"There weep--and leave it crying,"
is made--
"There _wend_--and leave it crying,"
which I submit is decidedly wrong. I will not be hypercritical, or I might
suggest that in that case the words would have been "_thither_ wend;" but I
maintain that the change is contrary to the _sense_. The spirit of Hermione
never could have been intended to say that the _child_ should be left
_crying_. She would rather wish that it might _not cry_! The meaning, as it
seems to me, is, that Antigonus should _weep_ over the babe, and leave it
while so _weeping_.
In p. 487. the words "missingly noted" are altered to "_musingly_ noted,"
which is a very questionable improvement. Camillo, _missing_ Florigel from
court, would naturally _note_ his absence; and he may have _mused_ over the
causes of it, but there could be no necessity for _musing_ to note the fact
of his absence: and I cannot help thinking that the word _missingly_ is
more in Shakspeare's style.
I cannot subscribe at all to the alteration in p. 492. of the word
"unrolled" to "enrolled." To be enrolled _and placed_ in the book of virtue
is very like tautology; but I conceive Shakspeare meant Autolycus to wish
that his name might be _unrolled_ from the company of thieves and gypsies
with whom he was associated, and transferred to the book of virtue.
I am entirely at issue with the old corrector upon his _emendation_ in p.
498.:
" . . . Nothing she does or _seems_,
But smacks of something greater than herself;"
he says, ought to be: "Nothing she does or _says_." And how does MR.
COLLIER explain this misprint? Why, by stating that formerly "says" was
often written "saies." Now, I cannot for the life of me discover why the
word "saies" should have been mistaken for "seems," any more than the word
"says." But surely the phrase, "nothing she does or seems," is far more
poetical and elegant than the other. It says in effect: there is nothing
either in her acts or her carriage, "but smacks of something greater than
herself." We have positive evidence, however, that the passage could not
have been "nothing she does or says," viz. that this speech of Polixenes
immediately follows a long dialogue between Florizel and Perdita, which
could not have been overheard, because Camillo directly afterwards says to
the king:
" . . . He tells her something,
That makes her blood look out."
Thereby clearly proving, that the king could not have been remarking on
what _she said_.