"I knew there was but one way, for his nose was as sharp as a
pen, and 'a babbled of green fields."--_Shakspeare._
"I knew there was but one way, for his nose was as sharp as a
pen on a table of green frieze."--_Shakspeare corrected._
Some of the alterations in the manuscript corrections in MR. COLLIER'S
old edition of Shakspeare's plays I agree with, but certainly not in this
one, since we lose much and gain nothing by it. Shakspeare, in drawing
a character such as Falstaff, loaded with every vice that flesh is heir
to, and yet making him a favourite with the audience, must have been most
anxious respecting his death, and therefore awakened our sympathy in
his favour. In ushering in the account of the death-bed scene, he makes
Bardolph say:
"Would I were with him, wheresome'er he is, either in heaven or
in hell."
This expression Burns the poet considered the highest mark of regard that
one man could pay to another, for in his poem on a departed friend, he
says:
"With such as he, where'er he be,
May I be saved, or damn'd."
Mrs. Quickly, in describing the scene, says:
"He's in Arthur's (Abraham's) bosom, if ever man went to
Arthur's bosom. 'A made a finer end, and went away, an it had
been any christom child; for after I saw him fumble with the
sheets, and play with flowers, and smile upon his finger's
ends, I knew there was but one way; for his nose was as sharp
as a pen, and 'a _babbled of green fields_."
Mrs. Quickly, after describing the outward signs of decay and second
childishness, tells us he _babbled_. Shakspeare, as the only means of
gaining our forgiveness, makes him die in repentance for his sins, and
seems to have had the Twenty-third Psalm in his mind, where David puts
his trust in God's grace, when amongst other passages it says: "He maketh
me lie down in _green pastures_," and further on, "Yea, though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou
art with me." I have endeavoured to give you a reason why I prefer the
_old_ reading of the text: if any of your correspondents will give a
better for the _new_, I shall be glad to see it, as I am convinced the
more we examine into the works of our wonderful bard, the more we shall
be convinced of his superhuman genius; we are, therefore, all indebted
to MR. COLLIER for his searching investigations, as they set us in a
reflective mood.