 II.
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.
SCENE III.
P. 302. The alteration of blaze for "blade" in the line,-
"Natural rebellion, done in the blade of youth,"
of the old copies, is confirmed by a manuscript marginal
168
[ACT V.
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
note in the folio, 1632. Theobald was the first to substitute
blaze.
P. 304. In the King's speech, beginning "Well excus'd,"
the epithet "sour," before "offence," is altered to sore, per-
haps fitly, 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, O, dear heaven bless!
Or, ere they meet, in me, O nature, cease,'
to the Countess instead of the King, to whom they are cer-
tainly wrongly 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 in the old impressions,-
“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.
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 him for this. I'll none
of him."
SC. III.]
169
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
The old corrector of that edition merely alters the stops
(setting right the mis-spelling of the word "fair"), and
renders the sentence 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 purchase, 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 ob-
tained 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 here-
after,-
“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 this excellent
emendation. See Athenæum, 17 April, 1852.
P. 310. The word "have" is struck out in the following
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."
170
ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.
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,
exclaims, "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 heading),
that it was spoken by the King; but it is so stated in
manuscript by the corrector of the folio, 1632, Epilogue by
the King.
TWELFTH NIGHT
OR,
WHAT YOU WILL.
ACT I. SCENE I.
P. 325. From the manuscript stage-direction in the cor-
rected folio, 1632, inserted before the Duke speaks,-Music
behind-we may infer that the comedy opened by the per-
formance 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,
"O! 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, in future exploded from the
text of Shakespeare.
SCENE III.
P. 332. The old copies, when Maria is going, make Sir
Toby say, "An thou let part so, sir Andrew," omitting a
172
[ACT I.
TWELFTH NIGHT; OR,
pronoun which seems necessary, and which is supplied by
the manuscript-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 by
nature." The old corrector of the folio, 1632, alters "cool"
to curl, and "my" to by, as might be expected.
P. 335. Pope was wrong in his change respecting "flame-
colour'd stock:" the old editions have it "dam'd colour'd
stock," which the manuscript-corrector informs us ought to
be "dun-colour'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-direc-
tion 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 pos-
sibly derived, in part, from the practice of the old actor of the
character of sir Andrew.
SCENE IV.
P. 337. The Duke having directed Viola to make love on
his behalf to Olivia, the latter replies,-
"I'll do my best
To woo your lady,"
and then adds, aside,-
"Yet, a barful strife;
Whoe'er I woo, myself would be his wife."
The force of the last passage is much augmented by making
the first hemistich an exclamation,-
"Yet, O barful strife!"
ACT II.]
173
WHAT YOU WILL.
which is the judicious reading afforded by the corrector of the
folio, 1632.
SCENE V.
P. 340. To be is clearly wanting before "no better than the
fools' zanies" in Malvolio's speech: those words are found in
manuscript in the margin of the folio, 1632. On the next
page that seems fitly inserted before "has a most weak pia
mater," which ends what the Clown says.
P. 342. It is clear that the following ought to be in the
alternative; Malvolio speaks: "He says he'll stand at your
door like a sheriff's post, and be the supporter of a bench,
but he'll speak to you." Viola could hardly suppose herself
a sheriff's post," and "the supporter of a bench" at the same
time; therefore the manuscript-correction is "or be the sup-
porter of a bench." Such emendations are minute, but they
are generally important, as far as the sense of the poet is
concerned; and, at all events, they show the attention the
corrector paid even to what might be considered trifles, did
they relate to any other author than Shakespeare.
P. 345. The expression, "Such a one I was this present,
has excited much comment, editors not exactly knowing what
to make of it. The manuscript-corrector says that we ought
to read, "Such a one I am at this present," which, bearing in
mind that Olivia unveils at the instant, is reasonable; but,
nevertheless, the old reading might possibly stand.
ACT II. SCENE I.
P. 349. It is not easy to determine with whom the re-
sponsibility rests of the strange, but decided, blunder here
pointed out by the corrector of the folio, 1632. Sebastian is
speaking of his reputed likeness to his sister:-
"A lady, sir, though it was said she much resembled me, was yet
of many accounted beautiful: but, though I could not with such estimable
wonder overfar believe that, yet thus far I will boldly publish her," &c.
It is not surprising that the commentators should have
been at strife regarding the meaning of this passage; and
Warburton was so gravelled by it, that he felt obliged to omit
174
[ACT II.
TWELFTH NIGHT; OR,
the words, "with such estimable wonder," as "a player's in-
terpolation." This is a very ready way of overcoming any
obstacle. It certainly is difficult to account for the gross
misprints in the above short sentence; but they are most
distinctly pointed out by the corrector of the folio, 1632, in
his own clear and accurate, but peculiar 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.
Sebastian modestly denies that he much resembled his beau-
tiful lost sister, observing,-
"A lady, sir, though it was said she much resembled me, was yet of
many accounted beautiful; but, though I could not with self-estimation
wander so far to believe that, yet thus far I will boldly publish her," &c.
May we conclude, that this new and self-evident improve-
ment of the absurd old reading was derived from some
original source, perhaps from some better manuscript than
that employed by the old printer of the folio, 1623, which
was exactly followed in the folio, 1632? Such an emenda-
tion could hardly be the result of mere guess-work.
P. 351. The ambiguity, to say the least of it, belonging to
Viola's words, "She took the ring of me," is entirely avoided
by reading, "She took no ring of me;" and this, no doubt,
was the language of the poet. The corrector of the folio,
1632, strikes out "the" in the body of the text, and places
no in the margin. This alteration renders what the heroine
afterwards says quite consistent, "I left no ring with her,"
and "Why, he sent her none."
SCENE III.
P. 353. We meet with a welcome addition to the text
where it cannot be doubted that something is wanting.
One of the speeches of Sir Andrew has hitherto only ter-
minated with a hyphen, showing that even the conclusion of
a word has been carelessly omitted in the old copies: in
modern editions the hyphen has been elongated, as if the
knight had been interrupted by the Clown, and not allowed
to finish his sentence. In the first and other folios, this part
of the dialogue stands exactly as follows:-
"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.]
175
WHAT YOU WILL.
The elongation of the hyphen in modern editions, has made
Sir Andrew's speech of course appear thus, but it is a mis-
representation 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, 1632? It will be seen that the continuation of the
sentence, thus cut short by a hyphen in the early impres-
sions, completes the word, of which the two syllables had
been separated: we give the speech, to the minutest par-
ticular, 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 sixe
pence so will I give an other: go to, a song."
The first line ends with a-, and the next begins with way:
unless, therefore, the corrector of the folio, 1632, invented this
termination of an unfinished sentence, he must have obtained
it from some accurate and authentic source. In this instance,
we apprehend that the manuscript used by the old printer
was not defective, but that a line, consisting of what is above
inserted in Italics, was accidentally left out by the compositor
of the folio, 1623, owing to the termination of both speeches
with the word "song," 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:
“O, mistress mine! where are you roaming?
O! stay, for here your true love's coming," &c.
The ordinary words are "O! stay and hear," &c.
The stage-directions regarding the singing of the scraps of
ballads, catches, &c., in this scene, are numerous and pre-
cise: but there is one manuscript note opposite the line of
the ballad,-
"O! the twelfth day of December,"
which is not easily understood: it merely consists of "17
176
[ACT II.
TWELFTH NIGHT; OR,
Nov." 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 have been originally introduced in
her honour, which might be altered to some other, beginning,
"O! the twelfth day of December," 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.
tr
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: "I give thee now leave to leave me.”
Thee and me got transposed, and I was omitted.
SCENE V.
P. 367. In Malvolio's speech beginning, "And then to
have the humour of state," we meet with the common mis-
print of "humour" for honour. There can be little doubt
that the corrector 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 consequence 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 silence be drawn from us with
cars, yet peace!" The folio, 1632, prints "cars" cares, and
many proposals have been made to alter "cars" to cables,
carts, &c.; but "with cars" turns out to be an error of the
press for by th' ears, or by the ears, and the meaning is per-
ACT III.]
177
WHAT YOU WILL.
fectly clear when we read, "Though our silence be drawn
from us by th' ears, yet peace!"
This scene is very carelessly printed in the old copies, and
subsequently we have "stallion" for stannyel (the corrector
of the folio, 1632, gives the word falcon, which means nearly
the same thing), "become" for born, &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. It turns out, as we might expect, that "the
gates of Tartar" is to be read "the gates of Tartarus."
ACT III. SCENE I.
P. 374. Viola, disserting upon the qualifications of a pro-
fessed jester, remarks:-
·
"He must observe 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 indis-
criminately; and what Viola is therefore made to say is the
very 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," we may suppose as the poet's original lan-
guage. Again, afterwards, for "maugre all thy pride" he
reads "maugre all my pride," Olivia referring to her own
pride, and not to that of Viola.
SCENE III.
P. 382. The folio, 1632, omits two lines, contained in the
folio, 1623, from which it was printed, and they are written
N
ز
178
[ACT III.
TWELFTH NIGHT; OR,
in the margin by the corrector of the later of these impres-
sions, but not in the defective terms in which they are found
in the earlier in 1623 they were thus given:-
"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 re-
marked that "still thanks" is interlined, in the same hand-
writing, but in different ink. In the next line "worth" is
converted into wealth.
SCENE IV.
P. 384. The manuscript stage-directions in this scene are
remarkable for the minute manner in which they describe
the conduct of Viola and Sir Andrew, while Sir Toby and
Fabian are inciting them to a desperate encounter. When
Sir Andrew enters we are told that he hangs back; and of
Viola it is said that she is unwilling; while they afterwards,
at the instance of Sir Toby and Fabian, both draw, but in-
stead of advancing, go back. It would not be easy to act
such a scene without these or other similar instructions,
which are not in the old printed copies.
P. 387. For "let me enjoy my private," which has been
the common text, the old corrector alters the sentence thus
plausibly, "Let me enjoy my privacy:" either is intelligible,
but the use of "private" as a substantive is, to say the least
of it, unusual.
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
disappointment 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,-
ACT IV.]
179
WHAT YOU WILL.
"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 appli-
cable to persons 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 allowed that "venerable," in a certain
sense, answers the author's purpose, though his own word
must have been veritable.
ACT IV. SCENE I.
P. 398. For the Clown's declaration, "I am afraid this great
lubber, the world, will prove a cockney," the manuscript-
corrector has "lubberly world.”
SCENE II.
P. 405. An alteration in the margin of the corrected folio,
1632, proves that Farmer and Steevens were right in sup-
posing 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.
P. 406. The line which stands thus in the old copies,-
"Take and give back affairs and their dispatch,"
is amended in the following manner:-
"Take and give back, and thus dispatch affairs;"
by which the meaning is cleared, and a corruption probably
removed.
N 2
180
[ACT V.
TWELFTH NIGHT; OR,
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
triplet," the allusion apparently being to the triplet, or triple
mode of rhyming in poetry.
R. 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,”
دو
instead of "A contract and eternal bond of love," which
may be 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 true 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 in-
dicate, no doubt, the surprise which ought to be expressed
by the performers at the evident and remarkable similarity
between 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 d, and inserting t in the margin: nature was
true to her bias, although Olivia had been mistaken in sup-
posing herself contracted to Viola. The old reading may,
however, be defended.
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."
SC. I.]
181
WHAT YOU WILL.
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
representing himself as in the same condition with Malvolio.
Malone persuaded himself (but probably few others) that
extracting" was Shakespeare's word, 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, obe-
dience to which must have been intended to produce a
ludicrous effect upon the audience: Enter Malvolio, 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 lines, 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
passage 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 pre-impos'd
Upon thee in the letter."
Both emendations seem required: thou was easily mis-
printed "then," and "presuppos'd upon thee" is little better
than nonsense. Jackson suggested the correction of " then "
to thou.
182
TWELFTH NIGHT; OR, WHAT YOU WILL.
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 con-
founded with "fool." Lower in the page, the Clown repeats
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 occasions with these accessories. The
fourth stanza of his "song" is thus altered by the manu-
script-corrector:—
"But when I came unto my bed,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
With toss-pots still I had drunken head,
For the rain it raineth every day."
Modern editors have rightly put "bed" and "head" in the
singular, instead of the plural as in the old impressions; but
the insertion of the pronoun in the third line 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 WINTER'S TALE.
ACT I. SCENE I.
P. 430. The word so seems to have been accidentally
omitted, where Camillo is speaking of the friendly inter-
course kept up between Leontes and Polixenes, while at a
distance in their separate dominions: he says: "Their en-
counters, though not personal, have been so royally attor-
ney'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 singular
in that edition.
SCENE II.
P. 431. The subsequent passage in the speech of Polixenes
has 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 unquestionably to be to the putting forth
of buds or blooms in spring, when they may be cut off by
"sneaping," or nipping winds; and the alteration of "truly"
to early, as we find it in the corrected folio, 1632, seems to
remove great part of the difficulty; there is also an emenda-
tion at the commencement of the quotation, which renders
the whole intelligible; we there read as follows:-
184
[ACT I.
THE WINTER'S TALE.
"May there blow
No sneaping winds at home, to make us say,
This is put forth too early.'"
At all events, the above is not "nonsense," which Warburton
calls the original, as first printed in the folio, 1623. Some-
thing, once written, has also been erased, and is not legible.
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 Po-
lixenes to stay: he afterwards comes forward and rejoins
them.
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 cor-
rected in the folio in Lord Ellesmere'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?"
The 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 pur-
pose:
"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." Her-
mione is reverting to the good her husband had admitted she
SC. II.]
185
THE WINTER'S TALE.
had twice done, and calls upon him to name her first good
deed as well as her last. "But to the good," is as much as
to say, "But come to the two good deeds which you admit I
have done."
P. 436. Malone was well warranted by the old corrector in
supposing, that in the following line we ought to substitute
"bounty's 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 where 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 were they 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 were they false
As our dead blacks, as wind, as waters."
"Our dead blacks," were blacks worn for the deaths of
persons whose loss was not at all lamented. This emenda-
tion may have been derived from a better manuscript, or,
perhaps, from a better recitation; but, nevertheless, the ob-
scure conclusion of this speech, from "Affection? thy inten-
tion," &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 "his
medal," is set at rest by the assurance of the old corrector
186
[ACT II.
THE WINTER'S TALE.
that neither is right, but that "a medal" was the poet's
language. Camillo's next speech begins "Sure, my lord," and
not “Sir, my lord,” as invariably, but erroneously printed.
P. 448. It may be enough to mention that the punctuation
of the passage, beginning, "As you are certainly a gentle-
man," &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 say-
ing, "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
comfort the queen? 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 so 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 Polixenes 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
misprint:-
"There may be in the cup
A spider steep'd, and one may drink, depart,
And yet partake no venom."
SC. II.]
187
THE WINTER'S TALE.
The emendation in the folio, 1632, is,—
"and one may drink a part,
And yet partake no venom;"
i. e. drink a part of the contents of the cup, and yet take no
portion of the venom supposed to be communicated by the
spider.
tr
P. 456. The conjecture in note 7 respecting the word
stables," in the ensuing observation by Antigonus, is in
some degree confirmed 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 sub-
stitute me for "my ;" and the meaning then is, that Anti-
gonus would keep himself stable where 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: I'll go in couples with her."
He would never allow her to be out of his sight: he would
keep his stabulum, 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 lamback, a word of not
unfrequent occurrence; but the corrector of the folio, 1632,
erases "land-damn" in the text, and places lamback in the
margin. At all events, this fact will put an end to the con-
jectures respecting lant, by Sir T. Hanmer, and laudanum,
by Steevens. Johnson was well founded in thinking the
word, for which "land-damn" was intended, one of those
which caprice brought into fashion; but, besides the authori-
ties mentioned in note 8, lamback is used by Gabriel Harvey
in "Pierce's Supererrogation," 1593, p. 131.
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 "un-
safe." By "lunes," Shakespeare means fits of distraction,
and when the old corrector directs us to read, instead of
"unsafe," unsane,—
188
[ACT III.
THE WINTER'S TALE.
"These dangerous unsane lunes i' the King, beshrew them,".
we must at once admit the value of the emendation.
SCENE III.
:
P. 462. The manuscript stage-directions in this scene,
clearly required for the government of the actors, are fre-
quent and explanatory. Paulina first enters at the back of
the stage, with the babe, and after a struggle with the at-
tendants, lays it down before Leontes. When she is forced
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 sword to swear Antigonus upon it, who takes
up the infant, and departs with it. None of these needful
instructions are found in the old printed copies, and they
show the precise manner in which the business was con-
ducted 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 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 prepa-
ration for the trial of Hermione. If it were not acted, the
interval between the second and third acts must have been
proportionally extended.
SCENE II.
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.
SC. II.]
189
THE WINTER'S TALE.
She is alluding to the visit of Polixenes, out of which, by
some "uncurrent encounter," or unjustifiable meeting, the
present accusation had grown. The difficulty has chiefly
arisen out of the word "strain'd," for which the corrector
writes stray'd; and it seems to clear away much of the
difficulty. 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 jus-
tify her appearance before the court :—
"Since he came,
With what encounter so uncurrent I
Have stray'd t' 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 falls
back in his seat, and Paulina begins to repent the cruel re-
capitulation she has previously made of the consequences of
the King's conduct to his dead wife, son, &c. As this part
of the 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 affliction
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
petition?" It is merely an error of the press, or of the
copyist. Paulina 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.
190
[ACT IV.
THE WINTER'S TALE.
SCENE III.
P. 481. Antigonus, in the relation of his dream, in which
he imagined he saw the weeping Hermione, says,—
"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 natural 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 reading appears to be :-
"I never saw a vessel of like sorrow,
So fill'd, and so o'er-running.”
The sorrow with which Hermione was so filled, was o'er-
running at her eyes. Lower down on the same page an-
other error occurs 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" is, 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, unless we suppose Hermione to mean
"Leave the infant crying, while you cannot refrain from tears
yourself."
ACT IV. SCENE I.
P. 487. In ancient and modern editions, Camillo informs
Polixenes that he has "missingly noted" the absence of his
son Florizel from court; the corrector of the folio, 1632,
marks “missingly," as an error, and inserts musingly instead
of it—a somewhat questionable change.
SCENE II.
P. 488. The manuscript-corrector notes, with great par-
ticularity, that the fragments of ballads, with which Auto-
sc. III.]
191
THE WINTER'S TALE.
e
lycus commences this scene, were sung by him to three several
tunes, putting "1 Tune," "2 Tune," and "3 Tune," against
each of them. The three stanzas beginning,-
"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 pro-
bably to understand, that it was left to the comic performer
to decide whether he would not amuse the audience by other
snatches. 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, although it is to be doubted.
P. 490. All the necessary (some, perhaps, more than are
absolutely necessary) stage-directions are provided in the
margin: for instance, we are told that Autolycus, 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 Autolycus at the close of this scene. It is where, ac-
cording 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 en-
rolled, as is clear from what follows: he wishes his name to
be enrolled in the book of virtue, if he did not make one
fraud produce another.
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.,
192
[ACT IV.
THE WINTER'S TALE.
the manuscript-corrector has
"Sure, my gracious lord,
To chide at your extremes it not becomes me.
The change is at least plausible, and the same error has been
pointed out in Act I. Scene II. The other mistake is near
the close of the speech in which Perdita contrasts her own
gay apparel with the "swain's wearing,” in which the Prince
was 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 think,
To show myself a glass."
""
In what way was Florizel "sworn to show Perdita a glass?
Besides the line wants a syllable, which is supplied by the
correction in the margin of the folio, 1632, 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. The alteration of "sworn" to so
worn was one of those pointed out by Jackson.
P. 494. Ritson was right in recommending that, "Nor in
a way so chaste," should be printed, "Nor any way 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, girl," 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.”
The proposed alteration is by no means necessary, but it
makes the observation more natural:
66
Nothing she does, or says," &c.
Formerly says was often written saies, which may in some
SC. III.]
193
THE WINTER'S TALE.
degree 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 out, and missed the correc-
tion 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 cor-
rected in the folio, 1632, "look on't" being addressed em-
phatically to Polixenes, to direct his attention to the blush of
Perdita, thus poetically described as the waking of her blood.
P. 499. The old word jape, a jest (generally used in an in-
delicate sense), according to the corrector of the folio, 1632,
has been misprinted "gap" in the following part of the Clown's
speech regarding the licence 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. The previous emendation, of breeding
for "feeding," is perhaps more questionable.
Some controversy has arisen respecting the words, "un-
braided wares" (p. 500), where the Clown, just below, asks
whether Autolycus has any such to sell. Johnson, Steevens,
Tollet, Malone, Mason, and Boswell, have each endeavoured to
explain what turns out to be a mere misprint for "embroided
wares," as embroidered commodities were then frequently
spelt this point has, therefore, been set at rest by the cor-
rected folio. "Sleeve-hand," in the servant's next speech,
ought on the same authority to be "sleeve-band."
P. 501. For "whistle off those secrets," the folio, 1632, as
corrected, has, perhaps needlessly, "whisper off those secrets."
In the same speech, "Clamour your tongues," ought indis-
putably to be "Charm your tongues," as Grey originally
suggested, and as Gifford (Ben Jonson, iv. 405) maintained.
In fact, the expression, "Charm your tongue," is very com-
mon, especially in Shakespeare.
P. 506. Florizel, making his protestation of love before his
194
[ACT IV.
THE WINTER'S TALE.
disguised father and Camillo, exclaims, as all editions es-
tablish,-
"Were I the fairest youth
That ever made eye swerve; had force and knowledge,
More than was ever man's," &c.
For "force and knowledge," the corrector of the folio, 1632,
writes "sense and knowledge;" and the error of the press (if
any) is again to be imputed to the compositor's confusion
between the long s and f.
P. 507. We can hardly doubt that another misprint is
pointed out, 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
his 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, and
supported by example, but "dispose his own estate" seems a
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 com-
plete: 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 "-
Such is the mode in which the quotation has been hitherto
given; but the slightest possible change, urged by the cor-
rector of the folio, 1632, is thus made with the best possible
effect:-
"We are not furnish'd as Bohemia's son,
Nor shall appear't in Sicily."
i.e. nor shall appear as Bohemia's son in Sicily. There is an
unquestionable error in the answer of Camillo, which is of
more importance: he assures Florizel that he will take care
to furnish him like Bohemia's son, and adds,-
ACT V.]
195
THE WINTER'S TALE.
"It shall be so my care
To have 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 word of the poet, although
we may not be able well to account for the blunder thus
exposed: -
"It shall be so my care
To have you royally appointed, as if
The scene you play were true :”
as if he were really the ambassador from his father, which he
pretended to be: "if" is surplusage, but it is not erased in
the folio, 1632.
P. 522. After the departure of the old Shepherd and his
son, Autolycus is left to soliloquize, and, among other reflec-
tions, 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
advancement?" What is "to turn back to his advance-
ment?" The corrector of the folio, 1632, may be said to
answer the question by pointing out its needlessness, if we
only read what was actually written,-" which, who knows
how that may turn luck to my advancement." Autolycus
hopes that the "double occasion" by which he was "courted,"
would turn luck in his favour.
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." He was evidently a
retainer in the Court of Leontes, and the manuscript-
corrector has added poet to his description of servant, Enter
a Servant-poet, in order, probably, to distinguish him from
0 2
196
[ACT V.
THE WINTER'S TALE.
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. 14), and pro-
bably from the same cause.
SCENE II.
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 seems absolutely necessary to the intel-
ligibility of the plot. The corrections of the text are con-
tinued notwithstanding with the same patience and per-
spicuity. Thus, on p. 533, we have "weather-beaten con-
duit," 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 Autolycus and the others, in reference to the
death of Hermione, that Leontes "bravely confessed and
lamented" it, instead of "heavily 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 Shepherd and Clown enter, towards
the close of the scene, an addition is made to the stage-
direction, to inform us that they are in new apparel.
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,
SC. III.]
197
THE WINTER'S TALE.
here occurs. Warburton saw that something was wanting,
but in note 3 it is suggested that Leontes in his ecstasy
might have left his sentence unfinished: such does not
appear to have been the case. The passage has hitherto
been printed as follows:-
"Let be, let be!
Would I were dead, but that, methinks, 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
manuscript stage-direction, and the writer of it, in a vacant
space adjoining, 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
manuscript for the printer's use, it might have been urged,
that, supposing our great dramatist to have written here no
more elliptically than in many other places, his sense might
be complete at "already:" "Would I were dead!" exclaims
Leontes, "but that, methinks, I am 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 is striking and beautiful in itself, and adds much to
the force and clearness of the speech of Leontes.
P. 541. When Hermione descends from the pedestal, and
advances towards her husband, a manuscript stage-direction
informs us that she comes down slowly, 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 re-
quisite for the information of the performers; but that de-
ficiency is abundantly supplied by the old corrector of the
folio, 1632, who has taken great pains that nothing should
go wrong during the representation. When Paulina first
draws the curtain from before the supposed statue of the
198
THE WINTER'S TALE.
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 wished 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 husband 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 corrector of the folio, 1632, without the slightest detri-
ment 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 tolerably certain that the expletives, "by the,"
obtained insertion without the participation of the pen of the
author.
:
KING 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 intention to come. The reading has always
been:-
"Be thou the trumpet of our wrath,
And sullen presage of your own decay."
In the first place, the sound of a trumpet could not, with any
fitness, 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 printer 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, according to the
statement of the emendator, to be an error in punctuation in
this part of the Bastard's soliloquy, as given in modern edi-
tions :—
200
[ACT II.
KING JOHN.
"For new-made honour doth forget men's names:
'Tis too respective, and too sociable,
For your conversion. Now your traveller,
He and his tooth-pick at my worship's mess," &c.
The corrector of the folio, 1632, informs 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 may be what the Bastard is referring to in
the last two lines, while the sense of the first two is com-
pleted at " sociable." We are, nevertheless, disposed to adhere
to the old reading.
tr
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.”
This 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 have 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 acknow-
ledgments to Austria :-
SC, I.]
201
KING JOHN.
"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 say, judging from a correction in the folio,
1632, was, that he bade Austria welcome with a heart full of
love, which, in spite of any previous provocation, spontane-
ously flowed from it:-
"But with a heart full of unstrained love."
P. 19. We may presume that the change made in the sub-
sequent 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; and elsewhere in his works, though we
meet with "indiscreet," he does not use the adverb.
P. 20. The old corrector does not read, with modern
editors,-
"An Até stirring him to blood and strife;"
but instead of " An Ace," of all the folios, he has,-
"With him along is come the mother-queen,
As Até, stirring him to blood and strife.”
P. 23. In the following line there are, according to the or-
dinary 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,
Infortunate in nothing but in thee."
The above may be as the poet wrote the passage, "this is"
being detrimental, as well as unnecessary.
202
[ACT II.
KING JOHN.
P. 25. In 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 not impugned by any old au-
thority, that "comfort" was here used ironically: Rowe did
not think so, when he printed confront; but the corrector of
the folio, 1632, with less violence, but at the same time with
less spirit, has,-
"Come 'fore your city's eyes," &c.
P. 30. The line, as it stands in all the folios,-
"You equal potents, fiery kindled spirits,'
has been hitherto misprinted, and the following mode of
giving it, not only avoids a difficulty, but introduces a new
and energetic compound :-
“You equal potent, fire-ykindled spirits.”
P. 33. We here meet with the converse of the misprint in
"The Two Gentlemen of Verona" (Act IV. Scene I.), niece,
for "neere." The Citizen, from the walls, recommends a
marriage between the Dauphin and the lady Blanch, ob-
serving,―
"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 afterwards called, and the manuscript-corrector
of the folio, 1632, tells us 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 ;"
ACT III.]
203
KING JOHN.
but the old corrector inserts it, thus making the line tally
with the folio, 1623.
P. 38. Mason desired us to read aim for "aid," in this line,
as given in the folios,-
"Hath drawn him from his own determin'd aid.”
He was right, as appears by a correction in the folio, 1632,
but still the necessity for the change is not very evident.
Lower down,
"Not that I have the power to clutch 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, which was most likely the author's word, the scribe
having misheard what was read or recited to him.
"Un-
sightly" occurs in this sense in Beaumont and Fletcher, as
well as in other authors, earlier and later.
P. 42. Mishearing has produced the next blunder pointed
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?
What propriety is there in it, unless we can suppose it used
to indicate hollowness and falsehood? The correction in the
margin of the folio, 1632, shows that the ear of the scribe pro-
bably misled him: Constance is referring to the friendship just
established between France and England, to the ruin of her
hopes, and remarks :—
"The grappling vigour, and rough frown of war,
Is cold in amity, and faint in peace,
And our oppression hath made up this league."
204
[АСТ III.
KING JOHN.
The "grappling vigour" of war was faint in the peace just
concluded.
P. 44. The word "heaven" is repeated with great ad-
ditional 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,
Where we do reign, we will alone uphold."
For heaven, the invariable reading has been "him." Never-
theless, 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 expedient.
P. 48. The error of "cased," for caged, in the following,—
"A cased lion by the mortal paw,”
is so evident, as pointed out by the old corrector, that it is
surprising the emendation was never conjecturally adopted;
especially 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.
For "not amiss" in the following, it is evident that we
ought to read "but amiss," "not" for but, and vice versa, being
one of the commonest errors:
"For that which thou hast sworn to do amiss
Is but amiss, when it is truly done."
SCENE II.
P. 51. Precisely the same remark as above made upon a
"cased lion," grows out of a passage cited by Percy, in refer-
ence 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 ayery in the folio, 1632, and the corrector
of that edition has changed the word to fyery, which, we may
SC. III.]
205
KING JOHN.
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."
The day grew "wondrous hot," because "some fiery devil,"
not "airy devil," "hovered in the sky:" an "airy devil"
would not necessarily make the day hot. Percy quotes Bur-
ton's "Anatomy of Melancholy," where, among other things,
it is said, "Fiery spirits, or devils, are such as commonly work
by blazing stars," &c.
SCENE III.
P. 52. In the subsequent passage their, which seems re-
quired 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 with-
out the slightest 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
tune,” 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 drowsy 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 mistake.
""
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.
206
[ACT III.
KING JOHN.
SCENE IV.
P. 55. The same editor was nearly right when he proposed
"collected sail" for "convicted sail" in what follows:
"A whole armado of convicted sail
Is scattered, and disjoin'd from fellowship."
The true word, given in the margin of the folio, 1632, has
the 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 meaning 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,
"Which 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 corrected folio, 1632, leads us to suppose that we ought
to substitute for it a word exactly applicable to the condi-
tion of Constance:
"Which cannot hear a lady's feeble voice,
Which scorns a widow's invocation."
When we bear in mind that m and w were often mistaken by
the old compositor in this volume, the misprint will not be
thought so extraordinary. Those who would recommend
mother's instead of widow's, seem to forget that mother was
not spelt with a d-moder-in English. Four lines above,
the corrector reads,—
"Then with what passion I would shake the world;"
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 art not holy," a
change made in the fourth folio, and never disputed. This
ACT IV.]
207
KING JOHN.
part of the scene was badly printed in 1623, and not made
better in 1632. Among other blunders, we may particularize
'scope of nature" for "scape of nature" on p. 60, which last
is evidently right.
(C
ACT IV. SCENE I.
P. 61. The manuscript stage-directions in this play are not
so 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 Executioners are omitted in the printed
copies, but are duly supplied by the old corrector, and when
the heated iron is to be brought to Hubert the proper place
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, princi-
pally founded upon apprehensions arising out of his de-
fective title: at length he tells them, as the folio, 1623,
represents his language:-
"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 "then
lesser is my fear," which the folio, 1632, prints, "then less
is my fear." Theobald dropped a letter, and read, in paren-
theses ("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 corona-
tion, which was to confirm him on the throne. The manu-
script-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:
208
[ACT IV.
KING JOHN.
"And more, more strong, thus lessening my fear,
I shall indue you with."
The strength of his reasons had lessened his own fear, and he
imagined 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 mean-
ing apparent.
Lower in the same page, the words "then" and "should"
seem injuriously 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, then 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." For "break
within," earlier in the page, the more ordinary expression of
"break into" is substituted.
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 un-
doubtedly, as we are instructed in manuscript, to be sign,
formerly spelt signe:
"But thou didst understand me by my 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 (as on p. 56) mis-
taken by the old printer. Pembroke asks,-
"Who brought that letter from the cardinal?"
and Salisbury's answer relates to a private communication
SC. III.]
209
KING JOHN.
1
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."
The notes upon this passage have all referred to the word
"private," when the blunder lies in "with me:"
"Whose private missive 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, which
we hold to be indisputable, implies resort to some original,
such as that which the printer of the folio, 1623, had mis-
read.
Just afterwards, on the next page, the old corrector points.
out, as we consider it, an egregious error, which ought not to
have escaped detection, even without such aid: it occurs in
Salisbury's reply to the Bastard :—
"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-bestained cloak :"
a fine compound, the use of which is amply justified by the
crimes of which the revolted lords consider John guilty. So
careless was the compositor that he printed "cloak" clake,
and we should hardly be surprised if it found defenders, par-
tial as are some persons to ancient corruptions.
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 Salis-
bury vows never to be "conversant with ease and idleness,”
until he has revenged the death of Arthur,-
"Till I have set a glory to this hand
By giving it the worship of revenge."
Р
210
[ACT V.
KING JOHN.
A manuscript-correction in the folio, 1632, shows, as Farmer
supposed, and as Malone opposed, that the true language of
Shakespeare was,—
"Till I have set a glory to this head,"
meaning the head of Arthur, whose dead body had just been
discovered on the ground. Surely, few people would talk of
setting a glory to a “hand.”
ACT V. SCENE I.
P. 83. The preceding emendations may be thought to jus-
tify two others on this page, which occur close together, and
which, though improvements of the usual reading, are not
forced upon our adoption by any thing like necessity. The
Bastard is endeavouring to cheer the spirits of the dis-
heartened 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 blank, 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,-
66
Forage, and run
To meet displeasure further from the doors;"
which ought, on the same credible authority, to be, "Cou-
rage! and run to meet displeasure," &c. There is, then, no
necessity for hunting after what Johnson calls, “the original
sense" of "forage." On the next page, for "Send fair-play
order," we ought, probably, to read, "Send fair-play offers,"
the last word being written 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
parenthesis:-
SC. IV.]
211
KING JOHN.
"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, in-
forms us that "spot" was misheard for a word sounding
something like it :-
“I must withdraw, and weep
Upon the thought of this enforced cause."
That is, the reflection upon the cause, which compelled him
to bear arms against his country, drew tears.
P. 89. The manuscript-corrector gives no countenance to
Theobald'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 of 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 territories; 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 address-
ing the French, and charging them with having 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
P 2
212
[ACT V.
KING JOHN.
the dying Melun advises Salisbury and Pembroke to return
to their duty to their Sovereign, and to
“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 untread, and "eye" to way; but he missed
the emendation of another word, which, with the others, is
thus altered by the corrector of the folio, 1632:-
"Untread the road-way of rebellion,"
i. e. return by the road you took when you rebelled against
King John. In confirmation, we may notice, that, very soon
afterwards, Salisbury himself repeats nearly the same terms:-
"We will untread the steps of damned flight."
To misprint untread the road-way, "unthread the rude eye,'
seems an excess of carelessness, which we cannot in any way
explain. The fault of introducing, as it were, a sempstress'-
simile must, probably, 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 fight: bright appears, from the old cor-
rector's insertion of the necessary letter in the margin, to be
the word, in reference 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 tott'red colours closely up."
Tattered was then usually spelt "tottered," and he preferred
the passive to the active participle, though we may doubt if
SC. VII.] *
213
KING JOHN.
Shakespeare exercised any such discretion. Neither are we
prepared to say that we like closely 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
setting right this obvious blunder, the old corrector remedies
another defect of greater importance. It has been suggested
by different annotators that "invisible" ought to be in-
sensible, invincible, &c.: there is no doubt that "invisible
is wrong, and the corrector converts it into unvisited, which
may, we think, be adopted without hesitation-death, after
having visited it, 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.”
There are no fewer than four other gross typographical
mistakes in this short speech of Prince Henry, as it is con-
tained in the folio, 1632.
P. 98. It appears that the practice of the theatre in the
time of the corrector of the folio, 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 margin, just after the Bastard has concluded his
statement of the loss of "the best part of his power" in the
washes of Licolnshire. This accords with the modern repre-
sentation of the fact.
KING RICHARD 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 in
all editions 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 happy 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 cor-
rector 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. Lower down,
"reins and spurs" 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 asserting that the King was in debt to
him-
KING RICHARD II.
215
"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. "Dear"
and clear were most easily confounded.
P. 117. It is worth notice that the words "Obedience
bids," surplusage in all copies, are struck through in the folio,
1632. They have been generally rejected.
SCENE II.
P. 121. We may feel assured, contrary to what is said in
note 4, that the word "farewell" was repeated in the follow-
ing line, and we find it in manuscript in the margin of the -
folio, 1632, though not in any extant printed copy of the
play :-
(C
Why then, I will. Farewell, farewell, 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 de-
fence," instead of " and defence."
c
P. 122. The repetition of the word "desolate," in the
subsequent 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 forcibly:-
"Desolate, desperate, will I hence and die.”
She was "desolate" because a helpless widow, and desperate
because she could not move Gaunt to revenge the death of
her husband.
SCENE III.
P. 125. It deserves remark that, whereas in the line,-
"And furbish new the name of John of Gaunt,"
216
[ACT II.
KING RICHARD 11.
the folios have "furnish new;" the manuscript-corrector re-
stores the older and better reading of the earlier quarto im-
pressions. A few lines farther on, the second folio has
captain for "captive," which did not pass unnoticed. On
p. 133, "grew" of the folios is altered to blew as in the quartos,
and Aumerle's answer to Richard begins "Farewell: and for
my heart disdain'd my tongue." On p. 135, Richard's in-
quiry is, "Where lies he now?" and Bushy's reply, "At Ely-
house, my liege," which finishes the line.
ACT II. SCENE I.
P. 135. The simplicity of our early stage seldom allowing
changes of scene, various contrivances were resorted to in
order to render them needless, but at the same time to pre-
serve sufficient verisimilitude. Gaunt was here to be repre-
sented ill in bed, and the printed stage-direction is only,
Enter Gaunt sick, with York, and modern editors have repre-
sented 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 that place), the words, added in manuscript, are
Drawn 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 corrector 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 a restoration.
SC. II.]
217
KING RICHARD II.
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."
Here"'Gainst us, our lives," is tautologous; for, of course,
what the King prosecuted against the "lives" of his nobility,
must be against them. The correction in the folio, 1632,
makes the passage so far unobjectionable :—
"'Gainst us, our wives, our children, and our heirs."
The copyist, in this case, misheard wives "lives."
P. 145. Northumberland, Ross, and Willoughby are plot-
ting against the King, and Northumberland tells the two
others that he fears to let them know how near good tidings
are. Ross replies, in all editions
"Be confident to speak, Northumberland:
We three are but thyself; and, speaking so,
Thy words are but as thoughts: therefore, be bold."
There was evidently no reason why Northumberland should
be bold, merely because "his words were but as thoughts;"
and a very slight change, proposed by the old corrector, brings
out most clearly the meaning of the poet :-
"We three are but thyself; and, speaking so,
Thy words are but our thoughts: therefore, be bold."
His words only conveyed the thoughts of the other two con-
spirators, who were but himself; and he might, therefore, be
bold to utter his tidings.
SCENE II.
P. 148. More than one passage in the scene between the
Queen, Bushy, and Bagot, in which she states that she feels
that some unknown calamity is hanging over her, has occa-
sioned difficulty. The first place in which the corrector of
the folio, 1632, offers us any assistance, stands thus in the
folios:-
"So heavy sad,
As though on thinking on no thought I think,
Makes me with heavy nothing faint and shrink.”
218
[ACT II.
KING RICHARD II.
Here perplexity has been produced by misprinting the word
unthinking as two words, "on thinking:" the Queen was so
sad, that it made her faint and shrink with nothing, although
she was so unthinking, as not to think. Malone and others
have "in thinking," which seems just the opposite of what
was intended.
((
Bushy assures the Queen that her sadness was merely
conceit," to which she replies in five lines, which have still
more puzzled commentators :
" "Tis nothing less: conceit is still deriv'd
From some forefather grief; mine is not so,
For nothing hath begot my something grief,
Or something hath the nothing that I grieve:
'Tis in reversion that I do possess," &c.
The old corrector shows that the four last lines ought to be
rhyming couplets, which the scribe seems to have written at
random, and has thus made utterly unintelligible what, at the
best, is difficult. In the corrected folio the lines are thus
given, we may presume upon some authority:-
""Tis nothing less: conceit is still deriv'd
From some forefather grief; mine is not so,
For nothing hath begot my something woe;
Or something hath the nothing that I guess :
'Tis in reversion that I do possess," &c.
i. e. the nothing that the Queen guessed, had some woe in it,
and she possessed it in reversion, before it actually came upon
her. The scribe blundered from not at all understanding
what he was putting upon paper, and the compositor made it
worse by knowing nothing of the meaning of what he was
putting in print.
The proposed changes, woe for "grief," and guess for
"grieve," besides receiving support from the rhyme, at all
events, supply a meaning to words which some commentators
gave up in despair. On p. 150, the needless reduplication of
they are” before "cold" is judiciously avoided.
CC
P. 151. The Duke of York enters in dismay at the
troubles that surround him, and a manuscript stage-direction
states that he was only part armed, in his haste and confu-
sion: the versification of his speeches was, perhaps, purposely
irregular, but such could hardly be intended where he speaks
of Bolingbroke, and says that, he
“Is my kinsman, whom the King hath wrong'd:"
SC. III.]
219
KING RICHARD II.
a line that is especially uncouth from the want of a syllable,
which the corrector of the folio thus furnishes
"Is my near kinsman, whom the King hath wrong'd."
SCENE III.
P. 153. The epithet "noble" is, perhaps wrongly, struck
out in Northumberland's line,-
((
'By sight of what I have, your company."
Twelve syllables may have been intended. In the line imme-
diately preceding "done" is fitly altered to been.
P. 156. The epithet used by the Duke of York, in his re-
proof of Bolingbroke, seems objectionable,—
"But then, more why, why have they dar'd to march
So many miles upon her peaceful bosom,
Frighting her pale-fac'd villages with war,
And ostentation of despised arms?"
'Despised arms" would not "fright" by their "ostentation;"
and Warburton recommended disposed, not a very happy
suggestion; and Sir T. Hanmer, despightful; while Mason
fancied that York meant that the arms were "despised" by
himself. A misprint misled them; for, according to the
corrector of the folio, 1632, we ought to read :—
"With ostentation of despoiling arms :"
"
villages might well be frighted by the "despoiling arms
of Bolingbroke. Three lines above, for the phrase, "But then,
more why," the change made is, "But more than that," ex-
hibiting (if we may believe the old corrector, who is here.
somewhat to be doubted) in four words a transposition and a
blunder.
P. 157. There can be little doubt that where Bolingbroke
says
"To rouse his wrongs, and chase them to the bay,"
the line ought to run as the corrector has altered it,-
"To rouse his wrongers, chase them to the bay."
P. 159. This short scene (IV.), between Salisbury and the
Welsh Captain, is struck out, perhaps, as needlessly protract-
ing the performance.
220
[ACT III.
KING RICHARD II.
ACT III. SCENE II.
P. 162. On arriving near Berkeley Castle, Richard asks if
it be called so, and Aumerle answers by two lines, one with
too few, and the other with too many syllables:-
"Yea, my lord. How brooks your grace the air,
After your late tossing on the breaking seas?"
The manuscript-corrector amends both :-
"Yea, my good lord. How brooks your grace the air,
After late tossing on the breaking seas?"
We need hardly doubt that this is as the passage ought to be
printed, on the supposition that our great dramatist here
meant the lines to be regular.
P. 165. The scribe, who wrote the copy used by the printer,
must have misheard an epithet of some importance in the
following extract :-
"White-beards have arm'd their thin and hairless scalps
Against thy majesty; and boys, with women's voices,
Strive to speak big, and clap their female joints
In stiff unwieldy arms against thy crown.
Besides the mistake in the epithet, there are two other errors
of the press, to the injury of the passage, and the old cor-
rector puts the four lines thus:-
"White-beards have arm'd their thin and hairless scalps
Against thy majesty; and boys, with women's voices,
Strive to speak big, and clasp their feeble joints
In stiff unwieldy armour 'gainst thy crown."
In the first place, the folios have "white-bears" for "white-
beards:" this blunder was not derived from the quartos; but
they have "clap" for clasp (which was Pope's conjectural
emendation); and because the poet gave the boys "women's
voices," the scribe seems to have thought that they should
also have "female joints;" and, lastly, we have “arms,” in
all the old copies, for armour: "arms" more properly sig-
nifies weapons, than the "stiff unwieldy" casing, by which
the bodies of soldiers were formerly protected. These several
changes seem warranted by probability.
SC. III.]
221
KING RICHARD II.
SCENE III.
P. 172. The old corrector substitutes a very striking for a
very poor word, in the fourth of the ensuing lines. York
speaks of Richard:-
"Yet looks he like a king: behold his eye,
As bright as is the eagle's, lightens forth
Controlling majesty. Alack, alack, for woe,
That any harm should stain so fair a show!"
The flat word "harm" presents itself at once as an error, and
storm is written in the margin instead of it:
"Alack, alack, for woe,
That any storm should stain so fair a show!"
In the next line but one, the same authority tells us that
"fearful" ought to be faithful; and though "fearful ”
may
seem to answer its purpose sufficiently well, the context per-
suades us in favour of faithful; for the King is complaining
of Bolingbroke's breach of fidelity.
P. 179. Malone and other modern editors have altered the
following passage, as the words are given in the folio, 1623,
without due attention there to the regulation of the metre:-
"They are,
And Bolingbroke hath seiz'd the wasteful king.
Oh, what pity is it, that he had not so trimm'd
And dress'd his land, as we this garden, at time of year,
And wound the bark the skin of our fruit-trees," &c.
Malone's regulation and changes are these:-
"They are; and Bolingbroke
Hath seiz'd the wasteful king. Oh! what pity is it
That he had not so trimm'd and dress'd his land
As we this garden! We at time of year
Do wound the bark, the skin of our fruit-trees," &c.
The editor of the folio, 1632, seeing that the interjection in
the second line overloaded the verse, omitted it, but made no
other emendation. The old corrector of that impression shows
that Malone inserted we in the wrong place, having omitted
"and," and thrust in do at the commencement of the next
line, to supply the defect of the measure: as amended in the
folio, 1632, the passage appears as follows:-
222
[ACT IV.
KING RICHARD II.
"They are; and Bolingbroke
Hath seiz❜d the wasteful king.
What pity is it,
That he had not so trimm'd, and dress'd his land
As we this garden! At the time of year
We wound the bark, the skin of our fruit-trees," &c.
This will, perhaps, be allowed to be the most easy and natural
mode of giving a passage, which, by the admission of all edi-
tors, requires some alteration.
ACT IV. SCENE I.
P. 182. In every edition it is made to appear, at the com-
mencement of this scene, that Bagot entered with the other
characters; but the corrector of the folio, 1632, says that
such was not the case, and that he did not come in, in cus-
tody, until after Bolingbroke had issued the order, "Call
forth Bagot." The manuscript stage-direction follows this
order, Enter Bagot, prisoner. Of course, there would be
some pause between the giving and the execution of the
order; and the formal introduction of the prisoner after-
wards, would communicate additional effect to the opening
of the Act. When the various "
When the various "gages" are thrown down, as
the scene proceeds, manuscript notice is duly inserted in the
margin, but we are not told what Aumerle threw down after
the line,-
"Some honest Christian trust me with a gage,"
when he had no gage of his own left. No passages, here
wanting in the folios, are introduced by the old corrector
from the earlier quartos.
P. 186. Nevertheless, two emendations are made in Boling-
broke's speech, "Marry, God forbid," &c., which serve to show
that the corrector of the folio, 1632, either had recourse to the
quarto editions of this play, or to some authority which ac-
corded with them. For instance, for "nobleness" in the
line,-
"Of noble Richard: then, true nobleness would," &c.
he adopts nobless of the quarto, 1597, which was unquestion-
ably Shakespeare's word, and "nobleness" too much burdens
the metre. Again, in the line in the folios,-
ACT V.]
223
KING RICHARD II.
"And he himself not present? O, forbid it, God,"
he erases "himself," which is unnecessary to the sense, and
injurious to the rhythm, and writes forfend instead of “for-
bid." All the quartos have forfend; but, on the other hand,
they have "himself." On the preceding page, the corrector
has, "As surely as I live," of the quarto, 1597, instead of,
"As sure as I live," which is the reading of the folios, and of
some of the quartos.
P. 188. The folio, 1632, misprints the following line,—
"Give sorrow leave awhile to tutor me,"
by absurdly putting return for "tutor." This blunder is set
right by the old corrector; but it seems as if he had pre-
viously substituted some other word, and had erased it.
Such may have been the case in several other places, where
he himself blundered.
P. 192. To supply the want of printed stage-directions,
they are, as usual, added in manuscript in the folio, 1632:
thus, when Richard dashes the glass against the ground, we
read in the margin, Throws down the glass; and when the
crown and sceptre are previously brought to him, the proper
moment for placing them in the King's hands is noted in
the margin.
ACT V. SCENE I.
P. 194. An emendation, giving additional force to an ex-
clamation by the Queen, on hearing her husband's resolution
to submit, and improving the defective metre, is met with in
the corrected folio, 1632, in reference to these lines, as there
copied from the folio, 1623 :-
"What! is my Richard both in shape and mind
Transform'd and weaken'd? Hath Bolingbroke
Depos'd thine intellect? hath he been in thy heart?"
Modern editors, to eke out the measure of the second line,
have read "weaken'd," weakened; but the glaring redun-
dancy of the third line they did not set right. The old cor-
rector, however, instructs us in future to print thus:-
224
[ACT V.
KING RICHARD II.
"What! is my Richard both in shape and mind
Transform'd and weaken'd? Hath this Bolingbroke
Depos'd thine intellect? been in thy heart?"
Much contempt is contained in the expression, "this Boling-
broke," and the repetition of "hath he," in the next line,
rather lessens, than increases, the effect of the Queen's de-
spairing interrogatories.
The old corrector again either adopted a word from the
quartos, or had recourse to some other authority, when, in
the line, as we find it in the folios,-
"Tell thou the lamentable fall of me,"
he erased "fall," and wrote tale in the margin. Malone
fancied that "fall" for tale, was one of Shakespeare's own
emendations; but it was much more probably a misprint in
the folio, 1623, which, in most respects, slavishly follows the
text of the latest quarto before its time, viz. that of 1615:
the word there is tale, as it had been in the earlier editions
in the same form, of 1597, 1598, and 1608. It may be more
than doubted, whether our great dramatist ever made a single
emendation, with his own hand, in any play with a view to
its publication.
SCENE II.
P. 200. The word "day," in what follows, may also have
been derived from the quartos, for it is in no folio impres-
sion; but it is preceded by an improvement in the measure of
a line, which has been given corruptly every where
“”Tis nothing but some bond that he has enter'd into
For gay apparel against the triumph."
The manuscript-corrector alters both lines thus:-
""Tis nothing but some bond he's entered into
For gay apparel 'gainst the triumph day."
Modern editors, of course, insert day, but there can be little
doubt that Shakespeare also wrote the previous line as it above
appears. In the same way we may be sure that the small word,
then, fell out of the press, or escaped by some other accident,
in the Duke of York's speech, a few lines higher on this
page:-
"Yea, look'st thou pale? let me then see the writing."
Then is not to be traced in any ancient or modern edition,
but it is authorised by the corrector of the folio, 1632, and is
SC. III.]
225
KING RICHARD II.
necessary to the completeness of the measure. The word
"by" shared the same fate as "then," in the subsequent line
on the next page:-
"Now by my honour, by my life, my troth."
The second "by" is not in any of the folios, but is in the
earlier quartos, though not in that of 1615, from which the
first folio was printed: the line is imperfect without by, and
the corrector of the second folio inserted it. The minute
errors and variations in this part of the play are numerous.
SCENE III.
P. 203. When Aumerle arrives in great haste, the quarto
editions say that he is amazed, but in the folios we have
only, Enter Aumerle: the corrector of that of 1632, felt that
something was wanted to indicate that the performer was to
come upon the stage with an appearance of great pertur-
bation, and he added to Enter Aumerle, the words rush in, to
evince the eagerness and impetuosity he ought to display on
the occasion. Other manuscript stage-directions apply to
other characters. Aumerle locks the door, just before the
Duke of York arrives and gives the alarm, and the King
draws to defend himself. Then, the door is opened to admit
York, and shut again that the Duchess, when she reaches
the spot and exclaims against her husband, may be on the
outside until her son goes to the door and opens it. To this
follows Aumerle's confession and repentance, and we are
duly informed when the different parties kneel to the King.
P. 208. The folio, 1632, has the following
"Good uncle, help to order several powers
To Oxford, or where'er these traitors are:
They shall not live within this world, I swear,
But I will have them, once know where.
Uncle farewell, and cousin adieu.”
The corrector of that impression puts it thus :-
"Good uncle, help to order several powers
To Oxford, or where else the traitors be.
They shall not live within this world, I swear,
But I will have them, so I once know where.
Uncle farewell, and, cousin mine, adieu.”
In various particulars, as marked in Italics, this differs from
other copies, quarto or folio. Theobald printed “and, cousin
Q
226
[ACT V.
KING RICHARD II.
!
too, adieu," but "and cousin mine, adieu," reads better, and
the whole may lead to the conclusion that the corrector was
guided by some authority not now known.
SCENE V.
P. 209. In the first line of the King's long speech, we
meet with a correction consistent with the earliest, but found
in no other old edition of this play. All but the quarto,
1597, read defectively,-
instead of
“I have been studying how to compare,"
"I have been studying how I may compare,"
which is a perfect line, which all modern editors have pro-
perly adopted. We may feel confident that the allusion, just
afterwards, to Holy Writ was softened by substituting "faith"
for word (as it stands in all the quartos), in consequence of
the state of religious opinion at the time the folio, 1623, was
printed: the manuscript-corrector has left the text, in this
respect, as he found it, excepting that he has put his pen
through the quotations from the New Testament. On the
next page, he struck out the whole of the passage in which
the King resembles himself to a clock, which none of the
commentators have been able to understand: the erasure
begins at "For now hath time," and ends at "Jack o' the
clock." It is to be regretted that the old corrector could
throw no light upon this obscure question: it deserves remark,
however, that he struck out the word "watches," as if it were
certainly wrong; but, as if he did not know what ought
to be substituted for it, he has written no corresponding word
in the margin. For "Now, sir, the sound" he also changes to
Now, for the sound," &c.
(c
P. 212. When Richard inquires how his horse Barbary
went under Bolingbroke, the groom replies in the folio, 1632,
"So proudly, as if he had disdain'd the ground.”
The measure is thus injured, and it is clear from Richard's
rejoinder that the word used by the groom was proud, and
not "proudly:"-
"So proud that Bolingbroke was on his back.”
To convert "proudly" into proud, as was done by the old
corrector, restores the harmony of the versification.
SC. VI.]
227
KING RICHARD II.
SCENE VI.
P. 214. The emendations by the corrector of the folio,
1632, in the last scene of this tragedy, chiefly relate to cor-
ruptions, real or supposed, in the versification. These corrup-
tions begin in the very first line; for whereas Bolingbroke
ought to say, as in the folio, 1623,—
"Kind uncle York, the latest news we hear," &c.
the word kind is supplied in manuscript, because omitted by
the printer of the folio, 1632, only. The next is an error of
the same sort, on the same page, and applies to all editions,
ancient and modern, two small words having apparently
dropped out at the end of a line: we have printed them in
Italics :-
"Welcome, my lord. What is the news with you ?”
A third, and more noticeable instance occurs where Boling-
broke, on p. 215, passes sentence on the Bishop of Car-
lisle :-
"Carlisle, this is your doom,"
is the whole of the line in all copies; but the next line,
which rhymes with it, proves that some words, perhaps un-
important excepting as they complete the measure, had
been lost. The old corrector informs us what they were:-
Bishop of Carlisle, this shall be your doom
"' &c.
Choose out some secret place, some reverend room,'
Several additional stage-directions are inserted, but they
are of little consequence, saving for the regulation of the
performance: thus, the King beats the Keeper, and kills one
of his assailants, following it up by a blow which kills another.
He dies as Exton pronounces his first line.
P. 216. The corrector of the folio, 1632, makes rather an
important change in the punctuation of a passage in Boling-
broke's last speech, according to which he declares his inten-
tion to proceed to the Holy Land without delay: he gives it
thus:
"Come, mourn with me for that I do lament,
And put on sullen black. Incontinent,
I'll make a voyage to the Holy Land," &c.
Consistently with this change, in the very opening of " Henry
IV. Pt. 1," we find the King urging expedition for the com-
mencement of this enterprise.
Q 2
'
THE FIRST PART
OF
KING HENRY IV.
ACT I. SCENE I.
P. 225. The first line of this play presents an alteration,
but a questionable improvement, by the corrector of the folio,
1632: for
"So shaken as we are, so wan with care,"
he has "worn with care," which may be right, although, as
far as the sense of the passage is concerned, it may not be
right to do the violence of changing the received text. No
new light is thrown upon the two lines which have produced
so many conjectures,-
"No more the thirsty entrance of this soil
Shall daub her lips with her own children's blood;"
but that the corrector's attention was directed to them we
ascertain from the fact that, as "daub" is misprinted dambe
in the second folio, that blunder is amended.
P. 227. The manuscript-corrector restores the word "for,"
of the earlier quartos, instead of far, of the quarto, 1613, and
of the folios, in the following line:-
"For more uneven and unwelcome news
Came from the north."
We shall see hereafter, that on other occasions he preferred
the older text.
THE FIRST PART OF KING HENRY IV.
229
P. 228. For the imperfect line,-
"Of Murray, Angus, and Menteith,"
the old corrector writes,-
“Of Murray, Angus, and the bold Menteith.”
How far, and in what manner, he was warranted in this ad-
dition, may be a question; but he was doubtless right in
transferring (in a shortened form) the words, "In faith, it
is," from the end of the King's speech, where they are not
wanted, to the beginning of that of Westmoreland, where
they are necessary to complete the measure, as well as to
improve the sense :—
'Faith, 'tis a conquest for a prince to boast of.”
Such also was Pope's judicious mode of giving the speech.
SCENE II.
P. 229. If any doubt were entertained whether the words,
“by Phœbus,—he, that wandering knight so fair,” were a
quotation, it would probably be set at rest by the circum-
stance, that they are underscored, as usual in such cases, by
the old corrector.
P. 231. Falstaff's remark, in answer to the Prince, "Yea,
and so used it, that were it not here apparent, that thou art
heir apparent,” has generally been printed with a line after
it, as an unfinished sentence; but the corrector of the folio,
1632, represents it as finished by reading, "Yea, and so used
it, that it is here apparent that thou art heir apparent." The
negative is omitted in the folios, and was not restored by the
corrector from the quartos.
SCENE III.
P. 237. The words, "My Lord," given to Northumberland,
do not complete Worcester's hemistich, "Have holp to make
so portly," a syllable being wanted: the corrector of the
folio, 1632, therefore, represents Northumberland as saying,
"My good lord;" and we may feel pretty sure that he did
so, not merely because it finishes the line, but because, when
he resumes after the interruption, he uses the same expres-
sion, "Yea, my good lord."
230
[ACT I.
THE FIRST PART OF
P. 238. Here, again, the old corrector seems to have re-
sorted to the quarto editions of this play, or to some authority
that agreed with them, for he not only restores "name,"
omitted in the folios,-
"Those prisoners in your highness' name demanded,"
but he sets right a remarkable blunder at the end of the same
speech, not in the quartos, but which found its way into the
folios: the latter have,-
"Who either through envy or misprision
Was guilty of this fault, and not my son ;"
instead of the true text of the quartos:-
"Either envy, therefore, or misprision
Is guilty of this fault, and not my son."
P. 240. All impressions, quarto and folio, ancient and
modern, have, one after the other, repeated a flagrant error of
the press in the earliest edition of this play in 1598: the
mistake has given vast annoyance to each succeeding editor,
and the emendation is one of those that must strike the
moment it is pointed out. Nobody has been able to explain
satisfactorily the use of the word "fears" in the subsequent
lines, where the King indignantly asks,-
"Shall our coffers, then,
Be emptied to redeem a traitor home?
Shall we buy treason, and indent with fears,
When they have lost and forfeited themselves?"
The corrector tells us to print "fears" foes; and if we do so,
nothing can be plainer than the meaning of the poet :--
"Shall we buy treason, and indent with foes,
When they have lost and forfeited themselves?"
To "indent," is, of course, to enter into a compact or in-
denture. Johnson proposed peers for "fears:" Steevens
contended that "fears" was to be taken as fearful people,
&c.; but the question of the King was merely whether it
was fit to enter into a bargain with traitors and enemies. It
seems strange that, in the course of two hundred and fifty
years, nobody should ever have even guessed at foes for
"fears:" if it were merely a guess by the old corrector, it is a
happy one; and we may be disposed to entertain the opinion
ACT II.]
231
KING HENRY IV.
that he had an opportunity of resorting to a better original,
read or recited, than any of the printed copies.
P. 243. The same authority here points out another mis-
print, not by any means of so much importance, but still, pro-
bably, an error, though the word usually received may be
said to answer the purpose. It is in Hotspur's speech, where
he is entering into the plot of his father and his uncle
against Henry IV., when he breaks out thus:—
"No! yet time serves, wherein you may redeem
Your banish'd honours, and restore yourselves
Into the good thoughts of the world again.’
For "banish'd honours," we are instructed to put "tar-
nish'd honours ;" and Hotspur would hardly say that the
honours of his family were "banished," although their bright-
ness might for a time be tarnished.
P. 247. The old corrector either saw the quarto, 1598, and
corrected the following line by it, or he was indebted to his
own sagacity, if not to his ears when he was present where
the passage was properly repeated. All ancient copies, but
the earliest, read,
or
"I'll steal to Glendower, and to Mortimer,”
"I'll steal to Glendower, and loe Mortimer."
The line in the quarto, 1598, is,-
"I'll steal to Glendower and Lo: Mortimer;"
meaning Lord Mortimer, which abbreviation "Lo:" was
subsequently strangely misunderstood. In the text of the
folio, 1632, loe is erased, and Lord is written in the margin.
There can be no dispute that this is the poet's word, and so,
in fact, it stands in modern editions.
ACT II. SCENE I.
P. 250. Much speculation has been the result of the subse-
quent speech by Gadshill, where he is talking of the high
rank of the parties with whom, as a highwayman, he was in
league:-
232
[ACT II.
THE FIRST PART OF
“I am joined with no foot land-rakers, no long-staff, sixpenny strikers :
none of these mad, mustachio purple-hued maltworms; but with nobility
and tranquillity: burgomasters, and great oneyers, such as can hold in;
such as will strike sooner than speak," &c.
No question seems to have arisen regarding the word
"tranquillity"-"nobility and tranquillity"-although it has
no meaning in this place; but ingenuity has been exhausted
upon "great oneyers," which we have been desired to read
moneyers, one-eers, mynheers, &c., when it is merely, as we
learn from the corrector of the folio, 1632, a misprint, the
word "tranquillity," which precedes it, being in the same
predicament. He sets the whole matter right thus: "I am
joined with no foot land-rakers, &c., but with nobility and
sanguinity; burgomasters, and great ones—yes, such as can
hold in," &c. "Tranquillity
Tranquillity" was misheard by the scribe
for sanguinity, in reference to the high blood of the com-
panions of Gadshill; and "great oneyers was a lapse for
"great ones—yes," the affirmative particle having been added
to give more force to the assertion, when, perhaps, the Cham-
berlain, with whom Gadshill was speaking, intimated his in-
credulity. The first error seems to have arisen from mis-
hearing, and the last from misprinting.
P. 258. For the line,-
SCENE III.
>>
“And all the currents of a heady fight,"
we are advised by the corrector of the folio, 1632, to read:-
“And all th' occurrents of a heady fight."
The last is perhaps right, occurrents being to be taken as
occurrences; but the old reading may be preferred.
P. 259. In the line,-
"What sayst thou, Kate? what would'st thou have with me?"
the folio, 1632, omits the second "what," which the cor-
rector supplies in manuscript. Five lines lower, he furnishes
four words, wanting in all editions, where Hotspur asks his
wife,-
"Come; wilt thou see me ride?"
The words here carelessly left out are quite consistent with
SC. IV.]
233
KING HENRY IV.
what has passed before, when Hotspur ordered that his horse
should be led "forth into the park:"-
"Come to the park, Kate: wilt thou see me ride?"
They are in themselves of little import, excepting as they
serve to prove that our great dramatist did not leave the line
needlessly imperfect.
SCENE IV.
P. 263. The folios, in the following line, omit the negative;
the old corrector inserts it, but whether from the quarto im-
pressions, where it is found, or from any independent autho-
rity, may be questioned :-
'Away, you rogue! Dost thou not hear them call?”
P. 264. The words, "pitiful-hearted Titan that melted at
the sweet tale of the sun," are struck out: probably, the old
corrector was in the ordinary case of not understanding the
allusion. The words, in their corrupted form, are no great
loss.
P. 274. Rowe seems to have been right (indeed the emen-
dation hardly admits of doubt) in reading tristful for "trust-
ful" in Falstaff's speech, as we learn from the alteration
introduced in the folio, 1632; and the old corrector, not ap-
proving, perhaps, of the use of the name of the Creator, has
substituted heaven for it in the line,-
“For heaven's sake, lords, convey my tristful queen," &c.
In the folio, 1632, a previous speech by Falstaff is erro-
neously given to the Prince, but the corrector has remedied
the defect; and in Falstaff's long mock-address, he has in-
serted own before "opinion," which is not in any folio. In
the same character's next speech, he has changed the common
reading to "him keep with thee, the rest banish:" this emen-
dation is, however, more than disputable, and perhaps scarcely
required notice.
P. 276. The Prince calls Falstaff, according to the old cor-
rector of the folio, 1632, not "that trunk of humours," but
"that hulk of humours," against all known authorities, but it
may be right.
234
[ACT III.
THE FIRST PART OF
""
P. 279. The folios, and the quartos of 1608 and afterwards,
read, "I know his death will be a match of twelve score;'
but the older text of the quartos, 1598, 1599, and 1604, is
"a march of twelve score," which is evidently right; and the
manuscript-correction in the folio, 1632, is, therefore, from
"match" to march.
ACT III. SCENE I.
P. 280. All early editions, with the exception of the quarto,
1598, omit "huge" in the line,—
"The frame and huge foundation of the earth :"
"huge" is written in the margin of the folio, 1632.
. P. 284. The last line in Worcester's speech, adverting to
the course of the Trent,-
"And then he runs straight and even,"
must have been misprinted in this and in all other editions:
the manuscript-corrector gives it thus unobjectionably,—
"And then he runs all straight and evenly.”
Hotspur has just before said of the same river,-
"In a new channel, fair, and evenly."
P. 285. For a similar reason the corrector of the folio, 1632,
amends the subsequent lines,—
"I'll haste the writer, and withal,
Break with your wives of your departure hence;"
by giving them thus:-
"I'll haste the writer, and withal I'll break
With your young wives of your departure hence."
Young was, perhaps, omitted by the old printer or scribe,
from the similarity of the word your just before it. In Act
V. (p. 239 of this vol.), we shall see that "your" was left out
before "younger."
P. 286. We can readily believe that there must be a mis-
print in the following:—
"In faith, my lord, you are too wilful-blame,"
SC. I.]
235
KING HENRY IV.
as it stands in the old copies, and as it has been repeated in
all modern editions: the true reading may very well have
been what the old corrector tells us it was,—
"In faith, my wilful lord, you are to blame."
The epithet "wilful" in some way became misplaced, and
"too" for to, and vice versa, was a very common error.
P. 287. When Mortimer speaks of his wife's eyes as "swell-
ing heavens" (which Steevens strangely misunderstood as
her "prominent lips "), a difficulty has arisen out of the
epithet "swelling," Douce supposing that Lady Mortimer's
eyes were swollen with weeping; but the word was mis-
taken by the old printer, and has never since been set right:
for "swelling" we ought to read "welling," in reference to
the stream of tears flowing from the lady's eyes, and the
corrector of the folio, 1632, merely put his pen through the
letters, and put the passage thus:—
"That pretty Welsh,
Which thou pour'st down from those welling heavens,
I am too perfect in."
He completes Owen Glendower's imperfect line, lower down,
by inserting even :—
Nay, if you melt, then will she ev'n run mad.”
In the last line of the next page, "Not you, in good sooth,"
seems fitly altered to "Not yours, in good sooth."
P. 289. The four last lines in this scene ought to rhyme,
and, no doubt, did so originally, until a misprint prevented
it; the corrector of the folio, 1632, makes them run as
follows:-
"Glend. Come on, lord Mortimer; you are as slow,
As hot lord Percy is on fire to go.
Mort.
By this our book is drawn: we'll seal, and part
To horse immediately.
With all my heart."
The text of the two last lines has hitherto been this:
"By this our book is drawn: we'll seal and then
To horse immediately.
Mort.
With all my heart.”
236
[ACT III.
THE FIRST PART OF
SCENE IL
P. 291. The old printer took more pains than usual with
the great scene between Henry IV. and the Prince, but still,
if we may rely upon the corrector of the folio, 1632, intro-
duced several important blunders. One of them applies to
the last words on this page, "carded his state," which
Warburton, with great sagacity, proposed to read "discarded
state:" such is the emendation supplied in manuscript. Next,
the corrector struck out "do," unnecessarily thrust into a line
on page 292:-
"As cloudy men use to do their adversaries."
Thirdly, in the first line on p. 294,—
“Thou that art like enough, through vassal fear,"
the printer injuriously omitted "that," which is written in the
margin of the folio, 1632.
P. 295. The line, as it stands in the quartos,-
"The which, if he be pleas'd, I shall perform,"
is given in the folio, 1623,-
"The which, if I perform, and do survive,”
and in the folio, 1632,-
“The which if I promise, and do survive.”
The corrector erases promise, and inserts "perform," making
the passage correspond with the first folio, but not with the
quarto editions. Lower down, Pope's emendation, "So is the
business," &c., is supported both by the old corrector, and by
the sense of Blunt's reply.
SCENE III.
"Thou
P. 296. In Falstaff's retort upon Bardolph, he says,
art our admiral, thou bearest the lantern in the poop,-but
'tis in the nose of thee." The correction in the folio, 1632,
seems required:-
"Thou bearest the lantern, not in the poop, but 'tis in the nose of thee."
In the preceding line, the common blunder of thy for "my"
is committed, and reformed.
ACT IV.]
237
KING HENRY IV.
ACT IV. SCENE I.
P. 303. The corrector of the folio, 1632, restores the oath
(if such it is to be considered), "Zounds," from the quartos,
in Hotspur's exclamation,-
"Zounds! how has he the leisure to be sick?"
The folios read, with ridiculous tameness, and most prosai-
cally,—
"How! has he the leisure to be sick now."
The printing of this Act in the folios, 1623 and 1632, is full
of strange blunders and exhibitions of carelessness, one of
which occurs in the last line of this page, where the Mes-
senger is made to say,-
"His letters bear his mind, not I, his mind,"
instead of "not I, my lord," but this error originated, in fact,
with the earlier quartos, where "my mind" was printed for
my lord. Capel introduced the right word, as we ascertain
from a manuscript note in the margin of the folio, 1632.
Again, on the next page, we meet with this line, if we may
so call it :
"We may boldly spend upon the hope;"
whereas, it ought to run,—
"We now may boldly spend upon the hope," &c.
P. 305. Worcester observes, in the folios,-
"The quality and heire of our attempt
Brooks no division."
In the quartos of 1598 and 1599, "heire" was haire, the old
mode of spelling hair; and this, the old corrector assures us,
was the true word, the meaning of the speaker being (as
suggested in note 1), that the power he, and the other re-
volted lords could produce, was too small, too like a hair,
to admit any division of it.
P. 307. As might be expected, he restores from the quartos
of 1598 and 1599,-
"Harry to Harry shall, hot horse to horse;"
238
[ACT IV.
THE FIRST PART OF
which the later quartos and folios strangely misprinted, "not
horse to horse."
SCENE II
P. 309. For "old faced ancient," in Falstaff's description
of his troops, the corrector of the folio, 1632, substitutes,
"old pieced ancient," an ensign that, being old, had been
patched in order to mend it. Lower down, for "there's not
a shirt and a half in all my company," he more naturally
reads, "there's but a shirt and a half," &c. "Not" and but
were often confounded by the old printers.
SCENE III.
P. 311. There is a surplusage of two syllables, which cer-
tainly weaken the effect of the passage, in a line of Sir
Richard Vernon's answer to Douglas, (in whose speech "and
cold heart," is altered to "and a cold heart,") who had charged
him with cowardice. The invariable reading has been,-
"I hold as little counsel with weak fear,
As you, my lord, or any Scot that this day lives."
"This day" clearly overloads the line, and the manuscript-
corrector credibly informs us that those words ought to be
struck out as an interpolation:
"I hold as little counsel with weak fear,
As you, my lord, or any Scot that lives."
On the next page, we are told that the line,-
(C
ought to be
My father, and my uncle, and myself,”
"My father, with my uncle, and myself."
The folios omit both "and" and with, but the quartos have
"and." On the next page but one, the corrector of the folio,
1632, inserts a word, where a word is certainly wanting, but
not the word in the earlier impressions: he gives the line,—
"Who is, if every owner were due plac'd,"
instead of "well plac'd" of the quartos: the folios read de-
fectively, "if every owner were plac'd." The two last emen-
dations look as if the old quartos had not been consulted.
ACT V.]
239
KING HENRY IV.
ACT V. SCENE I.
P. 317. When Worcester declares to the King that he had
"not sought the day of this dislike," the King observes with
surprise,-
"You have not sought it! how comes it, then?”
This line is unquestionably deficient of a syllable, and the
old corrector supplies it:-
"You have not sought it! Say, how comes it, then?"
P. 319. The last line of the King's speech is thus given in
the folios:-
"Sworn to us in younger enterprise."
It is altered by the corrector of the folio, 1632, to
“Sworn to us in your younger enterprise,"
•
""
which accords with the early quartos. "Your" and "younger,
following each other, perhaps caused the omission: see also
234 of this vol.
p.
SCENE II.
P. 321. A question has arisen how the subsequent line, as
it stands in all old editions, should be corrected:
"Supposition, all our lives, shall be stuck full of eyes."
Pope altered "supposition," most properly, to suspicion, and
the corrector of the folio, 1632, did the same; but he made
no farther change: perhaps it was a line which was meant to
be redundant, and, notwithstanding Farmer's proposal, we
know not what words could be left out without diminishing
its force. The obvious misprint of the folio, 1623, was re-
peated in the folio, 1632, "Look how he can," for "Look how
we can;" but it is set right in the margin of the latter in
manuscript.
P. 324. The last four lines of Percy's address are these, as
always hitherto printed:-
"Sound all the lofty instruments of war,
And by that music let us all embrace;
For, heaven to earth, some of us never shall
A second time do such a courtesy."
210
[ACT V.
THE FIRST PART OF
Warburton was of opinion that the poet meant that the odds
were so great, that heaven might be wagered against earth,
that many present would never embrace again. This, as
we may well suppose, is a mistake, according to the manu-
script-corrector: Hotspur calls heaven and earth to witness
to the improbability that some of those present would ever
have an opportunity of re-greeting each other:-
"'Fore heaven and earth, some of us never shall
A second time do such a courtesy."
SCENE III.
P. 326. Hotspur tells Douglas, who has slain Sir Walter
Blunt, thinking him the King, because he wore the same
armour and insignia,-
"The King hath many marching in his coats."
This is intelligible, and does not positively require change;
but the old corrector substitutes a word for "marching" (the
forces, at this time, were fighting, not marching), which
seems much better adapted to the place:-
"The King hath many masking in his coats;"
¿.e. there are many in the field who have disguised themselves
like the King, in order, like Sir Walter Blunt, to deceive his
enemies. In the speech of Douglas, immediately preceding,
where'er is substituted for "whither."
SCENE IV.
P. 331. There could be no question as to the corruption
here introduced into the text, first by the quarto, 1608, and
afterwards by the quarto, 1613, and all the folios,—
"But that the earth and the cold hand of death."
All the earlier quartos have it as follows, and the old cor-
rector of the second folio restores the reading,—
"But that the earthy and cold hand of death."
The sense would here be a sufficient guide, and modern
editors of course print earthy.
P. 334. The old printed stage-direction, which has been
SC. III.]
241
KING HENRY IV.
፦
repeated by all subsequent editors, informs us that Fal-
staff takes Hotspur on his back, and it seems, by the same
editors, that he kept the body in that position, till (after a
considerable interval) he went out, bearing off the body.
Judging from a manuscript stage-direction in the folio, 1632,
this was not the custom of the stage in the time of the old
corrector, if not earlier, for opposite the words, "There is
Percy," he has, written, Throw him down; and then the
dialogue is continued until the close of Falstaff's soliloquy,
ending, "and live cleanly as a nobleman should do." During
this interval, the corpse of Percy must have been lying on
the ground, and we can hardly suppose that Falstaff would
have been able to sustain the weight, if he had had it on his
back all the time he was conversing with the two princes.
When the scene, therefore, was at an end, and the body
must be removed, Falstaff did not take it up again, but
dragged it out, and such is the written stage-direction in the
margin of the folio, 1632. He first, with great difficulty,
must have got the body on his back; he then cast it down
when he began to talk with the princes, and finally dragged
it off the stage at the end of the scene. Such appears to
have been the unceremonious way in which the body of Hot-
spur was treated, and in which the business of this part of
the play was formerly conducted.
P. 335. We meet with a considerable improvement in the
last line of Worcester's last speech; it has always stood
thus:
"What I have done my safety urged me to,
And I embrace this fortune patiently,
Since not to be avoided it falls on me."
The alteration of the manuscript-corrector is trifling, but
effectual, and its fitness can hardly be questioned :—
"And I embrace this fortune patiently,
Which not to be avoided falls on me.'
P. 336. The folios omit the reply by John of Lancaster to
Prince Henry, when the latter relinquishes to him the office
of setting the Douglas "ransomless and free;" that reply is
found in the earlier, but not in the later quartos, in these
terms:
"I thank your grace for this high courtesy,
Which I will give away immediately.”
R
242
THE FIRST PART OF KING HENRY IV.
C
The corrector of the folio, 1632, inserts two corresponding
lines, but the last differs materially from that quoted above,
and may be thought, in some respects, to read better:-
"I thank your grace for this high courtesy,
Which I shall put in act without delay."
This variation may induce the belief that the corrector had
access to some authority independent of any of the printed
copies of this play, whether in quarto or folio; although not
a few of his emendations, as we have seen, correspond with
the earliest and some other quartos, which had been aban-
doned by the folios.
THE SECOND PART
OF
KING HENRY IV.
INDUCTION.
P. 341. The folios all have,-
((
Stuffing the ears of them with false reports;”
a misprint, probably, from defective hearing, for the text un-
questionably ought to be, as commonly given,-
"Stuffing the ears of men with false reports."
The corrector of the folio, 1632, altered "them" to men.
Lower down, he made "surmise," of the same edition, sur-
-mises, as required by sense and metre. The first only of
these blunders is committed in the folio, 1623.
P. 342. We doubt the fitness of changing "peasant-
towns," as printed with a hyphen in the folios, to “pleasant
towns;" but it may be right, and it ought, therefore, to be
mentioned. In the next line but one, "worm-eaten hole,"
of all the ancient impressions, is made "worm-eaten hold."
Theobald was the first to substitute hold.
ACT I. SCENE I.
P. 343. The old stage-direction at the opening of the first
scene is, Enter Lord Bardolph and the Porter, as if they
made their appearance before the audience at the same
R 2
214
[ACT I.
THE SECOND PART OF
moment: the modern stage-direction has been, The Porter
before the gate; enter Lord Bardolph. It should appear from
a stage-direction in manuscript, in the folio, 1632, that the old
practice was for Lord Bardolph to enter first, and as soon as
he asked, "Who keeps the gate here? ho!" for the Warder
(so called) to show himself above the castle-gate, and from
thence to answer Lord Bardolph. The Warder made his exit
as soon as Northumberland entered.
P. 345. There can be no question that the printer of the
folio, 1623, in the first line of this page, mistakenly repeated
"able," as applied to heels, because he had placed the same
epithet before "horse," in the preceding line. In the last
instance, the word ought to be armed, instead of "able:"-
"With that he gave his able horse the head,
And bending forward, struck his armed heels
Against the panting sides," &c.
It is "armed heels" in the quarto, 1600; and if the corrector
of the folio, 1632, did not obtain that word from thence, he
might have heard the passage accurately recited on the
stage in his day, or possibly he used some independent, but
concurring authority.
P. 348. Theobald's emendation of "ragged'st hour," of the
old copies, to "rugged'st hour," which several more recent
editors have not admitted, in the line,-
"The ragged'st hour that time and spite dare bring,"
is warranted by the old corrector, who merely converts a into
u in the margin.
SCENE II.
P. 357. The following manuscript-correction accords with
no copy of this play that has come down to us: it is part of
Falstaff's speech to the Chief Justice, "Virtue is of so little
regard in these costermonger days, that true valour is turned
bear-herd." It is "costermonger times" in the quarto, 1600,
while in the folios the necessary word is altogether omitted.
Lower down, the old corrector has added, with an asterisk
at the proper place, the words, about three of the afternoon,
which do not precisely agree with the quarto, which reads,
"about three o'clock in the afternoon:" the folios have no
SC. III.]
245
KING HENRY IV.
trace of them. On the next page, he leaves out the whole of
Falstaff's speech after "well, I cannot last ever," which he
makes "last for ever:" it is only found in the quarto, 1600.
""
P. 359. Few things can be more evident than the necessity
of an emendation in the following passage: "A man can no
more separate age and covetousness, than he can part young
limbs and lechery; but the gout galls the one, and the pox
pinches the other, and so both the degrees prevent my curses.
What here are "the degrees?" The poet is referring to two
diseases, not to two "degrees," and the copyist must have
misheard diseases, and written "degrees." We must read with
the old corrector, "and so both the diseases prevent my
curses," i. e. anticipate my curses.
SCENE III.
P. 361. The first twenty lines of Lord Bardolph's second
speech, on this page, are only in the folio impressions, and the
corrector of that of 1632 shows that they have been most
corruptly printed, probably from defects in the manuscript
in the hands of the compositor. Malone and others set right
one error in the first line, by converting "if" to in, but the
second line appears to be even more strangely blundered, for
instead of
"Indeed the instant action, a cause on foot," &c.,
we ought to read the whole passage thus: it is in answer to
Northumberland's question, whether it could do harm to
hope?-
"Yes, in this present quality of war:
Indeed the instant act and cause on foot
Lives so in hope, as in the early spring
We see appearing buds," &c.
Thus the measure is amended, and the sense cleared. But,
farther on, Lord Bardolph draws a parallel between the
building of a house and the carrying on a war, which is ob-
scured by the omission of a whole line, fortunately inserted
in the margin by the old corrector. Our first extract is as it
stands in the folios, and we will follow it by the same quota-
tion as amended. The speaker is supposing that a man
purposes at first to construct a dwelling, which he afterwards
finds beyond his means:—
I
246
[ACT II.
THE SECOND PART OF
"What do we then, but draw anew the model
In fewer offices; or at least desist
To build at all? Much more in this great work,
(Which is almost to pluck a kingdom down
And set another up) should we survey
The plot of situation, and the model,
Consent upon a sure foundation,
Question surveyors, know our own estate
How able such a work to undergo,
To weigh against his opposite; or else
We fortify in paper and in figures," &c.
As amended by the old corrector, the same passage runs as
follows:-
"What do we then, but draw anew the model
In fewer offices;
To build at all?
or at last desist
Much more in this great work,
(Which is almost to pluck a kingdom down
And set another up) should we survey
The plot, the situation, and the model,
Consult upon a sure foundation,
Question surveyors, know our own estate,
How able such a work to undergo.
A careful leader sums what force he brings
To weigh against his opposite; or else
We fortify on paper, and in figures," &c.
The furnishing of this new connecting line (to say nothing of
verbal emendations, the first of which Steevens speculated
upon) between Lord Bardolph's simile and its application, is
an important improvement, although the question perpetually
returns upon us, from whence was it derived?
ACT II. SCENE I.
P. 365. In the speech of the Hostess we find, "A hundred
mark is a long one for a poor lone woman to bear,” altered
to "A hundred mark is a long score for a poor lone woman
to bear," with indisputable fitness. On the next page, tuck of
the folios is altered to "tickle" of the quartos.
SCENE II.
P. 373. The Page, describing Bardolph peeping through
the "red lattice" of an ale-house, observes: "At last I spied
SC. IV.]
247
KING HENRY IV.
his eyes; and, methought he had made two holes in the ale-
wives' new petticoat, and peeped through." The word red is
inserted in manuscript before "petticoat," in order to make
the resemblance more distinct, but it would scarcely be neces-
sary, if ale-wives usually wore red petticoats at the time.
P. 374. The prefixes are so arranged by the corrector of
the folio, 1632, that the Prince, and not Poins, is made to
read Falstaff's letter aloud, which, according to a manuscript
stage-direction, he shows to Poins. Several literal and trifling
verbal corrections are inserted in this part of the scene: the
only one it is, perhaps, necessary to notice is the remark of
the Prince, "That's but to make him eat twenty of his words:"
but is wanting in all the old copies. Warburton proposed
plenty for "twenty," but without the slightest necessity, and
the manuscript-corrector supports no such change.
ઃઃ
SCENE IV.
P. 380. Falstaff enters singing, according to a manuscript
stage-direction, and it might be gathered from the fragment
of the ballad printed. On the same authority, he sings,
"Your broaches, pearls, and owches," as the fragment of
another ballad. In his preceding speech, he addresses the
words, "Grant that, my poor virtue, grant that," to Doll
Tearsheet; but the old corrector alters "poor" to pure, used
ironically, which very likely was the poet's word. The folios,
after Falstaff's speech ending, "to venture upon the charged
chambers bravely," omit what Doll says, according to the
quarto, "Hang yourself, you muddy conger, hang yourself;"
and, excepting the two last words, the manuscript-corrector
has duly inserted them with the proper prefix. It is to be
remarked, however, that when, on p. 384, Falstaff exclaims,
"No more, Pistol," &c., as it stands only in the quarto, that
speech is not added by the corrector to the folio, 1632. In
this respect his practice was by no means consistent; and,
possibly, whatever authority he may have had, whether acted
before him, or read by him, was inconsistent also.
P. 389. Instead of "lisping to his master's old tables, his
note-book," the plausible emendation is, "clasping to his
old tables," &c. Table-books had formerly clasps, and Bar-
dolph was embracing and dallying with the Hostess, as part
of the by-play of the scene.
248
[ACT IV.
THE SECOND PART OF
ACT III. SCENE I.
P. 394. Two corrections, the second adopted by some com-
mentators, the first not thought of by them, are introduced
in the folio, 1632, into the King's soliloquy upon sleep. The
first is in the poor line,-
"Under the canopies of costly state
which we are told to read,——
"Under high canopies of costly state."
When "high" was spelt hie, as was not unfrequent of old,
the misprint might easily have been made, and high adds
considerably to the force of the expression. The second cor-
rection occurs lower down, where "clouds" is erased with a
pen, and shrowds written at the side. It has been a much
debated point among editors, which was the authentic word,
"clouds" or shrouds, and this emendation may serve to settle
the question.
P. 395. The corrector of the folio, 1632, did not add, from
the quarto, the four lines, within brackets, in the middle of
King Henry's speech. A leaf, paged respectively 87 and 88,
is deficient in the corrected folio of 1632.
ACT IV. SCENE I.
P. 409. The folio, 1632, in the line,-
"Here doth he wish his person, with such powers," &c.,
misprints "here" how; but the error (not committed in the
folio, 1623) is removed by the old corrector. Lower down,
at the end of Mowbray's speech, he points out a curious
blunder, arising, in all likelihood, from mishearing on the
part of the scribe, which has been the occasion of several
notes. In old and modern impressions the line has thus been
printed:-
"Let us sway on, and face them in the field.”
Johnson truly says that he had never seen "sway" used in this
SC. I.]
249
KING HENRY IV.
sense, and Steevens takes the trouble to insert several quota-
tions in which "sway" is found, but always in its ordinary
meaning, so that they rather prove Johnson's position. The
plain truth is, that the copyist ought to have written different
words, having the same sound, viz. :-
"Let's away on, and face them in the field."
We need have no hesitation in at once admitting this change
of the received text.
P. 410. This part of the play is extremely ill printed in
every old copy, blunders having been continued from one to
the other, some of which have never been detected, except-
ing by the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632. West-
moreland says to Scroop:-
"If that rebellion
Came like itself in base and abject routs,
Led on by bloody youth, guarded with rage,
And countenanc'd by boys and beggary," &c.
For "guarded with rage," we must read "guarded (i. e. orna-
mented, used ironically) with rags," which is quite consistent
with the rest of the passage. Again, nearer the end of the
same speech, glaves or glaives is misprinted "graves ;" and the
last line of what Westmoreland says, is thus given in the folio,
1623 :-
"To a loud trumpet and a point of war."
Here "point of war" can have no meaning; but the close
of the passage, in which the noble envoy from the King re-
proaches the Archbishop for abandoning his profession and
raising the standard of rebellion, ought to be thus printed in
future:-
"Turning your books to glaives, your ink to blood,
Your pens to lances, and your tongue divine,
To a loud trumpet and report of war.
The folio, 1632, makes the matter worse by putting low for
"loud" of the folio, 1623. In "Richard III.,” Act IV. Scene
IV., we have the expression, "the clamorous report of war."
P. 412. It may be fit to state that the corrector of the
folio, 1632, does not notice the lines from the quarto, which
are marked as omitted, nor does he at all clear up the difficulty
regarding the Archbishop's speech, in reply to Westmore-
250
[ACT IV.
THE SECOND PART OF
land's question, why he in particular had joined the rebellion.
On the preceding page "quiet there" is amended to “quiet
chair" with apparent reason.
P. 415. There is an undeniable error in the subsequent
lines, at the end of Scroop's speech :-
"So that this land, like an offensive wife
That hath enrag'd him on to offer strokes,
As he is striking, holds his infant up,
And hangs resolv'd correction in the arm
That was uprear'd to execution."
;
To whom can "him" refer? Indisputably to the husband
and the line in which it occurs ought to run as follows, as we
learn from the manuscript-corrector:-
"That hath enrag'd her man to offer strokes," &c.
Her man, in some way, either by mishearing or misprint,
became "him on." This was easy, when "man
nounced mon.
SCENE II.
""
was pro-
P. 417. The conclusion of Prince John's reproof to the
Archbishop has generally stood thus :—
"You have taken up,
Under the counterfeited zeal of heaven,
The subjects of heaven's substitute," &c.
The quarto, published before the act of James I., has God for
heaven," but the error lies in "zeal" for seal :—
"Under the counterfeited seal of heaven"
must be the true reading, and "zeal" is converted into seal
by the corrector of the folio, 1632. The "seal divine,” which
Scroop was charged with counterfeiting, has been before men-
tioned by Westmoreland on p. 411.
SCENE III.
P. 421. Falstaff's joke, such as it is, upon Sir John Cole-
vile of the Dale, has been lost by a strange misprint of
"place" for dale, twice in the ensuing quotation: "Colevile
shall be your name, a traitor your degree, and the dungeon
your place a place deep enough; so shall you be still
Colevile of the Dale.' "Place" in both instances, ought to
have been dale, "and the dungeon your dale-a dale deep
"}
SC. IV.]
251
KING HENRY IV.
enough," &c. The manuscript-corrector has substituted dale
for both "places.”
SCENE IV..
P. 429. The manuscript stage-direction after the line,-
"O me! come near me, now I am much ill,"
is not swoons, as in modern editions, but falls back, we may
suppose, into the arms of the Dukes of Gloucester and
Clarence: the old printed copies are without any note of the
kind; and, just before, when Westmoreland and Harcourt
bring news, and deliver written accounts of it to the King,
it is left to be inferred that they did so; but, lest any mis-
take should be made by the performers, and they should not
be prepared with the necessary documents, the old corrector,
in both cases, writes in the margin, Gives a paper. After-
wards, when the King desires his nobles to bear him into
some other chamber, the audience was left to imagine a
change of apartment, for the simple stage-direction is, Put the
K. a-bed; and soon afterwards Prince Henry comes in, and
takes away the crown.
P. 431. In note 8 it is conjectured that "rigol" might be
a misprint for ringol, both here and in "Lucrece," where
Shakespeare also uses it. However this may be, it is certain
that the corrector of the folio, 1632, here converts "rigol"
into ringol, by putting n in the margin, and such was, possibly,
the original mode of spelling the word. Steevens was not
aware "that it was used by any other author than Shakes-
peare," but Middleton, his contemporary, applies the com-
pound "rigol-eyed" to the round eyes of young women, in his
"Black Book," 1604, which has been strangely misunder-
stood wriggle-eyed, a word that can have no meaning.
P. 436. For "win," in the subsequent line,-
"That thou might'st win the more thy father's love,”
the folios have joyne, for which misprint it is easy to ac-
count, when we recollect that "win" was of old often spelt
wynne. The old corrector strikes out joyne in favour of
win," or, as he writes it, winne. In the quarto, 1600, it is
spelt "win."
CC
252
[ACT V.
THE SECOND PART OF
P. 437. The expression, "for what in me was purchas'd,”
the manuscript-corrector changes to "for what in me was
purchase," i.e. booty, (in reference to the lawless manner in
which Henry had possessed himself of the crown,) a meaning
constantly given to the word by our poet and his contempo-
raries; the verb, to purchase, was, we believe, never used in
this sense. Lower down, doubts have arisen whether, in the
following line, the first "thy" ought not to be my :
"And all thy friends, which thou must make thy friends,"
because afterwards the King observes,—
I cut them off."
"Which to avoid
The old corrector tells us to read, " And all my friends,” and
"I cut some off;" which seems right, inasmuch as Henry
adds, that it had been his intention, if his health had per-
mitted, to lead others, whom he had not cut off, to the Holy
Land,
"Lest rest and lying still might make them look
Too near unto my state."
ACT V. SCENE I.
P. 441. The folios all have, "and he shall laugh with in-
tervallums," instead of "without intervallums," which is the
text of the quarto, and to which the passage is restored by a
manuscript-correction. All the characters in the scene are
marked as entering at its commencement; but Silence is not
at all engaged in it, and Davy does not come in until twice
called by his master.
SCENE III.
P. 452. It was probably intended that Pistol, in his joy at
the accession of Henry V., should end this scene with a
couplet, but it closes as follows:
"Where is the life that late I led,' say they;
Why here it is: welcome these pleasant days.”
The change required is only, "welcome this pleasant day,” to
which the old corrector alters the line: he also underscores
sc. III.]
253
KING HENRY IV.
it as a quotation, and we may feel assured that it was part of
the same popular ballad mentioned by Petruchio in "The
Taming of the Shrew," Act. IV. Scene I. vol. iii. p. 168.
P. 458. In the second paragraph of the "Epilogue" by one
that can dance (as we are informed in a manuscript parenthe-
sis), the word "forgiven," of the folio, 1623, is forgotten in that
of 1632, but corrected in manuscript; and after the speaker
had knelt down "to pray for the Queen," it is clear that he
rose again in order to treat the audience with a dance, for the
old corrector adds these words, quite at the close and in
a new line, End with a dance. The conjecture, therefore,
hazarded in note 2, is, so far, not supported.
KING HENRY V.
P. 465. In the folios, the thirty-four introductory lines are
headed, "Enter Prologue," but the corrector of the folio,
1632, has altered the title thus, "Enter Chorus as Prologue.”
In the body of the play, the speaker of the interlocutory de-
scriptions is called "Chorus," and the same at the end,
where we have "Chorus" above what was clearly meant as
the Epilogue: the corrector has, therefore, thus amended the
heading in the last instance, "Enter Chorus as Epilogue."
In the eighteenth line, "imaginary" has the last syllable
altered, but a water-stain in the margin of the folio, 1632,
prevents our being able to distinguish what was intended:
imaginative may be the proper word, as Johnson states, but it
could hardly be Shakespeare's.
ACT I. SCENE II.
P. 471. In the long speech of the Archbishop, in defence
of Henry's title to France, those parts which relate espe-
cially to the succession of the Kings of France, in connexion
with the salique law, and which were almost verbatim de-
rived from Holinshed, are struck out with a pen, as if they
would not have been well relished by a popular audience, and
might be (and probably were) dispensed with in the perform-
ance of the play. Nevertheless, the corrections are carried
throughout, and near the bottom of p. 472,-
"To find his title with some shows of truth,"
is not altered to "to fine his title," as in Malone, &c., but to
"to found his title," which, on some accounts, may be con-
sidered the better reading.
KING HENRY V.
255
P. 475. The King, speaking of Scotland, says,-
"Who hath been still a giddy neighbour to us.”
The old corrector inserts greedy for "giddy:" either word will
suit the place, whether we suppose Henry to mean that Scot-
land has been an unsteady neighbour, or a rapacious one,
anxious to seize all opportunities of pillaging England. Greedy
seems rather better adapted to the context, but the printed
copies are uniformly in favour of "giddy."
Lower down, we need have less doubt regarding the altera-
tion of an important word:-
"The King of Scots, whom she did send to France
To fill King Edward's fame with prisoner kings."
The manuscript-correction here is train for "fame.”
P. 476. In the subsequent passage,—
'Playing the mouse in absence of the cat,
To tear and havoc more than she can eat,"
""
the folios have tame, and the quartos spoil, for "tear." "Tear,"
which was conjecturally placed in the text, is supported by an
emendation in the folio, 1632, where teare for "tame is
written in the margin.
>>
In the next line but one, the old corrector seems to have
taken "crush'd" in the sense of compelled; while for "but,"
of the old copies, he has substituted not, a misprint of the
most frequent occurrence:
"Yet that is not a crush'd necessity," &c.
In the penultimate of this page, for "sorts," the plausible
alteration is state :-
"They have a king and officers of state."
Just above, for" act of order," the more than plausible change
is, "art of order."
P. 477. The line, as it has always been printed,—
"Come to one mark; as many ways meet in one town,”
is obviously overloaded, and the corrector of the folio, 1632,
gives it, with the context, thus:-
"As many arrows, loosed several ways,
Come to one mark; as many ways unite;
As many fresh streams meet in one salt sea," &c.
256
[ACT I.
KING HENRY V.
Thus the repetition of the word "meet," in two succeeding
lines, is avoided; but it may still be a question, whether
Shakespeare might not wish here to vary the regularity of
his lines by interposing one of twelve syllables. Two lines
lower, "And in one purpose," is amended to "End in one
purpose," precisely the same literal error that was committed
in "All's Well that Ends Well," vol. ii. p. 252. See also
p. 161 of this vol.
P. 479. From two stage-directions it appears that the tun
of tennis balls, sent by the Dauphin, was exhibited and
opened by Exeter on the stage, in sight of the audience:
Show it, and Open it, are written in the margin of the folio,
1632.
A striking change is made in some lines where Henry
refers to his intended visit to his kingdom of France, which
he affects to prefer to that of England :—
"I will keep my state,
Be like a king, and show my sail of greatness,
When I do rouse me in my throne of France."
The word "sail" here has little meaning, even metaphorically,
and will certainly seem to have less when we mention the
word proposed in the place of it :-
"I will keep my state,
Be like a king, and show my soul of greatness,
When I do rouse me in my throne of France."
We cannot believe that this emendation will be disputed: it
is that of the corrector of the folio, 1632, who just afterwards
tells us to read "For here I have laid by" instead of "For
that I have laid by."
P. 480. In the following, as in many other instances, the
substitution of a single letter makes a great improvement.
The King is urging the utmost expedition of preparation for
the invasion of France, and, as the passage has invariably
been printed, he says,-
"Therefore, let our proportions for these wars
Be soon collected, and all things thought upon
That may with reasonable swiftness add
More feathers to our wings."
Now "reasonable swiftness" was not at all what he wished,
but instant dispatch; and we ought indubitably to read,-
ACT II.]
257
KING HENRY V.
"That may with seasonable swiftness add
More feathers to our wings."
The greater the speed, the more seasonable for the purpose of
the speaker.
ACT II.
P. 480. In the third line of the Chorus, we are told to
read, not "Now thrive the armourers," &c., but "Now strive
the armourers," &c., in reference to the patriotic exertions they
were making in preparations for the army about to embark at
Southampton. This, we feel convinced, was the poet's word,
who was not at all contemplating the profit the armourers
would reap from the expedition :-
"Now strive the armourers, and honour's thought
Reigns solely in the breast of every man."
P. 481. Pope completed a defective line in the Chorus as
follows:
"Th' abuse of distance, while we force a play."
"While we" is in no ancient copy; and the old corrector of
the folio, 1632, informs us that the words wanting were not
those, for he puts it,—
"Th' abuse of distance, and so force a play."
SCENE I.
P. 482. In Nym's speech, the words, "there shall be
smiles," are altered to, "there shall be smites," i. e. blows,
which exactly accords with Farmer's suggestion; and smites,
he adds, is used in this way in the midland counties of
England.
of
In Nym's next speech, at the top of the next page, the
old corrector has "tired jade," instead of "tired name
the folios. The quartos read "tired mare," which is unques-
tionably to be preferred to name, and, probably, to jade.
SCENE II.
P. 488. By too earnest an anxiety to follow the old copies,
an evident misprint, which could nevertheless be reconciled
$
258
[ACT 11.
KING HENRY V.
to fitness by ingenuity, has been preserved. It is in one of
the King's speeches at Southampton, ordering the enlarge-
ment of a drunkard who had railed on him, and the passage
has always been thus printed :-
"It was excess of wine that set him on,
And on his more advice, we pardon him."
Our is substituted for "his," in the folio, 1632; it was on
the King's "more advice," and not on that of the prisoner,
that he was to be set at liberty. On the same page, the
King inquires, as it has always stood,-
"Who are the late commissioners?"
which has been strained by Mason to mean, who are the
"lately appointed commissioners ?" but the old corrector
shows that "late commissioners" was a misprint, or a mis-
hearing for "state commissioners "the commissioners who
were to be in charge of the state during the absence of the
King in France. Henry's imperfect line of reproof to Lord
Scroop,--
"O, let us yet be merciful,"
is finished by the words my lord in the margin.
SCENE III.
a
P. 493. We are sorry to be obliged to part with Theobald's
fanciful emendation in Mrs. Quickly's description of the death
of Falstaff, "for his nose was as sharp as a pen, and a'
babbled of green fields," founded upon the following words
in the old copies, never understood, and containing two mis-
prints, which we shall point out presently on the authority of
the corrector of the folio, 1632-"for his nose was as sharp
as a pen and a table of green fields." The mention of "
pen" and "a table," might have led to the detection of the
error: writing-tables were, no doubt, at that period as now,
often covered with green cloth; and it is to the sharpness
of a pen, as seen in strong relief on a table so covered, that
Mrs. Quickly likens the nose of the dying wit and philoso-
pher-" for his nose was as sharp as a pen on a table of
green frieze." The emendation is on for "and," and frieze
for "fields;" and it is found in the margin of the folio, 1632.
Pope's ridiculous suggestion respecting "a table of Green-
fields;" whom he supposed (there is no extraneous syllable to
ACT III.]
259
KING HENRY V.
countenance the notion) to have been the property man of
the theatre, has long been exploded. It may be thought to
make it more probable that "table" was the true word, be-
cause it is printed with a capital letter in the folios.
SCENE IV
P. 497. We cannot hesitate to believe that the line,-
"Whiles that his mountain sire, on mountain standing,"
is corrupt; and a manuscript-correction in the folio, 1632,
shows that it ought to be read, in accordance with a previous
line, descriptive of the same persons and scene, on p. 474,—
"Whiles that his mighty sire, on mountain standing," &c.
The copyist or the printer blundered, and put "mountain'
twice over in the same line.
وو
ACT III.
P. 500. In the Chorus, describing the embarkation and
sailing of Henry V. from Southampton, we read,—
"Behold the threaden sails,
Borne with th' invisible and creeping wind,
Draw the huge bottoms through the furrow'd sea.”
It is true that, in a certain sense, the sails of a ship may be
said to be "borne" by the wind; but the old corrector sup-
plies us with a word which, as it is more picturesque, as well
as more appropriate, we may with some confidence attribute
to the poet :-
"Behold the threaden sails,
Blown with th' invisible and creeping wind,
Draw the huge bottoms through the furrow'd sea."
SCENE II.
P. 503. It is evident, from mere perusal, that the frag-
ments of ballads quoted by Pistol and the Boy, in the begin-
ning of this scene, are imperfectly given. Without thinking
it necessary here to quote the ordinary text, we will subjoin
the manner in which the dialogue, containing the extracts,
8 2
260
[ACT III.
KING HENRY V.
ought to be conducted, according to the old corrector of the
folio, 1632:-
"Pistol. The plain song is most just, for humours do abound:
Knocks go and come
To all and some,
God's vassals feel the same,
And sword and shield
In bloody field
Do win immortal fame.
Boy. Would I were in an alehouse in London! I would give all my
fame for a pot of ale and safety.
Pistol. And I
Boy.
If wishes would prevail with me,
My purpose should not fail with me,
But thither would I now.
And as duly,
But not as truly,
As bird doth sing on bough."
It will be easy to compare the above with the words as
usually printed, and there can be little doubt that the old cor-
rector had access to some means of information which we do
not now possess. We give the words he supplies in Italics,
but the whole appears as prose in the folios, and there is no
trace of it in the quarto editions. The metre is not more
irregular than that which often belongs to ballads.
SCENE III.
P. 507. The second folio absurdly has,—
Array'd in games like to the prince of friends,"
instead of "array'd in flames" of the first folio; but the old
corrector makes them agree. On the next page he corrects
"Desire the locks," as it stands in both folios, to "Defile
the locks," which was Pope's manifest improvement.
SCENE IV.
P. 509. This entire French scene, between Katharine and
her female attendant, is struck out by the corrector of the
folio, 1632, who did not venture to offer any changes in the
many misprints.
P. 512. In the last line but one "knights" is substituted
for "kings," which was Theobald's proposal; but in the next
ACT IV.]
261
KING HENRY V.
line there is another error, which did not strike him, viz.
seats," which the old corrector converts into states.
((
SCENE VI,
P. 516. Gower is speaking of counterfeit and begging
soldiers, who pretend to have seen great service, and observes
of them, that they study perfectly military phrases, “which
they trick up with new-tuned oaths." For "new-tuned
oaths," the old corrector assures us, with every appearance of
truth, that we should read "new-coined oaths."
SCENE VII.
P. 519. The Dauphin, vehement in praise of his horse,
exclaims, "He bounds from the earth as if his entrails were
hairs," which Warburton explains by an allusion to tennis-
balls, which were stuffed with hair; but the apparent mis-
print in the folios was occasioned by the wrong use of the
aspirate, for a marginal note in the folio, 1632, substitutes
air for "hairs," and therefore reads, "He bounds from the
earth, as if his entrails were air."
ACT IV. SCENE I.
P. 528. A question has arisen whether Fluellen's injunc-
tion to Gower ought to be to "speak fewer," as it stands in
the old copies, or to "speak lower," according to the or-
dinary phrase. The manuscript-corrector alters "fewer" to
lower.
P. 533. A line in the King's soliloquy,—
“What is thy soul of adoration?"
has hitherto presented insurmountable difficulties to the
commentators. Henry is descanting upon the vanity of
regal accompaniments, maintaining that ceremony is all that
distinguishes a monarch from a subject; and, apostrophising
ceremony, he asks,—
"What are thy rents? what are thy comings in ?
O ceremony! show me but thy worth!
What is thy soul of adoration?"
262
[ACT IV.
KING HENRY V.
The old corrector points out this last line as having been
misprinted; and reading it as follows, the whole dispute
between Johnson, Steevens, and Malone, seems at an end:-
"O ceremony! show me but thy worth:
What is thy soul but adulation?”
which is strongly supported by the whole context, and es-
pecially by two lines that follow almost immediately:
"Think'st thou the fiery fever will go out
With titles blown from adulation?"
Therefore, the answer, when Henry asks what is the worth of
ceremony, is what he himself supplies, that the soul of cere-
mony is nothing but adulation.
P. 534. We may probably accept the next emendation in
the same soliloquy. The King is comparing the happiness
and sound slumbers of a slave with the restless nights of
a king: the former, according to the universally received
text,-
"Gets him to rest, cramm'd with distressful bread;
but if the bread he ate were "distressful," if it were earned
with misery and suffering, the simile would not hold; so
that we may infer that "distressful" was not Shakespeare's
word. If we may trust a manuscript-correction in the folio,
1632, the epithet was misprinted, and we ought to read,
"Gets him to rest, cramm'd with distasteful bread;"
that is to say, bread which was abundant, and well relished
by the humble, but which from its coarseness, would be dis-
tasteful to kings and princes.
SCENE III.
P. 542. A passage in which the King supposes that the
dead bodies of the English, left in France, will putrefy and
infect the air, and thus pursue their enmity to the in-
habitants, has never been properly understood, because never
properly worded: it has been thus given in ancient as well
as modern editions:-
"Mark, then, abounding valour in our English &
That, being dead, like to the bullet's grazing,
Break out into a second course of mischief,
Killing in relapse of mortality."
sc. vI.]
263
KING HENRY V.
The simile of the bullet's glancing from one object, which it
destroys, to another, which it also wounds, shows that we
ought not to read "abounding," but "rebounding valour" of
the English; and that, instead of "relapse," which ill suits
the rhythm of the line, we ought to read reflex, in allusion
to the power of the bullet to injure, when reflected backward
from the object first struck. The four lines, therefore, ought
to be printed in this manner:—
“Mark, then, rebounding valour in our English,
That, being dead, like to the bullet's grazing,
Break out into a second course of mischief,
Killing in reflex of mortality."
Theobald printed "a bounding valour," and saw the meaning
of the poet, as far as that word is concerned, though he did
not give the right emendation; but Malone poorly imagined
that "abounding" was only to be taken as abundant; and
neither of them had any notion that "relapse
relapse" was a mis-
print for reflex. Both these changes are made by the cor-
rector of the folio, 1632.
P. 543. Henry tells Montjoy, as the line has been tauto-
logously and prosaically printed,-
"I fear thou wilt once more come again for a ransom.”
The old corrector gives it thus unobjectionably:-
"I fear thou wilt once more come here for ransom.
P. 546. The old corrector instructs us to read, not "Let us
die:-in," &c., but
“Let us not fly :-in! Once more back again,"
which gives us both improved measure and meaning.
SCENE VI.
P. 548. Exeter giving a description of the deaths of York
and Suffolk, speaking of the former, says, as the text has
been always repeated,-
"In which array, brave soldier, doth he lie,
Larding the plain."
Steevens illustrates the word "larding" by a passage in
Henry IV. Part I. Act II.. Scene II, where it is humorously
264
[ACT V.
KING HENRY V.
said of Falstaff that he "lards the lean earth as he walks
along." No quotation could well be less apposite: Falstaff
larded the lean earth by the perspiration which fell from his
huge carcase; but it is no where said that the Duke of York
was obese, nor have we any reason to suppose that it might
be appropriately said of him after death that he "larded the
plain;" the true word is thus given in manuscript :-
“In which array, brave soldier, doth he lie
Loading the plain."
In the "Tempest," Act I. Scene II., we have seen loaded mis-
printed "lorded."
SCENE VII.
P. 551. Montjoy, the herald, after the battle comes to ask
leave on behalf of the French to select and bury their dead;
but hitherto the line has been given as if he asked leave to
"book" the dead, and as if the French had been in a condition,
after their disastrous defeat, to take and note down on paper
a particular account of the loss. The fact is, that look, in the
sense of search for, or select, has been misprinted "book :".
"I come to thee for charitable licence,
That we may wander o'er this bloody field,
To look our dead, and then to bury them."
The manuscript-corrector merely altered the first letter of
"book ;" and the use of look, as above, is frequent in all our
old writers. It was an English herald who made out a state-
ment of the killed, wounded, and prisoners on both sides,
and afterwards presented it to the King.
ACT V.
P. 559. In the Chorus which opens this Act, the first
words are altered from "Vouchsafe to those," to "Vouchsafe
all those ;" and in the next line, instead of "and of such as
have,” we are told to read, "and for such as have.” A more
material change was made when the celebrated lines, which
relate to the return of the Earl of Essex from Ireland, were
struck out. We may easily believe that they would be dis-
tasteful after that nobleman's execution, but we may presume
SC. II.]
265
KING HENRY V.
that they were not recited in the time of the corrector of the
folio, 1632, if only because they could then have no applica-
tion. They form, however, one of the least disputable, as well
as one of the most important, notes of time to be found in any
of the plays of our great dramatist.
SCENE II.
P. 565. The Duke of Burgundy, in the course of his long
harangue, asks why peace should not, as formerly, in France,-
“put up her lovely visage?”
An awkward phrase arising, perhaps, from the misprint of
one short word for another, and the manuscript-corrector
therefore has,-
"Should not in this best garden of the world,
Our fertile France, lift up her lovely visage?"
This change may, nevertheless, have been proposed as a mere
matter of taste.
P. 567. A trifling error of the press has been committed
in the last line of the speech of the French King, in reply
to Henry's request that he would answer, whether he re-
fused or accepted the articles of peace proposed. As always
printed, the passage has stood,—
"We will suddenly
Pass our accept, and peremptory answer."
"Pass our accept" seems to have been taken for "pass our
acceptance;" but what the French King intends to say is,
that, after further consideration, he will either pass by
articles to which he may object, or accept others which seem
admissible: he says,-
"Pleaseth your grace
To appoint some of your council presently
To sit with us once more, with better heed
To re-survey them, we will suddenly
Pass, or accept, and peremptory answer."
The blunder here was merely "our" for or, and this use of
the word "pass
"" was not uncommon.
A few lines lower,
we may feel sufficiently assured that the line,-
"Shall see advantageable for our dignity,"
266
KING HENRY V.
was written by the poet,-
“Shall see advantage för our dignity;”
and, accordingly, able, at the end of the word, is erased by
the corrector of the folio, 1632.
P. 571. The corner of the leaf, containing the interview
between Henry V. and Katharine, has been torn away, and
there is here only one emendation that demands notice: it
occurs not far from the end of the scene, where the King ob-
serves, "I dare not swear thou lovest me; yet my blood begins
to flatter me thou dost, notwithstanding the poor and untem-
pering effect of my visage." Warburton's note is "Certainly
untempting," and he was right, for a marginal correction
directs us to read untempting for "untempering."
P. 573. All the folios have, "girdled with maiden walls,
that war hath entered," a negative having been accidentally
omitted; modern editors have invariably inserted "never;"
but, although the difference is not material, the true word
was probably not, "that war hath not entered," because the
old corrector places it in the margin.
THE FIRST PART
OF
KING HENRY VI.
ACT I. SCENE I.
Vol. v. P. 7. In the sixth line of the first speech in this
play,-
66
King Henry the fifth, too famous to live long,"
the word "king" seems merely injurious surplusage, and
the old corrector, we may presume, had sufficient reason for
erasing it.
P. 9. The subsequent imperfect couplet closes Bedford's ad-
dress, just before the entrance of the Messenger:-
"A far more glorious star thy soul will make,
Than Julius Cæsar on bright
Johnson proposed to fill the blank with Berenice, which, in
any point of view, could hardly be right. Malone was of
opinion that the blank had been left, because the copyist
could not read the name: it is improbable that the copyist
could not read the name, and still more improbable, that,
even if he could not read it, he would have hesitated in
putting down something, whether right or wrong. The cor-
rector of the folio, 1632, wrote Cassiope in the margin, which,
as far as regards the measure, answers the purpose; but from
whence he derived the information, it is impossible to conjec-
ture: he therefore reads,
"Than Julius Cæsar on bright Cassiopé."
J
268
[ACT I.
THE FIRST PART OF
+
P. 10. In the following line, the folio, 1632, omits an im-
portant word,
'Reignier, duke of Anjou, doth take his part."
The old corrector inserted "take," which, perhaps, he found
in the folio, 1623: at all events, it was not necessary for him
to go to any other authority for it, if even to that.
P. 12. The passage has always created a difficulty, where it
is said of Sir John Fastolfe,-
"He being in the vaward, plac'd behind," &c.
which is a contradiction in terms, unless we suppose, with
Mason, that the English army being attacked from behind,
the rear became the van. A manuscript-correction makes it
likely that "vaward” was a misprint for rearward :—
"He being in the rearward, plac'd behind
With purpose to relieve and follow them."
P. 13. The ensuing emendation is one of those which may
have been introduced as a mere matter of taste, although it
is more likely that cause should have been the poet's word,
considering how ill "make" sounds in the place where it
occurs:
"Ten thousand soldiers with me I will take,
Whose bloody deeds shall make all Europe quake."
The old corrector erases "make," and substitutes cause.
It was Mason's excellent proposal, that the Bishop of Win-
chester should say, at the end of this scene,-
"The King from Eltham I intend to steal,
And sit at chiefest stern of public weal.”
The old copies have invariably,-
"The King from Eltham I intend to send;'
but there is little doubt that a rhyme was meant, and that
the copyist or compositor caught the termination of "send"
from the preceding verb. The corrector of the second folio
wrote steal in the margin, and struck out "send;" and we
shall see hereafter that in several other places he restores
rhymes, which had either been obscured by corruption, or,
possibly, changed, because audiences in his time did not so
well relish the recurrence of same-sounding words.
SC. II.]
269
KING HENRY VI.
SCENE II.
P. 14. When the Dauphin observes, in reference to the
melancholy state of English affairs in France,-
"At pleasure here we lie near Orleans,
Other whiles, the famish'd English, like pale ghosts,
Faintly besiege us one hour in a month;"
we may be satisfied that the second line, for the sake of
measure and meaning, ought to run,-
"The whiles the famish'd English, like pale ghosts," &c.
The correction in the folio, 1632, is precisely this; and it is
surprising that so small, so obvious, and so easy a corruption
as otherwhiles" should have remained till now in the text
of this drama.
((
Lower down in the page occurs another blunder, which has
never been noticed nor set right. The French generals
have been ridiculing the forbearance of the English in not
daring to press the siege, and at last the Dauphin declares his
determination to attack the enemy, and compel them to raise
it :-
"Sound, sound alarum! we will rush on them.
Now for the honour of the forlorn French!"
Unless he meant to speak ironically, why should he call the
French "forlorn" at the very moment of their triumph ?
"Now for the honour of the forborne French,"
is the word furnished in manuscript. The French had been
forborne by the English, because the latter were not in a
condition to press the siege. The word is printed "forlorne"
in the folios, and the old corrector had nothing more to do
than to alter the letter l to b. In the last line he puts flee
for "fly," making it rhyme with "me" in the preceding line.
P. 16. There seems no ground for preserving an evident
transposition in
"Heaven and our Lady gracious hath it pleas'd,"
instead of "our gracious Lady," as it is marked by the cor-
rector of the folio, 1632; unless, indeed, "gracious" be to be
taken as graciously.
270
[ACT I.
THE FIRST PART OF
P. 17. The following seems to have been written originally
as a rhyming couplet; it occurs at the end of the speech
where the Dauphin challenges Joan of Arc to the combat:
""
And, if thou vanquishest, thy words are true,
Otherwise I renounce all confidence.'
The last line is almost ridiculously prosaic, and the change
recommended by a note in the folio, 1632, is small, but a de-
cided improvement:-
66
'And, if thou vanquishest, thy words are true,
Or I renounce all confidence in you.”
Just afterwards the word from is supplied:
"And while I live, I'll never fly from no man ;"
"no man" rhyming to "woman" in the preceding line.
SCENE III.
P. 19. At the heads of some of the scenes in this play, we
are, rather unusually, informed of the place of action. The
corrector of the folio, 1632, tells us that this angry inter-
view between the Duke of Gloucester and Beaufort takes
place at the Tower; but it would have been more correct to
have said, near the Tower: London is also added, to show
that the scene had been removed from France. The next
scene is supposed to be in France again, and that word is
therefore placed in the margin. The second scene of Act III.
is at Rouen, or Roane, as it was spelt of old; and at the
head of the third scene we are told that the stage still
represents Roane. In the opening of this scene at the Tower
two small words, now and so, having dropped out in different
lines, they are inserted by the old corrector to the manifest
improvement of the halting verse.
SCENE IV.
P. 25. It has been ludicrously made a question by Steevens,
whether when "vile-esteem'd" is misprinted in the folios,
"pil'd esteem'd" ("vile" being frequently spelt vild in the
time of Shakespeare), the poet did not mean that Talbot
complained that he had been philistined. There is not the
slightest ground for any such notion: Shakespeare, as Malone
remarked, uses the very word "vile-esteemed " in his sonnets,
ACT II.]
271
KING HENRY VI.
and the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, states that he
also used it in the subsequent, which is the disputed line,—
“Rather than I would be so vile-esteem'd.”
P. 26. The eight lines following—
"In thirteen battles Salisbury o'ercame,"
are struck out, most likely for the purpose of shortening
Talbot's harangue. A leaf is wanting in the corrected copy
of the second folio, between p. 100 and p. 103.
}
ACT II. SCENE III.
P. 38. Talbot's imperfect line,-
“That will I show you presently,"
is completed by the corrector by the insertion of the word
lady, which may have in some way escaped from the text:-
"That will I show you, lady, presently;"
and then he winds his horn, and his soldiers appear.
re
SCENE IV.
P. 41. It is enough to state that the misprint of fashion
for "
faction," which Warburton pertinaciously refused to
correct, is set right in manuscript in the margin of the
second folio.
P. 42. The line, as constantly printed,-
“He bears him on the place's privilege,"
referring to the Temple, also appears to contain an error of
the press. Plantagenet is speaking of Somerset, and of the
insults he had offered to Suffolk; and, according to the cor-
rected folio, 1632, we ought to read,—
"He braves him on the place's privilege."
Consistently with this somewhat doubtful emendation, Plan-
tagenet, on the next page, exclaims,—
"How am I brav'd, and must perforce endure it!"
272
[ACT III.
THE FIRST PART OF
P. 43. For the line on this page—
"A thousand souls to death and deadly night,”
a
the old corrector has "Ten thousand souls," &c.; and "
thousand souls" seems a very insignificant number to be pro-
phesied on such an occasion, as likely to fall in the Wars of
the Roses.
SCENE V.
P. 47. Theobald made, and most modern editors have
adopted, a needless change in the text of the old copies, at
the conclusion of Plantagenet's soliloquy after the death of
old Mortimer :
"And therefore haste I to the Parliament,
Either to be restored to my blood,
Or make my will th' advantage of my good."
The word Theobald altered was "will," which he converted
to ill; but the mistake is in a different word, "advantage,"
which the corrector states ought to be advancer; he leaves
"will" as it stands in all old copies, and gives the last line
of the quotation thus:-
“Or make my will th' advancer of my good:"
i. e. if he be unable to procure from Parliament the reversal
of the attainder of his blood, he resolves to make his own
will the advancer of his own interests. The proposed emen-
dation of ill for "will," by Theobald, was merely arbitrary,
mainly for the sake of a fancied antithesis.
ACT III. SCENE I.
P. 49. Whether such were the case with the ensuing
emendation by the old corrector, we can only speculate from
probabilities: there are two points in its favour, viz. that
both the context and the measure of the line appear to
call for the alteration. It occurs in Winchester's answer
to Gloucester's accusation of covetousness, ambition, and
pride:-
"If I were covetous, ambitious, proud,
As he will have me, how am I so poor?'
"
The common reading is, "or perverse," for proud; but, in
SC. I.]
273
KING HENRY VI.
the first place, Gloucester has not charged the prelate so
much with perverseness, as with pride,-
"As very infants prattle of thy pride;"
and, in the next place, proud exactly fits the measure, while
"or perverse" overloads it. We may, therefore, perhaps con-
clude that the emendation in the folio, 1632, was in some
way authorised.
P. 51. The same may be said of the next emendation in
the King's appeal to Winchester, which, as ordinarily printed,
ends with these lines:-
''
"Who should be pitiful, if you be not?
Or who should study to prefer a peace,
If holy churchmen take delight in broils?"
"Pre-
For "prefer a peace," the corrector of the folio, 1632, has
preserve a peace," peace having been broken by the affray
between the adherents of Gloucester and Winchester.
fer" is spelt preferre in the old copies, and may easily have
been mistaken for preserve, when written with the long s
At the same time, it must be allowed that "prefer a peace
is perfectly intelligible, and well warranted: yet why should
the word have been changed, if it were the right one?
""
When Gloucester, just afterwards, offers Winchester his
hand, a manuscript stage-direction informs us that he scorns
it at first, but subsequently takes it.
P. 53. We need hardly doubt that the word so awkwardly
recurring in the two subsequent lines, was a misprint: it is in
Plantagenet's speech, thanking the King for restoring him to
his blood:-
Thy humble servant vows obedience
And humble service, till the point of death."
The corrector writes honour'd in the margin, instead of the
first "humble;" and, bearing in mind that Plantagenet had
just been raised again to honour by the act of grace of the
King, we may accept this representation of the text of our
author, and be disposed to read in future,—
Thy honour'd servant vows obedience
And humble service, till the point of death."
Exeter's soliloquy, at the end of the scene, is struck out, as if
not wanted.
T
274
[ACT III.
THE FIRST PART OF
t
SCENE II.
P. 57. Talbot, enraged at Joan's success in capturing
Rouen, calls her,-
"Foul fiend of France, and hag of all despite !
Hag of all despite," at least, sounds tamely, and a marginal
note in the folio, 1632, warrants us in giving the line much
increase of energy:
"Foul fiend of France, and hag of hell's despite !'
P. 59. Burgundy thus addresses Talbot:
"Warlike and martial Talbot, Burgundy
Enshrines thee in his heart."
To say that Talbot is "warlike and martial," is mere tauto-
logy, an offence of which Shakespeare is rarely guilty; and,
as the old corrector assures us that "martial" has been mis-
printed, we may gladly welcome his striking improvement
of the text:
"Warlike and matchless Talbot, Burgundy
Enshrines thee in his heart."
SCENE III.
P. 62. We give the ensuing lines as they are corrected in
the folio, 1632; it is the opening of Joan's speech to seduce
Burgundy :-
"Look on thy country, look on fertile France,
And see her cities and her towns defac'd
By wasting ruin of the cruel foe.
As looks the mother on her lovely babe,
When death doth close his tender dying eyes,
See, see, the pining malady of France.'
The common reading is "the" for her in both places, and
"lowly" for lovely: the last was Warburton's reasonable pro-
posal, which ought, we see, to have been adopted, though
opposed by Johnson, who treated lovely as a needless inno-
vation.
SCENE IV.
P. 64. The King, addressing Talbot, observes,-
ACT IV.]
275
KING HENRY VI.
"I do remember how my father said,
A stouter champion never handled sword.
Long since we were resolved of your truth," &c.
It is clear, as the old corrector instructs us, that the last line
ought to be,-
""
Long since we were resolved of that truth,”
not merely because Henry is referring to an assertion by his
father, which must be universally admitted, but because he
follows it up by a statement of the fidelity and merits of
Talbot:-
"Long since we were resolved of your truth,
Your faithful service and your toil in war.
To have first applauded Talbot's "truth," and then his
"faithful service," would have been very like mere repeti-
tion. The King alludes to the truth which his father had.
declared.
ACT IV. SCENE I.
P. 67. After Talbot has torn the Garter (in the words of the
manuscript stage-direction) from the leg of Fastolfe, he pro-
ceeds to add, that the order had been instituted to reward the
deserts of courageous warriors:-
"Not fearing death, nor shrinking from distress,
But always resolute in most extremes."
Such has been the invariable text; but we must feel, when
once it is pointed out, that there is an injurious error by the
printer in the second line:-
“But always resolute in worst extremes,"
is the word substituted in the margin of the second folio.
Lower down, we should hardly hesitate, on the same autho-
rity, to alter "pretend" to portend, when Gloucester asks,-
"Or doth this churlish superscription
Pretend some alteration of good will?"
"Pretend" need not necessarily be changed; but portend
most likely was our great dramatist's word, which he often
uses elsewhere.
T 2
276
[ACT IV.
THE FIRST PART OF
P. 68. The epithet "envious" in the following line,—
"This fellow, here, with envious carping tongue,"
is not in the folio, 1632, having, perhaps, accidentally dropped
out the old corrector inserts it; but whether he obtained it
from the folio, 1623, or from some other source, must remain
a question. The same remark applies to a line on the next
page,-
"Quiet yourselves, I pray, and be at peace,"
excepting that the corrector of the folio, 1632, inserts "I
pray" at the end, instead of in the middle, of the line:
perhaps it was so formed in the authority he may have
consulted. For "noble lord " he has "royal lord;" and for
"Such factious emulations shall arise,"
he has “still arise," which certainly accords better with the
context. A leaf (numbered 111 and 112) has been lost in
this part of the play, from the folio, 1632.
SCENE V.
P. 78. Old Talbot and his son John are contending for the
honour of keeping the field, one of them, by so doing, being
certain of destruction, and each is persuading the other to fly.
A marginal note in the folio, 1632, instructs us to read fly for
"bow" in the ensuing lines; and we can readily believe that
"bow" is a misprint, though we may not be able to account
for it: John Talbot speaks:-
"Flight cannot stain the honour you have won,
But mine it will, that no exploit have done :
You fled for vantage, every one will swear,
But if I bow, they'll say it was for fear.
There is no hope that ever I will stay,
If the first hour I shrink, and run away."
There seems no assignable reason why the poet should not
have used the word fly; and the old corrector informs us
that he did use it. When old Talbot returns mortally
wounded to the scene (p. 82), it is said, in all modern edi-
tions, that he is "supported by a servant;" the addition to
the stage-direction in the folio, 1632, has much greater pro-
priety, for he there is described as entering, led by a soldier
from the field of battle.
ACT V.]
277
KING HENRY VI.
P. 83. The folio, 1632, omits a line in Joan's speech upon
this page, viz.:
"So, rushing in the bowels of the French."
It is supplied by the corrector, perhaps from the folio, 1623;
but three lines lower he alters,-
"Of the most bloody nurser of his harms,"
by erasing "most bloody," and writing still bleeding. For the
evidently imperfect line on the next page,-
"But tell me whom thou seek'st?”
he gives the following:-
"But tell me briefly, whom thou seekest now?"
Just above, he erases "obtain'd," as surplusage, as regards
the verse and sense; but in both the last instances it is by
no means clear that Shakespeare intended his verse to be
regular. The list of Talbot's titles is struck out.
Less important variations are frequently noted in this part
of the play; and in one place we have a rhyme restored,
which, perhaps, had been lost: it is where Sir W. Lucy de-
mands the bodies of the Talbots, the usual reading being,-
"Give me their bodies, that I may bear them hence,
And give them burial, as beseems their worth."
The couplet is thus amended:-
"Give me their bodies, that I bear them forth,
And give them burial, as beseems their worth."
This change occurs near the close of the Act, where the
rhymes are numerous. Very is inserted before "ashes," com-
pleting a defective line, while, just below, "with them is
erased as surplusage.
""
ACT V. SCENE I.
P. 86. For "our Christian blood," in Gloster's speech, the
corrector of the folio, 1632, has "much Christian blood;"
and, lower down, where the Protector recommends the mar-
riage of Henry to the daughter of the Earl of Armagnac, it
is said in all the old copies, that that nobleman is "near knit
278
[ACT V.
THE FIRST PART OF
to Charles," instead of "near kin to Charles," as we find it
in the margin, quite consistently with what Gloster says
afterwards, that Armagnac is "near kinsman unto Charles."
Neither emendation is necessary, though both may be expe-
dient.
SCENE III.
P. 90. The introduction to this scene (after the Fiends
have vanished) is erroneous in the early impressions, for they
represent Burgundy as fighting with La Pucelle, whereas
York ought to contend with her. A correction in the folio,
1632, sets this matter right, and adds, what is wanting in
modern, as well as ancient, editions, that York overcomes
Joan. In the previous interview between Joan and her pre-
ternatural agents, she says, not that they are "cull'd" out of
the regions under the earth, but call'd out of those regions:
the mistake seems obvious, but "cull'd" is defensible.
Capel was justified in transposing three lines near the
bottom of this page, where Suffolk lays his hands “gently on
the tender side" of Margaret, and afterwards kisses her
fingers. The old corrector always indicates an error of this
kind by figures, and 1, 2, 3, in the margin instructs us to
read Suffolk's speech thus:—
"For I will touch thee but with reverent hands,
And lay them gently on thy tender side..
I kiss these fingers for eternal peace, &c. [kissing.”
In the old copies the second line is the third, and the third
the second.
P. 91. Much of Suffolk's speech is in rhyme; and when he
exclaims, as Margaret is about to depart,—
“O, stay !—I have no power to let her pass;
My hand would free her, but my heart says-no,"
we might be tolerably certain, even without the correction
in the margin of the folio, 1632, that the lines were originally
thus written :—
"O, stay!—I have no power to let her go;
My hand would free her, but my heart says-no."
The two last lines of this speech have given great trouble to
the commentators, which would have been avoided had they
been able to detect the blunder, of the printer or of the copy-
SC. III.]
279
KING HENRY VI.
ist, which the corrector distinctly points out: the text in the
old editions, is this:-
"Aye; beauty's princely majesty is such,
Confounds the tongue and makes the senses rough.”
Sir Thomas Hanmer printed crouch for "rough ;" and Malone
was obliged to pass over the passage by saying that the
meaning of "rough" is not "very obvious." Read with the
aid of the marginal notes in the folio, 1632, and the obscurity
is at an end :
"Aye; beauty's princely majesty is such,
Confounds the tongue, and mocks the sense of touch."
.
Here, again, who is to determine whether the preceding
emendation were derived from some good authority, or
whether it was only a lucky guess on the part of the in-
dividual through whose hands this copy of the folio, 1632,
passed? Certain it is, that not one of the many editors of
Shakespeare was ever so fortunate as to stumble on the
meaning, which is thus rendered obvious, while, at the same
time, the intended rhyme is preserved: the princely majesty
of beauty confounded the power of speech, and mocked all
who dared attempt to touch it.
P. 92. By the same authority we are assured that another
portion of this scene between Suffolk and Margaret is es-
pecially corrupt. We will first give the text as represented
in all editions, and follow it by the text as recommended in
manuscript-corrections:-
"Marg. Tush! women have been captivate ere now.
Suff. Lady, wherefore talk you so?
Marg. I cry you mercy, 'tis but quid for quo.
Suff.
Say, gentle princess, would you not suppose
Your bondage happy, to be made a queen?
Marg. To be a queen in bondage is more vile
Than is a slave in base servility,
For princes should be free.
Suff.
And so shall you,
If happy England's royal king be free."
All this appears to have been mangled, both as regards
meaning, metre, and rhyme. We now give this part of the
dialogue as it stands in a corrected state in the folio, 1632,
where the fitness of every thing seems restored:-
280
[ACT V.
THE FIRST PART OF
Marg. Tush! women have been captivate ere now.
Suff. Lady, pray tell me, wherefore talk you so?
Marg. I cry you mercy, 'tis but quid for quo.
Suff. Say, gentle princess, would you not then ween
Your bondage happy, to be made a queen?
Marg. A queen in bondage is more vile to me
Than is a slave in base servility,
For princes should be free.
Suff.
And so shall you,
If happy England's royal king be true.”
We have, as usual, marked by Italic type the words written
in the margin, which we are willing to think were those of
our great poet, his original language having been, almost
unaccountably, disfigured. Other portions of the same scene
are marked by the old corrector as more or less defective:
thus, according to him, Margaret says "I give consent," and
Suffolk's line is well completed by the addition of down after
coming."
66
P. 95. The suggestion thrown out in note 6, that “mad”
is to be read mid in the following passage,-
"Bethink thee on the virtues that surmount,
Mad natural graces that extinguish art,"
is fully borne out by a correction in the folio, 1632, the
meaning being, that the virtues of Margaret (with whom
Suffolk is secretly in love) are pre-eminent 'mid the natural
graces by which she is adorned.
SCENE IV.
P. 97. The new pointing of the two lines contended for in
note 9 is exactly that of the old corrector, excepting that he
places only a comma after "No."
P. 100. By the insertion of r for o, he changed "poison'd"
to prison'd, in the following passage:-
"Speak, Winchester; for boiling choler chokes
The hollow passage of my poison'd voice."
Pope printed prison'd, and appears to have arrived at the
author's meaning, though some more modern editors have
adhered to "poison'd."
THE SECOND PART
OF
KING HENRY VI.
ti
t
ACT I. SCENE I.
P. 112. A question has arisen whether to read,-
“And was his highness in his infancy
Crowned in Paris, in despite of foes?"
or as follows:—
"And hath his highness in his infancy
Been crown'd in Paris, in despite of foes?"
Some editors have given the couplet in one way, and some in
another; but the old corrector of the folio, 1632, informs us
that the last is the true reading, been having probably
dropped out at the commencement of the second line.
P. 116. York introduces a simile of pirates sharing pillage
in the presence of the owner of it,—
"While as the silly owner of the goods
Weeps over them, and wrings his hapless hands."
A correction in the folio, 1632, instructs us to erase "hap-
less" in favour of helpless, which certainly seems the fitter
epithet; but it is impossible to maintain that "hapless"
does not fit the place, and might not be the poet's word.
The allusion to Althea's brand, in four lines just below, is for
some reason struck out.
SC. IV.]
281
KING HENRY VI.
P. 101. We have here another of the many emendations
rendered necessary by the mistake of the person who wiste
by his ear the manuscript used by the printer. It is the
last of any consequence in this play, and it occurs at the
very close of the scene between the English and French
commanders, when a peace is negotiated. All parties are
agreed upon a league of amity, and York, addressing the
Dauphin, says,-
(6
Hang up your ensigns, let your drums be still,
For here we entertain a solemn peace."
The corrector of the folio, 1632, reads the last line thus:
"For here we interchange a solemn peace,”
the agreement for a peace being mutual. It cannot be said,
however, that the change is imperatively called for, though
recommended on strong presumptive evidence.
11
THE SECOND PART OF KING HENRY VI.
283
SCENE III.
P. 121. Johnson, Steevens, Tollet, and Hawkins have all
wasted time and space upon a mere error of the printer, or of
the copyist. The first Petitioner says, as has been univer-
sally represented,-
"
My masters, let's stand close: my lord protector will come this way
by and by, and then we may deliver our supplications in the quill."
The puzzle has been as to the meaning of "in the quill,” and
each of the commentators had a different notion upon the
point. The several Petitioners were to deliver their suppli-
cations to Suffolk in succession, one after another, and “the
quill" ought, indisputably, to be sequel, used ignorantly for
sequence,-
"My lord protector will come this way by and by, and then we may
deliver our supplications in sequel.”
On the next page, the beginning of Peter's second speech
is altered to "That my master was," instead of mistress, as it
stood, absurdly enough, till Tyrwhitt proposed the change,
which is fully warranted by a note in the margin of the
folio, 1632.
P. 124. According to the old corrector, Suffolk's speech to
the Queen (before the entrance of the King, &c., which is
erroneously marked in manuscript as a new scene), ought to
end in a rhyme:
"So, one by one, we will weed all the realm,
And you yourself shall steer the happy helm."
This reads easily and naturally enough; but the folios make
the first line end with "at last," very lamely and tamely. The
writer of the emendations may be thought to shew, now and
then, an old-fashioned fondness for rhyme.
P. 127. Pope was quite right in printing fast, for "far" of
the old copies, in the following line, where Buckingham is
speaking of Eleanor:-
"She'll gallop far enough to her destruction."
We find fast in the margin, and "far" struck out. The ad-
herence to "far" was, of course, occasioned by the desire, in
all possible cases, to abide by the early editions.
It may be mentioned, that in the corrected folio, 1632,
284
[ACT II.
THE SECOND PART OF
the Acts and Scenes are noted in manuscript (no such divi-
sions being made in print), and as a new scene (IV.) is made
to commence with the entrance of the King, &c., on p. 124,
another scene, numbered V., contains the incantations, &c., of
Margery Jourdain, Southwell, Bolingbroke, &c., before Eleanor.
In all modern editions this is properly represented as
SCENE IV.
P. 130. For "the silent of the night," the corrector has
"the silence of the night," which is the very word used in
the old drama from which this play was mainly taken. For
"break up their graves," he reads, "break ope their graves,"
which was also, most likely, right. Among the manuscript
stage-directions is one which shows that while Bolingbroke
questions the Spirit, raised by the Witch, Southwell writes the
answers. When the former dismisses the Spirit, called up to
ascertain and declare the truth, he exclaims, "False fiend,
avoid," the impropriety of which is evident, and the manu-
script-correction is, "Foul fiend, avoid."
ACT II. SCENE I.
P. 133. Gloster, addressing the Cardinal, says,—
“Churchmen so hot? good uncle, hide such malice ;
With such holiness can you do it."
The second line, as it stands in all the early copies, is im-
perfect and prosaic; the corrector of the folio, 1632, states
that two small words have been omitted, and his emendation
is better than either of those offered by Warburton and John-
son: he gives the two lines thus:-
"Churchmen so hot? good uncle, hide such malice;
And with such holiness you well can do it.”
SCENE III.
P. 144. The whole of what passes just before Gloster, who
has been required to give up his staff of office, quits the
scene, is in rhyme; but there is one line which has nothing
to answer to it, and we meet with the corresponding line, as
an important addition, in the margin. There are also two
ACT III.]
285
KING HENRY VI.
emendations deserving notice in the preceding speech by
Queen Margaret, and this part of the play runs as follows in
the folio, 1632, the new portions being printed, as usual, in
Italic type :-
"Q. Mar. I see no reason why a king of years
Should be protected, like a child, by peers.
God and King Henry govern England's helm.
Give up your staff, Sir, and the King his realm.
Glo. 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," &c.
There appears no sufficient reason for disbelieving that these
judicious changes and this important addition might be made
on some independent authority.
Lower down, a striking misprint occurs, and is set right by
the old corrector to the great improvement of the passage:
the couplet has always been given,—
"Thus droops this lofty pine, and hangs its sprays;
Thus Eleanor's pride dies in her youngest days."
Now, as Mason observes, "Eleanor was certainly not a young
woman;" and in order to overcome the difficulty, he com-
pelled "her" to refer to "pride," and not to Eleanor; but
the printer was in fault for mistaking the poet's word :—
"Thus Eleanor's pride dies in her proudest days,”
is a form of expression peculiarly like Shakespeare, and per-
fectly consistent with the situation and character of the
Duchess of Gloster. We owe it to the emendator.
ACT III. SCENE I.
P. 155. Malone, who was generally reluctant to vary from
the ancient editions, could not refuse to adopt an emendation
proposed by Steevens in the following passage, as it stands
in the folios:
My lord of Gloster, 'tis my special hope,
That you will clear yourself from all suspense."
Steevens printed suspects for "suspense," and the corrector of
the second folio writes suspect (not suspects) in the margin.
286
[ACT III.
THE SECOND PART OF
Nevertheless, "suspense" may be strained to a meaning, cer-
tainly not adverse to the poet's intention, though we may
feel morally sure that suspect must have come from his pen.
In subsequent parts of the scene, the Queen addresses the
peers as "Fair lords," and not " Free lords;" and York states
that he has "most reason” to wish Gloster dead.
P. 162. Regarding the next emendation, recommended in
manuscript in the folio, 1632, we need not doubt, seeing that
both sense and verse call for the alteration. It occurs in
York's soliloquy, where he congratulates himself that his
enemies are playing his game by dispatching him to Ireland
to conduct a large force against the rebels: he says, as the
passage has been amended,-
"Whiles I in Ireland march a mighty band,
I will stir up in England some black storm," &c.
The ordinary reading has been, "nourish a mighty band,"
which we may conclude was an error of the press,-
"nourish”
for march. If "nourish" could be accepted, as affording, to a
certain extent, the meaning required, it must be rejected on
the score that it mars the versification, unless we consent to
hurry over "nourish" in the time of a monosyllable.
P. 166. The whole of Margaret's speech, after "Be poi-
sonous too, and kill thy forlorn queen," is crossed out; but
various emendations are made in it notwithstanding, besides
the necessary correction of "Eleanor" to Margaret in three
different places. The change in the line, where she is speak-
ing of the violent winds which drove her back from England,
must not be passed over, inasmuch as "gentle gusts," of the
old copies, seems most properly altered in manuscript to un-
gentle gusts:-
"What did I then, but curs'd th' ungentle gusts,
And he that loos'd them from their brazen caves.”
It was because they were ungentle that the winds had been
confined in "brazen caves," and had been set at liberty in
order to drive back the ship that conveyed Margaret to Eng-
land. The whole context warrants the alteration. It ought
to be added, that Theobald's substitution near the end, of
witch for "watch," however plausible, is not authorised by
the old corrector.
ACT IV.]
287
KING HENRY VI.
P. 169. Malone observed upon the harsh expression, "to
drain" an "ocean of salt tears" on dead Humphrey's face,
and Steevens advocated rain for "drain:" the letter d is
struck out in the folio, 1632, showing that Steevens was
correct in his suspicion of a misprint. On the next page
occurs another error of the press, which only applies to the
second folio, where "But both of you were vow'd Duke
Humphrey's death," should, of course, be "Duke Humphrey's
foes:" death is erased, and "foes" placed in the margin.
On p. 171, the same edition omits "send" in the sentence,
"and send thy soul to hell," but it was inserted by the pen
of the old corrector.
P. 175. He points out a misprint here which we may
accept, although, as the word always printed in the old copies
may be said to express what was meant, we may, perhaps,
pause before we admit the change into the text. It is where
Suffolk is cursing his enemies, "Poison be their drink,'
&c. :-
"Their chiefest prospect murdering basilisks,
Their softest touch, as smart as lizards' stings."
Here we are told to read sharp for smart ;" and, inde-
pendently of greater propriety, it is unquestionable that a
careless copyist might easily miswrite or mishear the word.
At the close of the same character's speech to the Queen,
on the next page, a trifling error has been committed, in-
troducing a needless inelegance of expression, which Shakes-
peare would most likely have avoided. The text has always
been,-
"Live thou to joy thy life,
Myself no joy in nought, but that thou liv'st;"
but as amended it runs,-
"Live thou to joy thy life,
Myself to joy in nought, but that thou liv'st."
The duplication of negatives was, of course, not at all un-
usual in the time of Shakespeare, but here it seems as in-
jurious as it is needless.
ACT IV. SCENE I.
P. 180. Discussion has been produced by the subsequent
lines, as they stand in the early impressions:-
288
[ACT IV.
THE SECOND PART OF
"The lives of those which we have lost in fight
Be counterpois'd with such a petty sum.
Malone read, "Cannot be counterpois'd," &c., and Steevens,
perceiving at once that the last line had thus more than
the regular number of syllables, proposed to leave out two
small words, but without the slightest warrant, printed or
manuscript. Note 1 gives a hint of the proper emendation,
such, indeed, as we meet with it, in the shortest possible
form, in the margin of the folio, 1632: there the lines are
put thus interrogatively,-
"Can lives of those which we have lost in fight
Be counterpois'd with such a petty sum?
Surely this slight change is unobjectionable, where some
change is absolutely necessary.
P. 181. Suffolk's speech to the Captain, beginning, “Ob-
scure and lowly swain" ("lowly" is altered from lowsy, as
misprinted in the folios), in which he heaps upon him the
bitterest reproaches, contains several errors of the press, but
they are not important: in Whitmore's inquiry (p. 182), con-
sequent upon Suffolk's abuse,-
"Speak, captain, shall I stab the forlorn swain?'
there is, according to the old corrector, a gross blunder; and
certainly the epithet "forlorn," seems strangely applied: it is
much more likely that Whitmore should ask,-
"Speak, captain, shall I stab the foul-tongued slave?"
and such his question is represented to be in a manuscript note
in the folio, 1632. We cannot believe that the writer of that
note was merely indulging his taste, or exercising his fancy.
It is to be remarked that the correction of "forlorn" to foul-
tongued, is in a different ink to that which was used for the
correction of "swain" to slave. The whole of the Captain's
reply to Suffolk, excepting the first five lines, is crossed
out.
P. 184. The prefixes in this scene are confused in the folios,
especially as regards Suffolk. The line,-
Thy words move rage and not remorse in me,"
is, for some reason, erased; and Suffolk's last speech is made
to begin,-
SC. VIII.]
289
KING HENRY VI.
"Come, soldiers, show what cruelty ye can,"
undoubtedly a better distribution of the dialogue.
SCENE II.
P. 186. When Jack Cade enters, the old printed stage-
direction states that he is followed by infinite numbers, to
which the manuscript-corrector adds, the more the better, and
uproar; meaning, of course, that the rabble was to be repre-
sented on the stage as numerously and as riotously as the
means of the theatre would then allow. When Cade subse-
quently knights himself (p. 189), we are told that he kneels
and rises, and when the Staffords are killed, that he puts on
the armour of one of them.
SCENE V.
P. 195. In all printed copies this scene terminates very
flatly with a speech by Lord Scales:-
"Fight for your king, your country, and your lives!
And so farewell, for I must hence again."
It is given as follows by the corrector of the folio, 1632:-
"Fight for your king, your country, and your lives!
And so farewell: rebellion never thrives."
This rhyme may, possibly, have been a subsequent introduc-
tion, for the sake of giving more spirit to the exit of Lord
Scales, and of enforcing a loyal maxim.
SCENE VIII.
P. 202. Two blunders of some consequence are detected, by
marginal notes in the folio, 1632, in the address of Old Clifford
to the "rabblement" under Cade: he appeals to them, in all
editions, ancient and modern, in these terms:—
"What say ye, countrymen? will ye relent,
And yield to mercy, whilst 'tis offer'd you,
Or let a rabble lead you to your deaths?”
The speaker was addressing the "rabble," and would hardly
ask whether they would allow themselves to lead themselves to
their own deaths: the second misprint is, therefore, "rabble"
for rebel, meaning Cade, who was leading the rabble: the
U
290
[ACT V.
THE SECOND PART OF
first misprint is less positively wrong, but still the sense (as
well as the old corrector) tells us to read, “relent” repent :
the three lines, properly printed, will, therefore, stand thus:
"What say ye, countrymen? will ye repent,
And yield to mercy, whilst 'tis offer'd you,
Or let a rebel lead you to your deaths?"
Writers of the time may now and then have used "relent"
for repent; but "rabble" for rebel must be wrong.
SCENE IX.
P. 205. The Duke of York having suddenly returned from
Ireland, a Messenger informs the King that he is on his way
to the court,-
"And with a puissant, and a mighty power
Of Gallowglasses, and stout Kernes,
Is marching hitherward in proud array."
The first line is tautological, since a "mighty" power would
necessarily be a "puissant " power: the second line is imper-
fect, owing to the absence of two syllables; but both these
defects are remedied by the corrector of the folio, 1632:-
"And with a puissant, and united power
Of Gallowglasses, and stout Irish Kernes,
Is marching hitherward in proud array."
Most likely "a mighty" was written for united, in conse-
quence of misapprehension by the ear of the scribe: York's
power consisted of Gallowglasses and Kernes in union; and
as his Kernes were Irish, we may be confident that that
word had, in some unexplained way, escaped from the text.
ACT V. SCENE I.
P. 214. York, accused of treason, calls for his sons to bail
him; and afterwards for Salisbury and Warwick, whom he
terms his "two brave bears,"
"That with the very shaking of their chains
They may astonish these fell-lurking curs."
Steevens thought that "fell-lurking" was, in all probability,
SC. II.]
291
KING HENRY VI.
a misprint; and Heath proposed fell-lurching, and others
fell-barking as the fit compound. York has previously spoken
of the looks of Clifford and other friends of Henry, and there
is every reason to think that this correction in the folio, 1632,
is well-founded:
"That, with the very shaking of their chains
They may astonish these fell-looking curs.”
The misprint was easy, but, we believe, no editor ever guessed
at the right emendation. Just below occurs another slight,
but decided error, of the same kind, in Richard's simile of "an
over-weening cur:"-
"Who, being suffer'd with the bear's fell paw,
Hath clapp'd his tail between his legs and cried.
Here one auxiliary was used for another, for we ought
clearly to read having for "being :"
"Who, having suffer'd with the bear's fell paw," &c.
It seems strange that Malone should strive to vindicate
being," apparently without perceiving that having would at
once put an end to the difficulty.
CENE II.
P. 220. We may be disposed to believe, if only on account
of the disagreeable jingle of "hearts" and "parts" in the
same line, that Shakespeare did not write the following as it
has always been handed down to us. Young Clifford is
speaking of the total rout of King Henry's troops :—
"Uncurable discomfit
Reigns in the hearts of all our present parts."
Though "parts" may be taken as parties, yet a corruption
found its way into the text, and the corrector of the folio,
1632, informs us what it is, but he does not tell us how
the word he substitutes became mistaken for that he ex-
punges:
"Uncurable discomfit
Reigns in the hearts of all our present friends."
If the transcriber of this play for the press had written as
plain a hand as the corrector, such a blunder would not per-
haps have been committed, though we do not see how any
want of clearness could well pervert friends into "parts.'
"
U 2
292
THE SECOND PART OF KING HENRY VI.
That the one fills the place better than the other, will, pro-
bably, not be denied: neither will it be denied, by those who
have examined it, that the later portion of this play is very
incorrectly printed. As a farther proof, we may adduce the
first five lines of York's speech, at the opening of the next
scene on this page:
"Of Salisbury, who can report of him?
That winter lion, who in rage forgets
Aged contusions and all brush of time,
And, like a gallant in the brow of youth,
Repairs him with occasion.”
There appear to be at least three errors in this short passage,
two of which have been guessed at with some success by
Warburton and Johnson, though Steevens would not allow of
either. The first, but not the most important, has never been
hinted at, but is distinctly shown by a manuscript-emenda-
tion in the folio, 1632, where the extract appears in this
form:
"Old Salisbury, who can report of him?
That winter lion, who in rage forgets
Aged contusions and all bruise of time,
And, like a gallant in the bloom of youth,
Repairs him with occasion."
·
As to "Old Salisbury," instead of "Of Salisbury," it is to
be observed that not only is the change fully borne out by
the fact and context, but that in the corresponding place of
the drama upon which this play was founded, York inquires,
"But did you see old Salisbury ?" Bruise, for "brush," was
Warburton's conjecture; and Johnson proposed blow for
"brow ;" but it turns out, as far as the old corrector may be
trusted, that the poet's word was bloom, the compositor
having mistaken m, at the end of the word, for w, a not un-
usual circumstance.
THE THIRD PART
OF
KING HENRY VI.
ACT I. SCENE I.
P. 229. Edward, speaking, in the house of Parliament, of
the 'Duke of Buckingham, says that he
"Is either slain or wounded dangerous."
There are two pieces of evidence to show that we ought to
read "wounded dangerously:" the one is the play from
which this drama was in great part taken, and the other a
manuscript-correction in the folio, 1632. Either ought, in
such a case, to be conclusive.
The old printed copies are without many necessary stage-
directions, and when Richard throws down the head of So-
merset, head, and throw it down, are written in the margin,
as sufficient instructions to the performer. At the line,—
"Thus do I hope to shake King Henry's head,"
shake it is placed opposite. York afterwards takes the throne;
that is to say, places himself in the seat in the Parliament
House appropriated to the King. This he is represented, in
the folio, 1632, as doing earlier than in modern editions, and
at the same time that his soldiers retire, or go up, as it is ex-
pressed in print. This course does not seem to be quite
correct according to the dialogue.
P. 235. The folio, 1632, thus blunderingly gives the pas-
sage, where Henry consents to reign only during life :—
291
[ACT I.
THE THIRD PART OF
"" My lord of Warwick, hear but one word.
Let me for this time reign as king.”
Manuscript-corrections change the lines thus:-
"My lord of Warwick, hear me but one word.
Let me for this my life time reign as king."
Me, necessary at least to the measure, is found in no known
old edition of this play; but my life, in the second line, makes
the passage agree with the folio, 1623: the insertion of me,
in the first line, may induce a doubt whether the corrector of
the folio, 1632, did not resort to some independent source.
This notion is strengthened by an emendation, a few lines
above, where, according to all authorities, York exclaims,-
"Henry of Lancaster, resign thy crown;"
but York, from the commencement, had demanded the crown
as his; and, in consistency with this assertion of right, and
perhaps warranted by some then extant authority, the old
corrector makes York say,-
"Henry of Lancaster, resign my crown."
At all events, such would seem to be the true reading.
A leaf (paged 149 and 150) is unfortunately wanting in the
folio, 1632, after this part of the scene.
SCENE IV.
P. 246. During the speech of Margaret, several stage-direc-
tions are inserted, of which there is no trace in any printed
copy, ancient or modern. Thus, when she shows York the
napkin stained with Rutland's blood, the fit time for pro-
ducing it is duly marked, and she afterwards, in mockery,
throws it to him, that he may wipe his eyes upon it. Again,
when she and Clifford insultingly place the paper crown on
York's head, those words are inserted in the margin. Before
Clifford and the Queen stab him, York casts the napkin to her
again.
P. 249. The folio, 1623, has this exclamation by York, in
allusion to the death of young Rutland:-
"That face of his the hungry cannibals
Would not have touch'd, would not have stain'd with blood;”
and why the passage should have been altered in the folio,
ACT II.]
295
KING HENRY VI.
1632, it is not very easy to understand, unless, when properly
given, it corresponded with some better original than that
from which the folio, 1623, was printed :-
"That face of his
The hungry cannibals would not have touch'd,
Would not have stain'd the roses just with blood."
Theobald, to keep, we suppose, as near the letters of the
second folio as possible, proposed, somewhat absurdly, to
print "juic'd with blood;" but the printer was in fault, by
converting hues into "just ;" and hues is substituted for "just"
by the old corrector.
"Would not have stain'd the rose's hues with blood,"
is intelligible enough, and on some accounts superior to the
language of the earlier folio, which was derived from the old
play Shakespeare altered. We know of no original for the
insertion of " the rose's hues" in the amended folio, 1632.
ACT II. SCENE IL
P. 259. Queen Margaret, endeavouring to animate Henry,
thus addresses him, in all editions:-
"My lord, cheer up your spirits: our foes are nigh,
And this soft courage makes your followers faint."
What is "soft courage," but a contradiction in terms? Yet
the words have always been treated as the genuine text of
Shakespeare, when we ought certainly to read, with the old
corrector,-
"And this soft carriage makes your followers faint.'
The allusion unquestionably is to the mild deportment of the
King. The same lapse was committed by the printer in
"Coriolanus," Act III. Scene III.; and what makes it still
more evident, that, in the instance before us, "soft courage"
ought to be "soft carriage," is that the corresponding line
in the older play (of which Shakespeare availed himself) is
this
"This harmful pity makes your followers faint."
296
[ACT II.
THE THIRD PART OF
P. 263. When the Yorkists defy the party of the King and
Queen to battle, this poor couplet is put into Edward's
mouth :—
"Sound trumpets! let our bloody colours wave,
And either victory, or else a grave."
The last line is vastly improved in expression and energy by
a manuscript alteration in the folio, 1632:-
"Sound trumpets! let our bloody colours wave,
And either victory, or a welcome grave."
It seems hardly possible that a copyist should mishear wel-
come, and write "or else" for it; but whether welcome were
or were not the word of the poet, we may be quite sure that
he never wrote " or else;" and the great probability seems
to be that he wrote welcome.
SCENE V.
P. 268. In the line of Henry's soliloquy,
"So many years ere I shall shear the fleece,"
the word months is substituted for "years," because the inter-
val between shearing time is never "years," but months.
P. 270. The folios all have this passage
"And so obsequious will thy father be,
Men for the loss of thee, having no more," &c.
The word "men," has occasioned discussion among the com-
mentators: Rowe substituted sad, and Steevens recom-
mended man, which has been sometimes adopted. It is
merely the printer's mistake, who carelessly began the line
with M instead of E:-
cr
"And so obsequious will thy father be,
E'en for the loss of thee, having no more,
As Priam was for all his valiant sons.
Obsequious" means mournful, as at funeral obsequies: the
father would be as mournful even for the loss of this one son,
as Priam had been for the loss of all his sons.
There can
be little objection to receive this trifling, but effectual, emen-
dation at the hands of the old corrector.
ACT III.]
297
KING HENRY VI.
SCENE VI.
P. 274. We meet with a singular manuscript stage-direc-
tion in the folio, 1632, where Edward, Clarence, Richard,
and Warwick are exulting over the dead body of Clifford;
for we are informed in the margin that they pull him to and
fro, as each of them in turn insults the corpse by the de-
livery of a malignant line. We can hardly believe that such
an exhibition of brutality would have been generally tole-
rated even by spectators of that day; but the old corrector,
nevertheless, must refer to a practice he had either himself
witnessed on the stage, or had heard of as the practice of the
theatre before his time.
ACT III. SCENE I.
P. 276. In the introduction to this scene, instead of the
names Sinklo and Humphrey, "two Keepers" are substi-
tuted; but the prefixes to their several speeches are still
abbreviations of the appellations of the performers, Sin. and
Hum. They stand back when the King, disguised as a church-
man (so stated in manuscript), enters; and they come for-
ward to carry him away with them. Before Henry sees them,
he exclaims (according to the corrector) in reference to the
disastrous condition of his affairs
"Let me embrace these sour adversities ;"
and not “the sour adversaries," as erroneously printed in the
folios.
SCENE III.
P. 286. This scene is numbered II. in manuscript (for none
of the divisions of Acts and Scenes, after the first, are printed
in this drama); but it is, in fact, Scene III., a mistake having
been introduced in this respect.
P. 289. A correction, of comparatively little moment, is
made in a line of Queen Margaret's speech, which, at least,
serves to show the minute accuracy of the person through
whose hands this volume once passed:—
"Look, therefore, Lewis, that by this league and marriage
Thou draw not on thee danger and dishonour."
298
[ACT IV.
THE THIRD PART OF
The above is ordinarily printed "thy danger and dishonour,'
which is only to be questioned, because we here learn that it
was not the authentic mode of giving the passage. For "Our
Earl of Warwick," of the folios, the alteration is, "The Earl
of Warwick."
P. 294. The regulation of the verse in this part of the dia-
logue is certainly erroneous as it stands, and the irregularity
has arisen from the omission of an important word, which is
supplied in the margin of the folio, 1632, and which proves
that the lines ought to run thus:-
"But, Warwick, thou,
And Oxford, with five thousand warlike men,
Shall cross the seas, and bid false Edward battle."
The line, without warlike, is clearly defective, and we can
hardly suppose that it was inserted in manuscript at random.
In the same way, in the last line of the latest of King Edward's
speeches, on p. 299, the word "have" was carelessly left out
in the folio, 1632, and was inserted by the old corrector:
warlike, however, is not found in any of the old copies.
i
·
ACT IV. SCENE II.
P. 301. To the Introduction to this Act, "Enter Warwick
and Oxford, in England, with French soldiers," the words,
and English, are added, with a caret, after "French;" for it
is not to be supposed that these two noblemen, coming to
maintain the right of Henry VI. to the throne, were sup-
ported by no English followers. After they have surprised
Edward in his tent, and the greatest alarm and dismay pre-
vail, Shouts, noise, and confusion is added to the printed stage-
direction.
SCENE VII.
P. 312. This scene is numbered VI. by the corrector; and
it is not unlikely that, for the sake of convenience in perform-
ance, two scenes, separated in modern editions, were combined.
The introduction in the early impressions is, "Enter Edward,
Richard, Hastings, and Soldiers;" but foreign is placed in
ACT V.]
299
KING HENRY VI.
manuscript before "soldiers," to show, perhaps, that their
forces were chiefly derived from continental aid.
P. 313. We can very readily believe that the small word
we have printed in Italics, escaped from the following line by
Gloster, in ridicule of the complying Mayor of York:-
"A stout wise captain he, and soon persuaded."
It is not met with in any old copy, but it is added in the
margin of the folio, 1632. The corresponding passage in
"The true Tragedy of Richard Duke of York," is,-
"By my faith, a wise stout captain, and soon persuaded.”
SCENE VIII.
P. 317. The old corrector informs us that mind has been
misprinted "meed," where King Henry says,-
"That's not my fear; my meed hath got me fame;"
and the context tends to convince us that the alteration was
proper, and that the poet did not intend to use "meed " in
the sense of merit, or of desert. The mild and pious King
refers not so much to his acts, as to his gentle character
and disposition; and, in conformity with this view, he re-
marks, just afterwards, as the passage has been uniformly
printed,―
"My mildness hath allay'd their swelling griefs,
My mercy dried their water-flowing tears."
"Water-flowing" seems a poor and tautologous epithet for
'tears;" and bitter-flowing is questionably substituted in the
corrected folio, 1632. Water-standing eyes" is used after-
wards, but under very different circumstances.
(C
ACT V. SCENE V.
P. 331. The young Prince, having been stabbed by Edward,
Clarence, and Gloster, Margaret exclaims,—
300
[ACT V.
THE THIRD PART OF
"O traitors! murderers!
They that stabb'd Cæsar shed no blood at all,
Did not offend, nor were not worthy blame,
If this foul deed were by to equal it.”
This passage cannot have reached us as Shakespeare wrote it,
because one foul deed being present, and only equal to an-
other, also present, would not show either of them off as more
heinous. An evident and easy mistake, either by the copyist
or by the printer, has represented our great poet as writing
what is little better than illogical nonsense; and the cor-
rector of the folio, 1632, by placing a single letter in the
margin, has shown us what, we think, must have come from
Shakespeare's pen:-
"O traitors! murderers!
They that stabb'd Cæsar shed no blood at all,
Did not offend, nor were not worthy blame,
If this foul deed were by to sequel it.'
That is, if this foul deed had been by, to follow up the
stabbing of Cæsar, the latter act would have appeared com-
paratively no crime.
SCENE VI.
P. 332. According to all the folios, Richard must have
talked with, and subsequently killed Henry VI. on the walls
of the Tower, for the printed introduction to this scene is,
"Enter Henry the Sixth, and Richard, with the Lieutenant,
on the walls." This could scarcely have been the case, when
the play was originally represented, because in the older
drama, upon which it is founded, it is said, at the opening of
the corresponding scene, "Enter Gloster to King Henry in
the Tower." The corrector of the folio, 1632, enables us to
state that, in his time at least, the place of action in this
scene was the interior of the Tower, for he erases on the
walls," and writes in the Tower instead of them. He also in-
forms us that Henry is reading, when Gloster unceremoniously
breaks in upon him.
:
P. 334. Henry, referring to the birth of Richard, tells
him,-
"The owl shriek'd at thy birth, an evil sign;
The night-crow cried, aboding luckless time."
sc. vii.]
301
KING HENRY VI.
For "aboding," as one word, the corrector writes a boding, as
two words; and for "time," he writes tune,—
"The night-crow cried, a boding luckless tune.”
This appears to be the right reading, for in the older play,
which is here followed more exactly than usual, the words are
the same; but it is, nevertheless, to be admitted that in
"Henry VIII." Shakespeare uses "aboded" for foreboded,
and that "time" was often misprinted tune. There is the
same double reason for altering "indigested" to indigest, just
below; it stands so in the older play, and it is changed so in
the margin of the folio, 1632; the line, too, consists only of
the regular number of syllables in the old play, the additions
being, in all probability, corruptions. This circumstance is,
therefore, adverse to the opinion expressed in note 3 on this
page.
SCENE VII.
P. 336. The folios, where King Edward adverts to the
losses sustained during the civil war, have two lines thus
printed :-
"Three dukes of Somerset, threefold renown,
For hardy and undoubted champions."
The corrector of the folio, 1632, instructs us to read,-
"Three dukes of Somerset, threefold renown'd
For hardy and redoubted champions."
Modern editors have "renown'd," and it is the word in the
older play; but, like the folios, it has "undoubted
redoubted.
for
The introduction to this scene in the folios, speaks of a
"Nurse" being present (with a child, adds the manuscript-
correction), who is altogether omitted in modern editions.
The King and his brothers kiss the infant, and the proper
places for doing so are noted in the margin of the folio, 1632.
It deserves remark that, although Gloster's name is intro-
duced in the printed play, as coming in with the King,
Queen, Clarence, Hastings, Nurse, &c., at the opening of the
scene, according to the old corrector it was the practice for
him not to enter until afterwards, while Edward IV. was
speaking, and Enter Richard behind is there found in the
S02
THE THIRD PART OF KING HENRY VI.
margin. This course appears to be in keeping with Richard's
character; and the whole of his first speech is noted as
muttered to himself, after which he comes forward and joins
in the general congratulations. Still he several times delivers
passages aside, and these are carefully so marked. Some of
the manuscript notes, intended for the government of the
performance, are in a different ink, as if additions had been
made to them, when it was found that those previously
written were not sufficient.
KING RICHARD III.
ACT I. SCENE I.
P. 348. We notice the following, not so much as an emen-
dation, but as a change of the received text, which the old
corrector would, perhaps, not have thought it necessary to
make, had it not accorded with some other than the usual
authorities. All copies of this play, of our own or of former
times, give this line-
"I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion;"
whereas, by a marginal note in the folio, 1632, we are told to
read,-
“I, that am curtail'd thus of fair proportion ;"
as if the performer of the part of Richard had referred not
so much to what he had already said, regarding his personal
appearance, as to what the audience must see of it. In the
last line but one of this page, the second folio has grand-
fathers for "godfathers," but it is, of course, set right.
P. 349. There is a considerable increase of contempt, as
well as an improvement in the verse, in the following line,
where same is added in manuscript, not being found in any
printed copy :-
"Was it not she, and that good man of worship,
Anthony Woodeville, her same brother there,
That made him send lord Hastings to the Tower?" &c.
If Woodeville could be read as a trisyllable, there would be
no absolute need of the addition.
304
[ACT I.
KING RICHARD III.
P. 352. Richard observes of Edward IV.,-
"He cannot live, I hope; and must not die
Till George be pack'd with posthorse up to heaven."
For "posthorse," the old corrector has posthaste; but the
alteration does not seem to require more than to be pointed
out, as possibly right.
SCENE II.
P. 360. The folios very imperfectly represent the text in
this part of the scene, for Anne is made to give Richard
a ring, and the words, "To take is not to give," which,
according to the quartos, she interposes, are omitted. The
old corrector makes the folio, 1632, correspond with the
quartos in this particular, as well as in reading suppliant for
"servant," in the line,-
"And if thy poor devoted servant may," &c.
Therefore, we may feel assured that, if the word suppliant, in
the older copies, were not that of the poet, it was the word
in use upon the stage.
SCENE III.
P. 364. We meet with a very characteristic stage-direction,
when Richard enters to complain of the imprisonment of
Clarence: it is, Enter Richard, stamping angerly, which, no
doubt, shows the manner of some early actor of the part,
perhaps of Burbage himself, the original Richard; for, sup-
posing the corrector of the folio, 1632, never to have seen him
(he died in March 1619), his peculiarities in the performance
would, most probably, be traditionally handed down to his
successors. The manuscript-instructions of the same kind are
hardly as numerous in this as in some other plays; but still,
on all occasions, they are sufficient for the due conduct of the
representation: when, for instance, "old Queen Margaret,'
as she is called, arrives, on p. 367, she stands back, and a
note of behind is made against every sentence she utters,
until she comes forth with the words,-
"I can no longer hold me patient."
Start all is then added in the margin, to indicate the sur-
prise, if not alarm, her sudden appearance created.
SC. IV.]
305
KING RICHARD III.
P. 370. One of the most striking and satisfactory emen-
dations in the corrected folio, 1632, occurs in Queen Mar-
garet's denunciation of Richard, where she addresses him, in
all editions, in the following terms:-
"Thou elvish-mark'd, abortive, rooting hog,
Thou that wast seal'd in thy nativity
The slave of nature, and the son of hell," &c.
Here "slave of nature," but especially "son of hell," sound
so flatly and tamely near the conclusion of the curse, that an
impression rises at once in the mind, that Shakespeare must
have written something more fierce and vigorous. How, then,
does the old corrector inform us that the last line ought to
run? not as the words are spelt in the folio, 1623, and fol-
lowed in that of 1632,-
"The slaue of Nature, and the sonne of Hell,"
but with two remarkable changes,-
"The stain of nature, and the scorn of hell."
Stain and scorn must surely have been the language of our
great dramatist; and when we bear in mind that "stain "
was of old spelt staine, and "scorn" scorne, it is not difficult
to discover how the blunders arose.
P. 371. It may be worth a note, that Queen Margaret,
according to a marginal note in the folio, 1632, does not
here, and afterwards, call Richard a "bottled spider," but a
'bottle-spider." A considerable portion of the protracted
abuse in this scene, viz. from the line,—
"False-boding woman, end thy frantic curse,
down to the line,—
"And say, poor Margaret was a prophetess,"
is struck out, so that she only adds two more lines before she
makes her exit, although by a misprint in the folios (cor-
rected in that of 1632) another speech is attributed to her
after she has retired.
SCENE IV.
P. 375. In the quartos, Brakenbury, Lieutenant of the
Tower, is represented as hearing Clarence narrate his dream;
but in the folios, the dream is told to a "Keeper," who goes
X
306
[ACT II.
KING RICHARD III.
out as Brakenbury enters. Perhaps, when this play was first
performed, the company could only afford one actor for both
parts, and Brakenbury was, therefore, made to officiate as
Lieutenant and as Keeper; but afterwards, when the com-
pany became more numerous, it was thought better to divide
the characters. In all editions the two murderers deliver
their warrant to Brakenbury.
tr
P. 380. The second Murderer, who was for saving the life
of Clarence, says, in the quartos, "I hope my holy humour
will change;” in the folios, "I hope this passionate humour
of mine will change;" and in the corrected folio, 1632, “I
hope this compassionate humour of mine will change.”
P. 385. One of the speeches of Clarence to the two as-
sassins is left imperfect, though not printed to appear so, and
is completed by the addition of three words inserted in the
margin of the folio, 1632. He asks,—
"Which of you,
*
*
If two such murderers as yourselves came to you,
Would not entreat for life? As you would beg,
Were you in my distress, so pity me.'
The lines are only in the folios, and have been treated in
various ways by different editors, in consequence of the in-
completeness of the sense; but the three small words in
Italics render the whole of this portion of the dialogue clear
and consistent. The punctuation also is that of the emen-
dator.
ACT II. SCENE I.
P. 391. The old corrector has made the text of the folio,
1632, conform to that of the quartos by the insertion of an
important word, where Richard asks,—
"Mark'd you not,
How that the guilty kindred of the queen
Look'd pale?"
Just above, an unimportant word is added to complete a
defective line, which is not found in any known impression
of the play,-
ACT III.]
307
KING RICHARD III.
"Come, Hastings, prithee, help me to my closet."
Modern editors have generally finished this line by adding
to it, "Ah! poor Clarence!" a hemistich spoken by the King
just before he goes out, which renders the line as redundant
as it was before deficient.
SCENE II.
P. 392. We are told to change the place of "oft" in the
following line:-
Why do you weep so oft? and beat your breast,"
and it certainly reads better thus :—
Why do you weep so? and oft beat your breast."
P. 393. The quartos, speaking of the death of Edward IV.,
represent him as having gone
“To his new kingdom of perpetual rest,”
while the folios have it,-
"To his new kingdom of ne'er changing night.”
In the corrected folio, 1632, "night" is made light. How it
happens that the quartos in some places differ so materially
from the folios, has never been explained: the blunder in
the folios, twice committed at the end of this scene, in
having London for "Ludlow," is set right in both instances
in manuscript. The quartos and the sense detect the error.
SCENE III.
""
P. 397. This scene between the three Citizens is struck
out, but the emendations are, nevertheless, continued: for
Which, in his nonage," we have," With, in his nonage,'
substituted, perhaps rightly, but the quartos read, “That, in
his nonage." In the next scene only some small changes
occur, such as the addition of with you at the end of a line, and
"Too often" for "And often."
ACT III.
SCENE I.
P. 404. Two emendations, for which we have reason to be
thankful, are made in the opening of Buckingham's speech,
x 2
308
[ACT III.
KING RICHARD III.
where he is arguing that the Duke of York cannot be en-
titled to sanctuary on account of his youth and innocence.
Cardinal Bourchier maintains that sanctuary ought in no
case to be violated:
"God in heaven forbid
We should infringe the holy privilege
Of blessed sanctuary! not for all this land,
Would I be guilty of so great a sin."
The words, " in heaven," are not in the folios, but were in-
serted by the corrector of the folio, 1632, and they accord
with the text of the quartos; but in Buckingham's reply we
encounter two changes, which we can hardly hesitate in ad-
mitting, since they so importantly contribute to enforce and
explain the meaning of the poet. The first line of what
Buckingham addresses to the Cardinal (as always hitherto
printed), is needlessly offensive and coarse in its terms; and
the third line contains two misprints which have been the
source of much speculation between Warburton, Johnson,
Malone, &c. The passage, as invariably given, is this :-
"You are too senseless-obstinate, my lord,
Too ceremonious and traditional :
Weigh it but with the grossness of this age,
You break not sanctuary in seizing him."
For "senseless-obstinate," a strange and unmannerly com-
pound, the corrector of the folio, 1632, states that we must
substitute words quite consistent with the good breeding of
Buckingham, and at the same time quite consistent with the
argument he is employing, viz. that the Cardinal is too rigid
and scrupulous in his unwillingness to violate sanctuary, in a
case for which it was never intended :-
"You are too strict and abstinent, my lord,
Too ceremonious and traditional :
Weigh it but with the goodness of his age,
You break not sanctuary in seizing him."
The point for which Buckingham contends is, that age and
purity, such as belong to little York, did not require "the
holy privilege," and could not claim it; "the goodness of
his age," refers to the youth and innocence of the prince,
and those words have been (in all cases but in one of the
quartos, where greatness is found) misprinted "the gross-
ness of this age." Warburton suggested greenness as the
true reading; but the errors were "grossness" for goodness,
SC. II.]
309
KING RICHARD III.
and “this” for his. These mistakes are satisfactorily reme-
died in the folio, 1632.
P. 408. Little York has been taunting his uncle Richard,
upon which Buckingham remarks,-
"With what a sharp provided wit he reasons.
The manuscript-corrector assures us by the change he makes
that, although the intention of the dramatist is evident, a
decided misprint has crept into the line: he reads,—
"With what a sharply pointed wit he reasons.'
Just afterwards we meet with a line thus amended:
My lord, will't please your grace to pass along."
Hitherto it has been given imperfectly with the omission of
the two words in Italics, and with "you" for your.
Lower down, instead of the language of the quarto, 1597 (all
other editions omit "needs"),-
"My lord protector needs will have it so,”
a correction in the margin makes the young Prince reply,-
My lord protector will e'en have it so.”
"
The difference scarcely merits notice on any other account,
than because it tends to show a preference for a word not in
any of the extant authorities: "needs" is of course utterly
unobjectionable.
P. 410. In the next emendation, the reading of the folios
in Richard's answer to Buckingham,-
"
Chop off his head: something we will determine,"
is made in the corrected folio, 1632, to conform precisely to
the words of the quarto impressions, viz. :-
'Chop off his head, man: somewhat we will do.”
We may, perhaps, conclude that the actor of the part of
Richard so recited the line in the time of the old corrector,
and not as it stands more tamely in the folios.
SCENE II.
P. 414. What passes between Hastings, the Pursuivant,
the Priest, and Buckingham, is erased in the folio, 1632,
310
[ACT III.
KING RICHARD III,
perhaps as needless to the very protracted performance of
this play. When Hastings alludes to it in Scene IV., on his
way to execution, the five lines are also struck through with
a pen, as well as the Scrivener's observations, in Scene VI.
(p. 427), on the indictment of Hastings.
SCENE V.
P. 422. It is not very easy to understand how this scene was
acted of old: modern editors say that it took place on "the
Tower walls;" but to the old stage-direction (besides altering
"rotten" to rusty) the corrector has added these words, all
in haste, in the Tower, as if Richard and Buckingham were
in some confusion, not on the Tower walls, but in some part
of the edifice, near the drawbridge, which Richard mentions.
When Lovell and Ratcliff enter, just afterwards, with the head
of Hastings, we are informed in manuscript that it was exhi-
bited on a spear.
SCENE VII.
P. 428. Buckingham giving an account to Richard how he
had proceeded and succeeded among the Citizens at Guild-
hall, tells him that he had thus adverted to the bastardy of
Edward IV.:-
"As being got, your father then in France;
And his resemblance, being not like the duke.”
This last line is only in the folios; but Buckingham was
to enforce, not Edward's likeness, but his want of likeness
to his father, not "his resemblance," but dis-resemblance;
and precisely in this form the corrector of the folio, 1632, has
put it:
"As being got, your father then in France;
And dis-resemblance, being not like the duke."
However unusual the word, it exactly suits the poet's mean-
ing, and dis may easily have been read "his." At a later
date, "dissemblance" was employed to express absence of
similarity.
P. 430. A very slight change in another line, spoken by
the Duke of Buckingham to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen,
makes a considerable difference:-
SC. VII.]
311
KING RICHARD III.
"Sure
""
"Happy were England, would this virtuous prince
Take on his grace the sovereignty thereof;
But, sure, I fear, we shall not win him to it.”
is here a mere expletive; but the old corrector in-
structs us how to raise it into importance, by reading the line
as nobody has hitherto thought of reading it,—
"But, sore I fear, we shall not win him to it."
Buckingham pretended to be much afraid that Richard would
not be brought to consent. This is one of the smaller emen-
dations that may be thought to need no advocacy.
P. 435. The quartos and folios differ materially in one
point, in the scene where Buckingham and the Citizens are
pressing the Crown upon Richard. In the folios Bucking-
ham affects to be weary of solicitation, and retires with,—
"Come, citizens, we will entreat no more."
In the quartos the line has more emphasis,-
"Come, citizens: zounds! I'll entreat no more;"
upon which, Richard, who has a prayer-book in his hand, and
who has just left the two bishops, affects to be shocked at the
impiety of Buckingham in using even so mild an oath as
"zounds!" He, therefore, says solemnly to him,-
"O! do not swear, my lord of Buckingham."
All this was probably expunged by the Master of the Revels
before the folio, 1623, was printed; and on this account we
meet with no trace of it there. The corrector of the folio,
1632, seems to have thought it too striking and charac-
teristic to be omitted; but he most likely resorted to some
other authority than the quartos to supply the deficiency, as
the words he inserts in a vacant space are not precisely the
same as are there found: possibly, he had the addition from
recitation on the stage, at some date when the injunction of
the Master of the Revels was not attended to. He gives
Buckingham's line thus,-
"Zounds! citizens, we will entreat no more;"
and Richard's rebuke in these words:-
"O! do not swear, my cousin Buckingham."
Instead of making the Citizens retire with Buckingham,
312
[ACT IV.
KING RICHARD III.
Buckingham alone makes his exit, an arrangement of apparent
propriety, because it is quite clear that the four lines put
into the mouth of Richard, while Buckingham was out of the
apartment, were intended to be heard by the Lord Mayor,
&c. In accordance with this view, "them" is changed to
him in the folio, 1632:-
"Call him again; I am not made of stone,
But penetrable to your kind entreaties," &c.
To whose "kind entreaties" could Richard refer, if not to
those of the Citizens, who had remained behind after Buck-
ingham had flung away in a pretended passion at Richard's
refusal ?
ACT IV. SCENE II.
P. 443. Here, as in some former, and future instances, a line
seems to have been left imperfect by the accidental omission
of two small words, which we have printed in Italics,-
"How now, lord Stanley! what's the news with you?”
It is very possible, however, that Shakespeare here meant the
question to be brief and broken.
P. 446. The portion of this scene, near its close, which is
only in the quarto copies, is passed over in silence by the
corrector of the folio, 1632, and we may perhaps conclude
that it was not usually acted. After the line,—
"Thou troublest me: I am not in the vein,"
Exit is the brief printed stage-direction; but to it the word
angrily, or, as it is spelt, angerly, is subjoined in manu-
script.
SCENE III.
P. 447. Tyrrell, who had suborned the two ruffians,
Dighton and Forrest, to murder the young princes, says of
them, and of the part they had acted, according to all
editions,—
"Albeit they were flesh'd villains, bloody dogs,
Melted with tenderness and mild compassion,
Wept like to children in their death's sad story.”
SC. IV.]
313
KING RICHARD III.
The passage is surely much improved by the trifling altera-
tions in the folio, 1632:-
"Albeit they were flesh'd villains, blooded dogs,
Melted with tenderness and mild compassion,
Wept like two children in their death's sad story."
The two villains had been fleshed, and were like dogs that
had been allowed the taste of human blood; yet they wept,
like two children, while narrating the particulars of the
murder of the princes.
SCENE IV.
P. 449. The beginning of this long scene between Queen
Margaret, Queen Elizabeth, and the Duchess of York, con-
tains no emendation of any importance, excepting where, on
p. 454, the old corrector, in accordance with the quartos, tells
us to read,-
instead of
"Airy succeeders of intestate joys,"
Airy succeeders of intestine joys."
•
P. 456. Two emendations are proposed in speeches of the
Duchess of York: first,-
"Then patiently bear my impatience,'
""
is put for "hear my impatience" of the folios; and, next,
"Art thou so hasty? I once stay'd for thee,"
for "I have stay'd for thee," of the same impressions. Both
these minor changes seem recommended to adoption by their
fitness.
P. 462. Richard tells Queen Elizabeth that Dorset, her
son,
“Leads discontented steps in foreign soil,"
which may be right, but the old corrector furnishes what
seems a more natural word :—
"Treads discontented steps in foreign soil."
P. 466. The following lines, in reference to the interces-
sion of Queen Elizabeth with her daughter in favour of
Richard's pretensions, conclude the King's speech in the
folios:
314
[ACT V.
KING RICHARD III.
"Urge the necessity and state of times,
And be not peevish found in great designs.”
The quartos have "peevish fond," and the old corrector
amends the couplet as follows:-
Urge the necessity of state and times,
And be not peevish fond in great designs."
That is to say, she was to enforce the necessity of state and
of the times for the marriage. It may still be a question
whether "peevish found," of the folios, be not preferable, as
avoiding all appearance of tautology; on which account it is
advocated in note 10 on this page: nevertheless, "peevish
fond" has, we see, two pieces of evidence in its favour.
SCENE V.
P. 472. Stanley inquires of Sir Christopher Urswick,-
"What men of name resort to him?”
meaning Richmond. The line is evidently defective, while
in the rest of the scene the verse is regular; and the cor-
rector of the folio, 1632, restores two words that seem to
have dropped out :-
"What men of name and mark resort to him."
This short scene is struck out with a pen.
ACT V. SCENE II.
P. 474. Richmond speaking of Richard, calls him, as the
words have always stood in print,—
"The wretched, bloody, and usurping boar :"
“Wretched ” is an epithet that has little comparative appro-
priateness, while the word recommended in manuscript to
supply the place of it, is especially adapted to the character
of Richard, and we may readily believe it to have been that
of the poet :-
"The reckless, bloody, and usurping boar."
Richard was reckless of the blood he spilt, and of the miseries
SC. III.]
315
KING RICHARD III.
he occasioned, and that word was of old frequently spelt
wreckless, and hence, perhaps, the misprint.
SCENE III.
P. 477. If the following line had been printed in other old
copies as it stands in that of 1632 only, we should have hesi-
tated to disturb the text, on the ground that the sense was
quite intelligible: it is where Richmond requests Blunt, if
possible, to communicate with Stanley; Blunt replies,—
"
'Upon my self, my lord, I'll undertake it.”
Every other ancient authority but the folio, 1632, has "life
for self; and as there can be no doubt it is an error of the
press, the old corrector made the emendation.
The printed stage-direction here is, They withdraw into the
tent, that is, Richmond's tent; and according to the old
theatrical arrangement of this scene, different sides of the same
small stage contained the two hostile tents of the King and
Richmond. As soon as Richmond and his friends withdraw
into the tent on their side of the stage, the King and his ad-
herents come forward and converse, as if the encampment of
the enemy were far out of hearing. A manuscript stage-
direction (for there is here no printed one beyond Exit Rat-
cliff) informs us that Richard lies down and sleeps as soon as
he has said,-
"And help to arm me.-Leave me, I say."
Richmond and Stanley then meet in the tent of the former,
and the word couch is added to the printed stage-direction,
in order that Richmond, after his conversation and prayer,
may lie down and sleep also, as the King was already doing
in sight of the audience. Thus, in the simplicity of our early
theatres, the two leaders were seen reposing in their respec-
tive tents at the same time, and the Ghosts enter (whether
by means of trap-doors, or otherwise, is not stated), and seve-
rally address them.
P. 480. This complicated scene is ill printed in all impres-
sions, quarto and folio, especially in the latter, and most es-
pecially in the folio, 1632: several important emendations
are, therefore, made in manuscript. One of the earliest of
these is the insertion of the word " deadly" in the line,-
"By thee was punched full of deadly holes.”
316
[ACT V.
KING RICHARD III.
The old corrector may have obtained it from the quartos, but
On the other hand, however, he may
it is not in any folio.
have been indebted to
an independent authority; and some
of his changes give a text which varies materially from any
extant original. Thus the second line of the next page,-
"Doth comfort thee in sleep: live and flourish,"
evidently wants a syllable, and the quartos have it,—
"Doth comfort thee in thy sleep: live and flourish ;'
which may be right, but it does not accord with the line as
it stands amended in the folio, 1632, where we read,—
"Doth comfort thee in sleep: live thou and flourish."
When, on page 481, the Ghost of Vaughan says to Richard,—
"Let fall thy lance. Despair and die,”
the line wants two syllables, not found in any impression;
but in the corrected folio, 1632, we have it,—
"Let fall thy pointless lance. Despair and die."
When we find him inserted in manuscript in the line, just
subsequent,-
"Will conquer him.
Awake, and win the day,"
the emendation might be
derived from the quartos; but
such was not the case with an important change in what the
Ghost of Anne addresses to Richard: in all editions it
stands,-
"And fall thy edgeless sword. Despair and die."
This is merely the repetition of a previous line given to the
Ghost of Clarence, and the poet could hardly have intended
two of the spirits to use the very same words. The corrector
of the folio, 1632, induces us to believe that this was one of
the corruptions accidentally introduced, and he makes the
Ghost of Anne vary the line thus:-
"And fall thy powerless arm. Despair and die.”
There can here be no impropriety: the emendation may
have been obtained from some better authority, on or off the
stage; and it avoids the strong objection to making the
Ghosts of Clarence and Anne use precisely the same form of
imprecation when threatening Richard with his fate in the
approaching battle.
SC. III.]
317
KING RICHARD III.
P. 483. The corrector of the folio, 1632, made the text
conform to that of the earliest quarto in the line,— -
"The lights burn blue.-It is now dead midnight,"
every old impression but that of 1597, reading, "It is not
dead midnight." It may be urged that the corrector need
not have resorted to the earliest quarto, since this blunder
corrects itself: the wonder is, that this play should have gone
through, at least, three editions in quarto, and four in folio,
before " now was restored from the quarto, 1597. Eleven
lines of Richard's soliloquy, from "What do I fear? myself?"
down to "Fool, do not flatter," are struck through, and were,
probably, not recited by the actor about the period when the
erasure was made.
">
P. 484. There is a material difference between the quartos
and folios, where Richard exclaims,-
"Perjury, perjury, in the high'st degree :"
such is the text as given in the quartos; but the folios omit
the second "perjury," and the corrector of that of 1632
supplies the word and something more :-
"Perjury, foul perjury, in the high'st degree."
If “perjury” be pronounced as two syllables, foul is requisite
for the metre; if "perjury" be pronounced as three syllables,
the line, even without foul, is redundant. The question
rather is, from whence foul was obtained, than whether it is
necessary.
Lower down on this page occurs an instance in which it
may seem that the corrector was giving, not the words of
any known impression, but the manner in which the play
was acted when he wrote. Two short speeches by the King
and Ratcliff, found in the quartos, are left out in the folios,
where the King says merely, "O, Ratcliff! I fear, I fear,”
without adding why he feared, so that Ratcliff's reply,-
""
Nay, good my lord, be not afraid of shadows,"
wants application in the folios. This is clearly a defect, and
the corrector remedies it by making the speech assigned to
the King run thus:—
'O, Ratcliff, I have dream'd a fearful dream ;”
to which Ratcliff's answer applies naturally enough. The
318
[ACT V.
KING RICHARD III.
words, I have dream'd a fearful dream, are in the quartos,
but not exactly in the place which they are made to occupy
in the folio, 1632. This, therefore, looks like one of the
emendations made from recitation.
P. 487. The same may be said
directions for ordering his battle.
has it as follows:-
of a line in the King's
The quarto, 1597, only,
"My foreward shall be drawn out all in length;"
while in every subsequent old impression we have it,-
"My foreward shall be drawn in length."
How does the old corrector tell us to read it? thus:-
"My forward ranks shall be drawn out in length;"
which, as far as euphony is concerned, seems the best line of
the three, though the first corresponds more with the words
of Holinshed.
P. 488. In the King's address to his army, Steevens pro-
posed to read ventures for "adventures," and Warburton
distrain for restrain: both these changes are warranted by
manuscript emendations in the folio, 1632.
P. 491. There can be little doubt that a passage of some
moment in Richmond's last speech has been misrepresented
by blundering punctuation, which is thus set right in the
corrected folio, 1632:-
"All this divided York and Lancaster,
Divided in their dire division,
O, now let Richmond and Elizabeth,
The true succeeders of each royal house,
By God's fair ordinance conjoin together."
The sense clearly runs on, and is complete at "together;"
but it has been the mistaken custom to place a full stop, fol-
lowed by a line, after division,-
"Divided in their dire division.-"
This is an error, which the old corrector amends; and John-
son's opinion is entirely confirmed that "division" ought to
be followed by only a comma.
3
SC. III.]
319
KING RICHARD III.
P. 492. A blunder seems to have prevailed, from the earliest
to the latest times, in this line:-
،،
"Abate the edge of traitors, gracious Lord!"
Steevens says, as indeed everybody must know, that to
abate,” is to lower, depress, or subdue; but what has that
sense to do with "the edge," which immediately follows? To
lower, depress, or subdue an edge, is scarcely sense; and un-
doubtedly we ought to substitute a word, inserted in the
margin of the folio, 1632, which means to blunt, and which
is used exactly in that way by Shakespeare himself:
"Rebate the edge of traitors, gracious Lord!"
i.e. blunt the edge of traitors; and in "Measure for Measure,”
Act I. Scene V. (vol. ii. p. 21), we read,-
"But doth rebate and blunt the natural edge," &c.
where our great dramatist explains the meaning of rebate, if
it could be doubted, by the word which follows it.
It is hardly necessary to notice the stage-directions towards
the close of this play: in the printed copies they are com-
paratively few and general; but the corrector of the folio,
1632, felt the importance of supplying this deficiency, with a
view, perhaps, to the representation of this drama, in a portion
of it that is especially confused and complicated.
#
KING HENRY VIII.
ACT I. SCENE I.
P. 502. There is in this place an obvious mistake in the
distribution of the dialogue between Norfolk and Bucking-
ham in all the folios. It was divided differently by Theobald,
who has since been followed: he made Buckingham's speech
begin with, "Who did guide," &c., at the top of p. 503; but
the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, informs us that
the observation,-
"The office did
Distinctly his full function,"
"As
also belongs to Buckingham, who might very properly give
this opinion after Norfolk's description of the scene.
you guess" is the conclusion of Buckingham's inquiry.
P. 504. The last part of Buckingham's speech, from the
words, "and his own letter," is struck out in the corrected
folio, 1632. Just below, in
“What did this vanity,
But minister communication of
A most poor issue?"
the old corrector alters "communication" to the consumma-
tion the meaning is nearly the same according to Johnson's
interpretation, but
“What did this vanity
But minister the consummation of
A most poor issue,"
seems much more distinctly intelligible, and the two words
were probably mistaken by the compositor.
KING HENRY VIII.
321
:
P. 506. The remark of Buckingham,—
"A beggar's book
Outworths a noble's blood,"
has required several notes to show that the allusion was to
Wolsey's learning, which, it is admitted, was not very con-
siderable: the change made in the margin of the folio, 1632,
shows that no note would have been necessary, if the true
text had been given; the antithesis is also stronger:-
"A beggar's brood
Outworths a noble's blood."
SCENE II.
P. 511. According to the corrector of the folio, 1632, there
are several misprints in this scene which need correction.
The first is in the Queen's speech, where she is remonstrating
against the exacting commissions sent out by the Cardinal,
which had led to the use against the King of "language
unmannerly,"
"Yea, such which breaks
The sides of loyalty," &c.
We are here instructed to read (perhaps needlessly) "ties of
loyalty." The Cardinal answers (p. 512) that he has done no
more, and knows no more than others; to which the Queen
replies:
"You know no more than others; but
you frame
Things, that are known alike, which are not wholesome," &c.
For "alike," the correction is belike:-
""
"Things that are known, belike, which are not wholesome."
Again, at the end of the Queen's next speech, the expression,
"There is no primer baseness," of all the folios, is altered (in
accordance with Southern's suggestion mentioned in note 6)
to "There is no primer business ;" and such we may here-
after treat as the original word. Farther on (p. 514), the
King, struck at the amount of the exactions under Wolsey's
commissions, exclaims,—
(C
"Sixth part of each?
A trembling contribution!"
The old corrector here put his pen through the m in
'trembling," making the word trebling, as if the King
meant to say that the sum was treble what it ought to have
Y
322
[ACT I.
KING HENRY VIII.
been. For "this tractable obedience" he reads "their tract-
able obedience." When the Duke of Buckingham's Surveyor
enters to give evidence against his lord, the Queen says to the
King,-
"I am sorry that the Duke of Buckingham
Is run in your displeasure;"
which may be quite right, but it ought perhaps to be noticed
that a marginal emendation makes the last line,—
"Is one in your displeasure."
P. 516. There can be no dispute that "under the commis-
sion's seal,” of all the old copies, ought to be "under the con-
fession's seal," as Theobald altered the word on the authority
of Holinshed: it so stands also in the hand-writing of the
corrector of the folio, 1632. For the words of the folios, "For
this to ruminate on this so far," his reading is not that of
Rowe, but "From this to ruminate on it so far."
P. 518. This scene in all printed copies concludes with a
very lame rhyming couplet, put into the mouth of the
King,-
"Let him not seek't of us. By day and night
He's traitor to the height."
Some words were omitted which cured the defectiveness of
the last line, and the old corrector tells us that they were
these:-
"He is a daring traitor to the height."
To say the least of it, we may be disposed to admit this emen-
dation, without opposing evidence.
SCENE III.
""
P. 520. After changing "A springhalt" to "Or springhalt,'
the manuscript-corrector leads us to believe that there are
two errors of the press, where Lord Sands is thus speaking of
Wolsey :-
"Men of his way should be most liberal;
They are set here for examples."
We can readily accord in the first, but the second emendation
hardly seems required:-
"Men of his sway should be most liberal;
They are sent here for examples."
ACT II.]
323
KING HENRY VIII.
P. 523. In the line of Lord Sands,-
"I told your grace how they would talk anon,”
the word how is derived from a correction in the margin.
SCENE IV.
P. 524. The pronoun me may have been left out in the
folios at the end of the verse, because there was no room for
it without what is called turning the line, or because it acci-
dentally escaped in the press :-
"Because they speak no English, thus they pray'd me
To tell your grace.”
The sense is not complete without it, and as the old corrector
inserted it, we need have little hesitation in adopting an im-
provement so doubly recommended.
ACT II. SCENE I.
P. 528. The folio, 1632, gives this imperfect line to Buck-
ingham, on his way to execution :-
"You that thus have come to pity me."
The folio, 1623, has it :-
"You that thus far have come to pity me."
The corrector of the folio, 1632, may have obtained far from
the earlier impression, and he places it in the margin. Not-
withstanding this omission, this portion of the play is well
printed in both folios. Just before Buckingham makes his
exit (p. 531), a change is made in the folio, 1632, in an
adverb, which is supported by the sense; Henry's victim is
speaking of false friends:-
"When they once perceive
The least rub in your fortunes, fall away
Like water from ye, never found again
But when they mean to sink ye."
The ordinary reading is, "But where they mean," &c. The
change is not material.
SCENE II.
P. 534. It is evident from the old printed stage-direction,
Y 2
324
[ACT II.
KING HENRY VIII.
>>
"the King draws the curtain, and sits reading pensively,'
that in the early simplicity and poverty of our stage, Henry
himself drew a traverse at the back of the stage, and disco-
vered himself to Norfolk and Suffolk, "reading pensively." It
would appear that in the time of the corrector of the folio,
1632, the practice in this respect had been somewhat im-
proved; for the words stating that "the King draws the
curtain," are struck out, and Curtain drawn is inserted in
the margin in parenthesis, showing that Henry was disco-
vered to his nobles "reading pensively," by some contrivance
which rendered it needless for him to rise from his seat, and
then to resume it after he had drawn the curtain. This is a
curious indication of a slight advance made in the scenical
arrangements of our old theatres. When Henry subsequently
asks,-
"Is this an hour for temporal affairs?”
we are told, in a manuscript stage-direction, that he holds up
a book to the two noblemen who had intruded upon his “pri-
vate meditations."
SCENE III.
P. 538. Anne Bullen, reflecting on the fall of Queen Katha-
rine, observes of power,—
"Though it be temporal,
Yet, if that quarrel, fortune, do divorce
It from the bearer, 'tis a sufferance panging
As soul and body's severing."
Warburton, Hanmer, Johnson, and Steevens have all written.
notes upon the words, "that quarrel, fortune," some taking
" quarrel" as an arrow, others in the sense of quarreller, &c.;
but, if we may believe the old corrector, it is only a misprint,
for he gives the second line thus:-
“Yet, if that cruel fortune do divorce,” &c.
which certainly removes the difficulty, and applies to "for-
tune" an epithet, to which its commonness seems the main
objection. When cruel was spelt crewell, as was sometimes
the case, the mistake was not difficult.
P. 541. The Lord Chamberlain, on retiring, tells Anne
Bullen, who has just before been made Marchioness of Pem-
broke,—
SC. IV.]
325
KING HENRY VIII.
"I shall not fail to approve the fair conceit
The king hath of you."
“To improve the fair conceit," &c., seems the more natural
word, although "approve" may be said, upon Johnson's
construction, sufficiently well to fill the place in the text.
The correction of improve for "approve," is made in the folio,
1632.
P. 542. At the end of the scene, Anne Bullen declares that
her advancement gives her no satisfaction:-
“Would I had no being,
If this salute my blood a jot."
Whatever meaning may be attached to the expression, "salute
my blood," the sense of the poet is rendered much more dis-
tinct, if we substitute a different word, easily misread or mis-
printed :-
"Would I had no being,
If this elate my blood a jot."
Elate, as an adjective, is of very old use in our language; and
it is doing no great violence to Shakespeare to suppose that
here he converted an adjective into a verb. This has been
the practice ever since, and we have the evidence of the cor-
rector of the folio, 1632, in favour of elate in this place.
SCENE IV.
P. 544. The trial scene of the Queen seems to have been
taken more than usual pains with, both by copyist and com-
positor; but two exceptions to its general accuracy are
pointed out in the margin of the corrected folio, 1632: both
are misprints; the first less obvious, though more important
than the last. Katharine desires that if any charge of infi-
delity can be made out against her,-
"In God's name
Turn me away; and let the foul'st contempt
Shut door upon me, and so give me up
To the sharp'st kind of justice.”
We can have no hesitation here in substituting another in
place of the very tame word "kind," in the last hemi-
stich, when the substitution adds much to the force of the
passage, and impresses us at once as the language of the
poet :-
326
[ACT III.
KING HENRY VIII.
"And let the foul'st contempt
Shut door upon me, and so give me up
To the sharp'st knife of justice.”
We can hardly suppose this striking improvement merely
speculative and conjectural. When, afterwards, Wolsey says,—
"It shall be therefore bootless,
That longer you desire the court;"
though "desire" be in the old editions (previous to the folio of
1685), and though the intended meaning may be gathered
from it, yet we cannot refuse, instead of it, to adopt defer,
which suits the place so much better, and which is warranted
by the same authority which, in the preceding instance, has
given us so expressive a word as knife, to the exclusion of so
vague a term as "kind.”
ACT III. SCENE II.
P. 559. When Suffolk informs Surrey that the King has
already married Anne Bullen, the latter exclaims, as it has
always been printed,-
"Now all my joy
Trace the conjunction!"
but Surrey did not wish his joy in particular, but all joy to
follow the marriage, and we ought certainly to read with
the annotator of the folio, 1632,-
"Now may all joy
Trace the conjunction!"
And, in consistency with this wish, Suffolk and Norfolk cry
"Amen" to it.
Several stage-directions are added in manuscript in this
scene. When Wolsey and Cromwell enter, the peers stand
back to observe him; and when Wolsey has dismissed his
Secretary, he speaks to himself, and finally stands back
musing. When the King enters reading a schedule, Wolsey
does not at first see him, but wakes amazedly from his
reverie as soon as Lovell touches him. Henry afterwards
gives the schedule to Wolsey, who, when the King is gone,
opens and reads it trembling. After he has glanced at his
own letter to the Pope, he sinks in a chair, from which he
ACT IV.]
327
KING HENRY VIII.
rises when the Dukes of Norfolk, Suffolk, &c., enter, and in
the King's name demand the Great Seal from him. Such,
we may conclude, was the manner of the old actor of the
part of Wolsey, and the way in which the business of the
scene was formerly conducted.
P. 562. The King, addressing the Cardinal, says,—
"You have scarce time
To steal from spiritual leisure a brief span,
To keep your earthly audit.”
If Wolsey enjoyed so much "leisure," whether spiritual or
temporal, it would seem as if he might have time also for his
earthly audit, and the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632,
inserts labour for "leisure" in the text with apparent pro-
priety :-
"To steal from spiritual labour a brief span," &c.
This is another of the many cases in which it is very ap-
parent how the two words were confounded by the ear of
the scribe. It may deserve a note that in this scene, and in
others, the prefix belonging to Wolsey is always made con-
sistent, for in the old copies it is sometimes Card. and some-
times Wol.
ACT IV. SCENE I.
P. 573. The corrected copy of the folio, 1632, is deficient
of a leaf containing pp. 223 and 224, which was principally
occupied by a description of the coronation of Anne Bullen.
SCENE II.
P. 580. In the folio, 1623, Katharine says of Wolsey,—
"So may he rest: his faults lie gently on him."
In the folio, 1632, the line stands thus imperfectly:-
"So may he rest: his faults lie on him."
The corrector of this last edition, instead of taking the
word "gently" from the earlier folio, inserts lightly in the
margin :-
"So may he rest: his faults lie lightly on him.”
328
[ACT IV.
KING HENRY VIII.
Possibly, this was the erroneous form in which he had heard
the passage delivered; but Shakespeare's word was probably
that of the folio, 1623.
P. 581. Although it has been followed in various modern
editions, nothing can be more absurd than the old punc-
tuation of the opening of the speech of Griffith, where he
gives a character of the deceased Cardinal:-
"This cardinal,
Though from an humble stock, undoubtedly
Was fashion'd to much honour.
From his cradle
He was a scholar, and a ripe and good one."
The old corrector, in accordance with the obvious sense of
the passage, omits the period before "From his cradle," and
inserts it after it :-
"Was fashioned to much honour from his cradle.
He was a scholar," &c.
It is astonishing that so decided a blunder, as to represent
that the Cardinal was a ripe and good scholar "from his
cradle," should have been repeated over and over again from
the year 1623 to our own day. Lower down occurs a line
that has occasioned discussion, relating to Wolsey's founda-
tions at Ipswich and Oxford:-
"One of which fell with him,
Unwilling to outlive the good that did it.”
"The good that did it" has been construed "the virtue that
raised the edifice;" but a note in the folio, 1632, has the
passage in a form which clears away all difficulty, and is in
all probability the true reading:-
66
Unwilling to outlive the good man did it;"
i.e. the good man (for such Griffith represented Wolsey) who
laid the foundation.
P. 583. All the early editions print thus, when Griffith
speaks of Katharine very soon after the vision,-
"How pale she looks,
And of an earthy cold? Mark her eyes."
Steevens, at a venture, inserted you to complete the measure,
"Mark you her eyes;" but the error lies earlier, and before
ACT V.]
329
KING HENRY VIII.
the note of interrogation, for the old corrector gives the last
line as follows:
“ And of an earthy coldness? Mark her eyes."
Such we may confidently believe was the original reading:
to say that a dying person looks "of an earthy cold," is at ·
least a peculiar expression, though "cold" is very often used
as a substantive.
ACT V. SCENE I.
P. 590. Instead of "you a brother of us," the corrected
folio has “to a brother of us," which hardly seems required;
and at the bottom of the page, for
"The good I stand on is my truth and honesty,"
which is certainly sense, the folio, 1632, has,-
"The ground I stand on is my truth and honesty;"
which reads better, and ground might be carelessly mistaken
for "good."
SCENE II.
P. 595. The Lord Chancellor tells Cranmer,-
"But we all are men,
In our own natures frail, and capable
Of our flesh.”
Malone, for "and capable," put incapable, without any war-
rant, and without extricating the passage from the difficulty
involving it. Mason saw what was necessary, and suggested
the word which is found written in the folio, 1632, as the cor-
rection of a mere error of the press :-
"In our own natures frail, and culpable
Of our flesh."
P. 596. Another misprint is pointed out in Cranmer's
speech in answer to the charges against him. The passage
has always stood as follows:-
"Nor is there living
(I speak it with a single heart, my lords)
A man that more detests, more stirs against,
Both in his private conscience and his place,
Defacers of a public peace, than I do.”
330
[ACT V.
KING HENRY VIII.
Now, in the old copies, "stirs" is printed stirres; and strives,
the word supplied by the old corrector, appears to have been
misread stirres: we ought, therefore, in future, to give the
line thus:
"A man that more detests, more strives against,
Defacers of the public peace," &c.
When the King afterwards enters (p. 599) and seats Cran-
mer, "his place" of the old editions is changed to "this
place," clearly referring to the chair Cranmer has taken by
command of his Majesty.
SCENE III.
P. 603. In the two subsequent lines there appear to be as
many unaccountable misprints, which are nevertheless set
right by the corrector of the second folio :—
"Let me ne'er hope to see a chine again,
And that I would not for a cow, God save her."
God save whom? the cow? Certainly not. To do justice to
this singular emendation, we must quote more of the speech
of the Man who is keeping back the people, in the palace
yard at Greenwich, pressing forward to see the procession of
the christening: the Porter is finding fault with his Man for
not repelling the crowd, and the Man replies:
"I am not Samson, nor sir Guy, nor Colbrand,
To mow 'em down before me; but if I spared any
That had a head to hit, either young or old,
He or she, cuckold or cuckold-maker,
Let me ne'er hope to see a chine again,
And that I would not for a cow, God save her.'
Why should he just at such a moment think of "a chine" or
"a cow?" He was about to witness the royal procession to
the christening of the Princess Elizabeth; and the old cor-
rector informs us that both "chine" and "cow" are blunders
of the copyist, of the compositor, or of both: he reads,
"Let me ne'er hope to see a queen again,
And that I would not for a crown, God save her.”
That is, God save the queen, the sight of whom again the
Porter's Man would not miss for a crown. Queen (printed
formerly with a final e) became "chine," and crown "cow."
This emendation does not look like mere guess-work, but it
SC. III.]
331
KING HENRY VIII.
is out of the question to speculate upon what authority the
corrector of the folio, 1632, may have proceeded. The printer
may possibly have been led to think of a "cow" by the men-
tion of Guy.
It is needless to quote the very particular stage-directions
written in the margin towards the termination of this drama.
It will be sufficient to say, that nothing seems omitted that
could conduce to the exact and successful performance of it
by the actors concerned in the representation.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
Vol. vi. P. 11. The prologue of thirty-one lines fills a whole
page in the folios, and is not found in the quarto editions: it
is merely headed "Prologue;" but the corrector of the folio,
1632, has subjoined the words in 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 Antenorides; and, what is more im-
portant, 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 or-
thography seems to be "sperr up the sons of Troy," which
has precisely the same meaning as "sparre up the sons of
Troy," the spelling 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 spars."
Possibly, therefore (not to mention Chaucer, whom Shakes-
peare must have read), 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:
Shakespeare'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.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
333
ACT I. SCENE I.
P. 14. Rowe and Pope made two excellent emendations in
the line,-
"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 un-
changed "when she is thence," although the transposition,
"when is she thence?" is equally wanted. Thus, in this in-
stance, the corrector did only half what seems necessary to
render the poet's meaning intelligible. Six lines lower, he
properly altered scorn to "storm," which was also Rowe's
emendation, and sufficiently obvious.
SCENE II.
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. 20. Pandarus tells Cressida that Hector shall not have
Troilus' wit, instead of "will," this year, and (p. 23) that An-
tenor is "
a proper man of person," which it may seem need-
less to change: but a manuscript note in the margin of the
folio, 1632, invites 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. For the evidently misprinted line,—
"Achievement is command; ungain'd beseech,”
we are informed that we ought to read,-
""
"Achiev❜d men still command; ungain'd beseech."
That achiev'd men should have been converted by the old
compositor into "achievement," seems not unlikely; but
how still became "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,"
334
[ACT I.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
is not supported by the authority of the corrector of the
folio, 1632: us for "is," was a most probable mistake.
SCENE III.
P. 28. Agamemnon, referring to the disasters that have
hitherto attended the siege of Troy by the Greeks, and ob-
serving that disappointment constantly accompanies human
undertakings, inquires,-
""
Why then, you princes,
Do you with cheeks abash'd behold 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 wrecks,
And call them shames ?"
The word wreck is frequently used by Shakespeare, and by
writers of his day, to signify disaster or ruin, and such is its
meaning in this place.
P. 29. The folio, 1632, is very carelessly printed in this
part of the play; and for "place and sway," of the earlier
impressions, it has "place and may." 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 more modern editors,
"godlike" for godly: the last was an error of the folios
only.
CC
P. 33. Such was not the case with a mistake in the
second great speech of Ulysses, where he is referring to
the mimicry, by Patroclus, 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.
SC. III.]
335
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
:
fell under the ridicule of Achilles here the words, "of
grace exact," seem wrong, although always so printed, be-
cause the complaint was, that they were not "of grace
exact," but grossly caricatured. Therefore the corrector of
the folio, 1632, thus altered the expression to a form much
more in accordance with the context:
"Severals and generals, all grace extract;"
i. e. deprived of all the grace which really belonged to the
persons Patroclus imitated. This appears to be an important
improvement of the received text.
P. 35. In a celebrated speech by Æneas, a fine compound
epithet appears to have escaped in the hands of the old
printer:-
"The worthiness of praise distains his worth,
If that the prais'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 manu-
script-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, soul-pure, transcends."
The scribe wrote, or the compositor wrought, only by the
sound, and that sound has hitherto satisfied, because nothing
better was offered. To show how readily misprints are even
now made, we may mention that Malone gives 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.”
The old corrector of the folio, 1632, erases pawn, and places
"prove" in the margin; but, supposing that he obtained the
latter word from the quartos, he made no alteration in the
next line, which in the folios varies from the quartos in two
not unimportant particulars: the folios read,-
336
[ACT II.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
“Now heavens forbid such scarcity of youth;"
while the quartos give it,—
"Now heavens forefend such scarcity of men."
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. Afterwards he makes
Ulysses disputably speak of the "seeded pride" of Achilles
having “grown up” instead of "blown up."
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. Vinny, or vinnewy, for
mouldy, is still a word in use in the provinces. Afterwards
Thersites says that the orations, not the "evasions," of Ajax
"have ears thus long.'
وو
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 mis-
prints 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 a change in what Paris
says regarding the dangers which had attended his enterprise
in securing and retaining Helen,-
"Yet, I protest,
Were I alone to pass the difficulties,
And had as ample power as I have will,
Paris should ne'er retract what he hath done,
Nor faint in the pursuit.
ACT III.]
337
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
Here for "pass the difficulties" (spelt passe in the old copies),
the corrector advises us to substitute to poise, i. e. to weigh the
difficulties.
P. 55. The emendation of "We sent our messengers,” in-
stead of “He sent our messengers," of the folios, (it is "He
sate our messengers," in the quartos) is warranted by an
emendation of W for H in the margin. Theobald read, "He
shent our messengers ;" 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 dif-
ferent 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 com-
mentators have recommended deposer, others despiser, in-
stead 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, informs us that
for "disposer," we should substitute dispraiser, Cressida
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
Z
338
[ACT III.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
enough to warrant us in believing that Paris calls Cressida,
not his "disposer," but his dispraiser. 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
modern editors, which, it must be allowed, seems founded
upon a correct notion of the course of the dialogue. Pos-
sibly 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 difference in the apparent fitness of changing
'disposer" to dispraiser.
cr
In the song of Pandarus, the amended line is,-
"Yet that which seems a wound to kill,"
and not "the" or "they wound," as it stands in the folios.
SCENE II.
P. 67. It is a very noticeable circumstance that the expres-
sion of Troilus, found in some copies of the quarto of 1609, 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 inde-
pendent authority were resorted to, how the passage was re-
cited before and after the second folio made its appearance,
and confirms it, if confirmation 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. Al-
though this important emendation was made, another emen-
dation 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 cor-
rector had not there been governed by the same authority.
P. 72. In the amorous dialogue between Troilus and Cres-
sida, the latter, affecting coyness, distinguishes between her
two selfs, in all the ordinary copies of this play, as follows:—
SC. III.]
339
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
"I have a kind of self resides with you,
But an unkind self, that itself will leave,
To be another's fool.”
The antithesis, intended by the poet, seems thus, according
to a manuscript 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 separating itself from his
company. The old reading may be certainly defended.
SCENE III.
P. 74. All early 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 abandon'd 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 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, however, it has been reasonably asked, why should Cal-
chas desert and abandon his native city to Jove, who was
its protector? Theobald, Warburton, Johnson, Steevens, and
Malone, all wasted their time and ingenuity on a mere mis-
print, which is set right in a moment, and which proves that
the old compositor misread above "to love:" there is an error
also, but of very minor importance, in the preceding line,
where "appear" is put for appeal, in the sense of call to
mind, and the whole should, therefore, stand thus:-
Z 2
340
[АСТ III.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
“ Appeal it to your mind,
That, through the sight I bear in things above,
I have abandon'd Troy ;"
i. e. call to mind that I abandoned Troy by reason of the
sight I enjoy in things above-foreseeing what would be the
issue of the struggle. If Mason thought "things to come" an
emendation not requiring authority, à fortiori, "things above"
is an emendation 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.
"Appear" might stand.
P. 78. There is, we think, 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 ad-
verted 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
explains it by reference to the knowledge obtained of per-
sonal 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 very
like nonsense, in comparison with the distinctly expressed
meaning of the poet, when, with the aid of a marginal
emendation in the folio, 1632, we read mirror'd for "mar-
ried." Married may, however, like many other words, be
strained to a not inconsistent meaning.
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 shrinking." There
can hardly be any dispute which is right, though Steevens
raised the question; and the old corrector put his pen through
the letter n, and left the word shriking, which was all he
thought necessary.
SC. III.]
341
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
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 re-
dundant, 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, never-
theless, the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, alters
"'gin to" to quicklier, which may have been the word of the
poet, and which he employs elsewhere:-
"Since things in motion quicklier catch the eye."
Here, therefore, the writer of the emendation did not follow
the quartos, but he may have guessed at the word he in-
serted 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 corrector: 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 antici-
pates thoughts-not only keeps pace with them, but goes
beyond them,-
"Does thoughts unveil in their dumb crudities ;”
¿. e. unveils them almost before they become thoughts. This
must have been the poet's language, and we find crudities
for "cradles" in the margin of the folio, 1632. Hanmer,
Malone, Steevens, &c., 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:-
342
[ACT IV.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
"The providence that's in a watchful state
Knows almost every grain of Plutus' gold,
Finds bottom in th' uncomprehensive deeps,
Keeps pace 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 sugges-
tion, and may give warranty to more questionable changes.
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 no difficulty in obeying the instruction,
and we have before had swift misprinted "sweet" (p. 62).
Three lines lower, the old corrector does not strike out airy
in the passage, "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." Never-
theless, if the poet intended his measure to be regular, very
is not required.
ACT IV. SCENE I.
P. 85. Diomed tells Æneas, 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 may seem to run more properly as it is amended in
the folio, 1632,-
“By Jove, I'll play the hunter for thy life,
With all my fierce pursuit, and policy."
But the change is far from unavoidable, although on some
accounts plausible.
SCENE II.
P. 90. When Troilus tells Æneas to keep his counsel, the
latter replies, in the folios,-
"Good, good, my lord; the secrets of nature
Have not more gift in taciturnity."
SC. IV.]
343
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
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 ab-
surdly have "the secrets of neighbour Pandar." The cor-
rector of the folio, 1632, inserts a word which, most likely,
had dropped out in the press, and which we may, perhaps,
accept upon his evidence, because it is the very word re-
quired, in reference to the hidden operations 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 printed in these
words in the early authorities:-
"O heart! O 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 "speak-
ing." The folio, 1632, has sittest for "sigh'st," an error which
the old corrector remedies, and represents that the quatrain
should stand as follows:-
"O heart! O heart! O heavy heart!
Why sigh'st thou without breaking?
Because thou canst not ease thy smart
By silence nor by speaking."
It is underlined as a quotation, though printed as plain prose
in all the old copies.
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."
344
[ACT IV.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
"Changeful potency" seems the very contrary of what was
intended: if the verse would allow it, we ought rather to
read,-
"Presuming on their unchangeful potency,"
or the potency with which they would resist change; and a
manuscript alteration in the folio, 1632, leads us to believe
that the scribe misheard the word,-
(6
Presuming on their chainful potency,”
the potency with which they chain, 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 when 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, seeing its importance, writes it in a blank space,
but differing in one word,—
“And parted you, and your same argument;"
adding this explanatory stage-direction, Puts back Menelaus,
who thus allowed himself to be defeated in his design upon
the lips of 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 wording of those editions.
P. 100. Few lines in this play have produced more com-
ment than the second of the following, where Ulysses is
censuring the wanton spirit of Cressida :-
sc. v.]
345
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
"O! 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 appropriate to the place,-
"O! 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. Accosting has been plau-
sibly proposed, but occasion seems to have been the word, and
we may rather wonder that the old corrector did not substi-
tute skittish for "sluttish:" as he has not done so, we may
conclude that “sluttish" was the poet's language.
""
P. 102. Shakespeare employs the word "utterance
as the
extreme result of a personal encounter in "Macbeth," Act
III. Scene I., and in "Cymbeline," Act III. Scene I. The
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 Æneas
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
extremity, or else break off before it comes to that: breach
is a printed emendation in the folios, instead of "breath," of
the earlier editions in quarto, which can only be understood
as a breathing time. This agrees precisely with the question
Æneas had put, immediately after he entered with Hector.
Subsequently, in the speech of Achilles, the substitution is
"Lord Ulysses, then" for "Lord Ulysses, thou." In "Twelfth
Night," Act V. Scene I., and elsewhere, we have seen "thou"
misprinted then.
346
[ACT V.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
ACT V. SCENE I
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 preposterous discoveries." What can be the
meaning of "discoveries" so applied? The old corrector has
it "such preposterous discolourers," and perhaps rightly, the
allusion being to the painting and discolouring of nature by
Patroclus, like a female prostitute.
SCENE II.
P. 113. The quartos and folios vary materially in one of
the speeches of Thersites. According to the first, he says of
Cressida, “And any man may sing her, if he can take her
cliff; she's noted:" on the other hand, the folios, with evi-
dent corruption, give the passage thus: "And any man may
find her, if he can but take her life; she's noted." The allu-
sion is, probably, indelicate; and the old corrector inserts
one word in the folio, 1632, that had been omitted, and
alters another that had been misprinted-" And any man
may find her key, if he can take her clefft; she's noted."
The figure is, of course, borrowed from singing at sight, and
this last reading seems preferable to that of the quartos.
P. 115. In the speech of Cressida,—
"In faith, I will, la: never trust me else,"
we have something like a repetition of the blunder com-
mitted 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 interjection, and then to as if it were a prepo-
sition. In the instance before us, the corruption seems to
have originated with the quartos: la, there, became lo! in the
folio, 1623, and goe in the folio, 1632. 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
SC. IV.]
347
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
we have the above evidence to the contrary. It is not a
point of any importance.
SCENE III.
P. 121. Andromache's speech to Hector only consists of
these words in the folio, 1632, as amended :-
"O! 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
introduced the manuscript-emendations could make nothing
of the passage, 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.
At the end of this scene, after Troilus has torn and thrown
away Cressida's letter, he exclaims:-
"Go, wind to wind, there turn and change together.-
My love with words and errors still she feeds."
The proposed correction here is air for "errors" and as he
had just before called the letters "wind," and as air was not
unfrequently used as a dissyllable, some may be inclined to
receive the change.
SCENE IV.
P. 126. Cressida, having given to Diomed the sleeve she
had received from Troilus, the latter hunts the former
through the field to recover it. Thersites watches the pur-
suit, 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 in the folio, 1632,
Thersites ought to say,-
"Soft! here comes sleeve and sleeveless."
Troilus being, as it were, upon "a sleeveless errand," in
quest of the sleeve he had given Cressida, which was still
in the possession of his rival: "here comes sleeve and
th' other" reads so poorly, that we may feel sure Shake-
348
[ACT V.
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
speare never wrote it. In 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 sleeveless."
In all editions we find only, "Now the 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 con-
jecture, or upon authority, we can only speculate. 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 occupation 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
luchy,” and in the other, "brother lackey." "Brothel-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 con-
clusion of this play, as it appears in the corrected folio, 1632.
The first is, that the following words are written in a blank
space opposite the speech of Pandarus, after all the other
characters have made their exit-Left alone, let him say this
by way of Epilogue. The other circumstance is that the four
SC. IV.]
349
TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
lines after Pandarus asks, "What verse for it? what instance
for it?—Let me see," are underlined as a quotation; and we
may infer that they were extracted 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 indebted.
1
CORIOLANUS.
ACT I. SCENE I.
P. 141. The earliest manuscript-emendation cannot be
called a necessary one; but still it seems, taking the con-
text 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 ab-
jectness 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
object 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,-
(6
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 offices of man."
It is evident that the last line but one is not measure;
and
CORIOLANUS.
351
we are instructed to read it, and the next, in a way that not
only cures this defect, but much improves the sense, by fol-
lowing up the figure of "the court, the heart," and com-
pleting the resemblance of the human body to the various
parts of a commonwealth :
"Even to the Court, the heart, the Senate, brain;
And through the ranks and offices of man."
Tyrwhitt thought "the seat o' the brain" a very "languid
expression;" and Malone 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,—
(6 Shooting their emulation,"
of the old copies, is altered to "shouting their exultation."
Modern editors have adopted shouting; and "emulation,” in
the sense in which Shakespeare uses it, does not seem to re-
quire change: exultation, perhaps, better expresses what is
intended; and "shooting," for shouting, shows that the com-
positor 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 in-
variably 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.”
352
[ACT I.
CORIOLANUS.
This, at least, is sense, but the first folio had absurdly
printed "contending" Contenning, putting it in Italic type,
as if it were the name of an attendant, 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 contemning :"
i. e. contemning at Grecian swords, despising them. "Tell
Valeria," &c., of course begins a new sentence.
SCENE IV.
P. 158. When the Romans are beaten back to their
trenches, Marcius enters, "cursing" his flying soldiers; and
we here arrive at a line which has been fertile of discus-
sion. 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 seems to lead 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 contro-
versy:
"All the contagion of the south light on you,
You shames of Rome! Unheard of boils and plagues
Plaster you o'er," &c.
sc. vi.]
353
CORIOLANUS.
The whole difficulty seems to have been produced by a
strange lapse on the part of the old printer.
The old printed 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 expres-
sion that nobody has attempted to elucidate, it is explained
at once by the corrector of the folio, 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 the port or gate: very shortly after-
wards Lartius directs, "Let the ports be guarded." All
editions, ancient and modern, have "pot" for 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 later 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
animating speech, wishes to select a certain number of soldiers
to accompany him in an attack upon Aufidius and his An-
tiates: 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
command, and many notes have been written upon the ques-
tion. We print the passage as we find it amended, which
shows that the scribe or the compositor (most likely the
former in this instance) was to blame :-
"Please you march before,
And I shall quickly draw out my command,
Which men are best inclin'd.”
A a
354
[ACT I.
CORIOLANUS.
Whoever made the copy for the printer, must have under-
stood before as by four, and put it in the wrong place, curing
the defect in the metre of the first line by arbitrarily in-
serting 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 VIIL
P. 165. When Marcius and Aufidius meet, the latter ad-
dresses the former, as the text has always been given,-
"Not Afric owns a serpent I abhor
More than thy fame and envy.”
This can hardly be right, inasmuch as, taking "envy" even in
the sense of hate, Aufidius could not mean that he abhorred
the fame and the hate of Marcius: on the presumption that
the printer made a slight error by mistaking the pronoun I
for the contraction of the conjunction, the old corrector
reads,-
"Not Afric owns a serpent I abhor
More than thy fame I envy."
This correction does not seem as satisfactory as some others
in this tragedy.
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 be 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 language of the folios; but the authority of a
manuscript-correction here comes in aid of a speculative
emendation, and it appears to us that we need not hesitate
upon the point hereafter.
ACT II.]
355
CORIOLANUS.
ACT II. SCENE I.
P. 173. Few 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 Menenius 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
imperfect in favouring the first complaint."
What is "the first complaint" 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 drop 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
complaint;" and although no objection need be raised to
"with not," instead of without, 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 nega-
tive and a pronoun are omitted, and "bisson" is misprinted
beesome; while, still lower, we have "rejourn" for adjourn,
though "rejourn" may answer the purpose. Near the top of
the next page, "controversy bleeding" is put for "contro-
versy pleading," or controversy that was in a course of dis-
cussion before the Tribunes.
P. 175. The word in the old editions, "emperickqutique,"
has, naturally enough, occasioned a pause among the anno-
tators, who at last concurred with Ritson in thinking it “ an
adjective evidently formed from empirick." Such is not strictly
the case: the sentence in which it occurs is part of a speech by
Menenius, who is so rejoiced at having a letter from the hero,
that he declares that it will lengthen his life seven years-"the
most sovereign prescription 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 "empirick" alone, but was a blunder
A a 2
850
[ACT II.
CORIOLANUS.
of the printer for two words, which he absurdly combined in
one, namely, "empirick" and "physique," as physic was then
often spelt: we ought, therefore, to read, "the most sovereign
prescription in Galen is but empiric physic, and to this pre-
servative of no better report than a horse-drench." "Empiric
physic" is, of course, only quack-medicine.
P. 178. The first part of the subsequent quotation hardly
requires 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 Corio-
lanus (now so called) to Rome; and "chats him" is certainly
intelligible 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 double 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.
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," &c.
i. e. shall gall or irritate them. This use of touch is common
in Shakespeare and other writers.
SC. III.]
357
CORIOLANUS,
SCENE II.
P. 183. When the Senators and Tribunes have assembled
"to thank and to remember" the services of Coriolanus,
Sicinius remarks,-
"We are convented
Upon a pleasing treaty."
""
The corrector of the folio, 1632, directs us to substitute trea-
tise for "treaty," a change somewhat supported by "theme,
which immediately follows; but he recommends a more ne-
cessary 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:
"Which the rather
We shall be prest to do," &c.
Even the grudging Tribunes might declare themselves ready
"to honour and advance the theme of their assembly," but
there seems no sufficient 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 numerous that the margin is filled with corrections in
manuscript. It may be sufficient to mention that in the
speech of Cominius, recounting 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
“tun'd with dying cries," which may be right; and “shun-
less defamy" to "shunless destiny," which was very likely
derived from the earlier impression. It is needless to dwell
upon other minor mistakes in this part of the play.
SCENE III.
P. 190. Many notes have been written upon the question
of Coriolanus, thus represented in the folio, 1623:-
358
[ACT III.
CORIOLANUS.
"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 the 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 understand
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 woolless, 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 pos-
sessor 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 instance, and in some others, a guide by which his specu-
lations were assisted? The insertion of the negative, "I will
not flatter," &c., earlier on the page, is questionable, but of
comparatively trifling import.
P. 195. Pope's line respecting Censorinus, as one of the
ancestors of Coriolanus, was not wanted, inasmuch as this
portion of the speech of Brutus was struck out by the old
corrector, possibly, 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 III. SCENE I.
P. 201. Modern editors, since the time of Theobald, have
properly corrected the first line of the speech of Corio-
lanus,-
SC. I.]
359
CORIOLANUS.
"O, good, but most unwise patricians!
cr
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:-
“O, 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
compositor. Trusting to the corrector of the folio, 1632, we
ought hereafter to give the passage as follows:-
"O, 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."
"
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, though this
change, if it stood alone, might be questionable) 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:" Coriolanus 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."
360
[ACT III.
CORIOLANUS.
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, with-
out 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, we may infer, he
would 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 po-
pulace. The language 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?
How shall this bisson multitude digest
The senate's courtesy?"
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 some-
where seen or heard the above passage, and others, repre-
sented with undoubted improvement? On p. 173, we have
had "bisson" printed besome, 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; but this consideration can afford him
no excuse for converting "multitude" into multiplied. An
earlier emendation in the speech, "their recompence," for
"our recompence," merits notice and adoption.
P. 206. Tyrwhitt's distribution of the dialogue assigning
the three lines beginning, "I would they were barbarians,
">
SC. II.]
361
CORIOLANUS.
&c., to Coriolanus, and making the speech of Menenius begin
at "Be gone," is completely borne out by corrections in the
margin of the folio, 1632.
P. 208. It ought to be remarked that in the subsequent
extract,-
"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." If not so written, it may have been
so recited at the time the corrections were made in the folio,
1632.
SCENE II.
P. 211. A rather noticeable change is made by the old an-
notator in the entrance of Volumnia: in print, she is always
made to come in just before the Patrician's speech, "You do
the nobler," standing by and saying nothing, while Corio-
lanus speaks of her in the third person. A manuscript-emen-
dation fixes her arrival on the scene, more naturally perhaps,
at the words of Coriolanus addressed expressly to her, "I
talk of you," &c. We may suppose that this alteration repre-
sents 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 incomplete without it. It is in Volumnia's en-
treaty to her son,—
"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
Coriolanus? 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."
362
[ACT III.
CORIOLANUS.
The line in Italics is written in a blank space, and a mark
made to where it ought to come in. The compositor was,
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 ?
Nevertheless, a previous line in the folio, 1632, unques-
tionably misprinted, things being used for "thwartings" (a
word excellently guessed by Theobald), is left imperfect in
its meaning, as if it had escaped attention, an unusual cir-
cumstance with the manuscript-corrector.
SCENE III.
P. 217. The following must be allowed to be a valuable
emendation of a passage, which is thus given in every edi-
tion, 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 contradic-
tion," means to have his pennyworth of it; but the whole
figure here is taken from horsemanship, as the words “chaf”'d”
and "rein'd" bear witness. 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; there-
fore Brutus, speaking of Coriolanus, and of his irritable spirit,
remarks,-
"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 written 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 pro-
nounced an error of the press: it is where Coriolanus de-
ACT IV.]
363
CORIOLANUS.
clares 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 represent him in this way vaunting his own "courage:"
the old corrector writes carriage for "courage," an easy mis-
take, the setting right of which is surely an improvement:
"Nor check my carriage for what they can give," &c.
Carriage is, of course, deportment; and the very same mis-
print has been pointed out, and remedied in the same way,
in Henry VI., Part III., p. 292 of this volume.
ACT IV. 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
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:" John-
son, 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 which common men,
and those of nobler faculties bear misfortunes; and, when his
language is truly given, observes,—
"Fortune's blows
When most struck home, being gentle-minded 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.
364
[ACT IV.
CORIOLANUS.
In the next scene (p. 225), Volumnia, in the old copies, is
made to call the Roman rabble "cats," but the old corrector
tells us that her word was curs, consistently with the term
Coriolanus had previously applied to them. Curs might
easily be misprinted or mis-written "cats."
SCENE III.
P. 226. The suggestion of Steevens that, in the speech of
the Volsce, "appeared" should be approved, is supported by
the testimony 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 abundant
in both folios, but they are considerably multiplied in that
of 1632.
SCENE V.
P. 236. Perhaps the following may be held to belong to
that class it is where the third Servant is speaking of
the friends of Coriolanus, who do not dare to show them-
selves so "whilst he's in directitude." The first Servant
naturally asks, what is the meaning of "directitude?"
and receives no answer, excepting by implication, derived
from the supposition that Coriolanus will soon be again
in prosperity, and surrounded by his supporters. "Directi-
tude" is clearly a misprint for dejectitude,-a rather fine
word, used by the third Servant to denote the disastrous
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 deiectitude, with an i instead of a j. It has re-
mained, 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), audible, and full of vent. Johnson tells us that
“full of vent" means "full of rumour, full of materials for
"
SC. VI.]
365
CORIOLANUS.
discourse." "Full of vaunt," says the old corrector, with
much greater plausibility, full of deeds deserving to be
vaunted.
SCENE VI.
P. 237. Theobald's emendation in the second line of the
first speech of Sicinius appears to be wrong: the old correc-
tor gives the line thus:-
"His remedies are tamed by th' present peace
but "tame i' the present peace" we still think reads better,
and the change is hardly advisable.
P. 240. On p. 201 we have seen god 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 reported return; but he applies the word "god" to
him in derision, as if Coriolanus were in a manner worshipped
by a certain class of his admirers: Brutus asserts that the
rumour of his return 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 passage, and is most accordant with the character of the
speaker; "good Marcius" is comparatively flat and unmean-
ing. Cominius, soon afterwards, talking of Coriolanus, says,
He is their god," &c.
P. 242. After converting " regions" into legions, the emen-
dator shows us that the point of another passage has 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 handycrafts for "crafts,"
and to print the lines as follows, both on account of the sense
and the metre :—
"You have made fair hands ;
You and your handycrafts have crafted fair."
This change completes the defective line, and shows that
Menenius uses the introductory expression, "You have made
1
366
[ACT IV.
CORIOLANUS.
fair hands," in order that he may follow it up by the con-
temptuous mention of handycrafts.
SCENE VII.
P. 245. The conclusion of the speech of Aufidius, where he
is adverting to the manner in which high merits may be ob-
scured, and even extinguished by the character and conduct
of the possessor, has excited much comment. We print it
first as the passage 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; 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 fire 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
acceptable as that above given. However, the main diffi-
culty has arisen out of the word "chair," which the old cor-
rector informs us should be cheer, in reference to the popular
applause which 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 construction put upon them by contempo-
raries, 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
c
ACT V.]
367
CORIOLANUS.
the letter ƒ 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.
ACT V. SCENE I.
This Act begins as follows in old and modern editions :—
"No, I'll not go: you hear what he hath said
Which was sometime his general.”
This must be wrong, and we are instructed to read,—
“To one sometime his general,”
which is precisely the alteration required.
SCENE II.
P. 250. In order to induce the guard to admit him to an
interview 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. Lower down, in
the 1 Guard's speech, we have "queasy groans of old wo-
" for "easy groans," &c.; and "decayed dotard" for
"decayed dotant."
men
SCENE III.
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,—
368
[ACT V.
CORIOLANUS.
"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. The emen-
dator seems to have been rather too fond of the active parti-
ciple.
P. 256. Shakespeare has always been hitherto represented
as guilty here of a grammatical blunder, little less than ridi-
culous:-
"6 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
enemies:
"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. In
Volumnia's preceding speech the old corrector reads, "that if
we fail in our request ;" and the change seems natural, though
certainly not inevitable.
P. 258. The additions to the stage-directions in this play
are not many, nor of much consequence; but we here en-
counter one that requires notice, because it serves to show
the manner of the old actor of the part of Coriolanus at this
point of the noblest scene, perhaps, in the whole range of dra-
matic literature. After Volumnia's grand and touching appeal,
beginning, "Nay, go not from us thus," we are informed, in the
ancient editions, that Coriolanus holds her by the hand silent;
and the following descriptive addition is made in manuscript,
long, and self-struggling. After this protracted strife, which
shook the whole fabric of the hero, he yields, with the excla-
mation,-
"O mother, mother!
What have you done?" &c.
P. 259. We do not insist upon the change, but we are told,
in the speech of Aufidius aside, to substitute "a firmer for-
sc. v.]
369
CORIOLANUS.
tune" for "a former fortune." We think the emendation ex-
tremely admissible.
SCENE V.
P. 263. An alteration occurs where Aufidius is descanting
on the manner in which 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; holp to reap the fame
Which he did end all his."
Rowe printed make for "end," and he was followed by
several editors, who did not see how sense could be extracted
from "end." Shakespeare, if we rely upon the old corrector,
is here only using a metaphor which he has often employed
before, and 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 may mean that Coriolanus had ploughed the ground, in-
tending to reap the whole of a crop of fame, which Aufidius
had assisted him to harvest. The use of the word "reap'
seems to prove what was in the mind of the poet; but we
may doubt whether the real word was not in for "end".
"which he did in all his." To in a harvest was technical,
and is so even now.
P. 266. It is a mistake, in note 7 on this page, to state
that Malone (Shakespeare, by Boswell, xiv. p. 225) reads
voices: he prints it Volces, 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 altered "flatter'd" to flutter'd, by
striking out the a, and placing u in the margin. Flutter'd is
the word in the folio, 1664, and so it has continued ever
since: "Volcians" is altered to Volces in no old copy.
Lower down, where All People is the prefix to various
exclamations 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 ut-
B b
370
CORIOLANUS.
tered 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, Draw
both the Conspirators, and kill Martius; but we have already
seen (p. 262) Aufidius instructing at least 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 earlier played a third Conspirator 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 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 appended
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 im-
pressive. This, we believe, is a traditional practice, which has
since been continued.
TITUS ANDRONICUS.
ACT I. SCENE I
P. 275. There can be little difficulty in admitting the sub-
sequent emendation of an evident misprint near the opening
of this play, where Bassianus says,—
66
'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 con-
secrate 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, “continence," read as a tri-syllable, is too much for
the verse.
A couplet, in the preceding speech, is altered to the fol-
lowing:-
"I am the first-born son of him, the last
That wore the imperial diadem of Rome."
P. 277. For the imperfect line of Saturninus,-
Open the gates, and let me in,”
""
we have in the writing of the old corrector,-
“Open the brazen gates, and let me in."
The epithet was, doubtless, accidentally omitted.
SCENE II.
P. 279. Rhymes, whether lost by a change in the practice
of the stage, by carelessness of recitation, copying, printing,
Bb 2
372
[ACT II.
TITUS ANDRONICUS.
or otherwise, are restored in more places in this tragedy than
it is, perhaps, necessary to point out: 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 sacri-
fice 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 rather poorly read "gone" for dust.
P. 282. When the people wish to elect Titus for their Em-
peror, 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
written in the margin instead of it; and for "set abroad,
the more natural reading is set abroach, which is also written
in the folio, 1632. When, lower down, Marcus says,-
"Titus, thou shalt obtain and ask the empery,"
""
the words "and ask are on every account too much, and
are therefore struck out.
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.
ACT II. SCENE I
P. 292. Warburton was right, if we may trust the old cor-
rector, in putting will for "wit" in the ensuing line,-
SC. II.]
373
TITUS ANDRONICUS.
(C
'Upon her wit doth earthly honour wait.'
Earthly honour was at the command of Tamora, and we must
read "upon her will," &c.
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 opposite of
what is meant they were pitiless, and discovery or opposition
were not to be dreaded in them; 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, 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 as-
signed. It is needless to quote the lines as given in all edi-
tions, 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 and delight."
Nothing can well read more easily, naturally, or harmoniously.
The first six lines form a stanza, and such were not uncom-
monly introduced by Shakespeare in his earlier plays, in-
stances 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 contradictorily, and the word gay is, we see, substi-
374
[ACT II.
TITUS ANDRONICUS.
tuted as that of the poet. How far any of these changes
were supported by authority, 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. 299. In Tamora's speech to Aaron we meet with the
advantageous change of an important word: for
"The snake lies rolled in the cheerful sun,"
we are instructed to read
"The snake lies coiled in the cheerful sun.
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 Acteon's; and the hounds
Should drive upon thy new transformed limbs."
Heath proposed thrive for "drive," and Steevens was for
preserving the old word, which, nevertheless, all admitted
could scarcely be right. Now, as everybody knows that
Acteon 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.”
In the first line of p. 302 "body" is misprinted for barely,
in reference to the dreadful cries of toads, urchins, &c., which
were to drive people mad or to kill them.
P. 303. Lavinia tells Chiron and Tamora,-
"The lion, mov'd 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 claws par'd all away."
It is not likely that pity would have allowed the beast to
remain quiet, while his "paws" were "pared all away.”
ACT III.]
375
TITUS ANDRONICUS.
SCENE V.
""
P. 309. Several verbal changes, all for the better, are made
in this part of the play: thus, for "Who 'twas that cut thy
tongue," we ought to read, "Who 'twas cut out thy tongue.
Again, for "rosed lips we are told to substitute “roseate
lips," and for "lest thou should'st detect them," "lest thou
should'st detect him."
"
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 acquainted, though now lost. Marcus is referring
to the music Lavinia sung 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 dropp'd his knife," &c.
ACT III. SCENE I.
P. 311. In the address of Titus to the Tribunes the fol-
lowing lines occur, just where, in the bitterness of grief, he
throws himself on the ground:-
"For these, these, Tribunes, in the dust I write
My heart's deep languor, and my soul's sad tears ;"
which is a miserable corruption of a much finer passage :—
"For these, these, Tribunes, in the dust I write
My heart's deep anguish in my soul's sad tears.”
Four lines lower, Sir T. Hanmer's recommendation to read
“ruins” urns is sustained.
Several changes are here introduced, apparently for the sake
of the rhyme only, which may, or may not, represent the most
ancient state of the drama. On p. 314, among others, we find
these lines:
Where, like a sweet melodious bird, it sung
Sweet varied notes, enchanting every ear.
""
376
[ACT IV.
TITUS ANDRONICUS.
The old corrector gives the last line thus:-
"Rich varied notes, enchanting old and young."
Is this to be looked upon as a mere display of taste?
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 'tis true,
Let's kiss and part, for we have much to do."
It does not require any very strong faith to believe that this
must have been the original text.
SCENE II
P. 323. That part of the scene which 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 Andronicus. Copies of the folio, 1623, differ in this
respect; in the folio, 1632, the prefix And, for Andronicus,
is printed as if it were the conjunction.
!
ACT IV. SCENE I.
P. 326. The line,-
"Soft! so busily she turns the leaves,"
is evidently defective, and Malone's change to
"Soft! see, how busily she turns the leaves,"
is precisely that in the corrected folio, 1632.
P. 328. For the tame exclamation of Marcus,-
"Revenge the heavens for old Andronicus,”
SC. II.]
377
TITUS ANDRONICUS.
the emendation is small but spirited ;—
"Revenge, ye heavens, for old Andronicus.”
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 so properly a "breeder," as a burden, and
so it stands amended in the folio, 1632:-
"Among the fairest burdens of our clime."
Nevertheless, on some grounds, "breeder" is defensible.
P. 332. Aaron's speech to Chiron, Demetrius, and the
Nurse, ends as follows:-
"Tell the empress from me, I am of age
To keep mine own; excuse it how she can."
This is one of the many places where the writer of the manu-
script notes leads us to suppose that the original language of
the poet was a rhyming couplet:-
"Tell the empress from me, I am a man
To keep mine own; excuse it how she can."
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
no means required.
Lower down, for the rather 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. Near the
end of Aaron's next speech, the repetition of "feed" in two
consecutive lines is avoided by putting thrive in the place of
the first of them.
378
[ACT IV.
TITUS ANDRONICUS.
SCENE III.
P. 336. This is not made a new scene by the corrector;
and very possibly it was not 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 pas-
sages, in which Andronicus shows his distraction, and Publius
humours it. Scene III., as marked in manuscript, is Scene
IV., according to the modern divisions.
SCENE IV.
P. 339. Rowe amended the following line by the clumsy
insertion of "as do " in the middle of it:-
"My lords, you know, as do the mightful gods;"
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 conjectured :—
'My lords, you know, the mightful gods no less."
Six lines afterwards, "wreaks" is plausibly altered to freaks,
in connexion with "fits" and "frenzy."
P. 341. The Clown, presenting the letter, does it in ridicu-
lous verse, as we find it represented by alterations in the
folio, 1632,—
"God and saint Stephen
Give you good even.
I have brought you a letter
And a couple of pigeons, for want of better."
re
The text has been, "good den" for "good even," but why was
St. Stephen introduced but for the sake of rhyming? The
fourth line (it is arranged as prose in all editions) has
hitherto consisted only of the words, " And a couple of pigeons
here." The same character rhymes again afterwards; and
they are not confined to him, for Tamora begins one of her
speeches to Saturninus in this way:
"King, be thy thoughts imperious as thy name:
Is the sun dimm'd, that gnats do fly in's flame?"
"That gnats do fly in it," is the ordinary text.
ACT V.]
379
TITUS ANDRONICUS.
The last line of this act presents us with two variations,-
"There go incessantly, and plead 'fore him,"
i. e. plead without ceasing before Andronicus for the recall of
his son Lucius.
ACT V. SCENE I.
P. 345. There can be no doubt, on the evidence of the old
corrector of the folio, 1632, that the words, "Get me a
ladder," belong 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 subsequent speeches standing upon it.
Before he ascends it, he tells the Goths that he will dis-
close
(C
"Complots of mischief, treason, villainies,
Ruthful to hear, yet piteously perform'd:"
Piteously perform'd" must be the reverse of what he means,
and there can be no hesitation in printing the last line in
future, as we are instructed by an emendation,-
"Ruthful to hear, despiteously perform'd."
SCENE II.
P. 349. The old introduction to this scene is, Enter Ta-
mora and her two Sons disguised; and in manuscript we are
informed 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 below, to converse about vengeance for the sufferings of
himself and the rest of the Andronici. 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.
The epithet old is omitted where Tamora addresses Titus,
and the absence of it ruins the line,-
"Old Titus, I am come to talk with thee."
P. 355. When Andronicus cuts the throats of Demetrius and
380
[ACT V.
TITUS ANDRONICUS.
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. The rhymes restored
are frequent in this part of the tragedy, but the other emen-
dations are neither numerous nor important.
SCENE III.
P. 358. There is a remarkable discordance between the
quartos 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,—
"O! 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
made the next twenty-three lines run on as the continuation
of what Marcus delivers.
P. 362. 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."
"And take leave of him," besides marring a rhyming couplet,
sounds very tamely and weakly, and is, in another form, a
mere repetition of "Bid him farewell," of the preceding line.
We may, therefore, on all accounts, be prepared to acquiesce
in the subsequent 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 we suppose them to have been aban-
doned, on account of the advance made by blank-verse on
sc. III.]
381
TITUS ANDRONICUS.
the stage, that advance had not long occurred when "Titus
Andronicus" was first printed, supposing it to have appeared
in 1593 or 1594, in pursuance of the entry in the Stationers'
Registers. Moreover, in the instance before us, and in others,
the original lines (supposing them to have been such) were
much better adapted to the occasion, and to the person who
pronounced them.
ROMEO AND JULIET.
ACT I. SCENE I.
P. 375. A manuscript-emendation in the folio, 1632, so far
makes it certain that "civil," in the following portion of
Sampson's speech, is a misprint:-"When I have fought with
the men, I will be civil with the maids; I will cut off their
heads." "Civil" is struck out, and cruel inserted instead of
it. Malone and others have 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 Ca-
pulet, for allowing the quarrels 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."
С6
P. 382. Romeo (after inserting Benvolio's name in his
first line for the sake of the measure), describing love, re-
marks,-
"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
ROMEO AND JULIET.
383
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 :-
(6
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 smoke is first
"made" by the gentle "fume 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,-
"She hath Dian's wit,
And in strong proof of chastity well arm'd,
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 corrector 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 encharmed from love's bow
by chastity. Nobody will deny that "unharm'd" is compa-
ratively flat, poor, and insignificant.
SCENE IL
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."
384
[ACT I.
ROMEO AND JULIET.
SCENE IV.
P. 395. He makes three emendations in Mercutio's de-
scription 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,-
"Pick'd from the lazy finger of a maid.”
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 :-
"Pick'd from the lazy finger of a milk-maid."
As might be expected, seven lines lower, he alters countries
knees, of the same edition, to "courtiers' knees," and cursies
to "courtesies;" but his emendation of the last line of the
page,―
"Sometime 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 description. 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 an-
other; 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:-
"Sometime she gallops o'er a counsellor's nose,
And then he dreams of smelling out a suit.”
That counsellors, and their interest in suits at court, should
ACT II.]
385
ROMEO AND JULIET.
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, most 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. For "breast" the old corrector has
breath in the following couplet:-
"Of a despised life, clos'd in my breath
By some vile forfeit of untimely death."
P. 400. In Capulet's reproof of Tybalt, "go to" is trans-
ferred from the end to the beginning of a line:-
"What, goodman boy! I say he shall;-go to;
Go to: am I the master here or you?"
In the old copies, and in modern impressions, both lines end
with "go to:" the difference in any point of view is trifling.
ACT II. 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
custom.
с с
386
[ACT II.
ROMEO AND JULIET.
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 never been repeated
in modern times.
SCENE II.
P. 406. Romeo, speaking of the moon, and apostrophising
Juliet, tells her,—
"Be not her maid, since she is envious;
Her vestal livery is but sick and green,
And none but fools 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 seems 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 VIII., but Elizabeth changed it to scarlet
and black; and although motley 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
Overbury'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
Will 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 green." 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
SC. II.]
387
ROMEO AND JULIET.
was the royal jester, though he also assumed the rank of
laureat. In the time of Shakespeare it may have been dis-
continued as the dress even of court-fools, but it may have
been traditionally so considered; and on this account it was
stated by Romeo that "none but fools do wear it.
P. 407. For "lazy-pacing clouds," the old corrector (in
conformity with the suggestion in note 8) converts lazy-
puffing of the folios into lazy-passing; and gives the line,—
"Thou art thyself though not a Montague,"
in the following manner, though, perhaps, properly punc-
tuated, 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,-
66
("
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, and Juliet repeats
it in her reply. In these cases it appears likely, 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 in this scene
as given in the folio, 1632, are erased. Four of them, in fact,
belong to Friar Laurence, in the opening of Scene III., but
as the sense is complete without them, they might not be re-
cited, 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."
Cc 2
388
[ACT II.
ROMEO AND JULIET.
SCENE III
P. 415. The alteration of little more than a single letter
makes an important difference in the following:-
"But where unbruised youth, with unstuff'd brain,
Doth couch his limbs, there golden sleep doth reign."
Friar Laurence is drawing a contrast between the wakeful-
ness 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 unbusied youth, with unstuff'd brain," &c.
This comes, we apprehend, within the class of extremely
plausible 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 us in altering it to "and
very wicked dealing." The copyist, probably, misheard.
SCENE V.
P. 426. When a correction in the folio, 1632, instructs us
to read
'Driving black shadows over lowering hills,"
instead of "driving back shadows," we may doubt whether
the old reading might not be preserved, in spite of the
apparent improvement. At the end of the same speech a
passage is thus printed :—
"And his to me; but old folks
Many feign as they were dead,
Unwieldy, slow, heavy and pale as lead."
There must be something wrong here: why should “old folks
feign as dead?" Feign is spelt "faine," and it turns out to
be a misprint for seeme (the long s being in fault), and the
three lines are thus reduced to two in manuscript :
"And his to me; but old folks seem as dead;
Unwieldy, slow, heavy and dull as lead.”
ACT III.]
389
ROMEO AND JULIET.
There appears very little fitness in saying that old folks are
"pale as lead;" for though the epithet in itself is intelligible
enough, to state that old folks are dull as lead" is far more
applicable to Juliet's complaint.
P. 428. The Nurse brings tidings that Romeo is waiting
for Juliet, in order to be married at the cell of Friar Lau--
rence, 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."
P. 430. The corrected folio thus not only unobjectionably
but excellently gives the last line of Juliet's speech,—
"I cannot sum the sum of half my wealth.”
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 emenda-
tions from the quarto, 1597, or from more accurate recitation
of the text than as it appears in the folios? In Romeo's
reply, exceed for "excuse," though hardly wanted, may have
been obtained from the latter.
P. 437. We may conjecture that such was the case, from
an addition to the text which we here meet with, and which
is necessary for the completion of a line, but is not contained
in any known copy, quarto or folio. It is in Benvolio's nar-
rative of the fatal encounter between Mercutio and Tybalt:
of the former, he says,-
390
[ACT III.
ROMEO AND JULIET.
"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,"
unless we read Romeo as three syllables, is abridged, and an
important word 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 gives "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 emenda-
tion can be declared perfectly satisfactory. The change pro-
posed by the corrector of the folio, 1632, at all events makes
very clear sense out of the passage, although it may still re-
main a question, whether that sense be the sense of the poet?
another subsidiary question will be, how so elaborate a mis-
print could have been made out of so simple and common a
word? 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 spelt enemyes;
but the letters are, perhaps, too few to have been mistaken for
run-awaies: such would not have been the case if in the
original manuscript it had been spelt ennemyes, which was
not then an uncommon form of the word. It is extremely
natural that Juliet should wish the eyes of enemies to be
closed, in order that they might not see Romeo leap to her
arms, and talk of it afterwards.
SCENE V.
P. 453. We here encounter a comparatively insignificant
ACT IV.]
391
ROMEO AND JULIET.
error, which, though of course liable to dispute, seems inju-
rious 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 bow.”
This Act is especially full of literal lapses in the folio, 1632,
and is not much better printed in the folio, 1623. The trans-
position on p. 454, of "every day in the hour," for "every hour
in the day," may perhaps be reckoned among the number, as
well as,
"if thou couldst " for "if thou wouldst" on the next
page.
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 certain: it is where Juliet has directly
refused to marry Paris, and Lady Capulet exclaims,—
"These are news indeed!
Here comes your father; tell him so yourself," &c.
This judicious arrangement is not in accordance with any
known old authority, nor with any modern edition; 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 of the measure.
ACT IV. SCENE I.
P. 462. In Henry VIII. (p. 319) we have seen way 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, which may be right.
392
[ACT IV.
ROMEO AND JULIET.
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, pursued the same course in other places. It may be
remarked that on a previous page (465) the folios have
"distilling liquor" for "distilled liquor:" the old corrector
has struck out ing in the text, but what he wrote in the
margin cannot be known (though easily guessed), as it is
here, unfortunately, torn away.
((
:
SCENE V.
P. 470. The quartos enable us to set right a misprint,
heat of fire," instead of "heat of life," in Juliet's soli-
loquy the correction is made in manuscript in the amended
second folio. The margin of the leaf in that impression,
numbered 101 and 102, is so nearly destroyed by frequent
handling, that what was certainly once written upon it is
gone, but we find the word "confusions" in the second line
of the Friar's speech (p. 476) struck out. What could have
been substituted for it, it is vain to speculate.
P. 479. It is to be noted, that, contrary to his usual prac-
tice, 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 com-
pletely given. He, however, underscores it with a pen, as he
always does when Shakespeare employs 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 im-
portance 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 (he died before
1609), it was, perhaps, no longer wanted.
ACT V.]
393
ROMEO AND JULIET.
ACT V. SCENE I.
P. 480. The first line of this Act has hitherto presented a
serious difficulty. Romeo says,—
(C
“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
expression, "flattering truth," since "truth" cannot flatter;
and Malone, 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 com-
pounded 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: during
this "flattering 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 corrup-
tion,-
"And all thisan day an vccustom'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 III.
P. 485. The corrector makes a change, not authorised
by any extant authority, in the speech of the Page at-
394
[ACT V.
ROMEO AND JULIET.
tending Paris, whom his master has told to lie all along
on the ground under some yew-trees: the line, as always
printed, is,-
"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 fol-
lowing alteration seems proper, and is, doubtless, what the
poet wrote:-
"I am almost afraid to stay alone
Here in the churchyard; yet I will adventure.”
P. 486. Numerous stage-directions are written in the mar-
gins of the folio, 1632. In this scene, Romeo's Man ("Peter"
is erased) enters with a torch; and we are previously informed
that the Monument of the Capulets, or some stage-property to
represent 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 puts him in the monument. Printed
stage-directions are entirely wanting, and no note is even
made when 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 sur-
plusage, are struck out, as well as the whole passage, ob-
viously foisted in by some strange mistake, beginning, " Come,
lie thou in my arms," and ending, "Depart again."
P. 494. The Prince of Verona, in the midst of the confu-
sion 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
disturbance; but the manuscript-corrector gives the word
differently,-
"Seal up the mouth of outcry for a while."
The necessity for this change is not very apparent; but,
nevertheless, Lady Capulet has exclaimed on entering,—
"O! the people in the street cry Romeo,
Some Juliet, and some Paris; and all run
With open outcry toward our monument."
SC. III.]
395
ROMEO AND JULIET.
P. 497. The last emendation in this play certainly looks as
much like the exercise of taste on the part of the old cor-
rector 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 fair 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 their children.
TIMON 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 nourished,"
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?" 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 poetical composition; and Shake-
speare no where else employs ooze as a verb, and whenever it
occurs as a substantive it is spelt, in the old copies, ooze, and
(C
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 present 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
TIMON OF ATHENS.
397
ancients, but that the English, at a very early date, wrote upon
waxen tablets (and such is the forced explanation of Hanmer,
Steevens, and Malone), it would scarcely be understood by
popular audiences 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 intelli-
gible:-
((
My free drift
"
Halts not particularly, but moves itself
In a wide sea of verse."
The Poet's work was, of course, in verse, and there is no reason
why Shakespeare should not have employed that word in-
stead of "wax,” which looks like a sort of pedantry, of which
he would certainly be the last to be guilty.
P. 509. After inserting slip for "sit" (which was Rowe's
emendation), the old corrector proceeds to Timon's speech
respecting Ventidius, who had been imprisoned for debt.
Timon is universally made to observe,-
(C
"I am not of that feather, to shake off
My friend when he must need me."
My friend when he most needs me" is the way in which we
are told to read the last line, and though the change is not at
all imperatively required, we can believe that the substitu-
tion was the language of Shakespeare.
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
398
[ACT I.
TIMON OF ATHENS.
these last words, yet nearly all editors have agreed that
some corruption has crept into the text. Warburton pro-
posed, "That I had so hungry a wit to be a lord;" and
Mason, "That I had an angry wish to be a lord." The resto-
ration 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 Mason were
both right, and yet both wrong.
P. 515. The 2 Lord, speaking to Apemantus, calls him an
"unpeaceable dog," but "unpeaceable" is altered to unap-
peasable by the insertion of the necessary letters in the
margin of the folio, 1632.
SCENE II.
P. 518. There appears to be a remarkable lapse by the
printer in the four lines 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 couplets. Apemantus is adverting to the intoxica-
tion which follows drinking strong wines and ardent spirits,
and contrasting "honest water" with them; and we may
feel assured that the two first lines ought to be printed here-
after as they are made to run by the corrector of the folio,
1632:
"Here's that, which is too weak to be a fire,
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
fire came to be misprinted "sinner," cannot be easily ex-
plained; but perhaps the long s and the ƒ had something to
do with the blunder.
P. 521. Timon thanking the ladies for their assistance in
the masque, one of them answers,—
ACT II.]
$99
TIMON OF ATHENS.
"My lord, you take us even at the best;"
but it appears that it ought to stand "ever at the best," mean-
ing that Timon always put the best construction on what was
done to please him.
ACT II. SCENE II.
P. 525. The Senator is soliloquising thus on Timon's lavish
bounty,—
"If I would sell my horse and buy twenty more
Better than he, why, give my horse to Timon;
Ask nothing, give it him, it foals me straight
And able horses."
The words " and able horses" have occasioned much discus-
sion: we are to bear in mind that the whole meaning of the
speech is, that Timon's liberality was such, that if a trifle
were given to him he made a manifold return for it: as is
afterwards said,-
"No gift to him
But breeds the giver a return exceeding
All use of quittance."
So if a horse were presented to him it foaled many more to
the giver:
"Ask nothing, give it him, it foals me straight
A stable o' horses."
Such is the emendation in the folio, 1632, and such, in all
probability, was the poet's language misrepresented by the
copyist or by the printer.
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 be right: "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
400
[ACT III.
TIMON OF ATHENS,
valuable manuscript changes are made which remove all
ground of complaint :—
"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."
Afterwards (p. 533) Flavius, instead of the expression "waste-
ful cock," which has given much trouble, uses the words.
"wasteful nook," meaning some retired corner of the house,
which can give no trouble.
ACT III. SCENE II.
P. 538. The vagueness of the sum, "so many talents,"
mentioned by Servilius to Lucius, when the former comes to
borrow of the latter, on behalf of Timon, has produced re-
mark, and Steevens conjectured that no precise amount was
stated by Shakespeare, 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 point 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 ob-
serves, as the text stands in modern editions,-
"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 :-
ACT IV.]
401
TIMON OF ATHENS.
"He did behoove his anger, ere 'twas spent,
As if he had but prov'd an argument.
Most editors have consented to suppose behoove intended
for "behave," and they have taken great pains to justify the
expression, “he did behave his anger;" but the old cor-
rector of the folio, 1632, shows that their labour has been
thrown away, if 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, and plausible, emendations be admitted, no
explanation is wanted.
P. 549. In the line, as ordinarily printed,-
"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 since 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.
In Timon's grace, in the next scene (p. 553), he speaks of
"the common tag of people,” and not of "the common lag of
people," as heretofore printed. In "Coriolanus," Act III.
Scene I., Cominius asks the hero, "Will you hence, before
the tag return?"
ACT IV. SCENE II.
P. 557. Old and modern impressions furnish us with this
text:
D d
402
[ACT IV.
TIMON OF ATHENS.
"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 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 be 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 in 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 sub-
stituted: farther on, Timon, digging for roots, discovers
gold, and asks,—
"What is bere?
""
Gold? yellow, glittering, precious gold? No, gods,
I am no idle votarist. Roots, you clear heavens!"
The word has always been printed "idle;" but it ought as
certainly to be idol,—
"I am no idol-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, glancing at the treasure once
more, he is led to moralise upon it.
P. 563. When Timon says "Swear against objects," it seems
SC. III.]
403
TIMON OF ATHENS.
<<
very clear that the old corrector was right when he altered
objects" to abjects. Mason would preserve "objects" (ab-
jects having been proposed by Farmer) because it is stated in
"Troilus and Cressida," Act IV. Scene V., that Hector
"subscribes to tender objects." This is only justifying one
corruption by another, for "objects" in both cases ought to be
abjects, as is evident from the context in each place, abjects
being taken for unresisting adversaries, or pitiable persons: in
"Troilus and Cressida" it is:-
"For Hector in his blaze of wrath subscribes
To tender abjects; but he, in heat of action,
Is more vindicative than jealous love."
In the play before us, Timon tells Alcibiades,—
"Swear against abjects;
Put armour on thine ears, and on thine eyes,
Whose proof nor yells of mothers, maids, nor babes,
Nor sight of priests, in holy vestments bleeding,
Shall pierce a jot.”
Abjects is used in this way by other authors of the time.
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 next 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,-
(C
Enough 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 hemistich that the error lies, for we ought beyond dis-
pute to read,―
"Enough to make a whore forswear her trade,
And to make whores abhorr’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 abhorr'd.
P. 565. In the same way ingenuity has been strained
by the same commentator to reconcile us to the word
marrows,” where Timon is imprecating the earth in future
D d 2
404
[ACT IV.
TIMON OF ATHENS.
to bring forth nothing but monsters, and to put an end to
the race of "ingrateful man:"-
Dry up thy marrows, vines, and plough-torn leas."
What connexion is there between "marrows, vines, and
plough-torn leas?" We ought surely to read with the cor-
rector of the folio, 1632,—
"Dry up thy meadows, 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 luxurious to be, as it were,
sucking freely at the "passive dugs" of the world; and an
emendation in manuscript, which merely strikes out the
superfluous letter, supports this view of the passage, and
renders needless Mason's somewhat wild conjecture in favour
of drudges.
P. 572. The accidental omission of him has induced editors
to convert a participle and preposition into a sort of sub-
stantive, 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 assurance 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 melan-
choly."
ct
P. 575. It is not necessary to do more than observe, that
Warburton's authoritative declaration in favour of mild over
"wild," is sanctioned in the folio, 1632, the m and w having
been again confounded.
ACT V.]
405
TIMON OF ATHENS.
ACT V. SCENE I.
P. 577. The mercenary Poet and Painter visit Timon at
his cave to ascertain the truth of the report, that he has still
abundance 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 re-
commended: the annotator of the folio, 1632, thus tells us
what was 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, as far as regards
purses, may be said to be one of the emendations that requires
no authority: it carries conviction on the face of it. The
literal errors, from the carelessness of the printer, are extremely
numerous in this part of the play.
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 un-
doubtedly an error, and the old corrector converts read into
"rear'd." Such has always been the word since Warburton's
time.
P. 588. The last noticeable emendation, although it may
deserve to be so termed, is certainly not one of the changes
that must be adopted, since the ordinary text will serve well
enough: 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."
406
TIMON OF ATHENS.
1
The correction in the folio, 1632, puts it as an interroga-
tive appeal, and substitutes another word for the rather un-
couth, but by no means unwarranted (even in Shakespeare)
expression, “it is not square:"
"All have not offended;
For those that were, is't not severe to take
On those that are, revenge?”
Steevens altered "revenge" to revenges, for the sake of the
metre, and very justifiably, since the word occurs just above
in the plural, but the annotator leaves it in the singular.
Prol. and Epilogue is written at the end in a blank space,
and perhaps it was meant only as a note that they were de-
ficient; but such has been the case with the tragedy im-
mediately 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. in the
folio, 1632, 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 Athens, cursing the city.
JULIUS CÆSAR.
ACT I. SCENE I.
Vol. vii. P. 7. The Acts, but not the Scenes, are distin-
guished in the old copies of this tragedy: the latter are
supplied in manuscript in the folio, 1632, but they do not
always tally with the same 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 men-
tioned that the fifth Act of "Julius Cæsar" is divided by
Malone and others into five Scenes, by representing that
what occurs passes on as many different parts of the field of
Philippi; whereas the old annotator of the folio, 1632, makes
the Act consist 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 II.
P. 14. The two following lines 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?"
408
[ACT I.
JULIUS CÆSAR.
This reading has never, we believe, been doubted, and,
strictly speaking, a change is not called for; but who will
say that the last line does not run better with the emenda-
tion 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 Cæsar'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 an-
other change which seems even less necessary, but at the
same time may be thought 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 discre-
tion, and we have no means of knowing whether the writer
of the note might not here be indulging his taste.
SCENE III.
P. 20. A note in the margin of the folio, 1632, will, pro-
bably, settle a dispute carried on at considerable length, and
with some pertinacity, between Johnson, Steevens, and Ma-
lone, 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'd," and Johnson
poorly substituted gaz'd: in the folio, 1632, the second line
stands,-
"Who glaz'd upon me, and went surely 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 converting "glaz’d” into glar’d.
ACT II.]
409
JULIUS CÆSAR.
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."
The old copies have, "Is favours like the work," &c., and
Reed would have it, "Is fev'rous 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,
Stir 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 mark," or
denote our purpose as necessary, and not as proceeding from
malice or hatred.
P. 32. The observation of Metellus, in the folio, 1623,-
“Caius Ligarius doth bear Cæsar hard,"
was converted in the folio, 1632, to
"Caius Ligarius doth bear Cæsar hatred."
The phrase occurs in two other places in this play; and the
manuscript-corrector makes the folio, 1632, here conform to
that of 1623.
P. 33. When Lucius falls asleep, Brutus says, as the pas-
sage has always been given,—
"Fast asleep? It is no matter;
Enjoy the honey-heavy dew of slumber."
The compound unquestionably is not "honey-heavy," but
"honey-dew," a well-known glutinous deposit upon the leaves
410
[ACT III.
JULIUS CÆSAR.
of trees, &c.: the compositor was guilty of a transposition,
and ought to have printed the line in this form :-
"Enjoy the heavy honey-dew of slumber."
Such is the manuscript emendation.
P. 38. Where the folios read, "We heare two lions," &c.,
the ordinary reading has been, "We were two lions," &c.;
but the old corrector puts it, with much apparent fitness, in
the present tense, "We are two lions." Cæsar is speaking
of himself and danger, both in existence at the moment.
P. 39. Edwards seems to have been right in recommend-
ing "and" to be changed to of in the passage,-
"And these she does apply for warnings, and portents,
And evils imminent."
They were warnings and portents of evils imminent.
ACT III. SCENE I.
P. 44. Artemidorus, pressing forward to deliver his warning
to Cæsar, observes,-
"Mine's a suit
That touches Cæsar nearer.
To which Cæsar replies, as his answer has constantly been
represented,-
"What touches us ourself shall be last serv'd."
The corrector of the folio, 1632, puts it interrogatively, more
pointedly, and more naturally, making Cæsar repeat the very
words of Artemidorus :—
"That touches us? Ourself shall be last serv'd."
P. 45. There is a mistake in the distribution of the dia-
logue shortly before Cæsar is stabbed: "Are we all ready?"
certainly belongs to one of the conspirators, and some con-
mentators would assign the words to Cinna, making them
the conclusion of his speech. Casca, however, was to strike
the first blow; and, according to a manuscript note, he rea-
sonably first inquires, "Are we all ready?" The course of
SC. I.]
411
JULIUS CÆSAR.
the dialogue will, therefore, properly be this :-Brutus, speak-
ing of Metellus Cimber and of his petition, says,-
Cin.
"He is address'd: press near and second him.
Casca, you are the first that rears your hand.
Casc. Are we all ready?
Cæs.
What is now amiss,
That Cæsar and his Senate must redress?"
Metellus Cimber then kneels, and offers his petition on be-
half of his brother. In Cæsar's rejection of it, three mis-
prints are indicated, viz. "couchings" for crouchings, "the
lane of children" for "the law of children" (so corrected con-
jecturally by Johnson), and "low crooked courtesies" for
"low crouched courtesies." No change is proposed in the
passage, "Know, Cæsar doth not wrong," &c., so that the
speculation upon it, founded on Ben Jonson's "Discoveries,"
is so far not supported.
P. 49. A manuscript stage-direction (the printed copy is
destitute of notes of the kind) requires Antony, on his
entrance with the line,-
"O mighty Cæsar! dost thou lie so low?"
to kneel over the body, and to rise, 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 body, and bends over it while he says,-
"That I did love thee, Cæsar, O! 'tis true," &c.
P. 50. A change of some importance is made near the
close of the first speech of Brutus on this page. The expres-
sion, “Our arms in strength of malice," compelled Steevens
to suppose that the allusion was to the "deed of malice" just
perpetrated upon Cæsar; but Brutus would surely rather
term it a deed of justice, than a deed of malice. We infer
from the word welcome, written in the margin, that the
printer here was guilty of a lapse, and the passage, as altered
in the folio, 1632, at all events reads more intelligibly: the
conspirators are endeavouring to induce Antony to join
them:
412
[ACT IV.
JULIUS CÆSAR.
"To you our swords have leaden points, Mark Antony;
Our arms in strength of welcome, and our hearts
Of brothers' temper, do receive you in
With all kind love, good thoughts, and reverence."
It ought to be noted also, that in the next speech of
Antony, "Lethe" is altered to death, by merely striking out
L, inserting d instead of it, and leaving it dethe.
P. 53. In the line, as printed of old,-
"A curse shall light upon the limbs of men,"
various words have been guessed as proper substitutes for
"limbs," viz., line, kind, lives, &c., but the right word appears
never to have been conjectured: the corrector of the folio,
1632, puts it "loines of men," and there cannot be much doubt
that this is the true word :—
"A curse shall light upon the loins of men."
SCENE III.
P. 62. When Cinna, the poet, enters, he observes,—
"I dream'd to-night that I did feast with Cæsar,
And things unluckily charge my fantasy."
Why should he consider it unlucky to dream of feasting with
Cæsar? His fancy was charged with things improbable, not
unlucky, and the marginal correction in the folio, 1632, is,-
"And things unlikely charge my fantasy."
ACT IV. SCENE III.
P. 69. In the 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, bait not me.'
The fitness of this diversity, "bay" in one place, and “bait
in the other, has been maintained by Malone, and disputed
by Steevens. If the change from "bait" to bay, made in
SC. III.]
413
JULIUS CÆSAR.
manuscript in the folio, 1632, can be considered at all con-
clusive, the difference is at an end: it is there printed
"bait" in both instances, and in both instances bay is sub-
stituted in the manuscript.
Another emendation of some interest is made in a cele-
brated 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 older soldier, not a better."
His word had been "abler," not noble, 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 in-
serted in the place of it; whether upon any other authority
than apparent fitness must remain doubtful.
P. 75. A question arising in council, whether the forces of
Brutus and Cassius should march to meet 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 strengthened and refreshed as he advances:-
"The enemy, marching along by 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,"
414
[ACT V.
JULIUS CÆSAR.
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 pronuncia-
tion of “added" having been mistaken for hearted.
P. 77. The printer of the folio, 1632, blunderingly trans-
posed 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:
nothing 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,
declares that he will never sheathe his sword,—
"Till Cæsar's three and thirty wounds
Be well aveng'd; or till another Cæsar
Have added slaughter to the sword of traitors."
Steevens subjoined what he considered a parallel passage from
"King John," Act II. Scene II. :-
“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 Cæsar" is printed as the old
corrector advises :
"Or till another Cæsar
Have added slaughter to the word of traitor.”
Octavius terms Brutus a traitor, and threatens 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 emendation seems only plausible, and we may not be dis-
posed to insist upon it.
SC. I.]
415
JULIUS CÆSAR.
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 neces-
sarily be displaced, and may be understood as 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 term 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 persevered in printing "time" for term.
P. 89. The folio, 1632, omits "word" in the following:-
"And see whe'r Brutus be alive or dead,
And bring us word unto Octavius' 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 as carelessly
printed here as in many other places; and not long after-
wards (p. 90) "in" was omitted, or allowed 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 his 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, alone has "that yet all my life:" "in" is ne-
cessary to the metre, though, as far as the absolute meaning
is concerned, it might possibly be spared. It is written in
the margin.
416
JULIUS CÆSAR.
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 Cæsar;
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 honest 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 very intelligible text is a
matter of discretion. Generous, in the sense of magnanimous,
was of rather later use in our language.
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 con-
firmatory authority, such as we now possess.
P. 102. When Ross 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: it was, therefore, suggested that teems was the word
E e
418
[ACT I.
MACBETH.
instead of "seems;" but if the objection be not altogether
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 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
syllables. These are furnished by an emendation in the folio,
1632, which we can scarcely doubt (though a triplet) 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 confu-
sion between the f 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 soris; 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 Can was unquestionably misprinted for "Came." Near
the bottom of the next page, "That trusted home," of the
folios, is changed to "That thrusted home." In modern times
the word has been variously treated.
sc. v.]
419
MACBETH.
P. 108. For "My thought, whose murder yet is but fan-
tastical" the proposed change is to
"My thought, where murder yet is but fantastical."
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 recompense is slow
To overtake thee."
The folio, 1632, misprints the second line,—
"That swiftest wine of recompense 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 recompense 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 person writing soon after 1632, seems to have
preferred wind to "wing," when either would answer the
purpose. Another emendation, in the passage which imme-
diately succeeds the above quotation, seems in some degree
warranted by the sense :-
"Would thou hadst less deserv'd,
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
evidence, in Lady Macbeth's speech invoking night, just
before the entrance of her husband: it is in a word which
has occasioned much speculation :-
"Come, thick night,
And pall thee in the dunnest 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!':
E e 2
420
[ACT 1.
MACBETH.
Steevens, with reference to "blanket," quotes rug and rugs
from Drayton; and Malone seriously supposes that the word
was suggested to Shakespeare by the "coarse woollen curtain
of the theatre," when, in fact, it is hardly known whether the
curtain, separating the audience from the actors, was woollen,
linen, or silk. What solution of the difficulty does the old cor-
rector offer? As it seems to us, the substitution he recom-
mends cannot be doubted :-
"Nor heaven peep through the blankness of the dark
To cry, 'Hold, hold!'"'
The scribe misheard the termination of blankness, and ab-
surdly wrote "blanket."
In the next scene (VI.), for " where they must breed and
haunt" of the folios, the correction is much for "must."
SCENE VII
P. 116. The folio, 1632, omits some important words, con-
sisting 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 Mason.
P. 118. It is not easy to imagine a case in which the
alteration of a single letter would make so important a dif-
ference as in the ensuing portion of the interview between
Macbeth and his Lady, where he is irresolute, and she re-
proaches him with want of courage to execute the murder he
was once ready to undertake: we give the text as it has ap-
peared in every edition, from the earliest in 1623 to our own
day:
"Macb.
Lady M.
Pr'ythee peace.
I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dares do more is none.
What beast was't, then,
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 readiness to do the deed, when he was pre-
ACT II.]
421
MACBETH.
pared to make time and place adhere for the execution of it,
and yet could not now "screw his courage" to the point, when
time and place had, as it were, "made themselves:" this she
calls a mere boast on his part :—
"What boast was't, then,
That made you break this enterprize to me?"
She charges him with being a vain braggart, first to profess to
be willing to murder Duncan, and afterwards, from fear, to
relinquish it. That this emendation might be guessed by
a person who carefully read the text, without attention to
the conventional mode of giving and understanding 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 manuscript
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
impossible to deny that he may have had some authority,
printed, 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 ex-
press purpose of detecting blunders in the text, and yet, as
far as can be ascertained, have never once hit upon this
manifest improvement.
""
ACT II. SCENE I.
P. 122. Steevens suggested "curtain'd sleeper" for "cur-
tain'd sleep,” and that correction is found in the folio, 1632;
as well as "sure for sowre, and “which way they walk” for
“which they may walk" of the folios; but no change is made
in “Tarquin's ravishing sides," as if that expression were not
objectionable.
P. 123. A new scene (numbered III.) has been usually made
to begin, on the entrance of Lady Macbeth, with,
"That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold;"
but the individual who took such singular pains with the
422
[ACT III.
MACBETH.
folio, 1632, strikes out the printed words, Scana secunda, and
writes Same against them, indicating that it was not a new
scene. Macbeth goes out after the dagger soliloquy, and
then Lady Macbeth enters to await his return from the
murder. His re-entrance is marked too early in the old
copies at the words, "Who's there? what, ho!" for he makes
this exclamation without, before he comes in and says "I have
done the deed," &c. Opposite "This is a sorry sight," his
bloody hands is added in manuscript, as an explanatory stage-
direction; meaning, probably, that the performer was to
make them visible to the audience.
ance.
SCENE III.
P. 126. All that the Porter says respecting the supposed
knocking of different persons at hell-gate, down to the words
"the everlasting bonfire," is struck out, perhaps, as offensive
to the Puritans; but the dialogue between the same character
and Macduff is abridged, most likely to shorten the perform-
When Macbeth arrives, we are told that he comes in
in his night-gown, and Banquo subsequently enters unready.
Opposite Macduff's injunction (p. 131), "Look to the Lady,"
who is affecting to be overcome by the dreadful tidings, Lady
sw. (perhaps for Lady swoons) is blotted in the margin, and
just afterwards, we read, in the same situation, Exit Lady,
borne out.
The earlier part of Scene IV., with the Old Man's account
of the falcon killed by an owl, and Ross's description of
Duncan's horses, is erased with a pen, but in so careless a
manner that it hardly seems to have been done by the same
hand which has elsewhere marked particular portions for
omission. Emendations, when necessary, are continued in
spite of the erasures, as in former instances.
ACT III. SCENE I.
P. 134. For the word "shine" in the parenthesis " (As upon
thee, Macbeth, their speeches shine)," the word shewe is sub-
stituted in the folio, 1632, and not without some plausibility.
Too rigid an adherence to the early copies has led to the
perpetuation of an expression which Shakespeare could hardly
SC. III.]
423
MACBETH.
have used, and which Sir W. Davenant did not introduce into
his alteration of this play. It occurs where Macbeth requests
Banquo's presence at supper, and the latter replies,-
"Let your highness
Command upon me.'
The old corrector of the folio, 1632, like Davenant (who was
followed by Rowe), puts it much more easily and naturally,-
"Lay your highness'
Command upon me.
If we had speculated, we should have altered the expression
to "Set your highness' command upon me."
P. 137. Macbeth, enumerating the many species of dogs,
remarks upon the various qualities of each,-
66
Whereby he does receive
Particular addition, from the bill
That writes them all alike."
For "bill," quill is in the margin, as the instrument of
writing: "bill" is intelligible, and therefore defensible.
SCENE II.
P. 140. Of course we know not upon what authority, but in
the imperfect line,—
“ But let the frame of things disjoint,”
the old corrector inserts eternal before "frame," and it not
only perfects the measure, but strengthens the asseveration.
SCENE III.
P. 142. The folio, 1623, makes the 1 Murderer say,-
"Now spurs the lated traveller apace
To gain the timely inn; end neere approaches
The subject of our watch."
Of course end is an error for "and ;" and the folio, 1632, has
latest for "lated:" the old corrector restores "lated," and
for "neere" puts here in his margin: either may be right;
but as the compositor of the first folio printed "and" end,
he may very likely (as we are told he did) have blundered
with the next word "here," often of old spelt heere.
424
[ACT III.
MACBETH.
SCENE IV.
P. 145. The manuscript stage-directions show particularly
how Lady Macbeth conducted herself during the ban-
quet. Opposite the words, "Are you a man," Coming to M.
aside to him is inserted in the margin. When, on the next
page, she reminds her husband, "My worthy lord, your noble
friends do lack you," the direction is, Go back to her state.
Thus we see that she came forward upon the stage to re-
prove Macbeth for cowardice and distraction, and retired to
her position upon the dais, when she made an effort publicly
to direct his attention to his neglected duties as host. We
apprehend, that this has been the usual practice on our mo-
dern stages.
There are several instructions of the same kind
for the government of the actor of the part of the Ghost of
Banquo, but they are to be collected sufficiently from the
dialogue.
P. 147. The conclusion of this great scene is not well
printed in the folio, 1623, and worse in the folio, 1632,
where "sights" is made signs, "stept" spent, &c. These
errors the corrector carefully amends, and then offers a
solution of a passage that has hitherto baffled satisfactory
explanation. It is where Macbeth dares the Ghost of Banquo
to the desert, and adds, as the folios give it,-
"If trembling I inhabit, then protest me
The baby of a girl."
Malone was for converting "inhabit then" to inhibit thee;
but we do not quite approve of the manuscript change in the
folio, 1632, not because it is not very intelligible, allowing
for a transposition, but because it is too prosaic:
"If trembling I exhibit, then protest me," &c.
i. e. if you perceive me tremble, and he has before talked of
trembling. We have been so used to attach some indefinite
meaning to "if trembling I inhabit," of the old impressions,
that the reader will hardly be prepared for so simple an ex-
planation as "if trembling I exhibit." Yet, after all, it may
be right, and is not to be rejected lightly.
ACT IV.]
425
MACBETH.
·
ACT IV. SCENE I.
P. 154. In his interview with the Witches, Macbeth calls
upon them to answer him, as the lines have been always
printed,—
"Though bladed corn be lodg'd, and trees blown down;
Though castles topple on their warders' heads;
Though palaces and pyramids do slope
Their heads to their foundations," &c.
No particular objection is obvious in the wording of this quo-
tation; but still the writer of the emendations states that
three words in it are wrong, and he alters them thus:-
Though bleaded corn be lodg'd, and trees blown down;
Though castles topple o'er their warders' heads;
Though palaces and pyramids do stoop
Their heads to their foundations," &c.
""
As to the word bleaded, we are to recollect that "bladed
corn" is never "lodged " or layed; but corn which is heavy
in the ear is often borne down and flattened by wind and
rain. Shakespeare must have been aware that green corn,
or corn in the blade, is not liable to be affected by violent
weather. Hence we may infer that he wrote "bleaded corn,'
which means, in some of the provinces, and perhaps in War-
wickshire, ripe corn, corn ready for the sickle. Blead is a
general name for fruit; and the bleading of corn means the
yielding of it, the quantity of grain obtained. As to the
second word, it seems almost indifferent whether we adopt
o'er, or leave "on" as it stands. The expression, "stoop their
heads to their foundations," reads more appropriately and
naturally than "slope their heads to their foundations;" and
we may feel strongly disposed to believe that it was an error
of the press, since not only was the mistake so easy, but the
poet uses the word stoop exactly in the same way in
Hamlet," Act II. Scene II., and in "Cymbeline," Act IV.
Scene II. Whether it be, or be not, necessary to alter "on
and "slope," there can be little doubt that for "bladed "
we ought in future to substitute bleaded in the text of our
author.
r
P. 156. Theobald saw the necessity of altering
"Rebellious dead, rise never, till the wood
Of Birnam rise,"
""
426
[ACT IV.
MACBETH.
by substituting "head" for dead; but the old corrector does
more: he alters "rebellious" to rebellion's, as it were, per-
sonifying insurrection, and he was surely right:
"Rebellion's head, rise never, till the wood
Of Birnam rise.'
""
P. 158. When Macbeth is about to leave the cave of the
Witches, Lenox enters and informs him that Macduff has
escaped to England. "Fled to England?" exclaims Macbeth
in astonishment; and he goes on to declare his resolution in
future to execute instantly whatever he determines, and first
of all to surprise Macduff's castle :-
"No boasting like a fool;
This deed I'll do, before this purpose cool:
But no more sights."
"
Some commentators have supposed that "no more sights.
refers to the visions he had just seen conjured up by
the Witches; but the corrector of the folio, 1632, gives
the words an entirely new aspect, completely borne out
by the context, which relates to the unexpected escape of
Macduff:-
"This deed I'll do, before this purpose cool:
But no more flights."
That is, he will take care, by the rapidity with which per-
formance shall follow decision, that nobody shall again have
an opportunity of taking flight. The compositor mistook
the f for a long s, and omitted to notice the which fol-
lowed it.
SCENE II.
P. 160. Much of what passes between Lady Macduff and
her young son, viz. from "As birds do, mother," down to "and
hang up them," is crossed out with a pen. Several compara-
tively small changes are made in the scene: thus Ross says,
"And do not know't ourselves" for "And do not know our-
selves;" and a few lines lower, "'T shall not be long" for
"Shall not be long.'
SCENE III.
P. 164. Malcolm, speaking of himself, observes,—
"In whom I know
All the particulars of vice so grafted,
ACT V.]
427
MACBETH.
That, when they shall be open'd, black Macbeth
Will seem as pure as snow.'
Here, as has been said on many former occasions, "open'd"
affords sense, but as it is inferior to that given by the cor-
rection in the folio, 1632, we need not hesitate in con-
cluding that Shakespeare, carrying on the figure suggested
by the word "grafted," as applied to fruit, must have
written,-
"In whom I know
All the particulars of vice so grafted,
That, when they shall be ripen'd, black Macbeth
Will seem as pure as snow.
Lower down, we are instructed to alter the word "
to enjoy, where Macduff tells Malcolm,—
"You may
Convey your pleasures in a spacious plenty,
And yet seem cold.”
convey"
When enjoy was written enioy, as it usually was till the
middle of the 17th century, the printer's lapse may at once
be explained.
All that subsequently passes between Malcolm, Macduff,
and a Doctor, respecting the cure of the evil, is struck out.
It has been supposed that it was inserted, in part, to gratify
King James, and after his death it was perhaps omitted.
At the conclusion of the scene (p. 170), the old reading of
the folios, "This time goes manly," is changed to "This tune
goes manly," of which, however, there never has been any
doubt since the days of Rowe. We only notice it as another
of the instances in which we have already seen “tune” and
"time" confounded.
ACT V. SCENE II.
P. 174. Another word, very liable to the same perversion,
occurs in the next emendation. The Scottish insurgent Lords
are talking of the unsettled condition of Macbeth's mind,
"Some say he's mad," &c., and Cathness adds,-
"But, for certain,
He cannot buckle his distemper'd cause
Within the belt of rule."
The old corrector substitutes, and with apparent reason, course
for "cause:" it was not Macbeth's "cause," but his course of
428
[ACT V.
MACBETH.
action that was distempered. Just above, for "unrough
youths" of the folio, the emendation is "untough youths,"
meaning tender youths.
SCENE III.
"J
P. 176. In Coriolanus (p. 361) we have met with "cheer
misprinted chair; and here, if we may trust the emendation,
we have chair misprinted "cheer." Macbeth, distracted be-
tween his guilt, his fear, and his confidence in preternatural
promises, when besieged in Dunsinane Castle, exclaims,—
"This push
Will cheer me ever, or disseat me now.
I have liv'd long enough: my way of life
Is fall'n into the sear," &c.
These lines we are advised to correct in the following
manner; and with regard to the first word amended, as we
are to take "disseat" in the sense of unseat (the folio, 1632,
misprints it disease), there can be little objection to un-
derstanding chair, as having reference to the royal seat or
throne, which Macbeth occupies, and from which he dreads
removal:
"This push
Will chair me ever, or disseat me now.
I have liv'd long enough: my May of life
Is fall'n into the sear," &c.
Chair was Bishop Percy's suggestion, and "May of life" was
proposed by Johnson: both, we see, are confirmed by a much
anterior authority.
P. 177. In note 9 it is urged that in the line,-
“Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff,"
the error was more likely to be in the repetition, than in the
first use of the word "stuff'd." Such turns out to be the
case; and we may presume that the old printer inserted
"stuff" at the end of the line, owing to his having it in his
mind from the earlier part of the line. From the writer of
the manuscript notes in the folio, 1632, we learn that grief
ought to have been inserted instead of "stuff;" and it is not
impossible that the recurrence of the letter f at the end of
each word had something to do with the blunder: he, there-
fore, puts the whole passage thus :—
SC. IV.]
429
MACBETH.
"Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,
Raze out the written troubles of the brain,
And with some sweet oblivious antidote
Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous grief,
Which weighs upon the heart."
SCENE IV.
P. 178. Malcolm says of Macbeth's power and followers,-
“For where there is advantage to be given,
Both more and less have given him the revolt."
Advantage was hardly so much to be "given," as to be pro-
cured by revolt; and as it also seems unlikely that the same
verb should have been used in the very next line, we may
feel confident that when the old corrector puts it,—
"For when there is advantage to be gotten,”
he was warranted in making the change. In the next scene
Macbeth complains that the ranks of his enemies were filled
by those who ought to have been his friends:-
"Were they not farc'd with those that should be ours,
We might have met them dareful, beard to beard."
Farc'd is misrepresented as "forc'd" in the old copies, and in
all modern editions; but, as we gather from the substitution
of the letter a in the margin of the folio, 1632, the meaning
is that the ranks of the besiegers were stuffed or filled out by
soldiers who had revolted from Macbeth.
Just afterwards, we encounter another alteration of more
moment, when Macbeth asks the meaning of the "
women" that he has heard within: he says,—
"The time has been, my senses would have cool'd
To hear a night-shriek."
cry of
The manuscript-correction here is quailed for "cooled," a
much more forcible word; but this is one of the places where
it is very possible, that the person recommending the change
may have exercised his judgment, rather than stated his know-
ledge. It scarcely seems likely that one word should have
been mistaken for the other, but this observation will, of
course, apply to many of the errors that have been from time
to time pointed out. How little old compositors attended to
the sense is proved on the next page by the fact that "dusty
death," which occurs only a few lines subsequently, and
430
MACBETH.
which is rightly printed in the folio, 1623, is converted into
"study death" in the folio, 1632. Study is deleted, and
"dusty" placed in the margin by the old corrector: never-
theless, “study death" has met with its perverse vindicator
in comparatively modern times.
An addition is made to the printed stage-direction (p. 186),
Enter Macduff with Macbeth's head, in these words, which
show the somewhat remarkable manner in which the spec-
tacle was presented to the audience, on a pike-stick it in the
ground. This action precisely accords with what Macduff
says on the occasion:
"Hail, king! for so thou art. Behold, where stands
The usurper's cursed head."
HAMLET.
ACT I. SCENE I.
P. 195. When Bernardo comes to relieve Francisco on
guard, the latter observes,—
"You come most carefully upon your hour;"
to which Bernardo answers, as the text stands in the old
copies, ""Tis now struck twelve." Steevens suspected that
Bernardo ought to say, ""Tis new struck twelve ;" and in the
folio, 1632, as corrected in manuscript, such is the reading:
Bernardo means that he deserves Francisco's praise for his
punctuality in coming just as the clock has struck.
P. 197. The printed stage-directions in this tragedy are
more numerous than in many others, so that fewer remain to
be supplied in manuscript. Sometimes, where they are not
new, additions are made to them: thus, when we have
Enter the Ghost, the word armed is written in parenthesis, to
show what was his appearance in this scene; afterwards,
we shall find that when the Ghost visits Hamlet and
his mother in the closet scene (p. 289), he is described in
manuscript as unarmed, though we are not told, as in the
quarto, 1603, that he is "in his night gown." Perhaps, in
consistency with what Hamlet says, he was there supposed
to be "in his habit as he lived;" and when the drama was
represented before the old corrector, it may have been the
custom of the theatre that the Ghost should come before the
audience, not "in his night gown," but in his ordinary ap-
parel. We may presume also that in this first scene a cock
432
[ACT I.
HAMLET.
was heard to crow, in order to give the Ghost notice of the
fit time for his departure, Cock crows being placed in the
margin opposite the words "Stop it, Marcellus."
P. 199. Whether the old corrector did or did not resort to
any of the quartos for assistance, they all have
"Shark'd up a list of lawless resolutes,"
for "landless resolutes" (to which it was changed in the
folios), and "lawless" is imported into the folio, 1632. The
cock (p. 201) is called there in manuscript "the trumpet of
the morn,” and not of the day, "morn" being the reading of
the quartos, and day of the folios.
SCENE II.
P. 202. More passages than usual are crossed out in this
play, owing to its extreme length; and wherever the person
who abridged it thought that even two or three lines could
be dispensed with, they are erased. Thus in Horatio's
speech, near the top of this page, the second and third lines,
as well as the eighth and ninth, are struck out; and in the
King's speech (before which he takes his seat) opening Scene
II., the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth lines are marked for
omission. Several other parts of the scene are treated in
the same way; but if any corrections were required in them,
they, as in other places, are made notwithstanding.
P. 205. When the Queen reproaches her son for continuing
to wear his mourning, as the line is represented in the
quartos, she says,-
“Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off:”
the folios have nightly for "nighted," which the corrector
of the folio, 1632, alters to night-like, which is certainly better
than nightly, but is not countenanced by any known edition.
Perhaps such was the word he had heard upon the stage, and
therefore inserted it.
P. 208. Horatio on his entrance says to Hamlet,
"Hail to your lordship ;"
and Hamlet's answer is,
"I am glad to see you well."
SC. III.]
433
HAMLET.
"Well" is too much for the verse, and is struck out. It might
be hypercritical to object that Hamlet could hardly know the
state of Horatio's health, when he was not sure even of his
person-" Horatio,-or I do forget myself."
P. 210. Horatio, describing the effect of the appearance of
the Ghost upon Bernardo and Marcellus, tells Hamlet, as the
text of the quartos has it,—
"Whilst they, distill'd
Almost to jelly with the act of fear,
Stand dumb, and speak not to him."
The folios, on the other hand, read,–
"Whilst they, bestill'd
Almost to jelly with the act of fear," &c.
Neither word, "distill'd" or bestill'd, can be satisfactory;
but it is apparent that bestill'd was a misprint in the folio,
1623 (and from thence copied into the folio, 1632), for a word,
very like it in letters, but affording a very clear and sensible
meaning:-
"Whilst they, bechill'd
Almost to jelly with the act of fear,
Stand dumb, and speak not to him."
Bernardo and Marcellus were almost chilled to jelly by their
apprehensions, “the cold fit of fear" having come powerfully
upon them. This must be deemed a text superior to that of
any old or modern edition.
SCENE III.
P. 213. The address of Laertes to his sister, instructing
her how to receive and return Hamlet's love, is full of verbal
and literal errors in the folio, 1632; and, besides corrections
of these, in three places the text is made to tally with that
of the quartos: thus "safety" is substituted for sanctity, "act
and place" for sect and force, and "keep you in the rear" for
"keep within the rear." These various mistakes were trans-
planted from the earlier folio, and the setting of them right
may look as if the authority of the quartos had been appealed
to. Many other instances to the same effect might be ad-
duced from this tragedy.
F f
434
[ACT I.
HAMLET.
P. 215. Polonius, advising his son on the subject of ap-
parel, thus speaks, as the lines have always stood,-
"And they in France, of the best rank and station,
Are of a most select and generous chief in that."
((
Malone would explain “chief” heraldically; but it is simply
an error of the press:
"chief" was of old spelt chiefe," and
the compositor misreading the long s for f, printed "chiefe "
for choise or choice:
"Are of a most select and generous choice in that."
The folios print it cheff, but Steevens was disposed to think
choice the word wanted, and he was not mistaken, for that
alteration is made in the folio, 1632.
P. 217. Theobald guessed rightly that "sanctified and
pious bonds" ought to be "sanctified and pious bawds;" but
three lines lower occurs an emendation in the folio, 1632,
which nobody has speculated upon, but which is at least
equally plausible. Polonius says to Ophelia,-
"I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth,
Have you so slander any moment leisure,
As to give words or talk with the lord Hamlet."
For "slander" read squander, and for "moment " moment's :
she was not to waste a moment's leisure upon him. The
scribe seems to have misheard both bawd and squander. At
the end of the speech this imperfect line occurs :—
"Look to't, I charge you; come your ways."
The old correction is,-
"Look to't, I charge you; so now, come your ways."
So now may have dropped out, or may have been added
merely to complete the measure.
SCENE IV.
P. 220. When the Ghost enters, a manuscript note states
that he is armed as before. There is a remarkable marginal
instruction to the player of the part of Hamlet, that after he
has exclaimed,-
"C
Angels and ministers of grace defend us!"
he is to pause before he continues. This seems natural, and
sc. v.]
435
HAMLET.
therefore judicious; and we may, perhaps, infer that such
was the mode in which Richard Burbadge (the original repre-
sentative of the character) delivered the address. From him
it may have been handed down to the time of the old cor-
rector through Joseph Taylor, who followed Burbadge in this
and some other principal parts. During this pause we may
suppose that the actor was gasping for breath, with his eyes
fixed upon the apparition, and unable for some moments to
proceed. The ink, with which pause and some other words
are written, is lighter coloured than that generally used by
the manuscript-corrector, and it is certain that neither the
corrections nor the stage-directions were all inserted at the
same time.
SCENE V.
P. 222. This, according to the ancient stage-arrangements,
and according to the representations of the old editions,
was, probably, not a new scene; for after Hamlet and the
Ghost have gone out, as it were to "a more removed ground,"
Horatio and Marcellus say a few words and retire: Hamlet
and the Ghost then return to the scene, and it seems to have
been left to the audience to imagine that the ground on
which they stood was not, in fact, the same they had before
occupied.
It is to be observed that the Acts and Scenes are not
divided in the quartos; and in the folios, though Actus
Primus and Actus Secundus are marked (with the distinc-
tion of some of the scenes), we are without any printed notes
of the kind during the rest of the tragedy. The emendator
of the folio, 1632, was, therefore, the first to supply the defi-
ciency: he appears to have done so accurately (with one or
two exceptions) according to the practice in his age, but by
no means precisely the same as in modern editions.
In the last line on this page we are desired by the old
corrector to read "confin'd to lasting fires," instead of “ con-
fin'd to fast in fires," a change recommended by Heath in
his "Revisal." Steevens, Farmer, and Mason contend that
no alteration is required.
P. 225. Regarding the subsequent lines, as invariably
printed, an advantageous proposal is made in the corrected
folio, 1632:-
F f 2
436
[ACT II.
HAMLET.
"Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother's hand,
Of life, of crown, of queen, at once dispatch'd."
"Dispatch'd" cannot be right, and why should Shakespeare
employ a wrong word, when another, that is unobjectionable,
at once presents itself, viz.-
"Of life, of crown, of queen, at once despoil'd?”
Misreading was, most likely, the cause of this blunder: the
earliest quarto, 1603, has depriv'd for "dispatch'd," of the
other quartos and folios; but we may feel confident that the
poet's misprinted word was despoil'd. It is written upon an
erasure, and possibly the old corrector first inserted depriv'd,
and afterwards saw reason to change it to despoil'd, as the
true language of the poet.
P. 226. Hamlet ejaculates, in reference to his mother,—
"O, most pernicious woman!”
The folio, 1632, has two words in the margin which make the
line perfect as regards measure:-
"O, most pernicious and perfidious woman!”
ACT II SCENE II.
P. 236. We have here an addition to many proofs how
one word was put for another, because the word misprinted
occurred in a different part of the same line: the quartos
assign to Polonius,-
"
My news shall be the fruit to that great feast.”
In the folio, 1623, it became,-
"My news shall be the news to that great feast;"
which was absurdly repeated in the folio, 1632; but "fruit"
is restored (perhaps from one of the quartos) in the margin
of the second folio; but a water-stain has gone near to
obliterate it.
P. 242. Exactly the same lapse occurs here: the quartos
make Polonius ask Hamlet,—
"I mean the matter that you read, my lord."
SC. II.]
437
HAMLET.
In the folios it stands,-
"I mean the matter that you mean, my lord.”
A corresponding correction erases mean, and inserts "read"
in its place.
P. 246. To show how minute and particular the owner of
the folio, 1632, who introduced the manuscript notes, was in
the stage-directions, it may be stated that before Hamlet
says, "Man delights not me; no, nor woman neither," &c.,
Rosencrantz is directed to smile, in order that the actor might
not forget to do so. What afterwards passes between Hamlet
and Rosencrantz respecting the popularity of companies of
young performers, under the titles of Children of the Revels,
Children of Paul's, &c., is crossed out with a pen, because,
among other reasons, at the time when the play was short-
ened, this portion was inapplicable.
P. 251. Pope's emendation, in opposition to all the ancient
authorities, of salt for "sallets," is supported by a correction
in the folio, 1632: if we rely upon it, we must hereafter
print, "there was no salt in the lines."
P. 254. We must attribute to mishearing a corruption,
though not of much importance, in the last line of the
Player's probationary speech, referring to the clamorous grief
of Hecuba, when she saw Priam's limbs "minced" by the
sword of Pyrrhus:-
"Would have made milch the burning eyes of heaven,
And passion in the gods."
"And passionate (i. e. compassionate) the gods" is the way in
which we learn we ought to read the last hemistich: to say
that it made "passion in the gods " is certainly sense, but the
emendation proposed may be the text.
P. 256. The same is to be remarked of the next change
that occurs in the folio, 1632: it is in Hamlet's soliloquy,
where he adverts to his own irresoluteness :—
"For it cannot be,
But I am pigeon-liver'd, and lack gall
To make oppression bitter.”
438
[ACT III.
HAMLET.
It was not "oppression," but crime, that was to be punished
by him; and to read
“To make transgression bitter”
is so far an improvement: the similarity in the sound of the
terminations of both words may have misled the copyist.
Oppression" is, however, intelligible.
ACT III. SCENE I.
P. 260. The manuscript-annotator adopts two changes in
the quartos in Hamlet's great soliloquy: these are “the proud
man's contumely" instead of "the poor man's contumely," as
it is given in all the folios; and "the pangs of despis'd love
instead of "the pangs of dispriz'd love," as also there mis-
printed.
""
P. 263. Hamlet, in old and modern editions, tells Ophelia,
"I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious; with more offences
at my beck, than I have thoughts to put them in." Steevens
says that "more offences at my beck" means "always ready
to come about me:" this may be so, but a manuscript-
correction supplies a much more natural word and easy
interpretation, viz. that Hamlet is loaded with offences-
"with more offences at my back, than I have thoughts to put
them in."
SCENE II.
P. 266. The several misprints in the folio, 1623, in
Hamlet's directions to the Players, are copied, and multiplied
in the folio, 1632, but not one of them escapes correction:
among them we may mention that or Norman" is altered
to "nor man" by striking out the conjunction, and dividing
the word. This emendation entirely discountenances Farmer's
notion that Mussulman was intended. To the printed intro-
duction of the scene, Enter Hamlet and two or three of the
Players, is added unready; that is to say, not yet ʼtired for
the parts they were to fill in the play within a play.
P. 268. Among other adoptions from the quartos may be
mentioned "comment of thy soul," instead of “comment of
my soul," of the folios.
SC. II.]
439
HAMLET.
'
P. 270. It may be considered a somewhat singular feature
in the manuscript-corrections, especially of this drama, that
all passages of an indecent character are carefully erased.
Such are portions of the dialogue between Hamlet and
Ophelia, prior to and during the representation before the
King and Queen, which Steevens seemed to think were
peculiar to the young and fashionable of the age of Shake-
speare." It appears, however, that not very long after "the
age of Shakespeare," they were struck out, either on account
of their needless indelicacy, or for the sake of abbreviating
the performance; perhaps both.
P. 274. For Hamlet's unfinished sentence, "If she should
break it now," the old corrector puts two words in his
margin, altering the text to "If she should break her vow,”—
referring, of course, to the Player Queen's asseveration against
second marriage.
P. 275. Johnson, Steevens, Farmer, and Tollet differed
whether, when Ophelia remarks, "Still better and worse,"
Hamlet ought to say, "So you mistake your husbands,” as it
is given in the quarto, 1604, and in the folios, or "So you
must take your husbands," viz. for better for worse. When
these annotators wrote, it was not known that a still earlier
quarto (1603) has it, "So you must take your husband;"
and, in addition, it now appears that the old corrector of the
folio, 1632, altered the reading there found to "So you must
take your husbands.'
husbands." In the same way, it has been doubted
when Hamlet on a subsequent page (277) speaks of "two
Provincial roses on my rac'd shoes" (we spell it as in the
folios; the quartos print it raz'd), he means rayed shoes,
razed shoes, or raised, that is, elevated shoes. The old
corrector spells it "raised shoes," and we may presume
that that is what was intended; namely, shoes which gave
the actor artificial height. This is the more probable, be-
cause Richard Burbadge, the original Hamlet, was, if we
are not mistaken, a man of rather short stature.
P. 277. The two lines delivered by Hamlet after the
sudden breaking off of the play,-
"For if the King like not the comedy,
Why then, belike, he likes it not, perdy,"
440
[ACT III.
HAMLET.
*
are underscored as a quotation; and such we may reasonably
suppose them to be. The same remark applies to the quotation
respecting "the stricken deer," and Damon.
SCENE III.
P. 282. The imperfect line assigned to Guildenstern in the
folio, 1632,-
"To keep those many bodies safe,"
stands in the folio, 1623,—
"To keep those many many bodies safe;"
and the old corrector, instead of the repetition of "many,"
inserts very,-
"To keep those very many bodies safe."
P. 283. When the King, in his soliloquy, says,—
"Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice,
And oft 'tis seen, the wicked prize itself
Buys out the law,"
""
we need no great persuasion to make us believe that we
ought to read, as a manuscript note tells us,——
“And oft 'tis seen, the wicked purse itself
Buys out the law."
When Hamlet enters behind, another stage-direction (printed
in no copy) states that he has his sword drawn ready to kill
the King, if his resolution had held. The old mode of acting
the scene appears to have been, that, when Hamlet came in
at the back, the King was kneeling in front of the stage, and
did not retire and kneel, as stated in modern editions.
SCENE IV.
P. 285. Before Hamlet comes to his mother, in the closet-
scene, Polonius hides himself behind the arras, and says, as
it has been invariably printed,-
"I'll silence me e'en here."
That this is a misprint we might guess without any hint
from the corrected folio, 1632, which thus gives the words,-
"I'll 'sconce me even here."
SC. IV.]
441
HAMLET.
Johnson felt obliged to explain that "I'll silence me e'en
here" meant "I'll use no more words." In "The Merry
Wives," Falstaff says, "I will ensconce me behind the arras,
which is exactly what Polonius does. 'Sconce and ensconce
are often used figuratively for hide.
P. 286. For "I'll set those to you," the Queen is repre-
sented as telling Hamlet "I'll send those to you." Set,"
possibly, was caught from the next line but one.
P. 288. When Hamlet is comparing the representations of
his father and his uncle, the first folio has "wholesome
breath” instead of "wholesome brother" of the quartos, and
the second folio adds to it various verbal and literal errors ;
but all editions, modern as well as ancient, contain a reading,
the change of which in the folio, 1632, must be admitted to
be a considerable improvement. The misprint, with a careless
compositor, must have been an easy one: it occurs where the
hero says to his mother,-
"For, at your age
The hey-day in the blood is tame, it's humble,
And waits upon the judgment; and what judgment
Would step from this to this?”
i.e. from his father to his uncle: Hamlet is exalting the
first, and debasing the last; and the expression, "Would step
from this to this," is feeble and inexpressive, while a slight
alteration in one word makes a vast difference:-
“And what judgment
Would stoop from this to this?”
P. 290. After the entrance of the Ghost unarmed, as has
been already mentioned, Hamlet thus addresses it in all
copies,—
"Do you not come your tardy son to chide,
That, laps'd in time and passion, lets go by
The important acting of your dread command?"
The amended reading offered in the folio, 1632, is,-
"That laps'd in fume and passion," &c.;
but "laps'd in time and passion" might, nevertheless, be
right, supposing Hamlet to intend that he has let slip the
proper opportunity.
442
[ACT IV.
HAMLET.
ACT IV. SCENE III.
P. 298. The emendation next to be noticed is certainly
well worthy of consideration, and perhaps of adoption. The
King asks Hamlet where Polonius is at supper, and the
answer is this in the quartos:-
"Not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certain convocation of
politic worms are e'en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for
diet," &c.
The folios omit "politic," probably unintentionally, but pos-
sibly because it was not understood why the worms should
be called "politic." The old corrector of the folio, 1632,
leads us to suppose that "politic" was misprinted, or
miswritten, for an epithet, certainly more applicable in the
place where it occurs, in reference to the taste of the worms
for the rich "diet" they were enjoying:-
"A certain convocation of palated worms are e'en at him. Your worm
is your only emperor for diet: we fat all creatures else to fat us, and we
fat ourselves for maggots."
It is easy to suppose that "politic," a word with which
the scribe was familiar, was misheard by him for the unusual
word palated. Shakespeare employs to palate as a verb in
"Coriolanus," Act III. Scene I., and in "Antony and Cleo-
patra," Act V. Scene II.; and it is doing no great violence
to imagine that he here uses the participle of the same verb.
If the text had always stood "palated worms," and it had
been proposed to change it to "politic worms," few readers
would for an instant have consented to relinquish an expres-
sion so peculiarly Shakespearian.
The short scene (IV.) where Fortinbras is seen at the head
of his army is entirely omitted.
SCENE V.
P. 304. It is worth a brief note, to state that the second of
Ophelia's fragments of ballads,—
“ And at his head a grass-green turf,”
is transposed in the amended folio, 1632, to—
"And at his head a green grass turf.”
SC. VII.]
443
HAMLET.
On the next page, the folio, 1632, for the line as it stands
in the folio, 1623,-
"Let in the maid, that out a maid,”
misprints "Let in" twice, instead of "that out" in the
second instance. This blunder is set right in the margin.
When Ophelia re-enters, "Fare you well, my dove" (p. 310), is
given in all the folios as part of her ballad; but it is marked
by the old corrector as spoken, and not sung. Again, the
same authority tells us that the lines on p. 311,—
"No, no, he is dead;
Go to thy death-bed,"
ought to run, as we may very well believe,-
"No, no, he is dead,
Gone to his death-bed,
He never will come again.”
It has always hitherto been printed, "Go to thy death-bed,"
and we can scarcely think the proposed change in the words
of a then well-known ballad merely arbitrary.
"His beard was as white as snow,'
the correction in manuscript is,-
"His beard was white as snow."
For
In the folios it is, "His beard as white as snow," and the
variation may be deemed immaterial. When Ophelia makes
her exit, it is stated that she goes out dancing distracted,
although she had sung such a melancholy ditty just before,
and had taken such a sad farewell. It is the last we see of her.
P. 307. The gentleman who enters in haste, speaking of the
insurrection in favour of Laertes, says in the old editions "The
rabble call him, lord." The marginal change here is king for
"lord," in consistency with what is added a few lines lower, as
the exclamation of the multitude, "Laertes shall be king.'
SCENE VII.
""
P. 314. The folios differ from the quartos in the last line of
this page, and in the first line of the next; and the old cor-
rector, instead of adopting the language of the quartos, intro-
duces a trifling emendation, which makes the sense of the
author very intelligible, and perhaps gives the manner in
which the passage had been recited. Laertes is speaking of
his sister,—
444
[ACT V.
HAMLET.
"Who was (if praises may go back again)
Sole challenger on mount of all the age
For her perfection."
For who was the quartos have "whose worth," and for sole,
"stood." The old corrector reverts to the language of the
quartos on p. 319, where Laertes, alluding to the poisonous
unction he had bought of a mountebank, says "that but dip a
knife in it," instead of "I but dipp'd a knife in it," of the folios.
P. 321. A nonsensical misprint found its way into the
folio, 1623, where the Queen describes the death of Ophelia:
the quartos properly read,—
'Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay;"
which in the folio, 1623, stands,-
"Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious buy ;"
and in the folio, 1632,—
"Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious by."
Perhaps "lay," substituted in the margin of the folio, 1632,
was obtained from the quartos: nobody could imagine buy or
by right.
cr
ACT V. SCENE I.
P. 322. Two small portions of the Grave-diggers' Scene are
struck through with a pen: the first relates to Adam being
a gentleman, and the second to the length of time the First
Grave-digger had filled his office, and the motive for sending
Hamlet into England. If William Kemp played the part of
the First Grave-digger, as has been conjectured (Chalmers's
Apology," p. 457), we need not be surprised at any ex-
pedient to keep such a favourite before the audience; but
when he was lost, some reduction of the dialogue may have
been held desirable, on account of the great length of the
play. However, it is more than doubtful whether Kemp be-
longed to the same company as Shakespeare when Hamlet
was produced. (See "Memoirs of the Actors in Shakespeare's
Plays," pp. 105. 115.) For "Get thee to Yaughan," which
some have supposed a misprint for a direction to yawn, and
others, for an innkeeper's name, the corrector has "Get thee
to yon'," or go yonder, and "fetch me a stoop of liquor."
SC. II.]
445
HAMLET.
P. 329. The four lines in rhyme which follow Hamlet's
prose introduction,—
Imperial Cæsar, dead, and turn'd to clay," &c.,
are distinguished in the amended folio, 1632, as a quotation in
the usual way; and they seem to have occurred to the speaker,
as extremely apposite to what he had himself just said
respecting the "dust of Alexander." We have no notion
from whence the passage was taken.
P. 331. Instead of "splenetive and rash," the correction is
"splenetic and rash ;" but as "Sir" at the beginning of the
line is not altered to For, we may be disposed to conclude
that "Sir" is right.
P. 332. When Hamlet tells Laertes, as the line is printed
every where,
"I'll do't.-Dost thou come here to whine?"
the line clearly wants two syllables; and the corrector of the
folio, 1632, makes Hamlet emphatically repeat, "I'll do't,"
which perfects the measure:
"I'll do't: I'll do't.-Dost thou come here to whine?"
This repetition was probably omitted by the printer acciden-
tally and carelessly.
The whole speech, beginning, "This is mere madness," is
given to the King in the folios; but it is evident that at
least part of it could not be uttered by him: a new prefix,
in the margin of the second folio, assigns the three last
lines to the Queen, while the two first are continued as
before. In the quartos the Queen delivers all five lines; but
it seems more likely that the King should interpose to tell
the spectators of the funeral,-
"This is mere madness;
And thus a while the fit will work on him.”
In some consistency with this view, the King, just afterwards,
desires Horatio to follow Hamlet, who had rushed out.
SCENE II.
P. 333. The usual reading, when Hamlet is beginning his
narrative to Horatio, has been,-
446
[ACT V.
HAMLET.
"Let us know,
Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well,
When our deep plots do pall."
The folios have "dear plots," and some of the quartos have
"pall," and others, fall. It seems that "pall" and fall are
errors of the press for fail, which is the word supplied in
manuscript in the folio, 1632. There is, however, a previous
change of "know" to own, and both alterations may seem
warranted. The whole, therefore, stands as follows, when
amended,-
"Let us own,
Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well,
When our deep plots do fail."
P. 336. The compositor of the folio, 1623, was guilty of a
careless blunder when he printed "Sweet lord, if your friend-
ship were at leisure," instead of "if your lordship were at
leisure:" it was, notwithstanding, copied into the folio, 1632,
where it is set right in the margin. Precisely the same
course was pursued with a lapse on p. 340, where, in all the
folios, tongue is misprinted for "turn," and "hurt my
mother," for "hurt my brother." This part of the tragedy
is ill-represented in both the earliest folio impressions; but
the most minute inaccuracy did not elude the attention of the
old amender of the second folio.
P. 343. The printed stage-directions are extremely frequent
in this last scene; nevertheless, the additions to them in
manuscript in the folio, 1632, are many. Thus, no printed
note being given when the Queen drinks the poison, the
proper place is duly marked, as well as when she dies. When
Horatio snatches the cup in order to poison himself, and when
Hamlet strives and gets it from him, the necessary informa-
tion is furnished in the margin. It should seem that the
directions were not all added at the same time, but, perhaps,
as the writer became aware of their importance, for the ink is
not always alike.
P. 344. During the fencing-match, the Queen interposes
that Hamlet may take breath: in the quartos, her words
are these,—
"He's fat and scant of breath.—
Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows."
SC. II.]
447
HAMLET.
In the folios, the passage is merely
"He's fat and scant of breath.—
Here's a napkin, rub thy brows."
The second line is obviously defective, and the corrector of
the folio, 1632, does not, in this instance, cure it by importing
the text of the quartos, but that of some independent autho-
rity: perhaps his emendation here, as in some other places,
represents the passage as it was commonly delivered by the
player of the part of the Queen :
"He's fat and scant of breath.—
Here is a napkin, rub thy brows, my son."
P. 347. The drama, abridged, as far as we can judge, for, or
from, representation some time after the appearance of the
folio, 1632, concludes with the two lines spoken by Horatio
over the dead body of Hamlet: all the rest, including “Why
does the drum come hither," is crossed out, so that nothing is
seen of Fortinbras, nor of the English ambassadors. The lines
put into the mouth of Horatio are these, as they stand in
every edition, Hamlet having just expired:
"Now cracks a noble heart.-Good night, sweet prince,
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.”
However, it seems to have been thought, about the time the
abbreviations were made, that the tragedy ought to end with
a rhyming couplet, and we may infer that the alteration we
meet with in the folio, 1632, was made for the purpose:-
"Now cracks a noble heart.-Good night, be blest,
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest."
This couplet is followed by the word Finis, in manuscript, as
if to show that it was the conclusion of the piece; but still
after "Finis" we meet with a couplet, which may have been
intended as a closing tag, possibly to follow that we have
last quoted. It runs thus:-
"While I remain behind to tell a tale,
That shall hereafter turn the hearers pale."
Of course this weak, inanimate stuff could not have come
from Shakespeare's pen, but must have been added subse-
quently, and recited when the tragedy was abbreviated.
The necessary changes of the text, as we find it in the
second folio, are continued, as if what follows the entrance of
448
HAMLET.
Fortinbras, &c., had not been erased. The first is merely
"This" for His, when Fortinbras says,-
"This quarry cries on havock,” &c.
It is "His quarry," &c., in the folios, and certainly wrong.
P. 348. Fortinbras, seeing that the throne of Denmark is
vacant, puts in his claim to it :-
"I have some rights of memory in this kingdom,
Which now to claim my vantage doth invite me."
These are the terms in the quartos; the folios, 1623 and
1632, nonsensically have "Which are to claim," &c. When
Horatio replies, according to the correct text,-
"Of that I shall have also cause to speak,”
the folio, 1623, gives the line thus inaccurately:-
"Of that I shall have always cause to speak;"
which the folio, 1632, makes still worse:-
“Of that I shall always cause to speak.
These careless errors are corrected in manuscript in the later
folio, where we also find an emendation in the margin which
appears to be of considerable value. Horatio, in reference to
the funeral of Hamlet, observes, as the line has invariably
been printed,-
"But let this same be presently perform'd."
Same sounds poorly and awkwardly, and the old corrector
states that it was not the poet's word, but one that might
easily be mistaken for it: he puts it,-
"But let this scene be presently perform'd,"
viz. the scene of the funeral, at which, while Hamlet's body
was placed "high on a stage," Horatio was to explain the
cause of his death: the mention of "stage," both before and
afterwards, and the use of the word "performed," afford
confirmation, if needed, that Shakespeare's language was
scene, and not “same." This may have been only a guessed
misprint, but nobody else has ever guessed it.
KING LEAR.
ACT I. SCENE I.
P. 357. The first correction in this tragedy in the folio,
1632, is the erasure of "Sir" at the beginning of Goneril's
speech, and the addition of a letter to convert word into
"words." The line is there exactly reprinted from the folio,
1623, where it stands,-
"
"Sir, I love you more than word can wield the matter.'
Here "Sir" is clearly redundant, and Regan, soon afterwards,
commences her speech without it; word also should evidently
be "words," even if we had not the authority of the quartos
for the change.
P. 358. The folios also contain the following in Regan's
answer to her father,—
"I profess
Myself an enemy to all other joys
That the most precious square of sense professes."
The compositor caught professes, instead of "possesses,
from the line almost immediately above, and there cannot
be a moment's hesitation in following the quartos, which are
uniform. The question that has arisen has been as to the
uncouth expression, "the most precious square of sense.'
Edwards contended that it is to be taken as
"the full com-
plement of all the senses;" in other words, the whole circle
of the senses; and the old corrector furnishes a word, mis-
printed "square," that exactly conveys this meaning,-
"That the most precious sphere of sense possesses."
G g
450
[ACT I.
KING LEAR.
She loved her father, according to her own assertion, beyond
all other joys in the round, or sphere, of sense.
For "More richer than my tongue," of the quartos, and
'More ponderous than my tongue," of the folios, the manu-
script-correction is "More plenteous than my tongue.” In
Lear's next speech the amended reading is, "Although our
last, not least," which so far follows the quartos.
P. 359. The quarto editions read thus, at the close of Cor-
delia's self-vindicatory speech:-
"Sure, I shall never marry like my sisters,
To love my father all."
The words in Italics are strangely left out in all the folios,
and are added in manuscript in that of 1632. The incom-
pleteness of the sentence makes us wonder how the defective
text of the folio, 1623, could have been reprinted.
P. 360. It is to be noted that in the following,—
"As my great patron thought on in my prayers,"
the folio, 1632, omits "great," which word is not supplied,
but the line is thus amended:
"Lov'd as my father, as my master follow'd,
And as my patron thought on in my prayers."
Hence we may see that the corrector was not constantly
guided by older editions, which are all in favour of "great.”
P. 362. The folio, 1632, is made, in manuscript, to differ
again from all earlier copies where Lear banishes Kent:—
"Five days we do allot thee for provision
To shield thee from diseases of the world,
And on the sixth to turn thy hated back
Upon our kingdom: if on the seventh day following
Thy banish'd trunk be found in our dominions," &c.
The quartos, as stated in note 10, have "four days," and
"on the fifth ;" and it may seem unlikely that Kent should
be allowed till "the tenth day following" (as in the folios) to
quit the kingdom. This, however, is a point of little im-
portance, excepting as it may show, either that the passage
was usually recited "the seventh day following," as amended
in the folio, 1632, or that the person who altered the text
SC. I.]
451
KING LEAR.
had some other authority for it. It is not probable that he
would arbitrarily make the change.
P. 364. We can very readily believe, that in the following
"best" ought to be printed blest,--
"This is most strange,
That she that even but now was your blest object,"
because in the next line but one of the same speech she is
described as "most best, most dearest."
We come to a more important variation from every old
copy, where Cordelia entreats her father to
"make known
It is no vicious blot, murder, or foulness,
No unchaste action, or dishonour'd step,
That hath depriv'd me of your grace and favour."
"Murder" (spelt murther in the folios) seems here entirely
out of place: Cordelia could never contemplate that any
body would suspect her of "murder," as the ground of her
father's displeasure: she is referring to "vicious blots," and
"foulness" in respect to virtue, and there cannot, we ap-
prehend, be a doubt that the old corrector has given us
the real language of Shakespeare when he puts the passage
thus:
tr
"make known
It is no vicious blot, nor other foulness,
No unchaste action," &c.
The copyist or the compositor miswrote or misread nor other
murther," and thus occasioned a corruption, which has
eternally been repeated. But there appears, on the same
authority, to be another error in the later portion of what we
have just above quoted:-
"No unchaste action, or dishonour'd stoop,
That hath depriv'd me of your grace and favour."
In Hamlet (p. 427) we have seen stoop misprinted "step," as
here, and Cordelia alludes to some grossly derogatory act,
some base condescension on her part, and not merely to some
dishonourable "step" which she had taken: "step," for stoop,
here reads most insignificantly, and could hardly have been
the poet's language.
P. 366. The heroine, taking leave of her sisters, addresses
them as
G g 2
452
[ACT II.
KING LEAR.
"The jewels of our father, with wash'd eyes
Cordelia leaves you."
Here we are told by a correction in the folio, 1632, to read
"Ye jewels of our father;" the blunder, such as it is, having
been occasioned by the common contraction of ye for “the.”
In Cordelia's next speech the line,—
"Who cover faults at last with shame derides,"
is altered to "shame them derides," as it is given in the
quartos.
P. 374. Scene III., between Goneril and her Steward, is
erased in the folio, 1632. We may add here, that the greater
part of Scene V. is also struck out.
SCENE IV.
P. 381. What the Fool sings,-
"Fools had ne'er less grace in a year," &c.,
is marked as a quotation in the folio, 1632, perhaps from
some satirical ballad of the time; and the third line is
amended, so that, like the first, it rhymes in the middle:-
"And well may fear their wits to wear," &c.
The scrap that succeeds almost immediately is also under-
scored; but it is evident that the Fool alters this fragment
to suit his purpose. The couplet on the next page has the
same stage-direction, Sing, opposite to it, and it is likewise
underscored.
ACT II. SCENE I.
P. 393. After hearing of the flight of Edgar, when he is
supposed to have wounded Edmund for not entering into the
conspiracy to murder their father, Gloster says, as the passage
stands printed and punctuated in the folios,-
"Let him fly far:
Not in this land shall he remain uncaught
And found; dispatch, the noble duke my master,
My worthy arch and patron comes to-night," &c.
Here misprinting and mispointing have obscured the poet's
SC. I.]
453
KING LEAR.
meaning, and the old corrector of the folio, 1632, amends as
follows:-
"Let him fly far:
Not in this land shall he remain uncaught,
And found, dispatch'd. The noble duke, my master,
My worthy arch and patron comes to-night," &c.
That is to say, "Let him fly far; for if caught and found in
this land he shall be dispatch'd." What succeeds in the dia-
logue entirely supports this view; for Gloster declares that
by the authority of the Duke, who was expected, "the mur-
derous coward" should be proclaimed and brought "to the
stake," adding,-
"All ports I'll bar; the villain shall not 'scape."
It may be noted that some correction appears formerly to
have been made in Gloster's exclamation, "Strong and
fasten'd villain!" but obliterated afterwards: such is some-
times the case elsewhere.
P. 394. Both the folios are here very carelessly printed;
but, as might be supposed, that of 1632 gives the more im-
perfect notion of Shakespeare's text. Thus, for "strange
news," of the quartos, the folios have strangeness; but all the
copies, quarto and folio, are wrong in the line,-
"He whom my father nam'd? your Edgar?"
for it obviously halts for want of two syllables: and the cor-
rection of the old annotator shows what they are:-
"He whom my father nam'd? your heir, your Edgar?"
It was natural that Regan should speak of him as Gloster's
heir in the presence of Edmund, as hinting at the motive for
Edgar's design on his father's life. Just below, there is a line
with a syllable too many :—
"Was he not companion with the riotous knights."
The negative is erased in the folio, 1632, by which the mea-
sure is restored, and the sense not injured; for Edmund im-
mediately afterwards replies,-
"Yes, madam, yes; he was of that consort;"
giving additional emphasis by the repetition of the affirma-
tive yes, which is not in any ancient copy: the compositor,
having inserted "yes" once, left it out the second time, and
454
[ACT II.
KING LEAR.
thus lamed the line. The folio, 1632, omits "his" before
revenues," but it is inserted in the margin.
Farther on, when Cornwall inquires, "Is he pursued?"
Gloster replies, "Ay, my good lord," which does not com-
plete the line: he is is therefore added to amend the metre,
and we cannot, under the circumstances, suppose that it was
a mere volunteered correction.
SCENE II.
P. 396. When Kent tells Oswald, "If I had thee in Lips-
bury pinfold, I would make thee care for me,” the com-
mentators have been puzzled to know where "Lipsbury
pinfold" was situated, and Farmer and Steevens supposed it
"a cant phrase." In the folio, 1632, it is altered to "Fins-
bury pinfold;" and a misprint was, doubtless, the cause of
the difficulty. There was, probably (though it is not mentioned
by local historians), an old pinfold standing in Finsbury in
the time of Shakespeare, in connexion with Moorfields, and
well known to his audiences; and to this, without caring for
the anachronism, he alluded.
P. 399. For the deficient line, which Sir T. Hanmer
amended by "As" at the beginning of it, the emendator has,-
"And knowing nought, like dogs, but following."
The next line but one he gives thus:
"Smile at my speeches, as I were a fool?"
The usual text has been "Smile you my speeches," &c.
SCENE IV.
P. 406. In the corrected folio, 1632, we encounter a very
material alteration in the Fool's satirical rhymes, showing
that the conclusion, always hitherto printed as prose, was
also in verse: the last part stands thus in type in the folio,
1632:
"But for all this, thou shalt have as many dolours for thy dear daughters,
as thou canst tell in a year."
The manuscript-corrector makes the whole run thus:-
"Fathers that wear rags,
Do make their children blind;
But fathers, that bear bags,
Shall see their children kind.
SC. IV.]
455
KING LEAR.
Fortune, that arrant whore,
Ne'er turns the key to the poor.
But, for all this, it follows,
Thou shalt bave as many dolours
For thy daughters dear,
As thou canst tell in a year."
The folio, 1632, alone contains the word "dear," but there it
was transposed, since it forms the rhyme to "year.”
In the Fool's rhymes on the next page, there is a perversion
in the two last lines, which have been always thus erroneously
printed:
"The knave turns fool that runs away,
The fool no knave perdy."
This is exactly the contrary of what is meant: in the first
six lines the Fool says, that a mercenary knave quits his
master in a storm, but that a fool remains with him; and he
follows it up by observing that the fool turns knave when he
abandons his master, although the knave can be considered
no fool for doing so, and taking care of himself:—
"The fool turns knave that runs away,
The knave no fool, perdy.”
The corrector of the folio, 1632, transposes the words, in
order to make them run as above.
P. 410. We have here an instance of mishearing on the
part of the scribe, which has occasioned an indisputable
blunder. Regan tells Lear to submit, and to tell Goneril that
he has wronged her: he breaks out in reply,—
"Ask her forgiveness?
Do you but mark how this becomes the house :
'Dear daughter, I confess that I am old,'” &c.
What has "the house" to do with it? They are talking
outside Gloster's castle, and not in, nor referring to, any ha-
bitation. What Lear should say is what the old corrector
makes him say :-
Do
"Ask her forgiveness?
you but mark how this becomes the mouth:
Dear daughter, I confess that I am old,'" &c.
Between the copyist and the compositor, mouth became
"house." After kneeling, while he says the above, Lear never
gets up again in modern editions; but a note in the folio, 1632,
456
[ACT III.
KING LEAR.
directs the actor to rise at the beginning of his next pas-
sionate speech, "Never, Regan," &c.
The conjecture, in note 9 on the next page, that the epithet
"tender-hafted" ought to be tender-hearted, is supported by
a marginal emendation in the folio, 1632.
P. 412. Regan again advises Lear to humble himself, and
return to Goneril: he exclaims, as the passage stands in
modern editions,—
(C
"Return to her? and fifty men dismiss'd?
No, rather I abjure all roofs, and choose
To wage against the enmity of the air;
To be a comrade with the wolf and owl.—
Necessity's sharp pinch!"
From the folio, 1632, and its corrections, we learn that the
omission of the aspirate has occasioned a serious error here.
Necessity's sharp pinch!" has always been printed as an
exclamation by itself, without connexion; but it seems that
Shakespeare made the verb howl transitive, and that in future
the lines ought to be printed as follows :—
"To be a comrade with the wolf, and howl
Necessity's sharp pinch."
¿.e. howl like the wolf when he feels the sharp pinch of ne-
cessity. The punctuation of the folios, if that can be any
guide, warrants this indisputable construction of the text.
P. 414. In the line in Lear's speech,-
"You heavens, give me but patience, patience I need!"
The repetition of "patience" appears at one time to have
been struck through, and to have been subsequently restored.
The ordinary reading is "that patience," and we feel by no
means sure that "but patience "has any advantage over
it, excepting that it is the word of the old corrector: he deli-
berately left but when he restored "patience."
ACT III. SCENE I.
P. 417. Kent tells the Gentleman, whom he meets, of some
disagreement between the Dukes, information of which has
been communicated to France by their
SC. IV.]
457
KING LEAR.
"servants, who seem no less,
Which are to France the spies and speculations
Intelligent of our state."
Speculations," of all the old copies, must be wrong both as
regards meaning and measure; and the old corrector in-
structs us to read spectators instead of it, although the
accentuation may be unusual :-
"Which are to France the spies and spectators
Intelligent of our state."
"
A few lines lower he puts flourishings for "furnishings," with
apparent fitness, though Steevens would justify "furnishings
by a quotation from the preface to one of Greene's tracts, no
doubt itself a corruption, where he talks of "lending the
world a furnish of wit ;" a flourish of wit" must have been
Greene's expression. Here, again, one corruption is at-
tempted to be supported by another.
ct
SCENE II.
P. 420. There is no doubt that in the following passage we
ought to read "perjure" and "simuler," as suggested in note 4.
The old corrector makes the passage run thus
"Hide thee, thou bloody hand;
Thou perjure, and thou simuler of virtue
That art incestuous.”
Perjure is perjurer (not "perjur'd," as it stands in all the
ancient editions), and simuler is simulator, and not “simular
man," as we find it in the quartos.
SCENE IV.
P. 425. In two several speeches by Edgar, on this page,
the quarto editions are followed and deserted by the old
corrector: thus in "through the sharp hawthorn blow the
cold winds," cold, which he inserts, is found in the quartos
only; while, in the next speech of the same character, for
through sword and whirl-pool" he puts "through swamp
and whirl-pool:" it is "ford and whirl-pool" in the quartos.
The first of these is marked as a quotation (both here and on
p. 427, where it again occurs), in the usual manner; and it
was most likely derived from some then known ballad.
(C
458
[ACT IV.
KING LEAR.
P. 427. The quartos, folios, and the old corrector, furnish
us with three variations in a not very important passage of
Edgar's speech. The most ancient authorities have "Keep
thy word justly, swear not:" the folio, 1623, "Keep thy
word's justice;" the folio, 1632, "Keep thy word, justice;"
and finally, the old corrector, "Keep thy word, do justice."
The first and the last seem best entitled to adoption, and the
last may be the true text.
It is hardly worth a separate note to state, that in Edgar's
enumeration of different kinds of dogs (p. 435), the word
"Him" or "Hym" of all the old copies is not altered to
"Lym," but to Trim, which we now use merely as the name
of a dog, and not as the designation of a species.
SCENE VII.
P. 438. A more important change occurs near the opening
of this scene, where Regan, Goneril, and Cornwall are talking
of the manner in which Gloster is to be treated:-
Reg. Hang him instantly.
Gon. Pluck out his eyes.
Corn. Leave him to my displeasure."
Disposure for "displeasure" is the manuscript alteration, but
it may be doubted whether it is an emendation. If disposure
were not the word the old corrector had seen or heard in his
day, why did he make the change?
P. 440. Concurrence will, perhaps, be altogether withheld
from the proposal to read "boil'd up" for "buoy'd up" in
Gloster's speech :-
"The sea, with such a storm as his bare head
In hell-black night endur'd, would have buoy'd up,
And quench'd the stelled fires."
Though we may not be disposed to recommend the change, it
is necessary to point it out.
ACT IV. SCENE I.
P. 443. We meet with two comparatively small, but valu-
able amendments in the first line of Edgar's speech, which
SC. I.]
459
KING LEAR.
opens this Act, one of which was speculated upon by John-
son. The common reading 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" unknown;
and this is what the corrector states ought to be the text.
Edgar says, that it is better to be contemned because un-
known, as he is in his disguise, than to be contemned and
flattered when known. There is, however, a further change
which deserves notice, viz. Yes for "Yet." Edgar enters,
moralising with himself, and giving his assent to some propo-
sition 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
manner in which the frequent mistake of w for m 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 ad-
vantageous; "our mere defects," or deficiencies, "prove our
commodities." The printer read wants "means," and hence
the blunder: Gloster 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 would 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 sub-
stituted in the folio, 1632.
P. 445. Gloster, giving his purse to Edgar, whom he still
supposes, a lunatic beggar, says,—
460
[ACT IV.
KING LEAR.
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
vour 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, selfish-
ness, and want of charity. This emendation can surely
want no support.
SCENE IV.
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 VI.
P. 456. It may by some be considered only a needless refine-
ment of Shakespeare's English, and of the English of his
contemporaries, when the old emendator tells us to read
"horribly steep" for "horrible steep."
P. 459. The literal errors, corrected in the folio, 1632, are
here numerous: for "treasury of life" we have "treasure of
life;" for "shrill-gorg'd lark" we have "shrill-gor'd lark ;'
and for "enridged sea" we have "enraged sea." The last
only of these blunders belongs to the folio, 1623.
"
P. 460. Lear having entered dressed with straws and flowers,
according to the manuscript stage-direction (for no printed
SC. VI.]
461
KING LEAR.
note of the kind is found, even where it is most wanted), in-
veighs 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.
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"
is, in truth, a lapse by the printer for mimics-"a dame
that mimics virtue;" that is, who puts on the externals of
modesty :-
"Who mimics 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 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 "Tis 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.
462
[ACT IV.
KING LEAR.
Lower down, the corrector adds, "And laying Autumn's
dust," perhaps from the quartos (where, however, it stands,
Ay, and for laying 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
exclaims, as the words have always been printed after the
folios,-
“O, 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 resort to common sense. Edgar is struck by the
uncontrollable licentiousness of the desires of woman:-
"O, unextinguish'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 "undistinguish'd space," making nonsense of a passage
which, properly printed, is as striking as it is intelligible.
Malone's explanation was particularly unfortunate, viz. that
there was 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."
For "made intent," Warburton would substitute "laid in-
tent;" 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, which would be anticipated and defeated, if he were
too soon known:
"Yet to be known shortens my main intent."
ACT V.]
463
KING LEAR.
The compositor, perhaps, was confounded by the word "make"
in the beginning of the next line.
ACT V. SCENE III.
P. 480. The 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 imper-
fectly have,-
"I'll make 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 necessary, keeps "make," and puts good, 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
elsewhere, to follow it. Was the word good inserted only as
a matter of judgment, to cure the evident defect of the folios,
or was it derived from any authority?
P. 481. The old corrector strikes out the repetition of “pri-
vilege," as surplusage, damaging the verse. 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),
transposes "place" and "youth," and in manuscript "place
is superseded by skill:-
"C
Maugre thy strength, skill, youth, and eminence."
Skill has evidently been written in the margin, but part of
it having 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 cer-
tainly not wanted, with "eminence" in the same line.
464
[ACT V
KING LEAR.
P. 487. When Lear enters, bearing the dead Cordelia, he
asks for a looking-glass :—
“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-correc-
tion substitutes shine, 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 awkwardly 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 contra-
dictory 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 doubt-
ingly, 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 eye-sight is bedimmed. Lear has previously stated
that his eyes
re 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 insufficient, he could not be sure
whether the man before him was Kent. It was a mere mis-
print 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. No other ancient authority supports this no-
SC. VII.]
465
KING LEAR.
tion, 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 con-
clude that Kent, in what he says, only contemplates 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.
3
н h
OTHELLO.
ACT I. SCENE I.
""
P. 499. The first striking emendation in this tragedy (after
the, perhaps needless, substitution of "favour and affection
for "letter and affection") is one which admits of much
doubt: it occurs in the passage of Iago'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
compositor may have committed an error by printing "vi-
sages" for usages; but, on the other hand, "hearts," in the
next line, may have been intended as an antithesis to "vi-
sages," or outward appearances; 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 might be deemed unsafe to alter the received text
in 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 Iago's speech
which is erased with a pen, viz. from "We cannot all be
masters," down to "I would not be Iago."
""
P. 500. We should feel little hesitation in altering “timo-
rous" to clamorous in the following, where Iago tells Roderigo
to awake and alarm Brabantio :—
OTHELLO,
467
"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 as frightened, seems quite
out of place, especially 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
unintelligible 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
preposition 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. 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. In the next line
but one "your chamber" is altered to "her chamber."
((
P. 503. Nobody has remarked upon a curious variation be-
tween the folios, 1623 and 1632, in Iago's line,-
"(
Though I do hate him as I do hell paines."
This is the reading of the quarto; but in the folio, 1623,
the letters of the last word are misplaced,—
"
Though I do hate him as I do hell apines.”
The printer of the folio, 1632, not being able to understand
apines, omitted the word altogether, making the line end
Hh 2
468
[ACT I.
OTHELLO.
imperfectly at "hell." The old corrector either saw what
was meant in the folio, 1623, or, perhaps, was assisted by the
quarto, for he places paines (as the word was then commonly
spelt) in his margin, with a caret in the text.
SCENE III.
:
P. 509. The 2 Senator, referring to the contents of his
letters, as different in the particulars, although alike in the
main circumstances, observes,-
"As in 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 occa-
sioned discussion, although Johnson's interpretation has been
usually followed. 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 believe, was Shakespeare's meaning, and Shake-
speare's language.
P. 513. A manuscript change in the text in the folio,
1632, differs from all known editions. The quarto makes
the Duke say,—
“To vouch 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:-
"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 in the second folio.
SC. III.]
469
OTHELLO.
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 impression; perhaps "sighs"
sighs" was obtained from
it, 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 accompany 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 editors (into
which it is not necessary here to enter) in order to explain
or remove the obscurities belonging to nearly the whole pas-
sage. 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,
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 foil 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
470
[ACT II.
OTHELLO.
1
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 commentators 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 dead 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. The three lines beginning
"Nor to comply," and some others at the end of the speech,
were struck out, but the corrections continued.
P. 524. We meet with the change of an important epithet
where Iago 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 proverbially were, complying and yielding
to her own desires: therefore, for "super-subtle," the correc-
tion in the folio, 1632, is super-supple: because she was "a
super-supple Venetian," Roderigo was to hope that she would
ere long submit to his importunity. "A frail vow" had passed
between "an erring barbarian and a super-supple Venetian,
which Iago was soon to break. For "brain of our lives" (in
Iago's previous speech) of the folios, the old corrector's word
is "balance of our lives" of the quarto.
ACT II. SCENE I.
P. 527. Cassio is called "a Veronessa" in the quarto and
folios; but he was a Florentine, and such an alteration in
the folio, 1632, makes him :-
SC. I.]
471
OTHELLO.
"A Florentine, Michael Cassio."
But, unless Florentine be read as four syllables, the line
would have run better had the emendation been
"A Florentine, one Michael Cassio."
As "Veronesé" must be read as four syllables, perhaps we
ought to print its substitute, not Florentine, but Florentino,
and the whole defect, both of verse and of sense, would then
be cured.
P. 533. After Iago has delivered his satirical verses against
the female sex, Desdemona asks, "How say you, Cassio? is
he not a most profane and liberal counsellor?" By "coun-
sellor," Johnson was here obliged to understand "one that
discourses fearlessly and volubly;" but if we may believe
the author of the emendations in the folio, 1632, "coun-
sellor 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 Iago, in the character he had
just given of women, was not "a most profane and liberal
censurer?"
""
""
P. 537. Near the close of Iago's longest speech, on this
page, the word “course occurs-" or from what other course
you please:" a marginal note converts "course" into cause,
referring to the cause of offence which Roderigo was to give
to Cassio. In "Macbeth," Act V. Scene II., we have seen
the converse of this alteration-" cause" for course. The two
words were easily confounded.
P. 538. The subsequent quotation, as it appears in the
folios, has occasioned discussion: Iago speaks:-
"Which thing to do,
If this poor trash of Venice, whom I trace
For his quick hunting, stand the putting on," &c.
The quarto has crush for "trace," which must be wrong,
and Warburton read brach, 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 :-
472
[ACT II.
OTHELLO.
"Which thing to do,
If this poor brach of Venice, whom I trash
For his quick hunting, stand the putting on," &c.
To trash a dog was to chastise it; and Iago in this sense
chastised Roderigo for his too eager pursuit of Desdemona.
The compositor blundered between brach and trash, 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.
SCENE III.
P. 541. There is a remarkable discrepancy between the
quarto and folios, which deserves the more notice, because
the correction of an error in the folio, 1632, leads to an en-
tirely new reading of an important word: Iago says, in the
quarto, 1622,-
"Three lads of Cyprus, noble swelling spirits;"
in the folios it is,—
"Three else of Cyprus, noble swelling spirits,"
an undoubted blunder; and the question is, how "lads," in
the quarto, became else in the folios? Simply from mis-
hearing on the part of the scribe: the poet's word was pro-
bably not "lads," but, as Iago jocularly calls them,-
"Three elfs of Cyprus, noble swelling spirits ;"
and the manuscript-corrector alters "else" to elfes, or elves.
Whether the true text be "lads" or elfs, the variation is
curious; and it seems not improbable, as Iago terms them
"spirits" in the last part of the line, that he would call them
elfs in the first part of it. Our conviction is that Shake-
speare wrote elfes, which, not being immediately understood,
was printed "lads" in the quarto, 1622.
P. 546. The transposition made by Sir T. Hanmer, “all
sense of place and duty" for "all place of sense and duty,"
we might expect to see countenanced in the corrected folio,
1632, and it is so. In Iago's next speech them is substituted
for "
men," the allusion being, apparently, to the particular
persons who had been engaged in the brawl.
P. 547. We have several times seen words which begin with
ACT III.]
473.
OTHELLO.
q printed with c: thus in Henry VIII. we have had chine
for "queen" (p. 327), and in Macbeth cooled for "quailed"
(p. 417). Here we meet with a repetition of the same
strange mistake, in regard to a word that has been the
source of considerable debate 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, inasmuch as "collied "
"collied" was, probably, not the
poet's word:-
Malone says that
"And passion, having my best judgment quelled,"
is the substitution in the folio, 1632.
some "modern editor," whom he does not otherwise distin-
guish, had proposed quelled: Othello's judgment was quelled,
or subdued, by his passion. The verb "collied" has here no
apparent connexion with the "collied night" of "Midsummer
Night's Dream."
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 probable, which, pronounced in
the time of two syllables, may suit the verse sufficiently well.
On the next page "when" is altered to where :-
"And bring him jump where he may Cassio find."
The adverb of place seems best adapted to the situation.
ACT III. SCENE I.
""
P. 554. The dialogue between Cassio, the Clown, and the
Musicians is struck out, probably because it was necessary to
abridge the performance: several verbal and literal errors
are, nevertheless, set right; thus, "speak through 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 gentlewoman that attends the
general's wife;" and for "I shall seem to notify unto her,
""
474
[ACT III.
OTHELLO.
we are told to read, "I shall seem so to notify unto her."
All these emendations are more or less required, and some
of them are found in modern impressions, the sense making
the blunders manifest.
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 naturally, but hardly necessarily, altered
to "Out of our best." This part of the play is so well printed
in the folios, that few corrections, excepting of punctuation,
are introduced 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, yet fondly loves.'
It is "strongly loves" in the quarto, and "soundly loves in
the folios; but the old corrector changed soundly to "fondly,"
and we conclude that such was the received text in his time.
""
P. 564. In the folios the hemistich "Is once to be resolv'd"
is imperfect by the omission of the adverb; but once is added
in his margin by the corrector of the edition of 1632.
P. 566. The next emendation seems questionable, because
the intention of the poet is expressed with sufficient distinct-
ness as the text has hitherto stood: it is where Iago 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 in some measure supports
the recommended 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.'
SC. III.]
475
OTHELLO.
Notwithstanding his pretended fears, Iago affects still to per-
suade Othello to believe that his wife is innocent.
P. 567. Where Othello says of Iago that he "knows all
qualities with a learned spirit," &c., the folios misprint “qua-
lities" quantities. We are not aware that this mistake has
been till now pointed out, but the old corrector discovered it,
and remedied it.
P. 568. The imperfect and corrupt line in the folios,—
"If she be false, Heaven mock'd itself,"
appears thus in the quarto:-
"If she be false, O! then heaven mocks itself."
The emendator of the folio, 1632, furnishes a reading dif-
ferent from any old copy:-
"If she be false, O! 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 or heard it,
though the difference is not very material.
The unprinted stage-directions are not many, but the
ancient impressions have very few, even where most re-
quired. When Desdemona produces her handkerchief, in
order to bind it round Othello's temples, Offers to bind is
written in the margin; and when he rejects it, Throws it
away is inserted in the same manner. Iago subsequently
snatcheth it from Emilia.
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, excepting 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 Iago's description of what
476
[ACT III.
OTHELLO.
Othello might wish to see for the sake of conviction, and of
Cassio's supposed dream, are struck through with a pen, but
errors are still carefully amended: "to bring to that pros-
pect" the corrector makes "to bring it" (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,-
cr
“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
from the quarto, 1630; but the manuscript-emendation in
the folio, 1632, is,—
"Ne'er knows 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 IV.
P. 579. Othello, wishing to see the handkerchief, says to
Desdemona, in the quarto,-
"I have a salt and sullen rheum offends me,"
which may be the correct text; but the folios read,—
"I have 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."
In "King John," Act I. Scene I., we have seen sudden
misprinted sullen.
P. 582. Cassio entreats Desdemona, if she cannot remove
Othello's displeasure, to let him know the fact, in order that
he may at once adopt some other method of life:—
ACT IV.]
477
OTHELLO.
"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,
perhaps, by changing his profession. The sense is, of course,
the same in both cases.
ACT IV. SCENE I.
P. 587. Just before Othello falls in a trance, as the old
copies describe it, he exclaims, "I tremble at it. Nature
would not invest herself in such shadowing passion without
some instruction. It is not words that shake me thus."
He means, of course, that his own conviction of the fact of
Desdemona's guilt, not Iago'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 induction of the
moon before the sun, so as to overshadow it, "a noble con-
jecture." It appears, however, that "shadowing" (often of
old spelt shaddowing) is a misprint for shuddering, which is
entirely 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 shuddering
passion without some instruction. It is not words that shake me
thus," &c.
"Shadowing passion" seems to have no meaning, but that
fancifully suggested by Warburton, where he supposes Othello,
in the height of his grief and fury, to illustrate his own con-
dition by reference 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
478
[ACT IV.
OTHELLO.
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. 588. It has been usual to correct the blunder of the
folios,-
"A passion most resulting such a man,"
by altering resulting to "unsuiting." This may be right,
but a marginal note in the folio, 1632, gives unfitting, and not
"unsuiting." Either fills the place equally well.
P. 589. The folios introduce an obvious corruption where
they convert
"And his unbookish jealousy must construe'
into, “And his unbookish jealousy must conserve :” a correc-
tion of it is found in manuscript in the folio, 1632; but in
the last line of this page, an emendation of a singular kind
is met with. Othello, overhearing Cassio laugh when Iago
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? Johnson says, because the word "triumph" brought
Roman into his thoughts. This may unquestionably be so,
though it seems very disputable, and the manuscript-corrector
says that the word Roman (perhaps written 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?"
We may just imagine how romaine became o'er me, either by
mishearing, misprinting, or both; and certainly the allusion to
a Roman triumph seems very forced in the mouth of a Moor,
and the question, "Do you triumph o'er me?" most fit and
natural under the circumstances.
SCENE II.
P. 598. The subsequent passage has produced discussion,
arising mainly out of discordance of texts in the quarto and
folios. In the quarto it is,-
SC. III.]
479
OTHELLO.
"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," and such is the correc-
tion in the folio, 1632. Another emendation in the next line,
converts "slow and moving," 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 small'st opinion on my great'st abuse?"
The folios have "my least misuse" for "great'st abuse;" both
cannot be right, and the old corrector informs us that neither
is so, but that we should print,—
"The small'st 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?" Still, "mis-
use" may be taken in the sense of misdeed.
SCENE III.
"
P. 606. The old corrector has, "Good faith" for "Good
father" when Desdemona exclaims, "Good father! how
foolish are our minds!" "Good faith" is the word in the
quarto, 1622; and it is to be remarked that "Good faith'
preserves the measure, while "Good father" destroys it,
unless we read "father" as one syllable, or in the time of one
syllable.
P. 607. Desdemona's willow-ballad begins in the folios,—
"The poor soul sat singing by a sycamore tree.”
But the original (Percy's Rel. I. 212) has sighing for “sing-
ing," and such is the written correction; but it goes farther
by making it commence with the indefinite article:
480
[ACT V.
OTHELLO.
"A poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree.”
There is no other change in, or addition to it. That part of
the dialogue between Desdemona and Emilia, which relates
to the infidelity 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 back; Iago wounds Cassio and
exit; and subsequently enters unready, 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 comparatively well
printed in the folios.
P. 611. Iago having entered unready with a torch, his
sword drawn, he calls out in the folio, 1632,-
"Who's there?
Whose noise is this that cries out murder?”
The measure of the lines is here irregular, but the old cor-
rector adds thus after "murder:" and, just below, he writes
Did you not hear a cry?" for "Do you not hear a cry?”
SCENE II.
P. 616. A small error 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 in-
structed to lock the door. Another lapse occurs on p. 619,
where "Did yawn at alteration" ought to be "Should yawn
at alteration." These changes are introduced in manuscript
in the folio, 1632.
P. 621. The folios give the following imperfectly,-
“Ay, with Cassio. Nay, had she been true,"
SC. II.]
481
OTHELLO.
by omitting "nay" of the quartos of 1622 and 1630; but
the old corrector states that the line ought to be,—
"Ay, with Cassio. Had she been but true," &c.
The variation is small, and, as a mere matter of taste, we
prefer the reading of the quartos, which were, perhaps, not
here referred to.
P. 622. When Emilia tells Iago,—
"And your reports have set the murder on,"
the line seems liable to no reasonable objection, but a change
in the folio, 1632, instructs to alter "murder" to murderer,
and possibly it was the true word. Emilia may have pointed
at Othello, as the murderer, and his observation is,-
"Nay, stare not, masters: it is true, indeed."
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 cor-
rected 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 air," and the folio,
1632, as amended,-
No, I will speak as liberal as the wind.”
Why, we may ask, should the corrector of the last make the
change, inasmuch 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. Mon-
tano'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 instead of inserting it from the quarto, the old corrector
placed now in the margin.
P. 628. The same authority was right when he supplied
I i
1
482
[ACT V.
OTHELLO.
another omission in the folios, where Lodovico, after telling
Othello that he must go with the officers, turns to Iago, and
threatens him with torture: the line there is,-
"To the Venetian state.-Come; bring away."
The quarto, 1622, has, "Come; bring him away;" but both
Othello and Iago 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 edi-
tion in the concluding words of Othello :—
"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
gav 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 performing the part of
Othello, it seems that he 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 evidently did not fall upon the bed until the
moment before his death.
Some descriptive additions are made in manuscript, for
the first time in the volume, to the list of "the Actors'
names" appended to the play: thus we are told that Iago is
Ancient to the Moor, Gratiano Uncle to Desdemona, &c. One
of these, and only one, is of importance, and that with re-
ference to the question agitated by Tyrwhitt, Henley, Ma-
lone, Steevens, &c., whether Bianca were a courtezan of
Cyprus 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
SC. II.]
483
OTHELLO.
P
no doubt, therefore, that she is supposed in the tragedy to
have followed 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.
1 i 2
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.
ACT I. SCENE I.
Vol. viii. P. 6. The heroine in these terms taunts Antony
with supposed subjection to Cæsar:-
"Who knows
If the scarce-bearded Cæsar have not sent
His powerful mandate to you, 'Do this, or this;
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
sufficient reason to alter it; but the word "damn" sounds ill
in Cleopatra'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 appro-
priate, that we may be satisfied in future to reject the
error: the whole passage is,—
"Fie, wrangling queen!
Whom every thing becomes, to chide, to laugh,
To weep; whose every passion fitly strives
To make itself, in thee, fair and admir'd.”
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.
485
A compositor might carelessly commit such a blunder: every
passion in its fit manner strove to make itself admired.
SCENE II.
P. 9. It only requires a brief note to state that War-
burton's emendation of "fertile," for foretell of the folios, is
not confirmed by the corrector of the folio, 1632: the word
in the margin of that impression is fruitful; fertile may
come nearer the letters, but fruitful seems better adapted to
the sense:-
"If every of your wishes had a womb,
1
And fruitful every wish, a million.”
P. 12. Antony, impatient for intelligence regarding Fulvia,
exclaims, "From Sicyon now the news?" and not "From
Sicyon how the news?" as it is printed in the folios.
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, nobody can doubt regarding cor-
ruption :-
"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 Warburton's explanation, which relates to the "revolu-
tions of the sun in his diurnal course.' Tollett and Steevens
each made an attempt with about the same success; but can
any thing be better than the changes offered by the old an-
notator?-
"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 sowering. Two lines
farther on, the printer of the folio, 1632, left out the epithet
enchanting" before "queen," but the old corrector inserted
it, perhaps from the folio, 1623.
(C
P. 14. Antony projecting his return to Rome, tells Eno-
barbus,-
486
[ACT I.
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.
"I shall break
The cause of our expedience to the queen,
And get her love to part.'
"And get her love to part" seems an easy and obvious mis-
print for "And get her leave to part," which is the emenda-
tion in the folio, 1632. Pope made it, and Malone and Mason
supported it.
SCENE III.
P. 15. Few things can be clearer, than that the old punctua-
tion of the line where Cleopatra tells Charmian,—
“Thou teachest like a fool: the way to lose him,”
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, therefore substitutes a comma
for the colon.
P. 18. Cleopatra pretends to doubt the affection of Antony,
who observes, in all 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, we think, be seen when we quote the passage as
corrected :-
"And give true credence to his love, which stands
An honourable trial."
The word "trial" may appear in favour of "evidence," but
credence belongs to a trial as well as "evidence."
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 line of the
next page, the negative at the end dropped out in the
second folio; and if it were not obtained from the first
sc. v.]
487
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.
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 fleets for "ports;"
and it seems likely that the compositor blundered in con-
sequence 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: nevertheless, it
is not to be disputed that, as far as the sense is concerned,
ports" answers the purpose quite as well as fleets.
P. 21. In the passage, as it stands in the folios,-
"And the ebb'd man ne'er lov'd, till ne'er worth love,
Comes fear'd by being lack'd,"
it has been usual to accept Theobald's dear'd for "fear'd;"
but the old corrector tells us to read,-
"Comes lov'd by being lack'd,
which preserves the point, restores the play upon the word
lov'd, and recommends itself to the ear by alliteration.
Lower down, the same authority settles the dispute be-
tween "wassails" and vassals, when Cæsar, apostrophizing
Antony, says, "leave thy lascivious wassails:" it is spelt vas-
sailes in the old copies, but altered in manuscript to wassailes.
SCENE V.
P. 24. Alexas arrives, not "from Cæsar," 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 de-
scribes the manner of the hero as he sent his message to
Cleopatra, and then mounted his steed. The words have been
commonly printed in this manner :-
488
[ACT II.
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.
“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-girt" is pre-
cisely that of the old corrector, who also makes a very im-
portant change in the last hemistich, which, in the folios,
stands,-
"Was beastly dumbe by him.'
""
The commentators have properly taken "dumbe as a mis-
print for dumb'd, 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 "Mac-
beth" 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?—
"So he nodded,
And soberly did mount an arm-girt steed,
Who neigh'd 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 quota-
tion, if we could refrain from admitting 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 do not like the first change in the following,
where Pompey expresses his hope that the beauty and blan-
dishments of Cleopatra will detain Antony in Egypt:-
SC. II.]
489
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.
"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 still very possible that warm
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 a flood of feasts;
Keep his brain fuming," &c.
To us the above appears one of the least satisfactory emenda-
tions made in this play in the folio, 1632: it sounds too much
like conjecture; yet on p. 449 we have seen tying misprinted
for "laying."
SCENE II.
P. 29. When Antony says to Cæsar,-
"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 decide the question, as far
as regards the old practice of the stage; and Cæsar, 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 corrector, 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 Cæsar.
P. 30. An emendation of questionable merit occurs where
Antony tells Cæsar, as it is ordinarily given,-
"If you'll patch a quarrel,
As matter whole you have to make it with."
Here we are told to change "As" to No-"No matter
490
[ACT II.
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.
whole," &c. The emendator also converts take of the folio,
1632, to "make" of the folio, 1623.
P. 33. On the first recommendation of the marriage by
Agrippa, Cæsar 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 two earliest folios :-
"Say not, say Agrippa, if Cleopatra heard you,
Your proofe were well deserved of rashness.'
The old corrector shows that proof is to be taken as "re-
proof," which was Warburton's supposition, not as "approof,"
which Theobald inserted; and the folio, 1632, as corrected,
gives the lines in this way:-
"Say it not, Agrippa:
If Cleopatra heard you, your reproof
Were well deserv'd for rashness."
This is most comprehensible; the proposal of a marriage be-
tween Antony and Octavia might well deserve reproof for its
rashness, if Cleopatra had been by to hear it. This is one of
the places where an erasure may show that the corrector did
not easily satisfy himself.
P. 35. There seems to be a slight error in the description
of Cleopatra's pavilion upon the Cydnus:-
"She did lie
In her pavilion (cloth of gold of tissue),
O'er-picturing 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, or the curtains were of
that material. Lower in the same page, "To gloue the deli-
cate cheeks," of the folio, 1623, and "To glove the delicate
cheeks," of the folio, 1632, are altered to "To glow the deli-
cate cheeks," as in modern impressions.
SC. III.]
491
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.
P. 36. It has been the invariable practice 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?" If it had been stated that the sails
swelled the case might have been different, but the printer
again mistook m for w: 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.'
Therefore, we ought undoubtedly, as we learn in the margin,
to amend the text to
"Smell with the touches of those flower-soft hands," &c.
SCENE III.
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 con-
sistent with North's Plutarch-"for thy Demon is afraid of
his "—as well as with Shakespeare himself, who makes the
Soothsayer repeat,-
"I say again, thy spirit
Is all afraid to govern thee near him."
The poet may, however, have intended to vary the Sooth-
sayer's expression.
P. 40. The messenger who brings intelligence to Cleo-
patra of Antony's marriage with Octavia, and who appears
again in a subsequent scene (p. 60), is called Elis in a mar-
ginal note in both places in the folio, 1632. Whether Elis
were the name of the part, or Ellis the name of the performer
may be doubted, but we have no knowledge of any actor of
the time so called, and elsewhere the old corrector inserts no
actors' names.
492
[ACT III.
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.
SCENE VII.
P. 52. For "All there is thine," in the speech of Menas,
the emendation is "All then is thine:" a wish to adhere to
the text of the old copies ought not to induce us to refuse
this change, which, as is stated in note 8, was also introduced
by Southern into his folio.
P. 54. When Antony, during the debauch, says to Cæsar,
"Be a child o' the time," Cæsar replies, rather unintel-
ligibly,-
"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?"
Profess it is the emendation in the folio, 1632: that is,
profess to be a child of the time; but Cæsar follows it up
by stating his dislike of drinking to excess. In the first
scene of "King Lear" (p. 434) we have had the converse of
this misprint-professes for "possesses."
"
A question has arisen whether to preserve beat, 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 de-
signated them as the burthen, or "holding," which the jovial
company was to bear "as loud as their strong sides could
volley." Johnson's notion that "drumming on the sides'
was intended, is out of the question. No printer's error was
more common than t for r, and vice versa.
ACT III. SCENE I.
P. 56. Although at the opening of this drama in the folios,
we have Actus primus, Scena prima, no
elsewhere noted from beginning to end.
modern editors have marked Act III. as
such divisions are
Malone and other
commencing with
SC. IV.]
493
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.
the entrance of Ventidius in triumph in Syria; but the cor-
rector of the folio, 1632, makes Act III. begin after this scene,
where the place of action is Rome, and where we read in the
old editions, Enter Agrippa at one door, Enobarbus 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 that 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.
P. 57. Silius tells Ventidius, referring to the prudent re-
marks the latter had just made,-
"Thou hast, Ventidius, that
Without the which a soldier and his sword
Grants scarce distinction.”
The corrector of the folio, 1632, writes gains for "grants" in
his margin. If this emendation be adopted the sense is evi-
dent, without Warburton's somewhat forced explanation: the
soldier and his sword scarcely gain distinction where judg-
ment and prudence are deficient.
SCENE III.
P. 61. There seems no sufficient reason for rejecting a small
change in the description of Octavia by Elis, the Messenger.
Cleopatra asks the colour of her hair, and the answer is,-
"Brown, madam; and her forehead
As low as she could wish it."
Octavia could not wish her forehead to be low, whereas Cleo-
patra might naturally desire that her rival should have this
defect: the change is merely you for “she:"
Brown, madam; and her forehead
As low as you could wish it."
Elis must have known that to dispraise Octavia would gratify
Cleopatra, when he told her, just before, that the face of
Cæsar's sister was "round even to faultiness."
SCENE IV.
P. 63. The usual reading of the following has been,—
494
[ACT III.
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.
"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 awkwardness when Antony complains of Cæsar,
that,-
"When the best hint was given him, he but look'd,
Or did it from his teeth."
Such is the emendation in the folio, 1632, the meaning being,
that Cæsar 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
advocated.
Lower down, for "stain" read stay, with the old corrector,
and all is clear without supposing, as Malone did, that a line
was wanting:-
"The mean time, lady,
I'll raise the preparation of a war
Shall stay your brother."
i. e. check the proceedings of Cæsar. All the ingenuity be-
stowed upon "stain," the word in the folios, in order to recon-
cile us to it, has been wasted upon a mere misprint: "stain"
and stay were of old spelt "staine" and staie, and hence the
mistake.
SCENE VI
P. 67. Cæsar finds fault with Antony for sending back
Octavia without due ceremony and attendance :-
"But you are come
A market-maid to Rome, and have prevented
The ostentation of our love, which, left unshown,
Is often left unlov'd."
"Left unlov'd" is the reading of all editions; but, neverthe-
less, it seems to be wrong, and in the folio, 1632, as corrected,
we are told to print the last part of the quotation thus:-
Is often held unlov'd;"
CC
Which, left unshown,
the meaning being, that where the ostentation of love was
omitted, it was often held, or considered, that love did not
SC. VIII.]
495
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.
exist. Lower down, the alteration of two letters in the margin,
properly converts abstract into "obstruct," which Warburton
first introduced.
P. 68. We surely need not pause in making a change
which only requires the omission of a letter, which must have
accidentally become a part of the text, and which is pal-
pably an obstruct" to the author's sense. Cæsar 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. Cæsar, when he informs Octavia of
this fact, calls her "my most wronged sister."
SCENE VIII.
P. 74. After the loss of the battle, Scarus attributes it to
the presence and flight of Cleopatra. Enobarbus asks, "How
appears the fight?" 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
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 in "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 pre-
vailing 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.
496
[ACT III.
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.
Ribald hag is most appropriate to Cleopatra on account of
her profligacy, as well as her witchcraft. Besides, how was
leprosy to afflict a nag? Part of this emendation is in one
ink, and part in another.
SCENE IX.
P. 77. Instead of making Antony say,—
“I have offended reputation ;
A most unnoble swerving,"
the old emendator renders the sentence continuous,-
“I have offended reputation
By most unnoble swerving."
This change is of little importance, but it may be fit to note it.
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, Char-
mian, and Iras, in Alexandria, instead of the scene where
Cæsar enters (near Alexandria) reading a letter, and ac-
companied by Agrippa, Mecenas, and others. This arrange-
ment still farther shortens Act III., but it lengthens Act IV.,
and is liable to several objections, into which it is not neces-
sary 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 expression, "he being the meered question," is sup
ported by a manuscript change of the old corrector. În
future we may safely print "mooted question."
P. 81. Enobarbus ridicules the challenge of Antony to
Cæsar to engage with him in single combat, on the ground
that Antony, after the defeat of his forces, and his dis-
graceful flight, has nothing to lose, while Cæsar has nothing
to gain he exclaims, in soliloquy, as the language of the
poet has always been represented,-
"That he should dream,
Knowing all measures, the full Cæsar will
Answer his emptiness!
•
Nobody has explained what is meant by "Knowing all
measures." It might mean that Antony knows how to
SC. XI.]
497
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.
measure between himself and Cæsar, were it not clear that
Antony is quite ignorant upon the point; and a cor-
rection 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 Cæsar will
Answer his emptiness!"
Enobarbus refers to the woeful plight and prospects of
Antony at the time he dared Cæsar to "lay his gay com-
parisons apart," and meet him "sword against sword." Just
above, "quality" is changed to qualities, but though this is
a variation of little value, it reads as if it were right.
P. 82. Thyreus tells Cleopatra that Cæsar 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;
nevertheless, 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 in all probability was what Shakespeare
wrote:-
"And put yourself under his shroud, who is
The universal landlord.”
P. 83. The folios print and punctuate the following line
thus:-
Say to great Cæsar this in disputation.”
It is the introduction to a message of submission from
Cleopatra to Cæsar; and Warburton, very judiciously, as now
appears, put "deputation" for disputation, which last had
Malone and others for adherents; but the correction in the
folio, 1632, goes somewhat farther, and perhaps farther than
necessary:
(C
Say to great Cæsar, that in deputation
I kiss his conquering hand," &c.
P. 85. The folio, 1623, has "Shake thou to look on't "
addressed by Antony to Thyreus: the folio, 1632, omits
k k
+
498
[ACT IV.
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.
"thou," and the old corrector of that impression, instead of
inserting "thou," puts the passage, with some improvement
of force, in these words,—
"The white hand of a lady fever thee
Shake but to look on't."
ACT IV. SCENE IV.
P. 92. According to the regulation of such matters in the
corrected 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 division of the play.
"Mine armour,
Antony enters calling for his armour:
Eros!" and when the man brings it, Antony is made to say
in the old copies, "Put thine iron on;" but surely it ought
to be, as a manuscript 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 jumbled together, and all assigned
to Cleopatra. The corrector separates them by marginal
notes, but not precisely as has been done by Sir T. Hanmer
and later editors. We give the mode of regulating the dia-
logue in the amended folio, 1632, and on comparison it will
be seen that it varies:
"Cleo.
Ant.
What's this for?
Nay, I'll help too, Antony.
Ah, let be, let be; thou art
The armourer of my 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. After-
wards Antony observes,-
"He that unbuckles this, till we do please
To doff't for our repose, shall hear a storm."
"Shall bear a storm," says a marginal note, with much more
fitness, the compositor having taken a wrong, but similar
letter. An enemy who should attempt to unbuckle Antony's
armour was not likely to "hear a storm" of words, but "to
bear a storm" of blows.
SC. IX.]
499
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.
SCENE VIII.
P. 98. Antony, entering for a time victorious, tells his fol-
lowers, 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 Cleo-
patra; 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 u, 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
manner in which we have beaten the Romans to their tents.
Gest was unquestionably Shakespeare's word.
P. 99. A remarkable change of epithet is made in Antony's
speech, where he is speaking of Scarus:-
"He has deserv'd it, were it carbuncled
Like holy Phoebus' car."
We are instructed to erase "holy" and insert glowing. "Holy"
seems to have little comparative application, and it was most
likely misheard for glowing, which has especial reference to
the brightness of the "carbuncles" in the car of Phoebus.
SCENE IX.
P. 101. Enobarbus dying of grief and remorse on the stage,
one of the soldiers present says that he sleeps, but another
observes,-
"Swoons rather; for so bad a prayer as his
Was never yet for sleep."
K k 2
500
[ACT IV.
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.
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 so bad a prayer, as Enobarbus had ended with,
was never uttered before sleep. A few lines lower, where the
1 Soldier says that "the drums demurely wake the sleepers,
the alteration is "do early wake the sleepers." The adverb
"demurely" is surely ill suited to the sound of drums.
SCENE X.
"
P. 103. Antony rushes in 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, and 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 stated that "grave charm"
means "majestic beauty," he forgot that "charm" in Shake-
speare's time, and indeed our own, was to be taken as
enchantment. The manuscript-corrector alters both words
thus:-
“O, 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!" Here again a different ink was used for
spell and for great.
P. 104. For the unusual expression, "Thou fell'st into my
fury," "Thou fell'st under my fury" is judiciously substituted
in the folio, 1632.
SCENE XII.
P. 110. When Diomed, speaking of Cleopatra, tells An-
tony,-
"You did suspect
She had dispos'd with Cæsar,"
Steevens subjoins a note stating that "dispose, in this in-
stance, perhaps signifies to make terms, to settle matters;"
SC. XIII.]
501
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.
but he adds no example of such being its signification any
where else. A correction 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 Cæsar;"
i.e. had entered into a composition or treaty with him. The
printer used the wrong preposition.
SCENE XIII.
P. 111. This scene, numbered the thirteenth in modern
impressions, according to the old corrector, begins Act V.;
and unless 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 Cæsar, adds, as the text has
been constantly repeated,-
"Your wife Octavia, with her modest eyes,
And still conclusion, shall acquire no honour
Demuring upon me."
What signification can we attach to "still conclusion?"
Johnson replies, "sedate determination," a very forced con-
struction, while a manuscript emendation, proposing the
substitution of three letters, seems to put the matter incon-
trovertibly 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
tranquillity of deportment, have already been dwelt upon in
various places.
P. 112. A good deal of doubt has been occasioned by Cleo-
patra's "strange words," as Johnson calls them (and justly,
if they were such as they have always 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
502
[ACT V.
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.
66
sport," and leaves the word merely port-" Here's port
indeed!" Milton uses the participle ported, and here Shake-
speare 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 of great burden. Cleopatra speaks of the weight of An-
tony 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, indeed!" 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. Afterwards,
Pope's emendation of "Die where thou hast lived" is vin-
dicated.
ACT V. SCENE I.
P. 115. The first lines of this act have created discussion :
they stand thus in the old copies, where Cæsar speaks of
Antony :-
"Go to him, Dolabella, bid him yield.
Being so frustrate, tell him,
He mocks the pauses that he makes.
Dol. Cæsar, I shall."
Malone could not comprehend what was meant by "He
mocks the pauses that he makes," and printed "He mocks
us by the pauses that he makes." This is not 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 :—
Dol.
"Go to him, Dolabella; bid him yield.
Being so frustrate, tell him that he mocks
The pauses that he makes.
Cæsar, I shall.”
By "he mocks the pauses that he makes," we must under-
stand Cæsar to charge Antony with trifling with the pauses
SC. II.]
503
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.
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 that he had left the poet's meaning
clear.
P. 116. Dercetas brings tidings of Antony's death in these
terms, as commonly printed:-
cr
"But that self hand,
Which writ his honour in the acts it did,
Hath, with the courage which the heart did lend it,
Splitted the heart. This is his sword;
I 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. 64) 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
self 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 noble 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 by words which, in all pro-
bability, had accidentally escaped.
Just below, Mecænas, giving a short character of Antony,
says in the folio, 1623, "His taints and honours waged equal
with him." "Waged" in the folio, 1632, is converted into
way: this last is erased, and weighed written in the margin,
showing that the corrector considered the meaning to be, that
the faults and virtues of Antony were equally balanced.
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;
504
[ACT V.
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.
Which sleeps, and never palates more the dung,
The beggar's nurse and Cæsar's.
We must here see the impropriety of talking of palating
"dung," and afterwards calling that "dung" "the beggar's
nurse and Cæsar's." By "dung" has been understood
gross terrene sustenance," 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 Cæsar's," and it may
reasonably be supposed to be palated by mankind: the cor-
rector, therefore, has it,—
"Which sleeps, and never palates more the dug,
The beggar's nurse and Cæsar's.”
This emendation may, or may not, have been conjectural, but
we may be 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 by Dolabella, compas-
sionating Cleopatra, the change of a single letter makes
sense out of nonsense: 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:
My very heart at root.”
"A grief that smites
The old corrector put his pen through the letter u in suites,
SC. II.]
505
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.
and wrote m in the margin instead of it. Not long after-
wards (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 the 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 Cæsar, as to the jewels, &c.,
she had reserved; and when she desires the Steward 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
Cæsar,-
"When we fall,
We answer other's merits in our name,
And therefore to be pitied."
P. 127. Iras declares that her nails shall tear out her eyes
rather than see her queen led in triumph; and Cleopatra's
observation 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 assur'd intents."
506
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.
Theobald proposed assur'd for "absurd," but the change has
since his time been rejected; and although foil may read
better on some accounts, still "fool" is stronger, and the
alteration of the text, so far, not called for.
P. 128. Nobody seems to have attempted to explain why
the Clown calls the aspick "an odd worm "-" but 'tis most
fallible the worm's an odd worm." In fact, he is speaking of
the fatal effects of its bite, and he here warns Cleopatra, not
that it is "an odd worm" as it has been invariably printed,
but "an adder-worm "—a worm with the deadly qualities of
an adder. Adder was misprinted odde in the folios. Farther
on the Clown is made to say of women, not that in every ten
the gods make "the devils mar five," but nine. This change
renders the humour broader and the satire more pungent.
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 proves, which the
compositor'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 propo-
sition (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.
CYMBELINE.
ACT I. SCENE I.
P. 139. The mode in which the person who made the
emendations in the folio, 1632, points and corrects the three
first lines in this play is the following, showing Tyrwhitt's
sagacity in omitting the s after "kings," as it is printed in
all the early editions:-
"You do not meet a man but frowns. Our bloods
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
courtiers imitate the king: as the king frowns, so all others
look gloomy. There cannot, we apprehend, now 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 "
wy so" for "
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 less moment, be-
cause it varies neither sense nor metre.
508
[ACT I.
CYMBELINE.
P. 141. For the exclamation "That a king's children," &c.,
the correction is "Strange, a king's children should be so con-
vey'd," &c. This was probably the manner in which the
passage was given on the stage: otherwise the change would
scarcely have been worth making.
SCENE II.
P. 144. As the subsequent passage has been ordinarily
printed, it ought to have been followed by a mark of interro-
gation:-
"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
intended 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 likely that a question was not intended.
SCENE V.
P. 150. We here encounter the first manuscript emenda-
tion that is of much value. Iachimo observes that the mar-
riage 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? 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, explain the matter? By
sc. v.]
509
CYMBELINE.
showing that here occurs another of the many gross mis-
takes 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 compo-
sitor 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; be it but to fortify
her judgment, which else an easy battery might lay flat, for taking a beggar
without more quality.”
P. 154. Warburton's reading, "You are afeard,” for “You
are a friend," is that which the corrector of the folio, 1632,
recommends.
Another remarkable corruption has been perpetuated near
the close of this scene. Iachimo has vaunted that he will
overcome the chastity of Imogen, and Posthumus has ac-
cepted 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."
Now, "if you make your voyage upon her" may be under-
stood as referring to the voyage Iachimo was to make to
Britain, in order to endeavour to carry his vaunt into effect;
but still the expression is awkward, and one which a change
in the folio, 1632, informs us the poet did not use the word
"voyage" is a misprint, in part, perhaps, occasioned by the
omission of an adjective which ought almost immediately to
precede it: Posthumus observes, that if Iachimo make good
his boast, then Imogen would not be worth anger: he there-
fore says,-
Only, thus far you shall answer: if you make good your vauntage upon
510
[ACT I.
CYMBELINE.
her, and give me directly to understand you have prevailed, I am no far-
ther your enemy."
In other words, "if you succeed and accomplish your boast,
she does not merit defence by his sword." It seems pro-
bable that good was left out in the manuscript, and that the
compositor mistook vauntage, and printed "voyage,” knowing
that Iachimo 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.
SCENE VI.
P. 158. The suggestion in note 3 that "sweet," in the pas-
sage,-
"I have given him that,
Which, if he take, shall quite unpeople her
Of liegers for her sweet,'
""
ought to be printed suite, is borne out by a marginal direction
in the folio, 1632, to replace "sweet" by that word. At the
same time, we entertain considerable doubt whether "sweet"
do not refer to Posthumus, for whom Pisanio is a sort of lieger,
or ambassador.
SCENE VII.
P. 159. Two emendations were proposed by Warburton and
Theobald in the following: both are found in the margin of
the folio, 1632, with a confirmatory addition of some import-
We here give the passage as amended, marking the
changes in Italics as usual:-
ance.
"What! are men mad? Hath nature given them eyes
To see this vaulted arch, and the rich cope
O'er sea and land, which can distinguish 'twixt
The fiery orbs above, and the twinn'd stones
Upon th' unnumber'd beach," &c.
r
For cope the ordinary text has been "crop," for O'er “Of,”
and for th' unnumber'd "the number'd." We may in future
safely adopt these emendations, which require no explanation.
O'er is proposed for the first time.
P. 161. In the subsequent line the pronoun "his" is too
much, both for the meaning and metre:-
“In you, which I account his beyond all talents.”
SC. VII.]
511
CYMBELINE.
The old corrector strikes it out, and puts the whole passage
thus:-
"In himself 'tis much;
In you, which I account beyond all talents,
Whilst I am bound to wonder, I am bound
To pity too."
Steevens altered it to "which I count his," &c., to cure the
defect in the measure, but "his" is altogether needless.
P. 162. There can be no doubt that the old corrector has again
by the alteration of a single letter, rendered quite evident what
has puzzled all commentators: it is where Iachimo pretends
to describe 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, bo-peeping in an eye
Base and illustrous," &c.
Posthumus is represented by Iachimo as pressing the hard
hands of the most hacknied prostitutes, and playing at bo-
peep in their lack-lustre eyes.
On such evidence we can readily believe in another amend-
ment, 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 Post-
humus
"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 in-
firmities for gold, but pay, or make a return for gold by the
most loathsome diseases:
"That pay with all infirmities for gold."
512
[ACT II.
CYMBELINE.
P. 163. When Imogen tells Iachimo,-
"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 Iachimo. The reader will almost have anti-
cipated this change, which, however, has never been made,
that we are aware of, though adding much to the force of the
heroine's indignation.
We may subjoin that in Iachimo's last speech in this scene,
the old corrector of the folio, 1632, substitutes out-stay'd for
outstood, 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. In all the old printed copies also, Act II.
commences with the entrance of Cloten and the two Lords;
but the words Actus Secundus, Scana Prima are struck
through with a pen in the folio, 1632, and transferred to
what is headed Scana 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 bed, and a Lady, while nothing
is said about the place and manner of Iachimo's conceal-
SC. II.]
513
CYMBELINE.
ment: to remedy this omission, A great trunk is added in
manuscript in the folio, 1632, showing that this stage-property
was exhibited to the audience. According to additional di-
rections in the margin, Iachimo not merely takes off Imogen's
bracelet, but previously kisses her, at the words,-
"That I might touch!
But kiss; one kiss!"
It is very possible that such was part of the ancient business
of the scene; but it was a perilous undertaking which, 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,
insolently 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 into the trunk again,
at the end of the scene. These notes are altogether wanting
in print 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 may make bare the raven's eye, the expression is un-
couth for "may ope the raven's eye. The old corrector con-
verts beare, of the folios, into dare,
""
“That dawning
May dare the raven's eye:"
i.e. may dazzle the eye of the raven, in the same way that
larks were dared by the glitter of a looking-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 beare was a misprint for
bleare, in the sense of to dim.
P. 171. For "it is a voice in her ears" of the folios, which
is indisputably wrong, the emendation is "it is a fault in
her ears," and not "it is a vice in her ears," as ordinarily
printed.
L l
514
[ACT II.
CYMBELINE.
P. 173. The intrusion of "yea into the following line
spoken by Cloten,-
“Which buys admittance; oft it doth; yea, and makes,”
spoils the measure, which is here regular. The old corrector
put his pen through "yea," the insertion of which probably,
originated with the actor.
SCENE IV.
P. 178. When Iachimo returns to Italy, Posthumus, in his
confidence 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 Iachimo 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 Iachimo the value of it, therefore the old corrector makes
him answer, with 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 had, in fact, won the wager.
P. 179. All impressions represent Iachimo as not com-
pleting his sentence when describing the tapestry in Imo-
gen's chamber:—
Post.
Which, I wonder'd,
Could be so rarely and exactly wrought,
Since the true life on't was
This is true," &c.
Here, besides the imperfectness of the sense, the measure is
at fault, because "This is true" does not finish the line
Iachimo had begun. Corrections in the folio, 1632, remedy
both defects in a way that seems to carry conviction in their
favour:
Post.
'Which, I wonder'd,
Could be so rarely and exactly wrought,
Since the true life on't 'twas.
This is most true," &c.
Iachimo wondered at the excellence of the tapestry "since
'twas the true life" of the scene it represented. The word
sc. v.]
515
CYMBELINE.
most was carelessly left out in the answer of Posthumus, as
'twas in the preceding line was misprinted "was."
Near the bottom of the page, Iachimo 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 Iachimo should have so nicely
observed at night, as to perceive that they were "winking,"
though he might have 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,
inasmuch as Shakespeare may have intended thus to show,
even in spite of probability, the elaborate exactness of the
scrutiny of Iachimo.
SCENE V.
P. 182. In all modern editions, this soliloquy by Posthu-
mus is converted into a new scene; but such was not the
case of old, for Iachimo and Philario go out and leave
the hero behind them to make reflections upon what had
passed, and to curse womankind. Here we meet with a word
which has produced much difficulty: Posthumus supposes
Iachimo to have easily overcome the scruples of Imogen, and
we first give the terms exactly as they appear in the two
earliest folios:-
cr
"Perchance he spoke not, but
Like a full Acorn'd Boare, a Iarmen on,
Cry'de oh, and mounted."
Dispute has arisen as to the meaning of the unintelligible
words "a Iarmen on ;" and while Pope and Warburton read
"a churning on," which Malone calls a sophistication, he
himself reads "a German one," surely a greater sophis-
tication, as if Shakespeare could have had no boars in
his thoughts but German ones. There is an evident mis-
print, and the emendator of the folio, 1632, points out what
it was:-
“Like a full acorn'd boar, a foaming one,
Cried oh! and mounted."
The manuscript must have been imperfectly written, and
the printer mistook the f, with which foaming begins, for
L12
516
[ACT III.
CYMBELINE.
r¢
a capital I, 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 and foaming eagerness of the full-acorn'd boar. Ma-
lone weakly supports his notion about a German boar, by
stating that boars were never hunted in England; but Post-
humus was speaking in Italy, and we are not to imagine
that Shakespeare's notions regarding boar-hunting were de-
rived solely from German representations, whether in "water-
work" or in tapestry. We feel no hesitation in substituting
so natural a word as foaming for such an utterly unintel-
ligible word as Iarmen. The mechanical compositor never
thought of the sense of what he was printing.
ACT III. SCENE I.
P. 184. It merits remark that Sir Thomas Hanmer's excel-
lent change of "oaks unscaleable" to "rocks unscaleable" is
warranted by the very same emendation in the margin of the
folio, 1632.
P. 185. A line in Cymbeline's address to Lucius stands
thus in the folios:-
"Ourselves to be, we do. Say then to Cæsar.”
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 Cæsar,
Our ancestor was that Mulmutius, which
Ordain'd our laws," &c.
The clumsy contrivance of making Cymbeline use the ex-
pression, "We do say, then, to Cæsar," has proceeded (as an
emendation shows) from a blunder on the part of the com-
positor or of the copyist, who made one of Cloten's imperti-
nent interjections a portion of the speech of Cymbeline. This
part of the dialogue in the corrected folio, 1632, is divided
as follows:-Cymbeline ends,-
SC. III.]
517
CYMBELINE.
Clot.
Cym.
"Which to shake off
Becomes a warlike people, whom we reckon
Ourselves to be.
We do.
Say, then, to Cæsar,
Our ancestor was that Mulmutius, which
Ordain'd our laws," &c.
This interruption by Cloten is most consistent with his cha-
racter and conduct, and we have no doubt that such was the
mode in which 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" was 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 not very applicable simile.
SCENE III.
P. 189. In general, when the old corrector of the folio,
1632, has seen reason to alter his emendation, he has oblite-
rated his own writing and substituted something over it.
In the second line of this scene he has adopted a different
course, for he struck out his word sweete (for "sleepe" of the
folios) and inserted stoope above it. There could be no doubt
that "sleep" was a misprint for stoop, and so Sir T. Hanmer
and subsequent editors have treated it.
P. 190. Belarius, contrasting the life he, Guiderius, and
Arviragus lead in the woods and mountains with that at
court, observes, in the ordinary text,-
"O! this life
Is nobler, than attending for a check;
Richer, than doing nothing for a bribe;
Prouder, than rustling in unpaid-for silk."
518
[ACT III.
CYMBELINE.
The old copies give the third line,—
"Richer than doing nothing for a babe,"
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 second line supposes a courtier to dance at-
tendance, and only to obtain "a check," or reproof, for
his pains; and the third line follows up the same notion,
that he does nothing, yet is rewarded with a blow: Shake-
speare repeatedly uses bob (the word in manuscript in the
margin of the folio, 1632) in this way; and babe, then pro-
nounced with the broad open a, was miswritten for it. There-
fore, the passage, properly printed, appears to be this:-
"O! this life
Is nobler, than attending for a check,
Richer, than doing nothing for a bob," &c.
P. 193. The copyist appears to have made a 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 cor-
rector 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 IV.
P. 195. We here arrive at a most singular instance of mis-
hearing, which we must impute to the writer of the manu-
script used by the compositor. It is in a speech by Imogen,
where she supposes that Posthumus has been seduced by
some Italian courtezan :-
SC. IV.]
519
CYMBELINE.
"Some jay of Italy,
Whose mother was her painting, hath betray'd him :
Poor I am stale, a garment out of fashion;" &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
understanding the expression, "Whose mother was her
painting," as it was recited before him, might himself mistake
it for "Who smothers her with painting;" but it is much more
likely that in this place, where Imogen was to give vent to
her disgust and anger, she would not use a metaphor, espe-
cially so violent a one, as to call the daubing 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,
seduced Posthumus from the arms of a beautiful and inno-
cent wife. Imogen would, therefore, be disposed to render
the contrast as strong as words could make it, and would
not be content to throw censure upon her debased and pro-
fligate rival, merely by a far-fetched figure of speech. Shake-
speare, 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
ce
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 differently, it makes Shakespeare employ the
very same metaphor in two consecutive acts. Our great dra-
matist 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 husband, in so
mild a form as to term painting the "mother" of the se-
ducer. Imogen would not study metaphors at such a
3
520
[ACT III.
CYMBELINE.
M
moment, but, in the plainest and strongest language she
could employ, such as charging the "jay of Italy" with
smothering herself with painting, would express her abhor-
rence of the paint-plastered prostitute. 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 reflec-
tion: 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 put 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 fol-
lowers,” the noble suitors whom Imogen had rejected in
favour of Posthumus.
P. 197. We here meet with an expression upon which Han-
mer, Johnson, Steevens, and Malone 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.
Didst undertake it?"
Wherefore, then,
What does Pisanio mean by "I'll wake mine eye-balls first?"
To extract some sense from the declaration, it has been usual
to print "I'll wake mine eye-balls blind 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 :-
"Imo.
Do't, and to bed, then.
Pis. I'll crack mine eye-balls first.
Imo.
And wherefore, then
Didst undertake it?"
SC. IV.]
521
CYMBELINE.
P. 198. Malone 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,
forgetting, perhaps, that the name occurs at the very begin-
ning of the next line; but what we may be well disposed to
receive as 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 occur the words "Pretty and full
of view." What can be the meaning of "pretty" in that
place? It is an indisputable blunder, perhaps from de-
fective hearing: Pisanio 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'appear 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.
P. 199. The alteration of "courage
courage" to carriage, in the
third line, may be contested; and inasmuch as "courage"
answers its purpose, perhaps it would be unwise to displace
it, though more than once (see pp. 295, 363) 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 carriage" seems more appropriate to a youth,
though disputable from the use of "fear" above.
522
[ACT III.
CYMBELINE.
P. 202. The folios print a passage precisely thus:
"And there's no answer
That will be given to' th' lowd of noise, we make.”
Modern editors have it,-
"That will be given to the loud'st of noise we make.”
Surely, there can be no reasonable objection to the omission of
: of," which we learn from the old corrector was mistaken for
the end of the word loud'st:
"That will be given to the loud'st noise we make."
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, 'tir'd like
a boy, 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-'tir'd-and
clearly means that "tir'd," in the speech, is to be understood
in the same way as 'tir'd like a boy 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
only means that she has wearied herself with the tedious-
ness 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 im-
properly made a new scene in the folios; but Scana Septima
is struck through with a pen, and same written instead of
it, as in several former instances.
SCENE VII.
P. 210. This scene is entirely erased: but a manuscript
correction materially alters an important word, which may or
ACT IV.]
523
CYMBELINE.
may not be right. It is where the 1 Senator speaks of the
Emperor's writ,—
"He creates
Lucius pro-consul; and to you, the tribunes,
For this immediate levy he commends
His absolute commission."
Such is the emendation for "commands" of the old copies.
Commends seems the most proper word, when the commission
was sent by a senator to a pro-consul. See also p. 132.
ACT IV. SCENE I.
P. 211. The word "imperseverant," as it stands printed in
the folios, has given extraordinary trouble to the commenta-
tors, who have not known what to do with it. Hanmer al-
tered it to "ill-perseverant," meaning 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 blundered 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 perverse-
ness of the heroine, who absurdly preferred Posthumus to him,
and ran away from court in order to avoid him. Very pro-
bably 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 here-
after to be printed-"Yet this perverse, errant thing loves
him in my despite." Cloten had come to Milford Haven in
search of this "perverse, errant thing," and in order to
destroy Posthumus.
SCENE II.
P. 217. The question, somewhat hotly argued between
Theobald, Warburton, Mason, Malone, &c., whether in the
following, as we find it in the old copies,-
CC
Though his honour
Was nothing but mutation,'
"honour" should not be read humour, is decided (if, in truth,
decision were wanted) by the old corrector, who converts
524
[ACT IV.
CYMBELINE.
"honour" into humour by the change of two letters in the
margin. It has been a lapse of frequent occurrence.
P. 221. An emendation in the folio, 1632, changes "the
leaf of eglantine," elegantly, but not necessarily, into “the
leafy eglantine;" but at the end of the speech we meet with
a valuable improvement of the text in the setting right of
a misprint, which has occasioned some pages of useless ex-
planation and comment. It applies to this passage, as given
in the folios :-
"The ruddock would
With charitable bill (O, bill, sore shaming
Those rich-left heirs, that let their fathers lie
Without a monument!) bring thee all this;
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-gown," while Malone
and Steevens were for preserving the text unaltered. War-
burton 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 winter-guard thy corse:"
i. e. the redbreast would bring furred moss to protect Imogen's
corse in winter, when there were no flowers. Can this emen-
dation be called needless or inappropriate?
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
sóng (as well as in every place), and perhaps Shakespeare
here purposely avoided the common repetition.
ACT V.]
525
CYMBELINE.
Several other 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 substituted 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.”
The proposed emendation is to convert an adverb into an
interjection:-
"For lo! I thought I was a cave-keeper."
This part of the play is carelessly printed in the second folio,
and literal errors (corrected by the manuscript-annotator,
though his writing is often obscured, defaced or obliterated)
are very frequent.
ACT V. SCENE I.
P. 231. Only one page and a few lines of this act has been
preserved in the corrected folio, 1632, four leaves at the end
of the volume being wanting. A manuscript addition to
the heading of the first scene has been partly torn away,
so that we can only read in print, "Enter Posthumus alone,”
and with a following it in the writing of the old corrector:
probably napkin or handkerchief 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 much 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 dread 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
2
526
CYMBELINE.
corrector 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
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 amended in the folio, 1632:-
"C
"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 was 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 21.
"LONGING journey" may, however, mean the journey Julia naturally
longed to take.
PAGE 43.
As, however, is stated in note 5, "weed" is a term still applied to an
ill-conditioned horse.
PAGE 81.
For "what Shakespeare wrote," read, "what, we may suppose, Shake-
speare wrote."
PAGE 89.
The change of “'tired horse," in the sense of attired horse, to “trained
horse," is not, of course, unavoidable.
PAGE 117.
The "fool multitude," strictly speaking, governs the verb "builds,"
and not "martlet."
PAGE 144.
For "inserted in," read expunged from.
PAGE 159.
For "I am to use," in the quotation read "I have to use."
PAGE 179.
For "must have been," read was probably.
PAGE 207.
For "parentheses," read parenthesis.
PAGE 246.
There is just room to suspect that Shakespeare's word might be wage,
and not "weigh.”
PAGE 254.
We neither entirely like "fine," "find," nor "found;" and line, which
might be the word, occurs just above.
528
NOTES.
PAGE 298.
For "which proves," read "which seems to prove.”
PAGE 362.
The opinion given in vol. vi. p. 139, upon the subject of the printing of
"Coriolanus," in the folio, 1623, must, therefore, be materially qualified.
PAGE 374.
Yet in "Henry VI. Part II." Act III. Scene I., "rolled " is allowed to
stand, and is not altered to coiled.
PAGE 381.
In reference to the insertion or restoration of rhymes, it ought to be
stated that the old corrector, in this play, has sometimes struck out his
own changes.
PAGE 434.
We can well remember that John Kemble made a similar pause, and
other actors have done so after him.
PAGE 464.
There may be authority for believing that mirrors of polished "stone"
were sometimes used of old: glass, with a certain licence, might indeed be
called "stone."
PAGE 479.
Yet, if the figure were "fixed," there seems hardly sufficient reason
for representing the finger of scorn as slowly moving.
PAGE 499.
It is not meant to be contended that the epithet "holy" could not very
well be applied to Phoebus, but merely that "glowing" seems under the
circumstances more appropriate.
THE END.
GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, PRINTERS, ST. JOHN'S SQUARE, LONDON.
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