‘Val. No,
I will not, for it boots not.
Pro.
What?
Val.
To be
In love, where scorn is bought with groans; coy looks
With heart-sore sighs; one fading moment’s mirth,’ &c.
[ Note III.]
[I. 2. 53.] What a fool is she. The first Folio reads ‘What ’foole is she,’ doubtless to indicate an ellipsis of the indefinite article, which, for the sake of the metre, was to be slurred over in pronunciation. As we have not followed the Folio in reading th’ or th for the before a consonant, so we have thought it best to insert here the omitted letter a, especially as the use of the apostrophe is by modern custom much more restricted than it was in the Folio. For example, we find ’Save for God save (Tempest, II. 1. 162), and at ’nostrils for at’s nostrils or at the nostrils (Id. II. 2. 60).