The passage in which I am about to propose some verbal corrections has
already been in part examined by your correspondent A. E. B. in p. 483. of
this volume; but the points, except one, to which I advert, have not been
touched by that gentleman. The first folio reads thus:
"Thus ornament is but the _guiled_ shore
To a most dangerous sea, the beauteous scarfe
Vailing an Indian _beautie_; In a word,
The seeming truth which cunning times put on
To intrap the wisest. Therefore then, thou gaudie gold,
Hard food for Midas, I will none of thee,
Nor none of thee, thou _pale_ and common drudge
Tweene man and man; but thou, thou meager lead,
Which rather threatnest than doth promise ought,
Thy palenesse moves me more than eloquence,
And here choose I, joy be the consequence."
The word _guiled_ in the first line is printed _guilded_ in the second
folio, the form in which _gilded_ appears often in the old copies. I have
no doubt that this is the true reading, and it would obviate the difficulty
of supposing that Shakspeare wrote guil_ed_ for guil_ing_.
In Henry Peacham's _Minerva Britanna_, 1612, p. 207., of _deceitful_ "court
favour" it is said:
"She beares about a holy-water brush,
Wherewith her bountie round about she throwes
Fair promises, good wordes, and gallant showes:
Herewith a knot of _guilded_ hookes she beares," &c.
Notwithstanding your correspondent's ingenious argument to show that
_beautie_ in the third line may be the true reading, I cannot but think
that it is a mistake of the compositor caught from _beauteous_ in the
preceding line; and that _gypsie_ was the word used by the poet, who thus
designates Cleopatra. The words in their old form might well be confused.
For "thou _pale_ and common drudge," in the seventh line, I unhesitatingly
read "thou _stale_ and common drudge;" and, by so doing, avoid the
repetition of the same epithet to silver and lead. It is evident that the
epithet applied to silver should be a depreciating one; while _paleness_ is
said to _move more than eloquence_. The following passage in _King Henry
IV._, Part I. Act III. Sc. 2. confirms this reading:
"So _common_ hackney'd in the eyes of men,
So _stale_ and cheap."
To obviate the repetition, Warburton altered _paleness_ to _plainness_, but
_paleness_ was the appropriate epithet for lead. Thus, Baret has,
"_Palenesse or wannesse_ like lead. Ternissure."
And in _Romeo and Juliet_, Act II. Sc. 5., we have:
"Unwieldly, slow, heavy and _pale as lead_."
With these simple and, most of them, obvious corrections, I submit the
passage to the impartial consideration of those who with me think that our
immortal poet, so consummate a master of English, has been here, as
elsewhere, rendered obscure, if not absurd, by the blunders of the printer.
It will then run thus:
"Thus ornament is but the _gilded_ shore
To a most dangerous sea: the beauteous scarf
Veiling an Indian _gipsy_; in a word,
The seeming truth which cunning times put on
To entrap the wisest. Therefore, thou gaudy gold
Hard food for Midas, I will none of thee:
Nor none of thee, thou _stale_ and common drudge
'Tween man and man: but thou, thou meagre lead,
Which rather threat'nest than doth promise aught,
Thy paleness moves me more than eloquence,
And here choose I; joy be the consequence!"
I may just observe, that in _Troilus and Cressida_, Act II. Sc. 2., the
quarto copies have printed _pale_ for _stale_, which is corrected in the
folio.