ACT V.

SC. 2. "But I am now, sir, muddied in Fortune's mood."

Warburton's conjecture of _moat_ for 'mood' is very specious, but,

I fear, nothing more. 'Muddied' and 'mood' form what is termed a

paronomasia.

* * * * *

"I do pity his distress in my smiles of comfort."

The Cambridge editors adopt Warburton's reading _similes_. I doubt if

either was the poet's word.

* * * * *

"You beg more than _one_ word then."

It was the 3rd folio that supplied _one_.

* * * * *

SC. 3. "Natural rebellion done in the blade of youth,

When oil and fire," etc.

The context would suggest _blaze_ to any one, as it did to Theobald.

* * * * *

"The nature of his great offence is dead."

He means Helena, but I do not see how 'nature' applies to her. Perhaps

we should read _motive_; or some other word.

* * * * *

"I am not a day of season."

Something seems evidently lost here; for the address to Bertram is

too abrupt. I would read 'season_able weather_.' We have, 'Like an

_unseasonable_ stormy day (Rich. II. iii. 2); and there was in the

Liturgy, at that time, "a prayer for _seasonable weather_." The phrase

'day of season,' I believe, occurs nowhere else. Lower down--probably

in the same page of the MS.--there appears to be an effacement of the

same kind, and the loss of an entire line.

* * * * *

"The daughter of this lord.--

Admiringly, my liege. At first * * * _sight of her_. (?)

I stuck my choice upon her. Ere my heart

Durst make too bold a herald of my tongue,

Where the impression of mine eye infixing," etc.

Is it not amazing that no one seems ever to have perceived that a line

must have been lost between the last two lines? It may have been of

this kind, "_Another object met my wandering fancy_." Capell, I find,

read 'At _the_ first _sight_.'

* * * * *

"The last that ere I took her leave at court."

I read 'last _time_' and _e'er_ for 'ere.' Rowe read _e'er she_; but

the text is right.

"And that even here thou takest

As from my death-bed, my last living leave."--Rich. II. 5.

"He needs not our mistrust."--Macb. iii. 3.

* * * * *

"I bade her if her fortunes ever stood," etc.

The proper word would seem to be _told_, not 'bade'; but _bid_ was used

in the sense of tell or say, as in "bid farewell," etc.

"And _bade_ me if I had a friend that lov'd her;

I should but teach him how to tell my story,

And that would woo her."--Othel. i. 3.

"Now I, to comfort him, _bid_ him 'a should not think of

God."--Hen. V. ii. 3.

* * * * *

"I stood ingaged."

As 'ingaged' is usually the same as _engaged_, a sense which would be

absurd here, we might venture to read '_u_ngaged,' or '_un_ingaged.

(See on Com. of Err. ii. 2.)

* * * * *

"I'll buy me a son-in-law in a fair, and toll _him_."

So Steevens also reads.

* * * * *

"I wonder, sir, sir wives are monsters to you."

The second 'sir' is an evident error. The 2nd folio omits it, and reads

'are _such_.' I read, as Tyrwhitt had done, _since_.

* * * * *

"Come hither, Count. Do you know these women _here_"?

* * * * *

"Than in my thought it lies _now_.--Good, my lord."

* * * * *

"He blushes, and 'tis hit."

For 'hit,' which is probably wrong, Capell read _it_; Pope, who is

generally followed, _his_. It is very hard to choose; as each makes

good sense, each is a natural printer's error.

* * * * *

"Her insuit coming with her modern grace."

I accept without hesitation the excellent correction of Collier's

folio, and of Sidney Walker, _infinite cunning_. In Tr. and Cr. iii. 2,

we read '_coming_ in dumbness,' where Pope made the proper correction

_cunning_.

* * * * *

"You, that have turned off a first so noble wife,

May justly diet me."

As I can make little sense of 'diet,' I read _deny_.

* * * * *

"Do you _not_ know he promised me marriage?"

The negative is required for both sense and metre.

MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.

ACT I.

SC. 1. "And when the moon, like to a silver bow

New-bent in heaven."

'New' is the correction of Rowe; the 4tos and folio have _Now_.

* * * * *

"But I will woo thee in another key,

With pomp, with triumph, and with revelling."

Collier's folio gives the right word, 'revel_ry_.'

* * * * *

"This man hath [be]witch'd the bosom of my child."

The verse in this play is strictly decasyllabic. The 2nd folio omits

'man,' with Mr. Dyce's approval. In omitting _be_, I have been preceded

by Theobald.

* * * * *

"Unto his lordship, whose unwished yoke

My soul consents not to give sovereignty."

The 2nd folio needlessly reads '_to_ whose.'

* * * * *

"To fit your fancie[s] to your father's will."

* * * * *

"I have a widow aunt, a dowager,

Of great revenue, and she hath no child,

And she respects me as her only son.

From Athens is her house remote seven leagues."

Common sense dictates the transposition made here of the last lines.

There is no note on this passage in the Cambridge Shakespeare; so

none of the known critics can have noticed it. The third line, it is

evident, had been an addition made by the poet in the margin.

* * * * *

"By the simplicity of Venus' doves,

By that which knitteth souls and prospers loves."

Singer transposes these lines. It is, by the way, surprising how many

transpositions there are in this play; but it was not necessary to

transpose here, and his doing so arose from his misunderstanding the

second line; in which the allusion is most probably to the _Cestus_ of

Venus.

* * * * *

"Sickness is catching; oh, were favour so!

Your words I catch, fair Hermia; ere I go."

For 'your words' Hanmer read 'Yours would,' an excellent emendation,

and generally adopted.

* * * * *

"Emptying our bosoms of their counsel sweet,

There my Lysander and myself shall meet;

And thence from Athens turn away our eyes,

To seek new friends and stranger companies."

'Sweet' and 'stranger companies' are Theobald's corrections of

_swelled_ and _strange companions_. "More certain emendations," says

Mr. Dyce, "were never made."

* * * * *

SC. 2. "To tear a cat in _and_ to make all split."

ACT II.

SC. 1. "But _make_ room, fairy; here comes Oberon."

The decasyllabic form _must_ be preserved. Pope read as I do.

* * * * *

"What, jealous Oberon! Fairies skip hence."

In the 4tos and folio 'Fairy.' (See Introd. p. 52.)

* * * * *

"When thou wast stolen away from Fairyland,

And in the shape of Corin sat all day."

This is the reading of the folio; the 4tos, which all the editors

follow, have _hast_. I prefer the former; for Shakespeare invariably

employs the verb substantive with 'stolen away,' except in the case of

a doubly-compound tense.

* * * * *

"The human mortals want their winter here."

Theobald proposed and then rejected 'winter-_cheer_.' I should prefer

_summer_ for 'winter' (see Introd. p. 66); for in Dr. Forman's Diary of

the year 1594--which year Shakespeare had certainly in view--we read,

"This monethes of June and July were very wet and wonderfull cold,

like winter, that the 10 dae of Julii many did syt by the fyer, yt

was so cold; and soe was it in Maye and June; and scarse too fair dais

together all that tyme, but it rayned every day more or lesse. Yf it

did not raine then was it cold and cloudye.... There were many gret

fludes this sommer."

"The seasons change their manners, as the year

Had found some months asleep and leaped them over."

2 Hen. IV. iv. 4.

It is possible, however, that the error may lie in 'want,' for which we

might read _have_, or some other word.

* * * * *

"And on old Hiems' chin and icy crown

An odorous chaplet."

For 'chin' Grey read _chill_; Tyrwhitt, whom some follow, _thin_. But

it is probably one of those inadvertencies so frequent in our poet.

* * * * *

"The one I'll slay, the other slayeth me."

Thirlby's just correction of _stay_ and _stayeth_.

* * * * *

"Hast thou the flower there? Welcome, wanderer.--

Ay, there it is.--I pray thee give it me."

For 'there' in the second line, Mr. Dyce reads--and perhaps

rightly--_here_.

* * * * *

"I know a bank," etc.

I read and arrange the whole passage thus:

"I know a bank whëre the wild thyme blows,

Where violets and the nodding oxlip grows,

Quite o'er-canopied with lusciöus woodbine,

With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine,

And there the snake throws her enamell'd skin

Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in.

There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,

Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight.

Then with the juice of this I'll streak her eyes," etc.

In the second line I have transposed 'oxlip' and 'violet'; for the

former 'nods' and the latter does not, "With cowslips wan, that hang

the pensive head" (Lycidas, _v._ 14). In the third I give _o'er_ for

'over.' The transposition which follows is imperatively demanded by

the sequence of ideas, and we have other instances in this play. The

fifth and sixth lines may have been an addition made by the poet or

transcriber in the margin, and taken in in the wrong place by the

printer. (See on i. 1.) If 'And' be the right word in the last line,

something must have been lost, _ex. gr._ "Upon her will I steal there

as she lies;" but the poet's word may have been what I have given,

_Then_, strongly emphaticized, and written _Than_, the two first

letters of which having been effaced, the printer made it 'And.' The

very same thing seems to have taken place in L. L. L. v. 2. It may also

have been that _y_^{n}, then, was taken for &, and.

* * * * *

SC. 2. "Pard or boar with bristled hair."

The rime demands the old form _hear_. (See on Com. of Err. iii. 2.)

* * * * *

"Transparent Helena, Nature shows her art."

The transposition 'her shows' of the folio is merely one of those of

which we have so many examples in these plays. The usual reading is

that of the 2nd folio, '_here_ shows.'

* * * * *

"So I being young, till now ripe not to reason."

It would seem better to read 'not ripe'; or 'ripe' may be a verb.

ACT III.

SC. 1. "If I were _so_, fair Thisby, I were only thine."

* * * * *

"So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape."

This and the two following lines are transposed in Roberts' 4to and the

folio.

* * * * *

SC. 2. "Being o'er shoes in blood, plunge in the deep

And kill me too."

Mr. Dyce, with whom I agree, adopts the excellent reading of Coleridge

and Sidney Walker, '_knee_-deep.'

"Once o'er shoes we are straight o'er head in sin."

Woman Killed with Kindness.

* * * * *

"And from thy hated presence part I _so_."

Pope added _so_, which is required by metre and rime, and yet is

wanting in all the old editions.

* * * * *

"This princess of pure white, this seal of bliss."

For 'princess' Hanmer read _pureness_; Collier proposes _impress_; but

no change is needed. 'White' is whiteness, and 'princess of pure white'

is sovereign lady of whiteness, _i.e._, white in the highest degree. I

suspect that Chaucer wrote _emperes_ in

"The _emprise_ and the flower of flowers alle."

Leg. of Good Women.

* * * * *

"For parting us.--Oh! is _this_ all forgot?"

The 2nd folio read 'O _and_ is'; Malone added _now_; we might also add

_then_. A syllable certainly is wanting.

* * * * *

"But miserable most to love unlov'd...

This you should pity rather than despise."

* * * * *

"Thy threats have no more strength than her weak prayers."

Here 'prayers' is the correction by Theobald of _praise_ of the

original editions.

* * * * *

"Away you Ethiop.--No, no, sir, seem

To break loose; take on as you'd follow _me_,

But yet come not. You are a tame man, go."

This is the reading of the folio, which, with the addition of

_me_--evidently rubbed out at the end--gives excellent sense and metre.

For 'sir' the 4tos read _he'll_, which makes the passage abrupt.

* * * * *

"Out loathed medicine! [O] hated potion, hence!"

The same omission was made by Pope.

* * * * *

"Hate me! wherefore? O me! What news, my love?"

For 'news' Collier's folio, followed by Singer, reads _means_. I think

they are right.

* * * * *

"I with the morning's love have oft made sport."

Rowe read _light_ for 'love,' and Johnson and Singer have followed him.

But it seems to be Cephalus that is meant.

ACT IV.

SC. 1. "Which straight she gave me and her fairy sent."

It should be 'fairie_s_.' (See on ii. 1.)

* * * * *

"All may to Athens back again repair."

The reading hitherto has been 'May all,' but the transposition restores

the grammar.

* * * * *

"Dian's bud o'er Cupid's flower."

The 4to and folio read _or_. The correction is Thirlby's.

* * * * *

"Trip we after nightès shade."

Fisher's 4to has 'nights,' of which I have made a dissylable, as being

more Shakespearean than 'the night's' of the folio and Roberts' 4to,

which most feebly and inharmoniously throw the emphasis on 'the.' This

gen. occurs more than once in our poet's earlier plays.

* * * * *

"When in a wood of Crete they bay'd the bear."

With Hanmer I incline to read _boar_.

* * * * *

"The woods, the fountains, every region round."

Here, too, I suspect that the poet wrote '_m_ountains.' 'Seem'_d_ in

next line is the reading of the 2nd folio; the originals have _seeme_.

* * * * *

"Was to be gone from Athens where we might

Without the peril of the Athenian law...."

This is the reading of Fisher's 4to; Roberts' and the folio read 'might

be'; which does not suit the metre of this play. Egeus breaks in and

interrupts him.

* * * * *

"Melted, _e'en_ as the snow, seems to me now."

"It wasted and consum'd _even_ like ice

That by the vehemence of heat dissolveth."

Green's Tu Quoque.

The ordinary correction is that of Capell, 'as _doth_'; an Anon. read

'_All_ melted.'

* * * * *

"Was I betroth'd ere I saw Hermia;

But, like in sickness, did I loathe this food."

'Saw' is Steevens' correction of _see_; in L. L. L. iv. 1, we have "I

came, _see_ and overcame." 'In sickness' is Farmer's correction of 'a

sickness' of the originals.

* * * * *

"Mine own and not mine own.--_But_ are you sure

That we are _yet_ awake? It seems to me."

The folio omits 'are ... awake.' Capell also added _But_ and an Anon.

_yet_. The poet's words may, however, have been, "Are you sure we

are awake? it seems to me." But that would make the preceding speech

terminate in a manner that does not occur in this play.

ACT V.

SC. 1. "That is hot ice, and wondrous strange snow."

'Strange' is a very feeble word here. If, as I have ventured to do,

we read '_sable_ snow,' we have a parallel to 'hot ice.' Upton read

_black_; Staunton _swarthy_; Hanmer _scorching_.

* * * * *

"And what poor duty cannot do, noble respect

Takes it in might not merit."

As there are no short lines in this play, I think a word has been lost

in the first line. I read _faltering_, Theobald read '_willing_ duty.'

* * * * *

"His speech was like _unto_ a tangled chain."

* * * * *

"This grisly beast, which lion hight by name,

The trusty Thisby, coming first by night.

* * * * *

Did scare away, or rather did affright."

A line riming with the first appears to be lost. Some read 'by name

hight,' making a triplet; but I cannot agree with them.

* * * * *

"Here come two noble beasts in, A lion and a man."

Theobald reads _moon_ for 'man.' The correction is ingenious, but not

certain. I have, however, adopted it.

* * * * *

"A lion-fell, but else no lion's dam."

So Singer reads; others 'A lion'_s_ fell.'

* * * * *

"For by thy gracious, golden, glittering streams."

This is the reading of the 2nd folio; for the old editions repeat

'beams' from the preceding line. "Phebus of _gold his stremès_ down

hath sent" (Chauc. Merch. Tale), was probably in the poet's mind; or

"Which erst so glistened with the _golden streams_,

That cheerful Phoebus spred down from his sphere."

(Induct. to Mir. for Magistrates.)

* * * * *

"Would go _well_ near to make a man look sad.--

Beshrew my heart, but I _do_ pity the man."

* * * * *

"These lily lips

This cherry nose."

Rime demands Theobald's 'lily _brows_.'

* * * * *

SC. 2. "Now the hungry lion roars,

And the wolf behowls the moon."

'Behowls' is Warburton's correction of _beholds_ of the originals. It

is proved to be right by the following passage of Marston's Antonio's

Revenge:--

"Now barks the wolf against the full-cheek'd moon,

Now lions' half-clamm'd entrails roar for food" (iii. 3).

As this play was not printed till 1602, this may be an imitation of the

passage of our text.

* * * * *

"Ever shall in safety rest,

And the owner of it blest."

Singer and a friend of Mr. Staunton's very judiciously transposed

these lines, the third, or rather fourth transposition in this play.

We may observe that twice before it was the second line of the couplet

that commenced with 'Ever.' For a fifth transposition in the original

editions, see on iii. 1. By the 'owner' is meant the occupant of the

'chamber.' Malone read 'shall _it_,' which is the usual reading.

TAMING OF THE SHREW.

INDUCTION.

SC. 1. "No, not a denier. Go by, S. Jeronimy!

Go to thy cold bed and warm thee."

It is very strange that none of the critics should have seen that

_S._ is _Signior_, not _Saint_. The poet probably wrote it _Sr_; for

we shall find in the subsequent part of the play _sir_ twice used for

_signior_, the ordinary address in plays the scene of which lies in

Italy. The 4to edition of 1631 omits S., but it is of no authority. I

should feel inclined to read the next line, "_Humph_, Go to thy cold

bed, and wärm thee," which occurs again in Lear (iii. 4). It may have

been borrowed from some unknown play; but there is nothing like it in

Kyd's Spanish Tragedy, which is evidently referred to in what precedes.

* * * * *

"I know my remedy; I must go fetch the head-borough."

Theobald, whom most editors follow, induced by the reply of Sly, read

_thirdborough_. But might not Sly have mistaken the word?

* * * * *

"Huntsman, I charge thee tender well my hounds.

Brach Merriman,--the poor cur is emboss'd"--

"And couple Clowder with the deep-mouth'd brach."

'Brach' cannot be right; for brach was bitch (see Index _s. v._), and

what sportsman would say Bitch Sweet lips, for instance, of one of his

hounds? In the usual manner the printer was led away by the 'brach' in

the following line. The original word must have been a verb, and, were

we not aware of what critics usually are, we might wonder at Johnson's

most simple and natural emendation, _Bathe_ not being universally

adopted. In his whole speech the lord shows his affection for his

hounds; for the charge about coupling Clowder with another hound is

evidently owing to his being united to an ill-conditioned dog. Poor

Merriman, it is plain, had got a swelling in the leg or elsewhere--for

that is the only possible meaning of 'emboss'd' in this place; so when

the Prince (1 Hen. IV. iii. 3) calls Falstaff an "_embossed_ rascal,"

he means swollen up--the proper remedy for which was _bathing_ or

fomenting with warm water; and this he directs to be done. But Mr.

Collier tells us that "a _dog_ or a deer is said to be _embossed_ when

fatigue makes them foam at the mouth;" from which all that can be

inferred is that Mr. Collier is no sportsman; for any one who has been

out with hounds knows that when fatigued they pant and put out their

tongues, but _never_ foam. Shakespeare, who apparently knew something

of hunting, has correctly, "_Lolling_ the tongue with slaughtering"

(Cymb. v. 3), alluding to hounds. On the other hand, Mr. Dyce most

confidently reads _Trash_, _i.e._, put a "heavy collar, strap or rope

dragging loose on the ground" on him to check his speed. I fear that

Mr. Dyce is no sportsman either. At least at the present day hounds do

not carry weight; for that, I suppose, is what he means. He probably

understood 'emboss'd' in the same sense as Mr. Collier. I adopt

Johnson's reading, though aware that in cases of this kind (Introd. p.

65) we should not look for any similarity of form (Mr. Dyce's _ductus

literarum_) in the word to be substituted. (See on Othel. iii. 3.)

Here, for example, we might read _Mind_, or some other word.

* * * * *

"And when he says _what_ he is say that he dreams."

* * * * *

SC. 2. "And not a tinker, nor Christopher_o_ Sly."

* * * * *

"Madam wife, they say that I have dreamed _here_."

ACT I.

SC. 1. "Pisa, renowned for grave citizens,

Gave me my being, and my father first,

A merchant of great traffic through the world,

Vincentio[s] come of the Bentivoglii.

Vincentio's son, brought up in Florence,

It shall become to serve all hopes conceiv'd," etc.

In the first four lines I have, with previous editors, given the

correct punctuation, and have omitted the superfluous _s_ after

Vincentio in the fourth. In the following line the metre shows that

something is wrong, and it may be that 'Vincentio's' should be

_Lucentio his_, for nothing is more common than this confusion of

proper names. (See on King John, ii. 1.) Hanmer I find also made this

correction. At the same time it is equally probable that something

has been omitted, and that we should read '_only_ son,' or 'son _and

heir_,' as in v. 1. It is one of those cases in which choice is

difficult. I have given the first in my Edition of the plays; but I now

greatly prefer the third.

* * * * *

"Or so devote to Aristotle's checks."

Undoubtedly _Ethics_, the correction of Blackstone and Collier's folio.

* * * * *

"Balk logic with acquaintance that you have."

For 'Balk' the editors read _talk_, but it is right.

"Her list in strifeful terms with him to _balk_."

F. Q. iii. 2. 12.

* * * * *

"Gramercies, Tranio, well dost thou advise,

If Biondello thou wert come on shore."

Here and elsewhere in this play, and nowhere else, the printer seems to

have added an _s_ to 'Gramercie.' I follow Collier's folio in reading

_now were_ for 'thou wert.'

* * * * *

"_Good_ gentlemen, importune me no further."

So I have printed it, but _Pray_ or _Now_ might be better.

* * * * *

"_Now_, gentlemen, that I may soon make good

What I have said ... Bianca, get you in."

* * * * *

"Gentlemen,

Content ye; I am resolved. Go in, Bianca."

* * * * *

"Their love is not so great, Hortensio."

The 3rd folio properly read _Our_ for 'Their.'

* * * * *

"Master, you look'd so longly on the maid."

As 'longly' occurs nowhere else, it is probably only a printer's error

for _longingly_, which I have given. This omission of a syllable is by

no means unusual. (See on M. for M. iv. 2; All's Well, i. 3.)

* * * * *

"Because she will not be annoy'd with suitors."

With Singer I read _he_ for 'she.'

* * * * *

"I will charm him first to keep his tongue."

We should perhaps read _charge_ for 'charm'; for it is the tongue that

is charmed. We have, however,

"And by a pair of women of her own,

Whom she had charm'd."

A King and no King, v. 4.

* * * * *

SC. 2. "Verona for a while I take my leave _of_."

* * * * *

"I'll try how you can sol, _la_, fa, and sing it.--

Help, masters, help!"

'Masters' is the correction of Theobald for _mistress_ of the folio.

_Master_ and _mistress_ are confounded also in v. 1, and in Mer. of

Ven. iv. 1, 2 Hen. IV. ii. 4, 2 Hen. VI. i. 3, Tim. ii. 2. _Mistress_

was frequently written _misteris_, which may have been partly the cause

of the confusion.

* * * * *

"That gives not half so great a blow to hear."

For 'to hear,' which makes very poor sense, Warburton most happily read

_to th' ear_. He was equally happy in Tim. i. 2.

* * * * *

"For his own good and yours."

For 'yours' Thirlby most properly read _ours_.

* * * * *

"_Bion._ He that has the two fair daughters?"

For _Bion._ I read _Gre._, in which I had been anticipated by Capell,

Tyrwhitt, and Heath; so that it is certain. In my Edition will be found

the correct punctuation of the whole passage.

* * * * *

"And were his daughter fairer than she is."

There is either an aposiopesis or a line lost after this; I think the

latter.

* * * * *

"What! this gentleman will out-talk us all."

There is apparently something wrong here. As 'what!' is almost

invariably followed by an interrogative, I would read 'will this

gentleman'; we might also insert an adj. before 'gentleman,' or read

_all of us_ for 'us all.' The speech, however, as it is a single line,

may be as the poet wrote it; I have therefore let it stand in my

Edition.

* * * * *

"No, sir, but hear I do that he hath two."

To avoid the jingle we might read 'I do hear.'

* * * * *

"If it be so, sir, that you are the man."

I have no doubt that for 'that' we should read _then_. (See Introd. p.

68.)

* * * * *

"And if you break the ice, and do this seek."

For 'seek' I read _deed_; Rowe read _feat_.

ACT II.

SC. 1. "As the other in music and _in_ mathematics."

* * * * *

"But, gentle sir, methinks you walk like a stranger."

Perhaps for 'sir' we should read _signior_, and for 'walk' _look_.

* * * * *

"Sirrah!

Lead these gentlemen to my daughters, and tell them both."

So we should arrange the passage.

* * * * *

"No such jade as you, if me you mean."

We might read 'Not such _a_ jade.' Mr. Dyce reads, after Collier's

folio, 'as _bear_ you,' which is better, and which I follow.

* * * * *

"'_Tis_ in his tail.--'_Tis_ in his tongue.--Whose tongue?"

* * * * *

"The gain I seek is quiet me the match."

For 'me' Rowe properly read _in_.

* * * * *

"Myself am struck in years I must confess."

There must be a line at least lost after this.

* * * * *

"_To_ set foot under thy table. Tut, a toy."

"Do get their children; but in this case of wooing

A child shall get a sire, if I fail not of my cunning."

Rime demands for 'cunning' the reading of Steevens, _doing_. _Wooing_

and _doing_ have already rimed in this scene. (See also Tr. and Cr. i.

2, _ad fin._)

ACT III.

SC. 1. "Spit in the hole, man, and tune _it_ again."

* * * * *

"To charge true rules for old inventions."

All are agreed to read _change_ with 2nd folio; and as 'old' evidently

makes no sense, Theobald read _odd_. With Rowe I prefer _new_. (See

Introd. p. 66.)

* * * * *

SC. 2. "Make friends, invite, and proclaim the banns."

The 2nd folio adds _yes_, Malone _them_, Dyce _guests_ after 'invite';

my own conjecture was _aye_. Would it not be better, however, to read

as I have done, "Make friends _be_ invite_d_, and proclaim the banns"?

There is an exactly similar omission of _be_ in All's Well, i. 3, where

there can be no doubt. We might also read simply 'friends invite_d_';

but I doubt, after all, if it were not best to read "Make invite

friends _too_ and proclaim the banns," which would agree better with

the character of the speaker.

* * * * *

"Master, master! news, and such news as you never heard of.--

Is it new and old too? how may that be?"

Is it quite evident that _old_ has been omitted in the first line.

Rowe, who is followed, prefixed it to the first 'news.' I think it is

better with the second, as in Collier's folio.

* * * * *

"Often burst, and now_'s_ repaired with knots."

* * * * *

"And 'The Humours of forty Fancies.'"

Collier's folio reads "The Amours or forty Fancies."

* * * * *

"Were it _not_ better I should rush in thus...."

Sense and metre demand the negative. There is, I think, a break in

sense at the end of the line.

* * * * *

"But, sir, _to her_ love concerneth us to add

Her father's liking."

So I find Tyrwhitt also correctly completed the line.

* * * * *

"Signior Gremio, _how_ came you from the church."

* * * * *

"I'll tell you, sir Lucentio. When the priest."

For 'sir' we should most certainly read _signior_. (See on Induction,

sc. 1.)

* * * * *

"Having no other reason, etc."

This speech is prose in the 1st folio; in the 2nd it is arranged as

verse, but not well. In my Edition I have rearranged it, as I find Reed

also had done.

* * * * *

"My household stuff, my field, my barn, _my granary_."

S. Walker conjectured _my grange_; the Cambridge editors _my garner_.

ACT IV.

SC. 1. "Out, _out_ you rogue! you pluck my foot awry."

* * * * *

"'Tis burnt, and so is all the meat _that's here_."

I had also conjectured, like Capell, 'all _the rest of_.'

* * * * *

SC. 2. "Is it possible, friend Licio, that [mistress] Bianca."

Pope also made this metric correction. _Master_ and _Mistress_ do not

occur in this play as titles.

* * * * *

"Never to marry with her, though she would entreat _me_."

* * * * *

"Would all the world but he had quite foresworn _her_."

Rowe also added _her_.

* * * * *

"An ancient angel coming down the hill."

If 'angel' be right, it must mean that he was an angel of deliverance

to them. Singer and Dyce quote from Cotgrave's Dictionary "_Angelot à

la grosse escaille_. _An old Angel_, and by metaphor a fellow of the

old, sound, honest, and worthy stamp." But how could Biondello know his

character? Some read _engle_, properly _ingle_; but this is rather,

comrade, bosom-friend. In Gascoigne's Supposes, from which this part

of the play is taken, he is termed "good soul," and it may be that the

poet's word here was _uncle_--the conjecture also of a Mr. Bubier, in

the Cambridge Edition--a term used of elderly persons. (See Index _s.

v._ Nuncle.) Just afterwards he is said to be "surely like a father"

and (iv. 5) Katherine says to the real Vincentio "Now I perceive thou

art a reverend father."

* * * * *

"Master _he is_ a marcantant or a pedant."

'Marcantant' is the Italian _mercante_, _mercatante_, or _mercadante_.

It may be corrupt.

* * * * *

"And what of him, Tranio?"

As this is so very abrupt and not very clear, we might conjecture an

effacement of _will you make_ or something similar.

* * * * *

"That you are like to Sir Vincentio."

Here, again, the printer has put 'Sir' for _Signior_, and probably

added the 'to' to make up the metre.

* * * * *

"_Come_, go with me to clothe you as becomes you."

The 2nd folio reads 'Go with me, _sir_.'

* * * * *

SC. 3. "Why then the mustard; _and_ without the beef."

* * * * *

"I gave him no order; I gave him the stuff _only_."

* * * * *

SC. 4. "Ay, _ay_, what else? and but I be deceiv'd."

* * * * *

"'Twere good _that_ he were school'd--Fear you not him."

* * * * *

"To have him match'd; and if you please to like _it_

No worse than I, upon some agreement, _sir_,

Me shall you find ready and willing _both_

With one consent to have her so bestow'd."

Here is what seems to be a convincing proof of the effacement of the

ends of lines in the MS. In the second line the 2nd folio inserted

_sir_ in the middle, and in the third it read '_most_ ready and _most_

willing.' Lower down the ends of two lines more have been also effaced.

* * * * *

"The match is made and all is done;

Your son shall have my daughter, with consent.--

I thank you, sir, where then do you know best."

'Your son' belongs to first line; and as we have had (iii. 2) "And

marry sweet Bianca with consent," we might complete the metre by

reading 'with _my full_ consent'; but it is more probable, as this page

of the MS. appears to have been injured, that the loss was at the end.

I read of _me, Baptista_, as (v. 1) we have "mine only son and heir to

the lands of _me, signior Vincentio_." In the next line 'know' is most

probably a mere printer's error. I have in my Edition, given _hold_,

the reading of Collier's folio; but I think now that the right word

is _trow_, which occurs more than once in Shakespeare in the sense of

think, and which I find was also the conjecture of Hanmer.

* * * * *

"I cannot tell; except _while_ they are busied about."

The 1st folio has _expect_, which was rightly corrected in the 2nd.

_While_ was properly supplied by Capell.

* * * * *

"The priest be ready [to come] against you come with your appendix."

Both sense and metre counsel the ejection of 'to come' caused by the

following 'you come.'

* * * * *

"She will be pleased, then wherefore should I doubt _her_?"

The rime evidently requires this addition, made also by Pope.

* * * * *

SC. 5. "And so it shall be still for Katherine."

'Still' is Ritson's correction of _so_ in the folio.

* * * * *

"But soft _you_! company is coming here."

ACT V.

SC. 1. "And then come back to my master."

This is the reading of Capell, which I have followed; _master's_, that

of Theobald, is perhaps better. The folio has _mistress_: see on i. 2.

* * * * *

"I pray you tell signior Lucentio that his father is come from

Padua."

Tyrwhitt, who has been followed by all succeeding editors, reads

_Pisa_, which is no doubt right; but the error was the poet's.

* * * * *

"Right son _un_to the right Vincentio."

* * * * *

"Better once than never; for never _is_ too late."

* * * * *

SC. 2. "And time it is when raging war is done,

To smile at scapes and perils overblown."

The folio has _come_; but both sense and rime demand 'done,' Rowe's

correction. We might also, as Mr. Collier observes, read _gone_; and

this is perhaps the best.

"_And_ how likes Gremio these quick-witted folks?"

So also Capell.

* * * * *

"_What!_ head and butt! a hasty-witted body."

* * * * *

"Let us each one send _in_ unto his wife."

* * * * *

"_Oh!_ worse and worse; she will not come. O vile!"

MERCHANT OF VENICE.

ACT I.

SC. 1. "What stuff 'tis made of, whereof it is born, I am

To learn; and such a want-wit sadness makes of me."

* * * * *

"That courtesy to them, _and_ do them reverence."

* * * * *

"And see my wealthy Andrew docks in sand."

For 'docks' the editors read, after Rowe, 'dock'_d_'; but it is simpler

to read 'dock,' the _s_ being the usual printer's addition. We might

even perhaps retain the text, reading 'see!'

* * * * *

"If they should speak _'t_would almost damn those ears."

* * * * *

SC. 2. "Come Nerissa. Sirrah, go before. Whiles we shut the gate

upon one wooer, another knocks at the door."

Perhaps a rime and a seven-foot line were intended, in which case we

should arrange thus, as Knight has also done;

"Come _in_, Nerissa. Sirrah, go before.

Whiles we shut the gate upon one wooer, another knocks at the door."

* * * * *

SC. 3. "Will you pleasure me _in it_? Shall I know your answer?"

* * * * *

"Mark you this Bassanio," etc.

This speech should be marked _Aside_. It is so in my Edition.

* * * * *

"Hath a dog money? Is it possible?"

We should read 'monies,' the word Shylock always uses.

* * * * *

"Of usance for my monies, and you'll not hear me.

This is kind _that_ I offer.--This were kindness."

So it should be arranged.

ACT II.

SC. 1. "Then is Alcides beaten by his page."

'page' is Theobald's undoubted correction; 4tos and folio read _rage_.

* * * * *

"First forward to the temple! After dinner

Your hazard shall be made."

Surely 'temple' has no meaning here. Must not the poet have written

_table_. In Lucrece (st. 168), in the Var. Shakespeare, "Her sacred

_temple_" is printed "Her sacred _table_." I am not aware that any

critic has observed this palpable error. The term 'table,' it may be

observed, was much more used by our forefathers than by us. Thus in The

Elder Brother (iii. 4) Miramont says to his brother, "May be I'll see

your _table_ too," _i.e._ be of your dinner-party.

* * * * *

SC. 2. "Certainly the Jew is the very Devil's incarnation."

* * * * *

"Do you know me, father?"

Mr. Dyce thinks Shakespeare wrote '_not_ know,' which occurs again in

Lancelot's next speech. I have adopted his reading.

* * * * *

SC. 3. "If a Christian do not play the knave and get thee."

The 2nd folio properly read _did_. (See on Jul. Cæs. ii. 2.) This

change of tense was not unfrequent. We often meet _see_ for _saw_.

* * * * *

SC. 5. "Well thou shalt see; thy eyes shall be thy judge."

It might be better to read '_the_ judge.' Even at the present day

printers confound these words.

* * * * *

"Will be worth a Jewès eye,"

I prefer this, the reading of the old copies, to 'Jewess,' Pope's

reading, which is usually followed.

* * * * *

SC. 6. "How like a younker or a prodigal."

Rowe's correction for 'younger.'

* * * * *

SC. 7. "Go draw aside the curtains."

So also at end of scene; but as in sc. ix. it is 'curtain,' I ascribe

the _s_ to the printer.

* * * * *

"But more than these in love I do deserve _her_."

See also Capell.

* * * * *

"Gilded timber do worms infold."

Pope read _wood may_ for 'timber do' of the 4tos and folio; Johnson,

who is always followed, read _tombs_; I read _woods_. The meaning is

that gilded wooden work was often worm-eaten.

ACT III.

SC. 1. "And hindered me _of_ half a million."

So also Warburton.

* * * * *

"Where? in Genoa?"

'Where' is Rowe's correction; the original editions read _Here_, which

may be right.

* * * * *

SC. 2. "I speak too long, but 'tis to piece the time,

To eke it, and to draw it out."

'Piece' is Rowe's correction for _peize_, and is, I think, right.

* * * * *

"There is no vice so simple but assumes."

The originals all have _voice_; 'vice' is a correction, and a true one,

of the 2nd folio.

* * * * *

"Thus ornament is but the guiled shore

To a most dangerous sea, the beautious scarf

Veiling an Indian beauty."

Unless we take it ironically--which is unworthy of the poet--'beauty'

here is nonsense. It plainly owes its origin to the preceding

'beautious.' Hanmer read _dowdy_; Sidney Walker _gipsy_--both bad. I

read, with the utmost confidence, _feature_ as the only word suited

to the place. (See Index _s. v._) Mr. Spedding, I find, conjectured

_visage_ or _feature_, apparently taking them to be synonymous.

* * * * *

"Nor none of thee, thou pale and common drudge."

For 'pale' Farmer read _stale_, perhaps needlessly.

* * * * *

"Thy paleness moves me more than eloquence."

Warburton read _plainness_, of which Mr. Dyce approves, and perhaps

with reason. I have, however, made no change. Lead in fact never is

pale; for its surface is always oxydized. Shakespeare, moreover, would

hardly use the same term of two distinct substances. (See, however, on

Rom. and Jul. ii. 5.)

* * * * *

SC. 3. "The Duke cannot deny the course of law,

For the commodity that strangers have

With us in Venice. If it be denied

'_T_will much impeach the justice of the state."

I thus point and amend the passage, as Capell had done, followed only,

I believe, by Knight. I am rather dubious of 'justice,' and should

prefer _interest_ or _traffic_.

* * * * *

SC. 4. "From out the state of hellish misery."

I prefer 'misery,' the reading of the first 4to, to _cruelty_, that of

the others and the folio.

* * * * *

"As I have ever found thee honest-true."

These compounds of two adjectives--the first being used

adverbially--are not by any means uncommon. They are frequent in

Shakespeare; in Fletcher's Hum. Lieut. (iii. 2) we have "serious-true,"

and in his Chances (ii. 1) "glorious-foolish." (See on 1 Hen. IV. iii.

1.)

* * * * *

"In speed to Padua; see thou render this."

All the old editions read _Mantua_, but it is so certain that it must

have been a mere slip of the poet or the printer that Theobald's

correction has been universally and properly adopted. (See on Hen. V.

iii. Chor.)

* * * * *

"Unto the Tranect, to the common ferry."

Rowe, I think properly, read _Traject_ (_tragetto_ It.).

* * * * *

SC. 5. "And if on earth he do not mean it, then."

Here 'it' seems to mean 'to live an upright life'; rather a harsh

construction. It is not likely that the poet used 'mean' in the sense

of _mener_ Fr., yet it seems to be used so sometimes in Piers Ploughman.

ACT IV.

SC. 1. "Cannot contain their urine; for Affection,

Masters of passion, sways it to the mood

Of what it likes or loathes."

The original editions all read "Cannot contain their urine for

affection;" but that this cannot be right is proved by the context.

The only question then is, should we read _Master_ with Thirlby, or

_Mistress_ with the same and Capell. Nothing (see Introd. p. 59) is

more common than the addition of _s_, while _master_ and _mistress_ are

frequently confounded. (See on Taming of Shrew, i. 2.) On the whole, I

prefer _mistress_. In the last line I read _she_ for 'it,' evidently

caused by that in the preceding line. For the meaning of 'affection,'

see Index _s. v._

* * * * *

"Why he a woollen bag-pipe."

The bag of the bag-pipe is no doubt generally covered at the present

day with a piece of green baize, which is woollen; yet I incline with

Hawkins and Steevens to read _swollen_; the s might easily have been

lost, of which I think we have another example in the change of _sway_

to _wag_ (Much Ado, v. 1).

* * * * *

"As to offend himself, being offended."

I prefer this punctuation.

* * * * *

"I pray you think you question with the Jew."

Though by reading '_a_ Jew' we get sense, and Launce (Com. of Err.

ii. 3) makes a Jew the type of hard-heartedness, and we have the same

notion in Much Ado, ii. 3, I yet cannot but adhere to _stint your_ for

'think you,' as I have given it in my Edition. It seems to me so much

more forcible, and more suited to the calm resignation of Antonio;

while in the other reading there is something of sneer or irony that is

unpleasant. Nothing was easier than for the printer to read _stint_,

the more unusual term, as _think_, and then to make _your you_ for the

sake of sense (see Introd. p. 67), and as they are pronounced nearly

alike. However, _judicet lector_.

* * * * *

"You may as well use question with the wolf

Why he hath made the ewe bleat for the lamb."

This is the reading of the Bridgewater copy of Heyes' 4to, only reading

_bleak_ for 'bleat'; in the Devonshire copy of that 4to it is:

"Well use question with the wolf

The ewe bleat for the lamb."

In the folio:

"Or even as well use question with the wolf

... The ewe bleat for the lamb."

So editions vary!

* * * * *

"Of such _deep_ misery doth she cut me off."

A syllable is wanting, and _a_, the reading of the 2nd folio, is

feeble. We have "such _deep_ sin"(Rich. II. i. 1); "_deep_ grief" (Ham.

iv. 5); and many similar expressions. The omission of an adjective is

not unusual. (See on M. N. D. v. 1.)

* * * * *

"As makes it light or heavy in the substance

Or the division of the twentieth part

Of one poor scruple."

By reading _Of_ for 'Or' we gain both in sense and energy. The

proof-sheets of my Edition have given me instances of this confusion of

_or_ and _of_.

* * * * *

"Be valu'd 'gainst your wife's commandement."

ACT V.

SC. 1. "Full of good news. My master will be here ere morning."

By reading _morn_ we should get a rime.

* * * * *

"My friend, Stephano, I pray you signify."

Both 4tos and folios read "signify I pray you."

* * * * *

"Is thick-inlaid with patens of pure gold."

The reading of the 2nd folio, _patterns_, the one usually followed, is

decidedly wrong. In Spanish _patena_ is a medal worn by country-women

about the neck.

* * * * *

"By the sweet power of music; therefore the poets."

I think we should read this in the plural, as no particular poet was

regarded as the author of this mythe.

* * * * *

"Peace, ho! the moon sleeps with Endymion."

In reading "ho!" for the _how_ of the original editions, I had been

anticipated by Malone.

* * * * *

"That she did give me, whose--poësy was

--For all the world like cutler's poetry

Upon a knife--_Love me and leave me not_."

By punctuating thus, we need not read, with Steevens, '_to_ me.'

* * * * *

"Or your own honour to contain the ring."

It might be better, with Pope, to read _retain_. (See on Two Gent. v.

4, _ad fin._)

* * * * *

"In summer where the ways are fair enough."

The usual confusion of _where_ and _when_.

* * * * *

"Well while I live," etc.

A waggish allusion to a story told by Poggio, Ariosto, Rabelais, La

Fontaine, and Prior. Our poet probably got it from Rabelais, with whom

he was familiar.

AS YOU LIKE IT.

ACT I.

SC. 1. "As I remember, Adam, it was upon this fashion.

_He_ bequeathed me, by will, but poor a thousand crowns,

and as thou sayest," etc.

The 2nd folio reads 'a poor thousand,' but the metre is in favour of

the original reading, and we meet "What poor an instrument" (Ant. and

Cleop. v. 2). It is really surprising to see with what pertinacity

editors reject the necessary word _He_, first supplied by Blackstone.

* * * * *

"Or to speak more properly stays me here at home."

Warburton read _stys_, as in Temp. i. 2, which is certainly more

forcible; but Orlando could not be said to be 'sty'd,' like Caliban.

* * * * *

"If Rosalind, the Duke's daughter, be banished."

Hanmer added _old_ to 'Duke,' which, however, is not necessary.

* * * * *

SC. 2. "_Ros._ My father's love is enough to honour him enough."

_Ros._ should probably be _Cel._ (so also Theobald), and the second

'enough' be rejected.

* * * * *

"Sport? Of what colour?"

The princess here plays on the similarity of sound between _spot_ and

_sport_, pronounced with the _r_ nearly effaced.

* * * * *

"There is such odds in the _man_."

Hanmer properly read _men_.

* * * * *

"Mounsieur the challenger, the princess calls for you.--

I attend them," etc.

Celia had desired Le Beau to call him; Orlando, seeing two princesses,

says 'them'; so the corrections of the critics are needless.

* * * * *

"If you saw yourself with your eyes, or knew yourself with your

judgement."

Warburton ingeniously, but perhaps needlessly, read _our_ for 'your.'

* * * * *

"But justly, as you have exceeded all promise _here_."

Hanmer read '_here_ exceeded.'

* * * * *

"But yet indeed the taller, is his daughter."

For 'taller' Pope read _shorter_, Malone _smaller_, which is the usual

reading, as Rosalind was 'the taller.' I feel, however, almost certain

that the poet wrote '_less_ taller,' and have so printed it. We have,

"Against the envy of _less happier_ lands" (Rich. II. ii. 1), and no

one would object to _more taller_.

* * * * *

SC. 3. "Not a word!--No, not one to throw at a dog."

The 'No,' it will be seen, was transferred to the beginning of the next

speech, where it was not wanted; while both sense and metre require it

here.

* * * * *

"No, some of it for my child's father."

Rowe properly read 'father's child.' Sense, taste, and delicacy, alike

commend this simple and natural transposition. Some editors, however,

think otherwise.

* * * * *

"Mistress, dispatch you with your safest haste."

For 'safest' Collier's folio reads _fastest_; we might also read, with

Singer, _swiftest_, like "_swiftest_ expedition" (Two Gent. iii. 1);

"in all _swift haste_" (Tr. and Cr. i. 1). But it is not necessary to

alter the text; for _safe_ is, sure, certain, a sense which it retains

in the Midland counties. "To take the safest occasion by the front"

(Oth. iii. 2).

* * * * *

"Which teacheth thee, that thou and I am one."

Such was the structure of the time. "My thoughts and I _am_ for this

other element" (Jonson, Cynthia's Revels, i. 1). It was the same in

French:

"Ni la mort ni vous-même

Ne me _ferez_ jamais prononcer que je l'aime."

Racine, Bajazet, iv. 1.

ACT II.

SC. 1. "Here feel we not the penalty of Adam,

The season's difference," etc.

As the Duke proceeds to show that he _did_ feel this difference, the

text cannot be right. Critics, therefore, for 'not' read _but_, as

these words were frequently confounded by the printers. But then a

question arises, was 'the season's difference' any part of 'the penalty

of Adam.' In Scripture that penalty was "in the sweat of thy face shalt

thou eat bread;" and this was the very penalty that the Duke and his

friends did not feel; for we have just been told of them (i. 1) that

"they fleet away the time carelessly, as they did in the Golden World."

Further, it does not appear that any writer anterior to Milton made

the Ovidian change of seasons a part of Adam's penalty. The text may

therefore be right, and a line, something like this, have been lost,

"Here is no toil; we have only to endure"

* * * * *

"I would not change it."

Upton, most properly, made this the conclusion of the Duke's speech.

(See on W. T. v. 1)

* * * * *

"First for his weeping into the needless stream."

Pope's change of 'into' to _in_ has been generally followed, but

without the slightest reason, by the decasyllabists. I am almost

ashamed to say that I have joined them from pure inadvertence.

* * * * *

"Left and abandon'd of his velvet friends."

* * * * *

"The body of _the_ country, city, court."

The 2nd folio supplied _the_.

* * * * *

"Send to his brother's; fetch that gallant hither."

* * * * *

SC. 3. "When service should in my old limbs lie lame,

And unregarded age in corners thrown."

There is either a line lost after these, or we should read '_be_

in corners thrown,' as I have done. The omission of _be_ was not

infrequent.

* * * * *

"The constant service of the antique world,

When service sweat for duty not for meed."

The 'service' in the first line arose from that in the second (See

Introd. p. 64). I read _fashion_; Collier's folio has _favour_.

* * * * *

"From seventy years, till now almost fourscore."

Such is the reading of the folio--a convincing proof of how little the

old printers are to be relied on. Editors, without exception, read

_seventeen_.

* * * * *

SC. 4. "O Jupiter, how weary are my spirits!"

'Weary' is Warburton's correction of _merry_ of the folio.

* * * * *

"I pray you bear with me; I cannot go no further."

For 'cannot' the 2nd folio has _can_, the usual reading. Yet I doubt if

the change was needed.

* * * * *

"From whom I took two cods."

Johnson read, as every man of sense would read, _peas_ for 'cods.' I

have just shown the origin of the change.

* * * * *

SC. 5. "And turn his merry note."

We still say _turn a tune_ and a _note_. Pope, then, was wrong in

reading _tune_ for 'turn.' "When threadbare Martial _turns his merry

note_" (Hall. Sat. vi. 1) was probably in the poet's mind.

* * * * *

SC. 7. "Doth very foolishly, although he smart,

_Not to_ seem senseless of the bob."

Both sense and metre demand this addition of Theobald's, whom all

editors follow. We have the very same omission in

"Yet if it be your wills _not to_ forgive

The sin I have committed, let it not fall," etc.

Philaster, ii. 4.

where none of the editors have perceived the loss.

* * * * *

"Why who cries out on pride."

There is something wanting here; for in this play the speeches never

begin thus with a short line. It is evident also that it is one

kind of pride, that of dress, that is spoken of. I therefore read

without hesitation 'pride of _bravery_,' and, three lines further on,

_wearer's_ for 'weary,' in which I had been anticipated by Singer.

* * * * *

"Of what kind should this cock come of."

This seems to be a third instance of effacement in a single page of the

MS. I would add _I marvel_.

* * * * *

"And take upon command what help we have."

"And in his room not only to eat his fill, but _be the lord_ of the

feast." (Lodge, Rosalynde, p. 53.) "They covet not their neighbours'

goods; but _command_ all that is their neighbours' as their own." (MS.,

1559, _ap._ Froude, Hist. of Eng. viii. 3.)

* * * * *

"_And_ then the whining schoolboy."

This is a proper addition of Pope's.

ACT III.

SC. 2. "Here comes young master Ganymede, my new mistress['s]

brother."

Though it stands thus in the folio, metre and the usage of the time

reject the _s_.

* * * * *

"But the fair of Rosalind."

We might read 'fair _face_,' or, with Rowe, _face_ for 'fair'; which

last, however, is the same as fairness; so no change is needed.

* * * * *

"Winter'd garments must be lined."

The 3rd folio properly reads _Winter_.

* * * * *

"Why should this desert be?"

Rowe read '_a_ desert'; Tyrwhitt '_silent_ be.' I rather prefer the

latter; but it is against it that, excepting in one of the following

and the six last lines, the first foot is always monosyllabic. I have

therefore followed Rowe.

* * * * *

"Or at every sentence end."

For 'Or' I read _And_. (See Note at end of Samson Agonistes in my

Edition of Milton's Poems.)

* * * * *

"It may well be called Jove's tree when it drops forth fruit."

The 2nd folio reads 'forth _such_; Capell read _such_ for 'forth.'

Perhaps the first is to be preferred; yet I find I have followed Capell

in my Edition.

* * * * *

"_Make_ me believe it! You may as soon make her."

Surely the passage thus gains not only in metre, but in spirit.

* * * * *

SC. 3. "By so much is a horn more precious than to want."

There is apparently an aposiopesis here.

* * * * *

"Leave me not behind thee, _prythee_."

Both rime and metre require this addition; yet none of the critics has

made it.

* * * * *

SC. 4. "Breaks his staff like a noble goose."

Singer, very unnecessarily and most tamely, reads _notable_ for

'noble.' Printing from his edition, I have heedlessly followed him in

mine.

* * * * *

"Bring us _un_to this sight, and you shall say."

* * * * *

SC. 5. "Than he that dies and lives by bloody drops."

It is quite impossible that this line in its present form could have

come from the pen of the poet. He must have seen the absurdity of dying

before living, and he could have had no motive for departing from the

universal form "live and die," as in "I could live and die in the eyes

of Troilus" (Tr. and Cr. i. 2). If we then transpose, and take 'by'

in the sense of beside, near, in contact with (Index _s. v._), we get

excellent sense. 'Dies,' however, may be a printer's error for some

other verb--_sheds_ perhaps; and then 'by' may be taken in its ordinary

sense. I had also, like Heath, conjectured '_daily_ lives.'

* * * * *

"The cicatrice and capable impression."

For 'capable' Singer's and Collier's folio read _palpable_; I have

followed them.

"Nor I am sure there is no force in eyes

That can do hurt to any _one_.--O! dear Phebe."

For 'Nor' we might perhaps better read _And_. (See my note on Sam.

Agon., 1692.) Still no change is needed.

* * * * *

"That you insult and exult all at once

Over the wretched? What! though you have no beauty."

The transposition in the first line removes all necessity for

correction. Strange that the critics should not have thought of it!

In my Edition the transposition is, "That you insult and all at once

exult," which is wrong; but it is there corrected. By reading 'What!'

the difficulty found here by critics is removed.

* * * * *

"That the old Carlot once was master of."

In the folio 'Carlot' is printed as a proper name, and it may be the

Spanish _Carloto_. No such substantive as 'carlot' is known.

* * * * *

"He is fallen in love with your foulness, and she'll."

For 'she' we should, I think, read, as I have done, _you_.

* * * * *

"_I_ have more cause to hate him than to love him."

The _I_ was supplied in the 2nd folio.

ACT IV.

SC. 1. "And the foolish chroniclers of the age found it was--Hero

of Sestos."

The use of the word 'found' proves that Hanmer's reading _coroners_ is

right. In Twelfth Night (i. 5) the coroner is said to sit on a drowned

man.

* * * * *

"That cannot make her fault her husband's occasion."

This seems to mean occasioned, caused by her husband. Or we may read,

with Hanmer, _accusation_. I find I have done so, but doubt if I was

justified in so doing.

* * * * *

"I'll go find a shadow and sigh till he come.--And I'll _go_ sleep."

Both sense and metre seem to demand this addition.

* * * * *

SC. 3. "My gentle Phebe did bid me give you this."

Editors, myself included, follow 2nd folio, and omit 'did.' I think we

are wrong.

* * * * *

"Art thou god to shepherd turn'd."

I think we should read '_a_ god.'

* * * * *

"Like a ripe sister, _but_ the woman low."

The necessary insertion was made in the 2nd folio.

* * * * *

"As how I came into that desert place."

There may have been, as Malone thought, a line lost here; but I rather

think it is an aposiopesis.

ACT V.

SC. 2. "_Her_ sudden consenting, but say with me."

Rowe supplied _Her_.

* * * * *

"All purity, all trial, all observance."

As 'observance' is the word in the riming line, Collier's folio and

Malone read _obedience_; Heath _perseverance_; Harness and Singer, whom

I find I have followed, _endurance_.

* * * * *

"Why do you speak too?"

I quite agree with those who read, with Rowe, _Who_ and _to_.

* * * * *

SC. 3. "Yet the note was very untuneable."

Theobald read _untimeable_, as the reply is "we kept time;" but, as

_time_ and _tune_ were synonymous, there seems to be no need of change.

* * * * *

SC. 4. "As those that fear they hope and know they fear."

To give sense here, I read 'the_ir_ hope' and 'the_ir_ fear,' and for

'know' _hope_. In the change of 'they' to _their_ I find I had been

anticipated by Heath. The thought is the same as in "In these feared

hopes." (Cymb. ii. 4). The printer having made 'they hope,' in order

to get some sense, changed the following 'hope' to _know_, no unusual

practice. Yet Mr. Dyce says, "I believe that the line now stands as

Shakespeare wrote it." Coleridge thus expresses the same thought:

"And Fears self-willed, that shunned the eye of Hope;

And Hope that scarce would know itself from Fear."

* * * * *

"That thou mightest join his hand in his

Whose heart within his bosom is."

Editors read _her_ for 'his' in both lines. The first change, made in

the 3rd folio, is necessary; the second, made by Malone, not so.

* * * * *

"And all their lands restored to him again."

For 'him' editors very properly, following Rowe, read _them_; in MS.

probably _'em_.

* * * * *

EPILOGUE.

"I make _my_ court_e_sy, bid me farewell."

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

ACT I.

SC. 1. "Is it possible Disdain should die while she hath such meet

food to feed it as Signior Benedick?"

For 'it' we should probably read _her_, or rather _on_.

* * * * *

"Scratching could not make it worse, or 'twere such a face as

yours" [were].

The 'were' was probably suggested by the preceding ''twere.'

* * * * *

SC. 2. "This be true. Go you and tell her of it."

The metre requires '_should_ be.'

* * * * *

SC. 3. "There is no measure in the occasion that heeds _it_."

ACT II.

SC. 1. _Bene._ "Well I would you did like me."

It should be _Balt._ here and in the next two speeches.

* * * * *

"Which I mistrusted not. Farewell, therefore, Hero!"

Collier's folio reads needlessly '_then_, Hero.'

* * * * *

"It is the base, though bitter disposition of Beatrice."

For 'though,' which can hardly be right, the usual reading is _the_,

the correction of Johnson, which is very good; the words were easily

confounded, especially when _though_ was written _tho'_.

* * * * *

"That I stood like a man at a mark, with a whole army shooting at me."

We should expect _him_; but 'me' may have been the poet's word. For the

first 'at' we might perhaps read _as_.

* * * * *

"All that Adam had left him before he transgressed."

There must certainly be an error either in 'left' or in 'before.'

For the latter we might read _after_; for the former perhaps _lent_

or _about_. I think the true reading is _lent_, in which I had been

anticipated by Collier's folio. _Lend_ was constantly used in the sense

of give. "I can _lend_ you letters to divers officers," etc. (Jonson,

Every Man out, etc. iii. 1.) It is not quite out of use yet.

* * * * *

"County Claudio, when mean you go to church?"

For 'County,' which occurs nowhere else in the play, I read _Count_,

which also suits the metre.

* * * * *

SC. 2. "Hear me call Margaret Hero; hear Margaret term me Claudio."

The poet no doubt wrote 'Claudio' here; but from what precedes it

certainly should have been _Borachio_. These slips were not at all

unusual with him.

* * * * *

SC. 3. "We'll fit the hid fox with a pennyworth."

The originals read '_kid_-fox'; but his hiding had just been mentioned,

and the name of the game probably alluded to was Hide Fox. Warburton

made the correction.

* * * * *

"Since many a lover doth commence his suit _thus_."

Something seems evidently wanting for the sense.

* * * * *

"Notes, notes, forsooth, and noting!"

Theobald's correction; the old copies have _nothing_.

* * * * *

"O, ay. Stalk on; stalk on; the fowl sits."

Perhaps for the sake of metre _yonder_ should be added.

* * * * *

"Beats her heart, tears her hair, prays, curses, O sweet Benedick!"

I agree with Collier's folio and Singer in reading _cries_ for

'curses,' which was suggested by 'prays.'

* * * * *

"My lord, will you walk _in_? dinner is ready."

* * * * *

"And virtuous; 'tis so, I cannot reprove it."

It would perhaps be better to read '_dis_prove it.'

* * * * *

"And choke a daw withal."

Collier's folio reads '_not_ choke'; but it is dubious.

ACT III.

SC. 1. "Good Margaret, run thee _in_ to the parlour."

Pope read '_in_to.'

* * * * *

"Whisper her ear and tell her I and Ursula."

There has probably been an omission of _in_ before 'her.'

* * * * *

"No, not to be so odd and from all fashions."

The proper word is _nor_, as Capell also saw.

* * * * *

SC. 2. "Well, every one can master a grief, but he that has it."

Both folio and 4to read 'can_not_' for 'can,' Pope's correction.

* * * * *

"As a German from the waist downward all slops, and a Spaniard from

the hip upward no doublet."

This is only in 4to, 1600. We should probably read, as Mason also did,

'_all_ doublet.'

* * * * *

"He is no fool for fancy as you would have it to appear he is."

For 'fool' we should perhaps read _food_.

* * * * *

"She shall be buried with her face upwards."

That is, like everybody else. Theobald read _heels_ for face, quoting,

"Whilst I have meat and drink love cannot starve me;

For if I die of the first fit I am unhappy,

And worthy _to be buried with my heels upward_;"

(Fletcher, Wild-goose Chase, i. 3)

while Mason proposed _feet_. But Singer says, referring to Winter's

Tale, iv. 3, that the meaning is, she shall be buried _in her lover's

arms_; and I think there _is_ a waggish allusion to nuptial joys.

ACT IV.

SC. 1. "Out on thee, seeming! I will write against it,

You seem to me as Dian in her orb."

For 'thee' we should, I think, read _thy_ or _this_, as they were

pronounced alike, and for 'seem' _seem'd_, for the same reason.' (See

Introd. p. 52.) Pope also read _thy_, and Hanmer _seem'd_.

* * * * *

"But if all aim but this be levell'd false."

I would read _in_; for 'but,' suggested by 'But,' makes nonsense. I

have, however, made no change in my Edition.

ACT V.

SC. 1. "And bid him speak of patience _to me_."

* * * * *

"And sorrow wag, cry Hem! when he should groan."

For 'wag,' which gives no sense, I would read _sway_, which gives most

excellent sense.

"For Affection,

Mistress of passion, _sways_ it."

Mer. of Ven. iv. 1.

"You _sway_ the motion of Demetrius' heart."

M. N. D. i. 1.

"The will of man is by his reason _sway'd_."

Ib. ii. 2.

"Our own stars all our fortunes,

Which, as we _sway_ 'em, to abuse or bless us."

Fletch. Chances, ii. 3.

It seems evident that the initial _s_ of _sway_ was effaced, a thing

not unusual. As to the change of _y_ to _g_, I lately read a work on

South America, in which the well-known name _Almagro_ was invariably

printed _Almayro_. 'Cry Hem!' may mean, use the language of rakish

youths; "Our watch-word was, Hem boys!" (2 Hen. IV. iii. 2).

* * * * *

"Some of us would lie low.--Who _is it_ wrongs him?"

* * * * *

"Gentlemen both, we will not wake your patience."

The meaning of 'wake' is not clear; perhaps we should read _task_.

Hanmer read _rack_; Talbot _waste_.

* * * * *

"I cannot bid you bid my daughter live."

A printer's error, probably caused in the usual way. We might better

read _make_, though 'bid' makes sense. 'Can I _make men live_ whe'r

they will or no?' (2 Hen. VI. iii. 3.)

* * * * *

"I do embrace your offer, and dispose

From henceforth of poor Claudio."

It would seem that something had been lost at the end, the speech

terminates so abruptly. We might supply _at your pleasure_.

* * * * *

"Have you been deceived; _for_ they swore you did."

Mr. Dyce would read '_for_ they _did swear_'; but the two _did_s rather

offend the ear.

* * * * *

"Brave punishments for him. _Come_, strike up, piper."

MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.

ACT I.

SC. 1. "The Council shall hear _of_ it; it is a riot."

The metre requires _of_, which makes the expression more idiomatic. Sir

Hugh naturally omits it.

* * * * *

"And I thank you always with my heart la!"

The folio reads '_love_ you'; the correction is Farmer's. So also in

Shallow's next speech.

* * * * *

SC. 3. "The good humour is to steal at a minute's rest."

As "_minim's_ rest" occurs in Rom. and Jul. ii. 1, Langton and

Collier's folio would so read here; but it may be, and probably is, a

mere blunder of Nym's.

* * * * *

"He hath studied her well, and translated her well."

The folio reads _will_; in both places the 4tos have 'well' in the

first, and omit it in the last.

* * * * *

"Hold, sirrah, bear you these _two_ letters tightly."

* * * * *

"For the revolt of mine is dangerous."

For 'the' we must, with Pope, read _this_. We have, "For this revolt of

thine" (Hen. V. ii. 1). Theobald, whom some critics follow, read _mien_

for 'mine,' which I utterly reject. (See on Two Gent. ii. 4.) I do not

think 'revolt' occurs anywhere in the sense of mere change.

ACT II.

SC. 1. "What! have _I_ scaped love-letters in the holiday-time of

my beauty?"

_I_ is the insertion of the 2nd folio; and is perhaps not absolutely

necessary, as we might put a (!) after 'beauty.'

* * * * *

"For though Love use Reason as his precision."

For 'precision,' which gives but poor sense, we should adopt, as I have

done, Johnson's conjecture, _physician_:

"My reason the _physician_ to my love." Son. cxlvii.

* * * * *

"I'll exhibit a bill in Parliament for the putting down of men."

Theobald's reading, '_fat_ men' has been generally and properly

adopted. There is a similar omission of _fat_ in 1 Hen. IV. ii. 2. In

the 4to she says, "Well, I shall trust _fat_ men the worse while I live

for his sake."

* * * * *

"Will you go, An-heires?"

This is mere nonsense. Boaden's conjecture, _Cavalieres_, adopted by

Singer and myself, seems to be very good; it might easily, with a

little effacement, have been mistaken by the printer. We might also,

and still better I think, read _on heróes_, as this last word was thus

pronounced at times by Spenser, Chapman, and others; and we have,

"Noble heróes, my sword and yours are kin" (All's Well, ii. 1). The

metre excludes _héroes_. Theobald, followed by Dyce, read _mynheers_,

not a Shakespearian term; Steevens _on hearts_; Malone _and hear us_.

The reading of the 4tos is 'Bully Hector!'

* * * * *

"On his wife's frailty."

Theobald read _fealty_, Collier's folio has _fidelity_. I prefer the

last; but I make no change.

ACT III.

SC. 2. "Give fire, she is my prize."

Most certainly 'my' should be _thy_; the confusion is common.

* * * * *

SC. 3. "Cried Game? said I well?"

Mr. Douce, Mr. Dyce, and myself, all independently corrected 'Cried

I _aim_?' and Warburton had proposed _Cry aim_. The correction might

therefore appear to be certain; and yet I am dubious of it. 'Cried

game' is the reading of the 4tos, as well as of the folio; and as the

first 4to and the folio were printed from independent MSS., it is not

at all likely that two transcribers or printers should have fallen into

the same error. 'Cried Game? said I well?' would suit the abrupt tone

of the Host, and signify, Did I intimate sport?

* * * * *

"Thou hast the right arched beauty of the brow."

The 4to reads _bent_ for 'beauty'; so the right word may be _bend_. I

have given 'bent'.

* * * * *

"By the Lord, thou art a tyrant to say so."

For 'tyrant' the 4tos read _traitor_. I have adopted this reading,

though dubious of its being the best.

* * * * *

"What thou wert if Fortune thy foe were not, Nature _is_."

So also Capell.

* * * * *

"I love thee, and none but thee."

The metre proves this to be the right text.

* * * * *

"So, now uncape."

I think Hanmer was right in reading _uncouple_; for 'uncape,' as a

term of the chase, is unknown. The final letters of _uncouple_ had

probably been effaced in the MS.

* * * * *

SC. 4. "Farewell, gentle Mistress _Page_. Färewell, Nan."

Both sense and metre gain, I think, by this addition. Policy, if

nothing else, should make Fenton return the farewell of Mrs. Page.

Capell read '_my_ gentle.'

* * * * *

"A fool and a physician."

We should certainly read with Hanmer _or_ for 'and.'

* * * * *

SC. 5. "As they'd have drowned a bitch's blind puppies."

The original copies read 'a blind bitch's'; Hanmer made the obvious

transposition.

ACT IV.

SC. 2. "Your husband is in his old _lunes_ again."

The folio has _lines_. Theobald made the correction. See W. T. ii. 2.

* * * * *

"Good gentlemen, let him _not_ strike the old woman."

The negative was added in the 2nd folio.

* * * * *

SC. 4. "You say he has been thrown into the rivers."

It might be better to read _see_ for 'say.'

* * * * *

"That silk will I go buy. And in that time."

With Mr. Dyce, I adopt Theobald's reading of _tire_ for 'time,' as best

suited to the context.

* * * * *

"And he my husband best of all affects."

If 'husband' be the subject to 'affects,' as I think he is, we should

read _him_. See Introd. p. 52.

* * * * *

SC. 5. "Conceal them or thou diest."

Collier's folio for 'or' reads _and_; but the text is right. Simple had

used 'conceal' in the sense of reveal, and the Host repeats his word.

* * * * *

SC. 6. "The mirth whereof_'s_ so larded with my matter."

ACT V.

SC. 2. "Remember, son Slender, my _daughter_."

The word _daughter_, necessary both for sense and metre, was supplied

by the 2nd folio.

* * * * *

SC. 5. Among the characters given in the heading of this scene, we meet

Mrs. Quickly and Pistol; the 4tos have "Mrs. Quickly, like the Queen

of Fairies," and prefix _Quic._ to the following speeches, and it is

not said that Anne was to assume that character. The folio heads the

speeches with _Qui._ and _Qu._ We may therefore say that the poet was

oblivious when, in iv. 4. 6, he said that Anne should "present the

Fairy Queen;" for throughout she only appears as an ordinary fairy, as

is plain by the mistake made by Caius and Slender. The poet seems to

have confined the speaking to the elder persons.

* * * * *

"You moonshine-revellers, and shades of night,

You orphan-heirs of fixed Destiny."

No one has been able to make any sense of 'orphan-heirs,' which may

therefore be treated as a corruption. Warburton read '_ouphen_-heirs,'

which Singer adopts; but there is no such word as _ouphen_. My own

opinion is that the poet wrote _ouphes and_ heirs; and as in general

the _d_ in _and_ is not pronounced, even before vowels, and the _ou_

might easily be mistaken for _or_, the printer made _orphan_. The line,

we may see, thus forms a parallel to the preceding line. The poet seems

to have used 'heirs' in the sense of children. In Fletcher's Mad Lover

we have,

"Coarse and base appetites, earth's mere inheritors,

And _heirs_ of idleness and blood." (ii. 1.)

In favour of my reading, it may be observed that in iv. 4 and in the

following speeches the Ouphes occur, as well as the Elves and Fairies,

and nowhere else in Shakespeare.

* * * * *

"Elves list your names. Silence, you airy toyès.

Cricket to Windsor chimneys shalt thou leap;

What fires thou findest unraked and hearths unswept."

The rime shows that 'toyès' is a dissyllable. In 'unswept' the _t_

should not be sounded, and, I think, not be printed. _Unswep_ is

merely the apocopated part, of which examples are so numerous in our

language; it is like _kep_, _crep_, etc., which, though regarded now as

vulgarisms, are grammatically correct. Collier's folio, followed by Mr.

Collier and others, reads '_when_ thou_'st_ leap_'d_,' a mere result of

ignorance of grammar.

* * * * *

"And turn him to no pain."

From what precedes, we might conjecture _burn_.

* * * * *

"To repay that money will be a biting affliction."

I have, after Theobald, added here from the 4tos the following lines,

of which, however, he did not give the last:--

"_Mrs. Ford._ Nay, husband, let that go to make amends,

Forgive that sum and so we'll all be friends.

_Ford._ Well, here's my hand; all is forgiven at last.

_Fal._ It hath cost me well. I've been well pinch'd and wash'd."

The play is thus made to end more agreeably, and Falstaff can accept

the invitation to supper with a better grace. These lines, it is true,

rime, and so are not quite in harmony with the other speeches, whence

it seems to follow that the omission was made by the poet. But his

judgement in this case must have fallen asleep; for Ford had no right

to be so hard on the poor knight, as he had given him the money, or

rather we might say forced it on him. As to the rime, we have two other

couplets toward the end of the play.

TWELFTH NIGHT.

ACT I.

SC. 1. "Oh! it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound

That breathes upon a bank of violets."

As a sound breathing is pure nonsense, Pope read _south_ for 'sound';

and, with the exception of Mr. Knight and Mr. Staunton, all the

editors, I believe, have followed him. Yet even this correction does

not remove the difficulty, for _south_ alone, no more than _north_,

_east_, or _west_, is never used of the wind. It seems to me then that

the poet wrote _south wind_, and as the _th_ was usually suppressed

in _south_, _north_, etc., as _sou'-west_, _sou'-east_, the printer

pronounced _sou wind_ or, it may be, _sou 'ind_, which easily became

'sound' in his mind, and so he printed it. (See Introd. p. 67.) It is

rather remarkable that this very correction is made by an _Anon._ in

the Cambridge Shakespeare. The same idea, I may observe, occurs in the

Antonio and Mellida of Shakespeare's contemporary, Marston (Act I.):

"Smile heaven and softest southern wind

Kiss her cheek gently with perfumed breath."

Both were probably indebted to "Her breath is more sweet than a gentle

south-west wind, that comes creeping over flowery fields and shadowed

waters" in Sidney's Arcadia. For a similar omission of _wind_, see on

Temp. i. 2.

* * * * *

"So please _you_, my lord, I might not be admitted."

* * * * *

"The element itself, till seven years heat _'em_,

Shall not behold her face at ample view."

That is, not for seven summers, possibly with an allusion to racing,

as in Win. Tale, i. 2. As the element is the sky, the heaven, we might

also read _it_.

* * * * *

"_Of_ her sweet perfections with one self-king."

That is with Love. We might also transpose, but, I think, with a loss

of force. We have an instance of this prefixing of the genitive in

Temp. iii. 3.

* * * * *

SC. 2. "They say she hath abjur'd the company

And sight of men."

This is the judicious transposition of Theobald. The folio has 'sight'

in the first, 'company' in the second line, to the manifest injury of

the metre.

* * * * *

SC. 3. "_Castiliano vulgo!_ for here comes Sir Andrew Aguecheek."

Warburton's conjecture of _volto_ for 'vulgo' is ingenious, and may be

right, meaning putting on a grave countenance, like a Castilian.

* * * * *

"An thou let _her_ part so sir Andrew."

It was left to the 3rd folio to supply the needful _her_.

* * * * *

"Thou seest it will not curl by nature."

Theobald's indubitable emendation of 'cool my nature' of the folio.

* * * * *

"In a flame-coloured stock."

This is Pope's correction of 'dam'd coloured' of the folio. Knight

reads _damask_; Collier's folio _dun_, which is very bad indeed. We

meet in other dramatists with _straw-_, _peach-_, _carnation-colour'd_

stocks. It is perhaps impossible to recover the right word, yet I

see little objection to _flame-colour_; for if we suppose _flame_

pronounced as in Latin and French (see Introd. p. 74), _flame-coloured_

might easily become 'damn'd (pr. _dam_) coloured' in the printer's

mind. In confirmation we have elsewhere in the folio '_scar_-crow,' not

'_scare_-crow,' and other like words.

* * * * *

SC. 4. "Is as the maiden's organ, shrill and sound;

And all is semblative a woman's part."

I have read '_in_ sound'; for _and_ and _in_ are perpetually

confounded. I also read 'semblative _to_.'

* * * * *

SC. 5. "Of fools _to be_ no better than the fools' zanies."

So also Capell.

* * * * *

"At your door like a sheriff's post, and be the supporter

Of a bench."

For 'and' I read _or_, and so did Hanmer.

* * * * *

"If you be not mad, begone; if you have reason, be brief."

Mason omitted the negative, but perhaps needlessly.

* * * * *

_Oli._ "Tell me your mind.--_Vio._ I am a messenger..."

This is Warburton's arrangement, the folio giving the whole to Viola.

(See on Meas. for Meas. ii. 3.) I have added the sign of the break,

which seems necessary.

* * * * *

"Look you, sir; such one I was, _as_ this present.... Is it not

well done?"

By reading and pointing thus we get most excellent sense, and increase

the vivacity and humour of the passage. Mason, whom Singer follows,

read "_as_ this presents," which no doubt may be right, but is far less

effective.

* * * * *

"With adorations, _with_ fertile tears."

See Introd. p. 55.

* * * * *

"The countes man, he left this ring behind him."

Capell, who is invariably followed, made it _county's_. I, however,

read, as in iii. 3, 'count _his_.' With one exception (Mer. of Ven. i.

2), _County_ is peculiar to Romeo and Juliet; formosissima in Much Ado,

ii. 1, we should, I think, read _Count_.

ACT II.

SC. 2. "She took the ring of me; I'll none of it."

As it is evident from Malvolio's reply that this was not what Viola

said, the negative may have been omitted here, as in so many other

places; Malone read '_no_ ring.' Singer retains the reading of the

folio, saying that Viola fibs to "avoid betraying the weakness of

Olivia to her steward."

* * * * *

"That methought _that_ her eyes had lost her tongue."

The 2nd folio read 'That _sure_ methought.'

* * * * *

"Alas! our frailty is the cause, not we;

For such as we are made, if such we be."

For 'if,' which is undoubtedly wrong, Tyrwhitt, followed by Steevens

and others, read _of_, which would seem to be confirmed by,

"For we are soft, as our complexions are."

M. for M. ii. 4.

"Such as our atoms were, even such are we."

Dryden, Wife of Bath's Tale.

I have printed my own conjecture _e'en_. Hanmer read _ev'n_, and yet

Tyrrwhitt probably was right, _frailty_ being meant.

* * * * *

"And I, poor monster, fond as much on him;

And she, mistaken, seems to doat on me."

I quite agree with Mr. Dyce in reading _As_ for 'And' in the second

line. These words are confounded even at the present day.

* * * * *

SC. 3. "I had such a leg; and so sweet a breath to sing."

I suspect 'leg'; for what has it to do here? and Sir Andrew had already

praised his own leg.

* * * * *

SC. 4. "_Go_ seek him out, and play the tune the while."

* * * * *

"More longing, wavering, sooner lost and worn."

In Mer. of Ven. i. 4, the folio reads 'well-_worn_ thrift' for the

'well-_won_ thrift' of the 4to. Hanmer was therefore right in reading

here _won_, the usual concomitant of 'lost.'

* * * * *

"Give me now leave to leave thee."

As it is the Clown that goes away, we should perhaps transpose the

pronouns, 'Give' being I give. Mr. Dyce, however, says the text is

right, it being "a courteous form of dismissal," to which explanation I

see no objection.

* * * * *

"It cannot be so answered.--Sooth, but you must."

The reply proves that 'It' should be _I_, as Hanmer corrected.

* * * * *

SC. 5. "Wind up my watch or play with my ... some rich jewel."

This punctuation of Mr. Collier's is excellent.

* * * * *

"Though our silence be drawn from us with cars."

For 'cars we might perhaps read 'car-' or 'cart-_ropes_.' In iii. 1. we

have drawing with "oxen and _wain-ropes_." Hanmer read _by the ears_,

S. Walker _racks_.

* * * * *

"Her _C_s, _U_s, and her _T_s, _and P_s! Why that?"

* * * * *

"Souter will cry upon it, for all this, though it be as rank as a fox."

We should probably read 'be _not_.' Hanmer read _ben't_.

* * * * *

"I will not give my part of this sport," etc.

It might appear better to read _would_; but all is right.

"I will not lose the part I hope to share

In these his fortunes for my patrimony."

Jonson, Sejanus, v. 10.

ACT III.

SC. 1. "And fools are as like _to_ husbands as pilchards are to

herrings."

It might be better to omit the second 'are.'

* * * * *

"And _not_ like the haggard cheek at every feather."

The negative is absolutely necessary. Collier's folio, Johnson, and

Dyce, read '_Not_ like'; but 'And' should be retained.

* * * * *

"But wise men's folly fallen quite taint their wit."

So the folio reads; Theobald and Tyrwhitt 'wise men folly-fallen.' I

agree with them, and have so printed it. Some read 'taints.'

* * * * *

"I mean to go _in_, sir, to enter."

* * * * *

"Hideth my heart. So, let me hear you speak."

The usual reading is 'Hides my _poor_ heart'; but this simple change,

made also by Delius, fully restores the metre. The printer may,

however, have substituted 'Hides' for _conceals_ or _covers_.

* * * * *

"Do not extort thy reasons from this clause."

Perhaps for 'thy' we should read _my_.

* * * * *

SC. 2. "Did she see _thee_ the while, old boy?"

The 3rd folio first added _thee_.

* * * * *

"Challenge me the Count's youth to fight with him."

I think 'him' should be _thee_. Ritson read _you_.

* * * * *

SC. 3. "And thanks, and ever _thanks_. Good turns oft."

Here we have an instance of the advantage of transposition, for the

folio has "oft good turns." 'Turns' is a dissyllable. Theobald read

'_thanks, and_ oft.'

* * * * *

"For which if I be lapsed in this place."

We should surely read _latched_, i.e. caught, taken. See on M. N. D.

iii. 2. Mr. Hunter, I find, read as I do.

* * * * *

SC. 4. "He's coming, madam, but in _a_ very strange manner."

* * * * *

"No dram of a scruple, no scruple of a scruple."

Surely the poet's word must have been _ounce_ for the last 'scruple.'

* * * * *

"He is a knight, dubbed with unhatched rapier."

Malone proposed '_an_ hatched,' and he was probably right.

* * * * *

"Ay, is it, I warrant him. Do but read _it_."

* * * * *

"That, honour sav'd, _I_ may upon asking give."

ACT IV.

SC. 3. "Yet there he was, and there I found this credite_d_."

So it is in the folio, with the omission of the last letter, which had

either been effaced in the MS. or was left out by the printer. Mason

seems also to have seen the truth: yet no one followed him!

* * * * *

"That my most jealous and too doubtful soul

May live at peace. He shall conceal it,

Whiles you are willing it shall come to note."

The second line is imperfect. In my Edition I added _still_ (printed,

or perhaps written, _till_), and we might also read _closely_ or

_truly_, i.e. faithfully. 'Whiles' is to be understood as till whiles.

(See Index _s. v._) We might also end the line with it, and begin the

next with _That_; as _while_ and _whiles that_ occur in Chaucer,

Golding, and others.

ACT V.

SC. 1. "A bawbling vessel was he captain of."

We should perhaps read 'bauble-vessel,' as in Tr. and Cr. i. 3.

* * * * *

"Then he's a rogue and a passy-measures panyn."

The 2nd folio, which is generally followed, reads _pavin_, which is a

dance, and so could hardly be used of a man.

* * * * *

"First told me thou wast mad. Then cam'st in smiling,

And in such forms which here were presuppos'd

Upon thee in the letter."

For 'Then' I read '_Thou_.' (Introd. p. 68.) Theobald read 'cam'st

_thou_.' In the next line we should probably read _as_ for 'which.'

* * * * *

"Of our dear souls. Meantime, sweet sister."

We might read '_In the_ meantime,' but there is no necessity whatever

for change.

MEASURE FOR MEASURE.

ACT I.

SC. 1. "Since I am put to know that your own science

Exceeds in that the lists of all advice

My strength can give you."

I know of no meaning 'put' has in English that will make any sense

here. We must, then, regard it as a misprint; and as a negative

is plainly wanting, I read _not yet_, the negative being, as so

frequently, omitted, and 'put' printed for _yet_. "Why, brother Rivers,

are you yet to learn?" (3 H. VI. iv. 4.) Pope read _not_ for 'put.'

* * * * *

"But that to your sufficiency as

Your worth is able * * *"

It is quite evident that part of a line has been lost. The numerous

corrections attempted here may be seen in the Cambridge Edition. I

supply _you add diligence_.

* * * * *

"Hold therefore, Angelo, _thy deputation_."

Something was surely lost here; and as Angelo is constantly called the

Deputy, _deputation_ (which occurs a few lines higher) seems to be the

missing word.

* * * * *

SC. 2. "I grant as there may between the list[s] and the velvet."

* * * * *

"And which is more, within these three days his head'_s_ to be

chopped off."

* * * * *

SC. 3. "Only for propagation of a dower

Remaining in the coffer of her friends."

For 'propagation' Malone would read _prorogation_; but the text seems

to be right, as 'propagation' was used in the sense of extension,

increase.

"All kinds of natures

That labour on the bosom of this sphere

To _propagate_ their states."--Timon, i. 1.

"Griefs of my own lie heavy in my breast,

Which thou wilt _propagate_, to have it press'd,

With more of thine."--Rom. and Jul. i. 1.

"To give thanks to the gods of Rome,

That for the _propagation_ of the empire

Vouchsafe us one to govern it like themselves."

Massinger, Rom. Actor. i. 3.

And portions--as we learn by Sir Moth Interest in Jonson's Magnetic

Lady--used to double in seven years. The same play would also justify

Malone's reading, as guardians were not always willing to part with

dowers in their hands. Perhaps for 'of _a_ dower' we should read 'of

_her_ dower,' for the _h_ in _her_ not being pronounced, and the _r_

but slightly, the printer might easily make the mistake; so also

'coffer' should probably be 'coffers.'

* * * * *

SC. 4. "For terror not to use, in time the rod

More mock'd than fear'd, so our decrees

Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead."

In the second line _Becomes_ was added by Pope, or rather by Davenant,

and it has been adopted by subsequent editors. Yet the poet may have

written, and I think did write, 'the rod _is_' and 'More mocked _at_.'

* * * * *

"And yet my nature never in the fight _have_

To do in slander."

* * * * *

"How I may formally in person bear _me_."

* * * * *

"Only this one _now_: Lord Angelo is precise."

* * * * *

SC. 5. "Sir, make me not your story."

For 'story' Singer would read _sport_; but 'me' may be '_to_ me,' and

her meaning be, seek not to impose on me.

* * * * *

"As those that feed grow full; as blossoming time

That from the seedness the bare fallow brings

To teeming foison ... even so her plenteous womb," etc.

* * * * *

"The Duke, _who_ is very strangely gone from hence,

Bore many gentlemen, myself being one,

In hand and hope of action."

As _in_ and _and_ are so frequently confounded (see on iii. 2 _ad

fin._) I would read _in_ for 'and' in the last line.

ACT II.

SC. 1. "Err'd in this point which now you censure him _for_."

* * * * *

"What's open made

To justice, that justice seizes. What know the laws?"

* * * * *

"Some run from brakes of ice and answer none,

And some _are_ condemn'd for a fault alone."

We have a similar sentiment in Cymb. v. 1. As _of ice_ and _of vice_

are pronounced exactly alike, we may safely assume the latter to be

the true reading. The whole difficulty then lies in 'brakes.' A brake

was certainly, as we are told, a frame to confine restless or vicious

horses in when shoeing; but when it is added that it is also an

instrument of torture, I become somewhat dubious. At any rate no one

would say a rack or a gibbet of vice; so why a brake of vice? I incline

then, but with hesitation, to think that we should read _wreaks o'

vice_. We have "wreak the love" (R. and J. iii. 5); "wreak our wrongs."

(Tit. And. iv. 3.) I put the ambiguous _o'_, because _wreak_ takes _on_

rather than _of_ after it.

* * * * *

"I thought by the readiness in the office, you had," etc.

For 'by the,' the usual correction (which I have followed) is 'by

_your_.' Mr. Collier thinks 'by _this_' might be better; for _this_ and

_your_ were used promiscuously. Either might easily be confounded with

_the_. (See Introd. p. 68.)

* * * * *

SC. 2. "But you might do it, and do the world no wrong."

This apparently necessary transposition was made by S. Walker. The

folio reads "But might you."

* * * * *

"May call it _back_ again. Well, believe this."

Here _back_ is the proper addition made in the 2nd folio.

* * * * *

"Becomes them not with half so fair a grace

As mercy does. If he had been as you,

And you as he, you would have slipped like him,

But he, like you, would not have been so stern."

* * * * *

"Why, all the souls that were were forfeit once."

As the first 'were' may have been caused by the second, I would, like

Warburton, read for it _are_. In "We cannot cross the cause why we were

born" (L. L. L. iv. 3), the folio reads '_are_ born.'

* * * * *

"If the first that did th' edict infringe."

So it stands in the folio, and Pope was, it may be, right in reading

'If the first _man_,' but we might also read, and perhaps better, as I

have done, 'the edict did.'

* * * * *

"Either now, or by remissness new-conceiv'd."

For 'now' I felt inclined to read _new_, with Pope, but I prefer 'now

_born_,' and so I have printed it. (See on All's Well, ii. 3.)

* * * * *

"Are now to have no successive degrees

But here they live to end."

We should for 'here' either read _where_, or better, with Hanmer, _ere_.

* * * * *

"Would use his heaven for thunder; nothing but thunder!

Merciful Heaven!"

* * * * *

"Than the soft _yielding_ myrtle; but man, proud man!"

"That soft and _yielding_ mind should not be in him."

Lyly, Campaspe, ii. 2.

* * * * *

"Most ignorant of what he's most assured _of_."

* * * * *

"Not with fond sickles of the tested gold."

In all the English versions of the Scriptures anterior to the

Authorized one, _sicle_ is the word, from _siclus_ of the Vulgate,

by which the Hebrew _shekel_ is rendered. Shakespeare therefore knew

nothing of this last, and must of course have written _sickle_. Yet

all editors, the Cambridge and myself included, have adopted Pope's

correction, _shekel_, for which all are highly to blame. The word

'tested' proves that Gen. xxiii. 16 was in the poet's mind.

* * * * *

"Would all themselves laugh mortal."

It would be simpler and better to read: "Would laugh themselves all

mortal."

* * * * *

"For I am that way going to temptation,

Where prayers cross.--At what hour to-morrow shall I

Attend your lordship?--At any time fore noon."

* * * * *

"_Heaven_ save your honour!--From thee, even from thy virtue."

* * * * *

SC. 3. "Who, falling in the flaws of her own youth,

Hath blister'd her report."

Editors follow Warburton in reading _flames_ for 'flaws'; but as _flaw_

is defect, weakness, the text may be right. _Flaw_ is also gust, blast

of wind, which also might make some sense here. We should, then,

perhaps read 'flaw.'

* * * * *

"Showing we would not spare Heaven, as we love it,

But as we stand in fear...."

For 'spare' Collier's folio reads _serve_.

* * * * *

"_Jul. May_ grace go with you! _Duke. Benedicite_!"

So Ritson properly arranges. It is evident that the names and _May_,

which I and Steevens have added, were effaced in the MS. In Twelfth

Night (i. 5) we have a similar effacement of names of speakers. In the

following line 'love' should be _law_, a change made by Hanmer.

* * * * *

SC. 4. "Is like a good thing, being often read,

Grown sear'd and tedious."

The folio has '_f_ear'd'; the correction is Warburton's. It is a most

unusual use of 'sear'd' in the sense of dry; _sear_ would seem less

strange. So Heath also thought.

* * * * *

"To thy false seeming.--Blood thou art blood _still_!--

Let us write 'Good Angel' on the Devil's horn,

'Tis not the Devil's crest.... How now! Who's there?"

Pope read '_but_ blood'; Malone '_still_ blood.'

* * * * *

"As to put metal in restricted means."

It might be better to read, with Malone, _moulds_ instead of 'means.'

* * * * *

"_Ha!_ say you so, then I shall pose you quickly."

* * * * *

"Now took your brother's life or to redeem him."

Here 'or' is a correction by Davenant and Rowe of _and_ of the folio.

* * * * *

"'_T_were equal poise of sin and charity."

* * * * *

"If that be sin I'll make it my morn-prayer."

As Shakespeare has used 'morn' elsewhere but once in a compound, it

were better, as the metre requires, to read 'morn_ing_', as Hanmer also

read.

* * * * *

"Or seem so, crafty; and that is not good."

Editors read 'craft_ily_'; we might also read 'seem_ing_.' "Or seeming

so in skill" (Winter's Tale, ii. 1); but no change is necessary. The

folio has 'that's'; hence the reading of the editors, the Cambridge

included.

* * * * *

"Proclaim an enshield beauty."

The word 'enshield' occurs nowhere else. It is of course, as Steevens

says, enshielded, covered with a shield. To this there is no very great

objection; but as elsewhere (Cor. iv. 6) the poet has 'inshell'd,'

_i.e._ covered with a shell, it might be better to read so here also,

as I find Tyrwhitt has done.

* * * * *

"Than beauty could display'd.--But mark me _now_."

So I think we should read, and not 'displayed' and with the metric

accent on 'me.' Perhaps also for 'beauty' we should read _itself_.

* * * * *

"But in the loss of question."

There is no need, with Johnson and others, to change 'loss'; it is

quite correct. (See Index _s. v._ 'Lose.')

* * * * *

"_No._ Ignomy in ransom and free pardon

Are of two houses. Lawful mercy is

Nothing _a_kin to foul redemption."

Sense and metre alike demand the negative, which had evidently been

effaced. Steevens also read '_a_kin.'

* * * * *

"Else let my brother die.--

If not a fedary but only he,

Owe and succeed thy weakness."

"A very obscure passage," says Mr. Dyce, "in which Rowe printed '_by_

weakness,' and Malone proposes '_this_ weakness.' (On 'fedary' see

Richardson's Dictionary, _sub_ Federal.)" And this is all this noted

critic has to say! For my part I do not regard this passage as by any

means past cure, and I think that Warburton came very near the true

sense. The main point is to ascertain the exact meaning of _fedary_.

"_Federy_ and _federary_," says Richardson, "in Shakespeare are the

same word differently written (having no connexion whatever with _Feud_

or _Feudatory_), and signify a colleague, associate, or _confederate_;"

and he refers to Minshew, _s. v._ Feodarie. Now Minshew's words are

"Feodarie _alias_ Feudaris _alias_ Feudatrie, Feudelarius, is an

office authorized by the Master of the Court of Wards and Liveries by

letters patent, and under the seal of that office," etc. Cotgrave has

"A feodarie, _feudal_, _feodal_, _feudataire_;" in both of which places

I think the "connexion with _Feud_ and _feudatory_" is very apparent;

and the last convinces me that a _fedary_ or _feodary_ was a vassal, a

liegeman; and that, I have no doubt, is its sense in this place? and

in Cymb. iii. 2, where it again occurs, as I shall there show. I do

not think Richardson was at all justified in making, as he seems to

do, _fedary_ a different word from _feodary_. There was also _feodar_

a vassal, "For seventeen kings were Carthage _feodars_." (Marston.

Sophon. Prol.) It must strike every one of taste with surprise that

Shakespeare should have written such a leonine verse as

"If not a fedary, but only he."

And further, whether 'fedary' be vassal or confederate, the person

should be mentioned to whom he stood in that relation. In the former

sense--the only true one--that person must be either Heaven or the

Duke, which was omitted by the printer. I am in favour of the former,

both for metre-sake and because we have elsewhere, "The rest of your

_fees_, O Gods! the senators of Athens" (Tim. iii. 5); and "God's

_vassals_ drop and die" (Hen. V. iii. 2). I read thus:--

"We are all frail.--_Isab._ Else let my brother die.--

If not a fedary of _Heaven_, but only he,

Owe and succeed this weakness.... _Ang._ Nay, women are frail too."

Isabella replies at once, fully assenting to Angelo's observation.

After a brief pause, she is proceeding to reason on the subject, when

he interrupts her. We may observe that 'owe' and 'succeed' are legal

terms, which here form a hysteron-proteron, like some other common

phrases. Perhaps, indeed, we might transpose them; for Isabella is

speaking quite calmly and composedly. The change of 'thy' to _this_ is

perfectly legitimate; and _to_ may have been omitted or effaced after

'succeed.'

* * * * *

"Who would believe me? Oh! _these_ perilous mouths!"

The same addition was proposed by Mr. Seymour.

* * * * *

"To such abhorr'd pollution _as this_."

Though this addition is not absolutely necessary, it gives such force

to the sentiment that I willingly believe it may have come from the

poet's pen.

ACT III.

SC. 1. "Servile to all the skyey influences

That dost this habitation, where thou keepest,

Hourly afflict."

No doubt 'dost' may make some sense here, but _do_, or rather, as more

Shakesperian, _doth_, makes far better sense. In Son. xxxix. there is

the very same confusion of _dost_ and _doth_.

* * * * *

"For thy complexion shifts to strange effects."

Johnson read _affects_, which seems to be better.

* * * * *

"And Death unloads thee.--Friend hast thou none."

There might seem to be no need of adding anything here. But we may

see that there is not an end of a paragraph. (See Introd. p. 82.) I

therefore read, 'And Death _in fine_.'

* * * * *

"For all thy blessed youth

Becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms

Of palsied Eld."

No sense has been made of 'as aged,' which may therefore be regarded

as corrupt. As in Tr. and Cr. v. 3, _as lawful_ should be _unlawful_,

I have here read in my Edition _engaged_ (also the reading of Mr.

Staunton) in the sense of dependent, in subjection, the ordinary state

of youth under the authority of parents and elders, depending on them

for money, etc. We might perhaps read _as gaged_ in the same sense, if

we had examples. The Cambridge editors propose _abased_, which is good,

and might easily have become 'as aged.' Possibly the poet wrote _an

abject_, as we have, "We are the Queen's _abjects_" (Rich. III. i. 1),

and "I will make thee stoop, thou _abject_" (Jonson, Ev. Man Out, etc.,

v. 3), "That thou wilt never let me live to be _An abject_" (Chapman,

Hymn to Venus, _v._ 312), "Yea, the very abjects" (Ps. xxxv. 15).

* * * * *

"What is yet in this

That bears the name of life? Yet in this life

Lie hid moe thousand deaths; yet death we fear."

For 'Yet,' caused by the other two, I read _Yea_; for 'moe' _some_, not

_more_, as is usual, and which makes no sense.

* * * * *

"Dear sir, ere long I'll visit thee again."

For 'sir' Mason, with whom I agree, reads _son_. Further on in the

scene the Duke calls him 'son.' (See on Cor. iii. 2.) It was perhaps

the following line that suggested 'sir' to the printer.

* * * * *

"Bring me to hear them speak."

So Steevens read, transposing the 'them' and 'me' of the folio; and

later editors have properly followed him.

* * * * *

"Now, sister, what's the comfort?--

Why, as all comforts are, most good, most good indeed."

This is the proper arrangement. Editors usually omit the first 'most

good,' to get their favourite decasyllabic verse, heedless of the loss

of force.

* * * * *

"Think you I can a resolution fetch

From flowery tenderness?"

It appears to me that a negative is required to make the passage more

correct and natural; and we know how frequently it is omitted in these

plays. Here, however, I think, 'a' has been printed in its place (see

on Twelfth Night, ii. 2), for the compositor probably did not pronounce

the _t_ in 'cannot,' and so made it 'can a.' I therefore read, 'I

cannot resolution fetch.' Heath takes 'Think you' as imperative, not

interrogative, like _Bethink you_.

* * * * *

"Thou art too noble to preserve a life

In base appliances."

It might seem better to read _By_ than 'In'; but it is not safe to

meddle with prepositions. See on iv. 4.

* * * * *

"Nips youth in the head, and follies doth enmew

As falcon doth the fowl."

It is the falcon, not the fowl, that is enmewed. Would that every

correction were as certain as that which I have made here! I read, with

the fullest confidence, _enew_. (See Index _s. v._) It is a most curious

circumstance that in this place of the MS. I unconsciously wrote _bud_

for 'head,' a correction which was afterwards given in Notes and

Queries (3rd S. v. 229), and had, I believe, been previously proposed

by Grey. If 'head' be the right reading, it may signify the state of

bloom. "That unmatch'd form and feature of _blown_ youth" (Ham. iii. 1).

* * * * *

"The prenzie Angelo!--

Oh! 'tis the cunning livery of Hell

The damnedst bodie to invest and cover

In prenzie gardes."

So the passage stands in the folio. As there is no such word known in

English as 'prenzie,' the 2nd folio read _princely_, Hanmer _priestly_,

which Mr. Dyce adopts. I think, however, that the German Tieck hit on

the right word, _precise_, and I have so printed it without hesitation.

We have had already, "Lord Angelo is precise" (i. 4), "is severe" (ii.

1), and "well-seeming" (iii. 1); but it is nowhere said that he was

_princely_ or _priestly_, and surely the guards or bindings of a dress

could hardly be so termed. As to the change of accent, which Mr. Dyce

makes an objection, a reader of our old poets should be ashamed to urge

it, it is of such frequent occurrence, and it occurs more than once

in this very play. In i. 2 we actually have "précise villains," and

"A sort of sober, scurvy, precise neighbours" (Jonson, Alch. i. 1).

(See Introd. p. 80.) I further think we should read 'bodies,' and with

Collier's folio _garbs_, which being spelt _garbes_ differs only in

one letter from 'gardes.' As the latter were mere bindings, edgings,

facings, they could hardly be said to cover a body. The infinitives

'invest' and 'cover' are used (as so frequently) where we now use a

participle with an article. See Introd. p. 70.

* * * * *

"Yes.--Has he affections in him?"

For 'Yes' the metre demands _I will_, as I have printed it. See Introd.

p. 68.

* * * * *

"That age, ache, penury, or imprisonment."

The folio reads _perjury_; 'penury' is the correction of the 2nd folio.

* * * * *

"Stead up your appointment, _and_ go in your place."

* * * * *

SC. 2. "I drink, I eat, array myself, and live."

The folio reads _away_. Theobald's correction, 'array,' is self-evident.

* * * * *

"You will not bail me then, sir? _Neither_ then, Pompey, nor now."

Both metre and sense require _Neither_.

* * * * *

"Ha, what sayest thou, trot?"

I adopt Grey's reading, _to't_ for 'trot.' He has just asked a

question, and he is repeating it.

* * * * *

"I know _of_ none. Can you tell me of any?"

* * * * *

"And that he is a motion generative."

With Theobald I read '_un_generative.'

* * * * *

"Yes, _with_ your beggar of fifty, and his use was."

* * * * *

"And knowledge with dearer love."

The folio has _deare_; the obvious correction is Hanmer's.

* * * * *

"He's now past it, yet."

With Hanmer I read _not_ for 'now.'

* * * * *

"_My lord_, so please you, this friar hath been with him."

The metre requires this addition, which also relieves the Provost's

speech from abruptness.

* * * * *

"Of gracious order, late come from the See."

The folio reads _Sea_. This wrong spelling was not unusual. In King

John (iii. 1) we have 'holy Sea' used of Canterbury. As 'See' never

occurs thus alone, we might read 'the _Holy_ See,' or rather, as I

have done, "the See _of Rome_;" "I Pandulph ... Legate from the See of

Rome." (Old Play of King John.) For a similar effacement see Ant. and

Cleop. ii. 4.

* * * * *

"He who the sword of Heaven will bear

Must be as holy as severe;

Pattern in himself to know,

Grace to stand and virtue go."

The last line is evidently corrupt. I would read,

"_In_ grace to stand, in virtue go,"

in which I had been anticipated by Johnson. We have more than one

instance of _in_ being effaced in the beginning of a line; and such

having been the case here, the printer, to get some appearance of

sense, converted the remaining 'in' to _and_--also a usual change. 'To

know,' 'to stand,' 'to go,' are equivalent to _knowing_, etc. (See

Introd. p. 70.) For 'know,' I, as well as Mr. Staunton, had conjectured

_show_; but no change is needed.

* * * * *

"How may likeness made in crimes,

Making practice on the times,

To draw with idle spider's strings

Most ponderous and substantial things!"

"A passage," says Mr. Dyce, "in which it seems hopeless to ascertain

what the poet really wrote." At all events, by omitting 'To' in the

third line we get excellent sense, and what more need we require? After

I had made this simple emendation, I learned, to my great surprise--for

the editors gave no heed to it--that I had been anticipated in it by

Theobald. 'Draw' in the third line connects with 'may' in the first;

but the printer, taking 'practice' for a verb, added 'To' to try to

make sense. For 'making practice,' see on All's Well, iv. 2. 'Likeness'

is simulation: "Do not assume my likeness," _i.e._ pretend to be like

me. (Tim. iv. 3.) "Thou simular of virtue." (Lear iii. 2.) The poet

probably wrote 'crime' and 'time.'

ACT IV.

SC. 1. "There have I made my promise upon the

Heavy middle of the night to call upon him."

Capell, I think rightly, arranges thus:

"There have I made my promise to call upon him

Upon the heavy middle of the night."

Transpositions of this kind, made by the printers, are not uncommon.

(See on Tr. and Cr. v. 2.) Capell read 'on him.'

* * * * *

"Good Friar, I know you do, and _I_ have found it."

So Pope also conjectured.

* * * * *

"Run with these false and most contrarious quest."

I incline to read _their_. The 2nd folio added _s_ to 'quest.'

* * * * *

"Our corn's to reap, for yet our tithe's to sow."

Warburton properly read _tilth_.

* * * * *

SC. 2. "If it be too little for your thief," etc.

I quite agree with those who make this part of Abhorson's speech.

* * * * *

"This is a gentle Provost. Seldom when."

Mr. Singer reads 'seldom-when' as one word, and quotes in defence of

it _seldom-time_, _any-when_, _seldom-what_; and he might have added

_seld-when_, from Gower's Conf. Amantis. In any case, _'Tis_ seems

wanting before it, as in "'Tis seldom when the bee doth leave her comb"

(2 Hen. IV. iv. 4).

* * * * *

"That wounds the unsisting postern with those strokes."

The printer, by a most common error, omitted _re_ in _unresisting_.

Surely the critics in general should have seen this, as Rowe did.

* * * * *

"This is his lordship's man."

The folio reads 'lord's man'; but both sense and metre require the

correction adopted by the editors, after Pope.

* * * * *

"Is it now apparent?"

So Pope. The folio transposes 'Is' and 'It.' (See on Two Gent. ii. 4.)

* * * * *

"_As_ a man that apprehends death no more."

So I should have printed it, but did not.

* * * * *

"Perchance of the Duke's death, perchance _his_ entering

into some monastery, but, by chance, nothing

of what's _here_ writ."

Hanmer also added _here_.

* * * * *

SC. 3. "And to transport him in the mind he is _in_."

* * * * *

"And how shall we continue, Claudio."

Persons are not continued. Perhaps we should read 'continue _to keep_.'

* * * * *

"Ere twice the sun hath made his journal greeting

To the under generation, you shall find

Your safety manifested."

I adopt Hanmer's emendation, 'under' for 'yond' of the folio. "The

under-generation," says Mr. Dyce, "is the human race that dwells

_under_ heaven." In Timon (i. 1) we have "this _beneath-world_," _i.e._

this world under heaven.

* * * * *

"Quick, _quick_, despatch, and send the head to Angelo."

* * * * *

"By cold gradation and weal-balanc'd form."

Surely the correct reading is _well_. So also Rowe.

* * * * *

"Mark what I say, which you shall find _to be_

By every syllable a faithful verity."

* * * * *

"There to give up their power. If you can, pace your wisdom

In that good path, that I would wish it go _in_

And you shall have your bosom on the wretch."

The punctuation of the first line, which is that given by the editors,

while aiming at sense, makes it unreadable. We should read "Pace, if

you can, your wisdom." Or, retaining this line unaltered, we might in

the third line read _Then_ for 'And.' (See on M. N. D. ii. 1.)

* * * * *

"I am combined by a sacred vow."

As 'combined' makes no good sense, we might read _constrained_. "But

other _vows constrain_ another course" (Marston Ant. and Mel. II. v.

6). Perhaps the word was _confined_, in the sense of limited, held in.

* * * * *

SC. 4. "How might she tongue me! Yet reason dares her no;

For my authority bears of a credent bulk,

That no particular scandal once can touch,

But it confounds the breather."

There is evidently something wrong here. What is the meaning of

'dares?' Mr. Singer says overawes (as larks?), and in proof of 'no'

being crying No, he quotes: "I wear a sword to satisfy the world no"

(Fletch. Chances, iii. 4). "I am sure he did it for I charged him no"

(_Id._ Wife for Month, iv. 3). In the next line Mr. Dyce reads _so_,

others _such_, for 'of.' My own decided opinion is, that in the first

line the poet wrote _saies_ (says), which of course, being written with

a long _s_ in the beginning, might easily be taken for 'dares.' 'Says

her no,' then, is forbids her, as in "Who shall say me Nay?" (1 H. IV.

iii. 1); "God defend his Grace should say us Nay" (Rich. III. iii. 7);

and in this play (ii. 2), "Did I not tell thee Yea?" In the second line

I would omit 'of.' See on Rich. II. v. 1; Cymb. iii. 5.

* * * * *

"Might in the time to come have ta'en revenge

By so receiving," etc.

For 'By' we should apparently read _For_; yet in Jeronimo (ii. 1) we

have:--

"Kneel by thy father's loins, and thank my liege

_By_ honouring me, thy mother, and thyself,

With this high staff of office."

Either, then, the printers made the same confusion in both places, or

_by_ was used in the sense of _for_.

* * * * *

SC. 5. "To Valentius, _to_ Rowland, and to Crassus."

In 'Valentius' an _n_ may have been omitted.

* * * * *

SC. 6. "He says to veil _his_ full purpose."

* * * * *

"The generous and gravest citizens

Have hent the gate; and very near upon _this time_

The Duke is entering. Therefore, hence away."

Something had evidently been lost at the end of the second line.

Perhaps also we should read 'The _most_ generous.'

ACT V.

SC. 1. "Or wring redress from you. Hear me, O hear me here!"

For 'here' we might read _hear_; but no change is needed.

* * * * *

"Nay it is ten times true."

Perhaps it should be 'true_r_.'

* * * * *

"As _n_e'er I heard in madness."

* * * * *

"_He did_, my lord, most villainously. Believe it."

* * * * *

"First let her show _her_ face."

It is _your_ in the 1st folio; the correction was made in the 2nd.

* * * * *

"No, my lord.--Are you a maid _then_?--No, my lord."

* * * * *

"Not that I know _of_.--No! you say your husband."

* * * * *

"And punish them, _unto_ your height of pleasure."

* * * * *

"We'll touze you

Joint by joint, but we'll know his purpose. What!

Unjust!--Be not so hot, _sir_; the Duke dare," etc.

For _his_ in the second line we should certainly read _your_.

* * * * *

"Your well-defended honour, you must pardon _him_."

* * * * *

"A due sincerity govern'd his deeds, till he

Did look on me. Since it is so, let him not die.--

My brother had but justice, in that he did

The thing for which he died. For Angelo."

* * * * *

"Which is that Barnardine?--This _is_, my lord."

* * * * *

"Look that you love your wife; her worth'_s_ worth yours."

* * * * *

"Wherein have I deserved so of you?"

In the folio 'so deserv'd.'

* * * * *

"There's more behind that is more gratulate."

The poet may have written 'gratulat_ing_,' and the final letters have

been effaced. The meaning, however, is the same.

WINTER'S TALE.

ACT I.

SC. 1. "Their encounters, though not personal, have been _so_

royally attornied."

Both sense and metre require _so_, given in Collier's folio.

* * * * *

SC. 2. "When in Bohemia

You take my lord, I'll give him my commission

To let him there a month behind the gest

Prefix'd for his parting."

The third line has apparently no sense. The critics say 'let' is

detain; but no instance of its use in that sense is to be found. We

might read _sit_, which occurs in the sense of stay, dwell, live,

as "I sit at ten pounds a week" (Mer. Wives, i. 3); and we have "and

_sit him_ down and die" (2 Hen. IV. iii. 1). We might also, and still

better, read _set_, which has nearly the same sense, settled, seated:

"Being unarm'd and _set_ in secret shade" (F. Q. vi. 3, 8). "Whoever

shoots at him, _I set him there_" (All's Well, iii. 2). In Fletcher's

Nice Valour (iv. 1) Heath, followed by Dyce, reads _sets_ for 'lets'

in "That lets it out, only for show or profit." 'Gest' (from _giste_,

_gîte_, Fr.?) is used of the halting-places on a royal progress. Singer

quotes from Strype a request from Cranmer to Cecil, "to let him have

the new-resolved upon _gests_ from that time to the end, that he might

know from time to time where the king was." Hence it would appear

that there was a program of the gests, stating the time of arrival at

and departure from each of them. I have therefore read 'gest-day,'

supposing the last word, as usual, to have been effaced. See Introd. p.

58.

* * * * *

"What lady she her lord."

I read _soe'er_ for 'she.' "What bloody work _soe'er_" (Othel. iii. 3).

* * * * *

"The doctrine of ill-doing nor dream'd _we even_."

The usual reading is '_no_ nor,' that of the 2nd folio.

* * * * *

"Of my young play-fellow.--_Good_ grace to boot!"

* * * * *

"You may ride us

With a soft kiss a thousand furlongs ere

With spur we heat an acre."

The phraseology here is evidently that of the race-course, where a

_heat_ is a race. I read 'we heat _us_.' The phrase is elliptic, the

full phrase being 'We heat us by running over an acre of ground.'

* * * * *

"May it be?--

Affection! thy intention stabs the centre."

So I would point, with Steevens; in the folio it is "May it be

affection?" The whole passage is rather obscure. 'Affection' is

imagination, fancy (see Index _s. v._); and the meaning seems to be

that it stretches to (expressed by intention), and stabs, or pierces,

even the centre of the earth.

* * * * *

"Looking on the lines

Of my boy's face methought I did recoil

Twenty-three years."

The folio reads 'methoughts,' and a MS. correction, followed by Mr.

Collier, _my thoughts_; but 'recoil' is always a neuter verb in

Shakespeare.

* * * * *

"He makes a July's day short as December'_s_."

* * * * *

"With all the nearest things to my heart as well _as_."

* * * * *

"Resides not in that man that does not think _it_."

This is the reading of the 2nd folio also.

* * * * *

"Why he that wears her like her medal hanging

About his neck."

"That like a jewel has hung twenty years

About his neck."

Hen. VIII. ii. 2.

With Collier's folio, I read _a_ for 'her.' The error, suggested by the

preceding 'her,' is an ordinary one with printers.

* * * * *

"With the pin and _the_ web, but theirs, theirs only."

In Florio a cataract in the eye is termed "a pin and _a_ web."

* * * * *

"Is goads, _is_ thorns, _is_ nettles, tails of wasps."

* * * * *

"I am appointed _by_ him to murder you."

The 'appointed him' of the folio is a strange expression.

* * * * *

"That e'er was heard or read _of_. Swear his thought over

By each particular star."

This, if correct, would seem to mean exorcise his thought, try to

banish it.

* * * * *

"Profess'd _love_ to him, why his revenges must

In that be made more bitter. Fear o'ershades me.

Good expedition be my friend, and comfort

The gracious queen."

How could his expedition or haste to depart comfort the queen? It would

seem to have the contrary effect, as tending to prove her guilt. For

'and' in the third line we might, with Singer, read _God_, or, as I

have done, with Hanmer, _Heaven_. The insertion of _love_ in the first

line seems necessary.

ACT II.

SC. 1. "And why so, my _dear_ lord?--Not for because."

* * * * *

"Or a half-moon made with a pen.--Who taught _you_ this?"

* * * * *

"All's true that is mistrusted."

For 'is' it might be better to read _was_. The change was not unusual.

* * * * *

"Has made thee swell thus.--But I'd say he _had_ not."

_Has_ might seem to have been the poet's word.

* * * * *

"More, she's a traitor; and Camillo is

A federary with her, and one that knows _her_

_To be_ what she should shame to know herself,

But with her most vile principal."

'Federary' is an unknown word. It may be a printer's error for

_federate_; but I rather think--as I find that Malone, followed by

Singer and Dyce, reads, and which is also more metrical--that the right

word is _fedary_, to be taken in the same sense as in Meas. for Meas.

and Cymb. As Polyxenes is styled 'her principal,' the meaning may be

that she (and Camillo 'with her') had transferred her allegiance to him.

* * * * *

"You did mistake,--_No_, no, if I mistake."

* * * * *

"I would land-damn him."

As 'land-damn' seems to be an unknown term, it might be better to read,

with Collier's folio, _lamback_, derived perhaps from _lambiccare_, It.

There is also a vulgar term _lambaste_. 'Damn' was probably suggested

by the same word in the preceding line.

* * * * *

SC. 3. "We have always truly served you and beseech _you_."

* * * * *

"They have been absent. 'Tis good speed, _and_ foretells."

We might also read _it_; or, with Pope, '_This_ good speed.'

ACT III.

SC. 2. "This sessions--to our great grief we pronounce _it_."

* * * * *

"To prate and talk for life and honour 'fore

Who please to come and hear."

We might be inclined to read _plead_ for 'prate'; but no change is

required.

* * * * *

"Since he came

With what encounter so uncurrent I

Have strain'd to appear thus."

I read 'have I Strain'd to appear thus?' in which I had been

anticipated by Hanmer. An 'uncurrent encounter' was an unusual kind of

meeting; and 'strain'd' signifies pulled against the line of my duty as

a wife--a metaphor taken from dogs in a leash--

"What I was I am,

More _straining_ on for plucking back, not following

My leash unwillingly" (iv. 3).

It might also signify, acted indecorously, "Unless he know some

_strain_ in me that I know not myself." Merry Wives, ii. 1.

* * * * *

"You will not own it.--More than _I am_ mistress of."

So also Hanmer corrected.

* * * * *

"Thy brat hath been cast out, like to itself,

No father owning it."

If we read '_left_ to itself' we might get better sense.

* * * * *

"But yet hear this; mistake me not. No! life--

I prize it not a straw.... But, for mine honour."

So we may best punctuate, with Hanmer. We might perhaps read '_For_

life,' as above.

* * * * *

"Which you knew great, and to the hazard _boldly_."

The 2nd folio reads '_certain_ hazard.'

* * * * *

"What studied torments, tyrant, hast _thou_ for me?

What wheels? _what_ racks? _what_ fires? what flaying, boiling,

In leads or oils?"

See above, i. 2. Introd. p. 55.

* * * * *

"Who is lost too. Take your patience to you, _sir_."

* * * * *

SC. 3. "Which may, if Fortune please, both breed thee, pretty _one_."

So Rowe also.

* * * * *