and other passages of a similar nature. See also Twelfth Night, i. 5.

* * * * *

"'Tis the way

To call hers, exquisite, in question more."

This is not very intelligible. We might read 'her exquisite,' or rather

'_to_ question.' To "call in question," in Shakespeare always means, to

express a doubt of. 'Question' is examine, a word just used.

* * * * *

SC. 2. "Earth hath swallowed all my hopes but she,

She is the hopeful lady of my earth."

Here a rime is lost, in consequence of the 'earth' of the first line

being in the printer's mind. There can be little question, I should

think, that the original word was not 'earth,' but _fee_, feud, fief,

landed property, as in _knight's fee_, _in fee_, etc., with which alone

'lady' accords. '_The_ earth' has long been the reading the first line.

* * * * *

"Which on more view of many--mine being one,

May stand in number, though in reckoning none" ...

This is the reading of both 4tos and folio, except 4to of 1597, which

reads "_Such amongst_." I should feel inclined to read "Such _as on_

view." By 'more' must be meant more extensive. The aposiopesis, so

suited to the hasty, impetuous character of the speaker, makes all

clear.

* * * * *

"But in that crystal scales, let there be weighed

Your lady's love against some other maid."

This is very oddly expressed; for it was the lady herself, not her

love, that was to be weighed. Theobald proposed _lady-love_; but I

doubt if that phrase was then in use. I read '_lady and love_,' the

& of the MS. having been made s by the printer, as it became _t_ in

'meant' for 'mean _and_' in All's Well, iv. 3.

* * * * *

SC. 4. "Oh! then, I see, Queen Mab has been with you.

_Ben._ Queen Mab! What's she?

_Mer._ She is the fairies' midwife, etc."

I think it best to read thus with 4to, 1597, adding _Mer._ before 'She

is.' Benvolio's question is evidently wanted.

* * * * *

"Of healths five fathom deep."

It seems almost incredible that such a glaring absurdity as this should

have escaped a long succession of critics; and yet I am not aware that

any have noticed it. What is a _health_? a wish, a moral idea, and

how could that be 'five fathom deep'? or be an object of terror to a

soldier? It may be said that it is the cup that is meant, but of this

we have no instance; and even if we had, Master Silence, who was a man

of peace, sings--

"Fill the cup and let it come;

I'll pledge you a mile to the bottóm."

So, as we may see, he was not, and why should a soldier be, afraid

of it? Malone quotes from Westward Hoe, 1607, a passage in which we

have drinking _fathom deep_, and it is apparently drinking healths;

but there is nothing about terror in it, and it seems, no unusual

circumstance, to have arisen from the present line. In fine, something

must have been named that was a real object of terror to a soldier; and

I know no word so likely to have been used as _trenches_, which might

easily have been mistaken for 'healths.' In that case the metric accent

falling on 'five' would augment the terror.

* * * * *

"This is she _that_."

* * * * *

SC. 5. "His son was but a ward two years ago.--

Good youths, i' faith!--Oh! youth's a jolly thing."

The last line is only found in 4to 1597. It is so natural and so

pleasing, that I could not refrain from adopting it.

* * * * *

"It seems she hangs upon the cheek of Night,

Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear."

This is the reading of both 4tos and folio; yet editors have adopted

the far inferior reading of the 2nd folio '_Her beauty_ hangs!' We have

the same idea in

"Presents thy shadow to my sightless view,

Which, like a jewel hung in ghastly night,

Makes black night beauteous, and her old face new."

Son. xxvii.

* * * * *

"So shews a snowy dove, trooping with crows,

As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows."

The 4to 1597 reads in the first line _shines_; and the first 'shews'

has every appearance of having been, as usual, suggested by the second.

* * * * *

"This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this."

So Warburton, for _sin_ of 4tos and folio.

ACT II.

SC. 1. "Young Abraham Cupid, he that shot so trim."

Mr. Dyce reads auburn, and he gives undoubted instances of _Abraham_

or _Abram_ being used for this word. Still I incline to the general

reading, first given by Upton, of _Adam_, with an allusion to Adam

Bell, the great archer; and I think there may be another to Adam, the

first man; for Shakespeare may have known that in classic mythology

Love was the first of beings. There would be humour, then, in 'young

Adam' denoting the union of youth and age.

* * * * *

SC. 2. "Her vestal-livery is but pale and green."

The reading of 4to 1597; the others and the folio have 'sick and green.'

* * * * *

"As glorious to this night being o'er my head."

Theobald most tastelessly read the _sight_.

* * * * *

"When he bestrides the lazy-pacing clouds."

The reading of 4to 1597; the others and the folio read '_puffing_,'

caused, as has been observed, by _passing_ spelt with long _s_s in the

MS.

* * * * *

"To cease thy strife, and leave me to my grief."

The undated 4to reads _suit_ for 'strife,' which has been generally,

and rightly, adopted. In the poem of Romeus and Juliet, the latter uses

the very expression _cease your suit_ on the same occasion.

* * * * *

"Romeo!--My dear!--At what o'clock to-morrow?"

For 'My dear,' the reading of the undated 4to, that of 1597 has

_Madam_; the others and the folio _My niece_; the 2nd folio _My sweet_,

the usual reading.

* * * * *

SC. 4. "She will indite him to some supper."

The 4to 1597 has _invite_; but Benvolio was probably anticipating the

nurse's language.

* * * * *

"Bid her devise some means to come to shrift

This afternoon." * * * *

There is something lost here; perhaps _to the Franciscan convent_.

* * * * *

"R is for the ... no; I know it begins" etc.

Editors in general read, after Tyrwhitt, 'R is for the _dog_.' Mr.

Collier has 'R is for thee? no.'

* * * * *

SC. 5. "My words would bandy her to my sweet love,

And his to me. * * * *

But old folks many faine as they were dead,

Unwieldy, slow, heavy, and pale as lead."

In the second line we might add _would bandy her again_. 'Many faine'

in the next is nonsense; for 'many,' _marry_ has been proposed, and

I adopt it, reading _fare_ (to go, to move along, a Spenserian term)

for 'fame.' In Cor. ii. 2 we have again _ain_ for _ar_. For 'pale' we

should probably read _dull_.

"And nature, as it grows again toward earth,

Is fashion'd for the journey, _dull and heavy_."

Timon, ii. 1.

We have elsewhere (Mer. of Ven. ii. 7) "_dull_ lead." Moreover lead

is not pale, and the Nurse would seem to have been rather a jolly,

rubicund sort of woman; if _fare_ be the right reading, it would almost

require _dull_. On the other hand, we have in Chaucer (Tr. and Cr. ii),

"With asshen _pale as lede_," and (Dream) "That _pale_ he wax as any

_lede_."

* * * * *

"They'll be in scarlet straight at any news."

I had been anticipated by Hanmer in reading 'straight_way_' and '_my_'.

Sidney Walker, too, I find, read 'at _my next_ news.' In the errata of

a work printed in 1754 I have met "for _my_ r. _any_." I, however, read

in preference,

"They will be straight in scarlet at my news."

ACT III.

SC. 1. "Or reason calmly of your grievances."

'Or' for _and_, as Capell also saw.

* * * * *

"Will you pluck your sword out of his pilcher by the ears?"

Singer reads _pitcher_. I think the right word is _pilche_, a leathern

coat. In v. 1 the sheath of a dagger is termed its _house_.

* * * * *

"This day's black fate on more days doth depend."

We should perhaps transpose, and read "On this day's," etc.

* * * * *

"O prince! O [cousin] husband! O, the blood is spilled."

So Mr. Dyce also reads.

* * * * *

SC. 2. "Spread thy close curtain, love-performing Night!

That runaway's eyes may wink, and Romeo

Leap to these arms, untalk'd of and unseen."

Of 'runaway,' which cannot possibly be right, the Cambridge edition

enumerates no less than twenty-nine various corrections! Warburton

understood by it the sun; Steevens, the night; Douce, Juliet; and a Mr.

Halpen, Cupid. Jackson, followed by Collier, read _unawares_. Mr. Dyce

conjectured _roving_, _soon day's_, and _rude day's_, which last he

has placed in the text, but which seems to me to be too young-ladyish

for the ardent and _naïve_ Juliet; and moreover she had already called

for the winking of day's eye, _i.e._ for sunset. Some sense might also

be made of _runagates_, as persons wandering about by night, and still

better of _runabouts_, a word used by Marston (What you Will, iii. 1),

and which I have placed in the text, as making tolerable sense and

bearing resemblance to 'runaways.' Mr. Singer read _rumourers_, against

which little objection can be made. My own opinion--to which I was

led by Singer's reading, and in which I find I had been anticipated

by Heath and Mr. Grant White--is, that the poet's word may have been

_Rumour's_. In the poem on which this play is founded, Juliet, when

pondering, before her marriage, on what might be the consequence of

admitting Romeo to a lover's privilege, says:--

"So, I defil'd, _Report_ shall take her trump of black defame,

Whence she, with puffed cheek, shall blow a blast so shrill

Of my dispraise, that with the noise Verona she shall fill."

Now Shakespeare may have wished to preserve this imagery, and have

substituted _Rumour_ for _Report_ for euphony's sake and other causes.

Rumour in effect seems to have been the same as the classic Fame. In

Sir Clyomen and Sir Clamydes, a piece with which he was probably well

acquainted, we meet "Enter Rumour running," and this may have been in

his mind when he was writing the Induction to 2 Hen. IV. In his other

plays also he personifies both _rumour_ and _report_, as in

"That pitiful Rumour may report my flight,

To consolate thine ear. Come night, end day;

For with the dark, poor thief, I'll steal away."

All's Well, iii. 2.

He may also have had these lines of Phaer's Virgil in his mind:--

"At night she [Fame] walks, nor slumber sweet doth take nor never

sleeps,

By day on houses' tops she sits, and gates or towers she keeps,

On watching-towers she climbs, and cities great she makes aghast,

Both truth and falsehood forth she tells, and lies abroad doth cast."

We may, then, fancy Juliet to suppose that Rumour was on the watch to

detect and expose her, and she wishes that the gloom may be so intense

that her eyes must wink perforce, and so Romeo may leap to her arms

unseen, and their union remain undivulged. There may also have been

intended a play on the names Rumour and Romeo, like "My conceal'd

lady to our cancell'd love" (iii. 3). As Shakespeare undoubtedly knew

French, he may have had these lines of Marot in his mind:--

"Car noire Nuict, qui des amants prend cure,

Les couvrira de sa grand robbe obscure;

Et si rendra cependant endormis

Ceux qui d'Amour sont mortelz ennemis."

Eleg. xi.

* * * * *

"Till strange Love grow bold,

Think true love acted simple modesty."

Rowe, who has been followed by all, reads 'grow_n_,' and he probably

was right. Still, when we consider the joyous perturbation of Juliet's

mind, there may be an asyndeton, and she may be speaking _allo

staccato_. I have therefore, in my Edition, left the text unaltered.

* * * * *

SC. 3. "A gentler judgement vanish'd from his lips."

I have never met with any sense of 'vanish' but its ordinary one,

which certainly will not suit here. We should therefore, I think, read

_issued_, or some word of similar meaning. It is curious that Massinger

seems to have taken 'vanish'd' on Shakespeare's authority. "Upon those

lips from which those sweet words _vanish'd_" (Reneg. v. 5). We have,

however, in Lucrece:--

"To make more vent for passage of her breath,

Which thronging through her lips, so _vanisheth_

As smoke from Ætna, that in air consumes."

But the breath is material.

* * * * *

"Taking thy part he rush'd aside the law."

Would not _push'd_ be better? as in

"But that the scambling and unquiet time

Did _push_ it out of further question."

Hen. V. i. 1.

* * * * *

"But Romeo may not: he is banished.

This may flies do, while I from this must fly;

And sayest thou yet that exile is not death?"

The folio, which gives the best text here, erroneously puts the first

of these lines after the third. The 4tos of 1599 and 1609 add most

unnecessarily:--

"Flies may do this, but I from this must fly;

They are free men, but I am banished,"

which seems to have been an earlier form of the two preceding lines.

See on L. L. L. iv. 3.

* * * * *

SC. 5. "Art thou gone so? my lord, my love, my friend."

So the first 4to, which, with Mr. Dyce, I follow. The other editions

read:--

"Art thou gone so? love, lord, ay husband, friend."

* * * * *

"Which you _do_ weep for.--Feeling so the loss."

* * * * *

"Villain and he be many miles asunder!

God pardon _him_! I do with all my heart."

I have placed a (!) at the end of the first line; for Juliet is

evidently speaking here in the ambiguous manner of her subsequent

speeches. She means an indicative, but wishes her mother to understand

her in the optative mood. The editors of the last century, not

understanding this, have without any authority changed 'be' to _are_.

In the next line _him_ was added in the 2nd folio. I should be inclined

to make an _Aside_ of 'I do with all my heart,' as she pretends to plan

his death. In the Globe Shakespeare the first line is made an _Aside_.

* * * * *

"My poor heart is so for a kinsman vex'd."

Both 4tos and folio--followed by all the editors--read 'Is my poor

heart,' connecting it with the preceding 'dead.' It is manifest they

did not understand the ambiguous language of Juliet.

* * * * *

"To wreak the love I bore my cousin _Tybalt_."

The necessary addition was made in the 2nd folio.

* * * * *

"When the sun sets the earth doth drizzle dew."

The undated 4to reads _air_, and to talk of the earth drizzling dew

appears no doubt to be absurd; but expressions as incongruous occur in

these plays, and we have in Lucrece "But as the _earth_ doth _weep_,

the _sun being set_."

* * * * *

"But fettle your fine joints 'gainst Thursday next."

I cannot conceive why the editors all read _settle_; for 'fettle,'

_i.e._ prepare, make ready, is the reading of the 4tos and folio.

"But sells his team, and _fettleth_ to the war."

Hall, Sat. iv. 6.

"They to their long hard journey _fettling_ them."

Silvester, Maiden's Blush.

* * * * *

"God's bread! it makes me mad; day, night, hour, tide [time],

Work, play, alone, in company, still my care

Hath been to have her match'd, and having now provided

A gentleman of noble parentage."

So I arrange this passage, in accordance with the old editions, except

the first 4to, the reading of which is different, and is not verse at

all. I omit 'time' as injurious to the symmetry of the language; for

the words in the first two lines run, as will be seen, pairwise. It may

have been a marginal note explanatory of 'tide.' As to the last line

but one being of six feet, three such have already occurred in this

scene.

* * * * *

"Oh! he's a lovely gentleman, _in sooth_."

* * * * *

"Or else beshrew them both.--Amen!--What to?"

ACT IV.

SC. 1. "And I am nothing slow to slack his haste."

Collier's folio, mistaking the sense, reads '_some_thing.' 'To' is, so

as to, that I should. Editors have not understood it.

* * * * *

"Be borne to burial in thy kindred's grave."

This line, which is superfluous, is in all the old editions. See on

iii. 3.

* * * * *

SC. 3. "Romeo, I come! this do I drink to thee."

This is the reading of the 4to 1597; the other editions read,

"Romeo, Romeo, Romeo, here's drink. I drink to thee."

* * * * *

SC. 4. "_Nurse._ Go, go, you cotquean, go."

Singer was most certainly right in giving this speech to _Lady Cap._;

for the Nurse was hardly present.

* * * * *

SC. 5. "Dead art thou, _dead_--alack! my child is dead."

In this I find I had been as usual preceded by Theobald.

* * * * *

"Peace, ho, for shame! confusion's cure lives not."

All the old editions read _care_. Theobald made the correction.

* * * * *

"For though some nature bids us all lament."

For 'some' the 2nd folio reads _fond_.

* * * * *

"Faith, we may put our pipes up and be gone."

The originals read 'put up.'

ACT V.

SC. 1. "If I may trust the flattering eye of sleep."

The 4to 1527 reads thus; the others and the folio '_truth_ of sleep,'

in which I can see no sense, while the former seems to be justified by

"Full many a glorious morning have I seen

_Flatter_ the mountain-tops with sovereign _eye_."

Son. xxxiii.

In both places _flatter_ seems to mean cheer, enliven. 'Eye' is, as

in "eye of green" (Temp. ii. 1), look, glance; "Yon grey is not the

Morning's eye" (iii. 5).

* * * * *

"Need and oppression starveth in thy eyes."

Pope read _stareth_, after Otway; rightly, I think.

* * * * *

SC. 3. "Under yond' yew-trees lay thee all along."

The 4to 1597 reads 'Under _this_ yew-tree'; the others 'Under yond'

_young_ trees. Further on they all read 'As I did sleep under this

_young_ tree here.' There can be little doubt that _yew_ was the poet's

word; it is not so easy to decide between _tree_ and _trees_; but I

prefer the former.

* * * * *

"And in despite I'll cram thee with more food."

Perhaps the poet's word was _requite_.

* * * * *

"Why art thou yet so fair? I will believe,

Shall I believe that unsubstantial Death is amorous?"

We have here plainly two various readings got in by mistake. (See

above, iii. 3.) I agree with those who reject the first.

* * * * *

"This is thy sheath; there rest and let me die."

The reading 'rest,' for _rust_ of the editions, is deduced from 4to

1597.

* * * * *

"What fear is this which startles in _our_ ears."

So I read with Johnson for _your_.

* * * * *

"Look and thou shalt see."

'Look _here_' would have more melody.

* * * * *

"Seal up the mouth of outrage for a while."

The reading of Collier's folio, _outcry_, seems preferable. It occurs a

little before in this scene.

HAMLET.

ACT I.

SC. 1. "_With_ what we two nights have seen."

* * * * *

"Of unimproved mettle hot and full."

I prefer 'inapproved,' of the 4to 1603.

* * * * *

"Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets

As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood,

Disasters in the sun."

One line at least, as Malone also saw, has been lost after the first.

Perhaps for 'disasters' we might read _distempers_: "distemperature of

the sun" (1 Hen. IV. v. 1).

* * * * *

SC. 2. "And what make you from Wittenberg, Horatio?"

I suspect that here and in a following line, and in ii. 2, we should

read 'makes,' with an ellipsis of _be_. The answers seem to indicate it.

* * * * *

"Take thy fair hour, Laertes. Time be thine,

And thy best graces; spend it at thy will."

I think we should read '_my_ best' for the sake of sense.

* * * * *

"_Mine_ do I impart toward you. For your intent."

* * * * *

"He was a man, take him for all in all....

I shall not look upon his like again."

There is an evident aposiopesis here.

* * * * *

SC. 3. "Forward not permanent, sweet _but_ not lasting."

The metre requires the addition of a syllable. In the next line the

folio omits 'perfume and'--a clear proof of the omissions made by

printers.

* * * * *

"The friends thou hast and their adoption tried."

The more appropriate term would seem to be _adaption_.

* * * * *

"Are of a most select and generous chief in that."

This is not sense; so some read

"Are most select and generous, chief in that."

Steevens read _choice_ for 'chief'; and I have adopted his reading. The

more appropriate term, however, would have been _taste_.

* * * * *

"Or--not to crack the wind of the poor phrase

_To_ wrong it thus--you'll tender me a fool."

This--with the omission of _To_, which had probably been effaced in the

MS.--is the reading of the 4tos, and is most probably correct. (Introd.

p. 79.) The editors of the folio, not seeing any sense in 'Wrong,' read

'Roaming,' which makes no sense at all; neither indeed does 'To wrong'

make a very good one. We might read--supposing the allusion to be to

a horse--_To run_, as in "You run this humour out of breath" (Com. of

Err. i. 1). In King John (ii. 1) we have 'roam' for _run_.

* * * * *

"Breathing like sanctified and pious bonds."

Theobald, who is usually followed, read _bawds_ for 'bonds'; but surely

_bawds_ could not with any propriety be called 'sanctified and pious.'

The truth is, the poet's word was 'bonds,' but the editors have not

understood it, Singer, for example, calling it _nonsense_. The whole

passage is merely a poetic periphrasis of seduction under promise of

marriage; and had the word been _Sounding_, not 'Breathing,' there

would probably have been no mistake.

* * * * *

"Have you so slander any moment leisure."

Collier's folio reads _squander_, which may be right; but we have

"She slanders so her judgement" (Cymb. iii. 5), and "To slander music

any more than once" (Much Ado, ii. 3). In 'any moment leisure' the

structure is perfectly correct.

* * * * *

SC. 4. "The King doth wake to-night, and takes his rouse,

Keeps wassail, and the swaggering upspring reels."

Here 'wake' is like _watch_ (see Macb. ii. 2), sits up late. In the

next line I would for 'swaggering' read _staggering_. 'Upspring' is

probably used collectively for the risers from the table, a mode of

expression not yet obsolete. "The space was filled by the _in-rush_

before he had time to make his way out."--Mrs. Gaskell, Sylvia's

Lovers, ch. xii.

* * * * *

"The dram of eale

Doth all the noble substance, of a doubt

To his own scandal....--Look, my lord! it comes."

This passage is not in the folio. As in 4to 1604, where it occurs, we

have in ii. 1 'a deale' for 'a devil,' I here read _evil_ for 'eale';

in both cases _vi_ may have been written like _a_; and for 'of a

doubt,' which is to be found nowhere else, _out o' doubt_, or perhaps

'_out_ of a doubt:' some read _often dout_. The sentence, we may see,

is not complete, and it should also be recollected that the language of

the whole of the speech is involved, as if the speaker was thinking of

something else, and merely talking against time.

* * * * *

"Making night hideous and we fools of nature."

Grammar would require _us_ for 'we.'

* * * * *

SC. 5. "_Hear_ what?--I am thy father's spirit."

The repetition of _Hear_ from preceding line seems necessary. Omissions

of this kind are not unfrequent.

* * * * *

"And for the day confin'd to fast in fires."

Heath proposed _lasting_ for 'fast in,' but, I think, with a loss of

vigour, if a gain of correctness. 'Confin'd' may here signify limited,

restrained. See on M. for M. iv. 3.

* * * * *

"That roots itself in ease on Lethe wharf."

The folio reads _rots_, which Mr. Dyce adopts.

* * * * *

"Of life, of crown, of queen, at once despatch'd."

So the originals read, except 4to 1603, which has _depriv'd_, perhaps a

better reading. 'Despatch'd,' which seems to be more forceable, is to

be taken in the sense of _dépêché_, Fr., hurried away, and 'of' in its

original sense of from.

* * * * *

"Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin."

Better to read 'blossom' and 'sins.'

* * * * *

"O horrible! O horrible! most horrible."

Beyond question, as Johnson saw, this exclamation belongs to Hamlet.

_Ham._ and _Ghost_ had been effaced.

* * * * *

"But come; _swear_ here, as before, never, so help you Mercy."

The sense demands _swear_.

ACT II.

SC. 1. "That they do know my son, come you more nearer;

Than your particular demand will touch it."

By punctuating thus, and recollecting that 'Than' is _then_, we remove

all difficulty.

* * * * *

"You must not put another scandal on him,

That he is open to incontinency."

For 'That' we must read _Than_. Introd. p. 68.

* * * * *

"To speak of horrors--he comes _in_ before me."

The addition of _in_, besides improving the metre, adds greatly to the

force and vivacity of the passage.

* * * * *

"As he would draw it. Long _time_ stay'd he so."

* * * * *

SC. 2. "Pleasant and helpful to him.--Ay, amen."

The folio omits 'Ay'; I read '_Amen_, amen,' as the metre requires.

* * * * *

"Both to my God, one to my gracious King."

So the folio reads; the 4tos, more simply, have _and_ for 'one.'

* * * * *

"My news shall be the fruit to that great feast."

So the 4tos properly read; the folio has _news_ for 'fruit.'

* * * * *

"If I had play'd the desk or table-book."

Perhaps _ply'd_, as pretending to be occupied. In Tit. Andron. v. 2,

the 4tos read '_ply_,' the folio '_play_ my theme.'

* * * * *

"And we all wail for.--Do you think 'tis this?"

The originals read 'all we.'

* * * * *

"_To_ mark the encounter. If he love her not."

* * * * *

"Being a good kissing carrion.--Have you a daughter?"

Warburton for 'good' read _god_, which alone makes sense. We have

"common-kissing Titan" (Cymb. iii. 4). Malone also quoted from King

Edward III.:--

"The freshest summer's-day doth soonest taint

The loathed carrion that it seems to kiss."

* * * * *

"But not as your daughter may conceive."

The 4tos omit 'not,' which was supplied by the folio, and is

indispensable.

* * * * *

"Little eyases that cry out on the top of question."

This is hard to understand; but there is no reason to suspect any

corruption of the text. The allusion seems to be to the loud shrill

tones of the children in acting.

"Like to some boy, that acts a tragedy,

Speaks burly words and roars out passion."

Marston, Ant. and Mel. II. iv. 5.

* * * * *

"I know a hawk from a handsaw."

The proper word is _hernshaw_; but the phrase may, as was not unusual,

have undergone a change.

* * * * *

"The first row of the _Pons Chanson_ will show you more."

What '_Pons Chanson_' is, no one has divined. Editors therefore read

'pious chanson,' meaning the ballad of Jephtha and his daughter.

* * * * *

"May be the devil and the devil has power."

For the first 'the devil,' 4to 1604 reads _a deale_; so the reading was

probably 'a devil,' which is best.

ACT III.

SC. 1. "Niggard of question; but of our demands

Most free in his reply."

Warburton transposes 'niggard' and 'most free'; and certainly, unless

the poet forgot himself, he was by no means 'niggard of question';

and 'niggard' would also accord better than 'free' with 'of demands.'

It might be better to read _to_ for 'of,' as these words were often

confounded.

* * * * *

"Good gentlemen, give him a further edge."

Here 'edge' seems used in a peculiar sense, as the substantive of

_egg_, to urge, incite.

* * * * *

"Affront Ophelia. Her father and myself [lawful espials]."

As 'lawful espials' is only in the folio, injures the measure, and is

not necessary, I would omit it.

* * * * *

"Or to take arms against a sea of troubles."

Though we meet in Shakespeare with incongruities as great as this,

I incline to read for 'sea' _siege_, my own conjecture, as well as

Pope's. We have "All sores lay siege" (Tim. iv. 3), "Sickness did lay

siege" (M. N. D. i. 1), and several other expressions; and this is

almost a solitary instance of the figurative use of 'sea' by our poet.

_Assay_, or _assays_, for 'a sea,' has also been proposed, "Galling the

gleaned land with hot _assays_" (Hen. V. i. 2); and it may have been

the poet's word. If so, I should incline to read _the assay_.

* * * * *

"With a bare bodkin? Who would these fardels bear."

This is the reading of the folio, which I retain. 'These,' which

gives much force to the expression, refers either to the evils he had

enumerated, or is, as is so frequently the case, used in a general

indefinite sense.

* * * * *

"_In_ the undiscover'd country from whose bourne

No traveller returns."

If any one refuses his assent to this very slight addition to the text,

and which for the first time gives it sense, I must leave him to his

own devices. Introd. p. 57.

* * * * *

"_Ye_ heavenly powers, restore him!"

* * * * *

SC. 2. "And the very age and body of the time his form and pressure."

As 'age of time' seems not to be a very correct expression, we might

feel inclined to read _world_ for 'time,' but no change is required;

_time_ is the age, the world, and so 'age of the time' may signify

period of the world, the then state of society. M. Mason read _every_

for 'the very.'

* * * * *

"And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee."

I see not what 'pregnant' can mean here. It might be better to read

_pliant_, or some such word.

* * * * *

"Even with the very comment of thy soul."

So the 4tos properly read; the folio has _my_ for 'thy.'

* * * * *

"So long? Nay, then, let the Devil wear black; for

I'll _not_ have a suit of sables."

When the critics shall have proved--which they have not done yet--that

a dress trimmed with sable was called 'a suit of sables,' I will

grant that Hamlet did not mean mourning, and that the negative is not

needful. The passage, as I now give it, answers to the vulgar phrase,

"The Devil may wear black for me."

* * * * *

"Marry, this is miching malicho."

For 'miching malicho,' which is nonsense, I read _mucho malhecho_ Sp.,

_i.e._ very ill-done.

* * * * *

"For women fear too much; even as they love."

A line riming with this is lost.

* * * * *

"So you must take your husbands."

So the 4to 1603 reads, with an evident allusion to the Marriage

Service. The others and the folio have _mistake_.

* * * * *

"On my rais'd shoes."

So Steevens read. The folio has _rac'd_, the 4tos _raz'd_.

* * * * *

"A very, very paiock."

For 'paiock' Pope read _peacock_ (the usual reading), Theobald

_paddock_, Blakeway _puttock_. I agree with Theobald, as the King is

afterwards called a paddock, and there is probably an allusion to the

poisoning. _Puttock_ is favoured by "I chose an eagle and did avoid a

puttock" (Cymb. i. 2).

* * * * *

"If my duty be too bold, my love is too unmannerly."

Tyrwhitt proposed 'be _not_ too bold.' I read, 'If my duty be too bold,

my love [is] too unmannerly....'

* * * * *

"Govern these ventages with your fingers and your thumb."

* * * * *

"And do such bitter business as the day

Would quake to look on."

The 4tos, followed by editors in general, join 'bitter' with 'day.' See

Introd. p. 61.

* * * * *

SC. 3. "Though inclination be as sharp as _it_ will."

* * * * *

SC. 4. "I'll silence me e'en here."

The 4to 1603 reads, "I'll _shrowd_ myself behind the arras." Hanmer and

Hunter read '_sconce_ me,' and we have, "I'll _ensconce_ me behind the

arras" (Mer. Wives, iii. 3). Still no change is required.

* * * * *

"A slave that's not _a_ twentieth part the tithe."

* * * * *

"_Enter_ Ghost _in his night-gown._"

I have given this stage-direction from the 4to 1603, as it is quite

incongruous to suppose that the Ghost appeared in armour in a room of

the palace; and as Hamlet says, "My father in his _habit_ as he lived!"

As the Ghost makes but one short speech, I think, if it could be so

managed, it would be more psychologic and effective for him to remain

invisible, except to Hamlet mentally, and his voice only be heard by

the audience.

* * * * *

"Lest with this piteous action you convert

My stern effects."

I read, with Singer, _affects_. See on Meas. for Meas. iii. 1.

* * * * *

"That monster Custom, who all sense doth eate

Of habits, devil is angel yet in this."

The verb 'eate' here could never have come from the poet's pen; for

it makes pure nonsense. I read _create_ with the greatest confidence,

of which the two first letters must have been effaced in the MS. We

have an exact parallel in _smell_, 'all' (Tim. i. 2). See also on

All's Well, i. 1, ii. 1. 'Sense' seems here, as in M. for M. iv. 4, to

signify kind, manner, way.

* * * * *

"And either master the Devil or throw him out."

So 4to 1604, but omitting 'master'; while 4to 1600 and the undated omit

'either.' Malone read _curb_ for 'master'--a most needless alteration.

* * * * *

"One word more, good _my_ lady."

* * * * *

"Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib."

I read gib-_cat_, as 'gib' never occurs alone. We surely would not say

_a tom_ for a tom-cat, _a jack_ for a jackass, a jackdaw, etc. See

Introd. p. 58.

ACT IV.

SC. 1. "_So haply Slander_,

Whose whisper o'er the world's diameter," etc.

The happy suppliance of Theobald, universally adopted with the change

of his _for_ to _so_.

* * * * *

SC. 3. "Pays homage to us--thou mayest not coldly set _by_."

* * * * *

SC. 4. "I'll be with you straight. Go _on_ a little before."

* * * * *

"But greatly to find quarrel in a straw."

'But' here is somewhat ambiguous. We may take it as yet, nevertheless,

or in its original sense of save, except; in which last case 'to find'

would be finding.

* * * * *

SC. 5. "Which bewept to the grave did not go."

Pope, who has been generally followed, struck out 'not'; but though the

printers often omitted the negative (as once already in this play) they

rarely added it. We have, however, an instance in Much Ado, iii. 2, and

it might be better to suppose the same to be the case here. We might

also read '_un_wept,' which occurs in Rich. III. ii. 2, or, as I have

done, '_un_bewept,' as the initial _un_ is at times omitted. See on

Cymb. i. 7.

* * * * *

"All from her father's death. And now, behold....

O Gertrude, Gertrude!"

'And now behold' is added from the 4tos. Punctuated as here it seems

effective.

* * * * *

SC. 7. "And not _gone_ where I had aim'd them."

* * * * *

"As how should it _but_ be so? how otherwise?

Will you be ruled by me?--Ay, my lord."

It is manifest that _but_ or _not_ had been omitted. For 'Ay' we should

read _I will_. See Introd. p. 68.

* * * * *

"But that I know love is begun by time."

I cannot make any good sense of this, and I suspect that 'time' may be

owing to the same word lower down. The love spoken of seems to be that

of children for parents, and possibly the word was _childhood_, _birth_.

* * * * *

"And then this 'should' is like a spendthrift sigh

That hurts by easing."

All the original 4tos read 'spendthrifts' (the passage is not in the

folio); but this reading must be wrong, for the allusion is evidently

to the popular belief, not yet extinct, that every sigh consumes a drop

of the blood, and so is injurious to life; 'spendthrift' is therefore

to be taken in the sense of _wasting_. "With sighs of love that cost

the fresh blood dear" (M. N. D. iii. 2), "Look pale as primrose, with

blood-drinking sighs" (2 Hen. VI. iii. 2), "And stop the rising of

blood-sucking sighs" (3 Hen. VI. iv. 4).

* * * * *

"As make your bouts more violent to that end."

It might be better to read _And_ for 'As.'

* * * * *

"How _now_, sweet queen!"

This, the reading of 2nd folio, makes the line more euphonious.

* * * * *

"There with fantastic garlands she did come."

The 4tos, followed by the editors, read:

"Therewith fantastic garlands she did _make_."

* * * * *

"Or like a creature native and indued."

Perhaps it should be _inured_, as 'indued' takes _with_, not _unto_.

ACT V.

SC. 1. "Woo't drink up Esil? eat a crocodile?"

Those who maintain that 'Esil' is the acid of that name have not

observed that 'drink up' means drink the whole of, and so could hardly

be used of any liquid in the abstract. It is also to be observed that,

at that time, eysel was used as a medicine:--

"Whilst, like a willing patient, I will drink

Potions of _eysel_ 'gainst my strong infection."

Son. cxi.

and further that, by association of ideas, 'crocodile' presupposes the

mention of a river. The Yssel, a river of the Low Countries, runs by

Deventer and Zutphen, near which last place Sir Philip Sidney received

his death-wound, and so the name Yssel may have been familiar to the

English mind. I therefore have placed it in the text.

* * * * *

"_In_ an hour of quiet thereby shall we see."

* * * * *

SC. 2. "_I_ folded up the writ in form of the other."

* * * * *

"For by the image of my cause I see

The portraiture of his. I'll count his favours."

It is best to read, with Rowe, 'I'll _court_ his favour.'

* * * * *

"You will do it, sir, really."

I incline to read _readily_.

* * * * *

"And yet but yaw neither."

So 4to 1604. The others have _raw_.

* * * * *

"The most _fond_ and winnowed opinions."

I quite agree with those who read _fann'd_.

* * * * *

"_As_ that I have shot an arrow o'er the house."

* * * * *

"Stick fiery off indeed."

In my Edition I most rashly read _Strike_ for 'Stick.' In the language

of the time _stick off_ meant set off, show off, display:--

"Nor virtue shines more in a lovely face,

Than true desert is _stuck off_ with disgrace."

Chapman, Dedic. of Batrach., etc.

"His lute still touch'd to _stick_ more _off_ his tongue."

Id. Hymn to Hermes, 766.

Yet Chapman, in whom alone I have found it, may have adopted it from

one of the 4tos of this play. See on Rom. and Jul. iii. 3.

* * * * *

"I do not fear it; I have seen you both.--

But since he's better'd, we have therefore odds."

If he (_i.e._ Laertes) was bettered, in the ordinary sense of the

word, how could the odds lie against him? _You're_ would give better

sense than 'he's'; but it does not satisfy me. A line has evidently

been lost, and the latter part may be addressed to the Queen. The lost

line may have been something like this: "'Tis true he did neglect his

exercises." Hamlet had said (ii. 2) he had "foregone all custom of

exercises." In my Edition I have made an _Aside_ here to the Queen, who

may have made a sign of dissent; but a speech of the Queen's to the

same effect may have been what is lost.

* * * * *

"Come.--Another hit.--What say you?

[A touch a touch] I do confess."

With the 4tos I omit the bracketed words, as needless to the sense and

injurious to the measure.

* * * * *

"Good madam ...--Gertrude, _Gertrude_, do not drink."

This repetition of the name, which is required by the metre, adds, I

think, much energy. The name is repeated in the same manner in iv. 5.

* * * * *

"As thou'rt a man!...

Give me the cup; let go; by Heaven I'll have it."

This appears to me to be the true punctuation.

OTHELLO.

ACT I.

SC. 1. "A fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife."

The attempts made to give sense to 'wife' here are utterly ridiculous.

I cannot see any objection to _life_, the reading of the sagacious

Tyrwhitt. Here, as elsewhere, it may be observed 'damn'd' is merely to

be damned, _i.e._ condemned, be odious, as a person of fair regular

life must be in the eyes of an Iago, who in fact says of Cassio's (v.

1) "He hath a daily beauty in his _life_, That makes me ugly." If the

allusion be to the person of Cassio, we might read _face_, _skin_, or

some such word, as denoting effeminacy.

* * * * *

"Plague him with flies. Though that his joy be joy."

Perhaps the second 'joy' was suggested by the first instead of _high_,

_bright_, or some other adjective.

* * * * *

SC. 2. "Abus'd her youth with drugs or minerals

That weaken motion."

I read with Hanmer _waken_, for that was the object of philtres.

'Motion' is emotion, desire. In the next scene we have "To cool our

raging _motions_, our carnal stings," and "mixtures powerful o'er the

_blood_."

* * * * *

SC. 3. "As in these cases, where the aim reports,

'Tis oft with difference."

The 4tos read 'they aim'; but the reading of the folio gives a more

simple sense. 'The aim' is conjecture.

* * * * *

"And prays you to believe him."

It has been proposed to read _relieve_, which seems to make better

sense, and which I adopt.

* * * * *

"Sans witchcraft could not _be_."

* * * * *

"I won his daughter _with_."

* * * * *

_Duke._ "To vouch this is no proof," etc.

The folio makes this part of Brabantio's speech.

* * * * *

"That I have passed." * *

We might add _with his demands complying_.

* * * * *

"The rites for which I lov'd him are denied me."

Is not this--whether we read 'rites' or 'rights'--rather indelicate

coming from the lips of Desdemona?

"Lovers can see to do their amorous _rites_

By their own beauties."

Rom. and Jul. iii. 2.

"The great prerogative and _rites_ of love,

Which as your due time claims, he does acknowledge."

All's Well, ii. 4.

"And with lascivious petulancy [she] sew'd

For hymeneal dalliance, marriage _rights_."

Marston, What You Will, iii. 1.

Juliet might, to herself, speak of the "amorous rites," but for

Desdemona to do so before the Senate of Venice! impossible. Would it

not, then, be better to read _parts_? She had just said that it was

"for his honours and his valiant _parts_" she loved him.

* * * * *

"Not to comply with heat the young affects

In my defunct, and proper satisfaction;"

The reading of Upton, Gifford, Singer, Dyce, etc., is

"Not to comply with heat (the young affects

In _me_ defunct) and proper satisfaction,"

and in proof of the validity of this punctuation Gifford quotes from

Massinger:

"And though the _youthful heats_,

That look no further than your outward form,

Are long since _buried in me_."

Bondman, i. 3.

I have no doubt that Massinger had the present passage in view, and

understood it in the same way as these critics; and still there

might be a printer's error in it of which he was not aware. (See on

Rom. and Jul. iii. 3.) But can any one produce a single instance of

Shakespeare's thus interposing a parenthesis between two substantives

connected by a _copula_, or forming a sentence like that in the

parenthesis? and what can be more rugged and disjointed than the whole

passage as thus arranged? Would not the following not very violent

corrections make the whole more Shakespearian and more harmonious?

"Not to comply with heat _of_ the young affects,

In my _distinct_ and proper satisfaction."

'Affects,' as Johnson rightly observed, is _passions_, not affections,

and Othello styles them 'young,' either as they were new in him, and

had not been gratified, or as belonging chiefly to youth.

"For herself she's past

These _youthful heats_."

Fletch. Sea Voyage, ii. 2.

'_Distinct_ and proper' means separate and peculiar. _Distinct_, the

correction of 'defunct,' I regard as nearly certain. Its meaning here

is separate.

"Sheds stuff'd with lambs and goats, distinctly kept,

Distinct the biggest, the more mean distinct,

Distinct the youngest."

Chapman, Odyss. ix. 34.

* * * * *

"He has a person and a smooth dispose

To be suspected."

I do not clearly see the sense of 'dispose' here, perhaps we should

read _discourse_.

ACT II.

SC. 1. "A Veronesè, Michael Cassio."

This is another instance of the poet's negligence or forgetfulness; for

in the first Act he had called him a Florentine. Though the metre is

perfect, it might be better to insert _nam'd_ or _one_. As in the old

copies 'Veronese' is spelt _Veronessa_, Malone thought it was the ship

that was so called; but that is not likely.

* * * * *

"Thanks you, the valiant of this warlike isle."

The reading of the folio, with 'this' for _the_ from the 4tos, which

read '_worthy_ isle.'

* * * * *

"And in the essential vesture of creation

Does bear all excellency."

This is the reading of the 4to; the folio reads in the second line,

'Does tyre the ingenieur,' of which it seems almost impossible to make

any good sense. 'The essential,' etc., means person, body, form.

* * * * *

"If this poor trash of Venice, whom I trace

For his quick hunting, stand the putting on."

This is the reading of the folio; the 4to 1622 has _crush_ for 'trace';

and Warburton, followed by Steevens, Singer, and Dyce, read _brach_ for

'trash.' These last-named critics read the whole line thus: "If this

poor _brach_ of Venice whom I _trash_." "The jingle," Steevens says,

"being in Shakespeare's manner." Now to this I object--first, that this

was not Shakespeare's manner, for the apparent instances of it are

mostly printers' blunders; and secondly, that Roderigo did not require

to be _trashed_ or checked 'for his quick hunting,' for he was always

hanging back and ready to give up the chase till urged on by Iago.

This last objection also applies to 'trace' in the sense of follow or

accompany.

"Can _trace_ me in the tedious ways of art,

Or hold me pace in deep experiments."

1 Hen. IV. iii. 1.

It would also apply, though in a less degree, to _train_, which would

yield a tolerable sense. On the whole, I think that Iago's words may

have been _praise_, which would suit his sneering ironical tone. As to

'brach,' though we frequently find it used of a woman, I believe it was

never applied to a man.

* * * * *

SC. 3. "And passion having my best judgement collied."

The reading _quelled_, approved by Collier, is not so absurd as Singer

thinks it.

* * * * *

"In night and on the court and guard of safety."

This is the reading of all the old copies. Malone read 'of guard and

safety,' making the necessary transposition.

* * * * *

"Probal to thinking."

As I have never met with the word 'Probal' elsewhere, I think it may be

a mere misprint for _probable_.

* * * * *

"As the free element[s]."

It is the air that is meant, which was called 'the element.' See on Tw.

Night, i. 1, and on Temp. v. _ad fin_.

ACT III.

SC. 3. "Save that they say the wars must make examples

Out of her best."

There is an error either in 'wars' or in 'her,' and perhaps the

simplest correction is to read _war_. For 'her' Rowe, who is usually

followed, read _their_. Singer reads _the_.

* * * * *

"My lord, for aught I know....--What dost thou think?

Think, my lord?--Think, my lord! By Heaven he echoes me."

* * * * *

"It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock

The meat it feeds on."

This is the reading of the old copies. Southern and Hanmer read _make_

for 'mock,' which appears to me to be indubitable; for this is the very

thing which jealousy does--witness Ford and Leontes--while I cannot see

how jealousy, which is given to anything rather than mockery, should

mock its food. Singer and Dyce, however, retain 'mock,' but without

giving any explanation.

* * * * *

"I slept the next night well, was free and merry."

So the 4tos and the editors read; the folio inserts _fed well_ after

'well,' which may be right, as six-foot lines abound in this play. With

Singer I have therefore retained it.

* * * * *

"If it be that or any that was hers."

Both 4to and folio read 'it was hers'; the 2nd folio '_if_ it was

hers.' It has been justly observed that the printer took _y^{t}_ (the

abbreviation of _that_) for _it_.

* * * * *

"Like to the Pontic sea,

Whose icy current and compulsive course

Ne'er keeps retiring ebb, but keeps due on."

The first 'keeps' was plainly produced, in the usual way, by the

second. Pope read _feels_, which was afterwards found in 4to 1630,

and is now generally received. Southern had read _knows_, which seems

equally good; and the same is the reading of Collier's folio. I doubt

much, however, if the original word was not _makes_, which I have

given, corresponding with 'keeps' in not personifying. _Feels_ is

evidently a conjecture in 4to 1630, as well as by Pope, as having

some resemblance to 'keeps'; but in these cases no resemblance need

be sought. (See Introd. p. 65.) For 'icy' Singer reads _yesty_, most

needlessly.

* * * * *

SC. 4. "A frank one.--You may, indeed, say so."

I have given it in my Edition 'A frank one _too_'; but no addition

was necessary. I made an error for the sake of metre, and, I think,

weakened the passage.

* * * * *

"Fetch me that handkerchief; my mind misgiving _me_...."

* * * * *

"For let our finger ache, and it indues

Our other healthful members even to that sense

Of pain."

Perhaps the word the poet wrote was _induces_.

ACT IV.

SC. 1. "Who having, by their own importunate suit

Or voluntary dotage of some mistress,

Convinced or supplied them cannot choose

But they must blab."

In the third line I think that for 'convinced or' we should read

'convinc'd _her and_'; the confusion of 'or' and _her_ was easy: _and_

must of course be added to get sense. See Introd. p. 6

* * * * *

"I never knew _a_ woman love a man so."

* * * * *

SC. 2. "Nor send you out of the way?--Never, _my lord_."

* * * * *

"Had it pleased Heavens

To try me with afflictions, had they rained."

The 4to reads 'had _he ruin'd_.' 'Heavens' is frequently used instead

of Heaven.

* * * * *

"A fixed figure for the Time of scorn

To point his slow unmoving finger at."

This is the reading of the 4to; the folio has 'The' for 'A,' and '_and_

moving' for 'unmoving.' For 'Time' Rowe, who is generally followed,

read _hand_; for 'slow unmoving' Mason read 'slow_ly_ moving'; Hunter

read '_of_ the Time for scorn.' I, however, see no need of change.

'The Time of scorn' is the scornful age or world, a frequent sense of

'time'; and we should print "To point his slow--unmoving finger at,"

the latter term being a correction of the former.

* * * * *

"Made to write whore upon? What _sin_ committed?"

So also in two succeeding lines of this speech, and in all a syllable

is wanting. It is really amazing how such an omission--destructive

alike of energy and of metre--could not only have been made by the

printer, but remain unnoticed by all the editors. As _sin_ is wanting

in both 4to and folio, it is clear that the former was printed from the

latter, and not from a MS. In the last line I read 'hear _of_ it.'

* * * * *

SC. 3. "And bade me to dismiss you.--_To_ dismiss me!"

* * * * *

"She was in love, and he she lov'd prov'd mad

And did forsake her."

For 'mad,' which is certainly wrong, Theobald read _bad_, and I think

he was right. 'Proved bad' answers to our present _turned out bad_.

Regarding _bad_ as rather low and trivial, I read in my Edition

_false_, as that is the term in the ballad. I thought 'mad' might have

been suggested by 'maid' in the preceding line.

ACT V.

SC. 1. "And your unblest fate hies; strumpet, I come."

As 'hies' is always, as far as I am aware, followed by some qualifying

term, I add _on_ or with the 4to, 'apace.'

* * * * *

SC. 2. "Put out the light, and then ... put out the light!"

I adopt this punctuation of Warburton's. He was going to say something

further, but he stops, and contents himself with repeating his words.

* * * * *

"Should I repent me: but once put out thine."

So the 4to; the folio for 'thine' has 'thy light,' which is far less

effective.

* * * * *

"Oh, falsely, falsely murdered!"

It would not be possible, in the whole compass of poetry, to find a

more glaring absurdity than this of making Desdemona speak after she

had been smothered.

* * * * *

"Like the base Indian threw a pearl away

More worth than all his tribe."

The folio reads 'Iudean,' and there has been great controversy on the

subject. In any case the allusion is unknown.

* * * * *

"Their medicinal gum."

The reading of the 4to; the folio has 'medicinable.' Mr. Dyce doubts if

at that time 'medicinal,' with the accent on the penult, was in use;

but this place might seem to prove it, and it may be so pronounced also

in W. Tale, ii. 3. (See my note on Milton's Sam. Ag. 627.) In it the

French and not the Latin accentuation was followed.

* * * * *

"Where a malignant and a turban'd Turk."

Perhaps here, as elsewhere, 'Where' has taken the place of _When_.

JULIUS CÆSAR.

ACT I.

SC. 1. "But if you _should_ be out, sir, I can mend you."

For a similar omission, also injurious to the metre, see on Twelfth

Night, ii. 5.

* * * * *

SC. 2. "That her wide walls encompass'd but one man."

The folio has _walks_; the obvious correction is from Collier's folio.

* * * * *

"What you would work me to I have some aim _of_."

* * * * *

"From that it is disposed _to_; therefore 'tis meet."

* * * * *

SC. 3. "In favour's like the work we have in hand."

'In' is the necessary correction of _Is_ of the folio. See on K. John,

iv. 2.

ACT II.

SC. 1. "Is not to-morrow, boy, the first of March?"

The correction of Theobald, _Ides_, has been universally and properly

adopted; for 'first' _must_ have been a printer's error.

* * * * *

"Brutus, thou sleepest: awake! Such instigations

Have been often dropped where I took them up."

* * * * *

"_Speak, strike, redress!_--Am I entreated _then_?"

* * * * *

"Sir, March is wasted fifteen days."

Theobald read _fourteen_, which was the exact number; but the error was

the poet's.

* * * * *

"No, not an oath. If not the face of men."

Warburton read _fate_, which Singer justifies; Mason _faith_.

* * * * *

"When Cæsar's head is off.--Yet I _do_ fear him."

* * * * *

SC. 2. "Fierce fiery warriors _did_ fight upon the clouds."

* * * * *

"Horses do neigh, and dying men did groan."

The context demands the past tense here also. The 2nd folio properly

therefore read _did_ for 'do.' See on Mer. of Ven. ii. 3.

* * * * *

"We were two lions, litter'd in one day."

'Were' is Theobald's correction of _hear_ of the original. Upton read

equally well, _are_.

* * * * *

"For tinctures, stains, relics, and cognizances."

I am rather dubious of 'stains'; as the meaning is not clear.

* * * * *

SC. 4. "The heart of woman is. O Brutus, _Brutus_!"

ACT III.

SC. 1. "These couchings and these lowly courtesies

Might fire the blood of ordinary men."

As, so far as I know, the subs. _couching_ does not occur anywhere

else, we might read, with Hanmer, _crouchings_; for nothing is more

common than the omission of a letter by the printer. Singer, however,

quotes from Huloet, "_Cowch_ like a dogge, Procumbo;" and we may see

a reference to the dog in the whole speech. For _fire_ I would read

_stir_.

* * * * *

"To you our swords have leaden points, Mark Antony;

Our arms in strength of malice, and our hearts

Of brother's temper do receive you in _them_."

As the second line does not make sense, we may either, with Capell,

read _no_ for 'in,' or, deeming the error to lie in 'malice,'

substitute _friendship_, or some other word.

* * * * *

"A curse shall light upon the limbs of men."

Johnson, followed by Dyce, prefers _lives_. I do not see much to be

gained by the change.

* * * * *

"Passion I see is catching; from mine eyes."

For 'from' the 2nd folio properly read _for_.

* * * * *

SC. 2. "Cæsar has had great wrong.--Has he, _my_ masters?"

* * * * *

"Read the will. We will hear it Antony;

You shall read us the will. _Read_ Cæsar's will."

* * * * *

"For I have neither writ, nor words, nor worth."

The 2nd folio properly read _wit_, i.e. mental power.

ACT IV.

SC. 1. "One that feeds

On objects, arts, and imitations," etc.

I see no objection to this line; but Theobald read, and Dyce approves

of, '_abject_ arts.'

* * * * *

"Our best friends made, our means stretch'd _to the utmost_."

I most willingly adopt this excellent addition of Malone's, which is

every way to be preferred to the usually adopted reading of the 2nd

folio, "_and_ our _best_ means stretched _out_." Of Malone's reading

Mr. Collier says, "which is not only a bad verse, but is supported by

no authority," as if the 2nd folio was an authority! And "a bad verse!"

Mr. Collier has strange ideas of metre.

* * * * *

SC. 3. "_Yet_ let me tell you, Cassius, you yourself."

Some read '_And_ let me'; but 'Yet,' in which I had been anticipated,

seems preferable.

* * * * *

"Brutus, _bay_ not me."

Theobald's judicious correction; the folio has _baite_.

* * * * *

"Set in a note-book, learn'd and conn'd by rote

To cast into my teeth."

The proper word is _his_, not 'my'; but it may be one of the poet's

usual slips.

* * * * *

"Cicero one!--_Yes_; Cicero is dead."

* * * * *

"Came on refresh'd, new-aided, and encourag'd."

The reading of the folio is 'added.' Both Singer and Dyce agree in the

correction.

ACT V.

SC. 1. "_You_ flatterers! Now, Brutus, thank thyself."

* * * * *

"This is my birthday; as this very day."

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

* * * * *

SC. 2. "And sudden push gives them the overthrow."

It might be better to read 'And _a_,' or rather _A_. See on Temp. i. 2.

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.

ACT I.

SC. 1. "To weep; whose every passion fully strives."

The 1st folio reads 'who'; the correction was made in the 2nd.

* * * * *

SC. 2. "Must change his horns with garlands."

Both Southern and Warburton read _charge_.

* * * * *

"And, fertile every wish, a million."

Warburton's correction of 'foretel' of the folio.

* * * * *

"Saw you my lord?--No, lady."

So 2nd folio; the 1st has _Save_.

* * * * *

"Extended Asia from Euphrates, _and_

His conquering banners shook from Syria."

* * * * *

"Antony thou would'st say.--Oh, _no_, my lord."

* * * * *

"Oh! then we bring forth weeds

When our quick minds lie still, and our ills told us

Is as our earing."

'Minds' is Warburton's correction of 'winds.' This confusion of _m_ and

_w_ is not unusual. In King John (v. 7) we have, "And the siege is now

against the _wind_;" and in Cymb. (ii. 4) "Now _w_ingled with their

courages."

* * * * *

"And get her love to part."

The usual correction, _leave_, is right. Two Gent. i. 1.

* * * * *

SC. 3. "Tempt him not so too far. I wish forbear."

'Wish' here signifies recommend, advise. I think we should read 'wish

_you_,' as it is always followed by its object when used in this sense.

* * * * *

SC. 4. "One great competitor."

The proper word is _Our_. See on Cor. iii. 1.

* * * * *

"Full surfeits and the dryness of his bones

Call on him for it."

Collier's folio reads _Fall_. I agree with it.

* * * * *

"As we rate boys; who being mature in knowledge."

I read '_im_mature,' for the negative is required.

* * * * *

"And the ebb'd man, ne'er lov'd till ne'er worth love,

Comes fear'd by being lack'd."

Warburton, who has been generally followed, made the correction

_dear'd_. But there is no such verb. I read _dear_. "I shall be lov'd

when I am lack'd" (Cor. iv. 1). _Come_ for _became_ occurs also in "so

_came_ I a widow" (2 Hen. IV. ii. 3).

* * * * *

"Goes to and back lacking the varying tide."

Theobald read justly _lackeying_. I read _fro_ for 'back.'

* * * * *

"Both what by sea and land I shall be able

To 'front the present time."

I read '_With_ what both.'

* * * * *

"To let me be partaker of."

* * * * *

SC. 5. "For so he calls me--Now I feed myself

With most delicious poison--thinks on me," etc.

It is thus I would give force to the passage. The appeal to those

present is feeble.

* * * * *

"And soberly did mount an arm-gaunt steed."

There can be no doubt that 'arm-gaunt' is a printer's blunder. The best

correction seems to be that of Boaden and myself, _arrogant_; we might

also read _ardent_, as we have "a hot and fiery steed" (Rich. II. v.

2); or _angry_, as in F. Q. i. 1, 1. I had, like M. Mason, conjectured

_termagant_; but that term is never applied to an animal. In favour of

_arrogant_, Singer quoted from the Arauco Domado of Lope de Vega

"Y el _cavallo arrogante_, en que subido

El hombre parecia

Monstruosa fiera que seis pies tenia."

In Spanish, I may observe, _caballo arrogante_ is simply a gallant,

spirited horse. See Calderon, La Niña de Gomez Arias. II. There is not,

as far as I know, any instance of the use of _arrogant_ in this sense

in English; and it would be a curious circumstance if Shakespeare had

learned the Spanish sense of it.

* * * * *

ACT II.

SC. 1. "Salt Cleopatra, soften thy wand lip."

I see no sense in in 'wand.' Some editors read _wan'd_, taking perhaps

the image from the moon. I have read _wanton_, in the sense of soft,

yielding like "the wanton rushes" (1 H. IV. iii. 1), "the wanton air"

(L. L. L. iv. 3), which would also suit the metre better. I, however,

strongly suspect that the poet's word may have been _tann'd_, spelt

of course _tand_, so that a printer's error was very obvious. She is

more than once called _gypsy_; she has "a _tawny_ front" (i. 1); and

she says of herself (i. 5.) that she is "with Phoebus' amorous kisses

_black_." In Son. cxv. we have "_tan_ sacred beauty;" and in Son. lxii.,

"But when my glass shows me myself indeed,

Beated and chopp'd with _tann'd_ antiquity."

'Salt' is wanton, lascivious; perhaps from _salax_.

* * * * *

SC. 2. "I should do thus.--Welcome to Rome.--_I_ thank you."

* * * * *

"Your wife and brother

Made wars upon me, and their contestation

Was theme for you."

I am not satisfied with this passage. Perhaps for 'their' and 'you' we

should read _your_ and _them_, as I have done.

* * * * *

"If you'll patch a quarrel.

As matter whole you have _not_ to make it with."

The negative was properly inserted by Rowe.

* * * * *

"Go to them; your considerate stone _am I_."

* * * * *

"Truths would be tales _only_,

Where now half-tales be truths."

Hanmer read '_but_ tales'; Steevens '_as_ tales'; Capell '_then_ be

tales.' We might also read '_mere_ tales.'

* * * * *

"Or else he seeks us out.--Where lies he _now_?--

About the Mount Misenum.--What's his strength?--

By land great and increasing; but by sea

He is an absolute master."

I give 'By land' to Cæsar. See on As You Like it, ii. 1.

* * * * *

"In her pavilion (cloth of gold of tissue)."

With Collier's folio I read _and_ for 'of.' See Final Note to Comus in

my Milton.

* * * * *

"The silken tackle

Swell with the touches of the flower-soft hands,

That yarely frame the office."

'Swell' (_sc._ with pride, _i.e._ are elate) no doubt makes good sense;

but the words of North's Plutarch are "Others tending the tackle and

ropes of the barge, out of which there came a wonderful sweet savour

of perfumes, that perfumed the wharf's side." _Smell_, the reading of

Collier's folio, is therefore probably right. In the last line 'the'

should, I think, be _their_.

* * * * *

SC. 3. "Would I had never come from thence nor you

_Come_ thither."

* * * * *

"I see it in my motion, have it not in my tongue."

We should probably read _notion_, i.e. idea, mind.

* * * * *

"But near him thy angel

Becomes a fear."

Upton read _afear'd_, and, I think, rightly; a Fear was a source of

terror, not an object of it. In the corresponding place of North's

Plutarch the word is _afraid_.

* * * * *

SC. 4. "We shall,

As I conceive the journey, be at Mount _Misenum_."

* * * * *

"Tawny-finn'd fishes."

Theobald's correction of 'tawny-_fine_' of the folio.

* * * * *

"Ram thou thy fruitful tidings in mine ears,

That long time have been barren."

I adopt without hesitation the excellent correction of _Rain_ for

'Ram.' "Rain sacrificial whisperings in his ear" (Tim. i. 1). "In

measure rain thy joy" (Mer. of Ven. iii. 2).

* * * * *

SC. 5. "If Antony

Be free and healthful, so tart a favour _suits_ not

To trumpet such good tidings."

We might also read, as is usually done, '_why_ so tart a favour?'

* * * * *

SC. 6. "Made _the_ all-honour'd honest Roman Brutus."

The _the_ was properly inserted in the 2nd folio.

* * * * *

SC. 7. "The third part of the world, man? Seest _thou_ not?"

* * * * *

"The holding every man shall bear as loud

As his strong sides can volley."

'Bear' is, as usual, one of Theobald's excellent corrections for 'beat'

of the folio; 'holding' is burthen.

ACT III.

SC. 1. "Than gain which darkens him * * *"

* * * * *

"Without the which a soldier and his sword

Grants scarce distinction."

For 'Grants' we might read _Gains_.

* * * * *

SC. 2. "_Ever_ think, speak, cast, write, sing, number, ho!"

* * * * *

"This is to horse. Adieu, _most_ noble Agrippa."

* * * * *

"Be the ram to batter.

The fortress of it _down_; for better might we," etc.

* * * * *

"Believe it till I weep too."

Theobald, who is always followed, read _wept_, but, it seems to me,

from not understanding the passage: what is meant is, accept this

explanation till you see _me_ weep from pure feeling, which Antony was

no more capable of doing than I am.

* * * * *

SC. 3. "This creature's no such thing.--_No_, nothing, madame."

* * * * *

SC. 4. "Shall stain your brother."

The critics give examples of 'stain' in the sense of eclipse, throw

into the shade.

* * * * *

SC. 5. "Then would thou hadst a pair of chaps, no more."

The critics properly read _world_ and _hast_.

* * * * *

"They'll grind _the one_ the other."

It is strange that _the one_, required both by sense and metre, was

first added by Johnson.

* * * * *

SC. 6. "Being an abstract 'tween his lust and him."

For 'abstract,' which makes no sense, Warburton read _obstruct_, which

has been generally adopted; but as this subst. occurs nowhere else, I

prefer to read _obstruction_.

* * * * *

"Up to a whore; who now are levying."

As no good sense has been made of 'who,' I read _they_.

* * * * *

"King Malchus of Arabia, _the_ King of Pont."

It is, however, I think, probable that a proper name has been lost.

* * * * *

"Till we perceived both how you were wrong-led."

For 'wrong-led' Collier's folio reads well _wronged_.

* * * * *

"And the high gods

To do you justice make his ministers."

I would read _God_.

* * * * *

SC. 7. "And as the president of my kingdom will _I_."

* * * * *

"I have sixty sails, Cæsar none better _hath_."

* * * * *

SC. 8. "Yon ribaudred nag of Egypt."

For 'ribaudred' Steevens and Malone read _ribald-rid_, and Tyrwhitt

_hag_ for 'nag.' There is no need of change. 'Ribaudred' is vile,

obscene; and 'nag,' like _hackney_, etc., was used of unchaste women.

* * * * *

"When vantages, like a pair of twins, appear'd."

* * * * *

"Hoists sails and flies.--That I beheld _myself_."

* * * * *

"'Tis easy to it; and therefore I will attend."

It should perhaps be ''Tis easy _way_.'

* * * * *

SC. 9. "Which has no need of you; begone, _I pray_."

* * * * *

"By looking back _on_ what I have left behind."

* * * * *

"Obey it on all cause.--_Oh_, pardon, pardon!"

* * * * *

SC. 10. "As is the morn-dew on the myrtle-leaf

To his grand sea."

I think we should read '_morning_,' and _this_ for 'his.' It is the

adjacent Mediterranean that is meant.

* * * * *

"Offers from thine invention."

The folio reads "From thine invention offers." See on Temp. iii. 1.

* * * * *

SC. 11. "To lay his gay comparisons aside."

Mr. Singer and myself have both conjectured '_ca_parisons.'

* * * * *

"Hear it apart.--_Here's_ none but friends; say boldly."

Hanmer also added _Here_.

* * * * *

"Thus then, thou most renowned! Cæsar entreats _thee_."

* * * * *

"Farther than he is Cæsar['s]."

* * * * *

"And put yourself under his shroud, _who is_

The universal landlord."

Collier's folio adds _who is_.

* * * * *

"Say to great Cæsar this. In disputation

I kiss his conquering hand."

Warburton's reading '_de_putation,' is not to be disputed.

* * * * *

"Dissolve my life! The next Cæsarion smite!"

'Smite' is the proper correction for 'smile' of the folio. See on Hen.

V. ii. 2.

ACT IV.

SC. 1. "Enough to fetch him in. See it _be_ done."

* * * * *

"Thou,--and thou,--and thou.--You have _all_ serv'd me well."

* * * * *

SC. 2. "Haply you shall not see me more, or, if

_You do_, a mangled shadow."

* * * * *

SC. 4. "Come, _my_ good fellow, put mine iron on."

The folio has _thine_ for 'mine'; Rowe also added _my_.

* * * * *

SC. 6. "Alexas did revolt, and went to Jewry

On affairs of Antony's; there did dissuade

Great Herod to incline himself to Cæsar."

Malone has shown from North's Plutarch that _persuade_, not 'dissuade,'

was the poet's word. In the first line for 'and' I read _He_, which may

have been written _A_'.

* * * * *

SC. 7. "Cæsar himself has work, and our oppression

Exceeds what we expected."

The right word is 'opposition,' also the reading of Hanmer and

Warburton.

* * * * *

"And let the Queen know of our guests."

He had no guests. Theobald read _gests_, which must be right, though

Shakespeare uses it nowhere else.

* * * * *

"Each man's like me; you have shown _yourselves_ all Hectors."

* * * * *

SC. 9. "Hark! the drums

Demurely wake the sleepers."

It is rather remarkable that Mr. Dyce and I should have simultaneously

conjectured _Do merrily_, of which I think there can be little doubt.

See Introd. p. 67.

* * * * *

SC. 10. "_And_ they have put forth the haven * *"

Rowe proposed _Further on_; Capell _Hie we on_; Tyrwhitt _Let us go_;

and Malone _Let's seek a spot_. I read "_We'll take our stand_."

* * * * *

"But being charg'd we will be still by land."

Here both 'But' and 'still' may cause some difficulty. The former is to

be taken in its original and proper sense, except, unless; the latter

in the sense of quiet.

* * * * *

"The hearts

That spaniel'd me at heels."

The folio has _pannell'd_; Hanmer made the correction.

* * * * *

"Oh! this false soul of Egypt! this grave charme."

In my Edition, yielding to an impulse I could not resist, I have

added a final _r_ to 'charme' both here and a few lines before; thus

making it accord with 'witch' and 'gypsy,' as he also calls her. But

he likewise terms her 'spell,' and Perdita (W. T. iv. 3) is called

'enchantment,' both, however, in the vocative. It is also rather

improbable that the last letter of the same word should have been

effaced in two places; but this may be explained by supposing an

effacement of the ends of many of the lines in a page of the MS.; and

while the others were restored, 'charme,' as making sense, was not

supposed to have been injured. By 'Egypt' is meant the Queen, so styled

elsewhere also. 'Grave' is heavy, powerful, oppressive; as in the

_gravibus Persis_ of Horace, Carm. iii. 5. 4.

* * * * *

"And hoist thee up _un_to the shouting plebeians."

* * * * *

SC. 12. "That which is now a horse, even with a thought

The rack dislimns, and makes it indistinct."

It might be better to read _dislimbs_.

* * * * *

"Pack'd cards with Cæsar['s]."

* * * * *

"Unarm _me_, Eros; the long day's work is done."

* * * * *

"The courage of a woman; less noble-mind_ed_."

It is evident that the final syllable had been effaced.

* * * * *

SC. 13. "His death's upon him, but _he is_ not dead."

* * * * *

"Burn the great sphere thou mov'st in! darkling stand _on_."

* * * * *

"No more, but e'en a woman."

The folio has _in_ for 'e'en'; the correction is Johnson's.

ACT V.

SC. 1. "Being so frustrate, tell him he mocks _us by_

The pauses that he makes."

I adopt Malone's excellent addition, which has everything in its favour.

* * * * *

"His taints and honours

Wag'd equal with him."

We should perhaps read, as has been proposed, _Weigh'd_ for 'Wag'd.'

* * * * *

"For Cæsar cannot live

To be ungentle."

'Live' is the correction of Southern and Pope of _leave_ in the folio.

'To be' is being. See Introd. p. 70.

* * * * *

SC. 2. "Which sleeps, and never palates more the dung,

The beggar's nurse and Cæsar's."

With Mr. Dyce I would read _dug_, the correction of Warburton. _Of_ may

have been lost in the beginning of the last line. Still 'dung' may be

right, denoting earth; so I have retained it in my Edition.

* * * * *

"He gives me so much of my own, as I

Will kneel to him in thanks _for_."

For 'as' Mason would read _and_.

* * * * *

"If idle talk will once be necessary."

Hanmer read '_ac_cessary'; but perhaps without need.

* * * * *

"And he hath sent _me_ for thee."

* * * * *

"There was no winter in it; an autumn 'twas."

So Theobald; the folio has _Antony_.

* * * * *

"His delights

Were dolphin-like; they showed his back above

The element they lived in."

For 'his' we should read _their_ or _the_.

* * * * *

"By the rebound of yours; a grief that suites

My very heart at root."

'Suites' is _shoots_ (see on L. L. L. iv. 3). Some read _smites_.

* * * * *

"To one so meek, that my own servant should," etc.

The poet may have written _weak_.

* * * * *

"With one that I have bred. The gods! it smites me."

For 'The' we should read _Ye_, as in Cor. i. 6.

* * * * *

"Of eyes again so royal! your crown's away;

I'll mend it, and then play...."

Pope most properly read _awry_ for 'away,' which was caused probably by

the rime with play.

KING LEAR.

ACT I.

SC. 1. "What shall Cordelia do? love and be silent."

For 'do' the folio reads _speak_.

* * * * *

"Only she comes too short _in_ that I profess."

* * * * *

"Although the last not least."

The folio reads '_our_ last _and_ least.'

* * * * *

"I crave no more than what your highness offer'd."

So the 4tos; the folio reads 'than _hath_.'

* * * * *

"It is no vicious blot, murder, or foulness,

No unchaste action, or dishonour'd step."

How could the pure and gentle Cordelia suppose herself to be suspected

of murder? which, moreover, accords not with the other charges she

enumerates. Collier's folio reads _or other_ for 'murder or.' I feel

strongly persuaded that the poet's word was _misdeed_, which, if a

little effaced, might easily be taken for 'murder.'

* * * * *

SC. 2. "Shall to the legitimate ... I grow, I prosper."

By pointing thus, as Rowe also did, we obviate the necessity of

adopting Edwards' ingenious reading of _top_ for 'to.'

* * * * *

"Though the wisdom of Nature can reason it thus and thus."

We should surely read _man_. 'Nature' is in the following line, and

hence the error.

* * * * *

"Banishment of friends, dissipation of cohorts."

Johnson read _courts_. 'Cohorts' is not a Shakespearian term.

* * * * *

SC. 3. "With checks; as flatteries, when they are seen, _are_ abused."

It is only thus I can make sense.

* * * * *

"Remember what I have said _to you_.--Well, madam."

* * * * *

"To hold my course.--Prepare for dinner _now_."

The usual reading is, To hold my _very_ course.

* * * * *

SC. 4. "How now _our_ daughter! What makes that frontlet on?"

* * * * *

"As you are old and reverend _you_ should be wise."

* * * * *

"Woe's _him_ that too late repents ...--O sir, are you come?"

So perhaps the poet wrote.

* * * * *

"To the great love I bear you.--Pray you _be_ content."

* * * * *

"Though I condemn _it_ not ... yet under pardon."

ACT II.

SC. 1. "How in my strength you please. For you, _good_ Edmund."

* * * * *

"_Corn._ You know not why we came to visit you.

_Reg._ Thus out of season threading dark-eyed night.

Occasions, noble Gloster, of some poise,

Wherein we must have use of your advice."

It is strange that the editors have not seen that _Reg._ is out of

place. It belongs to the third line. (See on Hen. V. i. 1.) In her

usual forward impatient manner she takes, as we say, the words out of

Cornwall's mouth. There is evidently a line lost after the fourth. We

might read "Have been the cause of this our sudden visit."

* * * * *

SC. 2. "Knowing nought _else_, like dogs, but following."

* * * * *

"Smile you _at_ my speeches, as I were a fool?"

* * * * *

SC. 4. "They have travell'd hard to-night. Mere fetches _these_."

* * * * *

"For the sound man.--Death on my state!

Wherefore should he sit here? This act persuades me."

This is the proper arrangement.

* * * * *

"Thy tender-hefted nature shall not give

Thee o'er to harshness."

Neither _hefted_ nor _hested_, the other reading, makes sense; the

conjecture _hearted_ may, then, be right.

* * * * *

"To wage _war_ against the enmity of the air."

* * * * *

"You heavens, give me that patience [patience] I need."

Malone made the same omission.

* * * * *

"_He_ hath put himself from rest, and must needs taste his folly."

ACT III.

SC. 1. "Who have--as who have not, that their great stars _have_?"

* * * * *

SC. 4. "Hast thou _too_ given all unto thy daughters?"

* * * * *

"Dolphin, my boy, my boy!

Cessè, let him trot by."

As these seem to be the words of the French King to his son in a ballad

quoted by Steevens, I have given the French _cesse_ instead of the

Spanish _cesa_ for the _cease_ of the 4tos, _sessy_ of the folio.

* * * * *

"Child Rowland to the dark tower came."

Capell saw that a line was wanting here; for what follows must be the

words of the Giant. He would read with the 4tos _come_; but there was

no necessity, for in these ballads the first and third lines rarely

rimed. The lost line may have been something like this: "The Giant saw

him, and out he ran."

* * * * *

SC. 6. "A horse's heels," etc.

The originals read _health_, which is wrong beyond question, as is

proved by the proverb in Fordun and Ray, cited by the critics.

* * * * *

"What store her heart is made of."

'Store' an obvious error for _stone_.

* * * * *

"This rest might yet have balm'd thy broken sinews."

For 'sinews' Theobald read _senses_, which has been generally received,

but perhaps without necessity.

ACT IV.

SC. 1. "Might I but live to see thee in my touch I'd say I had eyes

again."

The proper word of course is _feel_, not 'see'; but the text may be

right. We have elsewhere, "I see it feelingly." We might also read _by_

for 'in.'

* * * * *

"Sirrah, _thou_ naked fellow!"

* * * * *

SC. 2. "It will come _that_ humanity must perforce."

* * * * *

"With plumed helm thy slayer begins _his_ threats."

* * * * *

"But _she_ being widow, and my Gloster with her."

* * * * *

SC. 3. "Ay, sir, she took them, read them in my presence."

The original is _I so_. Theobald made the change.

* * * * *

"Not to a rage; Patience and Sorrow strove."

Pope gave 'strove' for the original _streme_.

* * * * *

"You might have seen

Sunshine and rain at once ... her smiles and tears

Were like it--a better way."

For 'way' Theobald read _May_. Warburton proposed _wetter May_.

* * * * *

"'Tis so they are afoot."

We should, with Warburton, read _said_ not 'so.'

* * * * *

SC. 6. "Pull off my boots; _pull_ harder, harder; so!"

* * * * *

"Who by the art of known and feeling sorrow."

We should certainly read _knowing_.

* * * * *

"Got 'tween the lawful sheets."

We might supply '_were unto me_.'

* * * * *

"What! with the case of eyes?"

With Rowe I read _this_. Case is pair.

* * * * *

"Your eyes are in a heavy case, your purse in a light _one_."

* * * * *

SC. 7. "Madam _he_ sleeps still."

* * * * *

"Be so good, madam, when we do awake him."

The folio has "Madam, be so good."

* * * * *

"Fourscore and upward [not an hour more or less] and to deal

plainly _with you_."

I agree with the 4tos, and with the more judicious critics, in omitting

the bracketted words. (See on Ham. iii. 1. v. 2.) The addition seems

requisite.

* * * * *

"To make him even _go_ o'er the time he has lost."

The poet's word may not have been _go_, but a verb is lost. Its place

may have been taken by 'even.'

ACT V.

SC. 1. "_Yet_ I am doubtful that you have been conjunct."

* * * * *

SC. 3. "_But_ if it be man's work I'll do it."

* * * * *

"And Fortune led you well. You have the_m_ captives."

* * * * *

"Make instruments to plague us * * *"

We might add '_in their time_.'

* * * * *

"As he'd burst heaven, threw me on my father."

So all the 4tos--the place is not in the folio. Editors most properly

read _him_ for 'me.'

MACBETH.

ACT I.

SC. 1. "_1 W._ I come, Graymalkin.--_2 W._ Paddock calls.--_3 W._

Anon."

I adopt this arrangement of Mr. Hunter's instead of that of the folio,

usually followed.

* * * * *

SC. 2. "Say to the King the knowledge of the broil."

Here 'the' is evidently an error for _thy_.

* * * * *

"Doubtful it stood * * *"

We might add, _For the two armies were_.

* * * * *

"And Fortune on his damned quarry smiling."

Holinshed, treating of this very matter, says, "to assist him in that

rebellious _quarrel_." Hence the usual correction of _quarrel_ for

'quarry' seems to be justified. In the old writers _quarrel_ in the

sense of cause, party, is frequent. It was in ordinary use at that

time, alike in French and English.

* * * * *

"Like Valour's minion, carv'd out his passage,

Till he fac'd the slave * * *"

We might add, _with Vengeance at his side_.

* * * * *

"Shipwrecking storms, and direful thunders _break_."

So Pope, from _breaking_ of the 2nd folio.

"Like _tempests

Broke_ from the raging North."

Fletch. Hum. Lieut. i. 1.

* * * * *

"This oür captains, Macbeth and Banquo?--Yes."

* * * * *

"As cannons overcharg'd with double cracks, so they."

We might, but not so well perhaps, read 'o'ercharg'd' (see on M. N. D.

ii. 1). 'They so,' though it makes a rime, would give energy.

* * * * *

"Who comes here _now_?--The worthy thane of Rosse."

* * * * *

"So should he look that seems to speak great things."

Collier's folio, I think rightly, reads _comes_ for 'seems' (see on

All's Well, ii. 3). We can hardly take 'to speak' in the sense of about

to speak.

* * * * *

"From Fife, great king, where the Norweyan banners

_Did_ flout the air, and fan our people cold.

Norway himself with terrible numbers _there_."

Both sense and metre require _Did_. The battle was over, and the enemy

defeated.

* * * * *

SC. 3. "As thick as tale

Came post with post," etc.

Though 'tale' makes good sense, it might be better to read, with

Rowe, _hail_, of which Mr. Dyce gives many examples. _Came_ is Rowe's

correction for 'Can' of the folio.

* * * * *

"Promis'd no less to them?--That trusted home."

Beyond question we should read, with Malone, _thrusted_.

* * * * *

"Give _me_ your favour; my dull brain was wrought."

* * * * *

"_I'_ the interim having weigh'd it."

The _I'_ is not absolutely necessary, but I think Shakespeare wrote it.

See on Hamlet, iii. 1.

* * * * *

SC. 4. "Is execution done on Cawdor? or not

Those in commission yet returned?"

There is every reason to suppose that the poet wrote '_are_ not,' the

reading of the 2nd folio.

* * * * *

SC. 5. "That which cries "Thus must thou do, if thou'_dst_ have it."

* * * * *

"The raven himself is hoarse

That croaks the fatal enterance of Duncan

Under my battlements. Come you spirits."

It is strange that our critics have not seen that the raven is

figurative, and means the man. I find that the German Delius had also

perceived it. In the third line I think we should read 'spirits of

_evil_'; for a foot is wanting, and good as well as evil spirits 'tend

on mortal thoughts.' The ordinary correction, 'Come, _come_,' is a mere

make-shift, and is tame and feeble.

* * * * *

"And take my milk for gall."

Perhaps we should read _with_ for 'for,' taking 'take' in the sense of

tinge, infect, a sense it often bears.

* * * * *

"Nor Heaven peep through the blanket of the dark."

The word 'blanket' certainly seems too familiar and even vulgar an

expression, especially as the more dignified 'pall thee' had just

been used. Malone quotes from Drayton's Mortemeriados, 1596, "The

sullen night in misty _rug_ is wrapp'd." But even this is not so low

as 'blanket.' Collier's folio reads _blankness_, but that surely is

whiteness. Perhaps we might venture to read _blackness_, as in Ant. and

Cleop. (i. 4) we have "Night's _blackness_." At that time 'peep' was

to gaze earnestly and steadily at anything; not furtively, as now. 'To

cry' in the next line may be crying. See Introd. p. 70.

* * * * *

SC. 6. "By his loved mansionry that the heaven's breath

Smells wooingly here; no jutty, frieze,

Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird _on't_

Hath made his pendent bed and procreant cradle."

The second line here is short by a foot; and as it does not end a

paragraph, there must be something wrong. The defect, however, is

easily remedied; we have only to read,

"By his lov'd mansiönry that the heaven's

Breath smells wooingly here."

The structure of the last line is like that of "Thy knee bussing the

stones" (Cor. iii. 1). "The mind is its own place" (Par. Lost, i. 254),

and similar places. There can be little doubt, I think, that _on't_

was effaced at the end of the third line; for the poet could hardly,

even in his most careless moment, have termed solid parts of a building

'pendent nests,' etc. Wordsworth, with this very place in his mind,

wrote: "_On_ coigns of vantage _hang_ their nests of clay" (Misc. Son.

34). It is also in favour of this reading that it throws the metric

accent on _this_, thereby adding force. 'Coign of vantage' would seem

to be _coin d'avantage_, Fr., and denoting a projection of some kind.

* * * * *

SC. 7. "If it were done when 'tis done then 'twere well

It were done quickly. If the assassination

Could trammel up the consequence, and catch

With his success surcease; that but this blow

Might be the be-all and the end-all here;

But here--upon this bank and shoal of time--

We'd jump the life to come.... But in these cases," etc.

So the passage should be pointed. The first 'done' in the first

line is, finished, ended; from 'If' in the second line to 'life to

come' in the seventh is one sentence, with the same idea repeated in

three several forms, and not completed; common sense dictates the

transposition of 'surcease' and 'success,' the latter signifying

accomplishment; 'but' in lines four and six is, only; 'the life to

come' is not the future state but the remaining years of his own life,

as is manifest from what follows. In scene 5 we have had, "Which shall

to all our _nights and days to come_." We also meet with, "True swains

in love shall in the _world to come_" (Tr. and Cr. iii. 2). "Thus all

his _life to come_ is loss and shame." Cowley, Davideis, ii. 616.

* * * * *

"Vaulting ambition which o'erleaps itself,

And falls on the other _side_.--How now! what news?"

Hanmer also supplied _side_, which metre and sense demand alike. He

had completed what he intended to say, and was pausing when his wife

entered.

* * * * *

"At what it did so freely? From this time

Such I account thy love."

A line or more must have been lost between these lines.

* * * * *

"I dare do all that may become a man;

Who dares do more is none."

For 'do' in the second line, the correction of Southern and Rowe,

generally adopted, the folio has _no_, which Mr. Hunter retains, giving

the line to Lady Macbeth. But her reply, "What _beast_ was it then?"

shows that _do_ was the poet's word.

ACT II.

SC. 1. "Sent forth great largess to your officers."

The correction of Malone for 'offices' of the folio, which also makes

good sense. In a following line 'shut up' seems to apply to Duncan,

as denoting the pleasure he felt. The expression is similar to "I am

wrapp'd in dismal thinkings." All's Well, v. 3.

* * * * *

"If you shall cleave to my consent, when 'tis

It shall make honour for you."

I cannot make sense of 'consent.' I had thought of _content_, also the

conjecture of Malone; but it does not quite _content_ me.

* * * * *

"The curtain'd sleepe; witchcraft celebrates."

Something is evidently lost here. Steevens and Collier's folio read

'sleepe_r_.' (See on Temp. iii. 1.) The usual reading has been that of

Davenant, '_now_ witchcraft.'

* * * * *

"With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design

Moves like a ghost.--Thou sure and firm-set earth

Hear not my steps which way they walk."

Here 'strides,' 'sure,' and 'way,' are corrections of _sides_, _sowne_,

and _may_ of the folio.

* * * * *

SC. 2. "These deeds must not be thought _on_."

* * * * *

"I am afraid to think _on_ what I have done."

Here the addition is not absolutely necessary, but it makes the

language more forcible and more idiomatic.

* * * * *

SC. 3. "To countenance this horror. Ring the bell.--

What is the business?"

Theobald regarded 'Ring the bell' as a stage-direction; but a direction

follows, and Macduff, in his anxiety and impatience, reiterates his

order.

* * * * *

"Let's briefly put on manly readiness."

A very awkward way of expressing Let us make haste and put on our

clothes (see Index _v._ Ready), for they must have been in their

nightgowns. (Ham. iii. 4.) I greatly doubt if the editors have

understood it; for they have no note on it; and Singer quotes it as a

parallel to "Put on the dauntless spirit of resolution" (K. John, v. 1).

ACT III.

SC. 1. "Let your Highness'

Command _be_ upon me, to the which my duties," etc.

This insertion removes all difficulty very simply. _Be_ is omitted

constantly.

* * * * *

"Till supper-time alone; while then God be with you."

This line cannot be as the poet wrote it, for the metric accents fall

on 'be' and 'you.' We might read _good bye_, but it would be somewhat

too familiar. On the whole, I think that _mean_ has been omitted before

'while.' By supplying it, the language becomes dignified and king-like.

See Index _s. v._ While.

* * * * *

"To make them kings, the seed[s] of Banquo kings!

Rather than so come Fate into the lists."

* * * * *

"Now, if you have a station in the file,

Not in the _most_ worst rank of manhood, say it."

A syllable is wanting; we have "_most_ worst" in Winter's Tale, iii. 2,

and double comparatives and superlatives are common.

* * * * *

SC. 2. "Whom we to gain our peace have sent to peace."

The first 'peace' was probably suggested, in the usual manner, by the

second. We might read _seat_, or some such word (see Introd. p. 64).

The 2nd folio has _place_.

* * * * *

"Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond."

We should read _band_, riming with 'hand.'

* * * * *

"Light thickness and the crow

Makes wing to the rooky wood. * * *"

We might add, _on earth below_. We have, "In all designs begun _on

earth below_" (Tr. and Cr. i. 3).

* * * * *

"Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill."

It might be better to read 'themselves strong.'

* * * * *

SC. 4. "'Tis better thee without than he within."

The 'he' had better probably be _him_.

* * * * *

"We'll hear _thee_ ourselves again."

* * * * *

"If trembling I inhabit, then protest me

The baby of a girl."

Neither 'inhabit' nor Pope's 'inhibit' makes sense. I would read

_evitate it_. "Since therein she doth _evitate_ and shun" (Mer.

Wives, v. 5; Introd. p. 67). The printer might easily make _inhab_ of

_evitate_ badly written. We might also read _evade_ or _avoid it_.

'Baby' is doll.

* * * * *

"I hear it by the way; but I will send."

We should of course read 'hear_d_.'

* * * * *

SC. 6. "Who cannot want the thought how monsterous," etc.

This is evident nonsense; "yet," says Mr. Dyce, "I believe the text is

not corrupt. Shakespeare was sometimes incorrect in these _minutiæ_."

Shakespeare, however, never wrote nonsense; and if we read _We_ for

'Who,' we have the very word he wrote, and most excellent sense.

* * * * *

"Is gone to pray the holy king [up]on his aid."

* * * * *

"Hath so exasperate their king that he."

For 'their' we must of course read _the_.

ACT IV.

SC. 1. "Toad that under cold stone."

A syllable is lost. Pope read '_the_ cold'; Steevens 'cold_est_.' I

read 'under_neath_,' as in Jonson's line, "Underneath this stone doth

lie."

* * * * *

"Rebellious head rise never."

This is Theobald's reading for _dead_ of the folio. Hanmer

reads 'Rebellions,' which may be right, but 'head,' often means

insurrectionary forces.

* * * * *

SC. 2. "But cruel are the times when we are traitors

And do not know _it_ ourselves."

* * * * *

"_It_ shall not be long but I'll be here again."

* * * * *

"Thou liest thou shag-ear'd villain."

Both Singer and Dyce read _hair'd_, and I think rightly. _Hair_ was

originally pronounced _hear_, under which form it occurs in two of

Shakespeare's older plays; so _shag-heared_ and 'shag-eared' would

sound exactly alike.

* * * * *

SC. 3. "You may deserve of him, and wisdom _'twere_."

A syllable has plainly been lost. For 'deserve,' the correction of

Theobald, the folio has _discern_.

* * * * *

"I would not be the villain that thou think'st _me_."

* * * * *

"_Of aid_ of goodly thousands; but for all this."

The foot which is wanting may be thus supplied.

* * * * *

"Convey your pleasures in a spacious plenty."

For 'Convey,' which hardly makes sense, Singer reads _Enjoy_.

* * * * *

"Uproar the universal peace, confound

All unity on earth."

As it may be doubted if there is such a verb as 'Uproar,' and as it

makes little sense, I would read _Uproot_ or _Uptear_.

* * * * *

"_Then_ Heaven forgive him too.--This time goes manly."

This is the reading of the folio; but editors read _tune_ for 'time.'

The terms were synonymous. See Gifford on Massinger's Roman Actor, ii.

1.

"About him fairies, sing a scornful rime,

And, as you trip, still pinch him to your _time_."

Mer. Wives, v. 5.

ACT V.

Sc. 1. "Aye, but their sense are shut."

Editors read _is_ for 'are,' but I rather think we should read

'senses.' Yet 'sense' may be a collective. Introd. p. 70.

* * * * *

SC. 3. "Will cheer me ever, or disseat me now."

Percy and Collier's folio read _chair_ for 'cheer.' This may be right.

* * * * *

"My way of life

Is fallen into the sear, the yellow leaf."

For 'way' Johnson proposed _May_, and this reading has been generally

adopted; but there is no need of change.

* * * * *

"That keep her from her rest.--Cure _her_ of that."

The last _her_ was supplied by 2nd folio. See Introd. p. 55.

* * * * *

"Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff."

In the usual way, 'stuff' seems to have arisen from 'stuff'd.' I read

_matter_.

"Shall expel

This something settled _matter_ in his heart."

Ham. iii. 2.

* * * * *

"What rhubarb, cymè, or what purgative drug."

For 'cymè,' an uncommon word, Rowe read _senna_, and he has been

universally followed. Yet it may not be the right word.

* * * * *

SC. 4. "For where there is advantage to be given

Both more and less have given him the revolt."

The 'given' of the first line was produced, in the usual way, by that

of the second. I read _taken_.

* * * * *

SC. 5. "Hang out our banners! On the outward walls

The cry is still _They come!_"

So I think we should punctuate. It was from the keep, not the walls,

that the banner (as perhaps we should read) was hung. We have, no

doubt, "Advance our waving colours on the walls" (1 Hen. VI. i. 6); but

Orleans was a city, not a mere castle.

* * * * *

"The time has been my senses would have cool'd."

Collier's folio, which I follow, reads _quail'd_ for 'cool'd.' "That so

to see him made her heart to quail." F. Q. iv. 3, 46.

* * * * *

"Gracious my lord, I shall report that which [I say]

I saw, but know not how to do't.--Well, say, sir."

'I say' is needless, and spoils the measure. It arose from 'say' in the

next line.

* * * * *

SC. 7. "Seems _to be_ bruited. Let me find him, Fortune."

* * * * *

"I see thee compass'd with thy kingdom's pearl."

I may observe that 'pearl' is here a collective term--a singular, with

a plural sense. This word was often so used.

* * * * *

"We shall not spend a large expense of time."

With Singer, I read _make_ for 'spend.'

TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.

ACT I.

_Prol._ "To Tenedos they come."

This should be a single line, and is a sort of proof that the Prologue

is by Shakespeare (see Introd. p. 82). N.B.--In the beginning of the

Address prefixed to this play I read '_that_ brain' for "your brain."

See Introd. p. 68.

* * * * *

SC. 1. "I have--as when the sun doth light a storm."

Rowe's correction of _scorn_ of the 4tos and folio.

* * * * *

SC. 2. "What were you talking of when I came _up_?"

* * * * *

"_In his right_ condition, I had gone barefoot to India."

* * * * *

"Hector shall not have his wit this year."

Rowe's correction again, 'wit,' for _will_.

* * * * *

"So, traitor!--when she comes!--when is she thence?"

This is Rowe's correction of "So, traitor, then she comes, when she is

thence?"

* * * * *

"And a proper man of _his_ person."

* * * * *

"Words, vows, gifts, tears, and love's full sacrifice."

For 'gifts' the Var. edit. has _griefs_.

* * * * *

"Things won are done, joy's soul lies in the doing."

For 'lies' Mason read, and perhaps with reason, _flies_. We might, but

less probably, conjecture _dies_.

* * * * *

"Achievement is command; ungain'd beseech."

Nothing can be more correct than this; yet some approve of Mr.

Harness's correction, _Achieved men_. 'Ungain'd' sc. men, are those who

have not gained, achieved. In Corneille's Polyeucte (i. 3), Pauline

makes the very same remark.

* * * * *

"Then though my heart's content firm love doth bear."

For 'Then' of the 4tos the folio reads 'That,' another instance of the

confusion of these words. (See note on Prol.) The folio also reads

'contents.'

* * * * *

SC. 3. "Princes * * * * * *"

The remainder of the line has evidently been omitted or effaced; for

speeches never begin thus abruptly. We might read _and leaders of the

Grecian host_.

* * * * *

"With those of nobler bulk * * *"

We might add, _and greater strength_.

* * * * *

"And flies fled under shade," etc.

Here 'flies' is either a verb or a noun; if the former, we have the

grotesque image of the wind running and hiding itself after doing

mischief; if the latter, as in the folio, alluding to 'the brize,' we

have a bathos unworthy of any poet. Something, then, must have been

lost between 'flies' and 'fled.' I read thus:--

"And flies _along the sky, while bird and beast are_

Fled under shade;"

and I fancy I have made a near approach to what the poet wrote. As he

was reading Chaucer at that time, he may have had in his mind:--

"Ne how the _beestes_ and the _briddes_ alle

_Fledden_ for feare when the wood was falle."

Knt's. Tale.

If nothing is lost, we should read '_have_ fled.'

* * * * *

"Retires to chiding Fortune."

For 'Retires' Pope, whom I have followed, read _Returns_, Hanmer

_Replies_, Dyce _Retorts_. Yet the text may be right, and 'Retires' be

the French _retire_, shoots again, returns the shot.

* * * * *

"Speak, Prince of Ithaca, and be it of less expect."

This is not sense. I read _'we_ it less.' The superfluous insertion of

_of_ was not infrequent (see on Meas. for Meas. iv. 4). Here, however,

it was manifestly introduced to make some kind of sense. See Introd. p.

67.

* * * * *

"But for these instances * * *"

We might add, _which now I'll show you_.

* * * * *

"And look! how many Grecian tents [do] stand hollow

Upon this plain so many hollow factions.

When that the general is not as the hive."

'Do' was evidently introduced to eke out the verse. We should perhaps

read 'general'_s_' sc. tent.

* * * * *

"Degrees being vizarded,

The unworthiest shows as fairly in the mask."

As what? A line seems to be lost.

* * * * *

"In noble eminence enthron'd and spher'd

Amidst the others."

Mr. Singer read _ether_ for 'others.'

* * * * *

"The enterprise is sick."

Hanmer read _Then_ for 'the.' See Introd. p. 65.

* * * * *

"This chaos, when degree is suffocate,

Follows the choking."

I have added in my Edition _of the common weal_; but we might also read

_as his consequence_, which I think better.

* * * * *

"Breaks scurril jests * * * *"

I would add _on thee and all of us_.

* * * * *

"To weaken _us_ and discredit our exposure."

* * * * *

"To overbulk us all.--Well, and how _then_?"

* * * * *

"And in the publication make no strain."

Perhaps we should read _doubt_ for 'strain.'

* * * * *

"And think, perchance, they'll sell; if _they do_ not."

* * * * *

"What glory our Achilles shares from Hector,

Were he not proud, we all should share with him."

We should read _wins_ or _gains_ for 'shares.' See Introd. p. 64. It

is remarkable that for the 'share' of the second line the folio reads

_wear_, thus correcting the error of the 4tos.

ACT II.

SC. 1. "When Achilles' brach bids me."

'Brach' is Rowe's correction; the originals have _brooch_, which--as

being an ornament hung round the neck--may be right. See Win. Tale, i.

2.

* * * * *

SC. 2. "Wrinkles Apollo's, and makes stale the Morning'_s_."

So the folio reads, followed by Singer and Dyce; the 4tos read _pale_

for 'stale'--a reading I incline to prefer.

* * * * *

"As you must needs; for you all cried--Go, Go."

* * * * *

"The issue of your proper wisdoms rate."

Perhaps some word, such as _thus_ or _low_, has been lost after 'rate,'

or we should read '_under_rate.'

* * * * *

"I have a roisting challenge sent amongst."

As I have not met with the verb 'roist' anywhere else, I suspect that

the poet may have written _roistering_, and the transcriber or printer

have omitted a syllable, as in Meas. for Meas. iv. 2.

* * * * *

"Virgins and boys, mid-age and wrinkled eld."

'Eld' is an excellent correction of Ritson's; the 4tos read _elders_;

the folio _old_.

* * * * *

SC. 3. "Which short-arm'd Ignorance itself."

Mr. Dyce reads 'short-_ai_m'd.

* * * * *

"Their massy irons _out_, and cutting the web."

The metre requires this natural addition.

* * * * *

"He sent _back_ our messengers, and we lay by

Our appertainments, visiting of him."

The 4tos read 'He _sate_'; Theobald, who is generally followed, reads

'He _shent_; but this verb is never active in Shakespeare. Collier

reads '_We_ sent.'

* * * * *

"His pettish lunes, his ebbs and flows, as if."

Here 'lunes' is Hanmer's emendation of _lines_. See Mer. Wives, iv. 2.

* * * * *

"As amply titled as Achilles is

By going to Achilles."

We might perhaps add _in his tent_. See preceding speech.

* * * * *

"_I_ would he were a Trojan--What a vice."

* * * * *

"And give him half, and for thy vigour _let_."

* * * * *

"Fresh kings are come to Troy; to-morrow _morn_."

ACT III.

SC. 2. "Love's thrice-repured nectar."

Mr. Collier found this excellent reading in one of the 4tos, 1609. The

reading of all the others and of the folio is _reputed_. Nothing is

more common than the confusion of _r_ and _t_.

* * * * *

"Lady, you have bereft me of all words."

The original editions put 'Lady' at the end of the line.

* * * * *

"But you are _not_ wise,

Or else you love not; for to be wise and love

Exceeds man's might. That dwells with gods above."

As far as I am aware, not a single critic has discerned the absolute

necessity for the negative in this place. "The gods themselves cannot

be wise and love" (Marston, Dutch Courtezan, ii. 1). Both dramatists

were probably indebted to Spenser:--

"To be wise and eke to love

Is granted scarce to gods above."

Shep. Cal. March;

and he to Publius Syrus "Amare et sapere vix deo conceditur."

* * * * *

"_With a bed_; which bed," etc.

Sense and metre demand this addition of Hanmer's.

* * * * *

SC. 3. "That through the sight I bear in things to Jove."

For 'to Jove' most critics follow Mason in reading _to come_. Collier

hints at _above_. But the text is right; _to_ occurs constantly in the

sense of _at_, _chez_, _apud_: _ex. gr._ "Being a great favourite _to_

Queen Elizabeth" (Ashmole, Hist. of Berkshire, i. 249). "My heart _to_

her, but as guestwise sojourned" (M. N. D. iii. 2). "Lord Angelo

having affairs _to_ heaven" (Meas. for Meas. iii. 1).

"But let determin'd things _to Destiny_

Hold unbewail'd their way."

Ant. and Cleop. iii. 6.

It is to be observed that the word in the originals is _love_, not

'Jove,' and the very same error occurs in i. 3.

* * * * *

"In most accepted pain."

For 'pain,' which makes little or no sense, Warburton, who is generally

followed, read _pay_. I prefer _payment_, as effacement may have left

only a part of the _m_.

* * * * *

"But this Antenor

I know is such a wrest in their affairs."

I might incline to read _trust_ for 'wrest.' "Their tribune and their

_trust_" (Tit. Andron. i. 2). See also Ps. xl. 4, lxxi. 5. A _wrest_

was what we now term a tuning-key. "This small instrument, the tongue

being left in tune by the _wrest_ of awe." King James's Edict, etc.,

quoted by Singer.

* * * * *

"Good morrow, _Ajax_.--Ay, and good next day too."

* * * * *

"For speculation turns not to itself

Till it hath travell'd and is married there

Where it may see itself."

I see no reason for adopting, as some do, _mirror'd_ of Collier's and

Singer's folios. There was, I believe, no such verb at that time.

I prefer _arrived_, which could easily have become _married_ in a

printer's mind.

* * * * *

"Where they are extended; who, like an arch, reverberate."

Rowe read _which_ and 'reverberate_s_,' of which the first is needless,

the second may be right.

* * * * *

"_By_ an act that very chance doth throw upon him."

* * * * *

"As done. Perseverance, dear my lord _it is_."

* * * * *

"Where one but goes abreast. Keep then the path."

This line would gain both in perspicuity and melody if we were to read

'but one.'

* * * * *

"And leave you hindmost."

As this line is short, and as further on there is a line with two

superfluous feet, it is evident that there has been a misarrangement.

I have, therefore, in my Edition, rearranged this and the following

lines. I have there read, "Fallen in _the_ first rank;" but it might be

better, though less forcible, to read:--

"Fallen in first rank, lies there for pavement to."

* * * * *

"And give to dust that is a little gilt

More laud than gilt o'erdusted _e'er is given_."

* * * * *

"Made emulous missions 'mongst the gods themselves."

I incline to read _emulations_.

"Whilst emulation in the army crept."--ii. 2.

"When, for so slight and frivolous a cause,

Such factious emulations shall arise."

1 Hen. VI. iv. 1.

Here one word appears, as elsewhere, to have become two in the

printer's hands. (See Introd. p. 67.) But as the poet was probably

familiar with Chapman's Iliads, the allusion may be to the various

missions of Apollo, Minerva, Hermes, and Iris.

* * * * *

"Does thoughts unveil in their dumb cradles _laid_."

ACT IV.

SC. 1. "During all question of the gentle truce."

If 'question' be genuine here it must mean intercourse, conversation, a

sense of which I have met with no example.

* * * * *

"We'll not commend what we intend to sell."

In Son. xxi. we have, "I will not praise that purpose not to sell."

Hence some would add a negative here; but it is not necessary. He means

that they would sell Helen dearly.

* * * * *

SC. 2. "As infants empty of all thought."

Editors read 'infants' in the genitive. In either case I think _to_ has

been omitted before it.

* * * * *

"Beshrew the witch! with venomous wights she stays

As tediously as hell."

No sense has been, or, I think, can be made of 'venomous wights.' I

think 'venomous' must be an error.

* * * * *

"Good, good, my lord; the secrets of Nature have not

More gift in taciturnity _than I_."

* * * * *

SC. 4. "To shame the seal of my petition to thee

In praising her."

We should read _zeal_, as is usually done.

* * * * *

SC. 5. "No trumpet answers.--'Tis but early day[s]."

* * * * *

"That give a coasting welcome ere it comes."

There can be little doubt, I think, that 'coasting' is a noun; and I

regard it as the same as '_costing_ by aphæresis from _accosting_.

* * * * *

"I shall forestall thee, Lord Ulysses, thou."--

Tyrwhitt's conjecture, _though_ for 'thou,' is a happy one, and should

perhaps be admitted.

* * * * *

"Can scarce entreat you to be odd with him."

Perhaps 'odd,' which is so unusual, should be _at odds_.

ACT V.

SC. 1. "Why, thou picture of what thou seemest, and _thou_ idol."

* * * * *

"Thou art thought to be Achilles' male varlet."

As he elsewhere, it might appear, calls him _brach_, Hanmer's reading

_harlot_ would seem to have been the poet's word. But on the other

hand, in the Honest Whore, _varlet_ is used as synonymous with _punk_,

of a woman in man's clothes. "'Tis a _male varlet_ sure, my lord, for a

woman's tailor never measured him."

* * * * *

"They say he keeps a Trojan drab, and uses the traitor Calchas'

tent. I'll after _him_."

The word _him_, requisite for the metre, had been lost.

* * * * *

SC. 2. "A juggling trick, to be open secretly."

The 4tos and folio read 'secretly open.'

* * * * *

"And yet the spacious breadth of this division

Admits no orifice for a point as subtle

As Ariachne's broken woof to enter."

This is a curious instance of a copyist's or printer's transposition.

(Introd. p. 61.) It is downright nonsense; but read

"As subtle as Arachne's broken woof,

Admits no orifice for a point to enter,"

and what excellent sense emerges! 'Subtle' (or, as we should now write,

_subtile_), used also by Chapman (Odyss. x. 296) of Circe's web, is

_subtilis_, 'fine-spun'; and the 'broken woof' is the web torn by

Minerva; 'admits' is allows of, _i.e._ contains; for 'orifice' the

originals have _orifex_. As Shakespeare was a great reader of Golding's

Ovid, Ariachne could never have been _his_ word. A perfect parallel to

the embarrassed structure of this passage is offered by

"That have sod their infants in--and after eat them--

The brine they wept at killing 'em; then if."

Two Noble Kinsmen, i. 3.

Which should be:

"That have sod their infants in the brine they wept

At killing 'em, and after eat them; then if."

(See on Cymb. i. 7.) The meaning of this very obscure passage is,

that there could not be now even the slightest doubt of Cressida's

infidelity, incredible as it might seem. 'Instance' in the following

lines is, proof.

* * * * *

SC. 3. "It is as lawful

For we would count give much to as violent thefts."

This is pure nonsense. The first 'as' cannot be right, and it probably

gave origin to the second. I read with confidence,

"It is unlawful

For we would give much count to violent thefts."

In my Edition I read '_so_ to,' but it is needless. 'Count' is account,

importance, value.

"Thieves for their robbery have authority

When judges steal themselves."

Meas. for Meas. ii. 2.

TIMON OF ATHENS.

ACT I.

SC. 1. "My free drift

Halts not particularly, but moves along

In a wide sea of wax. No levell'd malice

Infects one comma in the course I hold,

But flies an eagle's flight, bold and forth on,

Leaving no tract behind."

There is much here that seems dubious. _Holds_ might seem preferable to

'Halts'; yet I would make no change; for 'Halts not particularly,' I

think, may mean stops at, dwells on, no individual. For 'wax' we might

read, as has been proposed, _verse_; but the allusion may be to the

waxed tables on which the ancients wrote. We might also read _Which_

for 'But,' yet it is more probable that a line is lost before it.

* * * * *

"To those have shut him up; which failing _him_."

So Capell also; 2nd folio to _him_.

* * * * *

"My friend when he must need me."

Better, perhaps, with 3rd folio, _most needs_.

* * * * *

"Therefore he will be, Timon."

Something is lost after 'be,' and Timon is never addressed during his

prosperity by any one but Apemantus without Lord or some other title

of honour. I therefore read 'he will be _blest_, _Lord_ Timon.' In

ii. 2, we have an omission of 'Lord' by the printer. Singer proposed

_rewarded_ after 'be.' Possibly 'Timon' was a mere addition of the

printer's.

* * * * *

"That I had no angry wit to be a lord."

I cannot find a meaning in this. Perhaps 'no' should be _so_, and

'angry' _little_, _mean_, _poor_, or something of the kind. Warburton

read _hungry_. Singer's folio _an empty_.

* * * * *

"Traffic's thy god, and _may_ thy god confound thee!"

* * * * *

SC. 2. "Than my fortunes _are_ to me."

* * * * *

"But yond_er_ man is ever angery."

* * * * *

"Let me stay _here_ at thine apperil, Timon."

Timon had assigned him 'a table by himself.'

* * * * *

"Here's that which is too weak to be a sinner."

We should, of course, read _liar_ to rime with _mire_.

* * * * *

"Amen, _amen_. So fall to't."

* * * * *

"Much good dich thy good heart, Apemantus!"

This might seem to be a mere misprint of _do it_; but it is in reality

a mere corruption of it.

* * * * *

"Please you, my lord, there are certain ladies _who are_."

* * * * *

"The ear,

Taste, touch, smell, pleased from thy table rise."

The admirable restoration of Warburton. The 4tos and folio had "There,

taste, touch, all pleas'd from thy table rise." The two first letters

of _smell_ had probably been effaced. See on Ham. iii. 4.

* * * * *

"You have added worth and lustre unto it."

In the originals 'unto't and lustre.' The 2nd folio reads 'and _lively_

lustre.'

* * * * *

"Vouchsafe me a word; it does concern you near.--

Neär? Why, then, another time I'll hear thee.

I pr'ythee let us be provided _now_

To show them entertainment.--I scarce know how."

Metre and rime both seem to require this addition. Perhaps in the two

first lines we should read 'near_ly_,' thus making a rime, or omit

'thee.'

* * * * *

"May it please your honour, _the_ lord Lucius."

* * * * *

"Four milk-white horses, trapp'd in silver-_harness_."

"Thy horses shall be trapp'd,

Their harness studded all with gold and pearl."

Tam. of Shrew, Induct. ii.

* * * * *

"And now I remember _me_, my lord, you gave."

* * * * *

"I doubt _me_ whether their legs be worth the sums."

ACT II.

SC. 1. "It cannot hold; no reason

Can sound his state in safety."

If 'sound' be the right word, it must be a nautical metaphor. Editors

in general read _found_.

* * * * *

"Plays in the right hand thus;--but tell him _that_."

* * * * *

"Ay go, sir.--Take the bonds along with you,

And have the dates in. Come...."

This is the reading of the folio, and is perfectly intelligible;

perhaps we should read 'in _mind_.' Editors in general follow Theobald

in reading for 'Come' _compt_.

* * * * *