_Parallel Passages._--
"You leaden messengers,
That ride upon the violent wings of fire,
Fly with false aim; _move_ the _still-piecing_ air,
That sings with piercing,--do not touch my lord!"
_All's Well that Ends Well_, Act III. Sc. 2.
"the elements,
Of whom your swords are tempered, may as well
_Wound_ the loud winds, or with bemock'd at stabs
Kill the _still-closing_ waters, as diminish
One dowle that's in my plume."
_The Tempest_, Act III. Sc. 3.
There can be little doubt that the clever corrector of MR. COLLIER'S
folio had the last of these passages in view when he altered the word
_move_ of the first, into _wound_ of the second: but in this instance he
overshot the mark, in not perceiving the nice and subtle distinction
which exists between them. The first implies possibility: the second
impossibility.
In the second, the mention of, to "wound the loud wind, or kill the
still-closing water," is to set forth the absurdness of the attempt; but
in the first passage there is a direct injunction to a possible act:
"Fly with false aim, move the still-piecing air." To say "_wound_ the
still-piecing air" would be to direct to be done, in one passage, that
which the other passage declares to be absurd to expect!
If it were necessary to disturb _move_ at all, the word _cleave_ would
be, all to nothing, a better substitution than _wound_.
Whether the annotating of MR. COLLIER'S folio be a real or a
pseudo-antique, it is impossible to deny that its executor must have
been a clever, as he was certainly _a slashing_ hitter. It cannot,
therefore, be wondered that he should sometimes reach the mark: but that
these corrections should be received with that blind and superstitious
faith, so strangely exacted for them, can scarcely be expected. Indeed,
it is to be regretted that they have been introduced to the public with
such an uncompromising claim to authority; as the natural repugnance
against _enforced_ opinion may endanger the success of the few
suggestive emendations, to be found amongst them, which are really new
and valuable.