"Alas, poor women! make us but believe."
Here again we have Theobald's correction of 'but' for not.
"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.
"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.