I was indebted to MR. SINGER for one of the best emendations in the
edition of Shakspeare I superintended (vol. vi. p. 559.), and I have too
much respect for his sagacity and learning to pass, without observation,
his remarks in "NOTES AND QUERIES" (Vol. ii., p. 259.), on the
conclusion of the speech of Ferdinand, in "The Tempest," Act iii., Sc.
1.:--
"But these sweet thoughts do even refresh my labours;
Most busy, least when I do it."
This is the way in which I ventured to print the passage, depending
mainly upon the old copies. In the folio, 1623, where the play for the
first time appeared, the last line stands:
"Most busie lest, when I doe it;"
and in that of 1632,
"Most busie least, when I doe it:" {300}
so that the whole merit I claim that of altering the place of a comma,
thereby, as I apprehend, rendering the meaning of the poet evident. The
principle upon which I proceeded throughout was that of making as little
variation as possible from the ancient authorities: upon that principle
I acted in the instance in question, and I frequently found that this
was the surest mode of removing difficulties. I could not easily adduce
a stronger proof of this position, than the six words on which the doubt
at this time has been raised.
Theobald made an important change in the old text, and his reading has
been that generally adopted:--
"Most busy-less when I do it."
In restoring the old text I had, therefore, to contend with
prepossession, against which, it seems, the Rev. Mr. Dyce was not proof,
although I only know it from MR. SINGER'S letter, never having looked
into the book in which I suppose, the opinion is advanced.
One reason why I should reject the substitution of "busy-less," even if
I had not a better mode of overcoming the difficulty, is properly
adverted to by MR. SINGER, viz. that the word was not in use in the time
of Shakspeare. The only authority for it, at any period, quoted in
Todd's Johnson, is this very (as I contend) corrupted passage in the
Tempest; I have not met with it at all in any of the older dictionaries
I have been able to consult; and unless the Rev. Mr. Dyce have been more
fortunate, he was a little short-sighted, as well as a little angry,
when he wrote his note upon mine. Had he taken more time to reflect, he
might have found that after all Theobald and I are not so much at odds,
although he arrives at his end by varying from, and I at mine by
adhering to, the ancient authorities. In fact, I gain some confirmation
of what, I believe, is the true meaning of Shakspeare, out of the very
corruption Theobald introduced, and the Rev. Mr. Dyce, to my surprise,
supports. I should have expected him to be the very last man who would
advocate an abandonment of what has been handed down to us in every old
edition of the play.
The key of the whole speech of Ferdinand is contained in its very
outset:--
"There be some sports are painful, and their labour
Delight in them sets off;"
and the poet has said nearly the same thing in "Macbeth:"
"The labour we delight in physics pain."
It is because Ferdinand delights in the labour that he does not feel it
irksome:
"This my mean task
Would be as heavy to me as odious; but
The mistress which I serve quickens what's dead,
And makes my labours pleasure."
He, therefore, tells us, at the close, that his labours are refreshed by
the sweet thoughts of her; that, in fact, his toil is no toil, and that
when he is "most busy" he "least does it," and suffers least under it.
The delight he takes in his "mean task" renders it none.
Such I take to be the clear meaning of the poet, though somewhat
obscurely and paradoxically expressed--
"Most busy, least when I do it;"
and when Theobald proposed to substitute
"Most busy-less when I do it,"
he saw, though perhaps not quite distinctly, that such was the poet's
intention, only, as I have said above, he arrived at it by altering, and
I by adhering to, the poet's language. I may be allowed to add that I
came to my conclusion many years before I was asked to put my name to an
edition of Shakspeare, which interrupted one of the most valuable
friendships I ever formed.
MR. SINGER will see at once that my interpretation (which I consider
quite consistent with the character of Shakspeare's mind, as well as
quite consistent with the expressions he has used throughout the speech
of the hero), steers clear of his proposal to alter "busie lest," or
"busie least," of the folios of 1623 and 1632, to _busyest_ or
_busiest_; although everybody at all acquainted with our old language
will agree with him in thinking, that if Shakspeare had used "busiest"
at all, which he does not in any of his productions, he might have said
_most busiest_ without a violation of the constant practice of his day.