"Did I not dance with you in Brabant once?"
--a circumstance quite inconsistent with uncertain identity afterwards.
But if the gentlemen really did mistake the identity of their ladies,
Boyet's answers must have misled them into a similar mistake in _their
names_: so that the natural consequence would have been, that each lover
would afterwards address his {164} poetical effusion _nominally_ to the
wrong lady! which does not appear to have been the case.
Therefore, even if the masking be admitted, it can in no way lessen the
inconsistency of the cross questions, which to me appears to have arisen
from a most palpable instance of clerical or typographical transposition.
Steevens was on the right scent, although he rejected it in the same
breath, when he said,--
"No advantage would be gained by _an exchange of names_, because the
last speech is determined to Biron by Maria, who gives a character of
him after he has made his exit."
This is a good reason against a transposition in the _male_ names, but it
is none whatever against the same occurrence in the ladies' names; and
consequently it is there that the true solution of the difficulty must be
sought.
If we admit that a substitution may have occurred, of "Rosaline" for
"Katharine," in Boyet's answer to Dumain, and _vice versa_ in his answer to
Biron, all difficulty disappears at once.
The completeness with which the idea of transposition not only accounts for
the existence of the error, but at the same time suggests the manner in
which it may be corrected, ought of itself to secure its reception, even if
it were not corroborated in a very singular way by the following collateral
circumstance.
It may be observed that Boyet points out two of the ladies, not only by
name, but also by styling them "heirs;" one of Falconbridge, the other of
Alencon. Now in their previous descriptions of their respective lovers, one
of the ladies (Maria) says she had met Longaville at a marriage of a
"Falconbridge;" another lady (Katharine) says she had met Dumain at "Duke
Alencon's." When, therefore, we find that Boyet, in reply to Longaville's
question, designates _Maria_ as "heir of Falconbridge," it is in direct
analogy that he should, in answer to Dumain's question, designate
_Katharine_ as "heir of Alencon;" but, in consequence of the transposition
of names, Boyet appears, as the text now stands, to confer that
designation, not upon Katharine, but upon Rosaline, whom Biron had met at
Brabant!
There can be no doubt, therefore, that the names of Katharine and Rosaline
have been transposed _contrary to the author's intention_, and the only
wonder is--not that such a very commonplace error should have been
committed--but that it should have been suffered to remain through so many
editions up to the present time.