The Shakespeare-Expositor: An Aid to the Perfect Understanding of Shakespeare's Plays

by Thomas Keightley

COMEDY OF ERRORS.

Act I.

Sc. 1.

"Yet that the world may witness that my end

Was wrought by Nature, not by vile offence."

It was surely wrought by Fortune rather than by Nature, and so the poet may have written it. Collier's folio makes the same correction.

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"And by me, had not oür hope been bad."

The editor of 2nd folio read 'me too,' not being aware of the dissyllabic form of 'our.'

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"A poor mean woman was delivered."

The editor of 2nd folio added poor, which was probably the poet's word.

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"Unwilling I agreed. Alas! too soon

We came aboard * * * * * *

A league from Epidamnum had we sail'd."

We might supply 'our ship. Somewhat more than.'

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"Which being violently borne upon,

Our helpful ship was splitted in the midst."

It was the mast, not the ship; but the text is probably as the poet wrote it.

"At length another ship had seiz'd on us."

We should surely read 'the other.'

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"That by misfortune was my life prolong'd."

It might be better to read Thus for 'That.'

"That his attendant—for his case was like."

For 'for,' the judicious correction of 2nd folio, the 1st has so.—See on L. L. L. i. 1; 1 Hen. IV. i. 3.

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"To seek thy help by beneficial help."

See Introd. p. [61]. For the first 'help,' Pope read life; I read ransom, a word already used by the Duke. If the error should be in the second 'help,' we might, with Malone, read means; which, however, is rather feeble.

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"And live, if no thou then art doom'd to die."

For 'no' we should surely, with Rowe, read not.

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Sc. 2.

"Who falling there to find his fellow forth."

Mr. Barron Field proposed failing, which may be right.

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"Methinks your maw, like mine, should be your clock,

And strike you home without a messenger."

'Clock' is Pope's correction for cook of the folio, which, however, may be right after all; for the cook used to strike on the dresser to give notice that the dinner was ready.

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Act II.

Sc. 1.

"Will you come home? quoth I."

Hanmer properly added home, which was plainly omitted.

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"I see the jewel best enamelled

Will lose his beauty, yet the gold bides still,

That others touch.—And often touching will

Where gold; and no man that hath a name

By falsehood and corruption doth it shame."

To give sense to this passage I read in the second line bide; in the fourth, with Warburton, wear, with Heath so a for 'no'; in which two I had thus been anticipated. The punctuation given here is my own. I am dubious of 'others' in the third line, for which we might read fingers, or some other word.

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Sc. 2.

"Your sauciness will jest upon."

For 'jest' Mr. Dyce reads jet, referring to Rich. III. ii. 4, Tit. Andron. ii. 1; and "It is hard when Englishmen's patience must be thus jetted upon by strangers."—Play of Sir T. More, p. 2.

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"And what he hath scanted them in hair he hath given them in wit."

For the first 'them' Theobald properly read men.

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"The one to save the money that he spends in trying."

For 'trying' Pope read tyring by simply transposing, Rowe trimming. I rather prefer the former, as tyring is attiring, and 'attire' is head-dress; but whether used of a man or not I am not certain.—See my note on Milton's On Time, v. 21.

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"I live distain'd, thou undishonoured."

Quite the contrary; for she would rather "live an unstain'd life." R. and J. iv. 1. Theobald read unstain'd, but I prefer undistain'd. The printer was more likely to omit un (see on Cymb. i. 7) than to change it to di. There is also an agreeable effect on the ear produced by the accents falling on un in both words. In all these plays lines frequently begin with an anapæst.

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"I'll entertain the freed fallacy."

For 'freed,' which can hardly be right, Pope read favour'd, Capell, much better, offer'd.

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"We talk with goblins, owls, and sprites."

To complete the measure, the editor of 2nd folio inserted elves, and before 'sprites'; from which Rowe made elvish 'sprites.' For 'owls' Theobald read ouphes; but that term occurs only in The Merry Wives. I read—

"For here we talk with goblins, elves, and sprites."

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"I am transformed, master, am not I?"

Theobald also made this obvious and necessary transposition of 'I not.'

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Act III.

Sc. 1.

"By the wrongs that I suffer, and the blows that I bear."

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"Ay, to a niggardly host, and a more sparing guest."

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"I thought to have ask'd you * * * *

* * * * * and you said, No."

Malone also saw that something was lost. We might read—

"I thought to have ask'd you, had you brought a rope.—

I ask'd you to let us in, and you said, No."

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"Once this. Your long experience of her wisdom."

'Her' is Rowe's correction of your of the folio.

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"And in despite of mirth mean to be merry."

To be merry in spite of mirth is like laughing in spite of laughter, dying in spite of death, living in spite of life—pure nonsense. With great confidence I therefore made the correction my wife, and so gave it in my Edition. Meeting, however, in the Cambridge Edition with Theobald's correction wrath—for Editors had ignored it—I saw at once that the poet must have written my wrath (see Introd. p. [67]), which resembles 'mirth' both in form and sound, and I have therefore adopted it without hesitation. Like a similar correction in Twelfth Night, i. 1, I regard it as absolutely certain.

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Sc. 2.

"Shall love in building grow so ruinous?"

So Theobald, in accordance with the rime, read for ruinate of the folio.

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"Alas, poor women! make us but believe."

Here again we have Theobald's correction of 'but' for not.

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"Spread o'er the silver-waves thy golden hears,

And as a bed I'll take them and there lie."

I have printed 'hears' for the 'hairs' of the folio, as it rimes with 'tears,' and was the constant pronunciation of Chaucer, and frequently of Spenser; and in his early plays Shakespeare indulged in riming archaisms of this kind occasionally. We are to recollect that this play was not printed till thirty years after it had been written, and by that time hair had been established as the sole orthography. The matter is, however, put out of dispute by the Poems, in which Shakespeare himself spells it hear when riming with tear and ear. 'Bed' is the correction of 2nd folio for bud. Mr. Dyce proposed bride.

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"Call thyself sister, sweet, for I am thee."

For 'am' Capell read, I think rightly, aim, and Singer quotes "I make my changes aim one certain end."—Drayton Leg. of Rob. Duke of Normandy.

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"Well, sir, but her name and three quarters."

The folio has is for 'and'; the correction is Thirlby's.

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Act IV.

Sc. 1.

"Belike you thought our love would last too long

If it were chain'd together."

For 'it' I think we should read we.

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Sc. 2.

"First she denied you had in him no right."

This structure seems strange, but it was in use:—

"You may deny that God was not the cause."

Rich. III. i. 3.

"Fortune forbid my outside have not charm'd her."

Twelfth Night, ii. 2.

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"Here go. The desk! the purse! Sweet, now make haste."

For 'Sweet,' which is rather free in the mouth of Dromio, Collier's folio reads Swift; we might also conjecture Speed. The truth, however, seems to be that mistress has been omitted after 'Sweet.'

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"A devil in an everlasting garment hath him."

There is something evidently lost here, riming with 'steel.' It may have been by the heels, or laid by the heels, alluding to 'Tartar Limbo'; but still, or at his will, seems preferable.

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"A fiend, a fairy, pitiless and rough."

For 'fairy' Theobald proposed fury, and we have "O, my good lord, deliver me from these furies" (i.e. bailiffs).—Massinger, Fatal Dowry, v. 1. "Fiends, fairies, hags that fight in beds of steel."—Peel, Battle of Aleazar, where Mr. Dyce reads furies. In Jonson's Poetaster (iii. 1) the Lictors are termed furies.

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Sc. 3.

"Master, if you do, expect spoon-meat, or bespeak a long spoon."

For 'or' we should read and, as usual. Mr. Dyce reads so.

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Sc. 4.

"In verity you did; my bones bear witness

That since have felt the vigour of his rage."

The change of pronouns is so frequent that I think it would be simpler to read your for 'his' than as is usually done make 'my bones,' etc. an aside.

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Act V.

Sc. 1.

"And much different from the man he was before."

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"In company I often glanced at it."

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"But only moody and dull melancholy."

See Introd. p. [55]. In my Edit. only is at the end.

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"And at her heels a huge infectious troop."

We should probably read his for 'her,' as kinsman is the antecedent.

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"Hath scar'd thy husband from the use of his wits."

As 'his' was probably written 's, it escaped the printer's eye.

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"The place of death and sorry execution."

I would read sore or sour for 'sorry'; Collier's folio proposes solemn. The 1st folio has depth for 'death.' The correction was made in the 3rd.

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"To scorch your face and to disfigure you."

Mr. Dyce properly reads scotch; for, as he observes, the very same misprint occurs in Macb. iii. 2, and Knt. of Burning Pestle, iii. 4.

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"On the way we met * * * as we were going along"(?)

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"These left me and my man, both bound together."

For 'These' we should perhaps read They.

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"Besides her urging of her wreck at sea...."

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"And thereupon these Errors are arose."

Editors ought to be ashamed of themselves for not seeing that 'arose' is the same as 'arisen.' See Introd. p. [70].

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"Thirty-three years have I but gone in travail,

Of you, my sons; and till the present hour

My heavy burthen are delivered.

The Duke, my husband, and my children both,

And you, the calendars of their nativity,

Go to a gossip's feast, and go with me,

After so long grief such nativity!"

I read this passage thus:

"Thirty-three years have I been gone in travail

Of you, my sons, until the present hour.

My heavy burthen here delivered,

The Duke, my husband, and my children both,

And you, the calendars of their nativity,

Come to a gossip's feast, and go with me.—

After so long grief such felicity!"

All the corrections here made are my own; and yet in all but one I had been anticipated! in been by 2nd folio; in until by Boaden; in here by Grant White; in felicity by Hanmer. In my Edition of these plays I have printed "Go ... come with me." The difference is unimportant. In the first line Theobald, followed by succeeding editors, read twenty-five; but such alterations are not to be allowed.

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"Master, shall I fetch your stuff from ship-board now?"

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THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA.

Act I.

Sc. 1.

"I leave myself, my friends, and all for love."

The folio has 'I love.' Pope made the obvious correction.

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"But what said she? did she nod?"

These last words are an addition by Theobald, and the context shows they had been lost.

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Sc. 2.

"Yet he of all the rest I think best loves ye."

'Lov'd ye' would rime better with 'mov'd me.'

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"That I might sing it, madam, to a tune."

As time and 'tune' were synonymous, perhaps the poet used the former, which would accord with 'rime.'

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"Let's see your song. Why, how now, minion!"

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"You do not like it!—No, madam, it is too sharp."

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"I see you have a month's mind to them."

A syllable is wanting. Some read moneth, but that is not a Shakespearian form. We might also read 'unto' for 'to' but I prefer 'I see that you'; as I have given it in my Edition.

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Sc. 3.

"And be in the eye of every exercise."

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Act II.

Sc. 1.

"And now you are so metamorphosed with a mistress."

A just and necessary addition of Collier's folio.

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"And you, being in love, cannot see to put on your hose."

For 'hose,' apparently suggested by what went before, I should incline to read, with the Cambridge editors, shoes; or clothes might be better.

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"Nay, take them again—Madam, they are for you."

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Sc. 3.

"Oh, that she could speak now like a wood woman!"

For 'she' Blackstone proposed shoe; better the shoe, as I have given it.

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Sc. 4.

"Come, go with me. Once more, new servant, welcome."

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"She is alone.—Then let her be alone."

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"So the remembrance of my former love

Is, by a newer object, quite forgotten."

It seems to me that the best way to give sense to this passage is to take 'by' in the sense of beside, near. See [Index] s. v.

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"It is mine or Valentine's praise?"

So it stands in the original. It need hardly be observed that the two first words must be transposed. It is also plain to me that a substantive has been lost after 'mine,' and none seems so likely to be the right word as eye, the conjecture of Warburton, and which seems to be omitted in the same manner in the last line of Son. cxiii.

"As love is full of unbefitting strains

* * * * *

Form'd by the eye, and therefore like the eye."

L. L. L. v. 2.

"I know there is no beauty,

Till our eyes give it 'em, and make 'em handsome."

Fletch. Maid in Mill, i. 2.

See also his Love's Pilgrimage, ii. 3. Steevens and others read 'her mine,' taking the latter as mien, a term not Shakespearian. (See on Mer. Wives, i. 3.) As there is still a syllable wanting, I would read 'Valentinès,' a mode of forming the genitive not unusual in our author's early plays.

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Sc. 5.

"Launee, by mine honesty, welcome to Padua."

That 'Padua' was the poet's word is proved by the metre, and the editors had no right to change it to Milan. 'By mine honesty' occurs in exactly the same manner in the play of Damon and Pitheas, with which Shakespeare was familiar.

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"If thou wilt go with me to the ale-house, so; if not."

The 2nd folio added so, which is required both by sense and metre.

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Sc. 7.

"And instances of infinite of love."

The 2nd folio reads 'as infinite,' which may be right, but 'infinite' seems to be made a substantive here.

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Act III.

Sc. 1.

"There is a lady in Verona here."

Here again 'Verona,' the poet's word, has been altered by the editors. Pope, who is usually followed, read 'sir, in Milan,' and Mr. Dyce adopts the unheard-of term Milano of Collier's folio! We have no right to make such changes.

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"For 'get you gone,' she doth not mean 'away.'"

Perhaps the poet's word was By not 'For'; or there may be an omission of by after 'For.'

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"I fly not Death, to fly his deadly doom."

For 'his' Singer read is.

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"As ending anthem of my endless dolour."

For 'anthem' Singer very plausibly read amen.

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"Item, She is not to be kissed fasting on account of her breath."

Rowe added kissed, which, though generally received, is not absolutely necessary.

"Nor does your nostril

Take in the scent of strong perfumes, to stifle

The sourness of our breaths as we are fasting."

Massinger, Very Woman, i. 1.

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"Now will he be swinged for reading of my letter."

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Sc. 2.

"But say this weed her love from Valentine."

The context seems to require wind for 'weed,' and I have so given it.

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"That may discover such integrity."

Though in my edition I have made here an aposiopesis, I think it more probable that a line has been lost.

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Act IV.

Sc. 1.

"O sir, we are undone; these are the villains."

So Capell read also.

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"An heir, and near-allied unto the Duke."

The folio has "And heir and niece." Theobald made the corrections.

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"Come, go with us; we'll bring thee to our crews."

As in v.1 we have

"Come, I must bring thee to our captain's cave,"

we should probably read here cave or caves for 'crews.'

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Sc. 3.

"Vain Thurio whom my very soul abhorred."

'Abhorreth' is probably what the poet wrote.

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"Madam, I pity much your grievances,

Which since I know they virtuously are placed."

This is mere nonsense; 'grievance' never had any meaning but that which it has at present. A line has evidently been lost; something like this:—"And sympathize with your affections." The corrector of Collier's folio, who first saw the loss, added—"And the most true affections that you bear," which seems wanting in ease and simplicity.

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"When will you go?—This evening coming on."

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Sc. 4.

"It seems you loved not her, not leave her token."

For the second 'not' we should read to. See on All's Well, v. 3. For 'leave,' see [Index] s. v.

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"Why dost thou cry Alas?—I cannot choose

But pity her.—Wherefore should'st thou pity her?"

This is the proper arrangement; that of the editions, my own included, is wrong.

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"Well, give to her that ring, and therewithal."

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"From whom?—From Sir Proteus, my master, madam."

So I should have given it in my Edition.

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"Aye, but her forehead's low, and mine's as high."

The sense might seem to require 'mine is high,' as Pope also saw; but her meaning may be, so is mine also. A high forehead was, however, a part of beauty. See Fletcher, Woman-hater, iii. 1.

"She hath a freckled face,

A low forehead, and a lumpish eye."

Marston, Ant. and Mel. I. iv.

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Act V.

Sc. 2.

"Which of you saw sir Eglamour of late?"

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Sc. 4.

"And I mine too.—A prize! a prize! a prize!"

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"Come let us go. We will include all jars

With triumphs, mirth, and rare solemnity."

'Include' here evidently signifies conclude; and as there is no instance of its use in that sense, it might be better to read the latter word with Hanmer.

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LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST.

Act I.

Sc. 1.

"And then grace us in the disgrace of death."

The usual confusion of then and there. We should read the latter. The contrary occurs in: "In summer where the ways are fair enough."—M. of Ven. v. 1.

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"Why should I joy in any abortive birth?"

A line is certainly lost. It may have been like this:—"Among the offspring of the teeming earth."

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"So you, to study now it is too late ...

That were to climb o'er the house to unlock the gate."

This, except the punctuation, is the reading of the folio; that of the 4to, 1598, is:

"So you, to study now it is too late,

Climb o'er the house to unlock the little gate."

To which editors have given the preference, not a little, I think, moved by what seemed to them the metric regularity of the last line. I prefer the reading of the folio, and explain it thus:—Berowne had just been showing how he liked everything in its due time and season; and youth being the proper time for instituting a course of study, it was, he thought, as absurd for them who were full-grown men to set about it, as it would be for a man who wanted to unlock the gate of his court-yard to climb over the house to get to it. A couplet, however, may have been lost; for 'So you,' &c., joins but awkwardly with what precedes; but I believe the true solution of the difficulty is that the poet wrote 'For you,' &c. We have instances of the confusion of these words in Com. of Err. i. 1, 1 Hen. IV. i. 3, Macb. i. 2, Son. xliv. 5. I have so given it in my Edition. There seems to be much more humour in the reading of the folio, caused by the aposiopesis, than in that of the 4to, where 'the little gate' makes a difficulty; but the meaning may be, they were giving themselves a deal of labour for a very trifling result. I think the reading of the 4to may have arisen thus. In the transcript from which it was printed "That were to" may have been effaced or omitted, and then 'little' was added to complete the metre.

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"Yet confident I'll keep what I have sworn?"

As it rimes with 'more,' we must, with 2nd folio, read swore.

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"A dangerous law against gentility."

The reading of Collier's folio, garrulity, would agree better with the context; but it is not a Shakespearian term.

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"A high hope for a low heaven."

Theobald's reading having has been generally, and I think rightly, adopted; but Mr. Dyce adheres to the text.

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"To hear or forbear hearing."

Capell read laughing for 'hearing,' which correction the next speech shows to be right.

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"And Don Armado, he shall be your keeper."

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Sc. 2.

"For I am sure I shall turn sonnet."

Hanmer, who is generally followed, read 'sonneteer'; but it is doubtful if that term was then in use. In Hall's Satires we meet with sonnetist; he also has sonnet-wright; and in Marston's Fawne (iv.) and in the play of Lingua (ii. 2), we have sonnet-monger, which I have adopted, as we have 'fancy-monger' in As You Like It, iii. 2. Dr. Verplank, an American critic, proposed 'turnsonnets,' which Mr. Staunton has adopted.

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Act II.

Sc. 1.

"Lord Longaville is one."

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"Well-fitted in arts, glorious in arms."

I read 'In arts well-fitted'; so also Grant White. The 2nd folio has 'in the arts.'

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"To the wide fields is too base to be mine."

The metre requires a syllable.

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"'Tis deadly sin to keep that oath, my lord,

And sin to break it."

Perhaps something may have been lost. It might be ''tis no sin.'

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"My lips are no common, though several they be."

'Several' is the very opposite of 'common.' "Truth lies open to all; it is no man's several."—Jonson, Discoveries. We should therefore, I think, for 'though' read for, which is proved by the following speeches. The printer might have taken for for tho', or have supposed that 'be' was the conjunctive mood.

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"Who tendering their own worth, from where they were glass'd,

Did point out to buy them, along as you pass'd."

The 4to reads 'point you'; but neither reading makes sense. We might read 'prompt you,' or 'tempt you.' I have adopted the former.

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"Come to our pavilion; Boyet is dispos'd."

By 'dispos'd' here we are to understand—like dispos Fr.—cheerful, or rather gamesome; we have undisposed in Com. of Err. i. 2. It would seem, however, to be simply inclined with an ellipsis of the object.

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Act III.

Sc. 1.

"And make them men of note?—Do you note men?—that most are affected to these."

I agree with the proposed reading of me for the second 'men.'

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"No salve in the male, sir."

Tyrwhitt's most happy emendation 'in them all' gives in my opinion, the true reading.

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"And stayed the odds by adding four."

Collier's folio, which Singer follows, reads making, which may be right, but is not necessary.

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"Sirrah Costard, marry, I will enfranchise thee."

Costard's reply shows that marry, added by Collier's folio, had been omitted.

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"I give thee thy liberty, set thee free from durance."

The same folio supplies free. Singer received both corrections.

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"Than whom no mortal so magnificent."

'So' should be more, or rather moe; but it may be as the poet wrote it.

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"This senior-junior, giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid."

The original editions have 'This signior Junio's giant-dwarf,' which possibly may be right, there being an allusion to some poem or tale now lost. The text is the correction of Hanmer.

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"What, I! I love! I sue! I seek a wife!"

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"A whitely wanton with a velvet brow."

Rosaline was dark, so Collier's folio reads witty for 'whitely,' and the Cambridge editors wightly; yet the poet may have been merely oblivious.

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"Well, I will love, will write, sigh, pray, sue, groan."

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Act IV.

Sc. 1.

"That more for praise than purpose meant to kill."

The meaning of 'purpose' is not very clear; perhaps it should be purchase.

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"He came, saw ... saw two."

Both 4to and folio read 'see.' Rowe made the obvious correction.

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"A mark marvellous well shot; for they both did hit it."

It was the 4th folio that supplied it.

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"An if my hand be out, then, belike, your hand is in.—

Then will she get the upshot by cleaving the pin."

'Pin' is the correction of the 2nd folio; both the 4to and 1st folio have is in, as in preceding line, and possibly so the poet wrote it; for it makes a kind of sense, and he may have had his reasons for using it.

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"Armado a' the tother side."

So I read, as the 4to has ath toother side, and the folio ath to the side. The usual reading is "on the one side;" but we are not to look for rigid consistency in Costard's language.

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"To see him kiss his hand! and how sweetly 'a will swear."

A line riming with this seems to be lost.

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Sc. 2.

"So were there a patch set on learning to see him at school."

Misled by Singer, I gave in my Edition, set, the reading of Collier's folio, for 'see,' which may be right.

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"And to humour the ignorant I have call'd the deer," etc.

Rowe was right, I think, in supplying I have. Singer reads I will call; Collier's folio I call; he Cambridge editors call I.

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"Makes fifty sores, O sore L!"

The reading of the Cambridge editors is one soul.

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"Of piercing a hogshead!"

The poet, I suspect, wrote Oh! not 'Of'; and so I have ventured to give it.

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"Celestial, as thou art, oh! pardon Love this wrong,

That he sings heaven's praise with such an earthly tongue."

We might also read, with S. Walker, 'the heaven's; but I prefer what is in the text. A syllable was undoubtedly omitted.

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"Where if, before repast, it shall please you to gratify the table with a grace."

For 'before repast' of the 4to, the folio has 'being repast' in a parenthesis; and it may possibly be right, the school-master, in his pedantic way, using 'repast' as a participle. The grace, then, would be after dinner.

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Sc. 3.

"The dew of night that on my cheeks down flows."

Both 4to and folio read 'The night of dew,' and so most editions; but the context requires the transposition. The same is the case in the last line but one of this sonnet, where 4to and folio read 'dost thou.'

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"Thou makest the triumviry, the corner-cap of society,

The shape of Love's Tyburn, that hangs up simplicity."

This is no rime; the poet must have written sobriety in the second line.

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"Disfigure not his shop."

As 'hose' has just occurred, Theobald read slop, which both Singer and Dyce properly adopt. The usual reading is shape.

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"Oh, most divine Kate!

Oh, most prophane coxcomb!"

Both rime and metre demand pate in the second line (see Introd. p. [63]). The whole dialogue, with this exception, is in rime.

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"By earth, she is not. Corporal, there you lie."

Theobald, who is usually followed, reads "By earth she is but corporal; there you lie." I think, however, the text is right. In iii. 1 Berowne, styling Love a "great general," adds, "and I to be a corporal of his field!" so he may well apply that title to Dumain. See [Index] s. v.

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"That shall express my true love's fasting pain."

Capell read lasting.

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"Of faith enfringed, which such zeal did swear?"

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"To see a king transformed to a gnat."

For 'gnat,' of which it is not very easy to see the meaning, Mr. Staunton would read quat, the conjecture of Mr. Becket, and surely not better. We also meet sot and knot, equally bad. In Pericles (ii. 3), however, princes wanting in liberality are compared to gnats.

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"Not you by me, but I betray'd to you."

Capell transposed 'by' and 'to'; which seems to be right. Yet 'to' may have been suggested for by, by the preceding line.

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"With men like men of inconstancy."

As something is evidently wanted, the 2nd folio read 'of strange,' and that is the usual reading; Theobald 'moon-like men.' I have read, as I find S. Walker had done,

"With men like you, men of inconstancy."

---

"Is ebony like her? O wood divine!

A wife of such wood were felicity."

The 'wood' of the first line is Rowe's certain correction of word.

---

"The hue of dungeons and the school of night."

It is most certain that 'school' cannot have been the poet's word. The usual reading is that of Warburton, scowl; but that substantive is not used by Shakespeare, and it gives but an indifferent sense. Theobald read stole, which also is not Shakespearian; I myself cloak, as the "cloak of night" occurs in R. and J. ii. 2, Rich. II. iii. 2. But the Cambridge editors seem to have hit on the exact word, suit written, as pronounced, shoot. In the Puritan (ii. 1), we have a play on suitor and archer, i.e. shooter; we retain this sound in sure and sugar. In Hamlet we have "suits of solemn black" and "suits of woe" (i. 2), and "suit of sables" (iii. 2) for mourning, and in Rom. and Jul. iii. 2,

"Come civil Night,

Thou sober-suited matron all in black!"

---

"Have at you then, Affection's men at arms."

Capell sagaciously saw that in this speech, from "For when would you" to "From whence doth spring," and from "For where is any" to "And in that vow," are passages which the poet had cancelled in the "corrected and augmented" play. The same occurs in Rich. III. v. 3, and on a much smaller scale, however, in Rom. and Jul. iii. 3, iv. 1.

---

"Why, universal plodding prisons up."

There can be no doubt of this, the reading of Theobald—prisons for poisons.

---

"For where is any author in the world

Teaches such beauty as a woman's eye."

As beauty is not taught, we should perhaps read wisdom. Perhaps, however, the error may be in 'Teaches.'

---

"And when Love speaks, the voice of all the gods

Makes heaven drowsy with the harmony."

Though this passage be very obscure, I doubt if it be corrupt. By 'voice' may be meant the assenting voice, the voices all sounding in unison, which induces repose over heaven. Compare the opening of Gray's Progress of Poesy. The original editions commit the usual error of putting 'make' for 'makes.'

---

"And plant in tyrants mild humility."

The reading of Griffith and Collier's folio humanity is, I think, right. I have adopted it in my Edition.

---

"Allons, allons!"

The correction of Theobald for 'Alone, alone!' of the originals. The poet, however, does not use French words in this play, and I think we should read All on, all on! or rather Along, along! (See on Temp. v. 1.) "Along my lords! Well, Cromwell is half dead."—Thomas Cromwell, iv. 5.

---

"Or for love's sake, a word that loves all men."

As a word cannot love, Hanmer, for 'loves,' read moves, Heath joys, Mason leads. I read 'Love's' for 'love's' and god for 'word.'

---

Act V.

Sc. 1.

"Witty without affection."

The 2nd folio reads, and, I think, most properly, 'affectation.' It is much more likely that a syllable should have been omitted by the printer, than that Nathaniel, who in general speaks correctly, should blunder. We have the very same error in v. 2, where the rime leaves no doubt on the subject.

---

"Laus Deo, bone intelligo—Bone! bone for bene;

Priscian a little scratch'd. 'Twill serve." [Aside.

This is Theobald's correction of bene intelligo.'—Boone, boon for boon prescian, &c.; which has been universally received. The Cambridge editors, however, partly anticipated by Capell, read 'Bon, bon fort bon. Priscian! a little scratcht, twill serve.' Ingenious as this is, I still adhere to Theobald; for, as I have just observed, French does not occur in this play; and when those critics say that "Sir Nathaniel is not represented as an ignoramus who would be likely to say bone for bene," I may remind them that he adds, 'Videsne quis venit,' which is nearly as bad. The printer, in fact, had spoiled the humour by his bene, and Theobald restored it, as I think, most happily.

---

"I do beseech thee, remember thy courtesy. I beseech thee, apparel thy head."

Malone read 'remember not' (see Ham. v. 2, M. N. D. iv. 1). Dyce quotes "Pray you remember your courtesy.... Nay, pray, be covered."—Every Man in his Humour, i. 1. But the negative may been omitted here also.

---

"Shall pass for Pompey the Great, the page for Hercules."

These additions, I find, were made by Capell also.

---

Sc. 2.

Allons! we will employ thee.

Here, again, the original reading is 'Alone!'

---

"Great reason; for past cure is still past care."

The old editions transpose 'cure' and 'care.' The correction was by Thirlby. The old reading is retained, I know not how, in my Edition.

---

"And shape his service wholly to my device."

The rime proves 'device' to be wrong. See Introd. p. [63]. The 2nd folio read 'all to my behests.' I read, as S. Walker also had read, 'to my hests.'

---

"So portent-like would I o'ersway his state."

'Portent' is a correction of pertaunt.

---

"As Gravity's revolt to wantonness."

So the 2nd folio for 'wanton be.'

---

"Oh! I am stabb'd with laughter."

Perhaps it should be stuff'd, not 'stabb'd.' We have, however, "stabs the centre."—W. T. i. 2.

---

"They do, they do, and are apparell'd thus."

A line has evidently been lost here.

---

"And every one his love-feat will advance."

For 'feat' Collier's folio, and S. Walker, followed by Singer and Dyce, read suit, which I also have adopted.

---

"But while 'tis spoke each turn away her face."

Both 4to and folio read his for 'her.'

---

"Bero. Beauties no richer than rich taffeta."

It should evidently be Boyet, as in my Edition.

---

"Yet still she is the moon and I the man."

The line riming with this is lost, as Malone also saw.

---

"Oh! They were all in lamentable cases."

So also 2nd folio.

---

"Till this madman show'd thee? and what art thou now?"

The editors omit 'mad,' as it is what they deem a superfluous syllable. We should perhaps omit 'thou' and retain 'mad.'

---

"This jest is dry to me. Fair, gentle, sweet."

Fair is an addition of 2nd folio.

---

"Which of the visors was it that you wore?—

Where? When? What visor? Why demand you this?"

As the whole scene is in rime, there should be a couplet here. We might then for 'this' read more.

---

"As precious eye-sight and did value me."

A line riming with this, before, or after, seems lost.

---

"Nay, my good lord, let me o'er-rule you now;

That sport best pleases, that does least know how,

Where zeal strives to content, and the contents

Dies in the zeal of that which it presents."

The whole difficulty of this place lies in the word 'dies,' which has two senses, now distinguished by the orthography, namely, die and dye, but which in Shakespeare's time were spelt indifferently. In this place editors have invariably taken it in the former sense; and as they regard 'contents dies' as a false concord—which, by the way, it is not—they print 'Die,' and then change 'that' to them, and alter the punctuation. The result, however, is anything but satisfactory. I, on the contrary—and I believe I have been the first to do so—take 'Dies' in its second sense of tinging, colouring, imbruing, making 'zeal' the subject and 'contents' the object, and regarding this last as being by metonymy—a figure Shakespeare uses so frequently—the persons contented, or to be contented, just as in Ant. and Cleop. i. 4. "The Discontents" are the discontented. All then becomes plain, and the passage is parallel to one in the speech of Theseus in M. N. D. v. 1. As to using 'Dyes' of mind, we may justify it by the employment of tinge and tincture in the same way in our ordinary language; and the following passages are very apposite:—

"When my new mind had no infusion known,

Thou gav'st so deep a tincture of thine own,

That ever since I vainly try

To wash away the inherent dye."

Cowley, The Complaint, 122.

"For dye a husband that has wit with an opinion that thou art honest, and see who dares wash the colour out." (Killigrew, Parson's Wedding, ii. 3.) "Ma ben di rado avviene che le parole affermative e sicure d'una persona autorevole in qualsivoglia genere non tingano dal loro colore la mente di chi le ascolta." (Manzoni, Prom. Sposi, ch. xx.) The 'zeal' in the last line may have been produced in the usual way by that in the preceding line, and the poet's word have been hue; but a change is not absolutely necessary.

---

"Keep some state in thy exit, and so vanish."

---

"Speak on, brave Hector; we are much delighted."

---

"A heavy heart bears not a humble tongue."

I conjectured nimble, in which I had been preceded, as usual, by Theobald. "You have a nimble wit." (As You Like It, iii. 2.) The error, however, may be, and I think is, in 'not,' for which I read but, as these words are so constantly confounded. Collier's folio makes the same correction.

---

"And though the mourning brow of progeny."

For 'And' I incline to read Then. (See on M. N. D. ii. 1.)

---

"Full of straying shapes, of habits, and of forms."

Coleridge read 'stray,' which seems better.

---

"Suggested us to make 'em. Therefore, ladies."

---

"But more devout than this in our respects

Have we not been."

This is the reading of Hanmer generally received. That of the folio is 'than these are our respects,' where, if we read 'than these our respects are,' we get perhaps as good a sense. 'Devout' seems to mean devoted, or serious, or in earnest; 'respects' sc. of you, behaviour respecting you.

---

"And what to me, my love?... of people sick."

This passage should certainly be omitted as a repetition. See on iv. 3.

---

"Call them forth quickly; and we will do so."

---

ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.

Act I.

Sc. 1.

"It would have made nature immortal."

---

"Hel. If the living be enemy to the grief, the excess

makes it soon mortal.

Laf. How understand we that?"

In the folio the first of these speeches is given to the Countess; but Tieck saw rightly that it could only belong to Helena. I have transposed the next two speeches; for Lafeu must reply immediately; metrically also his reply is the complement of the speech of Helena, in which 'living' and 'grief' should perhaps change places.

---

"Advise him.—He cannot want the best advice."

---

"And these great tears grace his remembrance more

Than those I shed for him.... What was he like?"

For 'his' I read this, i.e. that of Bertram, whose departure has caused her tears to flow. There is an evident aposiopesis of graced his, arising from the perturbation of her mind, as is proved by the falling of the metric ictus on 'him,' and which also proves that 'his' could not have been the poet's word.

---

"Carries no favour in it but Bertram's only."

Bertram is always a dissyllable. We might also read 'but only,' but with less force.

---

"He that hangs himself is a virgin."

This is sheer nonsense; 'virgin,' suggested by the following 'virginity,' should be self-murderer, as I have given it in my Edition, or rather perhaps the legal term felo de se; for what Parolles means is that as suicides were 'buried in highways,' Virginity being such should be treated in the same manner.

---

"Out with it; within ten years it will make itself two."

For 'two' Hanmer read ten, and Steevens for 'ten' two. The best reading seems to be that of Singer's folio, months for 'years,' which I have given in my Edition.

---

"Not my virginity yet."

This is complementary to the preceding speech, of which it completes the metre. The emphasis is to be on 'my,' as her meaning is that her virginity is not yet old and withered. She stops there, and enters on a new subject, and it is evident that at least the first line is lost. It may have been like this, "Monsieur Parolles, you are for the Court," which I have ventured to insert in my Edition; it seems so essential to the sense.

---

"A mother, and a mistress, and a friend."

None of the editors seem to have perceived that in this and the six following lines Helena is enumerating the titles, mostly Euphuistic, that lovers at that time used to give their mistresses (comp. L.L.L. iii. 1 ad fin.), "Christendoms," i.e. baptismal names, as she styles them, to which Cupid stood gossip. As 'mother' could hardly have been one of these, I feel almost certain that the original word was lover, which being damaged and only er remaining (see on ii. 1), the printer made 'mother' of it. There is, however, it seems a term mauther or mother still in use in the Eastern counties, and signifying young girl. In Fletcher's Maid in the Mill (iii. 2), the miller says of his daughter,

"A pretty child she is, although I say it,

A handsome mother."

In the Alchemist (iv. 4) Kastrill says to his sister, "You talk like a foolish mauther." Tusser has in his Husbandry,

"No sooner a sowing but out by and by,

With mother or (and?) boy that alarum can cry;

And let them be armed with a sling or a bow."

And again,

"A sling for a mother, a bow for a boy."

But surely such a term could not be used of the ladies of the Court of France. The context shows that it is not mother-in-law that is meant. 'Captain' in the next line may appear suspicious; but lovers were in the habit of regarding their mistresses as commanders, whose orders they were bound to obey. "She that I spake of our great captain's captain," Othel. ii. 1. Steevens states that guerrière is a favourite term for a mistress in Ronsard.

---

"Use him as he uses thee; and so farewell."

---

Sc. 2.

"In his youth

He had the wit, which I can well observe," etc.

I doubt if the editors have perfectly understood this passage. I cannot, for example, see that they have been aware that the 'tongue' and the 'hand' both belong to the metaphorical 'clock'—the former being the bell which sounds, when the latter gives the signal by arriving at the point of twelve, that is, when 'Exception,' i.e. contradiction, 'bids it speak.'

---

"In their poor praise he humbled. Such a man."

I would read whose for 'their,' evidently suggested by 'them' in the preceding line; and as the verb 'humble' rarely, if ever, occurs without its object, we should perhaps read, as I have done, 'humbled him.'

---

"Whose judgements are

Mere fathers of their garments."

I incline to suspect that 'fathers' should be children—not an unusual error. (See Introd. p. [66].) "A parcel of conceited feather-caps, whose fathers were their garments."—Old Play quoted by Steevens. "Whose mother was her painting."—Cymb. iii. 4.

"Believe it, sir,

That clothes do much upon the wit, as weather

Does on the brain; and thence, sir, comes your proverb,

The tailor makes the man."

Jonson, Staple of News, i. 1.

See, however, the character of Piso in Marston's Scourge of Villainy, Sat. xi.

---

Sc. 3.

"Fond done, done fond; for only he

Was this King of Priam's joy."

"And here fair Paris comes, the hopeful youth, of Troy,

Queen Hecub's darling son, King Priam's only joy."

Fletch. and Rowl. Maid in Mill, ii. 2.

---

"I' faith I do; her father bequeathed her to me."

---

"Extend his might, save only where qualities were level."

---

"Diana no queen of virgins, that would suffer her poor knight to be surprised."

The words in Italics, absolutely necessary for the sense, were supplied by Theobald.

---

"I care no more for than I do for heaven,

So I were not his sister. Can it be no other?"

I can only make sense here by reading 'I'd care e'en more for it.' The damp had probably effaced the d, e'e, it, or t, and be. For a similar omission of 'd, see on King John iv. 2. The 'no,' however, may have been a casual insertion of the printer's. In my Edition of these plays, unaware of the rime, I placed be at the end of the line; but I corrected it.

---

"The mystery of your loneliness."

So Theobald properly corrected the loveliness of the folio, the n, as was so frequent, having been turned upside down.

---

"Confess it, th' one to th' other, and thine eyes."

The folio has 'ton tooth to th' other. The 2nd folio made the necessary correction by rejecting tooth—a mere reduplication of 'to th'. Knight, it would appear, was the first to correct 'ton.

---

"Yet in this captious and intenable sieve

I still pour in the waters of my love,

And lack not to lose still."

For 'captious' we should certainly read, with Farmer, capacious. It was, in fact, only the omission of a letter. (See on M. for M. iv. 2.) T and c were often used indifferently before e and i. Reck might be better than 'lack.'

---

"And manifest experience had collected."

With Collier's folio I read manifold; "an epithet," says Mr. Dyce, "which, I apprehend, can hardly be applied to 'experience.'" Why not?

---

"He and his physicians

Are of a mind; he that they cannot help him,

They that they cannot help him."

One 'help' has evidently been suggested by the other; for the first I would read cure. (See Introd. p. [65].)

---

"Embowell'd of their doctrine have left off

The danger to itself?—There's something in't

More than my father's skill."

The best correction of the passage is to supply tells me after 'in it.' This had evidently been effaced, as in Hen. VIII. i. 2.

"There's something tells me,—but it is not love,—

I would not lose you."—Mer. of Ven. iii. 2.

I arrange the passage thus:

"Embowell'd of their docterine, have left

The danger to itself.—There is something in it tells me."

In the first line I inserted in my Edition all; but it was needless; for 'doctrine' was no doubt pronounced as a trisyllable. 'Off' was evidently added by the printer to complete the metre. (See Introd. p. [67].) For 'in't' of the folio Hanmer read hints.

---

"And pray God's blessing into thy attempt."

Unto or upon would seem more correct; but no change is needed.

---

Act II.

Sc. 1.

"Let higher Italy," etc.

This passage has never been understood, yet it is perhaps plain enough. By 'higher Italy' is meant the part more distant from France. "Will you travel higher [i.e. go further south], or return again to France," iv. 3. In this place it is Tuscany that is termed 'higher Italy.' "But then up farther, and as far as Rome," Tam. of Shrew, iv. 2, where the speaker is at Padua. By 'bated' is meant abated, subdued, as we abate a nuisance; 'inherit' is, as usual, possess; and 'the fall of the last monarchy' is the fallen final state of the Roman Empire, the last monarchy according to the current interpretation of the Book of Daniel. "The antique ruins of the Roman Fall."—F. Q. i. 549. "The underseated deities that circle Saturn's fall."—Chap. II. xv. 208. "Redeem'd him from his fall and made him mine."—Fletch. Kt. of Burn. Pest. iv. 3. But perhaps we should read pall, as being still more contemptuous, indicating that the symbol only and not the real power had been inherited. By 'Those,' etc., I think are meant the Ghibelines or Imperial party, to which Siena belonged, while Florence was usually Guelf, the side which was always taken by France, out of opposition to the German Emperor. There is, however, no mention of Guelfs or Ghibelines either in the story in the Decamerone or in the Palace of Pleasure; so that Shakespeare must have gotten his knowledge elsewhere, which is to me one proof, among many, of the extent of his reading. I regard this as the only explanation that gives sense to the passage.

---

"And lustrous, in a word good metals."

---

"With his cicatrice, an emblem of war,"

The folio reads 'his cicatrice with.' As usual, Theobald made the correction.

---

"Pardon, my lord, for me and for my tidings.—

I'll see thee to stand up," etc.

This is the arrangement of the folio, which Malone altered needlessly. For 'see' Theobald read fee, and in the next line bought for 'brought.' These corrections most editors have adopted, but I see no great gain in them. I confess I do not clearly discern the meaning here of either 'see' or fee; and Mr. Staunton's sue is not much better, and I suspect that the poet's word may have been a different one, which I think I can fix on with something like certainty. He wrote then 'I beseech thee,' but ch being either blotted or rubbed out, the transcriber or printer read I be 'Ile,' the usual form of I'll. In Ham. iii. 4, and Tim. i. 2, we have a similar effacement of two letters. "Pardon, my lord.—I pray you all, stand up" (M. N. D. iv. 1), is exactly parallel. See also Hen. VIII. v. 1.

---

"Quicken a rock, and make you dance canary."

We should, I apprehend, read it for 'you.' There had been no allusion yet to the king.

---

"And write to her a love line."

It would be better to read, with Hanmer, as I have done, 'To write.'

---

"Than I dare blame my weakness...."

We thus get some appearance of sense; but I still am suspicious of 'blame.' Task might seem better. "I dare not task my weakness with any more."—Othel. ii. 3. We meet, however, in the Faerie Queen with

"Ne blame your honour with so shameful vaunt

Of vile revenge," ii. 8. 16,

where blame seems to signify blemish, or expose to blame.

---

"With that malignant cause."

We might suspect 'cause'; but it is right.

"Leave us to cure this cause. For 'tis a sore upon us."

Cor. iii. 1.

---

"Humbly entreating from your royal thoughts

A modest one, to bear me back again."

This would seem to mean that, notwithstanding her boldness, he would still continue to think her modest. It would be derogatory to Helena to read sum for 'one.'

---

"When miracles have by the greatest been denied."

Johnson saw rightly that a line had been lost after this.

---

"Where hope is coldest and despair most shifts."

For 'shifts' Pope read sits, Theobald fits, which I think is right; fits occurs in the sense of suits in

"The humble salve which wounded bosoms fits."

Son. cxx.

---

"Ne worse of worst extended

With vilest tortures let my life be ended."

She means, be racked to death. Malone read, as I do, Nay, worst of worse. 'Nay' was sometimes spelt ne. "Is't true? Ne, let him run into the war."—Chapman, All Fools, i.

---

"Youth, beauty, virtue, wisdom, courage all."

Warburton also supplied virtue, but after 'wisdom.' In the next scene but one, the King speaks again of her virtue.

---

"Ay, by my sceptre and my hopes of heaven."

This is the correction of Thirlby; the folio has help for 'heaven,' regardless of rime.

---

"What husband in thy power I will command."

The proper word would seem to be 'demand'; but see on As You Like It, ii. 5.

---

"With any branch or image of thy state."

For 'image' Warburton, whom Singer follows, read impage, while Steevens says (and, I believe, truly) there is no such word. By 'image' may be meant child, offspring, which is its signification in

"I have bewept a worthy husband's death.

And liv'd by looking on his images."—Rich. III. ii. 2.

In the original tale she expressly excepts the children and relatives of the King.

---

Sc. 2.

"An end, sir, to your business. Give Helen this."

For 'An end' I feel almost certain we should read Attend, or possibly And now. I have, however, made no change in the text of my Edition. Some point 'An end, sir: to your business.'

---

Sc. 3.

"Mort de vinaigre! is not that Helena?"

---

"And writ as little beard."

For 'writ' we should, I think, read wore or with. Mr. Dyce, however, says it was "the phraseology of Shakespeare's time." He should, then, have given us examples of it; for write man and such like are not such. Perhaps this and the following speeches of Lafeu should be Asides.

---

"Do they all deny her? An they were sons of mine," etc.

The folio reads, "Do all they."

---

"From lowest place, whence virtuous things proceed."

So the folio reads and punctuates. The context shows that we should read when, with Thirlby. Two lines further on we have 'additions swell's,' which, reading 'swells,' is grammatically right; but the 2nd folio read 'addition,' and Malone, who is usually followed, swell.

---

"Where dust and damn'd oblivion is the tomb."

For 'damn'd' we might feel inclined to read dim, damp, or dank. "And in a dark and dankish vault," Com. of Err. v. 1; or (as in Tr. and Cr. iii. 2) blind. The text, however, is probably right, for 'damn'd' often merely meant what is odious, or hateful, was to be condemned or simply was reprehensible. "Surfeits, impostumes, grief, and damn'd despair."—Ven. and Adon. (See on Othel. i. 1.)

---

"My honour's at the stake, which to defeat."

I have read, with Theobald, defend. Farmer's explanation of 'defeat' is untenable.

---

"Whose ceremony

Shall seem expedient on the now borne brief,

And be perform'd to-night."

By 'brief' I would understand the marriage-contract; for brief is used with great latitude. So in v. 3 we have "a sweet verbal brief," i.e. commission or address. The 'now borne' of the folio is, I think, now-born, i.e. which has just come into being, been made. Possibly we might read new-born, like "things new-born" (W. T. iii. 3), "new-born gauds" (Tr. and Cr. iii. 3). We have now for new (M. N. D. i. 1). I read come for 'seem.' (See on Macb. i. 2.)

---

"Than the commission of your birth and virtue give you heraldry for."

Hanmer transposed 'commission' and 'heraldry'; and most editors have followed him. They seem to be right, and I agree with them.

---

"What, what, what, sweetheart?"

---

"To the dark house and the detested wife."

The folio reads detected; the correction is Rowe's.

---

Sc. 5.

"When I should take possession of the bride ...

And ere I do begin."...

For 'And' Mr. Collier found End in MS. in a copy of the folio.

---

"Than you have or will deserve at my hand."

So the 2nd folio reads; the 1st has 'to deserve'; and perhaps a noun may have been omitted after 'have.'

---

"I think not so.—Why, do you not know him?"

Some would transfer 'not' to the former speech, but I think it more likely that not was omitted.

Ber. "Where are my other men?—

Hel. Monsieur, farewell."

The folio gives all this to Helena; while Theobald, followed by the Cambridge editors, reads "Ber. Where are my other men, monsieur? Farewell."

---

Act III.

Sc. 1.

"Upon your Grace's part; black and feärful

Upon the opposer's."

---

"But I am sure the younger of our nature."

Rowe's reading of nation for 'nature' seems certain.

---

Sc. 2.

"Who sold a goodly manor for a song."

Both the sense and the metre require this addition. 'Sold' is the correction of 3rd folio for hold of the 1st.

---

"Your old ling and your Isbels of the court."

We should, I think, read 'new ling,' as 'old ling' had just been mentioned.

---

"If thou engrossest all the griefs are thine,

Thou robbest me of a moiety."

No doubt are gives sense, but I should prefer as. I have, however, made no change.

---

"'Tis but the boldness haply of his hand

To which his heart was not consenting to."

The folio reads "of his hand haply."

---

"The fellow has a deal too much of that,

Which holds him much to have."

The folio reads "of that too much." As yet no one has made sense of the second line. Perhaps for 'holds' we should read hurts, foils, or soils. I have adopted the first. 'To have' is, the having. (See Introd. p. [70].)

---

"Move the still-peering air

That sings with piercing."

No sense in which peer is used will answer here. I once thought that 'still' might be taken in the sense of quiet, tranquil; but I have been unable to find an instance of its being so used in composition. It seems, however, to have found favour in the eyes of Mr. Dyce. The reading generally adopted is that of Steevens, piecing; and though the usual meaning of this verb is, to eke, to add, it is also used in the sense of closing, filling. Mr. Dyce doubts if "a poet with a delicate ear would have written piecing ... piercing," not recollecting that the latter was pronounced percing. I should, however, prefer fleeting, which I have given in my Edition. In the Third Part of The Seven Champions (ch. xiii.), the author of which was more than once indebted to Shakespeare, or vice versâ, we read, "Whose feathery arrows outrun the piercing eye, and cut a passage through the fleetiag air." Spenser, too, has (F. Q. ii. 8. 2) "the flitting sky (i.e. air)." Elsewhere he says (vii. 7 22) that the air is felt "to flit still," and in The Tempest (iii. 3) we meet with the "still-closing waters." At the same time, as 'peering' may have been suggested by 'piercing' in the next line, the poet's word may not have resembled it.

---

"I met the ravin lion when he roar'd."

As 'ravin' only occurs as a verb, the poet probably used here the part. ravening. "As a ravening and a roaring lion" (Ps. xxii. 13) was evidently in his mind.

---

Sc. 5.

"Enter old Widow of Florence, her daughter, Violenta, and Mariana, with other citizens."

This is the original stage-direction, in which Violenta—an evident mistake for Violante—might appear to be the name of the daughter, though she is always called Diana. Helen, however, at the end of the scene, mentions a 'gentle maid' along with Mariana, whom she invites to supper.

---

"I write good creature: wheresoe'er she is,

Her heart weights sadly."

Here, as in ii. 3, the verb 'write' makes no sense. The 2nd folio has 'I (ay) right,' which, from the punctuation, would seem to have been a mere makeshift; the ordinary reading is that of Malone, 'A right good creature,' which we may be very sure is not what the poet wrote. As in Hamlet (ii. 1) the 4to, 1604, has "a fetch of wit" for "a fetch of warrant" of the folio, my first impulse was to read I warrant—also that of the editors of the Globe Shakespeare; but I then fixed on "I wis," and so it stands in my Edition. I am now convinced that the reading of the 2nd folio, when properly pointed, is the true one. I point it thus: "Ay, right.—Good creature! wheresoe'er she is." The 'Ay, right,' expresses the widow's assent to the truth of her daughter's observation; she then proceeds to speak of Helena. To my great surprise and gratification, I found, after I had made this natural and certain correction, that I had been completely anticipated in it by Capell. How it does provoke one to think of the wilful blindness or obtuseness of editors! For nearly an entire century they have had the true reading before their eyes, and never could see it! Singer has "Ay, right; good creature" etc.; but the punctuation shows he did not understand the passage.

---

Sc. 6.

"Oh, for the love of laughter let him fetch off his drum."

---

"This counterfeit lump of ore will be melted."

'Ore' is Theobald's correction of ours in the folio.

---

"Hinder not the honour of his design."

For 'honour' I, with others, have adopted Theobald's correction humour; which, however, is not absolutely certain.

---

Sc. 7.

"That she'll demand. A ring the county wears."

As this is the only place in the play where 'county' occurs, and as we have had 'the count he' twice already in this scene, I think we ought to read so here also. (See on Twelfth Night, i. 5.)

---

"Herself most chastely absent. After this."

The 2nd folio added this, which had evidently been effaced.

---

"Is wicked meaning in a lawful deed,

And lawful meaning in a lawful act."

If we were not aware of the abjectness of printer-worship, we might wonder at Warburton's most certain correction wicked for the last 'lawful' not having been adopted by every editor.

---

Act IV.

Sc. 1.

"And buy me another of Bajazet's mule, if you prattle me into these perils."

Warburton read mute for 'mule,' and I think he was right. We have "Turkish mute" (Hen. V. i. 2).

---

"Inform them on that.—So I will, sir.—

Till then I'll keep him dark and safely locked up."

In the first line Rowe read 'em for 'on.'

---

Sc. 2.

"As you are now, for you are cold and stern."

Collier's folio reads as stone for 'and stern,' which is very plausible.

"Who, moving others, are themselves as stone

Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow."—Son. xciv.

---

"To swear by him whom I profess to love,

That I will work against him."

I read to for 'by,' in which I had been anticipated by Johnson, who was followed by Malone. 'Swear' naturally suggested 'by' to the printer's mind. (See on Macb. i. 5, R. and J. i. 1.)

"For what's more monstrous, more a prodigy,

Than to hear me protest truth of affection

Unto a person that I would dishonour?"

Jonson, New Inn, iii. 2.

The same sentiment is expressed in "Yes, as I love the woman that wrong'd him" (Meas. for Meas. ii. 3). In this speech of Diana's, Mr. Staunton would give 'Then pray you ... love you ill' to Bertram; but without any great advantage.

---

"I see that men make ropes in such a scarre,

That we'll forsake ourselves."

This is evident nonsense. Rowe read hopes and affairs for 'ropes' and 'scarre'; and to this emendation, or Mitford's of case for 'scarre,' I see no very serious objection. We have "make envy" (Hen. VIII. v. 2), "make doubt" (Ib.), "make comfort" (Cymb. i. 2), "making practice" (Meas. for Meas. iii. 2). Why then object to "make hopes?" even though it is to be found nowhere else in Shakespeare. 'Scarre,' however, is probably right; in Lingua (i. 6) we have, "Poets will write whole volumes of this scar." It must be remembered that scare was written scarre, and so as a substantive 'scarre' may be fright, alarm, flutter, perturbation. Finally, it is even possible that 'ropes' may be right, a line being lost; something of this sort: "Of oaths and vows to scale our fort, in hope."

---

"Have the like oaths. He had sworn to marry me."

Here, as elsewhere, we have has and had confounded.

---

Sc. 3.

"Merely our traitors, and, as in the common course of all treasons, we still see them reveal themselves, till they attain to their abhorred ends."

I think it would be better to read, as I have done, is for 'in' (see on King John, iv. 2), and conceal for 'reveal,' unless for the latter we should prefer reading veil. Perhaps also we might retain 'reveal,' and read when for 'till.'

---

"Is it not meant damnable in us to be trumpeters of our unlawful intents?"

Malone's first thought was most for 'meant.' Mr. Dyce proposes mean and; I think he is right, and have followed him. (See on Rom. and Jul. i. 3.)

---

"If I were to live this present hour."

The context seems to require die, not 'live'; so here, as elsewhere, we may happen to have a substitution of the contrary term. (See Introd. p. [66].)

---

"Or whether he thinks it were not possible."

This would seem to be one of the places where 'or' is for and.

---

Sc. 4.

"Dear almost as his life; for which gratitude."

Both sense and metre require this addition.

---

"Our wagon is prepared, and time revives us."

As 'revives' seems to make no sense, we might read reproves, or rather invites. "The time invites you. Go." (Ham. i. 3.)

---

Sc. 5.

"But sure he is the prince of the world."

For 'sure' we should, I think, read since.

---

Act V.

Sc. 2.

"But I am now, sir, muddied in Fortune's mood."

Warburton's conjecture of moat for 'mood' is very specious, but, I fear, nothing more. 'Muddied' and 'mood' form what is termed a paronomasia.

---

"I do pity his distress in my smiles of comfort."

The Cambridge editors adopt Warburton's reading similes. I doubt if either was the poet's word.

---

"You beg more than one word then."

It was the 3rd folio that supplied one.

---

Sc. 3.

"Natural rebellion done in the blade of youth,

When oil and fire," etc.

The context would suggest blaze to any one, as it did to Theobald.

---

"The nature of his great offence is dead."

He means Helena, but I do not see how 'nature' applies to her. Perhaps we should read motive; or some other word.

---

"I am not a day of season."

Something seems evidently lost here; for the address to Bertram is too abrupt. I would read 'seasonable weather.' We have, 'Like an unseasonable stormy day (Rich. II. iii. 2); and there was in the Liturgy, at that time, "a prayer for seasonable weather." The phrase 'day of season,' I believe, occurs nowhere else. Lower down—probably in the same page of the MS.—there appears to be an effacement of the same kind, and the loss of an entire line.

---

"The daughter of this lord.—

Admiringly, my liege. At first * * * sight of her. (?)

I stuck my choice upon her. Ere my heart

Durst make too bold a herald of my tongue,

Where the impression of mine eye infixing," etc.

Is it not amazing that no one seems ever to have perceived that a line must have been lost between the last two lines? It may have been of this kind, "Another object met my wandering fancy." Capell, I find, read 'At the first sight.'

---

"The last that ere I took her leave at court."

I read 'last time' and e'er for 'ere.' Rowe read e'er she; but the text is right.

"And that even here thou takest

As from my death-bed, my last living leave."—Rich. II. 5.

"He needs not our mistrust."—Macb. iii. 3.

---

"I bade her if her fortunes ever stood," etc.

The proper word would seem to be told, not 'bade'; but bid was used in the sense of tell or say, as in "bid farewell," etc.

"And bade me if I had a friend that lov'd her;

I should but teach him how to tell my story,

And that would woo her."—Othel. i. 3.

"Now I, to comfort him, bid him 'a should not think of God."—Hen. V. ii. 3.

---

"I stood ingaged."

As 'ingaged' is usually the same as engaged, a sense which would be absurd here, we might venture to read 'ungaged,' or 'uningaged. (See on Com. of Err. ii. 2.)

---

"I'll buy me a son-in-law in a fair, and toll him."

So Steevens also reads.

---

"I wonder, sir, sir wives are monsters to you."

The second 'sir' is an evident error. The 2nd folio omits it, and reads 'are such.' I read, as Tyrwhitt had done, since.

---

"Come hither, Count. Do you know these women here"?

---

"Than in my thought it lies now.—Good, my lord."

---

"He blushes, and 'tis hit."

For 'hit,' which is probably wrong, Capell read it; Pope, who is generally followed, his. It is very hard to choose; as each makes good sense, each is a natural printer's error.

---

"Her insuit coming with her modern grace."

I accept without hesitation the excellent correction of Collier's folio, and of Sidney Walker, infinite cunning. In Tr. and Cr. iii. 2, we read 'coming in dumbness,' where Pope made the proper correction cunning.

---

"You, that have turned off a first so noble wife,

May justly diet me."

As I can make little sense of 'diet,' I read deny.

---

"Do you not know he promised me marriage?"

The negative is required for both sense and metre.

---

MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.

Act I.

Sc. 1.

"And when the moon, like to a silver bow

New-bent in heaven."

'New' is the correction of Rowe; the 4tos and folio have Now.

---

"But I will woo thee in another key,

With pomp, with triumph, and with revelling."

Collier's folio gives the right word, 'revelry.'

---

"This man hath [be]witch'd the bosom of my child."

The verse in this play is strictly decasyllabic. The 2nd folio omits 'man,' with Mr. Dyce's approval. In omitting be, I have been preceded by Theobald.

---

"Unto his lordship, whose unwished yoke

My soul consents not to give sovereignty."

The 2nd folio needlessly reads 'to whose.'

---

"To fit your fancie to your father's will."

---

"I have a widow aunt, a dowager,

Of great revenue, and she hath no child,

And she respects me as her only son.

From Athens is her house remote seven leagues."

Common sense dictates the transposition made here of the last lines. There is no note on this passage in the Cambridge Shakespeare; so none of the known critics can have noticed it. The third line, it is evident, had been an addition made by the poet in the margin.

---

"By the simplicity of Venus' doves,

By that which knitteth souls and prospers loves."

Singer transposes these lines. It is, by the way, surprising how many transpositions there are in this play; but it was not necessary to transpose here, and his doing so arose from his misunderstanding the second line; in which the allusion is most probably to the Cestus of Venus.

---

"Sickness is catching; oh, were favour so!

Your words I catch, fair Hermia; ere I go."

For 'your words' Hanmer read 'Yours would,' an excellent emendation, and generally adopted.

---

"Emptying our bosoms of their counsel sweet,

There my Lysander and myself shall meet;

And thence from Athens turn away our eyes,

To seek new friends and stranger companies."

'Sweet' and 'stranger companies' are Theobald's corrections of swelled and strange companions. "More certain emendations," says Mr. Dyce, "were never made."

---

Sc. 2.

"To tear a cat in and to make all split."

---

Act II.

Sc. 1.

"But make room, fairy; here comes Oberon."

The decasyllabic form must be preserved. Pope read as I do.

---

"What, jealous Oberon! Fairies skip hence."

In the 4tos and folio 'Fairy.' (See Introd. p. [52].)

---

"When thou wast stolen away from Fairyland,

And in the shape of Corin sat all day."

This is the reading of the folio; the 4tos, which all the editors follow, have hast. I prefer the former; for Shakespeare invariably employs the verb substantive with 'stolen away,' except in the case of a doubly-compound tense.

---

"The human mortals want their winter here."

Theobald proposed and then rejected 'winter-cheer.' I should prefer summer for 'winter' (see Introd. p. [66]); for in Dr. Forman's Diary of the year 1594—which year Shakespeare had certainly in view—we read, "This monethes of June and July were very wet and wonderfull cold, like winter, that the 10 dae of Julii many did syt by the fyer, yt was so cold; and soe was it in Maye and June; and scarse too fair dais together all that tyme, but it rayned every day more or lesse. Yf it did not raine then was it cold and cloudye.... There were many gret fludes this sommer."

"The seasons change their manners, as the year

Had found some months asleep and leaped them over."

2 Hen. IV. iv. 4.

It is possible, however, that the error may lie in 'want,' for which we might read have, or some other word.

---

"And on old Hiems' chin and icy crown

An odorous chaplet."

For 'chin' Grey read chill; Tyrwhitt, whom some follow, thin. But it is probably one of those inadvertencies so frequent in our poet.

---

"The one I'll slay, the other slayeth me."

Thirlby's just correction of stay and stayeth.

---

"Hast thou the flower there? Welcome, wanderer.—

Ay, there it is.—I pray thee give it me."

For 'there' in the second line, Mr. Dyce reads—and perhaps rightly—here.

---

"I know a bank," etc.

I read and arrange the whole passage thus:

"I know a bank whëre the wild thyme blows,

Where violets and the nodding oxlip grows,

Quite o'er-canopied with lusciöus woodbine,

With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine,

And there the snake throws her enamell'd skin

Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in.

There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,

Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight.

Then with the juice of this I'll streak her eyes," etc.

In the second line I have transposed 'oxlip' and 'violet'; for the former 'nods' and the latter does not, "With cowslips wan, that hang the pensive head" (Lycidas, v. 14). In the third I give o'er for 'over.' The transposition which follows is imperatively demanded by the sequence of ideas, and we have other instances in this play. The fifth and sixth lines may have been an addition made by the poet or transcriber in the margin, and taken in in the wrong place by the printer. (See on i. 1.) If 'And' be the right word in the last line, something must have been lost, ex. gr. "Upon her will I steal there as she lies;" but the poet's word may have been what I have given, Then, strongly emphaticized, and written Than, the two first letters of which having been effaced, the printer made it 'And.' The very same thing seems to have taken place in L. L. L. v. 2. It may also have been that yⁿ, then, was taken for &, and.

---

Sc. 2.

"Pard or boar with bristled hair."

The rime demands the old form hear. (See on Com. of Err. iii. 2.)

---

"Transparent Helena, Nature shows her art."

The transposition 'her shows' of the folio is merely one of those of which we have so many examples in these plays. The usual reading is that of the 2nd folio, 'here shows.'

---

"So I being young, till now ripe not to reason."

It would seem better to read 'not ripe'; or 'ripe' may be a verb.

---

Act III.

Sc. 1.

"If I were so, fair Thisby, I were only thine."

---

"So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape."

This and the two following lines are transposed in Roberts' 4to and the folio.

---

Sc. 2.

"Being o'er shoes in blood, plunge in the deep

And kill me too."

Mr. Dyce, with whom I agree, adopts the excellent reading of Coleridge and Sidney Walker, 'knee-deep.'

"Once o'er shoes we are straight o'er head in sin."

Woman Killed with Kindness.

---

"And from thy hated presence part I so."

Pope added so, which is required by metre and rime, and yet is wanting in all the old editions.

---

"This princess of pure white, this seal of bliss."

For 'princess' Hanmer read pureness; Collier proposes impress; but no change is needed. 'White' is whiteness, and 'princess of pure white' is sovereign lady of whiteness, i.e., white in the highest degree. I suspect that Chaucer wrote emperes in

"The emprise and the flower of flowers alle."

Leg. of Good Women.

---

"For parting us.—Oh! is this all forgot?"

The 2nd folio read 'O and is'; Malone added now; we might also add then. A syllable certainly is wanting.

---

"But miserable most to love unlov'd...

This you should pity rather than despise."

---

"Thy threats have no more strength than her weak prayers."

Here 'prayers' is the correction by Theobald of praise of the original editions.

---

"Away you Ethiop.—No, no, sir, seem

To break loose; take on as you'd follow me,

But yet come not. You are a tame man, go."

This is the reading of the folio, which, with the addition of me—evidently rubbed out at the end—gives excellent sense and metre. For 'sir' the 4tos read he'll, which makes the passage abrupt.

---

"Out loathed medicine! [O] hated potion, hence!"

The same omission was made by Pope.

---

"Hate me! wherefore? O me! What news, my love?"

For 'news' Collier's folio, followed by Singer, reads means. I think they are right.

---

"I with the morning's love have oft made sport."

Rowe read light for 'love,' and Johnson and Singer have followed him. But it seems to be Cephalus that is meant.

---

Act IV.

Sc. 1.

"Which straight she gave me and her fairy sent."

It should be 'fairies.' (See on ii. 1.)

---

"All may to Athens back again repair."

The reading hitherto has been 'May all,' but the transposition restores the grammar.

---

"Dian's bud o'er Cupid's flower."

The 4to and folio read or. The correction is Thirlby's.

---

"Trip we after nightès shade."

Fisher's 4to has 'nights,' of which I have made a dissylable, as being more Shakespearean than 'the night's' of the folio and Roberts' 4to, which most feebly and inharmoniously throw the emphasis on 'the.' This gen. occurs more than once in our poet's earlier plays.

---

"When in a wood of Crete they bay'd the bear."

With Hanmer I incline to read boar.

---

"The woods, the fountains, every region round."

Here, too, I suspect that the poet wrote 'mountains.' 'Seem'd in next line is the reading of the 2nd folio; the originals have seeme.

---

"Was to be gone from Athens where we might

Without the peril of the Athenian law...."

This is the reading of Fisher's 4to; Roberts' and the folio read 'might be'; which does not suit the metre of this play. Egeus breaks in and interrupts him.

---

"Melted, e'en as the snow, seems to me now."

"It wasted and consum'd even like ice

That by the vehemence of heat dissolveth."

Green's Tu Quoque.

The ordinary correction is that of Capell, 'as doth'; an Anon. read 'All melted.'

---

"Was I betroth'd ere I saw Hermia;

But, like in sickness, did I loathe this food."

'Saw' is Steevens' correction of see; in L. L. L. iv. 1, we have "I came, see and overcame." 'In sickness' is Farmer's correction of 'a sickness' of the originals.

---

"Mine own and not mine own.—But are you sure

That we are yet awake? It seems to me."

The folio omits 'are ... awake.' Capell also added But and an Anon. yet. The poet's words may, however, have been, "Are you sure we are awake? it seems to me." But that would make the preceding speech terminate in a manner that does not occur in this play.

---

Act V.

Sc. 1.

"That is hot ice, and wondrous strange snow."

'Strange' is a very feeble word here. If, as I have ventured to do, we read 'sable snow,' we have a parallel to 'hot ice.' Upton read black; Staunton swarthy; Hanmer scorching.

---

"And what poor duty cannot do, noble respect

Takes it in might not merit."

As there are no short lines in this play, I think a word has been lost in the first line. I read faltering, Theobald read 'willing duty.'

---

"His speech was like unto a tangled chain."

---

"This grisly beast, which lion hight by name,

The trusty Thisby, coming first by night.

· · · · ·

Did scare away, or rather did affright."

A line riming with the first appears to be lost. Some read 'by name hight,' making a triplet; but I cannot agree with them.

---

"Here come two noble beasts in, A lion and a man."

Theobald reads moon for 'man.' The correction is ingenious, but not certain. I have, however, adopted it.

---

"A lion-fell, but else no lion's dam."

So Singer reads; others 'A lion's fell.'

---

"For by thy gracious, golden, glittering streams."

This is the reading of the 2nd folio; for the old editions repeat 'beams' from the preceding line. "Phebus of gold his stremès down hath sent" (Chauc. Merch. Tale), was probably in the poet's mind; or

"Which erst so glistened with the golden streams,

That cheerful Phœbus spred down from his sphere."

(Induct. to Mir. for Magistrates.)

---

"Would go well near to make a man look sad.—

Beshrew my heart, but I do pity the man."

---

"These lily lips

This cherry nose."

Rime demands Theobald's 'lily brows.'

---

Sc. 2.

"Now the hungry lion roars,

And the wolf behowls the moon."

'Behowls' is Warburton's correction of beholds of the originals. It is proved to be right by the following passage of Marston's Antonio's Revenge:—

"Now barks the wolf against the full-cheek'd moon,

Now lions' half-clamm'd entrails roar for food" (iii. 3).

As this play was not printed till 1602, this may be an imitation of the passage of our text.

---

"Ever shall in safety rest,

And the owner of it blest."

Singer and a friend of Mr. Staunton's very judiciously transposed these lines, the third, or rather fourth transposition in this play. We may observe that twice before it was the second line of the couplet that commenced with 'Ever.' For a fifth transposition in the original editions, see on iii. 1. By the 'owner' is meant the occupant of the 'chamber.' Malone read 'shall it,' which is the usual reading.

---

TAMING OF THE SHREW.3

Induction.

Sc. 1.

"No, not a denier. Go by, S. Jeronimy!

Go to thy cold bed and warm thee."

It is very strange that none of the critics should have seen that S. is Signior, not Saint. The poet probably wrote it Sr; for we shall find in the subsequent part of the play sir twice used for signior, the ordinary address in plays the scene of which lies in Italy. The 4to edition of 1631 omits S., but it is of no authority. I should feel inclined to read the next line, "Humph, Go to thy cold bed, and wärm thee," which occurs again in Lear (iii. 4). It may have been borrowed from some unknown play; but there is nothing like it in Kyd's Spanish Tragedy, which is evidently referred to in what precedes.

---

"I know my remedy; I must go fetch the head-borough."

Theobald, whom most editors follow, induced by the reply of Sly, read thirdborough. But might not Sly have mistaken the word?

---

"Huntsman, I charge thee tender well my hounds.

Brach Merriman,—the poor cur is emboss'd"—

"And couple Clowder with the deep-mouth'd brach."

'Brach' cannot be right; for brach was bitch (see [Index] s. v.), and what sportsman would say Bitch Sweet lips, for instance, of one of his hounds? In the usual manner the printer was led away by the 'brach' in the following line. The original word must have been a verb, and, were we not aware of what critics usually are, we might wonder at Johnson's most simple and natural emendation, Bathe not being universally adopted. In his whole speech the lord shows his affection for his hounds; for the charge about coupling Clowder with another hound is evidently owing to his being united to an ill-conditioned dog. Poor Merriman, it is plain, had got a swelling in the leg or elsewhere—for that is the only possible meaning of 'emboss'd' in this place; so when the Prince (1 Hen. IV. iii. 3) calls Falstaff an "embossed rascal," he means swollen up—the proper remedy for which was bathing or fomenting with warm water; and this he directs to be done. But Mr. Collier tells us that "a dog or a deer is said to be embossed when fatigue makes them foam at the mouth;" from which all that can be inferred is that Mr. Collier is no sportsman; for any one who has been out with hounds knows that when fatigued they pant and put out their tongues, but never foam. Shakespeare, who apparently knew something of hunting, has correctly, "Lolling the tongue with slaughtering" (Cymb. v. 3), alluding to hounds. On the other hand, Mr. Dyce most confidently reads Trash, i.e., put a "heavy collar, strap or rope dragging loose on the ground" on him to check his speed. I fear that Mr. Dyce is no sportsman either. At least at the present day hounds do not carry weight; for that, I suppose, is what he means. He probably understood 'emboss'd' in the same sense as Mr. Collier. I adopt Johnson's reading, though aware that in cases of this kind (Introd. p. [65]) we should not look for any similarity of form (Mr. Dyce's ductus literarum) in the word to be substituted. (See on Othel. iii. 3.) Here, for example, we might read Mind, or some other word.

---

"And when he says what he is say that he dreams."

---

Sc. 2.

"And not a tinker, nor Christophero Sly."

---

"Madam wife, they say that I have dreamed here."

---

Act I.

Sc. 1.

"Pisa, renowned for grave citizens,

Gave me my being, and my father first,

A merchant of great traffic through the world,

Vincentio come of the Bentivoglii.

Vincentio's son, brought up in Florence,

It shall become to serve all hopes conceiv'd," etc.

In the first four lines I have, with previous editors, given the correct punctuation, and have omitted the superfluous s after Vincentio in the fourth. In the following line the metre shows that something is wrong, and it may be that 'Vincentio's' should be Lucentio his, for nothing is more common than this confusion of proper names. (See on King John, ii. 1.) Hanmer I find also made this correction. At the same time it is equally probable that something has been omitted, and that we should read 'only son,' or 'son and heir,' as in v. 1. It is one of those cases in which choice is difficult. I have given the first in my Edition of the plays; but I now greatly prefer the third.

---

"Or so devote to Aristotle's checks."

Undoubtedly Ethics, the correction of Blackstone and Collier's folio.

---

"Balk logic with acquaintance that you have."

For 'Balk' the editors read talk, but it is right.

"Her list in strifeful terms with him to balk."

F. Q. iii. 2. 12.

---

"Gramercies, Tranio, well dost thou advise,

If Biondello thou wert come on shore."

Here and elsewhere in this play, and nowhere else, the printer seems to have added an s to 'Gramercie.' I follow Collier's folio in reading now were for 'thou wert.'

---

"Good gentlemen, importune me no further."

So I have printed it, but Pray or Now might be better.

---

"Now, gentlemen, that I may soon make good

What I have said ... Bianca, get you in."

---

"Gentlemen,

Content ye; I am resolved. Go in, Bianca."

---

"Their love is not so great, Hortensio."

The 3rd folio properly read Our for 'Their.'

---

"Master, you look'd so longly on the maid."

As 'longly' occurs nowhere else, it is probably only a printer's error for longingly, which I have given. This omission of a syllable is by no means unusual. (See on M. for M. iv. 2; All's Well, i. 3.)

---

"Because she will not be annoy'd with suitors."

With Singer I read he for 'she.'

---

"I will charm him first to keep his tongue."

We should perhaps read charge for 'charm'; for it is the tongue that is charmed. We have, however,

"And by a pair of women of her own,

Whom she had charm'd."

A King and no King, v. 4.

---

Sc. 2.

"Verona for a while I take my leave of."

---

"I'll try how you can sol, la, fa, and sing it.—

Help, masters, help!"

'Masters' is the correction of Theobald for mistress of the folio. Master and mistress are confounded also in v. 1, and in Mer. of Ven. iv. 1, 2 Hen. IV. ii. 4, 2 Hen. VI. i. 3, Tim. ii. 2. Mistress was frequently written misteris, which may have been partly the cause of the confusion.

---

"That gives not half so great a blow to hear."

For 'to hear,' which makes very poor sense, Warburton most happily read to th' ear. He was equally happy in Tim. i. 2.

---

"For his own good and yours."

For 'yours' Thirlby most properly read ours.

---

"Bion. He that has the two fair daughters?"

For Bion. I read Gre., in which I had been anticipated by Capell, Tyrwhitt, and Heath; so that it is certain. In my Edition will be found the correct punctuation of the whole passage.

---

"And were his daughter fairer than she is."

There is either an aposiopesis or a line lost after this; I think the latter.

---

"What! this gentleman will out-talk us all."

There is apparently something wrong here. As 'what!' is almost invariably followed by an interrogative, I would read 'will this gentleman'; we might also insert an adj. before 'gentleman,' or read all of us for 'us all.' The speech, however, as it is a single line, may be as the poet wrote it; I have therefore let it stand in my Edition.

---

"No, sir, but hear I do that he hath two."

To avoid the jingle we might read 'I do hear.'

---

"If it be so, sir, that you are the man."

I have no doubt that for 'that' we should read then. (See Introd. p. [68].)

---

"And if you break the ice, and do this seek."

For 'seek' I read deed; Rowe read feat.

---

Act II.

Sc. 1.

"As the other in music and in mathematics."

---

"But, gentle sir, methinks you walk like a stranger."

Perhaps for 'sir' we should read signior, and for 'walk' look.

---

"Sirrah!

Lead these gentlemen to my daughters, and tell them both."

So we should arrange the passage.

---

"No such jade as you, if me you mean."

We might read 'Not such a jade.' Mr. Dyce reads, after Collier's folio, 'as bear you,' which is better, and which I follow.

---

"'Tis in his tail.—'Tis in his tongue.—Whose tongue?"

---

"The gain I seek is quiet me the match."

For 'me' Rowe properly read in.

---

"Myself am struck in years I must confess."

There must be a line at least lost after this.

---

"To set foot under thy table. Tut, a toy."

---

"Do get their children; but in this case of wooing

A child shall get a sire, if I fail not of my cunning."

Rime demands for 'cunning' the reading of Steevens, doing. Wooing and doing have already rimed in this scene. (See also Tr. and Cr. i. 2, ad fin.)

---

Act III.

Sc. 1.

"Spit in the hole, man, and tune it again."

---

"To charge true rules for old inventions."

All are agreed to read change with 2nd folio; and as 'old' evidently makes no sense, Theobald read odd. With Rowe I prefer new. (See Introd. p. [66].)

---

Sc. 2.

"Make friends, invite, and proclaim the banns."

The 2nd folio adds yes, Malone them, Dyce guests after 'invite'; my own conjecture was aye. Would it not be better, however, to read as I have done, "Make friends be invited, and proclaim the banns"? There is an exactly similar omission of be in All's Well, i. 3, where there can be no doubt. We might also read simply 'friends invited'; but I doubt, after all, if it were not best to read "Make invite friends too and proclaim the banns," which would agree better with the character of the speaker.

---

"Master, master! news, and such news as you never heard of.—

Is it new and old too? how may that be?"

Is it quite evident that old has been omitted in the first line. Rowe, who is followed, prefixed it to the first 'news.' I think it is better with the second, as in Collier's folio.

---

"Often burst, and now's repaired with knots."

---

"And 'The Humours of forty Fancies.'"

Collier's folio reads "The Amours or forty Fancies."

---

"Were it not better I should rush in thus...."

Sense and metre demand the negative. There is, I think, a break in sense at the end of the line.

---

"But, sir, to her love concerneth us to add

Her father's liking."

So I find Tyrwhitt also correctly completed the line.

---

"Signior Gremio, how came you from the church."

---

"I'll tell you, sir Lucentio. When the priest."

For 'sir' we should most certainly read signior. (See on Induction, sc. 1.)

---

"Having no other reason, etc."

This speech is prose in the 1st folio; in the 2nd it is arranged as verse, but not well. In my Edition I have rearranged it, as I find Reed also had done.

---

"My household stuff, my field, my barn, my granary."

S. Walker conjectured my grange; the Cambridge editors my garner.

---

Act IV.

Sc. 1.

"Out, out you rogue! you pluck my foot awry."

---

"'Tis burnt, and so is all the meat that's here."

I had also conjectured, like Capell, 'all the rest of.'

---

Sc. 2.

"Is it possible, friend Licio, that [mistress] Bianca."

Pope also made this metric correction. Master and Mistress do not occur in this play as titles.

---

"Never to marry with her, though she would entreat me."

---

"Would all the world but he had quite foresworn her."

Rowe also added her.

---

"An ancient angel coming down the hill."

If 'angel' be right, it must mean that he was an angel of deliverance to them. Singer and Dyce quote from Cotgrave's Dictionary "Angelot à la grosse escaille. An old Angel, and by metaphor a fellow of the old, sound, honest, and worthy stamp." But how could Biondello know his character? Some read engle, properly ingle; but this is rather, comrade, bosom-friend. In Gascoigne's Supposes, from which this part of the play is taken, he is termed "good soul," and it may be that the poet's word here was uncle—the conjecture also of a Mr. Bubier, in the Cambridge Edition—a term used of elderly persons. (See Index s. v. [Nuncle].) Just afterwards he is said to be "surely like a father" and (iv. 5) Katherine says to the real Vincentio "Now I perceive thou art a reverend father."

---

"Master he is a marcantant or a pedant."

'Marcantant' is the Italian mercante, mercatante, or mercadante. It may be corrupt.

---

"And what of him, Tranio?"

As this is so very abrupt and not very clear, we might conjecture an effacement of will you make or something similar.

---

"That you are like to Sir Vincentio."

Here, again, the printer has put 'Sir' for Signior, and probably added the 'to' to make up the metre.

---

"Come, go with me to clothe you as becomes you."

The 2nd folio reads 'Go with me, sir.'

---

Sc. 3.

"Why then the mustard; and without the beef."

---

"I gave him no order; I gave him the stuff only."

---

Sc. 4.

"Ay, ay, what else? and but I be deceiv'd."

---

"'Twere good that he were school'd—Fear you not him."

---

"To have him match'd; and if you please to like it

No worse than I, upon some agreement, sir,

Me shall you find ready and willing both

With one consent to have her so bestow'd."

Here is what seems to be a convincing proof of the effacement of the ends of lines in the MS. In the second line the 2nd folio inserted sir in the middle, and in the third it read 'most ready and most willing.' Lower down the ends of two lines more have been also effaced.

---

"The match is made and all is done;

Your son shall have my daughter, with consent.—

I thank you, sir, where then do you know best."

'Your son' belongs to first line; and as we have had (iii. 2) "And marry sweet Bianca with consent," we might complete the metre by reading 'with my full consent'; but it is more probable, as this page of the MS. appears to have been injured, that the loss was at the end. I read of me, Baptista, as (v. 1) we have "mine only son and heir to the lands of me, signior Vincentio." In the next line 'know' is most probably a mere printer's error. I have in my Edition, given hold, the reading of Collier's folio; but I think now that the right word is trow, which occurs more than once in Shakespeare in the sense of think, and which I find was also the conjecture of Hanmer.

---

"I cannot tell; except while they are busied about."

The 1st folio has expect, which was rightly corrected in the 2nd. While was properly supplied by Capell.

---

"The priest be ready [to come] against you come with your appendix."

Both sense and metre counsel the ejection of 'to come' caused by the following 'you come.'

---

"She will be pleased, then wherefore should I doubt her?"

The rime evidently requires this addition, made also by Pope.

---

Sc. 5.

"And so it shall be still for Katherine."

'Still' is Ritson's correction of so in the folio.

---

"But soft you! company is coming here."

---

Act V.

Sc. 1.

"And then come back to my master."

This is the reading of Capell, which I have followed; master's, that of Theobald, is perhaps better. The folio has mistress: see on i. 2.

---

"I pray you tell signior Lucentio that his father is come from Padua."

Tyrwhitt, who has been followed by all succeeding editors, reads Pisa, which is no doubt right; but the error was the poet's.

---

"Right son unto the right Vincentio."

---

"Better once than never; for never is too late."

---

Sc. 2.

"And time it is when raging war is done,

To smile at scapes and perils overblown."

The folio has come; but both sense and rime demand 'done,' Rowe's correction. We might also, as Mr. Collier observes, read gone; and this is perhaps the best.

"And how likes Gremio these quick-witted folks?"

So also Capell.

---

"What! head and butt! a hasty-witted body."

---

"Let us each one send in unto his wife."

---

"Oh! worse and worse; she will not come. O vile!"

---

MERCHANT OF VENICE.

Act I.

Sc. 1.

"What stuff 'tis made of, whereof it is born, I am

To learn; and such a want-wit sadness makes of me."

---

"That courtesy to them, and do them reverence."

---

"And see my wealthy Andrew docks in sand."

For 'docks' the editors read, after Rowe, 'dock'd'; but it is simpler to read 'dock,' the s being the usual printer's addition. We might even perhaps retain the text, reading 'see!'

---

"If they should speak 'twould almost damn those ears."

---

Sc. 2.

"Come Nerissa. Sirrah, go before. Whiles we shut the gate upon one wooer, another knocks at the door."

Perhaps a rime and a seven-foot line were intended, in which case we should arrange thus, as Knight has also done;

"Come in, Nerissa. Sirrah, go before.

Whiles we shut the gate upon one wooer, another knocks at the door."

---

Sc. 3.

"Will you pleasure me in it? Shall I know your answer?"

---

"Mark you this Bassanio," etc.

This speech should be marked Aside. It is so in my Edition.

---

"Hath a dog money? Is it possible?"

We should read 'monies,' the word Shylock always uses.

---

"Of usance for my monies, and you'll not hear me.

This is kind that I offer.—This were kindness."

So it should be arranged.

---

Act II.

Sc. 1.

"Then is Alcides beaten by his page."

'page' is Theobald's undoubted correction; 4tos and folio read rage.

---

"First forward to the temple! After dinner

Your hazard shall be made."

Surely 'temple' has no meaning here. Must not the poet have written table. In Lucrece (st. 168), in the Var. Shakespeare, "Her sacred temple" is printed "Her sacred table." I am not aware that any critic has observed this palpable error. The term 'table,' it may be observed, was much more used by our forefathers than by us. Thus in The Elder Brother (iii. 4) Miramont says to his brother, "May be I'll see your table too," i.e. be of your dinner-party.

---

Sc. 2.

"Certainly the Jew is the very Devil's incarnation."

---

"Do you know me, father?"

Mr. Dyce thinks Shakespeare wrote 'not know,' which occurs again in Lancelot's next speech. I have adopted his reading.

---

Sc. 3.

"If a Christian do not play the knave and get thee."

The 2nd folio properly read did. (See on Jul. Cæs. ii. 2.) This change of tense was not unfrequent. We often meet see for saw.

---

Sc. 5.

"Well thou shalt see; thy eyes shall be thy judge."

It might be better to read 'the judge.' Even at the present day printers confound these words.

---

"Will be worth a Jewès eye,"

I prefer this, the reading of the old copies, to 'Jewess,' Pope's reading, which is usually followed.

---

Sc. 6.

"How like a younker or a prodigal."

Rowe's correction for 'younger.'

---

Sc. 7.

"Go draw aside the curtains."

So also at end of scene; but as in sc. ix. it is 'curtain,' I ascribe the s to the printer.

---

"But more than these in love I do deserve her."

See also Capell.

---

"Gilded timber do worms infold."

Pope read wood may for 'timber do' of the 4tos and folio; Johnson, who is always followed, read tombs; I read woods. The meaning is that gilded wooden work was often worm-eaten.

---

Act III.

Sc. 1.

"And hindered me of half a million."

So also Warburton.

---

"Where? in Genoa?"

'Where' is Rowe's correction; the original editions read Here, which may be right.

---

Sc. 2.

"I speak too long, but 'tis to piece the time,

To eke it, and to draw it out."

'Piece' is Rowe's correction for peize, and is, I think, right.

---

"There is no vice so simple but assumes."

The originals all have voice; 'vice' is a correction, and a true one, of the 2nd folio.

---

"Thus ornament is but the guiled shore

To a most dangerous sea, the beautious scarf

Veiling an Indian beauty."

Unless we take it ironically—which is unworthy of the poet—'beauty' here is nonsense. It plainly owes its origin to the preceding 'beautious.' Hanmer read dowdy; Sidney Walker gipsy—both bad. I read, with the utmost confidence, feature as the only word suited to the place. (See [Index] s. v.) Mr. Spedding, I find, conjectured visage or feature, apparently taking them to be synonymous.

---

"Nor none of thee, thou pale and common drudge."

For 'pale' Farmer read stale, perhaps needlessly.

---

"Thy paleness moves me more than eloquence."

Warburton read plainness, of which Mr. Dyce approves, and perhaps with reason. I have, however, made no change. Lead in fact never is pale; for its surface is always oxydized. Shakespeare, moreover, would hardly use the same term of two distinct substances. (See, however, on Rom. and Jul. ii. 5.)

---

Sc. 3.

"The Duke cannot deny the course of law,

For the commodity that strangers have

With us in Venice. If it be denied

'Twill much impeach the justice of the state."

I thus point and amend the passage, as Capell had done, followed only, I believe, by Knight. I am rather dubious of 'justice,' and should prefer interest or traffic.

---

Sc. 4.

"From out the state of hellish misery."

I prefer 'misery,' the reading of the first 4to, to cruelty, that of the others and the folio.

---

"As I have ever found thee honest-true."

These compounds of two adjectives—the first being used adverbially—are not by any means uncommon. They are frequent in Shakespeare; in Fletcher's Hum. Lieut. (iii. 2) we have "serious-true," and in his Chances (ii. 1) "glorious-foolish." (See on 1 Hen. IV. iii. 1.)

---

"In speed to Padua; see thou render this."

All the old editions read Mantua, but it is so certain that it must have been a mere slip of the poet or the printer that Theobald's correction has been universally and properly adopted. (See on Hen. V. iii. Chor.)

---

"Unto the Tranect, to the common ferry."

Rowe, I think properly, read Traject (tragetto It.).

---

Sc. 5.

"And if on earth he do not mean it, then."

Here 'it' seems to mean 'to live an upright life'; rather a harsh construction. It is not likely that the poet used 'mean' in the sense of mener Fr., yet it seems to be used so sometimes in Piers Ploughman.

---

Act IV.

Sc. 1.

"Cannot contain their urine; for Affection,

Masters of passion, sways it to the mood

Of what it likes or loathes."

The original editions all read "Cannot contain their urine for affection;" but that this cannot be right is proved by the context. The only question then is, should we read Master with Thirlby, or Mistress with the same and Capell. Nothing (see Introd. p. [59]) is more common than the addition of s, while master and mistress are frequently confounded. (See on Taming of Shrew, i. 2.) On the whole, I prefer mistress. In the last line I read she for 'it,' evidently caused by that in the preceding line. For the meaning of 'affection,' see [Index] s. v.

---

"Why he a woollen bag-pipe."

The bag of the bag-pipe is no doubt generally covered at the present day with a piece of green baize, which is woollen; yet I incline with Hawkins and Steevens to read swollen; the s might easily have been lost, of which I think we have another example in the change of sway to wag (Much Ado, v. 1).

---

"As to offend himself, being offended."

I prefer this punctuation.

---

"I pray you think you question with the Jew."

Though by reading 'a Jew' we get sense, and Launce (Com. of Err. ii. 3) makes a Jew the type of hard-heartedness, and we have the same notion in Much Ado, ii. 3, I yet cannot but adhere to stint your for 'think you,' as I have given it in my Edition. It seems to me so much more forcible, and more suited to the calm resignation of Antonio; while in the other reading there is something of sneer or irony that is unpleasant. Nothing was easier than for the printer to read stint, the more unusual term, as think, and then to make your you for the sake of sense (see Introd. p. [67]), and as they are pronounced nearly alike. However, judicet lector.

---

"You may as well use question with the wolf

Why he hath made the ewe bleat for the lamb."

This is the reading of the Bridgewater copy of Heyes' 4to, only reading bleak for 'bleat'; in the Devonshire copy of that 4to it is:

"Well use question with the wolf

The ewe bleat for the lamb."

In the folio:

"Or even as well use question with the wolf

... The ewe bleat for the lamb."

So editions vary!

---

"Of such deep misery doth she cut me off."

A syllable is wanting, and a, the reading of the 2nd folio, is feeble. We have "such deep sin"(Rich. II. i. 1); "deep grief" (Ham. iv. 5); and many similar expressions. The omission of an adjective is not unusual. (See on M. N. D. v. 1.)

---

"As makes it light or heavy in the substance

Or the division of the twentieth part

Of one poor scruple."

By reading Of for 'Or' we gain both in sense and energy. The proof-sheets of my Edition have given me instances of this confusion of or and of.

---

"Be valu'd 'gainst your wife's commandement."

---

Act V.

Sc. 1.

"Full of good news. My master will be here ere morning."

By reading morn we should get a rime.

---

"My friend, Stephano, I pray you signify."

Both 4tos and folios read "signify I pray you."

---

"Is thick-inlaid with patens of pure gold."

The reading of the 2nd folio, patterns, the one usually followed, is decidedly wrong. In Spanish patena is a medal worn by country-women about the neck.

---

"By the sweet power of music; therefore the poets."

I think we should read this in the plural, as no particular poet was regarded as the author of this mythe.

---

"Peace, ho! the moon sleeps with Endymion."

In reading "ho!" for the how of the original editions, I had been anticipated by Malone.

---

"That she did give me, whose—poësy was

—For all the world like cutler's poetry

Upon a knife—Love me and leave me not."

By punctuating thus, we need not read, with Steevens, 'to me.'

---

"Or your own honour to contain the ring."

It might be better, with Pope, to read retain. (See on Two Gent. v. 4, ad fin.)

---

"In summer where the ways are fair enough."

The usual confusion of where and when.

---

"Well while I live," etc.

A waggish allusion to a story told by Poggio, Ariosto, Rabelais, La Fontaine, and Prior. Our poet probably got it from Rabelais, with whom he was familiar.

---

AS YOU LIKE IT.

Act I.

Sc. 1.

"As I remember, Adam, it was upon this fashion.

He bequeathed me, by will, but poor a thousand crowns, and as thou sayest," etc.

The 2nd folio reads 'a poor thousand,' but the metre is in favour of the original reading, and we meet "What poor an instrument" (Ant. and Cleop. v. 2). It is really surprising to see with what pertinacity editors reject the necessary word He, first supplied by Blackstone.

---

"Or to speak more properly stays me here at home."

Warburton read stys, as in Temp. i. 2, which is certainly more forcible; but Orlando could not be said to be 'sty'd,' like Caliban.

---

"If Rosalind, the Duke's daughter, be banished."

Hanmer added old to 'Duke,' which, however, is not necessary.

---

Sc. 2.

"Ros. My father's love is enough to honour him enough."

Ros. should probably be Cel. (so also Theobald), and the second 'enough' be rejected.

---

"Sport? Of what colour?"

The princess here plays on the similarity of sound between spot and sport, pronounced with the r nearly effaced.

---

"There is such odds in the man."

Hanmer properly read men.

---

"Mounsieur the challenger, the princess calls for you.—

I attend them," etc.

Celia had desired Le Beau to call him; Orlando, seeing two princesses, says 'them'; so the corrections of the critics are needless.

---

"If you saw yourself with your eyes, or knew yourself with your judgement."

Warburton ingeniously, but perhaps needlessly, read our for 'your.'

---

"But justly, as you have exceeded all promise here."

Hanmer read 'here exceeded.'

---

"But yet indeed the taller, is his daughter."

For 'taller' Pope read shorter, Malone smaller, which is the usual reading, as Rosalind was 'the taller.' I feel, however, almost certain that the poet wrote 'less taller,' and have so printed it. We have, "Against the envy of less happier lands" (Rich. II. ii. 1), and no one would object to more taller.

---

Sc. 3.

"Not a word!—No, not one to throw at a dog."

The 'No,' it will be seen, was transferred to the beginning of the next speech, where it was not wanted; while both sense and metre require it here.

---

"No, some of it for my child's father."

Rowe properly read 'father's child.' Sense, taste, and delicacy, alike commend this simple and natural transposition. Some editors, however, think otherwise.

---

"Mistress, dispatch you with your safest haste."

For 'safest' Collier's folio reads fastest; we might also read, with Singer, swiftest, like "swiftest expedition" (Two Gent. iii. 1); "in all swift haste" (Tr. and Cr. i. 1). But it is not necessary to alter the text; for safe is, sure, certain, a sense which it retains in the Midland counties. "To take the safest occasion by the front" (Oth. iii. 2).

---

"Which teacheth thee, that thou and I am one."

Such was the structure of the time. "My thoughts and I am for this other element" (Jonson, Cynthia's Revels, i. 1). It was the same in French:

"Ni la mort ni vous-même

Ne me ferez jamais prononcer que je l'aime."

Racine, Bajazet, iv. 1.

---

Act II.

Sc. 1.

"Here feel we not the penalty of Adam,

The season's difference," etc.

As the Duke proceeds to show that he did feel this difference, the text cannot be right. Critics, therefore, for 'not' read but, as these words were frequently confounded by the printers. But then a question arises, was 'the season's difference' any part of 'the penalty of Adam.' In Scripture that penalty was "in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread;" and this was the very penalty that the Duke and his friends did not feel; for we have just been told of them (i. 1) that "they fleet away the time carelessly, as they did in the Golden World." Further, it does not appear that any writer anterior to Milton made the Ovidian change of seasons a part of Adam's penalty. The text may therefore be right, and a line, something like this, have been lost,

"Here is no toil; we have only to endure"

---

"I would not change it."

Upton, most properly, made this the conclusion of the Duke's speech. (See on W. T. v. 1)

---

"First for his weeping into the needless stream."

Pope's change of 'into' to in has been generally followed, but without the slightest reason, by the decasyllabists. I am almost ashamed to say that I have joined them from pure inadvertence.

---

"Left and abandon'd of his velvet friends."

---

"The body of the country, city, court."

The 2nd folio supplied the.

---

"Send to his brother's; fetch that gallant hither."

---

Sc. 3.

"When service should in my old limbs lie lame,

And unregarded age in corners thrown."

There is either a line lost after these, or we should read 'be in corners thrown,' as I have done. The omission of be was not infrequent.

---

"The constant service of the antique world,

When service sweat for duty not for meed."

The 'service' in the first line arose from that in the second (See Introd. p. [64]). I read fashion; Collier's folio has favour.

---

"From seventy years, till now almost fourscore."

Such is the reading of the folio—a convincing proof of how little the old printers are to be relied on. Editors, without exception, read seventeen.

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Sc. 4.

"O Jupiter, how weary are my spirits!"

'Weary' is Warburton's correction of merry of the folio.

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"I pray you bear with me; I cannot go no further."

For 'cannot' the 2nd folio has can, the usual reading. Yet I doubt if the change was needed.

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"From whom I took two cods."

Johnson read, as every man of sense would read, peas for 'cods.' I have just shown the origin of the change.

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Sc. 5.

"And turn his merry note."

We still say turn a tune and a note. Pope, then, was wrong in reading tune for 'turn.' "When threadbare Martial turns his merry note" (Hall. Sat. vi. 1) was probably in the poet's mind.

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Sc. 7.

"Doth very foolishly, although he smart,

Not to seem senseless of the bob."

Both sense and metre demand this addition of Theobald's, whom all editors follow. We have the very same omission in

"Yet if it be your wills not to forgive

The sin I have committed, let it not fall," etc.

Philaster, ii. 4.

where none of the editors have perceived the loss.

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"Why who cries out on pride."

There is something wanting here; for in this play the speeches never begin thus with a short line. It is evident also that it is one kind of pride, that of dress, that is spoken of. I therefore read without hesitation 'pride of bravery,' and, three lines further on, wearer's for 'weary,' in which I had been anticipated by Singer.

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"Of what kind should this cock come of."

This seems to be a third instance of effacement in a single page of the MS. I would add I marvel.

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"And take upon command what help we have."

"And in his room not only to eat his fill, but be the lord of the feast." (Lodge, Rosalynde, p. 53.) "They covet not their neighbours' goods; but command all that is their neighbours' as their own." (MS., 1559, ap. Froude, Hist. of Eng. viii. 3.)

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"And then the whining schoolboy."

This is a proper addition of Pope's.

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Act III.

Sc. 2.

"Here comes young master Ganymede, my new mistress['s] brother."

Though it stands thus in the folio, metre and the usage of the time reject the s.

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"But the fair of Rosalind."

We might read 'fair face,' or, with Rowe, face for 'fair'; which last, however, is the same as fairness; so no change is needed.

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"Winter'd garments must be lined."

The 3rd folio properly reads Winter.

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"Why should this desert be?"

Rowe read 'a desert'; Tyrwhitt 'silent be.' I rather prefer the latter; but it is against it that, excepting in one of the following and the six last lines, the first foot is always monosyllabic. I have therefore followed Rowe.

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"Or at every sentence end."

For 'Or' I read And. (See Note at end of Samson Agonistes in my Edition of Milton's Poems.)

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"It may well be called Jove's tree when it drops forth fruit."

The 2nd folio reads 'forth such; Capell read such for 'forth.' Perhaps the first is to be preferred; yet I find I have followed Capell in my Edition.

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"Make me believe it! You may as soon make her."

Surely the passage thus gains not only in metre, but in spirit.

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Sc. 3.

"By so much is a horn more precious than to want."

There is apparently an aposiopesis here.

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"Leave me not behind thee, prythee."

Both rime and metre require this addition; yet none of the critics has made it.

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Sc. 4.

"Breaks his staff like a noble goose."

Singer, very unnecessarily and most tamely, reads notable for 'noble.' Printing from his edition, I have heedlessly followed him in mine.

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"Bring us unto this sight, and you shall say."

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Sc. 5.

"Than he that dies and lives by bloody drops."

It is quite impossible that this line in its present form could have come from the pen of the poet. He must have seen the absurdity of dying before living, and he could have had no motive for departing from the universal form "live and die," as in "I could live and die in the eyes of Troilus" (Tr. and Cr. i. 2). If we then transpose, and take 'by' in the sense of beside, near, in contact with ([Index] s. v.), we get excellent sense. 'Dies,' however, may be a printer's error for some other verb—sheds perhaps; and then 'by' may be taken in its ordinary sense. I had also, like Heath, conjectured 'daily lives.'

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"The cicatrice and capable impression."

For 'capable' Singer's and Collier's folio read palpable; I have followed them.

"Nor I am sure there is no force in eyes

That can do hurt to any one.—O! dear Phebe."

For 'Nor' we might perhaps better read And. (See my note on Sam. Agon., 1692.) Still no change is needed.

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"That you insult and exult all at once

Over the wretched? What! though you have no beauty."

The transposition in the first line removes all necessity for correction. Strange that the critics should not have thought of it! In my Edition the transposition is, "That you insult and all at once exult," which is wrong; but it is there corrected. By reading 'What!' the difficulty found here by critics is removed.

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"That the old Carlot once was master of."

In the folio 'Carlot' is printed as a proper name, and it may be the Spanish Carloto. No such substantive as 'carlot' is known.

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"He is fallen in love with your foulness, and she'll."

For 'she' we should, I think, read, as I have done, you.

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"I have more cause to hate him than to love him."

The I was supplied in the 2nd folio.

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Act IV.

Sc. 1.

"And the foolish chroniclers of the age found it was—Hero of Sestos."

The use of the word 'found' proves that Hanmer's reading coroners is right. In Twelfth Night (i. 5) the coroner is said to sit on a drowned man.

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"That cannot make her fault her husband's occasion."

This seems to mean occasioned, caused by her husband. Or we may read, with Hanmer, accusation. I find I have done so, but doubt if I was justified in so doing.

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"I'll go find a shadow and sigh till he come.—And I'll go sleep."

Both sense and metre seem to demand this addition.

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Sc. 3.

"My gentle Phebe did bid me give you this."

Editors, myself included, follow 2nd folio, and omit 'did.' I think we are wrong.

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"Art thou god to shepherd turn'd."

I think we should read 'a god.'

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"Like a ripe sister, but the woman low."

The necessary insertion was made in the 2nd folio.

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"As how I came into that desert place."

There may have been, as Malone thought, a line lost here; but I rather think it is an aposiopesis.

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Act V.

Sc. 2.

"Her sudden consenting, but say with me."

Rowe supplied Her.

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"All purity, all trial, all observance."

As 'observance' is the word in the riming line, Collier's folio and Malone read obedience; Heath perseverance; Harness and Singer, whom I find I have followed, endurance.

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"Why do you speak too?"

I quite agree with those who read, with Rowe, Who and to.

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Sc. 3.

"Yet the note was very untuneable."

Theobald read untimeable, as the reply is "we kept time;" but, as time and tune were synonymous, there seems to be no need of change.

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Sc. 4.

"As those that fear they hope and know they fear."

To give sense here, I read 'their hope' and 'their fear,' and for 'know' hope. In the change of 'they' to their I find I had been anticipated by Heath. The thought is the same as in "In these feared hopes." (Cymb. ii. 4). The printer having made 'they hope,' in order to get some sense, changed the following 'hope' to know, no unusual practice. Yet Mr. Dyce says, "I believe that the line now stands as Shakespeare wrote it." Coleridge thus expresses the same thought:

"And Fears self-willed, that shunned the eye of Hope;

And Hope that scarce would know itself from Fear."

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"That thou mightest join his hand in his

Whose heart within his bosom is."

Editors read her for 'his' in both lines. The first change, made in the 3rd folio, is necessary; the second, made by Malone, not so.

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"And all their lands restored to him again."

For 'him' editors very properly, following Rowe, read them; in MS. probably 'em.

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Epilogue.

"I make my courtesy, bid me farewell."

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