Than he that dies and lives by bloody drops?"
First Fol., As You Like It, Act III. Sc. 5.
All manner of whimsical and farfetched constructions have been put by the commentators upon this very homely sentence. As long as the question was, whether their wits should have licence to go a-woolgathering or no, one could feel no great concern to interfere: but it appears high time to come to Shakspeare's rescue, when Mr. Collier's "clever" old commentator, with some little variation in the letters, and not much less in the sense, reads "kills" for dies; but then, in the Merry Wives of Windsor, Act II. Sc. 3., the same "clever" authority changes "cride-game (cride I ame), said I well?" into "curds and cream, said I well?"—an alteration certainly not at odds with the host's ensuing question, "said I well?" saving that that, to liquorish palate, might seem a rather superfluous inquiry.
"With sorrow they both die and live
That unto richesse her hertes yeve."
The Romaunt of the Rose, v. 5789-90.
"He is a foole, and so shall he dye and liue,
That thinketh him wise, and yet can he nothing."
The Ship of Fooles, fol. 67., by Alexander Barclay, 1570.