"Made to write whore upon? What sin committed?"
So also in two succeeding lines of this speech, and in all a syllable is wanting. It is really amazing how such an omission—destructive alike of energy and of metre—could not only have been made by the printer, but remain unnoticed by all the editors. As sin is wanting in both 4to and folio, it is clear that the former was printed from the latter, and not from a MS. In the last line I read 'hear of it.'
Sc. 3.
"And bade me to dismiss you.—To dismiss me!"
"She was in love, and he she lov'd prov'd mad
And did forsake her."
For 'mad,' which is certainly wrong, Theobald read bad, and I think he was right. 'Proved bad' answers to our present turned out bad. Regarding bad as rather low and trivial, I read in my Edition false, as that is the term in the ballad. I thought 'mad' might have been suggested by 'maid' in the preceding line.