Which rather threatnest than doth promise ought,
Thy palenesse moves me more than eloquence,
And here choose I, joy be the consequence."
The word guiled in the first line is printed guilded in the second folio, the form in which gilded appears often in the old copies. I have no doubt that this is the true reading, and it would obviate the difficulty of supposing that Shakspeare wrote guiled for guiling.
In Henry Peacham's Minerva Britanna, 1612, p. 207., of deceitful "court favour" it is said:
"She beares about a holy-water brush,
Wherewith her bountie round about she throwes
Fair promises, good wordes, and gallant showes:
Herewith a knot of guilded hookes she beares," &c.
Notwithstanding your correspondent's ingenious argument to show that beautie in the third line may be the true reading, I cannot but think that it is a mistake of the compositor caught from beauteous in the preceding line; and that gypsie was the word used by the poet, who thus designates Cleopatra. The words in their old form might well be confused. For "thou pale and common drudge," in the seventh line, I unhesitatingly read "thou stale and common drudge;" and, by so doing, avoid the repetition of the same epithet to silver and lead. It is evident that the epithet applied to silver should be a depreciating one; while paleness is said to move more than eloquence. The following passage in King Henry IV., Part I. Act III. Sc. 2. confirms this reading: