(Vol. vi., p. 312.)
I cannot receive MR. CORNISH'S substitution (p. 312.) of "chommer" for
_clamour_ in the _Winter's Tale_, Act IV. Sc. 3. In my opinion, _clamour_
is nearly or altogether the right word, but wrongly spelt. We have a verb
_to clam_, which, as connected with _clammy_, we use for sticking with
glutinous matter; but which originally must, like the kindred German
_klemmen_, have signified _to press_, _to squeeze_; for the kind of wooden
vice used by harness-makers is, at least in some places, called a _clams_.
I therefore suppose the clown to have said _clam_, or perhaps _clammer_
(_i.e._ hold) _your tongues._
Highly plausible as is MR. C.'S other emendation in the same place of _2
Henry IV._, Act III. Sc. 1., I cannot receive it either. In Shakspeare the
word _clown_ is almost always nearly equivalent to the Spanish _gracioso_,
and denotes humour; and surely we cannot suppose it to be used of the
ship-boy. Besides, a verb is wanted, as the causal particle _for_ is as
usual to be understood before "Uneasy lies," &c. I see no objection
whatever to the common reading, though _possibly_ the poet wrote:
"Then, happy _boy_, lie down."
There never, in my opinion, was a happier emendation than that of _guidon_
for _guard_; _On_, in _Henry V._, Act IV. Sc. 2.; and its being made by two
persons independently, gives it--as MR. COLLIER justly observes of
_palpable_ for _capable_ in _As You Like It_--additional weight. We are to
recollect that a Frenchman is the speaker. I find _guidon_ used for banner
in the following lines of Clément Marot (Elégie III.):
"De Fermeté le grand _guidon_ suivrons,"
and--
"Cestuy _guidon_ et triomphante enseigne,
Nous devons suyvre: Amour le nous enseigne."
The change of _a sea of troubles_ to _assay of troubles_ in _Hamlet_ is
very plausible, and ought perhaps to be received. So also is SIR F.
MADDEN'S of _face_ for _case_ (which last is downright nonsense) in
_Twelfth Night_, Act V. Sc. 1. But I would just hint that as all the rest
of the Duke's speech is in rhyme, it is not impossible that the poet may
have written--
"O thou dissembling cub! what wilt thou be
When time hath sow'd a grizzle upon thee?"
{45}
Allow me now to put a question to the critics. In the two concluding lines
of the _Merchant of Venice_ (the speaker, observe, is the jesting
Gratiano):
"Well, while I live, I'll fear no other thing
So sore, as keeping safe Nerissa's ring."
May there not be a covert allusion to the story first told by Poggio in his
_Facetiæ_, then by Ariosto, then by Rabelais, then by La Fontaine, and,
finally, by Prior, in his _Hans Carvel_? Rabelais was greatly read at the
time.