WINTER'S TALE.

Act I.

Sc. 1.

"Their encounters, though not personal, have been so royally attornied."

Both sense and metre require so, given in Collier's folio.

Sc. 2.

"When in Bohemia

You take my lord, I'll give him my commission

To let him there a month behind the gest

Prefix'd for his parting."

The third line has apparently no sense. The critics say 'let' is detain; but no instance of its use in that sense is to be found. We might read sit, which occurs in the sense of stay, dwell, live, as "I sit at ten pounds a week" (Mer. Wives, i. 3); and we have "and sit him down and die" (2 Hen. IV. iii. 1). We might also, and still better, read set, which has nearly the same sense, settled, seated: "Being unarm'd and set in secret shade" (F. Q. vi. 3, 8). "Whoever shoots at him, I set him there" (All's Well, iii. 2). In Fletcher's Nice Valour (iv. 1) Heath, followed by Dyce, reads sets for 'lets' in "That lets it out, only for show or profit." 'Gest' (from giste, gîte, Fr.?) is used of the halting-places on a royal progress. Singer quotes from Strype a request from Cranmer to Cecil, "to let him have the new-resolved upon gests from that time to the end, that he might know from time to time where the king was." Hence it would appear that there was a program of the gests, stating the time of arrival at and departure from each of them. I have therefore read 'gest-day,' supposing the last word, as usual, to have been effaced. See Introd. p. [58].

"What lady she her lord."

I read soe'er for 'she.' "What bloody work soe'er" (Othel. iii. 3).

"The doctrine of ill-doing nor dream'd we even."

The usual reading is 'no nor,' that of the 2nd folio.

"Of my young play-fellow.—Good grace to boot!"

"You may ride us

With a soft kiss a thousand furlongs ere

With spur we heat an acre."

The phraseology here is evidently that of the race-course, where a heat is a race. I read 'we heat us.' The phrase is elliptic, the full phrase being 'We heat us by running over an acre of ground.'

"May it be?—

Affection! thy intention stabs the centre."

So I would point, with Steevens; in the folio it is "May it be affection?" The whole passage is rather obscure. 'Affection' is imagination, fancy (see [Index] s. v.); and the meaning seems to be that it stretches to (expressed by intention), and stabs, or pierces, even the centre of the earth.

"Looking on the lines

Of my boy's face methought I did recoil

Twenty-three years."

The folio reads 'methoughts,' and a MS. correction, followed by Mr. Collier, my thoughts; but 'recoil' is always a neuter verb in Shakespeare.

"He makes a July's day short as December's."

"With all the nearest things to my heart as well as."

"Resides not in that man that does not think it."

This is the reading of the 2nd folio also.

"Why he that wears her like her medal hanging

About his neck."

"That like a jewel has hung twenty years

About his neck."

Hen. VIII. ii. 2.

With Collier's folio, I read a for 'her.' The error, suggested by the preceding 'her,' is an ordinary one with printers.

"With the pin and the web, but theirs, theirs only."

In Florio a cataract in the eye is termed "a pin and a web."

"Is goads, is thorns, is nettles, tails of wasps."

"I am appointed by him to murder you."

The 'appointed him' of the folio is a strange expression.

"That e'er was heard or read of. Swear his thought over

By each particular star."

This, if correct, would seem to mean exorcise his thought, try to banish it.

"Profess'd love to him, why his revenges must

In that be made more bitter. Fear o'ershades me.

Good expedition be my friend, and comfort

The gracious queen."

How could his expedition or haste to depart comfort the queen? It would seem to have the contrary effect, as tending to prove her guilt. For 'and' in the third line we might, with Singer, read God, or, as I have done, with Hanmer, Heaven. The insertion of love in the first line seems necessary.

Act II.

Sc. 1.

"And why so, my dear lord?—Not for because."

"Or a half-moon made with a pen.—Who taught you this?"

"All's true that is mistrusted."

For 'is' it might be better to read was. The change was not unusual.

"Has made thee swell thus.—But I'd say he had not."

Has might seem to have been the poet's word.

"More, she's a traitor; and Camillo is

A federary with her, and one that knows her

To be what she should shame to know herself,

But with her most vile principal."

'Federary' is an unknown word. It may be a printer's error for federate; but I rather think—as I find that Malone, followed by Singer and Dyce, reads, and which is also more metrical—that the right word is fedary, to be taken in the same sense as in Meas. for Meas. and Cymb. As Polyxenes is styled 'her principal,' the meaning may be that she (and Camillo 'with her') had transferred her allegiance to him.

"You did mistake,—No, no, if I mistake."

"I would land-damn him."

As 'land-damn' seems to be an unknown term, it might be better to read, with Collier's folio, lamback, derived perhaps from lambiccare, It. There is also a vulgar term lambaste. 'Damn' was probably suggested by the same word in the preceding line.

Sc. 3.

"We have always truly served you and beseech you."

"They have been absent. 'Tis good speed, and foretells."

We might also read it; or, with Pope, 'This good speed.'

Act III.

Sc. 2.

"This sessions—to our great grief we pronounce it."

"To prate and talk for life and honour 'fore

Who please to come and hear."

We might be inclined to read plead for 'prate'; but no change is required.

"Since he came

With what encounter so uncurrent I

Have strain'd to appear thus."

I read 'have I Strain'd to appear thus?' in which I had been anticipated by Hanmer. An 'uncurrent encounter' was an unusual kind of meeting; and 'strain'd' signifies pulled against the line of my duty as a wife—a metaphor taken from dogs in a leash—

"What I was I am,

More straining on for plucking back, not following

My leash unwillingly" (iv. 3).

It might also signify, acted indecorously, "Unless he know some strain in me that I know not myself." Merry Wives, ii. 1.

"You will not own it.—More than I am mistress of."

So also Hanmer corrected.

"Thy brat hath been cast out, like to itself,

No father owning it."

If we read 'left to itself' we might get better sense.

"But yet hear this; mistake me not. No! life—

I prize it not a straw.... But, for mine honour."

So we may best punctuate, with Hanmer. We might perhaps read 'For life,' as above.

"Which you knew great, and to the hazard boldly."

The 2nd folio reads 'certain hazard.'

"What studied torments, tyrant, hast thou for me?

What wheels? what racks? what fires? what flaying, boiling,

In leads or oils?"

See above, i. 2. Introd. p. [55].

"Who is lost too. Take your patience to you, sir."

Sc. 3.

"Which may, if Fortune please, both breed thee, pretty one."

So Rowe also.

"A boy or a child, I wonder."

I think we should read 'maid-child', a term we meet with in Pericles, v. 3. We have man-child in Cor. i. 3, and in the Bible. I made the correction without being aware of the passage in Pericles.

"You're a made old man."

In the folio it is mad; but this correction, given by Theobald, is indubitable.

Act IV.

"Chorus. To the effects of his fond jealousy, so grieving."

"If never yet, that Time himself doth say,

He wishes earnestly you never may."

This is evidently one of the cases in which 'that' has taken the place of than, then. See Introd. p. [68].

Sc. 1.

"but I fear the angle, that plucks my son thither."

I adopt Theobald's reading of and for 'but.'

Sc. 2.

"Within a mile of where my land and living lies."

Sc. 3.

"I should blush

To see you so attired; sworn, I think,

To show myself a glass."

For 'sworn' Theobald, followed by Singer and Dyce, reads swoon; but the text is right; 'myself' is simply me:

"Upon my life she finds, although I cannot,

Myself to be a marvellous proper man."

Rich. III. i. 2.

"He will the rather do it when he sees

Ourselves well-sinewed to our defence."

King John, v. 7.

"Burn hotter than my faith does.—Oh! but, sir."

"One of these two necessities must be."

So also Hanmer read. (See on Temp. ii. 1.) The folio has 'must be necessities.'

"On his shoulder and on his, her face of fire."

"As your good flock shall prosper.—Sir, welcome."

A syllable is lost apparently. We might add hither or to us at the end, or, as I have done,'you're welcome.' Malone would read 'welcome, sir,' which sounds rather flat. Mr. Collier observes that "Shakespeare [i.e. the printer?] was a better judge of verse than Mr. Malone."

"From Dis's waggon! daffodils."

An epithet, probably yellow, which I have given, has evidently been lost here. All the other flowers, we may see, have epithets. Coleridge also saw the want, and supplied golden. How ill-qualified he was for emendatory criticism! Hanmer's early was much better.

"Nothing but that, but so move still, still so."

"And the true blood that peeps fairly through it."

Collier's folio makes a natural and obvious correction, reading 'so fairly.' The usual reading is that of Steevens, a transposition of 'peeps' and 'fairly,' and I have retained it.

"Nothing she does or seems

But smacks of something greater than herself."

Here again the same folio makes the correction says for 'seems'; yet it is not very necessary.

"He tells her something

That makes her blood look on it."

This is probably the genuine text; but 'wakes her blood. Look on it!' the reading of Collier's folio, is very plausible. It is strange that neither Singer nor Dyce notice this reading. They read with Theobald 'look out.'

"Pray you, good shepherd, what fair swain is this,

That dances with your daughter?—

They call him Doricles, and he boasts himself

To have a worthy feeding. I have it but

Upon his own report, and I believe it."

Steevens, quoting passages from Drayton, explains 'feeding' in the sense of pasture, and Mason explains 'worthy' as valuable, substantial; but neither is convincing. I would, with Hanmer, read 'breeding:'

"A gentleman, I do assure myself,

And of a worthy breeding, though he hide it."

Fletcher, Monsieur Thomas, i. 1.

In reading 'I have it but' for 'but I have it' of the folio, I am supported by Hunter and Singer.

"Who loves another best."

Hanmer and Mason would read 'the other,' and so we should say now; but there is no need of change. It was, in fact, the language of the time; we should still say, "they love one another."

"Come, buy of me, come buy, come buy, come buy!

Buy lads, or else your lasses cry. Come buy!"

"Clamour your tongues and not a word more."

Grey proposed Charm for 'Clamour,' and in Othello (v. 2) we have the very phrase, "charm your tongue." But, as far as I have observed, charm in this sense is used only by characters of the educated class. Singer says 'clamour' here is a mere corruption of chamour, chaumer, or chaumbre, from the French chômer, 'to refrain,' and he adds, "Mr. Hunter has cited a passage from Taylor, the water-poet, in which the word was thus again perverted:—'Clamour the promulgation of your tongue.'" For my own part I think that, except in orthography, the text is right. The real word was probably clammer or clemmer, the same as the simple clam or clem, to squeeze or press, and the phrase answers to Hold your tongues. "To clam a bell," says Johnson, "is to cover the dapper with felt, which drowns the blow and hinders the sound." As for the extract from Taylor, I attach little importance to it, as he probably adopted the word from this very passage. See on Rom. and Jul. iii. 3.

"Why, sir, they stay at door."

The folio places 'sir' at the end of the speech; but the metre requires the transposition, which also makes the reply run more naturally. I neglected to make it in my Edition.

"Can he speak? hear?

Know man from man? dispute his own estate?"

In Romeo and Juliet (iii. 3) we have, "Let me dispute with thee of thy estate;" but in Jonson's Fox, iii. 2,

"Read you the principles, argued all the grounds,

Disputed every fitness, every grace."

"Far than Deucalion off."

'Far' is an old form for farther, as near is of nearer. (See Rich. II. iii. 2, v. 1.) We need not then read farther, nor, with Johnson, 'Far as.'

"Or hoop his body more with thy embraces."

The folio has 'hope,' the orthography of the time.

"Looks on it alike. Will't please you, sir, begone?"

"To die upon the bed my father died on."

"And most opportune to our need I have."

For 'our' the folio reads her, probably from the preceding line. Theobald made the correction.

"His welcomes forth; asks thee, the son, forgiveness."

The folio has there for 'the.' The correction was made in the 3rd folio.

"She is as forward of her breeding as

She's in the rear of our birth."

"And then your blood had been the dearer by I know not how much an ounce."

Hanmer added the negative.

"Besides the King to effect your suits, here is the man shall do."

Act V.

Sc. 1.

"Destroyed the sweetest companion that e'er man

Bred his hopes out of.—True, too true, my lord."

The folio gives 'True' to the King. See on As You Like It, ii. 1. Ant. and Cleop. ii. 2.

"Was like to be the best.—My good Paulina."

"Would make her sainted spirit

Again possess her corpse, and on this stage,

Where we offenders now appear, soul-vex'd,

And begin, Why to me?...—Had she such power

She had just such cause."

In the third line I adopt, with Mr. Dyce, the certain, as I think, emendation of Mr. Spedding, 'Where we offend her,' and I join 'now' with it. Offender and offend her are pronounced exactly alike, and 'we' caused the printer to add s. In the last line 'such,' caused by that in the preceding line, is superfluous, and should be omitted.

"Will have your tongue too. This is a creature who."

"Whose daughter

His tears proclaim'd his, parting with her."

I would read, as I find Thirlby read, her for the second 'his,' caused probably by the first.

"Give you all greetings that a king at friend."

The 2nd folio reads needlessly 'as friend.'

"Which lames Report to follow it, and undoes Description to do it justice."

This last word, added by Singer, is required both by sense and metre.

"That she might no more be in danger of losing her."

"And caught the water, though not the fish."

"And himself little better, and extremity of weather continuing."

Sc. 3.

"On those that think it is unlawful business."

Hanmer properly read Or for 'On.'

"Strike all that look upon you with marvel. Come."

"This is your son-in-law,

And son unto the king, who, heavens directing,

Is troth-plight to your daughter."

So it should be punctuated. The folio reads 'whom,' confounding, as usual, who and whom; of which there are other instances in this play. See Introd. p. [59].

THE TEMPEST.

Act I.

Sc. 1.

"Mercy on us!

We split, we split! farewell, my wife and children!

Farewell, my brother! we split, we split, we split!"

This is, beyond question, "the confused noise within," and not the exclamation of Gonzalo, of whose family we hear nothing. Speaking behind the scenes was not unusual.

"Long heath, brown furze."

As the epithets are here most inappropriate, we should probably transpose them, as I have done (see on iv. 1); for heath is brown, and "they were in a clump or cluster of tall furze," says Scott (Redgauntlet, ch. xvi.). We might also transpose the substantives (see on Twelfth Night, i. 2, and on M. N. D. ii. 1). Hanmer proposed to read "Ling, heath, broom, furze;" and this reading Mr. Dyce adopts; but ling was probably a word unknown to the poet, and it is only another name for heath.

Sc. 2.

"Who had no doubt some noble creature in her."

If 'creature' is not a collective, it is a misprint for 'creatures.'

"Was duke of Millaine, and his only heir

And princess, no worse issued."

Pope read, I think correctly, 'A princess.' We have, "And marriage" for "A marriage" (Hen. VIII. ii. 4). See also on Jul. Cæs. v. 2.

"And to my state grew stranger."

We should perhaps read 'a stranger.'

"I, thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicate[d]."

So also Ritson. See Rom. and Jul. i. 1.

"Was dukedom large enough for; of temporal royalties."

"Than other princess can, that have more time

For vainer hours, and tutors not so careful."

As the plural of 'princess' does not occur in Shakespeare, and a plural seems required here, I suspect that 'princess' may be a collective. (See Introd. p. [70].) For 'hours' we might read joys, i.e. enjoyments. Still the passage may be as the poet wrote it.

"I find my zenith doth depend upon

A most auspicious star."

I am not sufficiently versed in astrology to determine whether 'zenith' be right or not.

"Yea, his dread trident shake.—That's my brave spirit!"

Like the subsequent "Why, that's my spirit!" and "That's my noble master!" So also Hanmer.

"Some trick of desperation. All but the mariners."

"Bound sadly home for Naples, supposing that

They saw the king's ship wrack'd, and his great person perish."

This is undoubtedly the proper arrangement.

"Of the salt deep, to run upon the sharp

Wind of the north, to do me business in

The veins of the earth, when it is bak'd with frost.—

I do not, sir.—Thou liest, malignant thing!

Hast thou forgot the foul witch, Sycorax,

Who with age and envy was grown into a hoop?

Hast thou forgot her?—No, sir.—Thou hast. Where was she born?"

So we should arrange the whole passage.

"Come forth, thou tortoise! When?"

Steevens made the same addition.

"Drop on you both! a south-west wind blow on ye!"

As north, south, etc., were not used alone of the wind, I have added wind, which also gives energy to the expression, which is tame and feeble, if the metric accent fall on 'ye.' See on Twelfth Night, i. 1.

"Oho! oho! I would it had been done!"

"The wild waves whist."

Steevens properly made this a parenthesis. 'Whist' is whisted, hushed. "The moisting air was whist, no leaf ye could have moving seen." Golding, Ovid, p. 81.

"Of his bones are corals made."

"Make the prize light. One word more, sir. I charge thee."

"The wrack of all my friends, nor this man's threats,

To whom I am subdued, are but light to me."

For 'nor' Steevens read or; we might also read and or nay; but perhaps it is as it was written. For 'are,' too, the proper word would be were.

Act II.

Sc. 1.

"Beseech you, sir, be merry; you have cause

Of joy:—so have we all; for our escape," etc.

I make the transposition of "So have we all—of joy," in the second line boldly; for surely neither Shakespeare nor any other writer would put a parenthesis between a noun and its genitive. Gonzalo is speaking quite calmly, and without any perturbation. We have an exactly similar printer's error in

"Add more,

From thine invention, offers."

Ant. and Cleop. iii. 10.

"One of these two must be necessities."

Wint. Tale, iv. 3.

Sc. 2.

"And another tempest a brewing."

"Young scamels from the rock."

Theobald, in my mind most properly, proposed sea-mells, of the existence of which term Malone and Reed have given abundant proofs; by the usual change of l to w we have sea-mew, the term now in use. Yet some editors persist in retaining the old printer's error, as limpets are in some places called scams or scammels, not reflecting that old limpets are to be preferred. Mr. Dyce reads staniels, after another conjecture of Theobald's.

"Nor scrape trencher nor wash dish."

In the folio it is 'trenchering,' caused by the participles in the preceding line.

Act III.

Sc. 1.

"Point to rich ends. This my mean task

Would be as heavy to me, as odious; but."

The first line here is short, which it should not be, as it does not begin or end a paragraph. (See Introd. p. [82].) We should therefore arrange thus:

"Point to rich ends. This my mean task would be

As heavy to me as 'tis odious; but."

It is very remarkable that I never noticed this until after my Edition had been printed. However, I rectified it in the corrections.

"But these sweet thoughts do even refresh my labours,

Most busy, lest when I do it...."

This punctuation removes all difficulty. The entrance of Miranda causes him to break off.

"So perfect and so peerless are created."

The folio reads peetiesse. It escaped the Camb. editors.

"And would no more endure

This wooden slavery, than to suffer

The flesh-fly blow my mouth."

Though, as Malone has shown, this construction is quite correct, still, as Pope also saw, the metre demands 'than I would suffer.' In the Maid's Tragedy (iv. 2) we have

"'Tis fit an old man and a counsellor

To fight for what he says,"

where we must either read 'fit for,' or 'should fight,' to make any sense.

"Beyond all limit of what's else in the world."

"Much business appertaining to my project."

"Now does my project gather to a head."—v. 1.

Sc. 2.

"As you like this give me the lie another time."

Perhaps for 'As' we should read An.

"Trin. Wilt come? I'll follow, Stephano."

The first sentence here belongs, I think, to Stephano's last speech. See on As You Like it, ii. 1.

Sc. 3.

"If I should say I saw such islanders."

The folio has 'islands.' So in the Queen of Corinth (iii. 1), "Our neighbour islands would make of us." In both places sense and metre alike require islanders.

"I cannot too much muse ...

Such shapes, such gesture, and such sound, expressing—

Although they want the use of tongue—a kind

Of excellent dumb discourse."

"They vanished strangely.—'Tis no matter, since."

"Each putter out of five for one."

We should perhaps read on for 'of'; or, with Thirlby and Malone, transpose 'five' and 'one,' of which both Gifford and Dyce approved. Yet it may be that no change is necessary, for of and on are constantly used interchangeably, and o' stands for both. The 'of' of the text may, however, have been caused by the initial letter of the following word.

"I will stand to and feed," etc.

Mason arranged thus:—

"I will stand to and feed, although my last.

No matter, since I feel the best is past.

Brother, my lord the duke, stand to and do as we."

Mr. Dyce properly rejects this arrangement, but on the last line he observes "They cannot with any propriety be reduced to a single line." Was Mr. Dyce unaware of the existence of six-foot lines in these plays? The true reason for rejecting this arrangement is, that in this play Shakespeare does not employ couplets.

"Hath caused to belch you up, and on this island."

The first folio has 'up you'; the necessary and obvious transposition was made in the fourth. Some editors, most unjustifiably, throw out 'you.'

"One dowle that's in my plume."

For 'dowle' I read with confidence down, believing it to be a printer's error for dowlne, a mode of spelling down:

"There lies a dowlney feather, which stirs not.

Did he suspire, that light and weightless dowlne

Perforce must move."

2 Hen. IV. iv. 2, fol.

Singer refers to dictionaries, etc., of the 17th century for the use of dowle; but they all probably found it only in this place.

Act IV.

Sc. 1.

"Have given you here a third of my own life."

For 'third,' which might easily have been a printer's error for thrid, i.e. thread, editors in general follow Theobald in reading this last word. It is easy to conceive how Miranda might be regarded as a thread or integral portion of her father's life, but not how she could be a third of it.

"Do not smile at me that I boast her of."

Of course Shakespeare wrote 'of her.' The editors, without, I believe, an exception, have 'boast her off'—a phrase unknown to the poet—introduced by the editor of the 2nd folio, who had little or no idea of emendation by transposition.

"The strongest suggestion

Our worser Genius can, shall never melt

Mine honour into lust."

As it is difficult to make any good sense here of 'can' alone, we should perhaps read 'can make', or 'can give,' making 'Genius' a trisyllable, and the line of six feet.

"Or night kept chain'd below.—'Tis fairly spoke."

"Thy banks with pioned and twilled brims."

'Banks' may be either the margins of streams or hillocks, or slight elevations of land; but 'brims,' which can only be the edges or margins of hollows, shows that it is the former that is meant. 'Pioned' seems to be a word of Shakespeare's own creation; for, finding the word pioneer in common use, and pyonings—a word of Spenser's coinage—in the Faerie Queen (ii. 10. 63) signifying defences, the work of pioneers, he thought himself at liberty to form a verb pion. This is generally taken to mean dig; and 'twilled' is supposed to be a term transferred from cloth, etc., and signifying ridged; and so the passage is made to mean dug, and laid out in ridges, which, however, hardly accords with the context. Steevens, on the other hand, read 'pioned and lilied'; but neither the piony nor the lily can properly be regarded as a wild flower (though the former is said to grow on the Severn), and such only could be meant here. Others again for 'twilled' read tilled, or give strange meanings to 'twilled.' My own opinion is, that the sense which Shakespeare gave to his 'pioned' was fenced, and that 'twilled' was a printer's error. We may observe that 'and twilled' is pronounced an twilled, which differs very slightly in sound from 'and willow'd.' (See Introd. p. [52].) By reading, then, "Thy banks with pioned and willow'd brims" we get most excellent sense, the idea in the poet's mind being the bank of a stream, fenced, as it were, and secured against overflow, with a range of willows along its edge, and 'betrimmed,' i.e. adorned, with primroses, violets, and other wild flowers; for "April showers bring forth May flowers." I have not hesitated to make this correction in my Edition.

"To make cold nymphs chaste crowns."

In my Edition I have here transposed the adjectives (See on i. 1). We are to take 'cold,' as so frequently, in the sense of cool, which agrees well with flowers growing on the edge of a stream, while it seems absurd to term them 'chaste.' 'Nymphs' is evidently maidens; for if the Naiades were meant there would be an article.

"Summon'd me hither to this short-grass'd green."

This must be the right reading, as the folio has gras'd. Some would read graz'd, which can hardly be right.

"And the broom groves

Whose shadow the dismissed bachelor loves."

For 'broom' Hanmer read brown, which I have adopted; though contrary to my rule (see Introd. p. [51]), as I have met no earlier authority for this use of brown than Milton. The poet's word may have been broad or trim. The broom never attains a height to justify the terming it a 'grove.' Dyer, a good authority, has in his Fleece "low-tufted broom," and Bloomfield (Rural Tales) "tufts of green broom," both using the proper term. I doubt if 'grove' is ever used of any but forest-trees.

"Spring come to you at the farthest,

In the very end of harvest."

No one has ever made, or can make, sense of this. For 'Spring' Collier's folio reads Rain—no great improvement. The fact is, as the context plainly shows, that the poet's word was Shall. With this simple change the whole passage becomes clear and grammatical, and forms a parallel to the fairy-blessing at the end of Mids. Night's Dream.

"So rare a wonder'd father and a wise."

Some copies of the folio read 'wife' for 'wise'; which has become the general reading, even that of the Cambridge Edition. I prefer, as more Shakespearian, the other reading, which is also that of all the succeeding folios.

"Makes this place paradise—O sweet, now silence."

"You nymphs, called Naiads of the winding brooks,

With your sedg'd crowns and ever harmless looks."

The word in the folio is windring; so it is doubtful whether we should read winding or wandering. 'Sedg'd' may have been sedge; for the sound is exactly the same in this place.

"You do look in a mov'd sort, my son."

The folio reads "my son, in a moved sort."

"Leave not a wrack behind."

This is undoubtedly the true reading. The folio has racke, but instances of this error are common. See my note on Milton's Par. Reg. iv. 452. We have wrack for rack in

"Even like a man new-haled from the wrack."

1 Hen. VI. ii. 5.

"Humanly speaking all, all lost, quite lost."

With Malone, I read are for the second 'all.' In the same way we have "sir, sir," in All's Well, v. 2.

"O good my lord, give me thy favour still."

"Let us alone,

And do the murder first."

With Theobald I read 'Let us along,' which connects so well with what follows: we have this very expression in Wint. Tale, v. 2; and see on L. L. L. iv. 3. Hanmer read 'Let it alone.'

"Make us strange stuff ..."

"Hey, Fury, Fury! there, Tyrant, there! hark, hark!"

Act V.

Sc. 1.

"Just as you left them. All are prisoners, sir."

"A solemn air and the best comforter

To an unsettled fancy cure thy brains, that,

Now useless, boil within thy skull."

It is better, I think, to correct thus than, with the editors, to read 'boil'd.'

"My true preserver, and a loyal sir

To him thou followest."

"That sir that serves and seeks for gain."

Lear, ii. 4.

"A lady to the worthiest sir that ever

Country call'd his."

Cymb. i. 7.

Still I think that the final syllable of servant may have been effaced.

"You, brother mine that entertain ambition."

This is the reading of the folio, and I see no need of reading with editors 'entertain'd.'

"That yet looks on me, or would know me."

With Collier's folio I read e'er for 'or.'

"How thou hast met us here, whom three hours since

Were wrack'd upon this shore."

This is a remarkable instance of the use of whom for who in the nominative. See W. Tale, ad fin.

"Where we in all our trim freshly beheld

Our royal, good, and gallant ship."

For 'our' in the first line we must of course read her with Thirlby and Theobald. It was probably caused by the 'Our' of the next line; but from similarity of pronunciation our is sometimes confounded with her and a.

"Ever in a dream were we divided from them."

For 'them' we should perhaps read her.

"This is a strange thing as e'er I look'd on."

With Capell I read 'as strange a.' We have just had

"This is as strange a maze as e'er men trod."

"That is thy charge; then to the elements."

I confidently read 'element,' that is air, his return to which had been already promised him.

WINTER'S TALE.

Act I.

Sc. 1.

Sc. 2.

Act II.

Sc. 1.

Sc. 3.

Act III.

Sc. 2.

Sc. 3.

Act IV.

Sc. 1.

Sc. 2.

Sc. 3.

Act V.

Sc. 1.

Sc. 3.

THE TEMPEST.

Act I.

Sc. 1.

Sc. 2.

Act II.

Sc. 1.

Sc. 2.

Act III.

Sc. 1.

Sc. 2.

Sc. 3.

Act IV.

Sc. 1.

Act V.

Sc. 1.

HISTORIES.